Police charge suspect with sexual battery

A 33-year-old homeless man was booked into Douglas County Jail on charges of sexually abusing a woman with disabilities and two young girls.

Police were called to a swimming pool at an apartment complex in the 600 block of Michigan Friday evening, where the three females had been swimming.

According to police, a 10-year-old girl asked the transient if he wanted to play “Marco Polo.” Police said the suspect then jumped in the pool and began groping the girl, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old woman with disabilities.

Police officers arrested the suspect in the area on charges of aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery and aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

Area Catbackers plan football gathering

The Lawrence Catbacker Club plans its seventh annual Fall Football Classic Wednesday in the Big 6 Room of the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with a silent auction and refreshments. Wyatt Thompson, voice of the Kansas State University Wildcats, will speak at 7 p.m. A live auction, with proceeds going to scholarships, begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by the announcement of the silent auction results at 8:15 p.m.

For more information, contact Lyle Hagenbuch, president of the Lawrence Area Catbackers, at (785) 594-9929 or John Huntington at 691-5565.

New Self fellowship recipients announced

Kansas University has announced five new recipients of Self graduate fellowships.

The fellowships provide a $22,000 annual stipend and include a development program for doctoral students. The program, established in 1989 by KU graduate Madison Self and his wife, Eudora native Lila Self, is designed to identify and recruit doctoral students likely to make significant contributions to their fields of study and society.

Winners are:

• Heather Amthauer, electrical engineering and computer science, graduate of Macalester College.
• Heather Kirkvold McLeod, civil, environmental and architectural engineering, graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Kristin Price, chemistry, graduate of William Jewell College.
• Sara Schebler, pharmaceutical chemistry, graduate of the University of Iowa.
• Melissa Temple, pharmacology and toxicology, graduate of Lyon College.

Private shopping at mall helps fund charities

Topeka — West Ridge Mall is seeking local charities and nonprofit organizations interested in participating in its Nov. 23 “Simon Evening of Giving.”

The fund-raising event includes a night of private shopping and family entertainment when the mall closes and re-opens at 6:30 p.m. exclusively to people who buy tickets at participating charities.

Charity and nonprofit organizations will be able to sell $8 tickets for the event. Of the money generated, $6 will directly benefit the charity while the remaining $2 will go to Simon Youth Foundation, a nonprofit education organization.

Last year’s Simon Evening of Giving, which was at 51 Simon malls across the country, raised nearly $1.38 million for charities.

For more information, call Barbara Brammell or Vicki Hosman at the mall, (785) 271-5500.

Archdiocese announces new ranch director

Kansas City, Kan.– The Youth Office of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., announced Shawn Madden will be the new director of programming and operations for Prairie Star Ranch. The ranch is a 291-acre retreat in southeast Franklin County in Williamsburg.

Madden, originally from Topeka, recently graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, where he received degrees in both religious studies and youth ministry. He was an intern for Cultivation ministries, a nonprofit youth ministry group in the Chicago area, and worked for several years at Camp Kateri Tekakwitha at the ranch. His duties will include programming events and working with groups to schedule events.

For more information on the ranch or to schedule an event, call (785) 746-5693 or e-mail Madden at prairie@weblink2000.net.