Second "'Diva'' to perform at jazz concert tomorrow. See page C7 gPORTSWEEK wlers down but not out? •••• ce’s work is paying off Community African quilters carry on past See 6 7 See Cl Ups to beat the summer heat Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point Vol.XXVI No. 42 iy 11 II. 124 062201 ij, SERIALS DEPARTi'iENT )j, CB #3933 DAVIS LIBRARY UNO CHAPEL HILL CHAPEL HILL NC 27514-8390 3-DIGIT 275 The Choice far African American News THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2 Building blocks Photos by Kevin Walker 9S, from left, BCC student Jasanna Battle thy Graham-Wheeler pose with one of the C has sold during its fund drive. Best Choice Center appealing to residents as it begins to build for the next generation BYT. KEVIN WALKER THE CHRONICLE Dorothy Graham-Wheeler took Lois Hanes on a brief tour of the Best Choice Cen ter last week. Graham-Wheeler, the director of the well respected, non-profit after-school and sum mer program for students 5 to 15 years old, boasted about the spacious new computer lab and adjacent library. She then took Hanes, a charter board member of the 12-year-old cen ter, into the Life Skills Center, a place where students, teachers and parents can study vari ous disciplines using videos, computer pro grams and various other forms of technology. The tour relied heavily on description; the visual tours will have to come later. The only things that fill the computer lab, library and Life Skills Center now are cardboard boxes, thin slabs of wood, the sound of hammering and the smell of fresh paint. The Best Choice Center is in the midst of the largest face-lift and expansion of its histo ry. When the last nail is hammered - which officials with the center hope will happen sometime next year - the program will add about a dozen new classrooms, enough space for the program to add 100 students. “That’s why it’s so’ important that we expand,” Graham-Wheeler said. “We keep a waiting list. We have to turn down people each year.” Currently, the small church on Highland Avenue that Best Choice Center has called home for close to a decade will allow for only See Best Choice on A4 “Who is going to take care of our kids if we don’t take care of them?'' - Dorothy Graham- Wheeler Charlie Douglas, right, and DaSean Liles play a chess match in their math class at Best Choice Center. w. " |me program ing message the streets HODGES JICLE i( jj raham lives in Piedmont Park. She is affec- alled Mama Graham by many of the young 0 live in the area. d that the latest acts of violence in her neigh- ire disturbing, but no one bothers her. ieen here so long, they respect me,” she said. IJj^ people in the neighborhood don’t use pro ud Graham. ;r granddaughter Terry tells another story neighborhood. She hears gunshots, she sees and she steers clear of all of that. .. ling to statistics from the Winston-Salem 1 Dartment, since April 26 there have been four IS idents in the Piedmont Park area, j n Ross reported that he was robbed at gun- ., three suspects. Robert Wilson was shot and li two unknown men, and a 10-year-old victim I ilted by fists and kicking, then the suspects i )icycle. The suspects were described as being jl le ages of 10 and 13. Keyna Eaton reported d been shot while he was in the 2700 block of Ilf ll incidents brought law enforcement agents brsyth County Sheriff’s Office; District Attor- ;e; WSPD; FBI; Drug Enforcement Agency; Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; State Investigation; Housing Authority of Win- Division of Adult Probation and Parole; - e U.S. Attorney’s Office, ll of the agents participated in a stationary dri- ie checkpoint at the entrance of the neighbor- tiers went door to door handing out fliers he acts of violence that occurred in the neigh- names of people who had been arrested or im their homes by HAWS, m said she thinks what the police and other re doing is a big help to the community, ole lot of people that are up here (causing don’t live here. It makes it look bad for the It live here,” she said. See SACSI on A9 Photo by Paul Collins Retired Marine Emerson Manns received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with a Combat V (Valor) for his service in Vietnam. He foined other vets at an UVM ceremony last week. Veterans applauded at LJVM BY PAUL COLLINS THE CHRONICLE Emerson Manns of Winston- Salem proudly wore a shirt and cap with U.S. Marine Corps insignia to “A Veterans Salute to Remember” Friday at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Colise um. Manns, a 62-year-old retired Marine, served from 1956-76. He retired as a gunnery sergeant. He served two tours in Vietnam. “I have the Bronze Star with a Combat V (for valor) and a Pur ple Heart. I went to Vietnam ... 1965-66 and 1970-71. Very fortu nate - 150 of us went out on an operation; 24 of us came back. 1 was one of the walking wounded. Operation Starlight, I will never forget that, April 1965. “We went to secure a town (the South Vietnamese town of Chu Lai, which was occupied by the North Vietnamese) and heli copters let us off in the rubber plantation. We found ourselves surrounded. I got hit in the can teen in the back. I often ask my students - I teach school now (special education at Hill Middle School), ‘What would have hap pened if that canteen had not saved me from that bullet?’ I pulled the canteen around and I came down from the ridge and there was the bullet stuck in there.... “I received the Bronze Star for saving my men. After we had got ten across this rice paddy, I noticed one of my men’s pack was full of grenades and it was on fire....We were (lying) down. I said to myself, ‘I better try to save my See Veterans on AS Residents say do not close pool, cut routes BYT. KEVIN WALKER THE CHRONICLE A town hall meeting late last week became one of the latest venues for residents to express their displea sure with two city budget proposals that they say are detrimental to poor people. The meeting, held by North Ward Alderman Nel son Malloy and East Ward Alderwoman Joycelyn Johnson, was billed as a forum for residents to discuss any topic they deemed important, from “hot spots” in their particular neighborhoods, to redevelopment efforts throughout the city. But proposals currently being discussed by the Board of Aldermen to close the city- owned and oper ated swimming pool in Happy Hill Gardens and to eliminate some of the Transit Authority’s bus routes dominated much of the discussion. The items are being proposed by the city’s budget office because of financial problems over the years. Both proposals were also spurred by recommenda tions from the city’s Citizen Efficiency Review Com mittee, a volunteer group that spent months investi gating ways the city could use its resources to the fullest. Many of the 30 or so people who attended the meeting said profit should not be the city’s paramount concern, especially since the proposals would affect the city’s poorest residents. The meeting was held in the aldermen’s board room at City Hall, the very place where the board is expected to approve a 2000-2001 budget for the city on June 5. “If you close that swimming pool we are (in) trou ble,” said Lloyd Cuthrell, president of the Happy Hill Neighborhood Association. Cuthrell and several other members of the association said closing the pool would create idle time for the community’s young people, idle time that could lead to crime and violence. Ann Jones, the city’s budget director, was on hand at the meeting to give residents the rationalization behind the proposals. The Happy Hill pool grossed under $500 for the entire season last year, Jones said. Closing the pool would save the city about $17,000. See Town meeting on A4 Separated friends will reunite at college t holars '■I take a ■J and best friends Angela stroll. Photo by Cheris Hodges Bonner, left, and Angela “We’ve been apart for four years. This will just make it better.” - Angela Bonner “It’s easier to talk to people that you know.” - Angela Breeden BY CHERIS HODGES THE CHRONICLE Angela (pronounced Ongela) Bonner and Angela Breeden have been best friends for seven years. But for four years of their friendship the two girls rarely saw one another. “We saw each other about once a week,” they said as they laughed. Bonner and Breeden met in middle school. They became instant friends, but when it was time for the girls to go to high school, Bonner went to North Forsyth and Breeden went to Mount Tabor. Four years later, the two will be reunited at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Both girls received track scholarships to the coastal school. “I was overjoyed,” said Bonner. “I didn’t expect to do track in college.” L As a matter of fact, Bonner didn’t expect to do track at all. “When I tried out for the track team, I wanted to be manager,” she added. Breeden said she was just as excited when she found out about her scholarship. “I didn’t know (UNC-W) existed,” she said. “The track coach did a good job of recruiting me.” What the girls didn’t know until March was that they were going to be together again. Neither thought they would be attending the same college. But now that they know they are going to be together, they are going to make the most of it. Bonner and Breeden will be on the same track team and they will be roommates. The girls think having each other will make the adjustment to college life that much easier. “I’ll have somebody I know (at school),” Bonner said. “It’s easier to talk to people that you know,” Breeden added. Bonner said if she has a problem when she gets to school, she would rather have a friend there to turn to rather than depending on a complete stranger. See Separated on A4 FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS CALL {336} 722-8624 • MASTERCARD, VISA AND AMERICAN EXPRESS ACCEPTED •

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view