Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Walk of Unity: May 22nd 2012

On a bike, it was easy to follow the crowd along the path of the unity walk. It was an incredible way to commemorate the one year anniversary of the tornado.

The crowd was so colorful, wearing various Joplin support shirts in every color of the rainbow, the people who passed were upbeat, almost cheerful.

Some teenage girls were blowing bubbles as they walked, kites were flown all along the path and many carried signs in memory of lost family members.

This is the very beginning of the crowd as they walk down 20th, the new Wal-Green's and Home Depot are in the background.


That little dog looks like my mom's Charlie.


20th and Connecticut

The most impressive swell of people coming over the hill at 20th and Connecticut.



The Dillons crew in front of the Spirit tree, near the Old Dillion's location

The church near the high school gets a new steeple during the walk. Being on a bike, it was easy to get ahead of the crowd and watch it progress along the path from afar.


Near Cunningham park all of the major news networks were set up to broadcast.


Cunningham Park

You can see the cross from St. Mary's as the Unity walk continues on 26th to Cunningham park.

I have photographed this exact location multiple times over the past year. To see the other shots, click here. It is pretty cool to see the crowd marching past this exact location.

SO SAD!
At 5:41 there was a moment of silence at the Cunningham Park memorial service and a hot air balloon went up.

2 comments:

Yarning4asmile said...

so sad.. as you know we has some bad storms last year. They ripped through all parts of the state. We were pretty lucky bucause all the damage was around us. Its very surreal what the storms can do...

kszwahl said...

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. I wasn't able to come to the walk. Some friends walked in memory of a classmate we lost but they didn't get the same view point in their pictures. Yours show whole thing from a distance. I can really imagine how powerful it must have been. Thanks again. Keep shooting! (photo's) lol