Capital at Play May 2017

Russ Stinehour & Troy Tolle DigitalChalk p.18

Shaun & Sara Collyer Mountain Play Lodge p.78

Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

l e i s u r e a n d l i b at i o n

I H AV E A TO

Thing

Tell YOU p. 60

The art of modern storytelling.

colu m ns

p.

44

COMPLETE LIST OF CHILD CARE CENTERS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

What’s in Their Pantry?

Wine Column. p.26

High Stakes

A step-by-step guide to starting a business.

p.52

To Preserve & Protect

Volume VII - Edition V complimentary edition

capitalatplay.com

Framing your favorite pieces. p.72

May 2017

Stephanie Pfeffer Anton - Executive Vice President of Luxury Portfolio Paul Boomsma- President of Luxury Portfolio

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| May 2017

“ Luxury Portfolio amplifies our local marketing efforts to reach a sophisticated international audience searching for the world’s finest luxury properties.”

- W. Neal Hanks Jr. -

828.476.4281 | beverly-hanks.com

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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Luxury Portfolio Q&A WHO IS LUXURY PORTFOLIO? Luxury Portfolio International® is the luxury division of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) the largest network of independently-branded real estate firms represented by 550 brokerages on 6 continents. Over $351 billion dollars in property sales are handled within this network each year.

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF LUXURY REAL ESTATE BRANDS IN THE MARKETPLACE. WHAT SETS YOU APART? Every year over three million consumers visit LuxuryPortfolio.com to browse on a site dedicated to significant properties. The site’s high-net-worth buyer’s average household income is $1.12 million and 53% own a second home. In the U.S. alone, LuxuryPortfolio.com curates more properties priced over $1 million than any other luxury property website.

HOW WILL THE MARKETING OF LUXURY REAL ESTATE CHANGE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? The future promises much innovation in high-end real estate.

The affluent see real estate as an investment and reward for their hard work. Reaching them requires a commitment to evolving with the changing tide of technology. Through interactive 3-D, smart home technology, and more, affluents drive adoption and marketing must meet them where they are.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR WHEN YOU’RE CONSIDERING INVITING A FIRM TO JOIN LUXURY PORTFOLIO? We are an invitation-only network that is dominated by the world’s most powerful independent luxury brokerages and, as a result, we are extremely selective. In fact, 80% of all companies that inquire about affiliation are declined for not meeting our requirements for market position, brand reputation, service excellence, and more.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES BEVERLY-HANKS FROM OTHER LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENCIES IN THE REGION? Since 1976, Beverly-Hanks has delivered a best-in-class experience. Their success is predicated on providing beautiful marketing, innovative services, and affiliating with only the most knowledgeable brokers. Each year, discerning clients give BeverlyHanks the privilege of representing more distinctive private mountain estates and luxury properties than any other firm.

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More About the Beverly-Hanks and

Luxury Portfolio Relationship Beverly-Hanks represents one of the exclusive independent brokers invited to be a part of LeadingRE and Luxury Portfolio.

Brokers are united by a desire to deliver high-value and personalized experiences to savvy, sophisticated clientele. Luxury Portfolio markets a selection of the network’s extraordinary homes, utilizing a modern mix of online and offline media to position properties for maximum global exposure. The award-winning LuxuryPortfolio.com is the centerpiece of that effort. The global reach of Luxury Portfolio and the deep market knowledge of Beverly-Hanks & Associates offers an unmatched combination of agility and expertise.

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 101

The O riginator of Cult ure d Pe arls.

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S i n c e 18 9 3 .

121 Patton Avenue • Downtown Asheville 828-253-1805 • www.spicergreene.com May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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Writer’s Bistro

Editor’s Thoughts

I

n the magazine publishing business, it’s not all that unusual for your coverage to hit the proverbial “close to home.” Sometimes literally, as with last month’s report on life in the foothills of Polk County. Sometimes philosophically, too, because, let’s face it, the reason you’re publishing in the first place is because you feel strongly about something.

Regarding our May issue, I’d reckon a good chunk of it, for me, hits close to home emotionally. Our Local Industry feature is about child care in Western North Carolina: A list of all the child care facilities in the region and an accompanying report on the options and issues parents face when trying to determine where to take their preschoolers during the workday.

This is no small decision, one which my wife and I found ourselves weighing shortly after we moved to Asheville in early 2002. Our son had just turned one, and we already knew we wanted to find a good daycare center; she would be working full-time, and even though I was a freelance writer and worked from home, it was important to us that we give him, as an only child, ample socialization opportunities. Having no experience whatsoever in making this type of decision—well, there was that time when we wanted to change veterinarians—it was more than just a little stressful.

I’m happy to report that not only did we land on an outstanding place with a five-star rating and solid word-of-mouth (another factor young parents definitely need to consider), our son positively thrived in this new environment and was well-prepared for eventually entering kindergarten.

Miss Angela, if you’re reading this, thank you.

So here I am, quite a few years later, looking over the magazine’s master list of child care facilities. Naturally I scan through it for our old daycare center—and there it is, still with its five-star rating. At the risk of sounding totally sappy… it put a big smile on my face, taking me back to a particular place and time full of innocence and optimism.

In a somewhat similar vein, our May Leisure & Libation feature is a look at the history of storytelling and its regional importance. I’m not necessarily the kind of guy you’ll see onstage at a Moth StorySLAM, but, as a writer, I’ve been told I can spin a decent tale. And I definitely told my share of bedtime stories when my kid was young—he was particularly enthralled when I made him the protagonist in one of my recurring superheroes-saving-the-day yarns, and I can still hear him giggling beside me in his bed, no doubt imagining himself streaking off through the cosmos with his fellow costumed crime fighters.

Putting together the storytelling and child care reports had the unexpected side effect of making some treasured memories come rushing back.

I gotta tell you, it’s the greatest feeling in the world when something like that happens.

Sincerely,

Fred Mills

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| May 2017

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May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

LOCAL BEERS ON TAP OVER 50 TEQUILAS FRESH JUICE MARGARITAS

publisher

copy editors

Oby Morgan

Dasha O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy

associate publisher

contributing writers & photogr aphers

Jeffrey Green managing editor

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Fred Mills

Emily Ballard, Ryan Coffield, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Emily Glaser, Anthony Harden, John Kerr, Roger McCredie, Jennifer Pearson

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Bonnie Roberson Intern Ali Burke

Information & Inquiries Capital at Play is Western North Carolina’s business lifestyle magazine. It embodies the idea that capitalism thrives with creativity—that work requires an element of play. Exploring everything from local industry to the great outdoors, Capital at Play is inspiration for the modern entrepreneur.

In every edition, we profile those who take the risk, those who share that risk, and those who support them—telling the untold story of how capitalists are driven by their ideas and passions.

We cater to those who see the world with curiosity, wonderment, and a thirst for knowledge.

We present information and entertainment that capitalists want, all in one location. We are the free spirit of enterprise.

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Editorial content is selected and produced because of its interest to our readership. Editorial content is not for sale and cannot be bought. Capital at Play is financially sustained by advertisers who find value in exposure alongside our unique content and with the readers who follow it.

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| May 2017

This magazine is printed with soy based ink on recycled paper. Please recycle.

Copyright © 2017, Capital At Play, Inc. All rights reserved.

Capital at Play is a trademark of Capital At Play, Inc. Published by Capital At Play, Inc. PO Box 5615, Asheville, NC. 28813

Capital at Play is protec ted through Tr ademar k Regis tr ation in the United States. The content found within this publication does not necessar ily ref lec t the views of Capital At Play, Inc. and its companies. Capital At Play, Inc. and its employees are not liable for any adver tising or editor ial content found in Capital at Play. The ar ticles, photogr aphy, and illus tr ations found in Capital at Play may not be reproduced or used in any fashion without express wr it ten consent by Capital At Play, Inc.

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Thank you.

CAROLINA DAY SCHOOL is very grateful to the Asheville business community for their support.

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Adams, Hendon, Carson, Crow & Saenger, P.A. • Burgerworx • Dana Harris • Dynamite Roasting Co. Goosmann, Rose, Colvard & Cramer, PA • Holiday Inn Biltmore West • New Oasis International Education Penny Insurance • Preferred Properties • Roberts & Stevens, P.A. • Table Wine • Young Transportation | May 2017

thi s page :

SHAUN & SAR A COLLYER play around at the Mountain Play Lodge. on the cover :

PETE KOSCHNICK per forming at the Mothlight. photos by Anthony Harden

F E AT U R E S vol. vii

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CHALK IT UP TO INNOVATION

RUSS STINEHOUR & TROY TOLLE

ed. v

78

THE BUSINESS OF FUN SHAUN & SARA COLLYER

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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C ON T EN T S m a y 2 017

photo by Buncombe Partnership for Children Staff

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lo c a l i n d u s t r y

Child Care in Western North Carolina:

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A Report on Options and Issues.

colu m ns

insight

everly-Hanks’ 40th 26 W hat’s in Their Pantry? 14 BAnniversary Wine Column

Written by John Kerr

The Art Cellar Gallery

52 High Stakes

Pam McKay

Written by Ryan Coffield

72 To Preserve & Protect Written by Jennifer Pearson

p e o p l e at p l ay

88 The 71st Tryon Block House Steeplechase

p.

44 COMPLETE LIST OF CHILD CARE IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n

I Have a Thing to Tell You

Storytelling in Western North Carolina.

briefs

30 Carolina in the West 56 The Old North State 74 National & World News events

90 … May flowers!

Plus blooming art, garden shows, and a fresh green LEAF.

as 12

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nsight

BEVERLY-HANKS Biltmore Park Discover y Center

BEVERLY-HANKS Downtown Off ice circa 1976

Company

Culture

Four decades into the game, Beverly-Hanks still keeps its eye on the real prize: people.

W

ith the real estate market being a key economic driver throughout Western North Carolina, it will come as no surprise to learn that some of the more successful businesses in the region are involved in real estate. Chief among them is Beverly-Hanks & Associates, Realtors, now celebrating its 40th year. But what is the mark of a successful business? Is it profits tallied? Units moved? Longevity as legacy?

For Beverly-Hanks, the answer is “company culture,” that hard-to-define, oftentimes ephemeral quality that people can rarely quantify but instinctively recognize. People always come first might even be the unofficial mantra—the clients the company serves, of course, and the communities within which it operates. And, perhaps most important, the people who make up Beverly-Hanks.

It all began in 1976 with the merger of Beverly Realty and W. Neal Hanks & Associates, both prominent, successful businesses. “In the 1970s,” recalls Neal Hanks, Jr., “the real estate industry was very casual—a lot of mom-and-pop operations. My dad and George Beverly saw that as a unique opportunity. They had a very different vision for the real estate 14

| May 2017

business. After merging, the business came out of the gates really fast.”

George Beverly agrees, adding, “We were very good competitors, but we were also good friends. Neal was going to take care of the residential, and I was going to do the industrial end of the business. That’s how it all evolved. I think we had a total of 12 associates then.”

The company now has over 300 agents who operate throughout the mountain region, representing more homes and land for sale than any other real estate firm in the area.

“They had a genuine concern for one another and for their customers. The mission of the organization is [still] to be the company where agents have the opportunity to be successful.”

Neal Hanks, sadly, passed away unexpectedly in 1999, following an illness. Suddenly thrust into a leadership role, Neal Hanks, Jr., was determined that there would be no interruptions or road bumps for Beverly-Hanks during the transition. As one long-time employee recently reflected, for a 40th anniversary company video, “The agents would have done anything for Neal, Sr. We knew that he had our interests at heart, and he knew that without his agents, he didn’t have a company. His agents came first, no matter what. You knew that he had your back—and Neal, Jr. is the same way.”

BEVERLY-HANKS Photo circa 1977

“When Dad passed away, one of the things that helped me deal with it, ironically, was working,” says Neal. “He loved Beverly-Hanks and he loved working. And he and I had spent lots and lots of time talking about things we wanted to do.

We wanted to continue to grow geographically. We knew there were opportunities for our commercial business. And we also wanted to get into the mortgage business.

“Then in 2006 George Beverly [was ready to retire] so he and I were able to negotiate my purchase of George’s stock.

We had a great year in 2006, 2007; and in 2008, as everybody knows, that’s when the wheels came off—the Great Recession.

It was a very trying time on many of us as individuals. And certainly as a company, those were very difficult days. But even then we knew we had to evolve as a company.”

It’s now 2017, and Beverly-Hanks is a full-service firm, with residential and commercial brokerage, plus marketing, developer, and mortgage services. Executive Vice President Debbie Williams observes that the focus has always been “on attracting top talent. They had a genuine concern for one another and for their customers. The mission of the organization is [still] to be the company where agents have the opportunity to be successful.”

Concludes Neal Hanks, Jr., “You know, it’s fun to celebrate and certainly it’s been fun reflecting on 40 years of success for Beverly-Hanks. A lot of things have changed in those 40 years, but what excites me is that a lot of things remain the same: our commitment to each other; our commitment to our profession; and our commitment to the communities we live and serve in are unwavering.”

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insight

With Great Art Comes Great Responsibility Banner Elk native Pam McKay started The Art Cellar Gallery to focus on the culture of the Appalachian Mountains.

I

t has become a fixture of the High Country: Banner Elk’s The Art Cellar Gallery, founded in 1993 by Pam McKay and occupying a 1,200-sq.-ft. literal cellar, subsequently expanding to encompass more than 4,000-sq.-ft. over three levels. Now the gallery is preparing to mark its 25th season with a schedule of exhibitions, artist talks, book signings, and other special events, and to hear McKay tell it, hitting such a milestone is more than just a celebration—it’s confirmation of a legacy.

“I started the art gallery after working in the arts and craft industry in various capacities,” recalls McKay. “My parents were both self-starters and self-employed, so the idea of being in business for myself was a natural progression. I have spent my life in the arts, enjoying the arts, creating art, and loving art. My goal was to share the rich wealth of talent in the region with our market and collectors.” A native of Banner Elk, McKay had attended Appalachian State University in Boone, studying art marketing. Upon graduating in 1988, she relocated first to a Navajo Indian Reservation to learn weaving, then to Raleigh to learn about gallery operations.

The tug of the mountains persisted, however, and 1993 saw a move back to the High Country, at which time The Art Cellar Gallery became a reality; Husband Michael, in hotel management at the time, joined Pam in the gallery business the following year.

McKay details their long-term goal, noting, “It’s always been a focus for us to share the culture of the Appalachian Mountains.

We started with a lot of artists who were born and grew up in the mountains. Whether they are self-taught or trained artists, is doesn’t matter. We present art from this area.”

She says that it’s been hugely gratifying to be part of the regional arts culture for a quarter century. (“We have grown the gallery space to incorporate all three levels of our building and to offer the finest and most popular artists’ work in the region.”) She also acknowledges that the oftentimes seasonal nature of commerce in the mountains can have its challenges, fluctuating between the busy, non-stop pace of summer and fall—peak tourism times—and the slow, quiet cadence that

MICHAEL & PAM MCK AY

THE ART CELL AR GALLERY

16

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the winter months dictate. Pam says their greatest hurdle to overcome is “the pressure of continuing to represent our artists fully. They make a living from our sales, from the patrons. That’s a tremendous responsibility.”

The gallery specializes in fine art, sculpture, and other three-dimensional works in glass, clay, wood, and stone. It also has an in-house frame shop, run by the McKays’ nephew, Rob Hancock, that has framed over 20,000 works.

Gallery director Sarah Myers brings her own art expertise to the business and is the official curator, coordinating the documentation of the artwork.

Ultimately, the McKays have been able to capitalize on their and their

“We continue to push the envelope by presenting the most amazing, sometimes quite edgy, artwork and talent available.” staff’s knowledge of the rich mountain heritage to spot emerging artists, encourage their talent, expose them to collectors, and in many instances, experience the satisfaction of seeing those artists become well-established.

“We plan to present new artists and amp up our events for the season,” says Pam, looking ahead. “We continue to push the envelope by presenting the most amazing, sometimes quite edgy, artwork and talent available. There really are young artists coming up locally, and our job is to meet them and nurture their careers.”

Pam pauses for a moment, then adds, “At the same time, we must preserve and present the heritage of the mountains.”

Details on the Gallery and upcoming events: www.ArtCellarOnline.com

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Chalk Up written by emily gl aser photos by anthony harden

IT

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With relationships and range, Russ Stinehour and Troy Tolle of DigitalChalk are altering the landscape of Learning Management Systems.

TO

Innovation May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 19

“T

raditional methods of learning are really changing,” Troy Tolle says, leaning back in his chair, which is sitting crooked in the corner of business partner Russ Stinehour’s office. Outside, the clouds above Biltmore Park skitter across the sun, marking soft shadows on the sides of the mountains. It’s a scene that’s idyllically Ashevillian, and at first glance at odds with the strikingly modern one inside the office of this successful international technology enterprise called DigitalChalk. But in reality, the sentiments that are fostered here are as honest, natural, and thoroughly timeless as those very mountains.

Tolle (rhymes with “Sully”) is explaining the impetus and initiative for his business: learning in a modern era.

His hands unconsciously return to the same gesture of genuineness, palms up and outstretched before him.

“You no longer come out of high school, and this is the set of [college] courses you need to take. Kids in high school and junior high are learning to code by taking a class online.” Whereas learning has traditionally been so structured—ladderback chairs and ruler lashings—it’s now as ephemeral and shifting as the clouds outside.

The latest generation is balancing iPods and pacifiers, but technology has leeched into every age group, influencing the way we cook, read, and sleep, so of course it influences the way we teach and learn. The places people are going to learn are different—not lecture halls, but home offices—and the way they’re learning is also different—not through textbooks or dry lectures, but through engaging, interactive, and measurable digital interfaces.

Learning Management Systems (LMS)—platforms that host content such as videos and tests—are the modernday equivalent of a schoolroom for both big businesses that need to streamline trainings and entrepreneurs who want to share their knowledge with a broader audience.

Asheville’s DigitalChalk is the proprietor of one such LMS, providing a vehicle for learning that’s innovative not just in its structure, but in its goals. Traditional methods of learning are changing, and DigitalChalk is leading the charge with both innovation and compassion.

Tracing the Dotted Lines “LMS is a place where you manage your user base and what they’re learning,” Tolle says. He translates the acronyms and appellations of his trade into laymen’s lingo with ease. “There are two different product types: LCMS (Learning Content Management System), where you’re managing the content that you’re going to deliver to your users, and LMS, where you’re managing what users are going to experience, and your user base and tracking the content that you’re going to deliver. DigitalChalk is a blend of these two.”

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Today, Learning Management Systems are savvy, cloud-based software programs that bring knowledge to users in snappy, high-quality chunks, but they’ve taken many iterations over the decades. Folks have been integrating basic computer technology with learning since 1924, when Sidney Pressey invented the first teaching machine—a cousin of the typewriter—which posed multiple-choice questions to students.

As technology evolved, so did those first ancestors of modern-day LMS. There was 1956’s SAKI (self-adaptive keyboard instructor), which adjusted the level of the questions based on the performance of the user. MIT’s “Project Athena” was unveiled in 1983, a five-year plan for exploring the integration of computers and teaching. And

accolades for the other with gusto and receive them with “aw, shucks” humility. It’s a relationship that’s developed over the course of two businesses and nearly two decades.

The company’s president and CEO, Stinehour, is a software engineer by trade and an entrepreneur by choice. With an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS in engineering and system science solutions from North Carolina State University, he’s long been uniquely situated for a life of technological innovation.

He earned his chops as a senior product manager for IBM, where he worked for 17 years, before founding his first software services company, CrossLogic, in 1995. The boutique tech company built approachable interfaces for the back ends of

There are 650,000 active users on the system who work with the 69,978 courses hosted on the platform. DigitalChalk is active on six continents and in seven different languages. in 1990, SoftArc launched LMS FirstClass, the first true LMS. But those earliest LMS were the clunky, lethargic ancestors of their modern-day counterparts, swift and agile systems like DigitalChalk. Today’s LMS combine slides, videos, and tests in sleek, cloudbased systems that are simultaneously easy to navigate and genuinely engaging.

Veteran programmers and entrepreneurs, Tolle and Stinehour have tracked and contributed to the the progression of LMS over the years. Now you’ll find hundreds of platforms willing to curate and host your content, for small businesses and large; for schools and the military; for stay-at-home moms wanting to share their recipes and part-time pilots looking to give lessons in flying. In this field of competitors, DigitalChalk stands alone.

The Men at the Board It’s hard to imagine these humble, relaxed men as business partners in an internationally-recognized technology company. Their interactions are as casually nimble as brothers; they complete each other’s sentences, proffer up compliments and

systems that supported a host of businesses, ranging from banking to military. He grew the Ashevillebased company to 50 employees (including Tolle) before selling the enterprise in 2005.

Stinehour outlines his accomplishments with methodical timelines, but the truths of his success are far less sterile. “He’s wicked good at math in his head,” Tolle interjects, eliciting a smile from Stinehour, who nods. “I can see in my head the chalkboard. I used to have this bad habit of actually writing on the chalkboard. I’ve had to learn how to do things differently.”

Learning how to do things differently isn’t just definitive of Stinehour’s business, but his life too: The entrepreneur has been legally blind, having lost 97 percent of his vision due to Retinopathy of Prematurity, a disease that afflicts premature babies. He works actively in that community, serving on the Advisory Board to the Industries for the Blind in Asheville and, previously, on the North Carolina Commission for the Blind.

His blindness has in many ways provided Stinehour with a unique set of opportunities and abilities often absent from the tech world. “If people are presenting slides or something, I don’t May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

21

even pay attention, I just listen. It serves me well because I don’t read ahead,” Stinehour notes. In a tech world dominated by fast paces and short attention spans, Stinehour takes the time to slow down and observe, much to his advantage.

It’s a trait that he’s passed on to Waynesville native Tolle.

The Chief Technology Officer found computer science largely by accident. “I wanted to do special effects in movies, and my guidance counselor in high school said, ‘Go into computer sciences, it’s all done on computers.’ Which was the wrong advice, but it served me well because I really loved it,” Tolle says with a laugh.

Tolle received both his BS and MS in computer sciences from North Carolina State University, and it was when he was finishing up his final degree and teaching at the university that he met Stinehour. He didn’t want to teach forever, and he’d already begun the job hunt but found many of the opportunities available deficient. Though it was, as Tolle says, “a hot time in the market for computer scientists,” gigs at big tech companies like Microsoft didn’t appeal to Tolle, who wanted an opportunity to stay engaged. He found such an opportunity with Stinehour, who offered him a job at CrossLogic. Five years later, that opportunity would expand with their founding of DigitalChalk.

The First Sketch While still part of CrossLogic, Tolle and Stinehour worked with a small private college in Georgia to build a learning management system. At the end of the project, and their tenure with CrossLogic, the college posed an interesting question: Would you like to take that learning management system into the marketplace?

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It proved to be the impetus for DigitalChalk. Stinehour frames the process of founding the business with bullet-point finality: “I did the business planning; Troy did the technology work; we found angel investors; and in January of 2007, we launched the company.”

But in truth it was a much more nuanced, even artful, chain of events. “I can remember sitting on my couch coding what would become DigitalChalk, just me and Russ, just coding,” Tolle remembers, with a touch of wistfulness. “You just don’t know what that software is going to turn into.” At that moment, their faces lit with the cool light of a computer screen, neither Tolle nor Stinehour guessed that their idea would turn into a crossindustry, international LMS with hundreds of thousands of users.

DigitalChalk works primarily with small and medium-sized businesses (about 100 to 125 employees), and currently, those businesses number 650 active customers every month—a number that, thanks to seasonal trainings, bumps the annual monthly average to 1,300. A few of those clients are local, but the majority (about 90 percent) are national, and the other 10 percent overseas.

There are 650,000 active users on the system who work with the 69,978 courses hosted on the platform. DigitalChalk is active on six continents and in seven different languages.

They’ve delivered over 42 million questions to those hundreds of thousands of users over the course of the past ten years. And all of this from their small headquarters located in our own Blue Ridge mountains.

Drawing Something New in Scope So what, exactly, does DigitalChalk do? At its core, DigitalChalk is unique in that it offers two distinct product

lines of LMS: e-commerce and corporate. “There’s no competition in the marketplace with two products in one,” Tolle explains. “We service people who want to sell their knowledge online, as well as the corporate entity that wants to train their employees, and we do it elegantly within the same platform.”

Whereas most LMS platforms cater to one or the other—online courses or employee education—DigitalChalk accommodates both.

Though the system works essentially the same for both sides of the business, the clientele are starkly different and cover an inestimable spectrum of potential users.

On the e-commerce side, which makes up about two-thirds of their business, DigitalChalk works with the largest variety of clients.

“There are a lot of continuing education courses—everything from eyebrow waxing to heart surgery to flying airplanes to harnessing horses,” says Tolle. DigitalChalk works with these e-commerce entrepreneurs to get their knowledge out into the world in appealing and accessible packages.

The corporate side of the business is also varied, but those clients share similar objectives. The companies Stinehour and Tolle are working with genuinely want to train their employees, and train them well—and, in the process, track that training. “If you look at corporate investment [into] training, the estimates are somewhere around $160 billion,” says Stinehour. “There are three reasons: They want to mitigate risks, increase productivity of employees, and retain their best people.”

Regardless of their specific industry or business sector, many of these companies need the same types of trainings. “They have to spend a lot of time and resources to create these courses, but a lot of corporate customers need courses that are common to every business—things like safety, sexual harassment, diversity, and active shooter on site,” says Stinehour. DigitalChalk noticed these shared needs in their corporate customers and created a solution.

DigitalChalk subsequently worked with eight different business partners to curate a set of courses that are available for the entire spectrum of their clients. These partners, Stinehour and Tolle note, represent some of the most knowledgeable and experienced in their own industries. “If [our customers] want to mitigate HR risks, increase productivity, etcetera, not only do we have the right LMS to extend and deliver their training, we’ve got the total solution because we’ve got the content from the best of the industry,” says Stinehour.

These programs are sold separately, but because of their high-volume demand, they’re affordable. The DigitalChalk website breaks down the pricing plans: a three-tiered one for e-commerce at $10 per month (the “Essential” level), $29 per month (“Professional”), or $99 per month (“Premiere”); and a plan for corporate LMS set at $249, $399, $549, and $699 monthly tiers, depending on how many users there will be. And that new curated content is already leading to more and bigger opportunities (and clients) for DigitalChalk.

When asked if their spectrum of customers and services is ever a disadvantage for the company, the response is an immediate “no.”

“We help people get their content ready; we’re not the subject matter experts.” Tolle says. “Our customers are looking for a software solution. They’re saying, ‘I need to be effective with my training.’ Do

TROY TOLLE

RUSS STINEHOUR

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 23

we know every nuance about how to fly a plane? No, but you bet your bottom dollar we can tell you what the most effective delivery method is, how you need to style your slides or your video, who are the best people to go to, what the best length is, when or when not to use voiceover. We don’t have to know everything to be able to help somebody.”

From banks to bakers, from pilots to plastic surgeons, DigitalChalk can, and does, work with a huge range of businesses and enterprises—and that’s what makes them thrive as a business and as individuals. “I had a choice to go work for a large company,” Tolle remembers. “You could go to work for Microsoft, any of those companies, and you’d work on one project. Working with Russ broadened everything… Not only do you learn a brand new industry in a short amount of time, you have to stay on top of technology because you’re helping people do things that haven’t been done before. You have to be really fast at learning and you get to learn so much.”

Drawing Something New With Relationships Though DigitalChalk is defined as a business by its cross-industry span, Stinehour and Tolle themselves are defined by their authenticity and appreciation of relationships. It’s apparent in the lolling lilt of Tolle’s Appalachian accent and in the slow, measured cadence of Stinehour’s voice. Their conversations include a lot of pausing, reflecting, and smiling.

And those conversational idiosyncrasies always seem to drift back to relationships with each other, their employees, and their customers.

Stinehour says more than once, “We’re a relationship-driven company that just happens to have innovative technology.” It’s the unofficial tagline of DigitalChalk, and it begins with their customers. “We put the relationship with them before the technology,” he says. “You can’t have a successful small business if you don’t take care of the people who are paying you.” It’s old-fashioned business at its best: Good customer service makes for good customers.

“Our customers, when they call into support, they know who that is, and they know them personally,” Tolle says, noting that customers and support staff are on a first name basis, alluding to that old-world “mama ‘n’ dem” charm on which, in an earlier era, businesses used to thrive.

And those conversations and level of compassion continue long after the phone receiver clicks. “We talk about our customers and making them successful all the time. Is it something we have that they need? If we can make them successful, then we’ll be successful.”

Stinehour poses an example. A local health company created a program and distributed it to their employees via DigitalChalk. After reviewing, the team at DigitalChalk offered a suggestion: Though the program was effective, it would be even more effective as a video. DigitalChalk introduced them to local marketing and video production company Bclip Productions. and now their content is wowing competitors at conferences across the nation.

Stinehour points out, again, that in interacting with hundreds of clients and thousands of users, it’s not just the sheer number of relationships the company is building, but the depth of them, that differentiates DigitalChalk from other LMS platforms. “We sell to businesses that train their staff, and we also get to talk to their employees. We talk to businesses that want to sell their courses online, and we’re also the first level of support for students who are buying their courses. So we talk to a lot of people.”

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STINEHOUR’S DESK SETUP is laid out for maximum eff iciency.

Stinehour and Tolle’s obvious respect for their clients is mirrored by their affection for their staff, many of whom have been with them—as DigitalChalk, CrossLogic, or in some other capacity—for decades. They consider DigitalChalk a family, and an extended family if you include the businesses they support and partner with, like Bclip, and a whole intricate spread of a family tree, with roots and leaves and stretching limbs, if you count their customers.

“The only thing of any value is relationships,” Stinehour says, with a smile. “That’s what makes the business fun.”

Erasing the Board There’s a theory that divides the effectiveness of learning into three percentages. According to this theory, 70 percent of learning is done through experience, 20 percent through some type of live training (like a conference), and a mere 10 percent through courses delivered by LMS. Stinehour and Tolle are both aware that LMS have not traditionally been the most effective of teachers, so they are working to change that with DigitalChalk. “We don’t want to be the 10 percent. We want to be able to capture everything for you,” says Stinehour, and Tolle chips in, “We want to be the 100 percent.” The company is intentionally integrating new facets of learning with their LMS to make it as powerful as possible.

“We’re the first LMS in the industry to fully integrate our LMS with a learning record store (LRS) through XAPI (Experience Application Programming Interface), so that we can pass experiences from LMS to the data store, so that these companies can do big data analysis,” Stinehour rattles off. In laymen’s terms, DigitalChalk allows companies to track their students’ progress, not just through traditional methods like testing, but by analyzing how they experience the LMS. When did they hit pause; what did they re-watch; how long did they spend on a certain page? These are all relevant questions that, when analyzed and digested, can allow LMS to adapt its methods and become more effective.

DigitalChalk is also actively pursuing blended learning, which combines classroom learning (or an equivalent) with online learning, whereby students have partial control of the timing and pacing of instruction. “Our LMS supports on-demand courses (video, PowerPoint, etc.), but it also supports courses that are live, like webinars and GoToMeeting,” explains Stinehour. Blended learning also means collaborating, whether that is through the chat feature already present on DigitalChalk, or the new discussion forum they’re currently working on.

Being the first to use XAPI and LRS with an LMS, or being the first to offer blended learning within an LMS—those

are just the first steps in keeping their LMS relevant and effective. “It’s in our DNA to innovate,” notes Tolle. “We’re not going to sit still and say, ‘An LMS is an LMS.’ We’re going to innovate and make sure whatever is around that box is cool.”

Standing Before the Classroom Stinehour might be described as a true entrepreneur.

He refers to himself as a “blank sheet guy,” the one who makes something from nothing and does so with a smile.

He recounts the founding of DigitalChalk with unfiltered pride. “When we came up with the name DigitalChalk, it had no recognition, no traction, no clients. To take it from a blank sheet of paper to something that is growing, alive, that people recognize…”

Tolle interrupts. What he says goes beyond that boastful draw of entrepreneurship and taps at something more, something that defines the purpose of DigitalChalk. “…that supports families,” he says, picking up the thread.

“When you think about it, people start their own small businesses on top of us—they can’t survive without us.”

Stinehour, returning to the thread, continues, “Look at the

We condemn iPhones and social media as ironic bearers of disconnection, decry the modern digital age in which we connect more often with our phones than our friends. But companies like DigitalChalk prove that’s not necessarily the case. entrepreneurs we support—that’s about two-thirds of our business. Hundreds of businesses started because we gave them the platform. How many families are being supported

by DigitalChalk?”

It all goes back to those relationships—to people. So often, technological advancements are viewed in stark contrast to personal development, a weighted seesaw that pits one against the other. We condemn iPhones and social media as ironic bearers of disconnection, decry the modern digital age in which we connect more often with our phones than our friends. But companies like DigitalChalk prove that’s not necessarily the case. They’ve taken the most modern of technologically-driven programs and turned it into a platform not just for learning, but for fostering human connection. That’s as timeless and beautiful, as shifting and evanescent, as those mountainous shadows outside.

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 25

column

What’s in Their Pantry?

Secrets of wine ratings’ guides, and what winemakers actually serve at home.

H

J

john kerr

is the co-owner of Metro Wines located on Charlotte Street in downtown Asheville.

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AV E YOU E V E R WON DE R E D W H AT

those in the wine profession pour when they go home?

Vintners, of course, drink a lot of what they make. But what do they crave when they want something different at the end of the day?

And then there are the wine critics who are showered with free samples from wineries who hope to encourage a good score for their wines. Do the critics drink only expensive, highly rated wines, whether dinner is a gastronomic extravaganza or just a simple burger?

This month, we’ll take a look at what’s on the table of wine professionals. You’ll get a peek at their “go-to” wines and how those bottles end up there.

But before we can answer that question, I’ll need to reveal some of the secrets and limitations behind the wine rating schemes.

Many winemakers drink a lot of what they actually produce. Most are in this profession not for the money, but for their passion for wine. There is an old saying in the wine business: If you want your winery to make you a millionaire, start with five million.

There are several world famous wineries like Meiomi and The Prisoner whose profits are in the tens of millions. But most wineries are just getting by. The biggest reward most vintners reap is the opportunity to produce their vision of a great wine.

Winemakers generally do not own the winery and often have limited control over what they produce.

| May 2017

Wineries are frequently the domain of gentlemen farmers who have made their windfall fortunes in such professions as software or real estate. One of my favorite Napa wineries is owned by the lead salesman of Viagra. The most successful wineries become so because they produce a distinctive style of wine. To maintain the brand, the employee winemaker must continue to produce, year after year, the same style that made the wine famous.

At some point a winemaker yearns to produce and drink something different. That’s why so many have side projects where they have the flexibility to make their own style. Many make these wines only for themselves and their friends to enjoy, but some turn these one-off projects into a second career.

The winemaker at Kistler has kept his day job, but also makes his own style at his Kesner winery.

And Argentina’s Laura Catena works with several different grape growers throughout Argentina to produce the distinctive la Posta wines, named a winner of Wine and Spirit magazine’s value brand of the year.

When wine professionals desire something different, they can pretty much choose what they

J want. You might expect that they drink only wines with the highest scores. But that’s really not true. More often than not, they’ll reach for a wine rated 86 to 89 points that pairs well with food. To understand why, you need to know a bit about how rating schemes work and how they affect the wine market.

The first issue is price. Like the rest of us, winemakers like to save a buck or two when they can. The most expensive wines tend to be rated 90 points or higher (out of 100) and classified as “outstanding.” If a winemaker is lucky enough to receive a 90+ point rating,

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CRITICS STRIVE TO ACHIEVE CONSISTENCY IN THEIR R ATINGS YEAR AF TER YEAR. BUT LIKE ANY WHERE IN LIFE, WE ALL HAVE DIFFERING OPINIONS.

all of that wine easily sells out. If the rating is 89 or lower, the winemaker can have a tough time selling it all. Supply and demand drives up the price of the “outstanding” wine. Prices often fall off a cliff when the rating is 89 points or lower.

Are “outstanding” wines appreciably better than those rated in the high eighties? Critics strive to achieve consistency in their ratings year after year. But like anywhere in life, we all have differing opinions. One person’s 90 points is another person’s 89 points.

One critic defines “high eighties” as “very good, with special qualities.” How different is that from “outstanding”?

Does a rating of 98 really mean that the wine is better than one rated 90? I think the answer is revealed in the list of top 100 wines annually released by most critics. Wine Spectator’s #1 wine for 2016, Lewis Cellars Cabernet, is rated 95; but #4 is Chateau Climens

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Barsac, rated 97. Similarly, the #12 wine is rated 93, but #13 scored 97 points. The top 100 includes wines with ratings as low as 90 points, but many wines awarded more points by critics did not make the list. Clearly, those critics thought that the lower scored wines had a distinction not seen in some rated higher.

A good rule to drink by is, get to know your wine critic. Much like movie critics, if you find one with your taste, you pretty much know you’re going to like their future recommendations.

Robert Parker is known for favoring bolder, fruitier wines. So if you’re in the mood for a rich wine, look to his high scoring wines for a selection. If you’re a fan of lighter food wines, perhaps Lettie Teague of the Wall Street Journal or Eric Asimov of the New York Times should be your guide.

The most overlooked omission among the major wine rating schemes is the small winery. The omission is understandable.

If a critic constantly raves about wines produced in very small amounts, the wines sell out in a heartbeat. This critic soon creates a frustrated fan base that can only read about these great wines. So what gets scored are wines widely available on the West and East Coasts of the United States. It is the wine critic who rates globally available wines that stays in business.

Are wines from the smallest producers really that much better? There are a plethora of exceptions, but generally

speaking, small wineries produce the best wines. It’s much like the chef at a small, exclusive restaurant versus the one producing a hotel banquet. And big wineries become a victim of their own success. As their popularity grows, they are forced to buy grapes from vineyards beyond those that made them

GENER ALLY SPEAKING, SMALL WINERIES PRODUCE THE BEST WINES. AND BIG WINERIES BECOME A VICTIM OF THEIR OWN SUCCESS. famous, which may not produce the same quality of wine. Being a small winery does not ensure that their wines are remarkable.

But the truly outstanding, distinctive wines more often than not come from small producers.

With all this in mind, we can finally answer our question about what the wine professionals pour for themselves behind

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closed doors. On those special occasions, they may celebrate with a highly rated iconic wine. But on your average night, they are pouring a well-priced wine with a decent or no rating that complements a range of meals. And they’ll be serving a varietal or blend that matches the meal rather than always selecting one or two grapes.

The critics’ main go-to wines are generally wines like an unoaked Southern Rhone blend. The lack of oak means that these wines will pair with just about any food. And their blend produces a rich, medium weight wine that goes with the full range of lighter to heavier fare. The red Rhone blend is a bit like a symphony, with Grenache providing the violin’s high note and the Syrah or Mourvedre providing the bass. The Southern Rhone white blend provides a similar balance of aromatics, texture, and crispness.

I recommend you put these wines to the test. Pick up a few bottles, serve them with a string of meals, and see how versatile they are. The good news is that this test won’t cost you much since Southern Rhone boasts a myriad of wineries. Their number keeps the cost low and the variety in style and flavors high. I recommend you start with the red and white blends from the Lavau winery. They are well made and surprisingly inexpensive for the quality they deliver.

Gina Trippi, author of the wine blog Unfiltered, has interviewed many of the vintners on their road trips through Asheville. Here are some of their responses: Quincy Steele produces some of the best bold and fruity barbeque wines found in California. But at the end of the day, Quincy likes to pour a lighter style: the red and white wines from France’s Burgundy region.

Napa’s Ray Signorello emphasizes the compatibility of food in his winery’s Cabernet blends. He won’t make a wine that he wouldn’t drink himself, and won’t pander with over-oaked, under-fruited wines. He mostly drinks what he makes, but also loves Nebbiolo, often called the Pinot Noir of Italy. And if you want a treat while visiting Napa, book his five-course food and wine pairing lunch.

Sean Boyd of Washington State’s Rotie winery produces premium wines reminiscent of France’s Northern and Southern Rhone regions. When at home, his taste remains consistent, pouring Rhones as well as white Burgundy, France’s Chardonnay.

So don’t be a slave to the ratings. Take a tip from the wine professionals and find the smaller wineries with unknown but quality wines. If you don’t, you’ll be missing out on some of the world’s greatest wines and at a lower cost to boot.

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May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 29

CAROLINA in the

WEST [

news briefs

Film Trailer transylvania county

Brevard-based SylvanSport is giving its award-winning GO Mobile Adventure Gear Camping Trailer some national exposure. It all started when Dylan Schmitz and Marty Gallipeau of Badfish. tv decided to create a real-time documentary of a two-month expedition visiting fishing holes of interest all across the United States. It would be called Outbound: A Cross-Country Adventure, and live updates would be accessible via Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and the Bass Pro website. The fishing enthusiasts were able to strike a deal with Bass Pro Shops whereby all their camping and outdoor equipment would be supplied

by Bass, provided they stopped at every single Bass store in the country. (There are 76.) The duo have since been outfitted

Luxury homes & unique mountain properties 30

| May 2017

]

with gear from Yakima, Yeti, Goal Zero, Columbia, GOPro, and others. The SylvanSport camping trailer they were provided carries all kinds of gear, including accessories as large as motorcycles, boats, and all-terrain vehicles; it transforms into a 154”x124”x108” camper with room enough for five. At 840 pounds, this Swiss Army knife of camping trailers is very lightweight while providing stable towing for many things that wouldn’t be advisable to haul with other towables of its size. It is fuel-efficient with great suspension, and it can carry over 800 pounds of gear behind even small cars.

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The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design announced the winners of the

first Materials-Based Research Grant.

Three teams, selected from 46 applicants, received $10,000 each for a project that integrates innovative materials science and crafting. The judges were Martin Conreen, from the University College of London and the University of London, Kieren Jones, from the University of the Arts London, and Leila Kinney, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One prize went to Gregg Moore and Tobias Landberg, of Arcadia University.

They are comparing the mineral quality of bone china derived from animals raised in industrialized farming environments to that from traditionally-raised animals.

Preliminary data suggests “factory farming” depletes minerals important for the china’s quality. A second grant went to Ryan Hoover, of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Walter Zimbeck, of Technology Assessment & Transfer. They are developing a method of 3D printing that uses bacteria to produce cellulose microfibers with material properties calculated to optimize performance of any given form. Thirdly, Jeffrey Karson and Robert J. Wysocki, of Syracuse University, are developing a method of simulating igneous flows using real basaltic lava and multiple simulated conditions. The lava flows would be used for artistic and educational purposes.

Do What You Gotta Do polk county

The Nina Simone birthplace in Tryon has been purchased by four artists. The 664-sq.-ft. house has 3 rooms with memorabilia, including sheet music, an organ, and old furniture, and was being restored somewhat to how it may have looked back in the day. Former owner Kipp McIntyre had been making improvements, hoping to turn the house into a museum before being forced into foreclosure. The house was flipped by the interim owners for $95,000 to conceptualist Adam Pendleton, sculptor and painter Rashid Johnson, collagist and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher, and abstract painter Julie Mehretu. While the artists have not said what they intend to do with the house, town leadership expressed gratitude that members of the creative class would attempt restoration, especially since there was a chance the house could have been torn down. Legendary jazz singer/ pianist/activist Simone—born Eunice Waymon in 1933—started playing piano at church. Seeing her potential, neighbors pooled funds to get her lessons from the local teacher, Miss Mazzy. From there the musician went to Asheville to study music and later began singing at a bar in Atlantic City. She changed her name

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national & world

to avoid bringing scandal on her mother, who was a minister. After recording over 40 albums, Simone died of cancer at age 70 in France. The Town of Tryon has since dedicated a plaza in her honor.

Return of the Chestnut haywood county

W hen The A mer ica n Chestnut Foundation (TACF) moves into its new Asheville headquarters, Appalachian Antique Hardwoods will be furnishing the offices. Appalachian Antique Hardwoods is an architectural salvage company with a unique history. It began when founder Zac Guy was presented with his great-great-great-grandfather’s Civil War rifle made of rich chestnut wood; Guy wanted to make a special display case for it so he made a deal to acquire some hardy chestnut wood by dismantling a structure on his high school coach’s land. While hauling away the wood, Guy sold all but enough for the case to a builder he met at a gas station.

At that point he had sufficient funds to buy an entire chestnut barn, which he bought, dismantled, and sold to the same builder. A business was born, and Guy has since dismantled about 4,500 barns and expanded to source other reclaimed

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natural building materials. Through the years he benefitted from research conducted by TACF, which was founded to bring American chestnut trees back from the brink of extinction through the cultivation of disease-resistant strains. Guy’s customers are offered complimentary memberships in TACF, which will also be offering donors handcrafted American chestnut flag presentation cases made by Appalachian Antique Hardwoods.

Not Your IvyCovered Campus jackson county

Western Carolina University made public an update on its capital improvement plan. Soon to be completed are $22.5 million in renovations to Brown Hall, a 55-year-old cafeteria; local businesses MadStone Café and Catching Light Books will open in the newly-remodeled Noble Hall, a mixed-use development housing 420 students. Then, as soon as Summit Healthcare commits residents, a new medical office will open. Further up the pipeline, with completion dates within the next two years, are five construction projects totaling $226 million. Bond proceeds totalling $110 million will be used to replace the school’s Natural Sciences

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Building. Two new residence halls, one with 600 beds and another with 300, will be built to replace the Scott and Walker dormitories. The latter two will then be torn down and possibly replaced. University leadership expects the legislature to approve another bond referendum to garner $24 million in debt to build a parking deck with up to 1000 spaces. And lastly, the university is fundraising for a $10-$20 million indoor sports training facility. The university is striving to contract with regional companies for construction and tenancy, and it will be hosting a series of outreach programs to attract minority-owned businesses.

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Marvin Gralnick, cofounder of Chico’s, the multibillion-dollar boutique chain selling expressive women’s apparel and accessories, retired in 2006 to pursue a career in the arts. Whether his creations are recycled Americana or large wall hangings, he combines vibrant colors with primitive lines and gentle phrases. Recently, Gralnick teamed up with Chef Johannes Klapdohr to open Library Kitchen + Bar in the old Sapphire Library. The 160-year-old-building was refurbished with bright white walls and decorated with Gralnick’s creations. Johannes Klapdohr left his position as executive chef at the Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, North Carolina, to provide colorful food to match Gralnick’s displays. Klapdohr was born in Germany to multigenerational hoteliers and restaurateurs. He worked in his parents’ hotel and a host of Michelin-star restaurants before working the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At the new restaurant he serves up farm-to-table fare that goes against the grain in that, rather being sourced locally, it is flown in from specially-selected points around the world. Library Kitchen + Bar’s website encapsulates Gralnick’s and Klapdohr’s mission: “Our hope is that each guest leaves their meal feeling refreshed, energized, and inspired by their experience with us.”

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Posana, an upscale restaurant in Asheville’s Pack Square, serves seasonal cuisine made of locally-grown, unprocessed, premium ingredients. The menu changes regularly, and it recently diversified to offer gourmet dog food. The menu launch coincided with the Asheville Humane Society’s fourteenth annual Dine to Be Kind fundraiser. Peter said the idea was spurred by all the patrons who like to sit on the restaurant’s patio with their dogs, for whom the restaurant has always provided filtered water in bowls. Martha had the difficult chore of designing a menu that would be lean and healthy. She decided on homemade biscuits, grilled bison burgers, grilled chicken, and meatloaf for main courses. Bacon soy doggie ice cream

is the only item on the dessert menu now. Local businesses Carolina Bison, Ashley Farms, and Brasstown Beef will be among suppliers. All items are served on dog dishes and cost between $3 and $8. Dogs are not allowed inside, but must dine on the patio. The concept proved newsworthy, getting a spot in, of all places, People magazine.

Run-of-the-Mill Proposals henderson county

Hendersonville City Council thought the abandoned Grey Hosiery Mill Site would be a great place for a hotel/convention center. They envisioned a structure with 130-135 rooms, 7,900-sq.-ft. of conference space, 3,800-sq.-ft. of retail space, and a restaurant. Four developers responded with proposals—Belmont Sayer (Carrboro, North Carolina), Professional Development Associates (Erie, Pennsylvania), SpringBridge Development (Florence, South Carolina), Leder Properties (Brevard, North Carolina)—but with far less ambitious designs.

Three described hotels with not even half as many rooms, leaving conference and retail space as future considerations.

The bids came in low because developers doubted the market could support so many rooms at the given location, were wary of limitations historic preservation might impose, and did not think there was sufficient parking space. The developers did think the hotel in downtown Hendersonville could benefit from an absence of nearby competition. The fourth developer wanted to convert the site to an outdoor gathering space like the LumberYard in Brevard, North Carolina. The mill was built in 1915, and it has been under city ownership for over a decade.

Child-Approved buncombe county

Two moms have partnered to go into business selling a line of children’s clothing they created. Leigh Ann Conner and Jennifer Nicks wanted to create clothing that is both practical and pretty. More challengingly, they wanted the little girls who wear their clothing to feel loved. They named their company the Looking Glass Clothing Company, after Looking Glass Falls in Brevard, and their logo is a looking glass with a heart in it and the word “loved.” Looking Glass outfits girls in sizes 2-8, and stock will change to be seasonally appropriate. Items are brightly colored, often in floral patterns, with bows, pockets, ruffles, and flutters. The original designs were test-marketed on a focus group consisting of the moms’ four girls and their friends. The clothing is inspired by the outdoors; not just being built for comfort, range of motion, and endurance, but designed with patterns and lines to reflect nature. The materials for all articles of clothing are sourced from Western North Carolina.

The clothing is sold online and at Oodles and Maggie, Monogram Asheville, and Nest Organics.

LOCAL INSTITUTE NOW OFFERING STEM CELL THERAPY

“In time, it’s our hope that this truly amazing therapy will eliminate the need for drugs and surgery.”

- Dr. Andrew Wells, DC.

Superior Healthcare is now offering state-of-the-art stem cell therapy at its Asheville and Hendersonville locations. For more information on this amazing regenerative treatment, call (828) 575-6244.

This painless and safe stem cell injections are particularly effective in treating such conditions as: DEGENERATIVE ARTHRITIS BONE SPURS DEGENERATIVE JOINT DISEASE

DEGENERATIVE CARTILAGE AND LIGAMENTS BURSITIS TENDONITIS

They do this by pinpointing the impaired areas, removing the swelling with powerful anti-inflammatory properties and healing them by regenerating new cells and tissue.

The practice will be holding a

FREE EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR on stem cell therapy

at the Country Inn and Suites in the Westgate Shopping Center near Earth Fare and downtown Asheville.

Please call for the date and times, and to reserve your seat, as space is limited!

Superior Healthcare | SuperiorHealthcareAsheville.com 33 2017 | NC capitalatplay.com 38 Westgate Pkwy, May Asheville 28806

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| May 2017

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Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!

Choosing Childcare Options in Western North Carolina photo by Amber Greene

It’s not babysitting—it’s early childhood education. For parents in Western North Carolina, it usually boils down to a calculation of cost versus quality. written by jennifer fitzger ald

T

he first day Tara Ducker dropped her two-andhalf-year-old daughter, Emory, off at her child care center was one she will never forget.

“The first day was rough for me, but not bad for Emory,” says Ducker. “She was excited to play with new toys and her new teacher was very sweet about easing her into the class. I was very nervous about leaving her with people that I didn’t know. Up until that point, she had been with only her parents, immediate family, or her babysitter, who we knew very well.”

Parents across Western North Carolina are sure to share Ducker’s feelings. Selecting a child care provider is perhaps one of the most important decisions a parent will make for their child. Gone are the days when a child care center may have been just a babysitter.

Today’s centers are closely regulated and licensed, and they all have—should have—trained and educated staff.

Many local centers accept children as young as six weeks old in their programs to assist the working parent who must return to work. And while the center fulfills the immediate need for care, it provides the child with much more. As the North Carolina PreKindergarten Program coordinator with Buncombe Partnership for Children, Stacey Bailey is a firm believer in the benefits of enrolling your child in an early childhood education program. She sees, in her words, “unbelievable benefits for the child.

A kindergarten teacher can tell the kids who have been in a quality child care center. They tend to do better initially.”

But where does a parent begin the search for a quality child care provider? What resources are available to assist families who cannot afford to pay full-price rates? Let’s take a closer look.

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Take a Cue from the Kids

CHILDREN tr y new things in a school environment. photo courtesy Eliada

While the star system is an important tool to use when choosing a center, an on-site visit is key. What should a parent look for? Early childhood advocate Leslie Blaylock has been both an owner of a local child care center and a director of Early Head Start in Asheville. Currently a freelance consultant for early childhood education organizations, she encourages parents to make an appointment and talk to the director— and be prepared to ask questions. For example, ask about the education level of the teachers, although be aware that some teachers who don’t have the highest degree may still have a wonderful way with the children.

Other key things to note include: Are the children happy?

What does the daily schedule look like—is there a balance of active and quiet play? Is there a good use of outdoor time?

What does their outdoor learning environment look like? What kind of curriculum do they use? How do the children interact?

What is the tone of voice of the teacher?

Blaylock also recommends an unannounced drop-in visit.

The director may not be able to talk with you, but you can get a feel for what the place looks like. How does the atmosphere feel—is it welcoming? Do people greet you when you come in?

Is it clean? Does it welcome you in general?

In the Home Look at the Stars

In the state of North Carolina, the Division of Child Development and Early Education is the licensing agent for child care centers, which are defined as “three or more unrelated children under 13 years of age, receiving care from a non-relative on a regular basis, of at least once a week for more than four hours per day, but less than 24 hours.”

Currently, facilities are evaluated on two components—staff education and program standards. In addition, programs can earn a “quality point” for meeting enhanced standards for staff education and program standards. Licenses are star rated, ranging from one star to the highest of five stars.

The greater the number of stars, the higher quality of care.

When the Duckers began their search, it was important that the program have a five-star rating. A center’s star rating is available for the public to view and a good tool for assessing where to place your child. Each center undergoes an annual unannounced inspection where they are graded on items that go into those ratings, such as teacher/child ratios; health and safety hazards (such as cabinets locked up); is the playground safe; do they have regular fire drills; have staff had required training; emergency preparedness; annual fire inspection; and are nutrition guidelines being met.

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Another option in child care is a family child care home, which is a smaller program offered in the provider’s residence where three to five preschool children are in care.

Alissa Rhodes is a mother of two girls. She recalls that the first time she left them at a child care center she had a lump in her throat. “It was a blessing and a curse,” says Rhodes. “I knew from my background in early education the importance of play and socialization; however, I felt like they should be with their mother, and I missed them terribly. They both had wonderful teachers from infants to preschool and met friends quickly.”

Rhodes has a bachelor of arts degree in child and family studies from Western Carolina University and 22 years of experience as an early education teacher, director, and early education technical assistance trainer and specialist for Buncombe County. She decided to open a family child care home for several reasons, including the impact on her family.

“I took the opportunity to open A Sense of Wonder Family Child Care to be there for my [own] children throughout the day,” says Rhodes. “I also wanted a small learning environment for other children to come and play and socialize with peers. I want children enrolled in A Sense of Wonder and their families to feel at home and comfortable.”

A family child care home is licensed by the state of North Carolina and also receives a star rating. One of the key benefits of the family child care home is that children of different ages are in the classroom together.

photo by Alissa Rhodes of A Sense of Wonder

“My oldest child took on a leadership role and loves to help her younger friends with rest time and passing them out books to read while they settle down to sleep,” says Rhodes. “It gives children a sense of family, connection, and unity. “ Opening a family child care home is not an easy task. The owner must obtain all the necessary certifications like background checks, CPR, and First Aid training, and take the required medical and TB test. Zoning laws also must be checked on—is your neighborhood zoned for a center? Rhodes did make changes to her home in order to accommodate the center legally.

“I wanted a space where I could close the doors at the end of the night and separate my business from home,” she says. “I converted the guest room into a play space with all the [education] centers (dramatic play, blocks, science, math, fine motor, art, books). The Division of Child Development Early Education consultants are very respectful of your home environment.

There are requirements that you have things posted for parents and visitors to see and ensure you are meeting the health and safety needs of young children. I created an entryway for parents to sign in and display my license, lesson plan, schedule, division laws, menu, fire drill report, and emergency numbers. I also ordered a diaper changing station that looks like a piece of furniture to fit in the design of my home. I also had to put safety locks in my cabinets with hazardous materials, and another latch on my garage door. I still feel that my home looks and feels like a home, although there are some visual changes [indicating that] I care for young children in my home.”

Shannon McDonald sends her two-and-a-half-year-old child to Rhodes’ A Sense of Wonder Family Child Care. She is expecting her second child in just a few weeks.

“We looked for someone we could trust, someone who would allow learning though play—and availability was also a factor,” says McDonald. “We enrolled him to help him with his socialization skills and give me some time when the baby comes. The school we initially liked had a wait list, but Alissa came highly recommended by the director. I think this worked out best for my son. Declan has transitioned so well going to Alissa’s, and loves it there.”

Sticker Shock

A TEACHER and child photo by Buncombe Partnership for Children Staff

Many parents may find themselves in the position to be unable to afford child care. Buncombe Partnership for Children’s Bailey reports that the average private pay cost of full-day care for children three to four years of age is $750 per month. For children two years of age, the average cost is $850 per month. And for children who are infants to two years of age, the average cost is $1,000 or more per month. Blaylock agrees, saying, “Cost of infant care can go over a $1,000 a month in Buncombe County,” adding that there is a big difference in Buncombe between what people actually make and what they can afford to pay for high quality care.

(Worth noting: For comparison’s sake, according to a 2015 study by the Child Care Services Association, “State of Child Care in the Triangle,” shared

by Melinda Schlesinger, the evaluation manager for Wake County SmartStart, the median monthly cost for an infant in the most typical type of care in Wake County was $1,140.)

For a single parent or those in a service-industry job, rates may be impossible to pay. Parents who pay 100 percent of the center’s fees are classified as private-pay. For those who are unable to pay, there are several programs in place to assist. These include Early Head Start and Head Start, May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 37

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photo by Buncombe Partnership for Children Staff

both providing free, high-quality child care—characteristics of high-quality education typically being safe and secure physical environments, well-trained and educated staff, low teacher/student ratio, strong curriculums, and healthy nutrition programs. Families can also avail themselves of the Child Care Subsidy Program, not to mention federal tax credits.

Early Head Start

Early Head Start is an income qualifying program funded by the federal government for ages 0-3 and pregnant women.

In addition to free child care, it includes a variety of services designed to meet the medical, dental, nutritional, and mental health needs of participating children. To qualify, the family income must be at or below 100 percent of Federal Poverty Level. As of 2016, Federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of two is $15,930 and for a family of four is $24,250. Priority placement as space permits is given to teen parents, homeless children, and migrant children.

Head Start

Head Start’s program has guidelines differing from Early Head Start in the age range only—children 3-5 years of age, prior to kindergarten. Funding for Head Start and Early Head Start never passes through the state level. Both programs offer the highest level of care for a child that include a more highly educated teacher with a two or four-year degree, and a lower child-to-staff ratio. Comprehensive health services are also offered that include monitoring, immunization, and health screenings.

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The goal of both programs is not only to provide the highest quality care, but also, hopefully, to move a family out of poverty.

“Every child is assigned a family advocate—a social worker that checks in with the family and offers support for the whole family—to hook them up to resources, etc.,” says Blaylock.

“The advocate has contact with each family at least once a month and focuses on health, jobs, nutrition, finances, mental health, and parenting skills.”

Over 84 Buncombe County children are served annually by the Early Head Start program and 500 by the Head Start program.

Child Care Subsidy Program

The Child Care Subsidy Program, also known as the Voucher Program, is both state- and federally-funded. It serves over 2,500 Buncombe County children annually. Families must be working and/or enrolled in school for a minimum of 30 hours a week. For children 0-5 years old, the family income must be at or below 200 percent of Federal Poverty Level, which for a family of two is $31,860, and for a family of four is $48,500.

Parents pay only 10 percent of their gross monthly income for all vouchers.

“The great thing about the subsidy program is that it allows low income families to put their child in the highest possible care,” says Blaylock.

Federal Tax Credit?

If you pay someone to care for your child, depending on how much taxable income you have, you may be able to claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit on your federal income

tax return. There is a list of qualifications that must be met, which can be found on the Internal Revenue Service website.

(See sidebar, p.40) Certified Public Accountant Kathryn Atkinson, Johnson Price Sprinkle P.A. Shareholder working in taxation and assurance services, breaks down the figures: “Under Internal Revenue Code Section 21 (IRC Sec. 21), a nonrefundable credit is available to taxpayers for qualifying child and dependent care expenses.

Qualifying expenses must be paid for the care of the taxpayer’s child or dependent (qualifying person) to allow the taxpayer (and spouse, if married) to work. The credit is a percentage of the lesser of the actual costs incurred, or $3,000 per qualifying person. The percentage begins at 35 percent, and is reduced by 1 percent for each $2,000 of adjusted gross income (AGI)

The Waiting Game

Eliada Child Development Center, located in Asheville is a center with a five-star rating that provides care to over 150 children ranging from 0-5 years old. Monthly costs for their infant and toddler programs are $740; $640 for the 2-year-old program; and $600 for ages 3-12. They do accept vouchers from those who qualify.

Director of Child Development Tracey McCrain shares the structure of a typical day with us, which includes, but is not

EMMANUEL with his yellow walker photo courtesy Eliada

“I have parents who call me every day to get a spot into my family child care home and are struggling because they need to go back to work and need quality care for their young child.” over $15,000, but cannot be reduced to less than 20 percent.

Therefore, the minimum credit available for one child, with expenses capped at $3,000, would be $600, regardless of the taxpayer’s AGIA nonrefundable credit is potentially limited to a lesser amount if the taxpayer’s actual tax liability is less than the credit amount.”

Many parents are also closely watching the proposed child care plan of President Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump.

“The Ivanka Trump plan is much broader in scope providing for a deduction of child care expenses and expenses for caring for elderly parents,” says Larry Harris, Certified Public Accountant with Burlingham & Harris P.A. “The Trump deduction is available to a very broad band of taxpayers who can make as much as $250,000 or $500,000 for single or married filing joint taxpayers.

The deduction is available for families with ‘stay at home’ moms and dads. The Trump plan continues to provide a refundable credit to low income taxpayers.

“In addition, the Trump plan provides for paid maternity leave for six weeks. The Trump plan ‘trumps’ the current child tax credit in terms of benefits to a broader group in the middle class. The Ivanka Trump plan also ‘trumps’ the current credit in cost, which is projected to be $500 billion over 10 years by the Tax Foundation.”

limited to: free play (art, music, blocks, fine motor, science, dramatic play), group time, outside gross motor/indoor gross motor, free play/small group activities, story time, quiet time/ rest time, music and movement/gross motor.

They currently have around 100 children, mostly infants, on their waiting list. Parents are encouraged by early childhood educators to start their search for a center as soon as they find out they are pregnant, which even then may not be enough time.

“I have parents who call me every day to get a spot into my family child care home and are struggling because they need to go back to work and need quality care for their young child,” says A Sense of Wonder’s Rhodes. “In Henderson County, the family child care homes try to help parents out by referring May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 39

Things to Know About the Child and Dependent Care Credit (Note: This is the existing tax law and not President Trump’s proposed plan.)

If you paid someone to care for your child, spouse, or dependent last year, you may be able to claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit on your federal income tax return. Below are ten things the IRS wants you to know about claiming a credit for child and dependent care expenses

1.

The care must have been provided for one or more qualifying persons. A qualifying person is your dependent child age 12 or younger when the care was provided. Additionally, your spouse and cer tain other individuals who are physically or mentally incapable of self-care may also be qualifying persons. You must identify each qualifying person on your tax return.

The qualifying person must have lived with you for more than half of the year. There are exceptions for the bir th or death of a qualifying person, or a child of divorced or separated parents. See Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses.

7.

2.

The care must have been provided so you— and your spouse, if you are married filing jointly—could work or look for work.

The credit can be up to 35 percent of your qualifying expenses, depending upon your adjusted gross income.

8.

3.

You—and your spouse, if you file jointly— must have earned income from wages, salaries, tips, other taxable employee compensation, or net earnings from self-employment. One spouse may be considered as having earned income if they were a full-time student or were physically or mentally unable to care for themselves.

4.

The payments for care cannot be paid to your spouse, to the parent of your qualifying person, to someone you can claim as your dependent on your return, or to your child who will not be age 19 or older by the end of the year, even if he or she is not your dependent. You must identify the care provider(s) on your tax return.

5.

Your filing status must be single, married filing jointly, head of household, or qualifying widow(er) with a dependent child.

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You may use up to $3,000 of expenses paid in a year for one qualifying individual, or $6,000 for two or more, to figure the credit.

9.

The qualifying expenses must be reduced by the amount of any dependent care benefits provided by your employer that you deduct or exclude from your income.

10.

If you pay someone to come to your home and care for your dependent or spouse, you may be a household employer and may have to withhold and pay social security and Medicare tax and pay federal unemployment tax. See Publication 926, Household Employer’s Tax Guide.

(Source: Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov)

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children who need care. I also work with one center by referring children who need care. I guarantee if you call the centers and homes in this area, most of them have a waiting list. There’s not enough places for children to go during the day.”

“Infant and toddler care is more expensive to provide,” says Amy Barry, executive director of the Buncombe Partnership for Children, who further explains that there are fewer spots available. Buncombe Partnership for Children (buncombepfc.org), formerly known as Smart Start, is an excellent resource for parents. Their goals include raising quality in early education, supporting families, advancing child health, and expanding childhood literacy.

A key in itiative for Bu ncombe Partnership for Children is the First 2,000 Days Initiative, which is based on findings that the first 2,000 days of a child’s life—birth to kindergarten—are critical in their development. Research finds that children who are enrolled in a quality early childhood program score significantly higher on standardized language and math tests; have higher earnings, pay more in taxes, and are less likely to rely on government assistance; and are five times less likely than their counterparts to become chronic criminal offenders as adults.

Another important role of Buncombe Par tnership for Children is their administering of the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program (NC PreK), formerly known as More at 4. This is a free pre-kindergarten program for eligible four-year-old children, which supports the child’s development and literacy skills. Applications are now being accepted for the 2017-2018 school year; parents will start receiving notifications this month (May 2017). Over 350 children in Buncombe County are served annually by this program. Seventy-five percent of the state median income guidelines apply.

For example: The state median income, as of 2015, was $34,090 (family of two) and $50,133 (family of four). So in the case of a single-parent household, as long as the annual income was $25,567 or less,

photo by Anthony Harden

or for a family of four, $37,599 or less, they would be eligible for the program.

In addition to income, other qualifiers include children who turn four years of age by August 31, will be entering kindergarten the following school year, and who may be at-risk for poor school outcomes. There are a number of factors that can influence poor school outcomes. Among them are: low family income; children with an identified disability; limited English proficiency; a chronic health condition; and a developmental or educational need. Prioritization for enrollment is given to children with no previous child care experience, children with active duty military caregiver(s), and children with special needs.

Bailey shares that children who participate in the program learn key skills, such as functioning in a group setting, learning to transition and make decisions, and experiencing social and emotional growth.

There are currently four North Carolina Pre-K subcontractors in Buncombe County, with 23 licensed sites and 40 classrooms. In a timely stroke, while this Capital at Play report was being prepared, it was announced that Buncombe County was planning to lease a vacant, county-owned building located very near Eliada’s property to Eliada for $1 a year; Eliada plans to renovate the 7,834-sq.-ft. building and use it for infant and toddler care and pre-kindergarten services, effectively expanding Eliada’s capacity by 60 by around September 1; 28 of those 60 spots will be reserved for Pre-K children. In an interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara was quoted as saying, “Early childhood education helps children thrive in their academic careers. The benefits extend through their lifetime.

These kids are healthier. They see greater success in the work

place… The rationale is there are 3- and 4-year-old kids in Buncombe County right now who we know could be helped

by Pre-K. That means that many kids are on the pathway of support that can help change their lives.”

Child Care Challenges

One of the biggest challenges that local centers face is paying teachers with a four-year degree. Many early childhood teachers transition to a teaching position at an elementary school, where not only is the pay better, but perhaps also the level of respect they receive.

“Many centers can’t afford to pay people with a four-year degree,” says Blaylock. “A lot of four-year degree people in early childhood are a licensed teacher, but people don’t look at them with the same level of respect as an elementary teacher in the school system.

Many of them will leave and go into a public school system and teach kindergarten because they feel more respected.”

Eliada’s McCrain says that Eliada Child Development Center is blessed to have teachers who are well-educated and committed to providing high quality early education for the children that they serve. “The biggest challenge I face as a director is being able to pay the teachers comparable to their education,” she says. “In order to serve North Carolina pre-kindergarten children, our lead teachers must obtain a North Carolina Birth-through-Kindergarten or Preschool Add-on Standard Professional II license. This license is the same license that public school teachers hold, and preschool teachers go through more intense monitoring and an evaluation process without the same benefit of a set pay scale funded by the federal government.”

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“Early education is not a money-making business,” says Rhodes. “It’s one of the lowest paying fields and it should be the highest. It’s a struggle for child care programs and parents. The cost is extremely high and sometimes difficult for parents to pay; however, their tuition doesn’t even cover the costs, mainly because

“Early education is not a money-making business. It’s one of the lowest paying fields and it should be the highest.” of teacher salaries. I know this from experience. Last year I was paying almost $1,600 for two children and barely taking home a paycheck. With me running my own business, I can keep costs down low because it’s just me and five children.”

Another challenge for child care centers is the rising cost of providing high quality child care. McCrain notes that the

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cost to provide high quality care increases as regulations increase. “The State Subsidy Program helps families who qualify, however the reimbursement to providers does not cover the total cost of care for child care providers,” she says. At Eliada Child Development Center, 65 percent of their families are single-parent households that struggle to make ends meet.

***

At the end of each day, you’ll find parents across the region picking up their child at their child care center of choice. Hopefully it has been a good day—one filled with learning and laughter and friends. While the immediate need of a caregiver for the child was met, so much more is offered at the centers.

Take for example, Emmanuel, who started in Eliada’s infant classroom at seven weeks old with club feet and developmental delays due to Down Syndrome. He wore special shoes that limited his movements. In his three years at Eliada, he has had three surgeries on his feet and his physical therapist has worked relentlessly with him. For a time, Emmanuel had a yellow walker and he could be seen

scooting around outside, stopping to wave hello, and blowing kisses to his classmates and teachers. Today, Emmanuel is in the three-year-old classroom and can walk and move around without a walker. He participates in all the classroom activities and is on track to enter pre-kindergarten with his peers.

Stories such as that are plentiful in child care centers where a safe and loving environment allows for learning and growth.

“It’s not babysitting—it’s early childhood education,” says Blaylock. “It’s not just a place to park your child while you work each day. It’s a really critical part of their development.”

Notes On The Regional Child Care Centers List (p. 44-51) Religious Affiliated Child Care Centers: According to the North Carolina Division of Child Development (www.ncchildcare.nc.gov), North Carolina General Statute GS 110-106 designates a religious affiliated center that has chosen not to be licensed through the star rated system; they will instead be issued a Notice Of Compliance.

They must still meet basic health and safety requirements; they are also monitored, but not to the same level as licensed centers.

Licensed Child Care Centers: New centers are initially issued temporary licenses, and if all paperwork is correct, all requirements are met, and the first and second licensing on-site visits are passed, the center is issued a One Star license. New centers only have one star until they have been in existence for six months; after that time, centers may apply for more stars.

Alternatively, a provisional (Prov.) license can be issued for up to 12 months and gives the operator time to correct issues dealing with safety, health, etc. It may also be issued after an administrative action has been cited involving child abuse and neglect—basically, the center will be on probation and must correct some issues or risk of losing its license.

* Child Care Resources * MOUNTAIN CHILD CARE CONNECTIONS swcdcinc.org/family-services/mountain-child-care-connections.php

THE DIVISION OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT & EARLY EDUCATION ncchildcare.nc.gov/general/home.asp

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Local Child Care Options KEY

Buncombe

Business Name

A.C. Reynolds Child Care

Town License

Asheville Five Star Center License

Active Learners

Avery

Leicester Three Star Family CC Home License

Avery County Head Start Center

Newland Four Star Center License

Banner Elk Pre-K

Banner Elk Five Star Center License

Children’s Castle

Newland Five Star Center License

Crossnore Pre-K

Crossnore Five Star Center License

Freedom Trail Pre-K

Elk Park Five Star Center License

High Country Head Start Center

Crossnore Five Star Center License

Kingdom Kids Childcare Center

Newland Four Star Center License

Little Faces Childcare

Banner Elk Four Star Center License

Newland 4 -H W.O.W. Program

Newland Four Star Center License

Newland Pre-K

Newland Five Star Center License

Riverside Pre-K

Newland Five Star Center License

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Alicia’s Child Care Home

Alexander Four Star Family CC Home License

All God’s Children CEC II Leicester Five Star Center License

Annette’s Day Care

Asheville Three Star Family CC Home License

Black Mountain Primary School Head Start Black Mountain Five Star Center License

Children And Friends Enrichment Center Black Mountain Five Star Center License

Blue Ridge Montessori School Asheville One Star Center License

Children’s Center At Gracelyn Asheville Five Star Center License

Building Blocks Child Care Center, Inc. Asheville Three Star Center License

Chris’s Child Care Home Asheville One Star Family CC Home License

Calvary Baptist Child Enrichment Center Asheville Four Star Center License

Asheville Five Star Center License

Candler Elementary School Head Start Candler Five Star Center License

Asheville Catholic Preschool

Carolina Academy Arden Four Star Center License

Asheville City Schools Preschool Asheville Five Star Center License

Charles C Bell Elementary Head Start Asheville Five Star Center License

Asheville GS 110-106

Asheville High Child Care Center Asheville Five Star Center License Asheville Montessori School & North Location Asheville One Star Center License Asheville’s Casa Dei Bambini Asheville One Star Center License Barnardsville School Head Start Barnardsville Five Star Center License Bev’s Day Care Asheville Three Star Center License Biltmore Academy Child Care Center Asheville Four Star Center License

Child Care Center Of First Presbyterian Church Asheville Five Star Center License

Clyde A. Erwin Child Care

Creative Village Child Care Swannanoa Five Star Center License

Crossroads Children’s Center Asheville GS 110-106

Dawn Eldreth’s Family Child Care Home

Candler One Star Family CC Home License Debra Stewart’s Day Care Home Asheville Four Star Family CC Home License

Discovery Montessori School Asheville One Star Center License

Child Kingdom Montessori School Asheville Prov License

East Asheville Academy

Childcare Network #176 Asheville

Eliada Child Development Center & Eliada School-Age And Preschool Services

#177 Fairview #178 Arden #179 Asheville #178B Arden All Locations Five Star Center License

Asheville Three Star Center License

Asheville Five Star Center License

Emmanuel Lutheran School Asheville Four Star Center License

Fairview Elementary School Head Start

Fairview Five Star Center License

First Baptist Child Development Center

Asheville Five Star Center License

Glen Arden Elementary Head Start Arden Five Star Center License

Hall Fletcher Pre-K

Asheville Five Star Center License

Happy Hearts Child Care

Asheville Two Star Family CC Home License

Harmony Preschool Asheville Three Star Family CC Home License

Haw Creek Elementary School Head Start Asheville Five Star Center License

Hearts And Hands Child Care Swannanoa Four Star Family CC Home License

Hilde’s House

Asheville Five Star Center License

Hill Street Day Care Center Asheville Four Star Center License

Hillcrest Head Start Center Asheville Five Star Center

His Kid’s Child Care Asheville GS 110-106

His Watchmen Childcare, Inc. Arden Four Star Center License

Hominy Child Care

Candler Three Star Center License

Humpty Dumpty Day Care Swannanoa Three Star Center License

Irene Wortham Early Learning Center

Asheville Five Star Center License

Isaac Dickson Pre-K

Asheville Five Star Center License

Johnston Elementary Head Start

Asheville Five Star Center License

Jones Pre-K

Asheville Five Star Center License

Joni’s Gingerbread Day Care

Asheville Three Star Family CC Home License

Jumping Jacks Small Day Care Home

Candler Three Star Family CC Home License

Kaleidoscope Child Care Center Asheville Sp Prov License

Kathy’s Kiddieland

Swannanoa Three Star Center License

Mimi’s Place Childcare

Asheville Three Star Center License

Mission Hospitals Child Development Center Asheville Five Star Center License

Montessori Footprints Learning Center Arden One Star Center License

Montessori Learning Center of Asheville, Inc. Asheville Four Star Center License

Morning Glory Family Child Care

Asheville One Star Family CC Home License

Mt. Carmel Child Enrichment Center

Asheville Five Star Center License

Rainbow Mountain Children’s School Asheville Five Star Center License

Regent Park Early Childhood Development Center, In Asheville Five Star Center License

Roberts Haven

Asheville Two Star Family CC Home License

Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Asheville GS 110-106

Sand Hill-Venable Elementary Head Start Asheville Five Star Center License

Sand’s Child Care

Asheville Three Star Family CC Home License

Nanny Nanny Poo Poo

Shalom Children’s Center

Nazarene Christian School DC

Snow Hill Child Enrichment

Kids Kountry Klub House

North Buncombe Elementary School Head Start

Spanish For Kids Preschool

Kim’s Day Care

Odyssey Community School

Swannanoa Valley Montessori School

Leicester Elementary School Headstart

Over The Moon

T.C. Roberson Child Dev. Center

Kiddie Academy Of Asheville Asheville One Star Center License

Kids Kingdom

Asheville Two Star Family CC Home License Arden Three Star Center License

Weaverville One Star Family CC Home License

Leicester Five Star Center License

Lil’ Lambs Child Care

Asheville Four Star Center License

Living Savior Preschool Asheville GS 110-106

Lots of Love Child Care Asheville Four Star Center License

Asheville Five Star Family CC Home License

Asheville Four Star Center License

Weaverville Five Star Center License

Asheville Four Star Center License

Asheville Four Star Family CC Home License

Pint-Sized Preschool

Black Mountain Three Star Family CC Home License

Pisgah View Head Start Asheville Five Star Center License

Precious Angel Infant Care Home

Asheville Three Star Family CC Home License

Asheville Five Star Center License Center Candler GS 110-106

Asheville Five Star Family CC Home License

Black Mountain One Star Center License

Asheville Five Star Center License

Tammy Pratt Day Care Home

Fletcher Three Star Family CC Home License

The Academy of Asheville, Inc. Asheville One Star Center License

The Christine W. Avery Learning Center Asheville Four Star Center License

Source: North Carolina Division of Child Development & Early Education May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 45

local industry

The Little People’s Place

Swannanoa One Star Family CC Home License

The Lonnie D Burton Child Development Ctr Asheville Five Star Center License

The Playroom

Asheville Two Star Family CC Home License

Cherokee Andrews Elementary School Pre-K Andrews Five Star Center License

God’s Little Acre Learning Center Murphy Three Star Center License

Hill Top Head Start

The Rose Garden

Black Mountain Five Star Family CC Home License

Valley Child Development Center

Andrews Five Star Center License

Hiwassee Dam Union School Pre-K

Swannanoa Four Star Center License

Murphy Five Star Center License

Verner

Kid’s Corner

Asheville Five Star Center License

Murphy Five Star Center License

Verner-Central

Marble Early Education And Preschool

Asheville Temporary License

Marble Three Star Center License

Verner-West

Candler Five Star Center License

W D Williams Elementary Head Start Swannanoa Five Star Center License

Weaverville Primary School Head Start Weaverville Five Star Center License

West Asheville Academy Asheville Four Star Center License

West Asheville Baptist Early Learning Center Asheville Four Star Center License

WW Estes Elementary School Head Start Asheville Five Star Center License

YWCA of Asheville Early Learning Program Asheville Five Star Center License

YWCA of Asheville Primary Enrichment Program Asheville Five Star Center License

46

| May 2017

Marble Elementary School Pre-K Marble Five Star Center License

Martins Creek School Pre-K Murphy Five Star Center License

Murphy Adventist Christian School Murphy GS 110-106

Murphy Early Education And Preschool Murphy Five Star Center License

Murphy Elementary School Pre-K Murphy Five Star Center License

Murphy First Baptist Church Day Care Murphy GS 110-106

Murphy Head Start

Murphy Five Star Center License

Peachtree Elementary School Pre-K

Chekelelee Child Development

Ranger Elementary School Pre-K

Eagle Knob Early Education And Preschool

Tiny Tots Creative Learning Center

RHS Child Care Center

TLC! Montessori Pre-School

Robbinsville Head Start & Robbinsville Head Start #3

Clay

Snowbird Child Development Center

Murphy Five Star Center License

Murphy Five Star Center License

Andrews Four Star Center License

Murphy Three Star Center License

Carolina Christian Child Development Center Hayesville GS 110-106

Robbinsville Four Star Center License

Robbinsville Five Star Center License Robbinsville Five Star Center License

Robbinsville Five Star Center License

Robbinsville Four Star Center License

The Backyard Preschool Robbinsville Five Star Center License

Clay County Inclusive Preschool

The Haven Home Day Care

Hayesville Five Star Center License

Robbinsville Three Star Family CC Home License

Discovery

Haywood

Hayesville Four Star Center License

Elf Early Education And Preschool Hayesville Four Star Center License

Hayesville Child Development Center Hayesville Five Star Center License

Hayesville Head Start

Hayesville Five Star Center License

Small Blessings Christian Child Development Center Hayesville Three Star Center License

Graham A Kid’s Place

Robbinsville Five Star Center License

Amy’s Ark Home Day Care

Robbinsville Four Star Family CC Home License

Angie’s Little Angels

Waynesville One Star Family CC Home License

Bethel Christian Academy Canton GS 110-106

Bright Beginnings Head Start Waynesville Five Star Center License

Busy Bee Child Development

Canton Four Star Family CC Home License

Central United Methodist Church Prekindergarten Canton Three Star Center License

Clyde Elementary School Intensive Intervention CLA Clyde Five Star Center License

Dellwood Baptist Child Enrichment Center Waynesville Five Star Center License

Eagle’s Nest Early Learning Center And Preschool Waynesville Four Star Center License

Edwina G. Hall Head Start Clyde Five Star Center License

First Baptist Children’s Center

Waynesville Both Locations Five Star Center License

A Sense Of Wonder

Dana Elementary PSAM-PSPM

Kid Zone

Abby’s Learning Academy, Inc

Edneyville Elementary PSAMPSPM

Waynesville Five Star Center License

Long’s Chapel Child Enrichment Center

Waynesville Three Star Center License

Waynesville Four Star Center License

First United Methodist Child Development Center

Luv-N-Stuff Home Preschool & Luv-N-Stuff Too Child Development

Waynesville Five Star Center License

Great Start Child Development Center

Waynesville Four Star Center License

Haywood Christian Academy Pre K Enrichment Clyde GS 110-106

Haywood Community College Regional Center Clyde Five Star Center License

Hazelwood Elementary Waynesville Five Star Center License

Honey Bee Day Care Center Inc.

Canton Three Star Center License

Hug-A-Bunch Day Care

Waynesville Three Star Center License

Huggable Bunch Child Development

Waynesville Four Star Family CC Home License

Jonathan Valley Elementary Waynesville Five Star Center License

Junaluska Elementary School Kids Club Waynesville Three Star Center License

Kid Connection Child Development Center Canton

& Kid Connection Child Development Center West

Waynesville Both Locations have Four Star Center License

Meadowbrook Elementary Canton Five Star Center License

North Canton Elementary PreK Canton Five Star Center License

Patricia S. Turner Head Start Canton Five Star Center License

Robin’s Nest Child Care Home Waynesville Four Star Family CC Home License

Silver Bluff Early Education And Preschool Canton Five Star Center License

St Johns Early Education and Preschool Waynesville Five Star Center License

Tender Treasures

Waynesville Three Star Family CC Home License

Vicky L. Wood Family Child Care Home

Canton Three Star Family CC Home License

Waynesville Head Start Waynesville Five Star Center License

Henderson A Place To Grow Child Care Home

Etowah Four Star Family CC Home License

Fletcher One Star Family CC Home License Flat Rock Three Star Center License

Aletheia Academy Central Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Aletheia Academy For Little People Mills River GS 110-106

Alexandra Child Care Home

Hendersonville Four Star Family CC Home License

Alice’s Playground Center Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Balfour Early Head Start Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Bell’s School, For People Under Six Fletcher Four Star Center License

Best Ever Home Day Care

Gerton Five Star Family CC Home License

Bruce Drysdale Intensive Intervention Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Bruce Drysdale PSAMPSPM Plus

Hendersonville Three Star Center License

Carrusel Family Child Care

Hendersonville Three Star Family CC Home License

Children’s World Center Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Clear Creek Elementary PSAM-PSPM-Plus Hendersonville Three Star Center License

Curtain Climbers

Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Etowah Children’s Center Etowah Five Star Center License

First United Methodist Church Weekday School Hendersonville GS 110-106

Foster Circle Head Start Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Fox Glen Learning Center Fletcher Prov. License

Genesis Child Care

Hendersonville Four Star Family Cc Home License

Glenn Marlow PSAM-PSPM-Plus

Mills River Five Star Center License

Grace Lutheran Preschool Hendersonville GS 110-106

Helping Hand Developmental Center Flat Rock Five Star Center License

Henderson County P.S. Child Care Fletcher Elementary

Flat Rock Five Star Center License

Henderson County P.S. Child Care Atkinson Elementary Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Henderson County P.S. Child Care Etowah Elementary Etowah Three Star Center License

Hendersonville Elementary PSAM/PM/PLUS Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Source: North Carolina Division of Child Development & Early Education May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 47

local industry

Hillandale Elementary PSAMPSPM-PLUS East Flat Rock Five Star Center License

His Kids Child Development Center East Flat Rock Four Star Center License

Immaculata Pre-K And The Grotto School Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Joelyn’s Day Care

Hendersonville Three Star Family CC Home License

King Creek Center

Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Laurie’s Child Care

East Flat Rock Five Star Family CC Home License

Lilies Of The Valley

Hendersonville One Star Family CC Home License

Lincoln Circle Head Start Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Little Red School

Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Love And Learning Child Care Center, Inc. Fletcher Four Star Center License

Mills River PSAM-PSPM-Plus Mills River Five Star Center License

Montessori Cooperative School Mills River Three Star Center License

Montessori Country Day Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Mt, Pisgah Lutheran Preschool Hendersonville Four Star Center License

My Home Away From Home

Arden Four Star Family CC Home License

48

| May 2017

Nessa’s Young’uns Child Care

Hendersonville Five Star Family Cc Home License

P.M. Playgroup-Mud Creek Christian School Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Pisgah Cradle

Mills River Three Star Family CC Home License

St James School For Little Folks

Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Upward Elementary PSAM-PSPM

Kneedler Child Development Center

WCCA Hillandale Children’s Center

Log Cabin Early Education And Preschool

Flat Rock Five Star Center License

East Flat Rock

Children’s Services - Sugarloaf Elementary School Hendersonville

Bruce Drysdale Children’s Center Hendersonville

Mills River Children’s Center

Cullowhee Five Star Center License

Cherokee Four Star Center License

Pam’s Child Development Center Sylva Four Star Center License

Patty’s House

Sylva Five Star Family CC Home License

Steps To Hope Academy

Mills River All Locations Have a Five Star Center License

Sugar Hill Head Start Center

Jackson

Sylva Five Star Center License

Cashiers Valley Preschool

Smiley Face Playhouse

Cashiers Four Star Center License

Sylva Four Star Family CC Home License

Cullowhee Kids Preschool

Stephens Child Care

Cullowhee GS 110-106

Cullowhee Four Star Family CC Home License

Cullowhee Valley Elementary

The Fairview Kids’ Place

Cullowhee Valley Life Skills Classes

Webster Early Education And Preschool

Fairview Head Start

Webster Early Education And Preschool - Fairview A

Hendersonville Four Star Center License Hendersonville Five Star Center License

Sugarloaf Elementary Child Care

Hendersonville Four Star Center License

Telamon Migrant Head Start Hendersonville Four Star Center License

The Beacon Child Development Center

Hendersonville Three Star Center License

The Play And Learning Center

Hendersonville Five Star Family CC Home License

Tifco Toddlers

Hendersonville Three Star Family CC Home License

Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center East Flat Rock Four Star Center License

Cullowhee Three Star Center License

Cullowhee Five Star Center License Sylva Five Star Center License

First Steps Preschool

Whittier One Star Family CC Home License

Hampton Preschool And Early Learning Center

Shepherd Early Education And Preschool

Sylva Three Star Center License

Webster

Sylva Both Locations Five Star Center License

Webster Enterprises Early Education And Preschool Sylva Five Star Center License

Cashiers Four Star Center License

Macon

Heritage Christian Preschool

Children’s Discovery Center

Sylva GS 110-106

Franklin Four Star Center License

Mills River Four Star Family CC Home License

JCSA Intensive Needs Classroom

Covenant Child Care

Upward Elementary School Intensive Intervention Classroom

Kidz Playhouse

Tori Tots And Friends

Hendersonville Three Star Family CC Home License

Tumblin Toddler

East Flat Rock Five Star Center License

Sylva Five Star Center License Sylva Three Star Center License

Franklin Five Star Center License

Gordon Center For Children, Inc. Highlands GS 110-106

Great Beginnings Lutheran Pre-School Franklin Five Star Center License

Highlands Community Child Development Center Highlands Four Star Center License

Iotla Valley Preschool

Franklin Five Star Center License

Leap Into Learning

Franklin Five Star Center License

Lil Rascals Daycare Franklin Temporary License

Macon County School VIP Program East Franklin School Franklin Three Star Center License

Up, Up And Away Cartoogechaye School Franklin Five Star Center License

Aec Early Head Start

Madison

Angel Garden Day Care

Brush Creek Head Start Marshall Five Star Center License

Foma

Marshall Four Star Center License

Hot Springs Community Learning Center Hot Springs Five Star Center License

Little Friends Child Care Mars Hill Four Star Center License

Madison High School Early Childhood Education Center

Macon County School VIP Program South Macon School

Marshall Five Star Center License

Cartoogechaye School

Marshall Five Star Center License

Five Star Center License

Three Star Center License Both Locations in Franklin

Mountain View Intermediate Franklin Five Star Center License

New Horizons Center For Children And Families Franklin Five Star Center License

Prentiss Preschool

Franklin One Star Center License

Pruett House Family Center Franklin Five Star Center License

Ready Set Go Preschool Program Franklin Five Star Center License

Stella Haire’s Day Care Home

Franklin Two Star Family CC Home License

Trimont Christian Academy Franklin Four Star Center License

McDowell

Madison School Age CareBrush Creek Elementary

Madison School Age Care Mars Hill Five Star Center License

Mars Hill Early Childhood Education Center Mars Hill Four Star Center License

Mars Hill Head Start Pre-K Mars Hill Five Star Center License

Mars Hill United Methodist Preschool Mars Hill GS 110-106

Marion Four Star Center License Marion Three Star Family CC Home License

Children’s Learning Center Old Fort Temporary License

Corpening Memorial YMCA School Age Care Marion Four Star Center License

Early Head Start

Marion Five Star Center License

Eastfield Elementary Preschool Marion Five Star Center License

First Baptist Children’s Center Marion Five Star Center License

First United Methodist Church Early Childhood Enr Marion Five Star Center License

Glenwood Elementary Preschool Marion Five Star Center License

God’s Little People

Marion Four Star Center License

Little Bear

Five Star Family CC Home License

Little Blessings Child Care

Marion One Star Family CC Home License

Marshall Early Childhood Education Center

Little Wonders

Mountain Breeze Preschool

Mamaw’s Little House

Marshall Temporary License

Nebo Three Star Center License

Teddy Bear Den Preschool

Marion Elementary Preschool

Marshall Four Star Center License

Marshall Three Star Family CC Home License

Marion Four Star Center License

Marion Five Star Center License

McDowell County Schools Head Start/Sugar Hill Ctr. Marion Five Star Center License

McDowell High Child Care Marion Five Star Center License

Mcdowell Tech. Community College Child Dev. Ctr.

Marion Five Star Center License

Mrs Melissa’s Little Friends Family Child Care

Nebo Four Star Family CC Home License

Nebo Elementary Preschool Program Nebo Five Star Center License

New Manna Baptist Church Preschool Marion GS 110-106

North Cove Elementary Preschool Marion Five Star Center License

Old Fort Elementary Preschool

Old Fort Five Star Center License

Pleasant Gardens Elementary Preschool Marion Five Star Center License

Precious Little One’s

Old Fort Four Star Family CC Home License

Robbin’s Nest

Nebo Three Star Family CC Home License

Roberta Davis Ballews’ Playhouse

Old Fort Five Star Family CC Home License

Tots ‘R’ Us

Marion Four Star Center License

West Marion Preschool Marion Five Star Center License

Source: North Carolina Division of Child Development & Early Education May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 49

local industry

Mitchell

Tots & Toddlers Day Care

Creative Preschool-Spruce Pine Montessori Spruce Pine

Lynn Three Star Center License

Tryon Elementary/Forbes Pre-K

Three Star Center License

Tryon Five Star Center License

Bakersville Three Star Family CC Home License

Rutherford

Hollifield’s Christian Childcare

Above And Beyond Family Child Care Home

Granny’s Place

Spruce Pine GS 110-106

Forest City One Star Family CC Home License

Intermountain Children’s Place Bakersville Five Star Center License

Jack & Jill School Age Program Spruce Pine Four Star Center License

Jack And Jill Day Care Center Spruce Pine Three Star Center License

Mama Glenda’s Christian Home Preschool Spruce Pine GS 110-106

Roan View Child Development Center

Bakersville Five Star Center License

Sunflower Home Care

Spruce Pine Four Star Center License

Polk Abby’s Learning Academy Inc. Columbus Three Star Center License

Columbus Children’s Center

Alexander Baptist Day Care Center

Harris Elementary Preschool Forest City Five Star Center License

Heavenly Kids Enrichment Center Forest City Three Star Center License

Judy’s Child Care #1

Forest City Four Star Center License

Julie’s Gems

Forest City Three Star Family CC Home License

Kid’s Kingdom, LLC

Forest City GS 110-106

Ellenboro Five Star Center License

Annette’s Family Child Care Home

Kids ‘R’ Us II, Carousel

Rutherfordton One Star Family CC Home License

Apple Tree Day Care

Rutherfordton Four Star Center License

Kids At Play Childcare Center, LLC.

Forest City Four Star Family CC Home License

Ellenboro Four Star Center License

Carver Head Start

Kids ‘R’ Us

Rutherfordton Five Star Center License

Spindale Elementary Preschool Spindale Five Star Center License

Sunshine Cubs Daycare

Bostic Three Star Family CC Home License

Sunshine Elementary Preschool

Bostic Five Star Center License

The Learning Tree

Forest City Four Star Center License

Tiny Tots Day Care

Forest City Five Star Family CC Home License

Children’s Development Center, Inc.

Liberty Baptist Church Day Care Center

Forest City Probationary License

Ellenboro GS 110-106

Choice Care Academy

Lisa’s Day Care

Spindale Four Star Center License

Rutherfordton Two Star Family CC Home License

Choice Care Playschool, LLC.

Little Red School

Westwood Play And Learn, Inc.

Rutherfordton Five Star Center License

Forest City Five Star Center License

Ellenboro Elementary Preschool

Love Away From Home Day Care Home

Swain

Columbus Five Star Center License

Polk Central School Pre-K

Forest City-Dunbar Preschool

Mary’s Little Lambs Learning Center

Mill Spring Five Star Center License

Forest City Five Star Center License

Saluda School Pre-K

Forrest Hunt Preschool

Saluda Five Star Center License

Forest City Five Star Center License

Sunny View School Pre-K

Gena’s Childcare

| May 2017

Rutherfordton Elementary Preschool

Forest City Four Star Center License

Bostic Five Star Family Cc Home License

50

Rutherfordton Five Star Center License

Spindale Five Star Center License

Ellenboro Five Star Center License

Mill Spring Five Star Center License

Pinnacle Elementary More At Four Program

Rutherfordton Three Star Family CC Home License

Spindale Five Star Center License

Mt. Vernon Preschool

Forest City Five Star Center License

Nee Nee’s Little Learners

Rutherfordton Two Star Family CC Home License

Trinity Preschool Rutherfordton GS 110-106

U And I Child Care Center Spindale Temporary License

U And I Enrichment II

Forest City Four Star Center License Forest City Three Star Center License

Agelink Child Development Center Cherokee Four Star Center License

Angie’s Angels

Bryson City One Star Family CC Home License

Bright Adventures Pre-K Bryson City Five Star Center License

Bryson City Head Start

Bryson City Three Star Center License

Cherokee Pre-K

Cherokee Five Star Center License

Deep Creek Day Care

Bryson City Four Star Family CC Home License

Grace Christian Academy Bryson City GS 110-106

Just Like Home Child Care

Whittier Two Star Family CC Home License

Kaleidoscope Dreams

Cherokee Four Star Center License

Little Hands Playskool

Bryson City Five Star Center License

Lots-A-Tots

Bryson City Four Star Center License

New Kituwah Academy Cherokee One Star Center License

Transylvania Blessings From Above Family Child Care Home

New Adventure Learning Center

Greenway Baptist Child Development Center

Small Ones Home Child Care Center

Rosman Child Care Center

Hardin Park Extended Learning Center Hardin Park Preschool

Some Place Special Home Care, Inc.

Brevard Five Star Center License

Rosman Three Star Center License

Rosman Children’s Services Rosman Five Star Center License

The Rain Forest Learning Center Pisgah Forest Five Star Center License

Where Children Shine Pisgah Forest Five Star Center License

Almost Home Child Care

Vilas One Star Family CC Home License

ASU Child Development Center

Boone Five Star Center License

Both Locations in Boone Both with Five Star Center License

Learning And Fun Preschool Inc. Boone Five Star Center License

Little Jewels Home Child Care

Zionville Five Star Family CC Home License

Lucy Brock Child Development Laboratory Program Lucy Brock Collaborative Classroom At Parkway Elementary

Boone Four Star Center License

Both Locations in Boone Both Locations have Five Star Center License

Bethel Extended Learning Center

Lynhill Child Development Center

Sugar Grove Five Star Center License

Blowing Rock Extended Learning Center Blowing Rock Five Star Center License

Boone Four Star Center License

Mabel Extended Learning Center Zionville Five Star Center License

Brevard Three Star Family CC Home License

Cove Creek Extended Learning Center Vilas Five Star Center License

Merry-Land Academy and Child Care

Brevard Children’s Services

Cove Creek Preschool

Mountain Pathways School

Brevard Five Star Center License

Hillview Children’s Services Center Brevard Five Star Center License

Lisa’s Kiddiegarten

Brevard Five Star Center License

Little Blessings Learning Center Rosman Five Star Center License

Nanna’s & Mommy’s

Boone Five Star Center License

Vilas Five Star Center License

Boone Three Star Center License

First Baptist Church Child Development Center

Mrs. Cassidy’s Daycare

Blowing Rock Three Star Center License

Green Valley Elementary Preschool Boone Five Star Center License

Green Valley Extended Learning Center Boone Five Star Center License

Brevard Four Star Center License Source: North Carolina Division of Child Development & Early Education

Vilas One Star Family CC Home License

Ms. Ingrid’s House

Boone Three Star Family CC Home License

Parkway Extended Learning Center Boone Five Star Center License

Precious And Few FCCH

Three Star Family CC Home License

Boone Three Star Family CC Home License

Zionville Four Star Family CC Home License

Sugar Grove Developmental Day School Sugar Grove Five Star Center License

Sunny Side Daycare Blowing Rock Temporary License

Valle Crucis Elementary Pre-K & Valle Crucis Extended Learning Center Sugar Grove Five Star Center License

Western TLC Head Start Center Zionville Four Star Center License

Yancey Bald Creek Elementary Preschool

Burnsville Five Star Center License

Burnsville Elementary Preschool

Burnsville Five Star Center License

Genesis Academy, Inc. Burnsville GS 110-106

Home Away From Home

Green Mountain Three Star Family CC Home License

Mountain Heritage Preschool Burnsville Five Star Center License

Yancey County Child Development Center

Burnsville Four Star Center License

Yancey County Head Start Center Burnsville Four Star Center License

Small Blessings

Five Star Family CC Home License May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

51

column

High Stakes

A step-by-step guide to starting a business.

O

N E C O M M O N M I S T A K E I S E E IN

my practice is that entrepreneurs who are solely focused on sales and growth routinely neglect the proper legal steps in forming and operating their businesses. When setting out on a new venture, it is easy to prioritize product development, revenues, and client service over all else.

Nevertheless, time and time again, I see new businesses and their owners face significant challenges—and sometimes fatal ones—stemming from a failure to consider the legal issues surrounding their business from the start. Take the example of Karen and Charlie, described below.

R

ryan coffield

is an Attorney with The Van Winkle Law Firm of Asheville, North Carolina.

52

Step 1: Ownership Karen worked for a dog clothing store called Doggie Duds for several years, but recently lost her job when her employer closed up shop. Karen’s friend Charlie, knowing she still had a passion for canine couture, suggested that Karen use her clothing designs to open a new store. Charlie offered to provide Karen with some startup capital.

With Charlie’s financial help, Karen was able to buy supplies, obtain a lease in a dog-friendly business district, and engage the services of a couple salespeople, Melissa and Brandon. Caught up in the excitement of starting her new business, “Coats with Tails,” Karen never considered seeking the advice of counsel. Now, when money starts | May 2017

to flow into the business, Charlie takes Karen by surprise when he asks for his share of the profits.

Karen is forced to answer the question she should have asked at the start: Who owns Coats with Tails?

The issue of ownership can be tricky, especially in a situation like Karen’s. How the issue is settled will help dictate what kind of legal entity she should choose and what each owner’s role will be in the organization. Many businesses I work with start out like Coats with Tails, with a “money owner” (Charlie) and a “service owner” (Karen).

Individuals with the idea or skills to start a new business often bring in someone with startup capital to contribute as an alternative to applying to a bank for a loan or running up credit card debt.

In Karen’s situation, Charlie was a friend who wanted to help her get back on her feet. What did the check he wrote represent? Was it a loan to Karen?

Was it a contribution to capital? If he is entitled to some share of the profits, what is the amount?

To complicate things further, do Melissa and Brandon have some claim to an ownership stake, since they helped cash-strapped Karen open the

R storefront without drawing salaries?

As these questions demonstrate, it is critical to know exactly who has a right to the profits of your business. If you don’t have a clear ownership structure, you are likely to face problems like these as the business grows.

TWO SPECIFIC MISTAKES I SEE OPER ATING BUSINESSES MAKE ARE OWNERS SIGNING AGREEMENTS IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL NAMES, AND USING FORM CONTR ACTS THEY FIND ONLINE.

GRATEFUL

TODD KADERABEK and JULIE SMITH

…for our clients. ...to call these mountains home. …to assist with your real estate needs.

828-215-3393 julieandtodd@beverly-hanks.com

I recommend meeting with a business attorney as part of the process of creating your business plan. Being involved in the business plan process is important because it helps your attorney understand your goals and answer questions like who will own the business, if you plan to bring on investors, how much each owner expects to make out of the business, and what kind of entity and tax structure you want to pursue.

Step 2: Entity Choice W hen K aren’s business began to flourish and the opportunity to expand to a nearby suburb presented itself, Karen contacted a local bank and obtained a loan commitment to purchase a building for a second Coats with Tails location.

After a difficult conversation, Karen and Charlie agreed that they own the company 50/50, and the two of them went to the bank to review the loan documents. When they arrive, a loan May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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officer sits them down and asks them to provide their collateral for the loan and requires them to open a business account at that branch.

But whose property are they going to pledge as security for the loan? And under what name should the new bank account be opened? It is at this time that Karen and Charlie are forced to answer the second important question they should have answered a long time ago: What type of business do they own?

Once the ownership of your new business is decided, you will want to determine which legal entity is appropriate for your new company. In North Carolina, businesses can be organized into a sole proprietorship (if you have only one owner), a partnership (if there are multiple owners), a limited liability company, or a corporation.

The most common entity choice we see in small businesses today is an LLC. While there may be some instances in which it is appropriate to function as a sole proprietor or a partnership, one of the risks of doing so is that your personal assets—such as your home or your savings account—may be reached by a plaintiff if your business is sued.

It is even possible to form a partnership with someone else without knowing it—and in this scenario, Karen and Charlie

have probably done so. If you take the right steps in forming and maintaining your legal entity, you may be able to protect your personal assets against many of the liabilities associated with your business.

Step 3: Maintaining the Company/ Common Pitfalls At the suggestion of a friend, Karen and Charlie finally consulted an attorney and followed her advice to incorporate their business into a new entity called “Coats with Tails, Inc.”.

Afterward, Karen and Charlie quickly filed away the documents their attorney provided and turned their focus back to growing the business.

After a few years, business starts to slow and Karen and Charlie must take a step back, look at their outstanding commitments, and evaluate their exposure to liability. For the first time in years, they revisit the attorney that helped them incorporate and she asks them to answer one more important question: Have they maintained their corporate entity?

Even with all the planning that goes into forming a new business properly, the real value of doing so will be realized as

Smart personal investing for all of life’s seasons 828.274.7844 | info@wofm.us www.WhiteOakFinancialManagement.com Every Investment Strategy Has The Potential For Profit Or Loss.

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the business continues to operate. Two specific mistakes I see operating businesses make are owners signing agreements in their individual names and using form contracts they find online.

UNFORTUNATELY, I’ VE SEEN QUITE A FEW BUSINESSES FAIL THAT WERE NOT PROTECTED

BY THE CORRECT LEGAL STEPS IN FORMATION AND OPER ATION, WHICH EXPOSED THEM TO PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR THE ACTIONS OF THEIR BUSINESS.

Your entity can only protect you from liability if you use it.

You can always try to assign a contract you signed individually to your LLC, but the other party could make it difficult to do so.

Sometimes I joke with clients that the odds of an online contract being correctly tailored to your business are about the same odds of you winning the lottery. But they aren’t too far off. Although online forms can be convenient on the front end, they can lead to some significant unintended results when there is a dispute.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen quite a few businesses fail that were not protected by the correct legal steps in formation and operation, which exposed them to personal liability for the actions of their business. With so much on the line, why wouldn’t you seek legal counsel at the very beginning? Karen and Charlie would certainly agree that it is worth the investment.

If you sign a contract in your own individual name, you do not get the protection of your LLC or corporation when you incur liability. We often see people like Karen, who sign a lease in their own name because they need a space for their business.

FLIRTY & FLOWY

One All Souls Crescent • Historic Biltmore Village Asheville, NC • 828.505.8140 • www.shoppalmvillage.com www.facebook.com/Palm.Village.Asheville May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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news briefs

A Faraway Land saxapahaw

Former Disney Imagineer Bob Baranick has plans to create a theme park in North Carolina. A resident of Raleigh, he has purchased 21 acres near Highway 87 in Saxapahaw for what will be known as Whirligig Woods. Like the Disney Parks, this one will start slow, with just a train, and grow in phases to possibly include a treehouse resort and haunted land. Baranick said the park is a private endeavor, independent of the Walt Disney Company, and he is not telling how much he plans to invest in it. Baranick’s resume includes helping design parks, like Epcot and Disneyland Paris, and attractions, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and the Haunted Mansion.

Outside work with Disney, he participated in the design of Paramount Parks,

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Warner Studios, Six Flags, Everland, Busch Entertainment, Hershey’s, and Universal Studios. He further served as a consultant for theme parks in Turkey, China, Abu Dhabi, and Korea. Whirligig is slated to open sometime in 2019, and Baranick suggests he wants to build two more parks in the state.

Early Departure winston-salem

North State Aviation, a company headquartered in Winston-Salem that specialized in aircraft repair, has closed.

North State opened in 2011 at the Smith Reynolds Airport. It received $300,000 in performance-based state incentives in exchange for hiring 308 employees within four years. At one point, it was

operating six maintenance lines for United Airlines and serving numerous other clients. In 2015, it expanded to Global Transpark in Kinston, and it would have received another $250,000 in incentives had it met its goals to hire 109 and invest $900,000 in the local economy. The Kinston operation closed first, and the Winston-Salem site remained open long enough to complete work in progress. Corporate leadership cited a sudden, unexpected decline in revenue sparked by an increase in Latin American competitors. Attempts to obtain sufficient capital to forestall closure proved unsuccessful. At least 345 workers will be affected by the closing, and North State is working with government agencies on outplacement.

Not One of These on Every Corner wake forest

Syngenta knows there is more to managing a golf course than keeping up the lawn. That’s why, until August 15, the Syngenta Business Institute is taking applications for its ninth annual seminar for golf course superintendents.

The three-day course is taught by

faculty from the Wake Forest University School of Business, and all courses are fine-tuned for the golf course. Subject matter includes financial management, negotiation, effective communication, delegation, and bridging age and cultural divides. The programming is described as hands-on and pragmatic. It is also a rare networking opportunity for golf course superintendents. Interested parties must fill out an application that includes an essay on why the candidate should be selected. Participation is highly selective, as there is room only for 25 students, and the program typically receives around 100 applications. “It’s not often that we, as superintendents, receive education that doesn’t involve a sales pitch,” wrote one alum.

The Candy Man Can belmont

The Cotton Candy Factory opened beside a couple other goody mainstays on the main drag through Belmont. It will serve 25 flavors of cotton candy made in the shop, and its décor is inspired by Willy Wonka. Everything is neon pink, blue, orange, or green, even the chef hats—everything except the colossal,

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national & world

fire engine red gumball machine donated by a local family. In addition to cotton candy, the shop will sell candy by the pound, like the old-fashioned stores did.

The name of the joint is a tip of the hat to the cotton textile industry that used to fuel the Gastonia economy. But what makes everything even more delightful and delicious are the employees. The Cherubs Café, Candy Bouquet, and Cotton Candy Factory are all staffed by clientele of the Holy Angels residential and daycare center, which serves persons with varying degrees of mental and physical disabilities. When fully operational, the three shops will employ thirty.

President and CEO Regina Moody says the stores help customers see the disabled in a different light, as employable and independent.

the old north state

technology talent. Last year’s additions were “more varied and senior” than anticipated, with salaries starting over $100,000. In 2012, in an application for state incentives, LexisNexis announced plans only to hire 350 more for the North Carolina office over the next five years, with an average salary of $91,644. In 2014 the company moved its office from Cary to Centennial Campus, and by last year it was employing 620. The company spent $3 million reconfiguring the office to accommodate 855 instead of just 600.

The Raleigh office houses the company’s legal software solutions division, but because of the wealth of available talent, engineering, product management, and customer service, operations will be moved in. Offshored jobs are also being brought stateside. LexisNexis is a division of RELX Group, based in London and employing 10,000 worldwide.

LexisNexisTexis raleigh

LexisNexis Legal & Professional expects to hire at least 175 for its North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus office. Fifty positions are already being advertised on the company’s website. The company added 150 last year, citing the availability of good

Trickle Down Economics sneads ferry

Jason Davis, founder of Loggerhead Printing, is trying to raise awareness about a local issue. Fishers working the North Carolina coast have been worried

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recent legislation was ill-considered.

While the statute is not being fully enforced, it put limits on where, how many days, and what times of day one may fish. Advocates of the legislation argue it is necessary to protect certain species from being over-harvested.

Meanwhile, Davis argues there is no formal education campaign to talk about unintended consequences of the legislation. Fishers are concerned their profitability will sink with the imposed limits, and Davis said this will trickle down to local markets; restaurants that sell North Carolina catches will suffer, putting a dent in the local tourism trade; and reduced household income will put fishermen’s families in dire straits. Davis is selling T-shirts that read, “Protect the Fisherman. Protect an Endangered Species.” A portion of proceeds will support the North Carolina Fisheries Association.

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Bob and Maggie Stout have donated $5 million to High Point University’s School of Education. The couple has a long history of supporting High Point University (HPU), having previously set up a scholarship for business students. Bob is serving a lifetime appointment to the HPU Board of Trustees. He is retired from Steel Bar Corporation in Greensboro, and he has chaired organizations that include Goodwill Industries and what is now the Wyndham Championship on the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour.

He also served in the Air Force. In gratitude of the gift, the school is naming the school in the couple’s honor. The Stout School of Education shares a 31,000-sq.-ft. building completed in 2012 with the psychology department.

Classrooms, computer labs, and offices feature modern furnishings like smart boards and touch-screen manipulatives that students would use. The school offers undergraduate and graduate

degrees for instructors of elementary, middle, secondary, special, and STEM education. A doctoral degree is offered for school administration.

Spinning Chemicals out of Thin Air charlotte

Citing slowing demand, Sealed Air is selling one-third of its company to Bain Capital Private Equity for $3.2 billion.

Best known for manufacturing bubble wrap, Sealed Air acquired its food hygiene and cleaning businesses for $4.3 billion in cash and stock in 2011. It is now bundling and spinning off those operations to repurchase stock, pay down debt, and focus on its higher-margin core functions, which may include acquisitions of companies more aligned with its Food Care and Product Care divisions. The new company, which will be known as New Diversey, netted $2.6 billion in sales last year and employs 8,600. It will manufacture a range of hygiene and cleaning systems, including chemical solutions and machinery, and offer services assisting technology transfer, food safety, and sustainable resource management. Sealed Air moved its global headquarters to Charlotte in 2014, and still intends to move 1,200 jobs from New Jersey to the Queen City.

Solar Gets PrivateSector Assistance wilson

GCL New Energy received $59.8 million in financing from CIT Bank to complete eight solar projects in Wilson and Jackson County. The debt takes the form of a tax equity bridge loan, common for renewable energy investments.

Terms were not disclosed. GCL acquired the projects a year ago for a total of $4.9 million, and three were slated to go online March 31. When completed, the

eight projects will cover approximately 430 acres and output about 84.5 megawatts of direct current. The power will be sold to the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency under a tenyear, fixed rate contract. Chris Ebel of GCL New Energy said his company, by paying for the projects, has freed up about $1.4 million for Wilson Energy to invest in electric upgrades elsewhere.

Wilson Energy is the municipal utility overseeing electric and gas facilities.

GCL New Energy, based in China, is the development, construction, and operation division of GCL-Poly, a manufacturer of polysilicon and wafers.

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It is small for starters, with only three employees providing personal attention to make sure customers get the right fit. Manager Matthew Culbreth worked with W hisnant before and shares his passion for optimizing fits. The store sells leading brands of walking and running shoes, as well as gear, like a T-shirt that says, “I run better than government.”

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MOTHLIGHT brings all the Moth stor y tellers on stage to announce the winner.

“Stories are where you go to look for the truth of your own life.” ― Frank Delaney, The Last Storyteller

O

nce, in my very early days as an advertising copywriter, I slaved over a particular magazine ad for days. I brought to bear everything I had learned about buyer demographics, product features, and unique selling propositions, as well as my own sizzling prose, and I impressed myself with the result. I sent the draft copy up the line, sat back, and waited to be told I was on this year’s list of Addy nominations.

But the creative director sent for me and handed back my draft with a big “X” drawn through it. Noticing my chagrin, 60

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he placed a fatherly hand on my shoulder, looked at me with blazing intensity, and whispered, “Tell them a story! Everybody loves a story!”

I’ll come back to that. This is the part where I point out that storytelling is as old as human interaction. As a communication priority, it ranks just behind reaction to environment (cold, heat, rain, darkness) and the expression of need or desire (food, clothing, shelter, sex). And it differs from those in that it moves beyond self-centeredness to the desire to report something to

I H AV E

A TO

Thing

Tell

YOU

As social beings we require—we crave—actual association with others. The art of modern storytelling is simply an updated version of a centuries-old tradition. written by roger mccredie

somebody else, to involve another person. It’s a specialized form of communication, a contract between the teller and the listener. The listener agrees to listen; the teller agrees to instruct, to inspire, or to entertain.

Possibly the earliest object of storytelling was to create and preserve a narrative of events, from isolated instances (that time Og killed the wooly mammoth) to a whole history (how the descendants of Og became renowned mammoth hunters).

This was particularly true, and vitally important, in tribal societies, from the Hebrews to Bedouins to Native Americans.

Irish and Scottish clans, descendants of the Celts, each had a bard, or seanachie, whose duty was extolling the valiant doings of his clansmen (i.e., that time we gloriously ran off the raiding McDevious clan, never mind that they took fifty head of our cattle along with them). The seanachie also served as a sort of human register of deeds who, when called upon, could provide

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an oral record of clan transactions and, most importantly, recite the pedigrees of the chief and his family—and testify, with his own sword as his authority, to their legitimacy. The seanachie’s duties made him so important that he was considered the thirdranking clan officer, behind the treasurer and before the piper.

Meanwhile, back at the cave: As cultures and value systems evolved, stories became useful ways of teaching community culture, ethics, and beliefs. A new phrase crept into the storyteller’s narrative: “The moral of this story is…” Some storytellers took to using the device of humanizing animals that were known to have certain qualities (the wise owl, the sly fox, the deceitful snake) and making them characters in these oral morality plays; today we call these stories fables.

Aesop invented the tortoise and the hare to illustrate the value of persistence and the folly of overconfidence. A couple of thousand years later, Joel Chandler Harris recorded former May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 61

leisure & libation

BALLADS

Stories Set to Music Mnemonic is a five-dollar word for a device that aids memory. When it comes to stories, turning them into poems is a mnemonic process. Meter and rhyme help the storyteller move the narrative along.

If you break a story down into four-line stanzas, of which the second and last lines rhyme, you have a ballad. As in: In London town, where I was born, There was a lady dwelling Made every youth cry “Well-a-day.”

Her name was Barbara Allen.

In the late nineteenth century the Harvard professor Frances James Child published his life’s work, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, an exhaustive, five-volume compendium of transcribed folk ballads and their numerous variants, which he cross-indexed according to subject matter.

It was Child’s intent to demonstrate how, within the storytelling tradition, a ballad can survive innumerable local edits, references, and substitutions, and still retain the nexus of its original story. He ended up with 305 examples, of which “Barbara Allen” is Number 84; you’ll find it in the weird-goings-on-about-unrequitedlove section.

In 1916-17 the English musicologist Cecil Sharp performed a reverse twist on Child’s research by combing the Southern Appalachians for remnants of British balladry that had been set to music. He stumbled (well, not literally) upon Olive Dame Campbell, who was engaged in the same sort of collecting. In Western North Carolina they found a treasure trove of perfectly preserved old-country musical stories, which they published as English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.

(Sharp then returned to England, some

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said, after having ripped off much of Campbell’s research; in 1919 Campbell’s husband, educational missionary John C. Campbell, died; so in 1925 she founded the still-thriving folk school at Brasstown, which she named in his honor.)

Appalachian ballad making did not confine itself to preserving ancestral subject matter. The technique is too dynamic for that. As it had generations before across the Atlantic, it became a means of conveying, and often editorializing about, local news: Oh hang your head, Tom Dula, Oh hang your head and cry.

You killed poor Laurie Foster And now you’re bound to die.

Nor did the storytelling-in-song confine itself to these mountains. There has always been a fine ballad tradition in New England. And as settlers pushed westward they brought their ballad/storytelling techniques with them and applied those techniques to what was happening around them: In the spring of 1882 much of America found out about the death of its most famous outlaw by means of a ballad that was sung, it seemed, in every saloon and music hall: Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man.

He robbed the Glendale train.

He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor With his hand and his heart and his brain.

Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life.

His children, they were brave.

But the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

(Jesse James was calling himself Thomas Howard at the time he was shot dead, in his own parlor, by his cousin Robert Ford, the aforesaid coward.)

A 1949 mayoral election in Boston gave birth to another ballad: a campaign song, set to the tune of “The Wreck of Old 97,” that protested a proposed subway fare increase. The song told of a hapless apocryphal passenger named Charlie who, not having another nickel with which to pay the new rate, was doomed to stay on the train for eternity: Charlie’s wife goes down to the Scollay Square station Every day at quarter past two, And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich As the train comes rumblin’ through.

A decade later the song was picked up by The Kingston Trio and it rocketed to the top of the popular music charts. The folk tradition is nothing if not versatile.

Even in this totally automated age, new ballads are made every day. They require no musicianship beyond the ability to carry a tune and no expertise other than the ability to rhyme a few words. Try it: Pick a story you think needs telling, borrow a tune from somewhere (unless you already have one running loose in your head), and check the online rhyming dictionary. You may surprise yourself. And even if your ballad is only ever heard by the family dog or cat, or a few indulgent people at your next cocktail party, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve participated in a tradition almost as old as humankind.

slaves’ stories for his Uncle Remus collection that used exactly the same technique (“Born and bred in de briar patch!”).

Whereas fables use animals or the supernatural to make moral points, parables employ humans, in human situations; and the pre-eminent teller of parables, Christians would say, was Jesus of Nazareth. Christians and non-Christians alike are familiar with the story of the prodigal son, which illustrates unconditional love, or the good Samaritan, which deals with the duty of kindness that one human owes to another.

Personal experiences make for particularly compelling stories because the teller is invested in them and is saying “This is what happened to me.” Our natural inclination is to believe the teller, and if he exaggerates a little—or even a lot—we’re prepared to cut him some slack because we identify with him as the teller. (That could be us facing down the dragon he’s telling us about, you know?)

“Stories have to be told or they die.”

SAR A FIELDS Producer of Asheville’s Moth Stor ySL AMs

CHET ALLEN spins a yarn at Buffalo Nickel.

For instance, there was a story told of and by a (very) distant cousin of mine whose family was active in Southern publishing and politics. He was packed off to Princeton, where his Southern-ness would ordinarily have made him an object of derision, but his family’s wealth and prominence made him exotic instead. His classmates quizzed him endlessly about Southern life, customs, and mores; and the young man was delighted to discover that the sophisticated Yankees tended to believe anything he told them, the more bizarre the better. Bearing this in mind, he invited his roommate home for Thanksgiving, to observe Southern culture firsthand. Their train arrived late at night and the two retired as soon as they got in—but not before my cousin had a quick conference with his friend, mentor, and accomplice, the family butler.

Next morning, the roommate was awakened by a discreet knocking at his door. When he opened it, there stood the butler, stone faced and immaculate in a starched white jacket, and presenting a silver tray on which was a frosty silver goblet garnished with mint leaves.

The roommate was taken aback, but he accepted the julep. The butler bowed and left without a word.

Now for those who don’t know, a mint julep is simply several ounces of fine bourbon whiskey over cracked ice, with a splash of sugar water and some bruised mint. Taken on an empty stomach, it has about the same effect as being tasered. The roommate suspected as much, but didn’t want to seem ungracious, so he sipped gingerly at the drink and then set it aside while he showered. He was drying himself off, a little fuzzily, when there was another knock. There stood the butler, as before, with a fresh julep. The roommate managed a goofy smile, accepted the drink, and the butler went away. Again, rather than risk rudeness, the roommate took a couple of swallows of the fresh drink.

He was fighting a losing battle with his trousers, trying to step into them, when there came another knock. He lurched to the door, dragging most of his pants behind him, and opened it. This time the butler spoke.

“Mister John says you better get on downstairs soon as you can,” he intoned, “‘cause this is the last mint julep before breakfast.”

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 63

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*** Personal stories that highlight the benefits of a product or service are referred to testimonials in marketing, and they are one of the most powerful forms of advertising precisely because of the identification factor. When I was a kid, Ray-O-Vac flashlight batteries cleverly inserted, comic strip-format, customers’ stories into the depths of comic books. In one such strip, I remember, a narrator told of being confronted by what he thought was a ghost in an abandoned house. A beam of his flashlight revealed that it was only a sleeping derelict, but I got the message: I wasn’t going in no haunted house without my flashlight, loaded with trusty Ray-O-Vacs. Years later I thought of the strip when that creative director admonished me to tell the nice folks a story.

You know those cave paintings, the ones depicting animals and hunters and stuff? Scholars now tell us those are story outlines—CliffsNotes for prehistoric bards to use in reciting tales as they grew lengthier and detailed.

As writing developed, cave walls became unnecessary; it was possible to commit much more information to a clay tablet or a sheet of papyrus. Using these early laptops, storytellers could now achieve consistency because they could readily refer to something they had already said.

Thus, over millennia, were born authors; thus was born narrative style.

And the papyrus-scratchers and their descendants came to realize that one way to preserve several tales at once was 64

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to wrap them up in a larger story retold by the author in his own voice. There was a fourteenth-century civil servant named Geoffrey Chaucer who invented a whole cast of characters comprising a cross-section of English life—a miller, a knight, a couple of nuns, a libidinous widow who wore red stockings, and so on—and gave them a common errand: a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas à Becket at

The South in particular harbored a treasure trove of stories and legends, thanks largely to its diverse culture.

Canterbury, arranging for them to meet up by chance at a wayside inn called The Tabard, where they were eventually joined by Chaucer himself.

Chaucer, as narrator, goes on to explain that to pass the time, the pilgrims decide that each of them will tell a story. The ensuing cycle of tales is remarkable both for its insight into medieval life and for Chaucer’s ability to speak in other folks’ voices.

Five centuries later, Arthur Conan Doyle, a London ophthalmologist with a slow practice, began filling in his “too abundant leisure time” by going Chaucer one better and devising a cycle of stories told by a fictional narrator—a story-within-a-story-within-a-story. Doyle’s

L-R: Jan Cope, Jon Handelman, Jess Resler, Trevor Lewis, Patty Brown all stand center stage to tell their tales at The Mothlight.

ABOVE: Getting a seat to a Moth stor y telling event is a treasure, but enter tainment is guaranteed.

narrator is a recently discharged army doctor, John H. Watson, who is looking for a flatmate. Through a mutual friend he is introduced to a lanky, hawk-faced gentleman named Sherlock Holmes, who astonishes Watson, at their very first meeting, by glancing at Watson’s wrist and saying, “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

Yet alongside all these cultural advances and literary innovations, the oral storytelling tradition has persisted, and in America this has held true, even while the coming of paved roads and broadcast media began making community isolation a thing of the past. New England seaports, the sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina, north woods lumber camps, and cowboy bunkhouses all eventually were mined for the stories they had once perforce kept to themselves.

The South in particular harbored a treasure trove of stories and legends, thanks largely to its diverse culture. Here were many story-loving ethnic groups living cheek by jowl, each group handing down its own oral tradition and simultaneously mingling it with material from all the others.

Going all the way back, Native Americans have an extremely rich oral tradition, one which continues to this day in Western North Carolina among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Prior to the arrival in America of Europeans, the Cherokee passed down their culture exclusively by word-of-mouth, spinning tales to detail their history and traditions, illuminate morals and values, and of course provide entertainment. In her classic novel about the 1938-39 Cherokee removal from their land and the Trail of Tears, Pushing the Bear, Native American author Diane Glancy outlined the significance of the spoken word

to the Cherokee culture, at one point having character Lacey Woodard say, “The voice carried power. What was spoken came into being. Even Reverend Mackenzie talked of the Great Spirit creating the world with his voice. Was the white man just now finding that out? Hadn’t the Cherokee always known the power of the word?”

Here in the present, during tourist season the Cherokee host their weekend Cherokee Bonfires—fire is a sacred symbol—at the Oconaluftee Islands Park, featuring dance, music, and storytelling, with performers attired in 17th century clothing.

(See sidebar, p. 67) Bonfire organizer Daniel Tramper, in an interview with VisitCherokee.com, explained, “At the Cherokee Bonfire, you can get a lot more culture and education about Cherokee. You can learn about the way we live now, and the way we used to live. It gives more insight into Cherokee, and Cherokee culture, and how great it is.”

In 1947 the folklorist B. A. Botkin published A Treasury of Southern Folklore, a compendium of stories, anecdotes, and legends he had captured in a decade of traveling from Maryland to Texas. The work contains a good many entries from Western North Carolina, including one that’s probably true, from the chapter Botkin titled “Irrepressible Cussedness”: For a great many years, [people from Madison County] were considered to be the toughest of the tough, especially those mountaineers living in the vicinity they call Shelton Laurel. They tell a tale of an old feller coming to Asheville for an appendicitis operation… The following morning the physician went in to see how he was getting along, and instead of finding him in bed he found him sitting in a May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 65

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SAY IT LOUD! MAY 2-OCTOBER 28,

Storytelling Live!

storytellingcenter.net/events/storytelling-live The Teller-in-Residence series comprises weekly events at the International Storytelling Center, in Jonesborough, Tennessee, with a lineup of 26 nationally-known storytellers for matinee and evening performances, as well as special ones for children and the holidays.

A Selective Guide to Upcoming Storytelling Events

(GrandSLAM), plus benefit shows The Moth Ball and the Moth Members’ Show. Asheville is among several other cities around the country that hosts monthly StorySLAMS. Events start at 7PM. The May 18 event’s theme is Karma (“Whether you’re fated for success or doomed for failure, what goes around comes around.”); June 15, Cheating (“Stepping out, crib sheets, tax evasion, or stacked decks. Tricks, swindles, cons, and frauds. Philanders and chiselers and flimflammers, tramps and thieves.”) Held at The Mothlight in West Asheville.

MAY 5–7

North Carolina Storytelling Guild Spring Retreat A storytelling workshop will be presented at Wildacres Conference Center, in Little Switzerland, by storyteller Alan Hoal. For more information contact: Dianne Hackworth at dianne@diannehackworth.com or 865.457.3392.

MAY 11 & 17

David Joe Miller Presents davidjoemiller.com

Popular storyteller Miller, in addition to directing workshops on Storytelling in Business, Storytelling for Adults, and Storytelling for Children, hosts his Word! events and Open Mic! shows (anyone age 16 and older can sign up for 10 minutes of stage time; in April it was at the McKinney Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, with Lee Lindsey) throughout the year, at different locations. On May 11 at 7PM, Word! featuring John Thomas Fowler will be held at the Pack Memorial Library in downtown Asheville, admission is free; on May 17 at 7PM, Word! featuring Doug Elliot and Pete Koschnick takes place at Buffalo Nickel in West Asheville, admission is $15.

MAY 18 & JUNE 15

The Moth: True Stories Told Live themothlight.com

NYC-based The Moth presents curated events featuring five storytellers (Moth Mainstage), open-mic storytelling open to anyone with a five-minute story (StorySLAM), championship event featuring ten StorySLAM winners

MAY 20

Storytelling Workshop / Made From Scratch tryonarts.org

At the Tryon Fine Arts Center, in addition to the 1-4PM afternoon workshop, at 7PM Connie Regan-Blake (an internationally celebrated storyteller) and Tryon’s Dottie Jean Kirk (who has her own popular one-woman show) will team up for Made From Scratch: Serving Up Delicious Southern Stories. Register online (adv. tickets $17).

MAY 26-OCTOBER 28

Cherokee Bonfire

visitcherokeenc.com/events/detail/ cherokee-bonfire Drawing from a rich oral tradition dating back millennia, the Cherokee Bonfire series runs throughout the tourism season and is described as “an enchanting way to interact with the rich details of the Cherokee people and their stories.” In addition to the bonfire itself, the stories are typically accented and punctuated by the sound of the storyteller’s traditional hand drum. The series is held at 7PM-9PM every Friday and Saturday night, at the Oconaluftee Islands Park, Tsali Blvd., Cherokee. To get more details contact the Cherokee Welcome Center: travel@nc-cherokee.com or 800-438-1601.

is supported by a grant from The Arts Council of Henderson County. Held in the unique Feed & Seed building in Fletcher at 4PM. Contact 828.684.0481, for more information.

OCTOBER 6-8

National Storytelling Festival storytellingcenter.net/events/nationalstorytelling-festival

Held annually on the first Friday of October each year, this year’s festival will feature such personalities as Carmen Deedy, Sheila Kay Adams, Josh Goforth, Ben Haggarty, and David Holt. Events include the Ghost Story Concerts (frightening tales under the nighttime sky), the Story Slam! (open to all attendees’ participation), Swappin’ Ground (ditto), and the late-night Midnight Cabaret. Come to the International Storytelling Center, in Jonesborough, Tennessee, for a delight in storytelling.

ONGOING

The Asheville Storytelling Circle Meets third Monday of each month at 7PM, Asheville Terrace, 200 Tunnel Rd., Asheville.

Contact Wallace Shealy, wshealy@wallaceshealy.com or 828.581.4603.

Asheville Wordfest

facebook.com/AshevilleWordfest

JUNE 17

In 2007 Laura Hope-Gill of Lenoir-Rhyne University founded the first Asheville Wordfest featuring readings, workshops, and open mic contests. It’s now a much-anticipated annual event. The 2017 Wordfest, held last month over the course of six days, offered everything from 25 area writers and poets giving readings (one of Wordfest’s goals is to showcase local talent and community diversity), to national figures leading workshops, to Slam-styled storytelling—notably, eight-time Story Slam winner and Appalachian State University history professor, Ray Christian.

Quarterly series, this time directed by storyteller/folk musician Elena Diana Miller. Program

For a comprehensive list of events held around the state, visit the North Carolina Storytelling Guild website: ncstoryguild.org/events.html.

Feed & Seed Storytelling

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 67

leisure & libation

chair… The physician said to him, “Ah-ah! You ought not to be sitting up. You’ll tear your stitches out.” And the old feller looked up at the doctor and said, “What’s the matter, Doc? Ain’t your thread no good?”

About the same time Botkin was hunting and gathering, Alabama-born Richard Chase made his way to Beech Mountain, in Watauga County, North Carolina, and discovered a whole cache of storytellers, some related and some not, keeping alive the Britishrooted, Appalachian-adapted material handed on from their own ancestors. In particular, Chase found and cataloged a number of “Jack tales”– stories about an adventuresome boy whose most famous exploit has come down to us as “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

He eventually published these and other stories in two collections, The Jack Tales and The Grandfather Tales, both of which are still in circulation.

Among the Beech Mountain storytellers Chase heard were R. M. Ward, a descendant of the nineteenth century mountain bard Council Harmon, and Ray Hicks, who became known as “the grandfather of storytelling” in America. When the National Storytelling Festival was founded in 1973, Hicks was its headline performer, and he remained so until his death in 2002. He was, in fact, credited with almost singlehandedly reviving the art of American storytelling that began in the late twentieth century.

And thereby, if you will, hangs another tale: how face-to-face storytelling is surviving and even thriving in the electronic age.

It is frequently observed that today’s tsunami of electronicallyborne information and entertainment is drowning an essential ingredient of our human-ness: our ability—and even desire—to communicate face-to-face with other people. But, some sociologists are now saying, humans are after all social animals, and more and more of them are becoming aware that virtual reality, clever as it is, can’t satisfy our need for sure-enough reality. We require— we crave—actual association with others. And nothing brings people together like the sharing of a story. Which is why there’s a groundswell of grassroots storytelling going on; it’s happening not in spite of the information age, but because of it.

Enter the Moth In 1997 the poet George Dawes Green gathered around him in New York a group of storytellers dedicated to preserving storytelling on its most personal level. The tellers called themselves “moths,” an allusion to insects gathering under the light on an old-fashioned porch where people had gathered to swap tales.

In twenty years, Green’s original concept has morphed into a cultural phenomenon. The Moth is now an umbrella under which a whole range of storytelling projects takes place. The Moth Mainstage, based in New York, holds storytelling programs featuring both professional and amateur storytellers. The latter may even include famous folk from other walks of life— politicians, actors, writers, newspersons—who simply have a stories of their own to tell. The Mainstage also goes on the road, A Prairie Home Companion-style, to cities such as Detroit, 68

| May 2017

DEBBIE GURRIERE shares her stor y.

BUFFALO NICKEL speakers can read prepared work.

DAVID BORTOLOTTO

NOT A BAD seat in the house, at Buffalo Nickel

Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los A ngeles, Cambridge—and even Asheville.

The Moth hosts “StorySLAMS,” which are open-mic storytelling competitions organized along the lines of poetry slams.

These are actually competitions in which ten storytellers (whose names are drawn at random from a pool of contestant hopefuls) present five-minute narratives relating to an assigned topic. The tellers are then awarded points, a la Dancing with the Stars, by panels of judges. There are rules: Stories must be personal, and they must be true (there’s an honor system in play), and the tellers must not use notes or scripts.

Some traditional or “classical” storytellers look askance at the StorySLAM and other open-mic, free-for-all story sessions on the grounds that, as Robert Frost once said about free-verse poetry, it’s like playing tennis with the net down.

Similar to how certain literary critics

and members of the poetry community have complained about competitive poetry slams, storytelling traditionalists object to the story slam’s competition format as crass and irrelevant. And they express concern that its focus on strictly personal subject matter discourages the universality, the abiding truth or moral, inherent in all great stories. But much like poetry slams have, over time, been embraced by a sizable segment of the poetry community (American poet Marc Smith is generally credited with creating the first poetry slams, in Chicago in 1984), so, too, have story slams steadily grown in popularity; National Public Radio program The Moth Radio Hour, which debuted in 2009 and went on to win a Peabody Award the following year, has played a significant role in introducing the public to the artform.

On a chilly March evening in the middle of the week, the line waiting for West

DAVID JOE MILLER

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 69

leisure & libation

Asheville’s Mothlight venue to open stretched half a block down Haywood Street and around the corner. The crowd queuing up for this month’s installment of The Moth: True Stories Told Live was predominantly under-30 and wearing the official Asheville under-30 winter uniform: women in boots, skinny jeans, and down vests; men in watch caps, hoodies, and Doc Martens. At seven o’clock they filed in, easily filling the rows of chairs set up on one side of the former storefront (the bar occupies the other side).

They fell quiet as, after a few preliminary announcements—the evening’s assigned topic was to be “wonder”—the first storyteller’s name was drawn out of a hat.

This was a woman whose story was an elegy for a long lost friend who had succumbed to alcohol and drug addiction. She was followed by a prepossessing, white-bearded gentleman in a prominent hat who said he was from the Ozarks and launched into a tale about the doings of three eccentric brothers in his hometown. Next up was a young man who said he was an empath, a term used “chiefly in science fiction,” according to Google’s dictionary, to describe someone capable of taking on the mental and emotional state of another person.

All in all, it was a long way from Jack and the Beanstalk. But fans and performers alike applaud The Moth’s approach, saying it promotes the commonality of being human, encourages

self-confidence, provides valuable experience, and has in fact served as the launching pad for hundreds, if not thousands, of storytelling careers.

David Joe and the Buffalo: A Really Open Mic Just a few doors up Haywood Street from the Mothlight is Buffalo Nickel, another 1920s storefront converted to a popular neighborhood bistro. Downstairs is food and drink; upstairs is pool and entertainment (not usually at the same time). And once a month, sort of, it hosts Spoken Word OPEN MIC!, a freeform storytelling session, under the leadership of nationally prominent storyteller David Joe Miller.

Miller, a genial man with salt-and-pepper hair and beard, is a career storyteller who, besides performing in the usual storytelling venues—schools, libraries, camps, festivals—has also carried his talent into corporate board rooms, executive retreats, and even political rallies. (He also puts on David Joe Miller Presents WORD!, bringing fellow storytellers to town to perform at different area venues, including the Buffalo Nickel.) Miller is a native of Jonesborough, Tennessee, which is considered to be the hub of American storytelling and is

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the headquarters of the National Storytelling Association, where Miller formerly served as staff storyteller. He’s a past board member of the National Storytelling Network and the founder of the Jonesborough Storytellers’ Guild.

Unlike the Mothlight sessions, those at Buffalo Nickel are almost entirely unstructured. There’s no assigned topic and there’s no competition. Participants can read from notes or texts if they want; in fact, written narratives and even poetry are allowed. Hence, the first presenters on the evening in question were two women; one spun a yarn centered around the battle of Gettysburg and the other discoursed on the joys and pitfalls of retirement living. They were followed by a monologue, a reading from the draft of a novel, some rather scatological poetry, and a recitation, all making for a lively, diverse evening of entertainment. Lack of structure aside, the audience was clearly engaged with the stories and supportive of the storytellers.

“It’s all spoken word,” said Miller. “That’s the thing.” And he quotes a favorite aphorism of his, a line from Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees: “Stories have to be told or they die; when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”

[ The Moth ] promotes the commonality of being human, encourages self-confidence, provides valuable experience, and has in fact served as the launching pad for hundreds, if not thousands, of storytelling careers.

Miller’s open mic series at Buffalo Nickel is now in its third year. “My wife and I had been here before and we loved the food,” he told me one recent evening. “We got to know the owners, Lynn and Rob Foster, and we started talking and they said, ‘Why don’t you do it [the open mic] here?’ It’s proved to be ideal.”

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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column

To Preserve & Protect Art accrues value for many reasons—not all of them monetary.

W

H E N I S A PI E C E OF A R T A T RU E

treasure? Is it valuable because of the artist, or because of the provenance of the art? I have found that a true treasure can be defined for these reasons as well as another: to tell a story that is of timeless importance. I hear fascinating stories behind pieces of art every day.

J

jennifer pe arson

is the owner of Frugal Framer, with locations in Asheville and Arden.

72

Recently I had the pleasure of framing a unique portrait from the 1940s. The impressionist-style painting shows Eva Sacks Lebby, the great-aunt of a customer. Eva (1903-1983) was a nurse with the Philadelphia School System until she joined the army at the start of World War II. Eva began her wartime career at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and ended her first year of service in North Africa with the 48th Surgical Hospital. While stationed overseas, Eva was a part of the landing at Arzew, a port town occupied by German forces and located close to the strategic port city of Oran.

In 1943 Eva was transferred to the 12th General Hospital, with which she served in Italy.

It is in this period that Eva undoubtedly commissioned her portrait. The beautiful painting captures a pointed gaze but is free of any wartime atmosphere. Although the artist is not known, and therefore the actual monetary value cannot be specifically determined or appraised, preserving and displaying Eva’s portrait and her story is of definite historical and emotional value to her family.

In addition to passing down the beautiful painting, Eva wrote many letters home documenting her experience in the army unit, the relative merits of general hospitals and evacuation hospitals, descriptions of her on- and off-duty uniforms,

| May 2017

sightseeing in Italy, and discussions about romance and wartime relationships. Together with her portrait, the letters serve as a valuable reminder of the wartime contribution made by female members of the armed forces. Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent, mentioned Eva in his book, Here Is Your War, describing in length the medical team that came from South Carolina, and all they did for the troops in Africa. Eva’s niece conveyed to me that her aunt was a strong female presence in her life, and that preserving and displaying the painting is a way to pay homage to Eva’s life and influence.

The act of preserving family stories, memorabilia, and art has both tangible and intangible benefits.

With our aging population, parents and grandparents are downsizing homes and curating their treasured possessions. Recently, another customer produced a stack of signed and numbered prints by the late artist Charley Harper. Born in 1922 and based for most of his life in Cincinnati, Charley was an American Modernist best known for his wildlife prints and posters, additionally illustrating numerous books and magazines. For 50 years he produced nature-inspired serigraphs (a silk-screen method of printing) rich with color and providing the viewer with a stylized perspective of the animal kingdom.

J The parents of the customer had collected the Harper prints in the 1970s. While some of the prints were framed and displayed, additional prints had been stored, and for the most part forgotten, under a bed for years. Luckily, the prints were in good condition, just waiting to be preserved and displayed. To do so, the art was framed with conservation framing techniques utilizing acid free materials and UV filtering glass to prevent fading of the artwork and matboard. Future generations will now be able to enjoy the art for its collectability and for the interesting family story surrounding the collection.

Another idea of “art as treasure” speaks to the importance of new art, or art that comes into a customer’s collection as a reflection of their current place in life. This can include, for example, a young family’s constant inclusion of children’s

WE ARE VERY FORTUNATE IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA TO HAVE MANY WORKING-ARTIST STUDIOS WHERE A CUSTOMER CAN INTER ACT DIRECTLY WITH THE ARTIST. THIS INTER ACTION BOTH CREATES MEMORIES AND STRENGTHENS THE CONSUMER’S CONNECTION. art as an important part of the framed family story. Many parents have boxes of art created by their children at school or through art lessons. Framing children’s art can be simple and economical, or elaborate and designed to last for decades.

Similarly, it may be the act of protecting and displaying treasures and collections that have been obtained while travelling or from local galleries. One can easily find an appealing, interesting poster or print that can be purchased online, but a more meaningful way to collect art is to visit artists and galleries in their own communities. We are very fortunate in Western North Carolina to have many workingartist studios where a customer can interact directly with the artist. This interaction both creates memories and strengthens the consumer’s connection, not only with the art purchased, but with the actual artist. Understanding why and how an artist achieved a particular mood or view in a painting lends depth to the story.

When is a piece of art a true treasure? It may or may not be part of a valuable collection. But if it tells your story, makes you smile, or brings back a wonderful memory, then it is a true treasure worthy of being preserved and displayed.

To read more about Eva’s story and see her images, visit FrugalFramer.com/stories. Frugal Framer has been framing art, memorabilia, and unique artifacts in Asheville since 1975.

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 73

UPDATES FOR

&

NATIONAL WORLD [

news briefs

Computers Outperform Humans—Again new york, new york

BlackRock, Incorporated, the world’s largest investment management firm, is turning to technology and replacing humans in order to deliver higher-quality investment services that instill more confidence. In recent years, human stock managers have been outpaced by computers, and yet active fund managers charge on average $131 per $10,000. This has driven investors to more profitable products with annual fees closer to $3 per $10,000. Withdrawals from actively-managed products only reinforced the need to change to computer stock picking. Mark Wiseman, who integrated data-mining and other technology into the management of Canada’s largest

]

pension fund, was hired to oversee the overhaul. Approximately 40 employees will be cut, costing BlackRock about $25 million in severance, and the company is expected to lose around $30 million from active management fees. BlackRock manages over $5 trillion in assets.

of movie tickets sold ten years ago was 1.4 billion, compared to last year’s 1.32 billion. Year-over-year per capita ticket purchases were down 1% with no foreseeable growth. Last year, revenue from ticket sales set a record at $11.4 billion, but it’s on a trajectory to climb no higher than $11.5 billion by 2020. While a focus on more theater amenities and must-see blockbusters is working with millennials, the young teens who represent the next generation of moviegoers are losing interest. Also threatening theater revenues is pressure from studios to release film to video earlier because growth in that industry is declining as well.

It Takes Two, Baby

Movie-ing on las vegas , nevada

Opening remarks at this year’s CinemaCon were not as optimistic as usual. The event is the annual gathering of motion picture studio and theater owners. Disney’s executive vice president overseeing distribution, Dave Hollis, focused on stagnation induced by the public’s increasing interest in technology. For example, the number

cambridge, massachusetts

Biotech startup Tango Therapeutics raised $55 million in Series A financing from Third Rock Ventures. Leasing space from Editas Medicine, a developer of gene-editing drugs, the ten scientists working for Tango are trying to find a cure for types of cancer that do not respond to anything on the market. The research is based on the concept of “synthetic lethality.” Research has shown

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that, in some cases, one of two mutations can be innocuous while both prove lethal to a cell. Since cancer results from cell mutations that lead to accelerated growth, it is possible those mutations can be paired with a drug-inducible synthetically lethal mutation. Tango researchers are particularly interested in working with the mutations in cancer cells that render them unresponsive to the body’s natural rejection processes. The technique has already received FDA approval for drugs

by AstraZeneca and Tesaro.

European Armadillos london, england

Thanks to Starship Technologies, Domino’s pizzas will be delivered by self-driving robots to customers within a mile of a few stores in Germany and the Netherlands. The battery-powered, sixwheeled robots crawl only on sidewalks and at a maximum speed of 4 miles per hour. They have a payload capacity of twenty pounds, or the equivalent of eight pizzas. The cargo hold is insulated and unlocked by a code sent to the phone of the purchaser. The franchise’s chief executive, Don Meij, said the move was necessary as growth would outpace available drivers in five to ten years.

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carolina in the west

the old north state

While the ground transportation units were tested last year, a drone delivered a Domino’s pizza in New Zealand. Now, Mercedes-Benz Vans has invested $17.2 million in Starship this year to develop a roving mothership concept for a fleet of sidewalk robots. Starship robots already make deliveries for a small number of companies in five nations.

national & world

from Macy’s, Amazon, and independent jewelers for $195-$295. The company plans to expand the line with necklaces and rings as technology miniaturizes.

Conducting a Controlled Burn mobile bay, alabama

Tickled Pink omaha , nebraska

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Incorporated, is branching into the smart jewelry market. With the success of the Apple smartwatch and Fitbit, leadership in the company’s jewelry division determined smartwear was a line that could no longer be ignored. The line will launch with four bracelets, either of 18-karat gold or leather. Instead of bearing a screen, though, each bracelet has a “stone” equipped with Bluetooth to communicate with its owner’s mobile phone. As long as the phone is within twenty-five feet of the bracelet, the stone will gently vibrate and change color with alerts. The user can program up to eight colors for caller ID. The bracelets will be sold as a new line, Ela, in Berkshire Hathaway’s jewelry division, Richline. They’ll retail

Tests went much better than expected for the flame refluxer, a fire blanket for improving the efficiency of oil spill cleanup. The blanket, invented by Ali Rangwala of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, consists of a sandwich of copper wool between two layers of tightly-woven copper sheeting. It is topped with a random smattering of copper coils, each a few inches high.

There are no moving parts. The blanket is unfurled over a spill, which is then ignited. Ninety-five% of the heat from any fire goes into the atmosphere, but the refluxer’s conductive coils collect it and feed it back to the fuel. Since fuels combust in the gaseous state, the blanket is designed to amp up temperatures to 1,700 oF for a quicker, more thorough burn. In a miniaturized test at a Coast Guard facility in Mobile Bay, scientists found this method of burning yielded

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The Geneva Motor Show is a chance to see the latest in sleek sportscar concepts from the world’s highest-quality, luxury manufacturers. It is marked by exotic supercars, many with sticker prices approaching $1 million.

Show stoppers included Ferrari’s 812 Superfast, featuring 530 foot-pounds of torque for 789 brake horsepower.

It can go from zero to 60 in less than 2.9 seconds, and reach a maximum speed of 211 miles per hour. Pagani displayed its Huayra Roadster, a seven-speed hypercar that torques at 738 foot-pounds while developing 745 bhp.

McLaren presented the second-generation in its Super Series line, boasting the ability to brake from 124 mph to standstill in almost four seconds. And Lamborghini, which had not released any press previews, finally unveiled its Huracan Performante, a lighter, faster model with extreme aerodynamic considerations. Over 150 manufacturers exhibited cutting-edge designs.

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In 2016 KiwiRail sent out a request for proposals for tourist vehicles to run on a 90-mile stretch of the NapierGisborne line, which has been out of commission since it was damaged in 2012. Gisborne Railbike Adventures was selected. Its vehicle consists of two bicycles. Each one has guides to follow one side of the railroad track, and they are connected by a frame for operation in tandem. There is thus no need to balance or steer. In case a couple wishes to take a break for a picnic along the

four-hour path, or two such vehicles should chance upon one another, the vehicle is easy to remove from the track and set back up. Only a prototype has been built to date, but there are plans to build 200 and perhaps develop a model with electric assistance and another for paraplegics. Things seemed all-systems-go for founder Geoff Main, but now KiwiRail’s decision is being challenged on procedural grounds.

It Says Right Here… sunnyvale, california

Turvo raised $25 million in Series A financing, led by Activant Capital. There was so much interest, Turvo leadership was able to select investors. Turvo is a secure, cloud-based logistics platform that connects shippers, brokers, and carriers, tracking packages in real-time from dispatch to delivery. The mobile app handles the paperwork, too, processing orders, sending instant invoices, and setting up payments. Different parties in the supply chain don’t have to play telephone tag. Instead, they can share documents, send messages, and assign tasks through the platform. The product can send notifications and make automated recommendations for even more efficiency.

The app thus eliminates middlemen and reduces redundant tasks. The software is secure, and it allows the user to control who sees what.

No Drilling berlin, germany

The International Dental Show in Cologne featured several 3D printing announcements. One was that Berlinbased Natural Dental Implants AG has a prototype 3D-printed REPLICATE™ Tooth, which will undergo extensive testing this year. Like its computer numerical control predecessor introduced in 2015, the tooth is zirconia fused to a super-hydrophilic titanium

root. A 3D X-ray scan and mold are taken of the old tooth and the socket the new tooth will occupy. The replacement is entirely customizable, so imperfections in the old tooth may be corrected. No drilling or alteration of adjacent teeth is required. If a dentist has a chairside 3D printer, he could make the tooth while extracting the old one. The new tooth would be tapped into place and covered with a temporary cap until the patient’s gum and jawbone healed around the titanium root. Then, in about six weeks, a permanent crown would be placed.

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YouTube—which launched in 2005 as a de facto forum for people’s home video clips of their cats, children, and home repair mishaps; but is now considered the second most popular website on the internet—has rolled out subscription service YouTube TV in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco/ Oakland, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Users can, for $35 per month, receive a streaming bundle with content from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW, MSNBC, Syfy, FX, E! Disney, ESPN, Fox Sports, Bravo, and others; reportedly, AMC, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, WE TV, and BBC World News will be added shortly. YouTube TV includes access to its other subscription service, YouTube Red Originals, and a membership includes six accounts. Early adopters of the service will receive a free Google Chromecast device that allows them to stream via a TV set. The move is a direct challenge to streaming platforms, such as Hulu and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, and with the marketing muscle of parent company Google—which acquired YouTube in 2006—behind the service, it has the potential to remake (or wreak havoc within, depending on one’s outlook) the TV streaming industry. And no, this is not one of YouTube’s legendary April Fools pranks; the news was announced on April 5.

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SHAUN AND SAR A COLLYER (with Gabby) | May 2017

THE

BUSINESS OF FUN

SHAUN AND SARA COLLYER

written by emily ball ard

|

photos by anthony harden

SOCKED FEET, PADDED FLOORS, AND IMAGINATIVE PLAYROOMS make for an interactive wonderland for the young mind. Shaun and Sara Collyer tapped into their own family’s need for a creative and clean environment for their two sons to explore uninhibited playtime when they created Mountain Play Lodge six years ago. With a new city to call home, a house being remodeled, and two young boys in tow, the couple took a leap of faith on a business that was out of their comfort zone, but felt right for their soul.

Shaun grew up in Indiana and started his career as a teacher. When an opportunity to move to Hilton Head Island for an administrative position arose, he and his wife jumped at the chance. He was passionate about teaching and was thrilled at the prospect of really making a difference in teacher development and curriculum improvement. Additionally, as a golf enthusiast, Shaun was delighted to live in a warm location with premier golf courses and beautiful beaches.

Unfortunately, the nature of his position allowed for little free time, and he quickly found himself working up to 70 hours a week. The only time he was off for vacation was during the summer, and the brutal heat deterred the enjoyment of outdoor activities. Shaun admits that he played the least amount of golf in his life and went to the beach maybe five times the entire time he lived there.

Although the position was a good fit, he saw it evolving into more of a political figure as opposed to a school leader. There were times when he also missed being in the classroom as a teacher. “I loved my job in administration because you could have a greater impact on learning as a whole for all students, but I missed the interaction with kids.”

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 79

... AND FUN.

THE MOUNTAIN PL AY LODGE offers Fantasy...

The couple had their first son shortly after moving to Hilton Head, and three years later welcomed their second. Their hectic schedule was consuming their life, and Shaun says that he and his wife went five years without a date night. With no family around to help out and an extremely demanding job, Shaun knew that sustaining this lifestyle was not what he wanted for his family.

“I needed a change,” he remembers. “I needed to spend more time with my kids, so I decided to do something different. We moved to Asheville to find that something different.”

In 2010 the family headed north to Asheville for a fresh start in a location that was closer to Sara’s family. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Shaun wasn’t sure what direction his career would go, but he knew that he didn’t want to go back to work for someone else. His father has been a barber for 61 years. At the age of 80 he still hasn’t retired. Shaun’s grandfather and great grandfather were barbers as well, and while working in education he felt a disconnect when it came to business advice.

“My family always kind of worked for each other. I couldn’t call home and ask how to handle this person that is above me or these people that are below me,” Shaun recalls. “So, coming here, I felt I needed to get myself into something where I was working for myself.”

Shaun the Builder During their first summer in Asheville, they were once again struggling with summertime heat. With a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old, they began their quest for activities and outlets that the family could enjoy. Although outdoor playgrounds were aplenty, the heat was still a factor.

While living in Hilton Head, the family had gone to mall playgrounds, bounce house venues, and interactive play spaces, all of which were essential for entertaining the kids.

Upon their move to South Asheville, they were left with few of those options. Although that has changed in the area over the past few years, with the introduction of indoor 80

| May 2017

trampoline parks and play facilities, at the time, they felt there was a lack in this market.

Shortly after their move, a building came on the market that was close to their house. It was located on Sweeten Creek Road, and was formerly an Ace Hardware. The gears started turning, and Shaun and Sara thought surely there was an opportunity here. “We asked ourselves, what problems do we have right now that we could solve with a possible business?” Shaun recalls.

And one of the first things that came to mind was something they could do with their young kids.

Upon inquiring, they were able to get a copy of the building’s floor plan and they started to envision everything they would want for a play facility for their kids. Shaun got out some graph paper and started conceptualizing and drawing out what would become the Play Lodge. “I remember being up all night long just drawing and erasing, and drawing and erasing,” he says.

Initially, Shaun had every intention of seeking employment once they settled, but this opportunity felt right for their family and soon the business planning stage became a full-time job.

The couple reflected on their time travelling from Hilton Head to Indiana, and how they searched for ways to entertain the kids at stops, whether it be at restaurants or indoor playgrounds. They noticed that places such as McDonalds and Chick-fil-A had good business models when it came to their play areas, but it wasn’t exactly what they wanted.

They began researching franchise options, looking into bounce house and trampoline park models, but they found that most of the business practices of these facilities focused almost exclusively on revenue and profitability, and they were more interested in creating a customer experience. Their vision was to offer a clean and safe play environment that maximized interactive play, with an emphasis on family values. In their eyes, if they could achieve this, then the other business stuff would come.

“It probably wasn’t a smart move, but instead of going down a kind of beaten path, we went off the path a little bit and focused on what we would want,” Shaun muses as he recollects this initial phase. “And I think for the most part people have appreciated that. We didn’t just stick with the game plan and offer what everyone else was offering, and I think that has served us well.”

It was a six-month process that led up to opening day on April 15th, 2011—Shaun describes it as “foreign territory.” During that time, he dedicated himself to research, planning, phone calls, purchasing, and contractors. Luckily, the space required little outfitting other than building a couple of walls. The bulk of the work was electrical and completing mural paintings on the walls. Shaun notes that the family felt blessed to find efficient and thorough contractors, adding that the permitting process was surprisingly smooth as well.

And he loved every minute of it. As he describes the build-up to opening, his eyes light up with excitement. “Getting everything up to the point of a grand opening was stressful, but it’s a good May 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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energy. I was shocked by how much I actually enjoyed that process. Looking back on it, I crave it again.”

Keeping the Doors Open As Shaun reflects back on the past six years of running this business, he clearly prides himself on succeeding in staying afloat. When they embarked on this family endeavor, they had no idea how expensive it would be. When you walk through Mountain Play Lodge doors, you are met with a 17,000-sq.-ft. space. There is a latched (childproof) entry gate leading to the open carpeted main play area. All shoes are left outside the gate, with no exceptions. Shaun explains that their busiest days are when it rains, so this rule is essential to cut down on dirt and grime being tracked in. (Unsurprisingly, beautiful, sunny days when kids can play outdoors have proven to be the biggest competitor for the business.)

Tables and chairs are dispersed throughout, a perfect respite for parents to keep a watchful eye and for kids to take a break, snack, and refuel for the next round. On any given day, kids are climbing on the elaborate jungle gym that resembles adventurous treehouses and taking turns sliding down the various colorful slides. Circling around to the left, little ones are buzzing about the train station as it lights up, exploring the “mansion,” and 82

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entering the row of shops, complete with a police station and a firehouse. A separate area hosts a cottage for babies and toddlers.

The entire design is a nod to the Biltmore Estate and surrounding Biltmore Village. The energy is palpable.

“We designed it for our little boys. When we started, this is what they were into, this is what they loved,” Shaun says. “We didn’t really do the arcade stuff or coin drops; we were always very much interested in having them do imagination play and active play.”

Scattered throughout the play area is an array of soft sculptures. An oversized dog, a car, a bridge, and an intricate tree big enough to crawl through and under are all resting on two inches of heavy-duty memory foam to protect the kids from falls. When Shaun and Sara designed the space, they knew that safety, comfort, and cleanliness were of the utmost importance.

When it came to equipment, they did not cut corners or costs.

They ordered the sculptures from a company in Colorado that specialized in these products. Shaun did his research and found that while they were more expensive than some, the quality was far superior and worth the price. The surfaces are easy to clean, and the staff continuously wipes them down throughout the day, as well as every night after closing. “Our family is actually the first privately-owned business to buy this equipment,” he

PLENT Y OF SPACE for children of all ages to play!

explains. “Everyone else before us was airports, malls, that type of business.”

Finding the perfect set-up for the space involved a bit of trial and error. In fact, when Mountain Play Lodge originally opened in 2010, the primary play area consisted of inflatable bounce houses. Shaun and Sara quickly realized this was not an efficient use of the space. Only five kids could fit in a bounce house at one time, and each bounce house took up 2,000-sq.-ft. of space. “There were days when it was standing room only in here, and for as big of a building as it is, we shouldn’t have that issue,” Shaun says.

They decided to scrap the bounce houses and install the jungle gyms instead. Although it was an expensive upgrade, Shaun considered it a significant investment into the business. “The jungle gyms were the best thing we could have done because we reduced staff and reduced cost.” For a family that was new to business—and certainly new to this industry—they were navigating to find financial success while holding true to their vision of creating an experience with real value.

The Play Experience At the Mountain Play Lodge, parents are required to supervise the children and are always encouraged to participate in play time. The staff keeps a watchful eye at all times to ensure safety and to mitigate any issues or concerns.

“On occasion, we do have visitors that struggle to adapt to the play environment. We give children the opportunity

“We want them to make noise because we feel it’s an important part of engaging their imagination and communicating through storytelling and acting.” to learn from their behavior and make sure that they, and their parents, understand the rules of play. Sometimes this can be a struggle for kids, but we look at it as a learning opportunity,” Shaun says.

He explains that many times this play experience is a child’s first interaction with other children, and this can May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 83

incite many feelings and emotions. Sometimes they have to ask children to take a break, but they never ban them from the Play Lodge. Instead, they see this as an encounter that will help them grow.

As with any business, they receive occasional complaints such as the facility being too noisy or having too many rules.

Shaun and Sara encourage feedback and always try to address any reviews or complaints, but they are not willing to sacrifice their vision.

“We want kids to growl like a monster, make siren noises when putting out a fire, or sing like a princess in her castle.

We want them to make noise because we feel it’s an important part of engaging their imagination and communicating through storytelling and acting,” Shaun says. “We may make tweaks to our floor plan or services, but we will never stray from our core values. The core values are why we are still in business.”

A CLIMBING wall is one of the Lodge’s attractions.

Running a Family Business By now, Shaun and Sara have mastered the process of efficiently running the business, but as most new business owners know, the beginning can be an arduous undertaking.

When Mountain Play Lodge first opened they were closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so that the couple could clean the space from top to bottom. “We just couldn’t keep up with that after a couple of years,” Shaun remembers. “It was just too much trying to keep up with our house and our kids at the same time.”

Now they have moved onto more of a management side of the business, which has a different set of challenges and successes.

“The building always produces new challenges and problems to solve,” Shaun notes. “When you work with kids, you can’t simply drive a nail or patch a wall. You must think about the 84

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MULTIPLE slides make up the play space.

The sights… the seasons… aesthetics and the possibility of a child being injured by your repair. There are no easy fixes at the Play Lodge!”

Shaun and Sara also recognize that their success lies in the power of a good staff. With systems in place and reliable support, they are now able to be open seven days a week.

Building this team has taken time and diligence. While many similar facilities hire teenagers that don’t necessarily have experience working with kids, Shaun is willing to invest in the right employees. This involves a detailed screening and interview process and a mandatory background check and drug screen. Perhaps most importantly, they must demonstrate a high regard for customer service and a love for children.

“We have adults running the facility. We won’t just let anyone come through the door and work here,” Shaun says.

Even if it takes three months to fill a position, he considers it worth the wait.

Over the years, they have developed a plan of action for every day. The list of tasks is broken down by days and by the hour.

In addition to the daily management of the play area, a large part of the business is in children’s parties.

Two dedicated areas host these events, one decorated as a pirate ship and one a castle. The Mountain Play Lodge hosts the parties and the staff is responsible for party attending— decorating, serving, and clean-up. “We do all the things we can do to help the parent have the least stressful birthday party. We try to let them enjoy the party as much as the kids do,” Shaun says.

Having a good staff is critical when it comes to the fast pace of busy seasons. On any given day it is not uncommon to have multiple parties, visiting school trips, and a full playroom.

Shaun credits their success to staff members who believe in what they do. “We just have great people that have bought into our business and why we do it. They get the ‘why’ we are here, and I think they respect that and want to see that vision come to fruition.”

The Future The customers are the most important aspect of the business for Shaun and Sara. Although they have avoided venturing into the food and beverage industry, they have seen an increasing demand for these services in their space. To meet this need, they are adding a café to the facility, at presstime scheduled to open late April or early May. This will change the layout slightly to better accommodate not just the kids, but the adults that accompany them.

Even though this addition makes Shaun nervous, as he has witnessed the unpredictable nature of the restaurant business, it is a risk that he is willing to take. In his eyes, the community has spoken, and he wants to do his best to answer.

“The support that we have received from local businesses, from our customers, is just phenomenal. The word-of-mouth here is so strong [that] we have not done a lot of advertising.

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THE PIR ATE SHIP par ty room.

All you have to do is be good to your customers and word will spread really quickly. You care about them and they care about you. It has been a really good partnership with the community,” Shaun says.

Th is senti ment is what drives Shaun and Sara to give back to this community that has supported them over the years. They make it a point to help charities and nonprofit organizations. This involves funding programs and initiatives at local schools and sponsoring events. They have sponsored computer labs and bullying programs, as well as the Mission Hospital Radiothon. As a donor for Mission Children’s Hospital, they have given around $50,000. They are always looking toward other programs that they can lend their services to.

Families lead busy lives. In addition to work, school events, sports, and other activities, it is not always easy for parents to find stimulating and creative things for them to do at the drop

of a hat. In that regard, Mountain Play Lodge appears to have filled that niche with an opportunity to provide interactive and easy playtime.

Shaun left behind a job that infringed on quality time with his family to pursue a dream of working for himself. It was a chance he feels he couldn’t afford to let pass him by. As he looks toward the future, he sees the possibility of opening locations in other cities, and maybe even his children taking on this endeavor one day. They are actively reviewing opportunities in multiple cities throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.

Most successful businesses set their sights on expansion, but with growth always comes challenges. “Play Lodge is definitely our baby, and when you care about something that much and put that much work into it like my wife and I have, it’s hard to just hand the keys over, and it will be tough,” Shaun explains, as he contemplates the future and the idea of franchise options in other locations.

For now, Shaun still revels in the joy that his business brings to the kids and to the community.

“Just seeing their faces light up when they come through the door, it makes you feel really good that they enjoy it.”

He designed the space as an ultimate playroom for his children. Even though they are getting older, he gets to relive that experience every day. Now, as he sits in his office, in what was once an outdoor lumber yard, he can hear the shrieks as his tiny customers barrel through the front doors. An imaginative playground awaits them, full of friends, climbing, sliding, and fun.

That is, as soon as they take off their shoes.

“Play Lodge is definitely our baby, and when you care about something that much and put that much work into it like my wife and I have, it’s hard to just hand the keys over.”

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Lady Wildcats basketball team wins 7th consecutive state title!

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Enjoy these videos about playing smarter—from Nautica ‘19 (left) and Thomas ‘18 (right).

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 87

People Play at

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1. (L-R) Karl Small, Barbour Bordogna, Katherine Bellissimo, Mark Bellissimo. (EO) 2. (L-R) Mark Bellissimo, Bill Gallo, & Guy Torsilieri. (EO)

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3. Kathryn McMahon, executive director of Tryon Riding & Hunt Club with Race Organizer Toby Edwards. (EO) 4. Bill Parker of WSPA CBS 7 and wife. (EO)

5. Suzanne Strickland and Mindy Weiner of Our Carolina Foothills. (EO) 6. Drew Brannon, president of Tryon Riding & Hunt Club with Guy Torsilieri, president of

The 71st Tryon Block House Steeplechase Columbus,NC | April 15, 2017 Photos by Erik Olsen (EO), Michelle Yelton (MY), & Chrissy Croteau (CC).

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National Steeplechase Association. (EO) 7. Winners of Pants Contest with WSPA’s Christy Henderson.

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8. Sharon Decker and Emily Decker. (CC) 9. Kathryn and Casey McMahon. (EO) 10.(L-R) Mark and Katherine Bellissimo, Jennifer

and Roger Smith. (EO) 11. Winners of Hat Contest. (MY)

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

may 4 -7 & 11-14

may

EVENTS

The Music of Johnny Cash & Roy Orbison Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown 125 South Main Street, Hendersonville, NC This is but one performance from the Music on the Rock series. Each show features live covers of music’s greats.

Let’s hope the emulation is near-perfect.

may 3

Disney Institute 8:30AM-4:30PM

Blue Ridge Conference Hall, Blue Ridge Community College 180 West Campus Drive, Flat Rock, NC The Disney Institute returns with a seminar, “Disney’s Approach to Leadership Excellence.” The program starts participants on a personal journey to exploring values alignment, communication skills, and other tools for succeeding in business. The Disney Institute is renowned for inspiring leaders by sharing arts that can transform corporate culture for the better.

>Tickets: $395 > 828-694-1779 > blueridge.edu

>Tickets: $30 > 828-693-0731 > flatrockplayhouse.org may 5 - 21

8AM Fri. through Sun. afternoon

Hot Springs Resort & Spa 315 Bridge Street, Hot Springs, NC Every year, family and friends camp out and participate in fun outdoor stuff, like live music, races, hiking, biking, rafting, and hot-tubbing, to benefit American Whitewater, the Verner Center for Early Learning, and the Hot Springs Community Learning Center. The party goes down the week after the Annual French Broad River Clean-Up gets everything nice and spiffy.

>Tickets: Weekend Pass $105,

Realistic Joneses

Campground Parking $75, Whitewater Rafting $45

7:30PM (Fri, Sat) & 2:30PM (Sun)

> 828-622-7676 > frenchbroadriverfestival.com

35below 35 East Walnut Street, Asheville, NC The grass is always greener, but the people are weirder and more melancholy. It does no good to gossip because what we think we know ain’t so, and many things are surely worse than we ever imagine.

> Admission: $18 > 828-254-1320 > ashevilletheatre.org

may 5 -7 20th Annual French Broad River Festival

may 6

Live Dead ’69 9PM

Salvage Station 466 Riverside Drive, Asheville, NC Erstwhile Grateful Dead pianist Tom Constanten, along with two guitarists

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Celebration

from Jefferson Starship, covers the Live Dead album with the original group’s “zeitgeist of extemporization and interpretive improvisation beyond an ever-expanding repertoire.”

6-8PM TTV, 10 College Street, Asheville, NC Marking their 25th anniversary of doing fair trade business in downtown Asheville, fair trade/nonprofit retailer Ten Thousand Villages will host a kickoff reception leading into World Fair Trade Day. Featured at the free event will be customer appreciation giveaways and light refreshments. Later in the year there will be additional anniversary events each month, including an International Moveable Feast in October.

>Tickets: Advance $20, Door $25 > 828-407-0521 > salvagestation.com may 6 & 26

Spring Silent Film Series

7:30PM (Fri) & 3:30PM (Sat)

Greenlee Theater 50 South Main Street, Marion, NC Over a dozen newly-restored, short silent films of Buster Keaton will be surveyed with live improvisational musical accompaniment by Nathan Shirley. Films go back to the early 1920s, showing stunts too dangerous to be allowed these days.

>Tickets: $5 > 828-562-8610 > nathanshirley.org may 11

Ten Thousand Villages’ World Fair Trade Day

> 828-254-8374 > tenthousandvillages.com may 11-12

Show Me the Money Conference & Funding Expo

8:30AM-6PM The Renaissance Marriott 31 Woodfin Street, Asheville, NC

This two-day event shares the latest techniques and tools demonstrated to work successfully toward procuring funding for profits or nonprofits. Investors, advisors, lenders, and patent attorneys are among the networkers who’ll attend. The

conference will feature expert speakers.

Workshops held the second day at the Chamber of Commerce will allow participants more intensive learning in one of five tracks: Startup Business, Business Expansions, Investor Ready, Nonprofit Organizations, and Cluster Focus.

>Tickets: Conference $99,

Both Days $149 > showmethemoneyconference.com

may 11-14

Spring LEAF Festival

Camp Rockmont 377 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain, NC Think globally and acculturate globally.

LEAF is a family-friendly celebration of diverse cultures, now in its 22nd year. Rather than hearing covers of the worn-out vanilla ice cream still on the radio, you’ll get to hear Mokoomba of Zimbabwe, for example, play their own stuff. The food and crafts should be as unfamiliar. And with headliners like nu-soul songstress Macy Gray and Afrobeat wizards Antibalas on the bill, this is arguably the highest-profile LEAF, musically speaking, to date.

> 828-686-8742 > theleaf.org

Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

Join us on Social Media! f o r t i c k e t g i v e away s , e x c l u s i v e s , a n d m o r e !

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 91

events

may 12

Bearfootin’ Public Art Walk Reveal

6PM Historic Hendersonville Courthouse 1 Historic Courthouse Square, Hendersonville, NC Arrive at 4:30 to get juiced up with live music by Bill Berg. Then see the bears unveiled one-by-one. Each came into the world whiter than a polar bear, and then they were all adopted (for $800) by local establishments for painting. After being on display, they will then be auctioned off in October to benefit local nonprofits.

> 828-233-3205 > downtownhendersonville.org may 12

14th Annual Tourism Day

10AM-2PM I-26 West North Carolina Welcome Center Marker 6 on Interstate 26, Mars Hill, NC Here’s a free, one-stop chance to learn about Western North Carolina traditions.

Award-winning fiddler Roger Howell and the 23-time national champion Bailey Mountain Cloggers will entertain. Exhibitors include the Blue Ridge Parkway Association, Chimney Rock State Park, and Monarch Watch. Fun includes demonstrations of crafts and pastimes that used to be essential.

> 828-689-4257 > nccommerce.com may 12 -14 , 19 - 21 & 26 - 27

Timon of Athens

7:30PM Hazel Robinson Amphitheater 92 Gay Street, Asheville, NC Timon was a goodly man of Athens with a very big heart; but rather than giving generously to uplift his neighbor, he 92

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supported the corrupt parasites who surrounded him. This season’s opener is one of Shakespeare’s first and a premiere performance for the Montford Park Players, North Carolina’s longest-running Shakespeare festival.

> 828-254-5146 > montfordparkplayers.org may 13

Asheville Symphony Presents Mahler’s Titan

8PM Thomas Wolfe Auditorium 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC

It was supposed to be a symphonic poem in five movements, but the second one got lost. Oops. It wasn’t received well at its first performance in 1889, so Mahler kept improving it. This rendition features guest violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who since his debut in 2003 has won awards in all kinds of countries. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 is also on the program.

>Tickets: Adult $22-$62, Youth $11-$43 > 828-254-7046 > ashevillesymphony.org

may 13 & 14

Tour de Falls

9AM-2:30PM DuPont State Recreational Forest 1300 Staton Rd, Cedar Mountain, NC This is the annual event that allows people to lounge back and ride around to the beautiful waterfalls of the DuPont. That is, you normally have to hike. Buses fill on a first-come-first-served basis. They run every 30 minutes for a three-hour tour. A three-hour tour.

> Requested Donation: Adult $12, Youth (6-17) $6 > 828-877-6527 > dupontforest.com

may 16

Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra

7PM Diana Wortham Theatre 2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC

All three of Asheville’s youth orchestras, comprising over 60 students in the fifth through sixth grades, will play selections from Mozart’s Symphony No. 12 and the finale from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2.

>Tickets: Adult $10, Student/Child $8 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com may 18

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe featuring Melvin Seals 9PM Salvage Station 466 Riverside Drive, Asheville, NC

Sax man Denson cofounded jazz-funk fusion combo Greyboy Allstars and tours with the Rolling Stones; Seals played keyboard for the Jerry Garcia Band. Now, you can hear them both in one place with a handful of other accomplished musicians—for probably a hundredth the cost of an up-close Stones ticket.

>Tickets: Advance $25, Door $28 > 828-407-0521 > salvagestation.com may 19

The Annie Moses Band’s

The Art of the Love Song 7:30PM The Walker Center, Wilkes Community College 1328 South Collegiate Dr, Wilkesboro, NC Back by popu lar demand, these singers, songwriters, and arrangers

play standards styled in folk, jazz, Americana, and other traditions. They are renowned for their virtuosity and range of genre, and they’re also all brothers and sisters.

>Tickets: Senior $37, Adult $39 > 336-838-6260 > walkercenteronline.org

– june 3 A Tuna Christmas may 19

Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage 2661 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, NC It is the normal Christmas chaos—in May—combined with a Christmas Phantom that destroys yard displays in the days leading to the Christmas Yard Display Contest.

>Tickets: $30-$50 > 828-693-0731 > flatrockplayhouse.org may 20

12th Annual Black Mountain Garden Show and Sale

9AM-4PM Monte Vista Hotel 308 West State St, Black Mountain, NC The Black Mountain Beautification Committee is hosting a chance to enjoy the scenery and get ideas to upgrade your own piece of paradise.

Enjoy workshops and mingle with vendors who’ll be selling flowers, veggies, trees, and accessories.

“When I Look in the Mirror Now I can Smile More!”

- Another satisfied patient of Dr. Robinson

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> 828-772-5501 > blackmountainbeautification.org may 20

Asheville Comic Con

8AM-5PM Expo Building, WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC

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May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 93

events

Before the days of Amazon, one would have to go places like this to get that missing month in the comic series. But just because you don’t have to doesn’t mean you don’t want to get some. A costume contest for kids and adults starts at 2PM. As a courtesy, the event has booked a bunch of Trekkies for photo ops and more, so you needn’t worry about being the only cosplayer running around in Spandex.

> Admission: Adult $5, Child (4-12) $3, Infant FREE > 828-201-6321

> wncagcenter.org may 20

Grovewood Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

2-6PM Grovewood Village 111 Grovewood Road, Asheville, NC

THE EVOLUTION OF TRADITION We take the mystery out of buying Estate Diamonds and fine Pre-owned Jewelry. Since our beginning when David L. Yaffin became “Boston’s Diamond Broker” in the 1920s, we’ve helped thousands to appreciate the quality and savings provided by selecting pre-owned diamonds. Our story is truly an evolution of tradition. For sixty years, we served St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area and now, Richard S. Yaffin is proud to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Estate Jewelry Ltd. in historic Biltmore Village.

As our name implies, we showcase an outstanding selection of pre-owned diamonds and fine jewelry sourced from local area estates and private owners.

The craftspeople here love it when strangers poke their noses in their business and ask lots of questions while they’re trying to work. So try it, you’ll like it. Grovewood is a quaint, turn-ofthe-other-century village with Olde Worlde charm. The gallery represents 400 artists and crafters exhibiting on 9,000-sq.-ft. Making the day special will be an outdoor sculpture exhibit and live music by The Bad Penny Pleasuremakers.

> 828-253-7651 > grovewood.com may 23

Power of the Purse Presents Doris Kearns Goodwin

11:30AM-2PM

HISTORIC BILTMORE VILLAGE 2 BOSTON WAY, ASHEVILLE, NC 28803 For current store hours and vacation dates, call or go Online CALL 828.274.7007 | EstateJewelryLtd.com 94

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Expo Center at Crowne Plaza 1 Resort Dr., Asheville, NC For the Community Foundation’s 13th Annual Power of the Purse luncheon, presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning (No Ordinary Time:

WE SELL Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II) author, and frequent historical documentary talking head, Doris Kearns Goodwin, will speak on “Our Wild 2016 Election,” with an audience Q&A to follow. (Past speakers have included Cokie Roberts, Anna Quindlen, Mae Jemison, and Olympia Snowe.) Proceeds from the event benefit The Women’s Fund. At presstime, the luncheon had sold out.

> 828-254-4960 > cfwnc.org may 26

Downtown After 5

5-9PM North Lexington Ave, Asheville, NC

The season opener for this third-Friday monthly street festival will be headlined by explosive Mardis Gras Indian funk/jazz band Cha Wa. After 5 has become a great, casual place to mingle and network.

> 828-251-9973 > ashevilledowntown.org may 26 - 28

All My Sons 2:30PM 35below 35 East Walnut Street, Asheville, NC Famous playwright Arthur Miller teaches responsibility in a play about an Army pilot who goes MIA and the anguish of his family, which is compounded by suspicion that his executive father knowingly sold defective airplane parts. This is part of the Readers Theatre Showcase. Sunday the 28th is an encore performance at UNC-Asheville’s Reuter Center.

>Tickets: $6 > 828-254-1320 > ashevilletheatre.org

may 26 - 29

American Kennel Club Dog Agility Trial

7AM-7PM McGough Arena, WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC Dogs race through tunnels, climb A-frames, and jump hurdles. Spectators are encouraged to attend, but they must leave their own dogs at home.

> blueridgeagility.com

• Vintage pieces, one-of-a-kind gems, contemporary designs and signed pieces

• Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van

Cleef and Arpels, Bulgari, David Yurman, John Hardy

• Pre-owned G.I.A certified

diamonds and precious gems

•

Licensed and insured Diamond Brokerage

• Beautiful estate jewelry at significant savings

may 27

Garden Jubilee

9AM-5PM Downtown Main Street, Hendersonville, NC More than 250 spaces are rented to vendors. Local gardeners and nurseries will sell things that grow for your summer garden, and artisans will be selling other kinds of stuff more or less related, like jewelry. People are known to bring wagons for their purchases.

> 828-693-9708 > visithendersonvillenc.com may 26 - 29

Art in Bloom

10AM-5PM (Fri, Sat) & 2PM-4PM (Sun) The Gallery at Flat Rock 2702-A Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock, NC Life is so transient. This display celebrates here today/gone tomorrow sunbursts of color and fragrance arranged to refresh the senses. Floral designers will place their best before distinguished artist Michael Sherrill, who will pick the winners. For $25, one may attend a preview gala, to be held from 5-8PM Friday to benefit the Open Studio Tour of Henderson County.

> 828-698-7000 > galleryflatrock.com

WE BUY • Your unwanted diamonds,

gemstones and fine jewelry

• Premium always paid for

signed pieces from Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Bulgari

• We’re prepared to purchase outright one item or an entire estate

• Pre-owned G.I.A certified

diamonds and precious gems.

Free examination, evaluation and estimate We use G.I.A standardized grading on all evaluations All transactions held in strictest confidence May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 95

events

may 29

Feather Your Nest

CONSIGNMENT SHOP

Specializing in upscale one-of-a-kind furnishings, housewares, home decorative items and vintage & fine jewelry.

New items arriving daily!

Come see for yourself!

Tuesday through Saturday | 10am to 4pm 1215A Greenville Hwy. Hendersonville, NC

828.693.3535 Accepting Quality Consignments

Carl Sandburg Folk Music Festival

10AM-4PM Carl Sandburg Home 81 Carl Sandburg Lane, Flat Rock, NC

Selections pulled from Sandburg’s very own collection, The American Songbag, will be rendered live. The songs tell stories of the way things used to be.

Optional guided tours cost extra.

> 828-693-4178 > nps.gov/carl

– june 10 In Search of the Blue Ghosts may 30

8:30-10:30PM The Pisgah Field School 49 Pisgah Hwy, Suite 4, Pisgah Forest, NC These people say there really is a firefly that lights blue. Mm, mm, mm.

His name is Phausis reticulate, and he lives in the Transylvania County woodlands. Naturalists will guide an expedition with special flashlights and talk about other creatures of the night.

Pre-registration is required.

> Admission: Adult $15, Child (0-10) $10 > 828-884-3443 > cfaia.org

june 1-11

The Remarkable Rhododendron Ramble

1-1:45PM Grandfather Mountain 2050 Blowing Rock Hwy, Linville, NC Naturalists will provide guided tours, so you not only get to ramble and look at the glorious flowers—you’ll get to hear about their role in the ecosystem and what they have meant to different people down through history.

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> Admission: Senior $18, Adult (13-59) $20, Child $9, Infant (0-3) FREE > 828-733-2013 > grandfather.com

june 2

Asheville Downtown Gallery Association Art Walk 5-8PM Downtown Asheville, NC

More than 25 galleries, studios, and museums will be open late. The downloadable PDF map allows parties to pick and choose in any order. All stops are within a half-mile radius of downtown. This free event recurs monthly through December.

> ashevilledowntowngalleries.org june 3

6th Annual Mad Mountain Mud Run

11:45AM-4:30PM Berkeley Park 69 Balfour Road, Hendersonville, NC What could be more fun than wallowing waist-deep in the mud? You can race the three-mile obstacle course alone or as a team, or you and your friends can kick back and enjoy the mud at your own pace. Proceeds benefit Hands On! A Child’s Gallery.

> Registration: Team of Four $200, Timed Individual $55, Untimed Individual $50 > 828-697-8333 > madmountainmudrun.com

If your organization has any local press releases for our briefs section, or events that you would like to see here, feel free to email us at events@capitalatplay.com.

Please submit your event at least six weeks in advance.

May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 97

ASHEVILLE: Historic Biltmore Village 9 Kitchin Place 828-274-2630 STORE HOURS: Mon. - Fri. 9:30am-7pm Sat. 9:30am-6pm Sun. 12pm-5pm

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H E A R T S C A N ’ T W A I T. I N M ATTE R S O F T H E H E A R T, W E WAIT F OR TH E RIGH T P E RSON. WAIT F OR THE R IG HT TI M E A N D T H E R IG H T P L AC E . B UT WH E N IT COM E S TO H E ART H E ALTH , YOUR HEAR T C A N ’ T WA IT. Pardee’s Heart and Vascular team can see new patients WITH IN A F E W DAYS instead

of waiting weeks or months. One more way we’re showing our commitment to your heart’s health.

APPOINTMENTS WITHIN 48 HOURS

828-697-7377 May 2017 | capitalatplay.com 99

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