West Asheville’s Double Crown raises the bar for disaster relief

Tropical Storm Helene’s destruction has brought overwhelming distress to our tight-knit community, and emotions have been high. But amid all the sorrow, many local organizations and businesses assembled to lend a hand. Groups such as BeLoved Asheville, Pansy Collective, Poder Emma, Colaborativa La Milpa and AVL Survival Program took charge to help people affected by the disaster. Even employees from West Asheville bar the Double Crown jumped in to set up a distribution, or “distro,” site immediately after the storm.

I was fortunate to join Double Crown organizers in their boots-on-the-ground work the first week after Helene hit. During this time, I saw many types of people volunteering, including your everyday barflies and bartenders taking positions of leadership in the efforts. 

Volunteers helped with managing the “free store” that distributed supplies to people in need as well as helped with mobile supply runs. Organizers in leadership roles gathered information and mapped out locations that needed water, supplies, medical help or prescriptions filled for individuals. 

Though there was no set hierarchy among the Double Crown distro volunteers, they stepped up to easily fill roles wherever they were needed. Besides its genuine community spirit, this distro site had the agility to provide aid without worrying about nonprofit red tape or guidelines that could slow down the process of getting resources to people in need. 

Al Peraza, Tess Strickland, Jill Bulmash, Jordan Johnson and Violet Sotomayor are a few of the many organizers and volunteers who helped shape the Double Crown distribution initiative.

Sotomayor sat down with me recently to talk about the project. During my volunteer time in the early stages of the Double Crown’s distro work, I saw her take on many roles, including point person for supply donations and distribution, person of trust to handle Venmo cash donations and a leader people looked to for instructions. She even carried her own clipboard. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Xpress: What was your occupation before Tropical Storm Helene? 

Violet Sotomayor: I was a bartender at Lazy Diamond and Double Crown. Most of the people that helped set up the Double Crown distro were bartenders or door people from local bars — Lazy Diamond, Double Crown, Pink Moon and Strange Magic. 

How long have you lived in Asheville?

I’m originally from Richmond, Va., but I have lived in Asheville for two years now. I started frequenting Double Crown and Lazy Diamond, and after a year of enjoying the dive bar community and making friends, they hired me. 

How did the Double Crown’s post-Helene distribution work begin?

It took a moment to register how badly Hurricane Helene’s destruction had impacted our area. After realizing that there was no phone service, I drove around and ended up at Double Crown where some of my co-workers were already there assessing the damage to the bar. Eventually, out of necessity, we were able to secure potable water from our friend Jesse Smith, who has a spring in her backyard. It wasn’t long before we saw that water was a huge necessity for the community and led by Tess Strickland, later dubbed “Wet Dog,” Double Crown was set up as a water distribution site.

What were some of the initial challenges?

In the beginning, all we had was a water cube on the back of a pickup truck that people could fill containers up with water. However, we realized that most people needed containers, and we didn’t have any to spare. Additionally, our distro was a tad disorganized at the beginning, but if a mistake was made, we were able to learn from that and make adjustments the next day. 

What kind of community support have you received and what type of support is still needed? 

The community has provided a lot of support through volunteering and supplies donations. More importantly, if there was ever a specific need that the distro needed — such as more mobile drivers or even translators — the community was fast to meet that need. Now, even though we have set up a working system that best helps communities in need, we still need more open communication with other organizations that are doing the same work. There are still people without resources, but if we had a set communication network with these other organizations, we could all be on the same page to provide a joint effort of help. 

How did the distro evolve? 

It has become very independent. Volunteers are able to manage tasks without any supervision, and people in need who visit our supplies store are able to browse and take whatever they need on their own. Additionally, Asheville Fire Station 6 [at 970 Haywood Road] was able to connect us with GAP — Grassroots Aid Partnership — who helped source specific supplies for our distro. Ultimately, we opened a line of communication between our two distros to better help the community and, in return, be more organized ourselves.

Which communities have you helped so far?

We have been fortunate enough to help anywhere that we were needed. In reality, we just went where people asked us to come and then asked the people in those neighborhoods where we needed to go next. The list is pretty long now, but we’ve made supply runs to Asheville Terrace, Deaverview, Hillcrest, Livingston, Pisgah View, Ascent Home, Burnsville, Marshall and more. Additionally, there was a very successful supply drop to a Latinx mobile home community, Locust Grove, which led us to make more mobile supply drops in other Latinx communities. 

What are you hoping to accomplish with your momentum of support? 

I’ve been very inspired by the humanity, heart and character of all of the people who have been willing to help with the Double Crown distro. It’s moments like these that really show you what community means. With that said, we have been discussing taking this momentum and finding sponsorship for a brick-and-mortar location where we can continue this service. Unfortunately, Double Crown will have to open at some point, which will leave us without a home base. The organizers at Double Crown and I would like to keep this disaster relief system that we have created in place as we rebuild. 

Editor’s note: Since this interview took place, the Double Crown bar has reopened, and the distro has wrapped up its relief operations. The organizers donated the remaining inventory to Hillcrest Community Center.

For more details and to donate to the Double Crown, Pink Moon, Strange Magic and Lazy Diamond staff relief fund, visit avl.mx/e8h.