The Volunteer Fire Department and VFW began cooking 1,600 pounds of BBQ last Friday evening for Saturday’s event. The organizations have worked together to raise money for many years. The event is held on the first Saturday of each April and October, and proceeds support both organizations.
The Kirton family of Waxhaw display the finished gift sets they created for local homeless children (L to R): Savannah, Braxton, and mom, Crystal.
For a community that has been settled since the 1700s, there are many family names that still survive to this day. One founding father of the community, Sugar Dulin, was honored June 4 with a new headstone at the Philadelphia Presbyterian Church cemetery located next to the church.
Dulin’s original grave marker has long been missing. Based on historical documents, the family and church officials guessed where he might have been buried. Local residents Charlie Burdick and Harry Hood placed the new tombstone for the family. Both have been involved with restoring the three church cemeteries located at the church, along Matthews-Mint Hill Road near Queen’s Grant Charter School, and a location on Brief Road.
The memorial ceremony coincided with a family reunion for the Dulins. Sugar Dulin moved to the Mint Hill area in the late 1700s after serving in the Revolutionary War. Sue McDonald, administrator at the Mint Hill Historical Society, said his home was probably located near the McDonald’s Restaurant at the corner of Lawyers Road and Lebanon Road. At one time, that section of Mecklenburg County was known as “Dulin’s Crossroads.” (PHOTOS BY CHARLIE BURDICK) Continue reading »
Kay Herrin of Mint Hill is joining with people from around the country to raise a united voice in the fight against brain tumors. Herrin is taking part in the inaugural New York Brain Tumor Walk, one of the nine walks that take place throughout the year to raise brain tumor awareness and essential funds for research and patient services through the National Brain Tumor Society. The 5K walk in New York will take place on Saturday, June 18 on Governors Island. Registration begins at 7 am and programs and activities run from 8:30 am to noon. Continue reading »
Remember the house on Sudbury Road in 2008 that was completely remodeled by the crew on Extreme Makeover: Home? The King family had their average home turned into a dream home, and it was all filmed for TV.
Here’s amateur video of the project:
Now the producers of Extreme Makeover want to come back to the Charlotte area. They are looking for a family whose home deserves an Extreme Makeover, or a family who simply deserves a home.
Ty Pennington and his crew have been all across the map and now they want to drive that famous bus to North Carolina.
“We are looking for the deserving people and inspiring families that America can really root for,” says Supervising Casting Director Adam Drucker.
What does it take to be picked for an Extreme Makeover?
“We’re looking for those special people who have amazing strength of character and never give up,” Drucker said. “Whether it’s keeping their chin up in really tough circumstances or going out of their way to help others. We want to help people whose stories have really affected their community or made a big difference in other people’s lives. There are a lot of people who are heroes to those around them because of the way they inspire others and quietly serve their communities on a daily basis.” Continue reading »
If only all mothers-in-law could be so lucky. Last week, Paula Milwood, a store clerk from Gastonia, was excited to see that her son-in-law scratched off the top prize in the N.C. Education Lottery’s $200,000 Cash game just a day after her grandson was born. Moments later, she was shocked when he handed her the winning ticket, saying “You keep it.”
“He just handed it to me and said I deserved it,” Milwood said. “He told me that I would know what to do with it. I didn’t know what to say.” The ticket was purchased at the Kingsway on Kendrick Road in Gastonia, where Milwood works. She plans to use her winnings, worth $136,001, to purchase a home for her family and possibly season passes to Carowinds amusement park.
“I feel like a big weight has been lifted,” Milwood added. “This is fantastic.” As of Monday afternoon, three top prizes remain to be claimed in the $200,000 Cash game.
In other lottery news, Carolina Cash 5 players in the Charlotte area need to check their numbers. One ticket matched all five numbers (9 – 11 – 14 – 31 – 37) in the Thursday, April 21 drawing and is worth $773,609. The jackpot had rolled since the April 9 drawing. This is the highest top prize in the game since the June 4, 2010 drawing when two players from Mebane and Hillsborough split the $823,652 prize. The largest single-winner Carolina Cash 5 claim occurred in November, 2007 when a player from Greenville matched all five numbers and won $856,988.
Jean Grayson of Mint Hill was named a semifinalist for the Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame, a program dedicated to “celebrating everyday people who possess the same persevering spirit as the Energizer Bunny® and use that determination to make a difference.”
In January, baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. and Energizer began a national search for the next member of the Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame. From all of the submissions received, Grayson’s nomination rose to the top. She is now one of 100 Semifinalists in the running to become the 2011 Inductee into the Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame. Continue reading »
A Mint Hill family’s worst nightmare has come with a silver lining. On the evening of November 22, a spark escaped through a crack in the chimney and into the attic of Melissa Blando and her three kids’ home. The resulting fire caused enough damage that the house has to be torn down and rebuilt.
Melissa Blando and her two boys (ages 15 and 11) and one girl (13) have learned a lot since then, especially how much the community rallies around people in times of need. They have been living with her brother who lives next door.
The fire started when a spark escaped through a crack in the fire place and then ignited the attic.
Melissa said so many people helped her family in the days after the fire that she can’t remember them all to thank. She hoped this article would reach everyone to let them know how thankful she was.
The Blandos live on David Drive off Matthews-Mint Hill Road in Mint Hill. Melissa said she doesn’t recall a lot from the night of the fire because of the trauma and the chaos that surrounded the evening. But she does remember the Mint Hill Fire Department getting to the fire quickly and comforting her and the children as they worked to put the fire out. Melissa’s dad had passed away the previous February, and one of her son’s kept his wallet with a fire department badge in it. The Mint Hill Fire Department went into the house to not only get the wallet, but a stuffed animal that one of the other children cherished.
“I wish I could remember that night because they really took care of us,” Blando said.
The day after the fire, Melissa’s youngest son’s teacher and guidance counselor from Bain Elementary School showed up with shoes, clothes and other items for the family. In the days that followed, teachers from Independence High School, where her oldest attends, and Mint Hill Middle School, where her daughter attends, helped out with gift cards.
“Everybody has really embraced us,” she said. “It was just tremendous.”
The Blandos lost nearly everything they owned that night. There were some clothes that were salvaged, and a few furniture pieces, but most everything else was damaged in the fire.
“I learned a lot of lessons from that night,” she said. “Like to be thankful for what you have and don’t take things for granted and to be more humble.”
Melissa said she rarely accepted help from others before the fire because she was proud that she could support herself and her family. The experience, she said, taught her about humility.
She moved to Mint Hill in 2006 from a small town in South Carolina where she said everyone knew each other and helped each other out. When she moved to Mint Hill she thought she would lose the close-knit community feel.
“I thought when I moved here I would lose the small town, community feel. But this changed my mind. Everybody pulled together and I can’t thank everyone enough.”
The folks at St. John Neumann Catholic Church on Idlewild Road helped 30 families at the Double Oak Community Center have a more merry Christmas. Volunteers gave food, clothing and presents to the families to help spread the holiday cheer. More than 75 people from the church volunteered including the Boy Scouts, youth ministry and Knights of Columbus.
Christmas time is about giving, and one Mint Hill resident and her family are giving one of the most valuable gifts of them all: Their time. The Lake Wylie Pilot reports that Jennifer Ballard of Mint Hill and some of her family pitched in to help wrap presents for 14 hospice families in the Lake Wylie area.
“We aren’t doing much for ourselves this year, but we wanted to help other people. Instead, we want to give to people who need it.
“I have my family, a house, income … I everything I need,” she said.
American Community Bank, including Mint Hill’s branch, showed their support for Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child gift drive this season by volunteering at the program’s Charlotte Processing Center.
Employees and their families have donated time inspecting donated shoebox gifts and preparing them for overseas shipment.
“This is the second year American Community Bank employees and their families have volunteered with Operation Christmas Child and we are pleased to have even more employees involved than last year,” said Bryce Friesz, City Executive. “It is a great opportunity for us to come together as a bank and as a community.”
Each year, the international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse collects donations of shoeboxes filled with children’s gifts, which it processes and ships to needy children in more than 130 countries. To learn more about Operation Christmas Child, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
For 10 years now, Larry Sladek and his wife have donated meals to the Men’s Shelter in downtown Charlotte. They donated $125 worth of food every first Saturday of the month, enough to feed 125 men. In recent years, their church, St. John Neumann Catholic Church, has helped out. They created several teams, one of which was the Sladeks, that each donated food four times a year.
After Sladek read a story in the Charlotte Observer on Sunday, he decided to broaden his scope by asking Mint Hill residents to pitch in this year. He is asking for donations of dry oatmeal and gently used men’s clothing that he and his wife will in turn take to the shelter January 1. You can bring by donations to Sladek’s dentist office in the same parking lot of the Mint Hill Police Department.
The Mint Hill Volunteer Fire Department is mailing a second request for donations to homeowners and businesses in the fire district that did not respond to the first mail-out in April. The fire district includes the town of Mint Hill and surrounding areas. If you receive the mail-out, please respond and support your department that provides fire protection and EMS services to you at no charge. They depend on your tax deductible support to provide the services.
