Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

TownTalk: Embrace Henderson Family Spectacular Happening On April 22nd

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It’s only a few weeks away, but there’s no need to purchase tickets or send an RSVP with the number of people who will be attending – the Embrace Henderson Family Spectacular takes place on Saturday, April 22 and it’s free, free, free.

As the name implies, this is an event for the entire family, said Kevin Kilgore, one of the organizers. The event will again be held at SaddleRock Farm, 1786 Weldon’s Mill Rd., Henderson. Whether the little ones want to ride a horse  or prefer to go on a hayride, there surely will be plenty to do between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to keep everyone entertained.

“Hopefully the weather will be good…to come out to an outside event,” Kilgore said. There also will be a variety of inflatables for the youngsters to enjoy – slides, bounce houses and games, he said. And not to overstate it, but it’s all free.

Want some popcorn? Free. Choose a fruity sno-cone? No charge.

There IS one particular ride that requires a wristband to ride, but Kilgore said it’s not to check minimum height. That wristband indicates that you’ve passed through the Tent of the Wordless Book to hear the Good News from Christians ready to share information about their faith.

It can be a long day for the teams of volunteers who work hard to keep things going smoothly. Kilgore said Pam Wilder is helping to coordinate the groups of volunteers that will be needed, especially for set up and take down, and to man the inflatables.

“There’s pretty much something for everyone” to help with, Kilgore said.

The goal of the event is to make sure everyone feels welcome, he added.

The three ingredients for another successful event, he said – in no particular order – are good weather, volunteers and prayers.

 

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TownTalk: Gateway CDC April 12 “Social” To Discuss What’s Next For Henderson Revitalization Efforts

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Any type of social gathering is likely to create opportunities for folks to take part in conversations on a variety of topics and to share their unique and collective perspectives. Heather Joi Kenney, president and CEO of Gateway CDC in Henderson, wants the entire community to come out to what she’s calling a community social on April 12.

Southern Charm Event Venue is the gathering spot, and Kenney said on TownTalk that the social will take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“We’re hoping to see everyone come out and talk about Henderson,” Kenney said. Of course, it’s always good to hear what’s great about a community, but Kenney said it’s important to know what’s not so great, too. If the community can observe problems and look at them as opportunities to improve, that’s half the battle.

Kenney is a real “glass half full” person, and she and her organization are interested in revitalization – of properties, of mindsets, of attitudes – that have a real impact on Henderson and its future.

“The Henderson Vision” is one tangible facet of this revitalization. Established through $25,000 in grant funds from Duke Energy’s Hometown Revitalization program, Gateway was able to help downtown businesses with microgrants to pay for façade improvements, as well as some interior renovations, Kenney said.

That money is long gone, but Kenney said she expects more money will be coming in, through grantors like Duke Energy, but also from local government support and from collaboration with other community partners.

Downtown revitalization has been a recent focus, but Kenney said it’s important to include areas near the city’s heart as well – William Street, Chestnut Street, as well as areas like Flint Hill and West End.

“We are working to raise some more funds so we can help additional businesses,” she said.

Kenney challenged city and county officials – as well as absentee landlords – to step up to show support for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

“It’s important to get our act together…when we support these businesses, it shows them that we care.”

She applauds local governments for the support they’ve given. “They are doing great work,” but she’d like to see them give “a little bit more” in more tangible ways to promote building ownership and pride in the community.

Gateway’s Small Business Development program helps aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small business owners learn about and access resources that could prove helpful to them.

Providing support and a desirable atmosphere to encourage small business owners goes a long way toward giving the community places to eat, shop and relax. But it also is a way to attract visitors. Visitors, tourists and guests who spend money here, adding to the local tax coffers.

“Henderson IS the destination,” Kenney said, an upbeat note in her voice. “We just have to make sure that other folks know that as well.”

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Cooperative Extension with Paul McKenzie: What Works in the Garden

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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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TownTalk: Bailey Is A Downtown Champion

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Maria Bailey is a champion for downtown Henderson. Folks who work, visit and shop in the downtown area no doubt enjoy the result of countless hours she has spent to make the heart of the city more beautiful. Whether serving on boards and committees or getting out and volunteering, Bailey is dedicated to making her community better.

She was recognized for her efforts at the recent statewide Main Street Conference with an official designation of North Carolina Main Street Champion. She is the first person from Henderson to receive this honor.

Downtown Development Director Tracy Madigan, along with City Manager Terrell Blackmon and Mayor Eddie Ellington, issued a joint press release announcing Bailey’s award, presented during the annual conference held in Statesville Mar. 13-17.

She said Monday she didn’t really know what was going to happen at the conference – all she knew was that she and a friend visiting for Bailey’s birthday left early for Statesville to arrive in time to receive the award.

Back in 2014, Bailey accepted an invitation to join the board of the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission. Once on the downtown design committee, she zeroed in on the parking lot beside Sadie’s Coffee Corner and said, “I’d like to design that parking lot and see if we can do something with it,” Bailey recalled on Monday’s TownTalk. There were about a dozen Bradford pears languishing in planters and buckling the nearby sidewalk, and branches were known to fall on parked cars. It was a mess.

Bailey described the collaboration required for the project. Vance-Granville Community College created a 3D rendering. The city agreed to remove trees and replace damaged sidewalks. Civic groups donated money. Schoolchildren helped create the mural on the side of the building.  And Bailey may have been the energy behind the project – planning, designing, raising money, getting volunteers to help keep the garden beds planted and weeded – but she also wanted to create sustainability.

For her, involving young people was the key ingredient. She wanted to schedule different youth groups to come once a month for a botany lesson before turning their new-found knowledge into action by cleaning the gardens, removing weeds and trash.

“The main idea with youth groups was to get them involved,” Bailey said, which means they’re “more likely to stay in Henderson and do other things to make Henderson better.”

Young adults seem to have turned their attention to the leisurely vibe in downtown areas, whether it’s strolling the sidewalks to visit shops or enjoying the slower pace often not experienced in shopping malls.

“As we’re building businesses, little stores are opening,” Bailey said. “A lot of young people are coming in and starting these businesses.”

Bailey was recognized for her commitment to downtown improvements and developing a strong community. Along with the other Champion award recipients, she was honored for contributions to the Main Street program and to downtown. She has been a volunteer and served downtown Henderson for many years.

Over the years, Bailey has been instrumental in getting volunteers to take part in downtown beautification projects. In the past five years she has personally contributed more volunteer hours to downtown than any other volunteer.

The North Carolina conference is recognized as the largest Main Street conference in the country. The Champions Recognition Ceremony celebrated the 2022 Honor Roll of Main Street Champions took place in the Statesville Civic Center in the historic downtown.

Liz Parham, director of the N.C. Main Street & Rural Planning Center at the N.C. Department of Commerce, issued a welcome to the invitation-only group of several hundred in attendance.

“Main Street Champions are the key to success in downtown revitalization,” Parham stated. “They possess courage to move downtown forward; they fight for positive change and do that with creativity and innovation; and they actively get things done, while staying focused on the downtown’s economic development strategies.”

According to Kenny Flowers, assistant secretary of Rural Economic Development at the N.C. Department of Commerce, “There are three common elements that are found in successful communities.  These elements are asset based economic development strategies, public and private partnerships, and local champions.”

Keynote speaker for the event was N.C. Secretary of Commerce Machelle Baker-Sanders, who spoke of growing up in small town North Carolina. The downtown area was the focal point of the community, she said. She cited the national trend of towns and cities revitalizing their downtowns and how once again they are serving as the center for community activities.

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YMCA

The Local Skinny! West End Community Watch Hears Latest YMCA Plans

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Paul Ross, director of the Henderson Family YMCA, spoke to the West End Community Watch and shared expansion plans for what is shaping up to be a bright future for the Ruin Creek Road facility.

Henderson is the smallest city in the state to have a full-service YMCA, Ross told the group at the monthly meeting. The Y now owns 10 acres, having purchased the former county-owned Department of Social Services building, thanks to a generous $1 million donation from Dr. Khanh Vu and wife Elmira Choopani.

Plans are underway to create a “new and improved Y,” which include enlarging the walking track and playing field and building a new swimming pool.

Ross said the old DSS building will be torn down, but when the work is completed, the Y will either have a new or an updated Wellness Building. Ross said the plan is to be able to remain open during all the construction.

About 4,000 members currently enjoy all the programs and benefits the Y offers, but Ross said he projects that number will double once the new Y is finished.

The Y offers a wide variety of activities and classes, including diabetes prevention,drowning prevention for every second-grader in the county, pickle ball, lap swimming, water aerobics and other water activities, Silver Sneakers’ classes, child care, after-school program, a summer youth program as well as access to exercise equipment.
Want to learn more about membership in the Henderson Family YMCA? Simply stop in and discuss different options, including a variety of financial plans. Or visit the website, https://www.hendersonymca.org/

Henderson City Manager Terrell Blackmon is scheduled to speak at the April 18 meeting of West End Community Watch. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall of West End Baptist Church.

 

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Blueberries In The Garden

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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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Warren Emergency Services To Host Duke RACE-CARS Update Meeting Mar. 30

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Warren County Emergency Services will host a Duke RACE-CARS trial meeting March 30 to share information about a partnership whose goal is to save lives.

RACE-CARS is an acronym that stands for Randomized Cluster Evaluation of Cardiac Arrest Systems and Warren County is taking part in the trial study to test the implementation of community interventions to improve survival for people with cardiac arrest.

Chris Tucker, Warren County’s emergency services manager and compliance officer, said the meeting will take place from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Warren County Emergency Services headquarters, 890 U.S. Hwy. 158 bypass, Warrenton.“This is a very important project that will affect a lot of lives in Warren County,” Tucker stated. “Come join us and hear how Warren County is saving lives one at a time.”

See more about the program here: https://racecarstrial.org/

TownTalk: The History Of Montmorenci

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Montmorenci is the name of a plantation home in Warren County that was, by all accounts, over-the-top. It had the basics that many homes of the day had – porches, staircases, mantels. But skilled artisans – probably enslaved members of the Williams family – created lavish features that were admired by many, near and far.

One of those admirers was Henry Francis Du Pont, who bought the mantels, façade and that fabulous freestanding circular staircase when the home was being deconstructed in the early 1900’s for his own home, Winterthur.

Visitors to the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware can see that gravity-defying staircase, two of the mantels and the façade, according to Carrie Greif, the museum’s estate historian.

Greif spoke with Bill Harris and co-host Mark Pace on the tri-weekly history segment of TownTalk about how pieces of a Warren County home came to be part of the Du Pont estate, a 175-room mansion-turned museum that houses more than 90,000 examples of American decorative art.

Montmorenci was located on what is now known as Lickskillet Road, the home of William “Pretty Boy” Williams. It was truly a remarkable example of the Federal style, Pace said, which was so popular in the Warren County, Halifax and Roanoke Valley area between 1810 and, say, 1850.

The mantels weren’t just constructed to be put in front of fireplaces; one had the Battle of Lake Erie carved into it; the porch wasn’t just where people could get out of the weather on their way into the home, it went all the way across the front of the house. And that staircase? It wasn’t just a way to get from one floor to another – it was a freestanding, spiral case that was a focal point of the interior.

“The staircase is a focal point for visitors at Winterthur,” Greif said, but it bears little resemblance to how it was installed at Montmorenci. And when workers were taking it apart to prepare it for the trip to its new home, they learned about how it was originally installed, she said.

But just how did a piece of architecture from North Carolina catch the attention of a wealthy Delaware industrialist?

To be sure, Montmorenci was a noteworthy house in its day; and there was one particular collector who contacted one of Du Pont’s entourage that set the deal in motion. She bought it for $6,300 and sold it to Du Pont for $12,000.

Greif said the staircase has a “unique vernacular expression” and displays a balance of ornamentation and historic significance. She posits that enslaved artisans owned by Williams created the staircase.

She said the staircase was sold in 1930, and the additional items were purchased later when it was discovered that more wood – yellow pine – was needed to complete the installation.

Pace said the house was built in 1820, one of five associated with the Williams family. And it was gone by the 1940s, shortly after all the interior architecture was removed.

“It just wasn’t around for very long,” he added. But several key parts remain. In a museum in Delaware.

Visit https://www.winterthur.org/ to learn more and to see a photograph of the Montmorenci staircase.

 

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