Carva White, an itinerant preacher with a taste for Cadillacs and fine clothes, is back raising money in his preferred fashion: by deploying children at busy intersections.
Adolescents and teenagers armed with buckets of candy have been a frequent sight at 63rd Street and Swope Parkway this spring. The children ask stopped motorists for donations to a church. A handbill they distribute says the church, New Higher Ground, will open at 2860 Raytown Road (site of what used to be the Satin Dolls strip club). C.L. White Sr. is listed as the pastor and founder.
I wrote about Carva White in 2006, after listening to a parks official complain about the Pixy Stix-bearing children negotiating traffic near the entrance of Swope Park. The man beyond the candy-for-donations swap turned out to be a flamboyant, musically gifted preacher with a checkered past. White went to federal prison in 2001 on a bank-fraud charge. More than one landlord has taken him to court. I interviewed an elderly Kansas City, Kansas, woman who claimed that White had used her to obtain credit for Home Depot purchases and a Cadillac.
White was preaching at a storefront church on Troost Avenue at the time I caught up with him. He blamed his legal problems on misplaced trust and bad luck. He said one of his sons had suggested the idea of candy sales as a way to raise money for the church.
A bank in Maryland owns the old strip club where White apparently aspires to locate his wandering ministry. A bank official had no comment about the property.
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I'm still a sucker for a sufficiently bedraggled-looking homeless person, but I generally avoid giving money to people who solicit donations at street corners. If you want me to contribute to your cause, obstructing traffic and keeping me from getting where I'm going isn't a very good tactic.
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