Letters to the editor - Saturday (2-11-2012)

Red Cross renders aid, thanks to local support

Tuesday morning’s fire on Vivian Road was a devastating loss to the Larson family. Unfortunately, it’s a situation the American Red Cross encounters all too often.

As temperatures cool, we typically see an increase in home fires caused by space heaters and other alternative means of heating a home. We urge our community members to review home fire safety tips and take extreme caution when heating their homes.

When reading the article, something one of the family members said struck me: “We’re going to be fine.”

Thankfully, the Larsons will be fine. No one was injured in the fire, and our Red Cross volunteers were there to assist with their emergency needs.

The reason we are able to be there is because our community members and our local United Way support our organization. When you donate to Red Cross Disaster Relief, you are helping countless families like the Larsons who experience a home fire.

As board chair for our local Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter, I am proud to be a part of a community that supports the Red Cross and United Way programs that assist victims of disaster.

Thank you for supporting the Red Cross, and for supporting local families like the Larsons who have experienced a disaster.

— Steve Schenk

Salisbury

Steve Schenk is chair of the Board of Directors for the Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross.

A sad change

Things will not be the same without Deal and Daphne and Gary at the Literary Bookpost. When my family and I moved here from Washington, D.C., years ago, we left behind bookstores, wineshops, cafes, coffee shops, little art galleries and many other things for which we found ouselves driving to Charlotte. But then we found some interesting shelves of books marked “Deal Safrit, bookseller” at a local used bookstore, and we met Deal, and we watched Deal grow his love of books into one of the finest independent bookstores I’ve known. As his dream grew, I started seeing downtown Salisbury change as well, and now I can walk from my home for a good meal, a good show at a variety of venues, a glass of wine, fine shopping, all the things that make a livable and vibrant downtown. But the first of these, in my mind, will always be Deal and Sheila and all the rest who dreamed their dream of good books and made it happen at the Literary Bookpost. From their dream, the face of Salisbury changed. Now, who is going to know what I’m talking about when I go in and say, “I was listening to NPR the other week and they were talking about this book about this or that ... I don’t remember the name or the author, but can you find it?”

Deal and company always found it. Thank you, thank you very much. You will be sorely missed.

— Nancy Gaines

Salisbury

Brotherly love

Kudos to Coach Andrew Mitchell Jr. and the North Rowan boys basketball team for yet another conference championship. Coach Mitchell continues to win with dignity as the Cavaliers played conference games where his team could easily have scored 100 points or more on several occasions. But this gentle giant does not want to embarrass other kids. We all know Coach Mitchell is a great coach, but he is even 10 times a better person. He will give you the shirt off his back. I know this personally because we shared the same clothes growing up together, and he would always want me to wear the best we had to school. Now that’s loving your neighbor as yourself.

Coach Mitchell also is helped by some of the finest assistants and men — Coach Bill Kesler, Coach Elder Timothy Bates and Jermaine Miller.

Continue the good work, guys.

— (Brother) Michael Mitchell

Spencer