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Category Archives: Asheville Attractions

Asheville Startup Weekend winners launch Local Flavor AVL app

Press Release

Asheville, N.C. (Jan. 27, 2014) – Today the winners of Asheville Startup Weekend launched Local Flavor AVL, a first-of-its-kind mobile app that showcases only locally-owned Asheville businesses, non-profits, shops, services, musicians and artists. Designed to provide an authentic Asheville experience for locals, transplants and visitors, the free app is available for download at iOS App Store, iTunes and Google Play Store.

“Local Flavor AVL is part of the greater movement to keep Asheville unique by providing an affordable way for our local, independently-owned businesses, restaurants, shops, services, galleries, non-profits and our prolific arts and music scene to reach people who value an authentic experience,” said Ted Pate, Director of Marketing at Local Flavor AVL. “With new boutiques, restaurants, galleries and more opening their doors daily, new information is added regularly to the app. Our vision for this app is to help grow and sustain a vibrant local economy.”

The Local Flavor AVL partners, Hartley Brown, Flori Pate, Trevor Parker and Ted Pate, came together out of their love of working and playing in Asheville and shared a common bond to support all things local.

Article source: http://www.mountainx.com/article/55800/Asheville-Startup-Weekend-winners-launch-Local-Flavor-AVL-app If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Poetry competition accepting submissions

The 2014 Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition is now open for submissions. This contest awards the first-place winner $200 and publication in “storySouth.”

The 2014 Randall Jarrell Competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Submissions should be one poem only (40-line limit). An entry fee must accompany the poem.

Multiple submissions are accepted, one poem per entry fee: $10 for NCWN members, $15 for nonmembers. The contest deadline is March 1.

For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.

BRCC to host open auditions

Blue Ridge Community College’s drama department will host open auditions for the spring production of “Dearly Departed,” a Southern comedy.

The auditions will be held at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday in the Patton Auditorium at Blue Ridge Community College, 180 W. Campus Drive, Flat Rock.

This dark comedy is about an eccentric Southern family along with their numerous trials and tribulations when burying one “Mean ‘n’ Surly” patriarch, Bud. Director Jennifer Treadway, head of the college drama department, is looking for a variety of ages (no children, please) for this spring production. The auditions will be cold readings from the script.

For more information, call 694-1849 or e-mail js_treadway@blueridge.edu. Information is

Article source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20140126/ARTICLES/401261002 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

From Startup Weekend to successful launch

The team who dreamed up a mobile app for local visitors looking for the best places to eat, drink or shop didn’t quit working after winning Asheville Startup Weekend last fall.

“I came with an idea after talking with my friends around town. I wished there was something to give people an easy way to find local beer, or the best restaurants,” said Hartley Brown, an AmeriCorps volunteer who needed another line of work after her gig at Asheville High School was winding down. She pitched her idea among 24 business ideas that weekend.

She soon found a team willing to work on the idea, including marketing veteran Ted Pate and programmer Trevor Parker. They drew up a business plan and a functioning web page during the grueling 52-hour marathon.

By Saturday afternoon, Pate called his wife, Flori. A graphic designer, she also was friends with Brown, but she couldn’t attend the weekend event because someone had to stay home with the kids. “Ted was frantic,” Flori recalled.

“We have a chance of winning this thing,” he said. “But we need a logo, and we need it in the next three hours.”Article source: http://www.blackmountainnews.com/article/20140126/COLUMNISTS31/301260048/From-Startup-Weekend-to-successful-launch If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Crocodile snatches 12-year-old boy, mauls another – Asheville Citizen

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Article source: http://www.citizen-times.com/usatoday/article/4919877 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

5 with Appeal for Jan. 24

A fundraiser for Tundra, the snowy owl found malnourished in Transylvania County, will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday at Consignments, 1266 Asheville Highway, No. 9, Brevard. Guests will paint a snowy mountain moonlit scene of trees with an owl to commemorate the event and enjoy food and music. Tickets are $40 with 50 percent going to Carolina Mountain Naturalists, who are rehabilitating Tundra. The event is BYOB, and participants can pay at the door. For reservations, call 828-255-2442.

Orchestra to present famous chamber ensemble

The Spartanburg (S.C.) Philharmonic Orchestra will present the world-famous Millennium Brass in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Chapman Cultural Center theater, 200 E. St. John St., Spartanburg, S.C. This fundraising performance will feature jazz, pop and classical music, along with food, drinks and dancing. Tickets are $35, with $75 VIP tickets available. For information, call 864-542-ARTS or visit www.chapmanculturalcenter.org.

Soprano to perform at Candlemas Concert

Soprano Katherine Sandoval Taylor will perform “Dames, Divas and Drama Queens: A Glittering Promenade Through Broadway’s Songbooks” for the 24th annual benefit Candlemas Concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville.

The concert will feature songs from various Broadway shows, including “The Sound of Music” and “The Music Man.”

Taylor has

Article source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20140124/ARTICLES/401241000/1042/NEWS?Title=5-with-Appeal-for-Jan-24 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Mission Health and MAHEC honor employees for diversity

Press release

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Jan. 24, 2014) – Mission Health and Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) hosted the 14th Annual Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award Program. Each year, Mission partners with MAHEC to recognize employees for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. This year, there were three winners; two from Mission Health, which for the first time extended this to all its members, and one from MAHEC.

“Mission Health is devoted to promoting a welcoming and inclusive environment to our patients and visitors, as well as among our employees,” said Jill Hoggard-Green, PhD, RN, Chief Operating Officer of Mission Health and President, Mission Hospital and Mission Medical Associates. “Our goal is to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities across the organization, the communities we serve throughout Western North Carolina, and beyond.”

The ceremony began and closed with the Spirit of MLK Choir, made up of Mission Health and MAHEC members. It was followed by a keynote address delivered by David R. Williams, PhD, the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and Professor of African American

Article source: http://www.mountainx.com/article/55789/Mission-Health-and-MAHEC-honor-employees-for-diversity If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Answer Woman: Charter schools, cold meters

Question: With all of Asheville’s new charter schools popping up, I’m curious about what exactly charter schools have to provide to the state to ‘prove’ they’re needed in addition to existing public schools. Do they have to do something different that isn’t already being offered? Also, does the state oversee who they’re admitting?

My answer: My understanding is that all students may be admitted who properly loath Portland and all it stands for.

Real answer: Charter schools do have to prove their worth to the state before opening, though those standards are fairly vague and open to interpretation.

Joel Medley, coordinator for the state Department of Public Instruction’s charter schools department, said the groups must also explain how the proposed charter school will achieve at least one of the six legislative purposes of charter schools, which include providing “expanded choices” and “creating new professional opportunities” for teachers.

If they have more applicants than available slots, the law requires an open lottery to fill the remaining spots.

The state approved plans this month for Franklin School of Innovation, the county’s first charter high school, and INVEST Collegiate, which opened a charter school

Article source: http://www.blackmountainnews.com/article/20140124/NEWS/301240032/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com