KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City area is coming together to take care of neighbors who are most vulnerable to the heat.
Workers at Bishop Sullivan Center spent Wednesday morning polishing off the last of their air conditioning units that will soon be delivered and installed in the homes of 200 elderly residents.
“We would love to give them out to those who need it, so do call and fill out an application with one of our callers to see if you qualify,” said Kayla Mullins with the organization.
Since starting Project ElderCool 24 years ago, Bishop Sullivan Center has delivered over 5,500 units. Recipients also received credit on their utility bills to help offset the additional costs.
Bishop Sullivan Center is targeting those 65 and older, or those who live on disability benefits for a respiratory condition. Those who receive a unit cannot have any other working air conditioning units in the house.
To fill out an application, call 816-561-8515, ext. 113.
Meanwhile, over in Independence, Westlake Ace Hardware gave away 800 fans to the community.
The general manager of the store told KSHB 41 the event has been going on for 11 years. It benefits the local Salvation Army as well as community members who would otherwise go without cool air.
Ron Williams waited in line to make sure he could get his hands on one.
“In reality, when you’re a 68-year-old fat guy with bad knees and a bad heart, you’re not very sought after in the job market,” Williams said. “It’s not a sob story, but as of this moment, I’ve got $18 in my bank account. And before the pandemic, I usually had five or six grand at any given time.”
To better educate the relationship between health, climate and heat, Johnson and Wyandotte counties are participating in NOAA’s Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign.
The community data-gathering project is designed to identify the hottest parts of 18 U.S. communities.
“While this project itself doesn’t relate to any future funding directly, it allows us to have this extra data set that we can use when we’re applying for future grants,” said Jackson Ward, Johnson County’s environmental epidemiologist.
KSHB 41 will go deeper into NOAA’s campaign on Thursday to explain how it is run, what it aims to accomplish and the crucial relationship between the two counties.
