Business Life magazine
Backs to the Future [Business Life magazine]
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Business Life magazine
August 1998
Does your back hurt? If so, you are not alone. Statistics show the majority of the adult U.S. population has persistent low back pain at some time in their lives.
Low back pain seems to affect people in epidemic proportion, says back expert Stephanie Levin-Gervasi in her book, “The Back Pain Source Book.” She estimates five million Americans are partially disabled by back pain, that another two million are so severely disabled they can’t work, and says back aches account for 93 million workdays lost every year at a cost of $5 million in health care.
“Regaining control of your chronic back pain takes time,” offers Levin-Gervasi. “It is important not to isolate yourself. Pain management requires an active role. You are a key player.”
But where do you turn?
Great Harvest: Rising to the Top [Business Life magazine]
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Business Life magazine
July 1998
It’s 6 a.m. at the Great Harvest Bread Company on Grandview Avenue in Greensboro. While most sane people are sound asleep, Dan Farley is wide-awake and elbow-deep in a ball of dough.
He and Jason Marshall, a loyal employee and early riser, have been milling 60 pound bushels of whole wheat into flour since 5: 10 a.m. By 6 o’clock, the two are likely to be mixing up a few hundred loaves of whole wheat bread as they jam to Led Zeppelin.
This is a morning ritual to Farley, the baker/businessman who opened the neighborhood bread store on April 5, 1995.
Before becoming a baker, he worked as a waiter at the Gate City Chop House in Greensboro. It was good, steady work, but Farley longed to own a business of his own. Then he started dating his childhood friend Mary Kate Brady. For years, it had been a goal of hers to open a Great Harvest Bread Company, a national franchise that treats owners more like entrepreneurs than employees.
She hadn’t been able to buy a franchise on her own, though, because Great Harvest rarely sells to single people. But when Mary Kate and Dan married in 1994, they put in an application and began rounding up the $24,000 seed money.
In August 1994 they got their acceptance letter. Then the hard work began. The Farleys had to gather more dough (on average, it costs about $180,000 to get a Great Harvest Bread Company up and running. They then embarked on the even more difficult task of finding a location for the breaderie.
“It took nine months to find a location,” says Dan, now 36. “We looked everywhere in Greensboro, but nothing seemed perfect.” Finally, they found a spot at Friendly Center, where the shop is currently located. “It is working out just fine,” says Mary Kate, 31.
Colonial Days: Williamsburg’s Kingsmill Resort [Business Life magazine]
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Business Life magazine
July 1998
When President Clinton arrived at Kingsmill Resort near Williamsburg on Saturday, May 9, he huddled in the owner’s mansion with Senate Democrats before playing 18 holes of golf.
After he finished the round, he made his way to a small reception in the conference area where he shook hands with Kingsmill executives. Executive chef Joseph Durante, however, he embraced. “Now this is the man who I want to meet,” the President said.
Clinton has good taste. Not only is the food at Kingsmill rich and sumptuous, but also it is one of only 108 resorts worldwide listed in the 1998 “Standards of Excellence” guide, published annually by the prestigious Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. From the moment you drive up the grand flower-lined driveway into the Kingsmill Resort, you know you will dissolve into the luxury awaiting you.
Gifts in Kind [Business Life magazine]
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Business Life magazine
April 1998
Every day, thousands of organizations around the world call IBM to request donations of
computers. Every day, IBM passes those requests on to a northern Virginia organization called Gifts In Kind International.
“Gifts In Kind really provides valuable services to corporations in the field of technology,” says Kevin Davis, manager of IBM’s corporate matching grants programs. “They provide management supervision as far as where the equipment goes. They pick up the equipment and store it until they distribute it. And they act as an interface to resolve any problems that arise.”
After all that work, Gifts In Kind reports back to IBM to tell the computer giant where its equipment has gone. In 1997, IBM computers went just about everywhere. The company donated about $5 million worth of equipment.
Linking corporations and charities is the mission of Gifts In Kind. Established in 1983 with a $200,000 grant from the Lilly Foundation, the organization is the middleman that moves the surplus goods produced by Fortune 500 companies to more than 50,000 charities worldwide. In 1997, its total distributions were more than $300 million.