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We are ChapmanThere was something comforting in attending a school that my parents and grandparents had attended before me. I walked the same halls they'd walked. My friends were the children of my parents' classmates. My high school dances were in the same gymnasium. I watched our football team play on the same field and sang the same fight song they sang. There was tradition and continuity in every classroom, on every street corner, and in every neighbor's familiar face in the little rural town of Chapman, Kan. On June 11, Mother Nature decided to challenge the Fighting Irish spirit with an EF-3 tornado that cut a large swath through the heart of Chapman. Looking at photos and news coverage of the damage, I realized that tradition and continuity will be different for the generations that follow mine. You see, my brother's children won't have their school plays in the same auditorium as we once did. The stage where we sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in the elementary school music program is now under a pile of rubble. The next generation will play on a playground without the shady sycamore trees that once surrounded the elementary school. They won't know a musty school library filled with old books. They won't have FFA meetings in the same vocational agriculture facilities, or learn how to read music in the same band room. My future nieces and nephews will have their Senior Class Night with unfamiliar costumes and props in a new auditorium. The schools will be rebuilt, and improved, but they won't ever be the same. And, while the community mourns the bricks and mortar that represent our past, we also have a hope for a brighter future for our hometown. As our friends and neighbors pick up the debris they'll save what history they can, they'll shed their tears over what they can't and they'll pull together to make Chapman a better community. On the first weekend after the storm, more than a 1,000 volunteers showed up to help. That's nearly the same number of people who lived in the town and speaks volumes for the place Chapman holds in our hearts. Mother Nature has sadly underestimated her opponent this time. She threw a little wind our way, but Chapman will come back, bigger and better and a community even more united. Afterall, we are the mighty Fighting Irish. We are Chapman. Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. If you would like to donate to the recovery efforts of the Chapman School District, send contributions to the Astra Bank, P.O. Box 189, Chapman, KS 67431, and make checks payable to USD 473 Chapman School Tornado Relief Fund. And, thank you. 6/23/08 Date: 6/18/08 Advertisement
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