WFU donates furniture for Hurricane Floyd relief effort

Wake Forest employees, along with volunteers from area churches, businesses and the North Carolina Baptist Men of the Baptist State Convention, will begin moving bunk beds, wall mirrors, dressers and student desks with bookcase hutches on May 16 into tractor-trailers for transport to a distribution warehouse in Grifton, south of Greenville. The furniture was scheduled to be replaced this summer. Several area businesses donated the trucks and trailers to move the furniture to the Baptist State Convention warehouse.

“The donation from Wake Forest is the largest single donation of furniture we have received to help the people devastated by Hurricane Floyd,” said Gaylon Moss, state coordinator of disaster relief for the Baptist State Convention.

“We are thrilled to receive this donation from Wake Forest that will help so many families,” said Moss. “People are still in very bad shape from the flooding, even now.”

Removing the furniture from the residence halls is expected to take three to four days. The items will then be taken to the warehouse in Grifton, where eligible families from surrounding communities can come in and select items that they need. Some of the student desks are expected to be sent to schools damaged by the floods for use in classrooms.

Michael Logan, a purchasing officer at Wake Forest, got the ball rolling for donation of the furniture more than two months ago.

“We wanted to donate the furniture to a worthy cause,” said Logan. “The idea to donate it to flood victims in the eastern part of the state came about after hearing a guest pastor at my church speak about the devastation in that area.”

In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit Eastern North Carolina. The resulting floods caused by the hurricane destroyed thousands of homes.