Enlarge Ann Wilder donates blood for her daughter, who has sickle-cell. (Photo: Charlotte Observer)

Posted: December 7th, 2011 Lee Howard

With the holidays approaching, blood donations tend to tank. So Sunday, the American Red Cross and Presbyterian Hospital kicked off an effort to encourage more people to donate blood and platelets. The "12 Days of Giving" campaign runs through Dec. 15.

Almost 14,000 children in the greater Charlotte area being helped by the Salvation Army's Christmas Bureau. So far, 7,000 families have signed up to receive help from the volunteer-based program that provides gifts to low-income families.

The CMS school board wants to hear from the community about what people want in their next school superintendent. The district will hold six meetings this week at schools throughout Mecklenburg County to gather local opinion.

Panhandlers are proliferating Uptown and most of them are not homeless, Charlotte Center City Partners’ Michael Smith says. And local homeless services groups and shelters are on board with CCCP to help curb nuisance begging. Note cards with information about homeless resources will be distributed in Uptown restaurants and businesses. The campaign encourages people to hand a beggar one of those cards instead of cash.

Writer Ken Garfield explores why Levine Children's Hospital Chapel is a quiet place that offers comfort and hope. You can see the evidence in the messages left in a notebook to the tear-stained floor.

Posted: December 5th, 2011 Tonya Jameson

In a small building tucked off Sharon Amity Road, dozens of refugees from Bhutan and elsewhere crammed into a small room inside the Neighborhood Good Samaritan Center.

Some wore flip-flops although it was cold enough to see your breath outside. Others were hungry after a long day of classes and little to eat. Yet, it wasn't the lack of warm shoes or even the hunger that bothers them – it was the lack of help. They were refugees fleeing countries such as Somalia, Vietnam and Bhurma. They wanted help, not hand-outs.

It was a refrain participants of Crossroads Charlotte's In Our Own Backyard: A Community Tour Through a World of Cultures bus tour heard often Thursday night. The tour exposed participants to organizations and agencies that help Charlotte’s Immigrant, Refugee, Asylee and International (IRAI) communities. The tour was part of the monthlong Many Cultures, One Community initiative.

Some of the tour participants worked with the IRAI communities’ service providers such as the Mecklenburg Area Partnership for Primary-Care Research and International House. Others simply heard about it and wanted to learn more about the IRAI communities.

Along with a stop at the Neighborhood Good Samaritan Center, the tour visited the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency on Monroe Road and ended at the Hindu Center off of Independence Boulevard.

One UNC Charlotte intern from Japan said the tour exposed her to diversity and the challenges people face. She said she doesn’t see a lot of diversity in Japan.

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Posted: November 9th, 2011 Lee Howard

Stories worth sharing this week:

• The aftermath of North Carolina’s attempts to control “undesirables,” something euphemistically known as “eugenics,” is prompting state officials to consider compensation for thousands wronged by state-mandated sterilization. The program started in the 1920s to prevent the mentally ill, epileptics and the “feebleminded” from procreating. It lingered into the 1970s and has become a vicious scar no longer buried in the state’s past.
• History or sacrilege? It depends on your perspective. More than 14,000 tickets have been sold for the opening this coming Friday of Discovery Place’s Mummies of the World exhibit, a local record. But showing the mummified remains of people who have not given their consent could raise ethical questions for some religious, cultural and moral reasons. Will you be going to see this exhibit?
• With minority high school graduation rates lagging in Mecklenburg  County schools, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has stepped up with a new program targeting students in local high schools with the lowest graduation rates. The local Y has formed a branch of a national youth club called Y Achievers. Workshops offer minority and underserved students assistance with character development, leadership and community service.
• New voting district boundaries, recently drawn up by Republican lawmakers, violate the state constitution, or so says the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC. The various groups have filed a lawsuit alleging racial bias in the new voting district boundaries. It seems the newly drawn districts meet federal requirements, but don’t meet state law, the suit alleges.
• A toothache hurts anyone, but if you’re homeless and have no access to dental care, it can wear away at your overall health.On Nov. 5, Shelter Health Service provided a dental van at Center of Hope, a Salvation Army emergency shelter for women and children, staffed with professionals from Landmark Dentistry in Matthews. Landmark, which made its services available for free, hopes to offer the mobile clinic on a quarterly basis for the next year.

Posted: November 8th, 2011 Lee Howard

Waya Dimalanta, festooned from head to toe in yellow feathers and crowned with a beaded headdress, stood out in the morning sun Saturday against a crowd of “fancy dancers” at the third annual American Indian Heritage Month Celebration.

The Charlotte Museum of History hosted the day-long event, which was sponsored by Many Journeys, an organization formed three years ago by cousins and Lumbees Dana Lowery-Ramseur and Will Lowry. Dimalanta was among more than 50 dancers who presented exhibition dancing and a turquoise rainbow performance. The event also included booths offering Native American jewelry, multicolored serapes and feathered dream catchers.

Dimalanta, a member of the Lumbee and Saponi tribes, says his dance was a powwow, a familiar expression to many non-Native Americans who have no idea what it really means. The powwow, often a competitive dance, attempts to express gratitude to The Creator, Dimalanta explains.

“We like to share our culture with others, so that everybody understands us,” he says. 

Charlotte-based Boy Scout Troop 144 presented the colors during the opening ceremonies. Troop leader Tim Otten, himself a Lumbee, says the event helps the boys in his troop earn requirements toward their Native American lore merit badges. But it also introduces them to much more. 

“It suprises even me how many different Native American cultures are in our area,” he says, adding, “An event like this brings our history back to life.”

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