“A trained service dog is the best medicine for individuals with deep invisible wounds. It’s an opportunity not to survive, but to live. Without Mutts With A Mission, my obituary would have been written years ago.” – Cheryl Caves, U.S.…
Intro By Leona Baker Coastal Virginia Magazine’s annual Giving Back Awards are designed to honor the region’s outstanding nonprofit organizations and businesses* that transform our communities and enrich the lives of others in a variety of ways with charitable or…
Photos by David Uhrin and Glenn Jones Every four years, hundreds of countries present their strongest, most dedicated athletes to compete on the world stage. They conquer every arena from snow-capped mountains, skating rinks and ice tracks to 50-meter swimming…
Summer, summer, summertime. Time to sit back and unwind. And, wow, do we ever need it after the last year. So, take a cue from a classic by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, relax and enjoy yourself this…
“They’ve been under our feet and beside us all through history,” says Ryan Stabb. What? Children? Dogs? Stones? No, Ryan Stabb, owner of Capstone Mushroom, was referring to the humble, hardworking fungus. Edible, medicinal and “recreational” mushrooms have a long…
When 21-year-old Beatriz Balderas, mentor for the new Norfolk-based nonprofit CROP Foundation culinary education and agricultural program, dreamed up a recent dessert special of brown butter carrot ice cream with parsley cake and rose custard, she was drawing on her…
If you’re a young man in spring, your fancy’s lightly turning to thoughts of love (per Tennyson) or baseball (per sports pundits). But if you’re a foodie (young, old, any gender), your fancy’s veering towards farmers markets. Or so says…
As a teen and young adult, I enjoyed mushrooms as a tasty, low-calorie topping on salads and baked potatoes. But I was unaware of their nutritional value. In fact, the physician father of one of my grad school roommates was…
April showers not only bring May flowers, but handpicked fruits, locally grown lettuce and Chesapeake Bay bites to farmers markets throughout Coastal Virginia. From the first sign of spring to the Hunter’s Moon in October, our region is flush with…
To a pet papa or mama, Crazy Stupid Love is more than a movie title: The words describe our cats and dogs, the silly, occasionally infuriating, heart stealers we worship. To help us cope with our furry friends’ less-than-perfect ways,…
By Kimberly Sherlaw Huddled in wire crates, siblings Gus and Stella arrived at the Norfolk SPCA unable even to look in the direction of a…
As anyone who has loved a dog, cat or other animal companion knows, our four-legged friends are so much more than that. During the pandemic, the special bond we share with our pets seemed all the more meaningful when the…
Remember when you used to go to the dentist or orthodontist, and they would mix up that putty-like impression material in order to make a mold of your teeth? Well, thanks to a modern innovation in radiography, the same thing…
While this year may be one most of us are anxious to put in the rearview mirror, 2020 was also a time when those willing to be of service to their communities reflected the best of human nature while faced…
The businesses listed on the following pages—from food trucks to law firms, dental practices to security agencies—do so much more than serve customers. Please join us in celebrating our Community Impact honorees for all the ways they go above and…
“In the movies, [human trafficking] is this big kidnapping situation. You’re taken away and never heard from again, but it’s not like that. It’s actually the complete opposite. Most of the time, it’s the people that you trust, love and…
Battling cancer is difficult enough without extraneous circumstances or complications. Trying to do it while there is an international pandemic going on makes the fight that much more difficult. But that’s exactly where Deanna McRae King found herself after doing…
Our country ended the first quarter of 2020 entering lockdown over COVID-19—a disease to which no one was seemingly immune, but which claims Black and Latino lives at nearly twice the rate of white lives in the U.S. As the…
By some estimates, 90% of the world’s museums—art, science and everything in…
Living history, taverns and binderies, oh my! The Colonial Williamsburg that Virginians know and love has always been all that and much more. In fact, it is the world’s largest living history museum. But as of June 14, 2020, it…
Dr. Manali Patel’s kind nature is apparent when she speaks, with her soft voice earning a listener’s trust. Also obvious: Her penchant for hard work and proneness for heartache. “At first…
A narrow path ascends the banks of the nearby Broad Bay—the deep blue waters reflecting colored ripples from the rustling leaves of towering trees. The trail is heavily trodden, riddled with foliage and sand, and it is quiet, save the occasional crescendo of songbirds or quick staccato of a woodpecker's beak. When traversing the grounds of…
Virginia is, quite literally, at the forefront of American history. The Commonwealth is the birthplace of our nation’s most significant settlements and most influential leaders. For centuries, our local soil produced bountiful harvests and bore the brunt of shipwrecks and…
We all have specific cities, venues and events we use to chronicle our lives. For some, their adolescence is archived by summer vacations along the Sandbridge shores or recorded by screams on the corkscrew turns of Busch Garden’s Alpengeist. For most Southside residents, however, their personal histories are tightly intertwined with Norfolk Botanical Garden.…
