'I came to lead the way;' See the faces of people getting vaccines at Morning Star

Thousands are getting vaccines at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, including (left to right) Tara Raghuveer, Qadhafi, Elie Hudson, Howard Hanna and Paul Washington.

They were restaurant workers, community organizers, neighbors . . .

They came to get their Covid-19 vaccination — certainly because they wanted to protect themselves and others — but also with a sense of obligation to put their faces out front against fear and doubt.

“I came to lead the way,” said the man who goes by the name Qadhafi. He is a spokesman for the Kansas City Homeless Union, and knows he could encourage many of the people he knows, many of them living in camps where they are especially vulnerable to Covid, yet many of them suspicious of vaccines.

He needed to find out for himself, so he joined the lines of people who have been coming to the Youth and Family Life Center at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, where more than 12,000 vaccinations have been injected into arms since early March.

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“I came to deem it safe,” he said.

LINC and the church together have been reaching out into the communities surrounding the center at 27th and Prospect, targeting east and central Kansas City populations that have been most harmed by the coronavirus and which are also more difficult to connect to vaccination opportunities.

During the last week of March, one of the groups the church reached was KC Tenants, coordinating with the advocacy group for renters to bring in their members, who often live in crowded conditions and work in the service industry.

KC Tenants member Elie Hudson, 25, came for the opportunity to help lead others from groups of people she says have suffered too much already.

“I wanted to make sure I can protect myself and my community,” she said. “I don’t want any more senseless harm and deaths on my community.”

Howard Hanna, like many of the people in KC Tenants, works in a restaurant and has to interact with people. So the 45-year-old Kansas Citian came to Morning Star when he was offered an appointment.

“I have to be around the public,” he said. “So this is going to feel a lot safer and a lot better knowing I’m vaccinated.”

Tara Raghuveer, the director of KC Tenants, also made an appointment.

“I am so grateful for LINC and Morning Star Baptist and all the community partners who are putting on this event,” she said. “It is really important that all of us who are able to and comfortable with it get vaccinated to protect our neighbors.”

Paul Washington, 35, drove up from Grandview with his wife, and they took turns going through the vaccination process while the other parent sat with their child in their car.

It was worth the trip, he said, and he was comforted by what he saw in many faces of others getting their vaccinations and so many helpers gathered to make it happen.

“I appreciate events like this where folks can come out who might not necessarily get access to (a vaccination),” he said.

“I appreciate community.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer

Video edited by Bryan Shepard