Home Care In Rosebud, NC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced a proposed rule to improve online access for millions of people with disabilities.

What You Need To Know

The Department of Justice would set accessibility standards for local, and state websites and apps, which they say would enable state and local governments to meet their ADA obligations and provide equal access to services and programs for people with vision, hearing, cognitive and manual dexterity disabilities.

Rosebud Turner lost her sight 17 years ago due to diabetes complications. She’s mostly independent except for driving and using some technology.

Turner said the proposed change to increase online accessibility is needed. Currently, she doesn’t visit websites often because she finds them confusing.

“If the website is not set up with unsighted people in mind then ... sighted people will see one thing, I’m hearing something else. ... It doesn’t always match what I’m hearing, it’s not always where the link is," Turner said.

If Turner needs to visit a website, her assistant, who is sighted, usually helps her access it.

The proposed rule would include text description of images for people with screen readers to understand content, provide video captions and enable navigation through a keyboard instead of a mouse.

Turner, who is a retired educator and an author of published books, said she wishes she could have descriptions of pictures online.

“Who wants to really feel left out and missing out?” Turner said.

She currently uses an app that describes photos she receives from family and friends.

“When you can’t see at all, it’s so great when it gives you color or when it tries to describe the mood of a person,” Turner said.

She’s confident that if the proposed change goes through, the administration would request input from people who are blind and organizations supporting blind people.

“If you don’t field test with real blind people, it’s not going to do any good,” Turner said.

She said the change could help increase her independence and access websites on her own.

by Bill Pearis

Are you ready for holiday music yet? Thanksgiving is basically the official start of the full-on Xmas cheer sounds to be played in stores, laundromats and everywhere else you go. If you’re looking for some fresh sounds, North Carolina’s Rosebuds have just released a holiday album, Christmas Tree Island, that is available digitally now.

While most Christmas albums these days generally consist of covers, Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp have penned originals that are distinctly Rosebud-y in nature (twangy, lots of “whoah-ohs”) and don’t hit you over the head with too much tinsel or treacle. (There are sleighbells though.) It’s a really nice album, actually and you can stream it below. “Melt Your Way Out” is particularly good.

Meanwhile, The Rosebuds have another new album out, a track-by-track remake of Sade’s 1992 album, Love Deluxe. Says the band:

Love Deluxe, Sade’s fourth album, was released 20 years ago this week. To say this album is a constant influence to The Rosebuds and the records we’ve made over the years would be an understatement. We’ve always been fans. Ivan’s been covering Sade songs since I’ve known him–he sings them in the house, he sings them while driving, he sings them with or without a guitar in hand, he sings them when he doesn’t even realize he’s singing aloud. It’s the language he hears music in. Ivan spent some time on the North Carolina coast where he set up a small apartment–a surf camp and home studio. He’d gone to the beach to enjoy the off-season isolation, to surf, and to work on some new Rosebuds demos we have. I was delighted when he came back to Brooklyn and presented me with his own fully-tracked version of Love Deluxe. It’s only elements are the instruments Ivan drove down with, and the friends who stopped by to contribute–Rob Lackey, drums; Matt Douglas, Saxophone; Jonathan Yu, keyboards. We set about mixing it right away.

The Rosebuds’ version of Love Deluxe is available as a free download from their Bandcamp and you can stream it below as well.

—

On Thursday Brevard’s Co-Ed Cinema transformed into what felt like a night at the Oscars in Hollywood: floor-length gowns, live music, photo shoots and lots of popcorn.

Locally filmed and produced feature-length movie “Rosebud Lane” was screened twice on Thursday – in the afternoon and evening – at the Co-Ed.

Two sold-out shows were met by an enthusiastic audience which included many of the film’s extras, their friends and family. A red carpet and photo backdrop were also set up on the sidewalk for ticket-purchasers to strike a glamor pose.

“The director, John Lacy, is working on selling the film and is currently showing ‘Rosebud Lane’ in the film festival circuit now,” said Tammy Hopkins, the film’s producer. “Our next showing is in Winston-Salem on April 26 at 5 p.m. with RiverRun International Film Festival.”

The film will be shown at 10 festivals and has already won at three of them.

“Rosebud Lane” tells the story of a Hollywood filmmaker who connects with his estranged young son and the result leaves a small mountain town shattered. Lacy filmed it during the pandemic in 2020 and his mother, who was in the audience, lives in the area.

“It was fun,” said Leticia Kessell, who was an extra in the film and attended the red carpet event in a beautiful emerald-green gown. “It was nice to see the final outcome —and the surprise ending.”

It was quite an experience filming during the pandemic, she said, for she and others had to constantly take their masks on and off. More than 100 local extras were used in the film.

The film stars Tyne Stecklein (“Dancing with the Stars”), Brad Abrell (“Men in Black”), Tess Harper (“Tender Mercies” and “No Country for Old Men”) and Brevard’s Bronson Leder who plays the 10-year-old son.

Local locations featured in the film included Creekside Subs, Sunset Motel, Wine Down on Main, Co-ed Cinema, 185 King Street, Dolly’s Ice Cream, The Poe House, downtown Main Street in Hendersonville and several private homes and farms.

The music group “Gypsy and Me,” who was featured in the film, performed live before each of the film’s showing on Thursday.

Lacy commented during the Q&A immediately following the film with the cast, crew and audience members. He said it was “hard to find live music” while filming, but he visited 185 King Street, saw “Gypsy and Me” performing and they struck a deal.

Lacy said he and his crew filmed 110 pages of script in 17 days.

If you missed the screening in Brevard, it can be streamed on RiverRun’s website (www.riverrunfilm.com) or seen in person with some of the film’s enthusiastic cast and crew, said Hopkins. Those interested can follow the successes of the film on Rosebud Lane’s Facebook page to keep updated on future events.

Students at the new Level Up Academy did what most others do on the first day of school. They learned how to be polite in a classroom setting, how to walk single-file down a hallway and the best ways to achieve academic success.

The new K-5 private school has 25 children enrolled and space to accommodate up to 40.

“The kids are rared up and ready to go,” said Geneva Rose Eason, director of the school located in the Contending for the Faith Church Ministries building at 1006 Academy St. E. “They have been ready for school. It is not as noisy as I thought it would be on the first day of school, but these kids are doing an awesome job, and we are just eager to continue with this new adventure.”

Eason said the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the decision to start the school.

“Last year during COVID, I did virtual learning, so doing that it was impressed upon me to maybe start something that had smaller classroom sizes because of the instruction level that was able to be given in a small setting,” Eason said, “so that is where the vision started out.”

Class sizes are small, with no more than 15 pupils to a class.

Eason said the Level Up Academy will emphasize reading and math skills.

“You have got to have a good foundation to build upon,” Eason said. “Those foundational skills are the key skills to develop a very strong student.”

Tuition at the private school is about $6,000 per year.

Many Level Up Academy students are receiving assistance from the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program.

“They have a small monthly fee that they pay after the assistance,” Eason said. “They are able to adjust to that, and these families say they will do it for their student to have a good education.”

Transportation to and from school isn’t offered, both because of COVID-19 and Level Up’s small staffing level.

“We want to just try to keep kids as separated as possible,” Eason said.

The academy holds classes from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and provides breakfast and lunch for students.

“We are definitely using COVID guidelines where we are wearing masks, we are hand-washing frequently and sanitizing,” Eason said.

Eason also operates an afterschool program called the Level Up Youth Center at 3461-C Airport Road that runs from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on weekdays with transportation provided.

“That operation provides homework assistance,” Eason said. “Every now and then, we are able to help students with some educational gaps in reading and math. We give them an outlet for a safe environment after school where they get to learn and they do have some down time where they get to interact and engage in some fun activities with other students.”

For more information about the academy and youth center, call 252-991-6958 or 252-360-8515.

“We are a school of choice, and we would just like to be welcomed into the educational arena here in Wilson,” Eason said.

OTHER NEW PROGRAMS

A seventh private school in Wilson County, Rosebud Christian Academy at 608 Fairview Ave. SW, received its license in November, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child Development and Early Education.

Rosebud stands for “Reaching Out, Saving, Educating & Building Up Destinies,” according to a sign on the building. Director Deatrice R. Raynor couldn’t be reached to provide information on the academy in time for this story.

Wilson’s First United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church have added kindergarten classes to their existing preschool programs.

Lorie Daniel, director of the First United Methodist Weekday School, said the school is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The school added a half-day kindergarten class for 5-year-olds that started Wednesday. The class has capacity for 16 students, and only four were enrolled as of last week. School days run from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

The preschool program currently has 82 children ages 1-5 enrolled.

“We had parents who were interested for several years,” Daniel said. “With the pandemic there was more interest, and we thought that was a service we could provide.”

For more information, call 252-236-7438.

Kathy Maurice, director of the First Presbyterian Weekday School, said a half-day kindergarten program for 5-year-olds has been added. The program started Monday with 11 children enrolled.

“We will take up to 15,” Maurice said. “We just felt there was a need in the community. The children that graduated in 2020 had a hard time struggling going into kindergarten with COVID and all. We just wanted to offer some stability.”

The new kindergarten class is held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The existing program for 1-4-year-olds is operated from 9 a.m. to noon on weekdays. That program was started in 1968. Currently, all five levels have a combined total of 97 children. For more information, call 252-243-3115.

Matt Edwards, executive director of The SPOT and Wilson Youth United, said three children signed up to attend the new Greater Rotary Academy for the year.

“Our enrollment was low for a few reasons. So we are going to wait/remain prepared for remote learning to come along based on this new COVID variant,” Edwards said. “We received our approval late in the year and most students (families) had to make a placement decision prior to our approval. We will be enrolling students for the 2022-23 school year in February to March of 2022.”

Loading Related Articles

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 25, 1977 -- Ernest L. Briggs is just an old country lawyer and land dealer from Burnsville, the 2,000-citizen Yancey County seat tucked among the bluish southern Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Simple living, you'd think. Snoozes in his cluttered law office over a sundries store on the Square. Chunk firewood in his chest-high, pot-bellied stove.

Has no secretary. Pecks out his wills and deeds and such on a precariously old typewriter. Refuses to clean the dingy windows, which were last washed when he moved in back in '36.

Not the kind of character, you might think, who had high-powered New York and Illinois promoters trumpet an auction of Birggs lands as the "Sale of the Century."

Well, Briggs owns a heap of Carolina mountains taller than the glassy new Radisson Plaza Hotel tower on Charlotte's Independence Square, down in the Piedmont flatlands.

Briggs looked pretty spiffy this morning, waiting in the Radisson's posh lobby for the city slickers to gather for his big land auction of 29 parcels totaling about 10,000 acres.

Follow Election 2024

He sported a blushing pink rosebud on his Oxford grey pinstriped lapel, set off with white shoes and belt and Panama straw hat, and his blue eyes twinkled behind the amber-rimmed glasses.

"There was a lot of interest from the buildup," he said. "I just hope they brought a lotta with 'em4. That's what I want, to get rid of the stuff."

The full-color glossy brochures put out by New York City marketing specialists Niederhosser, Cross and Zeckhauser, Inc. had Vriggs on the front standing on a wooden bridge over a splashing mountain creek among boulders and woods. You could practically hear the birds twittering.

The captain said, "I'm Ernest L. Briggs and I'm looking to sell my properties. They tell me it's going to be North Carolina's Sale of the Century."

Inside, it says, "I'm an old country lawyer who wants to retire." It says, "Over the last 40 years I've bought and bartered for just about every piece of good property in these mountains. Now I've got more mountains than I can climb." And it says, "My thing in mountains."

It's potent tonic. Smoother than sour wood honey.

It drew more than 1,000 inquiries, including feelers from Japan, Australia and South Africa, said Donald Piper of the New York firm.

Rumors and bits and pieces of information fanned the land fever. A South African firm showed interest in the gold fields of Vein Mountain, where Briggs says slaves once carried out gold "by the quart jars full."

All kinds of speculation centered on Mt. Celo and the spectacular Ray Boundary, a 2,285-acre tract in the shadow of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies.

Some foreign firm was even supposed to be interested in some oil and gas leases Briggs holds on 1,600 acres in Alaska.

The auction firm, Mid-America Auction and Realty of Rockford, Ill., had talked with inquirers and tramped over some tracts, many of which contained old mica mines.

Everybody seemed ready for the final coup today.

Briggs said he wanted a basic $6 million or more for all those tantalizing holings. With such a pot of money, he chuckled, "I'm going to give it to Uncle Sam and the state of North Carolina, most of it."

Only one thing went wrong with the auction to end all hill-country auctions.

The high-rollers didn't show up. The big-money boys from New York and Miami and everywhere either quelled their fever or couldn't find Charlotte.

Briggs scammed the chandeliered auction room. "Naw, money's not so tight," he said. "They just don't know the value of this property. Why, some of these pieces, I gave more than the high bid is." He said he would accept only a few offers for minor tracts.

Nobody bid on Vein Mountain or the Alaska oil and gas fields. Nobody bucked a pre-auction offer of $1,527,000 for the Ray Boundary from The Trust for Public Lands, acting for the U.S. Forest Service, he said.

Another auction? "Never!" He exclaimed. "I'll never go this way again."

"I've still got a few little tracts around, anyway, that I forgot to put down [on the auction list]," he mused; smiling slyly. "Yeah, I'm keeping a few choice pieces around home. I'll be buying more real estate. I'll die with my boots on."