The Dreiling family soon will begin dribbling out of Emporia. Perhaps that will be an easier way to wean themselves from a town the couple has come to love, but never expected to call home.
Lori Scott Dreiling, currently human resource manager at Camoplast, has accepted a similar position with Modine Manufacturing in Joplin, where she will move next month into temporary housing until the rest of the family joins her.
Duane Dreiling and the couple’s children, Jake, 9, and Kate, 8, will remain in Emporia, where the children will attend classes at Timmerman elementary school until their house in Emporia sells and they purchase a home in Joplin. And Duane, whom Lori calls “Dewey,” also will need time to help hire and train his replacement as executive director of the United Way of the Flint Hills.
Until all of those pending issues can be resolved, the family will get together as often as possible on weekends and school holidays.
Lori’s former boss at Emporia’s Modine plant, Jerry Retallick, bears responsibility for the Dreiling move. Retallick, who first hired Lori, told her that the Modine plant in Joplin had just secured a major contract to manufacture Exhaust Gas recirculators beginning in the summer of 2009. In the meantime, the plant was undergoing a substantial re-tooling to prepare for the contract. It would need an experienced human resources manager to step in and handle all of the needs on the personnel side of the project. Retallick wanted Lori Scott Dreiling for the job, and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
The compensation was healthy and the move puts the family much closer to Lori’s parents, who have retired to a home they built on Lake Eufaula, Okla.
Joplin, close to the Kansas and Oklahoma borders, will be an easy drive for grandparents who want to attend their grandchildren’s activities. The city has a population of 47,000, which swells to about 220,000 as residents of outlying towns commute to Joplin to work and shop.
The Dreilings’ main concern is that Joplin schools will be as good for Jake and Kate as Emporia schools have been.
Uprooting themselves from Emporia and the friends they’ve made isn’t something they take lightly; talking about it brings a touch of tears to Lori’s eyes, which would have been unthinkable when she arrived here from Oklahoma.
But events altered her and Duane’s perceptions of Emporia. It was here they met and married, had two children, and embraced Emporia as their home.
Lori Scott was working in Woodward, Okla., 15 years ago when she responded to a blind advertisement in a newspaper. The ad was for a position at Modine Manufacturing here, and she was hired. She planned to stay two or three years, then move on.
“Mom always says they put a picture of Dewey in the relocation package,” Lori said.
Hays native Duane Dreiling, in the meantime, had taken a job as director of Emporia Main Street. He, too, thought he would be a short-timer here.
Separately, they became involved in community activities and in January 1994, they met at a Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event, she said. They married in October 1996.
By then, both had become entrenched in their jobs, their community and its activities — so much so that even their wedding wasn’t immune from the city’s influence.
“The groom’s cake was the Emporia Main Street logo,” Lori Dreiling said, with the hearty laugh that punctuates her conversation.
The couple didn’t simply live and work in Emporia, they made it a priority to work for Emporia.
Through the years, they have been entrenched in boards and committees whose purposes were to make the community a better place to live. And when an organization had one Dreiling on board, they could rely on having the matched set.
“I was on the board of United Way before Dewey even came into the picture,” Lori said.
Between them, they’ve served on the boards of directors or trustees for the Emporia Community Foundation, the Flint Hills Technical College, the United Way and several of its committees, Emporia Child Care, Emporia Friends of the Zoo, Twin Rivers Festival, and Hetlinger Developmental Center, as well as memberships on numerous Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau committees, Emporia High School Business Advisory Committee, Corporate Challenge, Sacred Heart Catholic Church finance committee, Emporia Main Street’s Streetscape steering committee, Leadership Emporia and LE Alumni, St. Patrick’s Day committee, Healthier Community Alliance Steering Committee, Timmerman PTO, Kansas Downtown Development Association chairman and an assortment of other organizations, including Duane’s membership in the loosely organized, but dedicated, Commercial Street Diner Coffee Boys.
It’s no surprise that the Dreilings are raising their children to become involved in community activities and work to make life better where they can.
Emporia has been an excellent place to do that, Lori said. In addition to the educational opportunities, between them, the kids have participated in TRYSA soccer, basketball leagues, Sherry’s Dance Workshop, Sacred Heart children’s organization, swimming and football through the Lee Beran Recreation Center, voice lessons, Brownies and Girl Scouts, the Flint Hills Baseball League, and the Clint Bowyer Fan Club.
At 8, Kate already has organized her own effort to provide toys to patients at Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she spent some time being treated for Crohn’s Disease. Each time she completed any sort of test or treatment, she was allowed to choose a small toy from boxes kept in each area. Sometimes, the toy boxes were almost empty.
When Kate returned to Timmerman, she told the students they needed to save their small toys from fast-food restaurants and other giveaways so she could take them to patients at Children’s Mercy when she returned for appointments. The kids responded generously, just as Emporians tend to do.
“Every time she goes, we take 200 or 300 toys,” Lori said.
Because of her efforts, the Kohl’s corporation presented Kate a “Kids Who Care” award.
Both kids had few qualms when they learned they would move to Joplin. Jake, who supports Kansas University and — because of his mother’s roots — the University of Oklahoma, fretted about team loyalty.
“”We don’t have to root for Missouri, do we?’” Lori quoted Jake as saying. And the answer was “no.” Emphatically.
“Kate wanted to make sure that we could still say we were from Clint Bowyer’s home town,” Lori said. “I reassured them that they were born here and would always be from the same hometown as Clint.”
cjbulldog (anonymous) says...
Lori just a little insight on Joplin area schools from a former employee that lives down here. Webb City schools live and die sports ,but they are dang good backing it up. Carl junction excels in music ,academics ,and pretty good in sports. Joplin schools stay out of them unless you can get into Thomas Jefferson.... just my view.
August 24, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
Before I retired, I spent a fair amount of time in that area. Crime and drugs are habitual problems in western Jasper County and all of Newton and McDonald Counties, primarily because of poverty and low social standards. Carthage (Jasper County's Seat) would be the better town to locate in, which is only about 15 miles east of Joplin and connected by good highways. The schools are better and there is a higher social standard, which is noticeable by doing nothing more than driving through the two towns.
August 24, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Summer_Breeze (anonymous) says...
Duane and Lori, I wish you both the best of luck in your new location, wherever you choose to settle in the Joplin area. You two have been tremendous assets to the Emporia community. Our loss will be Joplin's gain, I have no doubt.
August 25, 2008 at 10:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cjbulldog (anonymous) says...
jayhawker no offense and just my view living here the last 4 years. Carthage doesn't have a lock on clean upstanding living in southwest MO . it like emporia has had an influx of aliens ( legal and otherwise ) and there are pluses and minuses for all the smaller towns in jasper county. like you I agree Newton county would be the lesser of the choices between Jasper and Newton counties. If you want that much higher social status there is always Briarbrook or Loma Linda, more of a comparison to the northwest side of emporia. Or like quite a few people that work in Joplin there is always oklahoma 10 miles away .
August 26, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
cjbulldog:
From your name, I bet that you live in Carl Junction. CJ used to be a pretty small place, but I bet that it has grown given its proximity to Joplin proper.
I'll defer to you completely, because it's been quite a few years since I spent any time in that area. At that time, Carthage was a much nicer place to live, or so it seemed. You would be much more current than I.
Thanks for the post.
August 26, 2008 at 8:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cjbulldog (anonymous) says...
yes jayhawker it has grown my daughters class has around 250 kids in it total.
August 27, 2008 at 2:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )