All About Women July-August 2020

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2020 — it’s been tough.

Have you found a silver lining in all of the events and changes of this year?

PUBLISHER Gene Fowler

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Heather Brandon “I’ve been working at home since March and haven’t put on a full face of makeup since then.

I’ve learned to embrace the li le-to-no makeup look and the extra sleep I’ve had as a result.”

Tom Mayer

EDITOR Anna Oakes editor@aawmag.com 828.278.3602

Lise Jenkins “My folks live in another city, we belong to different churches and rarely get to a end services together. Now, both of our churches are conduc ng online services and we are enjoying ‘a ending’ church together. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share Sunday morning with my parents, even if we are miles apart.”

Hollie Eudy “Squash, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, books, wri ng, hiking, running and me to think and dream are the healthy harvest of 2020.”

CONTRIBUTORS Heather Brandon Bonnie Church Marion Edwards Hollie Eudy Derek Halsey Lise Jenkins and Kit Flynn Heather Jordan Kayla Lasure Melanie Davis Marshall Sue Spirit

PRODUCTION Meleah Bryan Derek Halsey “The silver lining that I have found during this pandemic is while nature is at the center of it, the rest of nature con nues on its usual, amazing path. We could be living in close quarters in a big city surrounded by contagious humans. Yet while the virus is here as well, a glance over and a quick hike soon finds us in healing green solitude.”

Melanie Davis Marshall “The me spent at home has been great for my li le farm. I have turned canceled vaca on plans into funds for expansion of my orchard. With free Saturdays at home, projects longignored, like overgrown areas around the place, are being cleaned up and cleared to make more room for plan ng.”

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COVER PHOTO by Kayla Lasure

Any reproduction of news articles, photographs or advertising artwork is strictly prohibited without permission from management. © 2020 Mountain Times Publications 4 | July-August 2020

aawmag.com

CONTENTS

features 16

Jennifer Greene

18

19th Amendment Turns 100

22 Bulus B. Swi[ 24 Expecঞng During the Unexpected

homestead 09 Hillbe y Revival: Pruning Tomato Plants 10

Absentee Gardeners: Gardeners to Educate and Inspire

health

16

12

Living Well: Eaঞng Your Stress

14

Beauty: Maskne

relationships

28

34 Mom’s World: Pandemic Perspecঞve

style & leisure 36 Travel: Bubbles, Bu erflies and Beanbags

food & drink 38

Recipes

in every issue 06 Editor’s Note 07

18

36

Women in the News

26 Spotlight on High Country Business Women: Deer Valley Athleঞc Club 28

Young at Heart: Why I Vote

40 Book Clubs: Staying at Home

July-August 2020 | 5

editor’s

note

Wasn’t this a fun community experience? We enjoyed our stroll on the Blue Ridge Parkway Viaduct back in May. Photo by A.J. Amero

As a kid, 100 years seemed like a very long time to me.

But as my own age climbs more than a third of the way toward the century mark, it doesn’t feel like such a long time, anymore.

Hard to believe, isn’t it, that women have only had the right to vote in this country for 100 years. Or that slavery ended only 155 years ago. Or that our nation itself is 244 years young.

It’s hard to believe that these freedoms and institutions we take for granted are short segments on the long timeline of human history, and that like other eras of civilization, their permanence is not guaranteed. It’s important to realize that, to exercise our rights and to guard our freedoms closely.

On that note, are you registered to vote?

New this year, you can actually register to vote online in North Carolina if you are a DMV customer with an N.C. driver’s license

6 | July-August 2020

or DMV-issued ID. Visit ncsbe.gov/Voters/ Registering-to-Vote for more information, or call (828) 265-8061 to reach our local elections office.

And if you haven’t yet responded to the 2020 Census, there’s still time! Because of COVID-19, the deadline for self-response has been extended to Oct. 31, 2020. Visit my2020census.gov to complete the 10-minute Census questionnaire.

Our gracious thanks goes to AppHealthCare Director Jennifer Greene for taking time out of her very busy schedule to tell us a little about herself and the health department’s work in leading the local response to the public health crisis.

It’s been a difficult five months as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of our lives, and it’s the reason All About Women had to skip the May-June issue this year.

We’re glad to be back with the July-August edition.

Be safe and be kind, and please remember the 3 Ws: Wear a Mask. Wait Six Feet Apart. Wash Your Hands.

aawmag.com

Women in the News

The Crawley family poses for a photo before the beginning of their nine-day hike on the Foothills Trail. From left to right is Ryan, Jenna and Ayla Crawley. Photo submitted

Valle Crucis 8-year-old Hikes 76-mile Foothills Trail

A

fter a cross-country trip and a vacation to Australia and New Thermarests, a water filter, a backpacking stove, minimal clothing, Zealand were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemrain gear, trail guides, a first aid kit, a tarp, a tent, headlamps and ic, rising fourth-grader Ayla Crawley, age 8, took to the 76-mile snacks.

Foothills Trail to have a summer adven“Luxury items” included a small jourture with her parents, Ryan and Jenna nal with a pen, books, waterproof camerCrawley. as, a small football and two hammocks.

Ayla’s mother, Jenna, said that the Food drops were planned ahead of 8-year-old has “hiking in her genetics,” time and stored off of the trail’s parking as both Jenna and Ryan have several lot areas in buckets so that the family years’ experience working at a wilderonly had to carry 3-4 days’ worth of food ness school and are experienced hikers. at a time.

While the trip took months to plan, Upon the completion of the nine-day Jenna said that planning ahead for hike, Ayla was awarded the Peregrine the time they would spend on the trail, Award for successfully hiking the entire which included storing food drops and trail. The Peregrine Award was started hiking before the summer sun got too in 2011 and is awarded by the Foothills Ayla Crawley holds an iron-on patch provided by the Foothot, made the trip better. Through the Trail Conservancy to hikers who comhills Trail Conservancy and her Peregrine Award certificate. process of planning the trip and being plete the trail, in either sessions or all at Photo submitted on the trail, Ayla, who is also a student once. at Valle Crucis School, learned to read trail maps, how to calculate Ayla said that while she didn’t understand just how long 77 daily mileage and about necessary hiking gear. miles was at the beginning of the journey, “it was actually really Jenna said that she and Ryan carried packs weighing 40-45 fun, especially because it was eight-mile days.” pounds, with Ayla’s being lighter at 13-14 pounds.

My trail name was ‘Skittles,’ mom’s was ‘Chipmunk’ and “We wanted this trip to be fun and relaxing, as well, so we dad’s was ‘Storyteller’ because he tells a lot of stories while we’re took an approach that included bringing things that were going hiking,” Ayla said. “Mine was ‘Skittles’ because when we were to provide comfort,” said Ryan. “Our (Jenna’s and Ryan’s) packs going up hills I would eat Skittles and Twix because they give you were heavier as a result, but it was totally worth it. Our motto was motivation.” ‘smiles, not miles.’”

The Crawleys’ backpack supplies included sleeping bags, - Abby Whitt July-August 2020 | 7

Women in the News

Yates’ Career Celebrated with Drive-Through Ceremony

P

hyllis Yates has been Yates’ family were present to involved with Ashe partake in this special ceremoCounty Schools for more than ny and wave at the cars that 40 years and retired effective drove by.

July 1. She has served in her A school bus was parked current position as superinwithin view with a large bantendent of schools since the ner made by Callie Lewis, art 2015-16 school year. teacher at Westwood ElemenA drive-through celebratary School that read “Contion sponsored by the board gratulations, Mrs. Yates!” of education was held on June Yates said the ceremony 25 to allow the community to filled her heart and the school celebrate with Yates. system has been great and has Superintendent Phyllis Yates was celebrated for her service to Ashe County Schools Current and previous been like family to her over with a drive-through retirement ceremony on June 25. Pictured is Yates and her husstudents, staff, parents and the years. band, Joel, with their grandchildren Trey, John Emory and Kathryn Grace Yates. members of the Ashe County “I’ve been very blessed and community were invited to drive by and I’m honored to have had this job,” Yates Ivy Street. honk their horns or bid Yates farewell. said following the celebration.

Tents were set up in the parking lot The route began at the intersections in front of the Central Support Services of Main Street and South Street and con- Bailey Little office located at 320 South Street in tinued past Fletcher Memorial Church to Jefferson.

320 South Street before exiting left on CSS staff along several members of

Masland Named Recipient of Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award

L

indsay Masland, an associate professor in Appalachian State University’s Dr. Wiley F. Smith Department of Psychology, was recently recognized nationally for her excellence as an early career psychologist.

The award was conferred by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology — Division 2 of the American Psychological Association. Each year, the STP awards six individuals nationally for their excellence in psychological teachings. The organization’s Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award specifically recognizes the excellence of early career psychologists.

In her nomination letter for Masland, Jordan D. Troisi — associate professor of psychology at the University of the South — wrote that while there are many great teachers in STP, Masland is the person she goes to when she needs teaching advice.

Since joining Appalachian’s faculty in 2011, Masland, who received her Ph.D.

8 | July-August 2020

Lindsay Masland, associate professor in Appalachian’s Dr. Wiley F. Smith Department of Psychology, is named the 2020 recipient of the Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award. Photo courtesy Appalachian State University

from the University of Georgia and her M.A. and B.A. from Wake Forest University, has been a keynote speaker at the annual Eastern Teaching of Psychology Conference — held in Staunton, Va., and for the STP’s Annual Conference on Teaching. She is the 2020 recipient of the App State Excellence in Teaching Award, and was recently named as incoming

assistant director for faculty professional development in Appalachian’s Center for Academic Excellence.

She also serves as a consulting editor for the journals Teaching of Psychology and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, both of which focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Masland currently serves on 10 of Appalachian’s departmental committees committed to teaching excellence, and her research focuses include student engagement, effective teaching practices and inclusive excellence in the classroom.

“My passion is to help educators make sound instructional choices that lead to transformative educational experiences for the many types of students they have in their classrooms,” Masland said. “I try to bring my background of educational psychology and knowledge of the science behind teaching/learning to bear on every aspect of my teaching, research and service.”

aawmag.com

Homestead

HILLBETTY REVIVAL

Pruning Tomato Plants I was not a tomato-pruning gardener until the year I had a terrible harvest, losing most of my

season. Bush plants and patio varieties are more likely determinate plants.

Indeterminate varieties plants to disease. After some research to continue to grow throughout prevent this massive crop failure the next the season and produce fruit year, pruning has become my go-to, keepall along the stems. These are ing leaves off the ground and improving the plants that can exceed five air flow around the plants. feet tall and need much more Before grabbing the clean shears and support and more pruning. jumping in, there are a few points to conThink most cherry tomatoes sider. There are some plants that can only and heirloom varieties. be pruned along the bottom and early in Removing the suckers, the the season, or you could cut off the stalks small shoots and leaves that that produce the fruit. branch out from where the stem Determinate tomatoes are varieties meets the branch, will help that grow to a certain height and stop. these indeterminate varieties The fruit on these varieties tend to all dry faster after rain to prevent ripen at once and appear at the end of the disease from too much moisbranches. Great for large crops at once for ture. These suckers also pull canning or sauce. Determinate tomatoes away all the growing energy should not be pruned except along the and plant food away from your lower few inches of growth early in the The bottoms of the plants are pruned early in the season to big stems and fruit prevent leaves from laying on the ground in the mud after a rain production. You are or good watering. looking for shoots that are one-quarter- to one-half-inch I err on the side of less pruning is in diameter. If you catch them better. I leave more suckers than I take early, no shears needed, the because my garden plot is full sun and suckers will simply pinch off.

I’m more worried about sunscald than air Not all suckers are bad flow. As I was first learning and researchsuckers. I leave some, selectively ing about pruning, I took so little off it improving air flow while leaving was hard to tell I had done anything. I some leafy shoots to protect the stick with that recommendation. fruit from sunscald. Basically a You can’t put it back once you have sunburn on your fruit, sunscald pinched off the suckers or the bottoms, starts as a yellow patch from and too much pruning can kill a tomato hot, direct sunlight that will turn plant or prevent fruit from forming at all grayish with a papery feel. on a determinate plant. Know your varietI also take all the small stems ies before you start pinching and pruning. and leaves off the bottom 3 to 4 inches of my tomato plants to prevent the splash back when watering or from a heavy rain.

Melanie Davis Marshall Keep the leaves off the ground Melanie is a born-again Hillbetty where they will lay and potenattempting to revive her Appalachian roots. She lives in Creston with her two tially rot and spread rot to the An example sucker shoot that would be targeted for pruning if it dogs and 21 chickens. plant. doesn’t protect the fruit below from sunscald July-August 2020 | 9

Homestead

Gardeners to Educate and Inspire Gardening is local: what works in your garden may, or may not, work in ours. Successful gardeners persevere, continually applying collective garden wisdom to our horticultural endeavors.

Fortunately, here in North Carolina we have deep reservoirs of gardening knowledge to draw upon.

Two North Carolina women stand out: Elizabeth Lawrence and Nancy Goodwin. Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) was the first woman to graduate from the Landscape Architecture program at State College, now known as North Carolina State University. A graduate of Duke University, Nancy Goodwin is the owner of Montrose, one of the premier gardens in our state.

Elizabeth Lawrence Elizabeth Lawrence was one of the first people to explore and write about Southern gardening. Publishing her first article in House & Garden when she was 32 years old, Lawrence went on to write six manuscripts, many articles for national publications and over 700 columns for the Charlotte Observer.

In my favorite book, “Gardening for Love,” she introduces us to the agricultural market newsletters of the day.

During the opening years of the last century, agricultural market newsletters connected farmers to each by providing a forum to advertise their livestock, seeds, tools, lands and labor. Their wives often placed notices for the garden seeds and plants they grew for their family.

Subscribing to market newsletters across the South, including the “North 10 | July-August 2020

Carolina Agricultural Review,” Lawrence was a frequent customer for the woodland plants grown by a handful of ladies in Watauga County.

A dedicated correspondent, Elizabeth Lawrence would exchange detailed letters with the ladies selling their plants. Growing tips and progress reports Elizabeth Lawrence was the first woman to graduate from the Landscape went up and down the Architecture program at State College, now known as North Carolina State mountain, along with University. Photo courtesy The Garden Conservancy updates on the weather and other rhythms of life.

Nancy Goodwin “Gardening for Love” was built upon the correspondence between Lawrence and In the world of horticulture, Nancy the growers she worked with. Beyond this Goodwin is a living legend. She has crehorticultural exchange, I enjoy the peek ated a magnificent garden at Montrose into mountain life in the 1950s and 1960s. in historic Hillsborough, a garden that In 1948 Lawrence moved from Raleigh will live in posterity for North Carolinians to Charlotte, where she purchased a through the establishment of the Monhouse in the city on one-third of an acre. trose Foundation.

Turning her yard into a “living laboratoIn the late 1970s, Craufurd and Nancy ry,” she was constantly observing those Goodwin moved to Montrose, an estate plants that did well and those that did originally owned by North Carolina not survive. This information became the Governor William A. Graham and his basis for much of her writing. descendants. Hillsborough’s wonderful In 2008, the Wing Haven Foundation soil attracted Nancy, an ardent gardener, purchased her home, which is now recwhile the house was large enough to hold ognized as a local historic landmark. It is their vast collection of Bloomsbury art. also part of the Smithsonian Institution’s For 10 years, 1984-94, she ran a nursery “Archives of American Gardens” along at Montrose, a nursery that old-time garwith being a “Preservation Partner” of the deners still talk about because she carried Garden Conservancy. The Wing Haven rarely seen plants in her catalogue. Along Foundation is looking forward to reopenthe way, she added her plant introducing the garden for events in the future. tions, such as Heuchera ‘Montrose Ruby’ that is still a popular plant in nurseries toaawmag.com

writer for both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

And then she wrote “Montrose,” which describes in detail the vast garden she created and its changes throughout the year. In gardening zone 7, Nancy demonstrated that the garden can support blooms 12 months a year. In fact, she is a huge fan of the Nancy Goodwin has created a magnificent garden at Montrose in historic winter garden.

Hillsborough. Photo by John Thomas To understand Monday. This particular heuchera hybrid with trose, it’s necessary to see Nancy as an its silver markings opened up the market artist who paints with plants. Her knowlto new heucheras – suddenly gardeners edge of plants runs deep — she can tell realized that heucheras could appear in a you the history of the largest tree down to myriad of colors. the smallest cyclamen.

The creation of the Montrose garden Her garden rooms are based on benefitted North Carolina readers bethemes, some of which are moored in cause Nancy has managed to write two color whereas other areas are built around books as well as edit Elizabeth Lawrence’s contrast. The walk leading to the front posthumous notes on rock gardening in door harbors the famous Dianthus Walk, her spare time. One of her books is the which was breathtaking until the deer delightful “A Year in Our Gardens” she took over and demolished it. Eventually wrote with Allen Lacy, a former garden the Goodwins were forced to erect a huge

screened fence around the garden to protect the plants – and the Dianthus Walk has begun to reemerge.

In the winter in the woodland section, the hardy cyclamens dominate, creating huge swathes of color and form. Her winter garden harbors many hellebores, including the charming H. niger, reputedly the most difficult of the hellebores to grow.

During normal times, Montrose is open by appointment. Twice each year Nancy holds garden days, inviting members of the public to come and feast their eyes. For more information on Nancy’s creation, visit www.montrosegarden.org.

Simply put, both Elizabeth Lawrence and Nancy Goodwin have done so much to educate and inspire gardeners in North Carolina and throughout the South.

Lise Jenkins & Kit Flynn Absent from their gardens, Kit and Lise enjoy roaming our region exploring the intersection of horticulture and suburban living. More on Instagram @AbsenteeGardener or email: info@absentee-gardener.com.

July-August 2020 | 11

Health

LIVING WELL

Eating Your Stress Who would have guessed that we would spend weeks on end sheltering in place, deflecting hugs with elbow bumps, wearing masks and compulsively washing our hands? Some of us lost jobs, all of us lost contact with friends, coworkers and family. During this nerve-rattling pandemic, you likely struggled, at least a little bit, with boredom, anxiety and perhaps depression.

To cope, you might have turned to food. Food, especially sugar and fat, triggers the pleasure centers in the brain. It numbs the emotional dissonance, at least for a little bit.

Eating in response to emotions does not always signal a problem; however, if junk food binges have become the primary way in which you deal with your feelings, you can become an emotional eater. The habit of self-medicating with food, if not corrected, can become a major stumbling block in your attempt to live a healthy life.

There are things you can do to break the cycle.

Don’t try to control with willpower that which you can control with environment. Junk food is addictive. If you 12 | July-August 2020

are addicted, resisting a binge is a bit like trying to resist scratching a raging mosquito bite. It is better to get it out of the house. In its place, have healthy options.

Create a list of stress-reducing activities. Before you grab your favorite sweet treat or salty snack, pause and assess whether the food you are about to eat will be beneficial to your overall wellbeing long term. If not, put it back and look for ways to comfort yourself that will.

Call a friend and talk through your experience. Go for a walk in one of the High Country’s beautiful parks. Do an online yoga session. Prayer, meditation, and/or journaling can soothe the soul and diminish the cravings.

Retrain your palate. Retraining your palate can take as little as three days.

From my experience with clients, detoxing from sugar for 10 days is like magic.

The taste buds come alive to flavors; the cravings are manageable.

Choose healthier alternatives.

Have attractive alternatives handy and visible. (This is an awesome time to learn to make a few delicious health dishes.)

• Instead of greasy French fries, choose oven-roasted sweet potato fries.

• Instead of ice cream, choose frozen low-sugar yogurt and berries.

• Instead of a milk shake, choose a homemade protein shake or smoothie.

• Instead of a bag of potato chips, choose a handful of salted nuts.

• Instead of soda, choose flavored seltzer.

• Instead of cane sugar, choose a natural sugar alternative like stevia.

Get help, if you need. If you are stuck in a food-craving rut, consider working with a health coach and/or a mental health professional. These individuals can provide support and increase your success in establishing a positive relationship with food.

As always, do check with your supervising health professional before making any dietary changes. bonnie church Certified Life and Wellness Coach Author/columnist, motivational speaker Certified Trainer for TLS Weight Loss Solution

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July-August 2020 | 13

Health

BEAUTY

Signs of the Times: Maskne

In my last article submission in March, I stated that I hoped the pandemic would be over by the time the issue was published. So here we are in July and we are still dealing. Some of us have had lots of time to think and do whatever it is that we could never find time for. Mother Earth is really enjoying this break from the daily ravaging demands of her guests. It is simply amazing how so much can change so fast.

Since the last time we connected, a brand new word has been added to our vocabulary — “maskne.” Maskne is defined as a type of breakout that results from wearing a face mask. Maskne is 14 | July-August 2020

acne formed in areas due to friction, pressure, stretching, rubbing or occlusion.

In order to be most effective the mask should be tight fitting, covering the nose mouth and chin. Yes, that is correct, your nose needs to be covered — no low slinging allowed. Fortunately many of us don a mask temporarily to run into a business, restaurant, etc. But so many others have to wear it all day, and that can be a real problem. Irritation, redness, abrasions, cuts and hyperpigmentation are other problems that are caused by wearing a mask. Combine the moisture in your breath with heat, oil and dirt, and that can be an unpalatable recipe for maskne.

Now that we are constantly covering our skin we need to be more diligent than ever about our skin care routine.

• Cleanse morning and night with a mild cleanser. If you are acne prone, use a cleanser with salicylic acid to keep sebum in check.

• Always use a toner to restore natural pH balance to skin. You can carry cotton pads saturated with toner or witch hazel in a ziplock bag to cleanse and freshen the skin at times when you remove the mask. Facial wipes with natural bases work well also.

• I would not advise a face full of makeup if you can get by without it. Eye aawmag.com

Maskne is defined as a type of breakout that results from wearing a face mask. makeup can be your glam thing. A lip stain works better instead of lipstick because there is little transfer to the mask.

• Use a very light moisturizer or tinted moisturizer during these hot months.

• A DIY mask should be 100% cotton, with no synthetic fibers, as most contain chemicals. Doubling a 600-thread pillow case will provide a decent filter.

The more cross hatch you have the better the filter. You can also use 600-thread and line with chiffon or silk also. Of course, only the N95s filter 95% of airborne particles.

• Change and wash cloth masks regularly. I fear we are falling down in this area, as I see masks swinging from rearview mirrors, thrown on car seats, hanging on necks, ears. I really think a lot of people are using the same mask for weeks on end. This will defeat the reason for even wearing a mask since it might be contaminated and you keep wearing it. A dirty, sweaty mask will contribute to maskne. Wash cloth masks after each use, either in a washing machine on the warmest setting appropriate for the fabric or by hand washing following instructions from the CDC. Don’t touch the front of the mask when you remove it, and wash your hands after handling it.

Since we are all wearing a mask to keep us all safe, I highly recommend that you read and understand the CDC’s considerations for wearing a mask. They have DIY mask-making info and answer all of your mask questions. Visit www.cdc.gov.

Now wash your hands, wear your mask and stay beautiful!

Marion Edwards Marion Edwards is a Licensed Esthetician, Professional Makeup Artist and Certified Trainer for Motives Cosmetics. She can be contacted at 828.773.1500.

July-August 2020 | 15

Feature

Photos by Kayla Lasure

Jennifer Greene

Leading the High Country Through a Pandemic When Jen Greene entered the public health field, she never thought she would be confronted with an issue of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is the longest response we’ve ever been in,” Jen says. “I know people are tired. We know we have a long way to go, but we need to lean into supporting each other.”

Jen is the health director at AppHealthCare and has served as the ringleader for the local response during the pandemic. AppHealthCare is the health department for Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties, with about 95 staff members.

During the pandemic response, Jen says the AppHealthCare leadership team participates in a daily huddle to plan response efforts and to troubleshoot differ16 | July-August 2020

ent issues. The rest of her day is packed with research and study of data and conducting Zoom meetings and phone calls with community partner groups and elected officials. She estimated that she met with 12 groups or so regularly to discuss the pandemic response and answer questions that locals may have.

Jen also participates in a statewide contact tracing team that meets routinely throughout the week. She says the team is a collaborative group of representatives helping to inform the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on contact tracing response for COVID-19.

Jen and her staff on average have worked more than 50 hours a week during the pandemic. She says the agency is trying to give its frontline staff a day off if they have to work during the

weekend.

“Some staff have been working consistently,” Jen says. “I hope it’ll get better soon since we now have some funds to hire more people to assist.”

Boone Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Jackson said the last few months have certainly put more spotlight on Jen and the AppHealthCare team. He says the agency’s staff has been proactive in seeking ways to find answers to the difficult questions the community has faced.

“As we brought things to (Jen) about business operations very early in the response, she was eager to do the best she could to provide help, knowing people were dealing with unforeseen challenges and obstacles,” David says. “It’s clear she cares deeply about the community she aawmag.com

serves, and the compassion and empathy shown by her and her team have helped knock the edge off some difficult conversations.”

Serving as “the public face of the pandemic response,” David says Jen has taken sharp — and many times unwarranted — criticism from pandemic naysayers.

It is in those times he says Jen conducts her best work. She uses knowledge, grace and strength to communicate effectively while using science, data and her training to guide her to make the best decisions for the community, David says.

“When people are fearful and anxious, they tend to overreact. Jen can see past the emotions of the situation and focus on the message and ultimately the resolution to the challenges we face,” David says.

According to Watauga County Schools Superintendent Scott Elliott, Jen has been a unifier among leaders by keeping officials informed and by being focused on facts and tangible actions.

“Jen’s steady and professional demeanor has been a calming force across our community throughout all the uncertainty and chaos of the last few months,” Scott says. “She’s down to earth, professional and helps put people at ease. We’ve also seen several very public examples of her calm nerves and strong backbone.”

Jen moved with her family to Watauga from Durham when she was 5, and is a graduate of Watauga High School. She chose to go into the public health field because she wanted to work in a career

When people are fearful and anxious, they tend to overreact. Jen can see past the emotions of the situation and focus on the message and ultimately the resolution to the challenges we face.

- David Jackson that could positively impact people while making a difference in the community she loves. She also says she wants to protect and support people in the community who are often forgotten.

Her decision to make public health her career path was made with her daughter in mind. Jen became a mother to her daughter Celeste between her junior and senior years in high school. Her daughter played a major influence in her life, and Jen says she chose to work in public health because she wanted her daughter “to have the best opportunity for a healthy life.” She is also the mom to 12-year-old Green Valley student Logan with her husband Anthony.

Jen graduated with her bachelor’s degree in health promotion from Appalachian State University in 2004, and gained her master’s of public health from Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical School in 2016. Her daughter went on to also obtain a public health degree from App State in fall 2019.

Jen began her career at AppHealthCare in June 2004, when the organization was then known as the Appalachian District Health Department. Through the years she worked her way through the positions of a health educator, a health promotion supervisor and then allied health services director. She became the agency’s deputy health director in January 2016, and then the official health director in December 2017.

While the pandemic has highlighted the need for public health, Jen says there are 74 or so other reportable illnesses for which AppHealthCare conducts the same type of work.

“Public health is everywhere, every day for everybody,” Jen says. “There’s no time that we’ve really seen that demonstrated more.”

Finding it important to always be available when needed, Jen says her

phone is ringing often these days.

“Sometimes a quick decision is needed — that can happen at night, it could happen on a weekend,” Jen says. “It’s part of what we do.”

But she credits her AppHealthCare team for carrying a lot of the load of phone calls at the office. She said having a great team and community behind her helps to keep her going.

Her faith in God is one of the main aspects that have kept her sane through the pandemic, she says. She says she’s had to realize that there’s so much out of her control, and that she has to trust that God has the situation. Additionally, she’s been trying to get outside more and spend time with family to do activities like cornhole. As another outlet, Jen uses her exercise bike to try to burn off stress.

Jen says self care is important, especially during this time, as she knows mental health is not always prioritized.

She advised community members can improve their mental health by just taking five minutes to breathe. She encouraged the community to try reaching out to those they care about. Jen says it’s been helpful for her to have a friend group of other health directors who understand her stresses.

Ultimately, Jen says the pandemic has reminded her how important it is to have a strong team — not just within AppHealthCare but also in the community. She says she hopes the community will come together to try to preserve the unity she has seen it demonstrate.

“We may all have differing opinions, but if we can come together and try to reiterate that unity, we will make it through,” Jen said.

Kayla Lasure Is a Kentucky born reporter currently living in Boone. She enjoys traveling, watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and spending time with her two cats, Owen and Mushu.

July-August 2020 | 17

Feature

Left: Gertrude Weil is on the left in this photo taken inside the Equal Suffrage Association headquarters office in Raleigh in 1920. Photo courtesy of State Archives of North Carolina

Right: A National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage circular containing “Household Hints” along with anti-suffrage propaganda. Photo courtesy of State Archives of North Carolina

Above left: The Jan. 26, 1939, issue of Watauga Democrat published a photo of suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

Above right: A portrait of Sojourner Truth is taken in Detroit in 1864. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

The Work of Their Hands, Hearts and Minds 100 Years Ago, American Women Won the Right to Vote

T

he road to Nashville, Tennessee — where the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” cleared its final hurdle on Aug. 18, 1920 — began in Seneca Falls, New York, seven decades earlier. At the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments was signed by 68 women and 32 men, concluding, “Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country … and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist 18 | July-August 2020

that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.”

National women’s rights conventions followed in 1850 and were held annually through 1860, and leaders like Stanton were initially allied with the abolitionist movement. Sojourner Truth, a former slave, spoke to a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, delivering a speech known as “Ain’t I a Woman?”

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women to-

gether ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them,” she is quoted as saying.

The movement was halted temporarily by the Civil War. A setback came in 1868, when the states ratified the 14th Amendment, which defined “citizens” and “voters” exclusively as male.

In 1869 Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the New York-based National Woman Suffrage Association to secure a nationwide right to vote via a Constitutional amendment. In the same year, Lucy Stone and other “more conservaaawmag.com

tive activists,” according to the National Women’s History Museum, established the American Woman Suffrage Association to achieve the vote via individual state constitutions. The two associations would merge in 1890.

More women’s organizations were formed in the following decades, with many supporting the suffrage cause.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which is still active today, formed in 1874 to oppose alcohol and its influence on families and society, and with Frances Willard at the helm, women’s suffrage was added to the group’s platform. This led to opposition to the women’s suffrage movement by liquor and brewery interests.

A women’s suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress for the first time in 1878 and brought to a vote in 1887, when it was defeated 16-34 by the Republican-controlled Senate.

New Century, New Tactics Organized efforts emerged to deter women’s suffrage, including the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, established in 1911.

1913 ushered in an era of greater visibility for the suffrage movement, due in large part to the efforts of Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party, who employed tactics such as parades

and picketing outside of the White House to attract national publicity to the cause. In 1915, 40,000 people marched in a New York City suffrage parade, with many women dressed in white and carrying signs indicating the states they represented. Described by some as militant or radical, the group’s efforts at times resulted in women being arrested and thrown in jail. In 1917, Paul was placed in solitary confinement in the mental ward of a prison, according to the National Women’s History Museum, and picketers sentenced to jail for obstructing sidewalk traffic went on hunger strike, ultimately resulting in their release due to a public outcry.

Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a Republican, became the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916, and that year, President Woodrow Wilson announced that the Democratic Party platform would support suffrage. By that time, Europe had been entrenched in World War I for several years, and the U.S. would enter the war in 1917. In contrast to the Civil War, however, the women’s movement did not go on hiatus. Instead, suffragists were active in organizing and fundraising for the war effort — and they made their efforts known to the public, which ultimately aided their cause.

An article by Mrs. James Lee Laidlaw, of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, was published in the June A photo of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, seated, and Susan B. Anthony, standing, taken sometime between 1880 and 1902.

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

13, 1918, Watauga Democrat under the headline “Suffragists in War Work.”

“The New York State Woman Suffrage Party, since it finished its great task of carrying New York state for woman suffrage, Nov. 6, 1917, has devoted itself exclusively to war work and various forms of civic and patriotic service. We have recently sent the first woman’s hospital unit abroad from the United States. Every person in it, even to the plumbers and mechanics, are women, and they volunteered for dangerous service.” She appealed directly to rural women, encouraging anyone interested in the party’s work to write to the organization.

On Jan. 10, 1918, Rankin opened debate on a suffrage amendment in the House.

“As never before the nation needs its women — needs the work of their hands and their hearts and their minds,” Rankin said on the House floor. “How shall we answer their challenge, gentlemen; how shall we explain to them the meaning of democracy if the same Congress that voted for war to make the world safe for democracy refuses to give this small measure of democracy to the women of our country?”

The amendment would go on to pass in the House by a 274-136 vote. In a Sept. 30, 1918, speech to the Senate, President Wilson said, “We have made partners of the women in this war … shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil Continued on next page July-August 2020 | 19

Left: A leading suffragist and abolitionist, Lucy Stone was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree and defied gender norms when she famously wrote marriage vows to reflect her egalitarian beliefs and refused to take her husband’s last name. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress Below: Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman’s Party, is pictured sewing a star on a suffrage flag. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

A circular listing 12 reasons why women should be able to vote is published by the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina. Photo courtesy of State Archives of North Carolina

and not to a partnership of privilege and right?”

But the amendment failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the Democratic-led Senate that year, and it would be the following year, 1919, when both the Republican-controlled House and Senate passed the bill that would send the amendment to the states for ratification. The suffragists’ efforts moved to securing the 36 states needed to approve a Constitutional amendment, and on Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee became the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, which states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Suffragists and AntiSuffragists in NC The women’s suffrage movement in North Carolina has roots in the mountains. The North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association was established by 20 | July-August 2020

45 women and men in Asheville in 1894, according to an article by Caroline Pruden in the Encyclopedia of North Carolina. State Sen. James L. Hyatt of Yancey County introduced a bill for a state suffrage amendment in 1897, but, the article stated, “reflecting the sentiment of his colleagues,” it was referred to the Committee on Insane Asylums, where it died.

As it did across the nation, the movement picked up steam in North Carolina in 1913. That year, Gertrude Weil founded the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League in Charlotte, which lobbied legislators and spread the word through pamphlets and speeches. The article describes Weil, the daughter of a German Jewish immigrant, as “one of the South’s ‘new women’ who had acquired some postsecondary education, participated in a range of club activities and enjoyed paid working experiences as the region began to modernize.”

Records show that the movement was being discussed and debated in Watauga County as well. In the Oct. 23, 1913, issue of The Watauga Democrat, a weekly column called “At the Training

School” (referring to the Appalachian Training School for Teachers, the predecessor of Appalachian State University), reported on the school’s annual October outing. “The usual debate was given at 11:30 on Saturday, the subject being ‘Resolved that woman suffrage should be adopted by an amendment to the Constitution of North Carolina,’” the newspaper stated. “The debate was very interesting.”

A Nov. 17, 1913, diary entry by Andrew Jackson Greene, an instructor at the Training School, indicated that he was not won over by the movement at the time. “We have given the woman suffrage movement some thought tonight,” Greene wrote. “We think that it is better for the women not to have it for three reasons. 1. It would thrust a burdensome responsibility upon the women. 2. It would impair the family relations. 3. It would injure the state.”

“Prior to 1920,” an article in the Oct. 24, 1935, Watauga Democrat explained, “women had been granted the right to vote in 22 states, beginning with Wyoming.” But in North Carolina, legislative defeats continued through 1919, and during the year of ratification, opposition intensified. Anti-suffragists, led by representatives from agricultural counties, “feared that allowing women to aawmag.com

vote would increase pressure to reverse laws that prevented African Americans from voting,” Pruden wrote.

A branch of the Southern Rejection League formed in Raleigh, assisted by the National Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage. Raleigh men organized the States’ Rights Defense League.

“The state’s anti-suffrage movement derived its strongest support from politicians eager to retain the control they had obtained after Reconstruction,” Pruden’s article stated. “The textile mill industry, which feared the impact of women’s votes on child labor issues, and railroad officials, who worried that women would target them in the progressive attack on corruption in big business.”

When it came down to one state left to ratify, special sessions were called in the North Carolina and Tennessee legislatures to take up the issue.

“President Wilson sent (N.C. Gov. Thomas) Bickett a telegram urging ratification, but the governor responded with the hope that Tennessee, then also meeting in a special convention, would relieve the pressure on North Carolina by being the 36th and final state to vote for ratification,” Pruden recounted.

A day after Tennessee voted to ratify, “the (N.C.) General Assembly still rejected the measure by a vote of 71 to 41, arguing that women suffrage would threaten the sanctity of the family, state rights and white supremacy,” Pruden wrote.

‘It Has Just Begun’ After ratification, suffragist organizations were converted into Leagues of Women Voters, focusing on voter registration, voter education and political organizing. An article from the Raleigh News & Observer reprinted in the Dec. 4, 1924, Watauga Democrat, titled “Miss Henderson Says Women Are Becoming Party Factors,” suggested that women in North Carolina quickly found new roles in politics.

“Women have not had much direct influence on politics yet, because they haven’t had time, but with every election they are becoming more informed and intelligent, and if the men expect

It is incredible to me that any woman should consider the fight for full equality won. It has just begun.

- Alice Paul, 1920 to hold the woman’s vote they have got to begin to realize that she is an active factor in the politics of the state,” Mary Henderson, state Democratic vice chair, was quoted as saying.

“As for women holding office in general,” Henderson said, “the men need not be afraid that they are going to grab for all the offices. But they do expect a share in the policy shaping.”

“In 1920 and 1922 the men were terrified,” Henderson continued. “Fully half of them felt that the women were going to want every office in the county, and we had some difficulty in 1922, getting women to head up the work in the counties, because the men were appointing them, and the men were afraid of them. I received letters from the chairmen in some counties where I knew there were several good women who could do the work, saying that they just couldn’t find women who could do the work.”

“This time it has been much easier, for the men have softened a great deal, and have realized what the woman’s vote is meaning. This year there have been good organizations of women in 80 counties, in 15 there have been women at work without county organization, and in only five counties, to my knowledge, have the women done nothing.”

“We found that the women got into the work easily because of the war work that they had done with the Red Cross, the Liberty Loan drives, and the Canteen and relief works. In many counties war committees were still in existence and could go right to work.

“I had been told that it would be impossible to get the rural women interested in politics,” Henderson said, “but that was a mistake.” Henderson recalled riding through a remote part of Rowan County and seeing an old woman digging potatoes. She stopped to ask the woman if she had registered.

“Heavens child, I was reading Francis Willard’s temperance stuff before you were born, and I’ve been a suffragette for a mighty long time,” the woman reportedly replied. “I have surely registered and have gotten a lot more of the women around here to register too.”

Henderson noted that women’s clubs, although non-partisan, had put on “get out the vote” campaigns, “which have helped the women’s side of both parties wonderfully.”

A July 21, 1960, issue of the Watauga Democrat announced the organization of a League of Women Voters chapter in Boone.

“Any woman who has gone to the polls to exercise her right and her duty to vote and then felt baffled by a long ballot containing many unfamiliar names and offices has felt the need of this organization,” the front-page article stated. “While the League is nonpartisan and does not support or oppose specific candidates or parties, it does take action in support of or in opposition to selected governmental issues, and on election day there’s usually one thing that the Republican and Democratic parties can agree on: millions of people will be better informed voters because of the League of Women Voters.”

On May 6, 1971 — over 50 years since women had been granted the right to vote — North Carolina’s General Assembly voted to ratify the 19th Amendment as a symbolic gesture. The only state to wait longer to ratify the amendment, according to a U.S. News & World Report article, was Mississippi, which made it official in 1984.

Anna Oakes Editor, All About Women

July-August 2020 | 21

Feature

Photo by Derek Halsey

Photo by Derek Halsey Photo courtesy Asheville Citizen-Times

Bulus B. Swift

An Acঞvist for Women’s and Children’s Rights Spent Her Later Years in Avery County In these beautiful mountains here in the High Country, there are many opportunities to hike on wonderful trails that meander through gorges, rivers and streams as well as clifftop summits. Yet one day here in my neighborhood near Linville, N.C., just a short drive from Boone, I decided to take a walk closer to home. That exploration led to an old, local cemetery full of discovery.

I wanted to climb a ridge where the coyotes often gather in late summer and fall, using a line of trees to project their yelps for miles in the night air. To get there, I walked through Montezuma Cemetery and decided to look at the tombstones to see how old they were and what stories they could tell. With years carved on the gravestones going back to the early 1800s, the first impression that I got was that many local families experienced great tragedy with many lives lost at an early age.

As I read the headstones of Montezuma Cemetery, located on the western slope of Sugar Mountain, I found a couple known as L.B. and E.L Townsend. The 22 | July-August 2020

small tombstones next to them told an unfortunate story as the couple had lost a nine-day-old infant in 1892, a two-year-old daughter named Doshia in 1896, and they lost yet another infant in 1908.

A few yards away were the tombstones of the Bumgarner family, which sadly included four gravestones depicting the death of the infants born to W. and C.E. Bumgarner. Wife Celia E. Bumgarner was born in 1857 and died just 37 years later, according to her epitaph.

The couple did raise a son named Ira who reached adulthood, but he died just a few months shy of his 20th birthday in 1892.

Using my smartphone, I began to take photographs of unusual names on the gravestones from long ago that I found interesting. On a whim, I decided to research some of the names online and almost instantly I hit pay dirt, no pun intended. To my amazement, a couple of names in particular lit up my laptop screen.

One name of fame buried in Montezuma Cemetery was Malinda Blalock, wife of William Blalock. Malinda and William were well-known Northern sympathizers

during the Civil War who wreaked havoc on the locals with guerrilla warfare during the insurrection. Malinda, as it turns out, made history by being one of only three women who successfully dressed up like a man to fight in the War Between the States.

Another name from the Montezuma Cemetery that led to a great story was Bulus B. Swift.

The first thing that popped up in my research concerning Bulus Bagby Swift was a blurb about her in the Avery Journal newspaper from 2018. In an article about life in Avery County in 1935 written by Michael Hardy, he quotes the Asheville Citizen Times newspaper from 85 years ago.

“Bulus Bagby Swift was known regionally as ‘the Bread Woman’ for the cakes, breads and pastries she baked,” says the article titled “Folks Worth While in W.N.C.” “Swift was a graduate of the North Carolina College for Women at Greensboro, had served as president of the North Carolina Congress of Parents and Teachers, and was with the Guilford County child welfare bureau during aawmag.com

World War I. Swift also served as a field worker for the North Carolina League of Women Voters. She was married to Wiley H. Swift, and moved to Montezuma in 1935 where she started the Newland Parent-Teacher Association. She was later named post-mistress in Montezuma.”

Fascinated, the more research I did on Bulus B. Swift, who was born in 1877 and died in 1952, the more insight I found into life in the Tar Heel State 100 years ago.

Citizens of the day lived in a politically volatile period a century ago, much like our current political atmosphere. In the book “Battling Miss Bolsheviki – Origins of Female Conservatism in the United States,” written by Kirsten Marie Delegard in 2012, Swift is described as being in a war of words with the Daughters of the American Revolution, a 140,000-member, pro-segregationist group that had real power in the 1920s as the vanguard of the anti-communist movement. One passage reads, “Women from the Greensboro Daughters of the American Revolution accused the head of the North Carolina PTA, Bulus Swift, of being an ‘atheist,’ a slander that she denied immediately.

These DAR members linked Swift’s irreverence to the degeneration of the Greensboro College for Women, which they claimed was a ‘hotbed for communism.’”

In other words, because Swift’s alma mater, the North Carolina College for Women at Greensboro, was known as a rather rowdy center of activism, they took a shot at Swift’s high position as leader of the North Carolina Parent -Teacher Association. In the decade that saw women’s suffrage come to the fore, female reformists such as Swift quickly became targets.

By 1929, Swift had become the chair of the Committee on the Working Child of the North Carolina League of Women Voters. Her passion centered on the state of child labor laws here in North Carolina as the conditions of children in the workplace a century ago were dangerous compared to these modern times. Swift was very proactive in her desire to stop the madness and end the unsafe environments that surrounded many children used in such a way. She testified before Congress and even did radio interviews as she fought for the cause.

In an article written by Swift in 1930 titled “THE NORTH CAROLINA CHILD

IN INDUSTRY,” published in the North Carolina Club Yearbook 1929-1930, she describes in detail what life was like for child laborers 100 years ago.

Using Swift’s own words, here are some edited, paraphrased details about what could legally be required of kids in the workplace in North Carolina. Remember that this is a time period right after the 1929 stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression.

“We are forming bread lines for our unemployed men and women, easing our consciences with opiates, meanwhile saying that children of fourteen and fifteen years must work eleven hours a day and sixty hours a week to take care of widowed mothers or keep from working a hardship on poor families,” said Swift.

Here are more descriptions by Swift of the life of young people in 1930: “Say what one will about children preferring work to school, or becoming independent merchants of the street because of their thrift, child workers come, for the most part, from economically handicapped homes,” said Swift. “They come from over-crowded homes, are tended by over-worked and consequently over-wrought nervous mothers. Because of the lives these children are forced to live at home, they have least resistance against disease and suffer the greatest liability to organic weaknesses. They are easy victims to whatever contagion may be abroad in the land. And they go most frequently to jobs that must be tended by mere robots; routine, monotonous jobs, perhaps just tying threads or pasting labels on boxes. But they are jobs, mind you, that require attention. Modern industry tends all the while to become more and more routinized. The tasks are easily learned, leaving only rapidity to be attained. And all these children, even though some are unable to read and write, are not robots.”

“Let us get this matter straight,” continues Swift. “Whatever employers or anyone else may think, children 14 and 15 years of age are not employed, except in very rare instances, because industry is good for children but rather because agile bodies and nimble fingers are good for industry. They are employed because there is a desire to get a certain piece of work done, and because child workers can be had at less cost than adult workers.

Children work for lower wages and their wages frequently determine the scale of wages for adults in that occupation thus inflicting a kind of refined cruelty on the adult who is willing and anxious to work.”

“We make it next to impossible for them to learn self-government, for they jump from the ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘yes, sir’ atmosphere of the grammar grades to the same atmosphere at work under the boss,” adds Swift. “We stifle their yearning to do creative work, by keeping them at a routine job, perhaps just tying a broken thread or pasting on labels for excessively long hours. We turn these boys and girls of the daredevil adolescent age into machine shops to work around dangerous machinery, only to have them maimed for life. And still we wonder why the peak of juvenile delinquency is between 15 and 17 years, why 80 per cent of our delinquents in North Carolina are young men who have not passed the third grade.”

Swift’s husband Wiley H. Swift died in 1949. As it turned out, Bulus and Wiley’s love story was one of becoming a true power couple when it came to fighting for the rights of child laborers.

According to Wiley’s obituary, he was a native of the Cove Creek area in Watauga County just north of Boone and went to the University of North Carolina.

Then, he taught school and became the superintendent of schools in Greensboro. He also got his law degree having never attended law school, but instead he learned the profession on his own time and in his own way, and passed the bar exam. He did this because fighting child labor laws became his passion along with his wife Bulus. For 18 years, Wiley was the special agent and general secretary of the National Child Labor Committee in New York City.

Later in life, Bulus B. Swift stayed busy as postmaster general of the Montezuma post office, worked with the local railroad and formed the Parent Teacher Association in Newland, N.C. She made a difference in the world around her during a time of turmoil, especially for North Carolina youth. It is a life worth imitating in these equally turbulent times.

Derek Halsey Derek is a freelance journalist living in the High Country. He is a winner of the Charlie Lamb Excellence in Music Journalism Award and a 9-time IBMA Journalist of the Year Award nominee.

July-August 2020 | 23

Feature

Expecting During the Unexpected Support Available for Expectant Mothers Amid Unexpected Pandemic Pregnancy and labor can often be an anxious time for expecting families, but especially during a pandemic with lots of unknowns.

Lauren Fontaine Byrd and Tana Brophy are both expecting and due in August — Byrd with her third child and Brophy with her second. Brophy said when the worry of the COVID-19 pandemic picked up in mid-March, it was difficult for her mentally and emotionally to process.

“When there’s uncertainty you can’t plan; I feel like when you’re pregnant all you do is plan,” Brophy said.

“You plan for child care or how you’re going to afford to stay home. Being pregnant before, I had something to compare it to. I didn’t feel as excited for a long time as I was with my other son; that excitement was replaced with worry about the things I couldn’t control.”

Brophy, the bilingual parent educator for the Watauga Children’s Council, and her husband both started to work from home in mid-March to help reduce the risk of them being exposed. She’s recently been involved with a Mother’s Connect support group through the Children’s Council that began about three weeks ago. The group started because Children’s Council staff began to notice that there wasn’t a lot of support for moms during this time, and wanted to offer a space for expecting families to communicate.

Brophy encouraged expecting moms to reach out to the Children’s Council or other local resources if they are feeling overwhelmed or worried. The group meets once a week on Thursdays to offer virtual yoga and discussions to moms. For more information on the group, contact Robin Triplett at robin@thechildrenscouncil.org.

Byrd is the owner and chiropractor of Appalachian Family Chiropractic in Boone; she and her husband closed the practice for five weeks but have reopened the business with a few more precautions in place. Byrd treats many families — including expectant mothers throughout their pregnancies — and said the main concerns she has heard from moms were about mandated COVID-19 testing, deciding between telehealth or in-person prenatal appointments, not having any visitors besides their spouse at the hospital and not having access to a doula during delivery.

24 | July-August 2020

Tana Brophy sits with 3-year-old Mateo Brophy as he hugs her pregnant belly. Photo submitted aawmag.com

At first Byrd participated in prenatal telehealth appointments, but said there’s just some comfort in hearing a baby’s heartbeat that is missed out on with internet appointments.

Melonie Formwalt is a lactation consultant and one of two childbirth instructors for the Watauga Medical Center’s Birthing Center. She said pregnant women are tested for COVID-19 at 38 weeks of pregnancy or earlier if she is scheduled for a caesarean delivery or an induction.

If a patient were to test positive or is a suspected positive, she would be isolated.

Lauren Fontaine Byrd sits with her children, Lila and Jake, as she’s According to Appalachian Repregnant with her third child. Photo submitted gional Healthcare System Marketing Director Vicki Stevens, if patients are City Medical Center, according to Allison directed by their obstetrician to go to Rollans, the co-owner of High Country Watauga Medical Center, patients or their Doulas. Byrd is concerned about potenspouse/family members are asked to call tially not having a doula with her when ahead to let the emergency department she goes into labor in August, as Watauknow they are on their way. When the ga Medical Center’s one-person policy patient arrives at the hospital, Stevens would not allow for a doula to be present, said staff will meet the patient and escort as the one person would typically be a them to the Birthing Center. For more partner or family member. information on the Birthing Center, visit “My doula is such an integral part of apprhs.org/?s=birth+center. my birth team; I can’t imagine labor and As of June, Watauga Medical Center delivery without my doula being there,” allowed only one person to enter with Byrd said. “I’m hopeful that Watauga will the patient in labor. During their stay, the recognize the importance of doulas as same person will be allowed to remain part of the birthing team and allow them with the patient, but no other family are access again soon.” allowed to visit at this time, according to Rollans said she’s had calls from Stevens. Patients and their visitors are expecting families from all over the required to wear a mask and must remain region with questions about how to in their rooms at all times; Stevens said handle pregnancy during the pandemic. women do not have to wear a mask while She added that the agency assisted with in labor. The hospital’s nutrition services births in February and March, but then team calls the patient room to take meal had a gap in which no expecting mothers orders and delivers the meals to the were scheduled to give birth until late patient’s room.

July or August.

Byrd said she isn’t worried about High Country Doulas has shifted giving birth, but is disappointed that her most of its services online, such as virtual 1-year-old and 3-year-old won’t be able to childbirth education classes and video meet their new baby sister at the hospital breastfeeding consults. If parents would once she’s born. rather have an in-person consult or class, “Having my daughter come to the Rollans said High Country Doulas can hospital was such a great bonding take certain precautions to do so while experience for our family when my son social distancing. Rollans said the agency was born,” Byrd said. “Our daughter is trying to give more support to families remembers coming to the hospital to visit on the front end before labor so they feel mommy and meet her new baby brother. more prepared.

I’ll hate for all of us to miss out on that “Having the virtual option is a great experience with this baby.” way to get the information you need, such Some hospitals are allowing doulas to as when you’re a new parent with a baby be present during labor, such as Johnson who is not latching well, your nipples are

sore, your baby is fussy or they won’t sleep. We can sit down with people quickly, sometimes within the hour, and be able to answer those questions for them.”

Formwalt said the Birthing Center has added a virtual tour of the center to the ARHS website so patients feel more comfortable knowing what to expect when it’s time to have their babies. To view the tour, visit www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0U-yeRF4MHg. Additionally, she’s mailing out packets to women who are registered for breastfeeding classes that include printed information they would have received in class as well as links to online websites that are helpful to watch before beginning breastfeeding.

Formwalt is also available for telephone or FaceTime discussion if patients would like to talk with her prenatally.

If the one-person visitor policy is still in place at Watauga Medical Center when a High Country Doulas client goes into labor, Rollans said the agency would prefer support as normal — which starts with phone calls to check in with the parents. During active labor, the family’s doula could be there via video chat to help the couple walk through the process, answer questions and remind the partner ways to be supportive of the mother in labor. Formwalt said that now only the baby and mother can enter the hospital for additional visits once they have been discharged.

Byrd said her best advice for all expectant mothers is to keep healthy by eating nutritious foods, staying active, drinking plenty of water and trying not to stress. Brophy recommended that expecting mothers ground themselves by thinking about the present and not worrying about the future.

“If you can ground yourself with your baby in that moment and take those moments to just breathe and be present with your baby, it’s helped a lot for me,” Brophy said. “When he’s moving … the worries go away because he’s going to be here and no matter what I have to keep going.”

Kayla Lasure Is a Kentucky born reporter currently living in Boone. She enjoys traveling, watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and spending time with her two cats, Owen and Mushu.

July-August 2020 | 25

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Deer Valley Athletic Club Deer Valley Athletic Club has a long history in the High Country. It all began in 1987 with 6 outdoor courts and a trailer for an office.

Today, Deer Valley, owned by the Pilkington family, has six outdoor Har-Tru clay courts, 3 indoor courts, a kid-only fitness and agility gym, and a full fitness area with cardio, Nautilus, free weights and an assortment of props to suit anyone’s needs. Our tennis community is the largest of its kind in the High Country. We strive to be a competitive and fun environment for all levels of tennis players. In addition, Deer Valley has the only available league-sized competitive racquetball court, as well as both indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The Pilkingtons took over Deer Valley in January and have been working hard to continue the traditions of the club by being a premier private tennis club with a dedication to the health of all our families and surrounding community. They believe Deer Valley is more than just a facility that offers professional tennis and fitness instruction; it is also a place that cultivates community through our family-oriented programs and longstanding presence in the area. Our members are all considered family and we celebrate these relationships through community outreach, friendly challenges and monthly socials that continue to create strong bonds.

Additionally, the 33,000 square-foot facility has allowed space to add more amenities by adding three incredible businesses upstairs: Pilates, massage and High Country Greek restaurant.

26 | July-August 2020

Beyond Pilates, owned by Nicole Durfee Shipley, is located on the upper level of our facility and is the only Pilates studio in the N.C. High Country that focuses on the cutting-edge science of movement. The studio’s passionate instructors focus on individual client needs and are able Top left : Grace Norton; membership director, Halle Pilkington, Brent Pilkington to support individu(owners), Adam Smith (tennis director). Bottom left: Jennifer Pillow (Restoration Massage owner), Nicole Dufree ( Beyond Pilates owner), Allexia Brewer (High als of all capacities.

Their core values are County Greek owner) rooted in the belief that Pilates is for everybody and in the and was shocked to see a lack of Greek benefit of helpful training in smarter food offered in the High Country. They movement, improved posture and growth have established an incredible, authentic in ideal muscular and fascial strength and and family-friendly Greek restaurant full lengthening. of homemade food and a unique atmoRestoration Massage and Bodywork sphere. is comprised of Jenn Pillow (owner), Liz We are excited to offer new programs Martin and Grace Norton, all of whom are this year including a health, wellness and strong-minded and knowledgeable maspersonal training program, all day sumsage therapists. The team works under mer camps, gymnastics and cheer camps. the vision that massage is a necessity, not Our goal for Deer Valley is to cona luxury, and work to restore and repair tinue to provide exceptional services muscles in an environment that you for individuals and families that help to will feel refreshed and excited to return increase the health and wellness for both to. The team specializes in deep tissue, children and adults. sports and prenatal, and orthopedic masWe are excited for this year with new sage and offers hot stone, cupping and tournaments, new classes and fun events. other unique practices as well.

We look forward to seeing you at THE The High Country Greek is another premier club of the High Country! incredible business that shares this space.

The Brewer family moved to the area aawmag.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS FOR ALL

L to R: Laney, Adi, Sophie, and Lilly Pilkington

A clean environment with superb care and a variety of year-round activities for your entire family. featuring• Six outdoor hard tru-clay tennis courts plus 3 indoor courts - lessons available • Indoor & outdoor swimming • Adult cardio, nautilus, free weight areas • League-sized racquet ball courts • Fitness instruction, pilates • Restoration message & body work including deep tissue, sports, prenatal, orthopedic, hot stone, cupping and others • Family friendly Greek restaurant • A premier private health club with 33,000 sq. ft. of amenities

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YOUNG AT HEART

Why I Vote There shall never be another season of silence until women have the same rights men have on this green earth. – Susan B. Anthony Today, women can vote worldwide, excepting the Vatican. New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893; Saudi Arabia was the last in 2015.

This does not mean, however, that it is always easy for women to vote. In many countries worldwide and, unfortunately, areas closer to home, women experience obstacles to voting including patriarchal systems, religious and cultural barriers, domestic duties, lack of education, lack of access to polling locations as well as harassment or even violence.

Women won the right to vote in this country on Aug. 18, 1920, with the ratification of the 19th amendment — 100 years ago this year and 56 years before I was born.

My mother, Marion, was born in 1950, 30 years after the women’s suffrage movement was successful.

28 | July-August 2020

My mother, my sister Kendle and I — none of us have known a world where we were not allowed to vote when we came of age. Neither will my nieces — Kendle’s daughter, Elinor, and my sister-in-law’s daughter, Aria.

The same cannot be said for our grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ generations.

My maternal grandmother, Gladys, was born in 1917 (we think… she was very secretive about such things). She was part of the first generation of American women who grew up with the right to vote, and yet, she never did.

“Your grandmother never voted,” shared my mother. “Your grandfather wouldn’t let her.”

While I find the idea laughable that a man, any man, would tell me whether I could vote or even how to cast my vote, this was not uncommon in my grand-

mother’s generation when women, especially homemakers, were not expected or encouraged to have political opinions of their own.

I was surprised — surprised and disappointed — when my mother shared this information. Even more so by her next revelation.

“And, remember,” said Mummy, “in the 1970s, I wasn’t allowed to open a bank account or buy a car without your dad co-signing.”

“What now? Pause. Rewind!” I thought while wrinkling my face in distaste.

“What if you (a woman) didn’t have a husband?” I asked. Mummy responded that you would have needed a male relative to act as a co-signer.

It is rather disconcerting to consider — really consider — that my mother was not allowed to do some of the things I take for granted. Furthermore, this is not aawmag.com

ancient history — this is less than 50 years ago.

Women’s rights, my rights, is one of the reasons why I vote — one of several.

I vote because… I can.

I acknowledge that as a Caucasian, heterosexual, well-educated woman, my right to vote has never been questioned. I have a job that lets me take advantage of early voting on Saturdays and/or would allow me time off to vote on Election Day. I have a reliable vehicle to take me to my place of polling. In my opinion, to not vote would be lazy and selfish.

I vote because… I care.

I care about policies that affect women’s rights, education, the environment, underserved and/or marginalized populations, infrastructure, the economy and more. I am not in a position to directly draft policy, but by voting, I try to elect like-minded officials.

I vote because… I want to be a good role model for the next generation.

My nephews, Alex and Noah, are already of age to vote. My nieces, Aria and Elinor, will be there soon. I want them know that I vote — that I participate — and to know that they can and should

when the time comes.

I vote because… I’m excited and inspired.

The enthusiasm of the current generation of first-time voters is motivating.

I wish I had been engaged and excited when I was voting in my first election cycle (I wish I could remember anything about the first time I voted!). I want them to motivate other voters and hold policymakers accountable.

I vote because… I will not take my right to vote for granted!

Women, and a number of men, fought for women to have the right to vote. Women have since been voting to expand women’s rights and to eliminate the previously mentioned obstacles to voting that women continue to experience. Exercising my right to vote is a way of honoring that legacy and fighting for future generations of women.

heather brandon Considers life to be one big anthropological field experience. She observes and reports. She enjoys travel, food and wine and adventures with her husband, Roger.

A Few Things That Are Older Than the 19th Amendment • Beer and spirits: Jim Beam whiskey (1795), Pabst Brewing Company (1844), Yuengling beer (1829) • Food stuffs: Fig Newtons (1891), Girl Scout Cookies (1917), Juicy Fruit Gum (1893), Marshmallow Fluff (1917), Oreos (1912), Tootsie Rolls (1896), Triscuits (1903), Velveeta (1918) • Major American automakers: Buick (1899), Dodge (1900), GMC (1901), Cadillac (1902), Ford (1903), Chevrolet (1911), Lincoln (1917) • Popular brands: Converse shoes (1917), Harley-Davidson Motorcycles (1903), Kellogg’s (1894), Oscar Mayer (1883), Quaker Oats (1877) • Popular sodas: Cheerwine (1917), Coca-Cola (1892) and Pepsi (1902)

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Relationships

MOM’S WORLD

Pandemic Perspective In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In that same vein, a friend of mine recently said that she thought that the coronavirus pandemic was the best and worst thing that had ever happened to us.

Many people have made note of the fact that while the social distancing, mask-wearing, plan-changing has been difficult, they have also had more time with their families, become more physically active outside and spent more time cooking their own meals. It has been a massive pause in our society, and, like it or not, it has resulted in change in perspective. Some people have decided they’d rather work from home, even if they could go back to work. Some people have never had the option to not work.

34 | July-August 2020

Some people have gone to work, gotten sick, and not returned. Some people have decided that they just want to be home with their children, if that’s an option.

And, of course, some people have died or lost loved ones in this pandemic.

In addition, some relationships have strengthened as couples have had more time together to enjoy, while others have had their conflicts amplified by too much togetherness.

The pandemic has certainly made us as human beings aware of what we do and do not want — in our jobs, in our personal relationships, in our spiritual lives, and in our selves as people. There’s been a lot of “we were supposed to be doing this right now” and certainly a sense of loss of those changed plans, missed celebrations, postponed happenings that may

never, let’s face it, happen. In addition, however, it seems there’s been a lot of “when this is over, I’m going to...” (fill in the blank).

In its midst, we have also faced divisiveness as a society and nation as we confront racism and privilege on a level that I’ve never witnessed in my 50 years on this planet. Perhaps because of the added strain of the pandemic, it has not taken much to push people in one direction or another as to what is and is not acceptable in the wake of George Floyd’s untimely and brutal death. Somehow quietly retreating to our normalcy of contemporary society has seemed unreachable at this juncture in history.

Silence seems deafening. Criticism of “the other side” seems to ring louder as well.

So many people are drawing the line in aawmag.com

the sand that it’s hard to know how it will all shake out.

But, being the optimist that I am, I feel like the fragility and vulnerability of this time also forces us as people and as a nation to realize that certain truths are non-negotiable and Justice with a capital J will withstand death, disease, war, partisan politics, and time, and that she will raise her head above us all in the end. We may need to talk less and listen more. We may have to let some long-held skewed beliefs go by the wayside in the process.

But, again, Corona (if I can call her that), has forced a lot of letting go these last six months already.

As mothers, we are uniquely designed to nurture but also to let go. We carry and then birth our babies, pushing them into the world in all its beauty and chaos.

We teach them, nudge them towards independence, and celebrate every step forward in school and in life, while also learning how to be present through the challenges and setbacks. It is a push and pull that is familiar, forcing adaptation at every life stage.

During this pandemic, I have been able to be with all three of my boys more

than I have in years. My college-aged son returned home, set up camp in our computer room, and graduated to only the fanfare of a family dinner and celebration. My other two sons were attending school online and their all-encompassing wrestling was put on hold. We started eating dinner in the kitchen rather than everyone grabbing food and scattering to various rooms in the house. Life circumstances and pandemic-driven flexing out of the office meant that I was actually home more than I have been in 18 years of clinical practice. I told my husband that I had spent more time enjoying our front and back yards, flowers and property in three months’ time than I had in the entire nearly 12 years we had lived at our house. Some of my die-hard habits and OCD of never bringing work home or leaving work undone have loosened as I try to re-frame my life with my family at its center.

Changing your life perspective requires lots of sighing, giving silence a place in your mind to ponder your adaptation to new circumstances, and providing yourself with permission to grow into your new envisioned self. I’ve had some

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panic attacks, plenty of uncertainty, and doubted myself more than I care to admit.

But, thank God for good friends, family and grace, I’m moving through this chaos. I believe in new beginnings and that life as a mother, woman and person is an evolutionary process that requires resilience and necessitates pauses. The pandemic has given us all a pause. When I’m struggling with these realities, words from “Resilient” by the female folk duo Rising Appalachia have struck home in me and I listen: I am resilient I trust the movement I negate the chaos Uplift the negative I’ll show up at the table, again and again and again I’ll close my mouth and learn to listen

heather jordan, CNM, MSN Comments or questions?

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Style & Leisure

TRAVEL

Bubbles, Butterflies and Beanbags

Photos submitted

Starঞng a Preschool in Burundi

36 | July-August 2020

Bubbles, butterflies and beanbags — some of the exciting contents of fairy godmother Connie Green’s suitcase as she boarded a plane on Valentine’s Day 2020 for three weeks in the impoverished country of Burundi, East Africa, to begin a small preschool program for 25 four- and five-year-olds.

The vision of Connie, who is professor emeritus in Appalachian State’s Department of Reading Education and Special Education, included a plan to eventually have an expanded early childhood education program, with four classes of 25 children each. Her second goal was to train a group of teachers to guide the preschools. Dreaming for Change, the brand-new organization founded by Janvier Manirakiza (who met Connie at Appalachian’s Mandela Washington Fellowship Leadership Institute in 2017), is making possible the opening of the preschool in the village of Butanuka. Already up and rolling are a porridge feeding program for 450 malnourished children, a micro business training program for women and kitchen gardens with 50 homemaker caretakers.

From its beginning the new preschool was a jumping place to be. Connie started right in at the porridge program, singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” to give the children a taste of what was to come. The kids joined in, learning the motions right away.

On the first day of school Connie was surprised that not one of the 25 chosen kids hung back or cried after being left at school by their mothers. These children are used to being on their own in the village, even at times taking care of younger siblings.

Connie and prospective head teacher Claudine began right away, enticing the children with a bean bag toss, and blowing bubbles in pans of soapy water. They traced their hands on paper, drew with magic markers and created shapes with popsicle sticks. They fashioned butterflies with coffee filters dipped in food coloring and tied into wings with pipe cleaners.

In small groups the kids experienced what Connie calls “book joy.”

They enthusiastically perused Connie’s stack of African children’s books.

One book told the story of children in Chad who built their own school with handmade mud bricks.

“That is like what our school will be,” exclaimed Janvier.

The song “Old Mikamba Had a Farm,” a favorite of the kids, was all about African animals and the noises they make. aawmag.com

The class was taught in a joyous mixture of English, French (Burundi’s colonial legacy) and Kirundi, the language of the Burundian people. As Connie says, “Where we are on planet Earth and what language we speak are not nearly as important as a smile, a song and heartfelt human connection. The children in Butanuka respond to our kindness, even when they don’t understand our language and we don’t understand theirs. I think the children and mothers know we came from far away because we care about them. All the world’s children are our children, and they all deserve healthy food, education, exercise, respect and love.”

On the last day of the school week each child received a plastic folder for carrying home his or her projects.

Connie also held two workshops for 25 public school teachers. Topics discussed included the participants’ strengths for teaching and peaceful methods of discipline.

Connie invited Barry Thomas, her partner and traveling companion, to accompany and support her in the venture. Barry participated cheerfully, including collecting and interpreting

data on Burundi at the U.S. Embassy, serving porridge, making pop bottle/pebble shakers for the preschoolers and looking at the land Dreaming for Change is purchasing for the preschool and the other programs.

Most important of all, one day, as Barry listened to a young high school girl, he found out that many girls had to leave school for lack of tuition money. Thus Dreaming for Change’s newest project, Rural Girls’ Scholarship Program, was born. Forty-five girls were chosen to receive school fees and supplies, sanitary products and mentorship.

Janvier’s wife Gloria is coordinating the mentoring program.

The intrepid Connie may well be an inspiration to all of us, as we make our way in this world. This is her challenge to us: “Sometimes in life we are presented with an opportunity to be of service. Embrace the opportunity, take the chance.

Think of all the reasons you CAN and should accept the challenge. There may not be a better time, there may not be a better person than you. We all have gifts and abilities to help others grow and transform. By doing so we transform ourselves.”

sue spirit Writes poetry and essays about nature, spirituality, writing, and travel. She has a little cabin in the mountains. degreesoffreedom@frontier.com

Ways to Donate to Dreaming for Change Email Connie Green at greencr1983@gmail.com to receive her address to send a check; For the Preschool: gofundme.com/f/Dreaming-for-Change-Preschool-Burundi For the Nutriঞon for Young Children program: gofundme.com/f/Burundi-nutriࢼon For the Rural Girls’ School program: gofundme.com/f/rural-girls039-scholarship-fund-burundi /&8 %*: %PH 8BTI t /VUSJUJPO $POTVMUBUJPO "WBJMBCMF

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Food & Drink The Grill Gas: Direct heat, medium-high 425 F to 450 F; clean, oiled grate Charcoal: Direct heat, light ash; 12-by-12-inch charcoal bed (about 3 dozen coals); clean, oiled grate on lowest setting Wood: Direct heat, light ash; 12-by-12inch bed, 3 to 4 inches deep; clean, oiled grate set 2 inches above the fire

Herb Cheese-Stuffed Garlic Burgers Barbecue season has arrived, so soon people will be bonding in the backyard over hamburgers and hot dogs. Backyard barbecue season begins in spring and continues through summer and, where the weather allows, into fall. Barbecues are a perfect summertime soiree, as they're usually laid back affairs and make use of the pleasant weather.

While it's fun to expand your culinary horizons over the open flame of a grill, it's important that you never forget the basics, especially when entertaining crowds who are no doubt looking forward to grilled burgers. Giving the masses what they want is good hosting, but you can still try your hand at a little experimentation when serving burgers at your next backyard barbecue. The following recipe for "Herb Cheese-Stuffed Garlic Burgers" from Andrew Schloss' and David Joachim's "Mastering the Grill" (Chronicle Books) provides the best of both worlds.

Makes 6 servings 2 pounds ground beef chuck, 85 percent lean 2 tablespoons chopped garlic 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 3 tablespoons herbed garlic cream cheese, such as Boursin 6 hamburger buns, split Oil for coating grill grate

38 | July-August 2020

1. Heat the grill as directed.

2. Using your hands, mix the beef, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl until well blended; do not overmix. Using a light touch, form into 12 patties no more than 1/2-inch thick.

3. Put a portion (about 1 ½ teaspoons) of cream cheese in the center of each of the 6 patties; top with the remaining patties and press together, taking care to seal the edges well. Refrigerate the burgers until the grill is ready.

4. Brush the grill grate and coat it with oil. Put the burgers on the grill, cover and cook for 9 minutes, flipping after 5 minutes, for medium-done (150 F, slightly pink). Add a minute per side for well-done (160 F).

5. To toast the buns, put them cutsides down directly over the fire for the last minute of cooking.

6. If serving the burgers directly from the grill, serve on the buns. If the burgers will sit, even for a few minutes, keep the buns and burgers separate until just before eating.

Makes about 1 quart 1 fifth (31/4 cups) 80-100 proof vodka 4 cups cantaloupe chunks 1 cup simple syrup (see below) Finely grated zest of 2 lemons 1. Muddle the vodka, cantaloupe and lemon zest with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir to moisten everything.

2. Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of melon, four to seven days.

3. Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.

4. Stir in the simple syrup.

5. Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within one year.

Summer Cantaloupe Summer is synonymous with many things. Vacations, warm weather and al fresco dining are part and parcel of many people’s summertime routines.

Another beloved routine is enjoying a cold beverage on a warm summer evening. As summer breezes invite scores of people outside to relax on their patios, decks or balconies, a cold beverage can be just what’s needed to take such relaxing nights one step further. The following recipe for “Summer Cantaloupe” from Andrew Schloss’ “Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits” (Storey Publishing) is easily whipped up and can go a long way toward making summer evenings especially sweet.

Simple Syrup Makes 3 cups 2 ¼ cups water 2 ¼ cups granulated cane sugar Mix the water and sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar is all moistened.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Stir to make sure the sugar is completely dissolved, then remove from the heat and let cool. Refrigerate for up to three months.

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Sponsored Content

A Spirited Thank You

Kimberly Gelato, Owner

Deciding to start your own business is a huge decision for anyone – enjoying its promised thrills of independence and selfsufficiency often requires having to step outside the comfort and security of being an employee to become a boss. It also requires an incredible amount of planning, enough capital to sustain itself through its inception and a ton of work – both mental and physical.

For us, it also took some good old-fashioned legwork, too. Our goal involved opening a package store in a dry county, which meant hitting the bricks to collect signatures for a referendum.

Fortunately, this wonderful community was behind us all the way – together with our neighbors, we got the Retail Packaging Stores Referendum on the ballot and put

to a vote.

The rest is history! The public voted in late 2018 and – shortly after – we were awarded the first liquor license in both the city and county. Our longtime dream was finally showing some traction – we would soon be what we still are today - the first and only femaleowned-and-operated package store in the area. On November 23, 2019, Mountain Spirits Liquor Store opened its doors to the public and has been thriving ever since.

We worked hard to open those doors. Very hard. But the result makes every setback and challenge worth the effort. I can’t really describe how wonderful it feels to transform a long-term dream into a physical reality. I still feel a shutter of pride and accomplishment every time I walk through the doors of my business.

If there was any advice I could offer anyone, it would be to “stick to your you guns”. gu s .

Establishing your own business is not accomplished by sitting alone doing research and daydreaming. It requires a dedication to routinely set goals and act upon them, as well as seeking support from those around you when you need it. Attitude is fundamental to success – the first steps toward pursuing your dream can be frightening, but with the assistance of others and some confidence in yourself, anything can be possible.

The years we spent planning and building Mountain Spirits Liquor Store into a reality did more than refine our entrepreneurship skills, it empowered our sense of pride and passion. It also reconfirmed something we already knew – how truly supportive and wonderful our Tennessee community can be – we couldn’t have done it without you, Mountain City!

Mountain Spirits Liquor Store and I thank you so much for your support. pp

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Staying at Home A Reader’s Advantage

While the terms quarantine, shelter in place, personal protection equipment and social distancing have become the language of 2020, for the reader these concepts carry an additional meaning. More time at home, for the person who loves to travel through the worlds of stories and books, means more time to read, more time to tackle the stack of books that are constantly piled on our desks, nightstands and bookshelves.

The coronavirus quarantine, in many ways, gives readers permission to do what they have secretly always wanted to do: read without time constraints.

For several area book clubs, COVID-19 has restructured the well-established logistics of meeting together to talk about a common book. In college classrooms, professors are reframing the activities connected to a common read for first year students. Readers of all ages are adjusting to having more time at home to read, yet struggling to find a balance when both work and play take place in the same space. Despite the underlying uncertainty of the times, these readers and club members are covering new reading territory and finding a way to use this time to mark off some of the books on their lists.

Foggy Pine Books Mary Ruthless, owner of Foggy Pine 40 | July-August 2020

Books, hosts two book clubs through her store. Foggy Pine Book Club meets on the last Saturday of the month at 7:30 p.m. “A general interest book club that is available to the community,” members decide together on selected titles and, currently vote through an Instagram poll. Recent titles include The Tale of the Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and Sugar Run by Mesha Maren. Their current book is Gingerbread

by Helen Oyeymi, which members would discuss in late July via Zoom.

The Foggy Pine Science Fiction Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. These books are selected using a similar format of voting.

Recently they have read and discussed Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer and The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden. They will discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders on Zoom in late July.

Both of the Foggy Pine clubs have continued to meet through Zoom since March. With a regular membership of 8-10 participants, these clubs continue to welcome new readers. For more information, visit foggypinebooks.com.

Watauga County Public Library Watauga County Public Library has also found new ways for their book clubs

to “meet.” Although the library has reopened, these clubs will continue to meet virtually through the end of 2020.

Book Bunch The library’s longest running book club, the Book Bunch, meets monthly with facilitator Deborah Sluder. Taking the suggestions of members, New York Times bestseller lists and NPR recommendations, members of this club vote for 11 books per year primarily in the general fiction genre. Using sites such as litlovers.com, Deborah creates a list of discussion questions and sends these to readers before they meet. These questions become the springboard for their discussions.

In March the 10-15 Book Bunch members discussed Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. Since that time they have met monthly to discuss what members are reading individually and to discuss ways to continue their club in a virtual format.

Cook the Books Tapping into the mystery, suspense, crime and psychological thriller genre, Angela Constantino leads the library’s Cook the Books club. With 15-20 regular attendees, members have met monthly to talk and “eat” books. Using the book as the theme, members have enjoyed snacks and food items that represent the clues that lead to the book’s final revelation. In aawmag.com

March, readers met to discuss The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Since that time they have met virtually to discuss individual reads and to consider virtual options through the end of the year.

Next Chapter Book Club During the past year, the Watauga library has hosted a community-based book club for adolescents and adults with Down Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. Through Watauga Opportunities, this club met bi-monthly to read books together in a “round robin” discussion format. With 7-10 regular members, readers enjoyed a series of short stories followed by lively discussions. Although this club has not been able to meet since March, the facilitator, Judith Winecoff, hopes they will be able to come back together in 2021.

ASU’s Common Read Coming off of the tremendous success of last year’s Common Read, Just Mercy

by Brian Stevenson, ASU’s Common Read Director Don Presnell has high hopes for the 2020-2021 selection, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

by Elizabeth Rush.

Chosen one year in advance, the ASU Common Reading Committee reads through a list of recommendations during the summer and votes on the First Year Seminar Common Read for the following school year. Designed to overlap with various interdisciplinary subjects, first year students engage with this book throughout both semesters of their first year at ASU. This program provides opportunities to meet the author through readings and book discussions.

While the format for this year’s discussions and events could be different, Presnell is looking for ways to keep the momentum for this book selection going and looks forward to many insightful discussions about the book’s focus on climate change.

Readers Share Their Recent Selections A lifelong avid reader, Alice McKinney of Crossnore says, “I read every spare minute I can get. I carry a book with me

just in case there is an opportunity to read.” Although she found it challenging to read at the beginning of the pandemic, Alice has found herself “reading lots” as this unusual period continues. She recently completed The Scottish Lowlands series by Liz Curtis Higgs and is currently reading Sue Monk Kidd’s latest book, The Book of Longings.

Noelle Gates of Plumtree describes her love for reading as “books are a comfortable place to go, a way to learn, a way to handle life when it is difficult.” Her choice in books “really depends on what is going on in my life.” For her, it has not been COVID that has altered her reading habits, but her 10-month-old, Scarlett.

However, during the weeks of staying at home, Noelle returned to her favorite series Harry Potter and enjoyed the comfort of revisiting the lives of the beloved characters found in those pages.

Rising fifth-grader Violet Greene of Dahlonega, Ga., says, “I love to read. I just finished a book series, The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani that’s kinda for all ages.” She explains that during this time at home she has “gotten to read a lot more.” She says, “I can just sit down on the couch and read, and I like it.”

She enjoys “a lot of adventure and fantasy that ties to real life.” When asked why she prefers books in a series, she explains, “Some books you just never want them to end.”

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Book club members and readers everywhere share that same sentiment.

On a summer family beach vacation in South Carolina several years ago, I kept trying to get my grandmother’s attention.

Finally, she carefully marked her book, (The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay), turned and said, “Hollie, I’m in Africa right now. What do you need?” The same is true for readers today. We are at home, we are semi-quarantined, but our minds, through the portals of books are traveling, learning and exploring. Readers have the advantage. We are the frequent fliers of mind travel.

Hollie Eudy Hollie Eudy is an English teacher who loves stories, words and the Appalachian Mountains.

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19th Amendment The rights of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

“This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. This historic centennial offers an unparalleled opportunity to commemorate a milestone of democracy and the women in history who helped to make it happen.”

Diane Cornett Deal, First Woman Elected as Watauga County Clerk of Court 42 | July-August 2020

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