Businesses help those displaced by flood
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on October 23, 2016 12:42 AM
As people across the community continue to help residents displaced from flood-damaged homes, several downtown business owners are joining the effort.
Kalilah Mischeaux, owner of The Village Rising, and Councilman Antonio Williams and Yvonnia Moore, owners of The Ice Storm, banded together and decided to start collecting nonperishable foods, hygiene products and other items needed for everyday survival.
The businesses, both located along the 100 block of South Center Street, plan to continue the collections as long as the need exists.
"This is going to be ongoing, as long as the need presents itself," Mischeaux said. "Six months to a year from now, people are still going to have needs.
"This is something we, at The Village Rising, have always done. This was just a natural response to the needs of the community, a community that supports small, local businesses."
Many people staying in the School Street School shelter, on Virginia Street, have been unable to return home after their homes were flooded, including many who live in low-income areas of the city, she said.
The Village Rising, at 114 S. Center St., will be a dropoff site for anyone interested in donating basic hygiene products, toiletries, baby diapers and wipes, adult diapers, pull-ups, towels and underwear. Once the items are collected, they will be given to residents in the shelter, she said.
"These needs are daily," she said. "They're going to run out of toothpaste and soap -- just basic things. The whole purpose is once I get a lot more, I'm going to take it over to be distributed at the shelter to people who have lost everything."
By Dec. 1, she also plans to start collecting toys that can be given to children as Christmas gifts.
"This is a terrible hardship right before the holidays," she said.
The Ice Storm is currently accepting cleaning supplies for area residents. Earlier efforts involved getting nonperishable food to people in need, Moore said.
"When everything initially happened, it was about feeding people," Moore said. "What we need now are cleaning supplies, anything to help with cleanup."
The cleaning supplies will help residents working to clean their homes following extensive flood damage. Rakes and storage containers are also needed. The items can be dropped off at the Ice Storm, at 116 S. Center St.
The collections could change in future weeks, as the needs of residents change in the aftermath of the storm, Moore said.
"We're collecting everything," she said. "Whatever is on anyone's heart that they want to give and they're not able to make it to School Street, they can drop off here.
"Whatever we can do to help, we're going to do. We just want to do something."
The Village Rising can be reached at 773-981-3157 and The Ice Storm at 919- 841-6210.
Katny Cornelison, owner of the Carolina Pine Country Store, said other downtown merchants are helping people on a more personal level.
The Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. has been offering information to the community about local donation and volunteer efforts underway through area nonprofits, including the United Way of Wayne County and the Salvation Army.