Kansas City stories that brought us joy in 2024, from the KCUR ...

It’s important to remember that there’s always joy to be found around Kansas City.

We know journalism can be a bummer, especially when serious news requires asking people to talk about their worst day. And nobody wants to only read about bad things happening.

At KCUR, we’re lucky to also get to talk to people opening a new business, trying delicious food for the first time, and finding solutions for problems in their lives.

To close out 2024, we wanted to round up joyful moments from KCUR’s reporting to share some of that warmth, and remind us all about the good in the world.

Read on for some of the stories that brought us smiles and a sense of optimism this year. We promise that we’ll keep looking for that feeling in 2025, too.

Kansas City Chiefs win another Super Bowl — and start hunting for a three-peat

Our city erupted in cheers this February as our Kansas City Chiefs won their second straight Super Bowl.

It was the Chiefs franchise’s fourth NFL championship, and it thwarted a 49ers attempt to avenge a Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs four years ago.

"I've watched Kansas City my whole life. It's really cool to see them go back-to-back, and be able to experience it as a college student and again as an adult," said Jillian Jones, who went to the University of Kansas and witnessed the first Chiefs Super Bowl win in 2020.

KCUR talked to fans who shelled out between $7,000 and $77,000 for the game at Allegiant Stadium. And did we mention a Chiefs flag buried under the stadium may have been what clinched the win for us?

Your Chiefs team isn’t the only dynasty in town, though. In 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs wheelchair football squad won their second title.

“I’m gonna keep playing until I can’t play anymore,” said offensive lineman John Teegarden, who was still in the game at age 61.

And maybe most impressively, the Royals even got to play October baseball this year — rising from one of the MLB's worst teams to a playoff contender. We'll take that as a victory too.

Leap year babies celebrate their birthdays for the first time in four years

2024 happened to be a Leap Year, which was a really big deal for Leap Day babies (Including KCUR’s very own news director!).

A panel of leaplings joined Up To Date to discuss how they commemorated their special days on February 29.One of them was Becky Janzen, who was born in 1952 and got to celebrate her 18th leap birthday this year with a retro senior prom theme, complete with two ‘50s classics: maraschino cherry cake and doo-wop.

Kansas Citians are improving our environment with their own hands

This year, a group called Friends of the Kaw cleared literal tons of garbage out of the Kansas River. And we mean tons. Since 2018, their volunteers have dug 30 tons of vehicle battery cases out of sandbars.

So dramatic is their progress that the group now wants to finish clearing all of the Kansas River’s decades-old trash sites by 2030 — a goal that would have felt unreachable in the past.

“Sandbars are a lot cleaner now,” said Bill Hughes, a resident of Valley Falls. “We can do this – if we can have enough volunteers and we can keep at it.”

Also this year, local high schoolers worked to put more green space back in our city.

A program called Green Team, run by grassroots nonprofit Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group, improves public spaces in Kansas City, Kansas, which bears the weight of decades of racist policies.

Lawns won’t cut it anymore. Instead, these kids want to stroll through any neighborhood and see flowers, native grasses, insects and respite from the summer heat.

“You can just plant a few plants and say it’s green,” said Oliver Faulkner, one of the high schoolers on the Green Team. “But if it’s not actually being used by the nature around it, it kind of is doing the same thing as a building would.”

That story was part of our new podcast Up From Dust, from KCUR Studios and the Kansas News Service, which actually gave us a whole lot to be optimistic about when it comes to the environment.

Kansas City got to see an (almost) total eclipse of the sun

On April 8, a solar eclipse swept across the U.S., hitting 89% coverage at its peak in Kansas City, just before 2 p.m.

While cities along the path of totality saw a boom in tourism from out-of-towners trying to catch the last North American solar eclipse until 2044, residents around the KC metro found ways to watch closer to home, too, making friends along the way.

KCUR reporters dispersed to a few eclipse watch parties (while a few of us found a patch of grass outside the office to spectate).

Emily Walkenshaw, 20, and Sierra Woolschlager, 20, drove up from Clinton, Missouri, and ended up spending the day with some new friends they made at the Overland Park arboretum. “We've never been here," said Terisa Thomas, who came with her 19-year-old son, Shaun. "I just looked up where's the best place to see the eclipse. Then we got probably about 10 or 15 feet in, saw (them) and started talking. We just kind of all met today."

Kids will be kids — and do really cool things

The children are our future, and we’re in good hands. KCUR’s education reporter Jodi Fortino gets to interact with our youngest Kansas Citians, who have had a fair amount of success this year.

They’re learning to cook and manage kitchens at schools across the metro, including at fine dining establishments like the Broadmoor Bistro in Overland Park.

Finley Jewell, a junior at Shawnee Mission South High School, said she thought the program was “super fun” at first, but had no idea that cooking would soon transform into her passion. Now she’s looking to attend culinary school.

“Nothing compares to cooking for somebody and them eating it and you seeing a smile on their face and them being like, ‘What did you do to this?’” Jewell said.

Though most high schoolers aren’t old enough to vote, they also got to engage in the civic process this year.

At Guadalupe Centers Charter High School, students reviewed different races, candidates and ballot initiatives ahead of the Nov. 5 election. On Election Day, students went into makeshift polling booths and cast their own ballot as part of a schoolwide mock election.

“The impact is going to be felt by all whether you can vote or not,” said Greg Brenner, the high school’s American government teacher. “Just giving students the opportunity to discuss and learn about it is kind of the main idea, to at least be introduced to what's going on in these elections.”

Kids in a town called Swedeborg, Missouri, recognized the hard work of their janitor-slash-bus driver-slash-phone operator by naming their school after her: the Claudene Wilson Learning Center.

Wilson had been working more than 30 years in the school district, and “mostly” retired this year, though she still helps on the bus a few times a week. She said the kids are what kept her coming back.

“I'm not a hero,” Wilson said. “I'm only here to do what I have to do for the kids.”

Quote of the year.

Kansas City is on everyone’s radar

Kansas City’s star continued to rise on the national level in 2024 -- and now it’s not just because of Taylor Swift.

The city welcomed a record number of visitors last year, who brought with them a record amount of spending in the region.

Savannah Hawley-Bates reports that Kansas City was ranked by both the New York Times and Travel + Leisure as a top global travel destination.

Both publications noted the Kansas City Current’s new CPKC Stadium — the first in the world built specifically for women’s pro sports — while the just-opened Rabbit hOle museum also got a shoutout.

In March, the Current got to kick off their season with a W at their new, permanent home on the riverfront. It meant a lot to fans who have followed the team since the original iteration, FC Kansas City, played their first game at Shawnee Mission District Stadium in 2013. Madeline Fox was there to capture the sights and sounds, and she also kept reporting on the team as they made it all the way to the NWSL semifinals.

At the same time, Monica Brady and her wife Rachel Glenn have harnessed the recent influx of love to bring the first womens-sports-only sports bar to Kansas City. While The Dub isn’t open yet (look out for that in 2025), the pair hosted popup viewing parties for Current games across the city.

The Rabbit hOle, a six-year labor of love by co-founders Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin, finally opened this year.

Their project officially kicked off in 2018 with a $15 million capital campaign. With the money, Pettid and Cowdin bought a massive, four-story warehouse in North Kansas City's Iron District, and hired artists and fabricators to bring children’s storybooks to life.

Cowdin said it’s all designed to help children and their parents connect through stories without a lot of unnecessary distractions.

“Immersion isn't just big projections on walls or being surrounded by big things," he said. "It's about finding all of the little things that combine to make you feel as if you're in another place." Julie Denesha explores.

Kansas City put a spotlight on film, and got showcased itself

This year was the second in a row that Shawn Edwards brought the Juneteenth Film Festival to Kansas City. While Black culture’s contributions like jazz and barbecue to Missouri’s history are well known, Edwards — an award-winning film critic for FOX 4 and the festival's founder — says it’s time to celebrate Black Kansas Citians’ mark on cinema.

“It's extremely important to have a Black filmmakers documenting history, since we are now living in a climate where, in this country, there are groups of people that are actively either trying to erase history or rewrite history,” said Edwards. Lawrence Brooks IV has the details.

That history will also be celebrated in the upcoming Black Movie Hall of Fame, which broke ground this year in the Historic 18th & Vine District.

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival also got its moment to shine in a mockumentary film called “Rennie,” that premiered at the Folly Theater in October.

The film follows a motley group of Ren Fair performers on a quest to save their small town from a flood — and maybe find themselves along the way, too. Get the scoop from an Up To Date episode hosted by Lisa Rodriguez and produced by Claudia Brancart.

This year, we also got to see a new documentary about Kansas City civil servant Alvin Brooks, young Missouri women build a government from the ground up at Girls State, and even a Hallmark Christmas movie that celebrates the Chiefs and local fan culture.

And we celebrated, and mourned, the final season of the quietly beautiful HBO show “Somebody Somewhere,” which was set in Manhattan, Kansas.

Kansas City spots get mural makeovers

Kansas City-based painter and tattoo artist Juan Moya has spent the last three decades helping to maintain an iconic Westside mural he originally created for free when he was 17.

This year, he redid the space once more, but this time, his community made sure he was compensated for his work, instead of doing it out of the goodness of his own heart.

Thanks to a grant, he was able to step away from his regular job as an artist at Exile Tattoo in Westport to fully focus on completing the project.

“I felt so appreciated,” said Moya. “I haven’t done the work to actually calculate the hours but I worked on it (this time) for 43 days, 7 days a week. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get it done if it weren't for Mother Nature and Old Man Winter staying at bay.” Zach Perez has the full story.

The Independence Avenue Bridge is well known for destroying large trucks by just sitting there, but now it gets to continue its passion in style. This year, four local artists got to deck out the infamous bridge with murals, turning it into a true work of art.

The $17,0000 project, funded by a ReBuild KC neighborhood grant, was part of a city and railroad effort to make visual, lighting and safety improvements to the area.

But do the new murals make truck drivers think twice? “I don't think anybody really believes that,” said artist Mike Elder. “But the idea is to bring attention to the bridge, and attention to the neighborhood.” Julie Denesha brings us this story and some great photos.

Julie Denesha also took us to Independence, for a Valentine's Day project filling the town with heart-shaped messages of love, and stopped through the Historic Northeast, where juniors from the Kansas City Art Institute spent months designing and painting murals that turned a neglected alleyway into a safe, beautiful communal space.

“I was asking myself this morning, like, ‘Why do I do these things? Like, why am I doing this?’” said illustration professor Héctor Casanova. “It's for the endorphin rush of just being able to see that this is making people's lives so much brighter.”

Celebrating KC food that filled our body and soul

You know it wouldn’t be a KCUR year-end roundup without mention of food. In 2024, there was so much delicious stuff to eat.

Like what Savannah Hawley-Bates calls “the metro’s best pretzel,” available for only seven days a year at Independence’s SantaCaliGon Days festival.

Heather Browne is part of a troupe of dance moms, and they sell the pretzels to raise money for MelRoe’s School of Dance Booster Club.

We also traveled to Sylvan Grove, a small town on the wind-swept plains of Kansas, where one restaurant is offering a renewed sense of hope -- and a cheeseburger worth driving for. Frank Morris wrote about what Fly Boy Brewery and Eats means to a county that’s lost more than half its population, but nonetheless deserves a “place to be proud of.”

2024 was also the year that a Kitty’s Cafe sandwich was well worth the wait.

Months after the beloved Midtown restaurant closed unexpectedly in the spring, more than a dozen other customers were waiting and lined up the morning it reopened.

One was Dave Haney, who said he’s been coming once a month for 15 years. He claims Kitty’s has “the best chicken sandwich and pork tenderloin anywhere, as far as I’m concerned.” Gabe Rosenberg stood in line and captured the day Kitty’s reopened.

We also got to shine a light on a long-overshadowed and underappreciated cookie from Kansas City’s past: Hydrox.

The cookie was a creation of Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. Billed as the “aristocrat of cookies,” Hydrox had a novel combo of chocolate and cream filling.

While some remember them only as a poor replica of Oreo, it turns out that Hydrox aren’t a knockoff — they’re the original sandwich cookie.

Hydrox debuted in 1908, a full four years before Oreo came out, and they were revolutionary at the time. They also taste pretty dang good.

"I feel like Hydrox is the underdog sandwich cookie," says KCUR reporter Frank Morris, who grew up eating Hydrox and liking them. "A Hydrox cookie, the cookie part, tastes sharper. It's got a much more sophisticated taste than an Oreo." A People’s History of Kansas City, hosted by Mackenzie Martin, recounted the history of Hydrox.

And just a few more moments of joy, because we can’t get enough

Our newsroom made it a goal in 2024 to report on more joy, and we actually did so much we can't include it all here. But here are some other great stories we want to spread some love to.

On Kansas City fields, ‘beeping balls’ give visually impaired kids a chance to play kickballKansas City women's rugby teams welcome new recruits into the scrum: 'I'm here to hit somebody'Inside the Kansas City kitchen cooking up meals for unhoused people — and teaching others how 25 years in, Kansas City's Rural Grit Happy Hour is 'never the same twice'50 years later, Sedalia is still talking about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll at ‘Missouri’s Woodstock’A rare 2-headed snake is Kansas City’s most charming new visitorDolly Parton takes over ‘Dolly’ Theater to celebrate Missouri funding her Imagination LibraryA lasting Kansas City Christmas tradition: Picking out a tree from this couple's farmA Kansas artist's love for his wife lives on as a Christmas tradition in Lindsborg