By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Westporters have a reputation for generosity, which they proved again Tuesday with an outpouring of donations to a Rotary Club-organized collection of supplies to help support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

Organized over the weekend by a coalition of Rotary Clubs — and spearheaded locally by Westport Rotary and Westport Sunrise Rotary — donations of all kinds of supplies, from diapers to canned goods to paper products, were piled high Tuesday afternoon in front of the Stop & Shop supermarket, the local collection point.

And just around the corner, sat 10 large boxes of generators, purchased with money donated the day before.

It was all destined to be carted by Rotary-leased trucks to the Asheville, N.C., area, one of the regions hardest hit by Helene.

“The people of Westport are very generous,” said Dennis Wong of the Westport Sunrise Rotary Club. His club and the Westport Rotary Club issued a call for help two dayes earlier, and people responded quickly. 

“Westporters do what they have to do to help others.” he said.

“It’s been an incredible outpouring of support,” added Bruce Fritz, also a Sunrise Rotarian.

Joined by many other volunteers, the men sorted and piled goods as shoppers emerged from the store and added donations to the bounty. Cars also pulled up to drop off donations.

Westporter Marcia Falk came to Stop & Shop to donate medical supplies for the relief shipment. “This shows the humanitarian aspect of this community,” she said. “Westport is a community that has a heart.”

Leslie Corrigan of Fairfield said she was not aware of the collection before arriving at the supermarket, but after speaking to the Rotarians and taking the flyer listing needed supplies, she decided to add some goods to her own shopping list. She donated baby food, pasta and other non-perishable items on her way out of the store.

“They’re doing nice work here,” she said of the Rotarians’ relief project.

Project organizers from  Rotary District 7980 were expecting two trucks to arrive Tuesday afternoon — making a total of five stops in southern Connecticut — to pick up donations for western North Carolina.

With a second large hurricane expected to slam into Florida and beyond later this week, and more devastation likely, that won’t stop Rotarians from collecting relief supplies again if needed, Wong said.

“Hopefully that hurricane is not as devastating,” he said. “But we’re ready … the Rotary motto is ‘Service above Self.’ ”

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.