If you are able to donate to groups on the ground doing the work and getting supplies and funds where they need to go, you can Venmo/Cashapp @chelseawnc or @roar_wnc to make that happen.

Thanks largely in part to the members of Academic Grappling and KruFit, I was able to visit Western North Carolina recently to take part in hurricane and flooding relief efforts. I cannot say enough good things about the members of our BJJ and Muay Thai gym. So many individuals came together and donated goods, tools, and funds to go to our friends and neighbors in the affected areas. The community we have built truly came together in a special way. Ultimately, we filled my Jeep front-to-back and top-to-bottom before I left (and we have since filled it twice more!) and headed south.

For those who are unaware, FEMA announced that they were $9 billion short of necessary funding for the year, and they were only a week into the flooding disaster that hit Asheville and beyond. Because of this, the response from the federal and state governments has been slow and inadequate, at best.

Thus it fell to regular folks on the ground to do their own rescuing.

So, on October 7th, I hopped into my overflowing Jeep, and took off for Waynesville to meet up with our on-the-ground contact, Chelsea, who also happens to host the historical podcast Rednecks Rising. She showed me around the Pigeon Center where the supplies were dropped off. During segregation, it served as the first black school in Waynesville, but is now a community center that is involved in a number of local events and actions.

I camped out behind the center and headed to Asheville the next morning. There, I linked up with an arborist group that was working to get a cluster of trees from the roof of a home. There was a real, actual arborist in the crew who took the lead and seemed totally at ease swinging through the trees like Spider-Man. We spent the day cutting and hauling wood. 

I left back for Indiana the next morning. 

In a way, I was sorry to leave. I really did enjoy seeing the communities come together to love and support each other the way they did in Asheville and Waynesville. Every morning in both cities, there is a morning community meeting for volunteers to attend and see where they can go and what they can do. 

I spoke with jiujitsu_herbalist about their time spent volunteering as well. They attended morning meetings at the tool library in Asheville where work was broken up from each according to their ability, and to each according to their need. Jobs ranged from trash clean up to search and rescue to water delivery and beyond. 

The world we want is within our grasp. Seeing the people of North Carolina serve one another so selflessly was inspiring. I was genuinely in awe of the goodness and effort I saw among everyone just trying to be there and be present for each other. To me, that is the kind of world I want to live in; one where we care for our neighbors and communities without needing a disaster to force us into it.

If you want to see what true community care looks like, look to the folks of North Carolina. They are currently living it.