Just hours after the devastating tornado tore through Joplin, Mo., AmeriCorps volunteers raced to the rescue and stayed long after the media trucks pulled out.
Because of the organization's immediate response -- and the continued help it offered for months after in recovery efforts -- the Missouri House of Representatives is set to pass a resolution honoring and thanking the organization for its aid work, the Corporation for National and Community Service said in a release.
State Representatives Bill White (R-Joplin) and Charlie Davis (R-Duquesne) led the resolution to honor the organization's 60,600 volunteers who provided more than 579,000 hours of service work.
"The Members of the Missouri House of Representatives... join unanimously to applaud the history, goals, and accomplishments associated with the AmeriCorps program and to convey to all of those involved this legislative body’s most heartfelt commendation of their efforts in Joplin and Duquesne following the devastating EF-5 tornado on May 22, 2011," the resolution reads.
The volunteers hailed from seven states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa and Kansas, but some volunteers traveled eve further.
California native Ally Borwell coordinated an effort to pick up debris, and helped the victims start to piece their lives back together.
“But we keep finding things,” Borwell told the Joplin Globe. “We’ve found a microwave and a Christmas tree that were blown here by the tornado. At another place, we found some pictures that we were able to return to the family.”
To get involved in the continued rebuilding of Joplin, click here. To read more about the heroes of Joplin, click here.