News

'Mary from Virginia' modeled volunteer spirit

Schools Superintendent Mark Garrett describes school system's response to Hurricane Helene.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 15, 2024

When he heard about “Mary from Virginia,” a faithful disaster relief volunteer at Etowah Elementary School, schools Superintendent Mark Garrett assumed Mary was a transplant from the commonwealth to our north.

“But I found out as the days went by that she saw us on the news and felt led to come to Hendersonville,” he told county commissioners on Monday. “She found a campsite in Saluda, came to the volunteer coordination center on day 1, and they said, ‘How about Etowah?’ And she said, ‘Sounds great to me.’” She’s been working 9-6 every day since, opening up, organizing and cleaning.

Garrett said he wanted to celebrate Mary and others like her, in addition to the hundreds of first responders, school personnel and county employees repurposed into aid and recovery jobs in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation.

“I came here in 2022 because I knew it was a great place,” he said. “This is a really tough way to understand just how great a place it is.”

‘Can you get to Gerton?’

He joked that sheriff’s deputies had commandeered milk from school refrigerators. School cafeteria workers actually reacted quickly to move frozen food, which would have spoiled after power outages, into aid centers for use by hurricane victims. That was just one way the hurricane response proved to be a model of selfless service among emergency management, the sheriff’s office, school personnel and others.

“Transportation jumped in, and we have delivered fuel,” he said. ‘We have fueled everything from dozers to generators to nursing home generators and everything in between. And we’re glad to do that.

“I think sometimes people forget that we have mobile fuel trucks and we can bring 1,400 gallons at a time, which is a little bit better than the 200 gallons on the back of a trailer. I want to really thank Shelley Brown, our transportation coordinator, for jumping on those trucks herself.”

Emergency management director Jimmy Brissie “called me on Saturday and said, ‘Can you take a load of fuel to Gerton?” And I said, ‘Can you get to Gerton?’ He said, ‘There is one way.’ And I said, ‘Send me the map and we’ll get there.’”

“Partnerships matter and relationships matter, and the fact that we had these before the storm hit has allowed us to weather this storm,” he added. “We have and we will continue to stand in the gap as we are needed. We stand here ready to work. And that’s one thing that I will say has really impressed me: Nobody sat around and waited for help. They got up and they started helping one another.”

The school board and county commissioners, it turns out, had the good sense over the years to build schools on higher ground. All but one emerged from Helene without building damage and were able to reopen on Tuesday. The one that flooded was built over a stream.

“We are down one facility right now, and that is Atkinson Elementary,” Garrett said. “We actually have video of the stream coming in the front door. It did not get deep, but it got wide.”

He projected Atkinson could reopen in about two months; meanwhile, those kids go to class at the Boys & Girls Club in Green Meadows.