Built Together: How Diverse Leadership is Shaping the Surry County, NC, Community
In Surry County, community isn’t something residents take for granted – it’s something actively built together. Across Mount Airy, Elkin, Dobson, Pilot Mountain and other surrounding areas, people from incredibly diverse backgrounds are choosing to put down roots and help build a vibrant future for the region.
Surry County’s growth is the direct product of its people. Whether relocating from Latin America, Slovakia or right here at home, these residents made a conscious decision to invest in this pocket of North Carolina. They opened creative art studios and craft breweries, built major manufacturing industries, organized cultural festivals and funded community programs. In doing so, they have turned a region once known primarily for its geography into one defined by the depth of the Surry County, NC, community.
A Multicontinental Place to Gather
It is that exact inclusive outlook that drives Thirsty Souls Brewing in downtown Mount Airy. Founded by Slovak natives Jan and Maria Kriska, who initially came to the area to serve as local physicians, the popular brewery was launched on a shared passion for home brewing that gradually grew into a community staple.
The brewery’s logo – a hiker scaling a mountain with a keg on his back – is a nod to Jan’s Slovak roots, where he once carried casks of beer and wine through the countryside, according to the brewery’s website. Housed in a former funeral home, the brewery even bears a name that pays playful tribute to the building’s previous life.
“It’s not the beer or the pizza – which we want to believe is pretty good – but the experience of feeling at home that we are selling,” Kriska says. “We want people to feel at home and want to come back, to see it as a community, not just a pizza place or brewery.”
Kriska has watched Mount Airy transform over the years and takes pride in the role Thirsty Souls has played in it.
“The area has changed a lot; it’s certainly not a sleepy town,” Kriska says. “There has been amazing growth, and we’re happy to be a small part of it.
Building the Future: Latino Entrepreneurship and Industry
A key part of the region’s evolution is tied to the Latino community, whose influence extends across community life, from cultural events to local businesses.
In downtown Mount Airy, Latino Friday has successfully grown from a single Cinco de Mayo celebration into a highly anticipated monthly gathering. The event completely fills the Market Street Arts & Entertainment District with live music, street dancing and authentic regional cuisine.
Similarly, family-friendly gatherings like the annual Día de los Muertos celebration draw massive crowds to the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History before spilling out into an energetic block party on Market Street, complete with interactive altar displays and traditional acoustic music.
This cultural energy is reflected in everyday retail, dining and wellness mainstays. Latino-owned restaurants like El Agavero Mexicano and El Aguacate, neighborhood grocery staples like Super Mercado Esmeralda and Gonzales Produce, and newer fitness ventures like Varsity Club Pilates reflect a highly vibrant commercial scene shaped by the community’s entrepreneurial drive.
That local impact extends far beyond Main Street storefronts. Surry County has quietly become a national hub for metal building and carport manufacturing – with many of the top firms being Latino-owned. Leading operations like Eagle Carports, Carport Central and Carolina Carports directly employ more than 1,000 regional workers in manufacturing facilities, with at least double that number working in field installation, making the sector one of the county’s most significant economic engines.
Many of these business owners invest heavily back into local programs, sponsoring landmark events like the Autumn Leaves Festival and supporting the Mount Airy City Schools’ Dual-Language Immersion (DLI) Program.
Creativity as Connection
For Cris Tadesse, founder of Crisanthemum Studios in Pilot Mountain, it was Surry County’s tight-knit sense of mutual support that convinced her to build her life and business in the foothills.
“There’s something special about a place where people know each other, support each other and genuinely want to see small businesses succeed,” she says. “It didn’t take long for me to realize this wasn’t just a place to live; it was a place where I could build something meaningful.”
Cris Tadesse
After discovering pottery in 2019, Tadesse left a corporate career to open her studio, a space built around the belief that making something by hand can change how a person sees themselves.
“It’s not just about the finished piece; it’s about the moment when someone realizes they created something meaningful with their own hands,” she says.
Today, Crisanthemum Studios is a creative space and a gathering place that is welcoming and judgment-free, where people from different walks of life share a table and, in doing so, share something of themselves. That sense of connection, she says, is part of what has allowed Surry County’s creative community to grow.
Tadesse sees the potential clearly.
“I truly believe it can become a destination for arts, culture and experience,” she says, “a place people come not just to visit, but to feel something.”
Get to Know Surry County
Want to learn more about living and working in Surry County, NC? Check out the latest edition of Livability Surry County, North Carolina.