me WARHICK i TAMRICK INSURANCE 704.739.3611 106 East Mountain Street Kings Mountain, NC - www.KMinsure.com | We can save you money! | | ee ed SPORTS, 2B South Point hands KM fourth straight loss EMILY WEAVER tow of Kings Mountain, Editor . Last year, she had just received an ap- : , pointment to pastor a new church and a phys- They've battled cancer and now, through ical was required. The cancer may have gone the sweat, laughter, tears and stories they've unnoticed otherwise. shared, five courageous women’ are living strong. The Kings Mountain YMCA gradu- -ated its first class of Live STRONG survivors. last Wednesday afternoon with a private party in a boardroom at the Y. Over the past 12 weeks, each participant has tackled new challenges in her own pri- vate journey of survival - a walk they didn't have to take alone with the help of instructors and the support of each other. Four of the five courageous women sat around a table before the party March 28, swapping jokes and stories. She was diagnosed with two types of stage 3 breast cancer. One was ductile, the other invasive. "I didn't know there were two types, " she said. "You learn a lot. You do a lot of research” after you get the news, said Army veteran Nancy Hillman of Shelby. From the time she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in July 2011 up until her surgery in October, she said she was researching everything she could about her condition. "I wanted to know everything before I Left to right, around the table, Willen Griffin, Marsha Bristow, Ramona Duncan, LiveSTRONG "When the doctor told me I had (breast) made any decision," said Hillman, who had . instructor Candace Hyde and Nancy Hillman swap stories of survival and some of the humor id. 'Well Dr. Sit Iv cancer, I said, 'We r. Singh, I always See LIVESTRONG, 6A that brought them through cancer at the Y. wanted new boobs'," laughed Marsha Bris- Rankings show Open meeting county not April26on | 8 looking so well pedestrian plan | Cleveland County has regressed in health rankings from - A public meeting on Kings Mountain's pedes- 77 in 2011 to 80 in 2012 in annual ratings by the University trian plan will be held Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m. of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert at Kings Mountain City Hall. Wood Johnson Foundation. : Planning Director Steve Killian says that input A ranking of 1 - Wake County - indicates the healthiest from the public will go farin determining priorities county and a ranking of 100 indicates the least healthy county for building projects in the city in the months and - Columbus - in North Carolina. Neighboring Gaston was years ahead. {4 No. 76 and Mecklenburg County was No. 4. Other counties Blair Israel of Centralina Council of Govern- ranked in the top 10 are: Orange, 2; Union, 3; Dare, 5; ments will facilitate the meeting and is currently 3 Watauga, 6; Cabarrus, 7; Durham, 8; Guilford, 9; and New working with city staff, a stéering committee and i Hanover, 10. various focus groups made up of community mem- DeShay Oliver, spokesperson for the Cleveland County bers to develop a pedestrian plan. Health Department, says "county scores have improved in For more information contact Israel at 704-372- many measurable outcomes that are used to determine the 2416 or email at bisrael@centralina.org overall rankings." Included in those improved health out- Firehouse Cookoff comes are many factors, she said, that affect morbidity in- kicks off April 20 cluding a decrease in self-reported poor health, poor physical Grab a napkin and bring your appetite to the health days and poor mental health days. Oliver said the county also displays improvements in so- _ 15th annual Kings Mountain Barbeque Cook#off, April 20 and 21 from 5 p.m. on Friday - 2 p.m. on cioeconomic factors including increased high school gradu- Saturday. The Walking Track will be the location . ation and completion of some college, and a decrease in a os Tey ee unemployment. JACKSON McKEE, 5 weeks old, in the arms of the Easter Bunny, Oliver said that contributing to the county's regression in was just too tiny to hunt eggs at the big city-sponsored egg hunt health rankings are the health outcomes that fall under the | Saturday morning. His parents, Brandon and Catherine McKee, category of health behaviors, decreasing from a score of 59 his aunt Carol and his grandparents, Mayor pro tem Rodney and in 2011 to a score of 65 in 2012. Vickie Gordon, took baby Jackson to the KM Fire Department and This is the second year in a row the county's health rank- there he was - the tall bunny with the big ears and blue eyes. and the source of BBQ aroma for this state cham- ing for health behaviors has degenerated and she said this “The bunny seemed awfully familiar to Jackson, the baby didn't pionship with over 50 teams expected to partici- : demonstrates the importance of concentrating prevention even cry," said his proud Grandpa. pate. : | See RANKINGS, 6A KINGS MOUNTAIN PEOPLE Bowman turning wood into functional works of art bi) i i enjoyment of friends and total of 1,848 projects. He family. numbers each one and his fa-. ELIZABETH STEWART lib.kmherald @gmail.com Gene Bowman, ava) at his lathe i in his workshop uring out wooden bowls in intricate shapes and photos by LIB STEWART designs. "It's a great stress re- liever," says Kings Moun- tain's Gene Bowman of the “magical art of wood turning, a form of woodworking that he taught himself 20 years ago as a hobby in Kentucky and started in earnest again six months ago in his work- shop on Cherryville Road. Creating wooden objeets on a lathe is an involved and time-consuming process but Bowman says he finds noth- ing more relaxing than craft- ing bowls of all sizes for the Bowman, who lost his right lung nearly five years ago, said he considers his move from Winchester, KY to Kings Mountain, North Carolina "a fresh start." Up- beat and positive in his recu- peration from surgery, Bowman said he took a "hia- tus" for four years and one lung "kinda limits my time in my workshop." He spends two or three hours a day in his back yard workshop and last count was that he had 500 all sized bowls in the works, a career vorites are wild cherry de- signs, from 2-3 inches in size up to 20 inches in diameter. Gene's workshop was once a storage building for lawnmowers. "I got tired of just mowing grass and watching TV, so Margie and I decided to build shelves See TURNING, 6A geae0 006200"™1 Evelina is cleaning up! With this great push broom - regularly $17.99! It's time to clean up that garage! Bridges TrueVetue. Hardware 301 wings. ¢ START RIGHT. START HERE" Save $9 $8.99! This Weekend! Mon-Fri 8a-8p Kings Mountain « 704-739-5461 « www.bridgeshardware.com STORE HOURS Sat 8a-6p

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