Roanoke Business- June 2013

JUNE 2013

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

Some people think that granola crunching, craft beer brewing, artsy tourist town bests Big Lick every time.

Some people are wrong.

Roanoke vs.

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CONTENTS SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

June 2013

FEATURES COVER STORY

6

Roanoke vs. Asheville e Comparisons often put Asheville on top, but how much of that is deserved and how much is hype?

6

by Mason Adams

HEALTH Feeling the heat

13

Hot yoga gains a foothold in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

17

AIRPORTS Destination: the digital age

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Airport renovation brings physical improvements and 21st-century. amenities.

by Kevin Kittredge

EDUCATION ‘Sacred ground for writers’

22 Hollins University program ranked among nation’s best.

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by Donna Alvis-Banks

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INTERVIEW: DELLA WATKINS

‘Museums ought to be free’

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ROANOKE NEXT

Brett Lemon carves out a career by combining music and photography.

by Sandra Brown Kelly

by Kevin Kittredge

LIFESTYLES

Cooking classes

by Mindy Buchanan-King

JUNE 2013

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The creative life

The Taubman’s new director is focused on staff, education and financial stability.

Taking out the aura, putting in the fun.

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FROM THE EDITOR

No need for other-place envy

by Tim Thornton

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don’t know Asheville well, but I’ve been there a few times. I remember coming into Asheville a decade ago – it was during a camping trip in the nearby mountains – and stumbling onto a Bob Dylan concert. My traveling companion and I stood outside the Asheville Civic Center and listened to “All Along the Watchtower” through a loading door and then watched Dylan’s bus roar out of the building. Earlier that night we’d joined an old-time jam at a bar with a healthy selection of beers.

Since then, I’ve been to Asheville to see the Biltmore; to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway; to visit the folks at the city’s alternative newspaper; to see the Folk Art Center; and to visit UNC Asheville, North Carolina’s public liberal arts university. It’s a pretty cool community. From what Mason Adams says in this month’s cover story, people down there know it. When someone puts out an Internet call for information about Asheville, lots of people respond with positive stories. The people singing Asheville’s praises online are not folks like me who travel there once in a while. They live in Asheville.

When a similar call goes out about Roanoke, Adams discovered, it’s not unusual for responses to be not so nice. And it’s not unusual for those negative responses to come from Roanokers.

It’s not that negative Roanokers are the only locals spending time on the Internet. It’s just something that happens.

I once was in New Jersey on business, looking for some place to have dinner. I asked some folks who worked at the hotel where I should go. They suggested Philadelphia. Eventually, I found an interesting place just a few blocks from the hotel. When a magazine writer came to Marion and asked what people in town do for fun – a town bordered by a state park, a national forest and a national wilderness area – a lot of people told the writer to go to Abingdon, or maybe Bristol. Abingdon and Bristol are nice places, but that answer is not what Marion boosters would like locals to tell visitors. Obviously, it showed that some people in Marion didn’t appreciate what the area offers.

But Marion is a small town. Surely Roanoke and Roanokers are more sophisticated than that. At least a person might think so.

While folks in Marion might look at the bright lights of Bristol with envy, surely Roanokers — with all the music and food downtown; with all the hiking, biking and paddling nearby; with all the other great things so close at hand — surely Roanokers know what a good thing they have here.

Maybe they do, and maybe those online complaints are meant to keep it all secret, keep it from being overwhelmed by visitors and by folks moving into the valley. But probably not.

There’s nothing original in noting that Roanoke has long had an inferiority complex. The city has spent much of its history aspiring to be Richmond or Charlotte or even Asheville.

A friend of mine, a smart guy who grew up around here and is raising his family in the Roanoke Valley, once offered what sounded like his ultimate praise for one of the Star City’s festivals. When he was there, he said, he didn’t even feel like he was in Roanoke.

And yet, he was in Roanoke. At a festival. And having a good time.

Maybe that’s the first lesson. Roanokers ought to admit they live in a pretty nice place. Once they’ve done that, they might learn to let other people in on the secret.

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION Vol. 2

JUNE 2013

President & Publisher Roanoke Business Editor Contributing Writers

Art Director Contributing Designer Contributing Photographers

Production Manager Circulation Manager Accounting Manager Advertising Sales

Kevin L. Dick Karen Chenault Sunny Ogburn Lynn Williams Hunter Bendall

CONTACT: EDITORIAL: (540) 520-2399 ADVERTISING: (540) 597-2499 210 S. Jefferson St., Roanoke, VA 24011-1702 We welcome your feedback.

Email Letters to the Editor to Tim Thornton at tthornton@roanoke-business.com VIRGINIA BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS LLC A portfolio company of Virginia Capital Partners LLC Frederick L. Russell Jr.,, chairman

on the cover Blue Ridge Parkway Roanoke and Asheville can both be found along the Blue Ridge Parkway

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No. 6

Bernard A. Niemeier Tim Thornton Mason Adams Jenny Kincaid Boone Kevin Kittredge Donna Alvis-Banks Sandra Brown Kelly Mindy Buchanan-King Adrienne R. Watson Elizabeth Coffey Sam Dean Alisa Moody Jay Paul

Photo courtesy Virginia Tourism Corp.

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COVER STORY Downtown Asheville

wn Downtooke Roan

Downtown Roanoke

Roanoke Asheville vs.

Comparisons often put Asheville on top, but how much of that is deserved and how much is hype?

by Mason Adams

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JUNE 2013

Background and Roanoke photos courtesy Virginia Tourism Photo credit Corp.

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Downto w oanoke and A Asheville sheville nlive as neighbors on the Blue Ridge Parkway, nestled 271 miles apart in the mountains on the western end of their respective states. In many ways, they are sister-cities and, like siblings, they share a friendly rivalry.

Both offer natural outdoor beauty, access to the arts and music venues.

Yet in other ways, it’s clear to see which city is leaving a bigger impression on the n national consciousness. Asheville’s bran branding has been wildly successful, while Roanoke struggles to promote a positi positive self-image. Roanoke, though, has loc location and more jobs on its side.

N Nevertheless, some Roanokers perceive A Asheville as the hipper, more popsister, the one with cooler toys and ular si more ffriends. And it’s easy to see why. At ExploreAsheville.com, the city’s tourism Explor officials describe Asheville as “edgy, site, of artsy aand inviting.” Who wouldn’t want to visit a mountain utopia filled with bohemian aart galleries and opportunities for outdoor recreation? outdoo Nearly surrounded by national forests, Asheville is near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s home to the 250-room Biltmore House, music venues that draw national acts on a weekly basis and lots of craft beer breweries.

The city regularly appears at or near the top in lists of the best cities for the outdoors, best places to live and “Beer City USA.” It’s known as a mountain mecca for artists, musicians, street kids and progressives. In 2000, Rolling Stone dubbed it the “New Freak Capital of the U.S.” Roanoke has been recognized nationally as well, though its plaudits tend to the wonky. It is a six-time “All-America City” as recognized by the National Civic League – more times than any other city.

Old Southwest and the Mountain View neighborhood have won recognition the last two years in “This Old House” magazine’s “Best Old House Neighborhoods” issue. The city came in as 36th best metro for a growing work force by Area Development Magazine.

Perhaps the difference between Asheville and Roanoke can be summed up through their respective arts scenes.

Last month, Asheville’s City Council announced it would cease its partnership with Bele Chere, largely because downtown’s sprawling arts scene has grown bigger and more vibrant than the

Asheville photo courtesy Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau

34-year-old festival.

Meanwhile, in Roanoke, officials still are struggling with how to get people to visit the 5-year-old, $66 million Taubman Museum of Art, which nearly closed last October due to a lack of funds.

Lots of similarities On paper, at least, Roanoke and Asheville aren’t all that different. They are the two biggest metro areas on the Blue Ridge Parkway — urban centers in the western, mountainous regions of Virginia and North Carolina. They’re both midsize cities with populations of just under 100,000. (Roanoke is slightly larger when it comes to the population within city limits, although Asheville’s metropolitan statistical area is larger, 420,918 to 303,429.)

According to an ESRI Business Analyst Study conducted by the Roanoke Regional Partnership, the 2010 per capita income within the Roanoke and Asheville MSAs are within $1,000 of each other. The difference in residents’ median age is less than a year. And the median and average household incomes are within $5,000 of each other.

Both are close to opportunities for hiking, hunting, fishing, river running and rock-climbing. Both have seen new life in their downtowns because of inventive reuse of historic buildings.

All those similarities are one reason why Roanoke Valley economic development officials took it hard when West Coast craft brewery Sierra Nevada considered both cities but chose to build its new $70 million East Coast production plant near Asheville. Several months later, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing, whose company reps visited Roanoke shortly after expanding their distribution into the region, announced it also would locate an East Coast production facility in Asheville.

Those back-to-back economic development deals only stirred more comparisons between the two cities. But how much of Asheville’s mojo is buzz

and how much is real? Is Asheville really more successful than Roanoke economically?

“I think there are a lot of misperceptions,” says Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “We went there on a leadership trip several years ago. I was kind of surprised they were not, as reflected in the data, more of a center of prosperity.”

One of the biggest differences between the two cities is the cost of living.

According to Sperling’s Best Places, the cost of living index in Asheville is 105, compared with 89 in Roanoke. The national average is 100.

That means a person making $50,000 in Roanoke must make $55,032 in Asheville to have the same standard of living, according to CNN Money. In Asheville, on average, groceries cost 12 percent more, housing costs 11 percent more, utilities cost 16 percent more and health care costs 10 percent more than in Roanoke.

In fact, Roanoke has the lowest cost of living of any metro area in Virginia, according to 2012 data.

It also has a lower unemployment rate than Asheville. In 2011 Roanoke’s unemployment rate was 6.6 percent compared with Asheville’s 8.5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Recent figures show that trend continues: February 2013 found Roanoke’s unemployment rate at 6.0 percent compared with Asheville’s 7.8 percent.

Still, economics aside, there’s no doubt Asheville is ahead of Roanoke in several ways. First and foremost, the city spends a lot more money on branding and marketing itself to potential visitors. The $8 million budget for Asheville’s Convention and Visitors Bureau — which, like the Roanoke Valley’s is fueled by revenue from regional lodging taxes — is roughly six times as large as Roanoke’s $1.3 million budget.

That doesn’t count marketing by the Biltmore House — a massive mansion built by the Vanderbilt family that’s been open to tourists since the 1930s —

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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cover story

“It’s only when we’re effective at building our consumer brand that we’ll be successful in building an economic development brand,” says Landon Howard.

and the Great Smoky Mountains, home to one of the most visited national parks in the United States.

Asheville’s branding effort has paid off, directly and indirectly. According to the most recent U.S. Census figures available [from 2007], Ashville’s hospitality industry raked in $560 million in lodging and food service sales —more than twice as much as Roanoke’s $267 million.

While slightly smaller than Roanoke, Asheville had more retail sales per capita, too: $34,768 compared with $21,922 in 2007.

That played a key role in winning over Sierra Nevada and New Belgium. Both cited Asheville’s expansive craft brewing industry as a reason to build there, and both plan to build restaurants into their factories, which will tap into and build upon the city’s tourist base.

But there’s a ripple effect that goes beyond tourism.

Asheville’s tourism is a key component of its broader economic development efforts. That involves not just cooperation between economic development officials and tourism advocates, but follow-up with visitors who come for a vacation and like what they see.

Pam Lewis heads up Venture Asheville, which focuses on attracting entrepreneurs with an emphasis on individuals who have a proven track record. Lewis previously worked with Advantage West — the Asheville area’s version of the Roanoke Regional Partnership — and with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Lewis tells of an entrepreneur from San Diego who spent five years looking for 8

JUNE 2013

a place to relocate on the East Coast. He visited North Carolina last year to explore Raleigh and Charlotte. He then visited Asheville. Impressed, he did some online research, found Lewis’ number and got in touch in December. He now lives in the city.

Landon Howard, executive director at the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, says he buys into the idea of marketing for tourists as an economic development tool. “It’s only when we’re effective at building our consumer brand that we’ll be successful in building an economic development brand,” Howard says.

“If you think of any place in the country people like to travel to, they’ll immediately start talking about the things in that community they like to experience. If you think of Memphis, what do you think of? Grace-

Wayne Strickland says a community’s image counts.

land, barbecue, riverboats. How about Miami? South Beach, Caribbean food, cruise ships. It’s interesting, nobody mentions that Federal Express’s headquarters is in Memphis or that Miami is the banking center for Central and South America.”

For Asheville, the branding comes naturally, if not without effort. The Biltmore House and proximity to the Smokies have made it a prime tourist destination since the mid-20th century, though flatlanders were coming there to escape summer heat long before that. Even the city’s minor-league baseball team is named the Tourists.

Roanoke has had a harder time marketing itself to outsiders. For one thing, the city has little experience as a tourist hotspot.

Its growth began when the railroad arrived in 1881, and its history has played out largely in the industrial sector. In a 2000 story, a Washington Post writer famously labeled Roanoke “a gritty former railroad town.”

Despite the backlash, that description has stuck, not least in the minds of Roanokers themselves.

Poor self-esteem?

The city has issues with self-esteem. Do some online searching for message boards where curious posters ask how it is to live in Roanoke, or what it’s like compared with other regional cities, and you’ll find that locals are often the first to take digs at their hometown.

Wayne Strickland, executive director of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission, says that’s an issue that needs to be addressed. “You can do all the external marketing you want, but if folks in your region have some kind of inferiority complex, there is an issue there,” Strickland says.

“Folks in Asheville — younger people, older people — all seem very happy and are willing to talk to you about the many things to do there. Often in Roanoke it seems there’s not that same kind of positive selfimage, that sense of community.”

Howard of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau agrees self-image plays a major role in how the outside world perceives a city. “What’s important is for us to get people here sold on what we have as a destination,” Howard says.

“They’ll help us do the marketing we need done.”

Howard came to work in Roanoke in 2010 after spending nine years in Alabama with the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau and 15 in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Both of those areas suffered from self-image issues, he says. They have benefitted Photos by Jay Paul

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cover story from tourism campaigns as visitors started telling residents what beautiful cities they had.

To that end, Howard has pushed Roanoke Valley governments to boost their hotel taxes to raise more money for marketing. Additionally, he helped launch the “Virginia’s Blue Ridge” marketing campaign — specifically naming Asheville as a model.

But even without tourism on Asheville’s level, Roanoke isn’t lagging behind when it comes to economic development, especially in the realm of production and distribution. Although Asheville has more retail sales, Roanoke has a big advantage when it comes to wholesale. The U.S. Census reports that Roanoke had $2.2 million in wholesale sales in 2007, compared with $785,000 for Asheville.

Strickland chalks that up largely to Roanoke’s location on Interstate 81, a major freight route, as well as its railroad link between the Port of Virginia in Hampton Roads and points west.

Sam Powers, Asheville’s director of economic development, sees another reason for the discrepancy: Geography. “The Roanoke Valley is much wider than the Swannanoa Valley, so Roanoke tends to attract more manufacturing and distribution outlets,” Powers says. “We just don’t have a lot of wholesale or distribution facilities.”

Heather Johnson grew up in Black Mountain, just outside Asheville. She was working for Superior Modular Projects, based outside of Asheville in Swannanoa, when it was purchased by Roanoke’s Optical Cable Corp. In 2009 she moved to Bonsack, just east of Roanoke.

Johnson saw Asheville shift from industry to tourism as the textile companies went overseas. She also watched the city reinvent itself once outsiders began to move in and reinvigorate downtown, and she was struck when moving to Roanoke that it’s managed to maintain the industry that Asheville seems to have lost.

“You used to find a lot of factories, now it’s a lot of service-oriented positions,” Johnson says. “When I was in Asheville, we’d always kid about how if you’re a restaurant, they were begging you to come in and not the bigger industries. That was a little hard from a local perspective, especially for those who have been in a manufacturing position.

“Coming to Roanoke — Roanoke is a very industry-oriented city. There’s really a lot of jobs here,” she says.

The Roanoke region also doesn’t do badly when it comes to homegrown startup 10

JUNE 2013

Interstate 81 is an economic plus for Roanoke.

Photo courtesy Virginia Department of Transportation

companies, especially considering the New River Valley’s contributions. Virginia Tech graduates have provided a steady flow of tech and web-based firms like Venveo and Koofers.

Lewis says Venture Asheville encourages development of homegrown talent but “really the big attraction for us is the existing entrepreneur looking to do his or her next project.

“When I sit down with a prospective client, rarely do I find someone who’s actually from Asheville,” Lewis says.

Ultimately, the comparisons between Roanoke and Asheville boil down to perception. Asheville is tilted more to tourism while Roanoke is more oriented to industry and distribution, but they’re not that far apart in terms of local government and economic developers.

Look at Asheville’s River Arts District.

There, an enterprising group of artists and developers in search of cheap space reclaimed industrial shell buildings that had fallen into disuse. More and more people began to redevelop older buildings into new businesses and living spaces. They eventually formed a business association and got the city involved.

The River Arts District, which started at the grassroots level, has become Asheville’s Next Big Thing. That’s the district where the New Belgium brewery is building, in part because it wants to be close to downtown and allow its employees to be able to walk or bike to work.

It’s not too dissimilar from what’s happening on Roanoke’s west end, where local and out-of-town developers have reshaped old warehouses into mixed-use projects where apartments are leased before the buildings officially open. Roanoke’s government played a role by encouraging the use of historic tax credits, and it’s now trying to help spur growth farther west with an injection of federal housing dollars.

Both cities are involved in building infrastructure that creates a sense of place.

The question for Roanoke is this: Will citizens buy in?

“You get not only this discussion about how good it is to be there for business purposes, but also this sense that it’s a great place to visit and live,” Strickland says. He’s speaking about Asheville, but he may be talking about Roanoke’s future. “If you can build that perception, then perception becomes reality.”

Sizing up Roanoke and Ashville Roanoke MSA Unemployment rate, Feb. 2013

Asheville MSA

6%

7.8%

Total population (MSA)

303,429

420,918

Per-capita income

$25,346

$24,288

% Owner-occupied housing 2000-2010 population annual growth rate Median age

70.10

73.70

0.60%

1.30%

42.9

43.3

% 25+ with high school diploma

85

87

% 25+ with bachelor’s degree

25

28

Median household income

$50,991

$45,954

Average household Income

$59,076

$55,978

Median disposable income

$39,526

$36,837

Average disposable Income

$47,428

$45,503

Median net worth

$86,792

$75,541

$304,385

$361,236

Average net worth

NOTE: All figures from 2010 unless otherwise noted. Unemployment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are for the cities, not the MSAs SOURCE: ESRI Business Analyst, 2011.

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HEALTH

Feeling the

heat Hot yoga gains a foothold in the Roanoke and New River valleys

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

Hot yoga puts the practice’s stretches and poses into something like a sauna.

F

ifteen people sit cross-legged on thin mats. A wall of mirrors stretches in front of them.

“Take note of the body and where it is this morning,” instructor Susan Beck says in a soothing voice. “As long as you’re breathing, you’re doing yoga.”

The class moves into a series of yoga poses, following Beck’s lead.

This, however, is not a conventional yoga class. Sweat drips down faces.

Hair clings to the backs of necks as participants reach for water bottles and towels. The room’s temperature hovers at 105 degrees Fahrenheit, with 60 percent humidity.

Photo by Alisa Moody

This is hot yoga, a style of the ancient mind-body practice that has taken hold nationwide and in Southwest Virginia.

Much of its allure stems from Bikram Yoga, founded by Bikram Choudhury, an Indian yoga teacher who brought it to the United States in the 1970s. Bikram studios nation-

wide, including one in Lynchburg, teach 26 yoga postures for 90-minute sessions in a room heated to at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit that’s dubbed the torture chamber.

It’s not easy to find hot yoga classes in the Roanoke and New River valleys, though studios that offer them are increasing class times and ROANOKE BUSINESS

13

health

Instructor Courtney Burton leads a class through a hot yoga session at In Balance.

instructors to meet demand. Several yoga studio owners in the Roanoke Valley say they can’t afford to offer hot yoga, because of its high heating costs and maintenance.

Yoga, which combines stretching, breathing and relaxation techniques, is billed as a method for helping people relieve stress while increasing flexibility, strength and health. The number of Americans who practice yoga rose by 5 million from 2008 to 2012, to a total of 20.4 million people, according to a survey conducted for Yoga Journal magazine.

Hot yoga enthusiasts believe that sweating out yoga poses in sweltering temperatures gives an added boost to the benefits offered by the exercises. “It feels like a good detox,” says Tone Dancy of Christiansburg, after a hot yoga class in March at In Balance Yoga Studio in Blacksburg. “I can go a little bit further in my poses.”

Dancy is a yoga instructor at 14

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NRV Wellness in Christiansburg, but he takes hot yoga classes once or twice a week at In Balance because it is one of few Southwest Virginia studios offering them.

Initially, Dancy was wary of hot yoga. Before his first class, he says, he thought the extreme heat was “ridiculous.”

His feelings changed after the class. His body acclimated to the heat, and Dancy says he left feeling “clear.”

Becky Crigger, a Blacksburg native, opened In Balance in 2009 after selling her former yoga studio in Williamsburg and relocating to the New River Valley to live closer to her family.

A hot yoga studio owner in Charlottesville told Crigger that people who live in Southwest Virginia often drove about 2½ hours to Charlottesville for hot yoga classes. A Bikram Yoga studio in Lynchburg also regularly has several Roanoke-area customers, says own-

er Sarah Curl. “I knew Blacksburg was primed for hot yoga,” says Crigger, who rents studio space in Clay Court, a mixed retail and condominium complex on South Main Street.

Apparently, she was right. When renovations began on her space, Crigger put a sign in its window announcing the coming of hot yoga.

Messages about the classes flooded her email inbox during the sixmonth build out. On opening day, 75 people showed up for hot yoga, which varies slightly from Bikrambranded yoga.

Crigger spent $90,000 to renovate the studio, an investment she considers expensive for a yoga business. The overhaul installed spray foam insulation to seal the hot yoga room and used wall paint that prevents mildew. Crigger also outfitted the 1,200-square-foot yoga room with a commercial grade humidifier, two heaters and a fan that sucks out air and draws in fresh air.

Photo by Alisa Moody

The work was worth the expense, Crigger says. Hot yoga is the studio’s most popular class, among a variety of others, including yin yoga and vinyasa. The studio has at least two hot yoga classes a day.

At least half of In Balance’s regular hot yoga participants are Virginia Tech and Radford University students, says Courtney Burton, the studio’s manager. They include Tyler Katocs, a Virginia Tech senior who bought a 10-class package at the student rate of $100. She says hot yoga is more strenuous than other yoga styles because “you sweat more.”

But offering heated yoga is not worth the expense for some Roanoke Valley studio owners.

People often ask about hot yoga classes, but it would cost too much money to maintain a room that fluctuates between extreme heat and cool temperatures, says Debbie Stevens, owner of the Yoga Center in Roanoke. “With hot yoga, you need to redo your whole heating system,” says Stevens, who rents her Grandin Road studio space.

Jill Loftis, who owns Uttara Yoga Studio in Roanoke, says there are not enough people in the Roanoke Valley interested in hot yoga to “shift my business paradigm.”

She offered Saturday evening hot yoga classes at one time, but attendance was low. Also, along with the expense of heating a hot yoga room, cleanup could be a challenge because of increased sweating during classes, Loftis says.

Crigger schedules a 30-minute break between hot and regular yoga classes to cool down or heat up her studio’s sole yoga room. Also, the spray foam insulation keeps the room from losing heat, keeping energy bills low, she says.

Aside from expense, some health professionals believe that hot yoga’s extreme heat may pose risks of overstretching and result in muscle damage and torn cartilage. That’s the opinion of William Broad, a New York Times writer and author of the book “The SciPhoto by Alisa Moody

Before hot yoga came to Blacksburg, some locals were driving to Charlottesville for classes.

ence of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards.”

Crigger says overstretching can occur in any yoga class, particularly

those with quick movements. Hot yoga actually may guard against injury, she says. “Heat is meant to protect the body to warm up the muscles, so that you’re stretching more safely,” Crigger says. “It’s slow and detail-oriented.”

Yet hot yoga may pose other risks for beginners, including dehydration and dizziness. Crigger says people should be well hydrated before taking a hot yoga class and they should avoid caffeine.

Also, women who are pregnant and who never practiced yoga should not attempt hot yoga, along with people with multiple sclerosis because of increased heat sensitivity, Crigger says.

Curl of Lynchburg’s Bikram Yoga first tried hot yoga to heal knee pain from playing collegiate field hockey. “When people first hear about it, it sounds a little crazy,” she says. “I kind of never stopped practicing. I don’t have any pain anymore.”

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AIRPORTS

Destination: the digital age Airport renovation brings physical improvements and 21st-century amenities

by Kevin Kittredge

The Roanoke Regional Airport’s $4.1 million renovation is changing the way the terminal looks and the ways it serves travelers.

I

n 1989, when the Roanoke Regional Airport opened its new main terminal, luggage seldom rolled, unless it was on a cart. Hardly anyone needed to recharge their phones, because phones were back home, sitting in their cradles. Nobody turned on their laptops to get a little work done while waiting for a flight. And nobody checked messages or surfed the Internet on their tablets, because tablets were still something people wrote on with a pen.

Photo by Sam Dean

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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airports

The main terminal’s renovations follow $1.2 million worth of improvements to the airport’s general aviation facilities.

In short, Roanoke’s terminal was built for a different world. A $4.1 million renovation, slated to be finished in late July, is bringing the building into the 21st century.

Gone, to start with, are those treacherous revolving doors in the main entryway, which barely left room for baggage. New and larger double doors will open and close automatically to let luggage-laden travelers through, says Sherry Wallace, the airport’s marketing manager.

Terrazzo tile will provide a smooth walkway from the main entrance to the last gate. (Those bumpy tiles in the check-in and baggage claim areas, however, will remain, at least for now.)

Soothing earth tones and a gently undulating floor pattern should help ease nerves jangled by check-in and security, while also subtly guiding passengers to their gates. There will be restroom upgrades as well, including indirect lighting, makeup counters and new baby-changing stations, with improved access for travelers with disabilities. In addition, new escalators will be equipped with modern safety features.

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But perhaps the biggest change is that the airport will enter the digital age.

Once renovations are complete, every gate will include “technology stations,” with counters, stools and lots of USB ports and wall sockets.

So welcome are the stations that pasTraveler David Pernock charges his iPad at one of the new technology bars.

sengers at one gate already were plugging in before the painting was done and the stools installed, Wallace says.

Advertising has gone digital as well, with flat-screen displays and variable content replacing old-fashioned signs. “I think we have a very good, well-operated airport,” says Bittle Porterfield, chairman of the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission, which runs the largely self-supporting airport. “I think the airport will be a lot nicer when we finish up with this work.”

Or, as airport marketing materials put it: “Our airport will be reborn and custom-tailored to the needs of today’s demanding and tech-savvy business and leisure travelers.”

The main terminal renovations, by general contractor Lionberger Construction of Roanoke, will be paid for out of savings, airport officials say. Additional work to move main concession areas beyond the security checkpoints will begin next year.

It is telling that airport marketing materials tend to mention business travelers first.

“We don’t fly planes,” says an airport brochure, noting the airlines themselves control fares and schedules. “But we do drive business.” Airport surveys show that 56 percent of airport users are on business trips, compared with 39 percent flying for leisure.

Frequent users include Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic, Advance Auto and Norfolk Southern. “Well over 50 percent of our traffic is traveling for business,” confirms Wallace.

That figure doesn’t even include private plane traffic using the airport’s other, smaller terminal, the Business Aviation Center. Run by Landmark Aviation, it caters to private plane owners and corporate clients who travel on company planes.

The terminal also sees the occasional celebrity – singers Elton John and Photos by Sam Dean

airports Tim McGraw have passed through – along with politicians.

Landmark, which rents 493,600 square feet of space from the airport, also provides hangar space for private aircraft as well as aviation fuel and maintenance work for both commercial and private planes, says General Manager John Wilson.

It completed its own $1.2 million terminal renovation project last year. Improvements included a conference room, pilots’ lounge, pilot briefing stations, a new “bistro” with table seating (but no alcohol), new furniture and wireless Internet access throughout. Busy executives can hold meetings at the terminal without leaving the airport.

Wilson ticks off the companies that fly in and out of Roanoke using their own planes: Kroger, Advance Auto, Waffle House, Target, John Deere, Family Dollar, Sheetz and many others. “This is their gateway to the Roanoke Valley,” he says.

He adds that the aviation center, behind the main terminal building, provides services for 52 non-airline “operations,” defined as a takeoff and a landing, every day.

Several top-level managers in Roanoke’s medical community say the Roanoke airport is a lifeline for them. “I’m on a plane every week,” says Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. It conducts research on the human brain, among other things. Institute scientists collaborate with researchers around the globe. The airport is of critical importance in its recruiting efforts as well. “We’re constantly traveling.

We couldn’t survive without it,” says Friedlander.

Patrice Weiss, a physician and chair of OBGYN at Carilion Clinic, echoes those sentiments. She says the airport makes it possible for doctors to participate in national conferences, and for Carilion to bring nationally recognized educators and

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Well over half of the airport’s users are traveling on business.

clinicians to Roanoke. Having such a conveniently located, easy-to-navigate airport also saves time, she adds, because “it allows working

ing to Wallace, it employs about 400 people and generates more than $18 million in direct payroll and tens of

The airport, whose annual operations and maintenance budget is nearly $8 million, receives no tax money aside from a percentage of sales taxes on aircraft sold in Virginia.

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professionals to work, almost up to the last moment” before catching a plane.

The airport, whose annual operations and maintenance budget is nearly $8 million, receives no tax money aside from a percentage of sales taxes on aircraft sold in Virginia, says Wallace. Most of its revenue comes from parking, landing fees and concessions.

The economic impact of the airport is substantial. It springs not only from visitors who spend money while they’re in the Roanoke area, but from the airport itself. Accord-

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Photo by Sam Dean

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EDUCATION HEALTH | Topic area

‘Sacred ground for writers’

Hollins University program ranked among nation’s best

by Donna Alvis-Banks

L

ike many high school seniors, Courtney Flerlage was confused when it came time to choose a college. The Marylander knew she wanted to be a writer but wasn’t clear about the best path to take — until she sought her mother’s advice.

“Mom said, ‘Why don’t you think of some really great writers and find out where they went to college?’” says the now-22-year-old Flerlage. “I was reading Annie Dillard at the time.”

Dillard, she discovered, chose Roanoke County’s Hollins College

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(now Hollins University) where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1967 and her master’s a year later while married to professor and poet Richard Dillard. In 1975 — the same year the couple amicably divorced — Annie Dillard won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfic-

tion with her meditative “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.”

Richard Dillard remains at Hollins and is still, according to biographer Sandra Stahlman Elliott, the person Annie Dillard credits with teaching her everything she knows about writing.

Photo by Sam Dean

This little campus has produced best-selling authors, Pulitzer Prize winners and the current U.S. poet laureate.

Thrilled when she was accepted four years ago, Flerlage recently joined the ranks of Hollins’ alumnae. She received her bachelor’s degree in May, after serving as editor of the acclaimed magazine, Cargoes, one of the college’s three student literary publications. She has much to say about her experience at Hollins but sums it up in one sentence: “I’m going to miss it so much.”

Writers who have gone on to earn fame and fortune understand the young woman’s sentiment. “I Photo by Phylis Rose

Annie Dillard

doubt very much that I would have ever become a writer if I had not gone to Hollins,” best-selling author Lee Smith said recently in an email. “The whole atmosphere was conducive to reading and thinking and creativity — our writing faculty was the best in the world, and our teachers read our student work so seriously, as if it deserved it! ...

The result was that we took ourselves seriously, too — as artists, or writers or scholars — something which most girls were not encouraged to do in those days. I wouldn’t trade anything for my Hollins education.”

Smith, who graduated with Annie Dillard, has won prestigious awards for Southern novels drawn from her own experiences in Grundy, the Southwest Virginia coal mining community where she grew up.

Richard Dillard

was the top choice because of the caliber of writers.”

After being wait-listed and eventually accepted, Wells then worried he might miss out for financial reasons. “I kept telling them, ‘I’m poor. I can’t come here,” he says. A professor, Cathryn Hankla, allayed his fears and helped him find financial aid. “They’ll fight for you,” he adds. “This place is much more attuned to the kind of person I am.”

Although established in 1842 as a co-educational college, Hollins became Virginia’s first women’s college 10 years later. Women still make up the undergraduate population but men are accepted into the master’s program, which has produced such notables as 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor and 1995 National Book Award finalist Madison Smartt Bell. The

Although established in 1842 as a co-educational college, Hollins became Virginia’s first women’s college 10 years later.

Other aspiring writers of Appalachian heritage also find Hollins a welcoming place. Jerry Wells, a 23-year-old M.F.A. candidate from rural Patrick County, was offered spots at graduate schools all over the country but says, “Hollins

current U.S. poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey, is a product of Hollins where her father, Eric Trethewey, is an English professor.

For many years, Hollins’ creative writing program was ranked among the top 20 in the nation by ROANOKE BUSINESS

23

education U.S. News & World Report, but the publication no longer ranks such programs. Since its start, however, Hollins’ creative writing program has brought the school distinction. Countless people have been touched in some way by literature produced by Hollins-educated writers, even if only the bedtime stories of Margaret Wise Brown, who graduated in 1932. Brown is known for hundreds of children’s books including “Goodnight, Moon,” “Big Red Barn” and “The Runaway Bunny.”

How has the university achieved such a reputation as a school for writers?

“In terms of marketing, word of mouth has probably had the great-

Natasha Trethewey

Lee Smith

est impact,” says Hollins spokesman Jeff Hodges. While Hollins has fewer than 1,000 students, Hodges said one-fourth of applicants indicate an interest in creative writing. Annual

Hollins graduate Courtney Flerlage wants to be a writer, so she attended a college that’s produced a lot of them.

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JUNE 2013

tuition is nearly $31,000, but the college offers financial aid, with several scholarships and awards specifically for English or creative writing majors.

In the last school year, six $10,000 scholarships went to aspiring writers and $400,000 in Creative Talent Awards was distributed to 75 undergraduates. Hodges estimates that a quarter to a third of that money was specifically for creative writing.

In 2008, alumna Susan Gager Jackson and her husband, John Jackson, of Far Hills, N.J., announced a gift of $5 million to create the Jackson Center for Creative Writing. The money provides scholarships and supports endowments, including a chair in creative writing first held by Jeanne Larsen. A poet and novelist with a passion for East Asia, Larsen attributes Hollins’ success partly to the “feng shui” of the campus culture.

She believes three specifics make the writing program effective: a supportive atmosphere that encourages writers, a teaching structure that doesn’t follow the traditional hierarchy and a multigenre approach to writing that forces students to expand their skills. Students in the program are urged to write more than one kind of literature.

Photo by Sam Dean

education “Even if you’re going to be a novelist, it’s good to crank out a few poems and work with metaphor,” Larsen explains.

short stories and five novels with a sixth (“The Last First Day”) to be published in September, calls Hollins “a giant” among institutions

The rallying cry at Hollins, Colin Lee says, is “Produce, produce, produce! We learn to build up the habit, the practice of writing.”

M.F.A. candidate Jason Harklerode of Wisconsin appreciates the effort of faculty to “encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself as a writer.”

That sentiment is echoed by Colin Lee of Kentucky. The rallying cry at Hollins, she says, is “Produce, produce, produce! We learn to build up the habit, the practice of writing.”

Current Visiting Professor of Creative Writing Carrie Brown, who has written a collection of

“The whole atmosphere was conducive to reading and thinking and creativity,” says author Lee Smith of Hollins.

for the literary arts. “Hollins feels a little bit to me like sacred ground for writers,” she says. “The work I’m seeing here is highly original.

We’re used to thinking that creativity is at risk in some way. It’s certainly not the case here.”

Brown is so confident that writers coming out of Hollins will find success, she doesn’t blink when parents ask, “What’s my child going to do with an English major?”

“They’re going to do anything and everything,” she tells them.

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INTERVIEW: DELLA WATKINS, executive director, Taubman Museum of Art

‘Museums ought to be free’ The Taubman’s new director is focused on staff, education and financial stability

by Sandra Brown Kelly After 16 years with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Della Watkins is working to rejuvenate the Taubman.

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JUNE 2013

D

ella Watkins, the new executive director of the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, has hit the ground running — literally. She runs along the downtown Roanoke rail tracks to stay fit. Bet on it, though, she’s thinking with every step.

“This job is a lifestyle,” says Watkins, who arrived Feb. 4. Formerly the chief educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, she came to Roanoke with eyes wide open to the Taubman’s circumstances.

During her 16 years at VMFA, Watkins was involved in a partnership program in which she collaborated with and advised the Roanoke art museum. She knew the Taubman has had a tough time in a tough economy and that its detractors were turned off by the futuristic profile of its new building, which opened in November 2008.

The Taubman, designed by California architect Randall Stout, is the successor of the Art Museum of Western Virginia, previously housed in nearby Center in the Square. In 1999, the museum began a campaign to build new quarters to house paintings by American artist Thomas Eakins (1884-1916), photos and other material. After ground was broken in 2005, the original construction estimate of $46 million rose to $66 million. In early 2008, Roanokers Nicholas and Jenny Taubman pledged $15.25 million to the project (they since have given much more), and later that year the museum was renamed in their honor.

Af ter the museum opened, staff ing and maintenance costs greatly exceeded budget estimates, and income dropped below projections. In June 2012, then-president and CEO David Mickenberg said the museum had to have a $20 million

to $30 million endowment to cover onethird of its operating costs. He anticipated a shortfall of $1.4 million in meeting its $3.4 million budget for fiscal year 2012-2013. If the $1.4 million could not be raised, the museum would have to close.

Last October, donations from Advance Auto, which the Taubman family founded, and other business suppor ters, made it possible for the museum to offer free admission and assured its viability through the fiscal year. A new board, headed by Nicholas Taubman, was put in place and a search for a new director began.

Watkins says attendance from October 2012 to year’s end was 106,000 and up to 110,000 by February. In her opinion, “Museums ought to be free.”

Roanoke Business: You were securely entrenched at the Virginia Museum, having been its first certified educator and then its chief of education. Why did a move appeal to you?

Della Watkins: The past five years, I had opportunities to complete three advanced education experiences that forced me to look at my leadership style, at me and at the state of the museum business. Leadership studies at U.Va.’s Darden School of Business, at Georgetown University and at Getty Museum in Los Angeles prepared me for the move. One program involved me getting 20 colleagues and friends to evaluate me and then having my strengths and weaknesses graphed for me to see. I was able to grow as a leader ... I was ready.

I’m an empty-nester for the first time.

My son Zach, 21, is a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and son Alan, who is 24, lives and works in Houston, and I’m single. I put my house in Richmond on the market Jan. 2 and had to be out in 30 days. I had thought I would have one leg in Roanoke and one in Richmond where I’d see my friends, but the abruptness was almost refreshing. I am renting a condo in downtown, but I am house hunting. I want more granite than grass.

Photo by Sam Dean

RB: How can your experience at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts benefit the Taubman?

Watkins: Since I took the job, I’ve already called for VMFA’s assistance in the museum gift shop, for budgeting and merchandising.

When my boss there knew I was taking the job, he said to me: “The good news is we will have a colleague in Roanoke; the bad news is you’ll know what in the collection to ask for.”

I anticipate lots of collaboration. The possibilities are endless; the VMFA has a state mandate to share.

RB: What was one of the questions the board had for you in the hiring process?

Watkins: They said: “What’s your strategy for fundraising?” I told them I cannot raise a dime until I get to know people.

RB: How are you doing that?

Watkins: The socializing is intense. I have been going to show openings, visiting galleries ... good old-fashioned collaboration.

When Hollins University’s museum called to say we had scheduled openings on the same date, I changed our date.

RB: How do the area’s colleges fit into your plans?

Watkins: I see Hollins and Roanoke College as major assets to the museum. Virginia Tech already partners in the facility’s media lab. Right now, we are using adjunct faculty, established by the previous director.

[Ray Kass of Virginia Tech is adjunct curator of Southeastern American Art, and Brian Sieveking of Virginia Western Community College is adjunct curator of Folk and Outsider Ar t.] Each adjunct faculty member is contributing ideas for a fall exhibit, “Reunion,” which will relaunch the museum’s permanent collection.

RB: What else has the museum board said to you?

Watkins: When I arrived, the board gave me six objectives. This year, I am dealing with three: financial stability, staff cohesion, and efficiency and education.

RB: How are you tackling the financial directive?

Watkins: At the Taubman, I see three enterprises that can be revenue streams: the shop, the café and special events. Two of them are directly under my supervision; the café is a contract operation. Right now, we are drawing up guidelines for special events and rentals. The fee structure will be the same for anyone, with some special prices

for nonprofits; we have to be fair. We want money. Someone could even rent the boardroom, and every bride wants to use our stairs. When a group comes here, however, it will be to have a visual art venture.

We won’t take down exhibits in the lobby for a group.

RB: In your past position, you managed a staff of 18, 190 contract teachers and 250 volunteers and interns. What are the statistics for staffing at the Taubman, and how are you building teamwork?

Watkins: We have 19 fulltime, six parttime and 89 volunteers. When I arrived, there were no job descriptions. I want to make sure policies, guidelines and goals are written, understood and shared. I’m making the staff accountable. We have a no-spending policy. I’m to deliver a balanced budget to the board.

RB: What operational changes are you considering or have already carried out?

Watkins: I have required that art be displayed in every space in the museum, and I am looking at why art is not displayed outside. I had the donation box moved from in front of the entrance to another area. Everything visual matters.

One of my personal commitments is making sure this collection and this facility is accessible to all people. We are looking at the times and days we are open, at programs and at exhibitions, even at our labels.

One of the models I know has worked is programming diversity. Our job is to make people think critically, to stimulate them to go back and talk about it. I remember when I took my young sons to an exhibit that included George Segal’s naked figure of a “Woman in Blue.” They wanted to know why she was blue.

We have city and county grants to bring students here, and we are working on programs that will enhance the standards of learning to attract area school systems.

RB: What are your plans for exhibits?

Watkins: We will choose from the permanent collection and bring in exhibits. Overall, the museum has 11 display spaces in its 12,485 square feet. We have as many as five spaces that can change at a time. By staggering schedules, we can guarantee something exciting and new on exhibit all of the time. In the fall, the museum will try its first tour by cell phone. Visitors will be able to use their phones to access the audio for “This Light of Ours.”

I want to develop a three-year portfolio for exhibits and then a five-year portfolio. By having a longer look, we can make complementary exhibitions. We’re moving from a reactionary into a planning model.

RB: You said the board gave you six directives. What are the other three?

Watkins: I’m not willing to share those yet, but I could not be more delighted that education is in the top three.

RB: Do you have favorite artists?

Watkins: John Singer Sargent; his “The Sketchers” is a favorite work of mine, and here at the Taubman, his “Norah” is a favorite. I also love any artist I’m currently studying; I’m a serious info junkie. I went to school to be an art historian. I wanted all that information, but then I learned I didn’t want to write it; I wanted to teach it.

RB: You are an artist. What type of art do you do?

Watkins: I have been a painter on and off throughout my life when home, job and other commitments did not steal that space.

I am currently fascinated with producing collages that include my paintings; it may be my re-nesting. I like interiors, landscape. I like to start with one doodad and create around it.

I’ll tear up a painting and use strips from it.

I tried portrait painting — completing a “bigger than life size” work of my two sons — impressionistic but you could still recognize them — and decided it was not my thing … I worked too large and had too much on the canvas.

RB: I know you were familiar with the Taubman collection, but how are you getting to know it better?

Watkins: Every day, I read the collection list; every week, I visit the vault … it’s like my family.

RB: In addition to the changes, what else needs to happen to get the Taubman into a really good spot?

Watkins: I am trying to meet our nonprofit partners, such as the Link Museum and Opera Roanoke. I believe our strength is in working together; divided, we die. We are doing an interesting partnership with Center in the Square during its grand reopening.

And I want to help every member understand how to contribute to the total picture.

The campaign I’m on right now is: Taubman Museum is your place to be … as a guest at an event or stopping for a glass of wine in Norah’s Café, or to just sit and think.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

27

LIFESTYLES

Cooking classes Taking out the aura, putting in the fun

by Mindy Buchanan-King

Gourmet Pantry owner Roya Gharavi teaches cooking classes because, “Eating at home is so much healthier and cheaper and better.”

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JUNE 2013

L

et’s face it: cooking classes generate a lot of misconceptions: They’re only for advanced cooks. They’re too expensive. They use ingredients that can’t be found. They’re only for women.

In reality, area chefs and business owners say classes leave people more confident about their cooking. “Our cooking class is an interactive experience without too many bells and whistles,” says Aaron Deal, executive chef of River and Rail Restaurant, located in the Crystal Spring neighborhood of Roanoke. “I’m excited about them; they’re meant to give a glimpse into what we do.”

Deal’s classes are his newest endeavor and reflect his personality and the restaurant’s vibe: easygoing and approachable. Limited to six students, classes are based on old-school cooking shows. “I was inspired by ‘How to Boil Water’ and ‘Molto Mario’ [Food Network shows hosted by Tyler Florence and Mario Batali, respectively],” explains Deal. “They showed how to do everything. It was so intimate. The people there could try this, taste that.”

Deal focuses on the roots of Southern cuisine – the basis of River and Rail’s menu. Using Southern staples such as deviled eggs, ham biscuits and fried pastries, Deal gives students the basic tips needed to re-create some of his best dishes at home with minimal effort and easily found ingredients. “It’s all about simplicity,” he says. “We’re getting back to the basics. It’s simple Southern: We’re taking the aura out of cooking.”

While Deal doesn’t allow all the students into his kitchen— (a cramped, galley setup that will leave people wondering how Deal’s team manages to turn out meals with ease and consistency), he will consider inviting a few behind the countertop to take a turn in his shoes.

Deal’s team likes to showcase the best food and spirits Virginia has to offer. From farmers who regularly appear at the Roanoke City Market to freshly baked bread brought in from Roanokebased Bread Craft to Foggy Ridge Cider in Dugspur, Deal has formed relationships with local purveyors to create his Southern menu. By extension, students in his cooking classes will have the chance to learn about produce and meats raised by local farmers.

At the end of each course, students take home not only a full belly but also Photo by Alisa Moody

a recipe book and a bottle of wine.

Above all, Deal hopes students will leave with the confidence to translate class recipes into their personal tastes.

“The end goal is to take a base recipe that you can turn into anything you want,” says Deal. “I hope [the students] will do something with what I show them.”

At The Landing at Smith Mountain Lake, husband-and-wife team Bruno and Tiffany Silva offer cooking classes that reflect their personalities: lively and personable. Bruno is the Peruvian-born executive chef of the restaurant and his self-titled pub (Bruno’s GastroPub) and food truck (Bruno’s GastroTruck). Tiffany is the owner/general manager and a California/Colorado transplant.

“We’ve been doing cooking classes for four years, and it’s been successful,” says Tiffany. “You can see what’s going on in our kitchen, and it’s a way for us to connect with our clientele base.”

The Silvas hold five three-hour classes during the fall and winter months. (“I won’t lie; sometimes it’s more like four hours,” says Tiffany.)

Capped at 20 students, they focus on a specific menu and have included Italian meals, seafood, poultry and basics such as stocks and sauces.

Part social experience, part educational exercise, the classes sell out quickly. They include a three-course dinner, a copy of the recipes used that day and a generous supply of wine.

Often, Tiffany says, students get a bonus course when Bruno is working on a new recipe he wants to add to the menu. Designed to be enjoyed by every level of cook, the classes are interactive and participants may get their hands dirty.

“My husband has a crazy sense of humor. We’ve had students kill lobsters. We’ll all start laughing at each other,” Tiffany says. “It’s a very fun, relaxed environment.”

The Silvas generally see couples who come to learn a few cooking tricks together, husbands who have never cooked and occasionally parents with their teenagers.

During the summer, the Silvas capitalize on a favorite warm-weather American treat: a cold glass of beer.

Cooking class sampler River and Rail Restaurant

www.riverandrailrestaurant.com.

Summer classes are currently scheduled June 9, June 23 and July 7 at 6 p.m. There may be additional dates in the fall. $60 per person per class.

The Landing at Smith Mountain Lake

www.thelandingsml.com Cooking classes are held during fall and winter on selected Sundays, beginning at 1 p.m. $75 per person per class. Food-and-beer-pairing classes are held at Bruno’s GastroPub on selected summer dates. $35 per person per class.

Gourmet Pantry

www.gourmetpantryonline.com Gourmet Pantry cooking classes are held on selected dates throughout the year and begin at 6 p.m. $45 to $60 per person, per class. Food is served, and participants receive recipes and a 10 percent discount throughout the store the night of the class, excluding wine and items already on special.

The Master Food Volunteer Program

http://www.fcs.ext.vt.edu/fnh/mfv/ index.html Sponsored by the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Fees vary depending on the program.

Craft brewers ranging from Blue Mountain in Afton to Fullsteam in Durham, N.C., have shown up to conduct what the Silvas refer to as Sunday School. Held at Bruno’s GastroPub, these events pair food with beer.

“Our classes make for a relaxing afternoon,” says Tiffany. “I think people appreciate what we do.”

In Blacksburg, Gourmet Pantry owner Roya Gharavi oversees some of the most popular cooking classes in the New River Valley. Gharavi accepts a maximum of 14 students in classes that range from gluten-free dishes to sauces and Cuban or Mediterranean cuisine.

In one of her most popular classes, she teaches basic knife skills, including how to pick the perfect knife and sharpen it at home. Gharavi demonstrates each chop, dice and julienne before letting students take a turn at individual cutting boards. She patiently guides them in how to correctly hold a knife while reminding them to tuck in their fingers. Gharavi regales her students with personal stories and even shares her tip for minimizing tears while chopping an onion: turn on the faucet. As Gharavi explains, water calms her.

Gharavi’s classes, which run 2 to 2 ½ hours, are based around quick and easy-to-replicate recipes and techniques. “I really put in the time and effort to let [students] know how to use ingredients or skills,” says Gharavi.

“Eating at home is so much healthier and cheaper and better. I use all fresh, organic ingredients. I show you where to find the ingredients in town, how to go shopping on the weekends and how to prepare meals in advance to make your life easier.”

Gharavi often hosts private cooking classes at Gourmet Pantry, from birthday bashes to bachelorette parties to the Virginia Tech football coaching staff. “Coach Beamer does private classes here. I’m his personal chef,” she laughs as she and another store employee try to recall which fish he recently wanted to learn to cook.

From a business perspect ive, chefs say area cooking classes are a win-win situation. By supporting a local business, participants are supporting the local economy. Plus, learning to cook at home is a skill set that’s in demand.

For those looking to go the more professional route, there are training opportunities in the area, including culinary arts certificates and an associate degree from Virginia Western Community College, the Virginia Tech hospitality and tourism management degree and the National Business College tourism and hospitality associate degree.

Ab ove a l l, chefs say p e ople shouldn’t feel intimidated. As Julia Child, who did not start cooking until she was 32, once said, “No one is born a great cook; one learns by doing.”

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VY UN VY UNIVERSITY U UNI N VER NIVER RSIT ITY R RELATIONS EELA LA ATI TIO T IO ONS NS FUL FULL ULLL P U PAGE AGE A AG GEE G

I M PA C .

The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. Impacting Virginia and the World.

With 8 million new cases of brain disorders in the United States each year creating a total economic impact of $995 billion in direct and indirect costs, it’s no wonder that the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute is developing a leading-edge brain research program. Institute scientists are inventing new strategies for preventing, diagnosing, treating, and curing such challenges as autism, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and nicotine addiction. In addition, they are conducting the Roanoke Brain Study, a first-of-its-kind initiative that explores how people’s genetics, environment, and connections to others affect brain development. Through their work, these researchers are discovering fundamental processes of life and solving major health issues facing people throughout Virginia and the world. We call that impact. To learn more, visit www.thisisthefuture.com.

Brett Lemon, owner, Brett Winter Lemon Photography

Next ROANOKE

The creative life Brett Lemon carves out a career by combining music and photography

Brett Lemon

by Kevin Kittredge

W

hen college professor Richard Florida conceived his now-famous 2002 book on creativity and economic development, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” he must have had someone like 29-year-old Brett Winter Lemon in mind.

The lifelong Roanoker is a freelance photographer and rock musician whose busy lifestyle includes offices in Roanoke and Raleigh, photo shoots in Manhattan and music gigs in Boston, New York and Washington.

In addition to his business, Brett Winter Lemon Photography, he plays guitar for the band My Radio. Its song, “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” was featured in the 2010 movie “The Joneses,” starring David Duchovny and Demi Moore.

Lemon is a 2002 graduate of Northside High School and has a degree in media arts and design from James Madison University. Roanoke Business caught up with him recently in his hotel room in lower Manhattan via Skype.

Photo courtesy Brett Lemon

Roanoke Business: Tell us about the work you do.

Lemon: I play music in My Radio. That’s the musician side.

Then I do commercial and advertising photography as well as editorial photography for a living.

RB: Who do you work for as a photographer, and what kind of photographs do you take?

Lemon: I’m in New York City this week, and last night we had a shoot. It was for a vacuum cleaner company. In Roanoke, I’ve worked with Carilion and a lot of the law firms …

I work with BASF in Raleigh.

It’s a chemical company. John Deere, Yamaha. A mix of different things. Some of it’s on the advertising/marketing side; some of it’s on the editorial side, for magazines and things like that. It’s a wide variety. I can’t really define what I do as a commercial photographer because it changes every day.

Probably the forte of what I do is portraiture and environmental portraits and sort of

along that line. I did a project last year and the year before called “Faces of Roanoke.” It’s a portrait documentary, all black and white. The book should be coming out within, like, four months. It’s all portraits of people in Roanoke doing anything to everything, little to big — the movers and shakers to people who are selling things on the market.

RB: How does playing guitar in My Radio impact your career as a commercial photographer?

Lemon: They really actually work amazingly, perfectly well together. We don’t play that much. I book for photography probably one to two weeks out. Most of the music things that we do are booked out pretty far in advance. I would say typically six months at least.

So I have on the calendar when we’re playing New York and D.C. and Boston and can book photography around it.

RB: Do you plan to keep living in Roanoke?

Lemon: Yeah. Roanoke’s amazing. I don’t have any plans to leave, by any means. I’ve lived downtown in Roanoke for almost eight years now, and it’s incredible to watch it grow and see how things have changed. I’m fortunate enough to be able to go and work in different locations and also come back to Roanoke and have that as my home.

RB: Do you think Roanoke is a good place for a young person to start a business?

Lemon: Yeah, I think it’s really great to start a business in Roanoke. It’s really easy because people, a) they’re friendly, and b) you’re only one or two degrees away from who you need to talk to. So you can make things happen really fast. It’s super welcoming in the sense of the creative culture and how it’s growing and the people who live in Roanoke.

It’s really great.

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Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT

Roanoke Regional Chamber recognizes Chamber Champions and event sponsors CHAMBER CHAMPIONS

EVENT SPONSORS

BB&T

2013 Business & Technology Expo 2.0

Brown Edwards

Gold Sponsors Clear Channel Media WSLS 10

Blue Ridge Copier Cox Business Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LifeWorks REHAB (Medical Facilities of America) MB Contractors rev.net Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC Trane Woods Rogers Attorneys at Law

Silver Sponsors Blue Ridge Copier The Homestead Magic City Ford nTelos Roanoke Civic Center The Roanoke Times TPS Displays

Valley Bank VEDP International Trade Bronze Sponsors Advance Auto Parts Cox Business Downtown Roanoke Inc. Electronic Systems Inc. First Team Inc. MFX – Roanoke Rockydale Quarries Corp.

Pepsi Bottling Group Business After Hours Sponsor Note: Chamber Champions are members who support the Roanoke Regional Chamber through year-round sponsorships in exchange for year-round recognition.

Spilman Thomas & Battle Ovations Catering

New members join Chamber The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce welcomes these new members and encourages you to support their organizations: Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia BRM LLC Edward D. Jones & Co., Danny W. Lugar

Firefli Media LLC Green Roofs of VA Inc. Kissito Healthcare Natural Bridge Inn & Conference Center

NRV Business and Technology Solutions LLC Virginia Lottery YMCA of Roanoke Valley

Member news & recognitions Advance Auto Parts, a leading automotive aftermarket retailer of parts, batteries, accessories and maintenance items, has announced several organizational changes. George Sherman has joined the company as president.

Charles Tyson, who currently serves as senior vice president, merchandising and marketing, has been promoted to executive vice president, merchandising, marketing and supply chain. Jim Durkin will assume the new role of senior vice president, commercial business.

Tammy Finley, who most recently served as vice president, employment counsel and government affairs, has been promoted to senior vice president, human resources.

American HealthCare, the Roanokebased management company for 16 Heritage Hall Healthcare and Rehabilita-

tion Centers throughout Virginia, has announced the promotion of Tommy East to president and C E O. E a s t , w h o h a s served as the company’s East chief operating officer since 2010, is a 31-year veteran of elderc are, h aving m a n a g e d a ssisted living and rehab facilities and worked in home health and hospice.

Dowdy The company has also announced the promotion of Greg Dowdy to chief operating officer. Dowdy joined American HealthCare in 2011 to oversee the company’s operations in eastern Virginia.

Local students and employers will soon have access to training in the

latest security techniques to defeat “hackers” and other threats to security and privacy, thanks to a new associate degree program that has been launched at the Roanoke Valley Campus of American National University. The Associate of Science in Cyber Security degree program will prepare students for entry-level careers as computer infrastructure and network security administrators, as well as several related professional certifications.

The architectural firm Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee of Raleigh and Asheville, N.C., has joined Clark Nexsen, an architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Norfolk with branch offices in Roanoke and seven other cities. The merger creates a 500-plus multidisciplined firm including architects, engineers, interior designers, and

landscape architects.

The board of directors of CMR Institute has elected Dr. Anthony Slonim as chairman. He is a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Slonim University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s Medical School, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine and Mackie chief medical officer for Barnabas Health in West Orange, N.J. The board also named its former chair, Jef f Mac k ie, chairman emeritus in Muelenaer recognition of his many

ROANOKE BUSINESS

33

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce years of dedicated service to the institute.

Dr. Andre A. Muelenaer Jr., has also joined the board of directors of CMR Institute. His medical career spans 36 years, including 27 years of active and reserve duty in the Army Medical Corps.

He holds academic appointments at the Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine, Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science, and the University of Virginia.

D’Ardenne Associates, a leader in ISO management standard services, training and auditing, has named Sue Snyder president as part of the company’s long-term Snyder growth strategy. Snyder joined D’Ardenne Associates in 2010. The company has also promoted Elizabeth Steuart to vice president.

The Downing Group of Merrill Lynch has announced that Lisa Angle, financial adviser, has earned the certified financial planner certification awarded by Angle the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. She also earned the chartered retirement planning counselor designation from the College for Financial Planning.

Richard C. Rakes, a retired partner with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, has been chosen to receive the 2013 Frank W. “Bo” Rogers Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award by the Roanoke Bar Association.

The award was established to recognize an outstanding lawyer who embodies the highest tradition of personal and professional excellence in Southwest Virginia. The association also chose Kristin B. Johnson, a law clerk in the U.S. District Court, as the 2013 Young Lawyer of the Year.

Kitchens

Hughes

Hillis

HoneyTree Early Learning Centers has announced the following staff changes: Kayla Kitchens has been promoted to assistant director of HoneyTree Early Learning Center’s 460 location; Wendy Hughes has been named office manager of McLeod Enterprises; and Michelle Hillis has been named executive director of the McLeod Family Foundation.

The Jefferson College of Health Sciences (JCHS), an affiliate of Carilion Clinic, presented the proceeds from its inaugural 5K Riverside Run & Wellness Walk to the JCHS Alumni Association and 34

JUNE 2013

SARA Inc. (Sexual Assault Response and Awareness Inc.) during a ceremony on the JCHS campus at Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital March 21. A total of $6,149 was raised from the activity.

Neathawk Dubuque & Packet (ND&P) has announced two new positions – controller and director of account service – to strengthen its management. The firm has named Ward Michelle Antolina Ward as controller. She comes to ND&P from Bizport LTD and The McCammon Group LTD. Todd Foutz, executive vice president in the company’s Roanoke Foutz office, is assuming the title of director of account service in addition to his current role to oversee the agency’s growing client account service requirements.

Hubard

Huff

development public policy.

The Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has announced the appointment of C. Denise Hayes as the new CEO for the region’s Hayes largest organization for homeless and unwanted animals. Hayes, a longtime foster and advocate for the RVSPCA, has most recently been serving as chief operating officer at Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline.

SERVPRO, a disaster recovery and cleanup franchise system, has signed on as a national sponsor of the American Red Cross Ready Rating program, a free, web-based program designed to help businesses, organizations and schools become better prepared for emergencies, according to Quinn Mongan, owner of SERVPRO of Montgomery and Pulaski Counties in Salem.

Mussselwhite Board

Fendley

Morris

Killian

Chrisley

Ostaseski

The Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group has announced the 2012 award winners.

They are: Thomas M. Hubard, 2012 overall top producer; Matt Huff, largest sales transaction; Bryan Musselwhite and Cindy Fendley, largest lease transaction; Darrell Morris, largest number of sales transactions; and Peter Ostaseski, largest number of lease transactions in 2012.

David Flagler has been named executive director for the Roanoke Center for Animal Control and Protection (RCACP). This selection was made after an extensive search process conducted by the RCACP Executive Committee, which is made up of representatives from the City of Roanoke, Roanoke County, the Town of Vinton and Botetourt County.

Ann Blair Miller, director of project management for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, has been elected 2013 president of the Virginia Economic Miller Developers Association.

The organization represents professionals in economic, industrial and community development throughout Virginia and serves as an educational and networking resource for those shaping economic

Ferguson

Hilbish

Shenandoah Life Insurance has announced the promotion of five executives to the position of second vice president.

They are: Bill Board, information systems and services; David Killian, corporate actuary; Marci Chrisley, tax and treasury services; Pam Ferguson, legal services; and Steve Hilbish, investments.

Shenandoah Life Insurance has announced the promotion of Andrew Vipperman to vice president, controller. Vipperman joined the company in Vipperman 1993 within the company’s finance department.

part of a regional partnership with the University of Maryland and George Washington University, aims to teach researchers how to commercialize technology.

Virginia Tech’s undergraduate program in financial planning stands out nationally, thanks to its teaching and advising strengths, placement success, and active group. The program, which educates financial planners and prepares them for Certified Financial Planner certification, has received several national recognitions, including being listed among the top 25 programs in Financial Planning magazine and cited as one of the top two programs in Financial Advisor magazine.

George E. Russell and Winston and Marilyn Samuels are the 2012-13 inductees into the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Hall of Fame. Their selection is the result of their outstanding service to the college, university and the agricultural and life sciences communities. Russell, vice president emeritus for alumni relations, served Virginia Tech for more than 27 years. Winston Samuels completed his master’s degree and doctoral degree in animal science. Marilyn Samuels earned her undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech and her master’s degree in psychology at Radford University.

Ralph D. Badinelli, professor of business information technology in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, was recently named Badinelli the Ralph Medinger Lenz Professor in Business by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The Ralph Medinger Lenz Professorship, established in 1988 through a gift from Ferguson Enterprises, recognizes excellence in scholarly research.

Susan Phillips Bari, a Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech alumna and a New York City real estate agent and author, gave the Wells Fargo Distinguished Lecture on March 21. Her talk was titled “So You Want to Bari Live in Manhattan.” She is an agent at Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York.

A Virginia Tech team is working on a better way to build a startup, one that France Belanger, professor of accounting and information takes less time and money to try new systems in the Pamplin ideas and find customers. OrganizCollege of Business at ers say the approach, already being Virginia Tech, was recently applied in a Virginia Tech classroom, named the R.B. Pamplin will create economic opportunities in Professor of Accounting Blacksburg, in Arlington and across and Information Systems the state. The team of engineers and economic development specialists Belanger by the Virginia Tech Board springs from the Innovation Corps of Visitors. Established in 1994, the R.B. initiative announced in February. The Pamplin Professorship in Accounting and National Science Foundation program, Information Systems is one of several

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT named professorships established with part of the $10 million gift presented to the college by the Robert B. Pamplin family.

Robert M. Brown, professor of accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business, was recently named the Curling Professor in Brown Accounting and Information Systems by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The award was established in 2008 through a gift from Doug C. Curling, who earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting from Virginia Tech.

John Brozovsky, associate professor of accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business, has been appointed the Wayne Brozovsky E. Leininger Senior Faculty Fellow by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The fellowship was established by friends of Wayne E. Leininger to honor the former faculty member and department head.

Deborah Cook, professor of business information technology in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, has been named the Verizon Cook Professor in Business Information Technology by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

W illi a m A . D a v i s , professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title Davis “professor emeritus” by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Virginia Tech Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee has announced the appointment of Gura Ghosh as vice president for Outreach Ghosh and International Affairs.

Ghosh, who has been Virginia Tech’s associate vice president of international affairs since 2011, began his appointment as vice president on April 25.

Jon Greene has been named associate director for strategic planning and development at the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Greene Virginia Tech. Greene came to the university in 2009 as the institute’s program manager.

Scot t Hughes has been appointed annual giving officer for Virginia Tech’s Office of University Development. His primary responsibilities Hughes are to build relationships through one-on-one visits with prospects and donors in support of the university’s annual giving program and Virginia Tech’s overall fundraising efforts.

Rodney Irvin has been selected to serve as the director of employee relations in the Department of Human Resources Office of Equity and Access at Irvin Virginia Tech. He has been serving as the interim director since the retirement of Pat Burton in January.

It is well known that financial analysts can move stock prices through their investment recommendations and other information they publicly Kecskes release. In new research that underscores the importance of such analysts to firms, Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business assistant professor Ambrus Kecskes and co-author Francois Derrien, of business school HEC Paris, show that the loss of analyst coverage of a firm hurts its investment and financing.

Noreen M. Klein, associate professor of marketing in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of “associate professor emerita” by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The Urban Affairs Ass o cia tion ( U A A) h a s recognized Paul Knox and Theodore Koebel, faculty members in Urban Affairs and Planning in the Knox College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, with the UAA Service Honor Roll Award. The UAA Service Honor Roll Award recogKoebel nizes those members who have contributed outstanding service to the association.

Richard K. McCoy has been named director of parking and transportation for the Division of Administrative Services at Virginia Tech. In this McCoy role, he will be responsible for providing strategic leadership to the Office of Parking Services, Fleet Services and Alternative Transportation.

Christine Tysor has been named program manager at the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech for its research thrusts Tysor devoted to national security and to cognition and communication.

Tysor will work closely with national security thrust leader Jon Greene, the institute’s associate director for strategic planning and development, and with cognition and communication thrust leader Jeff Reed, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and director of Wireless@VT. The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors recently selected new undergraduate and graduate student representatives who will serve as liaisons between the Wood student body and the board starting July 1. The student representatives are appointed to one-year terms. The undergraduate student representative is Erica Wood of Cumming, Warrington Ga., a junior majoring in international studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The graduate student representative is Nick Warrington of Wellston, Ohio, a master’s degree student in educational leadership and policy studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman gave the Cutchins Distinguished Lecture at Virginia Tech on March 28.

Her lecture, titled “Women, Whitman Leadership, Power and Politics: Overcoming Obstacles,” offered her perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing women today in every aspect of American society and what it takes to succeed in the public and private sectors.

Xie Xin, of Shanghai, China, a graduate student in interior design in the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies, was the winner Xin in a recent interior design competition sponsored by the Bienenstock Furniture Library of High Point, N.C. She will receive $10,000 to continue her studies in interior design and a one-year student membership in the American Society of Interior Designers.

Virginia Western Community College’s Lindsey Narmour, a second-year student from Ferrum, has been named a 2013 Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team Gold Scholar. Each gold scholar receives a $1,500 scholarship and

a special medallion. Narmour was one of approximately 1,800 students from across the nation nominated for the award.

Virginia Western Community College’s Brown Library is launching the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Cultures initiative.

As the only Virginia community college to earn this grant, and one of just 842 grantees nationwide, Virginia Western will promote knowledge and understanding of Muslim beliefs and practices and the cultural heritage associated with Islamic civilizations.

T homas R. B agby, president of Woods Rogers PLC, has been installed as 2013 president of the Virginia Bar Association, the state’s oldest and largBagby est voluntary organization serving the legal profession. Bagby is the sixth Woods Rogers attorney since 1928 to lead the Virginia Bar Association.

Woods Rogers PLC has pro m ot e d J. A l d e n English and Michael J. Hertz to principals of the firm. English, in the firm’s Charlottesville ofEnglish fice, focuses his practice in the areas of real estate transactions, finance, corporate formation and governance, and mergers and acquisitions. Hertz, based in Roanoke, practices in the firm’s corporate Hertz and business law and intellectual property sections, focusing his expertise on corporate and intellectual property matters for both closely held and public corporations.

Richard C. Maxwell III, an at torney with Woods Rogers PLC, has been named a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Maxwell Maxwell is one of 39 nominees around the nation honored and recognized for their professional excellence and exceptional contributions to the fields of bankruptcy and insolvency.

J. Lee E. Osborne, an attorney with Woods Rogers PLC, has been named a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. The designation recognizes excellence in the practice of law and Osborne public service. Osborne joins 412 other attorneys across Virginia with the title. He joins other Woods Rogers attorneys who have been named fellows: James W. Jennings, Jr., Talfourd H. Kemper, Mark D. Loftis and Heman A. Marshall III.

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SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Partnership

News from the Roanoke Regional Partnership Buzz grows for Blue Ridge Marathon The Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon continues to make a name for itself all over the world. The marathon — dubbed “America’s Toughest Road Marathon” — was recently named to The Weather Channel’s “World’s 15 Toughest Marathons,” USA Today’s “10 Best Places to Enter a Running Event in April” and Wenger’s “7 Hardest Marathons in the World” rankings.

The April 20 marathon, managed by the Roanoke Regional Partnership, was open to runners, walkers and kids with options for full-, half-, and walking half-marathons, plus the YMCA Kids Marathon.

The Weather Channel ranking highlighted the Blue Ridge Marathon’s 7,200 feet of elevation change, tough uphill climbs and challenging downhills. The race is on the list with the Lake Tahoe Marathon, the Great Wall Marathon in China, the North Pole Marathon and the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado.

In USA Today’s “10 Best” list, the marathon is ranked alongside races in Paris, Guam, Edinburgh and Boston. “One of the country’s most challenging road marathons has the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway as its setting, so even when you’re huffing and puffing toward the finish line, you’ll have mother nature to inspire you,” the article says.

Wenger, maker of the genuine Swiss army knife, ranked the Roanoke Region race with other prestigious events such as the Everest Marathon, Inca Trail Marathon, North Pole Marathon and Great Wall Marathon.

Regional job creation accelerates in 2012 The number of jobs in the Roanoke Region continues to grow.

Roanoke gained 2,200 jobs in 2012, according to newly revised figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a significant increase over the 1,000 jobs gained in 2011.

According to the data, the gains were mostly in health care, professional and business services, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and transportation/utilities.

The newly revised data was derived from benchmarking monthly survey data to actual unemployment insurance filings through the third quarter of 2012 to improve the accuracy of the statistically sampled data, which showed much weaker job creation activity than the census of unemployment insurance filings suggested.

In 2012, the Roanoke Regional Partnership assisted eight new locations and five expansions of existing business, which will create 549 jobs when in full operation. Overall, partnership projects supported more than 1,150 jobs in 2012, adding critical momentum to the continued recovery of Roanoke’s economy.

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Partnership is region’s information resource The Roanoke Regional Partnership is the area’s data resource. It responds to hundreds of information requests from investors, media and individuals who need data quickly. The number of requests for information is increasing annually. In 2012, the partnership responded to 282 inquires – a 23 percent increase from 2011.

The research staff conducts the quarterly regional Cost of Living study that is part of the national study sponsored

by C2ER and used by businesses, consultants and individuals. Staff also analyzes critical issues that affect regional prosperity and shares the information across media and audiences.

These studies are available to you as an investor.

Roanoke Region’s Competitive Position in Real Estate — Compared real estate product available for business recruitment in Roanoke versus competing regions.

Regional Innovation Analysis — Looked at innovation metrics for the Roanoke and Blacksburg region and compared them with similar-size regions and research universities.

Best Practices in Sustainability in Midsize Regions — Surveyed best practices in selected midsize and small U.S. regions.

Where Is Tomorrow’s Workforce? — A study of supply and demand in technical occupations and its impact on the region’s industry.

Canadian publication highlights five reasons to love Roanoke There’s a lot to love about the Roanoke Region, according to a Canadian publication.

“Vaughan Today” recently published an article titled, “Five Reasons to Love Virginia’s Roanoke Valley.”

“Standing on the top of Mill Mountain in the City of Roanoke, one gets a panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the calmly flowing Roanoke River,” Liz Campbell wrote.

What makes the region so easy to love?

The article cited five things: Wineries, the Blue Ridge Parkway, downtown Roanoke, The Hotel Roanoke and shopping at the City Market and Black Dog Salvage.

“Vaughan Today” is published monthly (30,000 copies) by Multicom Media Services Ltd. and is printed and distributed by NEWSWEB Printing and Distribution Inc. in Toronto.

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