Morning Minute: Tuesday, April 2, 2019

News About Town: Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church was the victim of property damage once again last Friday. Matthews Police Department is looking for assistance in identifying two suspects, who were caught on video cameras at the church (https://www.matthewsnc.gov/newsview.aspx?nid=6224). Anyone with information on the incident is encouraged to contact Detective Chris Duryee (cduryee@matthewsnc.gov).

News Around Town: According to the NC Constitution Article IX, Section 7, “the clear proceeds of all penalties and forfeitures...for any breach of the penal laws of the State, shall belong to and remain in the several counties, and shall be...used exclusively for maintaining free public schools." In relation to recent news, the Article dedicates the fines incurred by Taft Family Ventures along Monroe Road to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, rather than for replanting trees cut down within the dedicated tree save area. The voluntary fee provided by the developer (in the amount of $100,000) may be used for replanting or as the Town deems appropriate.  

One Good Thing: Gather a little vitamin D, breathe some fresh air, then soak up the post-exercise endorphins with yoga in the park. This Friday, join Elinor Edvi-Miller at Stumptown Park for a free session of vinyasa flow and deep stretch yoga from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. The program will continue for five more Fridays throughout April and May for the cost of $25 for the series.

Morning Minute: Monday, April 1, 2019

News About Town: The Great Easter Egg Expedition begins this Friday, April 5, and runs through Sunday, April 21. In the past the Town has hosted an egg hunt at Stumptown Park, but this year they’re going bigger and better by hiding several thousand eggs throughout town parks (Stumptown, Squirrel Lake, Windsor, and Sardis Parks) and Four-Mile Creek Greenway (between John Street and Chesney Glen). The eggs will contain toys and the chance to win bigger prizes if you find a Golden Egg. Consider it a town-wide game of Gamete-mon Go!

News Around Town: Angelica Figueroa, a certified financial coach with Sharonview Credit Union, will be on hand this Wednesday at the Matthews Library to talk about planning your financial future. The class, Money Smart Week: Steps to Financial Freedom, will be from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Community Room.

One Good Thing: Even though the weather has been nice, we’re not out of the woods with frost yet. There are a couple of days calling for low 30s in the evenings (like last night). If you’ve already caved and started your summer annual crops…let’s be honest, tomatoes are super tempting to plant right now…make sure you have a method to protect them from the kiss of cold.

Black History Month at the Library

In honor of Black History Month, staff at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library have some suggested reading (and viewing) to help you learn about and explore the people and moments that have shaped our collective past.

HistoryMakers

Check out The HistoryMakers Digital Archive, an oral history collection highlighting the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements.  It is unique among collections of African American heritage because of its large and varied scope, with interviewees from across the United States, from a variety of fields, and with memories stretching from the 1890s to the present.

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Adult Nonfiction

• In A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America’s Schools, Rachel Devlin tells the story of young black women who led the movement to integrate schools.

• Read the true story of Josiah Henson, immortalized in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in The Road to Dawn: Josiah Henson and the Story That Sparked the Civil War by Jared Brock.

• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, winner of 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction, exposes the origins of racist ideas and their role in rationalizing policies that promote racial inequality.

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Adult Fiction

• Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the story of a young slave woman’s bid to escape the Antebellum South, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

• Jesmyn Ward won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing, an exploration of history and racism through the lens of a multiracial family in the rural South.

• Another Brooklyn, by Jacqueline Woodson, was a 2016 National Book Award finalist; it is a picture of life for a young African American woman growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s.

• Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers, winner of the 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, tells the story of a Cameroonian immigrant’s pursuit of the American dream in Harlem in 2007.

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Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

• Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down, longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, takes place during an elevator ride of a 15-year-old boy determined to avenge his brother’s shooting death. 

• Monster, Walter Dean Myer’s classic, tackles issues of race, class, gender and the judicial system with a 16-year-old black teen on trial for murder.

• Dreamland Burning, by Jennifer Latham, tells intersecting stories of present-day Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

• Tony Medina’s I Am Alfonso Jones is a tale of police brutality and Black Lives Matter told in graphic novel format.  

• Presented in graphic novel format, the March Trilogy is Congressman John Lewis’ narrative of his experiences in the civil rights movement.

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Pre-Teen Fiction and Nonfiction

• Learn about Depression-era life in the South in Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper.

• Mildred D. Taylor’s classic Logan Family series is set in post-Civil War Georgia and features classics The Land and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. 

• Linda Williams Jackson’s Midnight Without a Moon gives readers a glimpse of race relations in rural Mississippi in the 1950s.

• In Freedom on the Menu: the Greensboro Sit-Ins, author Carole Boston Weatherford envisions the 1960 Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins through the eyes of a young African American observer.

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Young readers

• March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Beals

• Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Stephen Alcorn

• What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld

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Picture Books

In the Resources section of our website you’ll find Books & Authors, where you can browse the complete list of winners of the Coretta Scott King Award, which recognizes African American authors and illustrators who express the African American experience in works for young people.

Introduce little ones to important figures in African American history with picture books like: 

• The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson

• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

• Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson

• Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

• Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simon by Alice Briere-Haquet

Morning Minute: October 16, 2018

News About Town: As Halloween approaches faster than you can say “boo”, it’s time to think about carving gourds into all manner of faces. (Pumpkins seem way easier to carve than beets or turnips.) The Town of Matthews wants to see what you make. Enter your creation in the Town’s Pumpkin Contest by dropping off your carved, painted, or decorated Jack O’ Lantern in the Park and Rec office behind the Free Clinic, 196-B S. Trade St., on Oct. 25 or 26. Entries will be separated into two age groups (16 and under, 17 and up) for judging. Winners will receive season tickets to Carowinds.

News Around Town: Early voting begins Wednesday! Stop in at the Matthews library and cast your ballot for the 2018 elections. Polls are open from 7:00am to 7:00pm on Wednesday, with additional schedule information available here. Not registered? No problem! North Carolina offers “One Stop” early voting where citizens can register and vote at the same time. You’ll need proof of residence (find a list of acceptable documents here). Post your “I Voted” selfies on our Facebook page!

One Good (and Fun) Thing: The Matthews Library needs your help for programming! Though they have a wide variety of classes on the schedule they’re looking for new and exciting classes to add. Have a mastery of Dungeons & Dragons? Want to explore the wonders of vermiculture? They want to know what you want to learn! Email Stephanie Lucas with your ideas.

Morning Minute: October 4, 2018

News Around Town: About 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime and though the odds of men developing breast cancer are less common, it does happen. Early detection through regular checkups is paramount in the fight against breast cancer. This year the Matthews Police Department is doing their part to raise awareness by wearing custom Pink ‘n Blue tee shirts under their uniforms (with permission from the Chief, of course) for October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

If you want to help their efforts, the shirts are also available for the public for purchase (cash only; small to XL $16, XXL are $18) with proceeds going to the Novant Health Mobile Mammography Unit to help fund checkups for women who can not afford them.

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Matthews police will have a pop of color in their uniforms this month to draw attention to the need for early breast cancer screenings. Photos courtesy of the Matthews Police Department.

“Many women who are diagnosed have no known risk factors. Screening mammography, recommended annually starting at age 40, or younger if you are at high risk, is the best tool we have for early detection.”

— Roland Bibeau

News Above Town: In a cruel weather joke, temps will reach 90 today. If you have a good relationship with Autumn will you ask it to please come back to Matthews? We’re looking forward to a looooong visit.

The seasons may be confused but the sky is on point.

News About Town: This week a jury in Rowan County Criminal Superior Court found Gerardo Juarez, a Matthews resident, guilty of four counts of felony trafficking (heroin by possession and transportation) and one count of felony conspiracy to traffic (heroin by possession and transportation). Judge David Hall sentenced Gerardo Juarez to two consecutive sentences (totaling at least 37.5 years) and ordered a mandatory minimum fine of $500,000. Juarez and Darya Sergeyevna Borovskaya, also a Matthews resident, were arrested in an undercover operation in Salisbury in 2017.

One Fun Thing: Join the Matthews Library for Family Storytime today (and every Thursday through the end of the month) at Squirrel Lake Park! One of talented Matthews librarians will be on-hand telling stories, singing songs, and leading activities. Squirrel Lake Park, 1631 Pleasant Plains Rd, Matthews, NC 28105. Meet at shelter A.