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Granville Habitat gets new location
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Letters to Santa Claus
Local News, Page 4A
Sports, Page 1B
Inside today THURSDAY, December 24, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 301
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
By DAILY DISPATCH
Send comments to news@ hendersondispatch.com.
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 9A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Classifieds. . . . . . . 5-7B
Weather Today Mostly sunny
High: 47 Low: 31
Friday Rain likely
High: 50 Low: 42
Details, 3A
Deaths Creedmoor Chester E. Cone, 75 Henderson Charlie B. Baskett, 79
Obituaries, 4A
No paper Dec. 25 In observance of the Christmas holiday, The Daily Dispatch will not be published on Friday, Dec. 25. Our offices will also be closed that day.
50 cents
Students getting laptops
Handgun fires after two fight A struggle for a handgun left one man wounded Tuesday following a fight near a convenience store. Vance County Sheriff Peter White said Wednesday that deputies found Robert West Jr., 35, of 718 Harriett St. wounded by a shot in his left thigh from a small caliber handgun. White said the incident occurred after a brief argument between West and Jamie Alcantar Camargo, 29, of 2084 Epsom Rocky Ford Road near the N-A Minute at 1727 N.C. 39 South. West and Camargo fought, White said, and were struggling to gain control of the handgun, apparently held by West, when it discharged. West was taken to Maria Parham Medical Center. White said the argument reportedly started after an exchange of words between the two. He said no charges have been filed but will be.
940 computers ordered for two Granville schools By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Brian Daves and Leslie Vaughn interact with the kids in Gloria Rice’s and Loretta Howard’s kindergarten class while reading them “I Spy Christmas” at L.B. Yancey Elementary on Dec. 16. Members of the Northern Vance Key Club were reading to kids as a part of the Book Buddies Program.
Book Buddies Program brings joy of reading to elementary students By TAYLOR NOEL Daily Dispatch Writer
As technology continues to progress, children are increasingly more interested in video games and iPods than books. It is becoming more and more common to hear the phrase, “I hate reading, it isn’t fun!” from both teenagers and young children. Northern Vance High School’s Key Club tuned in to this concern in Vance County and envisioned a project that would try to reinvent the idea of reading to children in
local schools. The program was established The Book Buddies Program to help bring the joy and fun became reality two years ago, and back into reading for children in has now taken on a life of its own. the community. During its first Key Club advisor Susan Westyear, a group of approximately brook originally 30 students spearheaded ‘Kids need role models in their life would leave the project, other than what they see on TV’ school during handing it off fourth period, to Northern Vance senior Rena equipped with books and activiBates at the beginning of the ties, and travel to one of the local 2008-2009 school year. Since that schools. At the school, the “books time, the Book Buddies Program buddies” would pair off into has been student-led and has groups of two and divide up into taken steps to become indepenPlease see BUDDIES, page 3A dent from the Key Club itself.
OXFORD — The Granville County School District placed an order Tuesday for 940 Apple laptop computers, with the cost to be slightly more than $802,000, including for support. The computers will arrive sometime next month, with the goal being to have them at the South Granville Jordan High schools in Creedmoor, School District Associate Superintendent Allan Jordan said. The County Board of Education, which met Monday, gave the go-ahead for the order. “It is a big deal,” Jordan told the newspaper Tuesday. “We are going to change the lives of children.” Jordan, when asked when he wants the laptops rolled out, replied, “I hope by March” and cited the extensive preparation work. Laptops are now in most of the Granville County schools in various forms, “but, this is the first time we’ve done a complete school Please see LAPTOPS, page 4A
Warren EDC sets meeting By DAVID IRVINE Daily Dispatch Writer
WARRENTON – The Board of Directors of the Warren County Economic Development Commission will hold a special meeting at 4 p.m. on Monday. The announced purpose of the meeting is to discuss personnel matters. The meeting will be held in the conference room in the Economic Development Office at 130 North Main Street. Chairman Ernest Fleming III issued the notice of the meeting on Dec. 22 in compliance with North Carolina laws related to the time and place of holding special meetings. The EDC has been without a director since the beginning of the year when John Church left the position to take a similar post in Fuquay-Varina. He had been director for four years. Long-time EDC employee Peggy Richardson has served as interim director since Church left. Contact the writer at dirvine@hendersondispatch.com.
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Final push for donations Ray Champion rings the bell for the Salvation Army as he greets customers entering Walmart Wednesday afternoon. Champion has been ringing the bell for three years. Bell ringers will be manning the red kettles from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today for that last Christmas Eve push for donations.