Raised in a Reform Jewish home, the importance of tikkun olam, repairing the world, was instilled in Alexandra Samazin early on. That desire to do what she can to make the world a better place inspired the young woman to do her part first as a volunteer for SevenDays — Make a Ripple Change the World, and now as an employee of Faith Always Wins, the foundation that organizes the event. 

Samazin is one of many Jewish people who give countless hours to SevenDays. Jewish people have devoted time and effort to SevenDays since its inception. The weeklong series of events was established following the April 2014 hate crime murders of 14-year-old Reat Griffin Underwood and his grandfather Dr. William Corporon on the grounds of the Jewish Community Campus and Terri LaManno in the parking lot of Village Shalom. The Faith Always Wins Foundation was established by the Corporon family following the tragedy. A few months later SevenDays was created by Mindy Corporon (Reat’s mom and Dr. Corporon’s daughter), Jim LaManno (Terri’s widow) and family and friends to dispel the hate in the world through kindness. This April marks the fifth anniversary of the hate crimes. (Faith Always Wins has three pillars — interfaith, healing and kindness. SevenDays falls under kindness and is the foundation’s signature event.) 

From its inception, people of all faiths have worked on and supported SevenDays. The mission of SevenDays is to “engage all people to discover commonalities and overcome evil with acts of kindness.” Its vision is to “make a ripple to change the world by connecting communities.” SevenDays accomplishes that with seven days of activities — beginning Tuesday, April 9, and concluding Monday, April 15 — with the following themes: LOVE, DISCOVER, OTHERS, CONNECT, YOU, GO and ONWARD. The culminating event is the Faith, Love and Walk at the National World War I Museum and Memorial. 

The Jewish community has supported SevenDays from the beginning. At the time of the murders of her father and son, Mindy Corporon said she knew about 12 Jewish people. Today, she thinks her many Jewish friends gathered together could “maybe fill half a synagogue.”

“Our family was immediately overwhelmed by love from the first 12 (Jewish people) and the numerous friends who followed. I learn so much from my Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other faith friends. It is a pleasure to work with people from all faiths and non-faiths,” she said. 

“We are human first, we want peace and love — utmost,” she said, adding with the humor her friends have come to love, “and we all like soft toilet paper.”

Lori Samazin, Alexandra’s mother, has been involved with SevenDays since the beginning. Lori has been friends with Mindy since 2007, when they both were part of a yearlong women’s leadership program.

“Mindy and I stayed connected after the leadership program,” Lori said. “I told her in January of 2015 we were empty nesters and I was looking for a project that would fit with my work schedule as a director at Sprint, but more importantly, would make a difference. She said, ‘Perfect, I have a project for you.’ I’ve been working on the walk ever since. It’s been five years now.”

Being a part of the Jewish community, Lori said the tragedy hit home for her and her family.

“There’s all kinds of tragedies against Jewish people around the world every day, unfortunately,” she said. “But I would hope that (our Jewish community) would feel like there’s a connection here,” Lori said.

Alexandra believes it’s a communal responsibility to support events like SevenDays.

“If you saw what happened in New Zealand … every group may at one time be the one who is under attack,” Alexandra explained. “Instead of putting yourself in a place of hate because something like that happens … it’s beneficial for a community to get together as a group and learn about one another. Therefore we are never able to create a culture of hate that is derived from ignorance.” 

In addition to the Samazins, members of the Jewish community continue to support SevenDays in many ways including planning and attending the events. Others who are intricately involved in SevenDays and/or Faith Always Wins Foundation include Ruth Baum Bigus, Abby Cornelius, Molly Levinson, Alana Muller and her son Ian Hammer, Irv Robinson, Jack Reeves, Dave Stein and Gail Weinberg.

The Jewish Community Center also continues to be supportive of SevenDays.

“It has been five years since the tragic events at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom, and we pause to remember the lives lost,” said The J’s President and CEO Jim Sluyter. “The J will always have a close association with SevenDays due to that tragedy. We strongly support SevenDays in a number of ways, including special programing in our fitness center, CDC preschool, Afterschool care programming and in the Heritage Center. Additionally, we donate a portion of our annual KC SuperStar fundraiser to the Reat Griffin Underwood Rising Stars Fund, which helps young people participate in the performing arts, which was a passion of Reat’s.”

Lori, who is a Jew by choice and a member of Congregation Beth Torah, said working on a project like SevenDays is an important way for her to give back to the community. She is also inspired to do good works by her friend Mindy. 

“She is a phenomenal person and was even before this horrific tragedy,” Lori said. “The fact that she could get up there on the evening that this happened and stand in front of a group of young teens and spread her love and not hate, this really inspired me. More people need to be like Mindy. I’m hopeful the activities we are doing with SevenDays can help spread that good message of love not hate.”

SevenDays should also be important to the Jewish community, Lori added, because just as Jews want people in the wider community to understand what the Jewish community has to offer, we need to also be aware of what other cultures — such as Muslims, Hindus and Christians — have to offer.

“It’s just as much a learning experience for Jews as it is for others to learn about the Jewish faith,” Lori said.

As an employee of the foundation, Alexandra is deeply immersed in the planning of SevenDays. A 2015 graduate of Kansas State University, Alexandra earned a degree in family studies and human services. The types of things she does for the foundation and her education fit together well. She said her studies focused on how parents and children react to each other and how that impacts their lives, how families interact with the community and help build community, and how tragedies can impact family relationships and communities alike.

One of Alexandra’s many responsibilities for SevenDays is utilizing social media in order to gain the attention of high school and college students. 

“For the first year or two, there were a lot of Reat’s friends that were involved, remembering his name and the tragedy,” Alexandra said. “But now that we are five years out, most of the teens who were around when it happened have graduated. Now we’re trying to do college outreach and trying to get the high schools more involved. We are tackling that through social media outlets and some of the interfaith programming that Clare Stern is doing.”

Stern is Faith Always Wins’ executive director of interfaith programs and she often focuses on youth.

“Our goal is to get the community together to learn about other faiths so hopefully we can eliminate this type of hate altogether,” Alexandra explained, adding that targeting youth is important because the culture of hate can develop while people are young. 

“If we tackle the problem with the younger generation, it leads the way for them to be more accepting and more interested in being involved and helping the community in the future,” Alexandra added.

Lori said the biggest change she has seen over the last five years is moving the location of the Faith, Love and Walk.

“The first year it was very bittersweet because we started at the Jewish Community Campus, where the tragedy happened,” Lori recalled. “Then we walked by Village Shalom (where the other shooting happened) and we ended with a program at Church of the Resurrection where Mindy and her family belong. That was very inspiring and very well thought out and it was very purposeful.”

“By changing locations,” she added, “we’re getting our message out via a lot of different avenues and we’re seeing more diversity.”

In addition, SevenDays continues to bring in speakers who expose the Kansas City community to broader efforts to counter hate. For example Thursday, April 11, (DAY THREE-OTHERS) features Mindy Corporon in conversation with two reformed white supremacists. That morning they will speak with Blue Valley students and the following day they will appear at a business luncheon.

With seven days full of activities, SevenDays reaches a lot of people. As of April 1, Alexandra said organizers expect attendance upwards of about 2,500 people throughout the week of SevenDays.

“If people can do one event,” Lori said, “I think they’ll understand what we’re trying to do here, which is taking a horrible situation and trying to turn it into something positive.”

Alexandra said it is important for SevenDays’ continued success to get the word out about all the events, not just the walk.

“We have many team-building events for our community as a whole,” Alexandra pointed out. “That gives SevenDays the power to continue to make a ripple by involving people from all generations in the area.”

For more information about SevenDays, see Important Dates on page 12-13 or visit givesevendays.org.