954 Magazine - F/W 2015

EVERY

SQUARE MILE OF COLUMBUS COUNTY

Grapefull Sisters Fruit of the vine

finds home here

Black’s Tire

Benton family grows business to 36 stores

Men with a

mission

Frank Ciamillo A coach’s journey

Knife Maker

Buckhead man has an edge

Cover photography by Grant Merritt

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 1

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2 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

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Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 3

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1

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910.642.8111

101 Courthouse Sq • Whiteville Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 5

954 CONTENTS

prescription

society

future

social

88

106

greco’s

mayday,

canvas

mayday

48

they

dance

52

6 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

22

freddie

stell

44

954 CONTENTS

a house for israel big dreams and big voices grapefull sisters it all works together for good black’s tire frank ciamillo men with a mission share dinner with a friend let me see your muscle forks, knives and tomahawks backyard flocks making a comeback las amigas is a circle of friends

14 20 28 36 40 58 64 68 72 74 80 84

fall 2015 Volume III Issue II The News Reporter Company, Inc. Whiteville, NC 910.642.4104 MANAGING EDITOR Les High MANAGING COORDINATOR Stuart Rogers CREATIVE DIRECTOR Abigail Spach ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dean Lewis ADVERTISING Amelia Sasser . TJ Enzor Hanne Richards CONTRIBUTING EDITORIAL Dan Biser . Clara Cartette Nicole Cartrette . Cynthia Hansen Bob High . Diana Matthews . Fuller Royal Shalon Smith . Wallyce Todd . Jefferson Weaver COPY EDITORS Clara Cartrette . Nicole Cartrette Diana Matthews 954 PHOTOGRAPHER Fuller Royal CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Grant Merritt

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 7

954 FINDS

FOR the

BBQ

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Pork, Beef and Chicken for BBQ Whiteville Meat Market 121 W Commerce St, Whiteville (910) 642-6501

Old Hickory BBQ Meat Cleaver Pierce & Company 4229 Sam Potts Hwy Hallsboro (910) 646-4158

Traeger Tailgate Grill Chadbourn Feed 207 W 1st Ave Chadbourn (910) 654-5327 chadbournfeed.com

Yeti Tumblers Ellis Meares Tru-Value Hardware 1143 Main St Fair Bluff (910) 649-7521

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Custom Corn Hole Game Whiteville High School – School-Based Enterprises Corn Hole boards made by WHS carpentry class and custom painted by the WHS School-Based Enterprises class. To order, contact Ashley Buro at aburo@whiteville.k12.nc.us or call 910-914-4189.

8 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

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A HOUSE FOR ISRAEL

A House for Israel

service and unity are jewish congregation’s legacy

E

by DIANA MATTHEWS Photos courtesy of BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE & FULLER ROYAL

Entering Whiteville from the north on U.S. 701 Bypass, one of the first buildings one sees is a modest one-story brick structure with a blue and white sign displaying the Star of David that reads “Beth Israel.” It is the only active synagogue within a radius of 50 miles.

Not every town of Whiteville’s size has a synagogue. Although 19th and 20th century immigration brought many Jewish newcomers to small towns in the American South, most of the resulting Jewish communities never built a synagogue. Rather, Jewish families traveled to larger towns to worship on holy days. As time passed and the younger generations migrated away, synagogues closed, even in larger cities such as Jacksonville and Goldsboro.

Beth Israel’s nearest neighboring congregations are in cities with significantly larger populations such as Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Fayetteville.

Early Days The establishment of Beth Israel and its survival into the 21st century are the accomplishment of some of Whiteville’s most industrious and generous families.

In the early decades of the 20th century, several Jewish families built thriving businesses in Whiteville. Nathan Kramer came from Lithuania when he was 15 years old and worked for his brothers-in-law as a peddler, passing through Whiteville regularly on his route. He arrived “with no money and no education,” his grandson Gary Kramer says.

“Families helped each other. It was not easy being Jewish in a small Southern town in the early 1900s,” Kramer continued. “Being different and upholding dietary laws, etc., was quite a

14 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

challenge. The commitment and perseverance to uphold traditions is very apparent in the way all the Jewish families here made sure their children received a Jewish education and continued to know their heritage.”

Joseph and Lillie Mann later moved from Burgaw to Whiteville so that Lillie could be closer to her sister Celia, who had married Nathan Kramer.

They gathered in one another’s homes

(above) Sol Mann, Terry Mann and Rabbi Kesner (below) Bat Mitzvah study session in 1980s with Sol Mann, Celia Mann, Beatrice Steinberg and Marilyn Moskow

to hold Sabbath services and observe holy days. Then as now, worship included prayers and chants from the Torah, or books of Moses, and also from the Psalms. One man would lead the chanting, with the congregation repeating

him or joining in with him.

Jewish holy days follow a complicated lunar calendar. In the spring, Passover celebrates the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt on the night when the Angel of Death passed harmlessly over the homes protected by the blood of the Passover lamb. In the fall, the period from Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) until Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is known as the “Ten Days of Awe.” Purim, Sukkot, and Chanukah commemorate other occasions when God blessed Israel miraculously in Biblical times.

Building Years The middle of the 20th century was a thriving time in Whiteville. Julian Herman Leder called the town “a melting pot.” Leder had arrived in the United States at age 18, speaking no English.

He attended night school while working for relatives in South Carolina, then moved to Whiteville, where he and his wife Yetta opened a store on Madison Street. His son Robert, 71, says that the downtown stores were all selling clothing, or “schmata” as his Yiddish-speaking parents said. “But I never remember bad feelings due to competition.” Furthermore, he never felt that there was any friction between Whiteville’s Jewish citizens and anyone else when he was growing up.

Rather, the tight-knit Jewish community set standards for service to the larger community, both in business and in philanthropy.

“Those were good days,” Jolene Fowler Lewis of Tabor City recalls. “We country people, if we couldn’t travel to Raleigh or Fayetteville [to shop], we went to Whiteville, and they had the better goods. People got shoes for their children at Leder’s. If something was

A HOUSE FOR ISRAEL

hard to find, you could get it at Moskow’s.”

Her husband Bill Lewis, who worked alongside his friend Steve Moskow in the Moskow family’s store during high school, said, “I’ve always thought a lot of Mr. [Abraham] Moskow. He would try to Torah scrolls in help you.” the synagogue A large Ark. number of area young people got their first jobs in the downtown stores. Sometimes they remained in their jobs for decades. The store owners contributed generously to the needs – educational, practical, and artistic – of the entire community. “My father used Celia Kramer, to say that Karen Mann, Diana Mukamal, there wasn’t a church Valerie Moskow and Jeff Mukamal in Columbus Coun-

ty where he hadn’t paid for a brick,” Robert Leder says, smiling. “He always gave a little bit to their building campaigns.”

During the pre-synagogue years, Rabbi Samuel Friedman traveled from Wilmington to Whiteville once a week to give religious training to the boys studying to be bar mitzvah, or sons of the commandments.

At age 13, a young person in the Jewish faith is eligible to be called to the bema, that is, officiate in a worship service.

In 1958, the property now occupied by Beth Israel belonged to Hyman Kramer and his brothers Isidore, Harry and Ben. They donated it to the congregation, and by 1959 the synagogue was completed.

The congregation named their house of worship Beth Israel, which means House of Israel.

A synagogue in Fort Mill, S.C. had closed in 1953 for lack of

While areas around us have changed with hasty growth, suburban lifestyles, and traffic jams, Tabor City has maintained our identity as a true southern town.

 LocaLLy owned RestauRants  unique MuseuMs  VaRious shops  Lake taboR

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910.653.4141 www.taborcitync.org Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 15

A HOUSE FOR ISRAEL

membership; its Torah scrolls and ceremonial items were donated to Beth Israel.

Good Old Days Gary Kramer was the first boy to

just kosher-style, not really kosher. But we always closed our store for the High Holy Days.”

His wife Linda Leder, who converted to Judaism in 2006 with the tutoring of

have his bar mitzvah service in the new synagogue in 1964. He recalls that “Whiteville was a wonderful place to grow up.” Although Sabbath services were in Whiteville, his family drove to Wilmington for the High Holy Days.

“I remember it fondly as an adventure,” he said. “Our family stayed in a motel. Ate every meal in a restaurant.

We walked to Synagogue as you were not supposed to drive on High Holy Days, and got to play with new friends and cousins.”

Because the small congregation never totally allied itself with Orthodox, Conservative or Reform Judaism, a hybrid “do-the-best-you-can” brand of Judaism evolved, in which carrying on with worship is more important than meeting stringent regulations. For instance, in an Orthodox synagogue, a group of 10 men, called a minyan, must be present for group prayers to be said.

At Beth Israel, prayers go on even if there are just seven or eight men and women.

“My father always claimed we were Orthodox, but we went straight from early Sabbath services to work in our store, which the Orthodox wouldn’t have done,” Robert Leder says. “My mother said she kept kosher because she didn’t cook pork, but she didn’t use two separate sets of dishes [for milkbased and meat-based foods]. We were

a Wilmington rabbi, Robert Waxman, says, “We always light the [Sabbath] candles, even if we’re at the beach.”

She considers the religious training she received during her year of conversion preparation to have been “very rewarding.”

“I’m not real religious, but I’m observant,” Robert Leder says. “If we’re in town, and there’s a service, we’ll be there.” During Leder’s bar mitzvah training, “the rabbi taught us to sound out the words, but not necessarily to understand them. If I’m called to the bema, I can read a passage, but I can’t lead a service.” That role has been filled for the past 15 years by Jacob “Jackie” Steinberg, lay leader of the congregation. Leder continues, “He does an excellent job; he carries the tunes. He is the glue that keeps us together at the present time.”

Jackie Steinberg’s father, Simon Steinberg, came to Whiteville after being stationed in Wilmington during the Second World War and marrying Beatrice Mann. He went to work in the clothing store owned by his father-inlaw, Joseph Mann, alongside his brother-in-law, Sol Mann. Simon’s and Sol’s sons both attended college, then came home to run their family’s business for a third generation. Terry Mann is serving his second term as Whiteville’s mayor.

16 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

During the period from 1965 to 1985, Rabbi Reuben Kesner lived in Whiteville and divided his time among congregations in Jacksonville, Lumberton, and Wallace as well as Whiteville. Jewish children attended Sunday school classes taught at Beth Israel by their parents and grandparents. Miriam Mann, Charlotte Moskow, Si Steinberg, Doris Kramer, and Esther Leder took turns teaching.

In 1979, Jackie Steinberg returned to Whiteville, bringing his new wife Ellen with him. Ellen Steinberg says, “I was 21 years old and right out of four years at Carolina. I went to high school in Greensboro, and prior to that my family lived in New York and New Jersey. A little bit of Beth a culture shock coming to Israel’s Whiteville and becoming sanctuary involved in the Synagogue. But it was nice, because, being so small, it is a community.”

During Rabbi Kesner’s years, adult women such as Marilyn Moskow and Celia Mann took classes in Hebrew and achieved bat mitzvah status, Jackie Steinberg says. He says that his own experience becoming bar mitzvah is one of his favorite Beth Israel memories, but the day his mother Bea Mann Steinberg became bat mitzvah is equally special to him.

As he reached retirement age, however, Rabbi Kesner accepted a fulltime position in Myrtle Beach. After Kesner’s departure, Whiteville’s Jewish community depended on occasional visiting rabbis to lead worship. Some were yeshiva, or seminary, students; others were retirees. A female yeshiva student from Islip, N.Y., noticed Jackie Steinberg’s competence with the Hebrew prayers and chants. “You can do a lot of what I’m doing,” she told him.

She spent a short time coaching Steinberg on how to plan a worship service so that he could lead Sabbath gatherings.

More specialized religious formation once again required traveling out of town, however. Ellen Steinberg recalls, “Our children went to Sunday school and Hebrew school at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Wilmington…Our children grew up with a strong sense of their re-

A HOUSE FOR ISRAEL

ligion. This might have been due to being part of a small Jewish community. They never took their Judaism for granted, as some children growing up in cities with lots of Jewish people might.”

Now As immigration patterns of a century ago brought a thriving Jewish community to Whiteville, recent immigration has taken all the younger Jews to Charlotte, Raleigh and places further away. “None of the fourth generation lives here,” Gary Kramer says. He says the longevity of Beth Israel “is a testament to our faith and to the people of our community.” But what does the future hold? “Who knows?”

The oldest members of Beth Israel’s congregation are Shirley Leinwand of Elizabethtown, 90, and Abie Moskow, 89; the youngest members are middle-aged.

Jackie Steinberg estimates that Sabbath attendance varies from seven to 20 individuals, with some who come from Elizabethtown for special occasions.

The tight-knit congregation still em-

phasizes service to the local community and to Jews worldwide. Steinberg heads the collection of emergency funds to relieve the suffering of refugees and terrorism victims. Recent collections have gone to help people in the Middle East and Russia, where “things are not good.”

In 2009, Guillaume and Sokun Slama visited Whiteville with investor Jesse Fisher, who hoped they would open a fine-dining restaurant downtown. Fisher showed them the business district and Lake Waccamaw, then, knowing that Guillaume was Jewish, said, “Let me take you by the synagogue.”

“There’s a synagogue?” was Slama’s reaction. That was an encouraging sign to him that Whiteville might be friendlier to him and his wife than their previous town in Georgia had been. Today he says, “We came because of the synagogue… No one has proved me wrong so far.”

A while back, he noticed that the sign that had welcomed him had weathered badly and needed repair. Slama, a talent-

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ed handyman, took the sign to his workshop and restored it, finishing the job with new coats of blue and white paint. “Gary Kramer repainted the black posts,” he said.

With the congregation smaller now than it was a few years ago, Jackie Steinberg says, “We aren’t shutting down, but we do have a plan for passing along our Torah and other artifacts to another congregation that needs them if the time comes when we don’t anymore.” When asked to describe a hope for the future, Steinberg says he wanted to see peace in the Middle East and the rest of the world generally.

But he also says he hopes to see prosperity for his own hometown of Whiteville.

When Robert Leder is asked what makes him proudest of Beth Israel, he says, “The fact that we’ve not only survived and stayed together, but we’ve built a synagogue and been active for so long.

It’s an accomplishment.”

- 954 -

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954 INTERVIEW BIG DREAMS & BIG VOICES

Big dreams and big voices Clarkton native Chris James is Nashville bound

C

by NICOLE CARTRETTE Photography by FULLER ROYAL

Country music singer and -ed for the Carolina Music Award for songwriter Chris James knows a thing best male country singer in both 2014 or two about chasing big dreams and and 2015. big voices. The Clarkton native is movJames created a five-song demo that ing to Nashville this month to pursue he recorded at Hour Glass studios in his dream of making it big.

Wilmington.

The self-taught singer, songwriter, “I sent it out to almost every single pianist and guitarist is known to family record label in the country,” James said. and friends as Chris Elkins. The son of “I sat on my computer for about six Rhonda and Kirby Elkins fell in love to eight months for about six to eight with country music at an early age. hours a day.”

Long drives from his rural home His persistence paid off. with family were filled with the muJames signed a deal with Nashville’s sic of stars like Garth Brooks, Ronnie Lamon Records this spring and will be Dunn, Reba McIntyre and Martina interning at Red Ridge studios to learn McBride playing on the radio. the ins and outs of the business while “Clarkton is kind of in the middle of promoting his own work. nowhere, so we had to make long drives “I’m a little nervous. There’s a lot of to get some of the things we competition there,” James needed sometimes,” James said. “I’ve been [to NashI feel like a said. “My mom always ville] several times and different person played country music, so played some shows. There when I am on that’s how I got interested are a lot of extremely talstage. in country music, I guess.” ented people there.”

-Chris James He has been singing Luckily for James, his since he was 3 years old, support system is not limbeginning in venues such as Clarkton ited to locations. Friend and Carolina First Baptist Church.

Beach native Dylan Linehan coordiBut it wasn’t until he made it to the nated with James on much of his music third round of the American Idol Sea- and sang harmonies on his demos. Deson 12 auditions in Charlotte in 2012 spite living in California, she remains that he found himself wanting to be active in a group of up-and-comone of those big voices he heard over ing artists who support one another the radio growing up. through Skype sessions.

“That kind of gave me the confidence “We do these things called ambito actually pursue (music) as a career,” tion sessions where we sit and we talk James said. about our goals. We write them down, After graduating in 2013 from UNC put them on paper and just talk about Wilmington with a degree in biology, some of the things we want to accomJames said his heart was still set on plish and help each other get to where music. He earned a job as performer we want to be,” James said. “I feel like and promoter at Costello’s Piano Bar it is a support system that is really awein Wilmington; soon he was nominat some to have.”

20 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

We caught up with James in a Q&A session just before the move to Nashville.

How would you describe yourself?

I would say I’m kind of the boy next door, I guess. I have a kind soul. I’m always really kind and nice to everyone I come across.

I feel like that is a really good quality to have.

Who are your main musical influences?

I really like really big voices. Anyone with a really big voice –I was really attracted to those people.

Growing up in the South is really how I came to love country music and those big voices that I grew up listening to: Garth Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Reba McIntyre, Martina McBride.

If you had to choose just one of your songs to represent your music which one would it be and why?

I would say “In My Arms Tonight.”

It’s because it’s a love song. I’m a little more proud of the lyrics in that song than I am lyrics in some of the other songs. I feel like it is well written.

What was your inspiration for writing that one?

I wanted to do something original and different that no one has really done before. I wrote about how the feeling of just being in

love, just being in a car (with someone you love). It’s about appreciating the fact that you don’t have to be going to dinner –that you can appreciate just being in a car with someone that you don’t get to spend a lot of time with because of work.

How does performing make you feel?

I feel like a different person when I am on stage. I feel like in real life I can come off a little shy, a little soft-spoken, but once I get on stage . . . I kind of come to life.

Who is your biggest fan?

I would say my best friend Shawn Reid.

So when did you really begin to feel like you could do this?

Only in the last few years – sometimes you just feel like the dream’s too big, but I just keep working and keep pushing and things happen or they don’t. Luckily, they started to.

How does it feel to be nominated twice for the Best Country Male for the Carolina Music Awards?

It feels incredible. It’s really nice to work really hard and have someone recognize and appreciate what you do and for putting in so much time.

What is one moment in your music career that you’d probably like to forget?

I went to Pembroke to audition for some of the producers of American Idol to get an advanced audition in the show and there where a bunch of female singers before me. They were singing in a lot higher keys and I was extremely nervous. So I started out singing in a higher key. Toward the end of the song my voice cracked

right in front of everyone. wanted to run off stage.

I

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What do you hope to achieve?

I hope to make it pretty big.

What kind of support have you received from your family?

My family has always been really supportive and encouraged me to sing. I think they are a little upset that I am leaving to move to Nashville.

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What do you hope your fans get from your music?

I really just hope they feel inspired. And can have fun with it the same way that I have fun with the music that I listen to.

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M AY D AY, M AY D AY

Mayday, mayday

Columbus saw seven airplanes crash here during World War II

by JEFFERSON WEAVER

O

Of the thousands of aircraft that crisscrossed the sky over Columbus County during World War II, only a handful crashed.

But those that did fall from the sky often did so dramatically.

Two of the best-known crashes, a C-47 cargo plane at Lake Waccamaw and a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter lost in the Green Swamp, are still remembered 70 years after the end of the war. Most of the accidents, however, earned only a few lines in area newspapers.

22 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

Sometimes, however, even military censors couldn’t keep everything out of the public eye.

On July 8, 1943, hundreds of visitors to Lake Waccamaw were along the shore, enjoying a cool respite from the summer heat. White Lake and other bay lakes were so busy with military training and activities that officials occasionally suspended civilian activities, but Lake Waccamaw managed to avoid being conscripted for most of the war.

The C-47s were a common sight above Columbus County, since pilots practiced low-level flying over the Green Swamp. Pilots of both C-46 and C-47 planes would leave Maxton, Shaw Air Base in South Carolina, and Pope Field on practice missions, honing their skills.

Traditional sources say that the pilots of the planes that often circled low over the lake were often more interested in the lovely young ladies on the waterfront than they were perfecting their flying technique.

Vacationers saw nothing really unusual in the “hotdog” antics of the fliers – at

// top While photographs of the crashed plane were prohibited, this Aug. 2, 1943, picture from The News Reporter shows the damage to the hotel and cottage at Lake Waccamaw when a C-47 crashed there. // right A C-47 transport plane preserved in the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville. A similar plane crashed at Lake Waccamaw in 1943. // left A restored CG-4 Waco glider at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum. At least two, and possibly three, of the “Flying Coffins” were forced down in Columbus County as the military prepared for the invasion of Europe in 1944.

Part of the reason for the lack of news was government censorship; the United States was at war with Germany, Italy and Japan. Virtually any information regarding military activities was considered secret unless it was pre-approved by the military. Until late 1943, it was against federal law to publish a photograph of a dead American service member.

It was even against the law to mention specifically how many vehicles had been made by a car manufacturer doing its part in the war effort.

M AY D AY, M AY D AY

least until July 8, 1943, when one plane got a little too low, and a propeller dipped below the surface of the lake.

According to the Douglas aircraft historical website, the standard wartime C-47 aircraft was 63’9” long, and had a wingspan of 95’9”. Fully loaded with fuel and 28 combat troops, a C-47 would normally leave the runway weighing 31,000 pounds. Average operational weight was around 25,000 pounds – including hundreds of gallons of highly flammable aviation fuel.

To their credit, pilot Lt. R.H. Senter and his co-pilot Lt. Ralph Talman kept some control of their aircraft, even when parts of the damaged engine ripped off.

The plane was headed directly for the high bank along the north shore of Lake Waccamaw but the pilots managed to pull the plane up with feet to spare, according to eyewitness recollections.

Senter and Talman then tried to circle the plane, presumably looking for a suitable place for a crash landing, but it lost altitude and crashed into the Jones Hotel, nearly demolishing the famous structure.

The plane didn’t stop there, however.

It continued skidding along the ground and ran into one of Oscar High’s rental cottages, smashing the second floor.

The wing of the plane sheared off a large hardwood tree in the yard.

Newspaper accounts note that most of the guests were outside enjoying the day when the crash occurred, so injuries at the lodges were minor. An unnamed young girl received a bad cut on one arm.

A man who was asleep in the High cottage escaped uninjured. Another guest had decided on the spur of the moment to leave his own afternoon nap for a cold drink, minutes before the plane plowed into his bedroom.

The late Joseph Schulken from Whiteville was at Lake Waccamaw that day, and he was one of the first to respond to the crash. Schulken helped the survivors from the wreckage and doused a small fire. He said he was amazed that the crew members weren’t killed.

Senter and Talman, along with their navigator, Sgt. Jack Broadnus, somehow escaped serious injury. All three had

bumps, burns and bruises, according to contemporary reports, and were transported to Columbus County Hospital.

Several secondary reports of the crash note that when the military recovery and investigative team arrived a few hours after the crash, the commanding officer asked several people, “Where are the bodies?” Because the plane crash was so bad, he expected that no one could have survived.

Ray Wyche of Hallsboro said he saw Whiteville’s fire truck, driven by Carl Sasser, en route to the scene and jumped on his bike to go see the crash. The lake had no department of its own at the time, and Wyche said he figured the crash must have “set the whole lake front on fire.”

Wyche said he retrieved a souvenir – a small piece of one of the plane’s windows.

“The way the Army was, I was afraid they would come after me if they saw me,” he laughed.

The year 1943 was a tough one for planes over Columbus, with a total of four crashes. cont’d on page 24

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 23

M AY D AY, M AY D AY

// left The only WWII plane crash here that resulted in a fatality was reported in early 1944. // right Randy Ferris (center) with friend Mike Stowe (right) and a member of the helicopter recovery crew stand beside a wing of the P-47B Thunderbolt fighter as they ready it for recovery in March 1996 from the Green Swamp.

Photo courtesy of Randy Ferris, via The Star News.

Right Badly Damaged A single-engine dive bomber of the U.S. Army Air Corps made an unscheduled stop in Old Dock in September 1943.

Allie Simmons told The News Reporter that the entire community was shocked when a “single engine bomber” fell out of a formation of planes crossing the area.

Witnesses’ accounts described the plane as having some kind of engine problem.

The pilot was apparently aiming for a recently harvested cornfield when the engine stopped entirely. The pilot brought the plane in for an emergency landing on the field, but, without power, he lost control and clipped some pine trees along his approach. The plane made the field, but smashed into a second stand of young pines.

The plane, Simmons reported, “was right badly damaged,” but the pilot escaped unscathed. The pilot’s wingmen waited until he was out of the wreckage before continuing to Wilmington.

Less than a month later, the pilot of a training plane learned a hard lesson about fuel consumption.

On Oct. 7, 1943 newspaper reports

24 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

show, a single-engine training plane from Shaw Air Base ran out of fuel near Chadbourn. The pilot later told witnesses that he ran out of fuel, and decided to make an emergency landing on a handy field.

The plane was apparently most of the way through a safe landing when the landing gear dropped into an unnoticed drainage ditch, and flipped the airplane onto its back. While shaken up, the pilot was safe, although his plane was seriously damaged.

A similar emergency landing a few months later would end in tragedy.

Plane Crash Near Here Kills Flier Fast, rugged, and responsive, the A-20 was known as the “Havoc.” Like several planes that were eventually mainstays of the American air fleet, the A-20 didn’t impress military designers at first. Eventually, the Havoc came into its own as an American aircraft.

The A-20 that crashed near Chadbourn on a freezing night in December 1943 came from one of the busiest fields in the area, the modern home of the Florence, S.C., regional airport.

Troop carrier groups flying transport planes like the C-47 trained at Florence

prior to their deployment to Europe and North Africa. Fighter and pursuit squadrons also called the base home before being transferred to Wilmington. In mid1943, the airfield became a replacement training school for Havoc crews.

The 411th Bombardment Group was the main training unit there from Aug. 15, 1943, until May of 1944, when some of the air crews were sent to England, eventually becoming part of the invasion of Europe.

Stanley Cherneck never had that opportunity.

The flight officer, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., died when his Havoc hit a power line “about three miles west of Whiteville on the Chadbourn road at Sweet’s Farm,” according to the Jan. 21, 1944 News Reporter. His two crewmen sustained minor injuries.

Witnesses said the Havoc was circling a field at a low altitude just before dark when it struck the electric line. The plane then cartwheeled into a tobacco barn, destroying the structure and the aircraft.

Flying Coffins In 1939, the U.S. military began considering the use of gliders, unpowered

M AY D AY, M AY D AY

aircraft pulled by airplanes, as a viable method of delivering troops and equipment to combat zones.

Fort Bragg and Pope Field became centers of glider operations; early training flights were often made at night, because glider troops expected to be deployed in the dark.

The CG-4A Waco became the standard American unpowered aircraft, and 13,900 were manufactured. The Waco was inexpensive, lightweight, and capable of carrying 13 fully equipped troops and a variety of heavy equipment. The pilot and co-pilot were expected to fight alongside the passengers when the glider was on the ground.

Tradition has it that when the first Waco glider troops saw their new “homes” at Fort Bragg, someone immediately dubbed the aircraft “Flying Coffin.”

Being made of wood and cloth, Waco gliders were very prone to fire, and susceptible to anti-aircraft gunnery.

Waco gliders were a main part of the Normandy invasion, which was in the earliest planning stages in December of 1943. The glider troops knew they were

eventually going to be part of something big, but on Dec. 13, the flight that left Florence was just another routine training mission.

Somewhere near Gore’s Chapel, the tow cable to one of the gliders became kinked. The pilot of the C-47 pulling the glider had no choice but to cut the cable.

The gliders were designed to be pulled into the air and released near the landing area, but not pulled back to the landing strip.

The glider pilot landed the aircraft between two trees at the end of a field on the Baggett farm near Nakina. Two of the 14 on board sustained minor injuries.

Just a few months later, a second glider made an emergency landing, this time near Brunswick. Little was reported about the crash on Feb. 7, 1944, except that none of the soldiers was killed or injured.

Another crash in Columbus would eventually make national headlines, decades after the fact.

Murphey’s Law The P-47 Thunderbolt – nicknamed the “Jug” by some fliers – was designed

to serve a variety of purposes in the U.S. Air Corps.

The Thunderbolt was a single engine fighter plane, carrying six .50 caliber machine guns for use against enemy planes.

When equipped with rockets and bombs, it also excelled in ground attack.

Lt. Wesley Murphey Jr. was flying a “B” model P-47 from Wilmington to a Florida air base in January 1944 when the plane began developing mechanical problems.

Shortly after takeoff from Wilmington, Murphey reported that his landing gear wouldn’t completely retract. His wingman noticed a broken hinge on Murphey’s right gear housing. Since the gear would still lower and lock, Murphey and the other pilot decided to continue on the first leg of their journey, to Charleston, S.C. The pair of planes were about 25 miles from Wilmington when flames began shooting out under Murphey’s aircraft.

Published accounts of the flight describe how Murphey’s engine suddenly caught fire, shortly before sunset. Flames were rolling out of the engine and down

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M AY D AY, M AY D AY

the belly of the aircraft. The men immediately put out a distress call and turned back toward Wilmington, but the P-47 was rapidly losing altitude. Murphey began looking for a flat place to land, while his wingman kept an eye on the flames.

The fire went out just after the planes made their turn back to Wilmington, but smoke was pouring from the engine.

Murphey was over the Green Swamp, just west of the Columbus-Brunswick line, when he saw a grassy field among the pines and hardwoods of the swamp.

Murphey later recounted how he brought the plane in for a conventional landing, and the plane came to a sudden stop, twisted to one side, and settled into the black mud and swamp grass.

He signaled his wingman that he was okay, and settled in to wait. Temperatures dipped below freezing that night. The area was so remote that Murphey spent nearly 24 hours in the woods before volunteers hacked their way through to him.

Murphey went on to become an ace, shooting down at least five enemy air-

craft in the Pacific theatre.

During World War II, the military generally recovered even the smallest pieces of downed aircraft, and in most cases, paid damages to property owners where planes went down. The Green Swamp, however, was considered undeveloped wilderness, so the plane was left in its marshy grave.

For decades, the shining aluminum remains of Murphey’s P-47 were a landmark in the Green Swamp. Numerous pilots spotted the crash and reported it, fearing a plane had recently crashed in the area.

By 1996, area around the plane crash was owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, but canals, logging roads and hunting trails had long since changed the landscape.

The improved access to the swamp and a love of vintage aircraft brought Randy Ferris from Marengo, Ill., in 1996. Ferris and a crew of family, friends and paid workers chopped their way through the swamp to the crash site and, using a he-

licopter and heavy trucks, recovered the plane. The parts were taken back to Ferris’ home in Illinois, where the plane is still undergoing restoration.

Columbus County has no historical markers, and few official records, relating to the air crashes that occurred here during the Second World War. Most of the buildings that were struck by crashing planes have long since vanished, and few witnesses to any of the crashes are still alive.

World War II veterans are rapidly disappearing, too, taking with them the last memories of when engines filled the sky over Columbus County and a nation went to war.

- 954 -

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GRAPEFULL SISTERS

Grapefull Sisters offers peace and quiet, but plenty to explore

by CLARA CARTRETTE photography by GRANT MERRITT

W When two sisters inherit farmland in Columbus County where their parents and grandparents lived and made a living, what do the non-farming sisters do?

The Suggs sisters talked about it, musing, walking and looking at the Suggs land off Ramsey Ford Road in the southern end of Columbus County. Sheila Suggs Little lived in Hickory and was working in the tourism industry. Amy Suggs, who had previously lived and worked in Greensboro, had come home earlier to take care of

28 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

their mother, who was battling Alzheimer’s.

While trying to decide what to do with the farm, they were walking the tree line, eating wild grapes and pondering their options when Sheila commented, “If we could just get something to grow as well as these darned grapes!”

Bingo! An idea was born. They remembered hearing family members talk about some of their ancestors

growing grapes on the land, so Sheila and Amy turned an idea into a project, then a reality.

10th Anniversary This year they’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of Grapefull Sisters Vineyard.

Their plan was first written on a napkin, and it progressed from that.

They planted native American grapes — black and white Muscadines that are made into eight varieties of wines.

Jacquelyn and Naomi feed the geese.

GRAPEFULL SISTERS

Grapefull Sisters Wine Cake 1 box golden vanilla cake mix 1 small box of French vanilla pudding ¾ cup cooking oil 4 eggs 1 cup Grapefull Sisters Picnic Red Wine 1 ½ cups chopped pecans Mix all until smooth and bake in bundt pan until fork comes out clean.

Glaze 2 sticks butter 2 cups sugar 2 cups Grapefull Sisters Picnic Red Wine Heat to a boil for 2-3 minutes.

Jacquelyn, Christine, Ava, Amy, Naomi, and Sheila in the wine bar and gift shop.

They range from semi-dry selections to traditional sweets and non-alcoholic wines, conjuring up memories of the Old South.

“Muscadines have 40 percent more antioxidants, so when we say ‘cheers to your health’ we can back it up with data,” Sheila said.

Their grapes grow naturally, with no fertilizer or chemicals applied.

Inn d’Vine In addition to planting the vineyard, Amy and Sheila built Inn d’Vine, a rustic two-story inn with a red metal roof that resembles an old tobacco barn. Later, a large, well-kept and well-equipped campground was added. Then came additional buildings: a general store, entertainment stage, bathhouse, laundry room, walking trails, dog park, pool and more.

The Suggs sisters have hosted guests from Italy, Scotland, Germany and other foreign countries, as well as from across the U.S. “We’ve had everything from large garden weddings to elopement weddings, from as far away as Pennsylvania and Texas,” Sheila said. “We recently had a wedding involving people from Washington, D.C.” Variety of services If you’re looking for hustle-bustle excitement, Grapefull Sisters and Inn d’Vine might not be your choice. It’s a place for relaxation, communing with nature, pampering yourself and get-

ting to know nice people. It is a place for vacationers or for those close to home who just want to get away for a day or two, or just for an afternoon.

Some come with their own picnic baskets; others call in and theirs is waiting when they arrive.

Others come for wine tastings, offered Monday through Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. Art classes are also available. Porch-sitting, where guests can talk, read, sip or nap, is a popular pastime for some. The Suggs sisters said groups such as an authors’ group from the beach sometimes have their meetings there.

It’s quiet, peaceful and restful there, but it’s not boring. The summer pool, stocked fishpond, dog park, bird watching, outdoor games and walking trails leave guests with plenty to do. Puzzles and other games are available in the General Store. Sometimes there are events such as a small parade, festival or concert.

Adding ambience to the country inn is Good Kitty, the resident cat who camps out on the front porch with the Suggs sisters and their guests when he isn’t prowling the grounds.

Guests Speak RV campers Brooke Black, her husband Steve and English Springer Spaniel Wilson were spending time in the campground recently. They had sold their home but own a condo, and would be travelcont’d on page 30

When cake comes out of oven, cool enough to flip onto a plate and poke holes in the top. Spoon glaze over cake multiple times to let it soak in. Enjoy!!

Christine Carroll, Park Manager CarrollWoods RV Park - Grapefull Sisters Vineyard Jacquelyn and Sheila “tickle the grapes.”

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 29

GRAPEFULL SISTERS

Jacquelyn and Sheila enjoy painting.

30 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

ing back and forth from Pennsylvania to the campground.

“I love it here; it’s so nice and clean,” Brooke said while Steve and Wilson went for a romp in the dog park. “It’s so quiet and peaceful, and that’s one of the reasons we picked this place.”

The Blacks consider themselves “snowbirds,” northerners who winter in the south to escape severe winters.

They discovered Grapefull Sisters while on a family vacation.

Some “snowbirds” make quarterly reservations. Their RV campers on oversized campsites provide the comforts of home without the huge heat bills.

Perfect Get-Away A Grapefull Sisters brochure proclaims: “Whether it is weddings, romantic get-aways, girls’ weekends out, porch luncheons or a local artist gift shop… we have it all! Inn d’Vine is not just a place to relax; it is also a place to come and rejuvenate your soul. Continental breakfast is available.”

Sheila said she sometimes thinks the best way to serve her guests is to leave them alone.

One time a group of women came for an afternoon retreat and some fell asleep in the porch rockers.

Amy recalls that she was inside when she heard snoring from the porch.

“There are not many distractions, and when guests leave they feel rested and rejuvenated,” Sheila said. “And we

hope they feel like family. The biggest thing we offer is peace and quiet.”

Journals in each Inn d’Vine room tell a story of guests enjoying the quiet seclusion of Grapefull Sisters and how much fun they had.

Inn d’Vine offers three elegant upstairs rooms featuring super comfortable beds, handmade quilts and full bathrooms with European style showers. The spacious downstairs features a wine bar, well-stocked gift shop with original art, wine, jams, jellies, sauces, books and numerous other gift items.

You’ll find a lot of unusual labels: Dot and Palmer’s BBQ Sauce (named for their parents), Uncle Pink’s alcohol-free wine, Moonshine pickles, jelly, hot sauce and numerous others. The Suggs sisters noted that their greatgreat Uncle Pinckney grew grapes and made wine.

Long porches upstairs and downstairs provide a country atmosphere where guests can look out over the vineyard as well as a spacious yard featuring a little chapel, gardens and a pond where several geese and their babies hang out.

Wine-making Wine is not made on site; Sheila and Amy contract with a winery to process the grapes that they harvest in late summer. In early September they had already picked 3,300 pounds of grapes, and there was a lot more picking to do before season’s end.

GRAPEFULL SISTERS

Asked how they harvest the grapes, the sisters explained that normally they have picked them by hand.

However, the job is faster and easier now that they have invented and built a harvester.

“It’s our own creation and it was family built,” Amy said.

“We just ‘tickle’ the grapes; they fall off and go into a bin,” Sheila explained.

A tarp is spread under the grapes, and they subtly thrash the vines with a stick, or on this day, a large plastic toy bat, so the grapes will fall on the tarp. After a sizeable number of grapes have fallen, a screen that covers the opening in the tarp is removed and the grapes fall through into a bin on the harvester.

The Campground When Sheila moved back 12 years ago, her son Byron “Doc” Carroll and his family moved, too. He and wife Christine operate the Carrollwoods Campground.

Their three pretty daughters, Jacquelyn, 13, Naomi, 11, and Ava, 9, also help with chores such as feeding the chickens and geese. They are home-schooled and their classroom is in the General Store, where guests find tables with jigsaw puzzles and other games, plus a variety of canned goods, snacks, soft drinks and other items.

The oversized, easy pullthrough campsites have full hook-ups, 20/30/50 amp, free Wi-Fi, cable TV and shade.

Church groups, Boy Scout troops, and camping clubs come to Carrollwoods to camp. A women’s fly fishing group evolved from what started as a cancer support group that met at the camp.

The Chapel Sheila and Amy are proud of their tiny chapel, which is located near gardens and a setting used for outdoor weddings. Sheila said the chapel’s frame was once a gazebo. It was given to them

by Rev. Lester Spain of Loris, S.C. His wife wanted it gone from their yard, and he thought it would make a nice little chapel. All of them wanted it blessed all the way around. They put hands on it and prayed for a blessing.

Sheila said it was amazing how the former gazebo became a little chapel through various donations.

“Windows from the old Pireway Methodist Church that were headed to the dump were donated,” she said. “Then, we got a fourfoot pew and a cross from a church at Nakina that was closing. About the same time, Joey Lawson of Stokesdale said the church needed a steeple, so he made one and gave it to us.”

It’s not surprising that Blessings is the name the sisters chose for the little chapel.

Other Uses for Wine The Suggs sisters reveal that their wine is not only good for sipping, but great for other uses, such as flavoring cakes. They have discovered that their Waccamaw Red wine can be added to a yellow cake mix, along with butter and nuts (preferably pecans) to make a tasty dessert. Icing it with a mixture of wine, butter and powdered sugar makes it exceptionally delicious.

Sheila’s daughter-in-law Christine makes grape juice by filling a jar one-third full of grapes, adding two tablespoons of sugar and filling

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GRAPEFULL SISTERS

allow sadness in the vineyard.”

“It smells so good out here when the breeze blows,” Amy added.

Passing by the pump house, Sheila noted that there is an old sink in it that she was bathed in as a child; so was her son.

Guests Return Amy and Sheila note that their Inn d’Vine guest list this year has been more like a homecoming of old friends coming to visit, seeking peace and quiet.

Ava, Naomi, Jacquelyn, and Christine at the campground.

“As opposed to staying in a hotel or condo, you can save fire rings, cable TV, fishing sisters preserved a lot of fama lot of money,” she added. pond, playground, quiet loca- ily heritage, such as home“When you set up shop on our tion and many special events.” made bricks and lumber from Grapefull Sisters and Inn a mill that belonged to their campground, you will be savd’Vine are located in close grandfather Gardner Suggs. ing plenty of money. But that proximity to many North and Mounted on the outside wall doesn’t mean we skimp on South Carolina beaches, mak- of the General Store is a huge amenities. We offer wireless ing it convenient for those round saw blade from the internet, access to our winery who want to play golf or vis- sawmill. Their mother, who and gift shop, on site grills and it restaurants, nightclubs and was quite artistic, painted an other hot spots. RV campers attractive scene on the blade. often visit the beaches by day “That blade cut the lumber and return to Carrollwoods that went into our parents’ Campground for the evening. first home,” Amy said.

No matter what type of fun The Carroll sisters apparyou’re looking for, you won’t ently have inherited artistic have far to travel to find it. qualities. They are beginning But space is limited, so make to paint, especially 13-year-old reservations early.

Jacquelyn, who enjoys painting Location animals.

Located only 20 min“This is land our grandfautes from four area beaches, ther wrote hymns and music Grapefull Sisters often gets on while plowing, singing and The Rinnai tankless water beach overflow. It is a quick praying,” Sheila said. “I hear it heater provides the ultimate get-away for a nice, quiet re- all the time from people who luxury for your home - never spite for beach vacationers knew him, asking if I knew ending hot water. who tire of too much sun and that this land was blessed.”

Enjoy new features of today’s sand. It’s convenient to Hwy. This former tobacco farm bathrooms such as spa baths 9, Hwy. 904, Hwy. 905 and that has already been home and body spray systems all Hwy. 31. to nine Suggs generations - 954 -is while running the dishwasher The Suggs sisters say they serving three current generaor washing machine. are blessed to have the fami- tions and their customers well.

A steadfast presence in our community since 1975, offering a full ly heritage they do, and they However, there are more plans range of oral and maxillofacial procedures, including tooth extractions, have a great deal of knowl- in the hopper. Sheila and Amy corrective jaw surgery and dental implant procedures. edge about their ancestors. say they are considering growChoose the board-certified, specialty-trained experts They know that their grand- ing blueberries next.

Ronald D. Gaitros, DDS, MS Mark E. Bufalini, DMD, MD Michael S. Booth, DDS father was born in a house across the road in 1902.

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the jar with boiling water. Six months later you will have the best grape juice in the world, she said, and it will be concentrated so you’ll need to cut it with water.

Sheila and Amy talk about their ancestors as they walk the grounds and demonstrate how their homemade grape harvester works. Assisting were Sheila’s granddaughters, who stationed themselves under the vines and guided the grapes into the harvester when they fell through the tarp opening.

The sisters have decided they can modify the harvester to make it more efficient, and the Suggs sisters don’t just have good ideas; they have the knowledge and ability to make those ideas happen.

“Grapes are happy,” Sheila said with a smile. “We don’t

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IT ALL WORKS TOGETHER FOR GOOD

“It all works together for good ” 2 5 0 ye a r s of fa ith -ful l h is tor y White Marsh Baptist Church celebrates its homecoming with an anniversary service

by WALLYCE TODD Photos by WALLYCE TODD and courtesy of White Marsh Baptist Church

They began worshipping together in Columbus County more than a decade before America declared its independence from England in 1776.

White Marsh Baptist Church celebrated its 250th anniversary Oct. 11.

The rural church located at 341 Whitehall Road in Whiteville has a long history of worshipping Jesus and being mission-minded, according to its current members and historians.

The Reverend Ray Yow is the current pastor. He believes the Triune God has made all the difference to the longevity of the church.

He also said the road has not always been easy or smooth, but that God has stayed steadfast in its midst. “The faithfulness of God (has been the ingredient) in keeping it going, as well as the working of the people together,” Yow said.

Frances Vaughan Burge played a large role in gathering historical facts and in preparing for the celebratory service.

During the homecoming worship service, she highlighted facts about the church and its members (see timeline).

Burge, 73, said she first came to

36 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

White Marsh Baptist Church when she “was about 12 years old – somewhere in that neighborhood. I had one younger brother who came then, too.

His name was James Vaughan.

“Our parents were Thomas ‘Tom’ and Rena Vaughan,” Burge said. Her mother’s maiden name was Creech, and she grew up in the White Marsh community before marrying Tom. “My sister Olive (Vaughan Shuping) came, too,” Burge recollected. “But she was born in 1954; she’s a good deal younger than me.”

Burge shared a special memory of her childhood.

“I had a Sunday School teacher – Ms. Thelma Horton - who took us to her house for an ice cream social,” she said.

Eighty-five-year-old Doris Dowless also has poignant memories of the church. Some of her earliest recollections include walking with her six siblings to the church, which was about a mile away from their childhood home.

It was the church where she was baptized.

Her parents were Graham and Annie Batten. “My husband Richard Wesley

IT ALL WORKS TOGETHER FOR GOOD

‘R.W.’ was ordained here in 1976 after he graduated from Fruitland Institute in Hendersonville,” Dowless said.

R.W. was the first person from White Marsh Baptist Church to be ordained into the pastoral ministry; he would go on to pastor seven churches before retiring back in Columbus County.

“He grew up in Bladenboro, and I brought him to Columbus County,” Dowless said as her eyes lit up with remembrance. “That’s just the way the Lord worked it out.”

During the anniversary service, Dowless and others were recognized for being among the oldest members in the church.

Raeford Batten was passing by Dowless as she was recalling memories. “This is one of the very finest ladies in the community,” Batten said. “She is a true 100 percent role model… her character and personality. I think her relationship with God is A-plus.”

When asked whether belief in Christ was important to her, Dowless replied, “Oh, absolutely. It’s the only way to get to heaven.

There’s no other way besides Jesus to get to heaven and that’s where I plan to go.

“I already got my ticket,” the octogenarian stated and smiled.

New mother Jessica Wayne Lewis brought her 5-month-old son Max to the anniversary service at the church she had attended as a child with her grandmother, Carolyn Wayne.

“It’s nice to be able to bring him back to the church that his great-great grandparents, Howard and Eva Creech, were a major part of,” Lewis said. “And it’s where his great grandmamma has (attended) all her life and where his mom grew up.”

Robert Powell Jr. lives in Myrtle Beach.

However, on Oct. 11 he returned to the church where many of his relatives have attended.

“I came to celebrate 250 years with my family,” Robert Jr. said. “My grandmother was a big part of this church.”

Gary Powell echoed his nephew’s sentiments. “It’s almost like a family reunion because so much of my family is here at WMBC today,” Gary noted.

“I came here nine months before I was born,” Gary said with a grin. “Mama (Louise R. Powell) believed in being in church every time the doors opened. Sometimes, we would ride the bus to church. It was a 1946 Model Chevrolet.”

Kathy High Britt came to the 250th anni-

(above) White Marsh members took part in the cornerstone laying celebration in 1953, after a brick sanctuary had been erected. (opposite page) Children prepare for a field trip.

versary service with her husband Mac. Her parents were Hubert and Darca High. “I got baptized here. I got married here. This is the church where I grew up,” Britt said. “It’s very meaningful to be here with family and friends.”

Delane Sellers began attending the church in 2014.

“I joined White Marsh as a direct result of a personal invitation from Pastor Yow. He happened to come into the place where I was working and told me he was pastoring White Marsh and invited me to go.

“I fully intended to do just that, but I had a major health issue arise and had

to have heart surgery and was not able to go for several months,” Sellers said. “I kept remembering his invitation in the back of my mind, and as soon as I was physically able to go, I did.

“I am certain God led me to go there because from day one, the people were so warm and made me feel so welcome – so much so that I joined the church the following Sunday after only attending one service,” Sellers recalled. I have been truly blessed by being a member. I have felt like a member of the church family from the beginning and love all of the people like family. God blessed me richly when he led me to the church.

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 37

IT ALL WORKS TOGETHER FOR GOOD White Marsh Baptist Church – named after the community in which it is located – is the oldest church in the Columbus Baptist Association. Church records indicate it was established in 1765.

The first building was erected where the present brick building now stands, on the north side of Old White Hall Road.

Because of no heat and impassable roads, church services were not held during the winter in the earliest days.

Members rode mules and horses to the services and those with large families often came by wagon or buggy.

TIMELINE

The present building is the third building. The first was struck by a tree, which totally wrecked a part of the building.

The church outgrew the second building, leading to the need for the current building, which has 14 Sunday School rooms and seats approximately 325.

Construction of the new building began in the early 1950s and many church furnishings are gifts of memorials and offerings. Services have been held in the present building since 1954.

In early 1966, the Reverend Leon Lancaster came to WMBC as pastor. A joint Community Thanksgiving Service was held among WMBC, Mount Zion Baptist and Peace Methodist.

The Reverend Cleatus Blackmon became pastor in 1971. During his ministry, the church participated in the Nicky Cruz Crusade.

In May 1987, the Reverend David Southern was called as pastor. In keeping with the church’s purpose, WMBC supported Rev. and Mrs. Southern in their participation in the Brazilian Mission Partnership.

The ground-breaking for the fellowship hall was at homecoming in 1991.

Homecoming 1992 was held in the newly completed building. No money was borrowed. The church members worked together to build it.

Numerous mission trips were taken and a number of church ministries were begun, including the CD ministry in 2015.

Courtesy of Frances Burge and White Marsh Baptist Church

38 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

“I always look forward to going and worshipping with others there,” Sellers said.

Yow spoke of the church’s history.

“There’s been ups and downs in the church, but we look at that as the mountaintops and valleys… and in that, we see that God works all things together for good within the church.”

Burge has an idea about why the church has lasted for so long. “I think it’s because we’ve always been a beacon in the community.”

“People love this community and love White Marsh,” Burge continued, “and I want us to keep that beacon shining in the future.”

- 954 -

“I came to celebrate 250 years with my family.”

-Robert Powell Jr.

(left) A cornerstone was installed when the brick church was built and occupied in 1954. (right) The church exterior, Oct. 11, 2015. (middle) Church members gather for the 225 anniversary. (bottom) Congregants and guests gather for the 250th anniversary service on October 11, 2015

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BLACK’S TIRE

Black’s T ire

Family enterprise continues growth, spurred by ‘service first’

by BOB HIGH Photos courtesy of Modern Tire Dealer magazine

W When Crowell Black hired Ricky Benton of Cerro Gordo in 1981 to manage Black’s Tire store in Whiteville, little did anyone realize Benton was stepping into a business that he would guide to become one of the largest tire dealerships east of the Mississippi.

Thirty-four years later, Benton – with the able help of his wife and three sons, plus hundreds of dedicated employees – has increased the one-store business to 36 locations where hundreds of tires for cars, trucks and off-road heavy equipment are sold each day.

“We don’t count tires sold each day as the measure of our success. Fixing a flat is as important as selling a tire. My family and our family of employees invest our time and energy in the neighborhood by involvement in schools, churches and activities.

“Our business relationship with others is the key, and ‘service’ is the one

40 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

ner at home and in the office, recalled the time her husband left the Cerro Gordo station and moved to South Madison Street in Whiteville.

“I was getting ready to have my third son, and Ricky was working in the glue line at Georgia Pacific, plus helping run the station,” she said. “He felt he had to do something else. We had built the business at the Black’s station in Cerro Gordo.” (By the early 1980s, Crowell Black, the founder of the tire enterprise, was concentrating on growing his heating and business oil venture. Crowell’s son, Donald “Buddy” Black, had taken over the tire operation).

“Ricky and Buddy had the only business meeting they ever had, and Ricky became the manager of the Whiteville tire store,” Dianne recalls.

Benton’s father, the late V.J. Benton, was then nearing complething we sell that brings peotion of a long-term job with ple back to our stores,” Ben- The Benton Brown & Root in Texas. family, from the ton states.

Ricky persuaded V.J. to return left, Rick, Ricky, “I couldn’t have done it to Cerro Gordo and run the Dianne, Ryan and without my wife and sons Jeremy. station there for a year, or unand my family of employees,” til Ricky determined that his a humble Benton says. “I’ve move to Whiteville was the right decibeen rewarded with some of the finest sion. employees a person could ever have.

Ricky began to get more customers Some of them have been with me since in the Whiteville business, and he soon I began at the Whiteville store.” knew he had to expand. He hired FredFrom one to 36 dy Norris to run the Whiteville store, Benton’s move from a Cerro Gordo and Benton went hunting for places to service station put him in charge of the grow. Myrtle Beach, S.C., the giant anbusiness the late Crowell Black opened chor of what became the Grand Strand, in 1929 after beginning to deal in tires was expanding, and Benton wanted to while in high school. be a part of it. A store on Third AveGrowth of the business has been nue in Myrtle Beach became the second steady. The company opened its 36th loBlack’s Tire location. cation this summer by renovating an old This was followed by the first LumberChrysler dealership just north of Loris, ton venture, plus a new store in North S.C. Myrtle Beach. By the early 1990s, ShalDianne Benton, Ricky’s guiding part-

BLACK’S TIRE

lotte was added to the Black’s a typical day has him leaving family, and then Conway, S.C. Cerro Gordo by 7 a.m. He’s Wholesale, too likely to appear at a company The mid-1990s saw Benton store, often unannounced. He gain a foothold in Wilming- usually just ambles into the ton as the firm opened a store store and watches. If he sees an along Carolina Beach Road – employee needing some help, the first of four locations in the almost regardless of the type of Port City. Another Wilming- assistance, Ricky immediately ton store was followed by four jumps in and lends a hand, or in Florence, S.C. shares his knowledge. The task Within another 10 years, might be changing a tire or Black’s Tire signs fronted sev- taking a customer to work. eral locations in Raleigh, Fay“Service is the secret to our etteville, Clinton and other business. I preach it all the time towns. The retail business was because our customers deserve booming; in addition, Ricky it, and thankfully, they expect and his talented team of em- it,” Ricky explains. ployees gained a firm footing Education about new trends in the wholesale end of the tire and equipment in the tire business. business is Today, more almost equal“Service is the secret to than 30 trucks ly importour business. I preach it leave Whiteant.

Ricky all the time because our ville each day purchased a customers deserve it, and as they move small buildthankfully, they expect it,” throughout ing beside -Ricky Benton eastern and Black’s corcentral sections porate headof the two Carolinas, delivering quarters in Whiteville, and as many as eight brands of tires within a few weeks, the BTS to independent businesses.

Academy was open.

Benton purchased in 1997 a Benton looks at competing tire-retreading plant in Clin- tire dealers as another marton and moved it to Clarkton, ket he can serve, supplying where it operates today. Pro- them with wholesale tires and duction has grown from 70 a equipment. He doesn’t considday when it opened in Clark- er other dealers as competition. ton to more than 220 a day.

“They’re our partners, and anyAs the Bentons’ three sons thing we can do to build our finished high school, and then partners’ business is usually college, they became part of the good for us,” the Black’s Tire business. Each began to work president points out. while a teen and now they This “partnering” includes shoulder part of the load. educating Black’s competing Rick Benton Jr., now 42 and dealers and their employees on still living in Cerro Gordo be- just about anything new in the side his parents, is the tire buy- industry. When vendors offer er and vice president of pur- presentations on how best to chasing and marketing. Ryan, use a piece of equipment, Ben39, is the vice president of retail ton’s firm invites competitors sales and operations. Jeremy, and their employees to become the youngest at 34, is vice pres- a part of the audience. ident in charge of commercial One of his finest moves sales and manufacturing. was including a front countLends a hand er and showroom in the For the 60-year-old Ricky, 38,000-square-foot facili-

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BLACK’S TIRE

ty, complete with tire displays and parts shelves to show new and old employees how best to approach a customer and talk with them. More hands-on training occurs in an adjacent room of the academy, where a fully equipped shop is available.

‘Stay on top of it’ An on-site kitchen gives Benton a place to cook for a crowd. This avoids the hassle and expense of taking a large group of “students” to a restaurant. A classroom and conference room is also part of the facility.

Benton says, “If you don’t train and try to stay on top of it, you’ll be left behind.

You’ve got to continue to get better at what we do, or you’ll be out of business.”

Joy Kopcha, senior editor for Modern Tire Dealer magazine in Ohio, recently wrote an article about Black’s Tire and Benton’s success. Kopcha spent some time with Dianne and Ricky.

“You’ve got something to prove. Don’t ask people to do something you’re not willing to do yourself,” is what Ricky preaches to his sons and his grandchildren, according to Kopcha.

Benton loves NASCAR and the racing

culture, and he began sponsoring a car in the early 1990s. He has now shifted to pickup-truck racing and his Ricky Benton Racing team enters eight to 10 truck races a year. Benton says racing full-time is too expensive, but he believes his RBR team is a good marketing tool.

Benton has a big heart when it comes to helping others – particularly young people.

He’s adopted the Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina, headquartered at Lake Waccamaw, as the target for his major support.

Black’s Tire sponsors an annual golf tournament in late summer each year. This year the firm raised more than $100,000 for Boys and Girls Homes. Benton tries to avoid praise for his efforts. He just grins, and begins talking about a new subject.

Puts family first Benton grew up working hard at everything he did. He says money is “just paper.”

His real love is putting people to work and satisfying his customers.

Norris, hired in the mid-1980s to run the Whiteville store, admires Ricky and Dianne. “They’re good owners. He and

Dianne always look forward, not backward. Everyone’s family to Ricky. He puts family first, and that includes his Black’s Tire family,” Norris says.

Dianne has a lot of pride in the success her husband has achieved, and she knows she has played a major role in helping him since their marriage while both were still in high school. She also knows that leaving Ricky alone to “do his thing” is the formula that continues to work.

“Ricky and Buddy (Black) had only one meeting until we finished buying the company in 1996. That one meeting was why it worked,” she declares.

Benton is adamant about the secret of Black’s growth. “The answer is team and family using service to our customers, who keep coming back, and they create a loyalty to our family of employees.”

The Black’s Tire family will continue to grow from the present 565 as their number of customers keeps mushrooming. If Benton’s middle name should be “Service,” perhaps his first name should be “Family.”

He as well as his wife, three sons and employees live both words every day. - 954 -

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FREDDIE TURNER STELL

Freddie Turner Stell

Stell Created L egacy of L ocal Musicals

M

by FULLER ROYAL Photos by FULLER ROYAL

Musical theatre runs in Fredrica Turner Stell’s blood.

For more that two decades, Stell, known as “Freddie” or “Mrs. Freddie,” was the primary mover and shaker behind the musicals produced by the Columbus County Theatre Association.

And while she directed a dozen plays, her four musicals were her largest undertakings – “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Oklahoma,” “The Music Man” and “The King and I.” Stell, who has retired from directing, said that while the musicals were her favorites, she also enjoyed the intimacy of small-scale productions with smaller casts.

By her own count, Stell estimates that over the course of the past 25 years, more than 100 people have been a part of the productions she’s helmed. A count of the cast and crew credits in the programs for her shows pushes that total closer to 200.

Stell, who was born in Louisiana and raised in Clarkton, said that from the time she could read, she was fascinated by mystery stories.

She also loved performing at an early age.

“I lived next door to three little sisters,” she said. “I would do plays for them.”

By the time she was a student at Clarkton High School, she was involved in every stage production the school put on.

She recalled the senior play titled “Nuts and Bolts,” in which she had the lead.

“It was a comedy and it was hilarious,” she said. “I will never forget the chairman of the school board dying laughing.”

After high school, Stell married businessman William Turner. They had seven children – Billy, Bobby, Dickie, Jean, Craig, Andy and Michelle.

Shortly after Michelle was born, William died.

Turner spent the next 30 years raising her children and working for the Whiteville City Schools as the secretary at Edgewood Elementary School for Principal Kenwood Royal and later as secretary for superintendents Sam Stell and Jerry Paschal.

Sam Stell, who had himself performed here in 1978 in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” would later become her second husband. He died earlier this year.

After her children were grown, Stell’s interest in the theatre was rekindled.

She appeared in “The Sound of Music,” “Dearly The cast of “The King and I” Departed” and “Steel Magnolias.”

44 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

After working with retired Southeastern Community College theatre instructor Curt Welborne, she decided to give directing a shot and she hit the ground running with “Annie Get Your Gun.” It was a big undertaking with a large cast and crew.

“I remember halfway through thinking, ‘Lord, why have you forsaken me.

Let me get through this and I will never do it again.’”

She said that’s the way productions always seem to go.

“Nothing is going right. Everything is wrong,” she said. “And then, opening night, it all comes together and somehow they pull it off.”

FREDDIE TURNER STELL

She had been told that directing was simply a “drafted” into roles and soon discovered they enmatter of reading the instructions written into joyed being on stage.

“We had a lot of ‘closet actors,’” she said. “They the play.

Stell said she had to make sure cast members wanted to act, but were too shy.”

“The Music Man” was next and featured more were not “off the book,” theatre-talk for varying too far from the way the scene was written or than 50 in the cast.

She said that Nick and Jan Moorhead decided choreographed. “‘Oklahoma’ was next,” she said. “It was one of to try their hand at being in a production and “danced like they had never my favorites. I just loved all of done before.” the people in it.”

“The Music Man” was Stell said a highlight of “The By the time of “Oklahoma,” next and featured more Music Man” was the surprise Stell had begun to build a repthan 30 in the cast. entrance into the Bowers Auertory company of sorts. They ditorium by the 150-piece were local residents who shared her love of theatre and who could be counted on Whiteville High School Marching Wolfpack to bring all they could to their performances or Band performing the show’s finale, “Seventy-Six backstage crafts.

Trombones.”

Stell’s last musical was “The King and I.” It had They enjoyed working with Stell on producthe largest cast and featured dozens of children. tion after production.

The company included teachers, lawyers, It also had the most costumes of her four mubankers, businessmen and -women, nurses and sicals.

“It was definitely the ministers. Some were retired. Married couples participated. Teenagers and children went after biggest costume chal- Tom Nicholson roles. There were singers, dancers and instru- lenge,” she said, adding and Jenny Wright that her daughter-in-law in “Annie Get Your mentalists.

Stell said that sometimes the parents who were made many of the pieces Gun” bringing their children to the auditions were for the cast.

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FREDDIE TURNER STELL

“They knew it by heart and loved to sing “It’s worth it,” she said. “There are a lot it.”

Ten years ago, the four high schools creatof folks still around who would be willing to be on stage. We just need someone to step ed an award in her honor for the most dedup who is willing to direct. People were al- icated actors, actresses or stage crew at each school. ways saying ‘Let us know when Stell was there to present the you are going to do one.’”

Stell said she is satisfied with Stell was there to first Fredrica T. Stell Theatre present the first Awards or “Freddies” to the rethe productions she mounted. cipients.

“I would like to see someone Fredrica T. Stell In 2011, the SCC Foundation take one of these shows and do Theatre Awards honored Stell with – of course – it again,” she said. “I think musi- or “Freddies” to the recipients. a dinner theatre. cals are so important.”

“These musicals have inspired She said the children really a lot of kids, and it’s something they will have enjoyed the productions.

Stell said that children in “The Music with them for the rest of their lives,” Stell Man” were so enthusiastic, they had mem- said. “I am happy to have been a part of it all.” orized the entire song “Wells Fargo Wagon - 954 is a Coming” early in the rehearsal process.

The cast for “Annie Get Your Gun” rehearses takes a lot of work and commitment.

“People really enjoyed that play,” she said.

Stell said she had a lot of help with the younger cast members, who could sometimes lose their focus.

She said that Russell and Kim Honeycutt – the title characters – did a “fantastic job.”

She recalled how audience members were in tears at the end of the production.

“And Junius Lee was such a good sport as well.”

Lee appeared as Buddha, perched atop a pedestal, for the final curtain call.

“The audience loved it,” she said.

“The King and I” was Stell’s final musical.

Since then, she has directed smaller plays set for smaller venues such as the Columbus County Arts Center or Vineland Station.

She said she’s disappointed that no one has attempted any community-wide musicals.

While Whiteville and East, South and West Columbus high schools produce musicals each spring for their respective students, there is nothing available for the general population to sing, act or dance in.

Stell said that the loss of United Carolina Bank played a part in that. Not only was UCB a sponsor, but several of the cast and crew for each production were UCB employees.

“When UCB left, we lost a lot of talent,” she said.

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COLOR AND CONFIDENCE COMINGLE ON GRECO’S CANVAS

Color and Confidence Comingle on Greco’s Canvas

by NICOLE CARTRETTE Photography by FULLER ROYAL

S

Self-taught oil painter Jenny Greco might say that the canvas is where color and confidence comingle in her life.

Wrist troubles had left the former potter seeking another outlet. The self-described “shy” artist had “never picked up a brush” before enrolling in a painting class at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville in 2007.

Little did she know that the class

48 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

would set her on a path to finding a new identity and confidence in herself.

“It really was just one of those starter classes,” Greco said. “It was oil and I knew nothing of nothing but it intrigued me. I wasn’t very good at it in the beginning, and I was really shy, but everyone kept encouraging me,” Greco said.

Eight years later, Greco is an avid painter, has several commissioned art

works under her belt and has several works that have been featured in art exhibits such as the Brady-Kendall held at the Columbus County Arts Center in Whiteville each year.

“I’ve tried all different kinds of mediums but my favorite is oil,” she said.

The vibrant color that oils provide appeals to her, along with a longer drying time that offers her the freedom to manipulate the piece.

COLOR AND CONFIDENCE COMINGLE ON GRECO’S CANVAS

“I also like mixed media where I use acrylic backgrounds and put oil on top for a layering effect,” she said.

Greco has recently dabbled in impressionism after taking classes at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington.

Her Poppy Field piece invites the viewer into a glowing, open field of vibrant flowers that seem endless to the eye.

“That was just way out of my realm but I loved it so much,” Greco said. “I try to incorporate what I’ve learned, color theory and things that will help my paintings jump off the canvas. That’s what you want to do – get the viewer to notice your painting.”

Greco’s paintings reflect her love of nature and are born of her positive energy.

“If I am at all kind of down I have a harder time [painting] but some people thrive on that,” she said. “I really love nature and I love color. That’s why sunsets, skies, seascapes and things like that appeal to me.”

Horses and a cat are among the animals she has captured in her works, but a graceful egret with its brilliant white feathers in motion is one of her favorite paintings.

“They are such beautiful birds,” she said.

Her piece, Winter, reminds her of Colorado, where she and her husband David lived before moving to Whiteville in 2000.

Tall trees with arching branches covered in various hues of winter line an inviting pathway covered in white.

“It reminded me of Colorado in the wintertime. It’s beautiful there,” Greco said. “There’s lots of sun. Even though it snows a lot they have pretty skies. It could be one of those days when it is just getting ready to snow or has just snowed.”

Fall is another piece that is part of the season series she is working on. It reminds her of the aspens in Colorado or the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

“Watching the colors change on the trees is so pretty,” she said. “I have to say that since I learned what color is and what it does I don’t look at a tree in the same way anymore. I see five or six different shades of green . . . when you are painting or into

the visual arts that way you notice the blue greens, yellow greens and the rusty colors that are popping in there,” Greco said. “It’s just amazing. Your eyes just open up to nature and it’s just so awesome. I love it because it has opened my eyes up to beauty.”

Greco focuses on one painting at a time but said her process is relatively quick.

Some of her smaller works have been completed in a few hours while larger ones have taken 10 or more hours to finish.

Naming her works is a group effort.

“I do a painting and put it on Facebook,” Greco said. “I can’t ever think of titles.”

Her ultimate goal is to evoke positive emotion in viewers of her work.

She enjoys bringing them “joy or a memory that they wanted to capture.”

Part of that process involves growing fond of a work that she must let go.

“You become very attached to your pieces,” she said. “When I do give a piece to someone and they like it, it makes my heart warm… art is such a positive thing in my life.”

Greco is an advocate for the arts.

The Columbus County Arts Council member and former president credits the community for supporting her artistic endeavors over the years.

“That’s what’s so nice about this community. They’re very encouraging,” Greco said.

Sally Mann, director of the Columbus County Arts Council, has been one of her Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 49

COLOR AND CONFIDENCE COMINGLE ON GRECO’S CANVAS

strongest supporters, she said.

“Sally has been absolutely wonderful,” Greco said.

Greco shares that same encouragement with new artists she encounters.

She insists that, if she can paint, anyone can.

At 72, her mother, who lives in Michigan, is also a painter. It was Greco who encouraged her mother to try oil painting.

They Skype across the miles and critique their works. Greco admits her mother is likely her biggest fan and a “fabulous” portrait painter.

When her mother visits, the mother-and-daughter duo spends hours painting in the upstairs art studio of a barn on the Greco property in Whiteville.

The brick McKenzie Woods property with climbing ivy is patterned after the Middleton Place estate in Charleston, S.C. After living all over the world as a military family, Greco said that her Whiteville home really is the one place where she “wanted” to be.

“I have never really felt that about anyplace else,” said Greco, who was born in England to Scottish parents and moved to Michigan in 1976 at the age of 12 with her family to care for an ailing uncle.

They left a town that had a steel mill that had closed and offered little opportunity.

“It was our way of getting out of the country, and thank God we did because I just love America,” said Greco, who years later followed in her mother’s and brother’s footsteps in becoming a U.S. citizen. “I really do love this country with all my heart, and the opportunities that it provides.”

Her Scottish heritage, she admits, meant for an artful childhood. Her mother insisted she learn Highland dancing and ballroom dancing at an early age.

She and husband David, who grew up in Oregon, were living in Colorado when an ad for a general surgeon caught David’s eye. The appeal of warm weather and living close to the coast lured them, but the welcome has played a major role in Whiteville be-

50 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

coming their home.

“We have been many places, being in the Army. This community and the people were so open, warm and welcoming to us, ” she said.

“This little town has so much talent in it,” Greco said. Her involvement with the community is perhaps a lot like her artwork.

“I put my heart into it,” she said.

Greco divides her time between Whiteville and Wilmington, where her son Michael, 17, attends Cape Fear Academy. She has been married to her

husband and best friend, David, a surgeon with Walters Surgical Associates, for 20 years.

Her work is on display at the Columbus County Arts Center, 822 South Madison Street in Whiteville.

Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

She is contemplating an art show in the spring of 2016 that will showcase her works alongside those of other local female artists.

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The Blessed Girls, front to back, are Raisa Lennon, Candice Lennon, Kenyetta Brown, not seen, Candi Lennon. ; (opposite page) Candi Lennon in silhouette in the Mt. Olive MBC sanctuary

52 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

L I K E DAV I D, * T H E Y DA N C E

Like David, * they dance

Youth and young adult ministry teams praise God with interpretative movement and liturgical dance.

by WALLYCE TODD Photography by TONYA LENNON, FULLER ROYAL, WALLYCE TODD

There are young women and “I just felt like the Lord led me to men at Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist start that ministry at Mt. Olive. It Church (MBC) who emulate the Bi- stayed with me for about a year before ble’s Miriam, the sister of Moses and I started it.

Aaron. Exodus 15:20 says that “Miri“I love dance ministry,” Yates continam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a ued. “We were one of the first churches timbrel in her hand, and all the women in the area to have that dance ministry. followed her, with timbrels and danc- We’ve had other churches come and ing.” observe us.

Her modern counterparts dance and “When we started, they didn’t have a lead others in worship and thanks to real knowledge about what dancing for the One they know to be their Heaven- the Lord was about, and we studied and ly Father. They believe His Son is Jesus, pulled up articles on the Internet. We their Savior, and they continually strive read a book together entitled “Dancing to let their dance be inspired in the Spirit” by Karen Curby His Spirit, whom they ac- Then Miriam the ry and studied the different prophet, Aaron’s forms of praise dance.” knowledge as Holy.

The Blessed Girls and sister, took a timWhen asked if their studBlessed Boys Praise Dance brel in her hand, ies had any effect on the Ministry at the rural church and all the wom- youth, Yates said, “Oh, I on Silver Spoon Road in en followed her, think it impacted their lives Columbus County began in with timbrels a great deal. They have that 2005, initiated by Barbara and dancing. knowledge of biblical foun- Exodus 15:20 Yates. dation for dance.

Yates is a long-time mem“I didn’t want them out ber of Mt. Olive MBC, a mother, a re- there dancing just to be dancing. In tired educator and a current Columbus our culture, we can dance; we can have County Schools board of education rhythm and we can feel the beat and member. When she began the dance just go with it. ministry at her home church, there “But dancing for the Lord is differwere 18 members on the dance teams – ent,” Yates emphasized, “because you nine girls and nine boys, including her are giving a story and you’re lifting up daughter Whitney. praise and honoring God. That’s what “Dance was something that I loved,” it is all about.”

Yates said. “The ministry developed by Some of the adults who contributed going to a music conference for our to the dance ministry through the years [denomination’s] state convention; that are Lucy Simmons, Shady Lennon, year, they had a session about dance Sylvia Duncan and Geraldine Lennon. ministry and liturgical dance.

Tonya Lennon is now one of the

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 53

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adult leaders of the Blessed have done what we’re supposed Girls ministry. She and Diane to have done for the Lord,” McKenzie coordinate rehears- McKenzie said. als and maintain a ministry Her husband, Ronnie McKFacebook page to inform and enzie, has also helped with the inspire the members of the Blessed Boys. One night during dance teams. rehearsal, he said, “These guys The two women also facili- are a blessing. Working with tate the administrative details these guys, well, they are so talfor when the Blessed Girls ented. minister at Mt. Olive and at “I often tease them when other gatherings in Columbus they are dancing, because the County and beyond.

Spirit steps in and they can’t Currently, the Blessed Boys’ finish the dance,” he said. members are working together “God gave me the gift,” said whenever their schedules allow. Malcolm Bellamy of The BlessLouise Turner, a retired ed Boys. “I never knew I had it.” long-time guidance counselor “It’s basically a way to exat Whiteville City Schools and press myself without talking,” a member of St. Mark AME said Blessed Girls dancer DezZion Church, spoke highly of rielle Moore, 16. the girls’ praise dance team.

“Most people can praise God They were a part of the cele- through dance,” Tonya Lenbration of Martin Luther King non said. “It’s another form of Jr. Day at her church early in showing how much you appre2015. ciate God and giving “They were super,” Him all the praise.”

Turner said. “They God gave me The Rev. Timothy represent Mt. Olive the gift. I never Lance, pastor of Mt. well and did us proud. knew I had it.

Olive MBC, agrees.

This is their second -Malcolm “The dance ministry appearance with us. Bellamy, 23 is an important aspect We keep inviting of worship because it them back.” is a scriptural method Tonya Lennon exof praising God. pressed appreciation for the “Psalm 149:3 declares, ‘Let opportunity the MLK service them praise His name with the provided for the youth of her dance.’ I have witnessed the church. “They’ve never been dance ministry provoke a praise part of an MLK celebration from individuals who normally before. They probably learned sit quiet.

The dance ministry more today than they do at is also essential to worship as school.” it allows young people an opOne of her daughters, Raisa, portunity to actively engage in said she was glad she could be a the worship experience,” Lance part of the dance ministry and noted. the MLK celebration.

Jazmine Lennon, 21, meets “I always like to dance and weekly with the other members being together keeps us going. of the Blessed Girls to spend We’re having fun together and time preparing their liturgical dancing for God,” Raisa Len- dances. non said.

“There are so many ways “If we can just touch one per- God moves through our dance son, save one person, minister ministry,” she said. “It affects to somebody through dance, we hearts, minds and souls.”- 954 -

wwwww 54 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

*NOTE: The Bible’s King David danced. See 2 Samuel 6:14-15 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

(top) The Blessed Girls praise dance team minister at the January 2015 MLK Day Celebration at St. Mark AME Zion Church. Left to right are Brianna Porter, Jazmine Lennon, Candice Lennon; back row: Kenyetta Brown and Candi Lennon.; (left) Hands rise in worship and praise.; (right) During the 2015 dance ministry anniversary service, the Blessed Girls lead others in worship in praise through dance. Brianna Porter is at left front; back row, left to right are Jayla Grahan, Kenyetta Brown, Dez’relle Moore, Candice Lennon and Raisa Lennon.

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 55

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Ciamillo legacy A Frank Ciamillo portrait is backed by Whiteville High School athletic images of his son Tony, (11), and grandsons Frank (3), Ryan (10), Nick (2), and Vann (1).

58 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

A COACHING JOURNEY

Frank Ciamillo A Coaching Journey

A

A chance to play college football brought Frank Ciamillo from his family’s home on New York’s Long Island to North Carolina in 1959.

It was quite a transition for Ciamillo. He was the oldest of eight children of an Italian-American family whose father, Anthony Frank Ciamillo, was a professional musician. Elon College, located just west of Burlington, told him to come down, enroll and show up the first day of practice.

Thus, North Carolina became Frank Ciamillo’s new home.

While his playing time was limited during his four seasons with the Elon football squad, it did a lot in helping him realize that he wanted to coach the sport.

“I didn’t have a lot of size, so I didn’t make it onto the field much at Elon, but I became more and more intrigued by the game,” he said. “Fortunately for me when I got into coaching, I was able to become part of some high school programs that had a lot of interest and support for their football teams.”

Ciamillo’s illustrious high school coaching career included a five-year stint at Whiteville High.

He arrived at WHS in 1979 as part of an upgrade to the entire athletic program by Dr. Jerry Paschal.

Paschal had just been named WHS principal, and he and Whiteville City Schools Superintendent Sam Stell were intent on returning a highly competitive athletic program to the school.

Along with Ciamillo, the Whiteville City School Board also approved the hiring of Linwood Hedgpeth as baseball coach and moved Glenn McKoy into the basketball coaching position.

The upgrade also included plans for

by DAN BISER Photography by FULLER ROYAL

major improvements to Legion Stadium, the longtime home of WHS football and baseball teams.

Prior to coming to Whiteville, Ciamillo was head coach at Havelock High School for nine seasons, guiding the Rams to 80 wins, including Eastern North Carolina 3A championships in 1971 and 1973. In 1970, Ciamillo had taken over the downtrodden program at Havelock, but he was able to turn the Rams around almost instantly with a solid group of assistant coaches, including his younger brother Anthony. There were a good number of outstanding athletes who were offspring of U.S. Marine Corps officers at nearby Cherry Point. Ciamillo’s Havelock teams were noted for their strong running attacks.

“Things had gone well for us at Havelock, and when we were approached about the position at Whiteville, it became a tough decision,” said Ciamillo. “There was a lot to consider.

But with the conversations I had had with Dr. Paschal, Mr. Stell and others connected with the school system, we decided to make the move and hope for the best.”

Ciamillo and his wife Nancy, whom he met and married while both were students at Elon, and their children Tony and Tina made the move from Craven County. Nancy was also involved in teaching, and Tony was headed into his freshman year of high school and looking forward to joining the WHS football program.

During 1979 and 1980, the Whiteville football team was closing out an eight-year run in the 3A ranks.

Jerry Cartrette (who had been Wolfpack head football coach from 1966 through 1976) and William Patterson

served as Wolfpack assistant coaches.

Ciamillo’s inaugural 1979 season saw the Wolfpack limp to a 4-5-1 rebuilding record, but things improved to the 7-3 mark the following season.

Things started happening in 1981 when WHS dropped back to the 2A classification. His split-back option offense gave WHS fans plenty of excitement with players like two-way end Tommy Griffin, quarterback Brian Watts and running back Terry Paige.

“My first two years, we brought a good number of young players into the varsity program,” he said. “Things really started turning around for us in my third year.”

The 1981 squad rolled to 13 straight wins, winning the East Waccamaw Conference championship and advancing to the state 2A championship game against the Randleman Tigers.

It marked the first time since 1938 that a Whiteville High football team had advanced to the state title game.

On a cold December night at Legion Stadium, the visiting Randleman team came away with a 44-30 victory.

While the Wolfpack had not been able to secure a state championship that season, there was still plenty to celebrate. Supporters presented Ciamillo with a station wagon the week after the state title game. Also, Dr. Paschal began heading a drive that would provide permanent football seating on the home side at Legion Stadium.

The “Whiteville Forever” program obtained funding that brought on the construction of an 1,800-seat concrete structure and press box that still accommodates WHS home football crowds. The structure was dedicated during the second home game of the 1982 season, a 38-0 thumping of FairFall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 59

A COACHING JOURNEY

(top) Coach Frank Ciamillo is pictured with quarterbacks of the 1982 state finalist team. They are, left to right, Elgin Foxworth, Brian Watts and Tony Ciamillo. ; (left) Frank and Nancy Ciamillo The Ciamillos, who reside in South Whiteville, recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary. ; (opposite page) Frank Ciamillo gives sideline instructions to son Tony Ciamillo during the Whiteville Wolfpack’s 1982 Eastern N.C. 2A football championship victory over North Duplin at Legion Stadium.

mont.

“I was amazed by Legion Stadium and its history the first time I saw it,” Ciamillo said. “The new stands really enhanced the place.”

The 1982 season was much the same as the year before as the Wolfpack rolled to another 13-0 record and then traveled to Randleman for another battle with the Tigers for the state championship.

With All-State senior running back Terry Paige confined to the sidelines with an ankle injury, the Wolfpack lost to Coach Charlie Gregory’s Tigers and standout back Antonio Goss (a future San Francisco 49er) by a 23-6 score.

“Losing out twice to the same team in 60 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

the state championship was disappointing, but both times our players held their chins up and came away with some strong life experiences from being part of a good team at Whiteville High School,” Ciamillo said.

Tony Ciamillo was a senior on his father’s 1982 team, playing flanker and back-up to quarterback Brian Watts. Like Paige, his play in the state championship game was also limited due to an ankle injury.

“I’ve always been thankful to have had the opportunity to coach my son, and I have always been pleased that he was part of both those teams that achieved the success they did,” Ciamillo said.

The 1983 season brought on another rebuilding project, and the Wolfpack finished out with a 6-4-1 record. During that stint the Wolfpack produced a record of 43 wins, 14 losses and two ties.

Not long after the 1983 season’s end, Ciamillo chose to take the head football position at Loris High School in South Carolina, following the resignation of longtime Lion coach Allen McNeill.

After one season at Loris, the Ciamillos moved to Hayesville in the far reaches of the North Carolina mountains, where

he revitalized the Yellow Jacket football program. Daughter Tina became a cheerleader at Hayesville, and she continued to develop her love for horses in Clay County.

“Growing up in New York, I never thought I would end up owning and taking care of horses as much as I have,” Ciamillo said.

After three years at Hayesville, the Ciamillos decided to move back to the eastern part of the state to take the head football coaching position at Pamlico High School. From there they went to Perquimans High School.

In 1992, with consolidation forming South Columbus High School, Ciamillo was hired as the school’s first head football coach, and he and Nancy were back in Columbus County.

After winning only once in their first five games, the 1992 Stallions rallied for five straight wins and a runner-up finish in the Southern 1A-2A Conference and earned a berth in the state 2A playoffs.

The Stallions lost in the opening round to eventual state champion West Brunswick.

Following the 1992-93 school year, Ciamillo moved on to West Columbus to teach and serve as assistant football coach

A COACHING JOURNEY

The Ciamillos have been retired for under Wayne Williamson. He well over a decade, but they are as active later was hired at West Brunsas ever, especially as grandparents. Their wick to join the football coaching staff of Whiteville native Yogi Hickman. While at both West Columbus and West Brunswick Ciamillo also coached girls’ track and field teams to record-breaking seasons.

Ciamillo said that, at every stop of his coaching itinerary, he tried to instill more than just football in the everyday lives of the players.

“We always wanted our players to realize that there was a lot of responsibility involved in playing football and other sports while representing their school and community,” he said. “While we were always working hard to win, we realized it wasn’t always going to happen and that dealing with some of those disappointments can make us stronger human beings.”

home in South Whiteville can be a bustling place. Tony and wife Melissa have raised their five children in Whiteville as

Broadcasting Production Business Administration College Transfer

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Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 61

A COACHING JOURNEY

We always wanted our players to realize that there was a lot of responsibility involved in playing football and other sports while representing their school and community.

-Frank Ciamillo have Tina and husband Heath Little and their three children.

Melissa has been a leader in the Athletic Association of Whiteville for several years, and Heath was a starting defensive lineman on Whitevillle High School’s 1987 state championship team.

Frank Ciamillo’s three oldest grandsons have played big roles on the Wolfpack football team within the past decade.

Like their father Tony, they each received all-conference and all-county honors during their Wolfpack playing careers.

His grandson Frank graduated from WHS in 2012 followed by Ryan in 2013 and Nick in 2014. All three are residing and working in Raleigh while pursuing college degrees. Grandson Vann is now

a sophomore at WHS and a member of the Wolfpack soccer team. Granddaughter Molly, the youngest, is a freshman at Whiteville High School and a real dance enthusiast.

Tina and Heath are the parents of Payten, 11, Cade, 10, and Logan, 6.

There are many family photos taken through the years of Coach Ciamillo holding practice sessions with his grandchildren in a variety of sports.

“Having our grandchildren grow up so close by has been very special,” Coach Ciamillo said. “It’s really helped Nancy and me stay young in retirement.”

The Ciamillos recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.

Coach Ciamillo remains an avid golfer,

and since retirement he has volunteered hundreds of hours of work with maintenance crews in clearing, repairing and general upkeep of trails and other recreational access areas in state parks and national parks. This work venture has taken him from the Appalachian Trail to Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. He said his next trip west will probably be to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.

“I remember when I was growing up, my parents loaded up the family and drove to Yellowstone,” he said. “I just remember how much in awe of everything I was the whole time I was there. This country holds a lot of beauty … there is so much to see out there.”

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m

MEN WITH A MISSION

Men with a Mission

S

influencing their community with integrity, faith and action

Some people only talk the talk, but some people walk the walk.

A group of African-American men in Columbus County are choosing to connect with each other and their community by integrating integrity, faith and positive action into their daily lives and the lives of those around them.

Almost every month, four to six men meet to eat together and talk about faith.

Last month 954 caught up with five of the friends as they ate lunch at a local restaurant. Four of their stories are shared below. Yet, on that day, it was the fifth friend at the table who insightfully summed up what the group of men prioritized.

“It gives us time to unwind. There’s nothing like eating, breaking bread and fellowshipping together,” Rashad Roberts said.

Roberts is the postmaster in Riegelwood, a city council member in Chadbourn (as well as the mayor pro tem), and chairman of the deacon board at First Missionary Baptist Church.

“To me, the importance of getting together with the guys is commonality – trying to be a responsible male in today’s society, to know you’re not alone in the areas of family, raising children, contributing to your community,” Roberts said.

Dalton Dockery Dr. Dalton Dockery is the director

64 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

by WALLYCE TODD

of N.C. Cooperative Extension Service There is no more significant feature for Columbus County. The son of the in his life and family than his walk of Rev. Leon and Doris Dockery, he grew faith, Dockery said. up a on a working farm in the Nakina “I am a man of God. I serve as a deaarea. con of Zion Plain Missionary Baptist “My parents are both school teachers. Church in Nakina. The greatest influMy father is originally from Cameron, ence in my life is my belief in God and near Spring Lake. They both went to in Jesus being the Son of God and the Fayetteville State University. savior of the world. I honestly believe “We finally got Dad to retire. He the reason I’ve obtained my PhD is bestarted teaching at Nakina and fin- cause it was ordained by God. ished his career at South “Jesus’ example of serColumbus. My mother vant leadership was crucial taught special education. (above) Friends in terms of my desire to be My grandfather, my uncle gather for a that type of leader. I really and my mother all stayed monthly lunch: Allike helping others sucon the family farm, built gernon McKenzie, ceed. I think it is a call on houses right beside each Dalton Dockery, my life to help others.

Rashad Roberts, other,” he said.

“I can’t tell you the A 1990 graduate of Na- Fred Gore and number of houses I’ve viskina High School, Dock- Morris Pridgen Jr. ited in Columbus County ery attended N.C. State over my career because I for both his undergraduate believe it is important to and master’s degrees in areas of agricul- have that one-on-one relationship in tural education. This year, he completed helping people, be it agriculturally or his PhD in leadership studies at N.C. personally.

A&T. “I love being a husband, and I love Currently, he is the sole Afri- being a dad. God first. Family and can-American working full-time with friends second. Self last. That’s how the local Cooperative Extension office. God has allowed me to achieve success.

“Professionally, I see my job as work“In terms of family, my greatest love ing with all of Columbus County to is (my) wife, Sheila. I really loved her meet their educational needs in terms the first time I saw her, if you can beof agricultural, 4-H, family consumer lieve that. She is truly my helpmate. science and community and rural de“Secondly, my children [Whitley, 11, velopment.” and Bryson, 6]. First of all, I thank God

MEN WITH A MISSION

for them. I love being able to share and Keen intellect and a love for his counspend time with them, to teach them try are evident when talking to Gore. about God, about life, and about the “In February 1992, I got tuition assisvalue of doing the right thing. tance from the Army National Guard,” “It’s important to me that they under- Gore said. “I went in as an infantry stand that doing the right thing may not soldier when I was 17 and I have been always be easy, but in the end, I believe there ever since.” if you do the right thing, you will sucAs a National Guardsman, “I was deceed.“ ployed to Tikrit, Iraq, which was SaddFred Gore am Hussein’s hometown. I was there District Court Judge Fred Gore said from July 2006 and got extended until he is a family man who loves God, his September 2007,” Gore said. wife, his kids and his community.

“The amount of commitment that The first African-American male National Guardsmen and women give is elected as district judge for Brunswick, one that some people never experience,” Bladen, and Columbus counties, Gore Gore noted. “To stop what you are dobelieves strongly in defending the free- ing in the civilian world and put on the doms America enjoys and military uniform to carry ensuring justice is provided out our military obligation Morris Pridgen Jr., within his courtroom. He for a drill weekend is a big Director of began his first elected term commitment and signifiColumbus Jan. 1. cant responsibility.

County Public Gore also continues to “I think for individuals Library System serve his country via the like myself it’s about taking National Guard as a JAG pride in our country [and Fred Gore, officer and trial officer. being able] to bear arms District Judge “I got licensed in law and to protect America,” in the early fall in 2008 Gore said.

Dr. Dalton Dockery, and began working in the Gore is married to ShanDirector of N.C. Durham County DA’s ofnon and is father to 6-yearCooperative Exfice as an assistant DA, old fraternal twin boys, Jertension which was kind of cool emiah and Josiah. Shannon because my brother was and he married earlier this Algernon McKenzie, arresting them and I was year and he has full custoDirector of prosecuting them,” Gore dy of his sons, who live an Department of said. active life with managed Social Services Born and raised in Supply, sickle cell anemia. he attended West Bruns“When God brings you wick High School and then earned his who you are supposed to spend the rest undergraduate degree in business and of your life with, you know it and can’t marketing at UNC-Charlotte. put it into words,” Gore said about his Later, after some years in marketing spouse. “We both went through things within NASCAR, he attended Appala- in our respective lives that make us apchian School of Law in Grundy, Va. The preciate each other beyond words.” school was 99 percent Caucasian, locatAlgernon McKenzie ed in a former coal-mining community Algernon McKenzie grew up in the where the median income was $12,000. Chadbourn area. Raised by his mater“I rented a home from a white family nal grandmother who had a deep love that treated me like I was their son; it for children, McKenzie continues that was a blessing,” Gore said. tradition as the director of Columbus His own parents, Willie H. and Dor- County’s Department of Social Services othy Gore, instilled a strong work ethic (DSS). into their children. “They worked hard “I have a strong fondness for the eland expected us to do the same thing. derly and for children,” McKenzie said.

I understood that no matter what was He is also the pastor of Friendship going on in my life that I had to work Missionary Baptist Church in Whitehard,” Gore said. ville, where he’s been preaching since

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 65

MEN WITH A MISSION

2002.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” he said. “There have been tests and trials. I have grown spiritually since being there.”

His professional path is well-aligned with his personal passions. He believes he’s walking along the call God has on his life.

McKenzie noted some of the blessings and the burdens found in his work at Social Services in Columbus County.

“In this position of director, being able to provide services for the citizens of our county, especially the vulnerable of the community, our seniors and our children, it means a lot when you see people who could not otherwise take care of their daily needs get the help they need,” McKenzie said.

“I am also able to advocate at the state level. I attend meetings and we have the opportunity to voice concerns to lobbyists who work with our legislature in ways that will help the citizens in our particular county.

“This position gives me the opportunity to go to Raleigh and let them know what’s going on in Columbus County,” he said. “Our issues can be the same as other counties, but there are also issues that are different.

“This position gives me the opportunity to work with the staff, to know how they feel. I’ve been where they are,” said the director, who has been at DSS since 1991.

McKenzie is married to Tahitia, a teacher in Bladen County.

“We kinda grew up together, went to the same church, sang in the choir together,” McKenzie said. “We knew each other, but we really didn’t date until after I came back from college and she was at Fayetteville State.”

The McKenzies have two daughters, Aneshia, 17, and Tyashia, 11.

“I try to teach them to treat people the way they want to be treated; that’s the way I was raised,” he said.

“As a pastor, as a father, as an African-American male, I believe it is important to give something back in whatever way you can. I know that Christ is the center of all that I do, all that I am,” McKenzie stated.

66 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

“I want [my family and my community] to follow the example that Jesus portrayed in his life – you know the love, the sacrifice, for all people, the poor especially – he came to those who were poor and lost and he ministered to them.

“If you can’t give monetarily,” McKenzie said, “then give in ways you can: your time, your talents or through being a positive influence.”

Morris Pridgen Jr. Morris Pridgen Jr. is director of the Columbus County Public Library System.

His father, for whom he’s named, taught driver’s education to hundreds of students at Whiteville High School through the years. Now, Pridgen works to ensure that children and adults alike become educated and entertained with the materials available through the local libraries.

But Pridgen believes it takes more than books, magazines and the Internet to make a positive impact. “It’s also important for the community to provide resources and support so that our younger generations will have a chance to have a successful life,” he said.

“I personally believe that faith, common sense, wise decisions and positive role models within peer groups – and from those in positions of influence – make a difference in the success of our youth. A healthy family is important to give life’s journey a foundation that thrives,” Pridgen continued.

“I think that being from a family of a good mom and dad who provided for me throughout my early years made a strong impact on my life and any successes that I have had.

“My parents had struggles and limited options that I have not faced. However, they still had a vision for my future and I’m very blessed to have that legacy,” Pridgen said.

“I’m concerned for other kids who did or do not have that opportunity. I think it’s important that we strive to find ways to promote a sense of ownership among our youth, an ownership of the future of this community.”

Pridgen began his professional career in Durham, where he attended college

at N.C. Central University. He worked in the campus library there.

He would go on to earn two master’s degrees from NCCU, the first in public administration in 2000 and the second in library science in 2001.

Then, “I had the passion to come back home,” Pridgen said. “What happened was that the library director was leaving – so I applied for the position.” He started working in his current position in Columbus County in February 2002.

“I came home to benefit my community and my family,” said the husband to Keisha and the father to Kayden and Trey (Morris Pridgen III). “I want to pour in some type of service into my community.

“At my church, St. Mark AME Zion, I am the preacher’s steward, which means I’m the head of the steward board as well as the liaison with the pastor. If the pastor needs something I’m the bridge between her and the need.”

Pridgen believes in unity among believers and in treating everyone the same, regardless of their ethnicity or income.

“You know, my mom always told me, ‘Hold your head up and always walk proud, whether you have a dollar in your pocket or a million dollars there.’

“For me,” Pridgen stated, “one of the things I believe is, what you have in your pocket should not create your character.

You should carry yourself well just by being a good person.”

Friendship Activism As the five men finished their lunch and monthly conversation, they hugged one another and prayed together before heading back to their respective places of work. They left determined to continue to move forward on the ideas they want to implement for the betterment of their community.

Gore summarized the sentiments of them all: “I hear the negativity about young African-Americans in our community and the different parts of the country. We are looking around and saying, ‘We’re trying to encourage African-American males – and males and females of all races – to do good.’”- 954 -

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Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 67

SHARE DINNER WITH A FRIEND Jordan Carter with her Christmas chicken casserole.

Share dinner with a friend Warm the heart and soul with a delicious gift this holiday season

by LAKE STOCKS & STUART ROGERS Photos courtesy of FULLER ROYAL Recipe courtesy of JORDAN CARTER Special thanks to SUE HAWKS

Casseroles are making a comeback. Retro-recipes, vintage comfort food, whatever you want to call them, casseroles once again are back in favor as the ultimate gift for a friend or family member short on time and needing a delicious meal on the table or stashed in the freezer.

Jordan Carter, a bank executive and busy mom from Whiteville, shares with 954 her delicious “go-to� recipe sure to be a crowd-pleasing gift this holiday season.

Add a special touch to your gift presentation by simply wrapping your casserole tightly in heavy aluminum foil and then wrap with pretty fabric or dishtowel. Finish with a gift tag with an encouraging message.

Jordan Carter learned to cook at the side of her mom who worked full time and still found time to prepare delicious meals every night for her husband and three children. While in college, Jordan began cooking and baking for roommates and now enjoys cooking home-style comfort foods for family and friends just like her mom.

68 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

Christmas Chicken Casserole Ingredients: Cooking spray 1 whole chicken or 4 large chicken breasts 2 cups chicken broth (reserved from boiling chicken) 1 small onion, chopped (optional) 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 can cream of mushroom soup Pinch of sage or poultry seasoning 1 stick butter 1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Dressing Cooking Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9x13inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Boil chicken in unsalted water until done and save the broth.

Remove the meat from the bones and cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Set the chicken pieces aside.

In a large bowl, mix the soups with the reserved chicken broth and onion and add a pinch of sage or poultry seasoning to taste.

Next, in a separate bowl, melt a stick of butter and mix in the cornbread dressing.

Begin layering the casserole in the prepared 9x13 baking dish with half of the dressing mixture followed by all of the chicken and the soup mixture. Finish the top layer with the other half of the dressing mixture. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and bubbling, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 69

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LET ME SEE YOUR MUSCLE

L et me see your muscle

by CYNTHIA HANSEN Photography by FULLER ROYAL

1a

1b

TIP The positioning of the elbow slightly forward to begin a curl and full range of motion is the KEY to building a better bicep muscle!

1c

2a

2b

TIP A good way to change things up is to alternate dumbbell curls between the right arm and left arm instead of raising them at the same time. You should wait for the weight to return to starting position before lifting the other side. That keeps you from swinging the weight and using incorrect positioning.

S

So a friend comes up to you and says, “Let me see your muscle.” What do you do? Well you don’t throw out your thigh, or turn around and show them your back…NO! You pull up your shirt sleeve, flex the elbow and show them that mountainous peak of a bicep (in your own mind anyway). Let’s face it, your arm, specifically your bicep, is one of the most noticeable muscles, and if you have a good bicep muscle, you have one of the most enviable parts of the human anatomy that gets praised and scrutinized more than most.

So how do you get those mounds of impressive muscles that pop out of your arm when you flex the elbow? That’s what we’re here to discuss.

The elbow is a complex hinge joint,

72 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

with about 170 degrees range of motion the upper forearm) and the brachialis from full extension (elbow straight) to (smaller muscle on the inside of the full flexion (elbow bent). However, the upper arm). But for this article we are elbow has one other critical function: concentrating on the bicep muscle.

There are multiple ways to work the it allows the forearm to rotate so we biceps, but to get can turn our hand the best results, like up or down allow- Cynthia Hansen any muscle group, ing us to perform Stronger Body Fitness daily tasks such as ISSA Personal Fitness Trainer you have to use good form. You open a door or turn Qualified TRX Core Trainer can perform bicep on a car’s ignition.

910-640-4728 curls with a variAll of these movements performed ety of equipment by the elbow are essential for daily liv- including E-Z curl bars, straight bars, ing. Elbow flexion is produced by three dumbbells and machines. Some of muscles, the bicep muscle (composed these exercises and correct form will be of long head and the short head por- demonstrated by my husband Joe Hantions of the muscle located in the up- sen, physical therapist at Columbus per arm), the brachioradialis (located at Regional Healthcare System. As with

LET ME SEE YOUR MUSCLE

3a

3b

4a

4b

TIP Hammer Curls engage more of the brachioradialis (located in the forearm) than other curling movements, but they are good for overall arm strength. Hammer Curls can be done in seated or standing positions and either alternating dumbbells or bringing them up at the same time.

Cynthia Hansen Personal Trainer with model Joe Hansen (Cynthia’s husband).

all exercises, they should be performed slowly, using good form for better muscle recruitment and lessening the chance of injury. Use enough weight to perform 10 to 15 repetitions for at least three sets; increase weight, repetitions, and sets from there.

1a // Basic E-Z Bar Bicep Curl Start with elbows fully extended and positioned slightly in front of your hips creating constant tension on the bicep.

Slowly lift the bar towards your chest, achieving full flexion.

1b // Finished movement With the bar at your chest slowly lower the bar into correct beginning position.

1c // Incorrect Position of Elbows In Most Bicep Curl Exercises notice the elbows are positioned back behind your side and hips instead of slightly

forward. This position decreases the range of motion and tension on the bicep which can result in a short bicep development. Be careful of this positioning.

2a // Seated Dumbbell Curls Again start with elbows positioned fully extended and slightly forward, palms facing upward.

2b // Finished movement With the dumbbell at your chest, slowly lower the dumbbell to starting position, palms facing upward.

3a // Seated Concentration Curl In a seated position with your trunk slightly bent forward and back straight, your upper arm should be perpendicular to the floor, elbow straight and tucked into your inner thigh for leverage. This is your starting position. Curl the dumbbell up with palm facing out.

The only part of your arm that should be moving is your forearm; your upper arm remains stationary.

3b // Finished movement With dumbbell at your chest, slowly lower to starting position. This movement focuses on the peak of the bicep.

Concentration curls are done with one arm at a time for each set of reps.

4a // Hammer Curl With dumbbell at your side, palms facing inward throughout the movement and elbows slightly forward; slowly raise the weight towards your shoulder.

4b // Finished movement With dumbbell at your shoulder, slowly lower the dumbbell to starting position, palms facing inward.

- 954 -

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 73

FORKS, KNIVES AND TOMAHAWKS

Forks, knives and tomahawks

J

James Freeman loves life, handwork and laughter.

James Irving Freeman takes pride in being “crazy.”

“I’ve been called ‘crazy’ for years,” he said, laughing. “There are people who don’t even know my real name.”

Freeman got the nickname, oddly enough, due to his work ethic.

The Buckhead native went into construction after his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1969. It was while doing construction work that he learned the skills he uses today to craft ‘crazy’ forks, knives, and tomahawks.

After a stint with a Baltimore, Md., firm, he and his brothers came home to be closer to family.

“Daddy needed some help, so we came home,” he said.

His decade of experience with the McLean Construction Co. earned him a job with a firm in Southport. Some of his co-workers thought he was too much of a go-getter.

“They’d be wanting to sit down,” he said, “and I’d say, ‘We got to keep going and get this done.’ One time, we were working down in this condenser pit (where) everything was moved by these huge chains. I just jumped right on it, and one of the boys, he said, ‘I ain’t working with that crazy Indian.’

The name stuck.”

The nickname followed him to International Paper, where one of his co-workers, upon being promoted to supervisor, had a problem.

“He couldn’t think of anything to put on my timecard but ‘Crazy Freeman,’ so he did,” Freeman said, wiping his eyes as he laughed. “The one above him, he knew who I was, and he took care of it. But we worked beside each other a couple years, and he never knew my real name.”

Freeman loves to laugh, but not in a mean-spirited way.

“We[‘ve] got to be able to laugh to

74 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

by JEFFERSON WEAVER Photography by FULLER ROYAL

get through life,” he said, “and sometimes, that’s what somebody needs to make the day better. Just a little thing Freeman is a regular part of the Waccamaw Siouan Pow Wow, held in October each year just a few miles from his home like that can make all the difference in the world to them.”

Throughout Freeman’s huge workshop, one can see samples of his work.

Knife blanks cut from German steel or old blades, boxes of antlers, a handmade, brain-tanned deerskin drum, and

a half-gross of hoe handles await their turn in the craftsman’s hands. The supplies and finished products share space with power tools, truck parts and heavy equipment.

Freeman said he developed a love and talent for handwork when he was in construction. He made some knives for sale and trade at Native American events, to which he often drove his classic customized van decorated with American Indian colors and symbols.

“That was back in my hippy days,” he said, laughing yet again. “I’d always done some of the stuff, here and there.

Some I sold, some I traded, some I gave away. Some I still have around here somewhere. It turns up sometimes.”

FORKS, KNIVES AND TOMAHAWKS

(above) Freeman is known as much for his infectious laugh and ever-present smile as his artisanal knives and tools. (opposite page) While Freeman uses modern tools and materials on some of his products, everything he makes is steeped in tradition.

The sheath on this knife was made from a belt he wore while he was a member of a traditional dance team.

Although he makes good use of traditional materials that are byproducts of hunting, Freeman himself is not much of a hunter.

“I don’t really enjoy it,” he said. “I have hides and horns that people give me, but I’m not a hunter myself.”

In 2005, a friend at Top Tobacco saw one of Freeman’s knives, and gave Freeman a challenge.

“He wanted a knife with a deer horn

handle,” Freeman said. “He gave me a piece of the German steel they use up there at Top, and I made him one.”

That knife was so popular, and Freeman enjoyed making it so much, that he began making more. He uses mainly crown and tine antler parts, creating a natural hand guard around the base of the blade. He fits each blade to each deer antler by hand, using files, knives, tiny drill bits and a Dremel tool.

Freeman is an individualist, even in the terms he uses for his materials and products.

“I know deer horns are called ‘antlers,’ he said. “Antlers fall off, and horns don’t. Still, I call them horns.”

Since each antler is different, and each blade handmade, none of his knives is the same as another. At the same time, Freeman carefully balances each blade, whether on a utilitarian Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 75

FORKS, KNIVES AND TOMAHAWKS

skinning knife or on the most elaborate split-tine antler grip, a fancy presentation knife with three curving points surrounding the base of the blade.

“What I make is going to be right,” Freeman said. “If you want to use it, you are going to be able to.”

Word of mouth started a small business that eventually gave birth to traditional Native American knives and implements in modern stainless steel, including stainless steel tomahawks out of industrial tool-grade metal.

Freeman takes care to marry tradition with practicality in everything he makes.

“I’m a modern Indian,” he grinned, 76 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

The craftsman is gaining an even broader reputation with what may be his simplest creation – the Crazy Fork.

Crazy Forks come in short and long models for both left- and right-handed cooks. The forks are equally at home on the grill, over an open fire or in the kitchen. A simple stainless steel rod is pointed, tapered and bent at a right angle into a hook. The grip is made from a length of hoe handle, which Freeman buys several dozen at a time. Each grip is finished by hand, and the wood engraved with “Crazy Fork.” While the forks are the most standardized thing he makes, no two are exactly alike, unless a customer asks for a matching set.

The Crazy Fork’s beauty is in its simplicity, Freeman explained.

“Everything is in the wrist,” he said.

“You take this here, you can turn your pig on the cooker, or move your chicken in the fryer. It’s great for frying fish.

I had one fellow tell me he fried his fish with the head on, and that hook was perfect for catching them in the eye and turning ’em at the right moment.”

Freeman’s eyes twinkled. “I figure whatever makes him happy. Some people like cooking their fish looking back at them.”

He also uses the forks as a subtle way to spread the word of God. Each Crazy Fork comes with a bright red plastic business card and the assurance that every fork (and its new owner) have been prayed for.

“We all serve the same master,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what color your demonstrating the balance of one of his skin, or where you’re from. He loves us ‘hawks. “You can use this if you want to all, and made all this. He created it, and – I have video of my grandson hopping gave us the skills to use what he gave on a pine tree with us, to do what we it, and it cut it clean want to do. Ain’t that At the same time, Freeman as you please.” amazing?” carefully balances each Freeman is well People have reblade, whether on a utiliknown for the “neckpeatedly asked Freetarian skinning knife or on knife” he carries in a man to advertise his the most elaborate split-tine beaded scabbard on forks on the Internet, antler grip, a fancy presentaa Native American and he has refused. tion knife with three curving necklace every day. points surrounding the base Outside of festivals “It’s faster than and a few retail outof the blade. a pocketknife for lets, the only way to some things,” he get a Crazy Fork is said. “People look at it, and they don’t to contact Freeman. know it’s a knife till I show them.”

“I told one man who liked my forks

FORKS, KNIVES AND TOMAHAWKS

– if I start advertising and selling these things, then more people are going to buy them. I’ll have to hire somebody to help me make them, and then they won’t be the same. We’d have to work seven days a week making them to keep people happy, and I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

“I don’t call that successful,” he laughed.

Freeman is a regular part of the Wac-

camaw Siouan Pow Wow, held in October each year just a few miles from his home.

In addition to selling his handcrafted wares, he’s well known for making good use of his Crazy Forks, helping cook fried chicken.

He said he is proud of his Native American heritage and wants to pass on all he can to the next generation. He hand-made

a bow and arrows with his grandson, and is happy to share family history and his own skills with almost anyone who asks.

Freeman’s laugh can easily be heard when a visitor walks up to the shop building in Buckhead. He said he’s a happy man.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” he said. “I’ve been blessed.”

- 954 -

(opposite page) “Crazy” Freeman is known for the minute detail he delivers with all his work. (top right) Freeman’s knives, “Crazy forks” and traditional peace pipes are designed to be perfectly balanced. (bottom) Freeman’s knives, cooking implements and other products are as functional as they are beautiful.

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 77

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B A C K YA R D F LO C K S M A K I N G A C O M E B A C K

Backyard flocks making a comeback How to keep chickens without losing your neighbors (or your mind)

by JEFFERSON WEAVER

O

Once upon a time, it wasn’t unusual to hear roosters greeting the dawn in virtually every small town and in many cities. An early 19th century diarist noted that he knew it was time to move when his rooster began crowing in response to those owned by his neighbors – it meant the community had grown.

Backyard chicken flocks were a housewife’s source of extra income, as well as supplying eggs and meat, a garbage disposal, pest control and lawn maintenance. The rise of the supermarket, combined with more women working outside the home, largely did away with the need for the home flock of chickens in both the town and country.

The rise of the self-sufficiency movement, as well as the trend toward organic foods free of chemicals and ste-

80 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

roids, has given rise to a comeback for the old standby of the backyard chicken flock.

Lake Waccamaw residents turned out in droves when the town commissioners considered banning backyard flocks. Other municipalities have comparatively little regulation regarding home chickens and lots.

Generally, birds may not roam free of the owner’s property, and the area must be kept free of smells, flies and manure – which savvy chicken owners want to avoid anyway, since nobody likes chicken poop in the driveway.

Chickens can be an easy, fun way for the family to raise some of their own food, even if said birds never make it to the table. A careful backyard flock owner can also raise his or her own eggs for roughly one-quarter the cost of store-bought eggs – and be assured

of a chemical-free product.

How many chickens you have is entirely up to you – eight to 10 laying hens, depending on the breed, will average a dozen eggs every seven days.

Roosters (which can irritate the neighbors) are only needed if you plan to raise more chickens. Multiple roosters aren’t always a good idea, since they’ll fight and injure each other as well as your hens. Your hens can also be worn out quicker if faced with several roosters with romantic inclinations.

Raising chickens from eggs to adulthood is an art in and of itself, and the topic of a future article in 954.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, among other government agencies, rates the average homegrown egg as a healthy alternative to those produced in large layer houses. Chicken owners report that watching their flocks can be

B A C K YA R D F LO C K S M A K I N G A C O M E B A C K

relaxing – an unusual form of therapy that has been verified in at least one major academic study, and discussed in numerous publications about small farms and self reliance.

There’s more to raising chickens than throwing some birds in the back yard, however.

Whether you live in town or the country, your birds need food and clean water, a weather-proof shelter and protection from predators.

Numerous store-bought feeds combined with what the birds scratch up can produce good eggs, and giving chickens access to a compost pile makes for extremely happy birds. The main types of feed are scratch feed and laying mash; avoid using uncracked corn as a main feed for chickens, as it takes longer to be ground in their “craw,” the organ that helps “chew” food for digestion.

Speaking of the craw—make sure your chickens can access clean sand, oyster shells or sandy-loam soil. These materials are held in the craw to help grind the seeds, grains and bugs eaten by the chickens.

Clean water is a must – chickens are big drinkers, but are also messy. Use a commercial waterer, or make your own using a large can placed in a heavy, flat disk such as a baking pan. Cut a hole in the solid end of the can so it can be refilled, and regularly spray the entire waterer down with a water hose, to cut down on contaminants from feces.

A quick note—the coop is the structure where the birds sleep and lay their eggs. A chicken pen is an enclosure where the birds spend most of their time. Not every chicken flock has to have a pen, but every flock needs a coop.

A weather-proof shelter with nesting boxes doesn’t need to be as complex as the late Victorian brick chicken houses still found behind many older homes.

Many of these buildings were converted into tool or lawnmower sheds in the 1940s, and often their owners have no idea they once held the family flock. Commercial chicken coops can be purchased from many suppliers, and plans are widely available in local libraries, magazines and reference books

as well as online. Just make sure you have enough room for the chickens to pass each other when walking to and fro inside (the door can be one-chicken wide.) Place your laying boxes on a separate wall from the roost, to avoid fecal contamination of the nests.

Generally, you need two square feet per chicken in an outdoor enclosure, but most people build their own pens to fit their own backyard needs. Make sure you cover five to 12 inches of the bottom of the pen, as well as the top of the cage, with chicken wire or hardware cloth to prevent access to predators such as cats, raccoons, opossums and roaming dogs. Most people put a solid wood section approximately 12 inches tall at the door as well, to prevent easy escape by the birds when you’re checking eggs and cleaning.

A functional, attractive chicken house can be made by raising an unused pickup truck camper shell on a brick foundation. Use non-toxic paint, picket fence panels, and chicken-safe landscaping to help your shelter blend in to your yard’s décor.

“Chicken tractors” are rising in popularity along with backyard flocks.

Basically a pen and coop mounted on wheels, chicken tractors are designed to be moved around yards and gardens, preventing birds from stripping grass and vegetation down to the bare soil.

Chicken tractors range from simple metal pens to elaborate dollhouse-like contraptions with walkways, stairwells and windows – all built chicken-sized.

Disused trampolines can also be converted into chicken tractors with a little ingenuity and a trip to the hardware store. Some northern breeds of chickens appreciate the additional shade of the trampoline’s top surface, since it diffuses sunlight.

Whether you opt for a converted trampoline, a chicken tractor, or a coop of your own design, make sure you check your local zoning regulations while planning your chicken yard.

Charlotte Almada of Whiteville has a backyard flock, and she says they are “the best animals anyone could ask for.

“If you have limited space, you can keep them cooped for a few days before you turn them out,” she says. “Then you

start letting them out for an hour or two at a time, and they’ll go right back in at dark.”

It took some work, she says, but her menagerie of pets and chickens generally get along.

“Chickens are just cool,” she said.

“They’ll clean the bugs out of your yard, cut the grass, and fertilize the lawn. You have to clean up after them every once in a while, but it’s no big deal. I think everybody needs a few laying hens. The eggs are healthier, and it’s fun just to watch them.”

The possibility of an avian flu epidemic in North Carolina has driven up the price of homegrown chickens, as well as cut back on some popular suppliers of homegrown birds. Private trades and sales are still a brisk business, although large-scale “chicken swaps” are temporarily banned by the state, as are most commercial sales. Bird owners are asked to register their flocks with the state Department of Agriculture to help officials notify bird owners if an outbreak occurs in their area.

Regarding outside time – while it’s against the law in most communities to allow chickens to roam free (it’s also not nice if you have neighbors), there are no such restrictions in the country. Studies have shown that chickens raised in lower-stress environments, such as outside pens and free-ranging, produce better quality eggs and meat than their enclosed cousins.

Still, care should be taken to ensure that your birds have minimal contact with wild waterfowl, which are the primary carriers of avian influenza. You need plenty of room for your birds to exercise: chickens need to peck, scratch, run and “mock fly” to be healthy.

Just like humans, a healthy chicken is a happier chicken; happy chickens can provide you and your family with an entertaining, easily maintained and affordable supply of eggs and meat – not to mention an eco-friendly alarm clock just like Grandma and Grandpa used to enjoy.

- 954 poultry.ces.ncsu.edu/backyardflocks-eggs/ www.backyardchickens.com/ Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 81

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LAS AMIGAS IS A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

Las Amigas is a Circle of Friends

by SHALON SMITH

Imagine a room full of women casually enjoying food, drinks and conversation. Now imagine those same women planning a program of public service of events committed to the improvement of their communities. This is not an average ladies’ night; it’s just

84 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

another gathering of the Whiteville Chapter of Las Amigas, which translated means “the female friends.”

Mary Q. Moore and Dora R. Mason of Charlotte founded the national organization in 1957. With 12 charter members, this organization of friends

consisted of professional women working together to enhance, enrich and improve the lives of those less fortunate.

In 1964, Doris Thompson, Carolyn Blanks and Evelyn Troy founded the Whiteville Chapter of the organization. The group adopted the ideals of the parent organization to foster a closer relationship and fuller exchange of ideas among members. The club’s mission includes the enhancement and development of the community through cultural and civic improvement and various service projects.

Mason led the chapter in Charlotte.

Moore lived in Wilmington, so a chapter also started there.

Today, the women of the Whiteville Chapter of Las Amigas establish and participate in a year-long program of service work. “We have a five-point programmatic thrust—education, health, political awareness, family and economic development,” Albenny Burney, secretary, said. The shared values of the women of Las Amigas are integrity, respect, good citizenship, service, teamwork and commitment.

Las Amigas is for women, but there have been chapters with male members.

“Some chapters have had Los Bravos, which is the name for male members,” said Doris Dees, sergeant-at-arms.

The Whiteville chapter’s program of work for the year includes providing transportation to senior citizens, visiting nursing homes, distributing Comforts of Love blankets, donating to food banks, participating in programs with the Columbus County Literacy Council, volunteering in schools, supporting Relay For Life, hosting a Founder’s Day program and offering scholarships.

Margaret Davis, assistant secretary, said her favorite annual activity is their Senior Thanksgiving Dinner. “It’s a dinner and a concert,” she said. Held in

LAS AMIGAS IS A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

(left) Katie Moore, charter member Carolyn Blanks, Financial Secretary Sinatra Peacock, Reporter Evelyn Brisbon, Treasurer Jollye Shaw, Verna Constantine, Secretary Albenny Burney and President Marilyn Bracey in 2015. (opposite page, bottom) The Las Amigas in the 1960s. First Row, left to right: Gloria Nichols, Albenny Burney, Jean Lloyd, Doris Thompson, Gloris Lloyd, and Katie Moore. Second Row: Carolyn Blanks, Mary Ann Gowans, Connie Freeman, Thomasena Leach, Joyce Staton, Debra Frank, Sinatra Peacock, and Janice Davis.

Third Row: Evelyn Troy, Mildred Newton, Jollye Shaw and Doris Dees. (opposite page, top) The Las Amigas in the 1970s. First row, left to right: Carolyn Blanks, Evelyn Troy, Mildred Newton, Joyce Staton, Debra Frank and Thomasena Leach. Second row: Sandra Spaulding, Doris Dees, Gloria Nichols, Sinatra Peacock, Janice Davis and Mary Ann Gowans. Third Row: Gloris Lloyd, Jean Lloyd, Jollye Shaw, Albenny Burney, Connie Freeman, Katie Moore and Doris Thompson.

November, the event rotates to various churches in which the sisterhood members are affiliated. This year, The Mighty Echoes, an Elizabethtown gospel group, will be performing.

“It’s usually a big event,” President Marilyn Bracey said.

Also occurring each year is a cultural arts event with the Columbus County Arts Council. The event is generally held for a few days in the spring and rotates to locations throughout Columbus County. Last year’s event was held in Ransom with a storyteller, Fred Motley, who worked with children for the initial days, with a culminating event concluding the affair.

The largest event hosted by the organization is the Las Amigas Pageant, a fundraiser that takes place each October.

“The girls are introduced to society and do talent events and a group production number at the beginning of the pageant,” Burney said.

“The girls also receive 10 percent of the money that they raise as a participation prize,” Dees said.

The pageant is the sole fundraiser for the organization. The United Negro College Fund, National Children’s Defense Fund, NAACP, The Lupus Foundation of America, National Bone Marrow Donor Program, The National Kidney Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society, Southeastern Community College Foundation, Lower Cape Fear Hospice, Families First, Circles of Hope, and the Westside Alumni are among the orga-

nizations supported on a monthly basis, and sometimes the cash runs out.

“Sometimes we have to come out of pocket for these things, but that’s okay because it’s community service,” Bracey said. “We’re here to enhance the communities in which we live, so when someone is in need — especially in the winter time if they need help with energy — we take care of that.”

Not all contributions from Las Amigas to the community are monetary.

Burney is a designated volunteer for Chadbourn Elementary School. Davis and Dees proctor for exams. They admit that other members would like to volunteer at the local schools, but tight school security measures make the process to volunteer more difficult and costly than in the past. The RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteers Program) at Southeastern Community College helps the school volunteer process move a bit more smoothly.

Various members also participate in monthly programs sponsored by the Columbus County Literacy Council.

The chapter meets at the home of a different member each month. The meeting generally becomes an informal dinner. “It’s up to the hostess if there’s dinner, but usually they have something — if they don’t have something they get talked about,” laughed Dees.

Members of the chapter are scattered throughout the county in neighboring areas of Riegelwood, Farmer’s Union, Whiteville, Mt. Olive, Chadbourn, Cerro Gordo, Clarkton and Bolivia. “We’d

like to have someone from the Tabor City area,” Bracey said.

Twice a year a regional meeting rotates among Southeast Region chapters that include Whiteville, Greensboro, Lumberton, Red Springs, St.Pauls-Bladen, and Wilmington.

At the annual national meeting, the chapters come together to update one another on their activities. The four-day event is full of workshops and seminars to educate members, prepare them for leadership, foster self-improvement, encourage financial stability and advocate service to the community.

After more than 50 years, thousands of community service projects and countless volunteer hours, the circles of friends of Las Amigas continue to fulfill the vision set forth by Mason and Moore in 1957. Las Amigas has more than 20 chapters located throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

Members of the Whiteville chapter of Las Amigas are Verna Constantine of Bolivia, Mary Gowans of Cerro Gordo, Miriam Boone, Evelyn Brisbon, Albenny Burney, Margaret Davis, Doris Dees, Sinatra Peacock and Glenins Singletary of Chadbourn, Carolyn Blanks and Katie Moore of Clarkton, Jollye Shaw of Riegelwood and Marilyn Bracey, Delois McKenzie, Lori McKenzie, Sharon Stephens and Francis Toon of Whiteville.

- 954 -

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 85

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PRESCRIPTION FOR THE FUTURE

Prescription for the Future

by DIANA MATTHEWS

C

Combine a large portion of scientific problem-solving ability with a powerful dose of compassion for patients in need, and the result could be a young woman named Jessica Greene.

The 26-year-old Bolton native received her Doctor

88 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

of Pharmacy degree in May 2014 from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at Chapel Hill. UNC is one of the most prestigious pharmacy schools, ranked number two in the nation

by US News and World Report. In May 2015, she was

Bolton native Jessica Greene is a member of the UNC School of Pharmacy faculty. offered an entry-level faculty appointment at her alma mater. “I feel at home here,” she said. “I am never bored.”

During the 12 months between receiving her doctoral hood and becoming a faculty member, Greene completed additional research in molecular pharmaceutics. She explains that pharmaceutics involves “the physicochemical properties of drugs and drug delivery systems.” Or, in plain English, it is the science of delivering “the right dose of drug to the right place for the right amount of time.”

(See “Ask a Pharmacist.”)

In her position as clinical assistant professor, Greene plans lessons, teaches students in the classroom, supervises them in clinical settings and practices pharmacy in the hospital and in outpatient clinics.

“I think the key to success at a young age is to have a clear vision for your life, to seek out opportunities that set you apart from the crowd and to align yourself with people who can help you achieve your goal,” she said.

Greene began following her own prescription early.

Eleven years ago, she was a rising sophomore at East Columbus High School, tutoring fellow students who struggled with math or science. That was when her mother encouraged her to volunteer for the summer at Columbus Regional Healthcare.

From that experience, she said, “I learned that I enjoy healthcare. At Governor’s School in 2006, I took a class in pharmacology that I really enjoyed.” As an

PRESCRIPTION FOR THE FUTURE

undergraduate at Carolina, her favorite courses ranged from microbiology to gender communications.

She describes her year of organic chemistry as “one of the most challenging things I have ever done.”

At a recruitment event, she met Carla White, the pharmacy school’s assistant dean for innovative leadership, who would become one of her most admired mentors. Greene became convinced that an academic pharmacy career offered “both job security and flexibility doing things that I enjoy, so I pursued it as a profession.”

The pursuit required a huge commitment. At Carolina, she maintained exceptional grades while taking some of the university’s most grueling laboratory science courses and continuing to tutor struggling students. It was clear that she had a knack for teaching. “I attribute that to growing up as the daughter of a teacher, honestly,” she said.

Her mother, Rosa Greene, is a veteran special education teacher who spent more than 30 years working in Columbus County schools and now teaches in Loris, S.C. Rosa Greene described her daughter as “very, very self-motivated.” Jessica, the youngest of four siblings, not only earned excellent grades and numerous art awards in high school, but also encouraged her friends to do the best they could do. “It was nothing for her to spend a couple of hours a night mentoring,” her mother said.

People often assume

that Rosa Greene pushed her daughter to achieve, but she says, “I didn’t do anything except what any mother would do…I’m proud of the responsible adult she’s become and the way she’s helping people.”

The deaths of an older brother, her father and her grandmother all occurred during Jessica Greene’s high school and college years, but her mother said, “That didn’t stop her from doing her best.”

In 2012, Greene approached pharmacist and manager John Watson at McNeill’s Long Term Care Pharmacy for a summer job as a pharmacy technician.

Her financial aid package at Carolina had been decreased, and she needed to earn enough to pay her tuition for the coming year.

Studying her resumé and transcript, Watson asked her, “Is this for real? You have a three-point-eight average?”

“No, sir,” she told him.

“Now that my spring grades are out, I have three-point-nine.” Watson was impressed with her maturity as well as her academic record. He hired her on the spot. She spent two summers doing everything from dusting shelves to packing medications.

She is only one of many local students who have gained experience working at McNeill’s Pharmacy.

Watson said, “The McNeills believe in working students. Their whole history is helping the community. Some of our students come back year after year. Everyone starts at the bottom and works his or her way up. We let them

handle backed-up work when regular employees go on vacation, and we give them some exposure to the nursing home setting.

Jessica was always on time and stayed busy doing topnotch work.

“I’m a nickname kind of guy,” Watson said. “We already had three Jessicas working that summer, so I gave Jessica Greene the nickname of Three-pointnine. That set her apart.”

In place at UNC-Chapel Hill since 2012, a program known as Educational Renaissance is changing the way future pharmacists are trained to solve problems and help patients. In a socalled “flipped classroom,” Greene’s students watch her lectures online before class, then spend class time discussing clinical cases and asking her questions.

Because she teaches more than a hundred students at a time, the ability to answer questions in detail during class time is limited. So she values her office hours, when her door is open to anyone with a tricky calculation to work out.

“They come to me and say, ‘Dr. Greene, how do we work this problem?’ My favorite thing is simplifying complicated concepts and making them understandable.” She added, “I also like office hours because I can get to know [my students] better as people; they are my future colleagues.”

Recently she took advantage of her own inside knowledge as an allergy patient to clarify some important principles. She carried her own nasal spray to class and cont’d on 90

ASK A PHARMACIST How can patients become more educated about their prescriptions?

You have the right to be counseled by a pharmacist each time you get a prescription filled. Take advantage of it! You will be pleasantly surprised by how much we know and how much we can help you. Also, please join us in our efforts to gain status as healthcare providers (like physicians and nurses) so that we can provide more services to the public. Your support is critical for healthcare reform and for us to be able to provide the best care possible for our patients.

What is the FDA approval process like?

Drug development is a very lengthy and costly process. For every 10,000 chemical compounds that a manufacturer considers and tests, maybe one will become an FDA-approved product. After the developers determine that the compound has properties that appear promising, safety studies are performed on animals, then on a small number of humans, in what are called Stage I trials. Then small and large Stage II trials test the clinical efficacy of the treatment.

Then further safety testing is done on larger groups of participants.

Sometimes, even after government approval, the manufacturer will carry out additional safety testing, or try using the drug on a different population to see if it can treat a different illness for which it will need separate approval.

Why is the approval process so arduous?

Nothing is black and white. Everything has risks and benefits. And some drug complications have been tragic, so the FDA errs on the side of caution.

That’s why pharmacists go to school for so many years. It takes lots of

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 89

ASK A PHARMACIST continued

scientific study to make those judgment calls in areas where the choices aren’t black and white.

Can you give an example of how a drug development scientist helps patients?

Metered-dose inhalers are used for spraying a measured blast of allergy or asthma medication into the lungs.

They require coordination to use, however. A patient can easily make a mistake taking a dose and not receive the intended benefit. Pharmaceutics experts have developed powdered forms of those drugs, which are easier to inhale and also easier to store.

What makes you proudest about your students?

They dedicate their free time to providing free healthcare services like flu shots and blood pressure screenings to medically underserved populations who would not otherwise have access to care in Orange and Durham counties.

They are such brilliant student pharmacists, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help mold them into outstanding healthcare professionals. Each day that I serve as a teacher and a mentor, I am inspired by their dedication to serving those in need and their passion for leading our profession.

What encouragement do you have for young people growing up in Columbus County?

My advice is to find your passion in life, set your goals high, and work hard until you exceed your own expectations…Seek the perspective of others who are different than you. Understand the world outside of what you know. There is so much more to see. Never feel like you are limited because you grew up in a small town or you didn’t grow up with a lot of money or you went to a small school. You have the power to change the world. You just have to get out there and do it.

90 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

Greene demonstrates blood glucose screening technique for her students. passed it around while explaining how the specific dosage form and delivery device were important for quick relief. “For some reason,” she said, the students “found it hilarious.” She told her students what her own mentors had taught her: “You have to put a human face to the science. At the end of the day, there’s a patient.”

The new teaching system provides an early immersion in patient care necessary in today’s changing landscape of healthcare.

In university hospitals, it is now common for pharmacists to exercise clinical duties such as visiting patients to counsel them about their treatment. Specialists known as Clinical Pharmacy Practitioners never make initial diagnoses, but they are well-suited to manage follow-up care, especially on patients with chronic illnesses. They work under contract with a supervising physician, which allows them to prescribe certain medications.

They can be board certified

in various areas, such as guitar and composes music. oncology or pediatrics.

Her mentor Carla White In fact, the growing field says, “Jessica’s PharmD of pediatric pharmacy is trained, but she works in a a good illustration of the division with mostly PhDs. need for an expert pharma- That means she’s got mascist as part of a hospital or tery of clinical skills and the outpatient treatment team. science itself. She’s a super“Children are not little star. When I remember her adults,” Jessica Greene said. as an undergraduate, then “Their enzymes are differ- think of how she became ent, they process drugs a leader during pharmacy differently, and school, and they have less “You have to put a now I see her body fat com- human face to the as a faculty pared to adults. science. At the member, it inSo just because end of the day, spires me and a child is half there’s a patient.” it reminds me the size of - Jessica Greene of why I do an adult, that what I do.” doesn’t mean By achievyou can give him or her a ing the position she now half dose of the same thing holds, Jessica Greene will you’d give an adult.” Practi- be able to influence future cal problem solving is one pharmacists with her own of Jessica’s key goals as an spirit of confidence: “My instructor. philosophy in life is that Although she stresses whenever someone tells that “Academic pharmacy you that you can’t accomis not a typical nine-to-five plish your goal, focus your job,” she finds time to visit time and energy on provmuseums and attend live ing them wrong. I would music events in the Trian- not be where I am today gle area. She calls herself without the support of my “a stereotypical Durham friends, my family and my - 954 foodie.” She also plays the mentors.”

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SOCIAL & SOCIETY

L I P SY N C B AT T L E benef itting FAMILIES FIRST &

COLUMBUS COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL

OCTOBER 1

Chad and Dana Redd, Kelly Wolf Yo u n g , S c o t t B u r c h e t t e , B e v e r l y a n d B u t c h Po p e

Judges for the show Sheriff Lewis H a t c h e r, J u d g e Fre d G o re , Pa u l a Inman

Mary Kindschuh serving drinks PHOTOS BY GRANT MERRITT

106 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

First place winners Wrap Girls and Hyattica

A m y B . C a r t e r , B e v e r l y P o p e , S t e v e a n d P a u l a S m i t h​

G e n e v a A s h l e y, Pa t R a y, A n n Pa i t a n d G e r t M e h l e r

SOCIAL & SOCIETY

TA S T E O F TA B O R at the home of LUCILLE & NELWYN WRIGHT INMAN

OCTOBER 22

( t o p t o b o t t o m , l e f t t o r i g h t ) M a r g a r e t J o n e s , Pe g g y L e g g e t t , M a r y C o l e m a n , M a r t h a S t a n ley. ; Jennifer Holcomb, Ashley Gore ; Jan Hardee and husband Andy. ; Miss North Carolina K a t e Pe a c o c k , “ N o r t h C a r o l i n a Ya m F e s t i v a l M r s .” M a r g i e F l o w e r s ; S a r a a n d D e n n i s J o n e s o f Ta b o r C i t y , J o h n a n d J a n e L e s t e r o f M y r t l e B e a c h . ; J i m m y a n d M a r t h a J o G a r r e l l d a n c e t o m u s i c b y t h e B l a c k w a t e r R h y t h m a n d B l u e s B a n d ; A l l o f t h e N o r t h C a r o l i n a Ya m F e s t i v a l Q u e e n s a n d M i s s N o r t h C a r o l i n a K a t e Pe a c o c k w i t h Ya m F e s t i v a l m a s c o t T i g e r Ta t e r ; N e l w y n W r i g h t I n m a n , M i s s N o r t h C a r o l i n a K a t e Pe a c o c k , L u c i l l e I n m a n PHOTOS BY GRANT MERRITT

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 107

SOCIAL & SOCIETY

SOUTHEASTERN

COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION DINNER VINELAND STATION OCTOBER 27

(top to bottom, left to right) Janice Simms, Margo Wright, Richard Wright, Melba Wyche ; Mary Alice Stanley and Steve Smith ; Representative Ken and Susan Waddell and Laura and D a n n y M c N e i l l ; J e a n e t t e F o r m y d u v a l , C a r o l y n a n d Te r r a y S u g g s , a n d D i c k a n d L y n n C r u t c h f i e l d ; J a n i c e Yo u n g , M a t t M c L e a n , Pa u l a S m i t h , E l l e n a n d J a c k i e S t e i n b e r g ; T h e H o n o ra b l e D o u g a n d Vi c k i e S a s s e r ; H a r r y Fo l e y, D re w a n d Sy l v i a Cox and Brenden Jones

108 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

PHOTOS BY LIZ MCLEAN

SOCIAL & SOCIETY

COLUMBUS COUNTY INDUSTRIAL

golf tournament

LAND O LAKES GOLF COURSE

SEPTEMBER 18

P H OTO S B Y L E S H I G H & F U L L E R R OYA L

(top to bottom, left to right) Rhonda and Johnny Wallace; J i m D i M u z i o a n d A n d y A n d e r s o n ; G e o rg e Wo o t e n J r. ; H o u s t o n B a r n e s a n d F o r r e s t S t e e d ; M i k e Ty n d a l l , S a m m y Stanley and Bill Floyd Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 109

SOCIAL & SOCIETY

COLUMBUS CHAMBER

& TOURISM

shuck ‘n shag

VINELAND DEPOT OCTOBER 29

(top to bottom, left to right) Jan Stahl, Brend a S h o re , Kat h i e W h e e l e r, M a r y We b e r, D o n n a M a r k ; A n n a G o r e , M e r e d i t h Te d d e r , L i z M c L e a n ; S u e H a w ks , J u d g e S a s s e r, Ja c k i e St e i n b e rg ’s w i f e , J u d g e S a s s e r ’s w i f e ; R h o n d a D u tt o n , J o a n Ward, Cathy McMillan, Picket Ellis, Lee and Dianne Ward; Lisa Lovette, Angel Memory, Cathy M c M i l l a n ; Te r r i e a n d F r e d d y P r i e s t , B l a k e a n d Lacie Jacobs 110 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

PHOTOS BY GRANT MERRITT

SOCIAL & SOCIETY

GO TELL

columbus crusade

SCHS

OCTOBER 4-7

(clockwise from left) Al Phillips is speaking with Kristy Best in the SCHS cafeteria a f t e r t h e G o Te l l C o lumbus Crusade; Stacy W i l l i a m s , To n y a P a i t , Maria Hyatt, and Lydia Hewett;Volunteer c o u n s e l o r, Re v. A n d y Anderson; The WCHS Viking football team volunteers.

PHOTOS BY GRANT MERRITT

Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 111

954 CALENDAR

Nov 9 - December 11 THE WYCHE MUSEUM The Wyche Gallery at Southeastern Community College will exhibit works created by students studying printmaking at UNC-Pembroke under the direction of Brandon Sanderson.

November 16 - 21 COLUMBUS AND BLADEN FESTIVAL OF TREES The 10th Annual Columbus and Bladen Festival of Trees supports Lower Cape Fear Hospice. The festival, held at Northwood Church, 2672 James B. White Highway, Whiteville, will feature custom decorated trees, The Mistletoe Market and a holiday luncheon.

Speaking at the holiday luncheon is bestselling author Jason Wright, with an inspirational message about his novel, “Christmas Jars”.

The luncheon is Friday, November 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person (pre-purchase required). For more Festival of Trees event information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.hospiceandlifecarecenter.org

112 | 954 | Fall //Winter 2015

November 21 11th COLUMBUS REGIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM FOUNDATION HOSPITAL GALA Annual Columbus Regional Healthcare System Foundation Hospital Gala honoring the Board of Trustees past and present. Event will be held at Vineland Depot at 7 p.m., and the evening will include a cocktail dinner buffet, silent auction and music by The Embers.

Tickets are $150 per couple.

Contact Terrie Priest for sponsorship and ticket information, 910-642-9303.

Thursday, November 26 THANKSGIVING DAY Thursday, December 3 Tabor City Christmas parade at 6 p.m.

Thursday, December 3 VINELAND VILLAGE CHRISTMAS Vineland Village Christmas kick-off events – a new event celebrating the Christmas season in downtown Whiteville and surrounding areas.

Lighting of the Village & Tree Lighting in downtown Whiteville 7 p.m.

Souper Supper at Vineland Depot from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Also, Carriage rides, The Miller Hot Chocolate Stand & Smoresfest, Gingerbread Contest (displayed through

the following week) and a Griswald Christmas decorating contest (begins and continues through the following week)

Saturday, December 5 LAKE WACCAMAW CHRISTMAS PARADE Lake Waccamaw Christmas Parade is at 10 a.m.

Friday, December 4 & Saturday, December 5 THE MISTLETOE MARKET The Mistletoe Market hosted by Whiteville Junior Woman’s Club will be held Friday, December 4, from 12 p.m.- 8 p.m. and Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. at Vineland Station. Admission is $5. Plus Wrapganza - a gift-wrapping fundraiser event.

Saturday, December 5 THE VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TOUR The Very Merry Christmas Tour benefiting Feed The Children featuring Newsong, Bandon Heath, Plumb and introducing Reno at 6 p.m. at Northwood Church, 2672 Hwy 701 N. Doors open at 5 p.m. Group (10+) tickets, $10, Gold tickets $25, General Admission $15. Tickets available online at itickets.com, New Foundations Christian Bookstore. For concert information, call 654-5595.

Friday, December 4 CANDLELIGHT WALK & TREE LIGHTING Candlelight Walk & Tree Lighting sponsored by Lake Waccamaw Depot Museum. Meet at the Lake Waccamaw Town Hall at 5:30 p.m. for a candlelight stroll to the Christmas tree lighting followed by hot chocolate at The Depot Museum.

Saturday, December 5 CHADBOURN HISTORIC DEPOT OPEN HOUSE Chadbourn Historic Depot Open House is Saturday, December 5 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. followed by the Chadbourn Christmas Parade at 3 p.m.

Saturday, December 5 “CHRISTMAS FROM THE HEART ” CRAFT SHOW 9th Annual “Christmas from the Heart” Craft Show and Sale at the Columbus County Farmer’s Market featuring local bakers, crafters, jelly makers, entertainment and door prizes.

Saturday, December 5 VINELAND VILLAGE CHRISTMAS EVENTS Vineland Village Christmas Events include a Holly Jolly Pancake Breakfast at New Life Community Church from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Also, Saturday morning the Reindeer Romp 5K

954 CALENDAR

Run/Walk and a Holiday Hounds contest in downtown Whiteville. The Very Merry Christmas Tour concert featuring NewSong Concert at Northwood Church is at 6 p.m.

Sunday, December 6 WHITEVILLE CHRISTMAS PARADE Whiteville Christmas Parade. Line-up is at 2 p.m. at Whiteville High School and parade begins at 3 p.m.

Deadline to enter is Monday, November 30. Contact Peace Baptist Church for more information or to enter: 910-642-0251.

Sunday, December 6 THE JEWISH FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS – Chanukkah – The Jewish Festival of Lights begins at sunset on December 6 and ends December 14.

Thursday, December 10 PEARLS, BOWTIES & PAJAMAS Vineland Village Christmas celebrates Pearls, Bowties & Pajamas at 6 p.m.

Friday, December 11 MURDER MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE The Columbus County Youth and Families Association (CCYFA) will present a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre in the Whiteville City Schools Civic Room at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $50 per

person, and professional actors from House of Blues will perform. Limited tickets. Call Rhonda Dutton (910) 640-8080 for tickets and more information.

Saturday, December 12 CHRISTMAS LEGO COMPETITION The Columbus County Youth and Families Association (CCYFA) Christmas Lego Competition from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Vineland Station. Cost is $5 with two categories ranging from Grades K thru 8 and Grade 9 to adults. Cash prizes awarded to top three in each division. Free to the public to view. Contact Rhonda Dutton (910) 6408080 for tickets and more information.

Saturday, December 12 POLAR EXPRESS “Polar Express” movie viewing at Vineland Station with hot chocolate, popcorn and a bell ornament for children attending. Sponsored

by The Columbus County Youth and Families Association (CCYFA). Music provided by DJ Terry Basobas. Cost is $5 per child, and children can wear their pajamas and bring a blanket or chair to sit on.

Contact Rhonda Dutton (910) 640-8080 for tickets and more information.

Monday, December 14 SOUTHEASTERN ORATORIO SOCIET Y CHRISTMAS CONCERT Southeastern Oratorio Society Christmas Concert at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 511 N. Thompson Street, Whiteville. Event is free; however, donations are gratefully accepted.

Concert music selections will include traditional spirituals, carol arrangements in English and Spanish, a Chanukah suite in Hebrew, and ethereal 20th century pieces by Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. For more information or to join the Oratorio Society for the spring semester, call (910) 642-8510.

Columbus County and Whiteville schools Christmas Holiday begins Monday, December 21, and students return Monday, January 4, 2016.

Friday, December 25 CHRISTMAS DAY

Friday, March 4 & Saturday, March 5 954 COUNT Y FARE 954’s County Fare – A weekend of events celebrating the best of Columbus County at Pine Log Plantation, Whiteville. See County Fare pages in 954 for more details.

Friday, March 19 Saturday, March 20 7TH ANNUAL SOUTHERN FARM DAYS 7th Annual Southern Farm Days at Boys & Girls Home Horse Complex, Lake Waccamaw. Gates open 9 a.m.

– 5 p.m. Admission is $7.50, and free for children 12 and younger. Handicapped parking available. Antique tractors, hit and miss engines, working horses and mules, crosscut sawing, soap-making, open fire cooking and much more.

Visit www.southernfarmdays.com April 30 Dancing with the Vineland Stars

Friday, January 1 NEW YEAR’S DAY Monday, January 18 MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY Sunday, February 14 VALENTINE’S DAY Fall //Winter 2015 | 954 | 113

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