Pratt girls finished fourth and the boys 10th at the 4th annual Dodge City Wrestling Tournament on Saturday. The Greenbacks girls finished with 125.5 points, 18 points behind team champion Emporia.
WINTER weather predictions caused many to reconsider New Year’s Eve plans in Pratt this year, but Pratt Teen Center board members opened their door wide to bring in the new year and to welcome youth to a safe place to hang out on New Year’s Eve, and throughout the coming months.
Former Executive Director and current Strategic Project Manager at Stafford Economic Development Carolynn Dunn challenged fifthyear architecture students at Kansas State University to design an eco-efficient and affordable home for rural Kansans. This Kansas State prototype was funded by a $40,000 K-State scholarship, as well $100,000 from EcoDevo grant funding. After coronavirus related delays, it was finally completed by August 2021 by professor Micheal Gibson and several of his architecture graduate students. This Net+ home and a proposed nine replicates others that are in the process of being funded by additional grants and loan packages such as the HOME program, the Federal Homebank, the Sunderland Foundation, and other grant groups.
On Martin Luther King Day, January 17, area community colleges are celebrating with different plans. Pratt Community College has called off classes in recognition of the national holiday.
Kansas Wesleyan University announced its fall honor rolls on Jan. 7, a listing of 314 students across two separate honor rolls.
MENUS FOR THE COMING WEEK: Monday, Jan 17: Chicken Alfredo, Fettuccini Alfredo, Broccoli, French Bread, Fruit Cup Tuesday, Jan 18: Chili, Mixed Vegetables, Cinnamon Roll, Fruit, Crackers Wednesday, Jan 19: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Green Beans, Fruit, Roll Thursday, Jan 20: Pizza Casserole, Mixed Vegetables, Vanilla Pudding, Garlic Bread Friday, Jan 21: Enchilada, Cheese dip, Side Salad, Pineapple, Tortilla Chips The menu is subject to change even more so in these uncertain times with shortages for supplies. Please remember the menu is subject to change.
JANUARY 11 and Super Bowl Sunday are two important days to keep in mind each year. One is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and the other is the largest human sex trafficking event of the year in the United States (Lapchick). Human trafficking is a crime and, by definition, is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons for the purpose of exploitation (DOJ). Through false promises, manipulation, and violence, traffickers can trick, lure, and exploit their victims for sexual work, forced labor, or organ removal and selling. Victims usually experience physical and psychological abuse in the hands of their captures, are sleep-deprived, and constantly hear of threats of violence against family members to deter noncompliance of the victims (Glowbalact). They are deprived of their personal rights, freedom of speech, independence, and self-respect. The fastest-growing criminal industry in the world is buying and selling people (DOJ).
Many states are in the process of raising the minimum wage. Missouri now has raised theirs to $12 an hour on the way to $15 an hour.
I sometimes wonder about the significance of Pratt’s motto: Gateway to the High Plains. On one hand it sounds like the beginning of a great adventure, much like that of the pioneers who traveled through on horseback and in covered wagons about 150 years ago. On the other hand, it rather makes me think living here is kind of a gateway to something more, like going from rural living to a more citi-fied existance, or the other way around, on a small scale.
“TO ER IS HUMAN, BUT TO REALLY FOUL THINGS UP USE A COMPUTER!” Paul R. Ehrlich We all took a much needed break at the end of the year.