JULY 2017

STC-133612

Published monthly for customers of SkyLine Membership Corporation and SkyBest Communications

www.SkyLine.orgwww.SkyBest.com

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Tuesday, July 4SkyLine Customer Centers

to Close for Holiday

American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life

Ashe CountyFriday, July 28

Ashe County High School

STAFF:Jimmy Blevins

Chief Executive OfficerKim Shepherd

Chief Management OfficerAngie Poe

Customer Service ManagerJamey Jenkins

Retail Sales ManagerKaren P. Powell

Public Relations Administrator & Editor

SkyLine/SkyBest Supports LMC Summer Theatre

SkyLine/SkyBest is pleased to be a corporate sponsorof the Lees-McRae Summer Theatre program again thisyear. This season, LMC Summer Theatre will present an-other outstanding lineup beginning with Joseph and theAmazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which opened on June27 and ends with a matinee on July 2, followed by MillionDollar Quartet which opens on July 12 and LegallyBlonde The Musical, which opens on July 28.

Before they wrote Phantom of theOpera, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webberwrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicol-ored Dreamcoat. The Biblical saga ofJoseph and his coat of many colors comes

to vibrant life in this delightful musical parable.Million Dollar Quartet is the new smash

hit musical inspired by the famed recordingsession that brought together rock ‘n rollicons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry LeeLewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only

time. On December 4, 1956, these four young musiciansgathered at Sun Records in Memphis for what would beone of the greatest jam sessions ever.

Based on the adored movie, LegallyBlonde The Musical stays true to form witha peppy score and playful book. This musi-cal is ridiculously enjoyable, from start tofinish.

For ticket and complete schedule information, visitwww.lmc.edu.

Alleghany Seniors Named National Scholarship Winners

Corey Crouse and Hunter Maines of AlleghanyCounty were were among 47 students across rural Amer-ica to receive a national college scholarship through theFoundation for Rural Service (FRS). The FRS announcedthat it is awarding more than $100,000 in college scholar-ships this spring to students in rural communities servedby members of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association.Both students are receiving a $2,500 scholarship award,with $2,000 provided by the FRS and $500 from SkyLineas the local sponsor. Corey plans to attend Wilkes Com-munity College, and Hunter plans to attend Surry Com-munity College.  More than 1,500 applications werereceived by the FRS this year. The FRS Scholarship Pro-gram began in 2005, and SkyLine became a local sponsorin 2006. Since that time, 15 area winners have receivedthese national scholarships. In addition to providing lo-cally-based scholarships, SkyLine is very pleased to be af-filiated with this national scholarship program through itsmembership in NTCA.

SkyBest Among Sponsors of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s

Popular SeriesSkyBest Communications will be among the Popular

Series sponsors at An Appalachian Summer Festival, themonthlong summer arts program that features a variety ofmusic, theatre, film and dance on the campus of Ap-palachian State University in Boone. It has developedover the years to become one of the nation's largest re-gional multi-arts festivals with over 26,000 people in at-tendance each year. Presented by the Appalachian StateUniversity Office of Arts & Cultural Programs, the festivalhas been named one of the "Top Twenty Events in theSoutheast" by the Southeast Tourism Society.

This year, SkyBest will be among the local sponsors ofPopular Series events in the Schaefer Center for Perform-ing Arts featuring Tony Award-winning Sutton Foster, Jen-nifer Nettles, Chris Botti, Bruce Hornsby and theNoisemakers and Yes, with special guests Todd Rundgren& Carl Palmer’s ELP (Emerson Lake & Palmer) Legacy.

Two-time Tony Award-winning actress,singer and dancer Sutton Foster makes herdebut on the Schaefer Center on stage Sat-urday, July 8 for a high-spirited and dazzlingevening of song. Sutton has performed in

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

SkyLine Wins Two National AwardsSkyLine was among 23

member companies to receivenational recognition duringthe NTCA PR and MarketingConference in San Deigo, Cal-ifornia, in early May.

The annual awards pro-gram honors excellence inmember telco public relationsand marketing. Entries inseven categories – annual re-port, complete branding cam-paign, complete marketingcampaign, customer newslet-ter, local video content, sin-gle-target print publicationand website – were judged on

innovative strategies, design, writing, creativity and otherelements specific to each category. By category, a winnerwas selected from three divisions based on the number ofaccess lines served by the entrant and two production di-visions: ‘in-house’ and ‘outsourced.’

This year, SkyLine received its fifth, first-place awardfor Annual Reports among companies with access lines of

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Pictured at the Alleghany High School Awards Day program with SkyLine BoardPresident R.C. Mitchell and Board Secretary Jim Shepherd are FRS Scholarshipwinners Hunter Maines and Corey Crouse and this year’s Frank James-SkyLine

Scholarship winners, Savannah Cleary and Rayni Pruitt.

SkyLine PR Administrator KarenPowell and Executive Director ofCompetitive Operations EdwardHinson accepted the first-place

awards for Annual Report and Sin-gle-Target Publication at the

PR Net Conference.

Commemorative CookbookThe recipes we feature in our monthly newsletter come from SkyLine’s commemorative

cookbook. At just $15 each, they make great gifts, and all proceeds will support area foodbanks. Visit www.skybest.com or call SkyLine at 118 to order yours.

SAVANNAHCLEARY

Coastal CarolinaUniversity

Parents: Barbara &Jerry Cleary

RAYNI PRUITTSurry Community

CollegeParents: Scott &Michelle Pruitt 

JENNIFERSALAZAR-SANCHEZ

Campbell UniversityParents: Rufino Salazar

&  Tomasa Sanchez

ELIZABETH GOODMAN

Wilkes CommunityCollege

Parents: Billy Good-man & Julie Greene

VERONICA CLARKVirginia Tech

Parent: Kylie Clark

KATYLIN ESTEPCaldwell Commu-

nity CollegeParents: Sherry &

Michael Estep

OLIVIA BROOKSEast TennesseeState UniversityParents: Jason &

Laura Brooks

HOLLY GREENECaldwell Community

CollegeParents: Byron &

Nikki Greene

ALLEGHANYCOUNTY

Area Students Named Winners of theFrank James-SkyLine Scholarship

Ten area high school seniors have been named recipients of the 2017 FrankJames – SkyLine Scholarship. The scholarships honor the memory of former SkyLineBoard President Frank James and are awarded to children of SkyLine/SkyBest cus-tomers who reside in our five-county service area. The awards were announced atarea high schools’ Awards Day programs, and will be officially presented to the stu-dents at SkyLine’s Annual Meeting in September.

Annually, SkyLine awards $1,000 scholarships, renewable for up to four years, tostudents pursuing a four-year college degree and $500 scholarships, renewable forup to two years, to students pursuing a community/technical college degree or voca-tional program.

ALLEGHANYCOUNTY

ASHE COUNTY ASHE COUNTY AVERY COUNTY

AVERY COUNTY WATAUGA COUNTY

REBEKAH DUGGERUniversity of

TennesseeParents: Tracy & Julie

Dugger

TAYLOR LONGNortheast State

Community CollegeParents: Dr. Cheri &

Travis Long

WATAUGA COUNTY JOHNSON COUNTY JOHNSON COUNTY

AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

11 Broadway shows – most recently the revival of Violet – and originated roles in such Broadway pro-ductions as Little Women, Young Frankenstein and herTony Award-winning performances in Anything Goesand Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Scheduled to perform Saturday, July15, Grammy Award-winning Country superstar Jennifer Nettles has becomeone of the most admired singer-song-writers in music today. Since explodingonto the music scene in 2004 as lead

vocalist for international duo Sugarland, Nettles has recently released her debut album "Playing With Fire.”

For over two decades, multiGrammy Award-winning master trum-peter and composer Chris Botti, whowill perform Saturday, July 22, hasamassed a spectacular variety of honors,including multiple Gold and Platinum

albums, to become the nation’s largest selling instru-mental artist.

Bruce Hornsby performs with hislongtime band, the Noisemakers onThursday, July 27 and taps into many ofthe genres that have influenced hismusic over the years – pop, jazz, blue-grass, country and modern classical.

Throughout this period, Hornsby has maintained theintegrity, virtuosity and artistic curiosity that have beenhallmarks of his work from the start.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hallof Fame in 2017, YES embarks on a na-tional tour, treating fans to a set list ofgreatest hits from all of the band’s nine

albums up to 1980, and showcasing the storied his-tory of one of the world’s most influential, ground-breaking, and respected progressive rock bands. YESwill perform at the Holmes Center with special guestsTodd Rundgren and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy on Saturday, August 5.

For more information, visit www.appsummer.orgor call (800) 841-ARTS or (828) 262-4046.

SKYLINE WINS AWARDS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

10,000 or more. SkyLine also won first-place in the sin-gle-target print publication category among companieswith access lines of 10,000 or more for a broadbandwin-back campaign that featured a musical greetingcard.

“I would like to congratulate all of the 2017 Tele-Choice Award winners for their incredible work,” saidNTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield. “Themarketing efforts of NTCA member companies continueto play a critical role in educating and raising awarenessof communications technologies, services, initiativesand issues that impact the vitality of rural communitiesand our nation.”

Winning entries included campaigns that increasedrural consumers’ adoption of higher Internet tiers, withspeeds of up to 1 Gbps, and print and digital materialtouting the telcos’ histories and commitment to theircommunities.

NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association is the pre-mier association representing more than 800 independ-ent, community-based telecommunications companiesthat are leading innovation in rural and small-townAmerica. NTCA advocates on behalf of its members inthe legislative and regulatory arenas, and it providestraining and development; publications and industryevents; and an array of employee benefit programs.