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On Friday, the two-hour episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature the show’s efforts in Joplin after the May 22 tornado. The episode shows volunteers from all over the Ozarks, including more than 300 Drury members who designed and built a tribute to volunteers in Joplin’s Cunningham Park. KSMU’s Rebekah Clark has more.
The Extreme-Makeover: Home Edition team, along with thousands of other volunteers, built seven houses in seven days for victims of the tornado. The workers also pitched in to rebuild other parts of the city, including Joplin’s historic Cunningham Park. Sam McBride, a third year architecture student at Drury, helped contribute to the designs of the project. He says the park is what the community calls “ground zero” because it’s where the storm measured at its strongest, an F5 tornado.
“Extreme Home Makeover did the seven houses, and that was designed by a local architect in Joplin. As a side project, they also did Cunningham Park; it’s been a historical park for a long time in that area. So we did the volunteer tribute, which is basically our commemoration to all the volunteers that came and helped after the tornado.”
McBride says the tribute is located within the restored park, along with a new playground and basketball court. He says the city came in later and also put in a reflecting pool and a memorial for victims of the tornado.
Traci Sooter is an associate professor of architecture at Drury and was the head coordinator for the project. She says this project is the fourth time Drury has worked with the show, and she hopes that continues.
“It was an amazing experience—not only from a community center’s aspect, but from a learning experience as an architect, and as a human being…which is why we’re involved with the volunteer tribute. Our project was to help Joplin thank all the people who came from all over the world to help them after that disaster.”
Sooter says that Friday’s airing will be the season finale and will also be the 200th episode of the show.
The city of Joplin is also tremendously thankful for the show’s involvement in the community, as well as the huge number of volunteers that have been working there since the storm. Lynn Onstot, public information officer for Joplin, says the volunteers have been coming by the thousands.
“We have figured almost 118,000 volunteers have registered. We see about 719,520 hours of service coming from those volunteers—that’s the equivalent of 82 years of service if you worked a twenty-four-seven shift.”
Onstot says those figures are incredible and that the city is humbled by the response.
The show airs at 7 p.m. on ABC this Friday.
To watch a video detailing Drury’s work in Joplin, you can visit KSMU.org.
For KSMU News, I’m Rebekah Clark.
Video: click here
Rebekah has lived in Springfield her entire life, and she plans to spend the rest of her life in southwest Missouri. She's a student at MSU seeking a major in public relations and a minor in history. In her free time, she loves to read, ride her bike, sing, spend time outdoors, hang out with her friends, listen to music and take pictures. She also volunteers with the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks and is a member of her church worship band.
