On the Saturday morning of March 5, temperatures had climbed to over 60 degrees and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was something Highland Brewing President and CEO Leah Wong Ashburn has been waiting for all winter.
She was all smiles and so were her friends, as they were enjoying the welcome warm weather on the new sand volleyball courts at Highland, playing the sport they love.
“It was the first time we’ve gotten to play with our socks off,” said Asheville’s Eric Orton. “The courts are just great. For the first few weeks, we had to play with socks because the sand was so cold.”
Ashburn said she’s wanted the courts for a long time.
“I dreamed about sand courts at Highland before I started working here in 2011. It’s been everything I envisioned,” Ashburn said.
The sand courts were completed in the fall of 2020 and were the brainchild of her and her husband, Brock, who is Highland’s vice president. In 2015, Leah Ashburn was named the president and then CEO in 2018 of the family business, which was created by her father, Oscar Wong, in 1994.
Leah Ashburn, 51, is a 1992 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate and also a 1988 Providence Day High graduate. She and her husband, Brock, 52, who is an engineer, both are volleyball fanatics.
