How to help the men who lost their home to a fire on Friday

On Friday evening, the West Asheville house of Parker Sloan, Grey Nelson and Adam Bowers burned to the ground. No one was injured, but high winds made it difficult for firefighters to extinguish the flames and the house was destroyed. WLOS reported the fire here.

The Asheville community has responded with various events to help their neighbors including a benefit later this week along with both monetary and non-monetary donations.

Adam Bowers examines the damage to his car, melted at 15 ft.  from the porch of the house. (Photo by Bill Rhodes)

Benefits
Friday
A benefit dinner will be held Friday, March 2, at the First Congressional United Church of Christ at 20 Oak Street in downtown Asheville. It will last from 5 p.m-7 p.m. Monetary and non-monetary donations will be accepted. For more information click here.

The Hop Ice Cream will donate 10 percent of all Friday sales from both locations to the fund.

Sunday
Another benefit will be taking place at Altamont Brewing Company on Sunday, March 4:
Where: Altamont Brewing Company, Haywood Rd, West Asheville
When: Sunday 3/4, 4 PM to close
What: Performances from local bands and artists including The Demijohn Varmints, members of Dehlia Low, members of Chompin’ at the Bit String Band, and the Green Grass Cloggers—with more acts to be confirmed! The event will also include old-time music and square dancing open to all.
For updated information, please visit: http://www.altamontbrewingcompany.com/event/brevard-rd-fire-fundraiser-4pm-until/

Monetary donations
A PayPal account has been set up by Molly Milroy to help her friends Sloan, Nelson and Bowers. Donations made to thePayPal account will go directly to Sloan, Nelson and Bowers. In an email,  Milroy writes:

The high winds caused the fire to spread quickly so that friends Adam, who works at Asheville Lyric Opera Grey Nelson, crew leader at Sundance Power Systems, and Parker Sloan, Planner for the City of Hendersonville lost everything, although thankfully they themselves were unharmed.

The Red Cross has provided a small amount of assistance, but not nearly enough to compensate all of their losses, both material and emotional.

If readers have anything to donate to them…clothes (including jackets, shoes, and work attire), food, electronics, toiletries, cash, gift cards (ANYTHING), please drop it off at Erin Ratliffs apartment: 481 Haw Creek Mews Drive, Asheville NC 28805 or at my house in Montford at 23 B Greenlee Avenue, 28801.

Additionally, they are accepting payments through PayPal, readers to this page to donate: http://mollymilroy.org/donating-to-brevard-road-fire-relief. All money will be given directly to Adam, Grey and Parker to cover items lost in the fire. (We could not set up a specific PayPal account for the fire assistance because it takes a few days to be approved by PayPal and we want to get this out as soon as possible).

We will also be planning a fundraiser of some sort in the next week.

Thank you all for your kindness, generosity, and compassion.

Molly Milroy

Grey Nelson explains why they could not get out the front door of his house on Friday night. Nelson, a bass player, grabbed his instrument from the dining room on the way out. (Photo by Bill Rhodes)

Non-monetary donations
Bar of Soap on Merrimon Avenue will be accepting food, clothing and other items to help the men who lost their home. Scrutiny Hooligans reports the clothing sizes for the men as follows:

Adam Bowers: M shirt, 11.5 shoe, 32-34×32 pant
Parker Sloan: L shirt, 11 shoe, 36×32 pant
Grey Nelson: M shirt, 10-10.5 shoe, 32×30-32 pant