Virginia Tech Hokies helping victims of Hurricane Helene

Blacksburg, Virginia – Students at Virginia Tech are contributing to the efforts to assist in the recovery of their hometowns following Hurricane Helene.

A sophomore from Asheville, North Carolina, is named Alex Frank.

Many residents in his hometown and the surrounding areas are still without access to power or water, and the area has been completely wrecked.

“Seeing the places I knew and loved and the place I grew up in not really existing anymore is sad,” Alex remarked.

He was afraid something had happened to his family when the storm came and he was unable to get in touch with them.

“When I attempted to call my mother, the call went straight to voicemail. Both my dad’s and my sister’s calls ended up in voicemail when I called them. This doesn’t look good, I thought. The last time Alex heard from them was on Saturday morning, despite having texted them all day.

Alex saw right away how dire things were and that he couldn’t afford to do anything but try to support his community while he was in Blacksburg.

He and his friend Durant Parker-Ashe launched the “Hokies for Hurricane Relief” project, which includes donation drives and a GoFundMe with a $10,000 target.

“We want to give whatever we receive from people directly as part of the food and supply campaigns. As soon as the roads are open again, we’re going to utilize our own cars to go down and pick things up,” Durant declared.

Hokies for Hurricane Relief has already received thousands of dollars in donations in addition to hundreds of things.

According to Durant and Alex, they will also use the supplies and cash donated for towns in Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, and other Appalachian states that were severely affected.

Frank stated, “We’re just going to keep fighting and keep helping the people out the best we can. It’s going to take a long time to rebuild that whole area.”