Rep. Sossamon Hosts Upcoming Forums About Dementia, Alzheimer’s

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State Rep. Frank Sossamon is hosting forums in Vance and Granville counties to share information with the community about Alzheimer’s disease and how to spot early-warning signs of dementia.

The first forum will be held on Monday, Sept. 23 at Clearview Church, 3485 US -158 Business in Henderson. The event will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The second forum will be held Monday, Sept. 30 at Cornerstone Christian Community Church, 3237 Knotts Grove Rd. in Oxford, also from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Lindsey Golden with the Alzheimer’s Association of NC and Michael Patterson with the Kerr-Tar Area Agency on Aging will educate and inform the public on the 10 early warning signs of dementia, as well as provide support for those living with the disease and for caregivers to those living with the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease, just one of many different types of dementia, is characterized by progress memory loss and cognitive decline. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that more than 6.9 million people in the U.S. are living with Alzheimer’s dementia.

Visit https://www.alz.org/about to learn more.

EnTech Mobile Lab Brings Technology To VCS Students

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Vance County Schools and community leaders were on hand Wednesday, Sept. 4 to officially roll out the EnTech Mobile Lab, a lab on wheels that will give students hands-on experiences with various forms of technology.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at Vance County High School to launch the lab, during which time Superintendent Dr. Cindy Bennett thanked partner Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce, the Vance County Public School Foundation and the team at the Center for Innovation for making the mobile lab a reality.

Dr. Destiney Ross-Putney, VCS chief officer of Instruction and Innovation, along with Henderson Mayor Melissa Elliott, HV Chamber President Sandra Wilkerson and Chamber Board Chair Margier White shared the impact this initiative will have on students in the district.

“The EnTech Mobile Lab exemplifies the district’s commitment to igniting interest in diverse career fields and ensuring that VCS students have access to innovative, experiential learning opportunities,” said Dr. Ross-Putney. “We are excited to see our students engage with these career-aligned stations, developing the skills and knowledge essential for the workforce of the future.”

The mobile classroom can offer cutting-edge learning opportunities to students throughout the district, providing students with hands-on exposure to STEM careers in real-world contexts.

The mobile lab travels to schools, delivering interactive experiences such as drone piloting, robotics, and virtual reality, all designed to foster critical skills like problem-solving, collaboration, and innovation. Each station provides students with valuable resources on the skills, coursework and education required for future careers, ensuring equitable access to career-focused learning experiences for all students.

The EnTech Mobile Lab provides tailored learning experiences that align with classroom needs, ensuring that the curriculum is enriched through experiential, hands-on activities. Through strong collaboration between the CFI team, school administrators, and teachers, the mobile lab will continue to deliver transformative educational experiences across the district.

The EnTech lab was established at the Center for Innovation in fall 2023 and Director Kristin Jeffreys, alongside Learning Specialists Stephen Jones and Patricia Burroughs, develop programs to enrich student learning.

Among the lab’s features are the Lu Interactive Playground, equipped with a laser projector, motion-sensing cameras and a robust sound system to foster immersive educational environments. Additional highlights include a dedicated drone cage, eSports capabilities and advanced robotics.

Following the ribbon-cutting, guests got a chance to explore the mobile lab’s interactive stations and see demonstrations that included the zSpace lab, a drone zone, a robotic dog and an emergency simulation.

Rebuilding Hope, Inc. Chicken Plate Fundraiser Sept. 27

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It’s not too soon to be thinking about the fall barbecued chicken fundraiser at Rebuilding Hope, Inc. – circle Friday, Sept. 27 on the calendar and make plans to head over to eat in or pick up to-go plates.

The $10-a-plate dinners will be cooked and served from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. at 414 Raleigh Rd., the location of RHI’s offices and warehouse.
The familiar menu will include green beans, potatoes and dessert.
Volunteers will deliver orders for five or more plates. Call and place your order. Dinners may be picked up in the drive-through area or enjoyed in the RHI dining room.
Volunteers are needed both the day before and the day of the fundraiser.
The day before, bread and desserts are bagged; cups are filled with barbecue sauce.

On fundraiser day, helping hands are needed to fill plates and keep the serving line supplied.

Visit https://rebuildinghopeinc.org/ to learn more about upcoming events and ways to help. For more information, call 252.438.5132 or email  info@rebuildinghopeinc.org

TownTalk: Around Old Granville: A Visit To Cokesbury And Vicksboro

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The North Carolina Room at Thornton Library in Oxford is full of all kinds of books, maps and bound volumes of all sorts and conditions.

And cookbooks.

“I must say, God bless people who do cookbooks,” said Mark Pace, North Carolina Room specialist and local historian.

Located among all those historical tomes are more than 100 local cookbooks, and Pace said they are helpful to him in his research.

These cookbooks, often published as a fundraising effort for churches, civic groups and volunteer fire departments, surely contain lots of favorite recipes but also some nuggets about the history of the organization.

And that’s exactly where Pace got some of the information about Cokesbury for Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk.

As he was doing a little research, he came across a cookbook from Cokesbury Methodist Church and “sure enough, there’s a nice page in there about the founding of the church.”

And when he fielded a question about when the fire department was started there, he got his hands on a cookbook that the ladies auxiliary group had published and found out all about it.

Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris talked about the communities of Vicksboro and Cokesbury, both located in the area of the county known as Sandy Creek Township.

Vicksboro was originally known as Coley’s Crossroads, Pace said, and there was a post office located there called Steedsville that operated from 1884 to 1894. Pace said it’s unclear how the name change came about, but one theory is that a Steedsville postmaster had an affinity for Vicksburg, MS and changed the name to VicksBORO to avoid confusion with the post office in the Mississippi town.

The little communities like Cokesbury and Vicksboro that dot the countryside often had their own little businesses that it was known for.

If you grew up in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in Vance County, there’s a chance your parents took you to the shoe store in Cokesbury. There was a shoe store and a small textile store in Justice, Pace said, and a dry cleaners in Manson. In the 1950’s and ‘60s, Egypt Mountain had a sewing shop where folks could buy sewing notions and cloth, Pace said.

Perhaps the heart and soul of the community out in Sandy Creek Township, however, was Aycock School, he said.

It was built as a consolidated school in 1925 and named for the former governor, Charles B. Aycock, known as “the education governor,” Pace said.

“It was really state of the art for its day,” he added. There was a gym and a teacherage located on the site of the original school on Vicksboro Road.

Listen to the show in its entirety at wizs.com.

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The Local Skinny! Brick Power Team Hosts Weight Lifting Event

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The Brick Power Team is hosting a “Beast On The Bench” power lifting meet next month, and it’s power lifting with a purpose – raising money to help two local women who have helped so many in the community.

Harry Orr, executive director of the Brick Power Team, said every penny raised at the Oct. 26 meet will be given to Sara Coffey and Marsha Ranes, both of whom are facing health challenges.

The meet will be held at the Brick, located beside Freedom Life Church of God, 1001 Martin Creek Rd., Henderson.

“They’re real dear to me and to a whole lot (of others) in the community,” Orr said on Thursday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

Both Coffey and Ranes have helped him with everything he’s ever done, Orr said, so it’s only fitting that he and his organization offer help in return.

In fact, Coffey herself was among the 2022 class inducted into the North Carolina State Strength Sports Hall of Fame for the support she’s provided over the years to the sport.

At one time, he said, power lifting was a big sport, and there’s a renewed interest lately among participants and those who just enjoy watching.

Entry fees are $50 for adults and $40 for teens. Spectators pay $5, and children 12 and under get in free.

Contact Orr at 252.432.4196 or by email at horr2553@yahoo.com to get registered and to learn details about the different classes and age brackets for the meet.

Weigh-ins will be held Friday, Oct. 25 from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Rules will be reviewed at 9:15 a.m. and the meet will begin at 10 a.m.

Trophies will be awarded for first and second place.

 

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Dangers of Fentanyl Topic Of Upcoming Community Info Series At Baskerville Funeral Home

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The dangers of fentanyl is the focus of the upcoming Community Information series on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Baskerville Funeral Home chapel.

Cathy Hazlett, substance use prevention & treatment program manager with Granville Vance Public Health, will discuss how fentanyl is used with other street drugs that makes it so dangerous, as well as how to prevent a fatal overdose.

The meeting will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the funeral home, located at 104 S. Chestnut St.

Call 252. 430.6824 to learn more.

 

TownTalk: Vance Recovery

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The road to recovery from addiction does not look the same for everyone, but it’s only natural for people to think that what is working for them is what is best for others, too.

Twelve-step programs like AA and NA, and faith-based programs that focus on celebrating recovery are just a couple of paths that get a lot of attention – and publicity.

But there’s a stigma attached to programs that prescribe medications to help addicts kick the habit of using street drugs like heroin and Fentanyl.

It’s a stigma felt not only by patients, but also by the professionals that work in clinics like Vance Recovery, which uses the MOUD method to help people on their own path to recovery.

MOUD stands for Medications to Treat Opioid Use Disorder, and Vance Recovery’s Program Director John Mattocks said he would love for people plagued by addiction to be encouraged and celebrated for choosing the MOUD approach instead of it being a last resort.

“When someone walks through our doors, they’re desperate,” he said.

Vance Recovery is one of nine – soon to be 11 – clinics owned and operated by Dr. Eric Morse, a national leader in nationally acclaimed leader in the field of opioid treatment and recovery programs.

“Stigma is definitely the number one thing,” Morse said, adding that whatever path works is fine. But because everyone’s brain works differently, one specific recovery program doesn’t fit all addicts.

Using prescribed medications to help lift a patient from the grip of addiction can be an effective method, and the staff at Vance Recovery is dedicated to helping patients navigate the recovery process.

The process could take a couple of years, Morse said, for a patient to gain sobriety from their preferred substance. And then, after a year of being sober – through holidays and other events that could be triggers for using again – only then will a gradual taper of the substitute prescribed meds begin for another six months to a year.

There are ways to earn take-home meds so patients aren’t making daily trips to the center, he added.

“The medical evidence is so strong for MOUD,” Morse said. “I really feel passionate about ending the discrimination of patients who are following that protocol…I really want to see us respect the medical evidence, respect the science, the research and open up the doors for people to get life-saving medicine.”

Opening doors is literally what Vance Recovery is getting ready to do when it opens a larger facility next month at 932 W.Andrews Ave., in the space formerly occupied by Fastenal.

“I could see us doubling the number of people,” Mattocks said. Although still awaiting some final inspections, staff is planning an Open House on Oct. 10.

Methadone, naltrexone and buprenorphine are the most commonly used drugs to help addicts in recovery.

Patients using these types of medicines, Morse said, are much less likely to die of a subsequent opioid overdose, while making it much more likely that they will stop using the street drugs and stay on their path to recovery.

“You can’t recover if you’re dead,” he said.

The MOUD approach helps “keep them alive so that they can recover.”

Vance Recovery takes steps to educate addicts and their families about the various options available to them, from program specifics to navigating insurance and how to stay on the program if circumstances change.

Katie Lee is a registered nurse who works with patients at Vance Recovery. Lee said she sees people at their worst when they are in the beginning of their program, but she also sees them at their best.

“I’m so proud to work here and be a part of this team,” Lee said.

Staff at Vance Recovery are part of a substance abuse collaborative group that meets monthly to find solutions to the challenges that surround recovery and figure out ways to “reduce barriers and make it easier for people to get into treatment, Mattocks said.

“The pain of this disease is driving change.”

Visit https://www.morseclinics.com/locations/vance-recovery to learn more.

(This post, audio and radio program not a paid ad.)

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Ducky Derby

TownTalk: Ducky Derby Is September 21st

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Head to downtown Henderson on Saturday, Sept. 21 to watch the annual “release” of ducks down Garnett Street.

It’s the 15 annual Ducky Derby to benefit the Franklin Granville Vance Smart Start, and Kimiko Williams said it’s sure to be an afternoon of fun for all.

This year’s festivities begin at 1 p.m., with activities for the children along the race course, – which will become a watery route for when the ducks are spit out the back of the cement mixer to make their way to the finish line.

The ceremonial cement mixer will churn the rubber ducks out onto the street promptly at 2 p.m. at Breckenridge Street – the finish line is a couple of blocks away, near Montgomeryt Street, Williams explained on Tuesday’s TownTalk.

Purchase tickets to sponsor a duck – the first duck to cross the finish line wins $1,000. Second place is Chick fil A for a year, third place is a $250 Sheetz gas card and the last rubber duck to cross the finish line gets $100.

In addition, FGV Smart Start will have a raffle for the cost of a month’s child care.

Organizers say they hope to raise $15,000 this year. Most of the money comes from ticket purchases, but there are community sponsors and in-kind supporters that help add to the bottom line, said Linda Frederickson, FGV Early Childhood Systems director.

And while families must qualify for some of the programs the early childhood agency offers, Frederickson said the Family Resource Centers are available for anyone who wants to learn more.

One resource center is located at the FGV office in Henderson; a second is located on the campus of the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford; and a third is located at Franklinton Elementary School.

“The big spotlight is on the children,” Frederickson said, not just on Derby Day but all year long.

Purchase tickets online at www.fgvsmartstart.org, or from any FGV staff member.

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