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Volunteers Needed to Help at Annual Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk on Oct. 17-18

By Jessica Isaacs

The beloved annual Woolly Worm Festival is set to take place in charming downtown Banner Elk on Oct. 17-18, but the town could use your help in making it all happen!

Avery County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melynda Martin Pepple said that volunteers are still needed to help facilitate the logistics of the festival and carry out behind-the-scenes responsibilities that are crucial to the weekend’s success.

Want to help? Event organizers will need assistance with jobs like: helping people register for the woolly worm races and name their worms, greeting people at the gate and accepting tickets, helping people find what they’re looking for during the festival, giving directions, checking vendors in and out and much, much more.

“We need people to help with a lot of different things,” Pepple said. “It’s a little bit of everything.”

Pepple said the town, the county and the chamber look forward to hosting this popular annual High Country event, and that many folks, both local and out-of-town, look forward to participating and enjoying it.

“We race woolly worms! It’s just a fun, exciting time and we have a very unique situation here,” Pepple said. “The winning worm from Saturdays race will have the esteemed honor of predicting winter weather in the High Country this year, and the winner takes home $1,000. Sunday is a big day, too, and the winner from that race will win $500.

“We will also have over 150 craft vendors with beautifully hand-crafted items. It’s a unique festival with great food, great music, entertainment, inflatables for the children, mini golf and more — a little bit of everything.”

Think you’d like to volunteer? Call the Avery Chamber at 828-898-5605 and talk to someone who can match your talents with responsibilities at the festival.

Click here to read more about what you can find at this year’s festival.