Greenwild Spiritual Fellowship has begun collecting clothing, shoes, jackets, scarves, and other personal items that we wish to distribute to our neighbors, friends and family of Appalachia. The devastation from Hurricane Helene in late September, 2024 has been described as “biblical devastation”.
Under the leadership of Hearthkeeper Mela Borawski and her sister, JT Roland, our first drop-off event was held on Saturday, Oct 5 – and the community showed up in force, filling JT’s van!! We had to cancel the rest of our drop off events, and focus on sorting and now getting these items to Western North Carolina before we collect more – we simply don’t have an air conditioned space to hold items. We’ve had people offer furniture, baby items, blankets, kitchen items and more, but we are a small church and we have to go in steps. We will get to the point where we will take those things.
Our current goals —
- Sort through the clothes and shoes we’ve had donated into sizes.
- Raise funds to rent a Uhaul to deliver the items to WNC. This will also allow our volunteers to get gas, lodging, food for the trips back and forth.
Future goals —
- Continue to collect donations from the community, sorting them for delivery.
- Find an air-conditioned warehouse or indoor space where we can keep our donations safe, and give us an indoor area to sort.
- Start taking donations of blankets, sheets, and towels.
- Start taking donations of kitchen items such as pots, pans, dishes, utensils.
- Find a location to host our Holistic Clinic in WNC to bring healing modalities to them.
How can you help?
- Donate items! Keep up with our social media for drop-off locations and what we are collecting.
- Volunteer at our Sorting Parties to sort through items, making sure we are giving the people of Appalachia clean items that they can use. Follow Greenwild Spiritual Fellowship on Facebook for these event dates & locations.
- Donate money to our project to help fund our efforts, including renting Uhauls, travel, gas, and other expenses of driving back and forth to the mountains.
- SHARE with your friends, family and community!
- Let us know if you have people in WNC or any other affected areas that are part of organizations or churches that will distribute what we collect to the people that need it. We need lots of contacts!!
- We also need a church or organization who will allow us to hold our Holistic Clinic in their area. If you know a place, let us know. This will come once things begin rebuilding – right now, it’s still survival mode.
