The Valley Today

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Guy Curtis & Samantha Brill from LFCC Workforce Solutions to learn about their new Coding Bootcamp program. Joining us for the program was Nick Suwyn, President of Promineo Tech who has partnered with LFCC Workforce Solutions to offer this 18-week course. He explained how the classes will work, what curriculum will be included and the importance of the sof...

We pre-recorded today's conversation for The Valley Business Today - Luray/Page County edition - with Edie Emmons from Luray/Page County Chamber of Commerce and her guest, Cindy Noftsinger. Cindy is the Executive Director for Brain Injury Connections of the Shenandoah Valley. Cindy explained the various types of brain injuries, the services her non-profit offers to clients and told us how they mod...

We pre-recorded our conversation today in person with Vicki Ruckman to chat about the Shenandoah Valley Wine & Music Festival happening on Sunday, September 5, 2021 from 1pm - 7pm at The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley . Vicki chairs the event for the Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail and gave us all the details: which wineries will be participating; who will be performing what types of live music when...

We pre-recorded today's conversation in-person with Dr. Tony Wolf, Director & Professor of Viticulture at the Alson H Smith, Jr., Agricultural Research & Extension Center . Tony explained the research they do and their partnership with the extension offices. He gave us details for the Open House that will happen on Saturday, August 14, 2021 from 1pm - 5pm. The facility is located at 595 Laurel Gro...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Tony Baker from Frederick County Parks & Recreation to get details for fall programs, running events, biking events, registrations for football, softball, BasicREC, and more. Tony told us about the Big Band Pool Party happening at Sherando Park/Pool on August 14, 2021 from 7pm - 9pm. Click here for details. For details about the running events, visit: runa...

We pre-recorded our conversation in person following the graduation of six students from the Building Maintenance Technician Program that we discussed in June. Listen to that here. Joining us for the chat from the Shenandoah Valley Workforce Development Board were: Dr. Sharon Johnson, CEO; Gabriel Lee, Youth Coach; Bonnie Zampino, Workforce Services Director - Northern Region; Scott Carlson, Emplo...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Niki Cales from the Front Royal/Warren County Chamber of Commerce at her office to chat about upcoming chamber events, the important role chamber's play in a business' success & talk about two new social media educational opportunities that are coming in August & September. Links for the events we discussed are below. For more information about the chamber...

We pre-recorded our conversation today with Kary Haun from Shenandoah County Tourism at New Star Market located on Rt.55 in Strasburg to chat about Shenandoah County's great country stores. Kary gave us a quick rundown and explained what types of things set them apart from each other. You can read the blog here: https://visitshenandoahcounty.com/scenic-drives-and-country-stores/ We also talked abo...

We recorded today's conversation on Saturday morning at The Studio on Main Street in downtown Front Royal to chat with Kelly Walker for our Meet the Maker series. Kelly opened The Studio seven years ago but has been creating, painting and teaching for most of her life. We talked about all the different options for learning at The Studio; and, she gave some advice for those who think they can't. We...

We pre-recorded today's conversation at the McCormick Civil War Institute on the campus of Shenandoah University to chat with Director, Jonathan Noyalas and Immersive Technology Developer, Wes Brown about their new app - Through Their Eyes - that uses augmented reality to bring civil war history alive at Cool Spring Battlefield. The pair gave me an overview from inception to final product about th...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Mariama Dryak, Program Coordinator for Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River to learn about the organization and their new storytelling/concert series, Voices of the Shenandoah. Founded in 1988, their mission is to keep the North Fork of the Shenandoah River clean, healthy, and beautiful through advocacy, community action, education and science...

We pre-recorded today's conversation in-person at the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber with Danita Roble, Director of Event Management and her guests: Rusty Holland, Director at Concern Hotline & Brad Veach, Director at Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival . The group gave the details for their upcoming event collaboration: Core of the Community that happens Labor Day weekend. The event weekend will...

We pre-recorded today's episode of Tourism Tuesday - Winchester/Frederick County edition - with Justin Kerns from Winchester/Frederick County Convention & Visitors Bureau . We met up with John Netzel, President & Founder of Peaceful Fields Sanctuary to have our conversation and meet a few of his rescues. John told us about his passion for animals and how he came to start the sanctuary. He explaine...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Feit, Valley Health 's Population & Community Health Officer to learn more about the Delta variant and bust a few more vaccine myths. Dr. Feit explained how variants of the virus happen and why the Delta variant is more dangerous than the original version (COVID 1.0) of the virus. We talked about the effectiveness of the vaccines and the potent...

We pre-recorded today's conversation for "United Way Day" with Elise from United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley and her guest, Sherry Arey, Director at Family Promise of Shenandoah County. Sherry explained how the mission of her organization has shifted due to the pandemic. They are now much more focused on transitional housing and offer several units to those in their program. She told us of a...

We were LIVE in the studio for our monthly conversation with Lt. Warren Gosnell from the Frederick County Sheriff's Office to chat about traffic safety. We talked about what you should do when following mail carriers on rural roads; and, Goz answered the question "how slow is too slow" when traveling on highways & roadways. He also told us about a new initiative from Governor Northam: "Don't Speed...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Ryan Hall, an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Builder with Shenandoah Community Capital Fund to learn about Startup Shenandoah Valley . Startup Shenandoah Valley is a hybrid program that combines the strengths of accelerator and incubator models. The program delivers online coaching to identify and address the riskiest parts of each entrepreneur's business model...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Gina Hilliard, President of Luray/Page County Chamber of Commerce to get a peek behind the curtain of Luray/Page County's tourism numbers/impact. Gina explained how tourism dollars are determined/earned and the process the chamber follows for using them to market the area to tourists. She gave us some tourism numbers and revenues and equated them to the ta...

Our (pre-recorded) Strolling Strasburg episode this month took us on a tour of three Strasburg businesses with Olivia Hilton: Interim (soon to be permanent I hope!) Director of Community Development for the Town of Strasburg . Our first stop was to chat with Melanie at Clip & Curl Beauty Salon about their 50 year anniversary. She told us how her mother started the business in 1971 and gave us some...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Karen Poff for Extension Office Friday to talk about credit: Why is credit important and the impact it can have on things we may not realize. How are credit scores determined? What is debt ratio and why is it important What's a good credit score? How your credit report factors into your credit score To get a copy of your credit score: https://www.myfico.co...

We pre-recorded today's conversation as part of our monthly Community Health Partnership with Valley Health to learn about the Level II Trauma Center located at Winchester Medical Center . Joining me for the conversation: Terral Goode, MD, surgeon and medical director, Trauma and Acute Care Surgery; Autumn Davis, MSN, RN, CCRN, CFRN, Trauma Program Manager; and, Jennifer Rohrbaugh, FNP-C, Valley H...

We pre-recorded today's conversation with Michelle Smeltzer, Warren County's Community Liaison to learn about a few community resources and upcoming events: The One Stop Resource Center is open every Wednesday from 1pm - 4pm at the Health & Human Services campus (465 W. 15th Street) and features many area non-profits and government agencies offering their FREE services. There will be a Summer Food...

We pre-recorded today's conversation in-person at The Barns of Rose Hill with Morgan Morrison and Sarah Ames to get the details about the 10-year anniversary celebration happening on July 31, 2021. We talked about the history of the the building/organization and how it's managed to successfully promote rural arts and live performances since opening 10 years ago. They also gave us a quick rundown o...

We pre-recorded today's conversation in-person at The Farm at Clover Hill with Susie Huson to learn about the history of the property and how they've transformed the main house into a successful AirBNB . She also explained how the flower farm came to be, how it works and told us about the hops they're growing as well. For more information about The Farm at Clover Hill, visit their website: https:/...

We pre-recorded our conversation today with Tracy Vosika, a volunteer with Froggy's Closet to get all the details about their cornhole tournament happening on Saturday, July 17, 2021 from 10am - 5pm at Richard's Fruit Market located at 6410 Middle Road in Winchester. Tracy explained why fundraising events like this are important for the organization and talked why being a volunteer is so important...