I have actually never been to Joplin before, so unfortunately I only got to see Joplin after the effects of the tornado. I have never seen the affects that a tornado can have on a city, other than in pictures or in the news. So when I arrived with a bus of 150 other volunteers I must say that I was shocked by how terrible Joplin was hit. Don’t get me wrong, I knew from the news that Joplin had been hit badly and that it really needed help in rebuilding, but being able to see it for myself was shocking.
Arriving in Joplin nobody knew what to expect as we got off the bus. We ended up laying down sod around the Drury architecture student’s memorial site. It didn’t take us very long to lay it down, but there were times when we seemed to be getting in each other’s way. We then moved towards the playground area, where we again laid down sod, raked up rocks, and swept the sidewalks.
Overall I felt like the concept behind the smart mob was a good one; however, I feel like we should have been told before hand the work that we would be doing. I think we would have been more productive had we not needed to go through an explanation before we did anything. Also, I don’t think there should be as many people at the next smart mob. I felt that a lot of the time I was just in the way. I would look around to try and find something to help with, but I would end up standing next to others who didn’t know how to help out.
Even though there were a few things I would have changed about the smart mob, all in all I felt like we did accomplish something and that given the chance to do a smart mob again I would.
As for our project with the Young Athletes Program, we just had our first night tonight (11/4/2011) and we had plenty of volunteers come out. However, we did not have very many children. We had only one little girl and her mother show up. The little girl’s name is Abbie, and it was really nice to be able to see her responses to the different areas set up. We had four different areas set up; they were t-ball, parachute, soccer, and an obstacle course. With it being our first night we didn’t really know what to expect, but I feel like it turned out pretty well. By the end of the night I feel like we accomplished in making not only Abbie smile, but we brought a smile to her mom’s face as well. Before they left Abbie’s mom assured us that she would be here again next week. We hope to have more kids by next week, and we plan on getting more by going and visiting the elementary schools in person to get the kids involved.
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