The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation (UOFF) has named Aubrey Hall of Urbanna the 2023 grand marshal of the Urbanna Oyster Festival set for Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3 and 4.
“I was completely overwhelmed when Bruce DeSimone (chairman of the UOFF) called me and asked me to be grand marshal of the festival,” said Hall. “It is truly an honor and I’m delighted that the foundation felt that I am worthy of the honor.”
DeSimone said, “I have known Aubrey since he helped me purchase our first house in 1983. I have watched as he has made major contributions to our community and I am very pleased that the UOFF chose to honor his work by selecting him as the 2023 Urbanna Oyster Festival grand marshal.”
His roots
Born and raised in Deltaville and a 1958 graduate of Middlesex High School, Hall eventually ended up in Urbanna when during his senior year at the University of Richmond he married Margie Bacon Folliard (Hall), an Urbanna girl.
After graduation, Hall taught music and physical education in Culpeper County Public Schools, but eventually found his way back to Middlesex when he landed a teaching job at Christchurch School.
From there he went on to a successful career in real estate and land development and eventually founded Jacob’s Ladder, a nonprofit group dedicated to giving gifted, at-risk children learning opportunities through summer camp enrichment settings.
Youth basketball
That’s not all he has done. In 1976 when Saluda resident Tom Hardin was going about starting the Middlesex Youth Basketball League (MYBL), Hall was one of the first coaches in the league and served on the first MYBL board of directors. He coached Doc Jones Used Auto Parts for seven years and his team won the first league championship, said Hardin.
“I don’t know that I could have gotten the league off the ground without Aubrey,” said Hardin. “It took a great deal of coordination between the schools and board of supervisors for us to get permission to use the gymnasiums and Aubrey knew who to talk to and he knew what to say.”
Even before the MYBL was founded, Hall and his brother-in-law Archie Soucek had started a weekend basketball program for underprivileged children. “We used a Christchurch School bus to go pick them up and got permission to use the school gym on Saturdays,” he said.
Music
Hall grew up singing in the youth music program at Zoar Baptist Church and started out majoring in music at the University of Richmond. When he graduated he had switched his major to education, with a minor in music and he had earned a certificate to teach physical education.
“I have always loved music and I have made it a point for music to always be a part of my life,” he said.
Since 1968 and for 55 years, Hall has been the choir director at Urbanna Baptist Church and has over the years directed numerous special community music programs at Christmas time and at other times of the year.
Jacob’s Ladder
In 1986, Hall and his wife Margie, along with pastor Don Reid and his wife Sarah, took a group of young people from Urbanna Baptist Church on a mission trip to the Eastern Shore of Virginia. They provided Bible study and other activities for children of migrant workers.
It was on that trip that Aubrey came back home with the notion there was a real need for a program like Jacob’s Ladder. “Jacob’s Ladder is an enrichment program for children who are deemed to be at risk and who are also identified as gifted by their school systems,” said Hall.
“When I got home from the Eastern Shore it struck me having taught for 12 years that there were some real bright kids there stuck in that environment with zero opportunity to get out of it,” he said. “I saw a need but at first I had no idea how to approach the problem.”
One day while taking a walk on Virginia Street and thinking about the problem “a light bulb came on and I got the idea of having a summer enrichment camp for at risk and gifted children,” he said.
Since the start of Jacob’s Ladder in 1990, the program has served nearly 400 elementary and middle school children resulting in participants receiving $20 million in scholarships for their secondary and college educations.
“The enrichment camp provides a great deal of opportunity for these kids,” he said. “Ninety-four percent of our students have gone to college and the rest have mostly gone into the military. How successful they have been is amazing!”
Friends of Urbanna
Hall is also president of Friends of Urbanna, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the Town of Urbanna’s circa 1763 Scottish Factor Store. It is the only English Scottish Factors Store building of its kind still standing in the United States.
“There is a need for a $250,000 structural restoration of the building,” said Hall. “We are working with a number of organizations to find funds to restore the building.”
Hall has already spearheaded successful grant proposals through River Counties Community Foundation to fund an engineering study of the building and has also obtained grant funds to reconstruct the interior of the building to what it was in colonial days.
“We have several grant proposals out there for the $250,000 renovation project,” he said. “This is perhaps the only colonial Scottish Factors mercantile store left in America. I think we will be able to find the funding to preserve this treasure.”
As grand marshal, Hall will ride in the Fireman’s Parade on Friday night of the festival and in Saturday’s Oyster Festival Parade and he will attend other events associated with the 2023 festival.
