The Valley Today

There's a brand-new trail at Seven Bends State Park — and it took a decade, a federal grant, and a whole lot of volunteer sweat to build it. Janet Michael is joined by Kary Haun (Shenandoah County Tourism) for a bonus conversation with Kyle Lawrence of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition about the new shared-use trail connecting the park to the George Washington National Forest.

Kyle breaks down what actually goes into planning and building a sustainable mountain trail, why hikers and trail runners will likely outnumber bikers on this one, and how e-bikes are opening the sport up...

"Spider veins" was a scary name for a little girl who was afraid of spiders. As it turns out, it's a scary name for a lot of grown-ups too — and one of the biggest reasons people put off getting evaluated. On this Community Health edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes Dr. Emily Reardon, board-certified vascular surgeon with Valley Health Vascular Surgeons, for a genuinely reassuring conversation about vein health — what varicose veins and spider veins actually are, why they happen, when they're cosmetic and when they're medically significant, and just how minimally invasive today's treatments really are...

Your potato salad has been out for how long? On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Amanda Johnson, the Food, Nutrition, and Health Extension Agent based in Frederick County (serving all five surrounding counties), for a genuinely useful summer companion to their November food safety conversation. This time the focus is picnics, cookouts, and family reunions — with the same four-pillar framework Amanda teaches: Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill.

Amanda walks through what most home cooks get wrong (yes, you need to wash the outside of a watermelon before you cut it; no, you ca...

Ten years ago, a Shenandoah University undergraduate history major had an internship project: create a summer kid-friendly program at Burwell-Morgan Mill. This Saturday, that program will draw hundreds of families and host history organizations from across the state. On this Tourism Tuesday Berryville/Clarke County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up on the Zooms with Nathan Stalvey, Executive Director of the Clarke County Historical Association, for a full-throttle preview of Colonial Kids Day, the fall Art at the Mill submission window, and the VA 250 Mobile Museum's stop at Long Branch.

Nathan walks through...

A giant peach, a British farce, a Christmas at Pemberley, a Berkeley PTA vaccine debate, a war photographer's homecoming, and a nun-choir tribute to Whoopi Goldberg. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Tim Bambara from Winchester Little Theatre to preview the second WLT for Kids show of the summer AND the full 2026-2027 main-stage season — five main-stage productions spanning farce, Regency, contemporary satire, drama, and musical.

Tim walks through the current run (James and the Giant Peach Jr. opens July 18 and runs through July 25, with weekday morning and afternoon options fo...

"Did you know that being homeless is really expensive?" That's the sentence one Family Promise Winchester client said to Chris Brigante recently — and it's the question that anchors this follow-up episode of The Valley Today. Host Janet Michael welcomes Chris Brigante, Executive Director of Family Promise Winchester, back to the show for the deep-dive conversation she promised at the end of their last recording: what actually happens when a family loses their home and ends up living in a motel.

Chris and Janet walk through one hypothetical family — mom with two part-time jobs, dad in a factory job...

"I'm the person that calls that number and just pushes zero until a human picks up. I need a Thomas." Brandy Hawkins Boies said it, and it's the truest thing about community college enrollment in 2026. On this Laurel Ridge Community College edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Director of Communications and Outreach Brandy Hawkins Boies, joined by Thomas Monk — Outreach Specialist and Career Coach at Laurel Ridge's Middletown campus, and the actual first human anyone new to Laurel Ridge is likely to meet.

Thomas walks through what an outreach specialist actually does — 25+ conversations a we...

Twenty-plus deployments across the country. Coast to coast. And this month, Elizabeth Quinn was on standby to fly to Guam via Hawaii for a Category 5 typhoon response. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael continues her year-long Red Cross series with Deb Fleming, Executive Director of the Greater Shenandoah Valley Chapter, joined by Elizabeth Quinn — the Disaster Health Services Lead and a retired nurse who leads the volunteer nursing team responsible for the health side of every Red Cross disaster response, from home fires down the street to hurricanes across the country.

Elizabeth walks th...

Some restaurants are worth coming back for. And some people are worth partnering with to make that happen. On this Tourism Tuesday Winchester/Frederick County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael and Justin Kerns catch up on the Zooms with Cheryl Ash and Drew Braithwaite — the team behind Gypsy Jane's Southern Food Lounge, a brand-new Creole-leaning New Orleans-inspired destination restaurant opening this month in Gore, Virginia. Cheryl is the chef and immersive-experience mastermind behind the beloved Sweet NOLA's Southern Food Lounge (which ran for eight years in Winchester). Drew is a lifelong Sweet NOLA's fan who moved ba...

Every year, a jigsaw puzzle. But this year, the pieces gelled. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael returns to the corporate headquarters of the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival in Woodstock (as always, delighting Dennis Lynch by calling it that) for her annual walk through the summer concert series at Orkney Springs. And Dennis has assembled a genuinely wide-ranging 2026 lineup — Little River Band, The Four Tops, Diamond Rio, a 250th-anniversary big-band night with the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, Al Jardine of the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson's band, the Bacon Brothers, and Hotel California to close out La...

Some things bear repeating. And on this Public Safety Thursday edition of The Valley Today — the day before the 250th Independence Day weekend — Captain Warren Gosnell of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office does exactly that. Host Janet Michael welcomes him back to the studio with a folder of new laws, a warning about the heat, and a story about one of his deputies whose truck was totaled earlier this week by an impaired driver who didn't move over.

The conversation opens with a genuine plea from Sheriff Milholland — via Captain Gosnell — to actually take the Move Over Law seri...

"This is the healthcare we used to have," some of Dr. Emily Chan's older patients have told her. Her reply: "Yep — and that's the way that it should be." On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber with Chamber President Niki Foster and Dr. Emily Chan, a board-certified family medicine physician who has opened an independent, membership-based primary care practice in Woodstock — the first in the Valley to partner with MDVIP, a national network of about 1,400 physicians using this model.

Dr. Chan walks through what...

Sixty-one years. Only two missed. On this Luray-Page Tourism Tuesday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes Leon Stout, Town Treasurer of Stanley, for a rundown of the 59th Annual Stanley Homecoming — a four-day, town-wide celebration running Wednesday, July 1st through Saturday, July 4th at Ed Good Park. Then Gina Hilliard, President of the Luray-Page Chamber of Commerce, gives a full preview of Luray's July 4th festivities, from the DAR Children's Parade at 10 AM through the Downtown Get Down and fireworks at dusk.

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Luray-Page Chamber of Commerce (brand-new website, launched mid-May): lura...

Last year, Family Promise Winchester typically received 40 to 45 requests for help per month. This month, they'll cross 100. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Chris Brigante, Executive Director of Family Promise Winchester, for a candid conversation about why family homelessness is surging in our region — and the surprisingly cost-effective math behind preventing it.

Chris walks through the numbers most people don't see: the average direct-assistance cost to get a family into stable housing is about $500 per child. The historical cap on a Family Promise move-in package is around $1,500 per family. Of the fi...

Neither of us is actually in Old Town today — but as Brady put it, we're there in spirit. On this Friends of Old Town edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Brady Cloven (Executive Director, Friends of Old Town Winchester) via Zoom while he's at a tourism conference in Pennsylvania, pitching bus tours on coming to Winchester. The conversation is released just minutes before Brady cuts the ribbon on the South End Literacy Mural at the splash pad — the year-long project with United Way, the John and Janice Wyatt Foundation, and the Winchester Campaign for Grad...

Three hundred drones, eleven minutes, and an entire park's collective gasp. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at Jim Barnett Park's Active Living Center with Winchester City Parks Director Chris Konyar to recap the city's first-ever drone show (the Winchester logo perfectly drawn in the sky, the animated Patsy Cline, the Apple Blossom bloom, all to celebrate the VA250 anniversary) and to preview Red, White & Boom — Independence Eve at the park on Friday, July 3rd.

Chris walks through the full Red, White & Boom lineup: a pool DJ, the Fun Zone with a...

A week and a half ago, they walked into a radio station they didn't know existed. This week, they were standing on a stage at the HIVE at Shenandoah University with graduation certificates in their hands, telling a room full of parents and business leaders how the experience changed them. On this follow-up to the June 10th episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael returns to the students of the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber's Arising Leadership Program — this time to find out whether the sessions they thought they were most looking forward to actually were their favorites, an...

A string of pearls runs along Route 11 — and every one of them is built for summer. On this Shenandoah County Tourism Tuesday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is joined on the Zooms by Kary Haun and Brittany Clem-Hott for a conversation devoted to the best of summer in Shenandoah County, from Strasburg to New Market and everywhere between.

Three Valley League baseball teams, a county full of ice cream stands, fireworks displays, summer music series in nearly every town, the river walks of Seven Bends State Park and Lake Laura, dozens of outdoor-dining patios, an...

She saw the commercial — the one with the Red Cross volunteer in the red vest, hugging someone, handing over a blanket — and told her husband, "When I retire, I want to be that person." On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael continues her year-long Red Cross series with Deb Fleming, Executive Director of the Greater Shenandoah Valley Chapter, who brings along volunteer Jill Johnson — a retired teacher who has now been deployed five times (three nationally, two locally) and is on standby for another deployment as the conversation is happening.

Jill walks through the surpri...

Deworm every animal every time, and pretty soon the dewormer stops working. On this Extension Office Friday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Elizabeth Mullins Baldwin (Page County Extension agent) and Cynthia Fairbanks (Warren County Extension agent) to talk about herd health for the region's growing population of small-ruminant producers — and a hands-on FAMACHA certification workshop coming up at the Warren County Fairgrounds on Saturday, July 11th.

The conversation starts with a friendly reality check for anyone thinking about getting into sheep or goats — yes, they're a great entry poin...

Palliative isn't a synonym for terminal. On this Community Health edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Dr. Jim VanKirk, board-certified palliative care specialist and Medical Director of Valley Health's Palliative Care Program, joined by team social worker Rachel Schwartz, to clear up one of the most persistent misconceptions in medicine — and to make the case for thinking about palliative care as a living tool, not an end-of-life one.

Dr. VanKirk walks through what palliative care actually is — symptom support, treatment planning, and team-based care for patients with serious illnesses who are still receiving aggr...

The federal poverty line for a family of four in America is $33,000 a year. In Virginia, a single person needs to earn more than $50,000 just to meet their basic needs. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes back Les Sinclair, Communications and PR Manager at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, for a candid conversation about why hunger and unemployment have "decoupled" since the pandemic — and why the people now showing up at food pantries are increasingly working, employed, and earning more than the federal poverty level.

Les walks through the MIT Living Wa...

The Patsy Cline Theater isn't just an auditorium — it's Winchester's de facto civic center. From Willie Nelson to Vince Gill to Sara Evans, from the Apple Blossom coronations to 35 years of community gatherings, it's where Winchester has shown up for itself. And the seats, after nearly 40 years of student traffic and standing ovations, are showing every bit of their age. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael welcomes an old friend back to the show — Larry Weiss, Executive Director of the Winchester Education Foundation — for a conversation about how the Foundation supports Winchester Public Schools and the ye...

Marketing isn't the thing small-business owners hate — it's the thing they're afraid of, and they're afraid of it because nobody ever explains it. On this Luray-Page Chamber edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Colton Wolf — owner of White Wolf Communications Group and a familiar voice on the show from his earlier conversations about the theater in Stanley — for a wide-ranging talk about why small and mid-sized businesses deserve the same strategic communications work the big brands get, and how a Page County firm is delivering it.

Colton walks through how hi...

It started with an email and one really good lecture — and turned into the biggest day in Shenandoah County history in a generation. On this bonus Shenandoah County Tourism episode, host Janet Michael and Kary Haun head to the historic courthouse in Woodstock to talk with Suzanne McIlwee and Kim Yeck, co-chairs of Shenandoah County Celebrates 1776 — a free, full-day VA 250 commemoration happening Saturday, June 20, 2026, hosted by the Shenandoah County Historical Society.

Suzanne and Kim walk through how a chapter-meeting idea grew into a downtown-wide event featuring the fifth great-grandson of Patrick Henry delivering "Give Me Liberty or Give...

You don't need Johns Hopkins to become a nurse. You don't even need four years. On this Laurel Ridge Community College edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with Director of Marketing Guy Curtis, joined by Dr. Scott Vanderkooi, Dean of Health Professions, and Dr. Amanda Hodges, Interim Director of Nursing — to talk about how someone in this region can become a working RN in two years, often for far less money than they assume, and with a 100% job placement rate to show for it.

The bigger news in this conversation is...

"I didn't even know there was a radio station over here." That sentence — or some version of it — came up so many times on this episode that it became the unofficial theme. On a special episode of The Valley Today recorded on the first day of the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber's Arising Leadership Program, host Janet Michael sits down in the studio with 16 high-school participants and program director Missy Spielman to talk about what brought them to the program, what surprised them about radio in particular, and where they think their futures might be headed — from anesthesiology to archit...

A rainy spring turned into a packed season at The Barns of Rose Hill. On this Tourism Tuesday Berryville/Clarke County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Martha Reynolds, Executive Director of The Barns of Rose Hill, to walk through what's coming next — and there is a lot. Two simultaneous gallery exhibitions, a VA250 concert series tied to traditional American roots music, a folk opera that's already sold out twice, and a benefit concert from a beloved local artist on the way.

Martha previews everything from Color Stories (vivid contemporary stripes) and Ja...

Crisis aid keeps the lights on this month. The THRIVE Project is built to make sure there isn't a next crisis. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the United Way office with longtime friend Andrea Cosans, Executive Director of Winchester CCAP, to talk about the most ambitious project of her CCAP tenure — a multi-agency, grant-funded initiative that will take up to 50 ALICE-population clients through a year of intensive support (case management, therapy, life coaching, financial literacy, job training) and follow them for a second year to see if it sticks.

An...

The shelter season may end with the cold weather — but homelessness doesn't. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael catches up with Robyn Miller, Executive Director of WATTS (Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter), to talk about what the organization is doing right now in June — the year-round case management, the two transitional homes, the cooling center that currently has no home of its own, and the everyday work of helping someone get their birth certificate so they can get a driver's license, so they can get a job, so they can get a place to live.

The Virginia Code is full of one-word differences that change everything — and on this Public Safety Thursday edition of The Valley Today, Captain Warren Gosnell of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office walks host Janet Michael through some of the most common ones. "May" doesn't mean "shall." A speed limit is a maximum, not a target. A red light isn't the same as a red arrow. And driving an inspected friend's car doesn't make the friend responsible.

Captain Gosnell answers a listener seatbelt question, breaks down what really happens with that "four-month grace period" for expired inspections and re...

A parking-lot pop-up two years ago is now a full storefront with a now-famous 11-foot Amish blow-up greeting visitors at the door. On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber with Chamber Director Niki Foster and Zach Burke, owner of Lancaster County Connection, to talk about how the business grew from a single TLC parking-lot weekend into a home base inside the Loose Cow Mercantile — and what it really takes to run a quality-first, hand-picked retail business as a side hustle.

Zach walks through wh...

Retirement, it turns out, doesn't come with a handbook. On this Tourism Tuesday Winchester/Frederick County edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael and Justin Kerns finally talk an avowed dog person into stepping inside a cat café — and what they find on the Piccadilly corner of the Old Town Walking Mall is something more carefully built than they expected. Chris Goebel, who retired to Virginia at 57 and went looking for purpose, opened Biscuits & Beans Cat Cafe on April 1st with his wife and family. Three weeks later they had welcomed nearly 1,400 guests and were on pace to don...

You can't complain when a farm goes up for sale if you're not supporting the farmer. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael is back on the Zooms with her Frederick County Homesteader friends — Sam Armel (founder of Frederick County Homesteaders), Jaclyn Mommen (Laurel Grove Wine Farm and Patti's Place), and Kristin Tesdall (Five Roots Farm) — to talk about the inaugural Love Your Farmer Week, June 14th through 20th, and why this hands-on volunteer week is built around the busiest, most stressful stretch of a farmer's year.

The conversation moves from the practical (how to s...

Over 100 patients in four days, many of them experiencing a professional dental cleaning for the very first time. On this bonus Laurel Ridge Community College edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael connects via Zoom with a team live from Negril, Jamaica — Brandy Hawkins Boies (Director of Communications and Outreach at Laurel Ridge), longtime Rotarian Kathy Kantor, and three recent graduates of Laurel Ridge's dental hygiene program: Stacey Escobar, Dahye Seo, and Nataly Hernandez.

The conversation traces how a casual hallway idea between a Rotarian and a college administrator a decade ago has become a fully-supported, eq...

A two-year YouTube rabbit hole, a heart-tugging keynote in Norfolk, and one perfectly-timed introduction — that's the unlikely path that brought Cycling Without Age to Winchester. On this episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury with Steve Policastro (founder of Cycling Without Age Winchester), Jeannie Shiley (Westminster-Canterbury's President & CEO), and Teresa Barton (Wellness Manager) to talk about the global nonprofit that's giving older adults the gift of wind in their hair — one slow trishaw ride at a time.

The conversation unpacks how a Copenhagen-born movement (now in 40+ countries with 6,000 trishaws and over...

Three thousand people came out last year — and the team is just getting started. On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at Winchester Regional Airport with Top of Virginia Regional Chamber Director of Events Kaleigh Fincham and Airport Executive Director Nick Sabo to talk about the return of Wings & Wheels on Saturday, October 3rd — a free, family-friendly day of aircraft, classic cars, music, food trucks, and a vendor market on the tarmac.

The conversation digs into what's coming back, what's getting bigger and better (improved flow, more music, fly-in traf...

Sometimes the right business finds you. On this Shenandoah County Tourism Tuesday edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael and Kary Haun head to Natural Art Garden Center on Route 11 to talk with new owner Jess Steyn — a former hairdresser, homeschooling mom of three boys, and unlikely garden center owner — about how a casual conversation with previous owner Lynne turned into the next chapter of a beloved local business.

Jess shares what she's kept the same (Christmas tree names included), what she's changed to highlight the property's mountain views, and how the whole family has become part...

On this Friends of Old Town edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael and Brady Cloven are joined at Hideaway Café by Stephanie Novak — owner of Ritual Spa at the George Washington Hotel and Coven Salon on Millwood Avenue — for a wide-ranging chat about pampering, pirates, and a packed June in Old Town Winchester.

Steph shares what's behind Ritual Spa's nearly-two-year run inside the historic GW (lymphatic drainage, customized facials, hot tub access, and 24/7 online gift certificates) and how its sister salon Coven brings the "wilder and edgy" side. Then Brady runs through everything coming up downt...

For 20 years, Valley Health's Metabolic and Bariatric Program has been changing lives in the Northern Shenandoah Valley — and it's almost never about the number on the scale. On this Community Health Day edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down with Dr. Christopher Reed (Medical Director and Surgeon), Tiffany Sommer (Nurse Practitioner), and Jennifer Adsit (Registered Dietitian) to talk about why obesity is an incurable disease that requires lifelong support, and how a team-based approach has built the program's reputation.

The conversation moves through the multiple "pathways" patients can take — medical weight loss, GLP-1 medications, endo...