Avery County Chamber Awards Highlight Volunteerism

Woman of the Year Encourages Everyone To Help

Story by Bernadette Cahill

Cindy Peters (right) recently was voted the Avery County Woman of the Year for her leadership in countless business development and community volunteer projects in the county. With her are Jerry and Doris Turbyfill, just two of the large band of volunteers that Peters and the Avery County Historical Museum members have assembled to restore the old Linville Railroad Depot, which was relocated to Newland in 2007. Jerry Turbyfill has crafted these windows according to the original design specifications. Photo by Bernadette Cahill

When Cindy Peters went to the Avery County Chamber of Commerce annual banquet a couple of weeks ago, she had no idea what was about to happen.

“It was a complete shock,” she said.

Peters was so astounded because during the event, which took place on September 17 at the Vance Toe River Lodge, she was called up to receive the Avery County Woman of the Year Award.

Peters and her husband David have been operators for many years of the Parkview Lodge in Linville Falls—a thriving business based on exemplary customer service that attracts repeat customers year after year and which, even in these tough economic times, has regularly had full occupancy.

Just for these reasons, the Parkview Lodge could perhaps have won the Avery Business of the Year Award, but that honor went to the Art Cellar in Banner Elk for its excellent record as a top-class, locally-owned art gallery that focuses on mountain arts and supports charity through the arts.

The chamber’s Man of the Year Award went to Boyd McCloud of the Avery County Farm Bureau, who, in addition to helping out at such events as the Avery County Fair and with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, is a regular volunteer in many capacities who helped get the Fall Creek Fire Department started on Beech Mountain in the 1980s.

Peters received the Woman of the Year award for her many civic activities in addition to her hotel business that, according to one person who nominated her, makes her “a good example of individuals who work together for the good of all.”

In her speech accepting the award, Peters sent out a call for volunteers.

“All the nonprofits are struggling in this economy,” she said in an interview this week. “They can’t make it without volunteers.” And so Peters encourages everyone “to find something you enjoy, are passionate about and give a little of yourself.”

Enlarging on the theme and referring to her pet project—the railroad depot museum in Newland—Peters said, “We are completely out of money. We have $100 left in the depot fund. We were turned down for grants [we applied for], except for Mountain Electric. They gave us $2,500 from Operation Pocket Change.”

Cindy Peters recently received the Woman of the Year Award from the Avery County Chamber of Commerce for her exemplary business and community leadership and extensive volunteer work. Photo by Bernadette Cahill

As for volunteerism, Peters walks the walk, having given her time down the years in many areas, from the Avery-Banner Elk Chamber of Commerce to the Grandfather Highland Games to the Avery Arts Council.

As a founding member and chair of the Linville Falls Business Association, Peters has helped develop and sponsor many events to increase tourism and business opportunities in the Linville area. These include a unique event that draws fans from all over whenever it takes place: the annual Brown Mountain Lights Festival. She often accompanies hotel guests to locations where seeing the lights is more likely than others—this in addition to directing visitors to the countless beauty spots and attractions across the High Country.

As a parent, Peters and her husband have helped with many youth and school activities, including sports, scholastic and arts events. One result of her volunteerism is seen all around Avery County—quilt squares, some of which students at Crossnore and Cranberry schools have made.

“I love going and helping the kids start their squares and clean them up when they’ve finished,” she said.

Peters has also spearheaded the development, with only volunteers, of one of the best small museums in the state, the Avery County Historical Museum in Newland. Under her leadership, the museum was voted the Best Historical Museum in North Carolina in 2007.

Under her direction also, the museum has sponsored the Avery County Heritage Festival, which began in 2005 and spotlights a different community each year. So far, Newland, Linville Falls, Plumtree, Crossnore and Cranberry-Elk Park have hosted the festival, which has highlighted the history and attributes of each. The roving festival has set standards for many other historical groups across the state.

Railroad Enthusiasts To Converge On Newland in 2011

Old Linville Railroad Depot Number One Draw
When Barry Sutton, president of the Avery County Chamber of Commerce, spoke at the chamber’s recent annual banquet, he said that within two years the railroad museum in Newland will become one of the top 10 tourist attractions in North Carolina.

This announcement surprised and pleased Cindy Peters of Linville Falls Village, who received the Woman of the Year Award at that night’s dinner, because not only has she has led in the creation of the railroad museum, but because now she was able to tell the all-volunteer board of the railroad museum of the significant result of their non-stop efforts.

In fact, she said in an interview this week, the ET&WNC and Linville River Railroad Museum—the official name for what many people think of as the “Tweetsie” Museum—is the number one draw for a worldwide narrow-gauge railroad convention in Newland in 2011 that could attract between 20,000 and 40,000 visitors.

While local railroad enthusiasts were instrumental in raising huge chunks of the money to haul the old depot from Linville to Newland in 2007, the Avery County Historical Museum volunteers under Peters’ leadership have been the ones creating the railroad museum in the old depot—and providing the staff to run it.