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Here's how people in her hometown are honoring Mollie Tibbetts on what would have been her 21st birt

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May 29, 2001
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The community that came together last summer to search for 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts, who vanished while on a run in her hometown, is coming together again on what would have been her 21st birthday.

Tibbetts was found dead in August after a month-long nationwide search. For the people who knew her best, her May 8 birthday sets up a summer of anniversaries of her disappearance, the search and the day they said good-bye.

Tibbetts' upbeat outlook was central to how people talked to reporters about her. After her body was found, public attention shifted to politics when the man charged in her death, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, was identified as a Mexican national living in the United States illegally. His trial is scheduled for September.

RELATED:We know Mollie's face; her friends and family say she was so much more

Advocates sought to refocus Tibbetts' legacy to the idea of carrying on her spirit, including in Brooklyn, the central Iowa town of about 1,400 where Tibbetts grew up and graduated from high school. Among those advocates: Joy VanLandschoot, who months ago began brainstorming ways to honor Tibbetts through a group she started called Mollie’s Movement.

That's when the question crossed her mind: "What would Mollie do?"

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Mollie Tibbetts, 20, of Brooklyn, was last seen jogging on July 18, 2018 before her body was found in farm field one month later. (Photo: Jenny Fiebelkorn/Special to the Register)

The owner of Live Now Designs in Brooklyn, which helped print flyers and T-shirts during the search, landed on the answer: Tibbetts would spread kindness.

VanLandschoot and others decided on a couple of ways to remember Tibbetts, all of which will come together Wednesday at a birthday celebration in conjunction with a fundraiser for the Brooklyn Opera House, a building where many of Tibbetts' family members volunteered their time.

VanLandschoot also had 30,000 “kindness cards” printed with a quote from Tibbetts printed on the back.

"Everybody has their own talent," the cards say. "Whether it's a sport you are good at, or if you are good at dance, or if you're a great writer, even if you're just a good person. That's one of the best things you can be good at."

In a video provided by Lori Schafbuch, Mollie Tibbetts speaks at a high school event in 2016, when she was a senior at BGM, about prayer. Lori Schafbuch, Special to the Register

She said she's encouraging people to perform 21 random acts of kindness in Tibbetts' memory.

The cards are circulating not just around Brookyln, but across the state and country.

VanLandschoot sent a shipment to SPARK Kindness clubs in Pennsylvania and others to Illinois, California and New York.

"Really, it's about getting out and doing something good for somebody," she said.

VanLandschoot said the purpose of Mollie's Movement, which is based in part on a Bible passage that compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, hasn’t died down.

"There are enough mustard seeds and enough faith out there that it will continue to spread hope for families that need it," she said, adding that a focus of the group is to bring awareness to more missing person cases.

VanLandschoot didn’t know Tibbetts personally, but she said the search for the young woman affected the whole community, including herself.

“It’s a small town, so I knew people that loved Mollie deeply that I love,” she said. “It wasn't hard for anybody who didn't know Mollie to fall in love with her."

She still hears people talk about Tibbetts without shying away from the sadness of loss or the beauty of hope. And, she said, they continue to support Tibbetts' family.

Tibbetts' family declined to comment publicly for this story, but her mother, Laura Calderwood, is expected to speak at Wednesday's event. The family is also raising money through the Mollie Tibbetts Memorial Fund for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in her memory. (Tibbetts attended the University of Iowa, where she studied psychology.)

The family is encouraging people to donate $21 in Mollie's honor. So far, more than 270 people have donated more than $20,000 in Tibbetts' memory.

https://www.press-citizen.com/story...may-8-brooklyn-iowa-acts-kindness/1128209001/
 
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