Busy Saturday througout the county

BLADEN COUNTY – Whether you were in Bladenboro, Dublin, Elizabethtown or White Lake this past Saturday – there was much to do.

White Lake

It all began with a Triathlon Saturday morning at approximately 6:45 a.m. when the Professional triathloners mounted their bikes and headed down US Highway 701. It was billed as the White Lake Pro-Am Half-Marathon and runners from all over the nation gathered to bike, swim and run in the warm and humid North Carolina rurality. The WOL (With out Limits), SETUP, Featherweight and City Bicycle Compay sponsored and held the White Lake Pro/AM Half-Triathlon.

According WITHOUT LIMITS staff, “Today especially the run course will be particularly a point of focus because it’s very hot outside. We make sure our aid-stations are filled and ready.”

The bike loop went all the way up to 210 and 41 and was 28 miles. Each biker did two loops.

The winner over all of the overall Professionals was Luke Jones from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who had a total chip time of 3:45:26. He was in the money, making $1250 for the top spot.

“This is my second year as a pro,” Jones said. “I did this race last year too. It’s a great place to compete and it’s a fun little town. In five weeks, I compete again at the Eagle Man in Cambridge, Maryland.

The second-place award and $750 went to Garrett Mayeaux of Irving, Texas. He came across the final line with a chip time of 3:50:22.

“I am the same, two years in the pro division,” Mayeaux said. “I had taken some time off and started training again in January. In two weeks I am going to Shang Hi, China and am going to do a race over there.

If you are at the top of the triathlon nation, you can make up to a million dollars, Mayeaux said.

Benjamin Deal placed third Saturday with a chip time of 3:53:30 and received $500.

“My favorite part was the swim,” Deal said. “The water temperature was perfect, it’s not choppy and you can see clearly – it’s just beautiful.”

“I think that was my favorite swim I’ve ever done,” Mayeaux said. “I love it that you can just do dolphin diving for a good 20 yards. Some lakes are like… muddy and black when you swim in them and you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. So, coming to this lake was incredible.”

Bladenboro

By 8 a.m. archers from all over North Carolina began arriving to Allen Brothers Outdoors in Bladenboro and at 9 a.m. they were ready to begin “nocking” their arrows.

The day was dubbed Bladen County Aim For A Cure by Steven’s Stompers – ALS Awareness and North Carolina Aim For A Cure and the reason was joining forces to shoot competitively and become warriors to help promote awareness and raise money to fight for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Archer and organizer Alex Daniel from Bladen County has put this shoot together with the help of Ron Allen from Allen Brothers Outdoors who donates the land for the competition each year. It was actually North Carolina Aim for a Cure presenting Bladen County Aim for a Cure.

“The first Bladen County Aim for a Cure was in 2017,” Daniel said. “We came along Steven’s Stompers who are a local ALS walking team who started when we did who came on to partner with us. Today we are looking at between 40 and 45 archers. We’ve had higher numbers but there is a lot going on today; graduations, and other things. We probably have more folks here today NOT from Bladen County.”

The shooters arrived, went through registration, warmed up at the practice targets, ate sweets and goodies donated by Burney’s in Elizabethtown, and after splitting into groups, off into the woods they went to locate and shoot at life-sized 3-D animal targets.

Each group eventually got to shoot at each target, whether that was a skinny turkey 20 yards away or a white tail buck at 40 yards. Bigfoot even showed up and archers got to enter a separate contest to see who could hit bigfoot from a long distance.

“I’ve been to a lot of shoots,” Daniel said. “Everyone is not quite as good as this one. This is a fun venue. We are actually doing three more events this year not including this one. We’ll be in Ash in Brunswick County, Swamp Fox Archery in Tabor City in July and we’ll be at Neuse River Bowhunters in Selma in August.

Elizabethtown

The Champion Karate club officially held their grand opening Saturday morning at 1107 F West Broad St. in Elizabethtown.

The grand opening was held primarily for children from ages 4-15 where the kids could come, get a free trial lesson and a free uniform. There were also specials going on during the grand opening for registrations and family rates.

Vince Patrick and his wife, Kimbery were on hand to welcome new prospective students and to share their karate coaching staff from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

By 10:30 the parking lot was full and there were a line of people waiting to sign up and get their karate on. Instructors were set strategically around the huge studio – some with punching bags and some with implements of training.

One of the trainers and Patrick’s right-hand man and Second in Command in the studio is Colton Boswell who has been with the studio for almost two decades.

He actually started when he was 10 years old and at 29, he looks back on a very fruitful venture and his passion to train and teach children how to defend themselves. Boswell is a fourth-degree black belt.

“I usually teach five classes a day and I go Monday-Friday, so I’ve taught a LOT of kids,” Boswell said.

The studios both in Whiteville and now Elizabethtown have a very strong mentor and icon in Chuck Norris who still keeps tabs on his students – one of those being Patrick. When you walk into the studio, one of the first things you will see listed on a board is the Chuck Norris code of ethics.

Patrick is descended from the Waccamaw Siouan tribe and he grew up in the Buckhead community just outside of Bolton/Lake Waccamaw.

“I got into the martial arts when I was about 16 years old,” he said. “I studied at a small school in Bolton and then I eventually went to Wilmington and trained under John Maynard. He was a Chuck Norris blackbelt. He holds multiple degrees in different styles under World Champion Joe Lewis. From there I met Miss Renee Ashley who also trained under John Maynard.”

Ashley was a native of Bladen County and had a Champion Karate center here in Elizabethtown. Patrick would travel to E-town and train under Ashley in her Broad Street studio. In essence the opening of this karate studio Saturday is a resurgence of a great teaching center of Elizabethtown’s past.

Elizabethtown

The last of the big events in Bladen Saturday concluded at Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery. It was as if you found yourself running from one activity to the next, but just couldn’t seem to miss out on any of the day’s excitement.

The Bladen County Hospital Foundation hosted a fundraiser to help with hospital expenses that are not covered in the budget and those things that may slip through the cracks, such as vein finders according to Cape Fear Valley Health – Bladen County Hospital’s Development Director Jeane’ Pope.

“This is equipment that can really help our nurses and can give a quicker response,” Pope said. “We are hoping for a good turnout – this is our first year that we are doing this and there are also other things going on.”

The event was called “The Kentucky Derby Experience” which was earmarked to raise money that would benefit the Bladen County Hospital Foundation. The night would begin with some hors d’oevres and give the guests a chance to look at silent auction items, have a few cocktails and fellowship with other people – comparing notes on the horse(s) they were going to bet on in the 151^st running of the Kentucky Derby.

The room worked up to a fever pitch at about 6:45 with last minute bids being made on their favorites and also their Dark horses. Promptly at 7 p.m. they were at the starting gates and ready to run. As everyone knows by now, the favorite – Journalism could only muster a second-place finish, but Sovereignty with 7-1 odds was Sovereign and ran for the roses with a finishing time of 2:02:31 and won by one and a half lengths. Baeza finished third and Gambit came in fourth.

The crowd went wild and not many were with Sovereign… well… one that we know of cheered loudly. Bladen County Hospital CEO Spencer Cummings who had bid on both Journalism and Flying Mohawk is now looking to the second leg of the triple crown for redemption.

It truly was an elegant evening of Southern tradition with everyone decked out in their Derby attire and most extravagant hats – not only by the women.

After the Deby Dinner people settled in for casino night and hopefully they regained some of their confidence after their horses, muddied and soaked came off the track with their heads hanging and their tails between their legs.

It was a night to remember and many were already clearing their calendars for May 2, 2026 in Churchill Downs – or Elizabethtown.

The winners for the night:

Overall best Attire – Jessica Murphy

Best Couples’ Attire – Ben and Cindy Lewis

Spectacular Derby Hat – Wendy Huges

Most Dapper Gentleman – Jamie Ammons

Most Creative Derby Ensemble – Oarol lilly-Reynolds

Most Winnings for the night went to Stumpy Bordeaux

Derby Horse Race Winner – Chris!

Due to the boundaries on deadlines for the paper, more attention will be given to each story within the next few weeks and pictures will be posted of each individual event this coming week.