While enjoying victories on both the field and the court, Pendleton County student-athletes showed how to win in the game of life as well.
Wildcat football and volleyball players as teams helped to collect and load supplies bound for mountain communities stricken by the impact of Hurricane Helene.
According to Rachel and Mike Eason, the football squad joined an effort that stretched from Franklin through Brandywine to Harrisonburg, Virginia. On Monday, the Easons delivered supplies to Signature Aviation International, a private airport hangar in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then supplies would be dropped to people who could not get out due to roads being washed out.
A number of churches, individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations came together for the effort, donating supplies, as well as monetary donations. Football players, wearing shirts with “a map of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina with a heart over them that said Appalachian Strong,” loaded the supplies onto the Eason’s trailer.
The volleyball team served up time and effort to set up a table which quickly filled with supplies that helped to spike the massive need created by the destruction of the storm. Marlena Beachler and Tammy Trail coordinated with Rockingham Cooperative ACE Hardware in Monterey, Virginia, which was delivering supplies to hurricane victims. Team members collected donations for more than a week, then loaded up both the bed and the back of a pickup truck cab with supplies, which were delivered to Monterey, Virginia.
Rachel Eason, as well as the volleyball team, expresses gratitude and appreciation to everyone who helped make the donation drives successful.