Three former members of the Western Carolina University women’s basketball team stepped up to the line to tip off the process of raising enough philanthropic support to name the current Catamount squad’s locker room after the founder of the program. 

That opening shot has resulted in a resounding “swish,” as that locker room now bears the name of the individual who launched the program during an era when women’s intercollegiate athletics was primarily an afterthought. 

Western Carolina University Athletics welcomed more than 1,000 Jackson County Public Schools students to campus for its annual “Education Days” basketball games — bringing early holiday cheer and an unforgettable afternoon of hoops.

Over two days, elementary and middle school students filled the Liston B. Ramsey Center to cheer on the Catamounts during men’s and women’s basketball matchups. 

Students in the Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College will host a holiday craft sale from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4 on campus in Clyde. The sale will feature student work in four mediums: fiber, metals, ceramics and wood. Held in the Mary L. Cornwell Gallery in the Sycamore Building, the sale is open to the public. 

The Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center will host its annual “Farm 2 Table” Fundraiser from 5 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20. The event promises an evening of dining, dancing, local art, live music and community spirit.

Kayden is doing her very best not to tell me about the preparations she and mom and Jack have made for Father’s Day, but she is six years old, and at this age especially, secrets are like little, wet bars of soap.

It’s hard to believe Christmas is less than a week away. With more gifts to buy, a Christmas puzzle partially finished and cards yet to be mailed, I still have plenty to do, but I’m not letting the stress get to me.

You have been together a month, maybe two. It was whirlwind and all, that electric “getting to know you” phase when every single thing is new and fascinating and terrifying because this just might be it.

You’re down to the wire. It’s only a few days until Christmas, and you have yet to get that book lover in your life a gift. Maybe it’s your husband who nightly reads military history. Maybe your 9-year-old can’t get enough of the Hardy Boys. Maybe your teenage niece is reading anything she can get her hands on.

Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go! has become as much a fixture of graduations as a bride’s white dress at a wedding. Commencement speakers quote from it; relatives give the book as a gift; parents read the book aloud to their high school and college graduates.

Through careers as students, teachers and administrators, David and Susan Belcher have marked the milestones of their lives in college campuses, but their 2011 arrival to Western Carolina University was the day they discovered their home. 

“It was kind of instant. It was kind of love at first sight,” Susan said. “It’s not the (natural) beauty. It’s the people. And it’s the community also. This region takes care of each other, through and through.”