Nearly 200 volunteers help pick up the Special Olympics Building

The Special Olympics Missouri Training for Life Center was only about a year old when the tornado ripped through the area.

Multiple windows were blown out, there is a hole in the rook of the basketball court and the newly laid out turf was ripped from the ground.

Brandon Schatsiek, multi-media manager for Special Olympics Missouri, said it would probably be at least 6-9 months before they can get the building back up and running.

“More than anything is just disappointing for our athletes we’ve been here 8 months now,” he said.

But he is optimistic for the future. “We know we’re going to rebuild we know the community obviously is behind us, so we’ve got a good team behind us,” he said.

Amid this devastation, teams from across Mid-Missouri came out and helped pick up the pieces after the storms.

Nearly 200 Athletes from Mizzou baseball, Helias and Jefferson City High School teams, as well as other members from the community were pitching in today.

A Mizzou Baseball player Tyler LaPlante was there shoveling shattered glass into trashcans.

“When it happens you just have to be ready to help out and you have to be ready to put in the work, a lot of hands goes a long way,” LaPlante said.

While they are thankful for all the help and time the volunteers put in, Schatsiek said they aren’t sure what their next step is. “Right now the biggest thing is we don’t know where to go from here, so once we figure that out how we can utilize other volunteers and donations we will send that out via the press and our social media accounts, so just stay tuned for that,” he said.