The Great Life

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Thank you thank you to all those that helped out with the addiction rehabilitation center holiday project! We were able to collect 17 letters for each guy there, along with a tie and a journal! A special thank you to Braden Whiting for getting all 11 ties needed. The holiday packages were delievered two days before Christmas and were greatly appreciated. The impact the letters made on these men may not be known right now, but I do know the outpouring of love shown will resignate with them. I feel very appreciative for everyone that so willingly helped out. This project had personal meaning to me, and I found it had personal meaning to many others involved. I think it is important to show everyone how much they are cared for, that their lives have meaning, and that they are just as important as everyone else regardless of their past. I believe that goal was accomplished.

"Be the Change You Want to See in the World"

-Gandhi

The Goal is 110!

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:38:00 +0000

Christmas is fast approaching and everyone is feeling the spirit of giving. I know that times are rough right now and most people barely have enough to get presents for their loved ones, so I've come up with a way to give on a budget! Many already know that someone very close to me suffers from problems with addiction. I have got to meet a lot of amazing, humbling people along the journey with him. There is a rehab that is run by former addicts and is a non-profit. They do this to make it affordable to those that don't have the means to go to an expensive rehab. There are no doctors or therapists there, but yet the relapse rate is lower than most places. I believe this is because the people at the rehab are driven by their will to get better and the love and support given by fellow addicts and family. Holidays are a rough time for those in rehab and I thought it would be amazing to write them notes/letters of encouragement

and hope. Unfortunately, addiction has become so prevalent that most people know someone close to them suffering from some type of addiction or are/have suffered from addiction

themselves. I challenge you to write a letter to these great guys. If you have kids, get them involved in drawing them a Christmas picture too. It doesn't take long and doesn't cost a penny! I KNOW that these letters will touch their hearts immensely. I can't stress how much it means to them to know others care about them! There are 11 guys at the rehab and my goal is to provide them with 10 letters each. I need the letters by no later than December 22nd, so they can be delivered by Christmas eve. You can hand write them and I can pick them up or you can email them to tracymarikobarnes@gmail.com and I will print them out.

As I stated previously, these guys don'

t have a lot of money and in my experience with them I learned that most don't own nice clothes. It is difficult for them once they get out of rehab to go to job interviews because they don't have the proper clothing. I am planning on getting 11 ties to go with the letters and make a Christmas package. If you want to help out with the ties as well that would be great!

Let's remember to keep in mind those that are having a difficult time! I have seen amazing things happen and people transform when they know there are people out there that love and support them. Lets reach the goal of 110 notes/letters to lift their spirits! Thank you so much everyone, I have been amazed at the amount of people always willing to help out!

The Gift Is In The Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:36:00 +0000

I wanted to give a proper introduction to this article. I asked my good friend and fellow trip mate on the Haiti mission, Jack, to write an article about how he got started with service and some of his experiences. When he sent me this article, I have to admit I teared up. There is so much this man has accomplished that I wasn't even aware of. Jack is one of the most humble, fun-loving, great guys I know. His story is amazing and absolutely inspiring. My life has been touched by Jack's great work in this world and I know many others have been as well. This is a story of how gripping service is on the human soul and how you can use your talents to make a substantial difference to the lives of so many others less fortunate. Jack thank you for taking the time to write your story down!

Through a series of unusual persuasions created by some old friends in 2003 I was suddenly on an airplane on my way to Ethiopia to embark on my first humanitarian effort. After an initial one-day stop-over in Ethiopia's capital city Addis Abba I was loaded onto a bus with thirty other people heading south about one hundred sixty-five miles to a region of twenty one villages in the Arsi Negelle District of Central Ethiopia. It was a grueling hot ride in the old bus with only one pit stop along the way ending on a dusty hillside where thousands of villagers had assembled to greet us and celebrate our coming. I was with a humanitarian company that was newly established in East Africa, Engage Now Foundation, that also had projects at that time in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. That was the beginning that changed my life forever.

I remained in Ethiopia for a little over two weeks that first trip, but I was hooked and immediately planned to return again on the December 2003 Expedition sponsored by that same company. While I was there I realized, much to my surprise the large impact the group made on the villagers. It was a wakeup call to my otherwise skeptical view of what could be done in developing countries in a short period of time. I found out that little efforts by someone invested in making a difference can improve the lives of the poorest of the poor in ways that would astound most skeptics. I had previously spent much time in Zambia and Algeria years before, but not on humanitarian ventures. On those visits I was working on large transfer of technology projects. I had experienced in those places that introducing costly, highly technical systems to the non-technical populations of developing countries was a long and arduous process. What I learned in that first week in Ethiopia, however, was that simple technologies, properly presented and made sustainable was the answer to immediate and long-term change, and that it could be done with little cost and minimal effort if directed by someone with the skills and desire to make simple things work efficiently.

By the time I left Ethiopia after that first trip, I had decided that since I was already pretty much retired anyway, that I would turn over my life to humanitarian work. So between my first and second trip to Ethiopia I set about to develop a few simple technology instruction manuals that would make my work a little easier and would be something that could be translated into the local languages of the host countries of Engage Now Foundation. My plan was to use these manuals to train locals who would then pass on that information to their respective villagers insuring that the new technologies we were introducing and the methods to use and maintain them would be sustainable. When I left the U.S. in December of that year for my second humanitarian visit to East Africa, I carried with me manuals on how to assemble a simple water purification system for families built from buckets and sand, how to build pit latrines, how to make an indoor smokeless stove and the manner in which drip irrigation projects for small family farms could be implemented. Those I put to work on my return. By the time I left Ethiopia forty-five days later with help from dozens of community workers I had trained on the use of the manuals, there were over fifty new stoves that had been built in five of the twenty one target villages and over on hundred pit latrines finished and in use. In addition, dozens of families were now using drip irrigation systems on small gardens that saved them from carrying large amounts water to irrigate their gardens and also give them the possibility for year-around gardening. The dozens of water purification units we built during that time were also in use in family homes providing as much as ten liters of clean water for domestic use, with the possibility of totally eliminating the lecherous pathogens that were entering people’s bodies from the fetid water that was available to them from rivers…their only available water source.

Family Pit Latrine Indoor Smokeless Stove

Bucket Sand Filter Water Purification

The key to our success in Ethiopia was finding and employing committed community workers who could take the simple technologies we were introducing and carry them out to their respective villages and then teach the villagers how to implement them. In Ethiopia at this same time we also initiated a program of community education that involved women for the most part. We knew women were the key to making things change in their communities, so we began assembling these village women in what we called, Women’s Committees that met twice weekly and were trained by our community workers in simple technology use, hygiene, family income, small business, and functional literacy. When I left Ethiopia after my forth and longest visit there with Engage Now Foundation (I hadremained thirteen months on the last visit in 2005-2006) there were over four thousand women meeting regularly, over two hundred community workers were functioning in twenty villages, thousands of stoves and latrines had been built and were in use by families, several hundred bucket sand filter water purification systems were in use, many water projects involving roofwater collection and storage had been initiated and many other projects had been started that involved new small businesses that the women created. Involvements on community projects like these were unheard of before. Overall health had been improved significantly by use of purified water and new hygiene methods started by families and women, because they were spending less time gathering wood and fetching water were able to spend quality time with their children, tend to their gardens, thus improving family nutrition and were more committed to improving overall health of their families.

Women's Committee Involved in Functional

Literacy Training By Community Worker

Community Workers Teaching Homeowners

How to Construct a Smokeless Stove Using Adobe Brick

By 2006 Engage Now Fo

undation, while still operating under that name in Ethiopia, had formed an alliance with another company out

of South America and had changed its name to Ascend, A Humanitarian Alliance. I continued my work with the company developing more and more simple technology manuals and training modules associated with those and other simple technologies such as blacksmithing, water collection and distribution by pumps, greenhouse construction and management, beekeeping, building and using brick baking ovens, making and u

sing adobe bricks, sewing and using sewing machines and others. In all over twenty-one manuals finally ended up in the archives of the company. Most had been translated into the Ethiopian language Amharic and several had been translated into Spanish.

During that time, and until early 2010, I continued my work with Ascend, traveling and living in places like Mozambique, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. In each instance, I l

ived in those countries from two to six months each spending a total to over sixteen months doing the types of humanitarian work I had come to love in Ethiopia. It was always a gratification to know that so little effort could mean so much to people who were considered the poorest of the poor. I found that in most places people were highly committed to change and improvement of their living conditions, but in most cases either didn’t have the means to make those changes or tradition and culture had held them back from even challenging their conditions. This meant for me, careful assimilation into their activities, so as not to upset those traditions and cultures while introducing new systems that would ultimately force them to challenge their old ways. In some cases, mostly because of religious imperatives, people resisted change, especially those that affected the lives of women. But when those people saw the benefit of taking on new ways of living, they took it upon themselves to make those changes, regardless of the pressures from their religious leaders, and in some cases with women, from their husbands.

Some of the most remarkable things that I observed as a result of mine and my colleagues’ humanitarian efforts were the rate at which villagers who had lived in primitive conditions all their lives, quickly changed and adapted to those new technologies we were introducing. The changes were not only rapid, but were sustainable, and after they were implemented, people were looking at ways they could make them last. Many other seeing the benefits their neighbors were having from adopting those new simple technologies took the initiative to create them themselves. The major key to that success was the use of easy to find, locally available, inexpensive materials, and training of users on how to maintain those simple devices we introduced. In Mozambique’s Beira region where we pioneered the use of simple technology rope and washer pumps to lift water from shallow wells for domestic and irrigation use, we used all locally obtained materials to build the pumps. For the pulley, we used the sidewalls of used automobile tires, cement was locally available for making concrete for the splash pad and to hold the pump in place, plastic pipe used for gutters and potable water lines was locally available and cheap, wood for the pump frame, though rough was locally available and inexpensive. In most cases we built the pumps for under two hundred dollars each. The well was hand drilled with an auger…the only imported item. Since in the six months that I was in Mozambique I trained several entrepreneurs to build these pumps and drill the wells, hundreds of new wells now exist where in most instances people draw water out of open dangerous hand-dug wells with simple devices that lifted about one or two liters of water each time the device was brought out of the well by a stick with a rope attached to the bucket.

Boys Pumping Water From a Single Technology

Rope and Washer Pump at a Mozambican Orphanage

The new rope and washer pumps were capable of lifting water from wells at a rate of up to fifteen to twenty liters per minute. This made it possible with little effort on the part of the child or adult pumping to irrigate gardens as large as one half hectare (about 1 acre) and have those gardens be productive year around. To this date, I still remain as Ascend’s Technical Advisor on matter dealing with their humanitarian work in South America, and India.

In 2009 in addition to my continuing work with Ascend I was invited to become involved with a newly formed humanitarian organization, Machara, A Miracle Network, founded by two of the Lost Boys of Sudan. This project, now focusing on five villages in the Apuk Padoc region of the new country of South Sudan, has at its goal of improving the conditions of five villages that were decimated by the civil war that ravaged over twenty years between the north and south Sudanese. For this region, with a population of over seventy thousand people, we have developed a Five Year Community Development Plan that focuses on developing water resources, improving health and hygiene, building schools, installing pit latrines, assembling stoves for homes and generally improving the economic status of the community by creating entrepreneurs for small businesses with loans. The entire plan is based on our successful development work in Ethiopia. Work has only begun in Sudan as funding for the over two million dollar project is still underway, but this small organization is active, and much is anticipated by the communities that will become the beneficiaries of this program.

When the earthquake occurred in Port-au-Prince Haiti in February of 2010 I was asked by a humanitarian organization, Foundation for Children in Need, to assist with the logistics of rebuilding the wall surrounding a small orphanage that had been destroyed by the quake. The children were without security with their downed wall, and also lacked sleeping areas damaged by the earthquake. I went there in March of that year spending two months with the project finding and purchasing the materials that could be used to rebuild some seven hundred feet of eight foot high block wall to secure the facility. Nine masons from Utah went there to do the work, and in just two weeks completed the project and cleaned up the debris from the broken wall and downed buildings. With conditions as they were shortly after the quake, building materials and general logistics of obtaining and delivering the materials to the site was a nightmare. But we accomplished the task to the surprise and gratification of the orphanage management. At present work with the orphanage continues through regular expeditions sponsored by the Foundation and its dedicated staff.

In summary, humanitarian work is an effort that cannot be described adequately. It can only be experienced to know its value. Many companies and dedicated people embark in these efforts both locally and internationally, and almost all know after their experience that their lives will never be the same. It is an effort that takes time and sometimes large amounts of money, but in some instances, there are possibilities for high school and college students to become involved by serving as Interns with these established humanitarian organizations. The challenge awaits anyone interested in having a new and enlightening experience in their lives. I for one have become a strong advocate through my own experiences, and will forever be grateful that I took the initiative to become involved.

Experiences of Others

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:02:00 +0000

The Road Home Homeless Shelter has bookclub night every Monday from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. Bookclub was established to teach the children staying at the homeless shelter, how to read. I believe education is the cornerstone to make a difference in society. "When you know better, you do better." Bookclub gives an opportunity for the community to give back and strengthen the reading skills of these children. We like to reward the children for their hard work reading! A friend of mine, Kyle called me and informed me that he had a bunch of pizzas donated by Little Caezers and wanted them to go to good use. I told him about the Bookclub night at the homeless shelter and he was all in. We read with the kids for the first half and then had a pizza party! It was great watching the kids grab for slices and sharing pepperoni's! My friends wrote about their experience with Bookclub and this is what they had to say about it!

Last week I was provided to be of service at the homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. I arrived just before seven o’ clock and was welcomed by those in charge. They were very kind and helpful as they directed me to where the children would be. When the time came the children were eager to enter the room, though some were disappointed that reading would have to come first, knowing that there was pizza that had been donated by Little Caesars afterward. As the children began to pick out their favorite books I was able to help Nathan, a 5 year old boy, read each one. I soon came to realize that many of the books were created by the children at the shelter. They had stories of people, animals, and buildings that were in Salt Lake City.
It was humbling reading those books; but was uplifting in the fact that the characters in the stories were always positive and happy. At the end of the reading period we were able to serve pizza to each child. They really seemed to enjoy the pizza as they fought over who got which slice. It was a good opportunity to serve and always realize that no matter what situation we are in we can still be happy and positive as we strive to overcome challenges that we are faced with.

-Kyle Tanner

Literacy Night with the 9-12 year old residents at the Road Home Shelter was one of my favorite volunteer experiences yet! I wasn't expecting to find such a large group of kids that wanted to read! In fact, Justice, the young resident that asked me to read with him, kept asking to read more books. We switched off reading pages and Justice kept trying to sound out words that were hard for him. Justice is a unique child that wants to learn, but just needs someone to spend a little time helping him with the harder words. Literacy Night is the perfect program for kids like Justice. You could tell that all of the kids were happy to be there, and happy to have someone to spend time with them.

-Mark Rogers

It's That Time Of Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:07:00 +0000

My mom is a social worker for DSPD (Division of Services for People With Disabilities). Each year around the holiday season, she picks a family or two that is in great need for my friends and I to help out. For Thanksgiving we gather all the food in a traditional Thanksgiving meal and deliever it a couple nights before. In the past the families have been very appreciative and look forward to cooking a big feast together! Those selected are in great need and are amazing people!

The family we have selected for the Thanksgiving meal this year have a very unique story. They are a family of five from Tonga. Their son had a brain tumor that needed immediate attention. Due to the lack of health care in Tonga they came to the U.S. for treatment. Unfortunately, during treatment the surgery went amiss and resulted in permanent brain damage. The family can not go back to Tonga because they need to continue to to receive proper health care. Since they are not legal residents they can not gain employement. The father sells homemade wood carvings and will do yard work for neighbors to try and obtain an income. They are currently trying to gain citizenship, but it is $8,000.00 per person and they don't have the money for it. I have worked with this family in the past and they are truly amazing people. They are very humble and would greatly appreciate a hearty meal to share with the family!

I am asking for help from anyone that wants to get involved in the holiday spirit. The more people that can help, the more families we can bring a bit of joy too! Below is a list of items needed. If you would rather donate money for the items that is fine too. We need to gather the items by no later than November 22nd to ensure that they can prepare the meal in time! Please contact me via e-mail tracymarikobarnes@gmail.com or by phone 801-205-4541 if you can help out. Thanks again!

Turkey

Potatoes/instant works too

Gravy mix

Cranberry sauce

Yams

Green beans

Stuffing

Pumpkin pie

Rolls

Drinks

Always Wanted to go to Kenya?

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:57:00 +0000

It has always been a dream of mine to go to Kenya since I did my 5th grade report on that country. It is now looking like that dream might become a reality. I want to see if there is an interest in people wanting to go there as well. The itinerary would be to work in an orphanage, do a safari, and climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The cost for the trip is estimated between $1,500 to $2,000. I am planning to be there for a month but those that can't stay as long can leave early. We would be going next year in the spring or

summer. Just keep this in mind and let me know

if it is something of interest so I can start finalizing details on the trip.

Volunteer Opportunties

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:16:00 +0000

Doing the BBQ at the Road Home was such an amazing and fulfilling opportunity. The appreciation and love that you feel from the people makes it worth every minute of helping out. There are many opportunities to volunteer at the Road Home. Below are a list of things you can do! Please look them over and get involved!

Literacy Night

The Goal of this program is to help children, ages 5-11 years old, become interested in reading. Volunteers read a story with the children. Afterward, art and snack activities centered on the theme or characters in the story follow to reinforce the enjoyment o reading.

Mondays 7-8pm
Must be 16 or older
Minimum of 3 months commitment

Playroom Activities

Play games, coordinate learning activities, facilitate arts and crafts, be a mentor to the children who live at the shelter. Children are between age 3 and 11 years.

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 7-8pm
Must be 16 or older
Minimum of 3 months commitment

Teen Night Out

Volunteers plan and carry out special activities geared to the preteen and teen (12-17 years old) residents. Activities generally are off shelter grounds.

Tuesdays 7-8:30pm
Must be 18 or older
Minimum of 3 months commitment

Kids Activity

The playroom is available on Wednesdays from 7-8pm to schedule for group activities with the children. In the past, groups have decorated cookies, brought in craft projects, made presents to give to families during holidays, and much more!

Prepare a Dinner

Prepare a meal, bring it to the shelter, and serve the residents! You can serve the Men's Shelter, Women's Shelter, Family Shelter, or all three!

Donation Drive

There is a continuous need in the shelter for donated items. A Needs List is updated seasonally and available at www.theroadhome.org. There is also a list of service project ideas that include putting together Move-In Kits for residents moving into a new home.

Be Creative

Design your own project! The Road Home is very flexible to try and accommodate any ideas!

If you are interested in any of these you must first complete a volunteer orientation! They are held every third Monday of the month at 5:00pm. Please RSVP to Ashley Farmer, the Volunteer Coordinator at 801-819-7298 or afarmer@theroadhome.org

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me at 801-205-4541 or tracymarikobarnes@gmail.com

Update on Joplin, MO

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000

My friend Jonathan Campbell went to Joplin with our group. He sent me a couple really interesting e-mails updating the conditions of Joplin. The people of Joplin really inspired me with how they dealt with such a devastating situation.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-08-14-Joplin-tornado-schools-resume_n.htm

This link shows before and after pictures of the tornado hit areas just months after.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44153478/ns/us_news/

Teaming Up With Brighton Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:49:00 +0000

Please check out the article on Brighton Bank's website regarding the homeless BBQ! Thanks to everyone that made it happen!

http://www.brightonbank.com/home/community

Homeless BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:22:00 +0000

I have noticed more and more homeless on the streets of Salt Lake City the past couple years, especially since3 the economy took a turn for the worse. I heard from one of my customers at Brighton Bank that everyday she sees a homeless family at the park across the street from his business. Like many others in Utah, the father lost his job recently and couldn't find employment. Despite having a new baby to care for, the family was out on the streets. This story touched me deeply. It gave me the spark I needed to do what I could to help.

What started as a faint idea developed into action after talking to Wayne from the Salt Lake Mission Home. He taught me that there are close to 5,000 homeless in Salt Lake City, 27% of them children. The average age of the homeless in Utah is 9! A lot of these people need direction and information on how to get back on their feet. Most ended up homeless due to circumstances beyond their control, and many are victims of abuse.

Wayne informed me that on holidays the homeless shelter is closed from 7am-7pm. The homeless have no food provided and nowhere to go for the day. I reached out to my coworkers and friends for help. We organized a BBQ for the 24th of July to show the homeless that we are thinking o them during the holiday. We purchased 500 hot dogs, chips, granola bars, and drinks. Alongside a meal we had 150 hygiene kits donated from Little America, complete with shampoo, conditioner, soap, and lotion.

The event was a huge success. We went through the 500 hot dogs in a little over an hour and purchased 200 more to make sure everyone received a meal that day. The 150 hygiene kits were gone within 15 minutes of the BBQ kicking off. There were about 15 volunteers, each one busy with an integral role in making the event a success. The Branch Manager, Mike Holt, entertained the crowd by playing his guitar. The homeless loved the compilation of music and Mike instantly had fans. The rest of the volunteers were busy handing out food, restocking supplies, and cooking hot dogs.

The homeless community was very appreciative of what we were doing. I hope that everyone involved will continue to keep them in mind throughout the years to come. A special thanks to all of the volunteers, Brighton Bank, and Little America. It would not have turned out the success it did without everybody involved.

If you are interested in helping out with the homeless there are a lot of opportunities to help! Please let me know if you have any questions and I will post a list of things you can do to get involved!

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:46:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:33:00 +0000

As I sit here two hours after getting off of the plane at Salt Lake International Airport, I am filled with different emotions. Mostly I feel gratitude. I feel gratitude to the people of Joplin, Missouri for teaching me that people are full of love and hope. I learned that people are stronger than we often give credit for.

The people of Joplin were hit with an EF5 rating tornado on Sunday May 22^nd around 6 pm. An F5 is the strongest tornado ranking on the scale. The tornado devastated at least 25% of Joplin, leaving 7,000 completely homeless. Many are left without jobs and without cars. The tornado consumed an area of 6 miles long and reaching three fourths of a mile wide in some areas. It has claimed the lives of 142 people, with the number rising daily as rescue teams uncover more victims. More than 700 people were seriously injured and 40 are still unaccounted for. This tornado was reported as the 8^th most deadly tornado recorded in US history and it will be written in Joplin’s history forever.

I heard stories of loss, stories of heroism, stories of miracles, and stories of a better future. My group helped a man named Chris start to rebuild his home 6 days after the earthquake. All that was left of his home was a floor and a fireplace. Never did he say why me? He only spoke of optimism for the future. He knew what he had to get done and didn’t waste a minute getting started. Instead he spoke about his gratitude for the outpouring of help offered by various volunteer groups. They were showing up at what was left of his home to help him rebuild. His family was ok and that was enough for him to be ok.

My group also helped a man named Gene. He lives a couple blocks from the St. Johns hospital that was destroyed from the earthquake. In fact a hospital van was picked up and placed across the street from his home. Gene’s story is one that I will never forget. He was at home with his two daughters and mother. The sirens went off and moments later they were caught in the very center of where the two tornadoes combined. Gene said they didn’t have time to run to the shelter room so they took cover in the hallway. Gene watched as the violent force of mother nature started taking his mother up into the vortex. He grabbed her leg and held on with all his might. His family made it through the storm but his home, car, and all of his possessions did not. Gene was life flighted to a near by hospital in Carthage and suffered from a sprained ankle. His mother had a few cuts and bad bruising where her leg was grabbed. Every bit of evidence and the remains of the destruction would clearly give the impression that these people should not have made it, but they did with only minor injuries. Gene’s neighbors, however; were not as fortunate. A woman that lived to the right of him was taken along with 5 other neighbors on his block. The weather reporters claimed his home to be the area where the tornado did the most damage and was the worst. We helped Gene sort through the rubble for any possessions that might still be of use. Any item retrieved that was deemed usable was a blessing to him.

As I spent time with some of the members of the Joplin community I soon realized that these were extraordinary people. I heard words of hope more than words of despair. I saw people helping one another rebuild instead of giving up. I felt uplifted with feelings of inspiration instead of hopelessness. It was in Joplin that I learned the strength compassion brings to those in need. The clichque, “it is the little things that count the most,” most definitely holds true.

I am truly grateful for the opportunity I had to serve the people of Joplin alongside 4 amazing individuals that donated their time and money to help with disaster relief efforts. I think I can speak for all of us by saying that we did not come home the same people, as we were when we left. I can find the humor in the stressful situations that life throws at me like so many displayed in Joplin. There were only the foundations of homes left with “Yard sale, everything must go,’ spray painted on it. Everyone was optimistic for the bigger and better Joplin to come. Before Joplin, I sometimes found myself complaining about minute things. After Joplin, priorities came into my life and that is no longer the case.

I encourage everyone to remember Joplin and the people still suffering there. This will be a long road for them. Unfortunately turn over in the news cycle is quick and just as soon as the news forgets about it, so do we. Please keep Joplin in your prayers and if you have time to help in other ways I promise it will be a worthwhile experience. I am immensely touched by my fellow team members for agreeing to go on this adventure with me. I am touched by the kindness I saw displayed everywhere in Joplin. I am touched to see the human heart at its finest, in a time when it was so desperately needed. It is through serving others that we gain a type of inspirational growth, we can acquire in no other way.

noreply@blogger.com (Tracy Barnes) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:45:00 +0000

This will be my first post on the website. I am very excited about what this website could possibly become. I have two goals I’d like to accomplish. The first being an avenue for others and myself to post about things that I feel are important issues, but often times get overlooked. Second, eventually I want to turn this website into a central place where people interested in getting involved in service can go to find out how to get involved. I have found that it is hard to get information about what service opportunities there are and what they entail. My hope is that I can create a place with all different types of service, so it is a little more convenient to dive right in. Also, if anyone knows of someone in need of help, or is heading a service project themselves they are more than welcome to post it up here. I think social media has made a great doorway for more efficiency in getting projects together.