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“A Night at Chetola” Benefits High Country Caregivers on Sept 14th with Live Music, 5-Course Meal, Auction and More

High Country Caregivers will host the second annual “A Night At Chetola” on Tuesday, September 14th at 5:30 p.m. sponsored by The Kennedy-Herterich Foundation, The Chetola Resort and Blowing Rock Brewery. HCC is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 that supports grandparents, who are raising their grandchildren in Watauga, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Yancey and Wilkes Counties.

This event, held lakeside at The Chetola Resort, will feature entertainment generously provided by award-winning 8-piece Motown band, The Business, a 5-course meal, open bar and auction.

As of March 2021, in North Carolina alone, over 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 their 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 over 60 families and over 120 youth.

2020 Christmas with HCC

Jacob Willis, HCC Executive Director, said, “The opioid crisis, which has overtaken our society in the last 20 years, is disrupting families and is the major cause today of children needing kinship caregivers. The mission of HCC is to help keep children in a home where grandparents can provide care, support and responsible decision making.” 

“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 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.

For tickets or more information for “A Night at Chetola”, please call (828) 832-6366 or email at info@highcountrycaregivers.com.

Youth with members of the “Newsies” cast
HCC field trip to see “Newsies” at The Lees-McRae Theater
HCC takes families tubing down the Watauga River