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Hurricane relief heroes: Auburn aviators deliver supplies to Helene victims

Nick Reyzin, Noah Henry, Jake Owsley and William Abbott don't call themselves 'heroes.'

But the people affected by Hurricane Helene, the Auburn Junior High cross country team and you probably would.

For the group of Auburn Aviation students and alumnus, flying more than 1,200 pounds of hurricane relief supplies to North Carolina and Tennessee just days after the once-in-a-lifetime storm, using their own aircraft, was obvious.

Nick Reyzin's first relief supply run happened three days after the hurricane hit. He and a group of friends flew supplies out of Calhoun, Georgia, joining a movement of civilian pilots – nicknamed the "Appalachian Air Force" on social media – to deliver critical supplies.

They landed on muddy, cracked runways. The operation was disorganized. People passed out photos of loved ones that hadn't been located yet, which Reyzin and his friends sent to as many helicopter pilots as they could. More slept in hangars because it was the only place with a generator.

"We, the people, we're going to come help. It is always going to be your neighbors going to come and help you. No matter how small of a thing you can do, go out there and try to do something."

Nick Reyzin, Aviation Management

Reyzin said he could spend the rest of his life trying to describe the devastation and wouldn't be able to put it into words.

"When you're flying down these valleys and you're looking down and you see concrete paths of foundations of houses that were no longer there, it was chilling," Reyzin said. "I'm from Florida, I've been through my fair share of hurricanes, but I'd never seen anything like that. It literally looked like a war zone. After seeing that, I knew that I wanted to go back and keep helping as much as I could."

Meanwhile, hospitality management alumna Lindsay Cline '08 was leading the charge to collect relief supplies in Auburn.

Cline worked with RFK Racing, sponsored by BuildSubmarines.com, for which she is the Gulf Coast lead at the U.S. Navy Maritime Industrial Base, and Stewart Haas Racing, where her husband Carl serves as the director of motorsports. Between the generosity of NASCAR, the Parkway Baptist Church and her Auburn neighbors, her garage was soon overflowing with supplies.

"That's who Auburn people are. That's how we show up in the world," Cline said. "Everywhere, in every situation that I have been in, I have been able to connect with Auburn people through our hearts of service. It absolutely spoke to the Auburn spirit."

The Clines and Reyzin met years ago, when they happened to be walking the same way home from an Auburn football game. Since then, they kept in touch over LinkedIn. When Reyzin saw that Cline had supplies that needed transport, he stepped up.

Reyzin put out the call for other pilots to join the relief effort. Aviation management senior William Abbott, professional flight senior Noah Henry and aviation alumnus and flight instructor Jake Owsley reached out to Reyzin to help.

"These people are going through probably one of the most difficult times in their lives. The minimum thing that we could do and our end goal is just to give them some kind of hope."

Noah Henry, Professional Flight

Cline said she knew immediately that they were the right men for the job.

"They had such service hearts. They kept thanking me," Cline said. "That was what was really interesting about the whole thing, I was so grateful because they were there, and they just kept saying, 'Thank you for giving us an opportunity to help.' You could tell that their hearts were really in it for the right reasons."

As they loaded supplies onto the airplanes at the Auburn University Regional Airport, the men received help from an unexpected group of volunteers: the Auburn Junior High cross country team. Cline, whose son is on the team, had invited the other families to help pack supplies.

The Auburn student pilots showed them their aircraft and the kids helped fill the planes. After the pilots left, Cline's son asked if he could start taking flying lessons.

"You have a group of 13 to 14-year-old kids watching them, and they're like heroes," Cline said. "It's not just that they're about to go and fly those airplanes and do fun things and they're having these grandiose dreams of 'Top Gun.' They're watching them be of service. It was really, really powerful."

Early the next morning, with their planes full of supplies from baby formula and water to grills and shovels, it was time to take off. From Auburn, two pilots flew to Johnson City, Tennessee, and the others went to Banner Elk, North Carolina.

William Abbott spent the first part of the day unloading supplies in Banner Elk with the National Guard, then made a supply run to Pickens, South Carolina, and took those supplies to Johnson City, Tennessee.

Despite the long day – leaving at 7 a.m., flying for seven hours total and not returning home until that night – Abbott said the team didn't hesitate.

"We were determined. From the minute it was brought up, we were all on board," Abbott said. "There's not a shortage of supplies to be donated. There's just a shortage of ways to get them there, and so there's very few people with the opportunity to kind of make this happen."

"I was wearing an Auburn hoodie and I got a couple of 'War Eagle's from people unloading supplies, so it was cool to see everybody come together."

William Abbott, Aviation Management

Before joining the operation, Noah Henry saw "the good and the bad" on social media and felt called to help. He brought supplies to Johnson City, Tennessee, where blocked roads, flooded rivers and power outages blanketed the region.

Henry saw community members, some who lost their homes, coming together to support each other. He said it was "incredible" to be part of their operation.

"If we wanted to accomplish nothing else, our goal was to just deliver supplies to people who needed them. That was the bottom line of the whole operation," Henry said. "These people are going through probably one of the most difficult times in their lives. The minimum thing that we could do and our end goal is just to give them some kind of hope."

By the end of the day, the pilots delivered more than 1,200 pounds of relief supplies, including food, water, diapers, baby formula and other essentials.

Henry said his standout memory was how appreciative everyone was, even as he felt that the amount of supplies he brought was so small compared to the need.

"My airplane can't hold that many things, but I mean every little bit to them counts and it's really incredible to see," Henry said. "Literally everybody has the ability to help. They're going to keep needing supplies and things like that for quite a while, so just keep supporting these people. They're still struggling. Any little thing can help."

Like Henry, Reyzin hopes their experience inspires others to help where it's needed. While their relief supply runs brought essential items to some of the hardest hit areas, recovering from the damage Hurricane Helene brought will take years.

Reyzin said everyone they met was extremely grateful for the Auburn aviators, and it was personally "humbling" for him to be a small part of a much larger relief movement that's rippled across the country.

"Some of them almost had tears in their eyes, that's how happy they were to see us," Reyzin said. "I think that's the whole point of the USA is just that we, the people, we're going to come help. It is always going to be your neighbors going to come and help you. No matter how small of a thing you can do, go out there and try to do something."

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Tags: Aviation Students Alumni