Each year the Volleychiefs participate in a community service project. This year we felt that it was important to help in Joplin, MO, a town an hour away that was devastated by an F-5 tornado on May 22, 2011. We teamed up with the Joplin School District and helped out in their Administrative building for a day. Thank you to Springfield Public Schools Athletics Department for the transportation, the Kickapoo Administrative Team for their support and the Volleychiefs Booster Club for providing lunch. Our efforts in Joplin were humbling to say the least. We are so grateful for the opportunity. Check out our coverage in the Springfield News-Leader.
Below are some pictures of our team doing what we doing best (in addition to playing VB, of course)...caring for others :-) Each of our 5 seniors were in charge of a project. They had a team underneath them that they were instructed to lead with their task. As coaches, we also received instructions from our seniors on how we were supposed to do our jobs. Ironic :-) It was an interesting experience to see the kids helping others, taking pride in their work and slowly realizing the devastation that has occured and the help that is still needed.
This is a picture of the girls on the bus as we awaited our assignments at the Joplin School District Administrative Building.
Kinsey was in charge of the team that was hand writing thank you notes to individuals and companies that sent in donations from all over the country. I participated in the thank you note writing and to witness the generosity from random individuals and companies sending in their money was overwhelming.
Maddi, Kim, Ashley and Haley writing thank you notes!
Brianne, Kylie and Jessie were on a team making phone calls to previous volunteers. It was their job to call individuals and seek the information that was missing from their volunteer log. They were nervous, but they managed!
Rae, Lauren, Sydney and Bailey were at one table putting together hundreds of elementary reading books. Our girls had to put pages in order, fold the books and staple them. This will allow the elementary kids to continue reading this school year.
Kianna, Tara, Riley and Zoe also put elementary reading books together. Zoe was in charge of this crew! The boys that are helping were two boys who came from Minnesota just to volunteer. They were staying with a local youth group at a church.
Jessye Maurer was in charge of the tshirt room and the painting project. The girls had to organize sizes, fold and hang up tshirts. The room of tshirts is for individuals that make donations and or volunteer their time. In return, they can pick out a tshirt.
Olivia, Kayla, and Kelsey helped out on Jessye's team!
Courtney R. organizing the tshirt rack
Annelise was our senior in charge of the cubicles! There were hundreds of extra cubicle pieces. Her team's job was to find where the missing pieces went on the cubicles. There were two floors of cubicles so this team was busy. They got good at putting puzzles together.
Harumi, aka Umi, was part of the Cubicle Crew!
There were all sorts of sizes in the t-shirt room!
Kelsey trying on the t-shirts...get back to work, girl!
The coaches tried to chip in at each of the tasks. Here is Coach Downs helping put together the elementary books.
Rae Rae working her book magic!
Sydney and Bailey working on their elementary books :-)
Tshirt crew hard at work!
Emily, Aliyah and Blaire worked on entering volunteer information into the computers. Blaire was in charge of this crew and they were very productive! All volunteer information has to be logged for FEMA.
Ashlyn & Madison were also part of the Cubicle Crew!
Shelby putting her piece of the puzzle on one of the cubicles. These girls had to crawl in some tight spaces.
I helped out with the thank you letter writing!
Here are some of the kiddos as they started to unload a Ryder truck full of textbooks. The boys were in charge of bossing the girls around on this project!
Riley and Kianna moving a tub of textbooks inside.
Coach Downs helping out Sydney with a box.
Bailey and Rae carrying a box together.
Zoe taking on a box herself!
Jessie and Baylie realizing how heavy these things are.
A priceless picture of the kids faces. This is their reaction as we pulled into the path of Joplin High School. Our bus went silent and the girls' mouths dropped open.
Joplin High School after the destruction. This is the view of where the gym was.
Joplin High School
Another view of the destruction around town.
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