This past weekend students from Drury University who are working on a TKF grantee project, the Landscapes of Resilience project in Joplin, MO, finished up interviewing nearly 25 victims of the devastating storm from May 2011. After finishing the in-person interviews, the students will begin transcribing the emotional accounts that will then be featured on large story boards in the new Butterfly Garden and Overlook in Cunningham Park, which is was designed by Drury architecture students.
Survivors like John DeGraff felt compelled to share their stories because the garden is located in the same spaces that the residents of Joplin braved the severely destructive storm. “It means something to me on a personal level that there is something going in there that will tell everyone what we went through, what we are going through,” DeGraff said. “Telling these stories is part of the rebuilding process.”
The Landscapes of Resilience project is focusing on creating open spaces for recovery and healing for the communities in Joplin, MO and in New York City following Hurricane Sandy. The project is able to make such positive progress through the partnerships among Drury University, Cornell University, the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Releaf of Missouri, The Joplin Parks and Recreation Department, Till Design in New Jersey and Great River Associates in Springfield, MO.
>>Read more about the progress on the project here.
