Desert Hills resident tabbed for television show’s relief effort

STAFF REPORT~ 12/28/2011

Donna McCoy Shay moved to Arizona in 1981, but the Desert Hills resident has gone back to visit her parents and friends in Missouri often during the last 30 years.
Last year’s visit though was unlike any she’d ever experienced.
“I don’t even know if I can put in to words how I feel about it,” she said. “I still get emotional when I think about it. It was
the most incredible experience I’ve ever had.”
Following a devastating tornado that killed 162 and damaged 8,000 buildings on May 11 in Joplin, McCoy Shay was amongst those selected to participate in what will be the final episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which will air at 7 p.m.,
Friday on ABC during a special two-hour finale.
Growing up McCoy Shay said that she experienced numerous tornadoes.
“At some point you get used to those alarms,” she said. “It sounds strange, but they almost seem routine. People almost ignore them.”
There would be nothing routine about the storm of May 11, one that ended up being the seventh deadliest in U.S. history.
“I remember that day my mother called me to tell me that she was okay,” she said. “I didn’t know what she was talking about. I had no idea there was a tornado so I got online and watched the storm that way.”
The Desert Hills woman
said upon knowing her parents were safe her concern turned to her best friend and her two young children.
“It was a week before I knew whether they were dead or alive,” she said, stopping to control her emotions as she recalled the fear. “To hear her story was unbelievable. She told me she got home in time to find her kids, go into the bathroom and get into the bath tub. After the tornado went through she opened the door to her house to see that the interior of her house was just gone. She said debris was everywhere and that they had to pull stuff off their car in order to drive to help. They lost everything.”
In October McCoy Shay was back in Missouri visiting
her parents. During the trip she visited her friend, who had
lost her home.
“She has since bought a new home in a different area, but I asked her to go back to where her home was,” she said. “It was near the high school, which had also been destroyed. It’s really amazing more people weren’t killed that day. The high school is now being housed at an old mall while they rebuild the campus.”
During the visit McCoy Shay heard the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was coming to Joplin.
During the run of the show the volunteers have typically only worked on building one house. For this event they decided to build seven homes, all neighbors on a block in Joplin, which had been completely whipped out.
After applying to participate, McCoy Shay and her friend who had lost her home, were picked to work on house number three, one that was built with a green focus to be energy efficient.
With a background as an artists, she was selected to
work on a unique fireplace, one in which more than 600 wine bottles were used to tile the
front of it.
“It was hard to envision how it would turn out, but after working on it, it was really
cool to see how it came out,”
she said.
After putting in a 14 hour day the Desert Hills resident said she was tired, but felt very fulfilled.
“I was totally exhausted at the end of the project, but thrilled to have had the opportunity to give back to the Joplin community,” she said. “I had seen pictures of the damage caused by the tornado, but until you stand on land that was once a home, you can’t feel the real destruction.”
 Amazed at the efficiency of the operation, in organizing all the volunteers and getting the homes completed, McCoy Shay said she’s interested to see how the episode turned out.
“I’m thinking of having a get together party to watch it,” she said. “I have a film on the tornado that a company put out. We might watch that first. I guess I don’t even know if I’m going to be in the episode,
but I was in so much of the filming I’d be quite surprised if I’m not in it.”
Regardless she said she will always cherish the experience.
“I’ve always felt close to Joplin and that area, but it’s even stronger now,” she said. “I only did little projects, but feel great about having the chance to help the community in a small way start to cleanup and rebound.”