Church cares for lost memorabilia

Ever hear a picture is worth a thousand words?

Well, how about 16,000?

There are an estimated 16,000 pictures and documents from May 22 tornado victims at the First Baptist Church in Carthage. As more and more pour in every day, Thad Beeler, pastor of worship with the church, spearheads an effort to get this memorabilia back to their owners.

“The church is really geared up for this,” Beeler said, going up the church stairs to the processing rooms. “It’s wonderful and great for the community, and it’s good to have an established church doing this with people who are used to dealing with people’s emotions.

“This is about remembering the good things, not the tragedy.”

How it all started

On Sunday, May 22, Beeler was at the church. After hearing about the seriousness of the storm, he immediately left to check on his parents who lived south of St. John's Medical Center, Joplin. Much to his relief, his parents were uninjured, and fallen trees kept their roof from flying away in the storm. However, all of the homes surrounding his parents were demolished.

The victims' immediate and physical needs were met by the Joplin baptist churches. Beeler said with the essentials well attended, the Carthage church wondered what else they could do.

Then, through online contact, the call for help in retrieving pictures was heard. Beeler knew they would need more help.

“This is much bigger than us,” he remembered saying.

He sent out an email to the American Red Cross, and three days later he received a response. Help was on the way.

Out of state help

Eight volunteers from the Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Terre Haute, Ind., came to help with the effort to rescue pictures and return them to their owners. This week, Scott and Lorrie Myers and their children, Amanda, 18, and Andy, 10, have stayed at the church.

“I can’t even fathom not doing this,” said Lorrie Myers. “This is what our Bible teaches, is going out to help … There is no other option … It really puts it into perspective that you’re looking at people who might not have made it through.”

On Wednesday, the Myers family was able to go to Joplin and retrieve photos.

“We were able to really see it full-circle,” Lorrie said. “It’s one thing to clean them, but it’s totally different to go get them.”

Lorrie held up a picture, “look at this - first Brownie pin – They don’t think they’ll ever get this back.”

Volunteers in the cleaning process have been working in two rooms upstairs in the First Baptist Church.

“They have been very helpful, and we are blessed to have them,” Beeler said.

The Process

When pictures and documents are collected from the destroyed areas, or from other areas the storm blew (near and far) they are taken to SMB bank branches and are then brought to the main SMB Bank in Carthage. Beeler said SMB is where majority of the pictures come from. The plethora of pictures and documents are then brought to the First Baptist Church in Carthage.

The church has two work areas for processing memorabilia, and then eventually to be returned to the victims.

“It’s complicated because there’s so many parts,” Beeler said.

If pictures are together or found in the same area, they stay together in files through the whole process. They are cleaned, and any names or information on them is written down. There might also be clues as to who they belong to, such as a driver’s license.
The rooms at the church have dehumidifiers and fans to help dry out the pictures. After sitting in this area, the pictures are then cleaned again. Some pictures are brought in still in frames, and the picture must be removed from glass. Beeler said the medical community has provided de-ionizing solution for this process.

Each picture is scanned at a high resolution. This way, a copy of the lost picture may be given to more than one household in case there is a disagreement on where the original should go.

The reunification may be done three different ways. If the person so chooses they may receive the lost items through mail, one-on-one at the church or personally delivered.
“We would love to hear their story,” Beeler said.

For those who lost someone in the disaster, specially trained people with the church are available to help them to cope with their loss.

Victims may visit a website to search for their lost memorabilia. The effort is called Operation Photo Rescue, and can be viewed at joplinrescuedphotos.org.

How can you help?

Angela Walters has a place on the website joplinrescuedphotos.org for individuals to register name and contact information to volunteer. Beeler can schedule coordinated effort times with Americorp, in order to provide a field guide to go with them. If local groups or individuals want to help they may contact the church directly at 417-358-8161. The church will get contact information and register forms for Americorp, and schedule the times for them. SMB will be the drop-off locations for all photos that are collected. This is to reduce any confusion that might arise. Any groups going on their own to Americorp are welcome. They will have to register themselves at MSSU. Beeler asks all photos to be taken to an SMB locations as the official drop-off site for photos and documents.

A thank you

Operation Photo Rescue is a community-wide effort with several different sources of volunteers and businesses. Those partners are: National Disaster Photo Rescue, Operation Photo Rescue, Southwest Missouri Bank, American Red Cross, City of Joplin, Joplin Police Department, Rebuild.org, First Baptist Church-Carthage, Americorp, FEMA, Lost Photos of Joplin Facebook page.

Sponsors for this effort are: Southern Baptist Association Offices of     Spring River-Joplin, Lawrence County, Barry County, and Tri-County of Nixa, Dr. Holmes-St. John's Mercy Clinic-Lockwood, Radio Shack of Carthage, Four State Office Products-Carthage, Mainline Enterprises-Neosho, Office Depot-Joplin, New Creations Church-Joplin, Wildwood Baptist Church-Joplin, Sugar Creek Baptist Church-West Terrehaute, Ind.