Thank You to Helene Relief Fund Donors

Dear CCC Donor,

Since Hurricane Helene made landfall in our region, the CCC has been grappling with a new reality along with the rest of our mountain community. Communities ravaged by water, wind and debris flows, businesses that have long supported our work flooded, members of our community rendered homeless and/or unemployed, our climbing areas inaccessible and ravaged by storm debris. The scale of destruction has been staggering - the road to recovery long and daunting. In the face of all of this hardship, you responded. By heeding the call of our volunteer needs, supply requests, and monetary donations you provided life-giving relief and hope to so many. 

On September 30th, we launched the Helene Relief Fund as the engine to power our relief efforts. Our community (that’s YOU) responded swiftly. In the first week, nearly $8,000 of your donated funds were used to purchase essential supplies for communities and first responders in need. Your donation helped us coordinate truck loads of essential supplies directly to areas most affected, all in the first week of the disaster. Volunteer delivery drivers from as far as Raleigh loaded truck-fulls of supplies to Lake Lure, Asheville, Erwin, Marshall, Burnsville, and more. Climbing gyms in unaffected areas began gathering supplies for our delivery crews, furthering the positive impact on devastated communities.  

In the second week, your generous donations helped provide critical supplies to first responders and support helicopter rescue operations to reach remote areas. For example, $2,000 was donated to Flight Solutions, which used the funds to deliver six helicopter loads of supplies to Gerton on the evening of our contribution.$1,000 was allocated to support search and rescue operations in Yancey and Mitchell counties. Additionally, $10,000 was used for fuel deliveries to search and rescue teams, as well as to provide chainsaws and personal protective equipment for those working tirelessly to clear debris and rebuild their communities.

Our C4 team was also deployed to assist with cleanup efforts in Asheville’s River Arts District, Downtown Marshall, Gerton, and several private homes, while also conducting well-checks on residents.

As we witnessed, several of our partner businesses were forced to lay off staff due to extensive damage. In response, $1,500 of your donations were directed to GoFundMe campaigns supporting the employees of The Riveter, Cultivate, and Second Gear. An additional $500 was given to assist private homes affected by the storm, while CCC volunteers and staff focused on hands-on cleanup efforts.

In the third week, we began assessing damage to our climbing areas. The next wave of need that became apparent was extra support for trail and climbing area rehabilitation. As we reflected on how to meet this need, we heard more stories of community members who would be without employment for the foreseeable future due to the effects of Helene. With this in mind, we generated the idea for a creative solution - the Helene C4 (Carolina Climbers Conservation Corps) Program. This program is designed to combat loss of income for a few community members while rehabilitating our most affected climbing areas.

We quickly received an influx of applications, and have since employed 3 wonderful trail stewards for the Helene C4 program; Felicity, Sophia, and Laszlo. Thanks to your contributions, these stewards, along with Dan and Dain, our longtime C4 Team leaders, have been working tirelessly to rehabilitate access trails and climbing areas in WNC. So far, the team has worked on sawing hundreds of trees and re-building trails that were impassable. Thanks to their efforts and your support, we are happy to announce that we've been able to re-open Hidden Valley, Big Rock, Laurel Knob, and Pumpkintown, with many others areas in the works! Since the storm, we’ve been actively assessing damage to most of our climbing areas across NC, SC, TN, and VA. In collaboration with land managers, we’ve been keeping climbers informed about which areas are accessible and which remain closed due to damage.

Throughout the Helene recovery process, our community of volunteers has astounded us with their eagerness to help WNC heal. We have recently connected with local boots on the ground recovery initiatives to find roles for the skilled volunteers in our community. Last weekend was an especially meaningful project, as CCC staff and volunteers including folks from Crazy Irish Tree Service connected with Spokes of Hope to remove tree debris that was making the home of a resident in Chimney Rock uninhabitable. This was just one day and one example of so many people giving back to others in meaningful ways. You helped make this happen!

All of this and so much more has been made possible by your support of the Helene Relief Fund. Since its launch on September 30th, you have helped us raise over $40k to rehabilitate WNC. We have been floored by the generosity of our community, and we can’t thank you enough for rising up to support WNC. There are so many cruxes on the arduous climb ahead, but you have helped the team get over this first pitch crux, and for that we thank you. 

With Gratitude,

Mike Reardon, Executive Director

Alycia Andrade, Marketing and Events Director

Photos from some of our recent relief efforts are below: 

The CCC partners with EcoForesters to clear downed trees at Buffalo Creek Park in Lake Lure

Before and after shots of one of the work projects today in Chimney Rock Village. Big thanks to Adam Snedden, Stephen McKinney, and several more climbers for helping make this home livable again. Additional thanks to all the climber volunteers who came out to help Spokes of Hope with Chimney Rock Village clean up.