JOPLIN, MO (KCTV) -
On May 24, 2011, two days after the tornado struck Joplin, KCTV5 photographer Rob Rhodes and anchor Brad Stephens were driving through broken neighborhood after broken neighborhood when something caught their attention.
Two messages had been spray-painted on the only walls left standing in Tim Bartow's house.
To strangers passing by, the odd blue structure sitting on blocks in south Joplin looked strange. To fully appreciate what was underneath the blue plastic, Stephens looked back to one year earlier.
The messages were simple: "God bless Joplin!" and "Down not out!"
"It's a huge devastation - like a war zone, but I just want people to be inspired. To say ‘we are down, but we're not out,'" Bartow said back in 2011.
Like thousands of his neighbors, Bartow and his family lost everything, but they were thankful to be alive.
"It's amazing, just amazing. I can't believe we survived," he said.
Rather than focus on what he had lost, Bartow was struck by the onslaught of volunteers who were offering everything but the shirt off their backs. So he spray-painted one more message.
"And that was ‘thank you volunteers, we love you. You are our heroes,'" Bartow said.
After that, his house became a gathering place for the thousands of volunteers who descended upon Joplin.
"I rounded up my couch, table and chairs so they wouldn't have to sit on broken glass or wood with nails stuck through it, just give them a place and thank them," Bartow said.
Inspired by his original messages, volunteers began leaving inspirational messages of their own.
"They wanted to leave some reminder they were there and encouragement for the people of Joplin and other volunteers to come after - to help out, press on, to encourage everyone to press on. Stay strong. There's light at the end of the tunnel," Bartow said.
Bartow's house quickly became known as the House of Hope. Every inch of the shredded remains of his house was soon covered by messages left by volunteers.
That's when someone from the city realized that this was special and needed to be preserved. So they built a frame around the remains and basically shrink-wrapped the house.
"I never expected in my wildest dreams. I just figured we'd just tear down and rebuild in the same spot," Bartow said.
Not so. His tornado-ravaged house with all the inspirational messages will become a permanent addition to the Joplin museum as a reminder of the bond between survivors and volunteers.
"There's a lot of them who left messages that Joplin feels like home - we're home here," Bartow said.
The city of Joplin estimates as many as 118,000 volunteers came to the city to help.
As for Bartow, he wrote a book about the experience titled The Joplin Tornado: House of Hope.
Copyright 2012 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved.
