ASHE COUNTY, N.C. — First Lady Melania Trump visited Mountain View Elementary School in Ashe County on Tuesday, where she praised the resilience of western North Carolina families recovering from Hurricane Helene and highlighted the role of technology and artificial intelligence in education.
Melania Trump got a big welcome from the hundreds of students inside the school’s gymnasium. The room was filled with supplies after Helene hit western North Carolina.
“As the water levels rose, you stepped up for one another,” Melania Trump said. “Families welcomed others into their homes.”
Leading some of those efforts was Vice Principal Cynthia Harless who Melania Trump called a hero. During the storm, Harless checked on the school and then struggled to get back to her home after her driveway was washed out. She helped with organizing a distribution center at the school and was singled out by the First Lady on Tuesday.
“I had no idea that she was going to pull me up here and talk about what happened during the storm and all that I went through, my family and this community, so it just meant the world,” Harless aid.
The First Lady also visited classrooms and the school’s media center, sitting with students in a fifth-grade class after talking about the importance of knowledge. She mentioned the Presidential AI Challenge and helped provide 100 Jetson Nano Development kits for students.
“Maybe one of you will create a robot, and if you do, make sure you bring it to the White House to show me,” Melania Trump said.
The school was closed for a month after Helene. The First Lady said all of America saw the strength of towns, including Jefferson.
President Donald Trump will be in Gastonia on Wednesday evening.
He is scheduled to speak to a crowd at Gastonia Municipal Airport at 7 p.m.
The visit is in support of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.