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Forest Park

Asking for kids' help in BioBlitz inventory

Calling all St. Louis area kids! You can help this month make a unique inventory of all living things in Forest Park.

The 24-hour event is called the St. Louis BioBlitz. It will run from 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, through 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11.

The goal is to inventory "all living organisms in Forest Park in the city of St. Louis."

Marguerite Garrick is co-chair of the Bioblitz. She said, "We know we can only do a snapshot of the park's bio-diversity in a single 24-hour period. But, we will gather baseline information for management of the rejuvenated Forest Park."

About the role of kids, Garrick said, "We want to put them to work on teams that will be identifying and counting. They can be the eyes and ears to help the scientists and naturalists."

The goal is to identify every plant, animal, insect and water creature in Forest Park. .

Kid volunteers from the St. Louis Junior Academy of Science as well as boy and girl scout groups already have been signed up. But, there is still an opportunity for individual kids and their families to join in the BioBlitz.

To learn more, visit the BioBlitz website at www.stlbioblitz.com. There's a place to signup to participate on-line. Also, there is an address where you can send snail-mail requests.

Among the search groups will be ones looking for birds, mammals, bats, snakes, aquatic insects, beetles, bees and wasps, plants and lichens, dragonflies and fish.

Other groups will be trying to identify the different types of soil in Forest Park.

After the one-day BioBlitz, teams of scientists and college students probably will continue the inventory for as long as a full year.

She said the park managers need to know exactly what living organisms are in the park. Then, they can manage the park to provide for the widest bio-diversity.

One recent example of managing the level of park wildlife involved a roundup of some resident geese. "There definitely was an over-population of them," Garrick said.

Another new specie of wildlife that has shown up in the park recently has been coyotes. As a result, the Wild Canid Center or Wolf Sanctuary will be one of the agencies that will participate in the BioBlitz.

Ms. Garrick said the idea of an organism inventory in urban public spaces isn't new. She got the BioBlitz idea from a similar inventory done in New York City's Central Park.

Forest Park is even larger than Central Park.

The local park also is nearly done with a multi-million dollar improvement campaign. Taking a new inventory of the park's wildlife and plant "residents" after the improvements is very appropriate now, she said.

For instance, many lakes in Forest Park now are connected in a way that water will circulate throughout the park. Previously, most of the lakes were separate ponds.

With circulating water, a wider range of water organisms can be sustained.

Park managers need to know what organisms are there now. Then, they can introduce new ones that can live well with those already there.

The two main sponsors of the St. Louis BioBlitz are the St. Louis chapter of the Explorers Club and the Gateway Wildlands organization.

The Explorers Club is an organization that helps organize exploration trips worldwide. The Gateway Wildlands group is a combined effort of the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

Other sponsors include the Saint Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Science Center, Forest Park Forever, the World Bird Sanctuary and the St. Louis City Department of Parks.

In addition to the inventory teams, there will be many free public demonstrations. These demonstrations will range from the MDC and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to the information on mushrooms from the St. Louis Mycological Society.

For last minute additions to the search teams and public demonstrations, you can check the BioBlitz website right up to the time of the event.

Ms. Garrick has had a life-long involvement in wildlife issues. She is the daughter of Marlon Perkins, a former St. Louis Zoo director. Perkins had an international reputation through the TV series, "Wild Kingdom." She also was a lobbyist for wildlife issues in Congress and worked for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

 

Conservation

Kids seek high conservation rating

Heather, Aaron and Travis Gemmell are moving closer to earning the highest rating in the Missouri's Conservation Frontiers program. Their mother, Lisa, is working right along with them.

The Frontiers program combines learning and service projects. Participants get lessons in all sorts of outdoor activities, like archery and how to make a survival shelter.

But, they also do projects to conserve and improve outdoor resources. They include cleaning streams and building outdoor shelters for wildlife.

The Gemmells have been in the Frontiers program for four years. At the time, Heather was 11, Aaron, 9, and Travis, only 7.

Ordinarily, Travis would have been too young to take part. But, since his mother and two older siblings were joining, conservation officials made an exception.

Now, the kids have earned nearly 80 per cent of the 30,000 points needed to qualify for a rating of Missouri Conservationist. They've completed 10 of the 12 steps needed.

Fifteen-year-old Heather said the best thing about the Frontiers' program is "that I learned you don't have to fear critters." She said a lot of her friends "freak out if they even see a spider." But, she added, "Now, it's easier to enjoy wildlife."

That's a good thing for the Gemmell family. They live on 6-acres in rural Jefferson County, near the town of Pevely. A good portion of their land is forest.

Thirteen-year-old Aaron said, "One time we were hunting mushrooms and we found a fawn." The kids have learned to identify all sorts of Missouri wildlife.

They've even earned points for going on a trip to identify vultures.

Sometimes the identification process has gone a little off track.

Eleven-year-old Travis said the kids brought a snake into the house. They were keeping it in a jar until they had time to make an identification. He said they went out of the house one day and when they came back the snake had disappeared.

"It may still be in the ductwork," he said.

Another time, a salamander got loose in the house. Heather said, "The next day, it came out of the ductwork all dusty. We had to wash it off with the hose before we released it."

The Gemmells have lots of animals around. They have cats, dogs and a rabbit. They also have built both bird feeders and houses as well as bat houses.

Heather said her favorite service activity involved cleaning a stream at the Rockwood Conservation Reservation. That's where their Frontiers chapter is headquartered.

"I liked the Stream Team that got rid of watercress clogging the stream," she said.

Aaron said he enjoyed the building of a survival shelter. That's a wooden lean-to that you might make if you were lost in the woods during a winter storm.

Travis described how the family worked in their own woods to try to cut soil erosion. First, they tried planting cedar trees. But, they didn't catch on in the soil. Then, they planted mimosa trees that are doing better.

The kids also built a wood pile in their backyard where small animals can take shelter from weather or from larger predators. Heather said, "We have bunnies and squirrels in there." Travis said he's seen snake scales in the pile but noone has found any living snakes.

The Gemmells had to make three tries at establishing their butterfly garden, full of wildflowers. That provides shelter and food for butterflies. The first year, after planting the seeds, a big storm washed many of the seeds away.

Then, a year ago, the crabgrass got started before the flower seeds could sprout.

But, this year, they planted a big range of wildflowers and they came up well.

Heather said they were able to identify a variety of butterflies. Included were the black swallowtail, spicebush, sulphur, common blue and tiger butterflies. "But, she didn't see any monarch butterflies," she said.

The Gemmell kids not only like the outdoors, they like to do artwork. The kids all have been winners in the annual Mastodon Art and Science Fair in Jefferson County. Heather likes to do sculpture while both Aaron and Travis do oil paintings.

Heather won a $300 prize from the St. Louis Holocaust Museum for one of her sculptures. It was a dove of peace on a pedestal surrounded by a coil of barbwire.

If you'd like to know more about the Conservation Frontiers program, you can log on to the Missouri Department of Conservation website at www.conservation.state.mo.us.

 

Holiday Art

Local kids' artwork helps Glennon kids

Kara Boschert and Claire Mueller have entered art contests before but, for Eugene Morgenthaler, this was a first. But, all were winners in the 2004 Cards for Kids competition.

The competition is sponsored by Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. The contest finds holiday card designs that can be used to help raise money for kids' care at the hospital.

Fourteen kids' art designs were picked from among over 900 entries.

The winning designs will be reproduced on the hospital's holiday cards. Supporters of Cardinal Glennon buy the cards to send as holiday greetings. Proceeds from the sales go into the hospital's Children's Fund to provide care for infants and young kids.

(If you or your family would like to order boxes of cards, you can call (314) 577-5605 or 1-800-269-0552. Also, you can order online at www.glennon.org.)

(For a list of all the kid winners and their design names, see sidebar below.)

Twelve-year-old Kara of Ballwin said she entered her first art contest at age 6. It was a newspaper coloring competition. She won tickets to a Sesame Street Live show. She also was a runner up in a Missouri Arbor Day poster competition.

But, her best prize came when she was a finalist in a St. Louis Rams football media guide contest. "We got Rams tickets and $200 worth of art supplies," she said.

Thirteen-year-old Claire of University City said she's entered the Cardinal Glennon card competition since she was in 5th grade. But, this was her first win. She'll be in 8th grade this fall at Cathedral Catholic School in the city of St. Louis.

Kara's card design was of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Claire's design was of a Jewish menorah to commemorate Hanukkah.

Although she's not Jewish, Kara decided on a Hanukkuh design because everyone else was doing Christmas or Kwansaa designs. Kwansaa is an African-American end-of-year holiday. "I wanted to do something different," she said.

Both of the girls do lots of drawing and artwork outside of school.

But, for 14-year-old Eugene of Sunset Hills, the Glennon competition was his first. However, he said he's liked drawing ever since he started art classes in lst grade.

His design was somewhat unusual for a holiday greeting card. He used a gingerbread character, but it was wearing a Santa's hat. "And there was a bite out of one arm," Eugene said.

Kara said, when she's drawing for her own pleasure, "I love to draw girls."

"Sometimes, I like to do a whole book, no words, just illustrations," she added. "I like to do animation rather than realistic drawings," she said.

Most of her art work involves pencil sketches. "With oil painting, I can't say I'm excellent," she said.

Besides art, Kara is active in the Kirkwood Children's Chorale, a community choir. She's also in her middle school choir and has sung solos in school plays.

One of Claire's best art projects was done when she was in 4th grade. It was an impressionistic drawing of a "space party." It showed three aliens and a balloon.

Her parents had the painting framed and it hangs in their home. Her dad said, "The artwork matches our family's interest in Star Trek."

When she sketches, she likes to do landscapes. One of her toughest pieces came when she decided to sketch the family home. "I'd draw a little of it every day. It took about a month," she said.

The hardest part of the drawing to get right was the front door and porch. "When I first drew the door, it looked like a juke box," Claire said.

Besides art, Claire said she is very active in dance at the Dimensions Dance Studio. She takes lessons four days a week and likes ballet the best.

For Eugene, most of his drawing outside of school involves doodling. "If I see a movie, I'll doodle about the theme of the movie," he said.

He likes to play a variety of sports and is very active in Boy Scouts. Last month, he returned from a 10-day Scout trip to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and North and South Carolina.

They hiked on the Appalachian Trail. Another highlight of the trip was staying on the U.S.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier anchored in Charleston, S.C.

 

Here's a listing of all the kids whose artwork was selected for Glennon's 2004 Cards for Kids holiday cards:

• Molly Lees, 13, St. Louis, subject "Snowman"
• Mary Sahrmann, 12, St. Louis, "Present"
• Eugene Morgenthaler, 13, Sunset Hills, "Gingerbread Man"
• Kathleen Fossell, 13, St. Louis, "House"
• Kelly Suntrup, 10, St. Louis, "Madonna"
• Lawson Franklin, 7, Perryville, Mo., "Candles"
• Kara Boschert, 12, Ballwin, "Holy Family"
• Anna Karpinski, 12, St. Louis, "Church"
• Kevin Schramm, 11, O'Fallon, Mo., "Reindeer"
• Anna Coch, 13, St. Louis, "Penguin"
• Claire Mueller, 12, University City, "Hanukkah"
• Kaitlyn Aholt, 12, August, Mo., "Christmas Tree"
• Alyssa Cadice, 8, St. Louis, "Angel"
• Bobbie Piatcheck, 13, St. Louis, "Santa"

 

Books

This month's book reviews

An assignment to be funny is a lot harder
than just being a class clown

Bobby Garrick thinks he's pretty funny. He's always making jokes - in his classroom, on the school bus, at home - everywhere. The trouble is many of his jokes hurt other people's feelings and he just doesn't know when to quit. Even his likable fifth grade teacher, Mr. Matous, is losing patience with him. The school principal is threatening to send Bobby to the School for Intervention, one step away from Reform School, if he doesn't start doing his schoolwork and start taking school seriously.

Bobby's teen-aged older brother had already been kicked out of school and had left home. Bobby thought it was unfair that he was being criticized for being like his brother. After all, all he did was just joke around, not get into any real trouble.

The kids had been given the assignment to write a plan for some sort of school project. Bobby, off the top of his head, suggested that the school have a school-wide laugh-off day. The teachers and the kids could compete in telling jokes to see who would be picked as the funniest. To his astonishment, his teacher and the principal thought it was a good idea. Bobby was given the job of picking a date, organizing the day, setting up rules, and screening participants. In addition, besides competing in the joke contest himself, he was picked to be the master of ceremonies. What had he gotten himself into? He had to do well in order for his teacher and the principal to stop being mad at him. Besides, he had to prove that he really was not just a jokester but a comedian with real promise for a future in comedy. Talk about pressure!

In this paperback, every chapter starts off with a joke. Examples include: What's round and has a bad temper? (A vicious circle!). Why is it so easy to fool vampires? (Because they're suckers!) There is a serious side to the story, though. Bobby has to figure out why he is compelled to try to be funny, even when humor is not appropriate. As readers, we find out, even before Bobby finally realizes what the problem is.

 

What happens when there is no teacher
in a classroom full of kids?

Mr. Fabiano was the sixth grade teacher. He was known as "Mr. Fab" to his sixth graders and they all liked him. One Friday, Mr. Fab had to take a day off from school. Mrs. Muchmore, the substitute teacher who had been lined up, woke up on Friday morning and was too ill to come to school. Her message to the school office had been misplaced. So, guess what? When the school day started, there was a room full of sixth graders with no teacher and nobody knew about it.

What was the class to do? A couple of rowdy kids wanted to start raising a rumpus right away. But they soon realized that if they called attention to themselves, the principal would make some kind of arrangements…ones they might not like. After a group discussion, a vote was taken. All but one kid in the class voted to try to run the day on their own without any adult supervision. Jessica Cooke, the one girl who voted against it argued that is was illegal for kids to be without a teacher, that it was unsafe, and that they would all get into trouble anyway. But, right or wrong, the kids decided to try it on their own.

Karen Ballard, who is the smartest kid in the class, tries to run the class pretty much as Mr. Fab would operate on an ordinary Friday. There were the expected complications like getting the attendance report and the lunch orders to the office and deciding what to do about going to music and explaining to other teachers where the substitute was. There were also unexpected complications, like Rachel White, who hadn't spoken for six months and only communicated, even with her own family members, by writing notes. She had not spoken since the death of a classmate, Tommy Feathers. There was Bastian Fauvell, a kid from a military family, whose father had just been transferred. It was Bastian's last day at the school. Would there be any kind of "farewell party"?

It is surprising how many twists and turns a story can take when it's just about a class on a day when no teacher is present.

 

Not just one but seven
thought-provoking short stories

In the first short story, Willie Markham, a sixth grader who lives in a fifth floor apartment with his mother, tries to understand what makes people unhappy and what can be done about it. His first efforts are with a ragged, dirty-faced man, who sat on a plastic milk crate in front of the apartment building. His mother, of course, wants him to ignore the man.

A second story is about Matt Kaiser, another sixth grader, who is known as 'the baddest of the bad." We find out what it takes to turn a guy who works at being bad into a really good guy. It was rough on him as well as members of his gang.

A third plot involves another sixth grader - a girl whose personal phone rings at four o'clock on many days after school. Nobody is there… The girl gets to the place where she talks at great length on the phone, but no one ever answers her back. Is it Brian, her brother who ran away last year?

There are seven stories in all. The major character in each one is a middle school level kid. If you like short stories, all of which seem to have an unexpected ending, this is the book for you.

 

A girl risks her life to save an
injured pilot whale and its calf

Seventh grader Koby Easton is twelve years old. When she was eight, a speeding car cost her a right foot while she was riding her bike. Even though her over-protective mother and some of her school classmates wouldn't let her forget she was missing a foot, Koby tried to live as active and normal a life as possible.

Koby and her parents live on a sailboat anchored in the Florida Keys. Her father has a powered fishing boat and every day goes out to run his lobster traps. There are two rubber dinghies tied to the sailboat. The smaller one belongs to Koby, and when she is out on the water, she comes close to forgetting that she has only one foot.

Koby is troubled by her parents' constant fighting with each other. Her mother complains about the father being gone all the time. She clearly does not like living on the water. Koby's father, on the other hand, loves the feeling of freedom and independence that comes from owning their own home on the water. He encourages Koby to be independent and try just about anything on the water, even if she has only one good leg. The mother is angered by the father's attitude and wants Koby to be much less active and to take no risks of any kind.

At the beginning of the story, Koby is out in her dinghy and discovers a pilot whale that is wrapped up in a fishing net and seems very near death. Koby risks going into the water and cutting the net off the whale. While trying to help the whale recover and breathe normally, she finds that the whale has a newborn calf. Koby feels she has to stay with the pair to keep the mother alive so she can nurse her new baby. As it grows dark, Koby is cold and frightened. She knows her parents will be frantic. She can only hope someone will come out looking for her.

Being stranded in the water with the two whales is just the beginning of the story. There are plenty of other adventures, including surviving a hurricane, to keep any reader absorbed in Koby's struggle to save the whales, save her parents' marriage, and to simply lead a normal life.

 

2005 Final Four

2005 Men's Final Four

"Madness" lessons lead up to men's tourney

The popular basketball-based Middle School Madness activities for kids are returning this fall. They will serve as a preview for the 2005 NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament coming to St. Louis next March.

During the 2000-01 school year, the Middle School Madness was connected to the 2001 NCAA Women's Final Four. The middle school activities included a series of class lessons, projects and contests based on basketball.

Also included were public events open to kids. They included special basketball clinics, an all-star basketball game and a Hoop City event downtown.

Over 110 area schools participated in the Middle School Madness three years ago. That involved over 20,000 kids.

This year, Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) officials expect to involve more schools and more kids. The MVC is the host conference for the NCAA tournament.

One reason for expecting more participation is that access to the 2004-05 program will be easier. All class materials will be available on-line via the Internet.

The final customized program for St. Louis won't be available until later this fall. But, Young Saint Louis.com is publishing a brief preview here. (YSL.com will add the latest information here when it becomes available.)

As in 2001, YSL.com will run local articles on Middle School Madness during the fall and winter. The stories will focus on local school kids taking part in the program.

In the months immediately ahead of the 2005 Men's Final Four, we'll include advance notice of various public events open to kids. We'll also include links to other websites where you can get further information.

The Middle School Madness program used last year for the men's Final Four in San Antonio included special lesson plans based on basketball. The lessons were for social studies, language arts, math, art, science and physical education and health.

For instance, the math lesson revolved around an exercise in shooting free throws. Kids shot free throws and then figured the ratio and percentages of total free throws shot to those made or missed.

The language arts class involved developing a 5-minute talk or a 5-paragraph essay on what makes a great team.

In science, there was a study of Newton's 3rd Law of Physics, involving action and reaction. For example, dribbling a basketball involves a downward action and a reaction as the ball bounces up.

There was an art project where students develop their own homemade sculpture. In San Antonio, the class was called Sculpting Motion. Kids used such things as newsprint, paper cups, balloons and string to make 3-dimensional figures showing motion.

Another feature of last year's program involves a whole group of lessons about sportsmanship. Included was an outline for a school-wide sportsmanship program.

Games include basketball trivia, Sweet 16 word scramble and basketball vocabulary.

Leading up to the March tournament, Middle School Madness includes an opportunity to attend practices by tournament teams. A NCAA Hoop City event downtown included all sorts of hands-on basketball related activities.

A series of Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinics gave kids a chance to get lessons from college coaches.

The NCAA website also includes links to more than a dozen related sports websites.

The Middle School Madness program helps to build local interest in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

And the MSM program has educational goals, including:

• Making middle school students aware of the opportunities for them through athletics.
  
  
• Incorporating current, local events into classroom learning. In this case, it's using basketball information to teach a variety of educational principles.

Watch YSL.com in the coming months to learn more about Middle School Madness.

 

Sports

Twelve-year-old Brandon Davis had a winning summer of tennis. But, he said he best experience was actually at a tournament in which he didn't win a match.

The Ballwin, Mo., resident won second place in the 12-and-under age category at the Sweet 16 tennis tournament in Kansas City. He lost in the finals to Zane Simmons from Oklahoma. That tournament drew entrants from five Midwest states.

But, he said his best tennis experience was at the Super Nationals clay court tournament in North Carolina. He didn't win a single match in that meet but still had fun and learned.

He explained, "The Super National was a level higher than the Sweet 16. It drew the top five players in each age group from each state in the entire country. There were 128 entrants just in 12-and-under.

"I didn't win a single match but I had split sets in each match," he said.

A split-set match is when each player wins a set and the match in decided when one of the players wins the third, and deciding, set. That means that Brandon was competitive with all his opponents.

He remembered that his worst tennis experience also involved a tournament when he didn't win a single match. That was two years ago when he competed in the Sweet 16 tournament as a 10-year-old.

Now, he's moved his game to be very competitive in Sweet 16 competition. And he has learned to enjoy another "no win" tournament because he knows his game is developing.

Brandon now is a 7th grader at Southwest Middle School in the Parkway District.

He started with tennis when he was 3. An early start was natural since his dad, Andy Davis, is the head tennis pro at the Triple A Golf and Tennis Club in Forest Park. His mother also taught tennis.

"When I was three, I'd stand at the net and try to hit back balls from my dad. I wasn't much taller than the net," he said.

Brandon said he started playing in tournaments when he was 8. The first meet was a novice tournament the Frontenac Racket Club. "They put me in the lowest bracket to get my confidence up. Obviously it worked; I finished first."

Although his dad is a tennis pro, Brandon has been taking lessons from another pro. Mac MacDonald teaches at the Hill Trail Club in Ballwin. Brandon started with him at age 9.

Last summer, Brandon worked on a very busy training schedule.

He continued his year-round, once-a-week practice schedule with MacDonald. In addition, he attended five sessions at the Triple A summer tennis camp. Those sessions were three hours in the morning and another two hours in the afternoon.

Brandon said the best part of his tennis game now involves his forehand ground strokes. The part of his game that needs the most work is his overhead strokes. He said he doesn't pull down enough on the overheads and the ball sails long.

His practice sessions involve a set routine, starting with a warm-up. Then, he hits balls "fed" to him by either a machine or another player. Then, there's work at the net.

The next series involves hitting serves and volley shots. And a final exercise involves returns of service from another player.

Asked about the type of player who gives him the most trouble, Brandon said, "The guy who is more consistent." He said, if he's beaten, it's likely to be a player who "doesn't make errors before I do."

He said he has had good success returning service from a player with a "big" serve.

Brandon said his favorite pro player is American Andy Roddick. However, it isn't because Roddick has one of the "biggest" serves in all of tennis. Rather, Brandon had a chance to watch Roddick play as a member of the team-tennis St. Louis Aces.

Besides, a "big" service doesn't always prevail. He said, "Roger Federer can beat Roddick even though he doesn't have a particularly strong serve."

For college, he said he'd like to go to either the University of Texas or the University of Florida. Both schools have strong collegiate tennis programs.

Brandon said he'd like to have a career on the professional tennis circuit. But, he knows he'll have to be "a lot stronger." And, he added, "I'll have to be very consistent with all of my shots."

He said he sees some of the same problems with Roddick's game when he is under pressure. Brandon said Roddick has a tendency to become more inconsistent and to rush his shots.

 

Entertainment

Air show fun, and sharks too

The St. Louis County Fair and Air Show always provides lots of end-of-season fun for kids and families. This year's fair also includes a big traveling shark exhibit.

The 13th annual St. Louis County Fair and Air Show will be held Friday through Monday, Sept. 3-6, at the fairgrounds at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Mo.

Monday, Sept. 6, has been designated as Scout Day. Boy and Girl Scouts attending in uniform will get free admission when accompanied by a paying adult.

In addition, the scouts can attend educational sessions and complete some requirements for their aviation or aerospace badges. The badge seminars will be from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday. Each seminar lasts about 30 minutes.

For complete details on the fair and air show you can call (636) 530-9386 or visit www.stlcofair.org.

As always, there are all sorts of neat shows and activities for kids and their families.

A big draw is the daily air show. In fact, this year, on Saturday and Sunday, there will be two shows, one in the early afternoon and another short show in the evening, just before the fireworks displays.

This year, three aerial teams will perform. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels precision team and the AeroShell acrobatic team will be there. Also, the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team will give demonstrations.

Afternoon air show times on Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be 12:30- 3 p.m. The Saturday and Sunday twilight shows will be from 7:30-8 p.m.

There are also lots of attractions on the ground.

A midway includes world-class carnival rides and interactive exhibits. The Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales will be there. Faust Park's Historical Village will show pioneer living.

Bud World, Kids Town and the Purina Farm's petting zoo will be there.

The fair also has the region's largest static aircraft display. You'll be able to see a whole variety of aircraft up close and personal.

Every year, the fair and air show brings in new attractions.

One of the new features is the Live Shark Show, only traveling shark show in the country. A 9,000-gallon tank is filled with circling sharks. You'll be able to watch a diver swimming with the sharks.

There's also a Great White Shark display.

Another new exhibit is the Double Vee-Tuskegee Airmen Aircraft exhibit. The only remaining Double Vee training aircraft from World War II will be on display.

The Tuskegee Airmen were an all-black aviation group that fought in WWII. The aviators were trained at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Ala.

Many of the airmen who trained there were from St. Louis. A giant mural honoring the role of blacks in U.S. aviation is featured in the Lambert-St. Louis Airport.

The Boeing Company also has created a customized exhibit especially for the fair to celebrate its 65th anniversary. The exhibit has special emphasis on St. Louis' role in the growth of America's aviation and aerospace industries.

Another new highlight will be the chance to get a ride in a Huey Helicopter. The helicopters will be flown by combat veterans from the Sky Soldiers Demonstration Team. Rides will be available on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The fair and air show also provides live entertainment from the main stage.

On Friday night, the show is sponsored by Radio Disney and is designed for kids. Greg Raposo, formerly with Dream Street, will be the main Friday attraction.

The Saturday show will feature Richard Marx and Ryan Cabrera and Avion. On Sunday, Better Than Ezra and Sister Hazel will be on main attraction.

Big fireworks displays follow the Main Stage performances on both Saturday and Sunday.

Fair proceeds go to the local chapter of the Children's Miracle Network. They are shared equally by Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital. This year's goal is $100,000. That will be added to the $1.2 million that has been raised in the previous 12 years of the fair.

Admission is free on the opening Friday evening, which runs from 5 to 10 p.m.

General admission is $8 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Kids ages 6 to 12 and seniors over 60 get in for $4. Kids under six are free all days.

 

Profile

Fourth in a series

Overseas mission work by Achiever

Twelve-year-old Michael Arb of Fenton already has taken part in two overseas mission trips. Those trips--plus lots of local community service--earned him special recognition earlier this year.

The 7th grader at Life Christian School was named a 2004 Gateway Young Achiever of the Year. He was one of two to win for their outstanding community service work. The award includes a $1,000 savings bond.

Young Saint Louis.com has covered the Young Achiever program for three years. We announce the year's winners each May. We follow with profiles of elementary and middle school winners.

(For more about the Achiever program, log on to www.youngachiever.us. Our earlier stories this year were in May, June, July and August)

In both 2002 and this year, Michael and his family spent two weeks working at an orphanage in Thailand. The orphanage is run by missionaries from St. Louis.

Michael said, "In 2002, we built a soccer field and also played games and gave gifts to kids in nearby hill tribe villages." He added, "I also taught Sunday School there."

Then, in April, the family went back for another two-week mission trip. Michael said, "This time, we built a basketball court at the same orphanage." Again, there were gifts to give and Sunday School to teach.

In the basketball construction, his job was to take freshly-made concrete in a wheelbarrow to where the court was being poured. There was no modern machinery to use.

The sand, rock, cement and water were hand-mixed and then taken, one wheelbarrow at a time, to the construction site. "I did that for three days," Michael said. "I got a couple blisters and it was very hot. It was summer there," he added.

But, of the mission trips, he said, "I had a great time. Half the fun was the chance to spend time with the kids in the orphanage."

When the Arbs were in Thailand this year, they were there for celebration of the Thai New Year, including a week-long water festival. With Michael were his parents, Robert and Cynthia, and an older brother, Caleb, 14.

Michael said, "One of the things they do is fill big containers with water and put in blocks of ice. Then, they throw ice water on everyone. You're soaked almost the whole week."

Last month, missionary Debbie Wheeler and her daughter, Taryn, were in St. Louis and lunched with the Arbs. They were in this country to enroll Taryn at college in Minnesota.

Another part of Michael's overseas mission work is actually done from St. Louis.

He participates in a program called Compassion Kids. That's sort of pen-pal organization where kids here communicate with poor children in foreign lands. The Americans also provide financial support so the kids can get a Christian education in their homeland.

The Arbs help support four kids, one each in Haiti, Guatemala, Rwanda and Indonesia.

Michael also does community outreach work in St. Louis.

His father is on the board of the Mission Gate Prison Ministry. That group works with prison inmates and their families. The ministry aids kids when a parent is in prison. Also, the ministry works with the prisoners so they won't revert to crime when they get out.

Michael said, "I've been doing that for four years. We help with a Christmas party and then deliver food and gifts to other disadvantaged kids."

To be named a Gateway Young Achiever, the kids have to be good students and be well-rounded in the home life.

Michael is a straight-A student and sings in his Life Christian School choir. "I had a solo, 'I Believe I Can Fly,' in the spring concert," he said.

He hopes to make the junior varsity teams in both soccer and basketball his year.

To be able to play those sports helped him get along with the Thai mission kids.

He said he doesn't speak Thai but some orphans understand some English because the missionary leaders are American. And sports are a universal language for kids everywhere.

He said the Thai food was very different than American food. "You have to get used to having rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner," he said.

He said he drew the line on eating bugs. Thai markets include "a whole row of different kinds of bugs," he said.

Michael plans to continue his community outreach efforts. He's already planning a trip to Chicago to help feed the homeless.

 

St. Louis History

This Month in St. Louis History

Aviation and civil war history

An aviation pioneer with ties to St. Louis made an important test of his glider design in 1896. And "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a key figure in the Battle of Centralia in 1864.

The 1904 Olympic Games ended it run in St. Louis in September. It was one of the features of the 1904 World's Fair, which was held in what is now Forest Park.

These are some of the highlights of St. Louis and Missouri history provided to Young Saint Louis.com by the Missouri History Museum. Why not make a habit of visiting the Museum's website at www.mohistory.org.

Octave Alexander Chanute

Octave Chanute was born in France in 1832. But, he was a naturalized American citizen during much of his working life.

He was a self-taught civil engineer and active in railroad construction. One of his methods of preserving wood for use as railroad ties is still in use today. That's when an oil product called creosote is forced into wood under pressure.

That process lengthens the life of the railroad ties.

His work in aviation centered around his design and building of gliders. Those were machines capable of flight but without engines. He also contributed to advances of control and stability of flying machines.

The St. Louis connection comes from the fact that one of his gliders was a big attraction at the World's Fair. The glider was a twin-winged model that was launched like you launch a kite.

But, rather than you running to get the kite aloft, the glider was pulled by a 400-foot rope tied to a giant winch that reeled in the rope.

For more about the history of flight, see www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/exhibits/chanute3.html.

William T. (Bloody Bill) Anderson

One of the most notorious Southern raiders during the Civil War period in Missouri was William T. Anderson.

He grew up in Huntsville, Mo. But, it was the massacre at Centralia, Mo., in September, 1854, that helped to solidify his nickname.

He was in command of a band of 350 "bushwackers" when he raided Centralia. First, he robbed two stores and dozens of homes. Then, he robbed a stage coach and held up a train.

On the train were 23 unarmed federal soldiers. He killed all but one of them with firing squads.

He then set a trap for a force of Union soldiers who were supposed to hunt him down. Anderson killed 123 of those soldiers.

His raiding spree came after he claimed the Union was responsible for the death of one of his sisters.

After Centralia, Anderson lived just one more month. He was trapped by a Union patrol and killed.

For more about the civil war, visit www.civilwarhistory.com/quantrill/anderson.htm.

1904 Olympic Games ends in September.

The 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis ran from August 29 through September 3, 1904.

This was the first Olympic Games held in the United States after the Games were revived in 1896. They were held in conjunction with the 1904 World's Fair.

Most of the Games events were held at Francis Field, the stadium on the campus of Washington University.

For more about the Games and the World's Fair, see the second part of this history feature. YSL.com features each month a story of World's Fair trivia from a book by St. Louis author Joe Sonderman. See below.

Phoebe Wilson Couzins

Phoebe Wilson Couzins was born in St. Louis on Sept. 7, 1842. When she was admitted to the Washington Law School, she was the first American woman to be offered an education in the law.

She became the second woman in the U.S. to graduate from law school. She also was the second to be admitted to a bar association. She was the third woman allowed to practice nationwide.

Couzins didn't practice law for very long. Rather, she became one of the first women in the National Woman Suffrage Association. That's the organization of Susan B. Anthony that fought for women's voting rights.

For more about Couzins, see www.umsystem.edu/whmc/mohisto/sept8.html.

 

From "St. Louis World's Fair 365"

Bullfighting, corsets and
Olympic golf during September

There was a little bit of everything happening in September at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The bullfighting exhibitions were closed, corsets were exhibited on live models and the last Olympic golf competition was held.

Also, the 100th anniversary celebration of the Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery was held at the Oregon exhibit. About 800 members of Merriwether Lewis' family lived in St. Louis.

These are just a few of the more than 100 items listed in the September chapter of the book, "St. Louis World's Fair, 365."

(St. Louis author Joe Sonderman has put together a book of trivia about the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. He granted permission to Young Saint Louis.com to quote some of the monthly items. If you would like a copy of the book, check local book stores or the www.booksonstlouis.com website.)

Here are 10 of the September items from Sonderman's book:

Sept. 1, 1904: Records were falling at the Olympic Games. Ralph Rose of the Chicago A.A. set a record for putting the 16-pound shot. Archie Hahn, "The Milwaukee Meteor," set an Olympic record for the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.6 seconds. Perikles Kakousis became the first Greek to win a medal, hefting 246 pounds on the barbell.

Sept. 3, 1904: Local forecaster E.H. Bowie confirmed that St. Louis had been blessed with great weather for the fair. Bowie said that the summer of 1904 was the coolest since 1875. The average high was 74.27 degrees for June, July and August, which certainly helped attendance.

Sept. 8, 1904: Governor Dockery and State Attorney General Crow were fighting to close down the bullfight exhibitions, which had resumed near the Skinker entrance to the fair. After seven performances, Sheriff E.C. Henken of St. Louis County arrested the ticket sellers and the chief of the capeadores.

Sept. 13, 1904: The Negritos won a fire-making competition against the Ainus of Japan and the African pygmies. The Negritos used friction between bamboo sticks to get a spark in 58 seconds. They had a fire going in less than two minutes. Anthropology Professor Frederick Starr said it was apparent that the Negritos were a more developed race.

Sept. 15, 1904: The Cummins Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World show presented a special recreation of Colonel Custer's Last Stand. Colonel Frederick Cummins himself played Custer. Cummins claimed some of the Indians in the show had taken part in the massacre at the Little Big Horn.

Sept. 15, 1904: Louis G. Madrigal, a 19-year-old deaf mute from Peru, arrived after walking 7,600 miles from Lima. He started out on September 9, 1902. Madrigal couldn't tell about his trip, but he carried 14 books. Those books included documentation from towns he passed through, including the signatures of three South American presidents.

Sept. 20, 1904: The noted French aviator Hippolyte Francois arrived with his airship, the Ville de St. Mande, named in honor of the village that helped him build it. Hippolyte's ship was far and away the largest at the fair. The gasbag was 100 feet long and 35 feet in diameter. A trench had to be dug to get the ship out of the aerodrome.

Sept. 22, 1904: For the first time in St. Louis, corsets were exhibited on live models. The International Society of Dressmakers presented a demonstration in "The New York style." Mrs. Helene C. Crosby fitted corsets on models, "both thin and fat." Male reporters were barred from the demonstration, but were allowed to view the before and after effects.

Sept. 23, 1904: Lewis and Clark Centennial Day was observed with a celebration at the Oregon Building. The building was a replica of the expedition's 1805 winter quarters, Fort Clatsop. A reunion of the Lewis family took place at the Camp Lewis tent city. It was reported that there were some 800 members of the family now living in St. Louis.

Sept. 24, 1904: George S. Lyon of the Toronto Golf and Country Club won the Olympic Golf Championship, defeating American Champion H. Chandler Egan. Heavy rain in the morning kept the gallery at Glen Echo Country Club down to about 100 people. It marked the last time golf was featured as an Olympic sport.

 

Things to do

Places to Go, Things to Do

Forest Park Balloon Race and more

The Great Forest Park Balloon Race provides some spectacular day and nighttime viewing for kids and their families. That's just one of a number of Places to Go, Things to Do during September.

Each month, in this space, Young Saint Louis.com gives you a preview of events and activities you can do during the coming month. Many of them are available for your whole family to enjoy.

In addition, in this YSL.com issue, there are a couple full stories on the home page that give you a chance to participate. Those stories involve a BioBlitz survey of living things in Forest Park and a look at the upcoming St. Louis County Fair and Air Show.

Be sure to check out those events as well as looking at the items listed below.

Forest Park Balloon Race

The Great Forest Park Balloon Race will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 17-18. This is the 32nd anniversary of the nationally-known parade of hot-air balloons.

The event weekend begins on Friday evening, with the Balloon Glow below the park's World's Fair pavilion.

That's when all of the balloons are anchored but glowing from the fires that heat the air inside the balloons. Spectators are free to walk through the "forest" of balloons and talk with the operators.

This makes a dramatic picture as nightfall comes to the park.

The race itself is on Saturday. Festivities start at noon with the start of the race set for 4:30 p.m.

During the afternoon, there are a number of activities, some especially for kids.

The Pepsi Parachute Team will perform, starting at 3 p.m.

For complete details, visit www.greatforestparkballoonrace.com

Sci-fi Film Fest at Science Center

The popular Sci-Fi Film Fest has returned to the St. Louis Science Center, beginning with a showing September 17. Other shows will be October 8 and Oct. 15.

A fun "spaced theme" cartoon will be shown before each feature-length film.

The film showings are free. The shows are to be shown outside the James S. McDonnell Planetarium in Forest Park.

The Friday, Sept. 17, feature will be "It Came from Outer Space." This film was first released in 1953. It tells the story of John and Ellen who are the only people on earth who believe a fireball approaching the Earth is an alien space ship, rather than a meteor.

The Friday, Oct. 8, film will be "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun." On Friday, Oct. 15, the feature film is "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Any questions, call (314) 289-4444 or visit www.slsc.org.

Fun Club bike ride to Arrow Rock

Trailnet's Bicycle Fun Club is partnering with Missouri Meanders for a 3-day getaway to Arrow Rock, Mo., September 4-6.

Arrow Rock is the tiny mid-Missouri town that has a reputation for live theater and quaint shops. In addition, the area around the town provides some fine rural scenery.

There are routes available for rides from 15 to 50 miles. Overnight accommodations are available, including camping sites at the state park in Arrow Rock.

For information, call (314) 306-3996 or visit www.trailnet.org.

Some neat evening outdoor activities

The Missouri Department of Conservation has a number of evening activities during September. Included are "An Evening with Mr. Whiskers," an "Owl Prowl," and "Spider Sniffing."

These are just a few of the programs offered at the MDC's St. Louis area facilities.

"An Evening with Mr. Whiskers" is an evening catfish fishing on Friday, Sept. 10, at the Busch Memorial Conservation Area in St. Charles County. The "Owl Prowl" is also at Busch Saturday, Sept. 25.

The "Spider Sniffing" evening will be at the new Columbia Bottom Conservation Area on Friday, Sept. 24.

Other MDC areas at Powder Valley and Rockwoods Reservation also have schedule events.

For complete schedules, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/areas/

The Faust Folk Festival

The St. Louis County Parks Department will present the Faust Folk Festival on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-26.

The 7th annual folk festival is held at the Faust Historical Village in Faust Park in western St. Louis County. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Kids can watch how pioneers did blacksmithing and metalwork. Also, there are demonstration of rail splitting, wheat weaving, cornhusk dolls, woodcarving and more.

For more information, visit www.stlouisco.com/parks.

 

Math Puzzler

Four past winners got all the answers correct in the last Mr. Math Puzzler competition. The questions in the August edition were the final ones in the three-year run of the feature.

Those getting all six of the August Puzzlers correct were:

Zachary Bian, 11, of Grace Christian Academy; Rowland Han, 13, of Wydown School in Clayton, and brothers Eric Hsu, 10, and his brother, Philip, 12, both of Crestview School of Chesterfield School.

Because this is our last competition, Young Saint Louis.com is going to waive its 3-book-certificate rule and give $10 Borders' book certificates to all four winners.

Wayne Hesse, an 8th grade math teacher at Green Park Lutheran School, has been Mr. Math Puzzler for the last three years. The feature started in September, 2001.

During that time, there have been over 200 Math Puzzlers featured on YSL.com.

You can go back and try some by clicking on the Past Stories tab on the home page. Just pick any month after September, 2001. You can find the answers to each by jumping forward one month, and look for the Answer story.

YSL.com will continue to emphasize math in the coming months. Many of the articles in coming months will have math elements in them. We're also looking for another participatory math feature for your enlightenment and entertainment.

If any of you have any suggestions, be sure to offer them. You can e-mail us by clicking on the Your Turn tab on the home page and use the self-addressed e-mails offered there. If you want to send a snail-mail message, our office address is listed there.

Here are the answers and explanations for the August Puzzlers:

The Math Puzzler answers for August, 2004

1. What number should be removed from this list so that the mean of the remaining numbers is 6.1?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

Answer: 5

The explanation: The sum of the 11 numbers is 66. Therefore, you'd need to subtract 5 to reduce that number to 61. Then, when divided by the 10 you'd end with a mean of 6.1.

 

2. When George took his place in the marching band, he noticed that he was 10th from the front, 7th from the back, 3rd from the left and 8th from the right in the rectangular formation. How many members were in the band?

Answer: 160 members

The explanation: If George is in the 10th row from the front and the 7th row from the back, it means there are 16 rows, front to back. If he's the 3rd from the left and the 8th from the right in his row, the row has 10 members. Therefore, 10 times 16 equals a 160-member band.

 

3. What is the remainder when the product (1492) (1776) (1812) and (1999) is divided by 5?

Answer: 1

The explanation: You can find this after without multiplying those four numbers, which would result in a very big number. You can do it by multiplying the ones digits of the four numbers (2 x 6 x 2 x 9) to get 216. Then, divide that number by 5 and the remainder is 1.

 

4. When the 171st positive even integer is subtracted from the 220th positive odd integer, the result is z, determine the value of z.

Answer: Z = 97

The explanation: First, multiply 171 by 2 to get 342. Then, multiply 220 by 2 and then subtract 1 to get 439. Then, subtracting 342 from 439, you get the answer of 97.

 

5. The energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a television for 3 hours. How many aluminum cans would have to be recycled to furnish enough energy to operate 680 television sets for 4.5 hours per day for one week?

Answer: 7,140 can.

The explanation: This answer can be achieved easily by setting up a chart. The three columns include the Number of cans, the Number of TVs and the Hours. First, you have to figure that 4.5 hours a day equals 31.5 hours per week. Therefore, since one can powers a TV for three hours, it will take 10.5 cans to power one TV for 31.5 hours.

#Cans	#TVs	#Hours
1	1	3
680	680	3
7,140	680	31.5

 

6. Joan, Tim and Karen each start with the same positive number. Joan subtracts 1, doubles that result and then adds 2. Tim doubles his number, then subtracts 1 from the result and then adds 2. Karen subtracts 1 from her number, adds 2 to the result and finally doubles the answer. Who will get the largest final answer? (Hint: You can use any positive number to do this problem or, if you use some principles of algebra, you don't even need a number to figure which person has the largest final answer.)

Answer: Karen

The explanation: Again, a chart for each kid will help get the answer. Starting with x, work out the answer for each kid.

Joan	Tim	Karen
x	x	x
x-1	2x	x-1
2(x-1)	2x-1	x-1+2
2(x-1)+2	2x-1+2	2(x+1)
2x-2+2	2x+1	2x + 2
2x

 

Fun & Games

Trivia - Miscellaneous Trivia
When you're done, click here for the answers.

1. Of whom was it said, "In 1492, he sailed the ocean blue."
2. What American is called "The Father of His Country?"
3. What American president was called "The Rail Splitter?"
4. What famous aviator was known as "The Lone Eagle?"
5. What baseball player was known as "The King of Swat?"
6. Who said, as he stepped from his vehicle, "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind?"
7. What girl from Kansas had a little dog named "Toto?"
8. What fictional boy conned other boys into whitewashing his aunt's fence?
9. Who is the American cyclist who has dominated Gran Prix bicycle racing in recent years?
10. What old elf is famous for saying, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night?"

Crossword Puzzles
When you have completed the puzzles, you can click here to find the answers!

Young Saint Louis.com #1

Across	Down
5. length, width, depth 7. for kids w/o homes 8. an observance 9. made to order	1. standards, rules 2. take first look 3. seek converts 4. applies everywhere 6. numbers relationship

 

Young Saint Louis.com #2

Across	Down
1. unstructured drawing 4. shaping clay 7. response to stimulus 9. drawings that move 10. keep in memory	2. the poor, destitute 3. candelabrum 5. game competition 6. group of singers 8. in last group

 

Young Saint Louis.com #3

Across	Down
2. goal is to win 3. self-assurance 4. unmoving 7. ones who enter 9. military type dress	1. wingless craft 3. no ups and downs 5. usual pattern 6. off the ground 8. large wall painting

 

Early Fall

Across	Down
1. game of the season 3. burden begins 4. playoffs and series 5. gets shorter 9. too short a period 10. looked forward to 11. get longer 12. new term underway	2. starts to cool 6. don't get caught 7. good to see again 8. colors turn

 

Jokes
For a change, we'll start off with the knock, knocks

Knock, knock.
      Who's there?
Wendy.
      Wendy who?
Wendy wind blows, de cradle will rock!

Knock, knock.
      Who's there?
Water.
      Water who?
Water you doing in my house?

Knock, knock.
      Who's there?
Police.
      Police who?
Police stop telling these awful knock, knock jokes!

Knock, knock.
      Who's there?
Candice.
      Candice who?
Candice be the last knock, knock joke?

More book titles

• Unemployed
  By Anita Job
  
  
• Off to Market
  By Tobias A. Pigg
  
  
• Handel's Messiah
  By Ollie Luyah
  
  
• French Overpopulation
  By Francis Crowded
  
  
• No!
  By Kurt Reply
  
  
• Home Construction
  By Bill Jerome Home
  
  
• Why Cars Stop
  By M. T. Tank

Now let's try some bumper stickers

• If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
• The buck doesn't even slow down here.
• A waist is a terrible thing to mind.
• We do precision guesswork.
• Advice is free. The right answer will cost you plenty.
• It's lonely at the top, but you eat better.
• What if there were no hypothetical questions?
• No sense being pessimistic, it wouldn't work anyway.
• Despite the cost of living, it's still popular.
• Always try to be modest…and proud of it.
• Stupidity does not qualify as a handicap…park elsewhere.

And for a weak ending…

Do rabbits have combs?
      No, they use harebrushes!

 

Trivia - Miscellaneous Trivia

1. Christopher Columbus