A local business’ grand opening on April 12 turned out to be a double celebration.
The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Southern Park a Truck, a new truck parking and storage facility that opened late last year.
Manager Donny Pacheco used the opportunity to make another announcement, complementing the festivities.
“It’s funny, because we came here, and it was a new chapter for me, a new beginning,” Pacheco said in his presentation. “I said, ‘This is a huge change for me,’ and now the chapter’s closing, and I want to close it properly.”
Pacheco then proposed marriage to his girlfriend of seven years, Natalie Perez.
“For the last year, I’d already wanted to propose,” he said. “I just didn’t know when the perfect opportunity was.”
The right moment for the happy surprise was carefully chosen and proved effective enough for the new bride-to-be.
“I had not one clue,” said Perez, who had been distracted working with her mother coordinating the grand opening event. “I was standing there, and he was saying, ‘Oh, new chapter, new chapter!’ And I was like, ‘New chapter, okay, so excited for the yard.’ Then when he grabbed my hand, I was like, oh my goodness, this is happening!”
The last several months have been busy for the pair and the business. Both Pacheco and Perez are originally from Miami, where they first met in their high school English class. Pacheco moved to the Augusta area over a year ago to help Natalie’s father, Felix Perez, launch Southern Park a Truck.
The couple have yet to pick a wedding date, opting to relish for a while in the promise of new beginnings.
“We’re pretty much just enjoying the moment,” said Natalie Perez. “Roughly, we would want to get married in the fall, but right now we’re just enjoying the engagement and then figuring it out.”
Pacheco’s good news proved apt, as he says that business is also doing well. The burgeoning family enterprise has been taking root in Augusta, networking and taking advantage of referrals from the community. The storage facility has grown from booking three to four trucks last August, to a rough average of 15 to 20 trucks a month, including from clients as far as New York and New Jersey.
Pacheco now attributes the favorable latest chapter in he and his fiancée’s lives to his future father-in-law.
“He was the one that called me over here and told me that he sees a great future here for us and the family that to get out of Miami,” he said. “I’m actually glad I listened because that was the best thing I did.”
Southern Park a Truck is located at 1550 Doug Barnard Parkway. For more information, visit https://www.southernparkatruck.com/.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
