It's WINDSday | February 21, 2024

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

There was not one but two local mayors at a recent business grand opening. Who gets that?



Marco Friegelj, that who’s. An immigrant (and refugee from Bosnia), he’s the founder of PMA IT Solutions, a technology and project management firm housed in an office building he owns near the Downtown Tunnel in Portsmouth. Marco shares that space, called Incu-Hub, with 200 other smaller businesses, some for an address, others for workspace or to network with other start-ups.

Marco Friegelj, PMA IT Solutions; Mayor Shannon Glover, City of Portsmouth; Mayor Donnie Tuck, City of Hampton; Gene Granger, PMA IT Solutions

That’s why a grateful Portsmouth Mayor Shannon Glover joined Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck at a ribbon cutting for Incu-Hub 2 at 101 Eaton Street near City Hall. “This is such a great use for this building,” said Tuck. And here’s how it went down, according to Friegelj’s business partner Gene Granger. “We went to a public auction for it on a Wednesday and completed the purchase by Friday.”

William Randolph, a veteran government contracting officer who owns Think Acquisition with his son Kris (in photo with his two children), is a charter tenant. “We help small companies get business with the government,” says William. “We’re like match.com for them.”

Right now Marco and Gene are leasing two floors of the 10,000 square foot, three story structure in Hampton. And is there a third Incu-Hub in their future? If so, we predict there will be three mayors at the next ribbon cutting. We’ll bring fans. 

“Hello scientists and engineers,” says Suzanne Sprague to a classroom of second graders at Greenbrier Primary in Chesapeake. And over the next 30 minutes, this former high school physics teacher shares the secrets of air, what it weighs, how it can lift planes off the ground and such.

It’s one of several topics, from alternative energy and watersheds to magnets and all things STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) that she relates, mostly in free and fun interactive online videos to 5,000 students a day around the world from her home base in Hampton Roads. ‘It's vital to connect at their level and encourage them to see their innate ability to excel as scientists, engineers, or in any field they aspire to,” says the founder of Virtual Science Teachers (www.virtualscienceteachers.org).

“People that understand math have superpowers,” she tells the kids, who scream in excitement as a classmate with a leaf blower shoots toilet paper out into the class.

“STEM is for everyone,” she says, which is why the resources are free to teachers.



But the program requires financial support, so Sprague, a military spouse, encourages other fans of science to support her non-profit so she can provide more teachers with a valuable online tool to help children appreciate the world around them.  

In today’s politically correct culture, Pin-Ups, somewhat risqué pictures of women, popularized on posters that World War II GI’s hung on walls, would likely be frowned upon.

Those frisky images also adorned bombers, from the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the big one on Hiroshima, to Rationed Passion.

The latter is back in service, as one of three brands of specialty coffee (Tail Wind and Slightly Dangerous are the other two) produced by Pinup, which roasts its beans of many nations (Mexico, Columbia, Ethiopia, et al) in a small warehouse off London Bridge Road in Virginia Beach.

“Where I grew up in Oregon, there were coffee cafes everywhere, and I was obsessed with having my own,” says Stephanie Wein who joined the Navy after college, becoming crew on MH53 helicopters, based at NAS Norfolk. A crewmate was Floridian Bryce Wein who became her husband in 2019. “I was into computers actually but for the next four years,” says Bryce, “we researched the coffee business and in 2023, after we both retired, we opened up Pinup.”

Stephanie has no objections to pin-ups although it’s not likely that Virgin Abroad or Photo Fanny, two of dozens of B-29 titles in the 40’s, will become future blends. “We are proud to have been aviators and to tie our time in uniform into this business venture.” You can honor our flyboys (and today, flygirls too), by ordering bags online (www.pinupcoffeeco.com), purchasing them at Fresh Market or buying cups at Equinox in Norfolk and Commune in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Let’s help the WINDSday friendly Weins make their own history.

Does your company or organization have something to offer to the offshore wind industry?

Nick Hill of Abacus Staffing (pictured above) would like his firm to have a shot at filling labor needs. That’s why he was at the Brock Center in VA Beach recently for a briefing on outsourcing opportunities, sponsored by the City of VB, Dominion Energy and the Oceantic Network (www.oceantic.org).  

There were representatives there from ship repair firms, construction materials providers and a pair of key unions, the International Association of Ironworkers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). “We want to connect contractors who use our talent with developers,” says Roland Carter who works in business development for the IBEW.



If you missed this session, email PMcgraw@vbgov.com for the date of the next.  

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