Mary Grace Reynolds using an ancient Japanese stab technique to bind a book.
The dog days of summer have descended upon us but that does not mean everyone is staying indoors standing on the air conditioning vent. There is lots to report from new twin grandbabies to a new employee at our public library. The “Bikini Babes” are creating quite a stir at the Town Hall and Swimming H
ole but this week’s Around Davidson edition is of the calmer variety with additional news from a hiking holiday, trips to Honduras and Germany, an art camp, a 90th Birthday Bash for a well-known neighbor and information on the house at 1022 Concord Road going on the auction block.
Despite the heat and infrequent rain, gardens in town
are producing a wonderful crop of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and beans. The farmer’s market is thriving with lots of vegetables and meat products. Won’t be long before neighborhood pumpkin patches are full of large orange orbs perfect for carving. DavidsonNews.net caught sight of a pumpkin vine heading skyward on a woven wire fence with young pumpkins growing four feet off the ground. (We will keep you posted on whether gravity or the strength of the vine wins out!)
Cradle Roll x Two
Congratulations to Amy Diamond and Robert Whitton who are grandparents of two beautiful twin boys who were born on July 8 to delighted parents, Josh Gross and Sarah Whitton. Nicholas Whitton Gross (called Cole) weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and twin brother, Aidan Whitton Gross weighed 5 lbs 10 oz.
Aidan and Cole Whitton Gross held by Grandma Amy Diamond.
This busy family lives in Boston where Sarah is on the psychology faculty at Boston University and Josh is a biology researcher at Harvard University. Grandpa Robert visited the new arrivals for a weekend last month. Grandma Amy spent two weeks helping with the twins. We send best wishes to all the family – and hope that mom and dad get some rest once in a while!
Catching up with the rest of the Diamond/Whitton family, Robert reports that the twins’ cousins, Max (9) and Zander (7) Vierling are thriving in Hickory where their parents, Allison Whitton and Brian Vierling are both medical doctors. Max and Zander are thrilled to know their new cousins are boys!
Closer to the home front, Katherine Whitton is home after 2 1/2 years with the Peace Corps in Micronesia on the island of Kosrae and is busy with prerequisite courses at UNCC and CPCC before entering nursing school. Amanda Whitton will take the fall semester of her junior year at Davidson in Scotland and leaves for the British Isles early in September. She has worked as the Davidson Community Players Box Office Manager this summer.
Michael Whitton is living in Asheville and working at the “Y” there in youth activities. He is also pursuing an interesting historical research project about America’s reaction to dissidents perceived as dangerous to our security.
A New Helping Hand at the Library
After looking over many applications and interviewing interested applicants, the Davidson Public Library has hired a new young lady to fill the spot of the departing Ken Buddington.
Karyn Jester is the newest staff member at the Davidson Public Library.
Karyn Jester comes to us from previous employment with Borders Books at Northlake Mall. She grew up in South Charlotte, attended Providence Day School and graduated from UNCC with a degree in English. No stranger to Davidson, she worked the summers of 2005 and 2006 with Sterling Martin at the Davidson College Lake Campus helping as lifeguard and support staff for the Summer Camp Programs.
Her first day greeting patrons at our library was July 14. Karyn loves to read and is currently pursuing a Technology and Professional Communication Certificate through UNC-Chapel Hill. She lives in North Charlotte and her family continues to reside in South Charlotte. Interesting to note that her sister is married to a Norwegian and lives in Oslo. Karyn has visited there a number of times and even worked for a three month period as an Au-Pair. We are glad to have you in our midst, Karyn, and welcome you to our Davidson Library.
Art Camp with an Australian Curriculum
Hats off to Jenn Faulkenberry and Kristin Skidmore-Ratnofsky who have conducted two wonderful weeks of Art Camp recently using the facilities at St. Alban’s church.
Angus Ewington worked on a relief print of an animal's skeletal system.
With morning and afternoon sessions, these energetic young ladies (Jenn is an Art teacher at Davidson Elementary during the school year) have created an Australian curriculum to teach the children about Aboriginal Life and Art through integrated art projects. The “campers” cast “Coolamons” from plaster, bound books using an ancient technique, created animal skeletal system relief prints and used symbols and dot painting to create a picture frame teaching about the Aboriginal Dreamtime.
Due to the success of these two weeks, Kristin and Jenn are planning a “Green Camp” this fall which will encourage the children to recycle, reuse and give back to the community through eco-friendly art projects. For more information, go to www.davidsonartcamp.com.
Belle Banks is Another Year Young
August 1 was a wonderful day for Belle Banks as her odometer rolled over a BIG one and her birthday cake sported 90 candles!
Belle Banks with her family. Front row (l-r): daughter Chuck Basinger, Belle Banks, son Torrance Banks. Back Row (l-r): grandson John, son-in-law Dale and grandson Robert Basinger, along with Dylan, Sarah and Caitlin Banks.
But Sunday, August 3, was an even bigger day for Belle as her family invited dozens of friends and neighbors to drop by for even more birthday cake and conversation. As most know, Belle lives in a wonderful historic home called Cedar Grove in Huntersville which keeps its historic roots intact by never adding air conditioning. Last Sunday afternoon was blistering hot but with fans moving the air inside and the Huntersville Brass moving the “air” outside on the front porch, no one minded a bit. Enjoying every minute of the festivities, Belle greeted each person with a hug and encouraged everyone to have a piece of birthday cake and punch. It was a grand occasion to honor someone who has been so much a part of North Mecklenburg.
Belle was born Margaret Belle Pierce on August 1, 1918, in Coatesville, PA. She met and married the late Dick (Richard Torrance) Banks in 1943 moving to the family home place, “Cedar Grove,” in Huntersville, NC. Although the plantation house, located on a dirt road and built in 1831, was majestic and imposing, there was no inside bathroom, no heating and open air throughout due to 100 missing window panes. Quite a change for a city girl like Belle but she rolled up her sleeves and together with Dick, transformed the house into the home we know today on Gilead Road and raised two children in it – a daughter, Margaret “Chuck” Basinger of Salisbury, and a son, Torrance Banks of Huntersville.
Belle’s friends extend from her work with the North Mecklenburg Chorus, scouts, sports, storytelling, PTA, Quarterly Book Reviews, library work, substitute teaching, writing for The Mecklenburg Gazette and later the Lake Norman Times, to name but a few. Happy Birthday, Belle! And congratulations on being another year young!
Helping Hands in Honduras
Cindy Reid and her daughter, Annie, spent a week in Honduras earlier this summer working with a group from Clemson, S.C., to build a new home for a widow with eight children.
Cindy Reid (l) and her daughter, Annie, learned to constuct a block wall during their week in Honduras.
Flying into San Pedro Sula, the mission group connected with the “Salt and Light Ministry” of Honduras.
Following a two-hour bus ride, Cindy and Annie arrived at their construction site. They were part of a team which built the walls of a three bedroom concrete block house during their stay from June 29 until July 6. A group of masons came in later to complete the roof. As Cindy wrote, she had “never been so hot, dirty or tired” but claimed it was the best vacation she had ever had and hopes to return next summer, hopefully with friends she can convince to join her. Annie has studied Spanish in school and spoke enough to communicate with the children she encountered. It was quite a trip and quite an experience for both.
Cindy has been our town’s Affordable Housing Coordinator for the past year so we will be hearing reports often from her on the status of efforts to make more affordable homes available in Davidson.
Singing in Leipzig
Choir members from the Davidson College Presbyterian Church have returned from a wonderful trip to Leipzig, Germany, where they participated in the first Leipzig International Choral Festival. The group of 29 included Elisabeth Davis, Jean Johnston, Carol Cook, Leslie Kizzia, Christina Tarry, Bob and Susan Manning, Julius and Ann Melton, Ken and Helen Coley, Peter Browne and Linda Gary, Ron and Brenda Sewell, Donna and Bill Hatfield, Marilyn England, Jane Cain, Michael Rowland, Martha Montgomery, Eleanor Winfrey, Sterling and Mary Martin, Lee and Bev Mitchell, and Dave Grant. Also joining the DCPC choir were former choir members and Davidson residents, Ann and Bob Williams, who now live in Maine.
DCPC choir members participating in a workshop during a festival in Liepzig.
The festival, from July 14-17, included 15 choirs from Great Britain, the United States and Germany with many local Leipzig groups as well. North Carolina had two choirs: the DCPC singers and the High Point University Touring Choir. All choirs worked individually with Jonathan Wilcocks, an internationally known composer and choral conductor, and the final concert featured three works from Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” sung by the massed choirs.
The festival also had several “friendship” concerts which paired choirs from Germany with those from abroad to sing in smaller venues around Leipzig. DCPC organists, Jane Cain and Michael Rowland, were the main accompanists for the festival playing the organ and piano in various sites. A highlight of the DCPC group’s time in Leipzig was touring the Museum of Musical Instruments and hearing Jane and Michael play the organ and harpsichord there.
Between festival practices, the group from DCPC visited local sites of interest including a day spent in Dresden. Following performances (which were very well attended to the delight of the choir members), seventeen of the group traveled to Prague for a long weekend before returning to the States. Without musical practices and schedules to meet, they had a most relaxing time touring the city, walking the Charles Bridge, visiting the Prague Castle and the well known Jewish Quarter of the old city.
Trekking in South Dakota
Dave and Elizabeth Martin took to the great outdoors with a week-long hiking trip in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota this past June.
Dave and Elizabeth take a break with half of their hiking group at "Little Devil's Tower" on the way to Harney Peak, the highest mountain in South Dakota.
The booked this hike through New England Hiking Holidays. Having hiked with this company twice previously in Devon, England, and New Mexico, the Martins were delighted to know that this trip included several friends and a guide they knew from the New Mexico outing.
The entire group numbered 18 with two guides so that hikers had an option most days of a challenging trail or an easier path. They stayed in inns and lodges each night, had great accommodations, delicious meals and wonderful weather. A highlight for Dave and Elizabeth was certainly the camaraderie of the hiking group.
At the end of the six day trek, the Martins spent an additional three days sightseeing in the area.
This ‘n That: On the Auction Block
A sign you seldom see in Davidson appeared in the yard at 1022 Concord Road this week. It reads: AUCTION by Iron Horse Auction Company in Rockingham, NC, with a telephone number. A call to Iron Horse tells DavidonNews.net that this “custom built, executive home” will be auctioned at 6 p.m. on Monday, August 25, in a meeting room at the Homewood Suites Hotel at Exit 30. There are scheduled viewing dates and times in the days preceding the auction which is not absolute. For more information, access IronHorseAuction.com. Always something interesting to “check out” for Around Davidson.
