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WHHS graduate on fast track to earn pharmacy degree

Henderson County News

Police searching for murder suspect

Hendersonville police officers are looking for a 22-year-old man they've charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of another man Thursday in Green Meadows.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Local Boy Scout council welcomes girls in Cub Scouts

The governing body for Boy Scout troops in Western North Carolina says it welcomes both girls and boys to join Cub scouts this fall as scouting goes co-ed nationwide. “The Daniel Boone Council, BSA is excited to welcome both boys and girls into Cub Scouting,” says Joshua Christ, CEO. “After all, the values of Scouting – being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent – are relevant and important for both boys and girls.” The Boy Scouts of America is now inviting both boys and girls to join the Cub Scouts (ages 5-10). "With the school year upon us, we welcome all families to participate in the Cub Scouts, a program renowned for character-building fun and adventure," the council said in a news release. "Through adventures big and small, Scouting embraces the outdoors and help communities through service projects, STEM development, and building confidence with our wide range of activities." The national organization last year changed its rules to allow girls to join as Cub Scouts, the starting level of scouting. The Boys Scouts changes it name to Scouting USA in February. Charter organizations that sponsor troops, such as churches, civic clubs and rural granges, must approve the change to allow girls. Cub Scout information and joining events will be hosted over the next few weeks throughout Western North Carolina, including most area Elementary Schools. To learn more about Scouting visit www.BeAScout.org or call 828-254-6189. View a short video here https://youtu.be/0qKnoaHt-Bw     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Paper or ... Harris Teeter to phase out plastic

Harris Teeter will phase out plastic bags by 2025, its parent company announced Thursday. The Kroger Co. said it will phase out single-use plastic bags and transition to reusable bags across its stores by 2025 including the Harris Teeter chain it bought in 2013. "As part of our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste commitment, we are phasing out use-once, throw-it-away plastic bags and transitioning to reusable bags in our stores by 2025," said Rodney McMullen, Kroger's chairman and CEO. "It's a bold move that will better protect our planet for future generations." Some estimates suggest that 100 billion single-use plastic bags are thrown away in the U.S. every year. Currently, less than five percent of plastic bags are recycled annually in America, and single-use plastic bags are the fifth-most common single-use plastic found in the environment by magnitude. Kroger will solicit customer feedback and work with NGOs and community partners to ensure a responsible transition. "We listen very closely to our customers and our communities, and we agree with their growing concerns," said Mike Donnelly, Kroger's executive vice president and COO. "That's why, starting today at QFC, we will begin the transition to more sustainable options. This decision aligns with our Restock Kroger commitment to live our purpose through social impact." Seattle-based QFC will be the company's first retail division to phase out single-use plastic bags. The company expects QFC's transition to be completed in 2019. Kroger's announcement follows several other Zero Hunger/Zero Waste initiatives, including: Kroger's goal to divert 90% of waste from the landfill by 2020. Of the waste diverted today, 66.15 million pounds of plastic and 2.43 billion pounds of cardboard were recycled in 2017. Kroger's Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Food Rescue Program sent more than 91 million pounds of safe nutritious food to local food banks and pantries in 2017. Kroger provided more than 325 million meals to families in need last year, in food and funds combined.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Local man charged with beating boxer mix puppy

Henderson County animal enforcement deputies charged a 43-year-old Chapman Hills Road man with felony cruelty to animals after they found a boxer mix puppy on his porch with evidence of a beating and duct tape on his snout. The Sheriff’s Office Animal Enforcement squad was dispatched to check on the welfare of a puppy on Aug. 17. The deputy located a boxer pit mix puppy on the porch of a residence. After interviewing the dog’s owner, deputies seized the puppy and took him to a local veterinary clinic for evaluation. It was determined the canine had received blunt trauma to its face and there was duct tape residue on the mouth and body of the puppy. Charged was Ralph Chester Stahr of 107 Chapman Hills Drive. He was jailed under an $8,000.00 bond. The puppy is doing well and is under the care of Henderson County Animal Services, the sheriff's office said.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Community Foundation honors Sauer Award winner

FLAT ROCK — Grace V. Poli, a devoted volunteer and philanthropist, was honored with the 2018 Richard C. and Vina L. Sauer Charitable Leadership Award during the Henderson County Community Foundation's annual celebration of the power of giving Wednesday at Kenmure Country Club.“The 2018 Sauer Award recipient has supported community needs and given of their time to improve the health, quality of life and wellbeing of Henderson County residents,” said Shirley McGee, Community Foundation Board secretary and chair of the Recognition Committee. “Always committed to helping the less fortunate, particularly children and families not only survive, but thrive. Their year-end giving is typically designated to help feed the hungry, clothe children and adults, keep the lights on and help individuals from being evicted. Admired by co-workers, peers and the community, this year’s recipient is described as having a heart of gold and the passion to get things done, truly a hero among us.” “Supporting a lengthy list of nonprofit causes, today’s recipient served as one of the early volunteers at Interfaith Assistance Ministry, Henderson County’s crisis services, and volunteered on the Martin Luther King Annual Breakfast Committee,” McGee said. “She is a past president of the League of Women Voters, continuing to serve and chair the childcare coalition, served on the board of Building Bridges for eight years and continues to help improve relations with the African American and Hispanic communities. She actively assists Hispanic residents who work in the fields through clothing drives, assistance development and the use of a voucher program to help with financial issues. She has also been very active in helping with reading programs, a founding member of Smart Start and supporting the children’s library. She served for 6 years on the Mediation Center Board and 13 years as a professional mediator.”The award is named for Richard C. and Vina L. Sauer, who supported many local charities during their lifetimes and then left the first $1 million unrestricted gift to the Community Foundation through their will. The endowment, along with other gifts, provides resources to numerous causes throughout Henderson County.Sauer Award Winners are distinguished philanthropic leaders in our community. Past recipients include Bernd and Toby Linder, Phyllis C. Rothrock, Ruth Birge, Thos. R. Shepherd, Mary R. Garrison, Dr. Stuart and Carola Cohn, Marian P. Lowry, Teddi Segal, Robert and Doris Eklund, the Dr. Kathleen McGrady Family, Jeff Miller, Duane and Peggy McKibbin, Dot Marlow, Dr. Colin Thomas, Frank Byrd, Tom and Sue Fazio, Eleanora Meloun, Marcia Caserio, William "Bill" F. Stokes, Jr., William E. "Jamie" Jamison, Kermit Edney, Morris Kaplan, Kenneth Youngblood and Frank Wyttenbach Ewbank.Community members Rick Bryson and Julie Huneycutt gave remarks on the impact CFHC has had on their endeavors.Rick Bryson, who lost his father, Tommy, to murder last summer, thanked the Foundation and the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department for their partnership in making the Thomas A. Bryson Memorial Basketball Court at Mills River Park a reality.Bryson says the opioid epidemic affecting Henderson County was directly related to his father’s death and encouraged the community to support the Deer Dash 5K coming up in October. “All proceeds will benefit First Contact Addition Ministries serving Henderson County,” Bryson said. “We need to help stop this crisis. We are also planning a basketball tournament in the spring. We are able to do this because of the Foundation and what the community does.”Julie Huneycutt of Hope Rx reiterated Bryson’s comments on the importance of stopping the opioid epidemic. “The conversations must be started,” Huneycutt said. “You can make a difference. Be it through active participation in the process or giving financially. No family should suffer from this epidemic.”Community Foundation of Henderson County Board Chairman Cindy Causby announced The Dot Marlow Philanthropic Catalyst Award, a new award to be presented at the Foundation’s spring event, Vintage Carolina.“At the Foundation we often refer to Dot as our “founding lady.” She joined our organization at a pivotal time serving as our first female board member bringing with her the spark that would ignite everything to come,” Causby said. “Rarely do we find one person to possess so many qualities with such beauty and grace: friend, role model, generous donor, etiquette instructor, board member, wife, mother, grandmother, volunteer, a woman of faith, career driven, and most of all a catalyst for community philanthropy.”The recipient of this award will exemplify selfless leadership for philanthropic work for our community’s greater good, remaining engaged with commitment and determination to accomplish results that will help others and create a better future even beyond our life time.CFHC Past Chairman Les Boyd thanked outgoing board of directors John Bell, Charley Rogers and Kaye Youngblood. Boyd welcomed incoming board of directors Dr. Wendy Frye and Carolina Gunther.Boyd, reflecting on his past year as Board Chairman shared that in the 36 year history of CFHC, they have awarded over $50 million and in the past year investments performed at 9.3%. Also, in the past year the Foundation received its largest unrestricted gift to date of $3.3 million.“Over the past year the Community Foundation awarded $3.59 million in grants and scholarships,” Boyd added. “This impacted 297 non-profits and 209 students.”Founded in 1982, Community Foundation of Henderson County’s mission is helping people who care make lasting contributions to causes that matter. CFHC accepts gifts from individuals, families, businesses and organizations to create a permanent pool of charitable capital from which grants are awarded. Learn more about Community Foundation of Henderson County at www.cfhcforever.org, at the Community Foundation’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and by calling (828) 697-6224.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Picking a fresh apple is her dream come true

Many Henderson County residents might take apple picking for granted. But for a little girl from Florida, picking and eating an apple directly off the tree is a “dream come true.”Six-year-old Olive Vasquez of Jacksonville, Florida was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, a rare type of kidney cancer, shortly before entering pre-kindergarten. Results from an imaging test showed a tumor on one of her kidneys. Physicians removed Olive’s kidney and she began a regimen of intense chemotherapy. Throughout the treatment, Olive needed a feeding tube, lost her hair and experienced extreme energy loss.Olive’s physicians notified Dreams Come True of Jacksonville Inc., which helps children battling life-threatening illnesses to achieve their dream wish. The organization quickly got to work making her apple-picking dream a reality.Trip considerations were made since Olive is only allowed to go a limited distance from her home base. In addition, she would need easy access to hospitals with physicians trained to treat her in the case of an emergency.The team from Dreams Come True did a Google search and quickly found that Henderson County, one of the Southern-most apple growing regions, would be the best place to visit for apples. As they dug deeper, they found the N.C. Apple Festival website, where they discovered that a picturesque mountain town celebrated apples every year for four days. Anyone that loves apples that much, festival organizers thought, deserves some recognition from the town that’s famous for growing them.“We could have just had her come up, go to the festival and pick some apples, but we wanted to do more than that,” said Cheryl Gudger-Thompson, this year’s Apple Festival president. “Olive, her mom and dad, her 9-year-old sister and her 1-year-old sister are driving from Jacksonville to Hendersonville on Thursday, Aug. 30, and are staying at Cascades Mountain Resort until Tuesday, Sept. 4. She will be able to enjoy the pool and waterslide at Cascades. She will be introduced during the opening ceremony Friday morning. Her and her family will go to Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard on Sunday to pick apples. Then on Monday, the Farm Bureau Association is sponsoring a float for Olive and her family to ride in the King Apple Parade.”Dreams Come True of Jacksonville is not affiliated with a national organization. It relies strictly on the generosity of individuals and corporate supporters to provide the funding and in-kind resources necessary to create unforgettable memories for children who live or are treated in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. They will provide Olive’s family with spending money and pay for their accommodations. Meals are being provided by local restaurants and Goldsmith by Rudi is making Olive a special charm commemorating her trip.“Many sponsors have come together to make this little girl’s dream come true,” Gudger-Thompson said. “Right now she thinks she is just coming to pick apples so we are doing a video to send to her before the trip of all the things she will be doing.” Dreams Come True fulfills a variety of kids’ “wishes,” including week-long trips to theme parks, swimming with dolphins and meeting celebrities. “She had all these options laid out before her and she still just wanted to pick apples,” Gudger-Thompson said. “That is what I think makes this story so special.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Fourth generation steps up at U-pick orchard

Four-year-old Heather Stepp Erwin (left) and 5-year-old Danielle Stepp McCall represented Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in the 1979 N.C. Apple Festival Kiddie Parade. They were dressed as apples and carried a sign that read ‘Apple of Our Papaw’s Eye.’ Along with their cousins, they won the trophy for Best Costume. EDNEYVILLE — The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Stepp family.It all began in 1964 when J.H. Stepp bought a 70-acre farm and apple orchard off Pace Road that he had been sharecropping. J.H.’s family had operated a packing house, general store and hardware store in Dana for years but he was ready for a change. He moved his family to the farm in 1967, named it Hillcrest Orchard. A pioneer of direct marketing, Stepp began selling apples out of his car trunk until he built a small fruit stand.The 1990s were hard on many Henderson County apple growers as the importing of foreign apple juice concentrate became more prevalent. Fortunately, the Stepp family had another idea in the works — the pick-your-own trade.Mike Stepp, the youngest son of J.H. and his wife, Yvonne, worked off the farm during the ‘90s but the family business was always a part of his life and he returned to the farm in 2003. The business had grown as more and more people tried picking their own apples. In 2004, Mike’s wife Rita retired from teaching and joined Mike on the farm. Their son-in-law Rex McCall, husband of daughter Danielle, has also joined the ranks of full-time farmer. Today, Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard grows 38 acres of luscious pick-your-own apple trees carrying 20 varieties of apples. During the peak of the apple harvest, they employ 40-plus seasonal workers.“We call what we do agritourism,” Rita says. “Our main focus is pick-your-own apples. About 90 percent of our crop is pick your own. We do have some picked to sell in our retail store for those who don’t want to pick. Plus, we added the other activities to bring more education and value to the farm.”In addition to the U-pick orchard, the Stepps sell other fruit and vegetables grown on the farm including pumpkins and grapes. They sell apple cider and apple slushies and pumpkin doughnuts baked fresh in a bakery on the farm. A 5-acre corn maze opens Labor Day weekend. The orchard also offer educational tours for preschoolers through 2nd grade. Rita, being a retired teacher, is proud of the educational tours offered on the farm. “Every week day from mid-September through October we do two school tours a day,” Rita said. “We get children from Henderson, Buncombe, Transylvania, Haywood and Jackson counties. We see about 6,000 children every year. They take a wagon ride tour throughout the farm. Then we do an educational activity that we try to match to the school curriculum. The corn maze is educational. They answer questions about the farm to find their way through the corn maze. We also offer a pumpkin patch tour and talk about the life cycle of the pumpkin. We try to be as educational as we can.” Prime location at Apple Festival Day to day, from mid-August through October, the Stepps count on apple buyers to find them. On Labor Day weekend, the Stepps go to where the tourists and local people have gathered by the thousands to celebrate the apple. The family runs the apple stand across from the Historic Courthouse, one of the busiest corners on all of Main Street during the N.C. Apple Festival.Danielle organizes the booth, gathers up the family farm hands and assigns jobs to everyone. On any given day of the festival, visitors may find Heather, Cortney and April, along with their husbands, manning the popular booth. The bigger kids in the fourth generation are pressed into service bagging apples, serving apple samples, stocking apple cider donuts and doing work is needed. Ranging in age from 10 to 17, they put in long hours at the festival. Mike and Rita’s daughters, Danielle and Heather, along with other third generation members have a passion for the Apple Festival and everything it celebrates. Danielle and Heather, along with their cousins, won the trophy for Best Costume at the 1979 NC Apple Festival Parade. Today, they operate the farm’s Apple Festival booth at the corner of First Avenue and Main Street, across from the Historic Henderson County Courthouse. Throughout the festival, you may find Danielle or Heather along with their two sisters Cortney and April and husbands, manning the popular booth. You will also find some of the fourth generation of Stepps bagging apples, offering samples, stocking the apple cider doughnuts and more.As for the 2018 apple crop, it has been a tough year. “We have a shorter crop this year, not a full crop,” Mike said. “There are some varieties that get into a bi-annual blooming trap and don’t produce many blooms, mainly the Fuji and Cameos. I feel like it is due to weather stresses over time. We believe we had more cold damage than what we originally thought. Tremendous amounts of rain cause a problem with disease. It’s been a real fight this year but we are in good shape.”Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard opens for the season on Aug. 15 with Ginger Gold, Gala and Honey Crisp along with grapes ready to pick. “Our busiest time is from the third week of September through the second week of October. There are more varieties ready to pick,” Rita said. J.H. and Yvonne have since passed on, but the Stepp family has strong ties to apples and the NC Apple Festival. They plan to keep apple farming in the family for generations to come.“The pick-your-own apples was such a small undertaking at the time,” Mike said. “We really didn’t know that it would take off like this.”“Mike’s father used to say that scariest thing he ever did was to sit here and wait for people to come pick apples. He was dependent on it for his livelihood,” Rita said. “We have visitors from all throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana. We our generations are seeing generations of visitors who return year after year.” * * * * * * U-Pick orchards include Billy Laughter Orchards, 111 Tullahoma Farms Lane; Continental Divide Produce, 2494 St. Paul’s Road; Coston Farm & Apple House, 3748 Chimney Rock Road; Grandad’s Apples ‘N Such, 2951 Chimney Road Road; Justus Orchards, 187 Garren Road; Skytop Orchard, 1193 Pinnacle Mountain Road, Zirconia; Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard, 170 Stepp Orchard Drive.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Lightning (5)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Cooper to appeal fed’s denial of flood damage aid

RALEIGH: North Carolina will appeal a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House not to grant a major disaster declaration for the May floods and mudslides in western North Carolina, Governor Roy Cooper said Tuesday. The Governor’s Office and North Carolina Emergency Management learned Monday that the federal government had denied the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration. The state is seeking the declaration to pave the way for FEMA assistance for people and communities affected by the storms. “Five people died as a result of these storms, and many others suffered damage to their homes and businesses. Many roads, bridges and driveways were washed out,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “People in western North Carolina need help recovering and we will keep doing everything we can to get it to them, including appealing this disappointing decision by FEMA.” North Carolina has already succeeded in getting help from other federal government programs for the same storms. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declared four North Carolina counties, Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania, as natural disaster areas, and the USDA Farm Service agency is opening its emergency loan program for those and neighboring counties. The U.S. Small Business Administration is opening its loan programs to assist farmers, small businesses and non-profits affected by the disaster. Gov. Cooper requested a disaster declaration covering 13 counties for severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in the period of May 15-31, 2018 including the rains from Sub-Tropical Storm Alberto. North Carolina received a letter from FEMA administrator Brock Long Monday denying the request and explaining that FEMA determined that “the damages resulted from separate and distinct events, none of which were of the severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments.” The state has 30 days from August 20 to submit its formal appeal to FEMA, and is working on it with members of the state’s congressional delegation.   Read Story »

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