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Our Love Local Issue

F E B R UA RY 2 02 3

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LIFESTYLE LETTER

Love (and Support) Local!

February 2023 PUBLISHER

Hann Livingston | hann.livingston@citylifestyle.com EDITOR IAL COOR DINATOR

Melinda Gipson | melinda.gipson@citylifestyle.com

In our fast-paced world, it is easy to forget the importance of our local businesses to the health of our communities AND ourselves. A previously unthinkable, dystopian future where we all isolate at home or in our cars, have all of our food and products delivered to us and are turned into consumption devices now seems a looming reality. I read an article recently about a nearly 100% automated fast food restaurant where all ordering is done electronically and your food is presented at the drive-thru by conveyor belt. There is NO human contact. Walmart, one of the largest employers in the United States with 2.3 million employees, is now pushing customer service to ChatBots. The global market for chatbots could be worth $10.5 billion by 2026. Is this a world of rich human connection that feeds our souls? Can you have a community when you engage with more computers than humans? One of my fondest childhood memories was walking with my friends up the street to Brown-Gardiner Drug Store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Not only is it a local, independently-owned pharmacy, but it has housed a restaurant counter for more than 60 years. As a boy, visiting was a big deal. We'd order a hamburger and fries and a homemade lemonade with crushed ice. We learned independence in a safe environment. We went out into the world but met with people who knew us. We need human connection and community. As we strip away these traditional bonds, we will suffer the consequences. So, this issue is a celebration of local business. We do most of it through the lens of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce's Annual Small Business Awards. Behind each of these businesses are people fighting for the community we live in and supporting all of us in a meaningful way while also making ends meet for their families. Did you know: 1. Independent businesses create about 2/3 of private sector jobs and every $10 million of spending creates 57 jobs versus 14 jobs at online businesses for the same spend? 2. For every $100 spent at a local business, $68 stays in the community? That pays for employees, supports the local little league, and keeps the shelves stocked at the local food pantry. 3. Neighborhoods served by successful small businesses see home values increase 50% on average? It's something to think about when we click to shop. HANN LIVINGSTON, PUBLISHER @LEESBURGLIFESTYLE

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Corporate Team CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Steven Schowengerdt CHIEF SALES OFFICER Matthew Perry CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER DeLand Shore DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA Mindy Hargesheimer ART DIRECTOR Sara Minor OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Janeane Thompson WEB APPLICATIONS Michael O’Connell AD DESIGNER Matthew Endersbe LAYOUT DESIGNER Kirstan Lanier

Learn how to start your own publication at: citylifestyle.com//franchise Proverbs 3:5-6 Leesburg Lifestyle™ is published monthly by Lifestyle Publications LLC. It is distributed via the US Postal Service to some of the Leesburg area’s most affluent neighborhoods. Articles and advertisements do not necessarily reflect Lifestyle Publications’ opinions. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Lifestyle Publications does not assume responsibility for statements made by advertisers or editorial contributors. Information in Leesburg Lifestyle™ is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the

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F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 3

inside the issue The Love Local Issue

F E ATU R E D

D E PA RTM E NTS

24 Loudoun Small Business ‘Pillars’

Lifestyle Letter

City Scene

Business Monthly

Local Limelight

Inspired By

Happy Hour

Realty Report

Trend Setter

Meet Loudoun County’s Small Business Award Winners

40 First, We Banish All the Trolls...

How the Loudoun County Social Collective Taps Positive Energy for Change

48 A Scottish Toast to the Commonwealth Virginia’s Age-Old Connection to Scotch Whiskey

LI FE + C U LT U R E

LI FE + C U LT U R E FO O D + B EV ER AG E R EA L ESTAT E

ST Y LE + B EAU T Y

O N T H E C OV E R

Photography: Marty Shoup, Blue Lion Multimedia Loudoun “Pillars” of the Community. Winners of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business awards; (rear, L-R) Julie Borneman, Cyndi Turner, Craig James, Stacey Metcalfe, (front) Lara Major, Carol Barbe, Natasha Magrath, Jaclyn O’Brien Gardner.

F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 3

city scene

Where neighbors can see and be seen. 1

1: Loudoun-Dulles Lodge 69 Fraternal Order of Police has hosted “Cops & Kids” for 20 years. 2: Each child was paired with law enforcement officers from local jurisdictions and went Christmas shopping. 3: Santa and Mrs. Claus lead the Children and Officers to the nearby Target to shop. 4: Local Nam Knights motorcycle group comprised of Military Veterans and Law Enforcement officers also helped. 5: The Dulles International Airport Rotary Club, Target, Wegmans, The German Military Command, Nam Knights and Loudoun businesses contributed. 6: Each child received a $200 Target gift card to use; they’re donated all year long. 7: Partnered with INMED Partnership for Children, the day began with breakfast at Wegmans of Sterling for 108 kids, their parents and 100 cops.

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F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 3

business monthly A round-up of exciting news from local businesses.

Black History Month Celebration

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B USIN E SS M ON T H LY

Loudoun County’s Circuit Court Clerk’s Office plans to participate with Johns Hopkins University and other local groups in a ceremony at the Goose Creek Friends Meeting House in Lincoln, Virginia February 25th at 2 p.m. More details will be available at the website loudoun. gov/clerk. You can also download an exceptional digital African American History at the Loudoun County Courthouse Brochure bit.ly/ AfricanAmericanHistoryBrochure, which contains this photo, depicting Leonard Grimes, who assisted with the Underground Railroad.

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Vibrant Senior Living in All Seasons Art Classes Available at ArtBlitz for 2023 Fun! In February ArtBlitz Studios instructor Kim Richards is offering a class in painting the floral still life in oil or acrylic. This class is appropriate for beginners or experienced painters (aged 16+) interested in trying a new medium, or subject. The class ($200) is held on February 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd from 7 to 9 PM in Sterling: 45449 E. Severn Way, suite 151. Check the website ArtBlitzStudios.com for more information or sign up.

Calling All Couples Oatlands Historic House and Gardens, a wedding venue for countless married couples in our area, plans a wedding vow renewal ceremony for the venue March 25th. Loudoun County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court Gary Clemens will preside over a mass ceremony on the porch of the mansion, followed by Champagne and cake. If you’d say “I do” all over again, check oatlands.org for details and to register.

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FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

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FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

Loudoun Small Business ‘Pillars’ ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTY SHOUP, BLUE LION MULTIMEDIA; MELINDA GIPSON

Carol Barbe Incoming Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Board Chair Owner Backflow Technology (backflowtechnology.com)

Meet Loudoun County’s Small Business Award Winners The Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce bestows its Small Business awards to what we’d like to call the “pillars” in our local business community. We spotlight them for the high bar they set for our economy and community. We lead with the Chamber Board Chair because her passions help fuel our county’s future.

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

Looking at Carol Barbe, you wouldn’t figure her as a fixture in the Loudoun plumbing trade, a business populated largely by men. She readily admits that she loves being a woman in a largely male-dominated field. “I’m often the only woman in the room most of the time, but I stand on my own and I’m proud of it!,” she says, adding, “We believe in what we do. We take it very seriously, because water is life, right?” She is CEO and owner of Backflow Technology which specializes in backflow prevention and cross connection control services that protect your drinking water from contamination. But since the company her husband founded 25 years ago averages $100,000 in giving to local charities annually, she’s also known as a prominent local philanthropist. Because she is also the incoming Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce board chair for 2023, you can look for her tenure to help other business owners appreciate the business benefits of community involvement. She brings both deep experience in helping to run non-profits and a passion for helping others. “Non-profit work is my passion. I just love giving back. That’s my drive. That’s what wakes me up in the morning and makes me happy,” she says.

Before joining Backflow, she was the CEO of the American Red Cross of Loudoun County and first joined the Chamber when incoming Chamber CEO Tony Howard set about making non-profits an important constituency in the organization. Since becoming a business owner, she’s been able to exercise her passion by offering board service to Loudoun Hunger Relief, Loudoun Cares, Loudoun Coalition on Women and Girls, and the Tigerlily Foundation (supporting women before, during and after a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery – because she is herself a breast cancer survivor), and by being a member of 100WomenStrong. Joining the latter group was an acknowledgement that she shared the organization’s commitment to putting non-profits on the road to sustainability, and could be an important contributor to their mission. As a member of the Chamber board, she’s been in charge of membership for the last year, and fully embraces her role in evangelizing membership for all small businesses in the area. “The networking opportunities are incalculable, and you learn so much from other owners,” she says. The Chamber’s board also gets to serve on the Chamber Foundation, which has annually supported local non-profits since being established in 2015. This year, the Chamber chose 11 non-profits for $4,000 grants supporting economic development and entrepreneurship, education and workforce development, public safety and building a healthy community, the most ever. (The recipients were American Red Cross National Capital Region - Loudoun and Prince William; A Place To Be; Equality Loudoun; Legacy Farms; Loudoun Cares; Loudoun Free Clinic; Loudoun Serenity House; Loudoun Youth, Inc.; Morven Park; Ryan Bartel Foundation and Tree of Life Ministries.) “I love the Chamber. It’s been great for my business. It’s been great for me as a person, and it’s been great for the community as a whole, especially the non-profit community,” she said. “I’d like to continue to get our business community connected and involved with our local nonprofit community because the benefits are amazing and endless and a lot of folks don’t realize that.” CONTINUED > FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

Jaclyn O’Brien Gardner Founder, FreshEye Innovative Solutions (fresheyeis.com) Exceptional Entrepreneur of the Year and Best Virtual Business

It’s become an axiom of Loudoun Chamber awards that becoming the “Entrepreneur of the Year” isn’t easy. We don’t mean that it’s more competitive than other categories, but rather that the winner has to demonstrate particular grit through difficulty. Such is the case with Jaclyn O’Brien Gardner. Jaclyn graduated from James Madison University with a double degree in hospitality and accounting. She took the typical path for accounting, working for Ernst & Young, but then leveraged her interest in hospitality by becoming the manager of Sunset Hills Vineyard in Purcellville. Then she got Lyme disease. In 2014, her symptoms included brain fog, imbalance and aphasia. “I would drive around and forget where I was going. I couldn’t get my words out. I had a hard time walking,” she relates. After landing in the emergency room, she realized she needed to take a step back and focus on her health, “Because there’s no position, no job, no amount of money that will matter if I don’t have my health.” She took a five-month medical leave, during which time she seized on the idea of starting her own business – a different kind of bookkeeping service. We say different, because FreshEye’s tagline is, “Balance your books, business and life.” In addition to bookkeeping, it offers business strategy services – What are you trying to accomplish?

Where is the money coming from and what do you need to do to succeed? What other scenarios might help you be more profitable? – but she also counsels clients on their personal wellness. “If you don’t take the time to take care of yourself, at some point, you’ll be forced to take that time, which is kind of what happened to me with Lyme disease.” Working alongside business clients she’s helped them fight their way through bankruptcy and succeed at Shark Tank. The latter experience led her to create her own training program called “FreshEye’s Think Tank” where she walks clients through a 6-week program on how to develop their financial and business strategies as well as monitor how it’s going. Focusing on the fundamentals helps owners be flexible and adaptable to change, but with the right parameters for making good decisions along the way. “Control is an illusion,” she advises. “Change is going to happen in life but we have to have faith and go through it because even in the bad times, there can be good that comes out of them.” Because her own business and wellness journey involved shedding toxic relationships, a change in diet and a wellness overhaul, she sees physical, mental and spiritual wellness as integral to success in business. She’s teamed with Andrea Johnson, owner of Temple Training, a personal trainer and health and nutrition coach to create a program called “The Trinity Effect” to help CEOs and their teams create habits that help them avoid burnout. The 8-week program will launch in March. She’s brought on 10 associates, but doesn’t have large corporate aspirations. “We do this to help people. If we’re providing jobs, and can provide more support to people and businesses that can use the assistance,” then FreshEye will grow to fill the need, while keeping in mind the well-being of her own team and herself. In sum, she says, “Money is a stressful thing. Where we come in is to help businesses understand what’s going on and help them create a plan, so they can have peace of mind and reduce some of the stress.”

CONTINUED >

FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

Julie Borneman Owner of Watermark Woods – Native Plants (watermarkwoods.com) Winner of The People’s Choice and Main Street Business of the Year Julie Borneman is an unabashed “Plant Nerd.” In fact, the first time she saw her bumper sticker with the assertion on another car, she made her husband to pull over so she could take a photo. Her 30-acre farm is home to a plant nursery providing pesticide-free plants for Northern Virginia to gardeners spanning the Piedmont region which stretches from Northern Pennsylvania down into the Carolinas. Julie and her husband bought the property in 2009 because it was one of the few fully wooded properties in that part of Hamilton. “It’s a kind of wildlife sanctuary where we’re trying to invite all the local wildlife in because plants are the basic building blocks of the food web. Without plants, wildlife and humans would not survive,” she says. After volunteering with Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and the Audubon at Home Programs, they first wanted to be good stewards of the land, then, “it became clear that making native plants more readily available to the people of Loudoun County would make an impact in our community.” They opened Watermark Woods – Native Plants in 2014 and now sell more than 40,000 plants a year to everyone from landscapers to back-yard gardeners. A useful scientific explanation of why native plants are so important to the planet comes from a book she sells by Catherine B. Zimmerman called “Urban and Suburban Meadows: Bringing Meadowscaping to Big and Small Spaces.” Catherine quotes Douglas Tallamy, the University of Deleware’s Chair of the Department of

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

Entomology and Wildlife Ecology: “Absolutely every animal on on this planet obtains its food directly from plants by eating a plant or indirectly by eating something that ate a plant.” Insects can only eat plants they have co-evolved with because plants defend themselves with nasty chemicals, and it takes a long time for insects to evolve the ability to eat them. Creating a meadow – whether in the “back 40” or a condo back yard – helps to restore an ancient food web that benefits everyone on the food chain. Of course, the genius behind Watermark Woods is that you don’t need a degree to exploit this earth-friendly philosophy – Julie and her employees have done all the work for you. Her website even has a plant database where you can explore hundreds of different types of plants you might like to work with based on the growing conditions of the venue you’re planting.The top-notch employees at Watermark Woods will discuss your planting needs and help you find the right plant for the right place. Julie knows this approach is somewhat counter-intuitive to the marketing from most commercial nurseries which bombard consumers with hearty plants that make a lawn look well-manicured and “tidy.” “Everyone wants things they don’t have, so we all want to grow boxwoods and English Ivy and things that don’t belong here,” Julie explains. “It’s knowledge we haven’t cultivated because most people start with a lawn, but when you think of all that goes into a lawn with fertilizer and watering and mowing – it’s very resource consuming.” Plants from most “home garden centers” actually come infused with pesticides that kill pollinators, she adds. Among her top sellers are milkweed – not a particularly “well-behaved” plant, but one essential to the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly – and PawPaws, without which the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly can’t raise its young. “We try to focus on useful plants.” For beauty, there’s Gentian, a perennial in white or blue that captivated author and naturalist Henry

“You know, it’s not just about me selling plants, it’s really about saving the world.”

Julie is a potter in the off-season

David Thoreau with its true blue color, or Virginia Bluebells, which sell out every spring. Among her employees, she says, “Everybody is very well versed in native plants and everybody kind of has their things they love. David loves ferns. Susan has a very managed garden in an HOA. Nan is trying to re-wild a wooded area. BJ likes meadows. Celeste is a designer, so she can help you create almost anything. Our customers come in with pictures and lists and spend hours just reading our plant signs. I feel like they go home empowered with the knowledge to do better in their yards.” “We’re creating relationships to encourage landscapers to use more latent native plants as well – to really broaden the scope of who can use them and, and to get people comfortable using them. We do it because we need to use more native plants in our landscape. You know, it’s not just about me selling plants, it’s really about saving the world.”

CONTINUED >

FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

When they’d passed, Stacey sighed and said, “It’s my happy place.” She hopes it will become yours.

Stacey Metcalfe Executive Dir. and CEO, The Westmoreland Davis Memorial Foundation / Morven Park (morvenpark.org) Destination of the Year

On Stacey Metcalfe’s first day on the job as executive director of the Westmoreland Davis Memorial Foundation and CEO of Morven Park, she began the long drive down Southern Planter Lane that snakes to the Carriage House compound behind the park’s mansion. Along the way, she began to notice, “all these ‘no’ signs. There were signs saying no photography, no parking, no access. My charge was to make sure that our

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

Stacey and Scooby Roo

property was clean and open and accessible to the whole community, so I said, ‘This is not good.’ I went and picked up every single one of those ‘no’ signs and put them in my car and that was that!” That was two years ago, and, in the no-nonsense, relentlessly positive manner that trademarked her time as Inova’s head of community relations, Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Board Chair and Westmoreland Davis Memorial Foundation Board of Trustees member, Stacey has never rolled up the welcome mat to what she and the board view as “Loudoun County’s 1,000 acre back yard.” The Foundation was established by Marguerite Davis in 1957 to care for the home, grounds and out-buildings that she and her husband Westmoreland Davis bought in 1903 and that served as their home until Governor Davis passed away in 1942, except when he served as governor in Richmond from 1918-1922. Westmoreland studied progressive farming techniques and put them to use at Morven Park, establishing a working farm in the heart of Leesburg. He was a prominent member of Virginia’s foxhunting and horse racing communities which accounts for the equestrian facilities. It’s been open to the public since 1967 and now hosts more than 500,000 visitors each year. Until it became the host site for the Harry Potter Forbidden Forest Experience last year, which had sold more than 150,000 tickets by Christmas, the place could have been called one of the better kept secrets for Loudoun residents. Of course, that could just be an impression because the grounds are so large that it conveys a sense of privacy. Stacey gushes, “There are places where people can come in and they can have picnics; they can bring their family; they can spread out on the lawn during park hours or just spend time alone with a book.” People come for Homecoming or prom or holidays to take family photos. With Morven Park’s big win as “Destination of the Year” in Loudoun County, “we are putting ourselves on the map and basically inviting the whole community and beyond to come here and enjoy it,” she says.

To engage more young people, during the pandemic the park provided teachers with draft versions of planned virtual civics lessons using free online applications like Google. Using teacher feedback, the lessons were enhanced and then packaged by an educational technology company that brought Morven Park’s customized virtual ideas to life. An education team of three works with Loudoun County schools K through 12 to facilitate the lessons on and off the property, and there are internship and volunteer opportunities to engage older youth. And, of course, the business community is invited to use any of the very reasonably priced conference facilities. The grounds host cross-country meets and holiday light shows. Their spring horse trials begin the weekend of April 1st followed by hunter jumper shows, polo matches and then the big fall horse trials. “It’s pretty constant from March on,” says Stacey. Though not what she’d call a horsewoman, she did grow up riding horses. She’s been running with a club on the property for the last 10 years and was married there in 2017. Now she and her husband and fawn-colored Great Dane live in the manager’s house on the property. Most evenings she’ll grab her elder wand and lend a hand with the Harry Potter festivities, and check that the estate is all buttoned up. In the morning, her walks let her warmly greet visitors or check in with the estate’s score of employees. One encounter during our visit was with a couple armed with walking sticks heading off for the hiking trails. They were happy to see that their “AnniversiTree,” a mountain laurel planted to commemorate a family milestone, was thriving on the property. When they’d passed, Stacey sighed and said, “It’s my happy place.” She hopes it will become yours. It’s free to visit the grounds and gardens; memberships with a variety of perks start at $50 for an individual and $100 for a family.

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Cyndi Turner and Craig James Founders of Insight Into Action Therapy (insightactiontherapy.com) Health & Wellness and Small Business of the Year Awards Winner It’s not hard to see why addiction, relationship and general mental health therapy from Insight Into Action Therapy is so effective. Sitting in an office with the practice’s co-owners is a little like being enfolded in a giant hug. Craig James and Cyndi Turner are both “clinicians” at heart. They met 22 years ago and immediately clicked because they both had a similar, relational approach to treating mental health and addiction issues in their clients. “Most other clinicians in private practice were doing it by the book and taking a ‘Scared Straight’ approach with alcohol and drug abuse and it wasn’t working,” Cyndi relates. “We both looked at clients in terms of why they were using a substance. That’s how we help people get better.” She added, “We also laugh a lot with our clients. We get them feel safe and comfortable. And I think that’s what works.” Says Craig, “My position is, you don’t go to school to be a therapist. You’re born into it. And you do it because you enjoy people. I haven’t worked a day in 20 years because I actually like what I do. I enjoy getting into it with clients and figuring out what’s really going on.” So, how are we all doing? Craig says, “We were struggling before the pandemic; the pandemic just highlighted people’s struggles. The adults complained a lot about how the pandemic is affecting my kids, but I think the adults didn’t realize the impact it was having on them. We’ve all heard the cliché, ‘Do you work to live or do you live to work?’ Many adults need a nine-to-five to

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

help them cope with life and when they couldn’t go into the office, they had to sit with their stuff, and they couldn’t run from it.” Craig hopes that now, people can all take a step back and re-evaluate what was working for them and what wasn’t. “Right now, people are trying to figure it out. What’s of value to you – right? What do you value the most and how do you make sure that works?” Many struggle with balancing their focus on family, health and work. But an even bigger problem he puts his finger on is that Americans just aren’t connected anymore. “If you ride around in your communities, we have bigger houses, smaller porches, big decks and patios. We’re isolating. I would love to see more houses with porches because when you sit on your porch, you get to know your neighbors. When you get out and walk around, you get to connect. If we could all just get away from our silos and get out in the community and connect with each other it would be great for all of us.” One silver lining to the so-called “collective trauma” of the pandemic, is that the shared experience can help to remove the stigma of having to deal with mental health issues. “We are busier than ever and trying to meet that need. We see parents and kids – we see the whole family system. I think that’s one thing that makes us unique is that we treat the whole family system, not just one person who’s struggling.” Treating children younger than 12 is on the rise, she added, noting that kids who missed out on kindergarden may have missed out on developing basic interpersonal skills. Couples counseling also has increased because when neither could travel or work apart, they had to deal with differences they might otherwise have buried. And, finally there’s alcohol use. “Alcohol use increased tenfold” over the last two years, Cyndi added. It’s fair to call her an expert on the latter subject; she wrote not only the highly acclaimed book, “Can I Keep Drinking? How you can decide when enough is enough,” but also, “The Clinical Guide to Alcohol Moderation,” and “Practicing Alcohol Moderation: A Comprehensive Workbook.” The key to its effectiveness is an alcohol moderation assessment tool Cyndi created that helps

people answer the question, “Can I keep drinking?” for themselves. Cyndi explains, “most people are paying attention to paying attention to addiction.... We don’t just focus on the behavior. We focus on, what is the presenting issue? What led to the behavior? Is it anxiety? Is it depression? What is going on that has your alcohol use increasing. We look at the whole person, not just a segment of the individual.” For those who may need medication to quit, or to treat depression and anxiety, there’s a psychiatrist on staff. But the assessment is key to finding out what each person needs – whether medication, talk therapy or both. “I would say a good percentage of the clients we work with really know what’s going on, but there’s a barrier to accepting the reality. We look at the barrier

that’s in front of them that won’t let them accept the answer. Once we get rid of a barrier, the answers are right there,” Craig explained. Once the answers come, the focus turns to action: “Now, what are you going to do about it?” Craig says. “Go out, make the change, and then let’s process what you did. Let’s understand why you did what you did. What did that feel like? What did you learn from it? It’s a practical and ongoing process.” Through this process of rational examination and experimentation, “therapy actually changes our experience of the problem,” Cyndi explains. “Most of the time, when we experience a symptom, we’re approaching it in an emotional way. And that’s in the back of the brain that kind of more reptilian brain

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Insight Into Action uses four “modalities” in its approach to treating patients. We thought that spelling these out would give our readers a better idea of what kind of therapy they might need to help them heal and take control of their lives.

Motivational interviewing: This treatment confronts indecision and uncertainty allowing individuals to move towards positive decision-making while setting and accomplishing goals.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): This talk therapy focuses on negative thinking and negative self-image attempting to root out these thoughts and ideas and turn them towards positive, productive thinking.

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): A variation of cognitive-behavioral therapy where clients spend a good deal of time examining their emotions and emotional reactions in various situations to work on expressing themselves more appropriately and healthily.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment: Often individuals struggling with substance use disorder also have underlying mental health issues such as depression, anxiety disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder. When this is the case, it is necessary to treat both addiction and mental health issues simultaneously. Doing so not only lowers the risk of relapse but contributes to the whole health of the individual.

Mindfulness: Using practices like meditation and breathing exercises, mindfulness therapy teaches clients how to break away from negative thought patterns before they lead to mental health issues. Also, it raises an individual’s awareness of themselves and others in their current moment and environment.

LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | L IFE + CULTURE

that’s not as advanced so we can only see the emotion of it. When we talk to another person, it moves into our more developed part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, so it literally shifts it to a more logical place in the brain where we can then take those actions. Just the action of talking it through with someone with some guidance helps us experience the problem differently.” Much of this process involves creative thinking. A clinician needs to have a good memory so they can match different kinds of behavior to patient responses. But at the end of the day, it’s all about relationships and accountability to someone else for your actions, Craig asserts. Both partners find validation for their methods in winning the “big award” of the season: Best Small Business. “I like to believe that it says people understand what we do and that there’s value to the profession.” Going forward, they hope to add some wellness aspects to their practice that goes beyond therapy, such as exercise and nutrition. “Ultimately, we want to make sure we have a comprehensive wellness company dealing with both the mind and the body so we’re exploring options around wellness, but have to ask whether it makes sense for us and do we have the bandwidth.” Given that their practice is available to meet with clients on their schedule, whenever and however it works for them, that’s a fair question. Ultimately, the answer may depend on what we’ve come to value as human beings and how important our individual mental and physical health is to the wellbeing of our community. The higher importance we place on improving our health, the more likely Insight Into Action will be able to find the resources to help us “be better people,” as Craig puts it.

Members of 100 Women Strong at the Award Ceremony

100WomenStrong Lara Major, VP (onehundredwomenstrong.org) Non-Profit Organization of the Year The notion behind 100WomenStrong is simple: if a diverse group of women, men and corporate partners who love Loudoun County pooled their resources, they could annually donate in a way to forge real change. Together the group educates itself on what the community needs. Each member makes an annual, $10,000 contribution to support the mission, then they all

meet together to analyze and evaluate grant applications from non-profits focused on providing shelter, health, food, education and longterm initiatives. Each member gets a vote on what organizations get funded, and through a healthy discussion valuing each member’s point of view, grantees are chosen. From 2009 through 2022, 100WomenStrong has given more than $3.5 million to Loudoun County nonprofits in competitive grants and to fund innovative projects for the future. The group currently has 65 members and is wide open for new ones “to join our group of local, passionate philanthropists.” Have a voice in the future of your community, make a difference, have fun, meet amazing, serious givers. Worth the price of admission. CONTINUED >

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Natasha Magrath President / Franchise Owner, You’ve Got Maids (northernvirginia.youvegotmaids.com) Superior Service Award Winner

Natasha Magrath immigrated from Lebanon 1999 to work with a family business. After two years, she studied hard (200 questions!) and became a U.S. citizen. “I’ve been here 22 years now and it’s a blast. I love America. It is a great country,” she exclaims. In 2017, she started You’ve Got Maids, a franchise cleaning company, relying largely on her experience in accounting. She loves numbers and doing budgeting and forecasting. She wanted something she could control, something everyone needed – provided it was done right – and where she didn’t have to work weekends while raising a family. Like many small business owners, she’d employed companies in her chosen field, but found their service didn’t meet her own standards. “I knew I could do better. This is not the problem of the ladies to come and who work hard; the problem is the leadership not giving them good training and good support.” She was impressed that You’ve Got Maids offered a “Maids University,” adding, “When we hire someone, we don’t put them in the field right away.” After a thorough vetting, they watch videos that teach how to clean a bathroom and kitchen and so on. The training is thorough, so employees are prepared from day one to do a great job. But Natasha goes further and provides free English lessons to help the workers who need the language skill, and free immigration training as well. She serves on the boards of Loudoun Literacy Council as treasurer, and as board member at the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce. This year she joins StoneSprings Hospital as a board of trustees member. Keeping good workers has been a challenge, and probably the only thing holding Natasha back from, well, cleaning up in her targeted area, primarily Western Fairfax, Eastern Loudoun, Hamilton, and Waterford. She now has 22 employees. But what likely sets her apart is that her entire staff has a quarterly “Volunteer Day,” where they close the business for the day and go do volunteer service for a local charity. “It’s not only about doing cleaning and serving my clients. I’m trying to build the culture inside my business that all together we work to give back to the community.... I wouldn’t be here without my community. I never felt alone because of my community and all their support.”

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Todd Goldien, Echo, and Sharon Wright

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First, We Banish All the Trolls... HOW THE LOUDOUN COUNTY SOCIAL COLLECTIVE TAPS POSITIVE ENERGY FOR CHANGE

ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON

In December, the Loudoun County Social Collective’s Second Annual Christmas Tea at Bluemont Station Brewery & Winery raised $60,000 for charity. Not bad for a scrappy little Facebook group. The LCSC is the unlikely brainchild of Lisa Adams who, with her husband Dave, a Master Plumber, owns Artisan Plumbing in Purcellville. We say unlikely because, not so long ago, Lisa had a love-hate relationship with the Meta social platform. “We were doing a lot of advertising with Facebook for our plumbing company and I realized how powerful the free marketplaces are. We were getting a lot of business. But there was a lot of negativity there too,” she recalls. “It just got to the point after a year of hardcore promoting our company that I just didn’t want to do it anymore because I didn’t want to be subjected to all the trolls and the negative feedback.”

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Lisa Adams and Santa

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“It just feels good to do this. It feeds my soul. This is going to sound really cliche, but it’s 100% why I’m doing this, because joy is my currency.” — Lisa Adams

Lisa is the kind of person whose cup is always more than half full – a relentlessly supportive and loyal friend to many other local business owners – so it pained her when people who might have had one bad experience with a service provider would converge into an angry mob to try to destroy that business’s reputation. So, three years ago, she “created a space on Facebook where people can do everything for free without worrying about any kind of mob attack.” The Loudoun County Social Collective (facebook. com/groups/locosoco) is a private group with nearly 19,000 members. Joining isn’t hard – you just have to ask – but trash a local business and you’ll be shown the door. Conveying positive energy to the group is Lisa’s daily passion now, and she’s surrounded herself with people who share that drive. All the moderators intuitively sense when a snarky comment, which could be just because someone is having a bad day, threatens to turn sour. Because Lisa wasn’t the only business person longing for a welcoming, well-lighted place, there are now “Social Collectives” in Prince William, Tyson’s, Vienna, Falls Church, Arlington, and Fairfax in Northern Virginia; Jefferson, and Berkeley County in West Virginia; and Montgomery County, Maryland. The Loudoun group wanted to get together in person so they began having monthly happy hours which morphed into coffee networking because many didn’t drink alcohol. Each gathering became an opportunity to support a local charity. The group’s gatherings are always sponsored and every dime collected, beyond paying for the venues, goes directly to non-profits. When the same formula was applied to this year’s Christmas Tea, it took no effort at all to fill the room with more than 200 people who felt

positively nurtured all year round by Lisa and the other members of the group. Sponsors were found not only to cover the venue and the food but 100 raffle prizes and hundreds of individual gift bags for all the attendees... some of them containing gifts made by one of the event’s beneficiaries. Echo Works, a Loudoun non-profit that offers lifelong support for people with disabilities, was frustrated when its 95 jobs for the workers it supports dried up to just over two dozen, and never returned. “Many of those jobs were replaced by new opportunities, new worksites,” Todd said. But the real breakthrough was in creating its own “social enterprises” with handmade dog treats and jewelry. At The Barkery in Ashburn, (echobarkery.org),workers with disabilities create handmade dog treats featuring natural ingredients (tagline: “Your dog can make a difference”), and pair each purchase with “I helped someone” merchandise. Echo’s Blue Elegance makes wax tarts (essential oil and fragrance-infused soy squares), candles and jewelry, with the same feel-good messaging. “Having our own social enterprises like The Barkery, Blue Elegance, and ECHO Business Services has been critical to the success that we’ve had in rebuilding and offering more diverse employment opportunities to our participants,” Todd explains. The LCSC’s donation will help Echo open a retail space for Blue Elegance in its headquarters, complete with retail counters, lighting and everything else to create a commercial store-front. The group’s second beneficiary was Tree of Life Ministries, which, among many other community services, employs Echo participants in its SimplyBe Coffee at 940 Edwards Ferry Rd. NE in Leesburg. In addition to stable employment

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for its workers with disabilities, LCSC’s donation will help to fund its Transitional Housing Program – five apartments for woman-led households that are experiencing homeless or need a safe and secure place to recover; its English as a Second Language class materials for classes that have grown 38% in the past year; ongoing financial assistance to families with emergency household expenses like utilities and rent – requests for which were up 54% in the last year and its Food Pantry Operations which delivers 2-3 weeks’ worth of groceries to those in need – requests for which grew 53% in 2022, including a 63% increase in first-time requests. But, LCSC didn’t set out to fix all that ails Loudoun County. What shouldn’t be missed is that the group and its good works all are based on individual relationships and emerge from a collective spirit that, “we’re all in this together; how can we help each other?” “It just feels good to do this. It feeds my soul. This is going to sound really cliche, but it’s 100% why I’m doing this, because joy is my currency.” Lisa Adams For instance, Echo came to Lisa’s attention through a friend in her bowling league who has a sister with disabilities. “When she shared how Echo had saved her marriage when her sister came to live with her and her husband, it just really touched my heart,” she explains. Jeffrey Fitzgerald on her team recommended Tree of Life, so they were added to the mix this year, but the gift became personal when she met TOL’s CEO Paul Smith at SimplyBe Coffee and he asked her what he could do for her personally. “The energy just completely changed... He was laser focused on me and my needs and I could tell that God is really with him. I said, we have to help him!” Lisa says she doesn’t have any big plans to expand – she’s got enough on her plate, adding, “It just feels good to do this. It feeds my soul. This is going to sound really cliche, but it’s 100% why I’m doing this, because joy is my currency.” Neither she or the 30 or so organizers and moderators who support the group are paid for their time – they’re usually the first ones to donate raffle prizes or cover expenses. “But it feels so good. And we’ve met so many amazing people. I feel rooted in this community now because of all the small businesses we support and the nonprofits and... it just feels so good.” Amazing what can happen, just by turning on the light.

BCT Team, Valerie Pisierra

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A Scottish Toast to the Commonwealth VIRGINIA’S AGE-OLD CONNECTION TO SCOTCH WHISKEY

ARTICLE BY JIM MAGNER

H AP PY H OU R | FOOD + BE VE RAGE

Scotch Whisky. Rich. Smokey. Peaty. Superb. And, intrinsically connected to Virginia. How? In 1882, a Virginia doctor and amateur botanist living near Charlottesville managed to successfully grow wine grapes in American soil. He did this by crossing European varieties with native vines. They were so successful, that by the 1850’s, some genius decided to try growing Norton’s American wine grapes in Europe, and, through a terrible misunderstanding of plant biology, introduced the Phylloxera aphid to French vineyards, touching off a blight that nearly wiped out the entire European wine industry. It was a sad time – especially if you were a British aristocrat who had become used to a glass of Bordeaux with dinner, a glass of Port before bed and a glass of Champagne every time the music started. Well-heeled Brits of the late 19th century suddenly found themselves quite thirsty. But, as it turned out, the British cultural equivalents of hillbillies up in the Scottish Highlands had been making their own brand of backyard hooch. They were, it seems, fond of taking their barley beers and distilling them down to nearly pure alcohol in order to kick them up a notch or two. A shot of this uisge-beatha – pronounced “WHOOS-gabar”, meaning “life water,” or, “water of life” – was exactly what the newly sober gentry needed. How else were they supposed to keep a stiff upper lip? Nearly overnight, Scotch whisky went from being the sort of drink you’d expect to buy out of the back of a horse cart in a mason jar, to a highly sought-after gentleman’s drink that the upper crust were willing to shell out big money for. And, we can all thank a Virginia wine hobbyist. Today, the range of flavors of Scotch whisky is vast and the methods for producing them is going through a period of great experimentation. Traditionally, Scotch has only three ingredients: barely, water and yeast. The process is straight-forward: 1) malt the barely, 2) make a rich barley beer, 3) distill the beer into whisky, 4) store it in oak barrels for enough years to let it mellow out before drinking it. The secret to the unique flavor of Scotch whisky, however, is in the first and last steps. “Malting” barley is a process in which you allow the grains to begin to germinate so that the grain starts to

turn its starches into sugar as it prepares to grow a plant. Then, you need to halt that process before it actually starts to grow and uses up all of that sugar as energy, because those natural sugars are what your yeast is going to convert into alcohol. For Scotch, the magic happens with the method that they use to halt the germination. The grains need to be quickly heated and dried, but not cooked, which would caramelize the sugar and ruin it. The Scots do that by roasting the malted grain over a smoldering fire. Thanks to Scotland’s damp, gloomy climate, the entire country is covered with a thick layer of peat, which burns slowly at a low temperature and gives off a rich, pungent smoke, making it absolutely the most perfect fuel for drying barley malt. The malted barley then takes on that smokey, peaty essence, giving Scotch Whisky a flavor that is unique. At the end of the process, the whisky is clear, like water. The distiller puts it into an oak barrel and waits. Five, eight, ten, thirty, or more years, and what comes out of the barrel is dark, rich and smooth. Oak barrels were hard to come by in the 19th Century, and were therefore far too expensive to use on the highland version of moonshine. Instead, distillers repurposed whatever used barrels they could get their hands on once other merchants were finished with them. Wine, port and cognac barrels were favored. Today, that’s where development and experimentation in the whisky industry is taking a new direction; seeking out specific types of barrels to flavor the end product. Many distillers are touting their use of sherry, rum, and wine barrels and are producing new and exotic flavors with them. Glenfiddich’s “Fire and Cane” whisky, finished in Caribbean rum barrels, and Tamdhu’s Batch 4, finished in sherry casks, are great examples. Which brings us back to Virginia. Virginia’s growing bourbon industry is now sending lots of its used barrels to Scotland for use in the Scotch Whisky process. Used bourbon barrels make excellent Scotch with a rich, caramel aspect. Virginia and Scotch, it seems, are forever linked. So, this winter, as you sit beside the fire on a chilly night, pour yourself a dram of some fine Scotch whisky and raise a toast to the Commonwealth.

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www.facebook.com/leesburglifestyle/ FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

FEBRUARY 2023

realty report A sample of recently sold properties in Leesburg. N E I GH BO RH O O D

OR IGIN AL PRICE

SO L D P RIC E

%SO L D/ O RIG

DO M

B DRM S

B AT H S

Ashley Springs

$1,249,900

100%

4.5

Barclay Woods

$2,299,900

$2,000,000

87%

5.5

Cascades

$1,225,000

$1,150,000

94%

Courtland Rural Village

$1,030,000

$865,000

84%

5.5

Francis Farm

$1,050,000

$1,010,000

96%

Harmony Vista

$1,599,900

$1,600,000

100%

6.5

Historic Selma Estates

$949,500

$929,000

98%

5.5

Hunt Ridge Preserve

$1,307,846

100%

3.5

Lansdowne on the Potomac TH

$869,000

$835,000

96%

4.5

Lansdowne on the Potomac Det

$1,225,000

$1,150,000

94%

5.5

Lincoln

$899,000

$959,226

107%

Loudoun Valley Estates

$1,399,999

$1,375,000

98%

Meadowbrook

$1,277,303

100%

4.5

One Loudoun

$1,800,000

$1,825,000

101%

3.55

$933,717

100%

3.5

$1,695,000

$1,600,000

94%

4.5

$825,000

100%

2.5

Regency at Belmont River Creek Detached River Creek TH

When it comes to buying and selling homes virtually, “Rely on Pam”! Rose Hill

Shenstone

Tavistock Farms

$949,000

100%

4.5

$1,550,000

$1,400,000

90%

5.5

$825,000

$810,000

98%

3.5

Timberbrooke

$1,100,000

$1,080,000

98%

4.5

Wild Meadow

$1,400,000

$1,311,000

94%

4.55

Willowsford at the Grange

$1,699,900

100%

4.5

After retiring further south, we decided to sell our River Creek home after leaving it on the rental market for over ten years. Selling an older home in a high-end neighborhood, with a tenant in place, with $150k of needed updates, long-distance and during COVID-19 pandemic—this could have been the ultimate real-estate horror story. Instead, it was one

of the easiest, smoothest house sales I’ve ever experienced. Pam handled everything and quickly sold the house for more than the asking price. Pam is the most professional and capable agent that I’ve ever worked with. —Former River Creek Residents

TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT US AT: Pamela Jones, Inc. Dave Jones, GRI

TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT US AT: Pamela Jones, Inc. Cell: (703) 587-7440 Office: (703) 724-9494

R EA LT Y R E P ORT | R EAL E STATE

Dave Jones, GRI Cell: (703) 587-7440 Cell: (703) 587-7550 Office: (703) 724-9494 www.ETSellsFineHomes.com

Cell: (703) 587-7550 www.ETSellsFineHomes.com

BRING ABANDONED CHILDREN FROM THE SLUM TO SAFETY AND INTO THE LOVING ARMS OF CARETAKERS THAT WILL EDUCATE, LOVE AND RAISE THEM TO BECOME FUTURE LEADERS IN THEIR GENERATION.

WWW.ANGELHOUSE.ME

FEBR UARY 2 0 2 3 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

ELEVATE YOUR CLOSET

3 WAY S T O O R G A N I Z E A N D

Every woman dreams of an organized and beautiful closet space, but it often comes last on the list of places that get their time and attention. Follow our three tips for transforming and elevating your closet as you Spring clean and declutter for a more peaceful, inspired space you absolutely love. A sneak peek inside the closet of active mom and entrepreneur Keri Tarantino of Leawood, KS reveals a dressing room that rivals celebrity homes in Beverly Hills. But it didn’t come easily. Keri painstakingly planned, designed and curated the space with care. When we first stepped inside, we gasped as our eyes beheld the glory. No detail went unnoticed in this dreamy dressing room. Here are some guiding principles that can be drawn from her exquisite taste and vision. How you organize your closet will of course differ based on the size of your space, the size of your wardrobe, and the kind of life you lead. But applying the guidelines Keri used in her space will result in a much more organized and aesthetically pleasing space.

1. USE REAL ESTATE WISELY Reserve the front and middle of the closet for clothes worn most often. For someone who gets dressed for work each morning at 6 a.m., work clothes should be at the front of the closet. Store lesser-worn items like formal wear and out-of-season clothes toward the back and on the upper shelves. The large mirror and counter with chair provides the perfect spot to select jewelry and finalize finishing outfit touches. While every closet is different, the key here is everything has a home.

2. ORGANIZE BY KIND AND COLOR Group clothes by kind first and color second. This ensures quick location of that favorite shirt when it’s needed. Bonus - it’s easy on the eye. Group like with like: Gather belts, sweaters, long-sleeve shirts, work pants, dresses, button-down shirts, jeans, shorts, etc., and decide the best place to store each item as a group (e.g., hang pants in the closet, fold and stack sweaters in a bureau). Working with groupings will help you figure out how much space you need and the best way to store each type of item.

3. UPGRADED HANGERS The simplest and fastest way to make a BIG difference in your closet organization is to get matching hangers that go beyond the traditional plastic or wire hangers. And for sure ditch any with paper from the dry cleaner! Here’s a few of our favorite elevated hangers:

T R E N D SE T T E R | STY L E + BE AUTY

ARTICLE BY HALEY WILLIAMS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CASSANDRA CASTANEDA

I NJ E C T ST Y LE I NTO YO U R S PAC E