From Suffolk to the World

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Travelers from Suffolk have a mission

BY TRACY AGNEW CORRESPONDENT

Multiple times a year, people depart Suffolk and head to other places all over the world carrying the most precious of cargo — the good news of Jesus Christ.

Many churches in Suffolk are active in sending short-, medium- and long-term missionaries to far-flung places. First Baptist Church on Main Street, where Senior Pastor Thurman Hayes is a trustee with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, is one of them.

As part of his IMB work, Hayes does a lot of international travel to visit and support missionaries. His work has connected him with missionaries serving Haiti, the Roma people, Ukrainian refugees, Pakistani refugees living in Thailand, people groups in the Middle East and North Africa, and many others.

For Hayes, the reasons for mission work are multifaceted but all stem from faith.

“It’s obedience to the Great Commission,” he said, noting that in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus told His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

“We believe the big story of the Bible is that people from every tribe and tongue would know Him,” Hayes said. “There’s so many people on this earth that have limited or no access to the Gospel. If our lives have truly been transformed by the love of Christ, it’s natural to want to share that.”

Hayes also treasures the relationships he builds through mission work.

“You find a way to love people practically, and that’s how you build relationships and become a bridge for the good news of the Gospel,” he said.

That sentiment is echoed by Mary Williams, a church member who with her husband, Ryan, and their three children, has been a big part of the church’s missions program.

“The most rewarding thing is the relationships developed there in Haiti that are lifelong with people we now consider family,” Mary Williams said. “At the medical clinic, I may help them and ease

their pain for a little while, but my hope is to allow them to hear about and see the love of Christ through what we do.”

As a nurse practitioner, Williams finds her gift in caring for the health needs of people. Her first trip, in 2012, was to Cambodia, and she has also taken one trip to Mexico, but she has been to Haiti multiple times since then. Many of her trips to Haiti have been in partnership

with Supply & Multiply.

“The biggest needs are food and water,” Williams said. “But there’s no hospital. There’s no access to medical care. You’re not really treating the disease. You’re treating at the moment.”

Williams tries to buy all of her medical supplies in Haiti to support the local economy. When she holds medical clinics in Haiti, she can sometimes see upwards of 200 people before she has to end the clinic for the day.

“One lady brought her triplet newborn babies and walked about 2.5 miles up a mountain in the pouring rain to see me,” Williams recalled.

She also described helping a surgeon open up an infected C-section wound in the middle of the night on a table with a cellphone for light. “There are lots of very heartbreaking things you can’t

really explain unless you’re there.”

Williams’ husband, who runs Faith Farms, has helped people in Haiti learn how to grow their own crops, so the Williamses have a two-fold ministry of expertise. Son Casey helps with the agriculture component, and daughters Clair and Kendal help with medical clinics and also organize Bible clubs for children in Haiti.

“I would encourage anyone who has never been involved in missions to get involved, because it opens your eyes to a whole other world,” Mary Williams said.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

At left, Kendal and Mary Williams take a photo with people they helped during a mission trip to Haiti. Bottom left, Casey Williams enjoys spending time with children during a mission trip to Haiti. Below, Clair Williams serves in Haiti during a mission trip. Never

Sushi Aka to the Globe

BY JAMES W. ROBINSON STAFF WRITER

Originally first opened in 2006, Sushi Aka is in its second iteration, located at 116 W. Washington St., serving sushi and Japanese cuisine to residents of Suffolk.

The restaurant is also noted for having fresh ingredients sourced from around the world. Prior to its return, Chef Michael Hart reflected on how he was given the chance to work at a high profile restaurant to hone his cooking skills.

“After six years, I was presented with an opportunity to hone my craft working in Philadelphia at Iron Chef (from Food Network), Masaharu Morimoto’s flagship restaurant. Always wanting to improve, I took the chance and left Suffolk for about five years,” Hart said. “In coming back to Suffolk, it was quite literally an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

He said he loves the people of Suffolk, noting that they have always been loyal to him.

“I wanted to show them how much that meant to me by bringing ‘big city’ sushi to our downtown,” he said.

“Global Harvest. Local Freshness.” is the key phrase featured on Sushi Aka’s official website. Hart explained the phrase and how food is sourced to give Suffolk citizens a taste of the world outside of the city.

“By global harvest, we are expressing that we are in a unique position to be able to source many of our sushi grade fish from around the globe while also utilizing locally grown produce,” he said. “We were able to connect with a local farmer who only grew for us. I would go out weekly to pick from the farm.”

Hart said cucumbers, soy beans, berries, peppers, root vegetables and many other items were grown right here in Suffolk, pairing them with fish and shellfish from the states, Japan, South America, and Europe.

“The distribution process from the world mainly involves our sourcing of fresh fish. This changes throughout the course of the year due to seasonality,” he said. “We get salmon anywhere from Chile to the Faroe Islands. Hamachi comes from Japan. The tuna can come from anywhere from Mexico to the Outer Banks.”

He said they are currently featuring local Chesapeake Bay oysters on the half shell and soon will have firefly squid, a hyper seasonal product that comes from Japan.

Despite studying at Iron Chef and the success of having his own restaurant, being a sushi chef wasn’t originally in the cards for Hart’s future.

“I was actually looking to get out of the restaurant business due to the fact that I

was a single father and the hours required were not ideal for my situation,” he said. “I took an apprenticeship at a local sushi restaurant in Virginia Beach to at least get out of the kitchen. I really enjoyed being at the sushi bar and meeting the guests, many of which have become great friends over the years.”

Likewise, Hart said being exposed to different ingredients helped him see a new path before him.

“My previous experience as a chef coupled with all of the new ingredients I was being exposed to through sushi was captivating and I saw a future where I could couple the cuisines to produce dishes maybe no one else had created

before,” he said. “And math. I love math and the typical sushi diner may be surprised at just how much math and perfection in numbers are involved in sushi production.”

When asked about his biggest hope for the restaurant’s impact on the city, Hart reflected on kind words said to him after the first iteration of the restaurant.

“One of the most endearing things was said to me when I closed the first sushi aka location,” he said.“A guest reached out to me and thanked me for ‘changing the way an entire city thinks about food.’ I took that to heart and work every day to be able to say the same thing about this location.”

JAMES W. ROBINSON/SUFFOLK NEWS HERALD

Above, Sushi Aka Owner and Chef Michael Hart continues to bring delicious sushi and fresh Japanese food to Downtown Suffolk. At left, Kitchen Manager Adam Edwards helps keep the dinner (and dessert) going .

Suffolk economy benefits from Port of Virginia

BY JEFF MOORE STAFF WRITER

The Port of Virginia is growing and its continued development is providing an economic boost for Suffolk.

Announcements of new projects set to start or open in 2023 tied to the port facilities are bringing investments in excess of $200 million and development of more than 3 million square feet through new builds and expansion.

POV spokesman Joseph D. Harris said with the investments being made at the facilities, it is also important to have the development outside of its fence line to support it.

In 2022, POV had its most productive year on record, having processed more than 3.7 million TEUs — 20-foot equivalent units — an increase of 5.1%.

“We made real progress in 2022 and it was another very solid year for volumes,” said Stephen A. Edwards, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “Our service and performance levels continue to improve and each quarter our truck, chassis, rail and vessel performance metrics advanced.”

The port achieved three of its top four months for container volume in 2022, with trade volumes peaking in May at an all-time high of 341,611 TEUs.

The dividends from this growth spilled into Suffolk with the announcement of five projects set to begin or be completed in 2023, along with the development of the new Port 460 project that won approval late in the year.

These projects announced in coordination with the Port of Virginia came throughout the year and include:

• February: UNIS Co., a 910,000 square

feet new build in the city. The investment in the development was not announced, but the company spent $867,100 for the property. There was no estimate on the number of jobs to be created when it opens in 2023.

4May: Birdsong Peanuts, a facility expansion adding about 10,000 square feet and doubling the size of its offices with a $25.1 million investment. No estimate provided on the number of jobs to be created.

4July: Massimo-Zanetti Beverage, an investment of $29.1 million to expand its facilities that will create 79 new jobs. Size of the expansion was not provided.

4October: Lowes, investing $75 million in a new 1.2 million square foot facility that will create 100 new jobs.

4December: MSI, an investment of $61.5 million for a new 550,000 square foot facility that will create 80 new jobs.

While Harris said there is no data on the volume these operations in Suffolk will bring to POV, he said they are being developed because of the proximity and availability of the port’s facilities.

Suffolk Economic Development Director Nic Langford said the Port of Virginia is one of the key economic engines for the Hampton Roads region.

“The port’s recent growth and plans for future expansion continue to provide a pipeline of new projects ranging from industrial, logistics, commercial, mixeduse, and multifamily developments,” Langford said. “The new developments produce jobs and contribute to the tax roll that is required for a city the size of Suffolk to continue to provide quality services to its citizenry.”

He went on to say this provides funding for emergency services, police, fire,

public schools, roads, water, sanitary and storm sewer, and quality of life projects such as parks, trails and libraries.

“They are all connected, in some way or another, to the Port of Virginia and other regional economic drivers,” Langford said.

The port’s website lists 10 current operations that use its services that have more than nearly 1.4 million square feet of space in Suffolk. These include California Cartage Co., Cargoways Logistics, Coastal Logistics Group Inc., General Service Co. Inc., Georgia Partners Cold Storage, Mar-Ja Inc., Pacorini, Suffolk Cold Storage, Virginia Cold Storage and Windspeed Logistics/ Cowan Systems.

Harris credited Suffolk’s leadership for its interest in working with Port of Virginia many years ago for the development that is now coming to the city.

In his 22 years at POV, he said he has seen how the relationship between the city and the port developed.

Harris recalled years ago officials from Suffolk coming to the POV’s leadership to look at opportunities for development through building off trade.

Suffolk got a boost from its first business cluster that developed here, which is known as the coffee cluster.

One successful coffee producer located here and then others followed suit after seeking their success, Harris said. He went on to explain that these productive clusters are often the way localities grow and develop, noting there are others in the region that also are building off of the availability of the port.

Companies “see one take off and have success and others will follow,” he said.

Additionally, Harris credits the success

Suffolk is seeing on a “very progressive business climate.”

“I credit Suffolk with having that kind of open-minded approach to the projects,” he said.

Harris said the logistics business is growing, as is the Port of Virginia. He said the growth experience is a “nature progression for Suffolk and the region.”

He pointed to the up-side of logistics, which offers year-round work, good pay and good benefits.

Suffolk and the region are good locations because of the workforce that is available. He noted a lot of people who are in the area, but leaving the military, have good opportunities with these positions — whether they be on the floor of a facility or in technology handling the orders so they get to their destinations.

Development at Port of Virginia

Harris said a lot of improvements are underway at the Port of Virginia to make it the nation’s top facility.

The port’s focus on its sustainability program and becoming a net-zero carbon emissions operation by 2040 also advanced. New capital projects using electric equipment coupled with power purchase agreements from exclusively clean energy production has the port on track – and in some areas ahead of schedule – to meet its 2040 goal.

“To ensure that we remain an economic engine, we are investing billions of dollars to create one of the fastest-growing and most technologically-advanced port complexes in the world,” Edwards said. “Now, we are coupling that investment with a twenty-first century approach to

sustainability. The Port of Virginia is firmly committed to becoming a net-zero operation by 2040. Since announcing this commitment last year, we have a really good start and are making progress.”

Edwards attributes the successful year to multiple factors: an experienced operations team, constant preparation, efficiency, consistency and the Virginia Model.

“We own and operate the terminals and the Hampton Roads Chassis Pool and this allows for quick decision making that ensures we are doing the right thing for the customer within the capabilities of the operation,” Edwards said. “The users of The Port of Virginia have come to understand the Virginia Model, its benefits and the role it plays in our success cannot be overstated.”

The port is expanding its assets and building the benefits of the Virginia Model by investing in both long and short-term projects aimed at driving efficiency, capturing more cargo and preparing for the future. These projects include:

• NIT North: Renovate, expand and modernize the North Berth at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) and cre-

ate capacity for 1,400,000 TEU. This includes installation of new ship-to-shore cranes and a reconfigured container stack yard supported by remotely-operated, semi-automated, rail-mounted gantry cranes. This operation will mirror our operations at the South Berth of NIT and Virginia International Gateway. This project will be completed in two phases: phase I in 2025 and phase II in 2027.

• Dredging: Deepening (to at least 55 feet) and widening the Norfolk Harbor and commercial channels to safely accommodate fully-laden ULCVs (ultralarge container vessels) and ensure safe, two-way movement of these vessels. Scheduled for completion in 2025.

• NIT Central Rail Yard: Expanding the Central Rail Yard at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) to accommodate 470,000 additional annual TEU. When complete, the terminal will be able to accommodate 1,100,000 annual rail TEU and the port will have an annual rail TEU capacity of more than 1.8 million units. Scheduled for completion in 2024.

• Offshore Wind: The port is in the process of preparing Portsmouth Marine

Terminal (PMT) to become the US East Coast’s logistics hub for the offshorewind industry. The port has leased PMT to a pair of companies that will use the terminal as the staging and pre-assembly area for the components needed to develop a large-scale offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach. The terminal will be ready for occupancy in 2024.

“We are listening to our customers and cargo owners and are always looking for ways to improve how we process ships and move cargo,” Edwards said. “When we do this well, confidence in The Port of Virginia increases. The results are growing volumes and expanding businesses that help drive the state’s economy and job creation throughout Virginia.”

A recent economic impact study from The College of William and Mary shows that the Port of Virginia helps to create more than 400,000 jobs, generates $92 billion in total economic impact throughout the Commonwealth on an annual basis and is a significant contributing factor in Virginia being ranked “Best State for Business” in 2019, 2020 and 2021 by CNBC.

Exchange students see the world

BY TRACY AGNEW CORRESPONDENT

Young people can change the world, and many young people have had the opportunity to learn how through exchange programs.

Youth exchange programs are facilitated through a number of organizations, such as Youth for Understanding and Sister Cities International. Over the years, quite a few students from Suffolk have gone on exchange programs to other countries, and students from foreign countries have also studied here.

Sarah Wren, who is now 20 and a junior at Auburn University, went on an exchange program to Italy through Sister Cities in 2018.

“It was something that was going to push me out of my comfort zone,” she said. “It seemed like a really cool experience I probably wasn’t going to have the opportunity to do again.”

She visited Portogruaro, Italy, a historic town about 45 minutes from Oderzo, Suffolk’s sister city in Italy.

“It was really cool,” Wren said. “I learned a lot about the differences between northern and southern Italy. I’d like to go back to southern Italy to see the differences.”

Wren said she enjoyed seeing how Italian families actually live and, moreover, it gave her confidence in unfamiliar situations.

“It was a big step out of my comfort zone and being around people I didn’t know,” Wren said. “Being around such unfamiliar territory helped me go to college because I knew I could do that.”

Exchange students come to Suffolk, too. The Persons family — Maryanne and Jeff along with their children — have hosted numerous exchange students through Youth for Understanding over the years. Those students then return to their home countries carrying an indelible part of Suffolk.

“I grew up about 25 miles outside New York City, so I grew up exposed to many more ethnicities than I felt my kids were being exposed to,” Maryanne Persons said. Her family also grew up hosting exchange students, so Persons wanted that for her own children. When they had the opportunity to build their own home, they built it with hosting exchange students in mind.

She said the experience was not about making students blend into American culture or even into their family’s culture although there were rules, like “don’t sit in dad’s chair.” They tried to incorporate parts of their guests’ traditions as well.

“Holidays and food were great uniters,” she said. “That is one thing to be aware of when you’re hosting exchange

students — what are their traditions, what will they be missing, and what can you incorporate?”

Persons said her own children benefited from the arrangement as well.

“I think it’s made my kids more comfortable reaching out,” she said. “They’ve got an understanding that we’re basically all the same.”

Florian Langknecht was an exchange student from Germany when he lived with the Persons family and attended Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.

“I wanted to experience another culture and was especially interested to get to know American culture,” he said. “I got to see some of the differences and similarities of our school systems. I especially enjoyed having after-school/ extracurricular activities, as that is not usually done in Germany. Lacrosse was a totally new sport to me. I wasn’t a huge help for my team, but I had a lot of fun practicing.”

Langknecht said his experience benefited him then and continues to benefit him today.

“I’ve really improved my spoken English and learned that different cultures communicate differently,” he said. “This is currently benefiting me at work, where I’m interacting with a lot of job applicants for open positions in my team. We get a lot of international candidates whose primary language is English.”

Manuela Ponte, from Brazil, lived with the Persons family in 1999-2000 and also attended NSA.

“I’ve always been into learning languages and cultures and started taking English classes when I was 9,” Ponte

said. Her dad learned about the experience of studying abroad from his boss’s daughter and suggested she try it out. Ponte didn’t have to think twice.

“Having the chance to improve my English and to live in another culture for a year sounded perfect,” she said. “Little did I know that the whole experience was a lot more about myself. It was about getting to know myself, and I found the perfect environment for that. Today, I can say that that year both changed me and made me recognize myself, impacted my career and how I raise my son. It’s wonderful to be able to see not just some things, but everything from a different perspective.”

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Top left, Sarah Wren enjoyed taking photos of the scenery during her 2018 trip to Northern Italy, including this one showcasing the beautiful architecture and waterways of the area. Above, Sarah Wren, right, takes a photo with her host sister during her trip to Italy in 2018.

Sister Cities encourage citizen diplomacy

BY TRACY AGNEW CORRESPONDENT

For nearly 30 years, Suffolk Sister Cities has been helping form bonds between people from Suffolk and those around the world.

Sister Cities International was created at President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy. Eisenhower believed people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate their differences and build partnerships through this new organization.

Suffolk Sister Cities formed in 1995 with its first partnership with Suffolk County, England. Its second partnership, with Oderzo, Italy, came just a few years later.

Suffolk has strong historical ties with

both of its sister cities. The tie to Suffolk County is obvious; the tie to Oderzo, less so, until one knows the story behind it.

Amedeo Obici, the founder of Planters Peanuts and benefactor of Suffolk, immigrated to the United States from his hometown of Oderzo as a boy, eventually landing here by way of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, where he founded the company.

Suffolk and its sister cities partner on programs including youth exchanges and adult exchanges. Locally, there is also an arts showcase for students and more.

Michelle Wren, the current president of Sister Cities, became involved in the organization because of its work with young people. When her children were young, her family hosted a middle school musician from Suffolk County, England, when the band traveled here to play concerts and experience America.

“It was just a phenomenal experience,” Wren said. “I loved it.”

When her children were in high school, they both went on short exchange trips to Italy, further cementing the relationship. By then, Wren was hooked.

“It’s fantastic,” she said. “My passion is the education piece of it. I think that’s huge to bring kids together that aren’t normally around each other and working together, and they’re experiencing something unique.”

When Suffolk students visit Italy, they stay in the homes of Italian families and have an itinerary that brings them

together on planned trips along with their host families. Similarly, Italian students visiting Suffolk stay with American families and are able to visit many historic sites, ranging from Obicirelated sites in Suffolk such as the Obici House to regional sites like Colonial Williamsburg. There’s usually even a trip to Washington, D.C.

Although it’s been a few years since the exchanges have happened thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wren said a group of adults is planned to go to Italy later this year. She hopes youth exchanges will start back up soon.

There also are plans to repair the Obici-Oderzo Fountain, which sits in the park adjacent to the courthouse on North Main Street. Placed in 2003, the fountain honors the Obicis and commemorates the Sister Cities relationship between Suffolk and Oderzo. It embodies ele-

SAVINGS!

ments of classic design symbolizing the ancient Roman origins of Oderzo. The mosaic tiles were a gift from the citizens of Oderzo.

During the pandemic, Suffolk Sister Cities was able to send monetary aid to Oderzo to purchase medical supplies, further cementing the “sisterhood” between the two.

Find more information on Suffolk Sister Cities at suffolksistercitiesinternational.org.

Top left, A delegation of student ambassadors from Suffolk, including Sarah Wren, Sarah Meyers, Riley Bono and Kaylee Moore, pauses for a photo in Italy with their host siblings during a student exchange. Bottom left, Rory King, a Sister Cities student ambassador in 2019, with his host sibling in Italy. Above, An Italian student delegation visiting Suffolk on a Sister Cities trip took a trip to Washington, D.C., and saw the U.S. Capitol building and other landmarks.

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SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Amadas Industries Farming Equipment

BY JAMES W. ROBINSON STAFF WRITER

The rural and agricultural heritage of Suffolk is one of the core aspects of the city. With farming being a key to its economic success in the past, farming equipment is very much a necessity to continue the harvest. Established in 1963, Amadas Industries specializes in engineering and manufacturing farming equipment in the Suffolk area and beyond, producing peanut diggers, peanut combines, crop transporters and cotton stalk puller/choppers.

“We are a manufacturer. We take raw steel. We take raw materials, and we machine it, weld it, cut it, assemble it and come up with a finished peanut combine or a finished piece of agricultural machinery,” Amadas Vice President/ Sales and Marketing Ted Williams said in an interview.

Along with Suffolk, Amadas operates facilities in Albany, Georgia and Cordoba, Argentina, helping with their production of equipment for worldwide distribution. Williams said their work

with John Deere Dealers helps make it happen.

“We have a dealer network that we sell through, the majority of which are John Deere dealers. We sell domestically in all of the peanut areas and then we also have equipment in over 50 countries worldwide,” Williams said. “In certain countries we have agents, not necessarily a distributor, but an agent. What we want is someone that can sell, service, support, provide parts to the customers in those regions. In other areas, we have sold directly to users where we did not have dealers or agents.”

However, Amadas Industries headquarters remains here at 1100 Holland Rd., along with a Suffolk plant at 302 Kenyon Rd. In addition to its focus on helping the Suffolk community, Williams says they are always looking for good people and are always hiring.

“We want to be a good community partner,” Williams said. “We want to provide a good place to work and a good, safe environment where people feel comfortable, where they can make a

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He said they also support the community in various aspects — the schools, the charities.

“We try to be a good corporate neighbor,” Williams said.

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Our physician, Dr. Rajiv Nanavaty along with our Nurse Practitioners, Lacey Lyle and De Ja Davis.

JAMES W. ROBINSON/SUFFOLK NEWS HERALD Amadas Industries Employee Christopher Wiseman operates machinery to help produce equipment for distribution.

Local football stars find NFL careers

BY MATTHEW HATFIELD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Of the 100 most-watched primetime television shows in 2022, 40 of them were National Football League games, illustrating the booming popularity of football in America.

The City of Suffolk is no stranger to producing talented football players on to the highest of levels, even the NFL.

One can trace all the way back to 1986 when wide receiver Jessie Britt out of Suffolk played a year with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the 1990s, there was another wide receiver that flourished from the city — John F. Kennedy graduate Johnnie Barnes. He went on to play in college at Hampton University, setting numerous receiving records.

From there, Barnes was chosen in the ninth round, pick No. 231 overall, in the 1992 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers, where he spent three seasons.

After that, Barnes played a year for the Steelers and then in NFL Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals.

Drafted in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots was Suffolk native Deatrich Wise Jr. Not only did Wise help the Patriots win Super Bowl LIII, but his steady development led to New England re-signing him to a four-year, $22 million dollar deal in March of 2021. Wise enjoyed a careerhigh 7.5 sacks to go with 59 tackles during the 2022 campaign while starting 16 games.

Recent Nansemond-Suffolk Academy alum Cole Christiansen won a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this year.

Then there’s Charles Clark, a King’s Fork grad who started in 40 of 52 games at Virginia Tech on his way to recording 292 tackles. Draft experts pegged him to be on the bubble of landing an NFL career. In the end, Clark was taken in the sixth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the

Baltimore Ravens.

Midway through his third season in the league, Clark’s opportunity to ascend into a prominent role came when he was thrust into the starting lineup at free safety after Tony Jefferson sustained a torn ACL.

Clark has quickly become a staple for a Ravens defense annually regarded among the sport’s best and was compensated for his performance, earning a three-year, $15.3 million dollar contract extension in 2020. Last season, he set career-highs in tackles, finishing with second most on the team in total stops with 101.

“One of the best guys that you ever want to meet,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh says of Clark, who was a nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award presented annually to honor a player’s commitment to philanthropy and community impact as well as excellence on the field. “Heck of a football player.”

It has gone from a surprise to see some-

one reach the pro ranks from the area to now being more the norm. Simply put, great progress is being made.

Suffolk roots helped Rodgers excel in basketball, life

BY MATTHEW HATFIELD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Ta’Shauna ‘Sugar’ Rodgers dreamed of one day making it on the big stage in women’s professional basketball. Thousands aspire to get there, though only the select few with the unique gifts and talents get to fulfill that goal.

Rodgers blazed her path at King’s Fork High School in Suffolk, then starred at Georgetown – where she earned 2010 Big East Freshman of the Year honors – and went on to become the all-time leading scorer for the Hoyas with 2,518 points.

A three-time AP Honorable Mention

All-American and four-time First Team

All-Big East selection, Rodgers then got the opportunity she worked all her life for a decade ago.

In 2013, Rodgers was chosen in the second round of the WNBA Draft by the Minnesota Lynx. She went on to win a WNBA Championship that year and later

received All-Star honors in 2017 as a member of the New York Liberty, where she was selected as the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year.

For her, it all began in the Peanut City, something she’s embraced and worn with pride throughout her playing career and now as she embarks on the coaching side of things.

“The opportunity to represent my city

has been an honor. It’s a privilege to be able to show to youth what they can do with a dream, perseverance and hard work,” noted Rodgers, now an assistant women’s basketball coach at William & Mary after prior coaching stints with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and at her alma mater, Georgetown.

In addition to playing and coaching, Rodgers serves as an ambassador for Up2Us Sports, a national non-profit

organization dedicated to supporting underserved youth by providing them with coaches trained in positive youth development.

Through it all, she is constantly reminded to remember her humbling beginnings.

“I wouldn’t be the woman I am today if I hadn’t gone through what I did growing up in Suffolk,” Rodgers said.

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Ta’Shauna ‘Sugar’ Rodgers' play at King's Fork High School helped her hone her skills to prepare for her college play at Georgetown that was followed by professional time spent in the WNBA.

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Ravens player Chuck Clark got his start on the gridiron at King's Fork High School in Suffolk.

From Suffolk to the Olympics and beyond

BY MATTHEW HATFIELD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

There are hometown legends from Suffolk in a variety of sports – basketball, football, track and field to name a few. But in a sport like gymnastics, is it imaginable? Hope Spivey made it possible.

Spivey helped put USA Gymnastics on the map, where others – such as Virginia Beach native Gabby Douglas – have garnered worldwide acclaim and cashed in with earnings of multi-million dollars. For her, it was a much different era.

As a youth, Spivey cut her teeth, so to speak, at Suffolk’s Birdsong Recreation Center and the Franklin YMCA. At the age of 13, she took a leap of faith with her parents allowing her to move to Allentown, Pennsylvania to train for the Olympics. That’s when the blossoming

process began to unfold.

Spivey managed to win a bronze medal in all-around competition at the U.S. Nationals Championship in 1985. Strong finishes in various competitions enabled her to get more recognition and gain steam. She would set a record score at the Pan American games as a member of the gold medal winning team for the U.S. Although she did not get a medal finish – placing fourth – Spivey got to perform on the grand stage in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Her career at that point had officially taken off and reached a new level.

Ultimately, Spivey would return to Suffolk, enrolling at Forest Glen High as a senior before accepting a scholarship offer at the University of Georgia. Now known for winning titles in football, Georgia saw Spivey win four National Championships with the SEC program. Spivey received 1994 SEC Athlete of the Year, and maybe even more impressive than that and being tabbed an AllAmerican on 11 occasions was the fact she was awarded 27 perfect scores of 10.0 – still an NCAA all-time record.

At the 1996 Olympic games, Spivey had the honor of carrying the torch through Athens on its way to Atlanta. No other athlete from the Commonwealth received that privilege.

In a February 2015 News-Herald article, Spivey said enabling her to have the career she did first and foremost would be the talent that God had given her and the desire to be the best she could be,”

“But running right behind that would be my family, my parents, being willing to sacrifice things in order to make those dreams happen, not getting caught up in things and allowing the coaches to do the

coaching,” she said in the 2015 story. For all her accomplishments, Spivey was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

“Obviously there are great athletes in Georgia, and for them to still recognize the impact that I’ve had on the state in athletics, it really means a great deal,” Spivey told the News-Herald in 2015.

In expressing what she considers to be her primary career accomplishments, she told the News-Herald, “Being a 1988 U.S. Olympian is obviously a huge highlight.”

But the achievements she is proudest of came between 1991 and 1994 when she was a Gym Dog.

“You can’t minimize the accomplish-

ment of being on an Olympic team, but college gymnastics was an extension of that,” she said in 2015, noting the university was able to continue that Olympic high.

She and the Gym Dogs “got a lot of attention and a lot of people — over 10,000 people — would come and watch our meets,” Spivey said. “It was just such a joy to be able to perform for people that truly got behind us and were with us through thick and thin, and those are memories that last a lifetime.”

Hope Spivey took her gymnastics career excelled while at the University of Georgia and made it to the big stage representing the U.S. at the Olympics.

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Distribution centers helped city through pandemic

BY JEFF MOORE STAFF WRITER

Distribution operations and other economic decisions from the past are helping to continue growth in Suffolk and have helped produce strong economic trends for the city.

With the increased demand during the first parts of the pandemic, officials said the city’s economy fared better in getting back to pre-COVID-19 levels.

A review of the city’s Gross Domestic Product, its employment numbers, median income and property values are all up in recent years, economic data provided by Old Dominion University.

Bob McNab, director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy at ODU, pointed to the trends in each of the areas that show the city weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and has returned to growth above pre-coronavirus levels.

The city’s GDP based on real dollars adjusted for inflation is up by 15.3% over the four-year period, 2018 to 2021. He pointed to a report from the Department of Commerce shows Suffolk’s Real GDP grew to $3,859,749 thousands of chained dollars in 2021, up from $3,348,237 thousands of chained dollars in 2018. Chained dollars is a method of adjusting real dollar amounts for inflation over time, to allow the comparison of figures from different years that the U.S. Department of Commerce introduced in 1996.

“The city has grown quite well during this period,” McNab said. He added that its clear Suffolk has regained its growth after the shock of the pandemic.

McNab also pointed out that median income from 2018 to 2021 grew from

$69,753 to $78,080, based on numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program. The trend from 2018 to 2021 shows the city’s labor force has grown in this same period, while the number of unemployed has declined, he said. This also registered a slight decrease in the city’s poverty level, which slipped from 10.9% in 2018 to 10.6% in 2021, the latest numbers McNab said are available.

Suffolk’s population also grew in the four-year period to 96,194 in 2021 from 91,135 in 2018, McNab said as he referred to the trend in U.S. Census data. With this growth, he said housing values have also risen, averaging $355,865 in November 2022, which is up from $242,357 in January 2018. McNab said these numbers are based on reports from the website, Zillow.com.

McNab said it’s clear with these trends that Suffolk “is a city that is growing.”

Suffolk Economic Development Director Nic Langford agreed that great

things are happening in the city and it is experiencing tremendous economic growth.

“Suffolk is a large, attractive city,” Langford said. “Suffolk’s size, in my opinion, is also what makes it uniquely resilient and adaptable to changing economic times. The sheer amount of land allows for several potential developments to occur based on multiple economic factors such as inflation, lending rates, development patterns, demographic trends, and construction and labor costs.”

The success of the businesses that have located here is one of the key driving forces in the growth Suffolk continues to see.

“Yes, the city is projected to continue to attract and win big projects to create good-paying jobs for existing and new residents while also providing new revenue sources for services,” Langford said. “However, there will likely be some ebb and flow based on regional and national lending practices. If interest rates con-

tinue to rise, we will likely see a minor dip in industrial, commercial and housing starts as the majority of these projects require traditional financing.”

But he said he believes the long-term picture for Suffolk is very bright.

“The city is situated as a major growth area in Hampton Roads for the foreseeable future,” he said.

In order to thoughtfully phase development, the city is undergoing a very intensive planning exercise to flesh out how smart and sustainable growth patterns can occur. This includes if, when, and how land should be developed to best meet the needs of Suffolk’s growing citizenry.

The Suffolk 2045 Comprehensive Plan is in motion and participation is encouraged, people should visit https://suffolk2045.org/ and attend upcoming listening and feedback sessions to partake in the plan and ensure they’re informed.

JAMES W. ROBINSON/SUFFOLK NEWS-HERALD

The Amazon distribution center in Suffolk opened late last summer, creating about 1,000 additional jobs for the region.

Cotton Gin of Suffolk

BY JAMES W. ROBINSON STAFF WRITER

After a long history of cotton production, Suffolk saw it dwindle away decades ago. But one local business owner has helped provide its comeback with the city providing it around the nation and the world.

One of the four remaining cotton gins in Virginia is in Suffolk, with the others in Windsor, Franklin and Emporia.

The Suffolk Cotton Gin provides distribution of cotton to various states in the U.S., such as Alabama, as well as various markets overseas such as China, S. Korea and Turkey. Suffolk Cotton Gin owner and retired President Morris Glover looked back on the gin’s humble beginnings and how the process works for those new to agricultural life.

“The cotton left Suffolk before my time. When I was farming in 1994 and ‘95, it started coming back into this area, because they got rid of the boll weevil. The boll weevil used to eat it up. Everytime you’d plant it, they would just eat it up,” Glover reflected. “So in 1994, they started growing cotton and I was a peanut buyer and a grain buyer up in town for G & G Farm Service. They were taking land and putting in cotton, which made me get less business. So I decided to open up a cotton gin and get some of the cotton to fill in the gaps.”

After buying a cotton gin to start the business, Glover realized he needed others to help his business grow.

“I went to Texas and bought a used gin and it was a bigger project that I could handle by myself, so I took partners in,” he said.

Glover explained the general process

of farmers growing the crop.

After picking the cotton, trucks are sent out to pick up the harvest and gin it. Afterwards, all the collected cotton is put into warehouse store form to sell and distribute in the U.S. and overseas.

“We have warehouses that store all the gin,” Glover said. “We keep it right here, and then we ship it. Some days you don’t ship any, the next day you’ll ship more. But the average is about five to six loads a day year around.”

Adding to the mix for his business, he also is involved with the cotton seed market.

“We also ship the seeds out that we take out the cotton. That’s what the gin does, gets the seed and trash out,” Glover

explained. “We bale that and sell it to cow feeders, and then we bale the cotton and ship that separate. We got three things: seed, cotton and the trash. We sell all of it. Don’t get much for the trash, but we sell it.”

He stressed the importance of the seeds in his operation.

“The seed is how we get our money. We sell the seed to get money to pay for all the people working here and the electric bill, the supplies, fuel and all that,” Glover said. “The farmer gets all the money for the cotton. We don’t take anything out the cotton, only thing we get is the seed. We get the seed for doing the work and hauling it in and shipping it out for them.”

JAMES W. ROBINSON/SUFFOLK NEWS-HERALD

Left, Cotton Gin Employee Yena Rosas helps with transferring cotton during the day. Below, Cotton Gin Employee Enrique Melendez poses after a hard days work at the gin.

Green takes lead role in ‘Champion’ at the Met

BY JEFF MOORE STAFF WRITER

A Suffolk bass-baritone is being heard this year in some of the world’s top opera houses and beyond.

Ryan “Speedo” Green opened the year performing at the Opera national de Paris in Bastille, France before returning to New York City to perform with the Met at Orchestra Musicians at Carnegie Hall in February. In March, he was on stage at David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic and later this year, he is set to debut with the Chicago Philharmonic at Harris Theater and Dance.

It also was just recently announced that he is set to star in Terence Blanchard’s opera “Champion” with the New York Metropolitan Opera from April 10 through May 13. The live performance is being recorded and will be shown

in cinemas around the world, including Virginia.

Just as impressive, Green was featured on the March cover of Opera magazine for taking on the role of boxer Emile Griffith.

In a recent interview with the NewsHerald, Green never imagined his passion for opera would lead him to where he is today.

Born and raised in Suffolk, Green graduated from Lakeland High School and went on to pursue his love for opera. Now, at age 36, he said having the opportunity to take on a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera is a dream he once thought would be the end goal of his career.

Green shared more on the journey so far and the challenges he faces as a husband and father of two young boys while maintaining his successful career.

“Juggling my career and family who are often in two separate places is the biggest challenge,” Green said. “I sometimes wonder why scientists haven’t discovered teleportation so I can go back and forth daily to be with my family and sing all the places I am contracted to sing.”

Despite the challenges, Green is proud of his roots and the opportunities he had growing up in Suffolk. He attended the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, where he was given the opportunity to express, educate and hone his skills.

“There are too many artists to name who have graduated or attended GSA who are now contributors to their art form in some way or another,” he said.

He has proven that he is a rising star in the world of opera. Praised by the New

York Times and The Washington Post, he is in high demand at the world’s leading opera houses. Among some of the venues where he has performed are the Wiener Staatsoper, Ravinia Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, to name a few. He has been awarded the Marian Anderson Vocal Award from Washington National Opera and has made his debut with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Green invites his hometown folks to see him perform at the Met without leaving Hampton Roads as the boxing

jazz opera “Champion” comes to movie theaters.

“Check your local listing or Google to see what theaters broadcast ‘Met Live in HD’ near you,” Green said.

Green has proven himself to be an inspiration to young aspiring opera singers. He has overcome challenges, maintained his passion and has made his dream a reality. His rise to fame is a testament to his talent, hard work and dedication to his craft. Green’s journey serves as a reminder that anything is possible for those who believe in themselves and work hard to achieve their goals.

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Suffolk native Ryan "Speedo" Green has a big year ahead performing the lead in "Champion" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The opera is being filmed and will be shown worldwide in theaters.

June 2nd, 3rd & 4th