Monday 8th December 2025
Pack the Backpack, presented by Central Office Supply, a division of Minuteman and Kix 101.1! Each month during the school year, we will be awarding $101 to a Kix Country classroom to help out with supplies. We will award the prize on the last Wednesday of the month. You can listen to each new winner at 8:30a on the Morning Kix Start.
Our April winner is GMG Elementary 2nd Grade Teacher, Mrs. Hand. She was nominated by a parent, Jessica Slifer, who wrote to Kix 101.1:
I’d love to nominate Mrs. Hand, a 2nd grade teacher at GMG elementary school in Green Mountain.
Mrs. Hand deserves to win because she takes teaching to a whole new level! 2nd graders are at a delicate learning age where reading is really taking off for them & they are starting to learn new subjects like science & history. Mrs. Hand really takes the time to work with each individual student with their own individual learning abilities to make sure they all get what they need to succeed. Her teachings are prime examples of the saying “no child left behind.”
At the beginning of the school year, she let the parents know that she will try to have the kids do all their work while in school so they have more family time in the evenings. She understands that with parents’ busy work schedules & kids activities/sports that doesn’t leave much time for the kids to unwind each evening & have family time. By doing the work in class it opens up a little bit of time for the families in the evenings.
Mrs. Hand is an experienced teacher who found her calling in life as a teacher. She has a class room of kids that adore her & parents that appreciate her. I truly hope you consider her for this amazing program, I couldn’t think of a better teacher who deserves it, thank you!!
Class room needs: Paper (computer paper, construction paper, notebooks), #2 pencils, erasers, Kleenex, disinfecting wipes & paper towels.
Jessica Slifer
Take a listen to our surprise interview with Mrs. Hand below!
Nominate your Kix Country class by submitting a letter to us at backpack@kixweb.com.
Welcome to The List,
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are allegedly hitting a rough patch not over romance, but over the prenup. An insider claims the financial talks are “cold-hearted,” mostly because their bank accounts look like they’re from two different planets. Travis wants to play another season or two and eventually jump into broadcasting, and apparently Taylor’s not thrilled with that plan. The source says there is supposed to be a wedding this offseason… but right now the negotiations look less like love and more like Shark Tank.
-----
Willie Nelson is fed up with the internet declaring him dead every other week and he finally said something. He posted a photo of himself snoozing on a couch with the caption, “If you believe those A.I. death stories one more time.” For months, fake AI posts claimed he collapsed, was hospitalized, or worse. None of it true. Willie’s still here, still laughing, still alive… and more coherent than some of the people posting about him.
-----
Diddy allegedly thinks someone in his own family sold him out after 50 Cent got access to leaked footage for the Netflix documentary ‘The Reckoning’. The footage shows him distressed on a phone call and Diddy is reportedly determined to figure out who leaked it. He believes only family had access to something that sensitive. And after watching parts of the doc myself? Yeah… “eye-opening” is putting it lightly. This story gets messier by the hour.
-----
Luke Combs told ESPN he wants to headline the Super Bowl halftime show and watch his Carolina Panthers win that same game. Bold. Very bold. He said he grew up in Charlotte when the Panthers became a team, so it’s “in his blood.” Look, we love the confidence but asking for a halftime slot and a Panthers Super Bowl victory is what scientists call “a miracle.”
You can catch The List, weekday afternoons at 4:20 with Jonathan Knight. Only on Iowa’s BEST Country KIX 101.1
