At the first World Peace Celebration in 1987 in Kansas City, Tadodaho Leon Shenandoah, leader of the Onondaga Nation, told Bob Berkebile, BNIM founding principle emeritus, that he needed to create a symbol representing the heart spirit he felt in Kansas City.
Three years and hundreds of volunteer hours later, Berkebile completed the Heart Forest, a 2,000-tree living landmark near the intersection of North Brightwell Road and N.W. 104th Street.
“This is about caring for your neighbor, for other citizens, for the land (and) for this place that we call the heart of America,” Berkebile told KCUR’s Up To Date. “Like nature, we're all interconnected and interdependent. Let's act like it.”
As the trees have grown from 3 feet to 50 feet, a renewed effort is underway to restore the forest and welcome visitors arriving for the World Cup along the flight path from Kansas City International Airport.
Berkebile and Brian Weinberg, co-founders of the Foundation for Regeneration, plan to redefine the forest’s heart shape, create a welcoming gateway with picnic benches and photo spots and build a trail around and into the heart. Limestone around the heart’s edge will increase its visibility from the sky, and there will be a sanctuary in the center of the heart.
“In the heart of the heart, there'll be some benches in the circle where you can sit, reflect (and) have conversations of the heart,” Weinberg told KCUR’s Up To Date. “We'd like to have people write what's in their heart — prayers, wishes, maybe it's someone who's passed away, maybe someone's sick — to come to this place as sacred and put your heart wishes in a box in the center of the heart.”
Weinberg and Berkebile have raised about $240,000 of the needed $700,000 to complete this restoration process and have already begun some work on the site.
- Bob Berkebile, BNIM founding principle emeritus
- Brian Weinberg, Foundation for Regeneration managing director
