🗞️ The All Mounds Matter 5K is back for year five, and registration is open

🗞️ Never too old: a 100-year-old goes skydiving (again)

🗞️ Yadkin Riverkeeper sets off on a 192-mile paddle down our river

🗞️ Model car builders roll into Kernersville for a big regional show

🌦️ Hot and humid, stray storm | High: 88°F | Low: 70°F

Another sticky summer day. Highs reach the upper 80s but feel closer to the mid-90s with the humidity, under partly cloudy skies. A stray afternoon or evening shower or storm is possible, so keep an umbrella handy, and drink plenty of water if you are out.

Mark your calendar and maybe your running shoes: one of Kernersville's feel-good traditions is back.

The All Mounds Matter 5K Run/Walk returns for its 5th anniversary on Sunday, October 4, and it is exactly the kind of event this town does well. It benefits Cancer Services, the local nonprofit that helps people in our community navigate a cancer diagnosis, and over its first four years, the race has already gifted an incredible $170,000 to the cause. Whether you want to race the 5K for a time, stroll the 1-mile, or simply chip in as a donor, there is a way for everyone to be part of it.

There is a strong local backbone here, too. For the fifth year running, Parks GMC of Kernersville is the title sponsor, and the event is organized by the folks at Coffee For A Cause. It is a genuine community effort, the sort of thing that turns a Sunday morning into something that actually changes lives.

October will be here before you know it, and organizers note that signing up early gets you the best price. If you want to run, walk, donate, or even sponsor, you can find all the details and register now on the race page.

Register for the 5K

If you need a jolt of inspiration this week, meet Millie Shelton.

The 100-year-old Thomasville woman, whom her family lovingly calls "the Energizer Bunny," jumped out of a plane at about 10,000 feet on July 27, floating down over Piedmont Skydiving in Salisbury. It was her third skydive in the past decade, and she was not the least bit nervous. "I'm looking forward to it. It's so pretty from up there," she said before the jump. Her 80-year-old son-in-law, Joe Sokol, leapt right along with her.

Skydiving is only the latest entry on a truly bodacious bucket list. Shelton earned a brown belt in judo in her 60s, ziplined at Niagara Falls, kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland, took a hot-air balloon ride, and next month she is booked for a 175-mph NASCAR ride-along at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Her philosophy is simple: "If something comes up that sounds interesting, I'll try it." That first jump years ago even started as a dare, when a coworker told her skydiving was "a man's sport."

Her family is already talking about booking a jump for her 105th birthday, and Shelton says she would love it. The one thing they have put their foot down on? Bungee jumping. A good reminder that it is never too late to say yes to the things that light you up.

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Our region's namesake river is getting a two-week star turn.

Yadkin Riverkeeper Nicole Eastman and Yadkin River State Trail coordinator Ward Swann, along with other paddlers, launched a 192-mile "Long Paddle" on August 1, floating by kayak and canoe nearly the entire length of the Yadkin. The trip runs from Happy Valley in Caldwell County all the way to Morrow Mountain State Park in Stanly County, where the Yadkin joins the Uwharrie and becomes the Pee Dee. It covers the full 163-mile Yadkin River State Trail in two segments, August 1 to 8 and August 15 to 20, with a pause for the Great Trails State Conference in Winston-Salem on August 10 to 12.

The goal is part celebration, part science. Along the way the group is monitoring water quality, documenting wildlife, and highlighting what Swann calls the river's "enormous, unrealized recreation potential," some of the best paddling and smallmouth fishing in the state, right in our backyard. "Paddling the Yadkin ... is a great opportunity to take inventory of our river and highlight its beauty and importance," Eastman said.

The journey even follows a historic route first paddled and documented back in 1925. If you would like to dip a paddle in yourself, the public can join on select days. Details and registration are at yadkinriverkeeper.org/events.

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If you have ever glued together a scale model, this one is for you.

The second annual Model Car Builders of NC, SC and VA Contest and Swap Meet took over the Kernersville Recreation and Events Center on Saturday, drawing hobbyists and vendors from as far away as Tennessee and Massachusetts. Organizers Jeff Kessler and Jamie Bowen said the event grew a lot from its debut, with more than 40 tables, over 20 vendors and a whole lot more room to spread out. "This is a great central location," Kessler said.

This year's theme leaned right into local racing lore: "75 Years of Racing History at Bowman Gray Stadium," with special awards for any model of a car raced or used at the historic track, from race cars to tow trucks and transporters. There were 17 contest categories, a giant model kit raffle, and plenty of swapping among the tables.

Model Car Builders of NC, SC and VA is a regional community of hobbyists with monthly meetings and an active online following, and organizers are already hoping to book an even bigger space in Kernersville next year. Not bad for a hobby that started on a lot of our kitchen tables.

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