BRCO Newsletters On-line
Bethel students who demonstrated academic excellence and winning attitudes were recently recognized by Bethel Rural Community Organization (BRCO). BRCO's Education Committee annually grants awards to students at Bethel Elementary, Bethel Middle, and Pisgah High School.
BRCO recognized the following students at Bethel Elementary School: Eli Hidalgo for Highest Reading Average and Korbin Knox for Most Growth in Reading. Harper Golden for Highest Math Average and Sean Burnette for Most Growth in Math.
Noah Warren - Bethel Middle School David Cuphey Citizenship Award Recipient with Sherri Christopher, BRCO Education Committee member
BRCO News and Events
BETHEL MIDDLE SCHOOL CITIZENSHIP AWARD
The BRCO David Curphey Citizenship Award recipient was chosen by eighth grade teachers at Bethel Middle School based on attitude, behavior, civic-mindedness, and treating others with care and respect. Eighth grader Noah Warren received the Award and $50.
PISGAH HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP
BRCO Scholarship Winner - Autumn Woodley
BRCO's Education Committee selects the winner of the $1000 BRCO Scholarship from the applications of graduating high school seniors who reside in Bethel community. Autumn Woodley is the scholarship winner for 2024. Woodley, a Certified Nursing Assistant, will be attending Western Carolina University to pursue a degree in nursing.
Autumn Woodley - BRCO Scholarship Winner
2024 Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation - Douglas Chambers
Bethel Rural Community Organization's Historic Preservation Committee recently granted its tenth Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation to videographer Douglas Chambers. BRCO video projects under Chambers's direction have received three North Carolina Society of Historians' multi-media awards: Walking in the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Us (2012), From New College to Springdale (2016), and Sunburst and Other Logging Operations in the Bethel and Cold Mountain Region (2019). Chambers also produced The Fertile Fields of Bethel DVD and two CDs for the organization: Cold Mountain Heritage Driving Tour and Possum on a Whale's Sunburst Sessions. In addition, Chambers filmed individual topic recordings.
Historic Preservation Committee members Frances Adamson, Roxanna Billings, Ted Carr, Evelyn Coltman, Carol Litchfield, and Phyllis Vance enumerated the reasons Chambers is deserving of recognition - the videographer's flawless skill of incorporating hundreds of hours of filmed sessions into ordered, enjoyable, and exceptional works of artistic accomplishment. Steve Frazier, Pastor of Riverside Baptist Church, also praised Chambers for his professional production honoring the 100th Anniversary of Riverside Baptist Church. To cap the program, Chambers presented a preview of the upcoming Historic Schools of Bethel video production.
2024 Bethel Rural Community Organization Awards and Scholarships
BRCO achieved the White Oak level for the second year in a row. At this top level, communities have significant board training, an annual budget of at least $50,000, active committees with Chairs, a high level of excellence in their program offerings, and have helped another community develop a program or capacity. BRCO was also recognized as Best in Class and was awarded an additional $2000. The WNC Communities staff praised BRCO at the luncheon for our collaboration with other Haywood County community clubs to improve broadband access; for our efforts to preserve Sunburst and Canton mill history especially in the wake of the mill closing; and for our special projects including the installation of a storage unit for use by Bethel Middle School FFA students and the steps we took to improve our community pantry.
None of this recognition would have been possible without the many long hours that Evelyn Coltman spent on gathering, organizing, and entering all of the information that was needed to complete the BRCO Honors Award application.
Thank you to Evelyn for preparing the application, and congratulations to everyone who contributed to BRCO's outstanding accomplishments during the past year!
This year's WNC Honors Awards luncheon took place on November 11th in Asheville. Honors Award applications had been submitted from 67 community organizations, including BRCO. All participating communities received $730 to support their efforts. Additionally, communities were assessed across six different competencies and awarded a designation of Trillium, Mountain Laurel, Redbud, or White Oak level according to their demonstrated capacity to lead and serve.
BRCO Achieves Top Honors for Second Year in a Row
Mark Ledbetter's Sunburst Surround
Bethel Rural Community Organization's (BRCO) Historic Preservation Committee, since 2012, has accumulated twenty-eight photographs, paintings, and etchings that enhance its focus on historic preservation. In 2019, the group received two NC Society of Historians honors for its art collection: the Multi-Media Award and the Lighthouse Award.
The family of Mack Ledbetter, renowned expert on the Sunburst village and logging operation that existed on the West Fork of the Pigeon River in the first quarter of the 20th Century, donated to BRCO his photographs and his exceptional map that catalogued the twenty-four outposts at Sunburst as well as other significant sites at the mill. The map is available in BRCO's dining hall, on the website, and for purchase
Ledbetter received the 2022 “Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation” from BRCO's Historic Preservation Committee. His daughter, Verda Davis, accepted the posthumous honor with a speech that celebrated her father's intense interest in local history and his legacy of collecting and documenting his hiking treks that included local waterfalls and Cold Mountain. His trail trimming volunteerism resulted in his receiving a key to the Cradle of Forestry. The topic that claimed his years-long focus, however, was his fascination with the historic logging village of Sunburst.
A recent addition of Ledbetter's one-hundred-year-old photograph of Sunburst Village, titled “Sunburst Surround,” captures an overview of the village and logging operation. The photograph print is on the website and is available for sale (www.bethelrural.org – Historic Preservation header – Art print sub-heading).
Historic Preservation Committee members: Roxie Billings, Evelyn Coltman (chair), Carol Litchfield, and Frances Adamson
L to R: Harper Golden, Eli Hidalgo,Sherri Christopher, Korbin Knox, Sean Burnette
This recognition, named for the passenger pigeon whose extinction in 1914 left a void in the landscape and in the poetic imagination of residents, honors the bird whose migratory role played such a vital function in the ecology of the East Haywood community that the alternate name for Bethel is “Pigeon Valley.” Pigeon River, Pigeon Gap, and Pigeon Street names also pay homage to the bird. The Historic Preservation Committee's goal with the Pigeon Valley Award is to ensure that local history will not suffer the same fate as the passenger pigeon
Seated from left to right: Carol Litchfield, Frances Adamson, Phyllis Vance. Standing from left to right: Janet Frazier, Reverent Steve Frazier, Ted Carr, Phyllis Gaddis, John Gaddis, Doug Chambers, Derrick Chambers, Evelyn Coltman, Charles Chambers, Roxie Billings