DILLON -- Dillon High School students spent Tuesday afternoon not in class, but loading more than 1,600 cases of donated water onto a truck that leaves today to Haiti.
The county wide bottled water drive led by Lori Jones, a music teacher at Dillon High School, began almost immediately after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. Students from all three Dillon County school districts, Dillon County Technology Center, the Dillon Christian Private School, as well as various businesses donated the water.
“Every school in Dillon County wanted to join together in an effort that every child in this district could contribute where it wouldn’t be a hardship on the child,” Jones said.
Greg Hatcher, director of maintenance for Dillon School District 2, volunteered to store donated cases of water at his maintenance facility during the drive. He said the outpouring of support from the entire Dillon community has been overwhelming.
“A lot of people in our county can relate to the people in need,” he said.
Jones contacted the office of Dekalb County, Ga., Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton to ask for assistance in getting the water delivered to Haiti. She heard about Sutton working with the Haitian Ministry in Atlanta so they teamed up to organize transport of the water.
Pepsi Bottling Co. in Dillon offered to package and send the water free of charge. The 1,000 bottles of water is scheduled for shipping today at 9 a.m. to the African Methodist Episcopal Global Witness and Ministries located in Charleston. From there, the water will be sent to Haiti.
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