BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – While residents in Florida brace for Milton to make landfall, volunteers from our region are on their way to help.
“It’s the world to me to give back to people,” said Reid Asaro, one of more than 700 Red Cross volunteers headed to the southeast.
Asaro will start in Georgia and then respond with other volunteers to assist in shelters and provide supplies where needed. But Asaro says it’s about more than just that. “It’s as simple as sitting and having a cup of coffee with somebody that’s just been through it. And if you’re able to give your time and step away from your reality to help somebody else with their reality, it’s important,” he said.
The Red Cross says more than 2,000 volunteers have already been deployed to help in the most impacted areas, where they’ll stay for the next two weeks.
Here at home, Vermonters are coming together to help support the victims of Helene. Hulett Trucking in Pawlet is filling trucks with essential items like blankets, cots, and generators to send to residents in North Carolina. “We said, you know, they would probably do it for us so we’re going to do it for them,” said the company’s Mandy Hulett. She says they’re working with local churches to figure out where to send the trucks. One is already there, another is on its way, and a third is being filled in southern Vermont. “It’s unbelievable, the outpouring of love that people want to like just wrap their arms around North Carolina.”
Hulett says she anticipates a total of five or six full trailers to make their way south.
Along with the many volunteers from around the region, a group of five employees from the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management deployed to Florida on Wednesday.
While many collect items, the Red Cross’ Dan Dowling encourages those who want to help to donate money. “We have the ability to use financial donations to reach more people in need more quickly. For example, a five-dollar donation can buy a blanket for someone in a shelter, and an 11-dollar donation can purchase a warm meal for someone who needs it,” he said.
Experts recommend finding reputable organizations to donate to and to make sure to do your research.
North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund, administrated by the United Way of North Carolina
One SC Fund Feeding the Carolinas
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