Editor’s note: Emma Kinnard, a longtime community activist in Benton Harbor, MI, the impoverished city run by the Whirlpool Corp., spoke at a Martin Luther King Day luncheon in Detroit in January. She described her efforts to help young people in Benton Harbor through the Fresh Start Children’s Garden that she was instrumental in founding some 12 years ago. Below is an excerpt from her talk.
“We know the problems we have today. It’s time to start working towards making things better for people and for our children for the next generation. With the funding we received [from the Michigan Roundtable] we were able to start this Fresh Start Children’s Garden. We are going into our 12th season. The impact on the children is to show them we can work together to make something positive happen. For the next phase we want a greenhouse, and we need your support to build the structure. This is a learning tool. This I want you to do for the children.”
Please send donations to Fresh Start Children’s Garden, 270 East May Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.
The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less. He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. Be the change that you wish to see in the world. The words of a few wise men!
What will you do to impact the world.