Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published May 14, 2008 09:27 pm - RACINE, Mo. — As a young man, Neosho resident Kenneth Simpson helped build the Ozark Camp and Retreat Center with his own hands. Tornado wipes out camp used by cancer patients, churches, foster children By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com RACINE, Mo. — As a young man, Neosho resident Kenneth Simpson helped build the Ozark Camp and Retreat Center with his own hands. Simpson is now in his 60s, and those hands are wrinkled. But those hands sorted through debris this week and lifted limbs off cabins that he helped build many years ago. “We just cried,” Simpson said of he and his wife, Elizabeth, viewing damage caused by Saturday’s tornado. “I just couldn’t believe the devastation. I’m just sad.” The Simpsons are members of the Community of Christ Church in Neosho. The regional Community of Christ organization purchased the campground property at Iris and Eland roads north of Racine in the 1940s. The group built cabins, a mess hall, dormitories and outdoor pavilions that have been used by thousands of local campers every year, including children with cancer and those in the foster system. “I grew up there — a lot of local people grew up there when they were kids,” Simpson said. “It’s kind of like a part of our family is gone now.” Simpson’s church in Neosho is one of about 20 Community of Christ congregations that have used the campground on an annual basis. The tornado left little of the camp standing. New resident managers Sandy and Valerie Twitchell said all the cabins will have to be replaced, the kitchen and dining hall have structural damage, and the bathrooms and dormitories are missing their roofs. The main outdoor pavilion sustained exterior damage, and all the smaller pavilions were wiped out. Valerie Twitchell said the organization renovated half of the cabins last year, recently redid the outdoor pavilion and held a ribbon-cutting earlier this month for a swimming pool under construction on the property. Worse than the loss of the buildings, she said, is the loss of 50 percent to 75 percent of the trees on the property. “I didn’t care about the buildings, but you can’t regrow 100-year-old trees by next year,” she said. “It will never look the same as far as the trees.” Community of Christ church members from area congregations descended on the campground Sunday, bringing chain saws and trucks with them. Sense of peace It was the trees that helped make the campground special, Simpson said. They formed a barrier to keep the rest of the world out, and created a sense of community and peace for campers. 
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