Cat’s Cradle Shows to Benefit Staff at The Station

Cat’s Cradle will host two shows this weekend to help The Station pay its staff their final paychecks. The Station bar and club closed its doors on December 21 after nine years of bringing food, drinks and music to the Carrboro community. The adjacent restaurant, Southern Rail and the Tiger Room coffee shop, closed earlier this month.

Mike Benson is the majority owner of all three businesses.

“It’s a common story in the restaurant world, it’s an overburden of debt,” said Benson. Southern Rail Ventures LLC still owes $156,000 in back taxes, according to Chapel Hill News.

Benson originally listed Southern Rail for sale last year but was forced to put all three establishments on the market earlier this year when the tax debt became too much.

This weekend’s shows are the result of a friendship between Benson and Frank Heath, owner of Cat’s Cradle, which dates back to their days of running cross country at Chapel Hill High.

“Frank wanted to help and offered his services,” said Benson. “He said I could use his club, and I said thank you.”

The shows will feature several local bands each night. There is a $10 suggested donation and all the proceeds will benefit The Station’s staff.

In the nine years The Station was opened, it was a local hub for live music. During that time, Benson was able to form some strong relationships with those musicians.

“A lot of these musicians are like friends, they’re like family,” said Benson.

Benson also enjoyed that his establishments, with the distinctive train car building, were a fixture on the Carrboro scene.

“I think the greatest compliment I can receive is when people tell me that they can’t remember living in Carrboro before we opened,” said Benson. “And the structure over the train car seems like it has been there indefinitely and all these things and its only been nine years.”

The buildings and property are still for sale and Benson is currently in the process of meeting with potential buyers. Benson said he is advocating for another local restaurant to move into the location and he already plans on being a patron.

“I actively tell people support whoever goes in there and you’ll probably see me having a drink over there,” said Benson. “I’ll be on the other side of the bar!”

The shows will take place in the Cat’s Cradle Back Room, at 300 E. Main St. in Carrboro, starting at four o’clock both Friday and Saturday afternoons.

For tickets and more information visit the Cat’s Cradle website

http://chapelboro.com/featured/cats-cradle-shows-to-benefit-the-station-staff

Omega Wrestling To Benefit Local School

CHAPEL HILL – Several former WWE wrestlers are in Chapel Hill to help raise money for Margaret Pollard Middle School as “The Hurricane” Shane Helms and a few others host Omega Championship Wrestling’s “Chapel Thrill”.

“As anybody that’s a teacher these days knows, the budget on this school got cut pretty bad,
Helms says. “What Omega’s going to do, we’re going to come in, we’re going to put on this show, we’re going to put on a really good show, and the proceeds are going to go to help this school out.”

Other former WWE wrestlers include Matt Hardy, C.W. Anderson, among others.

Helms and Hardy helped originally found Omega Wrestling several years ago before joining the WWE.  Helms says that now with the rebirth of Omega they have begun giving back to the community.

“In the three shows that we’ve done previously, we’ve raised almost $25,000 in funds,” Helms says. “One was a cancer benefit for a guy we knew, one was for a church group that one of our wrestlers was associated with, and the East Wake one.”

Several matches will take place during the “Chapel Thrill” Heavy Weight Wresting Champion including Helms versus King Shane Williams, a champion from Tennessee.

Hardy says that his match and several others have high intensity between the competitors.

“This Saturday, when I get in the ring with C.W., sometime those matches that you get in there and you really have to be on your guard end up being the best matches just because it produces such a real, such an athletic, such an almost violent element,” Helms says. “It’s not going to be a wrestling match, it’s going to be fight.”

For more information on tickets and the line up for the wrestling match click here.

http://chapelboro.com/news/non-profit-news/omega-wrestling-hosts-benefit-to-raise-money-for-schools