ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream in St. Clairsville served as a collection point for thousands of dollars worth of donated items from Ohio Valley residents for Hurricane Helene relief.

Organizer Dudley Cramer and Doug Porterfield, son of Kirke Porterfield from Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream, traveled to the Bristol, Tennessee, logistics center Monday to drop off a donation from the St. Clairsville community and surrounding area.

Cramer said the idea for the collection came about after he talked to friends Kevin and Lisa Brownell of Sandusky, Ohio, about what they could do to help hurricane relief. Cramer said they had a trailer in Sandusky, and he wanted to start a donation drive in St. Clairsville.

“I just wanted to give back,” Cramer said. “I mean, you know, we’re all blessed, and this is a great way to give back.”

Cramer then asked Kirke Porterfield to use his ice cream shop as a collection point.

Cramer was supposed to make one trip with his friend, but they realized they both needed to take a trailer because of how many donations they both got.

Doug Porterfield joined the hurricane relief effort after hearing Cramer needed a trailer. He suggested using Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream’s trailer for the donations.

The community donated different items ranging from food, diapers and baby wipes to coloring books, dog and cat food and litter. Cramer said he used the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recommendations of what to donate.

Cramer said the process moved quickly with the community donating thousands of dollars worth of items, filling up a 28-foot trailer.

“It was wonderful,” Cramer said. “Community really stepped up and responded. We were really happy with it in such a short period of time.”

Cramer said the workers at the dropoff center were excited when they saw how many baby wipes and formula he and Doug had because they were low on those items.

“It was huge. They were thrilled to death with the items that we brought because they were low on a lot of baby supplies and stuff, and we had a ton of diapers and wipes and formula, baby food,” Cramer said. “They were just clapping when they saw the amount of baby food and diapers and stuff that we had, so it was good. It was really good. It’s going to help a ton of people.”

Cramer said he put together this donation because he wanted to help all of the victims of the hurricane because many of them lost everything.

Doug said he was in New York working when everything happened and wanted to join in to help after seeing all of the devastation. After he talked to his dad about what was going to happen with the donation, he joined in to help.

Doug said he always loves to be a part of something and help out in any way he can.

“It’ll help out a lot with everything, even little stuff. There was food, diapers, everything imaginable. But then there were little things for everybody’s animals, toys for the kids to keep them occupied in times like this,” Doug said. “Just everything that got donated from the valley, little stuff, big stuff doesn’t matter, it will be a great thing for everybody that whoever will end up with it is a great thing for them.”