Hurricane Helene Heroes honored Saturday at Augusta Common

Augusta, Ga (WJBF) – "Honoring our Helene Heroes" was held on Saturday at Augusta Common. The event is a collaboration between City Hope Alliance, Richmond County Marshal's Office, City of Augusta Government, Augusta Fire/EMA, Mayor Garnett Johnson, the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, and more.

City Hope Alliance Executive Director Luke Niday told WJBF, "We're celebrating today the Hurricane Helene Hero day. So that we can honor all of those first responders, lineman, and heroes that have been nominated through our community; who've done a great job bringing our city back together."

Niday told WJBF that CityServe's annual service day event was originally scheduled for October 5. "Obviously because of the hurricane we were not able to serve." However, "We were meeting together as a steering committee and we said we're not able to serve, but how could we continue to serve our city? The best thing we could come up with was a day of service to honor all of those who have been serving in our city." said Niday.

Austin Kissinger, an ambulance driver for Central EMS tells me he's dealt with disasters in Texas, and was a Combat Medic but, "This was a little bit different because this is my community and it hit kind of close to home. I was just thankful that I could go out and help the people that I could and serve as best as I could."

The event featured food trucks from local vendors, bouncy houses, prizes, and live music by John Hobbs and AE the Cool, along with a dynamic dance performance by Word Thru Motion Dance Group.

Truc Bui, also with Central EMS, is grateful for the organizers of the event for recognizing the first responders with this event. "I think this is an amazing opportunity for Augusta to show love to all the first responders. Me and Austin really appreciate y'all hosting these kind of events for us and we definitely want to give back more to the community and we're glad they're giving back to us."

Niday tells me that this event is an opportunity to promote unity in our city: "I'm excited to see what's going on in our city. Though a storm would try to tear us apart, though an election would try to tear us apart, there's something going on in our city where God is bringing us togehter, and Augustans are coming together to love for one another and care for one another. This event's beautiful because it's people from every walk of life are out here together celebrating what it looks like to but Augusta back together, and that's what's exciting to me."