PEOPLE & PLACES

The push to build a WNC military history museum in Brevard marches on

Adding up the Mountain Area Health Education Center’s impact on health services across WNC

WCU’s bachelors in emergency medical care—the oldest in the country—goes way beyond textbooks

Around the world and back again with knitwear designer Christina Danaee

25 new, novel, and fun ways to get in shape

Ronni Lundy’s long and winding journey with Appalachian food and culture

Commemorating the 450th anniversary of Juan Pardo’s exploration of the Carolinas

Catching loose livestock might be easier in the age of social media, but the thrill of the chase remains

A new museum in Asheville opens doors of discovery

UNC Asheville opens the first of two major makerspaces

While medicinal marijuana might be approved for the Cherokee, it won’t bring an all-access pass to puff

How one musician found community through harmony

After another record-setting year, the Asheville Regional Airport adds two new direct destinations

For Page Ives Lemel, running a 100-year-old girls’ camp has always been a family affair

Gini Crowder-Marshall designs stylish settings for the world’s largest furniture markets

A new history of Asheville’s Jewish community

One tribal member expands efforts to teach the Cherokee’s traditional tongue

Last spring, we invited amateur and professional photographers alike to enter our inaugural Images of Western North Carolina Photo Contest, and with so much here to inspire a shutterbug’s focus, more than 600 submissions flooded in. Check out the finalists’ photos as well as the winners of the Amateur and Professional categories on these pages, then visit wncmagazine.com to view other honorable mentions and vote for your overall favorite by January 31. The Readers’ Choice winner will be announced in our March/April issue.

Boone professor Ray Russell’s amateur interest in meteorology sparked the region’s top forecasting service