SWU helps with tornado relief
Gerald Crowe, Robin and Joy Bryant, and Jean Beard load an Oklahoma-bound truck with items donated for tornado victims and those involved in cleanup efforts. Behind the Bryants is Victoria Brewer of Anderson, winner of the Miss Woodmen of the World Scholarship Pageant representing Greenwood.
More than 10,000 much-needed items were loaded onto a truck bound for Oklahoma June 30, thanks to a partnership between Southern Wesleyan University and the South Carolina District of The Wesleyan Church.
Items were collected at Southern Wesleyan University, Faith Wesleyan Church and Pickens View Wesleyan Church. Abilene Motor Express coordinated stops at Faith Wesleyan, located near North Myrtle Beach and Pickens View Wesleyan, located near Pickens.
“This is a true example of a community coming together with more than a dozen churches, businesses and community groups in the Upstate donating time, money and supplies,” said Joy Bryant, executive director of alumni and constituent relations at Southern Wesleyan.
Approximately 10,000 items were donated, including first aid, blankets, baby supplies, non-perishable foods and 16 pair of steel-toed work boots.
Area businesses joining in the effort included Home Depot, Bi-Lo, Ace Hardware, Woodmen of America and Brock’s Department Store. More than 100 Upstate residents urged their neighbors, church friends and families to give to Oklahomans devastated by the tornadoes. Senior Citizens brought bags of supplies, youth helped pack boxes and children brought items every day to area vacation Bible schools. Also, offerings collected by children enrolled in VBS went toward shipping the supplies by way of Abilene Motor Express.
Bryant noted that this effort crossed denominational lines. Baptists, Wesleyans, and Church of God members “joined hands and hearts to send a little bit of Southern hospitality out West.”
“Little is much when God is in it,” Bryant said as she closed the door of the truck, bound for May Avenue Wesleyan Church in Oklahoma City.