What’s Up With PARC?
By Jean McDanal
PKS community yard sale. On Saturday, October 1, the annual Pine Knoll Shores
community yard sale will be held at the Pine Knoll Shores fire station from 8 a.m.
until noon. To reserve your space, contact Natalie Gibble at 247-2268 or NGibble@
townofpks.com. You may use your own table, or the town will supply one for an addi
tional $5. The deadline for reservations is Tuesday, September 27, so start cleaning out
those attics, boxes and closets.
Angel Tree Project. Look for the Angel Tree table at the yard sale. Information will
be available about this project that supports returning wounded veterans and their
families at Christmas. Specifics on families for adoption will not be available until
November.
Mountains to the Coast bike ride. Every year for the past 18 years. North Carolina
Amateur Sports has hosted a week-long “Cycle North Carolina Mountains to Coast”
bicycle tour that has become one of the most popular cross-state bike rides in the
United States, attracting people from nearly every state and many foreign countries.
Each ride begins in a different town in the North Carolina mountains and ends in a
different beach town on the east coast. This year’s ride will take place from October 1
to 8, beginning in Banner Elk, in the heart of ski country, and ending seven days later
right down the road in Atlantic Beach. Along the way, riders will traverse the state
on back roads with overnight stops in Wilkesboro, Lexington, Burlington, Sanford,
Clinton and Jacksonville, covering approximately 70 miles per day, for a total of nearly
500 miles. During the first four days in the mountains, riders will experience elevation
gains (hill climbs) of 3,400 feet per day before they cross the piedmont and hit the flat
lands of the coastal plain.
This year Pine Knoll Shores will be represented by first-timers Cheryl Smith and
Maureen Young, and returning rider John Brodman, who will be doing his fifth
Mountains to the Coast ride this year. Cheryl, who lives in Pine Knoll Shores with her
husband and 9-year-old daughter, is a member of the Parks and Recreation Committee
(PARC) and a design application manager for Armstrong World Industries. Maureen
is a physician’s assistant with Oceanside Pediatrics and a Pine Knoll Shores resident,
and has two children, one a graduate of and one a student at the University of North
Carolina—Chapel Hill. John Brodman, who has lived in Pine Knoll Shores since 2006,
is a town commissioner and also a member of PARC.
Mike and Buffa Hargett and Jan Frye, veterans of the Pine Knoll Shores cycle team
during the past several years, have moved on to greener pastures and, after last year’s
ride, who can blame them? The first five days of last year’s ride took place in cold, rainy
weather, with riders covering an average of 80 miles per day. Then, as the ride approached
the southeast part of the state, the last two days were cancelled because of the torrential
downpours and flooding that affected the southern part of our state and South Carolina
during October of last year. Their keen insights that were chronicled in our daily updates
of the team members’ progress will be sorely missed.
The riders will be supported this year by team captains Bryan Smith and Sylvia
Brodman. In keeping with our usual tradition, Cheryl has volunteered to write a
daily blog, with all the vital statistics (including miles ridden, average speed, strange
encounters with animals and spectators, number of PB8cJ sandwiches consumed, flat
tires and other escapades) and make it available to all who are interested in following
the riders’ progress. Look for more information about the blog in an upcoming email
from town hall as we get closer to the ride.
The riders pay their own expenses, but in past years, they have received charitable
contributions for Kayak for the Warriors and for the two hospice organizations in
Carteret County. This year the riders have elected to support the North Carolina
Coastal Land Trust and the Carteret County Humane Society. The process will be
a little different this year. If you like reading about the riders’ progress and want to
support them this year, please send your check directly to one of these organizations at
North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, 131 Racine Drive, Wilmington, NC 28403 or to the
Carteret County Humane Society, 853 Hibbs Road, Newport, NC 28570.
The Parks and Recreation Committee welcomes any suggestions for activities that
will get people out, moving and involved. If you have any suggestions for PARC,
please email PARCPR@ec.rr.com or come to one of our meetings. The next meeting is
Tuesday, October 11, at 9 a.m. at town hall.
Gai^ en Club
By Clare Winslow
Members of the Garden Club are preparing for the upcoming dedication of the
Blue Star Memorial on November 9. Arleen Graczewski, chairman of the Blue Star
Memorial dedication, reports that the commemorative marker has arrived in Pine
Knoll Shores and that plans have been set in motion and committees formed to bring
the event to fruition. Preparations include writing invitations to veterans, contacting
public speakers for the event, and arranging for the reception at town hall immediately
following the ceremony. In conjunction with the dedication, JoAnn Shallcross, Gini
Stambaugh and Karen Zaenker are arranging a wine and cheese fundraiser to be held at
town hall on Friday, October 7, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The club does not meet during the summer months, but members continue to tend
the town’s six gardens all summer long. Karen Zaenker reports that she has discovered
two drought-resistant plants—portulaca and diplademia—that have done well
throughout our intense summer heat in the garden she tends at Mimosa Boulevard.
Barbara Yankauskas’ Dogwood Circle garden was plagued with pennywort and a
failing timer and water system, but thanks to Sonny Cunningham, Jim Yankauskas and
Dick Belanger, the system is up and running again.
Lana Hathaway’s gardens at Pine Knoll Boulevard look lovely with pink and white
crepe myrtle, zinnias and lantana but, again, pennywort creates an ongoing weeding
problem.
The garden at Oakleaf Drive and Salter Path Road is full of bright flowers, ranging
from portulaca, variegated vinca and petunias by the highway and, looking landward,
to knockout roses, dwarf crepe myrtle, variegated liriope, zinnias, gerbera daisies and a
banana tree. Needless to say, Martha Edwards has spent an inordinate amount of time
watering to keep these plants alive during our hot summer months.
The garden at Roosevelt Boulevard tended by Susan King looks beautiful with the
bright blooms offset by the pink crepe myrtles, but Susan has had unwanted visitors
while she was tending the garden—black corn snakes. They probably slithered over
from the nearby protected Roosevelt Natural Reserve.
Our Hereth Garden in front of town hall is tended by Lois Jean O’Keefe and her
husband, Paul. Lois Jean reports that the sprinkler system runs for a half hour every
weekday to keep the flowers in the bed healthy, but the water also encourages weeds
that sprout through the thick brown mulch top dressing.
The club’s September 14 meeting will be a workshop for the preparation of the Blue
Star Memorial dedication in November. Guests and visitors are always welcome at our
meetings, which are held at town hall every second Wednesday of the month at 9:30
a.ni. for refreshments, followed by the program at 10.
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