On Saturday, February 22, 2020 Kansas City Moms Collective and Olathe Health partnered to offer families the invaluable opportunity to love their community. From 9am – 12pm at Ball Event Center, over 400 people gathered to spend a fun morning serving others and learning about the joy of loving those around you!

With service projects appropriate for every member of the family, one of the main featured organizations this year was Solace House. “Solace House is a center for grief and healing that supports children, individuals and families who have been impacted by the death of a loved one, whether anticipated, or sudden and unexpected,” Kansas City Moms Collective explains.

Families helped create “Take What You Need” Rocks for family members visiting the Solace House to take what they feel they need – love, compassion, peace, understanding, etc.” These rocks will serve as a visual and physical reminder of their healing goals. Kids also helped to create an artistic representation to honor Childhood Grief Month by using its symbol the blue butterfly and by “weaving a web of positive thoughts.” This web will be displayed in Solace House to remind the kids that Kansas City supports and cares for them. Wee Create Studio played a large role in facilitating both projects. Because of your support, Kansas City Moms Collective reports that “we were also able to donate $2500 to Solace House to further their programs and support of Kansas City kids.”

What a neat opportunity for families and children to be a part of this reminder of hope and healing for hurting children and their families. There were plenty of other projects to get involved with as well. Kids made get well cards for Olathe Health patients; families lent a hand to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City by assembling snack bags for families or activity kits for the kids. Participants also made rice bags and braided dog toys for Unleashed Pet Rescue and Adoption. Other guests painted empowerment pins as a reminder of inner beauty, and they created friendship survival kits for someone in need of a good friend! KCMC also says that “one of the kids’ favorites was decorating thank you cards for police and fire fighters. Bonus: an Olathe police officer was on site to collect the cards, which led to some sweet moments where kids met and thanked their heroes!”

This is just the start of the fun activities families participated in to love their community and serve those around them! What an amazing chance to show your kids that helping others can be fun and so very appreciated!

As a thank you for their loving hearts and willing hands, participants were served a delicious breakfast and treated to a nail bar. Kids were also reminded to take care of themselves with a fun animal-themed workout! From jumping like kangaroos to crawling like tigers, there are plenty of fun ways to stay active!