Step Into the heart of Rwanda With Culture Keeper David Kwizera + the LEAF International Rwanda Jr. Troupe! This spring documentary is exactly what you need!

If you’re taking advantage of Early Voting, you can check out the wait time ahead of going to the polls. From April 28-May 14, you can find out how many voters are in line in real time by clicking here. Wait times are updated throughout the day, so you can know the best time to visit any Early Voting location that’s convenient for you.

Don’t forget, during Early Voting you can utilize same-day voter registration at any of the 10 locations across Buncombe County. Click here for Early Voting dates, times, maps, and more.

Early voting locations:

• Black Mountain Library, 105 N. Dougherty St., Black Mountain, 28711
• East Asheville Library, 3 Avon Road, Asheville, 28805
• Enka-Candler Branch Library, 1404 Sand Hill Road, Candler, 28715
• Fairview Library, 1 Taylor Road, Fairview, 28730
• Leicester Library, 1561 Alexander Road, Leicester, 28748
• Reynolds Village, 61 N Merrimon Ave, Suite 105, Woodfin, 28804
• South Buncombe Library, 260 Overlook Road, Asheville, 28803
• Weaverville Community Center, 60 Lakeshore Dr., Weaverville, 28787
• Wesley Grant Southside Center, 285 Livingston St., Asheville, 28801
• West Asheville Library, 942 Haywood Road, Asheville, 28806

Everything You Need to Know About the 2022 Elections in One Location.

Think you might need to use an absentee ballot for the Primary Election on May 17? Here’s what you need to know so you can make sure your vote counts.

How to Request an Absentee Ballot

Absentee ballots will be mailed out beginning on March 28. The deadline to submit an Absentee Ballot Request Form is May 10 at 5:00 p.m. for the 2022 Primary Election. Any North Carolina registered voter may request, receive, and vote a mail-in absentee ballot. No special circumstance or reason is needed. Registered voters in North Carolina must request an absentee ballot with an official N.C. Absentee Ballot Request Form. There are two ways to access and submit the form:

1. Online – Request an Absentee Ballot at the N.C. Absentee Ballot Portal.
2. On paper – print the English N.C. Absentee Ballot Request Form for 2022 or the Spanish N.C. Absentee Ballot Request Form for 2022 (not available online currently).

For active-duty military, their family members, and U.S. citizens living abroad, click here. If you have questions about that process, you can call us at (828) 250-4200 or visit buncombecounty.org/vote.

No Printer? You may complete an absentee ballot request form at the Election Services office at 59 Woodfin Place, Asheville, 28801, or call (828) 250-4200 and one will be mailed to you. You may return the request in one of the following ways:

Mail it to:

P.O. Box 7468, Asheville, NC 28802

Hand deliver it to our office:

59 Woodfin Place, Asheville, 28801

Note: The Absentee Ballot Request Form may not be emailed or faxed. Request forms that are hand delivered to the office must be returned only by the voter or the voter’s near relative

How to Return an Absentee Ballot

The deadline to return the completed Absentee Ballot is Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 5:00 p.m., however, voters are encouraged to return the ballot as early as possible. You may return it to us in one of the following ways:

By mail: Absentee ballots may be mailed to P.O. Box 7468 Asheville, NC 28802. Ballots must be postmarked on or before Tuesday, May 17, 2022 and received by Friday, May 20.

At an Early Voting site: Absentee ballots may be returned to an early voting site during the early voting period, but not at a polling location on the day of the Primary Election. Ballots returned at an early voting site must be delivered to the election official at the check-in station.

In person: Absentee ballots may be returned in person to our office at 59 Woodfin Place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Absentee ballots may be returned only by the voter or the voter’s near relative.

For more information about absentee voting, visit the North Carolina Board of Elections website. Or call us at (828) 250-4200. You can also email your questions to [email protected].

Learn More About the New Online Playbill

We’re going green!

Flat Rock Playhouse is now producing online playbills! View the online playbill at your leisure before and after the performance!

You can view the online playbill ahead of time by clicking the link in your concierge email, which will be sent approximately 7 days before your performance.

The below instructions are for viewing the online playbill once at the theatre.

Recycling Partnership Provides Registration & Travel Funding

The Recycling Partnership, in association with Resource Recycling, Inc,. is excited to announce applications are live for the 2022 Steve Thompson Memorial Grant Program. For the first time since 2019, the Resource Recycling Conference will be in-person in Austin, TX from August 15-17, 2022. The grant program provides the opportunity to apply to have conference registration, a two-night hotel stay, and travel reimbursement up to $650 covered for the winners. Applications are being accepted until the end of the day on Friday, May 6, 2022. We hope to see you in Austin!

Stories from the House is a virtual tour of our 1840s-era brick mansion as seen through the eyes of many of the people who walked these same hallways over a century ago and whose stories represent a microcosm of the history of western North Carolina. In 1918 vs. 2020, we took an in-depth look at the 1918 influenza epidemic in Western North Carolina through newspaper clippings, advertisements, ephemera, photographs, and oral history and place the events of 1918 into context with our present-day response to the coronavirus pandemic. Old Shiloh was one of Asheville’s first communities established by emancipated people. The community moved to its present-day location – New Shiloh – after George Vanderbilt, in an effort to expand his land holdings as he planned to build his Biltmore Estate, purchased the land and buildings and agreed to relocate the Shiloh church and cemetery.

The Asheville-Buncombe Air Quality Agency (AB Air Quality) is now accepting nominations for our eighteenth annual air quality awards program. The goal of the Clean Air Excellence Awards is to recognize businesses and organizations that have truly gone above and beyond regulatory requirements to improve air quality for the citizens of our area. Past years’ award recipients have included Biltmore, Eaton Corporation, and Asheville Housing Authority; each initiated voluntary efforts that improved air quality in the Asheville-Buncombe County Area.

Award guidelines explain the criteria for the awards and different categories of awards apply to different types of permitted facilities, organizations, and individuals that would like to nominate themselves or another entity for consideration.

To submit a nomination for a Clean Air Excellence Award, please download the application form online and include a brief summary describing what was done to improve air quality for Buncombe County.  Examples of voluntary pollution prevention measures include:  significant energy efficiency upgrades, switching to more environmentally friendly and lower emitting solvents and cleaners, installing renewable energy systems, and upgrading fleet vehicles to more fuel efficient or lower emitting models. We ask that nominations be submitted to our Agency by June 7, 2022. We encourage you to submit any and all efforts your company (or another company) has undertaken to reduce emissions.  Agency staff is available to assist with emissions-related questions.

Award guidelines and applications can be found below as PDFs. Please contact Ashley Featherstone at (828) 250-6777 or [email protected] with questions.

NC DEACS Accepting Applications Now! Last month DEACS launched a Multifamily Recycling Grant to support recycling at multifamily properties in North Carolina. Local governments, recycling businesses, and property management companies are all eligible to apply for funding. Grant funding can be used to purchase equipment and site developments to establish or expand recycling access for multifamily units. The maximum award is $250,000. Multifamily Recycling Grant Program – OPEN This special grant program offers funding to initiate or expand multifamily recycling programs within the state. Eligible applicants include local governments, recycling businesses or non-profits, multifamily property owners, or multifamily property management companies. Grant funds may be used to purchase typical equipment needs to start or expand the collection of traditional household recyclables (paper, cardboard, metal cans, glass and plastic bottles and containers) from multifamily residences. Examples of eligible purchases include carts, dumpsters, collection vehicles, concrete pads, recycling corrals and education. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis with no due date. Approved grant applications will be funded in the order in which they are received until funding is exhausted. Download the Multifamily Recycling Grant request for proposals (RFP) by selecting one of the following links (PDF or Word). Please submit completed applications to Tara Nattress at [email protected].

If you’re behind on your water bill or afraid your water might get cut off, a new resource might be able to help you. On Jan. 4, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved more than $450,000 in federal funding for the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). The initiative is aimed at preventing water disconnections and helping reconnect drinking and wastewater services.

The LIHWAP will be administered by Buncombe County-based Eblen Charities. The nonprofit will make payments directly to utilities on behalf of qualifying households. The program is slated to run through Sept. 30, 2023 or until funds are exhausted.

Eligibility requirements

Households that currently receive Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Work First services, or those that received Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) services from Oct. 1, 2020-Sept. 30, 2021, are automatically eligible to receive this benefit if their water services have been cut off or are in danger of being cut off.

For additional eligibility information or to apply, please contact Eblen Charities at (828) 255-3066.

OUTPACE HUNGER

FEED PEOPLE AND YOUR PASSION!

What Is Outpace Hunger?

Looking for a way to make a real impact this spring and summer? Feed people while pursuing your passion through Outpace Hunger, an action-based fundraising campaign that turns a favorite activity into meals!

For decades, MANNA FoodBank has been working to outpace hunger and food insecurity all across 16 counties of Western North Carolina, including the Qualla Boundary. The 2022 campaign runs May 1 through September 30, and we invite you join the growing community of folks who are Outpacing Hunger alongside of us!

How It Works

Participating in Outpace Hunger is easy!

You decide your level of commitment, so every participant can create their own path to helping provide food to our community. Participants also decide how, when, and where they complete their goal, any time now through the campaign end on September 30.

Outpace Hunger participants:

(1) Register to be a part of MANNA’s Outpace Hunger community. The $20 registration fee includes a t-shirt for you and provides 80 MEALS for neighbors facing food insecurity in WNC.

(2) Choose a favorite activity (run, walk, roll, stroll, hike, bike, paddle, climb, float, skate, golf, and everything in between!) to complete individually, or as a family/group/team.

(3) Set a goal to reach. This can be an activity-related goal, a fundraising goal, or both.

(4) Invite friends and family to support your fundraising efforts through your own, personalized Outpace Hunger webpage.

Whether running a 5K, walking your neighborhood, hiking the Mountains to Sea trail, or paddling the French Broad River, Outpace Hunger participants play a vital part in ensuring our WNC neighbors have access to healthy food. 

READY TO OUTPACE HUNGER WITH US?

REGISTER NOW!

ALREADY AN OUTPACE HUNGER PARTICIPANT?

VISIT YOUR PAGE

 NEED MORE INFORMATION?

OUTPACE HUNGER HOW-TO GUIDE

It’s almost Mind Your Plastic May, and this year we’re challenging you to meet your plastic waste face-to-face. Join the Race2Reduce by pledging to decrease your plastic use for the entire month of May. Sign up to receive plastic tips, volunteer opportunities, and educational materials featuring local Asheville businesses.

How it works: Earn points to win a $75, $50, or $25 gift certificate to Ware, a local sustainability and refill shop in downtown Asheville.

5pts: Like or share a MYPM Instagram or Facebook post

10pts: Post (and tag us) or email us a video/photo of you using one of our plastic tips

15pts: Answer our Friday Trivia question

20pts: Post (and tag us) or email us a video/photo of you using one of our plastic tips

25pts: Lead your own trash cleanup with GreenWorks’ supplies

Last time we ran this contest, over 400 people stepped up, and in 30 days we were able to divert an estimated 6,750 lbs of trash from the landfill

Once you start seeing all the plastics you use, you can’t unsee it.

You reach for your chips, your tube of toothpaste, or your plastic sandwich bags, and feel guilty that all that packaging will spend the rest of time in the landfill.

Us too.

Plastic is super light, but the average person throws away more than 110 lbs of it each year  – the equivalent of almost 9,100 plastic soda bottles.

It’s too much. And we decided it doesn’t have to be that way.

We just have to get creative.

When we first started tracking our plastic waste, we challenged ourselves:

How little could we use?

Replacing plastic drink bottles with a reusable bottle was simple.

Keeping reusable shopping bags in the car to grab on the way into the store was also easy.

What’s the next level?

Join our Race2Reduce to find out!

Race2Reduce is your pledge to decrease your plastic use for the entire month of May.

Once you sign up HERE we will send you plastic tips, volunteer opportunities, and educational materials featuring local Asheville businesses!

But you won’t do it alone.

You’re joining a whole community of action takers opening their minds and kitchen pantries to plastic alternatives.

Plus there’s a little friendly competition…

How it works: Earn points to win a $75, $50, or $25 gift certificate to Ware, a local sustainability and refill shop in downtown Asheville.

5pts: Like or share a MYPM Instagram or Facebook post

10pts: Post (and tag us) or email us a video/photo of you using one of our plastic tips

15pts: Answer our Friday Trivia question

20pts: Post (and tag us) or email us a video/photo of you using one of our plastic tips

25pts: Lead your own trash clean up with GreenWorks’ supplies

Enter to win by pledging to reduce your plastic here. 

(*Be sure to check the box that asks if you want to be in the running for prizes.) 

Lots of plastics aren’t recyclable, and when we throw them “away,” they only go as far as the Buncombe County landfill off Panther Branch Road in Alexander.

So here’s the thing:

If you want to get in shape, no one else can do your push-ups for you.

If you want to feel awesome, no one else can choose your car dance song for you.

And if you want to protect your home and health from plastic pollution, no one else can choose to consume less plastic for you.

But we CAN do it together.

Over 400 residents participated in the last Mind Your Plastic May plastic reduction challenge – and together we diverted 6,750 lbs of trash from the landfill in just 30 days.

Will you help us break that record this year? Join here.

We’re proud that so many of our fellow Ashevillians are working to end their reliance on plastic! Many thanks to the businesses and restaurants who supported this effort, and are working hard to reduce their own plastic waste. Mind Your Plastic May 2022 is presented for the residents of the City of Asheville in partnership with the City of Asheville. #goingplasticfree.

Questions?  Give us a shout at: [email protected]

P.S. It’s Mind Your Plastic May, which means we’re taking action to reduce plastic all month long!

Check out all our events and activities here: ashevillegreenworks.org/mind-your-plastic-may

At the YWCA of Asheville, we eliminate racism and empower women by providing programs and advocacy for over 3,000 community members annually in Western North Carolina with services that support families, promote holistic wellness, and advance racial justice.

Thank you for wanting to share your time and talents with the YWCA! As a volunteer, you are integral to the YWCA fulfilling our mission, and we simply couldn’t do it without your help and support.

YWCA Asheville has volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups. We can design volunteer assignments to fit your schedule, experience, and team-building goals.

Hiking Challenge 6 is here! In Conserving Carolina’s and WPA’s White Squirrel Hiking Challenge 6, you get to explore the places you’re helping to protect—and they’re amazing! We invite you to take eight hikes on lands that Conserving Carolina has helped to protect, enhance, or open to the public.

This challenge includes two all-new Conserving Carolina trails with gorgeous views! Plus, you can see the highest waterfall east of the Rockies, lakes and waterfalls in DuPont State Recreational Forest, expanded trails in Bracken Mountain Preserve, and a beautiful creek in the Green River Game Lands. There’s also the all-time favorite Bearwallow Mountain with its 360-degree views over the mountains and countryside we’re working to protect.

These hikes will take you to some of our region’s “greatest hits,” as well as hidden gems where you may have the woods to yourself. If you’re into mountain biking, you have the option of biking some of these trails. And if you love to swim, fish, or just be near the water, five of these hikes take you to rivers, lakes, or waterfalls.

And the Hikes Are…

Drumroll please…. Here are the 8 hikes for this new Hiking Challenge! You can find more information and links to the full hike descriptions below. Which one will you do first?

1. Bearwallow Mountain
2. Wildcat Rock Trail – Extended
3. Bracken Preserve
4. DuPont State Recreational Forest: Fawn Lake and Lake Julia
5. DuPont State Recreational Forest: Holly Road to Hooker Falls
6. Green River Game Lands: Green River Cove Trail
7. Whitewater Falls
8. Youngs Mountain Trail
9. LOG YOUR HIKES
   • Log each hike as you complete it. You can check your progress in this roster.
   • You can do the hikes at your own pace. You can take weeks, months, or over a year—whatever works for you.
   • You must complete all your hikes before the start of the next Hiking Challenge. We launch a new challenge about every two years.
   • Only hikes that you’ve done after Oct. 1, 2021 count toward Hiking Challenge 6.
   • You can complete the hikes on your own or as a group.
   • Please share about your hikes with the hashtag #whitesquirrelhikingchallenge (optional)
   • Feel free to share about your hikes and connect with other hikers in our Facebook group, the Conserving Carolina Community.

   The Hiking Challenge is free and open to all, but you must be a Conserving Carolina member to become a Hiking Challenge 6 Champion. If you are a member and you complete all 8 hikes, you will earn your White Squirrel Patch and exclusive perks from local businesses that support conservation, including Appalachian Coffee Company, Lazy Otter Outfitters, Murphy’s Naturals, and YAM Yoga and Massage. Most importantly, you get to experience eight great places and deepen your personal connection to land conservation.

The YW is seeking volunteers to help maintain and ensure a thriving YW Garden. Plants in the YW Garden will be transformed into delicious meals for the children in our care by our nutrition team, used to introduce students to new vegetables and herbs, and leveraged by our teachers as curriculum in our childcare allowing the children to watch as plants grow from seed, to sprout, to thriving plant! To become a volunteer at the YWCA of Asheville, email [email protected].