Lifestyle

The verdict is in — both on the Maggys and on what voters like – and our voters like community. It shows all across our Maggy Award lifestyle choices. Many winners are businesses and institutions that make it a priority to build, improve and bring out the heart of Western Wake's community. This year a few repeat winners are joined by lots of new ones who are enjoying the spotlight for the first time.

Best Coffeehouse
It hardly advertises, yet everyone knows who it is. It focuses on one signature set of products, yet has more than 10,000 stores in the U.S., and you've probably relaxed at one of them in the last year. It is Starbucks, the ever-present coffee shop that won the Maggy for best coffeehouse.

Cary has 15 Starbucks locations close enough for a quick beverage run. Everyone knows about its coffees and teas, lattes, mochas and espressos, but did you also know Starbucks has its own entertainment division that produces books, music and films? And its own channel on XM Satellite Radio? But more important to our community, Starbucks follows practices that support its coffee growers, enrich its employees and minimize its impact on the environment. In 2006, it won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Power Leadership Award" for its environmental efforts. All this and a great cup of coffee, too.

Best Charity
The Me Fine Foundation is a newcomer this year for best charity in Western Wake after hosting its Second Annual Purse Gala in Cary on Sept. 16 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and raising almost $36,000 to provide financial assistance to parents and caregivers with children being treated at Duke and UNC Children's Hospitals. The foundation started in memory of Folden Lee IV, a toddler diagnosed with Leukemia in 2003.

Jennifer Terry, the president of Me Fine's advisory board, responded to how the charity has become so popular: "It has been my experience that once people hear about what the organization does and who it serves, they are committed to help us." She added that their organization is grassroots, which she believes appeals to people looking for a way to make their contributions count.

Me Fine stands out for offering not only financial help, but also the hearts of its staff and volunteers to families who may need no more than someone to sit with them during a difficult time.

Best Fitness Club
One step inside the massive new Lifetime Fitness facility on Regency Parkway in Cary and it's easy to see why its members voted it the best place to work out. According to Jennifer Suciu, member services department head, it's the club's variety that intrigues people with any fitness level, interests, experience, schedule or budget.

The Cary location is the national chain's only club in North Carolina and offers nearly 100 different fitness classes every week. In addition to variety, it's a good bet that our readers love Lifetime's service edge as well. Amenities not usually found in gyms like 24-hour access, a large child care center and no long-term contract requirements. After your workout, the benefits keep going thanks to an on-site café, spa and salon. Lifetime makes it easy to work out hard.

Best Place to Take Children
Tucked away off of Cary Parkway behind the Wellington Village Shopping Center on Thurston Drive is the Kids Together Park. Although it is like a hidden gem, families have discovered its locale for endless outdoor fun.

This Maggy winner ever so narrowly beat out Frankie's Fun Park for Best Place in Western Wake to Take Children. It was designed during a six-year period through a community workshop where kids, too, had an input. In June 2000, the Kids Together Park opened and is affectionately known as the "dragon park" in part to a large dragon built into the park's hillside that's perfect for climbing and jumping.

Children of all physical abilities can use the park because it is completely wheelchair (and stroller) accessible. Drop by on a beautiful afternoon and you'll see how well the concept works.

Day Spa and Best Place to Take Visitors
2005, 2006, 2007 ... will any spa be able to topple this Maggy juggernaut who has taken awards every year since the Maggys started? Once again, the best day spa in Western Wake is Iatria, the big city-styled resort that's rejuvenated so many. Iatria, with locations in Cary and Raleigh, has placed first in numerous other contests during the past three years. This year Iatria also took the lifestyle award for best place in Western Wake to take visitors. So save the museums and noted historical sties for later. Today we get pampered. Our voters must have the most appreciative visitors in the country. And no one's counting, but Iatria also took the Maggy for best place to pamper in the services category.