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Veterans of Foreign Wars and VFW Auxiliary State Secretary Aletta Butler loads diapers into her truck to take to Helene victims. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

Hundreds of boxes of donations await transport to Hurricane Helene victims. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

Local Socks for Heroes and VFW Auxillary president Cathy Stroud carries a case of water into the Brookhaven VFW post. Donations collected by the post will go to hurricane victims in Asheville, North Carolina. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

BROOKHAVEN — Danny Entrican VFW Post 2618 in Brookhaven called for donations for Hurricane Helene victims and Lincoln County answered. Volunteers led by Cathy Stroud, president of Socks for Heroes and VFW Auxiliary, worked hard Friday to get donations organized and boxed up. 

Hundreds of boxed cleaning supplies, toys, clothing, personal hygiene items, non-perishable food items and cases of water filled the Brookhaven Veterans of Foreign Wars post. 

VFW and VFW Auxiliary State Secretary Aletta Butler said it was the most donations she had seen so far in loading up trailers with items destined for Asheville, North Carolina. In fact, the donations were so great they could not all fit in Butler’s trailer.

“It gives me goosebumps,” Butler said. 

Stroud said they planned to store any surplus items until a second trip could be made. 

Butler said they expect the support and relief effort to last for at least a year. Heavy rainfall from Helene washed away roads, bridges and killed over 215 people. Appalachia was hit the hardest by flash flooding. 

“It’s overwhelming the support and the love,” Butler said. “Cathy is behind all of this. She just oozes stuff like this.” 

Supply efforts across the state’s 79 VFW post started out with three trucks. Butler said they are now up to six trucks and trailers. Every post from the Gulf Coast to Hernando is donating to the relief cause. 

“No one does more for veterans and we are helping vets help their community,” Butler said. “ Like Katrina, everyone went and helped down there. We are glad we could help the communities affected by Helene.” 

Nationally, the VFW is taking monetary donations through the Unmet Needs tab on their website. Monetary donations are helpful as residents in Appalachia are unable to use credit cards and get to banks to withdraw cash to buy groceries. 

Butler said funds will go directly to helping veterans and communities from Ohio to Florida who were affected by the storm. 

Once the boxed donations leave Brookhaven Friday they will stay in the trailer until Tuesday. Butler said she is meeting others in Meridian who will form a convoy of supplies headed for Birmingham. Once in Birmingham, items will be loaded into bigger truck trailers and hauled off to Asheville, North Carolina with a tentative arrival time of 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

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