12/31/2025
What a year it has been! This will be a very long and emotional-filled update. There are so many of you who have been faithful to follow along on this journey, and you are due an update on the status of The Re-Cover Project. First, I don’t want to assume that all of our followers know the story of how The Re-Cover Project began, so allow me to share a little bit of background with you. When WNC was devastated by Helene last year, my heart was immediately burdened to do something. I had just cleaned out my daughter’s clothes for the season and had 6 bags of clothes that I was prepared to donate to a local thrift store. I wondered if there was a way that I could get them to WNC instead. As it turns out, there was another mom 50-miles away, who I had never met before, whose mother passed away in a car crash the year prior. She wondered the very same thing about her mother‘s clothes—could she somehow get them to the folks in the mountains? She had an idea to go to the mountains and set up a ‘pop-up clothing event’ and began reaching out to churches. I saw her post on social media about this and knew I was supposed to help. We quickly introduced ourselves and got right to business. We started collecting donations of gently used clothing, shoes, and bedding for people in Western North Carolina. We called it The Re-Cover Project. We knew that nothing we were doing was life-saving, but it would physically— and maybe even spiritually—re-cover those who had lost so much in that time of crisis.
In late October of 2024, we decided to make TRP a non-profit and the IRS approved our request in just 18 days. Our operation grew rapidly and we rented a 2,000 square foot warehouse before October even ended. On November 2, 2024, with 2 U-Hauls and about 30 volunteers, we headed west for our first pop-up event, The Gathering Church in West Jefferson. We served roughly 70 families that day with a hot meal and as many clothes and shoes and hats and gloves and jackets and blankets and pillows that they could put into a large shopping bag. There were smiles and there were tears and it was absolutely incredible to look around the room and see what had come together in such a short amount of time and we were motivated to keep going. We set a goal to have a thrift store within one year of starting and knew that it was a lofty goal but we were both all in. However, just two months later and two days before Christmas 2024, my fellow co-founder and new friend stepped away from the organization without warning and I was devastated. I wasn’t exactly sure how I could go on without her. I heard God say in my heart, “I will sustain you”. So, I trusted Him that He would, and He did, and I pressed forward with the support and help of an incredible team of volunteers. In January of 2025, we went to The Breakfast Shoppe in Swannanoa and filled that tiny restaurant with clothing racks and set up even more outside under tents. In February, we served our local community in Greensboro at Shannon Hills Bible Chapel. In March, we headed to Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Burnsville and gave clothing to over 700 people and served 400 hot meals. In May we traveled to Marion to Loving Hearts Bear Closet and served over 700 people that day as well. In August, we went back to Swannanoa, this time to Valley Hope Church and roughly 550 people were blessed with free clothes and a hot meal. In September, we served the Greensboro community at SHBC once more. Our final event was once again at Shoal Creek Baptist in Burnsville in November, our biggest event yet, where we gave away clothes to 877 people.
Throughout the year, donations from individuals and corporations and churches continued to come in at seemingly just the right times. In May, we held a “bag sale” to get rid of some fall/winter inventory and raised around $1000. Clemmons First Baptist Church was a wonderful liaison for us during this time. In June we held an inaugural golf tournament and were blown away when we raised $18,000. Needless to say, we never struggled to pay our $2,100 warehouse and storage rent that housed the overwhelming ABUNDANCE of clothing, shoes, and bedding donations we received throughout the year. Hanes Corporations was so kind to donate underwear and bras and socks several times during the year. We also had a campaign to raise money for underwear in March thought brought in over $3,000. Our volunteers were faithful to continue to show up week after week to sort through the abundance of donations we received and help prepare for our next pop-up event.
But let me back up for just a minute.
This past summer, I was searching aggressively for the perfect thrift store space. When a very doable thrift store location was found, and I was very close to signing a lease agreement, the peace that I had had about this project shifted into angst and confusion. I suddenly realized, that for the first time since we began, I was striving, forcing and pushing. While I didn’t doubt that God was able, it just didn’t seem like longevity was the answer. A thrift store would’ve made it more permanent and honestly would’ve been great because it would have meant that our mission would’ve grown much bigger. But I could not deny that my peace had begun to dwindle, and I had uncertainty about the future of the organization and the direction God wanted me to go. One night in July, I looked at my husband and told him that I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I walked into our dining room and put my head in my hands as I cried heavy tears and said, “God, what do I do?” A few moments later, my prayer was answered. I’ll never say that I “heard God”, like with an audible voice, but within minutes of praying that prayer, I had this thought: “you close the bank account, you divide up all the money between the 5 sites in WNC that hosted you, and you walk away.” I was in disbelief. Why would God tell me to end The Re-Cover Project? I started to question if it was even God at all, or if the devil himself was whispering this to me. As I prayed fervently in the days after asking God for clarity, it became clear that was exactly what God was telling me to do. The Re-Cover Project was for a season, and our mission was fulfilled. I called an emergency board meeting and told them all that I was resigning at the end of the year. We carried out the last events that we had on the schedule and I began making plans to dissolve TRP.
The mission of The Re-Cover Project was to provide support and relief during times of crisis, alleviating the burden of rebuilding, while honoring Christ and showing love to others as they work to restore their hearts and lives after life-altering events. This meant that we could help homeless individuals, foster families, house fire victims, low income schools, and so many more populations. As we neared the date of our last event in November, I couldn’t help but notice that we had given free clothes to about 4,600 people. I recalled the well-known story in the gospels of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and thought “wouldn’t it be neat if we could help 5,000 people when all this is said and done.” Since October 1, 2024, we have given free clothing to 5,300 people. We were blessed to hold 9 pop-up events —6 of them in WNC and 3 of them in our local community. To say that we have been amazed at the way God has blessed our organization is a complete understatement. Here’s the part that really just encourages me so very much. In Matthew 14, we read “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” We were able to give all leftover clothing and shoes to 4 other ministries in our area each of whom were incredibly blessed by our “leftover fishes and loaves”. And in complete obedience to what God asked me to do, I went to the bank on December 19 and divided every penny in our bank account 5 ways, and sent a cashiers check to 5 organizations in WNC that hosted us for our events - each check for $5,476.19
What started as 6 bags of my children’s clothes, and 10 bags of Taylor’s mother’s clothes, God turned into a mission to clothe over 5,000 people in just one year. AND we had “broken pieces that were left over” that wilI bless other nonprofits and continue to bless the WNC community.
THANK YOU to every volunteer who served with us. You were the life and breath of this mission.
THANK YOU to every single dollar ever given.
THANK YOU to those who hosted us, bridging the gap between a need in a time of crisis and a group of humble hearted folks who simply wanted to help.
THANK YOU to Taylor Walker for having an idea and trusting me to join her in making it a reality.
THANK YOU for your prayers and all of your encouragement along the way.
Many of you have asked “what’s next” and the short answer is: I don’t know. Leading this organization over the last year wasn’t on my to-do list, but it sure did fill a need I didn’t know I had. It showed me that being used by God comes with an abundance of uncertainty which requires even more faith. I’ll never forget this experience and all it did to bless so many.
I pray it inspires someone to start something similar, and trust that God will open doors for someone at just the right time.
Trust Him with all that you have, friends. He is worthy and faithful.
