ANNOUNCING THE 20th Annual Kiwanis Biltmore 15K/5K Races

Kiwanis Club of Asheville is seeking sponsors and runners for the 20th Annual Biltmore/Kiwanis 15K/5K Classic Races. Both events take place Sunday, May 21th, 2017 at the beautiful Biltmore Estate.
 
When runners participate in the race, they are not only participating in a picture-perfect run on the Biltmore Estate, but also are helping to fund Kiwanis Children's Charities which supports Asheville’s children. Kiwanis is active in our schools with Key Clubs providing leadership and scholarship opportunities in Enka and Erwin high schools; the Terrific Kids awards programs are operating in 3 elementary schools, and many books have recently been donated through the Scholastic Book Program – the club has many other projects and works hard to stay connected with the community.
 
The 15K begins at the Winery, climbs to the Deerpark Restaurant then descends and climbs along the main road to Biltmore House where runners will loop in front of the massive main entrance doors of the house. Runners next enter the Walled Garden, pass by the Azalea Garden and lagoon along the French Broad River, and then finish by returning to the Winery. The first half of the course has two challenging hills, while the second half is down hill to flat terrain. Here’s a video preview of the 15K course.

The 5K course will be a flat, out and back course starting at the Winery and paralleling the French Broad River.
 
This year marks the first time ADL owner Jensen Gelfond will run in the 5K race, rather than being a volunteer at the event. Also new this year, 15K finishers will receive a special 'finisher' medal upon crossing the finish line.

Jensen at last year's event with Kiwanis past president Dawn Morton. This year he will run the 5K, and invites you to join in.

​If you or your company would like to become a Sponsor of the event, please download the Sponsor Form from the Kiwanis of Asheville website by clicking here.

To register as a runner, please click here. To learn more about race, visit http://BiltmoreKiwanisClassicRace.com
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What is a smart home? News from the Consumer Electronics Show

Nest Learning Thermostat
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In January Asheville Digital Lifestyle visited the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest consumer electronics show in the United States, to get perspective about what's going on in the technology industry. 

One of the biggest buzzword terms at the show was "Smart Home." The term has been around for over a decade now, but what is a smart home and how can it help you? There's a lot of noise to sift through.

A smart home can be defined as a home that takes care of things for you, or at least makes it easy for you to manage your home no matter where you are, through the power of the internet. A great example of this is your thermostat. A "non-smart" thermostat might be a programmable thermostat that requires punching buttons on the unit and reading through a lengthy manual to ensure it's scheduled the way you need it.

A "smart" thermostat is one like the Nest Learning Thermostat. Because it's connected to your WiFi network, you can use an app on your phone to program it. But that's just the beginning. You can also change the thermostat's settings anytime from your phone, even if you're not home. Even better, you can use the GPS on your phone so that when you leave your home, your thermostat automatically changes to conserve energy when you're not there. 
 
If you want to go even one step further, you can integrate the Nest thermostat with other devices in your home to optimize your environment. For example, if you have a WiFi air quality monitor in your home, you can integrate it with your thermostat so that if levels of dust or chemicals get too high, your home's fan activates to filter the air. So the more devices you have in your home that can talk to each other via your wifi, the "smarter" your home becomes.
 
Do you need help setting up your smart home devices? Asheville Digital Lifestyle can help! Click to button below to contact us for an appointment.
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