(con't.)

"Because our K&K variety store (named for her parents, Ken and Kathryn) over the years had featured a year-round toy department selling toys at discounted prices, we decided to develop a format for a toys-only store which we named K&K Toys. For the next 20 years, K&K Toys expanded to 136 store locations until we sold the chain to our competitor, Kay Bee Toys, owned by Melville Corporation, in 1991."

Macon; his brother-in-law, J. Douglas Perry; and H. Ray Compton launched Dollar Tree in 1986. Although Mr. Perry and Mr. Compton have retired from the business, both still serve on the Board of Directors.

"When we started Dollar Tree, we actually went back to our variety store roots; it's nothing more than a variety store at a dollar price point," says Joan. "In fact, in the beginning we were dealing with some of the same vendors we used for our K&K variety store purchasing. For a five-year period, from 1986 to 1991, we were running two businesses out of the same facilities. Dollar Tree benefited from our familiarity with variety store retailing and from the existing infrastructure of our toy chain."

Dollar Tree's headquarters and primary distribution center (one of five) are in Chesapeake, having relocated there from Norfolk in October 1997. "The headquarters can service 400 employees and the distribution facility 250 employees," Joan says. The company, which has more than 18,000 employees and also operates stores under the names Dollar Bill$ and Dollar Express,

planned to open 225 stores in 2000. Sales in 1999 increased by nearly 27 percent to just under $1.2 billion.

Joan Brock is interested in more than business ledgers. For three years she has been president of the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation whose ACCESS program helps academically able yet financially disadvantaged students attend college. Since its inception in 1989 by prominent businessmen Frank Batten and Josh Darden, ACCESS has helped 13,000 students secure more than $51 million in financial aid.

"We encourage young people to go to college and help them find the money to do so," Joan says. "We currently serve all of the public schools in Norfolk and Portsmouth, and I am leading the expansion effort to bring our program to additional schools in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake this year. We hope to help students in Suffolk very soon."

Each participating school has an ACCESS adviser who helps students not only find scholarship and college information but also realize that the dream of going to college is attainable. "Many of our students come from families of limited financial means," Joan says, "and often they are the first member of their family to attend college. We try to give them hope. If we can't find enough money for them, we will fund the difference. I believe our students look back and view the ACCESS program as a defining moment in their life."