Racing community accepting donations in Groton for Hurricane Helene victims

GROTON, Conn. (WTNH) — Some Connecticut business owners are helping out victims of Hurricane Helene.

Some friends from the auto racing community are looking to fill an 18-wheeler with supplies before Wednesday.

Bethany and Richard Hurne want to fill the whole trailer with supplies for hurricane victims. The truck is parked at the Groton Bowling Center, which they own. They also just spent the summer traveling with friends on the car racing circuit in North Carolina.

“Probably spent about eight or nine weeks down there, collectively, during the summer,” Richard said. “Got to know a lot of people. The area that we were at is called Granite Falls.”

Granite Falls is near where Helene did some of its worst damage last week.

“It’s just completely devastating, and it could be us here,” Bethany said. “Being so close to the shoreline, if the track could have been different, it could have been us.”

The Hurnes began collecting donations on Thursday morning. Some of the first to step up were friends from the racing community.

“You know, we just want to help out and see those people get back to a normal life,” said Charles Beal, of CIC Automotive. “We were driving here saying that, a couple hours away, their lives have turned upside down and we’re living normal day-to-day life.”

There is a long list of things that they need. That includes water, non-perishable food, pet food and other things you might not think about like Benadryl, epi pens, first aid-related products, work gloves and garbage bags.

They plan to update the list every day on the Bowling Center’s Facebook page . They are also accepting cash.

“One hundred percent of any cash is donated toward the cause,” Richard said. “If we aren’t able to fill the truck off of donations, we’re goin’ to take the case and finish buying the things to finish filling the trailer.”

Donations are being accepted from 9 a.m. to dusk through Tuesday. Wednesday, the hopefully full trailer will start heading south.

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