Midtown neighborhood, church groups team up

Although she lives in Union Hill, Linda Fewell has been coming to Westport Road for 25 years – because her church is just across the street. She’s helping facilitate a Neighborhood Alliance that teams up church and neighborhood volunteers to work on a shared goal of improving Midtown neighborhoods.

Although she lives in Union Hill, Linda Fewell has been coming to Westport Road for 25 years – because her church is just across the street. She’s helping facilitate a Neighborhood Alliance that teams up church and neighborhood volunteers to work on a shared goal of improving Midtown neighborhoods.

It will bring together several Volker and West Plaza area churches with those two neighborhood groups for a joint community cleanup on Sunday, September, 7. If that event is a success, the neighborhood alliance will look for additional projects that will both help the community and help make connections between volunteers.

Representatives from the West Plaza and Volker neighborhoods and the Immanuel Lutheran, Jacob’s Well and Guardian Angels Catholic Churches have begun meeting to plan projects and activities together.

Fewell says the idea began when members of her church were considering what to do for a national day of community service.

“When we were planning, we thought, rather than doing something for another group, we wanted to work with other groups in partnership.”

Although she lives in Union Hill, Fewell says she shares common values with members of neighborhood groups in Midtown.

“This area is meaningful to us. Its our church home,” she says.

Neighborhood and church groups worked together for two years to get a crosswalk installed on Westport Road. Fewell says that led to the desire to do more joint projects.

Working together makes sense, she says, because people who might volunteer with the church and people who might volunteer for the neighborhood have similar interests in ensuring that neighborhoods are peaceful, friendly, well-cared-for and safe.

So on Sunday, September 7, the newly-formed Neighborhood Alliance will meet up at Immanuel Lutheran at 9:30 a.m. and do a community cleanup. Afterwards, they’ll share a meal together.

In October, the Neighborhood Alliance will work on a Halloween event. The group is also considering taking on other, longer-term volunteer projects.

“Who knows where this will lead us?” Fewell asks.

 

Details from the organizers on the Sept. 7 event

  • Meet at 9:30 a.m. at Immanuel, 1700 Westport Road. Dress in jeans and t-shirts, and bring work gloves if you wish. We’ll form teams that will fan out from the church to pick up trash, clear weeds, peel outdated signs off telephone poles, and generally tidy up public property (teams will not disturb private property). Teams also will make note of overgrown trees that obscure traffic signs, bent or missing signs, etc., and will report those items to 311, the central point of contact for KCMO services.
  • If you prefer to work with neighbors inside, you can opt to join a group that will build compassion kits containing personal hygiene items for the homeless and needy.
  • All outdoor and indoor volunteers are invited to Immanuel’s Luther Hall at 12:30 p.m. for a simple meal—also prepared by volunteers.
  • For more information, contact Linda Fewell at Linda.Fewell@hallmark.com

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