23 July 2023
LAWRENCE, KS. (KSNT) – On what would’ve been Senator Bob Dole’s 100th birthday, friends and family gathered at the Robert J. Dole Institute of politics in Lawrence. Two of those visitors traveled a long way to celebrate the former senator.
Nick Watts and Sam Jensen, two high school students from Cincinnati, Ohio, made the trek to Kansas to honor Dole. Watts had an interaction with Dole that he hasn’t forgotten about since.
It all started with a simple email three years ago.
“He [Dole] was so nice that he emailed me back,” Watts said. “Sent me a very nice email. And we just kind of kept going back and forth.”
When Dole was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021, Watts sent him a photo to cheer him up. The photo was of a birthday cake Watts and some friends made for Dole’s 97th birthday the previous July.
Watts’ message led to a very special phone call from Dole himself.
“He just told me to just keep staying involved, staying interested and make connections where I can,” Watts said. “So wherever I go, I’m just trying just to be friendly and meet new people and see what they’re all about because you never know where it’s going to go.”
Dole’s advice inspired Watts and Jensen to buy plane tickets to Kansas. Dole’s 100th birthday celebration was a party they didn’t want to miss.
“You have people of those different parties coming to celebrate him 100 years later, because they don’t have to from different parties, but the fact that they come out, celebrate his legacy,” Watts said. “To me, that is just, it was just so much fun to be apart of that.”
The president of the Dole Institure of Politics, Audrey Coleman, told 27 News she loved seeing how much people like Watts enjoyed celebrating Dole at the ceremony. She said the turnout was just a testament to the mark he left on so many.
“The man had such a connection with people,” Coleman sand. “And that’s really special and something to celebrate when we think about leadership and what leadership should mean to us.”
Even years after his passing, there’s still so much to learn from the former senator.
“I think it inspired me to care more about serving other people and kind of use my voice to help other people out,” Jensen said.
“The fact that he always prioritized his constituents, prioritized Kansans first and just Americans first too on his presidential campaign shows me that that is possible and definitely inspires me to go down that route,” Watts said.
Both Watts and Jensen said the trip celebrate Dole in his home state was well worth it.