This food-focused holiday is among the few with its roots in charitable service.

The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Charlotte received a $14,700 grant from the Taco Bell Foundation to support youth in the community working hard to achieve their dreams. The funds will go toward career readiness programs at the Clubs, providing teen members access to learning opportunities and other programs that inspire the next generation of leaders.

​Kendra is used to writing stories, not having stories written about her. She also never thought she would have gone through what she has experienced over the past year.

​From the outside, everything seemed normal. Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area Charles seemed to have it all together. He played sports and got good grades in the classroom. Unlike some of his peers, he still had both of his parents in the home. But, everything wasn’t as it seemed. His mother was an alcoholic and his father was involved in selling drugs. He grew up in the shadows of these vices, so it stands to reason his involvement in them was inevitable.

In the rural area where Gregory McIver grew up, there wasn’t much going on. The only bright lights were those surrounding the baseball diamond, where he was a promising young centerfielder. His growth on the field could have been his ticket out of town, but unfortunately, Gregory’s story went the way of a foul ball.

A broad consortium of the public, private and non-profit sectors has announced the launch of a comprehensive community-wide effort to create a strategic plan around housing instability and homelessness in our community.

While Michelle Wingo’s life is in order today, there was a time when it would’ve been easy for her to lose hope. Today, she has a successful accounting career, a brand-new apartment, and a warm, friendly smile. But it wasn’t long ago that those things seemed too far away for her to grasp.

In Aaron Brennan’s family, a sign of manhood was being able to “hold your liquor.” Both of his parents were alcoholics, so you could say it runs in the family. Where Aaron grew up in the Bahamas, drinking was a part of the culture. He was around it all the time, so it wasn’t unusual for him to pick it up. By the age of 16, he added marijuana to the mix, and eventually it led to crack cocaine.

Every year, 4.7 million young people are served by Boys & Girls Clubs across the nation. To show their continued support, Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE: MUSA) is partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to launch the second phase of the “Great Futures Fueled Here” cause campaign. Now through September 1, customers in Charlotte can make a monetary contribution at checkout at their nearest Murphy USA…

Weary from years of homelessness and sleeping on friends’ couches, she had come to Charlotte to seek help from her son. Over the years, she had suffered from depression and even attempted suicide. An alcohol addiction led her down a dangerous path – one that eventually landed her in a hospital fighting for her life. In that hospital room, Lisa had an awakening. She knew she needed a change in her life or she wouldn’t make it. To further complicate things, Lisa was, and is, the caretaker of a daughter with special needs.