The Local Skinny! Vance County Schools Receives Awards

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For the third year in a row, Vance County Schools has brought home top honors for excellence in school communications, presented to school districts by the N.C. School Public Relations Association.

VCS earned a total of 16 Blue Ribbon awards for outstanding and effective

school public relations, according to information from Aarika Sandlin, VCS director of communication and marketing. The local school district was one of 38 to receive honors at the ceremony held Friday, Feb. 10 in High Point.

“Vance County Schools was recognized in every Blue Ribbon Award category for exemplary work,” Sandlin said in a press statement. “This recognition is an honor for our entire district, as well as a testament to the hard work of our team and the collaboration between departments on a daily basis.”

One of its five gold awards came in the Marketing category and the entry “Center for Innovation: The Hub of Our Community” received a perfect score.

The other four gold award categories and their winning entries were:

  • Photography – Superintendent Bennett Reads Across the District
  • Electronic Media – Moving Forward in our Strategic Plan
  • Special Events and Programs – Business After Hours
  • Digital Media Engagement – Alumni Roll Call: Homecoming 2022

VCS received five silver awards in the following categories:

  • Special Events and Programs – Arts Alive 2022
  • Special Events and Programs – Honoring our Community Partnerships
  • Digital Media and Engagement – New Principal Announcements for the 2022-2023 School Year
  • Photography – Play hard. Laugh louder. Love bigger.
  • Publications- Visual Identity Across the District

VCS received six bronze awards in the following categories:

  • Excellence in Writing – Growing through Accountability
  • Image and Graphic Design – Vance County Schools: A Quick Glimpse
  • Image and Graphic Design – In the Know on the Road
  • Electronic Media: Polly C – A Unique Look at Policies
  • Special Events and Programs – Honoring Wayne Adcock: Auditorium Dedication

Representing Vance County Schools for NCSPRA, in addition to Sandlin, are Brielle Barrow, communications coordinator; Dr. Destiney Ross-Putney, executive director of the Center for Innovation; and Kristen Jeffreys, digital learning and innovation specialist. NCSPRA is a statewide professional organization serving more than 175 members. Its mission is to build support for public education through well-planned and responsible public relations. For more information, visit www.ncspra.org.

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The Local Skinny! Dogs Deserve Better To Hold Quarter Auction

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“Dogs Deserve Better Piedmont” is sponsoring its 3rd annual “Puppy Love” Quarter Auction later this month at The Barn at Vino in Stem.

This chapter of the nonprofit organization is based in Granville County, and it serves neighboring counties including Vance, Person, Wake and Franklin. Lucy Poynton joined WIZS’s Bill Harris Monday to launch a new segment of The Local Skinny! Called “Pets and People.”

The doors open at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, Poynton said. There will be food trucks and vendors on hand in advance of the 7 p.m. auction start.

Tickets are $10, but if you’re interested in attending, don’t wait – 80 percent of the tickets have already been sold.

Poynton said she and her small band of volunteers have been working for the past 3 ½ years or so to help get dogs off tethers.

“We’d drive around and see a lot of outdoor, chained dogs,” she said. The money the group raises pays for materials to construct 10-foot by 20-foot kennels for the dogs, and other items like dog houses, straw for winter bedding and flea and tick collars.

She estimates that the organization has “unchained” close to 140 dogs, distributed hundreds of flea/tick collars and helped with urgent vet care, including spay/neuter, for 65 animals.

They occasionally will help provide spay/neuter services for cats as well, although the focus is on providing items for dogs – from kennels to toys – “anything to make their life a little better.”

The Barn at Vino is located at 3200 Bliss Trail, Stem, NC 27581.

Contact dddpiedmont@dogsdeservebetter.org to learn more

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The Local Skinny! Vance Co. Arts Council Celebrates Black History Month

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The Vance County Arts Council, in conjunction with McGregor Hall, invites the community to come out for an evening of musical entertainment to learn about the history of gospel music.

The show is free to the public and begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at McGregor Hall, and Vance County Arts Council Executive Director Alice Sallins said folks are in for a real treat.

“We’re so excited,” Sallins said. “We want people to come and behold this beautiful production.”

Sallins told WIZS’s Bill Harris that she couldn’t divulge too much about the show because it will be presented at other venues in addition to McGregor Hall.

Thanks to some grant funding, she said the Arts Council was able to bring in some top-quality perfomers and artists who will take the history of gospel music from its roots in call and response, field hollers and spirituals all the way up to its blending of blues and jazz that creates the familiar sound we know today.

“Thomas Dorsey combined those genres of music with spirituals he heard in church,” Sallins said on Thursday’s segment of The Local Skinny! “He came up with this moving music that cause people to clap their hands and move their bodies,” she said.

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Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • If growing plants in a greenhouse or cold frame when day temps are 70F higher you may need ventilation in your greenhouse or open the cold frame.
  • Fertilize tall fescue, slow release, low P, crabgrass preventer.
  • Repot your house plants if needed
  • Get ready to prune fruit trees – 2/25, 10 am, timberlake
  • Add compost to the garden or raised beds
  • Sharpen your hand pruners and loppers with a metal file.
  • Use landscape cloth for weed control in raised beds.
  • Plant more pansies.
  • Cooperative Extension has excellent vegetable publications.
  • Apply preemergent herbicide to flowerbeds.

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! What’s Happening At Perry Library

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Perry Memorial Library has several opportunities for patrons to observe Black History Month as they take part in interactive workshops, take book walks and go on scavenger hunts.

Youth Services Director Melody Peters ran down a list of activities that are already underway or will be presented during February.

The “pop up” story walk located right outside the library features the classic children’s book “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats, Peters told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! This literary classic is the first children’s book that features an African American child as the main character, she said.

The story walk idea blends activity with learning, “to encourage little ones to read – and walk. When you’re walking and reading and learning,” Peters said, it builds excitement for what’s going to be on the next panel. This story walk will be up all month for families to enjoy.

Speaking of families, Peters said the next family program will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 and will feature Mama Azia’s African Dance, Drum & Storytelling. This culturally immersive interactive workshop, Peters said.

Participants will have a chance to learn new things, but they’ll also have a chance to dance, Peters said. There are currently about 30 people in the ongoing family program, but Peters said there’ plenty of room for more.

Youngsters can take part in a scavenger hunt to learn more about inventions during Black History Month.

“Kids love a hunt,” Peters said. “They love to find things.” Pick up a card at the Youth Services desk, find all the items and return the card to get a prize.

Adult patrons can opt for a “Blind Date with a Book” in the Adult Services area of the library. Read the first line of novel to get a hint of what the novel may be about while also becoming interested in reading something new.

Next Saturday, Feb. 18, families are encouraged to bring the little ones for a children’s dental health workshop. The workshop will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is presented by CDA Ny’Kirah Street, a student in N.C. A&T State’s health services management program.

Kids can learn how to brush and floss and promote dental health from someone who’s not a dentist…or their parents.

“The key is learning good habits early,” Peters said.

Visit https://www.perrylibrary.org/ for a complete list of events and programs at the library.

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The Local Skinny! Around Old Granville with Mark Pace

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Watch out, Oxford. Your tiny neighbor to the south is gaining on you. It will only take a couple of hundred more people to stake the claim of being the largest town in Granville County.

That, according to local historian Mark Pace, who talked with WIZS’s Bill Harris for the “Around Old Granville” segment of The Local Skinny! Monday.

Butner’s growth today, however, pales in comparison to the early to mid-1940’s when the U.S. government built Camp Butner as it was gearing up for World War II.

Pace said William B. Umstead and his brother John were instrumental in getting the federal government to locate Camp Butner in the southwest corner of the county, close to a big city (Durham), but not “too” close, Pace said.

Construction began in February 1942, on more than 4,000 acres of mostly farmland, much of which had been owned and worked by families for 200 years or more.

“It was amazing how quickly it was built,” Pace said. Within five months, there were numerous structures, including an armory, sports building and a water tower, all of which are standing today.

“They had 15,000 people working 24-7 to build that camp,” Pace said. And because it was a federal project, the state’s segregation laws were superseded by federal jurisdiction, which meant that for the first time, African Americans were hired the same as their White counterparts, he added.

Camp Butner was home for thousands of workers, civilian and military, but also for more than 4,000 German and Italian prisoners of war.

“So many farm people had been called up to serve, POWs would go and work farms,” Pace said. “And they’d get paid a little bit, too.”

After the war ended, much of the property reverted back to the landowners, but the footprint of Camp Butner became what is now considered the town of Butner. But until it was incorporated in 2007, the town was run by the state of North Carolina.

“Go to the town hall,” Pace said. “There’s a marvelous museum in the lobby” chronicling the creation of the town that once was known as Camp Butner.

 

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March on Washington Remembered

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered at The March on Washington.

As we celebrate Black History Month, please enjoy by clicking play below the first in a weekly series here on WIZS as produced by our Steve Lewis of the WIZS Weekday Wake Up!

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Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Clean and sanitize your seedling trays
  • Buy fertilizer for the mid February application to tall fescue
  • Clean and sharpen pruning equipment. Purchase new equipment if needed.
  • Begin scouting pastures for buttercups. Treatments need to be applied in late Feb.
  • Check spraying equipment. Have one designated sprayer for Roundup.
  • Begin pruning grapevines.
  • Use landscape cloth for weed control in raised beds.
  • Learn more about Spotted Lanternfly so you can keep an eye out for it this spring.
  • Add compost to your raised beds.

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The Local Skinny!

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The van fleet at Rebuilding Hope, Inc. has doubled, thanks to a recent donation by Island Creek Baptist Church.

Randolph Wilson, coordinator of the non-profit, located in the former Coca-Cola Bottling Co. location, said the 15-passenger van will be especially helpful when it’s time to take volunteers to various project sites during the summertime Servants on Site mission.

West End Baptist Church had made a similar donation earlier, Wilson noted in the group’s monthly newsletter.

RHI relies on volunteers and donations from the community and beyond to help achieve their mission of helping area homeowners repair – free of charge – roofs and install wheelchair ramps, keeping them safe and able to remain in their homes.

Early Bird registration ends tomorrow for the annual Servants on Site project, scheduled for June 19-23. The reduced cost is $125; after tomorrow, the cost is $150.

The fee includes a specially designed t-shirt, as well as all meals and lodging. Scholarships are available. SOS is a weeklong project that includes work, worship and witness – in Vance and surrounding counties. Young people who have completed 6th grade through adults may participate.

To learn more about SOS and other ways to=participate in Rebuilding Hope programsand projects, visit www.rebuildinghopeinc.org.

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