Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

TownTalk: 11 Year Old Varonica Mitchell Attracts National Spotlight

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Like a lot of other kids her age, Varonica Mitchell was excited recently because she was getting a new phone.

But how many other 11-year-olds have a resume that lists accomplishments including actress, musician, dancer and, wait for it…stand-up comedian?

Varonia, or V V, as her family calls her, can be seen in her one-man, er, one-girl show on all the different social media platforms. Simply called “The V V Show,” viewers can click on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see what the vivacious V V currently is up to. She has 37,000 followers, just within that past 18 months.

She chatted with John C. Rose recently for a TownTalk segment that aired Thursday and he asked her what she enjoyed most.

“I think I like dancing most,” she said after a little thought. “Shout out to my mom’s  iDance Praise Academy,” she added.

Whether she’s dancing, modeling, cheerleading, playing the drums or performing her original skits, Varonica gives it her all. Her infectious energy bubbles up when she speaks about the show. She’s developed several characters that she has introduced on her show: there’s Grandma Roseanne and Granny Rowann but she said a lot of folks are partial to Mr. Egg Nog.

“My friends like him,” she said. “His favorite word is ‘Well,’” she said, uses her best gravelly, old codger voice to drag out the word. “Mr. Egg Nog has a big stomach and a beard,” she said. “He tells me he’s supposed to eat healthy, but he doesn’t. He eats everything.”

Varonica gets into costume to portray the characters, and the rest of her family pitches in before and after production. Her dad does the videoing and posting and her mom helps her with her outfits. And when they’re on the road, older sister tutors her so she doesn’t fall behind on school work.

“My mom, my dad and my sister inspire me. Also Kevin Hart,” she added, giving a nod to the comedian, with whom she shares a common attribute – height. Hart, a world-famous comedian, stands at 5-foot-2; Varonica checks in – so far – at 4-foot-5.

“He inspires little kids who want to be comedians,” she said, but even if you don’t want to be a comedian, he still makes them laugh.

And if Varonica creates a similar path for herself, she is well on the way.

When asked what she thought she’d be doing in 5 or 10 years, she got quiet for a moment before she answered. “I will be an independent woman,” she predicted. “I will be doing movies, series…my mom will probably be kicking me out of the house by then,” she said.

But as long as Varonica keeps doing what she’s doing, her future surely is on a sharp upward trajectory.

“It’s me, being myself. Mmm hmmm.”

Learn more about Varonica and “The V V Show” on any of the following:

www.instagram.com/_thevvshow_/

The VV Show – YouTube

www.facebook.com/thevvshow

Google: http://g.co/kgs/Lds9wG

 

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Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Patience

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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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Local Businesses Asked To Donate Items For New Teacher Welcome Bags

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The Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce is preparing 130 welcome bags for the new teachers preparing to come to work in the Vance County area.

But the Chamber needs your help! If your business would like to donate an item to help fill these bags, please contact us at 252.438.8414 or bring the items (in quantities of 130, please) to the Chamber office, 414 S. Garnett St., no later than Friday, July 8.

The schools include those in Vance County Public Schools as well as Henderson Collegiate, Crossroads Christian School, Kerr-Vance Academy and Vance Charter School.

Some suggestions for donations include: pens, pencils, pads, hand sanitizer, coupons /discount cards, key chains, etc.

The Chamber staff thanks you in advance for your kind donation.

TownTalk: Looking To The Future Of Area Transportation

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Imagine driving to the train station in downtown Henderson to begin your daily commute to your job in the Triangle. You hop on the commuter rail, which whizzes past the stopped traffic along U.S. 1 and Capital Boulevard as you approach your destination.

For regional planner Sam Boswell, that is no longer a pie-in-the-sky notion, but what could be reality in, say, another 10 years or so.

Boswell is a regional planner who concentrates on transportation for the Kerr Tar COG. He told WIZS’s Bill Harris Wednesday that he sees his job as a balancing act to ensure that the COG provides and promotes projects for all parts of the region, not just the ones that are experiencing the burgeoning growth right now.

The Kerr Tar COG, which serves Vance, Granville, Warren, Franklin and Person counties, stays up-to-date on NC DOT projects, such as the S-Line Rail Project slated to run through Henderson and points north, participation in a regional greenway project and an alternative to the gas tax, which helps to fund transportation projects and maintenance.

Individuals have an opportunity to ask questions, voice concerns and hear updates from the NC DOT as it hosts an open house during the week of July 25-29. Folks can drop in to Div. 5 offices, 2612 N. Duke St., in Durham any time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. during that week, Boswell said.

Part of his job, he said, is to help municipalities and counties with projects and to explore ways to have a regional effect, “a grouping of services to benefit the region.” That sometimes proves difficult, he said, explaining that municipalities may not reap a direct benefit from a project that is not geographically nearby.

Take the S-Line rail project, for example. This project will connect Raleigh and Richmond and completing the Southeast rail corridor that then can feed into the much-used Northeast rail corridor.

“It’s a big deal, for sure,” Boswell said, adding that there’s a great deal of excitement around the project.

In addition to reducing commute times and the number of vehicles on the road, a passenger rail brings with it other benefits. “If you’ve got a train stop, you’ve got people leaving and people coming in,” he explained. That means riders can choose to get off at the Henderson or Norlina stations, “put a break in their trip and visit local businesses,” spending money and adding to the local economies.

There’s another exciting possibility for transportation of a slower nature – bicycle and pedestrian traffic along a greenway. The East Coast Greenway feasibility study is underway now. It’s mostly a biking trail, but there’s a walking route as well, Boswell said. The greenway extends through 400 cities from Florida to Maine, sort of like the Appalachian Trail, and the American Tobacco Trail in Durham makes up 27 or so miles of the greenway trail, he added.

“We’re working with a team of consultants to see how we can make that happen in the Kerr Tar region,” he said. Right now, there’s a section between Butner and Oxford in Granville County, but the COG is waiting to hear from another grant opportunity to continue the study on a bigger scale – building a greenway trail from Oxford north to Virginia and from Oxford to Henderson.

These projects, and others on the horizon, signal change for the area. Boswell said, like it or not, as the Triangle continues to expand, it’s important to keep the transportation system updated – even trying to stay ahead of the growth that is surely coming.

In addition to new projects like the rail line, it’s also critical to keep existing roads in good repair and able to handle the increasing volume of traffic.

“People are going to start moving in here,” Boswell said of the Kerr Tar region. What planners have to try to figure out is how to make adjustments to the infrastructure to accommodate those people.

More people means more vehicles using the roads, but not necessarily producing more revenue through the gas sales tax. More hybrid and electric vehicles means less money spent on gas, he explained. So the DOT is re-examining an idea previously studied that would generate revenue based on the number of miles a driver drives as opposed to how much gas he pumps into his tank.

“Right now, money for construction projects comes from the gas tax,” Boswell explained. As vehicles become more fuel efficient or not dependent at all on gas, drivers “aren’t paying their fair share…and the burden falls on some drivers more than others.”

DOT looked at it a few years ago.

Is it more equitable or sustainable to pay per mile than per gallon of gasoline? That’s one of the questions being considered in the study, he said.

The study has slots for 450 participants throughout the state, which will run from the end of July through October. Participants will get a device of some sort that will connect to the vehicle’s odometer or otherwise track the miles driven.

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Home And Garden Show

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

  • Start planning your Fall vegetable garden
  • Do you plan to do some home canning? Be sure to follow up-to-date recommendations.
  • Keep hydrated, take rest breaks when doing garden chores during  hot temperatures
  • Tomatoes and peppers may drop blossoms due to high temperatures. They should return to normal production once temperatures fall.
  • Now would be a good time to check your lawnmowers do maintenance according to the owners manual.
  • Wear hearing protection when operating gas powered yard tools. The damage occurs slowly and is cumulative.
  • If you have fig bushes, water them well once a week if it hasn’t rained to prevent fruit drop.
  • Learn about the Spotted Lanternfly. Report sightings to NCDACS.

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United Way of Vance County Now Accepting Grant Applications

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The United Way of Vance County is now accepting 2022 grant applications.  Deadline for submission is close of business on July 31, 2022.  Applicant interviews for those that are eligible for a grant will be held on August 10th with the grants awarded on August 18th.

Eligibility requirements include:

  • The agency shall have an IRS tax exempt status under 501(c)3 or incorporated in North Carolina as a not-for-profit agency
  • The agency shall be licensed in North Carolina under the 1975 solicitation of Charitable Funds Acts unless specifically exempt

Completed applications are to be sent to P.O. Box 1352 or emailed to

unitedwayofvance@gmail.com.   Do not bring the application by the office.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jane Haithcock, Secretary/Treasurer, at 252-432-3778 or at the email address above.

Applications are available on the United Way website.  Completed applications are due by close of business (5 p.m.) July  31, 2022 either to P.O. Box 1352, Henderson or at unitedwayofvance@gmail.com

TownTalk: Saving Cats And Kittens Is Purr Partners Goal

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There are a couple of important things to consider before becoming a pet owner, if you ask Luwanna Johnson, founder and president of Purr Partners rescue. Johnson and her team of volunteers devote countless hours to the Franklin County-based rescue operation, which takes in as many cats as it can, but it’s not enough.

“The number one thing people can do is spay and neuter their pets,” Johnson said. Without that step, she told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Tuesday’s TownTalk, “nothing is going to change.”

She said her organization gets upwards of 50 or 60 calls each week from people who have found cats or kittens, either abandoned or as strays.

This is not a new phenomenon, she said. “Sadly, it’s happening every year – every year it’s worse,” she said.

Some of the kitten “explosion” can be blamed on the fact that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the spay-neuter clinics closed. Those who were inclined to have their cats fixed couldn’t. Now, she said, those cats have had kittens and the kittens have had kittens.

But it certainly isn’t the only factor in this dilemma, she said.

“As the human population explodes, the cat population does as well,” she said, explaining that folks who move to the “country” and let their cats live outside. And if they’re not spayed or neutered, Mother Nature takes over.

“Cats are just not safe outside,” Johnson said. “Our world is not safe for them,” she continued.

“Never let your cats outside, especially if (they) aren’t fixed,” Johnson stressed. Even if they are fixed, she said too often she sees cats come into rescue that have been hit by cars or attacked by other animals.

“They rarely survive an encounter with a car,” she said, “and they’re prey for coyotes, dogs and even humans.” She said Purr Partners has taken in more than a dozen cats in the past year with gunshot wounds.

These injured animals aren’t feral, she said. “These are the friendly cats – those who are coming up to people asking for help. And they’re being shot.”

And there’s another category of cat that often find themselves in her rescue – Johnson calls them “unsuccessful strays.” She defines this type of cat as one that has either wandered from its home or yard, or was scared or chased away and now finds itself unable to fend for itself.

“They’re not capable of surviving” on their own, and they come to Purr Partners in “horrible condition…they don’t know how to live outside,” she said. One such adult male came in weighing less than 4 pounds, she said.

So, spaying and neutering is the first thing a responsible pet owner should consider. The second important thing to consider is purchasing pet insurance, Johnson said.

It’s not realistic to think that, at some time or another, your pet will never need the services of a veterinarian. Or worse, an emergency veterinary clinic.

Vet care has become extremely expensive, she said, and just like the human members of the family, pets also need regular care to stay healthy.

And pet insurance has come a long way since its inception, Johnson said. For about $20 a month, cat owners can have coverage that will pay for emergencies, injuries and all kinds of illnesses.

Speaking of vet bills, about 99 percent of all Purr Partner donations are used to pay for veterinary services.

“We operate solely on donations and fundraising,” she said. The biggest fundraiser is the “Black Cat Bash” in October, which is a costume party held at the Durant Road Nature Park.

Send an email to purrpartners@yahoo.com to learn more.

Visit https://www.purrpartners.org/ to see the list of adoptable cats, learn how to volunteer, fill out an adoption application or click the big DONATE button!

Checks may be sent to:

Purr Partners

P.O. Box. 905, Youngsville, NC 27596

 

 

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The Local Skinny! Jobs In Vance 07-05-22

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The H-V Chamber of Commerce and WIZS, Your Community Voice, present Jobs in Vance for July 5, 2022. The Chamber compiles the information, and it is presented here and on the radio. Contact the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce at 438-8414 or email Michele@hendersonvance.org to be included.

 

Freight Handler/Order Filler

Walmart Distribution Center – Henderson, NC

$17.55 – $23.55 an hour

Full-time

Day shift

Hiring multiple candidates

Fulfill store orders through pulling merchandise through layer using electronic voice control equipment, stacking onto pallets, placing labels in appropriate…

 

Front Desk Associate/Night Auditor

Divine Hospitality DBA Baymont Inn & Suites

Henderson, NC

$11 – $18 an hour

Full-time

Day shift

Hiring multiple candidates

The ideal candidate will have previous customer service experience and will understand the importance of responding quickly to guests’ needs and complaints.

 

 

Store Team Member –  Evenings/Overnight

Sheetz

Henderson

$14 an hour

Part-time

Overnight shift

Serve as a hospitality ambassador by greeting customers and providing an excellent experience.

Complete customer transactions accurately and efficiently.

 

 

Night Shift Production Technician

Bridgestone Americas

Oxford, NC

$25 an hour

Full-time

8 hour shift

Responsible to communicate to team members, manufacturing team members, department supervisor/manager(s), maintenance, customers, suppliers, etc.

 

 

Library Assistant

Vance County, NC

Henderson, NC

$14.99 an hour

Part-time

Work may include creating library accounts, assisting patrons with their accounts, checking out materials, and assisting in locating print and non-print materials

 

 

Arby’s Team Member

Henderson, NC

Estimated $23K – $29.2K a year

Team Members must listen to guests, coworkers, and supervisors, in person and over loudspeakers and/or a headset.

 

 

Health Care Front Office Assistant

The Optometric Eye Site

Henderson, NC

$12 – $15 an hour

Full-time

Busy Eye Care Practice seeking a new front office assistant and health care technician.

No previous experience and specific education is required, however, some…

 

 

Pick-To-Light Selector (Full-Time & Part-Time)

ADUSA Distribution, LLC

Henderson,

From $16 an hour

Full-time

Day shift

Hiring multiple candidates

Able to use a personal computer for data entry and research purposes.

Work in a warehouse environment with varying conditions (i.e. cool temperatures, concrete…

 

 

Machine Operator – 1st Shift

IDEAL Fastener Corporation

Henderson, NC

Estimated $28.9K – $36.5K a year

Full-time

Day shift

Hiring multiple candidates

IDEAL Fastener Corporation is NOW HIRING *for full-time Machine Operators!.

> Monday-Thursday, 10 hour shift with 3-day weekends!

Hiring ongoing

 

 

Part-Time Store Associate

ALDI

Henderson, NC

$14.50 an hour

Part-time

Meet any state and local requirements for handling and selling alcoholic beverages.

Adheres to cash policies and procedures to minimize losses.

 

 

Retail Stocking Associate $16.00/hr

Harbor Freight Tools USA, Inc.

Henderson, NC 27537

$16 an hour

Full-time

Ability to communicate clearly with customers and associates in person and via e-mail and telephone.

 

 

Deputy Register of Deeds

Vance County, NC

Henderson, NC

$31,926 a year

Full-time

Indexes vital records; issues marriage license; issues copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates, military discharges, legitimization papers;..

 

 

Some of these businesses are present or past advertisers of WIZS.  Being an ad client is not a condition of being listed or broadcast.  This is not a paid ad.

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