CityView January 2026

CityView JANUARY 2026

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NEW YEAR, NEW YOU HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE GROWTH

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JA NUA RY 2026

TA B L E OF CO N T E N T S

Above, Harrison Jones, the director of the Cumberland County Association for Indian People, was appointed to the role in April 2025. Photo by Tony Wooten On the cover: Night Circus: A District New Year’s Eve Spectacular on December 31, 2022, into January 1, 2023, included carnival attractions like stilt walkers, fire dancers, and roving magicians. Photo by Tony Wooten

COLUMNS

20 10 Health Care Workforce Growth

Universities across the region are trying to address physician and nursing shortages by expanding programs and creating new ones.

14 New Year, New Skills Fayetteville Technical Community College’s revamped Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Systems License Prep Course helps service members transitioning to civilian work take flight.

Editor’s Take: Valeria Cloës . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

20 Community and Revitalization

The View From Here: Tim White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Cumberland County Association for Indian People has a new director and a newly renovated community center.

Family Matters: Claire Mullen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Oye, ¿Cómo Va?: Claudia Zamora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Good Reads: Diane Parfitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 The To-Do List: Your go-to spot for local events . . . . . . . . . 38 Seen @ the Scene: A look at who was out and about . . . . . 40 4 | JANUARY 2026

26 Inaugural Drone Competition How a new drone competition aims to lure tech and defense companies to the area.

32 Renderings Unveiled The 83,000-square-foot Black Voices Museum, to be located at 122 Person St., used the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as inspiration for its design.

EDITOR’S TAKE

New Year, New Opportunities

BY VALERIA CLOËS

A new year offers the opportunity to begin again—we can set new intentions, build on previous ones, learn new skills, or even reinvent ourselves. And the Greater Fayetteville area offers many chances to do all this and more in 2026.

The “New Year, New You” magazine showcases new opportunities to grow this year, whether that’s going back to school to build on or learn a new skill, or to witness Fayetteville and Cumberland County’s continued expansion and revitalization.

Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine is opening in July of this year, and universities in southeastern North Carolina are working to expand and create programs to address the shortage of physicians and nurses in the area.

Fayetteville Technical Community College has revamped its Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) Systems License Prep Course for its spring 2026 term, which starts on January 12.

The course, which is geared toward service members transitioning to civilian work, provides the training necessary for aviation-focused jobs.

The Cumberland County Association for Indian People renovated its community center last year. CityView spoke with the association’s executive director Harrison Jones about the association’s goals.

Also, the Fayetteville-Cumberland Economic Development Corporation held an inaugural drone competition in Autryville in early October to help encourage defense and tech companies to expand to Fayetteville.

And in late September, the first renderings of the Black Voices Museum and Centers for Equity were unveiled by the contracted architecture firm’s principal and design director Roger Smith at Segra Stadium.

Our columnists this month explore what “New Year, New You” means to them: The first proposes a new year’s resolution for Fayetteville. Another shares her unfortunate experience with skiing. Our bilingual columnist explains what the Epiphany on January 6 means to her and how she keeps the traditions alive far from home. And the next recommends six books to help you get started on your journaling journey.

The Westover High School Marching Band makes its way down Hay Street during the Rotary Christmas Parade on December 13, 2025. Photo by James Throssel

Our To-Do List this month includes the 32nd Annual MLK Parade, a Latin dance class, sports events, and plays and musicals for you to enjoy.

We also have a photo gallery of the Rotary Christmas Parade on December 13 in downtown Fayetteville.

This new year is an exciting one for our community, with new schools opening, new opportunities to learn skills, and so much more.

Thanks for reading!

Valeria Cloës Magazine Editor For comments, questions, feedback, or to submit story ideas, email vcloes@cityviewnc.com.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 5

THE VIEW FROM HERE

Resolution for a Better Fayetteville

BY TIM WHITE

Happy New Year!

And yes, you’re right—time is flying. Wasn’t it just a year or two ago that we began a new century and millennium?

No? Have we really finished off a whole quarter century?

Well, yes, we have.

And those of us of a certain age know the truth of what Mom said when we were kids, when time—especially time spent waiting for Santa—moved at a pace that made snails look like race cars: The older you get, the faster time passes.

I don’t need to stand on my tiptoes anymore to see 80 coming—it’s only a few birthdays away. So New Year’s resolutions have entered a new phase, taken on a new focus. Oh sure, I really am going to restart my longdormant running program—the daily walk isn’t enough to keep the pounds off, and I have no interest in losing weight by starving myself. Good food is too precious. And I may have a dry-ish January, although any special occasion that arises will be reason enough to break that one.

But more important—way more important—is the time spent pondering what kind of world I’m leaving to the generations after my baby boom cohort, and what I plan to do to help create that world.

That’s not a new pursuit for me. I started having those thoughts and taking some of those actions, nearly 50 years ago, when I became a father (amazing how that changes your perspective, isn’t it?).

And in these often chaotic, disputatious times, I’m revisiting a lot of those thoughts.

Few of us sit in places with sufficient power to PHOTO BY TONY WOOTEN alter the course of world 6 | JANUARY 2026

or national or even state destiny. But that old bumper sticker is still right: think globally, act locally. If we want to create a better world, we start in our own backyards.

My time in Fayetteville showed me a lot of positive things, mostly involving good people quietly doing good things for their families, friends, neighborhoods, and the community in its entirety. My fellow journalists looked for those stories and told them well. They still do. But too often, those little microcosms of life didn’t expand to create a better city or county, because there wasn’t enough community leadership to make it happen.

For a whole host of reasons, many of our elected leaders get stuck in distractions. City Council members focus more on their district’s needs than on where the city as a whole is headed. County commissioners spend more time chasing the nickels and dimes of the budget than they do envisioning a path to a better future. Now, those district priorities and serious budget-keeping are indeed important parts of the job—stuff that’s got to be done, and done well. But it’s not the whole package. Without a vision for the future—not pipe dreams but fleshed-out plans— we’re stuck in a present that’s not good enough.

And Fayetteville and Cumberland County are indeed stuck. The economy lags behind many of our peer communities. Health outcomes are too close to those we see in our rural, impoverished neighbors. Our schools aren’t performing as well as we need if we’re going to break out of those seemingly endless cycles.

So what do we do?

What can individuals do? What can people do who feel powerless to create change?

Here’s one starting place: The next time you see your elected representative—city council member, county commissioner, board of education member, whatever—ask them about their vision for the future. Ask what they’re doing to create change. Ask which steps they want to take to lift Fayetteville and Cumberland County into the more prosperous tiers of North Carolina communities. Every single person who stands for election should have a well-thought-out answer.

And I can tell you, after decades as a journalist in Fayetteville and as a moderator of more candidate-night forums than I can count, that many of them don’t have that vision. Many of them think they’re doing their job well if they get a new fire station or recreation center in their district, and they have little inclination to think bigger than that.

That, my friends, is how a community can get stuck. It’s what happens when residents don’t ask big and important questions. We don’t get big thoughts and ambitious plans when we don’t demand them.

There is enormous potential in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

And there are great, talented people.

But we may waste it unless we press our leaders, ask them hard questions, and insist that they see the big picture and have plans to advance Greater Fayetteville, leveraging all its resources and making it as good as it can be.

I hope you’ll join me in making— and keeping—that resolution.

And meanwhile, happy 2026!

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Skiff, a Fayetteville native, has joined our practice.

Dr. Skiff is currently accepting new patients.

All major insurances are accepted.

We provide same-day walk-in appointments for established patients.

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FUTURE READY.

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A place for belonging, A place for inspiration, hope, comfort, A place for mental, emotional, physical growth, A place for success!

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910-678-8400 Tim White is the former editorial page editor of The Fayetteville Observer.

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CITYVIEWNC.COM | 7

FAMILY MATTERS

My Burning Hatred of a Freezing Pastime

BY CLAIRE MULLEN

Hate is a strong word. I tell my children often that “hate” should not be part of their vernacular unless they are referring to any sort of injustice or the Duke Blue Devils.

But let me tell you what I hate: snow skiing. And ironically, for something that is really quite frigid, I hate snow skiing with a passion that burns hotter than the place from which those Duke Blue Devils come.

As a generally outdoorsy and relatively athletic person, one would think that I would not have such a strong aversion to a recreational activity that so many people seem to not just tolerate but actually enjoy. And it would so happen that someone with an utter disdain for this winter sport would end up marrying a man who grew up taking annual vacations to various East Coast ski resorts from the time he was big enough to stand up on a pair of skis.

He loves to go on about how some of his fondest childhood memories revolve around these family ski trips that he and his parents would take with a group of their close friends.

In stark contrast, my recollections of my first experiences on a ski slope are, to put it mildly, thoroughly horrendous.

Unlike my husband, I did not grow up in a family of snow ski enthusiasts. We preferred to spend the winter months hibernating in the comfort of the great indoors next to crackling fires with mugs of hot cocoa, cozy blankets, classic movies, and central heating. I did not have my first big ski adventure until somewhere around age 15, when my church youth group offered a February retreat to Winterplace Ski Resort in West Virginia. With naive curiosity and blind 8 | JANUARY 2026

PHOTO BY IMAD CLICKS ON UNSPL ASH

optimism, I registered for the trip and added every bit of the gear I would need to my Christmas list.

I remember the excitement of stuffing my duffel bag full of new scarves, wool socks, thermal underwear, pompom beanies, ski bibs, and waterproof gloves, and loading onto the rented charter bus with an enthusiastic group of fellow teens to make the long drive to West Virginia. The vision I had of our destination was something akin to the Austrian Alps I had only seen in The Sound of Music.

I absolutely did not anticipate stepping off the stuffy charter bus in my new snow boots into a puddle of filthy slush in the middle of a parking lot packed with Presidents Day weekend traffic. In retrospect, the looks on the faces of parents dragging snotty, whining children with chapped cheeks and tears frozen onto their eyelashes with one hand while wrestling skis and ski poles with the other on the trek back to their cars should have been my first warning to head straight to the ski lodge and find a nice, comfy chair by a window and near the snack bar where I could remain for the rest of the day.

I proceeded to the ski rental area where I retrieved the awkward plastic boots that would ultimately give me the worst blisters of my 15 years, ski poles that would prove to be completely useless, and a pair of skis that would become the medium through which my body would transform into a human projectile, putting myself and anyone unfortunate enough to be in a 100-yard radius of me in extreme peril.

As I exited the rental building and attempted to properly equip myself, the fact that I fell flat on my rear end after only clipping into one ski should have been sign number two to get out while I still could, but I managed to right myself and inch my way over to the ski school on the bunny slope. My less-novice friends ditched me in line with a bunch of elementary schoolers and headed for the advanced slopes.

I shouldn’t have scoffed at those kindergartners too quickly, because they caught on a heck of a lot quicker than I did. They were able to perfect their “pizza wedge” stopping method on their very first runs down the slight decline, while the shape my skis made when I tried to stop looked less like a slice of pizza and more like the letter X—X for “you should stop right here, right now.”

I attempted several more runs down the bunny slope.

The end result was the same for all: me, flat as a pancake on my back, skis in the air, gazing up at the winter sky, and asking God how anyone could think this is fun.

Determined to keep trying, I followed the ski instructor’s instructions to continue ahead to the ski lift to make my way to my first attempt at a beginner-level green slope.

And that’s the part no one warns newbie skiers about: the ski lift.

I did my best to shuffle over to the lift to get in position for the moment the lift touches the back of your knees and scoops you skyward. Well, turns out there’s not an awful lot of time between one chair and the next.

For a virgin lift-rider, you have to do a good bit of positioning before you are ready to load. Before I knew it, one of my skis crossed over the other, causing me to lurch forward. I overcorrected, slipped on the packed snow, and fell backwards, whacking my head on the lift chair.

I hope that having to have the emergency stop button pressed just for you, halting an entire ski lift full of people, and holding up the long line is an embarrassment that you never have to endure.

The lift operator helped me to my feet, asked if I was sure I wasn’t concussed, eased me down into the seat, and said, “Are you sure you’re good to keep going?”

In hindsight, the answer to that question should have been a resounding “NO,” but the stubbornness of a teenage girl is a powerful thing.

My first—and last—green run went about like you would expect, given my ski school and ski lift fiascos. As I launched myself off the top of the hill, every tip I learned from the instructor left my brain. I forgot to make slow, side-to-side zig zags down the mountain. I forgot about the pizza wedge. I forgot to keep my poles down at my sides.

My life flashed before my eyes, along with blurs that I could only assume were other skiers dodging the outof-control torpedo barreling toward them. Around the midway point of the run, I began an epic tumble. The lone rational thought that came to me as I involuntarily

cartwheeled down the mountain was to abandon my ski poles out of fear of impaling an innocent bystander.

I flipped down that run for what seemed like an eternity, both of my skis popping off somewhere along the way. And when the orange plastic netting at the bottom of the slope finally halted my descent, I closed my eyes and rested my bare head (my beanie lost somewhere on the mountain) on the snow, and prepared to meet my maker. I assumed that every bone in my body was broken and that I had sustained irreversible brain damage.

It was only when I heard a booming voice and felt a shadow looming over me that I was roused back into the land of the living. I opened one eye to see the very angry face of a man peering down at me. He was gripping his small daughter by the hood of her ski jacket, and I came to the terrible realization that he had pulled her out of my way just in time.

“What the heck are you doing?” he roared. “Don’t you know how to stop?! You are going to hurt yourself or someone else! You need to go back to the bunny slope!”

After I profusely apologized to that man and his child and trudged up the hill to retrieve the collection of scattered items lost along the mountain during my 45-degree tumbling pass, I thought to myself, “The bunny slopes? Buddy, I can do you one better.” I hobbled my throbbing behind straight to the lodge where I would park myself for the remainder of the trip.

I came home from West Virginia with an impressive hematoma on my thigh, a cut on my cheek from the tip of my ski, and a nice array of bumps and bruises in various blues and purples, but nothing more injured than my teenage ego. It took me a decade after that to be convinced to give skiing another try, and by then I was a married lady trying to impress her expert-level husband.

That’s a story for another day, but let’s just say another 15 years have passed since my second and sworn-last attempt at snow skiing, and my husband likes to tell people that the only time our 25-year relationship was ever on the rocks was that one time he tried to teach me how to ski.

I am hoping that our two children won’t miss out on the opportunity to learn to love a winter sport that their dad adores. Maybe they inherited his uncanny ability to balance upright on two glorified floorboards while barreling down a slippery mountain at light speed in subzero temperatures, make it out alive, and say it was fun.

Or maybe they didn’t. And if that’s the case, they can revel in their mom’s favorite seasonal pastime: sitting stationary on a nice, flat sandy beach, basking in sun hot enough to melt the snow on the tippy top of the tallest of the Austrian Alps.

Claire Mullen can be reached at clairejlmullen@gmail.com.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 9

HEALTH

Health Care Workforce Growth Universities across the region are trying to address physician and nursing shortages by expanding programs and creating new ones.

S

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MORGAN CASEY

Sarah Lassiter spent much of her childhood in Johnston Fayetteville, which will welcome its first class of 64 County watching her father struggle to find a doctor he felt students this summer, hopes to train physicians like comfortable seeing for his heart condition.

Lassiter who will remain in southeastern North Carolina, “He would see them for one or two visits, and then he where rural communities need more medical providers. would get really discouraged,” Lassiter recalled. “He would “When you think about why this school exists, it was never go back until he was discharged from the hospital because there was such a dire need,” said Dr. Hershey the next time around, and then he’d find a new one, and Bell, founding dean of the Cape Fear Valley Health School the cycle would repeat itself.” of Medicine. “We’re going to Her father’s frustrations forever change the health care led Lassiter to become a people get in this region.” physician in rural North Other colleges in the region Carolina. After graduating from are also focused on increasing Campbell University’s School health care access by cultivating of Osteopathic Medicine, she homegrown talent. UNC spent three years in residency at Pembroke launched a doctoral Harnett Health in Dunn. Now she nursing program last year, and is a family medicine provider at it will open the state’s only Cape Fear Valley Primary Care, optometry program at a public where she leverages her rural university in 2027. upbringing to relate to patients Fayetteville State University who might be skeptical of the plans to expand its nursing health care system. programs following a $2 million Lassiter is among the 65% of donation from Cape Fear Valley doctors who complete both Health. medical school and residency Southeastern North Carolina is in North Carolina and go on to one of the unhealthiest regions in practice in the state, according the state. The life expectancy in to research from the Cecil G. much of the region is 6 to 10 years Sheps Center for Health Services shorter than the state average, Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. according to the N.C. Department Methodist University in of Health and Human Services.

Sarah Lassiter is a family health provider at Cape Fear Valley Primary Care.

10 | JANUARY 2026

Methodist University in Fayetteville, which will welcome its first class of 64 students this summer, hopes to train physicians like Lassiter who will remain in southeastern North Carolina, where rural communities need more medical providers.

Residents have higher rates of diabetes and heart disease and lower birth weights. Counties in the region have among the highest drug overdose death rates in the state.

Nearly every county has a shortage of primary care and mental health providers, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Three of the nine counties Cape Fear Valley Health covers—Bladen, Sampson, and Columbus—are a maternity care desert or have low access to maternity care, according to the nonprofit March of Dimes.

Community Focus Methodist University aims to get medical students invested in the community early on in hopes they will stay after graduation, Bell said. Students will help treat patients at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and in the school’s yet-to-be-developed free clinic in Fayetteville as part of their education. They will also participate in community service learning projects.

“They’re going to get to know these people, learn the families, learn the communities throughout the region,” Bell said. “And I think they’re going to fall in love.”

Fayetteville State uses a similar community strategy to keep its nurses in the area: Nursing students provide health screenings at the annual Umoja Festival, a local cultural fair in Fayetteville. They also travel around Cumberland County, providing health care through the school’s mobile health unit.

At UNC Pembroke, nursing students help distribute food and take residents’ blood pressure and other health measurements at the Lumbee Cultural Health Fair in Maxton. The program also has a mobile health unit and hopes to add more to better reach more rural parts of Robeson and surrounding counties.

Students who are from the communities where they go to school are more likely to remain local post-graduation, according to Erin Fraher, deputy director for policy and director of the health workforce research and policy program at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. It’s why UNC Pembroke and Fayetteville State have worked to recruit locally.

Fayetteville State has graduated 523 nurses since 2023, said Jennifer Edwards, associate dean of the university’s Cape Fear Valley School of Nursing. She estimated 85% of them work in southeastern North Carolina.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 11

Michael Nagowski, Cape Fear Valley Health CEO, speaks about how the health system will help educate the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine’s medical students on October 17, 2025.

“It’s very clear to us as educators that there’s a shortage, and there’s going to continue to be a shortage, and there’s even more of a need in rural areas,” Edwards said. “So it’s important for all of us to work together collaboratively to help meet those needs.”

About 40 students graduate from UNC Pembroke’s nursing programs each year, according to Jennifer JonesLocklear, chair of the university’s McKenzie-Elliott School of Nursing. About half have stayed in Robeson and surrounding counties, Fraher said.

“In the end, it’s all about what kind of change can we make,” Jones-Locklear said. “Can our nursing students, in collaboration with the different disciplines that they’re working with, improve the health of southeastern North Carolina? Because if you make small changes here, I believe that it has a reciprocal effect, that it’s going to make changes on a larger scale.”

Methodist University hopes scholarships will lure local students to its medical school, where the annual tuition will be $68,500. The Cumberland Community Foundation contributed $1 million to scholarships, and the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners established a $1 million endowment for county residents.

12 | JANUARY 2026

Cape Fear Valley Health also created a loan repayment program for students who practice with the health system after graduation.

Keeping Doctors Local Cape Fear Valley Health has 328 residency positions available for medical students to rank in the National Resident Matching Program, which determines their specialty and where they practice post-graduation.

Dr. Donald Maharty oversees Cape Fear Valley Health’s residency and fellowship programs and is the senior associate dean of graduate medical education for the medical school. He said the community focus incorporated into the medical school’s curriculum will encourage medical students to stay local for their residencies.

After residency, which can last three to seven years, he hopes students will want to continue working for Cape Fear Valley Health. Since 2017, when the health system began offering residency programs, 55% of participants have stayed to practice in the region, Maharty said.

“It becomes a family, and it becomes your community,” said Maharty. “Instead of, ‘I’m just passing through to get hired,’ it becomes personal. They ’re

Dr. Hershey Bell, founding dean of the Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, said Methodist University is open to building relationships with other health systems for clinical rotations and residency spots.

proud of the health system.”

Lassiter said she enjoys working in Dunn, home to fewer than 8,500 people. Her patients feel at ease hearing her southern North Carolinian accent, she said, and appreciate her taking the time to explain her treatment recommendations. The farmers and factory workers she treats remind her of her father, who died of heart failure last year.

“They’re him,” Lassiter said. “I think he prepared me well to be able to build trust and relationships with them.”

Campbell University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lassiter’s alma mater, has more than doubled the number of its graduates in residencies across the state. In 2017, when the school’s first class graduated, 16% of students went on to residency programs in North Carolina. In 2024, the figure jumped to 34%. Many of those residents are practicing in Harnett, Cumberland, Hoke, Sampson, and New Hanover counties, according to Fraher’s research.

Cape Fear Valley Health wants to expand its number of residency positions to over 400 in the next five to seven years, Maharty said.

Methodist University is open to building relationships with other health systems for clinical rotations and

residency spots, Bell said. It’s already partnering with the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center, a family medicine residency program in Fayetteville that’s part of a broader statewide network of health education programs.

“For me, it’s really about helping students get that sense that it’s so much bigger than what they think it is,” Bell said. “That by entering a career in medicine and practicing medicine, they can touch entire populations.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Border Belt Independent Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in the Border Belt and can be supported through a donation to the Border Belt Reporting Center, Inc.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 13

Luis Velez, dean of Corporate & Industry Training at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), Sullivan Jackson, Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance mechanic and pilot, Grace Parsons, Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance assistant and pilot, and Scot Smith, owner, certified flight instructor, Airframe & Powerplant, inspection authorization mechanic of Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance, pose for a photo at Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance at Gray’s Creek Airport on December 4, 2025.

EDUCATION

New Year, New Skills Fayetteville Technical Community College’s revamped Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Systems License Prep Course helps service members transitioning to civilian work take flight.

A

BY DASIA WILLIAMS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY VALERIE NEWTON / FAYETTEVILLE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE

As the new year kicks off, many Fayetteville residents begin setting fresh goals, exploring new skills, and imagining new career paths. At Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), one course in particular is positioned to help students—and especially service members on Fort Bragg—step into high-demand roles in one of North

14 | JANUARY 2026

Carolina’s fastest-growing industries.

FTCC’s newly revamped Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Systems License Prep Course is the college’s most aviation-focused workforce pathway, designed for service members transitioning to civilian work and aviation personnel who already have hands-on experience but need the credentials to advance.

With registration open for FTCC’s spring 2026 term, the Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Systems License Prep Course is fully approved and reflects the college’s mission to create direct, streamlined pathways into fields where employers urgently need trained workers.

“We’ve offered Airframe & Power training in different forms for years,” said Luis Velez, dean of Corporate and Industry Training at FTCC. “But demand in the aviation industry has changed. Employers told us exactly what they needed—and we rebuilt the program around that.”

Dr. Jolee Marsh, associate vice president of Corporate & Continuing Education, said the revamped program also fits into FTCC’s broader strategy of strengthening continuing education as a gateway to upward mobility. “Our goal is to offer programs that respond to workforce needs and give adult learners opportunities to grow—in their careers and in their confidence,” she said.

Meeting a Statewide Workforce Need Aviation is one of North Carolina’s quiet economic engines. The sector contributes more than $88 billion annually to the state and is expected to grow significantly as older maintenance professionals retire, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Marsh added that the industry is expected to grow substantially in the coming decade, noting “about 16% projected job growth over the next ten years.”

This need is especially visible around Fort Bragg, where aviation units operate daily and where many soldiers already have years of aircraft maintenance experience— but lack the civilian credentials needed to advance in the private sector.

“This program really caters to transitioning service members,” said Dr. Waleed Mohamed, department chair for Corporate and Continuing

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CITYVIEWNC.COM | 15

Jackson and Parsons conduct a maintenance check and do repair work on an airplane’s engine at Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance at Gray’s Creek Airport on December 4, 2025.

16 16 | | JANUARY JANUARY2026 2026

Education. “They already have the experience, but they need the credential. Our goal is to get them certified and into the workforce quickly.”

Marsh added that the aviation sector is one of the most promising for career changers and militaryconnected learners.

“With so many aviation professionals retiring, there’s a tremendous opportunity for trained technicians to step in,” she said. “Programs like this help our community meet that need.”

A Course Rebuilt With Employer Input FTCC’s updated A&P course has expanded significantly based on feedback from aviation employers and industry partners.

What was once a 128-hour training sequence has now grown into a 228-hour, seven-week course shaped through collaboration with the national Heroes MAKE America initiative and KPR Aviation.

Heroes MAKE America, a national initiative of the Manufacturing Institute, helps transitioning service members gain civilian-recognized industry training and credentials.

KPR Aviation, a third-party aviation maintenance partner that works with FTCC, provides hands-on instruction at an airport hangar used for the course.

The hands-on portion of the course takes place at Gray’s Creek Airport inside a maintenance hangar operated by Cape Fear Aviation Maintenance.

Students move through a combination of classroom instruction, aviation software training, and hands-on practice inside an airport hangar operated by KPR Aviation.

During the course, students prepare for four FAA-required exams—three written tests (General, Airframe, and Powerplant) and an oral and practical exam administered by an FAA-authorized examiner.

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“It’s an intensive course,” Mohamed said. “About twothirds is classroom and test preparation, and one-third is hands-on practice. We build them up so that when they reach the oral and practical exam, they’re confident and ready.”

Hands-on training covers engine components, wiring harnesses, fuel and electrical systems, powerplant structures, and more. FTCC is also seeking grant funding for additional non-operational aircraft to expand handson learning opportunities.

“This is a highly specialized skill set,” Marsh said.

“Students can’t just walk in off the street—you need significant experience before you enter the program. But for those who qualify, it’s a powerful next step.”

What the Course Includes FTCC officials said the updated the A&P course has expanded far beyond the college’s previous 128-hour version. The newly revised 228-hour sequence now includes: • Expanded classroom instruction covering aircraft theory, FAA standards, safety requirements, and updated industry practices.

• Aviation software training, using the digital tools and simulations commonly relied on in modern maintenance environments.

• Hands-on practice inside an airport-based hangar operated by KPR Aviation, where students work directly with aircraft components, engines, electrical systems, and fuel systems.

• Structured FAA exam preparation for all four required tests—the General, Airframe, and Powerplant written exams, plus the final oral and practical exam administered by an FAA-authorized examiner.

• Enhanced employer-aligned curriculum, redesigned with input from aviation industry partners and the Heroes MAKE America initiative to better match current workforce needs.

Partnerships Strengthen the Pipeline What differentiates FTCC’s A&P course is the strength of its partnerships.

Through Heroes MAKE America, FTCC connects directly with soldiers transitioning out of Fort Bragg who already have aviation experience. KPR Aviation provides aircraft components, equipment, and instructors certified to train students in specialized maintenance procedures.

“These partnerships are the backbone of the program,” Mohamed said. “Heroes MAKE America helps recruit. KPR Aviation provides the environment and expertise. And we provide the structure, the credentialing pathway, and the connection to employers.”

18 | JANUARY 2026

Hiring interest is strong: One aviation employer told FTCC they were interested in hiring a current student even before he completed his certification.

“Every major airline hires A&P technicians,” Velez said. “GE hires them. Duke Energy hires them. Helicopter maintenance companies hire them. Contractors that support Fort Bragg are always looking. This is truly a regional—and national—pipeline.”

A Pathway to Family-Sustaining Wages The median annual wage for Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians in North Carolina is $69,320, according to nccareers.org.

Marsh noted that starting wages are typically lower than the median and shared their own projected earlycareer estimate of $46,000 to $58,000, based on Lightcast, a labor-market analytics platform used by colleges for regional workforce planning and grant development.

For transitioning service members, this can mean a stable first step into civilian life and access to higherpaying, long-term career paths in aviation maintenance.

Preparing for a Future That’s Already Here The revamped A&P course offers a preview of the college’s broader vision—fast, focused programs aligned directly with workforce needs.

“This program is only the beginning,” Mohamed said. “If industry demand continues rising, we’ll keep expanding our offerings. We are driven by what employers need— and right now, aviation maintenance is one of the biggest needs in the region.”

For students eager to begin the new year with meaningful momentum, FTCC’s A&P course offers one of the most direct paths into a high-demand, high-growth career.

“It’s fast. It’s focused. And it gets people into highdemand jobs,” Velez said. “That’s exactly what continuing education should do.”

FTCC’s spring 2026 term spans from January 1 to May 15, with classes starting on January 12. The registration window is open until the first day of class—though college officials do not recommend waiting until then to register.

All required documents must be submitted to secure seats in courses.

For registration assistance, FTCC directs learners to Transition Tech Recruiter Pendy Eldridge at eldridgp@ faytechcc.edu.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Education reporter Dasia Williams can be reached at dwilliams@cityviewnc.com.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 19

The Cumberland County Association for Indian People (CCAIP) community center.

CULTURE

Community and Revitalization The Cumberland County Association for Indian People has a new director and a newly renovated community center.

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BY TREY NEMEC | PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY WOOTEN

The Cumberland County Association for Indian People has worked for decades to educate, connect, and support local Indigenous residents.

Now, the group has a newly renovated community center on its campus east of downtown Fayetteville.

Harrison Jones, the 25-year-old who took the helm of the Cumberland County Association for Indian People in April 2025, says he wants to focus on cultural enrichment, community outreach, and intergenerational learning—and the revitalization of the group’s campus, including the historic Les Maxwell Indian School.

Jones is a member of the Coharie Tribe, which has its headquarters in Clinton. He said the Cumberland County Association for Indian People hopes to create a network of wrap-around services, guiding residents toward behavioral health resources and affordable housing programs. It also aims to promote programs for elders and

20 | JANUARY 2026

support students with after-school tutoring.

“I want this to be a welcoming place,” Jones told CityView on a warm afternoon in late September, motioning his hands as he spoke inside the community center, which has new floors and fresh paint. “I want people to be here.”

Founded as a social organization in the early 1950s, the Cumberland County Association for Indian People was the first of four American Indian Urban Organizations in the state, according to the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. It became a nonprofit in the 1970s.

Urban organizations offer social, health, and cultural services to all Indigenous people, regardless of tribal affiliation.

The Cumberland County association’s 12-acre property includes the community center, powwow grounds, and Les Maxwell school, which opened in the 1950s to serve Native American students during segregation.

Harrison Jones, director of the Cumberland County Association for Indian People, sits inside the old Les Maxwell Indian School.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 21

The sign for the Cumberland County Association for Indian People stands outside their Downing Road community center.

A display inside CCAIP community center.

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Seniors visit the Cumberland County Association for Indian People community center on October 23, 2025.

“Their purpose is to look out for the best interest of the Native population in the communities they serve,” Greg Richardson, executive director of the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, said of the urban organizations.

The Cumberland County group already collaborates with local groups, including the Cumberland County Schools Office of Indian Education.

The office helped host an Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at the new community center on October 13, said Candice Revels, Indian education coordinator for the school district. The same night, the organizations hosted a STEM night for students, highlighting Indigenous people’s advancements in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Every organization offers a different piece to the puzzle when working to support a community and provide wraparound services, Revels said.

“I’ve got the education piece,” she said. “But anything outside of that, we want to make sure we bridge that gap.”

The Office of Indian Education supports around 1,100 Indigenous students in Cumberland County Schools, about 2.2% of nearly 50,000 total students enrolled in the county. Most students are of the Lumbee and Coharie Tribes, Revels told CityView, but schools have student

representation from all eight state-recognized tribes, and over 35 tribes across the country.

Learning from elders For Jones, the Cumberland County Association for Indian People is rooted in connection that spans generations. It’s important for younger residents to honor their elders, he said, and it’s also crucial to bring in younger generations.

Guidance from elders helped Jones envision an “intergenerational program” where people of all ages could gather, connect, and learn from each other. He said it’s like a “transfer of wealth.”

“Every door that has opened to me is because I had a conversation with an elder,” Jones said.

Around 1.5% of Cumberland County’s total population are Indigenous people, according to census data from 2020. Bordering Cumberland, Robeson County is home to the largest population of Native people in North Carolina, at about 42% of the total population. Headquartered in Pembroke, the Lumbee Tribe’s territory and service area includes portions of Cumberland County.

Richardson said it’s important to support the urban organizations that provide services and resources that can improve lives.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 23

Harrison Jones stands with CCAIP staff members Dot Stewart, Mary Brown, and Larae Russ outside the community center.

The Les Maxwell Indian School, located along Indian Drive in east Fayetteville

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“There is a community there,” he said “There’s a population of people there that have needs. There are youth there that have needs. It’s a community that needs to be supported just like any other urban community.”

In progress The Cumberland County Association for Indian People is focused on bringing the past back to life. Restoring the Les Maxwell Indian School is a high priority.

Before the school opened, Indigenous students living in Cumberland County had to travel to Sampson or Robeson counties each day to attend school, Jones said.

When local schools began to integrate and the school was shuttered, the building became a storage space for the Cumberland County school district—as did the Orange Street School, one of the first publicly funded schools for Black students in Fayetteville.

Later, the Les Maxwell school served as a daycare for children and a hub for social and cultural activities.

By the mid-2000s though, the aging building had a leaky roof. The Cumberland County Association for Indian People secured funding for repairs, but the building was condemned just weeks before work was set to begin, Jones said.

Without the school building, which Jones said served as an anchor, the association all but collapsed.

The newly redone community center now fills the gap, but Jones said it’s important to restore the school building.

But it would be an expensive and daunting task.

The school building’s remains are littered with broken glass, and grass sprouts from cracks in the tile and concrete. Sections of ceiling scatter the ground, and doors are falling from their hinges.

Jones said giving new life to the school is critical to bringing people back to the meeting place and seeing the association rise once again.

“We have to keep our community together,” Jones said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Trey Nemec is a contributing writer for CityView. He is a Fayetteville State University alumnus, and holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies.

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CITYVIEWNC.COM | 25

Ryan Shurtleff from Purdue University prepares a drone to compete in DCOMP 2025 at the Range Complex on October 9, 2025.

100 drone pilots flew at the inaugural DCOMP, a twoday drone competition hosted by the FayettevilleCumberland Economic Development Corporation.

BUSINESS

Inaugural Drone Competition

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How a new drone competition aims to lure tech and defense companies to the area.

BY MORGAN CASEY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY WOOTEN

A team of four drone pilots huddled around a card table laid out in a field at The Range Complex in Autryville, a Sampson County town located 30 minutes outside downtown Fayetteville.

“Let’s do this,” Curtis Hall, a pilot from defense and space manufacturing company T3i, said as he unfurled a map of the route the team was set to fly. “Figure we can

26 | JANUARY 2026

set one of the buildings over here as our start point.”

“There are two targets in each lane,” said Chris Spangler, a Drone Racing League world champion, as he looked across the field to see one of the other teams already beginning its run. “So there are two over there, and two others on the other side of that berm over there.”

Aaron Teran, a soldier on Fort Bragg, pilots a drone with a simulated munition during DCOMP 2025.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 27

A drone sits on the launch platform used as part of the team competition during DCOMP 2025 on October 9, 2025.

“What do you want to drop?” asked Judah Koebel, a selfrepresented pilot and soldier from Fort Bragg.

A heavy gust of wind almost blew the competition map and Hall’s laptop to the ground.

“Something stable in the wind,” said Douglas Thompson, another self-represented pilot and soldier from Fort Bragg.

Spangler, Thompson, Koebel, and Hall were among the 100 drone pilots who flew at the inaugural DCOMP, a two-day drone competition hosted by the FayettevilleCumberland Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC). Individual pilots and those representing defense companies and universities gathered on October 8 and 9 to test their skills in a series of solo and team events.

The competition aimed to build North Carolina’s drone community and foster connections between academia, the military, and industry. The FCEDC had another goal in getting defense and tech companies like T3i, Red Cat, and Strategic Logix to Fayetteville: Show them that the city is where they should expand.

“There’s all this energy that’s here and all these developments that are going on that really make this a very attractive location, we think, for innovative companies, technology companies, anybody that wants to work with the military,” said Rob Patton Jr., executive vice president of FCEDC. “This is the spot to be.”

28 | JANUARY 2026

Competing with the Research Triangle Defense and tech company representatives walked around The Range Complex on October 9, watching teams of drone pilots “bomb” cars and other targets strewn across different flying lanes with plastic grenades and mortars.

Kai Wu looked on as a team made up of Purdue University students and service members barely missed one of the cars. Wu, head of finance and strategy for the Taiwanese lithium battery company VoltaSphere Technology Inc., was one of two company representatives determining whether Fayetteville could be a new manufacturing site.

“A good point is that it seems the local government would welcome us, and it’s closer to the military, and there’s a high-quality labor force, particularly veterans from the military,” Wu said. “But, when it comes to R&D [research and development] talent, we have to think whether there’s enough.”

Greensboro is the other North Carolina site VoltaSphere is considering, Wu said. Closer to the Research Triangle, he said, the company has fewer worries about the available talent pool.

However, Patton said the talent in Cumberland County is being developed, particularly through Fayetteville Technical Community College’s Cyber Defense Education

Aaron Teran, a soldier on Fort Bragg, searches for a simulated munition after a team drops it during DCOMP 2025.

Center and Fayetteville State University’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory. FTCC’s center is recognized for its achievements by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FSU’s lab is working with the intelligence and defense communities, as well as NASA, to develop artificial intelligence algorithms and software.

Patton said Goodyear Tires and the power management company Eaton are examples of the area’s manufacturing opportunities. FCEDC is also bringing more companies to the area, including SteelFab Inc., a steel fabrication company.

By gathering industry representatives who may know Fayetteville’s military connection but not its academic institutions or manufacturing history, Patton hoped to show the city’s promise as a new hub for their companies.

“Discussions are going on here,” Patton said, gesturing toward the groups of industry and academic professionals spread across The Range Complex’s field. “This is really a low-threat environment. People could have conversations here, personal conversations, but may wind up with business or research opportunities.”

Using Fort Bragg’s proximity to Fayetteville’s advantage The Army is focusing on modernization efforts following

an April directive from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to transform “the Army now for future warfare.”

Many efforts have focused on drones, with Hegseth issuing a memorandum in July that rescinded restrictions on drone production. The Army is building an Amazon-like marketplace to get more drones into the hands of soldiers.

While soldiers are developing some new technology, many advancements are coming from juggernaut private sector defense companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies Corporation. Smaller organizations like Cyberlux and others that gathered at DCOMP are also contributing to advancements in warfare tech.

Patton knows that Fayetteville’s largest draw for companies developing drones and other new military tech is its proximity to Fort Bragg. That’s why the FCEDC’s new defense innovation center will include a classified meeting space and a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) for companies to use for meetings with military leadership.

The soon-to-be-built spaces address two issues, according to Dean Hoffman, a retired Army colonel whose company is helping build the center: Fort Bragg leadership’s lack of time to travel to the companies, and companies’ struggles getting cleared to bring their innovations on post.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 29

The competition aimed to build North Carolina’s drone community and foster connections between academia, the military, and industry.

The FCEDC had another goal in getting defense and tech companies like T3i, Red Cat, and Strategic Logix to Fayetteville: Show them that the city is where they should expand.

Purdue University students Ryan Shurtleff and Aiden Bilger launch a drone with a glider attached during DCOMP 2025.

30 30 | | JANUARY JANUARY2026 2026

Rob Patton, FCEDC executive vice president, kneels next to a Purdue University drone during DCOMP 2025.

“Our intent with this innovation center is to create a place where industry can come demonstrate their capabilities, because it’s very hard to get on Fort Bragg with a weapon,” said Hoffman, co-founder and president of Accel Innovation Corporation. “You’re not pulling up in a gate with a trailer full of weapons and ammo and demonstrating their use.”

To Hoffman, there can be a disconnect between engineers who’ve never served in the military and the needs of a soldier, sailor, or Marine. He hopes the FCEDC’s center will facilitate communication between companies and military leadership, leading to more streamlined technological development.

“The users, they got a job to do. They can’t go to California or Texas, where industry is, and tell them their problems,” Hoffman said. “But if you can bring industry to the user, and they can tell them, and that’s a win. Now industry has something that they know is a problem that they can work on.”

It’s why Andrew Valkenburg views Fayetteville as a prime location for the development of Strategic Logix’s customizable drone. Valkenburg, chief operating officer for Strategic Logix, said one of the company’s prime customers is Fort Bragg, and having more opportunities like DCOMP and the innovation center to show off and get

feedback on their drones is crucial.

“There are some folks here that are looking to move their manufacturing in this area, and that’s why they’re here today,” Valkenburg said as the buzzing sound from drones filled the air. “They’re trying to understand if it’s a good area for them, and, almost unanimously, you’re gonna hear, ‘Yes, it’s a good area.’”

While not official, FCEDC hopes to hold DCOMP semi-annually. If all goes according to plan, the next competition will be sometime in April, Patton said, and hopefully will continue to show Fayetteville’s promise as a defense and tech industry hub.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Border Belt Independent Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in the Border Belt and can be supported through a donation to the Border Belt Reporting Center, Inc.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 31

A rendering of an aerial view of the Fayetteville’s Black Voices Museum showing how the repeated lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing" covering the exterior of the building would look was presented on September 30, 2025.

CULTURE

Renderings Unveiled The 83,000-square-foot Black Voices Museum, to be located at 122 Person St., used the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as inspiration for its design.

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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORGAN CASEY

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black National Anthem, was the main inspiration for the design of Fayetteville’s Black Voices Museum.

The hymn’s lyrics cover the exterior of what will be the museum’s modern four-story building. Their meaning—a solemn yet hopeful appeal to liberty—guided what the museum will offer, according to Roger Smith, principal and design director with the museum’s contracted architecture

32 | JANUARY 2026

firm. Smith presented the renderings during a public information session on September 30 at Segra Stadium.

“We thought, ‘What if the museum was conceived as a series of galleries, each lifting the unique voices of African Americans higher and higher as you move through the space?” Smith said to the dozen residents in attendance.

“What if we could create a space that gave you that kind of feeling and actually contributed to that lifting up of voices?”

First conceptualized by Fayetteville native Joel Fleishman around 2020, the Black Voices Museum and Centers for Equity at 122 Person St. is dedicated to honoring and preserving the contributions of local Black residents, according to the museum’s website. The 83,000-square-foot museum will feature two exhibition halls and a theater, an economic development hub, and a center dedicated to advancing equity in health care, education and environmental issues, according to the renderings presented by the Gensler architecture firm.

The design process was funded using $900,000 from the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners and the Fayetteville City Council.

“It needed to be audacious,” Bill Cassell, Black Voices Museum project coordinator, said of the design.

Cassell was an original partner on the museum project and took up its mantle after Fleishman died last year.

“It needed to be a piece of the puzzle that was equivalent to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to Charleston, to Montgomery, to the best in class, a must-see stop on Civil Rights tours.”

Galleries distributed across the museum’s two exhibition floors will be organized in a way that shows how Black voices built off one another throughout history, Smith said, starting with activists and civic leaders, then transitioning to scholars and poets, and ending with artists and musicians.

What and who exactly will be featured in those galleries is still to be determined, with plans for a museum master plan and exhibition design to begin in the next development phase.

The proposed design was based on about 10 months of community feedback led by Dauv Evans, the museum’s community outreach coordinator. The outreach included nine individual interviews with community leaders, three public workshops attended by 47 people and 51 responses to an online survey.

an feel

COMING IN FEBRUARY

The LOVE Issue CITYVIEWNC.COM | 33

A rendering of the interior ofthe museum, which is still in the early phases of development, was presented to residents.

Museum project leadership team members also took inspiration from the design and offerings of cultural and history museums across the country—including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte and the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.

The museum’s economic development hub and equityadvancing center were partially modeled after Impact Hub Baltimore, a coworking and skills-sharing space in Maryland. The economic development hub, called the Empowerment Hub, will connect Fayetteville residents with vocational training and small business development courses to create “pathways to education, employment and long-term opportunity,” according to the museum’s presentation.

The equity-advancing center, named the Centers for Social Equity, aims to connect residents with researchers and advocates to influence local, state and federal policy.

“This is actually a service and a hub to the community that really will serve as a beacon,” Reginald Truxon, an architect at Gensler, said. “It will serve as an icon and serve as support, not just a look-see place.”

To get the Black Voices Museum off the ground, project leadership budgeted start-up costs, which include personnel, temporary office and rent to store its collections, at $10.2 million. Between $175 and $215 million is needed to execute the museum’s design, assuming 34 | JANUARY 2026

construction begins sometime between January and March of 2029 and finishes between July and September of 2031.

The museum’s annual operational costs are estimated at over $3.6 million. Those costs are offset by an expected almost $2.2 million in revenue from admission and membership fees, retail sales and event space rentals.

The $1.45 million revenue deficit, accounting for 40% of operational costs, would need to be made up through annual fundraising and grants. This amount is in line with comparable museums, according to Truxon.

Cassell said the details are still highly conceptual, and the museum’s opening will heavily depend on community support and private donations.

“We’re really still very early,” Truxon said. “There’s still a lot to go.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Border Belt Independent Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in the Border Belt and can be supported through a donation to the Border Belt Reporting Center, Inc.

OYE, ¿CÓMO VA?

Because as long as we keep dreaming together, the Magi will always find their way to us.

Keeping the Epiphany Traditions Alive

BY CLAUDIA ZAMORA

When I was a child, we’d leave grass in a cardboard box and water in a plastic cup. We did it with wonder, not fully understanding who these Magi were or why they traveled on camels.

But we believed, and that was enough. On the morning of January 6, there would be crumbs on the floor, imaginary footprints, and a small gift that seemed to whisper, “Someone thought of you last night.”

Today, as I look at our Latino communities here in North Carolina, I reflect on what it means to keep this tradition alive far from home. What it means for families to bake a king cake—or rosca de Reyes—(a crown-shaped sweet bread eaten on January 6), tell the story of Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, and assure their children: Yes, magic still exists.

The Epiphany—or Día de Reyes—isn’t just an old custom.

It’s a way to resist forgetting. It’s saying: “Our stories matter, too.” It’s honoring faith, childhood, and hope.

And more than the gifts, what remains is the gesture: a letter written in crayon, the excitement of leaving something for others (the camels, the Magi, the family ... ), the joy of waking up knowing the world was magical, if only for a moment.

In these fast, skeptical, digital times, Día de Reyes brings us back to the human. It invites us to pause. To return to ritual. To tell stories face to face. To bake bread in community. To protect wonder without shame.

And it doesn’t matter if we’re grown. We all need to feel remembered. To know that some gifts can’t be bought.

That traditions, when shared with love, become eternal.

PHOTO BY GABRIELL A CL ARE MARINO ON UNSPL ASH

This January 6, let’s leave grass, water, and a note. Even if symbolic. Even if it’s just a reason to gather, laugh about the year behind, and embrace what’s ahead.

Because as long as we keep dreaming together, the Magi will always find their way to us.

And if you wish to celebrate this spirit in community, with music, joy, and the warmth of familiar traditions, the FLD Latin Social: Día de Reyes Edition in Fayetteville offers that chance. A night where our stories dance, where heritage becomes heartbeat, and where, just like in childhood, we remember that magic is real when we create it together.

Claudia Zamora is an Argentinian author, mental health and wellness coach, and passionate community advocate. Since 2011, she has made Fayetteville, North Carolina, her home, uplifting the Hispanic community.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 35

GOOD READS

Journal Your Journey!

BY DIANE PARFITT

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People write journals for many reasons. Remember when many young teenage girls kept a diary and wrote an entry every day about something going on in their lives? It had a little lock and key so you could write your most secret thoughts. After you grew up, you could look back and see what you were doing each year—that is if you stuck with the “Dear Diary” that long!

During an incredibly difficult time in her life, Anne Frank turned to journaling to channel her thoughts and comfort herself as she and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. She once said, “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” As she wrote, her circumstances didn’t change, but her outlook on life did.

Many of us use a journal simply to capture memories for our children or grandchildren. We may keep a journal to capture the memories of a trip that was special to us. Some authors have turned their journals into books, and some have even become bestsellers.

Journaling has become more popular of late. Many people come into the store looking for a simple journal with lined sheets. Now, however, there are “how-to” books about journaling, and interactive journals with suggestions and illustrations to prompt your journey and guide you along The following are some good examples, and after you have pondered the various ways you can keep a journal, you might just find yourself starting one for your legacy or for that book you always wanted to write.

1. Overcoming: A Workbook by Michelle Obama Former First Lady Michelle Obama has written several books, and all have been bestsellers. Now she has published a workbook based on her book The Light We Carry. It features tools for handling life’s challenges in the face of uncertainty and self-doubt. With her signature warmth and kindness, she draws from her own experiences to offer readers the tools and principles to overcome the many challenges they may face.

2. Start Where You Are: A Journal for SelfExploration by Meera Lee Patel This interactive journal helps us learn more about ourselves and our creativity. We are guided through the chaos and confusion of everyday life by learning that the more we know ourselves and our dreams, the better able we are to understand the world around us and achieve these dreams.

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4. Get Untamed: The Journal (How to Quit Pleasing and Start Living) by Glennon Doyle Award-winning author Glennon Doyle—described as the “patron saint of female empowerment” by People Magazine—brings the lessons she learned and shared in her memoir Untamed to this journal to help other women stop trying to please others and begin living their own lives. This interactive guide for women will show them ways to do that. It includes thought-provoking exercises and illustrations with quotes from Untamed, and meditative coloring pages.

5. Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith There are several editions of this journal, for teens and kids, and all the rest of us. Many of us have started a journal and abandoned it, afraid of making mistakes or saying the wrong thing. But that won’t happen with this journal—in fact, it encourages you to make mistakes!

Author and artist Keri Smith prompts us throughout this

journal to paint on the pages, add photos, color outside the lines—to do many of those things we were told not to do in school. This is a way to help us experience the truly creative process and express ourselves without fear.

6. Question a Day Journal for Kids: 365 Days to Capture Memories and Express Yourself

by MaryAnne Kochenderfer, Ph.D. This journal is wonderful for parents and children to work on together or even for kids to do by themselves.

There are amazing prompts for children to ask themselves about their favorite music, or their superpowers, and even questions about things that make them nervous. They can answer a question each day for a year and then look back on it at the end of the year. Or even get into the habit of keeping a journal every year. This journal would make a great Christmas or birthday gift for kids to start them on their own journaling.

If you have thought about writing a journal but just couldn’t get started, one of these books might be just the thing to give you the nudge to just do it! And if your journal turns into that book you have always wanted to write, let me know, and we can schedule a book event!

Diane Parfitt owns City Center Gallery & Books in downtown Fayetteville. She can be reached at citycentergallerybooks@gmail.com.

SEE YOURSELF IN CITYVIEW! Make your 2026 advertising plans now.

CityView will be offering these valuable extras in the upcoming months: The 2026 Medical Directory will be distributed in January.

Medical & Dental Directory 2025

Looking Ahead in Healthcare

Your Trusted Guide to Quality Care Brought to you by

Elizabeth Sawyer, MD,

Cape Fear Valley General Surgery – Village Surgical

coming soon!

The 2026-2027 Public, Private and Charter School Directory will be inserted in the February issue of CityView.

Find providers like Dr. Sawyer inside.

capefearvalley.com

2025—2026

SC HO OL DI RECTOR Y

For advertising information call 910-423-6500 or email ddenham@cityviewnc.com.

County Schools

Don’t miss your chance to lock in next year’s ads at this year’s rates!

YOUR GUIDE TO FINDI NG THE BEST EDUC ATION FOR YOUR CHILD IN CUMB ERLAN D COUN TY BROUGHT TO YOU

Photos courtesy of Cumberland

3. A Year of Us: A Couple’s Journal: One Question a Day to Spark Fun and Meaningful Conversations by Alicia Muñoz Most journals are for individuals to do alone, but this is one for couples to do together. For just a few minutes a day, you and your partner can create your own journal and strengthen your bond as a couple. You will be guided with questions and prompts that are both lighthearted and heartfelt. This journal is perfect for you and your partner or as a special gift for a couple you know.

BY

CityView

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 37

The annual MLK Parade in downtown Fayetteville on January 19, 2019. Photo

by Matthew Wonderly

January 24 FSU Women’s Basketball vs.

Winston-Salem State University Fayetteville State University 1200 Murchison Road fsubroncos.com

January 25

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THE TO-DO LIST Here are just some of the things happening in and around Fayetteville this month. Scan the code with your phone for more events, additional information, and to post your event on our website. Events are subject to change. Check before attending.

January 5

January 17

Beginners Salsa and Bachata Dance Classes Fayetteville Latin Dance 809 Hope Mills Road chamber.faybiz.com

The Road to America 250 Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra St. John’s Episcopal Church 302 Green St. fayettevillesymphony.org

January 8

January 17

Yoga at the Garden Cape Fear Botanical Garden 536 N. Eastern Blvd. capefearbg.org

January 10 Imagination Library Story Time Bordeaux Community Library 3711 Village Drive cumberland.librarycalendar.com

January 10 Fayetteville Marksmen vs.

Knoxville Ice Bears: Mighty Ducks Night Crown Coliseum Crown Complex 1960 Coliseum Drive marksmenhockey.com 38 | JANUARY 2026

32nd Annual MLK Parade Downtown Fayetteville mlkmemorialpark.org

January 20 Methodist Women’s Basketball vs. Meredith Riddle Center Methodist University 5400 Ramsey St. methodist.edu

January 23 Opening Reception: Kindred Visions The Arts Center 301 Hay St. wearethearts.com

Fayetteville Marksmen vs. Macon Mayhem: Salute to Service Crown Coliseum Crown Complex 1960 Coliseum Drive marksmenhockey.com

January 29 General Job Fair Career Development Center Fayetteville Technical Community College 2220 Hull Road faytechcc.edu

January 29–February 22 High School Musical Cape Fear Regional Theatre 1707 Owen Drive cfrt.org

January 30–February 1 Fayetteville Fishing Expo Crown Expo Crown Complex 1960 Coliseum Drive crowncomplexnc.com

January 30–February 15 The Revolutionists The Gilbert Theatre 116 Green St. gilberttheater.com

January 31 Methodist Men’s Basketball vs.

Southern Virginia Riddle Center Methodist University 5400 Ramsey St. methodist.edu

Cape Fear Botanical Garden

Where Nature Sets the Scene Just bring your guests.

The Garden transforms every event into something extraordinary.

From innmate gatherings to large-scale occasions, our indoor & outdoor spaces provide a welcoming backdrop for meaningful moments.

Indoor and outdoor spaces available Reserve your date today!

Follow us on:

536 N. Eastern Boulevard - Fayetteville, NC 28301 Call or text: 910-486-0221 capefearbg.org

CITYVIEWNC.COM || 39 39 CITYVIEWNC.COM

Santa Claus brings the parade to a close aboard an antique fire truck.

Douglas Byrd High School’s Marching Band fills Hay Street in front of the Market House.

SEEN @ THE SCENE Rotary Christmas Parade The Fayetteville Rotary Christmas Parade, organized by the Rotary Club of Fayetteville since 1999, was held on December 13 in downtown Fayetteville.

Photography by James Throssel Want CityView at your event for Seen @ the Scene?

Email us at cmalson@cityviewnc.com.

Little Miss Princess of Cumberland County 2025, Autumn Willis, waves to the crowd.

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The Grinch rides through Hay Street during the parade.

Jack Britt High School Marching Band moves down Hay Street.

Candy canes were a popular handout during the parade.

A South View High School Marching Tigers band member performs.

A Grinch rides atop a Jeep with a furry friend .

Mickey Mouse rides festively in the back of a pickup truck.

DreamVille Dance Company took over the street during the parade.

CITYVIEWNC.COM | 41

Feeling under the weather this winter?

We’re here to help!

You don’t have to be a Cape Fear Valley Health patient to visit us—we’re open to everyone. From flu shots to prescription medications and more, stop by today and start feeling better fast.

Now 5 Convenient Locations!

CENTER PHARMACY 101 Robeson Street, Fayetteville Located in Medical Arts Center

HOKE PHARMACY 300 Medical Pavilion Drive, Raeford Located in Health Pavilion Hoke

new location

LILLINGTON PHARMACY 225 Brightwater Drive, Lillington Located in Health Pavilion Lillington

PAVILION PHARMACY 6387 Ramsey Street, Fayetteville Located in Health Pavilion North

VALLEY PHARMACY 1638 Owen Drive, Fayetteville Located in Cape Fear Valley Medical Center

Scan to find a pharmacy near you: