Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville Open Thread for Saturday, August 19th, 2023
This space appears each weekend to give readers a variety of links to local and regional news of interest, and opens the floor for comment and discussion. Wishing all a good day from beautiful Western North Carolina.
“Daily Kos fights for a progressive America by empowering its community and allies with information and tools to directly impact the political process.”
Saturday, September 2, 2023
5:30 - 17:00 pm
STEP INTO FALL Y'ALL
Join special guests in the beautiful North Carolina mountains and support our mission to elect more (and better ;) Democrats!
Hosted by Joe Sam Queen
209 Hillview Circle, Waynesville, NC 28786
With NCDP Chair
ANDERSON CLAYTON
Tickets HERE
MANNA FoodBank marks four decades of “setting the table together” in Western North Carolina at its 40th anniversary celebration at The Orange Peel on Thursday, Aug. 24, 5:30-9 p.m.
Local DJ Molly Parti will spin tunes for a “MANNA-through-the-decades dance party,” celebrating community partnerships and people who have played roles in shaping what has become the largest hunger relief organization in Western North Carolina.
MANNA, which has distributed over 300 million pounds of food — equal to 250 million meals — since 1983, is also lauding the return of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort as a premier platinum partner for this year’s signature events and The Biltmore Co. as the anniversary party’s presenting sponsor. The $40,000 sponsorship provides approximately 1.2 million meals, says Mary Nesbitt, MANNA chief development officer, in a press release.
“At a time when the need for food across our mountains is at an all-time high, this vital support … is something for which we are extremely honored and deeply grateful to receive.”
* I managed an after school program for at risk middle schoolers for many years in WNC. We fed seventy hungry kids, and often family members, five days a week. It couldn’t have succeeded without MANNA.
WLOS, David Plunkett, August 18th 2023
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A longtime Asheville journalist who is credited with helping Asheville's beer industry become what it is today has passed away.
Tony Kiss died this week at age 68.
A longtime journalist for the Asheville Citizen-Times, Tony covered the arts and entertainment scene in Asheville for many years, and he took a big interest in the craft brewing scene during its early days.
He went on to launch his own "Beer Guy" column.
'GODFATHER' OF ASHEVILLE'S CRAFT BEER SCENE HONORED WITH GOVERNOR'S AWARD, BRONZE PLAQUE
Asheville craft brewing pioneer Oscar Wong, who founded Highland Brewing, said Friday, Aug. 18, that Kiss's interest in the industry was key to the city becoming a beer destination.
"He is singlehandedly responsible for us being Beer City USA, without a doubt, because from the very beginning when we got started and we were the first, we were struggling to get recognition," Wong said. "When my own friends would say, 'I think you're going to go broke trying to sell this swill,' well, you wonder. So, he got it into the public domain, talked it up and made a big deal about it, so he absolutely played a huge role."