I wasn’t surprised Monday to get an email from Stephanie Everitt about First Community Church’s annual Christmas Dinner for Others.
If the 2011 tornado that severely damaged the church wasn’t enough to force the congregation to cancel the dinner last year, it stood to reason that another one would be held this year.
Stephanie is married to Jim Everitt. They are among the 40 or 50 church volunteers who help serve the Christmas meal, which is now in its 38th year. When I chatted with Jim about this time last year, contractors had only recently turned the church’s Fellowship Hall back over to the members after months of repair work. At the time, Jim told me that the workers did a “yeoman’s job” getting the hall repaired in time for the Christmas dinner, and he also said that had been the plan since the night of the tornado.
“There had to be a 37th dinner,” is what Jim told me last year.
In her email Monday, Stephanie said that after 19 months of restoration, the church at 2007 E. 15th St. is finally able to hold services in the sanctuary. Stephanie said a rededication ceremony for the new sanctuary was held Sunday, Dec. 2.
“It is now time to start planning for our 38th Annual Christmas Dinner for Others,” Stephanie said in her email.
That’s the neat thing about folks in this area: They don’t spend much time twiddling their thumbs. By the way, I’m a great thumb twiddler. I think that comes from spending a lot of time on the bench when I played high school basketball. When it came to bench-sitting during a basketball game, thumb twiddling and knuckle cracking were the two most popular activities on my high school team.
Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of bench-sitters in the Joplin area. Folks in Joplin, instead of sitting on the bench, choose to get involved. They clean up, they rebuild and they reach out to others.
Some of that may be because folks in this area have seen so many people from outside of Joplin show up to help, but a lot of it, I think, is because we are fairly decent people.
We just finished a presidential election that supposedly showed us to be a sharply divided nation. I guess, on one level, that may be true. But I don’t know. I happen to know several people who attend First Community Church, and I know that those people are on opposite sides of the political world from me, but in the real world — in the human world — those people are on the same side.
Stephanie mentioned, in her email, that the annual Christmas dinner is very important to the members of First Community Church.
“It’s our way of giving back to the community as our name implies,” Stephanie wrote.
In the past, 650 to 800 meals have been served up at the Christmas dinner. Last year, Jim told me that each volunteer’s day begins very early and doesn’t end until very late, and when the day is finally over, everyone is exhausted.
“We’ll be so tired we won’t think we can crawl home, but we’ll also have a good feeling,” Jim said.
The Christmas Dinner for Others is open to anyone looking for a nice meal on Christmas Day. The dinner will include ham, turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, salad, green beans, and desserts. It will be served from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Those who need a meal to be delivered or picked up at the church may call the church at 417-781-1800 from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, and from 8 a.m. until noon Monday, Dec. 24.
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA for Mike Pound’s column? Call him at 417-623-3480, ext. 7259, or email him at mpound@joplinglobe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikepoundglobe.
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Mike Pound: Church demonstrates spirit of Joplin
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
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Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
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SLIDESHOW: One year later, One day of unity, updated
Photos from a day of events commemorating the May 22, 2011 tornado anniversary
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Federal, state leaders salute Joplin’s recovery
A deadly May twister may have punched a hole in Joplin and Duquesne two years ago, but the resolve to repair it will help other communities stand strong when they face similar disasters. That was the message of state and national diginitaries to a crowd of about 2,500 who observed the second anniversary of Joplin’s devastating May 22, 2011, storm during a ceremony Wednesday in Cunningham Park.
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Banner from Joplin to be sent to Moore residents
A giant vinyl banner adorned with heartfelt messages from Joplin tornado survivors to the residents of Moore, Okla., became a centerpiece of Wednesday’s observance of the two-year anniversary of the May 22, 2011, tornado.
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Rick Rescorla award named for hero of Vietnam War, 9-11 terror attacks
The Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is named for a 62-year-old vice president of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. who directed an evacuation of the company’s 2,700-person workforce in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011.
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Community gearing up for two-year anniversary ceremony this afternoon
With the playground full of children, it could be any other day at Joplin’s Cunningham Park, but the white tents popping up and neat rows of white chairs lined up nearby indicate something more is happening today.
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Farmers Insurance teams up with Rebuild Joplin
Farmers Insurance announced Tuesday that the company will team up with Rebuild Joplin for an initiative to help the community complete its recovery efforts. The company already has placed one of its executives in Joplin, and it is pledging additional funds and volunteer hours by company workers to go toward the city’s recovery.
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Joplin man continues struggle to recover two years after tornado
As the Joplin tornado passed overhead, sweeping the house at 2430 S. Pennsylvania Ave. away in its wake, there was a moment of calm. Delbert Mcguirk was on his back in the basement, where he had sought shelter along with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren. In that moment of relative quiet, he stared up into the eye of the tornado.
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Storms cause damage throughout the Four States
Four-State Area residents hunkered down twice Monday to ride out tornadoes and powerful spring storms, then went to work cleaning up. The worst damage from Monday night’s storm was being reported in Ottawa County, Okla., near Wyandotte. That followed a report of an EF-1 tornado early Monday morning near Carthage.
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Two plead guilty to post-tornado wire theft
Two defendants pleaded guilty Monday to stealing copper wire from utility poles in the wake of the May 22, 2011, tornado that struck Joplin. Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin, and Nycoa K. Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., entered open pleas of guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to felony counts of theft from a public utility.
- More May 2011 Joplin tornado Headlines
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Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
