HAW RIVER, N.C. (WGHP) -- Farmers in western North Carolina are rebuilding their property, but once the walls, fences and buildings are back, in many cases, some of their animals are still missing. Alamance County farmer Laura Ridge wanted to help out and restock their flocks. Her idea is to start small, grow over time and keep going for years during the rebuilding process. In Haw River, Laura and her dad built a new chicken coop to house the birds that are donated. As she finds families in need, they will go off to live in Western North Carolina. “I’ve always loved ... to be able to be around farms or do anything with farms, and I know what other people like that feel,” Ridge said. Through social media, Ridge has found her first eight families to help. “We were born and raised in Mitchell County. We moved away for 9nine years, and we just came back last year, so this is a brand new farm within the last year. It has been a lot of hard work, so the storm was a little discouraging,” said Hope Atkins, a farmer in Spruce Pine. Atkins said her home is fine, but the rest of the farm needs work. “The most damage we sustained was, unfortunately, our barn, fence lines, chicken coops, our property, the farm that we work,” Atkins said. After the storm, their 25 chickens roamed around. Most did not survive. “Where we are in the mountains, there is a lot of hawks. There is coyotes, possums, weasels, raccoons. There is tons of things trying to get your chickens. Everything loves chicken,” Atkins said. Atkins and her family rely on their roosters and hens. “You think of a chicken, and it seems so small. Maybe no purpose to a lot of people, but to others, they use that as their meat source, their eggs. Sometimes, it is just pets,” Atkins said. Hope sells eggs and hatches eggs, but her sons see them as pets. “Our little boys love playing with them ... They take care of the chickens. My four-year-old goes and gets the eggs, and he loves it, so it makes him really sad and impacts him whenever he sees our animals gone,” Atkins said. Through Restock the Flock, Atkins will get her income back and her boys will have a sense of normalcy in the wake of the storm. “I find it really inspiring that she thought to do that for people up here,” Atkins said. Atkins will get her birds this weekend from Ridge. That is the first step in the big plans that Ridge has. She needs donations to keep this going, and she also needs to find more families to help.