Reading’s 15th annual Tornado Trot & Trail is a month away as the town notes the 15th anniversary of a devastating weather event.
Riders, runners and walkers will head to Reading on June 27 for activities including bike rides of 13, 26 or 36 miles and a 5K run/walk. Once again, all proceeds go to Handelbars of Hope. Organizer Nancy Standiferd:
Fellow organizer Jann Briggs says the Handlebars mission — connecting people to bikes in and around Emporia, as well as Central America — is worth supporting.
Pre-registration ends Wednesday. People who register by then can get a 15-year anniversary T-shirt and be eligible for prizes. Same-day, on-site registration is also available.
Along with the main event will be the now-traditional biscuits and gravy breakfast from the Reading Benefit Volunteer Fire Department.
The event begins at Reading’s First United Methodist Church. To register for the Reading Tornado Trot & Trail, email tornadotrot@gmail.com or stop by High Gear, 520 Commercial, for a registration form.
The event may be next month, but Thursday is the 15th anniversary of the EF-3 tornado that damaged or destroyed much of the town. Briggs remembers everyone who came to the town to help it rebuild.
Standiferd says the event has changed over time, but the mission of helping others remains.
Kevin Sorensen served as mayor shortly after the tornado, following the resignation of Lonnie Atchison, and oversaw much of the city operations during the bulk of the recovery period. Sorensen was out of town when the tornado hit, so he rushed home — and started jumping into the task at hand of helping coordinate the rebuild. He called the first few months an “eye-opener.”
Sorensen was glad to see people helping the community restore a sense of normality by moving City Hall into a new community building, a new city park, the start of operations for Citizens State Bank — all later in 2011 — and the restart of operations for the post office in 2015.
Even now, however, Sorensen says the events of 15 years ago are still very much present.
The Reading tornado was the worst of four twisters affecting Lyon and Osage counties April 22, 2011, touching down just north of Emporia State University and tracked to the northeast, eventually swelling to a quarter-mile wide as it struck the town and expanding to nearly a half-mile wide before it dissipated near Osage City. It damaged or destroyed most of the buildings in town, including the church, fire station, city hall, post office and bank, and killed one person.
Click here for the National Weather Service’s information page about the Reading tornado.
