October 19, 2011
Volunteers converge on shows seven-house build in Joplin
By Debby Woodin
JOPLIN, Mo. Michele Withrow lost her home and her workplace in the May 22 tornado, yet here she stood Wednesday, ready to help launch the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition seven-day build to benefit seven families left homeless by that storm.
Withrow is a nurse who was not on duty the night the EF-5 tornado wrecked St. Johns Regional Medical Center. Despite the loss of her home at 23rd Street and Delaware Avenue, she went to the hospital to help evacuate patients from the nine-story building where she worked.
On Wednesday, she and hundreds of other volunteers braced against a cold wind at Cunningham Park waiting for the start of the Builder Braveheart March, the symbolic start of the popular reality television show that seeks out people who serve others while in need themselves to reward their giving spirit with a vacation and a new home.
Its an extreme build resulting from an extreme storm that killed 162 and destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 houses and other structures.
Joplin was selected as the site for a special build in observance of the shows 200th episode.
I think it is wonderful, Withrow said of the event. I think it shows that there is still so much good in the world.
She volunteered to work at the build, she said, to support our community and to help it rebuild. Theres so much strength here. Theres strength in numbers.
The seven families chosen to receive the houses that will be donated to them were whisked off Wednesday night for vacations at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., while their homes are being constructed on Connor Avenue between 24th and 26th streets. No interviews with the families were allowed other than those by the television show and ABC network affiliates. The project also includes work to help rebuild Cunningham Park, where there is to be a memorial to storm victims.
THE FAMILIES
One of the recipient families, that of Joplin firefighter Kyle Howard, appeared live Wednesday on ABCs Good Morning America with Extreme Makeover host Ty Pennington and ABC network weatherman Sam Champion. The unveiling of the Howard house at 2402 S. Connor Ave. will be broadcast live Wednesday, Oct. 26, on ABC.
Howard was on duty the night of the tornado and spent two hours rescuing people from their mangled homes, not knowing whether his wife and children had survived, before he was able to get home. He rescued his family members from a closet where they had withstood the storm with only his wife, Jill, suffering minor injuries. They have four sons; one of them was out of town when the storm happened.
Two single mothers who made a horrifying search together for children who were ripped from their protection by the twister are to receive homes. They are Crystal Whitely and Crystal Cogbill.
Crystal Whitelys two older children, Shante, 10, and Trentan, 8, were killed. Her 4-year-old daughter, Keana, survived.
Crystal Cogbill and her son, Zach Treadwell, 9, huddled in their bathtub, and she gripped him tight. The wind ripped him from her grasp as it tore apart their house, and she found his body afterward pinned beneath a utility pole.
The home where Justin and Kari Nevins raised their four children was called the neighborhoods house because it was open to children who wanted to hang out. As soon as they emerged safe from their cellar the night of the storm, Justin Nevins rescued many of their neighbors. They lost their house, their neighborhood and the school where Kari Nevins worked.
Tom and Emily Walters and their 9-year-old daughter, Chloe, took cover in their bathtub. With their roof ripping apart and objects swirling in the air, Chloe clutched her parents and cried out to them, Dont let me die. They prayed as the torrent swirled around them, and, after they survived, they made their way to a neighborhood nursing home where they rescued a number of elderly residents from debris.
Scott and Natalie Gonzalez and her son, Augie, took shelter from the storm under a mattress in their bathtub. Natalie Gonzalez had put a bicycle helmet on Augie, a practice she learned from experiencing earthquakes in California. Their house split apart, and the tornado lifted Scott Gonzalez in the air. Augie was hit in the head by debris, shattering his helmet. When the storm calmed momentarily, the family fled the shards of debris and weathered the second wave of the tornado in a drainage ditch.
Thang Nguyen fought in the South Vietnamese Air Force alongside U.S. troops and moved to the U.S. after the Vietnam War for a new life. He was ready to retire from General Mills when the tornado happened. It destroyed the home he had worked for since he came here. He and his wife, Tiffany, were not home during the tornado.
SURPRISE DONATION
The build, and some students at Franklin Technology Center, had a celebrity visit on Wednesday.
NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose, who drives the Stanley Tools/DeWalt Ford Fusion No. 9, made a surprise appearance at the school to announce that about $350,000 worth of tools, some used in the build, are to be donated to the schools building trades classes.
After his announcement about the donation, he answered questions posed by the students about what its like to be a race car driver.
Asked about the risks of the sport in view of the death last weekend of racer Dan Wheldon in a 15-car crash on a Las Vegas track, Ambrose told the students: Life has an element of danger whatever you do, whether youre a police officer or crossing the street. It was a freak meet. It was a vicious accident. Its what he liked do. You just have to go on. Its a good job. I wouldnt trade it for the world.
He told reporters that he was headed for the Extreme Makeover build site to help out for a while. I will try to get dirty and help out a little, he said. Im here to voice support for the project. Hopefully I can get a hammer and hit a nail, not my finger.
Alongside Withrow at the shows Builder Braveheart March was a team of volunteers from Stanley Tools/DeWalt who also planned to work at the build.
Tim Perra, communications director for the company, which is based in New Britain, Conn., said the company sent a shipment of tools to Joplin within days of the tornado to help with the rescue and recovery work. Since then, the company has set up a tool lending library through Immanuel Lutheran Church, 2616 S. Connecticut Ave., for tornado survivors to use. Anyone who needs to can go in and get what they need and bring it back, he said.
