When disasters strike, it's common for concerned people to send tons and tons of donations — everything from diapers and dried food to piles of clothes.
That was certainly the case in western North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene devastated much of the region last fall. What some donors may not realize, though, is that it takes an army of volunteers to make sure those supplies actually get into the hands of the people who need them most. Clara Carrias is one of many who have stepped up to the plate during the region's long road to recovery.
At the headquarters of BeLoved Asheville, Carrias spent a recent afternoon sorting boxes of food and preparing them for distribution. She was surrounded by towering shelves of toilet paper, children's toys, first aid kits and tons of packaged food — some of the millions of donated items that the nonprofit received in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
In a region with higher-than-average food insecurity, this kind of food distribution is crucial to helping many families make ends meet.
For Carrias carving out time to volunteer is no small feat.
"I love volunteering. I love to help people," she said. "Always, I'm trying to make time — maybe two hours, three hours, helping them."
A Mexican immigrant, Carrias is the mother of three young kids, a part-time cook at McDonalds and takes English lessons at a local community college. Sometimes, when she doesn't have a babysitter available, she just brings her kids along.
Carrias was already a volunteer with the nonprofit when the storm hit.
Power and internet access were down all over the region, while landslides and piles of debris often made the roads impassable.
Despite those challenges, Carrias navigated treacherous mountain terrain in her car to bring people care packages of food, water, cleaning supplies and anything else they asked for. As a native Spanish speaker, she helped ensure that other vulnerable people, especially those in Latino communities, had someone looking out for them.
"She was helping hundreds and hundreds of people, coming here for hours on end," Amy Cantrell, one of the founders of BeLoved Asheville, said. "She was standing on her feet, hugging people, wiping away tears, then loading up her vehicle and taking supplies out to people in very remote areas."
Carrias remembers those first few weeks as incredibly hard.
"The roads sometimes were difficult, but always, we try to go there," she said.
Carrias did all this while she was dealing with her own storm damage at home. During the storm, a tree fell onto her mobile home, directly over one of her children's bedrooms.
"It was raining, it was windy, and when we left the house, there were trees everywhere," she recalled. "It was so, so bad."
While her children were safe, her home was labeled as too dangerous for occupancy. She wasn't sure what to do. Then, a team of fellow volunteers rebuilt her house for free.
"When they were done, we were so happy," she said. "It was amazing. I don't have words to explain exactly."
It's a moment that stuck with her and it's the reason she's still volunteering. More than nine months after Helene, the roads are clear and the internet and other utilities are restored. But the region still needs volunteers, Cantrell said.
Economic instability, food insecurity and housing shortages are a few of the major issues the region faces. But Cantrell says volunteers can make a big difference in the continuing recovery of the region.
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