Gingerbread House Festival returns to the Public Library

Centenary Church choir brings back its Christmas cantata

Another seasonal casualty of the pandemic last year was cancellation of numerous church celebrations, including the annual cantata at Centenary United Methodist Church. The event returned to the sanctuary last Sunday and is archived for viewing at any time on Centenary's YouTube channel>

CORONAVIRUS REPORT

$100 gift cards for first vaccine doses next week

North Carolina's deadline to receive a $100 VISA gift card for individuals receiving their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been extended through next week.

The Johnston County Public Health Department – closed Thursday through Monday – will resume offering COVID-19 vaccines to the public again on Tuesday (Dec. 28) before closing for the New Year's Eve holiday on Friday.

Partnering with the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services, Johnston's Health Department distributed 122 VISA gift cards December 13-20. For more information on eligibility requirements for the gift cards, visit www.JohnstonNC.com/COVID 19>

The OptumServe COVID-19 testing site at the Progressive Men's Club in Smithfield will be closed this Friday and Saturday, with testing to resume Monday (Dec. 27).

VIEW the current list of vaccination clinics in Johnston County>

VIEW the current list of testing sites in Johnston County>

Public Library offers automatic-renewal service

The Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield has launched an automatic-renewal program for books, DVDs, and other library materials. Here's how it works:

All library accounts have been activated to receive automatic renewals one day before items are due to be returned. Patrons with an e-mail address will receive a notice that lists which items were successfully renewed and which items were not. This applies to all accounts that have less than $15 due in fines.

Items on hold for other patrons and items that have reached their renewal limit, whether automatically by the system or manually by the patron, are not eligible for automatic renewals.

"Our patrons have been asking for this service for some time, and we have listened,” said Library Director Johnnie Pippin. "The new program will allow for a more streamlined workflow for staff while providing our patrons the enjoyment of their selections a bit longer."

Located at 305 East Market Street in Downtown Smithfield, the library is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 984-985-BOOK.

Award-winning robotics team saluted

This group from Johnston County Public Schools' (f)x Robotics Team was named Overall Grand Champion at the Doyenne Inspiration Competition held in Cary. The students presented facts about the team at last week's meeting of the Board of Education: (left to right) Sloan Mann, Kaitlyn Nolte, Ava Cummings, Eli Spottswood, Bhakti Patel, and Rebecca Jenkins. Based at Smithfield-Selma High School, the team includes 41 members from schools throughout the county. (JCPS photo)

JCCollege announces fall-semester honor rolls

The President's List at Johnston Community College includes 36 students with Smithfield addresses while the Dean's List includes 43. To make the President's List, a student must complete at least 9 credit hours during a semester, excluding developmental courses, and achieve at least a 4.0 GPA (grade point average). Dean's List students must achieve at least a 3.5 GPA. VIEW both lists in full>

WHAT'S COMING UP?

Here's what's closed, what's open this holiday weekend

Municipal, county, and state offices and most services will be shut down Thursday through Monday (Dec. 23-27). Exceptions are banks and the Postal Service, which will be open with shortened hours Friday, closed Christmas Day, and back in business Monday. Smithfield's Recreation and Aquatics Center (SRAC) will be closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, re-opening Sunday afternoon (Dec. 26).

New Year's Eve a holiday for most government offices

With New Year's Day falling on Saturday, Friday the 31st will be observed as a holiday by most federal, state, and local government offices. Banks and the U.S. Postal Service as well as the Johnston County Landfill and solid-waste convenience sites will be open and operating as usual on New Year's Eve. The SRAC will close early on Friday the 31st and re-open Sunday afternoon (Jan. 2).

DEATHS & FUNERALS

NO OBITUARIES WITH SMITHFIELD CONNECTIONS TO REPORT THIS WEEK.

A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!"

It was a long-standing tradition of The Smithfield Herald to publish perhaps the most famous editorial of all times in the newspaper's last edition before Christmas. As a descendant of the Herald that's no longer with us, the Weekly Sun continues that tradition again this year, proud to share the name of a New York City newspaper long gone from the American public arena:

By Francis P. Church, on the Editorial Page published September 21, 1897:

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.