Dear Asheville Downtown Association Members and Followers,

It has been a little more than two weeks since Hurricane Helene changed the landscape of our lives and our beloved Western North Carolina. While we’ve all shared in this collective trauma, each of us has experienced it in unique and deeply personal ways. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the immense strength and resilience of this community, and to share what your continued commitment to the Asheville Downtown Association has helped accomplish in this critical time.

Since the storm, our focus has been on responding quickly and thoughtfully. We’ve seen incredible outreach from Downtown organizations and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) across the country, offering advice, support, and funding. These groups, along with our own local partners, wasted no time in taking action.

I was fortunate to evacuate to Columbus, GA, where we quickly launched the River to River Relief Campaign in collaboration with the Uptown Columbus BID. Together, we’ve sent trucks, trailers, and even airplanes full of supplies back to Asheville to support our Downtown businesses and surrounding neighborhoods. We also worked with the Downtown Denver BID, which connected us to Amazon corporate offices, resulting in two tractor trailers full of water and supplies being delivered to a local warehouse in the early days of recovery.

Thanks to donations and support from this community, we’ve been able to provide more than 900 hot meals to first responders and neighbors in need over the past week. Though we had to cancel our Oktoberfest celebration, we invited the contracted band, Jackson Grimm and Friends, to bring the sounds of Appalachia to first responders from across the nation and Canada.

We’ve also teamed up with Explore Asheville and other community partners to launch Love Asheville From Afar, a campaign to help our local businesses regain footing by encouraging remote shopping and support from across the country.

Additionally, we hosted our first Small Business Information Session in partnership with Go Local, offering information on financial resources and support. We were also able to keep an Oktoberfest contract with Show and Tale Creative to record and document the event. We plan to continue this series as long as there’s a need.

When the time comes, Downtown must reopen, and we need to bring customers back. That's why we’ve remained fully committed to our Winter in Downtown initiative. This project is not just important—it’s critical to our recovery. The sooner we can bring people back to Downtown, the faster our businesses can reopen and thrive.

We are committed to supporting our Downtown community and to staying by your side as we move through this together. We couldn’t have accomplished this without your trust, commitment, and belief in the work we do.Thank you for your continued support and strength. Together, we will rebuild and recover.

With gratitude,
Hayden Plemmons
Executive Director

Source: Asheville Downtown Association