News Blog - July 2010

The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Museum Complex will sponsor its fifth annual American Heroes Day on Thursday, Aug. 5, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. the village of Rodanthe on Hatteras Island.

Chicamacomico was part of the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) and was the first station built in North Carolina. The original station, dating from 1874, is still on the site as one of eight buildings belonging to the Chicamacomico Historical Association.

The men of the United States Life-Saving Service (1871-1915) were the original rescue heroes, the "storm warriors" who made dramatic and heroic rescues of shipwreck victims whose lives were in peril from the sea. In their history, nationwide, the men of the USLSS men responded to more than 178,000 lives in peril from the sea, of which they saved more than 177,000. This is a startling rate of success of 99.2 percent, while their own loss of life, usually under the worst possible conditions, was less than 1 percent! In 1915, this service merged with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard, whose men and women routinely continue this tradition of heroism.

With that inspiration, Chicamacomico decided to honor and celebrate true American heroes of the past and the present. Participants invited include the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary, local volunteer fire departments, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, local sheriff and police departments, local EMS units and ocean rescue squads, National Park Service at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, the Frisco Native American Museum, and perhaps some last-minute surprises.

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Yoga on Cape Hatteras! REAL Watersports and Outer Banks Yoga are partnering to bring yoga to Cape Hatteras and the Tri-Villages area of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo.

The yoga class is a multi-level yoga practice with style and intensity of the class varying depending on participant and special requests. You will enjoy a combination of flowy vinyasa sequences, some longer holds for strength building, and some cooling and relaxing postures.

Locals and visitors are encouraged to participate. The atmosphere is fun and inviting, with first timers welcomed. The price for each class is $15 and payment is cash only. Twelve mats are available on a first come, first served basis. For more information or to register, please visit us at the REAL Flagship Store in the Village of Waves or call us at 252-987-6000.

Yoga at REAL through September 1, 2010
Tuesdays: 7:30-8:45 am
Wednesdays: 6:00-7:15 pm

*Please arrive 10 minutes early so we can start on time. Food and drinks are available on site at Mojos Sunset Cafe, open 8am to 8pm.

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Join Studio 12 on facebook and get your chance to win some great stuff such as
hand crafted jewelry, gift certificates and more! All you have to do is
become our "friend" and then post us a message on our wall. You can
even include a photo of your Studio 12 project, such as the mosaic table
on the left. Just by making an entry on the Studio 12 wall you will
automatically be entered in our drawing. Starting in September we will
be drawing names to giveaway cool stuff! Drawings will begin September
15th so don't hesitate; post your message today! Visit us at
www.facebook.com/Studio 12

Summer Store hours
9:30 to 6 Monday through Friday
9:30 to 5 Saturday
11:00 to 5 Sunday
Paint by Wednesday, pick up Friday - Paint by Thursday, pick up Saturday AM!
Mosaics are always made and take the same day!
We look forward to seeing you at Studio 12!

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St. John's UMC is sponsoring a Hatteras Island Praisefest - Free Family Fun! There will be live music by local praise and worship bands as well as others, bake sale, games for the kids and more. Come join us for an evening of fellowship and fun on Friday, July 30 from 5 pm to 9 pm at the Avon Fishing Pier on Rt. 12 in Avon.
Hope to see you there!

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A group of Moms on Hatteras Island have started a letter-writing campaign to First Lady Obama, NC Governor Bev Perdue and NC Senator is Kay Hagan as a mother-to-mother plea to replace the Bonner Bridge. They are hoping to have 250 letters to send by August 10. Even if you live off the Island, are not a mother but maybe an aunt, cousin, or have friends on the Island, or are just concerned, you are welcome to join our cause. Below is a link for a sample letter template, which you can email back to me and I can hand deliver to the folks organizing. Every letter counts!

Another option for off-island supporters would be to mail/fax (organizers note handwritten or hand-signed is best) to:

Beth Midgett c/o Midgett Realty, PO Box 250, Hatteras, NC 27943 RE: Bridge Moms
Or fax to 252-986-2745 (cover sheet Attn: Beth Midgett, Bridge Moms Group, or bethm@midgettrealty.com subject line: Bridge Moms Group

Here is the link to the sample letter:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bridge-Moms/144941862188265?v=app_4949752878&ref=nf

Please email letters back to:
"Jenn Augustson"
Thanks for your help!!

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CPR Courses are offered every third Thursday of the month at the Hatteras Island Rescue Squad in Buxton. The course is free to Hatteras Island Residents, and only $5.00 for non-residents. The course covers CPR instruction, and includes a CPR book and mouthpiece to take home.
The course starts at 7 pm. For more information, please call 252-995-5490. Get CPR certified! You could save a life.

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Come by the Hatteras Island Farmer's Market this week for some great local produce and more! Every Tuesday from 9am-1pm at the Hatteras Realty field on Highway 12 in Avon, stop by to pick up some fresh veggies, food & more! The Market will run every Tuesday through the Summer. The Market will feature Antoinette-Hatteras Cat and Kinnakeet Clay Works, Susie-OBS Organics-veggies, Nicole -Waterlily Farms-veggies, Matt-Weeping Radish- homemade sausages,root beer and sauerkraut, Dee-breads, preserves and cakes, Kylie-Out Back Kitchens, Amy- Outer Banks Sea Salt -10Tastes of the beach, Local Gardeners- Archie and Kathy, and fresh eggs... Hope to see you there!

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Looking for something to do this week while staying on Hatteras Island? Check out some of the following local events.

Jones Potion, a local band, is playing at Avon Cafe on Friday, July 30th. Avon Cafe' is located right across the street from the Outer Beaches' Avon office on Rt. 12.
The Inn on Pamlico, located in Frisco on the Sound, has Tapas Tuesday and Sunday Brunch every week, and has local music by Mojo Collins on Wednesday night and Jamie and Mark on Thursday nights. Jamie and Mark also play every Sunday evening at the Breakwater Restaurant in Hatteras Village.
Every Tuesday morning, there is the Hatteras Island Farmer's Market in Avon at the Hatteras Realty field, on Rt. 12, offering area produce and more.
REAL Watersports in Waves offers music on the back deck: Friday, August 6th - WILDER BROTHERS.
The Really Really Free Market is Saturday, August 7 at 9:30 am at the Avon Fire Station.
Kinnakeet Fish Fry, Saturday night 5-7 pm at the Avon Fire Station - fried fish dinner featuring locally caught fish by Kinnakeet watermen. Proceeds benefit the Kinnakeet Civic Association programs.
The Real Taffy of Torpedo Junction, Wednesday, July 28 at 2 pm at the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station, Rodanthe. Local resident Carol Dillon was the real Taffy in the 1950s children's book. She will tell you what was fiction and what was not.
The Comedy Club, Buxton, 9 pm performance at Finnegan's Dining Haul on Rt 12 in Buxton. For information and tickets call 252-207-9950.

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The National Park Service re-opened Cape Point to vehicles today, a full week earlier than last year. The east side of Cape Point is open to vehicles from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily. Night driving is prohibited from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. A pre-nesting closure west of Cape Point on the South Beach is still closed to pedestrians and ORVs, as is Ramp 45 behind the Cape Point Campground.

Island Free Press correspondent Rob Alderman said folks were expecting today's opening and were lined up and ready about 7:30 a.m. when the signs and fencing blocking vehicles from Cape Point came down. Cape Point was closed to ORVs on May 13 when piping plover nests in the area began hatching. For a while, limited access was allowed to pedestrians who waded below the low tide line to the Point. However, the limited access was also closed on May 24.

The last of 15 piping plover chicks at Cape Point had fledged by July 1. The piping plovers are the only federally listed birds that are protected under a consent decree that settled a lawsuit by environmental groups against the Park Service. However, the area remained closed until July 7 when the final brood of American oystercatcher chicks in the area fledged. These birds are not federally protected but are a state species of special concern.

A pedestrian corridor from Ramp 44 to Cape Point was opened on July 7, but ORVs were prohibited until two weeks after the last oystercatcher chicks in the area fledged.

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In the wee stormy hours of Tuesday morning, July 20, what is likely the oldest shipwreck to be discovered in North Carolina slowly made its way down the Outer Banks highways to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras village. The 7.5-ton, 17-foot-wide by 37-foot-long wreckage, which was discovered in Corolla in late 2009, was loaded onto a flat-bed trailer on Monday afternoon near the Currituck lighthouse, where it has been resting since its excavation in April.

Around 12:30 a.m., with an entourage of museum directors, archaeologists, Park Service personnel, and a police escort surrounding it, the centuries-old wreckage headed for its final resting place. The 90-mile trip from Corolla to Hatteras was expected to take between five and six hours, but, despite heavy winds and storms, the remains arrived in the parking lot of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum around 4 in the morning.

"It went so much faster than anyone anticipated," Claire Aubel, public relations coordinator for the North Carolina Maritime Museums, said, citing excellent organization, a lack of traffic, and the pitch-perfect driving of park ranger Doug Blackmon. Melanie Schwarzer, wife of museum director Joe Schwarzer, had a more poetic way of describing the move. "It was like a good ballet." She said that, as they entered each village, a new convoy of police escorts would "swoop in," making for a quick and seamless journey. "Sometimes as many as six escort cars would be in front and behind us. I felt like the President," she joked.

Also, she noted that in each village, there were folks standing on the side of the road cheering on the convoy. Even though the wreck didn't require a Secret Service detail, it is nonetheless an incredibly important discovery and an invaluable addition to the museum.

According to David Moore, curator of nautical archaeology for the North Carolina Maritime Museums, the massive solid-wood frames—which average 11 or 12 inches, but are as wide as 17 inches in some places—and the sole use of wood pegs date the ship to the early- to mid-17th century. That would make it the oldest shipwreck to ever be discovered in North Carolina, and to have found such a large piece of such an old ship intact is really quite exciting.

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The Carey LeSieur Foundation has planned "Carey Fest 2010" for Thursday, July 15, from 4 until 8 p.m. at the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Building. This will be the third annual Carey Fest, a summer barbecue picnic that is billed as "Hatteras Island's grandest family celebration extravaganza." The picnic meal includes fresh, slow-roasted barbecue, hot dogs, chicken, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, and iced tea. The cost of the meal is a $10 donation.

Musical entertainment will be provided by the Frisco Jubilee. There will also be a bake sale, silent auction with works from local artisans, games for big and little kids, and door prizes.
Break out your favorite tie dyes and bring on the flower power for a groovy good time. We will be judging the Grooviest Hippy/ Grooviest Flower Child costume contests, so have fun and be creative.

The Carey LeSieur Foundation is a non-profit organization whose primary objective is the Carey LeSieur Scholarship Fund for students pursuing education in health-related fields, as well as promoting compassion and humanity within the local community in memory of the nurse practitioner who worked and lived here on Hatteras Island. Carey died of cancer in 2007.

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It may have been an oppressively hot and humid day, but that certainly didn't stop a multitude of islanders and visitors from stopping by the first Hatteras Island Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 22. It seems the opportunity to finally buy fresh, all-natural food direct from local farmers trumped the need for air conditioning, and, despite the heat, the general vibe at the farmers' market was one of excitement and gratitude.

"Thank you so much for being here," a happy, sweat-drenched customer said to Nicole Spruill, of Coastal Farmers, as she walked away with an armful of Spruill's fresh produce.
Similar exchanges could be heard throughout the day, at any of the vendors' tents—whether they were selling meat, eggs, produce, or cat food.

The farmers' market is sponsored by Coastal Harvesters, Inc., a non-profit, membership-based organization that was formed early last year, with the specific goal of bringing a farmers' market to Hatteras Island. The market was slated to begin last summer, but due to time and budget constraints, it was delayed.

The group had a test-market last November to gauge local interest, and what the organizers discovered was, basically, islanders really wanted a local farmer's market. And this summer, thanks to Coastal Harvesters, they'll have one. The weekly markets will run now through Aug. 31. The markets will be held each Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Burrus Field (next to the fire station) in Buxton.

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Western Carolina University's musical theatre program will be taking its show on the road this summer, all the way from the mountains of Western North Carolina to the N.C. coast for performances at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo.

Students and faculty from Western Carolina's College of Fine and Performing Arts will celebrate Irving Berlin in the musical revue "I Love a Piano" and perform a special children's salute to "Sesame Street." This summer will mark the second straight year that students and faculty from WCU's musical theatre program will perform at Roanoke Island Festival Park. Last year, a troupe of singers, musicians and dancers known as the Catamount Starz put on a star-spangled variety show as part of the Fourth of July celebration in Manteo.

"We are pleased to be invited back to perform at the Roanoke Island Festival Park," said Bradley Martin, director of WCU's musical theatre program. "We view this as part of our ongoing partnership that will provide culture and entertainment to visitors and residents of the Outer Banks while giving our students a real-world experience in musical theatre performance."

The performers will present "I Love a Piano," which will stage at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, through Thursday, July 15. The Berlin tribute captures America in song as it follows a piano and its owners from the cusp of the 19th century to today. Musical numbers include "Blue Skies" and "God Bless America."

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The Hurley "Rip My Shred Stick Tour" is an international surf tour with the Hurley Surf Team, traveling around the world to the most popular surf spots. This year, Hurley is bringing the RMSS Tour to Cape Hatteras and hosting the event at REAL!

What : Hurley Rip My Shred Stick Tour
When : Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Where : REAL Watersports 25706 HWY 12, Waves, NC 27982

Who : Surf with Hurley Teamriders Pat O'Connel, Yadin Nicol, Evan Geiselman, Asher Nolan, Noah Snyder and more!

RMSS SURF SESSION from 9am to 1pm! The Hurley Team wants to surf with YOU! Get tips from the pros or try to punt over them. Beginner to pro, everyone is invited and encouraged to join in.

Rip My Shred Stick After Party (4-7pm) with FREE Hurley T's, Custom Phantom Boardshorts, Video of the Day's Surfing, MOJOs Sunset Cafe Taco Tuesday Dinner (Free for 1st 100 participants) and much more!

Why : It's Free, there's a ton of SWAG and it's gonna be a ripping fun time on and off the water!
Cost : Nada, Zero, Zip. This is a FREE event!

Swag : FREE Hurley RMSS T-Shirt, plus FREE MOJOs Sunset Cafe Taco Tuesday Dinner for the first 100 registered participants……..See registration details below.

Also….FREE pair of custom RMSS Hurley Phantom Boardshorts with every pair of Hurley Phantom Boardshorts purchased!

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Kona Brewing Company from Hawaii has joined forces with REAL Watersports to produce the Kona Summer Concert Series, a Summer long series of waterfront, LIVE music performances in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

These shows are hosted on the amphitheatre, waterfront deck at the REAL Flagship Store in the Village of Waves. Dinner and drinks are available at all shows from MOJOs Sunset Cafe. The Kona Summer Concert Series location and waterfront views are unbelievable with epic sunsets and exciting kiteboarding action right at the water's edge. The atmosphere is fun and family/group friendly. You can sit at tables near the band, enjoy a draft Kona Beer at the bar at MOJOs, or enjoy the Bermuda grass lawn area on a beach blanket or chair. This is the best way to wrap up any day in Cape Hatteras!

All shows are FREE and OPEN to the public. We look forward to seeing you at this year's Kona Summer Concert Series at REAL! Kona Summer Concert Series Show times are 6pm-10pm unless advertised otherwise.

Thursday, July 8th - MOJO COLLINS
Thursday, July 15th - MOJO COLLINS
Friday, July 16th - WILDER BROTHERS
Thursday, July 22nd - MOJO COLLINS
Friday, July 23rd - SCHOLARS WORD (Summer Swap)
Friday, August 6th - WILDER BROTHERS
Thursday, August 12th - SALEM
Sunday, September 19th - WILDER BROTHERS (ESA Welcome Party)

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Don't let the lack of fireworks get you down. There is still lots to do on Hatteras Island to ensure you have the best possible 4th of July!

Independence Day Celebration @ the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Building beginning at 3:30p.m. The Summertime Blues Band is playing on the back deck @ Real Watersports in Salvo being from 6-10p.m. Food and beverages are available from Mojo's Cafe. Freedom Fest located in Hatteras Village on Hwy 12 in the center of the village. Beginning at 4p.m. TRADOC Rock will be playing music from 8-10p.m. Mojo Collins playing at Hatteras Landing from 7-11p.m.

...and if fireworks are a must see on the 4th - America Celebrates/July 4th Fireworks with the town of Manteo - Outdoor Pavilion at Roanoke Island Festival Park beginning at 8p.m.

We wish everyone a happy, safe and fun 4th of July!

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