People are awesome!!

[Lindaloo]

Gautier Woman On Personal Crusade To Help Her Family After Charley Strikes


Throughout Wednesday morning Helene Hicks appealed for help over the airwaves at Kicker 108. "Food stuffs that are non perishable, boxes with tape, they're askin' for pet food, feminine products, things they say they cannot get." Hicks has family in Florida who lost almost everything when Hurricane Charley blew through. She says she had to do something to help but she knew she couldn't do it alone. "Everybody's been involved in it and it's just grown bigger and we went from a donated van from Enterprise in Pascagoula to A-1 trucking giving us a semi that we're gonna take down there and they've given it to us free of charge so I mean it's been awesome," Hicks says.

As people stopped by the radio stations to drop off donations, Hicks says she knows her family and their neighbors will appreciate getting anything they can. "I'm so excited. It's really comin' together. My family's expectin' us tomorrow. They're very excited, they were cryin' on the phone. Their friends and all the neighbors, everything. They say it's like a bomb zone down there."

David Espinosa works for A-1 trucking, the company that donated the big rig. He says his boss has a big heart and Espinosa will drive the truck to Florida to the people who most need the water, clothes and food inside. "It's somethin' I wanted to do to help on my end. I can't exactly donate a truck but at least if I can drive it down there for 'em I feel just as good," he says. Hicks says the generosity shows how caring people really are. "It's just tells ya that people have big hearts and we appreciate it."

The truck will sit Wednesday night in the Coast Radio Group parking lot on Lorraine Road. It will head to Florida Thursday morning.

Source: http://www.wlox.com

[Stephanie]

That is a wonderful story!!!

[Miss Mary]

Linda - thanks for sharing that wonderful story. What I wish someone would do is drive around, house to house, and ask owners to hand them items that are worth saving - picture albums, antiques, sentimental value items. And then catalog it all, storing it nearby in a storage facility, until they're in a permanent place again. As I watched owner after owner pouring over their destroyed belongings searching for something salvagable, my heart broke. You know they can't take everything to a shelter and by now rains have ruined it all. I also heard today on NPR, some residents may go to nursing homes or assisted living centers, never returning to their former homes (or former lot, in a new home). That's sad too.

Mary