PLUMTREE, N.C. (WGHP) — Six months after Hurricane Helene changed her life, Suzanne Garland spends a lot of her time surveying the land, remembering what once was and looking ahead to what will be. Mountain River Family Campground in Avery County was a favorite of many. According to Garland, "W e were busy. We were very blessed with, you know, lots of business. And I don't know, it was just thriving and you know full of life and families." Last summer, the land was lush and green and filled with campers.  And then the first of the rain started to fall. And the Campground was evacuated. Suzanne remembers it well. "Thursday we just came back down here and we kind of moved everything to high ground. Thinking the water would never get that high. And then Friday morning we drove down to check on everything and that was when the actual hurricane had hit was Friday morning and everything was underwater. So in that moment, we pretty much knew." Everything they had worked so hard for over the last 7 years was gone, and the shock set in. "It's really hard to even remember a lot of it. It feels kind of like a blackout because we came down here and. Just Really hard to even imagine that the water could have gotten that high," she said. But rather than wallow in their own despair, Suzanne and her husband Jared, a Marine veteran and former firefighter, turned to helping others. "So, we just started running supplies to people food. Water, whatever medicine and start he did mainly search and rescue to try to find, you know, people that we knew were missing." She says it was the kindness of others that signaled to them that they needed to rebuild. "All these people just showed up one day and just started cleaning up our property and just said they were here to help. And it honestly wasn't until the end that we started seeing like that the campground was still here and it just like they're who they gave us the hope and like the fight of like, OK, it's there like, let's get it back." Social media was also a big help. As she posted about the tragedy, her following grew. Garland said, "People started seeing our Facebook videos and just started coming up here and just strangers, people we don't even know. We know we did have friends obviously come, but the big cleanup crews were just people that had machinery and wanted to help. They said that they were led to, you know, come help Western North Carolina, and they ended up here. And, you know, they're the ones who gave us our hope back." She also found hope in something she calls "the search for merch." "We were down at the debris fields just looking around, you know, taking it all in. And we started finding like T-shirts from our store. And once we started finding a few, like, we couldn't stop. So we have found hats, shirts, cups, you name it." She posted about what she found and was surprised by the reaction. People wanted to buy it. According to Garland, "The merchandise is special because I feel like it's like lived through this horrible thing and it's like tells such a story, you know, it's just, I don't know, it's pretty cool." At Christmas, she auctioned off some of the merchandise, bringing in some much-needed money. The campground has only received help from some non-profits and volunteers. "As far as financial assistance, no insurance. You know. No FEMA help, like it's just. You know a couple $1000 when everything first happened for a place to stay. But I mean, that's nothing. When you've got $1,000,000 in damages, you know, so yeah, it's very frustrating." But she says she will not let it keep her down. "Every single person that helps you in some way. It just like it. You feel like they believe in you. And so it's like how do you feel sorry for yourself when all these people are like believing in you and pushing you to keep going and, like, encouraging you like that just makes up the bigger picture to like not want to give up and to just fight, you know, to get your life back and get your business back like it just it means a lot." Even though the days are long and the work is hard, hope still fuels her. "It feels like it's just going to get better and better. I know there's going to be challenges. I know there's going to be hard days," says Garland. "I know there's going to be setbacks, and you know, we're going to have to work through those. But overall, I just feel like every day we'll just get closer to our goal ." They do plan to open at some point in April with a few campsites ready. Garland says they will be adding more as the work continues all summer long. If you would like more information or to buy merchandise to support them through the recovery, you can log onto their website. ...read more read less