Letters to the editor – Saturday (1-17-09)

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 16, 2009

Christmas Homes Tour was a merry success
The Salisbury-Rowan Symphony Guild is grateful to many people who made our 2008 Christmas Homes Tour a wonderland of holiday spirit! The results from this year’s event are in and we want to share the good news with our community. The guild enjoyed record success, with a 20 percent increase in attendance. The tour revenues are critical for our symphony orchestra to maintain and produce high quality performances.
Six families in the Crescent Golf Community graciously opened their beautifully decorated homes. Over 40 volunteer musicians, including choral groups and bands, performed holiday favorites that enhanced the tour experience.
Cloninger Ford/Toyota/Scion and Fisher Harriss Development Co. were the presenting sponsors. Sixty-seven sponsors generously donated to the event. More than 300 people including organizers, docents, reception hosts and golf cart drivers generously volunteered their time. Guild members, friends, and local businesses donated products and services.
We would like to express appreciation to the many area ticket outlets, Pleinair Artists, providers of vans, golf carts, trucks, booties for shoes, picture frames, tickets and photography.
We also extend a special thanks to the Crescent neighbors who enjoyed the crowds and to the city of Salisbury employees who helped to make the streets shine. It is this sense of community that helps to make the tour so successful!
We are also grateful to Katie Scarvey and Sarah Hall for exceptional publicity, photos and coverage in the Salisbury Post, to Cindy Hart with Out and About, to Buddy Poole from radio station WSAT Memories 1280 and to others who promoted this event.
To everyone who helped make the tour a resounding success, thank you! We hope you will “Save the Dates!” May 16 and 17 for the 2009 Festival of Spring Gardens and also Dec. 5 and 6 for the 2009 Christmas Homes Tour. The guild looks forward to showcasing the area’s fine homes and gardens!
ó Ann Meredith, Judy Ann Deal and Diana Moustafa
The writers are co-chairpersons ó 2008 Christmas Homes Tour.
Santas for seniors
We at Home Instead Senior Care would like to thank all the wonderful volunteers and shoppers in Rowan County who helped make our holiday community service program, Be a Santa to a Senior, such a huge success. We especially thank all three Walgreens stores for hosting our trees; the youth at Sacred Heart Catholic Church for their gifts and hand made cards; our wrapping party volunteers, and the Diamond Divas; and the Salisbury Post for its story.
Thanks to the generous donations and efforts of our community, many seniors in need who may have been overlooked received gifts and companionship this holiday season. We were able to provide over 500 gifts to 170 seniors this season in Salisbury/Rowan. The citizens of Salisbury made a great contribution in spite of the tough economy. The seniors we delivered gifts to were most appreciative.
Thanks to all those who helped us brighten the holidays for our seniors here. We look forward to brightening even more lives next year!
ó Robin Perry
Salisbury
A jampacked calendar
Salisbury has grown to a point where there are many more wonderful opportunities to experience the arts and culture! The “bad” news is that the calendar has not grown, so that sometimes important events are scheduled at the same time.
Such is the situation coming this month when the Waterworks Visual Arts Center is holding its annual fundraiser ó the Oyster Roast ó on the same evening that the Salisbury Symphony has scheduled its January concert (Jan. 24).
Neither organization can change their date, and both organizations regret the conflict. To its credit, the Waterworks Visual Arts Center has scheduled the beginning of the Oyster Roast for earlier in the evening so that those supporters of the arts who wish to attend both events can do so.
On behalf of both organizations, thanks to all our mutual supporters! Be assured that we have looked at the 2010 calendar and will not conflict then!
ó Linda Jones
Salisbury
Jones is executive director, Salisbury-Rowan Symphony Society, Inc.