The Cure Church, a nondenominational church at 3650 N. 67th St., Kansas City, Kansas, plans to drop about 10,000 Easter eggs by helicopter after the 10 a.m. service on Easter Sunday, April 21.
The church has done a helicopter egg drop for the past two years.
Also planned after the 10 a.m. service are a bounce house, petting zoo and food.
For the 10 a.m. Easter service April 21, the church plans an interactive live play, poetry, dancing and the spoken word.
The public is invited to the helicopter Easter egg drop and the Easter service.
Lead pastors of the Cure Church, formerly known as Praise Chapel KC, are Kelly and Esther Lohrke.
Griffin Everitt’s head-first slide beat a throw to Cowley second baseman Carson Sader after a throwing error in KCKCC’s 10-inning 7-6 win over the Jayhawk Conference leaders Thursday. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins)
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Stung by 3-1 opening game loss to Jayhawk Conference leader Cowley College Thursday, Kansas City Kansas Community College rebounded furiously in the nightcap, scoring five runs in the first inning on the way to a 7-6 win in 10 innings.
The split kept Cowley (19-3) in first place and KCKCC (20-6) in third behind Johnson County (16-4) in a three-team race that will resume Saturday when the Blue Devils and Tigers meet again at 1 p.m. in Arkansas City.
This has been a season for late-inning dramatics for the Blue Devils and Thursday’s second game was no exception.
Matt Schrick, a freshman outfielder from Atchison, delivered the biggest hit of his young collegiate career – his first triple to straight-away center field that opened the bottom of the 10th inning. After a ground ball out, the Tigers walked the bases-loaded only to have pinch-hitter J.T. Goodfellow foil the strategy with a single up the middle and set off yet another wild Blue Devil celebration.
“Another fun walk-off win at home,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “A big leadoff triple by Schrick and J.T. came through with the big pinch-hit single. Now we have to get ready for a rough return trip down there.”
The hit made a winner out of Gaby Ramos (4-2), who pitched three scoreless innings of relief on the heels of two scoreless frames by Zavier Morin.
Morin came on in relief after Cowley had opened the sixth inning with two doubles and a single on the way to taking a 6-5 lead. A right-hander from Gardner-Edgerton, Morin gave up a tie-breaking single but escaped further damage and then pitched a hitless seventh inning. Ramos took it the rest of the way, allowing three hits in three scoreless innings.
Trailing 2-0 going into the bottom of the first inning, five of the first six Blue Devils to come to the plate lashed base hits.
Singles by Eduardo Acosta and Eric Hinostroza ignited the rally, both scoring on Jose Sosa’s double to the leftfield fence. Singles by Tyler Henry and Kemper Bednar and Griffin Everitt’s ground ball to first scored two more and the fifth run came when Bednar alertly raced home as Everitt was caught in a rundown on an attempted steal of second.
KCKCC’s sixth run tied the game in the sixth. Acosta singled, went to second on a walk and scored as the Tigers failed on a double play attempt on a Kevin Santiago ground ball. Both teams finished with 13 hits. Acosta led the Blue Devils with two singles and a double while Henry and Everitt each singled twice.
Carlos Soto got the start for KCKCC, giving up two runs on just one hit in the first, a two-out, two-run single by Daniel DeSimone after the Tigers had loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman.
George Specht’s home run to right cut the Blue Devil lead to 5-3 in the second. Paxton came on in the third after Soto’s sixth walk and pitched two scoreless innings before Cowley’s three straight hits to start the sixth.
Cowley managed just two hits off Orlando Ortiz (6-2) but they proved more than enough in the Tigers’ 3-1 opening game win.
Cowley took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the first, scoring on a two-base throwing error, wild pitch and a ground ball. The Tigers’ only hit through the first six innings came in the third, a run-scoring double by Cody Milligan following a walk.
Cowley’s only other hit came with two out in the seventh, an opposite field single by Tyler Halstead following a hit batsman and a walk.
“Orlando deserved better than he got,” Goldbeck said. “We made a couple of mistakes and that was the ball game.” Ortiz struck out nine and walked three.
KCKCC’s lone run came in the fourth on a Sosa single and Henry triple. The Blue Devils had only two other hits, both in the second.
Sosa doubled but then was thrown out at the plate on a single by Henry. Andrew Roach allowed the four hits in five innings, striking out six, before Ryan Westerhoff worked the final two innings, fanning three.
KCKCC pitching coach Pedro Leon, left, went over pitches with sophomore Orlando Ortiz between innings Thursday. Ortiz allowed only two hits in seven innings but dropped a 3-1 decision. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins) Blue Devil second baseman Traice Hartter put the tag on Cowley’s Tyler Halstead after taking a throw from catcher Griffin Everitt on an attempted steal of second in KCKCC’s 7-6 win. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins)
Kansas law enforcement officers will step up their traffic efforts this weekend.
Not only is it a religious holiday, Easter weekend, plus Passover starting on Saturday, it also is 4/20 weekend, a reference from the drug culture to April 20 as “Marijuana Day.”
According to a news release from the Kansas Department of Transportation, law enforcement officers will be actively looking for impaired drivers this weekend.
“There’s a misconception that marijuana doesn’t affect your ability to drive,” said Chris Bortz, traffic safety program manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), in a news release. “That is just false. Illegal drugs can impair a person’s judgment, concentration and reaction time. Driving under the influence of any impairing substance is illegal for a reason.”
KDOT cited a 2016 AAA poll in Kansas that only 63 percent of people considered driving after using marijuana “a very serious threat” to their personal safety.
Kansas has reported 287 crashes attributed to illegal drug use in 2017, and 83 fatalities as a result of these crashes, according to KDOT.
The increased enforcement will run from April 19-21, according to a spokesman.
Law enforcement and prosecutors will also be enforcing a “No Refusal Weekend” in which all suspected impaired drivers who refuse a breath test may be subject to blood testing, according to the KDOT spokesman. Officers will be extra vigilant this weekend to detect all impaired drivers and test for both alcohol and drugs.
Marijuana laws are rapidly changing across the United States, including states bordering Kansas, leading to more drivers under the influence of marijuana, the spokesman stated. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, from 2007 to 2014, there was a 48 percent increase in drivers testing positive for marijuana across the nation. These findings demonstrate the imminent danger on our roads and the importance of raising awareness of the risks of drug impaired driving, the spokesman stated.
“With this enforcement and our education efforts, we hope that 100 percent of Kansas drivers recognize and understand this serious issue,” said Mark A. Dupree, Wyandotte County District Attorney, in the KDOT news release. “Driving under the influence of drugs is dangerous and deadly. We want people to arrive to their destinations safely, and that starts with smart decisions by both drivers and passengers.”
Drug-impaired driving leads to crashes, serious injury and even death, according to the KDOT spokesman. Kansans will see law enforcement agencies out in full force this weekend, pulling over drivers that exhibit signs of impaired driving due to drugs or alcohol.
