Harbour residents win Community Fabric Award
Fairfield Harbour gives back to the community!
The Community Fabric Awards showcase individual, business, and educational excellence in leadership as demonstrated by outstanding initiative, impact of service and inspiration of others. The Community Fabric Awards recognize, reward and encourage activities that have a significant impact in meeting the needs of our local communities.
Two residents of Fairfield Harbour, Patricia Drake and Mack Paul, were awarded the Community Fabric Award for Excellence in Business Leadership for 2016. They were recognized at the Awards Luncheon on April 19 for the outstanding community service of their UPS Store.
Patricia left New York in July 1994 to get away from the cold weather and taxes; she found Washington, NC, to be “too little,” Wilmington “too big,” but New Bern “just right.” She opened a Mail Boxes ETC franchise in September 1994 which became The UPS Store in 2002. She also purchased a condominium on Windward Drive in Fairfield Harbour and has resided there the past 22 years. Having come to New Bern alone, about a month after opening her store, she began having conversations about the area with one of her customers, Mack Paul, a New Bern native. She taught him about bagels and he taught her about Carolina barbecue. Six months later they began dating and in 1997 they married. Three months later, he left his job as a reporter for Pamlico News and they began to work together.
Their store keeps them busy; they work almost every day together from 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday and 8 am to 4 pm on Saturday, bringing their lunch to share. Most nights they will pick up food and head back to Fairfield Harbour where they walk around Tradewinds and Forest Lakes enjoying the peace and the wildlife. As Patricia said, “We live at the UPS Store and sleep in Fairfield Harbour,” allowing them little time for other activities here.
Nevertheless, they have supported many community activities through the UPS Store, most as a result of their involvement in the Tryon Civitan Club. Typically, they sponsor three food drives annually. They completed a food drive in March for Religious Community Services (RCS). A free shredding day, to which people brought canned goods, garnered 1400 pounds of food. Currently, they are collecting personal hygiene products for RCS. In October, they will sponsor their ninth annual Peanut Butter Drive. They have also supported Salvation Army projects and the No Child Wet Behind diaper collection. During their drives, their store is packed with donations.
Patricia has been president of Tryon Civitan and Mack will be president in two years. She also was the first woman chair of New Bern YMCA and continues to serve on their board. He is the current president of Fairfield Harbour Tradewinds II Condominium Association. Interestingly, as a teenager, he worked in the stables of Treasure Cove prior to its becoming Fairfield Harbour.
Their store has grown from just Patricia and one part-time employee to the couple, three year-round full-time employees, and seasonal part-time employees. What has not changed is the culture of the store providing community service and individual acts of generosity, such as shipping a Marine’s dress blues to his funeral at no charge. At the store, Mack (ironically due to their height differential) addresses his wife as the “Big Boss.” However, they complement each other; Patricia is the extrovert and customer relations specialist and Mack is the “numbers guy.” When they can get away, it is for combined work/vacations or to visit her two sons and seven grandchildren in New York.
The award required them uncharacteristically to dress up and to address an audience of over
500 people. They are appreciative and humbled by the recognition, including the additional exposure for their business. Next year they will be involved in the selection of their Fabric Award successors. They will be a tough act to follow.
