May 23, 2011
Members of the Jacksonville NC Rotary Club have been, as of today, helping keep a two-mile stretch of highway clean for twenty years! As participants in the Adopt-A-Highway program sponsored by North Carolina, they are not the only ones being recognized today. There are more than 70 such groups as the Rotary Club that have been working to keep our highways clean for two decades. Those are just the groups that have been a part of the cleaning effort for twenty years, and not even counting those who hopped on the band wagon later. There are more than 270 groups who have won awards for upwards of 10 consecutive years of doing their part in the effort.
Jacksonville NC homes for sale have never looked so good with a nearly pristine highway to drive in on in order to see it all. The people here in the area served by Michael Banks are part of a close-knit community that understands the values of a community where people come together and help each other. Not only do people owning Jacksonville NC real estate believe in the strong bonds of community, they also care about the town in which they live. This highway cleaning effort is just another of many examples why a Jacksonville NC home is a home as well placed as any other. With the Habitat for Humanity effort, local women proved that those less fortunate are just as deserving, if not more so, as anyone else of their blood, sweat and tears as they build a shelter in the area with the aid of a local landowner’s generosity and some home-improvement help from Lowes.
The Jacksonville Rotary Club’s efforts are joined each year by the Interact Club from Jacksonville High School. They work together to prove that this truly is a community effort to both make and keep the town a beautiful place. With the involvement of the high school alongside the Rotary Club, it goes to show how important instilling good and proper values in the youth of the town is as well. Knowing that the high schools are working to provide a positive influence on the kids in the area is just another perk for anyone looking for either Jacksonville NC homes for sale or Jacksonville NC homes for rent. It is a wonderful and positive world to bring your kids up in here, that is for certain.
May 16, 2011
Jacksonville’s small businessperson of the year was selected just this past Thursday, May 12. As the owner of a marketing and creative services firm by the name of By His Design, who has been in business around the Jacksonville NC real estate area for the last ten years, Cindy Edwards is, by all accounts, more than deserving of the award. Edwards was selected for the prestigious title not only for her excellent business, but also because she acts as an exceptional leader and beacon of selflessness within the local community.
Her passion for her business and drive to succeed help paint the picture of one who is determined to make her dreams come true. Possibly the best part about her, though, is her selflessness. When selected to receive the award, she was completely taken aback. Edwards’ reaction was one of a person who acts because she believes it is right and because she wants to do it, not because she thinks people will notice and give her recognition for it.
Edwards teaches small business seminars at the local community college to help people succeed in their own ventures. She also speaks to local high schools, encouraging students to forge their own path in life and to follow their dreams. Through her personal creativity, she helps encourage young people to nurture their own. In this day and age, creativity has been becoming more and more valuable; as our technology expands along the avenues already available to it, we need creativity and innovation to make new uses for our technology rather than simply making everything smaller.
It is people like Cindy Edwards that help make the Jacksonville NC homes so appealing to others. People like this exceptional woman and the positive influence they are for the rest of the community make Jacksonville such a great place to live. It is in this positive, nurturing, and proactive environment that creativity, happiness, and togetherness all come together and flourish.
May 9, 2011
This past Saturday was a great weekend to help local girls in several ways. At the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Center the third annual Marine Chevy Shuffle 5K was hosted. Here there was a total of 370 girls from local middle schools gathered to have fun and run their hearts out.
The Girls on the Run marathon is all about helping preteen girls learn how to be healthy through running as well as several programs that help them increase self-confidence. Several of the allegedly more quiet girls started coming out of their shells and expressing themselves and their opinions. The girls also learned about healthy eating habits and about saying “No” to drugs. Girls on the Run is essentially an educational empowerment program for young girls to help them lead more happy and fulfilling lives and to build self-confidence to prevent depression, eating disorders and a sedentary lifestyle as well as drug-use prevention.
Among the middle schools that participate in the program are Southwest Middle School and Jacksonville Commons Middle School. One of the participants and her father enjoyed the program so much that they want to attempt to convince the parent teacher association of Dixon Middle School to join in on account of the daughter starting attendance there because of their new Jacksonville NC home.
Later in the day, Girls on the Run proved not to be the only event directed at improving the lives of young girls as the Girls Expo got into swing. This expo was aimed at educating girls and their mothers about their health, well-being and substance abuse among other topics. The topic of the day was bullying. There is a major issue with bullying among girls, partly because bullying among boys is typically so physical that the more verbal and mental abuse of bullying between girls seems less harmful or prevalent. Such is not the case, and the organizers of the Girls Expo set their sights on educating girls and their mothers on the differences between playing and bullying, and to help girls cope and deal with it when it occurs. Events and organizations such as these are very important for helping girls find their direction in life and help them face the challenges of life as they come up.
May 2, 2011
Starting on Saturday, the National Women Build Week began, where about two dozen women began working with Habitat for Humanity in Jacksonville. The project for them is to build a Habitat for Humanity home on a lot of Jacksonville NC real estate provided them by Martin Aragona Jr. On the supply side, Lowe’s Home Improvement was kind enough to donate the lumber for the project as well as several workshops onsite in order to teach the women how to properly and safely use the tools as well as how to go about framing a house. These ladies are doing a great job helping out with the charity, and they still have fun even though it is tough work.
Even though this is a national charity organization that they are working with, the fact that these women are willing to volunteer and help out speaks volumes about the value of community and the helpful friendly natures of the people here in Jacksonville. The National Women’s Build Week will continue until May 8, and who knows, these ladies may take a shine to the work they are doing and keep on working even afterward. That is not to mention that everyone can appreciate a feminine touch added to a home. Maybe that feminine touch from the ground up will give the new Jacksonville NC home a little extra love to give to its new occupants, once the job is done.
