LUMBERTON — An initiative from a Rotary Club based almost 900 miles from Lumberton resulted in household items arriving in Lumberton to be distributed to victims of Hurricane Florence.
The Rotary Club of Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, gathered enough items to fill about one-quarter of a big-rig trailer, sent the tractor-trailer to Lumberton, where it arrived Wednesday at the hurricane relief distribution warehouse at 2300 Cedar St. The truck contained pallets loaded with boxed fans, heaters, insect repellent, cleaning supplies, rakes, mops, brooms and gloves.
Chuck Corrigan, of the Naperville Rotary Club, got moving after he saw the need in Lumberton and reached out to city leaders.
“They came up with it on their own and reached out to us and said. ‘What do you need?’, and collected the goods, then sent them on down to us,” Lumberton Rotarian Brittany Sandefur said. “It’s an organization with service at its core.”
Back in Naperville, the entire community was welcomed to help fill the trailer provided by Cadence Premier Logistics with needed items to send to Lumberton. The club invited all service clubs, faith organizations, homeowners associations, businesses and individuals to join a community-wide service project by donating items for victims of the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence. Fuel for the journey was donated by the Illinois Trucking Association.
After donations placed in large Gaylord cartons on pallets were inspected and repacked for balance at the Cadence warehouse in Joliet, the trailer began the journey to Lumberton, where it arrived at about 3:20 p.m. to be unloaded.
“Illinois, that far away and they hear about us, saw us on the news and reached out to help,” said Alan Avant, Lumberton Rotary Club president. “It is what Rotary is about. It really is. We care for each other and we reach out. Humanitarians are what we really are.”
Linda Oxendine helped organize the receipt of the items. She said it’s good to see local clubs and organizations being a part of the recovery distribution process because it is them who continue to donate months after a natural disaster occurs.
“That’s when the emotions are the highest and that’s when we need the most,” Oxendine said. “A lot the national attention that we were receiving, it lessens.”
Another Rotary group will be donating hundreds of book bags to the Public Schools of Robeson County, Avant said. The shipment is expected to arrive in about three weeks.
