Grassroots efforts shine bright in Henderson County after Helene
( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — Walking around Hendersonville, NC, and talking to locals, you'll hear a common sentiment regarding the damage from Helene "We've never seen anything like this."
That's the truth. The storm and flooding that not only Hendersonville saw, but Henderson County as a whole experienced has been historic. However, there's something else that many have never seen before and that's the widespread grassroots efforts that have been happening right alongside the efforts from federal, state, and local government agencies.
WANT TO HELP? Donate to the Western North Carolina Air Museum here
On 1st Avenue in downtown Hendersonville, sits Oklawaha Brewing Company. Locals say their beer is pretty good, but as it turns out, they're pretty good at something else, getting donations and helping the community.
Their garage is filled with boxes from Amazon, local churches, and people who just want to help.
QCN sat down with the owner, Joe Dinan, to ask him if he'd ever done anything this large scale in terms of relief efforts. "Never, never," Dinan said. "We're all just wearing different hats."
The hat he's wearing now is 'relief fund organizer and distributor'.
"We're getting calls at all hours of the night and deliveries at all hours of the morning and so you just kind of got to roll with the punches and be appreciative and grateful and do the best you can," Dinan said.
Doing the best he can, is pretty good. According to Dinan, Oklawaha Brewing was one of the first to get power and internet back. As he says, that Saturday following the flooding, he showed up to work to a massive crowd of people just looking for a sense of community. But the brewery had something else people desperately needed.
"You know, when you're brewing, you got to have clean water. So, it just made obvious sense to throw it in kegs," Dinan said. "We just had a bunch of kegs lined up with old-school party pumps. and we encouraged people to bring in jugs."
That was just the start of Oklawaha's role in Helene recovery. While Dinan was out helping locals chainsaw fallen trees to open up roadways. His girlfriend, Kelsey Varga, jumped in action.
MORE FROM QCNEWS.COM
Helene Aftermath
Grassroots efforts shine bright in Henderson County after Helene
QCN in Henderson County this week tracking storm aid, recovery efforts
People ignoring Blue Ridge Parkway closures, vandalizing barriers: NPS
"I said, I have to step up. How can I do this? So, I said, Joe, I need your help because I can't do this all by myself," Varga said. Varga, a Charlotte real estate agent, quickly tapped into her national network and created a GoFundMe and Amazon wish list. The donations quickly began to pour in.
"We got $5,000 in the first night and by the second night we had almost $10,000," said Varga. "It was very quick and we had tons of people sending us items through the Amazon wish list."
Thanks to Varga and the help of those who have donated. The garage at the brewery has turned into a processing and distribution center. Groups come and drop off supplies and then they're taken to another spot not far away, The Western North Carolina Air Museum. Just like Oklawaha, they had no idea how to organize massive donations and recovery efforts.
Unlike Oklawaha Brewing, the museum suffered significant damage.
"We've lost our hangars for our members. That was our source of income," said Jarrod Jarvis, the museum's president. "On occasion, we will sell some of the aircraft and the ones that we had lined up, which would pay our light bill and keep the heat on for visitors through the winter. We're now obviously submerged in water and that can't happen." Instead of worrying about their future though, Jarvis immediately went to provide aid to those who were trapped in the mountains, while also turning the museum into a one-stop shop for both drop-offs and pick-ups for supplies.
"Primarily Happy Helicopter Tours in Greenville, S.C., was one of the ones that helped me start this entire thing," said Jarvis. "They reached out asking me, 'What can we do for you? Can we bring you some water? Can we bring some food?' No, I'm fine, you know, they basically insisted it's too late. The rotors are spinning. We're on our way."
From there Jarvis said, he made his way from his home to the museum and airfield, and the grassroots effort was born.
"Immediately they jumped into the action. And because of them, we flew in to try to get supplies into that community," Jarvis said. "(Community members) offered to send a few generators. I thought maybe it would just be a few generators and it turned out to be an entire truckload of generators that set the mission underway."
Now, in addition to the relief missions, beneath and beside replicas of planes that flew in the First World War and beyond, lie things like diapers, saline packets, canned goods, protein shakes, and more. Several of the donations come from places just like Oklawaha Brewing.
"I have shared many tears with many people. I've made a lot of new friends through this process. They have been extremely grateful," said Jarvis.
The most impressive part of this all is that the effort is grassroots. With many pilots coming out of pocket to fly these missions. But as Jarvis said, they didn't have time to wait.
"It needed to happen faster than we can get outside, (for) help to get to us and in order to do that and be boots on the ground from the start, it takes that selflessness from individuals to make that happen," said Jarvis. It's that same selflessness that's brought together those like Jarvis and Dinan together. Both men agree it's going to take that same togetherness of neighbors helping neighbors to help Henderson County and Western North Carolina rebuild.
If you would like to help the Western North Carolina Air Museum, please.
