Community
paqe a Your stories, your voices JULV sl, 2I
Community
Calendar
Bowling Day
Piedmont Nursing Group
Inc. and Goler Metropolitan
A.M.E. Zion Church will spon
sor the Silver & Green commu
nity Bowling Day on Aug. 9
from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the
Creekside Bowling Lanes at
1450 Trade Mart Boulevard.
This event will be held every
2nd Saturday of each month
along with a canned and non
perishable food drive. The pub
lic can enjoy free games of
bowling and fellowshipping.
Sponsorships and donations
are welcome. For more infor
mation, pleases call 336-497
4708.
Meet the Principal
Downtown Middle School,
280 South Liberty St.,
Principal Annie Fleming
Weaver will host a "Meet the
Principal" event on Sunday,
Aug. 10 in the school's cafete
ria from 3-4 p.m. There will be
punch, cookies and a discus
sion about the principal's
vision for the school this year.
Please post this event in the
calendar. Call the school at
336-748-3838 for further ques
tions.
Workshop for beginning
drummers
Living Rhythms Drum
School will offer a 90-Minute
Introduction to African
Drumming Workshop, which
includes a rental drum, on
Sunday, Aug. 3 from 4 - 5:30
p.m. at the Golden Flower Tai
Chi Center, 612 N. Trade St.
The class is $20. To register,
call 336-774-3898 or down
load registration form from
www.li vingrhythms .com .
Atkins Reunion
The Atkins High School
classes of 1943, 1944 and 1946
through 1951 will celebrate
their 11th Biennial Reunion
Aug. 8-10, 2008. These classes
are the oldest group of Atkins
High classes that still celebrate
a joint reunion. This group has
gathered every other year,
except for 2000, when thhe All
Atkins High School
Millennium event was held.
This year's theme is "Yes We
Still Can - We are the Camels."
The activities will include
the Chew & Chat Fellowship,
Karaoke, individual class busi
ness meetings, photo sessions,
games, R & R, a formal ban
quet, a church worship service
(Galilee Missionary Baptist
Church) and an old fashion
picnic/cook-out.
Big Four Choir rehearsals
to begin
The Big Four Choir will
hold rehearsals each Monday
during August, beginning on
Aug. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at First
Baptist Church on Highland
Avenue.
The choir - composed of
alumni and friends of the city's
four former black high schools
-will provide music during the
Big Four Worship Service,
which will be held Oct. 23 at
First Baptist Church. This
year's Big Four celebration is
being hosted by the Atkins
High School Alumni. New
choir members are welcome.
For additional information,
contact Edna Smith at 748
9008.
Donna Dalton Edwards points to herself.
Jamie Chamberlin with her young cousins
Frederick and Maya.
Frank Dalton with his wife, Mary Pearl.
* AMILY
Affair
Family has gathered for the past
75 years for reunion
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
It was 1933, and in San Francisco, the first beam of steel
was erected for the nearly 9,000-foot long Golden Gate Bridge;
at movie houses, the first of several film versions of "King
Kong" was packing in audiences; and an ocean away. Hitler,
one of history's most notorious figures, was tasting his first
morsels of power as he was elevated to chancellor of Germany.
History was also made that year in Stokes County - but lit
tle did the Dalton family know that when they gathered for its
very first reunion. Over the decades since - through wars,
recessions and the triumphs and tragedies that ^11 families
experience - the Daltons have come together annually to enjoy
life, love and legacy.
The Daltons' landmark 75th Family^
Reunion took place over the weekend i
in Winston-Salem and Stokes County,
drawing hundreds of kinfolk from]
every nook and cranny in America.
"It is a tradition that gets better]
every year," said Eleanor Dalton
Williams, who serves as the president
of the reunion, which Ebony magazine'
has called one of the oldest black family '
reunions in the nation.
Like the family itself, the reunion^
has grown tremendously. The
first one took place in at a^
small house. These,
days, events stretch
over three days and
require large
parks and banquet
halls.
"If we keep
going like this, we
may have to go to
four sa'^ HH
Rodessa Daiton Patriarch Granville Dalton
Mitchell, who
works for the
Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. "We have very creative
people in the family who are always thinking of new things to
do."
One of those ideas became reality a few years ago when the
family started a golf tournament. Proceeds from the event go to
scholarships for all the year's graduating high school seniors.
Another highlight this year was the reunion banquet, which
was held at Winston-Salem State University's Anderson Center
inside a banquet hall named for one of the family members.
Alice Dalton McNeil and her husband, Herman, have been
financially generous to WSSU; a few years the school thanked
them with the McNeil Ballroom.
Dalton McNeil is one of endless examples of the success the
family has been blessed with. They are doctors, lawyers, edu
See Reunion on Bll
I) alt on family members from left: Doug and Rodessa Mitchell, Dr. Walter Singleton, Eleanor
Dalton Williams, Tres Vance, Michael Williams, Skip Dalton, Cassandra Dalton and Dr. Dana
Dalton.
Photos by Kevin Walker
Shawn Cole
makes his way
around the ban
quet hall with
son , Anderson.
Below: Wayne
and Lena Dalton
look through the
reunion booklet.
Shirley
D a I I o n
D u c k i n s
passes out
raffle tickets
to family
members
(left). Later,
she points
out some of
her brothers
and sisters in
an old photo
graph to "
another fam
ily member k
(right). I