Trish King, the Construction Office Manager at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga Area talks about her experience working with volunteers and homeowners in the local community.
A public park, a mountain view, colorful homes, and bustling construction sites: these are all things you wouldn’t typically expect to see in a community with subsidized housing, but thanks to the work of the city and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga, this is the scene at the Villages of Alton Park.
Construction Office Manager Trish King has seen firsthand the effect that they’ve had fostering a community in the neighborhood.
“We are not building one house for one person in isolation,” said King. “It’s that there are people around here who’ve been through the same process, it’s being part of something bigger.”
Alex Newton spoke with Shateria Smith and Shane Morrow about Responsive Initiatives for Social Empowerment (RISE)—a black-led nonprofit organization that has been serving the community with free programming, concerts, and communal events since 2011. They hosted the Levitt BLOC Music Series during the month of September, which consists of free concerts for the public every Sunday.
For the most part, a drive down Taylor Street in East Chattanooga looks like any other street in the city’s poorer river-to-ridge region. The blur of closely packed industrial, commercial and residential lots aging into historic status is interrupted by a sprawling 14,000-square-foot complex adorned with stained glass windows and statues.
The over 100-year-old building, formerly the Solid Anchor Church, hosts Chattanooga non-profit Responsive Initiatives for Social Empowerment (RISE). The black-led non-profit was started in 2011 by current CEO Shane Morrow and his partner.
Known originally as Jazzanooga, the organization began with a single-day Jazz festival as a part of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga (CFGC). After the initial success of the festival, the organization spun off from CFGC into the independent non-profit it is today.
Scarlen Valderaz plays with her children in their family’s living room. Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Photo by Bethany Cothran)
In a cold hospital room, Scarlen Valderaz gave birth to her first child in a room full of strangers, enduring the pain of childbirth while tackling every question thrown her way.
Finally seeing her baby boy, she was ecstatic, but she knew that she did not want to have another baby in a hospital.
“We actually didn’t know until my husband and I talked about our first born again that they kept offering me an epidural, and I had to say no because I didn’t want that,” Valderaz said. “…the last thing that you want to do when you’re pushing an entire baby out is having to make good decisions that are going to affect you.”
A couple years went by and Valderaz discovered she was pregnant once again, and this time, things would be different.
Valderaz and her husband researched and interviewed midwife after midwife, not stopping until they found the one they trusted best to deliver their baby.
Trading the cold hospital full of strangers and illnesses for the warmth and comfort of her own home, Valderaz could relax and give herself the space she needed to do what she felt would be best for her and the baby.
“We go with homebirth because now there’s so much that happens in the medical system, especially when it comes to the lady through it,” Valderaz said. “There is a lot of autonomy that gets stripped away from the woman when she’s birthing.”
For Valderaz, there would be no race to the hospital for an on-call OB to deliver the child, she would instead be in the safety of her bedroom surrounded by her husband and trusted midwife. Rather than staring at the foreign furniture of a delivery room for hours with her baby wheeled away to the nursery soon after, she would look to her familiar bedroom walls and know that her baby would always be close to her.
Rising Rock team 4 speaks with Mike Maddalena about the 2024 total solar eclipse and the people that it brought together. Mike serves as the publicity chair for the Barnard Astronomical Society of Chattanooga, providing outreach to the community of Greater Chattanooga through monthly star parties and other events.
On April 8th, 2024, the world went dark. Birds soared across a 360-degree sunset as spectators below craned their necks up to the sky to see that the sun had been blotted out by the moon. The solar eclipse is often referred to as a once-in-a-lifetime event, but for many, it became twice.
After the 2017 eclipse left viewers hungering for more, families, photographers and astronomers gathered in preparation for the next event, leading to thousands gathering under the black hole sun in April despite the heat and cloud cover.
Courtney Lewis, activity director for the Chattanooga Public Library, discusses what an eclipse is and why it is important for people to learn about it.
As the moon intercepts perfectly between the earth and the sun, casting a shadow, a solar eclipse brings individuals from all walks of life together, all pausing to gaze upward and witness history.
Over 200 patrons gathered around the Chattanooga Public Library on April 8, 2024 starting around 2:30 P.M. to witness the rare solar eclipse through Oreos, protective glasses and interactive games.
“For this eclipse we really made sure that people know that they can get glasses here,” Courtney Lewis, Chattanooga Public Library activities director, said. “That we are going to be celebrating with them, so there are going to be a lot more people that have a central place where they can come do fun things and experience it in a safe place. “
“All aboard!” Benny Braden, founder and former president of Responsible Stewardship tied his trash bags and tossed them on his jon boat as his volunteers shuffled back through the woods. The shoreline of Watts Bar Lake, previously covered in loose trash, old tires, and tangled fishing line, was near spotless after Braden and his team took on the challenge of collecting the debris.
Responsible Stewardship is a non-profit organization that works with a volunteer base to remove trash from outdoor recreation spaces such as Watts Bar Lake to keep the space clean and family-friendly. Braden started his organization in August of 2022 working to clean up illegal dump sites and move them to landfills while recycling what he can.
“That is something we are striving for in the next couple years to…recycle everything. We typically like to do zero added waste cleanups which means we use the barley bags and reusable gloves,” says Braden.
In just over a year of action, volunteers turned into ambassadors leading their own teams all over the country collecting trash and weighing it to report back to Braden. Recently, a new ambassador in Taiwan took it upon herself to collect trash overseas after being inspired by his work in the U.S. and has so far collected over 1,000 pounds by herself.
Adam and Jessica Moore lock arms as the Love on the Diamond wedding ceremony takes place. The Moores renewed their vows at the Chattanooga Lookouts’ home plate as one of the couples selected by Sunny 92.3 to participate in the ceremony. Saturday, February 17, 2024. (Photo by Bethany Cothran)
Drawn onto the arms of Jessica and Adam Moore is a dark anchor tattoo, keeping them together no matter what. The tattoo is a result of the couple’s appreciation of tattoos, meaning much more than what is on the skin. It is not only a symbol of love, but of commitment and dedication to their relationship and their family; a reminder of what is truly important when hard times may come. They are each other’s home plate and with each other, they are safe.
“We are each other’s anchor, you know? It means multiple things,” Adam Moore said. “We keep each other tied down, we keep each other stable.”
Adam and Jessica met on an online dating service in 2009. Adam messaged Jessica after coming across her profile and the two made plans for a first date.
“I went to his house and we just watched a movie,” Jessica Moore said. “I didn’t get off work until two hours after I was supposed to, and I felt really bad because he had to be up for work in [like] six hours.”
After a late albeit successful movie night, the pair knew they wanted to see each other again. Being around Halloween, the pair decided to get in the holiday spirit, so they made a visit to see Jessica’s father at Ruby Falls’ Haunted Cavern, an annual Chattanooga Halloween favorite that converts the beautiful Ruby Falls cave into a spooky haunted tour.
“After that, I remember he took the drive to me. Then I took him with me and brought him to go meet my dad. We met on the side of the mountain, and it was good,” Jessica Moore said. “You know, it’s your dad. You always want to make a good first impression.”
A conversation with Jason Jackson about the migration of the Sandhill Cranes with a focus on the refuge and TWRA.
As the sun peaks over the horizon, lighting the waters of Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, thousands of trumpeting birds flock to the sky. Standing at just over three feet tall, the loud Sandhill cranes were a species once locally extinct east of the Mississippi River before making a victorious comeback.
These unique red-headed cranes take up residence at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Birchwood, Tennessee during the months of November through February for winter migration to feast on corn, wheat, and legumes planted by rangers along the river.
The Sandhill cranes, though far from the only species to winter at the refuge, make up the majority of the avian population that roost along the waters of the Hiwassee River and have steadily grown in number in the nearly thirty years they have migrated there.
Their unique appearance and success story have inspired a tight knit community. Locals from surrounding counties and an even larger population of photographers, birdwatchers, and storytellers alike are drawn in from across the nation for a chance to watch the cranes perform their sunrise spectacle.
Alyssia Rich, left, trims Terri Greer’s dogs nails during a routine free pet food & supply delivery to a local neighborhood. Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Photo by Noah Camacho)
McKamey Animal Center is ten miles from Alton Park, one of the poorest zip codes in Tennessee. The Center is a thirty-minute drive but without other means of transportation, a three-and-a-half-hour walk, one way.
During MAC C.A.R.E.S grand opening, Heather Hensley, the Community Solutions Manager at McKamey said, “Being at MetMin [Metropolitan Ministries] is such a big relief, we are closer to Alton Park and other populations that are looking for this assistance… We can spread the love so much better by being here with MetMin.”
In late January McKamey Animal Center and Metropolitan Ministries Impact Hub partnered to open MAC C.A.R.E.S Center. Located at 4001 Rossville Blvd., less than two miles from Alton Park.
The grand opening being at noon, staff spent their morning giving pet supplies to people in need.
“More than half of MetMins clients have pets, they were already talking about this,” Hensley said. “As we were unloading food this morning people were coming to us, so we were giving it out.”
Skateboard instructor Gray Joyce gives a run down of the Outdoor Chattanooga learn to skate clinic held in Chattanooga’s Chatt Town skate park.
Surrounded by ramps, rails, ledges, and skateboards, families gather to spend a couple of hours learning how to skateboard. Alongside trained instructors, beginner skateboarders learn the basics of skateboarding at the Learn to Skate Clinic.
Outdoor Chattanooga hosts a learn-to-skateboard class at the Chatt Town skatepark in downtown Chattanooga. During this class, equipment is provided ranging from helmets to kneepads—and most importantly, skateboards.
The class was led by Gray Joyce and Patrick Sheel, local skateboarders who are highly skilled and have extensive skateboarding knowledge.
According to Joyce, beginners should start the class by having a group stretch, which is crucial in skateboarding as it mostly involves their legs. The skateboarders are then taught how to ride a board properly and how to find their center of gravity.
Learning to push and having good foot positioning during this sport is one of the most important things to learn as a beginner, and one must have a firm understanding of both of these before they can move onto bigger obstacles.
