Popular Nashville recording artist Matt Stillwell returns home to the mountains of Western North Carolina on Saturday, Dec. 3, for a concert at the Smoky Mountain High School gym.

Stillwell is partnering with his alma mater, Smoky Mountain High School, to offer a benefit concert for the school. The concert begins at7 p.m.

Stillwell fans will be treated to a full concert all for only $10 per person. A BBQ dinner is also available for $8 per person, beginning at 5 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain High School Cafeteria.  For fans that want extra time with the country music star, Matt and the band have offered a personal Meet & Greet VIP Dinner and VIP seating for $40 per person.

“This is just one way I’m trying to give back to the town and people who have supported me over the years. We have a big show planned, you don’t want to miss it,” said Stillwell.

Stillwell was a stand-out four-sport athlete at Smoky Mountain High School, and later became an All Conference performer on the Southern Conference-winning Western Carolina University baseball team.

Tickets are on sale now and available at various locations throughout Sylva. Tickets can be purchased at Smoky Mountain High School and the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce as well as at the door the night of the concert. For more information at the concert or dinner contact Assistant Principal Jimmy Cleaveland at Smoky Mountain High School, 828.586.2177, extension 358.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian will take its story on the road in 2012, holding a series of new programs showcasing Ostenaco’s and Henry Timberlake’s journey to each other’s countries 250 years ago in a traveling exhibit called ‘Emissaries of Peace.’

The museum will celebrate this story and explore the two cultures — Cherokee and British — with seven events in four states.  

“We are looking forward to these exciting events, and taking this story of two cultures to a wider audience,” said Ken Blankenship, executive director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and an enrolled tribal member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

In 2006, the museum created the exhibit, “Emissaries of Peace: 1762 Cherokee and British Delegations.” It was designated a “We the People” exhibit by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This designation is awarded to projects that encourage and strengthen the understanding of American history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America.

During 2012, seven events and a public television broadcast will tell this story to new audiences. A battle re-enactment, festivals with 18th century Cherokee living history, scholarly symposia, a television broadcast and a trip to London will take place from Memorial Day through November. Additionally, a smaller version of the Emissaries exhibit will be on display at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington, Penn., and at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tenn., while the original exhibit resides at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee. Two additional small exhibits are available for rental.

Performances throughout the year bring history to life. Henry Timberlake and Ostenaco will provide first person historical interpretation. The Warriors of AniKituwha, a traditional Cherokee dance group sponsored by the Museum, will be performing at all venues.

As official cultural ambassadors, this dance group has been at the center of cultural revitalization for Cherokee people. They have inspired pride in a little-known period of Cherokee history when Cherokees took part in global events. Timberlake’s description of the War Dance that welcomed him is the basis for their revival of this and other traditional Cherokee dances. Research used in the exhibit has inspired and helped create cultural revitalization in traditional dance, Cherokee clothing, pottery, fingerweaving, feather capes and more.  

The exhibit has been viewed by more than two million people since its opening in 2006. It was the first exhibit created by an American Indian tribe to be displayed at the Smithsonian, opening in 2007 at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

www.cherokeemuseum.org.

Emissaries of Peace 2012 schedule

• May 26-27 — Reenactment of Montgomery and Grant expedition, battles on site, Macon County.

• May 1 — Oconaluftee Indian village opens with Timberlake and Ostenaco in residence June-August.

• June 10 — Cherokee Voices Festival at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and grand re-opening of the Emissaries exhibit.

• June 15 — Cherokee London Tour — Tour of places visited by the Cherokees in 1762:  

• June 22-23 — Timberlake in the Overhills: Ft. Loudon State Historic Site. Symposium with scholars;

• July 7-8 — Ft. Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania.

• July 18-22 — Timberlake and Ostenaco in Williamsburg, Va.

• Sept. 14-15 — Grand finale with Southeast Tribes Festival in Cherokee.

A popular post-Thanksgiving arts and crafts tradition will once again fill Western Carolina University’s Ramsey Center for two days of holiday fun.

The 24th annual Hard Candy Christmas Fine Art and Craft Show is Nov. 25-26, featuring more than 110 artisans hand-picked by show organizer and veteran crafter Doris Hunter.

Hunter spends the year visiting shows throughout the Southeast, seeking talented crafters who add a special touch to her show, which gets its name from a simpler era when folks enjoyed the season with stockings of hard candy and gifts made by hand.

This two-day event, the largest holiday arts and crafts show in Western North Carolina, features a variety of hand-made items from basket weavers, wood carvers, quilters, silversmiths, potters, furniture makers, blacksmiths, glass blowers and doll makers.

Holiday items available include candles, ornaments, trees, wreaths and peanut brittle.

This year’s featured artist is Jean Littlejohn of Clyde, who creates limited-edition holiday crafts from the 1800s. Her German-style candy containers are sculpted of papier mache. Littlejohn has won numerous awards and been featured in several crafts magazines.

The show has grown so much that a dozen artisans will be displaying outside the arena.

Show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Admission is $3 per person, with children under age 12 admitted free. Parking is also free.

For show info call Doris Hunter at 828.524.3405, or visit www.mountainartisans.net. For info on dining and lodging, call the Jackson County Visitors Center at 800.962.1911.

The Jackson County Public Library will host a performance of “Deck the Halls with Southern Writers,” the new one-woman Christmas play adapted and performed by Barbara Bates Smith, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the Community Room.

The play is based on the works of Southern writers including Kay Byer, Lee Smith, Allan Gurganus, and others. Musical accompaniment is by Jeff Sebens on hammered  dulcimer.

Excerpts will include “Christmas on Sugar Fork” from Lee Smith’s novel Fair and Tender Ladies, “The Christmas Spectacle” from Allan Gurganus’s Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells it All, and some of Truman Capote’s “Christmas Memories.” These stories are woven into Bates Smith’s own comical, often frustrating, search for the ‘true spirit of Christmas,’ with the play closing memorably with a Kay Byer poem: a pregnant mountain woman reflects on the Mary story from the Bible.

Bates Smith, who lives in Haywood County, is noted for her adaptation and Off-Broadway performance of “Ivy Rowe” from Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies, a show in its 21st year of touring. A Southeastern Theatre “Best Actress” award winner, Bates Smith has recently played featured roles in regional productions of “Wit,” “Hamlet” and “Doubt.”  

The actress returns to Sylva after her 2007 performance of a play based on Lee Smith’s On Agate Hill, which she performed as part of that year’s Great Smoky Mountains Book Fair, a major fund-raising event for the then-proposed new Jackson County Public Library. Bates Smith brings her support of the endeavor full circle when she returns to perform in the newly renovated space in the Jackson County Public Library Complex.

Visit www.barbarabatessmith.com for more information about the actress.

This free performance is sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

828.586.2016.

There are still limited tickets available for $25 for the Balsam Range concert with John Wiggins at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Colonial Theater in Canton that will kick of the band’s Winter Concert Series and benefit Haywood County Meals on Wheels.

Balsam Range recently won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Song of the Year for “Trains I Have Missed.” Wiggins is a Haywood County native who has become a successful songwriter in Nashville, penning songs for the likes of Blake Shelton, Joe Nichols, Reba McEntire and Don Henley, Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Gary Allan, John Michael Montgomery, Mountain Heart and Darryl Worley, among others.

For tickets call 828.235.2760 or visit Balsam Range’s website at www.balsamrange.com.

Other concerts in the series include:

• Jan. 3 — Deep River Rising (Bryan Sutton, David Holt, and T. Michael Coleman) and Balsam Range.

• Feb. 1 – Harris Brothers and Balsam Range

• March 3 — Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, and Jerry Salley, plus Balsam Range.

• April 7 — David Johnson, and Balsam Range.

In 1985, Chris Van Allsburg wrote The Polar Express, a story of a magical train ride on Christmas Eve. The train takes a young boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus. “The Polar Express,” published by Houghton Mifflin Company, has become a contemporary holiday classic, with over 6 million copies sold worldwide. In 2004 Warner Bros. Entertainment reunited the Academy Award-winning team of Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis in an inspiring animated version.

That same year Great Smoky Mountain Railroad began operating The Polar Express. More than 30,000 passengers rode The Polar Express with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in 2010.

The one-hour round-trip excursion comes to life as the train departs the Bryson City depot for a journey through the quiet wilderness for a special visit at the North Pole. Set to the sounds of the motion picture soundtrack, guests on board will enjoy warm cocoa and a treat while listening and reading along with the magical story. Santa will board the train, greeting each child and presenting them with a special gift just like in the story — their own silver sleigh bell. Christmas carols will be sung as the train returns to the depot.

The Polar Express operates through Dec. 24. Ticket prices begin at $39 for adults and $26 for children ages 2-12. Children under 2 years old ride complimentary. For more information and reservations please call 800.872.4681 or visit us online at www.GSMR.com. Premium rates apply to Nov. 25-27, Dec. 17-23 and all Saturday trains.

Crown Class ticket prices are $49 for Adults, $36 for children 2-12 and $10 for less than two years. First Class seating upgrades are available. Each guest will receive a deluxe serving of warm cocoa in a souvenir Polar Express mug and other treats in addition to the standard offerings. Upgrade to First Class at $59 for adults and $41 for children. Children under two years old are $15.

There will also be a Polar Express Christmas Eve Limited. Each guest will receive a special Christmas souvenir. Adult ticket prices are $51 and children 2-12 are $37. First-class seating upgrades are also available. Adult ticket prices are $72, children 2-12 are $50 and $20 for less than two years.

Smoky Mountain Trains Museum admission is included with all train excursion tickets. Without train excursion admission is $9 for adults and $5 for children.

To the Editor,

I just want to express my sincere appreciation to the farmers of Haywood County, the members of the Farm Services Agency and the Haywood County Cooperative Extension office for providing the public with the opportunity to ‘Talk To a Farmer’ last Monday evening.

A barbecue dinner was provided and everyone was very welcoming and gracious to answer even the most basic questions concerning farming.

The evening was very informative and enlightening, especially to those of us with no prior knowledge of what it takes to run a farm and produce a successful product.

Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedules to provide us with this wonderful opportunity. Hopefully this will be an annual event!!

Jolene Tomaro

Clyde

To the Editor:

Every businessman and political and community leader in Jackson County should feel some gratitude this Thanksgiving and exercise some vision towards an economic reality check — I hear the train a comin.’

Thanks Johnny Cash for that fine song towards what is a lasting Icon of American industry. We all should be singing that tune and working in unison to mend fences and bring the GSMR steam train back into Dillsbor.

The railroad wants to return to Dillsboro with a world-class steam train and needs aid toward delivery and installation. Why?

In case we haven’t noticed, the way people travel, that is shop for travel, is on the Internet these days. Jackson County stands to benefit as the home location with this featured GSMR steam train once again. With Dillsboro as the train’s home station, businesses all over the county will be positioned on the web.

A central destination point on what has become the shopping network for travel used by everyone for every part of a trip, from accommodations to restaurants to trails. Dillsboro will be a destination point with an exciting (to young and old) feature attraction as well as and in addition to our fine natural resources.

As travelers shop the information highway nowadays, the modern-day reality of a steam rail excursion that is fitting for Dillsboro’s heritage cannot be ignored as easily as some quick click travel options. And combined with our mountains, trails and rivers, we will again become a regional, multifunctional travel option that can bring warm bodies to our streets and stores via clicks from the masses looking to escape the major metropolitan areas.

This train provides us all with some steam. Why? In case we haven’t noticed, aside from the expected busy peak months of July and October, during the last four years our dwindling local numbers have all but crippled Jackson County’s tourism-related businesses and connected markets. Looking at the streets of Dillsboro and Sylva and up to Cashiers, one can see the decline with many small businesses having to close shop. We need a stimulus to reverse this trend as the county’s tourism industry has long been the engine that pulled many of our other markets along.

This is the next best thing and a way out of our economic affliction, a way to help ourselves like no other. The county, towns and railroad are positioned to benefit and serve one another, as neighbors can in this day and time of hardship. We recognize our decline, our need to reconcile and live in the here and now. We have to craft agreements that respects boundaries of citizen and business and not live in the past. Too much is at stake.

Having come to these mountains since I was a child, when the off season was a lot longer than the cold, I have seen Western North Carolina seasons expand and now contract, as markets have now waned. And it is a fact that all the markets in Jackson County are indeed related to tourism.

Hospitality and crafts, our restaurants and many services industries are tourism driven and have a direct impact to mountain real estate and construction. We have all felt this recession throughout. Those of us who are adults have seen the state of a healthy economy extend the perennial cycle of activity in a given calendar year to almost nine months.

Jackson County needs a steam engine that can. We stand to benefit mightily. Thanks to the fine people who are trying to make it happen.

TJ  Walker

Owner/operator, Dillsboro Inn

To the Editor:

I guess it’s inevitable that comparisons will be made between the Occupy and Tea Party movements. In many respects Occupy is a mirror image of the Tea Party.

To the Tea Party, government is the enemy. To Occupy, the huge corporation is the enemy. Occupy wants to raise taxes on billionaires. The Tea Party wants to reduce them. Occupy wants to rebuild and strengthen the safety net — food stamps, heating assistance, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Tea Party wants to eliminate or weaken it.

Every Tea Party event was covered by the media and advertised beforehand by Fox News. The media first ignored the Occupy movement for over a month and then ridiculed them. Tea Party participants mock the sick and the poor. At the larger Occupy locations, participants provide free food, health care and emotional support to everyone present at their events.

Tea Party participants are anti-union, anti-poor, racist, bigoted, and xenophobic. The Occupy movement strives for inclusion and worldwide participation. The Tea Party is funded by the Koch brothers. Occupy avoids leaders and bases decisions on consensus. At Tea Party events people showed up with assault rifles, shouted and spit at members of Congress, and the police took no notice. At Occupy events, people show up unarmed, are committed to non-violence and are maced and beaten by police.  

An October Time Magazine poll shows that Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are viewed favorably by 54 percent of Americans while only 27 pecent have favorable feelings toward the Tea Party. The Tea Party advocates for the wealthiest 1 percent. Occupy is standing up for the rest of us, the 99 percent.

Carole Larivee

Waynesville

Local Boy Scout Troop 999 sponsored by Sylva First Methodist Church is focusing this year on what to do when a person suffers a heart attack.

This vital training program was greatly enhanced this week when the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association and Andy Shaw Ford presented them with a CPR dummy. “Anne” provides instant responses by giving signals to the trainee that he or she is applying the right pressure to the right spot or breathing correctly into the victim’s mouth.

CPR is a requirement for many Boy Scout merit badges such as First Aid, Life Saving, Water Sports, and White Water, just to name a few. The training takes about five hours of lectures and intensive practice.

The troop hopes to train all its members in the next year. The unit will be available for other troops in the Jackson, Macon and Swain area to use for their CPR training.

The Haywood County Chamber of Commerce will participate in the second-annual Small Business Saturday, Nov. 26.

Small Business Saturday is a day for dedicating a portion of holiday shopping to local, independently owned small businesses.

Small business advocate groups, public and private organizations and elected officials joined American Express, the founding sponsor of Small Business Saturday, to launch the national program in 2010 in response to small business owners’ most pressing need: more demand for their products and services.

The chamber recognizes the importance of small businesses in Haywood County, the jobs they create and the culture they instill in local communities. Small businesses have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years and employ just over half of all private sector employees, according to the Small Business Administration.

Small business owners can go to Facebook.com/smallbusinesssaturday to download online promotional materials that will help them drive sales to their business on Small Business Saturday, and everyone can spread the word about the day and their favorite businesses by giving a shout-out to their favorite local shops and restaurants via Facebook and Twitter.

Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, will decide this week whether to veto tribal council’s decision to hold an alcohol referendum.

In a previous interview, Hicks called the decision a difficult one that required prayer and soul-searching.

The referendum would allow members of the Eastern Band to vote whether they want alcohol to be sold reservation-wide. The vote would likely take place sometime in April. Hicks is required to make his decision by Wednesday, Nov. 23. Check www.smokymountainnews.com to find out the chief’s decision.

Tribal council can override Hicks’ veto with a two-thirds majority vote. Nine of the 12 tribal council members have voted in favor of the referendum.

Jackson County wants some of the Cherokee-bound traffic diverted its way despite highway signs that indicate the way to Cherokee is through Maggie Valley.

Anyone coming to Western North Carolina from Interstate 40 encounters a sign in Waynesville pointing the way to Cherokee by going through Maggie Valley — which decades ago was indeed the primary route. But the winding two-lane road over Soco Gap is no longer the only way, nor easiest way, to reach Cherokee. Simply continue on the four-lane highway U.S. 23-74 past Waynesville, on past Sylva and take U.S. 441 into Cherokee.

The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce wants the N.C. Department of Transportation to add a sign telling motorists that they also can get to Cherokee by simply continuing on U.S. 23/74.

“Presently, the signage suggests that Cherokee can only be accessed by traveling through Maggie Valley,” County Manager Chuck Wooten told commissioners. “This would probably divert some traffic into Jackson County.”

And, of course, perhaps add more tourism dollars to merchants’ wallets, if motorists stop for gasoline or to eat.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has supported adding a sign showing the alternate route via a letter of support to DOT.

The Nurses Christian Fellowship student organization at Western Carolina University is seeking donations of gloves, scarves, hats and mittens to give to youth in Jackson County.

A collection box for donations is located at Room 209 of Moore Hall on campus, and donations will be accepted through Tuesday, Dec. 13. Faculty and students involved in the Nurses Christian Fellowship will then deliver the items to various Jackson County Schools.

For more giving opportunities, check out The Smoky Mountain News calendar section.

828.227.3529 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree will make a stop in Cherokee during this year’s national tour.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is hosting the event at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds on Wednesday, Nov. 23, beginning at 10 a.m.

The day begins with a traditional gift exchange between the Eastern Band and the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wok Indians and will be followed by a musical presentation by the Cherokee Elementary Chorus and community groups.

www.capitolchristmastree2011.org.

The Town of Maggie Valley was awarded a $184,786 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The funding, which will be distributed during a three-year period, is the reimbursement to the town for the full salary and benefits of an officer already on the force.

During hard economic times­­­­ and budget cuts, Chief Sutton with the support of Captain Moody, felt the urgency to compensate the people served in Maggie Valley by continuing to apply for this funding since May of 2010.

The Hooper House on West Main Street in Sylva has received Jackson County’s first designation as a Local Historic Landmark.

The house, which now serves as home for the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, was built in 1906. It was listed on the National Historic Registry in 2003, according to County Planner Gerald Green.

“It meets all the criteria” for the local designation, Green said, “because it maintains all of its character.”

A nonprofit group owns the house, and the local designation will allow the group to request a 50 percent property tax break from the county. That would reduce the annual tax bill of $700 to about $350. In return, the group must meet certain regulations intended to protect the historic nature of the structure. To make changes, it must receive a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission.

A brouhaha among Jackson County commissioners at a meeting last week prompted a follow-up public apology from Chairman Jack Debnam.

Debnam told The Smoky Mountain News there was a time and place for such disagreements but that the county meeting was neither the proper time nor the suitable place.

Commissioners met Nov. 14 in a special workshop to discuss funding for Smoky Mountain High School and a controversial proposed room tax hike. For the first part of the meeting, commissioners worked together in equanimity.

But when the meeting turned to a discussion of the room tax — and the equally divisive issue of whether the county’s framework for promoting tourism should be revamped — Commissioner Joe Cowan let loose with a heated verbal salvo. Cowan accused Debnam and County Manager Chuck Wooten of leaving him and fellow Democrat Mark Jones out in the cold. Cowan said they are purposely kept in the dark about issues and cut off from information.

That, in turn, sparked an exchange that put Debnam and Commissioner Doug Cody on the defensive.

Debnam and Cody told Cowan he should do more on his end, such as reading up on the county meeting agendas, getting to the meetings early or calling the other commissioners to talk.

“There should not have been an outburst like that in a public meeting,” Debnam said last week. “I’m apologizing for that happening at a board meeting. I would have liked all of that to have been handled in a more diplomatic manner.”

— By Quintin Ellison

Thanks to cold temperatures, Cataloochee Ski Area began cranking out the snow last Thursday night and by Saturday, the first slopes were open to skiers in Haywood County.

It plans to reopen Saturday, Nov. 19, for the regular early season schedule. This year marks Cataloochee’s 51st season.

This year Cataloochee also will be open for Thanksgiving, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. A Thanksgiving lunch of turkey and trimmings will be available.

Also, skiers should keep in mind that if you come in a group of 15 or more before Dec. 16, you can ski or snowboard for $30 a person, including rental, lift ticket and a beginner lesson for those ages seven and older.  

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.926.0285 ex. 318

Christmas tree growers from across Western North Carolina are donating Christmas trees as part of the nationwide Trees for Troops program, sponsored by the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation and FedEx Corp

This holiday season, 17,000 trees are expected to be delivered to U.S. military bases, as well as international shipments to military bases overseas. Anyone who wants to make a contribution can purchase local Christmas trees from growers, who are more then willing to drop-off trees for troops to the local staging area.

“Trees for Troops is a great program in which we’re able to honor our enlisted men and their families who give us the freedom we have,” Jackson County Christmas Tree Association President Charles Fowler said. “By networking with Christmas Tree growers, consumers and many organizations, we hope to reach the 100,000th tree shipped off since the program’s inception.”

The drop-off site for western counties will be in the Glenville area off of N.C. 107 between the Sylva and Cashiers. The last collection day will be Monday, Nov. 28. Christmas Tree growers Henry Fowler and Dennis Bryson will drive the trees to a staging area for WNC where they will be reloaded and delivered by FedEx to the MCAS (Marine Corp Air Station) New River, Fort Story in Virginia, and Fort Bliss in Texas.

www.TreesforTroops.org.

A ceremonial planting of a potentially blight-resistant chestnut took place earlier this week on the grounds of the North Carolina Arboretum.

The planting is significant because the American chestnut once flourished in mountains of Western North Carolina, and its loss in the 1930s was devastating to both the economy and the environment. This planting celebrates the first steps of the American chestnut’s return to the region’s forests. Cataloochee Ranch in Haywood County has also been a site of chestnut reforestation, made possible thanks to genetic engineering.

The planting was performed by staff of the N.C. Arboretum and The American Chestnut Foundation.

Once the mighty giant of our eastern forests, American chestnuts stood up to 100-feet tall and numbered in the billions. They were a vital part of the forest ecology, a key food source for wildlife and an essential component of the human economy. In 1904 a blight, accidentally imported from Asia, spread rapidly through the American chestnut population. By 1950 the blight fungus had killed virtually all the mature trees from Maine to Georgia.

The seedlings planted at the N.C. Arboretum are part of the chestnut foundation’s restoration process. Now one-year old and several feet tall, the chestnut trees will be carefully monitored as they mature.

The Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center is now accepting applications for the popular Master Gardener program.

The Master Gardener training class will begin in January and run through April. The class meets from 9 a.m. till noon on Wednesdays. The cost of the program, including training materials, is $85.

To become a Master Gardener, volunteer participants must complete the entire class and participate in 40 hours of volunteer work through the N.C. Cooperative Service Extension center.

There are currently 120 active Master Gardeners in Haywood County. These Master Gardeners contribute thousands of hours each year through Cooperative Extension programs, and by answering gardening questions through a plant clinic hotline.

828.456.3575.

Hiking enthusiast and author Danny Bernstein will lead a four-mile hike along the Mingus Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Along the way, Bernstein will talk about the historic Mingus Mill, the Mingus family cemetery and a slave cemetery.

The hike is easy to moderate in difficulty, has a total elevation gain of 700 feet. Hikers will later visit the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center, featuring interactive exhibits that tell the cultural history of life in the Smokies. Friends of the Smokies members receive a 15-percent discount at the gift shop and book store

Meeting locations are specified upon registration. A donation of $25 to go to the Friends’ Smokies Trails Forever program is requested, and includes a complimentary membership to Friends of the Smokies. There is no cost to current Friends of the Smokies members.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.452.0720.

The Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere conference will be held November 15 to 17 in Asheville, bringing together the best minds on environmental issues and challenges in the region.

This year’s theme is stewardship of the unique resources of the Southern Appalachians and will celebrate the forest-based livelihoods in timber and specialty woods, foods and medicines and recreation provided by the region’s forests.

There are dozens of speakers to pick from over the two day conference, including:

• Growing and marketing special products.

• The sustainability of recreation on both federal and private lands.

• Water quality and the wise use of the region’s rivers.

• Land use issues and the interface between private and federal ownerships.

• The legacy and present use of fire for forest management.

• Wildlife issues such as the impacts of deer and wild boar populations.

Learn more at www.samab.org.

Grant wizard Bruz Clark was honored at the Land Conservationist of the year by The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee. The annual award was announced at the LTLT’s fall gathering earlier this month.

Fifteen years ago when LTLT was first taking form, Clark attended a land trust meeting in Franklin and heard of the vision for conservation of the upper Little Tennessee.

As a young environmental grants maker for the Chattanooga-based Lyndhurst Foundation, he headed downriver when he left town that day and was immediately smitten by the intact beauty of the river valley and surrounding mountains.

Since that first visit Clark has been LTLT’s greatest and most consistent friend and supporter within the grant-making world. Beginning with a grant in 1997, the Lyndhurst Foundation has invested more than $800,000 directly into LTLT’s work, along with an additional half-million dollar contribution towards the purchase of the Needmore Tract.  Clark also has served as a key promoter of LTLT’s efforts helping to attract other foundation investment to its work.

Ed Haight was honored as LTLT’s volunteer of the year.

The Rotary Club of Sylva will hold the United Community Bank 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day beginning at 9 a.m. on the Western Carolina University campus.

Runners will start at the Ramsey Center, circle once around the campus (which includes a gentle uphill section). For the finish, runners head downhill into the football stadium, where they watch themselves — if they want — on the big scoreboard as they cross the finish line.

www.sylvarotaryclub.org and click on the Turkey Trot logo.

City Lights Bookstore will celebrate the release of the new edition of Horace Kephart’s classic, Camping and Woodcraft, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Included in the new edition are over 40 historic photographs taken by Kephart and George Masa. Many of these images were recently discovered and never before published. Also included is a wonderful new cover image featuring the work of Elizabeth Ellison and an 80-page introduction by Kephart scholars George Ellison (of Bryosn City) and Janet McCue.  

Local historian George Frizzell will join George and Elizabeth Ellison for the celebration at City Lights. For more information or to reserve a copy please call the bookstore at 828.586.9499.

Editor’s note: Dawn Gilchrist-Young teaches English at Swain County High School and was the 2011 winner of the Norman Mailer Writing Award for High School Teachers for her short story “The Tender Branch.” The winner receives a monetary award and a summer 2012 stay at the prestigious Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony in Massachusetts. Gilchrist-Young accepted the award during a banquet Nov. 8 in New York City. These were her remarks.

The distance between Southern Appalachia where I grew up and this Mandarin Hotel ballroom is not so great. Nor is the distance between an afternoon in 1981 reading a high school essay to my parents and, a few weeks ago, receiving a call from Lawrence Schiller telling me I had won the first Norman Mailer Writing Award for High School Teachers.

The distance is not so great because there is a bridge created by words that can cross even the widest divides. In creating this award for teachers, the Norman Mailer Center has allowed teachers passage on that bridge. And in giving this first award to a public school teacher, the Norman Mailer Center is questioning those who would be keepers of the gate, questioning the status quo in our governing bodies that seems bent on impoverishing public schools and preventing their movement from the less advantaged land on one side of that bridge to the proverbial land of opportunity that is always just within sight.

For many of us in this room, there lives in our memories someone whose words encouraged, cajoled, irritated and chided us into fulfilling our potential. For me, it is the words of a teacher at a tiny  elementary school telling me he had sent a story I had written to a state competition. It is the words of another teacher at Swain County High School telling me I might have talent if I worked at it. And it is my own words heard in the voice  of yet another high school teacher there reading a critical essay I had written to the class. These teachers’ words live in me as I try to say something fresh and true to my own classes of  seventeen and eighteen year olds at the same high school. These words live in me when I sit at my desk and write. These words reside in me just as I hope the words I write, the words I speak, will take up residence in those who hear and read them and provide for them a means of bridging economic and societal gaps.

From the rural child living in a singlewide trailer to the urban child living in an apartment in the projects, from the mountain student I teach who has applied to Vanderbilt and Tulane, to the one who hopes for community college and who did without heat or electricity for much of last winter without complaint, what my students want is what we all want: that someone will attend to our words, that someone will show us how to use those words to establish our dignity and uphold the democracy that may move us to a better place.

And that is what I think is so wonderful about this award that I receive tonight. It does not offer the sentimental version of me, the teacher, as unsung hero, perpetuating the damaging stereotype of teachers as martyrs. Nor does it thank me for 10,000 graded essays, nor for teaching thousands of stories, nor for caring about one after another after another of the students who enter and exit my classroom, though never my memory. Instead, it thanks me for saying what I would have said anyway because it has to be said. This award thanks me for the insistent words that will not be quiet or still because they cannot be quiet or still, for the words that teach, but even more, for the words that tell a story, that keep me awake nights, that demand they be allowed to go beyond the walls of school. God gives teachers who write two voices: the one voice with which we shape the words that allow us to teach, and the other with which we shape the stories that we must write. And among the impassioned and dedicated, these words and the voices that give them life become a compulsion because we know they are a passport for anyone who learns to use them.

This award this evening from the Norman Mailer Center is my assurance that someone out there is listening to what I am compelled to say, someone out there believes a teacher, a public school teacher, has words that are worthy of recognition. And as each year in the future allows yet another teacher to stand in this place and feel this moment of grace and gratitude, and as the words grow in number and the voices grow in volume, perhaps those whose legislation so deeply affects us all will notice and believe that those who spend most of our lives in a classroom do, indeed, have words that are worthy of attention, words that can connect the people on one side of a divide to the people on the other.

And so I thank you. Thank you for allowing our world to expand beyond our schools, and for giving our words, for giving my words, an audience that listens, that allows those of us on the far side of the gap to do more than just see the land that is promised, but to actually touch it.

(Dawn Gilchrist-Young can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

To read the story, go to www.ncte.org/awards/nmwa and click on “The Tender Branch.”

To the Editor:

“Population shrinking and growing older,” a headline from a recent newspaper article, is exactly Haywood Animal Welfare Association’s spay/neuter, trap-neuter-return (TNR) program’s goal for free-roaming cat colonies in Haywood County.

Through generous donations and a grant from PetSmart Charities, TNR volunteers humanely capture neighborhood cats for sterilization surgery and vaccination. The cats remain overnight at the Humane Alliance Spay/Neuter Clinic and are returned pain-free to their capture site and caretakers. TNR is a godsend to elderly caretakers who cannot afford the expense of both fixing and feeding the cats outside their doors and cannot manage the physical challenge of trapping and transporting to get the job done.

HAWA spay/neuter’s TNR cats are “eartipped” — meaning the left ear’s tip is removed during surgery — as visual proof of their status. No more kittens, a calmer environment, healthier cats, and an affordable cat food budget are real benefits for our aging residents who open their hearts to homeless cats. It’s also a wise intervention: who will care for all the cats when the caretaker’s estate is settled? Will their fate be shelter euthanasia?

Call HAWA spay/neuter at 828.452.1329 or visit our website at www.hawaspayneuter.org for more information on our low-cost spay/neuter mission and related programs. Give online or mail your donation to P.O. Box 992, Waynesville, N.C., 28786.

Susan Kumpf

HAWA Spay/Neuter Board VP & TNR Coordinator

Crabtree

To the Editor:

I found it curious that The Smoky Mountain Times in Bryson City had not run any articles or any biographical information about the candidates running for mayor of our fine town of Bryson City. And to me and others this is one of the most important local elections we have!

So I asked one of the candidates a few weeks ago why there was nothing in the paper about the candidates, and this with just a few weeks (at that time) left before the election. I wanted to know something about the candidates before I voted.

The candidate told me that he was told by the Smoky Mountain Times new publisher Cathy New that the paper’s new policy was the following: if the candidates wanted something about their candidacy in the Smoky Mountain Times, the candidates would have to pay for it.

And so I thought to myself, what kind of election coverage and newspaper policy is that?

And so in last week’s Smoky Mountain Times, there was nothing. Only a ballot sheet, and that was it except what the candidates put in themselves. No local coverage on the most important local election a municipality could have.

Lucky for me I did pick up a copy of The Smoky Mountain News and there it was – local coverage that covered our candidates in our non-local paper. And thank you Smoky Mountain News for giving us coverage on our mayoral candidates.

The only problem is that not everyone in our town may have the opportunity to pick up The Smoky Mountain News. Most of us we have The Smoky Mountain Times delivered to us and we depend on that coverage. And we should expect that something such as a local mayoral race would be covered! I find it all pretty disgraceful and am ashamed of this new policy.

So by the time this letter gets to the paper and edited to their standards, the election will be over. I just hope the best man will have won. But I guess we will never know for sure since the new policy did not give us any coverage.

And they always wonder why election turnout is so low!

Bob McCann

Bryson City

Dalton’s Christian Bookstore in Waynesville is putting 10 candles on its birthday cake this year.

A decade ago, Waynesville had a small Christian bookstore, The Magnificat, owned by Susie Sorrells. Upon hearing about plans to open Dalton’s Christian Bookstore in town, Sorrells made an agreement with Dalton’s to merge the two stores.

The staff is thankful for the churches and individuals in the community who supported them during the past decade.

Dalton’s Christian Bookstore is located at 331 Walnut Street with store hours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A new business, Mountain View Appliance, opened its doors Oct. 3.

The owners, Mark Atkinson and Elva Woody, said they are excited about what the business has done since they opened and strive to have the lowest service call rates in the county.  Rates are $45 per service call and $20 labor. They also offer 24-hour emergency service for a higher rate.

Mountain View Appliance is bonded and insured and will do service calls the same day or by the next business day. Its service area is Leicester, Enka, Candler, Canton, Clyde, Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Sylva, Cherokee and Bryson City.

www.mountainviewappliance.com.

Throughout the month of October, second through fifth grade students at the Roots in Education After School Homework House got “REAL” with entrepreneurship.

Certified NC REAL instructor and Haywood County Chamber Marketing & Communications Manager, Katy McLean Gould, brought topics including goal setting, product development, business creation, marketing and more to the classroom through the promotion of experiential education.

Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning (REAL) is a “hands on” introduction to the core principals of entrepreneurship as a means to improving the opportunities and skills of area youth and adults. REAL Entrepreneurship is taught in 44 states and serves approximately 15,000 participants per year.

Those calling Reynolds Hall home on the Western Carolina University campus are shy of meeting a book-drive goal for Smokey Mountain Elementary School.  

The goal is to have 1,000 books by Nov. 17 for delivery to children on Nov. 18, said Jean Bowen, a Reynolds resident assistant and a WCU senior majoring in elementary education. The tally as of Nov. 10, stood at approximately 600, Bowen said.

“The more books we have, the better variety the students can choose from,” Bowen said. Organizers are requesting new and used books or money for books. A bin outside of Reynolds Hall, on the upper portion of the WCU campus, is set up for book collection, and project organizers also will pick up books.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.227.4642.

Craig Madison, the president and CEO of the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa, will be the featured speaker at the annual meeting of Smoky Mountain Host in Cherokee Nov. 29.

The meeting includes workshops for tourism businesses in developing strategies for advertising, online marketing, use of social media, research and consumer trends. The workshops are free and open to the business community. The cost of the reception/dinner is $60 per person for host members and $75 for nonmembers. Workshops begin at 2 p.m.; the reception and dinner is at 7 p.m. at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Hotel Conference Center.   

An Asheville native, Madison began his career in the hospitality industry while in high school working part-time as a bellman and front desk clerk at a local hotel. He co-founded The Alpha Group, an advertising agency. He became the Grove Park’s leader in 2003.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.369.9606. Please use the word “registration” in the subject line of the email.

Everyone is invited to a “relaxed meeting” Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Town Hall to have their voices heard on the qualities needed in the next town manager for Waynesville.

Town Manager Lee Galloway will retire June 30. Aldermen hired the firm, Developmental Associates, to aid them in their recruitment and evaluation of applicants for the position. Part of that process includes this public meeting.

The Board of Aldermen will hold a special meeting on Nov. 16 to meet with the consultant and review the process. That meeting is open to the public, too.

The fourth annual Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, “Poverty, Abundance, and Peace:  Seeking Economic Justice for All God’s Children” through Nov. 15 will delve into the systemic causes of poverty and economic disparity.

Speakers include Sen. George McGovern (a former presidential candidate who ran against incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972); David Beckmann, executive director of Bread for the World; Bishop Nkula Ntambo of the Katanga Conference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Michael Ayuen de Kuany, one of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan.”  

Each brings a long history of involvement in issues related to peace, poverty and hunger.

“They will help us explore ways to be more effective in our witness and involvement in seeking peace and justice for all,” said Garland Young, chair of the Peace Conference.

There will also be an interfaith panel featuring Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars on the topic, “Our Sacred Texts Speak to Us in Regard to Peace, Justice and Economics.”

www.lakejunaluska.com/peace or call 828.454.6656.

The Western Carolina University Concert Choir will team up with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and Asheville Symphony Chorus for a joint performance of “Resurrection Symphony” by Gustav Mahler on Sunday, Nov. 20.

The performance will begin at 3 p.m. in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center on the Western Carolina campus.

Admission to the event at WCU is $10 for adults and $5 for students.

The musical groups also will perform “Resurrection Symphony” at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville.

“I hope these performances will mark the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between the university’s choral program and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra,” said Will Peebles, director of the WCU School of Music.

The 25-voice WCU Concert Choir is an auditioned group of student vocalists that performs works from the Renaissance to the 21st century, including major choral works such as Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and Handel’s “Messiah.” It is directed by Michael Lancaster, director of choral activities at WCU.

Lancaster also conducts the Asheville Symphony Chorus, which will feature soloists Sarah Jane McMahon and Ashley Hill in the performances of “Resurrection Symphony.”

The nearly 100-member Asheville Symphony Orchestra is directed by Daniel Meyer. Among its musicians are WCU music faculty members Shannon Thompson (clarinet), Mario Gaetano (percussion), Brad Ulrich and Amy Cherry (trumpets), Will Peebles (contrabassoon), Travis Bennett (horn) and Eliot Wadopian (bass).

“Resurrection Symphony,” which is not typically performed by colleges and universities, is considered a powerful work requiring large choral forces.

Tickets for the WCU performance of “Resurrection Symphony” may be purchased by calling 828.227.2479 or online at www.wcu.edu/bardoartscenter.

Tickets for the performance in Asheville are available through the Symphony office or the Asheville Civic Center box office, and range in price from $20 to $55 (with discounts available for students, or for “Pick 3” subscriptions).

828.254.7046 or  www.ashevillesymphony.org.

Tickets go on sale Nov. 18 for a Jan. 14 concert by country music star Charley Pride at Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center.

Pride’s smooth baritone voice was featured on 39 number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. Pride is one of the few African-American musicians to have great success in the country music industry and the only one inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. 

Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com or 800.745.300 and start at $30.

Guy Penrod and Lynda Randle will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 19 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Penrod was a centerpiece and lead singer for Bill Gaither’s “Vocal Band” for 14 years and has recently recorded his first solo country album, Breathe Deep. This new collection of songs explores his strong values and deep roots in faith and family. It’s described as “positive country music with Christian undertones.”

Randle is an award-winning gospel recording artist with a bottomless supply of enthusiasm that generates throughout audiences everywhere. She’s performed at numerous Billy and Franklin Graham Crusades, opened for the great Gladys Knight, shared the stage with evangelists such as Charles Stanley and Chuck Swindoll, and has toured fulltime with Bill and Gloria Gaither and Their Homecoming Friends for the past 13 years.

Tickets are $20 each.

www.GreatMountainMusic.com or 866.273.4615.

One Leg Up will perform in concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20, in the Haywood County Library in Waynesville as part of the Haywood County Arts Council’s Sunday Concert Series.

Based in Asheville, One Leg Up performs a vibrant mixture of upbeat gypsy jazz, Latin, swing and original jazz compositions. They are a favorite of club, concert and festival stages throughout the southeastern United States. The group is comprised of John Stineman (guitar, vocals); Jim Tanner (Guitar); Zack Page (bass); Mike Guzalak (Clarinet, Sax); and, Steve Trismen (violin, vocals).

One Leg Up formed in 2003 as a “String Swing” band in the style of famed French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. Propelled by their self-produced debut recording “Gypsy Blue,” they soon won critical acclaim for their “hot club” prowess and were tapped to back up award-winning Spanish guitarist Pere Soto on some of his 2005 U.S. tour dates. In May 2005, One Leg Up performed at a combined concert and book signing with Michael Dregni author of the new acclaimed biography Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend.

828.452.0593 or www.haywoodarts.org.

The Tuscola High School Chamber Choir and The Summit Choir will present a musical review of some of Broadway’s greatest hits at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Nov. 19 and again at 7 p.m. on Nov. 20.

Amission is $8 and includes dessert.

The 9th Annual Broadway Show, under the direction of Fritzi Wise, provides students with an opportunity to showcase their talents through the music and dance of Broadway. Dessert begins one hour before the show and includes a silent auction. All proceeds support the Tuscola’s Choral Department. 

For tickets call 828.456.2408 and ask for the Chorus Office or contact a chorus member or parent.

A fundraising event for the Community Table soup kitchen in Sylva will be held from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, at City Lights Café on Spring Street.

The event will include a reception with a string trio and there will be samples of olives, hors d’oeuvres, and a cash bar.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Annie’s Bakery, Signature Brew and City Lights Café, all in downtown Sylva and at the Mad Batter Café on Centennial Drive in Cullowhee. Tickets may also be purchased at the door of City Lights Café during the event. Ticketholders may take home a pound of olives or antipasti.

Haywood County native Charlie Rhodarmer, director and manager of the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, will give a presentation on 18th century Cherokee history and culture at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, at Canton Branch Library.

Rhodarmer’s talk will focus on Sgt. Sumter and Lt. Henry Timberlake’s experience with the Cherokee. After visiting the Overhill Cherokee (a term applied to the Cherokee who resided in what is now eastern Tennessee) in 1762, Timberlake wrote about the two months in which he lived with the Cherokee and the months following when he and Sumter escorted three Cherokee to England.

Timberlake paints a colorful story about his adventure with the Cherokee in his memoirs. Reading his writings, you also discover that Timberlake was one of the unluckiest men of the 18th century, and that his bad luck had a tendency to rub off on those around him.

Speaking from the perspective of “Sumpter” (Timberlake continually misspells Sumter’s name in his writings), Rhodarmer will share a few of the Lieutenant’s misadventures and will go on to depict the Sergeant’s continued involvement with the Cherokee.

Sumter and Timberlake were with the Cherokee from the time they first met in the Overhill territory until Sumter and the Cherokee left England to return to the colonies (Timberlake remained in England). As Sumter traveled through South Carolina while escorting the Cherokee back to the Overhill, he fell in love with the Santee area of South Carolina, which was eventually renamed Sumter County.

Program participants will be invited to examine a few of the Cherokee items that Timberlake describes in his memoirs, and to enjoy refreshments generously provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information on the Nov. 17 event, call the Canton Branch Library at 828.648.2924.

Students from Oconaluftee Institute of Cultural Arts recently visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and got to put their hands on some of the oldest forms of Cherokee art.

The students, under the direction of museum Education Director Barbara Duncan, were allowed access to the Museum’s extensive artifact collection that includes pieces thousands of years old.

Duncan chose Cherokee art from the Mississippian period and other time periods and discussed their functions and cultural contexts: two atlatl weights, a bannerstone, two birdstones, a chunkey stone, a discoidal, a marble, a shell gorget, a bear effigy water bottle, a three-color resist painted water bottle, and a fire pot.

“It was great to have the OICA students and teachers visit the museum and access our collections to learn about Cherokee art and culture from Cherokee artifacts,” said Duncan.

The two classes from OICA were the Art History Survey I taught by Phyllis Jarvinen and 2 D Design taught by program instructor Brian Kane.

“It was an amazing experience for our students to be able to see and touch something that someone made thousands of years ago,” said Jarvinen. “You truly got a sense of the physical connection as well the level of craftsmanship.”

Southwestern Community College offers an Associate of Fine Arts degree program at The Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts. The Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts is located on U.S. 19 North, behind Tribal Bingo at 70 Bingo Loop in Cherokee.

828.497.3945 or southwesterncc.edu/finearts/.

The Jackson County Extension and Community Association Craft Club will hold a workshop for participants to make holiday potpourri and scented soap and beeswax candles which can be used for home use or gift-giving.

The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Nov. 17 in the conference foom of the Community Service Center in Sylva.

Instructors will be Becky Lipkin and Brenda Anders. Cost is $5 for potpourri and $16.50 for a set of beeswax candles. Participants should bring fabric scraps, dried roses, flowers, etc., for potpourri. All other supplies provided.

828.586.4009.

Southwestern Community College’s Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts is hosting a Cherokee Baskets Show in its gallery on Tribal Bingo Road as part of November’s Native American Month .

The show is a combination of work from the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual and a historical display from the Clay County Historical Association.

“The work on loan from the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual is a testimony to the tradition, craftsmanship and attention to detail involved with creating each basket,” said OICA program director Jeff Marley. “The historical display from Clay County Historical Association depicts a Cherokee woman engaged in the creation of a river cane basket. Everything is historically accurate, including cloths, tools, and even the basket.”

Elementary school-age children and their families are invited to Holiday ARTSaturday, the Macon County Arts Council’s free monthly crafts and music workshop, from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Nov. 19, in the historic Rickman General Store.  

The Arts Council provides all materials for make-and-take projects including evergreen swags, holiday collage cards, decorated Christmas cookies, and paper garlands, along with gift wrapping instruction, caroling to live music by keyboardist Lionel Caynon, and refreshments. There’s no pre-registration; children should wear play clothes and come for any part of the session. Adults must stay with their children.

Attendees may park in the Cowee School lot and follow the short path to the store. The event is sponsored by the Joe Suminski Family to honor their grandmothers, Anne Gallup and Colleen Suminski.

828.524.7683 or www.artscouncilofmacon.org.

The Haywood County Arts Council’s Gallery 86 will hold its fourth annual small works show titled, “It’s a Small, Small Work 2011,” Wednesday, Nov. 16, through Friday, Dec. 31.

The show provides a unique opportunity to purchase original art at very modest prices. Most artwork is priced between $20 and $80. No work is priced over $300. Artwork is sold off the wall in a “pay and walk away” style. As such, the show changes a little each week with new art pieces being added almost daily to take place of works that were sold.

Artist participation in the annual small works continues to grow each year from 68 artists in 2008 to over 115 artists in 2011. There are hundreds of pieces of art from which to choose.

Artists hail from Buncombe, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Swain, Transylvania, and many other counties that comprise the 25-county Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.

The show challenges artists to create works smaller than 12 inches in every dimension, including base, matting, and frame, etc. Participating artists include aspiring artists, hobbyists, emerging artists, mid-career artists, and established artists who have been producing work for a number of years. It’s a Small, Small Work 2011 features a variety of mediums including: painting, printmaking, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, collage, fiber, sculpture, gouache, woodworking, metal, jewelry, photography, and more.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The artists’ reception is Sunday, Nov. 20, from 1-5 p.m. in conjunction with Downtown Waynesville’s Holiday Open House. An Art After Dark reception will be held Friday, Dec. 2, from 6-9 p.m.

For more information visit the website at www.haywoodarts.org, Like the Arts County on Facebook or follow on Twitter. 828.452.0593.