If you’ve ever considered adding a feline companion into your family, now is the perfect time to adopt. Blue Ridge Humane Society has discounted the regular cat adoption fee to $25, down from the regular $75 for the immediate future due to a high number of cats and kittens waiting for adoption from the organization. Studies have shown that owning a pet significantly cuts down on an owner’s stress and anxiety. Having a pet in your life drastically improves your overall mental and physical health.

“This time of year, animal shelters, including Blue Ridge Humane, are flooded with cats,” says Angela Prodrick, Executive Director of Blue Ridge Humane. “Choosing to adopt a cat now not only rescues that cat’s life, but also opens space for us to take in more kittens that are so desperately in need of homes.” Karla Pan, Adoption Center Director adds “Cats are always their authentic selves, offer sincere company, and love without limits. We can all use more of this right about now, so Blue Ridge Humane Society has reduced our adoption fees to make it easier to welcome a new cat into your home.”

To view animals currently waiting for adoption, visit https://www.blueridgehumane.org/adopt/. Blue Ridge Humane also provides an animal request form in the case that there isn’t a match currently available.

All adoptions are currently following the contact-free and digital adoption procedure implemented by Blue Ridge Humane in May. The new procedure includes adoption counseling from Blue Ridge Humane staff, a contact-free or virtual meet and greet between a potential adopter and the animal they are interested in, as well as a contact-free animal pick-up after completing the required paperwork and payment digitally. After finding an animal they are interested in, the adopter can fill out the application form on the Blue Ridge Humane website under Adopt, and staff will be in touch with more information about the animal and the next steps.

The Blue Ridge Humane Society, Inc., is a 501(c)3 animal welfare organization started in 1950 dedicated to ensuring the highest quality of life for animals in Henderson County and our neighboring communities. BRHS cares for pets awaiting adoption at the Adoption Center; offers low-cost vaccine clinics, animal education programs, pet training classes, and youth education and projects; coordinates community pet food assistance, emergency vet assistance, and the Spay Neuter Incentive Program (SNIP), which is a collaboration with Henderson County, the City of Hendersonville, and the Henderson County Animal Services Center.

If you believe in our cause, consider making a donation or learning how to volunteer by visiting the Blue Ridge Humane Society’s website at www.blueridgehumane.org or call (828) 692-2639.

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SCHUBERT Schlachtlied, Op. 151, arr. Glenn P. Smith
STEPHENSON Taps for Bill
BMC Alumni Trombone Choir
Recorded live on July 26, 2016,
at the Porter Center in Brevard, NC.

DEBUSSY Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp III. Finale
Dilshad Posnock, flute • Jenny Snyder Kozoroz, viola
Allegra Lilly, harp
Recorded live on July 18, 2018,
at the Porter Center in Brevard, NC.

Selected past performances by BMC orchestras, faculty, and guest artists on YouTube, SoundCloud, and Open Air Brevard.

https://masks.com/pages/the-great-american-mask-drive-by-masks-com?fbclid=IwAR0AR-vhz0_JXmFMEKFZS-3sNE1PldWPahS7LK-uPP4QtvyIXAvJzuEvOB8

As an advocate for the arts in our community, Haywood County Arts Council develops partnerships with schools, other nonprofits, county governments, schools, city revitalization boards, economic development councils, chambers of commerce, and tourism bureaus. These partnerships are often the catalyst for sustainable economic and community development using the arts and can lead to programs that connect diverse parts of the county through shared arts experiences.

With the assistance and support of the North Carolina Arts Council, the Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) has an important role in sustaining, growing, and advocating for the arts in Haywood County. The HCAC is a Designated County Partner (DCP) for the North Carolina Arts Council, and administers the Grassroots Arts Program subgrant process as well as the Artist Support Grant for Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Polk, Rutherford, and Transylvania Counties.

Miss browsing the library’s shelves? Let us help with Bookfix. Call or email your local library to have a librarian put together a bundle of books tailored to your specific interests. You can pick up your personal Bookfix bundle at our curbside hold pickup service. Our Ask a Librarian line is available Monday-Saturday at (828) 250-4700 or you can email [email protected].

From NCDHHS

If you are a renter in North Carolina facing eviction due to COVID-19 economic impacts, there may be resources available to you.

Rental and Utility Assistance

If you were unable to pay your rent and/or utilities due to COVID-19 or its economic impacts, you may qualify for assistance. Call NC 2-1-1 to learn of resources in your community for emergency needs, including rental and utility assistance.

For the month of July, genealogists and historians can access the popular Ancestry.com database from home for free. All you need is a library card.

Among the billions of records available, Ancestry.com includes census records and indexes, vital, church, military, public member trees; birth, marriage and death records; tax, criminal, land and wills stories, memories and histories, pictures, city directories, immigration and travel schools, maps and more. There are records from the United States as well as international records, so no matter where your family might be from, you will probably be able locate them in the Ancestry database.

Find a new branch of your family tree with Ancestry. Visit the library website at buncombecounty.org/library and use the Virtual Library tab to access Ancestry. If you don’t have a library card, email us at [email protected] and we can give you a card by email. Call 828-250-4700 with any questions.

Roots + Wings Creative Community

“What Motivates People from Dominant Groups to Support Social Justice” Diane J. Goodman and Lee Anne Bell

“The Costs of Racism to White People” by Paul Kivel

Seeing White Series from Scene On Radio, a 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America.

Slavery By Another Name, PBS Documentary

White Awake Manual — a set of educational resources for guiding white affinity processes

Around The Web w/ BMC

Live-streamed performances, resources, and activities we love from around the web, updated weekly.

Explore Space
With NASA at Home
Bring the universe into your home with virtual tours, family activities, podcasts, and more!

How to Understand
The Circle of Fifths
How is the Circle of Fifths used in music composition? Mark Newman uses visuals to help explain!

Tap-Dancing Noses At
The Royal Opera House
Don’t miss this scene from Shostakovich’s surreal and vibrant first opera, featuring tap-dancing noses.

Around The Web w/ BMC

Live-streamed performances, resources, and activities we love from around the web, updated weekly.

Beethoven Rocks!
Multimedia Experience
Join the Kennedy Center in a fun exploration of the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven.

You don’t need to give up your fitness or workout routine just because COVID-19 has you spending more time at home. If you’ve got a library card and access to WiFi, it’s easy to stay active with digital resources. (If you need a new library card or renewal, call Ask a Librarian at (828) 250-4700 or follow these steps.)

North Carolina Digital Library

Despite the cancellation of the Flat Rock Playhouse’s 2020 season due to COVID-19, folks are being encouraged to take time to enjoy the lush gardens on the grounds of the historic campus.

With a QR code reader on any smartphone, garden visitors can tap into information about the individual plants wherever they’re standing. The codes direct the phone to webpages on a Muddy Sneakers site that the garden volunteers control.

The Master Gardners have been hard at work adding some tech to our gardens! QR codes can now be found on the 62 garden beds that make up the Playhouse gardens. Visitors can use their smartphones to learn more about the plants they are seeing. Congratulations and thank you to Tamsin Allpress and all of our gardening volunteers who work to keep our gardens beautiful! Photo by volunteer Mary Smit

Health-e from Home is a free 8-week program designed to help you make a few small changes to your everyday health habits – and it can be done at home, or anywhere. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are evaluating the acceptability and usage of this free online program that is designed to help people who are spending more time at home due to COVID-19 build healthier habits.  Those who join the study will receive access to weekly lessons and tailored feedback from the study team that will encourage small changes to their eating, small increases in activity, and simple activities to promote well-being. Participants will complete a brief, 20-minute survey at the beginning and end of the program, as well as weekly check-in questions to help the study team provide personalized feedback to help individuals meet their health goals.  Those who are interested in focusing on maintaining or losing weight will also be invited to a private Facebook group to join other study members working to meet weight goals during the study. To learn more and find out if you are eligible to participate, please visit http://healthefromhome.org.

MANNA’s mission is to involve, educate, and unite people in the work of ending hunger, and an important part of this mission is advocating for those living in and experiencing the effects of poverty. As a non-partisan organization, dedicated to sharing information about the issues affecting the people we serve together, MANNA does not endorse political parties or candidates. We simply ask people to work with our elected officials to make legislation that works for us all, and makes our region, our state, and our country stronger from the ground up. If you are interested in receiving advocacy-related emails from MANNA FoodBank, please follow link. By clicking here, you are signing up to receive information from MANNA about ways you can use your voice, and actions you can take, to help work towards our vision of a hunger-free Western North Carolina.