The Kansa Oil Museum in historic downtown El Dorado, proudly displays over 140 years of Kansas history, antique vehicles, geology, natural histor for hands on fun for all ages.

Our ten acre museum in historic Boomtown has something for everyone.

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

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

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

Security app compatible with Apple Watch and Amazon Echo.

It's time for Positively Kansas.

Coming up, the world of the internet video star can be exciting and lucrative, and a lot of Kansans are cashing in.

But along with the perks often comes pain.

We get the inside scoop from some local viral video personalities who share the ups and downs of internet fame.

Also we take to the skies of Kansas the way it was done in the early days.

It's a timeless takeoff of the way it was done back when the Air Capital first earned its wings.

Im Sierra Scott.

Those storie and many more coming your way.

Positively Kansas starts right now.

55% of Americans now watc videos online every single day.

Many of those videos are made in the backyard and basements of Anytown, USA.

Technolog now makes it possible for anyone with some creativity and talent to become an international video star, but with riches and fame can also come heartache, especially if you're not used to being in the public eye.

Anthony Powell gets the inside story from some Kansans who are going viral.

All right, guys, we're back home now.

And I just wanted to talk to you guys for a little bit real quick.

Andover teen Tanner Braungardt is the most famous Kansas YouTube star.

In fact, he's one of the most popular social media celebrities in the world.

Tanner's videos have been viewed millions and millions of times.

YouTube, which negotiates advertising deals for stars like Tanner, pays it celebrities ad generated dollars based on the amount of views they receive.

And because Tanner is so popular, he's become a multi-millionair buying expensive homes and cars.

But Tanner is just one of many Sunflower State YouTube sensations.

Dog goes woof, cat goes meow, Twitter goes tweet, and my phone goes.

I got the eye of the bovine.

He didn't stop staring through the sunshine.

Cause I am a farmer and they wanna see me chore.

Farmer, Derek Klingenber and the Peterson Farm brothers have parlayed their prairie life experiences into comical farming parody videos that have gained them both several million views on YouTube.

At only 14.

JoAnna Michelle of Wichita is one of the most talented social media stars anywhere.

She plays the drums, piano, guitar and bass.

She's also a YouTube star, singing, dancing and playing instruments in videos that have a few million views and showcase her hit songs, including Entourage and My Snapped Story.

When I was about I would think I was about 2 or 3, maybe four, when I started taking piano lessons.

And then over time, those piano lessons turned into singing.

JoAnna thinks she got the performing bug from her well-known father.

It's not like the boom.

Brad Post-op, who wanted to be an actor before going to law school.

JoAnna shows no signs of slowing down, full intent on making music a career.

By the next few years sometime want to go on tour.

I want to start writing my own songs really, really soon.

And so I can write directly from me, in my thoughts, in my heart.

So when I called this guy, I told him I was from Kansas.

He was from Virginia, and told him I wanted a car with no rust.

In this other really cool feature that I can't remember right now.

Please fasten your seat belt.

Oh yeah, that's what it is.

Now meet Wichita and Tyler Hoover, who has turned his passion for cars and performing into very successful full YouTube videos that have generated 20 million views.

And because, like other stars, he is paid by the view his social media income help him pay for the stable of cars he buys and sells and features in his videos.

Cars that might seem expensive.

But Tyler shows his fans how they too can own them.

One of my first videos that wen viral was a 2007 Mercedes S600 that had a 12 cylinder turbo engine.

It was $160,000 new, and I bought it with a blown motor for 4500 bucks, and then went through the process of putting it back together, finding a used motor.

While both Tyler and JoAnna Michelle feel very fortunate about their social media stardom, they also admit there's a downside to this business and that comes in the form of the nasty comments some people feel free to leave them.

You have any kind of physical deformity.

I mean, they will point it out.

It's it's, you know, as far as if you're slightly overweight a big nose, that kind of thing.

Tyler says he's gotten used to the internet, trolls his best weapon against them make fun of himself.

I've embraced the word idiots, and I call myself stupid enough times to where you know, I kind of turn it against the to where it's kind of something fun now.

it's kind of a, term of endearment at this point.

JoAnna Michelle says she, too, has faced cyberbullying.

So for now, comments are no allowed on her YouTube channel.

But her most effective way to fight back has been through her music.

Her song to sophisticate focuses on internet trolls.. You must come into it with a very thick skin or you're not likely to last very long.

Psychologist Molly Allen says being a performer has always been tough, but technology has made it infinitely more difficult because you are dealing with an audienc that is often envious and angry.

Internet stars become an easy target.

They're exercising some some power.

it's an adrenaline rush to do that kind of criticism.

So it just it hits on different, different points that are just pleasurable to that person.

That viciousness has always made JoAnna Michelle's parents a bit concerned about her bein in the social media spotlight.

I think I'm still hesitant about i a little bit, just making sure, I always talk to her about, whether or not she's got the confidence to dea with people that may bully her.

JoAnna Michelle says thanks to her parents and supportive friends, she is much more easily able to put aside any nastiness and focus on the career she is so passionate about.

She wants other aspiring performers to do the same.

Do what you love.

Don't care what other people say.

Just push.

Do what you love.

Because in the end everything will work out if you believe in yourself.

For Positively Kansas, I'm Anthony Powell.

While being on social media, star can often lead to being a target for bullying there are other issues as well.

Some trolls have gone so far as to call in fake police tips on internet celebrities hoping to catch the action, such as police breaking into the star's home on video so they can share it on their own sites.

Grass runways were the norm back 100 years ago, with Wichita started making a name for itself as the air capital, and this old school approach to flying is still alive and well at the many small airstrip that dot the Kansas countryside.

Special correspondent Tom Zwemke is here to take us o a timeless ride through the sky.

Grass strip pilots have a real love and passion for their antique aircraf and preserving their heritage.

With the help of grass stri pilots Marvin and Alex Hopkins.

I recently had the opportunity to fly along and tell their story.

Over 100 years ago, Aviato and company founder Clyde Cessna roamed the Kansas Sky taking off and landing on grass strips with his first airplane followed by many of his aircraft produced at his company Cessna, in the late 1920s.

His passion for flying became legendary, along with other Kansas aviation icon Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman.

Today, the love for grass strip flying and old airplanes continues from many public and private grass strips all over Kansas on a warm summer morning.

Marvin Huggins, a third generation grass strip pilot, gets ready to do what he loves best in his World War II 1943 Boeing Stearman Navy trainer.

Take off from a grass strip.

The Boeing Stearman Model 75 was used as a primary military trainer, with over 10,600 built in the 1930s and 40s by Stearman Aircraft Company, which was purchased by Boeing in 1934.

After fitting a camer to a wing strut, I climbed in.

And took off with Marvin who was piloting command from the grass strip at Eck field west of Wichita.

Flying above the Kansas fields with the sound of the Boeing Stearman radial engine and the wind in your face takes you back to a simpler time, taking off and landing on a grass strip.

Puts it all together.

Flying over wheat fields and lakes and homes and seeing people out there waving.

It's always need to to wave back at them.

It's it's a thrill.

And you get to se your silhouette in the sunlight.

It's just it just makes you feel alive.

The grandfather was a a pilot flew some B-17s.

Then my father grew up as an aviator.

He was raised out here at Eck field and turning wrenches with my father and with the rest of the family.

My uncles all fly.

Always been into radial engines and tail draggers.

That's kind of been my passion.

My father's been out her probably good 50 plus years now.

Eck field is home to many aviators who own classic aircraf that have blown its north south, 2500ft grass strip since the early 1960s.

One of the most popular aircraft at field is the Cessna 195, a light personal and business aircraft.

The Cessna 19 - 195 series were manufactured by Cessna between 1947 and 1954.

They were Cessnas only postwar radial engine aircraft to be built.

It's a favorite of brothers Ron, Greg and Randy Huggins, long time Eck field grass strip pilot.

I was professional pilot.

Being a test pilot of Cessna Beach and Lear the grass strip of that field.

That's where the fun flying happens.

For 95 is King of the crop.

You can travel anywhere and it's the best way to travel, if you asked me.

Learn to fly these and respect them.

And, you know the joy of this flying is just.

There's nothing.

There's no words tha can compare to being in the air.

I grew up around them.

I spent my whole life in the airport proud to be part of the, the group.

And, it's one of the greatest thrills that I could ever have asked for.

I had my first ride in a Cessna bobcat, and I've been playing with airplanes ever since.

I just hang out here and I mow the grass, help take care of the place.

Just a good place to be.

Every year, Eck field hosts an open house where aviation enthusiasts of all ages come to experience the joy of vintage aircraft and go for a ride from a grass strip.

The people that we have come out here and the rides that we give kids get out laughing and smiling and you know you've done some good for somebody.

It's an experienc where you try to give the people the most pleasant ride they can have, because you want them to feel like, wow this is the coolest thing I've ever done.

Remembering a women' aviation icon Maureen McMaster Maureen was remembered all over the world, with with aviation, whether it be in the business sector or the private sector.

I flew around the country with her and dad growing up.

That's why I've been on airplanes since I was a baby.

And in fact, that's how Dad and Mom met.

She, lost her battle to cancer last April.

We're basically going to try to carry on her legacy as well as far as we possibly can.

Maureen held many different pilot readings and also loved taking of and landing from grass strips.

Wichita is the air Capital of the world, but legacy was established in the 1920s and started from a grass strip.

From somewhere over southeast Kansas.

Along with Marvin Hopkins.

This is Tom Zwemke reporting for Positively Kansas.

Now to the trashier side of Kansas.

Each of us generates an estimated four and a half pounds of garbage every single day.

The average family 6,300 pounds a year.

Justin Kraemer shows us how a Wichita couple has been working for decades to keep less and less of that trash from polluting the Kansas landscape at Pro Kansas Miller Recycling.

More than 20 million pounds of garbage have come through these doors to be saved from landfill and reused for something else.

This is a one stop shop.

I mean, there are a lot of a lot of places that you can take metals, for instance, and places that will accept paper.

But there aren't a lot of places, maybe nobody in town who accepts as many things as we do.

The recycling center has been running in South Wichita since 2004.

It's the legacy of Paul and Margaret Miller.

It's their name on the sign.

Margaret passed away earlier this year at the age of 98.

And they literally worked in the trenches in the 80s they had these recycling drive out in parking lots and it was freezing and they were out there encouraging recycling.

After growing up in poverty during the depression, being forced to stretch every penny.

The miller were dedicated to conservation.

National geographic even made mention of the pair for their collection effort at Walmart parking lots, saving newspapers, bottles and cans from landfills when no one else in town would take them.

I go over to Sam's to take my stuff, and there are ten semis sitting out there, and they're taking glass and they're taking phone books and they're taking cans and all this stuff.

And so I would dump my stuff, and then I'd stop and help for an hour or two.

Those efforts in the 80s eventually led to pro Kansas Miller opening in 2004, still years before, area trash haulers were commonly offerin curbside pickup for recyclables.

Pro Kansas regulars like Alan Keimig from Tom Sawyer Bicycle Shop remembers.

Before it opened there weren't a lot of options If you wanted to recycle, you're winnin really any place to go easily.

so yeah, most of our cardboard went in the trash, I'm sorry to say.

With recycling finally catching on in Kansas over the last decade, there are more options than ever to keep your trash out of a landfill.

But the non for profit center remains popular, partly because it's completely free to use and also because, unlike curbside pickup, Pro Kansas will take almost anything you've got.

We collect more different categories of material here than any place in Wichita.

And your trash hauler he' just going to collect material on stuff that he can turn around and make money on.

And I don't blame him.

It's free enterprise system, but but we're a nonprofit, so we'll take things that we actually lose mone on, to keep it out of landfill because our mission is different then and making money.

Pro Kansas recycling has never been about making money.

It's only goal from the very beginnin has been to keep Kansas cleaner.

They understood that, you know, if you've got 400,000 bottles stacked up out there, you'd rather have it turned into 400,000 new bottles than to go to landfill or be dumped on the street for Positively Kansas.

I'm Justin Kraemer.

If you'd like to learn more about recycling in your community, look for the link on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org.

Maybe art is more your thing.

We have a lot of great artist in Kansas, and many of them tend to be inspired by what they know their past life experiences.

Well, that's certainly the case with Paulina Valencia.

As a result, her art really stands out from the crowd.

That's because she's lived most of her life in Ecuador.

Much of what she paints are scenes of her homeland and the people she knew there.

And in that true Latin American style, the colors are bold.

Several of Valencia' paintings have been on display at the Derby Public Library, and she says she's been very pleased by the response.

It was really amazing to see how people appreciate, this much color.

You know, some people might be scared at first.

I se that, people are very cautious.

Even when people dress here.

It's very different from how some people dress in Ecuador.

So I know that color could be scary for some.

And they don't experiment with color as much as I do.

So when I saw a good response, I thought, okay, it's really pleasing to see that people are just drawn to see something different.

Valencia started painting at age seven when her grandfathe gave her a watercolor paint set.

She moved on to oil painting and most recently has worked in acrylics.

Now living in Derb with her husband and children, Valencia says people have made her feel very much at home and she just loves it.

It's beautiful.

I really, love to be able to share, part of me with my community.

And this is now, like Dorothy, my home.

I can call this place home.

And I've been very welcome.

So it is beautiful to be able to share it with people who are around me, people that now feel like family and that I keep meeting through, through, through my art.

If you'd like to learn more about Paulina Valencia's art and keep u to date on her latest projects, look for the link on the Positively Kansas page at KPTS.org Who doesn't like garlic?

Who doesn't like festivals?

For one Wichita organic farm, these two things were just begging to be combined.

And thus the first annual Ories Garlic Fest was born.

Didn't get a chance to check it out.

We've got you covered.

Take a look.

Good afternoon everyone, and wel My partner Wes Johnson and I own Ories farm fresh.

So we're both involved in the planning and the planting and the harvesting.

We both do a little bit of everything.

We purchased the property about three years ago, and we wante to blend our passion for growing and our passion for healthy eating together, and decided to grow an urban farm and be able to provide locally grown healthy food to the community.

We started growin a few different types of garlic about three years ago, and every year we've grown a little bit more and a little bit more.

It's a really great crop for us.

We've enjoyed, trying all of the different kinds, and we saw an opportunity because no one else around here is growing a lot of different types of garlic.

So we use a niche that needed to be filled and we wanted to seize the opportunity.

We sell our produc and vegetables and our garlic at the local farmers markets and restaurants, and decided after we'd heard about some garlic festivals that we would like to have one.

We got the property here and wanted to open it up to the public and shar what we have with our community.

It's really fun.

It's been very informative.

It's very impressiv the vendors that they have out here, it's a lot of fun.

Yeah I think it's absolute success.

There's a lot of the community here.

It's a lot of food.

It's been highly entertaining.

The music's been pretty great out here and got to try a lot of unique garlic based foods.

My kids had a great time so far, so I hope we do it again next year out here.

I'm hoping that he does it again.

it's a really nice group of people.

I like what they're trying to do, and I think that, they've got a good representative of what they're looking for, which is the farm to table.

And so the dressing that I want to make, we're gonna do a garlic lemon vinaigrette.

We're really pleased with the turnout.

I think everybody is happy with the event and how well it's going over so far, especially since it's the first time.

So everything's smooth and, people seem happy.

Yeah.

They are wanting to turn this into an annual event.

we will probably move it next year.

So this is going to be the only yea it will actually be on our farm.

We're already talking to the city about moving it to Cowtown next year.

The garlic festivals I've attended are very popular and long running, and so we see this happening every year and growing and being a fun part of Wichita Festival scene.

I'm here with Mark McCormick, who I have always loved your writing.

The first thing I think the title of the book is really unique.

So how did that come to be?

I'd written a column years ago about a homeless man who froze to death in a van, and how little coverage there was.

I mean, there was barel anything in the paper about it.

So I wrote a column about how this sort of shock our conscience.

What I thought of at the time, a poem that my father had shared with me years and years ago.

And in the in the column I wrote, some were pompous, some were kings some were masters of their art.

But in all their shame they were all the same.

Those men with broken hearts.

And it always stayed with me.

And it wasn't until I wrote that column that, someone on the edit desk looked it up and found that it was a Hank Williams, lyric, and, it made sense because both of my parents, who were, depression era babie and grew up in central Oklahoma, they grew up on country music.

So my dad, who love stories and love the stories in country music, really inspired the title.

Now, you had a number of great columns.

What are some of the columns that mayb are your favorites in this book?

I always wanted to us my column, as a kind of, force for good or, the red pill, like in The Matrix.

Yeah.

I love that movie.

Wakes people up to certain realities that we're living with.

And there are a few of those in here, you know, years ago, these two women had a fight and a convenience store, and one of them stabbed the other.

And we were tryin to figure out, how it was that, the lady bled to death with paramedics kind of waiting across the street.

And what the chief of police told us when he was looking at the, the surveillance film, was that people continued to shop for about five minutes after she was stabbed.

They stepped over her.

In fact, one person pulled ou a cell phone and shot a picture of this bleeding woman and then continued to shop.

And so I wrote a column, me pressing about, how this lady died of a stab wound, and laid there.

this story kind of came out of it and it really spoke to, this kind of coarseness in societ that we needed to guard against.

I was at the press conference where, the announcement was made about BTK being captured and I just kind of wrote about the scene, and I'll never forget that, a woman who was part of, one of the survivor families just kind of got caught in the swirl of media.

You know, after the press conference ended people kind of descended on her, and it just made me think that, you know, this was going to be difficult for her now, and it was going to be difficult for her through the trial, and it was going to be difficult for her for the rest of her life.

I know that because your writing always made me feel something and I love that, because now that I know that was really your intention.

Oh, you say that you would say that to all the columns.

I only the ones that I love.

Okay, well, how do we get a hold of your book?

it's available at Watermark Books.

Douglas and Oliver, we also have copies at, the African-American Museum downtown.

But you can also go to the Blue Cedar Press website and order them there.

Excellent.

Mark.

Thank you so much.

And I cannot wait to read this book because I've read a lot of your columns.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

But did you realize that one of the most popular TV show ever has close ties to Kansas?

We'll explore the Mayberry connection on the next positively Kansas.

Also, a little Wichita boy and his mom are sharing their blessings with the needy.

It's a simple idea.

They hope to inspire others to pay it forward.

I'm Sierra Scott will have those storie and many more on our next show.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you then.

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

View vide 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.