HPU Raises More Than $33,000 For Hurricane Helene Relief Efforts
High Point University students, faculty and staff have raised $33,400 to help people in western North Carolina who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene. Pictured from left holding a large check for the amount is HPU President Nido Qubein; Benjamin Niehaus, president of HPU’s Student Government Association; Sam Carr, HPU’s director of student leadership and university relations; and Rev. Dr. Preston Davis, vice president and minister to the university.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Dec. 19, 2024 – High Point University students, faculty and staff have raised more than $33,000 to help people in western North Carolina who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene, including $5,000 to purchase Christmas gifts for children in the region.
In addition, the HPU family has donated thousands of bottles of water and hundreds of boxes of nonperishable food, diapers, cleaning supplies, and dog and cat food to help with the hurricane relief efforts. With the winter approaching, HPU students have also collected more than 50 boxes of warm winter clothing, including coats, gloves and hats.
HPU has raised a total of $33,400 so far for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. That amount includes a $10,000 donation from HPU’s Student Government Association (SGA) to two churches that are assisting hurricane victims — Harvest House Church in Boone and Haywood Street Congregation in Asheville.
“It has been incredible to watch the students, faculty and staff at HPU come together to support their fellow neighbors. This really was a family effort to help those of western North Carolina,” 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 HPU family to want to help others.”
The SGA, in partnership with HPU’s Offices of Student Life and Chapel and Religious Life, launched a campus-wide initiative to assist communities in western North Carolina that were hit hard by the Category 4 storm. 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 and staff members have made multiple trips to Boone, Asheville and Madison County to deliver thousands of donated items in a 30-foot box truck supplied by City Transfer and Storage, a moving company in High Point. A group of seven HPU students spent a portion of their Fall Pilgrimage distributing food, toiletries and clothes to Harvest House Church in Boone.
In addition to the money and supplies donated, HPU has assisted students from other universities in North and South Carolina after their campuses were closed because of severe damage caused by the hurricane. HPU provided food and practice facilities to the UNC Asheville tennis team and the Presbyterian College women’s volleyball team. HPU also housed the UNCA tennis team for approximately two weeks.