By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
June 17, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The two partners had never met.

Before this past weekend, members of a youth group from St. Louis didn’t even know where the Lykins Neighborhood was located. But that didn’t stop nearly 200 children, and another 35 adults, from traveling across the state to help clean-up the neighborhood.

They arrived early on Saturday, June 13 and left by noon, leaving nearly 300 bags of trash with them as they boarded their tour buses back to St. Louis. Brian Josephson, youth leader for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said they wound up in the Historic Northeast because members of the church contacted the Urban Farming Guys. From there it was a game of phone tag. Jason Fields, one of the Urban Farming Guys and former president of the Lykins Neighborhood Association, informed new president David Shuck of what the youth group was looking to accomplish.

“We usually do one big annual project and smaller monthly projects,” Josephson said. “When we contacted Jason, he suggested pick-up trash in the neighborhood.”

Shuck said he was glad the youth group found them because their help was, “a dream come true.” Only having recently become the president of the neighborhood association, Shuck added he’s trying to organize more events like this for the neighborhood.

“This is easily the biggest clean-up we’ve hosted,” Shuck said. “I’ve tried to organize smaller events but it usually turned into me just cleaning a couple of alleys and that’s fine because a couple of alleys got clean.”

Although their day was cut short because of rain, Josephson said he emphasized the power of change the youth had by volunteering to clean the neighborhood.

“It connects with our religious message to them and how, like Jesus, they’re making an impact on people’s lives,” Josephson said.