A large hurricane relief effort which included collection sites in Aurora and Naperville over the weekend is being celebrated by organizers as a big success.
The drive, staged by Rotary District 6450, which includes Rotary clubs throughout the Chicago area, collected a wide range of items for those impacted by Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread damage, especially in North Carolina.
Rotary District 6450 offered five collection sites for donations on Saturday including Orland Park, Oak Park and Chicago, as well as the sites in Naperville and Aurora.
Coordinators said the effort exceeded their expectations “thanks to people knowing how to help.”
“People have a generous heart and they really want to help, but they don’t know how,” said Rotary District 6450 Disaster Response Coordinator Chris Olson, who lives in Aurora. “We’re providing an avenue for these people to help and reach out and connect and that’s why I think the generosity was so big. People found out about the pipeline here and really came out and supported us.”
Naperville Rotarian Chuck Corrigan agreed the drive over the weekend was a success.
“Overall, the collection went very well, we had a good turnout,” Corrigan said Sunday afternoon. “At all our locations people were very generous. We were very happy and we’re going to take a lot of good stuff down to North Carolina.”
Corrigan said now it is all about “”sorting everything that we gathered at the various locations and consolidate it and load it up on a truck.”
“When the driver’s available probably later this week, we’ll have it headed down to North Carolina,” he said.
In Aurora, Olson reported lots of volunteer help as well as plenty of items being donated on Saturday including hundreds of items from a mothers’ group from Glen Ellyn that collected more than a half dozen pallets of donations.
“We’re friends with a bunch of moms and other individuals that, whenever something happens, we try and help as best we can,” said Glen Ellyn resident Ashley Lindgren. “When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, we did the same thing. We got some trucks down there and so we wanted to do the same thing for North Carolina and we started putting this together.”
Lindgren said the effort began “about a week ago.”
“Everybody now could use help and it’s really amazing that when we have everybody coming together we can do big things,” she said. “Every little bit counts and when it all comes together it makes a really big impact. We had donations from at least 40 people.”
Olson has promised to come by her garage later this week “to pick up four skids that are loaded and shrink-wrapped,” she said.
Saturday morning saw a steady line of people dropping off donations at the Aurora Police Department headquarters at 1200 E. Indian Trail, where Olson was working.
Andrea Sanchez of Aurora dropped off a number of items saying that “a lot of these are things I haven’t used in a while and I think it’s better to go for something that is going to help, rather than sit here longer.”
“This is the first time I’ve done something like this and it feels good,” she said. “I posted something on my Snapchat encouraging more people to come down here.”
Olson recapped the effort on Monday morning, saying “things went really, really outstanding and we filled a 25-foot U-Haul truck that was there and needed another 15-foot truck.”
“We lasted until about 3 p.m. Saturday when things started dying down and I’ve still got voice mail messages on my phone from people who want to donate,” he said. “People were going to come back with stuff, and they couldn’t make it but they still want to donate.”
All of the collections will be unloaded and sorted in Geneva this week, Olson said, “where things will be processed and we’ll sort them out and get them on pallets and get them ready for shipping.”
“We’re doing that in the afternoons and evenings this week. We’re loading up and leaving on the 24th of October with at least one semi full and we’ll probably be well into the second semi by the 24th,” he said. “We’re waiting for that date for a number of different reasons including the roads opening and the need.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
