Local nonprofit organization honors the service of Barbara Reed

Black Mountain Beautification Committee recognize 2025 Willie Headley Service Award recipient

Jessica Klarp
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
July 7, 2025

Barbara Reed, who joined the Black Mountain Beautification Committee in 2015, receives this year’s Willie Headley Award. Photo courtesy of Jessica Klarp

It was a sunny afternoon, June 8, when Black Mountain Beautifications Committee members paused their annual Garden Party to honor the next Willie Headley Service Award winner. 

The plaque, given to the member who best exemplifies the energy and vision of its namesake, was presented to Barbara Reed, a long time resident who has contributed to the community in a number of significant ways, and to BMBC in hundreds of ways, large and small.

The BMBC was established in 2000 by a group of local residents with the goal of improving the aesthetics of their community. The nonprofit organization exists solely by the support of community volunteers, private donations and support from the Town of Black Mountain. With over 110 active volunteer members who spread out across town maintaining 52 planter boxes, 26 greenspaces, cleaning up litter, decorating seasonally and assisting businesses to improve their natural spaces, the BMBC creates events to fund their efforts to maintain the natural appeal of this small town. 

Willie Headley was the BMBC’s first chairperson; it was her vision that brought about the Town Square and many of the other enhancements to the town. Following her death in 2012, the committee created the award as a way to honor her. The winner is selected by members of the Executive Committee and past Award honorees.

“Barbara was genuinely surprised when presented with the award, though I'm not sure why,” said Martha Long, chair of the BMBC. “Her willingness to take on so many projects over the years with her knowledge and enthusiasm has certainly helped to grow (the committee) and make our town a very special place to live.”

Winning the award was “special,” according to Reed.

“I had no expectations of ever receiving it,” she said. “I just felt like I was an ordinary member of an extraordinary group. I appreciate that the committee thought enough of my contributions to award it to me.”

Reed graduated from Warren Wilson College with a teaching certificate and taught grades 4th through 7th at the Bell School in Oteen for nine years. She then opened The Village Florist in Swannanoa where she shared her gift for flower arranging for 16 years. She volunteered as a docent for the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center for 12 years.

She is married to Dick Reed, has two children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Reed joined BMBC in 2015 and quickly jumped into offer her talents to the committee. Whether it was making bows and leading decorating efforts around town at Christmas, helping develop and maintain planter boxes, improving greenspace, creating a plant exchange, making peanut brittle for holiday cookie trays for Town employees or chairing the BMBC for two years, her energy and commitment left an impression on the membership. 

The longtime BMBC member started by making giant bows to help decorate the town for Christmas. This is an effort she has consistently continued for the past 10 years. Reed’s early bow making evolved into a leadership position as Chair of the Christmas Decorating Committee for six years, as well as teaching other committee members how to make bows every year. 

“I helped Libba Fairleigh make bows for Christmas one year and before I knew it I was the Christmas Decorating Chair for several years,” Reed said. “I made a lot of red bows in that length of time. We also sold bows with the holiday greenery each year. I would make between 20 and 25 bows in different colors and textures.”

She was part of the “Consistent Look” Committee that helped create and maintain all the beautiful planted containers around town. As part of that effort, Reed developed the sub-irrigation planter system, which makes watering the container easier and less frequent.

“Regardless of the project, Barbara was always looking for the best solution,” said Joyce Black-Woerz, former Willie Headley Award winner and longtime BMBC member. “She’d research with books, the internet and by talking to others who had more experience and come up with great results.”

For the next several years, as the containers and the Consistent Look developed, Reed took on a variety of responsibilities, including maintaining a number of containers herself. 

In her first year with BMBC, with member Anne Dale, Reed took on the improvement and maintenance of the “east gate site,” located near Ole’s and Black Mountain Primary School. In addition to donating a water barrel, Reed managed to acquire a granite bench, and, with her husband’s help, added large boulders for interest.

Reed has also worked with former Willie Headley Award winner Kate Ramsey on a number of projects over the years.

“Barbara is an amazing gardener with a talent for growing, dividing, propagating or bringing back to life almost any plant,” Ramsey said. “I think what I appreciate most is her willingness, maybe even her delight, in sharing her knowledge, as well as her plants. The many people she has taught to make holiday bows, the beautiful arrangements she makes for events and for the garden sale, and her enthusiasm for starting and continuing our plant swaps are just a few examples of this.” 

In 2018, Reed started a plant exchange that continues at seasonal monthly meetings.

“Barbara provides ongoing joy within the committee with her plant exchange idea,” said another former Willie Headley Award winner, Libba Fairleigh. “Her willingness to dig and share are much appreciated.”

In addition, Reed took on a leadership position, chairing the executive committee for two years. She started each meeting with a joke, a gesture that set the tone for the monthly gatherings.  

“This is a fantastic organization with fantastic members,” Reed said. “They are ordinary people who work together to do extraordinary things. This is a come-as-you-are kind of organization, a group of people who enjoy working together to make our town more beautiful.”