Suffolk Living

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Hands On Spinning wheels, Bending steel and Turning the mighty pen

may/june 2016 • vol. 7, no. 3

See How Saved

$59 Bill’s Life S

uffolk resident Bill Pollard had no idea his heart potentially had fatal issues. At age 50, he was in great physical shape; Bill made exercising frequently and eating smarter a priority. By a stroke of luck, in February 2014, he was handed a flyer about Bon Secours’ Heart Care Package. Despite his healthy lifestyle, Bill also knew he had a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol. He understood it was worth the $59 to get his heart checked out. The heart scan indicated Bill had an unbelievably high calcium score of 1,100. A calcium score of only 400 means plaque in the arteries is extensive and there would be more than a 90% percent chance plaque is blocking coronary arteries, resulting in a high risk of heart attack. Bill’s neighbor and friend Dr. Jun Chung, a cardiovascular specialist with Bon Secours, reviewed the results. He felt there was a strong probability of a blockage and suggested a catheterization should be done immediately. During the catheterization, Dr. Chung saw that the said artery was 80% blocked. In March 2014, Bill had three stents put in the coronary artery in his heart. “After the stents were in place, Bill was back to his normal routine and was exercising just one week after the procedure,” said Dr. Chung, who performed the procedure at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center. “If Bill had not found out about the blockage, he could have had a heart attack within a year. The Bon Secours Heart Care Package saved his life.” “I am thankful that I now have a healthier heart and can enjoy being active with my wife, 14-year-old daughter and friends. I continue to encourage others with heart risk factors to get a heart scan and possibly avoid a heart attack,” said Pollard. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease.

However, heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions.

To schedule a heart scan, call 757-398-4760. *The Heart Care Package, regularly $99, is offered at a special discounted price of $59 if performed between May 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016. Must meet risk factors to qualify.

The Bon Secours Heart Care Package includes: • CT heart scan, a painless, accurate test that detects the presence of heart disease • Cholesterol screening • Blood glucose screening • Blood pressure screening • Electronic cardiac risk assessment • Your results and health coaching discussion will be provided by a registered nurse

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FEATURE

18

Kyle Yocum has been bending steel since he was a kid. But what he and employees do at Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods is anything but kid stuff. Roll up your sleeves!

contents may - june | 2016 23

WHERE AM I? | Think you know Suffolk well? Then see if you can identify this photo.

Advertising rates and information available upon request.

Subscriptions are $20 annually in-state; $25 annually out-of-state; $30 for international subscriptions.

Please make checks payable to Suffolk Publications, LLC P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23439

Hauling assets

12 Move your car seat about eight feet off the ground. Then add 65 feet and about 75,000 pounds to the car. Now, put it in gear and try not to hit anything. Good luck!

On the cover suffolklivingmag.com

Hands On SPINNING WHEELS, BENDING STEEL AND TURNING THE MIGHTY PEN

16 Virginia wines and local craft beers were the stars of the day during the Suffolk Business Women’s second annual Suffolk Wine Fest.

Drink up!

24 You very well might have a pen like one of these, but there’s a pretty good chance you don’t know the half of what it takes to make one. Write on!

may/june 2016 • vol. 7, no. 3

by R.E. Spears III

editor's note may-june

2016

EDITORIAL R.E. Spears III Editor Tracy Agnew News Editor news@suffolklivingmag.com

ADVERTISING

Earl Jones Marketing Consultant Nathan Richardson Marketing Consultant Dana Snow Marketing Consultant sales@suffolklivingmag.com

PRODUCTION Troy Cooper Designer

ADMINISTRATION John Carr Publisher

In the eye of the beholder Not everything that is art hangs on a wall.

Most of us would readily consider a beautiful painting or even a sculpture as art. But what about your car? Or a pen?

In this edition, we meet a couple of men who might balk at being called artists, but the products they produce are works of functional art, all the same.

Ed DePietro markets his one-of-a-kind creations mostly at Ed’s Handcrafted Pens on Facebook. He’s made a couple of thousand of them in the little shed near the back of the property where he lives on South Quay Road.

He starts with a block of wood or some other unusual material, drills a tube through it, shapes it on a lathe, sands it to a smoothness that is surprising to an untrained visitor and then adds the pen parts that make it functional.

The end results are unusual and interesting — two characteristics that helped convince me this was functional art, even if he prefers not to use the term. Learn more about DePietro beginning on Page 24.

Kyle Yocum is another guy who probably wouldn’t be comfortable with his work being described as art. His auto body shop on Progress Road isn’t the kind of studio you’ve seen on any public television special about artists. The cavernous space echoes with the sound of power hammers, grinders and welders bending and shaping steel into sleek automotive shapes.

When Yocum and his employees are done, antique cars that were little more than rusted heaps of junk are almost miraculously transformed into works of vehicular art. Even without paint and finished interiors, the beauty is clear in the elegant lines Yocum and crew have created. Read more about Yocum beginning on Page 18.

There’s nothing elegant about tractor trailers, but after sitting behind the wheel of one on an obstacle course at the Tidewater Community College Workforce Development Center in North Suffolk in April, I can attest that handling one safely is absolutely an art.

Beginning on Page 12, you can learn more about the Virginia Truck Driving Championships that were held in Suffolk in April. My truck-driving instructor for the day had more than 3.3 million miles of accident-free driving in big rigs. It takes a true artiste to accomplish such a feat.

Maybe they’re not the kinds of things you’d hang on your wall, but we believe the work represented in the stories in this month’s edition of Suffolk Living magazine is art, nonetheless. We hope you’ll agree.

God bless, Res Spears, Editor Suffolk Living is published six times per year by Suffolk Publications, LLC. P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23439 www.suffolklivingmag.com • (757) 539-3437

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8 suffolk living

what to do Send us your news To submit your calendar or news item, simply email it to: news@suffolklivingmag.com

Stars & Stripes Spectacular Monday July 4 Celebrate independence with the Stars & Stripes Spectacular from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Constant’s Wharf Park, 100 E. Constance Road. The event is free and open to the public and includes entertainment, children’s activities, local vendors, food for sale and, of course, fireworks beginning at 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Call 514-7267.

suffolk living 9

what to do Through June 3

Handle with Care, a juried exhibition of artwork expressing the balance between humans and nature, will take place at the Suffolk Art Gallery, 118 Bosley Ave. It is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Visit www.suffolkartleague. org to find art workshops for children and adults related to this environmental theme, including Found Object Printmaking and Clay Toad Houses. Call 925-0448.

Through June 25

“And Let There Be Light … Images in Nature,” featuring photographers Linda and Bill Lane, and “40 Years of Visions in Glass,” featuring glass artist Neil Duman, will be on exhibit at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 W. Finney Ave. Visit www.SuffolkCenter.org.

Wednesday May 18

The Early Childhood Development Commission and Suffolk Parks and Recreation will hold Kids Fest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at KidsZone Park, 201 Holly Lawn Parkway. Music, arts and crafts, block building, bounce houses and more. Call 5147442 for more information.

Friday May 20

The 21st annual Relay for Life of Suffolk will be held May 20-21 from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at Nansemond River High School, 3301 Nansemond Parkway. This event provides an opportunity to honor cancer survivors, remember those lost to cancer, and raise funds and awareness to fight back and help end cancer forever. The event is free and open to the public. Email chelsea.peoples@ cancer.org for more information.

Saturday May 21

C.E.&H. Ruritan Club’s 16th annual Beer, Bands and BBQ will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. at 8881 Eclipse Drive. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door; children 12 and under are free. Enjoy great local barbecue and jam to the live music by Island Boy and the Aces Up Reunion. Tickets are available at Rio Grande Traders, 3049 Kings Highway, or the Market, 1604 Bridge Road.

Thursday May 26

Yappy Hour at Lake Meade Dog Park will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Let your dog run free in the fenced-in dog park while you enjoy drinks and music with fellow dog lovers. A pet trick contest will take place.

Relay for Life of Suffolk

All dogs must be registered to attend, be wearing a current dog park tag and be on a leash. Registrations and renewals available on site with a $10 fee and proof of up-todate vaccinations. Dog park memberships can be obtained at Suffolk Parks and Recreation administration, 134 S. Sixth St., or during office hours at Lake Meade Park, 201 Holly Lawn Parkway. Visit www. suffolkva.us/parks/parks/dog-park for more information.

Tuesday June 14

Suffolk Art League’s Open Members’ Show, an exhibit of current work in a wide variety of mediums by Suffolk Art League members, opens at the Suffolk Art Gallery, 118 Bosley Ave. It is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday until July 17. Visit www. suffolkartleague.org or call 925-0448 for more information.

Friday June 17

The T.G.I.F. concert series kicks off with The Fuzz Band from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Constant’s Wharf Park, 100 E. Constance Road. These free concerts are free and family friendly and include a children’s area. Call 514-7267.

Friday June 24

The T.G.I.F. concert series continues with

The Groove Train from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Constant’s Wharf Park, 100 E. Constance Road. These free concerts are free and family friendly and include a children’s area.

Call 514-7267.

Saturday June 25

Camp out under the stars at Sleepy Hole Park, 4616 Sleepy Hole Road, for the Great American Backyard Campout. Check-in will be at 5 p.m. June 25, with check-out at 9 a.m. June 26. Camping demonstrations, storytelling, hikes and other fun activities will be provided. Participants should be ages 6 and up and must bring their own tents.

Thursday June 30

Visit the Suffolk Art Gallery for Summer Art Days every Thursday until Aug. 4. Children will take part in a variety of fun art projects.

Ages 5 to 8 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and ages 9 to 14 from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $1 per day per child. Visit www.suffolkartleague.org or call 925-0448 for more information.

Friday July 8

The T.G.I.F. concert series continues with The Rhythm Express Band from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Constant’s Wharf Park, 100 E. Constance Road. These free concerts are free and family friendly and include a children’s area. Call 514-7267.

10 suffolk living

in the news

Sleepy Hole gets river access W from staff reports

City officials cast out the ribbon to officially open the fishing pier and kayak launch. The new 361-foot-long pier allows public access for non-motorized boats on the Nansemond River.

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ith a flip of their matching fishing poles, Suffolk leaders formally launched the city’s new $467,000 pier and floating kayak launch in North Suffolk’s Sleepy Hole Park in April.

The new 361-foot-long pier — the city’s first public access for non-motorized boats on the Nansemond River — is the culmination of eight years of dreaming, brainstorming and lobbying

by Suffolk River Heritage, said chairman Karla Smith.

Her organization and the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance, which formed in 2010 to help protect the waterway, have worked together to increase access for non-motorized boating in the Nansemond and its tributaries and to raise See RIVER page 11

suffolk living 11 RIVER continued from page 10

Mayor Linda T. Johnson applauds the unveiling of an educational kiosk near the Sleepy Hole fishing pier.

public awareness of the historical and environmental value of local waterways.

The organizations also unveiled new signs about Sleepy Hole Park, the local part of a three-section kiosk recognizing the Suffolk Water Trail as part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historical Trail The Nansemond and Bennett’s Creek were included as part of the 3,000 miles of waterways that Capt. John Smith traveled more than 400 years ago.

The new pier also enhances the quality of life for residents, who have ranked trails and other recreational facilities as a high priority for the city, according to Mayor Linda Johnson.

“This was a group effort,” Johnson said.

John Wass, the NRPA’s public access committee chairman, noted that the project is the result of years of working together by the NRPA, Suffolk River Heritage, National Park Service and the city of Suffolk’s Department of Parks and Recreation, particularly planner Mike Kelly.

“This is a model partnership,” said Christine Lucero, partnership coordinator for the National Park Service.

“They don’t get bent out of shape when bad things happen.

They just figured out solutions to obstacles and kept going forward.”

A similar kayak launch is under construction at Constant’s Wharf and is set to open this summer. An educational kiosk will also be erected there. ←

12 suffolk living

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suffolk living 13

It’s safety first at truck rodeo story and photography by R.E. Spears III

W

hen Tidewater Community College moved out of its old North Suffolk campus in 2009, traffic through the gates dropped significantly.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no traffic within the facility.

Watch out for the trucks.

The trucking industry has one of the highest demands for

employees in Hampton Roads, where the average age of truck drivers is over 50, according to the Virginia College Navigator, which serves students, parents and community members interested in learning more about the value of a community college education.

Many of the men and women who will fill those jobs receive their training at the TCC Workforce Development Center, which is See TRUCKS page 14

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14 suffolk living TRUCKS continued from page 13

located in a building on the old campus in Suffolk.

By the time they leave the eight-week, hands-on program, those students are quite familiar with the narrow roads and wide parking lots that are scattered across the 444-acre site.

In April, a group of about 105 of the best truck drivers in Virginia had the chance to get familiar with the space, taking part in the two-day Virginia Truck Driving Championships.

“It’s very supportive of the community college … to encourage drivers” by setting up such an event, said P. Dale Bennett, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia Trucking Association, which sponsored the event and whose member drivers must have gone a year without any kind of accident — at-fault or not — in order to be eligible to participate.

Recently, especially, the organization is focused on recruiting.

“It’s about ‘what do we need to do to attract your generation?’” Bennett said of the organization’s attempts to get younger people to join the industry.

“You can see the country and get paid to do it.”

But to continue to get paid, drivers have to prove they’re safe.

See TRUCKS page 15

Scoring on one of six “problems” set up in a truck rodeo in North Suffolk recently was a lot harder than it looked, as drivers had to get very close to the cones and barrels without touching them.

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suffolk living 15 TRUCKS continued from page 14

Clarence Taylor, a driver for Walmart and a member of the company’s Road Team, has more than 3.3 million accident-free miles at the wheel of tractor trailers.

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Few on hand for the April event could prove that better than Clarence Taylor, VTA’s 2014 Truck Driver of the Year. With 3.3 million accident-free miles, Taylor is a member of the Walmart Road Team, a group of 20 or so drivers who travel around the country explaining how to safely share the road with truckers.

They use trailers outfitted with “No-Zone” paint jobs that show the areas where truck drivers have blind spots, and they let children and others sit in the driver’s seat to see just how real those blind spots really are.

As Taylor looked across the lot at cones and barrels arranged for a series of “problems” competing drivers had to face in the obstacle course during the weekend event, he chuckled.

“They’re trying to get as close as they can,” he said, noting that points were awarded for getting close to the obstacles without hitting them. “I just want to avoid them.”

Walmart has more than 7,300 drivers, including about 300 working from three Virginia locations, said Ricky Sharp, another member of the Road Team. Even the Road Team crew works to move merchandise between the company’s distribution centers and its stores.

“It’s an industry of good people,” said Bennett, whose father drove a truck. “And Hampton Roads has a port-centric trucking industry.

The health and success of the port in Hampton Roads means so much to Virginia.”

But it still comes down to truckers.

“The country depends on us,” he said. “We’re the first mile and the last mile.”←

16 suffolk living

Fine as

Wine

V

story and photography by R.E. Spears III

irginia wine. Craft beer. Suffolk rain.

One of those things is not like the others, but they all co-existed again during the second annual Suffolk Wine Festival, held April 23 on the grounds of the old Tidewater Community College campus. Despite a powerful storm cell that swept in from the James River, temporarily chasing visitors under tents or into their vehicles, a couple of thousand people showed up to taste and purchase Virginia wine and craft beers from 10 wineries and six breweries. It was the second time the event has been hit by rain. While the storm passed, many huddled under tents, popping corks and sharing among each other. After all, what’s a little rain — or wine — among friends?

Clockwise from top: William Whitmore a volunteer from Virginia Beach, pours for Lake Anna Vineyards; Colby Worrell of Ivor tosses a sack in a friendly game of cornhole; Jennifer McCall of Portsmouth wears a cork tiara as she samples a glass of wine

suffolk living 17

Growlers for beer lovers were a big hit at the festival. Clockwise, from below: Pierre Turner pours for Mattaponi Winery; volunteers Kay Hurley and Conrad Haas pour beer for O’Conner Brewing; Kay Thompson, business manager and grower for Rockbridge Vineyards, uncorks a bottle with an antique tool.

18 suffolk living

Grinding & Bending Kyle Yocum welds the skirt on a door panel created from scratch in his shop on Progress Road.

suffolk living 19

From cold steel to hot wheels story by Tracy Agnew photography by R.E. Spears III

K

yle Yocum seeks to reflect light in everything he does, from the way he shapes metal to the way he lives his life.

The owner of Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods on Progress Road is a custom metal fabricator who loves to see the way the sunlight glistens off the curves and shapes in a car’s body.

“Cars are attractive because of the way light reflects off of them,” he says in his office, the one place in the building that’s relatively free of the noise of the power hammer and the dull gleam of light streaming into the cavernous workshop and reflecting from numerous antique vehicles in various stages of rust and refurbishment.

Kyle Yocum grew up in Ohio with an entrepreneur father, a master carpenter who owned his own business and set an example for his like-minded son.

“I’ve never really seen myself doing anything but owning the business where I worked,” Yocum says.

He started bending and shaping metal at the age of 15, when he acquired his first car, a ‘72 Chevelle.

“It was a rustbucket,” he said. “I took it and ran with it.”

He moved to Virginia for a job at someone else’s shop in Norfolk, where he worked for four years. He started Yocum’s about three years ago at a shop in the Saratoga area and moved to Progress Road a little more than a year ago.

“We specialize in designing or re-creating things that either aren’t available in the after-market or things we’ve designed from scratch,” Yocum says.

The process starts with sheets of 18-gauge steel from BMG Metals in Chesapeake. The shop keeps a variety of tools to shape the metal, but Yocum’s favorite is the power hammer, See Metal page 20

20 suffolk living

Eric Mickelson goes over his work carefully after having pulled a dent out of the inside of a truck cab at Yokum’s Signature Hot Rods on Progress Road.

METAL continued from page 19

which pounds the metal between shaped dies as he moves it. “I find the power hammer is, for me, more accurate and faster,� he said.

The shop can do anything from replacing a missing piece of sheet metal to building a custom car from scratch.

The jobs that come in are widely varied and can take up to three years to complete, depending on how complicated they are. There’s the Antique Automobile Club of America show cars, on which every single nut and bolt has to be the right color. There’s the folks who want their antique cars to be their pride and joy again. There’s the

“We try to stick to what we’re good at and help the other shops stick to what they’re good at.�

Kyle Yocum — Owner, Yocum's Signature hot Rods

See METAL page 21

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suffolk living 21 METAL continued from page 20

jobs from other shops that need to be fixed.

There’s the 1929 Dodge Phaeton ­— “As far as we know, it’s the only one left in the United States,” Yocum says — that’s here for a restoration. There’s a ‘55 Chevy truck, a ‘55 Thunderbird, a ‘46 Studebaker, and even a car that’s recognizably a Mustang, even to an untrained eye.

“As far as restoring cars, they’re one of the cheaper cars,” Yocum says of the Mustang. “We don’t have to build very much for those cars.”

One of the most high-profile jobs the shop has done was for Thomas Edison’s son. They restored his 1937 Brewster for display at the Edison estate, Yocum said.

They farm out engines, interiors, paint and so on — everything but the metal — to specialists.

“We try to stick to what we’re good at and help the other shops stick to what they’re good at,” Yocum says.

There’s only a couple of caveats: the shop doesn’t work on anything newer than 1973, and the four guys who work there, including the owner, don’t do anything less than their best.

“We can do just about anything you want, as long as you want it done right,” Yocum says. “All my guys are high-skilled guys, the best I can find.”

For a man this consumed with See METAL page 20

Kyle Yocum started bending metal at the age of 15. He started his business in Suffolk about three years ago and considers the power hammer he’s leaning on here his signature tool.

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22 suffolk living metal continued from page 21

Josh Hardy takes a grinder to the frame of a car, one of many projects Yokum’s Signature Hot Rods has in various degrees of completion.

INTRODUCING SUFFOLK'S NEWEST AUTOMOTIVE TEAM

perfection, nothing that rolls off the assembly line will ever be ideal.

“My favorite car will be the one I’m going to build,” he says, though he admits the mid-’60s Ferrari GTO “had some really nice lines.”

“I like shapes. I can appreciate any car that’s got a lot of interesting shapes.”

It’s all about how the shapes reflect light. And Yocum makes sure that he shapes himself and his business in a way that reflects a different kind of light — the light of Jesus Christ.

“We’re Christians, and we try to run our business the way Jesus would want us to run our business,” he said. His wife, Jerri-Lynn, comes in the afternoons to do the books, and their three little girls — ages 4, 2 and 4 months — contribute to the noise in the shop.

“Our faith is a big part of everything.”←

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suffolk living 23

where am I?

I

n each edition the Suffolk Living staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Suffolk you really know. We photograph some location in Suffolk 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@suffolklivingmag.com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to any one of our partner advertisers.

So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner.

Go out and enjoy Suffolk!

24 suffolk living

Ed DePietro holds a cutting tool to a Lumalite block that will soon be shaped into a comfortable and unusual writing instrument, all from inside a tiny shop near Holland.

suffolk living 25

Write on!

Holland man turns out pens story and photography by R.E. Spears III

E

d DePietro bends over the lathe on a workbench in a small, cluttered shed behind his house on South Quay Road.

Holding a cutting tool with his left hand and steadying it with his right, he moves in to work on a rectangular block of Lumalite that is clamped to the lathe and spinning at a couple of thousand revolutions per second.

With the first touch of the tool to the rust-andwhite, marbled, plastic-like block, pink shavings begin to fly. Within a few seconds, as DePietro carefully moves the cutting tool along the block, his shirt — and then his beard — have picked up strands of the material. The workbench quickly fills with the shavings.

Within a few short minutes, DiPietro’s efforts have transformed the block of Lumalite into an oval tube that will soon be the bottom of a special-made pen.

He then turns his attention to the Lumalite blank that will be used for the top of the pen.

Since he started turning pens, DePietro, a scheduler for the shipyard, has done this a couple of thousand times, he says. “I think about half of them are in my wife’s purse.”

Pens were not what he originally had in mind when he got his lathe — he’d planned to make chess pieces at the time. But he saw some videos online about making pens and decided to give it a try.

“I got the lathe, and I sat on the floor and did it,” he says. “You can see a definite improvement from then to now.”

See PENS page 26

26 suffolk living PENS continued from page 25

Ed DePietro’s pens come in all shapes, sizes, weights and colors. He’s created thousands of them since he took up the hobby and markets them mostly on Facebook, where you can find him at Ed’s Handcrafted Pens.

Still, it’s likely there’s something genetic — or at least ingrained from an early age — in DePietro’s artisanship.

He grew up with his grandparents.

His grandfather was a maintenance manager at Planters, and he spent a lot of time around his grandfather’s tools as a boy.

“I remember being in the shop with my grandfather, sanding so much,” DePietro says as he works a piece of wet sandpaper along the length of a spinning pen top. “He had a philosophy: You can never sand too much.”

If the many different types of sandpaper on his shelf can be taken as evidence, it’s a philosophy DePietro has taken to heart.

Before long, the two rough, oval tubes are silky smooth, ready for the sealing coat that will keep them shiny.

Rustling through cubbyholes and drawers where he keeps dozens (maybe hundreds) of pen blanks made from wood, Lumalite and other materials, See PENS page 27

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Top: Pen blanks with barrels already drilled into them and tubes already glued inside are ready for machining. Bottom: DePietro probably has hundreds of different pen blanks waiting to be transformed.

PENS continued from page 26

DePietro finds the pen parts that will go inside the barrel drilled into the pen blank earlier.

With a few practiced motions, the whole thing has come together, and what was once a couple of indistinct hunks of plastic has become a fine writing instrument — one that he can sell online or at retail for about $20. He’s sold his pens, mostly via social media, to clients from Michigan to Florida to New York.

“It’s a luxury item,” he allows, “but if that’s what you’re into…”

“A lot of it is not so much that ‘Neil Armstrong used it on the moon’ so much as it’s about family heirlooms.”

In fact, one of his best customers is his wife’s cousin, who has between 70 and 100 of DePietro’s pens.

“He wants to have one to match every tie.” ←

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28 suffolk living

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suffolk living 29

March for Babies The March of Dimes held its Suffolk March for Babies on April 23 at Constant’s Wharf Park. Walkers wound throughout downtown to raise awareness and money for research and education for premature birth and birth defects.

PHOTOS BY TRACY AGNEW

suffolk scene

Rickeda and Maurice Fofana Emma Rotzler, Natalie Rotzler, Morgan Lunsford and Lauren Vann

Tyler Ricks and Savannah Stevenson

Cheryl Riddick, Audrey Woods and Michelle Woods

Lisa Wiggins and Rana Wiggins

Abby, Maddy, Hannah and Matthew Hornisch

30 suffolk living

suffolk scene

Chuckatuck Oyster Roast Hundreds of people attended the Chuckatuck Oyster Roast on April 13 at the Pretlow Farm in Everets. The annual event is the Chuckatuck Ruritian Club's largest fundraiser of the year. PHOTOS BY R.E. Spears III

Rachael LaFord and Lorraine Turner

Missy Marven, Patrick Grundler, Haywood James and James Parker

Nick Grimsley, Whitney Coppola and Matt Coppola

Patti and Steve Simons

Ronald Jordan and Terry Kelly

suffolk living 31

Cupcake Wars Lake Prince Woods held Cupcake Wars April 16 to raise money for its Relay for Life team. The event raised $320 for Relay for Life. Teda Barrows won first place, and Olivia Alt and Brandon and Tyler Huggins tied for second. PHOTOS BY Tracy Agnew

Hannah Smith and Sarah Smith

suffolk scene

Teda Barrows, Tyler Huggins and Brandon Huggins

Olivia Alt

Jane Sommers, Janet Kelly and Karen Stakes

32 suffolk living

suffolk scene

Democratic Luncheon The Suffolk Democratic Committee held its Community Heroes Luncheon on April 30. Jean Copeland, Ronald H. Williams and Beverly Outlaw were honored.

PHOTOS BY Tracy Agnew

Hazel Edwards, Essie Bowie, Kaye Brown, Pat Harbour, Carolyn Marks and Marie Green

Jack and Dorothy Waddell

Jean Copeland, Ron Williams and Beverly Outlaw

Priscilla and Wesley Benn

Michele Joyce and Michele C. Faulk

suffolk living 33

Last edition’s Where Am I? Sometimes, things just almost have to hit us in the heads in order for us to notice.

Standing outside to catch a breath of fresh air one long day, our photographer noticed this view of the 136 S. Main St. building (a.k.a. the jazz club, Embroidery Plus and others), a view we see nearly every day but I had never previously where am I? considered for the Where Am I contest.

But we can’t fool you guys. Even the close-cropped version of this photo was readily recognizable to a bunch of you. Susan Chaney wins a $25 gift card after having her correct answer randomly picked. Congratulations, Susan! Look on Page 23 for this edition’s challenge. suffolk living 15

n each edition the Suffolk Living staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Suffolk you really know. We photograph some location in Suffolk 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@suffolklivingmag.com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to any one of our partner advertisers.

So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner.

Go out and enjoy Suffolk!

Network with Suffolk Living on Facebook

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38 suffolk living

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Cornerstone: Members of West End Baptist Church gather for the laying of the cornerstone of the church by the Masons in this undated photo, which was taken before 1935. — PhotO Courtesy of Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society

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