PITTSBURG, Kan. —
A Joplin, Mo., teacher is one step closer to having a classroom that’s ready for the start of school on Aug. 17 after contributions Wednesday from the Pittsburg Sunrise Rotary Club.
Susan Knapps, a Title I reading teacher at Irving Elementary School, lost her classroom when the May 22 tornado destroyed the school — including a treasured brass bell that was given to her mother after 20 years of service with the Columbus School District.
Her mother had in turn given it to Knapps when she got her own classroom.
“It was my home away from home,” said Knapps, who has taught at Irving since her graduation in 2003 from Pittsburg State University. She had just completed her master’s degree in administration from William Woods University in Fulton, Mo., in the days before the tornado.
Knapps has ties to Southeast Kansas, having grown up in Scammon and graduated from Southeast High School at Cherokee. Her brother-in-law, Ron Marrone, is a member of Sunrise Rotary, a group that eagerly stepped forward to adopt Knapps’ classroom.
The group invited Knapps to speak as the featured presenter on Wednesday, and she knew the club was going to contribute something — she just didn’t know the extent.
Among the gifts: an Elmo document camera and projector donated by Cytek Media Systems, 10 bookcases, a computer cart, two mini-carts with drawers, an easel marker-board, and five magazine files.
The gifts will go a long way toward replacing what she lost, Knapps said.
“That Sunday morning (May 22), I had been at Irving returning chairs I’d borrowed for an event the day before,” Knapps said. “I never thought when I shut that door that I’d be doing it for the last time.”
That afternoon, she watched her son, Ethan, accept his diploma at the Joplin High School graduation ceremony at Missouri Southern State University.
Knapps said she feels blessed to have escaped the storm unscathed, having rushed with her family members to their home near MSSU that was out of the tornado’s path.
But she worries about her students, many of whom lost homes surrounding Irving. They will go to school this year at the former Washington Education Center.
“I think my biggest challenge on the first day will be that I’m emotional and Italian, and I will have to be strong for those kids, to be there to listen and to hug them,” Knapps said as she wiped away tears.
Rotary member Vicki Dennett described the gifts as a group effort indicative of what the organization is all about.
“We are Rotarians, and part of that is giving,” she said. “We get as much out of giving as those who receive it.”
Another surprise
SUSAN KNAPPS, a self-described storyteller with a children’s book due to be published soon, decided to give the Pittsburg Sunrise Rotary Club a surprise, too. She performed a one-woman, multiple-character rendition of Dorothy’s tornado-assisted landing in Oz, earning her a standing ovation.
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Related Photos
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Vicki Dennett (right) presents a projector to teacher Susan Knapps on Wednesday during a Pittsburg Sunrise Rotary Club meeting at Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg. Knapps’ classroom at Irving Elementary School in Joplin was wiped out in the May 22 tornado. Also on hand for the presentation were Andrea Linder, club president, and Knapps’ son, Ethan. GLOBE | ANDRA BRYAN STEFANONI
Discussion
Joplin teacher receives surprise gifts for classroom
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