SURF Board donates to hurricane-ravaged school

Published 10:40 am Tuesday, July 29, 2025

By Sylas Johnson
Davie SURF Board

When Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, 2024, it left communities facing unimaginable challenges.
At the Oct. 7 meeting of the SURF Board at the Davie Community Foundation, a quiet heaviness settled over the room as students processed the extent of the devastation and the new reality of the students in the affected areas.
Davie County senior Amber Lynde had just one question: How can we help?
The SURF Board is a 24-member board of high school students in Davie County who raise money and award grants to youth-led projects. Students who make up the board are very philanthropic and have a heart for helping others.
The backstory of the board’s most recent endeavor underscores the student engagement and philanthropic mind the organization fosters. Amber proposed the idea of a project to make a difference in Western North Carolina.
“I first proposed the idea to Mrs. (Tami) Daniel, our SURF Board advisor, to get her thoughts on how our SURF Board could possibly help in some way. She thought it was a great idea, and we discussed it at the next meeting,” said Lynde.
SURF’s Make a Difference Day was coming up, and it would be the perfect time to get something started. The Board decided they wanted to help a school—but which school, and how?
“We decided to focus our efforts on Old Fort Elementary after finding out just how much this school had been damaged. A contact at the Black Mountain Counseling Center got us connected with the principal, Jill Ward.”
Amber shed some light onto the logistical side of philanthropy.
“After finding out more specifics on their needs, the SURF Board collected large boxes for our ‘Make A Difference Day,’ which was Nov. 16. We decorated each box and placed them in each of the schools in Davie County along with a list of needed supplies. After the holiday break, a group of SURF Board members collected all of the donated supplies in the schools.”
This initiative, envisioned by Amber, marked the latest in a string of community-minded projects spearheaded by the SURF Board.
All the supplies were staged at the Davie Community Foundation in advance of the trip. Bridgette Dillard, the foundation’s marketing and communications officer, sorted, organized, and labeled every box. Thanks to her pre-delivery preparation, loading and unloading were seamless. The supplies included boxes of folders, containers, construction paper, pencils, and other back-to-school supplies.
On July 17, Amber and freshman Sylas Johnson of the SURF Board, along with advisor Tami Daniel and her husband Mark, arrived at the foundation. With the extra muscle of the foundation staff, they packed the Daniels’ van to the roof. Once loaded, the team had much anticipation for the mission ahead.
In mid-afternoon, they embarked on a hundred-mile drive to McDowell County’s Old Fort Elementary—one of McDowell’s newest schools, which was devastated by flooding during Hurricane Helene and forced to relocate students while repairs took place. The students spent the rest of the school year sharing space in another school. The result was that 800 students were sharing a space meant for 400.
When the van pulled up to Old Fort, a touched Principal Ward welcomed the team from Davie into the school. Her gratitude was unmistakable as Amber, Slias, and the Daniels unloaded box after box. Ward shared anecdotes about how the joint effort of the Old Fort community pulled the young school through the devastation of Hurricane Helene, echoing the engagement that drove the team of four to the McDowell County town.
“Principal Ward was excited and very appreciative. She expressed her gratitude multiple times saying how much of a blessing the supplies were to her school,” Amber said.
She clearly demonstrated that this initiative came from a place of genuine care and was amplified, through hard work and advocacy, into genuine support.
“After Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina last September, I was talking with my mom about how so many schools and their students were impacted. We decided to find out if there was a specific school that needed support and what they specifically needed,” she said, having landed on Old Fort Elementary due to the extensive flooding. “I thought this would be a great opportunity for our SURF Board to get involved and help out.”
Amber, who aspires to be an educator, has demonstrated compassion and logistical awareness, qualities that will benefit her in her career path.
“My plan after college is to become an elementary teacher. It would be extremely challenging to go through what Old Fort Elementary School did with Hurricane Helene by seeing their school flooded and being displaced for almost an entire school year, alongside the devastation that families within the school faced personally,. Watching the community come together and seeing other communities do what they could to help out in so many ways reinforces my desire to serve children and their families.”
This project holds a special place in Tami Daniel’s heart.
“Seeing a student dream become a reality made me proud. The reaction from Ms. Ward when the delivery was made also made me proud because the difference that SURF made during this project was so evident. She was moved that a group of students with no connection to her school gave them such an incredible gift.”
Donna Creason, a resident of Davie and McDowell counties, reflected on the unity shown through the initiative: “It is inspiring to see people from both of my homes come together to benefit the community. After tragedies like Hurricane Helene, the best of humanity always finds a way to shine out. It’s really amazing to see that coming from the two places I call home.”
In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s flooding, nearly 76,000 students across western North Carolina were kept out of school for almost a month. Floodwaters forced closures, destroyed classroom closets, and wiped out basic supplies, leaving schools scrambling to restock.
Thanks to the SURF Board’s shipment and other efforts in McDowell County and beyond, students at Old Fort will be able to walk into their classrooms this fall with fresh notebooks, folders, and pencils in hand, and teachers will have much needed tools for their classrooms.