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The Banner News / banner-news.com
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Belmont Main Street Champions honored Two Belmont businessmen were recently selected as Main Street Champions. The duo are Vince Hill of Caravan Coffee and Nationwide Insurance agent Neil Brock. North Carolina's Main Street program Champions were recognized for their commitment to downtown improvements and strong communities during an awards breakfast in Goldsboro on March 18. Thirty-seven individuals receive honors for their contributions in 2015. This year’s group of Main Street Champions brings the total number to 603 since Champions were first named in 1980 as part of N.C. Main Street’s 20thanniversary celebration. Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla, III attended the Breakfast with Main Street Champions Ceremony at Goldsboro’s Paramount Theatre to personally thank each recipient. “Main Street Champions recognize the possibilities in their downtowns and strive to make those possibilities a reality,” said Commerce Secretary Skvarla. “N.C. Main Street Champions represent some of our communities most valued leaders.” “This year’s Champions represent Main Street board members and volunteers, nonprofit leaders, downtown developers and small business owners, elected officials, city employees, and boy scouts,” said Liz Parham, director of the N.C. Main Street & Rural Planning Center. 'These
individuals give 110% to their community and then ask; what’s next.” “Vince Hill and Neil Brock, local business owners and members of the Belmont Merchant Association, are Main Street leaders through their vision and hard work in establishing Belmont’s Friday Night Live concert series,” said Belmont's downtown director Shelley DeHart. “Belmont’s renowned concert series was established in 2007 under their leadership in the Belmont Merchant Association. This series has grown from a three concert series on a side street with 1500 annual attendees, into a nine concert series on Main Street drawing upwards of 30,000 annual attendees. Vince Hill and Neil Brock dedicated selfless hours to the success of the concert having planned, organized, and worked each and every concert for the first 8-years. This concert series has brought positive attention and economic development to our main street and has been nominated multiple times for the “Best Concert Series” at the Carolina Beach Music Award. Vince Hill and Neil Brock are our Main Street Champions. The success of the city’s Main Street program is due to the efforts of our local champions which come in the form of volunteers, local business owners, and community Vince Hill (left) and Neil Brock were named Main Street Champions by the state for their work with the Friday Night Live concert series. See MAIN STREET CHAMPIONS page 2 Photo by Alex Robinson
Doing it with dowsing rods Belmont Sports Hall of By Alan Hodge Eerie, awesome, intriguing. Those terms easily apply to the age-old practice of finding unmarked graves using dowsing rods. Now, a local historian, Leigh Ford, is using that curious technique to find long forgotten graves in the old Smith Cemetery on Belwood Dr. off South Point Rd. The cemetery dates back to 1765 and is believed to be the oldest in Gaston County. There are around 200 known graves, but an unknown number of unmarked ones. In 2009, Ford and a group of volunteers began fixing broken headstones and other tasks in an effort to bring back some of the graveyard's glory and dignity. Last year, Ford heard about the technique of dowsing- a practice some people declare a sure fire way of finding graves, and what others call an old wive's tale. Wanting to give it a go, he made a pair of rods from the heavy wire frame off a political campaign sign. “The first time I saw it work I was a believer,” he said. The principal of dowsing is as follows: Get a piece of heavy wire about a foot long and bend down the end just enough to fit in your hands like a pistol grip. Hold a rod in each hand loosely with the long part of the rod parrallel to the ground. Walk across the spot where you think a grave might be and the rods will cross each other. “I heard that when the minerals leave a body that's been buried a long time it creates a magnetic field,” Ford said. Not only can dowsing supposedly tell where a Leigh Ford demonstrates how to hold dowsing rods when searching for unmarked graves. Photo by Alan Hodge
See DOWSING RODS page 2
Fame 29th Annual Banquet & Induction Ceremony By Bobby Brown The Belmont Sports Hall of Fame will hold its 29th banquet at 7:00 pm Tuesday, April 26, 2016 at the Park Street Methodist Church Family Life Center in Belmont, NC. Featured guest speaker will be NFL Hall of Fame inductee, Joe Delamielleure. Joe was All-American at Michigan State, played in 185 consecutive NFL games and was named to six pro bowls plus many more awards. The honored inductees for this 29th Sports Hall Banquet will be Ted Gaston, Carroll Trull and Raymond Garrison. Ted Gaston was a triple sport standout at Belmont High School in football, basketball and baseball in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was a two-sport participant at Belmont Abbey College and continued his athletic career by became an outstanding tournament-winning golfer in his after-college years and into later life. Carroll Trull, overcoming broken bones in his first two seasons, be-
came a two-sport star player in both football and basketball for Belmont High School. There he was chosen an All- Conference football player and an All-State basketball player. In 1954-55 he lead his basketball team with a 16+ scoring average and set a single game scoring record of 30 points. Carroll attended Wingate College played left end and where he continued his outstanding play in football along with teammates like the Gaston Hall of Fame coach, Jerry Carpenter of Gastonia. Raymond Garrison was a Belmont High School award-winning athlete in football and basketball in the early 1960s. He played on Belmont’s basketball team that touted a 20 game winning season, set a new single game scoring record of 45 points and set a new season scoring record with 469 points. He played at Davidson College for Lefty Driesell. He also represented his college in diving and golf. See SPORTS HALL page 2