Four tractor-trailers. About 590 miles. Between 17 and 18 hours on the road.

A local family, seeing the devastation left in the wake of hurricanes in North Carolina and neighboring states, took it upon themselves to organize the collection of needed supplies and to drive those supplies to the western parts of North Carolina.

Once the trek was done, the ordeal still was not over — authorities shuffled the family around until the precise location where their donations could do the most good was determined. Only then were the trucks unloaded.

“It’s been amazing, seeing the community get together and pull things off in such a quick time frame,” Amber Vess, a friend of Lycoming County’s Heller family and a resident of Marion, North Carolina, told Sun-Gazette staff for in-depth coverage in last weekend’s edition. “I didn’t see any hope, and they are turning around. It’s coming along. … We couldn’t be more thankful.”

The effort required diligence, hard work and the willingness to overcome adversity. It required many people in Lycoming County coming together — many in small ways and for the family at the center, in monumental ways — to be of service.

But that is how, over about 250 years, America has persevered: Through neighbors coming together, in small ways and when necessary in big ways, to help each other out. It’s a lesson that explains our country’s past successes and, if we teach this lesson and just as importantly, learn this lesson, how future generations will reach those future successes.

The Heller family proved themselves to be a credit to our region. We hope we all can feel pride in how they represented our communities in our fellow Americans’ time of need and we hope we can all feel inspired to find our own ways of helping those who need help when they need it.