Challenges keep Beach hobbyist sharp

VIRGINIA BEACH

Outside the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum on this February day, the Boardwalk is virtually empty.

Few cars roll down Atlantic Avenue. It's the time of year at the Oceanfront when hotels are remodeling, parking spaces seem unlimited and many businesses are shut down.

Inside the museum, though, there's a man with bushy eyebrows making a duck decoy.

He works at an old wooden bench, wearing a green apron covered in wood dust with a nametag: "Hank Grigolite - Volunteer."

When there aren't any tourists stopping in is when Grigolite, 69, has time to finish carving things.

"It's kind of like being little again, and you're out in your backyard and you've got your dad's hammer and saw and some nails and you can make anything that your imagination says," he said.

Grigolite works in the museum, at 1113 Atlantic Ave., every Thursday. It gets about 10,000 to 13,000 visitors a year. January and February are the slowest months for visits.

"I'd say probably below 50 for the entire month," said Tom Beatty, the museum director.

The museum is in the de Witt Cottage, which was built in 1895 by Bernard P. Holland, the first postmaster and mayor in what is now Virginia Beach.

The museum includes carved decoys, wildfowl art, guns and old photos of Virginia Beach. But Grigolite does not carve his decoys for display in the museum.

Grigolite picked up carving as a hobby about 10 years ago. He says he likes to challenge himself, fashioning spoons, caterpillars, peanuts, shells and birds out of wood, and then applying paint to them to make them appear real.

"I don't want to be stuck with any one particular thing," he said.

He will sell an item occasionally, if someone wants to buy it. But that's not why he makes things. It's just something he likes to do.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-5150, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com