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Rowan responds in big way to flood

BY ROSE POST
SALISBURY POST

And if they take enough for two plane loads, he'll send two planes, says Jack Neubacher, president of Chapter 1083 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which is sponsoring the Fly-In.

Neubacher's employees at Lane Punch Corp. just gathered four loads of food and supplies for people in the Greenville area, and delivered them Sunday in locally owned recreational planes.

Cooperation between Lane Punch employees and local pilots prompted a conversation between Bob Pegram, a member of the aircraft group, and the governor Tuesday afternoon, and Hunt offered the C-130s after Pegram offered to collect goods at the Fly-In.

The Fly-In will give people a chance at a close up look at planes and flight displays with free rides for children from 8 to 17 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday  --  and will certainly draw a crowd. Admission is free. Food will be available. And a dance Saturday evening will feature karaoke and DJ Jerry Nantz.  

"And Gov. Hunt said that if we get an airplane load of materials, he'll send a C-130 National Guard aircraft to the airport and take the materials down immediately," Neubacher says.

"We'll load anything anyone brings in boxes right away."

Neubacher said employees asked him how they could help the flood victims. "I said, ÔIf you collect some stuff, we'll get it down there for you,' and they put out a call for help and put together two pick-up trucks of stuff in two days  --  more than 1,000 pounds of diapers and cleaning supplies and water and non-perishable food items.

"And during their lunch hour, they boxed everything up and weighed it out and marked the boxes so the pilots could load their planes properly. And Sunday they delivered it all to the airport. And I'm as proud as toast of them, that's for sure."

Then the EAA Chapter collected still more supplies at the pancake breakfast they have on the last Sunday of each month at the Rowan County Airport.

"I asked them all to bring something to breakfast at the Eagle's Nest hangar," he says.

Two members of the chapter, Alfred Wilson of Salisbury, who took his daughter, Amanda, along, and Lewis Brown of Lexington, volunteered to fly the donations to the Rocky Mount-Wilson Airport to be distributed to the Greenville flood area.

Neubacher was going with them, and Dr. Robert Wilson saw him moving materials from the pickup trucks to the planes and volunteered, too. He knew how much the donations were needed without being told. His son, Tim, lives in Greenville, and his home was flooded and condemned.

South, North adopt Pitt school

South and North Rowan high schools have pooled efforts and adopted D.H. Conley High School in hard-hit Pitt County.

And they're asking people to bring donations of school supplies as well as other types of non-perishable supplies to the North-South football game Friday night.

In addition, South Principal Dr. Alan King said South students and boosters already have gathered more than $6,000 in contributions for flood victims, which will go to the Red Cross.

Students raised most of the money last week, which was Spirit Week at South, King said. The students raised more than $5,000 by selling 10-cent "spirit loops" which the students used to decorate the stadium.

During the homecoming game, South's Booster Club took donations and also donated the money raised from the weekly "split-the-pot" drawing.

For this week's game at North Rowan, North and South students, staff and boosters are collecting school supplies as well as household goods, such as cleaning supplies, baby care items and canned goods.

Officials at D.H. Conley High said the flood knocked a number of students  --  as well as the principal  --  out of their homes, and they need jeans and sweatshirts to  fit teen-agers.

King said Kenny Sides, a South parent, has donated the used of a truck to take the supplies to Pitt County over the weekend.

Though flood waters didn't invade Conley High, the devastation that struck the whole area has delayed the school reopening until Monday, King said.

"A lot of kids are out of homes. The principal's home was completely wiped out," King said. "They really are in need of help, but they haven't got a lot of personal help."

For more information, call South at 857-1161 or North at 636-4420.

More adoptions

Just exactly who's adopting who, Delores Morris, principal of North Rowan Elementary School, doesn't know.

But she does know the tragedy in eastern North Carolina caused by the flooding which followed Hurricane Floyd started an outpouring of generosity from Rowan-Salisbury students that is spreading quickly.   

"We saw a need," she says, when they saw pictures in the newspapers and on television, and heard how bad things were in Pitt County, so she called the board of education office there to see if North Elementary could help.

"They said yes, they needed help, and they were getting ready to meet with principals right then. And it wasn't but about two or three hours that Jackie Adams, the principal at Grifton Elementary School, called, and we made arrangements for North Elementary students to help Grifton students."

Other schools in the system heard what was happening and began to call North, and a pattern was set. Arlene Ferren in Pitt County's central office became the contact person, and Morris has given her name to everyone who's called about doing something, and she's matching schools who want to help with schools in need.  

"Bostian Elementary is going in with us to adopt Grifton Elementary," she says, and Cleveland, Morgan, Granite Quarry, Overton and Isenberg elementaries are being set up with other schools. "And we're getting a lot of supplies. The best scenario is that Grifton will open on Monday, so we'd like to get some things down there over the weekend."

And they can. The school has been promised use of a tractor trailer and a number of smaller trucks, so they'll have plenty of space for all the school supplies anyone wants to send, she says, "and we'll be glad to take anything anyone wants to give us."  Grifton and the others will need pencils, pens, pencil grips, file folders, pocket folders, glue or glue sticks, tape, erasers, notebook paper, composition books, rulers, compasses, protractors, crayons, colored pencils, construction paper, index cards of all sizes, notebooks, pencil pouches, book bags, plastic bags, tissues, notebook dividers, highlighters and markers.

Anyone who wants to contribute money may send checks made out to North Rowan Elementary School, Morris says, and she will send someone to buy school supplies with the donations.

If schools aren't adopting, they're collecting money and food. Corriher-Lipe's student council has initiated a collection at their school. So far, students already have collected $1,200, as well as canned goods and water.

Adopting dogs and cats

The Rowan Animal Clinic is responding to a fax from the N.C. Veterinary Medical Association, according to Stacey Hanf, receptionist.

"They wanted to know if we could temporarily house animals. People temporarily out of housing themselves have no place for their animals."

So Rowan Animal Clinic has offered six runs for dogs and six cages for small dogs or cats.

"We don't have the staff available to get them brought in," she says, "but perhaps the staff from other areas can bring them to us. We do have space. So if they can find a way to get them to us, we'll board them for up to a month for no charge because the owners have enough to worry about."

The clinic is also donating about 100 leashes.

Wellington Hills

Jim Summers of Woodleaf came home shocked at what he'd seen after going down east with a disaster crew from the North Carolina Baptist Men that worked at a feeding station for four days immediately after Hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina.

And he told his mother, Vae Summers, and other residents of Wellington Hills what he'd seen. Mary Saleeby hand-delivered a letter to residents about contributions. The result was three large pickup trucks full of things for the flood victims delivered to the Rowan Baptist Association,  which took donations from all over the county there Sunday.

Housing Authority

The Rowan County Housing  Authority is accepting donations of non-perishable foods, personal supplies, sleeping bags, soap, toothbrushes, toilet tissue, water and similar supplies between 9:30 a.m. and noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. at its 310 Long Meadow Drive location in Salisbury.

Anyone who has trouble getting donations to that address should call James Montgomery at 633-8380, extension 20.

Here come the dump trucks

The city of Salisbury is sending of four city operators and four dump trucks to Tarboro to help in that stricken city's cleanup. The crew and equipment will leave early Thursday morning and could be gone for up to a week.

The N.C. League of Municipalities is coordinating the mutual aid effort among cities. Salisbury signed a statewide emergency management assistance agreement several years ago to help in these kinds of situations.

"Even if there wasn't an agreement in place, it's the right thing to do," Public Services Director Vernon Sherrill said.

Staff writer Mark Wineka and Frank DeLoache contributed to this article.