Kansas City News Blog

I stopped by the Be 1! campaign kick-off event and fundraiser last night at Screenland. Normally when I hear "KC school district," I feel like a serrated knife is twisting in my skull. But not this time.

The party was in support of the B 1 of the 100,000 campaign -- the brainchild of School Board member Airick Leonard West. The hook is that each of the district's 20,000 students deserves at least five people to care about them and support them, which doesn't seem like too much to ask. The campaign has the support of multiple agencies, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA and the Kansas City Federation of Teachers.

It's too early to tell how effective the program can be, but judging from last night, people want it to be successful. And in a way, I think that's an achievement. The district has a not unwarranted image as a place where political slights -- perceived or real -- birth grudges that are nursed for years. Everyone wants to push their program at the expense of everyone else's, and the students take a backseat to administrative power plays.

Maybe I'm just being sappy, but it was cool to see so many board members and other influential people all having a cocktail and a good time and sticking a few bucks in for the students selling raffle tickets at the party. If nothing else, West knows how to get people out for his parties, and that's as good a start as any. If they can all agree that this project deserves their time, that's even better.

The woman working the door told me that they'd only planned for 150 people, and they'd already exceeded that by a hundred. And people were still coming in. Maybe some just viewed it as a good PR thing, but maybe it's a sign people are hungry to be a part of something good in the district. That's worth something.