It’s been over a month since Hurricane Helene…

Thank you all for your generous donations of supplies and your time to help the victims of hurricane Helene in both Georgia and North Carolina. As time passes, we anticipate the needs changing and shifting in focus. Since the storms hit, here is a high-level update of what our church and community has accomplished to help and serve those who have lost so much:

• We filled our church trailer with pallets of water just 2 days after Helene hit and transported it all to Wesley UMC in the Augusta area
• Our church collected donations in excess of $12,000 last month to be used throughout the affected areas to bring relief and hope to people in need.
• The North GA Conference was able to deploy cleaning buckets to affected areas, resulting in a depletion of all assets. Our church was able to use funds given generously by you to fill 50 buckets ($75 each) and build 100 hygiene kits (roughly $10 each).
• We’ve spent 2 Saturdays cleaning up debris in the Augusta Area with Emergency Response teams across the region. We joined forces with UMCOR and local residents to help people remove trees and debris to begin the long process of rehabilitating homes back to livable conditions.
• Over 70 bags of clothing have been sorted and donated to families in South Georgia and Western North Carolina
• The Friends in Faith Bible Study created 50 “Joy Kits” for kids and 100 peanut butter sandwiches to distribute in South Georgia
• Our own Madison Morgan Community Food Pantry was depleted due to increased needs from people seeking refuge in our community and the main food supplier distribution hub being destroyed by flooding. Your donations of food and generous giving were able to help stock the shelves to stay open another week.
• Speaking of community, our church joined the Morgan County Area Disaster Relief group, becoming a donation hub for the community to continue to support the areas hit the hardest in our region.

We will continue to focus our missions on hurricane disaster relief as we move through the month of November. We plan on continuing to donate our time, resources and prayers to help families get back on their feet during this time of crisis. As the holidays are approaching, let’s think of how different are they going to look for so many families this year.

In Christ,
Your Madison First UMC Staff

Link to give online through our church here.