“People ask me, have you won the lottery? And I say yes, in friendship.”

— Sue Files,  Novant Health Rowan Medical employee, after co-workers and friends fixed her 3/4-mile-long driveway

“Something greater than we were came up and stopped it for us. You looked up in the sky and said, ‘Thank God for this.’”

— Price Brown, retired Salisbury Police officer, on sudden rainstorm that prevented a confrontation between KKK members and black residents in 1960

“We have some people who are hungry for food, and some who are hungry for company.”

— Betsy Buchanan, Trinity Methodist Church, on God’s Supper Table ministry

“Volunteerism is the rent we pay for life.”

— Elizabeth Safrit, Miss United States, on delivering Meals on Wheels in the Kannapolis area

“It means different things to different people — that’s obvious. The Confederate statue is not the only
heritage in Salisbury.”

— Whitney Peckman, on discussions about Salisbury’s Confederate monument

“Criminal activities know no boundaries.”

— Kevin Auten, Rowan County sheriff, on combining forces with Salisbury Police to deal with gang violence

“You can’t break the cycle of poverty if you can’t read.”

— Angela Burris, pastor, Shiloh United Methodist Church, on church’s tutoring program for Granite Quarry Elementary students

“They’re the best team in the whole world. Not many people will ever be able to say something like that, but 13 very special girls from Rowan and Iredell counties can say it.”

— Steve Yang, coach, Rowan County Little League Softball Team, after winning World Series

“Erica is no longer alive. There is an agreement between Casey Parsons and her husband to not report the death.”

— Anand Ramaswamy, federal prosecutor, at the couple’s sentencing for accepting benefits for their adoptive daughter after she disappeared

“My passion is to be able to create a community to retain young people. … The energy is here. We have to seize it.”

— Ryan Dayvault, Kannapolis City Council, on city’s purchase of downtown land from David Murdock

“I finally had a piece of my dad.”

— Frances M. Morris, on remains of her  father, Chief Master Sgt. Edwin Everton Morgan, being found after his plane went down over Laos 49 years ago

“I was tired of not knowing the language. I decided I’d had enough. I want to go to school and learn.”

— Lucy Vargas, waitress, who learned English with the helpof Rowan Literacy Council

“People say they do it for their families, but there’s other ways to take care of your family. You may not like going to someone else’s 9 to 5, but at the end of the day, it’s not a bad thing.”

— Alex Clark, community organizer, talking to young people about the selfishness of drug dealers

“I apologize for the things I’ve done.”

— Ralph Wager, former Catawba College soccer coach, pleading guilty to child-molestation charges

This is the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced. I’ve never had nobody showing they cared for me.”

— William Dye, graduate of Jobs for Life at First Baptist Church

“When you get a letter that says don’t drink or use the water for cooking, yeah, I guess you do get pretty scared.”

— Deborah Graham, Dukeville resident

“We were lucky to have Stoneman instead of Sherman.”

— Kaye Brown Hirst, Rowan Museum director, on Union Gen. George Stoneman’s sparing of the county courthouse and its records at the close of the Civil War 150 years ago

“We are not celebrating a building, an idea or location. We are celebrating a much anticipated solution.”

— Josh Wagner, chairman, Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, at groundbreaking for central office

“Many teachers became first-year teachers all over again with the way instruction was being delivered to students in our classrooms.”

— Dr. Lynn Moody, superintendent, on dip in school performance grades in Rowan-Salisbury

“We don’t need more Taco Bells or dollar stores. We need industry that can support families.”

— Greg Edds, chairman, Rowan Board of Commissioners

“Embracing diversity is never wrong. The mayor that issues the proclamation is the mayor for everyone.”

— Cheryl Goins, Salisbury resident, on the push for a mayoral proclamation marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day

“My goal as mayor is to ensure we find ways to bring our community together rather than create a divide among opposing viewpoints.”

— Paul Woodson, on not issuing a proclamation for  LGBT Pride Day

“We quickly see a larger society that helps produce a young man… He didn’t just make this stuff up himself.”

— Anthony Smith, Mission House pastor, on the white man charged with murdering nine people at a black church in Charleston, S.C.

“I have been told she hasdone every single job here except, maybe, crawling under a train to repair it. And she’d probably do that if someone would hand her the directions.”

— Susan Kluttz, secretary, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, on naming Kelly Alexander director of the N.C. Transportation Museum

“The job of the county chair is to preserve public confidence in the administration of elections. No one who reads these things will feel (Mac Butner) is qualified to do that.”

— Josh Howard, chairman, N.C. State Board of Elections, on Mac Butner’s Facebook and Twitter posts