Joplin company donates to Ronald McDonald House

JOPLIN, Mo. — A Joplin company gives back to the house that love built.

Employees with Alorica have been collecting non-perishable food items for the last three weeks to help feed families at the Ronald McDonald House in Joplin. Those items were dropped off today.

Jeb Cook says his company has been holding food drives for the facility for several years.

“Well, we have a soft spot for the Ronald McDonald House, we’ve partnered with them for years and years and we continue to come back. We just think it’s a worthwhile organization to be able to help out, they do so much for the community not only in the Joplin area but just nationwide that have sick family members here at the local hospitals,” said Cook.

“We’re not able to do this without the community support to provide the wonderful meals and snacks for our families during a very difficult and stressful time. It’s so important to have these partnerships with these wonderful organizations,” said Jerri Sargent, Ronald McDonald House Program Manager.

Sargent says she is very impressed that Alorica employees were able to get their hands on pasta products with how scarce they’ve been on area store shelves in recent months.

Area teachers recognized in 23rd Annual Celebration of Schools

JOPLIN, Mo. — Area teachers celebrate area teachers tonight at a special awards ceremony.

The Southwest Center for Educational Excellence hosted their 23rd Annual Celebration of Schools at Joplin North Middle School. The event recognizes local teachers for their commitment to educating our kids.

A total of 130 awards were handed out at tonight’s ceremony.

“So all these schools come together. They nominate ‘Making Learning Come Alive’ awards, in their classroom. These are projects that are actually going on in our schools. We select a winner. We’re honoring all the teachers of the year that these districts have. Really making them feel special because education’s under attack right now and teachers have it… they need that recognition. They need that special time,” said Melissa Massey, Southwest Center Executive Director.

The Southwest Center is comprised of 41 different southwest Missouri school districts.

March: In like a lamb, out like a lion

Large snowflakes fall to the ground in Joplin, Missouri, following a night of severe weather and heavy rainfall.

JOPLIN, Mo. — Area residents got a surprise from Mother Nature today, as periods of heavy, wet snow fell to the ground.

A few hours west of here – Wichita, Kansas received snow as well, with temperatures cold enough for it to stick and accumulate to about an inch.

“It’s not the most common thing in the world, but about once a year we’ll have this situation. Classic severe weather setup has cold air behind it, but what’s interesting about days like today is we were at 37°F at the surface and snow coming down. It doesn’t exactly compute for most people, but if it’s cold enough, even just a few hundred feet up, it will keep snowflakes all the way down to the surface,” said KSNF-TV Meteorologist, Chase Bullman.

Because Spring officially arrived on the 20th, snowy weather is not what you would expect for the end of March; but it’s also the Midwest, and local meteorologists say anything is possible when you live here.

“It’s just not always that we have severe weather right before, and then truly less than 24 hours we have snow coming down, but that’s the beautiful thing about the Midwest, those are the situations that we are constantly put in,” said Bullman.

A graphic explaining “Lion” and “Lamb” weather.

The old saying, “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb,” isn’t how the month played out for those in the Midwest.

For areas like Joplin, March came “in like a lamb” (with early month temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s) and “out like a lion” (with a night of severe weather and then snowfall to follow on the last day of the month).

In the video below, KSNF-TV Chief Meteorologist, Chase Bullman breaks down the extended forecast as we head into April.

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Joplin Police SWAT surround residence, contain and call-out

JOPLIN, Mo. — About 10:15 p.m. information received from sources that Joplin Police SWAT were surrounding a residence in the Blendville Neighborhood.

We arrived about 10:30 p.m. to observe a SWAT operation at 2201 Empire. The residence sits on the SE corner of 22nd and Empire. Across the west alley from Blendville Christian Church parking lot.

For a period of hours with officers surrounding the residence on the bullhorn one could hear:

“This is the Joplin Police Dept. Come out the front door with your hands above your head. Do it now.”

11:05 p.m. the JPD MRAP arrived for additional support.

12:40 a.m. smoke was visible from the top of the residence that then turned to flames. Joplin Fire Dept was summoned.

Active flames were extinguished quickly with an unmanned water cannon on top of one unit.

The cause of the fire is unknown. There has been no official release of information from authorities regarding the SWAT activation either.

This is a developing news story. Stay with Joplin News First as we continue to learn more.