VCEDA Marketing Ambassabors Charlotte Mullins and Cathy St. Clair are pictured with e-Region manufacturers at the SVAM Expo.
VCEDA Exhibits at SVAM Expo
VCEDA’s team was at the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Manufacturing Expo held at the Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Va., September 2. Manufacturers attending the event were provided with multiple opportunities to network as well as some great break-out sessions on hiring and retention and supply chain challenges and ideas. A number of e-Region manufacturers were in attendance including Tadano Mantis Corporation, located in Richlands; West River Conveyors and Machinery Company located in Oakwood; Samuel Pressure Vessel Group, located in Lebanon; and Paul’s Fans/BEAST Company located in Grundy.
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At Big Stone Gap Pottery Shop LLC, customers have the unique experience of choosing their own pottery and painting it. The pottery shop is a recent recipient of a VCEDA seed capital grant. Pictured are owner Stephen Murray and Wendy Dillon-Murray.
VCEDA Approves Seed Capital Grant for Big Stone Gap Pottery Shop LLC
Creating an experience for people to remember is one of the primary things Stephen Murray hopes to accomplish as he opens Big Stone Gap Pottery in Big Stone Gap, Va. A grand opening for the new business is set for September 20, 2021.
Murray’s business, Big Stone Gap Pottery Shop LLC, is a recent recipient of a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) Seed Capital Matching grant.
The business, located in the Big Stone Gap General Store, is a paint your own pottery studio offering ceramic pieces – from dishes, cups and platters to novelty items, picture frames and more – that customers can paint as they wish, choosing from among a wide variety of paint colors available at the shop. Once they have painted the piece, it is left at the shop to dry and the shop will then fire it in its kiln on-site. Customers may expect to pick their piece back up in the store seven days later ready to be used. In the end, customers have a truly one-of-a-kind item and the experience of creating it.
“VCEDA was pleased to be able to assist Big Stone Gap Pottery as one of its recent seed capital grant recipients. The new business projects two full-time and three part-time employees within three years.”
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel
Read more about Big Stone Gap Pottery Shop.
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Loni Webb and Michael Owens opened Levisa Adventures LLC this past spring to provide a fun, safe water experience for all. Webb and Owens operate the tubing and kayaking business utilizing the Levisa River in Buchanan and Dickenson counties.
VCEDA Approves Seed Capital Grant for Levisa Adventures LLC
Providing a fun, safe water experience for all is the primary goal of Levisa Adventures LLC, which operates a tubing and kayaking business utilizing the Levisa River and other waterways in Buchanan and Dickenson counties.
Levisa Adventures LLC was a recent recipient of a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) seed capital matching grant.
Levisa Adventures offers guided tours on the Levisa and Russell Fork Rivers and has partnered with the Breaks Park and Southern Gap Outdoor Adventure to offer the tours. Both tube and kayak tours are offered and in late August, the business began exploring offering night tubing on the river.
“Levisa Adventures LLC’s business model presented an additional opportunity to grow tourism offerings in Buchanan and Dickenson counties in a way that was not already being done in those counties. VCEDA was pleased to assist owners Michael Owens and Loni Webb in helping the new business which projects two full-time and four part-time employees within a year.”
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel
Read more about Levisa Adventures.
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Connie Stinson, far right, owner of Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter, is pictured with her staff members, from left, Nancy Compton; Jaylee Stanley; Restaurant Manager Heather Wood; Sherry Hubbard; and Ola Fields. The Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter was a recent VCEDA Seed Capital Grant recipient.
Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter Approved for VCEDA Seed Capital Grant
For Connie Stinson, opening the Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter in the heart of downtown Lebanon, Va., was a way she saw to realize her dream of operating a small business, while at the same time giving back to the community.
When the original Stone Cellar restaurant closed in March 2020, Stinson said she began thinking about the possibilities of purchasing the business assets and opening a new business of her own. In December 2020, she took the plunge, bought the restaurant and its assets, formed a new company and became a small business owner in her own right, officially opening the restaurant in January.
Her business, Simona Corporation, doing business as Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter, was a recent recipient of a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority Seed Capital Matching Grant.
“VCEDA was pleased to assist Connie in her new business venture when she decided to open Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter. The business projects one full-time and four part-time employees within three years.”
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel
Read more about Stone Cellar Brunch & Clutter.
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VCEDA Attends Data Center World 2021 Expo
VCEDA Marketing Ambassador Charlotte Mullins was in Orlando, Florida August 16-19, 2021 representing VCEDA at the Data Center World 2021 expo. The event focused on research findings, in-depth workshops and featured 50-plus conference sessions and keynotes sessions from industry leaders. Educational conference programming was focused on rapidly advancing data center technologies like edge computing, co-location, hyperscale and predictive analytics – all within a rapidly changing global business climate.
Data centers have been one of VCEDA’s industry targets for many years and VCEDA has been successful in helping to recruit several data centers to the e-Region through the years.
The Data Center World conference provided VCEDA with opportunities to meet and talk with data center leaders and to help them learn more about Southwest Virginia’s e-Region.
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Burke Greear works to clean a gravestone marker at an area cemetery. Cleaning, restoring and re-setting monuments is the focus of the new business Greear opened — Highland Monument Conservation LLC — a recent recipient of a VCEDA Seed Capital Matching Grant.
VCEDA Approves Seed Capital Grant for Highland Monument Conservation LLC
“Every death was a life and every life was a story.” It’s something Burke Greear said he thinks about every time he works carefully to restore and clean the monuments and grave markers found in cemeteries throughout Southwest Virginia, where his new business, Highland Monument Conservation, LLC operates.
The business, which is licensed and insured, offers stone preservation and historic documentation services and is a recent recipient of a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority seed capital matching grant.
“Highland Monument Conservation, LLC is perhaps one of the most unique businesses the seed capital matching grant program has funded since it started. The services they provide are very specialized and yet have the potential to impact almost everyone who has a loved one or ancestor buried in a cemetery. Within three years, the business projects one full-time employee and two part-time employees.”
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel
Read more about Highland Monument Conservation LLC.
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A ceremonial check for $100,000 from VCEDA to the Mountain Empire Community College Foundation to be used for workforce training and development was presented recently. On hand for the presentation were, from left, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel Jonathan Belcher and MECC representatives Dr. Amy Greear and Dr. Kristen Westover.
VCEDA Grant to MECC Will Support Workforce Training, Development
An up to $100,000 grant from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) to the Mountain Empire Community College Foundation was recently approved by the VCEDA board and will be used by the college for workforce development and training.
Specifically, the college plans to use the funding for scholarship, training instructional costs, retraining costs and customized workforce training for area businesses and for assessments, including, but not limited to, costs of administering National Career Readiness Certificate testing for residents of Southwest Virginia’s e-Region.
“These employers have created hundreds of jobs in the Southwest Virginia region within the last three years, including long-term, sustainable employment and a more diversified economy for the coalfield region. According to its application, Mountain Empire Community College anticipates training at least 50 more students in 2021.”
Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel
Read more about the MECC Workforce Training, Development Grant.
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