High Country Times

This year's High Country Charitable Foundation's annual fundraising auction will take place virtually as a COVID-19 precaution.

However, grants from the foundation will still benefit Avery County organizations.

"The High Country Charitable Foundation has been enormously helpful to us since I joined FAF in 2017," Feeding Avery Families Executive Director Richard Larson, the HCPress reported on Aug. 24. "Prior to my joining, they helped pay for moving our base of operations when the county decided to tear down the building we had been leasing. Since then, they have allowed us to expand and grow, both in terms of numbers of clients and food distributed, as well as in the number of programs we have been able to offer."

Volunteer Avery County has also benefited from the foundation's grants raised through the fundraiser. The organization provides food to people in need in the area and housing, transportation, clothing and medical conditions.

"I had an 81-year-old lady come into my office that had gotten assistance from the Department of Social Service. She is on a fixed income of $727.00 monthly," Volunteer Avery County Director Cindy Lindecamp told HCPress. "They had paid for 150 gallons of K-1. She did not know that over the summer the barrel had gotten a hole in it. She was extremely worried she could not get help for more K-1. With the money we received from [the foundation], we were able to repair her barrel and fill it with K-1."