By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The COVID-19 pandemic is mostly known for its harm to the world at large. But a few good things emerged from that changing landscape. When Kansas Wetland Education Center's (KWEC) Mandy Kern was unable to visit area classrooms, she instead penned "Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet." The children's book was recently one of 15 selections to make the Kansas Notable Books list.
"It was pretty exciting that the work we put into it got recognized," Kern said. "The project came about because, through COVID, in my normal role I wasn't able to visit classrooms. We weren't doing field trips during the 2020 and 2021 school years. We still wanted to be able to tell the Cheyenne Bottoms story and the book came about because of that. We were able to talk about Cheyenne Bottoms, shorebirds, and the importance of wetlands for their migration, and be able to share that story with area students."
Through the Dorothy Morrison Foundation, KWEC was able to distribute the book to every K-6 classroom in Barton County, and every school and public library within a 70-mile radius also received a copy of the book.
Kern has since been able to continue her public readings of the book, sharing Ava's 1,000-mile trip from Laguna Madre in Texas and Mexico, to the wetlands at Cheyenne Bottoms - part of the annual migration that sees millions of birds make the stop in Barton County.
"I was able to go into every Great Bend public school during their library time and read the story, so that was pretty cool that we were still able to share the story and read it to each student," said Kern. "After I read the story we talked about different types of bird nests and let the kids try their hand at constructing their own bird nest to see if they thought it was easy or hard to build a nest like a bird."
Kern will be among the small field of authors awarded medals at the Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University on Sept. 24. The Kansas Notable Book list includes works set in Kansas or written by authors who reside in the state.