Counselors of Real Estate to honor 5

The Carolinas Chapter of the Counselors of Real Estate will honor five local leaders at its fifth annual Creative Thinkers Awards later this month at Carmel Country Club.

The awards honor those who exhibit “leading-edge or out-of the box thinking” or did something that resulted in a “paradigm shift in thinking about a subject,” according to Loren Kennedy, chairwoman of the Carolinas Chapter.

Here are this year’s recipients:

• Jerry Orr, Charlotte Douglas International Airport aviation director.

• Ruth G. Shaw, founding chairwoman of the Carolina Thread Trail.

• Michael Marsicano, president and CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas.

• Davis J. Cable, Springside Partners.

• Ronald Carter, president of Johnson C. Smith University.

Shaw, Marsicano and Cable are being honored for their work on the Carolina Thread Trail, and Carter is being recognized for his work with Mosaic Village, a residential and retail facility built and funded by Johnson C. Smith University, the Griffin family and the City of Charlotte.

All of the award recipients worked on projects in the Charlotte region and the Carolinas, but Kennedy said they have a wider impact.

“They are leaders on the leading edge of regionalism and connectivity, education and economic prosperity, global connectivity and logistics,” she said.

Extreme Ice preschool

StayNPlay may be the only preschool in the region where, after teaching a unit on snow, children actually can go play in it.

StayNPlay opened as a drop-in child care center in 2009, and in 2010 added a site in the Extreme Ice Center in Indian Trail. In August, it opened a preschool at its Extreme Ice Center for ages 2 1/2 to 5.

The Sun Valley location is still a drop-in center where parents can pay by the hour for child care.

Cathy McCorry, who owns StayNPlay with her husband, Shaun McCorry, said they have formed a strong partnership with Extreme Ice. When the preschool students studied snow and ice, the center made a pile of snow in the middle of an ice rink for them.

The StayNPlay preschool now has 16 students and a few openings. The Extreme Ice StayNPlay converts to a drop-in center in the afternoons. McCorry said older kids in their care often are able to ice skate at the rink.

Development scholarship

Jason Flora, a marketing specialist with the York County Economic Development Board, recently was awarded a scholarship from Friends Underwriting Economic Development for professional development classes.

FUED distributed almost $4,000 to five economic developers within its 16-county region in 2013. This is the fourth year the organization has given scholarships.

“We appreciate FUED’s recognition of the critical role that regional economic developers play in growing a healthy economy,” said Charlotte Regional Partnership President and CEO Ronnie Bryant in a news release. “The scholarships often make the difference in whether these professionals are able to take classes that make them even more effective in working with clients that bring jobs and investment to our region.”

The other 2013 recipients include Krista Bowers, Stanly County Economic Development Commission; Uconda Dunn, N.C. Department of Commerce; Elaine McKinney, Lancaster County Economic Development Corp.; and Jessica Stewart, Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp.