Alpharetta’s Cheryl Sims has a vast network of people she’s met through her business, Cheryl & Co., that manages horse shows at the city’s Wills Park and around the Southeast. And many of those people have horse trailers and flatbed trucks. So when a friend in storm-ravaged North Carolina told her how dire the situation was for animals and humans, Sims knew just whom to call.
“I have the width and breadth on social media that I thought I could make something happen,” she said. “The equestrian community in this area is huge, and in a few hours, I had access to flatbeds and trailers.”
Sims also put out a call for supplies, asking her network to show up on Oct. 5 at Wills Park with anything affected folks might need to get back on their feet. She recruited 100 volunteers to run the donation center where an avalanche of donations poured in. The list was extensive: diapers for babies and adults, canned goods, shovels, mops, rags, bleach, flashlights, batteries, camp stoves, charcoal grills and charcoal, air mattresses, buckets, baby food and formula, pots, towels, can openers, feminine products and solar phone chargers.
“It was all the things we take for granted,” Sims said. “Some things people brought I hadn’t thought of, like aspirin, paper plates and utensils. We had two lanes of traffic coming in and volunteers unloading and labeling everything.”
Donations were loaded onto six 40-foot flatbeds and into two 30-foot horse trailers that took off for hard-hit areas in North Carolina. A fellow equestrian contacted a friend with a plane who put Sims in touch with the Angel Flight service that usually transports patients, and within 24 hours they had volunteers ready to fly supplies to devastated areas in eastern Tennessee and Georgia. The initiative also inspired the equestrian community in Conyers, Sims said.
“That Saturday was the only time I could get the trucks and drivers, and a lot of people there didn’t want to drive to Alpharetta,” she said. “So they took their donations up to the Tryon International horse center in North Carolina where FEMA is working.”
Sims said she’s considering organizing another drive in a few weeks, especially for items such as coats and blankets to combat the chilly weather, and creating what she calls “another feel-good story.”
“We’re just one small group, but what we did was so large, and it happened so fast with so many people,” she said. “It makes me feel there is still a lot of humanity in us.”
DOING GOOD
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