Community

The Mount Olive Exchange Club installed new officers Tuesday night, July 15, also using the occasion to continue its support of the community by making donations to several nonprofits.

The approximately 450 people attending Friday’s Fourth of July celebration at Westbrook Park ranged in age from six months to 91 years — one person was even celebrating their July 4 birthday — and there were even visitors from as far away as Texas, Idaho and Thailand.

The Mount Olive Exchange Club and Rotary Club are partnering this year to co-host the town’s annual old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. this Friday in Westbrook Park.

The Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Pickle Parlor grand opening was reminiscent of the N.C. Pickle Festival’s pickle-packing challenge — only instead of seeing how many pickles can be packed into a jar, it was seeing how many people could be packed into the new store.

The intersection of N.C. 55 and Secondary Road 1744 (Indian Springs Road/Old Seven Springs Road) is scheduled to be converted into a single-lane roundabout as part of an $8 million project that includes eliminating the intersection of N.C. 55 and North Church Street.

Isaiah Whitfield, 14, had to stretch to hold his phone high enough over his head to get just the right angle of his parents, Michael and Fransha Whitfield, as they posed in front of a banner celebrating Juneteenth.

Brad Mitchell has countless fond memories of time spent with his grandmother, Norma Ann “Nanny” Vinson, especially her baking lessons using her recipes — memories he wants to share with others while helping them make memories of their own.

“This man, right here, is my daddy, Paul Smalley,” Pernell Brickey said holding a photo album of former Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce leaders above her head. “He was the chairman in 2001. He passed away in 2013.

Overhead, dull gray skies threatened rain Monday morning, but the vacant lot adjacent to Roberts Machine & Supply on N.C. 55 West was ablaze with the colors of U.S. flags billowing in a brisk breeze.

Robert Van Wormer drove his screwdriver into the hard ground at Oakview (Maplewood) Cemetery; in the hole it left, he placed a small U.S. flag.