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Vol 46 No. 5
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Kansas’ Largest Newspaper
April 2025
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Wichitan seeks to lift children out of poverty
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By Kierra Koeber On a chilly day in January, students in the Children 1st program meet at the St. Anne Catholic Church pastoral center in south Wichita to fill backpacks intended for the homeless with food, hygiene supplies and handcrafted messages of hope. As the middle-schoolers find their seats, Children 1st executive director Kathleen Webb talks about some important lessons she’s learned in life. “Learn to say thank you to people,” she says. “It will surprise them. People don’t hear it enough. I want you to take the time right now to say thank you to the people around you.” After the room erupts in expressions of gratitude, a small brown-haired girl raised her hand and asks Webb, “What motivates you?” Webb smiles and says, “You do.” Children 1st is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
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New appraisals spark appeals
organization serving children and families in Catholic schools and their neighborhoods. Webb has led the group since 2016. Webb grew up in Bel Aire and earned a history degree from Newman University in 1979 before Kathleen Webb started Children 1st in 2016. embarking on a 14- It now serves hundreds of children and their year career in radio families. advertising. After without that, I would have been in a being exposed to the work of several nonprofit organizations, she took a job really bad situation.” The experience inspired her and with the ALS Association in Wichita. made her think: “How do we not only When she wasn’t at work, Webb help someone in that crisis but get was busy as a single mother. them stable and even get them out of “Right after I became single with poverty?” these children, it was a very scary time When Webb’s daughter graduated for us,” she said. “And luckily, I had parents who were able to help us. But See Children, page 7
By Margaret Britton-Mehisch Appeals of Sedgwick County’s new property appraisals were running almost double the volume of previous years through mid-March. County Appraiser Mark Clark isn’t surprised. About 87% of residential property owners and 73% of commercial property owners saw an increase in their property valuations for 2025. Homes experienced an average increase of 9%, and commercial property values grew by 11% on average. Residents had until March 31 to fill out an appeal form and file it with the county. Weeks ahead of that deadline, Clark said he knew his office would be busy with appeals this season. “I’ll be honest with you, I thought it’d be a little higher,” Clark said of the number of appeals. See Appraisals, page 6
Concordia day trip:
Prisioners, orphans and Lincoln's avenger
By Joe Norris CONCORDIA — At one time, there were 4,000 Germans housed in a P.O.W. camp here. Only one nearly escaped. We’re at the WWII German P.O.W. Camp Museum just north of Concordia. It’s a rural area of well-tended farm fields, looking much as it did in January 1943 when the U.S. Government bought the land from local farmers. Built in 90 days, the camp included more than 300 buildings, including a hospital, restaurants, a library, a post office, a fire department and barracks. The first trainload of German prisoners arrived in July.
“There was an outdoor recreation area here, surrounded by a barbed wire fence,” our tour guide, Barbara, says. “The prisoners played soccer there. One day, a prisoner laid Photo by Joe Norris down in a depression A guard tower is one of few structures in the ground and covered himself with remaining from the World War II P.O.W. camp in Concordia. weeds and grass so somehow obtained a train ticket, but he couldn’t be seen. he was a little early. So he went into He waited until dark, then crawled the cafe to get a cup of coffee while through the fence and walked 15 miles up the road to Belleville. He’d See Concordia, page 8
Questions about services?
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging/Sedgwick County Department on Aging: 316-660-7298 or 1-800-367-7298
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