Name: Convention and Visitors Bureau of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen president explains Moore Miracles campaign
Uploaded: 2022-12-14T07:00:00-0500
Duration: 720216
Description: Phil Werz, who serves as the president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, explained how the Moore Miracles campaign will work. The campaign's website lets people buy gift cards for dining, shopping and lodging at Moore County businesses: https://www.homeofgolf.com/MooreMiracles/

More than 21% of North Carolina's four-year-olds enrolled in the state's pre-kindergarten programs during the 2022-2023 school year, up from the prior year but still below the state's pre-pandemic highs, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.

North Carolina ranks 29th in public pre-K enrollment, new report shows

Durham County budget increases funding for pre-K students

Compared to pre-pandemic prices, ground beef is up 35%, chips are up 45%, bread is up 57% and a 12-ounce can of soda is up 66%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks trends on common grocery store items.

WRAL Investigates: 'Greedflation' and other drivers behind inflation at the grocery store

A look at inflation at the grocery store

Phil Werz, who serves as the president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, explained how the Moore Miracles campaign will work. The campaign's website lets people buy gift cards for dining, shopping and lodging at Moore County businesses: https://www.homeofgolf.com/MooreMiracles/

a huge shock to everybody. Uh, you know, we've had our urges before with, with freezing rain, winter weather type like that, but something like this, a deliberate act of vandalism, something we've never seen here before. So, you know, our county commissioners approached us, Senator Tom Mcginnis, our local senator approached us and said, hey, what can we do? Because this is the holiday season. A lot of people in this community, in many areas, they depend on the holidays for their revenue, some mom and pops here, uh, it could make or break their year. So it's like, hey, what can we do to get people to this community either to buy gift cards to come here and visit? So we came up with an idea for more miracles for the holidays. We developed the micro site where people can go there and they can buy gift cards, whether it be for dining, shopping or lodging because obviously we want people to come here, spend their money, um, dying, go shopping and spend money for the holidays. So, you know, while everybody's so busy during the holidays, those three or four days that these businesses lost revenue is critical to them. So the campaign launched. Um, and it went very well. We had a lot of people going to our website buying gift cards. The local community has just been so inspirational because there were people, even during the outage, it had generators like Red's Corner, it's a major food truck, Beer Pavilion. So it was open every day. So they basically fed the community right across the street from our offices, the Southern Pines growler company, they had a generator and their owner was making pancakes and they had a lot of people donating things to them to share with the community. So this, you know, we're kinda like Mayberry here and just a very humble, simple place where the home american golf, but also, you know, we've got great people like when something like this happens, they really step up in this community really has, how does the program work in terms of, you know, from a business owner standpoint and then from people visiting the community, from the consumer standpoint, it's really pretty easy. They, we just have to list on our website or Convention Business Bureau website, which is home of golf dot com and we built the micro site. So it's home of Golf dot com slash more miracles. They go to that landing page, you'll see all the businesses. So for instance, if you see Chef Warren's, you can go to his website, purchase a gift card and have it, you know, purchase it online. But again, you know, there are a lot of Mom and Pops here that don't have an online presence. So while we encourage people to buy gift cards, if they're within, you know, a couple hour radius of the Pine or Southern Pines Aberdeen area, we encourage people to come here if they can stay overnight and when you do so go to the local businesses throughout more county, spend money there, enjoy our restaurants, enjoy our shopping, enjoy our hotels. Obviously the pinas resort is here, so it's a, it's a major attraction as well. So we just encourage people if you have time and in the kind of your heart, if you want to give back to a community that really, really needs it because losing revenue for three or four days that can make or break a business, especially in my, my pot with no online presence. What kind of response have you gotten so far from the launch of this campaign and this initiative? It's been really cool because everybody wants to do something to give back to the community. So we've had Southern Pines business Association call and say, hey, what can we do? You know? We partnered with Duke Energy, They called us last friday a couple of days after the power is turned back on and they say our campaign and said, hey, what can we do to, to amplify this message? So we've partnered with WRL and Fox 50 and Duke Energy to do some advertising from december 14th to the 24th to encourage people to go to our micro side, homo golf dot com slash more miracles. Buy gift cards and if they can come to the area and support also to something that just happened today, we're gonna do what's called a street corner karaoke. Uh, there's a local singer has a karaoke machine and he'll do this periodically in different towns and just set up impromptu karaoke machine and people can sing and usually draws dozens of people every time he does that. So we got in touch with him and said, you know what, let's do a street corner karaoke holiday style and we'll do it in Southern Pines one day, we'll do it in Pinehurst one day and we'll do it in Aberdeen one day. We've got local businesses to uh $500 worth of gift cards. So if somebody wants to do the street corner karaoke and sing a christmas carol, they can put their name in a hat or a box and we'll draw their name. If they sing the christmas carol, we'll give them $25 gift card. They'll go to that business, spend the $25 and perhaps spend some more as well is, you know, this is my first time here. Um just from other reporting you've seen, is there anything that you want to make sure that you get across that you haven't seen another reporting or about like what's going on here since, because you know, just from what I've read the grid attack happened, saturday, a lot of businesses were without power since Wednesday. Just like is there something about, you know, physically being here that is different from any of the reporting you've gotten just like, what's it been like Boots on the ground. You're physically here that you know, you want to make sure you get across to people as part of this initiative. Yeah, I would just say that it's important if you can get to this area, if you live in the Raleigh area, Chapel Hill, uh Wilson area and you can spend an afternoon and come here even if for a few hours to buy some gift cards because it's the Mom and Pops that really suffered through this power outage because they don't have an online presence. You can't buy a gift card, you need to physically be in there to meet the store owner. So that's one thing that, you know, we can put out a message that says, hey buy gift cards. But it's those mom and Pops that are in Carthage or Robbins or Bass or Cameron, other places other than Pinehurst, Southern Pines and Aberdeen in our county that need that support that didn't have power for three or four days. So to be able to come here, spend a few hours, spend a few bucks maybe even stay because our hotels were dark to Pinehurst resort. They were down for a little bit, had generator power though and they have a huge employee base to that they had to support. But the other hotels around the destination were dark so they didn't, they didn't have power and those employees didn't get to work either. So aside from the businesses that suffered, employees did too because they're not making money during the holidays when they were closed. I know like Wednesday was the day last week that most of the power came back for for most people obviously it is the holiday season, you got christmas time, holiday shopping, everything. What was, what has it been like, you know what was that if you just kind of compare and contrast obviously without power but then you get power back Wednesday, what was it like this weekend was busy, What kind of response did you get the power came back down? It was, it was pretty cool because there are places like the Southern Pines Police Department, they have a community center in Carthage, the moore county sports complex they opened up because they have generator power and they can provide power and internet. So that's where I work for a couple of days with the Southern Pines Police Department. So they provided those opportunities, even people from the community come in and charge the phone just something as simple as that and then when the power came back on is just the sense of relief you know that you can come back home, you know make a hot cup of coffee, you know sleep in your own bed. It was those types of things. Those simple things that you don't think about until you lose it that you appreciate most. But what was cool was that the weekend the power came back there were already scheduled christmas parades and christmas tree lightings, there was a santa flying they do every year at the pick and pick and Carthage where the elves jump out of a plane and then santa comes, comes in and there must have been 1000 people there and I think a lot of people were just like, they just wanted to be able to have the sense of community and see each other and to say you know what this, this power outages over, it's the holidays we need to get out and celebrate and live life again and so that was really cool to see. So I assumed power was out here than to the police department's operating on the generator. Um yeah, pretty much half half of moore county from, from Carthage south most of the county was dark. So I have 100,000 people. Almost half of about 45,000 lost power. Just what was that like for you? I don't know how long you've been here but what was that like for you to like physically and I know that there were curfews in place to like physically to see everything in the dark. What was that like? Uh there was on sunday night we had one of our transportation vendors here was meeting some people the next day with the USDA that are moving down here to be part of golf house painters. So she needed some additional destination guides which we have here. So I took about 25 those over to her office in Aberdeen but to drive and not see any street lights and not everybody's treating it as a four way stop and it was just really eerie because you know, you had to have your head on a swivel if you were out traveling during this was before the curfew was imposed to be out in the dark like that. So it just, it just wasn't a safe environment. So it made sense to have the curfew to keep people off the streets, there's no reason to be out there. So you know, our our office was closed. We had some of our staff lived in areas where they have a generator or where they had power because one of our employees lives in Robin's on the northern end of the county and they never lost power. But the southern end of the counties where everybody lost power, I actually stayed in holly springs one night and I stayed north of the airport in Raleigh the second night. It was warm enough as he got into the week that I could sleep in my own place on that Tuesday night before the power came back on Wednesday, it was warm enough in my place to do that. But but you know, it's something, you know, I've lived through three like extended power outages here in the five years I've been here, it's it's no fun but this, you know the other ones that happened were wintertime ice storms after christmas. But to have, it happened during the holiday season when it's so critical to so many businesses here and people just living their normal was very disruptive and we're just glad that we got the power back quickly and thank thank Duke energy for all the efforts they did to get everything back up and running. I don't want to put words in your mouth in terms of the feeling of um you live in a community where, you know, it sounds like everyone's really come together, the fact that you could operate for at least temporary out of the police department. How did that make you feel to see just everyone come together again. I don't want to put words in your mouth. It's what this, this, what what this area is all about, the sense of community, the sense of pride, the sense of helping each other being a good neighbor. Um you know, I like in this destination to being like Mayberry, I mean we're very innocent in many ways, in some ways this area hasn't changed in 100 and 25 years since Mr Tufts founded finest resort and uh and a lot of that southern hospitality that you hear about it, it's here, it's palpable, and it's something that comes out in crisis is like this and there was actually the food truck pavilion, I mean, they were daily to see people, they're getting their meal just being able to take and and kind of warm up a little bit because they have heaters out there. Uh, and there were just so many other stories like that throughout the destination that people just stepped up. I mean, you know, yeah, you could probably just stayed home or gone to another town and stayed there and just gotten away from it. But a lot of people were really owned it and invested the time to be part of the community and be part of the solution. How will you know, if this campaign is successful? If after the holidays or business community or hotels, uh, say yeah, this, this, this made a difference. Um, people really came out, supported the businesses, you know, you see it on social media all the time and say, hey, this is going on, hey, this is this business is doing this. So, you know, and then people have approached us, like I said, the, this community Duke Energy, what can we do to amplify this message? What can we do to help? So I think to answer your question, to know that this community is back on its feet, that nobody lost their job, nobody lost their business, um, would be a huge success and, and we can move forward and, and hopefully the culprits can be found and nothing like this happens again

Mark Bergin

Convention and Visitors Bureau of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen president explains Moore Miracles campaign

Phil Werz serves as the president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen.

Moore County power outage,economy,good news,holiday season,holiday shopping,power outage,retail

WRAL-TV News Broadcasts: Watch each newscast live or watch the most recent newscast on demand.

WRAL Late News 

Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

I'm meteorologist, Amy Wilma in the WRL severe weather center, we had a dry warm day today, but a cold front is off to the west of us and it arrives tomorrow and brings the potential for some scattered showers and some thunderstorms. It's a pretty potent system today with a level three out of five risk for part of the Midwest. But the severe weather will be moving eastward as this cold front moves eastward as well. And we'll have the risk for severe storms tomorrow. Although the storm energy will not be as high tomorrow as it is today. There's a lot of storm energy west of us today and that's why they have that higher risk for severe storms. But as this system moves closer to North Carolina, it does weaken. We could still have some isolated severe storms but we have weak to moderate energy. We don't have the strong energy that they have west of us today. So it's a level one risk for most of us Friday. This is in the afternoon and evening. So isolated severe storms possible. The biggest threat will be some damaging winds and a potential for some hail as Well, the first half of the day is dry, so no rain worries for the morning commute. But by the time we get to the afternoon and evening, that's when we'll have scattered showers and storms and any of the storms that do form could become severe. And our highest rain chances are right during the evening commute. So about a 40% chance for rain tomorrow as we move ahead to Saturday, only a slim chance for a shower, a 20% chance for rain. But then a decent chance for rain on Sunday, we don't expect storms, but mainly the second half of our Sunday will have some scattered showers and it will be a cooler day. Here's a look at the rain over the weekend again, just a slim chance for rain on Saturday. Otherwise partly to mostly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low to mid seventies. Sunday morning looks mainly dry with a little bit of rain over some of our southern counties. But then as we head toward the afternoon, a better chance for rain, especially south and east of the triangle. And then during the evening is when some of that rain lifts to the north and includes a good part of the viewing area on Sunday. So the second half of the day certainly looks like the wettest part of the day, still warm Friday with a high of 84. And then we're down into the mid seventies Saturday, high temperatures will be in the low to mid sixties for Sunday and Monday with some chilly mornings, Monday morning and Tuesday morning. Down into the forties, we warm back up next week though. 74 on Tuesday, 78 Wednesday and near 70 for a high temperature on Thursday.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's joins for Thursday, April 18th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a three. Our second number is three also and our third number tonight is two and our pick three. Fireball number is one. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from mcconal and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone is that first winning pick four number. It's a seven. Our second number is six. Third number tonight is seven again and our fourth number is two and our pick for a fireball number is an eight. We're turning now to the Carolina cash five. If no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow, our prize is estimated at $235,000. Good luck. Everyone. Who's that first winning cash five number. It's 22. Second number is five third number tonight is it 25. Our fourth number is 10 and the final number in our cash drive this evening is 21. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education Thanks to your support. Get your winning numbers right here every night in your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm back. Global. Welcome to this news drawings for Thursday, April 18th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three numbers zero. The second is one, the third is six that are pick three. Fireball number is one. Joining me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for a con and Jones L LP. Now move on to Carolina pick for the first four. Number is three. The second is for the third is 54, is seven in our pick four. Fireball number is nine. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and thanks for playing.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

After 22 years in business, Armadillo Grill on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh has closed.



WE HAVE MORE RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR THE WEEKEND. I'LL SHOW YOU COMING UP. THE LIST OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH BUSINESSES SHUTTING THEIR DOORS IS ARMADILLO GRILL IS THE LATEST TO CLOSE FOR GOOD. >> WRAL'S SEAN GALLAGHER IS IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO FIND OUT WITH THIS MEANS FOR THE GLENN WOOD, SOUTH AREA. SEAN, THIS WAS A SURPRISE TO A LOT OF FOLKS. >> YEAH, THIS WAS VERY ABRUPT SO ABRUPT THAT WE'VE SEEN A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE COMING UP HERE TRYING TO GET LUNCH ON THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND THEY'RE MET WITH THIS SIGN ON THE DOOR, LETTING THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY AT THIS LOCATION. NOW, THIS TEX MEX RESTAURANT CALL THE CORNER OF GLENWOOD AVENUE AND TUCKER STREET HOME FOR THE LAST. 22 YEARS. IN A FACEBOOK POST, THE OWNERS SAY CHANGES IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY AND RISING COSTS ARE WHY THEY'RE SHUTTING DOWN THIS LOCATION. IT'S THE LATEST IN A STRING OF STAPLE BUSINESSES RALLY, CLOSING CLOUDS BREWING, SHUT DOWN ITS RALEIGH TAVERN ON WEST STREET EARLIER THIS MONTH IN THE CAPITAL CLUB. 16 IS SHUTTING DOWN AT THE END OF THIS MONTH. OUR BELOVED REAL SAID THEY WILL LOOK FOR ANOTHER LOCATION TO SERVE THE RALEIGH COMMUNITY. BUT FOR SHARE MCCRACKEN OF GARDEN SCAPE DESIGNER FOR BUSINESSES AROUND THIS AREA. THIS IS JUST A SIGN OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD. >> IT'S ELEVATING RIGHT NOW. PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT ABLE TO KIND OF ROLL WITH IT. NATURALLY COMING TO AN END AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SPOT THAT'S PERFECT FOR THEM. BUT YOU CAN DEFINITELY FEEL THAT THERE IS A CHANGE GOING ON ON THE STREETS OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH. >> AN ARMADILLO GRILL WILL ARE STILL OFFER THEIR CATERING SERVICES HERE AND THEY WILL STILL OPERATE THEIR FLAGSHIP LOCATION IN CARRBORO. BUT RENEE, THAT'S ABOUT 40 MINUTES AWAY RIGHT NEAR UNC CAMPUS. >> WHILE CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE TO DRIVE A LOT FARTHER AND WE WILL SEE WHAT ENDS UP TAKING ITS PLACE. THERE ON GLENWOOD

Glenwood South staple Armadillo Grill closes

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Is powerball. Good evening, everyone. I'm Randy Trainer. Tonight. We have our life changing jackpot. It's estimated to be $80.7 million to get your tickets ready. Here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 24. Right after that America. We have the number 54 and congratulations to Lisa Hayes from Illinois. She won $2 million playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning number is 4447. And let's round it out tonight with the number 29 and tonight's win powerball number that's gonna be two and your power play multiplier is two. Let's take a look at tonight's winning numbers. Remember there are multiple ways to win. Good luck, everyone. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

A crash has shut down all but one lane of Interstate 540 westbound near Buffaloe Road in Raleigh. Sky 5 is over the scene

Crash shuts down I-540 West near Buffaloe Road in Raleigh; Sky 5 is over the scene

Tuesday and Friday Mega Millions Drawing.

>> ACROSS AMERICA WITH MEGA JACKPOTS, IT'S MEGA MILLIONS. HELLO, MAYOR COMES ON CODE IS TUESDAY. APRIL 16TH AND TONIGHT'S MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT IS AN ESTIMATED A NEW TIES. 148 MILLION DOLLARS. >> DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. TONIGHT'S DRAWING HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY HALTED. ONCE THE MALFUNCTION IS CORRECTED, THE DRAWING WILL CONTINUE UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE AUDITOR. WE SAY TO THE STATION FOR ALL WINNING NUMBERS. >> SPOTTY SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS POPPING UP HOW

Convention and Visitors Bureau of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen president explains Moore Miracles campaign

More On This

Phil Werz serves as the president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen.

Moore Miracles for the holidays

Related Topics

More Videos