Tar Heels Team With ACC Partners For Hurricane Relief Trip

Earlier this month, Tar Heel student-athletes Hadden LaGarde (volleyball), Emma McPeeters (women's diving) and Taylor Otto (women's soccer) made a move that's fairly typical of college students on Spring Break: they headed for the coast. In this case, however, their trip to Wilmington, N.C., had nothing to do with relaxation.

LaGarde, McPeeters and Otto were part of a group of Atlantic Coast Conference student-athletes who teamed up to spend three days of Spring Break, March 15-17, working on Hurricane Florence relief efforts. Instead of the usual competition among ACC rivals, on this trip it was all about collaboration with the cohort, which also included four student-athletes from Clemson, two from Duke and two from Virginia Tech, as well as an administrator or two from each school.

"After Hurricane Florence hit six months ago and created so much devastation in our state, we wanted to help in any way we could," said Korie Sawyer Rich, UNC's assistant director of Student-Athlete Development and the organizer of Carolina's participation in the trip. "We wanted to give our student-athletes the opportunity to assist in the recovery efforts through a disaster relief trip."

Carolina Athletics has collaborated with campus partners to support hurricane relief efforts and worked closely with the Carolina Center for Public Service in planning the trip, which was aided by a $1,000 grant from the CCPS. (The CCPS has additional grant funds available for relief trips. For more information, click here.)

"This was a great opportunity for several schools to travel together and serve eastern North Carolina, utilizing funding from the hurricane relief trip grant program from the Carolina Center for Public Service," said Becca Bender, Senior Program Officer for Community Engagement. "We were happy to provide resources and support for our athletes to have this experience and to continue serving affected communities."

After traveling to Wilmington on Friday morning, March 15, the UNC and Duke student-athletes visited the local branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. The group learned about the services the bank provides and then teamed up to put together more than 300 bags of canned food, fruit, juice boxes and milk to help local families.

Next the group visited the NC Diaper Bank, where they helped to organize donations of diapers and wipes.

On Saturday, they split up into three groups to provide labor at homes that had been impacted by the hurricane. Some cut branches and removed debris, some removed flooring, and some learned new skills they never thought they would.

"My favorite service experience from this trip was getting to install drywall," McPeeters said. "Initially, my group and I felt unqualified for the job because we lacked prior knowledge on ceiling repairs. Despite feeling intimidated by the task at hand we were determined and willing to provide the family of the water-damaged home with a new ceiling. I learned from this that feeling unqualified to serve does not matter, what does matter is how willing you are to take action in somebody else's life."

The entire ACC group stayed at Harbor United Methodist Church in Wilmington, which served as a Red Cross shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Throughout the weekend students discussed leadership and incorporated service-learning experiences into the trip. On Saturday night they heard from community members who were impacted by the storm.

"The pastor [of HUMC] told us that after the storm there was a discussion on what would be the best way to help the community," LaGarde said. "They eventually found that what was most helpful in a situation where they were unsure is to simply help our neighbors the best we can. This thought caused us to think of how we could help our neighbors in our own communities when we returned to our universities."

"Participating in the service trip to Wilmington was an eye-opening experience," Otto said. "I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people that taught me lessons that will last a lifetime. Because of this trip, I am more excited than ever to get involved with the community back home."

This was the first hurricane relief service trip organized by Carolina Athletics and also the first time that ACC schools have collaborated to organize such a trip. While several schools had considered it, the group approach is what ultimately got this trip off the ground.

"Anyone that's been on a service trip, or done any type of community service knows of the impact that serving has on the volunteer and the community in which they are volunteering," said Shamaree Brown, the ACC's Director of Student-Athlete Programs and Compliance. "There is no doubt that by combining forces, UNC, Duke, Clemson, and Virginia Tech were able to multiply the level of impact that they had in Wilmington. Now that a model has been developed, I'm sure we will see more joint service opportunities by ACC institutions and student-athletes. This is a testament to what makes the ACC such a great conference, it's because we have great and selfless people."

Both the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Diaper Bank of North Carolina have Triangle-area locations and are in need of volunteers and donations throughout the year. Please visit their websites for more information.

Players Mentioned

Hadden LaGarde

Emma McPeeters

Taylor Otto

Related Videos