At a press conference last Tuesday, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon had this to say about the AmeriCorps members serving in the Joplin area:

“I pushed more volunteers your way than maybe I should have. But I had the understanding that I could trust your operation. It appears I was right.”

And what an operation it is. Since their arrival on the ground just 12 short hours after the tornado tore through Joplin, the AmeriCorps St. Louis Emergency Response Team has coordinated 23,032 individual volunteers for a combined total of 105,866 volunteer hours.

It's those numbers that inspire displays of appreciation like the following:

Heroes, indeed. Thank you to all the volunteers who have responded in Joplin and in recent disaster sites across the U.S. We are so proud of you all.