Partners

Bele Chere 2013

 

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2012 Bele Chere Festival.
It is with your generous support and participation that we were able to produce such a successful festival.  We look forward to partnering with you again in the future.

2012 Bele Chere Non-Profit Organizations

  • Animal Compassion Network/Pet Harmony
  • Asheville Buncombe Adult Soccer Association
  • Asheville Homelss Network
  • Asheville VA Medical Center
  • Brother Wolf Animal Rescue
  • City of Asheville
  • Clean Air Campaig- Land of Sky Regional Council
  • Dogwood Alliance
  • Eagle's Nest Foundation
  • ERMI-NC Chapter
  • Grace Episcoal Church
  • Land of The Sky Chorus
  • Mayor's Committee for Veteran Affairs
  • Mt. Zion Community Development, Inc.
  • NC DSDHH
  • North Carolina Outward Bound
  • North Carolinians For Fair Tax
  • Our VOICE
  • Pisgah Area SORBA
  • SOS Anglican Misssion
  • The Billy Graham Training Center
  • UnChain Buncombe

Volunteers

Volunteering at Bele Chere is a great way to help your community while meeting people and having fun. The knowledge that our volunteers possess about Asheville, its culture, and community is one of our biggest assets, and it makes guests to our City want to come back year after year. Volunteers are welcome to sign up as pairs, groups, or individuals. Most of the volunteer shifts last three and a half hours, but you can work as many hours as you would like.

If you love interacting with children or you like to play with arts and crafts projects with children, assisting our Children’s Area committee members is the place for you! If you are a talker and know your way around AVL, you would be the perfect volunteer for our information booths. We will leave it to you to assist festival guests with directions, information, and advice on all things Asheville. If you would rather be roaming the streets while you volunteer, you can be a Roving Information attendant. With a partner, you will be the festival’s walking information booth, equipped with festival guides and maps. Other areas for volunteers include the Bike Corral and Senior Oasis.

Thank you for your interest in volunteering. We appreciate your willingness to commit your time, and we could not organize and operate the Bele Chere festival without the continued support of our volunteers. As a token of our appreciation, volunteers receive a Bele Chere 2012 t-shirt and snacks during while you work.

BELECHEREFESTIVAL.ORG

Are you interested in doing more than attending the festival? If you want to participate as an artist, merchant, food vendor, musician, entertainer, sponsor, or volunteer, visit our Bele Chere Partners site for timelines, applications, and more information.

 

Children's Area Partners

Buncombe Baptist Association
Buncombe Baptist will provide a diaper changing station and a breast feeding station, known as Mommy Haven in the past years, along with free materials that may be needed. It will also provide an activity for any siblings that may need to be looked after while they wait. 

Colburn Earth Science Museum
The Colburn Museum will provide straws and individual cups of colored water to create art that demonstrates the properties of water, air and color. Each child will use up to three colors to create a unique pattern of bubbles and points.

Audubon Society and Wild Birds Unlimited
These organizations will facilitate a hat craft made out of the official 2012 Bele Chere Poster Art.

Girlscouts Carolinas P2P
The Girlscouts will provide a S.T.E.M. activity which involves matching green materials. The children will also make paper flowers out of tissue paper, pipe cleaners and bobby pins. The flower can attach to the hat that the Audubon Society will be creating.

Highland Christian
Highland Christian is providing a face painting activity along with another craft activity.

City of Asheville
The City of Asheville Department of Public Works and Office of Sustainability Bele Chere will feature solar, lighting, recycling and up-cycling educational demonstrations, activities, crafts and games. Children can make friendship bracelets out of recycled materials.

Non-Profit Organizations

Each year Bele Chere partners with more than 25 non-profit agencies from Western North Carolina to help facilitate critical components of the festival. We work with Western North Carolina’s non-profit organizations in multiple ways. The desired amount of participation that you would like to give Bele Chere can be customized to fit the needs and capacity of your organization.  As a 501(c)3 organization, you can organize an activity for the kids in the Children’s Area, host a booth within the festival to educate festival attendants about your mission, or fundraise through selling shuttle passes, wristbands, and beverages. It is through our collaboration that we are able to enhance the quality of life for all of Asheville’s citizens and its guests.

Children’s Area Activities
Working in the Children’s Area is the easiest and fastest way for non-profits to contribute to Bele Chere. In exchange for providing a simple interactive activity and a minimum of two volunteers, your organization will have the opportunity to share information related to your organization and its mission while also working hands-on in Bele Chere’s mission to facilitate art and creativity with the youth who attend the festival.

Organization Booth
Having a booth at Bele Chere is an effective way to push out your message. Being able to connect with festival attendants is a multi-dimensional opportunity to engage possible future stakeholders in your organization. As a featured non-profit with a booth space, your organization can display a donation box or hold a fundraising raffle; however you cannot sell merchandise.

In order to be obtain an non-profit booth for the festival, the organization must have a 501(c)3 Federal Tax Status and have an office located within Western North Carolina. Western North Carolina is defined by these counties: Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Haywood, Henderson, Graham, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Jackson, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Yancey, and Watauga.

Fundraising
Non-profit organizations can organize volunteers to work at beverage stations, wristband booths, Bele Chere merchandise booths, and shuttle stops. If your organization decides to use the festival as an opportunity to fundraise, it will receive either a percentage of net profits or a flat fee. Bele Chere 2011 contributed over $40,000 to local non-profits for their efforts and assistance.