Help Asheville Community Movement Rebuild

Due to Hurricane Helene our beloved Asheville Community Movement has suffered extensive damage. As a former employee of many years I can say this gym is truly a haven for so many children. The owners, staff, and former staff know the magic and love that fuels ACM. Let us keep the magic going to help ACM rebuild as quickly as possible. All funds will go directly to ACM and rebuilding efforts. Unfortunately the gym owners still have limited cell service and are not able to contact many people at this time. I have attached a message I received from owner Rebecca Hall which includes details about their immediate needs, additional ways to support, and a more in depth description of the significance of ACM.

Jenna Wood

Former ACM employee

We still barely have cell phone reception in our area, but every time we get service even for a few minutes we get more texts from the Asheville community, the wider gymnastics community, friends, and family offering to help in anyway they can-and we are moved to tears by every single message. It’s hard to put into words everything that goes into building a small family business-how easily it can become your whole world and how gut wrenching it is to have it taken away so swiftly. Still, it feels difficult to ask for and receive help when there is devastation everywhere in our area.

We are immediately working to rebuild and graciously accept any help people can offer. It’s hard to know how much it will cost to get up and running again. The ACM community has grown so much in 12 years. We have a 35,000 square foot facility that had gardens and playgrounds, cozy afterschool spaces, a dance floor, offices and so much gymnastics equipment. Depending on the time of year, we teach, coach, and care for 500-700 kids each week. We have an incredible staff of around 40 employees. We don’t know how many will stay in town as the city rebuilds, but it’s a top priority to continue supporting the ones who do. We are trying our best to calculate for loss of income, continued payroll, flood restoration, rebuilding parts of the interior, new parking lot, afterschool/summer camp supplies/furniture replacement and gymnastics equipment replacement. We also lost two of our vans that we use for afterschool pick up. Luckily we were able to get the other five off site the day before the storm.

We know there are other expenses we haven’t even thought of. We are exhausted and it’s hard to think through it all. We are beginning to meet with restoration teams today to get estimates and are waiting to hear what and how much our insurance will cover. We expect the cost of repairs to far exceed the help we get from insurance, but are only guessing at a number right now. We will update it when we know more.

For local families, if you can’t donate but want to help, we will need so many hands once it’s safe to go back in the building. We will post info on that as soon as we know more as well. Other ways people can help without donating: we need leads on gymnastics equipment we can get fast, info on garage door companies that are up and running in the area, and any other insights/connections people think could help us. When we are cleaned out we will also accept donations and will start working on a list as we go through things.

We continue to hope that all of our ACM families made it through the disaster safely and anxiously await hearing from you all as cell reception and internet returns. We celebrate every text and email we receive. Stay safe.

Rebecca Hall

Owner of Asheville Community Movement