By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — The Three Rivers area will be helping out with hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina this week.
On Tuesday morning, a semi-trailer filled with tens of thousands of pounds of food, supplies and relief items donated by local residents and businesses started its journey from the Tractor Supply Co. store on U.S. 131 in Three Rivers to northwest North Carolina, one of the areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September.
The community relief effort was the brainchild of Scott Maurer, a local carpenter and food truck owner. He said when he saw the images of the flooding and devastation in that area of North Carolina, he wanted to help.
“I just couldn’t imagine being a part of it. For that to happen, I mean, they lost everything including their lives down there,” Maurer said. “So, I decided to try to do something. … I don’t know what I was thinking and why. It’s just me, I guess; I like helping out.”
Donations were accepted beginning on Oct. 11 at the trailer, which was parked in the back of the Tractor Supply Co. parking lot. The items requested came from a list Maurer received from local authorities in northwestern North Carolina. All the items donated will be going to a 200,000-square foot relief hub in Henderson County, N.C., south of Asheville. The hub is run by the North Carolina National Guard and local city council members and county commissioners in Henderson County, with items going directly to people that need it all over northwestern North Carolina.
Maurer said the items will be appropriated to those that need it for as long as it’s available.
“This is not a one-time deal; these people are going to be in need for the next year-plus. This is a small drop in the bucket compared to what they’re going to need, but this is going to help a lot of families,” Maurer said. “It’s local people helping local people.”
Donations were received from both individual donors and local businesses, with Maurer noting that “hundreds” of donations were made for the effort. Maurer said the trailer being used to transport the goods was donated by Clark Logic, Armstrong International donated boxes and did an in-house collection for the effort, Home Depot assisted with coupons and a pallet of charcoal, Tractor Supply Company assisted with a half-pallet of farm animal feed and a half-pallet of poultry feed, and Rooted of St. Joseph County donated items a few times to the effort, among other businesses and individuals.
One thing permeated each donation, Maurer said: A willingness of people to help.
“They were just happy to help. They were grateful to be able to help by having the trailer here and having a place to take it to. So many people knew they wanted to help but wasn’t sure where to go. It’s a blessing for them to have a drop-off location to take stuff to,” Maurer said. “We’ve had some pretty good help, and it’s been a huge community effort. So many people that volunteered, I could list their names for days, and just the donations and drop-offs, it was crazy. Especially this weekend, it was insane to get all that stuff in.”
The trailer was scheduled to make it to Henderson County by Wednesday morning.
Overall, Maurer said he was thankful for the community’s involvement in helping those in need down in North Carolina, calling it, “amazing, overwhelming, awesome.”
“This town filled everything on their needs list that they sent and went above and beyond,” Maurer said. “This town stepped up. They filled it. It’s crazy to see first-hand what they did. It goes to show that there’s still good people around. America helps America.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
