Wounded Warriors Leave Program

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!
Let's Get 'em home for Christmas!

Last December the national director of the Military Order Of Purple Heart (MOPH) visited the Wounded Warrior Barracks at Camp Lejuene. He wanted to give each of the Wounded Marines a special gift for Christmas. Some of these brave men have suffered debilitating wounds. When asked "What do you want for Christmas?", most said they just wanted to spend Christmas at home with their families. Because many of the brave Marines could not afford the cost of an airline ticket and planned to spend Christmas in the Wounded Warrior Barracks, the Wounded Warrior Leave Program was born.

Last year there was a fundraiser that was held at New Bern Golf and Country Club. That fundraiser, along with an e-mail that was circulated throughout the United States, raised enough money to send every Wounded Marine home for Christmas. Donations to this project bought airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, bus tickets, whatever was necessary to get the wounded Marines and Soldiers together with their families and grant them their Christmas wish!

This year will be even more of a challenge. In addition to the 125 or so Wounded Marines at Camp Lejeune, the MOPH will help the Wounded Soldier's at Fort Bragg.

Here's how you can help.
Please join us Tuesday, December 11th from 6-8 PM for a fundraiser at New Bern Country Club where our guests of honor will be several of these wounded Marines.There will be heavy hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. Bring a check payable to "MOPH-Wounded Warrior Leave".
Our donation goal is $50 per person or more for attendees. Even if you can only stay a short while, please come by and meet these brave Marines and let them know we appreciate the sacrifice they have made! Ask anyone that attended last year, it was a truly special ocassion, everyone was overwhelmed with the Christmas spirit, and we expect this year's event to be just as memorable.

If you have other obligations but are still willing to help with any amount of donation, please mail a check ASAP, payable to MOPH-Wounded Warrior Leave. Send to SteveTyson , 820 Broad Street, New Bern, NC 28560

We recognize this is short notice, but there is a deadline of December 12th in order to purchase plane tickets. The limited time-frame is why we are attempting to contact as many people as we can by email. Please forward this e-mail to everyone in your contact list. Last year, we were surprised at how much came in from the email that was circulated nationally. It was truly a team effort for a wonderful cause. Time is short, We must purchase tickets soon before the airlines get booked up with holiday traffic.

DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND 100% OF THE MONEY RAISED WILL BE SPENT TO UNITE THESE WOUNDED MARINES AND SOLDIERS WITH THEIR FAMILIES FOR CHRISTMAS!

If you can attend Please RSVP by email as soon as you can at tyson@century21.com or call 252-633-5720.

God bless you and your family this Christmas,

Glory Days

Friday night I invited a friend of mine to go with me to see New Bern High School play in the first round of the division playoffs. My friend, who had not been to a high school game in years, was quite a player in his day. As we were walking down the bleachers looking for a seat we saw 5 guys that we had gone to high school with some 35 years ago and we sat with them. It was a great time and we all reminisced about our glory days on the High School team back in the day. New Bern proved to be to talented for the team they played from Raleigh, and it was pretty much a blow out. Nevertheless we all throughly enjoyed the game and have decided to go to round 2 of the playoffs next week. Hope to see you there.

Ghost walk

Saturday was the final night of the New Bern Ghost walk and some members of my lunch Rotary volunteered to help at the Cedar Grove Cematary. There were 5 groups of actor's playing various roles with a common theme pertaining to the occupancy of New Bern by Union forces during the Civil War. The weather was perfect, the crowds were quite large, and everyone seemed to enjoy their evening stroll through a time in New Bern's history that has become somewhat blurred with time. Quite a bit of money was raised for the New Bern Historical society and me, I found it to be a haunting experience.

October in New Bern

In New Bern, October is a month of fun and festivals. We just got back from the Chili Festival which is always a fun filled event held in Havelock which is about a 20 minute drive from New Bern. Chef's from all over the state come in to see whose chili will be chosen number one by a panel of 12 judges. Many other types of food were prepared by various non profit organizations and sold to raise money for the charities they represent. Many performances, including Community and High School Bands, College choirs, professional wrestlers, and Civil War re-enactment soldiers entertained the thousands of visitors.

Also held this weekend was the Neuse River Run. This year's event had over 800 contestants who competed in 5 and 10 K runs/walks. The run begins in Bridgeston and proceeds to the Neuse River Bridge and finishes in downtown New Bern. All proceeds from the event go to 12 non profit organizations.

The Mum Fest was held in downtown New Bern last weekend. This annual event is rated one of the top 20 festivals in the South and grows each year with new vendors and performers. Click the link to learn more about the Mum Fest http://www.mumfest.com/

New Bern's Ghost Walk will be held October 26 and 27. This years Ghost walk will give you a chance to experience the Civil War Years in New Bern at the 17th annual New Bern at Night Ghostwalk. The Ghostwalk tour features historic homes, churches, and the town’s oldest cemetery, dating back to 1798. This year’s event transports you to the Civil War Years, with Confederate and Union soldiers, spies and other “spirits” that disclose their intriguing stories. Guides are available at each site to give the history of homes while the “ghosts” tell the story of the Battle of New Bern and share other tales of what the town was like during this turbulent era in American history when brother fought against brother.

Oh say can you see

The 4th of July is all about fireworks, small town parades, friends, family and cookouts. This year I managed to experience a little of all the above. I started the day by attending the Riverbend 4th of July parade. This is a great event to attend as it typifies a small town 4th of July celebration. The parade is only about 3 blocks long but the enthusastic crowd cheers their local celebraties, Fire departments, and civic organizations. The parade ends at the town hall where they have pony rides, games, food and drink and a country rock band.

After leaving Riverbend I rode to Havelock to join some friends, retired Marines, for their annual 4th celebration that comes complete with barbeque, watermelon, cole slaw, and pepsi cola. Havelock is the home of Cherry Point Marine air station and there are plenty of former Marines that attend the party. The air was filled with patriotism as you might expect. Great time but I had to leave early to get back to New Bern and prepare my boat for a fun filled evening on the water with friends. We, along with everyone else in the area with a boat, boated to Union Point and watched the awesome fireworks. What a sight. We enjoyed it throughly and will no doubt be back next year.

New Bern regional airport

Last Saturday I had to go to the airport to pick my wife up. She was coming in from Philadelphia. I was suprised when I walked in the the airport to see so many people, some getting their luggage, 2 lines, one Delta, one US Air, both of which weemed to be full. New Bern, and all of Eastern NC, are fortunate to have an airport with such outstanding service. We have 8 US Air flights daily to Charlotte, 3 Delta direct jet flights to Atlanta, and several weekly flights to Philadelphia. Thats hard to beat for a small county like craven, Pamlico, and Cateret.

Lake New Bern

Last night my wife and my son spent the afternoon at Lake New Bern. Lake New Bern is a 60 acre, 40' deep absolutely beautiful lake located in the center of New Bern. We set up a tent, started the charcoal, and proceeded to enjoy the afternoon reading, walking-me, and fishing. After I walked around the perimeter of the lake, around 2 miles, I checked to see how many fish my wife and son had caught. The sum of their catch was 0. So I asked if they would mind if I gave it a whirl. First cast and bang, I hooked a nice large mouth bass.

Humbly I unhooked the fish and walked away.

Fun at the Palace

The photo on the left shows New Bern's Tryon Palace during a concert held Tuesday June 4. What a wonderful evening. Over 1000 people showed up to hear the North Carolina symphony. Afterwards there was a spectacular fireworks display courtesy of one of our local corporations. All this for free. Great evening and I hope they will do it again soon.

Happy on the river in New Bern

Happiness is being on the Trent River in New Bern with your grandson and your two best friends, Roscoe and River. Doesn`t get much better than this.

The Golf Factor in the New Bern Area

The golf scene sure has changed in the New Bern area over the past 40 years. New Bern golf and country club was the first and only course in the area until the mid 1960's. I believe Carolina Pines was the next course to open, sometime in the mid 60's, and Riverbend followed in the late 60's. The Shoreline course in Fairfield, the Minnesot course in Pamlico County, the Quaker Neck course in Jones County, all sprung up in the 70's. The 80's brought the Harbour Pointe course in Fairfield and the Emerld in the city of New Bern. In the 90's Taberna and the links joined the crowd. The end result is that we have a plethora of fine courses to chose from in this area. As in life I believe variety is the spice of life when it comes to golf. Most of us get comfortable playing our home courses and miss out on the challange of facing a course ofwhich we are not familiar. I think we should all get out and play some of the other fine courses in the area.