|
|
|
GreenTown Joplin made its public debut at this week's Expo sponsored by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce. We shared booth space with Suzanne's Natural Foods; owner Suzanne Nelson is Co-Chair of the GreenTown Joplin committee. Staffing the booth and walking the floor of the Convention Center made it possible for us to visit with hundreds of people during the two-day event. It was very poignant and emotional to connect with folks 8 months after the tornado. We also encountered much optimism about the city's comeback.
The theme of this year's Expo was Remember.Rebuild.Rejoice. and many businesses incorporated this sentiment into their booth displays. GreenTown representatives distributed our new brochure (which summarizes the info on the Joplin website) to a lot of people and introduced the organization and its mission as we went from booth to booth. Our aim is to reach as many people as possible with information about sustainable rebuilding resources and options.
Traveling to Joplin from Greensburg for the Expo were Sarah Thyparambil and Barbara Summers, AmeriCorps interns who are working for Greensburg GreenTown for a year, and Catherine Hart, who is managing the GreenTown Joplin project. Joplin Committee Co-Chair Andrew Whitehead was on hand for both days of the Expo, and with his local connections he was able to get the word out to many interested people.
We are planning educational events for the spring and will keep readers here and on the GreenTown Joplin website posted as details are set.
Greensburg GreenTown is a charitable nonprofit organization working in Greensburg, Kansas to rebuild the town following the devastating tornado in May of 2007.
