Störling Dance Theater Presents ‘The Little Match Girl’

Kansas City-area dance group to perform Hans Christian Andersen classic

Kansas City — After receiving critical acclaim for its original productions of “Underground” and “Butterfly”, Störling Dance Theater is now preparing to perform one of Hans Christian Andersen’s classics. Andersen originally wrote the story based on his mother’s life and to raise public awareness concerning child exploitation. With the growing awareness of the plight of millions of children around the world with such films as “Kavi” shining light on this problem, Mona Störling –Enna, artistic director for Störling Dance Theater, sought to reinvigorate “The Little Match Girl” to play her part in improving the lives of the abused.

Rehearsals are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to noon at The Culture House and 2 to 4 p.m. at Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe.

Presented by The Culture House, “The Little Match Girl” tells the tale of a young girl looking for love and compassion at Christmastime. It will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6 at Indian Creek Community Church, 12480 Black Bob Road in Olathe. Tickets are $15 and $25 and can be purchased at www.storlingdance.com.

Launched in 1996, Störling Dance Theater is Kansas City’s emerging neo-classical dance company. In addition to its local performances, the group has toured the United States, Canada and Central Asia. Störling Dance Theater is in residence at The Culture House, one of Kansas City’s premiere arts centers located in Olathe, Kan.

The Culture House is a nonprofit arts academy dedicated to providing quality arts education for the whole family in a friendly and fun environment. Its purpose is to cultivate artistic creativity and personal growth for positive cultural direction.

Founded in 1996, The Culture House has grown to one of Kansas City’s largest and most respected independent schools for artistic training with annual enrollment of over 750 students. For more information visit www.culturehouse.com or call Jeremiah Enna at (913) 393-3141 to schedule a photo and interview.

Christmas in Baghdad

Kansas City-area costume designers create nativity attire for persecuted Iraqi church

Olathe, Kan. — Two years ago, Jeremiah Enna heard Canon Andrew White from the persecuted St. George’s Church in Iraq preach at Christ Community Church in Leawood. The experience was eye opening.

Located on Haifa Street in the “Red Zone” of Baghdad, White’s church boasts more than 3,500 Iraqi Christians. However, the church is protected by several armed guards and often subject to suicide bombers.

“As Andrew got up to speak he received a text message saying: ‘the church has just been bombed,’” Enna said. “His work isn’t just current, it’s now. When someone commits their life to Jesus Christ in Baghdad, they know it very well may be a death sentence. But they do it anyway, because they choose life over death.”

Enna, who founded The Culture House in Olathe with his wife, Mona Enna, decided to do what he could to help White and his persecuted church congregation.

A number of The Culture House’s costume designers will be sewing together nativity costumes to help the church’s children better understand and celebrate the birth of Christ. The costumes will be sent in time for the upcoming Christmas season.

Designers involved in the project include Mona Enna, Christiane Lisabe and Ginger Zemelman from The Culture House; Barbara Williams from Lady Who Makes Dresses; Mary Henderson, Julia Ras and Gina Milbourne from Christian Youth Theater.

Local children from The Culture House also will be a part of the project.

“One of the main motivations is to connect the children in Kansas City with the children in Baghdad,” Enna said. “How great to have our kids building these relationships. One of the ideas with Christmas in Baghdad is to help strengthen the personal bond between Kansas Citians and Iraqis to bring encouragement and support and to humanize the struggle our soldiers are investing in.”

St. George’s is supported by the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), created by White in 2005. He serves as the foundation’s president and CEO. For more information, visit www.frrme.org.

The Culture House is a nonprofit arts academy dedicated to providing quality arts education for the whole family in a friendly and fun environment. Its purpose is to cultivate artistic creativity and personal growth for positive cultural direction.

Founded in 1996, The Culture House has grown to one of Kansas City’s largest and most respected independent schools for artistic training with annual enrollment of over 750 students. For more information visit www.culturehouse.com or call Jeremiah Enna at (913) 393-3141 to schedule a photo and interview.

Kansas City area to fight injustice with Darfur Week

Activities next week range from benefit concert to public forums to a lecture by former NBA player Manute Bol

Kansas City area – A week’s worth of activities will take place April 14-20 to help Kansas City area residents discover ways they can combat the genocide taking place now in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The events, organized by the Greater Kansas City Young Professionals for International Cooperation, will feature everything from a presentation by former NBA player 7-foot, 7-inch Manute Bol, and a benefit rock concert at The Beaumont Club in Westport.
“The importance of Darfur Week is not just about our community
coming together as a whole to simply raise money, but bringing
awareness to the social injustices going on outside of the United
States,” said Melanie Troutman, a senior from Blue Valley High School who organized the concert. “Educating people is the forefront of this battle. Many people have no idea what is going on in Darfur, so hopefully Darfur Week will get a conversation started in our community and things will begin to really happen.”

The week’s events are as follows:

April 14

7:30 p.m. — Public meeting in downtown Kansas City. Maurice Brooks, YPIC chair; Thomas Pritchard of Sudan Sunrise; Kathleen Schneider of Save the Children and Michael Arunga of World Vision will discuss what is being done to assist refugees and end the conflict. The session be at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Century Ballroom C, 2nd Floor, 1 East Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo. Crown Center shops provide three-hour free parking with a validated ticket.

April 15

A YPIC-sponsored forum on Darfur will take place at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg. It will include the following events:
9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. — student poster session
12:30 p.m. — address on Conflict in Africa by Moussa Diop, former African Union peacekeeper
2 p.m. — address by Peter Makori, former Kenyan journalist and survivor of political persecution.

April 16

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Student poster session at University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
1 p.m. — Speaker on Truth and Reconciliation: Thomas Prichard, Sudan Sunrise
6 p.m. — Speaker: Manute Bol, Kansas University Edwards Campus

April 17

6-9 p.m. — Silent art auction, reception and film screening at UMKC School of Nursing, Health and Science Building.

April 18

6:30 p.m. — Reception for Elizabeth Gibbons, chief of global policy, UNICEF. All Souls Universalist-Unitarian Church.

April 20

Coriolis Effect Concert for Darfur, The Beaumont Club, 2011 Pennsylvania in Westport. Brahe, Lights and Siren, Seedlove and Distance to Empty will all be performing. Doors open at 7 p.m.
The Coriolis Effect, a benefit concert being held on April 20th at the Beaumont Club (located at 2011 Pennsylvania in Westport) will be raising money for Darfur awareness. Proceeds from show will go to the 1.2 million Sudanese refugees who have been displaced from their homes in Sudan, the sight of the most horrific genocide in history, which has left 450,000 dead and shows no sign of stopping without intervention.
The concert is sponsored and assisted by UNA Board of Directors, UNA-YPIC Kansas City, Jewish Vocational Services, UMKC School of Nursing, Westin Crown Hotel, University of Central Missouri, Kansas University, All Souls Church, G.A.M.E., Kansas City Public Library (Supporting our planning by providing meeting space), The Beaumont Club and Heartland Films.
“Without the support of the people in Kansas City, this event can't
happen,” Troutman said. “By not attending, you are not just neglecting an issue that needs attention today, but stunting any growth for a better tomorrow.”

Olathe woman prepares for trip to Sudan

Debra Ross, president of JumpStart Sudan, will help establish health clinic

Olathe, Kan. — Debra Ross often finds herself in unlikely situations.
She never thought she’d be involved with an organization striving to meet the needs of people struggling to live in Southern Sudan. Now she’s preparing to leave March 8 for a trip to Akon, Sudan near the Darfur region plagued by violence and genocide.
“I am constantly amazed at what doors will open if you are willing to go where the Lord leads you,” she said. “I got involved in this because I felt burdened to pray for those suffering in Sudan. Only the Lord knew he would allow me the opportunity to not only meet these dear people, but actually be involved in a work that is doing something to help improve their lives.”
The purpose of her trip — her second to the region — is to meet with village elders and recruit staff for a recently constructed health clinic. She’ll join Chris Garang Chol, a nursing student who returned to Akon in January on a JumpStart Sudan-sponsored trip to help train health care workers, and assist in the clinic for several months
The clinic was built on the donations of numerous churches, organizations and individuals in Olathe and the rest of the Kansas City area. Major contributors from Atlanta and Nevada and others from across the country also have supported the organization’s work.
“The clinic is something they have dreamed of and prayed for for a very long time,” Ross said. “So many people die from things that might be easily treated if there were medicine and/or treatment available.”
Prior to the health clinic, the more than 120,000 people of Akon had to walk 40 miles to find basic healthcare. Many were too sick to make the journey. Children would die of malaria. Women would die in childbirth.
The biggest killers in Sudan are malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory illnesses. Exotic diseases, such as Guinea worm disease, river blindness, trachoma and Ebola hemorrhagic fever, also plague the people of southern Sudan.
The $135,000 facility includes a well, but much more still needs to be done to make it a functioning Primary Healthcare Unit. Medicines currently can be prescribed as doctors come and go. Ross hopes to establish a more permanent staff during her trip.
Despite violence in the region, the people of Akon have somewhat of a safety barrier in the form of three rivers surrounding the area. Therefore, the health clinic is expected to be safe from attack, too.
“There’s rivers all around it,” Ross said. “We’ve been told it would be difficult for an army to get across them in the wet season.”
JumpStart Sudan has been working in the Bahr-el Ghazal region of southern Sudan, relatively near to the Darfur region.
Akon is home to Jump-Start Sudan founder and Olathe resident Akot Arec, who currently is the personal secretary to Salva Kiir Myardit — president of the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, and the successor to the post of Vice President of Sudan.
“He is serving in this capacity because he wants to do everything he can to help build a safer and better nation for the people who have suffered for so long,” Ross said.
Although she’s being stretched on a personal level herself, Ross said she’s enjoying her current calling in life.
“You just know you’re doing the right thing because God has done it,” she said. “I really don’t do anything. I’m just here and God brings generous people our way.”
For more information on Jump-Start Sudan, call Ross at 780-4588, e-mail her at info@jumpstartsudan.org or visit www.jumpstartsudan.org.

UPDATE: The Olathe Family Resource Center donated nearly 80 books to the children of Akon. They are currently being shipped to Sudan along with other supplies and necessities.


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