Community Interest
History Note: Leaders who Built Our Legacy
Here’s to the leaders who came before, and to the future we continue to build —together.
October 3, 2025
No Comments
Here’s to the leaders who came before, and to the future we continue to build —together.
Your Donations at Work! A new modular home has just been set in Bethel Village through the Smoky Mountain Housing Partnership Homes for Hope initiative! Thanks to donors, volunteers, and partners, families displaced by last year’s floods are finding safe, stable, affordable housing. We are all a part of this
“We are thrilled to partner with Mountain Projects,” said Tom Olliff, President of the Maggie Valley Men’s Golf Association. “We hope, in some small way, this contribution will make a difference in the lives of our friends and neighbors impacted by the hurricane.”
“We have been collecting contributions for Hurricane Helene relief since it struck,” said Carolyn Hindel, Conference Controller for the North Carolina Conference of the Global Methodist Church. “We trust Mountain Projects to deliver help where it’s most needed—they’re the boots on the ground.”
“It’s just incredible to see how our community came together for a great cause,” said Patrick Schneider, president of Adamas Entertainment, a Waynesville-based production company who helped organize the event. “This is what live music is all about.”
“Our house was just destroyed,” she said. “The water line was inches from the ceiling, and it had tossed around our appliances like they were nothing.”
Many Appalachians lean on their faith for strength during a crisis, but one family along the Pigeon River near Clyde found echoes of their spirituality all around after they watched their home destroyed in recent flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene.
“The good Lord left us here for a reason,
The moment Romulus Meares, IV, 31, of Clyde, realized his home was flooding beyond repair, with water rising to his knees, he sat down in his living room and played a final song on the piano that had been an anniversary gift to his wife and would soon be destroyed.
Community Action was created on the heels of a March 1964 message to congress from President Lyndon Johnson during which he urged the body to pass his Economic Opportunity Act. Ultimately, the act created the Office of Economic Opportunity, including the creation of Community Action Agencies (CAAs) to “strike poverty