Held Sunday, Nov. 12, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Cades Cove Loop Lope raised more than $110,000 to support the park. 

Support Franklin’s Friends of the Greenway at the nonprofit’s fall fundraising arts and crafts event FROG Fair, slated for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at FROG Quarters located at 573 E. Main St. in Franklin.

Tickets are now on sale for Winter Lights, an open-air walk-through light show of more than 1 million lights running Nov. 17-Dec. 31 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.

Starlight Night, the annual fundraiser for Full Spectrum Farms, will take place 5-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, on the farm.

The replica of a decorative arch that once spanned Main Street in Waynesville but was removed in the early 1970s is closer than ever to being reinstalled, after more than two years of efforts by town officials and local civic groups to resurrect it. 

The 16th annual Power of Pink 5K Run/Walk/Dog Walk will raise money for early breast cancer detection on Saturday, Sept. 23, at Frog Level in Waynesville.

Funds raised at the Haywood Healthcare Foundation’s annual golf tournament will go toward food insecurity among children and the elderly in Haywood County.

Sarge’s 18th annual dog walk will be held this year on Sept. 23 to give folks and their four-legged friends a chance to enjoy some cooler weather.

Friends of the Smokies raised more than $400,000 for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during its 25th annual Greenbrier Barn Party Friday, May 12, setting a fundraising record for the event.

In a few short weeks, 47 people will charge from the shores of the island home to the infamous Alcatraz Prison into the freezing water that isolates it. Those brave souls will battle frigid temperatures, currents, wildlife and weather for two miles in an open water swim race to the California mainland, with little else than a swim cap, goggles and the thick skin of wetsuits to shield them from those unpredictable elements.