A diversion!

Sooo, yesterday, as soon as I finished posting the blog post, I was perusing Facebook and came across a post for a local group needing help to load trucks going to North Carolina. It was close to where I live so, after lunch I headed over and spent the afternoon sorting through TONS of donations and helping to start loading the trailer.

This delivery was organized by two guys who once lived in a remote little town between Boone and Asheville. They have kept in touch with their neighbors and friends and discovered that this area hasn't yet received any help so they left this morning at 3 am with two truck/trailers and another pickup FULL of supplies.

They were offered a free tractor trailer truck and had a volunteer driver but were told that a truck that big would not make it through some of the roads.

The organizers were OVERWHLEMED, and totally joyful, by the amount of donations and they were still coming in when I left. I left shortly after this photo was taken because we were at a stopping point waiting for the second trailer to arrive. They had enough volunteers, mostly their friends, to finish the loading.

When I arrived they were just starting to organize things to put like things together. We had a tower of vienna sausages, a tower of canned chicken and tuna, tons of soups and canned spaghetti and vegetables. There's a massive amount of water, Gatorade and Ensure along with an entire pallet full of pet food and supplies. There was every kind of cracker and snack and a boatload of peanut butter. There were also loads of baby supplies, cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies, clothes, 2 giant tubs of tarps, a box of ropes, chain saw oil, fire starter supplies. You name it, someone probably donated it! It was cool.

As always there were a few cringe moments where we found three separate donations where people obviously cleared out really old crap from their cabinets, including one with USED deodorant! But in the total volume, those were just 3 small grocery bags' worth.

It was a fun afternoon. Everyone was working so hard that I can't tell you the name of even one person who was working there! 

Apparently, the community that will receive these items will be getting together at the local fire station today for a pig roast that was donated and hopefully, this delivery will arrive while they are enjoying a hot cooked meal.

Today I will be back to my own yard work and, maybe, get some veterans quilts loaded for quilting.