Alicia Davidson - Finding Community Through Crisis: A Graduate Student's Volunteer Response
Description
Alicia Davidson, a graduate student in the professional school counseling department at Appalachian State University (also an App State undergrad alumna), experienced Hurricane Helene during her first year of grad school—her first natural disaster, which she acknowledges is a privilege to say. Her apartment complex completely shut down, running out of water with trees falling and no power for weeks. She moved in with her partner, an RA at Thunder Hill at the time, but her whole nervous system shut down from unending stress. Subconsciously seeking normalcy and stability, she pushed herself to complete all her readings and assignments ahead of time, not realizing this was a coping mechanism. She and her partner volunteered extensively with FARM Cafe, helping with house demolition and removing items from flooded homes. The work was traumatic—she'll never forget wiping mud from a picture frame and seeing a family lose everything—but not being able to go home and being stuck in Boone while trying to do as much as possible was "killing me every day."
Davidson and her partner bought water and food to take to FARM, volunteering daily in the kitchen with cleanup and prep, and also receiving free meals there (she still volunteers at FARM). They also worked with Hunger and Health Coalition, where Davidson used her Spanish language skills to distribute medicine to minority and lower-income communities. Driving through the countryside, she saw how these populations—people in trailer parks or living in the middle of nowhere—were swept up and forgotten while attention focused on students and wealthy people on the mountain. Being Latina and giving back to her community when everything was physically ripping them apart was rewarding and restorative in ways she didn't expect. She noted a stark divide in aid distribution: Red Cross resources at Holmes Convocation Center were advertised to students through email in English, leaving people 20 minutes outside Boone in Valle Crucis or Deep Gap with no idea or access. Political demonization of FEMA created unnecessary division during a time when any resource that could help people should have been welcomed. As a counseling student, she was privileged that her professors took two weeks just to talk and color without coursework, but life didn't slow down until December—two months after the October storm—as communities like Lansing remained destroyed and her partner continued weekly research trips there. A year later, she's upset that people don't hear about recovery much anymore and are just moving on, especially after the LA fires shifted national attention. She's grateful the hurricane gave her renewed presence in Boone's activist and volunteer community after grad school had consumed her focus, building friendships and fostering community connection that isn't as present in the world today, while remembering those who passed and the importance of climate change awareness
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