Liberty aviation students fly hurricane relief aid to cut-off cities in Tennessee, North Carolina

Liberty University School of Aeronautics senior James Quarberg was visiting his hometown of Johnson City, Tenn., when Hurricane Helene hit. While his town was not severely impacted, he witnessed the devastation of massive flooding in areas just miles away.

When he returned to Lynchburg, he and fellow students and pilots Ty Burch, Ethan Seeler, and Jacob Fordyce devised a plan to help reach more towns and neighborhoods in hard-to-reach areas.

Fordyce said a friend told him the Elk River (N.C.) Airport was having trouble receiving supplies since it is small and located in the mountains, so they decided to start asking for donations on their own with plans to deliver them to both Elk River and Greeneville, Tenn. They recruited fellow students Brian Hernandez and Stephen Dayton to help them pilot the planes. Then shortly after, they had a chance meeting with staff from the area nonprofit Gleaning For the World during a supply collection at Sam’s Club in Lynchburg, and their efforts grew.

Gleaning For the World Director of Disaster Response James McLaughlin said he loved the students’ plan.

“Our president and I both thought how great it is that college-aged kids saw a problem and said ‘OK, we’re going to come up with a plan.’ We thought it was a wonderful thing to see young people who were getting involved in the process,” he said. “We can’t do what we do without community support, and it was just a creative way in a tough situation for people who had been cut off to get that help in there.”

Using private aircraft, the students started flying supplies, including 1,500 pounds from Gleaning For the World, from Lynchburg and Brookneal to areas in Tennessee and North Carolina last weekend, Oct. 5 and 6. The students flew three planes, with two pilots in each, and paid for the fuel themselves out of pocket (at a cost of over $1,000 per plane each day).

The students first flew supplies to Greeneville Municipal Airport then to Tri-Cities Airport in Sullivan County, Tenn., where workers with the Northeast Tennessee Disaster Relief Center loaded them up with more supplies to fly into Elk River Airport. Volunteer teams were waiting at all the airports to unload and reload the planes with supplies, which included food, clothes, cleaning items, blankets, cots, feminine products, diapers, and more.

They continued to make more flights throughout the week.

“It’s just been a very interesting experience to see how God works in mysterious ways, and how He is providing for all of us,” Quarberg said. “He gave us pilots, He gave us strength, courage, all of that. It’s something that we’re all very grateful for.”

Although the trips were solely a student-led effort with no faculty prompting them, Fordyce said the volunteer and service opportunities Liberty provides in Lynchburg helped them to see where assistance was needed on a larger scale and to take action on their own.

“It was exciting to know that we are part of something that truly needed people to help,” he said. “It was an amazing experience. We went into it just knowing we want to try to do as much as we can, which in the grand scheme of it might not be very much, but we’re going to try our hardest to make as big as an impact as we can.”

“On behalf of all of us, we appreciate all of the help from everyone on the ground,” Quarberg added. “(That includes) my mother and sister who helped organize getting us supplies at (Tri-Cities Airport), the volunteers who transported the supplies to us, the volunteers who helped us unload, and everyone else who held a crucial role in making this happen. God provided there — 110 percent.”