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"News from Next Door”
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2021 $1.50
©SCANME
PAGE A2
Last chance to
catch Perquimans
High’s return to the
stage
PAGE A6
Perquimans’
volleyball season
ended by Roxboro
Community
PAGE A5
Don’t forget
gratitude for
benefits God
has given us
Community spirit
Belvidere Day draws large turnout
Canceled in 2020, fest draws
record number of vendors
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
BELVIDERE — The an
nual Belvidere Day festival
drew a record 63 vendors on
Saturday, and drew crowds
delighted to see the event re
turn after being canceled last
year because of COVID-19.
The festival returned
Saturday on a grand scale.
Country and Gospel music
groups and dance groups
were back on the main stage,
and the popular Belvidere
Day parade returned as well.
Doug Layden, owner of
Layden’s Supermarket in
the heart of Belvidere and
one of the festival’s principal
organizers, said the biggest
crowd the event had ever
drawn in its 10-year history
was 2,500 — and organizers
expected this year might top
that.
“We’re hoping this might
be the biggest year of all,”
Layden said Saturday morn
ing as he sat near grills that
were cooking Layden’s sau
sage for the festival’s famed
sausage biscuits. “We’ve got
more things going on.”
The biggest new activ
ity was probably the din
ner-dance Saturday evening.
About 140 tickets had been
sold for that by Saturday
morning.
Also new this year was a
tractor show with pulling,
an obstacle course and a
See BELVIDERE, A3
PHOTOS BY REGGIE PONDER/THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Kaiden Winslow, 7, takes aim with a bow and arrow under the watchful eye of
Dylan Schoolfield at Belvidere Day in Belvidere, Saturday. After being canceled in
2020, the annual event drew a record number of vendors and may have come
close to breaking its all-time attendance record of 2,500.
Sherry
Robison
prepares to
throw an ax
toward the
target at
Belvidere Day,
Saturday. Ax
throwing was
just one of
the games
and activities
available to
festival-goers
at the annual
festival.
Lassiter: Grandstand campaign a success
PHOTO COURTESY
PERQUIMANS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION
Fans of the Perquimans County
High School Pirates root on
their team in the grandstand at
Jim “Catfish” Hunter Field last
season. A campaign to raise
$100,000 toward the cost of
a new grandstand has been
successful, a Perquimans County
Schools Foundation official says.
County Schools Foundation secures
$100,000 needed to start project
From staff reports
If the weather cooperates and
COVID-19 doesn’t cause supply chain
hiccups, the Perquimans County High
School Pirates will have a brand new
grandstand at Jim “Catfish” Hunter Field
when the baseball season opens this
spring.
Brenda Lassiter, executive director of
the Perquimans County Schools Foun
dation, said the fundraising campaign to
raise $100,000 to meet a challenge grant
of an equal amount for the project before
Nov. 1 has been a success.
The foundation received a $10,000
Grandslam donation—its second at that
amount — to the campaign on Sunday,
the day before the Nov. 1 deadline, in
creasing the total raised for the $100,000
Challenge to $105,000, Lassiter said. She
said other commitments to donate to the
project came in by phone and email.
“Tlie support garnered from the com
munity is unbelievable,” Lassiter said of
the campaign. “We couldn’t do this proj
ect without the strong support they have
provided.”
According to Lassiter, the project got
a big lift from Dr. William “Billy” Nixon
and Mr. and Mrs. Leary Winslow. They
committed to give the project $100,000
in matching funds if the public campaign
was successful raising $100,000.
“The challenge from Dr. Nixon and
Mr. & Mrs. Leary Winslow has been met
See GRANDSTAND, A7
Change in the
Air? Hertford
voters think so
Voters picked 2 councilors
to serve next four years
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
Voters went to the polls in
Hertford on Tuesday to cast
ballots in an election that will
confirm the course of town
government at a crucial time
in areas such as economic
and community develop
ment, public safety, and how
elected officials interact with
local residents.
The results of the elec
tion for two seals on Town
Council were not available
by the presstime for this sto
ry; they — and results of the
uncontested Winfall election
for two council seats — will
be included in next week’s
edition of The Perquimans
Weekly and are currently on-
line at both at www.perqui-
mansweekly.com and www.
dailyadvance.com.
Early voting turnout sug ¬
gested voter interest in the
election was high. By the
end of the early voting period
on Saturday afternoon, 341
votes had been cast in the
election. That’s almost dou
ble the 199 early votes cast in
2017, the last time the town
had an election that didn’t
feature a mayoral contest
At stake in Tuesdays elec
tion were two seats on the
council. Councilors Quentin
Jackson and Frank Norman
III were seeking re-election.
They were being challenged
by first-time candidates San
dra Anderson, Martha Bor
ders, and Connie Brothers
and former councilor Gracie
Felton. The top two vote-get-
ters will be elected to four-
year terms.
Challengers Anderson,
Borders and Brotheis all built
their campaigns on a percep
tion that voters were looking
for change — in particular a
departure from what many
See VOTERS, A2
Proposed district
maps may affect
area lawmakers
Steinburg would lose most area
counties in one Senate plan
BY PAUL NIELSEN
The Daily Advance
One of state lawmak
ers’ proposed redistricting
plans moves state Sen. Bob
HANIG
Steinburg,
R-Chowan,
into a new
Senate dis
trict and
requires
him to face
a fellow Re
publican in
a primary.
Under
STEINBURG GOODWIN
places both
state Rep.
Bobby Han-
ig, R-Cur-
r i t u c k ,
and Ed
Goodwin,
R-Chowan,
in the same
district
Under
S S T - 4 ,
Steinburg
would be
placed in
the same
district as
state Sen.
Norman
Sanderson,
R-Pamlico.
the plan,
known as SST-4, Steinburg
would lose nearly all of the
counties he currently rep
resents in the 1st Senate Dis
trict save Chowan, where he
lives, and Hyde.
Meanwhile, a proposed
House redistricting plan
Sander-
son was first elected to the
state Senate in 2012. Stein
burg was first elected to the
Senate in 2018 after serving
three terms in the House.
Map SST-4 moves
See DISTRICTING, A7
Former UNC great: Jesus freed him from grip of alcohol
Ford talks about his career,
Dean Smith at FCA banquet
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
Phil Ford credits Jesus Christ
with freeing him from the destruc
tive pull of alcohol.
6 ■ 89076 47144
2
Vol. 87, No. 44
WWW.PerquimansWeekly.com
@2021 Perquimans Weekly
All Rights Reserved
‘Until you completely give your
self to Jesus Christ it’s not going to
work,” the Rocky Mount-born bas
ketball legend said of the way faith
in Christ freed him from alcohol’s
grip during remarks at the 2021 Fel
lowship of Christian Athletes fund
raiser for Northeastern North Caro
lina on Oct 25 at Camp Cale.
Ford’s first two years playing in
the NBA went well, he said. But in
his third pro season he suffered a
serious eye injury.
Ford said what he should have
done at the time was figure out
how to recover from his injury and
re-learn how to play at a top level.
What he did instead was start to
drink, he said.
“Unfortunately I struggled with
alcohol most of my adult life,” Ford
said.
The problem didn’t go away until
12 years ago when Ford said he fell
to his knees and asked Jesus Christ
to come into his life and take the al
cohol away from him.
“Now it’s a non-existence in my
life,” he said of alcohol.
Ford said he hadn’t always been
a Christian. But he had enough spiri
tual guidance when he was younger
to know where to turn to help — to
hit his knees and seek help from Je
sus.
Ford said he now prays about ev
erything.
“Nothing is too trivial for me to go
to my knees,” he said.
Ford said the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes is probably the
best program that can be provided
for young people because it can
offer them the spiritual foundation
that he relied on when he asked Je
sus Christ to take alcohol out of his
life. He said he was blessed to have
that foundation from when he was
younger.
Ford also gave the crowd a rare
glimpse into the world of elite level
college recruiting, and especially
what it was like in the mid 1970s he
was finishing his high school career
in Rocky Mount.
See FORD, A2
REGGIE PONDER/THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Phil Ford, a standout guard for
the UNC Tar Heels and later
an NBA player and a college
and professional coach, speaks
at the fall fundraiser for the
Northeastern North Carolina
Fellowship of Christian Athletes,
Monday, Oct. 25, at Camp Cale.