GRANITE QUARRY — Feeling disconnected from the community? Here’s an event designed to change that.
Covenant Community Connection will sponsor the 11th annual Let’s Get Connected Day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Granite Lake Park on N.C. 52.
The event is a celebration of inclusion and diversity and features the eighth Peace Pole dedication at noon with a circle of prayer. Peace poles have been planted throughout Rowan County.
Granite Quarry Mayor William Feather will read a proclamation and participate in the prayers. Granite Elementary Strings will begin the celebration with patriotic songs, and the East Rowan Chamber Ensemble and East Rowan Mustang Jazz Band will also perform.
Piedmont Players Youth Theater group will present a scene from the play “One Thousand Cranes,” and the youth dance troupe from White Rock AME Zion Church will perform.
Representatives of the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths will bring prayers to share. Prayers will be offered in English, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Ibo, Arabic and Hebrew. An authentic, handmade tepee will be set up for people to experience the Native American culture.
Members of Covenant Community Connection, which falls under the Human Relations Council, are excited to expand the annual celebration of diversity to Granite Quarry, chairwoman Betty Jo Hardy said.
Event sponsors are Food Lion, Cheerwine, F&M Bank, PFLAG, Slice of Heaven Pizza and Granite Quarry residents. Next year, Covenant Community Connection has been invited to East Spencer to install a peace pole.
“We welcome any and all to come join us as we connect hands, hearts and prayers in an effort to bring peace, goodwill and respect for all our citizens regardless of their race, religion or national origin,” Hardy said. “We long to create a culture of peace in this place.
“There is an old saying, ‘If we all pray the same prayer, God will grant it.’ May it be so.”
The Rev. Carolyn Bratton, a member of the Human Relations Council, recently asked Salisbury City Council on behalf of the group to drop “Rowan” and “Salisbury” from the organization’s name after county commissioners pulled support from the group. A majority of commissioners in 2013 voted to withdraw staffing and stop making appointments to the Human Relations Council and said they would contribute financially only to the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.
Human Relations Council members wanted to drop Salisbury from the name as well in hopes that Rowan County will some day rejoin, Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell said.
In addition to Let’s Get Connected Day, the Human Relations Council also hosts events including the MLK breakfast, Meet Your Neighbor forums and La Fiesta de Rowan.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.