University of North Carolina Athletics
Members of the field hockey, men's lacrosse, baseball and rowing teams collecting donations at the PItt football game.
GoHeels Exclusive: Pitching In
September 26, 2018 | General, Featured Writers, Student-Athlete Development
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
As Hurricane Florence ravaged her hometown of Whiteville, North Carolina, senior rower Margaret High watched the storm unfold from halfway across the country.
High evacuated from Chapel Hill to Texas before Florence made landfall. From there, her and her sister stayed informed on their hometown's status through local and national media coverage, far more than she said the rural town is accustomed to. They also received updates from their father, Les, who stayed in Whiteville to assist with water rescues.
All along, High worried about her father, friends and home. And although they were all unscathed, Whiteville continues reeling in the storm's aftermath.
"Our downtown still has three feet of water right now, and they're predicting about two weeks without power," said High on Saturday. "And that's just really weird. I remember whenever (Hurricane) Harvey hit, that was really traumatic, too, to about the same scale in Texas. But now it's my hometown, which has just a different feel for it."
With cities such as New Bern and Wilmington receiving a lot of attention, High said she's been encouraged by the relief efforts made to help Whiteville and other small towns in Eastern North Carolina. Saturday, she participated in one of the latest initiatives by UNC Athletics and the Carolina Center for Public Service.
High and 47 other student-athletes from 11 different sports volunteered to gather monetary donations during the football game against Pittsburgh. Volunteers from the Carolina For The Kids Foundation also helped. Ultimately, almost $7,000 was collected. That cash will go to the UNC Disaster Relief Fund to support Carolina's response to affected areas.
"While donations like non-perishables and cleaning supplies are really great, I think that money goes a long way as far as being able to be flexible with what the relief efforts look like," High said. "And it means a lot to me because I love Carolina, and I love my hometown. So this is a good bridge between the two.
"I really appreciate the athletic community doing this, not just for me but for everyone else who was affected by it. It makes me really proud to be texting my parents saying student-athletes are surrounding me and rallying behind this effort."
Beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, student-athletes dispersed across campus, from Polk Place to the Skipper Bowles parking lot. They carried blue buckets with them to collect donations. Most worked two-hour shifts, with the final group returning shortly after the football game ended.
"I think it's important because you see a lot of people who are affected that you know around this community," said Sean Morris, a sophomore on the men's lacrosse team. "It kind of hits home because we go here, we know a lot of people here, we have friends and family who are impacted by this."
As some student-athletes gathered donations, they met people from Eastern North Carolina. Catherine Hayden, a junior on the field hockey team, said speaking with them helped her further understand the need for donations.
"Just being here and talking to some of the people who said they were from that area and not necessarily them but their friends were affected," Hayden said, "it's just nice to be able to help them and see them face to face."
Many of the student-athletes who helped collect donations Saturday weren't even from North Carolina; both Hayden and Morris are from Connecticut. That also resonated with High.
"People on my team have been really supportive and people from other teams have been asking how I'm doing and my family," High said, "which is really special because that's a really strong sense of community that I felt before, but it's stronger now. And it makes me feel really good.
"I kind of get emotional thinking about it because you never want to have to be the person who accepts charity; you always want to be on the stronger side of it, or you never want to have to accept donations. But we're down right now, and it's humbling to have all these people willing to do stuff for someone they don't necessarily know and communities they don't really have a connection to."
More information on how you can support hurricane relief efforts can be found here.
As Hurricane Florence ravaged her hometown of Whiteville, North Carolina, senior rower Margaret High watched the storm unfold from halfway across the country.
High evacuated from Chapel Hill to Texas before Florence made landfall. From there, her and her sister stayed informed on their hometown's status through local and national media coverage, far more than she said the rural town is accustomed to. They also received updates from their father, Les, who stayed in Whiteville to assist with water rescues.
All along, High worried about her father, friends and home. And although they were all unscathed, Whiteville continues reeling in the storm's aftermath.
"Our downtown still has three feet of water right now, and they're predicting about two weeks without power," said High on Saturday. "And that's just really weird. I remember whenever (Hurricane) Harvey hit, that was really traumatic, too, to about the same scale in Texas. But now it's my hometown, which has just a different feel for it."
With cities such as New Bern and Wilmington receiving a lot of attention, High said she's been encouraged by the relief efforts made to help Whiteville and other small towns in Eastern North Carolina. Saturday, she participated in one of the latest initiatives by UNC Athletics and the Carolina Center for Public Service.
High and 47 other student-athletes from 11 different sports volunteered to gather monetary donations during the football game against Pittsburgh. Volunteers from the Carolina For The Kids Foundation also helped. Ultimately, almost $7,000 was collected. That cash will go to the UNC Disaster Relief Fund to support Carolina's response to affected areas.
"While donations like non-perishables and cleaning supplies are really great, I think that money goes a long way as far as being able to be flexible with what the relief efforts look like," High said. "And it means a lot to me because I love Carolina, and I love my hometown. So this is a good bridge between the two.
"I really appreciate the athletic community doing this, not just for me but for everyone else who was affected by it. It makes me really proud to be texting my parents saying student-athletes are surrounding me and rallying behind this effort."
Beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, student-athletes dispersed across campus, from Polk Place to the Skipper Bowles parking lot. They carried blue buckets with them to collect donations. Most worked two-hour shifts, with the final group returning shortly after the football game ended.
"I think it's important because you see a lot of people who are affected that you know around this community," said Sean Morris, a sophomore on the men's lacrosse team. "It kind of hits home because we go here, we know a lot of people here, we have friends and family who are impacted by this."
As some student-athletes gathered donations, they met people from Eastern North Carolina. Catherine Hayden, a junior on the field hockey team, said speaking with them helped her further understand the need for donations.
"Just being here and talking to some of the people who said they were from that area and not necessarily them but their friends were affected," Hayden said, "it's just nice to be able to help them and see them face to face."
Many of the student-athletes who helped collect donations Saturday weren't even from North Carolina; both Hayden and Morris are from Connecticut. That also resonated with High.
"People on my team have been really supportive and people from other teams have been asking how I'm doing and my family," High said, "which is really special because that's a really strong sense of community that I felt before, but it's stronger now. And it makes me feel really good.
"I kind of get emotional thinking about it because you never want to have to be the person who accepts charity; you always want to be on the stronger side of it, or you never want to have to accept donations. But we're down right now, and it's humbling to have all these people willing to do stuff for someone they don't necessarily know and communities they don't really have a connection to."
More information on how you can support hurricane relief efforts can be found here.
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