Fayetteville is full of venues for outside events, and Campbellton Landing is just one of many great choices for an outdoor concert. On Saturday,June 22, head to The First Annual Safe Havens River Fest. The day will be filled with music, fun, food and more.

Beginning at 2 p.m., four local bands are set to entertain the crowds, all for a great cause, and best of all — it is free. A staple at local festivals, Fahrenheit opens the festivities. The band has performed at many popular venues around town including the Dogwood Festival and business openings as well as local watering holes. If Tom Petty and the Eagles are on your playlist, don’t miss Fahrenheit.

Next up, ‘80s Unplugged pays homage to Rubik’s Cube, Swatch Watches and Members Only jackets with hits straight from the decade of big hair and skinny ties. While the band hails from Southern Pines, it is not unusual to find it performing in Fayetteville at places like Carolina Ale House and Luigi’s Italian Restaurant. Seal the Deal follows and Radio Boxx ends the show with funk, jazz and R&B.

In addition to a day of great entertainment, River Fest includes a motorcycle show.

“The Wingmen of Fayetteville Motorcycle Club are doing a bike show for us,” said Bobbi Hair, the event coordinator who serves as a case manager for family court.

There is a $25 entry fee to enter the bike show. Trophies will be awarded for first and second place for American stock, sportster stock, big twin, custom sportster, custom big twin, bagger and Metric sport bike ,bagger, chopper, rat and best of show. Registration starts at 2 p.m., on the day of the event. Call 910-484-2936 or email www.9339mc.com for more information about the bike show.

Stick around for the 50/50 raffle at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5 per entry or $20 for five tickets. Participants must be present to win.

There will be vendors on hand as well. So far, there are more than 20 vendors that will be there selling everything from jewelry and make-up to food and other homemade items.

What is a day of festivities without great food? “We will have food vendors serving fare that is similar to what is served at other big festivals in town throughout the year,” said Hair. “Huske Hardware will be there selling BBQ sandwiches and other things and we will have a big selection of festival food including funnel cakes and things like that.”

Proceeds for the event benefit Safe Havens. Safe Havens has grown from an organization that served eight families when it opened in 2004, to a service that serves about 130 families in Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Cumberland and Hoke counties on a regular basis. The court-run program has survived on grants until recently when an operating grant was not renewed. This put the organization at risk, along with the families that benefit from the organization’s services. Safe Havens acts as an intermediary for families that are torn apart. The agency facilitates visitation and works to resolve custody issues.

“The reason for Safe Havens is when a judge hears a custody case, if they see that domestic violence is a problem or is alleged, or if there is substance abuse or the mom or dad has not been in the child’s life for several years, rather than let the absent parent visit unsupervised, they let the parent visit at Safe Havens,” explained Hair.

The parents do not have to interact. The facility provides visitation rooms with various themes, including a Hawaiian theme and solar system theme. The rooms are soothing, and Safe Havens provides toys and games. Social workers come into the center, and depending on the situation, they monitor the visits. When the child is brought in to the visiting parent, the social workers are trained to watch the body language of the child during the conversations and make notes.

The notes are then submitted to the judge to review so the court can gauge how the visits are going and act in the best interest of the family.

In addition to social workers, Safe Havens visits are supported by security services so that parents, social workers and kids are all safe during the visits and drop-offs/pick-ups.

“It is just a wonderful agency,” said Hair. “It breaks my heart that it is possibly going to end.”

Hair noted that there are several other grants that the organization has applied for, but so far the staff has not heard back from any of the benefactors. As things stand now, Safe Havens will close its doors on June 30, leaving about 130 families without service in Cumberland and surrounding counties.

River Fest is a great way to raise funds and have a fun time, while making a difference in the community.

While admittance is free, organizers anticipate the crowd will want to buy food and make purchases from the local vendors.

“We are looking forward to everyone coming out and having a good time,” said Hair. “I am especially looking forward to getting exposure for Safe Havens. A lot of people don’t know what Safe Havens is and how well it serves the community. While this event may not raise the funding we need to stay open indefi nitely, we do hope to raise enough to keep the doors open while we pursue other funding avenues.”

To volunteer at River Fest, or to learn more about Safe Havens, call 910.475.3225. The gates open at 2 p.m.

Photo: Campbellton Landing, a popular venue for music events, is set to host the first annual Safe Havens River Fest on Saturday June 22. 

History is an ever-important part of our society. Always appreciated in hindsight, it teaches us where we come from as a people and serves as a moral compass on the winding road to where we are going as a nation. Join the Museum of Cape Fear Historical Complex as it displays the informative exhibit of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots. The display debuted on March 19 and closes June 16.

An intriguing look into the past, the exhibit challenges one to think about how far society has come and consider the individual choices to be made in order to secure a better tomorrow for future generations.

The inspiration for the show began after the Arts Council voted to bring the Anne Frank exhibit to Fayetteville. Inspired by her legacy and defi ance against Nazi oppression, agencies were contacted to bring more events to the city in order to lead discussions about diversity. It was that need for people to connect and explore history together that led to the Wilmington Race Riot exhibit. Though many people may not know about the exhibit, The Museum of Cape Fear wanted to feature an event that is relevant to the hearts of North Carolinians as well as the rest of the country.

In 1877, during the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, Jim Crow laws were enacted throughout the South and were not abolished until the middle of the 20th century. These laws gave privileges to white, elite planters and farmers who favored the Democratic Party and discriminated against minorities. In 1898, the Democrats needed to win the most populated city, which at the time was Wilmington. The problem, however, was that the city’s lawmakers were partly comprised of African-Americans who were educated businessmen and middle-class residents.

In order to overcome this obstacle, the Democrats planned a strategy to infl ame white men who published newspaper articles calling for the lynching of black men by stating that they were slandering white women. They gained much support from men who felt it necessary to defend these “victims.”

To respond to these allegations Alex Manly, editor of the Wilmington Daily Record, refuted these claims in another article and stated that some white women actually preferred black men. Using this as fuel for their agenda, the Democratic Party staged a coup d’état, which resulted in a political riot where white supremacists illegally overthrew legitimate elected offi cials of Wilmington. There was destruction of the Wilmington Daily Record and the ousting of several of the city’s leaders. Remembered as the only successful coup d’état in American history, this riot serves as a cold reminder of our state’s past.

David Reid, administrator of the Museum of Cape Fear Historical Complex is knowledgeable of the event. He said, “It’s important, but not a well known part of North Carolina’s history that does have relevance for today.”

He believes that the exhibit serves as an invaluable example of how far we’ve come as a state and nation. Experience the Wilmington Race Riot exhibit and see how learning from the mistakes of the past can lead to a brighter future for tomorrow. For more information, call 910.486.1330.

Photo: 1898 Wilmington Race Riots exhibit at the Museum of Cape Fear Historical Complex closes on June 16.

Location, location, location! Fayetteville Technical Community College’s newest Cliffdale Park campus opened its doors in January, bringing “My Community College” to your neighborhood.

Nestled amidst residential and business areas on the corner of Reilly and Cliffdale Roads, CDPK is convenient to Fort Bragg, Western Cumberland County and established city bus routes. Hundreds of students have already flocked to the new building for in-demand programs including Certified Nursing Assistant, Registered Medical Assistant, Phlebotomy, Emergency Medical Technician-Basic, Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic and EKG Monitor Technician courses. These continuing education courses are designed for new high school graduates as well as working or returning adult students and have flexible schedules and reasonable tuition. In fact, students from neighboring states come to North Carolina to take advantage of these courses.

With 12 classes currently running, local businesses are enjoying the foot traffic from the morning, afternoon, evening, weekend and all-day students. Some courses even have a preregistration website where students can avoid long lines and save a seat in the class in which they wish to enroll. CNA and phlebotomy students can begin their journey by going to www.ftccpass.com where they can view upcoming course schedules, locations and registration information, as well as helpful details about MyCAA, a program that aids with tuition for eligible military spouses. Most of these programs have a clinical component, where students get valuable hands-on training in their field, and many are offered jobs while still finishing up their classes. With two new hospitals opening soon, there is a high demand for trained employees.

Have you been thinking about a career change? Now, with this new location and training in employment fields that are in high demand, this may be the season for you to take that first step at FTCC. Learn more by visiting our website at faytechcc.edu or stop by our 2201 Hull Road campus to learn more about the many programs offered by FTCC’s Continuing Education division. FTCC offers affordable, high-quality education at locations convenient to you. Make plans to visit FTCC soon to learn how we can help fulfill your educational needs!

Photo: FTCC recently opened a campus in west Fayetteville at Cliffdale Park. 

If you’re looking to have a good time on Saturday, June 1, you don’t have to look far. Simply take a drive down to Festival Park, where you can enjoy two sultry pleasures — beer and the blues, as the Cape Fear Regional Theatre brings back the Blues and Brews Festival.

The Blues and Brews Festival, an annual fundraiser for the theatre, has been a favorite community event for a number of years. First held at Campbellton Landing, the festival has grown dramatically over the years, which lead to the move to Festival Park. Last year, more than 2,500 people sipped their way through the festival, which has event organizers setting their sights a little higher this year.

“We are shooting for 3,000 people this year,” said Jenny Deviere, the chair of this year’s event. This is Deviere’s 褀rst year as chair, and she hopes that some minor tweaks to the already successful festival will help bring in more people.

“This is the first year we have had a presenting sponsor,” explained Deviere. “Mellow Mushroom is partnering with us as the presenting sponsor. They will cater the entire VIP tent, as well as have a raf踀e for a lucky couple to win pizza for a year.”

The VIP ticket was introduced several years ago and has been a tremendous success. VIP ticket holders gain entrance to the festival an hour earlier than normal ticket holders and their ticket includes dinner in the VIP tent.

There will be a tasting featuring all the breweries during the VIP hour. Those holding VIP tickets will have the opportunity to sample the brews and vote for the Best in Show. The winning brewery will have a banner in front of their tent proclaiming its beer the Best in Show.

For those who do not purchase a VIP ticket, there will be more food vendors on hand than in years past. That is one of the tweaks Deviere and the Blues and Brews Committee made. “We don’t allow outside food or drinks, so it is important to have a big assortment of food for folks who are spending the evening,” said Deviere.

One of the biggest tweaks to the festival revolves around the music.

“One of the biggest areas that we have had people comment on over the past couple of years is the music,” she noted. “We have heard that folks think the music has been lacking; that we haven’t paid as much love to the music and bands as we should have. So we are correcting that this year.”

Blues lovers will be happy to know that there will be not one, but three great blues acts performing this year.

Kia Walker, a local performer will be on hand in the VIP tent beginning at 5 p.m.

On the mainstage, Old Habits, a Raleigh-based band, will belt out its mix of Blue Grass and Rock-A-Billy Blues. Old Habits will be followed by a band that Deviere classi褀es as a dirty, old blues band, the Fat Bastard Blues Band out of Mebane, N.C.

With the music covered, that brings us to the heart of the festival — the beer.

“We will showcase more than 100 beers from all over the southeast,” explained Deviere. “With each (full-priced) ticket purchased, attendees will receive a commemorative glass for tasting.”

Nannette Walsh, a theatre volunteer, was in charge of organizing the brewers for the events. Walsh brought together an eclectic mix of independent brewers and brewers who are represented by distributors. Two distributors, R.A. Jeffreys and Healy Wholesale, will focus on some of their more non-traditional beers.

Confirmed brewers and beers that will be available for tasting are:•

Aviator Brewing Company, a Fuquay-Varina-based brewery, that will feature HogWild IPA, HotRod Red and the Devil’s Tramping Ground Belgian Tripel.

• Barrel Trolley Brewing Company out of Rochester, N.Y., represented by Mutual Distributors, will showcase its Barrel Trolley Shandy. Also represented by Mutual, is Saranac Brewery, which will feature Saranac Summer Shandy, Blueberry Blonde and a White IPA.

• R.A. Jeffreys will feature a number of breweries, including:

* Blue Point Brewing Company, Long Island, N.Y., with a Toasted Lager Hoptical Illusion, a White Ipa and a Summer Ale.

* Carolina Brewery, out of Pittsboro, N.C., with a Sky Blue Golden Ale, Copperline Amber Ale, Flagship IPA and Bullpen Pale Ale.

* Natty Greene’s, a Greensboro-based brewery, will have a Southern Pale Ale, Buckshot Amber Ale, Elm Street India Pale Ale, Shock Top, Shock Top Apple, Landshark and Black Crown available for tasting.

* Blue Point Brewing Company, of Long Island, N.Y., will have Toasted Lager, Hoptical Illusion, White Ipa and Summer Ale.

* Carib Brewery will showcase its Carib Lager and Mackeson Stout.

* Goose Island will showcase 312, Honkers and a Summer IPA.

* Fayetteville’s own Huske Hardware will pour its Watermelon Wheat Beer and its Ala Yeah Pale Ale, Farmhouse and Spring of Perles Light Lager.

* Wild Blue from Anheuser-Busch.

* Lonerider Brewery our of Raleigh, N.C., will have The Preacher-Saison, a Shotgun Betty Hefe Weizen and Sweet Josie, a Brown Ale.

* The Lion Brewery, of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., will feature a Lionshead Pilsner and a Stegmaier High Drive.

* Triangle Brewery will bring a Belgian Golden, a Triangle White and a Best Bitter.

• Carolina Brewing, of Holly Springs, N.C., will bring a Carolina Pale Ale, Carolina Nut Brown Ale, Carolina India Pale Ale and Carolina Summer Ale.

• Fayetteville’s Mash House will feature a Blonde, Irish Red, IPA and Maibock.

• Railhouse Brewery, out of Aberdeen, N.C., will pour a FCA IPA and a Mastiff Oatmeal Stout.

• Raleigh Brewing Company will feature a House of Clay Rye IPA and a Czech Pilsner

• Healy Wholsale will represent a number of brewers, including:

* Boulevard Brewery with a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat

* Foothills Brewery showcasing Hoppyum, Seeing Double and a Carolina Blonde Hefe.

* Leinenkugel Brewery will pour Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.

* New Belgium Brewery will serve Fat Tire, 1554, Ranger IPA and Dig.

* North American Brewery will pour Magic Hat #9.

* Sierra Nevada Brewery will present Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada Summerfest.

* 10th and Blake will have Crispin Cider, Blue Moon, Blue Moon Seasonal and Batch 19.

Tickets for the event are $35 for those tasting; $15 for general admission; and $50 for VIP admittance. The VIP Tent is open from 4-5 p.m., with general admission beginning at 5 p.m. This year, credit cards can be used at the gate. For tickets and more information, visit www.cfrt.org.

Photo: Middle right: Blues and Brews — from Campbellton Landing to Festival Park. Bottom left: Fat Bastard is set to perform along with Kia Walker and Old Habits.

As the weather warms, more and more people dust off their running or walking shoes and take to the streets. Further, tough economic times have led to a resurgence in interest in running and fi tness over the last several years according to a report by Running USA. Running relieves stress, improves fi tness and helps participants maintain healthy weight levels. What better way to celebrate the start of summer than with a good test of your abilities? For the 17th year, the Army will celebrate its birthday with a 10 Miler. This year, the race is on June 6.

Not in the Army? No problem. This race is open to the public, but only the fi rst 2,000 participants will be accepted, so sign up early. Race fees are $15 if received on or before May 30, and $20 thereafter. The last day to register is June 5 at 5 p.m. Runners can register online at www.fortbraggmwr.com through May 30. Runners can also register in person at the Leisure Travel Services offi ce in the mini-mall near Reilly and Honeycutt Streets or the Funk Physical Fitness Center on Gruber Road near Longstreet. There is no race day registration.

Race packets must be picked up prior to the date of the race and can be picked up at the Funk Physical Fitness Center. Race participants are timed by ChronoTrack timers affi xed to the back of race numbers, therefore the numbers are not transferrable.The race will begin at the Hedrick Stadium area on Fort Bragg at 6 a.m. with pre-race instructions being given at 6:20 a.m. Digital display clocks are at mile marks throughout the course, as well as seven water points. Five of the water points will offer Gatorade, and restrooms are conveniently located near the water points.

Awards will be given for the men’s overall champion, women’s overall champion and the top three fi nishers in 11 classifi cations by age, including wheelchair. There will be team competitions as well; however, the team competition is limited to active-duty personnel. There is no limit to the number of runners on a team, but only the top eight finishers of men’s or mixed-division teams and the top four finishers for women’s teams will count toward team scoring. Team registration must be completed online.

Not a runner? There is an option—for you, too. For the eighth year, in conjunction with the 10 miler, there will also be a 4-mile walk for fun. As this is a non-competitive event, participants will not receive a timing tag. Registration and packet pick-up for the fun walk is the same as the race participants.

Pets, bicycles, roller blades and headphones are not permitted. Need more information? Visitwww.fortbraggmwr.com for more information, registration and for race maps.

Photos: Celebrate the Army’s birthday like a trooper - with a 10-mile road race.

During North Carolina summers, barbeques and cook-offs are a tradition. They bring the community together over great food and the beautiful outdoors. It is in this bonding of the people that ideas are shared and the community can grow. One particular area that every community can grow in is their public safety, and The Spring Lake Public Safety Foundation is planning to hold an open house and barbeque cook off for just that purpose.

One of the most important functions of this open house event is to let the community see and interact with the Spring Lake Police and Fire departments. It sends out a message of accessibility and availability to the community.

“It is an open house and the Spring Lake Police Department and Fire Department will have their trucks out there and do safety demos on summer safety and stranger danger, etc. We want to say that we are here and we are at your service,” said Kristy Sykes, an event committee member.

At the Open House and Barbeque Cook-Off, there will be live entertainment, food, vendors and even prizes.

“Tickets for the raffle are $50 and the grand prize is $2,000. The reverse raffl e is when the last ticket holder standing is the winner, instead of the first ticket drawn. The last four people standing have the option to split the award or go for all or nothing. The proceeds for the event go to the Public Safety Foundation to help purchase new safety equipment for the police department and the fire department,” Sykes explained. The raffle will be held inside the gym at 5 p.m.

The committee has designed a plethora of events for attendees to enjoy.

“The police chief is going to do demos of sawing-off car doors of crashed vehicles. Kids can try on fi reman gear and walk around. We will have food vendors out there and the barbeque cook-off is going to feature ribs, chicken and pork,” said Sykes. “There will be a contest for the best barbeque, but there will be other food vendors out there as well. There will also be arts and crafts. Noah’s Art, which is a new business in Spring Lake, will be present. This is an art studio for kids that focuses on classes for kids and “mommy and me” outings, and Saturday classes. There will also be bouncy houses, and starting at 11 a.m., the local D.J. Ryan from WCCG 104.5 FM will be performing.”

Not only will this event offer an exciting and fun day for all that attend, it benefi ts the community in many ways. First, it creates a bond between the community and the people who protect it. Second, it funds the police and fire departments by providing them with the equipment they need, and finally, it fosters the growth of the entire Spring Lake Community.

Sykes added, “It is a big deal for Spring Lake in trying to bring together the community. Spring Lake is growing rapidly and the town, Chamber and Foundation are working together to provide more free community events.”

The Open House and Barbeque Cook-Off is June 1 from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Spring Lake Community Center Complex. This building is located at 245 Ruth St., Spring Lake. For more information, call 497-8821 or visit the Spring Lake Community website at www.spring-lake.org/calendar.html. More details can also be found on the Spring Lake Public Safety Foundation Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SpringLakePublicSafetyFoundation

Groucho: A Life in Revue will be presented by The Gilbert theater as the closing play of the season from June 5-16.

When asked about her choice for the closing show, Gilbert Artistic Director, Robyne Parrish quipped, “Why not? He is one of America’s greatest comedians and film and television stars. Groucho Marx made an imprint on our society for all time with his off-color humor and brilliant wit.

“When I heard that a Pittsburgh artist regularly performed the play with music, Groucho: A Life in Revue, I knew it had to have a place in my first season as new artistic director of the Gilbert Theater.”

Groucho: A Life in Revue is a musical stage play written by Groucho Marx’s son, Arthur Marx, and Robert Fisher. It is a peek into the life and career of the famous entertainer. Marx and his brothers had an unmatched fl air for comedy. However, it was Groucho who became the reigning king of comedy in the ‘40s. He became well known for clever one line retorts such as “Marriage is a wonderful institution … but who wants to live in an institution?”

Marx could be viewed as vaudeville’s precursor of the modern day rapiers for his quick wit, slapstick comedy and mastery of language and word play. Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx (1890-1977) was born on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. One of Marx’s maternal uncles (Al Shean) was part of a successful Vaudeville act. Despite Julius’s desire to become a doctor, the family’s poverty infl uenced his mother to encourage her sons to star on stage. The Marx brothers started as a singing group: Julius (Groucho) was a gifted vocalist, Leonard (Chico) a terrific piano player and Arthur (Harpo) played the harp. Eventually their comedy skits became much more popular than their music. They were among the biggest stars of the Palace Theatre and Vaudeville, in general. Groucho visually clarifi ed his character by the use of a stooped walk, grease- painted mustache and eyebrows and large glasses, all props to enhance his shtik.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based actor, dancer and director, Jeremy Czarnaik joins the Gilbert for this production. When asked about his character development in the role of Groucho, Czarnaik replied, ”I discovered Groucho personally doing another show Day In Hollywood/Night In The Ukraine in 1990.

“I was cast to play him with little background knowledge, so I began my research... and became obsessed with the comic genius that was Groucho,” continued Czarnaik. “Since then, I have been an avid collector of all things Groucho, including a prized autographed 8x10 (photo) that I always incorporate into the set when I do this show. I have spent years studying and fine tuning my interpretation — this will be my sixth production of this particular show and every time I fi nd some more details.”

When asked why this was a Gilbert production not to be missed, he explained, “Audiences love this show because of the real and intimate way in which you get to know Groucho. People’s comments afterward always include ‘I feel like I really got to know him, like I actually spent an evening with him.’” he said. “Whether you are a lifelong fan or know very little about the Marx Brothers, the beauty of this show is it is a touching memoir of a truly remarkable life that has plenty of laughs but as Groucho himself said, “...if I didn’t know sadness, I wouldn’t have spent all those years trying to make people laugh.”

For more information or to purchase tickets and make reservations for the show, visit the website at www.gilberttheater.com or call 678-7186.

Photo: Groucho: A Life in Revue opens on June 5 at Gilbert Theater.

It’s more than tradition. It is the Spring Festival of Dance: A Dance Variety Extravaganza. The festival, presented by Charlotte Blume, will be on stage at the Crown Center Theatre on Sunday, June 2. The festival has been performed at the Crown Theatre since the 1980s when it was still named the Cumberland County Civic Auditorium, which was founded in 1967.

Two-hundred dancers of all ages will perform in a variety of dance styles from the cutest to the sublime. It is a bonanza of classical ballet, rhythm and Broadway tap dance, contemporary, jazz dance, Hip Hop and dances for Tiny Tots, the crowd-pleasing pre-school children. All dancers will take the stage with poise and polish, according to Blume.

The audience will see a progression of skills throughout the show as the dances for children evolve into the beauty of classical ballet. The featured classic ballets this year are, excerpts from “Les Sylphides,” with music by Chopin and “Jupiter” from the Planetsby composer Holst.

The soloists in “Les Sylphides” are Jane Violette as the “Waltz Girl”, Mary Maxton Fowler, Megan Still, Ashley Watters and Deprecia Simpson. Brandon Scott dances the “Poet.” Both Simpson and Watters will solo in “Jupiter.”

Excerpts from “Les Sylphides” are performed with traditional choreography by Fokine, and set by Charlotte Blume. Fokine’s choreography for “Les Sylphides” was first danced in Paris in 1909 by the Russian Ballet. Fokine staged it for the American Ballet Theatre in 1940 and the lyrical ballet remains in its repertoire.

“Jupiter,” a section of Holst’s The Planets was choreographed by Wei Ni. Wei Ni is the assistant director of the North Carolina State Ballet Company. The Spring Festival of Dance is an afternoon of fun and entertainment. Tickets are $9 at the Crown Center Box Office or online through ticketmaster.com. The curtain will come up at 2:30 p.m.

Photo: The audience will see a progression of skills throughout the show as the dances for children evolve into the beauty of classical ballet.

A true band of kindred spirits, the Gypsy Women have been together for 18 years. They’ve seen each other get married, have babies and raise families. They’ve weathered divorces, illnesses, deaths and other tough times together. The Gypsy Women take care of each other — and they take care of the ones they love.

Sometimes that means a sick friend or a widow. Sometimes it means giving to a worthy cause like Hospice or Duke Children’s Hospital. It always means giving back to the community. That’s what the Gypsy Women do. And they do it wholeheartedly — with sass and vigor. Stewart and Marsha Bryant can attest to that.

The Bryants were in an accident last July while in New York and found themselves facing a pile of unexpected bills. Even though the couple had insurance, it was still a big hit financially, not to mention the emotional trauma.

“I was in the hospital for a week and we had extra expenses and hotel rooms and rental car bills and medical expenses that our insurance didn’t cover,” said Marsha. “The Gypsy Women did a poker run for us and raised about $6,000. We are defi nitely thankful for them and what they did for us. We were even able to give $1,000 of that money to another lady who has breast cancer and was struggling to pay her bills, too.”

Though there is always something going on at Legend’s Pub on Bragg Boulevard, the Spring Fling is a favorite for Gypsy Woman and Legend’s Pub owner Holly Whitley. This year the event falls on May 24-26.

Spring Fling is a weekend packed with activities, food and fun. And each year, the Spring Fling raises money for a worthy cause. Things kick off on Friday, May 24 with a pre-party that includes a pool tournament. Up to 32 people can play, it costs $20 per player, with a $500 pay out.

Saturday’s events kick-off with a poker run. Registration for the poker run starts at noon. The ride is followed by a pig pickin’, an auction and a raffle. The pig pickin’ and auction are set to happen after the ride, most likely around 5 p.m. Up for raffle this year is a 2004 Dyna Wide Glide. Tickets for the raffl e cost $50 and only 200 will be sold. The raffle winner will be drawn after all the tickets have sold. Winners do not have to be present to win. The raffle is sponsored by Ray Road Auto Parts and Service, Legend’s Pub and Sellers Paint & Body Shop.

Sunday features a bike show. Registration starts at noon and judging will be around 3 p.m. to announce the winners. After the bike show, stick around for the rodeo, which includes fun and games — Gypsy Women style. Don’t miss the cookout afterwards, too.

The proceeds from this year’s Spring Fling benefit Kidsville News! Kidsville News! is a literacy publication that goes into the hands of every elementary student in Cumberland County. Partners like the Gypsy Women help put the papers in the children’s hands.

A check will be presented Sunday evening at the cook out.

As one of the first biker bars in Fayetteville, Legend’s has acquired an eclectic group of patrons, something that Whitley loves.

“We have people from all walks of life that come in here,” she said. “And they all bring something different to the place,” said Whitley.

Julie “Jules” Farrell, one of Whitley’s friends and a Gypsy Woman, says it is Whitley’s big heart that makes Legend’s such a special place.

“Holly is such a generous person and so giving. She comes from the heart and people can sense that in her. It is easy to see that cares about people.”

This is represented well on the back wall of the pub. It’s filled with images of friends, family and patrons who have been a part of Legend’s Pub in some way.

“These are people we loved. They are our family, and now they are gone,” explained Whitley.

Some of them were killed in combat, some in accidents, some were taken by illnesses. All of them were loved and a part of the Legend’s family. Whitley knows each of them by name, how they died and when. She shares touching stories about each one and it is clear that they were more than customers. They are family.

Whether it is poker runs, a Spring Fling or Thanksgiving Dinner at the pub, people who know Whitley know that she looks out for her friends. Last year the Gypsy Women raised more than $40,000 for a variety of causes. Whitley estimates that the group has raised about $500,000 through the years.

“We’ve done poker runs and other things like the Spring Fling for a bunch of different causes. We have helped people with cancer and other sicknesses. We’ve raised money for people who have been hurt in accidents, and we’ve given to organizations like Duke Children’s Hospital. We even helped Goodys (the apparel store that used to be on Skibo Road). We raised more than $10,000 for them for a fundraiser they were doing. This year we are giving the money from the Spring Fling to Kidsville News!,” explained Whitley.

While Whitley is the driving force behind the Gypsy Women, there are others who eagerly step up to support her endeavors.

“Some people are busy and are able to help by donating cash or auction items and other people choose to give their time. I can’t tell you how many hours have been donated to helping us help other people out,” said Whitley. “Our men are always ready to help out and do whatever we ask them to do, too.”

“They do a lot of the heavy lifting for us,” added Farrell.

Legend’s recently underwent a facelift, with upgrades to the building inside and out. After some push back from regulars and a few jokes about putting lipstick on pigs, it has turned out to be a good thing because the things that make Legend’s Pub Special are still there. The atmosphere is still laid back and welcoming. The beer is still cold. The wall of pictures still holds the faces and memories of the departed and Legend’s is still the home of the Gypsy Women.

Find out more about Legend’s Pub, the Gypsy Women and Spring Fling by calling 867-2364.

Photos: top right; Holly Whitley, Gypsy Woman and owner of Leg-ends Pub. Middle left: Legend’s Pub in the early years. Bottom right: Legend’s Pub today.

Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during his senior year of high school, Ryan Kishbaugh was a determined young man who refused to let cancer get the best of him. His inspirational story gives hope to others who are fighting cancer, so in memory of Ryan, the 2013 Ryan Patrick Kishbaugh Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on July 13 at 8:30 a.m. at Cypress Lakes Golf Course to benefit the nonprofit Carpe Diem Foundation.

The Carpe Diem Foundation has three tenets: it supports other foundations, it promotes and helps fund education and research for the treatment of chronic illnesses and it provides college scholarships for student athletes who have a chronic illness or someone who has battled a chronic illness during their formative years and plans on attending college.

“This is the 10th year of Ryan’s memorial golf tournament and it has turned into a large annual event,” said David Kishbaugh, father and host of The Ryan P. Kishbaugh Memorial Golf Tournament. “Each year we raise money and we give it to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”

Kishbaugh added that last year they maxed out participation and used all of the available slots.

The event will consist of a day of golf, food, beverages, T-shirts and prizes. There will be a hole-in-one contest, a 50-50 raffl e and a special putting contest. There will be prizes for longest drive and closest to the pin.

“Restaurants will provide the food and drinks for the event,” said Kishbaugh. “Everyone comes out and we play golf in memory of Ryan.”

Ryan Patrick Kishbaugh was born on July 26, 1984. He was an exceptional young man who excelled in all of his endeavors. He graduated second in his high school class and was accepted into Princeton University. He played varsity soccer and basketball. He won the 2001 Governor’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. He worked for Habitat for Humanity, helped at Better Health and worked at diabetes clinics.

Kishbaugh describes Ryan as a good kid, independent and hardworking.

“He believed in people and was my most free-spirited child.” said Kishbaugh. “He didn’t believe in conformity, but yet he was so self-driven and excelled in anything he wanted to do.”

Kishbaugh added that when Ryan learned that he had cancer in 2001, he decided that he was going to defeat it and not let it get him down.

Openings for the tournament are fi lling up fast, and Kishbaugh hopes to see a full roster on the golf course again this year. Online registration at http://golfdigestplanner.com/22842-2013RPK and includes a one-year subscription to Golf Digest. Registration on the day of the event begins at 7:30 a.m. For more information, call 850-7833.

Photo bottom right: The 2013 Ryan Patrick Kishbaugh Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on July 13 at 8:30 a.m. at Cypress Lakes Golf Course to benefit the nonprofit Carpe Diem Foundation. 

Iron Man(Rated PG-13) 5 Stars

Iron Man 2 sort of sucked compared to Iron Man. Luckily,Iron Man 3 (130 minutes) manages to avoid the near in-evitable diminishing returns that afflicts several popular Marvel movie franchises (seriously, go watch Spiderman 3and X-Men: The Last Stand: there was a one in three chance this movie was going to be unwatchable). Director/co-writer Shane Black replaces Jon Favreau and does a heckuva job channeling his 80s action cre-dentials into the superhero format. In fact, if you’re ever looking for an undiscovered movie to watch on Saturday night, go rent his directorial debut (starring Robert Downey, Jr.) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Black manages to get Downey, Jr. to enunciate his lines, provides Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) with a brief, shining moment of feminist agency, and throws in a plot twist that even die-hard Marvel fans (such as myself) did not see coming.

The film begins in the middle of some serious explosions with a Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) voice-over. For those of you interested in movie trivia, this is al-most the exact same way Shane Black began Kiss Kiss Bang Bang — in the middle of the action with Downey, Jr. interrupting his own voice-over to take the audience back to an even earlier point in the story. Narratively speaking I like the device because it lets us know that however innocently the story begins it is leading to something explosively big.

In this case, we are taken all the way back to 1999, while Stark reminisces about some of his playboy behavior. He hooked up, humiliated a passerby, solved a science problem, and took off free and clear all in a single night. One of the really cool things about Downey Jr.’s approach to this character is the way he manages to convey the brilliance/arrogance of the character in little scenes like this one. Stark is a bit of a bully only because he is completely impatient with those who aren’t as smart/obsessive as he is (almost everybody). He is not purposely cruel, but he is unthinkingly cruel because it generally does not occur to him that other people are real and are affected by his actions.

So, when he sends Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) to wait on a cold roof for a meeting that will never happen, or when he treats Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) as a one-night stand he is behaving per-fectly in character, not realizing (or not caring) that his actions have long term consequences for other people. Since he routinely treats other people as insignifi-cant bystanders to his starring role there are bound to be at least one or two people feeling alienated by him that also have as-pirations towards super villainy.

Anyway, Stark continues to tell his story. Post-Avengers, Iron Man is feeling a bit of anxiety. He isn’t sleeping and his insistence on recovering from his alien invasion induced PTSD by tinkering with model after model of the Iron Man suit is driving a wedge between him and his number one babe, Pepper.

When Stark Industries security chief Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is badly injured during what appears to be a ter-rorist attack at Mann’s Chinese Theater, Stark rashly issues a direct challenge to the mysterious Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley). Of course, when you dare a super villain to come and get you they generally try to wipe you off the face of the Earth, so it sur-prises no one when the Mandarin’s forces blow up Stark’s mansion. This leads to the second half of the film, during which Iron Man is stuck without a reliable suit, forced to rely on a malfunctioning prototype and a precocious kid (Ty Simpkins) who I re-ally could have done without.

All things considered kudos to Shane Black for getting Iron Man out of his Iron Man suit for most of the film. This is a su-perhero movie, but it is also a movie about a superhero’s psychological vulnerability.

Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15.

On the evening of May 10, 120 high school students reached a milestone in their educational journeys. From this group, students who chose to walk quietly took their places in line somewhere in the recesses of the Crown Coliseum. They straightened their graduation gowns and made sure that their tassels were hanging from the correct side of their mortarboard caps.

As the processional music began, the high school students entered the fl oor of the Crown and took their seats alongside roughly 1,000 other students. Collectively, this group of graduates prepared for their commencement not from high school, but from college. This was Fayetteville Technical Community College’s graduation ceremony.

One might be tempted to wonder how (and why) so many high school students were invited to participate in a college graduation ceremony. These young men and women were part of FTCC’s High School Connections program, which is designed to allow local students to take tuition-free college classes during their junior and/or senior years of high school. The high school students attending graduation had completed a full program of study at FTCC and were thus awarded a college certifi cate for their efforts. For a small handful of students, this was actually their second FTCC graduation; they had completed one certifi cate program as high school juniors, and then chose to tackle a second as seniors. These students should be commended for their hard work and dedication to their studies.

Through High School Connections, FTCC invites and encourages local public, private and home-school students to take college classes tuition-free. By taking advantage of the HSC program, students can often participate in programs that they might not otherwise be able to access. Not every school in the area can offer an award-winning culinary program or fi nd the resources needed to teach automotive and machining classes. Fayetteville Tech is also on the cutting edge of technology and offers several computer-based programs, such as information technology hardware/software, computer programming, graphic design and social media. Opportunities abound to get a jump-start on a career choice in fields like green sustainable architecture, criminal justice, infant/toddler care or fire protection technology.

Students can even choose to take college-transfer courses in order to fulfi ll some of their general education requirements for college. The list goes on and on; there truly is a program for just about everyone. Students who wish to participate in High School Connections for 2013-2014 must be rising juniors and seniors with a weighted GPA of approximately 3.0 (program requirements differ). As of May 10, there were nearly 500 students already signed up for next year, and many more will continue to enroll throughout the summer. Students and parents should visit the HSC website or “like” our Facebook page to learn more about enrollment procedures for the fall, including days and times of open registration.Please don’t miss out on your chance to earn free college credit in high school! We’ll see you and hundreds of other high school students at graduation 2014!

For more information, visit www.faytechcc.edu/highschool_connections/default.asp

Photo: Through High School Connections, FTCC invites and encourages local public, private and home-school students to take college classes tuition-free.

Memorial Day is known to many as the offi cial beginning of summer, but it is so much more. Every year on the fi nal Monday of May people across the nation set aside a day and remember the sacrifi ces that brave men and women have made to the country by serving in the Armed Forces. This tradition has been observed since the Civil War. Being a military town, Memorial Day has a special importance to the Fayetteville community. Accordingly, the community also has incredible Memorial Day celebrations.

Don Talbot, the event organizer, has something in common with many people in the Fayetteville community — prior military service. It is because of this prior service that this Memorial Day Ceremony holds such importance to him, and he continues to help organize it year after year.

Talbot spoke about his passions for Memorial Day by saying, “I am a retired veteran, and it is touching for me to say thanks because I made it out after three years in Vietnam with only two Purple Hearts. At some point you just have to look back and think about all the comrades you left behind.”

Talbot expresses this passion every year by working tirelessly to create an incredibly moving ceremony for all of Fayetteville. It is a time to refl ect on the sacrifices of the men and women in our community who gave their lives in defense of our nation. The ceremony will embrace the true meaning of the day, and will be held in the park that is expressly dedicated to their honor.

“We want people to know that this is a formal military-oriented memorial service to praise the missing and dead soldiers and those who have served. This is a family-friendly event because families are affected. The soldiers are husbands, brothers and grandfathers... mothers, even,” Talbot said.

The entire community has rallied for this ceremony. There is no one single group that is solely supporting the ceremony, but rather a multitude of people gathering to honor the nation’s veterans.

“There are multiple people involved. There will be a chaplain, a guest speaker, a fi ring squad from the 82nd Airborne Division, a bugler and wreath presenters. There are lots of groups in this, not just one core group. It is a true cross spectrum of the community,” Talbot explains.

It is this great community support that has allowed the ceremony to grow. Originally, it began as a small ceremony of less than 100 people in the City Hall Plaza in 1999. Now the ceremony is held in Freedom Memorial Park, which is dedicated expressly to veterans. Last year more than 800 people attended. The park now has bleachers that seat 300 and there are restroom facilities available. There is parking close by for the disabled, and additional parking at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 27 at Freedom Memorial Park. The park is located at 101 Bragg Blvd. For more information, contact Talbot at 867-7776. Admission is free and seating is limited. It is advised to bring lawn chairs.

Photo: Being a military town, Memorial Day has a special importance to the Fayetteville community. 

The book of Matthew tells the Gospel story of Jesus’ birth and his childhoo in Gainesville, Ga. Wait…it doesn’t? The Cotton Patch Gospel, directed by Bo Thorp, founding artistic director of Cape Fear Regional Theatre, tells the story of what would have happened if Jesus were born in America. Cape Fear Regional Theatre adapted this play for its 29th Annual River Show, which is performed each spring at the Sol Rose Amphitheatre at Campellton near the Cape Fear River.

“The play is taking a look at Jesus’ life in modern-day terms. He is born in Georgia instead of Bethlehem and he doesn’t go to the high priests, Jesus goes to Atlanta’s ‘black bible society.’ The message is serious but it’s told in an entertaining and creative way and still very inform-ing,” said Mike Rice,who plays Matthew.

Though it’s a religious story, you don’t have to be reli-gious to enjoy the play.

“People’s first impressions are it’s a religious show, yes, but you don’t have to be Bible-literate, it’s a good story to come down and see,” saidDanny Young, one of the cast members. Andrew Crowe, a newcomer to North Carolina a who plays Joseph and Judas follows up, “You may be surprised and love some things about it that you least expected. But if nothing else, come hear some great music.”

The music is something the whole crew agrees is very significant. “The music is very integrated to the feel of the atmosphere, it’s lively and earthy. It tells the story as the dialogue does; it’s not an interlude, it reinforces events and takes you to a place you weren’t before. The songs capture events, such as the excitement from Jesus and his disciples,” Rice explained.

“The music is a resounding experience,” chimed in Crowe.

Bill Joyner, the music director, was praised for putting the musicians togeth-er. “It’s very remarkable to bring people together with different harmonies and structures. It’s also about hiring outside people like Andrew and developing that chemistry and comfort,” Rice said.

Crowe added, “It takes strength to adapt and figure out how to use everything.” Picking up the conversation, Rice continued, “It’s not enough to learn the notes, you have to learn the style; learn the feel and move with the music.”

They all agreed that the audience is another important factor. Rice said, “They are the focus. It’s the characters talking, but the narration is directly to the audience, it’s why we are here!”

If you think the play is unique, the crew and cast mem-bers are just as cool. Rice has a degree in philosophy and theology, but also a bachelor’s in music theatre. “I’ve sung, and played guitar at churches for young people. Who would have thought 28 years ago playing guitar in this show that I would end up with the lead in the show.”

Crowe has always been interested in music; he was doing classical music his senior year of high school but fell in love with acting and ended up splitting it with his major in music in college. This is his first performance in North Carolina and he has performed all over including Missouri, Milwaukee and Boston. Crowe said, “The continuing job of the actor is to always look for more work. When I get a job, that’s vacation. I have leisure time to learn my lines — unlike the other guys here who have other jobs and have to cram stuff in.”

Other members can attest to that. Joyner confirms, “Having a day jobs gets exhausting and it’s hard to balance it.”

Nevertheless, everyone is anticipating an outstanding performance. “I’m very excited,” said Joyner.

The River Show runs May 16-26. There is a dinner-theatre option where fried chicken with all the fixin’s is served. Reservations are required for the dinner-theatre option. Or, there is an option to come at 8 p.m. when the show starts. On May 19 and 26 there will be a matinee performance at the theatre on Hay Street at 2 p.m. Lawn chairs can be brought to the Campbellton Landing performances but, please no coolers; beer, wine, sodas and snacks will be available for purchase.

For reservations call, 910-323-4233. For more information, visit www.cfrt.org.

May 24th won’t be just any Friday; it is the celebration of 4th Friday, and for Fayetteville, that means tons of fun events, exhibits, music and art for all ages downtown.

Visit art galleries including the Gallery ONE13 and the Arts Council. The Arts Council will show off its exhibit called Get the Picture III. This is the third juried photography competition hosted by the Arts Council. Residents of the Cumberland County who are 18-years-old and older were encouraged to participate and submit their best photography in black-and-white, color or digitally-manipulated formats. The selected entries will be shown on 4th Friday and winners will be announced at 8 p.m.

The title, Get the Picture, emphasizes the goal and photographers were asked to keep that in mind.

“It’s not about taking the picture, it’s about getting the best picture out there, going out and capturing something compelling and spectacular,” Mary Kinney, marketing director of the Arts Council said. She herself enjoys this event, “With $1,000 dollars in total prize money up for grabs, photographers will submit their very best work, making this show truly exceptional.”

The much-anticipated show will run through June 22, so there are plenty of chances to view it.

Fascinate-U Children’s Museum is to host a free craft activity from 7 to 9 p.m. for children and their families. Show off the colors red, white and blue by making Patriotic Wind Streamers in collaboration with the museum’s month-long celebration of Military Appreciation Month.

People will also get to travel back in time at the Fayetteville Area Transportation Museum, where an exhibit will show the progress of transportation from pre-history up to the early 20th century. Other fun activities include crafts, produce for sale, a vintage car display and also live music. Bands include Blues Engima and the Raiford Street Band playing tunes of rock and blues. Also in the museum, visit the newest exhibit called A History of Fayetteville’s Jewish Community. It celebrates the Jewish community here in the city and how they have positively impacted us with their contributions socially, economically and culturally. This exhibit covers the early 19th century through mid-20th century and also tells of the events of the Holocaust and World War II.

More history takes place in Fayetteville’s own Market House. People can walk around the historical monument’s display, A View from the Square: A History of Downtown Fayetteville, filled with maps and images telling the unique past of our own city.

Music selections heard at every corner make for a very fine-tuned evening. City Center Gallery and Books hosts the favorite family, the Thiriot’s, in which each family member plays the violin.

The Army Ground Forces Brass Quintet is expected to play brass music along Hay Street. And stop by Headquarters Library to hear a performance by the band Second Time Around. Citizens can listen to swing music while enjoying refreshments. The fun starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

Find out more about 4th Friday at www.theartscouncil.com

For more than 30 years, McCune Technologies has provided the Fayetteville area with quality metal fabrications. By definition, metal fabrication is “the building of metal structures by cutting, bending and assembling processes,” but McCune Technologies does so much more. Not only does the company provide the community with quality metalworking, it supports the local people and economy, too.

For decades North Carolina was known as the manufacturing state. There was a booming economy for tobacco, cotton, furniture and jeans. David McCune, the owner for McCune technologies says, “Hope Mills and Massey Hill used to be mill towns. There were 25 cotton mills in the area. There was all kinds of manufacturing here.”

Sadly, like with the rest of the country, the area’s economy has taken a hit in recent years and manufacturing has suffered.

McCune has a unique perspective on the economy of the area. He is the owner of McCune Technologies, a company that specializes in miscellaneous steel fabrication; he is on the board of trustees for Fayetteville Technical Community College, on the board of directors for CEED and a chairperson on the Cumberland County workforce board. When asked about the local economy he says, “We need more industry. Of course, we are thankful for the industry that is here, but we need more. There used to be 13,000 or 14,000 manufacturing jobs in the area. Now there are 5,000 or 6,000 jobs. This is the harsh reality of the area, but we are very thankful for the manufacturing that is still here. This area has a great demographic for manufacturing.”

Despite the losses that the community has faced in recent years, it has also made tremendous progress. Fayetteville is continuously growing and developing into a center of arts and commerce, and the upcoming changes to the area can only serve to improve the community even more.

“Within North Carolina, Fayetteville is the perfect location. It is close to the beach and the mountains, right next to I-95 and I-40. There is huge potential for tremendous growth in Cumberland County. There is a new transportation facility in downtown, and downtown itself has improved by leaps and bounds over the years. We have the largest community college in the state, and one of the largest in the nation,” said McCune. “Methodist University is growing, and Fayetteville State is growing, and Ft. Bragg is a great asset to the community. The only thing our area is lacking is manufacturing.”

With all the positive changes in the community, Fayetteville will be open to the growth of new industry and manufacturing. McCune expresses this same sentiment.

“With I-95 going around Cumberland County and Fayetteville, this state will have one of the best infrastructures in the United States when it is finished,” he said. “We have a population of 300,000 and most cities that would have a road like this would be Richmond, Va., or Washington D.C. This is a tremendously positive improvement in development.”

Photo: McCune Technologies has been in business in Fayetteville for more than 30 years.

The public hears about the economy all the time. Numbers, which track the financial health of the country, are continually tallied, analyzed and reported. Industrial output drives many of the statistics that are used to measure so many of the nation’s vital signs. While the country depends on these industries for so much, the public seldom acknowledges the impact of industry on a day-to-day basis.

Every day people purchase and consume products without a second thought as to how these items made it to the store shelves. Locally, people drive by buildings that dot the landscape and have no clue about the items produced and manufactured inside.

“These businesses are hidden all over the county,” said Existing Industry Manager at The Economic Development Alliance Cathy Johnson. “There is a lot of industry here that people don’t know about, places that have been here for decades and it might be right next door to them and they just don’t know what these businesses do.”

This is the perfect time to change that. May is Existing Industry Month. It is a chance to acknowledge the efforts and the impact of the businesses that produce the many gizmos and gadgets that make life easier. On Thursday, May 16, the Fayetteville Regional Chamber and the Economic Development Alliance celebrate Existing Industry Month with the 2013 Existing Industry Appreciation Awards Luncheon.

“We really need to show existing industry that we value what they do for us and what they bring to Cumberland County,” said County Commissioner Charles Evans. “As a community we need to be sure that we support local industries as much as possible.”

While many have no idea how many businesses are based in Cumberland County or what they produce, for the most part, that is usually not a bad thing and it is often the way plant managers prefer it.

“Once they are in the community, a lot of people forget about them,” said Russ Rogerson, executive vice president at the Economic Development Alliance of Fayetteville & Cumberland County. “They (the businesses) like it that way, but your existing industries are the staple of your economy. These are the companies that hire and provide the kind of wages that allow employees to buy homes and cars. It is the engine of the economy. It all starts with a job and they are obviously providing these jobs, which support many other jobs in the second-tier level. These industries that provide jobs usually don’t want a lot of fanfare but it is important that we understand their impact. Existing Industries month is one of those times we get to say thank you.”

Cumberland County is home to more than 300,000 people and includes Fayetteville as well as the towns of Eastover, Falcon, Godwin, Hope Mills, Linden, Spring Lake, Stedman and Wade as well as Fort Bragg. Industry in the area, according to the Cumberland County website includes companies that make air filters, automobile tires, carpets, clothing, farm chemicals, paints, pesticides, synthetic fibers and tools. In the third quarter of 2012, Thrive North Carolina indicated that 80,282 people were employed in private industry, that’s more than a quarter of the jobs in Cumberland County.

The luncheon celebrates several anniversaries, including 15 years in business in Cumberland County for Aggreko and LeBleu Water; 45 years for Wesco Distribution and 80 years for Riverside Mattress. The recipient of the Al Prewitt Economic Visionary Award will be recognized at the luncheon as well. The award is giving to an individual or business for one or more of the following: creation of new jobs, corporate investment, expanded production of an existing facility or improving quality of life in the community.

The Fayetteville Regional Chamber is a business advocate in the community and works to make Cumberland County a place that is not only appealing as a place to live, but as a place that is business-friendly. That means working to meet the needs of existing industry as well as looking for ways to attract new industries to the area.

“The chamber plays a variety of roles,” said President & CEO of the Fayetteville Regional Chamber Doug Peters. “We work closely with the educational system and career technical education system to make sure we have a capable world-class work force. Many companies want to be in a place with a well-trained available work force and we work to make sure our community can provide that.”

This strategy includes everything from partnering with Fayetteville Technical Community College to customize training for potential and existing industries in the area to fostering relationships with the local government to creating networking systems and opportunities for plant managers and industry leaders.

“We take a multifaceted approach to what we are trying to do,” said Peters. “I think the outlook is very bright for our area. One of the attributes of this community is the skilled and trained work force at Fort Bragg. An estimated 6,000 soldiers come out of the military from Fort Bragg every year. We partner with the U.S. Chamber to bring Hiring Our Heroes to the community. This gives service members a chance to transition their resumes to a civilian resume and apply for jobs. These are people used to getting up and going to work on time, they have soft skills and industry skills, which are a lot of the skills that are military learned. These are easily transferrable to the private sector. That puts us in a competitive position to attract companies to the community to fill jobs with capable and motivated people.”

Find out more about the Fayetteville Regional Chamber and the Economic Development Alliance of Fayetteville & Cumberland County and how you can help celebrate Existing Industry Month at www.fayettevillencchamber.org.

Photo: A strong supporter of existing industries in the area, PWC says thanks to the many companies that make this community great.

U-TECK has been providing the building blocks of telecommunication for 29 years. The company manufactures and supplies specialized products and services for the telecommunication, utility, municipal and transportation industries. Simply put, it provides the building blocks for others; such as for phone companies: it doesn’t provide the actual phone, rather it provides the equipment to keep the phones running and manufactures the phones. Or, as Nan Jackson the manager of marketing at U-TECK puts it, “We don’t provide a ladder, but we supply the rungs.”

Jackson has been with the company for the past 10 years and has had the opportunity to see it develop into the close-knit company it is today.

“Ten years ago, the telecommunications industry went through a major reorganization and that affected U-TECK,” she said.

The company took on that challenge by creating a solid presence in new markets. The last six years has been a time of change in the company. Jackson continued, “We’ve grown so much through a team leader, ownership approach to success that allows everyone a voice in shaping our company. We go into each year with specific goals, work the plan and have enjoyed continued growth through continued product development and new marketing efforts.”

This growth is not the only thing that has helped U-TECK become so successful. Both Jackson and current president, Linda Hoppman, know the key to what makes them stand out. It’s the fact that customers can come to them and they can develop the criteria to create the product.

“The collaboration with suppliers and new product development gives these solutions to the customers. It’s the key to being a solution company.” Jackson stated.

There are unique solutions for cable management, ergonomics for technicians, safety applications and more. A signifi cant special solution product that has been recently created is the WeedEnder Vegetation Control System. This product was specified by the New York Department of Transportation and installed last spring to help control unwanted vegetation growth under 22 miles of cable barrier in the median on the Long Island Expressway. It was placed in New York before hurricane Sandy and after the storm blew through it never moved an inch! The product is available in other states including California, Washington and New Jersey.

The unique process that makes WeedEnder so effective is that it deprives the weed’s root system of sunlight but does allow water and nutrients to fi lter through; this prevents erosion by keeping the root system alive. The minimization of erosion provides visibility along guardrails, cable barriers, beautifi cation sites, billboards, exit-ramp signs and speed-limit signs. WeedEnder is also environmentally friendly. It doesn’t use any herbicides or harmful chemicals but still gets the job done. If there is a road next to the lake, the water running through will not be harmed. It is made of 100 percent recyclable materials, is fire retardant and has a 15-year guarantee warranty. This is just one of the many innovative products U-TECK manufactures and designs.U-TECK enjoys being involved with the community. The company’s employees are encouraged to volunteer and participate in local charitable efforts. U-TECK supports the Fisher House on Fort Bragg, recently donating $5,000. Also, for the past four years, it has been a part of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council.

For Jackson and Hoppman, choosing to be in Fayetteville wasn’t a hard decision and they couldn’t have it any better. “Fayetteville is our home, we didn’t choose it, it chose us,” Hoppman said. Jackson added, “This is our environment and our community and that is why we continue to stay here.”

U-TECK is a unique company with products meeting specifi c needs for its customers. The employees dedicate their time and energy effectively, something no one would want to weed out! Find out more about U-TECK at www.uteck.com.

Photo: WeedEnder is one of the many unique solutions U-Teck has designed for its customers. It is used along many roadways.

Hercules Steel Company is a steel supplier and fabrications business in the City of Fayetteville that has served the community for the past 50 years.

The company got its start in 1954 when the construction industry was booming. Military bases including Fort Bragg and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C., were being developed and Hercules Steel had a chance to provide steel to build these installations. There were slow downs with construction in the ‘60s and pick-ups in the ‘70s only leading to another period of slow work. But the dry periods didn’t stop the company from doing what it did best and the company’s hard work paid off as it remained competitive and won bids for demanding projects.

In addition to contracting for jobs on military installations, Hercules Steel Company has made it a priority to work hard to make the community a better place, too. Some of these projects include repairing multiple schools throughout Cumberland County including Terry Sanford and Pine Forest high schools by fixing their concession stands after tornado damage. The company played a part in building the new Embassy Suites behind Toys R Us and is also involved with the Sandy Grove Elementary School in Hoke County. Hercules Steel helped install the new solar roof panels at the school allowing solar energy to be collected from the rooftops. This solar energy is used to power the school and any excess energy generated can be sold back to the power grids.

Hercules Steel is involved in more than just construction. The company also sponsors local high school basketball, football and baseball teams from Terry Sanford and Pine Forest high schools. Hercules is a company that Fayetteville can count on to be a part of moving the community forward. Claude Scott can attest to this and has seen all these projects and more unfold. Scott, the current vice president and general sales manager, has been affi liated with Hercules since 1979, though he always didn’t see himself in this position. After graduating from Douglas Byrd High School, Scott joined Hercules working with the walk-in trade and sales counter. This then led to what he wanted to see and accomplish.

“I wanted and was able to grow with the company and management team through hard work and dedication,” Scott says.

Growth is something that they also hope for the future; growth in the market share and stability in the current and upcoming economy.

“Comforting” is the word Scott describes when he talks about his experience working with a business that has been around for so long. For Scott, it is comforting that people recognize the company’s name, comforting that this long history of giving back to the community and supporting local efforts has earned the company returning customers who came in the ‘70s and then in the ‘80s and are still returning today. He also fi nds comfort in the fact that from those past relationships, Hercules Steel can be depended on for jobs and having a positive role in the area.

The fact that this company has served the area for 50 years proves they are an important part of our community’s economic success. Find out more about Hercules Steel and the projects the company supports in the community at www.herculessteelco.com.

Photo: Located on one of Fayetteville’s main thoroughfares, people pass by Her-cules Steel every day and often have no idea the impact this business has on the community.

It is no secret that Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg, which is home to some of our nation’s bravest heroes. Our military defends the values of freedom and democracy and is known for its bravery and sacrifice in the face of evil. However, when our soldiers are not busy stamping out in-justice or bringing down dictators in foreign lands, some of them are actually quite the art-ists. The 2013 Army Arts and Crafts Contest, open to servicemen and women, Department of Defense employees and family members, is a juried contest designed for seasoned and accomplished artists as well as novices begin-ning their creative journey.

The artists begin by selecting from one of the following categories: ceramics, digital art, drawings, fibers and textiles, glass, metals/jewelry, mixed media, wood or two-dimen-sional arts. From there, the fun begins!

The artist then creates the a piece (or sev-eral pieces) using his imagination and creativ-ity to bring to life an expression that will go on to be seen by many others. This is a digital competition, so works are submitted and judged using digital images. The submission dates are between May 1st and June 30th and will be judged at the regional level. The submissions that win will then move on to the Army-wide contest. There, they will be judged against other works from soldiers throughout the Army. The works are divided into two categories: Group I for beginners and novices and Group II for experienced artists. At least three qualified judges with the proper experience will be selected to judge in all levels. The jurors are expected to participate in the contest professionally as curators, critics, educators, practitioners and editors. The winners will receive prizes for their submitted works of art with $100 for third place, $200 for second and $300 for first.

This event serves as a unique opportunity for those who serve to express themselves through their art work. Sara Matherly, manager of Frame and Design Arts at Pope Army Airfield believes that art often serves as therapy for the soldiers. “Art has as much a place in the soldiers’ lives as sports or fit-ness. As those help their bodies, art helps their minds,” she said.

Given the nature of their duties, sometimes a soldier’s life can get pretty tense. This event allows for a release from their everyday du-ties and affords them the opportunity to see what others are doing. They also receive sup-port from the community. Cape Fear Studios has displayed art works by soldiers who are deployed, giving them a connection to home while they serve their country.

To find out more about the rules and guidelines visit www.armymwr.com/recleisure/artsandcrafts/contest-guidelines.aspx or call 394-4192. To enter the contest, visit https://apps.imcom.army.mil/apptracmain.

Once again, our military finds itself in the midst of a drawdown. Although this is not a new phenomenon for the military, the impacts of the drawdown are vast. Troop levels will be cut, getting promoted will be tougher, budgets will be more constrained and staying in the Army will be more diffi cult. As a result, tens of thousands of soldiers will transition from active duty to the civilian sector by 2017. The question looming is, how will these soldiers prepare themselves for the transition and to enter a competitive workforce?

One of the ways in which soldiers can prepare for the future is through Continuing Education. Recognizing the challenges ahead, Fayetteville Technical Community College launched in January its Military Occupational Specialty degree program, a comprehensive program designed to convert military education and experience into college credit. Although converting military education to college credit is not a new concept, FTCC’s approach to this model is new. Without question, soldiers gain invaluable knowledge, training, and experience while serving in the Army. Following a quick consultation with our offi ce, a soldier immediately knows exactly how many credits he or she will receive for military learning experiences.

FTCC assessed military course curriculums, reviewed American Council on Education and Service member Opportunity College (SOC) program documents, and consulted with FTCC academic department heads to develop the MOS Degree Maps. The maps are broken down by MOS and skill level and identify a range of college courses and credit hours soldiers would receive for their military education. Moreover, maps target three key populations: special operations, non-special operations and healthcare as well as joint forces. To date, FTCC has developed 114 MOS Degree Maps representing 43 different MOSs. Our goal is to create a map for every MOS.

Although the associate degree in general education is the primary degree offered, soldiers can also apply their credit for prior military learning to other areas such as culinary arts, criminal justice, psychology and more than 150 different areas of study. The AGE is the number-one way to convert knowledge gained through military training into college credit. The AGE is transferable and a pathway to earning a higher-level degree later at a four-year institution. FTCC offers a range of course formats from face-to-face classes (day or evening) to online and hybrid classes, or a combination of these as well as unit classes.

Career Management Fields include:

• Adjutant General Corps
• Air Defense Artillery
• Aviation
• Civil Affairs
• Engineer
• Field Artillery
• Infantry
• Medical Service Corps
• Military Police
• Military Intelligence
• Ordnance
• Psychological Operations
• Quartermaster Corps
• Signal Corps
• Special Forces
• Transportation

Whatever educational field soldiers are interested in, FTCC stands ready to help them achieve their goals

.For more information or to register for classes, visit FTCC’s Fort Bragg Center located in F-Wing, Bragg Training and Education Center (BTEC) or call (910) 678-1050 or by email at fortbragg@faytechcc.edu.

To see a complete list of MOS and Skill Level maps, visit www.faytechcc.edu/ft_bragg/transition/credit-for-learning.asp.

Photo: Tens of thousands of soldiers will transition from Active Duty to the civilian sector by 2017. FTCC has programs in place to make it a smooth transition.

In literature, in art and in life the heart is the center of the body. Without it nothing is possible, so it only makes sense that we should protect it. Ironically, heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States; often times it is one of the most preventable causes of death, yet it claims more lives of women than any kind of cancer. In order to stop this trend, the American Heart Association has created a movement geared towards helping and teaching women to take care of their hearts: Go Red for Women.

The key to battling any disease is knowledge. By knowing the risk factors people can mitigate their risk factors. This can be especially important in an illness such as heart disease, that research shows lifestyle is often a large contributing factor. Diet, exercise, and family history can all add to the risks of having heart trouble, but knowing is half the battle and that is what the National Heart Association is promoting through the Go Red for Women events.

Alisa Debnam, a community volunteer that is very involved with the Go Red for Womenevents says that when people come to a Go Red for Women event they should expect, “to learn and impact women. We will talk about the change in awareness and improvement in the education for women’s heart health. Most women don’t know about heart disease and we want to get the message out. People need to know the signs of a heart attack. They happen to people daily, and get ignored. People think it is the flu or exhaustion. People need to know the signs and get help to take care of their health.”

“I remember in 2003 that I attended a Go Red for Women event in Raleigh and it was huge. As I was listening to the medical expert, I began to wonder why we didn’t have anything like this in Cumberland county,” Debnam recalled. As if rising to the call, many women in Fayetteville have decided to embrace the growing movement in heart health. In order to spread awareness and passion to the women of Fayetteville the organization will be hosting their second Go Red for Women Luncheon on May 14 at the Embassy Suites. Debnam explained that the luncheon will be both informative and entertaining. Susan Sparks, who is a former trial lawyer and is now a Baptist minister and stand-up comedian will provide entertainment for the night. There will also be a health and wellness segment that is sponsored by Morgan Stanley and a segment where a medical expert will present crucial information about heart disease that is sponsored by The First Health Regional Hospital.

There are many ways that people can contribute to the fight against heart disease. Anyone can host an event at their house and invite friends and family to act as a fundraiser, or just as an event to spread awareness. There is also the Heart Walk in October, where anyone can make a team out of their friends and families and help to fund and raise awareness for the battle against heart disease.

For more information, go to the website www.goredforwomen.org, the go red for women facebook page or the website ahagreenvillenc.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/20122013FayettevilleNCGoRedLuncheon/tabid/402556/Default.aspx.

G.I. Joe Retaliation (Rated PG-13)

The cartoons were fun, violent and nonsensical. Unfortunately, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (110 minutes) doesn’t manage to capture any of that magic. It does resemble a cartoon in several ways, though. The char-acters are flat stereotypes, the bad guys are completely one-note, and after about 30 minutes it’s time to change the channel. If only I had the option to change the channel!

There is an in-troduction that has very little to do with the rest of the movie. The GIs are violating the Korean demilitarized zone to rescue a defec-tor. But then they find something has changed. Like there is a flag, but it’s not the North Korean flag or something? I was watching very closely, and I still don’t under-stand why the flag was significant. It wasn’t a Cobra flag, but it makes Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) end the scene with some inappropriate language. Then, there are opening credits done in a trading card style. The vital stats of various Cobras and Joes are flashed across the screen with helpful pics and exposition re-garding what they have been doing since the 2009 G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Even though it is now 2013 and I can’t remember anything about the first movie, this introduc-tion isn’t the slightest bit helpful, since it is just a series of names and descriptions overlapping each other. Also, it is mumbled.

After the rogue’s gallery, we zoom in on Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) pre-tending to be the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce). Apparently Fake President has been more or less behaving himself while also blowing stuff up and keeping the Real POTUS in some kind of abandoned fallout shelter to taunt and torture at will. This is all part of a grand plan that includes getting the Real POTUS to tell Zartan where Destro and the Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) are being held. The timeline here is sort of screwy. The dialogue implies that Destro and the Cobra Commander have been in this secret prison for at least a few weeks, so what took Zartan so long to ask the Real POTUS where they were?

Once Zartan has the information, he sends Firefly (Ray Stevenson) to wipe out the GIs. He manages to get most of them, but Roadblock, Flint (DJ Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) survive. They set off through the desert and find an isolated landing field and make plans to sneak aboard a plane and get back to the USA. If you were expecting an excit-ing scene where they infiltrate the airbase and steal a plane while shooting up a bunch of bad guys, prepare for disap-pointment, since the scene shifts from the three surviving Joes making plans to them walking down the middle of an American street. Boring.

Meanwhile, Snake Eyes (Ray Park) was apparently captured by the military and taken to the secret prison. However, he did not get a trial and was not searched to the ex-tent that anyone took off his mask. And then, when he gets to the secret prison it turns out that the warden (Walton Goggins) is more concerned about speechifying than securing the weapons of his prisoner. And when he finds out the prisoner is not Snake Eyes, but Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee), he figures one prisoner is as good as the next and preps him for a high tech form of solitary confinement.

Overall, the only fun thing about this bloated and overwrought at-tempt at a popcorn movie is watch-ing the actors try to maintain a straight face as they utter such win-ning lines as “Get me the G.I. Joes!” The actors were simply not up to the challenge of saying that without sounding like 10-year-old boys. Also Bruce Willis is there, credited as The Original G.I. Joe, but actually play-ing his character from RED.

Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15.

Jazz music is a uniquely American music. It was born on American soil and since its inception it has influenced every genre of music that has come after it. The hallmarks of Jazz are the use of blue notes and the polyrhythms that have permeated African American musical traditions for centuries. Unlike many movements in arts, jazz has not faded or morphed into something new destined to be completely forgotten. Jazz is still quite popular. WFSS is embracing this incredible genre of music and bringing it to the public by hosting the All American Jazz Festival on May 11.

“This is actually an outgrowth of the Jazz on the River event that WFSS has hosted at Campbellton Landing for the last several years,” said Marsha McLean, WFSS Interim General Manager. “We are looking forward to having this at Festival Park. It is such a nice venue, and a place that the audience can really enjoy themselves.”

One of the featured acts at the festival is The Jazz Crusaders. Since the 1970s this band has been producing a jazz-funk style of music that has topped R&B and Pop charts alike. They have recorded more than 40 albums since their inception and will be performing at the All American Jazz Festival. The members of The Jazz Crusaders are Joe Sample, Gerald Albright and Wayne Henderson.

Keiko Matsui will also take the stage at the event as a featured performer. She is an incredible performer who has brought new life to Jazz. She is native to Japan, but now resides in Los Angeles. Keiko found her love for music at the tender age of five, when her mother gave her the first piano of her career. Her love of Jazz also developed at an early age, in middle school. She was a top student at the Japanese institutions where she studied, and was signed to a recording contract with the jazz-fusion group, the Cosmos. She came to the United States at the age of 19, and has been making her unique brand of new age, smooth jazz, and jazz-fusion records ever since.

Marcus Johnson is another featured performer that night. He is a jazz keyboardist and performs contemporary jazz. He is known not only for his skill, but also the incredible passion he puts into his music. Johnson listened to a variety of music as a child and fell in love with jazz when he was 13 years old.

Smooth jazz fans will be treated to a performance by Maysa. She started her career as a back up singer for Stevie Wonder and moved on to work with Arsenio Hall, Oprah and performed on The Tonight Show. She has had several top ten hits on the Jazz and R&B charts.

“We are very excited about the lineup this year,” said McLean. “Any of the musicians featured at the All American Jazz Festival could stand alone as headliners. They are all top names in the jazz industry and bring a lot of talent to the stage.”

While WFSS consistently provides high quality programming to the public, McLean pointed out that there is a lot more to this broadcasting station. As a public radio station there are some freedoms and some challenges that shape the services and programming. “We are proud to broadcast jazz music along with our other broadcast features like NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Jazz is not something that is commonly heard on commercial radio stations and we are glad to provide our audience with a different kind of listening experience,” said McLean. “As an institute of higher learning we have many mass communications majors that are able to get hands-on experience here. We work with the students to give them valuable learning experiences that will prepare them for the future.”

Because WFSS is a public radio station there is always pressure to find ways to fund the radio programming and to continue to meet the needs of the listeners. The All American Jazz Festival is a way to celebrate great music while supporting public radio and the Fayetteville State University students that train at the station. The All American Jazz Festival will be held at Festival Park. The gates will open at 3 p.m. and the preshow will begin at 4 p.m. Featured artists will be presented at 8 p.m. Festival park is located at the corner of Ray Ave and Rowan St.

Tickets are $35 in advance and $45 the day of the show. VIP tickets are $75. Ticket are available from a variety of locations. To purchase online tickets visit www.wfss.org or www.Etix.com. To order tickets by phone through Etix call 1-800-514-3849. Tickets are also available at the J.W. Seabrook Auditorium, which is open Mondays through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m and located in Fayetteville State University at 1200 Murchison Rd. Sponsorship and vendor opportunities are also available for anyone interested and further information can be found at www.wfss.org.

For Fayetteville, summer doesn’t arrive in June when school lets out and people head to the beach. May offi cially kicks off the season with Fayetteville after 5. This free, public concert has been a part of the Fayetteville music scene for 15 years. Funded through R.A. Jeffrey’s Distributing Company/Bud Light the event is operated by the Dogwood Festival Committee, and they have made sure that it is a great time for family members of all ages to join in and listen to bands and participate in other activities such as corn hole barrels.

This summer season is expected to be newer and “beefi er” than ever, as Carrie King, executive director of Dogwood Festival, put it. The event that was originally held on every third Thursday is now every third Friday, and will run through May, June and July only. Both King and Jeff Fox, the manager for R.A. Jeffrey’s, agree that the change in weekday will allow for more attendance. The goal is to be fl exible and accommodate work hours — and hopefully the weather won’t be as hot.

R.A. Jeffrey’s put together a fun raffle with Bud Light. The lucky people that won beach towels during the Dogwood Festival can come to Fayetteville After 5, show their towel and get one free beer. They then are eligible to register to win free beer for a year. Names will be drawn for the winner on the last concert in July. Bud Light will also give away free prizes at each event to the audience present before 6:30 p.m.

New genres of music are in the line up this season, too. King stated, “ I felt, and all of us in the planning process agreed, that there needed to be a change, a sprucing up to freshen up our venue and to try to have a different feel.”

Audiences can now expect to hear 80s tunes, rock n’ roll as well as country music. May 17 is the first concert of 2013 and features On the Border, a band that, as King said, “is an awesome, awesome, awesome, Eagles tribute band.”

On the same night, the returning favorite Suicide Blonde takes the stage. In June 21, Fayetteville should grab their cowboy hats for James Otto as he sings country songs.

July 19 will wrap up the season with tribute bands and people can sing “I’m back in black!” and other favorite oldies. Three bands will be playing, In the Name of Love, a tribute to U2, High Voltage, a tribute to AC/DC and Mostley Crue, a tribute to Motley Crue. (Warning: this may cause adults to travel back in time for the whole night and pretend they are a teenager again, causing them to scare their kids).

The music and food always create a relaxing atmosphere. King said her favorite part of putting this together includes seeing the first concert because it does kick-off summer and it serves as a “feel-good event” for her.

Fox added, “I love seeing a lot of people and this is also a good networking opportunity where I can meet people from different businesses and talk with them one on one.”

Fox also envisions Fayetteville after 5 becoming a concert tradition with a huge turn out like in North Hills Raleigh, another event R.A. Jeffrey sponsored. When first starting it, Fox said, “I wanted to have an event that would bring the community for free and also be enjoyable.” He reaffi rms this goal and wants it to continue while picturing the future.

Fayetteville after 5 is the one summer event you don’t want to miss. Come on down to Festival Park, lie on the grass and, as the Eagles say, “take it easy.” Gates open at, you guessed it, 5-ish p.m. at Festival Park. Find out more at www.faydogwoodfestival.com.

Photo: This season’s premier Fayetteville After 5 concert features Eagles tribute band, On The Border and 80s band Suicide Blonde.