Category: Diversity

Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Environment, Healing, LGBTQ+, outdoors, Rockclimbing

Finding Footing

Written by CJ Copeland

Liz, Morgan, Iris, and Austin prepare for a route at Wauhatchie Woodlands. The four are a part of the Queer Climbing Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and meet to climb as a group. Monday, April 13, 2026 (Photo by Cj Copeland)

Chalk dust drifts through the air as climbers gather around a cluster of boulders, spotting each other and mapping out routes on rough stone. Laughter cuts through the quiet of the outdoors, mixing with the sounds of shoes scraping rock and people calling out encouragement from below. For some, it’s just a day of climbing. For others, it’s something more: a space where they can exist as themselves.

Morgan started climbing in college after moving to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Drawn in by the physical challenge and problem-solving, they quickly found a love for the sport. “I felt pretty closed off in the climbing community when I first got here, just because I didn’t know anybody,” they say. “Sometimes it can be hard to sort of break into it.”

That feeling isn’t uncommon. Climbing communities, especially outdoor ones, often rely on word-of-mouth, and shared experience. For someone new, not just to climbing, but to the area, it can feel like everyone else already knows where they belong.

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Aviation, Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, Cleveland High School, community, Diversity, teachers

Hands That Build Flight

Written by Corbin Winters

Students, mentor, aviation instructor, and Cleveland High School administrators manually attach the wings on their experimental aircraft kit. Construction started August 2023. Wednesday, April 27, 2026 (Photo by Corbin Winters)

Blurry reflections of focused students stare back from the aluminum shell as the high pitch drill echoes inside a portion of their high school’s old library. Due to partnership with the Tango Flight Program, aircraft construction has found a new home at Cleveland High School, CHS.  

“It’s getting more of a hands-on type of experience,” Garrett says. “They learn about different systems of aircrafts. Then they participate in putting that system together.”

Garrett first developed a love for aviation at a young age. While in middle school, Garrett got the opportunity to fly in a “little low-wing Piper Cherokee aircraft,” instantly infatuating him with flight. 

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Environment, Family, Health, Love, Malcolm Key Audio, outdoors, Uncategorized

Hands that Push, Hearts that Lead

Written by Kayelyn McCaslin

A group of adventurers navigate paths with adaptive gear. Each chair is built to handle the challenges of the trail. They’re able to enjoy access, freedom, and the joy of being outside. Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Photo by Andromeda Stewart)

A steady rhythm of metal and motion cuts through a quiet trail, the soft clicking of chains, the hum of wheels as hands push left, right, left along a path through Greenway Farms in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Somewhere between effort and ease, mechanics and mountainside, Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors’ Therapeutic Recreation department is bridging a gap. With the help of brand new GRIT adaptive junior wheelchairs, it’s not just about access to local trails, but a sense of belonging that all youth deserve.

Making Chattanooga’s scenic trails accessible to all is no single effort. It is the result of collaboration and dedication shared between GRIT Freedom’s All-Terrain wheelchair technology, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s quality-of-life grant, and the Chattanooga Therapeutic Recreation department’s intimate team. “Really zooming out and saying, all right, so we know it can be done, but it’s how is it gonna be done?” Therapeutic Recreation Department Head Elaine Gossett said. “Chattanooga is a great place to get outside, but it doesn’t necessarily make every trail accessible.”

Ellie Heinichen speaks at the Tennessee Riverpark. She aims to teach the audience about the Therapeutic Recreation Department as well as the many adaptive programs that are available for her son David. The Rec Department organizes adaptive biking and now offers all terrain wheelchairs.

At its core, the initiative addresses a simple, but substantial roadblock: traditional wheelchairs just aren’t built for outdoor trails. GRIT Freedom Chair CEO Derek Johnson explains, “Traditional wheelchairs get stuck on almost anything…rocks, cracks, sticks, stumps, mud, sand… They just aren’t suitable for off-road trails.” 

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Chattanooga, community, Diversity, Entertainment, Food Banks, History, Sports

A Stadium’s Last Stand

Written By Kayelyn McCaslin

Engel Stadium, owned by UTC is locked from the outside and decaying on the inside. The stadium is set to be torn down and replaced by a women’s sports complex in 2026. Friday November 7, 2025 (Photo by Delaney Holman).

Patterned ties knotted at the neck and bright dresses swished with each stride. Frilly hats, white gloves, and leather shoes stayed on despite the heat. A Sunday afternoon in 1950s Chattanooga, Tennessee, called for the best fashion. Only this crowd had already been to church, and they were headed for another kind of sanctuary: Engel Stadium. “I can picture my father with his tie on, sitting in the stands on a Sunday after church,” said Mickey McCamish, former President of The Engel Foundation. “Growing up, Engel Stadium and The Lookouts were a social fabric of Chattanooga. It was the center place.”

Now, those Sunday games are long gone. After decades of negligence and decay, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)  has announced that Engel Stadium will be demolished in 2026 and replaced with a women’s sports center. This decision has stirred both nostalgia and frustration from the Chattanooga community, especially those like McCamish who knew the stadium as the hub of social life in town.

John Rawlston, during his time as staff photographer at the Chattanooga Times Press, documented the final season of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s minor league baseball team The Lookouts. This last season took place at the famous Engel Stadium, which is set to be demolished under UTC’s ownership to create a new women’s athletic center. Rawlston recounts what made that season special, and the historical significance of the Engel Stadium.

McCamish first saw Engel as a ten-year-old selling Coca-Cola in the stands. Now a Navy veteran and Executive Director of Friends of the Festival, he watches as the fabric of Engel Stadium fades.

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Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Family, Healing, Health, Karate, Sports

The Seated Champion

Written by Zoie Denton

Joel Westbrook talks about his journey as a wheelchair athlete in martial arts and how his spina bifida doesn’t limit him. He is the first wheelchair athlete to join the U.S. Para-Karate National Team and became an inspiration for those with physical limitations to challenge themselves, so they can take the first steps towards greatness.

Greatness wears many faces. For 18-year-old martial artist Joel Westbrook, greatness is carved into every determined push of his wheels. As the first ever male wheelchair athlete selected for the U.S. Para-Karate National Team, he has become a living symbol that limitations don’t define a person. His journey is proof that true strength is not bound by the body, but by the fire that drives it forward.

Joel Westbrook releases a sharp kiai, a forceful, exclamatory shout in karate. This practice supposedly connected the mind and body, as he executed the final move in his kata. Tuesday, November 11, 2025. (Photo by Angelina Fraga.)

Westbrook was born with spina bifida, a condition that affects how the spine and nerves develop. He can walk short distances using braces and crutches, but his wheelchair is where he feels strongest and most comfortable. Despite the challenges he faces, he has never felt limited.

When Westbrook was around eight years old, he saw a television show with a character performing martial arts in a wheelchair. For most viewers, it was simply a character, but for Westbrook, he saw himself represented in a sport that had always seemed inaccessible. Under the guidance of his physical therapist, Westbrook and his family discovered Green’s Karate in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a dojo known for adapting karate for all students.

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art, Chattanooga, community, Diversity, Healing, Prison, Uncategorized

Barber’s Redemption

Written by Angelina Fraga

Bryan Slayton removes the barber cape after giving Malik a fresh cut. Malik was excited to look nice for his approaching birthday. Wednesday, April 9, 2025. photo by Angelina Fraga.

There’s no striped pole or hydraulic kick leather chair. No sign posted on a door pertaining to hours of operation or holidays off. It’s just Bryan Slayton and his barber tools laid out on his mobile cart, plugged into the city’s power outlet. Slayton’s “clients” sit on a chair pulled from a park table.  On a good day, you can see people lined up waiting for a new do, sometimes not so many. Regardless, he stays from 8 am until noon, waiting to make someone’s day.

Slayton is a Chattanooga barber making a difference for those less fortunate in the community. You can find Slayton at Miller Park every Wednesday with his clippers and barber tools set up at his side.  He gives haircuts to anyone in need, they just walk up to his improvised office and ask. 

Slayon grew up in Chattanooga’s West Side projects and got his first pair of second-hand clippers for Christmas from his uncle when he was just ten years old. He mastered his craft through trial and error, but in the beginning it was only a side hustle.

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Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Family, History, Love, Uncategorized

Chattanooga, the First National Park City in America

Written by Delaney Holman

Tim Kelly, Mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, speaks about the city becoming the first National Park City in the Americas. Chattanooga earned the title on April 3rd, 2025, after over two years of community effort. Also called the “Scenic City,” Chattanooga is acclaimed for its access to the outdoors and rich history.

Deep in the Appalachian foothills, and along the Tennessee River, lies America’s only National Park City (NPC). A historically significant city tucked in the Tennessee Valley, home to over 100 parks and a community uniquely invested in outdoor culture, helped make Chattanooga, Tennessee, the third NPC in the world. Chattanooga earned the NPC title on April 3, 2025, just 55 years after being named the dirtiest city in the United States. 

In 2019, Daniel Raven-Ellison founded the NPC movement by establishing London as the first city to adopt the vision of building a new collective understanding of what a city is and who it is for. The National Park City Foundation combines long-term and large-scale versions of National Parks within cities. 

Abraham Mako rows by the Bluff View Art District on the Tennessee River during sunrise Wednesday, September 24, 2025 (Photo by Clara Paulson).

“That’s the whole idea behind the NPC campaign – locals working hard to protect, cherish, enjoy, and celebrate nature all around,” said Scott Martin, Chattanooga’s former administrator for the Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors.

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Chattanooga, community, Diversity, donate, Environment, outdoors, Philanthropy, reflection riding, Uncategorized

Growing for Change

Written by Ella Sole

Cash Daniels, a 16-year-old conservationist, offers insight into his efforts to clean up plastic waste by focusing on fishing line. With his initiative now operating in six states, Daniels has garnered national attention and accolades for his projects and hopes to continue raising awareness about plastic waste clean-up.

Walking along the shoreline, a small plastic straw reflects the sun’s rays and catches a child’s eye, sparking a life dedicated to making a change in the man-made, polluted environment. At the age of 7, this is precisely what happened to Cash Daniels.

“Before that, I had always loved getting out on the river: fishing, kayaking, swimming, things like that. When I found that plastic straw, I knew it would harm the animals in the environment that I loved, so I knew I had to do something to help defend it,” said Daniels. “Due to that, I have been able to remove 46,000 pounds of trash from the river so far.”

Cash Daniels shows off a jar of his collected fishing line. Throughout Cash Daniels’ conservation efforts, he collected over 2,200 miles of used fishing line. Thursday, October 15, 2025 (Photo by Corbin Winters).

Plastic waste is ever-present on the banks of the Tennessee River and Chattanooga Creek, harming aesthetics and the biodiverse habitats. With these waterways so close to Daniels’ home, he felt a personal responsibility to do something to help sustain and improve them. Daniels, now a 16-year-old Chattanooga, Tennessee native, has shown his passion for cleaning up the environment around him by constructing and placing fishing line recycling bins in six states.

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Family, Healing, History, Immigration, Love, Philanthropy, Safety, UTC

Still Here

Written by Connor Spelta

Olympia Garcia Lopez talks about her experience as a Guatemalan immigrant in Chattanooga and how she came to find La Paz.

For those building new lives in Chattanooga, the journey often begins with an organization like La Paz. Even at a time of rapidly shifting policy and funding changes, this organization isn’t going anywhere, and remains firmly committed to the people they serve.

La Paz is a Latino services non-profit organization with a stated goal of “empowering and engaging Chattanooga’s Latino population through advocacy, education, and inclusion.”

“From the very beginning we’ve encountered many Hispanic men coming to Chattanooga for work opportunities, and they started coming in with their families. The needs start changing from job opportunities or like documentation to other processes, more programs, more resources that they need for the whole family instead of just an individual” said Daniela Durán, the communication coordinator for La Paz.

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Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Entertainment, Family, Health, Safety, Sports, UTC

Golden Age, Golden Hoops

Written by Guy DeWeese

76-year-old Ernest Harris speaks about playing pick-up basketball at his local YMCA and what being active and on his feet with friends means to him.

Elbow pads are strapped on, knee pads are adjusted and you can hear neck braces being velcroed. This is just a typical day at the Hamilton Family YMCA basketball court. Most young hoopers don’t even bother playing against the seasoned vets.. For these senior hoopers, this is their lifestyle. 

John Hendrickson recently moved to Chattanooga from Illinois and the 78-year-old man is one of the many seniors actively playing basketball every Monday at the YMCA. 

“Many of us have a good background in basketball, just a group of guys wanting to do something together,” Hendrickson said.

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