Eric Church just committed to a very generous donation. The country music hitmaker vows to build 40 modular homes in Newland, North Carolina, an area ravaged by Hurricane Helene. Church has already purchased the land, through his nonprofit, Chief Cares. Building is expected to start soon.
Per WRAL, Church and his wife, Katherine, also plan on building walking trails and a community center on the property as well. The property was purchased for $850,000. WSOC adds that Church hopes to have the first home ready by June.
Church has been generous, of both his time and talents, to those impacted by Hurricane Helene. He donated all of the proceeds from his song “Darkest Hour” to the ongoing recovery efforts.
“From Western North Carolina, East Tennessee, upstate South Carolina, parts of Georgia and even Florida which took a direct hit, there are so many places that were impacted,” Church said when the song was released. “Specifically in the area that I’m from, the mountains of Western North Carolina were devastated. There are places that are just biblically gone. These are our family members, they’re our friends, they’re our neighbors – and they’re in dire need of help.
“And I’ve been in the studio for a while, trying some different things and exploring creativity,” he continued. “I had this song that I’d written, and the line that struck me in light of the recent devastation was ‘I’ll come running,’ because there are a lot of people out there right now who are in their darkest hour and they need people to come running. We were going to wait to release music until next year, but it just didn’t feel right to wait with this song. Sometimes you give songs their moment and sometimes they find their own moment.”
While Church has vowed to keep supporting the victims of Hurricane Helene for years to come, “Darkest Hour” was one of the best ways he could think of to make sure the help continues for years to come.
“We’ve been helping with boots on the ground efforts, but this is something that will live beyond just the immediate recovery,” he explained. This is not a quick thing to fix, so hopefully ‘Darkest Hour’ will be able to contribute to that for a long time to come. This song goes to my home, North Carolina, now and forever.”
Church also co-headlined the Concert for Carolina in October, along with Luke Combs. The show, which also included performances by James Taylor, Billy Strings, Keith Urban, Bailey Zimmerman, Sheryl Crow. Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee, raised almost $25 million for recovery efforts.
“It’s very simply who I am, North Carolina-made,” Church told Good Morning America. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if not for the people there and the community there. To see this happen to them, to that community, to those people, is especially devastating. Luke and I are doing everything we can to try to help that out. For me, it’s in the very DNA of what made me, me.”
Donate to the Chief Cares Fund here.