Our Mission
Hello! Thank you for visiting our site. Mountain Hope Inc., is a small 501(c)(3) Non-profit Disaster Relief Organization with the mission to raise funding to help those most in need after a disaster such as what we just experienced in September 2024, here is WNC, TN and SC. We (my husband, son and I), have been active with the disaster relief efforts since October 5th, about a week after Hurricane Helene reaped havoc on WNC . We have been involved in many projects to help those devastated by this storm. The purpose of developing this non profit is to allow our donors to be able to claim their gifts on their taxes, to connect with larger donors and to be able to apply for grants.
Our mission has not changed since forming this nonprofit organization at the end of December. We simply need to be able to help on a larger level than ever because the needs of the people are not getting less...they are simply changing. We did not feel comfortable taking large donations without being able to form a 401(c) (3) first. Doing this also allows us to apply for grants to help with the rebuilding of homes.
People ARE still living in tents, campers and hotels. Many will be in these situations for months and even years, if we, the American Citizens, do not do as much as we can to continue to support our people. We know this will take time. However, with every dollar you give, with every supply truck you send, TOGETHER, we ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and we are giving HOPE to the people to keep making it one day at a time until they can rebuild their lives.
If you would like to give to our organization, please email us at info@mountainhopeinc.com and we will send you options on how to support us in our disaster relied efforts.
Thank you for helping us provide HOPE!
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,"
Once I knew that God was clearly leading us to start a nonprofit, it didn't take much thought when it came to picking a name that had meaning to me.
When I had first found out about the families in the hotels, I had taken basic supplies to a family, along with just a few soft blankets, some gift cards to local restaurants where they could get hot meals, and some activities and books to read.
That night, after leaving the hotel, I cried when I got the following text from the mom, "I am so grateful God crossed our paths. You all have brought so much hope and joy to our lives. We appreciate you so very much." I never knew that simple things I take for granted every day could provide HOPE!
Then, a week later, I got this text from another mom, " I just want you to know that even though our hearts are broken with all that we have lost, what you did for us helped us to start mending our broken hearts. For the first time since the storm, we have hope."
These texts made me realize that HOPE is central to all of us but especially to those who has lost so much.
I teach a Sunday school class for parents of kids who have special needs, and the theme, during the time when I was praying to make sure I wanted to make the disaster relief a long term commitment and start a nonprofit, was HOPE.
Sometimes HOPE looks like a stranger bringing food to someone who didn't know how they would feed their kids the next day.
HOPE looks like someone being empathetic and offering a hug and asking if they can pray for them.
HOPE looks like a stranger giving a family gifts for their kids from their Amazon Wish List.
HOPE looks like a volunteer saying, "don't worry, we will find you what you need."
HOPE looks like, someone saying, "I'll be back tomorrow to check on you."
With every donation of essential supplies, gift cards, or money you are giving a gift of HOPE.
The Meaning in the Name...Mountain Hope
Be joyful in HOPE, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12
About Us
Who Are We?
I wanted to introduce myself and my husband and share a little about us. We know it is important to know and trust the people you may want to work with on a project or support through supply and monetary donations.
My name is Cindy and my husband's name is Roger. We were high school sweethearts and have been happily married for 35 years. Together, we run this nonprofit, Mountain Hope Inc., to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene. Once our efforts with Helene are no longer needed, we will see where God leads us next in this journey of serving others by providing basic essentials and advocacy. However, we are pretty certain that this is just the beginning!
We have three beautiful grown children and a grandson. Two of our kids are married and one has a sweet little boy. Our other son Tyler, lives with us and is my sidekick and "Best Buddy" 7 days a week. I will explain that later.
We live in the beautiful mountains of WNC. We both grew up in Haywood County, but currently live in Buncombe County. We are active members of Lake Hills Baptist Church, where I volunteer as the Embrace Special Needs Ministry Coordinator, and where Roger and I teach a Sunday School class for the parents of the special needs kids. I also coordinate activities and speakers for the Embrace Ministry
I graduated from UNCA with a degree in Psychology, K-6 certification, and gained National Board Certification, as well as a Special Education Certification. I earned my Master's degree from Gardner Webb University in school administration in 2021, shortly after COVID hit. Yes, this was late in life to be attempting such a thing, but it had been something I really thought I was meant to do... be a school administrator and continue making a difference in the lives of children. I had planned on staying in education until they made me retire because I loved the kids. I loved being a teacher. But God had a different plan for my life. My health was not great after having long COVID, coupled with an autoimmune disease. I had to make the difficult decision to leave education and retire early. On January 1, 2024, I retired from my career as an educator after 28 years. It was the hardest decision to make but one of the best decisions I have made. It opened me up to do what God has called me to do in this next phase of my life.
Roger retired from NC DOT as a county maintenance engineer a couple years ago. When I jokingly said, "Honey, you know you can't retire because when people retire this young, they end up sitting around, dying young and I am not ready to be a widow,"... he took me seriously! So now he is in his second career as an inspector.
Roger is my biggest supporter. He supported me when I worked long past quitting time as a teacher; has supported my photography business for the past 16 years and without complaint, does whatever it takes, builds whatever it takes to support my dreams and passions. He loves watching ALL sports and is a big hockey fan. He has served as a Deacon at the past two churches we attended and has a servants heart. His passion is helping others and he has the patience of a saint! (He has to to stay married to me for 35 years! lol)
Roger loves watching ALL sports and is a big hockey fan. He can build just about anything and is always completing projects for me. We love spending time time on the lake with our family. I love reading, spending time with my family, being outside and photography. I have also been a professional photographer for about 16 years until I recently put it on hold to help with the disaster relief.
Our Family and Background
Roger has been involved in volunteers mission work for most of our marriage. He never went overseas for church missions due to health reasons, but he was always involved in supporting other members of the mission teams as he would help pack and load supplies on the vans and drive them to and from the airport. He has gained many certifications through the Baptist on Mission, including his "blue hat certification," allowing him to lead mission teams on rebuild sites after disasters hit. He has made more trips than I can count, to areas impacted by hurricanes over the years, including Johnsonville, SC, Gulfport, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Lumberton, NC, and Detroit. He has always said that he can see leading mission teams for rebuilds as a full time on site volunteer.
YEARS OF MISSION WORK
A Calling to Work With Special Needs Families
Adopting Our Special Needs Son
Our faith in God has grown stronger and stronger over the years, especially with the adoption of our oldest son, Tyler, who has Down Syndrome. We brought him home at 7 days old as Foster Parents, but God blessed us with being able to adopt him soon after. He is now 29. He lives with us and always will, as long as we can care for him. We do everything together. He helps me when I do distribution work, travels with me when I decide on a whim to explore the coast or mountains for a few days and is my movie buddy. He is the sunshine in my life, telling me daily how much he loves me and giving me big bear hugs. He is the kindest and most thoughtful person I know. He loves bringing my mom her coffee each morning and saying," How is my favorite grandmother?" Tyler has been our inspiration and God has used him to give Roger and myself a huge heart for the special needs community.
In 2024, God blessed me with helping start Night to Shine at the Church where we had been active members for 23 years. NTS is a special needs prom like you have never seen! There are limo rides, red carpet, paparazzi, crowning of each individual, dancing, food and the whole night is about letting each guest know how much God loves them.
I had taken Tyler to a NTS, at another church for 5 years. The last year we attended NTS at the other church, I knew that God was urging me to get NTS started at our church. So I came home and wrote an email to our pastor proposing to start it. It was approved. God gave me a passion for this event like I had never had for anything I had ever done. I visited the church, which had been doing NTS for years, to gain more info, worked with a Mission Pastor before he was moved to lead pastor at a satellite church to fill out the extensive application, contacted many group homes and organizations who had contact with special needs adults, collected hundreds of dresses and organized a dress and suit boutique, helped with organizing the vendors etc. Seeing the smiles on the individuals faces when they walked down the red carpet made it worth it all! Seeing the smiles on those precious guest's faces was something I will never forget! It was the most rewarding thing I had ever been a part of.
That event was in February of 2024. When the event was over, the passion to do more for the individuals with special needs, as well as the families and care givers of individuals with special needs did not go away or grow faint. As a matter of fact, it grew to the point I knew God had more planned for me and I was pretty desperate to figure out what that "something else" was. Sounds dramatic, but I honestly spent many sleepless nights wondering what God wanted me to do with this desire to help special needs individuals of all ages as well as parents of special needs kids of all ages access the Gospel, attend classes with their peers, feel like they belonged and have a community to share and worship in. What was next? How could I be obedient and follow His calling to help these families and kids?
I knew what these parents of special needs kids needed because Roger and I had walked in their shoes. In April of 2024, the answer to "What's Next?" came when God answered my prayers in a way I never imagined! He called me to volunteer as the coordinator for the new Embrace Special Needs Ministry at Lake Hills Church. Roger and I knew, without a doubt, that this was where God was calling our family because of the events that led up to God opening this door. I had wondered why some of the events prior to this day had happened. On that day...I got my answer as clearly as was possible. LITERALLY, while the Children's director at Lake Hills was on her knees crying out to God, begging Him to send a coordinator for the new Embrace Special Needs Ministry...someone who had the same passion for helping the parents and the kids, I was composing an email to the director pouring out my heart and what I KNEW God was calling me to do and I just wanted to see if there might be a place for me to serve at their church. The director, who I had known from 35 years earlier, from a church in another county, called me up in tears and said, "Cindy...you are not going to believe this but... and she told me how she had been praying one hour before she opened my email to her. To this day, as I share the story, I still get goosebumps and I still cry because I am reminded that God knows best and can work things out in ways that we could not imagine. It left us, once again in total awe of God.
I spoke with the children's director on Wednesday. Roger was leading a mission trip to help rebuild in Lumberton. I shared how God had worked out all the details which would allow me to serve God in the way I KNEW he was calling me to serve. I could finally be obedient to His calling and I was ecstatic! That was on a Wednesday night and we joined the church the following Sunday. Roger and I had people question our quick decision, but as we told them, God had been working things out since about August of that year to prepare our hearts and minds to leave the "familiar" to do something we knew He had clearly called us to do. So, it was the easiest decision we had ever made to follow God wherever He had called us. Yes we miss some of our dearest friends, but we can still stay in touch.
Embrace Ministry
As the Embrace Coordinator, I train, assign and schedule one-on-one buddies to work with special needs kids. Buddies give the kids the extra support they need to stay with their typically developing peers or spend some time in the sensory room to take a break. This allows parents to either attend worship services or attend Sunday School class, which Roger and I teach, just for parents or caregivers of kids with special needs.
Part of the Embrace Ministry is to give parents a break or do fun things as families. Our mom's Paint Night was one of those events. I also reach out to people in the Special Needs Community who can speak to our parents and provide support, information etc. Roger and I meet with the state representative for Joni and Friends and stay in touch with them to network with other churches to share ideas on developing a special needs ministry. We also stay in touch with the Tim Tebow Foundation's special needs leaders for Shine On.
Night To Shine
God's Answer to "What's Next?"
Easiest Decision Ever
Delivering Supplies to the Community
About a week after Helene hit, once we could safely get around downed power lines, we took supplies into the community from our church distribution site at Lake Hills. These are the hardworking people at The Waffle House on Long Shoals Road in Arden who have become like family to us. They had all been hard hit in one way or the other. Later on, we were able to get one expectant mom, two kids and husband into a camper after they lost their home and most of what was in it.
Tyler and I drove around neighborhoods and also found restaurants that were attempting to remain open and delivered water to the employees. Everyone's water was out and that was one of the biggest needs. While in the parking lot of Waffle House, when people entered the restuarant, we offered them supplies as well. So many were so thankful for the supplies. Stopping strangers and asking them if they were OK and if they needed anything was something I had never done but God gave me the courage to do it and I am so thankful for that courage because so many would not have asked if they could have supplies without it being offered first. So many were reluctant, saying, I need it bit I am sure someone else needs it more.
Welcome
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Getting Started with Disaster Relief Efforts
On October 7th, our church, Lake Hills Church, had a ton of clothes in bags, which people donated. We were not taking clothing donations so we took a load to a couple of churches in Swannanoa. One was God's Way Baptist, a beautiful little white country church that sat in the middle of one of the hardest hit communities, yet it made it through the storm! What we did not know at the time was that bodies were still being found close by.
When we walked in to carry the bags of clothing and what we saw was enough to almost make anyone have an anxiety attack because it was so overwhelming. They had supplies of all kind filling every square inch of the small sanctuary. But what was the most overwhelming was the mountain of trash bags! I am 5 foot 11 inches and the pile of clothing was so enormous that I could literally not see over it! It was twice as wide as it was tall. Most of the clothing was in trash bags. People had just lost everything as they watched their houses, personal belongings and in some cases, neighbors and loved get swept down the river and here was a mountain of clothes which were not accessible to them because they were in bags! Could we really expect people to have to ravage through these bags of clothing to find what they needed? I knew that if it was overwhelming to me, I could not imagine what the locals felt like! I looked at the people working the distribution site, sorting food, trying to help others...some who had legitimate needs and others who were like vultures swooping in on the prey and walking out with boxes of supplies that they did not need such as a box of flashlights and batteries.
Two of the women who were organizing the supplies, had lost everything! Yet here they were, organizing supplies so they could help others.
I got in the truck with my husband and I said, "THIS is where I think God wants me to be. I am going to come back here and help them sort the clothing. You can't wear it if it is in a trash bag! Those people are exhausted and that task is too overwhelming without help." Of course, he agreed. I went back to my church, found Pastor Walker and told him what God was leading me to do." He said I should do what God was calling me to do and said, " We will let them borrow you for a while as long as they return you." He gave me a hug and laughed.
The next day I showed up with lots of Lowes' packing boxes, a container of markers, tape, and paper. I spent the next 3 weeks, 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a weeks working as hard as I could to sort through clothes and place them in labeled boxes. I put out a plea on Facebook for help and got lots of support from former coworkers, family and friends. I felt so blessed to have them come help these people and support me.
During that time, other organizations and volunteers came as well to work on the clothing. One week I had not been able to come a few days and when I came back, I could have cried! Someone had bought hangers and racks and the clothing had gone from the 50 plus boxes I had brought to being organized by size on racks! I have never been so thankful to see racks of clothing!
A Change in Focus
Over the weeks, while I was at God's Way, I transitioned into helping people find supplies, prayed with them, listened to their heartbreaking stories of survival and provided a shoulder to cry on. I began to hear about people along the river who lived in tents. If you had told me that I would walk into those tent areas and ask people what they needed, I would have laughed and said, "not a chance!" BUT GOD!
I went to the tents, which were set up along the river front over in hopes of finding someone who could tell me of their needs. One man's home had sat feet away from where his tent was set up. The home was washed away and only the cement base was left. Some days I was able to find at least one person who could tell me of what the needs were. On other days, when I could not find anyone, friends from my church of other volunteers from God's Way Baptist and I would just leave supplies, wood and things we thought they would need to stay warm. Many of the people were very proud and would tell you they were OK or that others had bigger needs than they did. I was overwhelmed by their humbleness. They literally lost their homes and everything except their lives and they didn't want help because they thought someone else might need it more.
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Shortly after the storm hit, people were frantic as they were having to set up tents to sleep in. Most people who came through to get the tents, had never camped a day in their lives and therefore had no idea how to set up a tent so that it was weather proof. They did not know what it took to survive in a camping situation as far as what supplies were needed. I was volunteering at God's Way Baptist, in Swannanoa, which has been a crucial distribution center and continues to be a hub for support long term.
Our son< Tyler, could not pass up a photo opportunity with the soldiers . He was so proud of himself and very willing to help them carrying in tents and supplies to some difficult places to reach.
We were blessed with two troops of Army soldiers showing up to help in any way they could. I was able to lead the coordination of them setting up some people in tents so that they would be protected from the weather. and made sure they had all the supplies needed to survive. In the days and weeks following the soldiers setting up the tents, I dropped off supplies for those in the tents until I knew they had all moved to alternative lodging.
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Supplying the Needs of those in Local Hotels
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It was several weeks after the storm hit and I got a call from a wonderful lady in Idaho, who I connected with through Facebook. She had helped to fund several projects through her major fundraising efforts. She called to tell me that she had somehow connected with a family in a hotel, which was located one exit from me. They needed supplies. When I took supplies to the lady, on October 31st, she told me they had had NO supplies brought to them from any outside entities and they had no hot meals being delivered to them.
I can't explain it but, but after talking to this sweet lady and seeing how excited she and her two boys became over receiving some very basic essentials, and a few "luxury items" such as a soft warm blanket to provide some comforts of home, and knowing that they had had no hot meals since the storm, I was overcome with a multitude of emotions. I cried on the short 10 minute drive home. I was shocked and angry that these people, though given a roof over their head, had been placed so far away from distribution sites and no one was assigned to come check on them until many weeks later. How was someone with no car, some with no ID(washed away in the storm), supposed to access basic needs? Then the feeling of guilt overcame me because I had been driving 35 minutes, 6 days a week since October 7th, to help in Swannanoa and here, basically in my back yard, were hundreds of people who had seemingly been forgotten. Not knowing they were there did not change the fact that I felt like I should have known and should have been doing something to help.
I asked what hot meals they were receiving at the hotels and this varied from no breakfast to continental due to the water situation. However, none of the ones I spoke to had hot meals being brought in, though in some hotels, closer to the hardest hit areas, hot meals were delivered daily. Thankfully, in the areas where they were hardest hit, there were food trucks on every corner,. Distribution sites were plentiful. But these sites and food trucks were FAR removed from the hotels and posed no benefit to those in hotels with no outside connections.
This is when my focus went from working at the distribution sites, in the middle of the Swannanoa area, where most of the damage was, to trying to advocate for and supply items to the people in the hotels ,who had also lost everything , but did not have access to these resources. After many phone calls and posts on Facebook, I discovered where some of the hotels were, where people were staying on FEMA vouchers. I arranged with one of the hotel managers to have a day where I could bring supplies. I shared this on Facebook on the Friends of Swannanoa NC and the number of people who reached out to help with this effort was amazing!
In a week, with the support of my church, Lake Hills Church, friends and people from NC, Tn. SC and Ga, we set up in the parking lot of the hotel. We had clothing, lots of food they could use in the hotels, cleaning supplies, book bags for the kids filled with things to occupy them in the hotels, books,, hygiene products, paper products etc
We knew that the first round of hotel vouchers, provided by FEMA were going to run out soon. I had gone to hotels in the area and talked with people who were sitting in the foyers and outside. Most had no idea how to get an extension. So we gathered the information on how to apply for extension and made copies for the people to ;ass out at the hotel when people came for supplies. We also provided a number for a law firm who were advising people for free if they had not been approved for extensions.
We provided backpacks for each child who showed up filled with activities to keep them busy in the hotel rooms.
Along with supplies and information on extensions, we gave them an opportunity to sign up to shop for gifts for their kids at Lake Hills Church, and to sign up for our Thanksgiving Meal/Christmas store at Lutheridge Conference Center. They also took a paper with them which provided a way to link to a SUPPLIES needed form. This form was used by volunteers to take supplies to the people in hotels over the next several weeks.
We had people who also made sure they spoke to each person, gave them a chance to talk about their experiences if they chose and prayed with them.
The best part of this day was that these people were so appreciative because they were provided with ways to connect to us if they needed help and they knew someone cared. They had NOT been forgotten!