Professional Services in Asheville

An affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Asheville GreenWorks strives to achieve a clean, green Asheville and Buncombe County through environmental stewardship, education, and community-organizing programs. AGW helps to care for and preserve the community with playground enhancements, precycling, and graffiti elimination, fueled by the help of more than 900 members and thousands of volunteers. With children from local schools, they engage in educational projects, weaving lessons into activities such as cleaning up a stream or collecting litter. The organization's Green Team works with volunteers to plant trees in underserved neighborhoods and corral invasive species.

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue houses approximately 100 dogs and cats every day at its 10,000-square-foot facility. The organization cares for the animals until they are adopted, and does not euthanize. In addition to maintaining the shelter, staff members work with families hoping to pick new companion animals and teach visiting groups of students and community members about responsible pet care. Volunteers take personal interest in the animals, and many of them take the dogs on walks or bring home litters of kittens to spend the night so that the animals have company. Brother Wolf also partners with local shelters and community members to rescue litters of puppies from being euthanized and transport them to adoption centers in the Northeast, where they are more likely to be adopted.

Junk Recyclers takes an earth-friendly approach in all that it does, down to the solar-powered hosting company it enlists to power its website. Similarly, its junk-removal services aim to keep 85% of the junk it collects out of landfills. The company does this by first attempting to resell any salvageable goods at The Regeneration Station, a thrift store that sells any up-cycled, salvageable, or repurposed goods collected. If the items don’t sell, the staff of junk recyclers breaks them down by hand in order to remove all of the recyclable parts, and then discards only what cannot be sold, recycled, or repurposed as beanbag stuffing.

For more than 35 years, 2-D ultrasound technology—which translates bouncing sound waves into digital images—has allowed parents to meet the newest members of their family a little ahead of schedule. Today, technology has advanced: 3-D ultrasounds reveal tiny hands, feet, and faces in full-color stills, and 4-D ultrasounds record live streaming video of fetuses in real time so that parents can make their children into prenatal Hollywood stars. Under the supervision of a board-certified physician, diagnostic medical sonographers with more than 10 years of experience reveal womb interiors while up to six adults sit and watch the 37-inch widescreen monitor. 2-D technology allows parents to listen to small heartbeats, and, if desired, lets sonographers determine gender when the baby-to-be is 15 weeks in the making. Stills from 2-D and 3-D scans and movies from 4-D scans can be recorded for parents to take home. All repeat sessions receive 10–20% off, so parents can come back to make sure their little ones are growing strong and refraining from playing video games all day.

Preacher and photographer Jim Eastin shares his passion for storytelling through Taking Better Photos classes and tours. During the Smokies tour, Jim teaches group members how to use their cameras to wordlessly tell stories about nature. Photographers practice shooting, and Jim gives them tips on how to make a compelling photograph. For those who prefer to tour at their own pace, Jim’s tours are available on audio CD. Alternatively, Jim’s library of instructional DVDs facilitate at-home learning and include titles such as Composition and Creativity, Photography at Night, and Photo Editing on Your Computer.