Jan. 29 was the Kansas Day Cookies and Coloring event held at the Axe Library. This is a holiday the library wanted to celebrate and use to promote resources, Learning Outreach Librarian Amelia Loew said.
“This is in celebration of Kansas Day,” Loew said. “Kansas Day is a holiday that celebrates the admission of Kansas into the union as a state. We want to promote library resources covering Kansas History.”
Junior biology major with an emphasis in medical lab science, Dakota Hutsen, said he has been celebrating Kansas day for a long time.
“Honestly, I’m from Kansas, I’ve enjoyed living here my entire life, and it’s something big I have celebrated since I was in kindergarten,” Hutsen said.
With the event held at the library, Loew showed a display of books covering a variety of topics from Kansas history. Books displayed included “The Road to Rebellion” by Scott G. McNall, “Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri” edited by Jonathan Earle and Diane Mutt Burke, and “Infantry on the Kansas Frontier” by John M. Nack. Loew also mentioned more books downstairs.
“We have a showcase of our books in the special collection,” Loew said.
Some books showcased included “Seeding Civil War” by Craig Miner, “West of Wichita” also by Craig Miner, and “Bust to Boom” by Donald Worster. Alongside the books were yellow and blue icing sugar cookies.
She later showed coloring sheets from old yearbooks back when they used woodcuts.
“We also have coloring sheets that include more than just Kansas symbols,” Loew said.
“I am new to Kansas,” Loew said. “I just came here in May, and I think it’s really cool that there is a day to call attention to the features of the state and state history.”
With Kansas Day on his mind, Hutsen likes to know what is going on in the state, especially with the agricultural side of things.
“It’s always fun to see what our state is currently doing with agriculture and how we are growing, both urbanely and rurally, seeing how those two life styles merge together throughout the entire state,” Hutsen said. “You have a lot of farmland throughout the state, and then you have big cities, and sometimes, you’ll have cities with less than 10, but it’s how they live together that makes it beautiful.”
Not everyone was here for the event. Freshman biology major Tagan Smith came to enjoy the environment.
“I just needed to work on some stuff and I enjoy the environment. I think it’s peaceful,” Smith said.
Smith finds Kansas Day to be interesting, and it has been apart of her whole life.
“Actually I have lived here my whole life, so I celebrate Kansas Day pretty much every time,” Smith said. “It’s always fun, like hearing about people from Kansas like Amelia Earhart; you know, other famous people. So it’s always interesting.”
The event highlighted the history of Kansas and the love that citizens have for their state.
There are several other famous people from Kansas, including 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower, actor Paul Rudd, and Russell Stover, founder of Russell Stover Candies.