When good friend Cort Anderson and I were talking about the photos he shot in Greensburg a few days after the May 4, 2007, tornado, the idea of a presession summer class focusing on the southwest Kansas community was born: “Greensburg Rebirth: Documenting the Rebuilding of a Community.” Cort, technology consultant for the Kansas Press Association, and I decided it would be interesting to follow up on progress a year after the killer storm that essentially destroyed the town that once boasted 1,500 people.
The initial problem was where we’d stay. Since housing wasn’t available in Greensburg, we turned to Haviland, 10 miles away. We found space at the Friends Church, where hundreds of volunteers have stayed. We occupied the basement, complete with kitchen, where we prepared most of our meals. We slept on cots and air mattresses in Sunday school rooms. The fellowship hall became our media room.
That worked well the first week. But we learned there wouldn’t be room for us the next week. A busload of volunteers from Texas needed the space. Since I’d maintained from the outset that we wouldn’t use housing needed for volunteers, we looked elsewhere — everywhere, it seemed. Finally, the gracious Friends Church secretary helped get us into a building at Barclay College, a small Quaker college in Haviland. So, for two weeks, Haviland was our home base as we went back and forth to interview those affected by the tornado and those who were helping the people of Greensburg attempt to recover.
Cort and I provided the first story leads. After that, I told students, they were on their own. Initially, students were worried they’d not be able to find stories in unfamiliar territory. After a day or so, all of us realized we had more stories than we could cover in two weeks.
Students in the class represented a wide range of interests and abilities, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Not all were interested in print or broadcast areas. There also were students pursuing careers in advertising, public relations and electronic media.
All the work we did is available at greensburgrebirth.com. I say “we” because Cort and I also wrote, shot photos and produced stories. Cort climbed to the top of the Southern Plains Co-op and photographed the devastated community. I interviewed the only barber in Kiowa County. He lost his business, relocated to Haviland and doesn’t plan to return to the newer, greener Greensburg.
Like many, he longs for the small town he had known. I also wrote about the really green John Deere dealership being rebuilt in the community that straddles U.S. 54. Small world. Mike and Kristy Estes, who manage the company, are the parents of WSU grads Jared and Sarah Estes, both of whom I had in class.
Students wrote about volunteers, including 77-year-old Bill Johnson, brother and brother-in-law of Margaret and Mike Wood, longtime WSU employees. Students wrote about life in Volunteer Village, where meals are served to those helping in the recovery effort. The meals are prepared by a Greensburg native who says he’s one of the few openly gay people in the county. He likened the struggles and feelings of isolation he has encountered to those faced by people in the community since the tornado.
Another student wrote about how important humor can be in coping with disasters. Another focused on Elma Hellwig’s melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls she made for volunteers. There were dozens of good stories, most of which hadn’t been covered by the media.
Our stories appeared in newspapers across the state, thanks to the cooperation of the KPA, which helped sponsor our project. Audio and video stories were made available to radio stations and Web sites. The nearby Pratt radio station made good use of students’ work. Students also blogged daily and contributed to Twitter, a social networking and microblogging service.
I blogged during the two weeks on kansas.com, the Wichita Eagle’s Web site, focusing on what we were doing and people we met during our interviews. We used YouTube and Flickr in our work each day. It was a true convergent experience.
The people we encountered during our two weeks in Kiowa County were gracious, caring, strong and genuine —typical small-town Kansas values. It was interesting to see how students became involved in the lives of people they met, whether they were victims or volunteers. Several took time from interviews to lend a hand in the recovery effort.
As a class, we worked well together, lived well together and learned together. The stories the students produced reflect that, too.
