Outer Banks Brewing Station, MP 8.5, Thursday, 12/10,7-8pm.Our guest speaker will be Matt Walker, President of the local Surfrider Foundation chapter.  We'll be talking about offshore energy and possible alternatives!  Bring your friends and enjoy an organic, wind-powered brew with other Outer Banks eco-types.

 Dare Home Health and Hospice and Twiford Funeral Homes will present the Eighth Annual Community Memorial Service on Sunday, December 13 at the Roanoke Island Festival Park Art Gallery from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

The program will include tips for self-care and healthy grieving, grief support resources available in our community, poetry reading, music and a calling of the names ceremony to help those in attendance experience a heightened sense of connection to the persons they are remembering, as well as light refreshments and time to connect with others in attendance.

According to Ellie Ward, Nursing Director of Dare Home Health and Hospice, ``This service provides a sense of community as we remember loved ones and friends who have gone before. We find strength and hope together.''

No registration or RSVP is necessary to attend and everyone is welcome. For more information about the Community Memorial Service or to find out more about the hospice.

Annual Holiday Illumination Celebration, Currituck Heritage Park December 12
Come to the Whalehead Club, beginning at 3:00 pm for complimentary tours of the house museum festively decorated as the Knights would have done back in the 1920s. Gather on the North Lawn at 4:30 pm for free hot chocolate and seasonal carols sung by the Currituck County High School Choral Ensemble, while Currituck Heritage Park's giant cedar tree and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse are simultaneously illuminated for the holidays!
Treat yourself to an old-fashioned horse and carriage ride through the park with Carolina Carriages, starting at 2:00 pm.
www.whaleheadclub.org. Currituck Heritage Park is located just past MP 11 on Rt. 12 North in Corolla, NC

 ``There are many reasons why a person decides to volunteer to help others,'' comments Stephanie Bowers, Program Director for Dare Respite Care. ``Some volunteer to pass on a good deed that had been done for them.'' Such was the case for Edna Black who has been a volunteer for Dare Respite Care for almost three years.
She had spent the previous seven years caring for her husband, Cole, who suffered from dementia before offering her services as a volunteer for others. As her husband's caregiver, she faced many challenges. Not only did they need to travel to Duke Medical Center every three months for three years; but, there were many daily challenges as well.

Her husband could not be left alone as he had a tendency to wander, leaving the home on three different occasions. "I had to take him everywhere I went, and in every place I went," she recalled. They have three sons who provided support, but they lived out of town and were not available on a daily basis.  "Unless you are familiar with dementia, you don't know what to expect or what to do," she added. After years of caring for her husband in the home, she was eventually unable to meet all of his needs on her own and her husband moved into a nursing facility where she continued to care for him until he passed away.  When asked why she became a Dare Respite Care volunteer after all her years spent caring for her husband, Edna replied, "I remember times when I could have used someone's help."


Dare Respite Care provides that help. The program is a volunteer family support system that provides caregivers in the community with a much needed break from their caregiving responsibilities.
Trained volunteers are matched with families caring for an elderly, frail, ill, or disabled loved one. Volunteers can assist in a number of ways to help provide support for caregivers working to allow their loved ones to remain in their home. 

Dare Respite Care relies on community donations and the donation of volunteers' time in order to serve the caregivers and their families in the community that are working so hard to allow their loved ones to continue to live in their own homes.    For more information on Dare Respite Care Services or how to become a volunteer, contact Bowers at 252-475-5057.  Donations to Dare Respite Care may be mailed to Dare Respite Care, PO Box 1000, Manteo, NC 27954.

 More than 900 families have been provided assistance by ICO in 2009. That is nearly twice as many as assisted in 2008.  That means in the last nine months,  2153 individual lives touched, 115 families not evicted, 7 families did not have their homes foreclosed, 215 families did not have their power turned off.  Working with Currituck and Dare Department of Social Services ICO served the most vulnerable in our area! 

ICO has limited resources and cannot continue to meet the high number of requests. The Board of Directors has elected to reduce levels of ICO financial assistance. Community support for ICO continues to be as strong as ever.  But community need has increased by much more. ICO will continue to go into the emergency financial reserves as it strives to meet growing needs.  Checks can be made out to the Interfaith Community Outreach. All donations are tax deductible.  Please mail them to PO Box 838, Kitty Hawk NC.    For more information, contact the office at 480-0070 or visit the ICO website at www.interfaithoutreach.com.  

Violins & Voices a Classical Christmas will be held in the indoor theatre at Roanoke Island Festival Park on Friday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. The holiday event is a benefit for GEM, a non-profit that provides a positive and supportive day environment for adults with memory loss, physical and mental disabilities and those in need of socialization. Refreshment will be served following the performance. Tickets are $10and may be purchased at the door the night of the event.

Local performers include: Angelo Sonnesso Tenor; Lisa Martinez - Soprano; Christian Jackle -Soprano; Nick Hodsdon - Baritone; Sue Artz - Violin; Joy Martinez and Blaire Smith (8 years old) and David Spangler - piano/accompanist.

For more information about the organization, visit www.gemdayservices.org or call (252) 480-3354. 

 Please join GEM at the Unitarian Universalist  Church in Kitty Hawk as we  celebrate the  season with  good friends, light  refreshments  and  Christmas Carols.  Please bring a small wrapped gift  for our community outreach party on Dec. 16th at the Dare Center. These gifts will be given out at the Party to older adults in our community. Questions please call me at 480-3354  Gail E Sonnesso M.S. (252) 480-3354
http://www.gemdayservices.org