From Ojai with Love: Joplin Tornado Victims To be Sent Care Packages on Monday

In the late 1890's a congressman from Missouri said, "Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." With that riveting statement, Missouri became known as the 'Show Me' state. Now some 120 years later amidst the deadliest tornado in recorded U.S. history, Missouri is needing others now to show them — care and assurance that their cries of despair and urgent needs after being hit by a killer twister are not falling on deaf ears.

Several Ojai residents, stirred by compassion at seeing the massive destruction that struck the Joplin, Missouri area last Sunday killing at least 124 people and destroying more than 8,000 buildings, are rallying to the cause.

Diane Silvester, owner of Soul Centered, at 311 North Montgomery Street, will be accepting donations for area Joplin tornado victims through Sunday, May 29 and numerous intuitives will also be donating 10% of sales from readings during Soul Centered's weekend Psychic Faire. Sequoia Hamilton, founder of Ojai Writers Conference whose hometown area is Joplin, will ship the donations to families she personally knows who "lost everything," including a high school classmate who emerged from the rubble with only one shoe.

"In a crisis of this enormous scale with about 1,500 people still unaccounted for, it's important not to overlook the stories and lives of individual persons," adds Hamilton. "So we'll be collecting items for Sheryl Gorman (age 48, shoe size 9, shirt size medium, and pants size 8 tall) a high school classmate of mine who lost her house, cars, barn, pets, horses, all her belongings .... everything. We can only imagine her grief and shock. By keeping our eyes focused on Sheryl and her famil