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Concerts take on All-America feel
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Published: May 7, 2009
The Piedmont Health Care Friday After Five Concert Series has quickly caught on as something of a summer staple in Statesville.
Only in its second year, the monthly concerts provide a time to let your hair down just a tad, mingle with old friends, make new ones and enjoy live music.
At this year's kick-off event, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Friday, those sounds will take on an added meaning. And the event itself is pulling double duty.
The first 2009 installment of Friday After Five will serve as a kind of awareness-building and celebration of Statesville's effort to be named for a second time as an All America City, a title it first garnered in 1997.
And the music — at least some of it — will be provided by the Statesville High School Drumline.
The drumline will also serve as a kind of symbol for Statesville's All America City bid, whose theme for the city's nomination proposal is "Many Beats; One Rhythm."
Nancy Davis, Statesville's media relations and information officer, said the slogan is a nod to how diverse the city has become and how that diversity has made Statesville a better place.
"It is diverse in so many ways," Davis said. "We're talking about race and ethnicity and age — there are so many people who are both young and old. And just the city itself, how it has people that have lived here for six generations and others who have only been here for six months."
Davis said the Statesville High School group is an ideal representative of the project.
"If you've ever seen that drum line, and how diverse those kids are," she said, "you'd see how perfectly it fits for what we are doing."
The series' kick-off is a hectic time for Marin Tomlin, executive director of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation, which organizes the events along with the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce.
"It's an exciting time," Tomlin said Wednesday afternoon. "But there is still a lot to get done before then."
Tomlin said Friday After Five has blossomed in a short time into a crowd-pleaser.
"It's a great event and I think it's only going to keep growing."
Tomlin said the event — which features beach music, Motown and R&B act Sammy O'Banion and Mardi Gras as the featured performer — is on, rain or shine.
But, she added, "hopefully the weather has gotten all those thunderstorms out of their system."
Beer, wine, soft drinks and hamburgers and hot dogs will be on sale during the concert event, which goes from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Chamber CEO and President David Bradley said marrying the All-America City and Friday After Five was an easy call.
"This is a great opportunity," he said. "Friday After Five already helps build a sense of community and the All-America City is a celebration or recognition of that, so it was nice to be able to do it all together."
Statesville is one of 32 finalists vying 10 All-America City Awards, which will be handed out by the National Civic League.
Winners are chosen on the strength of the effort made by city leaders and organizations at tackling social issues and other challenges. Award winners will be named during a convention in Tampa, Fla., in mid-June.
"The more work we do with the All-America City, the more excited we get," Bradley said. "Because it really recognizes the people who work, day-in and day-out, at the challenges the city faces and their approach to addressing those challenges."
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