AU alumni and community step up in wake of Hurricane Helene

When the Greater Augusta area started on the long road to recovery following the devasting impacts left in the wake of Hurricane Helene, dedicated Jaguar alumni stepped up to help wherever and however they could.

Health Center Credit Union CEO Stacy Tallent (BBA ’91, MBA ’07), a two-time alumnus of the James M. Hull College of Business, donated pallets of food and supplies within the first few days following the storm to help stock the Jags Grab and Go Pantry, part of AU Cares.

“Our credit union has a long history of reaching out to the community in times of need, and the recent hurricane presented challenges for all of us in this area,” said Tallent. “We are familiar with the Open Paws Food Pantry, which we support regularly using funds generated through our Affinity Debit Card Program, so when we learned there was a critical need for food and supplies, we did what we could to help. With students about to return to school, we made a run to the local grocery store and purchased a truckload of canned goods, cereals and paper products for the students. With so many coming back to campus needing these items, we felt this was the best way to use our resources to help.”

In addition, when Tallent learned that the Ronald McDonald House of Augusta lost all of the food in their freezers due to the power outage, he and his team made another special shopping trip.

“With families returning to the house on Monday, we made a Sunday morning shopping trip to load up on frozen meals, fruits, vegetables, snacks and breakfast items to fill up their freezers. We appreciate the great work RHMC is doing and are so proud of the work of our staff to help meet this unexpected need.”

Former Jaguar baseball player Bryce Massey (BS ’00), an alumnus of the kinesiology program in AU’s College of Education and Human Development and owner of D-Bat Evans, opened his facility soon after the storm for free to help entertain the kids and offer air conditioning.

“One of the benefits of our business location is that we were able to regain power quickly,” said Massey. “We’re on the same power grid as the government buildings and Emergency Operations Center, so power was restored by Sunday following the storm.”

Despite having six large trees that fell in the parking area on the side of the building, the business didn’t incur any damage aside from some leaking and minor water issues.

“In talking with our team, primarily my wife Riki and Connor Hoover, we realized that so many people had so many needs in the days following the hurricane,” he continued. “We really wanted to find a tangible way to provide for those needs in some way. We made the decision to have a soft reopening Monday, Sept. 30, with adjusted hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and we just didn’t feel right about charging for usage. So many people needed a spot to land, someone to talk to, some semblance of normalcy, A/C, power, a place to get some work done or just something to make them smile again.”

With good cell reception, the team was able to secure an alternate Wi-Fi option pretty quickly to offer the facility to friends and local residents to connect and work on their laptops. As a local coach, Massey had friends reach out to provide supplies, including food, ice and water and to set up a free supply room.

“It was really great to be able to provide the space for that. We opened the facility to anyone who wanted to come in to hit or get baseball/softball work in, as well,” Massey continued. “Families were worried about trees in their homes and on their cars. Some literally lost almost everything. They didn’t need to be concerned with renting a cage. We felt fortunate to have power and a comfortable safe space and just wanted to offer that to others who needed it. I can’t tell you how great it was to hear the ping of bats again.”

It provided a healing experience for Massey and a space for the community to work through its collective grief, as well.

“Honestly, most parents just needed a place to take their kids for a while after the trauma of everything and share stories about all that had transpired with them in the days before. There were lots of tears. In a lot of ways talking about it all felt healing to most people.”

Hull College alumnus Brad Usry (BBA ‘82) is the owner of JagPerks partner Fat Man’s Café. His downtown location was closed for the week to feed thousands of Georgia Power and Red Cross crews in the area to provide support.

“Like most of Augusta, I went to bed Thursday, Oct. 26, expecting a lot of wind and rain,” said Usry. “What we woke up to was a neighborhood that looked like a war zone. After clearing trees from my house and clearing the driveway, we walked onto Walton Way to see complete destruction and devastation. Walton Way was completely blocked with trees, power poles, line and transformers.”

After contacting all of his staff to check their situation, Usry’s son Havird got to the café to see that all was OK.

“We had no damage, and the power was still on because Enterprise Mill runs on hydropower,” said Usry. “This is when we went into ‘What can we do?’ mode. We contacted the Red Cross and Georgia Power to let them know we were available to feed folks if needed. Saturday morning, we got calls from both Georgia Power and Red Cross wanting us to assist in meals for them.”

Usry and his staff provided meals to the first group from Georgia Power on Saturday night, and the first group from the Red Cross on Saturday at lunch. All of the Fat Man’s crew came in once they had their own homes stabilized to contribute to the more than 10,000 hot meals provided during this period.

“Hav and I couldn’t be prouder of not only the effort and talent our crew displayed, but the ‘can do’ attitude they had even with their own problems at home,” said Usry. “We are honored we could be a small part of helping. At Fat Man’s Hospitality, we pride ourselves on giving back and think we thrive best when the going gets tough.”

Immediately following the storm, COEHD alumnus Mike Garrison (MEd ’12), who serves as the executive director of Compass for Hope, set up a facility at Riverfront Gymnasium with shower trailers available for linemen working to restore power to the area.

Seren Jacobs (BS ‘10), the general manager for Fleet Feet, worked to keep the North Augusta location open to the community for charging, A/C and water.

Community partners offer essential assistance

Thanks to a generous donation from Snow Trucking, Soulshine Farms and Gold Creek Foods, LLC, a refrigerated truck delivered pre-cooked frozen chicken tenders, made available for free distribution to those in the AU and Wellstar MCG Health community who are still in need.

A special thank you to Regent Jim Syfan, CEO of Syfan Logistics, for helping connect AU’s leadership team with this meaningful donation.

Students, faculty, staff, hospital employees and others in our community received the donations near the university’s Oak Hall student residence.