GSMA product support assistant Brenda Owenby finishes packing the last of nearly 100 gift boxes designed specially for some of DWP Live's most famous clients.

 

DWP Live, a Tennessee-based business that's used to working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, called upon Great Smoky Mountains Association to help them spread holiday cheer to a few of their famous clients.

 

DWP Live produces live events like the 2012 Super Bowl Half Time show, Beyonce's "I was Here" tour in 2013 and Sak's Fifth Avenue's Christmas Projection for 2014. Based in Smyrna, TN, DWP also works with Dave Ramsey, the Lampo Group, as well as for Mercedes Benz USA.

 

"Marilyn and I, along with our two kids, Katie and Jana, are lifetime members of GSMA," said Danny Whetstone, DWP's CEO. "We were in Sugarlands Visitor Center last Christmas season when Marilyn spoke to one of the ladies to ask about planning for 2014 Christmas gifts."

 

Mr. Whetsone went on to say, "As a Tennessee-based company, DWP has chosen TN products for our gifts each Christmas since we started. As longtime lovers of the Great Smoky Mountains, this year was extra special for us."

 

Mrs. Whetsone reached out to Brenda Owenby, GSMA's product support assistant director, who helped her create a custom box of Smoky Mountain goodies that would appeal to a broad group of recipients. "The flexibility was awesome," she said. "Everyone at GSMA has gone above and beyond to be of service."

 

"We have received more praise this year from those that have already received the gift box than from any year past," Mr. Whetsone said. "Thank you to everyone for helping us create a truly unique gift that not only everyone can enjoy, but also speaks to our company's Tennessee roots. Our ultimate goal was to contribute to furthering the mission of GSMA."

 

Even with the Whetstone's lifetime member discount of 25%, their generosity resulted in increased holiday revenue for the association. Nearly 100 boxes filled with a variety of Foods of the Smokies preserves were shipped to DWP's clients as far away as California.

 

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Create your own box of holiday cheer

 

There's still time to create your own box of Smoky Mountain goodies to share with your family and friends. The GSMA elves are ready to build your unique gift box with any and all items that will snuggly fit into the gift box shown above (box size is approximately 13" square by 4" deep) and ship it anywhere in the US.

 

For more information and assistance on creating your Smoky Mountain Gift Box, give them a call Toll Free at (888) 898-9102.

Swain County Heritage Museum and Visitor Center sits majestically in downtown Bryson City at the corner of Main and Everett streets.

With the opening of the Swain County Visitor Center in downtown Bryson City this past September, Great Smoky Mountains Association wrote its final check toward a $3.46 million investment in projects located in the North Carolina section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

"We've made it a point over the last decade to focus on enhancement projects in North Carolina," said GSMA Executive Director Terry Maddox. "Each of our three NC park visitor center locations tell both the natural and cultural stories specific to these important areas of the national park."

The 2014 opening of Swain County Visitor Center, in partnership with county leaders, represents a $100,000 investment in this community. The county's new heritage museum fills the historic building's upper level, while GSMNP plans to tell the Horace Kephart story on the first floor adjacent to our newest store location. Kephart, one of the national park's strongest proponents, called Bryson City home for many years. "Our Southern Highlanders" is a product of his time spent in and around this park gateway community. 

"An Island in the Sky" tells the Clingmans Dome story.

The 2011 opening of both Clingmans Dome and Oconaluftee visitor centers represent investments of $285,108 and $3,088,356, respectively. Located at the end of Clingmans Dome Road, 7 miles from Newfound Gap, Clingmans Dome Visitor Center sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet. A 0.5 mile trail leads from the visitor center to the Clingmans Dome observation tower atop Clingmans Dome, the highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains and the third highest mountain in the East. Exhibits in the center provide an overview of the history of the area and the rare spruce-fir forest ecosystem.

If these bears look familiar, it's because you may have seen them over a decade ago at Pigeon Forge Pottery.

 The establishment's founders, Douglas and Ruth Ferguson, were known for their exquisite designs and superior glazes, which they successfully used to depict owls, ravens, bears and other Smokies fauna.

 Now their daughter Jane is using the same molds to reproduce some of the most popular bear sculptures. These rare pieces are made in the USA just for us!

 Click HERE to see GSMA's full collection of Ferguson Bears and order yours today. Order by Dec. 15 to guarantee in-time-for-Christmas delivery. Free shipping on purchases over $100.

The Kephart Knife: Remaking History, Great Smoky Mountains

This holiday nog is sure to please. The recipe comes to us by way of GSMA business member Ole Smoky Moonshine.

 Nutmeg Dream

Ingredients for one glass

- 4 parts Ole Smoky Shine Nog

- 1 part Kahlua

- splash nutmeg

- cinnamon stick

 

PREPARATION

- Mix all ingredients

- Serve on the rocks

- Add cinnamon stick as garnish

 

When serving this delightful beverage, impress your holiday guests by sprinkling into your conversation moonshine facts you picked up while reading "Corn from a Jar." For example, did you know that in the Great Smoky Mountains, moonshine making was a world unto itself. On the one hand, moonshining was about dynamite-totting lookouts, fast cars, snitching, quick cash, hidden stills, "revenuers" and deadly gunplay.

On the other, it was a story of earnest farm families living in remote mountain valleys and practicing their traditional craft of moonshining so they could buy shoes for their children.

 

Yet perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this book is the sudden resurgence of making moonshine in the Southern mountains today, like those at Ole Smoky and another of our fine business members, Sugarlands Distillery.

 

Click HERE or on the book image above to find out how you can get both the hard and soft cover copies of this fascinating history by University of North Carolina at Asheville professor Daniel Pierce.

 

Also, if you'd like more information about how your business can join our growing list of supporters, please click HERE to connect with Westy Fletcher, our GSMA business member representative.

Forty years ago on Dec. 3, 1974, GSMNP park rangers rescued 15-year-old Eric Johnson and a companion who had become trapped in the park's backcountry by a chest-deep snow storm. Eric's mother traveled from Johnson City, TN, to park headquarters last week to thank the park rangers for saving her son's life, a trip she has made every Dec. 3 since 1974. Mrs. Wanneta Johnson selects the biggest, finest poinsettia she can find in Johnson City and delivers it to park headquarters and thanks everyone she meets. This year Eric joined his mother as she met with Acting Superintendent Clayton Jordan and several members of the park staff, including current members of the park's search and rescue team, none of whom were working at the Smokies in 1974. Over the past four decades hundreds of park rangers have come and gone, but Mrs. Johnson treats each one as if he or she had a hand in saving Eric's life.