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The Junior Appalachian Musicians program, or JAM for short, is rooted in a region known for its music and storytelling. We visited the organizations first ever summit to hear from the musicians who are passing along traditions and building students up in the process.

To learn more about JAM, visit jamkids.org.

One hundred and twenty years after the Wright Brothers historic first flight, juniors and seniors in Dare County are using the same aviation principals and building a modern plane within eyesight of the runway.

The First Flight students will be constructing the airplane over two years, and at the end of class, FAA certification pending, the plane will take to the same skies as the Wright Brothers, students in tow.

Learn about the program and the partnerships that made it happen, here.

Danny Miller told us, "If you wanted to rob a bank in Haywood County, that's the night to do it."



In Haywood County, there is a one football game that means more than all the others. It's gone by many monikers - The Paper Bowl, The County Clash, The Mill vs. the Hill, but everyone mostly refers to it as The Game. Two rival high schools meet once a year on the field and we went to see if the matchup was going to mean more in 2023 in light of challenging times. We went in assuming one thing, and as it usually happens, walked away with a different answer. 

In Canton, the paper mill is such a big part of town that Pisgah High School offers pulp and paper classes to its students. WC Godfrey is the pulp and paper teacher at Pisgah High School, and overall, the success of the class can be credited to him. The Canton paper mill closure isn't Godfrey's first, and he has hope that Canton will make it through.

In this episode, we hear from Danny Miller and Lori Fox — career educators who are also family. Fox, the principal at Haywood Early College, showed us around Haywood County where she pointed out the damage done by recent tropical storms. Miller told us about Canton during its heyday.

In this episode, we talk with Zeb Smathers, mayor of Canton, and David Francis, Haywood County economic development director. Francis says the closure of the mill will have a "tsunami" effect on the town, region, and state. Both say the town is resilient and will bounce back — as it always does.