Bus full of donations Kentucky-bound
Marty and Debi Kaczynski, of Renfrew, have friends in Mayfield, Ky., who lost power last week when tornadoes ravaged the region.
They wanted to help, but the trip would be a difficult journey. On Monday, the couple helped pack cargo on a Campbell Bus Lines coach bus, which driver Nickolas Flanders planned to take to Kentucky to deliver a busload of supplies to people in need.
The bus was parked at Sam's Club in Butler Township on Monday, where anyone was able to take donations of food, hygiene products and other emergency supplies.
“At this time of year, they need all the help they can get there,” Marty Kaczynski said.Flanders said he had the idea to “Cram a Coach” with supplies to take to people in Kentucky last week, and Campbell Bus Lines agreed to support the mission. He parked a bus at Walmart in Cranberry Township on Sunday, where he and his family were able to gather a good amount of supplies.The response throughout the day Monday required Flanders to order an extra trailer to be able to hold all the donations.“There were people knocking on my door before I even turned the bus off,” Flanders said. “They're coming from everywhere to be able to give.”
The bus pulled into the parking lot around 11 a.m., and by 12:30 p.m., boxes of toilet paper, diapers, chips and light bulbs were stacked to waist level outside the cargo doors for lack of space.Flanders said many people heard about the effort in the Butler Eagle, online and via word-of-mouth, but many people pulled into the store parking lot to grocery shop, and bought extra supplies to put on the bus.“People have been pulling in, grabbing a flyer and saying, 'We'll be back,'” he said.
Flanders planned to pull out of the parking lot at 8 p.m. He said he wasn't sure where all of the donations would go in Kentucky, but he made contact with churches in Lexington who could help get supplies in the right hands.By the end of the day, Flanders had a full truck, a full semitrailer and a full bus to deliver to those impacted by the storms.“Now we're indecisive about where it's going to go because of the volume,” Flanders said. “We want to make sure it gets to people now, before Christmas.”Throughout the afternoon, shoppers wheeled grocery carts from the store to the bus to give what they could to Kentucky.The Kaczynskis said they were happy to have an efficient way to get help to their friends and others in the Bluegrass State.“We wanted to help out, and this made it really easy,” Debi Kaczynski said.
