Beatrice and Theardis Stubbs of Mayflower have lost two homes to disasters during their 40-year marriage, the last to April’s tornado, but a group of college students last week helped the couple improve their new home.
“They came out and built us a deck, and it looks real good,” Beatrice said. She and her husband lost their first home to fire in 1999. After their second home was destroyed by the April tornado, they bought a manufactured home.
“We were so blessed they came out and [built the deck] for us. We needed one; that’s another way out,” she said.
Some 60 college students throughout Arkansas participated in the Ozark Mission Project’s winter-break project, which this year helped residents in Mayflower and Vilonia who were affected by the deadly April 27 tornado.
Bailey Faulkner, director of OMP in Little Rock, said the students perform mission work year-round, have summer camps and conduct an annual project when the students are out for Christmas break.
“We do it every year, and normally we go out of state. Last year, we went to Moore, Oklahoma, and we helped with tornado relief. This year, since we have such devastation close to home, it was just obvious for us to stay here,” Faulkner said. “I have found that it’s been really exciting to watch the college students and to hear about how excited they are to be doing the work in our state this year.”
Students stayed at the Hendrix Wellness and Athletics Center last week and had meals at First United Methodist Church in Conway. They braved the cold temperatures for several hours each day to work on porches, decks and wheelchair ramps, help with demolitions and more in the two Faulkner County communities. The students started Monday and worked through Friday on 12 residences, Faulkner said.
Ozark Mission Project, a nonprofit organization, organizes the trips, and the students are affiliated with Wesley
Foundations, which are United Methodist ministries, at their respective colleges or universities. Also out in the field were volunteers with the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Eamonn Mayo, 19, of Conway was one of those. A student at the University of Central Arkansas, he has attended Ozark Mission Project camps during the summers since he was in the sixth grade, he said, and was on the OMP staff last year.
Mayo said he has participated in various projects during the mission trips, including the one to Moore, Oklahoma, and this year’s was “fairly labor-intensive.” He helped build a 40-by-12-foot porch for a Mayflower resident.
“I go to a lot of these projects, and sometimes you meet neighbors that are out there every single day and meet you on the porch, and they’re so excited,” Mayo said. “It’s not just about the work; it’s about getting to know people and really building that connection.”
Michael McMurray, 20, of Little Rock is a student at Hendrix College. He has a long history with OMP and was a group leader for last week’s project.
“It’s been interesting for me personally because I’ve seen how it’s impacted all these people, and there’s still so much to do,” he said. “We’re trying to restore everything back to the way it was. We want these people to get their livelihoods back after so much was taken away from them from the tornado.”
Beatrice Stubbs, 60, said she and her husband have lived on the same property in Mayflower since they were married 40 years ago, and their first home burned in 1999.
“We got out with the clothes on our backs,” she said.
When the tornado hit in April, she and her husband took shelter in their bathroom, she said. After the storm blew over, there was “destruction everywhere,” she said. “Trees fell on the house; glass everywhere,” she said. “We were fine — didn’t get a scratch.”
They bought a manufactured home for the property, she said. “We came on back. We said, ‘This is home,’” she said. Beatrice said she’d never heard of OMP before someone knocked on her door and asked if there was anything the couple needed. “They were the best young people; they did a great job.”
Mayo said it’s a mutual benefit. “OMP has blessed me immensely, and everyone who has ever gone, I’ve heard that,” he said. “It blesses the people we work for; it blesses the people who go. It’s hard to even describe the feeling.”
McMurray said he believes the students made a difference through the mission project.
“We feel like we’ve given it our all. It’s amazing what 60 college kids can do in a week,” he said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.