Victoria Sellick closes her eyes and sees in perfect detail how her house on Nottaway Drive in Elon looked prior to April 15 when a tornado shattered that memory.
“I could picture it now,” said Sellick, whose home was destroyed. “The more I think about it the more I just want to cry because I’m not there in that setting.”
As the Sellicks and other families continue to pick up the pieces from the disaster that destroyed roughly two dozen homes in the Elon community and caused about $10 million in overall damage throughout Amherst County, various organizations and groups have rallied to support them through donations.
Several days after the storm, the Amherst County Lions Club received a $10,000 grant from the Lions of Virginia Foundation to help 10 surviving families, including the Sellicks, by distributing Walmart gift cards. Ron White, the Amherst Lions Club’s president, said the group has met weekly with those families to disburse the cards.
“It’s been a blessing for us,” said White. “We’ve gotten to know some wonderful people. It’s been a lot of hugs gotten, a lot of hugs given.”
The club this past weekend secured another $10,000 grant to help more families affected, he said, and has tried helping those without insurance.
Rene Sellick, Victoria’s mother, said the gesture goes a long way to help her family as they adjust to a home they are renting on Dixie Airport Road in Madison Heights. Some also have helped them anonymously, she said.
“It’s been incredible,” Rene Sellick said through tears. “To know there’s still goodness in this world, it means the world to my family and me. I wish I could I could think every one of them. God knows I appreciate them.”
Though it is painful to see the destruction, she said a cookout in Elon this past weekend held by Sheriff E.W. Viar and members of the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office brought residents together.
“You miss them,” Rene Sellick said. “It’s not the same. You’re not there to see them day in and day out.”
Victoria Sellick recalled being at work the night the tornado struck, talking by phone with her sister and fearing she had just lost those dearest to her. She said it’s hard adjusting in an unfamiliar home after all they have been through.
“It’s like starting all over,” she said. “It just breaks my heart … some days are better than others. I have good days and other days I’ll cry and be like, ‘I just want to go home. But there’s nothing to go back to.”
In response to helping survivors in relocating and rebuilding, the Amherst Disaster Recovery Group formed earlier this month and is organizing efforts to disburse money and materials to those in need. The group held its second meeting last week and will meet again May 30.
Brad Mullinax, pastor of River Church in Madison Heights and the group’s chairman, said many nonprofits and individuals have rallied behind those affected.
Some organizations are petitioning national boards for more to donate while others are giving directly out of their wallets to make sure those in need get it, he said.
“A lot of that happens below the radar,” he said of acts of kindness.
Organizations such as the Amherst chapter of Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are involved with the group and helping those affected.
The group invites anyone wishing to donate to reach out to it as soon as June 6, Mullinax said.
David Childress, who lost his home on Deerfield Drive and plans to rebuild, said the Lions Club helping with gift cards has helped in retaining a sense of normalcy.
No one was killed in the tornado but his eldest son was among the injured, suffering a broken arm and nearly losing his eye; he has healed well, Childress said.
Childress recalled coming home that night from church with his wife and oldest son at home when the tornado ripped through. He expected the worst.
“The house I left was literally in the front yard,” he said.
The family is trying to stay positive, he said.
“People will look at you kind of crazy when you say you’ve been blessed through this experience,” he said. “When you go through this experience and you feel the love and generosity of the community, there’s no other way to describe it other than a blessing.”
White said the Lions Clubs’s interaction with the survivors has led to lasting friendships.
“That kind of situation, you get to know one another in a hurry,” White said. “We’re just as happy as can be to help them. These people are overwhelmed by what happened to them, but they’re even more overwhelmed by the generosity.”
Teresa Bartholomew, a Monelison Middle School teacher who lives in Elon, also was displaced in the disaster and is receiving support from the Lions Club. She said her family has been separated because her pets can’t stay where she is residing during the rebuilding process.
She was relieved her two dogs and three cats also survived after the traumatizing event and said the community has helped since the first day, such as stopping by to give money, cutting trees down and doing laundry.
She said the club has contacts her on a weekly basis and encourages her.
“It means a lot,” Bartholomew said. “I don’t know how I would have made it through the last five weeks without them.”