October 2019


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com 9th Annual Mayors’ Citywide This year,


Food Drive Challenge PORTSMOUTH, VA – There are more than 160,000 individuals (including over 40,000 children) who struggle with food insecurity in our service area.


Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore is pleased to announce our 9th annual Elected Officials’ Engagement Day. We are hosting a “Citywide Mayors’ Food Drive” with Mayor Alexander of Norfolk and Mayor Dyer of Virginia Beach who have come together to lead the charge. They are calling on citizens to take action by giving food, funds, time, and voice to address hunger in meaningful ways. We also hope that other cities and counties will join us in this effort to relieve hunger in our communities.


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closest to their home or school. The registration deadlines are Dec. 7, 2019, for middle-school teams and Jan. 18, 2020, for fifth grade teams. Winners will receive prizes and advance to the final showdowns on Jan. 25 for middle schoolers and March 14 for fifth graders. For more information, visit VBgov.com/libraries.


in celebration of Hunger Action Month, the Foodbank of Hampton NAACP Hosts Life


Membership Awards Banquet The Hampton Branch NAACP will host its 48th Annual Life Membership Awards Banquet Sunday, October 20, 2019, 3 PM, at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, 1610 Coliseum Drive, Hampton, Virginia. NAACP members who have attained a "Lifetime Membership" will be honored.


The “Mayors’ Citywide Food Drive Challenge” began on September 23 and culminate at the Annual Mayflower Marathon taking place November 22–24, 2019. There are two donation locations in our service area for Mayflower Marathon: one at Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach (behind Target) and the second at First Team Kia and Subaru in Suffolk. Final donation totals from the drive will be announced on Tuesday, November 26. From September 23–November 24, we call upon every resident, school, and business in participating cities and counties to help address hunger by collecting and dropping off food donations at participating Foodbank Partner Agencies throughout each city and making monetary donations online at fundraise. foodbankonline.org/give/148713/#!/donation/checkout.


We are calling on our citizens to become leaders in our community by donating to provide healthy meals to our neighbors in need. Join us, and lead the effort to eliminate hunger in our community! We can end hunger one helping at a time. Below find the Foodbank’s shopping list of most useful items: Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore SHOPPING LIST - Lean Canned Protein: peanut butter, tuna, chicken, turkey, beans.


Suffolk Receives Third Triple


Dr. Rex M. Ellis, former Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) at the Smithsonian Institution, will be the keynote speaker. He is a member of the Screen Actor's Guild, the American Association of Museums, the American Association for State and Local History, the National Association of Black Storytellers, and the National Storytelling Association. His presentations focus on public programming, diversity, interpretation, and African American History and Culture.


Please call (757) 826-9078 or (757) 287-0277 for more information.


Jump ahead of your


AAA Rating From Moody’s SUFFOLK, VA - The City of Suffolk learned recently that it has achieved its third AAA rating from Moody’s Investors Service, now joining Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s Rating Service in bestowing this coveted designation upon the City.


The City received its first AAA rating upgrade from Standard & Poor’s in 2014, with the second rating upgrade from Fitch in 2015, and has been working tirelessly to earn this highly sought after final financial achievement.


Moody’s noted that the City’s General Obligation Bonds have been revised to stable from positive and reflects on the continued growth and diversification of the City’s sizeable tax base, healthy resident income levels, strong and stable fund balance and liquidity supported by formal fiscal policies and conservative budget assumptions, as well as manageable debt and pension burdens.


The rating upgrade reflects Moody’s expectation that the likelihood is that the City’s tax base and resident income levels will continue to improve and that reserves and liquidity will remain strong due to management’s conservative budget assumptions and formal fiscal policies.


The AAA Rating represents the credit-worthiness of the City of Suffolk government issued bonds. It also provides assurance that the City of Suffolk has the highest quality of bonds with the least amount of risk and that both the principal and interest on the bonds will be paid on time and in full.


Upon learning of this last budget upgrade, Mayor Linda T. Johnson advised, “We are ecstatic that we’ve finally received this ambitious achievement we’ve worked so hard to attain. As a result, our sound and fiscally-responsible financial policies will certainly continue to benefit our citizens and allow us to maintain the high levels of services they deserve and expect of their government.”


Popular Reading Contest


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Expanded to Middle Schoolers Battle of the Books is back, and it's bigger than ever before. For the first time in the competition's 12-year history, middle school students (grades 6-8) will participate in the gameshow-style challenge to read great books, have fun with friends and win exciting prizes.


The Virginia Beach Public Library program has been a big hit with fifth graders. Last year, more than 500 students on 116 teams participated. The five-member teams study books on the contest's reading list, meet in small groups and compete in several preliminary rounds before the program's grand finale at the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library.


The fifth grade battle continues this year. The competition has been so popular that contestants and their parents routinely requested a similar program for middle schoolers. In response, VBPL created a second, separate program for older students, said James Giangregorio, teen services coordinator. "We hope to capture participants from the fifth grade program as they age up," Giangregorio said. Battle of the Books instills in students the values of teamwork and fortitude, and builds important skills, such as reading for detail and reading for retention.


The competitions are open to students in Virginia Beach public, private and home schools. Adult managers should register their teams at the library


Join our team or donate at www.classy.org/team/246080


competitors... Advertise with us. Contact us at info@HamptonRoadsMessenger.com Special ad prices starting at $99


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