A Word from our CEO re: Hurricane Helene
To our friends, customers, and community,
Alex here. I’m writing to you from beside a small camp fire at our home by the Hungry River, which rose up 20 feet and swallowed up homes, roads, and bridges. There’s no saying how long we’ll be without water or power. We’re all still struggling to comprehend just how badly Helene has ravaged Western North Carolina; what we’ve lost is being revealed slowly as the waters recede. Beloved communities are simply no more—wiped from their foundations and swept up in a current of muddy detritus. Trout, crawfish, and river flora all jumbled together with car parts, sheet metal, mud and gravel. We still don’t know how many lives have been lost.
All of our WNC-based East Fork team members have been accounted for; we’re staying in touch to make sure they’re able to meet their immediate needs for water, food, and shelter. This week we’ll be organizing aid runs with the help of friends in nearby cities, saving what we can from our impacted buildings, putting one foot in front of the other.
In times of crisis it can be overwhelming to know how to support. We encourage you to send funds directly to grassroots organizers who are deeply embedded in our local communities; people who are most familiar with our area’s needs and landscapes, with the paths of least resistance to bring life-saving aid to our most vulnerable communities. There is a short list below of folks we really trust. Please give generously.
As Connie tends the children and fires and keeps us fed (she’s a very handy camp cook), I’m focusing on guiding East Fork through this disaster to be stronger and more resilient on the other side. My first order of business is to make sure people get paid. We pay our employees by selling pottery, and though we can’t make pottery without water, and we certainly can’t ship it, we have many beautiful stacks of it on our warehouse shelves. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to make our work a part of your home, now’s the moment. It will take its time getting to you, but we promise it will. Your purchases will help us keep payroll going as we all get back on our feet. All non-essential spending is stopped, so proceeds will go to paying our staff and non-deferrable bills.
All of us in our community play a special role in making WNC what it is. Our role is manufacturing beautiful pottery. Today, we will make all of our seconds available for purchase individually (no need to buy in 4 packs) for 30% off. 5% of all sales during this time will be split between the three organizations below. At checkout you’ll also have options to make additional donations which will be passed directly to these organizations.
I’m so proud of what we’ve built at East Fork, and I want so badly to keep making pots here in our mountain home, where we’ll be banding together with our neighbors to organize, grieve, scream, share resources and rebuild.
With Gratitude,
Alex
BeLoved Asheville
Donate via PayPal: BeLovedAsheville
Donate via Venmo: @BeLoved-Asheville
Poder Emma & La Milpa
IG: @poderemma
Equal Plates
