• Bill, a 22-year old college student: He came to serve and ended up supervising an entire warehouse. At any given moment, you will find him driving a forklift, coordinating volunteers, unloading a semi truck load of donations or making operational decisions.

• Laura, a capable young woman from New Jersey who witnessed the fall of the twin towers on 9/11 and has had a desire to respond to disasters ever since: She now finds herself serving as the Volunteer Coordinator in Joplin… but has actually covered at least four other roles as well!

• Melissa, a social worker from Texas: She came to assist in Logistics but the Incident Commander was so impressed with her skills, he promoted her to Logistics Chief over the Salvation Army’s Joplin operation!

• John and Cindy Van Tiem from Michigan: They worked together supervising a huge feeding/gathering tent. At any given moment, they are listening kindly to a survivor’s story, serving spaghetti, orchestrating traffic flow, directing semi trucks, instructing demolition workers… 

• Darlene: she made the decision to come to Joplin for two weeks, not knowing how she would pay for airfare, lodging and ground travel. Within 48 hours, a friend donated air miles and someone paid for her first night in a hotel. When a need arose for someone to coordinate housing, Darlene responded, “I used to be a hotel manager!”  Added benefit:  as a result of her role as Housing Coordinator, her housing was covered! 

*Hope Force International  is a national partner of the Salvation Army, with a signed Memorandum of Understanding that provides a protocol for partnership in times of significant disaster events.  

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