Looking to get your kids outside this summer? Join us as we walk you through the web-based program, ecoEXPLORE. You’ll learn how to submit photos and complete nature themed challenges to earn badges and prizes!

This initiative by the NC Arboretum includes a different challenge each season that will keep children engaged in learning about nature year-round while also contributing to citizen science. The theme this summer is entomology. We’ll explore our on-site gardens to find creepy crawly, squiggly squirmy, and high-flying bug residents! Stick around after the program to continue your exploration of the gardens and nature trail.

Join the Blue Ridge Audubon, a chapter of the National Audubon Society for their monthly bird walk at Jackson Park, a renowned birding location. On the 2nd Saturday of each month, meet at the Administration Building parking lot, located on Glover Street, and join the group to see the many wonderful birds found at Jackson Park, Hendersonville’s largest park.

Come join us at the Sourwood Festival

Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteers maintain a composting demonstration site at the Western NC Farmers Market, at the Jesse Israel & Sons Garden Center. After a two-year hiatus, due to Covid, the site is reinstituting public demonstrations, beginning April 9, 2022.

When to Visit?
The site is staffed and provides demonstrations from 10:00am to 1:00pm on the second Saturday each month, April through September.

What Will You See?
There are five different composting methods on display at the site. There is a single bin unit, a tumbling composter, a wood pallet bin and a classic 3-bin system — we also usually bring an example of vermiculture on each demo day.  The site is stocked with informational pamphlets on the how-to and why of composting and they complement the information available in the composting video on this website. Click here to view the video: Making and Using Compost at Home.

An additional Composting demonstration area is located at The Learning Garden at the Extension Office, 49 Mount Carmel Road, Asheville, NC 28806.  Click here for details about The Learning Garden.

Come join us at the Sourwood Festival

Everything is customer driven. The current environment only allows us a short period of time to convert a prospect into a customer. In this training, we will discuss creative ways in which you can validate who your prospects are and determine the steps that you need to take to convert them into customers. This seminar is offered in-person only. Speaker(s): Duane Adams, Associate Director, A-B Tech Small Business Center Co-Sponsor(s): Western Women’s Business Center This program is offered in-person only. It will be held at the A-B Tech Small Business Center in room 2046.

We are seeking volunteers to assist us in our small after school program for children in West Asheville in low-income housing.  We provide a safe and nourishing environment, healthy snacks, and creative activities.  Our program currently meets during the school year on most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:00-5:00pm. You may volunteer for one or two days a week. 

Volunteer Responsibilities:

• Assist with serving snacks
• Interact with children during activity time
• Supervise games and outdoor free time
• For people with background in education, there is also an opportunity to assist with curriculum development and program planning and administration

Requirements:

• Background check
• Orientation booklets will be provided
• Masks are required if unvaccinated

The U.S. Army Parachute Team, The Golden Knights, will perform before the 7pm championship game.

The two Golden Knights demonstration teams travel the United States performing for public audiences at venues ranging from small civic events to nationally televised events, such as NFL games, NASCAR races, and international air shows. Team members are from a variety of backgrounds in one of the 150 jobs in the U.S. Army.
The parachutists perform to exacting standards but may tailor their performance for a specific venue. The Golden Knights have an unparallelled safety record in the professional parachuting arena.
The Golden Knights also have competition teams who have won national and international competitions. They hold the current military world record in both male and female four-way freefall formation and the world record in canopy piloting speed. The Golden Knights tandem section provides tandem parachute jumps to approved local and national celebrities, media personnel, and VIPs. It was a Golden Knights team that jumped with the late President George H.W. Bush in 2007, 2012, and 2014.
The Golden Knights are headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Financial Empowerment for Women

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World® – Building Resources for a Better Life. YWCA’s Getting Ahead program aims to provide financial empowerment for low-income women of all ages and backgrounds to make choices that positively impact themselves, their families and their community.

Knowledge is Power

A series of “kitchen table” discussions that investigate the causes of poverty, the hidden rules of class, and resources needed by all. Participants will assess individual situations as well as the condition of our community to achieve economic self-sufficiency.

“Going through the program made me realize that I wasn’t in this by myself. I was surrounded by people just like me who were humble enough to say ‘I need help.”

“The class has re-shaped my thinking process- the way I approach situations as possibilities, not obstacles”

Participants Receive

• Childcare and meals at each session
• A $20 stipend for each session attended
  Received once the program is completed
• A workbook to keep track of learning and personal goals
• One-on-one case management for 18
  months to support personal success
• Transportation support is available

The premier of “Racist Roots,” a 25-minute film created by the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, exposes the death penalty’s deep entanglement with slavery, lynching and racism. The film features several stories of Black men, including an Asheville man, who were unjustly convicted and sentenced to death. Panel discussion will follow.

This event is presented by the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, as part of “Just Sentencing: How North Carolina’s Death Penalty Grew from Racist Roots.”

Did you know our staff had a wild side? Join a Park naturalist to meet some of our live Animal Ambassadors and learn what kind of wildlife inhabits the Park and their important roles in the ecosystem. Some of our best teachers have feathers, fur, shells or scales!

Are you new to Medicare? Are you confused about which benefits are right for you? Do you need more information? The Council on Aging of Buncombe County will help answer your Medicare questions in this free class. No registration is required.

The classes will explain how Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money. This class will meet in person at the East Asheville Library on Aug. 17 at 2:30 p.m.

Anyone who is new to Medicare, caregivers, and others who help senior citizens with their Medicare insurance should consider attending this informative session. The material presented is unbiased and accurate.  No products are sold, recommended, or endorsed.

For more information, contact the Library or the Council on Aging.

We will share resources to create or expand your garden program as well as tips and strategies for gardening with young children. We emphasize how to sustain a garden program by involving community partners, such as parents, farmers, college students, and agricultural professionals. Please register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022, 4-5:30pm Register here
Wednesday, October 12, 2022, 4-5:30pm Register here
Wednesday, February 8, 2023, 4-5:30pm Register here

Enrollment is now open for an adult improvisation acting class at Hendersonville Theatre (HT). Classes will be taught by professional improvisation actor and comedian Emily Swindal. Classes will meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm for 8 weeks starting August 10. The class will conclude on September 28 with a showcase of the students’ work.

Improv Level One: Communicate. Collaborate. Play. is for anyone over 18. Tuition is $180. Hendersonville Theatre will offer a free class preview and information session on Monday, August 8 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Students of all skill levels are encouraged to attend.

To register for the class, please visit HVLtheatre.org or call the Box Office at (828) 692-1082. No registration is required to attend the free information session.

Emily Swindal lived in New York City for 8 years as an actor and improv comedian before relocating to Hendersonville during the pandemic. Swindal studied and performed improv and sketch comedy writing at New York City’s Magnet Theater and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Swindal has performed with an assortment of improv teams. Some of her past instructors include Elana Fishbein, Peter McNerney, Ross Taylor, Michael Lutton, and Nicole Drespel. She has a BFA in Musical Theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory.

Swindal’s teaching motto is “growth only happens when you are willing to step outside your comfort zone.” In this class, actors will work at getting comfortable onstage and stepping into bravery while having fun doing it. The class will teach students to have compassion for themselves and their classmates as performers as they learn the fundamentals of improvisation and develop support and spontaneity.

One of the missions of HT is to provide arts education that promotes life-long learning, in a way that inspires, nurtures, enriches, and empowers.

Hendersonville Theater has made masks optional for students, but volunteers, staff and performers are fully vaccinated. No proof of vaccination is required to attend a class.

Financial Empowerment for Women

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World® – Building Resources for a Better Life. YWCA’s Getting Ahead program aims to provide financial empowerment for low-income women of all ages and backgrounds to make choices that positively impact themselves, their families and their community.

Knowledge is Power

A series of “kitchen table” discussions that investigate the causes of poverty, the hidden rules of class, and resources needed by all. Participants will assess individual situations as well as the condition of our community to achieve economic self-sufficiency.

“Going through the program made me realize that I wasn’t in this by myself. I was surrounded by people just like me who were humble enough to say ‘I need help.”

“The class has re-shaped my thinking process- the way I approach situations as possibilities, not obstacles”

Participants Receive

• Childcare and meals at each session
• A $20 stipend for each session attended
  Received once the program is completed
• A workbook to keep track of learning and personal goals
• One-on-one case management for 18
  months to support personal success
• Transportation support is available

FREE Virtual Event

Presenter: John Bowen, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

Do you have an empty spot in a perennial bed? Putting your veggie plots to bed for the winter? Cover crops in those unused spaces can add nutrients, condition the soil, and attract pollinators. Master Gardener and long time cover-cropper John Bowen will help you pick a cover to match your needs, space and schedule. He will discuss the pros and cons of several crop choices for WNC gardens and help you make a plan to maximize the benefits of creative cover crops.

Registration: The talk is free but registration is required. Please click on the link below to register. If you encounter problems registering or if you have questions, call 828-255-5522.

Zoom seminar access: After registration, you will receive an email with instructions and a link to join this online live broadcast via Zoom. The ability to access Zoom through a computer, tablet or smartphone with a reliable internet connection is necessary to attend.