SUNDAY
HANGING IT UP: Principal to retire after 34 years in education. 1B
May 16, 2010 126th year No. 136
PREVENTION: Grant to help curb unplanned teen pregnancies. 1B
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
STATE CHAMPS: Wesleyan captures baseball crown. 1D
50 Cents Daily $1.25 Sundays
Seeds of recovery
WHO’S NEWS
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Salvation Army serves lunch, plants flowers in area hit by tornado
Eric Hall received the Ward Family Excellence in Mentoring Award at Elon University. Hall is an associate professor of exercise science.
BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Ann Heath wandered up her neighborhood on Sink Lake Road in the hot sun on Saturday to find the High Point Salvation Army’s canteen van. Heath, a resident of the mobile home park that was struck by a tornado on March 28, saw smiling faces that day as the nonprofit cooked hot dogs and hamburgers in the van and served the food to the neighborhood as part of national Salvation Army week. “If it wasn’t for people like these, I don’t know
INSIDE
PAM HAYNES | HPE
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Residents affected by the tornado that struck a Sink Lake Road neighborhood gather next to the canteen van. what we would have done,” said Heath while watching her neighbors’ children jump from one corner to another in bright blue bounce houses, also brought by the organization. “I’ve seen a lot of response.”
Heath was in her home the evening the tornado struck and was awakened PAM HAYNES | HPE by the sound of debris hitting her roof. Shana Alexander, program coordinator for the High Point “It sounded like bricks Salvation Army, helps ZaQuan Jones of the High Point Sal-
TORNADO, 2A
vation Army Boys and Girls Club plant flowers in a neighborhood on Sink Lake Road on Saturday.
PERSEVERANCE
MYSTERIOUS: Man seeks clues about unidentified falling object. 1E OBITUARIES
Before you read...
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Rebecca Baxley, 79 R. Warren Brandon, 88 Clara Diggs, 53 Rachael Dobbins, 87 J. Ralph Dunn, 82 Wilbur Gibbons, 74 Ruby Grosman, 83 George Lanning, 93 Arthur Lyon, 84 Jerry Maness, 58 Lonnie Miller, 76 Gwen Parker, 76 Ora Ridge, 85 Lloyd Weaver, 88 Obituaries, 2B
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In the words of Trinity High School senior Jacob Grochowski, graduating from high school is “a huge accomplishment...especially nowadays.” Imagine keeping up with school work and maintaining a GPA higher than 3.0 while dealing with a debilitating disease. Or finishing high school while coping with the death of a 4-month-old child. These are a few of the stories that will be told in this four-part series profiling local high school seniors who have had to overcome adversity before making that longawaited march to the stage to get their diplomas. The series will highlight four students, each from a different school system in the immediate area, who fought hard to overcome obstacles and complete their high school education as local high schools prepare for upcoming commencement ceremonies. DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
T. Wingate Andrews High School senior Anna Paengrord has had two children, one of whom died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), yet she will graduate in June.
One-time ‘troublemaker’ earns 3.2 GPA, heads to college BY DARRICK IGNASIAK ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Anna Paengrord says words can’t express how much it will mean to graduate from T. Wingate Andrews High School next month. “It will mean a lot,” said Paengrord, who has overcome quite a bit of adversity to receive her high school diploma. Graduation should mean a lot for Paengrord, a single mother who lost her 4-month-old child to sudden infant death syndrome just days before the start of her senior year in August. It’s been hard for Paengrord this year after losing her newborn, but knowing she has her 2-year-old daughter, Kalivia, to raise has helped her keep going. “I never thought about going to college until I had them,” Paengrord said. “I don’t know why I thought about it, but I guess it was that situation.” As a student who had been in trouble often, raising Kalivia and losing her son also has caused Paengrord to stay away from the wrong crowd. The single mother said, after she had Kalivia her sophomore year, she came
to school and got in trouble for fighting. “That’s why every time I come to school, I walk by myself unless it’s the people I really talk to,” she said. “I’ve already dropped a lot of friends. It seems to me that when you have kids, BEATING you really don’t worry about friends.” THE ODDS Despite losing the child, Paengrord has managed to have a 3.2. GPA. She’s Graduates planning on taking online college overcoming courses so she won’t need day care for adversity Kalivia. ■■■ Roslyn Bennet, a High Point Andrews guidance counselor, said Paengrord’s story is about “perseverance.” “She sees that she has to take care of her child, so coming to school is something she has to do,” Bennett said. “She has. She has done 100 percent better this year. She hasn’t been in any trouble this year. It speaks volumes of her perseverance and dedication to completing school.”
SERIES BREAKOUTS
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TODAY: Single parent at Andrews High turns her life around MONDAY: Disease doesn’t slow down Trinity High student TUESDAY: Ledford student refuses to let diabetes get in the way of her dreams WEDNESDAY: Thomasville student reflects on brutal journey through three countries while another battles disease and loss of mother
WEATHER
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Mostly cloudy High 81, Low 60 8D
INDEX ADVICE 2-3E, 6E ARTS | ETC. 3-4F BUSINESS 1-2C CLASSIFIED 3-8C CROSSWORD 2F FOCUS 1-2F HOROSCOPE 2E LIFE&STYLE 1-6E LOCAL 1B, 3B LOTTERY 2A MILESTONES 5E MOVIES 8A NATION 6-8A, 6F NOTABLES 8A OBITUARIES 2B OPINION 6-7B RELIGION 5B SPORTS 1-8D STATE 2-3A, 2B, 4B TV 5F TRAVEL 4E WEATHER 8D WORLD 4-5A
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