The weather is bouncing us around with warm days, hot days, cool days and always windy!  Trees are leafed out and gardens are looking fresh and green.  Hope each of you will have a warm, sunny and relaxing Easter weekend.

Around Davidson today has news of a Girl Scout project for Dana Neidinger, a wonderful book written and illustrated by Elisabeth Davis and a catch-up item about Ben Wyatt on TV yesterday morning.  We also have a “STOP” notice from the Davidson Public Library.

HARLEY IN PRINT

Remember Harley?  A shelter puppy adopted by James and Kristen Davis who loves to jump, swim, climb and anything else required of AKC agility competition. (Around Davidson, Oct 7, 2010)  James is the son of Steve and Elisabeth Davis.  He and Kristin live south of Charlotte on farmland where they have horses and lots of room for Harley to run and play.

In Elisabeth’s own words, “As readers of DavidsonNews.net know, the story of agility champion Harley is unusual.  Abandoned as a puppy and placed in an animal shelter, Harley lingered for many weeks waiting to be adopted.  No one seemed to want the awkward, mixed-breed puppy with a skin disease — that is, until James and Kristen Davis saw an online photo of the puppy called “Bubbles” at a pet adoption website.  Her silly ears and sad eyes drew them in, and they brought the puppy, renamed Harley, home.  After long months of growing and zigzagging around the farm, Harley needed an outlet for her energy, and someone suggested dog agility classes.  The classes blossomed into competitions, at which Harley excelled, and she is now advancing towards the highest AKC dog agility title, Master Agility Champion.  When she completes it, Harley will be one of the first mixed-breed dogs to achieve this distinction.”

Seeing the possibility of a children’s book in the story of Harley, Elisabeth set to work writing the copy and painting the pictures.  The result is a heartwarming story with a lesson for each of us.  Again, as Elisabeth writes, the book, “Harley, The Throwaway Puppy,” shows “that we can overcome setbacks and challenges, poor starts, and bumps along the road if we have the love and support of our family and friends, just as Harley did.  Yes, she has agility titles galore, but she was always a champion in her family’s eyes, even if she never won a thing.  James and Kristen saw what Harley needed most:  love.”

 

Elisabeth painted all the watercolor pictures in the book and self-published through a Charlotte printer who did a wonderful job.  Lots of color pages to compliment the happy Harley story.  Elisabeth has a website, www.grizzliebooks.com, for the book which also has its own public Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/HarleyThrowawayPuppy.

The book is available from Main Street Books, on the website, or from Elisabeth who can be contacted at grizzliebooks@gmail.com).  The cost is $15, and all proceeds after printing costs are donated to animal rescue charities.  If you would like a signed copy (no paw print – just Elisabeth’s signature), stop by Main Street Books on Saturday, April 30, from 10-12.  What a wonderful gift for any child who loves dogs!  Congratulations, Elisabeth, on a wonderful book!

Catching up on the rest of the Davis children, we learn that Anne’s little girl, Quinn Carolina, will be one year old next month.  Anne and her husband, Rob Francis, live in Oldsmar, Fla.  Laura’s three children are Ewan (6), Flossie (4) and Gemma who is almost seven months.  Laura and her husband, Dan Juliano, live in Urbandale, Iowa.

DANA NEIDINGER’s CAN-STRUCTION

“Can-Do” is a familiar phrase for Dana Neidinger.  This young lady, daughter of Barbara and Rich Neidinger of Pine Road, is a junior at Woodlawn School and over the years has found that she can-do anything she sets her mind on – especially in Girl Scouting.  The Neidingers have lived in Davidson for the past 27 years coming to town when Rich took a job in the math department at Davidson College.  Barb works in Charlotte for Ernst and Young.  Dana was born here and has been active in girl scouting since her beginning years in a Brownie Troop.  She is now a member of Troop 1260 in Hornet’s Nest Council with her mom, Barb, as the main leader.

Having volunteered at the Loaves & Fishes pantry at First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte since the age of eight, it made sense for Dana to choose Loaves & Fishes for her Gold Award project as a senior girl scout.  First Dana was in charge of a project to renovate the lobby of the food pantry at the church.  (Read Dana’s report on the trarnsformation of the lobby in the church’s Tradewinds newsletter, p. 3, http://www.firstpres-charlotte.org/Tradewinds/tw.201103.pdf)

Then Dana held a “can-struction” competition at Woodlawn School among the high school classes to see which group could build the best structure entirely made of canned goods.  Local grocery stores (Harris Teeter, Food Lion and Target) donated the first 208 cans.  Fellow students at Woodlawn provided the rest.  Dana’s junior class won the competition creating a stegosaurus out of cans.  The competition was held on Friday, April 15, with the canned goods going directly to the Charlotte pantry on Saturday, April 16.

Similar to an Eagle Award in Boy Scouting, Hornet’s Nest Council must review Dana’s completed project before bestowing the Gold Award.  We have no doubt that she will receive it next month at a special ceremony.  Congratulations to you, Dana, for your hard work and organizational skills that are making a difference for needy people in our area. (Read more about the project and see photos of the students in Karen Wilson’s April 20, 2011 School Notes column.)

A TEEN ON A MISSION

Davidson youngsters are making waves on television.  We are working on the story of the Johnson youngsters on “Shark Tank.”  Not too long ago we watched Cole Rasenberger promoting recycling at fast food restaurants such as KFC on our local NBC affiliate.  Now Ben Wyatt is making the news.

Recently Around Davidson featured Ben Wyatt and his goal of raising enough money for 10 shallow wells in Africa by his 13^th birthday.  Well, Ben’s birthday is tomorrow and he is closing in on his goal of $4,000 thanks to support from family, friends, classmates and “Charlotte Today.”  On camera for almost four minutes, Benn was interviewed yesterday by Rob Tanner and Colleen Odegaard about his project.  (Check out the April 20, 2011 interview, “Ben Wyatt’s Unique Birthday Wish.”)

Ben puts the name of each person who donates “in a raffle hat” and three lucky names drawn will receive an iPad, Beats Solo HD Headphones or an iPod Nano.  We’ll let you know when Ben reaches his goal and announces the raffle winners.  For more information on the shallow well program, take a look at www.marionmedicalmission.org.

ENOUGH BOOKS!

For a while the constant refrain heard around town was “Got Bricks!”  In the last six weeks, it changed to “Got Books!”  The Davidson Public Library was looking for books to sell on behalf of the library system on Town Day, May 7.  Your response has been wonderful but overwhelming. There is not another shelf to hold another sale book.  Ellen, Rosie, Beverly, Martha and all the other staff and volunteers say THANK YOU for your generous spring cleaning. Even first editions of some books have been donated.  Reluctantly they are having to say STOP to any more books and are stretched to process those they have by Town Day.

So let’s think about a Plan B.  If you still have books by the front door or packed in the trunk of your car that you wish to see put to good use, please give them to the Cornelius Library or to Ada Jenkins Center to fill the shelves Boy Scout Daniel Griffeth built this winter to offer clients at the Free Clinics a chance to find a book to take home and read.  Any other ideas?  Do let us know.

In the meantime, put a few dollars aside now for purchasing a bountiful bag of books, new to you, at Town Day – and support our library system.

Send us your news

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