Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

The Local Skinny! Modified SOS Mission Program Continues Summer Projects To Help Others

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Rebuilding Hope’s Servants On Site summer youth mission program is conducting a “Special Edition” to celebrate 10 years of providing a helping hand in the community. Although the traditional format has been modified, the end result is the same – completing projects to help others and sharing the love of Jesus.

According to a press statement from Rebuilding Hope’s Director, Randolph Wilson, the projects will be spread out over a 10-week period. Participation will be limited to two churches per week, beginning this week and continuing through the week of Aug. 23-27.

In years past, the Servants on Site program was completed in one week, with hundreds of volunteers working, living and worshipping closely together to complete repair projects. This year, because of COVID-19 precautions, the one-week program has been stretched out over 10 weeks.

“We have had to re-invent ourselves in order to press on with this good work,” said volunteer Robert Parham. “Help us get back on track with helping our neighbors recover some normalcy out of these last difficult months,” he said.

Each church group will be teamed together for a project and also be housed, fed, and ministered to separately. Each work group will partner with a local church for corporate worship and also minister to the homeowner and surrounding neighborhood, Wilson said.

Lunches will be provided by the partnering church at the job site. Dinner locations will vary. Out-of-town groups will be provided housing from Sunday evening to Saturday morning, and Parham said there is the option to have guest speakers or musicians with advance notice.

Openings are available beginning July 5 for any youth group interested in doing a summer mission close to home.  “This would be a wonderful opportunity to help youth bond during the week and gain an understanding of helping those in need without great expense and sleeping in their own beds,” Wilson said. Rebuilding Hope provides all tools, materials and experienced staff to oversee projects.

“We still have some openings and need to let churches know this is an ongoing project this year and we would welcome church groups throughout the summer,” Parham said.

Although the format has been modified this year, the mission remains the same.  “Our goal has always been to meet the spiritual needs of our surrounding counties by assisting in their practical needs,” Wilson said. “The SOS Summer mission camp also allows us to show the next generation of missionaries, while reminding ourselves, how sharing the love of Christ can make a real impact in changing someone’s life.”

To learn more, contact Parham at 252.430.9334 or email at parhamw13@gmail.com.

The Local Skinny! Audio

Town Talk Logo

TownTalk: Gerald Alston’s Sound System Helped To Launch His Musical Career

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The way Gerald Alston sees it, the difference in today’s popular R&B music and that of just a few decades ago is clear: the older music tells a story and leaves room for the listener’s imagination. Not so much with today’s R&B.

“There’s no room for imagination,” Alston said of the newer music. “Artists come out and say exactly what they’re doing.”

Alston spoke by phone to WIZS’s Bill Harris on Monday’s Town Talk. And just like the music that he and The Manhattans perform, the Henderson native shared stories about getting his start in music and reminisced about working with many big-time R&B groups.

A lot of today’s hiphop music is based on the foundation laid by R&B greats, he said. The music The Manhattans and so many others are known for “told stories about life that people could identify with,” he said.

Alston has played concerts across the globe – from South Africa and South America to Great Britain and McGregor Hall, right here in Henderson. The group has played for more than two hours to 15,000 concertgoers in South Africa, he said. “They know our music to a T. Those fans sang every song we performed for two and a half hours,” Alston said. “Our music has been passed down to their children and they still honor that – they realize the importance and quality of it.”

The group has evolved over the years, but The Manhattans are still performing and recording. These days, it’s Alston, Troy May and Dave Tyson who comprise the group.

Their newest album of music, The Manhattans featuring Gerald Alston: The Legacy Continues, is available on their website, www.letsjustkissandsaygoodbye.com.

The website name is a nod to the group’s most successful song, but Alston’s association with The Manhattans began a few years before that song was released in 1976. Alston was attending Kittrell College and agreed to let The Manhattans borrow his sound system for a concert there. “I had no idea they were coming,” he said. Well, as he was testing the system out – by singing, of course – in walked the group that he would later be asked to join. He opened the show for them at Kittrell College and a short time later, the manager caught up with him. He had been booked on a flight to Dallas to join the group. The manager had already been in touch with Alston’s parents, who’d signed the contract since Alston was under age.

“I came back to New York and rehearsed for a few weeks and then I started singing with The Manhattans,” he explained.

The Manhattans weren’t the first group that Alston was a part of; he and his cousin, Dwight Fields (son of Johnny Fields, of Blind Boys of Alabama fame) put a group together that lasted through high school.

Alston, 69, remembers those early days well, from the days when he opened for B.B. King and the man got a standing ovation BEFORE he started playing, to meeting the family of the late Sam Cooke after Alston produced a record of Cooke’s songs.

“I had been wanting to do that for a long time,” Alston recalled. Although his idea had been to do one gospel side and one R&B side, it became two separate albums. Cooke’s brother, L.C. Cooke, did the liner notes for the album. “He said, ‘your album is a true tribute album –  you are singing all of his songs the way you feel them, the way you interpret them,” Alston said.

People who listen to music solely through streaming services and not by actually playing a record album or a CD don’t get the same experience, Alston said. Music lovers who still spin vinyl, however, are still out there enjoying the full experience.

“You can go to Great Britain, South Africa, Japan, South America,” he said. “Those fans can tell you literally the year you recorded, the studio, the musicians, the words –  the year you were at Columbia Records, the  engineers –  it’s incredible. There’s so much history on the physical vinyl, it’s good to have.”

TownTalk Interview with Gerald Alston

Henderson Vance Recreation & Parks

Kids Gym At Aycock Rec Center Gives Youngsters Dedicated Time To Play

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Aycock Recreation Center will be a kids-only zone during a monthly Kids Gym event. The first Kids Gym is scheduled for Thursday, July 15, 2021 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Children under the age of 14 will be welcomed to play on and use all the kid-friendly equipment and there will be plenty of room to maintain a safe social distance.

This once-a-month event will be open to the first 15 participants to register. Each participating youngster must have an adult over the age of 18 with them at all times and participants may not be dropped off, according to information from the Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks Department. Registration is $2 per participant. Register online at http://hvrpd.recdesk.com or in person at Aycock Rec Center.

To learn more, contact Lauren Newlin at 252.438.3160 or lnewlin@ci.henderson.nc.us.

The other dates for Kids Gym are:

August 26

September 23

October 14

November 4

December 9

VCS Students Return To School 5 Days A Week For 2021-22 Year

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Students in Vance County Schools can expect to be back in school five days a week for the 2021-22 school year.

With the exception of Vance Virtual Village Academy (V3), all schools will be back in face-to-face instruction, said VCS public information officer Aarika Sandlin.

Parents who want their child or children to remain in remote instruction should request a transfer to V3 no later than July 19, Sandlin said in a statement to WIZS.

Be reminded that V3 is a one-year commitment. Parents can contact their child’s school or V3  at 252.506.7172 to learn more.

Students on the traditional calendar return to school on Aug. 23; students in year-round school return on Aug. 9; Early Start students return on Aug. 5, according to information on the district website.

The Local Skinny! WOVEN to Sharpen Your Workplace Skills

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Women Of Vance Empowered Networking

WOVEN is a Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce sponsored program to provide networking and professional development opportunities to women in the workplace throughout Vance County and the area.

Guest speaker Cherrelle Lawrence, the Dean of Corporate Learning & Professional Development at Vance Granville Community College and Dean for the Franklin Campus in Louisburg, will help sharpen your skills to advance in the workplace on July 14th at noon.

For $20 per attendee, which includes a box lunch, you can attend at Vance Granville Community College Civic Center.

To register, call 252-438-8414 or email christa@hendersonvance.org.  Seating is limited.

Dean Lawrence earned her Master of Business Administration in 2020 from East Carolina University. Prior to returning to VGCC, Dean Lawrence was the Assistant Director of Employer Relations at Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill.

TownTalk: Town Of Kittrell Has An Interesting Story To Tell

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Kittrell Drew Visitors From All Over With Mineral Springs, Hotels…

Is it possible that the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1901 could have played even a small role in the fate of the Vance County town of Kittrell?

Maybe.

Driving on US 1 through Kittrell today, you’d never know that Kittrell had been home to hotels and resorts that drew visitors from all over. People convalescing from tuberculosis came for the mineral springs and Northerners came to hunt and escape cold winters, according to Mark Pace, local historian. Pace and Bill Harris shared stories about the tiny town of Kittrell on Thursday’s Town Talk as part of an ongoing conversation about local history.

“Kittrell really takes off when the railroad came through,” said Mark Pace, during Thursday’s Town Talk with co-host Bill Harris. In the late 1800’s it was called Kittrell’s Depot – plural because there were two depots, one for passengers and one for commercial use. About the time that the railroad came through, they found a mineral spring, which launched a host of hotels and lodges that brought people from all over to the small Vance County town.

Back at the turn of the 20th century, Census records showed that Kittrell had 168 residents – just about what it has today. But that number back in 1900 is half of what the population had been just 10 years earlier.

Why the drop? “The hotels had closed up by that point,” Pace said.

“Kittrell had its day,” he said. It had its own downtown district, hotels – it was famous throughout the South, complete with fine old homes and historic buildings.

Several families, including the Kittrells, gave land for the railroad to come through. “Kittrell really takes off when the railroad comes through,” Pace said. In the mid-1850’s, the town was called Kittrells – because there were two train depots, one for passengers headed to the hotels and resorts and a second for freight. Along about the time the railroad began chugging through, there was a discovery of a mineral springs. And from the late 1850’s until World War 1, Kittrell was in its heyday.

Over a period of about 30 years, there were four hotels in Kittrell: Located where the Dollar General now stands was Kittrell Springs. It could accommodate 600 guests; and the Davis Hotel, or Glass House, had space for 800 people.

The Glass House, so named because glass porches on either side of the hotel was where people with tuberculosis could be cared for indoors by staff nurses while enjoying the sunlight. The destination was so popular, folks even rented out rooms in private homes. In 1867, Pace said that all the hotels 500 people were turned away. There was no more room.

But after the Golden Era of the resort – after the end of the Civil War and just prior to World War I – interest in Kittrell fell off.

The healing and restorative powers of the mineral springs were largely debunked by the Pure Food and Drug Act. And the bottled water, promising help to those suffering from dyspepsia to female ailments, lost traction in the national market.

The hotels and opera houses, billiard rooms and downtown district are long gone. But the stories remain.

For complete details and audio click play.

 

Archie Taylor, Jr.

Taylor Named 2020 Citizen Of The Year At 83rd Annual Chamber Meeting

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Col. Archie B. Taylor, Jr. was named Vance County’s 2020 Citizen of the Year during the 83rd annual meeting of the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce, held virtually on Thursday, June 17.

Taylor is retired from the military and, upon returning to Vance County, immersed himself in community activities, from working with the Vance County Public School Foundation to the Embassy Cultural Center Foundation, and many other things besides.

In accepting the award, Taylor thanked the Chamber for the honor. He said he grew up in Vance County, working in tobacco fields and picking cucumbers. When it was time for him to retire, said “the only place I wanted to come back to was Vance County.”

Taylor accepted the award from the 2019 recipients, Tommy and Carolyn Farmer. This year’s winner “has been involved in volunteerism on just about every level of local community service since his retirement:  a supporter of area youth programs, an advocate for improved education, a civic leader, a promoter of the arts, a financial backer for non-profit causes, and a champion for quality medical care in our community.”

The Farmers said Taylor’s “community spirit is admirable” as they shared some of his accomplishments and his involvement with local groups. He is a member of Rotary and is a Paul Harris Fellow; he has given many hours of his time serving the Boy Scouts in a hands-on fashion to raise funds or to help start new troops in the Occoneechee Counci. He has received the George Watkins-Awahili District Citizen of the Year, one of the highest honors in scouting.

Taylor also is a member of the board of trustees for Maria Parham Health; and his support of Henderson Collegiate and the Vance County Public School Foundation all contribute to Taylor’s selection as the Citizen of the Year.

He stepped in as chairman of the foundation board and has continued in that leadership role for more than 15 years.

“He has been instrumental in making sure the Foundation’s primary fundraiser, Arts Alive,  a student art, music, and drama spotlight production, became a reality and continued each year,” they added.  “Under his leadership and with his active involvement, the Vance County Public School Foundation has supported and awarded student achievement, scholastic growth in the schools, teacher recruitment and retention efforts, and advanced innovative programs such as STEM.  His education endeavors also involve being active in the support and promotion of the Henderson Collegiate School.”

Taylor was nominated by numerous members of the community, and those nominators described him as a “small town diplomat,” a “roll-up-your-sleeves worker,” and someone who always wants what is “best for the community,” and a “model citizen who puts in the time and effort and energy to make our city and county a better place.”

Noel Loved Baseball, Talking Local Sports On WIZS

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The WIZS family is mourning the loss of one of its own, Ron Noel, who died Wednesday. Noel co-hosted the Tuesday and Thursday sports show with Trey Snide. Thursday’s show was dedicated to Noel, in appreciation for his enthusiasm for local sports, especially in Vance and Granville counties.

Joe Sharrow, Vance County High School athletic director, shared the mic with Snide on today’s program, and the two shared memories about their colleague and friend.

“He was a great man,” Sharrow said. “He was the type of person who wouldn’t want things to stop because of him,” he added.

WIZS colleague Bill Harris called in to the show to remember Noel. “When I would fill in for you on Sports Talk,” Harris told Snide, “I would rely on (Ron’s) wealth of knowledge of local sports to get me through the program.” He could talk about coaches and players on various teams and various sports, Harris said. “I would let Ron go on because he just knew so much.”

Noel loved baseball, but he was interested in, and knowledgeable of, other sports as well.

“He was always prepared,” Snide said. When he’d come into the studio at 12:30 for the 1 p.m. show and the sports news was a little slow, Snide said Noel would simply say “let’s do local.” “That’s what we’re all about,” Snide said, appreciative of the fact that his co-host was always game for talking about what’s going on in the community.

“We love you, we appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” Snide said in remembering his friend and colleague. “We loved your excitement,” he added, saying that Noel listened to the show every single day.

Sharrow said Noel “always had a positive twist on things…he had a long-term vision – you lost this one, but you’re going to be all right down the road,” he said Noel would say after a tough loss.

Whether he was walking into a gymnasium in Vance County or Granville County, or a favorite spot to meet buddies and swap stories – the  Oxford Bojangle’s –  it seemed that Noel greeted friends wherever he went.

“He was ‘the guy,’Sharrow said. “He knew everything that was going on anywhere – in Vance, Granville – it could be anywhere in the state,” he said. He lived in Granville County, but he worked at J.C. Penney in Henderson for many years, so his love for both counties was evident.

John Charles Rose phoned in to express condolences to Ron’s wife, son and extended family on behalf of the radio station. “We thank Ron for the contributions he’s made over the years and for his family sharing him with us,” Rose said via telephone. He said Ron “always came in with a topic to talk about,” and really enjoyed talking about local sports.

Sharrow said the local sports community has lost several important figures recently – Joe Stepusin, Clay Faulkner, and Wilton Baskett.

Baskett was known for being a flashy dresser, and sporting school colors courtside, Sharrow recounted. The yellow coat at Northern Vance, then the green coat at Vance County High School games – Baskett wore them proudly. “He really believed in dressing professionally,” Sharrow said, adding that Baskett told him that he’d never coached a game without a tie on

“Ron was his tailor,” Sharrow said. “Ron is the one who picked those clothes out!”

Snide recalled Noel’s thoughtfulness to others, but especially to him before airtime. He would call up before coming to the radio station and ask if we wanted something for lunch – chicken or hotdogs, usually. “That just goes to show what kind of person Ron was,” he said.

Later today, Noel’s son, Ray, will probably be on the sidelines at Granville Central High School in Stem as the Panthers host East Wake Academy in the second round of the baseball playoffs.

Sharrow said he talked with his friend and GCHS athletic director Wednesday night and the younger Noel said he was going to be there. “He said, ‘this is what my dad would want me to do,’” Sharrow said.

Sharrow and others in the local sports community will be there tonight to support their friend and colleague. “And,” Sharrow said, “I’m absolutely pulling for the Panthers tonight.”