Wild Abundance Disaster Relief Fund

Wild Abundance has partnered with a local non-profit to create the Wild Abundance Disaster Relief Fund.

Barnardsville, where Wild Abundance’s campuses are, and the surrounding areas have been especially hard hit—homes destroyed, trailers swept away, trees fallen on houses, and bridges washed out, cutting off vital access. The destruction has been immense, but the resilience and heart of our community shine brighter than ever.

We are safe and were fortunate not to sustain major physical damage, and everyone who works with us is okay. The financial impacts of canceled classes are significant, but with the support of our community of students and supporters, we feel confident that we’ll recover. This means that we’re able to utilize our skills and tools to support local relief and rebuilding efforts. Our neighbors need our help, and we’re very thankful to be able to dive in!

Update as of November 15, 2024:

As the dust settles on the disaster, the scale of the damage is sinking in. Huge piles of treasured possessions, furniture, flooring, and insulation have appeared in front of flooded houses and businesses, some buildings have red “condemned” signs on them, declaring them unfit to rebuild. The number of displaced people in affected counties is staggering.

We have done a lot of good work so far, and we see how much more there is to do.

From this vantage, 47 days after the storm, we can see the extent of the needs more clearly, as well as where our unique infrastructure and skill sets fit into the monumental collaborative effort of recovery. As a result, we’ve refined the goals of this fundraising effort moving forward and raised our goal to $200K. We are narrowing in on our original goals, focusing on tiny house construction, housing policy advocacy, and repairs on damaged homes and buildings. We have estimated costs for what we want to accomplish, and have raised the goal to match this need.

Your generous contributions to the next phase of the fund will go to:

• Construct tiny house and small house shells and completed small homes for folks who lost their housing due to Hurricane Helene.
• Do repairs on salvageable local housing.
• Get involved with housing advocacy; Hurricane Helene turned the housing crisis in this area into a housing emergency. We seek to change policies that create hurdles to better housing. Policy change is imperative to create sustainable housing now and into the future.
• Coordinate projects, including managing volunteers, bookkeeping, and other administrative tasks, so that the money from this fund has the best impact it can.

Thanks to many generous contributions, including a $25,000 grant from The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, we are extremely close to reaching our initial $100,000 goal. And with those funds, along with the work of many passionate volunteers, we have already accomplished some of our initial goals, including:

• Pledged $22,500 to Mutual Aid Barnardsville, to help them continue supporting the Barnardsville Community now and into the future.
• Broke ground on the production of 12x24 small permanent homes to be donated to locals who lost their housing; monies from the fund went toward materials and lead carpentry, with lots of volunteer help.
• Contributed toward purchasing a sawmill for a local resident to turn downed trees into lumber that’s being offered for free to local rebuilding efforts.
• Created an effective system for organizing tree work and repair needs in collaboration with Mutual Aid Barnardsville. This system was especially poignant in the days after the disaster, when there was limited access to the internet, and volunteers were flooding in looking for places to help take down trees off roads and houses, remove mud and debris from houses and land, create access with heavy equipment, and do repairs on houses. This work is still in place and has been taken over and improved by Mutual Aid Barnardsville.
• Filmed and produced a video to demonstrate and share the above system with other relief centers responding to Hurricane Helene, and with others that may use it in future disasters in other places.
• Gave scholarships to local flood survivors to take Women’s Basic Carpentry so they can help with rebuild efforts.
• Contributed materials and labor to repair houses, including rebuilding the roof of a family home that had been crushed by 8 trees, and rebuilding stairs and a stoop for an elderly community member.

This is a critical moment. As media coverage and national interest in this disaster wanes, the needs of our community do not. Please join us in building resilience in the wake of this unprecedented natural disaster. We have partnered with Watchfire Media, a local non-profit, to fiscally sponsor our efforts to rebuild. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Every dollar makes a difference.

Together, we’ll rise.

With gratitude,
The Wild Abundance Team

Note: We made this video in the days following the disaster, showing the work that we were doing in collaboration with Mutual Aid Barnardsville. Since then, this collaboration has accomplished many of the original goals, and the Wild Abundance Disaster Relief Fund has refined our original goals to respond to current critical community needs as outlined above to focus on building small homes for flood victims, doing repairs, and housing advocacy.