Clay and Platte: News from around our towns | The Kansas City Star

Keystone awards luncheonfor Clay County

The Keystone Recognition Awards will be given to more than 20 businesses during a luncheon Dec. 9 at Harrah’s North Kansas City.

The Clay County Economic Development Council hosts the annual event to recognize businesses that have made a significant contribution to Clay County's economy and quality of life. The awards recognize companies new to Clay County as well as firms that have increased their commitment to the county through job creation, capital improvements, expansions, new equipment and/or technology.

Special Economic Impact Awards will be presented to: the Missouri Department of Transportation; Ford Motor Company; Hunt Midwest for Automotive Alley-Benson Place-LightEdge Data Center.

Northland 1 Million Cups will be given a Special Consideration Award.

Northland Center for Advanced Professional Studies will be given the Keystone Visionary Award.

Other Keystone award winners are: KC Machine; Talented Tots Learning Center; Cosentino’s Price Chopper; QuikTrip; The Heights at Linden Square; Meadowbrook Village Shopping Center; North Kansas City Hospital; Meritas Health Vivion; Antioch Redevelopment Partners LLC for Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market; Village of Shoal Creek Phase 1; Liberty Hospital Urgent Care, Sports Medicine, Women’s Imaging Center; LMV Automotive Systems; RockTenn CP; First Watch; ProPrint; Smithville Senior Center, and Acuren.

Tickets are $35 for members and $45 for others. Table sponsorships are available.

Call 816-468-4989 to make reservations.

Discussion on Ferguson, Mo.

The Center for Global Peace Journalism and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Park University will host a discussion Wednesday, Dec. 3, related to the officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and its aftermath.

The discussion starts at 3 p.m. in the McCoy Meetin’ House on the university’s Parkville campus. It’s free and open to the public. The event includes these presentations:

▪ “The Roots of Unrest, ” Walter Kisthardt, professor and chair of social work and director of the Master of Social Work program.

▪ “The What, Why and How of Police Actions,” John Hamilton, associate professor of criminal justice administration.

▪ “The Media’s Role in Unrest,” Steven Youngblood, director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism and associate professor of communication arts.

Park University students will weigh in as well.

Cookies with Santa

Everyone is invited to attend Cookies with Santa from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Gladstone Community Center.

The free event will feature a visit from Santa, cookie decorating and other activities for children.

Cameras are welcome for picture-taking with Santa. A photographer will be on site for those wanting to purchase photos.

The event is hosted by Lynn and Sherrie Rickel of ReMax Results. For information call 816-423-4200.

Park U. strings concert

Ben Sayevich and Daniel Veis of Park University’s International Center for Music will perform in Side-by-Side performance with their students at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the Park campus.

The two will join their students in a performance of Franz Schubert’s “String Quintet in C-Major.” Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, Park’s instructor of music/piano, will join the concert for Johannes Brahms’ “Piano Quartet No. 3.”

Violinest Sayevich has played throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. He has appeared on radio and television. He is professor of music and violin at Park.

Veis, a cellist, won the 1976 Prague Spring Competition and the silver medal at the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. He is an assistant professor of music at Park.

Tickets for the concert are $15 in advance; $20 at the door; $10 for senior citizens and $5 for students. Park University students, faculty and staff and their children under 12 are admitted free.

Purchase tickets at www.park.edu/icm.

Holly Jolly volleyball camp

Gladstone will host a one-day volleyball camp for youth in fourth through eighth grades Dec. 29-30 at the Gladstone Community Center.

The camp will teach fundamentals such as passing, setting and serving. Players of all levels are welcome.

Grades four through six will meet Dec. 29 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Grades seven and eight will meet Dec. 30 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The fee is $40. Register in advance at www.activityreg.com or at Gladstone City Hall, 7010 N. Holmes St. Registrations will be taken until Dec. 26 or until classes are full. Forms are available at www.gladstone.mo.us.

Participants who register before Dec. 12 will be guaranteed a camp T-shirt.

For questions call Russ Collins at 816-423-4085 or email russc@gladstone.mo.us.

Museum recipe book

The Clay County Historical Museum is offering a reprint of its 1975 bicentennial cookbook as a kickoff fundraiser for its 50th anniversary year.

The cookbook features 190 pages of recipes dating from the 1890s. It was originally created to raise money for the Bicentennial Historic Landmark Project which placed 76 plaques on historic sites in Clay County.

The cookbook costs $20. It can be purchased at the museum at 14. N. Main, Liberty. The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The original recipes were submitted by members of Clay County Historical Society and the Clay County Landmarks Commission during the 1970s.

“There’s a lard recipe from a sugar campm and there’s a honey-cured bacon recipe from the 1890s and a lemon syrup recipe from the 1890s,” said Jana Becker, president of the Clay County Museum and Historical Society.

Contributors include well-known area historian Vera Haworth Eldridge as well as Emma Compton, Al Dold and Jessie Gray.

“We’d love to know if anyone’s relatives made a submission to the book. We’d like to hear their stories if they have any about these recipes and if they had a family memory that goes along with them,” said Becker.

For information call 816-792-1849.

Holiday party on Friday

Kansas City Parks and Recreation is sponsoring a free holiday party from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Kansas City North Community Center, 3930 N.E. Antioch Road.

This family event will include entertainment, reindeer games, arts and crafts projects, prizes and holiday goodies. Kids can visit Santa and be photographed with him.

Children 15 and under, who are pre-registered, will receive a toy. To register, call 816-784-6100.

It’s Christmas, 1800s style

The Shoal Creek Living History Museum invites the public to a 19th century Christmas from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Visitors can take a walking tour through holiday-decorated homes and log cabins of the 1800s and, from noon to 4 p.m., take a brief ride in a horse-drawn sleigh. St. Nicholas, robed in green velvet, will hold court in the Thornton Mansion. Activities also include a Civil War encampment, storytelling by a potbellied stove, lace-making demonstrations and Santa Lucia Day as celebrated by Swedish immigrants.

The museum is in Hodge Park, 7000 N.E. Barry Road in Kansas City, North. The cost is $5 per person, but kids 5 and under get in free.

Alzheimer’s workshop Thursday

A free Family Alzheimer's Workshop, scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday in downtown Liberty, is open to families coping with all kinds of dementia.

The workshop covers how to manage behaviors and connect with other families in a similar situation. Also available are resources and information on caring for loved ones with dementia.

The workshop will be at the Home Instead community room, 40 S. Main St. RSVPs are requested at 816-792-8077 . More information is at HelpForAlzheimersFamilies.com.