We've had an incredible month helping the people of Western NC with supplies of all kinds, clearing debris and cutting away trees blocking neighborhoods and threatening homes. The gratitude of the people we've been helping has made all of this so worth it, and we're not done! We still have volunteer teams driving in from multiple states for the relief efforts, thanks to the generosity of every one of you donors. We are now shifting focus from food, water, and other basics that are largely covered at this point to providing generators, warm clothes and bedding, and heating solutions to families in need.

Since Give Send Go makes images very tiny in updates, I created this IMGUR album of photos of our crew working and bringing supplies: https://imgur.com/a/ub8N2DL

God bless you all, God bless Appalachia!

We delivered a load of cleaning supplies, detergent, and batteries near Swannanoa this morning!

The volunteers had a very productive weekend! We've been so motivated by the incredible show of support we've received by all of you. Over the last few days we've delivered thousands of dollars worth of food, water, medicine, infant formula, toys, fuel, and other supplies to families and reliable relief stations in western North Carolina near Asheville, but the majority of our work time has been committed to dealing with downed trees, debris, and damage to houses.

The Appalachians suffering this disaster have shown incredible resolve in the face of tragedy, and many have expressed immense gratitude to our volunteers. One property owner whose damage we were cleaning up provided our volunteers free lodging for the night, a pleasant surprise when we expected to camp among the wreckage. Everywhere you look there is damage. Roads are crumbling, massive trees are downed on houses and roads, debris has been swept everywhere, wrecked cars line the sides of roads, and few areas have consistent power. At night, with the power out, many neighborhoods are coming together around campfires to lean on their community during this crisis.

With the amount of incoming donations being so much higher than we expected, we can get much more ambitious with our planning! More volunteers with more equipment are stepping up to join the effort every day, and we will be on a rotation for as long as it takes. God bless Appalachia!

We've upped our goal to keep up with your generosity, thank you!

Today we were able to make a requested delivery of infant formula, children’s Tylenol, Pedialyte, adult Motrin, and Ensure directly to an affected community. 

Expect more updates and photos of the relief efforts, God bless Appalachia! 

We've raised the goal to $6,000 due to the generosity of donors. God bless you.

A generous donor asked with her donation why we only set a goal of $3,000, so I also wanted to explain:

We don't have an exact goal for funds because these relief efforts will be ongoing: If we have the means, we will continue organizing relief efforts with a rotation of different volunteer teams. We have started with modest goals because we want to show you all what your donations are going toward before asking for more, but we've already had to raise it due to overwhelming generosity. As donations continue to come in, the goal will be raised to reflect that. We are in this for the long haul.

Wow, the response has already been overwhelming.

We have raised our intentionally modest fundraising goal from $1,000 to $3,000. The more funds we have, the more regularly we can organize relief efforts in the long term. God bless all of you for contributing to this, God bless the people of Appalachia.