Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

The Local Skinny! Home And Garden Show 5-5-21

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WIZS, Your Community Voice.  Thank you for listening! 

The Local Skinny! each Wednesday on WIZS is the Vance County Cooperative Extension Service Home and Garden Show.

 

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SportsTalk 5-4-21 Paul “Showtime” Gaffney, Gaffney Athletic Prep Academy

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Before he was known as “Showtime,” Paul Gaffney was a kid from a rural coal mining town in Kentucky. He was born to an unmarried teenage mom who placed him for adoption. At the age of two, his adoptive mother died and Gaffney was raised alone by his adoptive father. Gaffney would be considered as an “at-risk child” but Gaffney overcame these issues through his love of athletics and basketball. He is the Tennessee Wesleyan University Hall of Fame, where he received a B.S. in Business Management and, through his fifteen years with the Harlem Globetrotters, he is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Now he is the founder of Gaffney Atletic Preparatory Academy (GAPA) in Tennessee which Gaffeny calls, “An innovative school dealing with sports careers including sports medicine, marketing, communications and nutrition serving grades six through twelve.” There is also a post grad program available to students who need it to help with GPA’s as well. GAPA enhances opportunities for students to move up to prestige college, according to Gaffney.

Gaffney says, “There were always people around me who inspired me to be a better athlete,” and this is what he hopes that GAPA will do for his students. Gaffney says GAPA teaches kids to find out what they love. While they may love athletics they might not be the world’s greatest athlete but might be great at cooking which could lead to a career as a sports nutritionist allowing them to be involved in athletics while not being on the field or court.

Students are from all over the world. He recruits students locally as well as Italy, Portugal and other locations.

However, GAPA isn’t his only interest. Gaffney is manager of the Tennessee Conductors of the WABA Basketball League. This women’s league is an opportunity to showcase talent so players may be able to move on to the WNBA. The team is scheduled to begin its season in July.

Gaffney credits his fifteen years with the Harlem Globetrotters in helping him open doors on these ventures. “The Globetrotters helped me develop the needed character for these endeavors,” Gaffney said.

Speaking of his Globetrotter experience Gaffney said, “We played eight days in a seven day week.” The constant travel all over the world helped the team develope a brotherhood that remains to this day. “The court was my office for 15 years and I enjoyed every minute of it,” Gaffney said. He calls the Globetrotter a tight knit family.

Gaffney also said playing with the Globetrotters was probably harder than playing basketball in the NBA due to the number of games involved and the travel which saw them go all around the world but the millions of smiles and memories those games brought to fans are special not only to those fans but for him as well. One of Gaffney’s fondest memories and one that changed his life was in 1996 when he met then South African President Nelson Mandela.

For complete details and audio click play.

 

TownTalk 5-4-21 Donald Seifert, Shriner’s Fish Fry

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Donald Seifert of the Tri-County Shrine Club about the upcoming Shriner’s Fish Fry.

Broadcast audio here.  Written story below.

For decades, the annual Shrine Club fish fry was held at the Henderson Armory. In recent years, although the locations have changed, the mission has never wavered: the local Shrine Club fundraiser supports local and national causes to help children.

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 marks the 57th fish fry, said Donald C. Seifert, who spoke with John C. Rose on Tuesday’s Town Talk.

The event is take-out only, he said, and runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 210 Industry Drive, at the Sherman and Boddie facility. Tickets are available from local Shriners, but also are available at the door.

“It all comes together,” Seifert said of the preparation for the annual fish fry. “But it comes together right at the last day or two,” he said. Club members will get the cookers on site and prepare the fish. There’s a lot of work that goes into the annual event, and he said club members look forward to serving a lot of customers on May 19.

“We do have some good experience on moving folks through and getting them hot plates (of food),” he said.

In the 57 years that the fish fry has been held, there’s no telling how much fish has been battered, fried and placed on plates or in to-go boxes, he said. “It’s very gratifying. The people of Henderson and the surrounding area have been so supportive – it’s just been a good project for us and I think people have enjoyed it also,” Seifert added.

A couple of years ago, the group known as Henderson Shrine Club adopted a new name to reflect its demographic. The Tri-County Shrine Club is the same group, but Seifert said the newer name is more inclusive.

“We’ll do our level best to deliver to our customers a good fish plate – they’ll certainly get their money’s worth,” he said.

The local Shriners support causes in the community – they recently helped with a first-responders fundraiser – as well as Shriners’ hospitals across the nation and around the globe. “Road runners” are Shriners who transport children and family members to Shrine hospitals for treatment. Treatment and transportation are at no cost to the family, and fundraisers like the local fish fry support the medical care the children receive.

The fish fry is something that the community looks forward to, with many years selling completely out of fish – but the timing is uncannily close to when the event is over. Larry Parker and Ray Fields are two mainstays of the fish fry, and Seifert said that the former Highway Patrolmen really know how to move things along when they need to.

Rose asked Seifert how many fish fry events he’d attended over the years. With only a slight pause, Seifert stated “It’s been most of them – I was here and I was a Shriner, so I was at the fish fry.”

TownTalk 5-3-21 Dr. Michael Sylvia, Chief Of Pediatrics, Maria Parham Health

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Children can safely return to school said Dr. Michael Sylvia, Chief of Pediatrics at Maria Parham Hospital, earlier today on TownTalk.

TownTalk broadcast audio and written story below.

In the past year or so, experts and laypeople have spoken at length about all the complications brought on by COVID-19 and the effects it has had, both in the community and across the globe. But one local pediatrician said Monday he would offer a simple response to the question about children’s safe return to school: Yes.

“The short answer is yes, it is safe to send your child- and kids – back to school,” said Dr. Michael Sylvia, chief of Pediatrics and vice chair of the department of Medicine at Maria Parham Medical Center.

“We know that school is incredibly important, not just for the learning’s sake, but there’s a lot of social skills that kids develop in school, especially in the 6- to 12-year age group, that pre-adolescent range,” Sylvia told John C. Rose on Monday’s segment of Town Talk.

He said children invariably will come home with the everyday, run-of-the-mill germs that cause colds, stomach bugs and other common ailments when they do return to in-person school full-time. But it is important for parents and other adult family members to be able to discern those routine symptoms and not jump to the conclusion that the child has COVID-19.

“Kids share germs – it’s inevitable,” he said. Symptoms such as a high fever, sore throat, shortness of breath, chills and body aches, and loss of taste or smell could indicate something more than just a standard cold, he said. If a child complains of those symptoms, or has been exposed to COVID-19, a call to the doctor is in order for possible testing.

As children return to group activities like sports, it’s going to be important to be vigilant about hand washing and not grabbing the wrong water bottle.

But not letting young people play sports could have a more negative impact than letting them get back on the fields for practice and games. “Sports is huge for team building and emotional development,” Sylvia said. “I’m all about kids getting out and exercising.”

Parents who notice changes in their children’s behavior – physical or emotional – should talk with their pediatrician. “The one thing that parents can do is just be open,” Sylvia said. “Share your concerns with your child.”

Sylvia commented on the ongoing research around COVID-19 and how it affects different age groups. Teenagers are still far less likely to catch COVID-19 or have symptoms bad enough to put them in hospital, he said. Younger children are even less likely to experience symptoms, he added. But children are still being included in clinical trials, and the research can help health experts target the age ranges that should be vaccinated.

“We’re optimistic that we’ll have some pretty good information about vaccines in kids by summer,” Sylvia said.

The decision to vaccinate young children has yet to be made, but Sylvia said it probably would be a good idea, even if there is a low incidence of infection. Why? “It’s (for) the child or the adult in the community who can’t get the vaccine for health reasons,” he said.

“I’m optimistic that we will be through this in the near future,” Sylvia said. “Parents just have to stick it out just a little longer.”

Henderson Mall Purchased, Name Will Change to Henderson Pointe

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A Maryland-based investment group has purchased the Henderson Mall property on Dabney Drive. The first order of business was to rename it Henderson Pointe.

Broad Reach Retail Partners, LLC specializes in acquiring properties with anchor tenants like grocery stores, Walmart and Target. The former Mall property has a Food Lion, as well as other retailers Roses, Badcock Furniture and Harbor Freight.

Christian Lockamy, director of the Henderson-Vance Economic Development Commission, told WIZS News there has been a shifting supply and demand for this type of retail space since COVID-19 began.

“There has been a lot of movement in retail,” Lockamy said. Newer companies are “swooping in” with mergers and acquisitions as older investors are looking for ways to exit the retail market. The purchase amount was not disclosed, but Broad Reach targets properties between $5 million and $50 million, according to a list of criteria on its website.

Lockamy said Broad Reach specializes in shopping centers that also are in proximity to areas that are seeing continued development – for example, the Beckford Drive/Graham Avenue area of Dabney Drive. The property, which has more than 188,000 square feet of retail space, currently has a 72 percent occupancy rate.

“There continues to be strong investment demand as convenience-oriented retail, particularly strong grocery-anchored retail, has weathered the pandemic well,” said Nate McKay, Broad Reach Retail’s acquisition officer.

“We are finding great success in acquiring high-volume Food Lions,” McKay added. “They have outstanding tenant credit and are an excellent draw to the centers they anchor.”

The investment group recognizes the value a property like the former Henderson Mall has in the community and Broad Reach CEO Nate Tower said Broad Reach can add to that value by revitalizing the property and “filling retail voids to support the needs of the local residents.”

The Local Skinny Apr 29 YMCA Bike Safety Event

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The Local Skinny Apr 29 YMCA Bike Safety Event Information.