Have been mailing with Sara Baldwin, amazing owner and creative force of New Ravenna Mosaics in Exmore, Virginia, on the beautiful Eastern Shore. She went away to study art at U Penn but returned to where she grew up to start her business.
New Ravenna has been selected to represent Virginia for This Built America, a Ford/AOL initiative honoring manufacturing– the “individuals and companies that are building and reimagining America.” Pretty cool. Check out Sara’s story, and how her business helped revitalize the town of Exmore, here.
I see some parallels to my own neighborhood– the little hamlet of Hillsdale nearby is undergoing something of a renaissance, and Copake down the road is looking for one. It will take a lot of sweat equity as well as sustained vision to make happen. Read more about Hillsdale’s renewal and a pioneering agricultural project underway in Copake in articles I wrote for Edible Berkshires, summer 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Referencing les collines, Sara writes about the connect between local products and the economy of their community, and I love what she says. “I often prattle on about when I was in western North Carolina and you couldn’t get to the desks of the hotel clerks without fearing that jars of jelly would fall on your head and how awesome “local products for sale” is for branding the local community not to mention economic development.”
Not just a whimsical offering for tourists, locally-made products. But a real, concrete way of building, or re-building, a community and helping it survive and thrive. One small business can employ a few to dozens of local individuals, who can then live and eat and play nearby.
I have the privilege to live in a beautiful region with many enlightened folk. But there are too many people struggling, too many kids who don’t have enough to eat on weekends when school meals aren’t available. Agriculture has always been a force, and seems to be regaining strength, with multi-generation family-owned farms and new ones springing up. There are service industries, and some construction, taking care of the homes and assorted paraphernalia of weekenders. People work very hard but often can’t afford to live very well where prices have been driven up. You know the drill.
Would love to see a few more locally producing businesses, even some real manufacturing, take off, and employ more locals. And it would be truly wonderful if my little jars could be a part of something like that.
Sara brought a good idea and lots of creativity, imagination and gumption to Exmore, VA; it was a real leap of faith to place her visionary mosaics business in a block of rundown buildings in a town that had seen better days. A lot of people would have said no way could it work. It could, it has, and it is something that can happen in any number of towns across this great country. Let’s just do it.
The story of Exmore, VA, is inspiring. Your telling of it gives me hope that hard work and good ideas can be part of a healthy vital and/or revitalized local economy. The ‘recipe’ for success need not be the same for each community, but perhaps there are some common ingredients when the changes occur and are maintained…
Wonderful photo of the jelly jars –the light, the flowers, the tag!
Thanks,
J
Thank you J for the good words! You are so kind and your close reading is much appreciated.
Agreed that any ‘recipe’ will fit the people and the place.
The recipe for success may vary among communities. Any of us might gain insight into what our own community may benefit from, by looking at what has and hasn’t worked for others. Also it would be helpful to make an honest appraisal of current resources, community constants, variables and reliables.
J, that’s right. And so many encouraging examples to look to. Bob Bernstein’s Northeast Farm Access and the Copake Agricultural Center locally give us one great example of a big idea tailored and incarnated for the specifics of a unique community. And so far, very positive results.