FEATURES
Polar plunge a win for special athlete – Columbia Daily Tribune, Feb. 14, 2010
Service to focus on children lost – Columbia Daily Tribune, Oct. 26, 2009
Tripping over downtown – Columbia Daily Tribune, Feb. 27, 2010
Back to the books – Columbia Daily Tribune, Aug. 24, 2009
Spend it like the Beckhams – Omaha World-Herald, June 25, 2008
Poythress makes ‘em pay for intentional walks – Omaha World-Herald, June 24, 2008
Polar plunge a win for special athlete
By JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815-1711
Kendall Scheidt had been there twice before, clenching his fists wrapped in Valentine’s Day-theme sleeves, swaying back on forth in his black aqua socks as his lips quivered because air temperatures were in the 30s.
Scheidt and about 360 other people again waited in the cold yesterday before diving into Stephens Lake in the third annual Polar Plunge, a Special Olympics fundraiser that generated about $48,000 for the organization this year.
The two previous years, Scheidt, 24, kidded with his teammates. He recited the Special Olympics athlete oath, and he even dashed into the frigid lake waters. But when the water splashed his feet, he stopped and backed away.
This year’s Polar Plunge would be different, he said, as he waited with other members of the SOMO Derby Dames and Dudes team.
“Today, his goal is to actually do the plunge,” said his mom, Rose Scheidt, as she stood next to her son.
“We’ll see and find out,” Kendall Scheidt replied.
To be sure, his costume was unlike that of years past. Yellow braids dangled past his shoulders, matching a yellow tie that hung loosely around his neck. A camouflage bandana warmed his head, and he wore Valentine’s-theme socks and boxer shorts over navy leggings. The shorts and sox had messages such as “I’M YOURS” and “KISS ME.”
Waiting in line, Scheidt mostly maintained a serious demeanor when not posing for a photo or chatting with his mom or Terri Hilt, his swimming coach for the past 11 years.
“Kendall never gives up,” Hilt said.
But Scheidt didn’t always swim five additional laps at the end of a workout just because Hilt asked him to — as he does now. About four years ago, Hilt said, Scheidt changed his work ethic after he was nominated for the national Special Olympics but failed to qualify.
“At that point,” Hilt said, “we told him what he needed to do and he did it.”
In April, Scheidt will compete in bowling at the National Games.
But as he focused on the plunge yesterday, Scheidt swayed from left foot to right foot, mostly keeping to himself as teammates munched on strawberry wafers. Then a man arrived wearing a black-and-white striped shirt similar to Scheidt’s. Justin Wright, 26, approached Scheidt, grasped his closed fists and looked into his eyes.
“You ready?” Wright asked.
“I’m ready!” Scheidt replied.
After more jokes and chatting, it was almost plunging time. The team moseyed past a beach entrance, their feet sinking in the wet sand. An announcer introduced Wright and Scheidt as “the referees,” and Scheidt raised his right arm, pumping a fist into the air.
Scheidt exhaled noticeably and stepped with teammates to form a line with other plungers. The sun popped out from clouds that had hidden it for an hour. As Scheidt bent his right leg preparing to accelerate, an announcer shouted, “One, two, three, plunge!”
Scheidt’s teammates passed him to reach the water, but he entered the lake and waded in to his hips.
“Look at him,” his mom told a friend. “He’s still standing out there!”
Scheidt stood his ground, then turned to face his mom and hundreds of spectators before raising his arms, grinning.
“Look at him,” his mom said. “He did it!”
Scheidt later waited as his mom placed a coat over his shoulders. He could hardly believe what he had done.
“I went in, Mom,” he said. “Way in!”
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Service to focus on children lost
BY JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815-1711
Kelli Thomas stood near the front door of her family’s home off Stadium Boulevard watching something she thought she might never see: Cooper, her 15-month-old son, resting on her husband’s thighs and zipping toy cars across the carpet.
Kelli’s mother-in-law, Marlene Thomas, sat across from them, having spent an hour racing cars with the boy.
A decade ago, Kelli Thomas thought these moments were simply a pregnancy away — a father holding his son, a grandmother looking on with glowing eyes. But now, after three miscarriages, an adoption and the births of two more children, Thomas has experienced the joys of having babies and the grief of losing them.
At 7 p.m. tomorrow at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S. Ninth St., Thomas and other women are planning a pregnancy and infant loss remembrance service, inviting women who have lost a baby to share their stories. The service, which is being held for a second year, is hosted by the Columbia chapter of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International.
“It’s just nice to take a moment to remember those babies,” Thomas said.
In 2000, Thomas became pregnant. A miscarriage came 10 weeks later. Her doctor suggested she try again. Maybe it was a fluke.
Thomas’ next baby was due March 15, 2001. About 10 weeks into the pregnancy, though, came another miscarriage. This time, a routine ultrasound revealed no heartbeat. Thomas wondered: What had she done wrong?
About a year after she was first pregnant, she was carrying yet another child. Again, an ultrasound showed no heartbeat 10 weeks later.
Three pregnancies, no babies.
She spent nights crying. Jealousy consumed her when she gazed at other moms pushing their baby carriages. She felt like she was failing as a wife.
“For me, all I wanted was to be a mom,” she said, “and I thought it was never going to happen.”
She and her husband, Tim, decided to adopt and welcomed Hannah to the family on Dec. 15, 2001. “We just essentially decided that we could not accept losing another baby,” Thomas said.
On April Fool’s Day 2003, though, they learned she was pregnant for a fourth time. Afraid to share the news because it might end sooner than planned, Thomas waited 30 weeks to tell many of her friends. On Nov. 6, 2003, her first biological child, Meghan, was born.
Cooper, the family’s youngest child, was born July 7, 2008.
Tomorrow night, Kelli Thomas, 35, plans to recount her story in front of other women who have had similar experiences. Whether their mourning is a result of miscarriages, sudden infant death syndrome or another cause doesn’t matter, Thomas said.
“Their grief is real, and they’re not alone,” she said.
Ten percent to 25 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriages, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
Many times, Thomas said, these losses go unspoken. The family is just expected to move on. A day after her first miscarriage, Thomas said, she was expected at work.
“When anyone loses a child, they are in a very deep place of grief,” said the Rev. Michael Will, an associate pastor at Missouri United Methodist who led last year’s prayer service. “To be able to bring a sense of comfort, to be able to be part of an anointing that might bring healing is a great gift.”
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Tripping over downtown
BY JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815-1711
It’s a little after 2 p.m. The sun is shining as Timothy “Speed” Levitch and Gabe Williams stand at the corner of Broadway and Eighth Street. They are discussing the City Hall Addition, with its new, red bricks, and how it looks next to the Daniel Boone Building, with its old, yellow bricks.
“You can see it’s an old and a new building conjoined,” Levitch says. “It clashes.”
The men walk across Eighth, once thought of as the artery of Columbia. “The grid plan, to see it actualized, it’s always a little different than when it’s laid out on paper,” Levitch says while doodling with his blue pen in his notebook.
Williams and Levitch say those words often, “the grid plan,” how people designed our cities with right angles and squares. “I’m always suspicious of the right angle,” Levitch says.
They crave alleys, those “semiautonomous” pathways of our cities that seem more like our blemished selves, with potholes present and bits of broken asphalt.
“In a grid, just to the human mind, can start to feel like imprisoning,” Williams says. “The way we lay out our cities affects the choices we make. They predetermine the routes we all take.”
This is what they plan to do four times this weekend, try to decipher what the geography of Columbia tells residents about themselves, about the people who live in the city and travel on these streets.
Today and tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., Levitch and Williams will offer tours titled, “The Speculative Stroll: A Psychogeographic Walking Tour of Broadway.” The tours start at the True/False Film Fest box office at Cherry and Ninth streets.
“Broadway is a song line singing,” Levitch says. “What are the lyrics?”
Usually, the person who gives a tour is an expert of the area. Levitch, however, is not. He grew up in New York and starred in the 1998 documentary “The Cruise,” which followed him offering bus tours of New York. He now lives in Kansas City.
“The tour guide is a visitor who needs direction,” said Levitch, 39.
This is where Williams helps out. He grew up here; he graduated from Rock Bridge High School and lived here until seven years ago when he moved to Chicago.
Williams, 35, knows Columbia’s history and has heard of its high school dares and urban legends.
The two have been learning together, spending hours at the Columbia Public Library and talking on the phone about the tour since November. They met when they conducted a vehicular tour of Columbia during the first True/False Film Fest in 2003. Levitch calls that their “pilot episode.”
“This is a launch,” Levitch says of their walking tour.
After observing the City Hall Addition, the men continue prepping, walking west on Broadway until Sixth Street. They then saunter past the Boone County Courthouse on Walnut Street and use Eighth to reconnect with Broadway.
They say their prep route is far from their final tour path, which will be known just before the tours begin.
On this True/False Film Fest weekend in which documentaries that took years to film and edit to perfection, Williams and Levitch offer something different: “a rough draft.”
“I don’t feel prepared at all,” Levitch said yesterday afternoon, “but I do feel like I’m having a conversation with the place.”
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Back to the books
BY JONATHON BRADEN
jbraden@columbiatribune.com | 815-1711
Dajia Hamilton, sporting a backpack full of supplies and barrettes dangling from her braided hair, seemed eager for her first day at Field Elementary School.
She just needed to find her classroom.
Dajia, 6, and her mother, Genevia, walked to Room 115. Nope.
They backtracked, hiked some stairs and found Room 201.
“Sorry, I don’t have you on my list,” Field teacher Julie Schisler said, “but that’s OK. You can sit right here, and I’ll get you a name tag.”
Genevia Hamilton signed a few forms, and Dajia sat in the chair, her arms folded over her chest, ready for first grade.
Dajia, along with hundreds of other students and teachers, was part of what is planned to be the last first day of school at Field Elementary. The school in central Columbia is scheduled to close in December. Its students will then attend Columbia Public Schools’ newest elementary school, Alpha Hart Lewis, scheduled to open in January in northeast Columbia.
“It’s kind of scary with her getting used to everybody and having to switch over to something new,” Genevia Hamilton said.
The school district started its 2009-10 session today, and although attendance estimates were not available this morning, officials expected an increase over last year’s total of 17,245 students.
In starting the new year, the school district also welcomed an ongoing challenge: implementing the new math curricula for grades K-8.
“Our teachers, I think, are pretty psyched,” Chief Academic Officer Sally Beth Lyon said. “We need to make sure there’s consistency in delivering the curriculum.”
In September, then-interim Superintendent Jim Ritter told the district’s math coordinators to use more traditional math curricula for this school year. For the kindergarten-to-fifth-grade level, a 42-person committee chose a program called enVision Math. The 13-person committee for grades six through eight chose the McDougall Littell Math curriculum.
In the summer, all 478 elementary teachers discussed the new curriculum and learned how to teach it during a day of professional development, said Linda Coutts, elementary math coordinator. Coutts said she wanted to ensure teachers understood what students should know by each grade with the new curriculum.
Teachers also set a districtwide sequence for learning the new curriculum. If students change schools at any time, their new school should be learning the same math unit as their previous school.
Coutts said teachers will have additional after-school sessions to discuss the curriculum during the school year.
In grades six through eight, the 40 or so math teachers had two days to discuss the McDougall Littell curriculum, said Chip Sharp, the school district’s secondary math coordinator.
Sharp said he has four additional days and four two-hour afternoon sessions of professional development scheduled for teachers this year.
“Really, our focus isn’t that different,” Sharp said. “We’re still interested in learning specific concepts of mathematics.”
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Spend it like the Beckhams
JONATHON BRADEN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The Beckhams are superstitious. The day after Georgia lost its opening game of regionals to Lipscomb, the family of Bulldogs shortstop Gordon Beckham decided that they had to do something different. So along with not wearing red anymore, they all bought something.
The next game, Georgia won, so the family has been buying something new every day. “It started in the regional, kind of like a little joke,” Gwen Beckham, 19, said. “My dad doesn’t think it’s too funny anymore.”
Those purchases are among the expenditures the Beckhams have made in following their son from Georgia to Omaha for the College World Series. The success of their teams has extended the stay of Georgia and Fresno State fans. The Beckhams, for instance, have been in Omaha since about noon on Friday, June 13. Even thousands of dollars later, they’re still enjoying their stay.
“The people of Omaha have been extremely supportive,” said Sully Beckham, the shortstop’s mother. “When you’re winning, you’re having fun.”
The trip has been memorable as Georgia plays in the national championship series, but also pricey. Below is a list of what the Beckhams have done to support their son in his quest for a national championship:
Lodging: $2,880
Food: $1,800
Flights from Atlanta to Omaha: $7,500
Shopping and touring: $3,000
Estimated total: $15,180
The Beckhams, however, may have spent more than other families. One of the couple’s daughters, Grace, 16, flew in for the opening weekend, but then had to fly back for summer school. She’s now with the family again in Omaha since summer school has ended. “That’s $3,000 for her, just for her two tickets,” said Grace’s dad, also named Gordon. “Thanks, Daddy,” Grace said.
As for the pre-game purchases, Grace and Gwen say they sometimes take advantage of their parents’ before-game jitters. “Can I get this dress?” Grace will ask her mother. “Just get it. Just get it,” Sully replies in a hurry. “We’ll have some of those days,” Grace said. “The next day they’re more like, ‘Let’s just get the gum.’ ”
The financial hit hasn’t been as hard to the family because Gordon Beckham, the father, has been able to work via phone and e-mail nearly every day. Beckham is president and chief executive officer of a company involved in financial services. Even when he spoke of their trip, he was punching away on his phone.
Regardless, the family says the trip has been worth every cent. “We have no complaints, seriously,” Sully Beckham said. “It’s a once-in-a lifetime chance to support Gordon, and we’ve done that since he was a little child.”
Gordon, the shortstop’s father, said it comes down to more than dollars and cents.
“We’re here to support the University of Georgia and our son,” he said. “Whatever it is, it will be paid for shortly; it’s not going to last forever. But the memories of this place will.”
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Poythress makes ‘em pay for intentional walks
JONATHON BRADEN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Georgia first baseman Rich Poythress won’t blame Fresno State pitchers if they intentionally walk teammate Gordon Beckham to face him.
“Any smart baseball guy is probably going to put him on right there,” Poythress said.
Just don’t be surprised if he makes the strategy look foolish.
More relaxed and able to hit to all fields, the Georgia cleanup hitter has enjoyed a solid season and a successful NCAA Tournament, especially when teams decide to face him instead of Beckham.
Poythress is hitting .419 in the postseason with three homers and 18 RBIs. On the year, when teams intentionally walk Beckham, he’s 8 for 13 (.615) with 11 RBIs.
“But they try,” Georgia coach David Perno said, “and Rich keeps hurting them.”
The latest gamble gone wrong came Saturday when the Bulldogs eliminated Stanford from the College World Series.
In the top of the fourth, Georgia had runners on second and third with one out. Stanford intentionally walked Beckham.
Poythress then singled in two runs, putting Georgia ahead 6-1.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound Poythress credits his success to approaching the opportunity like every other at-bat.
“You want to put a lot of pressure on yourself in that situation,” Poythress said. “It’s just one of these things where I try to relax and do less.”
The ability to hit to all parts of the field has also led to Poythress’ success. Perno said Poythress understands that he should expect a pitch in a certain location rather than looking for a specific pitch.
Of course, it helps to have Beckham, a .404 hitter, in front of him in the order and Bryce Massanari (.331) behind him.
“But Rich is just a really good hitter,” Perno said. “He understands how to drive in runs.”
Poythress said he’ll be ready if Fresno State decides to take its chances with him rather than Beckham.
“When that happens and they load the bases, they got to throw strikes,” Poythress said. “I got a good pitch to hit, and put a good swing on it.
“Hopefully, that happens again.”