By Will Yeiser, FBRA Executive Director & Co-Founder
When Boys Program Director Felix Dowsley called me on the evening of Wednesday, September 26th at 10:30 pm and said, “We need to get to the north campus tonight and move equipment…this might be bigger than anyone realizes,” I, along with most of Western North Carolina, had no idea of the extent of what we would be facing in following seventy-two hours as Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc with unprecedented flooding throughout our region. When I arrived at our North Campus, I immediately noticed Boys Program staff member Sam Iatarola and his roommate, Lance Buskey, moving trailers and equipment in our basement. I asked them what they were doing and they explained that they were already out helping friends and family prepare and brace for what was to come, and they figured they would help FBRA since they were already in motion and in that area. We spent the next few hours moving our fleet of vans to higher ground at our South Campus and securing camping gear, equipment, trailers, and other items as best as we could before heading home in the wee hours of Thursday morning. We all know what happened next, but I had no idea that Helene Rebuild Collaborative (HRC) was being born right before my eyes.
HRC: Seeing a Need and Working to Fulfill It
Sam and Lance proceeded to reach out to more friends and family and recruit more members of WNC’s paddling community to help them deliver critical supplies and help folks in need of assistance as the French Broad and its surrounding tributaries rose at an alarming rate. By Saturday morning, Sam, Lance, and their impromptu response team needed a command center and facility to receive relief items as news of their effort spread throughout the southeast. We all immediately realized that the Maria Noakes Outdoor Center at our South Campus was a perfect fit and the HRC team quickly converted the outdoor gear storage space into HRC headquarters. FBRA staff, students, parents, and community members volunteered to support the operation and fulfilled countless missions and delivered critical supplies to affected communities in the surrounding area. It was truly one of the most inspiring and proudest moments in FBRA’s sixteen year history, and our partnership with HRC continues today.
HRC Today
Recently, I joined a student group from our Girls Program on a Thursday field lesson to see firsthand what was happening with HRC’s current efforts. I arrived at their new facility located in the Mill at Riverside just across the parking lot from our North Campus and the students and staff were busy with an orientation program. Students were given directions to retrieve, organize, package, and prep items for an upcoming “mission” that would head out that afternoon. I was impressed with how efficiently the students organized into teams and delegated work. Communication and collaboration were happening on a level that rivals many professional and established organizations in the Asheville area. I found myself unable to resist diving into the action so I hoisted box after box into the receiving area alongside students and staff. Student teams completed all of their assigned tasks, supported other teams that needed help, and conducted themselves like a well-oiled machine. My salamander pride shined brighter than the neon field shirts the students were wearing that day.
FBRA plans to continue supporting HRC as they set their sights on long-term planning for recovery efforts in WNC. Rebuilding homes and communities devastated by Helene will require a tremendous community effort led by groups like HRC and with our built-in service learning component, FBRA is poised to help for years to come.
