Celebrate Earth Day

🌍 Celebrate Earth Day in Asheville — A Free Community Event

Join us on April 22, 2025, from 5–8:30 PM at the Blueprint for Impact Hub (81 Broadway St., Downtown Asheville) for an Earth Day celebration that blends connection, creativity, and community. Hosted by Blueprint for Impact, this free event honors our community and volunteers shaping a more regenerative future for Western North Carolina.

Expect inspiring stories, powerful conversations, and a vibrant atmosphere filled with food, music, art, and inspiring stories!

RSVP Required - This event may sell out!

🕔 Evening Schedule

5:00 – 6:00 PM
✨ Gather, Sip & Connect
Enjoy local bites by Luella's BBQ, good conversation, and drinks as you mingle with others passionate about our region’s future.

6:00 – 7:00 PM
🎤 Speaker Panel: Wins & What’s Next
Be inspired by local leaders working at the intersection of land, water, and stewardship. The conversation will be guided by Jennifer Germaine, founder of Voices of Impact and co-founder of Blueprint for Impact, who will moderate this intimate and energizing panel.

Panelists include:

• Heidi Zellie | Appalachian Watershed Alliance
  An ecologist, educator, and co-founder weaving together watershed remediation and indigenous wisdom to restore and protect our rivers and streams.

• Dave Ellum, Ph.D. | Warren Wilson College
  Dean of the Center for Working Lands and a leader in regenerative forestry and sustainable land management practices.

• Hannah Coats | RiverLink
  A passionate community organizer and waterway restoration specialist supporting environmental justice and healthy ecosystems across the region.

• Rachel Blackburn, JD | National Forest Foundation
  Southern Appalachians Program Coordinator supporting collaborative forest management and conservation strategies across public lands.

• Carolyn Ward, Ph.D. | Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
  CEO of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the main supporter of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

7:00 – 8:30 PM
🎶 Live Music by The Dirty French Broads 
Let loose and celebrate to the soulful, Appalachian roots-rock sounds of this powerhouse local band.

🎨 Featured Art Installation: “Canoe of Collective Memory” by Charly Louise

Explore a powerful, interactive art piece created by Charly Louise, founder of Venus Rising Media. Crafted from debris gathered after Hurricane Helene, this traveling canoe sculpture invites attendees to tie found objects into its frame—transforming disaster into art, grief into story, and community into co-creation.

🌱 About Blueprint for Impact

Blueprint for Impact is a nonprofit based in Asheville, NC, designing the roadmap for high-impact, cross-sector collaboration. We bring together regenerators—those restoring forests, waters, and lands—with beneficiaries—businesses and institutions who rely on these natural systems—to co-create solutions that are as sustainable as they are scalable.

From producing films and hosting events to activating funding pathways for large-scale environmental work, we amplify the people and projects reshaping what wealth, impact, and stewardship look like in our region.

Learn more: www.blueprintforimpact.earth