The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation
Photograph courtesy of Colby Rabon
Restoring & Protecting Asheville:
Science and Storytelling Show Us How
The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation, Inc., the McCullough Institute at UNCA and Trinity Episcopal Church present three dynamic and inspiring speakers in spring 2025.
As our communities continue to recover from the physical and emotional toll of Hurricane Helene, these experts and storytellers will address climate, politics, science and spirituality – each in his or her own way. These events offer an opportunity to discuss critical topics in a meaningful way.
All events are open to the public and free of charge. Please join us in these timely conversations to help Western North Carolina move forward.
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President of C-Change Conversations
"Building a Better Tomorrow: Understanding extremes of the changing climate to better protect our community"
Tuesday, April 8, 11 a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church
Tuton Hall
60 Church Street
Asheville 28801
Increased storm intensity, widespread flooding and deadly heat. Whether you label this "climate change" or call it part of a natural cycle, these disruptions are happening -- and causing real pain and loss as we've felt here in Asheville. How should we evaluate the risk to ensure that our families and communities stay safe?
Join C-Change Conversations founder Kathleen Biggins for a rational, nothing-but-the-facts discussion about this complicated topic. This presentation will provide a succinct overview of the science behind these weather occurrences, outline the potential risks ahead and provide suggestions on protecting ourselves and our loved ones. Lauded by moderate and conservative groups across the country, this non-partisan, science-based presentation has been shared with more than 22,500 individuals in 33 states and internationally.
"C-Change Conversations offers a factual and balanced wake-up call for all of us who care about global stability and who, on a personal level, love our children and grandchildren." -- William C. Hubbard, Dean of University of South Carolina Rice School of Law
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Biography
​Kathleen Biggins is the founder and president of C-Change Conversations, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting productive, non-partisan discussions about the science and effects of climate change. Comprised of volunteers who span the political spectrum, the organization sponsors the C-Change Conversations Primer, which invites business and community leaders to learn about climate change from a wide range of nationally recognized scientists and business and military leaders.
Biggins also developed the C-Change Primer with input from Climate Central and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Team members have presented the Primer to more than 20,000 people in 32 states, and it is widely hailed as an intelligent, dispassionate introduction to and illumination of climate change. The Primer has been endorsed by business, political and social leaders and enthusiastically received by many conservative audiences across the country.
Learn more at: www.c-changeconversations.org.
Margaret Renkl
Bestselling Author and Contributing Opinion Writer
The New York Times
"Finding Hope in the Age of Climate Change"
Tuesday, April 29 at 10 a.m.
UNCA Highsmith Hall
Blue Ridge Room
1 University Heights
Asheville 28804
We have come to the point that the effects of climate change are already so clear and so dramatic that it is almost impossible to think about the ravages that lie ahead if humanity can’t reform itself in time. How to keep going in the face of those fears is the great challenge of our age, but there are many, many reasons for hope.
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Biography
Margaret Renkl is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (2019) and Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (2021) and The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (2023), which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize. Her latest book, Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal (October 2024) is a companion to The Comfort of Crows that offers 52 writing prompts and plentiful advice for studying the natural world. Renkl is contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear each Monday. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she lives in Nashville.
Jeff Chu
Journalist and Editor-at-Large for Travel + Leisure
"Conversations about Nature, Heritage, and Belonging: a reading and Q&A”
Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church
Tuton Hall
60 Church Street
Asheville 28801
About Good Soil
A profound meditation on nature, heritage and belonging, from an accomplished journalist who left New York City for life on a working farm. ​
In his late 30s, Jeff Chu left his job as a magazine writer and found himself at Princeton Theological Seminary’s “Farminary”— a 21-acre working farm where students learn to cultivate the Earth while examining life’s biggest questions. Now, he unpacks what he learned about creating “good soil,” both literally and figuratively, drawing lessons from the rhythms of growth, decay and regeneration that define life on the land.
In gorgeous, transporting reflections, Chu introduces us to the cast of characters, human and not, who became his teachers. While observing the egrets that visit the pond, the worms that turn waste into fertile soil, and the Chinese long beans that get passed over in the farm’s CSA, Chu considers our desire to belong, the story behind the food on our plate, and the significance of his own roots. What is the Earth trying to tell us, if we’ll only stop and listen?
Good Soil helps readers connect to the land and to one another at a time when we seem drawn most to the phones in our hands. For nature lovers, foodies, and anyone who has daydreamed about a more fulfilling life, this book is a tribute to friendship, to the sacredness of our bond with the natural world, and to how love can grow from the unlikeliest of places.
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Biography
Jeff Chu is an award-winning journalist and editor-at-large at Travel + Leisure. He is the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me? and the co-author, with the late Rachel Held Evans, of the New York Times bestseller Wholehearted Faith.
Chu is a former Time staff writer and Fast Company editor whose work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Modern Farmer. In his weekly newsletter, “Notes of a Make-Believe Farmer,” Chu writes about spirituality, gardening, food, travel, and culture. He lives with his husband, Tristan, in Grand Rapids, Mich.
