ADVERTORIAL
Photos by: Jon Shaner
Katherine Corn of Asheville Event Centre
Jill Long, Co-owner, with employees mixing up spices
Always Thinking What She Can Do Next
K
By Sandi Tomlin-Sutker
atherine (Kathy) Haden Corn has spent most of her adult life creating and expanding one business after another. She and late husband, Bob Corn, started the well-known classified advertising publication, IWANNA, in a one-room office on Biltmore Avenue in 1976, using an old VW Beetle to make those first deliveries. In 1998 they needed to expand and moved into a new 40,000 square foot building on Sweeten Creek Road. Kathy designed the building to accommodate the growth of a staff then numbering over 50, plus a full printing department. That business continued to grow with a new IWANNA in Hickory, NC, in 1980 and another in Greenville, SC, around 1988. Photo by: Sherry g Rambin For over 30 years, the publication supported many employees and non-profit organizations in the region. She and Bob contributed to many fundraising events for the American Heart Association, Walk for Cancer, the Salvation
Army, the Eblen Foundation, Manna Food Bank, and so many more. They received an award from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol for community service. In addition to those organizations, as part of their community involvement, they supported the WNC Sports Banquet, and they gave a yearly trophy in honor of Bob Waters, the former Western North Carolina University football coach who later died from ALS (aka, Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Kathy was always a vital part of the business. At the same time, she raised a family of three daughters (Debbie McCart, Valerie Hudson, and Robin Graham) that now includes six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Debbie is now Vice President and Business Manager, and assists in overseeing the day-to-day operations.
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