INSIDE... Obituaries ................. 5 Police Report ............ 7 School News ............ 7 Classified Ads ........... 7 Sports ..................... 8
Serving Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cramerton and McAdenville
Volume 79 • Issue 43 • Wednesday, October 22, 2014
75¢
75th Anniversary celebration held
Pharr Yarns marks seventy-five years in McAdenville, NC By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Saturday saw the town of McAdenville buzzing with excitement over the 75th anniversary celebration of the founding of Pharr Yarns. The day was filled with music, food, and fun. Hundreds of employees past and present filed through the YMCA where they viewed vintage photos of the Pharr Yarns factories and met friends and folks like the Carstarphen family. Later in the evening fireworks were touched off. Employee drawings saw cash, beach trips, and other prizes given out. Pharr Yarns dates to 1939 when it was established by Robert J. Stowe Sr., Daniel J. Stowe, and William J. Pharr. Today the firm is privately owned by the Pharr-Carstarphen family. In its McAdenville and corporate offices it employs nearly 1,000 workers. Since 1956, Pharr Yarns has been the sponsor of Christmas Town USA in McAdenville. The annual Yuletide light extravaganza draws over 600,000 visitors.
Past and present Pharr Yarns workers and their families mingled in the McAdenville YMCA at the company’s 75th anniversary event on Saturday. Photo by Alan Hodge
School lunchrooms offer healthy, tasty food choices By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Stuart Cramer High students Kassady Grant, Brandon Henderson, Ja’Lexis Doster, and Macy Penley were lined up and paying cafeteria worker Myra Safrit for their lunch last week. The school has the newest lunchroom of any in the county. Photo by Alan Hodge
Mt. Holly groups receive grants from Community Foundation of Gaston County By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Last week’s meeting of the Mount Holly city council saw a heap of grant monies given out to local groups by the Community Foundation of Gaston County (CFGC). The checks were presented by former Gaston Schools superintendent and current Mount Holly Community Impact Fund chair Reeves McGlohon and CFGC executive director Ernest Sumner. The Mount Holly Community Development Foundation was given a $7,500 grant. The funds will be used to initiate a grant program for Historic Downtown Signage See COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, page 2
Last week was National School Lunch Week but every day is a good day to have lunch in a Gaston County school and especially at the new, state of the art cafeteria at Stuart Cramer High. Cramer High cafeteria manager Ann Dameron summed up the facility. “It’s bright, clean, sparkly and the kids really appreciate it,” she said. Aesthetics play an important part in the Stuart Cramer dining experience. Tables are curved and there are also booths available. There are several flat screen TVs hanging from the ceiling that play news and school announcements. The idea is to get away from an institutional ambience. “The lunchroom has a cafe-type feel,” said GCS public information chief Todd Hagans. “Eating in the school cafeteria is not just for nutrition, there’s also a social interaction aspect as well.” Efficiency is a keyword at the Stuart Cramer cafeteria. Doors near the lines where food is offered lead to hot and cold storage space, meaning items can be replenished quickly as they run low. Several lines send students into the food selection area known as See SCHOOL LUNCH, page 2
Shakespeare coming to Mount Holly? By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Plans are in the works that could one day lead to performances of Shakespeare at an outdoor setting in Mount Holly. Those same plans could also form the basis for the world premiere of a play based on a local subject such as Mount Holly history. At last week’s Mount Holly city council meeting, a Community Foundation Impact Grant in the amount of “All the world’s a stage, and all the men $3,720 was given to the Mount Holly Community Development Foundation to fund a feasibility study on having and women merely players. They have an outdoor theater built somewhere in town. Jefferson their exits and their entrances; And one Fortner, a teacher at Gaston College, accepted the check from Community Foundation representatives Reeves man in his time plays many parts” McGlohon and Ernest Sumner. - (As You Like It - Act II, Scene VII) “The money will go to pay the Institute of Outdoor Theatre to do the study,” Fortner said. “Representatives will be here in November for a couple of days to see if it’s a good idea and to gauge public opinion for such a project.” Based in Greenville, NC at East Carolina University, the institute was founded in 1963 to help outdoor drama thrive. Fortner says one of the visitors will be the institute’s director, Michael Hardy. Prior to serving as director, Hardy was general manager of The Lost Colony in Roanoke Island, and served in executive See SHAKESPEARE, page 2
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