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Braden Heidner Lowe and Associates was formed with the ability and passion to offer clients an unsurpassed level of government relations and association management services. Tune in to our podcasts to find out what is happening in your local political arena, how you can increase association involvement, how to hone in on good professional and personal skills, and more!
Ep29_AudreyColeman_full
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Scott Heidner: [00:00:00] Welcome listeners to the bhl podcast series. I'm your host, Scott Heidner, and I'm excited to have with me today my guest, Audrey Coleman. Audrey is the director of the Dole Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. I'm a Lawrence Kansas resident as well. One of our greatest treasures and maybe a hidden treasure to some people if you're not from here, which is something we hope to remedy today.
Audrey, thank you for coming on the show.
Audrey Coleman: Thanks so much for having me, Scott. Thanks.
Scott Heidner: Absolutely.
Audrey Coleman: Thanks to Bhl for, for hosting me.
Scott Heidner: Our pleasure. You know, we love to tell stories like yours of organizations that tell a cool piece of history and do some important educating along the way with those tools as well.
So this is in our wheelhouse for sure. Well, the Dole Institute again, for people particularly that don't live in Lawrence, [00:01:00] may not know as much about it. Take us back to the beginning. It's been around about 20 years. I know, but you can give us the, the hard details when it was founded and the, the conditions that had to coalesce to bring that idea together and bring it to reality.
Audrey Coleman: Sure. Well, I'll, I'll start. Where we're gonna end up is that this summer in July, 2023, we're gonna be celebrating our, the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Robert j Dole Institute of Politics here at the University of Kansas. And. The institute when it's very, it's very important that we say 20 years since the dedication because the Dole Institute was in development for years beforehand.
Chancellor then Chancellor, Robert Hemingway had the idea in the early to mid nineties that KU would be a great home for Senator Bob Dole's papers. And of course he was still in the Senate then and had been for almost 35 years by that point. So it was a wonderful tribute to him. And in advance of his presidential campaign or, or as that was getting underway, it made sense for, for the University of [00:02:00] Kansas to approach the senator as the home for his, his personal papers collection, perhaps for a presidential library that, that might, that might come into play at some point.
Scott Heidner: So I didn't know if you were gonna bring it up, but I probably wouldn't have if you hadn't. But, you know, it already, in my opinion, shows a tremendous amount of foresight. The Chancellor Hemingway reached out to Senator Dole to have his papers as Senator. But as you touched on it, it could have been an even more enormous coup if Senator Dole had become president as a front runner to a presidential library.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, and, and we'll get into this, but, though he was not elected president of the United States, Senator Dole has a, had and has a tremendous leadership legacy. We're so fortunate here on Kansas to call him one of our own. And, you know, from someone, as someone who is from the Congressional archives world we know that the leaders that we document have power for, [00:03:00] for eight.
Plus years, decades. Whereas if you're an American president, you only get four or eight. Right? Yeah. Senator Dole was a legislative leader you know, for the latter half of the 20th century and beyond. And so, you know, I don't think we're being too proud when we say that we are a really special place at the Dole Institute to be a tribute to his leadership legacy and really telling the story of, of someone who did leadership in a, in a different way than we're used to seeing today.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Boy, that is so true. Yeah. So Chancellor Hemingway had the The vision and started a conversation with Senator Dole and when Senator Dole accepted that request. Structurally tell me how it came together. I mean, the, the community engagement, the fundraising you know, locating the site. I mean, those are tremendous moving pieces for an organization and a, and a structure this size.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, obviously the University of Kansas was the front running institution behind that, but with extensive [00:04:00] support from the Kansas State legislature, from the governor at the time, the Board of Regions the KU endowment, so many. Folks who were so invested in this vision of making sure that this was going to happen.
In the end, it was funded by a combination of, of federal, state, and private dollars. I've seen figures, you know, for the building itself being around 10 or 11 million dollars for the building in the archive to get established. And that includes the museum as well.
Scott Heidner: Just outta curiosity, if I was better at history, I wouldn't have to ask.
Was that bill Graves? You said
Audrey Coleman: Governor Was Governor? Bill Graves, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. At the time that the groundbreaking Yeah. Took place. Yeah. In 2001, I believe. Very cool. And then of course, there was a cohort of leaders at the University of Kansas. There was most of you are, many folks are familiar with the late political science professor, Burdett Loomis
Scott Heidner: yes.
Audrey Coleman: Bill Crow with the libraries. I'm gonna forget someone. Ed Myan Steve Scannell, Warren Corman. Lots of folks on the, on the KU side were deeply, deeply invested in the development of the institute. And it's a real special place. For that reason, even, even [00:05:00] alone.
Scott Heidner: That's pretty cool. Yeah, and it's funny how life intersects, I won't bore our listeners with this, but Warren Corman is somebody that we represent a lot of design professionals, and so that's a name that Oh, yeah.
You know, has been around for ages and Burdett Loomis. I'm a KU political science grad, so is my business partner. And I mean, it's just another name that's Yeah. Iconic around our, our shop. So it's a small world.
Audrey Coleman: Right. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: Well, let's switch gears a little bit. We talked about the foundation and the, you know, the partnerships and the effort that went into that, but let's fast forward it's a done deal.
You've had the groundbreaking or, or about two. What was the, the mission and the vision for the Dole Institute at that time? And I wanna talk about that and capture that, because I know today you're doing a lot of those same things, but it's become so much more. Mm-hmm. So give us the snapshot of what the mission and vision looked like at that time.
Sure. In the beginning,
Audrey Coleman: The creation of the institute [00:06:00] was, was something as we've already talked about, com completely visionary project you know, spurred on by Chancellor Hemingway and, and the folks at at KU who were dedicated to, to developing it. They recruited Richard Norton Smith, who's a presidential historian you know, widely renowned at that point, had already been the director of the Hoover library.
Also had ties with the, with the actually had, was the director of the Ford Library in Michigan connection with the Reagans and, and was a former Dole speech writer. So lots of you folks will remember Richard here in town. And he created, you know, he really boosted the design to the next level using the, as AI firm out of Lenexa developing this striking multifunctional space that yes was home to an archive, but also.
Heavily, heavily focused on, heavily privileged the interaction of, of folks coming in just to, to talk and build relationships and to hold events and, and to dialogue. And, and the space that we have today is [00:07:00] completely stunning. We'll talk more about the architectural features but it was always meant to be a public facing, vibrant, engaging place.
Scott Heidner: And you made the comment, A lot of our listeners will know Richard Norton Smith. I might take that another direction. A lot of our listeners will know Richard Norton Smith, but I would bet you it would be even more prevalent. How many of our listeners. Either don't know him, or even if they recognize the name and link it to the Dole Institute.
I think with the passage of time, people forget what an incredible coup it was to bring him here. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, he was a person as, as you referenced, of tremendous significance mm-hmm. In that realm. Mm-hmm. I mean, it was,
Audrey Coleman: it was brilliant researcher, brilliant writer, brilliant storyteller.
He's been a frequent guest at the institute since he left with our presidential lecture series. He's, he's captivating to listen to.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. It it's not a great analogy, but it's kinda like if you're a baseball team and you [00:08:00] signed Babe Ruth as a free agent, I mean, it was a big darn deal.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: When he came here.
Audrey Coleman: That's true. That's true. And when he left the Dole Institute, it was to develop the, the Springfield Library. What would become the Lincoln Library. So again, another headlining project that he did exceptionally well with.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Makes me already sparks the idea of a Lincoln Library podcast.
You put that on our to-do list.
Audrey Coleman: There you go. Your work is never done.
Scott Heidner: Well, let's talk a little bit about, we've covered a lot of the past, but let's hit what most listeners are probably gonna want to know most about, and that's what you all do today. And I want to cut that into three pieces if we can. I wanna start with some of the actual, some of the educating and the interaction that you do, and then let's talk a little bit about the facility itself.
Some of the cool features of that, and let's finish with the archives, but let's start with the programs. And you can take these in whatever order you want to. But the [00:09:00] K-12 outreach and just a tremendous amount of civic engagement, student advisory board and the public service award. You've got the Youth Civic Leadership Institute.
So much work with high school, middle schools, your tributes to veterans. Yeah, yeah. Where, where do you start and what do you pick?
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Thank you for that lead up. I, I'm not sure that I answered your question very completely though about the mission. I mean, I made the, the emphasis that we were in our completely you know, public facing, non non-specialist facing and senator Dole's primary concern at the dedication or, or with the concept of all this, was that he didn't want this to be a monument to himself. He wanted this to be a place. Okay, yes, you can be inspired by the career and the leadership of Senator Dole, but he wanted to the Dole Institute to be a place where new generations of people came together to work together, to talk and, and be inspired into public service.
So the mission that my predecessor, Bill Lacey articulated was that the Dole Institute is dedicated to civil discourse, bipartisanship, and public [00:10:00] service. And the programs that you described all work in service to that mission. And it's something that was incredibly, I think, prescient you know, 20 or so years ago to, these are qualities that are good to have in a society, in a democratic society.
But we have come to take those for granted. And when we have taken them for granted that we've, we've kind of seen their, I think you would agree with me, there's been kind of the erosion of those qualities in, in recent years, in the last decade or more. So that makes our mission all the more powerful and all the more relevant today.
Scott Heidner: The gimme the three things again. Public discourse.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Civil discourse. Civil discourse. So we need to, we, we can disagree, but we talk to each other as human beings and we don't behave as we do online. And maybe we might consider doing better online and treat each other a little better than we, like we do in person.
Scott Heidner: Revolutionary part.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Right. you are committed to, to bipartisanship or the idea that either one of the political parties, our main political parties or any political party does not have a monopoly [00:11:00] on good ideas. That it's only through discussion and finding common ground. And some give and take in a discussion that you develop.
What better policy where we all benefit from that. And and public service. You know, if, if folks don't invest themselves and their lives in our democratic institutions they're not gonna work very well, or we're not gonna have them anymore. And so we need to inspire. Great. Young minds to go into public service and we need to honor that service and, and we're not so good at that in a society someday.
We don't treat our public servants very well.
Scott Heidner: Well, I think every generation says this, but I'll still allow myself to say it anyway. It feels like that message is, is more important and relevant today than it's been in. Yeah. If not ever, at least in a very long time.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Well, I, I appreciate you going back and, and getting a little more specific about that mission and vision from the beginning.
And it is a good segue into the programming. Yeah. I know underpinning all of this programming is an effort to promote those things as [00:12:00] well as just outright education. Right, right. Civics education. Yeah. Yeah. So talk to us about some of your, the Dole Institute's efforts there and the impact that makes on the students in the communities.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. Well, probably what folks are most you know, if you're not a part of the KU community probably what we're most known for out in the community or across the state or the nation. Via our livestream is, is our, our Dole forum programming, which is our public programming that brings in.
Literally world leaders, national leaders, journalists lawyers, Supreme Court justices, political practitioners of any kind of philosophy and more. And you know, that is a really exciting place to be. Just this last fall our guests included the former president of the Republic of Columbia, Juan Manuel Santos who's a graduate of, who's a KU grad as well, rock Chalk, and he was the recipient of our Dole Leadership Prize.
Our Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership lecture featured the president of the Sesame Workshop that's Sesame [00:13:00] Street International foundation at Sherry Rollins Weston. And she was telling us about, you know, the global reach of Sesame Workshop and you know how to. Build a better world for our young people.
Juanna Summers, who's a, an outstanding journalist, actually is a University of Missouri grad, but she is a now at All Things Considered on N P R, outstanding young journalist. And, and then to talk about our, our fellowship program, Scott Jerrys retired Washington editor of the Wall Street Journal and KU grad and Hayes native Outstanding, through and through Outstanding was, was our fellow last fall in, in 20 22, and took us through the midterm elections at a wonderful series with him.
Again, students and, and the general public are always invited. Our public, our programs are always free. Jerry did a fantastic job and this spring, our fellow was a gentleman by the name of Crum ghi, who was the. The Kosovar Ambassador to France. So the Republic of Kosovo is, [00:14:00] which is Europe's youngest democracy, 15 years old and is a small country in the Balkans region.
Senator Dole was a proponent of NATO intervention in the Balkans in the late eighties and early nineties, and had had a firm commitment to. Post Cold War the Balkan states establishing independent democracies.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. And past is present. Kosovo's very much a hotspot in the news yet again today. Yeah, that's true. Extremely relevant. Well, I might offer this, Audrey, it, it'll probably come in the form of a sound, like a testimonial, but, so the Dole Forum, if I can use layman's terms, are more, you know, one-offs where you have guests in, and the Dole Fellows is a little more of an ongoing presence in conversation.
And I might. Analyze it this way, and if you think this is inaccurate jump in and put me back on the rails. But the Dole Forum gets a lot of [00:15:00] the holy cow names. Like just, you pick up the paper and you're like, holy cow. You know, Senator Trent Lott and and Tom Dashell were here recently. We were talking about, and you know, you said Supreme Court justices.
I mean, you get names that, that really have some wow factor. You're like, holy cow. You know, that's, that is. Somebody worth going to see. And the Dole Fellows program gets folks that maybe you know their names if you're truly invested and you're kind of a, a student of public policy in those kinds of areas.
But if you are looking for, I mean, true analysis and a deep dive and, and thoughtful questions, you know, the Dole Fellows is more of an extended presence and, and gives you that more deeply invested conversation. Is that, Reason.
Audrey Coleman: I think that's a good, yeah, that's a good way to characterize it, because the fellows they host anywhere from five to seven sessions in a [00:16:00] semester historically on, on a, you know, on a topic, a deep dive as you say.
Yeah. And so that's somebody you can see time and again.
Scott Heidner: And so if somebody comes that is invested in a topic that matters to you, holy cow, you know, that's a Yeah. Kind of a bonanza, because you do get 5, 6, 7 different bites at the apple through their programming.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: That's pretty cool.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Yeah. So we're, so we're very busy. It's A real privilege to be able to convene both again, the university community and the general public in our space.
Scott Heidner: You know what I should have done right at the beginning, but I didn't. But I'll do now. Give us your website because folks might want to look up these these education opportunities to go attend one.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Dole Institute. One word. Dot org. Okay. Dole institute.org.
Scott Heidner: Very good. Yeah. Well if, if there's anything else you want to cover on the programs, let's talk about it now or if not, before we move on to the actual institute itself and the structures. Let's talk about the tribute to veterans too, cuz that's a pretty cool [00:17:00] Yeah.
Part of what you all do.
Audrey Coleman: That's something our, our senior associate director and, and Kansas legislator, Barbara Ballard leads that initiative every year. I believe we've done that. It might be, I think this might be 18 years, maybe coming up on 20. But again around veteran's Day every year we have a fantastic public party honoring The greatest generation, but any, any veterans since then, and we have a great dance and a, and a buffet and and our, you know, ROTC students from the KU community come and, and speak and, and talk about their service.
And it's a really, really special night, really special event. Folks look forward to it every year.
Scott Heidner: Yeah, it is. And the multi-generational aspect of it is both. Kind of humbling and also reassuring, you know, right. That legacy lives on all the way down from the greatest generation and Senator Dole. Yeah.
All the way down to these young men and women today. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool deal.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Thanks for asking about that. So, when, you know, when we're talking about other, other [00:18:00] generations, younger generations, our student advisory board as a group of active KU students who volunteer and meet once a month and talk practice, talking about political issues across the, the, the political spectrum.
They help run the fellowship program that we have a couple of discussion group coordinators who assist our fellow and make sure that that programming gets done and is promoted. They do a lot of service in the community and they engage with our, our guests in the Dole Forum. So when those students who are really active at the institute get the chance to interact more with, with these kinds of folks, and it's a really big big opportunity for them.
I'm thinking as we're, we're talking about big names and, and I'm remembering just this past spring we, when Jerry Sibe came back to moderate a discussion with secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raff Berger, who's a Republican, and and he appeared in tandem with secretary of State of New Mexico, Mary to lose Oliver, who is a Democrat and as secretaries of state, they talked about the [00:19:00] challenges that they faced in recent years and what we can all do to promote election integrity and It was astonishing.
And to, and to be able to bring KU students into a room with those two people in advance of that program and have a, a really an intimate discussion with them. Yeah. Is again, something extraordinary.
Scott Heidner: And I would note here, anybody that might hear of the Dole Institute and think immediately of history, you need nothing more than those last two guests to know how modern the topics are that you all cover today.
That is that is about as new and relevant as it gets.
Audrey Coleman: Yes. Yes it is. Yeah. Yes it is. So our student advisory board is, is a great place for KU students. You don't have to be a political science major. You don't have to be pre-law, you know, civic engagement. Political engagement is for anyone and everyone as we know.
We've got students who are in business law, environmental studies, all sorts of things. And it's a really good interdisciplinary group. And increasingly those students are, as you might imagine, very, very driven individuals. [00:20:00]
Scott Heidner: Who are getting a tremendous opportunity too.
I can't imagine as a student here, if I'd had the opportunity to be involved in something like that, that would've been awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And so, or maybe I did have the opportunity and I wasn't smart enough to know.
Audrey Coleman: No, I was gonna say that's a big part of, you know, the, the push for the future is, you know, we, we are, we are attracting a core group of, of very dedicated students, but we, we need to be doing more on a campus the size of ku.
We need to be reaching more. So that'll be one of our challenges that we tackle in the next year. And more our K through 12, I'll talk about our Youth Civic Leadership Institute. And this is also some, another initiative led again by our senior associate director, Barbara Ballard. This is a camp leadership camp that happens every July for three days here three or four days on kus campus and Barbara, they are.
High school age students who are, I believe, rising sophomores or juniors, seniors. There, there's a couple of different ages in, in there with, with YCLI but they come together, their schools [00:21:00] nominate them from across the state of Kansas. And we have 40 or more students each summer.
Again, representative of, of communities across Kansas really get a great mix. And those students stay in the dorm and they go to the capitol. They, you know, are also engaged with, with local legislative leaders and Lawrence and across the state and have a tremendous experience led by Barbara and You know, a lot of 'em come back.
If they come to ku, they end up on our student advisory board. So the, we have our own, we're growing our own, ] so to speak. So \ that is a wonderful signature program of ours. We've got great K through 12 outreach led by our public engagement coordinator, Julie Clover. This is something we'll talk about, maybe Covid, but you know, if we kind of talk about what Covid did to, to our programming and how, how we met the challenge Julie pivoted so quickly and made a whole host of engagement opportunities through the Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas Northwest Missouri during Covid when everything was shut down.
And [00:22:00] we grew our Girl Scout program outreach program. Exponentially during Covid, we were teaching not and engaging girls, not just in the region, but across the country. Because we were really at the forefront of Zoom engagement, zoom based engagement. So we have excellent relationship with the Girl Scouts.
We, again, this is all free to teachers across Kansas and beyond, talking about, Democracy civics. The legacy of Senator Dole, the policy legacy. We talk about disability we talk about food security. Any, any manner of, of topics. We do a lot, I mean, thousands of kids a year.
Scott Heidner: That is awesome
Audrey Coleman: program. Yeah. I'm really, really proud of that. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: Sounds like, sounds like you made the most of the covid crisis as well.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are, there are opportunities in crisis, as we all know, and we certainly did that. Our Easter egg roll, some folks who are local. Julie also is the leader of our, our annual Easter egg roll, our White House inspired event each Easter, and, and that's just grown.
We took a year off during Covid, but it's the Saturday before Easter every [00:23:00] year. And you know, we get thousands of people easy coming to the institute, get at the youngest kids. That's the space that we wanna be is a, a place where people of all ages
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: Wanna come.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Well, if you don't mind, I want to take a moment of personal privilege to tell you a fun story about one of your colleagues, and then we'll move on to the, the institute itself structurally and everything that's housed there. This has been a few years ago, we did a podcast with then Speaker of the House, Ron Reichman, who is a Republican.
And we were going through his story and at some point I asked him, I said, tell me about somebody. We're talking about bipartisanship. And I said, tell me who from the other side of the aisle, you know, do you work with or, or have you worked with that made a, you know, pretty profound impact on you and whose partnership you've appreciated and feel like you can have that good bipartisan conversation with.
And you wanna. Take a, a wild stab at who He [00:24:00] said,
Audrey Coleman: I'm gonna let you say it.
Scott Heidner: Barbara. Barbara Ballard.
Uhhuh, of course. Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. She's, she, she walks the walk, doesn't she? Yeah. She's, she's a Yes. So the letter, she's amazing. She treasure Lucky to have her.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. She's an ab absolute treasure.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: And I thought it was pretty darn cool.
Of course, being a Lawrence resident, you know, we're proud of her. But when that was the answer, the then Speaker of the House gave, I thought that was pretty awesome.
Audrey Coleman: And to have her leading these programs that are teaching young people, I mean, to talk about an, again, an example that, that walks the walk that, that.
That is dedicated to doing the work and that can articulate the value of doing that. Yeah. For folks who that really don't hear enough of that.
Scott Heidner: Okay, well, let's talk about the facility itself. There's some pretty cool things there, just architecturally and structurally and then some pretty cool stuff in that structure, obviously as well.
You've got the big stained glass American flag. That's a huge wow moment for folks that go there. The Veterans [00:25:00] Memorial the veterans virtual memory wall. Talk to us about some of those things.
Audrey Coleman: Well, when you come in the institute, I mean, it's really, if you've never visited you, you just have to come.
The summer would be a good time, and I'll tell you, I'll tell you more. It's never too late. But the scale of the main hall, the Darby Gallery in Hansen Hall is just breathtaking. We have the, the largest stained glass American flag in the world.
And design fun fact is that in the original building design Scott, that was just an open window. And Richard, the vision was like, something's gotta go there. This has gotta pop, this has gotta be amazing. And it, and it is, it's just gorgeous. It also reflects into the, the marble floor on the inside.
So it's just got this beautiful reflecting pool phenomenon inside there. On either side of the stained glass American flag is our beams from World Trade Center, tower One. Those were given to Senator Dole at the dedication, but presented to him and former [00:26:00] President Clinton for their work on the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund.
In, in the wake of, of nine 11, the two of them together raised over a hundred million dollars
Scott Heidner: Wow.
Audrey Coleman: For children of victims of nine 11, so that they could go on to college. It's a symbol. And when we talk about bipartisanship, we talk about political rivalry, we talk about two men that are very different.
Scott Heidner: Mm-hmm.
Audrey Coleman: But they worked together. Even when Dole was in the Senate and we had, and President Clinton was the president of the United States, and then their post political career they came together to do something for Americans. And it's a. Memorial that is meaningful unto itself now, now that you know the generation of, of kids, young kids certainly.
But but even at ku, you know, nine 11 was before they were born. And so that is a big generation gap.
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: Those of us who remember in those of us, it could have been 500 years ago.
Scott Heidner: Well, I want you to, if you would talk to us about the veterans virtual memory wall, but before you do, I have a horrible confession to make.
I had no idea that we had those [00:27:00] beams from Yeah. From the towers in nine 11. Yeah. As part of that, I did not know. Yeah. That's that gives me goosebumps.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you know, after the, the 20th anniversary of nine 11, we, we hosted an exhibit from it was an NEH based exhibit about nine 11.
You know, again, this is, this is what happened. This is the story. And we had lots of people come through and bring their kids. And it's just like those, that, that storytelling moment, that moment of connection we have to. Tell people what that was like and what it was like to be an American after that, and how, how we came together
Scott Heidner: mm-hmm.
Audrey Coleman: As a country. So yeah, it's a place to, that really invites reflection as well. The, the veterans tributes that we have when you, when you come into the institute, you know, the, the ceiling is soaring. We've got a, an array of over a thousand photographs of men and women who were Kansans and World War II Veterans on the Wall.
And that those were collected in advance of our dedication in 2003. Since that [00:28:00] time there was immediately, there was a database of folks had been submitting for 20 years. We have a database that's over, you know, four or 5,000 submissions of, of men and women who are World War II veterans. Again, another product of the Covid era.
We reinvented our, our memory wall and, and made it an interactive redeveloped some software and have this wonderful Kansas veterans virtual memory wall. So we're not just honoring World War II veterans, we're honoring World War ii to today again, an inter intergenerational tribute to military service.
Public service.
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: That's something you can see online and you can submit online for free or for a small donation. And when you come into the halls of the institute, it's there. The photographs are. Rep are reproduced on a large scale in a beautiful space. And I tell you what, when visitors come and, you know, look, look up their loved one their friend, their relative, and see that photo on that feature it, it gets you every time.
Scott Heidner: I bet that has got to be incredibly emotional
Audrey Coleman: [00:29:00] mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: When that happens.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. And I actually, I know how that feels. My grandfather is on the World War II memory wall. My aunt submitted him over 20 years ago.
Scott Heidner: Wow.
Audrey Coleman: He was a World War II vet. And so, you know, it's a way he was army infantry and, you know, doing what I do is a way to honor
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: What he did.
Scott Heidner: That is very cool. Yeah. Well, again you know, never waste a crisis, but the fact that you all made that virtual through the covid time is pretty amazing. Mm-hmm. Because you know, not everybody can get to the facility itself. And, and the online presentation of it is, is still pretty darn cool.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
Scott Heidner: Well, let's shift gears a little bit in terms of the structure. And I'm saving the best for last for hardcore policy geeks like you and I, the archives may be the coolest part of all. But before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about your featured exhibits your tours and activities.
You know, there's a, there are things that are fixed that you can go to the Dole Institute and always see. Mm-hmm. And then there are things that will shift over [00:30:00] time as you emphasize things. Talk to us a little bit about those evolving exhibits and what goes into that and how the decisions are made and how often they change.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. So the, the, the main Hall, Hansen Hall features an exhibit, a permanent exhibit dedicated to the life and legacy of Senator Bob Dole. And that's been in place since our dedication and it tells a fantastic story. I mean, so I'm a museum person. We all understand these spaces need, I'm, I'm prepping the audience here.
These spaces needs love and attention and renovation and, and new looks. But it's hard every time because there are folks who come into our building and and they, they look at the exhibit. It's 20 years old for the first time, and they say they learn so much. They learn so much about him.
They learn, their minds are expanded about how The lines of between people of opposite political parties have totally been drawn in ways that they didn't used to be. You know, what we're experiencing today is not how it's always been. Yeah. And that message becomes clear when you go through that exhibit.
So [00:31:00] that's really, it's permanent. It's worth a look. I read something, you know, I stop by and I read it. Once a week, and I always rediscover something new. You can't see it enough, experience it enough. Our temporary exhibits, we have a relatively new renovated space that used to be exclusively the research room, but is now the Elizabeth Dole Gallery and reading room, a multipurpose space that facilitates archival research, which we'll talk more about in a bit, but also is a, is a smaller exhibit space that we can bring out.
The treasures from the archives and, and tell different stories. We have over the years we've hosted exhibits about sender Elizabeth Dole using her own papers, which are also at the Dole Institute. Really fantastic project program that we launched in 2017 was an exhibit called The League of Wives, and it was a, a project showcasing the leadership of p o w and Mia wives during the Vietnam era and their advocacy for themselves and each other.
Lots of [00:32:00] folks, we talk about history of conflict and of course we're talking about what's happening on the ground and what the, the fighting men and women are doing. But there's a whole other component to military service, and that's the spouses and families back home. Vietnam was hard for everyone, but for these women who whose husbands were POWs and they got little support, no information.
In some cases, you know, they weren't getting paid because their husband wasn't working, but he also wasn't dead. There were a lot of serious issues in addition to the emotional turmoil of that situation. So folks like Sybil Stockdale, who was the wife of Admiral James Stockdale was the leader of the National League.
They engaged with Senator Dole in the late sixties. They found an ally in him and he really helped them connect with the Nixon administration and they influence policy worldwide to bring their veterans home and also to do outreach about the missing in action movement. So these are, I mean, I'm going into quite a bit of detail on that, but The stories in the archives. I mean, some people are, [00:33:00] you, you love history and you know, you do. Some people say, oh, history and dusty papers, and I'm not interested, or whatever. These are people's lives in these materials. The story that I told could be told in hundreds of different ways through those papers with different people who engaged with Senator Dole or Elizabeth Dole Over the years, it's Rich, rich American history
Scott Heidner: and history does not have to be your passion to be impacted by stories like those.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah, yeah.
Scott Heidner: Not at all.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah.
Scott Heidner: The one thing I would say about the the rotating exhibits and such, again, from a layman's perspective would just be that folks, I think. Most folks intuitively know, you know, if you go out to DC and you go to the Smithsonian or whatever, that those exhibits turn over all the time.
And so even if you were there a year ago, there's absolutely reason to get back out and see it again because it's not gonna be the same experience. And I would just share with listeners that the same is true at the Dole Institute. You know, there, there [00:34:00] are pieces, the bedrocks that will always be there, but there is so much of it.
Even if you've been to the Dole Institute before, if you haven't been there recently, you haven't really been That's right. You know, cuz it changes all the time.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Which is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the stories are, this is just another editorial note, but as a. As a citizen of the community that, you know, follows what you do and gets to read about it.
It, it is incredibly personal. The stories that you tell you do not have to be a history lover to be deeply impacted by, by what gets told out there and what gets shared. Well, let's segue. The last two things I want to close with, I want to end by talking a little bit about the doles themselves and let you tell a piece of their story.
But first for our fellow geeks out there, let's talk about the archives.
Audrey Coleman: I like geeks.
Scott Heidner: I do too.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. The Gee Archives geeks are cool. Does that make sense?
Scott Heidner: Archives are the, are the [00:35:00] most amazing part of the whole thing in my opinion, because you literally could spend five lifetimes and not get through.
Oh my gosh. You're so right and, and I know this is your background and your passion too, so I'm not even gonna. Set you up necessarily with, you know, some of the things out there. Just talk to me about the, the material there and the people that come to, to, you know, research and take part. I just think it's awesome.
Audrey Coleman: Thank you. Thank you. And, and as we, we started, you know, the archives, the gift of the archives, the gift of the papers was the initial transaction that set the founding of the Dole Institute in place. And it sets our, our institute apart. There are political institutes across the country.
There are congressional archives across the country. There really isn't, except for those that are modeled after us in a congressional an institute of politics, a congressional study center like ours that combines the museum, the archive, and the level of programming that we have.[00:36:00] So the papers, the small version or way to think about the papers is that they're materials that document the life and career of Senator Bob Dole. Senator Elizabeth Dole. Okay. Well, it's easy to say either I'm interested in that or I'm not interested in that, or I like that guy, or, and I like her or not.
But we're talking about, you know, a career in Congress that spans four decades a career in politics here in Kansas. Bob Dole actually served a term in the Kansas legislature when he was a law student at Washburn. He was Russell County attorney for eight years before he ran for the House of Representatives in 1960 and was elected.
He never lost an election you know, was reelected to Congress four times and elected to the Senate again and again until he resigned in 1996. He was involved. Really from the beginning because he was a, a, I'm gonna say aggressive, assertive, ambitious young legislator in the shaping of every piece [00:37:00] of major legislation of the latter half of the 20th century.
So we're talking the American century. We're talking about signature pieces of legislation, whether it's in the, in the sixties and working on a bipartisan basis, voting for the Civil Rights Act. Voting for the Voting Rights Act but also working with Georgia McGovern on food insecurity issues in the 1960s.
Doing international trips to India, talking about how can we, how can we sell commodities to India? How can we stabilize Southeast Asia? How can we also benefit the Kansas farmer doing all of these things? And then getting into the Senate has maiden speech on the floor of the Senate dedicated, I mean, this is, this is a signature, this is an identity piece for, for senators.
The Signature Policy Initiative is opportunities for people with disabilities. On the floor of the Senate in 1969, working for over two decades with people from all parties, grassroots advocates folks across the country and internationally to develop the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which was finally [00:38:00] passed.
I mean, that's another part of what we talk about when we were talking to young people, is that like your, your victories are not gonna come easy. They're not gonna be tomorrow. They're not gonna be next week, next month, or next year. Show up, do the work, work with people who think differently than you, and before you know it, something will have something wonderful will have happened.
It's these fantastic interactions on a daily basis that somebody of his in his position has, whether it's with staff, with constituents, with other members of Congress, with world leaders, And, and this great accumulation of those that just, it's just, it's astonishing.
Scott Heidner: And all of those, the archives contain, I mean, everything going back through a Senate career, does it even go back further into his time in the Kansas legislature and
Audrey Coleman: we have a few pieces of material from the legislature now, you have to keep in mind too that, you know, when somebody becomes, actually, I should start even further back.
We've got letters home to his, you know, letters, [00:39:00] family letters Oh wow. Between his parents and his family. And he, when he was a student at ku Yeah. And then when he was you know, serving in World War II and was away of training or, or eventually serving in Europe.
Scott Heidner: Just a detailed question.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: But I assume, you know, you can't. Physically get those out and touch 'em. Unless you're part of the inside
Audrey Coleman: you, these are open to the public. So yes, you will be supervised when you're using these materials, but you don't have to have any particular credentials.
Scott Heidner: Wow.
Audrey Coleman: We have, we have resources online that can kind of help steer you to what you might be interested in.
And we have great archivists, our senior archivist, Sarah Gard and her team. You know, you could say, I'm interested in this area, or I'm interested in seeing World War II letters or you know, a different, a different policy area. We do a lot of instruction on main campus too, for different, you know, Classes about policy areas, Medicare, Medicaid and engaging with these materials and what was the policy discussion during those times.
Scott Heidner: It's just overwhelming to me to think about the fact that you could go in there as a, a layperson, you know, not a a [00:40:00] presidential historian Right. Or a congressional archivist, but just a, a regular person Yeah. And actually have access to a letter from 80 years ago that he might have written to or received from his parents.
That is
Audrey Coleman: mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Is mind blowing.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. It's, it's mind blowing. And, the letters, you know, from that period when he's a student and, and a soldier those are fun to engage KU students with and younger because it's like, here's, here's a, a boy, Bobby Joe, who is just like you, you know, we all start from somewhere.
And you know, he was strong and ambitious and intelligent and had all of those gifts and was extremely driven. But we're all writing home asking mom for cookies.
And to go back to where you know, we were, you were asking about stuff from the legislature. So, when you're serving one term in the Kansas legislature, you don't, you don't know that you're gonna be Bob Dole, right. Four decades down the road. Right. So you don't keep a lot of stuff.
Yeah. So there's less stuff from the early years, and the [00:41:00] proportion of materials from the house and the Senate years are, are certainly reflect that too. There's less materials from the house. Of course, he had a smaller staff you know, he had multiple offices in the Senate for his senate office and his leadership office and the number of outreach offices that he had around the state.
So it's, as an archive, it's considered to be newer because it's more recent. We have a wonderful research program that digitizes materials sometimes on request if there's not too much stuff that folks are interested in. A lot of times folks will come to the archive and, and stay research fellows, travel grant recipients will come and, and use the materials on.
Scott Heidner: It's gonna be my next question.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: And again, they're not just interested in Bob Dole or senate history. They're doing research on a policy issue. A lot of it is, you know, talking about American political development, how did folks from opposing parties work together?
What were some of the messaging? What was some of the rhetoric? What were they saying in public versus the kind of letters and, and Conversations they were having in private, which kind of what we were talking about earlier.
[00:42:00] Mm-hmm.
You know, the true story, the real story kind of stuff. So it's just fascinating.
One project that I should mention cuz it's really exciting, is called the American Kuhn Kuhn, oh gosh. American Congress Digital Archives Project. And this is a project that's being led out of the University of West Virginia. We are one of three original partners on that project that has received funding from from the neh.
And this is a foundational project to develop an online tool that will bring congressional archives like ours together with other congressional archives out there. I mean, there are members of Congress and other archives out there into a single portal online because as it is now, Congress is the least studied branch of the American government.
You can go to presidential library, you get the presidential papers, you go to, you wanna study congressional here, history, you have to go to. 15 different places, 50 different places to get at all those papers if they even exist. The papers that are in archives that are not housed at the National [00:43:00] Archives in the, in the National Records Administration are considered personal papers, personal property by the member.
They can get rid of 'em if they want, so they may not even exist. Which makes Senator, he or Chancellor Hemingway's advocacy even more important, you know, decades ago that, that, you know, this material is, needs to be in Kansas. It needs to be kept. You know, and it's material that is disper, it's difficult to do this research because you have to travel all around.
So this portal will bring these materials together, help us virtually recreate the relationships that were taking place on the ground by, by marrying all of these things up together. And our goal is to have a better understanding of how Congress was really work, doing their work.
Scott Heidner: Yeah, that's gotta be, it's a great segue into my, I want to ask you one more question about the archives before we move on and, and maybe close it out by talking a little bit about the doles themselves.
But my last question for you on the archives. It's a good segue, this work you're doing [00:44:00] coordinating with the other libraries or the other institutes, because I've been thinking the whole time the person or the group of people that will probably get the most frequent benefit out of that, or the true historians, you know, the scholars that this is their, their livelihood is this kinda research.
And I was going to ask you this. Undoubtedly, there have been very accomplished authors that have accessed materials at the Dole Institute as part of their research and their books, you know, books that a lot of our listeners may have read. When somebody of that caliber. Comes to or uses the Dole Institute.
Do you even know it happens? I mean, do they check in with you? If you get a, a, a congressional historian that's writing a book about, maybe it's about the passage of the Americans of Disabilities Act, you know, something like that. And they're coming to do a substantive part of their research in your archives.
It is open to the public. Do you even know that happens?[00:45:00]
Audrey Coleman: Well, in the past when I was overseeing the archive, I definitely would've known as a director. I, well, no, just in as inter staff communication, but but it is something that you know, If anybody knows the, the, the culture of libraries and, and open access and, and privacy, that that's not something that would necessarily be known.
Scott Heidner: Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: But your comment allows me to bring up a good point is that and I mentioned the archive is relatively new. We're ripe for some really high level research to, to be happening with our materials. We have lots of scholars, really great scholars that are published with the university presses that come and do research in our archive.
But as for household names not too many. We're kind of waiting for them to, to come and, and to, you know, tell this extraordinary story.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. Or if they have come, they didn't announce themselves. Well, yeah. But it is, I don't know what I think is cooler. I guess maybe we'll close with this thought and we'll, we'll move on to the doles to conclude the podcast, but [00:46:00] I don't know what I think is cooler either that you might.
Cross paths with some of these folks as they do research, you know, in your archives or the fact that they may have stopped by and we would never even know it in the first place. Either way, I think that's kind of cool. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's I have probably used up all the clock we'd, we'd reserved with you already, but if you don't mind, let's talk a little bit about the doles themselves.
Sure. To take us home. You had the, the, the good fortune to be able to, to work and to know Senator Dole, and you've worked with Senator Elizabeth Dole as well. Yeah. Tell us what you think listeners would want and need to know about their story. You know, we've talked already, you've touched on his military service and really intermittently, we've touched on a lot of his service throughout the podcast mm-hmm.
As we've talked about other things. But tell us anything that you think listeners ought to know about them. [00:47:00] And how who they are have impacted what the Dole Institute has become. And I would really like to give you a chance to make a free plug to close things out. You guys are coming up on both, what would've been Senator Dole's hundredth birthday, and it coincides with the 20 year anniversary of the launch of the institute.
So let me give you the, the floor, basically for the balance of the podcast and tell us what you think is, is relevant that listeners may not know about them and their story. Mm-hmm. And and close with the pitch about what's coming up.
Audrey Coleman: Well, as you say, we've talked a little bit in bits and pieces about Senator Bob Dole's biography, but I don't think what I've said specifically, and this is part of the stories that get lost to generations is reminding folks that he was gravely wounded on the battlefield in World War ii in the hills of Italy.
He wasn't expected to survive. Initially. He was paralyzed from the neck down, and he [00:48:00] endured over three years of, of rehabilitation in Topeka Winter General and in military hospitals elsewhere, and recuperated in, in Arizona for a time. This transformation is ex experience of his going from the triathlete.
You know, he was a quarter miler. He played football and basketball at ku. He was recruited by Phog Allen to play for the Ku Jayhawks. To go from somebody who is really a, a hero of your community and Russell somebody who people were watching and expecting great things from, and to be in the attitude of the time, a broken person.
There is an extraordinary essay that he wrote and sometime in the fifties, it's not dated that is actually on display right now at the institute for the first time. It's a two page essay. It talks about how I overcame my physical handicap, and he talks about the experience of going from being this fit, able-bodied intelligent, you know, wanting to become a surgeon to someone [00:49:00] who had a permanent disability, his right arm, hand in arm would never recover mobility.
And what it felt like to be a man in uniform with a disability. Garnering recognition, respect you know, and, and, and support from your community going into, and then being someone in plain clothes as a person, with disability and how people treat you when they think you're one thing and not the other.
And really internalizing, understanding the experience of someone with a visible disability. And to a certain extent, invisible disability. Having society not expect anything of you anymore and what that feels like. And overcoming, I guess not bending to low societal expectations, but saying, you know, I'm still me.
I still have abilities. I am gonna beat this thing. Who ca you know, who cares? This thing doesn't define me anymore. Knowing that that was his own experience, [00:50:00] and knowing that there were millions of Americans who felt the same way. Maybe they acquired a disability in war, maybe they were born with a disability, maybe they aged and, you know, had an injury or acquired a disability later in life.
To read the papers and understanding we, we will all be disabled as at one time in our lives, whether we're ill or whether we're old. That is a universal experience and we need to have empathy for each other and do whatever we can in government to make sure that people with disabilities feel welcome and have the ability, if they choose to participate in society.
You know, that's his experience around being a person with a disability. But that also helped him, you know, transcend barriers talking, you know, with he promoted. With race and gender. He was very supportive of, of women in leadership in ways that were ahead of his time. I would argue also again, as a Republican voting with Democrats in the 1960s, recognizing that people are equals [00:51:00] and they deserve equal equal protection under the law, equal opportunities.
I don't think we can talk about that enough these days. And that formative experience of, of him having, going through that as a young man informed the rest of his life and his leadership for Senator Elizabeth. She was one of, I'm gonna get this number right, one of 25 women in a class of 550 men at Harvard Law School.
And we talk about these days, you know, being in spaces where you're not expected to be or not feeling welcome. This was a hostile environment. The, on the first, she will tell the story and it's well known if you have heard her speak. But on her first day of law school, a a classmate of hers, a male came up to her and said, you know, you should be ashamed of yourself for being here, number one, what a thing to say right?
To anyone for any reason. And she said, I'm, I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean. He said, this spot could have been taken by a man who would actually [00:52:00] use his law degree, making the assumption that she was there to, to meet a husband.
Scott Heidner: Unbelievable.
Audrey Coleman: You know, day, day one. Day one. Yeah.
Scott Heidner: Welcome,
Audrey Coleman: welcome. Yeah.
Yeah. Holy cow. And you know, she went on of course to have an out outstanding career on her own. She was federal trade Commissioner under the Nixon administration. She actually started out as an intern in consumer affairs under Lyndon Johnson. Went on to work in the FTC for president Nixon.
She campaigned with Bob Dole in 88, you know, in 80, 88 and, and 19 96, 19 76, I should say. You know, that's what the joke was, that their honeymoon was the 1976 presidential campaign when Bob Dole was running with Gerald Ford for, for vice president. But that's, that's another great story that folks need to know is that, you know, she is a professional woman adept in politics.
In 1976, she said, Hey, I'm just sitting around here, guys. Maybe I could go out on, on behalf of the ticket. And I said, well, like, you know, That's not something [00:53:00] that we, that's you don't need to do. That's not something we expect of you. She said, you know, just, you watch. Right? And she went out there and, you know, doubled the coverage of the dole portion of that ticket she spoke in Louisiana and ended up on the top of the fold of the newspaper the very next day.
Talk about, you know, nobody, nobody's asking her to do that. Nobody's encouraging her. She's just, I'm doing this. Yeah. And I'm gonna show you,
Scott Heidner: if I can interject just one note there as well. It is, it is a, not frequently, you know, discussed piece of history or whatever, but the Ford Dole ticket, if you go back and look, now granted they ended up losing the election, but the margin and where they were polling was abysmal.
And the turning point that really brought them back into competition was two things. It was Elizabeth Dole and it was Betty Ford. Going out and taking more prominent roles. [00:54:00] That's when the poll numbers started to recover. And in both cases the same was true with Betty Ford. You know, it was just dismissed how cute.
You, you, you want to go out and speak. And then she just went out and killed it. Mm-hmm. And America, you know, just embraced her and loved her. And it was, yeah. And it's a, it's a long forgotten fact, but they were two of the absolute pioneers in terms of the spouses playing substantive roles in, in those elections.
It was a transformational deal. Yeah.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Very, very important Time in history. Sometimes you don't recognize it until you've gone through it. Well said. But, to continue with Senator Elizabeth's career, and I'll be brief about this, but a, a two, two time presidential cabinet member, department of Transportation secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Reagan secretary of the Department of Labor under George HW Bush, went on to become the president of the American Red Cross, only the second [00:55:00] woman in history since Clara Barton founded the organization.
Scott Heidner: Wow.
Audrey Coleman: And then went on to be pretty good company. Yeah. Yeah. And again you know, 150 years later, it hadn't had a, had a woman, a woman leader. I'm glossing over her accomplishments in those offices. The trifecta when she was a department of transportation secretary, and making sure that folks were wearing seat belts nationally that were raising the drinking age to 21.
when she was president of the American Red Cross was at the height of the AIDS crisis and the, the blood supply, the nation's blood supply needed to be secured and also we needed more blood.
Scott Heidner: Yeah. I remember her leading the Red Cross, but you just made the comment. It's funny what impactful moments of history. You don't see them for what they are in the moment. Only in hindsight it. Yeah. If I ever knew, I'd long forgotten that she landed that at one of the most challenging times they would've ever had.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Wow.
Audrey Coleman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott Heidner: Mercy
Audrey Coleman: And a mastermind [00:56:00] of, of process and policy streamlined the American Red Crosses you know, collecting system in a time when it was just under extreme duress. Yeah. Went on to be elected a senator from North Carolina, first woman senator from North Carolina.
And then she's, she's still busy today. She has her own foundation, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation for military caregivers. It's an organization that's 10 years old and she is an outreach powerhouse. Has, has implemented programs all over the world and is working all over the country, excuse me with the VA to create policies that better support the spouses of veterans because it's in everybody's best as folks who are.
Caring for wounded warriors and also having their own, as we talked about, the p o w and the Mia wives having their own challenges in their own lives. Yeah. And we're not just talking about women, we're talking about spouses, we're talking about children and, and parents of wounded warriors. She's an incredible woman.
Scott Heidner: Well, let me close with this the, [00:57:00] we've already used up more than an hour of your time and appreciate you being so, so gracious with sharing these stories. But why don't we close with this little bit of a free. Announcement on for the Dole Institute, but also I think of ought to be of interest to our listeners out there as well.
What's coming up specifically with commemorating what would've been Senator Dole's hundredth birthday, which of course coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Institute. I know you folks have some exciting things, plan to mark those moments. Tell, let's close with a, a free sales pitch tell, but, but it's more than that.
It ought to be of intense interest to a lot of folks. Yeah. Tell us what's coming up.
Audrey Coleman: Yeah. Well, thank you Scott, and thanks again to Bhl for, for, for having me as your guest today. So actually our celebrations are well underway. Senator Trent Lott and Tom Daschle helped us do a groundbreaking of this amazing tribute earthwork.
By Kansas artist Stan Heard that depicts Senator Bob Dole. And [00:58:00] it is underway. Work is underway right now on the grounds of the institute. If you're a fan of Stan or a fan of Bob Dole or just wanted another reason to get out and around and come to the institute this summer, you have got to come and watch this thing and process.
It's really fascinating. We have put out a call across the state for our K through 12 students to create art artworks and mail them to us to be a part of the finished piece. We've got hundreds of them already and we expect at at least as many more. And that will be, those materials will be laid into the piece before it's dedicated on July 22nd when we have a wonderful public celebration at the institute.
Senator Elizabeth will be with us. Senator Bob Dole's, daughter Robin will be with us. We will pay some tributes to Senator Dole, dedicate the earthwork, just have a, a public celebration. Richard Norton Smith will join us for a live virtual interview. My predecessor, bill Lacey will interview Richard who will be in Grand Rapids, but that'll be a live conversation and folks will be, have an opportunity to, to engage with [00:59:00] questions for Richard.
Also featuring Carrie, Tim Chuck, who is a former speech writer for Senders, Bob and Elizabeth Dole. We'll talk about the wit and wisdom of Senator Bob Dol as well. We'll have kids activities. We're expecting a food truck or two, maybe one that's selling Dole Whip in honor of. I'm not kidding.
We found these folks in Topeka. I saw 'em on Facebook. I was like, I think we gotta get these people. So that's outstanding. We'll confirm that and put it on our website, but it's, it's gotta happen. I'm convinced. That is awesome. Get a bouncy house. Have some music. We'll have military music from the unit that actually played it at the dedication, the, the locally based army Reserve band.
Scott Heidner: Very cool.
Audrey Coleman: We play some music. And Ryan Manuel, who's a local singer songwriter. So lots of reasons to visit the Dole Institute for everything that we are and have been as we've been talking about. But for this special exhibit, that essay that I mentioned, you'll, it's, it's typed on onion skin paper.
You can just really put yourself in the moment in that head space. It's on display, see the earth work, come celebrate with us and the earth work will be on be [01:00:00] maintained. You know, you can come after we'll be maintaining that through, through the end of October. So it's definitely, you know, get it while you can.
Come see it while you can. And well, we look forward to seeing you for many reasons.
Scott Heidner: Well, that is awesome, and I might close with this just a free personal testimonial. It is, it is such a treasure, not only for the community, but for the state. And I would argue even for the country. So to listeners, if you haven't come to check it out, I hope you will.
And I would say again, even if you have been there, but it's been three years, five years, 10 years come again, you're not gonna have the same experience. And there's always new and cool stuff going on there. And especially so with these anniversaries coming up worth the trip. And if all else fails all online, you know, you can go and have a lot of the experience just with the materials that are available there.
Well, Audrey Coleman, it has been our pleasure to have you as a guest on the bhl podcast. We are. Passionate about institutions like the Dole Institute that tell [01:01:00] critical stories from our history and use those as teaching tools. We love partnering with groups like yours to try and share that with a broader audience.
And we thank what you do matters. So thank you for being here with us today.
Audrey Coleman: Thank you, Scott. It's been a pleasure.
Scott Heidner: All right. B h l listeners, thank you for tuning in. We will catch you on the next edition of the B H L Podcast.