Tomorrow is Kansas Day. One hundred forty-six years ago, Kansas became a state. To celebrate Kansas Day, students at West Middle School, Cottonwood Intermediate School, Sunflower Intermediate School, and South Middle School will be treated to a slice of Kansas history in the person of famous Kansas aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart's life was indeed an interesting one. In an excerpt taken from www.ameliaearhart.com one learns "Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.

One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?" he asked, to which Earhart promptly replied, "Yes!" After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. "Slim" Gordon. The team left Trepassey harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named Friendship on June 17, 1928, and arrived at Burry Port, Wales, approximately 21 hours later. Their landmark flight made headlines worldwide, and when the crew returned to the United States they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.

From then on, Earhart's life revolved around flying. As fate would have it, her life also began to include George Putnam. The two developed a friendship during preparation for the Atlantic crossing and were married February 7, 1931.

Together they worked on secret plans for Earhart to make a solo flight across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, she started the trek from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris. Strong north winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems plagued the flight and forced her to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Ireland. As word of her flight spread, the media surrounded her, both overseas and in the United States. President Herbert Hoover presented Earhart with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross--the first ever given to a woman. Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness and willpower."

In the years that followed, Earhart continued to break records. In 1937, as Earhart neared her 40th birthday, she was ready for a monumental, and final, challenge. She wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world

On June 1st, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed from Miami and began the 29,000-mile journey. By June 29, when they landed in Lae, New Guinea, all but 7,000 miles had been completed. Frequently inaccurate maps had made navigation difficult for Noonan, and their next hop--to Howland Island--was by far the most challenging. Located 2,556 miles from Lae in the mid-Pacific, Howland Island is a mile and a half long and a half mile wide. Every unessential item was removed from the plane to make room for additional fuel, which gave Earhart approximately 274 extra miles. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, their radio contact, was stationed just offshore. Three other U.S. ships, ordered to burn every light on board, were positioned along the flight route as markers.

At 12:30 p.m. on July 2, the pair took off. Despite favorable weather reports, they flew into overcast skies and intermittent rain showers. This made Noonan's premier method of tracking, celestial navigation, impossible. As dawn neared, Earhart called chief radioman Leo G. Bellarts and asked for Itasca's location. She failed to report at the next scheduled time, and afterward her radio transmissions, irregular through most of the flight, were faint or interrupted with static. At 7:42 A.M. the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart.

A rescue attempt commenced immediately and became the most extensive air and sea search in naval history thus far. Today, though many theories exist, there is no proof of her fate. There is no doubt, however, that the world will always remember Amelia Earhart for her courage, vision, and groundbreaking achievements, both in aviation and for women."

The person of Amelia Earhart will come alive through Ride Into History presenter Ann Birney. This program is a part of Memorial Library's educational outreach, with Holiday Inn Express assisting in sponsorship, and should prove to be a real treat to young people at these four schools. Those seeking more information, may check out the library's alcove display which includes a number of books on Earhart. Other items on display in the alcove were provided courtesy of Mid America Air Museum.

On a separate note, parents of children entering kindergarten in the fall are invited to sign their child up for our Pre-Literacy Kit Promotion. We have 27 pre-literacy kits, at least 20 of which need to be checked out to complete the requirements of the promotion. Following completion of each kit with your child, you are asked to fill out a short evaluation form and return it to the library. The deadline for completing the kits and evaluations is August 1. The reward? Your child will earn free school supplies. So sign up now and get started on this great opportunity to help enforce skills that your child will need to start school.
Happy 146th birthday, Kansas!