Country singer Eric Church building homes for families displaced by Hurricane Helene

Fox News

20-02-2025

Eric Church isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in the name of helping a neighbor out.
The country singer is planning to build dozens of homes in Avery County, North Carolina, for families left homeless last fall by Hurricane Helene.
"It is important work because of the large devastation, so we are planning to begin to work on more than our first site to help more families," John Blackburn, CEO of Chief Cares Avery, Church's home-building project, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "It is our hope to have an official groundbreaking near Easter and get families in the homes this summer."
In September, the "Drink in My Hand" singer said that he was "devastated by the destruction in the mountains of Western North Carolina."
"These are our family members, friends, and neighbors. The community we live in part of the year still has people stranded and desperate for extraction. The whole area is in dire need of help," he wrote on Instagram.
He added, "Anyone who knows anything about me knows what North Carolina and specifically this area in the mountains me to me personally as well as creatively."
"Anyone who knows anything about me knows what North Carolina and specifically this area in the mountains me to me personally as well as creatively."
Church's team will start by building homes for 100 displaced families in Avery County and the surrounding area and "keeping these communities preserved and rebuilt," according to the Chief Cares Avery website.
It added that the project was also dedicated to addressing "longer term needs like creating jobs, rebuilding schools, and supporting local businesses," noting that victims of natural disasters often get forgotten when it stops being front page news.
"Often when disaster strikes, funds flow in from great people wanting to help, but when the world turns its eye to the next devastation, a lot can get lost and fall through the cracks," the website said. "We are committed to the long-term rebuilding of these communities."
Blackburn told Fox News Digital that both Church and his wife, Katherine Blasingame, have been "deeply involved" since the inception of the project, using their connections to find the property and get a local surveyor and an engineer to lay out the plans for the homes.
He said the team also has weekly Zoom meetings with Church and Blasingame, "and they both reach out to my local team to see what else they can do to support the flood victims."
"The need is enormous, and both of the Churches connect often with people directly impacted by the flood or those that are helping them," he explained. "Our energy has been used not only to build houses but to make sure the other needs of the community are being met by our organization."
Blackburrn added that the first site where they will be constructing homes has been secured, and they'll soon start work on the first houses.
Along with his homebuilding project, Church also released a song last fall, "Darkest Hour (Helene edit)," with the song's profits going to charity, and he performed at the benefit Concert for Carolina in October.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left displaced by Hurricane Helene after it hit in late September, and more than 200 died.