MikeMickXer kicks off the 2012 Clayton Town Square Concert Series tonight at 7:00 pm at Town Square (100 W Main St) in downtown Clayton. Come on out a little earlier to hear the Clayton High School Jazz perform from around 6:15 to 6:45 (time may vary) prior to the featured band.

A couple of new things this year – beverage koozies will be sold for $1.00 each to support Johnston County Relay for Life. All sales (not just proceeds) of the pink and white koozies will be presented to JC Relay for Life at the September 13 concert.

Also, concert T-shirts will be sold at all concerts for $10.00 each! Proceeds from t-shirt sales help the Clayton Downtown Development Association, Inc with downtown projects.

Gonna be great weather tonight – hope to see you there!

TONIGHT!

Ever wonder how public art gets made?  On May 7, the Clayton Public Art Advisory Board will debut its short documentary film about “Clayton Patchwork,” the colorful mural that local artist Dorothy Demboski painted in the summer of 2008 on the third floor wall of The Clayton Center.

 The public is invited to attend both the screening and a reception, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. in The Clayton Center’s main lobby. The movie will show afterward, about 7 p.m., in the auditorium.

Production of the film was led by Jody Servon of Greensboro, the conceptual public artist in residence who has been assisting the advisory board with laying the groundwork for a vibrant public arts program.

Demboski’s mural is significant because it was the first major cooperative public art effort between the town and the artist community. “The video gives the back story of how the mural came to be,” says Suzette Rodriguez, chairman of the advisory board. “We’re pleased to debut this first film highlighting public art in Clayton.”

The mural is made up of colorful icons representing present-day and historic landmarks. Among others, the film includes interviews with Demboski, Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod, Town Manager Steve Biggs and local resident Ann Abene, whose pet is included in the mural. 

Later that night, Servon will present to the Clayton Town Council her recommendations for future public art projects. The public is invited to attend and listen in. The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers.

 Since January, Servon has been gathering information from residents, town employees and elected officials—all toward offering up a plan for growing the town’s public art program. Her artist-in-residency was a project of the advisory board and funded by the Town of Clayton.

In March, Servon led a public forum at the local library to discuss art and the opportunities that cultural activities provide for participating in public art. Among the audience were artists, designers, musicians, writers and educators.

For more information contact Heidi Stump, executive director of The Clayton Center, at 919-553-3152 or hstump@townofclaytonnc.org. 

About 35 Clayton High School art students will display their work in May in an exhibit at The Clayton Center.

Subject matter will vary from abstracts, architecture, portraits, landscapes, florals, and radial designs to “greenmen” and more. The young artists are students of Jane Roberts and Crystal Seagroves. 

The show will have several special aspects this year. First, artist Sandra Honeycutt visited CHS early in the school year and taught students some painting techniques that they used all semester, techniques that are evident in many of their pieces.

Second, teachings from two Johnston County Artists in the Schools will be on display. Artist Allen Montague of Raleigh worked in the fall with advanced students in Art III and Art IV classes on painting sunflowers and poppies. Then in the winter, sculptor/pottery artist Joe Edwards of Matthews worked with the Crafts II class to make clay greenmen (faces surrounded by leaves).

Third, students in Art III and IV used photographs by Sue Mitchiner of ZoomIn Photography of a number of Clayton locations and painted their interpretations of the photos.

Also in the show, work by two senior students, Braxton Beaver and Cara Edwards, will be featured. Beaver will be exhibiting several abstracts. Edwards designed the Senior Mural for the Class of 2012, and a flag depicting the mural will be part of the show. She also will exhibit several pieces.

A free meet-the-young-artists reception will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 3, in the lobby of The Clayton Center, 111 E. Second St. Light refreshments will be served—cookies, fruit, cheese and punch. Everyone is invited—adults, teens, children, all.

The exhibit will run May 1-31. It is free and open to the public. The center is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Both the reception and exhibition are sponsored by Clayton Visual Arts, Inc.

Clayton residents are being asked to help make a difference in the lives of leukemia patients by participating in a bone marrow registry and fundraising drive on Thursday, May 17, from 5-8pm at Horne Memorial United Methodist Church.

A group of local volunteers are working with Be The Match donor registry to organize the donor registration drive in honor of Alex Lee, a North Carolina State University sophomore and Clayton High School graduate, who was re-diagnosed with leukemia last month. Alex and his mom, Laurie Lee, are members of Horne Memorial UMC.

Alex was first diagnosed with leukemia in November 2008.  He spent his junior and senior year of high school battling the disease, finishing treatment in November 2011.  Despite the cancer, Alex finished in the top his class. He currently is studying aerospace engineering at NCSU where he also is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

Since his latest diagnosis, Alex has been placed on the list for a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow transplant is the most effective way to eradicate cancer. 

Betsie Letterle, account executive for Be The Match’s national marrow donor program, explained that donor registration is a simple process. Cotton swabs are used to rub the inside of a registrant’s mouth to gather loose skin cells. Registrants also are asked to complete a health form and are provided the opportunity to ask questions about donation. The entire registration process takes only about 10 minutes. 

Marrow donation also is simple. The patient’s doctor requests one of two types of donation, depending on what is best for the patient. Eighty percent of marrow donation is gathered by drawing blood through a vein in the arm, a procedure similar to giving plasma or platelets.  Twenty percent of donated bone marrow is gathered surgically from a pelvis bone while the donor is under anesthesia. 

Letterle said, “It’s important that we educate individuals to the donor process. Bone marrow donation is not a painful procedure as it is portrayed in the movies and TV.” 

Though the donors will not be asked to pay for the cost of their individual tests at this typing event, sample screening is expensive. Be The Match incurs costs to process each sample and, Letterle said it takes $100 to add an individual to the registry. She stressed that “on average, only one in two hundred registrants will be matched. It is important that we increase our registry.”

In order to support the donor program, a fundraising campaign is being held in conjunction with the registry drive.  Area residents, organizations and businesses who wish to contribute may donate online to Be The Match Foundation on a special webpage set up for the Clayton effort (http://www.bethematchfoundation.org/goto/claytonvolunteers).  Those without access to the web may bring a check to Horne Memorial made out to the Be The Match Foundation.  Any amount of donation is accepted. 

Organizers of the event hope to draw significant support as additional area churches and civic groups join in supporting the effort. Chip Wood of Horne UMC, said, “This effort goes beyond Alex and beyond our church, this is about reaching out and helping every individual and family whose lives have been altered by cancer and who need this life-saving treatment.”

For more information about joining the registry go to: www.bethematch.org or email: Betsie Letterle at bletterl@nmdp.org  (919) 414-8312.   For information about the event or to make a donation contact:  Chip Wood at email: baldchip@gmail.com.

A similar workshop was held in 2007 shortly after Clayton was selected to be part of the NC Main Street Program, and developed Vision 2012 – Downtown Clayton is the social and cultural hub of Clayton.  (read full ”Vision 2012)

“Downtown is the center of our community and its health and vitality are of critical importance to all of us,” said Richard Rairigh, President of the Clayton Downtown Development Association.

The purpose of the forum is to gather input from citizens, business and property owners regarding their views of:

• What is good about downtown
• What needs improvement
• What downtown should become in the future

During the forum, participants will work together in small groups to identify downtown’s strengths and weaknesses and write vision statements, based on Clayton’s economic drivers, describing what they want downtown to be. Everyone will then determine the best themes and ideas to forge a single vision statement for downtown Clayton, which will help update the long-range plans for downtown.

“There have been numerous changes in downtown during the past five years, including the economy, and the community has become more aware of downtown so the outcome of the forum/workshop will be very helpful and interesting,” said Downtown Development Coordinator, Bruce Naegelen.

“We’re hoping 75 to 100 people will participate to provide broad community representation from throughout Clayton,” said Mr. Rairigh. That representation includes residents and property owners from throughout town, representatives from civic organizations, arts and cultural groups, educational community, industry, civic leaders, church leaders, high school youth, commercial and residential real estate agents, bankers, accountants, attorneys, and town staff, especially from public safety, utility and public works departments.

Mr. Rairigh added that, “We want input and participation from native residents to newcomers and from all the different cultural communities within Clayton. We are reaching out to all these groups in town.”

An activity leading to the Vision Forum was “Picture Downtown.” This activity involved 36 volunteers from throughout the community using disposable cameras to photograph aspects of the downtown that they “like” and “dislike” as a means of developing a record of design issues. The photographs will be on display during the Vision Forum, then will be used in design training and in informing the public about the downtown effort.

The Economic Vision Forum 2017 will be followed later in the spring by a Design Workshop. It will introduce and re-introduce property owners and local officials to theMain Street philosphy of design rehabilitation and the system they use to provide design assistance. This will also be a public workshop.

If you would like to participate in the Main Street Economic Vision Forum 2017 on May 22, you can register here or contact Downtown Development Coordinator, Bruce Naegelen, at (919) 553-1545 or send an email to bnaegelen@townofclaytonnc.org. It is very important that all participants pre-register for this event.

Heart Chase is this Saturday from 10:00 am – Noon. Go to www.HeartChase.org and click “Join the Chase.”
Or call 919-320-5099, or check Facebook. The committee is signing up teams of 2-5 participants through the day of the event.

From The Clayton News-Star:

Clayton will play host to The American Heart Association’s HeartChase April 28 from l0 a.m. until noon, blocking off Lombard Street from Main Street to 2nd Street in an Amazing Race-esque challenge, all toward the goal of eliminating heart disease

The Clayton News-Star spoke with Clayton’s own HeartChase committee chairperson, Barbie Tew, to understand what all the fun will be about.

According to the American Heart Association, communities that host a HeartChase bring families, friends, and coworkers of all ages together in a community-wide competition to uncover clues, solve puzzles and complete challenges in a race to the finish line.

Cardiovascular disease and stroke are the nation’s No. 1 and 3 killers, and much of these problems can be reduced or even eliminated with healthy living, exercise and healthy lifestyle habits, the association says.

Tew said she expects about 250 people to participate in the event.

Q: We understand a Heart Chase is like an obstacle course with different activities hosted by businesses and organizations. How does that work?

This event is “Minute to Win It” meets “Amazing Race” through downtown Clayton. We have 10 different brick and mortar businesses hosting stations throughout downtown with 12 different challenges to be completed throughout the course. Teams of 2 to 5 people will be sent to their first station and must successfully complete a task or challenge in order to move on.

Awards will be given for the fastest team and the team with the most points. The event will start at Town Square and the finish line will be at Horne Square.  FULL ARTICLE