Photos by Abby Gillam/The Budget photo editor

Photos by Barbara Tholen/The Budget adviser

By Lily Abromeit

OSAWATOMIE — The small town of Osawatamie, Kan., grew in population Tuesday when President Barack Obama visited.

Police stood on every corner with police tape blocking off parking spots and entrances throughout the normally quiet town. Helpful signs like “Presidential Speech Parking Area” pointed people in the right direction as they streamed in from across Kansas. One house hung signs on the front porch saying, “Welcome to Oz, Mr. President!”

The normally red state turned a little blue for the day.

American flags decorated the storefronts of a few downtown shops. Just outside Osawatomie High School, crowds of people, freezing but excited, lined the sidewalk.

Osawatamie resident Nicki Tschantz, was first in line to get into the building for the 1 p.m. speech. As it neared 10:30 a.m., she said she had been in line since 6 a.m. Tschantz waited for 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday to get her ticket to hear the speech and reacted enthusiastically to the news that the president would be coming to her town.

“I almost peed my pants,” she joked.

Further back in the long line, Paola resident Quincy Garrett said he was waiting to “see our first African-American president, in person.” From Obama’s speech on Tuesday, Garrett was hoping to hear the president’s plan for the state of the economy but mostly, Garrett was “just looking forward to hearing him.”

Teacher Patty Leddy said she didn’t really expect to hear anything from Obama Tuesday.

“It’s just going to be such an experience that my mind is going to be going in a thousand places,” Leddy said. “I’m going to be taking pictures and just enjoying the minute.”

Leddy planned on re-watching the speech Tuesday night to hear what the president had to say.

Also in attendance on Tuesday was LHS senior J’Qui Audena and LHS freshmen Sadie Keller who both enjoyed the speech and said it met their expectations.

“[Obama] covered everything that I’ve been thinking about and everything debate has been going on about,” Keller said. “I thought it was a great speech.”

President Obama’s trip to Osawatamie on Tuesday was no coincidence. In 1910, president Theodore Roosevelt visited the same town to talk to Kansans about his idea of “New Nationalism.” On Tuesday, the location of Obama’s speech was not the only thing that the current president had in common with Roosevelt.

Many of the things Obama spoke about Tuesday were similar to Roosevelt’s points in his 1910 speech. Obama spoke to cheering crowds of his plan to pull people together to help re-form the middle class.

“This is a make-or-break moment for our middle class, and all those fighting to get into the middle class,” Obama said.

Quoting statistics, Obama said that “kids that in this country [are told], work hard and you can get into the middle class.” But, Obama said the opportunity for these kids to get into the middle class is becoming more difficult.

“Over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart,” Obama said. “The middle class has shrunk.”

According to Obama, the American economy suffers because too many people don’t have an equal opportunity for a successful life and “this kind of inequality…hurts us all.”

Obama said success of the United States economy and the success of America comes from the people, as one.

“In America, we are greater together… where everyone gets fair shot [at being successful], and everybody does their fair share,” Obama said.

Winners for the 2011 Homecoming Parade were announced Monday. They are as follows:

Chesty Award- Freshman Class

Craftsmanship Award- Sophomore Class

Innovation Award- Senior Class

Red and Black Award- Junior Class

Best Club Float- Orchestra

Best Club Banner- International Club

CSPAN’s Campaign 2012 bus came to LHS Friday morning allowing students to be part of an interview call-in show.

Ten students were given the chance to interview Leo Hindery, who is a member of Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength. The interviews were part of the daily Washington Journal show.

Student council sponsor Jason Lichte said CSPAN contacted Lawrence High in advance of the bus’ visit. He said CSPAN provided a good experience for students.

“The students got to see how real-world politics work,” he said.

Lichte said Hindery did a good job putting forward all of the angles of his point of view for the students.

Senior J’Qui Audena, one of the questioners, said being a part of the show was an honor.

“This was an excellent opportunity to represent LHS and the community’s ideals,” he said.

Other students selected to ask questions were: seniors Taylor Kidder, Maddie Backus, Reid Hildenbrand and Natalie Wilkins; juniors Sarah Sutterfield and Kharon Brown; sophomores Puja Shah and Abbey Berland; and freshman Sadie Keller.

During the bus’ stopover, classes were able to tour the bus.

“It was bigger than I expected,” sophomore Jessica Bensy said. “Being on the bus was really surreal.”

After leaving Lawrence High School, the bus made its way through downtown to its next stop at the Lawrence Public Library.

Math teacher Jason Karlin received an award for $250 granted to exceptional second-year teachers.

Junior Royce Harrison travelled with Kenyan Educational Service Trips along with three other girls and group leader Jennifer Geilings. The goal of the organization is to educate American teenagers and adults to be responsible and effective global citizens, and to show that one person can make a difference only by taking action.

“It is enormously satisfying to help people,” Harrison said.

Harrison left July 12 and returned Aug. 13. Group members focused on volunteering, not engaging in any sort of tourism while they were there. They created camps for Kenyan school children and helped out doing farm work.

The volunteer program in Kenya was called Nyumbani, and it contained three parts. The first was an orphanage in Karen called the Nyumbani Children’s Home. The orphanage is home to more than 100 HIV positive children who were either abandoned or had lost their parents. Harrison and his group were at the orphanage for one week.

“Not all of the younger kids were used to seeing white people,” Harrison said. “A kid rubbed one of the girls arms and then checked his hand to see if the white would come off her skin.”

The second part of the Nyumbani program took the volunteers to Kitui, a village of about 700 people plagued by the AIDS epidemic. In the village, about 10 children are grouped with grandparents to form families. The goal is to have 1,000 people living in the village. Harrison spent the majority of his trip there, a total of 3 weeks.

The third part is called Lea Toto, which means “to raise the child” in Swahili. Lea Toto is a slums outreach program where the volunteers helped provide medical assistance and counseling. Harrison was only in Lea Toto for one day of his trip.

In order to prepare for the trip, Harrison had to take Doxycycline, an anti-malarial drug. He had to take this medicine every day months in advance of going to Kenya, and has to continue taking the drug even after he has returned. Harrison said the drug has unpleasant side effects, such as stomach pains and vivid, intense dreams.

The flight to Kenya took 21 hours, plus around 10 hours of layovers. Once they landed, Harrison recalled seeing a random pile of burning tires along the tarmac. A typical meal consisted of beans and rice, “plus the occasional rock mixed in,” Harrison said. Everything was relatively cheap, too. An avocado cost Harrison a mere 15 cents, and “it was the size of my face,” Harrison said.

The volunteers also visited a Masai village, where Harrison went goat herding with one of the Masai warriors. “That was probably the coolest part of my trip,” Harrison said. They had to watch out for snakes and be on the lookout for unexploded ordinance such as land mines, artillery shells, and other explosives.

For Harrison, finding the words that best describe the experience is difficult, but he left Kenya inspired to volunteer again in the future. He hopes to return to Kenya. “It is really difficult to describe because it was such an amazing experience.”

Harrison was forever impacted by the people he met and the friends he made.

“It’s definitely something I’m never going to forget,” Harrison said.

Students planning on purchasing a new spring wardrobe better watch out.

Clothing prices are expected to rise 10 percent starting this spring. The economy is recovering and the demand for goods is rising — both good things. But a rise in the cost of labor and raw materials is squeezing the money out of retailers and manufacturers, the Associated Press reported recently.

“People will probably shop less or only buy things on sale,” junior Nicki Snodgrass said.

The price of cotton has skyrocketed and is now at an all-time high since the American Civil War, reports the Associated Press. Manufacturers are looking for alternatives to cotton, which has caused the price of other fabrics to rise 50 percent. To save money, the Associated Press reports, clothing makers are designing jeans with fewer beads and other embellishments, and shoppers won’t have as many colors to choose from.

“Hopefully people will become better, smarter shoppers,” junior Emily Hoy said. “People will have to get creative with clothing and thrift store shopping.”

Cotton now costs $1.90 a pound, one cent more than it cost during the Civil War. Cotton prices began rising in August 2010 after bad weather cut cotton production in major countries such as China, the U.S., Pakistan and Australia. Another cause of the change in price is the improving economy. During the recession, some Chinese factories were temporarily shut down to save money, and they still haven’t returned to their full capabilities.

“Stores should find a price range somewhere in between so clothes are still affordable and the companies can still afford to pay for the cotton,” said sophomore Candace Barnes.