Schlobohm named Local Hero
Special to the Gazette
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Former Reading Public Information Officer Barbara Schlobohm appeared on the cover and is profiled in the December issue of Ingram’s Magazine, a Kansas City business magazine. Schlobohm was featured for her work on keeping people informed on the Reading recovery efforts after the tornado that hit Reading in May. Below is the article that appeared in the magazine.
“Local Hero,” Barbara Schlobohm, Reading, Kan.
The weather system that moved through Kansas in late May—bound for a date with destiny in Joplin—had a warm-up tornado a day earlier in the small town of Reading, Kan., population 231.
And even though it claimed only one life, compared to the 160 in Joplin, it exacted a heavier toll, proportionally, than the tornado that followed in neighboring Missouri. The business community in Reading—all of it—was reduced to rubble, along with dozens of homes, in a town with precious few of them. The headlines, and the attention of first responders, would soon be directed toward southwest Missouri, Barbara Schlobohm knew.
So there had to be a way to help. But with no electricity, no water, no phone lines, there wasn’t much she could do. Until she and her husband found refuge in a hotel, and she went online to let friends and family know she was all right.
The seed was planted: Soon, she was on Facebook, using social media to help provide critical information in the early hours after the storm, then connect people with relatives as the recovery progressed. For up to six hours a day, the retired schoolteacher was on the keyboard, reporting on resources as they became available, meetings as they were scheduled, and news that people were safe as she heard about it.
“The content was quick to surface—family and friends trying to learn of the status of residents of Reading and a rapid release of information for survivors,” Schlobohm said. What caught her off-guard was the depth of the desire for information; she said she was shocked by the depth of that response: “We found that 95 percent of the affected people just needed the information and not an outlet for discussion, positive or negative.” But from farther away, “people from all over the country began friending, asking questions, sending gifts and volunteering.” she said.
The experience was a powerful lesson in how technology helps build virtual communities—and rebuild connections. First responders do yeoman duty taking care of infrastructural needs and tending bigger-picture issues. Through social media, Schlobohm says, individuals have at their disposal a means to address needs on a personal level. That became clear to her in the weeks afterward, she said, “when folks began messaging and calling with direct responses to needs and concerns posted. Many problems were solved much sooner because of this media format,” she said.
She moves on with two important lessons she says she takes from the experience: “Lesson 1: Technology is powerful and you must be careful how you use it. Lesson 2: Negative people beget negativity. Use your voice to have a positive effect on whatever you touch with your words.”
midnightlilly (anonymous) says...
I am tired of hearing this stuff, put some actual articles in the paper.
December 22, 2011 at 10:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )