Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

The Local Skinny! Holiday Fest Dec. 7 After Parade

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The first “Very Merry Henderson Holiday Fest” is set for Saturday, Dec. 7 following the Christmas parade that begins at 3 p.m.

The event will be held in the Breckenridge Street area from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will include activities for all ages, including horse-drawn carriage rides, a hot cocoa station, a S’mores booth and free photos with the Jolly Old Elf himself.

Trish Burroughs is one of the organizers, and she said it’s a way to bring the community together “to embrace the joy of the season.”

Mayor Melissa Elliott will kick things off at 4 p.m. with the lighting of the greens outside McGregor Hall, Burroughs said on Monday’s The Local Skinny!

With evening temps expected to be dipping into the 30’s by sunset Saturday, folks can enjoy the parade and then come to the Breckenridge area to enjoy the annual Festival of Trees in the McGregor Gallery, as well as a bouncy house, food trucks and music.

“It’s just going to be a great event,” Burroughs said.

The idea grew from suggestions about how to make the Christmas tree lighting more robust, said Gateway CDC Founder and President Heather Joi Kenney, another member of the planning committee.

Tracy Mosley, executive director of Helping All People Excel, said once the mayor got on board, she “called others to the table and it has become a beautiful collaboration of the city and citizens.”

Burroughs said anyone interested in being a volunteer, a vendor or a sponsor can contact her at 252.430.9057 and she will be happy to provide more information.

Visit the event’s website at https://sites.google.com/view/verymerryhenderson/home to learn more.

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Christmas Tree Selection

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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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SportsTalk: Henderson High School Thanksgiving Day Game History

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SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th 

The Thanksgiving Day Game for the Henderson High School Football Team used to be an annual tradition. According to research done by WIZS, the Bulldogs played in five Thanksgiving Day Games. Winning four of them and losing one. Scout Hughes and George Hoyle speak on the history of the Thanksgiving Day Games that Henderson High School played in. That and much more on SportsTalk!

“Amy Snyder, curator of collections & archivist, at the Museum of Regional History in Mount Airy told WIZS she received this picture from the Mount Airy football coach at the time, Coach Wally Shelton’s wife Christine.”

Below are the results of the Thanksgiving Day Games that the Bulldogs played in:

  • 1945: Oxford 14 Henderson 6
  • 1947: Henderson 25 Mount Airy 14
  • 1948: Henderson 52 Whiteville 0
  • 1949: Henderson 20 Reidsville 14
  • 1950: Henderson 13 Rockingham 6

Thank you to those who called into today’s show as well for your information.

Reminder: No SportsTalk on Thanksgiving for the Holiday. 

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The Local Skinny! Live Nativity At North Henderson Baptist Church

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Pastor Eddie Nutt invites the community to a live nativity presentation at North Henderson Baptist Church on Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7.

There will be three presentations offered between 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. both nights – lasting just about a half hour each.

Most of the characters will be portrayed by children, Nutt said on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! A narrator will read from the Gospels as the children act out the story of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem.

This is the first time in several generations that the church has put on a live nativity. The idea was born when several church members had a desire to do something new for the community, Nutt said, “a different type of outreach to remind people of the true meaning of what Christmas is all about.”

There will be refreshments served – including fresh popcorn from a brand-new popcorn machine – and folks can come inside to shake off any winter chill in the air.

Nutt said it’s special to see church members who are willing to give their time to create a production like a live nativity. It shows they care for their community and they want to share the love of Jesus Christ, he added.

He admitted his relief that a real live donkey has been secured to take part in the live nativity.

“Because I was the closest thing they had until they got a real one,” he joked.

North Henderson Baptist Church is located at 1211 N. Garnett St.

 

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TownTalk: Alert Christmas Parade Is Coming

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Looking for some good old-fashioned entertainment to help get you in a festive holiday mood? Check out the Alert Christmas Parade, set to kick off at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14.

That’s right, A-lert, the community that’s just over the Franklin/Vance County line beyond Epsom.

Larry Ayscue is one of this year’s parade organizers, but he also is credited with being the original organizer of that first parade 34 years ago.

“I would love to get the word out, just come and see it – check it out and see what you think of it,” he said on WIZS TownTalk. He wants to promote participation in the parade, as well as inviting spectators to come out and enjoy the eclectic variety of entries.

Unlike Christmas parades that are held inside town or city limits, Alert’s parade isn’t fettered by rules and regulations.

“Alert is not a town,” Ayscue said. “I always tell people, don’t come expecting a town – it’s just a little community.”

No forms to fill out, no official lineup to follow translates into good, old-fashioned fun, with “a lot of hollering, wavin’ and carrying on,” he said.

“We’ve had people to tell us that they’d rather be in that parade than any other one they’ve ever been in,” he added. “It’s just a lot of fun.”

Melanie Bobbitt helps Ayscue and his wife, Nancy, out and maintains a Facebook page complete with photos from previous parades and other information to promote the event, which had a pretty humble beginning.

“It started out as a kind of a joke,” Ayscue said, when he and others were putting in tobacco. It was summertime hot, and Ayscue said he made a comment that Alert ought to have a Christmas parade, any reason to think about cooler weather. Later on in the year came the questions: Well, are we going to have a parade? Are we? Ayscue checked with the Franklin County Sheriff’s office and “everybody gave me the ok.”

And what was supposed to be a one-shot deal has become a tradition like no other. Ayscue explained that a lot of older folks simply weren’t able to get out and go to town to watch parades, so the parade came to them.

Over the years, there have been some pretty interesting entries in addition to the usual firetrucks, church floats and children dressed up in Christmas costumes.

Ayscue has fond memories of one particular entry in the parade a few years ago. “It was the prettiest little thing,” he said, describing a goat hooked to a cart, both decorated up for the occasion.

“Anyone who has anything they’d love to put in the parade,” he said, should just show up by 1 p.m. at the intersection of Alert and Jordan School roads. The parade route is about 1.5 miles, ending at G.F. Ball Road.

For more information, contact Bobbitt at 919-497-6081, Nancy Ayscue at 252.458.1600 or Larry Ayscue at 252.343.9275.

“I believe you would thoroughly enjoy it if you come out,” Ayscue said.

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Cooperative Extension With Michael Ellington: Community Gardens

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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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The Local Skinny! 3rd Annual Vance County Camp Meeting

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It’s called a camp meeting, but it’s not the type of camp meeting that Scott Matthews’s granddaddy Jesse held, always the week of the Fourth of July under a tent on the grounds of Forest Hill Baptist Church.

Back then, it could be 100 degrees, with 1,000 percent humidity, Matthews said, half joking half serious. “I can remember some hot days,” Matthews said on Monday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

The third annual Vance County Camp Meeting will be held all next week in the comfortable surroundings of McGregor Hall, and Matthews said he couldn’t be happier to head back home to lead the gathering. Things kick off at 7 p.m. nightly on Monday, Dec. 2 and continue through Friday, Dec. 6.

A few years ago, several pastors encouraged Matthews to bring the camp meeting concept back to life. The first year, there were nine churches involved, he said, but last year’s camp meeting had close to two dozen pastors who attended on multiple nights.

Scott and wife Becky spend most of the year traveling the country preaching and singing as Matthews Family Ministries, which includes the couple’s two daughters. They recently returned from Phoenix, AZ and then turned around and headed to Jacksonville, FL.

“I’m just excited for everybody to come together, Becky said. “It’s always good to see everybody there in Henderson and just have a great week of worshipping the Lord.”

A 1000-seat climate-controlled auditorium in early December is the perfect venue to bring people from different churches and denominations to hear the nightly preaching and musical performances that will be offered.

The speakers “have no axes to grind, no agendas to push,” Scott said. They are interested in delivering “messages that encourage the people of God to do more for the cause of Christ right now is what these guys will bring. We’ll try to make it (McGregor Hall) a church every night,” Scott said. “Come on out and join us.”

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