Area groups gather hurricane aid

Area residents have pooled resources to help their neighbors in need many times over the years, so reaching out to neighbors -- even those hundreds of miles away -- impacted by Hurricane Helene shouldn't come as a shock.

Still, it's heartwarming to see people helping out strangers, said Ashley Digan, noting that those residents and businesses who donated items to Center City Church's collection efforts created "a city of hope."

In Patton, the response to the local Moose Lodge's relief drive was "beautiful," said bar manager Angela McKendree.

The groups are just a few among hundreds across the region, state and nation working to provide aid to the millions impacted by the monster storm that was Hurricane Helene.

Both the Patton and Center City groups said the outpouring of support has been tremendous and they're thankful for living in a community that cares.

Last week, Center City Church announced its hurricane relief effort and invited everyone to get involved.

Partnering with The Lift Church in Sevierville, Tennessee, the plan is to deliver essential items and more to The Lift's ministry, The Joseph Storehouse.

"They have boots on the ground," Digan said, explaining that the group has been dispersing items in Tennessee and North Carolina.

Center City's first truck leaves today, she said. It will be filled with water, shovels, cleaning supplies, clothes, personal hygiene items and baby products, among much more.

"We got a wide variety of products that people have generously donated," said Digan, Center City's executive administrator.

Center City partnered with Allegheny Trucks, which is providing the truck and driver. As the driver takes the load to Tennessee, a group of volunteers will also make the same drive, being on hand to unload the donations.

"We'll be able to ask them what else they need and come back and share that with the community," Digan said, adding the group won't stay overnight, but instead will turn around and drive back to Altoona, arriving sometime tonight.

The church will continue to accept items and will make additional trips to Tennessee, she said.

People from the community have poured out to donate items, Digan said, adding that "it's been really cool to see the city and the community come together" to help those devastated by the hurricane.

"To see the heart of people has been beautiful," she added.

Response was 'overwhelming'

Six hundred boxes of cereal donated by the Hastings food pantry, and a variety of diapers, easy-to-eat foods such as granola bars and applesauce pouches, sanitary and cleansing wipes, batteries, flashlights, clothing, towels, adult diapers, baby formula and personal care items are among those items collected by the Patton Moose Lodge 488, which partnered with St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in Patton, said Angela

McKendree, bar manager at the Lodge.

"The idea just came along that we ourselves should do a collection," McKendree said. Then, one of the Lodge members, who is also a member of St. Lawrence, said the priest had family members in North Carolina and was heading there with some supplies.

McKendree said they reached out to the priest and asked "can you take our stuff with you?"

The Lodge gave Father Joseph Waugh gas money and he headed out to Spruce Pine, North Carolina, where a veterans-affiliated organization is using donated property as a makeshift pickup spot.

Driving a U-Haul truck, and sporting a sign that states "Patton, PA (heart) Spruce Pine, NC," the trip to Tennessee began Monday. Waugh is documenting the trip and will share his experiences with the community when he returns, according to McKendree, who said the response from the

Patton-area community "was amazing."

The Lodge posted about the collection drive one evening last week and by the next day "we received phone calls and donations the minute we opened," she said.

As a community organization, the Lodge jumps in the help anytime a need arises, McKendree said, but to see the Lodge's "whole back area filled" with donations was "beautiful. ... We collected a lot. ... It was overwhelming."

McKendree believes all of Patton and people from the surrounding communities turned out to donate something to help those in need.

While many in the local community can't go in person to help clean up and rebuild, the collection of relief items shows "they're still a part of us, we're there with them," she said.

Heading out to clean up

Two teams from Grace Bible Church in Hollidaysburg will be heading to North Carolina -- the first group leaves for Asheville next week -- to take part in a "boots on the ground" disaster relief effort with Samaritan's Purse, said Karen Diehl, disaster relief coordinator with the church.

Samaritan's Purse, often recognized for its Operation Christmas Child shoebox outreach program, is proactive in its approach to disasters, Diehl said, and has warehouses filled with needed supplies staged at various locations. This ensures the organization is ready for whatever may come and avoids searching for items such as building materials in devastated areas.

The upcoming trip will be the ninth time groups from the church have gone onsite for disaster relief, she said.

"They really need manpower," she said, as cleanup after a storm or other disaster is a lot of work.

Having taken part in many of the trips before, Diehl said volunteers with Samaritan's Purse will be wearing orange shirts designating they are with the organization. They won't take much with them to North Carolina -- work boots, a few clothes and perhaps work gloves.

Once at the rendezvous point, the group will have a training session "before we ever go out on the worksite," she said.

"We don't know what we're going to encounter when we start picking up debris," she said, noting that safety is a priority.

There are two phases to Samaritan's Purse outreach efforts following a disaster. The first is response -- where volunteers need to be ready and able to go on short notice to clean up. For the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, that response is anticipated to last until

Nov. 2, Diehl said.

"When eight hundred to a thousand people show up, you can get a lot of work done," she added.

After the cleanup comes the rebuild phase, where teams go in and do everything and anything to do with building a house. Volunteers on these trips may do concrete, put up walls, install siding and more, she said.

Volunteers with the church have done both -- this will be the sixth time groups have responded for clean up duties. Teams have been on three rebuild trips, she said, including in Mayfield, Kentucky, after a tornado devastated the area.

Diehl said the work is hard, but satisfying. Part of the mission, too, is to listen to people tell their stories. "It's part of their recovery," she said.

For anyone interested in volunteering, the days begin at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast and devotions. Lunches are packed and volunteers go to the worksite and will eat lunch on site. Typically work is done from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Then volunteers head back to their base for dinner at 6 p.m. followed by a time of sharing, where volunteers will tell stories about what they encountered that day. There is about an hour of quiet time before volunteers turn in for the night.

After a day spent picking up debris and helping residents clean up, "you're ready for bed," she said with a laugh.

While the two trips planned so far are at capacity, Diehl said anyone can volunteer by going to the Samaritan's Purse website at samaritanspurse.org. There is a link to volunteer, as well as a link to donate funds for the relief efforts.

The church is also accepting monetary donations earmarked for Samaritan's Purse, she said.

Other ways to help

The American Red Cross is also accepting monetary donations (redcross.org), as is the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Bishop Mark L. Bartchak has requested that all parishes throughout the eight counties of the Diocese take a special collection to assist storm victims on either or both of the weekends of

Oct. 12-13 and Oct. 19-20.

The funds collected will be forwarded to agencies recommended by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, likely through Catholic Charities USA, according to Tony DeGol, diocese spokesman.

Prayers are also requested, he said.

Digan said Center City Church is "praying and hoping to be a support in any way we can."

"Everyone has that same goal of neighbors helping neighbors," McKendree said.