Carol Dreiling…
* Grew up in the small Virginia Tech college town of Blacksburg, Virginia
* Attended Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC for 2 years (l966-68) working & studying at the college.
* Traveled around US for 3 years. Lived in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Involved in the Anti-War Movement and the Women’s Movement.
* Graduated from Asheville-Buncombe Community Technical College (AB-Tech) with a degree in Building Construction in l975 .
* Spent 20 years re-modeling and building houses and custom furniture. Created a small business called Carol’s Wooden Wares selling at craft shows and in art shops all over the East Coast.
* Worked with children for over 60 years at various day care centers, after-school programs, and at-risk group homes as a counselor and youth advocate.
Worked for the last 19 years as the Nursery Child Care Supervisor at First Presbyterian Church (fpcasheville.org) downtown Asheville, NC.
* After physically healing from being shot, got involved in Asheville with the Parents Of Murdered Children and Other Survivors of Homicide (POMC.org), Our Voice, Asheville’s anti-sexual violence and rape crisis intervention center (ourvoicenc.org), as well as Helpmate (helpmateonline.org), a local domestic violence advocacy and crisis response organization.
* Worked to Appeal the Death Penalty in NC since the 1990’s with groups such as People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, Murder Victims for Reconciliation and now the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (nccadp.org)
* Created a business, Myco-Gardens with husband Pete Whelihan in l993. We are still operating today and specialize in growing and selling gourmet mushrooms to restaurants in the Asheville area.
* Began and ran a small pet sitting business for 15 years in Western North Carolina from 2005-2020.
* Articles published in WNC Woman, The Laurel of Asheville, Pickaway Quarterly, Sniff & Barkens and The Mycophile.
I love to:
- Hike
- Garden
- Use Herbs/Mushrooms Medicinally
- Watercolor
- Read
- Write
- Help other surviors
Healing from Gun Shots 
This is an absolutely wonderful book. HFGS is an amazing story. When my own bullet caught up with me 38 years after I was the victim of an armed robbery, I looked around for first person memoirs, and there are few and far between. HFGS has encouraged me to write my own memoir.
So great to hear from you. I am glad my book spoke to you. Healing from gunshots is a huge challenger to live again. Yes, write your memoir. Others get help from us when we tell our story.