Photo by Brooke Meyer.

Cary, NC – One of our favorite community programs is Read & Feed. It’s an all-volunteer, no-cost program to help economically disadvantaged kids. Now is their Capital Campaign. Find out how you can make a contribution to this excellent organization.

About Read & Feed

Read & Feed began as a personal effort by Jan Elmo to help children at Northwoods Elementary learn to read. More from Read & Feed:

One of her students spoke broken English and hid beneath his desk to avoid Jan and the books she wanted to share with him. It broke her heart. She thought all children should love to read.

Jan set out to find a way to help Wake County students who lacked the resources to become passionate and confident readers. She traveled the country studying other reading programs and decided that the best way to tackle this challenge was to employ a mobile classroom stocked with books, food, and volunteers and bring the program directly to the neighborhoods where disadvantaged students live.

Jan invested her own money to buy an RV and the beginning supplies. She rallied the support of the Northwoods Elementary principal and recruited some volunteer tutors. Read and Feed was born.

This year, Read and Feed will operate 31 sites, serving about 750 children in 2012. The goal is to serve 1,000 students per year by 2015.

Climb Aboard the Read & Feed RV

Read & Feed visits each neighborhood once a week for 12 weeks (a semester). Children attend an hour-long session that includes dinner.

After they eat, the children spend time reading with their tutors. They practice reading aloud. They talk about the main idea of the story; its characters and setting. Sometimes they complete book reports or worksheets that help them improve their reading comprehension.

Before they go home, each child selects three books that he can take home to add to his personal library-before Read and Feed many children have no books at all in their homes. By the end of the program, each child has at least 36 books in his or her home library.

Read & Feed 2012 Capital Campaign

The program is absolutely free to the children who participate. In fact, Read & Feed often has other neighborhood children hanging outside the RV hoping for an opportunity to come on board.

Read and Feed is a 501-c3 organization and all gifts are fully tax deductible. Pledges range from $10 to more than $10,000 and every gift helps a child become a strong reader.

Donate Now: Read & Feed 2012 Capital Campaign

Every donation helps.

Story by Hal Goodtree. Special thanks to Mary DeMilia. Photo by Lost-In-Maylene.

Cary, NC – For 25 years, Swim Across America (SAA) has been raising money for fight cancer. Now, with the support of Triangle Aquatic Center, this iconic event is coming to Cary on May 20, 2012. Show your support by signing up or sponsoring a swimmer.

The One-Legged Man Who Ran Across America

From SAA:

Swim Across America is the inspired sequel to a triumphant Run Across America completed by the two founders of SAA in 1985. This eight-month journey, which spanned the country from Boston to Los Angeles, raised over $1 million for cancer research.

What makes this trek all the more remarkable is that one of the determined runners, a 22-year-old from Fairfield, CT, had lost his right leg to cancer a decade before. Following college graduation, these two childhood buddies embarked on their mission, making history in the process. Together, they instilled hope in all who fight this disease and heightened consciousness about overcoming this frightening diagnosis.

It was in 1987 that Jeff Keith and Matt Vossler decided to bring their cause back home and transitioned from running to swimming for a cure. With a focus on raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment, Swim Across America was chartered as a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

25 Years and $41 Million Later

Twenty five years later, SAA has raised over $41 million dollars. SAA funds almost two dozen prestigious organizations across the country including Sloan-Kettering in New York, San Francisco Children’s Hospital,  Johns Hopkins, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Swim Across America in Cary

SAA has dozens of events across the country, each with its own flavor. In San Francisco, they swim under the Golden Gate Bridge.

In Cary, Triangle Aquatic Center has donated the 50m competition pool for the event on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

SAA/Cary is more than just swimming:

• Silent auction (includes signed basketballs, birthday packages, and Disney Tickets)
• Fun relays (including kids relays, parent-child, and grandparent-child)
• Swim clinic by 3 former Olympians

Sign-Up, Donate or Volunteer

You can sign up as an individual or as a team. If you don’t want to swim, you can make a donation to SAA or sponsor a swimmer.

Lots of volunteers are needed as well – lifeguards, timers and organizational help.

Visit SAA/Cary for more info.

Event Details

Swim Across America
Sunday, May 20, 2012
1 – 6 PM

Triangle Aquatic Center
275 Convention Drive
Cary, NC 27511

More info

Story by Lindsey Chester. Photo by Paul Li.

Cary, NC- Bats For Matt is this Saturday, April 14, 2012.  It’s much more than a baseball game between area high schools (Green Hope and Cardinal Gibbons). In its sixth year, the event raises money and awareness to fight lymphoma, a disease that took Matt Cossa from his friends and family in 2006.

Every year since Matt’s death his friends and family have rallied to raise money that benefits the Duke Cancer Institute. To date, more than $125,000 has been raised. This year in addition to the game that will be held this coming Saturday April 14, the Matt Cossa Memorial Foundation held their first Gala and Silent Auction in February and  their second 5K Run in March.

Matt Made a Difference

Matt was a large part of the Green Hope High School community, starting there as a freshman in its inaugural year.

An All-around athlete, he  lettered in football, basketball, and baseball. His accomplishments included 4 years as a varsity starter on the GHHS baseball team, and he made All-Conference three times. He was instrumental in starting the Green Hope Roller Hockey Club.

Matt was a member of the National Honor Society as a junior and senior. He graduated with honors with a 4.5 GPA in 2003. From there he went on to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a junior, Matt was accepted into the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School just prior to losing his long battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the spring of 2006.

“We all loved him dearly and miss him a lot.  We would just hope that we could do everything we can so that as few people as possible can be affected by this disease.”

– Brooke Lilley

More Than Just A Game

The family’s ties to Green Hope High School still run deep. The event will take place at Green Hope, who’s varsity team will take on rival Cardinal Gibbons in competition that begins at 1pm. Gates will open at noon.

Don’t worry if baseball isn’t your thing- there will be a magician performing, music, Danny’s Bar B Q, an inflatable obstacle course and a silent auction.

If You’d Like to Donate

Checks should be made out to the Duke Cancer Institute, add “Matt Cossa Memorial” in the memo section of the check and mail the check to:

Matt Cossa Memorial, 103 Aberson Court, Cary, NC  27519

Event Details

Bats For Matt
When: Saturday April 14, 2012 –  gates open at noon, game starts at 1:00pm
Where: Green Hope High School, 2500 Carpenter Upchurch Rd., Cary NC

Story from staff reports. Photo by Tony Unruh.

Cary, NC- The Cary Lions Club will be offering free vision screening at Bond Park this Thursday, March 22, 2012.The Vision Van will be parked in the Senior Center parking lot from 9am- 3pm. A optomotrist will perform the screenings along with volunteers from the two Cary Lions Clubs.

Free Screenings

The purpose of the exams is to provide screening for the early detection of potential eye problems and should not be interpreted as a complete eye exam.  Based on an individual’s screening results, the doctor will recommend that he or she should have a complete eye examination.  Screenings are available for anyone age 6 or older, although a parent or guardian signature is required for anyone under 18.

Screenings include a visual acuity test (both far and near vision), a field vision test (how well a person can see motion in their field of vision while looking at a fixed object), and a pressure check (for the possibility of glaucoma). Other eye problems may also be discovered at the time the individual is checked by the eye doctor working the screening.

About the Lions

Lions Clubs international focus on serving the blind and visually impaired. The Cary Community Lions Club was chartered in July 2009 and has been involved in a variety of projects in the Cary area.  The club has supported the Town of Cary Parks and Recreation Department’s Scholarship Fund each year, affording Cary residents the opportunity to participate in the many activities offered by the department.

The club meets at 12:00 PM on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the IHOP on Kildaire Farm Road in Cary.  The club is actively seeking new members who are interested in serving their local community, as well as helping the blind and visually impaired across North Carolina.

Anyone with questions may call club president Rob Moncure at (919) 878-3577 or e-mail rfm6z@hotmail.com.

Event Details

Free Vision Screening
Thursday, March 22, 2012
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Cary Senior Center
120 Maury Odell Place
Cary, NC 27513

Story and pictures by Hal Goodtree.

Stonecreek, Cary, NC – On Friday, about 30 people got their heads shaved for charity at J.F. Gemelli in Stonecreek Village. The effort, on behalf of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for research into childhood cancer, raised over $28,000.

Bald + St. Patrick

St. Baldrick’s is a play on Bald + St. Patrick’s. There is no actual St. Baldrick.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation was started in 2000 when three Irish American reinsurance executives in New York decided to elevate the traditional St. Patrick’s Day party in the office. The 20 “shavees” at the original event planned to raise $17,000. Instead, they raised $104,000. The money went to pediatric oncology research and a movement was born.

Since 2000, more than 189,000 people have shaved their heads for St. Baldrick’s, raising more than $117 million.

The Shaving at Stonecreek

J.F. Gemelli Salon in Stonecreek hosted the St. Baldrick’s event in Cary. The top shavee was Donna Moynihan who raised $6,140 for her shave.

Reina Lawrence, a hairstylist at Gemelli, was a shavee, barber, team captain and lead organizer of the event. Reina had a goal of $1,000 and raised $3,461 for her bald head.

Big Fun

It was definitely a party atmosphere with 70-80 people, food, a DJ, kids with ballons, face painting and lots of laughter.

The goal for the great shave at Stonecreek was $25,000. Before I left, the DJ announced that more than $28,000 had been raised for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

Pictures: St. Baldrick’s in Cary

Story from staff reports. Photo by Michael Mazengarb.

Cary, NC – Dorcas Ministries in Cary is all set to get free energy, and cash, from some unused rooftop space. Welcome to the green economy.

Solar Partnership

Dorcas Ministries, a Cary-based non-profit, will install 845 solar panels on 50,000 square feet of unused rooftop space.

The initiative is a partnership with Yes! Solar Solutions of Cary and Argand Energy Solutions of Durham. The installation will be the largest non-profit solar energy system in Wake County and one of the largest non-profit installations in the state of North Carolina.

Yes Solar and Argand will work side-by-side on the installation. Once operating, the system will produce 236.5 kilowatts of energy, enough juice to power approximately 28 small homes each year.

Free Energy and Cash to Burn

Under an innovative solar financing model, Argand Energy will own and operate the system and Dorcas Ministries will be able to use the solar-generated energy with no out-of-pocket expenses. The non-profit will receive lease payments for the otherwise unusable rooftop space. Energy from the system will be sold to Progress Energy.

Construction on the project is slated to begin immediately.

Story and photos courtesy of the Inhulsen Family.

Cary, NC – A seventh grader in Cary decided to see how much food he could collect for charity by clipping coupons. Over the course of three months, he spent less than $20 and collected over 1,400 pounds of food.

The Seventh Grader Who Could

Lori Towner, a CaryCitizen reader, sent us this note and pictures of her son Chris Inhulsen’s coupon quest to fight hunger:

Cary seventh grader Chris Inhulsen has been involved in food donation drives in the past but nothing like this one!

Last fall armed with coupons and food drive supplies from ConAgra’s “Schools Fighting Hunger Project,” he and his family approached a number of groups at his middle school but none wanted to take on this food drive. “We can’t just recycle all those coupons,” Chris told his mom. That’s when Chris and his dad started clipping coupons and his mom started scouring grocery store ads.

The family decided to see how much they could donate and how little money they could spend just by using coupons and following sales to make their donation purchases.

On February 4th, the family donated 1,474.5 pounds of food to the Western Wake Crisis Ministry  in Apex, NC. The total money spent by the family was $19.80 for this donation.

On the way home from dropping off the donation, Chris asked, “When are we starting to collect for the next food drive, Mom?”  The family plans on starting another food drive in the fall.

CaryCitizen emailed Lori Towner to double-check those facts and figures. How was it possible to collect 1,474 pounds of food for an expenditure of less than $20?

“Don’t you watch those coupon shows?,” Lori wrote back.  ”It’s all about COUPONS!  Double coupons and sales where we were able to purchase the products and not pay a thing was what made it happen,” she said. “It would have been free but for those 20 boxes of popcorn at .99 each that we purchased.”

We love this kind of story, illustrating one of our community’s signature virtues – giving back. Congratulations to Chris and the entire Inhulsen family on a job well done!

If Chris cranks it up again in the autumn, we’ll be sure to let Cary citizens know how they can help.

Cary, NC – Caroline Lucas of Cary, N.C., a Peace Corps volunteer, helped launch a women-owned small business in Armenia that produces and sells handmade stuffed bears. Since the Berd Bear project started in March 2011, the women of Berd have earned thousands of dollars to support their families.

Over the Mountain at the End of the Road

Seven years ago, a German nun named Sister Hanna visited Berd (pronounced Baird), a small community in a remote area of Armenia.

Armenia has a long tradition of fine handicrafts. Sister Hanna taught the women of Berd how to make traditional German-style teddy bears.

Years passed. Unemployment runs in double-digits in rural areas of Armenia, biting especially hard on women.

Fast-forward to April of 2011. Homeland Handicrafts, based in Yerevan, visited the women of Berd. Karapet of Homeland Handicrafts picks up the story:

“A few months ago, a Peace Corps Volunteer encouraged Homeland Handicrafts to make a visit to Berd, the city on the other side of the mountain at the end of the road in outer Tavush Province, some nine kilometers from the Azerbaijani border.  Little did I know that we were about to embark on one of the biggest handicraft adventures in our history.

At the first meeting, the ladies in Berd showed me a teddy bear- a gorgeous teddy bear of very high quality.  This was the start of what is fast becoming a project that we can ‘bearly’ keep up with.  The orders are steadily trickling in!

For us, the joy is not only the fact that these are fabulous bears, but that we are providing work to several women in Berd who have not earned a penny of their own in ten years.  They lived off of pensions, sons and husbands working in Russia, and their vegetables gardens.  They are so proud that they are earning their own money now.   – HomelandHandicrafts.org

Volunteer from Cary Helps Berd Women Create a Business

Caroline Lucas of Cary, NC is listed on the Berd Women website as “Co-worker, Peace Corps Volunteer, Business Development Specialist.” As the crow flies, Berd is more than 6,000 miles from Cary, NC.

“The women of Berd are incredibly talented and hardworking. They put a lot of pride into their craft, which is evident in each carefully and lovingly handmade bear,” said Lucas, a graduate of Chapman University. “As sales of the Berd Bear increase, more local Armenian women are able to work in full-time positions.”

Additional income generated by sales of the Berd Bear is used to provide members of the foundation with training classes in basic computer skills, business development and other topics.

“Aside from the financial benefits generated by bear sales, the women are also gaining business and leadership skills,” continued Lucas. “Now, these women can help support their families.”

More on the Berd Bears

Each stuffed bear is handmade from start to finish by members of the group.

The bear’s head, body, legs and arms are created using Armenian knitting techniques and assembled by a group of women who stuff and sew it together. Button eyes, a nose, and a mouth are then added, and the bear is dressed in either standard or traditional Armenian clothing. Male bears wear knitted sweaters and hand-sewn slacks, and females wear hand-sewn dresses.

In total each Berd Bear requires about 18 hours of labor.

How much has changed? There’s now an animated television series based on the Bears and other characters created by the women of Berd.

Story by Lindsey Chester and Hal Goodtree.

Cary, NC- The Miracle League of the Triangle is about to begin their Spring 2012 season and they are looking for a few good sponsors to support the teams.

The Miracle of Baseball

Don’t know the Miracle League? It’s a baseball league for special needs kids.

The miracle is the joy of sports for kids and families who never expected it or experienced it.

It’s an everyday miracle – you can see it in the pictures or at a game. It never gets old.

Sponsors Make it Possible for Everybody

Each year the organization fields about 22 teams for both a spring and fall season.  Sponsorship ensures that the families of these athletes can participate without undue financial burden. They pay $35 to join and receive all the instruction and uniforms.

In January, director Traci Brown looks to sign up groups as annual sponsors for the league which covers the two seasons. As the league has grown in participants, so has their need for increased sponsorship. See story.

What Does Sponsorship Mean?

Sponsorship is visible in many ways: company names are displayed on field signage, T-shirts and announced at all games and each season they hold a sponsor appreciation day.

But there is a bigger impact. For $1500/year, a group sponsors the joy of community, baseball and sportsmanship for these kids and their families. Many groups come out and help volunteer on game days to experience the games themselves.

Currently the league knows they need at least 8 additional sponsors.

If you think you would like to get involved, contact Traci Brown directly through email, or call her at (919) 238-0333. Or you can download the sponsor form right here.

2012 Miracle League Team Sponsorship

Story by Lindsey Chester, photos by Brooke Meyer.

Cary, NC- The Umstead Hotel and Spa hosted the 9th annual Gingerbread House benefit to raise funds for Triangle Family Services last Thursday.

Triangle Family Servies has been helping needy families in the area for more than 75 years. The Gingerbread Benefit is the organization’s premier fundraising event.

Top local chefs created exquisite, themed gingerbread houses that were displayed in the ball room of the Umstead Hotel. The gingerbread houses, along with other items, were auctioned off during the evening’s festivities. In addition, a silent auction showcased a variety of items from local businesses, including jewelry, vacation packages and sports memorabilia.

Guests enjoyed holiday music, wine and beer, desserts and savory delicacies prepared by the Umstead’s top chefs. All proceeds benefit the program services of Triangle Family Services, which deal with issues of financial stability, family safety and mental health services in the community.

The event raised $90,039 and over 300 people were in attendance. In conjunction with the auction, the Umstead held a special Children’s Tea with Santa. Kids met with the bearded guy and  created confections of their own design.

The chefs create these works of food art, in a friendly competition, but there are no losers. Everything helps to raise the needed funds. This year there were 23 entries from chefs and restaurants all over the Triangle.

Participating chefs/restaurants:

• Chef Todd Richter, Prestonwood Country Club
• Amanda Burgess, Sweet Escape Bakery
• Sera Cuni, Foster’s Market (Chapel Hill)
• Richard Smith, Twisted Fork
• Jill Leckey, The Fearrington House Restaurant
• Angela Salmanca, Dos Taquitos
• Jason Smith, 18 Seaboard
• Ilya Koltusky, Sweet Loralee Pastries
• Kim Reynolds, Second Empire
• Lorie Murray, Simply Cakes
• Coleen Speaks, Posh Nosh Catering
• Daniel Benjamin, The Umstead Hotel & Spa
• Troy Knight, Wii Little Chefs
• Sherry Stolfo and Eddie Wilson, The Chef’s Academy
• Patrick Colley, Carolina Country Club
• Mariea Gregory, Meghan Gregory, Kelly Snyder and Davita Norris, Upper Crust Bakery
• Karen Gray, Wake Tech
• Rachel Smith, JoAnn Rey and Sue Chaploney, Wake Tech
• Bonnie Lau, Miel Bon Bons Patisserie
• Stephen James, Stick Boy Bread Company
• Donna Ford, Sweet Memories

For 75 years, Triangle Family Services has been battling critical issues in our community for the most vulnerable families. Its mission, “Building a stronger community by strengthening the family,” is fulfilled by providing programs in three key areas: financial stability, family safety and mental health services. Last year alone, Triangle Family Services served more than 75,000 Triangle area residents with 93 percent living below the poverty level.