ReGroup WNC strives to fill in the gaps after Helene
Local nonprofit organization Builds Grassroots Support to Bring Stability to Storm Victims
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
June 25, 2025
Jon Neumann, a founder of ReGroup WNC, meets with Didi Vitale, whose home was severely damaged by Tropical Storm Helene. The nonprofit organization has assisted more than 60 families in the region since the natural disaster. Courtesy photo
What Jon Neumann experienced beginning the morning of Sept. 27, 2024 was not unlike what thousands of residents faced across the Western N.C. While his home and family were unharmed, the Asheville native was shaken by the widespread impact of Tropical Storm Helene and deeply worried about those suffering in the aftermath.
“It was chaos,” said the vice president of sales for Grove Stone & Sand, who inexplicably retained mobile phone connection in the midst of a widespread outage. “I was the point of communication for a lot of people, so early on I was hearing a lot of stories of what people were going through.”
Driven by a sense of urgency, Neumann and a group of lifelong friends established ReGroup WNC, days after the natural disaster. The volunteer-led nonprofit organization, which has raised over $700,000 to assist more than 60 families across the region, received additional support, June 25, when it was presented a $20,000 check from the Mason Plumlee Basketball Camp, hosted by Christ School.
The concept for ReGroup WNC began to take shape during a conversation between its founders, a circle of childhood friends from Asheville who were processing their grief after Helene devastated the area.
“This is a group of guys who grew up here, and not all of them live here anymore, but we all really care about this place,” said Neumann, who established the initiative with Chip Howell, Jim Rhodes, Matt Maultsby and Clint Lasher . “We knew we needed to get money into the area and use it to make a big impact.”
The discussion was initiated when Neumann left his home to evacuate his family to the east coast.
“I was decompressing at that point, so I reached out to all of my friends,” he said. “Everyone considered ways they could help, and my friend Jim Rhodes, who lives in Charlotte, had an idea.”
Rhodes was among the founders of ReGroup Carolinas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing economic mobility by decreasing the skills gap across the construction industry. While the focus of the existing organization had built its own network of professionals in the field, setting up a WNC division allowed for a quick response in the mountains, according to Neumann.
“Considering everything that was going on at that time, starting a brand new 501(c)(3) with the state would have been really difficult,” he said. “But, Jim was suggesting a way we could get out there and start raising money, and giving it to people, immediately.”
ReGroup WNC, a local nonprofit founded weeks after Hurricane Helene, is among several relief organizations working to repair storm-damaged homes in Beacon Village. Courtesy photo
Within weeks of the storm, ReGroup WNC was actively fundraising and searching for volunteers to assist. Neumann connected with a local and longtime friend, Dorothy Goodman, whose family owns Grove Stone & Sand.
“The quarry is my family’s business, my husband works there and I grew up in it,” Goodman said. “I’m a jeweler in my day job, so after the hurricane, that didn’t feel important. I just showed up at Grove Stone, grabbed a shovel and started mucking stuff out.”
Goodman, who was ordered to evacuate her home before the storm arrived, was moved by what she witnessed when she returned.
“Driving back through Swannanoa and seeing the destruction was heartbreaking,” she said. “I just felt like I had to do something, there was no way I could just sit around.”
As she joined the ReGroup WNC efforts, Goodman was already well aware of local families in need of assistance.
“One thing that is unique about this group is that everyone involved either lives here or is from here,” she said. “So, we’re all connected to this community, which has created this grassroots approach to getting in touch with people who need support and figuring out how to help them get access to the resources they need.”
With donations from community partners, the organization began assisting storm victims with funding for temporary housing, demolition and debris removal.
“From the very beginning, one of our primary goals was to bring some stability to people struggling in the aftermath of the storm,” Neumann said. “Every case was a little different. In the days after the storm, we were helping some families replace appliances and heaters.”
Replacing vehicles that were lost or damaged due to flooding was another early priority, he added, but the needs evolved over time. Currently, ReGroup WNC is partnering with other nonprofit organizations, including Eblen Charities and Valley Strong Disaster Relief, that are reconstructing homes in the region.
The ReGroup WNC leadership team features, front row, from left to right, Chip Howell, Dorothy Goodman and Jim Rhodes, and back row, Jon Neumann, Matt Maultsby and Clint Lasher. Courtesy photo
“We’re trying to help people who could potentially fall through the cracks between social safety nets whatever their needs are,” Neumann said.
In Beacon Village, where the Swannanoa River submerged many of the homes on Edwards Avenue, ReGroup WNC is assisting six homeowners with electrical and plumbing repairs, as Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders and Balsam Built renovate damaged houses.
“That community is a great example of locals coming together to help locals,” Neumann said. “You have Balsam Built, a local company, repairing several homes, and Fuller Center, which has a strong local connection through its director of operations. We were given $100,000 by Eblen, another local organization, to help support those projects.”
The collaboration exemplifies the organization’s commitment to maximizing its impact through community partnerships, according to Goodman.
“This project came together very organically,” she said. “I was already friends with the owners of Balsam Built, which is a Black Mountain-based construction company, and I asked them what we might be able to do to help. They mentioned the need for help covering electrical and plumbing costs in homes in Beacon Village.”
Goodman was introduced to representatives from the Fuller Center while attending a meeting of the Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance.
“Those meetings are great, because they connect individual residents with local resources, so I was able to also meet a few people who needed help with specific things,” she said. “That’s also how we learned more about the Fuller Center, which is doing amazing work here.”
While the progress is encouraging, according to Neumann, recovery will be a lengthy and arduous undertaking. Support from the Mason Plumlee Basketball Camp comes as ReGroup WNC works to spread awareness of the long-term needs of storm victims.
“There is still a lot of rebuilding to be done, and some people who don’t know that it’s possible are kind of moving on,” Goodman said. “But, if we have the funding and support, we can continue to rebuild.”