Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Flint Hills Volunteer Center on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 239
Lori Bishop from the Flint Hills Volunteer Center and board member Ronnie Grice are discussing their upcoming 9/11 Family Event and Picnic on September 7th at Pottorf Hall.
• Annual event honors the memory of 9/11 through community service projects
• 400 pairs of athletic shoes will be distributed to children in grades K-5
• First responders will personally fit children with their new shoes
• Emergency vehicles will be on display for children to explore
• Activities include commemorative rock hunt, tattoos, and coloring pages
• Barbecue provided by Riley County Police Department
• Event creates opportunity for younger generations to learn about 9/11
• First responders share personal memories of where they were on September 11, 2001
• Event runs from 3-6 pm at Pottorf Hall and the surrounding areas
Join us Sunday, September 7th, at Pottorf Hall from 3-6 pm for this meaningful community event that honors our heroes while serving local families.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. We are back the GMCF Community Hour on NewsRadio KMAN, and Lori Bishop is joining us. She is with the Flint Hills Volunteer Center. Welcome back, thank you, glad to be back. It's always good to Hills Volunteer Center. Welcome back, thank you, glad to be back. It's always good to have you here and you brought a buddy along.
Speaker 2:I brought one of our I mean one of your friends. I brought our board member past president, mr Ronnie Grice.
Speaker 3:Hey dude, good morning, how you doing, dave?
Speaker 2:You know what.
Speaker 3:You gave us all a little scared, but you're doing good. Now you look good. I mean it is, you know, considering. You know I'm good. The standard, yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I've got a clean, clean bill about a month ago, so awesome. Back in the cell again and thank you for all your concerns and prayers and blessings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, those prayers are powerful, aren't they Tell me? The three of us know all about that in a lot of different ways. We definitely do. We definitely do. Well, lori, you came up with this concept a few years ago about recognizing the anniversary of 9-11. It's hard to believe that's coming up and I was just talking to Vern. That's 24 years this year.
Speaker 2:Can you believe that? Gosh, yeah, yeah. And you look back, that's 24 years this year. Can you believe that? Gosh, yeah, yeah. And you look back today, you know parents, children that weren't around at that time. And so that's our goal is we? That's history, you know, and just we've got to keep that history alive and stuff. And so that's why we came up with our 9-11 family event, and picnic. Last year was a huge success for us, and so we're doing everything again the same, except we're moving to the Potter of Halsico Park area this year. But what's exciting is that's on Sunday, september 7th, from 3 to 6 pm, and we're going to be doing a service project and we will be giving away free 400 pairs of shoes, athletic shoes, to children in grades K to 5. And so Shoot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wear a 12. I don't think, ronnie. Yeah, yeah, we're not going to get those. You're not young enough. No, oh, fine, but you know it's. I've heard that before.
Speaker 2:With the events of that day. You know, on September 11th there were 2,977 lives lost that year in 2001. And after that family members kind of came together and came up with this idea of remembering 9-11 by doing a service project and doing things in your community and honoring, you know, our heroes and stuff and keeping this way it keeps their memory alive too. So that's kind of why we wanted to participate in that and give those. So, and Ronnie, he can share with you all the what was really fun about giving out those shoes last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what was really fun last year we had a lot of different law enforcement agencies along with Fort Raleigh and they participated in actually fitting the kids with the shoes and they had a runner and the kids got fitted. But just to watch the interaction between the emergency services and the kids and their parents was just awesome. And also last year Pete Hughes loaned us his baseball team and we couldn't get those kids out of there. They had such a ball just being there, relating with the kids, the parents, emergency services, and it was just a wonderful event. Matter of fact, it was one of those events. If you've never experienced it, it would actually bring tears to your eyes to see the joy of the kids when they received the shoes and the little bags. So emergency management and, excuse me, emergency services, they had a great time and we even had some that when they shift was over, they stayed for the full event. They would not leave.
Speaker 3:So we are encouraging the parents to get the kids there. And don't think we're doing different this year. As Laura stated earlier, we just changed the location. The format is the same and we're hoping to have vehicles from all of the different emergency services set up on the north end of Park Trust Hall, rcpd, who have been doing a great job on providing the meal, the barbecue, the cooking, will be there to continue their contributions to the event. So we're just encouraging everyone if you can make it, please come out, please bring your kids, because it's one of these events that will be memorable and once you do it once, you will never forget it again.
Speaker 1:They're bringing the big grill. Yes, that's an attraction in its own right, isn't it? That was really good.
Speaker 2:One of the things too, I'll add. With the shoes Each child gets a tote bag. We are partnering with Samaritan's Feet, so this is where all these shoes are coming from. It's an international program and their program is. Their goal is to provide healthy communities and things like that. So this is our third year. The very first year we did it was seniors for shoes, so we gave shoes away to our elderly population.
Speaker 2:So anyway, the shoes are going to be shipped here. We'll get those here soon. So that's quite a few boxes of shoes we'll have. But last year we had to preregister. We're not doing that this year. So we have little cards that as they come in they will get a card with their child's shoe size and then if it's wrong size then we swap it out and we'll have a big board there that kind of will cross out if we're out of that shoe size. So I think it'll just make it a little bit easier for us this year that they just come and they get the correct shoes. But in the bag there'll be some things. There'll be a little information about 9-11. And then we also have some of our first responders that have some things that they're bringing us this week to put in the tote bags too. So I don't know what those are, but it's going to be kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to some of the specifics about the day You're at Potter Fall and activities in and around Potter Fall and Seco Park.
Speaker 2:What time, or fall, and activities in and around potter fall and in seco park. Yeah, what time do we start? So it starts at 3 pm, so it's it. So this year the um, the barbecue will be out on the west side of potter. There's two entrances in, so the north side and and the back entrance from um of potter, so the south door will be closed, so there's two ways in and out. Uh, so we'll have a big table up with everything. We, of course, our cookie brigade, uh, our rsvp volunteers. We were finding the homemade like the best people.
Speaker 1:They are.
Speaker 2:They're excellent cookies. Yeah, so it's from three to six and then um, so they will come in. The shoes will be in the first responders.
Speaker 3:Uh will all be inside potter of hall and then to the uh outside of that between is it between there and bishop stadium is where y'all are you know it's uh, it's uh, the open area uh to the immediate north oh okay, and that's uh, we're gonna have all of the emergency services vehicle where we had a family night out and that's just to the north and it's a big area so to fit all of if it doesn't rain it's like during the food court and the food area went during the county fair right that area there yeah, that's what it's going to be at off in that area, so if it doesn't rain and the ground's solid, that's where we should be able to get all the emergency services vehicles at, so everybody can just run around.
Speaker 1:So I want to channel your nine-year-old Ronnie Grice. Which of all those vehicles would you be most jacked up about?
Speaker 3:Well, the one they're going to be most jacked up about is not going to be there this year, and that's the Semi.
Speaker 2:The.
Speaker 3:Semi. Yes, yes, laura can talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he came from Georgia. He came from Georgia and he has this semi.
Speaker 3:That is just gorgeous and it's all dedicated to veterans. Really, it's really awesome. It's nice, you know, I get to see the run-of-the-mill stuff every day.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, well, let me rephrase this Of all the run-of-the-mill stuff every day that you see, channel your nineyear-old ronnie grice which would you be most excited about?
Speaker 2:probably the fire trucks yeah you know, if we go back and look at photos from last year because we had fort ronnie, brought the bomb squad oh yeah you'll see kids with the actual outfit on the even the fireman let them get into the vehicle.
Speaker 2:Uh, have the hat. There's like a little uh gear that they can put on and try it on. I mean, I would just love watching some of those, looking back on some of those photos, but just seeing them interact with all that. And then also inside Potter of Hall during this time, our youth program, our CSC, connecting Students to Communities Youth will be there and they have a table set up so they're doing tattoos and coloring pages, so it's like anything related to 9-11 first responders, and then they can go give it to them or they can take it home, but also we have.
Speaker 3:You're still doing the rocks too. Yeah, I was just getting ready to say that I saw a Rotary Club guy painted a bunch of those.
Speaker 2:So we had.
Speaker 1:Is there a Ronnie Grice rock?
Speaker 2:No, not this year.
Speaker 1:I'd make one a VIP.
Speaker 3:That would be kind of special, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2:So we had the Manhattan Concert, rotary and the Hilton Garden Inn. I love that we have corporate volunteers, and so they brought five. And then we have a fraternity coming in today, delta Chi Fraternity, who's going to finish painting up our rocks too. So the Rotary Club will be there. Those will be hidden, and then Rotary you'll watch for them in their shirt. But what's nice is there will be one special hidden rock that they have to find, and there is a prize if they find that one hidden rock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they don't know what, what it looks like, but I'm sure they'll know when they, when they possibly find it. So so it's another thing to do while you're out there get your, you get the family together, go look for the rock. They're really nice, nice commemorative rocks and stuff, but one is, um, it is the the uh hidden, kind of like the jingle bowl rock. This is the hidden rock. Uh of like the Jingle Bell Rock. This is the hidden rock that there will be a prize with, and so you'll see some Rotary members in their shirts and you would go up to them and see if that's it, and then they'll get their prize and stuff.
Speaker 1:Ronnie, as a first responder, what do you hope that people take away from this event?
Speaker 3:Never to forget all of the men and women who represent emergency services, who actually died that day as first responders, but also think about those who are still dealing with health issues from that day forward, and there's still a lot of those. There's still a lot of those, there's still a lot of those, and this was probably the largest loss of emergency services in the history of the United States in one day. And I just think you know, right now I have a campus that's full of kids who will never know, because this happened 24 years ago.
Speaker 1:You know and you talked about Coach Pete Hughes and the K-State baseball team. Those guys weren't around then either, so they've got takeaways, hopefully, from this. Not just a fun deal, that they get to participate with kids, they get to learn.
Speaker 3:They get to learn the history, they get to feel maybe some of the agony that some of the families were dealing with and just seeing some of those retired emergency services people there that get emotional just from what happened 24 years ago. Because, you know, it's kind of like that magic question. The question is asked what were you doing on that day? And I remember vividly what I was doing, where I was when it happened, and once we were notified after the first plane hit, we went and turned on the news and actually saw and witnessed the second plane hit, and so I was in a meeting at Manhattan Fire Department. Mike Watson, who was the Raleigh County director, was at IACP, our International Association of Chiefs of Police, in Atlanta, florida. Well, guess what? First thing they did was that they closed all of the airspace. Now you got all of these police chiefs trying to get back to their jurisdiction, so they rented cars and they teamed up just to get home. So it's something that you will never forget.
Speaker 1:We'll always remember that.
Speaker 3:We'll always remember that day in history.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we had purchased a 15 passenger van, so we had drivers taking our volunteers to things, and so my assistant and I were on our way to Hutchison to pick that up and you know, we didn't have the radio on, we were talking. And we get there and the guy comes down and said, oh, I didn't think you'd come. I said, well, why wouldn't we? And he said, oh, didn't you hear? I said hear what? And then he said when we went in and like there's like small tv with several people watching the screen and it just like it just blew our minds watching that all go. And then the people that we have here locally that actually responded, that day we had someone for Salvation Army and set up a site there, and there are people still here in our area that were a part of that day too.
Speaker 1:Sunday September 7th.
Speaker 2:Yes, correct. Padre Fall 3 to 6 pm.
Speaker 1:Is that what that is? 3? Yes, 3. You want me to remember that by showing me 1, 2, 3 fingers.
Speaker 2:I want to make sure, okay thanks, appreciate it, but don't forget the barbecue, because it's going to be a great meal.
Speaker 1:Well, why else do you have Ronnie Grice involved? Chief Grice, I'm sorry we did not address you as Chief Grice. Chief Ronnie Grice from K-State Police Department Appreciate what you do with this. Thanks for all you're doing.
Speaker 2:It's so good to see you doing well and we're also proud and appreciative to the Ryder County Police Department for donating their services to do the barbecues. Awesome, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's Lori Bishop and Ronnie Grice here on behalf of the Flint Hills Volunteer Center. It's Lori Bishop and Ronnie Grice here on behalf of the Flint Hills Volunteer Center. When we come back after the break we'll go through our community update list and give you a preview of next week's show here on the GMCF Community Hour on NewsRadio KMAN.