The Valley Today

"This is the healthcare we used to have," some of Dr. Emily Chan's older patients have told her. Her reply: "Yep — and that's the way that it should be." On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber with Chamber President Niki Foster and Dr. Emily Chan, a board-certified family medicine physician who has opened an...

Sixty-one years. Only two missed. On this Luray-Page Tourism Tuesday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes Leon Stout, Town Treasurer of Stanley, for a rundown of the 59th Annual Stanley Homecoming — a four-day, town-wide celebration running Wednesday, July 1st through Saturday, July 4th at Ed Good Park. Then Gina Hilliard, President of the Luray-Page Chamber of Commerce, gives...

Last year, Family Promise Winchester typically received 40 to 45 requests for help per month. This month, they'll cross 100. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Chris Brigante, Executive Director of Family Promise Winchester, for a candid conversation about why family homelessness is surging in our region — and the surprisingly cost-effective math behind preventin...

Neither of us is actually in Old Town today — but as Brady put it, we're there in spirit. On this Friends of Old Town edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Brady Cloven (Executive Director, Friends of Old Town Winchester) via Zoom while he's at a tourism conference in Pennsylvania, pitching bus tours on coming to Winchester. The conversation is released just minutes befor...

Three hundred drones, eleven minutes, and an entire park's collective gasp. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at Jim Barnett Park's Active Living Center with Winchester City Parks Director Chris Konyar to recap the city's first-ever drone show (the Winchester logo perfectly drawn in the sky, the animated Patsy Cline, the Apple Blossom bloom, all to celebrate the VA2...

A week and a half ago, they walked into a radio station they didn't know existed. This week, they were standing on a stage at the HIVE at Shenandoah University with graduation certificates in their hands, telling a room full of parents and business leaders how the experience changed them. On this follow-up to the June 10th episode of The Valley Today , host Janet Michael returns to the students of...

A string of pearls runs along Route 11 — and every one of them is built for summer. On this Shenandoah County Tourism Tuesday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is joined on the Zooms by Kary Haun and Brittany Clem-Hott for a conversation devoted to the best of summer in Shenandoah County, from Strasburg to New Market and everywhere between. Three Valley League baseball teams, a count...

She saw the commercial — the one with the Red Cross volunteer in the red vest, hugging someone, handing over a blanket — and told her husband, "When I retire, I want to be that person." On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael continues her year-long Red Cross series with Deb Fleming, Executive Director of the Greater Shenandoah Valley Chapter, who brings along volunteer Jill Johnso...

Deworm every animal every time, and pretty soon the dewormer stops working. On this Extension Office Friday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Elizabeth Mullins Baldwin (Page County Extension agent) and Cynthia Fairbanks (Warren County Extension agent) to talk about herd health for the region's growing population of small-ruminant producers — and a hands-on F...

Palliative isn't a synonym for terminal. On this Community Health edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Dr. Jim VanKirk , board-certified palliative care specialist and Medical Director of Valley Health's Palliative Care Program, joined by team social worker Rachel Schwartz, to clear up one of the most persistent misconceptions in medicine — and to make the case for thinkin...

The federal poverty line for a family of four in America is $33,000 a year. In Virginia, a single person needs to earn more than $50,000 just to meet their basic needs. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Les Sinclair, Communications and PR Manager at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, for a candid conversation about why hunger and unemployment have "decoupled" since...

The Patsy Cline Theater isn't just an auditorium — it's Winchester's de facto civic center. From Willie Nelson to Vince Gill to Sara Evans, from the Apple Blossom coronations to 35 years of community gatherings, it's where Winchester has shown up for itself. And the seats, after nearly 40 years of student traffic and standing ovations, are showing every bit of their age. On this episode of The Val...

Marketing isn't the thing small-business owners hate — it's the thing they're afraid of, and they're afraid of it because nobody ever explains it. On this Luray-Page Chamber edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Colton Wolf — owner of White Wolf Communications Group and a familiar voice on the show from his earlier conversations about the theater in Stanley — fo...

It started with an email and one really good lecture — and turned into the biggest day in Shenandoah County history in a generation. On this bonus Shenandoah County Tourism episode, host Janet Michael and Kary Haun head to the historic courthouse in Woodstock to talk with Suzanne McIlwee and Kim Yeck, co-chairs of Shenandoah County Celebrates 1776 — a free, full-day VA 250 commemoration happening...

You don't need Johns Hopkins to become a nurse. You don't even need four years. On this Laurel Ridge Community College edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Director of Marketing Guy Curtis, joined by Dr. Scott Vanderkooi, Dean of Health Professions, and Dr. Amanda Hodges, Interim Director of Nursing — to talk about how someone in this region can become a workin...

"I didn't even know there was a radio station over here." That sentence — or some version of it — came up so many times on this episode that it became the unofficial theme. On a special episode of The Valley Today recorded on the first day of the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber's Arising Leadership Program, host Janet Michael sits down in the studio with 16 high-school participants and program di...

A rainy spring turned into a packed season at The Barns of Rose Hill. On this Tourism Tuesday Berryville/Clarke County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Martha Reynolds, Executive Director of The Barns of Rose Hill, to walk through what's coming next — and there is a lot. Two simultaneous gallery exhibitions, a VA250 concert series tied to traditional American roots m...

Crisis aid keeps the lights on this month. The THRIVE Project is built to make sure there isn't a next crisis. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the United Way office with longtime friend Andrea Cosans, Executive Director of Winchester CCAP, to talk about the most ambitious project of her CCAP tenure — a multi-agency, grant-funded initiative that will take up to...

The shelter season may end with the cold weather — but homelessness doesn't. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Robyn Miller, Executive Director of WATTS (Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter), to talk about what the organization is doing right now in June — the year-round case management, the two transitional homes, the cooling center that currently...

The Virginia Code is full of one-word differences that change everything — and on this Public Safety Thursday edition of The Valley Today, Captain Warren Gosnell of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office walks host Janet Michael through some of the most common ones. "May" doesn't mean "shall." A speed limit is a maximum, not a target. A red light isn't the same as a red arrow. And driving an inspec...

A parking-lot pop-up two years ago is now a full storefront with a now-famous 11-foot Amish blow-up greeting visitors at the door. On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber with Chamber Director Niki Foster and Zach Burke, owner of Lancaster County Connection, to talk about how the business grew from a single TL...

Retirement, it turns out, doesn't come with a handbook. On this Tourism Tuesday Winchester/Frederick County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael and Justin Kerns finally talk an avowed dog person into stepping inside a cat café — and what they find on the Piccadilly corner of the Old Town Walking Mall is something more carefully built than they expected. Chris Goebel, who retired to Vir...

You can't complain when a farm goes up for sale if you're not supporting the farmer. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with her Frederick County Homesteader friends — Sam Armel (founder of Frederick County Homesteaders), Jaclyn Mommen (Laurel Grove Wine Farm and Patti's Place), and Kristin Tesdall (Five Roots Farm) — to talk about the inaugural Love Your...

Over 100 patients in four days, many of them experiencing a professional dental cleaning for the very first time. On this bonus Laurel Ridge Community College edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael connects via Zoom with a team live from Negril, Jamaica — Brandy Hawkins Boies (Director of Communications and Outreach at Laurel Ridge), longtime Rotarian Kathy Kantor, and three recent gradua...

A two-year YouTube rabbit hole, a heart-tugging keynote in Norfolk, and one perfectly-timed introduction — that's the unlikely path that brought Cycling Without Age to Winchester. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury with Steve Policastro (founder of Cycling Without Age Winchester), Jeannie Shiley (Westminster-Canterbury's Pr...