‘From the heart.’ At Kansas City MLK Day event, volunteers serve those in need
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Bed mats made from recycled plastic bags. Handwritten letters and notes of encouragement.
All those and more, including women’s sanitary items, were organized by hundreds of volunteers and placed into care packages for people experiencing homelessness Monday during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at The Cleaver Family YMCA, 7000 Troost Ave.
Recognized as a national holiday since 1986, MLK Day is often referred to as a ‘day on, not a day off,’ with people choosing to celebrate King’s legacy with a day of service to the community. At such events, volunteers are encouraged to come and give as much time as they can to help those less fortunate.
On Monday, the gymnasium at the YMCA was bustling with people twisting recycled plastic bags into a sort of thread, to be used by Sarah Stolberg of Bed of Bags, to create a plastic sleeping mat for homeless people to lie on outside, off the ground.
Hundreds of jars of peanut butter and grape jelly line the walls of a small room as volunteers make sandwiches that will end up in zip-close bags. “This matters. A sandwich, we might take for granted for ourselves. But for someone who is houseless, it’s cold outside today. This right here can warm their hearts,” says Cordellia Clark-Bailey, the director of Shelter KC Women’s Center.
In another room, people huddled over tables scattered with thank you cards with inspiring messages to share with young people, veterans, and people that struggle with feeding themselves.
A diverse array of people came from all walks of life, each donating their time and energy to sending an uplifting message to someone in need.
“I’m writing something that I hope I would receive in a card from somebody. I hope it’s well received because it’s coming from the heart,” says Sharion Nelson of Grandview, a first time volunteer.
Towards the end of a performance by the Kansas City Boys and Girls Choir, during a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Living in the City,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, walked in mouthing the lyrics to himself.
“Nobody is here on the basis of race or political party affiliation,” Cleaver said. “They’re here because they want to keep the spirit of Martin Luther King alive because that same spirit will save this nation, in one of its most difficult moments, probably since the 1860s.
“This is not some kind of a demonstration about anything that is going on in the country, it’s a demonstration about what we want to be going on in the country.”
