Sheriff Brame: Illegal Phone Scam Circulating

/by

Vance Sheriff Curtis Brame has reported that the main phone number for the sheriff’s office has been cloned and is being used in an illegal scheme after hearing from numerous citizens that they have been called and told they will be arrested if they don’t comply with instructions.

According to Brame, citizens are getting calls that because they failed to appear in court to serve as jurors, they must pay a certain amount of money or face arrest.

“They are being advised to take cash and deposit same into a kiosk machine at a local convenience store to avoid being arrested,” Brame said in communication to WIZS News Friday.

“At no time will my office or the clerk’s office direct a citizen to take funds to a third-party location,” Brame said.

Anyone who receives a call like this is asked to obtain as much information as possible from the caller and contact local law enforcement agencies.

 

Free Prostate Cancer Screening At MPH Sept. 29

/by

-information courtesy of Donna Young, MPH marketing & communication coordinator

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and the doctors and staff of Maria Parham Health are once again providing free prostate screenings for men in the community.

The screening event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. No appointments are needed; just show up at the hospital.

According to a press release from Donna Young, marketing & communication coordinator, all men are at risk for prostate cancer. Although about 13 out of every 100 American men will get prostate cancer during their lifetime, and of that figure several will die from it.

The most common risk factor is age. The older a man is, the greater the chance of getting prostate cancer, but some men are at an increased risk. African American men are more likely to get prostate cancer than other men, and more than twice as likely to die from it. African American men tend to get diagnosed at an earlier age, have more advanced disease when it is found, and tend to have a more severe type of prostate cancer than other men. Men who have a close blood relative (father, son or brother) who had prostate cancer are also at an increased risk.  The American Cancer Society recommends screenings for men 50 or older and those at a higher risk beginning at 45.

For more information, call the Maria Parham Cancer Center at 252.436.1656.

 

Military History Show Coming To Local Airport Oct. 29

/by

The 7th annual Military History Show will take place Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Henderson-Oxford Airport in Oxford.

The free event is open to the public and will be held 10a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with a display of military equipment, uniforms and other historical articles. Participants can bid on items during a Silent Auction and Total Flight Solutions will be on hand for helicopter rides.

All proceeds will benefit the Veterans Affairs Committee of Granville County.

Contact Harry Coombs to secure a vendor space, make a donation or to become a sponsor. At 919.691.7697 or Harry4th@centurylink.net.

The airport is located at 6514 Airport Rd., Oxford, NC 27565

Epsom Community Classic

3rd Annual Epsom Community Classic Race Set For Oct. 1

/by

The third annual Epsom Community Classic 2022 will take place Saturday, Oct. 1 at 9 a.m.

New Bethel Baptist Church is sponsoring the event to raise money for missionaries in the U.S. and overseas.

The race is run on a 3.5-mile loop with the start and finish line at the Epsom Fire Department, located at 8120 NC Highway South in Henderson.

The entry fees are $20 through Sept. 18, $25 between Sept. 19 and Sept. 30, and $30 on race day. The fee does not include a t-shirt, but they can be ordered for $10 if participants are registered before Sept. 18.

Awards will be presented to the first three male finishers overall, to the first three female finishers overall and to the top three finishers in each of the following age groups: 11-under, 12-19, 20-29, 30-39,40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70-over.

State Officials Bringing Donated School Supplies To Pinkston Street Elementary Friday Morning

/by

State Human Resources Director Barbara Gibson and State Budget Director Charles Perusse are scheduled to pay a visit to Pinkston Street Elementary in tomorrow morning to deliver school supplies that were collected by their agencies.

The visitors will arrive by 10:30 a.m. and they’ll get a tour from school district leaders and Principal Canecca Mayes. Gibson will read a book with a group of students and then both state officials will visit the Center for Innovation to learn more about programs there.

“The average teacher in North Carolina spends over $500 in out-of-pocket expenses each year,” said Perusse. “We are excited to provide a bit of relief to the financial burden of providing quality education in Vance County.”

Employees from the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources and the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management collected 16 boxes of school supplies to donate to Vance County Schools. Supplies included notebooks, crayons, pencils, cleaning supplies and more.

“Investing in the children of North Carolina’s education is the best way to invest in the future of our state,” said Director Gibson. “We are honored to help support the hardworking, dedicated educators in shaping that future.”

Visit here to learn more.

The Local Skinny! The Help Center, Helping Those In Need

/by

The Help Center provides an array of services for people who need help, but Twanna Jones, president and founder of the nonprofit organization, said that she and her team must also provide hope along with the help.

One cannot go without the other, Jones told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Thursday’s The Local Skinny!

“It’s the combination of the two that really is the fabric of what we do here,” she said, and by offering help through tangible services, as well as a generous dose of hope, “we change the dynamics of our community and the nation.”

Jones created The Help Center in 2017 out of a lifelong passion for helping her fellow man. In just a few short years, The Help Center operates in 11 counties, including the facility at 415 Raleigh Road in Henderson.

Area residents can sign up for the next pet clinic, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The first clinic was so successful – 45 pets came through – that Jones scheduled another one. Call 919.391.7300 to sign up for the Oct. 29 clinic.

“We were nonstop during the pandemic,” Jones said of the various programs that are tucked up under The Help Center. From food distribution to youth enrichment programs and support for the elderly,  volunteers and staff kept providing help and hope, hope and help.

But the cadre of volunteers has shrunk recently, and food donations are down, so Jones said The Help Center could use a little help from the community.

“We are truly in need,” she said, “not only volunteers, but resources, too, because of rising food prices.

A fairly new addition to The Help Center’s food distribution is the Healthy Food Pantry, which distributes pre-made boxes of fresh produce to clients who request them. Volunteers tuck recipes in the boxes, which come in handy for those who are unfamiliar with how to prepare some of the produce they receive.

They also offer a “fresh market,” Jones said, “to offer more fresh produce for families to come out and ‘choice’ shop – which means they choose the items themselves.

On the horizon is their Thanksgiving food distribution program the week before the Nov. 24 holiday and the winter proram, which will take place the week before Christmas. This program will hearken back to days gone by, when gifts included peppermint sticks, fruit and nuts, she said.

“We’ll set it up sort of like a parade,” Jones explained. Participants will receive a food box and some other Christmas goodies, but the emphasis this year will be on tradition. “We want to go back to that old-fashioned Christmas…to sit down and break bread together.”

Want to volunteer? Call 919.391.7300 ext 3, visit www.thehelpcenternc.com or text “mission” 833.241.4082.

Need help? Call 919.391.7300, visit www.thehelpcenter.com or text “help” to 833.241.4082.

 

CLICK PLAY!

 

TownTalk: The Story Of Drewry

/by

.

ACC basketball fans may know it as the hometown of the 1980’s Duke player David Henderson.  History buffs may know it by its earlier name of Enterprise. But anyone who remembers Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! may be able to recall that it is the teeny community of Drewry that, in the 1940’s had an old-fashioned well. Right in the middle of town.

“There was a town well in the middle of the crossroads,” Pace said, which caught Mr. Ripley’s attention. The well remained there until about 1947. “When the state paved the road, they took it up,” he said.

Leave it to local historians Mark Pace and Bill Harris to discuss in detail a community that straddles the present-day Vance/Warren county line.

“Before Kerr Lake came along, you could drive from Townsville to Drewry in seven minutes,” Pace said. Its first name was Cedar Fork, according to Pace, North Carolina Room specialist at Oxford’s Richard Thornton Library. In the 1840’s and 50’s, it was known as Enterprise. But when the Roanoke Valley Railroad came through, it was renamed because it was Drewry Marrow who took care of the railroad there.

By 1881, Drewry held the distinction for being the smallest township in Vance County in terms of size and population, Pace said. It later melded with the Middleburg township.

“There was a time when Drewry was actually a thriving little community,” he noted. “It wasn’t a bustling metropolis,” but there was a café, two barber shops – one for Blacks and one for Whites – a school, butcher shop, school, dry cleaners, fire department and railroad station. It was the halfway point for the railroad, which went back and forth between Manson and Townsville.

In 1940, Drewry was the very first precinct to report results in the Nov. 6 Presidential election. All votes were cast and counted by 8:53. In the morning. The 24 registered voters “all got together and agreed to cast their votes at the same time,” Pace said. “FDR won 100 percent of the votes” cast at Walston’s store in the Drewry precinct.

But folks in and around the Drewry community were interested in politics well before 1940.

A schoolteacher from Virginia named George Sims moved to the area in the 1750’s. He wrote the Nutbush Address, a treatise that pointed out how politicians of the day were abusing their rank and privilege at the expense of the common man. Later, when Samuel Benton (a founding father of Oxford) wrote the Halifax Resolves, there were echoes of Sims’s address. “And the Halifax Resolves was one of the documents that Thomas Jefferson used for a template for the Declaration of Independence,” Pace explained.

“For such a small place, it has an interesting history,” he mused.

Hear the full Around Old Granville segment at wizs.com.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Ducky Derby Takes Over Garnett Street Saturday Afternoon For Race, Family-Oriented Festival

/by

This year’s Duck Derby to benefit Franklin/Granville/Vance Smart Start is shaping up to be another successful event and Gary Daeke, one of the fundraiser organizers, said he’s pleased to note that there will be a full-on street festival for families to enjoy.

The fun begins at 11 a.m. in downtown Henderson this Saturday, Sept. 17. There will be a couple of food trucks, lots of children’s activities and then the race will be at 2 p.m.

They usually sell about 2,500 of the rubber ducks, that will drift down a short-lived “river” created along Garnett Street – compliments of the Henderson Fire Department’s fire hoses. Daeke said Greystone Concrete Products graciously provides the equipment that mixes up the ducks and then dumps them across the starting line to begin the race.

There will be a bounce house and a slide, and Daeke said the kids always enjoy donning fire helmets and having a little fun with the fire hose.

The prize for having the winning duck is $1,000. Chick Fil-A for a year is the prize for second place, and the third-place winner will receive a Sheetz gas card. The duck that comes in last gets a prize, too – $100. Tickets are available now from any FGV staffer or board member, but they also will be available until about 1:30 p.m. on the day of the derby.

Visit www.fgvsmartstart.org to purchase a duck and to learn more about services of FGV Smart Start. Or call the office at 252.433.9110 to find out more.