The first-ever voter engagement campaign aimed at survivors of extreme weather will feature events in more than a dozen states including concerts, artistic performances, and roundtables.

The tour will launch on September 25 in Burnsville, NC, to mark the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene with a concert from local banjo and ballad singer Murphy Campbell and other local musicians.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Extreme Weather Survivors (EWS), a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the voices of everyday people harmed by extreme weather events, launched a new voter engagement campaign, “Stolen Summers,” to engage and motivate survivors of disasters ahead of the midterm election to have their voices centered in policy decisions.

The nationwide campaign will feature events in more than a dozen states, including major stops in North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, and California, states with key elections that have been recently impacted by extreme weather. EWS is partnering with artists, organizers, community leaders, and survivors to curate unique programs to showcase the real-life experience of survivors and demand leaders prioritize their needs during the lengthy and expensive recovery process.

In addition to the events, the campaign also includes support, guidance, microgrants and toolkits for survivors to rally their local communities through grassroots gatherings, supporting the individual survivors becoming the experts and leaders creating change and helping rebuild their communities. View the current slate of programming at https://www.extremeweathersurvivors.org/stolensummers; additional events and details will be added throughout the fall.

“Disasters leave behind loss, but they also reveal the immense strength of individual leaders and communities when we pull together,” said Sierra Kos, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Extreme Weather Survivors. “Through music, roundtable discussions, and performance art, this next chapter of Stolen Summers is about creating spaces for survivors to reclaim their narratives and force their stories to be heard and acknowledged. It’s time for elected leaders to stop looking away from the crisis at hand, so we’re inviting them to meet us in these spaces to have important conversations and inspire action before more is stolen from us. The name Stolen Summers was coined after so many communities shared how much is being stolen from them by the rise of extreme weather disasters and extreme heat.”

“Western North Carolina has been home to people within my family for centuries. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, I saw the quality I know mountain people to carry demonstrated generously — altruism,” said Murphy Campbell, Hurricane Helene survivor and Appalachian folk singer. “Concern for their neighbor before themselves, fierce independence to rebuild on their own terms, and resilience in hopes of better for future generations of Appalachians. That’s why we are hosting this event in the heart of Yancey County — to finally give back to those that need it. I sing songs from my family for the same reason I desire to help rebuild in the wake of Helene — to preserve the hardship and stories of those who made Western North Carolina home.”

“Too often, we encounter disasters as headlines, numbers, or images on a screen, and then the world moves on. But for the people who lived through them, the story is still unfolding,” said Arian Moayed, actor, co-founder and board chair of Waterwell. “Theater has this incredible ability to bring us into someone else’s experience and ask us to really listen. With Stolen Summers, we’re putting survivors’ own words at the center and using performance to make those experiences immediate, human, and impossible to ignore. Waterwell is proud to help create a space where these stories can be heard, felt, and carried with us beyond the theater.”

The programming will kick off in Burnsville, North Carolina, on September 25th, honoring the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene. EWS is partnering with Appalachian folk singer Murphy Campbell, alongside local partners including Common Cause NC, for a curated community concert featuring local folk singers. The evening will celebrate the spirit of the community through music and shine a spotlight on the painful recovery process since Helene.

The campaign will conclude on October 22nd with a theatrical event in Los Angeles in partnership with Waterwell, Lee Sunday Evans, and Arian Moayed. The event will feature professional actors performing curated survivor stories for a live audience, with musical performances woven between segments, for a full day of storytelling showcasing how extreme weather has affected communities nationwide.

The midterm campaign is a continuation of the organization’s successful “Stolen Summers” programming. EWS hosted the first-ever national survivor summit in Washington, D.C., earlier this summer, bringing together more than 75 survivors from across the country to demand our leaders prioritize the voices and needs of extreme weather survivors.

EWS also released this summer new national polling showing that 71% of Americans report personally experiencing at least one extreme-weather impact in the past three years, while 64% agree people affected by disasters are often left to fend for themselves after the initial emergency passes.

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SOURCE Extreme Weather Survivors, a project of Tides Center