Just one of many emergency vehicles at KWC during the drill

By James Mayse
Published: Friday, March 19, 2010
Messenger-Inquirer

Owensboro police and firefighters tested their emergency response plans on the campus of Kentucky Wesleyan College Thursday, during a mock disaster drill that included a simulated chemical spill, a bomb threat and a hostage situation in one of the college’s buildings.

The drill included ambulances services from four counties, helicopters, Owensboro Medical Health System and the fire department’s hazardous materials team, as well as the Owensboro Police Department’s emergency response team. The scenario also tested Kentucky Wesleyan’s emergency plan.

“This gives us a much better way to evaluate” the college’s plan, said Kathy Rutherman, public relations director for the college. “Going through a drill makes your evaluation much more effective.”

The scenario, which was kept secret from the agencies participating in the drill, involved a man with a gun who causes a chemical spill in the science building. The armed man then goes to a different building looking for his wife, beats a student and leaves behind a backpack he claims contains a bomb. In the administration building, the man opens fire, shooting students and a police officer before barricading himself in a classroom full of students.

The SWAT team clears a classroom of hostages

Steve Leonard, battalion chief and fire marshal for the Owensboro Fire Department, said the drill makes firefighters aware that a seemingly routine situation — such as a fire alarm call — could spiral into something larger.

“It makes us aware a routine situation can change at any point,” Leonard said. “It keeps us from being so complacent.

“The best thing for us is it gives all our personnel the opportunity … to train in as near a realistic situation as we can create,” Leonard said.

The drill was held during the week of Kentucky Wesleyan’s spring break.

“I really tried to do this when (school) was in session, but it was going to be too much chaos,” said David Knight, Kentucky Wesleyan’s director of facilities. “We’ve been working on this for six months,” he said.

Emergency medical personnel aid a "pregnant" student who was injured

About 45 college students and staff members acted the roles of victims during the drill. Cindra Stiff, the college’s director of finance said the drill helped college administrators review the emergency plan and response system, which includes sending e-mails, text messages and voicemail calls to every student and faculty member when an crisis happens.

“We’ve been sending ‘one-call’ (messages) every 10 minutes,” Stiff said. The messages inform campus members and families that the school is locked down and to stay where they are safe.

“We’re not disclosing enough details that would cause curiosity,” Stiff said.

David Thompson, deputy chief for OPD, said the exercise allows the department to evaluate how officers responded and what needs to be changed.

“We’ll take some of the problems that may have arose from this exercise and try to correct them, so when we get to a real situation, some of those problems will have been worked out,” Thompson said.

During a debriefing Wednesday afternoon, representatives from the agencies discussed issues such as communication difficulties and the need to maintain security for responders. Paul Nave, who will be director of the city and county’s combined 911 dispatch center when it opens later this summer, said the drill was valuable “because we learn from them and no one gets hurt.”

“It was a great training experience for us,” Nave said. “We saw some defects we need to improve and some positives we have in place.”

Gordon Wilkerson, a spokesman for OMHS, said the hospital set up a decontamination tent outside the emergency room to clean chemicals from people playing the role of victims of toxic gas.

“We hadn’t tested that previously,” Wilkerson said. “ … I think things went really well. We involved the emergency department … the administration and the entire organization.”

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Here’s a quick video of one of the helicopters taking off as it transports a wounded student to the hospital:

For more photos of the mock disaster, visit KWC’s Flickr gallery.

Dr. Connor (far left) and his students at PITTCON

 Dr. Henry Connor, Professor of Chemistry at KWC, recently took four KWC chemistry majors to PITTCON (the Pittsburgh Conference), held in Orlando, Florida.

PITTCON is an analytical chemistry meeting that includes the largest exposition of scientific equipment in the world. About 20,000 people attend. The first conference was in Pittsburgh but it soon outgrew the facilities in Pitt.  It now moves annually between Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta and Orlando.

The KWC contingent (Dr. Connor, plus Ben Wilson, Alycia Lynch, Stacy Webb and Ashley Humphrey) left Owensboro on Friday, Feb. 26. After more than a dozen hours of driving, they arrived the next day in Orlando. 

The group went to the beach the next morning before launching full-speed into the conference that afternoon (Feb. 28) and returning home on March 3.

 This is the tenth time Dr. Connor has taken students to PITTCON. In 2008 they went to New Orleans — next year’s conference is in Atlanta.

A few photos from the trip:

At Coco Beach

Students with PITTCON info

Sales rep demonstrating a product

Students with NASA Rover

Click here to find out more about opportunities through KWC’s Chemistry Department.

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The Colosseum

And at night ...

However, turning northwest up a main street brings you to walk straight through the ruins of the Roman Forum. I made my way through this and on to the Pantheon, which is very close to our school. What a feat of architecture! A perfectly round dome inside of which a 43 foot diameter ball could rest. I will definitely be visiting this site often. Perhaps the most amazing part is that this ancient pagan temple is now, oddly enough, a Catholic church.

The Pantheon

My first day of “real” classes: the school weeks will all fly by quickly on the wings of boredom, as I could see on this day. I had a Big Mac for lunch, which was very tasty and reminded me greatly of home. After class, I went home and fixed dinner and then went out to hang at the Coliseum with my friends Maria and Tamara. It was so much fun just enjoying the fact that this behemoth was our backyard for the next three months.

We also visited the Spanish Steps and the Trebi Fountain. Maria and I tossed our respective coins into the fountain, ensuring our return to the Eternal City. Overheard by the fountain… Me: “I can die now.” Maria: “Me too.” Tamara: “Wait, what?!”

My first full weekend in Rome was somewhat uneventful. On Friday, I went to get dinner at a small mom-and-pop restaurant with some friends. Afterwards we walked to the church of the souls in purgatory, and saw their fascinating display of items held to be evidence of deceased souls leaving marks to prove their residence in purgatory. Most were books, aprons, and pictures with burned on handprints from where an apparition had touched an item as seen by a living person. On our way to this church, we stopped and rode a carousel. I don’t think the operator was amused as he should have been at four college students riding a kid’s ride, but he didn’t refuse our money either.

Sunday the 14th, I made my way down the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass that afternoon. The beauty of St. Peter’s was absolutely breathtaking. From the towering columns and the ornate golden ceiling, to the multitude of statues and frescos, the entire nave was a microcosm of Christendom. The main altar was equally impressive, dominating the center of the church with its four high pillars supporting the canopy. I walked around the basilica four times before I sat down at the side altar of St. Joseph.

Vespers began at 5, and to my great pleasure, they were all chanted in Latin. Mass was celebrated by a number of deacons, priests, and bishops, with a cardinal presiding. While I could follow the Mass propers easily enough, I could only grasp singular words here and there of the Italian homily. An all-boys school choir was singing at this Mass as guests, and since they were American, all the hymns sung were familiar English ones.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

The week went by quickly with classes the way it always does. On Friday, I spent the morning researching flights for spring break, putting together an itinerary. Saturday, I walked around Rome a lot and enjoyed the sights, the crowds, and lovely weather.

Wegen, Switzerland

After a long day on the mountain, I found my way back to the hotel to leave again for night sledding. Imagine Mario Kart, only live action, in the dark, in the snow. Twelve of us rocketed down a mountain trail sitting on plastic sleds, using our feet stretched out in front of us to brake and steer. Afterwards, we enjoyed Swiss fondue, salad, and eggs and hash browns at a restaurant at the end of our trail. I got back to the hostel and joined the kids at the Metro in the basement of the hostel.

Saturday morning came quickly and we hit the slopes again, this time to a different mountain. I enjoyed the fresh powder and blizzard/whiteout conditions that were found at 9,000 feet, and we spent the whole day there.

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From the Messenger-Inquirer:

Give me 10 Minutes: Joel Utley

By Jim Pickens
Thursday, March 11, 2010

The dean of college basketball broadcasters in the commonwealth, Joel Utley, 70, is in his 49th season as play-by-play announcer for the Kentucky Wesleyan College men’s basketball team. In a career that started in 1961, Utley has called many of the Panthers’ greatest moments on the hardwood — including all eight of the program’s NCAA Division II national championships. All told, Utley has broadcast 1,416 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball games.

The native of Madisonville is a 1957 graduate of Madisonville High School. He attended both Murray State and the University of Kentucky, before embarking on a career in broadcasting. He graduated from KWC in 1974 with a degree in speech and drama. Aside from his broadcasting duties, Utley is retired. He and wife Shirley reside in Owensboro.

Q: Considering you’ve been behind the microphone for a half-century, the natural first question is what got you interested in radio?

A: When I was growing up, I never wanted to do anything else. Radio appealed to me from a very young age. I found it fascinating and magical that you could look at a box and see stories come to life in your mind while the radio played. I listened with great interest to UK basketball, St. Louis Cardinals baseball with Harry Caray. Pretty soon, I found myself playing baseball board games by myself and describing the action like a real broadcaster would — and I was hooked.

Q: What brought you to Owensboro and led you to broadcasting KWC games?

A: I had been working in Lexington at WVLK, and a guy I worked with up there took a job in Owensboro at WVJS and broadcast Wesleyan games. He didn’t stay long, the job came open, I applied, and I got the job as news director. I came to Owensboro in July 1961, and I broadcast my first Wesleyan game on Dec. 1, 1961.

Q: WOMI also covered Wesleyan at the time?

A: Yes, but we were the only ones to cover Wesleyan full time, at home and on the road. WOMI did home games and selected road games, but their first commitment was to UK basketball. That was the way it played out until about the mid-’70s, when we became the exclusive station for KWC basketball.

Q: What has made broadcasting Wesleyan games through the years so personally rewarding to you?

A: I absolutely love doing what I do. Wesleyan is a relatively small Division II school, and that has afforded me the opportunity to build great relationships with the players, coaches, administrators and fans through the years. You get to know these people so well, they become like family. I’ve traveled with them, really gotten to know them as people. It’s not about the money by any means. I do it for the love of it.

Q: What sticks out in your mind after nearly a half-century of association with KWC basketball?

A: Well, I consider myself the most blessed sportscaster in the nation — ever. No one could equal the experiences of eight NCAA championships. My goodness, what memories. One thing that really sticks out for me is that Wesleyan competed in six consecutive national championship games (1998-2003), winning two in that span. That’s just an extraordinary accomplishment for any college basketball program, and I feel very fortunate to have been a part of that.

Q: Has being associated with young people for so long kept your spirit young?

A: I would say that’s true. You know, trends change, and I don’t exactly identify with the music played before games at the Sportscenter these days, but that’s OK. Being around young people provides me a tremendous perspective on what’s going on in the world today. It’s given me energy and kept my spirit about life pretty youthful. My experience with KWC has changed my perspective about age. I’ve discovered that your age is a state of mind more than a number.

Q: Any thoughts about retiring from broadcasting?

A: None. I’ve never worked a game when I didn’t want to be there. I always want to be there. I feel very blessed in that way. Very honestly, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

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Join KWC Dining Services this Tuesday, March 9, as we get a jump on St. Patrick’s Day by celebrating the luck of the Irish with traditional Irish fare from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Following on the heels of last week’s successful Soul Food dinner, your taste buds will be tickled as you try these traditional Irish dishes:

Barley Onion Soup

Traditional Irish Stew served in a homemade bread bowl
Corned Beef & Cabbage
Boiled Potatoes
Carrots
Green Beans
Turnips

Irish Soda Bread

Vegetarian Dish (“Champ”) — one of the most widely made potato dishes in Ireland

Dessert
Apple Cake
Bread Pudding

Come join us this Tuesday, March 9, in Hocker Hall for some Irish Fun!

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Katy Evans Harrison ’01 is a third-grade teacher at Cravens Elementary School in Owensboro (and the daughter of Joyce Ann Evans, KWC’s Director of Development).

Her class recently finished reading  Mr. Popper’s Penguins and decided it would be fun to build a milk jug igloo. Her mom helped round up milk jugs from faculty and staff at KWC, and 276 jugs later, her third grade class finished the igloo!

They plan to use the inspired creation as a classroom reading spot.

KWC president Cheryl King also visited Ms. Harrison’s classroom for ”I Love to Read” Day. She spent time reading  Teammates to the kids and explaining why reading is important for everyone.

–UPDATE–

The igloo had to be moved recently, and of course, this was the result:

But never fear. Ms. Harrison (and her husband) put the igloo back together again:

Follow more of the Cravens Elementary School third grade adventures at Katy Harrison’s blog: http://harrisoncravens.blogspot.com/.

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