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 •