Sense of Community

Rob Anderson teaches science to middle school students at Reed Academy in Springfield.  He spent six years in law enforcement and said he "hated every minute of it."  

During a short stint as a substitute teacher, Anderson fell in love with teaching.  So, while continuing to work in law enforcement, he took classes and earned a second degree, this time in education.

He's been teaching for 16 years, but this school year is different.

How has COVID-19 changed things in your classroom at Reed?

In this segment of our Sense of Community series, "On The Front Lines," we hear the story of a young chaplain who comforts the grieving and dying in Cox South hospital in Springfield. 

As a chaplain, Landon Loftin provides emotional and spiritual support to patients, families, and now, also to co-workers struggling through a historic pandemic.

Listen to the audio feature below.

In December of last year, Jessica Liberty got a new job.  She was named Infection Prevention Manager in at Freeman Health System in Joplin.  She had no idea just how critical her job would become in the following months when the coronavirus pandemic began.

“It felt really big and overwhelming and very scary, I think mostly just because I felt really uncomfortable in my shoes,” Liberty said.

Nursing homes have been among the hardest hit places in the pandemic.

Dr. Sheri Bethmann has witnessed that firsthand. She was the medical director and attending physician at the Maranatha Village nursing home and assisted living facilities in north Springfield until earlier this month, after recently stepping down.

“Everyone was just very fearful because we knew that if it hit our building, that it would hit us really, really hard. And so, I think our initial goal was just, ‘How are we going to protect people?’” she said.

It’s five o’clock in the afternoon. Most people are getting off work around this time and winding down for the day. But for officer Austin Faulconer, five o’clock means it’s time for him to start his shift patrolling the streets of Springfield in his squad car.

Faulconer says he works until 3 AM – a ten hour shift he fills by responding to 911 calls. He says he sometimes gets up to 30 calls a shift.

“You know that ranges from traffic accidents, stealing, assaults, domestic situations, really just the typical 911 calls,” Faulconer told KSMU.

Dr. Terrence Coulter is medical director for critical care at CoxHealth, and he's on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, treating the sickest patients.

The 52-year-old has three subspecialty board certifications:  Pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine and sleep medicine.  He followed in the footsteps of his father who was also a physician.

"And growing up I'd seen his enjoyment and satisfaction of his job, the challenges he faced, the joy he had of helping patients feel better and just kind of contributing to the communities," said Coulter.

Update:  Tracy Hill was one of two Mercy nurses to get the first coronavirus vaccines in Springfield on Monday.

Tracy Hill works in the COVID-19 unit at Mercy Springfield.  The 51-year-old fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a nurse just 11 months ago after working at Mercy for more than three decades.

Why did you go into nursing?

We know that workers in the healthcare industry are truly on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. (And you’ll hear from a hospital worker this afternoon at 4:44pm.) But there are many professions that require daily contact with the public, whether or not we’re in a pandemic. People who work in retail, for example, such as grocery store workers.  This morning you’ll hear from Cyrus Baty, who describes himself simply as a “clerk” at Meadowbrook Natural Foods on 2nd Street in Mountain Grove, Missouri, a store that supplies health food, supplements, minerals, and bulk groceries.

In this tenth and final part of our series, Unsheltered, we look at how other communities are using federal CARES Act funds to shelter their homeless citizens—and ask whether Springfield might glean insights from their experiences.

Each community’s response to homelessness during the pandemic has been unique.  And in a year when extraordinary sums of money are flowing from federal CARES Act coronavirus relief funding, this has led to some creative solutions nationwide.

So far, Springfield has managed to avoid an outbreak of COVID-19 in its homeless shelters. Not every city can say that. For example, San Diego and Colorado Springs are both dealing with outbreaks in shelters this week.

“We've been very fortunate. We haven't seen an outbreak in our population,” said Adam Bodendieck, the director of homeless services at Community Partnership of the Ozarks, which administers the local Continuum of Care mandated with orchestrating help for the homeless.

“Get a job, you lazy bum!”  That phrase—or a colorful variation of it—is something many homeless people in Springfield have heard before.

So for this segment, we’re going to hear from three men who are trying to do just that:  get a job...while experiencing homelessness during a pandemic.

Struggle to obtain official documents

The first person is 21-year-old River Herron. On the night before Thanksgiving, he was huddled under a blanket with a friend outside a building downtown.

On the cold morning of Monday, November 23, Laura Schaeffer was at a drop-in center for the homeless in central Springfield. The National Weather Service confirms the temperature dropped to 28 degrees overnight, but Springfield’s two emergency cold weather shelters did not open.

“I cannot disclose where I was [last night]. But it was in a community that fights for all kinds of things, including your life,” she said.

Schaeffer said violence erupted at the first location. One man ended up in the Emergency Room, she said.

Rhonda Galbraith knew she wanted her church to serve as an emergency cold weather shelter for homeless women. But there was a catch:  the church she pastors, Grace United Methodist Church in Springfield, was located near a school. And she knew that would make things delicate.

"But we made an appeal to Planning and Zoning and City Council three years ago. And we have a working relationship with the school across the street from us, and they gave us their blessing," Galbraith said.