Catholic Charities Celebration of Hope 2011 Gala

The 2011 Catholic Charities Celebration of Hope Gala at the Muehlbach Hotel Grand Ballroom was a SMASH HIT last night, November 5th. This is one Kansas City charity group that knows how to party! The ballroom was donned with a simplistic yet elegant decor and guests dined while watching a slideshow of sponsors and programs that are a big part of the Catholic Charities charity organization.

The Celebration of Hope 2011 Gala featured a delicious dinner, incredible works of art including pieces by Kansas City artist Bill Drummond, who's artwork was displayed throughout the ballroom and foyer. After dinner, the charity event and auction raised in the neighborhood of $200,000 towards the charity which helps the community in numerous ways (see below for more specific information about the Catholic Charities of Kansas City). The evening was capped off with entertainment from Kansas City's Dueling Piano act Roll Over Beethoven sponsored by Adam Blue Productions. The dueling pianos had everyone up and dancing early and all of guests had a great time. The dueling piano guys got all of the ladies up on the stage to sing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and they did a great job! Then Joe Kelly was coaxed up on the stage to be a "human trumpet" during a Johnny Cash song and then "Sweet Caroline".

More information on the Catholic Charities of Kansas City

Mission
Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph responds to the gospel mandate by caring for the vulnerable, honoring the life and dignity of all persons, and engaging the community in providing compassionate social services and advocacy.

Vision
Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph lives as a Gospel witness in the community, caring for all in need and pursuing just ways for the common good.

Interesting Facts

- Since 1879, Catholic Charities of Kansas City - St. Joseph, Inc., has touched the lives of thousands of individuals and families by providing social services regardless of race, gender, economic or religious background.

- Catholic Charities in Kansas City, Missouri, was founded in 1879.

- Although named Catholic Charities, more than 75% of those served are not of Catholic faith.

- Catholic Charities served more than 200,000 individuals in 2009-10 with food, shelter, and utilities along with hope-filled services of more than 60 community-focused programs.

- Catholic Charities administrative and fundraising costs are impressively among the lowest in the region, with more than 90 cents of every dollar directly helping someone in need.

- Catholic Charities continues to earn an aggregate client satisfaction score of more than 98% in its annual Continued Quality Improvement assessments.

- Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph is accredited through the Council on Accreditation, a comprehensive process by which an organization completes a thorough self-study and on-site review by trained Peer Reviewers. Catholic Charities has achieved this highest recognition for delivering quality child and family services, behavioral healthcare services, and community support and education services that comply with nationally recognized standards of best practice.

- Catholic Charities-USA is the nation's largest private network of social service agencies.

UFO Sightings Kansas City 2011 Kansas City News

Here at Kansas City news we run into all sorts of reports of UFO sightings in and around Kansas City, and occasionally we also get some great photos. We liked the one on the right so well we decided it had to go up immediately :)

Though this particular UFO sighting took place in Florida, we like the photo well enough to include it in our Kansas City News archive of UFO sighting photos from KC. Too bad all of the UFO sighting photos can't look like this one! Thank you to our friends in Vero Beach, Florida for sending that photo in.

Latest sightings in Kansas City include two sightings in Smithville over the lake. At or around 10pm on Thursday night November 3rd, 2011 two separate reports came in from Smithville, Missouri about an odd shaped round silver colored disc hovering over the lake about 200 - 300 feet in the air. The strange disc floated above the lake for about 30 seconds and then took off making a "whirring" sound according to one couple who witnessed it, and the second report of the incident confirmed the strange whirring sound as well. The UFO was lit around the edges with white lights but was not rotating or spinning in any way. Both reports said that the UFO was just hovering very still over the lake, and didn't make any significant movement until it took off heading due South and upward. The visibility at Smithville Lake is great, we've been out there several times back in the days when Groove Agency used to perform at the Smithville Marina! We weren't lucky enough to have any UFO sightings on those nights, but if you live or party at Smithville Lake, be sure and take a look up in the sky every once in awhile and make sure that you're not being watched!

We appreciate all of your emails and if you have a UFO sighting to report in the Kansas City area please email us at kansascitynews@gmail.com and thank you!

UFO Sighting Kansas City October 2011

Thank you so much for all of your recent submissions for UFO sightings in Kansas City 2011, out of all of them, we liked the photo we received to the left of a UFO spotted and photographed in the area of highway 50 and 291 highway near Lee's Summit. It appears to be either one large craft with several lights and sections, or several small craft in formation. Either way this was a great photo of the UFO sighting, looks like they almost didn't get the camera out in time! We did not use any formatting on this photo - we left it as is.

UFO sightings in Kansas City increased exponentially in October 2011 with nearly 300 sightings reported in the Kansas City, Lee's Summit and Raytown areas in particular. Most sightings were reported between 6pm and 8pm, and there were several different types of UFOs spotted. We have had sightings of large, looming, dark craft that hovered hundreds of feet off the ground in plain sight just off the highway above traffic below, and then suddenly whoosh off into the night sky at speeds of over 500 miles per hour and completely disappear from sight. We have had UFO sightings that were comprised of several smaller craft flying in formation that had green lights and what might be described as yellowish "windows" on top flying right along a deserted road in the rural areas of Raytown.

Many UFO sightings were reported but the most by a landslide were reported in October. For some reason, the aliens decided to visit Kansas City in October this year. We're not sure what the correlation might be, but this October was hot with UFO sightings all around the KC area. In a previous UFO sightings in Kansas City report we noted that most of the sightings occurred between October 3rd and October 7th, and most of them near Lee's Summit, MO. We were actually on the phone with one couple who was traveling down 470 highway when they spotted a small formation of strange triangular aircraft, flying about 1000 feet in the air to the East of the highway, heading North toward downtown. The couple said that the craft were small triangles with blue and almost silver colored lights that blinked on and off in a pattern of sorts. After about 30 seconds in sight, the little triangles disappeared into the night in a blast of what they described as "light speed". This was on October 7th, 2011, at around 7:30pm, about the time that we decided that we had better start reporting these sightings in the news. Please keep your submissions of UFO sightings in Kansas City coming to us at kansascitynews@gmail.com and keep watching the skies!

Colts Losing on Purpose Suck for Luck

Is there any doubt that the Indianapolis Colts are losing on purpose so that they can get the first round draft pick? Why is no one calling them out on this in the NFL media? The owner, the head coach, and a few other key members of the Colts management are throwing games on purpose. Obviously the players could not be "in" on the plan because they could not be asked to make mistakes intentionally, as it would hurt their statistics and future value. But here at Kansas City News, we're going to tell you how an NFL team throws games without letting the players in on it:

Play calling. It's as simple as that - play calling. The Colts are calling plays that will guarantee failure. Running plays up the middle that have absolutely no chance of gaining yards are the Colts staple plays this season. Every once in awhile a running back will break out of the pack, but believe me, this is NOT by design. The running back simply gets a break and takes advantage. Watch the Indianapolis Colts play calling and notice these hopeless runs into traffic. As for the passing, you might notice that Reggie Wayne has only been targeted less than 10 times in over 3 games. That is very interesting considering that he used to be Peyton Manning's number 1 or number 2 look on any passing play last season. Curtis Painter is only given the green light to throw up a few long passes, but mostly he is called upon by his coach to throw little dink and dunk passes to receivers who are running short routes.

Other ways the Indianapolis Colts are losing on purpose for the first round draft pick include defensive calling. The defense of the Colts are not blitzing. In previous seasons, opposing teams would be treated with the one - two punch pass rush of Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney.
Not the case this season, since star quarterback Peyton Manning went out for the season or possibly for good, the Colts defense are playing a very generic 3-4 defense and are simply not stopping their opponents.

The Colts are not necessarily losing on purpose to get upcoming quarterback Andrew Luck, they are just losing on purpose to get the first pick, which they may choose to trade to another team for more draft picks or to use as leverage to another means. The Colts are playing dirty pool and if you can't see that, then you probably can't see the nose on your face either.

Uh oh, it recently came to out attention that some people feel that the owners and coaches would not put their players in a position that my result in injuries. Yeah, right, do you really think that the Indianapolis Colts would let any of their star players get injured? And do you think that they care about any non-star players that get injured - uh, no. Dismiss that thought immediately, they are losing on purpose, period.

Cardinals Win 2011 World Series

Red Birds WIN! The St. Louis Cardinals have defeated the Texas Rangers in the 2011 World Series. The Texans had several chances to close the door on the red birds, but the Cardinals hung on by a thread at home to eventually win game 6 and force a game 7 in which the Texas Rangers didn't even show up. The Cardinals didn't need the Rally Squirrel for game 7. The Rally Squirrel, by the way, now has his own Facebook page.

Game 6
Baseball critics and analysts alike are already calling game 6 a game of legendary proportions. The Cardinals trailed the Rangers for almost the entire game, all the way up until the 9th inning. With the score 7-5 Rangers in the bottom of the 9th inning, 2011 World Series hero David Freese hit a 2 run RBI triple to tie the game at 7-7. In the 10th inning the Rangers put up two more runs on a two run homer by Josh Hamilton, only to have the Lance Berkman tie the game again with an RBI single to make the score 9-9 after 10 innings. Inning number 11; enter the hometown hero, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, 3rd baseman David Freese steps up in the bottom of the 11th inning and gleeks the ball into the grassy knoll in straight away center field - WALK OFF HOME RUN!! Say goodnight Gracie, the Cardinals are heading to game 7 at home.

Game 7
In the World Series, a lot of the attention goes to the offense, the batters, the home run hitters, the base runners. But in the end, a great pitcher will eventually emerge, and silence the offense of the opposing team, and thus claiming the victory for his brothers. That pitcher was Chris Carpenter. Game seven was simply dominated by the Cardinals as the Texans couldn't produce any offense due to the extraordinary pitching by Chris Carpenter. Carpenter pitched seamlessly through 6 innings and one batter into the 7th, who hit a double. Although we questioned Cardinal manager Tony La Russa's decision to pull Carpenter, we cannot question the ways of the master. The Cardinals rallied behind their pitching staff sealed the win with a 6-2 World Series victory.