September - October 2024

Late summer flowers in the bed below the sign to our community center.

...and bears still roam around our yards--even when it isn't trash pick-up day! Always smart to be mindful. 

GertonFest XIII

Our annual celebration of small town life will be held on Saturday, August 31 at 5 p.m. at UHNGCC. 

We will have BBQ--both chicken and pork. $10 donation. Eat in or take home. 

Music will be ongoing while shopping at our traditional excellent home baked goods sale of cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, breads, candy. Prepared by Gerton's finest cooks and bakers. 

We will have a plant sale. Opportunity to inquire about some surprise bargains.  A flower bar will be available for just what you need to bring a bright spot to your kitchen table. 

Drop by and visit with neighbors--stay a while or head on home with your dinner in tow.

Doors open at 5 p.m.

President's Note

The weather sort of threw us for a loop this year, with a very dry month and then a couple of weeks of daily downpours. It seems to have settled down now, and we are expecting—nay, demanding—ideal weather for the late summer and fall.

Of course, nothing stops the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center from having fun activities. We’ve heard from speakers about the restorative powers of walking in nature, our local weather station and how it works, a Civil Rights tour, the work of the Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach, how and what to plant in our area, and much more.

We’ve had our July Fourth BBQ, with smashing attendance, great food, fun bingo, and more. In the spring we had a breakfast, plant sale, bake sale, and flea market. We’ve given two scholarships to deserving students and gotten loads of much-needed food for the Outreach. We’re still collecting Gerton stories from the folks who live here. The weekly yoga group is going strong, as is the short story group.

Are we tired? No! We’re putting together plans for future events, our bocce ball court, the memory garden, and more. GertonFest XIII is coming up Aug. 31 and we’ll have more food and fun that day.

If you’re interested in helping the community center and haven’t yet, it’s not as exhausting as I’ve made it sound. Many hands make the work easy, and it’s always enjoyable. You can serve on the board, on a committee, or just give us ideas. This community center is for all of us, and we want to continue to make it welcoming for you. 

Chuck Mallory

President UHNGCC

Calendar of Events

Saturday, August 31 - GERTONFEST XIII - Doors open at 5 p.m.

Monday, September 2 - LABOR DAY

Tuesday, September 17 - Community Picnic at the Bocce Court by the Pavilion - 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 15 - Community Covered Dish - 6:30 p.m. Program: TBA

Thursday, October 31 - HALLOWEEN

Reserving the Earnhardt Room

If you would like to reserve the Earnhardt Room, suitable for a dozen people, please send an e-mail to groundedingerton@gmail.com requesting the date and time you would like to use the room. A board member will get back to you confirming your use and telling you how to access the room. The room is available to all members of the club for no fee. 

UHNGCC Celebrates Annual July 4 Community Cook-out

This year on July 4 brought 105 people to the center for burgers, dogs, and veggie burgers. The people kept coming and we kept setting up more tables and filled our picnic benches outside as well.

A full house for the celebration of our country's birthday.

Dan Clancy was the chief grill man, but he had help here from Kelly McDonald and his dad.

After dinner, we played a dozen games of BINGO. Winners got to pick a large candy bar or box with money duct taped to the back. Low prize was 50 cents and top prize was $10. 

About 60-70 participated in playing the games. 

Chris Barkett was one of the $10 winners on Bingo night at our annual July 4 community cook-out.

July Dinner and Program

On our first rainy night in a number of weeks, we had 25 neighbors gather for dinner and the awarding of our scholarships for two deserving young community members. Thanks to hosts Jim Earnhardt, Tom Buffkin, Karen Owensby, Anastasia Walsh, Jose Infanzon.

 

Neighbors, always glad to see one another, visit and go through the food line. 

Steve Jones, a second-time winner of the 50/50 Raffle, took home $40, leaving $40 for the club. 

This year, we presented two college scholarships for $500 each. The money is sent directly to the school. This year Diego Infanzon was one of our winners. He will apply his scholarship to North Carolina School of the Arts, where he will continue his studies in violin. Diego is recently back from a trip to Vienna, Salzberg, and Prague with the Asheville Youth Symphony Orchestra.

A recipient may receive the award twice, but not in consecutive years. Savannah Bellamy wins the award for the second time. The first was to help with her studies at Blue Ridge Tech and in the fall she will begin her studies at Western Carolina University. Savannah plans to major in English Education. Chuck Mallory, Club President, presents certificates to both Savannah and Diego.

Margaret Whitt gave the program on three moments from the Modern Civil Rights Movement: 1955- the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Above is the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King served in 1955 and from which he launched his start as the chief spokesman of the movement. We then traveled to 1963 Birmingham for a look at the 16th Street Baptist Church, the site of the September 15, 1963 bombing where four young girls were killed. We ended in 1965 Selma at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, with the walk to Montgomery, that spurred a voting rights law through Congress. 

Margaret's most recent tour through these cities was in April with 37 people from Givens Estates retirement village in Asheville. Over the years, she has led about a dozen tours. 

Mid-Summer Litter Sweep

From left: Sarah Fletcher, Pete Reese, Ellen Boyle, Jim Earnhardt, Stan Mobley, Tommy Garrick, Charles Gamble, Mike Reandeau, Jim Odom, Jeanie Odom, Steve Jones, Karen Gamble, Tom Milroy, Julie Wander, Teresa Garrick. 

On Friday, July 19, 15 neighbors showed up to pick up trash on the day that the Department of Transportation sent a small crew to film the event. UHNGCC is the very FIRST group to have signed up for the Adopt-a-Highway Program that started in the late 1980s. When the film is available, we will send out a link so that you might see how a litter sweep is performed by our neighbors. 

UHNGG Sends School Supplies to Hickory Nut Outreach

Backpacks full of supplies for Outreach, given in memory of Jean Bradley

Every year the UHNG Community Center donates school supplies to the Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach in Lake Lure. In mid-July, volunteers from the Community Center took 100 pounds of donated backpacks, pencil boxes, markers, erasers, notebooks, highlighters, and other essentials to help kids get ready for a new school year. In addition to collecting generous donations from current Community Center members and other good neighbors, $100 worth of back-to-school supplies were given in the name of Jean Bradley, who passed away in 2023. Many Gerton neighbors will remember Jean Bradley who dedicated hours of time and spirit to the Center. Jean was a tireless advocate on behalf of the work of the center. She reminded us, and by example taught us, how to be hospitable towards all.

At the Outreach center in Lake Lure, each back pack is filled with items appropriate to certain age groups: K-5, middle school, high school. Though every school has slightly different requirements, the Outreach has learned that certain basic items fill the needs of all kids at each level.

Karen King, Director of the HNG Outreach, said, “With (the Community Center’s) generous donation, we will be able to give away over 100 backpacks full of supplies this year. Gerton’s amazing donation is essential to allowing all the kids whose families rely on the food pantry to have what they need." 

Thanks to generosity of community, over 100 pounds of school supplies for Outreach.

Mindfulness Class Held at UHNGCC

Lee Strickland, Stan Mobley, Sarah Gayle, Mattie Decker (teacher/leader) Tom Buffkin, Linda Reandeau, Ellen Boyle, and Jim Piene (Margaret Whitt and Anastasia Walsh, not pictured) gathered on the morning of Saturday, July 27, for an introductory session led by Mattie Decker on mindfulness. The 90-minute session flew by as Mattie led the group in exercises that called attention to how we might pay more attention to the moment in which we exist. 

UHNGCC Plants New Weeping Cherry Tree to Honor Bancers

Chuck Mallory and Ellen Boyle admire Steve's good planting work and add the finishing touches with the rocks around the base. A plaque will be placed  at the base to honor the Bancers. 

Along the roadside, across the creek, behind the picnic pavilion, Steve Jones did the honor of planting a new weeping cherry tree on the afternoon of August 4 to honor the service that Jack and Susie Bancer and Jami Linn and Steve Ringenberg have given our community over the past ten years. They have sold their home here and by the middle of August will move to a new home in Durham. The tree is a gift from Jason Rogala to the UHNGCC. 

Jack served as our club president in 2018-2019. Susie was board secretary. Under Jack's leadership, we added the flower boxes in front of the clubhouse. Jack painted the trim around the windows and then added the code-approved railings on the back patio. The plants and flowers planted six years ago have grown and flourished--thanks to good care offered by the Bancers.

This tree to honor the Bancers' service is the first of what we hope will be other trees that will be planted to honor and remember other neighbors in our community. We wish the Bancer crew all the best in their new home; they will be missed here.

One of the original signs for the old swimming pool that lies under the ground on Chestnut Hills green area. A quarter for kids and a half dollar for adults---and you could spend the day. The pool graced the common area from the 1940s to the 1980s, when it became too expensive to maintain. Many an Asheville resident remembers this mountain swimming pool. 

August Dinner and Program

At our August gathering, 33 neighbors came out on a pleasant evening to visit with each other and share in the usual outpouring of good food!

Local potter  Mike Hamlin's pottery with flowers from his yard graced the tables. Thanks to our hosts: Stan Mobley, Mike Hamlin, and Sarah Gayle. 

Mike Hamlin is the winner of the 50/50 Raffle and takes home $50. Another $50 went to the club. Thanks to all the neighbors who participate eagerly in our monthly raffle.

Long-time Gerton resident Dr. Jim Earnhardt gave the program on a bit of the history of Gerton. The Earnhardt family first came to Gerton from Thomasville back in 1945, when Jim was 7. He spoke of the 9-hole golf course, the large swimming pool, the two gas stations, and a place to buy a burger that once occupied territory here in Gerton. Many of the homes back then were summer-only residences. The cold water in the swimming pool attracted about 50 people during the week, but on week-ends, maybe 200 would fill the pool. Noise could be heard echoing throughout the hamlet. Jim's poster board of pictures of times back then was interesting for all of us to see and imagine what once was! 

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, Chuck Mallory, Lee Strickland, Ellen Boyle, and Jim Earnhardt.

Officers of UHNGCC for 2024: President - Chuck Mallory; Vice-President - Ellen Boyle; Secretary - Karen Owensby; Treasurer - Sylvia Sane; Board Members - Sarah Gayle; Stan Mobley, Lee Strickland, Tom Buffkin. Immediate past president - Margaret Whitt.