Lifelong Learning

Highlands’ Center for Life Enrichment builds friendships & personal advancement
by Johnathan Shipley

Two ladies were at a beauty parlor. They were getting their hair done. Underneath a pair of hair dryers, they got to talking. They were both summer residents of Highlands and chit-chatted about this and that. A friendship grew. Their names were Nell Martin and Nelda Toothman. 

Nell and Nelda, and their husbands, Bill and Rex, discovered a common interest among them: the joy of learning something new. Wouldn’t it be fun, they ruminated, to create a group in the Highlands area that could offer learning and enrichment opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds? Indeed. 

Nell and Nelda, and their husbands, Bill and Rex, discovered a common interest among them: the joy of learning something new. Wouldn’t it be fun, they ruminated, to create a group in the Highlands area that could offer learning and enrichment opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds? Indeed. 

By 1990, with the foursome’s enthusiasm and drive, the Highlands Lifestyle Enhancement Project came to fruition. By 1992, there were 50 paid members. Early courses included computer literacy, folk art in the mountains and international cooking. Today, the organization is known as the Center for Life Enrichment (CLE) and now offers over 100 programs to over 500 paying members at its center in Highlands.
“I enjoy seeing our members getting out there and doing what brings them joy and satisfaction,” says Fallon Hovis, executive director at the Center for Life Enrichment. “It’s encouraging to hear that CLE programs are how residents in the area are meeting friends and learning about our beautiful plateau.”

Friends don’t have to just meet at the beauty salon anymore. Friendships can form at a watercolor class, a lecture on Winston Churchill, at a falconry course, or over an appreciation of bourbon or Beethoven.
The organization just released its 2022 course catalog. It is ripe with offerings. It includes the arts (decoupage, drawing, birdhouse making, etc.), culinary arts (the art of mixology, gumbo cooking demo, unusual wines, etc.), current affairs (debating racism, journalism amid misinformation, the mission in Afghanistan, etc.), history (the legacy of Dwight Eisenhower, the Revolutionary War, the collapse of France during WWII, etc.), home and garden (birding 101, foraging for wild foods, home landscape design, etc.), law and politics, literature, music, science, sports, technology and much more.

Courses are taught by well-informed scholars, instructors at local universities, and those in the business world. Whether someone is interested in knowing their ancestry or taking a boat tour on Lake Jocassee, forecasting the midterm elections or previewing the coming college football season, there is plenty of fun to be had and plenty of fun people to have it with.
Paula Nix is CLE’s program manager.

“I am so excited to be a part of this organization and what it represents,” she said. “There isn’t a single activity on our roster that I don’t hope to get involved in and learn from.”

The last few years has been a learning curve for CLE. “The last two years’ challenges were the same for everyone,” Hovis says. “Dare I say the word? It starts with C and ends with OVID. As with all challenges, we learned how to adapt.”

During the pandemic, the organization geared most of its programming to be outdoors, allowing for social distancing and other CDC protocols. From hikes to outdoor wine tastings, it brought a welcomed reprieve from the pandemic stress. As Hovis states, “We needed to laugh; we yearned for socialization; we welcomed the distraction to focus on the wonders of nature and our community. These things never fail us.”
The organization is looking forward, while remaining cognizant of the recent past. That is to say, community building can happen anywhere, at any time, with anyone. 

“The people!” Nix says of those that make the area such a great place to be and makes CLE’s programming so rewarding.

She is especially excited about this year’s Porchfest community music festival.
Porchfest started in 2021. It’ll be back this year because it was a rousing success. The 2021 event had over 1,200 people registered to attend the free community music festival. Local musicians of every genre performed in nearly a dozen Highlands venues.

“From local residents to businesses and visitors, Porchfest was a way to thread our community back together after the pandemic,” Hovis says.
That thread will be even stronger this year. Wanting to not only offer more programming—and more diverse programming to boot—the organization is eager to expand its geographic reach. “We intend to fulfill our vision of providing these incredible programs to the Highlands as well as the Cashiers community,” Hovis says. “We invite Cashiers residents and visitors to make the small drive to Highlands for these incredible programs this year.”
Perhaps there are two people reading this story in a Cashiers beauty parlor. Perhaps they start up a conversation. Perhaps they become friends while deciding which CLE course to take together. A community grows, and strengthens, by such these connections.