A Brevard business has created a fundraiser to provide funds to two Western North Carolina nonprofits to help them in the work they are doing in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene.
The Hub and Pisgah Tavern launched the Local Love on Wheels fundraiser Dec. 20 to support the G5 Trail Collective and Bounty & Soul.
According to a Jan. 8 news release, the Local Love on Wheels fundraiser “is a celebration of collective outdoor spirit and collaboration.”
The Hub and Pisgah Tavern General Manager Emily Buckley said donations are being accepted to win a raffle for a custom-built mountain bike. She said the retail price of the bike is around $9,000.
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Local companies Industry Nine, Cane Creek Cycling Components and RideFOX, as well as national partners Santa Cruz Bikes, TRP Cycling, SRAM, 5Dev, OneUP, PNW and Continental Tires all donated parts for the bike.
As of Jan. 16, $8,565 has been raised for Local Love on Wheels. The fundraiser closes Feb. 20, and the winner will be announced at a party at The Hub Feb. 22. Those interested can purchase one entry for $30, four entries for $100, 10 entries for $200 or 30 entries for $500.
Donations can be made at go.rallyup.com/4d5c63.
Buckley said the project started as an idea from staff.
“One of the great things about The Hub is that we have staff members who are really, really passionate about The Hub, the community and mountain biking,” Buckley said. “The staff was kind of brainstorming: How can we help? How can we be involved?”
While Buckley said the trails around The Hub in Brevard were “spared” from a large portion of the damage from Helene and were able to reopen a few weeks after the storm passed, there are other trails in Western North Carolina that still have not been able to open.
“The type of destruction that we saw in other areas that were not very far from us was just really devastating,” Buckley said. “I think the team felt really, really inspired to do something cool to help in a very fun fashion.”
Buckley said “getting folks into the outdoors” is something The Hub does well, and creating a fundraiser that will end in the giveaway of the custom-build mountain bike seemed like a perfect fit.
She said when thinking about who would be chosen to benefit from Local Love on Wheels, it was a “challenging” decision, but the G5 Trail Collective and Bounty & Soul were ultimately selected to receive the money from the fundraiser.
The G5 Trail Collective is an Old Fort-based nonprofit that, according to its website, is currently doing work ranging from “clearing roads and rebuilding bridges to ensuring safe water access and power generation.” Before Helene, the organization worked to establish trail systems in Old Fort.
Bounty & Soul is a Black Mountain-based nonprofit that works to provide fresh food to Western North Carolina. With pop-ups and drop-offs every day of the week except Sundays, Bounty & Soul provides fresh food in Black Mountain, Swannanoa, Fairview and Asheville.
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Karrigan Monk is the Swannanoa Valley communities reporter for Black Mountain News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kmonk@blackmountainnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Brevard-based fundraiser to raffle mountain bike for Helene relief
