HPU Raises $22,000 to Help Communities Impacted by Hurricane Helene

Students also delivered approximately 20,000 items to hurricane victims on Monday.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 9, 2024 – High Point University students, faculty and staff have raised $22,000 to help with Hurricane Helene relief efforts, led by a $10,000 donation from the Student Government Association.

In addition, a group of students spent their fall break pilgrimage on Monday delivering approximately 20,000 donated items to hurricane victims in Boone, North Carolina. The items included cases of bottled water, diapers, bags of dog food and boxes of canned goods. Several HPU staff members accompanied the students to Boone, which sustained significant damage from the Category 4 hurricane.

“It has been incredible to watch the student body of HPU come together to support their fellow neighbors,” said Sam Carr, HPU’s director of student leadership and university relations. “Most of our students do not live in this area, and this just further shows the selfless nature and the desire of our students to want to help others.”

The group of students initially planned to travel to Asheville, North Carolina, for their fall break pilgrimage. However, after the storm devasted the city, the students changed their plans and helped people in Boone.

On Monday morning, students and staff members loaded a moving truck parked outside the Slane Student Center with boxes of donations that they had been collecting since last week. City Transfer and Storage, a moving company in High Point, supplied the truck and then drove it to Harvest House Church in Boone, where students and staff members unloaded the supplies and sorted it for hurricane victims.

“I just think it’s a super important thing to give back to the people who live so close to us,” said Emma Higgins, an electrical engineering major from Yonkers, New York, and HPU’s senior class president. “All the students who are out here are into helping them as they go through this really hard time, and I think there’s no place we’d rather be on fall break than to help them.”

Last week, the SGA approved a $10,000 donation for two churches — Harvest House Church and Haywood Street Congregation in Asheville — that are assisting with the hurricane relief.

The SGA, in partnership with HPU’s Offices of Student Life and Chapel and Religious Life, launched a campus-wide initiative to assist those communities in western North Carolina that were hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Several schools and departments across campus have also collected donations, including the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law, the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy and the Department of Psychology.

HPU students are continuing to collect donations for hurricane victims, including winter items such as coats, gloves and socks.

HPU has offered assistance since Hurricane Helene made landfall. The university provided food to the Presbyterian College women’s volleyball team and facilities for its players to practice at prior to their Oct. 4 match at HPU. Presbyterian College, based in Clinton, South Carolina, was forced to briefly close its campus and cancel classes after it sustained significant damage and lost power because of the hurricane.

HPU is also providing food, lodging, and practice facilities for UNC Asheville tennis players starting this week.