Finding Inspiration in the Water

Laurel Senick has been a fixture on the Wrightsville Beach surf scene for more than two decades. The award-winning filmmaker was introduced to surfing when a woman entered her workplace offering to sell a wetsuit so she could raise gas money for a surf competition in Florida. “I had never thought about surfing, but at…

Read More

Service Never Stops

A nonprofit based in Carolina Beach has created an innovative way to honor veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Memorial Reef is an approximately 162-acre underwater site consisting of large concrete memorial markers where the cremated remains of former service members are placed. The artificial reef, known as AR-372, is located about 5…

Read More

Gem of a Camp

Summer is here, and students are out of school. For many kids, camp is top of mind. It’s an opportunity to get enrichment, meet friends, exercise, learn, be challenged without testing or grades, and explore. Camp is not only a fun option for kids, but also a welcome option for parents. In Wilmington, in a…

Read More

Battling Food Insecurity

For more than 30 years, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina at Wilmington provided meals for hungry people in New Hanover and surrounding counties from its warehouse facility at 1314 Marstellar St. The building opened in 1990, and over the years distributed millions of pounds of food to shelters, soup kitchens and…

Read More

Arboretum Wins National Sustainability Award

One of Lloyd Singleton’s primary goals when he became director of the NC Cooperative Extension center at the New Hanover County Arboretum in September 2018 was to improve the sustainability practices at the facility. “New Hanover County had never been much for sustainability, and we wanted to be a leader to take some of those…

Read More

Letter to the Editor and Update

This is a letter sent to the homeowners of the Home of  Distinction featured in the May 2023 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Dear Paula, You surely will not remember me but I walked by your house shortly after you moved in. I stopped to chat as your husband carried in the white iron twin…

Read More

Beach Bungalows: Before and After

Some are calling Wrightsville Beach the southern Hamptons these days, likely due to single-family homes now having an average price tag in seven figures. Historically low inventory has generated two types of people: those who are kicking themselves for not buying property at Wrightsville Beach a few years back and those who did. Two such…

Read More

Up Front

To kick it off, of course we go to the water for spectacular surf photography. There is a phenomenon that occurs when there is good surf: the best surfers are out in the lineup and that in turn attracts some of the top photographers to the beach. They often get into the water for the…

Read More

The Legendary Orange Street Tennis Court

Seventy years ago, a small boy named Lendward Simpson Jr. lived with his mother and father Lendward Sr. at 1417 Ann Street, in Wilmington. Around the corner at 14th and Orange streets lived Dr. Hubert A. Eaton Sr., whose medical practice was on the northside on Red Cross Street.  The Eatons and Simpsons were family…

Read More

Surf Stills

When the forecast calls for good waves, the energy changes at the south end of Wrightsville Beach. The beach fills with surfers zipping up wetsuits, waxing boards, and jogging out into the surf. The beach also holds photographers setting up tripods and camera equipment. Some even put on wetsuits and encase their cameras in waterproof…

Read More