🗞️ A Bowman Gray win dedicated to Kernersville's Puddin' Swisher

🗞️ A $2,500 grant makes counseling more affordable in town

🗞️ Native American dance and storytelling came to Fire Station 42

🗞️ More local teens are earning college credit before they graduate

🗞️ Rotary went out to lunch, and teachers got the check

🗞️ One hundred issues of Hey Kernersville

🌤 Sunny start, storms possible later | High: 90°F | Low: 72°F

Good festival weather, at least for the first half of the day. Expect a mostly sunny morning with a high near 90, then a 30 percent chance of pop-up showers and thunderstorms after 2 PM, with rainfall amounts staying light. Sunscreen, a water bottle and a backup plan for the afternoon should cover it. Looking ahead, the heat builds back in: Sunday climbs to 92 with a heat index near 101, and Monday tops out around 94.

Every once in a while, victory lane gives you something better than a trophy.

Jonathan "Jon Boy" Brown won the 100-lap Modified feature at Bowman Gray Stadium on Saturday during Red Oak $2 Ladies Night, and when he got to the microphone he did not spend much time talking about himself. He dedicated the win to Melvin "Puddin'" Swisher of Kernersville, the 90-year-old driver and car owner who put him in his first Modified ride. "I think Puddin' Swisher took the wheel there for the last 10 laps," Brown said. "This win is for him. That man has done so much for me in my racing career."

Swisher is in poor health right now, which made the gesture land even harder for the folks in the grandstands who know him. Anyone who has spent time around Bowman Gray knows the type: the owner in the shop on a Tuesday night, handing a kid a set of keys and a chance, and asking for nothing back except that the kid take care of the car.

It was Brown's 23rd career Modified win. Ninety years old, and still the reason a driver is standing in victory lane on a Saturday night. That is a pretty good legacy for a Kernersville man. Sending Puddin' every good wish from all of us.

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Here is a small number doing a large amount of work.

The Kernersville Foundation has given $2,500 to CareNet Counseling Center, and the money goes directly toward reduced-cost therapy for Kernersville residents regardless of their ability to pay. CareNet's local office operates out of Main Street United Methodist Church at 306 S. Main St., part of a statewide network of 19 locations staffed by licensed therapists. They also run free community workshops on topics like depression and the effect of social media.

"We directly fund individuals seeking mental health care with a clinician, so we're on the front lines supporting community members in making themselves whole," said Foundation board chair Denys Davis.

The Kernersville Foundation funded 13 local nonprofits in 2025, and applications for the next round open in March. If you have ever wondered whether a local grant actually reaches people, this is what it looks like: a neighbor sitting down with a counselor who is not going to ask what they can afford first.

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Not the sort of thing you expect to find inside a fire station on a Monday.

The RedHawk American Indian Education, Culture and Awareness Council teamed up with Guilford Native American Indian Education to host a cultural workshop at Kernersville Fire Station 42 on August 10. Leading it was Michelle Reed, an enrolled member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Ojibwe who manages the Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company and is the lead female dancer for the recording group Brulé.

Reed led a Native American dance fitness session, and the group also worked through a hands-on medicine bag activity rooted in traditional indigenous knowledge. Organizers were clear that the point was not a one-off performance but the start of an ongoing relationship with the community.

It is a good reminder that our civic buildings can be more than places we call in an emergency. Nice work by everyone who made it happen.

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If you have a student at Glenn or East Forsyth, this one is worth two minutes.

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools board moved this week to extend the district's dual-enrollment partnership with Forsyth Technical Community College for another year. The program has been running since 2012, and participation has taken off: 1,570 students enrolled last year, more than double the number from five years ago. The renewal also adds Upward Bound and a five-year enrollment option.

In plain terms, that means high schoolers taking real college courses, earning real credit, at no cost to the family. It is one of the most practical benefits available in the district, and it quietly saves families thousands of dollars.

Board member Sabrina Coone put it best: "As a mama whose child is moving into college tomorrow and who participated in this, I'm very thankful." The board also approved a Title I application of more than $22 million, with roughly $18 million of that flowing directly to schools.

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The easiest fundraiser in town is the one where you just have to eat.

Members of the Kernersville Rotary Club gathered at Gypsy Rose on Wednesday for Eating for Education, in which participating local restaurants donate a slice of the day's sales to the Kernersville Chamber of Commerce Education Fund. That fund awards grants straight to teachers in Kernersville public schools, the kind that pay for the classroom supplies a budget line never quite covers.

The next round is already on the calendar for September 9, so keep an eye out for the participating restaurant list. Showing up hungry is a legitimate form of community service.

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This is issue #100. We wanted to stop for a second and say something about that.

When this started, the whole idea was pretty modest: gather up what is actually happening in Kernersville and put it in one email so nobody has to hunt for it across six websites and four Facebook groups. That is still the whole idea. A hundred issues in, it has just meant showing up every morning with the water main breaks and the ribbon cuttings, the football schedules and the boil-water advisories, the festivals and the road closures and the occasional 90-year-old racing legend.

What we did not expect is how much of this newsletter would end up being written by the town itself. Readers send us events. Business owners tell us what is opening. Somebody always writes in when we get a street name wrong, and honestly, thank you for that. A hundred issues of a local newsletter is really a hundred issues of people caring enough to keep us honest and keep us informed.

So: thank you for reading, for forwarding, for hitting reply. Whether you have been here since issue #1 or you signed up last Tuesday, we are glad you are here. Here is to the next hundred, starting with tomorrow morning.

And if there is one thing that would genuinely help us get there, it is you sending this to one neighbor who does not have it yet.

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