Mark your calendar for these upcoming Swannanoa events, sponsored by Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa (FANS):
Swannanoa Sweep Community Litter Cleanup, Saturday, April 18, 9 a.m. – noon: meet in the Swannanoa Ingles parking lot, near the former Bank of America building.
Swannanoa Community Yard Sale, Saturday, May 16, 8 a.m. – 12 noon, Swannanoa Ingles parking lot: Dozens of sellers and hundreds of buyers — something for everyone!
As 2019 draws to a close, and you ponder possible end-of-year charitable donations, please remember to include Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa (FANS) on your list. FANS is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with no employees, no offices, and no overhead. This means that every dollar you donate will be put to work right here in our community, and will be tax-deductible to boot. That’s a lot of bang for your buck! Every donation, no matter how small, makes a difference. So don’t delay – click the “donate” link below to make your donation now!
Click on the link below to make a secure online donation, or mail your check to Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa, PO Box 697, Swannanoa, NC 28778.
We also encourage you to consider contributing to one or more of the many other nonprofit organizations serving the Swannanoa Valley. For more info, please visit swannanoafans.org and click on “Swannanoa Organizations” under the “Helpful Resources” tab.
Thank you for your support, and best wishes for the holidays and the new year.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY!
Evan Yanik recently joined the FANS Board of Directors. Evan is an Asheville native whose family has been in the area since the founding of Buncombe County. He graduated from Reynolds High School and holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Western Carolina University. Evan moved to Swannanoa in 2014, and he and his family have recently relocated to the Grovemont neighborhood.
Evan works as a Branch Manager of SunTrust bank and is completing a Master’s degree in Finance through UNC-Wilmington. His desire to give back to the community is exhibited by his involvement with FANS, as well as with WD Williams Elementary, where he serves as the current President of the PTO. Evan is also on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley.
In his very little free time, Evan loves to hike the mountains, play music, and read great books.
Okra plants 14 feet tall, bushels and bushels of cucumbers, pepper plants that just won’t quit, and beautiful flowers in every color of the rainbow are just some of the amazing outcomes of hard work and TLC at the Swannanoa Community Garden this year.
Much of the credit for this year’s garden success goes to the approximately 150 volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and dug right in to the daunting list of garden chores. Groups that helped grow the garden this year include FUGE (a summer service camp at Ridgecrest), Owen High School, Warren Wilson College, and several area churches. These groups joined a handful of faithful individual volunteers, who together contributed more than 100 hours of hard labor. The endless chores of weeding, mulching, harvesting, mowing and weed whacking could not have been accomplished without these dedicated volunteers.
The Swannanoa Community Garden is a “Garden That Gives.” Produce grown in the garden is donated to Bounty and Soul, a local nonprofit in Black Mountain that distributes the food through their weekly open markets in the Valley. At the peak of the growing season, the Swannanoa Community Garden was dropping off about 100 pounds of fresh, healthy produce each week, all of which is provided to our neighbors in need through the Bounty and Soul distribution network.
But the beauty of Swannanoa’s “giving garden” does not lie only in helping to provide food for the kitchen, but also in offering colorful and superbly arranged flower bouquets to those who might need a little food for the soul. These beautiful arrangements, lovingly prepared by garden volunteer Kara Dillow, are donated to the nonprofit Flower Power to brighten the lives of people in hospitals, nursing homes, and other locations.
The Swannanoa Community Garden is sponsored by Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa (FANS), and is located on Clover Lane, off Lake Eden Road. Volunteers and donations are always needed. If you’d like to help with the fall harvest, or with putting the garden to bed for the winter, please contact Sandy Drake at sandyjean51@gmail or call 828-318-5685.