The City of Clayton is accepting donations for Asheville, NC, says Clayton City Manager Trudy Crunkleton. “We are collecting two things that they have asked specifically for: rubber boots and coats. We know we are going to be going into the winter season here before long and those requests have come out of North Carolina. We are collecting items here at City Hall. The drop off is very easy, it is right in our community room here and we do have plans for people to take the items up this coming weekend. So, all week long we’ll be collecting items and probably still into next week as we know this need is going to continue for months to come.” Clayton Police Chief Andy Strait says one of his officers recently led a convoy of local donations up there. “Rabun County Fire and EMS had a huge convoy that went up to Asheville Friday morning and they needed a police escort to get into the area because there are so many folks coming in and they want to make sure that law enforcement is present during those escorts. So, the Clayton Police Department volunteered to escort the convoy up and Sgt. Beck escorted them to Asheville and I believe he got back around 6:30pm Friday evening. So, it was an all day event. They carried a tractor-trailer load, a couple of enclosed trailers and several large U-Haul trucks that had everything from clothing to food to tools to cut trees and just anything that we could come up with to get up there to our neighbors to the north. We definitely keep our neighbors in our thoughts and prayers at all times. I just cannot imagine whole communities being devastated like that. Anything that we can do to help, that’s Americans helping Americans, that’s what we do.” Donations can be made between 8am to 5pm at Clayton City Hall, which is located at 837 Highway 76 West.
