Local teens selling signs with black hearts on them share unspoken meaning
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OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV/ KSMO) — The Black Lives Matter movement has fueled a business for local Sumner Academy students. They are sisters who are selling signs that say so without words.
With every yard sign Amari and Sa’Mya Lewis passed out at Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church for $10 a piece came a silent message: My heart is in your hands.
“Just getting the word out there that we’re doing this business for the right reasons,” said 15-year-old Sa’Mya.
“I don’t think we’ve hit all 50 states quite yet but we’ve sold about 450 signs,” said 17-year-old Amari.
It all started with an adult named Holly Cornelius. She is friends with Amari and Sa’Mya’s mom. She wanted to create some signs for her house and her neighbors, so she created some that were very simple and used just a sticker. She then passed them out to 18 neighbors so they could line the block.
Soon she got more and more requests and realized this could be a business to help nonprofits and immediately thought of Amari and Sa’Mya.
“For our girls, it’s completely normal and natural that they’re doing something on this magnitude,” their father Adrian Lewis said. “It’s not the first time they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone to try something new.”
Sa’Mya said, “Part of it is to help our college fund. Then another part is to donate to Black and brown and Indigenous and LGBTQ businesses. We hope to donate to those businesses.”
They named their company A Higher Promise in honor of their oldest brother named LJ.
“He wrote down in his journal how he wanted to do stuff for the Black community.” Sa’Mya said.
They found the journal after they lost him to gun violence last year.
“It’s like he’s just involved,” their mother Shontail Lewis said. “His spirit is just with us and this would be what he would be wanting us to do. And he would be here.”
Sure, it’s just a yard sign but to the sisters it’s also a sign of hearts beginning to open, along with minds.
“What I hope people get from buying these signs is that they are taking that step and wanting to learn,” Amari said.
It’s an effort they hope will grow, spread, and persist.
“Black lives matter and they will always matter, and this is not a movement just for now,” said Amari. “This will always be something that will matter.”
You can buy a sign on their website ahigherpromise.com, where they also plan to share experiences and reading lists.
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