FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Sept. 16, 2018 ­– For 21 years, Up & Coming Weekly has celebrated the very best in this community with a reader survey followed by a Best of Fayetteville celebration. This year’s celebration was scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 18. Due to flooding and other damage by Hurricane Florence, the party has been canceled.

“We are heartbroken about the catastrophe faced by our community,” said Up & Coming Weekly Publisher Bill Bowman. “We congratulate each of the Best of Fayetteville winners wholeheartedly, but now is a time of rebuilding and putting lives and businesses back together.”

The Best of Fayetteville readership survey is a rigorous process where Up & Coming Weekly readers vote for their favorite businesses, people and organizations. Thousands of readers cast their vote each year. Once the ballots are counted, the winners are honored with write-ups about them in Up & Coming Weekly’s largest edition of the year. This edition remains online all year long at www.upandcomingweekly.com.

“Winning Best of Fayetteville is a really big deal,” said Best of Fayetteville Program Manager Don Garner. “The winners deserve to be recognized, and we will be contacting each winner in person in the coming weeks to make sure they are properly congratulated.”

Up & Coming Weekly is much more than a weekly newspaper. Since its creation in 1996, the mission and focus of the publication has been to accentuate and illuminate the quality of life enjoyed here in Cumberland County.