Shower the People You Love with Love: Cullasaja Women’s Outreach

Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: 2021/11 – November | Photograph By: Susan Renfro

Rain is no stranger to those who live and work on the Plateau. It is essential to the beauty of our lush landscape of towering trees and rambling rhododendrons, laureled peaks, and waterfalled hollows. But a different type of precipitation is the downpouring of love – i.e. in the  example of the Cullasaja Women’s Outreach, an independent group of just over 100 women who raise funds for Highlands-Cashiers charities and not-for-profit organizations.

Their outpouring of love this past summer was record-breaking. Cullasaja Women’s Outreach raised over $290,000, which was granted to 28 area organizations, including: Big Brothers Big Sisters; Boys and Girls Club of the Plateau; Blue Ridge Free Dental Clinic; Cashiers Historical Society; Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society; the Community Care Clinic of Highlands-Cashiers; Counseling & Psychotherapy Center of Highlands; Fishes & Loaves Food Pantry; Friends of the Albert Carlton Library; Friends of Panthertown; Highlands Biological Station; Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival; Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust; Highlands-Cashiers Players; Highlands Community Child Development Center; Highlands Emergency Council; Highlands Historical Society; Highlands Playhouse; Hudson Library; International Friendship Center and its Food Pantry; Junior Appalachian Musicians® Blue Ridge; Literacy Council of Highlands, Inc.; Performing Arts Center Youth Theater Group; Peggy Crosby Community Service Center; Pisgah Legal Services; Summit Charter School; The Bascom; and, Vision Cashiers Ramble Storywalk Project. 

Seventy percent of 2021 Cullasaja Women’s Outreach grants were awarded in support of health and humanitarian projects. “Like the weather, the needs of the community around us change constantly,” noted the organization’s grant co-chair, Jo Hill. “Our mission is to provide an umbrella of ongoing support.” 

Added Executive Director Margaret Eichman: “We hope that our giving serves as an example for others to think beyond the boundaries of their own backyard, to reach out to those in need by enabling safety-net services, educational programs, and civic projects to lift up the broader community.” 

The organization’s grants have touched lives by raining down support for shared community resources, such as the Cashiers’ and Highlands’ libraries, two historical societies, public hiking trails, and the local theater. In fact, to date Cullasaja Women’s Outreach has assisted over 42 local not-for-profit and charitable organizations, investing more than $2.18 million into their efforts to enhance the community.