HOMERVILLE, Ga. — People who have endured tragedies have come forward to help others who are in desperate need now.
For two days, First Coast News and the Jacksonville stations of iHeart radio collected donations and supplies for those hardest hit by Hurricane Milton in the Tampa Bay area. Locals brought supplies that filled up seven trucks, 52 pallets and weighed more than 108,000 pounds.
The supply drive was organized by iHeart Media Jacksonville's WQIK-FM 99.1 and First Coast News.
Drivers from Kroger Delivery, Fenwick’s Air Conditioning and Waychoff’s Air Conditioning made their way to Ocala to deliver the goods to Volunteer Florida. Volunteer Florida administers national service programs. The items collected over 48 hours at the Markets at Town Center in Jacksonville will be sorted, palletized and available for Red Cross and Feeding Tampa Bay.
At the Storm Aid donation drop-off site Monday and Tuesday at the Markets at Town Center, donations for those hurt by Hurricane Milton poured in.
Paul Fulton is the pastor at First Baptist Church of Homerville, Georgia.
He drove up to the donation drive with a van filled to the roof with donations. His community is fresh off the heels of hardship.
"We were hit by Helene. Our community was hit pretty hard," Fulton said.
Homerville had no power and no water for more than a week. One member of his church even died in the storm.
"While we were dealing with all of that, people started pouring in stuff form all over Georgia into our community," Fulton said.
He and his church shared those donations with people in need in Homerville and the surrounding area.
"Then it came to a point where the power came back on. Sores came back online. And people didn't need those items any more," Fulton said.
The church had a surplus of supplies, so Fulton took the boxes and bags of food, personal hygiene, and cleaning supplies to Jacksonville so they could be trucked to people hardest hit by Milton in Tampa. "I told our people there's no reason for us to hang on to all of this stuff and we just need to pay it forward."
The Motsinger family also had a car full of supplies to donate. They brought more than "200 pounds worth of food and hygiene products and over 700 diapers," Kelly Motsinger beamed.
But, she cried when she carried the diapers out of the car.
When asked why, she teared up again. "We just lost our son. He was still born back in May. So all of the diapers were donated in his name. His name was Milo. So if our tragedy can help someone else, that’s wonderful thing to do."
It’s that experience of hurting… that often taps into the spirit of generosity.
Fulton said it well, "There’s a lot of hurting people, and if you have the opportunity to bless those, do your best to bless."