Local News - WIZS

TownTalk: ‘Young Voices for Change’ with Jayden Watkins

October 21, 2025/by WIZS Staff

Young people these days face unique challenges that parents and grandparents couldn’t have imagined encountering when they were that age – from mental health to drug abuse, lack of opportunities and gang involvement – just to name a few.

The nonprofit organization Higher Is Waiting, founded by minister and author Jayden Watkins – himself a teenager – is hosting an event on Sunday, Oct. 26 that Watkins said will have teens and young adults doing all the talking and the adults in the room listening.

It’s called “Young Voices For Change,” and it takes place at 3 p.m. in the Farm Bureau room of Perry Memorial Library on Breckenridge Street in Henderson.

Watkins said it will be a youth-led event, but all ages are invited. welcome and encouraged to attend.

Teens and young adults will share their stories, ideas and solutions for building stronger, safer communities, he said, while local elected and appointed officials – along with mentors – listen, engage and respond.

“We youth need support,” Watkins said on Tuesday’s TownTalk. He hopes the room is packed on Sunday – a full house will go a long way to demonstrate the community’s interest in hearing and learning about what young people are worrying about and thinking about, as well as finding solutions to those problems.

A series of speakers is scheduled to speak for a few minutes on a challenge that youth face in the community, as well as offer a possible solution. Following the speakers, a panel discussion will take place, giving members of the audience a chance to ask questions of the youth on the panel.

Watkins said he’s been to conferences and other events where youth are at the center of the conversation, but there are no youth involved in the program.

“You need to hear directly from youth,” Watkins said, so they can be a part of the problem-solving process.

“Together, we’ll witness the next generation lead the conversation toward hope, healing, and progress,” Watkins said. “Don’t miss this event as the next generation creates change by first using their voices.”

Watkins has been using his own voice in a number of ways for a number of years – as a minister, an author, founder of a nonprofit – and this year, as Student Body President his senior year at Henderson Collegiate.

When he established Higher Is Waiting, senior year seemed a long way off. With high school graduation looming, Watkins has been thinking about how the various programs he’s involved with will be sustained.

“The Lord hasn’t led me to that person yet,” he said of a successor. His involvement in planning youth events will continue, he said.

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WIZS Radio · TownTalk: Young Voices for Change with Jayden Watkins

Exciting Times Ahead; Henderson Family YMCA Growing

October 21, 2025/by WIZS Staff

With a goal of $120,000, the Henderson Family YMCA’s annual campaign is underway, and sights are set on a new wellness facility and improvements to outdoor facilities for youth and adult programs.

Tommy Marrow chairs the 2025 Campaign; he’s also vice chair of the YMCA board of directors. In a letter announcing the campaign, Marrow stated the goal is “ambitious,” but also achievable with the support of people in the community who believe in the Y’s mission to provide programs for the community.

“With over 5,000 individuals engaged in our programs and using our facilities, we are thrilled to see our YMCA thriving and our programs operating at full capacity once again,” Marrow said.

H.G. Reynolds, Inc. is set to begin construction in late fall, with completion expected by late 2026.

A new wellness facility will include a full basketball gym, an upper-level walking track, updated weight and cardio areas, and a studio room for classes like Silver Sneakers, step, yoga and more.

The outdoor improvements will include a retractable-dome pool suitable for swim meets, as well as a new playground, multi-purpose sports field and an updated outdoor track.

The YMCA hopes to secure long-term funding through a USDA Rural Development Loan and Grant, along with support from Triangle North Healthcare Foundation and Henderson-Vance Healthcare, Inc.

Funding from the annual campaign helps the local Y plug the gap between what membership and program fees bring in and what it actually costs to run all the programs the Y offers.

A donation of $100, for example, provides three swim lessons at the Y. A donation of $250 provides one month of after school care, and mentoring for a child. And a $582 gift translates into a year’s adult membership with full access to fitness, pool, Y amenities and staff assistance.

Learn more at hendersonymca.org.

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WIZS Radio · TownTalk: Exciting Times Ahead; Henderson Family YMCA Growing

Cooperative Extension with Michael Ellington: The Changing Colors of Leaves

October 21, 2025/by WIZS Staff

Michael Ellington, on the Vance County Cooperative Extension Report:

This segment looks at the changing colors of leaves in the fall and what affects them.

go.ncsu.edu/homecomposting

Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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WIZS Radio · Cooperative Extension with Michael Ellington: The Changing Colors of Leaves

The Local Skinny! Seahawks Night at Vance County Football Game

October 20, 2025/by WIZS Staff

The Gate City Seahawks took the field Friday night to be recognized during Seahawks Night at Viper Stadium, but also as future Jaguars and Vipers, and to get an idea of what it’s like to play under the Friday Night lights.

Henderson Vance Recreation and Parks Director Kendrick Vann said the young people are learning what it’s like to be part of a team and all the positive aspects of collaboration, teamwork and partnerships.

It’s been seven years since the local youth league teams have been part of a competitive league, and Vann told WIZS’s Scout Hughes and David “Doc” Ayscue that from where he sits, “good things are happening in football” in Vance County.

The youth league teams are coed, Vann said, and teams vary by age group – a few dozen kids are in flag football, for ages 4-6. And the teams for older youth are both 7-0 this season.

The Seahawks play home games at Vance County Middle School, but travel to Durham, Clayton, Wendell, Franklinton and elsewhere for contests.

But it’s not just about the games, Vann said. There’s an emphasis on doing service projects in the community, including participating in the citywide cleanup efforts in Henderson and making sure that the kids “dress for success” when banquet time rolls around.

Vann said the team walks out on the field together and exercises together. “We try to do a good job to form a program,” he said.

The coaching staffs at the middle school and the high school also are developing partnerships with the Seahawks – after all, they are the future Jaguars and the future Vipers.

“Vance County has a lot of great athletes,” Vann said. “There is true talent here in Vance County,” he said.

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WIZS Radio · The Local Skinny! Seahawks Night at Vance County Football Game

TownTalk: Victory Baptist Church Pastor Appreciation Day; Ricky Easter

October 20, 2025/by WIZS Staff

The congregation at Victory Baptist Church went all out Sunday for Pastor Appreciation Day.

But for Pastor Ricky Easter, now in his 39^th year at the church, it could have been called “Preacher” Appreciation Day.

“Most everybody calls me Preacher,” Easter said Monday, just a day after the special service, which included the congregation gathering around Easter and his wife, Debbie, to lay hands on and pray for the couple and for Easter’s ministry.

“I like being called the preacher,” Easter said, “because that’s what I am…called to the Lord to preach the Gospel. And that’s my greatest joy.”

As an independent church, Victory Baptist isn’t a member of any group or association, and Easter said they use the King James Version of the Bible. “We still sing the old hymns, and some of the newer songs” that young people like to sing.

The folks who come to worship on Sundays are really like a family, he said. “Some of our people are closer to our church family than they are to their own family,” Easter said. “Christ unites us together and brings us together.”

So when that church family rose from their seats on Sunday to offer prayers for Easter, he said it was something special.

“Yesterday was a blessing,” he said, “to see all the people in our church that moved forward and gathered around Debbie and I. It was a blessing to know that we have that much support. That they still stand with us, still stand behind us. And stand for what we stand for. It was great encouragement to know that your people are ‘for’ you.”

Victory Baptist supports 40-plus missionaries across the world as they spread the Gospel far and wide.

And Easter said the weekly broadcasts on WIZS help the church work at home. “We work in our Jerusalem, in our Judaeh, to get the Gospel out,” he said.

The Gospel message is the most important aspect of his ministry, and Easter said he tries to preach with all his heart.

“I’m passionate about it…that’s the only hope that anybody has of heaven – the gospel. If they don’t believe the gospel, they have no hope of heaven.”

Music is another important component of Easter’s ministry. The couple would sing together a lot, Easter said, with him providing accompaniment on the guitar.

They don’t sing as much anymore, but their three daughters – and the grandchildren are carrying on the tradition.

And when the family got up at the end of the service to sing some of those songs that he and Debbie sang together years ago…well, the Preacher was quite moved.

“It was heart-wrenching,” he said.

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WIZS Radio · TownTalk: Pastor Appreciation Week with Pastor Ricky Easter