Operation Love and Hope from California Collects 750 Boxes of Clothes for Families Hurt by Hurricane Helene
In which I revisit favorite news pieces from 2024
Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on November 19, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.
“What started out as an idea the size of a mustard seed grew to way more than my sister and I could have ever dreamed of,” Theresa Berner said.
Berner and her sister Cathy Bernardi organized Operation Love and Hope from California in response to the devastating hurricane Helene’s impact in North Carolina. “What started out as a tiny movement has exploded into a nationwide race to get as much clothing as possible to the victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.”
Volunteers sorted, folded, and stacked bins and bins of clothes throughout the day on November 2, filling a truck the Berners would drive from November 7 to 13 with clothing donations for the hurricane families.
Two sisters come together to make a difference, and the effect ripple throughout the country.
It began on Chief Berner’s on-call weekend. The couple stays home on those weekends, and while at home, Theresa Berner tackles her house cleaning chores. She noticed the spare coats in her closet and thought of the victims of Hurricane Helem. She called Lauren Holmes who lives in South Carolina, right on the border and said, “I have all these coats. Do you think any of the hurricane families might use this?”
Holmes responded immediately, “Yes, they have lost everything.”
At first, Berner thought she would box the items up and mail them. “I wish I had a way to send more. But mail is expensive,” she told her cousin.
Holmes, who has connections between California and North Carolina through NASCAR, made a few phone calls and told Berner that if she could collect the clothes, they would find a way to get them to North Carolina.
Bernardi took care of the social media and promotions.
The first clothing drive was on October 26 in Riverbank. At the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Station #26, they collected three hundred boxes of clothing. Starbucks Coffee at Crossroads Shopping Center donated coffee. Pizza Plus donated lunch to the volunteers. Volunteers came from STARS, family friends, and consolidated firefighter families.
The word continued to spread. On November 2, there would be another collection in Hughson at the fire station. “Word got out to the community. Donations started coming in left and right. I work for Waterford Unified School District. The superintendent put a collection bin at each school site. I collected three to four pick-up loads that families and staff dropped off.”
At Hughson Fire Station, they collected 450 boxes.
Del Monte loan peach bins for sorting. Pacific Southwest Container in Modesto donated new boxes to pack the clothes. Twenty-five volunteers from Hughson FFA to firefighters, families, friends, Ag teachers, people Berner had never met, who saw the post and came to help.
Nama’s Kitchen, owned by Jamie Ellak and J&J Fruit Stand, donated cookies and scones. Coco’s Taqueria donated a lunch of enchiladas, rice, beans, chips, and salsa for each volunteer. BMR Napa Racing loaned them his trailer to haul the boxes.
“It was truly a community support group,” Berner said. “My sister Cathy and I are just overwhelmed. What started out the size of a mustard seed idea was that I cleaned out a closet just mushroom to way beyond – we never expected it.”
Both had visited North Carolina before. “It’s a beautiful area, and the people are welcoming and friendly. That may be what hit us in our hearts. We've been there,” Berner said. “We wanted to help, but we’re so far away we can't put the boots on the ground, so when Lauren said if you collected this clothing, we’d get it to them. We never expected to collect this amount of clothing.”
On Wednesday, November 13, Berner and her husband delivered the clothing donations to a town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
The clothes will be handed out at a community Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day, coordinated by Holmes.
“After we offloaded the boxes, we ate lunch at a local restaurant, Pig & Gritts Barbecue, where we were visiting with some local folks and told them what brought us to their town. They were so surprised that we drove all the way from California, the number of boxes of clothes we collected, and the number of volunteers and local community support we had. One lady had tears in her eyes, and several locals said, ‘Thank you so very much. We definitely need them.’”
Berner continued, “We saw firsthand the power of Mother Nature and the destruction it did. We also witnessed a community where, even though they have lost so much, they unite as one and are working together to clear debris off and continue living. This has mostly definitely been a moving and humbling experience that I will never forget.”
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