CHARLOTTE — Santa’s sleigh is getting a little help from a convoy of Jeeps and others in western North Carolina this December.
Neal Ashburn with RevFast and Trace Lanier Hall with Wicked Jeeps NC are partnering with Operation Helo to help kids in WNC after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
It’s an effort they’re calling Toys4WNC, and they’ve already set up over 100 different spots in North Carolina and South Carolina to collect toys.
“We want to give these kids a Christmas they’ve never experienced before,” Ashburn told Channel 9′s Eli Brand.
[ ALSO READ: Veteran-owned military surplus store reopens after Hurricane Helene, on Veterans Day ]
Dozens of boxes of toys are already piled up at Rev Fast in Mooresville, and they’ll be taking donations until Dec. 14. That’s when the toys will be taken to the West Yancey Fire Department, where parents can gather gifts for their children.
They’re calling it The Great Toy Convoy.
“Once you start with the giving and once you start seeing the faces and how appreciative they are and how much they truly need it, that feeling inside of you makes you want to do more,” Hall told Brand.
This isn’t the first initiative these two have put together to help families in need. Since Helene hit, they have helped donate 116 campers full of supplies to people who lost their homes. They also sent pallets of supplies and made over two dozen humanitarian trips to the mountains.
“Every time we’ve got up we’ve seen more needs. It went from rescue mission to housing, to putting roofs over their head, to now Operation Helo is doing a big Thanksgiving meal,” Ashburn said. “It’s just going to the next need and these families need so much. They’ve lost everything.”
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If you want to donate, here’s where Ashburn and Hall have set up dropboxes to help. You can also donate online at this link.
- Mattress Express
- K9 Cabins
- Revfast
- Carolina Custom
- Parks Jeep and Dodge Ram
- 7 Tuffy Automotive locations
- LKN Family Medicine
- Interstate Cycles
- Streetside Classics Concord
- Trump National Golf Course
- Hoptown Brewing
- One health Mooresville
- Shepherds Fire Department
- Shepherd Elementary school
- Mac’s Speed Shop Cornelius
- 11 Lakes brewery
- LKN Humane
- Southern Charm Winery
- Cornelius Police Department
- Cornelius Elementary School
- Outlaw Off-road Charlotte
- Essential aesthetics and Laser
- Lazer Engraving Specialists
- JLS Machine Inc.
- Ivester Jackson Mooresville
- Chroma Salon Cornelius
- Salon Sabeli, Cornelius
- Badger Hauling
- Ranside veterinary office
- Miss and Black salon
- Rowells Trucking
- Hendrick Lexus Charlotte
- KMS Auto Repair Center
- Stegall Produce
- Slim Chickens Monroe
- Screwmasters
- In the Wind Bar, Huntersville
- Lowe’s Corporate
- First National Bank, Mooresville, and Charlotte
- UNC Charlotte
- The Man Cave on Main
- Down South on Main
- Great Dane
- Jays on the lake
- The Legion Huntersville
- Shoals Bar and Grill
- The Brakes at ZMax
- Primal 4 x 4 Charlotte
- Race City Marine Mooresville
- The Thrasher Group Gastonia
- Independence Mazda, Charlotte
- Waffle House, Mooresville
- Charlotte Golf Carts
- Hunter Wrecker
- Fussy Faces in Midland
- Helen Adams Realty
- Cabo Fish Taco locations
(VIDEO: Undefeated western NC football team uplifts community hit hard by Helene)
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