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It's time for Positively Kansas, coming up.

this Salina boy takes a stand against bullies and rallies his town for the cause.

Find out why it's such a personal issue for him and how he hopes his efforts will save lives, plus.

I need to know what he wants to know.

He wants to know how a nice little lady by some people standards is not a little old lady, but Either way, everybody in protecting Kansas loves Bonnie Brown.

She's a 102 year old dynamo who's always out gathering juicy tidbits for a newspaper column.

You just have to see this.

And these Kansas teens ar kickin barfs and taking names.

No, really they are.

That's the motto for their business.

It's the talk of the town in Herrington.

Stick around and get the scoop.

I'm Sierra Scott.

Those stories and more are coming your way.

Positively.

Kansas starts right now.

Immigration is as controversial a topic as ever in Kansas, but there's a program here in Wichita which casts aside the politics of immigration.

Its only goal is to help those who are already living here become more comfortable and productive by teaching the essential assimilation skills.

Anthony Powell paid a visit, and here's what he found.

Pastor Tim Jepsen and his wife, Jennifer, are changing the lives of Wichitans who once felt like outsiders in America because they didn't speak the language.

They do better with their teachers, their children's teachers at school.

They're able to feel more comfortable conversing.

They are able to tal to the doctors in the doctor's office.

It often times brings job promotions.

it just really helps the to assimilate into the culture.

Back in 2010 with the help of their church, Pleasant Valley United Methodist, The Jepsen started an English as a second language program.

Since then, the couple estimates that nearly 4000 people have taken the course.

The program, which also helps students study for their citizenship and GED tests, has earned a reputation as being a safe place.

Some of the students, when they walk in the door, you can see they're kind of checking out the exits and looking around like this, but a track record of seven years of safety and not asking for people's Social security, it's just for their name and for their phone number.

If they want to give that people feel comfortable, they feel like it's a really safe place to be.

The couple strongly believes that a person's immigration status is far less important than their determination.

These are people that are coming directly from work.

They come sweaty.

They want to assimilate.

They want to do better.

They're going to do a great job in our society, and we welcome them with open arms.

Because I when I don't spea very well in English, I am sad.

Like so many others who come here.

Amelia Barajas say there is nothing she wants more than to feel more American.

The course is helping her reach that goal.

Because I speak more with other persons.

You feel like you're more part of America?

Yes.

But you know it's not just the students here who are greatly enhancing their lives.

Volunteers like Hugo Rodriguez, who he spoke to, say being a part of this English as a second language program has become one of the mos meaningful parts of their lives.

Rodriguez, who was only 17 when he came to America from Puerto Rico, barely able to speak English.

He was determined to become firmly assimilated.

He sees himself as a role model to his students.

They look at me and they see somebody, hey, I can be that person, you know?

I can learn like he did.

He came to this country and he took the time to learn the language.

And I can do that, too.

A sense of humor.

One of the tools Rodriguez often relies on to put his sometimes intimidated students at ease.

They get nervous because people laugh at them when they make mistakes and I tell them, you know what?

There are people who make money making other people laugh.

The Jepsen's choose to focus on the attitude the program has helped change, like those of one volunteer who, prior to teaching here, admitted to being anti-immigrant.

For example, there was one gentleman who, two weeks into the program, gave me a phone call and he was saying, you know, I used to be one of those that said, round them all up and ship them back to their own country.

And I said, oh, really?

How many years ago was that?

And there was a long silence.

There was two weeks, two weeks.

His mind was totally changed and his heart was changed.

That's some of the benefits this program brings.

Changing lives and attitudes.

This program is doing both and in the process is helping Wichita become a stronger and more compassionate community.

Yeah.

How long have you been volunteering here Janna?

I just started.

And what made you.

You know, we're all.

We all have busy lives.

It's late at night.

what made you want to do this?

Kind of always wanted to do it because it's an opportunity.

Like I said, the main people that I wouldn't have any other opportunity to meet and, And that's pretty, pretty wonderful that we very divers people having them in your life.

It's fun being able to help people, but it's an opportunity to share things together.

So we're all God's creations.

You know, I'm thankful that they're they're willing to step outside of their comfort zone.

And I'm thankful for the opportunity to step outside of mine.

For Positively Kansas, I'm Anthony Powell.

Well, the vast majority o students are Spanish speaking.

The program also has teachers who can translate Vietnamese and Swahili.

And because it's program organizers note there are 114 languages represente in the Wichita School District.

The demand for translators who can teach English is significant.

If you're interested in becoming a student or volunteer teacher translator, you can get info by clicking on the link on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

Now to a Kansas teen who's taking the bull by the horns in the business world.

Or you might say he's taking the fish by the hook.

He started his own fishing lure business in his hometown of Harrington.

16 year old Gabe Backhus is the president and mastermind of Double B baits.

The company's slogan is kicking bass and taking names.

Classmate Emily Rowe and Mackenzie Shippey help with finance and marketing.

Now they enter their business plan into a Future Busines Leaders of America competition and finished off 14 out of 120.

That's pretty darn good.

Gabe makes the lures, in his family's garage.

So I make two different types of baits.

I make soft plastics, and then I make jigs.

The soft plastics are mainly to imitate shad, and, the jigs that I make, they're supposed to imitate crawfish.

David's been fishing since he was knee high to a grasshopper.

One Christmas, his mom gave him a lure making kit.

And while the rest is history, Gabe and his crew also sell hats and t shirts that are pretty hot items amon their classmates in Harrington.

The lures are for sale in stores online.

Find a link to the website on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

Well, from the young to the young at heart.

Those Harrington teen won't reach the age of the woman in this next story until the year 2103.

That's right.

She's 102 and still reporting the new in her tiny town of protection.

Jim Grawe is here to tell us about the oldest newspaper columnist in Kansas.

You are going to love her.

She is the unsinkable Bonnie Brown.

I don't know if anybody has ever called her that but that's what I'm calling her.

In 102 years, this woman has seen it all.

And she keeps on ticking keeping the folks in protection.

Kansas on their toes.

So, anyway, I nee to know what he wants to know.

He want to know how a nice little old lady by some people standards.

Is not a little old lady by others.

After more than a century on Earth, Bonnie Brown has plenty of stories to tell about her life.

My mother died when I was three.

and then my dad married and he took off.

My grandparents didn't have a car, and so we went.

All of a sudden, a horse.

We were in a buggy.

Or we, the team and I only ran.

And while we were going, after.

First car my husband and I had was a model Model-t. And then I folded Nevada couple times on a casino tour.

But as the author of Bonnie's blog every week in the Protection Press, this four foot five gal about town is more interested in hearing about other peoples lives.

And I want you to know that my name is Bonnie Brown, and I want to know what your name is.

Mike York.

Bonnie was a waitress and cook at Don's Cafe for many years, but now it's the plac where she goes to chew the fat and gather news for her column.

Oh, yeah.

Here it is.

You wild people.

Hey!

Hi, there.

She didn't join the journalism racket until she was 94.

One day my granddad said, if you eat, you work.

If you eat you work.

That is one thing he always led out on the law.

Bonnie's blog is a must read for just about everybody in the southwest Kansas town of 500.

I never thought to say how I smell, hey!

That's all right.

Thoug she is pretty modest about it.

I think it's still the same old, same old.

Bonnie often writes about her life and the lives of her neighbors at the local senior housing complex.

This one starts out well.

Here I come once again to let you know I'm still on foot.

Not fast, but doing.

And she goes on to write.

Maxine Hurd and I are now both 102.

Wonderful that two protection ladies hit this age.

She's just a little old lad just loved by everybody in town.

Protection press editor Susan Edmonston says the paper just wouldn't be the same without Bonnie's musings and scoops.

Well I enjoy Bonni showing up every week with her column, she's a down to earth lady.

her min is certainly sharper than mine, and, I just like the manner of her speaking at it.

And it's in her column, the way she writes.

I think that's why people enjoy it.

But there are a few things you'll never read about in Bonnie's blog.

One is politics.

Well I got political.

I don't care that much for.

Don't blame me.

I would like to see a lot of But You know that don't work here.

We do vote them in, and then we suffer.

You also won't see Bonni writing about the latest iPhone.

I have no earthy use for them.

I don't have one.

And I' not gonna learn how to use one.

I do well, juts a sock on the telephone.

The old fashion way.

Bonnie says you don't need fancy technology to report the news or to make friends.

And she does have 102 year of experience to back that up.

And I hope you don't mind if your face is on the mug.

I don't know about that.

OH!

I might be wanted somewhere probably.

Yes you are.

Okay so that rushing we know he is.

And now I'm going to be.

Yeah.

You're wanted too probably.

Do you not just love her?

What a blessing.

An inspiration.

She is to the people of protection.

Bonnie's husband, Rufus, passed away in 1986.

They had four children.

Three are still living.

Her daughter, VI lives in Wichita and says Bonnie was the greatest mom anybody could have and still is at 102, and she's still churning out those columns every week.

Great story.

Sierra back to you.

Love it Jim, thank you.

Well, I'm here with a ma famously known as the Oz Artist, and you can see why, if he looks some of the beautiful paintings behind me.

This is Vincent, Myrand.

And I tell you what I am so blown away by your art.

I guess the first question I have for you is why Inspired by the movie The Wizard of Oz, what did it for you?

I think it was the escapist quality, to be honest, and as a youth I was always drawn to fanciful stories and comic books.

But it really started as a bond between my mom and me.

you know, like most Americans, we watched it annually on TV.

Yep.

Never missed it.

Yeah.

And my first, viewing o it was on a black and white TV.

And so mom and I, we developed a bond when the, over the first viewing, she mentioned the sequence that was in color, and she just lit right up and, described all the colors that we couldn't see at the time.

Later on, we got a color TV, and it blew me away.

Of course.

but anyway, when I miss mom, if I was away or what?

No visiting with grandparents.

I draws pictures.

And every time we'd reunite I'd share my pictures with her.

And it was our conversation piece, our bond.

She's, you know, kind of like a hair and nails girl.

And I was into hockey, so it got me into art.

And, you know, it catalyzed m whole experience as an artist.

You are so just amazin in the scenes that you capture.

I love it.

I mean, one of them just gave me chills when I saw it.

Talk about what scenes, how do you know the ones that inspire you?

And how do you choose what it is that you feature?

Well, I'd have to say that part of what's going on here, what you're experiencing is a, his wish fulfillment.

being inspired by the movie, encouraged me to want to be a fine artist, but to do so I had to do a lot of research.

So I did the classic tour of Italy, and my goal was was to celebrate and immortalize the Oz-ian vision you see here, from the movie and the manner of, of the classic masters.

That's a very daunting task to take upon yourself as, you know, as a young man.

But after the tour, I made a commitment to, focusing on all the major scenes of, from the movie.

so it's really, a matter of his history.

so I just I want to paint all of it is what I'm saying.

I would probably pain the whole movie all over again.

Cell for cell if I had time.

Wow.

And turn it translate int a painted, animated experience.

But that's just even more far reaching than it seems.

Just for where I'm at.

You know, one of the things too, these are all just stunningly gorgeous.

And this is actually technically not from the film because it's the creator of the actual story.

Yes.

how do you come up with ideas?

Why?

Why does one strike you and not another?

Again, it's hard to say because there's so much to the Oz-ian spectrum, so to speak, you know with each character's backstory.

so the assemblage is really being a historical documentarian.

And so I want to cover it all.

And so thus it' just a process of elimination.

Sometimes I paint out of, chronological order, like, for instance, with this portrait of Frank Baum, the original author.

I wanted to showcase, how, he was, like, daydreaming about his main characters and receiving what they were so desiring to to receive, you know, as far as the scarecrow with his brains, the Tin Man with his heart, the lion and his courage.

And yet with Dorothy.

Look ho she's yearning to get back home.

in this particular, arrangement.

And I almost painted her, facing the viewer.

But I felt it would be more poetic to having her yearning to go back home with a tear on her cheek.

I think you're right.

I really like that.

That is a neat vision.

Now, here's what amazes me because I grew up in Kansas City, so therefore I understand why The Wizard of Oz inspired me.

This is actually your first trip to Kansas.

First of all what did you expect of Kansas?

And second of all how has that actual experience measured up to what you expected?

Well, I'd have to say, you know, being from Maine, Kansas took upon my min a mythological like proportion.

It almost seemed surreal.

because my experience of Kansas, of course, was from the books and watching the movie being here, I have to say, it makes it real and it makes it even more wonderful than the way it was a a fanciful rendering in my mind.

So I'm thankful to be here.

it's it's a it's a life changing experience for me.

And I feel like an honorary Kansan now.

Well, you are, as far as I'm concerned.

We would love to have you in the fold for sure, because I don't know too many people that are a bigger cheerleader for Kansas probably than you ar through these gorgeous artworks.

How many paintings have you done that relate to The Wizard of Oz?

And that will be a difficult question to answer.

because three years ago I got discovered online.

and it was just by chance that I got back into Oz, because making a living as an art teacher and doing portraits for regular folks in the family dog.

just making ends meet.

it was it just didn't seem like I could really pursue a career as an Oz-ia And so I got discovered online.

I got invited to an Oz, convention called Oz Extravaganza, which is, set.

And and I go in New York with Al Frank Baum was born.

And so for the past three years, like a blacksmith, I've been hammering out these paintings left and right to meet popular demand, but also, satisfying this, like, yearning to live as an Oz-ian artist.

So it was like I was bottled up.

So I've painted in the hundreds.

Wow.

To be frank, I mean, just I can't even keep count because it's been for years, and I'm very prolific.

And so I've made multiple as well to, to meet the demand, you know, to make people happy.

So do you see continuing to paint Oz-ian related paintings?

I do, but I think it's importan that I switch gears for a spell, to kind of keep my senses fresh because like anything, you know, w we don't want to overdo things.

It'll make it, stale for me and I.

That's the last thing I would want to do.

redundancy is just not healthy for artists.

It's good to switch things up.

So I plan on painting more, paintings in the, cinema vein, like the classic, monster chillers and recreating movie posters.

Because I love it all.

And it all started, though, with The Wizard of Oz, the painting behind you.

I've fallen in love with.

You capture beautiful expressions, feelings.

Not many artists can capture emotion like you can.

And I want to say thank you because that really di touch my life.

It's very cool.

Oh, wonderful.

Well, thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Great to meet you.

Nice meeting you, too.

If you'd like to see more Vincent Myrands art, look for the link on the Positiv an estimated one out o five middle and high schoolers are bullied, and a Salina boy decided enough is enough.

He's sick of being a victim and seeing others be victims as well.

People are just like fist like, talking to me, like bullying verbally.

They were actually physically bullying me, like pushing me around and stuff.

Sixth grader Kaydence Muchow decided to take action in his hometown of Salina.

With the help of his mom.

He got the ball rolling to organize this anti-bullying rally at Salinas Jerry Ivy Park.

They included fun event like ring toss, cake walk, face painting, but the underlying theme was serious.

Speakers talked about the destructive consequences of bullying.

Actors perform drama to reinforce the anti-bullying message.

Kaydence says the purpose was to bring home the message that those being bullied are not alone, and they shouldn't feel isolated and helpless like he did.

I felt like sometimes I wanted to cry.

Sometimes I wanted to get up and just beat ‘em.

Kaydence says he got the idea for this event after reading about a bo his age who committed suicide.

That really hit home for him.

I actually wanted to kill myself because of bullying and everything, it's getting hard.

I don't want anyone feeling like that.

Experts told the crowd that peer pressure is an important way to stop bullying.

They say there's a ten second window in which bullies will stop if they're not getting approval from an audience.

Okay, I'm here with my long time friend.

I've known you for a long time, Steve Richards, through a lot of incarnations.

But, to talk no today about Paraguay Partners, I think that is such a fascinating president Kennedy kind of inspired it, years ago.

and it's continued.

Talk about what Paraguay Partners really is.

Kansas, Paraguay Partners is the local chapter of partners of the Americas.

we are going we are in our 50th year of connecting people to serve and to change lives.

It one way to describe it might be project based people to people diplomacy.

We have project areas going in at least eight dozen different project areas such as health, education, the arts, and so forth.

As partners of the Americas, we are one of 89 chapters.

Partners of the Americas is the largest volunteer organization in the Western Hemisphere that is not based in either faith or politics.

with all of our collaborating organizations, there are roughly 5000 organizations that are involved in partners.

Why do you think this organization is so important?

Because you're saying it's not political based.

It's not.

You know, there are religious based.

Why do you think this is a good thing to be involved in between the countries?

It builds understandin through individual relationships and through meeting mutually agreed upon needs.

It helps us to learn so much about each other's culture.

And I've had the good fortune to have traveled to Paraguay at least five times.

so far.

We've hosted many Paraguayans up here.

we, in essence, have a larger family.

And one of the things I hear so many people talk about tha have been impacted by partners is that even more than what I gain or I learn about the other country, I it holds up a mirror, and I learn at least as much or more about my own country and culture.

Let me kind of talk to off camera about this, and I thought it was interesting.

You said it's not really a mission trip because it's mutually beneficial to both parties.

What have you gained fro being involved in this universe organization.

Well beyond, as I say, many good friendships, I have gained connections that I'm able to if something arises, I can say, oh, I know something about that, or I know someone who does.

we'v also had many times in Kansas, artists, for example, painters, musicians, sculptors, the educational exchanges, these types of things, just help to put more resources in my pocket.

And you've also talked about the fact that, students are getting involved.

How do you think that's goin to benefit us over the long run?

One of the things that is interesting is there are, at any given time, there are quite a number of Paraguayan student attending, Kansas universities.

And in addition to that, Pittsburg State University operate a two year program in Paraguay.

Many of those students and other people that have been involved, with partners have in recent years risen to very significant positions within Paraguay.

Ministers and vice ministers of agriculture, of public health, a recent ambassador.

These types of things certainly don't hurt us.

Absolutely.

And like you said, building relationships, especially in this political climate, is not a bad thing.

Exactly.

If somebody wants to get involved, can just the average person get involved with this and how if they can.

Well, one way to get involve is we hold quarterly meetings.

and those are, scattered around the state.

So it's not real difficult to connect with one of those.

Another is to check our website at Kansas Paraguay partners.org.

And also we have a Facebook page under the same name.

So we try to keep some regular goings on there.

And that would also give you contact information with us.

Excellent.

Steve.

Thank you so much because this is really interesting.

It was good to see you again too.

Thank you very much.

Absolutely.

Well that's a wrap for this week.

Thanks for watching.

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