Volunteers help repair a roof on a house located on Revell Road in Selma.

By Brandon Sneed
News Staff Writer
It is perhaps the one mission that is impossible to fail – service.
Mission Serve hit Smithfield on Sunday as 110 students, ages ranging from sixth to 12th grade, poured into Smithfield’s First Baptist Church as participants in the church’s annual mission trip hosting project.
It is the first year First Baptist has hosted Mission Serve, having gone with World Changers (another well-known non-profit service organization) for the past decade, said Lee Colbert, First Baptist pastor and Smithfield’s Mission Serve hosting coordinator.
The kids kicked off their week bright and early Monday morning, heading out to projects in Princeton, Four Oaks, Smithfield and Selma in “squads” of eight to nine students and three adults. Each squad includes at least one person familiar with construction.


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By Kelly Lake
News Editor
A local restaurant owner is headed back to school to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer. Perry Register, who owns Short’s Grill in Selma, with his wife Cindy, is selling the business by sealed bid on June 30 to finance that dream.
Register sees himself leaving a legacy for his four children, a great niece and a great nephew through his hard work over the next 10 to 15 years.
He graduated from Campbell University in 1992, now 16 years later, he’s headed to North Carolina Central University to seek a law degree. Register plans to complete his law degree over four years of evening classes beginning next fall.


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By Kelly Lake
News Editor
Mary Jane “Sam” Roberts, a new assistant principal at Selma Elementary School, came by her nickname in an unusual fashion, but came by her new job through years of experience in classrooms around the globe.
Mary Jane became known as Sam thanks to a mother-in-law who never could quite remember her real name. While she remembered Mary, it was the name that came next that gave her trouble, explained Roberts. It often became Mary Agnes or something equally as wrong.
“She had a cat that she loved, named Sam,” said Roberts. “Well, that cat died, and she started calling me Sam – something she could remember. It stuck and I’ve been known as Sam for 37 years now.”


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Rebecca Ryan and Eve Rowshanaee give joint speech at commencement.

By Joe Amara
News Staff Writer
“It was almost convenient that we were one and two in our class,” said Rebecca Ryan, valedictorian of the Class of 2008 at Smithfield-Selma High School (SSHS), daughter of Mark and Regina Ryan of Smithfield. She was talking about her best friend Eve Rowshanaee, daughter of Mary and Mehdi Rowshanaee of Wilson’s Mills, and salutatorian of the 2008 class.
The girls found out a week before graduation that they were, indeed, number one and number two. Ryan finished out her high school career with a cumulative grade point average of 5.01, and Rowshanaee finished close behind with a 4.935.
Both Ryan and Rowshanaee were involved with various extra-curricular activities. Both were members of the SSHS girls’ soccer team and National Honor Society. Ryan was also involved with Campus Crusaders for Christ (CCC) and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).
They both took advance placement classes in language and composition, literature and composition, calculus, and statistics. Rowshanaee took a special interest in chemistry and physics, while Ryan excelled in math, which she said she enjoyed.



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