Key Results:

“As someone whose first passion is art, I knew I wanted to focus my contribution on supporting Asheville’s vibrant creative community,” says Sabrina Hill, founder of Spice Witch. “Supporting ArtsAVL Emergency Relief Grant felt like a natural fit, as it not only helps individual artists recover but also ensures that Asheville’s cultural heartbeat continues to thrive.”

Sunlight Tax founder Hannah Cole is an artist as well and saw her studio on the Swannanoa River destroyed. She reached out to the supporters of Sunlight Tax for help and raised about $30,000 to pass on directly to affected local artists.“I'm not done yet,” says Hannah. “I am also donating 100% of the proceeds from my tax workshops in January and February to the Asheville Area Arts Council artist relief grants, and to the Mountain Bizworks/WNC Strong fund for small business grant reliefs.”

“Our donations went to our longtime conservation partner, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to help them reopen the Parkway in time for springtime traffic,” says Benjamin Walls of the Benjamin Walls Gallery. “The Blue Ridge Parkway is not only a major draw for tourism and economy to Asheville and surrounding communities, it's also a key part of our regional identity.”

As a longtime pillar of the local fermented food community, Fermenti focused on supporting the farmers, food and craft producers in the WNC fermented foods community.They raised a fund that now stands at over $2k to distribute directly to businesses in need and contributed hundreds of hours of work to bring the annual WNC Fermentation Festival back on schedule despite Helene.Asheville is a town of festivals, but it was this niche food event that led the way back to normalcy by pulling off the annual event as a space for the fermentation community to come together in mutual support.

Sourhouse normally sells tools for sourdough home bakers, but in November they organized a series of Bake For Your Neighbors pop-ups to give away ingredients to sourdough bakers with the invitation to bake bread for a neighbor in need.“The sourdough baking community in Asheville knows the comfort a fresh loaf of bread can bring to someone in distress,” says Erik Fabian, co-founder of Sourhouse. “Giving local bakers over 300 lbs of locally-milled Farm & Sparrow flour turns that flour into twice as many loaves and moments of connection in our community.”

Mary Tantillo, founder of Dolci di Maria, sent donations to the Buncombe County Schools Foundation, to supply relief to students and their families who have suffered from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.“Money will help administrators purchase what staff and students truly need, not only during this emergency but for the months to come,” says Mary Tantillo, founder of Dolci di Maria. “My own sons went through Buncombe County Schools from K-12, and I am grateful for all the caring educators that taught them.”

Caring for first responders and our community came in many forms including Asheville Orthopedic Acupuncture, who donated over 50 partial or full acupuncture treatments to first responders, business owners, and community members in need of support for trauma, “bucket shoulder”, back pain, arm pain from chainsaw use, shock, despair, grief, and other care needs.