(Melissa Gute/MI Monitor Photos)

Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatics held the second race of the Birkdale Animal Hospital Kids Triathlon Series in mid-May. Nearly 200 children ages 4-14 competed from across the Charlotte region.

This was the second race of the four-race series. Upcoming races take place June 16 and July 21, both events beginning at 2 p.m.

Learn more about the series at www.hffa.com/2013KidsTriathlonSeries.html.

news@mimonitor.com

GASTONIA – Jack Salzman and his wife, Robin Smith, are excited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lake Norman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Cornelius this month.

Gastonia Chrysler Dodge Ram Jeep will celebrate with a grand opening event in the fall. (Courtesy of Theresa Wengel)

But even bigger plans are on the horizon now that they’ve set their sights southwest of Mountain Island Lake and purchased the former McKenney Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Gastonia on May 14. Renaming the location Gastonia Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, the couple anticipates a fall grand opening ceremony after a general contractor completes some renovations to the property.

In addition to new vehicles, the dealership will also offer an assortment of pre-owned cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs.

“We’ve been looking to expand for about two years, but we’d never been able to agree on the price for the sale,” Salzman told Mountain Island Monitor.

The Cornelius dealership sells about 250 units a month, and Salzman expects the new Gastonia shop to sell 150 units a month. Right now, it’s set to employ 45 people, but that number should grow to 55.

“The economy is still growing and housing sector improvement will continue to help us,” he said. “If gas prices remain calm, I hope the business will grow by 10 percent or more in these next two years.”

He’s seen recent spikes in sales of Jeep Grand Cherokees – about 40 a month – after they were redesigned last year, saying Mercedes and BMW customers now find them more attractive.

Gaston Chamber of Commerce President John Kimbrell said the dealership’s previous co-owner, Ray McKenny will still maintain his other dealerships in Gastonia, like McKenny-Salinas
PowerSports.

“I’m not familiar with the new owners, but I’m looking forward to meeting them,” Kimbrell said. “We’re glad they’re making an investment here and want to help them in any way we can.”

Salzman hopes to attract some buyers from Charlotte, and in the digital age, he has customers from Texas and Florida looking for specific models.

“If you run a business correctly, you get to give back to the community,” he said. “Robin and I like paying it forward. We enjoy watching staff move up through the ranks, too, and become managers.”

Committed to giving back to others, the couple is involved with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Dove House and Friends of the Animals. In the last 10 years, they’ve donated more than $1 million to local charities.

Even though Salzman’s tenure as a board member for the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce was up in November 2012, Chamber President Bill Russell told the Monitor he remains an ex-officio member because “he has been such a tremendous asset to our community.”

Salzman is also heavily involved with Big Day at the Lake, an annual event run by volunteers that offers members of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Charlotte an opportunity to enjoy boating, tubing and swimming on Lake Norman.

“He’s always out there each summer flipping those hamburgers and hotdogs, working that grill,” Russell said.

Need a new set of wheels?

Visit the Gastonia Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership at 2339 E. Franklin Blvd.

Heavy rains in August 2011 flooded the former site of the Community Relief Organization of Mount Holly. The group is planning to buy a new space later this month, assuming they collect enough to pay for it. (Courtesy of Community Relief Organization)

by Courtney Price

news@mimonitor.com

MOUNT HOLLY – The Community Relief Organization of Mount Holly is pushing to raise more than $150,000, and the deadline is quickly approaching.

The money would pay for a new building – replacing the one that flooded in August 2011 – which Executive Director Alice Bayne said the organization plans to buy this month.

“We close on June 25, and we’re hoping to have it all by then,” Bayne told the Mountain Island Monitor. If they don’t raise all the money by then, they’ll have to look at alternative funding options.

The relief agency provides food, clothing, bill payment assistance and help with some prescription medications to those in need in Mount Holly, but things have been tight – literally – since a massive rain storm on Aug. 5, 2011, flooded West Central Avenue, destroying the organization’s building and everything in it.

The group temporarily moved to the basement of the old City Hall building, where donations as well as people have been crammed in to continue helping those who need it.

“It’s so small, that people bump into each other,” Bayne said. “You cannot run a buggy and a person down the hall (next to each other).”

The current site is so small it can only hold food donations – and not all the food fits. The clothing donations have been held at another site, but the CRO recently sold that building and had nowhere to keep the clothes, which Bayne said were donated to another organization.

The new building, located at 2120 Sprint St. near the Food Lion off of Highland Street, will be more than 2,000-square-feet and house all of the CRO’s services.

But the space isn’t nearly as important as the new site’s atmosphere.

“When folks come to us, they’re already down on their luck,” Bayne said. “I would certainly feel much better and more comfortable coming to a bright, cheery, welcoming place. And I think that’s how it will be for them, too.”

Bayne said the organization provides about 10,000 pounds of food and $11,000 in financial aid each month. The organization also coordinates a Christmas gift program for about 300 children in the area.

But once they’ve bought the building, all the CRO’s extra money won’t have to go into a savings account and more can go directly to the people who need it most.

She said the organization is about $30,000 away from the $155,000 goal, but that doesn’t include the renovations and other supplies they’ll need after they’ve bought the building. But she feels confident the community will step up and help.

“The heart of the community in Mount Holly is just huge. The city and community have always come to the CRO’s rescue in times of need,” she said. “I think the community will continue to support us.

Want to help?

The Community Relief Organization of Mount Holly is seeking monetary donations to buy a new site to distribute food and clothing to those in need. Desks, chairs and filing cabinets will also be needed for the new building.

If you would like to contribute to the building fund, send tax-deductible donations to The Community Relief Organization, P.O. Box 831, Mount Holly, NC 28120.

If you have furniture or other items you’d like to donate, call Alice Bayne at 704-827-8581.

news@mimonitor.com

BELMONT – Several months ago, the Charlotte Regional Film Commission advised Hallmark Movie Channel that Belmont would be the perfect location for a movie set inside one of Norman Rockwell’s iconic paintings.

Young Trey Cole (Dash Pledger-Levine, left) finds guidance from Charlie Shuffleton (Danny Glover, right), a father figure who taught him the value of family in the Hallmark Movie Channel film “Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop.” (Courtesy of Fowzia Iranpur)

“They liked our quaint, historic-looking downtown, with our older buildings that were well taken care of,” Assistant City Manager Adrian Miller said. “The location scout told me that Belmont had a ‘Norman Rockwell feel,’ and I took that as a compliment.”

Filming for “Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” based on a 1950 American realism oil painting of the same name, began in March and centered on the now-closed, rust-red brick of Margaret’s Beauty Shop on North Main Street.

The film, which premiered June 1, celebrates the 50-year relationship Rockwell had with Hallmark Cards, as his artwork often found its way to their greeting card covers.

In “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” four-time Emmy nominee Danny Glover plays Charlie Shuffleton, a small-town Georgia barber who runs a business bursting with community news and gossip.

Belmont Pharmacist Trish Williamson said her mother, Margaret Thrower, ran a beauty shop at the filming location for more than 60 years, until she passed away last November.

“It was sad in a sense because mother had the shop there for so many years; she lived to be 97,” Williamson said. “Back then, it was across from the Belk store and the Five and Dime.”

Thrower rented the shop from a friend, Martha Taylor, through what was originally just a verbal contract.

“That’s how things were done back then. You could leave your doors wide open and go out and play,” she recalled. “Mother had one of the original buildings and was very sociable just as far as getting to know people. She loved her work, she really did.”

Williamson is pleased that the movie will keep with the spirit of the work her mother enjoyed all her life.

In the movie, Shuffleton acts as a mentor to Trey Cole, played by Austin Stowell, who frequents the shop as a boy and grows up to be a famous country musician.

When Cole eventually returns home, he has to come to terms with the death of Shuffleton and a brother killed during military service. He must also try to reconcile with his bitter sister-in-law, played by Kayla Well, who has been left alone to raise her son, and his father, General Wes Cameron, played by Brett Rice, who was distant during Cole’s childhood.

Beyond Margaret’s Beauty Shop, Miller said the film crew also used a small, vacant lot on Main Street to film a concert scene and set up their equipment at a local church and general store.

“The city really enjoyed hosting the production folks, and we had a lot of residents come out and work as extras in the movie,” he said.

dining@lakenormanpublications.com

HUNTERSVILLE – Earth Fare Café aims to please.

Earth Fare offers a daily variety of hot meals, such as the chicken scallopini with vegan Italian tomato and caper orzo and vegetarian asparagus with Parmesan vinaigrette. (Molly Reiter/MI Monitor photo)

The diner can truly have just about anything. A pistachio macaroon? They’ve got it. An organic Braeburn apple? Check. Perhaps a plate with chicken scallopini, mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus – or make that orzo. No problem.

The café is located in the front of the Earth Fare supermarket. There is a salad bar, hot bar, pastry counter, coffee bar, deli case, fresh sushi, soup bar, olive and anti pasta bar, hot pizza and a kid’s menu.

Not to mention that you can crack open a beer or uncork a bottle of wine. Or take it to go – it’s all good. But, feel free to stay and surf free Wi-Fi in the comfy front booths overlooking the store or the outside patio.

In 1975, Roger Derrough created Asheville’s first natural store with the name Dinner for the Earth. The store moved to a larger space and was renamed Earth Fare in 1993. In 1997, a second Earth Fare opened in Charleston, S.C. Since then, 25 more stores have opened from Florida up to Ohio.

The stores hold a very strict food philosophy, only selling the very best local, natural and organic foods with no trans fats in the form of partially hydrogenated foods, no high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial ingredients, no dyes and no antibiotics.

“You don’t need to look at the labels,” said store manager Chris Hinson. “We have essentially done the work for you.”

The café offers excellent deals. Every Tuesday is prime rib night, consisting of a slab of hormone- and antibiotic-free beef and two sides for $9.99. Children eat free 4-8 p.m. Thursdays. Up to six children can eat for free with the purchase of one adult meal.

Noelle Pallaria, assistant manager, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and has worked as a private chef. Her background helps answer customers’ questions about items in the café and the store.

“Our customers often have questions,” Pallaria said. “They are the types to really delve into their food choices.”

The store does catering, plus appetizers such as custom cheese or dessert trays.

But you can also find more standard fare as long as the ingredients fit with the food philosophy. For example, Heinz organic ketchup is stocked along with Coca-Cola in glass bottles with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.

The café is often a surprise to even habitual Earth Fare customers. The front booths can be easily missed by patrons heading straight for the grocery section.

But Tony Broone, of Mount Holly, is well aware of the food options.

“I grab something to eat and then do my grocery shopping,” he said. “That way I’m filled up on organic food and not hungry.”

This is just what Hinson likes to hear.

“We want our customers to have options and accessibility in their quest for healthy eating,” he said. “Oh and we also need it to be delicious.”

“Prayer is simply talking to God,” Billy Graham said in Rooted in Prayer: A Personal Prayer Journal. “The most important thing I can say about this is that God wants you to talk to Him.”

“From his humble beginnings on a dairy farm, to the national stage praying with presidents and world leaders, Billy Graham was often noted as saying the three most important things to do were, ‘Pray, Pray, Pray,’” said Tom Phillips, vice president of the Billy Graham Library. “Prayer has been, is and will continue to be the most integral element of Mr. Graham’s ministry. In this exhibit, visitors can see how God was woven into every piece of the ministry from staff prayer time and international Crusades, to the Graham’s daily devotion time spent focusing on God’s Word as a family.”

In this exhibit, visitors can see memorabilia including Billy’s personal diary used during the 1957 New York Crusade; a clock and watch used by the Grahams in Amsterdam in 1986; a lanyard, program and a copy of the prayer given by Graham at the Indianapolis 500 in 1999; Graham’s sermon notes from the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance following 9/11; prayer cards, brochures and letters from multiple Crusades; photos and more.

Special resources available to visitors include brochures on how to pray for friends and loved ones and “praying on the spot” – a method Graham used throughout the years that involves placing sticker dots on watches, toothbrushes, mirrors and to remind themselves every time that they saw the dot to stop and pray.

The “Rooted in Prayer” exhibit runs through the end of June. Admission to this exhibit and admission to the Billy Graham Library is free. The library is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information on the library and upcoming events, or to schedule a group tour, visit www.billygraham.org.

Proceeds from this event will support the church’s Hispanic preschool. St. Mark’s Episcopal started La Escualita San Marcos in the fall 2012.  The school was created to help Hispanic children become kindergarten-ready. They currently have eight students and hope to grow in the coming year.

For additional information regarding La Escualita Preschool or the Good Neighbor Play Day, contact the church office at 704-399-5193.

More senior adults are living now than at any other time in history, and many are facing the problems that aging brings with it.

In “Senior Christians Living Super Lives,” Minnix shares insights that can help seniors let go of their worries as they age. Readers will learn how senior Christians can biblically have peace and freedom from fear, be effective in serving and worshipping God, pray correctly, think positively and act decisively, have better relationships with family and friends, keep growing and learning, and focus on things that really matter most in life.

Minnix has been a Southern Baptist pastor, denominational leader, conference speaker and writer for more than 40 years.

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available through bookstores nationwide, from the publisher at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, or by visiting www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com.

The two schools were recognized by the Catawba River District in May for making their buildings, as well as students and staff, more environmentally friendly. The river organization challenged six schools to become more kind to the environment.

Hundreds of students, teachers and volunteers labored to devise plans, take measurements, record data and sort garbage.

• Whitewater Middle School sixth-graders won with their focus on ozone awareness and, through an ozone garden, this harmful gas’s connection to automobiles, summer heat and asthma.

• River Oaks Academy third- and fourth-graders took first place among four elementary schools for their school-wide lights-out campaign to conserve electricity.

“It was difficult for the judging team to choose one winner for each category, as each of the participating schools demonstrated great learning and enthusiasm for science,” said Cynthia Klemmer, the River District’s director of STEM education.

Other schools that participated:

• Mountain Island Charter School – second place, middle schools – reducing disposable plastic in lunchtime garbage

• Catawba Heights Elementary School – second place, elementary schools – composting by second-graders to reduce waste sent to landfills

• Ida Rankin Elementary School – honorable mention, elementary schools – composting by third-graders, with the help of bokashi (fermentation)

• Whitewater Academy – honorable mention, elementary schools – composting schoolwide, with the help of vermiculture (red wiggler worms)

The regional Eco-Footprint Challenge, developed by the Catawba River District and funded by Piedmont Natural Gas, seeks to connect relevant and engaging hands-on learning with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills.

The commission staff’s evaluation determined that Duke could safely increase the reactors’ power output primarily through more accurate means of measuring feedwater flow. As part of its evaluation, NRC staff reviewed the company’s analysis showing the plant’s design can accommodate the increased power level.

A safety evaluation of the plant’s proposed power increase focused on several areas, including the nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological consequences, fire protection, operations and training, testing and technical specification changes.

Duke intends to implement Unit 2’s increase during its spring 2014 refueling outage, and Unit 1’s increase during its fall 2014 outage.