🗞️ Police need your doorbell footage from Piney Grove Road

🗞️ Our hospital just earned national marks for heart and stroke care

🗞️ A four-week program for boys ages 9 to 12, and what came out of it

🗞️ Two dry days before the rain: five places to get outside

☀️ Sunny and dry | High: 91°F | Low: 71°F

About as clean a forecast as we get: sunny all day, a high near 91, a light north breeze and no rain in the picture. Thursday looks much the same at 92 before a few storms creep in overnight. Then the pattern flips. Friday brings showers and thunderstorms likely with a high of only 86, which is worth knowing if you are headed to the Kernersville Cup at Glenn that night, and Saturday stays unsettled at 84. Translation: today and tomorrow are the outdoor days this week.

If you live or work along Piney Grove Road, you may already have the evidence sitting on your phone.

Kernersville police are looking for a red Honda passenger car with significant front-end damage that left the scene of a crash in the 700 block of Piney Grove Road around 1:40 p.m. Monday. Investigators are asking residents and businesses in that stretch to pull up their doorbell and security camera footage from roughly 1:20 to 1:40 p.m. and look for the wreck itself, the red Honda, or any vehicle passing through around that time.

That is a narrow window and a specific car, which is exactly the kind of ask a neighborhood can actually answer. If you have anything, call the Kernersville Police Department non-emergency line at 336-996-3177.

One housekeeping note: a couple of outlets published different tip numbers for this case, and neither matches a published KPD line. The number above is the one listed on both the department's own site and the town's contacts page.

Read more

When something goes wrong with your heart, the hospital you get to in the next few minutes matters more than almost anything else. Good news on that front.

Novant Health Kernersville Medical Center has been recognized by the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines program for both stroke care and heart failure care, along with an additional honor for meeting quality standards in treating patients with Type 2 diabetes. It is one of three Novant hospitals in the Triad to earn the recognition.

The program measures whether a hospital consistently applies evidence-based practices that are proven to speed treatment, reduce complications and improve survival. In other words, this is not a trophy for a good year. It is a mark for doing the unglamorous things right, over and over, on the days nobody is watching.

"This recognition reflects exceptional work in our hospitals and strength of our programs across the Carolinas," said Dr. Howard L. Haronian, physician in chief of the Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute, which spans 20 medical centers and 35 clinics with more than 140 cardiovascular providers. For the families who use the hospital on Kernersville Medical Boulevard, that is a genuinely reassuring thing to read over your coffee.

Read more

Here is the story we would put at the top if we sorted by heart instead of by news.

Jehovah Shammah Ministries just wrapped STRONG Minds Crew, a four-week program that met two hours a week with Kernersville boys ages 9 to 12. The subject matter was self-confidence, resilience and courage, which sounds soft until you remember that most nine-year-old boys have never once been asked, in a room full of their peers, what they are actually afraid of. Todd Curry and Tyrone Lawrence facilitated. A Kernersville Foundation grant paid for it.

What Curry took away from it is the part worth reading twice. "These young men reminded me that every child carries a story that is not always visible, that listening is often more powerful than lecturing, and that consistency builds trust long before words change lives."

Wanda Lawrence of Jehovah Shammah Ministries put the ambition plainly: "The STRONG Minds Crew was far more than a youth program. It was an investment in the future. We are not simply developing better students. We are helping shape stronger men, stronger families, and stronger communities."

Four weeks is not very long. Two adults showing up on purpose, week after week, for a kid who was not sure anyone would, is longer than it sounds.

Read more

Today and tomorrow are sunny and rain-free. Friday and Saturday are not. So consider this your nudge to go stand outside somewhere nice while the standing is good. All five of these are free.

Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 S. Main St. The outdoor displays are open dawn to dusk every day, no admission. August's plant of the month is the "Burning Hearts" oxeye sunflower, yellow petals fading to red, in the Cottage Garden near the Welcome Center. Service animals only, and please stay out of the beds.

Kerner Mill Greenway, trailhead at 219 Oakhurst St. A flat, paved 1.2-mile path along Kerner Mill Creek, good for strollers and bikes. It is phase one of a planned 19-mile greenway that will eventually connect toward Winston-Salem and Summerfield. No restrooms, so plan accordingly.

Century Lake Park, 309 Century Blvd. Six acres of water with a fishing pier, stocked with hybrid bluegill, largemouth bass, crappie and catfish. Bring a canoe or kayak if you have one. Four tables and four grills if you would rather make an evening of it.

Fourth of July Park, 702 W. Mountain St. Seventeen acres with a mapped 5K course, the Vivian F. Bennett Dog Park, a skate park, tennis and pickleball, and the Freedom Playground, which was Forsyth County's first fully accessible playground when it opened in 2018.

Founders Park, 101 N. Main St. The smallest one on the list and the easiest sell if you have ten minutes downtown: picnic tables, benches, and koi you are allowed to feed.

Rain moves in Friday. Go while it is dry.

See every Kernersville park