Kristy Jackson is a Hope Mills store owner, but at heart she’s a dance mom, and that’s usually what comes first when a customer visits Chloe’s Corner Boutique on Trade Street looking for dance wear.

“I love seeing the new little dancers come in and helping them any way I can,’’ Jackson said. “I do make it more personal. I don’t want to sell them something they’re not going to need, because I’m like that. And they come back.’’

Jackson’s concern for doing things right by her customers comes naturally. She got into the business of dance apparel after experiencing firsthand how expensive it could be when she had to help provide for her daughters in their dance careers. The business is named after her youngest daughter, Chloe.

“That was my main reason for opening the business, to help dance moms like me save,’’ she said.

She’s been in business for seven years, but she’s only been in her current location at 5472 Trade St. since last April because she outgrew her previous location on the same street

The original business started with items including costume and fashion jewelry, Tyler Candles, keychains, ID holders and cups.

Jackson still offers those items, but most of her sales now involve dance wear and products from the Simply Southern and Girly Girl clothing lines.

When it comes to dance wear, Jackson said she offers the full gamut of clothing, including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical and hip hop. Most of what she offers is for girls and women, but she does have some items for male dancers and can place orders for specific needs.

The Simply Southern attire, especially T-shirts, is popular locally. “It’s the name brand to be honest,’’ she said. “I’ve got a 15-year-old, and that’s what they are wearing. It’s not just the kids, it’s the adults too.’’

Jackson said her store hours vary, based on the season of the year and adjusting to how much foot traffic she gets during the different seasons.

For now, she’s open Tuesday through Friday from 12:30-5:30 p.m. Once Daylight Saving Time begins, Jackson transitions to summer hours and usually stays late a couple of nights a week from 6-6:30 p.m.

“I do post on my door that for dance wear if somebody has to be fitted for shoes, I’ll open by appointment on days I’m closed.’’

She carries a full line of dancing shoes, with the exception of point shoes with the hard box at the toe. “You have to be trained in fitting point shoes,’’ she said.

She also has plain and fancy leotards, dresses, tutus, shorts and skirts.

While she does have a jewelry selection, it’s not as large as it once was. “I just have a few necklace sets and initials,’’ she said. “I’ve got a few initial bracelets, rings and necklaces.’’ The reason for the limited supply of jewelry is when she was at her old location, she found herself having to remove jewelry from display to expand her offering of dance wear.

Now that she’s at her new location with more space, she would like to eventually expand her jewelry offering again. She’s also in the process of adding a dressing room.

To find out more about the business, contact Jackson at 910-423-0050 or visit her Facebook page at Chloe’s Corner Boutique.

Haymount has all the elements of a standalone community. It’s got restaurants, a theater, shopping, a pharmacy, a business district, proximity to higher education at Fayetteville Technical Community College and even its own post office. And personality – so much personality. With homes built between 1817 and 1950, Haymount is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was once a neighbor to Fayetteville. But as Fayetteville grew, things changed.

In 1910, this burg was incorporated into the city of Fayetteville. Many of Fayetteville’s prominent citizens and founders hail from Haymount, including Fayetteville Observer publisher E.J. Hale and U.S. Sen. Robert Strange. This historic district is centrally located close to downtown and local major shopping centers and is a stone’s throw from a first-rate hospital.

Growth is still a theme here. Residents of Haymount benefit from the Museum of the Cape Fear historical complex and will benefit from the changes the North Carolina Civil War and Reconstruction History Center will bring.

As Fayetteville and Cumberland County have grown, in many ways it feels as if Haymount has been swallowed up. Increased traffic runs through its thoroughfares, and busyness encroaches as Haymount is squeezed between downtown and the fast-paced growth that continues closer to the mall.

Can Haymount maintain its magical small-town charm that has endured here for centuries? Will the businesses that have served this community so faithfully continue to thrive?

Haymount is at a crossroads. Literally and figuratively. It would be tragic for this distinctive neighborhood with such personality and the charm of a Norman Rockwell painting to be unceremoniously swallowed up in the name of progress. Yet without thoughtful consideration and planning, Haymount’s future is uncertain. So many of the area’s newcomers have no idea what a gem Haymount is or why it is significant to local history. And that is a shame.

There have been several studies in recent years aimed at determining the best path for Haymount. And because business owners and families that have defined Haymount for generations love this community and don’t want to lose the very things that make it special, it’s been hard to move forward. Eventually, something has to happen, or Haymount will lose the opportunity to chart its own path as Fayetteville continues to prosper and change.

On March 10, Build a Better Haymount explores some of the possibilities for what Haymount could look like. From 1-5 p.m., the district will include tree-lined streets, bike paths, a temporary plaza, food trucks, entertainment, art and more. Angie Hedgepeth and Eric Vitale, along with the city of Fayetteville, have spent the better part of a year planning this event with the hope that they can keep the community engaged in the process of change and keep the conversation about Haymount’s future going.

The event is free and open to the public. If you’ve never walked the idyllic streets of the Haymount district and experienced the charm of this one-of-a-kind area, this is the perfect time.

Many thanks to the city of Fayetteville; Angie Hedgepeth of Longleaf Pine REALTORS, Inc.; Cumberland County transportation planner Eric Vitale; the Fayetteville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization; and all the Haymount residents and businesses for their efforts to shine a light on this community as it finds its path forward. Visit www.betterblockfaync. com to learn more.

Thanks for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

As I write this and as you read it, energy is flowing away from political efforts to address our nation’s gun violence problem. The young people who endured the Parkland shooting are still on television and making online pleas for school safety, but elected officials from our president down to state legislators continue to play for time, hoping public angst will subside. If the past is an indicator of the future, then politicians are probably safe until the next mass shooting.

Some positive signs can be found.

Fear of the National Rifle Association may paralyze politicians, but corporate America, which survives and prospers by understanding what people think and want, is acting. To its enduring credit, Dick’s Sporting Goods will no longer sell military-style assault weapons and will sell firearms only to people 21 and older. Walmart raised its minimum age as well. Ditto for L.L. Bean whose new policy also limits ammo sales to those over 21. Delta Airlines severed its business ties with the NRA, even though the Georgia legislature immediately retaliated by jerking away a $40 million tax break. Said Delta’s CEO, “Our values are not for sale.”

Gun violence and gun accessibility, both longrunning and complex issues in our nation, leave no doubt that the United States is the world outlier when it comes to both. We make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but we own 42 percent of the world’s guns. Only Yemen has a higher rate of mass shootings among nations with more than 10 million people, and – not surprisingly, it has the second highest rate of gun ownership, calling into question that old saw that “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”

Consider this as well. Other nations have mass shootings, but they are random. Ours have become so routine that we openly refer to “school shooters.” Details of all the incidents run together. The New York Times recently reported on a 2016 study that documented 133 mass shootings in the United States during the period of the study. By contrast, during the same period, Finland had two mass shootings and Switzerland had one, killing 18 and 14 people respectively. Our most recent mass shootings in Las Vegas and Lakeland killed 58 and 17 respectively, injuring 851 in Las Vegas and dozens in Florida.

Mass shootings shock us – at least they should shock us – but other deaths by firearms affect Americans as well. In 2013, our nation saw more than 21,000 suicides with guns, more than 11,000 murders with guns and more than 500 accidental discharge deaths.

To most of us, these are just numbers, but to the families and friends of these lost people, the pain of these deaths is deep and ongoing. The cold, hard reality is that we Americans are many times more likely to die by firearm than are residents of almost any other country.

The politics of gun accessibility are brutal and volatile. Many elected officials have taken campaign contributions from the NRA and walk in lockstep with its positions. North Carolina’s own two U.S. Senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, rank fourth and sixth on the NRA’s contribution list, which is totally legal.

Many Americans, including some large American corporations, are rethinking their positions on gun accessibility. As we do so, here are some points to consider.

Every state qualifies who can be licensed to drive a vehicle, most requiring both coursework and actual driving experience. Guns can be sold without either.

Every state requires recordkeeping regarding sales and transfers of motor vehicles. Guns can be sold and transferred without either.

The 19-year-old charged with 17 counts of murder in Florida bought his assault weapon legally. He could not, however, buy a beer legally.

The NRA would argue that neither driving nor owning a vehicle is a constitutionally guaranteed right. Neither is buying a beer.

But consider this.

When the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment “right to bear arms,” was adopted in 1791, the new United States had just won its independence from England using muskets, muzzle-loaded long guns that appeared in Europe in the 16th century. Not until 1854 was there a reliable “repeating rifle.”

God only knows what our Founding Fathers would make of rapid-fire military assault rifles in the hands of 19-year-olds or of Americans shooting each other in public places or chasing down children in schools.

Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra presents “Americana,” one of the last concerts in its “Gone to Carolina” season, this Saturday, March 10. The Fayetteville Symphony Youth Orchestra will join the FSO onstage for portions of the concert, which will feature a variety of songs that celebrate being American. Morgan Short, a 20-year-old harpist and the winner of FSO’s 2017-18 Harlan Duenow Young Artist Concerto Competition, will also perform solo for a portion of the concert.

“From film scores to folk tunes to Sousa marches to classical works, the variety (in this concert) is quite nice,” said Dr. Larry Wells, FSYO director and conductor. “Most of the pieces featured here are of the shorter variety. It should be a very audience- and child-friendly concert.” Look forward to selections from classic American films like “Forrest Gump” and “Apollo 13” alongside work like Antonín Dvořák’s “New World” and Morton Gould’s “American Salute.”

Wells said the FSYO, which the FSO formed in 2014, is important because it provides an opportunity for budding young musicians to practice with a full orchestra, which is normally not possible in school settings. In addition, he said, the FSYO is open through an audition process not just to 13- to 20-year-old public school students, but also to students who are home-schooled and who live outside of Cumberland County. About 75 students currently participate.

Every year, the FSYO puts on two concerts of its own and joins the FSO onstage for one other concert. Wells said, “The benefit here is that our young musicians get the chance to sit next to professional players in a professional setting. They get to hear exactly what their professional counterparts sound like and... act like. … I always tell my kids, ‘If you don’t know what you’re supposed to sound like, then how will you know when you’re making a good sound?’ This event gives them a chance to define (and) refine what their musical goal is.”

“Americana” will also spotlight Short. Short, who studies harp at University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, won FSO’s 2017-18 Harlan Duenow Young Artist Concerto Competition. The competition, named in honor of FSO’s longest-serving conductor, involves an essay, letter of recommendation and a video recording of the applicant playing a selected piece of music. It is open to young instrumentalists in the state of North Carolina. This year, it was open to woodwind, brass, percussion and harp students ages 12-21.

Short beat statewide competition to take first place, which includes a $1,000 cash prize for continued musical development along with the honor of soloing with the FSO. Jacob Warren, a 20-year-old saxophone player studying at UNC-Greensboro, won second place, and Jonathan McGarry, a 19-year-old French horn player studying at UNCSA (where Short studies), won third. Next year, the competition will be open to string and piano instrumentalists ages 12-21 in North Carolina.

Wells said the competition this year was fantastic. “This year, we chose (Short) because she was the complete package. Not only did she play beautifully, she performed beautifully,” he said. “She is amazing. I hope Fayetteville shows her a good audience!”

Wells and Kastner agreed that the orchestra has flourished under new music director Stefan Sanders’ hand. “If you have not seen him or heard the FSO lately, I urge you to come out and see... what is happening,” Wells said. “We are blessed to have him lead us.”

Sanders said he’s excited about “Americana” because it not only celebrates the nation’s history – it also celebrates its future through meaningful collaboration with the next generation of musicians.

Kastner and Sanders are also busy planning FSO’s next season, which will be announced in April. “I think we’re going to have some real crowd-pleasers next year,” Kastner said. “I will say: There will be ‘Star Wars.’”

“Americana” takes place Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Methodist University’s Huff Concert Hall. Arrive at 6:45 p.m. for a pre-concert talk to learn more about the historical context of the evening’s music. To purchase tickets, which range from $11-$28, visit www.fayettevillesymphony.org.

Photo: Morgan Short

Djamila Peterson

Pine Forest • Indoor track/track •

Junior

Peterson has a 3.95 grade point average. She is a member of Key Club, National Honor Society and Skills USA. She also volunteers at the True Vine Ministries Hope Center to help the homeless.

Abby Roy

South View • Cross country/ indoor track/track •

Senior

Roy has a 4.28 grade point average. She is a member of the International Baccalaureate Academy and National Honor Society.

In 2012, the North Carolina legislature created new options for the state’s 100 counties in the governance of local social services and public health departments. Counties are required to continue providing public health and social services. But now county commissioners can take one of three reorganization approaches: They can leave things as they are but take control of both groups and become the governing board of both; they can consolidate the health and social services departments and create a human services board of directors; or they can merge the agencies into one and take control themselves.

UNC-Chapel Hill Associate Professor of Public Law and Government Jill Moore detailed the options to county commissioners and the existing boards of directors of both groups.

“I’m here to explain but not advocate for either option,” Moore said. She said that as of Feb. 1, 30 counties had already agreed on the options available to them. All but three of them chose to consolidate the operations into one human services agency to be governed by a single board of directors. “You are doing the right thing by studying this,” Moore told commissioners.

The law does not require any mix of agencies nor does it specify the duties and responsibilities of governing boards. There’s a lot of diversity in structure and governance. Moore told the board of commissioners they could also include youth services and veterans services among others in a consolidated agency. “Consolidation may possibly help us to achieve efficiency,” said county commissioner Jimmy Keefe.

The board adopted improved government efficiency as an objective in its planning retreat in January. “Don’t assume creating a CHSA will save money,” Moore cautioned. She told the board of commissioners that counties that have made changes under the new law have not realized any significant tax savings.

Human services board members apparently had not made any preconceived notions about likely pending changes. “I’m still in the information gathering phase,” said Department of Social Services Chair Betsy Bradshaw.

County Manager Amy Cannon echoed Bradshaw’s sentiment. “It’s too early; we must review all of it,” she said.

The state statute says that if the board of commissioners decides to take over human services operations, they would assume all legal powers, duties and responsibilities of the boards that are abolished. They would also be required to appoint citizen advisory committees.

Moore said county public health and social services department employees must be kept fully informed as consolidation plans are developed. “Advance discussion about implications of changes … and legal questions about transitioning career status employees are lessons learned in counties which have adopted consolidation,” she wrote in her power point presentation. No action timeline has been established by commissioners or management.

Photo: UNC-Chapel Hill Associate Professor of Public Law and Government Jill Moore

Like many Haymount residents and business owners in the iconic historical district, Bobby Ray Wiggs’ roots run deep. He was born and raised in Haymount and has a home there, too. Wiggs owns Haymont Auto Repair and considers many of his customers family. While he cherishes the closeknit feeling in the area and the way neighbors look out for one another, Wiggs is the first to admit it’s not always paradise. A fast-growing community, heavy traffic and other issues often make for dangerous, congested intersections, frustrated residents and stressed-out drivers. What if it didn’t have to be that way? Saturday, March 10, Build a Better Haymount aims to explore the possibilities.

From 1-5 p.m., the 1200 block of Hay Street will be transformed to include narrow traffic lanes, wide sidewalks, bike lanes, plazas, music, art, food and festivities. There will be a temporary plaza where local bands Brother Ellis and J.D. and Bill will play throughout the afternoon. Local food trucks will be in attendance serving up a variety of tasty food options.

The project has been almost a year in the making, bringing together residents, the city and nonprofits to create an afternoon of fun as well as an opportunity to explore options for the district’s future. Angie Hedgepeth is the government affairs director for the Fayetteville Regional Association of Realtors. “The National Association of Realtors has grants for a variety of things, including growth and betterment of communities,” she said. “Last June, the city approached us about a grant.” In researching how the grant would affect Fayetteville, she found that several other North Carolina cities, to include Asheville, Charlotte and Durham, had pursued and received similar grants.

When the city of Fayetteville won the grant, Hedgepeth, along with Cumberland County transportation planner Eric Vitale, community residents, some of the Haymount businesses and others, rolled up their sleeves and set out to create an afternoon to remember.

“We started meeting with the residents last July to talk about ways we can transition the area into what the community envisions,” said Hedgepeth. “They told us what they wanted.”

Although residents gave the input, the event is free to attend and open to the public. “We want to let people know about Haymount,” Wiggs said.

Vitale said, “We will be counting traffic and attendance and doing some surveys to get feedback. We will also have a drone camera flying around videoing the set up as well as the event.”

“It is going to be a lot of fun,” said Hedgepeth. “Several local artists will be there. We are going to have a community mural. There will be vendors and pop-up retailers and a magician. Some of the retailers will have sidewalk sales, too.”

“This is family-friendly and pet-friendly,” said Vitale. “We will have water bowls so people can bring their pets.” A firetruck exhibit is also scheduled for the event.

Wiggs is planning to use the parking lot at Haymont Auto Repair to support the effort. He’s hosting a Kid Zone and will have a port-a-potty on one side of his property. “We are expecting a food truck, too,” he said. “And we will have a separate section with antiques for sale.”

The activities are a big part of the afternoon, but there is more. Narrowing the streets will allow for both functional and aesthetic changes, including turning the thoroughfare into a tree-lined street complete with bike lanes.

“There will be parking at Highland Presbyterian Church,” said Vitale. “We are not going to block any of the neighborhood driveways for this.”

Residential, traffic and business interests don’t always align in this part of town. There are busy intersections and dangerous road crossings. For some drivers unfamiliar with the traffic pattern, the roads can be confusing. As a business owner, Wiggs understands that it can be challenging having homes and businesses and a thoroughfare so close together. “There are things we can do,” Wiggs said. “But, we don’t want to change the things that make Haymount special.”

Though this is mostly an information gathering exercise, many hope it is the start of a conversation that will lead to workable solutions. Things like clearly marked, well-placed crosswalks could go a long way in improving things, Wiggs noted.

“I just want to see the community happy,” said Hedgepeth.

“We want to look at the event and see smiles, happy families and people having fun,” Vitale agreed.

“I am all for anything that can help make it safer and better for everyone,” Wiggs said. “We all want that.”

Though no one is sure how this will impact Haymount in the end, March 10, from 1-5 p.m. the parties involved are excited to have an afternoon to showcase, celebrate and dream big dreams for this community. Vitale encourages anyone who is active on social media to post photos using the hashtags #buildabetterhaymount and #betterblockfaync. Learn more by visiting www.betterblockfaync.com to. To volunteer, call Hedgepeth at 910-323-1421 or Vitale at 910-678-7632.

Officials of the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center are reconsidering sponsoring a debate on gun violence. “The topic came up during a library management meeting,” said library spokeswoman Kellie Tomita. “We were hoping to have a balanced forum with differing views.”

Library officials were unable to identify appropriate participants and decided initially to change the format to an informational program. Then “it became apparent that, due to the complexity of the subject matter and the rapidity of developments in the news, that the program would need to be reconsidered,” Tomita said.

Stores stop selling military-style weapons

Walmart has joined Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream in a decision to more strictly regulate the sale of guns and ammunition. “We are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age,” a Walmart statement said. “We are also removing items from our website resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys,” Walmart added.

Walmart stopped selling many long guns in 2015. Dick’s Sporting Goods, the nation’s largest sporting goods retailer, said it also has stopped selling weapons like the one used in the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. It also raised the age of sale of all firearms to 21 as did its retail affiliate Field & Stream.

Dick’s recently relocated its Fayetteville store to the new Freedom Town Center at Skibo and Cliffdale Roads. The company also opened a Field & Stream adjacent to the Dick’s property. The corporate decisions came amid a broad public push to tighten gun regulations in the wake of the mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school Feb. 14 that left 17 people dead. Gun regulation advocates said they hope the decision would prompt other major retailers to follow suit.

Street crosswalks for the visually impaired

Crossing busy streets can be a challenge for people with good vision. For blind people, it is a perilous activity. American cities are generally poorly equipped to deal with blind pedestrians, but technology has made it possible in recent years to remedy that situation. Fayetteville is among the smaller cities that are beginning to equip traffic signals with what are called “chirping birds,” audio versions of green and red lights.

Two street crossings in Fayetteville have been equipped to make life for blind community members safer.

City traffic engineer Lee Jernigan said the expense of upgrading intersections for the visually impaired limits his capacity. Four years ago, the city put in special equipment for the blind at Hay Street and Woodside Avenue in Haymount. Last month, the intersection of Cain Road and Rogers Drive was upgraded. That project cost $40,000.

“We chose that intersection because the city just completed the installation of sidewalks along Cain Road,” Jernigan said. Posts with buttons that have audible beepers are positioned at the “Walk/Don’t Walk” signal poles. When the traffic light changes from green to red, the audible device signals to blind pedestrians that it’s safe to cross. Motorists are alerted to the intersection via marked zebra crosswalks that feature a series of thick white hash mark bands.

Fayetteville welcomes new industry

Cambridge-Lee Industries of Reading, Pennsylvania, has chosen Cumberland County for a facility to manufacture line sets of copper tubing that are assembled into various forms and shipped to customers. The Fayetteville/Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation says the project will result in the creation of 19 full-time jobs. The company said the jobs will be manufacturing positions offering a competitive wage and comprehensive benefits packages. No specifics were provided. The plant will be in the former Cape Fear Distribution Center on Tom Starling Road.

“Fayetteville provides us with an improved reach to our customers as well as an improved ability to streamline and grow our operations,” said Dave Spadafora, vice president of Global Supply Chain for Cambridge-Lee.

“The new jobs and investment this facility will bring are prime examples of how our business climate and aggressive approach to economic development are creating growth,” said County Chairman Larry Lancaster. Cambridge-Lee Industries said it plans to add more full-time and part-time employees in the coming year.

Council approves communication tower

Fayetteville City Council spent 45 minutes debating whether to allow South River Electric Membership Co-op to build a 190-foot radio tower on its property on Ramsey Street in North Fayetteville.

The utility sought a special use permit. After a move by Councilwoman Kathy Jensen to deny the request failed, council voted 8-2 to approve the measure.

Jensen was concerned about the aesthetics of the mast. The company said the tower would be constructed several hundred feet off Ramsey Street at the rear of its 10-acre property. The facility will provide point-to-point microwave radio communications between South River’s local office and its headquarters in Dunn.

Mirror Lake Dam open house

It’s taken a year and a half, but the city of Fayetteville hopes to begin construction of a new Mirror Lake Drive dam this summer. It was washed away by Hurricane Matthew Oct. 8, 2016. The city has determined that rebuilding the dam and repairing Mirror Lake Drive, which runs over the dam, will cost $1.9 million. FEMA approved the funding, according to city spokesman Nathan Walls.

An open house will be held Thursday, March 15, at Van Story Hills Elementary School from 6-8 p.m. Preliminary design plans will be shown to the public for comment. This is the second time the city-owned dam was destroyed by a storm. It was also washed away during Hurricane Fran in September 1996.

Police/citizen workshop set for March

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs and Community Relations Service has developed a new community-based workshop focused on strengthening the partnership between local law enforcement and the community. A Greater Fayetteville United workshop is designed to bring together local law enforcement officers and community members for an open dialogue about community engagement.

The Office of Justice Programs Diagnostic Center will facilitate the 90-minute workshop with members of the Fayetteville Police Department during an in-person, scenario-based session. It will be held Tuesday, March 20, at the Kiwanis Recreation Center at 352 Devers St.

Time-weathered instruments and age-old songs passed down from one generation to the next, century after century, is a powerful representation of heritage. Translating this kind of heritage for a modern, increasingly global audience is no small task. But the Grammynominated group Celtic Woman has been perfecting this art since its debut in 2005. As part of its upcoming 90-city North American tour, Celtic Woman is performing “Homecoming Live” at the Crown Theatre Thursday, March 15.

The all-female Irish musical ensemble consists of four singers – Mairéad Carlin, Susan McFadden, Éabha McMahon and Tara McNeill – as well as Irish dancers, bagpipers and a full band. The group has created 14 albums and 10 television and DVD specials to date. The albums, even with changing vocalists, have made No. 1 on Billboard’s World Albums chart for 12 consecutive years.

McMahon made her debut with Celtic Woman in 2015 for its 11th album, “Destiny.” But her singing career first began when she recorded an album for a children’s book at just nine years old. After that, she began singing in the traditional Irish style of sean-nós, literally meaning “old style.”

Sean-nós is bare-bones singing in the native Gaelic language. More importantly, as per the Irish oral tradition of passing down history through song, sean-nós puts stock in the emotion and story behind the song.

McMahon went on to win professional singing competitions across Ireland before becoming the youngest member of Anuna – Ireland’s National Choir – at just 15 years old. While still attending school, she toured with Anuna all over the world. After studying human rights at university, McMahon was asked to audition for Celtic Woman.

“What I love about being part of the group is that we can be totally ourselves,” McMahon said. “I grew up singing in Irish, and my dream was to sing in the Irish style. It’s very inspiring to be part of a group that promotes the Irish tradition and gives it a voice all over the world.”

The North American tour embraces everything from traditional Irish, classical, musical theatre and folk music. Blending these genres together, McMahon said, makes “a really unique world music sound.”

She even said this year’s set list is her favorite of Celtic Woman’s. In particular, McMahon sings one of her own idols’ most famous songs: Enya’s “May it Be.” Performing the song “Danny Boy” for Celtic Woman has a deeply emotional significance for McMahon, too.

“The month that I joined the group, my grandad sadly passed away,” she said. “It was his favorite song. Every night when we sing it, I think of him and I know he is watching from the best seat in the house.”

There is a reason Celtic Woman is so internationally renowned, and that is its ability to bridge the gap between old and new. Contemporary Irish songs are performed alongside old tunes that might otherwise have been lost or forgotten. As McMahon said, “It really gives Irish music a new lease of life.

“The show really does have something for everyone. There are moments of laughter and toe tapping but also quiet and emotional moments of calm.”

McMahon is releasing her own music later this year.

See “Celtic Woman: Homecoming Live” at the Crown Theatre Thursday, March 15, at 7 p.m. Visit www.crowncomplexnc.com to purchase tickets or to learn more.

Fayetteville Technical Community College is excited to announce the start of the Surgical First Assistant program starting this summer.

Surgical First Assistants, or SFAs, are surgical “physician extenders.” The Surgical First Assistant program of study allows hospital planning administrators an opportunity to offer a staffing model that emphasizes better use of physician extenders – healthcare professionals credentialed to provide services under the direction of the surgeon.

In the operating room, these physician extenders provide advanced support that scrub techs are unqualified to provide, which helps free up the surgeon’s time to focus on tasks more appropriate for the surgeon’s level of medical training. Ultimately, the use of SFAs will facilitate surgeons’ efforts and promote wise use of their time, leading to better quality of care with fewer resources along with better surgeon satisfaction and better care economics for the hospital.

Recent news reports suggest that the demand for SFAs in the U.S. will continue to grow. The program will provide online didactic studies and a workbased learning clinical experience, which will allow candidates to continue their employment status.

Many healthcare representatives realize the need to address a number of factors in order to provide better care and services in response to surgical patients’ needs. Physician extenders like SFAs will be critical in helping healthcare get to that point. The SFA profession will only grow in volume and importance. The use of SFAs will provide the hospital’s operating room leadership an opportunity to take a closer look at staffing models that will not only help meet patient demand but also increase efficiency and revenue opportunity for their organizations.

Federal statistics project SFA jobs to increase 15 percent from 2014-2024 due to the increasing demand for surgical procedures, especially among the elderly population.

If you enjoy helping others, want to have a fulfilling career in a professional healthcare environment and wish to create a positive difference through your career, email herringt@faytechcc.edu or call 910-678-8358 to learn more about the new Surgical First Assistant program of study at FTCC. You can also visit the campus or visit the school’s website at faytechcc.edu for more details. Registration for Summer 2018 classes begins March 28. First Session Summer classes begin May 29. Students can receive enrollment and registration assistance at the Fayetteville campus, Spring Lake campus, and FTCC’s Center at the Fort Bragg Training and Education Center.

New York Times bestselling author John Hart, who grew up in Salisbury, North Carolina, is not afraid to take risks.

In fact, he seems to thrive on these risks. For instance, he gave up his job as a stockbroker about 15 years ago to complete his first literary thriller. That risk-taking paid off when his book, “The King of Lies,” became a Times bestseller in 2006. Three other successes followed: “Down River” (2007), “The Last Child” (2009) and “Iron House” (2011).

Then Hart risked his string of successes by moving with his wife and two young children from Greensboro to Charlottesville, Virginia. Although the move disrupted his writing program temporarily, it finally led to “Redemption Road” (2016), a critical and commercial success. Quickly following is “The Hush,” being released this month, which shows that Hart is fully back on track.

The risk paid off in another important way. In Charlottesville, Hart became friends with fellow writer John Grisham, who helped Hart launch the new book at a big fundraising event in Raleigh on Friday, Feb. 23.

“The Hush” is another big risk for Hart because it breaks two significant traditions or rules of writing that have guided his prior work.

First, until now, there have been no sequels to his books. Each was independent from the others. They held together as a series only in their common geography. All took place in the real Rowan County or a fictional, but very similar, Raven County.

“The Hush,” however, is a real sequel to “The Last Child” (2009), a book Hart declares to be his favorite of all his prior books.

“The Last Child” featured 13-year-old Johnny Merrimon, whose unrelenting search for his missing sister made him an admired but traumatized hero.

The Johnny that readers meet in “The Hush” is 10 years older, still tough and determined, but now living alone and isolated on a 6,000-acre tract of swampland, which he loves and protects from outsiders.

Hart says that “The Hush” stands on its own but that readers of “The Last Child” will have an enhanced experience. Hart still takes the small risk faced by every sequel writer that new readers may miss some important connective links from the earlier book.

The second and greater risk that Hart takes with the new book involves the swampy land where Johnny lives. Johnny owns the 6,000 acres, but cash-wise, he is broke. His title to the land is being challenged by an African-American family who lived on the land for many years and whose claim is based on a deed from 1853.

Johnny turns to his buddy Jack from “The Last Child” to help. Jack is a new lawyer in a large firm that discourages his connection to Johnny, especially when Johnny is suspected in unexplained deaths on his property.

The land has a troubling history and dangerous powers, inexplicable ones that become core features of the book and its ultimate resolution.

In a word, think “supernatural.”

All of Hart’s prior books have followed strict rules used by many mystery and thriller writers. The deaths and crimes in their books, when solved, have natural explanations and do not rely on the intervention of some spiritual or unreal power.

Hart is betting that the richness of his characters, his compelling storytelling and the story’s supernatural landscape will hold his thriller fans despite breaking his old rules. Taking this risk, he hopes, will expand his appeal and share his storytelling talent with an even wider audience.

The complex and rich stories in “The Hush” and the book’s supernatural but satisfying conclusion suggest that he is on the right track.

Dear Editor,

Great article about our local newspaper. I will become a regular Up & Coming Weekly reader to get my news. Now maybe you need to do an expose’ on Cape Fear Valley Hospital and how they are buying up all our doctors offices. Several people that I come across are going to First Health of Moore County to avoid CFV.

Again, great story.

Best regards,

Lynn Sippel

Dear Editor,

Having worked for a year at the Fayetteville Observer, I really enjoyed reading your article on private equity media and its dismantling of small town newspapers. It’s a travesty. Thank you for bringing it to light!! It is a true shame what has happened to our local journalistic institution, the Fayetteville Observer. In the article “Eulogy of the Fourth Estate” (Up & Coming Weekly February 21) Bill Bowman, Robert Kuttner and Hildy Zenger have done a fantastic job bringing to light how private equity media companies erode and undermine communities when they purchase and dismantle local newspapers. Citizens absolutely need these local, and often long-time and family owned, newspapers to ensure journalistic integrity and to serve as a significant tie to the community. I fear, as media and journalism continues to consistently be ostracized, these large conglomerates will only exacerbate the problem. Local newspapers like Up & Coming Weekly are exceptional assets to our community and provide an amazing service to its citizens.

John Kistler

Regarding Colin Kaepernick

Dear Editor, I truly enjoyed watching Colin Kaepernick throw and run with the football in college. Under coach Chris Ault, that Wolfpack no longer needs to include their Reno location in the school’s name.

Game film from then showed Kaep to be a very respectful student of coach (and eventually) A.D. Ault.

Colin does not represent every NFL player any more than my childhood neighbor Wally Hilgenberg years before. Wally’s story is also interesting and there are articles concerning him and his death. Wally might disagree, if he could, with Colin.

As you state (in the Jan. 31 publishers pen), we all have rights to voice our opinion. Our actions can affect the opinions of others, as Colin now should realize.

Randy Steffens

Cumberland County Commissioners have ordered an engineering study to determine the cost of extending city water to the Gray’s Creek area off NC 87, south of Fayetteville. It’s in keeping with the board of commissioners’ stated determination to make public water available in rural areas of the county. The study will be conducted by Moorman, Kizer & Reitzel, Inc., to estimate the cost of running water lines to residential areas near the Bladen County line. Commissioners took the action without comment based on a recommendation from the board’s finance committee.

Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission has agreed to reimburse the county one-half the $129,000 cost of the study. The move was the first official step toward providing public water to the Gray’s Creek area since tests of about 250 private wells showed elevated levels of GenX. The state began investigating GenX in June of last year after researchers discovered the chemical in the Cape Fear River downstream from the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant. GenX is an unregulated chemical product used by Chemours to make Teflon for cookware. Teflon has been manufactured at the former DuPont plant at the Cumberland/ Bladen County line for 40 years.

Before GenX was introduced a few years ago, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C-8, was used to make the nonstick product. PFOA is a synthetic compound that had been used since the 1940s in industrial quantities. When PFOA was determined to be potentially dangerous to public health, DuPont switched to GenX. It is not regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or any North Carolina public health agency.

In October 2013, DuPont announced that it was planning to spin off its performance chemicals business into a new publicly traded company in July 2015. DuPont announced that the new firm would be called The Chemours Company. Chemours’ stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the same date. Chemours assumed various liabilities arising from lawsuits against DuPont. While GenX has been linked to cancer in animal studies, Chemours insists there is no evidence it is dangerous to humans.

Some Cumberland County Commissioners are concerned that not everyone in Gray’s Creek will want to pay their share of the cost of water lines because not all private wells are polluted. Gray’s Creek residents defeated a referendum to extend public water to their community in 2011. But given today’s circumstances and the presence of GenX in well water, plus the county’s determination to make city water available in rural areas, the board of commissioners could create a public water and sewer district and tax residents of the district.

Right now, you are probably thinking about the time Galileo got put on trial by the Inquisition. How do I know that? Because you just read the first sentence in this column. If you are one of the other 7.6 billion people in the world who didn’t read that sentence, please proceed to the crossword puzzle. If you are still here, let’s stroll around 17th-century canon law as it was inflicted on Galileo.

It turns out sometimes the prevailing conventional wisdom ain’t so wise. Like Sportin’ Life once sang in “Porgy & Bess,” “The things that you’re liable/ To read in the Bible/ They ain’t necessarily so.” Case in point, ponder the troubles of our old pal Galileo Galilei. Galileo was one of those 17th-century celebrities who were so famous they were known by one name like Cher or O.J. Galileo managed to get tangled up with the Inquisition because he pushed a theory that the Catholic Church didn’t like. Think back into the dusty recesses of your mind about the Inquisition. Go ahead. I have a minute. Take your time. There. Remember it was always best to keep a low profile around the Inquisition as they had ways of making you talk.

So, on we go into the Way Back Machine with Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman. We are in the year 1633 when Galileo fell into the tender mercies of the Inquisition. In his day, Galileo was a celebrity astronomer like Stephen Hawking or Neil deGrasse Tyson. When Galileo talked, people listened. Conventional 17thcentury scientific wisdom was based on Ptolemy’s theory that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the sun and planets all rotated around the Earth. Ptolemy came up with this theory about 150 A.D. For almost 1,500 years, astronomers believed the Earth was the Beyoncé of the Universe, the center of everything. Ptolemy’s theory also conveniently matched the Bible’s interpretation that the Earth was the center of the universe.

The first major break from Ptolemy’s universe came in 1543 when another hotshot 17th-century astronomer named Copernicus published his theory that the Earth rotated around the sun instead of the other way. Copernicus’ theory was not well received. The proverbial celestial poo hit the fan, and his theory fell into disrepute. Everything chugged along smoothly in the Ptolemy universe until Galileo invented the telescope in 1609. Then it was a bad moon rising for Galileo. Looking through his telescope, he saw planets rotating in a manner that convinced him Copernicus was right.

It turns out new scientific discoveries that challenge conventional scientific and religious beliefs are not always welcomed with open arms – as Galileo was to find out. Being a good scientist and not having access to the internet, Galileo started printing all manner of written materials and books about his theory that the Earth rotated around the sun. Accusations of heresy were flung against Galileo. He found himself summoned by Pope Urban VIII to come to Rome to answer for his sins of believing and saying that what he was seeing was true. Like the Red Queen said in “Alice in Wonderland,” “Sentence first – verdict afterward!” The Inquisition decided he was guilty and then had his trial.

As the Inquisition had some serious and painful penalties including prison and torture that it could impose, Galileo took a plea bargain. He confessed that he had been in error in saying that the Earth rotated around the sun. “Oops, my bad!” saithe The G Man. He was sentenced to prison but allowed to serve house arrest on condition that he would never breathe another word about the Earth rotating around the sun.

Rumor has it that on his way out of the Inquisition’s courtroom, Galileo muttered under his breath, “And yet it moves” referring to the Earth rotating around the sun. Fortunately, the Inquisitors didn’t hear him say that or he might have recanted again while being stretched on the rack.

Galileo’s story has a happy if somewhat delayed ending. Only 359 years after Galileo’s trial, Pope John Paul II declared in 1992 that Galileo was right about the rotation of the Earth. Of course, there is no parallel between Galileo’s story and certain politicians’ resistance to accepting climate change as scientific fact. To quote Mark Twain’s preface to “Huckleberry Finn:” “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”

So, what have we learned about astronomy? Probably not much. Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Look at the stars or look in the gutter. The choice is yours. My personal advice to you is to never to take advice.

Cherri Stoute said for much of her life she’s had a camera in her hand doing either photography or film.

Since 2016, she’s had a studio to go with it.

Stoute operates The Studio on Trade Street, a business she found several years ago when she was looking to connect with fellow photographers and filmmakers in the area.

She became a member, and since becoming the owner, she’s kept a lot of the features that the business offered when she first joined.

She offers memberships to photographers who don’t want the headache of setting up their own studio at home or in a business location.

“They have access to the studio 10 to 20 hours a month to do their own sessions,’’ she said. “They don’t have to worry about what goes wrong with the building.’’

The studio offers just about everything a photographer needs to practice the craft. There are strobe lights, continuous lights, cloth and seamless paper backdrops, props and couches.

There’s also a comfortable dressing room for models that includes a makeup dresser. There’s also a bathroom.

“They can do full makeup here,’’ Stoute said. “They just bring their own stuff.’’

Stoute also provides coffee, drinks and snacks.

“It’s a comfortable place to relax,’’ she said.

But there’s more to the studio than just the building.

Behind the studio there’s an open field, and when the weather warms up sufficiently, Stoute said it’s an excellent outdoor location for photographs.

Photographers can also bring the bulk of their equipment to the studio and leave it there. Walking around Hope Mills in the vicinity of the studio, there are a number of attractive brick buildings that provide good backdrops for all sorts of pictures. Now that Hope Mills Lake has been restored, it puts a backdrop with water into play again, too.

Stoute also uses the studio for teaching purposes. Through Fayetteville Technical Community College, she offers a class on fundamentals of digital photography. She also gives instruction on lighting with flash, studio lights and strobes.

For those who have no photography talent, Stoute makes her services available to take pictures.

Her primary subject matter is people, pets and places. She doesn’t do weddings and prefers studio work, but she will visit individual homes to take photos of the family pets.

She also films commercials suitable for airing on television or posting on a website.

“A lot of what I’ve done is for the internet,’’ she said.

There are several ways to contact Stoute if you’re interested in renting studio time or her photography or film work.

Email her at thestudioontradestreet@gmail.com. Visit her on the web at thestudioontradestreet.com. Call her at 910-759-3616.

Photo: Cherri Stoute

Countless people have watched Billy Graham crusades on television or had the opportunity to sit in the audience to hear him preach, but how many people attended a worship service with him?

I did.

It was in the late 1970s when I traveled to the tiny North Carolina mountain town of Montreat. It’s home to a small college and a beautiful retreat of the Presbyterian Church nestled in the hills near Black Mountain.

It’s also the home of Dr. Graham, and the place where he passed away last Wednesday morning at the age of 99.

We were there to attend a conference hosted by Christian Books Unlimited. A feature of the conference was nightly revival-style worship services with a variety of speakers.

One evening as I sat with my parents in Anderson Auditorium, one of the conference spokesmen approached the microphone and said, “We are pleased to have Dr. Billy Graham in attendance with us tonight.’’

Necks craned and heads turned and, sure enough, several pews back behind the last occupied row of congregants was that familiar face and full shock of hair seated alone, watching.

He anticipated what would happen at the end of the service, quietly exiting during the singing of the last hymn and shaking the hand of an usher as he departed the building.

That was my closest brush with the greatest evangelist of our time, but my father, Rev. Earl Vaughan Sr., had an even closer one some years earlier.

He was also in Montreat for a religious conference with some friends and was invited to the home of Dr. L. Nelson Bell.

Bell was the father of Graham’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham. Bell and his wife had served as missionaries to China for years before retiring to Montreat.

While my dad was visiting Bell’s home, Graham happened to show up at the same time.

“He shook hands with all of us, greeted all of us individually,’’ my father said. “He was very cordial, very gracious and kind to us. We got the chance to talk with him briefly.’’

In 1974, while serving a pastorate in Leland, Woodburn Presbyterian Church, dad was invited to serve as a counselor at the Billy Graham Crusade in Norfolk, Virginia. It was the 225th of Graham’s 417 crusades, the last one taking place in New York in 2005.

The atmosphere at the crusade was far different from the one in Bell’s home. Dad didn’t get to interact personally with Graham during the conference. Dad was one of a large number of ministers invited to meet and counsel with people who came up at the end of each crusade meeting when Graham made his call for those attending to accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

“It was very uplifting,’’ my father said of the crusade experience. “We were facing him directly and we could see around the whole auditorium, people in the choir behind Billy singing.’’

There have been evangelists before and since Graham, but none have had the same reach, nor the same impact on so many people over so many generations.

My father thinks there are several reasons for that.

“He was so approachable to start with, so genuine, and he could talk to any person,’’ my father said. “He could make that person feel loved and wanted by Jesus Christ. It was just a really, really spiritually filled atmosphere around him.’’

At the same time, my father said, Dr. Graham never put on airs. “He was appreciative of everything that was done for him and the attention paid to him,’’ dad said. “He was such a really down-to-earth person compared to other television evangelists and others I’ve seen.’’

Possibly that was because of his humble beginnings, working on a dairy farm, honing his preaching skills by standing on a stump and sharing the gospel with the creatures of the woodlands.

“He had humble beginnings and he wasn’t ashamed of that,’’ my father said. “He let that be known, where he came from.

“He was grateful to be God’s servant, wherever God could use him.”

Photo: Billy Graham

Three Cumberland County high school wrestlers brought home state championships this month, and for each, it was a special journey.

Cape Fear’s Dallas Wilson followed the footsteps of his dad and head coach Heath Wilson to become Cape Fear’s first-ever sophomore state champion, winning the 3-A 132-pound championship.

Teammate Michael Vernagallo completed the rare feat of back-to-back perfect seasons and state titles, winning the 3-A 160-pound championship.

Pine Forest’s Daniel Peede finally attained the 4-A 152-pound championship after a painful near miss last season and battles with confidence this season.

Heath Wilson won his state title for Cape Fear in 1990 and spent the last 11 years watching son Dallas work for his chance at a championship.

“He’s probably the biggest part of it,’’ Dallas said of his father. “Every day after practice, he takes me home and we have conversations in the truck. We fantasized about the day I’d win a state title, and it happened.’’

The atmosphere at the titles won by father and son were much different. Heath won his in the confines of the gymnasium at Greensboro’s Grimsley High School. Dallas found himself in the parade of champions before the state finals, inside the cavernous Greensboro Coliseum.

“My butterflies were going crazy,’’ he said. “I got my head right and he told me to relax.’’

Dallas did have to overcome a scare at the state finals when he injured his ankle during the semifinal match and felt it go numb. “It was hurting bad,’’ he said. “I was warming up for the finals and I don’t know how I’m going to wrestle. Adrenalin took care of it and I stuck it out for one more match.’’

He may miss baseball season recovering from his injury, but he plans to hit the summer wrestling circuit to start preparation for next season.

“I do have bigger goals than just the state tournament and state titles,’’ he said.

That doesn’t surprise his father. “He’s looking for the next hill to climb,’’ Heath said. “It’s not a state championship. It’s a national title. After that it will be something else. And I’ll continue to be impressed.’’

Vernagallo continued to impress, too, putting together his second consecutive unbeaten season and second straight state title for the Colts.

“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time,’’ he said.“I’m glad I could get it done.’’

He admitted the pressure of going unbeaten for a second straight year began to get into his head as the season progressed.

“I had to stay focused and know what I did would work,” he said.

Vernagallo has already signed to wrestle for Clarion University in Pennsylvania next season. He plans to redshirt and compete at the 174-pound level the following season.

He chose Clarion because of its wrestling culture. “Wrestling is huge there,’’ he said. “Everyone up there loves it. They even have cheerleaders. I want to work on being stronger, making my technique better and getting ready for the college scene.’’

Getting ready for college was a concern of Pine Forest’s Peede. After losing in the semifinals of last year’s state tournament by a single point, he was anxious to capitalize on his final chance at a state title.

“I had a lot going on with school and college applications,’’ Peede said. “It was definitely a busier time.’’

He had other concerns. Just before the conference tournament, he suffered a back injury. He had to manage pain as he recovered and tried to fight his way back to the state tournament. “This year, the big thing was to get there and win it, taking everything one match at a time,’’ he said.

He didn’t stumble in the semifinals this season, maintaining positive thoughts and pinning his semifinal opponent in just 1 minute, 13 seconds en route to reaching the state finals.

I had to go out there and stick to what I knew and the things that got me there,’’ he said.

He plans to wrestle at the college level, but he’s not sure where. He’s waiting to hear back on an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. If accepted there, he plans to walk on to the wrestling team.

He’s also being recruited by Virginia Military Institute, where they are considering him for a partial scholarship. A four-year ROTC scholarship would cover the rest of his expenses there.

“I want to thank my coaches, teammates and family for the support,’’ he said. “I want to give a big shoutout to coach Charles Daniels. I appreciate all the time and effort he’s put in to me.’’

Photo: Dallas Wilson (left) with dad and coach Heath Wilson (right)

As communities grapple with another school shooting this month, citizens are rallying to demand change. Will more laws make a difference? This week, publisher Bill Bowman yields this space to retired Special Forces soldier Jim Jones. Jones shares his thoughts on ways communities can protect citizens and citizens can protect themselves.

Eighteen minutes of terror was all the time it took for the murderer to kill 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 14. The people, politicians and media are crying for an end to school shootings.

This article is not just about guns or mental health. This is about you and your community. While there is no 100 percent solution, there are things we can all do to turn the tide.

We should ask local politicians to make our schools safer. We can do this by making doors more secure, building schools with access controls built in, planning escape routes and conducting training. Schools should have a strong police presence. Take a dog through the schools and tell the students it is a drug- and gunsniffing dog. It can be any dog, but the idea is that you are doing something.

We should learn from the fire prevention efforts that go into our schools. Schools are built to satisfy fire code standards and are inspected, and schools regularly conduct fire drills. The last mass school deaths (10 or more) from fire was in 1958 in Cheektowaga, New York, where 15 students died.

Demand respect for teachers in the classroom. Ideally, teachers should never have to defend against an attack, but they have a traditional role of keeping good order and discipline in schools. Because we have taken corporal punishment out of school, the children often rule the teachers.

In the classroom, teachers should be trained to protect their rooms. The doors should have strong locks, and the teachers should have the ability to quickly and effortlessly barricade the doors. The rooms should have windows that allow students to escape. Teachers should be taught how to use items in their classroom as weapons – just in case they have no other choice but to fight. A fire extinguisher can be brutal to the face and eyes.

Schools need to have experts train staff and administrators so they know what to do during an active shooter event. Most school systems want teachers to lock down the school. A few years back, a friend who was responsible for writing a school’s emergency procedures asked me about this. We discussed escape routes, but the school board’s lawyers objected because of liability concerns and fear of lawsuits. This is insane. Would we tell teachers to keep children in a burning school? What if the Columbine attackers were able to detonate their firebombs, propane tanks and the other 99 explosive devices that were found after they committed suicide? Yes, people could be shot while running out of a building, but it is hard to hit a moving target, and distance is your friend when it comes to beating the odds.

The police must stay current on tactics. Police need to have subject matter experts at each school who can advise other officers when they arrive at the scene.

High school students should not be forced to go to school. Some of the most successful people in the country did not finish high school. If school is not for them, they should be given the right to pursue happiness in some other way. However, if a student is permanently expelled from school for an act of violence, a restraining order should come along with it. It should also be entered into the gun background database and used as a reason to refuse the sale of a weapon. After a reasonable time has passed, the record should be cleared again unless there is another reason to bar that person from purchasing a gun.

No one wants to talk about the effects of violent video games on our children. As video games have become more realistic, it has become hard to tell the difference between the game and reality. Video games effectively train players to kill as many people as possible.

Parents and the gaming industry will argue that this is not so. But look at our military. Pilots spend countless hours in flying simulators before taking off. Twenty-year-old NASCAR driver William Byron (#24) credits playing racing video games for his success as a NASCAR driver because the games are realistic. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the big three in video technology and have major lobbying groups. Violent videos are a huge market share for these companies. In 2017, the top five videos were all violent. You shouldn’t need the government to tell your kid that violent video games are unhealthy. Just walk into their rooms and take them away.

We should improve our justice system to provide a fair and speedy trial. Florida has the death penalty. There is no reason why it should take more than a few months to bring a person to trial if they are caught committing a crime on video, if they confess or if DNA evidence shows they are guilty. If found guilty and the death penalty is the judgment, it should only take a day or so to have that person put to death and let people move on with their lives.

When I was in grade school and what we now call middle school, we did not have sex education at all since, as far as we knew, no one ever discussed sex, and certainly not schoolteachers. So, my first introduction to that topic came from one of my best friends who was what my mother called “precocious.” Betsy, an alias, was on the cutting edge of everything despite her tender age, but when she informed me about the birds and the bees, I thought it was the most unbelievable story I had ever heard.

Who on earth would want to do that?

Still, Betsy did know a lot about a lot, so I did not discount her information altogether. When my mother eventually got around to “the talk,” I was less interested in what she had to say than in the fact that Betsy got the whole thing pretty much right. This was decades before we heard the word internet or imagined carrying around personal communication devices.

The Betsys of the adolescent set often get things wrong, though, and they are not the most reliable source for sex education. That, of course, is parents, caretakers and other trusted and reliable adults in a young person’s life. For reasons we all understand circling around awkwardness and embarrassment, such open communication does not happen in too many young lives.

That is why the Cumberland County Board of Education’s decision to scrap Get Real, a sex education curriculum with a proven and verified track record, is so distressing. The board bowed to pressure from parents whose agenda is not providing accurate information about human sexuality to adolescents. As Opie Taylor would say, the board has more “xplaining” to do about tossing a nationally vetted program for a locally generated and therefore locally influenced one.

Here is the deal with Get Real.

It is a sex ed curriculum developed by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and has been in use for 10 years. Fact: no matter what you may think you know about Planned Parenthood, for more than a century its primary mission is and has been health education and reproductive health care for women, men and young people of both genders. Get Real provides medically accurate and ageappropriate information to sixth- to eighth-graders, adolescents just beginning to think about sex and likely with limited access to relevant information.

Get Real’s curriculum fosters parental and caregiver involvement and aims to delay sexual activity among young people. It also emphasizes healthy relationships – what they look like and what they do not, the hazards of peer pressure and the importance of consent. It promotes communication among families and friends, especially between young people and parents and other adults important in their lives. It is not a how-to manual nor does it suggest that sexual activity is appropriate at a young age.

No one thinks for a second that members of the Cumberland County Board of Education want to harm the students in our system in any way. The reality, though, is that young people with emerging sensibilities are hungry for all sorts of information, including and especially about sex. Providing such information in a neutral and tested format that encourages adult input, reduces the stress on both young people and adults and becomes a vehicle for more open communication.

Not providing sex education in such a way threatens to leave young people with incomplete or even inaccurate information; it’s a dangerous way to head into young adulthood in a highly sexualized national culture.

Consider your sex education. Maybe you got it in school. Maybe your parents or another trusted adult did a great job. More likely it came, at least in part, from your own personal Betsy who may or may not have known of which she spoke.

Our Cumberland County Board of Education is responsible for educating our young people in all sorts of ways, including accurate and complete information about human sexuality. This is not a topic to be left to the Betsys, cable television or – heaven forbid! – the internet.

The chairman of Fayetteville City Council’s Baseball Committee says the city’s $33 million stadium price tag could be exceeded. “I haven’t seen the construction costs,” Councilman Jim Arp said following a committee meeting. “$33 million was our best estimate.”

Deputy City Manager Kristoff Bauer echoed Arp’s words, saying, “I never said it would stay within budget.” Bauer is the city’s project manager. Arp said, however, that he does not favor raising taxes to offset potential cost overruns.

Meanwhile, one of the first major subcontracts has been awarded for the downtown construction project. Barton Mallow Co. Project Manager Charlie Lewis told the baseball committee that Briegan Concrete Constructors of Clayton was awarded a $5 million contract to build the stadium’s outer perimeter or concourse. The cement work is scheduled to begin next month.

Another local cold case solved

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest in a cold homicide case dating back 16 years. Isaac McDonald, 42, formerly of Fayetteville, was taken into custody in Fort Smith, Arkansas, according to the sheriff’s office. He is accused in the death of Janet L. Norris, 39, whose body was found in the trunk of her car on April 20, 2002.

McDonald is a registered sex offender in Arkansas. His arrest followed evidence testing that was not available at the time of the murder. The state’s chief medical examiner had listed asphyxiation as the cause of death but could not determine if it was a homicide. The case was not pursued at the time by the district attorney’s office after the late D.A. Ed Grannis determined there was not enough evidence. North Carolina authorities have begun efforts to have McDonald extradited.

Firearms restraining order

North Carolina Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat who spent 18 years as a district court judge, wants judges to be able to remove guns from people who exhibit “threatening, erratic or dangerous behavior.” The lawmaker revealed her plan less than a week after Nikolas Cruz, 19, walked into a high school in Florida and opened fire with an assault rifle.

Cruz had been repeatedly identified by federal and local authorities as a troubled teen after people who knew him complained that he could be a threat to himself or others. “This gun restraining order proposal is not a solution to gun violence but can be a step in the right direction to thwart future tragedies,” Morey said. “It provides for people who ‘see something’ to have the power not only to ‘say something’ but ‘do something’ by going to court.”

Her idea is that anyone with firsthand knowledge of someone in possession of a firearm behaving in a threatening manner could petition the court for a gun violence restraining order. If granted, the judge would order law enforcement to temporarily remove any weapons from the individual and schedule a hearing to discuss whether to bar the person from having firearms.

Airborne, all the way

Soldiers on jump status who want to keep drawing the extra pay that goes with it must jump out of a plane at least once every 90 days. That’s been the rule since the 1950s. But extenuating circumstances have often forced soldiers to pay back their $150 jump pay if they miss one of those four yearly jumps. During fiscal year 2016, the Army says 780 soldiers missed required jumps and had to pay back more than $500,000 – up to six months’ worth in some cases, despite completing at least four jumps that year.

But in January, according to the XVIII Airborne Corps, the Army updated the regulation to allow commanders to waive one of those jumps per year without affecting a paratrooper’s pay. “This is a small change that can pay big dividends for our troopers,” XVIII Airborne Corps Command Sgt. Maj. Charles Albertson said.

Contributions for the downtown arts district sought

Cool Spring Downtown District has established a campaign to win donors for the district’s projects. The First Friends campaign was kicked off in late January to ensure the financial stability of the district. Donations to the tax-deductible fund will enable design improvements, enhanced programming and economic vitality in the newly-defined downtown arts and entertainment district.

First Friends donors will be recognized alongside the organization’s founders on a permanent plaque displayed in the downtown district offices.

Contributions of all amounts are welcome. Persons donating $50 or more before April 30 will be designated First Friends. Donations may be delivered or mailed to the Cool Spring Downtown District, 222 Hay St., Fayetteville. Or pay by credit card by calling 910-223-1089.

Local attorney honored

Gardner H. Altman Jr. is Fayetteville’s most recent recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. He received the award in a brief ceremony at Epicenter Church on Fort Bragg Road. The sanctuary was built 40 years ago by Altman’s father, the late Gardner Altman Sr.

The Order of the Long Leaf Pine honor is awarded by the governor to persons who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments. Altman Jr. has served as legal adviser to several North Carolina-based companies and nonprofit organizations since 1971. He is the cofounder of the Hogs & Rags Charity Ride and has been a benefactor for many North Carolina charities and events.

When L. Wayne Smalls retired from the military, he was ready for a change. “I tried to figure out what I could do to help others,” he said. In the end, he decided on teambuilding and motivational speaking. That’s how L. Wayne Smalls & Associates, LLC came to be. Saturday, March 3, at the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, the community is invited to a book signing that will include an evening of entertainment and inspiration – the L.I.D. Experience. L.I.D. stands for leadership, inspiration and development, and according to Smalls, there will be plenty of all three at the event.

While this is billed as a book signing, Smalls said it’s not going to be like typical book signings: “There will be food, presentations, a vocalist, performances and more. I love being able to help people and inspire them to be greater than what they are and help them see that there is more to life. There is always something we can do to become better.”

L. Wayne Smalls & Associates, LLC is a leadership training company. Smalls is the author of Amazon best-seller “Called to Be a Soldier” and “Leader Lifestylez: Living a Successful Life with Purpose.” He and his cohorts help individuals and organizations improve their overall effectiveness. Smalls specializes in leadership. He is a John Maxwell certified speaker, trainer and coach. Chief administrator is Loyda Smalls. Genise Barber is an author as well and is the group’s inspiration guru. Dr. John L. Godbolt, also an author, specializes in development. The group offers workshops, seminars, empowerment sessions, mastermind groups, keynote and motivational speeches and teambuilding exercises.

“This is a movement I envisioned where we teach people how to be better leaders and how to become leaders,” said Smalls. “We empower, enable and enhance.”

In that spirit, attendees to the L.I.D. Experience will receive free books written by Smalls, Barber and Godbolt. “Everyone will get one book from each author,” said Smalls. “There will be giveaways, food, a band performance, and at the end, we will do the signing of the books. It is not your average book signing. I want people to understand this is not just a book signing event – it is where people come to better themselves and grow together. We all have room to grow. We all have something to offer. And we can’t forget to reach back and help others.”

Smalls added that several local politicians are expected to be in attendance, including local city council members. “Larry Wright will be there to introduce me,” he said.

Tickets cost $40 per person. The event runs from 1-4:30 p.m. and takes place at 100 Hay St. For more information, call 910-566-0236 or visit www.lwaynesmalls.com.

Photo: L. Wayne Small

Activities at Hope Mills Parks and Recreation: 5770 Rockfish Rd.

• Public Meeting No. 3 Monday, March 26, 6-8 p.m. Open house begins at 6 p.m., presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to present transportation planning recommendations and to solicit public questions and feedback. To learn more, visit www.HopeMillsPlan.org.

• Game room is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

• Skate park hours through March 31: Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.

• Oldies music every first and third Friday, 6 p.m., free.

Senior Programs

• Senior programs 55 plus: Various activities for seniors are available Monday through Friday at the recreation center. For specific times and events, go to townofhopemills.com and follow the links to Hope Mills Parks and Recreation.

• St. Paddy’s Bash Friday, March 16, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Community Room. Free. This is a potluck social, so please bring a dish to share. Drinks and entertainment will be provided. Sign up to attend at the front reception desk. Only 100 seats available. Call 910-426-4109 for more information.

• Social Knitting and Crocheting Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon, in the small activity room. Those planning to attend must provide their own supplies and projects.

• Brunch and Bingo originally scheduled this month has been postponed due to a space conflict and will hopefully be moved to March.

Promote yourself

To have your business, organization or event included in this section, email hopemills@upandcomingweekly.com.

Country music fans in the Fayetteville area will soon have a reason to make the trek to the Crown Coliseum as Cole Swindell and the Reason to Drink Tour pull into Cumberland County March 9. The Reason to Drink Tour is part of the 82nd season of Community Concerts – a local organization that brings a variety of music acts through the Fayetteville area. According to Michael Fleishman, one of the Community Concerts organizers, the night will feature performances by Cole Swindell, Lauren Alaina and Chris Janson. “This really is a great bill,” Fleishman said. “We think people are going to enjoy it.”

Swindell is fresh off the fourth annual Down Home Tour, and the Reason to Drink Tour is his first headlining effort. The country music singer/ songwriter has broken industry records as the first solo artist to reach No. 1 on the country music charts with each of his first seven singles. Swindell is no stranger to the big stage, either, as he has performed with some of country’s biggest names including Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Florida- Georgia Line.

Joining Swindell on his Reason to Drink Tour are special guests Lauren Alaina and Chris Janson. Alaina is best known for her appearance on “American Idol’s” 10th season where she finished second only to Scotty McCreery out of Garner, North Carolina. Her most recent album, “Road Less Traveled,” was selected a Top 40 Country and Americana Album of 2017 by Rolling Stone.

Swindell’s other special guest, Chris Janson, has also experienced his share of country music fame. After writing singles for country mainstays like Tim McGraw, Janson found success when he selfreleased his debut single, “Buy Me a Boat.” Janson went on to sign a major deal with Warner Bros. and released his second album, “Everybody,” in 2017.

The Reason to Drink Tour is a part of the annual Community Concerts lineup. Community Concerts has been a mainstay in the Fayetteville arts scene since its founding in 1935. The nonprofit organization strives to bring “the finest top-notch entertainment to Fayetteville.” According to Fleishman, when Community Concerts looks at booking an act for their concert series, they are not just looking to book a recognizable name. “I look for entertainment value,” he said. “You’ll never see a guy just sitting on a stool playing guitar. You’re going to be entertained. We look for showstoppers, and this show is full of them.”

Community Concerts does much more for the Fayetteville area than book nationally- touring recording artists. Community Concerts is the founder of the Fayetteville Music Hall of Fame and finds a variety of ways to showcase local talent throughout each year. Additionally, according to the organization’s website, it sponsors free concerts for children and deserving seniors. Community Concerts also awards scholarships to local-area high school graduates who plan to study music in college.

Tickets for the Reason to Drink Tour at the Crown Coliseum range from $29.95 to $49.75 and are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased online at CapeFearTix.com or by phone at 888-257-6208. Additionally, tickets can be purchased at the Crown Complex Box Office and the Leisure Travel Office located on Fort Bragg. The concert is scheduled for March 9 at 7:30 p.m.

What could possibly say “We are a community” more than rallying behind local heroes? According to the Ladies Auxiliary of Autryville, North Carolina – not much. The group works tirelessly behind the scenes to support the Autryville Fire Department’s needs, including fundraising, when necessary. On Saturday, March 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the group will host its inaugural Autryville Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary Spring Street Fair to raise funds for what might easily be the department’s biggest need to date.

On May 23, 2017, a tornado ripped through the town of Autryville – specifically, the fire station. In one fell swoop, the firefighters lost their building and much of their equipment. Thankfully everyone was safe.

Since that day, the department has operated from a temporary trailer. It’s been almost 10 months of slow progression and disappointment. In December 2017, the department learned an unknown man was intentionally scamming locals by going door to door to ask for donations on behalf of the fire department – only this was not of the Autryville Fire Department’s doing.

Initially, the fire department hoped to be able to celebrate the anniversary of the tornado in its new building. Unfortunately, with the winter weather, construction was delayed several times.

Recently, the department has seen much progress where the new building will stand on Hotel Street. With its new permanent building estimated to cost roughly $800,000 to complete, raising funds has been the main goal for the Ladies Auxiliary. They’ve sprung to action to fill in the gaps that insurance won’t cover. At the turn of the new year, fire Chief Andrew Hawkins reported that between $10,000-$15,000 had been raised by the department so far. Now, they have a goal of being in the new building for the 2018 Christmas holiday.

The Spring Street Fair will be a family-friendly event with free admission. Local independent companies, such as Limelight Makeup, Norwex household products, Stella and Dot jewelry, Thirty-One Gifts and more will be on hand to share their latest collections with the community. In fact, over 30 vendors will be set up for guests to enjoy.

The Autryville Fire Department is located at 305 North Hotel St. in Autryville. The event is free and open to the public. Proceeds benefit the Autryville Fire Department and Ladies Auxiliary. To participate as a vendor, contact Janel Holmes, Ladies Auxiliary president, at janel. holmes@ncdps.gov to inquire.

Fayetteville State University presents Grammy-nominated Imani Winds Tuesday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at J. W. Seabrook Auditorium on the FSU campus.

“Imani Winds is actually coming back because they did a residency for us back in 2010 for a year,” said Dr. Don Parker, FSU interim chair for the department of performing and fine arts. “They did some collaborations with the community (and) with FSU and worked with our students in terms of technique.”

Parker added that the group premiered a piece that was an original work, and they restructured it so that it would be a part of something that they were doing for Fayetteville State involving the choir and jazz program.

“Our performances are very spirited, soulful, virtuosic and very much something that is somewhat unexpected,” said Monica Ellis, bassoonist of Imani Winds. “I think a lot of people don’t think they are going to enjoy it because, if you don’t know our group or never heard of us, you would just think that these are primarily black folks playing classical music.”

Imani Winds is a quintet that features a clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon and a French horn. The group has been performing for more than 20 years. They have bridged a gap between American, European, Latin and African styles. The group began in New York City. “All of us were in New York for graduate school either at Juilliard, Mannes School of Music or Manhattan School of Music, and it was our flute player, Valerie, who had the initial idea of the group,” said Ellis. “It was her brainchild to put together a wind quintet made up of musicians of color and (that) us having similar cultural backgrounds would... bring a certain style, interpretation and flavor to the classical repertoire.”

The group has received numerous awards and collaborated with incredible musicians and icons, particularly in the jazz world.

“Jazz musicians have an affinity for our sound and what we bring, which is a really big sound,” said Ellis. “We want to have an intimacy about the music we play, but we also want to have a robust, big and juicy sound that you can sink your teeth into and not have the notion that classical music is supposed to be light and fluffy stuff.”

Parker said, “This concert will be a nice little reunion because many of the students who were involved with Imani Winds when they initially were here will come back to see them because they are like family now. We want everyone to come out and enjoy this great event.”

Admission is $10 for the public and free for FSU students. For tickets call 910-672-1724. For more information, call 910-672-1571.