EASTPOINT, Fla. (WTXL) - When times get hard in the Big Bend, the community comes together to help in a major way.
"It may be a wildfire in Franklin yesterday, but it may be a hurricane in your community tomorrow," said Rachel Sutz Pienta, Wakulla County 4-H Program Director.
The Wakulla County 4-H club is one of a handful of groups and businesses collecting donations for the dozens of Franklin County families who lost their homes in the Lime Rock Wildfire.
"We're neighbors. This is our larger community of the Big Bend area," said Pienta. "In Wakulla County, when we've had things happen, floods, hurricanes, etc., the community has rallied to help us. Now it's our turn to help them."
That's why Jada McElroy and her Crawfordville family dropped off donations at the Wakulla County 4-H office Monday afternoon.
"They're in need. They lost everything," said McElroy. "We just so happened to have a bunch of clothes to get rid of, so we packed a bunch of stuff including food and water. We're going to go get some more stuff."
That stuff is piling up at the Church of God in Eastpoint. They say they don't need any more bottled water or clothing. What they need now are things like pillows and blankets; items that are going to help the families, long term.
"We've pretty much got all the toiletries and stuff like that at this point that we need," said Paula Dasher, Women's Ministries Leader at Eastpoint Church of God. "We need food brought in, canned goods, dry goods."
Volunteers having been busy working together to help families in Franklin County get back on their feet.
"We've been overwhelmed with people calling in even early this morning saying what can we do, we want to send stuff," said Dasher. "I'm talking about people all the way down to Key West and all the way up, so we've got a big outpouring of people helping us."
The best way you can help now is by making a monetary donation to the Eastpoint Church of God or the Eastpoint firehouse. You can also mail a check to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 270 SR 65, Eastpoint, Florida 32328. They request that you make it out to: FCSO Disaster Fund.
