Wake County saw minimal effects from Hurricane Helene last week, but that doesn’t mean schools in the state’s largest district aren’t interested in helping those affected by the storm in western North Carolina.

One high school student in Raleigh took it upon herself to organize a donation drive that now involves about half of the high schools in Wake County.

Libby O’Leary, a junior two-sport athlete at Athens Drive High School and a member of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Student-Athlete Advisory Council, is working with her school and several others to collect donations to benefit storm victims. The Athens Drive Athletic Honors Society is also helping organize the effort.

“After seeing the devastation in western North Carolina, I knew that there was something that needed to be done,” O’Leary said.

Some of the participating schools include Apex Friendship, Athens Drive, Enloe, Garner, Green Level, Holly Springs, Millbrook, Rolesville, Southeast Raleigh, and Willow Spring.

Each school will place collection bins in the school where students and staff are able to donate non-perishable food items, hygiene products, water, and other essential supplies. Collections will happen through Oct. 11.

“With the help of the Athens Drive Athletic Honor Society, we will go to the individual schools, collect the supplies they have received, and then we will distribute them out into western North Carolina, into those communities in need,” O’Leary said. “Anything can help. Essential items, water, and non-perishable food items. I know power is a big problem out there, so batteries. We’re also really emphasizing hygiene products.”

You do not have to be a student or staff member at the school to donate. Members of the community can also drop off donations, and some schools are holding donation drives at sporting events.

“I can’t imagine the devastation up there … we have such a huge community here in Wake County, and I wanted to bring us all together and help our friends out in western North Carolina,” O’Leary said.

The NCHSAA’s SAAC program is part of the association’s student programs. It aims to give student-athletes a voice in the NCHSAA. They focus on ways to provide a positive athletic experience, with an emphasis on leadership and sportsmanship.

“I’m not surprised that our student-athletes here in North Carolina in general, but most important our Student-Athlete Advisory Council here, jumped in and wanted to be part of this and impact it in a positive way,” said Evan Sauer, the NCHSAA’s Director of Development, Marketing, and Student Program.

Sauer oversees the NCHSAA SAAC program. He said he was thinking about ways they could help the situation in western North Carolina when he got a text message from members of the SAAC with ideas.

“Before you knew it, brains were coming together and they were thinking about ways that they could make a difference in western North Carolina,” he said. “The SAAC program, they want to be a platform. They want to be a voice for student-athletes across the state of North Carolina and our member schools, and they want to do initiatives like this that impact our schools in a positive way.”

There are other SAAC members who are organizing efforts in their local communities, Sauer said.

“Everything (the student programs) do is positive, and we try to impact things in our membership in a positive way. This is just one of the ways that we’re able to shed light on student-athletes doing things off the field, or off the court, or off the baseball diamond, and being able to impact schools, student-athletes, and the membership in a positive way,” he said.

O’Leary hopes other students across the state, whether they’re a member of the SAAC or not, will work on similar efforts to help those who need it.

“I would say that if you see something and you want to do it, go ahead and grab it. Go after it. I think we’re seeing, especially in SAAC, we’re seeing a domino effect,” she said. “I was telling people in the group chat what I’m doing in Wake County and immediately we had people who were thinking about doing the same things in counties all around the state.”

There are many other schools across the state holding donation drives and fundraisers to benefit the victims of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. You can see a running list of those efforts on HighSchoolOT.

Source: highschoolot.com