Suffolk citizens spent days purchasing supplies to prepare for a hurricane that never came here, and now Suffolk Christian Church is collecting those supplies to send them people affected by Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.

Priscilla Bunch, director of children, youth and senior ministries, was approached by Kelly Myles at the church about doing a collection to help support those in need in North Carolina. According to Bunch, many members of the congregation have family members in North Carolina that have been affected by Hurricane Florence.

“She approached me and said we should collect some things, and I said it sounded good to me,” Bunch said. “As the day went on, we kept talking about it, and we decided to ‘stuff the bus’ as they do for school supplies.”

While people can drop off items at any time for the drive, the church will hold a large Stuff the Bus drive from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 22, and the hope is to actually fill an entire 24-passenger bus. Volunteers will be leaving the following Sunday or Monday to deliver the supplies to the church in North Carolina.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Myles said. “This isn’t about us, and we just want to get the supplies to the right place.”

“We were blessed we did not get hit and that we can step up to the plate to help,” Bunch said.

Myles has also started a Facebook page for the effort to keep an updated list of needed supplies.

Some of the items needed for the drive include:

• Blankets
• Socks
• Baby bottles
• Trash bags
• Batteries
• Water
• Baby wipes
• Feminine products
• Five-gallon buckets
• Packing boxes
• Plastic totes
• Work gloves

A full list of needed items is consistently being updated on their Facebook page “Stuff the Suffolk Christian Church Bus — North Carolina Bound.”