October 4, 2011
4:00-6:00 p.m.

Gates Four Golf & Country Club
6775 Irongate Drive
Fayetteville, N.C.

Mayor Chavonne will make opening comments and there will be a presentation of the  results of the community and organizational surveys and announcement of Walmart community grants program

Give an Hour™ is a national nonprofit organization providing free mental health services to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, their loved ones, and their communities.

Space is limited – Please RSVP to evincent@giveanhour.org  by September 29th.

Capital Food Group, the franchisee of three Mellow Mushrooms to come in Eastern North Carolina, chose Fayetteville as its flagship store and has set out to embrace the community. Inside the restaurant and bar area, several design elements will honor the strong community ties between Fayetteville and the area military installations.

In addition, as a means of supporting and appreciating the military, for its private-event on Saturday, August 27, Mellow Mushroom Fayetteville will partner with Fayetteville Cares (www.fayettevillecares.org), a local nonprofit that provides support to military members and their families.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Capital Food Group (www.thecapitalfoodgroup.com) is excited to announce its grand opening of Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers in Fayetteville, N.C. on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 301 North McPherson Church Road. Starting at 9:30 a.m., Mellow Mushroom fans are invited to participate in a pizza-cutting ceremony to mark the store’s first open day to the public. The store officially will open at 11 a.m. to serve pizzas, calzones, hoagies, salads, appetizers, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options to the Fayetteville community.

“We are so excited to open.  The support and warm welcome we’ve received from Fayetteville has been incredible and we can’t wait to serve this community,” said Reid Fogleman, principle owner.

Capital Food Group, the franchisee of three Mellow Mushrooms to come in Eastern North Carolina, chose Fayetteville as its flagship store and has set out to embrace the community. Inside the restaurant and bar area, several design elements will honor the strong community ties between Fayetteville and the area military installations.

In addition, as a means of supporting and appreciating the military, for its private-event on Saturday, August 27, Mellow Mushroom Fayetteville will partner with Fayetteville Cares (www.fayettevillecares.org), a local nonprofit that provides support to military members and their families.

Joanne Chavonne, Chair of Fayetteville Cares, remarked, “It is great to see a company like Capital Food Group embrace the military and their families. We are fortunate they understand the unique dynamics of this community.”

“The decision to partner with Fayetteville Cares was made after careful consideration. The direct channel of connection they provide to the military is an amazing service to the public, who many times, is willing to help but doesn’t know where to start,” said Fogleman.

Capital Food Group is also committed to education and has taken strides to offer internships and jobs to students attending local universities. In addition, its retail program will donate a certain amount of proceeds to the education system.

Mellow Mushroom approaches traditional pizza making as if it were a work of modern art. For 37 years, Mellow Mushroom has been serving up fresh stone-baked pizzas to order in an eclectic, art- filled environment. Founded by three college students in 1974, Mellow Mushroom, now Home-Grown Industries of G.A., consists of more than 100 restaurants spanning 15 states.

Capital Food Group is scheduled to open Mellow Mushroom Greenville, N.C. in early 2012 and Mellow Mushroom Jacksonville, N.C. in early 2013.

BY MARTHA QUILLIN – Staff Writer

Published originally in the News & Observer on May 18, 2011

FAYETTEVILLE — With most of Fort Bragg’s soldiers home from deployments for a while, there are more uniforms around town than usual – and more maternity clothes.

“It’s the cycle of life,” said Shannon Lynch, spokeswoman for Womack Army Medical Center on post, which expects about 15 percent more births than average in the coming months. “People go away on deployments, they come home, they have babies. It’s a natural thing.”

More than half the babies born each year in Cumberland County enter the world at Womack. Already the busiest maternity ward in any U.S. military hospital, with an average 270 births per month, Womack expects at least 315 births in June, 285 in July, 324 in August and 323 in September, Lynch said.

Some military mothers opt to give birth at hospitals off-post, including Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville. Donnie Byers, a spokesman for the hospital, said that although Cape Fear normally averages about 350 deliveries a month, it will jump to about 400 this month and 450 in June and July, including babies born to military and civilian parents.

Marriage and parenthood, once rare among military recruits, have become commonplace. Across all branches of the military, about half of active-duty service members are married and have children, according to the Department of Defense.

Fort Bragg’s baby boomlet coincides roughly with the return of the entire 82nd Airborne Division to Fort Bragg in September. It was only the second time since 2003 that all 22,000 soldiers in the division were in town.

There are about 53,000 soldiers based at Fort Bragg, with more arriving weekly as a result of base realignments.

They drank the water

Angelina Frye and her husband arrived in June at Fort Bragg, his first duty assignment as a cook with the 82nd. She got pregnant a few months later.

“Oh my gosh, there are so many pregnant women around me, I guess it’s something in the water,” said Frye, 24, a first-time mother. “When I found out I was pregnant, suddenly all the wives around me were like, ‘Guess who else just got pregnant?’

“It’s definitely something you notice.”

Kirk Deviere, co-founder of Fayetteville Cares, noticed. The group, which supports local military families, is reprising Boots & Booties, its mass baby shower for military mothers. The event was held once before, in 2008, for 950 women at the Crown Center Expo Center in Fayetteville during a previous surge in baby births.

This year, the shower is scheduled for June 25, will accommodate 1,000 new or soon-to-be mothers, Deviere said. More than 675 women had signed up to attend the event on the Fayetteville Cares website Tuesday morning, a day after registration opened.

Guests will be treated to refreshments, entertainment and a bag of gifts from local and national sponsors, and they will be eligible for door prizes, including a new Chevrolet Cruze car.

Deviere said “The World’s Largest Military Baby Shower,” as the event is billed, gives local residents and businesses a way to show their appreciation for military families and lets expectant moms enjoy some of the fun they might have with friends and family back in their hometowns.

“I’m probably not going to get a regular baby shower,” said Frye, who is from Washington state. She’ll be attending Boots & Booties instead.

“For me, this is a nice way to meet other moms and kind of get to have an afternoon that’s just for us.”

Frye said she knows she is lucky; her husband will be home for their daughter’s birth in August.

Megan Krueger’s husband, also a paratrooper in the 82nd, is scheduled to deploy soon and likely won’t be at Fort Bragg when she delivers their first child, a boy, in September.

Krueger, 22, is from Wisconsin, but she will be staying at Fort Bragg until her husband comes back, in part because of the way the base and the surrounding community look after military families.

“It think it’s great Fayetteville is doing this for us,” she said.

Join us for the Glory Days Festival in Fayetteville, NC, where we honor our strong military heritage.  Glory Days is hosted by The Downtown Alliance.

This is a family event is helf over Memorial Day weekend starting on Friday, May 27th with a Movie Night in Festival Park and ending on Monday May 30th with activities for everyone, including a benefit walk for the USO called “Walk a Mile”, live music, arts, crafts, food vendors and a special Field of Honor presentation.  Spend a few fun-filled family days in the glory of our Military Heritage.

Visit the Glory Days Field of Honor, before Memorial Day weekend, where we will behold a beautiful display of  hundreds of American flags, each honoring a brave member of our Armed Forces.  The flags fly at the Airborne Museum.  This living display of heroism serves as a patriotic tribute to the strength and unity of Americans, and will honor all who are currently serving, those who have served, and the men and women who have made the supreme sacrifice for our nation’s security and freedom. 

See the Flags!  See the Glory! See you Downtown!

Another ‘Boots & Booties’ shower set for military moms

By Steve DeVane

Staff writer

The nonprofit Fayetteville Cares organization is throwing a party for military moms just as births are increasing at Fort Bragg.

The group will hold its second “world’s largest military baby shower” June 25 at the Crown Center in conjunction with Fort Bragg Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation. The “Boots & Booties” event for 1,000 military moms and mothers-to-be will have gifts and entertainment.

Fayetteville Cares tries to find ways people with no military connection can support service members. Its first Boots & Booties shower in November 2008 received national media attention. More than 950 military mothers and mothers-to-be participated.

Joanne Chavonne, co-founder of Fayetteville Cares and wife of Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne, said this year’s event will be similar to the 2008 shower. The military moms will get a “nylon laundry bag full of goodies,” such as diapers, toys and clothes, she said.

Each mom also might get a gift such as a car seat or a baby monitor, Chavonne said. One new or expectant mother also will win a new car.

Chavonne said booths at the shower will have information on subjects such as baby safety and breast-feeding, but there will not be vendors marketing to the moms.

The event is open to military connected women who are pregnant or will have delivered a child three months or less before June 25. Those wishing to participate can register beginning at noon May 16 on the Fayetteville Cares website at fayettevillecares.org.

Chavonne said 1,000 people registered for the 2008 shower in eight days.

“I encourage early registration,” she said.

Chavonne said this year’s event will take place as the number of births at Fort Bragg is increasing.

Womack Army Medical Center officials say the hospital averages about 270 births a month. They expect that number to increase to about 330 next month.

A large number of Fort Bragg soldiers returned from deployments last year. The post often sees minor “baby booms” nine months to a year after the end of major deployments.

Melissa Helmick, the wife of Fort Bragg’s commander, said the shower will provide a distraction for some moms who have a deployed spouse.

Helmick’s husband, Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, is commander of 18th Airborne Corps. He is serving as deputy commander for operations of U.S. Forces-Iraq through the end of this year.

“I am not surprised that Fayetteville is doing this because they have been supportive of the military for a long time,” she said.

Helmick said the baby shower will be a “life memory” for all the military moms. It will be especially memorable for those who won’t have another shower because they are separated from family and friends.

“I don’t think you can put into words what it will mean to them,” she said.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at devanes@fayobserver.com or 486-3572.

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/04/27/1089935

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Fayetteville Cares in conjunction with Fort Bragg Family and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation will once again host “Boots & Booties – The World’s Largest Military Baby Shower” on Saturday, June 25, 2011 at the Crown Center in Fayetteville North Carolina.
The first “Boots & Booties” event was held in November of 2008. This event provided a baby shower for over 950 military mothers. Over 150 volunteers, 50 partners and sponsors from across the Fayetteville community supported this event. This event received national press coverage in the New York Times as well as Time Magazine and also resulted in recognition by Gen George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, and Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, for this community’s support of the military and their families.

“For many of these women this first baby shower could be their first, as they are away from their hometowns and families,” said Joanne Chavonne, Fayetteville Cares Chairperson and Co-Founder. “Boots and Booties provides an opportunity for our community to welcome our military families and express how much we appreciate them and what they mean to our community.”

This year “Boots & Booties” will host 1,000 military members and dependents as a show of appreciation to our military and their families. The audience for this event is pregnant and recently delivered women from Ft Bragg and Pope Field; women that are pregnant at the time of the baby shower and women that have delivered up to three months prior; and military ID holders stationed at Ft Bragg or Pope Field as well as National Guard and Reserve units attached to either installation. .

The program for the event will include food, entertainment, multiple gift giveaways including a chance to win a new Chevy Cruz, and information booths will be open to provide information and resources for a variety of topics. Each attendee will receive a gift basket filled with items essential for a new mother.

Registration for the event will open on Monday, May 16th at noon and will close once 1000 people have registered. Registration will take place online at the Fayetteville Cares website at www.fayettevillecares.org.

“The first Boots & Booties was truly a visible sign of how this community supports and cares for our military and their families,” said Kirk deViere, one of the co-founders of Fayetteville Cares. “It is our sincere hope that this year’s baby shower will again represent this commitment to our military families.

Individuals and groups interested in donating items for the baby shower can visit the Fayetteville Cares website at www.fayettevillecares.org after May 15th to get more information on the website as well.

Boots & Booties – The Largest Military Baby Shower Ever!

Fayetteville Cares will host a baby shower on Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 1300-1600 hours at the Crown Expo Center for 1,000 military moms called Boots & Booties.  The audience for this event is pregnant and recently delivered women from Ft Bragg and Pope Field; women that are pregnant at the time of the baby shower and women that have delivered up to three months prior; and military ID holders stationed at Ft Bragg or Pope Field as well as National Guard and Reserve units attached to either installation. The program for the event will include food, entertainment, multiple gift giveaways including a chance to win a new Chevy Cruz, and information booths will be open to provide information and resources for a variety of topics.