November - December 2021

Every year thousands of people come from all over the world to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway to look for the turning of the color in our trees. From Gerton, we can make a leisurely drive on a lunch break! But what is right here at our convenience can sometimes be forgotten. The above picture is Tanbark Ridge, the first overlook on the right, heading NORTH after entering the Parkway from 74A in Fairview, near the entry to I 40.

Next, is Bull Creek Valley. Even when the color is not in full display, the mountain vista, the clouds, and horizon speak to time immemorial.

On the side road toward the picnic tables at Craggy Gardens, the full beauty of RED leaps out from a tree.

Just beyond Craggy Gardens en route to Mount Mitchell, the trees cast a yellow tint. All these sites can be reached within a 30-minute drive!

President's Note

As we move into the Winter Holidays, I am reflecting on my term as the President of the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center. I am very appreciative of all the support our board has received from the community during this difficult and unprecedented time in our country and community. I am very proud to have been a member of a board of directors which has worked through a variety of issues while maintaining respect for one another and keeping the focus on the health and safety of our membership.

During these past two years, even though we have not been able to meet regularly as a community because of Coronavirus Pandemic, our board has met monthly to ensure the business needs of the center are handled. As a community we still have provided support to our local outreach with monthly donations of food, school supplies, and holiday gifts. Members of the board, along with volunteers have also coordinated to maintain traditions such as the hanging of flags during the summer season, quarterly highway litter sweeps and beautification projects along with our holiday greenery displays.

There is a lot of work involved in maintaining our center and its many initiatives. We encourage all of our community members to get involved and help their neighbors. I believe it is important to remind everyone that the board of directors are all volunteers and donate their time because of their love of Gerton. The board votes on all major issues and makes decisions as a team, so if you have a comment, complaint, suggestion, or a compliment, it is always best to share it with the entire board via e-mail. By sending an e-mail to groundedingerton@gmail.com it will be shared with the entire board rather than a specific member having to pass along your feedback. If needed, the entire board can craft a response to the issue.

In the coming weeks current members will be receiving their annual dues request. Dues are $10 per person and are vital to maintaining the center and paying the monthly expenses. Many individuals use this time to make additional donations which are greatly appreciated. If you are not a current member and wish to join you can send an e-mail to groundedingerton@gmail.com with your contact information and we will reach out to you about joining.

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy holiday season, and we are hopeful we can resume meetings in the near future as more of our community is vaccinated and the pandemic continues to subside.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Gerton Community. I look forward to seeing you soon.

All the Best!

Stan Mobley

Hey Gerton Neighbors!

The last Gerton Highway Trash Pick-up of 2021 will take place Friday, November 5.
We will meet at the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center at 10 a.m. instead of 9:30.  We will provide safety vests, trash/recycle bags, and water.
Join your neighbors in keeping Gerton a beautifully clean place to live!

Mike Hamlin, Litter Sweep Organizer

The orb weaver spider is the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. Check your yard for these colorful and large spiders with the zig zag webs. 

Greens Workshop on Monday, December 6, 10 a.m.

Mark your calendar for Monday, December 6, at 10 a.m. to meet at the UHNGCC to turn the greens into our roadside decorations. We will cut, arrange, tie on a red bow, and then someone will tie each festive arrangement to each street sign that runs through Gerton off 74A. We need greens, so please send a note to groundedingerton@gmail.com or call a member of the board to say you will be bringing some. Bring your trimmers and join your neighbors.

Deliveries to Hickory Nut Outreach Continues

Thanks to the good people of Gerton, we are continuing to make a difference to our neighbors through the Hickory Nut Outreach. In deliveries on September 13 and 27, we added 488 pounds of supplies for their shelves. 

In October, we had requests for sugar, cooking oil, and condiments, including mustard, mayonnaise, and ketshup. Pickles has also been a popular request from Outreach. We delivered 281 pounds of supplies on October 11. The next request includes items that will be needed for their Thanksgiving meals. 

We have placed new collection bins at the post office under the table by the window. After the email call goes out for items, board members check the bins daily and collect items for the next posted delivery date. We have been successful at maintaining a twice-a-month Monday delivery appointment. Thanks to all for your consideration of our neighbors in the gorge. 

 

One of our September Outreach deliveries. 

 With your help, Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach will feed 225 families this Thanksgiving!

Needed for the HOPE (Helping Other People Eat) bags for Thanksgiving distribution:

• Canned green beans
• Canned corn
• Canned sweet potatoes
• Instant mashed potatoes
• Stuffing mix
• Cake mix
• Cake frosting 

*** Cranberry sauce is NOT needed ***

You may donate all items needed for a HOPE bag or any singular item. 

If you prefer, you may donate money.  The cost of a Thanksgiving meal (including a ham or turkey) is $35.00.  Please mail donations to UHNGCC, Box 222, Gerton, 28735.  We will deliver monetary gifts along with food donations.

Bins are available in the Gerton Post Office to collect food donations.  

A Board member will deliver HOPE bag donations on Monday, October 25th and Monday, November 1. 

 

The first delivery of 352 pounds was made on Monday, October 25. Our next delivery will be November 1, Monday. Please bring your items to the Post Office and place in these new bins (shown above) under the table in the outer lobby that houses the mailboxes. (Also notice the new flooring that is the result of the Post Office being closed for a week at the end of summer. Gloria Anders keeps everything clean and tidy, too! )

Work started by Stan Mobley, Mike Hamlin, and Jim Earnhardt on the rear of the building after FRED's visit is holding up after our recent rains in early October. There is still more work that needs to be done--including the placement of riprap to prevent further erosion from future rains. 

News from Gerton Fire and Rescue

 4975 Gerton Highway Gerton, NC 28735

828-243-0411 (Make a note of the new phone number)

From Robert (Jay) Alley

Update on Fund Raiser:

On August 28, 2021, we held a fundraiser at Gerton fire station. The reason for the fund raiser was to help with the purchase of a Lucas Compression Device. The Lucas Compression Device is an automated compression device to be used on a patient who is suffering from cardiac arrest. Once applied to a patient, it maintains continuous compressions on a patient. As you all know, compressions can be very demanding and tiring for any first responder. By using this machine, we will be able to provide continuous and consistent compressions. Evidence has shown that the survival rate when using this device goes up tremendously and there have been many more “saves” using it. As you are all aware, we wait many times up to 45 minutes for a paramedic ambulance to arrive on the scene here in Gerton. All Henderson County EMS units have a Lucas device and once they arrive, it is put in place and activated. Until they arrive, your firefighters and EMS workers are doing compressions along with many other lifesaving skills.

By our purchasing this life saving piece of equipment, we will be able to free up as many as four workers to do other things needed in a cardiac arrest. We have been researching the data on the different automatic compression devices available, and we chose the Lucas. There are many reasons, but it has been proven to be reliable and we can swap out equipment with Henderson County since they have them also. After doing our research, we decided to purchase one. We searched out many grants and funding opportunities and found that the best we could do was a 50/50 matching grant from the state. We have applied for the grant, and I feel sure we will be awarded the grant. The Lucas device cost almost $19,000. The state grant will provide us with 50 percent of that.

This brings us to the fundraiser. We held the fundraiser to help offset the other 50 percent. We determined we would need approximately $9300 to meet the match. On August 28, 2021 the community of Gerton came together and met for a barbeque and fundraiser. Over 100 people came and ate with us and looked at the equipment we have. The food was paid for by an anonymous donor, to whom we are deeply appreciative. Folks came out from all over our fire district and gave. I am proud to say that with everyone’s donations, we raised almost $7,000. We still are having a few donations to come in. With these donations and the grant, we will be ordering the Lucas device in mid-January. We hope we never need to use this equipment, but it will be priceless when we do. 

Thank you all for the support you have given Gerton Fire and Rescue over the years, and I look forward to serving you in the future. By the way, make sure you make note of the phone number. We had to change our number to 828-243-0411 due to an issue with Verizon, and we lost our old station number. I hope to give a report more often here, but ask you to follow us on Facebook and our website, www.gertonfire.org. Thanks and be safe.

If you haven't had the opportunity to give to this worthy cause--or would like to give again--just mail your check to Gerton Fire Department, PO Box 52, Gerton, NC 28735.

Information on Vaccine Boosters:

A notice from the NC Department of Health and Human Services released this news on Oct. 22, 2021

Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Booster Shots Now Available  To strengthen and extend protections against severe illness, North Carolinians who have been fully vaccinated with the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines may now be eligible to receive a booster dose.   The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have authorized and recommended "booster" vaccine shots to provide continued protection.    Moderna: If you were vaccinated more than 6 months ago with the Moderna COVID-19 shot, boosters are now available for people:  65 years or older,     18 years or older who:   Live or work in a nursing home or long-term care facility,     Have underlying medical conditions; or,    Work in high-risk settings like healthcare workers, teachers and childcare providers or food workers.    Live or work in a place where many people live together (for example, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, migrant farm housing, dormitories or other group living settings in colleges or universities).    The Moderna booster is a smaller dose than what is given in the first two shots. Be sure to let your provider know you want the booster.  Johnson & Johnson: It is recommended that anyone 18 or older who was vaccinated more than 2 months ago with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get a booster dose.  Pfizer: Pfizer-BioNTech (COMIRNATY) booster shots continue to be available to anyone at high risk for serious illness or exposure, and who received their second dose at least six months ago.   The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has now authorized the distribution of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters in addition to Pfizer COVID-19 boosters. Not all vaccines may be available at every vaccine location.    To find a COVID-19 booster visit MySpot.nc.gov to search vaccine locations near you.  Additionally, individuals are now able to receive any brand of COVID-19 vaccine for their booster shot. Some people may have a preference for the vaccine type that they originally received and others may prefer to get a different booster. Limited preliminary evidence suggests that booster doses of one of the two mRNA vaccines—Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech—more effectively raise antibody levels than a booster dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. NC DHHS encourages you to speak with a doctor, nurse or pharmacist if you have questions about what booster is right for you.  Have questions about whether your personal medical conditions or job might make you eligible? Talk to a doctor, pharmacist or nurse about whether you should get a booster.

New Community Room inside the UHNGCC

Steve Jones, in the bright sunlight of an October morning, works at putting down the new flooring. All paint, furniture, light fixtures, and the flooring have been given to the project by neighbors---and neighbors have volunteered all the labor.

With the floor near completion, Steve stops to chat with Jim Earnhardt and Chuck Mallory. After the final touches are added to the molding, the room has been swept, the new furniture will be placed in the room. The room will be ready soon for individual reservation. Look for further information in an email and the next issue of the ECHO. 

Neighborhood News

In memory of Gene Earnhardt, his family has placed a  blue granite bench by the old Chestnut Hill silt pond with a beautiful view of the pond in front (above). A matching bench has also been placed at the Bearwallow Cemetery at the Earnhardt family burial plots (below). The granite was mined from a 300-mile-long layer in the Tennessee quarry. 

The benches commemorate Gene's teenage summers as lifeguard at the Chestnut Hill swimming pool,  and his help mowing the Commons in the early years of the pool with his brothers Jim and Tom. Gene's first-born son David was born at the Bat Cave Valley Clinic, and Gene lived his adult summers and 1995 retirement at Chestnut Hill in Gerton. The Earnhardt family, headed by Irwin and Ruth, bought their log cabin the summer of 1946.

The Chestnut Hill Pond was a gift from the Gene Earnhardt and the Jim Earnhardt families to the Chestnut Hill Homeowners Association some years ago. The benches honor, too, the almost 80 years the Earnhardts have had homes in Gerton. 

                                      A FEW MEMORIES FROM LIFE AT OLD CHESTNUT HILL

from Barbara Earnhardt

On July 20, 1926, the Cyclone Auction Company advertised lots for sale at “Chestnut Hill.” Lots had been prepared for houses, with costs “good enough for the richest and cheap enough for the poorest.” “We have lights, water and streets,” the posters assured readers.

One owner remembered signing for his lot alongside the highway, a card table and chairs serving as the office.

Before the Chestnut blight hit, the Appalachian mountainsides were described as “creamy with blossoms” in the springtime. Chestnuts served as a staple in the diet for humans and animals. Chestnut logs were transformed into buildings and furniture still used today on Chestnut Hill.

Once upon a time you could leave a glass quart jar with two dollars on a certain rock near the highway, and next day find the jar was filled with ‘white lightning.'

The colorful Douglas family—from New Orleans, with their two sons David and Bill, for whom our Pavilion is named, liked what they saw when they found the present Shutrump cabin for sale. Bertha, from French Algeria, spied a life-sized drawing of an Arabian horseman inside the house through a front porch window. She interpreted it as a sign to buy the cabin. Her Scots husband, sea Captain William Douglas, believed our surrounding mountains resembled his home country. They bought the house as a summer home. The Arabian horseman turned out to be the famous movie star Rudolph Valentino as “The Sheik,” the drawing itself a houseguest’s thank-you gift.

Bearwallow Baptist Collects Christmas Boxes for Samaritan's Purse

Seated: Riley Lyda and Tucker Lyda; standing: Jay Alley and Norris Lyda (by organ). The team delivered 24 boxes to the Boone Distribution Center on October 28; they hope do add another 20!

ECHO of the Gorge is published bi-monthly by the UHNGCC. News and photos may be sent to Margaret Whitt at margaret.whitt@du.edu. Photos for this issue provided by Margaret Whitt, Sylvia Sane, Sam Earnhardt, Mollie Warlick. 

Officers of UHNGCC for 2021: President - Stan Mobley; Vice-President - Jim Earnhardt; Secretary - Karen Owensby; Treasurer - Sylvia Sane; Board Members - Jean Bradley, Chuck Mallory, Margaret Whitt