Longest Walk offers feast in tornado ravaged Kansas town

15.4.08

By Brenda Norrell

GREENSBURG, Kansas -- The Longest Walk Northern Route offered a grand feast for the community of Greensburg, Kansas, where a two-mile wide tornado wiped out 95 percent of the town on May 4, 2007.

As Longest Walk cooks, including Marie, Toby and Daniel and others prepared the feast, community members and volunteers shared their stories on the Longest Walk Talk Radio broadcasts throughout the day. It was a day of sharing for the Longest Walk, who used their donated food items to prepare a feast for the community, including Indian tacos, stew, salads, hot dogs and more.

The community members on Earthcycles radio, broadcast on 87.9 FM locally, included one man who had lost five rental houses in the tornado. He shed tears remembering a redeeming result of the tragedy and how the devastating tornado brought his son home again after ten years.

Relief workers spoke of storytelling as a stairway to healing from grief, explaining how listening to others stories helps them heal from pain and loss.During the day Sunday, April 13, many new friends were made and community members invited Long Walkers to their homes, showing them the new tornado shelters, ready for the next tornado warning. A drive around the community revealed huge piles of debris, shredded and gutted trailer houses, new homes recently built and a cluster of FEMA trailer houses, where at least one person is already sick from a toxic FEMA trailer.

As the rebuilding is underway, the community is focused on building green, utilizing the Kansas wind and sun to produce power. The town is initiating new standards and ideas for green construction and sustainable gardening.

The Greensburg City Council approved a resolution that all city building projects will be built to LEED Platinum-level standards. This makes Greensburg the first city in the United States to be rebuilt as a Green Town. Volunteers continue to arrive, now 11 months later, to help the town rebuild with hope.The Longest Walk Northern Route continues through Kansas, after crossing on foot California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado, with this prayer walk for Mother Earth and the protection of sacred places.

Northern Route walkers meet with the southern route, now in Taos, New Mexico, on July 11 to walk into Washington D.C. A four day survival summit will be held in D.C. July 8 -- 11.

Listen to the interviews: http://www.earthcycles.net/

More on the Longest Walk: http://www.longestwalk.org/

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Dispatch: Aboriginal Press Media Group | Permalink | [15.4.08] | 0 comments

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