Elder Gong joins Light the World Giving Machines unveiling in Kansas City

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles welcomed community leaders, local charitable organizations, families and friends from the greater Kansas City, Missouri, area to the Saturday, Nov. 30, unveiling of the Light the World Giving Machines inside the city’s historic Union Station.

“In this world where there are many needs, none of us can do everything, but every one of us can do something,” said Elder Gong, who also participated in related events in Kansas City over the holiday weekend.

The unveiling both signaled the 2024 start of the annual Christmastime campaign in the area and celebrated the city’s fourth year of involvement with the large red vendinglike machines, where instead of purchasing an item, Giving Machine users push buttons to donate money to local and global charities to purchase goods and services for those they serve.

This year, Light the World Giving Machines are scattered across 107 cities in 13 countries on five continents.

“Kansas City does a heck of a job bringing everyone out here to these Giving Machines,” said Missouri Gov. Michael L. Parson, quoted in a report on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. “And I’ve been to a lot of them.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas agreed: “More than four years ago, several very special people came to me from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and said, ‘We want to do something special and different, and it relates to vending machines.’”

In the previous three years, more than three-quarters of a million dollars was raised in Kansas City alone through the donation machines.

In addition to numerous global organizations, the seven local charities participating this year are: Amethyst Place, Community Services League, El Centro, Flourish: A Furniture Bank, Pawsperity, the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund and Science City.

This year’s Giving Machines unveiling was emceed by a pair of prominent philanthropists with ties to the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs organization — Tavia Hunt, the wife of owner Clark Hunt, and Tammy Reid, the wife of defending Super Bowl champion coach Andy Reid.

Elder Gong and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, were accompanied in Kansas City by Elder Randall K. Bennett, North America Central Area president and a General Authority Seventy, and his wife, Sister Shelley Bennett; and by Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, an Area Seventy, and his wife, Sister Rebecca Morgan.

Two days before the Giving Machines event, Elder Gong and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, participated in a sing-along fireside with the Bonner Family on Thanksgiving evening, Nov. 28, at the Liberty Missouri Stake Center. Elder Gong offered remarks at the sing-along and greeted individuals afterwards.

The following day, on Friday, Nov. 29, the Gongs attended the Kansas City Chiefs football game, where the Bonners sang the national anthem and performed the Light the World anthem during the halftime program.

More photos from Kansas City