Senior banners are up in Garland

Folks at Helping Hands Change Makers Inc., have been trying since February to get senior banners hung in the town of Garland, similar to the ones seen in Clinton, Newton Grove, and other towns in Sampson County. Now, they are finally up, just in time for the last month of school before the seniors graduate.

Sheila Smith and Veronica Thomas, both of Garland, expressed that the road to get this achieved was quite a difficult task.

The tradition of hanging the banners started in 2020 during Covid to give seniors some type of recognition while everyone was going through that difficult time. Mayor Winifred Murphy was in office at that time.

“I didn’t think it would be this difficult to get them up, because we have been doing it for a few years now,” Smith stated in a recent interview.

The motion was originally brought up by Smith at the Feb. 4 town meeting, where it was unanimously denied. “Commissioner Jo Strickland presented misleading information,” Thomas said. “She made it seem like it was going to cost the town money, which wasn’t true. The organization (HHCM Inc.) raises money to help families that cannot afford to put up banners by doing all kinds of fundraisers and sponsors. And then you got the parents who can afford it to pay for their child to be put up,” she stated.

Smith returned in the month of March to ask the board to reconsider its vote. At that time, the board instructed Smith to contact Duke Energy since they were the owners of the poles. Smith informed the board that she had already taken that measure, and Duke Energy redirected her to contact the board. At this point, the matter was tabled, with the board scheduling discussion at the next April meeting, but that discussion never happened.

Strickland offered insight into why the matter was unanimously voted down in February. “(The) graduation project was initiated because of the lack of graduation ceremonies during the COVID 19 era. We felt like the expense to families with graduation costs, military ball, prom, etc. is too much. I personally reached out to administration at Union High School and they said the same thing, too expensive for our population with all other costs,” she stated via email.

Smith replied, “In my opinion, it was just an effort to try to block something good, and something the town (residents) really wanted. Like I said, it cost the town nothing, other than to use the poles.

“The way she made it seem to the school, and the board, was supremely misleading,” she added. Smith said she has a copy of a letter Strickland sent to Union High, in which she made it seem that the banners would be a burden to the town and the school financially. “The things she said in this letter, like she was the one raising the money for the project, and she was the one leading the project, was just simply not true,” Smith stated, confirming what Thomas also said. “We didn’t ask for any funding from the town, so why she was opposed to it, I don’t know,” she continued.

HHCM even had other parents “adopt” other kids and pay for their banners, as well as sponsors and local businesses who paid for students’ banners to be hung. These banners don’t only show Union graduates, but seniors from Harrells, Mintz, Sampson Early College, and even Pender. “A lot of those schools don’t do this in those areas, so it only felt right to include them as well,” Smith declared. “It’s just one of those things that sometimes, no matter how good you are at doing what you do, you’re gonna always have that one person,” she continued.

Earlier this month, Mayor Pro Tem Ralph Smith Jr. contacted Sheila Smith and told her that she had permission from Mayor Austin Brown to go forth and start hanging the banners.

No vote was ever taken on the matter.

But in hindsight, HHCM Inc. didn’t need to go through the town at all. “We didn’t realize that we didn’t have to because we always did it along with Mayor Murphy,” Smith stated.

Thomas also expressed her frustrations with this process. “They could’ve told us that in February instead of just shooting it down,” she declared. “Everything we bring up, except for our Easter egg program, seems to just get shut down, or some type of conflict comes up; it just feels like a constant run around.”

Smith spoke toward the resiliency of Helping Hands, the schools, and the community in helping to get this done for the students. “I want it to be known that we appreciate all of those that wanted to make sure this happened in our town, not only for Union, but for all the schools that were on board. We have a strong community that truly care for one another,” she concluded.