The early bloomers are the first to remind us of the promise of spring — the hellebores, the periwinkles, and soon after, the explosion of daffodils all over the grounds. The shrubs and trees get into the act, with Bodnant viburnum, forsythia, star magnolia, and red maple not even waiting for their leaves before bursting into flower. Native or not, wildflower, shrub, and tree respond to warmer weather and longer days, painting a multi-hued backdrop at Silvermont.
The cast of characters changes weekly, with the daffodils bowing out and new spring ephemerals making their entrances in the woodland garden and elsewhere on the grounds. Come have a look!
Did you know that February 26-March 3, 2024 is National Invasive Species Awareness Week? Well, now you’re aware!
According to Raven Invasive Plant Management, a company that has performed multiple days of work at Silvermont removing invasive species:
Invasive species impact everyone and destroy nature. They cause harm to our economy, environment, human and planetary health. They limit land and water use, make our forests more susceptible to fire and threaten endangered species. It’s estimated they cost the US $120 billion annually, and non-monetary losses to biodiversity and precious resources are immeasurable. This is a great time to join in learning about and raising awareness of the problems and focusing on solutions.
A recent inventory of plants at Silvermont identified at least 15 species of invasive non-native understory ornamentals, trees, ground cover, and vines growing wild on the grounds. Over the years, Friends of Silvermont volunteers have battled back, and Carrie Blair and Transylvania County have funded larger-scale efforts.
Friends of Silvermont volunteers of all ages at our February deadfall day
One way to observe NISAW is to come to our monthly deadfall and park clean-up day, next scheduled for Saturday, March 2 from 10 am-noon. While our cleanup tasks vary from month to month, we often have some folks working on removing English ivy and other non-native invasives. If you can join us this Saturday, bring your favorite gardening tools and meet in the parking lot at 10 am.
NandinaLeatherleaf mahoniaForsythiaA rogue’s gallery of non-native invasives at Silvermont
Recently, Raven Invasive Plant Management completed a two-day project to remove invasive plants, particularly English ivy, from the south side of the park. This is the latest salvo in a war against invasive and non-native plants at Silvermont, and was generously funded by Carrie Blair and Transylvania County.
Workers from Raven pulled piles of English ivy and other unwelcome plants and piled them along the walking path, prior to filling up a dumpster over the course of two days. The timing was excellent, as it followed a deadfall day in which Friends of Silvermont volunteers removed woody debris from the area to be worked on. Spring wildflowers are beginning to bloom in the park, and in the long run they will benefit from not having to compete against the non-native interlopers.
This is just one of the grounds projects planned for Silvermont in 2024. We’ll be telling you more about them as plans are solidified, so stand by for more good news.
OK, third time is the charm! After two attempts to schedule a deadfall and park cleanup day in January, it looks like we’ll finally get our first cleanup for 2024 accomplished on Saturday, February 3 from 10 am-noon.
The plan is to work on general cleanup of fallen branches and limbs in the area of the picnic shelter. Efforts to remove invasive plants will focus on this area in the next few months, so neatening things up will give us a head start. Depending on the number of attendees, there are a couple of other small projects to tackle.
Participants are encouraged to dress for the weather, as the forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-40s. Bring gloves, tools, and gardening equipment if possible. Some tools will be available at the park.
“Riding the bench” is a tradition in basketball and other sports — it’s where substitutes await their chance to enter the game. The bench is also a friend to the tiring starter, who needs a breather before jumping back into the fray. Of course, it’s always more fun to be playing than riding the bench.
And until recently, if you were riding either of the benches at the ends of basketball courts at Silvermont, you quite possibly could wind up with splinters in your backside. Over time the wooden benches have weathered, to the point that some pieces have broken off. Jagged wood and rusted hardware were hardly a welcoming sight.
Friends of Silvermont noticed the state of the benches some time ago and recruited volunteers to replace the wood and hardware. On our deadfall day in mid-September, volunteer Michael Dexter-Smith completed the demolition work to remove the rotted seats and backs.
At the same time, volunteer Greg Colegrove designed the replacement wooden parts, identified and purchased all wood and hardware, and fabricated the seats and backs. Just before Pumpkin Fest began in October, FOS President Erik Rasmussen cleaned all the rust off the metal supports and primed and repainted them, and Greg installed the new seats and backs. The final results are a thing of beauty!
Friends of Silvermont paid for the materials, and volunteer labor got the bench refurbishment completed quickly. This little micro-project, carried out with the prior consent of Transylvania County Parks and Recreation, is a good example of how Friends of Silvermont supplements the work of the county in enhancing and maintaining Silvermont Park. Your donations, including attending Pumpkin Fest, make these projects possible.
So if you have to ride the bench, at least the ride will be more comfortable. But these benches are so nice, we’ve seen plenty of people using them even when there’s not a game on the courts.
Light Up the Night is a free, family-friendly community event produced by Heart of Brevard and Transylvania County Parks and Recreation. Activities take place along East and West Main Street in Brevard, with refreshments and performances in multiple locations from 4-8 pm.
Silvermont is the site of many events — face painting and balloon artists, an inflatable slide, hot chocolate and cookies, holiday crafts, Silvermont mansion tours, music by DJ Dogg, and best of all, visits with Santa! You can even arrive in style by taking a hayride from Water Oak Suites on East Main Street to Silvermont.
Friends of Silvermont will have a booth on the tennis courts, with free glow sticks and necklaces, and Silvermont holiday ornaments for sale. Come by and see us!
For the weeks leading up to Pumpkin Fest, and during the event itself, we focus our publicity efforts on promoting the event. We go all-pumpkin, all the time.
Now that Pumpkin Fest 2023 is in the rear-view mirror, we can catch up on other Silvermont-related news. On the top of our list, we’d like to congratulate Brenda Skeffington, our favorite Transylvania County employee, on being named Transylvanian of the Week in the October 2 edition of the Transylvania Times.
Photo credit: Jonathan Rich, The Transylvania Times
Her job title is Recreation Program Coordinator II, but we all know her as the overseer of the Silvermont Opportunity Center, where she manages the day-to-day operations of our senior center, tennis courts, and activities for young and old alike. She is endlessly positive, cheerful, and creative in making Silvermont the vibrant community center we’ve all come to know and love.
It’s not in her job title, but Brenda is not only the face of Silvermont — she is also its heart and soul. The Times article mentions her many contributions to the community and her leadership in creating, coordinating, and teaching programs at the Senior Center. It’s typical of her modesty not to mention her role as a key leader in the Land of Waterfalls Senior Games, including sports and the Silver Arts competitions. We had several state-wide prize winners in the latest edition.
We’ve seen her counsel seniors about local resources, lead fitness classes, endlessly set up rooms for meetings, answer a stream of questions, and run a leaf blower in the parking lot — all in a day’s work. Way to go, Brenda!
Pumpkin Fest 2023 is a wrap as of Thursday, November 2, about 3:30 pm. It was a very successful fundraising year due to great attendance, our first price raise in 9 years, and 2 event sponsors (Rotary Club of Brevard and Brevard Music Center) plus many music sponsors (all nights but one) and many other companies and groups that contributed with services or financial contributions.
It was also a very successful volunteer year, with more than 300 volunteers, including students from the local high schools (JROTC, Rosman High National Honor Society, Parks and Rec Youth Council and Brevard High’s Interact and Thespian Clubs). Community volunteer groups included Brevard Rotary, AAUW Brevard NC Branch, Slick Rock Mountain Friends, the Transylvania Art Guild, and many, many other community-minded individuals who responded to our needs to raise money to support Silvermont Park and Mansion and put on a fun community event!
It was a challenging year for our leadership group, who are mostly in their 60s and 70s, and find the long days of set up and take down harder each year, but we were blessed by many volunteer helpers and hard working young men from Schenck Job Corps who assisted on the big move in and out days.
Special kudos go to our Pumpkin Fest leader, Joe Dapkins, who puts in more long hours and works harder than the rest of us after planning the work and being a resource to all. And thank you to the rest of the Pumpkin Fest leadership team, without whom it would never happen: Chet Wright, Ruth Wright, Jeanne Hunter, Kristen Alpert, Pinkie Byrd, Jenny Tierney, Joni Pavlik, Erik Rasmussen, Frances Rasmussen, Alice Moran, Mary McGinnis, and Maury Bandurraga. Each has his or her own area to manage in addition to contributing to other areas. We have a great need for others to join this team to spread the load. Please let us know if you’d like to learn more!
Shown below is a pic of the final punch list for our big move out day. Amazingly, we got it all done in addition to loading and unloading multiple truck loads of the displays to move to our storage place!!! It was very satisfying to cross each item off the list.
Now the leadership will meet to discuss whether or not we are up to doing this again next year, or want to take a year off, a decision we discuss after every Pumpkin Fest. We will also discuss what went well and areas of improvement, and work needed (like repairs to damaged pumpkins) in the off season.
If you attended Pumpkin Fest this year, do you have any feedback? If so, please comment, message or email pumpkinfestbrevard@gmail.com.
Do you want to help with repairs in the off season or help in some other way? Please email pfestbrvdvols@gmail.com.
The last weekend of Pumpkin Fest at Silvermont Park is in a few days, from 6-9 pm Friday and Saturday (after Saturday’s Halloweenfest from 10-5 in downtown Brevard)!!!
Food for Saturday, October 28, 6-9 pm will be Feta Flav and Toasted Cuban food trucks and Cup and Saucer. Music will again be provided by McIntosh and the Lionhearts.
Weather looks great for both nights!
Please come join the fun of Pumpkin Fest!! Enjoy the wonderful music, tasty food trucks, lighted trail, trail actors, museum guided tours (sign up on mansion porch), first floor mansion history exhibits, story teller, and all the kids’ activities (white squirrel hunt, games, dress up, face painting, coloring pumpkins, sidewalk chalk and more!!).
Thank you to McNeely’s for donating hay bales and to Alice Moran for arranging them and making Pumpkin Fest signs for this year’s event. The signs are more visible this year and easier to put up due to the hay bales — plus the hay bales add to the fall ambiance.
The weather looks good for Saturday, October 21, so please come join the fun of Pumpkin Fest!! Enjoy the wonderful music, tasty food trucks, lighted trail, trail actors, museum guided tours, mansion history exhibits, and all the kids activities (white squirrel hunt, games, dress up, face painting, coloring pumpkins, sidewalk chalk and more!!).
The food truck on Saturday, October 20 from 6-9 pm is Feta Flav. and Cup and Saucer will have coffee and treats.
Our musicians tonight are Unpaid Bill and the Bad Czechs.
Friends of Silvermont tries to improve and respond to feedback on Pumpkin Fest each year, during and after the month-long event. This year, for the first time, we asked for sponsorship help, which helps pay our expenses, assists with fundraising, and keeps ticket prices low.
For 2023, we were blessed to have two event sponsors, Rotary Club of Brevard and Brevard Music Center. We thank both leadership groups in our community for their generous support.
Brevard Rotary also paid for free admission for 100 kids on opening night, October 6 this year, enabling many families to attend at lower cost — a wonderful extra gift to the kids of our community.
We have also been fortunate to have music sponsors for almost every night, to ensure we have great music. We thank these businesses and Friends of Silvermont (FOS) for their music support.
Did you know that at least 50 volunteers donate their time every night that we put on Pumpkin Fest? Here are just a few of the folks who make the magic happen. Come see us, Fridays and Saturdays for the remainder of October, from 6-9 pm, and thank a volunteer!
Our cashiers are first to welcome you.A very brief survey helps us get grants to hold down our costs.The volunteers who hand out the prizes at the end of our white squirrel search have the best gig!Volunteers at our coloring table on the mansion porch.Mansion host Sally Burnette answers visitors’ questions.Mansion host Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof discusses Silvermont history.Our storyteller has tales for all ages.Museum curator Rebecca Suddeth leads a mansion tour.Face painting and temporary tattoos are a popular attraction.
The second weekend of Pumpkin Fest 2023 is here, with event nights from 6-9 pm on Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14!
Friends of Silvermont gratefully acknowledges Brevard Music Center, our event sponsor for October 13. Brevard Music Center is one of this country’s premier summer training programs and festivals, with year-round performances as part of their Parker Concert Hall series and other special events.
Our guests are encouraged to visit the Brevard Music Center tent in front of the mansion on the evenings of October 13, 14, 20, and 21 to learn more about BMC and to enter their car raffle. The raffle provides scholarships to high school and college students who could not otherwise afford to attend the BMC Summer Institute and Festival.
