Pearisburg’s Woods Hole Hostel Named One of the Best Meals off the AT

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GILES COUNTY, VA– The Trek named Woods Hole Hostel in Pearisburg, VA one of the best Hostel Meals off the Appalachian Trail. Located just half a mile off the AT, the bed and breakfast has been around for 32 years. It’s a great place for hikers and even offers a shuttle service to the trail.

From the Trek:

This place is a slice of heaven that is not to be missed. Woods Hole offers home cooked, family-style meals that are made from local, organic, and homegrown foods. Fan favorites here are the homemade bread and organic salad (that is pulled straight from the garden). One of the most special aspects about the meals served at Woods Hole is the communal based aspect of food preparation and clean-up. They offer up the ingredients, and Neville then leads the team in creating the meal. Dinner costs $14, and breakfast is included with your room (or there is a “Broke Hiker Jar” for those who may not be able to afford the meal & room).

www.woodsholehostel.com

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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for a beautiful place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of both worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.

Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Narrows Completes RALLY Southwest Virginia Project

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GILES COUNTY, VA– RALLY Southwest Virginia is building community leadership capacity and reinforcing collaborative communities across the region of Southwest Virginia. The region consisting of 19 counties, from Giles to the far southwest counties in Virginia, has embraced this program and others to find creative outlets for suppressed economies and the revitalization for downtown areas.

The Town of Narrows is the first community in the New River Valley to participate in this new mini-grant program, facilitated by Opportunity SWVA. The mini-grant program provides a $3,000 award to communities to implement a community development project through a team structure. The team in Narrows is comprised of citizens, small business owners, town staff, and county representatives. The group gathered for the initial meeting early in 2017 to discuss the potential of the RALLY program and begin brainstorming how this mini-grant could be utilized to support ongoing development efforts in Narrows.

Since March of this year a group of local leaders have planned and implemented multiple mini-projects that will soon complete their RALLY Project. The final presentation will happen at the Narrows Fall Festival on October 28. The festival will run from noon until 8:00pm, with a special RALLY presentation at 1:45pm. The presentation will unveil a new downtown sign directing residents and visitors to the multiple community and outdoor assets in the community that is cohesive with the Giles and New River Water Trail signage for familiarity and to continue to foster collaboration.

The sign is housed in a new kiosk designed and built as part of a local young man’s Eagle Scout project. In addition to the kiosk at the Duck Pond, the RALLY group identified buildings throughout downtown to install large pictures highlighting the recreational opportunities within the nearby area. The pictures were provided by local citizens and the Town orchestrated a photo contest to add to the collection.

The pictures are installed throughout downtown in an attempt to also highlight the space available for future business locations. The local group worked with building owners to share that part of this process was to communicate availability of space for business. In addition the New River Valley Regional Commission assisted with pulling together resources and information that potential businesses would need through their startup or expansion process. This printed packet will be available at the Narrows Town Hall as well as downloadable on their website. On October 28 to draw attention to the RALLY components and provide an activity for guests at the Fall Festival, the RALLY group has facilitated a Scavenger Hunt with prizes to be awarded.

The sign, the pictures, and the kiosk combined to complete the Narrows RALLY project. The local RALLY group identified that these actions would help draw attention to the community for positive development and usage of the surrounding natural resources. In addition to the RALLY presentation the Narrows Fall Festival will feature knockerball, kids games, a bouncy house, face painting, a corn hole tournament, and disc golf tournament at Camp Success along the New River. The festival goers will enjoy live music all day with performances by 90 Proof, Destiny Quartet, Melanie Vaught, Chad Robertson & Corey Lowe, Giles County School of Dance, and Dance Motion. Street and food vendors along Main Street from noon until 8pm. To round out the evening there will be a Street Dance beginning at 6pm featuring The Cadillac Ranch Band. The Narrows Fall Festival is presented in partnership by the Narrows Recreation Department and FNBP-Narrows. More information can be found on their Facebook event page.

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For more information or to schedule an interview prior to or the day of the Narrows Fall Festival, please contact Cora Gnegy, Tourism Marketing Director. For additional information on RALLY Southwest Virginia please feel free to contact Robyn Lee at 276-376-3453 or rlee@uvawise.edu.

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Giles County, Virginia is located in Southwest Virginia approximately 40 minutes south of Roanoke and just west of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. With easy access to the New River, world class dining and lodging properties, and historical attractions for the entire family, Giles offers adventure in Virginia’s Mountain Playground™. Come find your playground at our Visitors Center located at 203 N Main Street, Pearisburg, VA 24134 or find us online at gilescounty.org or by calling 540-921-2079. For interviews or onsite visits, please contact Cora Gnegy, Tourism Marketing Director. We can arrange and assist with any media needs. For more information about planning your visit to Giles County or about activities and events, please visit www.gilescounty.org or contact us at tourism@gilescounty.org.

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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for a beautiful place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of both worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.

Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Hokie Bird Virginia Tech Football Lane Stadium

Visit the NRV Tailgate at VT Homecoming!

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Virginia’s New River Valley will have an interactive tailgate this Saturday, October 21 preceding the Virginia Tech Homecoming football game. Join the NRV to cheer on the Hokies and win some prizes for you and your family!

The Tailgate will be located on Cassell Drive off Beamer Way — the perfect spot to stop by on your way to Lane Stadium.

Sign up for the New River Raffle to win a bursting basket of your favorite local goods. Signing up also gets you a spin at the NRV prize wheel and an extra chance to win tons of great game day prizes like t-shirts, pom-poms, and candy. Visitors can also battle friends and family at the NRV corn hole boards.

Plus, don’t forget your free stickers on the way out! The display will also feature plenty of information about why the NRV is a great place to live, work, and do business.

The tailgate will be run by Onward NRV staff and local volunteers. For more information about the event, contact Abigail Hammack: abigail@OnwardNRV.org

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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for a beautiful place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of both worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.

Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Onward NRV Launches New Website for Virginia’s New River Valley

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Onward NRV has officially launched the new website (www.NewRiverValleyVA.org) for Virginia’s New River Valley.


The new site is designed with the river stone branding and reinforces the culture, lifestyle amenities, and business opportunities of the NRV.


The new logo for Virginia’s New River Valley is a stack of river stones that represent the eclectic and intentional small town living of the region. The different, yet complimentary, colors invoke the NRV’s diverse and innovative business community and its collaborative culture.


This acts as the portal to a unique brand that stands out among other communities and economic development organizations. Just like the NRV, the river stones logo and collateral imagery are highly adaptable, and work to spotlight the loyal people and innovative industries of the region.


The new website features updates such as better SEO, interactive maps and sites and buildings database, and email content distribution devices.


The new site is the product of Onward NRV’s strategic planning to increase visibility for Virginia’s New River Valley. Research surrounding regional communities, industries, and lifestyles was conducted to create the content and design of the new website.


The website launch will be announced publicly tonight at the 2017 Onward Annual Investor Dinner.


For more information about Virginia’s New River Valley or Onward NRV, email info@onwardnrv.org.


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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for a beautiful place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of both worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.


Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Downtown Store fronts in radford virginia a safest city virginia

Radford the #18 Safest City in Virginia

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Radford is the no. 18 safest city in Virginia, according to SafeWise.

According to safewise, Virginia has the 3rd lowest violent crime rate in the country, making it overall a safe state. Many of the communities in the NRV rank as some of the safest in the commonwealth.

These rankings were based on the FBI Crime Report from 2015 and population. Cities with less than 3,000 residents were eliminated. Read more about the rankings from Safewise.

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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for an inspiring place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of all worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.

Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Virginia Tech Ranked #11 Best Tailgate Experience in the South

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NEW RIVER VALLEY–  Hospitality—and Hokie football—isn’t simply a pastime in the New River Valley, it’s a way of life.  It comes as no surprise, then, that Southern Living ranked Virginia Tech’s tailgates as eleventh best in the South.

Blacksburg’s tailgating atmosphere embodies the New River Valley, a region defined by welcoming and inclusive small towns.  In fact, in 2016, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg were ranked #6 for having great town-gown relations by the Princeton Review in response to their annual survey which asked students whether they got along with their local community.

At a Tech tailgate, meandering between parking lots and making new friends is the name of the game—and, as any Hokie fan will tell you, it’s this good-natured spirit of the sport that brings everyone together, from college Freshmen to local retirees.  In 2016, Bleacher Report ranked Lane Stadium and its atmosphere as the #20 College Football Stadium in America, and, that same year, USA Today called it a “hidden gem” with “one of the best team entrances in sports” when it ranked the Hokie experience as #10 in the nation.  While it may be true that Hokie fans bleed orange and maroon, their enthusiasm for creating a warm and friendly game-day experience is what sets Tech fans apart from the crowd.

To read more about how Virginia Tech stacked up against the competition, visit Southern Living’s article on The South’s Best Tailgates 2017.

NRV Towns Ranked Among Best Places in Virginia to Raise a Family

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WalletHub.com has ranked three New River Valley towns among the 50 places in Virginia to Raise a Family.


WalletHub’s data team compared communities in Virginia across 21 key indicators of family-friendliness. Their data set ranges from “median family income” to “school-system quality” to “housing affordability.”  Based on their analysis, Christiansburg (No. 15), Blacksburg (No. 33) and Radford (No. 47) all made the list.


Read more at WalletHub.


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Virginia’s New River Valley: For those searching for an inspiring place to live and do business, Virginia’s New River Valley provides both an eclectic small town atmosphere and an innovative, collaborative business community with a loyal, highly skilled, and educated workforce. Offering the best of both worlds – magnificent mountains, cutting-edge research, arts, entertainment, and education – it’s A NATURAL FIT.


Onward NRV: Onward NRV is a public/private, regional economic development organization whose mission is to attract and retain world class jobs, investment and talent in Virginia’s New River Valley. It’s also a movement where leaders from business, government, and higher education work together to promote the economic vitality of the region.

Blacksburg Ranked a Top 10 College Town for Mountain Bikers

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January 30, 2017

Singletracks.com has ranked Virginia Tech a top 10 Best US College/University for Mountain Bikers.  Read more at https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-trails/the-10-best-colleges-and-universities-for-mountain-bikers/10/

2016 in the New River Valley, Ranked!

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New River Valley, VA – 2016 was a banner year for the New River Valley in terms of regional and national recognition.  From Fox News to Southern Living to Area Development Magazine, both the region as a whole and the counties, city, towns, and universities within it were recognized for outstanding lifestyle, business, and educational opportunities.

Although this list is far from comprehensive, we hope that it gives you a good overview of how the New River Valley stacked up against the rest of the country (and world!) in 2016.

 

Safety First

•  Blacksburg (#6) and Christiansburg (#11) were ranked by Backgroundchecks.org as two of the top 25 Safest Cities in Virginia.


Happiness Counts

•  Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Floyd, and Pulaski all earned top awards in Blue Ridge Country magazine’s Happiest Town in the Blue Ridge survey.

•  Christiansburg was ranked #3 Happiest City in Virginia by OnlyInYourState.com.

•  WTKR rated Blacksburg the #7 Best City for Singles.

•  Southern Living listed Floyd among its Best Small Towns.

•  Forbes called Blacksburg a Top 25 Best Place to Retire.

•  Pulaski rang in at #10 on the Best Small Towns That Offer Peace and Quiet.

 

Leading Metro

•  AIER named the a Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford MSA #19 Top College Town.

•  In its Leading Locations survey, Area Development Magazine ranked the MSA as #30 overall and #12 among mid-sized metros.

•  The MSA ranked #4 overall and #2 among mid-sized metros in Area Development’s Prime Workforce rankings.

•  The Milken Institute recognized the MSA as #41 out of 201 small metro areas.

 

Tech-Savvy

•  Blacksburg was named one of the Best Tech Hubs in Virginia by Southern Business & Development Magazine.

•  Southern Business & Development Magazine also named Montgomery County as one of the Best Data Center Locations in Virginia.

•  NaCo ranked Montgomery County the #4 Top Digital County for counties with populations under 150,000.

 

 College Town Love

•  Garden & Gun ranked Blacksburg as the #1 Southern College Town.

•  Southern Living’s Facebook fans awarded Blacksburg the #1 College Town.

•  WalletHub gave Blacksburg the #27 ranking and Radford the #90 ranking out of 202 college towns.

 

Get Outside

•  Singletracks.com named Blacksburg the Mountain Bike Capital of Virginia.

•  Canoe & Kayak Magazine named Pembroke one of America’s (Next Best) Paddling Towns.

•  Fox News called Floyd Fest the #7 Hottest Music Festival in the U.S.

•  LifeOutside Magazine recognized both Pulaski and Floyd as top Weekend Getaways in Southwest Virginia.

•  Blueridge Outdoors magazine listed the Flat Peter/Dixon Branch Loop in Giles as a Top 10 Fall Foliage Favorite.

 

Top Tier Colleges & Universities

•  Princeton Review ranked Virginia Tech as having the #1 Best Quality of Life and the #7 Happiest Students, among others.

•  Washington Monthly Magazine dubbed Radford University a Best Bang for Your Buck school.

•  New River Community College was named one of Virginia’s Best Community Colleges for Workforce Training by Southern Business & Development Magazine.

•  Giles County was awarded the NaCo 2016 Achievement Award for its Access to Community College Education program.

•  Virginia Tech ranked #9 in Research Expenditures by the National Science Foundation.

 

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest rankings for the New River Valley, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram!

About Us:

Virginia’s New River Valley is a vibrant community that’s home to two state universities, Virginia Tech and Radford University, and a diverse industry base ranging from large international corporations to small technology startups. The region is designated the Blacksburg-Christiansburg Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area and encompasses the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski and the city of Radford.

The New River Valley Economic Development Alliance is a public/private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to market the New River Valley, to foster job creation, facilitate new investment and to improve the quality of life in the region.

New River Valley Pioneered Online Communities in the 1990s

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Date:  December 15, 2016

New River Valley Economic Development Alliance

 Photo Credit: Virginia Tech/Jim Stroup

 New River Valley, VA – Did you know that Wade’s Supermarkets, a local New River Valley grocery chain, pioneered online grocery shopping decades before AmazonFresh?

Or that Montgomery County Public Schools were the first in the nation to be 100% connected to the internet?

At a time when the internet was in its infancy, the Town of Blacksburg piloted a revolutionary new community internet network—the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV)—that defined the way New River Valley businesses operate and innovate today.

In 1991, the Town of Blacksburg and Bell Atlantic’s subsidiary, Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone, partnered to create a groundbreaking online network to connect New River Valley communities together.  The resulting BEV allowed for companies, organizations, and individuals to create webpages, promote e-commerce, operate list-serves, participate in chat rooms, and even join a mentoring program for local middle and high school students.

With over 87% of Blacksburg residents wired through dial-up and Ethernet connections and 100% of Montgomery County Public Schools directly connected to the internet, BEV resulted in the Guinness Book of World Records dubbing the region as the “Most Wired Community” in 1998.

Though the landscape of the internet has changed over the past twenty years, BEV’s contribution to connecting the New River Valley to the wider world is still felt today.  Several startups resulted from the network’s online commerce and connectivity, and the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center’s high speed Ethernet connection allowed for innovation and job creation at the research park which now hosts over 180 research, technology, and support companies.

While dial-up internet and chat rooms seem like ancient history, BEV redefined what community meant in the New River Valley and helped pave the way for today’s ever-present social media.

To read more about the Blacksburg Electronic Village’s history and influence in the New River Valley, visit The Verge’s What Happened to the Most-Wired Town of the 1990s?

About Us:

Virginia’s New River Valley is a vibrant community that’s home to two state universities, Virginia Tech and Radford University, and a diverse industry base ranging from large international corporations to small technology startups. The region is designated the Blacksburg-Christiansburg Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area and encompasses the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski and the city of Radford.

The New River Valley Economic Development Alliance is a public/private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to market the New River Valley, to foster job creation, facilitate new investment and to improve the quality of life in the region.