Help Rebuild The Whitson's General Store And Community
Donation protected
UPDATE 10-20-24
The Whitson's have received all their go fund me donations and would like to thank everyone who has participated and supported the family and the Green Mountain community during the last 3 weeks. Here is a video of the Whisons receiving their funds and thanking everyone
I have also included a link to tonight broadcast and interview with Jane Whitson on 60 Minutes
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/western-north-carolina-families-rebuild-after-helene-60-minutes-transcript/
If you would like to continue donating and supporting the Whitson's in their journey ahead, please contact the family directly via Facebook with the link provided. The family will be able to discuss with you their future needs and how donations will be spent. You will need to contact them directly via Facebook for further donations.
We will continue to provide updates here on the GoFundMe page for all 36 donors. Thank you all for the love and support!
UPDATE 10-16-24
The Whitson's have updated us that they now have a dedicated bank account to accept further donations. This gives anyone the ability to donate to the family directly and contact them in reguards to donations or volunteering your time/labor to help with the rebuild process :)
As of this post I have turned off accepting further donations and ask for you to reach out to the family via their general store Facebook page found here,
Or Jane Whiston's personal page if you would like to continue to support thier family and community as they rebuild. The Whitsons will be able to tell you everything still needed for their rebuild and where the donations will be put to use. I will be writing the Whitson's their final check from the remaining GoFundMe balance once it transfers and will post another photo and video of them receiving it in the updates section.
I will continue to provide updates here along with photos and video of their rebuild. Matt and I are still dedicated to supporting the Whiston's and Green Mountain community during these difficult times. We will continue to provide hot meals, deliveries of needed supplies, and anything we can to help further the progress in Green Mountain and surrounding areas that need it.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, our goal, and for reaching out to us! Please do not hesitate to reach out to us or the Whitson family if you would like to volunteer your time in the rebuild process.
Sincerely,
Courtney Trafford
UPDATE 10-13-24
Yesterday the community, Matt, and the Whitson family had the pleasure of meeting congressman Chuck Edwards at Whitson's General Store in Green Mountain. Congressman Edwards spent the better part of 3 hours talking with everyone, surveying the damage to the family's General store, their mother's home next door, and the surrounding area. Congressman Edwards took the time to make a video with Nick Whitson for our GoFundMe (see video below in our updates), as we have now changed the focus of our fund raising efforts to go toward the restoration and rebuilding of the Whitson family's businesses and their mother's/family home next door. Our fund will be the official GoFundMe for his family and community by his request to assure he will continue to receive donations intended for his family and community. All donations moving forward will be given to Nick and Jane Whitson and they will determine how the funds will be used. The needs are great and range from building materials, shelving, windows and everything in between.
Courtney and Matt originally set up this fund in hopes to raise $7,000 for the community, but Nick's community and family is clearly in need of more help, so we have raised the goal to $20,000. As of this date of the update, Nick has already received $2,000 from our fundraising efforts along with supplies we purchased for him and delivered from tractor supply and Lowe's ranging from wheelbarrow, shovels, N95 masks, gloves and anything he has requested from us.
The funds have also allowed Courtney and Matt to continue provide fresh food and cook hot meals for Nick's family, the community, and volunteers. We thank you for all your support! Courtney and Matt will continue to post plenty of updates here, cook hot meals on the ground, deliver needed supplies, and help with the rebuild this part of the Green Mountain community.
Original Post:
Matt has lived in the Asheville area for 5 years. My partner Courtney has lived in and around Asheville for the past 25 years. Courtney is a UNCA graduate, and former Mission Hospital employee of 9 years. Matt and Courtney are also volunteer Trail Angels for WNC (Asheville/Erwin,TN area) along the Appalachian Trail. We dedicate our time and resources to helping the Appalachian Trail through-hiking community with food, water, shuttle services, resupply, showers, and anything they might need to help them in their 2,000+ mile hike from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Many of you may know us by our trail names Colors and French Loaf (or Mrs. Colors). This season we had the pleasure of meeting, greeting, feeding, and helping 931 hikers from Brown Gap, Lemon Gap, Sam's Gap, Beauty Spot, Bland, Virginia, and Roanoke, Virginia. We are deeply connected to the trail and our grateful to have met so many amazing people this season.
It is with a heavy heart that we are writing this to make a disaster-relief fund for our community and residents here in the Asheville, NC area who are in dire need at this time. As many of you know, Western North Carolina was severely hit by Hurricane Helena. If we had to sum up the impact of Hurricane Helena with 2 words it would be "Total devastation".
Asheville’s main pumping station that provides water for 80% of the residents in Buncombe County is a complete loss, leaving the majority of the city without sanitary running water, including but not limited to Mission Hospital who has had to truck in outside water to continue to function.
Hurricane Helene was also responsible for taking out 90% of our residents' power, and produce catastrophic floodwaters from the French Broad River, Swannanoa River, Pigeon River, Broad River, Lake Lure, Toe River, and countless others in and around our area. At its peak, the French Broad River pushed 314,000 gallons per second and the Pigeon River pushed 500,000 gallons per second, leaving catastrophic damage to our community and infrastructure. The damage in Western North Carolina is now being compared to Hurricane Katrina.
It is very important for us to note that although the damage in Asheville is catastrophic, there are countless cities and neighboring towns that have been affected, some of which are a complete loss. These towns include but are not limited to: Swannanoa, Bat Cave, Spruce Pine, Black Mountain, Marshall, Hot Springs, and Fairview.
Courtney and Matt are fortunate to have made it through Hurricane Helene with minimal damage to our home. We had a small leave in our our roof, power loss for 4 days, and no running water for a week (our water pump station is located in Henderson County and is functioning again). As of today, 10-5-24, we are still without fully functional cell service and Internet, but that is the least of our concerns.
During the past 8 days, we have been providing food and water to our neighbors. We were fortunate to have 2 deep freezers full of meat along with canned foods, and several hundred Mountain House meals that we had set aside for trail magic. We were able to keep our food cold with the help of our solar powered battery banks and kept our neighbors fed by grilling non-stop on the bbq grill. We were able to retrieve water from a small lake down the street that allowed us to fill people's bathtubs with water so they could flush their toilets. We were also able to have access to a well that provided drinkable water for everyone.
Now that our neighborhood is getting back on its feet, and we have access to Sam's Club and Walmart in Hendersonville and Arden, we are putting our time and energy into the countless number of people in our area who are in need of our help. We will be loading up Matt's truck with water, canned foods, non-perishables, Mountain House meals, propane, clothes, first aid supplies, and hygiene products along with shovels, saws, and gas canisters to help clear trees and damage from the storm.
If you would like to help support us and our community you can do so in 3 ways. The first way is by donating here on our GoFundMe. This will allow us to continue to buy supplies and gas up Matt's truck to get them where they need to go.
The second way you can help is by physically bringing in water, canned foods, non-perishable items, hygiene products, and non-perishable items to Fletcher, NC Town Hall and meeting me in person. Myself and 2 of my neighbors can fill our trucks up with these donations and personally give them to the people who need them the most. Please contact us directly through go fund me for this option. We will be checking the account periodically when in cell range. We will coordinate a meeting time with you.
The third way you can help is simply by sharing this fundraiser with friends, family, and social media. The more exposure we receive, the more people we can help.
For those who may not be aware, Asheville is a thriving tourist town. We are home to many attractions including the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Biltmore Estate, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Asheville’s economy is dependent on people visiting to keep things going. Many residents work in the hospitality industry and depend on the tourism industry to pay their bills, purchase food, and keep a roof over their head. With the amount of damage to the area and complete loss of tourism, it is important to understand that many will not have employment for the foreseeable future. We have been faced with a challenge that we never dreamed of, but must face together as a community and that is exactly what we intended to do.
Lastly, thank you to everyone who has already stepped up to help our communities in this great time of need. You might never know the true impact you are making, but I assure you the impact you are making is more than you can imagine!
Sincerely,
Matt and Courtney
Aka Colors and French Loaf
Organizer
Courtney Trafford
Organizer
Fletcher, NC