Providing hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Of course, much of the attention the past couple days in the news has been on Hurricane Milton, the massive storm that hit Florida late last night and is currently passing through the other side. But much of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and east Tennessee are still working to dig out from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene a couple weeks ago. The damage is catastrophic in many towns across the southeast, and so far at least 230 people have been confirmed dead from the storm. Through the tragedy, though, many have rushed to provide aid and do whatever they can to help their neighbors begin the long process to recover. Yesterday,
Morgan Wallen held a food & water drive in Knoxville, partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee to collect bottled water and food for those in need. And the country superstar showed up with some friends, including comedian Theo Von, to help out and visit with those in the community who were impacted by the storm. Morgan also visited the home (or what's left of it), of victims of the historic floodwaters, which left many buildings to pretty much just the studs. Morgan, who was raised in church and is a Preacher's son (his dad, Tommy, served for a time as a local Baptist church pastor in Sneedville, Tennessee), stopped to take time and leave a very poignant Bible verse for the family. He wrote out Pslam 40:2, which in the King James Version (in the spirit of Appalachia, we'll go with that one), reads:
"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." I know Morgan gets a bad rap, and he's clearly not perfect by any means (the media makes that very clear... and a lot of the time, it's fair), but I think it's equally as important to show this side of him and how much he clearly cares for the people in east Tennessee who are hurting right now in a bad way. You'd be amazed to know just how far something like this goes for someone's spirit, especially in these hills where people lean so heavily on their faith in a time like this. Plus, coming from a megastar like Morgan? It seems small, but it really matters a lot. Clearly, Morgan knows and understands his people, and I really love getting to see this sweet and caring side of him:
According to
The Tennessean , Morgan and all of the generous people who donated at the drive yesterday filled six trucks with nearly 150,000 pounds of food to aid in the relief efforts following Hurricane Helene. Morgan also visited with Patty Kell, a resident of east Tennessee who lost her home in the flooding and had to be rescued by boat after the waters began to rise:
Along with the supplies they collected, Morgan has also released a limited-edition “HELP” shirt available on his
website , with 100% of the proceeds from the shirt going to the Morgan Wallen Foundation to support the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee and MANNA FoodBank of Western North Carolina. There’s also a link for those who wish to donate to Morgan’s foundation to support his relief efforts, so if you’re interested in contributing you can find that
here .
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