'Helpful Hands, Healing Hearts' to Aid 4-H Families Impacted by Hurricane Katrina

9/7/2006

Wake County 4-H youth and families will be collecting supplies and assembling supply kits at Historic Oak View County Park, Saturday, October 1, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., during Oak View's Heritage Day Featuring Youth Fair Day celebration. The kits will go to support fellow 4-H'ers in the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. This effort, "Helpful Hands, Healing Hearts," is a joint effort of the North Carolina 4-H Youth Development Program, the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Foundation and the 4-H Development Fund.

Using boxes, book bags and plastic storage tubs, Wake County 4-H'ers will prepare "Essentials Kits" and "Clover Kits" for displaced 4-H families to use while in temporary housing. The Clover Kits will include paper, notebooks, pens, pencils and other educational supplies. The Essential Kits will contain non-perishable items such as diapers, hand sanitizer, hygiene items, craft supplies, first aid and other essentials. These items, monetary donations and hands to help will still be accepted at Youth Fair Day.

On October 8, "Helpful Hands, Healing Hearts Day," volunteers will load trucks stationed at all four corners of the state with the kits that have been assembled for Gulf Coast 4-H families in need. In Wake County, volunteers will be loading kits at the State 4-H Development office, 512 Brickhaven Drive.

For more information on the campaign, please visit www.nc4h.org/relief/, or contact Kim Parsons, Program Specialist, at 250-1110 or Kimberly.Parsons@co.wake.nc.us.

Heritage Day Featuring Youth Fair Day, Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a free annual event sponsored by Historic Oak View and Wake County Cooperative Extension that brings North Carolina's agricultural past to life by celebrating the state's agrarian history and providing a forum for the county's 4-H youth to showcase their skills and crafts.

Historic Oak View County Park is located in the Wake County Office Park, on Carya Drive just east of the Poole Road exit (Exit 15) off the I-440 beltline. For more information, visit www.ncneighbors.com/1301 or call 250-1013.

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