One week before Gennings Dunker's life changed forever, when he was selected in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft by the Steelers, he was watching from afar an event that could have changed his hometown forever.
On Friday, April 17, what was categorized as a strong EF2 tornado caused significant damage to Lena, Illinois, where he grew up. Winds up to 130 miles an hour tore through the area, hitting an 8.5-mile-long stretch where trees were uprooted, homes lost roofs and several homes experienced partial wall collapse.
It was the same area where in a week, he was planning on bringing the community of 2,600 people together for a night to celebrate the Draft.
"It was a week before the Draft," said Dunker. "I was watching from Iowa City. There was a storm chaser following it around on YouTube. The crazy thing too, is there were still kids in the school when it hit, and part of the roof came off. It was bad."
While there were no injuries, there was plenty of damage left behind in the small town.
When Dunker returned almost a week later to celebrate Draft weekend with family, friends and neighbors, he expected things to be bad.
What he saw instead was resilience.
"I think Lena had 1,000 volunteers the next day working to clean things up," said Dunker. "And that's in a town of 2,600 people. I went back home, and there were some tree stumps where you can tell something went through there. But it was amazing.
"I thought when I went back home, I was going to have to use a chainsaw to help out. So, I called my dad and told him to have the chainsaw ready. When I got there, I didn't see anything that needed done.
"Everyone cleaned it all up. There's so much machinery out there, farms and things, so people were running skids and cleaning up.
"It's cool to see the community do that. It stunk that there was a tornado, but to see everybody come together. That's amazing."
The community that was hit by a storm that might have devastated other towns, was able to come back strong and turn out in large numbers to support Dunker on the night he was drafted.
Dunker hosted a community draft party in Lena, providing food and beverages and using the evening as a fundraiser for the Lena Wilson High School football program.
"I wanted anyone from my hometown to be able to come and enjoy it," said Dunker. "It was an event open for anyone to be there. Everyone went crazy when I was drafted. I know everybody there. I grew up with them and I know their parents. I know what car they drive. I know who their cousins are. I know everybody there, so it was awesome to celebrate that with them."
