Southwire sends disaster relief supplies to hurricane victims
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Southwire is the largest manufacturer of wiring cable in North America, supplying cable to people across the world.
But for the past week, their Starkville plant has been collecting goods for hurricane victims.
The Starkville Plant Manager Erik Adams says they have always been involved in philanthropy within the company, but it has grown to help not just employees, but those going through a disaster.
Across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia, many people have lost everything. All are recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
Southwire is filling trailers with supplies from communities across the country to send to victims, and the Starkville plant is no different.
“This plant’s done things for tornado relief and some other sites to some other locations to some other disasters,” Adams said. “We’ve always been behind and trying to collect for people in our employees, come down here, volunteer their time. It’s just supposed to be built into what we do every day. It’s our part of giving back.
Southwire is bringing the community together, filling a truck with water, blankets, diapers, clothing, and more for victims across the East Coast.
“Everything we do is based on volunteers that people are coming out here at their own volition,” Adams said. “We even had a retiree who worked at Southwire for 41 years. He showed up and served with us on Wednesday. We’ve had a lot of our team members show up here on their off day and volunteer a few hours here and there just to help us load this trailer up.”
Gerod Ellis is a production planner with the plant, and he says it means a lot to him to be able to help through volunteering.
“You have to always think about your fellow man, you know because any of us could be in this situation,” Ellis said. “So, I feel like it’s very important for me myself to come out here and and do this because I could be one of those victims as well. So, you know, you have to always think about your fellow man when you when you don’t see him when things like this happen.”
Plant Manager Erik Adams said the community has been adamant about getting the word out and bringing donations.
And before the truck was even set up, Adams said people were there looking for it to bring what they had to give.
“I think that it says a lot for our community that they have their eyes open for it,” Adams said. “We’ve had people bring whatever they can afford. I mean, they’ll they’ll roll out a box of whatever they can take out of their cabinets and and chat with us about, even though that to them seems like it’s small, but for somebody somewhere else who has nothing, it’s a big impact. And I think that means a lot. I think it means a lot that our community has been have their eyes open looking for us to be here versus us having to reach out to them.”
Adams says the team is working to figure out all the details to fill another disaster relief trailer for Hurricane Milton victims.
