CONTRIBUTED

On Saturday, Aug. 18, the West Southern Pines Pool Park was adorned with bouncers and filled with the sounds of kid's laughter and the aroma of grilled corn on-the-cob and hot dogs.

The adults participated in the wrapping of a May Pole and reminiscing about the love and pride in West Southern Pines.

The Jim Town Festival was an introduction to the Healthy Food Initiative in West Southern Pines, spearheaded by the lead organization WSP Citizens for Change (Oliver Hines) and Partner Agencies: Good Works (John Parker), Integrity Systems (Fenton Wilkinson), Moore County Partners in Progress, Good Food Sandhills (Kathy Byron), Southern Pines Parks and Recreation, and Sandhills Community College, funded by the BCBSNC Foundation Healthy Food Systems.

Some of the festival's sponsors were FirstHealth, Southern Pines Public Library, Lowes Home Improvement Center, CenturyLink, Innervisions Theater & Company and Moore County NAACP.

The Healthy Food Initiative's mission is to find ways to grow, process, and distribute locally grown foods in West Southern Pines.

On Feb. 18, Kim Wade produced and presented a documentary about the history of West Southern Pines. Her research reveals WSP as the first incorporated African-American township in North Carolina.

From 1923-1931, WSP also known as "Jim Town," had its own mayors, government and bank. Wade's DVD identifies locations of the town hall, jail and credit union. The DVD showed WSP citizens recollecting and mentioning its residents owning and operating more than 200 businesses in their community - including general grocery stores, meat markets, a bakery and restaurants.

Today, WSP has very few businesses and no grocery store within a mile radius.

Southern Pines Mayor David McNeill officially inaugurated the Jim Town Festival as an annual event and recognized Kim Wade for her thorough research on her Jim Town documentary and reintroducing West Southern Pines history.

He also congratulated the above mentioned organizations and agencies for a successful event and their ongoing work and plans through the BCBSNC Foundation to bring healthy food locally grown to every household in West Southern Pines.

The event organizers and agencies are asking each resident of West Southern Pines to return the surveys by Sept. 27 to the appropriate contact person or business.

For further information, contact Oliver Hines, Dorothy Brower, Joyce Chalmers or Agnes Evans.