St. Patrick's Day returns to Robbins, as well as Pinehurst, on Saturday -- the second day of spring this year.

Downpours last Saturday washed out plans for an early Irish celebration.

The Cape Fear Pipes and Drums Band will perform live in Middleton Mercantile at 1 p.m. They will stop in the middle of Robbins after marching in Pinehurst's parade earlier in the day. (The Pinehurst parade will be held at 11 a.m.)

"Come out and join us in celebrating St. Patrick's Day," says Middleton Mercantile owner Claire Matthews. "Don't forget to wear your green! If you do, you get 10 percent off of your purchases that day."

Some "green" will no doubt be worn by volunteers helping clean up the town Saturday. They will be repeating last year's spring cleaning. Sprucing up is not limited to cleaning streets and yards.

There is help available for houses as well. The Northern Moore Family Resource Center is working with Tim Emmert, development planner for Moore County, to provide an initiative to upgrade housing in the Robbins area.

The resource center is writing a grant proposal, which if funded, will allow properties to be upgraded without cost to the owner in return for the owner's agreement that he/she will lease the home at a stated amount for a period of years.

The initiative hopes to be mutually beneficial to both owners and tenants. Property owners interested in participating in this program once it has been funded, should contact Clare Ruggles at 948-4324 or Emmert at 947-5010.

Meanwhile, organizers say people are expressing overwhelming interest in the new Bear Creek Hiking Club. Cathy Hussey, of Hussey Oil Co., and local artist Linda Koonce started hiking together just for fun. The more they walked the Bear Creek Trail, the more they dreamed of a club uniting other avid hikers to the area.

"Cathy and I have had an amazing response from people all over the county interested in the Bear Creek Hiking Club," says Linda Koonce. "We had not known that the response would be so great. For more information anybody can phone me at 464-5368 or Cathy at 464-3679."

They had started talking about the possibilities and the benefits of creating a hiking club here since the closest hiking club they could find anywhere around was in Greensboro where the Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club, had been in existence since 1982.

Hubert Lathan, a member and past president of that club, became their close mentor.

"We have learned so much from Mr. Lathan, and he has been so generous to share information to help us get started," Hussey says. "Our goal is to enjoy organized hikes, promote clean walking trails, meet together socially, learn from guest speakers, adopt a healthier lifestyle and develop outdoor trail activities for kids. We want to attract committed members who care for the outdoors, enjoy walking beautiful scenic trails together and support and inspire each other along the way."

Lathan is coming to Robbins as club speaker to make a presentation at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, at Robbins Area Library. Lathan plans to come a bit early that day to join club members for a 3:30 p.m. afternoon hike of the Bear Creek Trail.

Other upcoming Foothills area events include the March 28 Charles E Brady Memorial run and paddle event and next month's RobbinsAlive! Spring Festival on Saturday, April 18, with its repeat of the Adventure Bear-a-thalon, box car derby, downtown sidewalk shop and decorated hat contest sponsored by Robbins Red Hat Society.

Contact John Chappell at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.