Our Much Anticipated GROUNDBREAKING Ceremony
After 15 years of hard work, perseverance, and anticipation, we held a special Ceremony followed by a YouTube Premier of the Official Groundbreaking for the Vanguard Landing Intentional Community – the first of its kind and scope in the Commonwealth of Virginia!
A historical and very exciting day!
The excavator delivered by our Site Contractors, A&W, was the center focus with our beautiful historic farmhouse as the backdrop as we prayed with Pastor Chuck Moseley from Oak Grove Baptist Church, listened and sang along with Ms. Nichanna Gholson-Dennis for the National Anthem. Our Mistress of Ceremonies was the Chairman of the Board of Directors and daughter of the Founder & Executive Director, Whitney Dear-Reyes. Senator and longtime devoted friend of the project, Senator Bill DeSteph spoke and introduced our very own Debra Bond Dear. We were very proud to have the former Mayor of Virginia Beach, Will Sessoms and his wife, and our favorite City Council Members, Barbara Henley and Chris Taylor present.
We were joined by special friends, some of our wonderful Vanguard families, past and present Board members, and our Development Team including The Team from Berkadia who have worked diligently to garner our construction financing with Virginia Housing, our co-developer, Stephen Salomonsky, and representatives from A&W Contracting, Graf Construction, BGrace Designs, and McPherson Design Group.
The Tipsy Squirrel offered cold drinks and Pungo Boys BBQ and Allie Trojano kept everyone well-fed with delicious food after we used an especially engraved Shovel done by Austin Saunders at High Caliber Craftsman along with everyone’s personal shovel to turn the pile of sand to symbolize the groundbreaking!
Guests received specially made Measuring Tapes as our supporters really ‘Measure” up! We still have some commemorative measuring tapes for anyone who would like one and we have wooden pallet coasters and construction-themed doorhangers while they last for $6.00 each!
Thank you to Ashley Krogman at AshEmerson Photography and Eric Camacho and Marcus Williams for beautifully capturing such an important and historical day for our project!
