JANE CAGE: Yes, ma'am.

GWEN IFILL: So, as citizens have been involved—as citizens have been involved in this recovery, how—there comes a point where people get a little tired of always giving or of always helping with recovery. Has that happened in Joplin as well?

JANE CAGE: I think everybody's been tired at one point or another along the way, but everybody's pushing through it because if you were here every day and could see what we see on the ground, the amount of progress that we make, it's really very encouraging.

GWEN IFILL: But you didn't lose your home and you didn't lose your business. So why bother?

JANE CAGE: Oh, my gosh.

I always said that I live at the corner of fortunate and guilty. I'm really fortunate that I can go home at night. And when I think of all the people that I know that lost someone they loved or lost their house or lost their business or lost all three, I have the time to do this kind of work compared to people who are trying to put their lives back together.

I don't have to decide where to buy a house, about furniture. I don't have to replace a car. I don't have to deal with insurance people. I have time.

GWEN IFILL: So, what exactly have you been doing in a hands-on way?

JANE CAGE: I go to a lot of meetings and I facilitate a lot of groups. So, that's probably the number one answer.

But our job has been to listen to the public and so we have done that through a number of public input meetings. We had one just less than two months after the tornado and we had 350 people come and tell us what they believe the future should be like. And that's pretty amazing considering people were still trying to get their life back together.

And now I see our job is to be an advocate for what we heard people wanted Joplin to be like.

GWEN IFILL: No community can survive without a functioning, working hospital, especially in times of disaster. The comeback of the hospital alone was quite something.

JANE CAGE: It is, isn't it?

I used to be chairman of the board here at St. John's, and you can see what's left of it behind me. But in less than two weeks ago, we had a field MASH hospital up and running. Then we moved to modular units. And then just about a month ago, we moved into kind of pre-built unit with two floors that has about 120 beds. And we have broken ground out a little further south on $500 million worth of hospital, so their commitment to the community has just been beyond belief.

GWEN IFILL: Now, one of the iconic images we all remember from those awful first days was the flattened Home Depot. How has the business community recovered in this past year?

JANE CAGE: You know, the big box stores along Rangeline, our big commercial segment, Academy is back, Home Depot is back. Walgreens was back in a matter of maybe three months. Chick-fil-A is back. Academy Sports is back.

Those big box stores are doing really well. It's taken a little longer for mom-and-pop shops to come to terms with everything and deal with their insurance, but we're seeing those come back as well.

GWEN IFILL: So, we have been looking backward. Let's look forward.

JANE CAGE: Sure.

GWEN IFILL: What is it that you would like to see happen in the next 12 months or the next 12 years in your city?

JANE CAGE: It's interesting.

I filled out a thing about what I wanted to be—how I wanted to see Joplin in 50 years. And in 50 years, I said I hoped that nobody can tell we ever had a tornado. In the next 12 months, I'm hoping that we will see more forward progress, that we will see the high school being built, the hospital being built, that we will be able to make some decisions about making the city greener and more attractive.

And then in the next 12 years, I hope we will see that happen. It's a long process.

GWEN IFILL: Now, what does it take for that to happen? Do you still need help from outside? Do you still need help from the federal government? In your case, you got help from some foreign governments as well. What has to happen for all of your dreams to come true, as it were?

JANE CAGE: You know, I will tell you—and I have said this many times—we're working as hard as we can work. And we're doing our very best.

We're not waiting on help to arrive, but it's obvious because of the large nature of this task, we need help still. We have gotten some wonderful gifts. The United Arab Emirates gave $5 million to the hospital just this week for a new neonatal intensive care unit. And we have gotten money from all around.

I would say we're probably the number one destination for mission trips for the summer, who are helping us rebuild low- to moderate-income housing for Habitat for Humanity and lots of other great faith-based organizations. But we have a lot to do, and we're going to need people for a while and we are going to need—we're going to continue to need resources for a while.

GWEN IFILL: Well, Jane Cage, the 2012 Joplin citizen of the year, thank you so much for all the work you have done.

(LAUGHTER)

JANE CAGE: Oh, yes, ma'am, everybody's working hard, not just me.