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Hurricanes playing to win

Hurricanes playing to win

by | Aug 31, 2018 | Do, September 2018

This season, the Carolina Hurricanes will open with more changes than in any other past season in franchise history. And, after a decade-long drought from the NHL Playoffs, Caniacs are eager to learn how these changes will affect the team’s future. We sat down with the Canes’ new owner, Tom Dundon, and he walked us through what’s new and gave us a good idea of when Sir Walter Raleigh can, once again, expect to drink from Lord Stanley’s Cup.

What is the biggest change that Hurricanes fans will notice?

The culture. Unfortunately when you don’t have success, people start to forget how good they are and why they play. [But] if you have good players, good coaching and good preparation, then you start to expect different results. If everybody believes they’re going to win, you have a better chance. And I’m starting to feel like that’s the case now.

Outside of winning more games, how are you going to get fans back in the seats?

I hate to not answer your question, but there is no plan other than winning. That is the only plan. Along with winning, making sure that it’s easy to get in and out of the arena and the food, the service and the entertainment are good. We [also] want to improve accessibility to the players. These players are one of the best things about this organization. If the fans can build a bond with the players, at the same time that the players are successful, then it’s easy to want to participate.

Do you have plans for making the players more accessible? 

One, we’re redoing the locker rooms and we’re going to try to let fans get access to where the players are. [Also,] our foundation’s done a great job for a long time getting out in the community and we [can] add on top of that, whether [the players are] supporting a youth hockey team or showing up at someone’s event.

Let’s go through some changes one-by-one. How are they going to affect the organization? Let’s start with Don Waddell as General Manager.

Don has a lot of experience, a lot of relationships in the league. He was on the business side but he didn’t participate on the hockey side before I got here. On the hockey side, we’re trying to institute something where everybody, from our scouts, our assistant coaches and anyone in management, gets to participate in the conversation. Don is a good facilitator; he wants everyone’s input, and we’re able to make sure we’re able to get the benefit of everyone’s opinion.

Rod Brind’Amour as coach:

I would’ve come in with a bias against having an ex-player and someone who’s been coaching through some of the tougher years. My instinct would not have been that he would be a person that you would consider to be the head coach. The way I look at Rod is… he would be successful no matter what he tried. To me, that’s the most important characteristic: someone who doesn’t know how to fail. He listens. He communicates. He’s empathetic, but he’s a leader. He out-works everybody. That’s probably the luckiest thing about the organization right now, is that he was here and wanted to do that job. I’ve been really impressed.

On the 2nd overall draft pick Andrei Svechnikov:

We had a consensus that he would be the best offensive player in the draft, not just with us, but around the league. We hoped that along with that talent, he had the character and the work ethic that fit into what we wanted to do. We quickly found out that he has all the off-ice characteristics that we are now demanding. [Svechnikov is] a really talented player who also plays physically, scores goals, works hard and is easy to be around so we couldn’t be happier.

How will goalie, Petr Mrazek, fit in? 

Goaltending seems to be something that runs in cycles. The best goalies will tend to be average every four years. What we hope is that our guys [Mrazek and Darling] got through their tough times and now can return to what they’ve been in the past. They’re young, and they’ve done it before. We don’t have to guess about what they are at their best. At their best they’re both really good.

Last, what do you hope to bring?

I’ve never doubted for a second that I’d figure out a way, in whatever the situation, to be successful. It’s not a question of if, it’s just when. I have to continue to give the resources so everyone has everything they need; so that everybody knows, when the game starts, we’re prepared and we have an expectation that is winning. I read recently, after we made our trade, that we must not be trying to win now, which is just ridiculous. We have every expectation of starting to win right now. 

So do you have a goal in mind for when the Stanley Cup can come home?

We’re competitive right now, we should expect to win now. There’s nothing else we need asset-wise to compete with anybody in the league. Now we just have to perform.

Full Circle

Full Circle

by | Jul 1, 2018 | Do, July 2018 / August 2018

One year ago, Graham High School choral director Jennifer Wells was in the audience of a Foreigner concert when she caught a glimpse of her future.

A local high school choir joined the band onstage to sing “I Want To Know What Love Is,” creating a dynamic and unique performance that highlighted young talent and supported local school arts programs.

Wells was amazed. “That is the coolest thing,” she thought. “My choir would love to do that!”

Months later, she was forwarded a message from the radio station 96.1 BBB announcing, once again, that Foreigner would invite a contest-winning choir onstage with them.

It was fate. That very night, the Graham choir was scheduled to perform one of their favorite songs, the Stacey Gibbs arrangement of the spiritual “Wade in the Water.”

The emotional and complex harmony was the perfect entry to showcase the power and passion in the voices of this relatively small choir of 17 kids. They recorded the performance and sent it in.

After Wells’ choir was chosen as one of three finalists, the group learned that the winner would be selected through an online vote. “We sent the link to the school system, to family, to friends. We sent it to everyone,” Wells says.

Graham High School Choir. Photograph by Tracy Patterson of Tracy Carol * Behind the Lens Photography.

Despite their efforts, the kids started to lose hope when time passed without news. But finally, Wells heard, and had to keep the secret until choral class when she could make the announcement to everyone. The time came and the kids gathered in their seats, only a little suspicious when their principal came in with a smartphone ready to ‘observe.’ During class, 96.1 BBB called and broke the news of the win; the room filled with euphoric, exhilarated cheers.

As with the choir Wells witnessed that inspired this journey, Graham High School choir will feature on the Foreigner classic “I Want to Know What Love Is” when the band plays at Walnut Creek this July.

“Now they like to introduce themselves as ‘the group singing with Foreigner,’” laughs Wells.

The group has sung in large venues before, but this will be the largest audience they’ve had. Wells is confident that excitement and joy, instead of nerves, will rule the day. She also hopes that while her kids make the most of their moment, the performance will shed light on the important impact of choir—and all school arts programs—which, she explains, is much bigger than the thrill of performing.

“It’s a family atmosphere in my room. It’s that support that allows them to experiment and be creative in a safe environment where it’s OK to fail, to make a mistake,” Wells says. “They support each other and they help each other to get better. It’s not always that way in the real world, or at your job; but in the arts, you can.”

As for Wells? Since the choir is so small, she’s been invited to sing alongside her students. It’s an opportunity she plans to embrace.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she says. “And, I’m shorter than the kids, so I’ll blend right in!”

June Tunes: Carly Pearce

June Tunes: Carly Pearce

by | Jun 16, 2018 | Do, June 2018

June is packed with great music at Raleigh venues large and small (see calendar next page). We spoke with country singer Carly Pearce, who plays with Rascal Flatts and Dan and Shay at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek June 16th.

Upcoming country music star Carly Pearce.

Upcoming country music star Carly Pearce.

In a word, Carly Pearce is grateful.

She’s grateful she could take a devastating time in her life and create the haunting, beautiful song “Every Little Thing.” She’s grateful she can commiserate with fans about misadventures in navigating exes with her fun, sassy new single “Hide the Wine.” But, most of all, she’s grateful that, after a lifetime of work and fighting for her dream, she’s living the surreal “tornado” of chart topping, awards-nominated success.

Raised in Kentucky, Pearce says country music was always her passion. “Always,” she says. “It may sound cliché, but it really is truth that it’s all I’ve ever known.”

At 16, Pearce asked her parents if she could drop out of high school to join a Dollywood country music show. “I’m an only child and my dad said, ‘absolutely not,’” Pearce laughs. She persuaded them to let her audition. With a job offer and a home-school plan which would set her on a path to college—a bit of a ruse—her parents acquiesced.

“I knew I didn’t want to go to college,” she says. “I wanted to go to Nashville.”

At Dollywood, Pearce’s dreams and work ethic grew; the six-show-a-day, five-day-a-week schedule prepared her for the next step in her career.

“I feel like I was at war with Nashville for nine years,” Pearce says, reflecting on her time beating down doors for auditions. “I’ve been very honest…about how hard it was for me, how many people told me no, how many times I was told to move home, that it would never happen.”

Pearce uses that experience to remind her fans that they must be the biggest advocates for their own dreams. “If you believe in something and you keep working and you won’t take no for an answer, no matter what it is, it really can happen.”

Pearce says it took a while for the “I made it” moment to sink in, admitting she didn’t feel it the first time she played the Grand Ole Opry, or after she made her first album, or first heard her song on the radio, or when it went to No. 1, or when she appeared on TV or was nominated for awards. But she felt it recently, on tour with Blake Shelton

“We sang [his duet with Ashley Monroe] “Lonely Tonight,” she says. “There was this moment, the first night of his tour, we were singing in the arena and I’m looking into Blake Shelton’s eyes and, honest to God, that may have been when I realized [all that’s happened]. I’m staring into Blake Shelton’s eyes, singing, and I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, I’ve done it.’ It was a very weird moment for me.”

Pearce’s debut album Every Little Thing is out now.

Reverent Revitalization

Reverent Revitalization

by | May 31, 2018 | Buzz, June 2018

The Rainbow Upholstery building, once the home of Raleigh’s oldest custom upholstery shop, is taking steps to increase its iconic status

On a December morning seven years ago, hundreds gathered at the white brick warehouse at 911 N. West Street, just north of downtown Raleigh, to honor the legacy of Delores Powell Glenn, founder of Rainbow Upholstery and Furniture.

Then, the 1940s-era warehouse was known to locals equally for the multicolored ‘Rainbow Upholstery’ sign on the outside and for the quality custom work done within. Nestled in the middle of a rundown industrial street located across from the hidden Pigeon House Branch stream and a massive bay of city garbage trucks, the venue of Glenn’s celebration of life was about to be transformed.

The building, overlooking the planned Devereux Meadows park, will still boast a colorful “Rainbow Upholstery” sign. But a new mural, based on the image of Glenn, a woman who lived a purpose-driven life, will soon adorn its south-facing wall. From Wade Avenue to Peace Street, where the much-anticipated Publix will anchor a new retail and apartment complex, the formerly rundown West Street is in the midst of one of Raleigh’s most exciting revitalization efforts; the Rainbow Upholstery building, where Glenn’s legacy will be preserved, is at the center of it all.

Raised in rural North Carolina in the 1940s, Glenn lived the heartbreaking reality of worlds divided by race. A divorced mother of three, she fell in love and had two more children with a white man she could not marry. For the wellbeing of her now racially mixed family, she moved to New York in search of a more diverse and welcoming community. But North Carolina was home, and in 1979 she returned.

Glenn began assisting women making the transition from incarceration to education, opening a boarding house on Person Street in 1982. She quickly realized that many of these women also needed a way to make a living, so she started Rainbow Upholstery and Furniture Company the next year as a way to train, motivate and support the women whom society had cast aside.

After a few moves, with determination and business acumen, Glenn’s mission found its home in the West Street building. What began as a service to others blossomed into a premiere custom upholstery shop; a mission became a business, and a business became a ministry. The women who trained at Rainbow Upholstery gained not only tangible skills and a path to future success, but they were part of a company that was making Raleigh a more vibrant place.

“Love, hard work, dedication and belief in what you want to do, that’s what my mom represented,” says Chuck Bullock, current owner of both Rainbow Upholstery (now located in Wake Forest, closer to Bullock’s home) and the West Street property.

Prior to the move, the Bullocks dreamed of what would become of the edifice that housed so much more than a business.

“It was founded on faith,” says Chuck Bullock’s wife, Karla, as she looks up at the iconic sign on the 24,000-square-foot building. The windows have been lengthened and the walls painted but the integrity of the original construction has been maintained.

In a unique development deal, Atlas Stark partnered with Michael Iovino, founder of August Construction Solutions, and other partners to purchase a minority share, leaving Bullock the majority owner of the property.

“It’s a development story that works for everybody involved,” Iovino says. “We will do anything for Chuck at any time. He owns the building and we understand that. We appreciate him letting us in, so there’s a reverence that we treat the building with.”

The renovated windows let in a surprising amount of light. Sunbeams illuminate exposed wood ceiling trusses, and vast open spaces create unique office opportunities. Iovino and the Bullocks discuss construction progress and point out areas that have already been claimed by tenants like DeRonja Real Estate.

Principal broker, Frank DeRonja, admits that when he announced the move, he was nervous. “I said, ‘I’m scared to tell you where the address is, but two years from now, you’ll call me a genius.’”

DeRonja uses West Street as a shortcut and marveled as the rundown industrial street was revived day by day. The moment he saw a ‘for lease’ sign outside the warehouse, he made a call.

“We walked the building when it was still being used for upholstery, and we knew then it would be amazing,” says DeRonja.

What he didn’t know was the history of the mission, nor the scope of the many lives it changed.

“Knowing that makes us feel an even greater affinity for where we’re moving,” says DeRonja. “There’s something about all of it that seems like it’s staying true to Raleigh: to make it better, but not tear it down.”

To make better and not tear it down.

It could be a motto for Glenn’s life’s purpose. To her, every person deserved time, respect and another chance; Glenn’s is the legacy a of woman who believed she could make a difference through love, and that legacy will persist through all the changes to West Street—and to Raleigh—in the years to come.

Allergy Season

Allergy Season

by | Feb 28, 2018 | March 2018, Stuff

Combating the itchy eyes and runny noses of spring

There are few places more beautiful in the spring than right here in Raleigh, NC. The sun has beaten away the cold, and gray clouds have dissipated to uncover that characteristic Carolina Blue. A whole multitude of colors reclaim their glory; the green of countless pines sway in gentle breeze, the pinks of azalea bushes burst through yards and parks, and yellow abounds in the daffodils, the wildfl owers and, unfortu-nately, the wind.

The famous yellow wind of Raleigh is right around the corner and those enjoying spring in the Triangle for the fi rst time may start wondering, are those ‘whispering pines’ really whispering? Or, like the rest of us, are they sneezing?

Holly Scott grew up with asthma, but until she moved to Raleigh, allergies were not a trigger. “It was always exercise induced, or because I was breathing cold air, but it was never allergies. It was just after I moved to Raleigh, when I was 28, that I started getting allergy symptoms. I had an itchy throat and a stuffy nose.”

For Scott, with those symptoms, she was confident allergies were the culprit. After conferring with her primary physician, she found relief in an over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamine, something she takes regularly through the spring and fall.

For Sarah Finnerty, allergy medicine was recommended to her nearly the moment she moved to Raleigh. “I remember vividly, someone at the church where I was working said, ‘If you take anantihistamine every day,’ you won’t have the symptoms. So I just did it.” A few years later, Finnerty attempted to face spring without the medicine. “My eyes were really itching, I realized, ‘Wow, this [medicine] really works,” Finnerty laughed.

Susan Catchings, FNP-C, at Avance Care of Cary, agrees that prevention is incredibly important. “I tell people, the moment they start seeing those first buds, or March 1… just pick a time, and start taking your medicine. Don’t wait until the symptoms start.”

Catchings notes that allergies are one of the most common reasons people miss work and school, especially in Raleigh. “Allergies are so prevalent here because we have such a warm spring season. We are the City of Oaks so we have beautiful trees and flowers, which just increases allergens in the air. The big allergy triggers in the spring are trees and grass, and they are pollinating for a long season. Many people who are moving from the North are used to bigger freezes and lon- ger winters. In the South, we have longer springs. And, really, anyone can develop allergies anytime. It is related to repeated exposure. With our warm spring, and longer pollinating season, there is greater exposure,” Catchings said.

Many, like Finnerty and Scott, are able to find relief with over-the-counter medications like Zyrtec, Claritin and Flonase; for others, a more aggressive approach is necessary. Scott’s husband, Brian, suffered with incapacitating allergies for years before deciding to look into immunotherapy. “It took him a while to pull the trigger on it; he saw an allergist to fi nd out what he was allergic to, twice,” Scott said. When the Scott family originally looked into immunotherapy, scheduling the shots would have been impossible, but the advancements to sublingual medicines made that therapy accessible. And, though expensive, Scott says they have never looked back. “He used to be miserable, he couldn’t function [at high allergy times]. It’s completely worth it.”

For Juliane Hatfi eld, allergies were just part of a wealth of health problems she was dealing with a few years ago. Allergies were accompanied by headaches, fatigue and other ailments. She saw several doctors and was put on several antibiotics and steroids. The medications not only failed to provide relief, but new, complicated health issues continued to present. She decided to visit a naturopathic health provider. The provider guided Hatfi eld through a dietary shift. “She told me that gluten and dairy naturally add inflammation. So, for some people, if inflammation is an issue, reducing every infl ammatory you can may help your body work more smoothly.”

After two years of a gluten- and dairy free diet, Hatfi eld’s overall health has completely changed. “Before, when seasonal allergies came, I expected to get a sinus infection. That just doesn’t happen the same way anymore. Before, I always had a runny nose, always felt run down, always felt like I had allergies.” Hatfi eld laments that for too long, she was treating symptoms without trying to discover root causes, “Now, I’m more in tune with my body.”

Catchings agrees that it is important to get to the root cause of the problem, especially encouraging people to see their Primary Care doctor if they suffer with chronic sinus issues or headaches. “Your life can be better, you can feel better if you seek proper treatment,” Catchings said.

Whether you have dealt with allergies for years, or are experiencing them for the fi rst time, there’s little question that this spring will test your patience, your health practices, and, perhaps, your gag reflex when you see the pollen on your car. “Some mornings I feel like I need to rake it off,” jokes Finnerty. She adds quickly that though allergies may be frustrating and cars glazed in yellow may be unpleasant, it all leads to the incredible beauty around us. “It’s worth it. Look around, of course it’s worth it! I’ve never lived anywhere that is so beautiful. Take any road, any simple road you drive down, and it will be lined with gorgeous flowering trees. It’s just beautiful.”

Allergy Life Hacks…

Bedtime showers: rinsing the allergens off you before you hop into bed will give you a better night’s sleep.

Kick off your shoesimmediately…don’t pollinate your hardwoods!

Keep the windows closed – that’s in the house and in the car!

Change clothes after working in the yard.

A couch nap may be tempting, but don’t give in (at least until you change.)

Wipe your pets! Supermarkets, Target and pet stores all sell convenient containers of pet wipes you can keep right by the door.

If you have not yet taken the sinus washing plunge, check out a Neti Pot and see if it’s for you.

Take care of yourself overall; allergies are directly connected to your immune system, so make sure you are exercising, eating well and drinking plenty of water!