Help the Stapleton Family Rebuild After Helene

It is hard to comprehend that I am writing this right now, and I know the needs across Western NC are widespread, but I want to tell you more about the Stapleton family. You cannot know them and not love them, and I have had the pleasure of knowing Brhianna my entire life.

This is Brhianna and Michael a few years ago, moving into their first home together in the cute, little mountain town of Old Fort, NC. (This was one of the places hit the hardest by Helene.) They worked hard doing a lot of DIY renovations and updates as they gave an old house some love, turning it into their home. Not long after, they welcomed their first baby, a sweet daughter!

When Hurricane Helene hit, all eyes were on Florida, but Western NC was being hit catastrophically. When I heard how bad the storms were, I reached out and Brhianna simply replied with, “We're ok, waters almost at the doorstep but hanging in there.”

I didn’t hear back from her after that and nobody else in the family could reach them. They had been told that water levels like that were not abnormal for a bad storm and that was typically the worst it got. A neighbor recommended that they moved their cars to another area that was higher up. Unfortunately, they had to quickly evacuate as floodwaters were rushing their home. Michael got Brhianna and their daughter to safety and quickly returned to their car to retrieve their pets, Bentley and Clover. As soon as he got them out of the car, it was whisked away by the rushing waters.

They watched from safety at a local school as the waters and mud surrounded their home and community. We are indescribably thankful that all 5 of them are safe (especially thankful to the National Guard team that evacuated them from the school). Currently they have been reunited with their immediate family in a safe area, but they have lost almost all of their material belongings. Truly, only four items of clothing across the 3 of them.

If you look closely you can see the lines marking the water levels in their home.

These are people who have spent their life caring for others and their community. Currently they both work for a non-profit food bank, and before that for Ameri Corps. We are sharing their story to ask for your help in restoring their lives back to some sense of normalcy in this new post-Helene world. Every little bit helps. I have set up this Gofundme to allow their friends and family (maybe even strangers!) to come together in support so that they are taken care of. These funds will go towards covering:

-Living expenses while they are out of work for

an unknown amount of time

-Replacing items that were lost

-Costs related to insurance and repair processes, if insurance helps at all. (No flood insurance)

-Incidental costs that cannot be anticipated

Please share this fundraiser far and wide so that we can help them rebuild their lives.

Thank you so much ❤️

With so much love and gratitude, Victoria

Because GFM needs a way to verify that I am a real person and this is a real need: My name is Victoria Snead. I am Brhianna’s cousin and have known her for me entire life, with the exception of the two months of life I lived prior to her being born. I have created this GFM page with the permission of Brhianna and Michael. We will add them as the beneficiary of this fundraiser and the money will go directly to them.