Northeast News
April 6, 2011
Since first semester, Gladstone Elementary School first graders have been studying the life of Ollie Gates, owner of Kansas City’s Gates Bar-B-Q. It’s part of the school’s new heroes project, which teaches children about “local heroes.”

When Gates visited the school in December, the first graders learned his favorite game to play is checkers. That’s when they decided to invite Gates back for a checkers tournament. Gates visited the school Tuesday, April 5, giving pointers on checkers and life.

He left the students with this quote: “Playing checkers is one of my favorite games. The reason we play checkers is so we’ll have an idea of the next move in life. So, take checkers and attribute that to life and say, ‘I know the next move if I move this way.’ Look at the next move, so the second move will be to your advantage.” Photos by Leslie Collins

Look for our feature story in next week’s edition of Northeast News.