BY JOHN A. NAGY
SLI Reporter
Meet Virginia Equi
Call her: Ginger.
Replacing: Roberta Maness, who moved out of Seven Lakes West.
Family: Husband Ray and two adult children. Son Raymie is married and lives in Denver. Daughter Emily lives in Newburgh, NY.
Lives: on Pinnacle Court. She and Ray have lived there since August 2020.
Work Experience: Long career in retail management, including store manager jobs with department stores Belk and Stein Mart.
Prior Board Experience: Served on her townhome board of directors in Charlotte for two years. That development was about 40 townhomes.
Enjoys: Cooking, cycling and reading.
Having spent the past 15 months settling into her Seven Lakes West home, Virginia “Ginger” Equi figured it was time to start getting involved in the community.
When an opening came up for the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association Board of Directors, Equi stepped up.
“It was a way for me to give back,” she said. “I’ve been a store manager for an $18 million-a-year store and I have a lot of skills working and developing people.”
Six residents applied for the vacancy created when board director Roberta Maness moved out of Seven Lakes West. Following interviews with all six, the board at its Nov. 16 meeting approved Equi to serve out the remainder of Maness’ term. She will be up for election in 2023.
Equi and her husband, Ray, moved to the Pinnacle Court neighborhood in August 2020 after renting a home in Southern Pines. The couple moved to Moore County in 2017 when Equi took over as manager of the Stein Mart department store in Southern Pines.
Equi has an extensive background in retail management, having spent 20 years working for Belk, 10 of which were as store manager at locations in Virginia, Tennessee and Concord, NC. She worked three years for Stein Mart before retiring.
Equi was attracted to Seven Lakes in large part because of her time growing up in Corning, NY, home of the Finger Lakes region.
The lakes “were very much a part of my growing up. I loved lake living.”
She said she and Ray were looking for a community built around the lake lifestyle and that offered plenty of amenities. The decision was aided by a realtor friend who had moved from Pinehurst to Seven Lakes and spoke highly of the community.
“There are great amenities here and the people are very friendly,” she said.
Equi has prior board experience, but on a smaller scale. She served a two-year term on her townhome association board in Charlotte. That development, however, included about 40 townhomes, as opposed to the 2,000 lots in Seven Lakes West.
Equi will keep the same committee liaison assignments — Public Safety and Security and Events — as Maness had.
Equi will be spending her coming weeks getting up to speed on board issues and budget matters. A town hall on Dec. 7 will be the first presentation of the 2022-23 budget. However, she said she’s already impressed with the level of communication and information available. She said when she applied for the board position, most of the background information she needed to familiarize herself was available on the members’ web site. She also praised the weekly email updates.
However, she said she intends to bring her retail experience to her role to the extent that she looks at property owners as “customers.”
