BAKERSVILLE, N.C. — Alyssa Vigneault counts herself as one of the lucky few who were able to escape Hurricane Helene almost unscathed. But her brother came to make sure she was still alive.
"He told me, 'Alyssa, when I got to Tennessee...when I got to Iron Mountain. I realized I probably wasn't coming to get you I was probably coming to recover your body,'" Vigneault said.
When she and her brother met up, they teamed up to make sure other people's families knew they were OK.
"We loaded him up with supplies that I bought from a GoFundMe and he took an AT thru hiker backpack and started hiking supplies into people and doing welfare checks. And he would go out once a day to the Starlink and get back in touch with me and tell me that people were okay so I could contact their families," Vigneault said.
In the time since she has been bringing people food out of her car on a regular basis. Now those communities have learned to trust her.
"As I would see people try to muck out, as I would see people try to rebuild I would stop and say, 'Hey man, do you need a hot meal?'" she said.
For Thanksgiving, Vigneault knew she needed to do something for these people. She and a group of volunteers worked on cooking over 500 meals to give to them.
"I currently have, I think, 12 women in my kitchen cooking and a bunch of community partners who are providing food," she said.
They are also providing people with what they call "Smile Items." Vigneault says that one of the things she sees the most is people turning down things they might need because they think someone else might need them more. So she's making sure they have at least one thing that makes them smile.
"We have plush robes and slippers and Carhartt hoodies and practical things like crockpots and microwaves you can run off a generator", she says.
And while holiday distributions are important, Vigneault pointed out that what really helps is people supporting local relief groups because many other groups have already left or will leave by the end of December.
"Supporting local, long-term relief efforts is absolutely the biggest impact you can have. Because not only do we know these communities, not only do they trust us to allow us to help them, we're the only ones still here," she said.
Many people are now trying to rebuild, so the group asked people to send things like Lowe's gift cards. If you'd like to help you can find more information here.