Editing The Pen Addict 636/transcript (section)

== Impact of Hurricane Helene on Origami Inc. in Asheville ==

* All right. Up next, I want to talk a little bit. I kept... I wasn't meaning to skip over this. But I wanted to talk about Origami Inc. in Asheville, North Carolina, which is a brick-and-border store that was absolutely devastated from Hurricane Helene, which happened, I don't know, three or four weeks ago now here in my part of the country. And Asheville as an area, and that whole area, part of North Carolina, my parents have lived up in that area in the past. We got friends that live up there still. It was devastating. And Origami Inc. basically lost everything.
* Apparently, just reading, like, some of the recaps from the store owners, that it's, like, a two-story building. And the water was up into the second floor, like, through most of the second floor. Like, that's how bad it was. So, like, it's a total loss, total write-off. So, a lot of people in the Pen community, stationery community, have come together to support Origami Inc. The latest being a Retro 51 collaboration. Well, not even a collaboration. It's just basically something they're doing to raise funds to go to Origami Inc. All the profits of the Hopping Frogs Rollerball, which is a really awesome design that's based on the story of the owners of Origami Inc. They had, you know, a framed art piece in their house that featured this Origami Frog. And, you know, obviously, the name of the shop ended up originating from this. And they've done, Retro 51's done a design where all the proceeds will go to support Origami Inc. So, go check this out. I think it's a really neat pen. I think I'm going to order one. I just love the design of this, regardless of being able to help someone out, which we all love doing. So, I love helping them out, too. But it's a really neat pen. It's pretty heartbreaking, man. It is. Like, I went and looked at some of the pictures, and I couldn't believe it. It's just done. It's gone. Like, it's just gone. It's gone. Oh, God. So, they're still doing online work, right? They're still, you know, you can still purchase things from Origami Inc. They're doing a few online things, keeping orders going. But the shop is just, like, wiped out.
* So, there's a couple of fundraisers that are also going. And, like, just, like, all that stock.
* Yeah. Like, the devastation in this area, like, people weren't prepared for it, right? This was, like, this was not in the models. This was not. You know how a lot of times you get to plant, and, like, you know, devastation happens. And, you know, hopefully you can plan ahead and evacuate and get out. Like, a lot of these people couldn't get out and didn't know this was going to happen. Like, this was not in the model. So, like, it's really, really devastating. So, there's also a couple of GoFundMe fundraisers going. We'll have links in the show notes. Our friends at Luxury Brands are running one to help them. And I think some locals there also to help Origami put up another GoFundMe. So, check all this stuff out. This is important. We support our wonderful retailers in the community. And I love seeing different companies come together and put something together to help them out. Because, yeah, I just can't imagine it. Like, you just wake up one day, and then, like, everything's gone. It's, like, it's unbelievable to even think about.