Forest Floor is offering sixteen different week-long camp options for ages ranging from K-10. Camps begin with the first week June 15-19 and end with the week of August 10-14. The program is structured to get kids out in the forest, exercising and playing, sharing stories and songs, solving challenges, and learning traditional crafts, wilderness skills, survival skills, and martial arts. Forest Floor programs are unique in the Asheville area because of the focus on Nature Connection Mentoring and helping children reach and exceed their potential.

Parents can drop their children off at Haw Creek Commons in Asheville between 8:30 – 9:00 AM daily, and then pick them up there between 3:00 – 3:30 PM. Camp staff will transport the children via passenger van to the forest location and back each day. An “After Camp” option with games and nature activities is available for parents who choose to pickup as late as 5:30 PM. After Camp can be reserved for specific days or the entire camp week.

The standard pricing for the camps is $295 per week including transportation. The Blacksmithing and Knife-making camps for Grades 6-10 only are priced at $384 per week. After Camp adds $15-30 per afternoon depending on the specific reservations. A payment plan and sibling discount are offered as well. A limited number of partial scholarships are also available. Registrations are taken online in advance at the company website www.OnTheForestFloor.org.

About Forest Floor Wilderness Programs – Forest Floor Wilderness Programs (FFWP) is a unique Asheville provider of Nature-Connection Mentoring programs. FFWP was founded in 2011 by Executive Director Clint Corley to bring a nationally-proven youth mentoring model to the Asheville area. The group offers summer camps, and a wide variety of other programs including weekly programs for homeschool families, bi-weekly programs for teens & public school children, Saturday programs, family campouts, and workshops for adults.

• Enka Career Day
• Enka Reality Store
• Asheville Reality Store
• Support for Asheville Reality Store

Do you work in the local home building industry? Ready for a friendly challenge to help community members in need? Gather 2-4 coworkers to spend a day volunteering with our Home Repair team and make critical repairs so low-income residents can live safely and with dignity in their homes and communities. Each group’s hours will be tracked and at the end of the challenge the group with the most will get a prize.

The lack of affordable housing in Buncombe County is no secret, but one need is often overshadowed by the demand for new units. Far too many of  our neighbors- homeowners often 62+ years old, whose families have lived here for generations- are having to live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions because they cannot afford
critical home repairs.
That’s why members of the local home building industry are coming together for a friendly
challenge to help meet this urgent community need. The Home Repair Builders Challenge will
take place March 2 to April 17. Groups will volunteer alongside Asheville Habitat’s Home
Repair team, and at the end of the challenge the team with the most accumulated hours will get a prize.

UPDATED INFO:

To make the transition from this year to the 2021 event as seamless and exciting as possible, we have already worked with our artists, our brewers, and our vendors to make sure that we are able to carry over this year’s lineup and infrastructure to next year’s festival date. In addition, we are also in conversation with Eventbrite regarding the best options we can offer you when it comes to making a choice about how your ticket investment plays out. 

Because this decision affects you as much as it does us, we will offer full refunds of all ticket purchases to any of you who would prefer that option. We understand the inconvenience that this change might cause you, and we ask that you offer us your patience while we organize that process. As another option, we would also like to offer you the opportunity to retain your ticket purchase and to roll it over into next year’s attendance. Any ticket that has already been purchased for 2020 will be honored at our 2021 festival in lieu of a refund. That is a choice we are allowing you to make, and we will be delighted to have you back as our guests then! 

Please check back with us often as we continue to plan for the 2021 (“unofficial 10th Anniversary”) North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding, but mostly for your continued support at the festival. We couldn’t keep putting on this event without you, and we continue to be thankful year after year. 

Along with a rich Americana lineup, North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival also shines a spotlight on local brewers and their contribution to North Carolina’s vibrant culinary scene. Over 50 breweries offering a selection of craft beers will be featured on-site throughout the weekend. Tasting tickets, which include access to beer samples plus a commemorative sampling glass, are available for purchase for $50 ($39 for early birds).

North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival began as a fundraising effort to preserve the historic site of Rural Hill. The site, which boasts extensive hiking trails, is a beloved landmark in the Central NC region and is home to many educational field trips and events. Since its inception, the North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival has continued to support the awareness of Rural Hill and attract diverse crowds from all over the country.

Friday music-only passes with sets from Acoustic Syndicate and Fireside Collective are $15. Saturday music-only passes with sets from the Steep Canyon Rangers and Hayes Carll are $22 for early birds. For attendees who would like to sample an unlimited assortment of celebrated North Carolina brews on Saturday, Tasting Tickets (which include daily entrance to the festival for music happenings) are available at the Early Bird price of $39. Camping options are available for attendees who would like to make the most of their weekend. Two-Day weekend tent camping, premium tent camping, and RV/Camper camping with hook-ups are available for $45, $65, and $85 respectively. North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival is a family-friendly event. Children 4 and under are free. A Children’s Ticket is available for kids 5 – 15 for $8.

Hello Flat Rock Playhouse Patrons, Donors, Friends, and all-around ‘Peeps!’

Please take a few minutes to take the survey and help us as we begin planning for the 2021 season and beyond.  We’ve listed a pretty large range of shows because we want to know what you’re interested in seeing on the stage.  Please choose your TOP 10 favorites in each category; Musicals and Plays. You will also have the opportunity to write in a title or author that may not otherwise be listed.  Please only choose ten of each so we can narrow down your preferences.

As an added note, we endeavor to give you exactly what your heart most desires.  That said, there are many factors that go into selecting shows.  Are the rights available? Can we afford to produce it properly? Does it align with our Union obligations?  These questions and many more are all part of the process and influence what productions we select.  It’s important to everyone at Flat Rock Playhouse that we deliver as much of what the audience desires as we can whenever we can.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your preferences with us.  We are hugely grateful for the insight!

Sincerely,

The Artistic Team

Flat Rock Playhouse

The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence (SNV) commences on January 30, in cities across the globe. The annual 64 day campaign, co-founded in 1998 by Dr. Arun Gandhi and The Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), is an educational, media and grassroots awareness campaign spanning the January 30th and April 4th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The purpose of the campaign is to focus educational and media attention on the philosophy of attaining peace through nonviolent action as demonstrated by legendary leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar E. Chavez, and President Nelson Mandela, as well as living legends such as His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Spiritually guided citizen leaders in 900 cities in 67 countries have participated since the campaign began in 1998.

• Restoration
• Rehabilitation
• Adaptive Re-use
• In-fill Construction in Historic and Traditional Neighborhoods
• Research, Publication and Education
• Stewardship
• Preservation

Hot off her newly-released album “Make Something Beautiful,” Brit Drozda will make her Asheville debut this month with a special performance. The Charlotte-based folk-rock singer-songwriter will open for Brew Davis at Ambrose West on the evening of February 29, with songs from her latest album, plus a performance of her hit song “Breathing,” which is featured in the acclaimed documentary “Valiant,” as well as songs from her album “Let Me Hang The Moon, and a new unreleased song debut, “Seashells.”

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, in cooperation with the I.R.S, N.C. Dept. of Revenue, Buncombe County Library System and Council on Aging, Inc. will again offer free tax Preparations for low and moderate income taxpayers, with special attention to those age 60 and older. Both Federal and N.C. State tax returns will be electronically filed for safe and accurate preparation with faster refunds.

This service will be available from Feb. 1-April 15, at sites listed below. Please note that some locations have different start dates as several libraries will be hosting early voting for the Presidential primaries in February.

Tax help for Weaverville will be held at the Brookstone Baptist Church and tax help for West Asheville will be held at the West Asheville Presbyterian Church. All tax help locations can be found at irs.gov.

ABOUT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN RELAY

Registration is capped at: