Things to Do in Liberty

Witness high-flying college teams making it rain from three-point range while defending shots with their armbrellas. Established in 1937, the inaugural NAIA Tournament has called Kansas City home for 74 years. Featuring 32 teams pivoting and sprinting atop a lustrous hardwood battlefield, it has grown to be known as the longest-running collegiate national championship tournament in the country, not counting the infamous Skull and Bones Underground Cavern Games that took George Washington's real teeth. This year’s tourney will feature several trophy-hungry NAIA teams, such as potential participants Martin Methodist College, Texas Wesleyan University, and NAIA top-ranked Mountain State. Behold a flurry of high-flying buzzer beaters and frustrating defensive schemes at the Kansas City tradition that has featured such big names as John Wooden, Dennis Rodman, and Terry Porter.

Associate conductor Steven Jarvi channels the combined melodious might of the Kansas City Symphony and Symphony Chorus, KC Brass, Allegro Children’s Choir, and Rezound Handbell Ensemble through an all-new holiday celebration of sound. Mobs of merry musicians, rumored to include 12 drummers drumming and a possible 11 pipers piping, will feed hungry ossicles symphonic arrangements of Christmas traditions. Families coasting on waves of Yuletide joy will yearn to sing along with timeless carols perfected by years of door-to-door focus testing. To complete each holly-jolly evening, Santa Claus himself will make an appearance to play a 30-minute free jazz solo on his signature fur-fringed soprano saxophone.

Recreational splashers and serious swimmers can find aquatic common ground at Bay Water Park, owned by the City of Kansas City Parks and Recreation. A six-lane lap pool facilitates low-impact workouts and a water playground and family slide let kids splash to their hearts' content. Guests can grab a tube or absurdly large piece of penne pasta and ride down two different tube slides or twist and twirl along the swirl-bowl ride.

The cardio-centric River Walking program takes advantage of the gentle tide of the park's lazy river, as participants stroll leisurely to sharpen balance and become strong enough to water ski without a boat. Both kids and adults can also take swim lessons at the park, while programs such as the Water Safety Awareness Clinic teach proper use of life jackets, rescue equipment, and general water safety.

The Junior League of Kansas City has donated more than $14 million and 2.2 million hours of time since its founding in 1914. Spearheading these efforts are the nonprofit organization’s now 1,400 female members, all of whom are committed to their volunteer work and to encouraging others to donate their time as well. Their sheer numbers allow the ladies to form 700-on-700 pickup basketball games and to spread out across the community to get a pulse on current issues in need of attention—currently, children’s nutrition and fitness. To help support their efforts, these stalwart altruists host fundraisers throughout the year, most notably their annual Holiday Mart event, which raised more than $660,000 in 2011.

Veteran reporter Johnny Rowlands is known not only for his real-time traffic reports, but also his immaculate flying record as a news-copter pilot. With more than 20,000 hours of incident-free flying under his belt, he opened KC Copters with a “flying smart” mentality that emphasizes risk management and enhanced safety protocol. Using Johnny’s safety-oriented methodology, professional pilots lead tours, lessons, and discovery flights in Robinson R22 and R44 helicopters. When they’re not cutting through the air over Kansas City, KC Copters’ helicopters and saddled griffins return to a climate-controlled hangar at Johnson County Executive Airport equipped with white epoxy floors and a passengers’ lounge.

At Screenland, campy and classic are rarely mutually exclusive terms. The movie theater serves as a cinematic time machine, transporting spectators through the history of Hitchcock's mysteries and straight into the heyday of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Though it also shows current titles, its schedule is often beholden to audience whims—the Crossroads location hosts new independent films that are uniquely screened at this sole location. This dual devotion to cherished and modern flicks helped Screenland earn the 2012 Readers' Choice award for Best Movie Theater from the Pitch.

Even outside the projection room, nostalgia rules. More than 40 games, from Donkey Kong to Missile Command, test dexterity at the Crossroads location's retro arcade, where guests can purchase passes to play indefinitely or until Frogger finally flags down a cab. Photographs taken by former Kansas City mayor Dick Berkley accompany historical trivia in the adjacent gallery, and celebrity handprints mark the outdoor patio. Greeting cinephiles out front is a marquee salvaged from the Isis Theatre, just as it once greeted a young Walt Disney when he shared his early animations there.

Wedding receptions and corporate meetings alike have taken advantage of the theater's capacity for private functions. At both exclusive and public events, however, a full-service bar supplies guests with libations, cracking open bottles of Boulevard Pale Ale and Tallgrass Velvet Rooster.