WARRENVILLE, Ill. — Many employees at Durham School Services in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., had their lives turned upside down last October when Hurricane Sandy devastated their community. The outpouring of support from across the country helped them significantly. Now eight months later, those same Durham employees have collected a busload of relief supplies for the families impacted by the Oklahoma tornadoes.
That school bus departs for Oklahoma City at 7 a.m. Saturday, June 22, driven by three Durham employees who volunteered for the trip. The drivers (pictured below) are Jim Sheridan (gray shirt), Ken Naylor (purple shirt) and Don Lelion (white shirt).
“Our employees are truly paying it forward,” said General Manager Patty Manzoni, who oversees Durham’s student transportation services in Little Egg Harbor. “Last fall, 17 of our employees lost everything in the hurricane. We discussed the Oklahoma situation as a group and decided this was the right thing to do.”
A Durham school bus has been filled with supplies ranging from personal hygiene kits and bedding provisions to baby items and kitchen necessities. Drivers Jim Sheridan, Ken Naylor and Don Lelion have mapped out their 1,400-mile, two-day journey to the Oklahoma City Rescue Mission. They will travel through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and into Oklahoma.
“Our employees have always been dedicated to serving the community, and even though Oklahoma isn’t next door, we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to assist,” Manzoni said. “The response from our community was overwhelming, so this really is a community project that couldn’t have been achieved by Durham alone.”
Local schools helped with the donations by sending home a flier with students and posting details of the Oklahoma relief project on their websites. Items were collected over a few weeks spanning from late May to mid-June. The Durham school bus is expected to arrive at the Oklahoma City Rescue Mission on Monday morning, June 24, when the facility opens at 8 a.m.
