It was just one chemistry test. But when it came back with a bad grade, capping off an already stressful day, Caitlin Boyle escaped to the bathroom so her classmates wouldn’t see her cry.

At 24, she was back in school, balancing an unsatisfying full-time job in urban planning with community college classes in preparation for a doctorate program in physical therapy. She felt overwhelmed by the 70 hours a week she spent working and studying, and chemistry in particular made her feel “so stupid,” she says.

As she stood in front of the bathroom mirror berating herself, she had a revelation. “I was like, stop. What are you doing? This isn’t helping; this is making the situation so much harder,” she recalls.

On a whim, Boyle wrote “You are beautiful” on a Post-it note, stuck it to the mirror and took a picture of it. “I started to think, Who’s going to find this? What are they thinking when they look at this note?” she says. She went home and wrote about what she’d done on her personal blog. This was in July 2009.

In a matter of days her spontaneous act of affirmation was gaining the force of a full-fledged movement, with word spreading first through the Internet and then with the help of national media. In locker rooms, in grocery stores, on strangers’ car windshields across America, thousands of women were planting motivational Post-it notes for others to discover.

By August an agent had contacted Boyle about writing a book, and by September she had a deal. Clearly, Operation Beautiful had struck a nerve.

Its aim is simple, though not easy: to help women realize “how truly toxic negative self-talk is” – and to end it.

“People sometimes think [the notes are] just for strangers, but the sneaky thing about Operation Beautiful is you’re really writing the notes to yourself,” Boyle says. “It’s easy for most women to say nice things about other people but so hard to say it about ourselves. This lets people be kind to themselves.”

Which is important, she believes, because a positive outlook is crucial to a healthy lifestyle. “When you engage in unhealthy behaviors you treat yourself badly in other areas too. It kind of carries over.”

She speaks from personal experience. Partying “way too much” in college – she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 – left her burned out and worn down. “I had bad self-esteem and I would ‘fat talk’ about how much I hated my body and then go out and drink six beers,” she says. “It was a vicious cycle of not being healthy mentally or physically.”

A turning point came when a friend called Boyle out on her negativism and then invited her to go for a run. “After like a quarter-mile I collapsed on the sidewalk. Obviously, running was so much harder than I thought it would be, but I liked that it was hard, and that was weird for me. … I started running and cleaned up the rest of my habits significantly,” says Boyle. She’s since completed about 40 races, including two marathons, a century ride and a half-dozen triathlons.

In the early days of Operation Beautiful, someone suggested that participants include “www.operationbeautiful.com” at the bottom of the notes they wrote. “That was really cool because then we started hearing from people,” Boyle says. “Mostly from people who post them but also from people who find them.”

Some of the most inspiring notes, stories and photos are included in Boyle’s first book, “Operation Beautiful: Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-it Note at a Time.” (Her second book, with a similar format but geared toward tweens, is due out next summer.)

She has heard from high school girls who stayed up all night at sleepovers writing hundreds of notes to plaster across school bathrooms. And she has heard from women who sought treatment for eating disorders after finding notes that reminded them “You’re good enough the way you are.”

“I love getting e-mails like that. It never gets old,” Boyle says.

“A lot of people feel like they don’t have any power and they’re just one person and they can’t enact any real change. You can. With a little Post-it and five seconds of the day, you can create change.”

Over and over - at weddings and birthday parties, corporate functions and baby showers - Amy Brown has witnessed this truth: Almost no one can resist customized cupcakes.

“I chose to go into this business because of how happy cupcakes make people,” says Brown, owner of Carolina Cupcake Bar, a cupcake-catering company in Southern Pines, N.C. “I know that sounds really cheesy, but everyone from little kids to grown men gets really excited when they find out they get to decorate their own cupcake and a bartender’s going to serve it to them.”

Carolina Cupcake Bar lets guests create their ideal cupcake from the bottom up: flavor, filling, icing, toppings. “There are the conventional toppings, like chocolate chips, then the not-so-conventional, like gummy bears or Pop Rocks. Some people get one topping, other people want a dab of every single one. There are some non-icing-lovers out there, or I can load it on,” says Brown. “It’s a customized cupcake, so they get whatever they want.”

Her personal favorite? A red velvet cupcake with vanilla whipped cream filling and cream cheese icing topped with rainbow sprinkles, Reece’s Pieces, Nutter Butter cookies, one gummy bear and, of course, a smattering of “disco dust,” also called edible glitter, which traditionally tops all of Carolina Cupcake Bar’s creations just for the fun factor.

The experience is almost endlessly versatile. At a wedding, for example, the cupcake bar’s table linens and the icing choices might incorporate the wedding’s color scheme. A Christmas party might feature candy-cane toppings.

“People are always looking for baby shower activities and sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, OK, that game again.’ I’m not anti-games or anything, but [customizing cupcakes] is something guests enjoy and it’s probably something they haven’t done before,” Brown says.

Once, after Carolina Cupcake Bar was a hit at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, the boy’s father called to book them for his wife’s upcoming 40th-birthday party. And at a recent Chamber of Commerce event, a constant crowd of business people surrounded the cupcake bar. “We had a few people who were like, ‘Oooh, it’s not in my diet,’ but by the end of the night they came back by,” Brown says.

“Kids love the cupcakes and go crazy with the toppings, and we want them to,” she adds, “but we can go to adults and they fit right in too.”

When an event is still in the planning stage, it’s not uncommon for clients to ask Brown to suggest which fillings, toppings and other cupcake options they might offer their guests - a request she’s happy to oblige.

“Part of my job is to help them plan their event, and I love doing that,” she says. “We are not just a cupcake-delivery service; we really are all about the experience for the guest. The client does not have to do a thing.

“It’s tons of fun and provides great entertainment. We deliver, set up, the cupcake bartenders serve at the event and we break it down, leaving you to enjoy your event.” If there are leftovers, the cupcake bartenders ice them, top them and box them to be enjoyed later or sent home with guests as party favors.

Brown and her husband moved to Southern Pines three years ago from Austin, Texas. She quickly realized Carolina Cupcake Bar, which has a sister company in Austin, would be a good fit here. “There’s a huge variety of demographics, and people who love fun, unique experiences, which is what Carolina Cupcake Bar will do for your event,” she says.

Her hunch was right. From the local bakery that makes her cupcakes to the party-goers who devour them, the community has been supportive and enthusiastic.

Carolina Cupcake Bar donates 5 percent of event proceeds to the Sandhills branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. “Hunger all over the world is a real issue, but it’s important to not forget about people locally, right here in our county, that are without food,” Brown says.

Every dollar donated to the food bank translates to about four meals’ worth of food; a Carolina Cupcake Bar-catered party for 25 people would provide the funds for about 30 meals.

In other words, this is an indulgence you can feel good about. So bring on the disco dust.

In 2002, Ben and Lori Kennedy were strangers seated side by side on an airplane. They exchanged pleasantries, and learned that both were worship leaders, but �neither one of us are really plane talkers,� he explains. After landing, they went their separate ways.

Their story could have ended there.

Instead, six months later they had another chance encounter. That time, it took only one date to realize they were onto something good. In January 2003 they were married.

Since then, the couple have toured the United States, started a church in Boulder, Colo., and begun an international ministry. They�re passionate about multiculturalism and attracted to urban ministry. On paper, the small town of Southern Pines, N.C., might seem an unexpected place for them to have landed.

But once again they recognized a good match when they saw it.

When, this June, the couple learned of Grace Church�s opening for a worship leader, they liked what they read in the job description, and, looking at �every bit of information on [Grace�s] website, we really liked what we saw as far as the church was concerned,� says Lori Kennedy. The town, they were less sure about � it seemed so small.

Nevertheless, after a couple of conversations with Senior Pastor Randy Thornton, they decided to fly to Southern Pines to test the waters.

�I think we were more looking for what wasn�t going to work,� Ben Kennedy says. They spent time walking around town and talking with people, and they liked what they saw. �But we thought to ourselves, �There�s no way that Sunday morning is going to feel multicultural. I just can�t imagine.��

At the Sunday services, though, they were surprised. �Grace had so many different generations and groups represented,� Lori Kennedy says, �and that was attractive to us.�

The couple � who were auditioning the church as surely as they were being auditioned � decided to incorporate a rap into worship that morning to gauge the congregation�s response. �We were just about as shocked as we could be. The reaction was not what I was expecting,� she recalls. �The congregation in both services was very ready to worship and very trusting, and totally followed the lead of the worship team and entered the [worship] process.�

Grace offered Ben Kennedy the position of worship and creative arts pastor before they and their 3-year-old son, Levi, left town that day. After that, things happened fast, and Kennedy�s first day on staff was Aug. 3. �I�m not big on easing into things,� he says.

The most visible part of his job is leading Sunday-morning worship (he sings and plays guitar; she sings and plays percussion). The rest of the week, his responsibilities range from managing the church�s technical teams to teaching in Grace College of Divinity to coordinating a prayer-and-praise blog on the church�s website to overseeing the music budget.

�I like planning, thinking about how people can get connected better, and different ways to serve,� he says. �We want to bring the curtain down on thinking church is presented on a silver platter and it happens magically.�

Musically, Kennedy�s style is as diverse as its influences. He was raised on James Taylor and the Doobie Brothers, later veered toward hip-hop and, growing up in Baton Rouge, La., had plenty of exposure to jazz and the blues. �The guy who poured you the one beer they had on tap was the same guy who got up on stage and was the best guitarist ever,� he says. �That�s south Louisiana.�

The Kennedys� new worship album, �We,� reflects that eclecticism. �The album is complex both musically and creatively, yet it truly is multiethnic worship, bridging the gap between hymns and funk, spirituals and rock, gospel and folk, praise and worship,� he says.

Their vision for �We� was to create something that �combined multiple musical styles and crossed denominational and demographic lines � a unifying collection of songs that highlights all of our want, need and love of the Father.�

Kennedy�s vision for his work at Grace falls along similar lines.

He envisions incorporating various art forms into worship � modern choreography, for example, or painters on stage. �People discover Christ not only through music; He is the best artist out there,� he says. �People want to get closer to Christ in a bunch of different ways. That�s the point.

�When people see something beautiful, they very often associate it with Christ. I want them to think, �Wow, I see God in that.�� In that sense, Kennedy says, there�s an evangelistic element to worship. �We want doors to be opened wider, for people to feel safe even questioning.

�Two hundred years ago, if you wanted awesome art, you went to church. If you wanted awesome music, you went to church,� he adds. �I think we should go back to that.�

Three years ago, my husband recruited me to his fantasy football league.

Not because I was a football fan. In fact, that was the point: He wanted to turn me into one and thought this was the ticket.

It was a stroke of genius, actually. We�d been together through enough NCAA tournament bracket contests for him to know that just a little money on the line throws my competitive nature and attention span into high gear.

My fantasy involvement would get me watching football games, he reasoned, and as I watched I�d learn the rules by immersion, grow attached to some of the players and eventually, I guess, yell things like �Unnecessary roughness!� at the TV screen.

Matt actually belongs to two fantasy football leagues, or as I like to call them, leagues of dorks. (He has quite a bit of company � an estimated 14 million Americans play fantasy football. Many of them manage their teams on company time, costing U.S. companies an estimated $10 billion per year in lost productivity, according to Chicago employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. And did you know there�s such a thing as fantasy football conventions? It�s all a little disturbing. But I digress.)

Anyway, Matt was convinced of fantasy football�s allure. But convincing me took a little more work.

The first item on his agenda was to assure me that drafting a fantasy team was easier than it seemed. All I knew was his approach: untold hours researching players, reading analysis and pondering strategy.

He was unusually diligent, he told me; plenty of people used widely available �cheat sheets� � rankings of players by position � for the initial draft as well as weekly team management: whom to play, whom to bench, whom to trade. It�s not the most respectable way to manage, but it will get you a decent team.

Next, he started relaying anecdotes about some of the more likable players� personal lives: This one has been married to his high school sweetheart for 13 years; that one kicked his drug habit and started a foundation for underprivileged kids. He theorized that the more fond I felt of individual athletes, the more enthusiastic I�d be about watching them pound each other into the ground. (Inexplicably, this proved true.)

I drafted a decent team, learned how to propose trades and began to pick up on some of the finer points of fantasy etiquette. Matt started making comments like �We�re living in an age of running back by committee� that a year earlier would have made just as much sense if he�d said them in French.

This is the thing about fantasy football: It requires enough strategy and skill to warrant pride on the good days, yet involves enough luck to deflect blame on the bad days. Of which I had many.

After one particularly disheartening day for my fantasy team, Matt e-mailed me an excerpt from a column by ESPN.com�s Matthew Berry (whose official title, I kid you not, is senior director of fantasy sports).

�[ESPN analyst] Tim Hasselbeck plays in a league with his brother [Seattle Seahawks quarterback] Matt. Matt owns himself and [Minnesota Vikings quarterback] Brett Favre. Two weeks ago, Matt BENCHED HIMSELF for Brett. Matt wound up with four touchdown passes and a much better fantasy day than Brett,� Berry wrote. �When the guy who will actually be executing the plays and knows the game plan doesn�t know … We�re all just trying our best to make smart, educated guesses. Nature of the game.�

Matt may not have expected that three years into this venture there still would be so many rules I don�t know and plays I don�t follow. For a sport associated with remedial academics and large quantities of light beer, there is a lot to learn.

I�m making progress, though. I was grateful for my increased football knowledge when I interviewed NFL cheerleaders for an article, and again when friends invited us to watch a game with them in the Carolina Panthers owners box, surrounded by rapid fans.

Most importantly, Project Football Fan Wife pays off every time Claire naps while Matt and I huddle � excuse me, cuddle � on the couch with football on the TV and StatTracker on a nearby computer. I can honestly say that football-filled fall afternoons have become a source of anticipation rather than resentment.

Well played, Matt.

Truck driver Theresa Johnson spent last New Year�s Eve being run ragged by her granddaughter, Adelaide, who was 2 at the time. �I was overweight and tired. I thought, �I gotta do something or I�m not going to be able to keep up with that girl,�� she recalls. �I just wanted to be able to make sure I could teach her how to do hopscotch and jump rope and all the stuff I did when I was a kid.�

So when she saw the advertisement for a weight-loss challenge sponsored by Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab and Women In Trucking, her thoughts went straight to Adelaide.

Without telling a soul, she submitted a short essay explaining why she wanted to be one of 10 contestants, each of whom would receive a Roadside Medical Driver Body Fuel kit, regular health checks and personal training from Roadside Medical�s president, Bob Perry, also known as the Trucker Trainer.

She didn�t give much more thought to the challenge until she learned she�d been selected. At that point she filled in her husband and driving partner, Jon, and told him, �You will have to help me.�

The first thing she did was break her soft-drink habit � cutting down gradually at first, then going cold-turkey on Feb. 16. That same day, the first Roadside Medical package arrived. Right from the start, �I was pretty amazed I could have a protein drink, an energy bar, fruit or snacks like pretzels and I could drive all night without caffeine,� says Johnson.

Seemingly small dietary changes suggested by Perry added up fast. Johnson started ordering turkey sandwiches, rather than ham all the time. She started snacking on apples and oranges. She switched to all-natural peanut butter, and eliminated high-fructose corn syrup entirely.

�It�s basically stuff you know because you hear it all the time; it�s just learning to put it together with this lifestyle of being on the road all the time,� Johnson says. Between mid-February and the end of March, she lost 26 pounds.

But then she began to plateau. Perry advised incorporating more exercise, and suggested calorie-burning options that took into account her trucker�s lifestyle.

�If you take the challenges that the everyday consumer has to face to lose weight and stay healthy and put those same issues in front of professional drivers, it�s much more difficult than the average consumer,� says Perry, who also serves as the chairman for the American Transportation Association Safety Management Council�s Health and Wellness Working Group.

Johnson used water bottles instead of weights to do bicep curls while driving, and counted by the miles. She moved her feet as if she were doing jumping jacks while behind the wheel. She lifted and lowered her bunk with her legs. She even bought a pair of Skechers Shape-ups shoes.

�I was just moving more instead of sitting there. That really seemed to make a lot of difference,� she says.

At that stage, �I really did not think I would win,� Johnson says. The contestants kept Perry updated with their weight loss, and Perry kept them updated with the standings. (The contest originally was set to end in June, but Johnson and the eventual first-runner-up, Cindy Stowe of Wills Point, Texas, were so neck-and-neck at that point that organizers decided to extend it through mid-August.)

In June, Johnson�s weight loss revved up again, and that month she was featured in a Challenge Magazine ad for Roadside Medical. She took copies to a family reunion. �No one else had ever been in a magazine before. They were real proud of me,� she says. �I thought, �That�s nice. I just have to make them a little more proud.��

Johnson says her husband was a big help, giving up soft drinks in solidarity with her and often offering encouragement with something as simple as a comment about how baggy her pants were getting. (She estimates that he lost 15 to 20 pounds himself during the challenge.) �We live in the truck and we spend all of our time together, and usually if you spend that much time together it takes a lot to notice that someone is changing,� she says.

She benefited from virtual support as well. At one point, she told her Facebook friends she was �stuck and needing some help�; they stepped up with motivation.

Although the official weight-loss contest is over, Johnson is on a roll, incorporating the healthy habits into her lifestyle on and off the road. Recently, pressed for time and with limited options, she ate some fast-food chicken nuggets and found they just weren�t that appetizing. And with her new commitment to healthy eating, �it takes me forever to go to the grocery store sometimes because I read all the labels,� she says.

�I�m not finished yet. I�ll keep going. It�s been a lot of fun to pull the clothes out [as the seasons change],� she adds. �I�m down 43 pounds and, last time I checked, 26 inches total. One thing that really surprised me is I even had to buy shoes in smaller sizes.�

As the winner of the weight-loss challenge, Johnson will receive a four-day, three-night stay in Las Vegas, including airfare, hotel and $300 in spending money; a workout session and grocery shopping trip with Perry while in Las Vegas; a $100 gift certificate from GiftCertificates.com; a compactable bicycle from EverYoung Bikes; and a year�s worth of Roadside Medical Driver Body Fuel produce. She also was honored at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas in August.

The two runners-up � Stowe, who lost 39 pounds in the competition, and Rachel Barnett of Akron, Ohio, who lost 10 pounds � each will receive a $50 gift certificate from GiftCertificates.com and six months� worth of Roadside Medical Driver Body Fuel product.

The best benefits, though, are intangible. �It�s made a big difference and I feel so much better,� Johnson says. �Last time I was in Kentucky with Adelaide we did some jumping.�

Perry and Ellen Voie, president and CEO of Women In Trucking, commended all of the participants for their success and for setting a healthy example for other truckers. �The fact that they accomplished what they did is very inspiring,� Perry says. �You really can take control of your personal health. It�s all about taking small, simple steps to make a difference.�

�Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,� anthropologist Margaret Mead once said.

Mission of Hope, a Christian organization based in Knoxville, Tenn., has been proving this true in one corner of the world for more than 15 years.

In 1977 television reporter Bill Williams moved from the Midwest to Knoxville to work for the local NBC affiliate. Before long he began hearing about Appalachia�s �pockets of poverty� � many of which were within 50 miles of the city.

�There are poor people everywhere, but not to that extent,� says Williams, who now holds the title of reporter emeritus at the station. �It was amazing to me that there were people who had trouble finding something to eat, and I began to explore that.�

For the next 15 years, his position at Channel 10 provided a platform for his �growing urge� to share the stories of those trapped in the cycle of poverty. �I began going to the mountains in eastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky quite often in the 1980s and so I had done I can�t tell you how many stories,� he says. �I got to know the people, they got to trust me, and that�s very important for a reporter trying to get an accurate story.�

In the mid-1990s he did a three-part series called �Hunger for Hope.� �I was concentrating on, not only were they physically hungry, but they were emotionally and mentally starved as well,� he recalls. �There was very little hope; they didn�t have anything to look forward to. That was the theme throughout.�

Thousands of Knoxville residents saw the reports. One of them, named Julie Holland, contacted Williams right away to ask him, �Is this all true?� He told her, �Of course it is.�

Holland�s stepfather had grown up in a coal town in Kentucky, and he took her to see its all-too-typical conditions for herself. They visited elementary schools where most of the children didn�t have enough food, warm clothes, or even shoes that fit.

If she wasn�t convinced before, witnessing the poverty firsthand pushed her to act.

�TV is good and the written word is wonderful, but unless you come face to face with it you just can�t really know the enormity of the problem. You don�t really know what it�s like,� Williams says. �She did all that and she came back and she said, �I�m gonna do something about this. Will you help me?� I said, �Of course I will, and so will Channel 10.��

In short order, Holland persuaded several Knoxville businesses to set out collection bins � the blue barrels have become widely recognized in the city � and she enlisted several local Baptist congregations to help sort and package the items that were donated. She turned her garage into Mission of Hope�s first warehouse. Williams and Channel 10 provided news coverage and public-service announcements.

Late that year, Holland traveled twice to Appalachian communities: first to deliver coats and clothes to the students at one school, and then to take Christmas gifts to children at three schools.

Holland�s determination to not just feel moved by the need but to take action is what gave Mission of Hope legs, says executive director Emmette Thompson.

�When we see trauma and tragedy our heart breaks. But a lot of times, in the next breath, it�s, �Honey, where do you want to go for dinner?�� Thompson says. �Somebody has to step up with compassion and that was Julie.

�Bill�s passion for telling the need in rural Appalachia birthed Mission of Hope, and Julie is the person who saw that story and just couldn�t get it out of her mind.�

Thompson came on board in 1999 as Mission of Hope was transitioning into a year-round operation. �They thanked me in one breath and in the next breath apologized,� he says. �This was truly the blind leading the blind.�

With no manual to follow, Thompson says prayer has proved a crucial component for Mission of Hope. Over and over, the group has moved forward with leaps �of faith � or stupidity,� he jokes.

Last year, the group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, served more than 17,000 people at more than 80 schools and other organizations. At the 27 elementary schools it works with, at least 85 percent of the children qualify to receive free or reduced lunches.
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As Mission of Hope has grown, it has evolved and diversified. Its various programs provide food, clothing, toys, toiletries, even health care supplies and construction materials, all distributed in partnership with schools and existing ministries in the affected areas.

One of Mission of Hope�s core philosophies is that education is essential to escaping poverty, and this conviction is reflected in many of its outreaches.

Its Back to School program will provide a new backpack and new school supplies to more than 10,000 children this year (a $10 donation sponsors one child). And volunteers recently challenged sixth-graders in one Kentucky community to commit to graduating from high school.

Mission of Hope even has two endowed scholarships: one at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Ky., and one at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.

�The most basic needs of children are met by improving their quality of life. We do this when we provide them with food, clothing and shelter. Our goal now is to provide them with the opportunity to secure a better future through education,� Thompson says.

The organization also awards a $2,500 scholarship annually to one student from each of the 12 high schools that the elementary schools Mission of Hope serves feed into. These funds are meant to help the students pursue further education � whether that means a bachelor�s degree, an associate degree or a certificate from a trade or vocational school.

�We want students to realize that a good education is the real key to a more successful and brighter future,� Thompson says. �Mission of Hope wants to give each student the opportunity to train in a field of their choice and become a successful wage-earning citizen. They, too, will know how important and satisfying it is to become a contributing member of their neighborhood and community.�

With only three employees, Mission of Hope relies heavily on an army of volunteers. More than 1,000 people helped with the most recent Christmas project. Local trucking companies provided trucks and drivers for each of the two-dozen schools that participated � a donation Thompson figures was worth more than $50,000 last year alone.

�We have found truckers to be a passionate group of people that do an incredible amount of good,� he says. �They have been a very giving group.� Pilot Flying J, headquartered in Knoxville, has also been a major supporter, giving Mission of Hope a grant to buy and renovate its building, as well as helping with its annual golf tournament fundraiser and the Christmas toy drives.

Thompson is quick to praise the many �mom and pop� ministries scattered throughout the Appalachian communities it serves. They�re doing �incredible work,� he says, but have few resources. That�s where Mission of Hope comes in.

�The challenge of Appalachia is there is no downtown First Baptist to support them. There�s no industrial hub who can do that. There will never be an interstate come through,� he says. �We define hope as �the confident expectation of good,� and we are just trying to do what we can to extend good.�

Doug Gray, the lead singer of Southern rock group the Marshall Tucker Band and one of its original members, acknowledges that 40 years as a household name is unusual. But on the other hand, he says, the Marshall Tucker Band’s longevity seems natural.

�I don�t know why it�s still going but it is and all I can say is I hope people enjoy it. My dad worked in a cotton mill all his life and he told me, �Look, you can do this, or do you want to go out and sing like your mama knows you can?� I was 10 years old,� Gray says. �It makes all the sense in the world that we would still be around because we do touch people.�

Gray and his childhood friend Toy Caldwell, a guitarist, started a band called Toy Factory after both men returned from military service in Vietnam. Toy Factory played mostly in Spartanburg, S.C.-area clubs, including opening for the Allman Brothers at a local club in 1970.

In 1972, the original band members were practicing in a rented warehouse in Spartanburg when they started brainstorming potential band names. One of the guys looked at the warehouse�s key tag and saw that it said �Marshall Tucker.�

Without much further discussion, they decided to call themselves the Marshall Tucker Band. Unbeknownst to them, Marshall Tucker was a real person � a blind piano tuner and choir director who had previously rented the warehouse for his piano business.

For several years, music remained a hobby for the Marshall Tucker Band. Offstage, Gray worked as a banker and Caldwell was an assistant to his father, a plumber. Another member was employed making false teeth; yet another was still in high school. A couple of them were supporting families.

Eventually, they decided to abandon the security of their day jobs and see what happened.

�You know, you gotta do what you gotta do. At least once in your life you gotta go for it and that�s what we were doing,� Gray says. �We toured on and off and then all of the sudden it was peace, love and Marshall Tucker. It was a lot of fun and it turned out to be a hell of a deal.�

In the early years the group toured the South and beyond at a relentless pace, establishing a reputation for fantastic live shows. They released a self-titled debut album in 1973 and three more albums in the following two years. By the mid-1970s and into the 1980s they were living the dream, with critical acclaim, devoted fans and impressive record sales.

In 1980, the band suffered a significant loss when member Tommy Caldwell, Toy Caldwell�s brother, died after a car accident. The group persevered but Tommy�s death took its toll, and eventually Toy, rhythm guitarist George McCorkle and drummer Paul Riddle decided to take an extended leave from recording and touring. They gave their blessing to Gray and reed player Jerry Eubanks.

Eubanks retired in 1996, but Gray still has the bug. �I�m so active and ready to go all the time,� he says. �As a kid I just wanted to play all the time. Today they�d call it ADD. I still have it today. I�m up for having a good time.�

The band, which commemorated its 40th anniversary this spring with the release of the 14-song �Greatest Hits� album, has never stopped touring.

�We never play less than 150 shows a year, and sometimes we play as many as 200 shows,� Gray says. �We feel we owe it to the fans who have supported us through the years to deliver the music in person. … That�s a lot of shows, millions and millions of people, and it reminds me just how lucky I�ve been.

�Now [the fans] don�t come and party so hard but they come and bring their kids and their kids bring their kids. We do a couple of songs to get the sound right and then I�ll ask people, �What do you want to hear now?�� Gray says. �It is such a relief to be able to go out there and people scream out your songs instead of having to put out new stuff all the time.�

Gray mentally notes the audience requests that crop up again and again, and that played a role in deciding which songs to include on the greatest hits album. Perennial favorites like �Heard It In a Love Song,� �Fire On the Mountain,� �Can�t You See� and �Take the Highway,� which helped the Marshall Tucker Band achieve seven gold and three platinum albums, are included on �Greatest Hits.�

The Marshall Tucker Band never fit neatly into a single musical genre. While they are most often considered a Southern rock band, in the 1990s they had four hit singles on the Billboard country charts and a hit gospel single to boot. Their music has also been included on several movie soundtracks.

�The buying public never really cared whether we were country or rock �n� roll. They called us a Southern rock band, but we have always played everything from country to blues and all things in between,� Gray says. �We�re still playing all of the classic songs, but we are moving ahead into other styles as well.�

Case in point: Gray released an R&B solo album, featuring the Marshall Tucker Band, this April. The album, �Soul of the South,� features eight 30-year-old recordings that were never released.

In 1981, Gray explains, he was offered a tempting solo record deal singing pop and soul songs. �I loved singing these types of songs, as I had been singing them for years, going back to when I was a young boy in the early �60s. I was really into singers like Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson and later Al Green,� says Gray. �When Toy Caldwell and I used to go out and listen to music, we�d always look for places that had rhythm and blues. That was the kind of stuff I did before we started the Marshall Tucker Band.�

When the offer came, the band was between records. Since Gray co-owned a studio in Spartanburg, he had time to work on the project. He selected seven tracks from about 300 demos and rounded out the picks with a cover of the 1969 hit �More Today Than Yesterday� � chosen because a friend bet him he couldn�t hit its high notes.
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�All the [Marshall Tucker Band] guys came in to help, as well as some other musician friends,� Gray says. �I really felt good about the results but stopped short of completing a full album because it was time to do another Marshall Tucker Band album and I felt a loyalty to the group. … I realized, I�ve got to put my heart and soul into one or the other. I had no choice but to put the [solo album] up and I never looked back until now.�

In its 40th year, the band is blurring the lines and experimenting with stylistic diversity more than ever. Its fan base continues to grow. It still puts on an electrifying live show. And its namesake approves.

�Marshall Tucker is still alive � he�s probably closer to 90 years old now,� Gray says. �He whispered in my ear one time, �I�m proud of you. You haven�t ruined my name yet.�

��As we�ve become older, our Southern heritage seems to come out even more. But no matter how old we get, we can still rock your socks off.�

Professional trucker David Acosta of Orlando, Fla., has been driving since 1998, but last November was a low point. Work was scarce, money was tight, and as the sole income provider for his wife and two daughters � one of whom suffers from a serious medical condition � the stress was hitting him hard.

�I was going through a real rough time. Besides all the financial stresses that I had going through my head, I was running a fever and I could barely sit behind the wheel. And one night in Nebraska � it was cold as heck; freezing, nasty weather � I just broke down,� he recalls. �All I wanted to do was at least put food on the table. The bills, they�ll always be there, but I said, �God, let me at least be able to put food on the table, a roof over their heads.� I cried myself to sleep.�

He couldn�t have known it then, but help was about to arrive, starting with a phone call a few days later from Arrow Truck Sales� Lane Bartram, notifying� Acosta that he was a semifinalist for the 2011 Back on the Road competition.

The aptly named program, now in its fourth year, was created to help exemplary drivers �who have lost their truck, and their livelihood, through unfortunate circumstances beyond their control� get back on the road. The 2011 prize package included a 2007 Volvo VNL 780 from Arrow Truck Sales, a one-year work agreement with Heartland Express and many other products and services, from monthly gas cards to a memory-foam mattress.

Acosta learned of the Back on the Road competition through a stroke of serendipity. One night he stopped for gas at a Pilot Travel Center and, while flipping through the trucking magazines, ran across a call for applicants. �I said, �Wow, imagine if I could win something like this � it would really put us in a good place,� Acosta says. �I said, �We�ll never know if we don�t ask.��

After the initial call from Bartram, there was more work to be done, including writing an additional essay, passing a driving-record check, giving a phone interview and traveling to Kansas City, Mo., for an interview. Acosta finally learned he won the competition at a presentation at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Lousiville, Ky., in April.

He was shocked when his name was called. �I sat there and I thought, �No, that wasn�t my name,�� he says. �My wife and my two girls were there. They were crying and everything. They couldn�t believe it either.�

Acosta�s wife, Angela, is a stay-at-home mom caring for their daughters, Shequina, 18, and Amanda, 17, who suffers from a disorder of the kidneys called nephrotic syndrome. Amanda�s high medical bills, combined with Acosta�s expensive truck repairs and diminishing loads in recent years, eventually forced him to give up his truck. With little money coming in, the family is fighting avoid foreclosure on their home.

Angela described the family�s bond despite their difficulties as she nominated Acosta for the award.

�Our daughter Amanda tells us she sees other families having financial troubles or other problems that break them up, but not us. Our family draws strength from each other and has remained strong through the loss of David�s job, our daughter�s medical illness and fear of losing our home,� she wrote. �David constantly puts everybody before himself. Money is extremely tight and our family is struggling more than we ever thought imaginable. We love him so much and as a family we couldn�t ask for anything better than this opportunity for David to get back on the road.�

Acosta exemplifies the heart of the campaign, says Steve Clough, president of Arrow Truck Sales.

�David is a perfect example of someone who sincerely needs assistance to help overcome a series of unfortunate hurdles. He fights every day to provide for his family and he truly represents the spirit of what Back on the Road is all about,� Clough says. �We are proud to give him this opportunity to not only change his life, but the lives of his wife and two daughters.�

As word spreads about the Back on the Road program, Bartram says prospective sponsors are asking how they can get involved � something he says reflects well on the trucking industry.

�I think it gives a lot of hope to the industry, that we�re out there trying to do something right as opposed to what I would call a typical brand campaign for a company. All the sponsors who are on board with this, it�s like, �Whatever we can do to help out is fine.� They�re not out here for crass commercialism; they just want to make a difference,� says Bartram, marketing manager at Arrow Truck Sales. �We�ve been able to find industry-leading sponsors who�ve jumped on board with this thing and every year they come back and basically say, �What can we do to help out?��

Meanwhile, every year, the competition gets stiffer, as the growing program attracts increasing numbers of high-caliber applicants. �I think the first year of this program some of [the applicants]� kind of saw a quick opportunity to win a truck. But then after the first year people started to realize, �This is a serious program and I�m not just going to waltz in there and walk away with a truck,�� Bartram says. Acosta was selected from a pool of about 150 applicants.

�The bottom line is, it�s a job. … Yeah, they get the truck and they get all the benefits with that truck, but it�s a job. They�re working for Heartland Express like anyone else. They�re out there on the road in their profession,� Bartram says. �The best part about this program is all three of our previous winners are still out there on the road, still successful. I�m in touch with two of the three weekly. … It�s just a very gratifying program.�

Acosta says he�s grateful for the chance to work again � and not at just any job, but at a job he loves. �I fell in love with driving because it�s so much freedom out there. You�ve got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders � you�re not just serving yourself but you�re serving your whole country,� says the U.S. Navy veteran. �You�re into something bigger than yourself. I like that.�

He reiterates his appreciation to Arrow Truck Sales and all of the program�s sponsors, and says he hopes his story will offer hope and encouragement to others who are struggling. �Look at the glass half-full. Try to keep yourself looking more toward the positive side of life,� he urges, a day before starting orientation for his new job. �Life has a lot of bad things that it throws at you, but by keeping a bad attitude you�re just making things bad for you.

�You never know what the next morning�s going to bring. I�m a prime example of that.�

It exudes all the friendliness and hospitality of its owners. �It�s a happy house,� Jane�says. �It really is.�

Thoughtful renovations over the years have preserved the character of the home, built in 1922, while enhancing its livability. The original heart pine floors, which had been left watermarked in places by previous owners, have been refinished and restored to their former beauty. The master bathroom�s old, small tub � used only once, a decade ago, by a young grandson � has been removed and replaced with a second sink and vanity. A built-in window box has been added to the master bedroom for linens storage.

Jane and her former husband lived for 35 years in Connecticut, where they had carved out a life she loved. She says she moved to Pinehurst, in 1997, �kicking and screaming.� But her husband enjoyed golf, the move south made economic sense, and she did find Pinehurst charming, so she relented.

She knew what she wanted in their Pinehurst home: a �finished� yard that required only routine maintenance. A layout that would accommodate them as they aged, with all the essentials on the first floor. Brickwork outside. Azaleas in the spring. And she wanted the house and grounds to be well-suited for hosting meetings and fundraisers for the various community groups with which she knew they would become involved.

This house � which originally was named �Sleepy Hollow� and somewhere along the line became known as �Sunny Pines� � fit the bill. They began to settle in, but soon afterward her husband grew sick, and thoughts of home renovations and improvements took a backseat to caring for him.

After he died, Jane lived alone in �Sunny Pines� for years, until her neighbors insisted she meet their friend Charlie Jackson, who had moved from northern Virginia to Pinehurst after retirement and now was also widowed. They hit it off. Three and a half years ago, this home was the site of their wedding.

The sunroom was the first room the newlyweds renovated together. Huge windows overlook the mature landscaping of the private side and back yards. A built-in entertainment center displays family photos, books and travel memorabilia. The floor is brick; in its original incarnation, that space was a screened porch, as the Jacksons have deduced from photographs found in the Tufts archives. �We love this room,� Jane says. �We spend most of our time here.�

The main living space lends itself well to entertaining, which the Jacksons do often. The living room is large and open and sunny, with coffered ceilings, a working fireplace and a built-in entertainment center. It�s also where Jane, who for years was a semiprofessional performer, keeps her piano. �It�s my joy,� she says, adding with a smile, �I play, but only for me. I sing for anybody.�

The adjoining dining room, previously a sleeping porch, feels comfortable and intimate. It�s easy to imagine this room, with its extra-long dining table, as the scene of lively conversation. Here, as throughout the house, well-chosen, unpretentious accessories add character and appeal: an antique huntboard found in Carthage; Italian pottery from the Jacksons� travels; a brass chandelier that was in 40 pieces when it caught Jane’s eye; a painting by an artist friend.

Most of the home�s walls, in fact, are adorned with original artwork by family and friends who are accomplished artists. �Every time I look at them, I think of my friends,� she says.

The bright and cheerful galley kitchen got updates, including countertops hand-picked at a granite yard by Jane and walls faux-finished by a friend, back in 1997. A spacious butler�s pantry that connects the kitchen and living room provides much more than extra storage, with an oversize copper sink original to the home, butcher-block countertops that were recently refinished, and shelves and cabinets galore.

The most recent renovations were under way when the Jacksons agreed to include �Sunny Pines��on a local tour of homes. Work �was almost done, but it was very raw,� says Jane. �Everything was in boxes; it was just a mess.� The couple lived in the two bedrooms, office and bathroom upstairs during the six weeks renovations were in progress downstairs.

Any temporary inconvenience, though, was worthwhile.

�I want people to be here,� Jane says. �It�s too nice of an old friendly house not to share. That�s what I like to do.�

Since 1935, the Heisman Trophy has been awarded annually to the most outstanding college football player. The Heisman Trophy Trust describes it as the �most sought-after award in American collegiate athletics.�

Some of its honorees might beg to differ, in light of the kind of luck it�s brought them.

Consider Jason White, who won the award in 2003 (and was a finalist in 2004). The University of Oklahoma quarterback ended his college career as the school�s all-time leader in touchdown passes and career passing yards. He led the nation in passing efficiency in 2003, and beat current NFL stars Larry Fitzgerald, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger in the Heisman competition that year.

His NFL career? It never happened. White was passed over in the 2005 NFL draft, then, after several weeks of free agency after the draft, he tried out with the Kansas City Chiefs, who subsequently declined to sign him. The Tennessee Titans finally signed him as an undrafted free agent, but White decided not to pursue professional football. For a while he worked with insurance agent Steve Owens � the 1969 Heisman Trophy winner � and today he owns a memorabilia store and a shoe store.

In similar fashion, the 1992 Heisman winner, Gino Torretta, was not drafted until the seventh round of the 1993 NFL draft and saw almost no playing time as a professional quarterback for five teams in four years. He retired from the NFL in 1997 and now works in marketing at an asset-management company in Florida.

The curse
White and Torretta are hardly alone. The pattern � from standout college player to Heisman Trophy recipient to NFL bust � has become so common in recent years that half-joking references to the �Heisman curse� are rampant.

Success in college football is a notoriously unreliable indicator of success in the NFL. Only eight Heisman award winners belong to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Doak Walker, Paul Hornung, Roger Staubach, O.J. Simpson, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Marcus Allen and Barry Sanders.

According to Charley Casserly, a former general manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans, Heisman winners� rather astonishing failure to live up to the hype has nothing to do with any curse; it�s a matter of methodology.

The Heisman winner is selected by sports reporters and past Heisman Trophy-holders. At least some of these votes are probably influenced by a finalist�s reputation rather than substantial study of his abilities and potential. Similarly, athletes at small colleges with minimal national exposure are probably less likely to win a Heisman Trophy than athletes of comparable talent at established football powerhouses.

In contrast with the Heisman voters, Casserly says, �the people who pick players for the NFL are talent evaluators. They study tapes, they interview players, they put them through workouts. The methods of evaluation could not be more different.�

Other factors
Numerous other observers have noted apparent lurking variables that help explain why a player awarded a Heisman Trophy is far from guaranteed to be an NFL phenomenon.

The voting process has been criticized for seeming to favor running backs and quarterbacks � in the award�s 75-year history, only five players in a different position have received the trophy. Similarly, voting heavily favors seniors. No freshman has won the Heisman, and only a handful of sophomores and juniors have.

There also has been much ado about supposed regional bias. Between 1981 and 2002, no player from the West Coast won the Heisman Trophy. The argument is that because of factors such as time zone differences and varying degrees of interest in college football in different parts of the country, East Coast voters see fewer West Coast games.

And, for purposes of Heisman voting, the United States is divided into six regions, each of which receives 145 votes, even though there�s considerable disparity among each region�s raw population. So a vote in the smallest region � Northeast, with 11.9 percent of the country�s population � carries more weight than a vote in the largest region � Far West, with 21.1 percent of the country.

For all these reasons, in 2008, Brad Smith, a former college kicker and former Heisman consultant, made a case for a move away from balloting in Heisman-selection.

�The question �Who are the top performers in college football?� is an inherently empirical question. In other words, any attempt to answer this question trespasses overtly on the domain of science,� Smith argued. �Our methodology isn�t about finding out who is the best. It�s the best demonstrated on-field performance.�

Tweaking the selection process to make voting more objective might improve the Heisman�s record as a tool for predicting NFL success. But it probably wouldn�t change the fact that, all things being equal, athletes who win the Heisman Trophy subsequently seem to have more than their share of bad luck.

Injuries and illnesses
Owens, the Heisman-winner-turned-insurance-agent, was the No. 1 pick in the 1970 draft and he didn�t disappoint, making the Pro Bowl in 1971. But knee injuries over the next few years cut his career short, forcing him to retire in 1975.

2001 Heisman winner Eric Crouch was drafted by the St. Louis Rams but got hurt and left without playing a game. After recuperating, he played in the NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League before signing with Team Texas of the All-American Football League � a contract from which he was released after that league postponed its debut season. Crouch now works as a playground- and recreation-equipment vendor in Omaha, Neb.

Ernie Davis, winner of the 1961 Heisman and the first black player to win the trophy, was drafted in 1961 but was diagnosed with leukemia in 1962 and died in 1963, never having played a professional football game.

Alternative careers
For some Heisman winners, a career in professional football was limited by their own choices.

The first recipient of the trophy (which was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy at the time), Jay Berwanger, was the No. 1 draft pick in the 1936 NFL draft, but he decided to become a sportswriter and later a manufacturer of plastic car parts rather than a professional running back. In those days, his choice probably made good economic sense.

Charlie Ward won the Heisman Trophy in 1993 but, after letting it be known that he would not play in the NFL unless he was a first-round pick, he wasn�t drafted at all. Instead, having also played four years of basketball at Florida State University, he joined the NBA as a point guard for the New York Knicks. He retired from the NBA after the 2004-2005 season and now coaches high school basketball and football at a private school in Houston.

Underachieving
Many Heisman winners have simply not lived up to their potential. Archie Griffin, the only athlete to have won two Heisman trophies, in 1974 and 1975, had a respectable NFL career, but not what you might expect from a guy who�s considered one of the best college football players ever.

After seven years in the NFL, Griffin played briefly in the United States Football League before going back to Ohio State University for his MBA. Now he serves as president and CEO of the school�s alumni association and is the spokesman for the Wendy�s High School Heisman program.

Running back Rashaan Salaam plummeted rather dramatically from the top of his game. In 1994, coming off one of the best collegiate seasons ever, he won the Heisman Trophy. By 2000 he was out of the NFL, and in 2001 he played one season (shortened by injury) in the XFL before that league folded. He then made several other attempts at an NFL career, none of which panned out.

Salaam�s last hurrah in professional football was in 2004, when a Canadian Football League team signed him in February and then suspended him that May. Possibly to blame for his decline: Pot. �That marijuana makes you lazy � makes you not want to get up and work out. It makes you not motivated. It doesn�t allow you to have positive thoughts,� he told ESPN�s �Outside the Lines� in 2003.

The curse continues
The so-called curse shows no signs of stopping. Heisman winners Matt Leinart (2004) and Troy Smith (2006) were cut this fall from the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens, respectively, after consistently unimpressive play. About the same time, in a new twist on the curse, Reggie Bush, the 2005 Heisman recipient, voluntarily returned his trophy after the NCAA ruled he had been ineligible to play that season because of improper benefits he and his family received while he was Southern California�s star running back.

There was some talk of giving Bush�s trophy to 2005�s second-place finalist, Vince Young. But even before the Heisman Trust announced that the award would remain vacant for that year, Young was quoted saying he didn�t want it.

Can you blame him?