Volunteers make way throughout Wilmington for day of service

Event commemorates 4-year Hurricane Florence anniversary

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – It was all about giving over the weekend for UNCW faculty, staff, and students, as well as community volunteers.

Wings Up for Wilmington’s Day of Service was to commemorate the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Florence.

The initiative first started in 2019 the year after the category 1 storm made landfall in September of 2018 which caused widespread devastation in the Cape Fear.

Volunteers on Saturday made their way throughout Wilmington to lend a hand to a variety of organizations known for their humanitarian efforts.

UNCW student Anna Foster helped out at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

“Well, I think just giving back to the community that serves us is really important,” she said.  “I think that it’s important as a whole in society, and being here is important.”

Neiko Jeffries was at the foodbank with his mom.

“It feels really good to help people that are less fortunate than us,” he said.

Four-hundred-and-fifty volunteers worked with 24 organizations on projects that ranged from safety-related home repairs to landscaping and sorting food, according to UNCW Provost James Winebrake.

A campus-wide food drive is happening now until the end of  September to benefit Nourish NC.

All UNCW staff, students, faculty and the general community are invited to donate food.

Winebrake said giving back shouldn’t be reserved for one day.

“We all need to work together to support each other, he said. “After Florence we had to rebuild, we had to recover, we’re still doing that and so it was really important as a university to be engaged in the community, this is a start, and this is day of service but we expect those folks to also continue serving the community thought out the entire year.”

A Review the list of most-needed items can be found here, UNCW units interested in serving as collection sites should complete this form.

Wings Up for Wilmington was supported by the Office of Community Engagement and Applied Learning, along with the Center for Faculty Leadership and the Office of Student Leadership.