C-BIZ

It’s a match: A little green helps grow local businesses

For small business, money is manure– it fosters growth. Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development has launched an innovative program to provide financial fertilizer for budding businesses, encouraging them to put down roots here in hopes they bear fruit– i.e., tax revenues and jobs. The new program, called Cville Match, uses funds from the Charlottesville Economic […]

Carol Diggs | December 24, 2019

News

Lending a paw: Local groups harness the power of animal therapy

Tamera Mason, an EMT working at Augusta Health’s emergency room in Staunton, lives with a life-threatening medical condition: In July 2015, a yellow jacket’s sting set off an extreme autoimmune reaction that devastated her hormonal systems and caused Addison’s disease, which affects the adrenal glands’ ability to produce cortisol. When Mason’s body goes into Addisonian […]

Carol Diggs | October 30, 2019

C-BIZ

Stayin’ alive: Scarpa models small business ‘thrive-ival’

In retail, 25 years is more than a lifetime–and Amy Gardner, owner and founder of Scarpa, knows this as well as anyone. The women’s shoe shop she opened in North Barracks Road in 1994 has evolved into one of the area’s premier women’s apparel stores. Gardner’s adventure in retail was spurred by her passion for […]

Carol Diggs | September 9, 2019

C-BIZ

Made to last: Blanc Creatives cookware bridges new and old, form and function

While some locals lament the passing of small-town Charlottesville, tucked away in the Belmont neighborhood is a blacksmith shop called Blanc Creatives, where local artisans forge hand-crafted culinary tools they call “modern heirlooms made for daily use.” Corry Blanc–blacksmith, designer, and founder of Blanc Creatives–is a north Georgia native who learned pottery in high school, […]

Carol Diggs | September 9, 2019

News

Building space: Women break into the skilled trades 

Anne Lassere is the very model of a young woman whose career is about to take off. Competent, confident, poised and well-educated, the daughter of a doctor and a lawyer, she’s studied sculpture and anthropology and has lived in France, where she worked as a translator. She’s recently left her job to launch her own […]

Carol Diggs | June 19, 2019

C-BIZ

Locally grown: Fertilizing small-scale farming

Most small farmers could use a little green. That’s the idea behind Slow Money Central Virginia, a micro-finance nonprofit that helps local small farmers grow. The venture is affiliated with the Slow Money Institute based in Boulder, Colorado. Named in tribute to the slow food movement, the Institute provides what it calls “nurture capital” to […]

Carol Diggs | June 5, 2019

C-BIZ

Start me up: HackCville nurtures tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

Are entrepreneurs born or made? Doesn’t matter to Chip Ransler, executive director of HackCville—he’ll take someone who has an idea, or wants to make a difference, and fan that spark to flame. Although HackCville may sound like a cyber threat, Ransler says “to us, ‘hacking’ is a positive—finding quick, efficient, low-cost ways to solve problems.” […]

Carol Diggs | June 5, 2019

News

#MeToo effect: Movement brings local victims forward

Since 2017, when the #MeToo movement galvanized women across the country to speak out about sexual abuse and assault, local support agencies have seen a dramatic increase in requests for help. Calls to the Sexual Assault Resource Agency to accompany victims to the emergency room increased by 42 percent from fiscal year 2017 to 2018, […]

Carol Diggs | March 6, 2019