10 years ago, hate shattered my world. Today, you can help us all spread kindness | Opinion

The voice I clearly heard within seconds of finding my father murdered in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park 10 years ago said: “Your father’s in heaven — go find Reat.”

In my public speaking and in my 2021 memoir, “Healing a Shattered Soul,” I’ve shared those words because they and my faith that my father, Dr. William L. Corporon, and my oldest son, Reat Underwood, were in heaven after an evil, hate-filled white supremacist took their lives, led me on a 10-year journey that began that evening with a community prayer vigil on the very night of the shooting.

What followed was a news conference, the creation of a nonprofit organization, my decision to leave my career in wealth management, my memoir and the creation of an empathy leadership development company, Workplace Healing.

Talk about walking in faith. It was my calling. I had no choice if I wanted to honor my son, my father and the third shooting victim, Terri LaManno.

The Faith Always Wins Foundation, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit, started with the idea of hosting a singing competition to honor Reat’s love of singing. Then my mother suggested that we ask the community to commit random acts of kindness for seven days in a row. In addition, I felt driven to educate myself and others about the differences and similarities among such faith traditions as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and others, given the murderer’s vicious anti-Jewish views (despite the fact he wound up murdering not Jews but Christians).

Shattered and at my most vulnerable, I said yes to those who offered kindness, and our grassroots nonprofit grew to reach several thousand people between 2015 and 2020 (and now is in several other states). When the COVID-19 pandemic taught us how to turn live events virtual, we lost most of our dedicated volunteers who had spent long hours hosting public, in-person events annually for five years. But we found a transition.

Before COVID, our Youth Advisory Board was born in 2014 with the help of Jake Goldman, then a junior at Blue Valley North High School, now a board member. It transitioned into our current Kindness Youth Leadership Team, led by Jill Andersen. Dedicated to mentoring young people, our nonprofit tightened its mission statement and adopted a new name in 2022, SevenDays, which overcomes hate by promoting kindness and understanding through education and dialogue.

Yes, I can hear you saying: “But there’s still hate. What about the rise in hate crimes, particularly antisemitism?” And you’re right.

In fact, in 2023, our Blue Valley school district faced the reality of hate in January and November. While Bishop Miege High School was also dealing with concerning threats on social media, including antisemitic and anti-Black remarks, as well as a swastika found on campus. And from 2020 to 2022 reported hate crime incidents in Missouri increased by 50% and more in the categories of race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, disability and gender identity.

But we’re not born with hate on our minds. Hate is learned — by traditions, rituals, parental figures and influencers of the worst kind. We also can learn kindness — through traditions, rituals, parental figures, and influencers of the best kind, such as SevenDays, the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, faith communities and others.

A decade after hatred slammed into my life, I’m still working to make the world a kinder place. But I need your help. So, I’m asking you kindly to join me at sevendays.org

Mindy Corporon is co-founder of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit SevenDays, whose first Kindness Festival begins April 10.