When students get a three-day-weekend, they usually like to think of it as extra time to relax and entertain themselves. However, students from Shawnee Mission North and Shawnee Mission Northwest decided to use that time to volunteer and work for the community of Joplin.
May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin leaving a path of complete destruction one mile wide and six miles long. 160 people died in the storm and many more were left with their homes destroyed or damaged.
On Jan. 13-15, 19 students from their respective Coalition groups (12 students from North and 7 from Northwest) travelled together to Joplin to tour the damaged areas and work with different individuals and organizations.
One of these organizations was the Joplin Humane Society. Prior to the trip, students worked with the Pet Stop in Shawnee to collect donations. They then presented the donations to the Society and volunteered their day cleaning the pens, washing the puppies, doing the laundry, and walking the dogs.
Another organization where the students worked was Access Family. Access Family is a provider of health care for low-income or underinsured people. They get many of their supplies through donations, but most were kept in the warehouse on pallets. However, they also got donations of shelving units to help them organize their supplies. The students put together 19 shelving units and helped move some of the supplies from the pallets to the shelves.
Many of the students worked on the demolition of a house. The house had sustained damage during the storm and was owned by an elderly woman who did not have enough insurance to pay for the demolition. Students worked to clear the debris of the house while trying to save and reclaim as much of the raw material as possible for the rebuilding of a Habitat for Humanity home.
The trip was made possible by generous donations from Deffenbaugh Industries, Browns Medical Imaging, and Carthage Nazarene Church.
The students and sponsor involved from SM North were Michael Jones (12), Jon Chitwood (12), Jonathan Crane (11), Jordan Johnson (11), Brittny Cantrell (11), P.T. Abbott (11), Katie Arnote (11), Kyle Milligan (11), Shelby Robertson (11), Meghan Love (10), Cody Sarras (10), Elissia Hernandez (9), and Mr. Bradley Rose, English teacher, Coalition sponsor.
The students involved from SM Northwest were Victoria Banks (12), Sarah Crosley (12), Andrew Konecny (12), Stephanie Smith (12), Rebecca Rice (12), Taylor Tummons (12), and Carolyn Osbern (9).