35th Annual Overland Park
Mayor's Prayer Breakfast
The Overland Park Mayor's Prayer Breakfast
was Thursday, April 15, 2010
6:45 AM - Overland Park Marriott Hotel
10800 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS
Our Featured speaker was Karen Kornacki
Sportcaster with KMBC Channel 9 in Kansas City
Watch this space for the 36th Annual Overland Park Mayor's Prayer Breakfast in 2011
For a PDF flyer CLICK HERE
For ticket information, call Sheryl Block at Valley View Bank: 913 381-3311
Karen Kornacki came to Kansas City in August of 1983. She now anchors the Saturday sportscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Karen covers all sports, "But I have always enjoyed the people stories, talking to athletes and their families, finding the unusual sidebars." She grew up in a small city between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York and went to college at the University of Denver. Her first job was in Columbus, Ohio in 1979. Her husband is a former professional baseball player. He played for the Yankees and finished his career in the Houston organization. Karen has won awards through her career. The one that stands out to her is the Kansas City Image Award back in 1995. That award is in recognition of work in the community as well as on the job. She also won an Emmy in 2003 for a special show on the Royals. She has a book underway dedicated to teaching women the game of baseball.
The Overland Park Mayor's Prayer Breakfast is not affilated with the City of Overland Park. It is organized exclusively by Kansas City CBMC, Inc, a not-for-profit organization.
The Overland Park Mayor's Prayer Breakfast Committee is:
Tom Van Dyke (Chairman)
Honorable Carl Gerlach
Jim Mathis (Program)
Tracey Osborne (OP Chamber of Commerce)
Sheryl Block (Reservations and Ticket Coordinator)
Rick Boxx (Church coordinator)
Dave Thompson (Ticket Sales)
Tom White (Program and Arrangements)
Jacob Swisher
History of the Mayor's Prayer Events
In 1973, Homer Anderson (the man Homer’s Coffee House is named in honor of) proposed a plan to begin Mayor’s Prayer Breakfasts in cities throughout Kansas and Missouri. Homer visited with mayors throughout the region and asked them to let Kansas City CBMC sponsor Annual Mayor Prayer Breakfasts in their cities.
Over the next few years many such events were begun. Other CBMC areas followed our lead and began Mayor’s Prayer Breakfasts as well. Nationally, CBMC sponsors Mayor’s Prayer Breakfasts in St Louis, Houston, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Los Angeles, and many other cities.
The purpose, then as now, was to present the claims of Jesus Christ to the business and professional community in a non-threatening and open environment. The guidelines were that there would be no mention of political parties or denominations. We would discourage politicians and clergy from speaking and the main speakers would be business people or athletes who had had a significant encounter with Christ.
Now, thirty-seven years later, Kansas City CBMC is still involved in about a dozen of these events each year. Some of the cities with Kansas City CBMC sponsored mayor prayer events are: Overland Park, Kansas City, KS, Independence, Blue Springs, and Topeka. We are not involved with the Kansas City, MO Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. Our purpose and guidelines have remained unchanged. The main challenge has been to keep politics out of the events and stay focused on God. Only in recent years have we begun to receive resistance from a small minority who believe that important issues, such as spirituality, should not be discussed in a public meeting. Others believe that there should be zero connection between anything spiritual and anything related to the government. This is certainly not what our founding fathers intended when they wrote the establishment clause.
Past speakers have been:
2010 - Karen Kornacki
2009 - Goran Hunyak
2008 - Brian Bannister
2007 - Brig Sorber
2006 - Dr Bernard Franklin
2005 - Robert Rogers
2004 - Gracia Burnham
2003 - Jerry Molnar
2002 - Richard Fenstermacher
2001 - Carol Kent
2000 - Charles Jones
1999 - Tom Osborne
1998 - Ted Sprague
1997 - Albert Diepeveen