By Erin Smith
One Bladen County business owner was recognized last week during the 20th annual 2018 Business Visions Awards last week at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Alex Munroe, owner of Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery, was named the 2018 Business Person of the Year.
UNC-Pembroke’s Office for Regional Initiatives hosts the Business Visions Program each year. This year’s event was conducted at the UNC-Pembroke annex. Awards are given each year to students, entrepreneurs and business owners in the region.
The Business Person of the Year award is presented each year to “an executive who makes a significant contribution through success in a local business or industry as well as through contributions to the civic, cultural and social life of the community.
“When they first called me about the award,” says Munroe, “I thought they were asking me to nominate a company. When they told me that I was actually the recipient, I was totally surprised, but very honored.”
Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery has become a great attraction to the Bladen County region. It has a zoological garden, elegant banquet hall, an excellent farm to table restaurant, called The Cork Room, and one of the largest celebrity art collections to be found anywhere. The property also has lakeside cottages with additional cottages starting construction soon.
“We’re in an ideal area,” Munroe says, “within an hour’s drive from Wilmington, Fayetteville and Myrtle Beach and close to so many other towns like Whiteville, Elizabethtown and Lumberton. We’ve been so blessed to have the support of so many people in such a wonderful community.
Nothing makes me happier than to see a child discovering a peacock or a lama for the first time, or to watch a happy couple getting married on the lake, or to see a family relaxing on the porch sharing a great meal over a bottle of wine while horses and donkeys gallop in the backdrop.”
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