Ut Prosim on display as Virginia Tech students and employees help with local cleanup efforts

On a quiet Friday morning, the sun played peek-a-boo among the clouds, birds chirped noisily, and periodically across the New River, a train’s steel wheels clanged loudly against tracks, echoing off the river’s small canyon walls.

This is normally a typical daily scene at Eggleston Springs Campground – except not seven days prior, when an angry river, swollen from Hurricane Helene’s rains, turned into an unruly neighbor and nearly destroyed this idyllic spot in Giles County.

Armed with stout work ethics and an even stronger desire to put Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) into action, a group of 13 Virginia Tech students and employees gathered at this spot on this particular Friday to help with cleanup efforts in a familiar scene playing out throughout Southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee.

All had seen the videos and photos of the devastation wrought by Helene throughout Appalachia, but getting a firsthand glimpse of such devastation offered an unexpected dose of reality.

“I was in complete shock,” said Grace McHenry, a senior pursuing a degree in biological systems engineering. “My family and I go camping, and we have trailers like these [at the campground], and just to see them thrown about so easily. … Those things are big, and it takes a lot of force.”

Approximately a dozen campers at the entrance to the campground showed significant damage, with many turned on their sides and nearly all caked with mud. Many of the campers on the other end of the campground met a similar fate.

The flood destroyed the campground’s bathhouse and sheared picnic shelters from their foundations. The awning to the camp store leaned precariously, and a stage built for live entertainment buckled. The owners’ small home was flooded.

The Virginia Tech contingent spent the day cleaning up trash and debris, creating a pile for limbs and vines and one for items that might be claimed by any of the camp’s residents. Items beyond salvaging, things such as furniture, toys, stuffed animals, mattresses, and rugs, were discarded into a trash bin. The most interesting was a refrigerator, which required significant brawn to move to its final resting place.

“It feels great to help,” said Reagan Scherer, a California native pursuing a degree in physics. “I know a lot of people are struggling in the area right now, and I’d rather give back than sit back at home and watch the news.”

Virginia Tech’s work at Eggleston Springs Campground came about because of Isabelle Largen’s connections. Largen works at Virginia Tech as the assistant director for food access initiatives within VT Engage: The Center for Leadership and Service Learning and often partners with local communities on volunteer opportunities. A contact in Giles County led to her putting together groups of Virginia Tech volunteers to help with cleanup of the campground on three days.

“It’s not hard to lend a hand where it’s needed or join groups like ours to find a way to get involved in the community,” Largen said. “It’s a cool way to meet some awesome people and to learn about different folks across our counties and across the country. The biggest thing is you can learn a lot from doing service. I think every student should do it.”

This project, and several past projects within the New River Valley, arguably mean a little more to Largen, who grew up in Carroll County about an hour’s drive from Eggleston. Her mom once worked in Independence in Grayson County, a neighbor to Carroll County and a place also hard hit by flooding.

“This region means a lot to me, just being from Appalachia and working in Appalachia every single day to help build connections between campus and local communities,” Largen said. “This [the Eggleston Spring Campground project] was just the natural thing that needed to happen, and being with VT Engage, our job is to connect students with communities, so this just naturally made sense.”

Virginia Tech volunteers worked at Eggleston Springs Campground last Thursday and Friday, and Largen has another group project planned for Thursday. The need for assistance among local communities is plentiful – and will be for quite some time.

But students and employees at Virginia Tech are more than ready to answer the call.

“It speaks a lot about the community and the students and the community at Virginia Tech that they’re willing to come out here and willing to take time out of their school day to give back to the community in Appalachia,” McHenry said. “It makes me think that I picked the right choice in coming to school here.”