ARA Foundation & ARA of Tennessee donate $6,000 for Gatlinburg wildfire relief

Updated Dec 15, 2016
A photo from Nov. 27 shows smoke atop Chimney Tops, the mountain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park where the recent Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge wildfire originated. Photo credit: Wayne GraysonA photo from Nov. 27 shows smoke atop Chimney Tops, the mountain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park where the recent Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge wildfire originated. Photo credit: Wayne Grayson

The American Rental Association (ARA) Foundation and ARA of Tennessee have donated $6,000 to the American Red Cross for wildfire relief efforts for those in the equipment rental industry, their families and communities in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee areas.

ARA of Tennessee pulled together $3,000 and the ARA Foundation provided $3,000 through its Matching Funds program.

“This disaster has been so devastating to witness,” says Terry Turner, CERP, American Rental Association (ARA) chairman of the board, ARA Foundation board trustee and owner of All Occasions Party Rentals in Knoxville, which is 35 miles from Gatlinburg.

According to a report from the Knoxville News Sentinel, two teenage boys have been charged with starting the devastating wildfire which killed 14 people and destroyed more than 2,400 homes and businesses. The blaze originated at Chimney Tops mountain inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is believed to have started on Nov. 23 after the teens were “horsing around with matches.” The fire was then spread Nov. 28 when “hurricane-style winds hit Sevier County and spread the embers of the fire already burning in the park to lower elevations,” the paper reports.

“It is great to see that the ARA of Tennessee was able to take advantage of the ARA Foundation’s Matching Funds Program. The recovery efforts in this area of my home state will take a long time, but this donation will go a long way to assist that effort,” Turner says.

“This is what the ARA Foundation is all about,” says Andy Cooke, CERP, manager of Cooke Rentals in Cornelius, North Carolina, who serves as chair of the ARA Foundation board of trustees. “Disaster assistance is a primary initiative of the ARA Foundation. Luckily, we haven’t heard of any rental operators impacted, but the communities they serve have been. By using the ARA Foundation’s program, we were able to combine our efforts and make a real difference in helping everyone in these communities begin to get back on their feet.”