The HeartPine Company made its name crafting custom products from stuff a lot of people would throw away. It’s that commitment to finding beauty that has allowed the firm to thrive for 25 years. “I think there are two or three things that make it different,” says Debra Kirschnick, who directs the company’s sales and […]
Donuts have been on a certain trajectory for the last two decades: bigger, more toppings, more creativity—an arms race of candy, cookies, and fried pork. After several years working with semi-traditionalists Jason Becton and Patrick Evans at MarieBette Café & Bakery, Melissa Sbrocco is going in a different direction. When she opens her namesake donut […]
Local high school student Vidya Ambati has potentially saved pharmaceutical researchers several years and billions of dollars in the fight against arthritis, and the breakthrough comes with at least one major side effect: a $50,000 college scholarship. Ambati, along with 19 other gifted high school students nationwide, was named a 2024 Davidson Fellow in late […]
Blues rocker Samantha Fish says she “didn’t know what [she] was doing” when she made Girls With Guitars alongside Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde in 2011. The same might be said of the albums’ producers, who probably should’ve known better by then. When Wynonna Judd released her hit song of the same name in 1994, […]
A few years ago, Abhishek Kulkarni was just a guy getting a business degree who dabbled in comedy. Now, he’s a local open mic mainstay who’s learned to work a crowd. “Initially, I was writing a lot of new content for the U.S. audience, so I would go like three weeks of telling the same […]
Ty Cooper defies categorization. As a marketing professional, he’s worked with all manner of companies and in myriad media. As a visual artist, he’s made his mark as an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and designer. Perhaps that’s why Cooper is drawn to short films. “If a person is interested in being a filmmaker, shorts are an […]
St. Anne’s-Belfield School made a splashy hire for its football program this spring, tapping one-time UVA and Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Heath Miller to replace former head coach Joe Sandoe. Miller, whose career as a Cavalier earned him a first-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2005, was named to the NFL team’s Hall of Honor in […]
After more than a decade of helping high schoolers learn the ins and outs of planting and plowing, Charlottesville High School Urban Farming has gone commercial. The successful program, launched in 2013, isn’t changing its focus on the intersection of agriculture and entrepreneurship. But it is upping the ante by selling its wares. While the […]
Pete Manno is the foremost expert on the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Book Sale. Even before he began running the event for the Friends of JMRL, he was a mega-fan. At one sale, Manno was browsing on the last day after having spent “way too much money” already. He picked up a book by Victoria Woodhull, […]
Southern Development Homes turns 25 this year, and on June 14, the company’s founder and president, Frank Ballif, won Distinguished Builder of the Year from the Home Builders Association of Virginia. Ballif, who prefers to avoid the spotlight, recently spoke to Abode about Southern Development’s longevity, giving back to the community, and the future of […]