Organizational Update – October 15

30 Days! Wow!! We are immensely proud that we have hit our 30 day milestone in this donation relief effort. What started with three individuals coordinating donation drives in their own neighborhoods blossomed into a massive effort with countless volunteers and generous businesses and individuals serving as drop box locations. Together, we have collected and delivered over 35 TONS of critical and supplemental supplies to areas hit hardest by Hurricane Florence. We are so proud of everyone who has played a big and small role in this effort. It has been truly humbling to watch it come to fruition and hear the impact from those who have received our supplies.

Our organization is run solely by volunteers who give up their time to help make every aspect of this effort a success. We are incredibly fortunate that so many volunteers have absorbed their own gas expenses, space, and most importantly time in order to move 35 tons of supplies from drop box locations to the airport and/or staging locations for delivery. It is with our volunteers in mind, we have decided to start weening down our operations to conclude our efforts by October 31 (our 45 day milestone).

Please find the below timeline for the next couple weeks:

October 16 – The Amazon Wish List will be suspended by 9pm October 16. You can still order today or tomorrow if you wish to purchase any further supplies. We need to suspend the wish list ahead of October 31 to ensure all shipments are received in time for delivery to Myrtle.

October 22 – All drop box locations will discontinue collections. The map with box locations on our website will be removed the same day so it is no longer available to the public.

October 31 – All donations must be picked up and delivered to the pre-staging area in Mt Pleasant between October 23 and October 31. Please contact Karlee Chapman to coordinate pick-up or delivery. We will no longer accept donations starting on November 1. We will have deliveries to the SCNeeds Distribution Center on October 27 and any last remaining items on November 3.

If you’d still like to help Florence victims after October 31, you can purchase directly from SCNeeds Amazon Wish List, https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/cp4VOHC or follow them on their Facebook page ScNeedsHelp Donation and Distribution Center for volunteer opportunities.

Locally, mayors within all of our surrounding cities have announced the formation of the Lowcountry Mayors’ Disaster Relief Fund which will raise money for Florence-related disaster assistance via the Disaster Relief Fund, www.coastalcommunityfoundation.org/disasterrelief. They will continue to update their website for other ways you can help as well.

We are blessed to see that the government has been offering assistance for the last few weeks and these other organizations are stepping up to offer Florence victims more long-term support. Your generosity and support filled a critical gap and enlightened us to just how vulnerable we all are following natural disasters. What a blessing it has been to give and serve beside you. Thank you Flo Fighters for all your Lowcountry love! ❤️

Your help is still desperately needed even after Flo has departed. There are several ways to help.  Click on an icon below for more information.