‘It’s Fun Making a Difference’ Legions of Amish Come to Help Rebuild NC Town

April 25, 2025 journo

Amish raising a barn together – credit, Randy Fath on Unsplash

For the towns along Hurricane Helene’s path of destruction through North Carolina, rebuilding homes and stores takes time.

But thanks to an army of volunteers, rebuilding the sense of community in towns like Chimney Rock and Bat Cave has been done at light speed.

Chimney Rock Village was destroyed by Helene’s flooding, but every day the town’s residents see supplies, people, and building materials coming in from all over the country, and know that the future is bright.

A special report by WCNC writes that every store on Chimney Rock’s once-historic main street that’s being rebuilt is being done with donated materials, and the people putting it all together, more often than not, come from a legion of Pennsylvania Amish volunteers from the Great Needs Trust.

“We come out here every morning, working mostly in Chimney Rock and in Bat Cave,” Amos Stoltzfus, one such volunteer, told WCNC. “We have been cleaning the campground, also insulating a new building and organizing donated products, paper supplies and dry walling.”

In their frocks and bonnets, the women screw panels of drywall onto skeletal timbers as deftly and surely as the men in their straw hats. The famous carpentry expertise of the Amish will do the old town well, and maybe even help to add back a bit of the rustic charm lost in the floods.

“It just fills my heart with joy, watching people get their life back again,” Stoltzfus said. “Somebody that was completely devastated through the storm … somebody who didn’t have anything … it is just so encouraging to see them get back on their feet.”

MORE HELENE RECOVERY: Community Praises Contractor for Free Construction Work Since Hurricane Helene Hit

WCNC reports that between Great Needs Trust and local contemporary volunteers, 2,000 pairs of willing hands of circulated in and out of Chimney Rock.

“It was really great being here … and working,” another volunteer Susan Miller said. “It is definitely something I would love to come back [for], like how it is in a couple of years … it is fun making a difference.”

WATCH the story below from WCNC…

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