RED BUD, Ill. — What began as one person's mission to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene has grown using social media to an army of willful participants. Brandi Bass, a Red Bud, Illinois, woman now calls this team "God's Army."
"It started out with this little idea that God gave me," Bass said.
On Monday, she posted about her plans to drive directly to Hurricane Helene victims on Saturday to help, but she didn't want to show up empty-handed.
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Since then, her network of Facebook friends has exceeded her expectations.
Social media is "how I found my contacts. I had family that was already stationed in these areas, friends that are in the Army or retired. And I just reached out to all of them and started asking for help," she said.
The "army" has grown so much that there are drop-off locations in Waterloo, Red Bud, Baldwin and Prairie Du Rocher in Illinois. Bass said people have opened up their homes to provide a convenient opportunity for more support. Even the Red Bud High School has started taking donations.
Bass said she has never done anything like this before but she has received so much support from people who are tagging businesses and organizations that can help and lead her to the right places. Others who were tagged in her post simply want to help Helene's victims.
There is a truck company that is meeting Bass and her army in Nashville.
"We are asking for everything," she said.
"I have a construction company that's coming down with me to help stay a day or so afterward so that we can help out with the cleanup as well as handing out supplies to those small town. I'm using my contacts of the Operation Blessings that we are working with to let them know the towns that are reaching out for help. So they can also try to get people out there. It's just everybody's helping everybody," she said.
Donation requests
- paper towels
- food
- bottled water
- contactor size trash bags
- clothes ( all sizes)
- blankets
- first aid supplies
- feminine hygiene
- propane
- generators
- dehumidifiers
- fans
- flashlights
- cook stoves
- coolers
- gloves
- bleach
- brooms
- shovels
- diapers
- batteries
Bass said they would take any help. If you cannot afford to donate and you cannot volunteer, she is asking people to share her post and pray for the victims.
On Saturday morning at 7 a.m. Bass is asking for volunteers to come and help load up vehicles with donations. At 10 a.m. on Saturday a caravan, a semi and at least 12 other vehicles will follow her as she travels to Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.
Bass is currently working to get a drop-off location in place in Missouri.
"They are still needing so many volunteers and clean up people, construction crews, ATMs, they're still doing body recoveries and they are just in need of everything. So any way that these people can help, please do it, whether it's to reach out to an organization that's already there or to put it together, your own little band like we did, this can be done," Bass said.
Saturday's trip to the hurricane victims will be their first trip and on Tuesday, Oct. 8, they plan to load up and go again.
Bass said for anyone who would like more information, she can be contacted at 618-340-2803.
