A lot of good things have been happening at your Community Center. I say “your” center because if you are reading this article you are welcomed to participate in the activities of the Bill’s Creek Community Center. The Community Center has welcomed people from all over Rutherford county, all over Polk,and Bunombe counties, many people from McDowell and even some good folks from South Carolina.
In November the Bill’s Creek Community Center restarted their annual Turkey Dinner.
It had been two years since the dinner was held. We all felt it was important to restart the dinner. From a fundraising perspective a successful Turkey dinner was necessary to make the community center more self sustaining.
The Turkey dinner is also an important community event. People enjoy getting together, sEeing neighbors and volunteering. The dinner was a great success.
We served over 350 dinners. A undertaking this large takes a team. We could not have done it without all of the volunteers. People who helped in the meal preparation. Neighbors who donated and cooked food, and volunteers who helped in the set up and clean up. Special recognition should go out to Jane Howell who coordinated much of the dinner and filled in for scheduled volunteers who were not able to participate. Further recognition goes out to the Turkey Dinner’s corporate sponsor Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure who once again proven themselves to be a very good community neighbor.
While we we in the middle of planning the Turkey dinner, Julia Hampton came up with the idea for a good December event. “Cookies and Carols”.
This free event was Bill’s Creek Community Center’s way of saying thank you to all involved with the Center. Julia volunteered her Husband John to play music and sing Carols. He was quickly joined by Kathy Cox and several other people. By the end of the night we had 50 people singing, talking enjoying tons of cookies, and spreading lots of holiday cheer.
Things did not stop in January. If anything we picked up the pace.
The Community Center had two events. In the beginning of the month the Center welcomed our North Carolina State representative Jake Johnson who spoke with and answer questions from many people.
The Community Center appreciated the Town of Lake Lure, the Chamber of Commerce and the Bill’s Creek Fire Department for sending leaders from their groups to be part of this meeting.
We had a very impressive showing for this meeting and many good questions were asked.
Our second January event was a collaborative event between the Bill’s Creek Community Center and the Pisgah Legal Services tax team. This program provided free tax preparation for families making less than $60,000. In addition to tax help Pisgah offered many other free services which the participants of the event were very interested in learning about.
While these two events were going on we had a large group of volunteers got together to “protect the fence”. Many people do not know that the Bill’s Creek Community Center has a large, fenced in Dog Park. This park is opened to all responsible dog owners. It is a place where dogs can run off their energy and people can meet new friends. The dog park is surrounded by approximately 1100 linear feet of fencing. Over the years trees have grown up next to, and in some cases through, the fence. To protect the fence from damage volunteers showed up over several Weekends. They came with chainsaws, loppers, clippers and rakes. After many hours of work we all celebrated in clearing brush, trees and vines from around the fence. A job well done!
By the time this issue of the Mountain Breeze hits the newsstand in March the Community Center will be getting ready to bring all of you our pre St Patrick’s day celebration. On Saturday March 4th. the Bill’s Creek Community Center will have it’s fabulous Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Corned Beef will be cooked all night to ensure it will be tender and juicy. Irish music will be playing to ensure we all have fun. Please join us.
Please look up our website at www.billscreekcommunitycenter.com to learn more about our activities, to volunteer or to make a donation. There is also a contact section on the website for any questions or suggestions.
