Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope and Clementine Gold Group President Ekua Mends-Aidoo joined BTPM NPR's Jay Moran on 'Morning Edition' on Monday, May 12, 2025. The three discussed a planned day of service in remembrance of the 5/14/2022 Tops massacre and the 10 lives lost.
Click the listen button above the photo to hear the conversation. Below is a transcription of that segment:
Jay Moran: This is Buffalo Toronto Public Media, NPR, good morning to you. I'm Jay Moran. It's 8:29 am and for the next few minutes, we've got a chance to talk about what's happening on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025, as we remember May 14th, 2022, at the Jefferson Avenue Tops. A day of remembrance and service is being planned with us, the two planners, Ekua Mends-Aidoo of the Clementine Gold Group, and Ellicott District Council Member, Majority Leader of the Buffalo Common Council, Leah Halton Pope, thank you for being with us this morning so bright and early. Let's get into it. First and foremost, I think this is a great idea. That's just my own personal opinion because it gives people a chance to do something. I think that has been something I've been seeing for the last three years. Everybody wants to do something. They don't know what to do. So, let's talk about what they can do on Wednesday.
Leah Halton-Pope: So, Ekua called me probably, two weeks ago, not even saying “Hey, what are we doing?”, and she talked about some things that she and Clementine Gold wanted to do and explained that there's always a memorial event that happens at Tops where we remember the victims and honor their families in this time. Part of it, I think Ekua was initially going to be doing, at Massey Park, and I said, I think we should make it a day full of service. We’ve never done anything like that in the City of Buffalo, where we just focused on, if these 10 individuals were still here, what would they be doing right now? Right? So, whether it's reading a book to children, going to nursing homes, cleaning up a park and gardens that's kind of how we started it. I made a resolution that we will pass tomorrow with the city council. My hope is that my colleagues will support me in making it truly a city-wide day of service, where the city hall will actually close for that day, and people in the morning can at least go and do some acts of service and kindness for the community.
Ekua Mends-Aidoo: Yeah, the biggest thing, I think is, when we think about this specific day, obviously it was a tragedy. How could we take that back? Right? Take that back for the community and honor folks. So that's why we ground it in Sankofa, which is a Ghanaian term, but it's looking to the past and honoring the past in order to move forward into the future. So, our idea, you start the day in service, and you end it in the community. It'll be a celebration of life, with lots of different activities for folks to come in. You know, free food, and free things for your kids too, right? We wanted to make this generational as well.
Jay Moran: So, there'll be a variety of service-type events going on during the early portion of the day. The memorial, of course, at the Jefferson Avenue Tops?
Leah Halton-Pope: Yes, and Clementine has been amazing, helping to build those partnerships to give volunteer opportunities. If people want to sign up, or can't think of what they need to do, this is an opportunity. You can also on your own, just say, this is how I want to honor this family member. I want to give people rides, etc. So, we want to give that website if you can sign up.
Ekua Mends-Aidoo: So, you can go to Clementine Gold Group.com, and on the right side, you'll see a little orange icon that will actually break down all the different events that are happening. To Leah's point, we talked about getting in touch with the families and making sure that we would honor them.
Leah Halton-Pope: Yeah, we didn't do this without trying to reach out to as many as we could. Not everybody's always receptive, but this one had to be different for me and for Ekua in that we didn't just make a decision for the families. We found a way to honor them by including them. How would you like your loved one to be honored on this day by doing access service, versus some events that someone puts up without exactly including them in the process? So, the hope is that this is our first year, we wrote this in a very short period of time, but as it grows, and frankly, some of the organizations that I've talked to since last week, want to see it county-wide. So, I do see this growing into something permanent.
Ekua Mends-Aidoo: So, if you go on the website, you'll see different opportunities. We'll be putting floral arrangements together in honor of Ruth Whitfield. We're going to be donating to different organizations in honor of some of the other members and playing cards for one of the victims as well.
Jay Moran: Celestine Chaney?
Leah Halton-Pope: Yes, her son he said, you know, that's what my mom really enjoyed doing. In fact, her birthday was last week, and so for her birthday, it's my understanding that they played cards together. So, this is what we'll be doing.
Jay Moran: Again, the website?
Ekua Mends-Aidoo: Clementine Gold Group.com
Jay Moran: Ekua Mends-Aidoo of Clementine Gold Group and Leah Halton-Pope, Ellicott District Council Member, and Majority Leader for the Buffalo Common Council. Thanks for doing this, thanks for coming in and talking with us this morning.
