In tragedy, solace can be found.
The Volunteer State has shown what it can offer coming on the heels of recent wildfires that engulfed much of Gatlinburg and the Pigeon Forge area. With thousands displaced and emergency personnel helping combat flames – Carter County is looking to provide some help from the home front.
Forever Yours Wedding Center has been busy since learning the news about the tragic event. The store is being used as a donation center to help collect items to be sent to Red Cross assisting the residents in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. The store is accepting donations of new clothing and blankets, along with energy bars, fruit bars, potato chips and other snack foods.
The decision came easy, according to business owner Lavonia Potter-Austin. Since opening the store, she recalled her time in West Virginia after natural disasters tore through the state.
“A lot of my friends and family lost everything,” she said. “I had just moved out of my house and it was destroyed. I had just sold my home, and the people that bought it had lost it. I knew what they had been through. We need to be doing something like this.”
Just one day into accepting items, the store has seen overwhelming support, according to Wendy Overman. She added that multiple individuals have gotten in touch with the store to state they would provide items.
“It’s fantastic,” Overman said. “We heard from the Red Cross that they would be taking secondhand donations later, like within the next few days. They have to because of allergies … get the new stuff handed out first. We have had a lot of people call and offer to bring in gently-used clothes, so we actually have a storage space upstairs that we can put it in until we know the time we need to take it to the Red Cross.”
While accepting donated items, the business is also looking to provide support to a woman in the area that lost the opportunity to have her wedding.
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of her,” Overman added. “I’ve talked to a couple of news stations down there and been able to find her on Facebook. My understanding is that she was staying at the Westgate Hotel, which we all know was lost in the fire. She was intending to be married this Saturday, according to her grandmother’s Facebook at Cupid’s Chapel of Love.
“I don’t know what the extent was of her wedding items that were burnt,” she continued. “I know where she was staying and the church she was going to get married in is gone. We have a chapel and wedding items, like gowns, tuxedos … we would love to give her that wedding. Your wedding should not be a horrible nightmare, it needs to be a fairy tale. We’d love to be her fairy godmothers.”
Forever Yours Wedding Center is located at 719 East Elk Ave. and is accepting items during the store hours – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – and for more information, Overman encouraged residents to call (423) 518-1665. Overman also added her son has been busy at Happy Valley High School passing around the word to help individuals donate.
Other local businesses and organizations are also taking in items to assist with residents and emergency personnel in the area. These are the businesses that the Elizabethton Star was made aware of:
• The Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library
• Elizabethton Collision Center
• Champion Physical Therapy
• The Flatbread Warehouse (located inside the Crows Nest Antique Mall)
Any addition businesses or organizations that are providing drop off points can contact the Elizabethton Star at news@elizabethton.com to have their information included online.