Girl Scouts will deliver Girl Scout cookies to Fort Bragg as part of the
council’s annual program. Army Community Service’s, Installation Volunteer
Services, is assisting with the coordination and distribution at Fort Bragg.

This year, the Girl Scout council is able to donate nearly 100,000 boxes of
cookies. Those cookies are then shipped overseas to military personnel
serving from Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
In addition, USOs in Jacksonville and Raleigh, and the North Carolina branch
of Give2TheTroops based in Greenville distribute Girl Scout cookies to the
military personnel that they serve.

This is the eighth year of Operation Cookie Drop and more than
half-a-million boxes of cookies will have been shipped to military troops.

“The pure generosity of our supportive community makes it possible for us to
donate so many cookies to our military men and women,” said Rusine Mitchell
Sinclair, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal
Pines.

(Editor’s Note: Media interested in covering Operation Cookie Drop must
confirm with the Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office at (910) 396-5620 no later
5 p.m. Wednesday, May 16. Upon confirmation, media will meet at Stryker Golf
Course no later than 9:30 a.m., Thursday, May 17 for escort to the event
site. Please note this event is not open to the public.)

About Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines

In partnership with more than 10,000 adult volunteers, Girl Scouts – North
Carolina Coastal Pines serves more than 33,000 girls in 41 central and
eastern North Carolina counties. (Counties are: Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick,
Carteret, Chatham, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe,
Franklin, Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Lee,
Lenoir, Martin, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange,
Pamlico, Pender, Person, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance,
Wake, Warren, Wayne, and Wilson.) The council’s administrative headquarters
is located in Raleigh, with additional program and service centers located
in Fayetteville and Goldsboro. For more information on membership or
volunteer opportunities, call 800-284-4475 or visit www.nccoastalpines.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Marketing Secrets Revealed!
Local Entrepreneurs Flock to Workshop Looking for Answers

Fayetteville, NC — Local business woman and coach, Lisa Thomas, learned through costly and time-consuming trial-and-error how to attract and keep clients – the key to growing any successful business.

Now, she’s distilled what she’s learned into an informative 90-minute session designed to teach local business owners how to get the clients, relationships and results they need to succeed. The P3 Business Boost will be offered at noon on Wednesday May 16th. Best of all, the session is free.

As president of the P3 Group – a company that specializes in leadership training and executive coaching for visionary women – Lisa Thomas has made it her business to help other businesswomen grow theirs.

The strategies Lisa promotes aren’t based in theory or speculation. These are the same strategies that she has used to personally grow her business. She says, “With these strategies in place I’ve had a practice filled with clients and consulting opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had.” In sharing these strategies with her clients, Lisa has seen them often experience an unprecedented growth in their businesses.

Her program works and women who attended her sold-out April session agree. Business owner, Renee Irvins left the last seminar with more than motivation. She left with tools and a plan to promote her business. She encourages other women to take the time to attend. Renee said, “If you truly want your business to succeed and you know you need help in pointing you in the right direction, what are you waiting for? Get on board.”

For Lisa, the P3s, stand for power, passion and purpose. Those are the very qualities she embodies and seeks to inspire in her clients. Another satisfied business owner and client of the P3 Group couldn’t be more pleased with the success her business has experienced since working with Lisa. She explained, “Last year, our company reached over 2.5 million dollars in gross sales and we owe a lot of our success to [Lisa’s] training and coaching.”

Lisa’s results speak for themselves. Professionals from business owners to therapist to filmmakers are using Lisa’s proven techniques to build their businesses and explode their client bases. She’s also been a featured contributor on NBC’s My Carolina Today, appearing as their resident leadership and success coach.

Join Lisa on May 16th from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, (1706 Skibo Road, Fayetteville, NC) for the complimentary P3 Business Boost session! In just an hour and a half, Lisa will share her Seven Proven Marketing Strategies for Creating an Endless Pool of Clients.

Learn:

• The importance of knowing who your clients are
• The importance and power of relationships that play a role in the success of your business
• The critical and important differences between referral partners and STRATEGIC referral partners
• How to maximize your existing clients
• The value in promotional event
• How to find the untapped money inside of email campaigns
• The ease of finding an endless pool of referrals in networking groups

Although this is a free session, seating is limited and the session is filling up quickly. To register for the complimentary 90-minute P3 Business Boost on May 16, 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, (1706 Skibo Road, Fayetteville, NC), click here: http://p3businessboostmay162012.eventbrite.com/

For those unable to make the event, interested entrepreneurs can email Lisa at staff@theP3group.com or call (910) 221-9294 or (704) 909-7663 to schedule a complimentary business assessment session.

The physicians and staff of Cape Fear Orthopedics invite you to play in our 3rd Annual Cape Fear Orthopedic Open. Join us and other patients on the golf course for an afternoon filled with fun, relaxation, and possibly a good shot or two. Playing well is optional. There is no fee, just an opportunity to celebrate our patients’ return to an active lifestyle after surgery.

• When: Friday, June 1, 2012, 1 p.m. (Arrive early to hit range balls)
• Where: Bayonet at Puppy Creek
  349 S. Parker Church Road
  Raeford, NC 28376
• Format: 18-hole, 4 person scramble
• Prizes: Numerous prizes will be awarded
• Food & Drink: Lunch and soft drinks will be provided

Optional donations will be awarded to the CARE Clinic.

RSVP by May 18. Space is limited.

To reserve your spot, contact Karen Jacobs by May 18 at 910-484-2171 ext. 175 or kjacobs@capefearortho.com. We will need the following information:

• Name
• Address
• E-Mail Address
• City, State, Zip
• Phone
• Orthopedic Physician’s Name
• Golf Handicap (if known)

We look forward to your visit!

Enjoy delicious food by the one and only Mark Elliott, chef and owner of the exceptional restaurants Elliott’s on Linden, The Sly Fox and Rue 32! Food and beverages for sale include Cane Creek pulled BBQ sandwiches, NC shrimp salad with farmer’smarket salad and citrus aioli, strawberries and crème fraiche, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gourmet popcorn, cookies, ginger peach iced tea, beer and wine.

Sunday, May 13 – Mother’s Day Operating Hours
Noon until 5 p.m.
The gift shop will be open 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Fayetteville, NC – May 8, 2012 – The Army’s Army , the world’s only volunteer organization of citizens and businesses who have pledged their moral, physical and spiritual support to those in the military, will be partnering with Cross Creek Cycling Club (C4) to host Ride To Honor. Taking place on Saturday, May 19, the 34 and 61-mile bicycle excursion(s) will help raise money for the Army’s Army and further its mission of supporting soldiers, veterans and their families.

Mendoza Park in Spring Lake will serve as the base camp for cyclists participating in Ride To Honor , which kicks off at 9 a.m. and runs through Cumberland, Lee and Harnett counties. Opening ceremonies will begin at 8:30 a.m. and feature remarks by Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitor’s Bureau president, John Meroski, and Spring Lake Mayor, Chris V. Rey. Event sponsors, American Legion Auxillary and Sonic, will also be stationed at the Ride To Honor base camp in Mendoza Park, serving refreshments to cyclists and spectators before and after the ride. Registration is $35 (wounded warriors and riders under the age of 13 are free).

“Ride to Honor helps support important programs for men and women who served our country, as well as their families, so we are honored to serve them through this event,” said Mike Thomas, president of C4. “This is a great opportunity to be part of an event that helps soldiers and veterans in Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the surrounding community.”

The goal of C4 is to provide people of all riding abilities the opportunity to join and ride with an organization that takes great pleasure in the sport of cycling, the continued development of riders young and old and the support of their personal goals through cycling. Many C4 members, which include active duty and/or retired military, volunteer and participate in several community and charitable events including the Ride to Recovery, the Wounded Warrior ride on Fort Bragg and countless other charity events across the Southeast United States. The club also participates in various non-ride activities that support the community, including “Operation Spin Cycle,” which assists wounded soldiers in the Warrior Transition Battalion on Fort Bragg.

The Army’s Army operates three websites strictly devoted to supporting soldiers, veterans and their families:

* FayettevilleWantsYou.com – A site that provides resources for military families relocating to Fayetteville/Cumberland County to help make their transition easier.
* FayettevilleMilitaryDiscounts.com – A blog that houses hundreds of military discounts, in one convenient place.
* BriefFromTheFront.com – The Army’s Army Executive Director’s blog that covers local news and events of interest to soldiers, veterans and their families.

Currently, the organization is made up of over 1,500 volunteers and dozens of partners that provide various types of military support through programs, such as relocation fairs and events geared towards soldiers, veterans and their families, including children of fallen soldiers.

This event is part of 31 Day Salute, a month-long celebration of performances, exhibits and activities throughout Cumberland County that show appreciation, respect and support for those who serve and have served in the armed forces.

More information about this event can be found on the Ride To Honor Facebook page .

To register for this event, please click here .

About The Army’s Army:
Fayetteville/Cumberland County is America’s first sanctuary community for the Military and their Families. The Army’s Army is the world’s only volunteer organization of citizens and businesses who have pledged their moral, physical and spiritual support to those in the military. We do everything we can to make soldiers, veterans and their families feel welcome, appreciated and safe. The Army’s Army is dedicated to “watching over those who watch over us©.” For additional information, visit www.armysarmy.com.

Part Two of our Three Part Series highlighting the history of the USO in Fayetteville
By Bryan Mims

I am reluctant to even write the word.

As a community we want to excommunicate the word, to cleanse our collective psyche of it, to accentuate the here and now and the what is to come in our city of History, Heroes and a Hometown Feeling.

But here goes — Fayettenam.

The word might as well be a glaring typo overlooked by an editor. It’s a smudge, an inkblot, a messy stain on a glossy page. Some of you cringe just to see it there in stark black and white — let alone hear it. But I write the word because it spells out in shorthand a defining period in our city’s past.

We are a different (and far better) city now, of course. Gone from downtown are the strip clubs and the seedy beer joints. Back in the late sixties and early seventies, more than 200,000 soldiers passed through Fort Bragg on their way to Vietnam. Fayetteville’s link and proximity to the Army post often sparked anti-war protests on the streets of our town, even luring the most notorious protester of the time, Jane Fonda, on at least three occasions. The churn of drafted G.I.’s fresh out of high school, combined with demonstrations and various outbreaks of misbehavior, earned Fayetteville that unmentionable moniker we’re still trying to live down more than four decades later.
“There were pool halls, hotels, bar fights and we weren’t well accepted in this town in those days, as I recall,” veteran Tom Dohnke told me during the Heroes Homecoming parade through downtown Fayetteville in November, a city-wide event to give Vietnam veterans the proper welcome home they never received back then. Dohnke first came through town in 1967, just before he was shipped off to Vietnam. “I was walking with this group (in the parade) and I thought, ‘My gosh, if they knew the real truth.’”

The truth wasn’t pretty. Soldiers weren’t celebrated in this community as they are today; they weren’t celebrated much anywhere in the country.

“When I landed in California, I was spit on,” Harvey Stewart of Fayetteville told me during that same, long-overdue homecoming event.

USO on the frontlines again

Back in those days, if you turned out of the hurly-burly of Hay Street onto Ray Avenue, past what is now Festival Park, you would have seen a big, two-story brick building with a towering chimney at the corner of Ray Avenue and Rowan Street. That was the Joe Barr USO Club, named for a prominent businessman who became known for his efforts to promote a strong relationship between Fayetteville’s business and military communities.
“We were very proud of it,” recalled former mayor Bill Hurley of the old club site. “It was a fine establishment, but as times changed, soldiers were using it less and less.”
The United Services Organizations — the USO — was founded on the eve of the Second World War to boost morale among American troops, with its first center in the world opening in Fayetteville. Clubs formed across the country and around the world, giving service members a place to hang out, play pool, watch a show or movie, meet girls (many of whom would become their wives) and just take a break from their regimented, war-fraught lives. But after the war, in 1947, the USO disbanded. With our boys home from the front lines, the thinking was, they no longer needed these services to make them feel at home.

That thinking soon broke down with the start of the Korean War in 1950, and the USO was again pressed into duty. So was Bob Hope, the iconic, comedic figure of USO Camp Shows from World War II. There he was again, quipping in his deadpan diction to the troops in another exotic locale where bullets were flying. A decade later, in the build-up to the Vietnam War, Bob Hope and the USO again proved an indispensible weapon in the battle against the enemies within: homesickness, sadness, fear.

Charles Curtis, a former Special Forces soldier from Clinton, attended a Bob Hope Christmas Show while serving in Vietnam in the late sixties. Being in such an alien place with no winter, mortar blasts in the distance, he said that USO show made the anxiety melt away, if only for a night. “There is no one like him,” he told me. “There will never be another like him. Bob Hope can make you laugh, Bob Hope can make you cry, and make you forget all your troubles.”

I found Doug Ayers, a retired Marine, on a contemplative stroll by himself through the North Carolina Veterans Park in Fayetteville one warm afternoon. Ayers, who now lives in Chattanooga, Tenn., was searching for a comrade’s hand cast in bronze, a friend who also served in Vietnam. He attended several USO shows during his 13 months in country. “You couldn’t pass up the USO, that was the best thing in the world,” he told me. “When you were in Vietnam, if you didn’t get R-and-R out of the country, the USO was all you got as far as entertainment goes.”

Unlike these days, troops didn’t have cell phones or email or Skype, and they rarely even had access to pay phones. But the USO shows kept Ayers in tune with American pop culture, even if the entertainers belting out those American ditties often came from the Philippines and Australia. “You could go up to this Filipino who could not speak a word of English, and he would sing a song absolutely correct. You would have no idea he was Filipino.”

On a night like that, in a jungle humid with tension and foreboding, the troops could feel like they were back at home in their Chevelles and Chargers with the radio cranked up. “It would hype your day up after all the crap you had to deal with,” Ayers told me. “But you had to do your job.” And a USO show made that job a bit more bearable.

The USO opened its first center in Saigon in September 1963. By the beginning of the U.S. drawdown in 1972, the USO had 18 centers in Vietnam and seven in Thailand. Along with that old standby Bob Hope, the USO summoned a virtuoso roll call of entertainers to Vietnam: Sammy Davis, Jr., John Wayne, Wayne Newton, Charlton Heston and Nancy “These Boots Are Made For Walking” Sinatra. From 1965 through 1972, famous figures performed more than 5,600 USO shows in Vietnam, including eight Bob Hope Christmas Shows. The lack of support for the Vietnam War on the home front made USO centers and shows all the more treasured among the troops.

Local USO falls out of use

But back in Fayetteville, where so many of those troops began their march to war, the USO Club existed mostly in name only. Don Talbot, who did three tours in Vietnam and has since become a well-known veterans advocate in Fayetteville, said it wasn’t a shining beacon of diversion for draftees during the Vietnam era. “It just lost its touch.” He said the military culture — indeed, the experience of serving — had changed since World War II, when troops left for war and stayed for the duration. With Vietnam, “we went in and went out, and then there was the whole anti-war effort. You didn’t have (the USO Club) on your mind.”

The first USO Club opened during World War II a block away inside the old parsonage of the Hay Street United Methodist Church. At the time, people knew it as the Soldiers Town Hall, and it was a happening place. Throughout the wartime period, the local USO hosted dances and parties for soldiers there and on Fort Bragg.

“I don’t know if it was ever in a heyday after World War II,” Hurley, the former mayor, said. “I think its heyday was World War II and a few years after. After that it sort of lost its influence, its purpose. Also, the downtown did not have a great image at that time.”
It’s an image Hurley worked as mayor to shatter in the early eighties. He ran for mayor on the platform of razing all those tawdry night spots. “We went after the 500 block of Hay Street,” he said. “We knocked down the buildings and bars and strip joints. And we have rebounded steadily ever since.”

Although the popularity of the USO Club might have fizzled among the local military community during Vietnam era and after, the big brick building with the hardwood floors and bandstand was far from abandoned.

Fayetteville used the building for special events such as banquets and dances and even a skating rink. “During my time as mayor, I don’t remember the military using it,” said Hurley, who was mayor from 1981 to 1987. “The seventies I think was the greatest decline in its relevance.”

“That was at one time a beautiful building, then it went down, down, down,” Talbot said.
Parking for the building was a problem. The pipes leaked. It had water damage. Finally, in May 2002, a fire broke out and destroyed the structure. The grand building that lorded over Ray Avenue and Rowan Street is now a patch of grass on the edge of Festival Park. The USO Club has since opened a chapter on Fort Bragg and, most recently, one at the Fayetteville Regional Airport.

USO marches into modern era

Perhaps it was inevitable: Just as what happened after World War II, talk emerged again after Vietnam about the relevance of the USO. Websites for the organization tell of the Department of Defense commissioning a Blue Ribbon Study Committee to see whether the USO had become obsolete; after all, the draft had ended and the armed forces were now “all volunteer.” But the committee reached this conclusion: “Isolation of the military from civilian forces is not, we believe, in the greatest interest of this nation.” In short, it averred, the USO was not only relevant but necessary.

The organization found its second wind with programs aimed to serve the changing face of the military, whose ranks now included married people with kids. It also offered job assistance programs for those leaving the uniform.

The USO has evolved, right along with the city where it found its first home. It didn’t much feel at home here through the raucous days of Vietnam. Fayetteville seemed like nobody’s hometown — just a portal to a polarizing war for soldiers from Anywhere, U.S.A., drafted into a thankless job. In November, our city gave them a hearty, if overdue, thank you. We are a city with History, Heroes and a Hometown Feeling, so the slogan goes.

If anything has reached the end of its usefulness, it’s the word I wincingly wrote at this story’s beginning: Fayettenam. May it rest in peace.

By Melvin E. Lewis

“Oh the times, they are a’ changin’” — Bob Dylan

From Rockingham to Raeford, Lauringburg to Lillington and Sanford to Southern Pines, people are embracing the farm and green movements and adopting lifestyles that take them closer to the earth.

Need proof? May 12 is Urban Farm Day in the Sandhills. In seven Moore County sites, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting at Southern Pines Elementary School, people will venture to homes and gardens to see what North Carolina fingers, cuttings and imaginations have created in the Pinehurst and Southern Pines area. At the Fayetteville Community Garden near the Grannis Field and Fayetteville Regional Airport, beekeepers, master gardeners and goat, chicken and rabbit raisers will tell children and adults stories about their favorite animals and insects. They will allow little ones and their parents to pet hairy four legged mammals, birds and piglets that many normally only see in zoos. Beekeepers are known to put honey bees on their fingers and let them walk around.

As Bob Dylan sang almost forty years ago: the world high and low is changing and everyone must pay attention. The sustainable and green movements are gaining momentum and forming partnerships in the Sandhills. Kelly Blandford Bah, Executive Director of Sustainable Sandhills, said some of her organization’s goals are to “be part of the green movement.” As well as, “creating a sustainable community and making the community as healthy as possible. We promote and provide programs for local food,” she said.

Sustainable Sandhills, an organization which promotes sustainability in an eight-county area, hosts a regional Sustainability Conference, as does North Carolina State University with its Solar Center and Solar House. Sustainable Sandhills also evaluates businesses for sustainability and sponsors a Green Energy Coordinator for the Cumberland County Schools System. Annually, the energy coordinator monitors the school systems’ energy consumption and writes grants to increase the program’s effectiveness.

The Cape Fear Botanical Gardens and the Cumberland County Library have partnered to provide classes by Roger Mercer, a noted grower and columnist. At his recent day lilies seminar, people who joined the Friends of the Library and or the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens received day lilies plants. Mercer has grown thousands of day lilies for the Mid-Atlantic States gardeners, nurseries and created numerous variations. He also writes a weekly column on gardening in The Fayetteville Observer.

Regional orchid, camellia and other gardening clubs are hosting presentations at the newly constructed facilities at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens. The Abundance Foundation in Pittsboro is hosting a Renewable Energy and Local Food Summer Camp for youth ages ten to fifteen. Several times a month they provide energy tours for schools and adults on Fridays and Sundays. Demonstrations include double cropping, herbal medicine and biodiesel production. In their complex there are worm farms for red wiggler worm composting and the various stages and benefits of vermiculture. Food scraps, and other organic materials are recycled and turned into soil and nutrients. The liquids from worm castings are considered valuable and rich fertilizer.

People Movements

A Grange movement has started and meets once a month at the Museum of the Cape Fear. It is a fraternal organization for North American farmers and hobbyists that encourages farm families and urban gardeners to band together for their common economic and political well-being. Free classes and discussions range from organic gardening to preserving foods. The informal meetings encourage networking and sharing resources. One gardener provided a horse owner with a container and received ten gallons of horse manure for his garden. A bee keeper has placed a hive in an area where several members garden to help pollinate the gardens.

Lake Rim Park will host a Family Night Out event on June 8, the last day of the public school year, to encourage use of its park facilities. The next morning volunteers, including a Boy Scout troop, will clean around the lake as kayakers, canoeists, and small electrical craft operators carry out tires, gym shoes, and bait boxes. Lake Rim Park rangers also regularly teach classes on water safety and kayaking and sponsor trips to white water rapids, the Fort Fisher area, the Neuse and the Black Rivers.

Dirty Hands, Clean Hearts

The North Carolina State University and A&T State University Cooperative Extension Services at Hoke County sponsor monthly classes about gardening techniques including recently, “A Square Foot Gardening” where home owners and interested people with 20 feet by 20 feet or 4 feet by 4 feet plots can maximize the yield, till the soil and produce fresh vegetables year round. The class demonstrated what can be done with simple tools and common supplies in front of the Turlington Schools, an alternative middle and high school in Raeford.

Cumberland County has a new group of intern Master Gardeners who learn each week about horticulture and how to address the needs of sandy soil and problems ranging from drainage, to weeds where you don’t want them. The Master Gardeners Volunteers in North Carolina operate a free hotline in many counties, in Fayetteville 910.321.6882 they are open from 9 a.m. — 12 p.m. and 1 — 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. One example is the “Pots for Seventy First High School Horticulture Program.”  A Master Gardener collects used plastic and clay pots to be reused in the horticulture program. The school has also received landscape rocks, bricks, chicken manure and rain barrels as donations.

Hoke and Cumberland Counties Cooperative Extension Services offer rain barrels and teach classes on how to build and place them at your business, home or farm. All North Carolina counties have Extension Service Agents who provide assistance in horticulture areas, water and land usage.

In the Victorian era mansion of the Raeford-Hoke Museum in central Raeford, Junior Master Gardeners harvest and share food growth in nine 4 feet by 4 feet plots for school projects, shelters and food kitchens. Some of the food at Fayetteville’s Community Garden also goes to charities and to the less fortunate. Sandhills Area Land Trust (SALT) coordinates Fayetteville’s Community Garden. SALT has helped save over fifteen thousand acres of land for conservation and preservation. They also support the publication of books on the flora of the Sandhills.

The nearly one hundred 20 feet by 20 feet plots contain gardens which have been an anchor for redevelopment in a community garden near the Old Wilmington Road section close to the PWC Building on Eastern Boulevard in Fayetteville.

The Solar Center at NCSU is a model of practical learning and economic empowerment. They offer classes in wind, solar and thermal (water) technologies to produce heat and electricity. Students get hands on training and prepare for the national certification for photovoltaic and thermal installers tests.

From Spring Lake to Laurinburg local food is supported and provided in community sponsored and conveniently located Farmers’ Markets. Many take place in the parking lots of Transportation Museums, history centers, flea markets and center business districts on several or more days a week.

Worms, Bees and Wine

Honey beekeepers are teaching classes and making appearances at Raeford’s Turkey Festival and Fayetteville’s Umoja Festivals and providing webinar educational presentations as well as having basic beekeeping classes in each county in the region. Hobby beekeepers are encouraging the development of local pollination and honey production.

The viniculture industry is growing in the state. Each region has guides and wine tastings. There are over a hundred wineries spread throughout the state. Dancing, good music and mellow wine are offered on every other Friday night from 7 to 10 p.m. in Wagram’s Cypress Bend Vineyards. In a large tent and wooden floor, four musicians play pop, jazz, rhythms and blues, rock as well as standards and people are seen shaking away cobwebs.
In the art and recycled community, the Restore Warehouse, a church based not-for-profit organization, collects and resells used appliances and building materials. They have an annual Recycled Art Show, where artists submit works from recycled, reused and preserved materials.

What once was sandy is becoming a bit greener each year. The cauldron to support local food production and reduce chemicals in lawns and farms is showing results.
Sustainability is a growing and positive trend in the
Sandhills.

by Kelly Twedell
It takes of team of industrious visionaries to adequately plan for something as major as the Base Realignment changes that have taken place at Fort Bragg.

The Fort Bragg Regional Alliance is how people around these parts refer to those visionaries. The Alliance is composed of representatives from 11 counties and 73 municipalities around Fort Bragg who came together to cooperate on growth issues and to determine the best ways to take advantage of the Department of Defense’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure plan, better known as BRAC.

“We are a regional organization that tries to leverage existing resources to accomplish the tasks needed for the region,” said Greg Taylor, the Executive Director for the Fort Bragg
Regional Alliance.

Since 2005 the team has worked to take into account the many factors pertaining to the expansive growth that has already taken place and the growth that is yet to come in the region. The Alliance has put together many initiatives, partnerships and collaborations to promote our region over the last few years and to draw in business for the defense industry.

From the beginning, funds were leveraged from the Department of Defense and from local governments and the Alliance created a comprehensive regional growth plan that identified numerous issues to tackle. At the top of their lists were things like housing, roads and schools — the things that people need to live in a community — and the Alliance acted as a catalyst on these issues.

Some Fayetteville business people are now questioning the less-than-expected economic development and ancillary growth BRAC has brought to the region and are wondering if our area overestimated the economic impact of BRAC. Taylor is nonplussed by their criticisms.

“That kind of growth was not expected to occur in the beginning,” Taylor explained. “We were told it would take three to five years after FORSCOM stood up last September [for the full impact to be felt].”

June 10 marks the first anniversary of the opening of the headquarters building for U.S. Army Forces Command, better known as FORSCOM, on Fort Bragg, which provides a work environment for TK ##### government employees, many of whom have recently moved into our area. Taylor says  the arrival of these newcomers has yielded many gains for our region.

“It’s showing up in the numbers. Fayetteville/Cumberland County has one of the better housing markets, with the average income being higher than other areas, commented Taylor. “We are seeing some of those benefits over time.”

Three successes the Alliance is proudest to claim are the effort to market the region as the “All American Defense Corridor”; launching the NC Defense Business Association; and the workforce platform known as PipelineNC.com.

Taylor said the Alliance partnered with Fayetteville airport authorities and obtained resources from the Office of Economic Adjustment to conduct a study that showed that we have the demand to support the flights. Doing the legwork was a huge undertaking, but it netted a direct flight from Fayetteville to Washington, D.C., which will significantly ease the travel burden for military folks, many of whom travel to the nation’s capitol at least three to four times a month.

The Alliance was also involved in the early stages of the transportation initiatives to coordinate federal and state money allocated to transform the Murchison Road corridor.
The Murchison Road bypass will soon be completed through Skibo Road.

“Just this morning we got the approval from the Office of Economic Adjustment for the matching funds to complete the redevelopment of Bragg Boulevard, more commonly known as the quarter development plan,” said John Harbison, Deputy Director for the Fort Bragg Regional Alliance.

A well thought out plan has to be implemented to manage where the traffic will be directed to gain access to Fort Bragg from Skibo Road, Murchison Road and Fort Bragg Boulevard.

“FORSCOM wants to close Bragg Blvd. through the base at the Spring Lake end which stops a major artery,” said Taylor. “So how do we do that if a person needs to travel to Spring Lake but are not using the All-American Freeway?”

While this transportation piece might not seem important to everyone, it will become increasingly important as President Obama recently asked for two more rounds of Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC), one in 2013 and one in 2015.

Transportation becomes a major factor when military officials look at which bases to close. Bases and posts that are not connected to major interstates seem to get put on the chopping block first. By working on this issue now, the Fort Bragg and surrounding communities are insuring that Fort Bragg will retain its place of importance and avoid closure in the future.

The Alliance is also proud of their work to establish PipelineNC, which gives job seekers (both military and civilian) immediate access to online self-assessments, career exploration, ways to track education and training providers and connections to employers and job opportunities. The service exists to help students and job seekers of all ages make better career, education, training and employment decisions and to give employers the tools they need to make better informed hiring decisions.

The communities surrounding Fort Bragg will continue to grow and thrive with initiatives put into action like those of the Fort Bragg Alliance. Their dedication in forming programs that benefit both the community and its recipients will be a gift that keeps giving for the economy while providing local people with jobs.

Thanks to the work of the Alliance, Fort Bragg is already progressing and working on strengthening areas that will be graded and measured up against other military posts for the next round of BRAC.  Fayetteville is very fortunate to have this organization in our community.

June 4 – July 31, 2012

For kids, teens, and adults!

Children through grade 5, attend great story programs and earn prizes by reading during the “Dream Big” Summer Reading Club!

Teens 12 – 18 years old – “Own the Night” with the Teen Summer Reading Club. Enjoy programs on writing, crafts, movies, anime, and gaming. Complete a Reader’s Log for a water bottle, and a chance to win a gift certificate. Complete a second log to receive a star key chain.

Adults, receive a sling backpack and be entered into a prize drawing, just by reading five books and completing a Reader’s Log.

To participate, pick up a Summer Reading Club packet at any library location starting on June 4. Funding for the Summer Reading Club is provided by the Friends of the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center, Inc.

All giveaways are limited to one per person while supplies last.

For a full list of June Events @ your library, click here.

Cliffdale Regional Library closed all day May 4 for improvements

All locations closed until 1 p.m. on May 4

FAYETTEVILLE, NC – Cliffdale Regional Branch Library, 6882 Cliffdale Rd., is
closed Friday, May 4 for technical work in preparation for a new phone
system. The library reopens on Saturday, May 5 at 9 a.m.

Due to system wide staff training, all locations are closed from 9 a.m.
until 1 p.m. on Friday, May 4. All locations (except Cliffdale Regional
Branch) reopen at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 4.

Book drops located outside of all library locations are open during library
closings. Materials may be renewed on the library website,
www.cumberland.lib.nc.us, or by calling (910) 223-0431.