The last time Gov. Mike Parson stood before the Capitol crowds to deliver a State of the State address, Missouri was staring down a big problem.

New vaccines were just arriving on the scene for a nation in Covid distress — vaccines which were available at that time for only a small number of Missourians.

“No one had a roadmap or a playbook,” he recalled. “We knew we faced difficult times ahead.”

Parson was back in the Capitol Wednesday, delivering his 2022 address, looking out among the faces in the balcony of the House chamber for special guests he’d invited in honor of the work that helped pull Missouri through.

Two of them were Rev. John Modest Miles, pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, and his daughter, LINC Executive Vice President Janet Miles-Bartee.

They, along with Michael McMillan and James Clark of the Urban League in St. Louis, played essential roles in helping Missouri get vaccinations to some of the state’s hardest hit and most vulnerable populations, Parson said.

“With these trusted leaders aiding our efforts,” he said, “we were able to get hundreds of thousands in Kansas City and St. Louis vaccinated.”

Missouri is in a strong financial position, Parson said, unveiling in his speech a proposed budget with $12 billion in increased spending in anticipation of healthy tax revenues and federal pandemic aid.

It included proposals to fully fund the Foundation Formula that funds K-12 education, increase teachers’ starting pay to $38,000 and invest $400 million in broadband technology to connect 75,000 more families to the internet.

What buoyed his strength, Parson said, was the journey he and First Lady Teresa Parson took throughout the state in Missouri’s Bicentennial Celebration year, experiencing the “heart and soul of what makes Missouri great,” he said.

“Faith, family, neighbors helping neighbors — that’s who Missourians are.”

Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and LINC teamed up during the past year to help neighbors across multiple East Kansas City neighborhoods that were in danger of falling short of many relief opportunities, including access to federal funds for assistance with past due utility bills and rent, as well as life-saving vaccinations.

The clinic at Morning Star’s Youth and Family Life Center at 27th and Prospect Avenue has become a hub for community aid, having provided so far more than 25,000 Covid vaccinations and helped nearly a thousand households access some $1.5 million in utility bill and rental assistance. Morning Star has also distributed more than 2 million pounds of food.

Parson’s support of the work at Morning Star showed the state’s commitment to seek relief for all Missourians, especially the most distressed, said Miles-Bartee.

“We thank the governor for seeing the need to be of service to all people,” she said. “We (LINC and Morning Star) would not have been able to serve so many people in these communities where people don’t have computers, don’t have the Internet, where they don’t know where or how to get help.”

After University Health — the former Truman Medical Center — had used Morning Star’s community center as a temporary vaccination site in January 2021, Rev. Miles and Miles-Bartee reached out to Parson for support to make Morning Star an ongoing vaccination site.

Parson, who has a longstanding friendship with Rev. Miles, recognized the opportunity and sent medical teams from the Missouri National Guard to the site in February.

The National Guard named their Morning Star mission Task Force Freedom, honoring the work that Capt. Tony Rich said came to the rescue of people “whose lives were put on hold,” reaching out purposefully to predominantly Black neighborhoods with the greatest health risks.

The Guard was at the site through May. Morning Star continues to offer a weekly vaccination clinic in partnership with University Health. The utility and rental assistance and the food distributions continue as well.

Parson visited Morning Star in April 2021 to see first-hand how the center was distributing hundreds of vaccines a day during those first months that immunizations were available, predicting then that the operation “will be a model for our state and it will be a model for the country.”

The State of the State speech marked the second time this month that Parson summoned Rev. Miles and Miles-Bartee to Jefferson City. On Jan 6, Rev. Miles was the featured speaker at the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast.

The work at Morning Star exemplified the goodness and ingenuity Parson praised in his speech and marked the spirit he sees throughout Missouri.

“Remember, our strength is our people,” he said. “When times are hard, Missourians move forward. When someone is down, Missourians lift them up.

“These past years have been tough and dividing for a lot of people,” he said, “but Missourians stay true. They give their best and they always put others first, and we are a better state — a better people — because of it.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer

Video edited by Bryan Shepard