When her son’s home and her business, Miracle Café, were destroyed by an EF-3 tornado last spring, Reta Jackson, who has lived in Reading for 40 years, realized that her hometown would never be the same again.

“We just refuse to say that (we lost our town),” Jackson said. “We are building and we’re going to build it back. It won’t ever be the same, but we can build it back and build it better.”

The storm claimed 56 of the 110 homes in Reading, and 14 of the 21 businesses, one of which was Jackson’s café.

For their annual “Big Event,” 43 members of the Associated Student Government and the Community Hornets, partnered with United Way, travelled to Reading to assist with tornado relief on Saturday morning.

“I was really touched that the students wanted to participate in this,” said Jami Reever, executive director of United Way. “When there’s a disaster, people react to it and they are so generous, and then it’s easy to forget and go on their own. I’m so grateful they wanted to do this because it lets the people of Reading know that people still care and they’re not forgotten.”

But Reading is not yet completely rebuilt, and Reever said that it would take the town another 18 months to return to where it was prior to the tornado. Many houses are still under reconstruction, and nails, trash, broken glass and debris litter the ground.

“The students are wonderful and they are a great asset to us,” Jackson said. “Now that summer is over and winter is coming on, there are a lot of things that need to be done before winter gets here… so when big groups like the ESU students come in, that’s so great for us because we can get so much more accomplished.”

Students used magnets to pick up debris around the church, parking lots, streets and several homes.

“I think it’s going to help a lot to show them other people care about their town,” said Kelly Rethorst, freshman elementary education major. “It’s four months after, but we are still picking up glass from the yards. So it will probably be a lot safer for everybody living here.”

The Big Event group is the biggest group to help Reading so far, according to Steve Burnett, assistant disaster response coordinator of Reading.

“It’s hard, especially for a small town, to try to recover from something like this,” said Ashley Vogts, senior interdisciplinary studies and pre-occupational therapy major and ASG president. “I think this will be very beneficial, just for the families on the emotional side, when you see people out the communities caring and wanting to help.”

Big Events are usually held within the Emporia community, but Vogts said that visiting a community in need to see the damage and the improvements Reading has made in four months made an impact on the students.

To learn how to get involved in the Reading relief effort, call Steve Burnett at 785-410-0210 or email srburn@madtel.net.

Tianhai Jiang