AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — It's woolly worm race day at Riverside Elementary School in Avery County.

Bo Manis says it's always a good time. He is a PE teacher at the school and in charge of the races.

"It's fun every year," Manis said.

What You Need To Know

  • The Woolly Worm Festival is back in Banner Elk this weekend

  • People from all over the world are here to race worms up a string

  • The worm that races fastest will predict this years winter weather

Each class comes in one at a time and races a worm the students brought from home. Austin Carver won a kindergarten race.

"He did fine. He did good," Carver said.

He says it wasn't by accident — he trained his worm Riley before the big day.

"We got some string and tied it onto a cabinet and just let him go up," Carver said.

It's a fun day, principal Whitney Baird says. They do it every year before the big Woolly Worm Festival, which is in Banner Elk this weekend. It brings in people from all over the world to race their worms up a string.

At the end of Saturday's race, the winner will predict the high country's winter weather. There are 13 body segments on a woolly worm and 13 weeks of winter. The color of the segment predicts what our weather will be that week. The money raised from the festival goes to the schools.

"The teachers each year are given a grant opportunity to write a grant through the Kiwanis worm festival and they can submit whatever their grant is. They always choose teachers throughout all the elementary, middle and high schools to give grants to," Baird said.

It's a full-circle experience, she says, and one that's fun for everyone.

"It brings the whole community together when they get to race and then the teachers get to use the funds that are raised from the festival," Baird said.