Greetings from ROAR,
We hope this new year finds you well. We all enjoyed some good R&R over the holidays and are ready to dive back into our mutual aid and racial justice work here in Madison County. First off we’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who participated in our Winter Auction fundraiser as well as the numerous community members who have made contributions individually and through Patreon the past year. Thanks to everyone’s incredible support, we are able to hit the ground running in 2023 with several new initiatives while keeping our longstanding mutual aid projects going full-steam. It is a true blessing to be part of a community that sees the value of our work. Here’s a taste of what we’ve got cooking for 2023:
Supporting the Mount Olive Community in Mars Hill: In partnership with the Madison County Racial Justice Coalition we were recently able to make a financial contribution to support the Mount Olive Cemetery, a black cemetery in Mars Hill, with a small land acquisition. Land access and ownership for communities of color is a huge issue in rural areas like Madison County and we are happy to be able to make this small contribution to help address this vital issue. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Madison County RJC in supporting the Mount Olive community.
Seed Library and free tree give-away: It may still be winter but we are already getting excited for the Spring planting season. Soon we will be ordering seeds and re-stocking our free seed libraries which are located in all three Madison public library branches. We are excited to announce that we will be expanding our food security efforts in two big ways this year. To start, we will be working to create a network of local seed savers who can contribute locally grown seeds to the seed libraries. Our long term vision is that eventually the majority of seeds in the libraries will be from local gardeners and farmers. Second, in an effort to promote greater ecological resilience and food security, we will be doing our first ever native fruit and nut tree giveaway. We will be giving away 1000 native trees this spring including: Elderberry, Mulberry, Paw Paw, Black Walnut, Hazelnut and Persimmon. The tree giveaway will happen in Marshall in early March alongside a seed swap and seed saving workshop. More details TBA. If you have seeds you’d like to contribute to the library, are interested in growing seeds for this coming year, or want to help with the tree give away, please get in touch: ruraloganizingandresilience@gmail.com
Cherokee Mutual Aid: For several years we have lent support to a Cherokee-led mutual aid effort on the Qualla Boundary. This year in addition to making a financial contribution to their work, we have been able to send folks down to help with repairs on a building used as a hub for mutual aid efforts in the Cherokee community.
Sponsoring a BIPOC retreat at Azule: In an effort to support local organizing work by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) led community groups in the region, we will be sponsoring a weekend long retreat at Azule, an artist retreat center outside of Hot Springs. We hope to make this an annual offering to create a space for relaxation and rejuvenation for BIPOC organizers to strengthen their work in WNC. If you are a member of a BIPOC led group in WNC that would like to apply, or if you know of a group you’d like to nominate for this retreat, please get in touch.
Firewood: Our free firewood program continues to go strong. We have had a solid crew of folks show up for our monthly work parties and have already delivered 15+ truck loads of firewood to area households in need of heating assistance. We’ll likely do over 25 loads of wood before the winter is over.
Plans for this year also include continuing our racial justice work with local educators, organizing support and raising awareness for local Black farmers trying to acquire land, and hosting another skillshare in Marshall.
Thanks again to everyone who has shown us support! Whether it’s throwing a few bucks our way, swinging an ax at a firewood cutting day, or sending us words of encouragement, we couldn’t do this work without the backing of our community.
In solidarity, ROAR
Rural Organizing And Resilience 