GAINSWave® Treatment in Mount Holly, NC

Fireworks will light the sky in Gaston County this July Fourth. Here’s a quick look at events where the whole family can celebrate the United States.

“Bring your dancing shoes,” to Cherryville’s July Fourth celebration, the city said in a post about the event. From 6-10:30 p.m. Thursday, July 3, the city of Cherryville will host an Independence Day celebration on Main Street complete with music, food, activities and fireworks starting at 10 p.m.

From 6-10 p.m. on Friday, June 27, Bessemer City's concert and fireworks event will be underway at Centennial Park, 114 W. Virginia Ave. Chris Taylor & The Rumor will perform, food trucks will be available, and the event will end with a fireworks display.

Stanley will celebrate Independence Day starting at 6 p.m. July 3, at Harper Park, 301 Blacksnake Road. The event will include food trucks, inflatables and games. Fireworks start at dark.

From 6-10 p.m. Thursday, June 26, downtown Mount Holly will be singing with live music by Coming up Brass and DJ Mr. Musicman. Food trucks will be available. The evening will end with a fireworks display.

Starting at 6 p.m. Friday, July Fourth, the city of Kings Mountain will host a, “Revolutionary Fourth” at the Deal Park Walking Track, 211 N. Cleveland Ave. The event will include music, activities, food and a reenactment of the Battle of Kings Mountain by the cast of Liberty Mountain. The evening will close with fireworks.

The town of Cramerton’s Independence Day celebration will take over downtown from 6-9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 28. The event will include live music, food and drink vendors, free face painting and a fireworks display.

Festivities will take place in Gastonia from 5-9:30 p.m. Friday, July 4, at the Rotary Centennial Pavilion, 111 N. South St. The event will include live music, food trucks, vendors and a kids zone. Fireworks are scheduled to start around 9:30 p.m.

“Red, White, & Belmont,” the city’s July Fourth celebration will take place from 6-10:30 p.m. on Independence Day at Stowe Park, 24 S. Main St. It will include live music, a beverage garden, food trucks and fireworks starting at 10 p.m.

This year, Dallas will celebrate Independence Day with live music, food trucks and fireworks. The event begins at 6 p.m. Friday, July 4, and will be held at Cloninger Park, 305 W. Church St. Fireworks will begin just after 9 p.m.

In June, Mount Holly’s residential recycling program was officially suspended as the City Council rejected a proposed rate increase for the service that would have nearly doubled costs for residents.

City leaders said at the time that the suspension may be temporary while the council looked into other options.

After receiving several bids from third-party vendors, council decided to permanently end the service, according to a press release.

“This fall, after receiving multiple bids from third-party vendors, the Council and City staff completed a comprehensive evaluation process. It was concluded that continuing the recycling program was neither advantageous nor fiscally reasonable,” it said. “Sanitation services will be kept in-house, but a city-wide recycling program will not be offered at this time.”

The release said residents can still take their recycling to the Riverbend Recycling Center located at 146 Mountain Island Road in Mount Holly.

As for the residential bins, city leaders announced at a December meeting that starting in January, the blue recycling bins will be collected and redistributed to other areas including some of the communities that were impacted most by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

The release said Mount Holly’s city staff serve more than 1,200 customers per day, so the collection will happen over time.

“Residents are asked to place their blue recycling cans at the curb on their assigned pick-up day. These will be collected by city staff beginning the week of Jan. 6, 2025,” it said.

Here’s a run down of when the bins will be collected based on each resident’s pick-up day.

Mount Holly musician David Childers will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame after just under 10 years of focusing on music and art.

According to him, his supporting band members and love of words are contributing factors to his success.

In 2016, Childers said he moved on from a career in law that spanned more than three decades due to political pressure.

Childers said he picked up a love of reading as a child from the books his mother kept all over the house.

As he got older, the love of words expanded into his own writings and poetry. In his teens, Childers said, he would listen to Bob Dylan and combine music similar to Dylan’s songs with his own poems to create unique melodies. When he went off to attend Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, Childers said he took a typewriter with him and enjoyed seeing his thoughts in type.

After years of enjoying his creative pursuits on the side, he has been putting all of his energy back into them for the last nine years. Childers said he would call his music “Americana.” He is influenced by Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Elvis and many other artists.

Lyrically, Childers said he tends to focus on themes like love, loss, spirituality and hope.

“I am not afraid to sing about God,” he said, adding that he is Christian by choice but respects all religions.

Possibly the biggest theme in his music is redemption.

“I have certainly needed a lot of redemption in my life, and I love to see other people turn it around and make the best out of their lives,” he said.

In August 2024, Childers was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and was not able to perform much while getting treatment.

Through care at CaroMont, Childers said he has made a lot of progress in battling the illness and is still doing as much art and performing as possible.

When he found out weeks ago that he would be inducted into the Music Hall of Fame, Childers said he was surprised.

“I was pretty stunned, I will be honest. I do not think anybody was more surprised than I was. I feel like there are a lot of people that deserve it more than I do … but I’ll take it. It is an honor, an extreme honor,” he said.

Childers will be recognized at a formal induction ceremony in Mooresville on Oct. 16.