Cheers to all our breweries making headlines. Highland celebrates its 25th anniversary, Sierra Nevada just announced its new Pale for Trails initiative, and Craft Centric is honoring May the 4th with a new Skywalker’s Banthanilla Milkshake IPA. Bottoms up!
Anniversary
Congratulations to Highland Brewing, Asheville’s original craft brewery, on its 25th anniversary! Today the community is celebrating this momentous occasion with what is sure to be the party of the (quarter) century.
Announcement
Approximately 160 high school students from across Western North Carolina and northern Georgia gathered at Western Carolina University’s Ramsey Regional Activity Center on April 23 to test their knowledge of French and Spanish in the university’s 37th annual Language Contest. View the winners here.
Craft Centric’s in-house brewery Fermented Nonsense will be releasing Skywalker’s Banthanilla Milkshake IPA in honor of May 4th, Star Wars Day, at 2 p.m. The beer is brewed with turbinado sugar, vanilla, coconut palm sugar, lactose, and blueberry juice.
Leap Frog Tours is thrilled to announce a lineup of six new tours, including The Magic of Making Moonshine, Pics & Pints, En Plein Air Painting, Franny’s Farm CBD & Hemp Tour, Yoga on the Mountain, and Colorful Asheville.
Expansion
Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity is excited to announce that it will open a second Habitat ReStore in Weaverville in late summer 2019. The ReStore will lease the space currently occupied by ACE Hardware who is moving across the street. Though smaller than the flagship Asheville store, the Weaverville store will offer much of the same merchandise – used furniture, housewares, appliances, building supplies, art and more. There will be a donation drop-off lane and plenty of parking. Hours will be 10am-6pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
Opportunity
Friday Staffing is looking for a Welder, Machine Operator, Production Technician, Assembly Tech, Inventory Control Clerk, HR Intern, Accounting Clerk, Forklift Operator, and more. For more information, email Michelle Fann at fannm@friday-staffing.com or go to www.friday-staffing.com.
Outreach
Sierra Nevada Brewing just announced a new initiative as part of its Corporate and Social Responsibility division. Pale Ale for Trails aims to conserve America’s underfunded trails and river systems. Pale Ale for Trails will protect and repair trails and river systems by funding organizations dedicated to conservation, and through national clean-ups and trail restoration projects. To kick off the initiative, the brewery is partnering with the American Hiking Society for National Trails Day, a nationwide call-to-action with more than 1,200 events, on June 1, 2019.
Twenty years after the launch of the program, drivers in Tennessee and North Carolina have raised more than $15 million in support of Friends of the Smokies through specialty license plate sales. The Tennessee Smokies plate underwent a multi-year redesign and hit the roads in winter 2018. Less than six months later, sales increased by 30% over the same time in the previous year. A black bear was added to the North Carolina Smokies plate in 2007 and sales have seen a steady increase since then, placing the Smokies plate among the most popular in the state with representation in all 100 counties.
AdventHealth Hendersonville recently celebrated its team of volunteers who help spread its mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ to people coming to the hospital and other facilities. In 2018, more than 75 volunteers gave a total of 13,000 hours of service. AdventHealth celebrated this dedication to our patients, guests and staff at its Annual Volunteer Recognition Banquet in April.
Partnership
The local division of the nation’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, and Asheville-based Coldwell Banker King have formed a strategic relationship to pursue residential opportunities throughout Western North Carolina. The first collaboration between the two companies is already underway at The Views at Rose Hill, a planned community just outside Asheville’s city limits.
Retirement
A-B Tech’s president will retire next year, saying his time heading the community college was the “professional opportunity of a lifetime.” Dennis King, 72, will step down January 2020, giving the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Board of Trustees a nine-month start to select his replacement.