On May 22, 2016, our community will mark five years since the devastating tornado that tore through Joplin and Duquesne. To recognize this occasion, a committee of citizens have planned and organized Joplin Proud – four days of events to remember what we lost, thank the volunteers who came to our aid, and be proud of the progress we have made as a community.
The upcoming edition of the Newsmakers interview program on KGCS-TV features information about Joplin Proud and activities planned for the 5th anniversary observance of the May 2011 Joplin tornado. The program features Jane Cage. She shares information about the Disaster Recovery Summit, planned for May 19 and 20 at Missouri Southern. She also discusses other activities planned during the next few weeks. They include a Spring Cleaning campaign, a memorial marathon and walk of silence, special music and film presentations, and activities planned in Cunningham Park. For more details on these events, click on the link at the end of this article.
The program airs the following times on KGCS-TV:
Monday, May 9 – 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 10 – 5:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 11 – 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 12 – 5:30 p.m.
The program will also air on KOAM-TV at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 14.
In addition, Newsmakers is posted on the KGCS YouTube site, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1gJoIKoa_k
Newsmakers is produced by KGCS-TV, a service of the Department of Communication at Missouri Southern State University. Programming may be seen over the air on digital channel 22 and on regional cable television system.
More Info about 5th Year Anniversary activities...
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For a more-balanced portrayal of the Joplin Tornado recovery, read my book Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud: Greed, Corruption, and the Joplin Tornado. The book is available locally at Always Buying Books, Changing Hands Book Shoppe, and the Book Guy in Joplin, Pat's Books in Carthage, and Cato's Connection in Lamar. It can also be ordered in paperback or e-book formats from Amazon.com at the links below.
I've looked at the Joplin Proud website--several events, t-shirts for sale, and the people behind it are listed as "a group of volunteers". No names, no founding members, no steering/planning committee. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... I'm glad there's an anniversary celebration planned, but why no names?
ReplyDeleteThey should stop using the CART name - it turned into a pretty corrupt effort and probably set the City back at least two years considering that it led to the Wallace-Bajalli fiasco and the State audit and the downfall of former Mayor Woolston
ReplyDeleteFor those who haven't read the CART report, I suggest you to do so and find the fault in the plan. Execution of it? Yes, there were problems, but don't let the actions of a few detract from the report itself and the hundreds of residents who participated in the visioning sessions or other meetings. http://joplinareacart.com/vision-and-goals/
ReplyDeleteI agree - it was probably corrupted by the people who were supposed to execute the plan
ReplyDeleteI went to two of their public meetings in 2012 and over half of the people there were either government employees, Chamber employees, architects, engineers or planning consultants
ReplyDeleteI participated in every single session open to the public after the tornado; I was very pleased to see that the city was soliciting opinions from residents, both in the tornado zone and out, for improvements. But how it got from "we want sidewalks in all neighborhoods and an updated safer building code" to "we need to waste money buying land at inflated prices and propping up someone's privately-owned baseball investment with tax money"--well, explain that, please.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous 4:47PM....the answer is very simple. A large number of the projects had already been decided and can be referenced in a document the City prepared several years prior to the May 2011 storm called the Blueprint for the Future. These were special interest projects put forward by the same group of people who were in leadership positions in the CART organization and had been put there to advance the projects. The City, mainly the ex-City Mgr and several Council members, had committed to these special interests that they would find a way to advance their projects but did not have a funding mechanism. A large number of these projects then conveniently made their way into the CART plan. The Chamber had a vested interest in the fruition of these special interest projects which is why they and other City employees comprised nearly half of the attendance of the public CART meetings. CART's priority was to further the special projects first and then the needs of the majority.
ReplyDeleteThe CART plan may not have been corrupt, but it seems like some of those people responsible for implementing it were
ReplyDeleteSome people would settle for 161 seconds of silence on May 22.
ReplyDeleteNo more or less.
The matriarch was having David Wallace and various local officials over for dinner at her place for meetings before and after he was hired
ReplyDeleteI understand the ceremonies to mark the anniversary, but I don't understand the Summit and people paying $75 to hear other people talk about their experience with disasters - seems silly considering we haven't exactly conducted a successful recovery to this point
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can teach the others how to not be suckered by greedy developers who promise everything but deliver nothing
ReplyDeleteI like the silence idea
ReplyDelete