Submitted by WNC Communities
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The WNC Honors Awards, a program of WNC Communities, is built on a 74-year tradition of recognizing rural community development clubs for their innovative ideas and grassroots solutions. These centers and clubs are the backbone of community cohesion running through our beloved mountains. The culmination of this year’s WNC Honors Program occurred on Saturday, Nov. 11 with over 260 community leaders and volunteers from 14 western North Carolina counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Eight EBCI community clubs were recognized, including Big Cove Community Club, Big Y Community Club, Cherokee County Indian Community Club, Painttown Community Club, Snowbird Community Club, Towstring Community Club, Wolftown Community Club, and Yellowhill Community Club.
The theme of this year’s event was “Excite and Engage: Leading With Love that Moves Mountains”, which reflects the ability of community centers’ leaders to get neighbors and even those outside their community excited about grassroots efforts to provide for people’s social, health, and economic needs.
Throughout the year, the WNC Honors Program encourages member communities to learn from one another, collaborate, and share their best practices to help fellow community leaders across the region. This is accomplished through regional training, online “coffee hours” where community leaders present their successes, and even at the WNC Honors Awards. The event featured a Best Practices Gallery with nine communities, including Big Y, represented by ambassadors who were on hand next to colorful posters, explaining how they pulled off impressive festivals, effective fundraisers, diverse health care offerings, educational youth programs, and so much more. Big Y highlighted their programs that promote and protect health in the community, including traditional food classes, community gardening, and harm-reduction classes.
Painttown, Towstring, and Cherokee County Indian Community clubs were all honored at the Trillium level. Big Cove, Big Y, Snowbird, and Yellowhill were recognized at the Mountain Laurel Level. Big Cove, Big Y, and Yellowhill each received a Best in Class award at the Mountain Laurel level, and took home additional awards of $500. Wolftown was honored at the Redbud level.
This year, all participating communities received $730 to support their efforts. Additionally, communities were assessed across six different competencies and awarded a level of Trillium, Mountain Laurel, Redbud, or White Oak according to their demonstrated capacity to lead and serve. These competencies include Good Governance, Leadership Excellence, Financial Stewardship, Volunteer Recruitment and Retention, Community Programs and Civic Engagement, and Collaboration.
Generous sponsorships from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, Harrah’s Valley River Casino & Hotel, Duke Energy, Wells Fargo, Biltmore Farms, Inc, First Citizens Bank, The McClure Fund, Buncombe County Farm Bureau, New Belgium Brewing, AgSouth Farm Credit, Henderson County Farm Bureau, and MB Haynes brought in $64,000 to award to the 67 community centers and clubs participating in the 2023 WNC Honors Awards.
