After learning Gavin Hill s cancer has returned, the community has surrounded him with support
The Dispatch
North Davidson High School s Gavin Hill is used to battling opponents on the gridiron and the diamond, never backing down from a fight.
The varsity Black Knight football and baseball player took that same determination with him into the hospital when he fought cancer five years ago and beat it. It was the toughest opponent he had ever faced and never wanted another match with it. Hill learned on Feb. 15, however, he will have to fight cancer one more time. The neuroblastoma tumor has returned.
Q&A: Lexington Assistant City Manager welcomes leadership challenges
The Dispatch
Chip Vanderzee says he doesn t like to waste money in his personal life, so he will take that same approach for residents when he takes on a new role as Lexington Assistant City Manager in January.
Vanderzee, the current director of Public Services for Lexington, is taking the position left vacant when Terra Greene was named city manager in 2018.
He previously worked for the City of High Point for 27 years, starting as a meter reader and working up to customer service manager before coming to Lexington as the public services director in 2019.
Lexington barbecue restaurant owners expand their portfolio to owning retail outlet
Becky and Leon Simmons have opened The Outlet Warehouse
The Dispatch
Becky and Leon Simmons know Lexington-style barbecue, smoked chicken, barbecue slaw, and all the other fixings and dishes they serve customers at their two restaurants TarHeel Q and Arcadia Q. Now they are branching out and testing their knowledge in the retail business after opening The Outlet Warehouse in late November. It started with restaurant equipment we were selling, said Becky Simmons, who admits the new outlet is her baby. Then it started growing.
The store, which now sells a variety of items through other store s liquidations, closings, unclaimed freight and auctions, is located at 821 W. Center St. in Lexington in the former National Outlet businesses offices. In fact, her shelving that she displays her merchandise on was purchased from three different Stein Mart stores which are closing.
Q&A: Why North Davidson principal is leaving high school for college
The Dispatch
Jonathan Brown, principal at North Davidson High School, says he has always been interested in securing future career paths for his students. Now he has turned that passion into a new career development of his own.
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Brown is leaving his current position as principal at the high school at the end of December to take a new job as the Associate Vice President of Workforce and Community Development at Davidson County Community College.
Candle maker figures out how to make money selling soy candles for less than his competition
Jill Doss-Raines
The Dispatch
TYRO Since graduating from North Davidson High School in 2007, entrepreneur Bradley Watson has started and sold 14 companies and businesses from a refurbished golf ball company to a women s clothing boutique. He thinks he hit on one of his hottest ideas with the 15th company Watson Candle Co.
Working from his estate in Reedy Creek, he is a one-man candle making machine and sells his work from his store, Bradley s Candle Shop, on Highway 150 in the Tyro community. What sets his 100 percent soy candles apart from the hundreds of other companies turning out soy candles, he said is the price at which he can sell them $6 for a 12-ounce candle. Most sell for $18 or more.