On the 24th of October, Summit residents were asked to accompany the Drury Smart mob group to Joplin, to render help on the tornado wiped out site. I heard about the Extreme Home Makeover’s plan to build seven houses in seven days early in the semester, and got very excited and was eager to participate but didn’t know how. Fortunately Drury was forming a club called the Drury Design Build, headed by Tracy Sooter to design a tribute park for all the volunteers who helped in all sorts of ways after the destruction cause by the tornado.
So basically I was on site working on other things, when the smart mob team showed up on Monday. They ran toward the site and started laying down sods. The park, which had a large amount of bare ground was covered with the sods in less than an hour! What the smart mob did was very impressive and appreciated by all. That concluded my stay in Joplin.
3rd November, 2011
We had our first Special Olympics program last Thursday. I was happy with the number of volunteers who showed up to help us but was quite disappointed that only one child came. I thought it was going to be an unsuccessful first day but as the minutes started rolling with Aby, (that’s the child’s name) the feeling of disappointment quickly disappeared. Aby was co-operative and got along with all of us. Although she had trouble concentrating, she tried hard to listen to us and do as we asked her to. It was a wonderful experience that I know I wouldn’t forget in a long time. At the end of the program, we had a very happy and tired Aby. We are hoping we would get a few more children show up next time and for that, we are planning to personally go to some schools and talk to the children and their parents. That way, we can express the importance of our project and how much we want to help them. So I am quite certain things would be better next time.
-Pema Wangzome
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