FIRST JEWISH BABY — As we began preparing this week’s paper word came in that this year’s first Jewish baby was born Jan. 2. Stay tuned for more information!
AWARD-WINNING POET — For the second time, Marie Asner of Overland Park is the Kansas winner of the Annual State Senior Poet Laureate Competition. She’s been married for 43 years to Harold Asner. Her poem, “dot on the horizon,” reflects on a typical Kansas winter scene. She said the inspiration for this poem came from a weather man “because he said the ice crystals look like diamonds.” Asner added that when you look out across the trees it does “looks like jewelry.” This poem was also included in “Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems,” an anthology of poetry published in honor of the 150th anniversary of the state of Kansas. Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg edited the anthology, which was published this past November. 
TOYS FOR PEACE — Israeli born stone artist Sam Nachum and Egyptian born scientist Achmed El Sharif’s dream of creating peace in Gaza and Israel began Dec. 21 when their first shipment of a full 20-foot container of toys for the children of both countries. The toys were donated by Kansas Citians and are traveling by boat to Israel where half the toys will be delivered to Gaza children and half the toys delivered to Sderot, Israel. Both Nachum and El Sharif want peace for the Middle East for these children, who live in areas that are regularly bombed by adults. Both men experienced war as children in Israel and Egypt. Both also came to America and found their careers — one in developing medicine to heal cancer, and the other to build structures and art out of stone quarried in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The toys are expected to arrive on Feb. 13.
