Central Avenue Betterment Association

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, the Central and South regions of Mexico, and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States. It is acknowledged internationally in many other cultures. The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to ask for the wellbeing of and remember friends and family members who have died and help support their spiritual journey. Prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration took place at the beginning of summer. Gradually, it was associated with October 31, November 1 and November 2 to coincide with the western Christian triduum of "All Hallowtide": All Saints' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called "Ofrendas", honoring the deceased using "Calaveras", Aztec marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess "Mictecacihuatl" The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead. It has become a national symbol and as such is taught (for educational purposes) in the nation's schools. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. As in Mexico, here in Kansas City we promote and strengthen the cultural roots of the Day of the Dead using the iconic character "La Catrina" as an emblem. COVID19 has reminded us how fragile we are and despite the fact that our culture laughs at death and celebrates life; This 2022 we have been trapped in a thousand emotions that we must not stop expressing. In places like Central Avenue, where this tradition is more entrenched, the altars begin to take shape on October 28th, many residents and business owners enter a contest organized by our Association and display their altars to the public. The celebration reaches its peak on November 7th when the community comes out onto the avenue and celebrates with a jovial spirit the visit of their loved ones. The community decorates the street with colors, kids line up to get their calavera painted on their faces, musicians and performers are playing every few feet and delicious food is served right and left while everyone waits for the night parade to start! During the celebration in Central Avenue, 40 volunteers decorated the faces of hundreds of people throughout the day's long program. Makeup modules were installed along the parade route and makeup artists treated the attendees with skull face painting. Children and adults enjoyed the colorful face painting as a representation of "Calaveras" in acceptance that death is inevitably the step to the next life where our spirit reigns. A new tradition in the Celebration. For the seventh time, the Day of the Dead Parade was held in Wyandotte County. In this nighttime parade you saw monumental skulls, floats and Catrinas dancing on Central Avenue from 6th street to 15th street.With more than 30 floats the parade evoked the historical stages of Mexico from the pre-Hispanic era to the present times, this included local participants, local businesses, motorcycle clubs, custom cars and dance groups. A spectacular live show took place on 10 stages from where local artists and musicians entertained the crowd while waiting for the parade. More than 300 volunteers helped produce one of the most anticipated celebrations for everyone in the community. The fantastic lineup of local Mexican restaurants and local vendors from La Placita Market at Bethany Park delighted everyone's taste buds. Our 2022 celebration by the numbers: 18,000 visitors on Central Avenue. 78 local vendors, 10 live music stages, 20 entertainers, 30 floats, 300 volunteers, 27 Catrinas, 4 makeup stations, 40 makeup artists, 9 hours of continued entertainment and a ton of joy.

La Placita is a weekend market at Bethany Park. It features vendors, entertainment, and the opportunity for members of the community to connect. The market is 100% produced and promoted by CABA with the extraordinary help of the Unified Government's Parks and Recreation Department and supported by the Kauffman Foundation. La Placita enjoys the help from many community volunteers, community conscious businesses and organizations the same. The potential for the extended success of La Placita reaches all Central Avenue Commercial Corridor. The project is greatly scalable. In past years, we have experienced the energy generated during each event and we know this energy has inspired even greater grassroots participation. Older folks, single parent families, single mothers and abused, neglected members of our community are searching for direction, knowledge, experience, and opportunity. We believe the low income/hard working people of our community need a place to expose themselves to non-threatening, low at-front investment business opportunities surrounded by friends and family with a chance to explore commerce and meet new people in community (network). The highs and lows of working life makes it difficult to enjoy recreational time. The success of our program comes from marrying the need to generate income with the opportunity to enjoy time with family and friends. With everyone's help in making the Market/Business Incubator a success we bring our community together. As CABA does not collect any money from the vendors in the way of fees or dues, they enjoy 100% of their profits and we enjoy seeing them become financially independent. We are simply too enthusiastic of a community to allow the opportunity to change things in a positive direction slip away, so we created La Placita Market and gave it the strength of a Grassroots Business Incubator to help our community help itself! Mission La Placita shall be an open-door venue for community members to explore their ability to produce and commercialize any given product without the pressure of major at front investment. Vision Within La Placita's operation, each vending start-up shall be guided and prompted to engage in learning the commercialization of products and services. Product presentation, market analysis and forward planning are embedded in the process for learning how to build a path to financial success. La Placita started its 2022 session on May 6th and as a successful community program CABA received the approval for re-producing it every other week until the end of its session in the month of September. Nearly 30 local vendors and other organizations took advantage of our weekend market. It served over 20,000 residents and visitors to the community, promoting community engagement and the incubation of future businesses for the Central Avenue Commercial Corridor.

Summer Mentoring. During the year 2014 a full revision of the programs goals and reach was performed. Within the revision, structural changes were made to the program to increase the participant's community awareness and the promotion of student's goal making. The promotion of higher education became the specific goal, as well as the generation of personal and community pride, and the breaking of self-imposed and cultural barriers. During 2022, we had an amazing turn out of students. Students completed the program, and an unprecedented amount of organizations reached out to participate in the mentoring of each student. The connection between our program and higher education became a pipeline due to our partnership with the Latinos of Tomorrow organization. The program as it stands was supported overwhelmingly well by the community leadership. Our local Board of Public Utilities was presented and pleased with the new structure. Promises for increased funds for years to come were made. New leaders and professionals from the community expressed their interest in future participation as mentors. 2022 was a year where we had 17 students enroll to our program, 15 of them finished the two months set of events and graduated with amazing results. 10 of them move to higher education, 2 students got a job offered by two of our mentoring organizations. 5 decided to move forward to technical school.

The Flavors of Central Tour: Over the last four decades, Latino immigration to the Midwest has brought new and mysterious spices, condiments, and recipes that have transformed the palates of Americans. There are more than 40 authentic Latino restaurants along the Central Area corridor. The Flavors of Central Tour is a showcase of traditional Mexican dishes, drinks, and desserts that businesses offer attendees to taste and experience. In 2022, 15 businesses on Central Avenue participated in the tour, 52 tickets were sold, 32 special guests from the food industry were invited, 25 volunteers helped with the production, 378 new hits on the website, and 28 bicycles were loaned out to visitors.

Free Wheels for Kids. The Free Wheels for Kids program is a bicycling program offered in Wyandotte County to elementary schools, middle school children and high school students. The program teaches and promotes bike riding and safety skills, while learning civic involvement and community resources. We pivoted to public cycling clubs and outdoor physical activities during 2020, and engaged even more people in our community. Giving away over 300 free bicycles, we feel honored with our delivery and partnerships around the metro.

Wyandotte County's Central Avenue Parade is the single most important event/venue on East Wyandotte County or Downtown Kansas City, Kansas. Annually produced by Central Avenue Betterment Association since 1976, the parade has historically drawn circa of 5,000 visitors to the Central Avenue Commercial Corridor every year, benefiting many businesses and reshaping the metro wide perception of the City. This year the parade is reaching its 43rd anniversary and we are looking forward to having your visit and participation for an outstanding parade production. Almost 55 floats, 6 High School Marching Bands, several local schools, horse clubs, vintage cars, businesses and private family' floats on top of nearly 10,000 people following the day's events on Central Avenue and Bethany Park to continue the celebration!