Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Mamie Adkins Charity Golf Tournament – On Course for Fun by KAREN POPPELE A round of fun and support for a great cause will be par for the course at the 7th Annual Mamie Adkins Charity Golf Tournament to be held on Aug. 20, 2011. The event, which direct- ly benefits the Tabernacle Baptist Church Mamie Adkins Education Fund, begins with a Shotgun Start at 10 a.m. at Gates Four Golf Course in Fayetteville. The course has undergone a complete renovation and is ready for play, according to Rodney Adkins, grandson of Mamie Adkins, who talked about the tournament and the scholarship program by phone. “The program was set up originally back in 2004,” said you can take away with you, that you can have forever or however long your shirt lasts. We do gift bags, but we rely on donations from businesses and area vendors. I personally ask for logo items like golf balls or Koozies. Woodmen of the World will be providing sewing kits this year, which I think is pretty neat. We have fun.” Part of that fun comes from the contests, including the stan- dard Closest to the Pin and the Longest Drive. But Adkins noted that the tournament offers contests for golfers of all skill levels. “We also have a fun contest for the golfers who aren’t Adkins, whose grandmother, as detailed in the document used to amend the church bylaws to recognize the program, “loved her church, placed significant value in education and she endeavored to see those around her better themselves.” “They changed the bylaws of the church to recognize the fund so that it would perpetuate, so as members change, as pastors change and as the leadership changes, the program would stay in place,” Adkins said. “The church actually administers it. We simply fund it. And the church provides funds to seed it, as much as they can.” To date, seven individuals have won scholarships under the program. Some of the requirements for the scholarship, which is awarded based on merit and need, are that the applicant must be a member in good standing with the church, have a 3.0 GPA and write a short essay “regarding the role of faith in life and education.” While the deadline for participants to register for the 18-hole Captain’s Choice Scramble has passed, various levels of sponsorship are still available. “We’ll accept sponsorships up to about the second week in August,” said Adkins. “We’ll actually accept them after that, but we might not be able to advertise for them because we have to have things printed. All of the full sponsorships go di- rectly to the fund.” In addition to supporting the scholarship fund, the tournament is also serious about fun. “We have a lot of fun,” Adkins said. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We play for bragging rights. Each player receives a golf shirt. It’s more of something that The 7th Annual Mamie Adkins Charity Golf Tournament to be held on Aug. 20, 2011. professional or serious golfers. We have a Farthest from the Pin and a Shortest Drive. Those are always fun.” And according to the tournament’s website, this year’s event includes the return of the “Long Tee Longest Drive” competition, which complements the return of most tournament players. “The majority of our field comes back every year. But this year we’ve lost more teams than any before,” said Adkins. “We started with 7 players; last year we had 96 players, and we couldn’t have done that without the repeat players. This year, with it falling on the date that it did, four of the teams that played last year are not playing this year because of college orientation. They’re taking their students up to college.” But Adkins knows they would be here if they could. “Typically, I would say about 80% of those who play in our tournament will come back to play the next year because we like to have fun. By the third year, we started seeing little pranks coming up between players, like giving them stuff to count with because they can’t count. And one year we gave a player a Michael Jackson glove. A lot of fun is had.” The official awards ceremony will recognize the first- through fifth-placed teams and contest winners and include a live auction — great fun to support a great fund! For more information, visit www.amagt.webs.com, email rodney@ctsclean.com or call 483-5349. KAREN POPPELE, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com New Books and a New Bookwatch by D.G. MARTIN UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch begins a new season on Friday, Aug. 5, at 9:30 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 7, at 5 p.m. My editors let me share with you my reading suggestions. They know that the suggestions parallel exactly upcoming Bookwatch shows. Because earlier columns have already discussed several books on the list, some descriptions will be short. The new series opens with one of North Carolina’s most respected authors, UNC-Greensboro’s Michael Parker. He discusses The Watery Part of The World, an imaginative story that blends coastal history and legends with race and other complexities to make a gripping and lovely story (Aug. 5, 7). In Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, John D. Karsarda, di- rector of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill, explains why efficient, well-designed airports at- tract economic development and will be the central cities of the future. He discusses the challenges and opportunities that face North Carolina’s major airports (Aug. 12,14). Can a retired professor of religious studies write a successful science fiction novel? David Halperin’s Journal of a UFO Investigator, proves that UFOs, science fiction and religion can come together to make compelling fiction in a most unusual way (Aug. 19, 21). Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen: Soulful, Traditional, Seasonal will be the first of several food-related books featured on Bookwatch this season. Foster, who once worked with Martha Stewart, generously shares favorite recipes from her family and from her market (Aug. 26, 28). Best-selling author Steve Berry’s many visits to eastern North Carolina led him to set much of his newest adventure novel, The Jefferson Key, in and around the town of Bath, where fictional modern-day pirates live in palatial estates (Sept. 2, 4). Rosecrans Baldwin’s first novel You Lost Me There is set in Maine, and Baldwin has only recently settled in North Carolina. But when the book was named one of National Public Radio’s Best Books of 2010, a Best Book of Summer 2010 by Time WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM and Entertainment Weekly and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, I knew Bookwatch viewers would want to learn about Baldwin and his highly praised book (Sept. 9, 11). Watauga County native Sheri Castle’s The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers’ Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes is a guide to finding the best seasonal foods in our region. She organizes her recipes into about 40 chapters, each featuring a different vegetable or fruit (Sept. 16, 18). Where do you get these seasonal foods? Diane Daniel’s Farm Fresh North Carolina: The Go-To Guide to Great Farmers’ Markets, Farm Stands, Farms, Apple Orchards, U-Picks, Kids’ Activities, Lodging, Dining, Choose-and-Cut Christmas Trees, Vineyards and Wineries, and More. Durham’s Daniel’s great travel writing skills describe where doors are open for us to learn how the best North Carolina foods are grown and raised. (Sept. 23, 25) Marjorie Hudson’s Accidental Birds of the Carolinas: Stories about newcomers and natives, and the healing power of the rural South is a collection of fiction that gives a true look at how rural North Carolina is changing and staying the same (Sept. 30, Oct. 2). Butterfly’s Child by former N.C. State writing teacher, Angela Davis-Gardner, is a sequel to Puccini’s opera. It answers fictionally the question, “What ever hap- pened to Madam Butterfly’s son after she committed suicide when her American lover came back to Japan with his American wife?” (Oct. 7, 9). Morehead Scholar and Rhodes Scholar Robyn Hadley used her experience in counseling students in the Alamance-Burlington school system to write a book for students planning for college. The book is Within View, Within Reach: Navigating the College-Bound Journey. Hadley’s good advice might be even more important for parents of prospective college students. D. G. MARTIN, Columnist COMMENTS? editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com AUGUST 10-16, 2011 UCW 17