From the days nearly a quarter of a century ago that I hired three Barton County teenagers, Kari Wegener, Peggy Brinkhoff, and Jason Stansberry to report for the Lamar Democrat, to my job today as an eighth grade English teacher at Joplin East Middle School, one of the biggest joys I have received has been working with young writers.
When John Hacker and I started work on 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado I had those young writers in mind. Four of my former students contributed to the book- Gary Harrall from Diamond Middle School, Shaney Delzell and Lacy Heiskell from South Middle School, and Denton Williams from East Middle School, contributed stories. Another story, written by former Joplin Daily reporter Kaylea Hutson, was about one of the best writers I have ever had in my class, Laela Zaidi from East.
In the back of my mind, I wanted to do something to help my students deal with the aftermath of the May 22 tornado and I wanted it to be done through writing.
I have held off on announcing this project until I had everything pinned down, but the communication arts (English) teachers at East and other faculty members are working on a year-long project that will culminate in a book and documentary video about our year in the warehouse.
The working title: Eagle Pride: East Middle School's Journey after the Joplin Tornado.
The book will concentrate on the 2011-2012 school year in a makeshift school building in an industrial park. It will also feature the students' recollections of the cataclysmic event that made the move necessary.
The book will feature the best work of our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, photos, and contributions from some faculty members.
Sixth grade communication arts teacher Nina English, who did the design work for 5:41, will handle the same duties on this volume.
When the book is published, John and I are committed to seeing that every EMS student and staff member has a copy. The book will also be sold to the public with proceeds going to the East Middle School Communication Arts Department, hopefully to begin a long line of student publications.
The project, as I noted earlier, will also include a video with the same working title. I will have more information on that at a later date, but that project is being done by the Journalism Club sponsored by seventh grade communication arts teacher Angel Mense and me, and the enrichment classes, which are taught by Lara Stamper.
Our principal Bud Sexson okayed the project a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to wait to make the announcement until I had checked out some possible complications.
As excited as John and I are about the unveiling of 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado, these past 10 days or so, we are just as excited about giving the students and staff of East Middle School the opportunity to be part of a quality project and make sure that not only will we have a year we will never forget, but that we will be able to share that year with the thousands of friends Joplin has across the United States and the world.
I will provide more updates as this project continues.
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5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado is available from Amazon.com.
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