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INSIDE ▼ Volleyball teams qualify for playoffs PAGE 3A Friday, October 24, 2025 • Vol. 25 • No. 43

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Nonprofit offers Fast-Track Homebuyer Program MATTHEWS – Greater Matthews Habitat for Humanity is expanding its approach to make affordable housing more attainable for limited-income families in Matthews, Mint Hill and Stallings.

Its new Fast-Track Homebuyer Program complements the organization’s traditional homebuilding model by offering existing homes made affordable through partnerships with municipalities, developers and community partners. These homes are move-in ready and typically close within 60 to 90 days

of program acceptance, significantly reducing the time between application and move-in. “Not every qualified family can wait through the long construction cycle of a traditional Habitat build,” said Natisha Rivera-Patrick, president and CEO of Greater Matthews Habitat for Humanity. “Our Fast Track Homebuyer Program gives us the opportunity to serve different types of households – single individuals, young couples and small families – who may not fit the traditional Habitat model but still need

a stable, affordable place to call home. It’s another way we’re ensuring that affordable homeownership is accessible to more people in our community.” Under the Fast-Track model, homebuyers still complete Habitat’s full Homebuyer Education Program, including financial literacy classes and volunteer service hours. The homes are sold at the price paid by Habitat, ensuring that the monthly mortgage payment remains affordable and does Two townhome units are available in the Sycamore Trail neighborhood. Story continues, see FAST-TRACK page 3A

Photo courtesy of Greater Matthews Habitat for Humanity

COMMON HEART MOBILIZING VOLUNTEERS FOR THANKSGIVING

Duke Energy helps assemble storm kits

CHARLOTTE – More than 300 Duke Energy employees joined the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and the American Red Cross of North Carolina on Oct. 15 to assemble 7,000 storm kits for families across 24 counties in the Carolinas.

Common Heart’s Great Turkey Countdown beneﬁts families in Union County, Matthews and Mint Hill. Photos courtesy of Common Heart

INDIAN TRAIL – Common Heart is seeking donations and volunteers to provide 1,500 frozen turkeys with all the fixin's to 1,500 families facing food insecurity so they can prepare their own Thanksgiving feasts.

During the first Great Turkey Countdown in 2007, volunteers packed and delivered 125 Thanksgiving baskets. The need and nonprofit’s reach have expanded tremendously since then, said Keith Adams, co-founder and executive director for Common Heart “This is a critical time for our neighbors facing food insecurity and we’re seeing that reflected in the increasing numbers at our weekly food pantries,” Adams said. So far this year, volunteers have provided groceries to 13,590 unique individuals (from 3,575 unique households) at Common Heart’s evening food pantries. That’s 1,729 more individuals than were served at these pantries during the same time period last year. These

evening pantries have served an average of 1,117 unique households each month so far in 2025, an increase from the average of 805 unique households served per month last year. A $50 donation provides a frozen turkey and the fixin's for one family. To donate online visit Turkeys.CommonHeart.org or mail a check (payable to Common Heart) to: PO Box 2761, Indian Trail, NC 28079. Write “Turkeys” in the memo line. Nonperishables of canned green beans, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, boxed macaroni and cheese, dessert mixes, cornbread mix and jello can be dropped off at the nonprofit’s main office, 116 Business Park Drive, Suite A, in Indian Trail, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Beginning Nov. 17, people can also drop off frozen turkeys. Find a complete list of all local food drop off locations at FoodDrives.CommonHeart.org This volunteer-driven event is Common

Heart’s biggest delivery day. “This event absolutely wouldn’t happen without volunteers – literally hundreds of them,” Adams said. “This day is all about neighbors serving neighbors and promoting a small revolution of kindness in our community.” At least 300 volunteers will be needed on Nov. 22 to deliver the 1,500 Thanksgiving dinner baskets. Volunteers can sign up online at Turkeys.CommonHeart.org The baskets will benefit families throughout Union County, Matthews and Mint Hill. If your family needs a Thanksgiving basket, fill out an application online by Oct. 31 at Turkeys.CommonHeart.org or call 704-218-9060 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. Applications will also be taken at all Common Heart food pantry locations. Follow the progress of the Great Turkey Countdown on Facebook at Facebook.com/ TheCommonHeart

The event earned a Guinness World Record for the most people assembling disaster preparedness kits simultaneously, according to Duke Energy. Louis Duke, director of the Duke Energy Foundation, said the kits contained shelf-stable food and emergency preparedness items. “By this weekend, these kits will be on the shelves in the [Second Harvest] Food Bank distribution sites and food pantry network across 24 counties,” Duke said. “This whole region is going to benefit from these boxes, and we know that they’re going to be in the hands of folks who need them very soon, ensuring that families are storm ready and that matters a lot to Duke Energy.”

JAARS Day celebrates global outreach WAXHAW – Many residents of the Charlotte area don't realize that an international missionary and humanitarian aviation organization is headquartered just a few miles south in Union County. For 77 years, JAARS has flown missionaries, Bibles, medical supplies and other aid in and out of some of the most inaccessible places on Earth. It was one of the first to respond to isolated mountain communities in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.

The nonprofit will open its doors to Charlotte-area families for the annual JAARS Day event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 25. JAARS Day events include opportunities for entire families to experience a first-hand look at how JAARS works around the world to cover the last mile of missions. Activities include demonstrations and displays, food trucks, interactive museum exhibits, handson children's activities and helicopter, airplane and 4x4 rides. JAARS mechanics, pilots and trainers will be

on hand all day to answer questions about how JAARS undertakes a mission that is difficult, dangerous and expensive to help people in the most remote and inaccessible areas of the planet, including giving isolated communities a chance to understand and respond to the Gospel in the language they understand best. “We are passionate about what we do here at JAARS, and we can’t wait to share that with our guests on Oct. 25,” President Steve Russell. “We serve missionaries, humanitarian workers and isolated communities through the skill, bravery and dedication of pilots and technicians who pave the way for some of the most dangerous and ingenious flights and landings in all of aviation. It isn’t easy, but that's what covering the last mile is all about.” Festivities will take place at the Aviation Hangar at JAARS Base, 7710 JAARS Road, Waxhaw. More information is available online at https://www.jaars.org/jd25 . A special addition this year is a Gathering of Eagles ceremony scheduled for Oct. 24, in which JAARS aviation alumni will enjoy a time of fellowship and recognition, awarding

JAARS oﬀers helicopter, airplane and 4x4 rides for a small fee and a signed waiver required. Tickets will be available in person throughout the day. Rides cost $45 for helicopter, $40 for airplane and $10 for 4x4. Photo courtesy of JAARS

commemorative JAARS wings and service certificates to those who have not yet received them. Russell will convene a panel of alumni to share significant stories and reflections of their time with the ministry, serving missionaries to the ends of the earth. For missionaries laboring in harsh conditions to bring the Gospel to all people, JAARS has been the lifeline providing them with supplies, communication and transport when they needed it most.

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Duke Energy worked to ensure families are prepared for storms by assembling disaster preparedness kits.

Photos courtesy of Duke Energy