A handful of bags may not amount to much, but when a handful is added to another handful, a little starts to go a long way.
It’s a mantra Abe Levatter has been repeating all week as he loaded up a small aircraft with supplies to deliver to western North Carolina communities devastated by storms brought by remnants of Hurricane Helene.
“A plane full of stuff is just a little bit, but there’s a whole lot of people doing this,” he said.
Levatter is a local pilot and member of the nonprofit flying club The Flying Neutrons, which operates out of the Warren County Airport in Lebanon. When videos of devastation in Appalachia started to surface on social media, Levatter said his daughter asked if he could use the flying club’s resources to help.
He saw the need, agreed and called the club’s vice president, Steve Rumsey, to discuss a game plan.
“He said, ‘I’m all in,’ so we went and loaded up a bunch of stuff and flew it own there on Tuesday,” Levatter said. “We talked to a lot of people on the ground and I’ll tell you what, there’s a lot of stories that will just break your heart, so it felt good to try and help.”