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Cape Region steps up to help hurricane victims

Tractor trailer heads to ravaged North Carolina
Employees from Atlantic Refrigeration help load a tractor trailer with donated food, clothes and medical supplies Oct. 14. The donations are going to victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. BILL SHULL PHOTOS
Bill Shull
October 15, 2024

A tractor-trailer packed with much-needed supplies left Lewes Oct. 14, bound for hurricane-ravaged North Carolina.

A group of local businesses and communities joined together to collect the donations. An army of Atlantic Refrigeration employees helped load 33 pallets of food, clothes and pet supplies, and six pallets of bottled water.

The truck was headed for High Point, N.C. The items will then be distributed to the Asheville area and other locations hit hard by Hurricane Helene in late September.

Atlantic Refrigeration, on Nassau Commons Boulevard near Lewes, offered to store the donations until the truck arrived. Their warehouse, conference room and hallways were stacked.

“We tried to sort it as it was coming in, but it was just overwhelming,” said Kim Scarpitti of Atlantic Refrigeration. “It really warms your heart to see all the stuff that everybody’s brought, and people calling to see what we need most.”

Karla Araujo, who lives in the Governors development in Lewes, started a donation drive with her homeowners association.

“I used my front porch as a drop-off point. My husband and I made eight trips in SUVs to take everything over to Atlantic,” Araujo said.

Residents of Arcadia Landing also gathered donations.

The Cape Henlopen High School field hockey team asked people to bring donations to a recent game.

Lefty’s Alleys & Eats, Irish Eyes and Mulligan’s in Middletown collected donations at their respective restaurants.

Bayview Homecare donated wheelchairs and walkers.

Jay Bond of Ocean Boulevard Furniture in Rehoboth Beach coordinated the logistics and provided a truck to take the supplies down south.

 

Bayview Homecare donated wheelchairs and other medical supplies.
Atlantic Refrigeration organized 33 pallets of food, clothes, pet and baby supplies, and six pallets of bottled water in its warehouse.
Clothing, shoes and blankets are among some of the most-needed items.
Aidan Steel-Norton of Atlantic Refrigeration helps pile supplies destined for hurricane victims in North Carolina.
Kim Scarpitti of Atlantic Refrigeration stands in front of some of the supplies that were dropped off at the company. “It warms your heart to see all the stuff that everybody’s brought,” she said.
Amy Cox sorts through some of the donations piled high in the Atlantic Refrigeration conference room.
Pet supplies are among the desperately needed items on the way to North Carolina.
Atlantic Refrigeration’s hallways became makeshift storage areas for hurricane relief supplies.

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Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.

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