Leicester Resilience Hub Stays Busy, Long After Helene
Ask Sandra Webster what “resilience” means to her, and you’ll get a short and simple answer: “That we just keep going – that everybody keeps going. That, to me, is resilience.”
Sandra has been working with her friend Marie Whitener to distribute food and other supplies in Leicester’s resilience hub, starting just a few days after Helene struck in September. Theirs is one of many facilities central to the emergence of support systems explored by Thrive Asheville in its Rise of Resilience Hubs workshop in March, a part of Thrive’s Lessons for the Recovery series, designed to promote learning about successful preparedness and recovery efforts.
Sandra moved to Leicester six years ago, while Marie has lived there for all of her 82 years. Along with their team of volunteers, the two have been distributing food, water, clothing, toiletries, cleaning supplies – and sometimes toys – every Wednesday. They’ve operated out of the Leicester Community Center (where Marie serves as president), beginning with daily service in October and eventually tapering to weekly distribution. On one recent Wednesday, volunteers served more than 500 people representing about 130 families.
In the first full month after the storm, volunteers served 790 families, a total of 4,774 people, in only 18 days. Anyone needing help then could get it, and they still can today, regardless of resident status or other circumstances. “We ask very few questions,” Sandra says. From November through March, service levels ranged from roughly 200 to 500 families per month. In what they called their “Christmas Extravaganza,” hub volunteers saw some 750 people from 132 families pass through the Community Center’s doors in just four hours.
Much of the hub’s food supply comes from MANNA in Asheville and Asheville Buncombe County Christian Ministries (ABCCM). American Legion volunteers from Hickory make deliveries periodically, as well, and area farmers frequently share fresh produce. “And we get donations from communities – from people all around,” Sandra says. A group from Leicester returns the favor to ABCCM, volunteering there every week.
For anyone who lacks reliable transportation or is otherwise home bound, the Leicester crew makes routine deliveries every week, making sure no one in need goes without.
The physical storm damage in Leicester didn’t match that of some other communities, but the residual effects were just as bad if not worse – particularly in terms of lost jobs – and the dominoes are still falling, volunteers say. For example, many people still don’t have fully functioning water wells.
The Leicester hub organizers will tell you that they’ve both seen a lot since Helene, but some things still surprise them – the sheer number of people in need, for one. “We have new people every week,” Marie says. “It’s just unreal.” As she explains, the area was already overwhelmed with homeless people, along with those who were otherwise in severe need of support. The storm just compounded things. It’s why those needs have remained constant, even several months post-Helene.
Of all the things that Marie says she’s learned in recent months, one thing stands out.
“This can happen any time to anybody,” she says. “We all felt so confident that this could never happen to us. Our mountains were going to protect us, but the mountains didn’t protect us.”
Their work is far from complete, but the Leicester hub leaders say their labors are building valuable experience, making them and their team “very ready” for the next disaster.
“Whatever it takes,” Sandra says, “we plan to be here.”