 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shag dance
Mount Hollydays is sponsoring a shag dance, Sept. 13 at the Tuckaseege Center in Mount Holly.
The evening begins at 6 p.m., with a barbecue and chicken dinner, followed by beach music by disc jockey Gene Hensley, 7-11 pm. Proceeds will go to the nonprofit Mount Hollydays events to be held in December.
Tickets are $25 each and available at the following Mount Holly businesses: BB&T, Charlie’s Drugs, Christy’s Restaurant, Citizens South, Wachovia and Community One banks and David’s Detailing and Car Wash. Tickets will not be available at the door.
For details, consult the Web site, www.mounthollydays.com
|
|
 |
|
 |
Mount Holly holds Relay for Life
By THOMAS LARK
- Thu, May 1, 2008
MOUNT HOLLY—It’s about the resilience of life, refusing to give in to powerful illness, fighting on and going not gently into what Dylan Thomas called “that good night.”
And according to Jessica Heafner of Belmont, it was a good night, from Friday evening until early Saturday morning, at Warrior Stadium at East Gaston High School. The occasion was Mount Holly’s annual local observance of the national Relay for Life event, in which teams of sponsored walkers trek around high school stadiums across America, raising money for the American Cancer Society’s research efforts and other cancer-related initiatives.
A registered nurse at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, Heafner was Relay’s event chairman.
“We had a wonderful night,” she said.
Heafner said Relay’s goal of raising $90,000 is well within sight, with a grand total to date of $75,000 raised and more coming in. In fact, she said, the goal will likely be surpassed.
“We are expecting more than $15,000 to come in from local matching companies,” she said, “which will give our Relay a new all-time record of more than $91,000.”
Some 200 cancer survivors and their guests were honored at a dinner in the school’s cafeteria. More than 1,200 luminaries lined the track, honoring survivors and commemorating cancer’s victims.
“At least 100 people turned out from Alexis Baptist Church to support our honorary survivor, Hunter Mauney,” said Heafner. “We raised over $900 in only 40 minutes with our ‘womanless beauty pageant.’”
Among those attending Relay were Leigh Anne Staton and Eddie Leviner, both members of the EGHS class of 1973. Staton’s mother, Phyllis Cannon, died of breast cancer in 1993.
“So I walk every year for my mom,” she said.
Staton said her mother was known for her devout Christian faith and cream cheese braids—a kind of dessert.
Staton continued that cancer awareness is a big part of why she keeps coming out to support the event.
“We just want to make people aware of what you can do to prevent cancer,” she said, adding that vigilance is the key to combating breast cancer. “Women need to learn how to make their own breast self-examinations and have a mammogram every year.”
Donna Gibson was joined by friend Cheri Love of Mount Holly. Gibson said she walks for her father, Don Putnam of Denver. At 79, Putnam has beaten both prostate and skin cancers and had a polyp removed from his right lung along with that organ’s lower half.
“But he’s wonderful. He’s doing great now,” Gibson said, adding that her dad maintains an energetic lifestyle—even pursuing such activities as riding a snowmobile.
Mauney, a victim of colorectal cancer, said he was surprised but pleased to have been named the event’s mascot.
“It’d be hard to go through this without my family, my friends and all the members of my church,” he said.
His wife, Marcia Mauney, also thanked their son and daughter-in-law, Joe and Gretchen Mauney of Durham, and the members of Alexis Baptist.
Heafner said plans are already afoot for the 2009 Mount Holly Relay for Life, which will be held April 24.
Want to help Relay? There’s still time to get in your contributions, Heafner said. Call her at (704)913-7755.
|
|
|
