By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

July 16, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – When the June incarnation of the monthly Community Days celebration at Budd Park was bogged down by suffocating heat and humidity, community stakeholders Chris Seay and Bryan Stalder knew that something had to change.

Seay, the pastor at LifeConnection church, and Stalder, the president of the Indian Mound neighborhood association, came up with the idea of making July’s event a water-themed celebration. When nearly 100 people showed up on Saturday, July 16 for slip-n-slide kickball, hot dogs on the grill, music emanating from a portable sound-system, and a variety of other water games, Seay and Stalder realized they had found the perfect formula for family-friendly fun. Stalder said that the July 16 celebration enticed the biggest turnout since the neighborhood began hosting Community Days.

“There were a lot of folks involved in making this happen,” said Stalder. “We got together with Mary Cyr from Northeast Alliance Together and got the permits in place. We worked with the Parks department to get connected to a water source. The police have come out here today to partner with us. Mattie Rhodes Center went over to Scarritt Neighborhood where the new slides have opened recently and gave flyers to all of the families enjoying the slides over there, and let them know that there’s a water play event over here at Budd Park pool.”

What’s more, thanks to the work of the Community Days partners, the entire event was free of charge. Seay said that when he first conceived of the idea to host monthly community events at Budd Park, it was important to him to make the festivities open to all and free of charge.

“Last fall, I started talking to Bryan about doing a once-a-month event in the park that would be free and family-oriented, to help get people to use the park,” said Seay. “Everything we do, we want it to be free, because the love of God is free. We plan to serve a lot of people, knowing that even if nobody comes, we’re going to have fun. Ultimately, it’s not a failure if people don’t show up; it’s a failure if we never did anything.”

Fortunately, Saturday’s event was far from a failure, as dozens of kids could be heard laughing and enjoying the various water-related activities at Budd Park. Stalder hopes that more events like that will continue to build civic pride in families throughout the Northeast.

“We’re just trying to get people to use our parks as much as possible for positive things, and to get the kids taking ownership of the park,” said Stalder.