Not every success story starts with a four-year degree from an elite university, and there are many Haywood Community College graduates to prove it.

As Haywood Community College leaders look to the future, it’s import to reflect on how far the institution has come in its first 50 years. 

What is the significance of HCC’s 50th anniversary?

The 50th anniversary celebration gives us an opportunity to reflect upon those who preceded us and had the vision and wherewithal to create the North Carolina Community College System and specifically Haywood Community College.

Trying to create a small logo that encompasses everything Haywood Community College stands for is no easy task. 

But with only three letters and a symbolic leaf, Aaron Mabry, marketing and communication director, thinks he and Lee White Media pulled it off. The old logo said Haywood Community College and featured a gradient leaf, but the new logo was shortened to HCC, features four new colors and a solid-color leaf.

It never ceases to amaze me the incredible people, places and things I cross paths with here in Western North Carolina. From craft artisans to world-class musicians, stealthy moonshiners to stoic veterans, backwoods folks and cosmopolitan socialites — they’re all here in Southern Appalachia.

For true local charm, look no further than Canton and Clyde, the neighboring towns nestled in eastern Haywood County. They are situated around the Evergreen paper mill, which started life as Blue Ridge Paper Products and has been running steadily for more than 100 years. 

There have been reports of explosions in the Clyde area. People have written to Haywood County officials out of concern. The issue recently came up during a commissioners meeting. 

“Basically, what they’re saying was it shook the earth, it rattled the windows, it scared them death,” relayed Haywood Commissioner Michael Sorrells. 

Clyde’s new police chief has only been on the job a few weeks. But Terry Troutman already had his hands full before he even got sworn in.

Haywood County residents won’t be down a Burger King when the state Department of Transportation starts its major reconstruction of the Lowe’s interchange.

When Monica Manrique was four months pregnant with her first child, her feet got so swollen with fluid she took to wearing slippers because her bulging ankles wouldn’t fit into regular shoes.