Photos by L.G. Patterson & Contributed By Nathan Goen

After Hurricane Helene struck in September 2024, many people in unaffected areas were hoping and praying for the devastated communities. But with the resources, skills and time to make a difference, Nathan Goen, owner of New Beginnings Construction and Goen Family Farms, took action. It started after Helene hit, when Goen saw a post in a group on Facebook where farmers were desperately asking for supplies. “That hit home for me and I kind of felt a calling. I thought, well, I have a bunch of hay and I can help these people out,” he says.

Just like that, he gathered a group of people, loaded up a trailer full of hay from him and other generous farmers, and a box trailer full of generators, heaters and camp stoves, and drove straight to North Carolina. “As soon as we got back, I started getting phone calls from people here asking if they could help donate,” Goen says. Before he knew it, Goen and several volunteers, driving their trucks and trailers, were on the road again with $15,000 worth of fencing supplies, $10-15,000 worth of generators, heaters and two more donated loads of hay and straw.

After the second trip, Goen and his team started communicating with Mine Creek Baptist Church in Burnsville, North Carolina to figure out where to drop off donations and supplies. That’s when Goen learned the community had a need for campers. “People were literally living in tents, all their things had been washed away,” he says. He knew a home on wheels would be life-changing for this community.

That’s when he started getting camper donations from Boone County residents and received money to purchase and repair campers. “We found campers on swap shop and things like that, and we would go and check them out and if they were in pretty good shape, we would bring them back to my shop, refurbish them as best we could and ship them out.” Goen says by the end of the journey, they donated nine campers to the community.

Witnessing these people who just saw their lives wash away get a new start was so rewarding for Goen and his team. “This sweet little lady, she lost everything, and we gave her a house,” he says. “I just couldn’t imagine losing everything.”

After providing people with homes on wheels, Goen describes the experience as deeply emotional. “A lot of them were in tears,” he says. “It was life-changing for them.”

While so many of the community members were aware of the assistance in the area, they were not expecting to receive a place to live. “They knew things were in the works, but they didn’t expect an actual camper to show up.”

Learning the stories of those he was helping was just proof for Goen that he was there for a bigger calling, a bigger purpose.“ A lady we got a camper to, her only wish was that she wanted to live on her land and live out their last years, there even if it was in a camper,” Goen says. “It was more of an honor to do it more than anything.”

The bulk of donation drop-offs began after meeting people in the area and getting more contact with the church.“We got hooked up with some good people,” Goen says. On their first trip, Goen and his team delivered donations to the Western North CarolinaLivestock Center, which the community had established as a supply distribution hub and assisted with deliveries to residents while onsite. “That’s when we got connected with some of these other people, and we said we would help as much as we can,” Goen says. “The more we were helping the more people would donate.” Between Goen, his team and other people’s donations of campers and supplies, they exhausted a list of 35 people who were in desperate need of supplies in just one community. “It was everybody coming together; I was just the one that drove,” Goen says humbly.

Nine weeks. Eleven trips. 35,000 miles driven. Those numbers reflect the time, resources and compassion Goen and his team dedicated to helping strangers during an unimaginably difficult time. After all the donations, drops and deliveries, Goen felt blessed that he was able to be in the position to help this East Coast community. “It was super rewarding, I would get emotional if I talk about it too much,” he says. “I was uniquely positioned to have been able to help, not a lot of people can just take off in the middle oft he week and do that.

Despite nine weeks of dedicated effort, Goen acknowledges that the work is far from over. “I am certain there are still people that need help down there, we are just not directly connected with a community that is actively needing help,” he says. “It will take decades to clean it up.”

During his time aiding Burnsville, Goen found strong friendships and is still in touch with some of the people he helped. “We have made some lifelong friends down there,” he says. “We are already making plans to go visit them.

Goen makes sure the community knows that if any more needs arise, he and his team are willing to send help once again. “We are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus in all respects.

What started as a mission to send hay became a life-changing journey: bringing a devastated community new homes, hope and truly a new beginning.