By: Kaleb Strowell

V Pizza is one of Northeast Florida’s most popular local chain restaurants, serving up fast-casual style Italian food in-store, and harboring its own cancer charity organization, V for Victory. 

V for Victory was founded in 2017, after the then CEO of V Pizza, Paul Scott’s son was diagnosed with cancer. The organization is founded on the belief that cancer shakes a family to its core, and that its okay to ask for help for some of the little things during your time of grieving.  

V for Victory mainly focuses on providing essential services to assist both those diagnosed with cancer and their families, such as lawn care, house cleaning, and free, warm meals from V Pizza. V for Victory is the only nonprofit cancer organization in the country that does not look at age or diagnosis for cancer patients, meaning they serve anyone of any age with any kind of cancer. 

V for Victory is also partnered with a number of local Jacksonville businesses that offer their services and benefits to families in need. In October of 2021, LEGO sent V for Victory over 6,500 LEGO sets for children diagnosed with cancer to pick out. V for Victory continues to give out LEGO sets to local families with diagnosed children today through their Bricks of Love program. 

V Pizza served just shy of 50,000 meals to V for Victory families in 2024, and seek to expand their reach and the amount of families they can service in the future. 

If you are interested in learning more about V for Victory and the services they offer, as well as any volunteer positions, visit their website at https://www.vforvictory.org/.  

By: Bela Sparks

Leticia Bomtempo is a female artist making waves in the tattoo community for her strong skill set. She owns a shop on Jacksonville Beach, Queen Tattoo, and travels the country to work in many tattoo conventions each year. She says that she was born an artist and was drawn to the tattoo community’s rebellious side growing up.  

In Western culture, tattooing has historically been a male-dominated subculture since the 1800s. Although the practice has been around for centuries all over the world, artists in the United States would often refuse to tattoo women unless they had permission from fathers or spouses. Over time, women and other marginalized groups have flocked to the tattooing community for acceptance and community.  

Leticia hopes that her shop can be a space for creativity, acceptance, and expression. She wants her clients to not only experience quality work and service, but also get a sense of the real culture of tattooing. “It’s a place where cool kids can hang out with other cool kids,” she said.  

Anyone interested in meeting Leticia or getting some tattoo work done can visit the shop or follow Queen Tattoo on Instagram.