About Us
We believe in Love’s ability to provide wisdom, guidance and comfort for ourselves & those we serve.
A Brief History
January through March of 2022, Amanda Kollar and Melanie Robertson served some of Asheville’s most vulnerable, unhoused folks at the winter shelter hosted by Trinity United Methodist Church. At the end of March, when Trinity’s winter shelter closed, Amanda and Melanie figured out a creative way to continue sheltering. On April 18, the Jubilee Alternative Micro-Shelter (JAMS) was opened to give temporary housing to 10 women experiencing homelessness. Although the shelter pivoted several times to make space for up to 30 folks, the number of residents, on average was about 12.
Over the summer, while operating JAMS, the two decided to form a non-profit organization so they could continue to serve Asheville’s unsheltered. The non-profit, Wildflower House, was established on November 10, 2022. Wildflower House closed JAMS on April 18, 2023. During the full year that JAMS was in operation, over 1,200 folks were housed, fed and/or given supplies for outdoor living. We are thankful for the many folks who made these efforts possible.
The work we do in the world is steeped in transparency, inclusion & dignity.
Meet the Wildflower House Team
Amanda “Mandy” Pace Kollar
Co-Founder/Executive Director
Amanda is the co-founder and Executive Director of Wildflower House. For 16 years, Amanda and her late husband, Bill Kollar, owned and operated Gardens, Inc., a landscape design firm and boutique garden shop located on St. George Island and in Apalachicola, Florida. However, it was only after the death of her husband, Bill, August of 2014, that she felt a strong, spiritual call to “feed the people”. So, in the fall of that year, she and her 3 yr old son, Harrison, took to the streets of Tallahassee, Florida and began delivering food to unsheltered folks on a daily basis. As a result of her volunteering with the unhoused in Tallahassee, Amanda became the Director of the French Town Chapel and Community Center. Then, in 2017, Amanda and her son fell in love with Frank Yaun, an organic tomato farmer, and they all moved to Asheville in 2018 to live happily ever after. They enjoy road-tripping, seeing live music, hiking, fly-fishing and they all continue to be of service to Asheville’s most vulnerable and most beautiful people.
Melanie Mitchell Robertson
Co-Founder/Chair of Asheville City - Buncombe County Homeless Coalition
Melanie co-founded Wildflower House and is the Chair of Asheville City – Buncombe County Homeless Coalition. Melanie’s love for people led her into ministry over 40 years ago. Melanie is an ordained pastor, along with her husband Mark with whom she has spent many years serving all kinds of folks. Melanie was the interim family pastor at Trinity UMC when the call came in to open as an emergency winter shelter in November of 2021. It was then that she began serving the unhoused community. Melanie fell in love with this population and she hasn’t looked back! She claims that “they found her” and that it has significantly changed her life, forever. Melanie has three grown children, Mitch (Brandy), Mary Ellen (Jake) and Micah, two grandchildren (Salyssa and Lukah) and two fur babies (Max, a 90 pound black lab and Mickey, a gray toyger cat) all of whom she counts as the loves of her life.
Hope Bishop
Board of Directors
Hope enjoys her work as a Peer Support Specialist at Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness. Hope is extremely effective in her service to others due to her past shared experience of active addiction, mental illness, justice involvement, and homelessness. She gives credit to Drug Treatment Court (DTC) for saving her life. Special people at DTC encouraged Hope to go to ABTech Community College to receive her Associate’s Degree and then encouraged her to spend time becoming a Peer Support Specialist, Community Health Worker, and Recovery Coach. With the incredible support of the recovery community in Asheville, NC, Hope has been sober since April of 2016. Hope considers it an honor to support others in the way she was supported. She is especially passionate about helping other women. Wildflower House is proud to have Hope serving on their board of directors.
Joy Dey
IT Super Star
Joy is the IT Super Star at Wildflower House and she has over 20+ years of experience creating digital products. Passionate about design, Joy uses her expertise to help solve challenges that many businesses have when defining their brand and product(s). While having worked for both large corporations and start-ups, Joy really enjoys volunteering to help others. She has volunteered many times for different school events at her son’s school. For 2 years she proudly co-led the largest school fundraiser of the year to get support for important education programs such as; science, art, physical education, music, and computers. Since Joy and her family recently moved to the Asheville area she was very excited to join the Wildflower House team to help create and promote the vision of helping those at their most vulnerable time. When Joy isn’t working her full-time job and volunteering, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, camping, mountain biking, bocce ball, and cross-fit.