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Organizations in North Carolina send aid to Uvalde, Texas

The Blood Connection and Billy Graham's Rapid Response Team help those in Uvalde in the wake of the school shooting.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Some North Carolina organizations sent aid down to Uvalde, Texas where people are suffering after a horrific shooting at an elementary school.

Just hours after the shooting, crisis-trained chaplains from Billy Graham's Rapid Response Team were on their way to help.

"On Tuesday night, they were with the families as they received word that their students had been killed. Several of our chaplains actually went into the homes of families that had lost students, and we're there to do death notifications," said Josh Holland, the International Director of the Response Team. 

The team heads toward natural disasters to offer emotional and spiritual care.

Right now, the mobile ministry center is parked right outside Robb Elementary school.

"There are really no words to describe the heartache and pain, as a father myself, of elementary school-aged children. It's just beyond words and beyond description, as we interact with the community here and families that have been impacted, but we pray that God would use us. To be some small blessing to this community in the days ahead," Holland said. 

The Blood Connection also helped Uvalde by sending units of blood. 

Credit: The Blood Connection

"The Blood Emergency Readiness Corps was activated yesterday. So we already had units set aside, so that if something were to happen, the blood connection would be able to send those out wherever it was needed. So as part of the work, we already had those units set aside and those were what was sent down," said Ellen Kirtner, Partnerships and Media Coordinator for the Blood Connection. 

Kirtner said it is important to have blood on shelves for situations just like this. 

A blood drive was held Thursday in Burlington and Winston-Salem to replenish the blood that was taken off the shelves to send down to Texas.

The Blood Connection said one way you can help in times like this is to donate blood so they can get their supply back up.

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