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Contributing to Our Community
Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: October 2023 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro
Highlands Festivals, Inc, the driving force behind Highlands Food & Wine and Bear Shadow, the springtime outdoor music festival, has parlayed the success of both into a bounty for local nonprofits.
The good men and women of the Sky Valley-Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire Department know that their mission is bolstered by
generous community events like Bear Shadow, which donated $10,000 to the department.
When Highlands Festivals Inc. Board Chairman David Bock presented a $10,000 check from proceeds of Bear Shadow to the Sky Valley-Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire & Rescue, he was adding to HFI’s legacy of promoting local causes.
Highlands Festivals Inc., through the creation of unique programming and festivals, has promoted the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau as a year-round destination since 2016.
“Through its two signature festivals, Highlands Food & Wine and Bear Shadow, HFI has also contributed proceeds from the events to a host of local nonprofits and charitable organizations such as Highlands Food Pantry, Friends of Founders Park, Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, Highlands Biological Foundation; the Resource Institute (which is dedicated to restoring America’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands), and, of course, Sky Valley – Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire & Rescue,” said Bock.
“In addition, Highlands Festivals, Inc. in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America, has established the Louis Osteen Legacy Scholarship Endowment. Louis Osteen, the James Beard award-winning chef, whose influential, South Carolina restaurants elevated the Southern cuisine we enjoy today, passed away in Highlands in 2019. His influential work at the Pawley’s Island Inn, and later at the Charleston Grill, was the foundation of the restaurant scene in Charleston and throughout the South. This scholarship at CIA is specifically designed for students from the Highlands/Cashiers area that hope to follow Louis’ extraordinary culinary path.”
If you’d like to learn more about HFI and its pair of festivals and the way it’s enriching life on the Plateau, visit highlandsfoodandwine.com.
