Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

Granville School Board Set To Meet Monday, Sept. 19

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The Granville County Board of Education will meet for a regular board meeting on Monday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Mary Potter Center of Education

Public comments for the meeting can be made in person at the board meeting, or in writing by using the following link: https://tinyurl.com/y37evl6z

Comments should be submitted between 12 noon and 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting, according to a press statement from Dr. Stan Winborne, GCPS associate superintendent and public information officer. Board members will receive copies of comments; a maximum of 30 minutes in total will be allotted for public comment during the meeting.

Although seating is limited, anyone without access to WiFi may use internet services at the Richard Thornton Library, 210 Main St., Oxford, NC 27565 or the South Branch Library, 1550 South Campus Drive, Creedmoor, NC 27522

Join live at https://live.myvrspot.com/st?cid=MDhkZj.

 

State Officials Bringing Donated School Supplies To Pinkston Street Elementary Friday Morning

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State Human Resources Director Barbara Gibson and State Budget Director Charles Perusse are scheduled to pay a visit to Pinkston Street Elementary in tomorrow morning to deliver school supplies that were collected by their agencies.

The visitors will arrive by 10:30 a.m. and they’ll get a tour from school district leaders and Principal Canecca Mayes. Gibson will read a book with a group of students and then both state officials will visit the Center for Innovation to learn more about programs there.

“The average teacher in North Carolina spends over $500 in out-of-pocket expenses each year,” said Perusse. “We are excited to provide a bit of relief to the financial burden of providing quality education in Vance County.”

Employees from the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources and the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management collected 16 boxes of school supplies to donate to Vance County Schools. Supplies included notebooks, crayons, pencils, cleaning supplies and more.

“Investing in the children of North Carolina’s education is the best way to invest in the future of our state,” said Director Gibson. “We are honored to help support the hardworking, dedicated educators in shaping that future.”

Visit here to learn more.

The Local Skinny! The Help Center, Helping Those In Need

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The Help Center provides an array of services for people who need help, but Twanna Jones, president and founder of the nonprofit organization, said that she and her team must also provide hope along with the help.

One cannot go without the other, Jones told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Thursday’s The Local Skinny!

“It’s the combination of the two that really is the fabric of what we do here,” she said, and by offering help through tangible services, as well as a generous dose of hope, “we change the dynamics of our community and the nation.”

Jones created The Help Center in 2017 out of a lifelong passion for helping her fellow man. In just a few short years, The Help Center operates in 11 counties, including the facility at 415 Raleigh Road in Henderson.

Area residents can sign up for the next pet clinic, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The first clinic was so successful – 45 pets came through – that Jones scheduled another one. Call 919.391.7300 to sign up for the Oct. 29 clinic.

“We were nonstop during the pandemic,” Jones said of the various programs that are tucked up under The Help Center. From food distribution to youth enrichment programs and support for the elderly,  volunteers and staff kept providing help and hope, hope and help.

But the cadre of volunteers has shrunk recently, and food donations are down, so Jones said The Help Center could use a little help from the community.

“We are truly in need,” she said, “not only volunteers, but resources, too, because of rising food prices.

A fairly new addition to The Help Center’s food distribution is the Healthy Food Pantry, which distributes pre-made boxes of fresh produce to clients who request them. Volunteers tuck recipes in the boxes, which come in handy for those who are unfamiliar with how to prepare some of the produce they receive.

They also offer a “fresh market,” Jones said, “to offer more fresh produce for families to come out and ‘choice’ shop – which means they choose the items themselves.

On the horizon is their Thanksgiving food distribution program the week before the Nov. 24 holiday and the winter proram, which will take place the week before Christmas. This program will hearken back to days gone by, when gifts included peppermint sticks, fruit and nuts, she said.

“We’ll set it up sort of like a parade,” Jones explained. Participants will receive a food box and some other Christmas goodies, but the emphasis this year will be on tradition. “We want to go back to that old-fashioned Christmas…to sit down and break bread together.”

Want to volunteer? Call 919.391.7300 ext 3, visit www.thehelpcenternc.com or text “mission” 833.241.4082.

Need help? Call 919.391.7300, visit www.thehelpcenter.com or text “help” to 833.241.4082.

 

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TownTalk: The Story Of Drewry

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ACC basketball fans may know it as the hometown of the 1980’s Duke player David Henderson.  History buffs may know it by its earlier name of Enterprise. But anyone who remembers Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! may be able to recall that it is the teeny community of Drewry that, in the 1940’s had an old-fashioned well. Right in the middle of town.

“There was a town well in the middle of the crossroads,” Pace said, which caught Mr. Ripley’s attention. The well remained there until about 1947. “When the state paved the road, they took it up,” he said.

Leave it to local historians Mark Pace and Bill Harris to discuss in detail a community that straddles the present-day Vance/Warren county line.

“Before Kerr Lake came along, you could drive from Townsville to Drewry in seven minutes,” Pace said. Its first name was Cedar Fork, according to Pace, North Carolina Room specialist at Oxford’s Richard Thornton Library. In the 1840’s and 50’s, it was known as Enterprise. But when the Roanoke Valley Railroad came through, it was renamed because it was Drewry Marrow who took care of the railroad there.

By 1881, Drewry held the distinction for being the smallest township in Vance County in terms of size and population, Pace said. It later melded with the Middleburg township.

“There was a time when Drewry was actually a thriving little community,” he noted. “It wasn’t a bustling metropolis,” but there was a café, two barber shops – one for Blacks and one for Whites – a school, butcher shop, school, dry cleaners, fire department and railroad station. It was the halfway point for the railroad, which went back and forth between Manson and Townsville.

In 1940, Drewry was the very first precinct to report results in the Nov. 6 Presidential election. All votes were cast and counted by 8:53. In the morning. The 24 registered voters “all got together and agreed to cast their votes at the same time,” Pace said. “FDR won 100 percent of the votes” cast at Walston’s store in the Drewry precinct.

But folks in and around the Drewry community were interested in politics well before 1940.

A schoolteacher from Virginia named George Sims moved to the area in the 1750’s. He wrote the Nutbush Address, a treatise that pointed out how politicians of the day were abusing their rank and privilege at the expense of the common man. Later, when Samuel Benton (a founding father of Oxford) wrote the Halifax Resolves, there were echoes of Sims’s address. “And the Halifax Resolves was one of the documents that Thomas Jefferson used for a template for the Declaration of Independence,” Pace explained.

“For such a small place, it has an interesting history,” he mused.

Hear the full Around Old Granville segment at wizs.com.

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Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover: The Main Thing of Being a Parent

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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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Ducky Derby Takes Over Garnett Street Saturday Afternoon For Race, Family-Oriented Festival

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This year’s Duck Derby to benefit Franklin/Granville/Vance Smart Start is shaping up to be another successful event and Gary Daeke, one of the fundraiser organizers, said he’s pleased to note that there will be a full-on street festival for families to enjoy.

The fun begins at 11 a.m. in downtown Henderson this Saturday, Sept. 17. There will be a couple of food trucks, lots of children’s activities and then the race will be at 2 p.m.

They usually sell about 2,500 of the rubber ducks, that will drift down a short-lived “river” created along Garnett Street – compliments of the Henderson Fire Department’s fire hoses. Daeke said Greystone Concrete Products graciously provides the equipment that mixes up the ducks and then dumps them across the starting line to begin the race.

There will be a bounce house and a slide, and Daeke said the kids always enjoy donning fire helmets and having a little fun with the fire hose.

The prize for having the winning duck is $1,000. Chick Fil-A for a year is the prize for second place, and the third-place winner will receive a Sheetz gas card. The duck that comes in last gets a prize, too – $100. Tickets are available now from any FGV staffer or board member, but they also will be available until about 1:30 p.m. on the day of the derby.

Visit www.fgvsmartstart.org to purchase a duck and to learn more about services of FGV Smart Start. Or call the office at 252.433.9110 to find out more.

Families Living Violence Free

Quarter Auction Oct. 7 To Benefit Families Living Violence Free

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Join the fun to raise money for a good cause at the Quarter Auction to benefit Families Living Violence Free on Friday, Oct. 7. The event will be held at The Barn at Vino in Stem.

FVLF Executive Director Peggy Roark said a $20 ticket includes dinner and a bidding paddle. Bring an appetite, lots of enthusiasm and a few rolls of quarters! Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner begins at 6:15 and the auction kicks off at 7 p.m. Bring some extra cash to purchase items from your favorite participating vendors.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the auction is just one way to support agencies like FLVF as its staff provides services to those in the community who have experienced trauma in the form of domestic violence or sexual assault.

The Barn at Vino is located at 3200 Bliss Trail in Stem.

Phone 919.693.3579 to purchase tickets.

High School Students Can Apply For Youth Leadership Council Through Sept. 30

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-information from Granville County Cooperative Extension

The Granville County Youth Leadership Council (GCYLC) is accepting applications through Sept. 30 to join the council. Any student in grades 9-11 who is interested in honing leadership skills and learning how to make a difference in their community is encouraged to submit an application, according to Charissa Puryear, Granville Unit Director at the N.C. Cooperative Extension office.

The GCYLC is being formed as a partnership between the Granville County Board of Commissioners and N.C. Cooperative Extension. The council will offer 20-25 youth from diverse backgrounds across the county a chance to participate in a leadership development program while serving as ambassadors and youth voices to the county commissioners and other local boards. The council is being created to elevate youth voices and contribute to community development, programming and vision while providing youth a unique opportunity to be drivers of their own ideas from conceptualization to implementation and reflection, Puryear noted in a press statement.

Members will also be encouraged to represent GCYLC at board meetings, conferences, and special events.

Students interested in applying should be enrolled in high school, live in Granville County, and be available for meetings at least one time per month. Community, youth and faith-based organizations and educators are encouraged to nominate youth. If interested in applying, visit www.granvilleylc.weebly.com or contact Charissa Puryear at cmpuryea@ncsu.edu or 919.603.1350.

TownTalk: Freedom Life Church Of God’s Camp Meeting Returns

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According to Pastor Jeff Prewer, the upcoming camp meeting at Freedom Life Church of God will have all the markings of a traditional revival – there will be guest speakers and lots of special musical entertainment over the four-day event.

But when you add technology – from video screens to social media platforms and podcasts – the traditional revival setting gets taken up a notch or two.

And that’s just fine with Prewer, because he has David Cole, who is the church’s technology specialist and A/V team director, to make sure everything’s running smoothly for those who attend the revival in person and for those who may watch via livestream or later on the church’s YouTube channel.

As with so many other things, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into how the church conducted services, Prewer told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Wednesday’s TownTalk.

Prewer said he found it different, but not difficult, to preach in an empty sanctuary which pre-pandemic could be filled with hundreds of people.

“Though the pews were empty, I knew that people were hearing the Word,” Prewer said.

As recorded sermons evolved to parking lot services, Prewer led the church as it made its way back to in-person services.

“We refuse to sit back any longer,” Prewer said. “We decided we’re going forward.
The camp meeting kicks of Sunday, Sept. 25 with services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. and continues through Wednesday with services at 7 p.m.

Special guest speakers include Craig Stone from Braselton, GA, Steve Edmondson of Wilson, NC, Tracy Stone, a pastor in Lawrenceville, GA and Steve Hargrove, of Oxford’s White Rock Missionary Baptist Church.

Planning a camp meeting can take months, Prewer said. It’s important to select speakers and musical entertainment that “fit” the church, he added.

“God has blessed us to break barriers and build bridges,” he said, and to “lift up Jesus…I’m looking for men that share that heartbeat.”

Cole said he and his team have to do a lot of preparation as well in advance of each service. “I have a wonderful team behind me,” he said, to make sure that all the equipment and lighting is ready each week.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have caused some headaches at the outset, but from that came creativity and innovation that allowed Prewer’s message to continue to be delivered.

So whether he’s preaching in front of one person who is operating a camera, or 500 people inside a church building, for Prewer, it’s all the same.
“I just preach out of my heart…to please God (and) to bring the word of God to people.”

Just a couple of months ago, the church reached 5,000 people across the different social media platforms. That number has surged to 9,000 since then, with 20 percent of the views from Henderson and the rest from across the nation and globally.

“It’s just awesome to see how God moves,” Cole said.

Visit www.freedomlifecog.org/campmeeting to see a schedule of speakers and musical guests. The church is located at 1001 Martin Creek Rd. in Henderson.

 

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