the active age

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Wichita Parks & Recreation, and National Fitness Campaign today officially debuted a Fitness Court and digital wellness programming at Osage Park, 2121 W. 31st Street S. According to a new release: The fitness court was developed by the three entities to expand free access to high-quality workouts and create equitable access to exercise for residents across the region.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran is urging Postmaster General & CEO David Steiner to address current mail delivery issues that threaten the ability of Colwich residents to receive important U.S. Postal Service deliveries, including absentee ballots, Medicare-related correspondence and other critical federal mail.

The City of Wichita offers several cooling centers for residents to escape the heat this coming week. Between libraries, recreation centers and neighborhood resource centers, the City has 14 different public locations for residents to visit during extremely hot weather. All centers are open and free to the public.

Construction is now underway on the Wichita Ballpark District, the $113 million mixed-use development adjacent to Equity Bank Park in downtown Wichita’s Delano neighborhood, as EPC Real Estate Group and Murfin Inc. broke ground today on the district’s hospitality anchor, the Wichita Tribute Hotel, a 160-room Tribute Portfolio property by Marriott. According to a news release: The seven-story hotel will rise at the corner of S. McLean Boulevard and W.

PRATT — In the 1870s, a trapper named Johnson was one of the few residents of Pratt County. Digging into the yellow clay and gypsum along the Ninnescah River near where the town of Pratt now sits, Johnson excavated a cozy two-room cave from the side of the riverbank. In good weather, he trapped bobcat, coyote, beaver and skunk. In bad weather, he stood over the fire in his cave, rendering oil from the fat of the skunks he’d caught.

For filmmaker Kevin Patrick Allen, the 50th anniversary of the Holiday Inn Sniper shootings was more than an opportunity to retell that tragedy. In his new documentary, “Long Echo,” Allen focuses instead on how the event shaped the lives of those most affected by it over the past half-century, from victims’ families and bystanders to police officers who stopped the sniper and the shooter himself. “I don’t spend a lot of time with that day” of the shooting, Allen said of his 30-minute film.

From laps around his neighborhood to cruise ship exercise bikes, Mac McCarthy has biked every day for more than nine years — and found a way to give back to his community along the way. The retired mechanic’sstreak began on Nov. 15, 2016, when he decided to ride every day for a year. Some previous tries had ended due to minor accidents or other events, but this time, nothing has stopped him.

Nothing says “I love my town” like joining a service organization. Service clubs such as Optimists Clubs, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions Clubs and the Shriners make our communities stronger, more interesting and more engaging. But are they dying out? Decades ago, membership in such clubs was thriving, serving as the backbone of community life in America. But today, many clubs find themselves confronting a landscape that has changed over the years.

If only all wars could be as short and sweet as the Spanish-American War. Relatively speaking, of course. Hostilities between Spain and the United States commenced in April 1898, and Spain capitulated in August. There was bloodshed, suffering and death on both sides. But the gains to our nation were monumental. On a global scale, the United States forsook isolationism and became a world power, gaining territories, markets and wide-ranging influence in the Caribbean, Pacific and Asia.

A new feature in Wichita’s Advanced Learning Library is designed to make preserving history easier than ever. And free. The Wichita Public Library’s Memory Lab offers self-operated digitization devices that allow users to scan, edit and restore photographs, slides, negatives, documents, film, VHS tapes, audio cassettes and more. They can be stored on USB flash drives, SD cards or in a cloud-based storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox.