Keeping Raleigh cool

Couple achieves success with Kona Ice business

by Rosie Gillam

Richie and Carina Veverka know a good investment when they see one. The former investment company employees turned entrepreneurs decided to purchase a mobile gourmet shaved ice truck three years ago. Today, the fun-loving couple are widely considered two of the most successful — and colorful — small business owners within the Kona Ice system and around town in Raleigh.

<<more>>

Reader Essay: Pickleball, y’all

Get a load of this cool sport

by Mike Walsh

Pickleball? What’s pickleball?” I asked back in February 2010, when my wife, Lyn, and I were vacationing in the Florida sun. Our friend Dede, visiting us from Kansas City, explained that pickleball was a wonderful racquet game created in 1965 by two friends living in Washington state. Searching for an active game that could be played together by all ages of their family members, they considered net sports. The game they created on their driveway used a wiffle-type ball and incorporated key elements of tennis, table tennis, and badminton. According to legend, the name emerged when Pickles, the family cocker spaniel, chased and retrieved balls that were hit out of bounds into the lawn.

<<more>>