If you missed the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay Wednesday as it wound through the Kansas City area, there's still a chance to catch it on Friday in Topeka or Wichita.
Several people with Lawrence ties carried the flame for part of its journey from Kansas City's 18th and Vine district through the downtown, past Union Station, through Westport and Brookside and finally to the Country Club Plaza.
Several more Lawrence residents will tote the torch for two-tenths of a mile each along a 3.8-mile route on Friday that proceeds through North Topeka.
The torch is making its way across the country to Salt Lake City, where the Winter Olympics begin Feb. 8.
Bobby Nichols, a former Lawrence resident who recently moved to Lake Placid, N.Y., returned Wednesday to carry the torch in Kansas City. He was nominated for his efforts to increase awareness of drunken driving after his friend Casey Beaver was killed by a drunken driver in August 2000.
Dan Callan, Lawrence, ran alongside several torchbearers in the Kansas City leg as a support runner. His job was to encourage and assist torchbearers in finishing their segment of the relay safely.
The Kansas City portion of the relay concluded on the Plaza with a celebration that included music, dancing and a fireworks display.
Lawrence resident Laura Lawson's mother, Jan Winston, is scheduled to carry the torch today near St. Joseph, Mo. Winston was chosen as a torchbearer for her work teaching underachieving schoolchildren at an alternative high school in Richmond, Mo., where she lived until she moved last summer to Jackson, Miss.
From St. Joseph, the torch will go to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and across the Missouri River to Omaha, Neb., before it turns to the south again. It will reach Topeka's Great Overland Station, 701 N. Kansas Ave., via Union Pacific Railroad during the wee hours Friday.
Wes Seyler, 89, Lawrence, will be among the first to bear the flame after its 3 a.m. arrival in Topeka. He's set to run his leg of the relay at 3:13 a.m. Friday on North Kansas Avenue from Paramore to Holman streets.
DeSoto resident Wynne Dillon, a district manager for Dillons stores in northeast Kansas, will pick up the torch at 3:30 a.m. Dillon was selected because of her company's work with children's activities through the March of Dimes, Boys and Girls Club, Muscular Dystrophy Assn. and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
Longtime runner and 1988 Ottawa University graduate Laura Pady-Porter, 36, Havensville, also will carry the torch in Topeka.
The relay will continue later Friday in Wichita and Oklahoma City. It began Dec. 4 in Atlanta. After winding through the 46 states and 13,500 miles of road, the torch will enter Salt Lake City for the Opening Ceremonies on Feb. 8.
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