NEWBERRY — Newberry County residents came together last Saturday in the LoRex Drugs parking lot to help those in need. Volunteers from local United Methodist churches, nursing students from Newberry College and Little Miss Newberry worked together to assemble hygiene kits.

“This is with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, when we have a natural disaster or that type thing, they send out information to churches to collect flood buckets, or in our case hygiene kits. These kits will include hand towels, wash clothes, finger nail clippers, bars of soap, a comb, Band-Aids, a tooth brush and a dollar for toothpaste,” said Shane Livingston, a member of a local United Methodist church.

According to umcor.org, The United Methodist Committee on Relief, or UMCOR, was founded in 1940 in response to displaced and vulnerable populations in the wake of World War II. The vision of the organization is humanitarian relief and development arm of The United Methodist Church.

This past Saturday members of Newberry County United Methodist churches were doing just that.

About a month ago Rev. Bob Huggins, of Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, recommended that the Newberry Council on Ministries (a group of Newberry County United Methodist Churches) do some type of mission. Livingston said that they came up with the idea for hygiene kits and put out the challenge to come up with the funds to all the churches.

“If we went through UMCOR they gave us an estimate cost of $12 per kit, but with the help of LoRex Drugs here in Newberry, and Angela the manager of the store, they gave us a wonderful price. We are able to do three of these kits for the price of one, less than four dollars a kit,” Livingston said. “All of these supplies came from LoRex and their vendors.”

Once the roughly 1,000 kits were packed they were sent to the Conference Office in Columbia, from there they will be sent to a warehouse in Nashville.

“Those folks up there will decide where to deliver them, we do not know where they will go from there, maybe Puerto Rico,” Livingston said.

Volunteers from around Newberry County, including children, came out to assemble hygiene kits.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_DSC_0176.jpgVolunteers from around Newberry County, including children, came out to assemble hygiene kits. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

The LoRex Drugs parking lot filled with volunteers.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_DSC_0188.jpgThe LoRex Drugs parking lot filled with volunteers. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

Newberry College nursing students help assemble kits.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_DSC_0170.jpgNewberry College nursing students help assemble kits. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

Volunteers from local United Methodist churches help out on Saturday morning.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_DSC_0182.jpgVolunteers from local United Methodist churches help out on Saturday morning. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@newberryobserver.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.