We briefly discussed on Sunday focusing on Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham’s relief organization – whose international headquarters is located in hard-hit Boone, NC – to channel financial support to the devastated western counties of North Carolina and the southern Appalachians in general. Our people are of course welcome to donate through the Red Cross or any other legitimate relief organization (see https://www.charitynavigator.org/ if you have any questions as to the bona fides of a particular organization), but if you would like to donate via Samaritan’s Purse, here is the link: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/…/pray-for-those-in…/ It includes a “quick and easy” link for making financial donations to Hurricane Helene relief, as well as information on what is actually being done.
Brad Panovich Meteorologist of WCNC Charlotte has been very proactive and compassionate about providing information on relief efforts following Hurricane Helene. His station has created a page in conjunction with the Red Cross to easily enable financial donations to the relief efforts. Here is the link for that: https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/wcnc-pub.html/
Whether by means of in-kind donations, or financial donations via Samaritan’s Purse or the Red Cross, anything we do to support the efforts in western NC and the southern Appalachians will be of great benefit to the people there, and the relief workers trying to help them.
Facebook users are encouraged to check out the Major Event & All Hazards – Central NC Information Board. This Facebook group is a good source of locally-sourced information on where and what the needs are in many small communities. It’s also a place to offer skills and talents that may be of use in recovery and relief efforts, and where those skills and talents could best be put to use.
Many thanks to parishioner Bonnie Dougherty, a member of the Artists League of the Sandhills, for sharing this information on a local (Pinehurst) collection point for in-kind donations for Hurricane Helene relief:
Hurricane Assistance
Many of our League friends and family have lost everything in the aftermath of the hurricane. Our church, First Baptist Church of Pinehurst (on 211 across from Pinewild), is loading & delivering trucks with supplies. If you would like to donate the truck will be in the church parking lot daily from 9-5 this week… or you can bring items to the Artists League and I will deliver to the church. My husband will be at the church helping this afternoon and I will join him after 3:00. Checks can be made out to FBC Pinehurst and they will make sure the funds get into the right hands.
Items needed: Bottled water, toilet paper, paper towels, diapers/wipes, hand sanitizer, contractor trash bags, first aid supplies, bleach, flashlights, batteries, shovels, brooms, coolers……
Pam Griner
Office Manager
Artists League of the Sandhills
P.O. Box 460/129 Exchange St.
Aberdeen, NC 28315
[email protected]
We do not, as a parish, have the resources to send out truckloads of supplies, but our people who are able to do so can certainly bring supplies to those who can and do!
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40).
Faithfully,
Fr. Tom Harbold
