High Country Caregivers’ “A Night at Chetola” benefit dinner returns on September 15.
High Country Caregivers’ “A Night at Chetola” benefit dinner returns on September 15.
HIGH COUNTRY — High Country Caregivers will host the third annual Night at Chetola on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 5 p.m., and it is sponsored by The Kennedy-Herterich Foundation, The Chetola Resort, and Blowing Rock Brewery. HCC is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 and is dedicated to supporting grandparents and other family members who are raising their grandchildren in Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties.
This year, and back by popular demand, musical entertainment will be provided by The Business, an award-winning eight-member Motown band. There will be a five-course meal and a live auction.
As of March 2021, in North Carolina alone, more than 85,000 grandparents—many of them single grandmothers — are raising their grandchildren. High Country Caregivers offers advocacy, support and education for grandparents ensuring they have the resources they need to provide for families. Whether it is diapers, fees for dance lessons/athletic fees or access to healthy food, HCC listens to what each unique family needs to thrive and helps make sure those needs are met. HCC currently serves more than 80 families and more than 200 youth.
“HCC provides support to families, who are being disrupted by the opioid and substance abuse crises in the High Country. Over the past 20 years, this has been the major cause of children needing to be placed in kinship care. Our agency is dedicated to keeping these families whole so grandparents can provide care, support and responsible decisions for their grandchildren,” Executive Director of HCC Jacob Willis said.
“Coaches’ Kids” is an HCC program that provides camp opportunities for youth during the summer This program is led by former Hall of Fame Appalachian State University head football coach and current High Country Caregivers board member Jerry Moore.
HCC also partners with Pisgah Legal Services and Rivenbark and Brooks Attorneys at Law to provide legal support to grandparents unable to enroll their grandchildren in school or to take them to receive medical services, even though they are raising them full time.
HCC is newly implementing evidence-based curriculum, Creating a Family, that is offered monthly over a 10-month period, which reinforces healthy family dynamics, creates a pathway to receiving financial support from the state and forges enduring friendships and connections between caregivers that often continues long after the training is complete.
This year HCC has also implemented “The Learning Shack,” a fine arts business incubator program which teaches teens marketable skills and financial literacy within a structured community of support. The program seeks to empower grandparents as well as the youth served by HCC. Grandparents in the program with professional skills will instruct students on the making of marketable goods, including the creation of high-end alpaca wool hats, gourmet baked goods, sewing tailor made clothing and crafting pottery.
For tickets or more information for “A Night at Chetola,” call (828) 832-6366 or email info@highcountrycaregivers.com. You can also purchase tickets on HCC website by clicking to www.highcountrycaregivers.com.
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