Join Us in Assisting Fairview Community Recovery

Timothy and Joyce Penland are residents of Stephens County, GA. We moved to this area about 10 years ago. Tim taught and worked for several years at Toccoa Falls College. Joyce, who is a retired public school kindergarten teacher, worked alongside Tim as they built a sustainable teaching farm, and Tim taught Sustainable Community Development courses at the college. We are both now retired.

We are originally from the Asheville, NC area. Joyce was born in a clinic about 1/2 mile above Chimney Rock, NC. Joyce taught kindergarten at Fairview Elementary School for over 25 years. We lived and raised our family in Fairview, NC. We are traveling back and forth to Fairview, carrying supplies to some of the hardest-hit areas of Western North Carolina. We are dropping off the supplies we gather at the Fairview Volunteer Fire Department, where our neighbor and friend is the Fire Chief. The supplies that are being donated to the fire department are available for pick up by victims of the devastation in the Fairview area and are also being taken out (sometimes by UTVs) to families that are "cut off" because of the numerous washed-away roads and bridges.

The need is urgent and unbelievably great. Much of WNC was inundated with 20 to 30 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. The small village of Fairview, and the valleys and coves that surround Fairview, are some of the hardest-hit areas. Numerous deaths are reported in the community, and many are trapped with no way out of mountain coves until roads and bridges are repaired. There are no words or pictures that are adequate to describe the immense devastation. Your help is needed and greatly appreciated.