The annual Red White and Blue (RWB) BBQ is normally focused on great food, fun and a BBQ competition for the local community. This year, however, Hurricane Helene hit Georgia the week before and devastated a large portion of the state, including Fort Eisenhower (formerly Gordon) in Augusta.

The Friday before the RWB, our program was contacted by a team from Augusta to see if we could provide any disaster recovery assistance as the post had been without food, power, water and many supplies to help the families of servicemembers at and around the post.

It just so happened that our program had received 22 pallets of disaster recovery materials from the Georgia VFW that were stored at Post 45's 4,200 sq. ft. outbuilding awaiting a project. Additionally, we had just finished receiving 23 pallets of diapers, paper towels, toilette paper, wipes and feminine hygiene products from KC.

Without hesitation we offered all of this to the post and community and on the next day, Oct. 12, a representative from Augusta came to the RWB event to survey what we had. They wanted it all if we could get it to them.

We quickly got into discussions. They were hoping for the items to be shipped mid to late the next week; however, our team pushed for immediate shipping of the items. Plus, we had halted our pork butt sales and were going to add 60+ fully cooked butts to the shipment to help feed the families at the post.

Working over the weekend, we were able to get two tractor-trailers and a forklift scheduled for Monday. Working through the morning on Monday, the 14 volunteers from the community and local veterans helped load out the 40 pallets of materials and sent them to Fort Eisenhower, where they reached their location later that day in Augusta.

We were happy to assist in this effort, and the post was able to provide just over 1,800 meals to the families and servicemembers with the pork butts provided.