Local Focus
In Edgecombe County, surrounding counties and throughout North Carolina people have created great businesses, lovely restaurants, wonderful learning experiences and captivating events. Local Focus is meant to highlight these endeavors and remind us that we all appreciate beauty, good food, and happy productive ways to spend our time. Community is important. We must find common ground for appreciation and time well spent to strengthen community.
July 24, 2025 Conetoe Family Life Center and Farm People helping other people Submitted by Patricia Willis, ECDP Digital Committee Member As you travel down the rural North Carolina road HWY 42 toward Wilson, you come to 151 Vines Street. There is a big sign by the road that reads: Conetoe Family Life Center Farm. Turning right down the gravel driveway into the farm you see fields with vegetables and strawberries, “tunnels” or greenhouses with crops growing and in the far corner there are a couple of beehives. It’s a wonderful, peaceful setting filled with great hope and promise for the surrounding communities of Edgecombe County. As I walked in the door of their on-site Training Center, I was met by a lovely young lady named Reality. She was very kind and helpful. She explained that she is a volunteer at the Camp held by the Center each summer. Reality is a student at East Carolina University studying Elementary School Education, with a goal to become an Elementary School Teacher. She is a great example of the people who are working with the Family Life Center. Conetoe Family Center was founded in 2007 by Reverend Richard Joyner, lead pastor of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. The Center’s Facebook page states that Rev. Joyner founded the center “with the goals of fighting food insecurity and chronic illness among the community.” The Center’s Mission statement on its Website is:….” to improve the health of the youth and community by increasing access to healthy foods, increasing physical activities and providing access to health services. The goal is to change the poverty cycle in families through improving the resources available to families, specifically children. “Change the children by education and opportunity = Change for the family.” Rev. Joyner has been a driving force for the Center since its founding 18 years ago. When I spoke with him he was passionate about building self-reliance and accountability in his community. As part of that effort, the Family Life Center runs a camp for 10 weeks each summer to serve the children in Edgecombe County. The camp is intended to give young people in Bethel, Conetoe, Princeville, Rocky Mount- a wholesome, fun and educational place to spend their summer days while school is out. Themes included are : Steam and Experiments, Reading and Literacy, Cooking and Crafts, Fitness and Sports along with exciting Field Trips. The 50 children enrolled this summer will learn how important it is to exercise, eat healthy foods, and that you can grow these foods yourself. They also learn about the soil, the importance of pollinators (including honeybees) and other important life skills. As I was speaking with Reverend Joyner, he made a phone call to one of the first campers to let me talk with her about her experience and the impact the Center’s Camp had on her life. Her name is Dasia Pittman and though she now lives in Oklahoma, she grew up in Conetoe and attended the first Camp held in 2007. Daisa was 6 years old that first summer and was excited about the honeybees. She became one of the youngest people to be a Certified Beekeeper. When asked what impact the Center’s Camp had on her life, she listed learning discipline, how to manage your time, that you cannot always do just what you want if you want to succeed. She says that the skills of discipline and respect still help her all these years later. She said, “ I would not be who I am today without Rev. Joyner.” Dasia is now studying at Oklahoma University in their Master’s Program for Clinical Social Work. As I continued to speak with Rev. Joyner, he returned to the idea of accountability that he learned in his family. His Father and Mother both had broken family relationships and were determined to break that cycle with their own family. They had 14 of their own children and adopted 3 more for 17 total children. Rev. Joyner learned from his father that working together was vital for the welfare of their family and that you had to be accountable for what you were asked to do. He learned to put family matters first and that family accountability to raise children is crucial. Rev. Joyner wants to encourage families to seek help in their communities and their churches for this all-important task of teaching and loving children. Rev. Joyner said,” Care about children. Point them in the right direction and give them the energy to soar.” He ended by quoting Psalms 127: 3-4 “Children are a gift from the Lord….. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.” NIV Bible. Conetoe Family Life Center provides free produce to members of the community on Wednesdays from 3-5 pm in Pinetops at the Pinetops-Old Sparta Community Center at the end of South Sally Jenkins Street, Pinetops AND on Thursdays in Tarboro from 3-5 pm in the ECU Multispecialty Clinic Parking lot – 101 Clinic Drive, Tarboro. If you want more information about this marvelous organization and how to help, here is their contact information from the Center’s Website : 252-563-5411 Monday to Friday - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
July 24, 2025 Learn About The Edgecombe Memorial Library. Edgecombe County Memorial Library, unlike most public libraries, was created in 1953 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. The law states that Edgecombe County and the Town of Tarboro had the right to “establish and maintain” a free public library, and that any building “erected pursuant to this act” belongs to the County and the Town “in equal shares”. The facility must have a governing six-member Board of Trustees, three of whom are appointed by the County Commissioners and three of whom are appointed by the Town Council. Appropriations for the maintenance and support of the Library are made by Edgecombe County and the Town of Tarboro in proportions and amounts determined by the Commissioners and the Councilmen. Annually the Board of Trustees of the Library are required to submit an estimate of the moneys needed to support the Library to the County Commissioners and the Town Councilmen. The official tax status of the Library is 170 c 1, which is the designation for a “governmental nonprofit”. Over the years other, smaller funding sources such as State Aid to Libraries, individual and corporate donations, and funds from the Town of Pinetops where our Pinetops Branch Library is located were added to our revenue stream. The bulk of our funding still comes from Edgecombe County and the Town of Tarboro. We appreciate the support we have received from them for approximately seventy years, and we strive to do the very best we can with the resources we have. As our community and its needs have changed, so has the Library. If you have not been in the Library in a while, or even if you have, you may not be aware of all of the services Edgecombe County Memorial Library offers to individuals who live and work in Edgecombe County. I am very excited about all of the traditional programs and services the Library continues to provide. We still have books, periodicals, book clubs and story times. We partner with the schools to promote literacy and a love of reading by supporting the schools’ curriculae and encouraging regular field trips to the Library for educational programs. In addition to these traditional roles, however, we also provide one on one computer training, resume writing and job search assistance for patrons. Printing (both wireless and from our public PCs) and copying are available for 25 cents per page black and white and $1.00 per page color. We also send faxes for $1.00 / page. We are partnering with ECU Health to host digital literacy classes. We are partnering with Freedom Organization to promote our seed Library and the Community Gardens of Princeville and East Tarboro. We, and the Friends of the Library, are partnering with the Tar River Players to provide entertainment and learning experiences for people of all ages. We have meeting spaces where the Friends of the Library regularly host art exhibits by local artists. These rooms are used by nonprofit organizations who meet here regularly for no charge, and by for profit entities for staff training and other types of meetings for a nominal charge ($20 / hr.). We also partner with government agencies. We partner with the Board of Elections, allowing them to use our Pinetops Branch Library for early voting and voting on Election Day. In 2017, when Edgecombe County had not had a passport acceptance office for years, the State Department asked us to become a passport acceptance facility. Staff members were trained, and we have been offering passport appointments 4 days a week since then. We are still the only passport office in the County. Our Outreach and Children’s departments go above and beyond to ensure library services are available to all Edgecombe County residents. Our outreach person (a one-person department) takes library materials to homebound patrons, and also tailors fun and informative programs to meet the needs of various groups of senior citizens, including those in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Our children’s department coordinator (another one-person department) does story times, STEM programming, and works directly with our local homeschooling group. We partner with Down East Partnership for Children to bring Kaleidoscope, an educational program for children ages 0-5 and their parents to the Library. We also collaborate with Martin Millennium Academy which allows classes to walk to the Library for enrichment programs the first three Wednesdays of every month of the school year. This summer we are partnering with the Agricultural Extension Office to provide exercise and healthy eating programs for adults. Grants we have received this summer will pay for other exercise programs and new library materials to support healthy living education for adults in Edgecombe County. In the fall, we hope to put a pollinator garden in the front yard of the Library (working with the Extension office again) and to get Carver Elementary to take walking field trips to the Pinetops Branch Library as MMA does here in Tarboro. Activities which combine physical activity with fun and educational components help children to get off to a good start. You can check our website, www.edgecombelibrary.org and our Facebook page to see what is happening at the Library. Better yet, please come see us. Our mission is to meet the educational, recreational and technological needs of our patrons, with respect and patron satisfaction and confidentiality. We offer this attitude, and these services, to all Library visitors, every day, to the best of our ability.
June 24, 2025 Bee Relief to Western North Carolina In September of 2024, Hurricane Helene roared toward the United States; ultimately hitting head on in the Big Bend area of Florida and then rolling through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee , Western Virginia and on up through the Midwest, finally dissipating in the New England States. The damage to our counties in Western North Carolina was devastating and expensive. Rampaging flood waters destroyed roads, homes, businesses, tourist attractions and all kinds of agricultural crops and livestock, including honeybee hives. The NC State Apiculture program at NC State University estimated that 70% to 90% of working beehives in the mountains were destroyed by Helene. In October, Dr. David Tarpy, who works with NC State’s Apiculture program came up with an idea to help beekeepers in Western North Carolina. A Group from the NC State Beekeeper’s Association went to the Mountains and assessed the situation there. From that assessment a project was born where different beekeeping groups and clubs around the state were paired up with certain western counties to help bring honeybees back to the area. Wake County Beekeepers Association teamed up with beekeepers in Johnston, Harnett, Lee and Moore Counties to help the beekeepers in Ashe County rebuild their honeybee population. ( from an article- WRAL NEWS https://www.wral.com/lifestyle/nc-beekeepers-revive-honeybee-population-after-hurricane-helene/ ) The Wilson County Beekeepers Association also participated in this project to help our fellow beekeepers recover. In February the club voted to buy and paint the boxes used to house the bees. Then over the next several months they fed and split beehives from their apiary to populate those boxes. The Club in Wilson was paired with Haywood County which is between Asheville and Cherokee, North Carolina. The County Seat of Haywood County is Waynesville. On June 8, 2025, Forty new beehives were loaded onto a trailer and several members of the Wilson County Beekeepers Association (WCBA) made the trip to Haywood County. Along with the beehives they also brought 2000 lbs. of sugar to support the hives until they are well settled in their new homes. Hooper’s Creek Bee Company donated the sugar. The Haywood County Beekeepers Association members were on hand to receive the new hives and the sugar. They expressed their gratitude for all the WCBA volunteers who helped by painting boxes, building frames and building bee populations. (from a post on Wilson County Beekeepers Association Facebook page, June 8, 2025) Honeybees are an important part of our agricultural efforts. They provide important pollination activity and also contribute their sweet honey for our consumption. It is such good news to see how good people in our state respond so graciously to help others who have experienced loss in natural disasters. By Patricia Willis newsletter contributor and member of WCBA