wonderment

Scanned by me.

For the last year and a half, I've been lucky to call Western North Carolina my home. The aftermath of Hurricane Helene here is unfathomable.

This is a compilation of sources from folks in my community: people who have lost their homes, who are bringing survival supplies into the area, and more. I will try to keep it as updated as possible (posting on Oct. 6th). Please support if you have the means, share with others, and keep WNC in your thoughts.

Rural Organizing And Resilience - a grassroots volunteer organization bringing supplies into affected communities

Support Yancey and Mitchell Counties Flood Relief

Celo

Support my friend doing work on the ground - Venmo @/melanie-risch

South Toe Fire Department - is doing rescues in the area. Venmo @/SouthToeFire

Arthur Morgan School - Send a tax-deductible donation to their giving page, resources will get to folks who need it in Celo

Fundraiser for community member to recover from house flood (added 10/23)

Community member whose house is full of mud - Venmo @/heather-downtofarm

Help Natalie and Miguel after Helene - updated 10/23, changed from Venmo link to GoFundMe

Support Meredith and Robert after Hurricane Helene - Meredith and her partner Robert escaped with their pets and their lives in Hurricane Helene, but lost everything else to the flood waters.

Support Nick, Kavita, and the Celo Inn - added 10/23

Spruce Pine

Downtown Spruce Pine - accepting donations via PayPal to which will go directly to local businesses that have suffered significant damage

Treats Studios Helene Relief - webpage for local artists to receive support. Artists are grouped by state, medium, and those in most need of help.

Marshall

The Farm Connection - raising money to directly pay farmers for the pounds of food that they are donating to local relief organizations.

Bakersville

Help Rebuild Bakersville after Hurricane Helene - Help the Bakersville Beautification Association non-profit start from the ground up in reconstructing downtown Bakersville.

Generators for Bakersville - raising money to buy generators for at least 30 families without power (added 10/9) (currently disabled)

Asheville

Pansy Collective and Beloved Asheville - distributing survival supplies to the Asheville community.

Rebuild Melissa's Pottery Studio After Helene - Hurricane Helene wiped out Melissa's Pottery Studio under 20 feet of water, destroying her kiln, and everything else. (currently disabled)

Support a community member in Asheville - Venmo @/Pamela-Demontbreun (added 10/23)

Linktree of resources for Helene mutual aid in WNC

Mose Tolliver (1918/20 - 2006, American artist) was born one of 12 children to sharecroppers Ike and Laney Tolliver in the Pike Road community, near Montgomery, Alabama. His exact year of birth is unknown, though it is known he was born on the Fourth of July as well as between the years 1920–25. He attended school only until the third grade due to a self-described lack of interest in education. In the 1930s, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama where he helped support his parents and their large family by doing odd jobs.

In the early 1940s he married his childhood friend, Willie Mae Thomas, and had 13 children, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. During the late 1960s, while working at McLendon's furniture factory, he had a severe injury where his legs were crushed when a half-ton load of marble shifted and fell from a forklift as he was sweeping in the furniture factory. After this incident, he turned to painting to combat boredom, pain and long hours of idle time. Although many say that his career started after the accident, Tolliver claims he painted beforehand. He would often turn his paintings upside-down and paint the picture of perhaps an animal and landscape positioned from various directions. Tolliver's titles are wildly divergent; e.g., "Smoke Charlies," "Scopper Bugs," or "Jick Jack Suzy Satisfying her own Self".