Over the weekend two Wake Forest youth teams won state championships – each by close margins. The teams are part of the Wake Forest Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources all-star basketball teams who were competing in the North Carolina Recreation & Parks Association Statewide Athletics Committee (SWAC) championships. The girls’ 10-and-under team, coached by Dennis Gaskins, went undefeated through the sectional and state tournaments before defeating Moore County 29-28 in overtime of the championship game in Spring Lake. Members of the girls’ 10-and-under SWAC championship team are Camryn Gaskins, Kristine Bock, Syndi Conti, Lindsay Nicholson, Alina Paradowski, Kayla Rice, Madison Lampman, Sophie Faulkner, Riley Bates and Chelsea Lange. The assistant coach is Chad Lampman. Meanwhile in New Bern, the boys’ 18-and-under team, coached by Mike Teasley, defeated New Bern 54-42 in game one and Nash County 64-50 in game two. The squad then suffered its first and only defeat to

The 2018 Koinonia Cares Charity Auction will be held where The Koinonia Foundation began, the Wake Forest Baptist Church, on Saturday, March 24, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Formed in 1990 by the Koinonia Sunday School Class at Wake Forest Baptist to help the disadvantaged in the community, The Koinonia Foundation of Wake Forest has grown to be an interdenominational non-profit providing financial support for organizations that address human needs which are not otherwise adequately funded and periodically to individuals demonstrating a critical need. The event features a full dinner and a silent and live auction of unique items and valuable services donated by local businesses, artists and individuals. Tickets are $20 per person and only 175 will be sold. Tickets may be purchased online at www.koinoniaWF.org or at these downtown Wake Forest locations: Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, 350 South White Street Ollies Café & Gifts, 213 South White Street

The Wake Forest Historical Museum received an Award of Excellence from the North Carolina Museums Council for its 2017 survey of the Old Cemetery of Friendship Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. In September the museum won an Anthemion Award from Capital Area Preservation and led to a recent decision to designate the Old Cemetery a local historic site. The cemetery dates back to the antebellum era. According to church history, it was first used by Christian slaves who gathered in secret at the wooded plot to hold nighttime worship services. After the Civil War, the 1.64 acre parcel was purchased by the congregation and became Friendship Chapel’s first cemetery. Early burials are believed to date back to the 1870s. Church members stopped using the cemetery in the 1940s or 195s after deciding it was full and beginning a new cemetery next to the 1929 brick church. In recent years members have

The annual Wake Forest Easter Egg Hunt will be in E. Carroll Joyner Park on Saturday, March 24 – and it will also be a day filled with crafts, games, food, prizes and a visit from the Easter Bunny. Staff from the town’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Department plus volunteers have hidden more than 10,000 eggs filled with prizes and candy across four locations for the four age groups: 3 and younger, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 and special needs. Children ages 3 and younger will hunt for eggs beginning at 10 a.m.; ages 4-6 will begin at 10:20 a.m.; ages 7-9 get underway at 10:40 a.m.; and ages 10-12 commence at 11 a.m. An egg hunt for children with special needs will begin at 11:30 a.m. A downloadable map of the egg hunt areas is available at www.wakeforestnc.gov/easter-egg-hunt.aspx Registration is not required for the hunts, but participants should come with baskets

There will be some hotly contested seats in the 2018 May 8 party primaries, and Wake County will provide early voting at the Northern Regional Center on East Holding Avenue from April 26 to May 5. There is a lot of competition for the U.S. Congressional seat now held by Rep. George E.B. Holding of Raleigh. Gregory A. Chesser II of Louisburg is contesting him in the Republican primary. On the Democratic side, Wendy E. May of Selma, Kenneth M. Romley of Raleigh and Linda D. Coleman of Knightdale are trying for the party’s nomination. An even more intense primary is shaping up for the District 35 seat in the North Carolina House, and all the candidates live in Wake Forest. Three men are trying to wrest Chris Malone’s seat from him: Adam B. Wright, Terence J. Everitt and Isaac C. Burke. Wake Forest Democratic voters will also be able