AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — While snowfall can be a time to cherish in our mountain communities, this year this feeling is very different.
Many residents who lost their homes to Hurricane Helene are still without a roof to sleep under. Fear is beginning to set in as temperatures drop.
There are organizations like Compassion Campers that are lending a helping hand. Heather Newhart lives in Central Pennsylvania and traveled to North Carolina after Helene hit, joining up to aid with Samaritan's Purse. She saw the need for campers and tiny homes as a means of shelter. She formed a group and had no experience in nonprofit work, but was driven by the passion to help those in need.
Newhart partnered with Big Meadows Baptist Church in Newland, which has been helping those in need since the storm tore through the High Country. She told WCNC Charlotte the support has been overflowing.
"We had a woman who donated her motorhome last week and came with us to drop it off," she said. "After, she went out and bought three more for us to give away."
Newhart said in a few weeks, they've raised almost $100,000 and have given away 20 campers to impacted families. Among those who have been helped is Larry Boyd.
A blue tent pitched in the middle of a flooded warehouse is just one of the things that Larry Boyd is happy with, all things considered.
"After the storm, this is my home," Boyd said. "The dampness and all. At this point, when you have nothing you are happy with everything.”
Weeks before, Boyd and everything he owned was swept away by the floodwaters of Helene. It left him housed by only a few poles and a thin mesh tarp, but safe.
Boyd was fortunate, but he got a big helping hand recently.
“I was sitting down in my car and then a peck on the window and this fella said 'are you Larry' and I said 'yes' and he said 'people from the church have sent us down here because you need help,'" Boyd recalled.
He said in the next few days, the church worked with Compassion Campers and got him a camper. He said it was life-changing in the wake of the storm.
"That is like a big box of happiness," Boyd said.
Boyd showed the camper to WCNC Charlotte. He said he hadn't felt this way in a long time flipping the lights on and off with excitement.
“It’s starting to come together," Boyd said. "I’m as happy as I can be.”
Contact Austin Walker at awalker@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.