BILLINGS — Being all the way in Montana, I'm sure you've seen families in the south eastern portion of the United States recovering from the recent hurricanes. You might feel like there's no way to help. However, there's a local Billings woman collecting donations for the Hurricane Helene victims.
Already, hundreds of pounds of donations have been collected, for a community almost 2,000 miles away.
"It went from, 'we're going to ship a few things by FedEx,' to 'we may take a small trailer down, and us take it ourselves,' to 'now, we have a freight trailer from Old Dominion, that's going to pick up everything next week,'" says Casey Jo Jones, a Tennessee native and the donation organizer.
Something that started out as a small donation drive at Granite Health & Fitness, on the west side of Billings, quickly turned into truckloads of household donations for Hurricane Helene victims across the United States.
"It just became this big thing where we started with one bag, and then turned into this massive mound of donations for people that truly, truly need it," said Jamie Buechler, a Granite Health & Fitness employee.
Hundreds of donations were gathered at Granite over the past week. On Friday, the donations were moved to Jones' house, until she and her husband can ship it out on Tuesday.
Jones notes her gratitude to not only donors, but also her husband who helped moved all of the donations.
Not only was this act out of compassion, but Jones and her husband created the donation fund as Hurricane Helene hit a little too close to home.
"East Tennessee was home to both of us for 30 plus years," she said.
Jones is from Appalachian Tennessee, a portion of the United States that was significantly impacted by Helene. After seeing the damage to her home state, she knew she had to make a difference.
"We haven't forgot about y'all down south, I promise. I know that y'all will never forget about the things that are being sent down to you," says Jones.
When Granite Health & Fitness caught wind of Jones' efforts, they jumped on board quickly. The small donation pile quickly grew when the Billings community found a way to help out.
"I think just even if you brought in one donation, one box of crackers, whatever it may be, it's just playing a huge role in the bigger picture," says Buechler.
A picture which Jones is hoping will help southern families, one donation at a time.
"Coming from someone who who isn't from the area, we've only been here a couple of years, and we know a small portion of the people in this community, and they have shown up and they've shown out. It's humbling to know that people want to help with any type of situation," Jones said.
Donations are still being collected at Granite Health & Fitness until Monday. Granite can be found at 3838 Avenue B in Billings.
