OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A forum with two former white supremacists headline a week-long event promoting kindness around Kansas City. The SevenDays Make a Ripple, Change the World event kicks off Tuesday and ends with a walk Monday, April 14.
Mindy Corporon launched the Faith Always Wins foundation after her father, son and a woman died in a shooting at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas in 2014. Each year, the foundation hosts the SevenDays event to encourage people to love their neighbors.
"If we don't understand people and we become fearful of them; perhaps we isolate ourselves and we're only around people we feel comfortable with and that we know; then that can foster fear, and that can foster hate, and that can foster really nasty things," Corporon said. "That's what led to the murders of my dad, my son and Terri LaManno on April 13, 2014."
Each of the seven days in the event focus on a different theme, with the overarching goal of promoting acts of kindness that will "ripple" in a contagious way.
"I can tell you life is short, I can tell you I know from experience and some of those minutiae type things, there are more important things in life," Corporon said. "So loving from our heart, offering other people value and kindness, those are the things that are important."
Two reformed white supremacists will speak at Church of the Ressurection Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Churches, organization and businesses are stepping up to promote the event. Best Regards Bakery and Cafe in Overland Park is selling "kindness cookies" this week. Twenty-five percent of proceeds from those cookie sales will go to the Faith Always Wins foundation.
"We really are all human first and we want to be loved, just like we want to give love," Corporon said.
For a complete list of events, click here.
