Difference makers: Unity in the Community volunteer co-chair April Anderson continued organizing and leading through cancer fight

In the midst of organizing 2022’s Unity in the Community celebration, volunteer April Anderson had lung cancer surgery. Just a month and a half later Riverfront Park was flooded by Spokane’s cultural exchange.

Anderson’s family had urged Anderson to step away from being one of the summer event’s co-chairs that year. But she refused.

“I know it’s crazy. I just couldn’t see not doing it,” Anderson said. “It is a labor of love for me.”

Her daughter helped and ensured Anderson stayed off her feet and out of the sun that day.

“I’ve tried to slow down a bit this year. I only logged about a hundred volunteer hours. So it’s probably closer to 300 in a normal year. Lung cancer made me slow my roll a little bit,” Anderson said.

For nearly the past 30 years, Unity in the Community has brought together Spokane’s ethnic and immigrant communities to showcase their culture and educate children.

The event began in 1994 as an event of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church but has grown into an annual summer tradition in Riverfront Park that regularly attracts more than 10,000 people.

Anderson is a member of Bethel AME church and began volunteering for the event in 2005. She became the nonprofit’s co-executive director in 2014 and has been one of its lead organizers for the past decade. As co-executive director Anderson is responsible for a wide range of events and responsibilities include volunteer coordination, organizing sponsors, creating logistics for the massive event and even stuffing 1,200 school bags given out to children.

“April is one of the most hardworking people I know and she doesn’t seek recognition at all,” said Unity in the Community volunteer Pinki Culbertson, who nominated Anderson for The Spokesman-Review’s Difference-Makers series. “She is so dedicated and well-organized. I just thought she needed the recognition.”

Asked what initially drew her to the event, Anderson said it was seeing kids have their world expanded by interacting with cultures they may not have otherwise known about.

“It’s really that sense of belonging and connecting people by learning something new about cultures. You just see their faces light up, Anderson said.

Children at the event receive mock passports they can get filled out at each booth. Those who get every country’s stamp receive a new backpack filled with supplies and a bicycle helmet just in time for the school year.

“School supplies are expensive. I was a single mom and raised two kids by myself. And it can be really hard to afford the beginning of a new school year,” she said of why the event gives out the supplies.

Several individuals who worked with Anderson through her volunteerism noted she is often the person organizing things in the background and does not receive the recognition she deserves.

“April doesn’t jump onto the stage and let everyone know that she’s the one that made sure all the backpacks are stocked. She’s the one who single-handedly inventoried every pencil and eraser to make sure we had the bags these kids are so excited about, walking around the park beaming from ear-to-ear,” said the event’s other co-executive director, Mareesa Henderson. “She will not put the spotlight on herself. She’s interested in making a difference for the people in the community and for the people she loves.”

Henderson described Anderson as “essential” and “truly selfless” with her time.

Ben Cabildo, founder of AHANA, the multi-ethnic business association based in Spokane, said Anderson is full of integrity.

“April has been right there from the very beginning,” said Cabildo, former chair of Unity in the Community. “She’s solid as a rock.”

“You can always rely on her,” Cabildo said. “She will follow through.”

“I usually do enough (volunteering) for my whole department and then some,” she admitted.

Anderson is in remission from her cancer and hopes to see Unity in the Community grow in the coming years.

“I can’t imagine ever missing out on it anymore. I just love being involved with such an amazing event,” she said.