When Jeff and Cindy Wahl, owners of Hollywood Motors in Brookfield, put out an online call for donations last week for victims of Hurricane Helene, they had no idea village residents would turn out as hard as they did. Between the store and American Legion Post 1977 in New Lenox, of which Jeff Wahl is a member and which was also taking donations, the Wahls thought they might be able to gather one truckload of goods.
In reality, Brookfielders showed out to support the Wahls’ effort, leaving them with more than two trucks’ worth of items to help the people of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Hollywood Motors started accepting donations Friday, Oct. 4, with plans to stop taking them Wednesday, Oct. 9. But the store had to call it a day early after receiving an enthusiastic influx of items.
By Thursday, Oct. 10, Jeff Wahl left town to start the 10-hour drive with a full truck of supplies. He said he first emptied out Post 1977’s donations to return access to the banquet hall being used as storage space before filling the remaining space in the truck with donations from the auto shop.
But just filling the truck was a task in and of itself, Jeff Wahl said. Once donations started rolling in, he said, he was lucky enough to have the help of three local volunteers who organized the items — which filled the store’s two-door garage — by type and helped fit everything into the truck. One volunteer, Leticia Zamora-Martinez, said she and the other two, Samantha Lynch and Liz Perez, hadn’t even met before they came together to help out the Wahls.
“That’s kind of how everybody was that was dropping off donations; they were so grateful that Jeff and his wife put it out on Brookfield Connections because everybody felt this kind of longing” to help, Zamora-Martinez said. “All the Brookfield residents, they have huge hearts, and they wanted to do something. They felt bad, and they felt the same way I did.”
When she realized Jeff Wahl was organizing the donation drive on top of running Hollywood Motors, she said she and the other volunteers offered to help however they could, ultimately taking charge of organizing the donated goods. Those items included men’s and women’s clothing, water bottles, canned food, hygiene products, baby products, over-the-counter medications and even pet food from The Urban Mutt, a pet store just down the road.
Zamora-Martinez attributed the successful donation drive — with some Brookfield residents making three or four unique stops to drop off items — to Jeff Wahl’s presence in the community.
“A lot of people felt, honestly, they felt comfortable knowing Jeff, knowing Hollywood Motors, and knowing that they were trusting that it was going to the American Legion and his contacts. They were nervous that it wouldn’t get to the victims,” she said.
The Wahls and Zamora-Martinez also gave their thanks to Village President Michael Garvey, who they said helped give the donation drive legitimacy by getting notice of it posted to Brookfield’s social media pages.
Jeff Wahl said many of the people who received items – which were given out in coordination with American Legion Post 49 in Elizabethton – were still able to live in their homes, albeit without power, although the hurricane did wash away part of a major road in town. Still, he said he toured areas that were affected much more intensely, leaving people without a place to stay or their possessions.
“People have no real clue. Walk out of your house one day for two days with nothing but the clothes on your back. No stove, no refrigerator, no nothing. That’s what these people have down there,” Jeff Wahl said. “The welcome I got at the Legion was like I was a war veteran or a rock star.”
Jeff Wahl said he felt inspired to find a way to help victims of Hurricane Helene after hearing about their plight and realizing he had suffered a similar loss about this time of year. On Oct. 13, 1988, the Wahls’ original store at 3637 Woodside Ave. burned down, leaving him to rebuild the shop before reopening the following April.
“Until you really suffer a huge loss, I don’t think you get the full magnitude of what these people are going through down there,” he said. “Was it terrifying for me to lose my business, my income and everything? Yes. But what these people are facing is much larger. No cars, no houses, no bank, no money, [just the] clothes on their back. That’s what got me going.”
As of the Landmark’s print deadline, Jeff Wahl was preparing to make his second trip to Elizabethton on Wednesday, Oct. 16, with as many donated goods from Hollywood Motors as possible. While there were some items they couldn’t accept, like used stuffed animals or toys that can be hard to clean, the Wahls said the Legion Post 49 commander would make sure any donated items that couldn’t be given out, like used clothing, are distributed to churches and homeless shelters in the area that could give them out.
“Nothing went to waste,” Cindy Wahl said. “Someone somewhere will use it.”
