Tornado wipes out camp used by cancer patients, churches, foster children

May 14, 2008 10:57 pm

— 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.
“It was a place for us to commune with the Lord and enjoy being with each other,” he said.
The campground provided an opportunity for many area children to enjoy the outdoors.
Terri Falis-Cochran, co-chairwoman of Camp Soroptimist, said the civic organization has been holding the camp for Jasper County and Newton County foster children for the past 23 years, most of those at the Ozark campground. She said the service the campground offered was “so important” to the community.
“I’m surprised every year by how many kids have never been fishing,” Falis-Cochran said. “They get so excited when you show them how to bait the hook and when they catch their first fish. Some of these kids would never have the opportunity to go horseback riding otherwise or do some of the other fun things that kids should do.”
Falis-Cochran said the camp will be held this July at Cyokamo Camp near Alba.
David Adams, director of Camp Quality of the Ozarks, was planning to hold the annual summer camp for children with cancer from July 19-25 at the Ozark campground. He is scrambling to find another location, but he said the show must go on.
“If we have to have (Camp Quality) at my house this year, we’re going to have it,” he said.
Adams said the Ozark campground provided a special opportunity for the Camp Quality children who have spent so much of their lives in hospitals. Because of their weakened immune systems, he said, Camp Quality requires specific things from the campground, and Ozark campground has always been “fantastic.”
“I think it will be a little bit sad to go somewhere else,” Adams said. “This camp has become a special place for all of us. We’re going to miss it, but we’re going to be back next year.”
Valerie Twitchell said the church organization has halted repairs until the insurance company assesses the damage. She said church leaders think the insurance company will pay for the work, and they plan to rebuild.
She said the camp was booked for the entire summer and fall with the exception of one week in June, but all of those events will have to be moved. No events will be held this year at the Ozark campground, and she said it’s too early to tell if it will be ready next year.
She said she hopes the camp continues on, and people continue to get together despite adversity. Even more than the trees, she said, it is the campers who made the camp a part of the community.
“I guess it’s the people who will make it beautiful now,” she said.

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