Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Welcome to your Friday edition of Snippets and Soundbites! Be sure to check out the monthly print edition on page 38 of each issue of ec.


• Christian rockers and Grammy® nominees DecembeRadio announced they were joining the Newsboys for the 35-city Join the Tribe Tour this week. The tour actually opens in Frederick, Md., today and will run through April. The tour also features bands VOTA and Bread of Stone, will support Global Tribe, an organization fighting physical and spiritual poverty. Lead singer and bass player Josh Reedy: ““The Join the Tribe tour is going to be a blast! It's really cool for us to be a part of a tour with a band that we grew up watching. I know it will be a night of great music, energy and ministry.”

• Heard of the 1980s band Guns ’N Roses? Yeah, ask your parents. Well, residents of South Carolina put the band's name to work last weekend, turning in guns for . . . wait for it. . . roses. In an effort to get the weapons off the streets with the "Guns for Roses" program, authorities in two central South Carolina cities set up a program where anyone who turned in a gun received a free rose and a gift card for an electronics chain store. Read all about it here.

• North Carolina had to get in on the odd news, too, it seems, though its story has nothing to do with guns or roses. It seems that in order to raise funds for the North Carolina Children's Hospital, some students had a bright idea. Run two miles to a downtown Raleigh Krispy Kreme shop, eat a dozen glazed doughnuts each and return to North Carolina State University—in less than an hour. The student-run Krispy Kreme Challenge began in 2004 as a dare among friends, then grew into the charity event. More than 5,000 runners competed in this year's event and consumed 2,400 calories and 144 grams of fat during the run. It's estimated they burned about 400 calories during the run. Read more here.