The Southern Highland Reader

SYLVA–A final point granite marker and plaque will be dedicated Saturday, Dec. 5, to Nathan Hall, a Southwestern Community College surveying technology student who died May 23, 2008 of leukemia.

The dedication service will be held at 11 a.m. behind the Holt Library on SCC’s Jackson Campus.

Retired Southwestern Community College Surveying Technology instructor Peter Messier, left and graduates of SCC’s Surveying Technology program, Bentley Robison, middle, and John Jeleniewski, right, both of Sylva, assist with the granite marker and plaque that will be dedicated Saturday, Dec. 5, to the late Nathan Hall. The 11 a.m. ceremony behind Holt Library will honor Hall, a former SCC Surveying Technology student, who died May 23, 2008 of leukemia.

“Nathan was a model student and an outstanding individual,” said his former SCC surveying technology instructor Peter Messier. “A young surveyor who left his mark on the hearts of all who knew him by unselfishly giving of himself ” is part of the inscription on the plaque that will be dedicated by his former fellow students.

A native and lifelong resident of Jackson County, Hall was a key player in the formation of the first student chapter of the North Carolina Society of Surveyors and was elected the first president of SCC’s student chapter.

“Nathan was on his way to becoming a great surveyor and an asset to the community,” said Messier. “He had an impressive 3.81 grade point average, had received a $1,000 scholarship from the NC Association of Community College Facility Operations and was just two courses shy of completing his degree when he died at age 27. He lived in the Balsam community and was working for Civil Design Consultants in Waynesville at the time of his death.”

The public is invited to the dedication ceremony which will feature personal tributes to Hall.

SYLVA – Full Spectrum Farms, a nonprofit autism treatment advocacy organization based in Cullowhee, has just received a major contribution in the amount of $429,000.

Harold Watson, Executive Director states, “This very generous and thoughtful gift from an anonymous donor will enable Full Spectrum Farms to move forward with the purchase of 34 acres of land on Wayehutta Road in Cullowhee for the establishment of our residential farm community.”

Full Spectrum Farms will be moving forward Immediately with the purchase of 34 acres of land in Cullowhee. Watson continued, “This is a monumental accomplishment and step forward for Full Spectrum Farms. The next challenge will be raising the funds to develop the land and actually build the buildings for the residential farm community. We hope that the community will help us achieve this next goal by giving generously and encouraging others to give.”

Full Spectrum Farms was organized in 2002 and has been seeking to raise awareness and secure the funding to purchase the land to establish the residential farm community where adults affected by autism could live and work.

Click here to view updated content on WCU/Gannett story

ASHEVILLE/REGIONAL–We wrote earlier in the year about the struggles they’re having at the Macon County Care Network. Here’s an earlier story from the Franklin Press.

Monday’s New York Times followed the theme on a national level, and discussed difficulties they’re having at the Manna Food Bank in Asheville.

Wednesday’s Waynesville Mountaineer took the Haywood County angle.