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Central N.C. Fills Multiple 18-Wheelers To Help Katrina Victims
CBC’s Operation Storm Relief Teams Stations for Food Drive
People showed up to the Operation Storm Relief Food Drive with carloads of donations. |
WRAL-TV, FOX 50 and WRAL-FM MIX 101.5 joined forces with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina on Thursday, September 8, 2005, to hold a food drive to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Citizens in central North Carolina came out in droves. By day’s end, 99,000lbs of donated items filled six tractor trailers, all 18-wheelers.
“It was truly a successful effort at all locations,” said WRAL-TV Community Relations Director Loretta Harper-Arnold. “Volunteer support was very strong and the public’s response as usual was completely overwhelming.”
Diapers were a much-needed donation item. |
FOX 50 workers filled the truck in front of the offices. |
In Cary the trucks fill quickly. |
This mom filled her baby stroller with donation items and carries the baby herself. |
A hard-working group of volunteers get the donations from the cars to the 18-wheelers. |
People brought diapers, paper towels, granola bars and crackers by the trunk full. Volunteers at each of the four sites were kept busy as people drove up with the backs of their SUVs crammed full of items for those along the Gulf Coast who have lost everything.
Donations of a variety of items fill the trucks. |
Items go into large boxes in the trucks.
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Signs alert citizens of the drop-off location in Durham. |
This daycare worker brought boxes decorated by the kids. |
The CBC stations and the Food Bank manned collection sites in four locations. Durham residents stopped by the Diamond View building in downtown, other Triangle citizens came to the Cary Towne Center, Rocky Mount folks came to Golden East Crossing, and Fayetteville donated at Cross Creek Mall. From 6am – 7pm, a steady stream of people came bearing donations. Several trucks had already been filled before lunchtime.
“People came from all over,” said FOX 50 Marketing & Promotion Manager Kevin Kolbe. “One woman told us she was from Maryland. … So many people had bags and bags of items to donate and they apologized, saying it wasn’t much, and yet it was!”
WRAL-TV’s Valonda Calloway interviews a contributor. |
Water came in big supply from folks who brought donations. |
WRAL-FM workers in Cary kept the truck busy. |
“Trucks were full, cabs of trucks were full. There were cases of water, jumbo packs of paper towels, boxes of toothpaste, diapers, juice boxes, cases of shampoo, and so much more,” he continued. “It was incredible to see how the community worked together to help others in need.”
A Durham day care center even pitched in. The children decorated boxes and then collected items to donate to the cause.
Thanks to FOX 50’s Sheila Chast for some of these capcom photos.
POSTED: September 12, 2005
