Danville High FFA team sends hurricane relief supplies to Florida
For the Enquirer
DANVILLE – As individuals and organizations across the country lend a hand in assisting victims of Hurricane Helene build back their homes and communities, a high school in Morgan County sent a truckload of over 1,000 relief items to north Florida last week and is still collecting donations.
The Future Farmers of America organization at Danville High School began collecting items Sept. 30 after making social media posts on Facebook and Instagram, requesting donations from the community. The community responded in a much larger way than the FFA team expected, according to FFA adviser and agriscience teacher Travis Allred.
“I bet you we probably had about 500 pounds of canned goods that were donated and probably 2,000 diapers,” Allred said.
Along with those goods were 45 cases of bottled water, 40 cases of hand sanitizer, and large quantities of pet food, gloves and baby clothes. The FFA team estimates twothirds of the supplies were donated between Oct. 2 and Friday.
“We’re very fortunate to have the community we have,” said sophomore Casen Randolph. “We have a lot of people who keep up with us on Facebook and social media and they like to help out when they can.” Allred drove down to the Big Bend area in Florida on Friday with all the supplies and said he and the students had to pack the items on the sideboards of his Dodge 2500 to fit everything.
“If we would have had any more, I wouldn’t have been able to fit it on one truck,” Allred said. “Me and one of my friends drove down there on Friday evening and got back (on Monday).” Sophomore Brooklyn Vann said her mother took some additional boxes of hand sanitizer to North Carolina. Vann said communities in western North Carolina are having to fight off invasive wildlife on their properties after the Hurricane’s destruction.
“We sent medicine too because they are dealing with a bunch of wasps up there,” Vann said. “Wasps are coming out of the ground and everything and that’s what their big problem is right now.” According to The Associated Press, Hurricane Helene is the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Over 200 people in six states have been killed because of its destruction.
WCTV News in Tallahassee, Florida, reported that Taylor County Sheriff Wayne Padgett said 90% of the homes in Taylor County, Florida, “are gone.” Many forecasters are expecting even worse damage to central Florida from Hurricane Milton, expected to make landfall near Tampa late Wednesday night.
Allred was able to survey most of the devastation of the Big Bend Area while driving through Taylor County and said most communities are completely decimated and several houses that withstood decades of past storms are now gone.
“There was one street me and my friend drove down, and the closest thing I can relate to it were the April 27 tornadoes in 2011,” Allred said. “But, even then, the tornadoes were terrible were they hit, but a tornado may have a mile-wide path and everything outside of that will be OK, whereas a hurricane, it is for dozens and dozens of miles inland, and dozens of miles wide there is just destruction.” Allred said although they have delivered supplies to Florida, they are still open to collecting donations to send to other communities impacted by the hurricane.
“It may be Florida, it may be western North Carolina. We may partner with a church to send a truck down there,” Allred said. “We’ll figure something out.”
