Kindness Festival commemorates 10th anniversary of Jewish Community Center shooting
By Grace Smith
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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (KCTV) — Hundreds came together in the name of kindness.
Organizers with the non-profit Seven Days put on a Kindness Festival. It’s been 10 years since the organization started with the goal of doing just that after a self-proclaimed white supremacist gunned down the Jewish Community Center, killing Reat Underwood and Dr. William Corporon.
“We would have not been able to get over this tragedy without our community,” said Lukas Losen who is Underwood’s brother and Corporon’s grandson.
Losen said he’s proud of how big the organization has become. “It’s just a meaningful day,” Losen said. “There’s so much hate in the world. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to put a little of it back together, and that’s what we are doing here.”
Live music, family-friendly activities, food, and more. There was also a ribbon cutting of a new amphitheater on the campus named in honor of Reat.
Jill Andersen, the director of youth engagement, said the festival is all about experiencing kindness with one another.
“We really want to focus on what is the positive action forward? What is the thing that we can do that will really make a difference? It’s kindness,” Andersen said. “If we could realize that we are more similar than we are different than our world would be a much better place.”
Families gathered around tables with dedicated kindness themes: love, discover, others, connect, you, go, and onward.
“At each of these activity tables, there is something that is kindness-related,” Andersen said. “So, hopefully, it gives you some different ideas about how to make kindness a habit in your life.”
Diana Schildman said she brought her daughter because of all the division in the world.
“We are practicing kindness, and this is a wonderful event to learn how to show people who have differences in opinions and religion, kindness,” Schildman said. “There is so much division in the United States and in the world right now. So, anything we learn.”
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