In the two years since Dr. William Corporon, his grandson Reat Underwood, and Teresa LaManno lost their lives, the SevenDays-Make A Ripple, Change the World movement has continued to grow. It came to life in the aftermath of the April 13, 2014 shootings in Overland Park, Kansas.
Organizers included people from a number of religious denominations who said their collective focus "is strengthening a sense of community, building upon understanding our commonalties among religions, races and cultures in our metropolitan area."
"It's not so much about remembering that tragedy, but everyone saying, 'Evil happens and we're not going to let evil happen, we're going to let good overcome evil,'" said Mindy Corporon.
This year's week of events culminated in the Peace Walk on Monday evening.
Thousands of people attended the walk, which began on the south side of the Jewish Community Campus at Paige Field, located on West 117th Street in Overland Park, and concluded at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood. The walk covered about 3 1/2 miles.
During the Peace Walk Celebration, there were performances of the winning Faith Love & Song compositions as well as a community choir. Five Kansas City area high school seniors were each presented with $1,000 scholarships for an act of kindness they had performed. The winners and their high schools include: Sara Stowe Eskilsson, Blue Valley Southwest; Rachel Li, Olathe South; Madelyn Reihs, Raymore-Peculiar; Gracie Schram, Blue Valley North and Will Sharpe, Blue Valley Northwest.
Three finalists of the Faith Love & Song competition also performed and received scholarships: Ethan Ridings (“Rise”), Tanner Qualls (“Pressure”), and Reilly Donnelly (“The Answer”). The Faith Love & Song competition is sponsored by two local foundations - Faith Always Wins and RRACE (Racial and Religious Acceptance and Cultural Equality), as well as Harvest Productions. The two foundations were established after the 2014 shootings.
Right after the walk, there was a celebration of unity with showcases from a number of local charities.
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