Graham Revitalization Economic Action Team

Education and Workforce Development Committee

• Dolly Parton Imagination Library – There are 177 Graham County children currently enrolled in the program.
• Bowl for Kid’s Sake – On Saturday, July 27th, 14 teams representing GREAT, Graham County Schools, Yellow Branch Pottery & Cheese, the Boys and Girls Scouts, State Farm Insurance and several others put on their bowling shoes to roll 2 games for fun and in support of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program at Robbinsville Elementary. Prizes were awarded for the team and individual high score while lots of laughs and high fives were shared by everyone. And, the biggest smile was reserved for the BBBS program, with matching funds from the Nerium Ripple Foundation the event raised $7,110!

In memory of Steve Claxton, the initiator of this program in Graham County, if you would like to donate to this worthy cause, Rick Davis or Karen Mickler will be happy to take your donation today if you would like to give. This is a wonderful way to honor such a wonderful man who worked diligently to expand this program in Graham County. We send our condolences to Steve’s family. He was an extraordinary man and will be greatly missed in our community and throughout western North Carolina.

• Staff Wellness Program – Graham County Schools has begun it second year of partnering with Harris Regional Hospital for a staff wellness program. Monthly scheduled activities are planned for those participating in this wellness program
• GEAR UP Program – RHS has a new GEAR Up Coordinator—Francine Williams and a new Parent Liaison—Kinsley Orr. GEAR UP is a grant funded program which provides college access and awareness activities and field trips for students in grades 9-12. GEAR UP has purchased materials for RHS science classrooms including a weather station and probes that attach to student Chromebooks to measure various things. New science novels have been purchased as well for honors science courses. A new GEAR UP grant has also been awarded to hire a College Advisory Corp advisor for RHS. This position must be filled by an Appalachian State University graduate.
• Fall Festival – This year the Fall Festival will be co-hosted between the Town of Robbinsville and Graham County Schools. It will be held around the Robbinsville Town Square on October 31 from 6 – 8:30 p.m.
• Access Road – The new access road to RHS is optimistically scheduled to open November 1, pending the installation of a new traffic light on Rodney Orr Bypass.
• CTE Open House – RHS Career and Technical Education will hold an open house to showcase the new commercial kitchen in Lorie Waldroup’s Foods/ProStart classroom. This event will be held October 1, 2019 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
• Go Global Grant Award – For the first time in the history of Graham County Schools a "Go Global" grant has been awarded for a teacher to study abroad for two weeks during the summer 2020.
• Day of Caring – Graham County Schools had an amazing"Day of Caring" on September 11 with students working throughout the county to give back to businesses who so graciously donate to our schools on a regular basis as well as activities which catered to elderly and shut in citizens in our county. It was a very rewarding day for everyone involved.

Tourism and Mountain Culture Committee

• Strategic Tourism Plan Implementation–Phase II – Work continues on the implementation of the $100,000 award from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The project consists of four components – wayfinding signage, Downtown Wi-Fi, Buy Local Campaign and online mapping and marketing.

Wayfinding Signage – new "Welcome to Graham County" signs have been received and NCDOT has completed installation of the signs at the five Graham County entry locations.

Downtown Wi-Fi – BalsamWest is beginning the implementation process for an wireless system for Downtown Robbinsville.

Online Mapping and Marketing – PointsMap was awarded the contract to develop an online mapping system for Graham County. Training has been conducted and work is progressing on the Graham County App.

Buy Local Campaign –Information and materials are available for local businesses to use to encourage residents and visitors to spend locally.

• Tourism Economic Fact Sheet – Data has been released from VisitNC that shows 2018 tourism impact numbers for Graham County. Data shows a $1.26 million increase in visitor spending representing a 4.5% increase over previous year. Impressive improvements by Graham County as a result of implementation of the Graham County Strategic Tourism Plan Destination 2025 recommendations. See 2018 Tourism Economic Fact Sheet included in your packet of information.

Revitalization and Infrastructure Committee

• Graham County Broadband Project – BalsamWest has started on the implementation of the $100,000 award from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for increased internet service to underserved/unserved areas in our county.

GREAT Health and Social Committee Report

• Graham County Substance Use Coalition – The Coalition is organized with bi-monthly meetings and continues to make progress. The next meeting is October 9th.
• Employee Worksite Wellness Program – The county employee wellness program has completed its first year of activities and will start again in October. The program offers healthy challenges to employees to improve their health. Challenges can be nutrition, physical activity or inner wellness based. The program has been a successful venture with incentives and participant activities.
• Evening Sports League – The League is seeking a place to play sports indoors. The school gyms are booked. Looking for alternatives. Welcome suggestions.
• Drug Take Back Day - Opportunities for unused medicines to be deposited with the Graham County Sheriff’s Office on October 26th.
• Mountain Projects Grant – a grant funded through Mountain Projects organization to educate teachers in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
• Well-O-Ween Health Fair – The fair will be held on October 21st from 12pm-6pm in the Health Department parking lot. The fair will be a trunk or treat style event. Vendors are not obligated to bring candy. Children and adults in costumes are encouraged. Accepting vendor applications now. Contact Beth Booth for details.
• Rural Community Opioid Response Program (RCORP) Grant - Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers received a $1,000,000 grant for 3 years to work with Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties to combat the opioid crisis in a number of ways. The Health Department is working with regional and local partners to begin a peer support and crisis network for those suffering with substance use issues, and those in recovery.

Note: Above activities were submitted by the Graham County Health Department

Natural Resources, Recreation and Water Quality Committee

• RHS Sweet Water Creek Restoration Project –Volunteers from GREAT joined volunteers from Mainspring Conservation Trust and others to place two more interpretive signs along the walking trail at the Robbinsville High School. One sign explains the Sweetwater Creek Watershed and shows the various brooks that feed into the Creek. The other shows the variety of fish that live in Sweetwater Creek. Work continues on removing the invasive privet, multiflora rose and honeysuckle vine and planting native trees and shrubs along the greenway. Stop and take a little time walk the trail and see for yourself all the work that has taken place over the three year grant period provided by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.

• Kids in the Park – GREAT has received funding from Duke Energy and Graham County Travel and Tourism to work with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks (KIP) program to leverage Graham County’s cultural and natural resources to promote growth in its tourism economy. The KIP program will create a visitor experience by enabling kids and families to become active outdoors and reconnected to nature. The project will partner with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to convert the Cheoah District’s historical Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Trail and Fitness Trail into the program’s TRACK Trail system.