'Cultivating Kindness' film to premiere Sunday at Blue Mound

James Lee, owner of Stone Tree Coffee & Pottery in Mound City, is one of the people interviewed in the movie "Cultivating Kindness," which premieres Sunday at Blue Mound. (Screen capture / Cultivating Kindness)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

BLUE MOUND – Over the current school year, the act of being kind has reverberated throughout the Jayhawk schools and the Mound City community as a whole.

A combined 81 students from both Jayhawk Elementary School and Jayhawk-Linn High School have received certificates noting their efforts after teachers or staff observed them performing acts of kindness.

The focus on kindness has been spurred on by resident independent filmmaker Sue Vicory and her circle of friends along with Marsha Wunderly, who has been a kindness emissary from Farmers and Merchants Bank in Mound City.

On Sunday, “Cultivating Kindness,” a movie that features several Mound City-area residents and a couple of high students, will premiere at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, at the Blue Moon theater on Main Street in Blue Mound. The 18-minute video was produced by Vicory with Taylor Snyder as director of photography, script by Angela Holt and narration by Travis Needham.

F&M Bank and Vicory’s production company, My Power of One, co-sponsored the film, which will enter the awards circuit, including the Emmys.

There is no admission charge for the premiere.

Gift cards for Vonnie May's Ice Cream Shoppe and Maynerds food truck will be given away at the premiere as will “Be Kind” magnets and goodie bags from the Mound City Library.

At the end of the movie, one person will be given the Citizen Kindness Award 2025, said Vicory, who declined to divulge the name of the honoree.

Seven people interviewed in the movie include Brandon Clark, pastor of the Mound City Christian Church; James Lee, owner of Stone Tree Coffee & Pottery: Josh Baldwin, owner of Dreamscape Innovations; Melayna Johnson, owner of Maynerd’s food truck; Deanna Dawson, board president of Concern Inc.; and two JLHS students, Brody Clark and Celeste Schneider.

“Kindness matters to God,” says Dawson in the movie. “I think we’re all put here to serve, and if we’re serving, that matters to God and that matters to everyone that we come into contact with.”

Johnson, who also operates a food pantry in a storefront beside her food truck, takes need personally.

“It kills me to see people in need,” she says in the film, “and sometime it kills me not to be able to help enough.”

The film is just the latest in a kindness-oriented projects in Mound City. Those include “Random Acts of Kindness” signs welcoming people to the city, a “Kindness Matters” bench at the city’s splash park, and the newly approved “Cultivate Kindness Garden” that will be installed west of Food Fair on Main Street this summer.