"We need your help y'all!" Keep Healthcare in Barnardsville

Update 10/17

The first aid hub in Barnardsville has worked diligently over the last few weeks. The day after the hurricane we took ATV’s up destroyed roads to find out who had medical needs, who had food or water and who needed to be evacuated. Thankfully, the local Fire Department had done emergency evacuations the night before. Our team was able to help get folks out to medical need shelters once the waters receded.

A local building company Brock Mountain Land Company quickly got to work with machinery to create roadways and clear debris. Our community is forever grateful for the service and dedication from this organization. Our medical team and food and water distribution team would have never been able to do what we did with out the help of Brock.

A few days later, ATV’s and drivers from Navitat Canopy Adventures began helping our distribution teams navigate the precarious roadways. With multiple Kubotas, volunteers and radios, we were able to come together to make a world of difference.

We delivered generators to people in need of refrigeration for insulin and/or oxygen concentrators. Doctors showed up from far reaches to help get folks life saving prescriptions. Wow, it was full speed ahead.

By day 5, outside resources began to trickle in. Helicopters were overhead all day. Nonstop. The sounds of machinery, sirens and aircrafts flooded our ears. Dust and mud filmed everyone and everything. Slowly more and more military fleets were passing our hub. Police officers, power companies and ambulances from counties I have never heard of.

Today, the hub is still supplying basic first aid as well as herbal care, acupuncture and body work. We are providing clothing, generators, water, baby needs and anything else we can offer to anyone who is in need. Hot meals are served daily from a variety of teams across the east. Repair teams, mucking teams, chainsaw crews and machine operators are being dispatched across the town.

As regular clinics open, Mission Hospital has power and water, and other organizations take root, we see the space in which our civilian led distribution hub can slow down.

Our first aid team, consisting of RN’s, EMT’s, herbalists, acupuncturists and massage therapists do not plan on stepping away from our efforts. In fact, we are hoping to continue to raise money in order to keep our momentum. Although our brick and mortar hub may close its doors, our work here is far from finished.

We aim to create a small organization of acupuncturists working in collaboration with herbalists in order to maintain long term care including, stress relief, PTSD, chronic illness, foot care and more. Our goal is to create continued care for under-resourced areas of our community in a way that can both be of service and sustainable for ourselves.

Exactly what funding has gone towards:

-Wound care supplies

-Herbs

-Dispensing materials

-Diesel for ATV's

-Gas for generators

-Generators

What I hope funds can go to in the future:

-A small stipend for each of the full time volunteers

-Help with clean up and move out of the building we have been occupying

-Securing a more permanent clinic space

-Creating a small LLC or non-profit (we will most likely start with LLC for ease and quickness)

-Clinic supplies (chairs, massage tables, tables, sigs etc.)

-Office supplies

It's incredibly hard to ask for funds to go to the medical volunteers personally, and yet, we all still have to eat, pay the bills and take care of ourselves. Please know we add this in humility and with the clearest of intentions. We hope to continue focusing our efforts towards our rural community rather than needing to seek work elsewhere.

Warmly,

Delaney Rae

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Barnardsville, NC: "We need your help y'all!"

Western North Carolina was hit HARD by hurricane Helene. All reports confirm that the words being used to describe it - biblical, historic, catastrophic, devastating - are true.

Barnardsville is one of the communities outside of Asheville that is still largely cut off from the resources that it desperately needs.

Delaney, who many of you know and love, or have had the good fortune to meet when she offered you loving first-aid care at local events, has requested this GoFundMe to be set up that will funnel much needed money directly to Barnardsville residents who were impacted by the storm and to support the efforts of those that have been working around the clock to provide food, water and medical supplies to Barnardsville and surrounding areas.

This is her update on Monday 9/30 at 5:30PM:

“Hurricane update:

We lost all contact for about 48 hours. By all contact I mean no emergency services and no contact with county services. We lost most bridges in the area. We were cut off and isolated by major highways for 24 hrs. Some highways are back open for major supply drops.

We are still out of power.

Cell service is back online in town

We got our first water delivery today but we got by with locals filling containers of spring water. Many people were using contaminated creek water.

We have a community mutual aid kitchen serving meals in the old fire station.

We have a first aid tent and a team of folks collaborating with the fire department to do home wellness visits.

There are still roads cutting off entire communities! There are still many without access to their meds or essential oxygen supply.

[We need financial assistance to support the ongoing work of] the medics, tree workers, construction workers etc who all live in Barnardsville, NC and were impacted by the disaster but have still been out working diligently to supply roads, medical need, food and water to the surrounding community.

We need your help y'all!

The county is telling people to not come to the area to help but if you drive to a western NC bring water, generators, gasoline, diesel, and/or propane.

Thank you to all those who reached out. I am safe and in need of lots of hugs."

As you can see, they have each other, they are getting organized, and they are strong. But they need help to keep these operations going. They are running out of supplies and need to replenish. With many roads and bridges in the area completely destroyed, these folks are the primary method via which people are getting water, essentials and wellness checks until FEMA arrives. This is going to be a long road to recovery.

Delaney says that any donations that are left over will go directly to Mutual Aid Disaster relief to help provide support to folks impacted in the future.

They way through this is together.

Thank you so much for doing it with us!

P.S. GoFundMe has directed me to include the following information to improve the approval process, but it is not vital for you to know. So please hop on down to that donate button <3

My name is Ala Fulton, I have been living in Western NC for over a decade and have most recently called Asheville my home. I know Delaney and the amazing folks of Barnardsville through working together to put on the fantastic Earthskills Gathering called The Firefly Gathering. Many staff, teachers, and long standing work traders call Barnardsville home. These strong, capable, skilled folks are surely the ones on the front lines organizing, helping and serving their community alongside Delaney. That is who they are and what they do.