Kindness in Action Newsletter

April 2025

Happy Spring!

It's volunteer appreciation month and I want to personally thank our volunteers for the tremendous work they do here at Eblen on a daily basis. You are so important to us, and we love you all!  

This Spring has been very busy and below you will see pictures from our events and our outreach programs. We have been able to help our neighbors rebuild from Hurricane Helene in Madison County, Fairview/Craigtown, Swannanoa and more. Our staff and volunteers helped get dresses and tuxedos out to families that needed some extra help this prom season. Food collected from the Ingles Southern Conference Basketball tournament went to help feed children during Spring Break and for this upcoming summer when they won't have meals at school. The Cabi clothing company helped ladies who lost their wardrobes in the storm obtain brand-new clothing.

We have now given out more than $2.4 million in aid since the storm, and you can check our Helene dashboard at Eblencharities.org for a further breakdown of the numbers.

The need continues as we recover and rebuild here in Western North Carolina, and we can't do it without your support!

I wish you the best and on behalf of the staff here at Eblen Charities, we wish you and your family a joyful and blessed Easter!

Sincerely,

Brian Hall

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

HELPING OUR COMMUNITY REBUILD

$100,000 donated to Chris Watson, Daria and the team at the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County. These funds will help residents return to their homes by providing them with HVAC units, new furniture, handicap ramps and much more!

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

RESHAPING CRAIGTOWN

$45,000 was donated to Bryan Craig and Countryside Landscaping to help reshape the property in Craigtown that was damaged from the hurricane into a beautiful, peaceful area.

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

HELPING FEED SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Over 9000 pounds of food was collected from this year's Hoops Against Hunger event. Nine hotels participated. Two Men and a Truck delivered the non-perishable food to the Buncombe County Family Resource Center to be distributed to local children to have on weekends and during school breaks.

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

TAKING THE FOOD COLLECTION CHALLENGE

Congratulations to first place winners, Hilton Garden Inn Downtown for collecting the most food and creating the best display for this year's Hoops Against Hunger Hotel Challenge. Thanks, also to runners up, Embassy Suites Downtown. They were presented a trophy at half-time of the Men's Southern Conference Championship basketball game and also received 30 tickets to the game.

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

HUNDREDS OF DRESSES AND TUXEDOS DONATED

The Formal Wear Outlet in Hillsborough donated new formal dresses, tuxedos and accessories for the Prom Dress Express.

Union Transfer and Storage made the delivery for us.

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

PROVIDING FORMAL WEAR FOR THAT SPECIAL EVENT

These ladies from the Walnut Cove Members Association had so much fun as people from our community shopped for free at this year's Prom Dress Express. Over 350 dresses, suits, tuxedos and accessories were given away.

KINDNESS IN ACTION!

RESTOCKING CLOTHING CLOSETS

The Cabi Cares Foundation provided brand new apparel for women who lost much needed clothing in the hurricane. What a fun day these ladies from Cabi had as they helped women in our community replenish what the storm took away.

UPCOMING

EVENTS