Who we are

In mid-September, Hurricane Helene hit; although it didn’t mean much to many people around us because it had no effect on our lives, it was an opportunity for our group to do something good. We saw the opportunity and seized it. We came together with a shared purpose: to make a difference in the lives of those affected by the hurricane’s devastation. We realized that entire communities were struggling to rebuild while we were safe and unaffected. Through our nonprofit, we committed to raising awareness, collecting donations, and working with partners to provide real support for the hardest-hit areas. We know every effort counts, and we’re here to make a lasting impact in rebuilding lives and communities.

We brainstormed how we were going to put this together and somehow make a powerful impact. We figured, why not just go big and make something that we can use and grow throughout high school instead of finding more things to help out and show our involvement in society? So, our organization was born. It provides passive funding to communities in need while providing mutual benefit to our community and communities in Appalachia, and we plan to expand more throughout high school.

We used the name ‘Appalachian Hope Initiative’ because we saw that the Other organizations were providing pure necessities like food, water, first aid, and shelter; we figured that since they are already getting these things, why don’t we do something different? Our group researched some of the more neglected problems people were dealing with, and we found that infrastructure was a huge problem. People couldn’t get out of areas that weren’t safe or were inhabitable, so we directed our attention and mission to help raise funds and awareness for the state of the infrastructure in Appalachia after Helene.