Hendersonville, NC
Celebrate Land Trust Day 2013 at Mast
The Mast General Store celebrates Land Trust Day with the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy (CMLC) on Saturday, June 1st. Recognized for the eleventh year at Mast Store, Land Trust Day is a friend-raising event encouraging new memberships in local land trusts as well as an educational opportunity to learn how these groups are preserving our land heritage.
According to the Land Trust Alliance, “Saving land has given America the chance to know itself again. When we look into the mirror of our national identity, we can now see farms, urban gardens, historic sites, mountains and rivers—not just strip malls, bulldozers and traffic jams. Through land conservation, we give people the opportunity to taste something of what it is like to be authentically human: children rolling in the grass of an urban park; a grandfather teaching his granddaughter the quiet art of fishing; a fifth-generation farmer growing vegetables on his family’s homestead—nourishing his community with both fresh food and a farm stand where neighbors gather. We set out to save land, but, in the end, we build community, preserve beauty and instill hope.”
The land trust movement is not new. Some land trusts have been in place for over a century. In the past five years, the amount of land protected by local and regional land trusts has doubled nationwide.
Since its inception in 1994, CMLC has protected more than 24,000 acres in WNC, including precious lands in the Hickory Nut Gorge, Blue Ridge Escarpment, and French Broad River watershed.
Among their many conservation projects last year, CMLC protected 417 acres across nine conservation projects. They grew DuPont State Recreational Forest by 65 acres. CMLC also doubled the conserved land atop scenic Bearwallow Mountain, one of the region’s most popular hiking destinations. The group added buffers to Pisgah National Forest with conservation easements along its boundary as well as protected rare plants, including the swamp pink flower, in the Little River watershed.
“Maintaining a good balance of open space is important to the vitality of any community and to its residents’ quality of life,” said Fred Martin, president of Mast General Store. “These open spaces provide opportunities for recreation, food production, safe water supplies, and leisure enjoyment...all of which contribute not only to the physical wellbeing of a community, but also its economic vitality.”
Representatives from the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy will be on hand at the Mast Store in Hendersonville on Saturday, June 1st, to share with guests the activities they are undertaking to conserve the open spaces in the region. The Mast General Store will donate 20 percent of sales on that Saturday to the CMLC. Visit the website –www.carolinamountain.org - for more information on current projects and membership.
One of the many pleasures of spring is transitioning out of bulky winter wear into lighter, warm weather clothing. As you put away your winter boots and replace them with summer sandals, check to see if there are any shoes cluttering your home. Instead of stowing your unwanted pairs at the back of the closet, share them with those who need them at Mast Store’s sixth annual Sharing Our Shoes collection campaign going on now through May 31.
Donating your shoes is not only a gift to those in need, it’s a gracious act on behalf of the environment. Last year alone, Americans discarded millions of pairs of shoes. “We all have unused shoes with many miles left in them,” said Fred Martin, president of the Mast Store. “Local charitable organizations help many individuals who have no way to buy shoes for themselves or their family. At this time, there is so much need. Our employees and our customers are always so generous and eager to share what they have with the people who matter to us most – our neighbors.”
As you gather your family’s extra shoes during spring cleaning, drop by Mast General Store and deposit them in one of the Sharing Our Shoes bins located in the front of the store. Mast will distribute the shoes to a community partner at the end of the month. De-clutter your closet, reduce the strain on our environment, and lend a helping hand to your neighbors this May by answering the SOS and sharing your shoes at Mast General Store.
Boston Love Shirts Arrive at Mast Store
From Mast General Store's Graphics Buyer: “Our community and employees have spoken! We have just finalized our Boston Love Tee in honor of those impacted by the tragedy on April 15th. Life is Good is donating 100% of their profits from the Boston Love Tee to The One Fund Boston. We hope the t-shirt will help people all over the country begin to heal with Boston while conveying a message of unification to our community that "Nothing is Stronger than LOVE.”
From The Boston Globe on April 25th:
Life is Good, whose Boylston Street office was less than 40 feet from the second bomb blast, sold 15,000 T-shirts in just two days on its website and at two stores; the company is delivering the shirt to hundreds of franchise stores and wholesale customers this week.
On Thursday, Judy Scott, visiting from Maylene, Ala., bought two T-shirts at Life is Good on Newbury Street as she waited, cellphone in hand, to hear whether her three kids wanted them as well. She also bought two Boston Strong T-shirts¬ at Cheers.
“This is one way we can let people in Boston know we’re supporting them from around the country,” Scott said.
Boston Love men’s and women’s t-shirts are being sold in all Mast Stores. These shirts are sold at the unique price of $26.20 to represent the distance of the marathon. To find out more about The One Fund, click HERE. In short, the goal is to dispense all proceeds to the bombing victims and their families by June 30th.
Festival of Flowers at the Biltmore Estate
From March 21st through May 19th, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville hosts its annual Festival of Flowers. Make like a honeybee, and visit the gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmstead as they come alive with color and blossom. Flower lovers will want a season pass, so they can go back every week or so, to see what’s new.
Call 800-411-3812 or visit www.biltmore.com to see what’s next on the bloom calendar.
Mast Store customers are the BEST!
In addition to helping us donate over $4,000 to our food bank partners by finding your sweetheart's favorite candies, you left your spare change in our collection jars. We're still counting, but right now, we are taking our partners enough change to provide 2,736 meals in 2013. Thank you so much for your generosity!
[To help everyone have a meal, Mast General Store partnered with MANNA FoodBank to raise hunger awareness in Hendersonville with our tenth annual Be a Sweetheart...Feed the Hungry event over Valentine's Day weekend. To find out more, click HERE.]
An All-American Partnership
Mt. Airy sock manufacturer, Nester, and Mast General Store have led parallel lives since our companies began collaborating in the early nineties. As family-owned, environmentally-responsible companies that go the extra mile to provide quality products for their communities and beyond, both Mast and Nester are proud of their American roots.
Nearly twenty years ago, as the textile industry was collapsing in the southeast, the Nesters brought their family together, purchased a closed knitting facility, and hired workers left behind when other plants closed.
Nester maintained operations in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, during a period when similar local industries moved their operations to foreign countries or shuttered their doors completely. Beginning with 25 employees, Nester now maintains a force of over 225 experienced, dedicated and well-trained American workers. In a national address last year, President Obama praised Nester Hosiery for “insourcing” American jobs.
Mast Store Outfitters socks began as a collaborative effort between Mast General Store and Nester in its infancy. Mast President, Fred Martin, shares, “We got together and designed a sock that’s soft to the touch, durable, and affordable too. Collaborating on the design, fit and packaging, this sock has become a favorite among our guests and associates alike. We strongly believe in the craftsmanship of this product, which is why every pair comes with a lifetime warranty.
“As Nester has grown over the years, we’ve grown with them. They now build socks for American companies like REI, Cabela’s, KEEN, and LL Bean among many others,” Martin continues. “We [at Mast] are always eager to support economic drivers in our region, as well as helping to support a company that values keeping manufacturing on our shores. Our partnership is one that we are both very proud of.”
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