Grady O'Connor, 16, runs Courtside Cards and Collectibles which is located inside of the SOFIVE Soccer Center at 400 North Street in Saco, Maine. The first thing you notice about Grady O’Connor is his height. At 16, he’s already 6'4", which makes him easy to spot across the indoor fields at the SOFIVE Soccer Center in Saco. Kids run drills. Parents line the sidelines. Games echo off the walls. And tucked just off the action, behind a glass display case filled with cards, is G

Randy Forcier, left and Chris Bedard, right, at their office above Social House Kitchen in Saco, Maine. The CMG Home Loans office on Beach Street is quiet in the way a busy place gets when it’s between waves. A couple chairs are pushed in like someone tried to be tidy before the next appointment. A conference room sits ready—four walls, a table, a few pens that don’t belong to anyone in particular. Downstairs, there’s coffee and movement at Social House Kitchen, the kind of p

Melissa Colley at Saco Scoop in Saco, Maine. A Door That’s Always Open It’s a Monday afternoon on Main Street in Saco, Maine, and the Saco Scoop shop smells like hot fudge and waffle cones. Behind the counter,  Melissa Colley  greets every customer by name — or, if she doesn’t know it yet, simply as “my friend.” “Because that’s the way it always was,” she says, glancing at the handwritten menu above her shoulder. “And don’t change what’s not broken.” At 209 Main Street, next

David Stover, of Southern Maine, is the owner of Saint Nick's Chimney Service. Saco, Maine — With a brush rod in one hand and a grin in the rain, David Stover climbs the ladder like he’s done it a thousand times before. Below him, his mother Sherrell runs the vacuum inside the house, her steady rhythm matching his scraping above. Together they form the heart of Saint Nick’s Chimney Service , a Southern Maine company that has been keeping hearths clean and safe for more than