Thanks to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Western North Carolina is finally able to rebuild. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has spearheaded the construction of the portion of I-40 that was washed away in North Carolina. This was a critical artery from the high country into other states. The Army Corps of Engineers is shoring up roads and clearing out large debris, and FEMA is finally doing what it was supposed to do five months ago. Elections have consequences, and in this case, the consequences are a net positive.
But the local community is still stepping up and showing up in the most powerful of ways. It is one thing to go through traumatic events and come through on the other side intact. It is a whole other thing to then turn around to help others as they make their way through. Young people being the change for their world is the subject of this week’s Feel-Good Friday.
Hat tip to our intrepid editor Becca Lower for discovering this uplifting story.
When you walk into the construction training facility at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, it looks and sounds like any other carpentry class — until you realize what the students there are actually working on.
“It makes me feel very proud knowing that I am able to help and change someone’s life that is in need through not only school but building and just helping out those that can’t really help themselves,” said Croix Silver, a senior at the high school.
Silver and classmate Hensley England are both seniors in Jeremy Dotts’ honors carpentry class and part of a new initiative aimed at helping their hometown get back on its feet in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“I just wanted to go out and help others and this a great opportunity to do that,” England said.
One of their projects this semester is turning the wooden frame at the center of the workshop into a “tiny home” for a Yancey County storm victim who lost their home in the storm. It’s all part of a new partnership between the high school and Rebuilding Hollers, a local organization started by Stephanie Johnson after the storm.
Rebuilding Hollers Foundation was started after Hurricane Helene to restore their community and revive hope. Locals helping locals, as their website says:
Rebuilding Hollers Foundation was created in the aftermath of the devastating storm that ripped apart our beautiful mountains in Western North Carolina.
Our small remote Mountain Communities suffered extraordinary loss and damages. With three large rivers running thru Mitchell & Yancey County so many lives, homes, barns, workshops and farms were swept away. Many more flooded and damaged beyond repair. We are standing beside our neighbors making sure they have what they need to rebuild their homes and lives.
We are locals helping locals.
What an ingenious idea to involve the local high school. My husband and I had brunch with another couple; the husband used to own a print shop, and he also taught these skills to high school students. We all discussed the death of shop classes in education. Our friend said that school districts were in a rush to “modernize,” and look like they were forward thinking; so they ushered in the removal of these classes which built critical, and frankly, essential skills sets.
North Carolinians are practical folk, and it’s a blessing that these practical skills of carpentry and woodworking are being taught right in their community. What is even more of a blessing is that these young people were excited to be able to give back:
“We have so many community members that lost their homes and all of these boys were affected by the storm. We all were. We all lived through everything that happened,” Johnson said.
Rebuilding Hollers uses donated funds to purchase homebuilding materials, and through the partnership with Mountain Heritage High School, those supplies then make their way to the carpentry facility, where a group of 18 seniors goes to work on building an A-frame, 650-square-foot home shell.
“So it was a perfect marriage of the two to come together and collaborate with the students and the community to give back right here in Yancey County,” said Dotts, the carpentry teacher overseeing the program.
Dotts’ goal is to maintain the partnership with the Rebuilding Hollers Foundation at least for the next few years, hopefully building two to four homes a year. Once the structure of the tiny homes are completed, Rebuilding Hollers then partners with local contractors to complete the interiors.
But the 18 seniors from Mountain Heritage High School get to drive around their community and see how they were crucial to its revival. The people who will inhabit these homes will be forever grateful for their contribution.
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