WHAT I HATE IS A %#*&@!

THIEF!!!

     You can be in the most quaint setting or in the biggest city in the world and there is always one, or more, of these.  If there is anything that can sour the best of intentions, when everyone is pulling together, it is a thief.
     Most of you probably have not heard of Muscotah Kansas.  It is a quaint town of 200 in the western part of Atchison County in north east Kansas.  There is not a lot of draw for tourists but they have a claim to fame.  The area was the home town of pro baseball player Joe Tinker.  Now you have to be a baseball fan for that to mean anything but it is something.
      The town recently replaced their old water tower with a new one.  So they have this old one that, LOOKS LIKE A BIG BASEBALL!  Maybe the biggest baseball in the world.  Ok, here is the inspiration part.  If you make it the WORLD'S LARGEST BASEBALL what do you do in it.  YOU MAKE A BASEBALL MUSEUM FEATURING HOME TOWN HERO JOE TINKER.  And that is what they are doing.
      So there is cost to do this so the town has to have a fund raiser.  So they have this nice day and the goal of $1000 dollars is raised.  They are on their way.  Community spirit works again.  But hold it!
      Wake up the next day and guess what?  A THIEF STOLE THE MONEY.  One of the lowest, sniveling, underhanded, dirty rotten, no good, things that anyone can do is steal the proceeds of a great effort for a good cause.  I have to stop there because it gets unprintable.
      So what to do?  Marci Penner and Wendy LaPlatt and the KANSAS SAMPLER FOUNDATION have a stroke of genius.  Get the word out to the Kansas Explorers and other Sampler fans and send in $5 dollars to replace the stolen money.
      If you are as ticked of at thieves as I am why don't you send $5 to replace the money and let the people of Muscotah that you support their efforts and community spirit. 
SEND $5 TO: ROSE FESTIVAL c/o CITY OF MUSCOTAH,  PO BOX 295 MUSCOTAH,  KS.  66058

It will make you feel good.  It will help a small town who was helping itself, and will give you an investment in the WORLDS LARGEST BASEBALL.
      It would be a great thing to Send $5 to the Kansas Sampler Foundation and support their efforts to promote small town and rural Kansas.
KANSAS SAMPLER FOUNDATION, 978 ARAPAHO RD., INMAN, KS  67546  contact Marci about the great things they do. marci@kansassampler.org

And to the thieves that stoop to this I hope a ticked off grandma with a broom gets to you before they arrest you!!