Save Sledge Forest has around 12,500 signatures on their petition which they will present at the County Commissioner’s meeting on Monday, October 6. “If I were a county commissioner, I’d think of it as 12,500 votes,” Castle Hayne resident Carrie Bogart notes.

Voting opens October 3: Click on “Vote Now” to watch the finalists’ videos and cast up to one vote per day, per category, for the organization you feel deserves to win.

As your friendly neighborhood eclectic, I tapped into what I hoped you needed to hear most right now (because the universe and I have regular coffee dates where we discuss your business). When I say "tapped in," I mean I ask the universe to tell me what the collective needs to hear, and the message came through loud and clear: fear is keeping you stuck. Same. So, what do we do about it?

Rachel Lewis Hilburn and Andy Wood, host a short-form series called “Speaking of Trees,” set to air on PBS’s Sci NC on October 9.