being an soc fic writer be like
The loss of life and impact on the communities in Helene’s path is unfathomable — and both the immediate and long-term needs are vast.
If you’re reading this, it’s likely because you want to help and care about making a difference for those who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Helene.
You’re in the right place. When we see tragedy like this happen in the news, it’s important to not tune it out. Instead, pay attention and truly feel the heartbreak of it — then, look for and be inspired by the people stepping in to help, and use that energy to make a difference ourselves.
Instead of turning away from tragic events like the devastation from Hurricane Helene — we look closer for people stepping in using what they have, where they are, to make a difference for others.
Inspired by Mister Rogers’ famous quote, we call them the “helpers,” — and they’re usually found wherever there’s bad news in the world. Hurricane Helene is no different. Here are some people, businesses, and organizations helping right now:
Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen teams are serving thousands of meals to communities in need — from Mexico, and the Big Bend of Florida, and into Appalachia.
Volunteer pilots with the Port City Aviators Flying Club are flying supplies to storm victims in western North Carolina.
The national Disaster Distress Helpline is providing free multilingual crisis counseling to those in need.
Southern Smoke Foundation, an organization that supports food & beverage workers in crisis, is providing financial support for groceries, medical bills, lost wages, and more.
Volunteers with veteran-led disaster response organization Team Rubicon are on the ground in Greenwood, South Carolina clearing roads of trees and debris.
A local library branch in Asheville, North Carolina served as a hub for community members in need of internet service.
Workers at Waffle House were “unlikely heroes” providing food to people in need.
A local Fox News correspondent stopped his live broadcast to help rescue a woman trapped in her car in rising floodwaters.
Emergency response teams rescued more than 50 staff, patients, and caregivers from the roof of a hospital in Erwin, Tennessee.
The SPCA of Brevard rescued 20 animals from Hurricane Helene’s path — and it’s now helping them get adopted.
After we’ve allowed ourselves to feel the weight of the pain and heartbreak associated with bad news, and look for hope and helpers in the midst of it — we always have the opportunity to join in and make a difference, too.
Here are some ways to help — whether you’re local or far away:
Here are just a few large-scale organizations that have helpers on the ground in the region.
American Red Cross
World Central Kitchen
Feeding America
United Way
Salvation Army
CARE
Local organizations, recovery funds, and mutual aid groups have been deployed across the states impacted by Helene. Find donation links and updates below:
All States:
GoFundMe Hub for Hurricane Helene Relief
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
Southeast Climate & Energy Network
Convoy of Hope
Appalachia Funders Network
Americares
Organizing Resilience
The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
Tennessee:
East Tennessee Foundation
First Aid Collective Knoxville
RISE Erwin
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee
North Carolina:
North Carolina Community Foundation
Hearts With Hands
Manna Foodbank
BeLoved Asheville
Foothills Food Hub
Haywood Christian Ministry
Samaritan’s Purse
Forsyth Humane Society
Hope Mill
Organizations in the affected area are seeking volunteers to help distribute resources and support crucial aid efforts. While many of us are not local to the region, those who are nearby are encouraged to join in a myriad of volunteer opportunities.
(Note: If you aren't in the area, the best way you can help is by supporting local efforts with a donation. Keeping roads clear for rescue crews and local relief agents is vital in maintaining safety in these already devastated regions).
For local volunteers, check out:
World Central Kitchen
Operation BBQ Relief
Marco Patriots
Operation Airdrop
Baptists on Mission
Climate scientists agree, the intensity and extent of the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene was made worse by climate change.
While we can’t go back in time and burn less fossil fuels — we can make a difference now to secure a safer future and prevent future climate disasters.
In addition to talking about how this disaster is connected to climate change in our own conversations and holding media outlets accountable for how they talk about climate change — this is a great time to tell your elected officials that you want them to take meaningful climate action.
We’re making incredible progress in the U.S. and globally in reducing emissions, but we need to work even faster — and incorporate climate mitigation efforts into our plans — to limit the most severe impacts of global warming.
Your writing skill is not gonna run away from you. It's fine to write only when you feel like it. It's fine to have a writer's block. It's fine to rest for a while. Writing is a passion that burns eternal fire, it can be lit up again when you try. It will always remain in you.
Launching my first art blogs with a small comic based on the amazing words of Ursula K. Le Guin!
"what would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity of the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect? Once you start, it's hard to stop, and you begin to feel yourself awash in gifts."
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Naomi for Blumarine ss1993
There are some great Six of Crows fanfic recommendation lists out there, but I haven't seen any specifically on historical AUs (which are my kryptonite), so here are some of my favorites. Each of these have amazing character work and exquisite prose, and are wonderfully grounded in their time period. Enjoy! Hearts Starve by LinearA (Rating E; time period late 1800s): "Kaz and Inej crisscross state lines, organizing workers into unions. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they lose. And one time, on a cold night in Pittsburgh, they lie together in a very small bed, and they talk. And more than talk." save the undone years by Whitherward (Rating M; time period World War One): "Northern France, 1917. In a battlefield hospital, Corporal Kaz Rietveld lies gravely wounded. His nurse is determined that he will not be another thing she loses to this war." Confessions: A Sonata in Five Parts by rainstormdragon (Rating E; time period 1920s): "Wylan is a Catholic Priest in 1920s New York; Jesper is a sharpshooter for a local gang. Jesper comes into Wylan's Lower East Side church to hide from the police in a confession booth…" Devotion by cameliawries (Rating M; time period late 1950s): "Maybe Inej wouldn’t have been so irritated about Kaz asking her to bail him out of jail—again—if not for the rain, and the blister developing along her heel from the too-loose pumps she’d had to borrow from Anika, and the fact that she’s going to have to wash and hang these stockings to dry tonight because she’ll need them for tomorrow." to be lost and found (and lost and found again) by halfahint (Rating M; time period 1970s): "When Kaz tells Jesper that he wants to rob the FBI, his colleague leans in, eyes alight, and says, “Go on.” "
Everyone west of the Mississippi knows the name Kaz Brekker. Kaz Brekker and his crew listen to the laws of no man, and have established a reputation in western America as infamous criminals. Inej, trapped by Heleen and her indenture, dreams of having the kind of freedom Kaz Brekker and the Dregs have. So when Kaz Brekker and his gang ride into town, Inej makes a deal with the devil. Though she had no idea she'd fall in love with him.
Small project. Embroidered a patch to cover the missing logo plate on this old phone.
friendly reminder that Inej broke Van Eck’s nose.
that is all.