Recent Articles

Well Christmas has passed and now it's time for those New Year's resolutions !
Resolutions are always fun. I bet if you did some math, you'd discover that a very small percentage of resolutions are actually kept each year.
I rarely keep mine.
I think we all have good intentions when we set resolutions.

It's hard to believe we are sitting on the eve of 2016. The one thing I can say for 2015 is that is was a fast year. Looking back through our archives for 2015, the other noticeable thing about the year is that we saw a lot of change in leadership. We rang in the year with a new sheriff, Keith Stone, and 2015 seemed to continue to bring transition forth.
Melvia Batts retired after 20 years with Nash County's Social Services, most recently serving as its director. Donna Boone took the helm as the new director
Meredith Holland resigned from her post as Executive Director of My Sister's House and we welcomed new director, Cynthia Kornegay.

YELLOW RIBBON -- This photo was originally published in The Graphic on January 20, 1981. Fourth graders at Nashville Elementary tied a yellow ribbon 'round an old oak tree in the school yard to welcome American hostages home. From left are Polly Kinsey, Chris Varnell, Al Edwards, Keith Lowe and Robbie Murphy. At right is art teacher Joan Cobb.

The North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police Rocky Mount Lodge No. 46 held its annual Cops and Kids event on December 19th at Kmart in Rocky Mount. This year's event was spearheaded by the Lodge Auxiliary. Lodge members said the Auxiliary was able make the event a great success for the children.
The Lodge was able to help 54 children have a Christmas. They also had a tremendous turn out of officers to help each child shop this year and provided each child with $250 to purchase necessities such as clothes, coats, shoes, bedroom linens, and toys that the family may not have been able to provide.

An Elm City man was killed in a single-car accident on Christmas Day.
According to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, 24-year-old Jeremy Hill was driving on West Hornes Church Road just after 6 p.m. when he ran off the road to the left and struck a parked tractor trailer.
Hill was pronounced dead at the scene.

INCIDENTS
A driving while impaired was reported on 12/22/15 on S NC 58 Highway
A larceny (shoplifting) was reported on 12/22/15 at Wal-Mart, 1205 Eastern Avenue
A possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana was reported on 12/23/15 at East Old Spring Hope Road and S. First Street

Nash County Planning and Inspections issued the following building permits from December 21 through 25.

An assault was reported on 12/21/15 at 4479 Langwood Way
An identity theft was reported on 12/21/15 at 8472 Carter Grove Drive
A possession of drug paraphernalia was reported on 12/21/15 at W Old Spring Hope Road and Warren Road
An attempted suicide was reported on 12/22/15 on US 64A

Nash Health Care was aglow during the holiday season, thanks to "Lights of Love."
For the twelfth year running, the Volunteer Auxiliary created a special display to honor and remember loved ones with four special trees in the Surgery Pavilion. A special tree lighting ceremony was held on December 1st. At the ceremony, Larry Chewning, President and CEO of Nash Health Care, along with others, read the names of every one honored by the "Lights of Love" project.

Nashville's Kiwanis Club recently joined the Students of the Month at Cedar Grove Elementary to present them with the Kiwanis Club TERRIFIC Kids Award. The students received a special treat bag with many local merchants' coupons for free items. Students were rewarded for their contributions made in the classroom and to the school by being great role models and great examples of good character and citizenship. Pictured with the TERRIFIC Kids recipients, on the back row (L-R) are Kiwanis members Rhonda Jordan and Hattie Cooper and Cedar Grove Principal Tevis T. Harris.

Lisa Bulluck-Brown, assistant principal at Joseph W. Parker Middle School, and Paisley Cloyd, art teacher at Rocky Mount High School, have been nominated for the 2015-2016 national LifeChanger of the Year award.
Sponsored by the National Life Group Foundation, the LifeChanger of the Year program recognizes and rewards the very best K-12 public and private school educators and employees across the United States who are making a difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence and leadership.

A Honor Roll
Rodkela Dunston, Leaizyah Fields, Christopher Kelly, Porchia Malloy and Taikayi Whitaker

The ladies of Woman's Professional networking group of Rocky Mount gathered items for MSH, The Wright Center and The Bassett Center for Christmas this year. Pictured (L-R) is Tonya Slocum, of Providence Bank, Kathy Akers from Boone, Hill, Allen and Ricks, Cynthia Kornegay, Executive Director of My Sister's House and Kathy Lewis from Coats Vet presenting the items for My Sister's House shelter.

In the spirit of the season, three officers from the Nashville Chapter #332 Order of the Eastern Star, presented 133.5 pounds of canned goods, paper products, water and toiletries, all donated by chapter members, to United Community Ministries. Pictured (L-R) is: Ken Ezzell (PGP), Darothy Smith (WM), Enoch Jones UCM Resources Supervisor and June Thorpe (Chaplain). The UCM provides shelter and meals for individuals and families in need. UCM Resident Coordinator, Taniza Tabb (not pictured), said many contributions come from the faith community but also from private individuals and fundraisers.

Westwood One talk radio host Phil Valentine has picked up another award for his screenplay, Derek Dickens & The Dream. Valentine just won first place at the Nevada International Film Festival in Las Vegas. Recently, Valentine took home top honors at the Colorado Film Festival and placed third in the Atlantic City Cinefest.
"I had no idea this little movie script would be so well received," Valentine said.

The 2015 President's Challenge recipient is Nash Community College's Student Government Association (SGA) for their leadership and involvement in engaging students, faculty and staff in community and campus activities.
The SGA sponsors activities such as the Annual Christmas Luncheon, Spring Fling, American Red Cross Blood Drives and much more.

This news is late, and I need to apologize; it was in my spam. On November 7, 2015 Javion Richardson celebrated his 5th birthday with a celebration at Fishing Creek Baptist Church Fellowship Hall in the Aventon Community. Javion (Jaybug) fellowshipped with family and friends and was greeted by the Ninja Turtle Leonardo. Javion is the son of Bakema Mills of Hollister and has 2 brothers and a sister. Happy belated birthday Javion.

Merry Christmas Nashville! I do hope this paper finds you doing well and in the Christmas spirit as we get to boldly proclaim once again, "Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing." Many of you might be thinking, "Luke has his articles wrong, this sounds like an early December type of article..."
Well, not quite. As you've noticed I'm a stickler for following the church calendar (very wise people put this thing together and they really loved Jesus) therefore, in our home we are Christmas until Epiphany Sunday type of people.

Happy New Year!
There are a lot of things going on at Red Oak Baptist Church!
Do you have old cards? Red Oak Baptist Church is collecting old Christmas card or everyday card fronts December 2-January 17. The card fronts will be sent to St. Jude's Ranch for their Recycled Card Program. The children take the card fronts and repurpose them into new cards to sell.

Many of my readers have told me how much they have missed reading my news in the Graphic. I had a lot of telephone calls and also been asked when I would happen to see people in person. well, I continue to request to my readers that I would like them to give me news about things that are happening that they would like me to include in the news. I have had little response. Many people want to read the news but would rather not be included in the news themselves. So for that reason and other personal reasons I have not written it for a few weeks.

Saturday, January 2 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Thorne's Chapel Baptist Church, 1624 Windsor Drive, Rocky Mount
Tuesday, January 5 from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Red Oak Volunteer Fire Department, 7951 Red Oak Boulevard, Red Oak
Thursday, January 7 from 12 until 6 p.m. at Englewood Presbyterian Church, 100 South Englewood Drive, Rocky Mount
Friday, January 8 from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at Englewood Presbyterian Church, 100 South Englewood Drive, Rocky Mount

USDA North Carolina Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Bob Etheridge recently announced that approximately 50,000 North Carolina farms who enrolled in the new safety-net programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill will soon begin receiving financial assistance for the 2014 crop year. The programs, known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), are designed to protect against unexpected drops in crop prices or revenues due to market downturns.

Nash Health Care Systems will receive $110,000 in grant support from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust to continue its Affordable Care Act Access Outreach initiative. Access Outreach, which works to educate uninsured Americans on their health insurance options and assist them in enrolling in healthcare.gov.
Access Outreach was instituted in 2014 after Nash Health Care noted that nearly 20 percent of residents (ages 0-64) in Nash, Edgecombe, and Halifax counties lacked health insurance. From its inception, the initiative has been supported by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

The following Nash Rocky Mount Schools students made the A or the A/B Honor Rolls for the latest reporting period.

CLEVELAND - Nash Central's defense of its girls championship at the Cleveland Classic Basketball Tournament didn't begin with the high-wire heroics that were featured in last year's event.
But the outcome was every bit as effective, albeit lacking in suspense.
Nash Central, coached by Terri Cash, was relentless with its full-court pressure early on and was never threatened as part of a 65-26 decision over West Johnston in the opening round of the annual tourney at Cleveland High School in Johnston County.