Local woman says accountability and faith helped her shed 150 pounds

As Melody Hicks stood on the scale, the numbers flashed 299.8 pounds. It was at that moment she realized she needed to make a change.

“Once I saw that number, I realized I was done,” Hicks said. “At the time, I was working with kids and I broke my wrist trying to get off the floor. I realized that if I wanted to keep working with kids, I needed to do something about my weight.”

Hicks wasn’t sure where to start. Over the years she had tried programs, but nothing seemed to stick. But after her father offered to pay for a year of personal training, Hicks decided to look into finding someone to help her lose the weight for good.

“I had always made fun people that were into gym culture,” she said. “It’s kind of ironic now that I’m in that world, but I never understood why people wanted to go to the gym so much.”

Around this time, her brother Mark was working with local trainer Ben Crosswhite. Mark had already lost nearly 90 pounds himself. During his training sessions, Mark confided in Crosswhite about wanting to see his sister lose weight.

“I finally decided to reach out to Ben, and I was thinking, ‘Nothing is going to happen. He’s not even going to happen,’” Hicks said. “But he ended up emailing me back and said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this email for two years.’”

For Hicks, the thought of working out was intimidating, especially for someone who considered walking down the street as her only form of exercise.

“I had played sports in middle school,” she said. “As I started to get bigger, I stopped. My father was a pastor and we moved around a lot so I saw food as a comfort. You know how some people can eat whatever they want and stay skinny? For me it was the complete opposite. I felt like if I ate a few cookies, I would gain two pounds.”
But Hicks powered through her fear and began training with Crosswhite.

“I remember day one like it was yesterday,” she said. “I did a few squats, battle rope, and walked on the treadmill. My body was about to get the shock of my lifetime. As I kept seeing my weight go down, I was more encouraged to keep going. I became accustomed to my new lifestyle and diet.”

By the end of the first week, Hicks lost eight pounds.

Then four. Then six. Each week, she saw progress and continued to gain confidence.

“I think what made me so comfortable around Ben is that he’s a faith-based trainer,” Hicks said. “God is my rock and my everything, I loved being able to train in that kind of environment.”

Within a year and a half, Melody lost 150 pounds.

“That’s unheard of,” she said. “But I had accountability. I kept a food journal where I was writing down everything I was eating and bringing it to my trainer to check off on.”

And now nearly six years later, Hicks has still kept the weight off.

“The next part of my journey is getting excess skin removal surgery,” she said. “Last year, I had my first surgery where they basically did a 360-degree cut all around my body. I had a year of recovery but removed the source of chronic pain I was having post–weight loss. I have come back stronger and am still seeing progress in my journey of a healthier me.”

Now, Hicks wants to encourage others with her story. So far she’s spoken at local churches about her weight loss journey, but she hopes to touch people all around the world. Hicks also now works at Crosswhite Athletic Club as an executive assistant.

“I continue to strive toward my best self: physically, emotionally, and spiritually,” Hicks said. “This has been the journey of a lifetime, my life change. I have fallen in love with exercise and eating healthy. I’ve also realized that God wants the very best for me and He was waiting for me to call out to Him and ask for His help.”

By Tobi Walsh
PHOTOS BY LUCAS MOORE

How an alternative treatment could offer relief

By Olivia Carter

Disclaimer: Always consult your doctor first before trying any new treatments or therapies.

For anyone who is tired of avoiding a food group or hibernating every spring, there may be relief found in the form of a small needle.

Deborah Farley, a licensed acupuncturist and Doctor of Oriental Medicine, says a specialized acupuncture treatment could be the answer to curing and treating allergies.
Acupuncture is the insertion of needles into the body that trigger chemical and electrical responses for healing purposes.

“We’re actually working with the body’s electrical system because you have an electromagnetic field where the acupuncture points are located,” Farley, who owns Acupuncture Works, LLC in Wyndhurst, said. “And when the needle hits that electromagnetic field, it creates an electrical response that stimulates all those chemical and electrical reactions for healing.”

Farley’s specialty is allergies, treating mainly for the alpha-gal allergy—an allergy to red meat brought on by a bite from the Lone Star tick.

The specialized procedure is called “Soliman Auricular Allergy Treatment,” or SAAT, and it isn’t taught in acupuncture schools or in China, Farley said.

The treatment uses the body’s electrical system to confirm that a client does indeed have alpha-gal or any other allergy. Not only can Farley use this procedure on people but also on cats and dogs. It’s the same treatment she uses on seasonal allergies as well.

“We use the body’s own electrical system to confirm the allergy, and then to help us confirm the location of where the needle is placed in the ear and then that needle is worn for three to five weeks,” she said.

After three to five weeks, Farley removes the needle and tests the client again to ensure the allergy has cleared.

“What we’re doing is we’re blocking the body’s signal to the allergen, and de-sensitizing the body to where it doesn’t respond to that allergen anymore,” she explained.
About a year ago Farley treated Rebecca Raybon, who struggled for 40 years with alpha-gal.

No doctor could figure out what caused her to wake up in the middle of the night covered in hives.

It would happen, and then maybe not happen again, for six months, she said.

“We did food diaries, etcetera, and could not narrow anything down,” she said. “I did allergy testing, but nothing was conclusive.”

A couple of years ago Raybon woke up with a swollen mouth and face and drove to the emergency room. The doctor suggested it might be alpha-gal and gave her an EpiPen to carry.
When Raybon decided to try acupuncture, Farley explained that the procedure wouldn’t necessarily get rid of the condition but would train her body not to respond to it when she ate red meat.

“I have had no hives or swelling since we did this last year, and I eat anything I like,” Raybon said. “I recommend her highly as a professional who makes sure you are educated on what she is doing and what to expect.”

Farley said she has treated more than 900 cases of alpha-gal and has seen a 100% success rate for those who have followed up with her.

“If they want to have mammal again they can. Many don’t but they don’t have to worry about cross-contamination anymore,” she said.

She has treated allergies for 20 years using regular acupuncture and has been able to help build up her clients’ immune systems again—but it would take 12 to 18 months with weekly treatments.

With SAAT she can do it in just three weeks.

“I had never heard of this technique until 2018, now I’m putting my entire practice into it,” Farley said. “It’s so much more effective, works better, and is cost-efficient.”

Wood-Fired Pottery

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: Beatriz, you aren’t originally from the area—or even the country! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Beatriz Gutierrez: I grew up on the island of Tenerife, Spain. My journey with clay began in Scotland at the age of 28 and continued when I moved to America to study at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina in 2010.

SB: What other types of training have you received to improve your skill?
BG: I am grateful for the mentorship I have received from other potters since the beginning. Most recently, I have been studying wood firing with
Kevin Crowe at Tye River Pottery in Amherst County. We stopped last March when the COVID-19 pandemic began. He has a big kiln that requires 12 people and seven days to be fired. All the work is loaded into the kiln, but we are still waiting for when we can gather safely to fire.

SB: I’m sure you are looking forward to that day! Meanwhile, you spend a lot of time at your own studio in the Coleman Falls area of Bedford County.
BG: We have been building my studio for most of the past decade, using reclaimed materials collected over the years, including all of the bricks used in the construction of my kiln. That is one of the reasons why everything has happened very slowly. I have broadened my skills by being involved in every step of the process. I have worked mostly with my husband, Paul, with the occasional help of friends and neighbors.

SB: What is a typical day like for you at your studio?
BG: Depending on the weather and the time of the making cycle, I start my days with wood preparations: splitting and stacking. In addition to wood from my property, I purchase locally harvested wood from a logger down the road. The wood needs to be dried enough for the success of the firing—that is why it is stacked is so carefully. Inside the studio, you will find me clay mixing, reclaiming clay, mixing, maintaining my glazes and throwing. I mainly use a kick wheel to make my work and I harvest local clay to make my pieces.

SB: What types of challenges have you faced?
BG: Transitioning from mid-range temperature electric firing (how I used to make my pottery) to wood firing has been a difficult challenge. Over the past year, I have not had a lot of work available to sell because I am still working out the details of the kiln.
It could take me one to three months to produce enough work to fire my kiln and with the preheat,
it takes three days to fire.

SB: What are some of your favorite pieces you
have created so far?
BG: I love all of the shapes I am making. Tea pots are so much fun! Making the jars with the right curve is always a good challenge. Then, the lids
and the spouts and the handle. I love putting all of the parts together in a way that pleases my eye. When they end up working beautifully, it’s a great feeling of satisfaction.

SB: That transitions perfectly to my next question. What do you love so much about working with clay?
BG: Clay has memory—it records the process of making, shows the quality of the thoughts I had when working. When the clay is exposed to the flames of the fire in the kiln and vitrifies, all the conscious and unconscious choices in the making process are revealed. This is always a bit shocking. The power of pots relies on how ordinary and mundane they are. Objects we use every day on our tables.

SB: What’s next for you? What do you have planned in the coming year or in the future?
BG: There are so many pots I want to make this coming year: casserole dishes, planters, baking dishes. Each new form is an adventure.

Enjoy tasty pies with a “glass half full” atmosphere at the Hill City’s newest pizzeria

Bringing Mellow Mushroom to Lynchburg was a four-year labor of love for father-and-son team Gary and Brit Campbell, along with Tyler Dotson, with much of the hard work taking place in the height of a historic pandemic. But the uproarious response to the pizza restaurant since its grand opening in January has made it all worth it, showing them a lot about the Lynchburg community, the power of food, and our collective desire to be with others.

“It’s been a vision of ours to do something together for quite a while now,” Brit said. “We’ve been to a few Mellow Mushrooms in the past, and we love the atmosphere, the eclectic vibe… Mellow Mushroom fit all of the criteria that we were looking for and was something we wanted to bring to Lynchburg.”

The building off Greenview Drive in the Cornerstone community was renovated to fit a Roaring Twenties theme that includes stained glass windows and a quote from Charlie Chaplin inscribed on a side wall that says, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”

“The Roaring Twenties theme, it kind of aligns with our theme of today where it’s about enjoyment, glass is always half full—it’s positivity, inclusion, acceptance, all these kinds of things, especially in today’s climate,” Gary said.

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers was founded in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Each restaurant is locally owned and operated, specializing in stone-baked pizzas—from the “Great White” with an olive oil and garlic base to the “Mighty Meaty” and the “Funky Q. Chicken.” Customers can also order munchies such as wings and spinach artichoke dip or choose from a nice list of “Liquid Karma” cocktails and other libations.
Brit says his number one meal has always been pizza—and that he is a lover of food in general. However, he also loves serving people. Now, he has a career where he feels he can do both.

“We created a restaurant where we felt like everybody can come together and enjoy some good food.

Have a good time,” he says.

“The financials are important. You’ve got to make money to make it work. But that certainly isn’t the lone motivator. The best motivator is truly to see people smile, and look around and see the happiness that comes as a result of something—a little piece of commitment to this community that we’ve been able to make.”

By Ashley Turner
Photos by Lucas Moore

Since last summer, we have watched the site of the 2021 Lynchburg Living Idea House be transformed from an empty piece of land to a classic Colonial-style home with the latest technology and amenities.

The ongoing pandemic caused product delays, and mother nature played her tricks from time to time. But we pushed through and, by February, we were finally able to put (most of) the finishing touches on the interior and exterior.

Photographer Ashlee Glen took on the task of taking more than 10 portrait shoots for our Idea House Preferred Partners in only a few days before our print deadline. Working alongside her was photographer Woody Watts, who was available at a moment’s notice to take the final interior shots and then returned to the house once ice had melted to take photos of the exterior.

We are proud to unveil this year’s home—flip to page 42 to read the full feature!

Mark Your Calendars

“Ordinary Time: A Visual Record of the In-Between”
March 5 (opening night) – March 31
Local photographer Laura Beth Davidson will be showing her documentary-style collection of family photos at the Academy Center of the Arts’ Up Front Gallery. The collection features real, everyday life with four children. Learn more at www.laurabethdavidson.com. In the May/June issue of Lynchburg Living, learn more about Laura Beth’s work including her family’s challenging year that has made her appreciate the “in-between” even more.

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express
April 8-11, 15-18, 22-25, 29-30 and May 1, 2
Winner of Wolfbane Productions’ 2021 Audience Choice Poll, don’t miss this thrilling, suspenseful roller coaster of a murder mystery, presented in their one-of-a-kind immersive style. Will you survive the ride? Find more information at wolfbane.org.

United Way 5K on the Runway
April 10, 8 a.m.
Experience Lynchburg Regional Airport like you never have before! This race is perfect for participants who are able to complete a 5K in 60 minutes or less.
The flat course on the taxiway parallel to the main runway is a great place to try and beat your personal record. Register at runsignup.com.

Historic Garden Day
April 20
Part of Historic Garden Week, this annual springtime event allows you to walk through four beautiful properties in Lynchburg at your own pace. Learn more about the history of Historic Garden Week, as well as more details about Lynchburg’s tour, in our This City feature starting on page 93.

Historic Flowers on Display
April 30-May 2, May 7-9, and May 13, 15.
Located in Lynchburg, Stormy Weather Iris Gardens is a private house garden consisting of over 200 varieties of tall bearded iris.
It is one of only two Historic Iris Display Gardens in the state of Virginia. All tours are free
but must be scheduled in advance. Learn more at
www.stormyweatheririsgardens.com.

Reimagine Grocery Shopping
While a trip to your local grocery store is inevitable, you can find a wide range of items for sale in downtown Lynchburg and support local businesses at the same time!
From ramen broth at Aji to oysters at The Water Dog to an expanded grocery store in the Lynchburg Community Market, there are so many diverse products to be found in the heart of our city.

Read more in the Downtown Lynchburg Association’s latest blog, “Creative Ways to Stock your Shelves,” at www.downtownlynchburg.com/our-blog.

Local Openings & Closings
Hello! to a new location of Simply Vanilla Gourmet Cheesecakes at River Ridge.

Hello! to That Latin Place, reopening with new owners on Jefferson Street.

Hello! to Pho Viet, a Vietnamese restaurant in Forest.

Hello! to Black Diamond Day Spa on Timberoak Court.

Goodbye to Jimmy’s on the James, for now.
The restaurant closed down due to COVID-19 restrictions and is currently up for sale.

Hello! to Drift Draft, a mobile tap trailer for rent that serves Bedford and beyond.

Hello! to T.C. Trotter’s on Commerce Street.
The long-time Lynchburg business opened a downtown store specifically for its popular Moose Mix.

Irvington Spring Farm is a family-run flower farm in the heart of Lynchburg that is open to the public from March through October. They sell fresh cut flower bouquets, bunches, arrangements and pollinator-friendly native plants. They also offer two affordable and 100 percent locally grown wedding flower options: DIY buckets and Farmer’s Choice flowers.

Just this year, Irvington Spring Farm started a new “Bouquet Club,” offering memberships for the entire season, spring, and fall. These make a great gift for the flower lovers in your life. Also new in 2021, the farm is offering annual flower plant “starts” and dahlia tubers for sale in the spring/early summer that are perfect for the home gardener to try their hand at growing flowers.

Learn more about the farm, as well as their upcoming outdoor classes, at irvingtonspringfarm.com.

While I can’t remember everything I learned in my college journalism program, there is one foundational lesson that I carry with me: Always plan for
Murphy’s Law.

Murphy’s Law is loosely defined as: “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

So—let’s chat about this issue of the magazine.

If anything could go wrong, get delayed, be quarantined, be running late, be canceled, be snowed/sleeted/rained on in the past month, it did.

I hesitated even writing this editor’s letter—because isn’t that what we do nowadays? Sob uncontrollably behind our phones (an exaggeration… maybe) but then post all of the perfect stuff for everyone to see?

But I thought, maybe it’s okay to admit there were plenty of challenges in making the 2021 Lynchburg Living Idea House a reality, because anyone who has built a new home or attempted any type of major home/garden project—especially during a pandemic—is familiar with the concept of Murphy’s Law. When there are so many balls in the air, something WILL go wrong. It’s how you handle the issues that determines the final outcome.

That being said, after all of the ups and downs, I believe our final outcome is a showstopper—from the classic Colonial-style exterior to the elegant gold fixtures to the high-tech amenities. We are thrilled to take you room by room through this year’s Idea House in our main feature, starting on page 42, and sincerely hope it gives you “ideas” for your next project. Also in our Home & Garden Issue, learn more about the latest in smart home technology, colorful cabinetry, starting plants indoors, Virginia Garden Week, and much more.

Finally, to everyone involved in making this publication a reality—from our numerous Preferred Partners (found on pages 52-67) to the Custom Structures team to the incredible group of freelance writers and photographers I consider myself lucky to work alongside—I thank you for working hard, pushing through to the end, but most importantly, showing a lot of grace. You all are proof that in a world where lots can go wrong, there is plenty going right.

All My Best,
Shelley Basinger, Managing Editor
Shelley@lynchburgmag.com

Top Teacher Awards
While we didn’t get to do many in-person presentations this year, that didn’t stop Lynchburg Living from spreading joy to local educators through our annual Top Teacher Awards. After reviewing dozens of nominations sent in by the community, our panel of judges selected 10 teachers to feature in this issue. In early February, Editor Shelley Basinger delivered a framed certificate as well as a swag bag from Chick-fil-A Wards Road/River Ridge to each teacher.
Flip to page 103 to learn more about this year’s incredible Top Teachers!

“Thank you so much for everything! It was such a great surprise!”
– Itzel Nogueras, Heritage High School

“Thank you so much for this honor”
– Kevin Latham, Fort Hill Community School

– Lauren Hensley, R.S. Payne Elementary School
– Lindsay Donaruma, Yellow Branch Elementary School

We Want To hear From You!
Send us an e-mail to shelley@lynchburgmag.com. Correspondents must identify themselves; names may be withheld on request. Lynchburg Living may edit or condense.

The iconic T.C. Trotter’s has a new home for its must-have, multi-use Moose Mix

When Lonnie Hoade and Paul Webster received a call from Virginia ABC last October, the owners of T.C. Trotterʼs Moose Mix for Bloody Marys were equal parts thrilled and intimidated. “We suddenly had an order for 18,000 bottles to be delivered by the first week in December,” Lonnie explained of the very tight timeline.

But when you’ve invested so many years into a product, a little hard work doesn’t scare you off. Many who have lived in Lynchburg over the past few decades have watched the evolution of Moose Mix—from its local restaurant roots to its current location on Commerce Street, which serves as a manufacturing center and tasting room.

Lonnie and Paul’s tried-and-true Bloody Mary recipe, now recognizable across the country, was born at T.C. Trotterʼs Restaurant where Paul was the bar manager.

Casually known as “Trotterʼs,” the restaurant was located in what’s now Rivermont Pizza on Rivermont Avenue for three decades.

“[Our Bloody Mary] became very popular and was served in that glass,” Paul said, pointing to the stemmed and slightly fluted glass on the tasting room counter. “It was five dollars a glass and came with two shots of vodka. We just had cases and cases of those glasses because on weekends, we would serve so many of them.”

“When we first started to notice the demand for it [outside the restaurant], it was around 2004,” Lonnie explains. “Lynchburg College students would call us and want some so we were delivering it around the state. It wasn’t even shelf stable at that point.”

Photo by ASHLEE GLEN

Back then, everyone knew it as “Trotterʼs Bloody Mary Mix”—but eventually they decided on a name change that combined autonomy from the restaurant with a bit of personality.

“We licensed it as Moose Mix because he makes it,” Lonnie said, referring to Paul and his nickname. They started bottling it for sale in 2007.

That same year, the owner of T.C. Trotterʼs decided to close the restaurant, but Lonnie and Paul didn’t let Paul’s famed Bloody Mary mix die out. Back then, and still today, each bottle is prepared by hand, every step of the way.

“From the labor to the packaging and then we put it on pallets and deliver it ourselves,” Paul explains. Each batch of Moose Mix takes about 2.5 hours from start to finish. The bottles are capped at high heat so there are no preservatives.

Now, the demand for their product reaches as far as New York, Florida, and California, with plenty of customers in between.

What makes the mix so popular, Lonnie and Paul believe, is its homegrown taste.

“When we are at festivals, people say, ‘This tastes fresh.’ Some brands can taste manufactured,” Paul says. “It is very flavorful. It has spice as in flavorful spice, not burn-your-mouth spice.”

Lonnie also believes their mix “holds up” better than other brands, making your classic Bloody Mary taste good down to the last drop: “We don’t add any water so it doesn’t water down. The end of the your drink, it’s just as good as the beginning.”

Photo by ASHLEE GLEN

In 2016, Lonnie and Paul took what they learned from their experience at T.C. Trotter’s and opened Moose’s Café in Boonsboro. There, they continued making and selling their Moose Mix but also let it inspire some culinary creations as well—from the “Moose Island” dressing they used on their popular Reuben (a homemade Thousand Island with Moose Mix in place of ketchup) to a Gazpacho made with fresh local vegetables.

“We’ve done chili with it. We’ve done spaghetti sauce. People have told us about ribs that they have done,” Lonnie explains. “There are so many possibilities aside from the Bloody Mary.”

In fact, marketing their Moose Mix as more than just a base for a Bloody Mary has been an important step in their business model.

“At festivals, invariably, people would come to our booth and say ‘what is this’ and we would say ‘Bloody Mary mix’ and one of them would go ‘yeah!’ and the other would go, ‘ew, no.’ But we would let that person taste the shrimp we grilled in it. It would give us another avenue to reach people and find new customers,” says Paul.

In 2020, they made the decision to close Moose’s Café so they could focus even more on their Moose Mix.

Because when you are this husband-and-wife team, you like to be busy—even if it means bottling 18,000 bottles of Moose Mix by hand in less than two months. A deadline they met, by the way.

Photo by ASHLEE GLEN

Now, they are able to enjoy a much slower pace as they maintain their case count at the ABC distribution center in Richmond. They’ve also had Absolute Vodka show some interest in doing a new promotion in 2021.

So slower, but not too slow, they hope. Lonnie and Paul are looking forward to the start of spring and warmer weather that will bring increased foot traffic outside of their Commerce Street location. “That’s why we are excited to be here. We get the impression it will be like a festival once it’s warm. We want to have tasting trays outside,” Paul says.

As Lonnie and Paul can attest through their journey, it doesn’t take much to bring people together in Lynchburg.

But a good cocktail never hurts.

“People can criticize it, but I’ve lived in a lot of places and this city is so great,” says Lonnie. “There is a connection here, something wonderful.”