Category: Communities

Volunteers help Harvesters food bank for MLK day of service

Harvesters—The Community Food Network will honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a Day of Service at Harvesters on Monday, Jan. 18,.

As Dr. King said, “I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”

Volunteers will donate food and help Harvesters sort and pack donated food during five, two-hour shifts.

Volunteers also will participate in a service learning project focused on King and his legacy. Volunteers include individuals, organization and corporate groups.

All of the volunteers will wear masks at all times and will be socially distanced from each other.

Groups volunteering that day include the following:
• Epsilon Eta Eta Professional Nursing Sorority (8:30 -10:30 a.m.)
• Kansas City Zoo (8:30-10:30 a.m., 3-5 p.m., and 5-7 p.m.)
• Baker, Sterchi, Cowden & Rice (10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
• St. James United Methodist Church (1-3 p.m.)
• Kansas City Construction Specifications Institute (5-7 p.m.)

“We’re very grateful for the generous gift of time these volunteers will give to Harvesters on this Day of Service,” says Valerie Nicholson-Watson, Harvesters president and CEO. “We welcome and greatly need more volunteers to give their gift of time throughout the year, and we are diligently working to keep our volunteers safe during this pandemic by our stringent cleaning measures, mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing stations throughout our facility,” she added.

Anyone wishing to schedule a volunteer session can do so online at www.harvesters.org/GiveTime.

MLK celebration Monday to be virtual this year in KCK

A flier from the Kansas City, Kansas, MLK Celebration Scholarship Ceremony, to be Jan. 18 on Facebook.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration this year in Kansas City, Kansas, will be virtual.

The event will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18, with everything taking place online on the MLK KCK celebration page on Facebook, at www.facebook.com/kckmlkcelebration.

Because of the risk of COVID-19, the event is not in person this year. The program will be comparatively short, to keep the audience involved, and the focus will be on the educational aspects of the celebration. Serving as the general chairperson of the event is the Rev. Tony Carter Jr. Also working on the event were Clarence Small and Pastor Ricky Turner.

The event will not have a keynote speech, but some speakers are featured in short segments, according to Joseph Straws, an event planner who is working on the video presentation. The program lists a welcome from Mayor David Alvey. There will be musical performances, including a solo from Alicia Saunders. Scholarship winners will be individually recognized.

The scholarships are an important focus of the event this year. The 37th annual event will award 26 scholarships, plus five additional scholarships sponsored by District Attorney Mark A. Dupree Sr. The scholarships are for $500.

To give a donation to the scholarship fund, visit https://gkccf.kimbia.com/king01.

Straws said he will miss the in-person MLK celebration this year, but the committee decided to continue it virtually this year and will be planning for it to return next year in person. As someone who has worked with churches on their video presentations, Straws said that they are different from being there in person. The usual in-person MLK celebration is as close to a spiritual worship service as you can get, with a keynote speaker and choir, he added. It’s also appropriate as Dr. King was a preacher and did most of his ministry in the church, he said.

He said the public is invited to join in the virtual MLK celebration this year on Monday at www.facebook.com/kckmlkcelebration.

Area student named to dean’s list at University of Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin-Superior has named Rafaela Gutierrez Gutierrez of Kansas City, Kansas, to the Dean’s List for academic achievement during the fall 2020 semester.

To be named to the Dean’s List, students must have completed 12 degree-seeking semester credits and achieved at least a 3.50 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale).

Founded in 1893 as a teacher’s college, UW-Superior has more than 50 program offerings, online and graduate programs. It has more than 2,500 students.