Support Hurricane Milton Relief for Floridians

Friends of All Hands & Hearts!

In response to Hurricane Helene, All Hands and Hearts (AH&H) is 16 months into our initial 12-month commitment to a long-term U.S. relief program in the heavily damaged Asheville, NC area.  We have provided months of debris cleanup and stabilization services, plugged our volunteers into community distribution sites, and fully transitioned into long term home repairs with great success.  Our current expectation is to provide critical home repairs until June 2026.

Highlights / Key Achievements / Challenges (December 2025)

• The program has been extended for an additional two months, with June 10 as the official date of the end of our ramp down in order to ensure we have time to meet our Red Cross requirements. 
• We planned an additional day for a few Travelers employees to come back out to Barnardsville and distribute frozen turkeys, fresh pies, and local vegetables so that the families that receive a weekly food distribution had an extra special Thanksgiving. Shout out to Beth for sourcing and carrying many hundreds of pounds of turkeys and to Travelers for extending the funding on the food distribution program there. 
• We’ve been awarded a new recovery grant from Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) to supplement our North Carolina Emergency Management contractor repair work.
• We’ve been continuing to meet with LTRGs for intakes and stronger partnerships.
• We’ve finished work at 11 Red Cross  homes and project to have another 7 done by end of January
• e’re preparing for 10 NCCC volunteers to work alongside our crews in January 2026
• To date, the team has completed 92 muck and guts, 79 mold sanitations, 18 debris removals, 35 chainsaw jobs and 11 moisture barrier installations. Additionally, we have completed 19 recovery sites, with 7 more underway, and 5 homes in queue.

Community Partners

• Buncombe County LTRG - case management and referrals
• CORE - Lead partner in a mobile home community restoration project.
• Lake Junaluska Conference & Retreat  Center - Local faith-based hotel and retreat complex where we provided post-disaster repair work and where we have our residential base.
• Land of the Sky United Church - Local church partner active in case management activities.
• Mountain Projects - Local community action agency serving as a local recovery group for the long-term recovery of Western NC communities affected by Hurricane Helene. 
• Savage Ops - Local grassroots distribution center for non-food items that we have been supporting with volunteers.
• Team Rubicon - Long-time national partner that was piloting a service learning program and shared some of their volunteers with us.
• Toolbank - Long-time national partner that provides free tools for our recovery work.

Program Challenges

• Relocation of Residential Base - within the seasonal resort where we have our base of operations and our residential accommodations, we are outfitting a new area in the heated part of the facility to accommodate our staff & volunteers for the remainder of the program.
• Development of a Mold Sanitation SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) with other U.S. programs to provide to individual homeowners and for community training on demand.
• Staffing - with two large recovery grants awarded recently, we are actively looking to hire several program positions.

Our Impact To Date

• 1,163  # of Individuals impacted
• 158    # of Homes with completed response and recovery work
• 737   # of Residential Volunteers
• 413   # of Day Volunteers
• 1,100   # of Volunteers in total
• 58,259 # of Volunteer Hours (the equivalent of $702,170 in donated labor at $35/per hour)

Volunteer Feedback

"One of the best experiences of my life, everything was perfect, the volunteers were great, the work was interesting and instructive and the best part was the staff who were just exceptional, I loved this experience."

"The inspiration I received from working with such a well-organized, inclusive organization that truly cares about every volunteer and staff member, and has a fabulous impact on so many. After having volunteered with many similar disaster relief organizations, I learned so much from this group, both from the training and during my time working and driving with the staff and long-time volunteers. It was truly a life-changing experience, even after only 1 week."

"Here, you have a feeling of being part of something important. You learn things that you probably never thought you would learn, and you can see that your work is i; important for the community."

"The best answer I can provide is how much better I feel about myself as I'm leaving, as I achieved every personal goal I had set for myself. I arrived with a lot of self doubt and discovered this whole other side of myself I didn't really know existed. I learned so many things I never thought I'd ever have exposure to, learned I can still add muscle to this older body (really cool!) & reminded myself of the power of gratitude, as it really is healing! I've always loved people so living/working in an environment with so many different people with different backgrounds, different life experiences, from different locations on the planet was probably one of the greatest things for me!"

Thank You!  All Hands & Hearts

Links:

• One Year Later: Stories of Strength and Resilience

Reflecting Hurricane Helene-Milton One Year Later

1 year ago yesterday, as the Fort Myers Hurricane Ian program was planning to close and host their own goodbye dinner / celebration of resiliency, we were forced to evacuate to Orlando due to the incoming Hurricane Helene.  1 year ago today, Hurricane Helene hit the Tampa area - a Category 4 hurricane that caused widespread flooding and damage to thousands of homes in the area.  Two days after evacuating, a group of us were already formulating a plan on how to respond. Two days after that, we were in Pasco County, connecting to local leaders to figure out the best plan of action.

As I reflect on this past year here, I am reminded of all of the wonderful people who have passed through. To the amazing staff who started things off in those first few crazy weeks - Eleven, Scott, Genevieve, Brenda, Matt, Meg - your dedication in those early days has allowed this program to become what it is today. To the hardworking DART volunteers who wore many different hats, working long hours 6/7 days a week, whether it was building bunk beds, calling homeowners, cooking dinner, gutting homes, walking door to door and assessing homes, and working late hours in our first base (a jail!) - we appreciate your dedication and commitment to this community.

To all of the fantastic staff and volunteers who have passed through in the past year, I remember each and every one of you. Your willingness to give up your time away from home, from your families and friends and jobs and schools and routine - whether it was for one day or 6 months - does not go unnoticed. We would be nothing and would not have accomplished so much without all of you.  Whether it was gutting a home, conducting mold sanitations, installing drywall, canvassing neighborhoods, or being a base manager - all of your hard work to support this community has allowed us to accomplish so much.  100 homes have been mucked and gutted, 75 homes have completed mold sanitations, 31 have had debris removed, 15 homes have had repairs completed, and 19 homes have completed FDF repairs with contractors.  That's over 20,000 hours of work put into Pasco County from All Hands & Hearts!

I am reminded in those early days after the storms of the resiliency we saw in this community. While there was much devastation - many people losing their homes, their personal belongings and memories, perhaps their sense of safety - there was much to be hopeful for. Local grassroots groups came together to collect donations and spontaneous volunteers were organized to support individuals in need. Neighbors helped neighbors gut their homes, removing flood damaged items early on to help each other get one step closer to recovery. We saw groups driving around passing out food and water, asking how they could help, to everyone they passed by.

While these two back to back storms caused a lot of devastation up along the coast, it also gave me hope to see how many people came along to offer help and support - whether it was gutting a home, giving food, collecting donations, or just being a listening ear to those in need.

Those first few weeks/months were a crazy time, but it was all of you who helped keep me going, so I am thankful to each and every one of you!  Remember the reason why we are here, and keep up that enthusiasm as we finish off these next few months strong.

Heather - AH&H Staff Member

Links:

• One Year Later: Stories of Strength and Resilience with AH&H