Library On Wheels, Community In Motion

A bus full of books is changing what a library can do. We sit down with Henderson County Public Library’s Trina Rushing—freshly named North Carolina’s 2025 Public Library Director of the Year—to explore how a mobile library, free digital tools, and hands-on classes are opening doors for every neighbor, from new readers to small business owners. Trina shares the early wins: 45 mobile stops in three months, more than 2,000 visits, and a growing list of requested stops at schools, community events, and mobile food pantries.

We go deeper into what modern access looks like. Free ebooks and audiobooks through Libby, streaming and movies with Hoopla, and practical classes on podcasts, online safety, and “beating the paywall” using library-funded news and periodical databases. Genealogy enthusiasts get a family roots research lab, while entrepreneurs tap premium market data, business plan tools, and training courses—without paying subscription fees. Add museum access via Zoom passes, and the library becomes a real equalizer for a county that values learning at every age.

Community stays at the center. The Kaplan Auditorium hosts author talks, music, health resources, financial classes, and playful nights like a Golden Girls tribute, all collected in the quarterly Illuminations newsletter. Trina’s journey from teacher to director threads it all together: remove barriers, go where people are, and make discovery feel welcoming and free. We also share a quick snapshot of the local real estate market, plus details on open houses and how to reach our team.

Subscribe, share this with a neighbor who loves learning, and leave a review with the library resource you plan to try next—Libby, Hoopla, a class, or the mobile library. Your ideas help us spotlight more hometown heroes and the programs that lift our community.

Transcript

Milestone And Market Snapshot

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 1005 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 8.45, the George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 8 45 on Friday morning, and every Friday morning we gather with uh Noah George and the George Real Estate Group, and we talk about some good in the neighborhood, and it is our always our favorite time of the week to gather. Good morning, Noah.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Good morning and happy Friday. And it's always a privilege and honor to be here every Friday morning sponsoring the Hometown Hero Series.

Contact Info And Open Houses

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Well, what have you been up to this week in the real estate world? Tell me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

The market, I mean, here's January, and we just came out of the holidays, but the market is steady. The inventory levels remaining strong. The demand, you know, this time of year, people might think nothing's happening, but that's not the case. I mean, our there's homes selling year-round in Henderson County. And the thing that I've been sharing recently is Henderson County had an 8% increase in the number of homes sold in 2025 versus 2024, which is significant considering the interest rates we've been in and the economic environment. But we continue to have strong demand here in Henderson County. And everybody asks about prices. And because of the strong demand and the low inventory levels, we still are prices are holding. Our average single-family home price in Henderson County is at$544. So prices are holding, demand is strong, and it's real estate happens around life. So you know it's not it's not always about the interest rates of the economy or the the market. The market's the market, but but we know life happens, therefore real estate happens.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, it continues to happen in 2026, and uh you guys have got a great year planned out. Get in touch, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Absolutely. You can call us directly at 828-3930134. 828-3930134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com. Also follow us on social media. We have a number of open houses uh that you'll be able to see about. We have this weekend uh coming up. Again, we're doing open houses throughout I mean it year-round things are happening, and that's great. And open houses are a great time to come out and check out homes available. And uh again, you can call us, you can stop by our office in Flat Rock. Uh, but grateful to serve the community through real estate.

Meet Director Trina Rushing

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Fantastic. The George Real Estate Group, and we sure hope uh we sure enjoy your sponsorship of uh the Hometown Hero series. We love doing that each week. And Trina Rushing is the director of the Henderson County Public Library, and welcome, Trina.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

How are you?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

It's good to have you with us and uh chat with uh you about things that are going on at the Henderson County Public Library. Uh you've been there now since uh mid 2015 or so, did I read, I believe. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yes. Eleven years. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Well uh tell us about uh a recent award you got. That's what really caught my eye. You were honored recently as the 2025 North Carolina Public Library Director of the Year. And that's a lot of library systems.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

It is, yes. That was an incredible honor. Yeah, there are I think there are right around maybe 89 or so library systems across our state. Yeah. And uh there is an association with all of the library directors uh who you know collaborate and grit and uh meet uh on a regular basis, and uh I was nominated by them and selected for this year's Director of the Year Award.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

That's amazing. So your peers voted on this and and nominated you and and you were selected. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yes, that's what makes it so special. I think it is.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

You know.

Mobile Library Launch And Impact

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Well, uh there were many reasons, I'm sure, that you were uh the recipient of this award, but uh one in particular that uh I think uh caught everybody's eyes, and it it caught my eye too, is your mobile library. That was uh that was put on the marketplace last year, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yes, we launched that the in early September.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, and what's the reception been?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Oh gosh, it's been incredible. Uh, you know, the first three months we had over 45 stops, and um over 2,000 people have visited during those stops.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Really?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Fantastic. Over 2,000 people that got books, got introduced to books, got to see, feel, touch, and smell books that didn't normally do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Exactly. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

That's fantastic. You know what? It makes me think of the uh the Imagination Library, uh Dolly Parton's uh effort in East Tennessee. Well, it's just gone all across the nation. That makes it reminds me of that.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Absolutely, yes. That's something that we um strongly promoted our library as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Really? The imagination library, yeah. Well, uh there's uh, like I said, many reasons you were chosen for this uh recognition, but uh, could you tell us about some things that are going on at the Henderson County Public Library maybe we don't know about?

Requesting Stops And Homebound Services

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Right. Um definitely check out the mobile library schedule, of course. Um we do have regular stops. Um, but in addition, something people might not know is they can request a stop. So on the website, uh there's a spot for them too. If it's a school, there's a a form, and then if it's a community organization or event that would like us to come by, um we're we're attending some of the mobile food pantries and um other other spots. So definitely reach out to us. Um other than that, along with our outreach, we have some homebound services. So if folks can't get to us and can't get to that mobile library, give us a call and we'll be happy to set up a a way for uh them to still receive their reading materials.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So you go on the road, huh?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

We do, yes. Um we also have, you know, we're all about literacy. We have a 2026 reading challenge right now. So we really encourage everybody to uh join in on the fun. We have twelve twelve uh little reading um challenges for folks, and they complete them and they can uh get in a drawing for some prizes, and it's just a lot of fun.

Reading Challenge And Trina’s Journey

SPEAKER_02 6:57

That's amazing. Uh uh Trina, I'm curious about your story, how you ended up as the director and and your maybe your own passion for books and how you decided to pursue a career a career and with the libraries. Do you do you mind sharing about that as to maybe when when was your first memory of a library and your impact and how you decided to to pursue this?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Oh gosh, my first memories are as a very young child. Uh we, you know, both the school library and our public library was um really big part of my my growing up. Uh and um I also I started as a teacher. And through that, um, you know, English was always my passion and making sure um literacy and books were were part of the curriculum. And then uh got introduced to the public library uh program through their degree and thought, you know what, I can do a lot of good with youth still by getting into the libraries. So that's how I kind of segued into public libraries and have done just about every job in the system and just it's been a joy.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

That's amazing. Uh uh did you grow up where did you grow up? And was it in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

No, I'm from Michigan.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That's amazing. Well, what why how'd you wind up in Henderson? I know Noah asked this question all the time of uh people moving here. Why how did you find Henderson?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Well, Michigan's a little cold in the winter.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

A little cold.

Technology Shift And Free Ebooks

SPEAKER_00 8:33

I was I was pretty ready by the time I earned my bachelor's to kind of go south and seek some warmth. Right. And so I I met my spouse who is from the South, and so I started looking at school systems and uh researching um since I just earned that degree. So I ended up down here in this area and taught in both Transylvania and Henderson counties.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Fantastic. And then you've been the director of the Henderson County Library since 2015.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

How what's you what have you seen over the years? I mean, I know things are changing, right, with technology and and then you know, how does technology play into the libraries and I mean like from when you started to and where you're at now and then your vision for the library moving forward?

Classes, Genealogy, And Business Tools

SPEAKER_00 9:17

I'd say the biggest change we have noticed is um people are definitely reading, but they're shifting from more from the print to the ebooks. So really building our ebook collection and all these people I talk to that say that they pay for these subscription services to get their ebooks. I encourage them check out the libraries first because they're free for them and there's a lot there. Um but definitely that's the biggest change in all of the technology that goes along with that and keeping up with that um throughout the years. And going forward, we um you know, we're we like to think of ourselves as more of an equalizer for services for folks. Um all residents have opportunities and so we'll be bringing on um you know a lot more resources um for those in need. You know, we offer Zoom passes, which are Zoom museum passes for folks so they don't have to pay the admission to get in. Okay. Um they can check it out for the library and then schedule a time to go visit, um, things like that. So we're gonna continue to uh to uh reach out. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

It's a community hub. Yes I mean for a lot of resources, right? I mean, do you you're helping people with um maybe uh uh what other things do you offer to help our community?

Events, Auditorium, And Newsletter

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Uh well we have a list of technology classes that we offer because you know that's something like I said, um just in January alone, of course, we teach about the ebooks and audiobooks and how to use them, but we have an introduction to podcasts, um, beating the paywall, talk about our newspaper and periodical databases and where people can access them without having to buy a subscription, uh online safety and those in genealogy. We have a family roots research lab, a lot of genealogy researching. Um and then for our business community, I don't think there's um it's kind of a best kept secret that we have a lot of databases. Um we have a whole entrepreneurship database and training course. There's uh resources on creating business plans and then the market research analysis databases so folks can pull up there's over a hundred million U.S. businesses and residential listings on this database that they can pull up their their market research for.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

That's amazing. Again, all these resources are available for our community.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Right. Yeah, the Caplan Auditorium there that hosts uh I know I've been to numerous speeches, presentations, community meetings, et cetera. And that's uh of course open to the public.

Apps: Libby And Hoopla

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, a lot of community uh groups are using it as well as uh a lot of library programs. Of course, you know, we'll we'll continue with our our author of rent events and musical events, but we you know, a lot of um health resources, um, some financial classes, but uh there's so much there. We actually publish, I don't know if you've know about that, but we publish a quarterly newsletter called Illuminations, and that um we have all of our programs listed each quarter that's that'll be coming up. Um we have a real fun one coming up real soon though. Check it out. It's uh Golden Girls tribute. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Of course it would.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

A lot of trivia, and yeah, it'll just be a great time.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I love it. Well, uh, all of this information that you just told us about, I'm sure is available on your website, and uh you could give us that.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, it's uh Henderson County NC.gov forward slash library.

Honors, Thanks, And Website

SPEAKER_02 12:55

That's amazing. You do I I've heard many people like if you're paying for ebooks or audible books, you have what's the app for the library? It's Libby. Libby. And you don't have to pay for those. I mean you can you can uh reserve a book, right? Right electronically, whether it's audible or I mean an audio version or an electronic version, and you can read uh from your home or listen from your home. Great.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can do it through Libby. You can also do it through our Hoopla app, which also has some uh movies as well on it.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

That's fantastic. I knew there was a reason I wanted you to come in here today. You've just given us so much information, Trina. Thank you so much, and congratulations on being honored uh from your peers and selected as uh director of the year for the North Carolina for the whole state of North Carolina. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Thank you, appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

That's amazing. We're so thankful for what you do for our community. We really are. We've got uh a certificate for you and some uh freebie lunches around town, so uh enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Oh, I sure will. Thank you.

Featured Open House And Services

SPEAKER_01 13:59

All right, Noah. We got about uh minute and a half left.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Uh you say there's open houses scheduled uh open houses this weekend. Uh 73 Wisdom Coven Flat Rockets, an amazing home. Yeah, completely remodeled, beautiful property, uh, you know, one-level living with a double car garage. Uh it's amazing. Uh this that's this Sunday, two to four. And of course, all the details are you can find it on our social media and you know, Facebook page and and Instagram. And and and if you just want to, if you see a property that you're interested in, you can certainly reach out to us. Or if you're just curious what your home is worth, I mean, we're busy, we're we're grateful. What do you say? If you want something done, you reach out to somebody that's busy. I mean, like, yeah, we're we're getting things done. We love, and it's a privilege and honor to help our clients and our community with real estate. And again, it could be a really positive reason why our clients are buying or selling. And then life happens. There can be challenges that we we've walked through with our clients. And so, whatever it might be, you know, we we'd be honored to interview for the job.

Hometown Hero Nominations And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 14:58

And you guys, uh, you there's a lot of agents working out of your office there serving a big area of Western North Carolina and the upstate.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

So, Western North Carolina and the upstate. We have wonderful agents. We hired more agents, and so again, it's a we love helping our clients.

Address, Phone, And Live Broadcast Times

SPEAKER_01 15:14

It's uh looking bright for a future in real estate in 2026, and it's also looking bright for honoring hometown heroes, and we do that every Friday morning at 845. And if you have a nomination for someone that needs recognition, we'd love to know about it. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thanks for joining us on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 A.m. or stream online at WHKP.com or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8.45.

Ad: Right-Sizing With Trusted Agents

SPEAKER_02 16:25

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