The second SevenDays: Make A Ripple, Change the World celebration is set for April 12-18 and designed to strengthen a sense of community through mutual understanding among religions, races and cultures in the Kansas City area.
Mindy Corporon, Jim LaManno and a group of volunteers created SevenDays last year. The celebration commemorates the murders of Corporon’s son and father, Reat Underwood and Dr. William Corporon, in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Campus, and of LaManno’s wife, Teresa LaManno, in the parking lot of Village Shalom, on April 13, 2014.
An avowed anti-Semite and Neo-Nazi who later said he’d planned to kill Jews that day was convicted of the murders in August 2015, and in November 2015 he was sentenced to death. Despite his stated intentions, none of his victims was Jewish.
The Corporon family started a foundation foundation called Faith Always Wins in response to the murders. Mindy Corporon is its president.
Under the foundation’s guidance and with help from numerous volunteers — both individuals and organizations — SevenDays was created. It includes a series of community events intended to promote healing and focus on acts of kindness and interfaith dialogue.
Each day during the seven-day celebration will have a different theme: love, discover, others, connect, go, you and onward. The celebration will include suggested activities and educational presentations based on kindness. Mindy Corporon is scheduled to speak at Congregation Beth Torah during erev Shabbat worship about the importance of giving life through organ and tissue transplantation on Friday, April 15.
“Losing Reat and my Dad was so devastating from the moment I found them lying in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Campus. When we heard that Reat had not survived I knew immediately that his young, healthy body should be shared with those who could use it,” explained Corporon.
“Reat chose to be an organ and tissue donor when he obtained his permit at age 14. He knew the importance of the decision he was making, and it was my responsibility to fulfill that desire for him.
“Friday, April 15, is national Donate Life Day. It happens to fall on Shabbat. Rather than shy away from Shabbat, we are embracing it with a story that may inspire others to become organ and tissue donors. My heart started healing when I knew Reat was helping others.”
Following Corporon’s talk, the musical ensemble HeartSong from the Kansas City Women’s Chorus will performing “Ripple of Kindness,” which was written in the wake of the shootings. The ensemble will be accompanied on piano by the song’s composer, Donna Butler.
Several Jewish people are serving on SevenDays committees, including Alana Muller, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. She oversees the speakers’ series and said she got involved in the celebration for several reasons.
“For starters, I have the privilege of serving on the boards of the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom, and I’ve been friendly with Mindy (Corporon) for years,” Muller said. “This situation has a great deal of meaning for me, and I want to be involved because of the shootings that took place in 2014. It brings our broad and diverse community together, and it’s very inclusive.”
Muller said the world had “become so divisive, and in so many ways the community has been driven apart in society in general.”
“Ferguson (Missouri) is a good example,” she said. “Violence and hatred run rampant. … We as a community, rather than to allow one person’s hatred to define our behavior and interactions with one another, we came together. This is a very broad, multicultural interfaith effort. There’s not (only) one ethnicity or race involved.”
Speakers’ topics during the celebration will appeal to a broad range of people, and some will appeal especially to the Jewish community, she said. One of the speakers is Malcolm Graham, a former North Carolina state senator. Graham’s sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, was one of nine people murdered in the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015.
“One of the coolest things (Malcolm Graham) said to me is that he’s coming (to speak at SevenDays) because it’s part of his own healing process,” Muller said. “He took a delegation of Jewish women from his community in Charlotte (North Carolina) to Charleston, so they wanted to come together in the spirit of community and healing.”
Another scheduled speaker at SevenDays is Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, who lives in Israel and founded the Elijah Interfaith Institute. Corporon had read an article the rabbi had written for the Huffington Post, she was moved by it, and she invited him to speak at the celebration, Muller said.
“His topic is ‘Actually, What Is Interfaith?’ and he wants to talk about what interfaith means, how we can use it to promote understanding and awareness of one another’s faiths and traditions so we can better embrace one another as a community,” she said. “Another (speaker) is Sonia Warshawski. She’s a Holocaust survivor, and she and her daughter, Regina Kort, will have a discussion on Sonia’s survival.”
Shanna Haun, a member of Congregation Beth Torah, is one of the co-chairs for the SevenDays Kindness Committee. She got involved in SevenDays because “from the very beginning, the tragedy felt so personal,” she said.
“The hate was directed toward Jews, the locations are a part of my community, and Mindy’s children and my children went to the same schools,” Haun said. “Friends and family members are or have been residents at Village Shalom. It all just felt so awful and so close. And I felt so helpless.”
Haun and her daughter attended the funeral of Underwood and Dr. William Corporon, and Haun said she remembered “feeling so incredibly moved throughout the whole service but especially when listening to Mindy Corporon.” Months later, Corporon came to one of Haun’s yoga classes.
“It just felt like we were supposed to connect,” Haun said. “I volunteered and participated in the first walk. It was so beautiful and inspiring. I knew I wanted to help more. The kindness aspect felt like the best fit for me to get involved with.”
This year, SevenDays is offering five $1,000 scholarships to local high school seniors for kindness projects they’re involved in, Haun said. Twenty-four high school seniors applied for the grants by writing essays.
“All of them are doing wonderful things in the community,” she said. “Our financial sponsors appreciate the measurable effectiveness of these scholarships. The five winners will be announced during the celebration following the walk on April 18.”
SevenDays, Haun said, gives the community “the opportunity to learn, live and love together.”
SevenDays-Make A Ripple, Change the World: Schedule of events
SevenDays: Make A Ripple, Change the World, scheduled for April 12 through April 18, 2016, will offer a variety of community events and speakers, with help from local organizations.
The events are intended to strengthen the entire community by emphasizing mutual understanding among religions, races and cultures in the Kansas City area.
Organizations assisting with the events are: Cleveland University, Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, Blue Valley School District, Jewish Community Center, Midwest Transplant Network, Sunlight Day Spa, Rockhurst High School, St. Teresa’s Academy, Church of the Resurrection, US Foods, Kansas City Branch of Dialogue Institute of the Southwest, Heritage United Methodist Church, Congregation Beth Torah and St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences.
Each day during the celebration will have a different theme: love, discover, others, connect, go, you and onward. Events will include suggested kindness activities and educational presentations. Events are free of charge except, except the Peace Walk, which requires a $10 registration fee.
Speakers and events:
Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein and former U.S. Ambassador Allan Katz: “Actually, What is Interfaith?” 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, Rockhurst High School.
Mary Lucas and Kolias Cooper: “Keeping Our Loved Ones’ Spirits Alive,” 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, Sunlight Day Spa.
Former North Carolina State Senator Malcolm Graham, brother of Charleston shooting victim Cynthia Graham Hurd: “Bringing Community Together — Overcoming Hate,” 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14, Church of the Resurrection.
Mindy Corporon, co-founder of SevenDays: “Life — A Good Thing To Give,” 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, Shabbat service, Congregation Beth Torah.
Donate Life/Blood Drive at St. Luke’s Hospital on the Plaza, Friday, April 15.
“Lunch & Punch” with T.A.K.E. Defense Foundation, 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 16, Lifetime Fitness (West 138th Street location); and interfaith youth workshop and dinner for students ages 14-20, 5:30 p.m., Cleveland University.
Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski and her daughter, Regina Kort: “Survival, Perseverance & Optimism,” 2 p.m. Sunday, April 17, Heritage United Methodist Church; and “Understanding Our Muslim Neighbors,” panel discussion, 7:30 p.m., Cleveland University.
Peace Walk: 6:30 p.m. April 18; registration encouraged by April 11; $10 registration fee includes commemorative T-shirt; beneficiaries: The Reat Griffin Underwood Memorial Foundation and The LaManno-Hastings Family Foundation. Walk starts on south side of Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City at Paige Field, on West 117th Street, and ends at Church of the Resurrection, 13720 Roe Ave., Leawood. Pre-walk activities at the community center start about 4:30 p.m., organized by SevenDays Youth Advisory Board and emceed by former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green. Chiefs mascot KC Wolf will be present. Various community charities will give information on their efforts.
Winners of the Faith, Love & Song competition will be announced at the Peace Walk on April 18. A community choir will perform the winner’s songs. The completion was open to those ages 14-21. Entrants were asked to submit an original composition of music and lyrics that inspires acceptance of others regardless of racial, religious or cultural differences. The top three winners were determined by the number of “likes” in YouTube voting. The top winner will receive the $5,000 RRACE Scholarship; second-place winner, $2,500 scholarship; and third-place winner, $1,000 scholarship. Competition sponsored by Faith Always Wins, RRACE (Racial and Religious Acceptance and Cultural Equality) and Harvest Productions.
Scholarships will be awarded to winners of the Act of Kindness competition.
More information on speakers and events is available at www.givesevendays.org.
