Columbia State Community College, in partnership with United Farm and Home Co-op and numerous other community partners, donated bottled water and supplies to Hurricane Helene relief efforts in East Tennessee.

“The tragic weather events in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina have left many of us wondering what we could do to provide meaningful assistance,” said Dr. Dearl Lampley, Columbia State vice president for the Williamson Campus and external services. “One staff member had a vision on how to help. On Monday, Sept. 30, Tim Clark, Columbia State CDL instructor, requested permission to use the college CDL training truck to pick up and deliver water to the area. He received permission from President Smith the next day and by Wednesday he had commitments for two semi-trailer loads of water. He also made arrangements to deliver the water over the weekend. Tim is to be commended for his humanitarian efforts and prompt action.”

On Saturday, Oct 5, two 53-foot semi-trailers and one 24-foot enclosed trailer headed to Greeneville and Newport, Tennessee, to deliver much-needed aid, including nearly 70,000 bottles of water.

“Our trip to East Tennessee to take the supplies that our wonderful folks from Middle Tennessee very graciously donated, and are continuing to donate, was a really eye-opening experience for the team of six that worked hard to gather, sort, load and deliver supplies,” said Timothy Clark, Columbia State CDL instructor. “We met some amazing people with the biggest hearts who have assembled a large team of volunteers that have been working around the clock to distribute, cook, recover, repair, build temporary roads—really anything you can imagine. If there is a way, they are making it happen.”

Helene, a deadly category 4 hurricane, made landfall September 26 in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Helene caused catastrophic flooding and damaging winds across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.

In addition to bottled water donations collected from Columbia State faculty, staff and students; the College also donated five pallets of sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer and rubber gloves.

Monetary donations and supplies were also collected at United Farm and Home Co-op. Through these donations, volunteers were able to purchase pet and livestock feed, including one pallet of dog and cat food, two pallets of horse and cow feed, and one pallet of mixed feed. Other donations included two cases of socks, new clothes and shoes, canned goods, diapers, baby formula, electric battery chainsaws and many other items.

Special thanks for United Farm and Home Co-op for the use of two semi-trucks to transport the water.

Additional thanks to our community partners, including:

Gray’s Mulching & Excavating
Carmack Pawn & Sales
D&D Towing
Old School Moves
TLP Enterprises
Metro Door
Bargain Hunt – Columbia
Dunavant’s Body Shop
R&R Distributing
Peden Construction
Rogers Group
Ted, Vicky & Joanna Morrow
Dr. Hunter Morrow
Custom Tint & Offroad
Duck River Marine
Lewis County Bank
Barber Oil Company
DFS Diesel Repair
Heath Fitzgerald
Bassham Excavating
Mike Walters
J.P. Patterson
Tommy Owens
Talisha Pruitt
Austin Pruitt
Jimmy Upshaw
Mr. Hancock
Samantha Reinoehl
James & Darlene Wisdom
Kimberly Clark and Colton Pigg
Tony Potts
Keith Farmer
Christian Cahill
The Faded Farmhouse
And many more!