GREENSBORO, N.C. — The cost of a postage stamp doesn't sound like an amount that would help those impacted by Helene in Western North Carolina, but it's what comes with that stamp that really counts.
"When disasters like this strike, sometimes we are just sitting around watching from afar and we may not have physical resources to provide and some of us may not have financial resources to provide. Letters of encouragement can go a long way uh in times of crisis," said Heather Morton, NC Farm Bureau Federation, Inc., Ag in the Classroom director.
Letters sent in from students all over our state are pouring in. Most are handwritten, and some have sweet drawings on them.
The North Carolina Farm Bureau started the letter drive for Western North Carolina. The instructions are simple, write a letter of encouragement for the people affected by Helene and send it in.
It was part of an "Ag in the Classroom" initiative and then...
"I've had folks reach out and ask if they could participate if they're not a child or a student. And that's been great. We're just accepting notes and letters from anybody at this point and the response from other states has been kind of crazy," said Morton.
Letters and cards from at least 20 states have come in and even messages from overseas. At last count, there were 20,000 letters mailed to the NC Farm Bureau.
"So we're sending letters out through some of our field reps and through some of our other partners that we know that are out there working and they're kind of helping disperse the letters where they need to go," said Morton.
The original thought was to have all the letters in by Thanksgiving, but then Morton started thinking like the farmers on the ground.
"If you think about feeding an animal, farmers need hay in December, they need it now, but they need it then too when the, the months are cold and hay is not growing on the ground. So, in the same way, these um, letters of encouragement are gonna be needed for in five months from now. Not just right now," said Morton.
So, send them in!
