Spring semester at William Jewell College means a lot of things for seniors, but for Pryor Leadership Fellows, it means it’s time to start the legacy project for 2021. This year the group decided on funding and turning a shipping container into a functioning learning center for MO Hives, with hopes for completion in early May. 

MO Hives is a local nonprofit that Legacy project champions, Kylee Newton, senior accounting and nonprofit leadership, and Megan Sprague, senior psychological science and nonprofit leadership major, interned with during the summer and fall. Founded in Kansas City in 2019, MO Hives works to bring education and excitement back to the honey bee. 

“By creating a healthy urban apiary model that can be duplicated in other Missouri cities, MO Hives KC will inspire communities, provide experiential learning opportunities, amplify community garden yields, increase bee populations, and beautify previously blighted property,” MO Hives shared on their website. 

Newton and Sprague both fell in love with MO Hives and their mission. 

“I was first exposed to MO Hives KC in my fundraising class here at Jewell,” Newton said. “I immediately connected with their mission to restore the bee population and make an environmental impact in KC. The founders of this amazing organization are making small strides everyday that have a huge impact.”

2021 Pryor fellows wanted to choose a project involving education, as COVID-19 has greatly impacted the freedom and productivity in the Kansas City education system. After this home base is built, it can be utilized for storage, field trips and community gatherings. The group hopes that this base will be a beneficial space for not only young students but the whole KC area.

On top of transforming the inside of the shipping container, Pryor Fellows are working to build a 12-foot surrounding deck with wheelchair access in order to support an outdoor gathering area. The goal is to use as many recycled and sustainable resources as possible – from seats to hooks – so Pryor can stay within budget and have a better environmental impact. 

“This project will impact everyone in the community,” Newton said. “Bees are vital. Pollinators impact the air we breathe, the beauty we see, and the food we eat. MO Hives is creating a space to sustain and grow the pollinator population. The completion of our outdoor education center will also open the door for opportunities to learn about bees and sustainable agriculture. This initiative will bring STEM back into the community.”

The fundraising and logistics committees have started a GoFundMe and designed shirts to raise a goal amount of $12,000. The group is also looking at hosting a larger event once the weather improves. The event would possibly involve food trucks and outdoor lawn games around the quad. Pryor Fellows plan to finish fundraising by mid-April, so the group can break ground on the project by the end of the month.

More specific details regarding future fundraising, events and the finished product will be available on the Pryor Legacy 2021 Facebook and Instagram pages.

A pre-workout supplement – usually sold as a nutrient-rich powder to be mixed in liquid – has become a go-to for many athletes across the board. Many claim it helps target muscle and eliminates fat faster, while others believe it’s just a placebo. With there being so many different types out there, it’s hard to know where to start and what to end with. Healthline argues that it is not the actual pre-workout supplement that boosts performance but certain ingredients that produce results. 

The most popular pre-workouts in 2019 are full of amino acids, nutrients and a new up-and-coming ingredient called nootropics – which are supplements that claim to improve cognitive health and endurance. On top of these, there are preferred natural add-ins to almost every pre-workout.

“Certain ingredients in pre-workout supplements, such as creatine, caffeine, and nitric oxide precursors, have been shown to support athletic performance,” Ansley Hill, a writer for Healthline, said. 

It appears that the best and most effective pre-workouts are the ones that simply add missing nutrition to the body, instead of pumping the body full of pure energy – like a Monster or 5-hour energy would. 

“Your best bet is to look for ingredients that supplement nutrients your body is designed to use, like amino acids found in food,” NBA trainer and nutrition coach Adam Bornstein said when asked by Insider about his workout routines. 

There are some downsides to the powders and mix-ins. Excessive caffeine intake and artificial sugars can cause the body to become addicted and fatigued faster, so it’s important to read the label and recommended dosage before starting use. This especially applies in the United States.

“While the FDA provides labeling and advertising guidance (mostly telling manufacturers what not to say),” Darla Leal, a writer for VeryWellFit online Health Magazine, said. “Only the most outrageous claims tend to be challenged by the regulators. By and large, the suggestion of benefits – including how well a supplement will improve your health, mood or performance – is rarely challenged, even if there is little evidence to support the claims.” 

At William Jewell College, pre-workout has a mixed reputation among student-athletes, some of whom have incorporated it into their workout routines.

“I don’t take it much in college now, and it doesn’t seem to be very popular among the football players here,” senior psychology major and former football player Kevin Kim said.

Kim’s teammate and fellow senior psychology major, Danny Presler agrees.

“I think it makes me feel sick because we have real high intensity workouts, but it’s good for powerlifting,” Presler said.

Instead, athletes on campus are told by coaches to keep a healthy diet and sleep schedule to stay in their best shape.

“Our coaches don’t really talk about supplements that often. They just suggest starting with proper nutrition and sleep,” Presler said. 

All in all, there seem to be pros and cons to taking pre-workout, and it can be helpful in certain instances when it is used in the recommended way. Weightlifting and trying to build bulk are key activities in which pre-workout can be the ingredient to finally get the desired results. But when it comes to cardio and high-intensity pushes, pre-workout may not be the best course of action. 

Hammerhand has been a go-to coffee shop for many William Jewell College students since its opening in 2016. The company brews its own coffee and offers everything from basic pour-over to espresso milkshakes. The shop had to close in June because of structural concerns and landlord disagreements. Alex Merrell, the owner and operator, has high hopes that they will be able to reopen at their new location soon with some exciting new features. 

In June, the original Hammerhand location started to experience structural challenges and landlord struggles.

“Ultimately what led to the closure was a conflict with the landlord. We had some constructional concerns, and historically have throughout the course of us being there,” Merrell said. “I started hearing what I thought was something crumbling inside the walls, which made me very concerned, and the landlord just wasn’t handling the concerns properly, and this also happened to be when we were in the middle of renegotiation.” 

Hammerhand chose to not renew their lease and to protect their customers and business by switching locations. 

The new location is at 249 West Mill Street, only blocks away from the old location. Some new exciting features of the new space are more seating room and a parking lot. The shop is also pursuing a new theme and menu.

“We’ve had this new location for about two and a half months now and we are working on getting contractors and city approval, which has been a very frustrating and difficult task due to [COVID-19] and the demand of contractors rising and permits being stacked up in the city department,” stated Merrell.

While Hammarhand can’t offer an exact timeline or date due to these complications, Merrell is hopeful that construction can be completed in the next month with the opening taking place by the end of the year.

“It’s a pretty unique opportunity actually. We’re effectively starting a brand new business, but we already have clients, so there’s certainly a bright side to it, even though it has been frustrating. We get to reinvent ourselves a little bit here,” Merrell said. 

At the new location, Hammerhand is excited to offer a full bakery with a  pastry chef making baked goods in-house – so customers can get breakfast and coffee at one location. 

With the new location, Hammerhand is redoing its aesthetic to be quite different from the previous location.  

“We’re doing brighter colors and fancy floral wallpaper. The layout will be different.” Merrell said. “But overall the core business will be the same,” 

With all of these new features, many are finding it hard to wait for the reopening. Until then, Hammerhand coffee is available at Liberty’s Hyvee and online on their website. Hammerhand coffee can also be found at PH Coffee in Pendleton Heights, Crepe KC in Gladstone, Paisley Perk in Karney and Cornerstone Coffee in Smithville. 

Joe Biden’s merch shop seems to be poking fun at President Trump to an extreme, but I’m not mad about it. The most recent drop on the site is a fly swatter with “Truth over Flies” written on the handle, which came out right after last week’s vice presidential debate, during which a fly landed on Vice President Mike Pence’s head and stayed there for well over two minutes.

Biden seems to be trying to appeal to millennials and Gen Z by creating memes and merch for his campaign. He even created avatar merch for the game Animal Crossing that regained popularity around April and May this summer. 

Personally, I think it’s a great marketing strategy and way to appeal to the younger generations. It gives them options to express their support in a more creative way. I ordered the “I Paid More Income Taxes Than Donald Trump” stickers right after Trump’s 2017 tax returns got released and am super excited to put them on my laptop and water bottle. 

Biden’s site updates quickly – about an hour and a half after the fly flew off of Vice President Pence’s head the fly swatter went live on the website – with the newest arrivals appearing soon after jokes become popular in the news. 

This is an important aspect of profiting from a meme since jokes only stay popular and funny for a week or two. So far, Biden’s campaign sold over 35,000 fly swatters in around a week. 

I will say the prices are a bit steep, and the shipping time is nothing like Amazon. I ordered a two-pack of stickers Sept. 28. They shipped out Oct. 9, and have yet to arrive. 

A two-pack of stickers cost $7.50 before shipping, a fly swatter cost $10 and a single cat collar that says “No Meowlarkey” is $28. I would maybe understand those prices if we were still in primaries or if he wasn’t the Democratic nominee, but the idea of paying $13 after shipping prices for two stickers caused me to hesitate on my purchase.

“Every time that you can sell a fly swatter for more than the fly swatter costs, that is money in the pocket of the Biden campaign, and it means that they can spend more on get out the vote, messaging to voters, ads on TV,” said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson University College of Law who wrote a book on political branding.

The merch is more of an avenue to donate to the Biden-Harris campaign while also receiving a small token of appreciation. Honestly, I don’t mind paying $13 to show that I don’t support Trump, although I do wish the stickers would come before Election Day.