Whether you are a kid wowed by dinosaurs or an adult who likes to relax to live music, Sweet Valley Ranch offers a variety of activities for all ages. The animal park is home to more than 350 animals from all over the world. But it’s more than just a place to see animals up close. It also has seasonal events, tours, exhibits and one of the largest outdoor inflatable venues in the state.

From hiking trails to fishing, Carvers Creek State Park is the perfect place to spend the day.The main access point at Long Valley Farm in Spring Lake opened in 2013. Six years later, the Sandhills …

Demetria Washington Davis says she has had a maternal instinct since her days in college at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. That’s where she was given the nickname “Mama Dee” by a fellow track-and-field team member because of her reputation for helping others.

It’s been almost a year since Sarahgrace Snipes came on board as executive director of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival. In that time, she’s been busy with the Fayetteville After Five summer concert series and the Dogwood Fall Festival. But she has yet to get a spring festival under her belt. That is expected to change this month as the 40th annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival returns to downtown for the first time since 2019.

Fayetteville has many churches and faith-based organizations that reach out into the community to help others. Whether it is providing food to those in need or cleaning up blighted areas, stewards in Fayetteville are putting in the work to make major impacts in the community.

In the past, 62-year-old Walter Green made his bed under the Person Street bridge and by a dumpster next to a Bragg Boulevard pizzeria. A native of Rome, New York, Green is a former resident of the now-defunct HOPE Center on Person Street, which has since been transformed into the Manna Dream Center men’s shelter.