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Page 25
Campus Review
July 7, 2014
Trivia Time
Kansas,
Or South
Dakota?
by John Shiffert
Although “The Wizard of Oz” is
arguably the most popular (and
maybe the best, too) children’s book
of all time, it’s not real popular in the
state where the beginning and ending
are set… Kansas.
That’s because author L. Frank
Baum made Kansas out to look like
either a desert or the Dust Bowl, gray
and desolate. That’s something that
certainly came true about 30 some
years later, but it didn’t make the
Kansas Chamber of Commerce jump
for joy around the turn of the centu-
ry.
You see, Baum had previously lived
in what was now South Dakota, a
barren location that was also suffer-
ing from a draught at the time. And
that’s what he described in “The
Wizard of Oz,” the Dakotas. In point
of fact, Baum had never even been to
Kansas when he wrote the book.
The inimitable Kurt-Alexander
Zeller knew all about Baum, the
Dakotas and Kansas, gathering three
Bonus Points for also explaining
what is thought to be the motive
behind Baum’s portrayal of Kansas,
he was trying to combat the overly
rosy pictures in the popular press of
the time about the opportunities
available in the supposed land-of-
plenty of the West. Jill Ellington
also had the correct answer.
Sticking with popular fiction, what
fictional character, at the denoue-
ment of a decades-long chase, lit a
candle and exclaimed, “Now, Enoch
Drebber… who am I?”
The publication launch celebrates the fifth
anniversary of the Edward M. Kennedy
Serve America Act, which reauthorized
the Corporation for National and
Community Service, the federal agency
that engages more than five million
Americans in service through its core pro-
grams
including
Senior
Corps,
AmeriCorps, Volunteer Generation Fund,
and the Social Innovation Fund.
“The publication highlights the role of
states as laboratories for service and fos-
ters new models for addressing a variety
of pressing social issues,” says Tom
Branen, executive director of America’s
Service Commissions. The publication is
available electronically by visiting the
Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP)
website, www.icicp.org.
America’s Service Commissions is a non-
profit, nonpartisan organization represent-
ing and promoting the 53 governor-
appointed state service commissions
across the United States and territories
with the mission to advance national serv-
ice, volunteerism, and the network of state
service commissions. State service com-
missions are governor-appointed public
agencies or nonprofit organizations made
up of more than 1,110 commissioners -
private citizens leading the nation's serv-
ice movement and operating the granting
of federal national service funds at the
state and local level. Learn more:
www.statecommissions.org.
ICP is a non-profit organization support-
ing the development of innovative high-
quality youth civic engagement policies
and programs both in the U.S. and around
the world. ICP is a leader in the global
movement to promote sustainable devel-
opment and social change through youth
civic engagement. We embrace a positive
view of young people that recognizes
their potential to create beneficial and
lasting social change in their communities
through active participation in service
opportunities.
“During the week I help students, plan
and organize study sessions and events,
train tutors, and help make dreams real.
On the weekend, however, I travel up and
down the coast to perform the DHOL at
weddings. The DHOL is a drum that orig-
inates in India and is played at Indian
weddings,” he explains.
In the past, he has played at notable events
such as the Annual Savannah Asia Fest
and during multiple occasions for the
Queen of England.
Patel, cont’d. from p. 16
AmeriCorps, cont’d. from p. 5