Richard Colven moved to the Lake Norman area in late 2011 with his wife, Mary, and their family to run Camp Wagging Tails when long-time owners Jim and Celia Bensman sold them their popular pet boarding and day camp facility in Cornelius. Colven grew up in Kinston, N.C., and says he hopes his children will love growing up Tar Heels, too. On a confessional note, he says one of the conditions of purchase when negotiating with the Bensmans was that the weather had to stay in the 60s all through winter. He hopes y'all won't mind that. Colven 'pawsed' long enough from his doggy day camp duties to play along this week as our Fellow Citizen.

Gina Nichols lives in Cornelius with her husband, Michael, and they are the proud parents of Michael Harrison Nichols (3/18/99 – 2/17/08). Although she hails from New Jersey, she says she considers the Lake Norman area her home and loves the beauty and warmth of the South. Nichols is the Director of Services for the Harrison Nichols Foundation (see story, Page 33), serving as the direct liaison between the foundation and the families it assists. Being active is a huge part of her life and she spends most free time either in the gym, running or on a tennis court. The self-confessed "Type A" forced herself to sit still long enough recently to answer some intrusive questions as this week's Fellow Citizen.

The name Larry Banks is essentially synonymous with Scouting in the Lake Norman region. Banks, a graduate of Harding High School in Charlotte, says he joined Scouting when he was six years old, and as of 2011, has enjoyed Scouting for 40 years. In his last 25 years as a Scoutmaster, Banks has been responsible for guiding scores of young men through the Scouting ranks, with 82 achieving Eagle Scout honors.

A fairly recent transplant to the Lake Norman area, Dr. Seth Moliver just celebrated his Davidson-based chiropractic practice's first year in business. Moliver says Davidson was the right fit for his practice, as the health-conscious community aligns well (yeah, he said that) with his approach to health. Originally from New York, he moved here five years ago and has become active in the local Chamber of Commerce and Davidson Rotary, while also serving as a volunteer at the Ada Jenkins Center. His past volunteer service included time at Ground Zero following the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, adjusting the firefighters, police and National Guard troops. Moliver, who lives in Huntersville with his wife and two children, took a quick break from treating patients recently to set us straight as this week's Fellow Citizen.

Megan Balot is a 21-year-old senior at UNCC, majoring in Communications/Public Relations and is an active member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She just applied for May 2012 graduation this week. She was born in Charlotte, has lived in Huntersville since she was two years old and graduated from Hopewell High School. She was a competitive cheerleader for six years. Megan agreed (with very little arm-twisting) to take a break from cramming for finals to be our Fellow Citizen this week.

If you've attended a Cornelius Parks and Recreation event or a Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce function, chances are that lady running around with a clipboard in her hand and her hair on fire is Angela Swett. She is a marketing professional based in Lake Norman who specializes in public relations, grassroots marketing and event marketing. She has more than 16 years of public relations, marketing and event planning experience working with a wide range of corporate, non-profit and municipal clients. And seemingly as much as she does those things for profit, she also applies her skills to help out where she can. As a demonstration of her marketing savvy, she's agreed to answer our questions as this week's Fellow Citizen.

Like the majority of families in the Lake Norman area, the Salbers of Huntersville are from somewhere else, and most of them from different places. With a husband from Colorado and two of the couple's three kids born in Florida, the family matriarch, Ina, is herself from Maine. But, they're all settled in here over the past nine years, Ina a massage therapist for 20 years and the couple owning Chameleon's Screen Printing, and together as a family starting the Friarsgate Road Turkey Trot, which raises donations for Angels and Sparrows Soup Kitchen. Ina Salber slowed down just enough this week to answer our questions as this week's Fellow Citizen.

If you are a Methodist in the South, chances are you know who Harold Bales is. And since going into semi-retirement, the long-time minister and church leader has been entertaining the masses with his folksy brand of "Southern-Fried" humor blended with his philosophies on faith and the human experience through his column, "Southern-Fried Preacher," which appears in the Citizen and in other forums. Bales last weekend celebrated the launch of his new book with a signing event at Alton's Kitchen and Cocktails in Cornelius, and has embarked on a tour of churches, clubs and other groups. He took a brief break from all that activity to spend a few moments answering our questions as this week's Fellow Citizen.

A Veteran's Day issue wouldn't be complete without the requisite profile of one of America's finest — the archetypal battlefield hero. Steely-eyed and square-jawed with an unbendable will and squeaky clean reputation, he's the died-in-the-wool patriot we encourage our children to emulate.

Hough High School soccer quickly established itself last year as a team to deal with in prep soccer, and the coach of those successful boys' and girls' teams, which each reached the state semifinals in the school's first year, is David Smith of Cornelius. Smith is the former coach at Vance, where he served for 13 years after helping the school open its doors in 1997. Smith's Hough boys are hoping to make a deep playoff run beginning this week in the 4A bracket. Ranked No. 2 in the state, Hough won the I-Meck Conference title and 19 regular season matches this fall before entering the playoffs Wednesday against Ardrey Kell. In between teaching civics and economics and getting his team primed for the playoffs, Smith took some time this week to be our Fellow Citizen.