Connection May 2023

Celebrate Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The Clark Center wants to raise awareness and help break the stigma associated with mental health. For significant reasons like an increase in suicide and overdose death rates in the last few years, there has been greater focus on the importance of mental health and how it impacts individual lives and our society at large.

If you are struggling with a mental/behavioral health problem, you are not alone.

1 in 5 adults will experience a diagnosable mental health problem or substance use disorder in any given year. Think about it. 1 out of every 5 adults you encounter at the grocery or department store, gym, church, or in the neighborhood may have a mental health or substance use problem this year.

6 to 7 percent of full-time employees experience a Major Depressive Disorder each year. But, mental health problems, don’t just impact adults. In fact, 50% of mental health problems start to develop before the age of 14.

Show Me Hope @ The Clark Center

In total, almost half the population has a chance of developing a mental/behavioral health problem during a lifetime, but sadly fewer than half of individuals who need mental health treatment each year will seek it.

Your mental health is important not only in May but every month of the year. If you have questions or concerns about your mental health you can see from the above statistics that you are not alone. Do yourself a favor and don’t delay in seeking assistance; there is no better time to start treatment than now. Why now? Research shows that treatment is effective, with early intervention showing the best results.

2021 was rough. Show Me Hope at the Clark Center is connected to resources for nancial help, mental health help, and self-care. The program is free and con dential. Programs are created to assist our communities with the ability to rec er from the grief, uncertainty and frustration of recent times. We are here to listen and help. yone in community with concerns about their rec , or that of another individual or group is encouraged to call and seek assistance. Points of focus for Show Me Hope are resiliency, self-care and experiencing loss. Here 24/7......

The Clark Center 417-235-6610

w Me Hope, call or text: 1-800-985-5990

Clark Center: 417-235-6610

If you or someone you know needs crisis support now. Call or text 988 Resiliency Community Recovery

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE IS FOR EVERYONE!

Kids, Teens & Adults! Friends & fun programs are happening this summer at the library. All of us together make the world a more exciting place to live. This summer, we’re celebrating the unique gifts each person brings to the community. The whole family can join in the fun of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. Keep reading skills growing over the summer and earn prizes to keep motivated. Also, go to fun programs promoting social learning and getting together.

The Summer Reading Challenge starts June 5th. To pre-register, go to blrLibrary.com/src or scan QR code.

Busy... Busy... Busy... N

ormally people would express how busy November and December usually are with the holidays, gatherings and having to get all of your Christmas shopping done, but this year I believe May is running a close second, or might even come in first for me.

I have to begin with the end of April as that is the start of birthdays and events. I have a grandson that had his sixth birthday on the 21st and a daughter-inlaw with a birthday on April 26. On April 29, my first grandchild got married. It was held in Kansas, so traveling in advance happened, of course, because we had to help with decorations, nerves, last minute details, etc. Whew, April is done. Oops, I forgot about Easter in April. We didn’t celebrate like we normally do because of everything going on, but it didn’t go forgotten. Small little celebrations were held at different households in the family but the fact remained that we had Easter and honored the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oh my, I forgot to mention that there was a surgery squeezed in there, all is well.

Now since I am writing this in advance, I actually have not attended the wedding yet, so you never know that might end up being a story all on its own!

Now we enter the month of May, which will entail more birthdays, at least three that I can remember. That is not that big of a deal but this year in our family I will also have three grandchildren graduating from high school. I am honored and very grateful. The only hiccup is the fact that one graduation is in Berryville, Ark., one in Monett, and one in Rogers, Ark. This ‘ole lady is getting too old for this! But I am very proud of each one of them! And of course we are not talking about just attending the graduation ceremony, we HAVE to have graduation parties for them.

I know that I am talking a lot about what I get to do and how busy I will be but I know others will be experiencing this fast paced time of year. I also know that I would not change it for the world.

These events/steps are all firsts in many young people’s lives. This is the only high school graduation for thousands of young adults. After this event, they have either already made some very important life decisions or are going to have to step out there and decide what they want to do in their next adult step.

This is also the time of year where many choose to marry because it is still spring-type weather. Not too hot and not cold. Like my granddaughter, it is a huge step. Another jump into adulting.

And of course we cannot forget Memorial Day and honoring our veterans. They are the ones that have put their lives on the line so our lives include the freedoms that include birthdays, graduations, weddings and the celebrations that we have on Memorial Day.

Now, it may have seemed that I have been all over the place in this column, but that is how I feel – I know that for the next few weeks I’m going to he hopping from one big event to the next – and I am sure a lot of you are right along with me.

But in saying that, I want to express my birthday wishes to all that are having another year celebrated, congratulations to all of the graduates embarking on their new and exciting life paths and more congratulations to those that choose to begin their wedded lives together. These are all positive times in your lives, make the most of it because all of you matter!

Lisa Craft is owner and publisher of Connection Magazine and The Monett Times. She can be reached at monettcommunity@ gmail.com Owner & Publisher, Connection Magazine

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Lisa Craft monettcommunity@gmail.com

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Connection is published monthly and distributed free in Cassville, Monett, Exeter, Washburn, Pierce City, Mt. Vernon, Aurora, Verona, Roaring River, Eagle Rock, Shell Knob, Purdy, Wheaton, Freistatt, Marionville, Seligman, Golden and other surrounding areas.

Connection is a publication of the The Monett Times. Both publications now locally owned and operated.

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*Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective date 04/04/2020. CDs offered by Edward Jones are bank-issued and FDIC-insured up to $250,000 (principal and interest accrued but not yet paid) per depositor, per insured depository institution, for each account ownership category. Please visit www.fdic.gov or contact your advisor for additional information. Subject to availability and price change. CD values are subject to interest rate risk such that when interest rates rise, the prices of CDs can decrease. If CDs are sold prior to maturity, the investor can lose principal value. FDIC insurance does not cover losses in market value. Early withdrawal may not be permitted. Yields quoted are net of all commissions. CDs require the distribution of interest and do not allow interest to compound. CDs offered through Edward Jones are registered with Depository Trust Corp. (DTC).

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A MAGAZINE DEDICATED TO THE OZARKS

Baked goods are always popular with shoppers.

31 |

Tom Wolfe Memorial VFW Post holds local flag program for Memorial Day

36 |

John and Leanne Yarrow publish first science-fiction novel of a three part series

with setting inspired by Monett

39 |

Lisenby Smith

The cream of the coffee crop is found with these new local coffee purveyors

Courtney Middle was born and raised in Arvada, Colorado, and finished her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics with a minor in Spanish at the University of Northern Colorado. She is currently completing her Dietetic Internship at Cox College, located in Springfield, Missouri. She has a passion for sports nutrition and wants to help people improve their fitness through nutrition.

by Courtney Middle

Food for Calm Thought

Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the U.S. and symptoms can be triggered by many different factors.

A 2022 study found that almost 30 percent of Americans suffer from some kind of anxiety problem, and yet many people don’t know that it is easily treatable and manageable through medications, cognitive therapy, and even through nutrition.

Diet quality influences the brain and bodily functions which can impact signs and symptoms of anxiety. Having a well-rounded, healthy diet will ensure you’re getting all the essential micro and macronutrients needed to support a healthy mind.

The Smiles Trial

The Smiles Trial was the first trial to test if an improvement in diet would also improve one’s mental health. It was conducted in 2012 and the results are astonishing. Some participants were in a social support group while the other half were a part of the dietary support group. Of those included in the dietary support group, they emphasized whole foods consisting of mostly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish, olive oil, and lean meats. Although it is hard to measure mental health, scientists use the MADRS (Montgomery-

Asberg Depression Rating Scale) which is a questionnaire that measures the severity of depression and anxiety. It was concluded that the dietary support group demonstrated significantly greater improvement between baseline and 12 weeks on the MADRS than the social support control group, indicating the important role of diet. Knowing this, it is important to know examples of foods and tips that can help achieve a better diet.

Magnesium

Many studies concluded that people whose diets are lacking in magnesium have more anxiety symptoms than their counterparts who are consuming enough magnesium. The involvement that magnesium has in the body plays

View blog online

Diet quality influences the brain and bodily functions which can impact signs and symptoms of anxiety.

a big role in controlling neurotransmitter signaling and sending. Dopamine and serotonin are the two main “feel good” neurotransmitters that help with happiness and help with lower anxiety levels, and not enough magnesium can disrupt any of these signals, causing increased levels of anxiety and depression.

Magnesium is also needed to synthesize dopamine. On the bright side, there are many ways to increase your magnesium intake through food. Dark leafy green vegetables, avocado, fish, dark chocolate, nuts, beans, dairy products, and whole grains are some examples of food that are high in magnesium and should be added to your diet whether you are deficient in magnesium or not.

Reduce caffeine consumption

Although there are a lot of foods that should be added to your diet, there are some things to avoid that can reduce the number of anxious thoughts and feelings. Caffeine is in a lot of common beverages that Americans drink every day that include coffee, some Pepsi products, tea, and energy drinks.

Caffeine acts as a stimulant, meaning your central nervous system is more awake and alert. It causes increased blood pressure, increased alertness, and overall increased activity in your brain and your nervous system. Anxiety triggers your flight or fights response, which means everything is in high gear, increasing activity in all parts of your body.

The caffeine only heightens this feeling and effect and can cause anxiety/panic disorder causing individuals more discomfort in their anxiety symptoms. Elimination is not necessary sometimes, and caffeine affects everyone differently, so it is important to listen to your body and do what feels best for you. n

815 Jerome Ln. Monett, MO 65708 Located behind Taco Bell in Monett

It’s all in the family for local farmers. Devon Tudor helps his family sell their local honey and honey products for their business

Tudie’s Fruities

Elderberry & Apiary Farms.

Find the Market:

Monett Area

There’s nothing better than taking a big bite of a ripe strawberry or a juicy tomato during the heat of the summer. Local farmer’s markets make it possible for shoppers to enjoy these pleasures with ease. But the Monett Area Farmer’s Market is providing more than just fruits and vegetables.

local farm products including produce; meats; honey, elderberry, and beeswax products; baked goods; local artisan’s products; coffee; and breakfast treats for some on-site eats. Being able to have the space of the pavilion in downtown Monett, the farmer’s market organizers were able to bring in musical entertainers and an author too.

Monett Area Farmer’s Market is held every Saturday through September from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. in downtown Monett at the pavilion on Front Street.

As the popularity of farmer’s markets had grown across the United States, a local market was started in Monett in 2012. It began with the help of the Monett Chamber of Commerce and today is sponsored by Tyson Foods. What began as a small gathering of farmers has blossomed into much, much more. In 2022, vendors provided

Other than providing these goods and entertainment, farmer’s markets provide much more to the community.

Cheri Davidson, Monett Area Farmer’s Market manager and Monett Main Street board member said, “Locally grown food supports the local economy. Supporting local farmers means supporting the local economy, which is

Story by Annie Lisenby Smith

At a farmer’s market, shoppers can meet the farmers and vendors face-to-face.

Farmers Market

major for any city. Money that is spent with local farmers and growers stays close to home and is reinvested with businesses and services within the community.”

The Farmer’s Market Coalition pointed out that when shoppers spend their money at a farmer’s market, they hand their money to the person who grew or made the products directly. When describing how shopping at farmer’s markets helps local economies, the Farmer’s Market Coalition said, “Farmer’s markets generate business, and business creates jobs. A 2011 Economic Research Service report found that fruit and vegetable farms selling into local and regional markets employ

13 full-time workers per $1 million in revenue earned. Comparatively, fruit and vegetable farms that are not selling locally employed only three full-time workers per $1 million in revenue.”

When farmers and other vendors sell at these markets, they also get to interact face-to-face with their customers. “Vendors selling locally is an excellent way to boost their presence in the marketplace and make their business known to those who wouldn’t have known about it otherwise,” Davidson said. “It gives them a sense of community between buyers and sellers, a chance to learn from other vendors, test the market with new products, and shop for their own needs.”

Fresh breakfast is regularly offered at the Monett Area Farmer’s Market.

Locally sourced eggs provided by local farmers.

Not only are farmer’s markets great for the local economy, they’re also great for the local community. “The farmer’s market is a great place to meet up with friends and family, bring your children to get a taste of small-town life,” Davidson said. “By supporting your farmer’s market, you are growing your local community and turning shopping into a pleasure rather than a chore. You get to meet your local farmers and maybe on occasion even some of the farm animals, learn about local food, catch up with friends, and get your children involved.”

The addition of live music has been a favorite for Davidson and Thad Hood who assists Davidson. Hood said he also enjoyed the different animals show and tell, a book signing with a pony, freeze-dried foods, and candies. Davidson and Hood work with others to keep the market lively and interesting.

With many grand plans for the 2023 season, the Monett Area Farmer’s Market opens on May 6. To celebrate the beginning of the season, the Coalition of Charities is providing free pancakes to shoppers on opening day. New this year are food or coffee trucks, knife sharpening, breakfast foods, and new vendors. Also, live art sessions are being held at the pavilion provided by the MESSY Apron once per month and starting on May 13. Search for “The Monett Area Farmer’s Market sponsored by Tyson Foods” on Facebook to follow their page and be kept up to date on all events and products offered.

The Monett Area Farmer’s Market is held every Saturday through September from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. in downtown Monett at the pavilion on Front Street.

“We absolutely would love to have more vendors this year,” Hood said. Potential vendors wanting more information on reserving space at the market can email Cheri Davidson at Monettfarmersmarket@gmail.com or message through the Facebook page.

For more information you can call Hood at 417-737-9461. n

“Together We Stand” Pierce City

‘Battered But Not Broken’

At 7:04 p.m. on Sunday, May 4, 2003, a clock stopped in Friendly Supply store in Pierce City. Time froze, but all around, the world changed, transformed by a tornado that rolled over the hillside west of town, swept over the downtown, turning the entire business district and 70 homes to rubble, killing one and injuring dozens, before rising briefly to march 45 miles into Greene County. Six died in Lawrence County alone as the storm crossed north of Monett, severing power to the city, continuing north of Aurora before veering northeast of Marionville, and into the Long Lane community, east of Marionville.

In Pierce City, nothing would be the same. The picturesque ornate downtown of Victorian stone businesses looked like a bomb had exploded, breaking out most windows, sheering off the top story of the First National Bank, collapsing the Opera House, tearing off pieces of the National Guard Armory sheltering residents, carving a line of devastation three blocks wide from one end of town to the other.

“It was a classically rain-wrapped tor-

nado, very difficult to see,” said David Compton, who then served as emergency management director for both Barry and Lawrence counties.

From Bryce Garner’s vantage point at his house, it looked like a wall cloud of rain. From Jay Bierkortte’s view at the top of Walnut Street hill a few minutes later, the city resembled a giant cloud of dust, no rain, just air filled with pulverized building debris.

And yet, as people emerged, the resilience and spirit of the community rose with them.

Everyone in Pierce City has a story about where they were and what they did after the tornado. There was heartbreak, great loss, and a triumph of will over adversity. Here are a few of those stories.

That week, May 3-11, saw an outbreak of 335 tornados across 26 states, 79 on May 4 alone. The National Weather Service knew it was coming. Steve Reynolds, warning coordinator meteorologist for the NWS in Springfield, held the area’s first conference call on severe weather on May 3, putting the area on high risk. The morning of May 4, he called emergency managers to say it was not a

Story by Murray Bishoff

The Pierce CityTornado 20 Years Later

question of if, but where.

Compton called Gene Mulvaney, Monett emergency preparedness coordinator, asking him to keep extra staff on duty that day. At 5 p.m., spotters were dispatched, though they had their doubts viewing blue skies. When radar showed a tornado was forming, sirens sounded, about 15 minutes before the storm hit in Pierce City. Compton credits that alert, though confusing to residents on the ground at the time, with saving lives. Blue sky turned to dark clouds just minutes before the tornado struck.

Carol Hirsch, former mayor who had lost her re-election bid in 2002, was in Kansas City. Her husband, Fred sat on his porch two blocks north of the crest of the Pierce City hill to watch the storm with his son-in-law, John Gibson, while his daughter Carolee and grandson Mitchell went into the home’s basement behind old-style swinging storm shelter doors. The wind came up, knocking Fred’s chair out from under him. The men scrambled into the basement.

Police Officer Brian Brown was on duty, driving down the Walnut Street hill. When the storm began lifting his

squad car, he threw the car into reverse and radioed out the first calls for help.

The strength of the storm hitting Pierce City, more devastating than its trail east of town, was thought to have been an EF-4, which became a chant for the high school football team in coming years. The National Weather Service ultimately classified it as an EF-3. At Locust and Main, a parked semi-trailer was lifted and smashed against the Sherman tank parked at the National Guard Armory. Later, when the tank was moved to the new armory, pieces of roofing from the apartment building across the street were found under it, proving the storm actually lifted the 66,800 pound tank off the ground before moving on.

The two-block stretch of two-story brick buildings lining the railroad tracks took the brunt of the wind’s fury, holding it back. Once it passed the post office and widened, it tore into St. Mary’s Catholic Church farther south. Had it not been for the old buildings, the storm would likely have spread over the railroad tracks a block earlier and smashed the trailer park just west of the church, vastly increasing the death toll. Only

Mail picked up by the storm was recovered as far away as Lebanon.

Once the storm passed, people began pouring out of their homes to see what had happened. For the next hour, people meandered about, almost in shock at the sight. Former mayor Tom Majors declared, “My whole town is gone,” which became the headline on the next day’s Monett Times

Radar showed Pierce City had taken a direct hit. Even as the storm passed north of Monett, Compton and the dispatching team at the Monett police station began summoning aid. Firefighters blocked all the entrances into Pierce City. Police officers from Newton County, Republic and even from Arkansas came that night. Monett firefighters and numerous ambulances flooded into town. As the sun set, it became pitch black downtown except for the emergency vehicles. People went home, becoming more aware of electrical wires lying over the ground, with buildings and bent utility poles creaking around them. Emergency re-

Dale Taunton, shepherding people into the armory for shelter, was killed by the storm.

Photo courtesy of Larry Eden

sponders concentrated on the armory, where many people were trapped and injured after the auditorium roof fell on those unable to reach the basement.

Some people had no homes left. Father Peter Morciniec opened the doors to St. Mary’s to serve as a shelter, a role that would expand in the coming days.

Police Chief Mike Abramovitz took a map of the city and broke it down into sections for teams to go door-to-door, searching for anyone trapped. He commandeered spray paint from Friendly Supply so that each building could be marked as searched. That review lasted until nearly sunrise. Some would admit to hiding in their buildings from searchers, not wanting to leave.

The next day was bright and sunny. The extent of the damage everywhere filled cameras from every household. The bell tower on the Congregational Church had been torn off, the cross at the Methodist Church across the street had been crumpled like a pop can. The grocery store, the old Buchner’s farm implement building and the library laid flattened. The entire business district was gone or badly damaged. The canopy at the Casey’s convenience store had torn loose and the railroad caboose beside the store lay on its side. The flag pole at the Central Elementary School at the far east end of town stood bent at a sharp angle. Tree limbs laid across many streets, some trees upended completely with exposed root balls.

Sheriff Doug Seneker and a full contingent of Lawrence County deputies were on site, as was Compton. People huddled around Mayor Mark Peters inside the city hall building, inside the old Empire District Electric office. State Representative Jack Goodman and Governor Bob Holden personally visited that day. On May 9, U.S. Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent both came to pledge support.

The downtown street looked like a

war zone, complete with National Guard down from Camp Clark in Nevada to provide security. The local Guard troops had been mobilized to serve in the Gulf War and could not leave Fort Leonard Wood until special dispensation came through for them. FEMA teams began to arrive. The Red Cross, on hand from the first night, began assessing the impact to residents, and set up a series of grills in the post office parking lot to feed the emergency workers.

“They trenched phone lines to a bank of phones next to city hall,” Compton said. “Southwestern Bell had a trailer with six phones on it. Later we got a Cellular on Wheels (COW) unit, one of the earliest units, and we had special cell phones to use with those COWs.”

Compton planned to host an emergency disaster drill in Monett that day, and had emergency managers from around the state staying in Monett for the simulation. Seeing an opportunity to help, those professionals threw themselves into assembling resources to help. One had connections to a hazmat team from northwest Missouri, and they came to provide mutual aid.

“On Dec. 18, 2002, a tornado hit the Lucky Lady mobile home park east of Mt. Vernon,” Compton said. “The Unmet Needs Committee had just finished its work. We reactivated the committee. The day after the tornado, a group of volunteer agencies met to identify who needed what and how to fill those needs. They set up reception centers in Pierce City, Mt. Vernon, the Liberty United Methodist Church north of Monett, and in Aurora.”

At St. Mary’s, the women of the church rallied, realizing a much greater feeding effort was needed to help residents, neighbors helping neighbors and the waves of volunteers pouring in to help. A team organized an assembly line, producing around 500 meals a day.

Jeri Jasumback coordinated resourc-

es that supplied the meal effort. Chris Carver, then working as chaplain for Tyson Foods in Monett, brought over a refrigerated trailer for storing food. Initially Tyson sent its disaster relief team, a recent innovation that would later go company-wide to help towns with Tyson workers, to cook meals as well as donate food. The church even cooked 500 meals taken to the workers operating out of the relief station based north of Monett, where teams worked for weeks to clear fields of scattered metal debris.

“Everybody just pitched in. It was amazing,” Jasumback said. “We had a truck come in from Michigan full of clothes and canned goods. They reported what happened to us on the radio there. The town got a U-Haul for free, filled the truck and headed to Missouri. I just cried when they came. Christians from all over came to help us. Your faith in people is reassured when something like this happens.”

“I took a group of volunteers through [St. Mary’s food] line,” Carol Hirsch recalled. “It was the best organized operation, with chicken and ham and homemade pies and salads; real home cooking like Pierce City people can do. All the churches in the area had been contacted and food came in every day.”

For two weeks the kitchen stayed open 24 hours. Rita Seufert headed the food preparation. Seufert, Jasumback, Julie Witt, Lois Fenske, Fran Lorenz, Ron Fenske and Sally Heidlage were later honored by the Missouri General Assembly for their efforts. Judy Bowman also helped, but could not make the trip to Jefferson City to accept the award.

The second day after the storm, Carol Hirsch’s phone rang. Mayor Mark Peters called and said, “Carol, you must come help me or I won’t get through this. You’re going to be my second.”

Hirsch jumped in without hesitation. That day Peters sent her to Monett to find supplies.

“I went to all the industries,” Hirsch said. “They all had gloves, hard hats and safety glasses. They filled up my car. Then Mark called and said, ‘Walmart has a pallet of bleach for us. We need it for the water. Can you bring it? I didn’t have any more room. I drove over there, and my daughter-in-law pulled up behind me in an SUV. She took the bleach back. Things kept happening like that.”

Water operator Sam Corley hoisted himself to the top of the south water tower and dumped the chlorine in a gallon at a time. The back-up generator the city had would not run the well, but a local business donated theirs that wasn’t presently in use. Then the city’s water system worked again.

“Early on I was told to go to the airport,” Hirsch said. “There were volunteers there with chainsaws. They gave me six men and equipment. I turned them loose and they went to work. I never saw them again.”

Sometime during that first week, it started to rain. This proved to be disastrous, for the buildings, now unprotected without roofs, absorbed inches of water. Floors began to bow, and the brick walls, supported by the floors, began to give way. Cracks formed in the battered downtown buildings that spread from one end of the block to the other, though it took weeks to discover what happened. At St. Mary’s, a contractor had removed the roof on the school, which flooded the entire building, ruining the computers and much of the supplies.

On May 13, during intermittent showers, President George W. Bush personally came to Pierce City, accompanied by the U.S. senators. Congressman Roy Blunt had been in the previous day. Compton and city councilman David Jones walked the President through the scene. Bush went to St. Mary’s, met the kitchen crew and addressed a packed house of volunteers, pledging immediate action by FEMA.

“It is my honor to be here with some of the country’s finest citizens,” Bush said. “A lot of people know you’re suffering. They care for you and wish you the best.”

A photo of Father Peter and Bush still hangs in the church hall. Father Peter had the photo on his wall at the nursing home in his final days.

The city, then as now, operates on sales tax. Suddenly there were no businesses working. Casey’s would not reopen until September. City workers, most working much longer hours, had to be paid. Alderman Jo Allen suggested a boot block. With tourists driving up to see what they could, another group of volunteers organized to collect donations at the major street intersections, under the slogan “Keep Pierce City Alive.”

“It was a big help,” said City Clerk Julie Johnson. “Checks came in from all over. Some came for the smashed fire truck. Those went into a special fund. Others went to the general fund. The city court in Joplin brought office supplies and furniture for us. We still use some of it in city hall today.

“A lot of the FEMA people were with us a long time. One took his fishing trip planned in Canada and brought back fish they cooked for us. The FEMA people were good for the city. They had been through it before and they could lift our spirits. Others did that too, like Holly St. Martin with the National Guard, who lived in Monett. She was everywhere, and she went out of her way to help us at city hall. She could make anyone laugh. In that kind of situation, you needed to laugh. Otherwise you’d cry.”

Carol Hirsch recalled the day two women came into city hall, old friends who hadn’t seen each other in some time. Both had lost their homes. They fell into each other’s arms and cried. Both got new homes, Hirsch recalled, and lived long enough to enjoy them.

And the volunteers kept coming. Jeannette and Ike Watt of Thomasville, North

Carolina, full-time fence builders, took three weeks off to come to Pierce City to help. A group calling themselves the Canadian Thumb-Busters from Calgary, Alberta, came on Memorial Day weekend.

The question arose, could the Pierce City’s business community rebuild? FEMA people said only once before had they endeavored to restore a town’s economy completely from scratch, but it could be done. On May 11, merchants gathered at a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. Several, fired up by the inextinguishable spirit of grocery store owner Mike Flummerfelt, vowed to build back bigger and better. Vowing early to carry on was the oldest of the merchants, Friendly Supply owner Gene Kluck.

“It gave him a lot of purpose,” said Mark Chapman, Kluck’s grandson who runs the store today. “Grandpa was determined to come back. He got really focused on the business and salvaged what he could.”

This rallying spirit led to the Great Land Swap. The Baptist Church, which had plans before the tornado to build a new church north of town, donated its land at Elm and Washington to the Flummerfelts, who in turn donated their land on Commercial Street to druggist Doug Thompson. Thompson and the American Legion gave their land on opposite sides of the Walnut and Commercial turnabout to the city for a new city hall. A FEMA architect proposed rebuilding city hall to resemble the original Frisco train station, located just south of that spot next to the tracks, an idea widely acclaimed at its unveiling. City hall was rebuilt there with the new address of 1 Frisco Place. The land swap story made the pages of People Magazine.

Rebuilding the town would take time. Summer, however, was imminent. Many wanted to take steps to save the summer for Pierce City’s children. Shelter Insurance donated $6,000 to keep the city

swimming pool open. The city’s baseball fields became the only city-owned property large enough to dump the debris, and were lost for that season. Hirsch recalled asking Father Peter if the local ball teams could use the field east of St. Mary’s for their practices, though all their games would be out of town.

“He said, ‘Anything for the community,’” Hirsch recalled. That was characteristic of the priest, and the driving force that kept the town moving for the next few years.

Rebuilding required thinking unlike anything seen in town since its earliest days. Mark Peters, an attorney by trade, found himself uniquely positioned to guide the process. But it was difficult. There were days, Julie Johnson recalled, when by the end of business Peters would sit down in the office and fall asleep from exhaustion.

FEMA offered to carry away the debris from all the damaged buildings. Many business owners had little or no insurance, and no resources to rebuild. FEMA pushed for a decision, and while some structures may have been salvageable, few took that chance in the timeframe allowed. Once the trackhoes came in, the old city artifices disappeared by the end of August, watched by many wistful onlookers.

For months the city council debated where to place the curbs, setting the width of the streets and the location of sidewalks. Without setting the curbs first, nothing could proceed. County surveyor Sam Goodman also recognized landmarks would disappear along with the curbs. He proceeded to record the footprints of every building. He noted that records dating back to the 1870s often prove inaccurate, and his measurements ultimately preserved the real property lines. Goodman still has that documentation in his field books.

Even with funding through FEMA available for rebuilding, the process of-

ten proved daunting. The senior citizens center, for example, located for years on Commercial Street in what had been Wilhoit Cleaners, had nowhere to go after the storm. Its president for 15 years, Dora Oliver, was badly injured when the storm hit her apartment. Maura Sparks was elected the new president. The group took up an invitation by the Methodist Church to meet there for nearly a year.

Sparks and her husband, Perry, joined the committee to find new land with Gerald Malan, Vera Lee Stotts and Wayne Tower. They had $70,000 in insurance and a grant of $40,000 from the Lawrence County Senior Citizens Tax Board to capital. Rebuilding downtown, by new FEMA flooding standards, would require building above the flood plain, so they looked elsewhere. An offer of free land on the north side of town was rejected as too far from the center of activity. They settled on a spot on Locust Street, near the old armory.

Every step after that proved difficult. The group’s not-for-profit status had lapsed. It took action by State Representative Jack Goodman to secure its renewal, needed to take delivery of kitchen equipment. A request for funding had to be rejected by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) before additional funds could be tapped. Retired architect James Sidney Moore helped shape plans for the building, after which an active architect had to finish them and FEMA had to approve them. Trips to senior centers in Carthage, Joplin, Monett and Springfield provided more ideas, some that got vetoed by the county health department. An attractive arched ceiling proved to be an acoustical nightmare, resolved only by installing sound boards from the old Baptist Church no longer in use.

“[Rebuilding the center] was our life for six to nine months,” Maura Sparks said. “We made some mistakes. We put the air conditioning in the attic, now no

one wants to work on them there. By now we need another couple rooms. We did the best we could.”

When finished, the leaders gave a walk-through to Dora Oliver, holding her arms, and 103-year-old Lottie Whittington. Both were pleased to see such a spacious, versatile and new facility.

“So many people came to us having nothing but the clothes on their back,” Compton said. “I teach a lot of classes for SEMA. I tell people you find a new normalcy, but you never go back to the way you were.

“We learned a lot from Pierce City. At the time, there were no FEMA storm shelters in Pierce City or Monett. Now Pierce City has two and Monett has four, some that open automatically when the sirens go off. At the time Monett had a couple ‘Cold War fallout shelters,’ at the old hospital and the Armory, with openings for air flow, what you don’t want in a storm shelter. The University of Kansas put on a class on how to design a shelter.”

From the primitive cell phone network given to Pierce City, Compton says now Verizon has an entire department dedicated to disaster response, and AT&T has a program to aid emergency responders nationwide.

“Two years later, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans,” Compton said. “The federal government asked for Citizen Corps volunteers. Missouri sent 200 people. Fifty of those came from Barry and Lawrence counties. Some of those people still work for FEMA. I think the reason is they had experience responding to Pierce City and other storms.”

The experience also laid the groundwork for how to respond locally to a major disaster, valuable lessons for the Joplin tornado in 2011.

Reflecting on the experience, Julie Johnson said, “Things came back bigger and better. I miss the buildings that were here. The town isn’t the buildings. It’s the people. Good comes out of bad.” n

Mental Health Awareness Month

As a Mental Health Counselor and Marriage and Family

Therapist, I try to make each day a mental health awareness day.

I do this by learning as much as I can about myself and doing the things I know I need to do to help make each day work for me. May happens to be the actual month where mental health awareness is celebrated which has helped bring more attention to the importance of protecting your own mental health. So, what does this look like for you? Here are 6 ideas I use with my clients.

1. Slow down

Most of us are extremely busy and then beat ourselves up at the end of the day when we feel like we’ve fallen short in some way. My guess is that you’re doing the best you can in the season of life you’re in. Take a step back, reassess, and slow down. This might look like you not scheduling as many things in one day, or allowing yourself more time in between errands. This could be writing a to do list and treating yourself to a yummy latte once you’ve checked everything off. Be gentle with yourself. Sometimes it just takes another person giving you that ‘permission’ to slow down that helps you do just that.

2. Use your Feelings Wheel

I’ve mentioned this in another article in this magazine but it’s worth mentioning again because that’s how amazing this tool is. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re feeling and that can lead to frustration and irritability. Use your Feelings Wheel to identify what it is that has got you feeling so down or so confused. Putting words to what we can’t figure out on our own in the moment can bring much-need clarity. When we know how we feel, we can start working on calming our nerves which helps alleviate anxiety.

3. Get outside

I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to get outside. The sunshine provides Vitamin D which if you’re low in, can worsen your depression. Don’t know what your Vitamin D levels are? Schedule an appointment with your primary care provider and get them checked out. I do this once a year so I know exactly where I’m at but also, to hold myself accountable to getting outside even when I don’t feel like it.

4. Write down everything that is bothering you

Just as I keep a list of things I am grateful for, I also jot down things that are causing me to lose sleep or that I find myself ruminating on. Once I have them written out, I take a look at what I can do something about and think through the things that I have no control over. Doing this exercise helps me pinpoint what is going on in my head rather than letting them sit idle and distract me from being fully present with my friends and family.

5. Talk to yourself like you would a dear friend or family member

It’s easy to hold ourselves to pretty high standards and talk down to ourselves when we fall short of self-imposed expectations. Something I learned to do when I was going to school to become a therapist, was to replace my inner voice with that of someone who has always talked to me kindly and in love. For me, that is my grandma. Whenever I might feel inclined to get onto myself about something, I will ‘replace’ my voice with

Parenting journalist and marriage and family therapist, Meagan Ruffing, lives in northwest Arkansas with her three kids. She enjoys teaching her kids and clients about self-care and learning how to love themselves.

hers and it changes the way it comes out. Suddenly, I am no longer berating certain things I have or haven’t done but instead, I’m showing kindness and patience with myself, just like my grandma would do.

6. Revisit the things you used to do during a really happy time in your life

For me, it was running. I was in the best shape of my life and had the most clarity when I was training for a half marathon a few years ago. I remembered what it was like to feel so on top of the world and decided that I needed to incorporate running back into my life somehow. My schedule looks a bit different these days since I am no longer a stay-at-home mom but I do my best to fit a run in here and there when I can.

Look at May as the month when you continue your current self-care routine or you decide to begin a new one. Mental health awareness is key to living your best life and finding your inner peace. If something is bringing you stress, turmoil, and anxious thoughts; ask yourself, is it worth it?

This might be the first time in a long time when you decide to take charge of your mental health. Be patient with yourself on this journey and enjoy getting to know the healthier side of you. n

Kiara Lynn Meek, 6-month-old daughter of Caleb and Willow Meek of Independence and granddaughter of Tom and Neva Welters of Verona

Previously in Keeping Secrets, 15-year-old Paige and her mom Alice, a spy, are sent on an overnight adventure rescuing Paige’s dad from Alice’s rogue boss, Piper. Having been kidnapped with Paige’s crush Brayden and drugged unconscious the trio has awoken on an airplane with Sebastian Miranda, international criminal. He doesn’t realize the computer files he’s seeking are hidden in a necklace Paige wears when upon landing, he welcomes them to his home.

Keeping Secrets part ten

By Annie Lisenby Smith

“Puerto Rico?” Paige whispers squinting as she, Alice, and Brayden follow Sebastian off the plane. “How long were we unconscious?”

Hot, humid summer air and the scent of salt in the air blow against Paige as she steps carefully down the stairs that have descended from the side of the jet. Absentmindedly, she pushes her finger up her nose to adjust her glasses, forgetting for the moment that they were gone. Likely, they were crushed in the field where the jet had picked them up, having fallen off her face after she, her mom, and Brayden had been drugged.

A man in dark pants with his sleeves rolled up descends on Sebastian from a vehicle at the edge of the runway. Alice nudges Paige and points in the distance, somewhere farther down the landing strip that is a blurry mess to Paige’s naked eyes.

“It’s no good here, we’ll have to find somewhere with more people,” Alice says under her breath.

“Somewhere for what?” Brayden asks blinking in the sun. Whatever drugs they were given were taking longer to wear off for Brayden. The small smattering of freckles across his nose was more noticeable against his very pale skin and his larger pupils darkened the color of his eyes.

“To escape,” Alice hisses, her eyes chastising them for not paying attention to her plan.

“I can’t escape,” Paige says. “I can’t see anything, Mom.”

Alice’s gaze flicks quickly between Paige and Brayden. “Hold her hand,” she commands Brayden. “And look for a chance to get away. But make sure you wait for the right time when you can run fast enough and far enough to not be caught.”

“My friends,” Sebastian smiles at the trio as he returns to where they huddle at the bottom of the plane’s stairs. “Come

with me.”

“Where are we?” Paige blurts. A tarmac reflects the heat of the sun against their feet, but she thinks that she can see palm trees beyond a tall fence.

“San Juan,” Sebastian says with a telenovela smile. A telenovela villain smile. “It didn’t work to do business in your hometown. Maybe in mine, you’ll be more willing to give me what I’ve asked for.”

“I already told you. We uploaded the files to the cloud then deleted them,” Alice steps between Sebastian and Paige. “We don’t have them, okay?”

The smile in Sebastian’s eyes disappears in a flash and is replaced with a devious scowl. He steps toward Alice. Paige shifts, wanting to protect her mother. But she’s stopped when Brayden grabs her hand and holds her back.

“No, it’s not okay,” Sebastian says, drawing out his words. He’s like a snake slithering around its prey, taunting it. “I don’t believe you. We’re going to get to the bottom of this here and now.”

Alice’s head remains steady, and even though she’s standing behind her mom, Paige knows the unblinking look she’s giving Sebastian. It was the same one she gave Paige when Paige asked to dye her hair blue in third grade. The same one she gave Paige when Paige swore she’d never get braces. Alice’s stare could cut diamonds with its sharpness. But Sebastian’s was sharper.

“Vamanos,” Sebastian nods his head toward a gold-colored SUV.

The surfer suit guy nudges Paige in the back. Having not noticed him come up behind her, the surprise touch makes her jump. Her fingers tighten around Brayden’s and they fol-

low Alice to climb into the back seat of the SUV.

“Not another SUV,” Paige groans to Alice, trying to make her mother’s tense face relax even in a smile. It doesn’t work. Alice sits unflinching.

Sebastian taps and swipes through the SUV’s control panels. By the time they’re zooming down a busy road, cold air is blasting from the air conditioning vents and Bad Bunny is blasting from the speakers.

Sitting between Alice and Brayden, Paige tightens her grip on Brayden’s hand. San Juan passes by so quickly out the windows that Paige knows she wouldn’t really be able to see it whether she had her glasses on or not. They whiz from one lane to the next to get around average-speed cars that honk in their wake. Between the motion and the residual tranquilizers still in her system, Paige’s stomach starts to roll in protest. When the driver zips in front of a tall building and slams on the brakes, Paige groans trying to keep it together.

Sebastian barks something to the driver over the blaring music and climbs out. As soon as his door closes, the door locks click into place. Paige still catches Alice pulling at the handle. It doesn’t budge. Besides, there’s nowhere for them to run out her door except a busy street full of quickly passing cars. They’d likely be hit before they’d taken two steps.

After a few minutes, Sebastian returns carrying a large envelope and the driver weaves back into traffic. It continues like this for what feels like hours. Zooming car. Slamming breaks. Sebastian leaves. He returns with another envelope. And off they go again. Through it all Paige’s stomach fights the motion and the fear that builds until she’s sure her face is green.

“Put your head between your knees,” Alice whispers after one of the stops after Sebastian jumps out of the SUV. “It’ll help.”

“This is never going to end,” Paige moans as she drops her head.

“Yes, it will,” Alice rubs Paige’s back. “We just need to find our window.”

The new position helps quell Paige’s roiling stomach. She stays this way until finally Sebastian jumps out of the car but the doors don’t lock. Instead, he pulls open Brayden’s door and motions to the building behind him saying, “We’re here.”

Brayden hesitates before climbing out of the SUV. When Paige joins him on the sidewalk, he threads his fingers between hers. The gesture sends a delightful shockwave up Paige’s spine.

Sandwiched between Alice ahead of her and Brayden behind her, Paige follows Sebastian weaving through the busy restaurant. Surprisingly busy for a Saturday afternoon, Paige guesses it’s so popular because of the savory scents floating across the main dining area. Her stomach growls in protest. Her late-night burger feels like a lifetime ago. She almost protests when they walk through a doorway to an outdoor patio and the aroma is replaced with saltwater and sand.

Paige’s eyes go wide when she sees the view. A bright blue sky hangs over a deep blue ocean. They meet each other on the horizon. She’s never seen the ocean before, and being on the patio built on a cliff top over the Atlantic Ocean is mesmerizing. Waves crash against the rocks 20 feet below them in a calming rhythm.

“Have a seat.” Sebastian points to three empty chairs at a round table. He sits across from Alice leaving two seats empty. Sebastian drops into quick, clipped Spanish to the hostess who’d led them to the table. She switches from nodding to shaking her head as he asks questions pointing to the chairs. All the while the hostess keeps a placid half-smile on her face as though she’s dealt with men like Sebastian Miranda her whole life. When she turns to leave, the flip of her ponytail perfectly punctuates her annoyance.

Sebastian sits with a huff, stretching his neck to look around the packed restaurant. When the waitress drops off glasses of water and a basket of some kind of fried food, he waves her away like a pesky fly.

The scent of the fried circles in the basket hits Paige’s nose. She can’t hold back. Slipping her hand from Brayden’s she takes the discs in both hands and shoves them in her mouth. They burst with flavors she’s never experienced. Brayden joins her. As quickly as their basket is emptied, the waitress delivers another. Alice keeps her hands in her lap, her eyes slowly surveying the restaurant.

She’s the only one who notices when two people walk up to their table. One is a man who looks like a 50-something copy of Sebastian with a thick middle. The other is a short

woman with blonde hair and a squeaky voice no one could forget.

“So, we meet again,” Piper Glen says with a smirk.

Paige’s head whips up to meet Piper’s gaze. With her mouth full, she can’t say the curse words that dance through her mind.

Having stepped to the side, Sebastian cowers under the gaze of the older man who must be his father. The older Miranda scolds his son with sharp, quick flicks of Spanish that hit as hard as a slap across the face.

“Piper, how?” Alice asks stumbling for words. Her hand has found Paige’s. So has Brayden’s. They sit in solidarity, a trio of hostages.

“You literally took off without me,” Piper squeaks as she lifts her sunglasses and drops them with a clank on the table. “I had to find my own ride. Sebastian won’t be happy that I called his father, but I knew Miguel would finally end this.”

She raises her fingers to her lips and lets out a sharp whistle. When the waitress shuffles to Piper’s side, Piper says with a smile, “Piña colada with Don Q.”

“Hello, my friends,” Miguel says as he approaches the table. “I must apologize for my son.” He sits like a man used to having total control of every situation he’s ever been in. Paige blinks at Miguel, her blood running cold under his gaze.

“You see,” Miguel continues. “Sebastian enjoys his theat-

sips her drink nonchalantly.

“Whatever you want. I’ll do it,” Alice sits straighter. Alice doesn’t flinch.

Miguel doesn’t flinch.

Paige reaches for more food.

Finally, Miguel’s gaze drifts away from Alice and lands on Paige. “I see you like the tostones,” he says with a wide grin. “Fried plantains, a special Puerto Rican treat.”

“You know,” Miguel continues. “Señora Melbourne, this has gone on far too long. In fact, I have a feeling that you are dragging out this charade for one of two reasons. Either you are telling the truth and my son’s incriminating financial documents have been destroyed. Or,” Miguel rests his arms on the table and leans toward Alice, “you lie. The documents are still in your possession.”

“I’m not lying,” Alice says, but her faltering voice gives her away.

Unrolling the utensils from a linen napkin, Miguel holds the sharp steak knife up and turns it in the sunlight. “I don’t believe you.”

Brayden’s hand tightens on Paige’s with a death grip. Paige’s stomach launches a total rebellion against the fried tostones. Her free hand flies to her mouth as all the muscles in her guts lurch.

rics. I prefer to just get the job done.” Sitting silently, he lets his words land. Paige tightens her fingers on the two hands she holds. The greasy food rolls in her stomach.

“I’m willing to do whatever you need,” Alice says. She keeps her eyes on Miguel, ignoring Sebastian who sits sulking next to his father.

“I told you I had this handled,” Sebastian spits.

A simple lift of Miguel’s hand stops Sebastian. He huffs and turns his gaze to the ocean.

“Please continue,” Miguel says to Alice. Next to him, Piper

“Mom,” she whispers through clenched teeth feeling the blood drain from her face.

“Wait, baby,” Alice keeps her eyes on Miguel.

“But Mom, now,” Paige complains as the reflection of the sun off the knife flashes across her face.

“Not yet,” Alice’s gaze flickers to Paige but not really to Paige. It’s over her head at a group of loud people laughing at a table near the door that leads back into the restaurant.

“Mom,” Paige grunts losing control of her stomach.

“Not yet,” Alice’s attention doesn’t waver.

“Sebastian won’t be happy that I called his father, but I knew Miguel would finally end this.”

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“Oh, no,” Paige says standing. Her entire body heaves but she fights it, barely able to keep the tostones at bay.

The others around the table jump from their seats, trying to get away from Paige’s possible explosion. Piper dances away from her spilled drink dripping onto her feet.

Paige pulls herself upright trying to draw in a breath when Alice screams, “Now!”

In a flurry of confusion, Alice grabs the edge of the table and flips it toward Miguel, Sebastian, and Piper. Before all the drinks crash to the patio deck, Alice locks her arm around Paige’s and is racing toward the restaurant. She drags Paige who’s dragging Brayden. His grip’s so tight on Paige’s fingers that she’s worried he’ll break the bones.

Screams and gasps follow in their wake as Alice rushes them out of the restaurant and onto the busy sidewalk outside. She pauses to glance up and down the street. With a busy four-lane road full of fast-moving cars ahead of them, they can only escape down the sidewalk.

“Come on,” Alice pulls Paige again. They race past the restaurant toward clusters of palm trees.

Looking over her shoulder Alice commands again, “Keep running. Don’t stop. And don’t let go of each other.”

Paige mimics Alice and glances behind them. Squinting at the busy sidewalk of stunned people one thing catches her eye. It sends a cold shock through all her nerve endings.

Sebastian races for them pushing past people on the sidewalk, the look of murder on his face. Behind him, Piper pulls something from the back of her waistband and levels it directly at Paige. The glint of the sun on the barrel reminds Paige that Piper isn’t here to play games. n

Remembering Those Who Gave All This Memorial Day

Each year we close out the month of May by recognizing and celebrating the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

For many of us, this means visiting the gravesite of relatives and loved ones who died in the line of duty. For others, the holiday is marked by somber observances.

Working behind the scenes to ensure that American Servicemen and Servicewomen are not forgotten each year is the Veterans for Foreign Wars, the American Legion and the American Boycotts.

The VFW hosts an annual Memorial Day observance with a prayer, 21 gun salute and a performance of Taps at the IOOF Cemetery in Monett.

As the organization forms ranks at the cemetery, it is always greeted by dozens of American flags placed on the graves of fallen service members thanks to efforts by the American Legion and local Boy Scout Troops.

Locally, the tradition of the Legion placing American flags at the gravesite of fallen servicemen began in 1927, when the Legion met at the Armory Hall to prepare for “Decoration Day.”

A decade later, it was reported that Legion Auxiliary Post 163 identified soldiers from World War II, the Spanish American War and Civil War at Oakdale cemetery, the Waldensian Cemetery, Spring River, the IOOF and Mt. Cal. Cemetery and placed flags at their graves.

Story by Mike Gervais

In addition to the flag program organized by the American Legion, the Tom Wolfe Memorial VFW Post hosts an annual Memorial Day observance at the IOOF Cemetery in Monett each year.

Local organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Boy Scouts of America have been honoring local veterans during Memorial Day.

Ten years later, in 1946, the observance was knows as both Decoration Day and Memorial Day, and was celebrated by the Legion, VFW War Dads, War Moms and a performance by the high school band at the IOOF cemetery.

In 1948, the Legion placed flags on the graves of 47 service members, and by 1958, the organization began placing flags at the graves of all local veterans, placing a total of 180 flags. By the following year, the organization was placing approximately 200 flags at four local cemeteries.

Over the years, the number of flags the Legion places at local cemeteries has grown greatly, with 200 flags placed in 1960, 286 in 1969 and as many as 411 by 1979, when the Legion added the McCormick and St. John’s Cox Cemetery to its list.

By the late 1980s the Explorer Boy Scouts Troop No. 38 got involved and the number of flags grew to approximately 550.

As of 2015, the Legion began placing approximately 1,000 flags at seven Monett and Purdy area cemeteries. n

by Christa Stout

Caring Hands at Republic Pound

It occurred to me recently that city animal pounds seem to have a bad reputation and that many people think that animals that arrive at a pound will be euthanized. This is totally wrong and undeserved, some of the kindest and most caring people are animal control officers. And no, they are no longer just “dog catchers,” but people who rescue abandoned animals, who try to help in many ways, whether that is giving some food for the pets when necessary, or some tips on how to socialize a pet or teach some manners. Most pounds also have the duty to investigate animal abuse and work with the court system on violations.

A good example of one of these kind animal control officers is Christina Elmore at the Republic Animal Pound located at 732 Highway 174, Republic, MO. When I called the pound to talk to Christina, one of her employees told me she was with a cat who just had kittens and could she call me back.

Well, of course, I wouldn’t want to pull someone from taking care of momma and kittens. When she called me back, she told me that the cat had her kittens yesterday, was getting a little protective of them and needed some personal attention to get her use to humans

View available pets for adoption

handling her kittens. And I bet it didn’t take long for the momma cat to understand that.

Christina and her two employees, another ACO and a kennel tech, are taking care of the entire pound, intake (cats and dogs that are entering the pound for whatever reason), daily care and feeding, as well as some exercise. And that’s not all, they take care of adoptions, fundraisers and other events. They also have some help from volunteers and some from community service. These volunteers are especially helpful to get the dogs and cats socialized and exercised.

Like most pounds, the Republic Pound takes only animals from within the city limits of Republic. Christina said they also get other animals periodically, currently they have a goat that frequently leaves home and wanders over to the pound. So they decided to bring him into the pound for a new adventure.

Last year the pound handled over 800 dogs, cats and some other wildlife. Like most pounds, rescues and shelters they do not euthanize animals unless it is in the best interest of the animal. Injured or orphaned wildlife are usually taken to animal rehabbers who have the knowledge and ability to handle them.

The pound attempts to adopt out all animals and if that fails locally, they have an agreement with other shelters or breed specific rescues who have some room to take the animals and give them every opportunity to get their own home. They do not have a maximum time

Surrendered pets are always a challenge for local rescues. Pounds reach out to the community for rehoming first.

limit before they contact another rescue for help in getting the animals adopted.

Recently, it has been difficult to handle all the calls the pound receives from citizens who want to surrender their pet. When I talked to Christina at 9:45 this morning she had already had five new requests for owner surrenders. Many of these are due to the increased adoptions during Covid when many people were working from home.

Now that a return to the work place is required, many call the pound to take in their pets, although a pet at home waiting during work hours is better off than if they spent their time in a kennel at the pound. If the pound is full, as it has been frequently in recent months, they do maintain a list of requested owner surrenders and will contact the owners as space becomes available.

The city supports many fund raisers for the animals, such as April 9 -16 will be ACO Appreciation Week, which occurs the same week as that for dispatchers. Thank you ACO’s and dispatchers for your hard work and your kindness.

Many of the fundraisers are also educational events and Christina says they are contacted by churches and civil groups who want to sponsor an event. The ACO staff attends all of these events, as well as the adoption Saturdays.

Also in order to improve some pet’s chances of getting adopted, a reduced adoption fee is sometimes used. And some of their dogs are elected for the Missouri Puppies for Parole training program. n

LuLu Patton is the six-year-old

baby of Jim and Janell

of Monett

With their debut novel receiving great reviews, John and Leanne Yarrow are hoping to host a book signing in Leanne’s hometown of Monett sometime in the near future.

A Future Imagined

When a man and a woman are joined together in marriage, they agree to walk together through time for the rest of their lives.

For one couple with roots in Monett, their story includes the tale of a man and woman who do just that, but in a much more literal sense.

Leanne Yarrow, a 1978 Monett High School Graduate and the daughter of Annalen and Charles Huntress married

her husband John Yarrow in 1987. The two raised their family in Texas, and in 2015, with their children grown, they embarked on a new kind of adventure – working together to write and publish a science fiction novel, “Future’s Dark Past.”

While John is the writer behind the keyboard, he and Leanne have formed a collaboration that puts their minds together to create literature.

Story by Mike Gervais

Future’s Dark Past

The book is available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million and Target to name a few locations.

Their debut science fiction novel, “Future’s Dark Past” is credited to J.L. Yarrow, an amalgamation of their two names.

The book takes place generations after an apocalyptic Purge war, when life on earth is grim. The novel follows protagonist Kristen Winters who escapes captivity before being caught sneaking into one of the few functional domed cities that remain. She’s forced to leave the planet with a mysterious group called the Time Forward Project and soon the future depends on her traveling into the distant, dark past where she becomes entertained with a hotshot AI scientist from the early 21st century by the name of Hunter Coburn.

Together, the pair finds unexpected connections on a human level as they face a rapid-fire gauntlet of challenges and risk everything to fight destructive forces across the continuum. And if they fail, all is lost.

Since it’s debut earlier this year, the novel has garnered praise from the likes of New York Times Best Selling Author David Brin and award winning author of Observer, Nancy Kress.

“A tense, action-packed post-apocalypse tale that will keep you up late and that you’ll sneak into meetings, to keep reading on the slim” Brin said.

“A troubled band of time travelers try to save Earth from its deadliest

John and Leanne Yarrow have published the first book in their science fiction series, with some scenes inspired by familiar sights in Monett.

enemy – humanity,” Kress said. “Fascinating characters with conflicting personal agendas, a genuinely inventive plot, and constantly accelerating pace –Future’s Dark Past is a winner. I enjoyed reading it.”

John has always been a writer, but that hobby took a back seat to raising his family and continuing his career. That is, until 2015, when he got serious about Future’s Dark Past and he and Leanne began collaborating on the novel.

“It started as a movie script as a first draft in 2015, and it was a semi-finalist in a script-writing contest,” John said.

Leanne added, “Everyone said it plays out like a movie when they read it.”

As the story began to evolve from a film script to a novel, John and Leanne’s partnership on the work began to ramp up.

“I’m the chief story teller,” John said.

“I love to write and these stories live in my head and I write them down. She is the chief content manager. She started as my editor, checking grammar, then she started checking the content.”

That process evolved to the couple bouncing ideas off each other, and Leanne paying close attention to the story from a reader’s perspective, and chiming in to ask for clarifications and details about the story.

“John thinks huge,” Leanne said. “He has these huge story arcs. His story is very character-driven. I can tell a good story line, and this has involved into such an interesting collaboration. A good story is a good story, but sometimes I have to tell him, ‘that detail is in your head, but it didn’t make it to the page.”

Making the writing process even more difficult is the subject matter.

“This is time travel,” Leanne said. “If it was just a story, it would start here and end here, but this is more than that.”

To bring the whole process together, the couple reviews and reviews and reviews completed chapters.

John said each piece of the book is read and re-read at least 12 times before they’re both comfortable with the product.

“I do creative writing Saturdays and Sunday mornings – our church has a Friday service – and we do our editing the rest of the week,” John said.

“He takes the lead and I’ll expand a character, or I’ll try to help with a transition,” Leanne said.

“The female characters are a lot stronger thanks to Leanne,” John said.

The collaboration takes place in various ways. The couple takes regular walks together, and often use that time to discuss the book. There have been times that they have spent entire road trips dissecting and discussing various chapters or characters.

“We wrote a book together and we’re still married,” John said.

Leanne added, “It’s a job, but it’s creative, so it’s like your baby too.

For John’s part, he said he’s grateful for Leann and all she’s done.

“It’s nice to have a partner doing this with you,” he said. “It’s a blessing to have a partner who has taken on your life dream of an author.”

Future’s Dark Past is published by Granary Media and John said it is the first book in a trilogy that will also include two novellas.

The couple is working on an ambitious timeline, with the first of the two novellas in the hands of the publisher, and the second book in the trilogy nearing completion.

The book is available through a number of retailers, including Amazon, Books A Million, Barnes & Nobel and Target among others, and the Yarrows said an audio book version will be available soon.

As local readers make their way through the first novel, Leanne said they may recognize some familiar sights, as some key locations were directly inspired by her home town. While Bruner Pharmacy may not make an appearance, one pivotal scene will take place on a familiar Main Street, in Bruner’s Diner.

“It’s exciting to have a book out,” the couple said. “It’s not an easy effort. The response has been very positive, and it’s been kind of humbling and overwhelming at the same time.” n

Foxen Coffee

It’s All in The Roast

There’s a new coffee roaster in town and the Milone family, father Rande, mother Sandy, brother Niko and sister Jace West, are banking on a wealth of experience in the coffee industry to bring Foxen Coffee to the masses.

The Milone family, before moving to Monett a couple years ago, owned and operated coffee roasting and cafe businesses. When they relocated to Missouri, Rande said his plan was to retire, but son Niko expressed an interest in returning to the coffee business, and the family kicked into high gear, purchasing the equipment needed to begin a small batch coffee roasting business July 1, 2022.

Story by Mike Gervais

The Milone family said their mission is to make superior coffee accessible to the general public.

“My dad came up with the name,” Niko said. “Foxes are associated with elegance, they’re classy, and we want to give people high-end, really good coffee, some of the best coffee in the world.”

To that end, Foxen Coffee focuses on roasting small batches with an emphasis on careful roasting to ensure they’re hitting the right flavor notes with each batch. They also put a high value on where their coffee originates.

Foxen buys select coffee from all over the world, Africa, South America, Peru, Kenya, Ethiopia, and trys to source farmer-specific coffee, Rande said.

From left, Niko, Sandy and Rande Milone own and operate Foxen Coffee in Monett. The family team focuses on small batches of quality coffee, roasting the beans to perfection.

FoxenCoffee.co

He explained that in the coffee business, its possible that purchasing large batches of beans from large organizations can see farmers getting cut out of profits and the money going to cartels that try to corner the market.

“We are conscious of how the industry works, and we want to support the farmers,” Rande said. “We want the money to go where it should be going when we buy our coffee.”

He also said that focusing on purchasing from coffee producers also serves to guarantee a quality product. The Milone’s seek to provide consistency in their product. When purchasing coffee from large mills, they said, roasters can run the risk of buying mixed batches of beans, rather than one solid product with its own unique flavor.

That care continues right into their roasting workshop located at their home just outside of Monett.

Niko explained that K cups - or single-serving cups designed to brew coffee one mug at a time - are one of the most popular ways people brew their coffee at home. When Foxen began looking into producing it’s own K cups, he first researched companies that would take the coffee Foxen roasts, cup them, then send them back to the roasters.

“Once you go through that process, it could be up to a couple weeks before we’re able to ship them out, and when it comes to quality, freshness is important.”

To achieve that goal of quality, Niko said he and Rande, who handle the roasting duties, profiles each coffee before they roast a batch by doing very small, controlled roasts, adjusting the time and temperature until they get the best flavors possible.

“Each coffee is so unique, you need to learn the best way to roast it,” said Sandy.

Niko said it’s a delicate process that

takes a lot of care and attention. “We’re like chefs, but for coffee,” he said, explaining that not every coffee bean can or should be roasted at the same temperature.

Rande also said Foxen Coffee invested in an infrared roasting machine, a more modern way of roasting that gives the roasters more control over their temperature and consistency.

“Air roasting has become a very popular way to roast coffee, but when you blast the beans with heat like that, your coffee can become very bitter,” Niko said. “I like roasting with the softer heat.”

Rande, who has done everything from run a cafe, to roast coffee, to selling equipment to other roasters, said there is a science and technique to roasting coffee.

“If you are roasting your coffee too hot, you end up getting this carbon build-up on the outside,” Rande said. “Think of it like throwing a steak on the grill until it’s all charred.”

With all that attention to detail, Sandy said making quality coffee doesn’t come cheap.

“We’re not the most expensive coffee out there, but we’re not the cheapest either,” she said. Niko added that the mission is to introduce residents who may not know the joys of a craft-brewed coffee to a better standard. “We want to make the quality accessible,” he said.

Currently, Foxen Coffee is available at Mocha Jo’s and Fauna’s Natural Market in Monett, as well as in several locations in the surrounding area. Niko also said much of the business Foxen does is online via Amazon and other digital retailers, but the Milone family encourages the local community to go out and support the local businesses carrying their product whenever they can.

Right now, the Foxen Coffee team is the Milone family, but Niko said there

is room and plans for growth.

“Eventually, we could be a job provider for Monett,” he said. “Monett is a very business friendly place to be and we see a lot of potential for growth. We’re distributing all over the country, and we are working on building more of a commercial presence.”

In addition to their local efforts, Foxen has embarked on a number of fundraising endeavors, supporting fox sanctuaries Fox Tales Florida and Positive Beginnings, as well as contributing a profit-sharing endeavor to raise money for Reeds Spring School District’s teacher’s fund, which helps educators buy classroom materials.

“Those fundraisers have been a huge success,” Sandy said, adding that the family is always looking for more ways to contribute to local communities and good causes. n

Foxen whole beans, ground coffee and K-cups, and their blends are available at Mocha Jo’s and Fauna’s Natural Market in Monett and online.

“ Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”

— John Lubbock, The Use of Life

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