Members In The News (Archives)

September-December 2006

Group Tennis Lessons through Carrboro Parks Project NCPlenty was forwarded the following from one of our members, Carrboro Parks Project: Learning to play tennis? Brushing up on your game? Want to hook-up with other players? Sign up for a group tennis lesson at Wilson Park!! September 9 (rain date – September 16) 9:15 – 10 am: ages 6-12 10:15 – 11 am: adult beginners or advanced beginners 11:15 – noon: child, parent, adult beginners and intermediates Lessons are $10 for the first student and $5 for each additional family member. PLENTYs are accepted. All proceeds go to the Tennis Backboard fund. Email Ron or call 929-7325 to sign up!

Chatham Marketplace: Special Events for September Chatham Marketplace recently forwarded us a list of upcoming events for September. In fact, the list is so full we're giving it its own page right over here!

June-August 2006

As the Crow Flies - Paperhand's summer show! Paperhand Puppet Intervention presents: "As the Crow Flies: Tales from four directions" at the Forest Theater in Chapel Hill Every Friday-Saturday-Sunday from August 11 - September 3; also September 8-9 at the NC Museum of Art FAQ about the show! List of Preshow Entertainment dates and performers

April-June 2006

Potluck and Meeting about Selling to Chatham Marketplace - Monday March 27 The Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension will host a Producer Meeting to discuss Producing for Chatham Marketplace on Monday, March 27, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the Agriculture Building auditorium in Pittsboro, NC. Chatham Marketplace is Chatham County's locally owned co-op grocery store scheduled to open in April 2006. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce Shiloh Avery, Chatham Marketplace's new produce manager, and to discuss types of produce, quality, volume, packaging, communication, handling, etc. We will also introduce Jeff Barney, the new Kitchen/Deli Manager at CM. Jeff is also interested in purchasing as much as possible from local producers. If you are a producer living in or near Chatham County and hope to supply Chatham Marketplace, you won't want to miss this meeting! The meeting will begin at 6:00 pm with a potluck, so bring your favorite dish to share. Drinks will be provided. Please RSVP to Debbie Roos at 919-542-8202 if you plan on attending just so we will know how many to expect. For directions to the meeting, visit the Growing Small Farms website.

January-March 2006

Wordshed Productions and new member Untimely Productions (a collaboration between founding member Annissa Clarke and elizabeth nelson) present: Elements: An Enchantment. Where: Studio 6 Theater, Swain Hall, UNC-CH campus When: Wednesday through Saturday January 18, 19, 20, 21, 2006; continuous admission from 8-10 PM nightly Cost: Free Admission (suggested donation $5) ELEMENTS: AN ENCHANTMENT offers a journey through an artfully constructed world where partakers can experience renewal and engage their sense of wonder. As the new year begins, we invite you to play inside this enchanted environment, where elements of the everyday find new life. In this immersive performance / installation / happening, we explore the traditional schema of the “elements” that form the natural world -- earth, water, air, fire, and metal -- and the many ways these essences interact. At a time when our daily life feels crowded with fear, frustration, and a generalized sense of “overload,” Elements: An Enchantment asks us to discover the world around us in a new way, in order to see the delight that might hide in commonplaces. For more information, please contact Annissa Clarke (919 619-1037, annissa@email.unc.edu) or Wordshed Productions (919 932-5829, wordshed@unc.edu).

The Open Eye Cafe and Dr. Paul Aaaron present: A screening of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price Where: Open Eye Cafe, 101 South Greensboro Street, Carrboro When: Saturday, January 21, 7-9:30pm Cost: $1 - $3 donation suggested (never required) The movie will be introduced by Dr. Paul Aaron (NC Poet Laureate's Poet of the Week) and followed by a discussion. There will be song and political poetry before the movie. Paul will also discuss a work in progress, an anthology, Independence Day for Independent Bookstores. Visit www.paulaaron.com for more details.

July-September 2005

Here is a note from the Carrboro Parks Project. This spring, an anonymous Carrboro family challenged us to raise $2000 by August 15th and to have the playground shaded by March 1, 2006. We have met the fundraising goal! Thanks to the support of NCPlenty, we are well on the way to completing the shade project. More news on bids and final costs as it comes in. We may have a bit more fundraising to do. In the meantime, enjoy your parks!

"Co-op seeks suppliers of locally produced products" NCPlenty recently received a press release from Chatham Marketplace. We thought it would be of interest to our members so we are sharing it here.

Paperhand Puppet Intervention graced the cover of the July 13 Independent Weekly and picked up an Indy Arts Award for their inspiring work.

Piedmont Biofuels recently announced the opening of the first pump delivering "...pure, U.S.-made, environmentally-friendly biodiesel" in Carrboro. The pump distributes 99% biodiesel (B99) to the Carrboro Public Works fleet and to members of the Piedmont Biofuels Cooperative. A full press release can be viewed here. During an indefinite trial period, members of the Co-op can now pay for their biodiesel entirely in PLENTYs at the stations in Moncure, Pittsboro, and the Carrboro Public Works!

Frog Hollow Outdoors , a new member of NCPlenty who signed up at this year's Festival for the Eno, has announced that for all of 2005 they will accept 100% payment in PLENTYs for any of their services. Beginning in 2006, they will accept 100% payment in PLENTYs for canoe and kayak rentals, and up to 50% payment in PLENTYs for guided trips, instruction, overnights, and B&B trips.

Coleman's Help Desk, a database support provider for nonprofits and small businesses, is now using CodeCharge Studio for migrating Microsoft Access databases to the web. In addition to Access, CHD now provides a wide variety of support services for Filemaker, Alpha 5, and ebase. PLENTYs are accepted for up to two hours or 10% of any bill.

Carrboro Parks Cookout - July 14

Carrboro Parks Project is cooking out on the lawn at Weaver Street Market on Thursday, July 14th. Come enjoy a vegetarian friendly menu and the old time music of the Hushpuppies while we raise money to shade the playground at the Farmers' Market. The playground is sunny and hot; shade sails can change all that! PLENTYs accepted, of course!

For more info, contact Laurie Weakley at carrboroparks@earthlink.net or www.carrboroparks.org.

WCOM Community-Powered Radio Comes to Carrboro

Are you ready for a change on your radio dial? If so, tune to 103.5 FM and discover WCOM, a new NCPlenty member.

WCOM is a new nonprofit community radio station serving Carrboro and Chapel Hill. It was created by a group of civic-minded local citizens after the Federal Communications Commission made frequencies available for a new class of low-power FM stations to offset the increasing consolidation of the airwaves in the hands of a few large companies. Aside from some nationally syndicated programs, such as “Democracy Now” from Pacifica Radio, all WCOM programming will be produced by local volunteers and will reflect the values and interests of the folks who live and work here.

WCOM hopes to devote as much as 40% of its airtime to programming in Spanish and is actively seeking Spanish-speaking people with an interest in hosting music or talk programs.

The 100-watt station has a range of about five miles from its transmitter, which sits atop a light pole at Scroggs Elementary School in Southern Village. The signal is relayed to the transmitter from WCOM studios in beautiful downtown Carrboro. The storefront studio is located in the former drive-in bank window at 201 North Greensboro Street. The bank building is now owned by Weaver Street Market, which has graciously donated the drive-in space to WCOM.

How You Can Get Involved

• Find out about two upcoming WCOM fundraisers: a literary evening ("Listen Up!") and a Latin dance party ("¡Que Noche!")
• Sign up to receive an e-newsletter
• Propose a program to be aired on WCOM
• Volunteer to help in some other way (help build the studio, raise money, translate materials into Spanish, staff a table at Weaver Street’s Jazz Brunch or other community events, do office work, write for the newsletter, update the website….the list goes on)
• Make a donation -- you can donate online or mail your donation to: WCOM Radio, 201 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro, NC 27510 (if you donate at least 6 PLENTYs or $60, you’ll get a WCOM T-shirt as a thank-you gift)…your business can even be a “Founding Sponsor” of WCOM and receive underwriting credit on the air.

April-June 2005

Carrboro Parks Cookout - June 30

Carrboro Parks Project is cooking out on the lawn at Weaver Street Market on Thursday, June 30th. Come enjoy a vegetarian friendly menu and the jazz and pop standards of Equinox while we raise money to shade the playground at the Farmers' Market. The playground is sunny and hot; shade sails can change all that! PLENTYs accepted, of course!

For more info, contact Laurie Weakley at carrboroparks@earthlink.net or www.carrboroparks.org.

Paul Aaron Organizing Benefit for Independence Day Weekend

July-September 2004

Bodywise Therapeutics at the Paralympics

Nina Elshiekh of Bodywise Therapeutics been selected to serve as a member of the Athens Health Services Sports Massage Team at the Paralympics in Athens, Greece. She will be there for 3 weeks working with athletes from all over the world who compete in wheelchairs, with the use of prosthetics or with other physical disabilities, such as blindness. The position is completely voluntary, so Nina receives no compensation for travel, food, lodging or her services. She is working to raise $5000 to cover the expenses. So far she has raised about half of this amount in just over 2 weeks. Upon her return, she will be available to talk to schools, civic groups, or anyone interested in hearing about her experiences with these amazing athletes.
You can contact her at ninaatbodywise@aol.com. If you would like to contribute to her volunteer fund, you can send gifts to:
Nina Elshiekh
715 Williams Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Paperhand Puppet Intervention

Enjoy a Great Dinner and Help Feed the Hungry
This Tuesday and Wednesday at the JPR!

The Leaflight will be accepting all PLENTYS raised by the James Pharmacy Restaurant through the month of July in support of the charitable FOOD-FAITH-FARMS project. You may also make tax-deductible donations in PLENTYs directly to the Leaflight.

Carrboro Parks Project Cookout
Carrboro Parks Project is cooking out on the lawn at Weaver Street Market on Thursday, August 19. They will be raising funds to shade the playground at the Town Commons. Come enjoy a vegetarian friendly menu. Music by the Brown Mountain Lights feature pop twang with bluegrass sensibilities. PLENTYs accepted, of course! For more info, contact Laurie Weakley at carrboroparks@earthlink.net or http://www.carrboroparks.org.

Two Members Take a Tour D'Plenty
"Recently, I had the good fortune to sit beside Laura Wilson of Blast, Inc. at a Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce event. Talk turned to NCPlenty and Laura hit on a great idea... I would come to Pittsboro to tour the Blast campus and then we would walk through downtown Pittsboro on an NCPlenty tour..."

Sound like a good story? Click here to read on.

January-March 2004

In the Guts of the Monster is an immersive performance created by Annissa Clarke. Here is the official blurb:

In the Guts of the Monster
By Annissa Clarke
Presented through Wordshed Productions and the Department of Communication Studies at UNC-CH
January 16-17, 2004
Swain Hall, Studio 6 (UNC, corner of Cameron & Columbia)
Free admission nightly on the half-hour from 8 - 10 PM
967-1581

Move through this immersive performance/ installation/ labyrinth to explore the phenomena of sensation. Drawing on research into autistic spectrum and sensory processing disorders, formalist aesthetics, and performance art, In the Guts of the Monster engages the transformative potential of performance to investigate the many ways we make sense. Because of the physical nature of this piece, partakers should wear comfortable clothing and plan to remove shoes. Not appropriate for young children.

October-December 2003

The Piedmont Wildlife Center announces "A Celebration for Wildlife, A Benefit & Silent Auction At Fearrington Barn" on November 23rd. Details are posted on the Wildlife Center website (www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org).

The Wildlife Center is also soliciting items for the silent auction. Anyone willing to donate an item can contact the center by email, auction@piedmontwildlifecenter.org, or by phone (919) 968-8523.

Nina Elshiekh of Bodywise Therapeutics was featured in the "Neighbors" section of the September 9 edition of the Chapel Hill News. The article focused on her new monthly clinic, called Bodywork for Everybody, through which she is hoping to reach lower income members of our community.

The Bodywork for Everybody clinics are held on the last Thursday of every month. Contact Nina at 219-3517 or bodywisetherapeutics@yahoo.com to set up an appointment or learn more about the program.

July-September 2003

Bodywise Therapeutics presents Bodywork For Every Body, an open bodywork clinic Thursday August 28 at the Women's Workout Club at Ram's Plaza. Nina Elshiekh, Ph.D., LMBT #1474, will offer 30-minute bodywork sessions geared towards specific muscular complaints and associated body ailments. Her goal is to offer affordable bodywork to the many people who may not be able to receive it otherwise. The cost of each session is $20, and the clinic is open to everyone. Please call 219-3517 to make an appointment.
Bodywise's techniques are based on the work of Australian osteopath Tom Bowen and are appropriate for people of all ages, from newborns to the elderly. Clients may remain fully clothed for the session if they prefer.
Bodywise plans to provide services in this format at least once a month. Please help get the word out by forwarding this to anyone you feel might benefit from these services. Particularly, Nina wishes to reach further into underserved communities, such as the Latino community, the elderly, children, and low-income families from all backgrounds. Anyone interested in translating the intake forms into Spanish is also encouraged to call.

Paperhand Puppet Intervention presents a new end of summer show, "The Dream and the Lie," as part of the annual Forest Theatre Festival. Described as "four vignettes on our nature as humans: indifference, denial, and monstrosity, as well as selflessness and joyful negation of fear, told with masks, giant puppets, cardboard, stilts, and shadows, accompanied by live percussion, instrumentation, voices and sounds," the performance will run at the Forest Theatre on UNC campus, August 28 through 31, September 4 through 7, and September 11 and 12 at 6:30 PM each night. The suggested donation is $8. More information is available at http://www.foresttheatrefestival.org. To find out more, or to get in on the puppet making action, call the puppet hotline at (919) 923-1857. Paperhand also brought out all of their amazing insect puppets for "Bugfest" on August 9 at the Natural History Museum in downtown Raleigh.

Piedmont Wildlife Center, Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, and Pilots at Horace Williams Airport Give a Least Tern a Second Chance: One good tern deserves another. And friends of the Piedmont Wildlife Center recently made sure that one especially lonely tern got just what it needed. Read about the Least Tern that came to the PWC and, with the help of Cheryl Hoggard, DVM and pilot Jim Epting, is now with others of her kind at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Florida. For details, see http://www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org/leasttern/.

Frank Heath, owner of the Cat's Cradle and regular columnist for the Chapel Hill News authored a piece about the state of Chapel Hill's downtown. His July 9 column espouses the view that Chapel Hill "deserves better" than the national chains and mall-like stores being recruited: "I think these stores tend to erode the sense of character and place that Franklin Street hopes to conserve." This may also be the first instance of the PLENTY being name-dropped! Please take some time to read the full article by clicking here.

For those who attended this year's Festival for the Eno or simply saw advertisements for the event, you may be unaware that the artwork for this year's festival, most notably the Eastern Red Bat, was created by member Emma Skurnick. Emma is the artist responsible for the beautiful appearance of the PLENTY bills themselves. She also created NCPlenty's logo and our "PLENTY Accepted Here" and "Ask For It As Change" signs, and served on the initial Board of Trustees after NCPlenty adopted its bylaws.

Lyle Estill
Lyle Estill, CEO of Blast, Inc. and owner of The Moncure Chessworks, both PLENTY acceptors, was recognized in the January issue of Business Leader as one of their “Impact 100” for the year 2002.  See a press release sent to NCPlenty by clicking here.

Mark Marcoplos
Mark Marcoplos of Marcoplos Construction authored the cover story in the January 29th issue of the Independent, entitled “The Green Good Life".  Access the article by clicking here.

NCPlenty News (Archives)

2003

NCPlenty Meets The Challenge!
We are very pleased to announce that NCPlenty was awarded a $625 grant from an anonymous donor, in recognition of our achievement in June and July. We were tasked to sign on 30 new members, and brought in 35, between June 1 and July 31.

NCPlenty Launches 120 Day Campaign!
For the one hundred twenty days from July 7, 2003 until the Annual Meeting on October 4, 2003, NCPlenty is running a campaign aimed at firmly establishing the PLENTY's positive impact to the area. Click here to read the launch notification from Acting President Matthew Kalb.

First Membership Newsletter
The Member Support Committee has issued the first issue (March 2003) of what will be a monthly newsletter. The purpose is to inform the membership of members in the news, activities of NCPlenty, and special opportunities. Read the current issue here.

New Version of Online Directory
With the PLENTY accepted for over 170 goods and services, a new on-line directory was needed. Check it out by clicking here.

2002

NCPlenty on WTVD
WTVD reporter Don Ross and his crew aired a story about the PLENTY on November 21, 2002. The story included images of the PLENTY being used at Weaver Street Market and interviews with members of the Board of Trustees.

NCPlenty Reaches 100 Member Milestone!
NCPlenty reached its 100 member milestone in October of 2002. Now boasting over 100 members, providing over 140 goods and services to our community, we're well on our way! Take a look at what our membership has to offer by clicking here.

PLENTY added to UNC Library Currency Collection
Three of each PLENTY denomination were donated to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's North Carolina Collection Gallery in October of 2002. The Gallery houses a large collection of currency that includes subcategories of bank notes, coins, tokens, and scrip. There are nearly 3,000 coins and over 6,000 pieces of paper money in this collection. For more information about UNC-CH's Currency Collection's currency holdings, click here.

Local Currency Launched!
The PLENTY was officially launched at our first annual meeting on Saturday, October 5th at Wilson Park in Carrboro.