Basketball Fans Join Tornado Clean-up
Dordt College alumni and friends who traveled to Missouri to watch the college’s basketball team play in the national finals also had the chance this week to help clean up after a recent tornado leveled homes and downtown buildings in the popular resort town of Branson.
The Missouri twister was one of 80, late-February tornadoes that touched down over two days in many states, causing death, injuries and widespread destruction.
No one was killed in Branson, but several people were injured. The well-known Variety Theatre and a local Hilton convention center were among the buildings damaged.
Realizing that the Division II National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics finals are being held in Point Lookout, which is near Branson, Dordt College personnel connected with First Presbyterian Church in Branson, asking how the college could help. Dordt College is in Sioux Center, Iowa.
As a result, the basketball fans had a chance to take time away from the finals to play a role in the clean-up effort.
Meanwhile, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) Disaster Relief Services managers have gone to southern Indiana to assess and determine how to best respond to the widespread death and damage caused in that area and elsewhere by the deadly outbreak of storms.
In Branson, 25 volunteers showed up Wednesday, March 7, on the morning of the Dordt/Cal-Maritime game, to clear wreckage from an open field. They also repaired the roof, patched broken windows, and rebuilt the front steps of a woman’s home that sustained heavy damage in the storm.
On Thursday, more than 50 volunteers filled dumpsters with the remains of a house demolished from the storm, and some used chainsaws to help clear the area of downed trees. Heavy rain caused the work to end earlier than expected.
In their first game, the Dordt College Defenders beat the Keelhaulers of Cal-State Maritime. The next game was to be played today.
“We were overwhelmed by people’s willingness to show up – even in the rain,” said Barb Mellema, one of the coordinators for the clean up and Dordt College director of annual giving. “Everybody came and worked anyway.”
Dordt College photographer Jamin Ver Velde followed the team to Branson and has taken pictures for a photo blog helping to chronicle the clean-up effort and the basketball tournament.
To support CRWRC in addressing long-term recovery needs in its work following the tornadoes go to Midwest, southern tornadoes response. You can also call 1-800-55-CRWRC, or give by check marked, “CRWRC Spring Storms 2012,” and mail to CRWRC, 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, Mich., 49560-0600.
CRWRC is the disaster response, relief and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church. CRWRC’s volunteer services include recovery planning and capacity building, needs assessments, home repair and construction in disaster locations across the U.S. and Canada.
