“It could help me be better at thinking and it’s fun to play.”

— Dermyis Sloan, Knox Middle School sixth-grader on playing chess  as Eugene Brown taught youngsters at Power Cross Ministries

“We’re definitely having a lot of fun. The kids are playing the game very hard. When they do that, it makes it a lot easier game to coach.”

— Blake Cauble, coaching his seventh season of Carson Junior Legion baseball

“Everyone is so excited to be back together again since we weren’t able to do the event in 2020. We just really want to celebrate how this community came together.”

— Elaine Spalding, president of the Rowan Chamber of Commerce on the seventh annual Dragon Boat festival that will be Saturday at High Rock Lake      

“We went to the one source we knew we could go to and that’s when we took the girls out to the center of the field, with their backs turned to the dugout so they didn’t have the images burned into their mind. We just dropped to our knees and we prayed.”

— Brad Wilkinson, who coaches Kassidy Sechler after she suffered medical emergency on the softball field that left her hospitalized

“We don’t want to see tragedy. We don’t want to have situations where people don’t decide to get vaccinated until something serious happens to them or someone they love.”

— David Priest, Novant Health’s chief safety, quality and epidemiology officer on how people admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 now are almost universally unvaccinated

“Instead of making things harder for me, the scheduling changes actually made them better. I really didn’t have to juggle sports.”

— Sutton Webb, Salisbury High soccer star who was named Rowan County Female Athlete of the Year after she also excelled at track and cross country this past school year

“I have two boys, and I try to let them see me doing positive things like this or let them know I’m doing positive things like this so they know they don’t have to be a part of this gun violence. Guns aren’t bad, but the way you use them can be a problem.”

— Vivica Chambers, taking part in an event that was part of the Salisbury-Rowan NAACP’s and Police Department’s Cease Fire program