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P The ERQUIMANS "News from Next Door" MAY 29, 2013 - JUNE 2, 2013% asBaBcssEn STUDENT/ATHLETE 50 cents Program aims to help kids improve 2-week summer camp starts in July By PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Local schools are ramp ing up a summer program this year to prepare next year’s third graders for the time when they won’t be allowed to advance if they haven’t met state stan dards. A two-week summer camp in July is just a sam pling of what’s to come. Next summer it may be a mandatory six-week camp designed to remediate stu dents who hadn’t mastered the skills by the end of third grade. The move for higher standards comes at a time when schools may have • fewer resources. A Senate budget calls for increased class sizes and another pro vision eliminates teacher’s assistants in grades two and three. The end of social pro motions doesn’t bother Superintendent- Dwayne StaUings, but the loss of resources does. “The Senate budget raises class sizes, they are taking away resources and raising the bar. There is nothing wrong with rais ing the bar, but please give us the resources to meet the goal.” The summer camp will be held at Hertford Gram mar School July 15-18 and July 22-25. It’s designed for students leaving grades two, three, four and five and is by invitation only. Transportation and meals will be provided. The mon ey to pay for it is coming from federal Title I funds designed to help children who are struggling. While the main focus is for this next year’s new third grade class, HGS Principal Linda White said the school decided to open it up to others. See SUMMER, 2 Memorial Day 11 ’ .. f- -iv" STAFF PHOTOS BY PETER WILLIAMS Boy Scout Taykel Thatch escorts Al Lott of the American Legion Post 126 Freedom Riders as Lott carries the U.S. Navy flag during a Memorial Day ceremony in Hertford on Monday. Military service deserves respect By PETER WILLIAMS News Editor T \ he men and women who pledge to defend America and wear the uniform deserve our respect just as much as those who win impres sive medals of valor, the speaker at a Meinorial Day service told a crowd of more than 200 in Hert ford Monday. Pastor Steve Freehan, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said everyone who served gave something to make the nation free. “AU gave some, some gave aU,” Freehan said on the green in front of the Perquimans County Courthouse. Freehan is now the pastor of WoodviUe Baptist Church, but in 1964 he took the oath and joined the U.S. Navy as a high school student. He served until 1970, and started a career with the Chesapeake Police Department and served 12 years before being or- • AlFij; u.- The Rev. Steve Freehan, retired US Army, speaks at a Memorial Day service on the lawn of the Perquimans County Courthouse on Monday. Freehan is pastor at Woodville Baptist Church. dained as a minister. He returned to military ser vice in 1985 as a chaplain in the U.S. Army — a post he held until retirement in 2008. As a chaplain, Freehan has spoken at many fu nerals involving service members killed during service. One was a staff sergeant, Jonathan Dozier, a 30-year-old who died in Iraq with five other soldiers when an improvised explosive de vice was detonated inside a building. “So, who is a hero? My definition iB somebody who has done an extraor dinary feat invfilving valor, courage or bravery or made great sacrifices toward a noble cause,” Freehan said. “Being a hero is not the same as being acelebrity We make celebrities of en tertainers, sports figures, even criminals. i See SERVICE, 2 Mentoring group receives funding By PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Last minute funding wifi allow a Perquimans County program that helps at-risk children finish out the year but the future re mains unclear. The Perquimans County Mentoring Focus Group/ Gang Prevention Program received $34,027 this month from the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. About $15,000 of it wifi be used to repay Perquimans County, which loaned the program money to keep it alive. The rest will go toward other programs that will operate through the end of June and buy supplies that can be used this summer and in the future. One of the things the program does is fund a garden that was featured in the May 15th issue of The Perquimans Weekly. The overall program was the discussion at a meeting last week at Perquimans County Middle School that drew nearly 80 people. “I must thaific the coun| ty for putting the money up to get us by,” said Clay ton Griffin, the organizers of the group. “The county has been very, very, very supportive and if it wasn’t for them I’m not sure what we would have done.” The funding allows the program to hold educa tional workshops, CPR and babysitting classes as well as parenting workshops. WiUiam Lassiter, dep uty director of the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools was the guest speaker at Wednesday’^ fo* rum. Griffin hopes that is a sign somebody in Raleigh cares about making sure the program continues. . “Hopefully they will see what we do and go back and keep us in mind.” The program serves about 47 children now and there are at least 12 on the waiting list, Griffin said. “When school is out. See MENTOR, 2 Public invited to senior center By PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Residents are invited to check out the new Perquimans County Senior Center at 1072 Harvey Point Road Thursday evening from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. The center relocated from 300 Grubb St. where it has been since it was started in 1979. The expansion has meant that the number of pieces of exercise equipment has doubled. That has been a big draw for seniors, according to Delphine Barr, the direc tor of the center. “We want the community to know what we’ve got here,” Barr said last See CENTER, 2 89076 47144 Layden goes to Raleigh to be a page — again By PETER WILLIAMS News Editor At the age of 18, Diane Layden was old for a page when she did it the first time in Raleigh. The average age was 14 or 15. But she enjoyed the experi ence working with the General Assembly4n 1969 so much that when she got the chance to do it again last week, she jumped at it. Layden is now 61-years-old andthe, chairman of the Re publican Party in Perquimans County. She was in Raleigh for another event earlier this year and Rep. Thom Tfilis heard she had been a page before. “He said you’ll have to come up here and do it again,” Layden recalled last week. When she did it the first time, she worked with Rep. WT. Cul pepper Jr. and Rep. Phil God win. Both were Democrats, with Culpepper from Pasquo- if/. tank County and Godwin from Gates County. “Back then you didn’t hear about pages coming from the counties in the far west and the far east. Most of them came from the central part of the state. But I’ve always been interested in politics,” Layden said. “When I was young, my Mom let me stay up and watch the debate between Kennedy and Nixon. She told me I didn’t have to go to school the next day because “this is history you’re seeing.’” John F. Kennedy failed to win SUBMITTED PHOTO Diane Layden poses with State Rep. Susan Martin (R-Wilson) earlier this month in Raleigh. the popular vote, but he did get 303 electoral votes — enough to win the 1960 presidential elec tion. And Layden, who stayed up to watch the debate that September was hooked even if her political leanings changed. In 2009 she officially switched parties to Republican. Becoming a page the first time wasn’t unusual. The year before she’d attended Girl’s State where she learned more about governing. Returning to Raleigh as a page wasn’t quite the same. Technology and larger govern ment has brought changes. “Nobody Fd talked to ever heard of a page coming back. I guess I was a bit of an oddity” See LAYDEN, 2 Forbes LLC NCRL#22873 NCAL#9180 252-766-1600 ♦ www.forbesuc.com UPCOMING AUCTION! June 1 at 4pm. Auction to be held at Fairfield inn & Suites, Elizabeth City Br... .] i I u Albemarle Plantation Golf Course Home at 107 Pungo Drive, Hertford Featured Property of the Week M www.forbesuc.com 252-766-1600 V
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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May 29, 2013, edition 1
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