11/14/2024
The Holiday season is upon us and there will be many opportunities to help communities that were devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. My SAR unit, Southern Star Search & Rescue SoS-SAR, has chosen to help by participating in "Operation Christmas Hope".
Please continue to read below about Operation Christmas Hope and how you can help us!
This past Saturday at the Alabama Association of Rescue Squads (which SoS-SAR is a proud member of) Annual Convention, Board of Directors meeting, the Childersburg Rescue Squad (Jim Dennis) presented to the AARS BOD a need to provide immediate assistance to the town of Mountain City, TN.
Mountain City is a very small town (Pop ~ 2,100) that was devastated by Hurricane Helene. Homes, churches, businesses, schools, gas stations and other normal services that we take for granted are gone. Members of the Childersburg Rescue Team assisted with relief efforts and Tony Dicky, with Disaster Victim Services International, is providing support services to the community. Many in the community no longer have jobs as the companies they worked for no longer exist. In talking with Tony Dicky, he stated that there have been several teen suicides since the hurricane that he believes can be attributed to the state of overall depression affecting the community. A Mountain City Long-Term Development Committee has been established to provide overall help.
An AARS community assistance project has been created that is called, “Operation Christmas Hope”. The goal is to provide unwrapped Christmas toys to all the children of Mountain City TN. There will be two toy collection centers in Alabama, Childersburg Rescue Squad in Childersburg, AL and Lower Alabama Search & Rescue in Lillian, AL. Toys will be collected until 12/15/2024, and then centralized in Childersburg by 12/17/2024. The Childersburg Rescue Squad will deliver all the toys to Mountain City where they will be organized at a single point for distribution to families on 12/21/2024. The family distribution plan is being organized and run by a pastor in Mountain City.
Southern Star Search & Rescue SoS-SAR is supporting Operation Christmas Hope!
There are a few things you can do to help us…
1. If you wish to purchase unwrapped toys, go for it!! Get them over to LASAR by 12/15. 34247 Barclay Ave, Lillian, AL, United States, Alabama.
2. Southern Star SAR will accept monetary donations for toy purchases through our teams PayPal account until December 10th. The QR code is on the attached flyer. A group of us on the team will then play Santa’s Elves and go Christmas shopping to purchase toys and get them over to LASAR by 12/15.
We all know how busy we all are this time of year with our families, the holidays and everything else that goes on in our worlds.
There are families in Mountain City that are in deep need of support and can really use help …. Perhaps we can make a difference for the children and families in Mountain City this Holiday Season!!