My name is Scott Tinney. I live in Rocky Point, NC, about 5 hours away from Rosman. When Helene struck a little over a week ago, I knew firsthand how the communities in Western NC must feel. You see, our area experienced an event very similar to this in 2018 with Hurricane Florence, where many lost homes, businesses, and much more. So when I saw the news start to unfold, I called a good friend of mine, Wilson, and we loaded up two of my trucks—one with a camper and tractor with chainsaws and other equipment, and the other with water and a large fuel trailer—and headed to Transylvania County.

I have a friend on the Brevard police department who told me that other areas needed our assistance more than they did, but I know Jason well enough to know that he simply didn’t want to ask for help. So we pushed on. What we saw was nothing short of heartbreaking. We worked for 4 days trying to do anything we could and unfortunately had to return home to get back to work. However, I’ve had an amazing number of people reach out to me asking what they can do to help.

While there is an immense number of things that need to be done all around Western NC, I’ve selected a project that really hit home with me while I was there. One night after working all day, Jason and his wife Jessica came down to the barn where we had our camper and were staging our equipment. They introduced us to Jessica’s sister, Jennifer , and she told us about the Rosman High School athletic fields. They had just finished an extensive rebuild and rehab from a previous flood from years ago and had enjoyed them for one season before watching them get totally destroyed again. The heartbreak in her voice could really be felt. Listening to this story, I asked how they would get it fixed, and Jennifer told us she had spoken to the baseball coach, and he just wasn’t sure it would happen. I knew right then this was the project I wanted to tackle.

I guess it hit home after watching another good friend miss out on playing his senior year of baseball due to COVID lockdowns, and I simply couldn’t stand the idea of any of these students not having their field to play baseball come baseball season. So with this being said, please donate anything you can. All money will go directly to the Rosman High School athletic department to aid in getting their field ready for the upcoming season.

Thanks so much.