arah Perschall, a National Park Service staffer at the Sandburg Home, welcomed the crowd.
local volunteers staffed a voter registration station.
a couple from Sudan received congratulations from immigration and park employees who run the ceremony.
Svitlana Eadie Eadie, who hails from Ukraine, is about to celebrate a decade of living in Asheville, where she’s the accounting manager for a land surveying company. Here, she’s shown with her son, Alexander.
Zamudio was born in Mexico and lives in Franklin, where she’s been working as a cook for six years. Her present job has her prepping American food; before that, it was Italian.
Tien “Tiger” Diep Diep, who’s originally from Vietnam, lives in Charlotte, where he owns two nail salons. On weekends, he travels around the country performing with a Vietnamese music group. “I have friends who live in the United States for years with just their green card, and they say, ‘I don’t care about getting citizenship,’” Diep says. “But I think about that president who said, ‘Don’t ask what this country can do for you, but what you can do for this country.’ If you become a citizen, you help this country, and you help yourself.”
The New Americans
The historic home of Carl Sandburg, who was both a son of immigrants and a champion of America’s blend of cultures, hosts the annual naturalization ceremony.
WNC’s newest citizens convened from points around the region to make it official.
The United States accepts about a half million new citizens per year—a couple dozen of them via this Flat Rock ceremony.
