Support Asheville Waldorf School through Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene has caused unprecedented disaster and tragedy for Asheville. Yet, as Rudolf Steiner (founder of Waldorf Education) said, in the face of hard trials, we are called to rise to something new.

The Asheville Waldorf School community, along with our neighbors and friends, are coming together in extraordinary ways. Even in the face of this catastrophic damage, community members offer more assistance than they seek - housing one another, sharing resources, and delivering critical items like water, medication, fuel, and food to those in need. Friends and neighbors are coming together to share spring water, flowers, hugs, camp stoves, fuel, and grilled food. Daily tasks are very challenging, and we are blessed beyond measure to live in a community that supports one another during a trial such as this.

The material devastation is straining our school and our families. While our campus sustained minor damage to our playground and classrooms, one of our beloved teachers has lost her home and all of her belongings. Fallen trees, flooding, and washed-out roads have severely impacted many AWS families—damaging homes, cars, and businesses. The loss of transportation, power, and water infrastructure has left many without income.

Waldorf families in neighboring cities, like Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensville, Nashville, and many other locations across the country, have generously opened their homes to those displaced. Others remain in our community, working hard to meet our daily domestic needs with limited electricity, public water, cell coverage, internet access, and gasoline, while caring for their children and neighbors.

Asheville Waldorf School is committed to being a source of stability for our students and their families during this time of transformation. The healing that Waldorf education offers is essential right now, and we will continue providing a safe, nurturing environment for children in Asheville. Our children will be held in the center and with reverence as teachers, parents, and community members support one another through these challenges of loss, displacement, and uncertainty.

While we are committed to reopening as soon as it is safe, your support is essential in addressing the immediate needs and challenges faced by our families and faculty. With your help, we can ensure our community has the resources it needs to provide much-needed continuity for the children as we recover and rebuild.

How You Can Help:

Immediate Relief

More than 50% of our families receive state-subsidized tuition relief through the NC Opportunity Scholarship Program, based on their income level. Your donations will provide urgent assistance to families living paycheck to paycheck who are facing significant losses so their children can continue to receive a Waldorf education. Reopening and providing a stable environment for our students and faculty will help our community to begin to heal.

Ongoing Supportive Environment

Your contributions will help us restore our school by repairing damaged facilities, replacing essential teaching materials, securing resources to help our families work through the trauma many have experienced, and providing a safe and supportive environment for students when it is safe to reopen. Because water will not be restored to Asheville for many weeks (or months), we will use funds raised to provide toilets and handwashing stations so that we can serve students.

Long-Term Community Recovery

After meeting our most urgent needs, funds will support our school community as we address ongoing challenges. Your contribution will help families and staff who need extended support while they rebuild their homes and lives.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will directly support the teachers, families, and students of Asheville Waldorf School. Your generosity will help us rebuild our community and continue to provide the nurturing education our children need, now more than ever.

In times of hardship, the strength of community and the kindness of others light the way forward. With your support, we will rise from this tragedy and rebuild and continue the essential work of preparing our children for the future.

Thank you for standing with us during this challenging time.

With deep gratitude and hope,

Asheville Waldorf School

We live in a time of hard tests for humanity, of hard tests which must become still harder. We live in a time in which a whole host of old forms of civilization to which humankind still erroneously clings, are sinking into the abyss, a time in which the claim insistently arises that we must find our way to something new.

- Rudolf Steiner

Maria Allen works remotely for Asheville Waldorf School. If you have questions about this fundraiser, please contact her at [email redacted]. (Our local AWS staff don't have access to internet and email.)