Instead of the usual basketball or volleyball setups on the multi-purpose courts in Missouri S&T's Student Recreation Center, rows of tables were arranged March 25-26 for a Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) to assist individuals affected by Rolla’s March 14 tornado.
In addition to the regular crowd of students doing their laundry at Thomas Jefferson Residence Hall in the week following the tornado, they were joined by members of the Rolla community. In the Gale Bullman Building, community members were able to feel the relief of using S&T’s showers over 100 times, and they also found comfort in several other places on campus.
“This has not been a standard two weeks for our campus, but that has been the case for most of Rolla,” says Stacey Fuller, an executive assistant for facility planning and operations. “Thousands of people were without power in the aftermath of the tornado, and I am proud that Missouri S&T has been able to serve as a hub for community support and help in this time of need.”
That support came in a variety of ways after the tornado, says Doug Roberts, chief of Missouri S&T’s University Police.
“The MARC hosted by S&T was an important event that helped 136 households and 341 individuals access services such as counseling, demolition and repair, financial assistance, legal services and a range of additional resources,” he says. “But S&T’s efforts went much farther than that because this is personal to all of us. I am a Rolla resident, and this is my community, too.”
In the days after the tornado raced through Rolla, S&T hosted a community movie since the local school district was closed and also offered outlets to charge devices, stations to fill water bottles, an open gym for children to play, and games and activities hosted by the Kummer Center for STEM Education.
The St. Pat’s Board donated $10,168 to the American Red Cross to help with disaster relief throughout Phelps County. The students raised the funds by selling St. Pat’s sweatshirts, other merchandise and concert tickets.
And the S&T community, including fraternities and sororities, student teams and organizations, individual students, staff and faculty members and other groups, has also volunteered for countless hours throughout the Rolla area — doing everything from removing debris to providing water and sandwiches to flying drones to assess the damage.
“When people in your town need help after a disaster, you should step up and help if you can,” says Logan Huffaker, a first-year aerospace engineering student from St. Peters, Missouri, and community service chair of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. “My fraternity brothers are always looking for ways to give back, so we were honored to assist with debris removal after the tornado. Rolla will always be somewhere we consider home, no matter where life takes us after graduation.”
