KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On April 13, 2014, Mindy Corporon's son, Reat, was getting ready to audition for KC Superstar. One of the songs he had prepared was "On The Street Where You Live."
"Then, he said, 'Mom, do you know if they might let me sing something else?' And I said, 'No, that’s unusual that they would let you, give you the opportunity to do that,'" Corporon said. "He said, 'Yes, I can sing something else, so I’ve been practicing something else and I don’t think you know.' And then he said, 'Would you like me to sing it?' And I said, 'Of course, I would like you to sing it.' And he sang, ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.’"
She was the last person to see Reat and her father inside her home.
"And I was the first person and last person to see them as they died when I found them in the parking lot," Corporon said. "My dad lost his life on contact from the gunshot, and Reat lost his heartbeat about 30 minutes later. It was very chaotic, very chaotic at the J.”
That day, a man opened fire and killed three people at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom Retirement Center in Overland Park, Kansas. Terri LaManno, 14-year-old Reat Underwood and Dr. William Corporon, known as Popeye, died.
"As I drove into the parking lot and ran to my dad, I wanted to touch him. I wanted to help him and care for him, but I could visually see that he was deceased," Corporon said. "And as I leaned in, I felt pressure on my shoulders, and that pressure just stopped me.
"And there was no one there. I couldn’t hear anyone speaking, I could feel the breeze. I remember feeling a cool breeze go across my face. And I looked around and I heard the words, ‘Your father’s in Heaven. Go find Reat.’ And they were words, they were powerful words."
Corporon said she will never forget that moment.
"On the opposite side of the truck, I found Reat in the arms of two men," she said.
Despite the darkness of the day, the mother said those two men showcased a light of kindness.
"As soon as gunshots were heard, two men ran to the truck," Corporon said. "And so they pulled him from the truck and they tried to save his life, not knowing if the shooter was still right there in that area, not knowing. Courageous kindness started so quickly, and that’s just one small episode that I knew and saw and witnessed."
The vein of that kindness spurred SevenDays.
“They were murdered because someone hated Jews. Someone hated someone, it doesn’t really matter who they hated, it was premeditated," Corporon said. "It was premeditated, 'I’m going to murder people today because they’re on this location.' And because they were at that location, he thought they were Jewish."
Later that night, Corporon remembers going to a vigil community members organized.
“I sat in that vigil ... not having any idea how difficult our lives were about to be. I had no concept of the pain I was going to feel in the coming years and the challenges, the huge challenges that our family would face," Corporon said. "But when I sat in that moment with all of those people, I felt love from them and I felt kindness from them. And I remember thinking, 'Dad and Reat, I hope you can see this. I hope you can see just this outpouring.' So it just, teaching kindness, it just immediately started so very quickly.”
Over the last ten years, SevenDays has worked to overcome hate with kindness through conversations, artwork, projects and yearly events spread across seven days.
“Hate can still hurt us. Hate can still infiltrate anybody," Corporon said. "Good, bad, young, old, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic. Hate has no boundaries ... and neither does kindness.”
If you'd like to learn more about SevenDays, its mission and its themes of Love, Discover, Others, Connect, You, Go and Onward, click HERE.
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