Carolina Care A Van leaves for Asheville

SCRANTON — Two tractors were all packed up with necessary supplies and ready to go to Asheville, North Carolina, from Gerrity’s Supermarket in the Keyser Oak Plaza. By noon on Thursday, they were on their way to provide hurricane relief.

Times-Shamrock Media organized the Carolina Care A Van to deliver donations to hurricane victims in hard-hit areas. Several local businesses and organizations stepped up to support the effort, including Gerrity’s Fresh Grocer stores in NEPA, Gerrity’s Ace Hardware stores, The Rotary Club of The Abington’s, Us Hydrations, PepsiCo of Pittston, Village Pet Supplies of Luzerne, Road Scholar Trucking, Bolus Freight Lines of Scranton

Radio stations, including Rock 107, 92 Mix Fm, Sports Radio WEJL, and Fuzz 96.1, encouraged listeners to stop by local Gerrity’s stores and purchase a Carolina Care Package that included supplies of peanut butter, paper towels, baby wipes, soup packets, hygiene items and other supplies requested by the Manna Food Pantry who will handle distribution of the supplies in the areas affected by the flooding.

Gerrity’s sold over 1,500 packages during the collection period and the trucks were loaded up with Gerrity’s products.

“We partnered with Rock 107 in the past for the Kentucky Care A Van Drive, so this time, we kind of had all the pieces in place,” said Joe Fasula, co-owner of Gerrity’s the Fresh Grocer. “Literally the same minute I was talking to staff about doing something for hurricane relief, (Terry Dietz, Senior Vice President and Market Manager for Times-Shamrock Media) called me about this and I said — ‘Let’s do it’.”

Additionally, US Hydrations in the Grimes Industrial Park in Pittston in cooperation with one of their contract partners provided 23 pallets of bottled water to the cause. PepsiCo in Pittston also added donations of Gatorade and Pepsi products as well.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Terry Dietz. Whenever there’s a disaster, water is always one of the first things they need,” said Joe Lapchak of US Hydrations. “We’re happy to do it.”

Bolus Freight Lines of Scranton and Road Scholar Trucking each provided a truck with a driver eager to make the trek and make a difference. Fred Simmons of Bolus and Rosa Vargas of Road Scholar Trucking will drive about 700 miles and plan to arrive in Asheville on Friday.

“It’s a long trip but I’m excited to do this,” said Vargas.

Kelly Barrett with Road Scholar Trucking said the area surrounding Asheville was hit hard by Hurricane Helene and there’s very little viable water. She said the people of NEPA were very motivated to give and she hopes this will bring North Carolina a bit of relief.

Steve Selige, president of the Rotary Club of the Abingtons, said that Dietz recruited them to set up collection points for donations, including the Gerrity’s in Clarks Summit and other hotspots. He said their members took two-hour shifts collecting donations and raising awareness over the last three weeks.

“This ties in a lot with our mission for Rotary International,” said Selige. “We had people there throughout the week letting others know what we were doing.”

Village Pet Supplies in Luzerne also collected over 40 cases of needed pet supplies to be shipped along with the 41 other pallets. The store conducted a pet supply collection at their location in the Gerrity’s Plaza Luzerne.

“When it comes to helping people that are dealing with hardship, the people of NEPA are always ready to lend a hand,” said Terry Deitz. “We are so proud of our partners in this project for saying yes to help those in need, but also our listeners on our radio stations for stepping up and pitching in to make this drive a success. Helping people that we don’t even know is just something that shows what our area is all about.”