Local church sending aid to Tennessee wildfire victims

Over 600 miles may separate Salisbury, Md from Gatlinburg, Tn,  but that distance is not stopping one local church from doing everything they can to help those affected by the wildfires that ravaged the area. The Parkway Church of God is urging the community to donate personal items to help the roughly 700 families that are now displaced.

The church collecting personal items like hats, coats, toothbrushes and more everyday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. until Monday Dec. 19. At the church they have a rental truck that they will be filling up then taking over to Federalsburg, Md where they will load the donations onto a tractor trailer that will head to Tennessee on Dec. 20.

Dave Emely, assistant to the lead pastor, said the church waited to see if other churches were going to send trucks, but when they didn't hear of any they decided to start collecting donations themselves.  

"We wanted the community to have the opportunity to be a blessing to these families that are homeless now and staying in shelters," Emely said.

Helping others is nothing new to the Parkway Church of God, earlier this year they sent donations to Haiti after Hurricane Matthew left devastation in it's wake. This time is different though because of personal connection to their lead pastor, Greg Morris.  Before Morris came to Salisbury he spent ten years at a congregation in Sevier County, the same county where the wildfires spread.

"I had several friends that live in the area that were contacting me letting me know, asking me to pray for the area," Morris said. "It brought tears to my eyes to hear of the events of the 14 different lives that were lost, some of them that I knew it was just really hard."

Morris said the donations will help those who have nothing and will spend the following weeks and months trying to rebuild their lives from the ground up. Many of the families he said will be spending their holidays in homeless shelters.  

Only one day into accepting donations, Emely said the church already has a lot to smile about as the community has already shown a tremendous response. One woman had already dropped off two boxes worth of hand knitted hats and sweaters for young children.

Emely said he has faith in the community and only expects the donations to continue to pour in.

"This is a great community and the churches I believe are committed to stretching out their arms and helping others anyway they can," Emely said.

For more information on the donations, you can head to the church's Facebook page by clicking here.