WCYB | Honaker entrepreneur celebrated as 150th business to receive VA 30 Day Fund assistance

RUSSELL COUNTY, Va. — The VA 30 Day Fund has providing private loans to small businesses during the pandemic. The initiative has helped more than 160 so far.

They hit a 150-business milestone earlier this week by connecting with an entrepreneur from southwest Virginia.

Diane Fuller knows all about hard work. Her careers have included coal miner, railroad worker, and now, business owner.

“My heart is in this business, and I want to see all small businesses do good,” Fuller said.

Honey Bea’s Cafe and Ice Cream Parlor opened in 2013 in Honaker in honor of her mother and father who ran businesses in town in the 1940s.

“Her name was Hazel Beatrice. The Bea is spelled B-e-a, and that’s in memory of her,” Fuller said. “When people come in, they remember my mom and dad.”

Like many small businesses during the pandemic, her doors have been shuttered. That is, until she received word of funding from the VA 30 Day Fund.

“She is just a special person. She’s a great leader. She has been keeping her folks taken care of,” Pete Snyder said. Snyder, his wife, and a team of private investors have been funding the statewide project.

The fund has been providing businesses forgivable loans of up to $3,000.

“The pain out there is just immense throughout every region of Virginia and also sector of our economy, but hitting especially hard in southwest Virginia. I’m thrilled that our 150th is actually a company from southwest Virginia,” Synder said.

Fuller said that money was just enough boost to start the process of reopening and planning to bring four employees back into the cafe.

“We haven’t really been able to open. We have a chance to open now, so we’re going to,” Fuller said.

Fuller said she does not have a specific date for Honey Bea’s reopening, but she is planning to open soon.

The fund has more than 2,100 applications still pending.