Wright State students to join Joplin tornado relief effort

Literally hours after an EF5 tornado struck Joplin, Mo., killing 142 people and destroying 7,000 homes, Ryan Hehr couldn’t stop thinking about one thing: Katrina.

Four years earlier as a Wright State student, he and 12 other students volunteered to travel hundreds of miles to Mississippi, the Deep South and help in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.

That experience left a lasting impression and called him to plan and solicit volunteers for another relief trip, this time to America’s heartland in Missouri.

“I don’t know that anything prepares you for something like this. Each situation is different,” said Hehr.

Hehr, the grizzled disaster relief veteran of the group, used to work for The Guardian, the Wright State University student newspaper. Now working in communications and marketing with the Dayton Gems, one of his first calls was back to campus.

“He started to try and round up volunteers starting with The Guardian staff,” said Tiffany Watts, the graduating and soon-to-be former editor-in-chief of the paper. “He called me and I said I really want to do this and help.”

Watts, and three other current staffers from the The Guardian have signed up for the one-week relief trip later this month. The group hopes to have a total of 10 volunteers by the time they pack up the vehicles and hit the road early Sunday, June 19.

“We’ll essentially be doing a little bit of everything,—cleaning, cooking, separating donations,” said Hehr.

When they get to Joplin, they’ll link up with another relief effort coordinated by students from the Ozark Christian College. The Wright State contingent will stay in OCC dormitories and work hand-in-hand with the ongoing relief effort to feed, clothe and care for the thousands of people displaced by the storm. And they’re not the only ones who’ve offered help.

“It’s kind of amazing there’s a waiting list for something like this,” said Watts.

Hehr says there is a dire need for some supplies and he knows there are many people here looking for a way to give what they can.

“We are taking donations of additional supplies like water, non-perishables, clothes, teddy bears; they said to call a week before and they’d tell us what supplies they were running low on,” said Hehr.

If you would like to join the group or donate items contact Ryan Hehr at the Dayton Gems at 275-7777 or ryan@daytongems.net.