Blytheville citizens pitching in to help tornado victims

Volunteers and organizations across the community are stepping forward to help Sunday's tornado victims, collecting donations and supplies to be taken to the affected areas later in the week.

After Sunday night's tornado that ripped through the towns of Vilonia and Mayflower, located just north of Little Rock, social media sites were flooded with messages saying "Pray for Arkansas" and "Pray for Vilonia," but many local citizens are now taking action to help those affected by the powerful storms.

"It started for me trying to get some water and stuff gathered up to take down there -- I have family in that area, and once I started hearing more about what had happened, I wanted to help," said Terry Byrd Jr., who's been collecting donations for the victims. "I just put a little post out to my friends saying I was going to be getting donations and taking them down in my car on Saturday. That snowballed, and within minutes, I had people offering to help -- dropoff points and volunteers and people offering to work."

Since Byrd's initial post, he said he has received an incredible response from local citizens and businesses offering to help in various ways, including generous donations from Nucor and Tenaris as well as the donation of a 53-foot tractor-trailer, a semi-truck and fuel to make the delivery on Saturday. Walmart, Kroger, Air Evac and Sammy Williams' Auction have all offered to serve as dropoff points for donations.

Byrd said volunteers will be out collecting donations from 9 a.m.-9 p.m., or whenever people stop coming, through Friday night, which will be delivered on Saturday. Nonperishable food, water, clothing, soap, toothpaste, cleaning wipes, blankets and diapers are all needed, along with cleanup supplies for rescue workers such as rakes, shovels and gloves. But Byrd said they aren't turning away anything someone wants to donate.

"We're already starting to fill the truck with Gatorade, water and diapers and stuff, and we'll keep going even if the truck is full, even if we have to take a convoy of trucks down there," Byrd said. "We're not turning away anything. If someone brings a bag of dog food, it's going in the truck because they have displaced pets down there too. So whatever we get is going down to these people who have lost almost everything."

Byrd said the situation really hit home for him and inspired him to help, not only because of the family he has in that area, but because Vilonia and Mayflower are a lot like Blytheville and Gosnell in relation to one another.

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Pam Knapp-Carver, executive director with the Northeast Arkansas Red Cross, said the Red Cross is also actively involved in the cleanup effort. The local chapter sent two volunteers and an emergency vehicle down to help out, and the organization has been providing meals and has two shelters open in the area and are supporting four others.

Knapp-Carver said donations can be taken or mailed to the Red Cross office at 630 W. Main St. People can also make donations online at www.redcross.org/arkansas or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS.

"We encourage anyone to contribute money so it's there for us in situations like this so we can help out and respond to these emergencies," she said.

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Pilgrim Rest MB Church is also serving a a dropoff spot for donations to support the tornado relief effort. Items needed are hand sanitizer, baby diapers, baby wipes, water, personal hygiene items, soap, toothbrushes, underwear, blankets, socks, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo and non-perishable food items.

Items can be taken to the church, located at 809 E. Main (formerly Aldersgate Methodist Church) by Friday. They will be delivered Saturday. Monitory donations are also sought, and will be given to Regions Bank in Conway or the America Red Cross.

For more, call the Rev. Frederick Clay at 870-281-6886.

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Hubbard & Hoke Furniture, located at 401 W. Main St., is also accepting donations for the Red Cross through Friday.

cpinkard@blythevillecourier.com