Page 20 - Discover Summer 2022
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Answering The Call CONTINUED
• Toilet Paper tried to do what’s right.”
• Tooth Brushes
But Vietnam, and life, changed all of
• Toothpaste
that for a long time.
• Towelettes
“When I came back from Vietnam in
• Wash Cloths
the fall of 1970, I was very fortunate to get a
• Towels
job with McLean trucking company, and I’d
• Deodorants
get in that truck and go away. I stayed out on
• Disinfectants
the road… stayed gone… no conversations…
• Feminine Supplies nobody knew who I was… I stayed in that
• Hand Sanitizers truck by myself… I never had to defend
• Heavy-Duty Trash Bags anything… “
• Paper Towels
Becoming involved with God’s Pit Crew
• New Stuffed Animals allows him to draw on his upbringing and
• Aspirin practice his faith.
• Band-Aids
“I’ve seen so much devastation over
• Triangular Bandages
there… it’s a story that I don’t normally like
• Rolled Bandages
to tell… but the irony of it all is… when I
• Peroxide got involved with God’s Pit Crew, I could
see that there was a chance that I could give
Several different combinations of these
back, helping America, and not feel bad about
items are contained in “Blessing Buckets”,
people talking junk about me being a Vietnam
five gallon pails that typically contain enough
Veteran.”
supplies to sustain a person for two or three
days. The supplies are typically donated by In addition to his work with God’s Pit
church groups, whose volunteers will assemble Crew, Wayne also volunteers at DAV, works
a thousand or more buckets at a time. They with the Shriners, and helps to transport
either distribute them where needed, or allow veterans to and from the VA medical facilities.
God’s Pit Crew to use them in their disaster He left me with the sincere impression that to
relief efforts. him, the work is its own reward.
Wayne chuckled when I asked him “I’ve grown from what my Mama and
about his faith. Daddy taught me, and the church taught me.
I’ve been very blessed.”
“My family was extremely religious,” he
told me. “My Daddy played in a quartet… we “It’s really humbled my heart,” he
used to ride around in the back of a 56 Ford says quietly. “It’s given me a total different
station wagon and our job, me and my brother, perspective in life, seeing all the heartaches
was to take the instruments into the church that people in these United States have to
and set em down so they could have them go through when these situations come their
there ready to go when it was time to sing. way.”
I was saved when I was 11, baptized in To learn more about God’s Pit Crew, to
Dutchman Creek, North Carolina… went volunteer, or to make a donation, please visit their
through the church, went through the Scouts website: www.godspitcrew.org
and got my God and country award, and I
18 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SUMMER 2022
