In September 2024, Hurricane Helene left mass destruction and claimed more than 200 lives in southeastern U.S. states — 104 of them in North Carolina. Helene was the deadliest hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Recovery efforts are ongoing, and even in January 2025, 185 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene.

Hurricanes aren’t something Kansas experiences due to its geographical location in the middle of the country; however, Kansans have experienced loss in the face of other natural disasters like tornadoes and wildfires. In some cases, farmers and ranchers are the most impacted by these disasters, so they understand the need for resilience, recovery and a helping hand.

Rallying for Hurricane Relief

“It all started when our Riley County Farm Bureau president, Twig Martson, and I were talking about the hurricane and we agreed we needed to try to do something,” Megan Larson, Riley County Farm Bureau board member, says. “We got in contact with someone at North Carolina Farm Bureau and worked with her through the entire process to determine what was needed and where the best place was to send everything.”

The Riley County Farm Bureau board of directors got to work collecting donations to send to North Carolina — one of the worst-hit states of Hurricane Helene — by putting together promotional materials, setting guidelines and organizing dates community members could contribute new items at Kansas Farm Bureau’s parking lot in Manhattan. A semi-truck was ready to be loaded with donations, which were sorted and packed by more than 30 volunteers over two days in November.

“We put together a flyer and posted information on our Facebook page,” Larson says. “It took off from there and we were fortunate it reached the right people. We had donations from community members and volunteers from several capacities, including other county Farm Bureaus and FFA chapters, helping us.”

The Riley County Farm Bureau Facebook post about the effort was shared more than 100 times and the positive power of social media took over.

“A soldier at Fort Riley told us it took just one guy to mention our efforts for them to set things in motion,” Serita Blankenship, member services manager at Kansas Farm Bureau, says. “They brought five big totes of brand-new items to donate to victims of the hurricane. That was awesome.”

Delivering Hope and Solidarity in Recovery

On Nov. 1 and 2, volunteers from the Riley County Farm Bureau organization, Kansas State FFA officers, Kansas State University Collegiate Cattlewomen and Blue Valley, Manhattan and Riley County FFA students and their advisers helped organize items onto pallets that were wrapped and loaded on the semi, even with bad weather on the second day.

“It rained all day,” Blankenship says. “Even though the donations and volunteers were down that day, we still filled the semi-truck to the brim.”

A volunteer driver took the 28 pallets of donated items on the 18-hour journey to a drop-off location in North Carolina.

Monetary donations were also provided, which totaled more than $7,000. Some of those funds went toward hay purchases for ranchers impacted by the hurricane.

“As Kansans, we understand helping others through experiences like the wildfires we’ve faced,” Larson says. “Everyone just pitches in. Being in the agriculture community, it makes efforts like these go a little easier because we had great connections to help us get the truck and driver who transported everything to North Carolina.”

From the Sunflower State to the Tar Heel State, a semi-truck filled with love went through the Plains over the Mississippi River and into Appalachia to the victims of Hurricane Helene as a message of solidarity to farmers, ranchers and others in need.

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