8 - The Progress. March 1999
Morrisville police support
local Special Olympics
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
T-shirts and caps are selling like
hot cakes at the Morrisville Police
Department, and the town hopes to
be one of the top selling law
enforcement agencies who partici
pated in the benefit for the Special
Olympics—and have their name on
next year’s T-shirt.
So, far, Sgt. Ira W, Jones has
deposited over $3,000 in donations
and T-shirt sales, and he says he is
just getting started.
This is the first year Morrisville
has participated in the T-shirt sale.
Chief Robert Whitesell asked Jones
to head up the effort, and he has
visited local businesses seeking
donations along with selling the
shirts and caps.
Shirts or caps cost $13 each, and
are available at the police station or
from any police officer. Donations
are also welcome.
Jones knows that Morrisville will
probably not be the top-selling law
enforcement agency. Over 200
agencies are participating, includ
ing the Department of Corrections.
Last year, the Raleigh Police
Department raised over $60,000.
But even if Morrisville is not on
next year’s T-shirt, the effort won’t
be wasted.
“It’s for a good cause,’’ Jones said.
Jones explained that this benefit is
not for the much-touted Special
Olympics World Games which are
coming to the Triangle this sum
mer, but for the local Special
Olympics, where mentally handi
capped people in the Triangle area
might qualify to participate in the
World Games.
Local police officers have also
volunteered to help with the World
Games. Those that didn’t volunteer
will assist at the airport as people
from all over the world converge on
the Triangle for the event.
The Morrisville Police
Department will also participate in
the Torch Run for both events. The
local Torch Run will be held May 3
through 21. The World Games
Torch Run will be held June 18—
26. The route is not yet known, but
last year, Morrisville officers car
ried the torch down a section of
N.C. 54.
Bosnian man starts new life in North Carolina
Business after hours at Summit Apt.
Business After Hours will be held today, March 25, from 5:30 to 7 p.m at
Summit Westwood Apartments, 2010 Summit Ridge Loop, just off N.C. 54
across from Weston Apartments.
The next Issues & Eggs breakfast will be held April 15th, featuring Betty
Mangum. Wake County Commissioner, from 7:45 to 9:00 a.m. at the
Golden Corral on N.C. 54 at Park Place Shopping Center.
The May Business After Hours will be May 11 at Capi’s on Airport and
54 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
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0 Colonial governor William Tryon. and several later governors. We'll visii
1 Palace and gaidens, and tour many of the lovely old homes and ga'-dens in New
JBem during meir annual Home & Garden Tour. City tour, hotel & 3 ms
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I Charleston; Gardens, Mansions & Mummies
I April 2.T2J - Cypress Gardens, Boone Hall (where the series "North &. South”
I was tilmed\ Patriot's Point Military Museum, Ft. Sumpter, dinner cruise, city
ur. the City Market AND a special Egyptian exhibit at the Charleston Museum!
I Price (per person) Double .S320 Single:$430 Triple/Quad:$285 - $50'dep. due 3/13/99
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Visit us at the N&O Travel Fest '99 - Feb 28-29
Continued from page 1
ing water from a well at the rubble
of a school in the small area where
he lived when the grenade exploded.
It killed seven people and wounded
30 or 40 people, mostly women and
children. Fonunately, the hospital
was only about 200 feet from the
school, or Smajic would have bled
to death.
After the war, his brother, Enes,
arid his family were accepted as
refugees to the United States, and
Smajic hoped he could eventually
follow them. That dream came true
on January 12 of this yeai'.
America is everything he dreamed
it would be, except, “some people
are afraid when they hear I am from
Bosnia. They are looking if I have
guns or rifles. They don’t understand
what was going on there,” he said
Nate and Carolyn Carson, who run
Bloomin’ Orchids nursery in
Morrisville, helped Enes to get his
start, and now they have hired Edin
to work in the nursery. Soon he will
move into a house they own next to
the nursery.
“He’s very thorough. He does what
he does well, and he’s expanding his
horizons just as quickly as he can,”
Carson said. Along with Enes and
his wife, Jelena. who worked in the
nursery about a year before taking a
job in the RTF assembling computer
components, Carson said, “Their
work ethic is excellent. I’ve not
been sorry a minute [to have hired
them].”
Smajic is grateful to Carson and
likes working in the nursery. “He
and his family remind me of the film
Gone with the Wind. That spirit is in
his family,” he said. “They are very
hospitable. He is a kind old
Southern gentleman.”
Smajic knows he is lucky to be
here.
“There are many people who
deserve to come here. They have
suffered a lot; they have no future
there. But they can’t come here. You
must have someone who will give
you a flat (the word used ip England
for apartment—Smajic’s English is
full of such words and phrases).”
While Smajic was recovering from
his wound in the hospital “Papa
Holbrooke,” U.S. Special Envoy
Richaid Holbrooke came to Bosnia
to negotiate a peace settlement. “He
came to give us a new life,” Smajic
said. “Perhaps he doesn’t know how
some of the people are grateful to
him.” By the time Smajic was out of
the hospital, the war in his area was
over.
Smajic was born a Bosnian, but he
does not consider himself part of
any ethnic group. He calls himself
the fourth nation, “There are
Bosnians, Serbs and Croats, and
then there are the people who don’t
want to be like the others.
“I did not want to make war. I was
forced to be there, I avoided to
shoot,”,he said. There were many
like him. He heard of grenades
thrown with the pins intact and
notes attached saying, “We are not
the same.” Along parts of the front
line, informal treaties were made,
and soldiers would warn their ene
mies when higher officials would
come and force them to resume
fighting. Along the border that
Smajic was protecting, shots were
never fired.
“In the beginning, the Bosnians
and the Croats were right to defend
their country,” Smajic said. “But
after a while, you don’t know who
you are fighting against. You think
there are devils on the other side. •
That’s not true. They are people.”
He said the Serbs made up 40 or 45
percent of the ex-Yugoslavian popu
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lation and Montenegro Orthodox,
which were similar to Serbs,
brought the total to over half. About
99 percent of the military officers
were Serbs.
“Other areas could have made
unions, but they wanted to make
their own empires,” he said. For
example, Bosnian and ethnic
Albanian families made a pact to
have at least five children, and many
had up to 10 or 12 kids. “It was a
way to make domination,” Smajic
explained. “In 40 or 50 years, there
would be 99 percent ethnic
Albanians. That’s why the Serbs
hurried to fight.”
Enes and his family came to
America in April of 1997, sponsored
by a Methodist and Episcopal
Church in the historic Oakwood
area of Raleigh. His wife, Jelena,
started out working with her hus
band in the Bloomin’ Orchids nurs
ery, and now works at Sanmina
Corp. His son, Yasmin, attends West
Cary Middle School. They have
earned enough money to buy their
own townhouse in Trappers Run in
Cary.
When the war officially ended in
December of 1995, Smajic applied
for a passport to Croatia, where
another brother lives, and received it
with no problem. “Many guys like
me wanted to leave. They didn’t
need us anymore; they didn’t have
jobs for us."
But he couldn’t get a visa, which
would allow him to leave the area of
the former Yugoslavia. “All
European countries closed their bor
der lines,” he said. "The only places
that received refugees other than
America were Australia, New
Zealand and Canada.”
He knew that if he was unsuccess
ful resettling to the U.S., he could
try again to one of the other coun
tries. But he is glad he was allowed
to come here.
“I like the culture and the history,
and the rock ‘n roll music,” he said.
His favorites, and records he lis
tened to in Bosnia include Lynyrd
Skynyrd, Ted Nugent, the Doors, the
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane
and Janis Joplin. His nephew has
been a great help to him because “he
talks a lot and he likes the same kind
of music I like.”
He lived with his brother in
Croatia for two years, which was a
lot of time to improve his English.
He had no permanent job because he
had no work permit, but he could
help build houses on a temporary
basis, and he gave English lessons to
children, making 10 German marks
(about $6) an hour.
He applied with the Catholic
Commission for Resettlement in
Croatia, which is connected with
Lutheran Family Services in
America. He then waited over a year
for an answer.
“For my nerves, it was a .terrible
situation,” he said.
In the group he came over with,
everyone had a friend or family
member who they would be staying
with. He made friends, and has been
helping some of them with their
English, along with another Bosnian
family that was sponsored by New
Horizons Fellowship in Apex. He
has attended church there some, and
also attends Landmark Baptist
Church in Cary, near where his
brother lives.
He probably won’t convert to
Christianity, but “I am open to posi
tive influences. I like to see and talk
to people, to exchange thoughts and
ideas.” He mentioned a recent con
versation with a group of American
Baptists about The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner and how it relates
to the Bible regarding sin and pun
ishment.
“The love that must fill your heart
if you want your sin forgiven ... I
lived that poem, that topic,” he said.
He has a copy of Coleridge’s poems
in Croatian—the author’s name on
the cover is spelled “Koldridz.” It is
one of the few things he brought
with himm—clothing and books
were his only possessions.
His future plans are not lavish. He
will buy a guitar, and maybe a
motorcycle. “1 know America needs
people with big dreams, but I just
want to be an average citizen, with
, an average salary, an average house,
an average wife,” he said.
Free soccer, tennis clinics in April
A free David Allred soccer clinic for ages 5 to 12 will be held Sunday,
April 11 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is required.
A free tennis mini-clinic for children and adults will be held May 1 from
10 a.m. to noon. Registration is required.
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These renderings are for illustrative purposes only and are not guaranteed to represent final site/building plan details.