Rebecca Gibson has a message to those hoping to help communities grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene: no more bikinis.
In the days following the disaster, people dumped around 50 trash bags of clothes at a Hillsborough warehouse and donation drop off spot. The most common article of clothing in the bags? Two-piece bathing suits.
Gibson, an organizer for the group Bull City Shares, kept one, planning to staple it to a display board at the group’s donation trailer with the caption: “Don’t be this person.”
Since Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, local organizations including Bull City Shares, Day One Relief and Triangle Mutual Aid have been working to supply communities with clothing they can actually wear as the months grow colder. The network of groups works together with people in Western North Carolina to provide exactly what is needed.
‘Free Amazon’
Gibson and Dawn Bland, Bull City Shares’ founder, in partnership with the Scrap Exchange, Day One Relief and Triangle Mutual Aid, attempted to change the way clothing drives are usually run. Instead of sorting “boxes of randomness,” they worked to fulfill specific requests, such as 300 coats for unhoused neighbors in the Hendersonville area. The hope was to fulfill what affected communities are actually asking for, rather than inundating them with unnecessary items like bikinis, creating landfill in the process. They refer to the model as “Free Amazon.”
“It’s such a predictable mess when there’s a disaster,” Gibson said, sitting at a picnic table on a recent Sunday at Lakewood Social, near the Scrap Exchange.
“You have piles of good intentions, and they’re in good condition when they come in – sometimes,” said Addie Melsheimer Imseis, a nurse who has helped Bull City Shares with the initiative. “And then they sit there and get moldy from the sun and the rain and the whatever. And you don’t have the emotional energy to vet those things.”
“Nor the actual energy,” Bland added from across the table. “You’re spending very valuable volunteer time on sorting clothes when those people can be out there chopping trees down.”
Before Helene struck, Bull City Shares already had a decade-long history of matching needs to opportunity. Bland started a version of the Facebook group in 2014 to keep textiles out of landfills. Since then, the group has become a connector between Durhamites looking for a specific item or skill, and others volunteering their own materials or talents.
In the wake of Helene, Bull City Shares became the first link in a chain bringing donated items from Durham to their final destination in Western N.C.. The next links are Day One Relief and Triangle Mutual Aid, local organizations that receive requests from on-the-ground groups in the mountains. The final stops are groups such as Love and Respect Community Center in Hendersonville and Centro Unido Latino-Americano in Marion. The result is a network of people across the state working in tandem to fulfill community needs.
Jil Christensen, who lives in Durham, started Day One Relief in 2018 when Hurricane Florence ravaged the coasts of eastern N. C. Now she focuses on immediate and sustained support in the aftermath of a crisis.
“Organizations tend to go in. They put up a big banner,” Christensen said. “And it’s good for them. Not that it’s bad for the community, but they leave. This storm, people have stayed a lot longer than normal. Usually, it takes 10 to 15 days and then they’re out.”
Instead of creating connections once she hits the affected area, Christensen relies on a web of existing relationships.
“It just branches out and branches out.”
Lexie Wilkins, who runs Love and Respect Community Center for Recovery and Wellness in Hendersonville, has been on the receiving end of Day One’s support. Wilkins runs a full-service gathering space for those struggling with substance abuse.
When Helene hit, the community center itself didn’t sustain any damage. But Wilkins and the rest of his staff sprang into action, becoming a meeting point for distributing necessary resources to people in the area.
Christensen and Wilkins connected through a mutual organizer friend. Within a few days, Christensen drove into Hendersonville with a truck full of cleaning supplies, baby formula, diapers, coats, camping gear and sleeping bags. Since then, the two text frequently, with Christensen checking in to see what Love and Respect needs.
“She and I will text all day long, for days at a time before the truck actually arrives.” Wilkins said. “‘I’ve got this. Can you use this? Can you use that? Can you use this? I’ve got a palette of these. Can you use these?’ And I’m like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Wilkins noted that Day One Relief has only provided either new or gently used items.
“The one thing that I will not do for our participants is to degrade them,” Wilkins said. “A good portion of the population that we serve already…don’t believe that they deserve the best in life. So for me to give them something dirty, dingy and tattered, for me, it only reinforces what they’re already thinking.”
When Centro Unido Latino-Americano in Marion, N.C. lost power and water for five days, Day One Relief was one of the first organizations to supply resources such as clothing. Similar to Love and Respect, the community center became a distribution point for people affected by the storm.
“It was nice to see so much coming in from a lot of different places,” said Laura Zapater, the center’s incoming executive director. “But a lot of organizations were just like, we’ll bring you all this, but they weren’t really checking with us. We really feel that [Christensen] was listening to our needs.”
Two weeks after the hurricane, temperatures dropped to below freezing. When the center requested warm clothing, Christensen swiftly arrived with coats, beanies and gloves in tow.
While Bull City Shares has finished taking donations for Hurricane Helene victims, Day One Relief is ramping up their efforts to help people in Western N.C. The group is opening a new warehouse at 809 Ramseur Street in Durham, in addition to a warehouse the group operates in Burlington. The space will be open to the public for donations within the week, Christensen says. She urges people to check the organization’s Facebook page for updates.
Bland encourages anyone contributing clothing or other materials to be mindful with their donations.
“Make sure it’s clean, make sure it’s tidy,” Bland said. “Fold the damn shit. Put it in a bag. Put a label on it. Say what’s actually in it.
“If that was everybody’s first thought when dropping things off, it would make everybody’s lives so much easier and respected.”
Above: After Helene, Dawn Bland and Bull City Shares worked with other aid groups to fill orders from organizations western N.C. Photos by Abigail Bromberger — The 9th Street Journal
Correction: An earlier version of this story mispelled Jil Christensen’s last name. The error has been corrected.
