Healing Strides and North Cross School collaborate to support those impacted by Helene

Roanoke, Virginia – North Cross students volunteered to assist pack hundreds of donations that would be transported to Hurricane Helene victims, so they got an early start on Friday.

Armistead Lemon, the head of North Cross School, felt she had a team behind her that could assist after witnessing the destruction in North Carolina.

“We strive to be of service to others, so it was only natural for us to look for a partnership and work with someone who could deliver these materials to North Carolina,” Lemon said.

For a contribution campaign, Lemon and her team worked with Healing Strides of Virginia, a group that uses horses to assist individuals in overcoming obstacles in life.

According to Healing Strides volunteer DeeAnna Wright, who is transporting the items to North Carolina, “This will be the third trip down for the folks from Healing Strides and the need is overwhelming.” “We don’t hear about it enough. The people are incredibly grateful and modest, but they will want donations going forward.

Because donations from North Cross students, family, faculty, and the community filled two complete horse trailers, Healing Strides is not using any horses this time.

“I’m really happy with our neighborhood. We called, on Monday afternoon, I believe, and said, ‘We’re going to load a 24-foot trailer in 48 hours,’ Lemon recalled. “We knew we needed another one because we more than filled it, and to be honest, I think we could have gotten a third!”

However, kids continued to labor after collecting all of the donations. They also offered to assist with packing things with Healing Strides.

The upper-school SCA president, Dean Cote, a senior at North Cross, said, “I sent one text to our SCA group chat, and before you know it, 20 to 30 students were out here as well as many of our dorm kids.” “They came over and started helping right away when they got off the bus.”

It didn’t take long to pack everything up with everyone working together.

Pupils expressed their pride in all the effort they put into gathering and packaging the donations.

“We’re happy to be able to contribute in any small way to the rebuilding of these people, who have been devastated by these storms,” Cote added.

By the end of the day, the gifts will reach the residents of Newland, North Carolina.