The Goodwill Career Connections Center, although it has been open for a couple of weeks, is holding its Grand Opening ceremony on Thursday. Now that we're past the holidays, Goodwill officials say the time is right to commemorate the opening, which happened the Monday before Christmas. Goodwill partners with many community organizations to offer the Opportunity Center including the Employment Security Commission, Wilkes Community College, the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments, the Wilkes JobLink, and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. The open house and ribbon cutting ceremony starts at 11 Thursday morning at the center, which at 1821 Highway 421. In partnership with Wilkes Community College, a variety of skills training classes will be offered at the Center including English as a Second Language (ESL), GED, adult high school diploma, HR Development and Career Readiness Certification. Tuition assistance for these classes is available through Goodwill’s Outreach Scholarship Fund for those who qualify. The Center boasts three classrooms, 22 computers with high-speed Internet access, a wide variety of job search resources and personalized career counseling and case management services. The Wilkes County Career Connections Center is open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and at night according to class schedules. In addition to the Wilkesboro site, Goodwill operates Career Connections Centers in Alexander, Buncombe, Burke, Catawba, Davidson, Forsyth, Rowan, Stokes and Surry Counties. For more information call 667-0889 or visit goodwillnwnc.org.

A sheriff deputy on routine patrol is credited with calling in a fire that ended up gutting a home in the Champion Fire district early Saturday. The homeowner, Jerry Minton, was away on vacation and there was no one at home at the time of the fire. That's fortunate, because when Champion firefighters arrived, the floor of the single-story brick home was already collapsing into the basement. Firefighters from Champion and Millers Creek battled the flames in the overnight hours. Wilkes County Fire Investigator Niki Hamby says everything was destroyed in the home except a safe containing important papers. Right now, it appears the loss to the 3-thousand square foot home will exceed $250,000. The cause of the fire has not been determined yet.