The holidays are hectic enough without driving all over town to do your shopping. We are fortunate to have just about everything we need right here on the mountain!

The Fairyland Pharmacy offers much more than hardware and drugstore items. It stocks a full line of durable Melissa and Doug toys, with many new ones this year. Check out the hilarious array of cocktail napkins, the popular Russell Stover’s candies, books by local artists and a vast array of stocking stuffers, kitchen gadgets, acrylic wine glasses, Gund toys, Root candles, Vinrella umbrellas, plus many Christmas knickknacks.

As you know, the Mountain Escape Spa offers spa services and gift certificates, but lots of other gifts as well, including clothing, specialty foods, candles, creams and lotions, and jewelry. Find two must-give items that were featured on the “Today Show,” Sleep Tight by Private Holdings, sleeping garments that are super soft and offer built in support, and Notes to Self, socks with positive affirmations stamped on them. Peruse pajamas, incredible fur jackets from Fabulous Furs, super soft animal bedroom slippers, silk jackets in bright colors, toy soaps that contain a rubber toy inside, dress toppers in beautiful bright colors, fingerless gloves, embroidered shawls, and the list goes on.

The Market on the Mountain offers several new items for our holiday shopping, including handcrafted popcorn in a variety of flavors, like salted caramel and chocolate peanut butter, as well as several food items from Charleston’s Food for the Southern Soul, including Bloody Mary mix and Golden Mary mix (made from yellow tomatoes), and a blackjack barbecue mustard sauce, peach hot sauce, and peach chutney. You will also find Miss Donna’s cheese straws, and cookies that were voted as one of 2018’s best food items in the magazine Taste of the South. You’ll find flavored pecans, goodies from Olive Chattanooga, Betsy’s Cheese Straws, Shuptrine’s Twisted products, and, of course, the deli is always cranking out entrées and hot soups. You can even place your order for Christmas dinner if you don’t want to cook!

Speaking of cooking, gift certificates to Café on the Corner make wonderful stocking stuffers!

If you haven’t been to the mountain’s new pop-up shops, you must go! Jen Kline of Thread and Ink and Adelaide Naumann of Divine Goods joined forces this holiday season to open up a shop next door to the Mountain Mirror on North Watauga. Jen specializes in personalized gifts and paper, offering monogramming onsite, and Adelaide offers gift boxes that you can personalize yourself from her products, or just let her work her magic. This adorable shop offers a corner devoted to dog and cat gifts, like bowls, treats and grooming items, and as well as travel wraps, cashmere scarves, ponchos, food and bar items, facial products, personalized party supplies, insulated wine tumblers that can be personalized and lots more. The walls are accented with Billy Parker’s beautiful watercolors, and these timeless treasures are for sale. Throughout the month of December, local artists will bring their specialties on certain designated afternoons. These cute gals offer gift wrapping, as well as a holiday wish list for anyone who might be shopping for you!

Michelle Workman opened a pop-up shop next door to the Fairyland Pharmacy, and you’ll find all manner of decorative accessories for the home, including many one-of-a-kind items from all over the world, from Louis XV side tables discovered at the famed Paris Flea Market to gorgeous bedspread she picked up in Morocco, and everything in between. The chance to peruse this famed interior designers wares is truly a treat!
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Happy shopping to all, and see you at the top!

By Tish Gailmard

Many years ago, a college age North Carolina native accepted a counselor position at Camp Alpine in Mentone, Ala. Years later, Mark McKnight is celebrating his first year as Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center’s president, a year with a list of very noticeable accomplishments.

Mark’s camp counselor gig amplified his love of the outdoors, and he grew to appreciate our area’s geology, scenic beauty and ecological diversity. After graduating from Hampton-Sydney College with degrees in English and religion, a conversation with Dawson Wheeler, co-founder of Rock Creek Outfitters, brought Mark to Chattanooga, where he built Rock Creek’s brand into a force to reckon with in the outdoor world.

Within the retail platform, Mark was able to continue to connect people with the outdoors through many forms of recreation on public lands, including the wildly popular trail race series that still exists today. These trail races, with engaging names like Brow Beater, Savage Gulf and Stump Jump, showcase the many striking opportunities for enjoying the outdoor world in our community.

Mark then ventured into the start-up realm as co-founder of Roots Rated, once again connecting people with the great outdoors. His next gig was in the consulting business, after another call from Dawson piqued his interest - Reflection Riding was looking for a president to shake things up and carry this well known (but in need of a revamp) environmental education facility into the future. Reflection Riding hit the jackpot when Mark accepted the position.

During Mark’s first year, he took a deep look into both what Reflection Riding is doing and needs to do in this community. Mark assessed the management of this nonprofit from an ecological standpoint, recognizing that promoting biodiversity through better ecosystem management is imperative. He introduced successional fire as a natural method to maintain habitat and removed approximately 18 acres of the non-native invasive privet plant, replacing it with native plants. (Caterpillars don’t like privet, which means no songbirds, which means no predators, which results in an unhealthy ecosystem.) Removing privet and replanting with natives also eliminates homogenous woods and replaces them with Tennessee native forests.
Mark and his staff have increased and diversified programming for all ages. With updated marketing strategies, these exciting programs are well attended and reviewed. Want to learn to mountain bike? How about a guided nighttime canoe trip or a raptor training workshop? Want to feed the red wolves? Attend a few campfire concerts or the Earth Day Festival? You get the idea ... this place is hopping with fun for all ages.

In the spirit of the Lookout Mountain Conservancy, Mark’s quest is to make outdoor activities available to everyone, even changing Reflection Riding’s admission from fee-based to donation-based. “What we do has to reach everyone. Access, equity and inclusion,” stated this innovative leader. The organization is finding its visitors are happy to make a donation upon entering this nirvana and often many of them contribute again as they leave or purchase a membership. It’s the organization’s hope these excited visitors will become long-term supporters.

Mark hopes the community will become more devoted to the future of Chattanooga’s Nature Center and Arboretum by taking a leap of faith and investing in the future of this highly unusual 317-acre property that sits just six miles from Chattanooga’s center. “For those who believe in what we’re doing, we need them to invest in us. It’s time for smart growth while honoring the legacy of our founders - the Chambliss and Humphrey families and the Chattanooga Junior League,” Mark said.

Mark harnessed today’s technology to get this non-profit running lean, meaning more of your donation dollars go directly to the mission of connecting people with nature. The use of several software packages makes the business side of this non-profit run very efficiently, and utilizing inter-organizational apps means the staff gets out from behind the desk faster, leaving more time to be in the field, teaching and engaging visitors.

Reflection Riding is a truly fantastic place to unplug, but this savvy organization knows that technology can be leveraged as a great teaching tool and encourages visitors and staff to use the app iNaturalist to record what they see on the property and in their own circles of the world.
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School field trips, the native plant sale, and summer camps have been Chattanooga favorites for years. With Mark’s magic, these events (and many new ones), coupled with a new attitude, have lit a spark. Exciting things are going on here, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to be involved! Find out more at reflectionriding.org.
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