Helping our neighbors
Robin and Travis Williams collected enough donations for the flood victims in West Virginia to fill a semi. Cortney Ringwalt | Beacon
COSHOCTON – When Robin Williams started collecting items for the flood victims in West Virginia, she never imagined she’d need a semi to get it all there, but that’s exactly what happened.
“People are so amazing,” she said.
Williams was born and raised in West Virginia, but now lives in Coshocton with her husband Travis.
“This has gone like wildfire,” Robin said. “My sister lives in Canton and ‘The Repository’ got a hold of her and did a big article and then everyone started getting involved.”
She has family in Canton, but also still has several relatives who live in West Virginia, including a cousin who she first learned about the flooding from while she was working out of state as a traveling nurse.
This is one of the scenes Cindy Gray saw while delivering supplies to flood victims in West Virginia. This pile of debris was flooded onto the highways and had to be pushed off it and loaded onto dump trucks. Contributed | Beacon
“He had posted ‘pray for us there is lots of flooding,’” Robin said. “I got home and got on Facebook and started looking at pictures and my heart just sank. I never dreamed it would be that bad. I couldn’t get a hold of any family and started worrying, but my cousin got a hold of me and I found out everyone was ok. The devastation was beyond words though and I wasn’t going to let my hometown people starve to death.”
Her family in Canton gathered donations and friends where she has worked in Iowa also made donations. Soon she had so much stuff gathered that Three River Fire Department donated one of its bays for storage and Coshocton Trucking donated a semi to haul it down to West Virginia.
“We were going to supply the fuel, but Dusty (from Coshocton Trucking) said don’t worry about a dime,” Robin said. “I just wanted to cry. I didn’t want to have to turn down donations because so many people don’t have homes anymore. My county (Clay County, W.Va.) has no money. People work every day down there just to survive and a lot of them don’t even have insurance.”
Larene Debnar-Hall, her son, grandson and French foreign exchange student took a vehicle full of supplies to a relief center in West Virginia where they pitched in and helped hand out supplies to flood victims. Contributed | Beacon
Volunteers helped Robin and her husband load up the semi early last week and it headed out for West Virginia on July 14.
“We are going to go down and deliver the stuff and not just help Clay County,” Robin said. “Anyone who needs anything we will do what we can. This (collecting donations) has gone like wildfire and we are just overly blessed.”
Some people also donated money and Robin plans to write Ellen DeGeneres to see if she will match it and ask Lowe’s and Home Depot if they will match it to help buy supplies so people can rebuild their homes.
“We are going to do the best we can to help everyone,” Robin said. “I can’t rebuild everyone’s homes, but maybe I can give them a tent to sleep in and supplies to get them through while they work on their house. I couldn’t do any of this though without everyone’s help.”
Robin isn’t the only person from Coshocton who took it upon herself to help the flood victims in West Virginia. Shawn Dostie and Adrian Padilla worked with auctioneer friends of Dostie’s to take a truckload of supplies down.
Here is a picture of flood damage in West Virginia that Shawn Dostie took when he and Adrian Padilla delivered a box truck full of supplies to the flood victims down there. Contributed | Beacon
“We were nine miles east of Charleston in Clendenin,” Dostie said. “It looked like a war zone. There were concrete, rebar bridges that were gone, houses were off their foundation and at the high school the water had gone up to the second floor. There was nothing on Main Street. The waterline was up to the ceiling on these buildings.”
However, Dostie didn’t see anyone whining and complaining.
“They were filly and shin deep in mud, but they just kept shoveling and working to put their lives back together,” he said.
Larene Debnar-Hall, who grew up in Rayland, Ohio, which is not far from West Virginia, also took it upon herself to help.
“Often times we see horrific things happen but they are too far away for us to be much assistance and this (the flooding in West Virginia) wasn’t so I felt like I had to,” she said.
Hall loaded her car up with supplies and took her 14-year-old son, 14-year-old French exchange student and 10-year-old grandson to West Virginia with her to help the flood victims.
“I thought it would be a fantastic learning experience for them,” she said. “You see things on TV, see pictures and hear things, but to see them in person is just a different experience. I thought it would really hit home for them. I’m a travel agent so my son has seen many places and I want him to have the finer things in life and encourage him to do well and work hard, but I also want him to learn the value of giving back. Nothing feels better than giving back to someone. I also wanted our French exchange student to go home and be able to say, ‘Wow American people do pull together and work to help each other out.’”
Hall figured out what people needed and where to take her items with the help of a travel client and friend who lives close to Charleston, W.Va. She had trouble finding the relief center she intended to deliver her donations to, but found one right off the highway that was just as in need of supplies. Her original purpose for stopping there was to get directions, but no one could tell her how to get to her destination or what roads were open.
“I asked them if they were good and they said they needed help horribly,” Hall said. “We unloaded our car and joined their assembly line to help fill buckets with food and cleaning supplies.”
Everyone they met was grateful for the help they received and Hall said not one person was greedy.
“When we left they even tried to send pizza and chips with the boys,” she said. “They were just so grateful we stopped and helped, but I told them I could stop on the way home and feed the boys. I didn’t want to take their things.”
While in West Virginia, they also drove down into Clendenin to see the flood damage first hand.
“The first corner we came to there was a pharmacy, a church and a 7-11 that had no windows or doors,” Hall said. “They were gutted. The water had rushed down at such a rapid pace that it went through buildings and washed the contents out. There were church pews in a heaping pile and mountains of refrigerators, stoves, carpets and other items.”
Hall has taken a lot of trips, but said this is one she will never ever forget.
“I’ve done a lot with the boys, but this is by far the most meaningful,” she said. “We were hot and dirty, but couldn’t even think of a reason to be unhappy.
Cindy Gray, who works with the non-profit group Perry Twp. Search & Rescue, also provided supplies to the flood victims.
“I don’t even have the words to explain what it was like when we went down,” she said. “It’s just total devastation and total lost. They need so much help and prayer. I urge anyone that has the time and ability to go down and help. They need it.”
Gray, whose stepfather is buried in one of the areas hit badly by the flooding, said her heart just sank when she took her first trip down to deliver donations.
“Houses had to have been completely submerged in water because it was that high,” she said. “Some people can’t even get to roads. I knew of one older gentleman who needed water, medical supplies and food and they had to walk it in to him. An ambulance couldn’t get to him.”
Like all the others who worked to gather supplies to take to West Virginia, Gray appreciates people’s donations.
“They took my breath away,” she said.
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