Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Oct. 29, 2015, edition 1 / Page 8
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For Seniors Only editor garners top award for her short story SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Judie Holcomb-Pack, For Seniors Only editor and writer, recently received the top award for her short story, "Rose Tokens," in the North Carolina Senior Games/SilverArts literary competition. Earlier she had won first place in the Piedmont Games SilverArts competition for her short story, as well as first place for a poem and an essay, allowing her to rep resent Forsyth County in the State games. Holcomb-Pack retired from Crisis Control Ministry as its PR and Marketing Consultant in 2014 and then joined The Chronicle as part-time editor and writer for For Seniors Only. She had worked for The Chronicle in the mid-90s as Special Sections Coordinator. Holcomb-Pack has also written a chil dren's book, "Snickers' Nine Lives," that will be published soon by Indigo Sea Press. "I urge all seniors to write, whether it's a journal, poem or story," says Holcomb Pack. "We all have so many stories inside us just waiting for an opportunity to be released to the world!" sSubmitted photo Judie Holcomb-Pack shows the four medals she won for the North Carolina Senior Games/SilverArts literary competition. Photos by Tevin Stinson Mayor Allen Joines speaks to members of the press and community during a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 26. Joines announced that Winston-Salem and Forsyth County have reached their goal of ending veterans' homelessness. Veterans Tracy Bradford and Robert Worley talked about their experiences with the Veteran's Housing Network and other programs during a press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 26. Homelessness ends in city and county among veterans, mayor says BY TEVIN STINSON THE CHRONICLE The fight against home lessness in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County received some good news earlier this week. Less than one year after making Winston-Salem a member of the Veterans Housing Network chal lenge of ending veterans' homelessness in the area, the city and county has reached their goal. The initiative, which is organized by the National League of Cities, chal lenged municipalities around the country to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. Mayor Allen Joines was the first mayor in North Carolina to sign up for the challenge. He announced that Winston-Salem and Forsyth County had met the challenge of ending veteran homelessness. "We wanted to wait until it was official," said Joines. "We actually received confirmation on Oct. 6 that we had met our goal." Winston-Salem is the first city in North Carolina to meet the challenge. Matthew Doherty, executive director, con firmed that the city and county had met the U.S. Interagency Council's mark. Resources are now in place to rapidly find per manent housing for anyone identified as a homeless veteran. During a press confer ence at City Hall, Joines said ending veteran home lessness in the area would not have been possible without the help of a num ber of partners. Those agencies included the United Way of Forsyth County, Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, The Salvation Army, North Carolina Housing Foundation and the Veterans Administration. "There's an old African proverb," Joines noted, "that says when enough spider webs come together, you can tie down a lion," he continued. "We had a lot of spider webs here to tie down this lion. "Having these partner ships have really been a game-changer for us." The city of Winston Salem began tracking the number of homeless veter ans in 2007. At that time, 15 percent of all homeless people in the area were vet erans. By 2014 that number had dropped to 8 percent. Veteran Tracy Bradford said she was grateful for all the generosity shown by the United Way, Salvation Army, and a number of other programs offered throughout the city. "I've been the recipient of many, many blessings from all these programs," she said. "I just thank God for all the people that work hard to help veterans like myself." Bradford reminded those who attended the press conference that homelessness can happen to anyone at any time. "In 1986,1 worked for a company that had the third most assets in the nation," she said. "I never thought 1 would be home less but it happened, and it can happen to anyone." "Through this process, I have gained a lot of knowledge about people in this industry who are will ing to help anyway they ? ?? can. Although the mayor was excited to have met the goal, he said ending veter ans' homelessness is just a small part of the city's ulti mate goal of ending all chronic homelessness. "This is a great mile stone for our community, that we can say proudly that we have ended veter ans' homelessness, but we will not stop here," he said. "We will continue this fight until we have put and end to all homelessness in the area." Infastructure bond headed to voters CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT Gov. Pat McCrory has signed legislation to have N.C. residents vote on the Connect NC Bond initia tive during the primary elections on March 15, 2016. The initiative propos es the state borrow $2 bil lion for infrastructure ini tiatives, mostly at col leges and universities across the state. Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), Forsyth Technical Community College and North Carolina State Agricultural and Technical University (NC A&T) are some of the schools that will benefit if the bond issue is approved in March. WSSU is set to receive $50 million for a new sciences building. 15 Month Certificate wF $1,000 Minimum To Open Available October 26,2015for a limited time only. FUNDS MUST NOT BE CURRENTLY ON DEPOSIT WITH WSFCU. Federally insured by NCUA. Not a member? Call or visit to see if you're eligible. J kl Winston-Salem Federal Credit Union www.mywsfcu.org (336) 727-2663 ? (336) 788-5007 'APY ? Annual Percentage Yield. -sSSs- MM % ?1*
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