unofficially began in September 1996 in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Several friends emerged from their debris-strewn houses and yards and banded together to help each other clean up the mess.  This group of women quickly discovered that, though the work was tough, they were totally invigorated by the power that they all felt from totally cleaning up a place that, when they arrived, had looked devastated. 

After a couple of very full weekends of hurricane work, they decided that they enjoyed working together so much that they started “swooping in” to do outrageous one-day clean-up projects about once a month, and formally named themselves “SWOOP.”  Quickly becoming specialists in awesome hurricane clean-ups, their numbers grew as friends told friends, who told friends.  From the original 16 women, SWOOP membership has grown to over 500 women from the Greater Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) and beyond.  Since 1996, SWOOPers have branched out from hurricane clean-ups to major yard clean-ups, fence-building, painting, refurbishing, construction, deconstruction, and renovation for those individuals or agencies that SWOOP serves. 

SWOOP acquired its status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on October 1, 2001.