09/11/2026
Phase 2:Climbing Back Together: Rebuilding After Helene.I literally recorded like 10 videos but none of them quite worked. I do better with writing âď¸:
Climbing to New Heights: Help Us Recover and Rebuild at NCOA
A small-business fundraiser with a community-sized purpose.
You may look at this campaign and wonder: Why is a fundraiser for a small business being called a community fundraiser?
To understand that, you first have to understand who NC Outdoor Adventures (NCOA) isâand what this little river outfitter on the North Toe River has meant to our community, both before and after Hurricane Helene.
We Were Community-Minded Long Before Helene
NC Outdoor Adventures is a small, locally owned outdoor adventure company located along the North Toe River in northern Mitchell County, serving the communities of Red Hill, Green Mountain, Bakersville and the greater Toe River Valley in WNC.
Long before Hurricane Helene changed our mountains forever, giving back was simply part of what we did.
We hosted free community events, including outdoor movie nights. We participated in community festivals and helped with fundraising efforts such as the Barbecue & Bluegrass Festival and Rotary Club Ducky fundraisers. We organized cleanups along the Toe River and advocated for clean water and the protection of the river that provides our livelihood.
Then came Hurricane Helene.
And everything changed.
When Our Community Needed Help, We Went to Work.
Following Helene, NCOA used its resources, community connections and reach as a small business to launch a GoFundMe campaign.
Together, donors helped us raise more than a quarter of a million dollars.
Those donations became generators, carbon monoxide detectors, medical supplies, water and other necessities. Our property became part of the relief effort. We checked on and cared for neighbors who were without electricity and essential services for weeks and months.
We assisted however we could during those unimaginable early daysâincluding working alongside the National Guard to help mark locations where human remains had been found.
But that was only the beginning.
As immediate emergency relief transitioned into recovery, we put $204,000 directly into the hands of 31 residents of northern Mitchell and Yancey countiesâneighbors who had lost homes, possessions, livelihoods and, in some cases, people they loved. Some families are still waiting for answers about loved ones, and neighbors, who remain missing to this day, almost two years later!
Then we turned our attention to the land and water.
We funded six river cleanups and six riverbank replanting projects, helping remove debris and restore damaged waterways and riverbanks. We helped plant approximately eight miles of private property along the Toe River, replacing trees and vegetation stripped away by Helene.
We distributed hundreds of trees to residents and held a community garden-plant giveaway.
We hosted an Easter egg hunt for children and adults, because recovery also means finding reasons to smile again.
And through an after-school program with Partners Aligned Toward Health, we worked with approximately 60 children affected by the storm. We gave them emergency âgo bucketsâ filled with supplies designed to help them and their families survive for 72 hours during another emergency.
Helene took away a sense of safety and innocence from many of our children. We wanted to give them something tangible that said: You can learn. You can prepare. You can be strong.
And even this list doesn't include everything.
But There Is Something Missing From That List
Us.
What you didn't hear us say was that we took the money raised after Helene and used it to repair our own home or recover our own losses.
We didn't.
When people donated to that campaign to help our community, that's exactly what we used those donations to do.
Now, nearly two years after Hurricane Helene, we've finally had to slow down long enough to take stock of what happened to us.
Our own damages and recovery needs are approximately $180,000.
Our historic home, built around 1890, suffered continuing erosion and structural damage. Although river or creek water did not physically enter our home, approximately 28 inches of rain fell onto already saturated and flooded ground, sending water through the property contributing to serious structural problems.
While we were busy helping our neighbors climb out of the devastation, our own recovery waited.
Now we're ready to climb, too.
Climbing to New Heights! That's why we're launching Climbing to New Heights: Help Us Recover and Rebuild at NCOA.
And because this is NCOA, our recovery isn't going to be only about us.
A major part of this campaign is helping us build a community climbing wall at NC Outdoor Adventuresâa physical symbol of what our mountain communities have spent the last two years doing:
Climbing.
Climbing out of devastation.
Climbing through grief.
Climbing through financial hardship.
Climbing toward something new.
This wall will provide a year-round recreational and educational opportunity for local families, especially young people in Mitchell and Yancey counties.
We plan to permanently offer discounted local youth access, including reduced day passes and monthly passes, so climbing isn't an activity reserved only for families who can easily afford it.
We want parents to know their children have a safe place to spend time, challenge themselves, make friends and learn a skill that teaches problem-solving, confidence, perseverance and strength.
This isn't just about building a wall.
It's about building something our community gets to climb together.
Where Your Donations Will Go?
Funds raised through this campaign will first help us build and complete the community climbing wall and continue NCOA's own personal recovery and rebuilding needs resulting from Hurricane Helene, up to our campaign goal of approximately $200,000
And if this campaign is blessed enough to exceed what is needed for those projects?
We'll do what we've done before. We'll give back!
Funds raised beyond our documented recovery and project needs will be directed back into the communities of the Toe River Valley and northern Mitchell and Yancey countiesâincluding Green Mountain, Red Hill, Buladean, Harrell Hill, Bakersville and surrounding communities.
It will start with funding two community needs and requests: (1) fruit tree giveaway for those whose orchards washed away. (2) We will create a Toe River River Valley River KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. GOALS to add river monitoring devices throught the Toe and make it easily accessible by the community and EMS, and to create a trained swift water rescue team of local whitewater enthusiasts and guides that will hopefully coexist with the local volunteer fire departments.
If the last two years have taught us anything, it's this:
Recovery isn't something you do alone!
We watched strangers become neighbors. We watched neighbors become family. We watched people who had lost nearly everything turn around and help someone who had even less.
We have spent nearly two years trying to help our community climb back.
Now we're asking our communityâand everyone who has followed this incredible storyâto help us climb to new heights.
Donate if you can.
Share this campaign if you can't.
Tell our story.
Help us build something lasting from everything our community has survived.
And come climb with us when the wall is finished.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for believing in NC Outdoor Adventures, the Toe River Valley and the resilient people who call these mountains home.
We climbed for our neighbors. Now help us climb toward what comes next.
â NC Outdoor Adventures
Make it a great day!
Scott and Christy Thrift
owner/operators of NC Outdoor Adventures and lodging at Hidden Holler Unique Mountain Farm-Stay
(828) 260-4505
https://ncoutdooradventures.com
Climbing to New Heights: Help Us Recover and Rebuild at NCO⌠Christy Thrift needs your support for Climbing Back: Rebuilding After Helene, One Climb at a time
