TownTalk: ‘Shop With A Cop And Friends’ Reception: Fun With A Purpose

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Wednesday’s celebratory reception for the Shop With a Cop and Friends program was sprinkled with laughter, music and levity, but the underlying message shone clearly in remarks by everybody from Chamber President Sandra Wilkerson on down to local law enforcement leaders – it’s all for the kids.

“This is what we do and what we get excited about,” Wilkerson said as she kicked off the official part of the program, thanking sponsors and providing details about the actual shopping day – Friday, Dec. 20.

Shopping Day is a special, special day, she said, adding that law enforcement officers and others will join “the other million people” taking care of last-minute shopping at the Henderson Walmart.

But Vance County Schools students don’t start their holiday break until lunchtime on that day, so Wilkerson said they’ll get going about 3 p.m.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to deliver you a check like we did last year,” Wilkerson said to Sheriff Curtis Brame, Police Chief Marcus Barrow and Fire Chief Tim Twisdale, referring to the $15,000 that the program got to share with children on their shopping spree.

Shop With a Cop is a memorable experience for the children, but it’s also something adults are sure to remember as well, Brame said, “to see the excitement in children’s eyes” as they stroll the aisles.

But it’s also a humbling experience, he said, to see kids who want to buy gifts for their parents and siblings instead of for themselves.

Chief Barrow recalled that the department started the program some years ago, a small-scale effort to give back to those in need. When the Chamber president approached the department with the idea of forming a partnership, it was a no-brainer. The first year of that partnership raised about $6,000, he said, and has ballooned to $15,000 under Wilkerson and her team.

“We’ve gotten so much support,” Barrow said. “It’s more than Shop With a Cop – it’s a partnership” that involves the Department of Social Services, Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks, the City Council, city manager, county manager, among all the other community supporters.

A highlight of the event was finding out who won the cash prizes associated with the 180 raffle tickets that were sold – four cash prizes were awarded – $200, $500, $1,000 and the top prize of $2,000.

As each name was drawn, Wilkerson easily called them out:

Juanita Sommerville, Kendrick Vann, Hal Muetzel. (Congratulations, by the way!)

But the $2,000 winner had her puzzled, and she may have not wanted to admit it, but she said she didn’t recognize the name: Sam…Citgo?

After a few failed attempts from the gathering to claim the prize, however, the picture became clear. HPD’s Tony Mills spoke up from the crowd to say he stopped by the gas station, “and the rascal bought three tickets.”

Citgo wasn’t the person’s last name – it was his place of business. So, Sam from Citgo, the purchase of three tickets paid off.

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TownTalk: Farmers Appreciation Day Celebration

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The Vance County Regional Farmers Market is located close to where Leo Kelly remembers his family farmed. They weren’t big farmers, Kelly told a group gathered at the farmers market Thursday for the inaugural Farmers Appreciation Day in Vance County, but he remembers chickens, hogs and having spring, summer and fall gardens.

Kelly, vice chair of the Vance County Board of Commissioners, joined others to recognize the importance of farmers, farming and agriculture. In 2023, the Legislature set aside the second Thursday in November as Farmers Appreciation Day.

N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon said the observance is a way to help people understand how farmers and farming affects them daily. These days, fewer people live near farms or don’t personally know farmers.

“Agriculture is more than planting corn and beans,” Sossamon said. It’s agritourism, small farmers producing specialty crops and more.

Vance County’s N.C. Cooperative Extension director Dr. Wykia Macon said she and her staff are always looking for ways to foster among young people an appreciation for agriculture and for farmers and to encourage them to get into agriculture.

Horticulture Agent Mike Ellington said he foresees changes in agriculture, but what remains, he believes, is the “sense of place, of purpose, community that agriculture creates.”

Vance County Commissioner Archie Taylor said he grew up on a farm and it helped shape the person he became.

“As I think about the professions we have,” he said, “no profession teaches our young kids more about hard work than farming.”

With the rise of urbanization, he said, fewer family farms meant that young folks didn’t have the “opportunity” to pitch in with chores like feeding livestock, chopping wood and all the other daily tasks a farm requires.

Taylor said he learned a lot from farm life, including “teaching me to get up in the morning, get started and get working.”

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TownTalk: Paws Of Hope Pantry At Pinkston Street School

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Paws of Hope, the new food pantry at Pinkston Street Elementary, was filled with well-wishers from the community Wednesday who came out to show support for a program designed to feed a child – literally and figuratively.

The new space has a fresh coat of paint – the school colors, of course – and banners hang on the walls to provide a cheery atmosphere for what organizers hope will be a place where children can learn about healthy foods and healthy habits. But most of all, they can learn that they are cared for.

“It’s about educating the total child,” said Principal Canecca Mayes. “Children can’t learn if they’re hungry.”

But the pantry isn’t just a place where Pinkston Street students can duck in, grab a snack and return to class. Henderson Mayor Melissa Elliott said it’s a place where they can shop for themselves and for their families.

“They don’t just shop for themselves,” Elliott told those gathered Wednesday for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. “They shop for everyone in their household.” There’s a special emphasis on children who qualify for services from the McKinney-Vento Act, a federal program that identifies schoolchildren who are experiencing homelessness.

It’s been a group effort to get the pantry up and running, Elliott said. From community partners providing resources and school leaders welcoming the project to campus, to teachers and social workers on site to identify students’ needs, Elliott said she has witnessed real collaboration.

Children come to the pantry weekly, where they learn about financial literacy and making healthy food choices. They also get in a little exercise, too – although Elliott couldn’t coax any of the students present to break into their “Veggie Dance” routine.

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TownTalk: The Barefoot Movement Headlines Hurricane Relief Concert At SGHS

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The Barefoot Movement’s Noah Wall and Tommy Norris have a deep connection to western North Carolina and east Tennessee, just over the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were dating and in a band when Norris was a student at Western Carolina and Noah was at East Tennessee State, and the two would meet in Asheville for a date night or band-related events.

But they also have connections to Granville County – both are 2006 graduates of South Granville High School in Creedmoor, and when Wall felt the urge to do something to help folks who lost so much in the devastation and flooding brought by Hurricane Helene, she turned to that high school and the choral department.

The result:  a hurricane relief concert on Friday, Nov. 22 featuring a couple of local groups as well as the bluegrass sound of The Barefoot Movement. The concert is sponsored by the South Granville Choral Association.

Tickets are $15 and are on sale now for the concert, which kicks off at 7 p.m.

First up is GrassStreet Bluegrass band, followed by the popular Granville County Southern Rock band Bryan’s Hill.

Wall said she has “zero ego” in being called the headline group, but she’ll take the stage with her fiddle and her husband – (Norris, if you didn’t know) – mandolin in hand, to finish out the concert.

“I wish I could just donate a million dollars,” Wall said on Tuesday’s TownTalk segment with WIZS’s Bill Harris. She said she has been moved by what the folks in the mountains have been going through, so she set about doing what she knows best. “I have my music and I know how to put on a concert,” she explained. The rest fell into place fairly easily.

The high school auditorium has a stage, a sound system and is a comfortable place for a concert. “It ultimately worked out great,” Wall said. All proceeds from the concert will go to Baptist on Mission, which has had teams of people on the ground helping in the disaster zone. They also have a specific Hurricane Helene Relief Fund, so Wall is confident the money will get to where it can be of most use.

Next week’s concert playlist may be a little different from what audiences hear when they’re on tour across the country, Wall said, hinting at what may be in store.

“It won’t be traditional bluegrass, necessarily,” said. “We may cover Ozzy Osborne, but we’ll do it with fiddle and mandolin.”

What it will be, she said, is fun. And she hopes all three bands play to a sold-out house.

“Its’ going to be a great night,” Wall said. “I just felt like I had to do something…just looking at pictures I’ve seen of Asheville, (recovery is) going to take a long time and they need our help.”

Find a link to ticket sales at https://www.thebarefootmovementofficial.com/  or find a link at https://onthestage.com/search 

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TownTalk: Ahmad Campbell Foundation

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Alicia Campbell doesn’t get tired of telling stories about her boys, Ahmad and Rashad. Like the time they went off exploring instead of being down the street playing basketball. It was the only spanking Ahmad ever got, Campbell said.

It was getting dark and the boys didn’t come when their mom called out the front door for them to come home. She drove around the neighborhood, but no luck. She called her husband, Anthony, who was working second-shift, and he joined the search.

“All of a sudden, we see them walking across the neighbor’s yard,” Campbell said on Monday’s TownTalk.

Many moms and dads can relate to the feelings of panic and anger – wrapped in relief – that surely the Campbells felt when they saw their sons were safe sound.

Not nearly as many parents can relate, however, to what the Campbell family experienced on Oct. 2, 2016. That was the day Ahmad was killed – the victim of gun violence.

He was a student at N.C. A & T State and had gone to an off-campus party, Campbell recounted. Some uninvited guests showed up at the apartment and were told to leave. Later on, shots were fired into the apartment. Bullets struck Ahmad and a young woman. They both died. The phone call that the Campbell’s older son got that night changed everyone’s lives forever.

But the Campbells created a foundation in their son’s memory and ahmadcampbellfoundation.org is dedicated to preventing loss of life from gun violence.

Ahmad would have been 30 this year – Nov. 19, to be exact – and Campbell said the foundation is sponsoring a “Sneaker Ball” dinner and dance on Nov. 23 at Southern Charm in downtown Henderson. Tickets are $25. Campbell said she tries to have an event each year to fund scholarships in memory of Ahmad and the other victim.

The mother of the second victim has done a similar thing in Chicago, where they live. The scholarship named in memory of her daughter also bears Ahmad’s name.

Gun violence in our society continues its ugly pattern of taking the lives of too many young people. Campbell said she tries to attend public safety events to help spread the word about the importance of gun safety. Keep firearms locked away – whether in a vehicle or in homes.

“Stop leaving weapons in vehicles,” she said. Being proactive helps guns from getting into the wrong hands.

“It won’t cut down all (gun violence), but it will cut down a lot,” she said.

Campbell said she tells Ahmad’s story because it’s her story. “I’m a mother that is hurting and will hurt forever,” she said.

But telling childhood stories about Ahmad is something of a balm for Campbell. It helps her remember her son and what a kind, humble person he was.

Like the story about him running track at Southern Vance. “He’d disappear after his race,” she said. Come to find out, he was going behind the bleachers to meet a teammate who didn’t have his own spikes.

“Meet me behind the bleachers and you can use mine,” she said. Typical Ahmad.

Visit https://theahmadfoundations.org/ or call Campbell at 252.767.1353 to find out more.

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TownTalk: Around Old Granville: First Families

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Just as in today’s real estate market, the phrase “location, location, location” rang true in the days when the very first families came to the area once known as Granville County.

The English folks who’d settled Jamestown were branching out in the pre-Revolutionary era of the 1700’s and they looked south for more opportunities, said Mark Pace, local historian and North Carolina Room specialist at Richard Thornton Library in Oxford.

They may have lived here, but “here” wasn’t identified as Granville County back then, and that was the topic of Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk. Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris talked about “first families,” their interconnections and influence over close to what is now almost three centuries.

Granville County would not be carved from Edgecombe until 1746. Heck, Edgecombe was still part of Bertie until 1722, so local genealogy enthusiasts who can trace their heritage back that far would have to hit the Bertie County Courthouse for deeds and records, Pace said.

And while there may be a wealth of historical data on the first families of Granville County, or Vance, Franklin and Warren – the information stream slows to a quiet trickle before those counties were actually established.

“They have lived in the presence of five different counties – without moving,” Pace said.

“The ones that came here in 1720, 1730, 1740 were literally pioneers,” Pace said of families with last names like Hargrove, Bullock, Henderson, Penn and Taylor.

Think about it: by the early 1700’s, settlers had lived almost a century in the James River and Tidewater area of Virginia, where 95 percent of the new residents of North Carolina came from.

Farming techniques were basically non-existent – they’d “farm the land until it wore out and then clear some more,” Pace said.

So when John Carteret, also known as Lord Granville, employed a land agent to represent him and his vast land holdings, people like Edward Jones, Philemon Hawkins, Gideon Macon and others sought to purchase tracts and put down roots.

The philosophy was to get here early and get good tracts of land – not just big tracts, but good tracts.

For Jones, Hawkins and others, it meant acquiring land located along rivers or where springs were found.

“By the 1730’s, you really start to see this area grow,” Pace said, noting that several hundred large tracts of land were sold to buyers, all of whom hailed from 14 counties in Virginia.

Hawkins was clever enough to bring with him millstones that had to be specially made elsewhere for use here in the mills that he constructed in the current-day Shocco ar

The acquisition process back then required money up front or what was called “quick rent,” basically a lease-to-own deal that came with certain stipulations. The tracts came in 640-acre lots that equaled one square mile, Pace said. The landowner would pay to have a surveyor come lay out the property before the sale was made, and the buyer would be required to cultivate at least three acres a year and have a permanent dwelling constructed by a certain time. But “head rights” gave buyers the right to purchase tracts in the name of whoever they brought down with them – wives, children, mothers-in-law as well as the enslaved people who worked for them.

By the time the American Revolution began, Pace said one quarter of the population of Old Granville County was comprised of enslaved persons.

The website https://www.ncgenweb.us/ is a helpful resource for individuals looking for genealogy information of enslaved people in their ancestries.

 

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WIZS Radio 2024 General Election Coverage

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Democratic incumbent Carolyn Faines swept all three precincts Tuesday to retain her District 1 seat on the Vance County Board of Commissioners, defeating Republican challenger William Heitman, with 56 percent of the vote over Heitman’s 44 percent.

The District 1 seat was the only contested local race on Vance County ballots, with three other commissioners and three school board members running unopposed.

Faines got 1,808 votes to Heitman’s 1,417 votes from those who cast ballots in the Middleburg, New Hope and Community College precincts.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, Faines said she is excited and thankful for another opportunity to serve the county in what will be her third term as District 1 commissioner.

“I thank the citizens for trusting me again,” Faines said, adding that she intends to serve Vance County to the best of her ability and “do what’s right for every citizen,” adding that she hears their voices and their concerns.

WIZS News spoke to Heitman Tuesday night after the results were in, and the challenger said he had sent a congratulatory note to Faines on her victory.

In the time leading up to the election, Heitman said the county’s property tax rate and property revaluation became hot topics of conversation and “called a lot of people out to pay attention.”

He said those issues caused more people to get involved…(and) keep an eye on what the commissioners do and what they vote for.

Here is the breakdown by precinct in the District 1 contest:

Middleburg: Faines 363 Heitman 183

Community College: Faines 153 Heitman 115

New Hope: Faines 1,292 Heitman 1,119

Total voter turnout in Vance County was 69.5 percent, slightly lower than the 2020 turnout of about 71 percent. A total of 20,095 ballots were cast – including 611 mail-in and absentee votes cast, along with 15,637 – more than 54 percent – ballots that were cast during the early-voting period between Oct. 17 and Nov. 2.

Vance County Board of Elections Chairman James Baines provided WIZS News the summary sheet of all 12 precincts by about 9:15 p.m. to confirm the unofficial results of the District 1 race.

Also, by 9:40 p.m., with all 25 precincts reporting, challenger Bryan Cohn had received 182 more votes than incumbent Frank Sossamon for the race for N.C. House District 32, which includes Vance and Granville counties.

Cohn, a former Oxford city commissioner, garnered 60 percent of the total vote among Vance County voters. Cohn got 21,054 votes to 20,872 votes for Sossamon with all 25 precincts reporting.

In the race for N.C. House District 7, which includes a portion of Vance County, Republican incumbent Matthew Winslow is the projected winner, with 26,995 votes, over Democratic challenger Jesse Goslen, who had 20,520 with all precincts reporting.

Republican State Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes held a slim lead over Democratic challenger James Mercer and is the projected winner in the District 11 race, winning with 51.35 percent of the vote to Mercer’s 48.65 percent.

The Henry A. Dennis Building in downtown Henderson is home to the Vance County Board of Elections.

TownTalk: Economic Development In Vance County

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As the county’s new economic development director, Ferdinand Rouse has spent his first few months on the job taking stock of all the things that make Vance County attractive to prospective business and industry.

But he’s also digging into the county’s history and the people who have helped to shape it over the years so he can build on what’s been done before he came to town.

“Vance County is in a position of change – and growth,” Rouse said on Tuesday’s TownTalk. With a nod to previous economic development director McKinley Perkinson and interim Harry Mills, Rouse said he chooses “to pick up where they left off and move us forward.”

With one-year, three-year and five-year goals in mind for the county, Rouse said a personal goal is to introduce himself to business and industry owners in the county, and to let them know about a couple of state grants that could be helpful when they’re ready to expand.

One is a building reuse grant, available for businesses that are planning an expansion that will add a certain number of employees to the payroll. A second grant called One NC originates from the N.C. Dept. of Commerce and offsets costs that business and industry use to create jobs.

Although both require local matches, but Rouse said they are “very good grants that I like to spread the news about for larger industries.”

Economic development often is associated with attracting new business – manufacturing, industrial, retail – to an area, but Rouse reminds that a lot of growth comes from the existing industry base within a county’s boundaries.

He does have his eyes on a few spots in the county that could be ripe for development in the future, he said, but it’s too early to predict just how it’ll play out.

As a product of eastern North Carolina, Rouse said he’s familiar with what it means to live in a rural area and the pride associated with those roots.

“It’s a tightrope you have to walk when you’re talking about bringing growth to a rural community,” he said. “Folks don’t want folks coming in from the outside” if they sense that their rural lifestyle is threatened.

Rouse said the Industrial Park, with its shell building ready for a business to come in and finish to its particular needs is one of the county’s biggest assets when it comes to attractive new business. And it’s certainly something he’s sure to point out when he’s networking, or as he said, being “the tip of the spear” when it comes to all the opportunities within the park and the county as a whole.

Another tip of another spear in the county’s quiver could easily be tourism, Rouse mused. People who come to visit – whether it’s the annual car show, boating and camping at Kerr Lake or any of a variety of destinations – can learn first-hand about the county’s amenities.

And when retirement rolls around, some of these tourists can become full-time residents.

With the county’s recent retirement community designation from the state, Rouse said there is great potential for Vance County to gain residents who not only bring a wealth of experience, but disposable income and a desire to give back to their new community.

“They still have money and they still have energy,” he said. “Retirees are a boon and a blessing.”

He said local tourism officials are doing all the right things to support economic growth.

“Tourism…can bring great success to your community.”

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TownTalk: Downtown Henderson An Opportunity For Diversity

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Downtown Henderson could become a center for diversity and growth.

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Winder Street Dedicated As ‘Eddie James Hicks Drive’

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With a contingent of family, friends, colleagues and well-wishers gathered at the corner of Garnett and West Winder streets, city leaders unveiled new signs dedicating Winder Street in honor of Eddie Hicks, a hometown celebrity with a servant’s heart.

All the green Winder Street signs – from Chestnut Street to County Home Road – will have a second attached that identifies it as Eddie James Hicks Drive.

Flanking the words on the sign are the East Carolina University Sports Hall of Fame logo and the familiar New York Giants insignia, a tip of the hat to the places where Hicks dazzled crowds with his athletic gifts. Hicks was inducted into the ECU hall of fame in 2014. He played for the Giants and returned to watch his beloved Giants play when he could.

Kendrick Vann, director of the Henderson Vance Recreation & Parks Department, recalled when he and Hicks went to a Giants game. Hicks was Vann’s godfather, and he also was an employee of the rec and parks department.

“He truly loved being a benefit to the community, an asset to the community and all people, regardless of race, color, creed,” Vann told those gathered at the 11 a.m. dedication ceremony where the sign was officially unveiled.

Vann said Hicks loved his church, his temple and working for the City of Henderson and Vance County. And, Vann said, he offered advice about making priorities in life: “Church, community, family, football.”

David Person, Worshipful Master of Beacon Light Lodge 249, said Hicks loved his lodge and he loved his lodge brothers. “Let’s continue to think of Eddie and the legacy he’s built,” Person said, and all the people who have been impacted by him.

Hicks’s widow, Jackie, spoke briefly before the sign was unveiled and thanked those in attendance for sharing in the moment. “There was nothing that this man wouldn’t do for anybody,” she said. With a resolve to stay strong, as her husband would have wanted, she challenged the group to work for change in the city that Hicks called home.

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