This beautiful "carpet" is created every year in the Grand-Place in Brussels. It's made entirely with fresh flowers - begonias.

What a marvelous gift from Mother Nature to have perfect weather for Fourth of July weekend!  In addition to fireworks, picnics, cookouts and parades, the cool mornings encouraged visits to our flower and vegetable gardens with hoes in hand.  How about a visit to Brussels to see their town square adorned with begonias?  “Eye candy” for those of us who love flowers!

Around Davidson visits today with the Pierce family on the occasion of Sam’s Marine honor.  We also travel to Greece with Russell and Carmen Mase and Ghana with Fuji Lozada and his Davidson College students.  There is also a note about a connection to our local team in Kannapolis.

A proud mom, Liz, stands with her Marine Corps. officer son, Sam Pierce

LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN?  MEET SAM PIERCE!

Congratulations to Sam Pierce, younger son of Walt and Liz Pierce of Walnut Street.  Sam recently graduated from Officer Basic School (known as TBS) in the Marine Corps.  The school is based at Quantico, Virginia.  Liz and Walt traveled to Virginia for the ceremony but Sam did not have much time to linger and visit since he began infantry officer school almost immediately.

The Pierces are proud of Sam’s commitment to the Marine Corps.  They are also very aware of the sacrifices made daily by our young people serving overseas.  Keep these men and women in your thoughts and continue to support our troops.  It means a lot to them and to their parents.

Top side with Carmen as the ship neared Vesuvius

CRUISING WITH RUSSELL AND CARMEN

Carmen and Russell Mase of Peter’s Place had a wonderful adventure this past May.  They booked seats on U.S. Air’s May 13th inaugural direct flight between Charlotte and Rome and proceeded to the Celebrity Equinox, their home for almost two weeks while they cruised the Greek Islands.  The Equinox proved a marvelous choice with large staterooms, abundant food, good shows, three swimming pools, exercise areas, bars, shops and of course, a casino.  (No word on their winnings at the slots!)  The Mases enjoyed the theatre on board and even attended a nutrition class.

Russell & Carmen Mase

The cruise included stops in Messina, Sicily, Athens, Kusadasi, Turkey (for a visit to Ephesus), and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Rhodes and Santorini.  Cruising back to Italy, the last stop was Naples/Capri for a visit to Pompeii.  Highlights included dodging tourists on donkeys as they climbed the many steps of Santorini, and marveling at the continuing excavations of Ephesus and Pompeii.  Carmen found these last two ancient sites her favorite stops while Russell enjoyed the beauty of Mykonos.

Despite a capacity of 2,800 passengers on the Equinox, the Mases found disembarking for various stops was well managed and easy.  Although volcanic ash was swirling around Europe during their vacation and riots in Athens were “breaking news” stories here, they encountered no difficulties from either event.  Upon their return to Davidson on May 24, Russell, in his usual good humor, commented:  “The Mase mailbox runneth over but our kindly P.O  folks had kept it in a sack for us.  No wonder we all love this town!”  Welcome home!

Davidson students in Accra, at the residence of the US Ambassador and his wife.

GETTING TO KNOW GHANA – WITH DAVIDSON CONNECTIONS

Fuji Lozada is having a busy summer.  He, his wife, Rebecca Ruhlen, and their son, Michael (8), are spending most of the summer in Ghana where Fuji is the director of the Davidson-in-Ghana program.  They have 13 Davidson College students with them.  The program is located primarily in Cape Coast where Davidson has had a partnership with the University of Cape Coast since 1996.  The students attend lectures at the university, participate in drumming and dancing classes, and are involved in either a service or research project during their weeks there.

For service, a few of the students are teaching in Cape Coast schools, one is working with Planned Parenthood, two are filming a documentary about the impact of globalization on local farmers, and one (Brittany Pillsbury from Charlotte) is learning about micro-finance from Peter Gross, Davidson College ’02.  (More on Peter in Thursday’s Around Davidson news.)  In addition to the daily studies and assignments, the group enjoyed a safari on foot in Mole National Park (in northern Ghana), a suspension bridge canopy walk in Kakum National Forest and a mini-vacation at the nearby Busia Beach Resort.

8-year-old Fuji Michael Lozada sits in class in Ghana

A highlight for the group, including Peter Gross, was a day trip to the capital of Accra.  In the morning they met Julianna Lindsey (Davidson College ’92) at the UNICEF office where she works and heard a lecture about children’s rights in Ghana.  (Read more here)  The group then joined Lindsey and her husband, Don Teitelbaum, the US Ambassador to Ghana, for lunch at their home and a chance to cheer for the US soccer team in their World Cup win against Slovenia. (Interesting to note that Lindsey was a student of Political Science Professor Ken Menkhaus while at Davidson College and Ken  worked with her husband, Ambassador Teitelbaum, previously in Somalia.)

What is eight year old Michael Lozada doing this summer?  He is with his mom and dad in Cape Coast attending Mary Queen of Peace Catholic School.  His teacher is a friend of his dad’s so we bet he is enjoying his class time immensely and will have wonderful show-and-tell stories to share with his Davidson Elementary classmates this fall.

Fuji’s older son, Patrick Lozada, a North Mecklenburg High School graduate, is a rising senior history major at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.  He is one of twelve students from Haverford who received stipends from the college’s John B. Hurford Humanities Center, enabling him to spend the summer interning with the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in Philadelphia.  Patrick is working for a U. Penn. historian editing a documentary on  the “Mapping Du Bois” project.  W. E. B. Du Bois wrote a book in 1899 called “The Philadelphia Negro” and ironically died in Ghana and is buried in Accra.  Congratulations to you, Patrick, on this nice honor.

Intimidators' mascots

BATTER UP

Did you travel out of town this past weekend to see fireworks in another town?  Some caught the splendid show at the lake, in Charlotte or at the Kannapolis Intimidators’ baseball game.  The price is right for this Single A minor league team, the stadium is easy to reach, the food is reasonable and you can get “up close and personal” with mascots, “Dubya” and “Tim E. Gator.  But best of all, you can cheer 2009 Davidson College graduate and former economics major Zach Kayne every time his name is called. (Read more about Zach on our Sports page)

And if you need another fireworks “fix,” the Intimidators have fireworks after every Friday and Saturday night home game for the rest of the season.  Check out their schedule at www.intimidatorsbaseball.com.

Send us your news

Have news for Around Davidson? Write to Brenda Barger at hbarger@bellsouth.net.