It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over two weeks since the storm first hit our mountain town. If you’d like to give towards our Helene relief efforts, click here.

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Back to Class

In those two weeks, we have found a steady rhythm for what our distribution and rebuild efforts are while simultaneously settling back into the routines of college for the students! Classes officially started back up this past Friday, and we’ve continued strong into this new week. Practicum students are back in their practicums (if their practicum track was hindered by the storm, they’re volunteering and working on a path forward with their mentors), C8 is back in full swing with the Government module and preparing for their trip to Washington D.C., and C9 is back in the classroom getting practice with the Critical Thinking method.

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Some Fun and Refreshment

The need to have fun and keep things light is incredibly important in the midst of a crisis, and that was not lost on us these last two weeks. Thanks to the Bagwell family, we were able to get all of the students out to go roller skating for a night! It was incredible to see everyone letting loose and enjoying time with their friends.

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Partner Shoutout

While the students have been getting settled again, we’ve kept up our recovery efforts for our region of Western North Carolina - but not without the immense support of our network and community at large! Our arms have truly been lifted by so many different people, organizations, and churches.

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We’ll never take clean laundry for granted again.

Matthew 25 Ministries brought in a laundry and shower trailer for our staff, students, volunteers, and local community to utilize using one of our house’s well-water. Last week, they were doing 150 loads of laundry a day, including loads for those at Western Carolina Rescue Mission!

You never realize how badly you’ll miss having clean clothes until you’re suddenly re-wearing the same clothes for almost a week straight… and unable to shower fully. Needless to say, our local community was incredibly thankful for the opportunity to get clean and then change into clean clothes!

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Generators are Game Changers

We also received a shipment of 75 generators from Mercury One Ministries, and have been handing them out to families without power - both individually and through local churches and organizations. In fact, we were able to help out a mountain town through one of our students from the Spruce Pine area.

She made the drive recently to find out what her community’s needs were and deliver supplies from our center, and we were able to send out the shipment of generators today! It has been a huge blessing to be able to help and support students and their families that are also from the area.

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The People that Fueled Us

Food trucks, restaurants, and catering companies from far and wide have come to serve food to our staff, students, and volunteers. We had made a recent connection to a local Hispanic family and helped to provide much needed supplies to them, and in return they came with their taco truck to help feed all of us. People helping people, neighbors truly loving one another - this is what the body of Christ is all about, and we are loving every second of it.

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The Rebuild

Moving forward, we will be partnering and hosting teams from Adventures in Missions as they work to rebuild over 150 homes with the help of over 4,000 volunteers over the course of the next 18-24 months. We’re in this for the long-haul with the rest of our Western North Carolina family, and are honored to continue serving where we can.

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If you’d like to continue to support us and our teams as we continue to serve and rebuild North Carolina, click the link below to give towards our disaster relief fund:

https://www.theexcelcollege.com/disaster-relief