Growing It Green

AND HIGH TECH, TOO

>Shenandoah Growers produces fresh, organic herbs with a technological edge.

BY TONI MEHLING

“It feels a bit sticky in here. I’m going to adjust the computer. I like to keep it under 80 percent relative humidity.”

Bob Hoffman is the vice president of agriculture for Shenandoah Growers, Inc., a provider of fresh herbs located midway between New Market and Harrisonburg. The computer he references is located in a large room adjacent to the greenhouse where hundreds of thousands of pots of basil, cilantro, dill, Italian parsley and oregano are growing. The temperature outside is about 40 degrees. Inside the greenhouse it’s a muggy 78 degrees.

“That’s why they’re not harvesting basil right now. It’s too wet,” says Hoffman, indicating several employees who are carefully examining the small green plants, removing any basil leaves that do not retain a lush, rich color and keeping an eye out for any pesty little critters that may have escaped the carefully crafted pest management system. Each harvester wears sterile plastic gloves and a plastic hair cover.

Once at the computerized weather station, he may start the Titanic (the employees’ pet name for the giant boom that sweeps across the rows of plants to simulate wind) or adjust the roof vents in the greenhouse; his decision is meticulously considered. Nothing is left to chance in this environment.

The enormous greenhouse, controlled by a computer, mimics nature’s hand. Sunlight pours through a glass-paneled ceiling. When the delicate, growing herbs need more ventilation, the computer opens the roof vents just the right amount. When Mother Nature provides too much sun and the tender leaves are in danger of burning, the computer opens a shade curtain over the plants, creating the effect of a cloudy day.

Nutrient enriched water flows through an irrigation system as the plants suck in nutrients and water. Hot water pipes lie just beneath the growing benches, heating the plants and soil to the ideal temperature for growing.

But a human mind oversees, and often overrides, the computerized brain. Hoffman has been nurturing plants for more than 30 years. His training in horticulture and the school of hard knocks, he says, contribute to his ability to sense the slightest disturbance in the greenhouse’s manufactured growing environment.
And what does he gain in return for his keen attention to environmental detail?
“It all goes toward producing a high quality product 365 days a year,” he says.

A Leading Producer Shenandoah Growers has made the transition in the last 10 years from a small, mom-and-pop agricultural business to one of the nation’s leading producers of fresh culinary herbs.
Using state-of-the-art processes to control quality and maintain a natural product, the company grows organic herbs—fresh cut and live in pots—by emulating nature’s elements: sun, wind and recycled water.
The company is committed to every aspect of growing a sustainable business, as well as a wholly organic product, says president and CEO Timothy Heydon. From integrated pest management to responsible environmental practices, Heydon says the company’s goal is to become as sustainable as possible.

A graduate of James Madison University’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, Heydon joined the company as a partner in 1998. “What I saw was a growing market for fresh herbs with an excellent distribution base here in the Mid-Atlantic region.”

Heydon and his partners took a systems approach, a philosophy in agricultural economics that in the broadest sense takes into consideration the individual farm and its processes, the local and global eco-system, and the effect on communities—in other words, the profit, the product and the people.

“It’s a closed growing system. All processes are contained in the greenhouse and doesn’t interfere with the adjoining eco-systems,” says Heydon.  But even the contained eco-system is eco-friendly.
Water is used to water plants and then recycled. Nutrients are added to the water daily. Sun and natural ventilation provide an ideal growing environment. Soil is recycled.
A flapper system supported by a long boom (the Titanic), sweeps across plants and simulates wind, creating strong, sturdy plants and trapping unwanted insects. Perhaps unsophisticated, but effective, sticky tape on the boom captures the unwanted insects. Other parasitic and predatory insects are introduced to the greenhouse to control insects that are harmful to the plants.
Plenty of ventilation and space is needed for producing strong, healthy leaves; but precisely measured distances also allow for the maximum number of plants to inhabit the greenhouse. As the plants move down the greenhouse, automatic spacing is used in this gutter moving system. By maximizing space, Hoffman says that he can grow more plants in the greenhouse, which in turn produces energy savings
The positive effects on the environment are achieved through numerous natural processes: natural water resource management, soil conservation management, energy efficiency, integrated natural pesticide management, and maximum space utilization.

More Than Saving Money While recycling water and soil certainly saves the company a penny or two, Shenandoah Growers is not growing green just to save a little green. Being a good neighbor is also part of the company’s philosophy.

Sometimes a tender plant needs a bit of extra sunshine, which may mean the greenhouse lights are on all night. The company’s eco-friendly greenhouse has a rather large cover that blankets the building at night, shielding neighbors from the the glare of the bright lights within the greenhouse.

At the 50-acre facility, the company employs more than 100 residents, from drivers to harvesters. A new program, implemented last year, adds the local farmer to the mix. During the outdoor growing season from May to October, local farmers grow herbs outdoors and sell to the company. Shenandoah Growers’ horticulturists work with the farmers to ensure organic, high quality products and a successful harvest. The company even sends in its own trucks to collect harvested herbs.

“We see ourselves as developing a local food system. Our local growers program helps the farmers we work with to diversify and in a small way contribute toward polyculture farming, back to the way farming started,” says Heydon.

Shenandoah Growers may be a contemporary model for an age-old tradition: a local food system, providing fresh foods in the very community where they are consumed.  v

SPICE IT UP
In Season is no longer part of the vernacular in organic live and fresh cut herbs. Since Shenandoah Growers has entered the live herb market, you can spice up your favorite tomato-y dish any time of year with fresh basil.
Vermicelli in Tomato Shells
Servings: Serves 6
A perfect first course in the summer when tomatoes and basil are at their peak. When tomatoes are out of season, serve the vermicelli by itself.
Ingredients:
1/2 pound of vermicelli
6 ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup pesto sauce (see recipe below)
4 ounces pine nuts (or chopped walnuts)
Grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil leaves for garnish (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Pesto Sauce 2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
About 1 cup grated Parmesan and Romano cheese
¾ cup olive oil
Hollow out tomatoes and drain well upside down. (Reserve tomato pulp for a cooked sauce, if desired) Cook vermicelli to al dente stage and drain well.  While pasta is cooking, make pesto sauce by whirling sauce ingredients in the blender until smooth.  Toss vermicelli and pine nuts with pesto sauce, season to taste with more grated cheese and salt and pepper. Fill tomatoes with pasta and garnish with optional basil leaves.
Source: Recipe from The Pasta Salad Book, Nina Graybill and Maxine Rapoport, Farragut Publishing Company, 1984.

Shenandoah Growers suggests
For extra flavor, try sprinkling chopped basil over tomatoes before filling. Place sliced or shredded mozzarella or provolone cheese on top of vermicelli. Melt under broiler while watching—one minute or so.
For more recipes using fresh herbs, visit the Shenandoah Growers Web site at www.freshherbs.com
—T.M.

A House for All Seasons

» Helen Miller’s creative homes celebrate the year.

BY KAY WALSH

The tinkling of a music box melody floats from the white-washed gazebo as dancing couples circle the newlyweds. The father of the bride rocks back on his heels, an unlit cigar hanging from his mouth. A mutt slips in and escapes with an unguarded slice of cake. Grandmother fills the wicker rocker, her eyes closed and a slight smile on her face as she breathes in the aroma of spring flowers and fresh cut grass.

Not far away, a farmer stands on the porch of a log cabin as he surveys his crops ready for harvest. A menagerie of cows, pigs, dogs and a random skunk wander nearby. A cat climbs the ladder-back chair to sun himself. A rooster crows out a morning welcome at noon.

A group of small goblins, tennis shoes poking out from under their Halloween costumes, hold out their bags of candy. They stand eager for the front door to open, ready to shout, “Trick or Treat!”
Nearby, at the bakery, Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus ice gingerbread houses amid the sweet smell of baking sugar cookies and peppermint.

Sound like your neighborhood?

Maybe not, but at the home of Helen and Lowell Miller of Harrisonburg, guests enter this fantasyland of hand-crafted miniature homes. Even before guests ring the door bell, a cheerfully decorated house greets them from the Miller’s picture window. Depending on the season, the window may display a farmhouse decorated with 2-inch high evergreen wreaths and red bows for Christmas, a cute and slightly spooky house decked out for autumn or a springtime garden gazebo.

Nooks and Crannies Once inside the Miller home, every nook and cranny is filled with miniature homes. Styles vary from Victorian to Ranch to a country church. For each of the 27 houses born of her imagination, Helen, 80, has served as architect, carpenter, electrician, interior decorator and storyteller.

The miniature homes bustle with the activity of family, guests, dogs, cats and  a canary or two. The kitchens are warmed by home-cooked meals and families sharing the news of the day. Some eat around a kitchen table; others have a butler to serve them in a formal dining room. Outside the log cabin, Santa grills hot dogs for a summer picnic.

Family, Faith … and Santa? Each of Helen’s creations contains items symbolic of what she cherishes most. A cross or Bible represent her Christian faith. The joyous family gatherings illustrate her love of family and friends.

As a tribute to her father, she places a Santa in every house, no matter the season. Her father, Homer Nimrod Pankey, sported a full white beard with a generous head of hair to match. Not only did he resemble Santa, he often acted like the “jolly old elf.” With his jovial spirit and mischievous ways, his friends lovingly called him, “Hankey-Pankey.” However, children who spotted him wearing his usual red jacket would pull on their mothers’ skirts and point, sure they had seen St. Nick himself, even in July.

Knicks and Knacks Attempting to see every knick and knack displayed in this miniature village is like trying to count all the stars in a clear summer sky. Added to this dilemma is how Helen’s houses stay in transition. As with the seasons, the scenery is ever changing.

Helen’s husband, Lowell, teases: “Instead of shifting sands, we have shifting houses.”

Even if every detail could be accounted for, Helen’s creativity is unending. She has already drawn up blueprints for house number 28.

CREATIVE RESOURCES

Helen Miller, now 80, remembers that creativity was a necessity in her childhood. Growing up in a busy household near Harrisonburg’s Woodbine Cemetery, Helen had a watchful eye, waiting until the cemetery workers gathered the withered flower arrangements to burn. Then she would scurry to save the ribbons. Painstakingly, she ironed each ribbon and fashioned them into clothes for her dolls.
Her imagination still turns ordinary items into treasures. In her houses:

Ladies lingerie converts into lacy bedspreads and curtains.
Handkerchiefs transform into fancy tablecloths.
Magazine clippings are framed art.
Placemats serve as rugs.
Tiny bits of fimo clay are shaped into food items such as peas, corn, tomatoes and slices of ham and turkey. Baked until hard, they are truly home cooked.

CHARITY HOMES

Anyone who knows Helen knows she loves to share her gifts and talents. While she has never sold any of her miniature houses, she has donated six to various charitable organizations for fund-raising purposes. The six organizations have raised a total of $22,000 from Helen’s miniature homes.

Keeping a Dream Alive

The house was once the lieutenant governor’s. Now, a family works to keep it in pristine order.

By CYNTHIA NORRIS
PHOTOS BY HOLLY MARCUS

The building of my house has and is causing me great trouble and I do not think I will ever attempt to build another. –Edward Echols
It sounds like a typical statement from a modern homebuilder, but it’s not. Echols made this entry into his personal journal Thursday, March 15, 1894. His Staunton residence, called Oakdene, exemplifies the Queen Anne architectural style and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The current owners, Brian Robin–son and wife Debbie, share Echols’ love for the beautiful home. They continue to maintain and preserve one of Virginia’s most beautiful historic houses.

The Man Who Built It

Echols, the wealthy bachelor and son of Civil War Gen. John Echols, was a successful banker and lawyer and served numerous terms in both houses of Virginia’s legislature. He was one of the most popular political leaders to hold office in the Shenandoah Valley. He served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 1898 to 1902. Both Edward and his father, John, kept a diary every day of their adult lives. As a rising socialite, Echols built Oakdene to serve his personal, professional and political life. The house, especially the main ground floor, contains large gathering spaces where a bachelor could entertain and impress his guests. Margaret J. Young was impressed. On Thursday, Oct. 4, 1894, Echols wrote, “I took Margaret Young over to my house and showed it to her. I had a long talk with Miss Margaret. She is a fine young woman and I have enjoyed this day with her.”

The two later married, and the residence stayed in the Echols family for more than 100 years.

Elite Builders

Echols commissioned Yarnell and Goforth, the largest architectural firm in Philadelphia at the time, to design the structure. He spared no expense in hiring the best people to build his showcase home. He hired Larner and Smith, noted local masons, for the detailed stonework throughout the site.

Typical of Queen Anne structures, Echols used various materials for visual and design interest. Perched on the uppermost portion of the turret, a 3-foot-tall copper owl appears to be guarding the home. Its cut glass eyes were originally lit by gas, glowed red and could be seen from far away. The owl does not directly face the street, and there was no mention of it in Echols’ diary. The bird adds visual interest and mystery to the home.

He used limestone in walkways, pressed brick on the chimney, patterned wooden shingles, painted stone on the tower and stucco on the top story.  Starting at the ground level, the turret of rusticated limestone becomes a refined pattern around a cornerstone dated 1893. Wooden shingles decorate the second story of the turret, and the third story is covered in slate shingles.

A cherub resides in the fountain of the side garden. This patio is made of soapstone in sepia tones from the Alborie Soap Stone Company.  Echols shipped many of the elaborate and expensive building materials from out of the state using the early railroad system.

The interior features an irregular floor plan and many Gothic details. Pointed arches decorate doorways, windows, stair rails and wainscoting. Natural oak prevails on the main hallway and the cozy library. The elaborate tiled foyer opens onto a main hallway with a grand staircase. A large Gothic window illuminates the main stairs. Originally, the window was stained glass, later replaced by clear leaded glass to allow natural sunlight into the room. The fireplaces on the main floor contain Portoro marble, which was mined from an Italian quarry, no longer active. This marble is dark, almost black, with flame-like highlights. The color pairs beautifully with the oak floors and oak wainscoting.

On the second story, each bedroom has its own wood theme. Entire rooms are made of one type of wood. The floors, doors and wainscoting are cherry, mahogany, oak or pine. The third floor, predominately pine, was designed for the servants.

Echols specified that the house contain seven bedrooms and multiple bathrooms with plumbing. Marble slabs were built into the floor beneath the plumbing fixtures to prevent water damage.According to construction documents, Echols imported Ohio River sandstone for windowsills and lintels, along together with buff brick from Philadelphia and Boston, and they utilized iron from the Fred J. Myers Manufacturing Company in Covington, Ky.

Innovative Amenities

Oakdene incorporates a number of technological amenities. Just outside the garage, a driveway turntable allows a car to rotate for easy access from the garage. There is a call system throughout the house. Buttons pressed on various floors called for servant assistance. Multiple gas lamps lit the entire home. It also used a central coal furnace, steam heating and interior plumbing. Each second-floor bedroom window transforms using pivoted transoms. These half-doors open to sleeping porches, which create ventilation during the warm summer months.

Current Owners

The Robinsons purchased the home 14 years ago from the estate of Echols’ daughter. “When we saw the house Debbie loved it,” Brian Robinson says. “We love older homes. This is our third. We love renovating. You can see how wonderful it is and how well made it is. It is our obligation to preserve and to save it.”
The couple redesigned the kitchen, adding white cabinets and a large central island. They added a roof to the front porch to rebuild it to its original state.

“I like the stonework,” Brian Robinson says. “It has the most amazing intricate detailed carving. It was all done by hand. They did not have power tools.” The slabs of limestone weighed thousands of pounds and were hauled into place by men. This could not be reproduced now with the level of detail the Robinsos put into it. The edge of every step has detail. You can imagine how beautiful it was when it was first built, with every vertical surface painstakingly chiseled.

The Robinsons also removed wallpaper from almost every room. Debbie stripped the oak library and restained it with a deep warm shade.

“We’ve enjoyed working on it,” Debbie says. “Brian is replacing the gutters by himself. This is a true labor of love considering the height and complexity of the third-story slate roof.”

The Robinsons have two daughters, both now in college. “Our kids loved growing up here. It was a fun place for our two daughters to explore,” Debbie Robinson says.

Throughout the years, Oakdene has become more than a showplace. The Robinsons share a genuine love for the workmanship, materials and amenities, but mostly they share the Echols’ love and respect for the place as a home.

“It’s amazing. I would love to have seen them building it,” Brian says. “We are now the stewards of someone’s dream.  We are keeping the dream alive.”

COVER STORY | The Fight Before Christmas

Real versus Fake Christmas Trees by Jenelle Watson “Once we hang all the ornaments we’ve collected, it really doesn’t matter whether the tree is alive or not. In the great debate, we try to think about what it is we’re celebrating during the holidays. It’s those things we’ve collected during our five years together as a couple that makes the tree special. Once you string the lights and hang the ornaments, the tree is just a small part. It’s the other stuff that matters.” – Kris Ludwig, Massanutten

The election may be over, but in homes throughout the Valley the debate is just now heating up: Go with a live tree or make the jump to artificial?

After being force-fed a year’s worth of red state-blue state polls, politically charged debates and politics as usual, all the Miller family wants to see is green. “But we can’t agree on what is green and what isn’t,” Debbie Miller said as she priced crystal snowflake ornaments on a fully-decorated tree at Cracker Barrel in Waynesboro. “With all the talk about global warming and the environment, we’re trying to make smart decisions at home. The (presidential) debates and commercials have really hammered at that this year, so we wanted to do our part. But this tree thing, well, I can already tell that’s going to be a battle.”

While Miller would like to decorate several trees this year – starting a few weeks before Thanksgiving – her husband, Scott, doesn’t like the idea of an artificial tree. “We’ve always had a real tree,” Debbie Miller said as she waited for a table at the crowded restaurant, “and I’ve always went along with it. But this year I want to do some theme trees in a few rooms, and I’m not going to put that much work into something I’m only going to be able to display for a few weeks.

“The holidays are supposed to be a time for peace,” the Winchester resident said, laughing, “but here it is not even Halloween yet and we’re already arguing over which is greener – cutting down a tree every year to be used for a few week’s worth of decoration or buying one made of plastic that we can use over and over again.”

The Millers aren’t the only family at odds. From packed tree lots and hillside farms to garden centers and discount stores, the debate continues to rage — just as it does every year. For when it comes to the annual battle of the branches, there are no winners – or losers.

“By the time most folks come out to a choose-and-cut farm, they’ve probably already decided they’re going to get a real tree,” said Dave Thomas of Harrisonburg’s Evergreen Christmas Tree Farm. And while they may share the same “green” platform, Thomas said his customers often have other issues to work around. “The wives come in here pushing for a large tree,” he said, “but the husbands know how much they’re going to have to be involved in getting that tree in the house, put up, then down and back out of the house, and if it’s one they’ve got to plant, in a hole.” Thomas laughed. “Those husbands, they’re the ones going for smaller trees. They’re usually pushing the wives to bring that height down, and somewhere, somehow, they reach a compromise.”

THE FLIP SIDE

Tony Suarez lives the other side of the debate – and not just during the holidays. For this co-founder and owner of the popular Christmas Gallery stores in New Market, Gainesville and Fairfax, it’s Christmas 365 days a year. It’s been that way for the past 32 years, ever since he and friends turned an old general store into a year-round holiday haven.

“Back in 1977, there were very few people doing Christmas stores,” he said. “We liked Christmas and thought why not.”

Since then, the stores have been bringing holiday magic to life for countless merry makers. Stocked with wonderful holiday treasures and trinkets, it’s hard not to find something magical at a Christmas Gallery. And yet, there’s one holiday staple you would be hard-pressed to discover at his home or any of his businesses: a live Christmas tree.

A fan of faux trees, Suarez neither apologizes for his preference nor does he beat around the bush — or tree as the case may well be. “There’s nothing wrong with an artificial tree, nothing at all,” he said. “You can not beat an artificial tree if you have an allergy to pine, if you’re concerned about the fire hazard, if you have a second home or if you like to go on vacation during the holidays.”

That covers a lot of people, he said, hence the increasing popularity of artificial trees — and the demand for more realistic versions. “The trees they make today are beautiful,” he said. With prices ranging from less than $50 for a budget-friendly tree to nearly $1,000 or more for a top-of-the-line creation so real you’d have to cut into its metal trunk to tell the difference, there’s plenty of options to meet every budget and every style, Suarez said.

Artificial trees are also ideal for displaying valuable ornaments, he says, due to their stronger branch structure and heavy-duty construction. “The branches on some real trees, like spruce and pine, tend to sag and drop,” he said.

It’s for all of the above reasons that you’ll not find a live tree in his home.

“It has to be artificial,” Suarez said while surrounded by holiday goodies in mid-September. “We’re not home for Christmas; we spend every day up until Christmas working in the store. We’re home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and that’s it. Our tree is already decorated and ready to go.”

ON THE FENCE

Ryan and Kris Ludwig know both sides of that debate – and they’re not certain they want to revisit the issue.

As the special events manager at Harrisonburg’s Downtown Renaissance, Kris’s last name might as well be Kringle for the amount of time she spends focusing on the holidays. Whether it’s the city’s Holidays on Main Street celebration or the dozens of special end-of-the-year events hosted at the hotel, Ludwig has Christmas on the brain for the better part of the year. Come December, she eats, breathes and lives Christmas. Given the size of some of the Christmas trees she and her husband have purchased in recent years, there hasn’t been room in their house to do much else.

“We have always thought a live tree adds something special to the holidays,” Kris said. “We like the smell of a live tree, the feel of it and every thing that comes with it.”

So it didn’t come as a big surprise when her husband suggested they bid on a live tree during a silent auction a few years back. “Well, we won it,” Kris said, giggling at the though of what came next. “The gentleman called and asked what size tree to deliver and if we wanted the root ball. We thought that would be great. We hated the idea of cutting down a tree and then seeing all those trees tossed on the side of the road after Christmas. That made us feel guilty. We thought it would be great to be able to plant our first Christmas tree in the yard.”

That was until the tree arrived.

“This tree comes and we had no idea how big that root ball was going to be,” she said. “It was huge. We couldn’t fit it in the stand. So we found the biggest (plastic) tote we could find and put (the roots) in that. Then we filled it with dirt and watered it every day.” Ludwig snickered. “That tree was so big the skirt wouldn’t cover it, so we used a sheet.

“Anyway, we kept this thing watered and babied and then, after Christmas, we go out and plant it and are so proud of ourselves until,” she laughed again, “until someone comes by. ‘Ya’ know,’ they tell us, ‘Frazier firs don’t grow down here in the valley. You can’t keep that tree alive.’”

Ludwig sighed then laughed again. “All that work only to find out that tree wasn’t going to live anyway,” she said. “We decided not to do that again – at least not with a Frasier fir.”

But their story doesn’t stop there. The following year, the couple won the live-tree bidding again. “We though since we had these tall ceilings in our house, we’d go with a 12-foot tree,” Ludwig said. “So we put in our order. When the guy comes, the tree won’t fit in the door it’s so huge. We ended up setting it against the deck. My husband strung lights on it and we felt so guilty about buying another tree, we didn’t have one in the house that year.”

That was the second year of their marriage. Last year, for their third Christmas as husband and wife, the couple decided to spend a romantic afternoon searching for and cutting their perfect tree. “We went out to this tree farm that was an hour away, and then when we got there we decided maybe we shouldn’t cut down a tree when there were all these other trees sitting around that had already been cut,” Ludwig said. “We left with a pre-cut tree that we could have bought anywhere.”

And what about this year? Have their past experiences pushed them to switch tickets? Will they flip-flop on the issues or will they stick to their “green” party platform?

“Who knows,” Ludwig said. “Through all of this we’ve come to realize what Christmas is all about. Once we hang all the ornaments we’ve collected, it really doesn’t matter whether the tree is alive or not. In the great debate, we try to think about what it is we’re celebrating during the holidays. It’s those things we’ve collected during our five years together as a couple that makes the tree special. Once you string the lights and hang the ornaments, the tree is just a small part. It’s the other stuff that matters.”

COVER STORY | The Long Ride Home

At 4:15 a.m. the traffic is already heavy on I-81 heading north. I watch the parade of tractor trailers passively from the window. My ride is in the hands of William Coffman, driver for the Shenandoah Valley Commuter (SVC) bus. The service leaves Woodstock five mornings a week, making stops along the way until it reaches Washington, D.C. In two hours it will deliver its cargo—Valley residents who make a daily commute to the city to work.

Metropolitan Washington, D.C., has been ranked as the third worst city in the country for congestion, following closely on the heels of New York and Los Angeles. We are moving quickly in the nearly vacant High Occupancy Vehicle lane; from the bus window I notice in the other lanes a steady stream of cars, vans and SUVs, all inhabited by a single person. Eighty percent of those driving into the city are commuting alone.

Extreme Commuters

Jeff Gill of Edinburg, a fellow bus passenger, knows what those solo commuters are going through.

“I tried driving in, but by the time I got to work I was fit to be tied,” Gill related. “When I drove, something would always go wrong. On the bus you’re relaxed. You can fall asleep. You don’t have to deal with traffic.”

A native of northern Virginia, Gill discovered the Valley while visiting relatives who had retired to the area. The visits became a weekend ritual until Gill and his family decided to move in 2000.

“Northern Virginia was getting too crowded,” he said. “I didn’t want to live in the city, deal with traffic, anymore.”

Brooke Mabry, an attorney with the Justice Department, camped in the Valley as a child. She fell in love with the Bryce area and planned to build a vacation home there; but the vacation home became her permanent residence.

“In the Valley I could build the type of home I wanted,” said Mabry, who moved from Arlington a year ago. “I can work in the city, but live in a cabin in the woods.”

Mabry takes her commute in stride—a 20-minute drive to Woodstock to catch the bus, followed by a two-hour bus ride.

“It’s not a commute, it’s an adventure,” she said with a laugh.

Marie Weaver of the Valley Commuter Assistance Program (VCAP), an organization that covers Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah and Page Counties, said Valley residents who drive to D.C. are classified by the government as “extreme commuters” because they spend more than two hours one way getting to work. Supported by the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission and local governments, VCAP helps coordinate ride sharing services for local residents who travel outside the Valley to work. Clients drive from as far as West Virginia and travel as far as Rockville, Md., to get to work.

Live Where You Want

Anyone who has been stalled in northern Virginia traffic on a work day would ask, why live so far away and make the commute?

Although he has worked in the Valley, Gill, a National Guard veteran who served in Iraq and currently works for the Secret Service, cites the opportunities and the pay as reasons why he commutes to D.C. “The motto of VCAP is ‘Live where you want to and work where you want to,’” Weaver said.

Steve Hecker of Woodstock moved to the Valley to buy a specific kind of house that isn’t built in northern Virginia. Hecker finds benefits to having distance between home and work. “When you’re home you feel like you’re really off work because you’re away from the hustle and bustle of the city,” he noted.

Statistics offer an easy explanation for why so many people want to live in the Valley and work in the city. In 2006 the median home value in Fairfax County, the area surrounding D.C., was $538,940 and the population density 2,455 people per square mile. In the same year, Shenandoah County’s median homes cost only $177,631 and the county boasted a very rural 77 people per square mile. According to statistics compiled by the counties, average wages for the same positions can be up to three times higher in Fairfax than in Shenandoah County.

Bruce Coulliette has an interesting perspective on commuting from the Valley. The Strasburg native not only heads into the District each day for his job in the Department of Homeland Security, he is also part owner of the Shenandoah Valley Commuter bus service. Coulliette says the typical rider on his bus moved to the Valley in the last five to seven years due to the high cost of northern Virginia housing.

“The lines have been blurred between the Valley and northern Virginia, and the Valley is becoming a bedroom community for northern Virginia and D.C.,” he noted. “We started the service because we saw the need for a transportation link between the two.”

Coulliette moved to the Valley in 2004 for the same reason as many of the passengers on his bus.

“Housing in northern Virginia wasn’t reasonable and I’d always wanted to live in the mountains,” he said. “The Appalachian Trail is close to my home and during the summer, I don’t see my neighbor’s houses if I don’t want to. I enjoy aspects of both. I enjoy the District during the day and the Valley at night and on the weekends.”

Facing Traffic Together

For those who don’t want to face the traffic alone, options exist. The Shenandoah Valley Commuter bus service runs two buses each day, one starting in Woodstock and one in Strasburg, with plans to add a third bus originating from Winchester this fall. On an average day, each bus has 30 passengers.

VCAP offers car pool match, van pool, buses and a guaranteed ride-home service that provides transportation for commuters who may need to leave early for an emergency or stay late. Commuters can take advantage of the extra ride up to four times a year. Fuel prices have caused a greater interest in the organization’s services. The average car driver spends nearly $50 to drive from Woodstock to D.C. and back.

“High fuel prices have hurt people’s pocketbooks, and [the high prices] are responsible for getting lots of people out of their cars,” Weaver said. “Interest in our services has tripled over the last six months.”

“Using the bus is cheaper not only financially, but also physically,” she added.

But even having someone else drive doesn’t eliminate the burden a long commute places on family life. Commuting to D.C. can mean nearly 16 hours a day spent away from home. Leaving early in the morning and arriving home late in the evening can mean some parents never see their young children awake during the week.

Many use the bus ride to catch up on work or sleep so they can devote their time at home to their families. Hecker’s employer has allowed him to work a four-day week; he spends Mondays with his one-year-old son. Gill telecommutes one day every other week to spend a day at home with his five-year-old.

But Valley commuters say the compromise is worth it, and they plan to stay and raise their families here.

It’s 7 p.m., nearly dark, when the SVC bus pulls back into the Wal-Mart parking lot at Woodstock. The few remaining riders vacate their seats quickly, offer good-byes to their co-riders, and climb into their cars for the final leg home to dinners, families and a good night’s sleep. I can sleep in in the morning; but for the riders of the SVC bus, and the hundreds of Valley residents like them who make the week-day commute into the city, 3 a.m. will bring the start of a new day.

Down To Earth

Staunton’s Cynthia Sterrett spent some of the Clinton years in the stress-filled Air Force One communications bubble. Now, she has replaced flying with facials.

When Air Force One takes off with its onboard offices for the president and his staff, with every executive accoutrement from copiers to fax machines, with its medical annex, pharmacy and conference room, with its private quarters for the president and first family, one former passenger might recommend the plane add a spa.

Cynthia Sterrett, who was part of Air Force One’s crew from 1993 to 2000—a job that defined stress—is now a commercial aesthetician, a business designed to de-stress.

“Flying on Air Force One, you’re in the middle of current events,” Sterrett says, sitting in her cottage home, far away from the maelstrom of Washington. Like her antithetical careers, Sterrett is a study in contrasts. Petite with soft features, her bearing would hardly be described as military, yet when she discusses her Air Force life, it becomes obvious she has the fortitude and unflappability her first job demanded.

When the president and his staff are on on board Air Force One, “they expect to conduct their business as if they were in Washington.” It made for a stressful job. “Intense. You just do it,” she says, explaining how she handled the pressure. “Sometimes we didn’t have time to eat our meals that the flight attendants would bring in,” but she adds, “We worked like a well-oiled machine….When you’re working under the stress, it becomes your life.”

During the Clinton administration Sterrett was part of Air Force One’s critical communications team, handling all message traffic for the president and his entourage, and making sure it all–phones, fax, data–flowed without interruption. Sterrett’s job was to ensure that communication lines were secure, clear and that the President or anyone on board would not be saying, “Can you hear me now?”

When she retired from the Air Force at the end of a 22-year career, Sterrett traded flight plans for facials, and stress for sanctuary. After studying aesthetology at Von Lee International School of Aesthetics, Sterrett was licensed by the Maryland State Board as an aesthetician–a non-medical expert in skin care who provides salon treatments, such as facials and massages.

Cruising at 37,000 Feet Sterrett’s airborne office, manned by four communications operators, was responsible for connecting any of the 87 telephones on board via the appropriate circuit. “Sometimes [the system] was totally saturated,” she says. It was pressure in a pressurized cabin cruising at 37,000 feet.

Every call—almost without exception—was sent or received according to a designated time table, which factored in all the world’s time zones. If the president were going to make a call, then the comm suite operators would set up the call with military precision, making sure all lines were secure and safe. Operators also stayed on the line to make sure it remained clear. “If, for whatever reason, a call dropped, the operator had to reestablish connectivity immediately,” Sterrett says, emphasizing immediately.

The most challenging communications Sterrett handled were heads of state calls. “We had a specific protocol to follow,” which would involve President Clinton, another head of state, and two interpreters–a multi-lingual conference call at the highest echelons of power.

Once in a while, but not often, an unplanned call slipped through. On one campaign flight to Billings, Mont., then-President Bill Clinton decided on a whim that he would like to talk to a reporter on the ground. Fortunately,” Sterrett says, “it was one of those days when the satellites were working well.” The call went off without a hitch, while the comm crew watched themselves descend, thanks to a TV crew on the runway. The comm suite had two UHF receivers on board, so they could watch Air Force One land, Sterrett explains. “We would tune into local TV. They always had press on the ground.”

Sterrett remembers Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign well. “Very grueling,” she says. “The last two weeks of the campaign, we were on the road for two to three campaign stops a day. It’s a different energy. It’s a campaign.” She met the president after the two-week campaign trip. “President Clinton shook each crew members’ hand and thanked us for a job well done.”

Overseas flights for the comm crew presented their own set of challenges, but also opportunities. When the president visited troops in Bosnia in 1998, Sterrett was along. “Occasionally, we would have some time off.” Sterrett visited Paris and Rome (her favorites), and destinations in the Far East. “Even on crew rest, we were always on pagers and ‘on call’ 24 hours-a-day and had to stay in the vicinity,” she says.

Taking Off from Staunton A Staunton native, Sterrett enlisted in the Air Force in 1978 and was first assigned to ground communications. Her early career took her to Texas, Colorado, Mississippi and a three-year stint in Germany at Rhein Main Air Base. In 1983, Sterrett switched from ground to airborne communications–a move that eventually led to her assignment on Air Force One.

While stationed in Omaha, Neb., Sterrett worked with the Strategic Air Command’s critical “Looking Glass,” which kept one airborne command post in the air aboard an EC-135 aircraft around the clock, 365 days a year.

Midway through that career, Sterrett applied for “special duty assignment” at Andrews Air Force Base where she flew on board Gulfstream and C9 aircraft and provided communications for secretaries of state and defense, the first lady, congressional delegations, to name a few; and she was tapped for duty as an augmentee, or substitute, on presidential flights. After two years as an augmentee, Sterrett was hired full-time aboard Air Force One.

Coming Home to Relax A visit to a spa before retirement first sparked Sterrett’s interest in aesthetology and led to her new passion. When it came time to land, career-wise, she returned to the Valley and opened Cynthia Sterrett Skin Care, an occupation diametrically opposed to the dizzying center of the commander-in-chief’s business.

Although Sterrett admits she misses the day-to-day camaraderie of the crew, she stays in touch with them. “I still have my military family,” she says. And she loves being back near her parents, Betty and Harvey Hickman, her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, who all live in Staunton.

She also loves her new, de-pressurized career. Sterrett provides customized, scientific skincare to clients that include other business owners, professionals, teens, gentlemen and often entire families. Her aesthetic treatments and specialty facials provide a service that is available generally only at resorts and five-star hotels. “It is a beneficial luxury in a fast-paced world and absolutely necessary to maintaining healthy, glowing skin,” she says.

Though conveniently located just off Staunton’s busy North Augusta street, Sterrett’s charming cottage oasis is tucked away so completely that it is a trip to another world, one defined by tranquility. “Yes, I’ve come 180 degrees from working in communication,” she says. “I never took time to smell the roses.” Now she is surrounded by lily of the valley, magnolias, heather, and a park-like yard that must be the earthbound equivalent of the wild blue yonder.

“This is phase two of life,” she says, with a smile of contentment. “It’s coming down from that craziness.”