A word -- or two -- of thanks

My husband thought he lost our car keys Sunday when at the Carborro Music Festival. Well, he did! — but someone found them lying near our car parked in the large parking lot. They didn’t take our car. They didn’t take anything out of the car. They attached the keys to our windshield wiper so we would see them when we returned to our car!

Thank you Good Samaritan for your honesty and concern. This supports how we have felt about North Carolinians since relocating here from New York a few years ago. You are such good people.

Jim and Darlene Pomroy
Pittsboro

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On Sept. 8, I was honored with the first Lifetime Achievement Award during the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau Annual Luncheon before 675 people at the new Convention Center. I was overcome with emotion and did not go to the microphone to thank the bureau and all those present.

It has bothered me greatly for not expressing my warm, heartfelt thanks for this award, and I do so now with much regret that I cannot do it in person to all those present.

The new convention center and attached Marriott Hotel are magnificent and will prompt significant economic impact for the Raleigh area in not only convention business, but also other private sector investment in downtown and the area. It is truly a dream come true for me, and it was an honor to be a part of its inception and construction.  

My wife, Janice, and I miss Raleigh and will always cherish the 20 years we had in that dynamic community.  But we are with family and grandchildren in Yakima, Washington where we should be in our retirement.

To Denny Edwards, Doyle Parrish and all those friends in the audience on Sept. 8, thank you so much for your wonderful recognition.

Dave Heinl
1987-2007 President and CEO, Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau
Yakima, Wash.

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I just wanted to thank Progress Energy of Raleigh for sending crews to the Central Ohio area to help restore power to our neighborhoods. Who knew that Hurricane Ike would enter Ohio with a vengeance on Sept. 14?  Over a million people in the area found themselves without power for a week or more. Trees were snapped, debris everywhere, and the lack of power resulted in school and business closings.

Finally on Friday evening after six days, we were elated in our own neighborhood to see the power trucks from Raleigh. In less than three hours, the tired workers cut down two large trees and fixed the mangled hot wires to restore our electricity. Great job!!

People of Raleigh should be proud, as your power crews worked many, many long hours throughout the week in this (very grateful) Central Ohio area.

Kathleen Marine
Columbus, Ohio

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I want to express my gratitude to Officer Edmonds and to the dispatcher of the Cary Police Department who assisted me on the early morning of September 25.

I am new to the area, and I recently started walking every morning to get fit and to lower my blood pressure. I decided to take a different route, and I got horribly lost walking through the maze of streets in the MacGregor subdivision. I ended up on U.S. 64, and I was scared, lost and exhausted.  I thought I was near Kroger, so I called a friend to meet me there to take me home. As it turns out, I was not near Kroger but at the exit for Sanford.  

I called 911, and the dispatcher was very kind as she could tell I was rather upset. She calmed me down enough to be able to tell her where I was. She dispatched an officer, Officer Edmonds, and he arrived five minutes later. I told him that if he could drop me off at Kroger, my friend would take me home. However, my friend had come and gone from Kroger when I didn’t show up.  So Officer Edmonds drove me home to New Kent Place in Cary.  I was six miles or so from home.

I am so appreciative to Officer Edmonds and that wonderful dispatcher.  U.S. 64 doesn’t have sidewalks, and people driving to work are sometimes sleepy or in a hurry, so it was rather dangerous.  

I think the Cary Police Department does a wonderful job, and they make Cary one of the safest places to live in the USA. I will always be grateful to Officer Edmonds for taking me safely home and to the dispatcher who talked me out of my fear.

Mary Cooling
Cary

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I would like to thank The N&O for including me in your Clay Aiken article and especially the positive outlook portrayed in the piece. It makes my heart glad to see how far our society has come on LGBT acceptance. With our help this trend will continue until it someday becomes a nonissue.

Our country was founded on the belief of freedom, equality and justice for all. My religion teaches God is love and love thy neighbor as thyself. Let us remember and practice these beliefs in our dealings with all people including the LGBT community.

Ted Mayer, DDS
PFLAG Triangle president

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Thank you for the Haiti coverage, especially as we bemoan our “crumbling economy.” Haiti is 90 minutes by plane from Miami but light-years distant from our comfortable lives.

On my trip to Haiti in April, a fellow traveler said she needed six months to process what she had just seen out the bus window during the last 30 minutes. But there is hope.  New-Bern based Haiti Fund has been teaching thousands to live off the land using farming, reforestation to prevent flooding, cisterns to catch rain water and fish farms.  

Matthew Cook
Raleigh

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The Sept. 25 article written by Stanley B. Chambers Jr. on the vigil in Durham (The National Day of Remembrance for Murdered Victims) exemplified courage and heart to articulate what many shy away from in the media. It was great effort to express the cry of the community to the people of Durham and surrounding areas.

I commend Chambers and The News & Observer for bringing awareness to the public eye. It is vital that we as a community stand united and informed and not continue to enable violence to control our society for generations to come. Your support  speaks loud in the concern for your neighbors.           

Janice Oliver Belcher
Cary

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On Sunday, Sept. 14, I had the pleasure of being in downtown Raleigh for the Lenovo Magnificent Mile Race. I am still bragging on Raleigh’s citizens.

Being unfamiliar with Raleigh, except for the N.C. Museum of Art, I had to ask directions both going and coming, and each time the person went out of his/her way to direct me.

The race for the benefit of the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation was a total success and a joyous celebration of life that honored the victims of two motor neuron diseases by raising more than $30,000 for research. Many thanks go to the hundreds involved as volunteers, racers, newscasters and sponsors who made it happen and to the City of Raleigh police who kept the race lanes free of traffic.

I look forward to being a tourist in beautiful downtown Raleigh soon.

Sarah McFarland
Winston-Salem