Cape Charles is at your service with Hospitality School

Partnership of Bay Creek , Va. Beach college brings academy to town

Read a personal letter of thanks from the 2005 Scholarship recipient.

Cape Charles — Last spring, a pivotal meeting took place at a new coffee house here among its owners, the town manager, a Bay Creek representative and the head of a 150- year old school in Virginia Beach. The idea they created may generate greater economic prosperity for local business and the Shore residents they employ. The meeting was the start of Bay Creek Academy, which will open its doors in Cape Charles later this month.

The academy, a partnership between the developer and Bryant and Stratton College 's Professional Skills Center , will formally train workers in hospitality occupations, hotels-restaurants, inns–that are growing in numbers locally. "Establishing this academy will bring a facility that is open to the public for training in hospitality and customer services," said Lee Hicklin, the college's program director.

Though the coffee-shop meeting itself was a catalyst for change, it was an earlier phone call to then U.S. Senator Ed Schrock that boosted the program.Gail and Randy Keck had spent more than two years refurbishing as old Cape Charles storefront, transforming it into an old-world eatery with a focus on specialty offerings and attentive service.

The problem was service. Although the Shore does not exactly suffer from a dearth of restaurants, it historically has lacked diversity among them.The more growth in the hospitality sector–in Cape Charles and beyond–has created new jobs and new demands on the labor pool available to fill those jobs.

Schrock's office called Hicklin, and in two days he was sitting in Cape Charles over coffee with the Kecks, then-town manager Cela Burge and Oral Lambert, Bay Creek's director of resort development. There, the seeds of Bay Creek Academy were sown.

Bay Creek's Dickie Foster, "along with the other people responsible for the economic expansion in Cape Charles are determined to avoid another of the typical consequences of economic development; residents who get left behind," according to a prepared statement from the college.

"Local people can miss out on the opportunities revitalization brings, especially if they lack the training to take advantage of those opportunities," Schrock said in the statement. The former congressman's district includes the Eastern Shore. "The people at Bay Creek are committed to helping the residents of Cape Charles, as well as residents throughout Northampton County, reap the rewards of the exciting economic growth we are seeing," he said.

Starting in late February, the inaugural program will be taking about 25 students, many of whom work at Bay Creek, but a few may be from the surrounding community. Two courses will be offered in the first semester with modules covering the introductory principles of hospitality and customer service. A class schedule and fee structure will be formalized in the next few weeks, but Hicklin said the first program is designed primarily for the resorts employees.

"As we get through with the initial pilot program geared more toward Bay Creek, we will be offering more courses to the general public," he said. Part of the partnership agreement includes coverage of the cost of classes for Bay Creek staffers. The academy will be housed in the Sustainable Technology Industrial Park . Foster has a contract to purchase the facility but has not yet disclosed plans. An agreement for use of the building was arranged with the industrial development authority, which currently owns the park.

According to Ronda Toll, director of the skills center , the college offers a hospitality degree program that can be used in customer service, communication and leadership training. Course topics to be covered over time include retail sales and service, introduction to hospitality and food service, and management operations in hospitality.

The Bay Creek resort now includes a signature golf course, large marina, restaurants and retail shops. It will soon offer another signature golf course, an Inn and Spa, beach resort, yacht club and more. "Nearby are other restaurants, shops and bed and breakfast facilities…all of which will need to be staffed by people who have hospitality training and expertise," Toll stated.