Introduction and Looking Back at 2020

The pandemic made things more challenging, but Project Connect staff became trained in COVID safety measures and began implementing them proactively. The Nashville-based nonprofit has served many thousands of meals in North and East Nashville since March 2020. Many of those were delivered by volunteers to elderly and disabled residents.

Through multiple disasters, Middle Tennessee survives, thanks to nonprofits, donors

More appropriately, we’re pushing through it in Middle Tennessee, past, present and future tense.

Through devastating and deadly tornadoes. Through an even more deadly worldwide pandemic and resulting economic turmoil. Through weeks-long civil unrest and demonstrations caused by long-festering racial equity and equality issues, interrupted by outsiders who set fire to our majestic downtown courthouse. Through some rare straight-line wind weather phenomenon called a derecho, which for a time crippled our electric power grid even more severely than the tornadoes. And, as the year lurched to a close on a quiet Christmas morning, Historic Second Avenue in Downtown Nashville, due to a lone attacker, was bombed. A significant chunk of the city block was decimated and our power grid again was crippled for days.

We pushed through all of it.

It was that kind of a year, across the globe and, in particular, close to home … to the point that you wonder: Just what did we do to deserve all of this?

The tale of 2020 — and here’s your hat and here’s your coat and what’s your hurry getting down the road, you scoundrel of a year — can be told through survivors, and those who helped us survive.

Modern American treasure Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” fame, once shared, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

This quote rang so true for Middle Tennessee in 2020.

We found an extraordinary number of helpers, young and old, rich and poor, black and brown and white, stepping in at a time when we needed them the most.

Thousands of those helpers showed up for our region through generous gifts of money donated to The Community Foundation, as the institution to distribute donations to the organizations with boots on the ground, helping survivors make the journey back to pre-disaster wholeness.

CFMT has been responding to disaster since 1993, just two short years after the organization was founded. In its longtime role in emergency management, our team helps bring calm to the chaos. It’s a significant part of what we do.

Emergency response funds have been established to address natural and man-made disasters in our 40-county service area, across the state of Tennessee, and beyond.

For Nashville and Davidson County, CFMT also works alongside the city as lead agency for monetary donations; as named in the Nashville Office of Emergency Management’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP).

Due to this designation in the CEMP, the year 2020 saw us partner with more than 100 area nonprofits and religious institutions to help survivors — residents, employees and businesses alike — in need due to the tornadoes and the Christmas bombing, as well as worked with individual donors and corporations with the desire to help financially throughout the pandemic.

In the aftermath of the March 2020 tornadoes, recovery efforts would not have been possible without the direct service organizations that received funding through CFMT’s Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund, which was established just moments after the funnels swept through the area, leaving more than two dozen dead and thousands of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed.

The Fund has raised more than $12.5 million, with donations coming from every state in the United States as well as internationally.

CFMT has remained there, connecting generosity with need through the four R’s of post-disaster: relief, response, recovery, and resilience.

The way this works: Grants from our disaster response funds are made to nonprofits providing vital services both immediate and long term. CFMT’s work helps free up nonprofits to concentrate on delivering services, and the community sets out to rebuild lives.

“We know when disasters strike, there are no quick fixes,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. “We work very hard to support the affected communities and the nonprofits on the ground helping survivors and addressing their needs, from Day One and for as long as recovery needs remain.”

High winds knocked a tree onto a parked car in East Nashville (fourth photo from top).

Volunteer Sumant Joshi (second photo from top) clears debris in front of East End United Methodist Church.

Two pedestrians embrace after surveying damage at the East Nashville Smoke Shop and Lee Nails, on the corner of 9th and Main streets.

Only a fitting room mirror (third photo from top) remains of the family owned business, Molly Green, on Main Street in East Nashville.

Hopewell Baptist Church, a longtime North Nashville landmark, received heavy damage from the tornado.

Each located in one of Germantown’s most historic buildings and owned by entrepreneur Joshua Mundy, the businesses Music City Cleaners, The Lab, and Events 624 were all lost to tornado damage.

Early on, in the aftermath of the tornadoes, the relief work was spent on the bare necessities of life: food, clothing, toiletries, and shelter.

We found the helpers in tornado-ravaged North Nashville, where those aiding survivors included the very students from Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary whose school was severely damaged by the high winds.

Churchwell students, who would spend the rest of the school year transplanted to a nearby school, helped sort hundreds of boxes of clothing, toiletry and food items. They then packed them into residents’ cars at the school in a relief effort led by Hands on Nashville and the Community Resource Center, two organizations that, like CFMT, seemed to be omnipresent throughout the disasters of 2020.

“I just love helping people,” 10-year-old Churchwell School student Joshua Murray told The Tennessean. “It’s a blessing to be able to help my community.”

We found helpers in the entertainment industry, their nightclubs and sound stages ravaged by the tornadoes and soon to be gut-punched by the pandemic.

Within a week of the tornadoes, in what turned out to be one of the last major live concert events for nearly a year in what is known the world over as Music City, Marathon Music Works concert hall hosted “To Nashville With Love.”

The star-studded, sold-out event was organized by William Morris Endeavor Agency executive Jay Williams, who is both a CFMT and Country Music Association board member. It raised more than $500,000 for tornado recovery through the To Nashville, With Love Fund at The Community Foundation and benefited 16 Middle Tennessee organizations providing immediate and long-term relief.

And when the live music temporarily stopped, long-time music staples thought creatively, such as the Grateful Dead-now Dead & Company’s guitarist Bob Weir auctioning off a guitar to continue and raise funds.

All told, hundreds of entertainment individuals and organizations gifted millions of dollars to tornado relief, ranging from $1 million donations from superstar Taylor Swift and the Tennessee Titans organization to nightclub shows netting a few hundred dollars.

Regardless of the amount gifted, the sentiment always rings true: Indeed, every gift always matters.

The Community Foundation’s tornado recovery work continued as funding shifted toward rebuilding efforts. This is expected to move onward at least through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022 as insurance and other federal, state and local funding gets sorted out, lumber prices rise, and building contractors and subcontractors continue to work throughout the region to rebuild homes.

“Although the impact on our community is far-reaching, we have been encouraged in the face of this overwhelming tragedy to see so many people and organizations working together to help hundreds of residents affected by the storm,” said John Bell, executive director of the Cookeville Regional Charitable Foundation, whose city was struck with the last and the most destructive of the tornadoes, killing 19 and damaging more than 250 buildings.

The tornado heavily damaged Mount Bethel Baptist Church in North Nashville (middle photo).

The Community Foundation’s To Nashville, With Love Fund (photo right) was created by a group of music industry professionals to help raise funds after the devastating March 2020 tornadoes hit Middle Tennessee. The sold-out benefit concert at Marathon Music Works raised more than $500,000 for tornado relief.

Collaboration has been key in our region’s recovery efforts.

A meeting called by CFMT’s Lehman just days prior to the March 2020 tornadoes had been called to reconvene the Nashville Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster — better known as Nashville VOAD — and to work on its mission to provide knowledge and resources throughout the disaster cycle of preparation, mitigation, response and recovery. A goal also was to have a system in place for first responders, area nonprofits, and city officials to provide an organized relief and response effort for those impacted by a disaster.

Imagine that fortuitous timing.

VOAD has led critical information gathering by canvassing in the hard-hit neighborhoods in North Nashville, East Nashville, Hermitage and Donelson. It established and operated the Tornado Recovery Connection — (now known as the Disaster Recovery Connection, three disasters later) — which provides callers with resources for immediate relief and helps identify those with long-term needs.

The calls and canvassing helped build a valuable database for the Davidson County Long-Term Recovery Group, which includes representatives from several agencies named in the city’s CEMP: The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Community Resource Center, Hands on Nashville, and United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), among others.

Home repairs and rebuilding (photo above) begin in earnest in East Nashville.

Ms. Carol Wilson’s daughter, LaToria, and son, Kevin, (top photo) stand in front of her new home with a delivery from the Community Resource Center.

Joe Gaines (middle photo) leads Westminster Home Connection volunteers in replacing weather-worn tarps in North Nashville.

We are still finding helpers.

CFMT, in partnership with WTVF-NewsChannel 5, established the Nashville Neighbors Fund just hours after the Christmas Day bombing injured at least three people, damaged dozens of downtown buildings, and hampered telecommunications systems throughout the Southeast for several days.

We found helpers in the tense moments before the explosion.

Six Nashville police officers — officers Brenna Hosey, Richard Luellen, Michael Sipos, Amanda Topping, James Wells, and Sergeant Timothy Miller — went door to door to alert residents and businesses about the impending blast.

When Officer Hosey knocked on the door of the Callen family on Christmas morning, she had to explain the urgency, and work with Traci Callen to get her and her four children to safety.

Traci would later send this message to the MNPD:

“Dear Nashville PD, Here is our family, here are some of the faces you saved Christmas morning. I still feel a lump in my throat when I think of you. I remember gathering my family and waiting to board the elevator that would take us to our minivan. Before we entered the elevator, I said, ‘Thank you for your service.’ I knew you didn’t know how big that bomb was and yet you were still standing there just trying to assist my family, to make sure we made it to safety. You wanted to protect us and it seemed you had never even thought about yourself. You and the other five officers did such selfless, wonderful things that day. You saved lives. We love you, we pray for you and we will never forget you. I will try to raise my children to be more like you. Thank you for your service. Hugs, Traci Callen and the rest of the Callen bunch.” On Jan. 10, the so-called “Nashville 6” officers were honored as the collective 12th Titan just before the Tennessee Titans playoff game, but the real surprise came at the beginning of the second quarter. The Callen family presented Officer Hosey with a $100,000 check for the Nashville Police Support Fund, housed within The Community Foundation, in honor of her and her MNPD colleagues. Nashville’s Office of Emergency Management ultimately estimated the downtown explosion affected about 1,200 employees, 400 residents, at least 45 businesses, and 46 parcels of land, some with multiple structures. The Metro Nashville Codes Department deemed 10 buildings unsafe.

More helpers, many of whom have been involved in tornado relief and recovery efforts are also assisting bombing survivors. The local arm of Catholic Charities is handling survivor case management and Tennessee Voices for Victims is leading the Nashville VOAD’s Christmas Day Bombing Long-Term Recovery Group.

With rebuilding efforts underway, some businesses have moved to new neighborhoods. Others are working to reopen in the original spaces on Nashville’s Historic Second Avenue.

Repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses takes time. While projected completion of tornado recovery is headed into 2022, authorities estimate it will be years before Second Avenue rebuilding efforts are completed.

Yes, we’re pushing through it. Thanks to the helpers.

Warehouses on Historic Second Avenue received extensive damage after a Christmas Day bombing.

Photo credit: Ray Di Pietro

Metro Nashville Police officers, from left: Brenna Hosey, Amanda Topping, James Wells, Sgt. Timothy Miller, Michael Sipos, and Richard Luellen gather with Titans mascot T-Rac.

Photo credit: Metro Nashville Police Department