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August 31, 2008

PSU student’s photos of tornado devastation help raise funds for schools

By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — When Pittsburg State University sophomore Aaron Anders snapped photos of his tornado-ravaged hometown of Chapman this summer, he was thinking only of preserving the history of the moment.

He never dreamed that his love for photography would help rebuild the Kansas community of 3,000 and the school from which he graduated only a couple of years ago. But that’s exactly what happened when he started selling digital video discs of his photos to raise money for the school district.

The tornado hit Chapman at 10:22 p.m. on June 11. It destroyed more than 60 homes and killed one person. The American Red Cross estimated that 75 percent of the homes in Chapman had major damage. The storm leveled the elementary school, middle school and high school that Anders attended.

Anders was home from PSU this summer and staying with his parents, Dale and Sonja Anders, just outside Chapman when the storm hit.

“Everyone knew that something was going to happen because all of the weather predictions were for a bad storm,” Anders said. “Once we got the phone call (about the tornado touchdown), we went into town because we knew a lot of people would need help. And I grabbed my camera, because, well, it’s what I do.”

Anders is a graphic communications management major at PSU. He was the photography editor for the Chapman High School newspaper and now is the photography editor for PSU’s student newspaper, The Collegio.

He took hundreds of photos that night of toppled trees, flipped trucks and flattened buildings. He turned the best ones into a slide show, for his own memories. But when his old journalism professor saw the slide show, Anders realized that he wasn’t the only one who wanted to remember that night.

He started making DVDs of the photos and selling them at Chapman banks for $10 each.

“I had no idea other people would want them. I was just going to be happy if I sold one,” Anders said. “Then I realized that it wasn’t just my memories of Chapman, but everyone’s.”

So far, more than 500 DVDs have been sold, raising more than $7,000 for the Chapman School District. Anders said he’s gotten calls from people who graduated from Chapman in the 1940s, from a graduate who lives in Massachusetts and from a mother who is sending one of the DVDs to her son in Iraq.

He recently presented a check for $7,000 to Chapman Superintendent Tony Frieze to help buy supplies for the school district and to go toward new buildings to replace the ones destroyed by the tornado. And there’s more money coming into the district. Frieze said $270,000 has been donated from different parts of the country for tornado recovery costs.

School started on time on Aug. 18 in 24 instructional trailers. Frieze said the district should have new buildings in about two years, and that he can’t say enough about all the people who gave money to help.

“Aaron is like many of our alumni that have been so supportive — we’re very proud of Aaron,” he said. “As a superintendent, I’ve been here 35 years, and I’ve been so impressed, not only with the people of this community or this state, but throughout the nation in how they’ve responded to this need.”

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