2nd annual Cultivate Kindness day honors late local woman

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- It’s the 2nd annual Cultivate Kindness day. In 2017, 27-year-old McKenzi Loid died unexpectedly from a tragic car accident. 

Her family and friends are working to keep her memory alive. The Cultivate Kindness faith-based organization’s purpose is to celebrate life and spread kindness in unique ways, just as McKenzi did. 

The phrase ‘cultivate kindness’ has special meaning- it’s what was on McKenzi’s screensaver when her mom got her phone at the hospital. 

“Mom and I founded this in honor of my sister, and mom touched on seeing ‘cultivate kindness’ on her screensaver. And that was something that she could see, just herself. It was a reminder for her to be kind and be kind to others. So that certainly was a passion for us to be able to help expand that to other people, especially the community here,” said McKenzi’s sister Emily Wilkins. 

Some of the ways they spread joy today include Christmas gifts cards to nursing homes, goodies to law enforcement officers and gifts to children who have had to leave their homes abruptly. They made a stop at kids on the block to drop off gifts for the puppets. 

“Kids on the block is something that I even grew up with and I remember watching them in my elementary school. They do such a great job and they show so many different messages that these kids need to hear, and to learn how to cope and understand things, so it’s definitely important for our community,” said Wilkins. 

They hope their acts inspire people to remember McKenzi and spread her positivity around the community.

“I hope they can just join in and realize that it just makes the world a better place. But I will have to say our community is amazing. When this first happened to us, one of the first words out of my mouth was ‘I wanted to be just what our community has been to us, I want to be that to everyone else.'”

The organization is truly a way for people to take their grief, anger or sadness and turn it into something positive.