Gr828 Center

01/24/2025

Team, here is our current plan to be able move out of our current space:

Monday, January 27 we will begin packing boxes and loading pallets at The GR828 Center by Discover Church starting at 10 AM.

Tuesday, January 28 we will begin bagging the clothes in the building at the Macon County Fairgrounds.

01/22/2025

We need your help. This Sunday, January 26, we need to borrow some space heaters to warm the fair grounds space while we work to close out that location.

Heaters can be dropped off at 2 PM at the Fair Grounds parking lot. They will be used for the week and can be picked up the following week.

Please contact Billy VanHook at 828-342-3934 if you can help us.

01/15/2025

Our work at GR828 Center is going to look differently moving forward. We will be closing the center doors at the end of this month. We will be posting some ways to help transition to what comes next, so stay tuned.

Be sure to check out our work currently going on at Mountain Alliance and Mission at themountainalliance.com.

Thank you to Discover Church, our more than 600 volunteers and all from across the country who helped support and share love in the 828!

01/10/2025

We would like to thank the following people/businesses/organizations for going above and beyond to support the GR828 and all of our efforts over the last four months:

Discover Church / Ben Windle- they have been an amazing partner. They did not hesitate to house us and help us in so many ways.

Benny’s Equipment Rental- gave us use of skid steer that was much needed.

Worm and Dola McConnell- provided a phone for the center.

Mr Store It / Kelly and Teresa Wilson- gave a building to use for storage.

Sonrise Sanitation / Greg and Jamie Bates- provided portable restrooms when we had several hundred volunteers and had to have them.

Desoto Trail / Matt Holland and David Kinsland- donated the use of several dumpsters and emptied them for us several times.

Carenet / Tim Hogsed- allowed us to use their box truck for as long as we needed to make deliveries.

Franklin Signs / Barry Breeden- donated all the signs for the center.

Family Auto Care / Johnny McGaha- provided a lot of boxes for packing supplies.

Angel Medical Center / Clint Kendall- provided meals several times for us to deliver to Black Mountain.

Liberty Wood Products / Josh Anderson- provided industrial sized fans in the beginning when it was so hot and they were so needed.

Tektone- donated supplies and employees donated their time.

Macon County Rec Park- allowed us use of their tables and chairs.

Macon County Airport / Sabrina Crone and Jimmy Goodman- they were just beyond amazing those first couple of weeks. A lot of planes and a lot of stuff came through Macon County.

Please tag these folks, visit them, tell them thank you and use their services because they support our community! And as always, THANK YOU to the over 600 VOLUNTEERS who showed up to give their time to help our 828 neighbors!

01/10/2025

UPDATE for the GR828 Center: We will continue our work but things will look a little different!

Our goal is to be out of our current space by February 1st. Most of our donations have gone to where they are needed and we are working on getting everything that is left in that space out to distribution hubs in impacted areas before 2/1/25. From now through that time we will be at the center by appointment.

Moving forward we are working to exist as a pass through hub, meaning few things will stop in Franklin. We will do our best to coordinate delivery of loads directly to impacted areas. If loads have to be dropped here for storage we will work that out. Please don’t drop donations at the church site from this point forward. For any local donations, contact one of us and we will meet you in town and/or at one of our local businesses. We will continue to coordinate heat sources, building supplies, and any requests that specific hubs send to us so please look for those posts in the future! If you would like to give monetarily, that money is still going primarily to heating sources at this time.

Please be patient with us as we transiton and continue to support our neighbors and the work of WNC Strong and other grassroots organizations. We live in the best place in the world and we appreciate everyone who has stepped up to help the 828 ❤️

If you would like to contact us, call or text:
Amy Anders- 828-342-0798
Billy Vanhook- 828-342-3934
Email- [email protected]
FB Messenger

01/02/2025

We continue to work because there is still work to be done! Sent out a load of wood, sent a big load of supplies to Black Mtn and loaded it twice because the brakes gave out on the first truck (so thankful God had his hand on that situation and it did not end badly) and got a washer to a family in need. We are actively working on sending out everything from this center to get it to hubs in communities that were impacted without overloading said hubs. We are working to become a pass through hub that does more coordinating than handling. However, we will continue to follow where the Lord leads us and we appreciate continued prayers as we try to help our 828 neighbors! WNC Strong

12/16/2024

Please help support Black Mountain!

12/13/2024

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today, GR828 and WNC Strong picked up toys in northwest Georgia. A special thanks to students at Mountain Area Christian Academy and also to American Legions groups in Blairsville, Young Harris and Blue Ridge.

Students and families of North Canton Elementary School will be blessed by their generosity.

We are thankful to be part of this story!

12/12/2024

We have a large toy truck delivery going out Friday afternoon. If you can, please help.

12/10/2024

Needing some help this afternoon to load a large truck to go out tomorrow morning.

12/03/2024

Hey, friends.

Needing some help tomorrow (Tuesday) to pull some orders for delivery.

11/24/2024

Snow was on the ground this week. Please help in our dollar campaign to provide heat to those in need.

As folks as how they can help for the holidays, here is one way.

Help give heat for the holidays.

GR828//WNCStrong/MountainAllianceandMission are working to ensure that families can meet this basic need.

https://themountainalliance.com/home

https://account.venmo.com/u/WNCStrong-FuelFunds