Spring 2021
INSIDE THIS ISSUE The Nose Knows
Canines get a good education here
From the Grill to the Classroom Culinary students know their stuff
2 living 2 suffolk • Slice of Smithfield
SMITHFIELD FARMERS MARKET
2021 SEASON To You & Our Vendors
The market will be following all recommended guidelines for hand washing, masks and social distancing. All dates are subject to change or cancellation and will be announced on the Farmers Market’s Facebook page.
MARCH 6: Opening Day 13: St. Patrick’s Day Specialty Market
Farmers Market 9 - 12, BSV parking lot, 115 Main St. Specialty Markets 9 - 12:30, BSV lot, 115 Main St. Pickers Markets 9 - 1, 2nd Sat.’s, April - Nov., Joyner Field Carrollton Midday Farmers Markets
APRIL
3: Easter Specialty Market Clip & Save this Calendar!
10 - 2, Wed.’s, Old Point National Bank, Hwy. 17 Fall Vintage Market 9-4, Sat., Sept. 25, Main Street Mistletoe Marketplace 3 - 8, Sat., Nov. 20, Main Street Carrollton Christmas Market 10 - 3, Sat., Nov. 27, Hwy. 17
NEW EVENT! Second Saturday Art Show
April - Sept., 9 - 1, May & Oct., 9 - 3, 228 Main Street Sponsored by the Arts Center @319 & Smithfield Tourism.
MAY
JUNE
JULY
5: Carrollton Market season begins 8: Mother’s Day Specialty Market 29: Memorial Day Specialty Market
19: Father’s Day Specialty Market
3: Independence Day Specialty Market
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
11: Grandparent’s Day Specialty Market 25: Fall Vintage Market, Main Street
30: Halloween Trick or Treat Specialty Market
20: Mistletoe Marketplace, Main Street 27: Carrollton Christmas Market
AUGUST 25: Carrollton Market season ends
DECEMBER
4 & 18: Christmas Specialty Markets 4 & 5: Christmas in Smithfield
(event date subject to change/cancellation)
11: Christmas Parade
|Facebook: Smithfield Farmers Market|Manager, Teresa Frantz|tfrantz@isleofwightus.net|757.759.4118
Slice of Smithfield • 3
Savor the secrets of
Surry County, Virginia
Visit Hog Island Wildlife Management Area
Let us surprise you . . .
Experience the free ferry ride to Surry from Williamsburg; discover the site of the first Colonial uprising, and the rest of the story of Pocahontas. Feel the exciting heartbeat of Native American drums and taste authentic smoked country ham and non-GMO, pesticide-free fresh produce. Which one of our secrets will become your passion?
Discover all the “Secrets of Surry” at
www.surrycountytourism.com
4 • Slice of Smithfield
EDITORIAL Tracy Agnew Editor
Nate Delesline Writer Stephen Faleski Writer Loukia Borrell Contributing Writer Jen Jaqua Photographer
PRODUCTION Troy Cooper Designer
ADVERTISING
Lindsay Richardson Regional Sales Manager Amanda Gwaltney Marketing Consultant Mitzi Lusk Marketing Consultant
ADMINISTRATION Steve Stewart Publisher
The Smithfield Times PO Box 366, Smithfield, VA 23431 www.smithfieldtimes.com 757.357.3288
Spring brings new hope, not only with the usual warmer temperatures and budding flowers and the promise of Easter but also with the hope of widening availability of vaccines to fight the pandemic and the possible return of something resembling normalcy in the next few months. What does normal look like anymore? For some, it will never return. The pandemic stole lives and shattered others. For some, they will eventually recover their sense of normalcy, but it’s safe to say that nobody will ever forget this time. It’s been a hard year, and we mourn with those who mourn. We fight with those who fight. And we rejoice with those who rejoice. We hope Slice has been a refuge for you in these times as you have enjoyed turning the pages and reading about local people and institutions. The spring edition you’re holding in your hands is no different. Here you can read about Isle of Wight County novelist W. Michael Farmer, who writes about the legendary Wild West and has been showered with multiple awards for his work. You’ll also read about a group of Smithfield High School students who got some hands-on experience creating such delectable dishes as tomato soup, crab fritters and cheeseburgers dressed with fresh fried eggs. Our final feature chronicles the history of American K-9 Interdiction LLC, a local business that offers career training in the growing field of canineassisted security and law enforcement. We’re always looking for your submissions to help us make Slice better. We need you for story ideas, photo submissions, guesses for the Where Am I? challenge and any other suggestions you may have. Please contact us at news@smithfieldtimes.com. God bless, Tracy Agnew
Inside this Issue
10
THE NOSE KNOWS
The canine students at American K-9 Interdiction are learning to sniff out bombs, drugs, people and more. Their handlers are learning, too.
In the News
Windsor native Warren Thompson has a legacy of entrepreneurship.
6
Author
18
The Wild West features in this man’s novels.
Where Am I?
Can you spot the location of our Where Am I? challenge this edition? You’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card.
Classroom
24
Culinary students get hands-on experience.
16
6 • Slice of Smithfield
In the News 'Coming full circle' Warren Thompson combines passions for social justice, food service Story by Stephen Faleski Submitted Photography
Warren M. Thompson, a native of Windsor, comes from a long line of successful Black entrepreneurs. There's his great-great-grandfather, Cleave Thompson, who was born into slavery around 1835. As Warren's father, the late Fred Thompson Sr., told him the story, Cleave was allegedly on loan to the University of Virginia and, upon gaining his freedom at age 30, learned the blacksmith trade and set up his own shop in Afton roughly 30
miles away from the college. There's his grandmother, Hattie Warren, of Zuni, who, in 1945, became a licensed, self-employed midwife, delivering over 1,000 babies in Isle of Wight and Southampton Counties for $25 apiece. There's Fred Sr., who dreamed of attending UVA but was rejected for admission on count of his race. He eventually attended Virginia State University, graduated and moved to Windsor, where he became an educator See THOMPSON, page 7
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Slice of Smithfield • 7
THOMPSON, from page 6
with Isle of Wight's public school system — and started a sideline business on his family farm raising hogs. Then, there's Warren himself, whose memories of growing up in Windsor include hiding under a bed with his brother one night while the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross near his grandparents' home. Another, more pleasant memory comes seven years later when 12-year-old Warren announced to his parents his dream of becoming a restaurateur while out to lunch at a Shoney's restaurant in Portsmouth. At age 14, he began his journey into entrepreneurship with a grass-cutting business, and by 15, had graduated to selling produce out of a school bus. At 16, he negotiated his first leveraged buyout — purchasing the family hog business from his father, and after high school, used the proceeds to finance the managerial economics degree he received from Hampden-Sydney College in 1981. By 1983, he'd earned his Master of Business Administration from UVA's Darden School of Business.
Nine years later, he'd make good on the promise he'd made to himself the day he announced to his parents that one day, he'd own his own Shoney's restaurant. In 1992, Thompson completed a leveraged buyout of 31 Bob's Big Boy restaurants from his previous employer, Marriott Corporation, and converted them to Shoney's under the new ownership of his thenstartup, Thompson Hospitality. In 1997, Thompson partnered with Compass Group, the world's largest food service company. While Shoney's restaurants have largely disappeared from the Hampton Roads landscape, Thompson's startup has since grown to become the largest minority-owned food service and facilities management company in the United States, employing roughly 6,000 associates and bringing in upwards of $760 million in revenue across 48 states and six foreign countries. As president and chairman, Thompson oversees multiple restaurant brands, most in the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland area, as well as food service and facilities management at 19
higher education institutions, most of which are historically Black colleges and universities. In 2002, he was named to UVA's Board of Visitors, fulfilling another promise — this one to his father — to transform his MBA alma mater from the institution that had denied Fred's admission on account of race, to one more inclusive. This April, Thompson's two passions — food service and diversity activism — will collide with the opening of The Ridley in Charlottesville, a restaurant named for Dr. Walter Ridley, the first African American to graduate from UVA. The idea, he explained, is to name menu items in honor of Ridley and other unsung civil rights pioneers to get people talking about them. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Walter Ridley Foundation, an African American scholarship fund. “It's coming full circle,” Thompson said. Starting such conversations about race and “what symbols mean to certain people” is important to Thompson, now more than ever. Much of what he saw growing up in the 1960s “seems to be See THOMPSON, page 8
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8 • Slice of Smithfield THOMPSON, from page 7
coming back around again now, the racism, the divisiveness.” “When I see the Confederate flag, I have flashbacks to childhood growing up in the South,” he said. “The South has always been romanticized, the laid-back atmosphere … but there's a lot about the South that brings back horror stories for many people. It's hard to get excited about the South when the South was not good to African Americans. We can learn from the history and I think it's important that we learn from it and not have it repeat as we see it right now. The whole [Jan. 6] attack on the Capitol was, from my perspective, history repeating itself. We have to make sure that doesn't happen again.” Asked what it takes to run a successful restaurant in 2021, with a global pandemic that's now killed half a million Americans, Thompson is blunt. “The industry is moving fast,” he said. “If you're not on the forefront of what's happening you're already behind.” The key, he said, is to look at revenue per square foot of rent. To get that balance right, his restaurants started down-
sizing 10 years ago, which he said has helped them stay afloat during the pandemic. The cost of labor is also increasing, as is the cost of food, but restaurants that hike their food prices may end up driving customers away with sticker shock now that so many are able to compare prices at home and order online. “You have to enter the business well capitalized,” Thompson said. “The uncertainty of getting to profitability today is greater than it was 10 years ago. You have to be prepared for a downturn or a recession or a pandemic.” Though Thompson now runs his company from Reston in Northern Virginia, his aunt and uncle, Lois and Sam Duck, still live in the Windsor area, as does his cousin, Carla Duck. The handwriting of his mother, Ruby W. Thompson — who, like his father, was an educator with Isle of Wight County Schools — is memorialized on the chalkboard at the Isle of Wight Schoolhouse Museum in Smithfield. “I will never forget where I came from,” Thompson said.
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Slice of Smithfield • 9
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10 • Slice of Smithfield K-9 Blue practices a drug detection search at American K-9 Interdiction.
Slice of Smithfield • 11
The NOSE knows
Story by Phyllis Speidell Photos by John H. Sheally II
A
s the news chronicles riots, drug busts, bomb threats, terrorist attacks and school incidents, specially trained canines and their handlers are filling a larger role in protection, detection and security. Tucked into rural Carrsville and Zuni, AK9I, a unique educational facility, offers career training in the growing field of canine-assisted security. Paul Roushia, a U.S. Navy veteran and experienced dog handler, is president and co-owner of AK9I, American K-9 Interdiction, LLC, a training facility that works with dogs and humans who, in matched pairs, master an array of security skills for high-risk environments. Nigel Rhodes, a businessman originally from West Yorkshire, England, is AK9I’s chief operating officer and co-owner. Both men see AK9I’s mission as training individuals and dogs for a new career, one that, in the case of veterans, builds on their military background. Most of the students, Roushia said, are in their 20s and include military veterans, active military members and law enforcement officers as well as civilians aiming for a career in law enforcement or commercial security work. Roushia noted that Virginia has approved AK9I to provide professional canine-focused education and training services under the G.I. Bill, a plus for many of the students. AK9I pairs students with a handpicked dog — generally a German shepherd, retriever, Belgian Malinois or Dutch shepherd — with whom they bond See NOSE, page 12
12 • Slice of Smithfield
NOSE, from page 11
AK9I instructor Andrew Kasecamp trains a dog at the business’s facility in Zuni.
and When the course is completed, the student and dog graduate together, ready to work. While much of the training is on the Carrsville campus, some training utilizes unique settings such as the USS Wisconsin, a retired World War II battleship permanently moored in Norfolk. In 2018, AK9I bought the former HumanKind Presbyterian Home in Zuni as an additional campus to house students and hold classroom training, meetings and more. Sandra Garduno, a former Marine Corps public affairs specialist from Alexandria, grew up with rescue pit bulls and feels a strong connection with canines. When she left the Marines in 2018, she worked in a canine day care facility and realized she loved teaching dogs. She came to AK9I to train for a new career, taking a 13-week handler course and graduating with an explosive detection dog, Dozier. “I love the structure in this field that is so similar to the military,” she said. “You have to hold the dog accountable.” When Dozier was no longer able to work, Garduno came back to AK9I for an additional eight weeks of training in detection and obedience and met her new dog, Indie, a 50-pound, 1 ½-yearold black Lab. Now she and Indie work contract jobs for a New York security company. When she and Indie worked an event at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, she was happy, she said, to see that Indie’s “people personality” blended well with her “high work drive in scanning rooms and people.” Roushia half-jokingly described the 57-acre Carrsville campus as looking like a CIA compound. The property is maintained with well-swept military order. A large, permanent tent structure houses administrative offices while a variety of outbuildings serve as training facilities. Some of the buildings have been repurposed from the property’s former life as a prison and, later, a juvenile detention facility. From 1954 to 1991, the Nansemond Correctional Unit #3 occupied the site. See NOSE, page 13
Slice of Smithfield • 13
Emily Wells, Viola Matzgannis-Hannah and Savannah Barnes get kisses from a dog at AK9I. NOSE, from page 12
The minimum-security work camp held state prisoners who built roads while awaiting release. From early 1996 through 2000, Virginia Juvenile Boot Camp, also known as Camp Washington, operated there as a rehabilitation center for 45 non-violent juvenile offenders. Rhodes came to the United States two days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and settled in Florida. Looking for a career change, he was interested when he learned about AK9I’s training for explosive detection dog handlers. He visited the facility, met the former owner and signed on in a management position instead. Roushia, originally from Racine, Wis., was a Navy parachute rigger before completing military police training and serving as a dog handler for a decade. When he retired from the Navy in 2000, Roushia enrolled in the San Diego Police Academy.
He was a Chula Vista street cop for a year and then security director at the Naval Air Depot, North Island, for three years. At a conference in Las Vegas, Roushia met the original owner of AK9I and joined the firm as a master trainer. When the owner ran into legal difficulties, Roushia left to first work at a dog training facility in Virginia Beach and then to open the James River Boarding Kennels in Carrollton. When the former owner was forced to sell, Roushia and Rhodes bought AK9I and, in 2009, bought the Carrsville property that the state had declared surplus. There, at the request of the Marine Corps, Roushia and his staff trained 300 IED detection dogs and 500 handlers. In 2010, AK9I started a $1 million renovation on the property that enabled the business to move from Carrollton to Carrsville. Mindful of the impact of the International Paper Mill’s closure on the
area’s labor force, the pair pledged to use all local contractors for the renovation. While some of the original buildings were re-purposed, AK9I also built a kennel with a 200-dog capacity, bordered it with an earthen berm topped with trees and shrubs to mitigate noise, and fenced the entire property. American K-9 Interdiction’s mission is to produce expertly trained canines — and equally well trained handlers — to protect and save lives. Roushia and Rhodes have seen instances where the life saved can be that of the dog’s handler who may be a veteran recovering from combat trauma or other mental/emotional difficulties. Gary Koda, 31, a former ship’s officer, was medically discharged from the Navy in 2018 after 12 years of service including a stint in the Marines and four years at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. See NOSE, page 14
14 • Slice of Smithfield NOSE, from page 13
Unemployed since 2018, he works to restore his combat-traumatized mental health. After working with a compensated VA work therapy program, he is now at AK9I, training with Nandy, his canine partner, in narcotics detection and tracking. Koda is an outspoken advocate for the AK9I training programs and the impact they have. “Some days are still terrible, but I’m feeling more confident and my best hope is that confidence builds toward stability,” he said. “I don’t really connect to dogs, but dogs connect to me.” AK9I has had to overcome a few hurdles, including a cease and desist order from the county when a training firing range was installed on the campus to also familiarize the dogs with gun fire. An explosive storage magazine for detection work, albeit with full security and no detonation, also raised a few initial concerns. The dogs remain the keystone of AK9I’s multiple training programs. "There's no other technology in the world that proves to be as reliable and efficient as a dog," Roushia said, adding that dogs can be taught to detect 23 explosive odors and five narcotic odors. Accordingly, AK9I hopes to initiate a training program for COVID-19 detection dogs, another way canines and their human partners can save lives.
AK9I instructors Kevin Dumapit and Tony Gentile talk about the institution’s training process.
Slice of Smithfield • 15
Sandra Garduno and her dog, Indie, enjoy a few down moments at American K-9 Interdiction. Below, AK9I President Paul Roushia trains a dog in a drug detection house.
16 • Slice of Smithfield
Where am I?
In each edition, the Slice staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Isle of Wight and Surry counties you really know. We photograph some location that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is. If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information, to news@smithfieldtimes. com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card. So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner. Go out and enjoy!
Slice of Smithfield • 17
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18 • Slice of Smithfield
Battery Park's award-winning author Story by Stephen Faleski Submitted Photography
O
n a cold winter's day in 1896 near White Sands, N.M., Albert Fountain — a statesman in the then-U.S. territory's legislature — and his 8-year-old son, Henry, vanished. Their bodies were never found. Three years later, Fountain's political rival, Oliver Lee, stood trial for Albert's and Henry's presumed murder, but was acquitted after only eight minutes of jury deliberation — despite an 18-day trial that included more than 60 witnesses. See AUTHOR, page 21
Slice of Smithfield • 19
20 • Slice of Smithfield
Slice of Smithfield • 21
AUTHOR, from page 18
As far as history books are concerned, that's where the story ends — an unsolved mystery to this day. But for Isle of Wight County novelist W. Michael Farmer, it's only the beginning. Farmer's foray into fiction began in 2005 with his debut self-published novel, “Hombrecito's War,” which assumes Henry survives his father's murder and is found by a Mescalero Apache sharpshooter named Yellow Boy, who mentors him to adulthood and accompanies him on a journey of bloody retribution against the men responsible for Albert's murder.
He's since authored three sequels, now published by Gale-Cengage/Five Star as the four-part “Legends of the Desert” series, as well as a spinoff trilogy — “Killer of Witches,” “Blood of the Devil,” and “The Last Warrior” — which tells the history of the Mescalero Apaches from 1865-1918 through the eyes of Yellow Boy. Farmer's fascination with the American West began in the 1950s and ’60s, growing up in middle Tennessee at a time when Westerns were the premier genre for books, movies and TV shows. “Like everyone else, I regularly watched
and read Western stories,” Farmer said. “Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Clark Gable, and a host of other lesser-knowns were my early models for courage and personal behavior in hard times. I remember reading about Indians when I was in the fourth grade and thinking how unfairly they were treated.” A Ph.D. physicist by trade, Farmer was teaching at the University of Tennessee Space Institute when a contractor at the White Sands Missile Range offered him a job in Las Cruces, N.M., where he'd live the next 15 years. Not long after reloSee AUTHOR, page 22
22 • Slice of Smithfield
W. Michael Farmer shares his books with local students. AUTHOR, from page 21
cating, Farmer learned the story of the presumed Fountain murders from his colleagues who were lifelong Las Cruces residents, and became fascinated with the mystery. He began reading everything he could on the subject, from Leon Metz's biography of 19th-century sheriff Pat Garrett
— which assumed Lee to be the guilty party — to “Tularosa” by Dr. C.L. Sonnichsen of the University of Texas El Paso, which theorized people of the day may have been too quick to pin the crime on Albert's political rival. “There were at least 30 people who swore they'd murder Fountain one day,”
Farmer said. “Over the years I lived in Las Cruces, I roamed the countryside, becoming familiar with the mountains and deserts and often wound up coincidentally visiting the areas that were major points of interest in the case.” In 1998, Farmer accepted another job as an analyst with the Army Distance See AUTHOR, page 23
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Slice of Smithfield • 23 AUTHOR, from page 22
Learning Program at Fort Monroe and moved to Smithfield, where he married Carolyn Keen of the Isle of Wight County Historical Society. At the time, he was working on a nonfiction technical book, “The Atmospheric Filter,” which he published in 2000. It wasn't until after reading “Warlock” by Oakley Hall, who had stated that the business of fiction was to “find the truth, not the facts,” that Farmer decided to try his own hand at writing a novel that would fill in the gaps in the Fountain mystery. “I expected to write no more than 20,000 words,” Farmer said. “When I got to the end, it was 160,000 words.” The resulting “Hombrecito's War” ended up winning a Western Writers of America Spur Finalist Award for best first novel in 2006, and the 2017 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for historical fiction when republished as “Mariana's Knight” — the first of Farmer's four-part Legends of the Desert series. “More importantly, I discovered
in writing “Hombrecito's War” how much passion I had for writing. I had to write.” Now retired, Farmer has become a prolific writer, with several fiction and nonfiction works taking additional awards. In 2019, the “Mariana's Knight” sequels “Knight's Odyssey” and “Knight of the Tiger,” and a collection of nonfiction essays and photos titled “Apacheria,” which Farmer had authored to provide historical background on late 19th- and early 20th-century Apache culture for his Yellow Boy novels, won Will Rogers Gold Medallion Awards. “The Last Warrior” and book four of the Henry Fountain series, “Blood Soaked Earth,” won silver Will Rogers awards Feb. 6 this year for 2020. His latest novel, “The Odyssey of Geronimo,” which tells the tale of the Apache leader's 23 years in captivity as a prisoner of war, was published in midNovember 2020. A sequel, “An Apache Iliad,” is planned for release in 2021 or 2022.
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Slice of Smithfield • 25
From classroom to grill Story by Nate Delesline III Photos by Nate Delesline III and submitted
C
hefs at Turner & 10 recently put their skills to the test in creating fresh, tasty meals while trying to beat the clock. A recent menu included spring rolls with orange zest dipping sauce, a classic bruschetta with balsamic vinaigrette, fried pickles with remoulade, made-from-scratch tomato soup, smoked Gouda grilled cheese and crab fritters. And those were just the appetizers. Entrees included beef and lamb burgers and cheeseburgers dressed with fresh fried eggs, that include fresh basil, roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese fries. All of the food was prepared by students in the Isle of Wight County school division’s culinary arts program. The students recently participated in a friendly contest that channeled the popular Food Network TV series “Chopped,” where contestants have to beat the clock and create a meal using surprise ingredients. The coronavirus pandemic has forced Turner & 10, the school division's restaurant-classroom, to remain closed to teachers and the public. The contest, which played out in early March, was an opportunity to See GRILL, page 26
26 • Slice of Smithfield
Above, culinary students work the fryers to prepare their appetizers. Below, Smithfield High School Principal Thrift judges the courses. GRILL, from page 25
allow students to put their skills to the test for three judges that included Smithfield High Principal Bryan Thrift and other school division leaders. “We really just wanted to work on teamwork and putting their creative minds together,” said Scott Horne, who leads the program. If you live in Smithfield or have visited recently, Horne’s name might sound familiar. He was the head chef at Taste of Smithfield on Main Street downtown for several years before recently stepping down to lead the high school program full time. Sophomore Jayden Johnson said the culinary class is his first experience working in a commercial kitchen. The biggest difference, he said, is “moving at a faster pace than when I’m at home cooking by myself. So it felt different, but a good different.” He and his culinary partner Nia Hill, a junior, made chicken spring rolls and cheeseburgers with bacon and egg. In addition to being mindful of the clock, Johnson said working around other people in the kitchen was a new experience since “in my kitchen, it’s just me by myself. But here it’s about six other people I’ve got to work around.” Johnson has a personal family connection to one See GRILL, page 28
Slice of Smithfield • 27
At top, students prepare to take their creations out of the oven. Above, the judges prepare to test their taste buds.
28 • Slice of Smithfield GRILL, from page 26
of the best known food cultures in the U.S. “My family, we’re all from Louisiana. My grandmother and my grandfather, they were both cooks. So I learned most of the stuff I learned from them.” Looking to a possible career in food service, Johnson said he said he’d like to take his Cajun-inspired influences to a community outside Louisiana to share a taste of home. Horne has about 18 years of professional food service experience — or as he put it, “half my life [since] I’m 37 now.” The career outlook for skilled culinary arts professionals is strong, Horne said. “I’ve got some folks that want to own their own restaurant,” Horne said. “Whether they want to own a food truck or a little diner, I’ve got some kids that I think will definitely go on to continue that career. I think other ones may definitely work in a restaurant during college — maybe it’s not their forever job, but this gives them a great base,” Horne said. “The neat part about this program is once you take these classes,” he continued, “you’re going to have an OSHA 10hour culinary certification. It lasts forever. It’s going to give those kids more money when they go to apply for a job.” Students may also earn a ServSafe manager-level certification, a credential that’s sought after in the industry. “When I worked at Taste of Smithfield, I was the only person in the building that carried that designation. So to
A student chef dresses an appetizer with sauce.
See GRILL, page 29
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Slice of Smithfield • 29 GRILL, from page 28
come out of high school with that type of title, it means more money,” said Horne, a sentiment Thrift echoed. “This program is going to provide kids with a skill that can make them money when they get out of here,” Thrift said. “They can have a career, utilizing the skills they learned in this class specifically.” Not only that, Thrift added, but culinary skills are life skills that everyone benefits from knowing and perfecting, even if you don’t apply them professionally. Thrift said all the food was “restaurant-style worthy,” a sentiment shared by all the judges, who, in addition to Thrift, included Jeffrey Mordica, the school division’s director of innovation and strategic planning and Kristan Formella, the division’s instructional coordinator for K-12 math and science. Horne leads about 30 culinary students, including some from Windsor High School. The culinary program is a double-block class, meaning Horne has three hours with students for each class period. In light of the ongoing pandemic, “we obviously have been doing social distancing all the time. Isle of Wight County Schools have done a phenomenal job of putting in precautions where we can actually come to school. I’m proud to be one of the groups of teachers who have been able to do that.” “What I noticed the most,” Horne added, “is these kids just really want to work together. They’ve been isolated for a year. To be able to get in groups of two or three and conceptualize — it’s just amazing, and I think they really hit a home run.”
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30 • Slice of Smithfield
Last edition’s Where Am I? Solid Wood! Solid Value!
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There were no correct answers to the Where Am I? challenge in our last edition. The photograph was taken at the Boothe Cleaners on Main Street. Turn to page 16 to see this edition’s challenge and see if you can spot it.
Slice of Smithfield • 15
Where am I?
In each edition, the Slice staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Smithfield and Isle of Wight you really know. We photograph some location in the county that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is. If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information, to news@smithfieldtimes. com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card. So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner. Go out and enjoy!
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200 Vincents Crossing, Smithfield, VA 757-365-4760 • www.smithfieldsuitesva.hamptoninn.com
Slice of Smithfield • 31
JAMES RIVER 10
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SMITHFIELD DISTRICT Richard L “Dick” Grice Chairman
CARRSVILLE DISTRICT Don G Rosie II Vice-Chairman
460 IsleCares.com is a website hosted by Isle of 58 Wight County providing relevant information WINDSOR and up-to-date county news. Sign up on 460 PARKS IsleCares.com to receive the monthly “IsleWINDSOR REFUSE & RECYCLING CENTERS ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY Cares” e-newsletter. Camptown Park 460 Hours: Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7 am – 7 pm WINDSOR DI WINDSORPark DISTRICT NEWPORT DISTRICT Sun. 1 pm – 7 pm, closed Wed.HARDY DISTRICT Heritage Want to comment on an experience you’ve had with the county? With Meet Your 258Jefferson Joel Acr Rudolph C Acree Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040 JonesJoel Creek Boat Ramp William M McCarty Supervisors the online CARE CARD, citizens can 258 provide feedback on their Chairman Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037 Joyner's Bridge Boat Ramp Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018 experiences with county staff and services. Printed cards are also Nike Park StaveREFUSE Mill R&R Center, Windsor Riverview ParkCENTERS &242.3597 RECYCLING IS available at county offices. Just fill out the card, drop it off or mail Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851 Robinson Park it, and the appropriate staff member will respond to your CamptownHours: R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850 Tyler's Beach 7 Boatam Ramp,–Harbor & Public Beach Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7 pm Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026 Boykin Historic concerns or questions, or pass along your comments. Sun. 1 pm – 7 pm,Fort closed Wed.Park Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852
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NEW TO THE COUNTY?
The Isle of Wight County Newcomer’s Guide provides all the information those who are new to the area and residents need on county services, recreational opportunities, elected REFUSE & RECYCLING CENTERS officials, utilities, emergency Hours: Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7and ammuch – 7 pm services, more. Sun. 1 pm – 7 pm,The closed Wed. guide is available at the Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040 county complex or it can be Jones Creek R&R Center,downloaded Carrollton from 356.1037 the Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018 county’s website. Stave Mill R&R Center, Windsor 242.3597 Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851 Camptown R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850 Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026 Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852
IWUS.net 757.357.3191
Historic Fort Huger
Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040 Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037 58 Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018 Stave Mill R&R Center, Windsor 242.3597 Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851 Camptown R&R Center, Franklin HARDY 516.2850 DISTRICT NEWPORT DI Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026 William Mc Rudolph Jefferson Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852
REFUSE & RECYCLING CENTERS
ISLE OF WIG
ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PARKS
Camptown Pa Hours: Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7 am – 7 pm Camptown Sun. 1 pm Park – 7 pm, closed Wed. Heritage Park Heritage Park Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040 Jones Creek B Jones Creek Boat Ramp Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037 Joyner's Bridge Joyner's Bridge Boat Ramp Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018 Nike Park Nike Park Stave Mill R&R Center, Riverview Park Riverview Park Windsor 242.3597 Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851 Robinson Park Robinson Park Camptown R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850 Tyler's Beach B Tyler's Beach Boat Ramp, Harbor & Public Beach Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026 Fort Boykin H Fort Boykin Historic Park Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852 Historic Fort H Historic Fort Huger
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