RIEGELWOOD - Sherri Simmons resolved early Saturday that her youth group should do more than just study the word of God this week. "We decided to put it in action," she said.

Simmons and 15 members of the Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventists Church youth group from nearby Council made box lunches, then carpooled to drop them off in Riegelwood. They were among hundreds of volunteers who turned out to help the victims of a tornado that ripped through Columbus County early Thursday morning, killing eight and leaving 12 still hospitalized.

Church groups, charities and local businesses joined volunteers from the American Red Cross at the Riegelwood Baptist Church on N.C. 87, a few miles from where the tornado struck. They brought clothes, offered counseling and made lunch for the dozens displaced by the twister.

By the end of the day, the Red Cross estimated that it had received about $15,000 in cash donations. The county also received five mobile storage units for the families to lock up belongings salvaged from their damaged homes.

Relatives of those killed mostly kept to themselves Saturday, making funeral arrangements, visiting loved ones in the hospital and filling out the paperwork to get state assistance to rebuild.

Columbus County officials estimate at least $500,000 in damage was done by the tornado, which destroyed 13 homes and an auto repair shop and damaged or affected 28 other homes.

At the church, 65 Red Cross volunteers, most from nearby communities, worked constantly to keep the donations moving. They shepherded a long line of people offering donations and labor through the afternoon.

Many who helped came on a whim. Steve Hinton, pastor of the Shoreline Baptist Church in Southport, recruited five members of his "motorcycle ministry" to drop off $500 from the church discretionary fund and see whether they could help clear the site in the coming week.

"This was kind of an impromptu thing," said Hinton, wearing a black leather jacket and matching chaps.

Greg Collins and his 9-year-old son, Corey, drove from Danville, Va., with a 53-foot tractor-trailer full of clothes and diapers. Across the side, in black and red, was the logo of his Christian disaster relief group: God's Pit Crew.

Collins was impressed with the local response. "You can tell these are good neighbors," he said.

Local volunteers collected donated clothing and toys in the church's nine Sunday school rooms. By 2 p.m., a sign-in book in front for donors listed 168 names from nearby communities, such as Whiteville, Holden Beach and Elizabethtown.

In a rear parking lot, members of the N.C. Baptist men's ministry made French toast and smoked sausage for breakfast and barbecue pork sandwiches for lunch. Ronald Hester, 66, of Bladenboro was in charge of the cooking. He said he made sure they served only "true barbecue" in the Eastern style.

Among the volunteers was Helen Blake from Bladen County. Blake brought her twin 11-year-old sons, Mackenzie and Madison, to help put bags of clothes onto a trailer so they could be taken to survivors.

All three wore black karate outfits with green belts, having come directly from a tournament.

"We kicked some behind," she said. "And then we came to help."