September 13, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Chairman Carolyn Furr handed out the nomination forms for the outstanding citizen and club of the year. The awards are made at the annual Wake Forest Holiday Dinner, which will be Tuesday, Dec. 5, at The Forks Cafeteria. The nomination forms, available after Friday at the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce office on South White Street, are due back by 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, because the council members vote on the nominations at the November meeting.

            There is also a nomination form for the Peggy Allen Lifetime Achievement Award, begun last year and awarded to Allen posthumously. The longtime editor of The Wake Weekly, she was involved in a host of community and civic activities. Nominees must be people who have been community volunteers for a significant part of their adult lives, with at least five years in the Wake Forest community.

            Arrangements for the dinner were made easily because the council members have had so much practice. The Wake Forest Garden Club will provide the table decorations, town planner Agnes Wanman will ask her brother to bring his barbershop quartet for the entertainment, WRAL-TV traffic specialist Mark Roberts will be the master of ceremonies, and Tresa Jalot at the chamber will produce the programs. The town of Wake Forest pays for the entertainment. The price for tickets will depend on the cost of the meal, which will be determined soon, but it will be close to the $15 charged last year.

            Furr said the chamber is sponsoring its popular notary class on Oct. 18 and already has six people signed up. The cost is $100 for the all-day course.

            The next Business After Hours will be held at Carolina Pediatric Dentistry on Wakefield Pines Drive from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, and the 2006 Business Expo will be held at The Factory from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26.

            Furr said the survey asking chamber members their opinions about the upcoming school bond issue shows the respondents almost equally for and against.

            Thelma Wright, reporting for the Wake Forest Woman’s Club, said they are organizing volunteers for the Parade of Homes. The volunteers can earn $8 an hour for their clubs or groups. The Woman’s Club is also putting together a team for the chamber’s Spelling Bee later this year. She encouraged other clubs and groups to participate because the proceeds from the bee go entirely for the teacher grants the chamber gives each year in cooperation with the Trentini Foundation. Last year’s bee raised $10,000.

            For the Koinonia Foundation, Beverly Whisnant asked Sue Cascio, president of the Wake Forest Garden Club, if the club would provide the table decorations for Koinonia’s annual fund-raising dinner and auction on Jan. 27.

            Wanman, representing the Downtown Revitalization Corporation, said the Historic Home Christmas Tour will be held Saturday, Dec. 2. The DRC and the Wake Forest Cultural Arts Association are sponsoring the third Autumn Arts Festival. More than 20 artists have reserved booths for the festival on Oct. 14 along South White Street.

            The DRC has received the first set of drawings for the South White Street street-scape project, and Wanman said they hope to be able to ask for bids in early winter. Improvements on North White Street are part of phase four of the project, but because the construction at the CVS drugstore on Roosevelt has mean moving power poles and other adjustments, the DRC is trying to incorporate some of the future plans now.

            Volunteers are still needed for the Autumn Arts Festival, including some to babysit artists’ booths while they take a break, and for the Christmas Parade. You can call either Wanman at the planning department or Nancy Tebeau at the DRC office.

            There are about 180 children a day at the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club after school, and some of them and their parents are training for the Gobbler Run in November. The club needs help with the indoor soccer program that will begin in October.

            Jodi Springer, representing both the Wake Forest Kiwanis Club and Haven House, gave everyone information about both.

            Kiwinis, she said, is raising money by selling tickets to Ira David Wood’s “A Christmas Carol.” The money will buy dictionaries to be distributed to every third-grader in the county.

            Bill Crabtree, the communications specialist with the town, urged all organizations and groups to take advantage of the free community calendar on the town’s web site. It is at http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/communitycalendar.aspx.

            About 2,000 people, he said, have signed up for the weekly e-mail The Week Ahead, which lists events with dates, times and descriptions. To receive it or to add to it, call Crabtree at 554-6196 or e-mail him at bcrabtree@wakeforestnc.gov.

            Carol Pelosi, representing the Friends of Wake Forest Public Library, said the group has over $7,000 in its treasury and has elected to spend about $5,000 of that to create a listening corner for teens and young adults, part of the mini-makeover the branch manager, Yvonne Allen, plans.

            Barbara Massenburg, speaking for Cultural Arts, said a new feature of the Autumn Arts Festival is an art show for middle and high school students. The judging will be Oct. 6, and the submitted works will be on display at Wake Forest Art & Frame Gallery on South White Street.

            The association has a closer association with the town now, Massenburg said. Parks and Recreation Director Susan Simpson, who has been the town’s liaison to the group, is now its treasurer. There is also a new policy about money. Although the group does not have a great deal, it sometimes gives to a cause or a group, but now the request must be in writing.

            Speed Massenburg said the Wake Forest Rotary Club has already decided on a date for its fund-raising event, a 5K race, which will be held May 12 this year.

            On Nov. 4 the group will hold a work-and-donate event for Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based organization “working to end world hunger in our lifetime.” The work will be to fill bags with dehydrated ingredients which, when mixed with boiling water, make a balanced meal. Stop Hunger Now plans to store the bags on each continent in the future. Massenburg said the date has been chosen but not the location.

            Sue Cascio, president of the Wake Forest Garden Club, said the club members will tend to two gardens, the one with native plants at the Wake Forest College Birthplace and the Susie Powell Garden, named for the club’s founder, at the gazebo parking lot in downtown.

            The club is also preparing for the 2007 garden tour, The Secret Lives of Gardeners … Look and Learn. It will be May 19 and 20.

            All clubs, groups and individuals are invited to join the community council, which meets at noon at The Forks Cafeteria on the second Wednesday of the month. Dues are $10 a year.