By - Joseph Schneider,
ShowMe Times Contributing Writer

For most Americans, September eleventh of 2001 was our first encounter with the fear and anxiety associated with a terrorist attack. Dexter native Leila Kandalaft (DHS '84), however, unfortunately learned just how appalling acts of terrorism are as a fifth grader.

Although Leila was born and raised in Dexter, her father, Dr. Fuad Kandalaft (deceased) immigrated to the United States from Jerusalem, Palestine in 1948. After being drafted into military service, he went on to become an American citizen and studied medicine in Kirksville, Missouri. After completing his education, he moved to Dexter and began working at the Poe Clinic on South Walnut Street.

Having never met her father's family, Leila was taken by her father to Amman, Jordan in November of 1976. On the first day of their visit (November 17th), Fuad took his daughter on a walking tour of his home. After a spell, they stopped for rest in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel. While Fuad left in search of a newspaper, four terrorists burst into the lobby, opened fire with automatic weapons and began lobbing hand grenades--the attack was coordinated with car bombs that went off outside of the hotel at the same time. Fortunately, Leila stayed out of sight under a table and remained safe during the attack. Fuad did not share the same fate. Hearing commotion, he returned to the lobby in search of Leila only to wind up in a physical altercation with a terrorist. The attacker attempted to take Fuad hostage. Fighting back, he suffered a bullet wound in his foot and shard of shrapnel in his forehead. Leila recalls him using his belt as a tourniquet on his leg, attributing this to his survival of the ordeal.

Dexter's Dr. Fuad Kandalaft carried his wounds with him for the rest of his life; despite numerous procedures to repair damage suffered by his foot, he walked with a limp. Limp or no, Fuad and his daughter were lucky to be alive, as the terrorists had killed seven in total that day.

Leila suffered no physical wounds, but she did experience nightmares in the weeks after the attack. Soon enough they too had disappeared, only to return exactly twenty-two years later, after the birth of her daughter on November 17th, 1998, 22 years to the day of the attack. Leila says that the recurrence of her nightmares motivated her to research the attack she was forced to witness.

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A group of Global Survivors Network at the media training conference in July, 2011.

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And during research of the attack, she found the Global Survivors Network. GSN is an international organization of survivors of terrorist attacks who are dedicated to sharing the message that violent acts of terror must stop. Recently, GSN has produced the Oscar-nominated 2010 short documentary "Killing in the Name," which depicts the actions of a lone Al-Qaeda suicide bomber who murdered twenty-seven people at a wedding. The film brings attention to the enormous quantity of terrorist acts that bring death to innocents in order to confront global terrorism. “Killing in the Name” will air on HBO this fall.

Ms. Kandalaft's involvement in GSN includes organizing a screening of the aforementioned documentary, attending seminars, and publicly speaking out against terrorism. She is bothered by how our Western culture tends to associate Islam with terrorists and is attempting to "break down western fears about Islam" through a children's book she has committed herself to writing.

Leila is the daughter of Kitty Kandalaft of Dexter. She lives in Ludwigsburg, Germany with her two children, Helena, 12 and Alexander, 10. Leila’s sisters, Catherine & Victoria recently joined her in New York City, the site of the GSN conference. Her third sister, Patty, lives in Seattle, with her daughter who is named Leila Serene.

Leila says that she is thankful to share her story to honor those who are lost daily to acts of terror and spread GSN's message of peace.

Photos Above:

Top Photo: Leila Kandalaft pictured with her childen, Helena, 12 and Alexander, 10..

Bottom Photo: A group of Global Survivors Network at the media training conference in July, 2011.

By Annabeth Miiler,
ShowMe Times Editor

The clock will strike midnight tonight, and 60 seconds later fans will sit back in their theater chairs, hold on to the bucket of popcorn and bask in the opening of the eighth and final movie in the Harry Potter series.

The final film in the series of blockbusters based on J.K. Rowling's hugely popular novels telling of battles between good and evil in a fantasy world of witchcraft hits theaters July 15. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – will begin right after midnight, July 15, in hundreds of theaters across the country - including in Dexter.

Dexter Twin Cinema will be having a midnight showing for local Harry Potter fans, and Jake Durham and the crew at the local cinema are ready for the big night. Durham is the assistant manager at Dexter Twin Cinema.

“We are selling advance tickets for tonight,” Durham said Thursday afternoon. Durham and Emily Ray were selling the advance tickets and keeping an eye on a afternoon matinee. Bothvsaid Potter tickets were not as fast for the opening as previous Harry Potter films.

“We weren’t at first going to have a midnight show. It was just decided recently that we were,” Durham said. But they are ready for Pottermania!

The popcorn and concessions will be ready late Thursday night, but the star attraction will be the clash between Harry, his friends and extended family and the evil Lord Voldemort (“He who shall not be named”) and his weird and bizarre followers of just downright wicked people.

Harry Potter is really a long tale of the triumph of good and right over evil and its darkness. It’s the victory of friendship and love over hate and evil in the world. And the amazing thing is that the characters have touched readers on an unprecedented scale.

Since Harry Potter’s introduction to the world, he and his friends have become a global phenomenon. Over the past 15 years, we’ve read about his life in seven brick-thick books, watched him in seven films (soon to be eight). His books have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 67 languages.

A SMT News Report

In a tradition that stretches back more than 70 years, the Miss Dexter Pageant tradition will continue in the community this fall.

The Miss Dexter tradition will continue this Sept. 3, sponsored by the Dexter High School Choral Music Program.

Two separate sets of pageants will be held the weekend of the Labor Day holiday – Miss Dexter Pageants, open to girls in the Dexter Public Schools and set for Saturday, Sept, 3; and the Miss Heartland Pageants for girls from throughout the region on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 4.

The Miss Dexter Pageants include:

• Little Mister and Little Miss, for boys and girls age 3 through Grade 2; 5:30 p.m.
• Petite Miss, girls in grades 3,4,5; 5:30 p.m.
• Junior Miss, girls in grades 6,7, and 8; 6:30 p.m.
• Miss Dexter, girls in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12; 7:30 p.m.

Miss Heartland Pageants include:

• Baby Miss, birth through 17 months; 1:30 p.m.
• Tiny Miss, 18-25 months; 1:45 p.m.
• Wee Miss, 3-5 years; 2 p.m.
• Petite Miss, 6-8 years; 2:30 p.m.
• Pre-Teen Miss, 9-11 years; 2:45 p.m.
• Junior Miss Heartland, 12-14 years, 3 p.m.
• Miss Heartland, 15-19 years, 3:30 p.m.

Pageant wear is required for all pageants. Pageants will be held at the Dexter High School Auditorium, 1101 Grant Street, Dexter. There is no rehearsal and the decision of the judges if final. Parents and family members of contestants are asked to refrain from speaking to judges or risk disqualification of their child.

Entry fee for each pageant is $25. Entries will not be accepted the day of the pageant.

Entry forms are available at the Bunny Patch in Downtown Dexter. Pageant Director is Jamie Sepulvado.

The first Miss Dexter Pageant was held in the early 1930s and Veda Pruitt was crowned the first queen in a pageant held in the old Weeks Theater in Downtown Dexter (across Stoddard Street from Morgan Furniture). Attendants included Mary Ulen, Elsa Sharon Smith, Pauline Burton and Irene Gaines.

For many years the Dexter Soroptimist Club sponsored the pageants. MaryRuth Boone and the DHS Choir began sponsoring the pageants 15 years ago. Boone added the Miss Heartland pageants for girls not only from Dexter but throughout the region.

The DHS Choir program continues the pageant sponsorship, under direction of Sepulvado, who is assuming the role following Boone's retirement.

The pageants are a fundraising event for the high school choral program.

Photo Above: The 2010 Miss Dexter and her court – Miss Dexter McKenzie Mitchell (center), first alternate Kaycee Dukes (left) and second alternate Miranda Warner (right). A new Miss Dexter will be crowned Sept. 3. (SMT File Photo by Annabeth Miller)

Chester (Chet) Medler of Dexter (left) was honored by State Rep. Billy Pat Wright on Thursday night for 60 continuous years of service to the America Legion. Wright presented Medler with a special Certificate of Recognition from the Missouri House of Representatives. The presentation was made at the regular meeting of the Kenady-Hanks Post 59 of the American Legion in Dexter. (ShowMe Times photo)

The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis Friday morning, a final chapter in America’s space flight program draws to and end. And one of the crew members has a close tie to the Show Me State.

NASA Astronaut Sandra Magnus is a graduate of Missouri S &T at Rolla and is one of the quartet of astronauts on the historic space shuttle flight.

Atlantis rocketed into orbit Friday at 11:29 a.m. EDT and is flying at 17,500 mph around the Earth. The mission, STS-135, will catch up with the International Space Station in two days.

"It will only take about 8.5 minutes to get into our initial orbit," says NASA Astronaut Sandra Magnus. "But it's an exciting 8.5 minutes!"

During their 12-day mission, Ferguson and his three crewmembers — Mangus and fellow veteran astronauts Doug Hurley and Rex Walheim — plan to wrap up construction of the space station.

They’ll deliver a new room crammed with a year’s worth of food, water and other supplies and perform suite of experiments in orbit, including the test of a bag able to recycle urine and a space-based iPhone application.

The mission is scheduled to last 12 days. They are expected to land July 20 at 7:06 a.m. EDT.

At S&T, where she played soccer, Magnus earned a bachelor's degree in physics in 1986 and a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1990. She also holds a doctorate from Georgia Tech.

Magnus was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996. She flew her first mission in 2002. A native of Belleville, Ill., she recently told her hometown Illinois newspaper: "Atlantis was the first one I ever flew on, and now it will be my last mission as well. So it holds a special place in my heart."

The other vehicles in NASA's shuttle program, which is being discontinued after 30 years, have already been retired. The crew of the last mission is being limited to four people, instead of the usual six astronauts, because if something goes wrong, Russian crews will eventually have to bring them back to Earth from the ISS.

In 2008-2009, Magnus spent more than four months at the space station, traveling 50,304,000 miles. While living on the ISS, she blogged for a site called spacebook.mst.edu, which was hosted by Missouri S&T. In addition to addressing various issues about life in orbit, she answered questions posed by grade school kids on the blog.

Magnus is somewhat famous for her hair, which, when unencumbered, floats impressively in zero-gravity. During a 2009 phone call to the ISS, President Obama asked her if she had ever thought of getting it cut. When Magnus said no, Obama replied that it was "quite a fashion statement."

Photos Above: The crew of the Atlantis Rex Walheim, Chris Ferguson, Sandy Magnus and Doug Hurley; the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad on Thursday.