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It's time for Positively Kansas coming up.

Have somebody really say how much they enjoy the beer.

That's about the best thing that I can hear.

Pour yourself a cold one and find out why the number of Wichita beer breweries has skyrocketed.

Also, I-I would probably be broke right now if it wasn't for Marquis.

He's helped a lot and like learning to save my money for sure.

Meet the Wichita man who's donating his time to teach local kids to be wise with their money.

It's a lifelong skill that can dramatically affect the course of their lives.

And I don't mean to drop names., but we work with David Copperfield, David Blaine.

Abracadabra!

I bet you didn't realize what an impact Wichita has on the world of magic.

Prepare to be amazed.

I'm Sierra Scott.

Those are just some of the stories coming your way.

Positively Kansas starts right now.

Is the sunflower state fast becoming the hops and barley state.

Once a barren wasteland for beer brewing, Kansas has seen a real surge in the number of craft breweries in Wichita alone the number has grown from just 1 in 2011 to more than half a dozen, with more in the works.

What's behind it all?

Jim Grawe has the answer.

The trend of craft beer and micro brewing goes back about 40 years nationwide.

Kansas got a late start, but has been playing a pretty good game of catch up lately thanks to changing attitudes and changing laws.

I would argue it's the best beer I've ever had.

That ale that Zach Smith enjoys so much was brewed just a few feet away from where he's sitting right now, in the tank that Hopping Gnome Brewing on Douglas.

I love it.

Torrey and Stacy Lattin opened this brewery and taproom in 2015.

I roll out of bed happy almost every morning because I get to go make beer every day.

Hopping Gnome is among a growing number of craft breweries churning out beer in the air capital.

In 2011, there was only one place brewing beer in Wichita, that was River city.

Now there are at least seven, with the number expected to grow even more.

It does have somebody really say how much they enjoy the beer.

That's about the best thing that I can hear.

Ned Vahscholtz is head brewer at Wichita Brewing Company.

The company started as a single brew pub in 2011.

Now there are two brew pubs in this production facility that can belch out more than 3 million cans of premium ale every year.

It's what separates us is we're able to package our beer, in cans.

We distribute throughout Kansas right now.

In operation like this would have been unthinkable 30 years ago because it would have been illegal.

Kansas had the, had the claim to being the first state in the nation to enact constitutional prohibition.

When Kansas banned alcoholic beverages in 1880, the state had 113 breweries.

Wichita, a new city at the time, had four.

But with the stroke of a pen, they were all forced to close after pressure by activists who sought to curb the societal problems caused by alcohol, and there was no legal beer brewing in Kansas for more than 100 years.

Then came along Chuck Magerl.

I basically took it upon myself to, become a one man crusade for changing the state law and allowing brewing operations to return to the state of Kansas.

His crusade to educate and persuade lawmakers paid off in July of 1988.

When the ban finally ended.

In February 1989, Magerl.

opened Free State Brewing in Lawrence.

It was Kansass, his first legal brewery since the days of the Wild West.

Since then, the number of Kansas breweries has grown to 26, with several now packaging their beer to be sold in liquor stores.

So we are usually sitting around a two week to two and a half week process from it being, mashed in to it being canned or kedged.

And they all have to compete for shelf space with each other and the hundreds of other regional and national brands that market to Kansas.

But there is one thing in particular that sets local breweries apart when it comes to wooing customers.

It's no secret, but supporting local is a big thing, especially here in Wichita, so us being Wichita Brewing, kind of has a nice ring to supporting a local Wichita company.

With us being Wichita Brewing Company and being kind of, up and coming craft beer market.

We we like to think that, we're that hometown proud, brewery that when they go somewhere, they might be able to take some of our beer with them and share it with friends or family when they leave the area and say, this is the beer that's being made at my home.

And, something they might take a little pride in themselves.

Meanwhile, Hopping Gnome doesn't count or bottle, but sells its beer by the glass in its taproom and at 5 to 10 other bars and restaurants in the Wichita area.

There is competition for that space also.

But when it comes to other local brewers, the Latins say they are more friends than foes.

I always say we're family, so people come in and they and they say, oh, I really like this beer over there.

This other brewery has a great beer so were- and there's like, sorry., that's, you know, sorry.

We're talking about somebody else.

Well, really, I say we're we're all family.

We help each other out.

If Torrey runs out of a, grain or some type of ingredient he needs, he can call our neighbor central standard.

Or if he needs some guidance, since we're still kind of new in this industry, he can call, Dan over at River city.

He's been doing this a long time, and he'll come right over and help.

There are now more than 5000 breweries in the United States.

Obviously, the number doesn't keep growing because there's a great need.

Profits.

may be slim to none in some cases, but a lot of these small brewers simply love beer, love making it, and see a bigger picture than just the bottom line.

The Wichita flag's really big now, and everyone's getting this this sense of pride.

I grew up here, and when I was growing up, people were not proud to live in Wichita.

People would often talk about moving away, especially, you know, after college.

And, you know, it was always the goal to go somewhere else.

And I think now we're getting a lot of people that are wanting to stay.

when people do come back to visit for holidays and summertime and we're seeing a lot of beer, we wish this would have been here when we were living here, we might have stayed here.

Kansas brewed beer accounts for only 2 to 3% of all the beer sold in the state.

So unless more and more drinkers defect from the giant international brewers to the local brands, the pie will continue to shrink as more breweries open up.

But for now, the local brewers I've talked with are optimistic about the future and are having fun making and selling great beer.

For a list of Kansas craft breweries and more stats on the local beer biz.

Look for the link on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

Balancing a checkbook.

Establishing credit.

Avoiding credit card debt.

The importance of saving money.

A lot of people believe these things should be stressed long before kids become adults.

One Wichita man has made it his life's work to teach financial literacy to young people.

Anthony Powell has his story.

Marquis Murphy, a man with a mission teaching kids throughout Wichita the value of money, budgeting, debt management, credit worthiness.

I'm really big on time value of money.

I really believe in cash flow.

Nearly two decades ago, Murphy founded the Youth Educational Empowerment Program, or Y.E.E.P born from his experience working at a credit union.

My job was to work with the young people, so I work with youth accounts.

Sadly, he could see the lack of financial knowledge so many kids possessed.

So he started this program, which has since taught hundreds and hundreds of kids life changing skills.

I would probably be broke right now if it wasn't for Marquis He's helped a lot in like learning to save my money for sure.

We worked a few years ago, with USD 259 to make, Financial literacy, is my organization, and a few other organizations collaborated together to make financial literacy mandatory for graduation.

To help make financial literacy more relatable to kids.

Murphy has had to be creative.

He relies on his trusty mascot, Mister Cool Money, to show that skills like budgeting really can be cool.

The program also stresses entrepreneurship.

Murphy tells his kids they can't rely on the types of jobs prior generations could, so he has them work on their own projects like Teen View magazine.

They write the articles, they do the research, they learn how to do the layout.

The kids also put together a TV show and are helping to market a clothing line called Inner City Peace.

Making like cool ideas.

Just like watching how all of it turns light turns into Real creative.

Marquis Murphy, meanwhile, never stops trying to market his program to the Wichita community.

Of course, it hasn't been easy for Murphy.

When you're a nonprofit, it's stressful, never knowing where that next batch of money is going to come from.

But what Murphy cannot put a price tag on are the countless lives that his program has impacted.

Like Aileen Gonzalez, who says what she's learned through Y.E.E.P has helped her go to college.

Definitely budgeting.

I work a lot, so it's like I could easily just spend it on things that I don't need.

And Louisa Reusing, who came to Wichita from Brazil, where she says financial literacy is not stressed.

I get money from my parents all the time, and if it wasn't for the program, I wouldn't know how to manage it.

And I, I don't spend it on unnecessary things.

The Youth Educational Empowerment Program proof that one man's vision can change the way so many others see life.

For Positively Kansas, I'm Anthony Powell.

For more information on how to become involved with the Youth Educational Empowerment Program, check out the link on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

Wichitans have influenced the world in a lot of ways, but here's one you may not realize.

It wouldn't be too far fetched to call the air capital the Magic Capital, and this is no illusion.

Here's Jim again to tell us why.

It is no illusion, but it's probably not something a lot of people are aware of.

This story begins at a little, almost obscure store on East Douglas Avenue.

I believe magic is truly medicinal.

Maybe not in the physical sense, but what it does is it brings out our inner child.

You have probably driven by many times.

We've been here for 42 years, but you may have never noticed this place, or at least had any idea what actually went on in here.

We are considered one of the premier, shops in the world, which is unusual for a place in Kansas to have.

And many people don't know about it.

Unless you're one of those people who loves to amaze others with your feet and illusions.

What we're going to try to do today is to take money and levitate money, which is the first step to getting be able to make money.

And, well, I think I'm there as you can see.

That's quite interesting.

Yeah, there's no question that is a levitation.

Mark Stevens father, Joe, opened Steven's Magic Emporium in 1973.

He had been fascinated by magic ever since he attended a performance by Harry Blackstone, senior, at the Orpheum Theater 30 years earlier.

And when he was a little boy, he was called on stage and he won the rabbit.

And little did Blackstone senior now at that time knew what he had started, but he started a 42 year old generation of one of the most respectful names in the art.

The store's main focus has always been mail order.

It became famous with the world's best magicians when Stevens started organizing annual magic conventions called the Wichita Conclave.

After a few years, Stevens moved the convention to Las Vegas, co-sponsoring the event with Siegfried and Roy.

Ever since this little Wichita store has catered to the magic world's cream of the crop.

I don't mean to drop names, but we work with David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel recently he did a show, a traveling show where he was doing, like his musical.

So we ship him product.

So we cater to everybody from the top to the hobbyist, the beginners and the amateurs.

But there's a part of the store where only a select few are allowed to enter.

What they do, usually when they come in is they want to see the back room where all the magicians want to see where we keep the really good secrets.

Among the local magicians.

Privy to those secrets is Melton Francis of Derby.

But on the count of three, and we'll put my hand in the trap.

One, two, three.

You have to work up the nerve just like that.

Francis caught the magic bug when his wife gave him this magic kit advertised on TV in the 1970s.

The difference between a magician and a psychic is a magician will honestly let you know that they are doing tricks and they're fooling you.

But they're not supposed to tell you how they did it.

Unless you have a keen interest in becoming a magician yourself.

In addition to performing, Francis has taught magic classes to kids and occasionally gives personal lessons.

He's also a magic historian.

Franciss Basement is a museum of photos and posters and rare books about the timeless art of illusion.

When the first caveman picked up that burning stick from a lightning strike and said, look at me, I control fire.

That's where it really started.

And Stevens says the spectacle of seeing happen what appears to be impossible continues to amaze generation after generation.

With modern technology, you think magic would wane.

It's gotten anything.

It's gotten more popular.

So this little store in Wichita continues to quietly serve the big stars, as well as the up and comers wanting to learn the mysterious tricks of the trade that never get old.

Melton Francis is involved in a group called the Wizards of Wichita.

It's a group of about 40 magicians, including some beginners.

You'll find a link to their Facebook page on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

I am so excited today to be here with Mary Dean.

I tell you what, she's an author.

She started a great organization called Black Women in Power, Inc.

I mean, you've done so much, but really, we're here today to talk mostly about your book, The Black Legends of Kansas.

And this is such a fascinating book to me.

First of all, why did you feel that you needed to write this book?

Well, in 2006, I seen a program that, Oprah Winfrey had put on to recognize 25 awesome women, that there were legends, Lena Horne, Maya Angelou, Roberta Flack.

It was so many of them and then it was a three day event.

And the things that she did is like, oh my God, I met some awesome, phenomenal women here in Wichita.

I want to do something like this for the for these women.

And so I contacted a lot of women, had a meeting in my house.

Aletha Thastigo Melanie Miller, Gail Finney, Benita Gooch.

Mildred Edwards.

It was it was a bunch of them.

Women, wore black.

And I said, this is what we should do for the women here.

Why do you think it's so important, though, that we focus on black legends of Kansas?

Because, black women have been the pillar of the community.

They have been the history makers.

They have been the, movers and shakers behind the scene and in front of the scenes.

And for me, I wanted people to know that Kansas just didn't grow wheat.

They have legends.

And I wanted everyone to know who these women are.

You know, they are from they're educators, they're in media, they're in art, they're in health, they're in physical, you know, fitness.

It's a whole gamut of women that are in this book.

And I think, everyone, no matter your race, should know who these women are.

The book will be on, the Kansas African-American Museum and also watermark bookstores.

Okay, excellent.

Well, congratulations.

You did it.

Thank you.

This next story is about a Kansas family's life set to music.

And why a singer in Nova Scotia wrote a song about this family she never met in a city she never visited.

I think one I enjoy watching him the most is at Christmas time.

A lot of family has passed on.

Of course, Christmas gets a little bit lonely by yourself.

It just brings back a lot of memories.

reminds me of the good times.

Holidays, birthdays, vacations.

Those special times in the history of a family captured in home movies.

You were a family unit.

divorce was almost unheard of back then.

So most families had both parents.

and it was just an easier time.

In the 1950s and early 60s, Allen Glasco lived with his mom and dad, older sister Diana, and younger sister Nancy in a middle class Wichita neighborhood.

That period of their lives is played out in scenes of classic mid-century Americana, recorded on eight millimeter silent film.

You know, everybody came to one house, the grandparents would come up from Severy, and, most of the other, relatives that were there lived in Wichita.

So, yeah, you had pretty big family gatherings.

There are no spectacular feats, nothing shocking or outrageous.

Allen titled this film The Wichita Years and uploaded it on to Internet archive.org.

He says he only did it so family members in other parts of the country could watch it.

You know, you always like, see your own home movies, but having to go watch someone else's back then was really boring.

And so I figured the same reaction.

He had these 62 minutes of film, a compilation of some 20 reels of home movies have struck a chord with film producers and musicians around the world over the past few years the Glasco family movies have been used in some 20 music videos and other productions.

( ”Fireworks Over Chicago ” - The Junkyards) ( ”Starlight, Starlight ” - Exlovers) ( ”Glasses - Jonathan Coulton) Allen allows anyone to use the film for free and is flattered, so many have.

Well, I still sit here.

I've been in over 20 music videos and no one knows who I am, you know?

So I don't have any groupies on my front porch, so.

But Canadian singer songwriter Alana Yorke didn't just use clips for a video.

She recently wrote and recorded an entire song about these home movies ( ”The Wichita Years ” - Alana Yorke) I don't know how I came to discover some old family home movies, from the 50s, but this this particular one was just perfect, and it just really spoke to me.

It just seemed very universal.

And like the, I don't know, the grandparents coming over, the little girls getting dressed up because they're going to get their pictures taken or they're going to Disneyland on a road trip.

even though it wasn't the time that it would have been more like my parents generation, but it just felt really universal.

It felt like something that had happened in my family or anyone's family.

The old cars that are in the shots, I mean it, yeah.

I mean, there was that personal aspect of feeling like you're looking back and that's nostalgic.

But also I felt like I was a tourist and I felt like I was having this.

I think what really drew me in was just this privileged, intimate view of this family.

Like, for Allen to offer this up, is so generous and for me to ride along in the car as they're going on the highway in a place in the United States where I have never been.

Like it was just such an exclusive, because to me, it felt like an exclusive behind the scenes look at this family.

And but at the same time, it was it felt, it didn't feel invasive.

It just felt like it could be any family from that time and that was really special.

It's interesting that it's in Wichita, so I had to look up exactly where Wichita, Kansas is.

It's you're right in the exact center of the US.

And and I think that was really interesting to me, that it was just just kind of you throw a, a pin at the map and, and you're right in the middle.

Its a beautiful song.

I was just really humbled that she made, a song about the film and, went online and read the words, and, you know, there's a couple verses in there that's just my feelings when I watch it.

The Glasco's moved to Colorado in 1961 when Allen was nine.

His dad and grandfather opened an auto parts shop there, and the business failed.

The family soon moved to Tulsa, where Allen lives to this day.

But in his heart, he says, Wichita will always be home, and his home movies allow him to visit whenever he wants and allow the rest of the world to come along.

Sadness came with the Boulder, Colorado because of the closure of the store and the stress on family.

Things just didn't seem the same after that.

There's something just so special about the Wichita years, and it's interesting to hear about that-that that's how Allen sees it, that being his real life, that those were happy years, because you can tell.

The Wichita years are the happiest of my life.

Wow.

That's very moving.

We're out of time for now, but we have more great stuff for you next time.

A local woman remembers her mother who rode into Kansas on an orphan train.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the National Orphan Train Museum and Research Center in Concordia.

Learn about the impact that thousands of orphans from New York City had on Kansas, and about the impact Kansas had on these orphans.

Also, meet the Kansan with half a brain.

Literally.

His remarkable recovery from a devastating accident is a miracle in the eyes of many, including this woman.

She's embarked on a mission to share such miraculous stories with the world.

I'm Sierra Scott.

Join us for those stories and many more on the next Positively Kansas.

See you then.

Brought to you by Central Security Group, your experts in home automation, security and peace of mind.

View video on your smartphone and control your home's lights, locks, heating, cooling and more.

Security app compatible with Apple Watch and Amazon Echo.

The preceding program was brought to you by tz productions, offering 40 years of media experience.