NORFOLK, Va. — Yellow police tape still marks part of the Ryan Resilience Lab along Colley Avenue, a reminder of a hit-and-run crash that damaged several features outside the environmental education facility last week.
Norfolk Police said the crash happened sometime between 5 p.m. Aug. 25 and 7 a.m. Aug. 26 in the 4600 block of Colley Avenue.
According to police, an unknown vehicle struck a parked car in the roadway before continuing on and damaging an electric vehicle charging station, a pedestrian handrail and landscaping outside the lab.
No crash was reported to either Norfolk Police or Old Dominion University Police at that location during that timeframe, according to Norfolk Police. The hit-and-run investigation remains ongoing.
For the Elizabeth River Project, which operates the Ryan Resilience Lab, the damage goes beyond landscaping and equipment.
The lab opened in June 2024 and serves as both a public education facility and headquarters for the Elizabeth River Project's restoration team. The nonprofit offers free programming focused on climate resilience and the Elizabeth River.
Luisa Black Ellis, the Elizabeth River Project's director of resilience and community engagement, said the facility was designed to demonstrate different ways people can incorporate sustainability and resilience into their everyday lives.
"We want to show people as many options as possible for how they can build climate resilience in an affordable, achievable way," Black Ellis said.
Two of those examples were directly in the path of the vehicle.
One was the lab's rain garden along the road. Black Ellis described it as a "rain garden for the road," designed to capture some of the water that would otherwise contribute to street flooding. The system also filters that water, helping protect the nearby Elizabeth River.
The other was an electric vehicle charging station that Black Ellis said was regularly used.
The crash seriously damaged the rain garden and completely knocked the EV charging station out of commission.
Black Ellis showed News 3 the damage left behind, including the damaged charging station.
She hopes the nonprofit can find a way to reuse the equipment. If that's not possible, she said the plan is to recycle it — keeping with the sustainability mission the lab was built to demonstrate.
Black Ellis said her initial reaction to seeing the damage was concern about what had happened and whether someone had been hurt.
"When I first saw the images, my heart sank because I thought maybe somebody had done it intentionally, maybe somebody was hurt," she said. "So as soon as I found out that it was an accident and that everybody was okay, I was like, you know what? It's all gonna be fine. We'll roll up our sleeves and we'll just get to work."
Exactly how much that work will cost remains unclear.
Black Ellis said she was hesitant to give a specific estimate because repair costs can change significantly once work begins. However, she said she is confident the total will reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Almost immediately, neighboring businesses started asking what they could do to help.
Black Ellis said people who regularly walk through the neighborhood began calling and texting the organization after sunrise the morning the damage was discovered. She said the response since then has helped overshadow the frustration of the crash.
"We've already had such an amazing show of support from our community," Black Ellis said. "People asking how they can help."
That support includes a fundraiser being organized by Elation Brewing, just down Colley Avenue from the Ryan Resilience Lab.
General Manager Mike Purcell said he first learned about the damage after seeing a news report and immediately contacted Black Ellis.
"I immediately reached out to Luisa down at Elizabeth River Project to see how we could help," Purcell said. "I mean, it's a nonprofit, and I knew that they would need some money to help fix that."
Other organizations and businesses have joined the effort.
Purcell said a nearby bike shop donated a refurbished bicycle, while other donations include gift baskets and an item from the Virginia Zoo. Those items will help raise money during Saturday's event.
For Purcell, the response reflects the relationships businesses and organizations have developed along the North Colley corridor.
"It's all community based. It's all community driven," Purcell said. "How can we help each other?"
Black Ellis said those relationships existed long before the crash.
Businesses and residents have worked together through what they call the Eco District, with efforts focused in part on restoring Knitting Mill Creek, the section of the Elizabeth River located behind the Ryan Resilience Lab.
"We've been so lucky in this neighborhood specifically because there has been, from the very beginning, this amazing groundswell of support from the neighboring businesses and residents coming together to make a plan to restore Knitting Mill Creek," Black Ellis said.
Now, that existing partnership is helping the lab recover.
The fundraiser at Elation Brewing is scheduled from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday. Purcell said raffle drawings will begin at 6 p.m., with music scheduled from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Black Ellis said seeing the neighborhood respond has become the positive part of an otherwise frustrating situation.
"It's really so heartwarming, especially these days, to hear a story and to experience firsthand how much people genuinely care about each other," she said.
Meanwhile, Norfolk Police continue to investigate who was behind the wheel.
Detectives are asking anyone with information about the hit-and-run to contact the Norfolk Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
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