Fluvanna couple help in efforts to buy campers for those in need
By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
Appalachian Hope 4 U was started by Fred and Christie Huger of Fairfield, Va., and Scott and Tina Lough of Scherr, W.Va.. Tammy Kimble, who lives in Fluvanna, got involved with the organization with her twin sister Tina.
“When they saw the news of the devastation of Helene and some of the campgrounds and areas they stayed at during their travels, they knew they wanted to do something,” said Kimble. The first weekend after the storm, the Hugers and Tina Lough wanted to take supplies.
“I wanted to help too so I told my husband Ryan that I was going to North Carolina and Tennessee with them to help because so much help was needed.”
The Loughs and Ryan all work for Dominion Energy. The Loughs’ employer, – the Dominion Energy Power Plant in Mt. Storm, West Virginia – donated a trailer load of supplies as well as some money for the initial trip. The Loughs purchased pallets of water and other supplies and traveled to Mountain City, TN. They dropped their trailers at a campground, and the owner provided them with camper spaces and meals while they were there.
After dropping their trailers they rode around looking to see where they could help and ended up at a road closure where they were advised that an elderly lady needed food and water.
“Two of us took food and water by 4-wheeler and the other two walked the riverbank, aghast at the damage,” Kimball said. The next day they ended up at a fire department in Creston, Tennessee where the creek had risen and the mountain water met and ran through the fire department, flooding it.
“By the time we got there, they had mucked it out and were collecting donations from the community and passing them out to needy families. It was amazing to see the whole community working together with all the devastation around them,” said Kimble. “Items kept flowing in and we kept sorting them into categories so that they could be found easily. The families could come in and shop for what they needed. You could tell the ones coming for help did not want to ask or did not want to take more than necessary. One family didn’t want to take much so that they could make sure there was enough for others.”
They traveled to another small fire department that needed help in Trade, North Carolina. Meanwhile, Fred Lough had his 4-wheeler with him and was helping the first fire department haul supplies to people who were stranded.
“At the fire department, the locals were organizing donations but getting overwhelmed. We worked to help them organize the station and advise them on what we saw the other fire station was doing.”
The fire chief was working getting an internet connection via Starlink
“We left there to drive back to Mountain City before it got dark as a lot of roads were one lane with large wash-outs, multiple downed trees hanging over the road, and with downed wires hanging across roadways,” Kimble said.
“On the way home we talked about what would happen to these families and where they would live. It was such a large area of devastation. Our idea was to provide shelter for them, campers, or something, that would help somehow. We weren’t sure how to do it, but we wanted to do something.”
The Hugers purchased the first camper with their funds and the Loughs purchased the next camper. By this time, Tammy’s husband, Ryan Kimble wanted to help in the endeavor and joined the group as a volunteer.
Becoming a non-profit would take time, time these families in these devastated areas didn’t have so they connected with Kathy Austin of Feed the Need Foundation. They agreed to work with them as the non-profit entity, and that they would fall under their umbrella, with any funds donated going through their organization and then directly moved to Appalachian Hope 4U to purchase and stock campers.
“Our idea was to get campers and stock them with everything they would need to start over and our intent was to try to help families with children. We would try to connect with churches in North Carolina and Tennessee as they would likely know of families that needed these campers,” Kimble said.
After the first two campers were purchased, Lou and Debi Persinger of Fluvanna County reached out to Kimble to donate a fully-stocked camper. In all, four campers were delivered to those in need in one day. One of the donated campers went to a couple who were having a birthday party for their young child. The home was destroyed by a mudslide and they lost both grandfathers. The donated camper from Palmyra went to a couple and their 14-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter who had been living in a travel trailer, which had been completely flooded and non-repairable. The mom and 5-year-old were staying with family, the 14-year-old was sleeping on someone’s back porch and the father was sleeping in his truck.
“From there we continued to post social media content and spread the word to family, friends, and the community to get more donations to purchase more campers. For the first campers and others after, we had created an Amazon wish list of supplies for the campers and posted that to social media, and lots of items showed up at my house, enough to outfit five or six campers,” said Kimble.
They are currently working with churches in Tennessee to help areas devastated by the hurricane.
“These entities identify the need and vet the families to ensure that the need is real. Once we have a camper then we reach out to them to see where the need is and we deliver the camper. The churches hold the titles to the campers and once the family has permanent housing, the camper will move on to help another family,” said Kimble. “We have had two campers rehomed this week.”
The campers are donated by people who have seen or heard about what they are doing.
“We then check out the camper and if it’s in good shape and we have the funds, we purchase it. We do not pay more than $5,000 for a camper, and we do not purchase campers that need repairs as we do not have the time or resources to repair them, we want to purchase and get them there as quickly as we can,” said Kimble.
“We try to make the campers special,” she said. “With the first three campers, we decided we should name them. They were Faith, Hope, and Love. We found Bible verses to go with the name and included a picture of the name and verse in each camper. Since then we have named every camper. If someone donates a camper or a large amount of funds toward a camper, they can name it if they’d like to, and pick the verse if they’d like to,” she said. In addition, they are working with the Rockbridge Piecework’s Quilt Guild of Rockbridge County, supplying homemade quilts to be included in each camper.
“We say it’s to wrap the family in love.”
To help or donate, Kimble has provided links but said the donations should note it is for Feed the Need. All funds go to Appalachian Hope 4 U. For more information or to donate, visit the following links:
Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/e5e654f7
Cashapp: https://cash.app/$FeedtheNeedFTNF
Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Feed_The_Need_Foundation
Paypal: https://paypal.me/FTNFoundation
For more information visit: Facebook: Appalachian Hope 4 U – https://www.facebook.com/AppalachianHope4U or contact Tammy Kimble at 434-953-5397.
