Country Star Billy Currington Helps Load Key West Aid For Bahamas
KEY WEST (CBSMiami/FKNB) – Country music star Billy Currington, who filmed the video for his hit song "People Are Crazy" on Green Turtle Cay, helped load relief supplies Sunday for the northwest Bahamian island hard-hit by Hurricane Dorian.
He partnered with Key West Cares, a group founded by residents of the Florida Keys island to aid victims of the hurricane – particularly those on Green Turtle Cay, whose village of New Plymouth has been Key West's sister city since 1977.
"The reason we hooked up with Key West Cares is because I understood that they're more hands-on," said Currington, whose ties to Key West predate his fame. "It's a little bit less of sending money over there and more of sending things that money has bought over here, things they need – generators, on and on – and we're able to take it in a big 1941 plane.
"Just everything that they had going, that's what I wanted to be a part of," he said.
Currington, whose musical achievements include 12 number-one hits, appeared with his band at a Key West Cares benefit Saturday night and also played a waterfront fundraising concert.
The vintage DC-3 aircraft was loaded with some 7,000 pounds of goods collected by Key West Cares, ranging from generators and water to roofing supplies and tools.
Currington and longtime friend Paul Menta, a coordinator of the Key West organization, flew to the Bahamas Sunday on a small plane to oversee the supplies' distribution.
Many Florida Keys residents have family or other connections in the Bahamas, and hurricane relief efforts have been mounted around the island chain. Key West Cares organizers said the group has delivered nearly 20 tons of supplies to the Bahamas.
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