Teenagers across the Kansas City area can play dodgeball, eat tacos and earn prizes for acts of kindness at a free festival in Mission on Nov. 11.
SevenDays, the nonprofit born from the 2014 antisemitic shootings in Overland Park, will hold its annual Thrive with Kindness Teen Festival from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Powell Community Center, 6200 Martway St., the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle reported. The event is planned and run by the organization's Kindness Youth Leadership Team, known as KYLT, a group of high school students.
The lineup includes a live DJ, a dodgeball tournament, a taco truck and a Kindness Marketplace. At the marketplace, teens earn "Kindness Tokens" by completing challenges and performing acts of kindness, then spend those tokens at booths hosted by local organizations and businesses.
The festival falls on Veterans Day. Attendees will have a chance to write personal thank-you notes to local veterans for their military service. The event also lands two days before World Kindness Day on Nov. 13.
"We're thrilled to bring Kansas City teens together to celebrate kindness in such a fun and meaningful way," Kelly Murphy of SevenDays said, according to the Jewish Chronicle. "Our goal is to inspire them to see that kindness is powerful — and that it starts with each of us."
SevenDays was founded after a white supremacist murdered three people at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom in Overland Park on April 13, 2014. The victims were Dr. William Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson Reat Underwood and Terri LaManno. None of the three was Jewish, but the gunman had targeted Jewish institutions.
The organization promotes kindness and understanding through education, dialogue and youth programs. SevenDays’ recap of the 2025 festival lists 78 teen attendees, 34 KYLT members and representation from 23 schools, according to SevenDays' recap.
The festival is free and open to Kansas City-area high school students. More information is available at SevenDays.org.
Upcoming SevenDays deadlines: Applications for the SevenDays Art Competition close Dec. 11, with each winner receiving $500. Kindness Action Scholarship applications, worth up to $1,000 each for graduating seniors, are open through Jan. 8, 2027.
