Barring any last-minute changes caused by the situation with COVID-19, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association has set a tentative date of June 15 for hopefully allowing its member schools to resume some kind of workouts in preparation for what it hopes will be a fall sports season.

But the look of those workouts and the look of the fall sports season are pictures that will both be dramatically altered and possibly out of focus based on the various plans that have been put forward for how teams can proceed.
On a video conference call with reporters statewide last month, NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker announced the official extension of the current summer dead period to June 15, hoping that by then, the Phase Two plan of reopening the state of North Carolina would allow enough flexibility for teams to conduct some kind of practices.

“We will be very deliberate in our task, which is one reason we have not rushed,’’ Tucker said.

The main reason for taking it slow, Tucker said, was to carefully develop plans to make workouts safe as possible and allow coaches and athletic directors time to develop their own local plans of how to secure things like hand sanitizer and set up hand-washing stations.

“It will not be possible to prevent every student-athlete from contracting COVID-19,’’ Tucker said. “It’s our goal to do everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes, our coaches and the communities represented by our schools.’’

For some sports, like football and wrestling, summer workouts will likely not allow any physical contact, making them more sessions devoted to conditioning than actual practice sessions.

Tucker said the current NCHSAA plan is not to hold any team back from practice once June 15 arrives, but to allow all of them some form of workouts within the guidelines set down by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The National Federation of State High School Associations has also issued a lengthy set of guidelines, but Tucker said the DHHS guidelines would take precedence.

The big question yet to be answered is will there be a fall sports season, especially football, which generates much of the revenue that is the life blood for the entire athletic program at many schools.

The other question yet to be answered is how many fans, if any, would be allowed to attend football games or other sporting events. That is a question Tucker is not ready to answer.

“To not have any fans in the stands would be rough,’’ she said. “We are not at the point yet where we are pulling up the tent on football this fall. We are hopeful we can have some fans.’’

Once the fall arrives, Tucker said the NCHSAA will look at any option possible to putting teams on the field, especially football. That could mean everything from a later than normal start to cutting the season short.

NCHSAA bylaws do not prohibit moving a sport to another season, but Tucker said that’s something that the NCHSAA would prefer not to do. “Moving sports season is a last resort,’’ she said. “It’s too early to talk about that. It’s very clear whatever we do will not be outside the parameters of the guidelines from the governor and DHHS.’’

For the moment, Tucker said the most important thing is that all agencies involved in deciding when and how high school sports will resume be consistent with what is put in place.

“It is important we are all singing from the same song sheet,’’ she said.

There is no better time to invest in yourself and start working toward the career you have always wanted. Earning a degree in hospitality management can support your desire to travel, will allow you to explore your entrepreneurial spirit and may open the door to opportunities that you never envisioned.

When I was asked in December to write about the hospitality management program and industry, I anticipated sharing the industry’s newest initiatives. At that time, I expected to be revealing new travel and tourism trends and data, social media and virtual reality marketing strategies and the disposable income tendencies that were driving growth and expansion within hospitality businesses. However, the industry landscape changed significantly with the challenges that have been experienced because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

So, why is earning a degree in hospitality management more valuable than ever? The reality is that the hospitality industry will probably be forever changed, but with change comes opportunity. The most important and common attribute for success in the hospitality sector is impactful leadership. In what has always been an exciting and ever-changing industry, the most successful leaders ensure that they are prepared to quickly respond to changes that are often beyond control. Consider this example: A wedding was scheduled at your venue, and the bride and groom sent invitations with the incorrect time; guests begin arriving early. Another example: Due to supply chain issues, your published Valentine’s Day dinner menu items are not available. Consider these two examples and how you would respond in these situations.

Having the knowledge and ability to quickly navigate through challenges and go beyond normal operating procedures to continue enhancing guest experiences is the key. Identifying ways to modify your organization’s day-to-day functionality, communicating and changing the expectations of your team, training staff and successfully implementing new procedures are crucial to remaining relevant and profitable. As a leader, you must constantly evaluate your business, invest in your team and be able to define and uphold your competitive advantage.

FTCC's hospitality management degree will help you become an effective, customer-oriented, data-driven, decision-making manager, helping you excel as you progress in your career. Choose a career in hotel and lodging, food and beverage, restaurant, travel and tourism, spas or recreational segments. With coursework focusing on guest services, leadership, management principles, restaurant and lodging operations, marketing, sanitation, ethical decision-making, cost controls/loss prevention, law, and human resources, you will receive the knowledge and education to be well prepared for the workforce.

Certificates in event planning, hotel and lodging management, and restaurant management are also available at FTCC and are offered 100% online. All courses are taught by faculty personnel who have experience working in the industry, bringing the ability to share their real-world knowledge and perspective to the classroom.

If you enjoy working with diverse individuals in a fast-paced environment that can take you practically anywhere, hospitality management may be for you. For more information, please visit faytechcc.edu and enter “hospitality management” in the search tool. You can also contact me at goldk@faytechcc.edu or 910-678-8507. Registration for fall semester classes has begun; classes begin Aug. 17. Take the first step to an exciting new career today by signing up for fall classes at FTCC.

For the third year in a row and the fourth time since 2009, Cumberland County has brought home the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Exemplary School Award, a measure of the quality of what the NCHSAA calls the total program at the winning school.

The win by Gray’s Creek adds them to a list that includes the last two winners, Terry Sanford and Cape Fear, along with Jack Britt, which captured the award in 2009.

A common thread at all of the schools is something that was started years ago by former Cumberland County Schools student activities director Fred McDaniel and continues today with one of his successors, Vernon Aldridge. That’s a push for all county schools to get their athletic directors and coaches certified by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“I think it helps with the quality of coaching that our young people are going to receive,’’ Aldridge said. “I think the taking of National Federation courses is creating a better coach, which hopefully will create a better experience for our student athletes in Cumberland County.’’

Aldridge said the award does more than measure what a school does on the athletic field. It considers multiple elements, including academic performance.

“It’s exciting to have three schools in three years win this award,’’ Aldridge said. “What I hope it shows is we are providing a quality product, athletically as well as academically, for the students in Cumberland County.’’

Gray’s Creek athletic director Troy Lindsey, who like Aldridge is currently a member of the NCHSAA Board of Directors, feels the award for his school is the byproduct of having an outstanding staff, including both head and assistant coaches.
“Everyone of my head and assistant coaches gets it,’’ Lindsey said. “They get the whole purpose of what interscholastic athletics is about. It’s an extension of the classroom.’’

Lindsey feels Cumberland County has been a consistent winner of the Exemplary School Award because of outstanding leadership over the years at the county level, coupled with the fact the entire school system has embraced the importance of having certified coaches and athletic directors.

“I’ve been an athletic director for 15 years, and for 15 years it’s been the same message,’’ Lindsey said. “You’ve got to do it right and you’ve got to get the certification to stay up to date on things.
“I think we have embraced that as a system before other people have.’’

At this moment two of the deadliest words that can be uttered or typed are "I heard..."

Eighty-two years ago, Orson Welles did a radio broadcast, a dramatization of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," that had thousands convinced Martians had landed in New Jersey and the world was ending.

People took up arms and needlessly threatened each other and some almost committed suicide rather than be incinerated by a Martian ray gun.

And this was many years before social media, which has turned anyone with a smartphone and working fingers into a person with their own internet megaphone.

If you hear something or see something suspicious, check it out with the authorities.

If you must share with friends, do it by private message before stirring a wider panic. Resist the urge to go back in time to 1938 and tell folks the Martians have landed. Be cautious. Be vigilant. But most importantly, be responsible.

Reflecting on the events and conversations of the past few weeks, I have to admit I am unable to make sense of most of it. And, I realize what I have to do is look beyond what I can see, and listen beyond what I can hear. I have to look and listen for God.

As Jesus reminded us to not be be anxious over what we see and hear, what we have or lack, what we know and don't know, he said this, as recorded in Matthew 6:33:

“...seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

You catch that? As we seek the Lord first, his wisdom and understanding pour over us with real freedom to follow his plan and purpose for our lives. In1 Corinthians 1:25, it says this:

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

That's what we need. The wisdom of God. The strength of God. The freedom that is greater than anything in our Constitution and beyond the liberty afforded us by any amendment.

When we seek and enter the presence of God, we'll find the peace we've been seeking all along. And as we acknowledge his presence we'll see more clearly that he is what we really need.

I see our national condition as the result of a systematic removal of absolute truth from the laws by which we govern and a shifting moral base. You and I need to cry out to God. We need to ask God to step in. We need to start or rebuild the relationship and acknowledge he is our Father, our Abba Father, our Daddy.

Gone is the time for demanding our rights as citizens of this nation more loudly than we proclaim and present Jesus to a world that needs him.

Gone is the time to just say we love Jesus without loving others.

Now is the time we need to come together, lock arms and pull together for what the Gospel really is: the true story of God's love and collective plan for us without regard for the color of our skin, the country we were born in or what denomination we prefer when we go to church.

America needs Jesus.

China needs Jesus.

Russia, Mexico and Sudan need Jesus.

The world needs to know the truth about God and find the peace only he can give in the midst of this and any storm. He is truth. He is justice. And he is waiting.

Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all.

“Go see Rep. Jack Hunt first thing. He is married to one of my cousins. He will take care of you.”

That was my first instruction from UNC President Dick Spangler when he tapped me to represent the university system in dealing with the state’s General Assembly.

That might have been the best advice President Spangler ever gave me. Hunt, who died at 97 on May 27, chaired the powerful House Rules Committee and was a close friend of the legendary Speaker Liston Ramsey and most of the other insider legislators.

Hunt tried to keep me out of trouble and when I messed up, he helped rescue me.

He spent a lifetime helping people. In addition to his state government and Army service, he was for many years a dentist, farmer, and business owner in Cleveland County. He and his wife Ruby had five remarkable daughters, all active in community and public service. One of them, Judy Hunt, served in the state House of Representatives alongside her dad. He was a mentor to one of his dental patients, Walter Dalton, who served as a state senator and lieutenant governor, and is now president of Isothermal Community College.

Perhaps the best thing Hunt did for me was to introduce me to Ruby.

It happened one day when I tried to enlist Hunt in my effort to find good local eateries to write about in this column.

One day I asked him, “Where is the best place to get country cooking around here?”

He paused, squinted, smiled a little bit and finally said, “Well, the truth is there is nothing better, I think, than my wife Ruby’s cooking.”

“We have folks over from time to time. Maybe you’d like to join us sometime.”

Jack and Ruby regularly invited their government friends for informal suppers of country ham, baked chicken, cornbread, biscuits with sourwood honey and molasses, and vegetables from her garden, including corn frozen minutes after it had been picked the previous summer. There were always desserts of homemade cakes and pies. Of course, there was also the opportunity to make friends with governors, Supreme Court justices, and legislative leaders.
But there is more to it

than that. It’s more than just the joy of getting together and making other people happy.

Jack Hunt was one of the “peacemakers” in the legislature. When there was a tough, mean problem that divided people, Jack Hunt often got the call to try to bring them together. Getting around factions, petty jealousies, and partisanship, he tried to find out what it would take to resolve the disagreement.

“What’s keeping us from working this out?” That was the question people counted on Jack Hunt to ask, then listen, and move everyone towards the answer.

He thought the people’s representatives made better decisions when they were not angry at each other. When everything else failed to bring people together, “Ruby’s Cooking” worked magic.

Once, when President Spangler and Governor Jim Hunt were at loggerheads about the governor’s budget proposals for the university, they could hardly speak to each other until Jack invited them to breakfast with Ruby. Neither the governor nor the university president could say no to Ruby and Jack. After they sat down to Ruby’s cooking and warm spirit, they worked out a compromise.

It was hard to be angry with anyone when Ruby Hunt was serving her home cooked meals and the breakfast of ham biscuits with sourwood honey and molasses helped Jack bring his two friends together.
We miss Ruby’s cooking for sure.

Even more, we miss Jack’s gentle, positive, and respecting peacemaking that made all of us better people.

Dear graduates of 2020,

First of all, big congratulations to each of you!

You have worked hard, pushed yourselves, recovered when you fell, balanced various aspects of your lives, persevered and achieved with the support of those who love you. You have every reason to be proud of yourselves and to look forward to whatever comes next. You may not have had a traditional graduation ceremony. Yours may have been in your backyard with your family, it may have been virtual, or it may have been no ceremony at all, but do not be discouraged. It is your work that is important and has real meaning, not donning a cap and gown crossing a stage.

That is the good news. The more challenging news is that you are entering your next stage of life at a critical time, whether your path is continuing education or becoming a productive member of our workforce. Our nation faces both a vicious virus with no end in sight and deep divisions in our political, economic and social fabrics.

Your parents’ generation — and some of even older generations — are part of the solutions to the United States’ profound struggles, but you will be the leaders. I urge you to embrace the role. Use your knowledge and your life experience to help your community, be it your school, your church, your workplace and certainly among your family and friends. Set an example not only for productivity but for caring and fairness. Be willing to make things better for others and for yourself. Share your talents for the public good.

Mothers have lots of advice, of course, so here are some basics from this mom. First impressions do count, so try to look nice. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Good manners will carry you far and to places money cannot take you. Eat breakfast. Never underestimate your enemies. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

We all have difficult moments in our lives, times when we are sad or fearful. When those times have come to me, several thoughts have sustained me and helped me move forward. One is that late in life, most people regret not what they did, even though they acknowledge decisions and behaviors that were wrong and hurt others. Instead, they regret the things they did not do — opportunities untaken because they were afraid, forgiveness not given, relationships not nurtured, personal potentials unexplored. Even though you are young and just starting out in the adult world, remember the wisdom of those who have been down the road you are just starting. Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt put it this way. “You gain strength and courage by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

And finally, learn to know, trust and depend on yourself and to enjoy your own company. As much as you may love your parents, siblings and friends, the reality is that many of them will not always be with you. A hard truth of life is that the only person who will take every step of life with you is you. Nourish your strengths and enjoy them. Be aware of your weaknesses. Know that you can trust yourself to make the right decisions.

So, I challenge you to go forward — to make the world a better place for your having been here. It is my deep and fundamental belief that it is better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.
I wish you all good things.

Cordially,
Margaret

The stereotypical image of a librarian is someone who has a stern visage, repeatedly asks people to stay quiet while studying and chastising library patrons for failing to return books on time.

Pamela Sands is anything but the image of the stereotype, both in how she does her job and in the title itself, which has morphed from simple librarian to media coordinator. Whatever the title, Sands is obviously good at what she does.

For the second time in six years, Sands, who works at New Century International Middle School near Hope Mills, has been named by the Cumberland County Schools as its media coordinator of the year. She now competes for statewide recognition, an honor she previously won in 2014-15.

A native of Pennsylvania, Sands relocated to Cumberland County in 1998 to take a teaching job here. She taught at the high school and elementary school level in the county before becoming the media coordinator at New Century when it opened.

She said the job of media coordinator had always been her dream, even though landing it required her to return to school to get a masters degree in library science.

While some still refer to Sands’ job as librarian or in some cases media specialist, she said the position has changed a great deal from the stereotypical image of what a librarian does.

“It is a more diverse role, really the best of both worlds,’’ she said. In her job, she not only gets to teach children but also interacts with the staff members at her school, helping them in their teaching jobs.
She feels her top responsibility is to instill and inspire her students with a love of reading. But the advance of technology has expanded her role.

“It is also on our shoulders to teach them to be good digital citizens as we’ve moved into the world of being online,’’ she said. “There are a lot of things we teach the students about evaluating information, how to use the information you
find online.’’

Her work with her fellow teachers involves collaborating and sharing resources with them. She is involved in helping her cohorts with professional development, something
she enjoys.

When it comes to the task of encouraging students to read, Sands said she strives to be creative. “We do things out of the box,’’ she said.

She does what she calls book tastings, where she gets students to sample different books in hopes of finding something that inspires them. She also has her students do what she calls book snaps, where they create a snapshot of the book by interacting with the text and putting their personal feelings on what they are reading.

Every year, Sands tries to bring in an author, usually from North Carolina, to meet with her students and discuss the book or books they’ve written. “That sparks a personal connection with the kids,’’ she said. “I always see the kids reignited with their love for books, especially with a book written by a person they’ve gotten to meet.

“I try to keep current with what the kids are interested and involved in,’’ she said. “I’m also a big believer in sharing with staff. As I find cool tools they could use in the classroom or see things that go along with their curriculum I share it with them.’’

Unfortunately, with the growth of the internet, there are some in the business of cutting costs who argue brick-and-mortar libraries filled with books and magazines are things of the past and that we should turn to strictly digital sources of information as a way of saving money.

That kind of thinking saddens Sands, who argues that the printed word is still a critical piece of educating today’s students.

“Children aren’t reading online as much as we think they are,’’ she said. As proof, she notes the circulation of digital ebooks is far outstripped by how often students check out printed works.

“Kids still prefer the printed book,’’ she said. “Making sure we provide these resources is essential.

“The act of reading allows us to have shared experiences. The characters in the books we read, the information we find in books and magazines, helps us find a connection to the world.’’

Sands said that’s especially important now when many people are cut off from the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “For our own emotional health, these connections are vital,’’ she said. “I can’t imagine a world without libraries. Who’s going to teach them other than the librarian?’’

During the coronavirus pandemic, our health concerns — for ourselves and our loved ones — have been at the top of our minds. But financial worries have been there, too, both for people whose employment has been affected and for investors anxious about the volatile financial markets. And one aspect of every individual’s total financial picture has become quite clear — the importance of an emergency fund.

in normal times, it’s a good idea for you to keep three to six months’ worth of living expenses in a liquid, low-risk account. Having an emergency fund available can help you cope with those large, unexpected costs, such as a major car repair or a costly medical bill.

Furthermore, if you have an adequate emergency fund, you won’t have to dip into your long-term investments to pay for short-term needs. These investment vehicles, such as your IRA and 401(k), are designed for your retirement, so the more you can leave them intact, the more assets you’re likely to have when you retire. And because they are intended for your retirement, they typically come with disincentives, including taxes and penalties, if you do tap into them early. (However, as part of the economic stimulus legislation known as the CARES Act, individuals can now take up to $100,000 from their 401(k) plans and IRAs without paying the 10% penalty that typically applies to investors younger than 59½. If you take this type of withdrawal, you have up to three years to pay the taxes and, if you want, replace the funds, beyond the usual caps on annual contributions.

Of course, life is expensive, so it’s not always easy to put away money in a fund that you aren’t going to use for your normal cash flow. That’s why it’s so important to establish a budget and stick to it. When developing such a budget, you may find ways to cut down on your spending, freeing up money that could be used to build your emergency fund.

There are different ways to establish a budget, but they all typically involve identifying your income and expenses and separating your needs and wants. You can find various online budgeting tools to help you get started, but, ultimately, it’s up to you to make your budget work. Nonetheless, you may be pleasantly surprised at how painless it is to follow a budget. For example, if you’ve budgeted a certain amount for food each month, you’ll need to avoid going to the grocery store several times a week, just to pick up “a few things” — because it doesn’t really take that many visits for those few things to add up to hundreds of dollars. You’ll be much better off limiting your trips to the grocery, making a list of the items you’ll need and adhering to these lists. After doing this for a few months, see how much you’ve saved — it may be much more than you’d expect. Besides using these savings to strengthen your emergency fund, you could also deploy them toward longer-term investments designed to help you reach other objectives, such as retirement.

Saving money is always a good idea, and when you use your savings to build an emergency fund, you can help yourself prepare for the unexpected and make progress toward your long-term goals.

You will know someone or will have seen someone that is being exhibited at Gallery 208 in the new exhibit titled “Where the Winds Never Stops: The Hildreth Project.” How is that possible when you have probably never been to Hildreth, Nebraska? The photographer, Shane Booth, in a series of photographs, has captured the essence of part of an iconic Americana. I could go on and on about his extensive professional resume. Still, to understand how a photograph moves from a good photograph to a great photograph, I would like to share insight into his 16-year personal back story.

The portrait photographs in “Where the Winds Never Stops: The Hildreth Project” are of rural white America (it’s Nebraska!), but you can be of any ethnicity and see someone you think you may have met or have seen before … that is the genius of this body of work and has been the artist’s oeuvre for the past 20 years – to capture the essence of something beyond an individual’s identity, instead, the spirit of the many in a single portrait.
In comparison, Cindy Sherman, a historically significant contemporary photographer, has created thousands of photographs of herself, dressed in disguise, to portray an iconic American female “type” that most people, in America, would recognize — a movie star, a homemaker, a sun-burned beachgoer. Booth has done the opposite of Sherman. He has photographed a real individual who evokes the essence of a familiar type.
A powerful incentive to see the exhibit, visitors to Gallery 208 will immediately experience a sense of peacefulness and quietude as you scan the exhibit. Yet, upon closer inspection, some of the out-of-focus elements in the photograph are eerily disconcerting. The experience of calm is not by accident. It is the result of his professional history but also little-known facts about his past.

In 2002, while a graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Booth found the 1867 camera at an antique store during a visit home to Nebraska. In 2004, he graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in photography. He began commuting, for a short time, from Savannah, Georgia, to teach “one” art survey class at Fayetteville Community College. Booth eventually moved to Fayetteville, worked several jobs in restaurants and a frame shop to survive. In 2005, he was hired to teach as an adjunct art instructor at Fayetteville State University. He became a full-time art faculty at FSU in 2007.

In 2013, Booth received a North Carolina Arts Council grant to have the 1867 large format camera restored. He has been using it ever since to create bodies of work. Although the camera equipment Booth uses changed, the idea of portraiture and the essence of what it means to portray an individual is not new.

The photographs in “Where the Winds Never Stops: The Hildreth Project” are the direct result of Booth’s knowledge of the art and craft of photography, his experience as an artist and an 1867-barrel lens camera he has restored. But the heart of Booth’s work as a mature artist lingers as a result of his 2004 MFA thesis exhibit. That year, Booth’s MFA thesis dissertation and exhibit focused on social photography; the title of his exhibition was “Pigeonhole.”

For Booth, coming from Nebraska to Savannah, Georgia, he is the first to admit he was a very naïve young man. “Savannah was not like Nebraska. I always felt oddly different. I was naïve about the racism I experienced for the first time, the stereotyping of people — even crime. For the thesis exhibit “Pigeonhole,” I did a series for portraits — combining my love of vintage things with the idea of how people are stereotyped.”

Unknowingly and indirectly, the heart of Booth’s work in this exhibition, and for most of his work since the 2004 MFA thesis, has always been about the essence of what it means to portray an individual. Even when Booth returns home each summer to photograph the Nebraska landscape, his landscapes are about the idea of portraiture and identity — what it means to grow up in rural Nebraska.
When you visit “Where the Winds Never Stops: The Hildreth Project,” you are seeing the work of an artist whose goal is to photograph every person living in Hildreth. When asked why, Booth said, “For five generations my family has called Hildreth, Nebraska, home. I return to the town every summer looking for familiar faces that make up my memories and the heart of this small farming community. As memories fade, people pass on, and younger generations want to live a more updated life, I feel it is important to document the members who remain in this small village. For me, they represent the identity of a group of people that are slowly being lost, a group that is defined by their strong generational connection to (their) environment.”

The exhibit will be up for three months, and the opening reception, to meet the artist and hear the artist talk about his work, was moved until August. Before August, when you visit Gallery 208, here is insight into how Booth can create the essence of the exhibition you will experience and how he interfaces with the subjects to take their portraits. “I wanted to document the spirit of Hildreth through portraiture,” said Booth. “I place the subject in their environment, which usually consists of their barn or home. … I do not direct the subject or pose them in a particular way. I simply allow them to sit in front of the camera and form a relationship with the lens. Sometimes that relationship is an easy one, and at other times it can be a bit anxious looking. Each image has a 10-second development time due to the 1867-barrel lens I use on my 8x10 studio camera. Because of this long exposure, movement and blurring of the subject or background become part of the photograph. In a land where the wind never stops blowing, it is part of their story.”

Booth’s backstory has been shared, but it’s also important to highlight a few of his many achievements. Some of his most recent exhibitions include: “Open Call,” Southeast Center for Photography, Columbia, South Carolina, in 2017; “Bridges: Sharing our Past to Enrich the Future,” Hildegard Center for the Arts, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2017; “Collective Experiences,” Chiang Mai University Art Museum, Chiang Mail Thailand, 2017; “The Abandoned Landscape,” Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, South Carolina., 2016; and “Looking Glass: Exploring Self Portraiture,” Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana, 2015.

Presentations include but are not limited to: “Catherland Project 1,” Willa Cather Foundation, Red Cloud, Nebraska, 2016; Musikhjalpen Oskarshamn, “HIV,” Sweden, Oskarshamn Sweden, 2014 Society of Photographic Education South East, “Vulnerabilities Groom,” Society of Photographic Education, Greenville, North Carolina, 2014.

Some of the grants he received include the following: “Portraiture with 1867 Camera,” sponsored by Minden Opera House, 2108; “Shane Booth and the Personal Photography of a Life with HIV,” sponsored by Department of State, Federal, $7,000.00, 2018; “Artist in Residence,” sponsored by Willa Cather Foundation, 2016; and “Regional Artists Grant,” Sponsored by United Arts Council (North Carolina Arts Council), 2013.
There will be plenty of social distancing for visitors to “Where the Winds Never Stops: The Hildreth Project at Gallery 208 until August 2020. There will be an opening reception in August. Gallery 208 is located at 208 Rowan St. The gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday. For information call 910- 484-6200.

This time of year, high school football coaches are usually getting ready for a long summer of conditioning workouts with their teams in preparation for the start of official practice in North Carolina on August 1.

But the COVID-19 pandemic and lingering uncertainty over what kind of, if any, football season we’ll have this fall has the Cumberland County Schools senior high school football coaches taking a far more cautious look at what a return to the sport could mean.

None are more circumspect in their feelings about this fall than veteran Pine Forest coach Bill Sochovka. Like all of his fellow coaches, his main concern is the health and safety of his players and coaches. He’d like to wait and see what goes on in states that are opening up practice faster than North Carolina.

“A later date would give us a better understanding,’’ he said, adding he’d prefer to have preseason practice no earlier than July 1.

“People forget that high school sports, particularly football, is a natural petri dish for germs,’’ Sochovka said. “Anytime a kid gets a sniffle or a stomach bug, you’re going to have six or seven kids on the team wind up getting it.’’

Sochovka said the sport of football is already under the microscope for how it handles injuries because of the recent concern for the treatment of players who suffer concussions. “We’ve got to think about kids and safety first,’’ he said. “We’ve got to be smart about it.’’

Another concern is just what kind of football we’ll be playing when the sport first resumes. Jake Thomas, coach at Cape Fear, noted that the preliminary practice guidelines set down by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations turn practice into more of a case of strength and conditioning than actual game practice.

“Screening every athlete and coach every time you meet with them seems not financially feasible,’’ Thomas said. “Schools already have limited budgets, and now football games without fans and a band
will financially destroy high school athletics and many schools.’’

Thomas thinks coaches may need to look for pre-determined risk factors like a respiratory condition and possibly not allow at-risk athletes to come out for the team.

“At some point, we have to go back to living life and stop hiding in fear,’’ he said.

Terry Sanford coach Bruce McClelland said his staff has already worked out a rotation of players to limit numbers in the school’s weight room, along with plans to sanitize all areas used by players and team staff.

“There are so many different professional opinions I have listened to — it’s become confusing,’’ he said. “I am honestly hoping we get some good news in the near future from the medical field that will help make this an easier decision.’’

Seventy-First coach Duran McLaurin would love to be practicing, but he’s cognizant of what that could entail. “I’m very concerned with keeping my players safe more than any reward I can think of right now,’’ he said.

Regardless of what happens, the advice given by new E.E. Smith head coach Andy Karcher is likely the wisest. “The biggest takeaway from this is to be patient, keep everything and everyone as clean as possible and don’t take any unnecessary risks,’’ he said.

Twenty-five percent of the patients of the North Carolina State Veterans Home in Fayetteville have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and officials say two residents have died, as of May 26. Cumberland County’s Department of Public Health has confirmed 36 cases at the nursing home for veterans. It is the largest of four veterans homes in North Carolina, with 142 occupants. The State Department of Military and Veterans Affairs contracts with PruittHealth of Norcross, Georgia, to operate the facility located at 214 Cochran Ave. behind the VA Medical Center. A statement on PruittHealth’s website says the facility is in ‘Alert Code Red’ status, meaning visitors and nonessential workers are prohibited from visiting.

“The company has continued to implement enhanced infection control protocols, including increasing cleaning frequency, postponing communal activities, ceasing visitation,” the company said.U.S. News and World Report has rated 15,000 American nursing homes for short-term and long-term care and noted, “North Carolina State Veterans Home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has a short-term rehabilitation rating of Below Average and a long-term care rating of Average. It is a large facility with 150 beds and has state ownership. Overall Rating: 2 of 5 (Based on data from August 2019 and earlier.)”

Cumberland County High School graduation changes

Cumberland County Schools has updated the local high school graduation schedule after receiving feedback from graduating seniors, parents and principals. Graduating seniors will now be able to receive their diplomas between June 12 and June 19 at their schools. “I’ve heard a consistent message — students are ready to graduate and move forward with their post-secondary plans,” said CCS Superintendent Dr. Marvin Connelly Jr. This revised graduation plan, which was approved by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Cumberland County Public Health Director, allows graduating seniors to walk across the stage while family members look on. Graduations will be conducted in shifts with small groups of students and their guests arriving at prescheduled times. Graduates may have a maximum of four guests accompany them. Face masks or face coverings must be worn by all attendees, except children under the age of two. High school principals have shared detailed overviews of their graduation plans with families. The school district will capture students’ photos as they walk across the stage and produce a graduation video for each high school, which will include a message from each principal and senior class president, along with a photo of each graduating senior.

Medical center announces fellowship

Cape Fear Valley Health System and Campbell University have received accreditation to launch a fellowship training program in cardiovascular disease at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. This is Cape Fear Valley Health’s s first fellowship program. The three-year cardiology fellowship will begin in July. “This is another proud moment in the health system’s history,” said Michael Nagowski, chief executive officer for the Cape Fear Valley Health system. “Cape Fear Valley Medical Center has been nationally recognized by IBM Watson Health as a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital for 2018 and by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care and Coronary Intervention
in 2019.”

Amol Bahekar, M.D., of Fayetteville Heart Center, has been named the fellowship program director. The fellowship program will enroll three physician residents per year, up to nine residents. Residents must complete three-year internal medicine residencies before enrollment. Now in its third-year, Cape Fear Valley Health’s physician residency program has grown to include 134 physician residents training in psychiatry, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery and emergency medicine, as well as a transitional rotating internship. The program’s goal is to address the growing physician shortage in rural North Carolina.

Obtain a library book at the curb

The Cumberland County Public Library is introducing contactless curbside pickup at all eight library branches. Curbside pickup is now available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., by appointment only. You can place orders through the library catalog or by calling 910-483-7727. Each library branch will have curbside orders bagged and ready for pickup at scheduled times.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has required county staff to create innovative ways to continue delivering the exceptional services that Cumberland residents are accustomed to,” said library director Jody
Risacher.

Library patrons will go to the main entrance, show their library card or ID through the glass door and then step back 10 feet. A staff member will open the door and place the curbside order on a table at the entrance. Once the door closes, the customer is free to pick up the order. Staff will follow established procedures for returned items. A 72-hour quarantine of returned books is the safest and most effective way to disinfect them. The use of liquid disinfectants is harmful to the books and is not recommended.

Eagle Feather graduation honors

Cumberland County Schools Office of Indian Education has announced that 68 graduating American Indian seniors will be honored during a unique drive-thru Eagle Feather Ceremony on Wednesday, June 17, from 8 a.m.-noon, or Thursday, June 18, from noon-3 p.m., in the parking lot of the Educational Resource Center, at 396 Elementary Dr. in Fayetteville. Each senior will receive an eagle feather in a keepsake box. According to the Office of Indian Education, the feather symbolizes trust, honor, strength, wisdom, power and freedom and is revered as a sign of high honor. In Native American culture, it is believed that all things possess an inherent virtue, power and wisdom. The feather, for example, is a powerful symbol that signifies honor and a connection between the owner, the creator and the bird from which the feather came. For additional information about the Eagle Feather Ceremony, email Indian Education Coordinator Rodney Jackson at rodneyjackson@ccs.k12.nc.us.

My heart hurt with the sad news the Fayetteville Technical Community College’s Early Childhood Education Center has permanently shuttered its doors. The loss of a 5-star day care center in a young community that needs more, not fewer, of them negatively impacts families, employees and the community at large. FTCC’s Board decided it could no longer underwrite the Center’s financial losses, especially since the pandemic forced the center to shut down more than two months ago. That left a business model with little income and ongoing expenses. Since 1996, the Center provided both high-quality daycare services and a hands-on learning laboratory for students in FTCC’s Early Childhood Education program.

On top of 100,000+ human deaths, COVID-19 is killing U.S. industries that depend on customers who show up faithfully day after day and pay to do so. Daycare is the very definition of such an industry. Working parents depend on daycare, but it is a two-way street. When COVID-19 forced closure of schools and most daycare facilities to slow the spread of the virus, the two-way street shut down. Like the FTCC center, many of those daycare businesses will not return, making high-quality daycare an even more precious commodity.

Underlying the daycare problem in the United States is that we are so two-faced about it. We profess that daycare, especially for preschool children, is essential, and then we walk away.

Daycare is indeed essential to the modern American workplace, but we do not put our money where our mouths are. We tell each other that early childhood education is important on two critical fronts — allowing parents to provide for their families and, with luck, continue upward mobility and preventing educational disparities. High falutin’ talk aside, we put next to no public investment into daycare, relegating the industry to small businesses that are at the head of the failure line when disaster, such as COVID-19, strikes. Most day cares lack financial resources to stay afloat in hard times.

Public schools, where, by far most American children head when they are old enough, are different in one critical way. Public schools, like other essential services such as law enforcement and fire protection, receive public funding. Their teachers, staffs and operations are paid with public dollars.

When disaster strikes, public schools will pick up where they left off when it is safe to do so, while daycare centers can only hang on as best they can for as long as they can. Some economic forecasts project that COVID-19 will cost the United States about half of our daycare capacity. The question then becomes whether daycare be available when parents are ready and can afford to put their precious kiddos back into day care so our American economy can get going again. The New York Times reports about 76% of mothers of children under six work full time, and 96% of their fathers do. Those percentages constitute big numbers, and marshaling the skills of those potential workers is critical to our nation’s economic recovery.

The list of troubled and needy industries suffering from the pandemic is long, and many hands are out for public support. The time has arrived for Americans not only to talk the talk but to figure out how to walk the walk when it comes to day care as support a humming economy.
Either it is essential, or it isn’t.

During the current Corona Cooties crisis, it’s time we all began to think seriously about the kind of world we want to leave behind for Keith Richards. No one, no civilization, lasts forever, with the only exception being Mr. Richards. Able to survive years of curious multiple-substances ingestion, able to fall from a coconut tree on his head without permanent damage, longer-lasting than a Twinkie or a cockroach, the unsinkable Mr. Richards goes on and on into the future. Once America is gone, once we are all gone, what kind of legacy will we bequeath to Mr. Richards? It is a question made even more timely with the two-week interval between America’s coming out party on Memorial Day and the surge of Corona, which is sure to follow.

I got to thinking about Mr. Richards when I realized that this column would disgrace the annals of journalism by appearing the week of June 3, which, coincidentally, is the anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ first American tour in 1964. Climb into Mr. Peabody’s Time Machine to go back to June 5, 1964, in San Bernadino, California, where the group had its first American concert. The Stones’ song setlist began with “Not Fade Away,” included “Route 66,” “Walking the Dog,” and finished up with “I’m Alright.” The Stones were billed by the radio station sponsoring the concert as “the ugliest band in England.” The Stones opening acts on that tour included Bobby Goldsboro, George Jones and Bobby Vee.

The combination of the Rolling Stones and Bobby Goldsboro playing the same gig boggles the mind. Bobby went on in 1968 to write “Honey,” possibly the worst song of all time. Bobby’s song mourns his lost love, a gal named Honey, who cried over movies and wrecked his car. The immortal lyrics include: “See the tree how big it’s grown/ But friend it hasn’t been too long, it wasn’t big/ I laughed at her, and she got mad/ The first day that she planted, it was just a twig … She was always young at heart/ Kinda dumb and kinda smart, and I loved her so/ (Honey then gets called home by the angels) … And now my life’s an empty stage/ Where Honey lived, and Honey played and love grew up/ A small cloud passes overhead/ And cries down on the flower bed that Honey loved/.” Gentle Reader, if you can hum these lyrics from memory and not throw up a little bit in your mouth, you are a better person than I.

The bizarre combination of the Stones and Bobby Goldsboro might only come close to being matched by a Janis Joplin concert in Chapel Hill that I attended in Carmichael Auditorium in February 1969. This concert paired Janis with the opening act of Gene Barber and the Cavaliers. Janis was wild and crazy San Francisco rock; Gene and the Cavaliers were pure beach music. The crowd was not there to hear beach music. Gene was not well received. It reminded me of the scene in the Blues Brother’s movie where the boys are playing “Rawhide” at Bob’s Country Bunker red neck bar behind a chicken wire fence dodging thrown beer bottles. Gene did not get to finish his set. Cooler heads prevailed. He was hustled off the stage before he came to bodily harm from the fans who had not come to shag to beach music.

Speaking of strange stage fellows, another odd coupling of bands that nearly rivals Bobby and the Rolling Stones was when the Jimi Hendrix Experience was the opening act for The Monkees in July 1967. Imagine a time when “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “The Last Train to Clarksville” took precedence over “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” You cannot make this stuff up.

Odd combinations are not limited to the world of Rock & Roll. In an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David has a sandwich named after him at his favorite delicatessen. The Larry David sandwich is a temptingly hideous combination of whitefish salad, smoked black codfish, onions, cream cheese and capers. Larry is greatly offended by the contents of the sandwich and tries to switch sandwich names with Ted Danson. If this plot sounds too involved or trivial to be concerned about, you are probably right. Not every sandwich can be a gem. Larry’s dismay with his namesake sandwich is what is known as a First World Problem.

But what does all this have to do with Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones’ first American concert? Not much. But lest we forget, 1964 is a long time ago. Fifty-six years to be exact. Keith was alive then. He’s alive now. He will be alive long after we are all gone. So, if you were expecting some sort of coherent point to this column, remember — you can’t always get what you want. Time may not be on our side, but it certainly is for Keith. If life offers you a Larry David sandwich, don’t eat it. Paint it black. It’s an election year, be sure to get your fair share of abuse.

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, who could hang a coconut on you? See you in two weeks if the Cooties don’t get us first.

Pictured: Keith Richards
Photo credit: Siebbi / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Westover High School’s Madison Pompey has been named the Region 4 winner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Willie Bradshaw Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

The scholarship, which is worth $750, is presented to winners from each of the state’s eight geographic regions, with two statewide winners getting an additional scholarship of $1,000.

The winners are chosen from outstanding minority nominees for the award, which is named for Bradshaw, a Durham native who was a star athlete at Hillside High School and a longtime coach and athletic administrator. He is a member of both the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and National High School Halls of Fame.

Pompey competed in both cross country and track and field during all four years she was a student at Westover. She was a team captain her junior and senior years and earned second team all-conference, lettering in both sports.

She also received the Distance Award and the Coach’s Award.
She is active in her church as a member of the youth group and a participant with the church’s liturgical dance team.

Pompey volunteers both at her church and with local civic organizations. She plans to pursue a degree in forensic science.

America has no shortage of heroes to honor. We remember those who were killed on battlefields, but we should also reflect on those who lost their lives and are remembered as “others.” Even during peace time, helicopters crash, training exercises at times go awry and auto accidents occur. And, what about the family members, comrades and friends who remain?

In the war against coronavirus, health care workers and first responders are the infantry. Doctors, nurses, EMTs, police officers and firefighters risk their lives by simply showing up for work. A significant number of military veterans enter second careers as first responders. Many heroes have been killed in battle, while others died in civilian life because they tried to help others.

Henry Black is a retired Marine Corps major who lost a loved one in war. His son, Army Green Beret Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, was one of the four fallen U.S. soldiers killed during an Oct. 4, 2017, firefight in Niger by militants aligned with the Islamic State. Black lives in Washington state with his wife, a surviving son, daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. He recently penned an op-ed commentary for the Military Times and gave Up and Coming Weekly permission to reprint his remarks:

“I admonish those that now lead our military, who are responsible for the well-being of our sons and daughters to honor the memory of those we have lost by supporting and protecting those who remain with every resource available,” he wrote, adding “never place primary blame for negative events on your subordinates, but realize that if a subordinate unit fails, it is your failure, also. Do not exonerate yourself for missions that go awry. Don’t look for fault only in your subordinates, look for faults in yourselves, also.”

Black continued “I also remember the teammates of those lost, who were with the lost as they gave their last full measure of devotion, and who now may carry scars from what and who they lost. I am grateful for them, and ask them not to carry grief or guilt, but to live lives that honor the memories of lost friends and teammates. Black added, “… do not look simply to assign blame, for mistakes will inevitably be made, but to learn what can be improved. Do this, and everything else in your power, so that your, and our, soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen can be part of the living... and not join those whom we remember and honor for their last full measure of devotion.”

The month of May is Military Appreciation Month as designated by Congress in 1999. Although the entire month is designated to honoring past and present military members and their families, there are several military holidays sprinkled throughout the month, in addition to Memorial Day. They include Loyalty Day, VE Day, Military Spouse Appreciation Day, Mother’s Day and Armed Forces Day.

Bill,

As I read your (May 13) editorial I keep saying AMEN! You hit the nail on the head. At my age (76) it is difficult to realize that our freedoms are slowly — maybe rapidly — being taken away from us. Your opinion piece should be read by everyone. Put your piece together with the article by Karl Merritt and we have all we need to know about the path this country is taking. AMEN! AMEN! to both of you.

Thank you for your work at Up & Coming Weekly.

—Myra Parker
(Mrs. Weeks Parker)

***********************************************************************

I was stuck in traffic on McPherson Church Road at 5 p.m. Saturday. When I finally reached the intersection, I saw that the police were protecting a line of people holding signs — that was a peaceful
assembly.

Three hours later I heard on the radio about smoke and a man on fire at the Market House — that was not peaceful. Six hours later, I learned of looting and broken glass at Walmart on Skibo and
JC Penney at the Mall — that is a mob.

What happened, dear Fayettevillians? We are not Baltimore, we are not Los Angeles, we are not Minneapolis. I have lived half my life here and have embraced the city’s 230+ year history. We are black and white and brown and yellow. We are biracial, interracial, multi-ethnic. We are not Bosnia or Serbia or Croatia, where neighbors fought neighbors. We are not an underdeveloped country, although the COVID crisis almost reduced our day-to-day economy as such with toilet paper lines instead of bread lines. We are the center of the military universe and about to celebrate the 2020 graduation of our high school and college students. Is anarchy their future instead of law and order and respect for oneself and others?

My heart broke when I visited the Market House Sunday. Priceless Lafayette exhibits on the second floor were taken and now stolen from the children of this county. To see boarded up windows and doors on both sides of Hay Street was awful. These are small-business owners. A hurricane did not cause this; reckless action did.

My thoughts Sunday at midnight were where was the city’s leadership, telling the crowds: “OK, time to go home. Do not destroy your town; do not destroy our town.”

Why did the police stand down, be it at Walmart or the Market House? Was it to prevent confrontation, prevent escalation of a planned tense situation? A witness told me Sunday that cars were parked zigzag on Hay Street while their drivers were ransacking the area; that sounds like a calculated maneuver. Other Skibo Road witnesses told me of the 2 a.m. swarm of cars and people running in and out of Walmart as well as J.C. Penney’s with merchandise, egged on by others on their cell phones. With all the store cameras and the bragging Facebook posts, will the police be serving warrants soon?

Perhaps the beloved educator, Dr. E.E. Smith, can return and calm the waters. He lived in a time when the racial wounds were more fresh (1852-1933). Yet, he worked well with others to achieve his education and ministry, build up Fayetteville State University, start the first black-owned newspaper in North Carolina and represent the U.S.. overseas. Every Fayetteville child should know about him and Lafayette; mob rule should not be their model.
We cannot be going backward.

— Linda McAlister

Community Notes

Update: Republican headquarters across the state are temporarily closed. The June 13 event will still take place. 

• 2810 Bragg Blvd. will be the 2020 Headquarters for the Cumberland County Republican Party. Educational material, voter information and precinct maps will be on display. Campaign literature, and candidate signs will be available soon. The current shelter-in- place lockdown has delayed distribution of signs.

County Chairman Jackie Taylor and her Board of Officers will be hosting an outdoor Grand Opening with Ribbon-Cutting and special guests on June 13 in the parking lot. There will be a guest speaker, Mark Robinson, candidate for Lt. Governor. More details to be announced. In the meantime, doors will be open Monday through Saturday  12 p.m. to 4 p.m. as of June 1. For more information, contact jackieleetaylor41@gmail.com or call the Headquarters at 910-339-2011.

• St. Ann RC Church in Fayetteville is hosting a Blood Drive, Saturday, June 13, from 9 a.m.-noon at 357 N. Cool Spring St. The Cape Fear Valley Blood Donor Center is providing two Blood Mobiles to facilitate the collection of blood.
The Blood Mobiles can accommodate five donors every fifteen minutes. Average time it takes to donate is approximately
30 minutes.

There is an urgent need for O-negative blood.

As I write this editorial, no doubt city officials have already met to “circle the wagons” to come forth this week disseminating a consistent and coherent message, as they pat themselves on the back, proclaiming to the public what a great job they did in managing the protest, riots and unrest that took place over the weekend. Many will certainly disagree. I sit here Sunday evening with a heavy heart at the devastation and violence and destruction that has been perpetrated on our community in the name of George Floyd. His death was a travesty; however, to loot, steal, burn and pillage personal property in his name is beyond reprehensible. Fayetteville, North Carolina, our hometown, was transformed into a criminal flashpoint — as were about 30 other cities across the country.

In Fayetteville, our leadership really blew it on multiple fronts. I have written several times about the lack of vision, talent and leadership in our community. The horrifying events of last weekend only confirm this. As I watched the carnage taking place on Hay Street and across our community, my only thoughts were: Where is the mayor? Where are the police? Where is the Fire Department? Where are our community and government leaders, and why are they not present?

It is incomprehensible and unacceptable that in the city of Fayetteville and county of Cumberland, where we have people of color in the most trusted, prominent and vital positions of leadership — the mayor, city manager, city attorney, seven out of nine City Council members, the police chief, fire chief, Cumberland County Sheriff, Cumberland County Schools superintendent and three Cumberland County Commissioners — that no one stepped up to even try to address the protesters and calm the crowd for the safety and welfare of the community. Where were all the black pastors and clergy from the dozens of African American churches in the community? Where were all these encouraging voices of love, fellowship, compassion and reason? The good reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., must be turning in his grave after witnessing the criminal acts being invoked in his name.

The leadership capacity of City Hall is meant to serve and protect Fayetteville citizens. These duties are not just reserved for law enforcement. Here, the mayor and all of the City Hall departments were derelict in their duties. Not just because our leaders were unsuccessful in their efforts — but because they didn’t even try! They were complicit to the carnage and must be held accountable.

Saturday night in downtown Fayetteville was a horrid spectacle. It was made worse by the fact that no effort was made to protect the citizens, personal property, city property or the businesses that employ hundreds of residents and have been the lifeblood of the downtown revitalization effort — the very economic revitalization that our leadership supposedly has been advocating for and the taxpayers have been generously paying for. Yet, they collectively acquiesced and sat back and did nothing.

Fayetteville and Cumberland County leaders need to rethink the vision for our future and how they are going to get us there. A good friend told me something that rang so true: “In every case,” he said, “friction eventually destroys.” He is right — car engines, marriage conflicts, employee relations, personal and business relationships — friction eventually destroys any opportunity for progress or resolution.

Our community will never be all it can be with leadership that is so self-absorbed in unilateral racial motives. This protest and rioting situation have exposed the ugly but inevitable truth that race alone doesn’t make a person a leader, nor does it make someone smart. And it definitely doesn’t keep a person from being an opportunist — especially when they yield to protest organizers and allow them and their disciples to become the pied pipers of destruction, looting and criminal intent. 

Fayetteville and Cumberland County are at a crossroads. Real leadership is the only thing that can save this community. Who will step up? More importantly, who should step down?

Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

There’s one major advantage to being involved in the recreation business at the time of something like the current pandemic.

At least that’s the opinion of Maxey Dove, assistant director of the Hope Mills Parks and Recreation Department.

“It’s one of the bigger fields for leaning on your neighbor,’’ said Dove, who has been doing a lot of that lately. He’s reached out to fellow recreation personnel from programs around the area that Hope Mills competes against, feeling them out for ideas and suggestions on what they are doing during this situation.

“There’s a lot of networking, a lot of communication in parks and recreation that’s beneficial to everybody,’’ Dove said. The problem is there’s also one consistent thing he’s been hearing when talking to his counterparts.
“It’s certainly unprecedented times and unprecedented circumstances,’’ Dove said. “Everybody is kind of learning together.’’

Hope Mills has already been faced with one difficult decision, the cancellation of its entire spring sports program that normally would have stretched well into the summer months.

Sports wiped off the spring calendar include indoor soccer, baseball, softball and wrestling.

Dove and his staff are in the process of refunding registration fees that had already been paid and said it will take roughly three to four weeks to get checks written and returned to everyone who signed up.

The Dixie Youth organization, with which Hope Mills is affiliated, also canceled its annual World Series, but Dove said that was done with good intentions.

In a normal year, teams compete first in the regular season then select an all-star team from their local league to advance into state competition in hopes of reaching the Dixie Youth World Series.

By eliminating the World Series, the Dixie Youth officials hoped to encourage local leagues to play as long a regular season as they could, if they were playing, and not cram a short season together just so they could put an all-star team on the field for the World Series and only allow a handful of players the chance for extended competition.

“It wasn’t just about the select 12,’’ Dove said of the all-star teams.
While Hope Mills is shut down for the spring, Dove said other states are further ahead in opening up their recreation programs for play and some are already on the field for baseball.

However, in talking with officials from other states where baseball is taking place, he said they are observing strict safety precautions that are making the game a lot different from what we normally see.

For example, players aren’t allowed to sit in the dugouts when they’re not on the field. Yellow ribbons are placed along the fence six feet apart to indicate proper social distancing. Each team has its own baseballs and they are bleached every inning or half inning.

Dove said he and his staff at Hope Mills had also discussed some possible precautions they may take if baseball resumes in the fall league at Hope Mills this year.

The fall league is a noncompetitive league for players ages 7-12 designed as a developmental program that doesn’t focus on wins and losses but on getting the players ready for the following spring season.

Dove said some of the ideas discussed are having teams leave the field completely after practice before allowing another team on the field, and possibly having separate entrance and exit gates to the field.

They also discussed counting spectators, and possibly limiting each player to having only a single parent able to come and watch the game. Providing hand sanitizer and disinfecting the dugouts was also considered.

Dove said other states have been trying different things to keep the games as safe as possible. Among them are not allowing players to steal, no high fives between players and coaches and putting the home plate umpire behind the pitcher’s mound to call balls and strikes.

“At a certain point, it’s still a contact sport,’’ Dove said. “They’re doing everything they can to create distance.’’

The next sports season on the calendar is fall, and Hope Mills is trying to take a positive attitude toward being able to compete then and plans to launch fall sports registration in the near future.

The good news is the recreation department has been working toward doing registration online and that will be in place for the fall season, so people won’t have to physically come to the recreation center to sign their children up for competition.

In addition to getting ready for the fall season, the recreation department is making needed repairs and improvements to the Gary Dove Memorial Building at Brower Park. The multipurpose structure was named last April in memory of Maxey Dove’s father. Gary Dove was a long-time coach and leader in the Hope Mills youth sports program.

A new roof and gutters will be placed on the building, along with repairs to the building’s sheet rock. In addition, some of the upstairs space where the Hope Mills Youth Association used to meet will be converted to office space for Dove.

The two-story structure already has a concession stand, restrooms for men and women and a multipurpose activity room used for cheerleading and wrestling.

Few people are better qualified to talk about the current state of high school athletics in North Carolina than Rick Strunk. Strunk joined the staff at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in 1985 and spent 30 years there before stepping down in 2015.

During his early years with the NCHSAA, Strunk had a conversation with longtime NCHSAA leader Charlie Adams about what events could disrupt high school sports on a statewide scale.

Adams told Strunk one thing would be a major war that could put restrictions on travel.

The second thing Adams said was an epidemic.

Strunk said during his time with the NCHSAA, they did have to deal with a situation like that, but it was nothing on the scale of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was a measles outbreak,’’ Strunk said, adding that it was confined to one area of the state. “School systems went under quarantine for a limited period of time to try and track down the source of the measles.’’

Schools in that area developed a workaround, redoing their athletic schedules and playing games against schools that weren’t under quarantine, then once the quarantine was lifted, making up all the postponed games against the schools that were in lockdown.

He thinks the NCHSAA has done the best job possible trying to make decisions within the framework of the restrictions that have been set down in North Carolina to curb the spread of the pandemic, and he thinks coaches, athletes, parents and fans need to understand that the NCHSAA lacks the freedom to make plans for the future at will.

“When the governor says something is going to happen on this date, you can’t make your own decision to run counter to that,’’ he said. “Health and safety of the participants is paramount. That is what North Carolina has focused on.’’

Strunk said he has stayed in contact with members of the NCHSAA staff during the pandemic, and hopes the public appreciates this has been a painful process for them. “They know the value of high school sports and that kids want to play,’’ he said. “I really feel bad for seniors who didn’t have a season in the spring because it was stopped so early.’’

At the same time, he had nothing but praise for how school systems and coaches are still reaching out to support both students and athletes.
“Schools have had to pivot quickly,’’ he said. “Without much run-up they had to put classes online.’’

He said coaches have had to design strength conditioning programs for homebound athletes who don’t have access to gyms or weights.

In the face of everything, Strunk is trying to be optimistic and hopeful that by this fall, some degree of normalcy will return and coaches and athletes will be back on the field.
“First is the decision about school,’’ he said. “That will drive a lot of things.’’

He’s also concerned about if fans will feel safe going to games and if small businesses will be able to provide financial support to local teams after being closed.

Instead of a light switch, Strunk thinks the return to sports will be more like a dimmer switch. “The safety of the public, the athletes, the coaches, the fans, all of those are the prime directive in this case,’’ he said.

Cumberland County’s newest Biscuitville fast-food restaurant is all dressed up and ready for opening day in Hope Mills.

The only question is exactly when that will be.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening date for the restaurant at the intersection of Hope Mills Road and George Owen Road is generically scheduled for summer, but officials at the business’s restaurant support center in Greensboro can’t offer any more specific information on the opening than that.

Alon Vanterpool is the marketing manager for Biscuitville, which is primarily a North Carolina business with locations largely located in the Triad area of Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, along with some in Virginia.

Vanterpool said Biscuitville has expanded into the Triangle area of Raleigh and Durham and is also growing in Fayetteville as the addition of the Hope Mills restaurant indicates.

Construction of the Hope Mills location was well underway when concerns about the pandemic reaching the United States started to grow.

Vanterpool said Biscuitville officials quickly realized plans for moving forward with the opening of the restaurant would be heavily influenced by following state guidelines put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Biscuitville does have other restaurants already open in the Fayetteville area that are currently serving drive-through customers only.

The first step to get the new Hope Mills location up and running will be completing the hiring of a manager for the store along with the staff.

Vanterpool said Biscuitville typically begins the search for the top staff positions about six months before opening then hires the members of the restaurant crew four to six weeks before opening.

As of mid-May, the Hope Mills location is still looking for a manager/operator, with plans to hire approximately 40 people to work on the restaurant crew.
Vanterpool said open positions on the restaurant crew can be found at www.biscuitville.com/careers.

She isn’t sure what the status of filling any of the crew positions is at this time, but she knows the hiring of crew members was on Biscuitville’s radar before the pandemic struck.

“As soon as we get the go-ahead, we’ll be going full speed ahead,’’ Vanterpool said.

Visit the company’s website at www.biscuitville.com for any general questions about Biscuitville or the new Hope Mills location.