SouthPark Magazine

5 winter spa escapes

After the holiday hustle and bustle, it’s time for a little self-care. Winter is a great time to take advantage of seasonal spa offerings and off-peak crowds at nearby resorts. We checked with a few popular spa destinations to find out what to expect this season. Photo: Chetola Resort

Bridge builder

As Greg Jackson walks through the glass doors into the lobby of the Baymont Inn, a two-story motel off Sugar Creek Road in northeast Charlotte, his positive energy is immediate. Dressed in a hat and T-shirt emblazoned with the logo for Heal Charlotte, a nonprofit Jackson founded in 2017, it’s impossible not to be drawn into his aura.

A champion for the underdog

When Dale Halton stepped in as president of Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Charlotte in 1981, she was a rare female CEO. The business was close to insolvency, and Pepsico’s leaders were threatening to pull the franchise from her family. PHOTO: J. Murrey Atkins Library, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Pillars: Jim Babb

Jim Babb may owe his lifelong career in journalism and broadcasting to Dilworth Highlights and Headlines, the school newspaper at his Charlotte elementary school. Since then, he’s been devoted to telling stories and forwarding the television and radio industry. PHOTO: Courtesy of Jim Babb

Highway run

For most drivers, sitting in stopped traffic usually prompts frustration and annoyance. For husband and wife Brian and Chelsea Mister, a traffic jam on Interstate 277 sparked a business idea — a footrace on the highway. PHOTO: The Littlefield Co.

Tea and tranquility

In spring 2019, Sherry Arlena Waters did a U-turn when she saw the “For Lease” sign on a small brick building in the Historic Camp Greene neighborhood in west Charlotte. Weeks later, in July of the same year, she signed a lease and opened The Pauline Tea-Bar Apothecary.

Mural maker

Robert Krumbine is on a mission to un-beige the city. Krumbine, chief creative officer and senior vice president of events for Charlotte Center City Partners since 2011, and his staff started the Art Connects Us Mural Program more than six years ago. PHOTO: Maureen O'Boyle.

Cool chemistry

Every life has turning points. For Rosa Renteria Jimenez it was her grandfather’s death. He died last October, a few months after she visited him in Mexico. His passing gave her the courage to put everything she had into becoming a professional artist. Freidline sings and plays piano and keyboard, and Howell is on vocals.

Image reflected

In 2009, Alvin C. Jacobs Jr. taught himself how to use a Nikon D5000, his first commercial camera. “My life started 10 years ago,” Jacobs, 45, says. “This became what I wanted to do. Art has changed everything about the way I see life.”

Art’s vitality

Jim Dukes never considered a career in art. His left-brain skills led him to a job as a bomb technician. Spending four years in Iraq disarming bombs for a defense contractor, he suffered five brain injuries from the blasts, causing post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety as well as...

Charlotte's Knight

Charles Thomas may have one of the best jobs in Charlotte. As the city’s program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, he gives away money for projects that help the community.

Sweet Relief

Nine years ago, Sweet’s Syrup owner Stephanie Rickenbaker didn’t know anything about clean living, or how to run a small business. A cancer diagnosis changed everything.

New beginnings

Three years ago, Allison Andrews questioned the direction of her life after her 23-year marriage ended. It didn’t help that it coincided with her decision to leave a longtime job as a local television producer.

A new view

Jen Sudul Edwards wants museums to be a place for tough conversations.

The chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum believes museums have a responsibility to connect our history to the present.

Truth in wine

Anthony Wesley remembers showing up to his interview at McNinch House Restaurant in 2002 not wearing any socks. He’d worn a suit but forgotten to adorn his feet on that hot summer day in Charlotte.

A Stage for All

More than 20 years ago, Monica Pettiford staged a sit-in on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at Queens University of Charlotte. The silent protest led by Pettiford, then an undergraduate at the liberal-arts university...