10/12/2024
Hurricane Helene did a number on North Carolina and several other states. The Carolinas were not prepared for what came their way, nor did they have any idea of the devastation that would ensue.
After seeing the coverage on the news, my wife Brittany and I decided we needed to do what we could to help our neighbors to the north. I reached out to Carfagno who put me in touch with Mark Starling of Radio 570 WWNC in Asheville, NC. Mark knew of a local business that had a dock and forklift and were distributing items for the locals in need. That’s where we met Cobane with The Carpet Barn in Waynesville, NC.
Next, after speaking with Thom and getting the names of other areas badly in need, we spoke to the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department who said they were overloaded with donations, but they knew of a place to the north that was badly hit and in need of any help they could get. That’s when we contacted the Yancey County Sheriffs Department. They gave us an address to deliver to and we set out to gather items for these two locations.
By Saturday, October 5th, we were loading three trucks to head to NC. These first three trucks loaded at a single Sam’s Club on Cobb Parkway in Marietta. I want to thank those at Sam’s who took several hours out of their day to assist us in pulling the products for this relief mission. We secured a pretty good list of items for these first three trucks, one of which I drove to NC with Brittany and Brayden:
2,400 pairs of nitrile gloves
208 toothbrushes
50 tubes of toothpaste
6 large containers of powdered milk
22 brooms
48 mops
24 packs of towels
120 packs of microfiber cloths
6 cases of baby formula, baby bottles, baby food
48 bras of various sizes
500 pair of socks and underwear various sizes
462 tampons
21,120 bottles of water (11 pallets, 440 cases)
20 boxes of Gain, 26 gallons of Members Mark detergent
one pallet of miscellaneous items like Advil, and eye drops
180 pairs of work gloves
40 loaves of bread
Ironically, I am not as good at fundraising as I am at actually purchasing and shipping the items needed for these unfortunate events. For much of the past decade I have been a member of
Worldwide, a CEO peer group. This group consists of business owners who gather each month in groups of 15 or so and help solve one another’s problemsCaren Productshed out to several groups and they responded quickly! I owe many thanks to the members of Vistage group 3274 and group 8780, as well as my former Vistage group 0096.
As the funds began to come in, a buddy of mine Gregg Schrepple connected us with Sherry Kelly with Products in Roswell, GA who donated three pallets of soaps, shampoos and other products. We dropped those items at The Carpet Barn in Waynesville.
Chad Clark is a former Vistage member who jumped into this project head first. He met us in North Carolina to help unload and also met me this week to assist with sending the fourth truck up with a fresh list of much needed items. The request we got from Burnsville was for poison ivy kits, foot powder, warm hats and gloves of all sizes, Gatorade, and more detergent.
The poison ivy treatments and the foot powder were for the search and rescue workers that had been walking through brush and water day in and day out and were developing trench foot. Their feet were swelling, yet they kept going because there wasn’t time to take a break. So many people hadn’t been accounted for or been able to leave their homes.
Yancey County Commissioner Sandi Norton told us the rescue workers cut what she called a “goat trailTown of Burnsville, NCcould come and go by foot. Her street and driveway were washed away and leaving by car wasn’t possible. I don’t believe she has power or water, but she is still at the relief depot every day making sure people are getting critical items in this time of great need.
If you want to send relief supplies to the people of Town of Burnsville, NC in Yancey County, please contact County Commissioner Sandi Norton at [email protected]
I had a list of 32 relief depots and barely handled the first two. If we had funds available, we could have done much more. My wife and I are thinking of starting a charitable entity to help others when disasters like this strike. They seem to be happening more often these days and the critical need (in my opinion) is the first 10-12 days immediately following any large scale disaster. FEMA seems to come in slow and take over the larger items of a recovery, but they are a large government agency that simply can’t seem to get there in the immediate hours after the disaster has begun. It’s up to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the regular people to jump in and help the hurt as early as possible.
We pray for the recovery of North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and the affected parts of Georgia that sustained so much damage from Hurricane Helene. The TV and online news are covered up with the current Hurricane Milton disaster and I hope that doesn’t cause the help and assistance needed for Helene victims to slow down or fade to the back of the room. They are still looking for people up there and many families simply don’t know what their next move will be.
