Garaventa also will be responsible for the company’s new business development and customer retention. She is a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate who joined WorkForce Carolina three years ago.

Hamilton will supervise daily operations at WorkForce Carolina’s Mount Airy and Elkin offices. She is a graduate of Montreat College with a bachelor’s degree in human services. She joined WorkForce Carolina in 1995.

Now in its 20th year, WorkForce Carolina employs approximately 3,000 people annually, supplying workers for companies in Alleghany, Forsyth, Iredell, Surry, Stokes, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties in North Carolina and in Carroll, Grayson and Patrick counties in Virginia. It is Surry County’s fifth-largest employer.

WorkForce Carolina was named to the Triad Business Journal’s 50 fastest-growing independently owned businesses in 2006 and “Best Places to Work in the Triad” in 2006 and 2007.

Gabriel’s brother, Benny, has a similar story to tell. Also an immigrant, he built T-N-T Carports Inc. in Mount Airy. It, like Eagle Carports, has plants across the United States and employs dozens of workers including many Hispanic immigrants.

Winston-Salem Journal writer Sherry Youngquist tells how Alicia and Gabriel Torres achieved the American dream in her Nov. 3 article, “Growing business brings couple full circle.”

You can read his column here.

The hall of fame recognizes men and women who have made a significant contribution to North Carolina’s economic development.

The Shelton brothers grew up in Mount Airy, N.C., across the street from the school they both attended from first grade through high school. Their father was a barber and their mother came from a farming family. The boys spent summers working on their grandfather’s tobacco farm.

Charlie, five years older than Ed, used money intended for his college education to build his first house when he was 18. After graduating from high school and one year at Lees-McRae College, Ed joined his brother in the homebuilding business. They borrowed $2,000 from their father to establish Fortis Homes in 1962 in Winston-Salem. In 1978, they started Shelco Inc. as a commercial development and construction company. They moved Shelco’s corporate headquarters to Charlotte in 1991. In 2003, the brothers sold the company to their management group.

In 1994, Charlie bought an old Surry County dairy farm at auction. The brothers gradually added nearby land until they had a total of 384 acres. The idea of creating a winery came to Charlie in 1998. Shelton Vineyards Inc. has become an award-winning winery. It produced about 28,000 cases of wine last year and also has become a major tourist attraction in the Yadkin Valley Viticultural Area.

The brothers’ newest venture is development of Shelton Village at Dobson, a mixed-use project on Interstate 77.

Inductees to the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame are recommended by a committee from North Carolina Chamber (formerly the North Carolina Citizens for Business & Industry). Honorees must be either retired from their business or at least 70 years old at the time of selection.

Criteria for inclusion in the NC Business Hall of Fame includes:
1) recognized by his or her organization and/or profession as having made significant contribution to its success;
2) served as a role model for others in business;
3) positively influenced the growth of subordinates; and
4) demonstrated a continuity of achievements, contrasted to a one-time effort.

Laureates also are recognized for their outstanding community contributions.

Laureates are inducted in November at the annual hall of fame dinner, the premiere business event in the state.

Lamp’l is a Master Gardener, Certified Landscape Professional, author, syndicated columnist, speaker/presenter, national television host and radio personality. Passionate about horticulture since childhood, Joe has gardened both personally and professionally for more than 30 years.

For three years he hosted “Fresh from the Garden” on the DIY Network. There he was responsible for maintaining a picture-perfect garden with the premise of taking vegetables from seed to harvest in a single episode. Fifty-two shows later, Lamp’s says, there were no other vegetables left to profile.

Now he co-hosts GardenSMART on PBS television. When he’s not trying to re-establish the lawn and landscaping on his home in Mount Airy, where he and his wife and children moved last year, Lamp’l is able to “dig” into spectacular gardens around the country for GardenSMART and to profile the dedicated gardeners who nurture them.

Lamp’l's lifelong love of gardening led to the founding of The joe gardener Company®, an organization dedicated to bringing eco-friendly resources for better gardening to novices as well as seasoned veterans. Joe practiced and began promoting healthy living along with environmental stewardship long before “being green” was popular, so he said he jumped at the opportunity when Cool Springs Press asked him to write “The Green Garden Book.”

Lamp’l previously wrote “Over the Fence with Joe Gardener,” also published by Cool Springs Press.

Cool Springs Press is a leading regional publisher of gardening books and one of the largest gardening publishers in America. It currently is developing digplantgrow.com, an ambitious gardening Web site that the publisher promises will set new standards in content delivery. Providing a targeted user experience based on where gardeners live, digplantgrow.com will feature 50 micro-sites representing the 50 U.S. states. This region-specific content will be moderated by one of Cool Springs Press’s 125 authors, all trusted gardening experts who live and garden where their books are sold.

“Before I was working so hard just to get ahead. I wasn’t home enough. [We] came here and the cost of living is lower and there’s more stuff we can do together,” Jonathan Keener told ABC Television’s “Good Morning America.”

“We want a slower pace. We want to just enjoy life and take care of our kids and be able to do our business and do our shop together,” said Sharon.

The Keeners said they also feel a connection to their community that they’ve never had before.

“We feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves. There are a lot of people trying to do this,” said Jonathan.

You can watch the “GMA” video segment here.

“It wasn’t so much that Thelma Lou was looking for Mayberry, that mythical place implanted in the minds of millions of Americans who watched the original showings of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ in the 1960s and the millions more, young and old, who still watch the TV reruns,” writes columnist A.C. Snow in the Raleigh News & Observer.

“The move came partly because Betty Lynn, her real name, had had it with Los Angeles — its traffic congestion, its frantic pace and the fact that her home had been recently robbed twice. She was looking for serenity.

“‘I had visited Mount Airy before for appearances at Mayberry Days,’ she said, referring to the annual September event that draws thousands of Mayberry fans from across the country to Andy Griffith’s hometown. ‘The people here were always so sweet to me, so friendly, and generous. Let me tell you. Southern hospitality is no myth. It’s real!’”

You can read the entire interview here.