- November 22, 2024
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The new Palm Coast Parkway Wawa held its grand opening event on Nov. 22, 2024. Photo by Sierra Williams
Cassandra Rodriguez and Patrick Culver were the first two people in line at the new Palm Coast Wawa. They showed up at 6:28 a.m. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Wawa mascot at the Palm Coast Parkway Wawa grand opening. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Matanzas High School marching band performed at the new Palm Coast Parkway Wawa's grand opening. Photo by Sierra Williams
Residents lined up around the building for the Palm Coast Parkway Wawa's grand opening. Photo by Sierra Williams
Cassandra Rodriguez fixes her free cup of coffee at the new Wawa. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies and Palm Coast Fire Department members competed to make the most hoagies in three minutes. Photo by Sierra Williams
The hoagie competition ended in a tie-break, decided by a game of rock-paper-scissors. The Palm Coast Fire Department won. Photo by Sierra Williams
Matanzas High School marching band percussionist Jeremiah Brewington and his section play a cadence at the Wawa opening. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Matanzas High School marching band and color guard performed at the new Palm Coast Parkway Wawa's grand opening. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies and Palm Coast Fire Department members competed to make the most hoagies in three minutes. Photo by Sierra Williams
Over 200 people showed up to celebrate the grand opening of Palm Coast's second Wawa location.
The Wawa, Wawa 5425 located at 1 Florida Park Drive S., replaced the the three-story B. Paul Katz Professional Center, which was demolished in 2023. The national gas station chain celebrated the opening of its new location in Palm Coast by handing out free T-shirts to the first 100 customers and free hot coffee all day long, according to a press release.
The Wawa team even invited the Matanzas High School marching band to play outside and while Palm Coast residents lined up around the building ahead of the 8 a.m. opening. Over 200 residents showed up for the store's opening.
"It is a gorgeous store. It is the top of the line prototype. It's the best looking store we have out there," Store Operations Director Karen Myers said.
The Wawa team also hosted a hoagie-building competition between the Palm Coast Fire Department and the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. The two teams competed to build the most number of hoagies in a three-minute period.
The competition ended in a tie between the two groups, requiring a tie-breaker game of rock-paper-scissors. While the trophy went to the PCFD, both teams' selected charities — the PCFD union's local 4807 Benevolent Fund and the FCSO's Children's Charity — will each receive $1,000 donations.
Palm Coast's first Wawa, located at 600 State Road 100 E., at the corner of Bulldog Drive, opened in June 2020. In April, Wawa, which first opened in Folsom, Pennsylvania in 1964, celebrated its 60th anniversary.
The national convenience store chain operates on several core values, Myers said during the grand opening ceremony. Among those values includes valuing people, she said, and took the opportunity to celebrate one employee's efforts.
Area manager Stephanie Andrews — who oversees over two dozen Wawas in Volusia and Flagler Counties — received recognition and a company pin for her efforts during Hurricane Milton in October. After the hurricane, Andrews, Myers said, reached out to every associate in the stores in her district in the Ormond and Daytona Beach areas, ensuring all of them "had a place to stay and food to eat."
Andrews even put fellow manager Tracy Felsing and her family up in a hotel when her home was devastated by the Hurricane Milton.
"Stephanie was an unsung hero for her teams in the aftermath of this hurricane," Myers said.
