About the Owners
A Little Pillow Company was created by Heather McCoy in 2007, but it was when her future-husband, Loyd, joined the team that the business really took off. Their whirlwind courtship revealed two hearts whose business skills and world views were as much a match made in heaven as they were. Equally passionate about the land, wildlife, organic gardening, native species restoration, recycling, and energy conservation, they made it a priority to merge all this with their "little" pillow company.
In 2015 they bought their "forever home" together on 20 acres in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and immediately started a no-dig organic garden and began restoring the land. They partnered with the NRCS (National Resources Conservation Service) to reestablish quail habitat on a portion of the property as well as native flowers and forbs. Future plans are to increase the areas for restoration until the entire property has been freed from invasive species and returned to natives.
Update Fall 2022: The songbird population has increased, and the small patch of woods now hosts a family of screech owls and a great horned owl! No quail as of yet but the fingers remain crossed.
Because they'd already left more than half of the property wild from the start, they committed it as an Ark with the We Are the Ark organization founded by Mary Reynolds. To learn more about Mary’s amazing work, visit her website.
Heather & Loyd’s love of wildlife finds them giving of their time to the Virginia Wildlife Center where they are volunteer wildlife transporters. Critters they have rescued and transported to date include a screech owl, great horned owl, red tailed hawk, black runner snake, several white tail fawns, a box turtle, raccoon and baby blue birds. In the summer of 2020 they were asked to host a juvenile squirrel on their property which had been hand-reared at the Center. Not that they actually needed more squirrels on the property (for which the birdfeeders can attest) but the little 'un needed a home so the welcome mat was rolled out once again.
Valley Mission, their local homeless shelter, has also been a recipient of their donations. Extra pillows, as well as overflow from the garden, make their way to the residents there. Loyd, a conservation hunter, annually donates culled deer to both Valley Mission and the Virginia Hunters for the Hungry program.
Another local organization dear to the McCoy’s hearts is The Boys Home of Virginia. They stumbled on this quiet blessing while searching for place to buy a Christmas tree their first year in their new home and have been ardent supporters ever since. What a sweet, sweet school and the work they are doing there is so fundamentally important it always brings tears to the eyes.
On a more national/international scale A Little Pillow Company is devoted to the St Jude Children’s Hospital and the Fistula Foundation. A portion of the company's profits goes to support both of these amazing organizations. Please visit their websites for more information and ways of giving.
All this to say: when you buy from A Little Pillow Company you are helping do an extra little bit for all these fine organizations and our precious Earth too.
