Tag: UTC

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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art, Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Entertainment, Environment, Family, Food, History, Hugs, Music, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability, Trains, UTC, women

Rising Rock Media Podcast

By Megan Cooper

Megan Cooper hosts an episode of Rising Rock Media Podcast where listeners can get a glance at life in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She speaks with several very different people from interviews she hosted throughout the semester.

Meet The Storyteller

Megan Cooper is a senior communication student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, UTC, focusing on being an audio technician and editor. Megan has experience using Adobe programs to create audio content for broadcasting. Megan is a show host, promotions director, and station manager at UTC’s student-run radio station, the Perch. She is also currently working as a promotions tech at Summit Media Group in Knoxville, TN. This is Megan’s second semester in Rising Rock as an audio technician where she uses nothing but tone of voice to share people’s stories, and she built the Rising Rock radio showcase for 88.1 WUTC. When she isn’t working she is reading fantasy books and hunting down the next CD on her list. Cooper’s passion lies in music, books, radio, and using stories to bring people together. If you have a story you want to tell or want to contact Megan you can reach her at megancooper820@gmail.com. 

Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, donate, Family, Healing, Hugs, Love, Religion, Safety, Uncategorized

Revolution of Redirection

Written by Connor Spelta

StreetWorks is an organization based in Chattanooga, Tennessee that helps the sexually exploited women of the city who are unhoused. They offer a home for the women to go to two days a week to rest, wash their clothes, shower, and eat.

A pair of thickly cushioned blue couches sit in the living room of a small house in Chattanooga. To the women who are familiar with the building and the organization it hosts, the couches are so much more than a comfy piece of furniture. 

On the four cushions, they can rest with the knowledge that they are safe. They know, at least for the time being, that they are free of the dangers they face outside of the Streetworks property. 

No men are allowed here, and no one enters the house without crossing paths with leadership team member Karen Brown.

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Environment, Health, History, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability

Breathe Easy Now

Written by Guy DeWeese

Morgan Holl talks about Overlooked Materials, his glass recycling startup. He wants to make a difference in Chattanooga through recycling in the community.

The year is 1969, it has been 20 years since the All-Dixie Air Show, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was on the rise, Cedar Street Bridge just got finished. Businesses are being built, the city of Chattanooga is trending upward. It’s a crisp October day and Walter Cronkite, an anchorman for the CBS evening news known as the most trusted man in America, announces on national television that “Chattanooga, Tennessee is the dirtiest city in America.”

“It was so bad that people couldn’t stand it anymore, it was just gross,” says Karen  Hundt, an urban designer who has been involved in the city’s turnaround since those dark days in the 1960s when headlights were sometimes required at noon. 

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Animals, Chattanooga, Chattanooga Audubon Society, community, donate, Entertainment, Environment, Healing, History, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability, Uncategorized

Healing Wings

Written by Alexis McMurtry

John Stokes transfers one of his two eagles, Yazta, from the pen to his enclosure at his and his wife’s house in Trenton, Georgia. Monday, November 11, 2024. Photo by Alexis McMurtry.

At the end of a rugged, unpaved mountain road in Trenton, Georgia, John Stokes and Dale Kernahan’s home stands as a sanctuary surrounded by the wild beauty they work to protect. Outside, hand-built enclosures house majestic birds of prey, while bird feeders invite a chorus of smaller birds. Here, nature is more than a backdrop – it’s the heartbeat of their lives.

Wings to Soar, a nonprofit organization founded by the duo 11 years ago, serves as a sanctuary for birds of prey that can no longer survive in the wild alone. These raptors – many of whom are injured or have imprinted on humans – are given to them by various wildlife veterinarians and rehabilitation facilitators. This organization also focuses on education by offering programs that help the public understand the vital role these birds play in maintaining the balance of nature.

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art, Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Fashion, Uncategorized, women

More Than Just Hair

Written by Emily Petitt Dwyer

Meghan Landis folds clean towels as she prepares for clients. Wednesday, November 20, 2024. Photo by Emily Petitt Dwyer.

With its signature orange and black vines winding across once-white walls, vintage furniture complementing the mix of wood and tile flooring, and plants nestled along the aged brick hearth at its center, Good Sister Studio redefines what a hair studio can be.

The studio offers clients an intimate and educational experience while using clean and sustainable products—products free of harmful chemicals and good for the environment.

In the Northshore-based studio, Meghan Landis, the studio’s co-owner, adjusts her red curly hair with a confident “zhuzh” as she embodies the values she and business partner, Alexa Kuper, have built their studio upon.

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art, Chattanooga, History, Music, Photography, Trains, Uncategorized, UTC

A Tin Type of Man

Written by Taryn Brooks

Bill Steber, a Mississippi Blues photographer and one of the Hoodoo Men musicians, speaks about the value in analog art forms and revisiting the past through historical and modern perspectives.

The backdoor of a well-loved white van swings open with a squeak, revealing a fully functional darkroom that transforms tin plates into photographs. Upon closer look a collection of instruments inhabits the corners, mirroring how the two devotions appear in the life of photojournalist and musician Bill Steber. 

Steber describes his job title as a “chief cook and bottle washer at preserving the old weird America,” a culinary term meaning his responsibilities in his field rank from high to low and everywhere in between, illustrating the journey his professional career has taken. 

Along with strumming to an array of instruments and joining friend Sam Baker in the HooDoo men, Steber also spent 15 years as a photojournalist for the Tennessean and embarked on a documentary journey through the Mississippi’s Blues Trail. Photography and music have been life-long passions of Steber’s, both of which were born out of a love for illustrating modern times through a historical lens.

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Animals, art, Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Dance, Diversity, Entertainment, Environment, Family, Health, Love, Music, outdoors, Sports, Uncategorized, UTC, women

Rising Rock Radio Showcase
Graphic by Kylee Boone

Rising Rock is excited to showcase some of our best audio stories in a continued partnership with Scenic Roots. To listen to Scenic Roots, visit https://www.wutc.org/scenic-roots.

Tiny Bailarinas

Ava Nessell spoke with Wendy Reynoso, the student success and services coordinator at La Paz Chattanooga, about her experience finding a community in Chattanooga after immigrating from Guatemala. 

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, UTC, women

College Cleaners

Written by Elizabeth Wynne

Brooke McFarlin cleans a surface for one of her clients for her business, College Cleaners. Sunday, December 3, 2023. (Photo by Elizabeth Wynne)

Starting a business is never easy. At a young age, it is even more of a challenge, but it can be done.

Founded by Brooke McFarlin, a sophomore in college at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, College Cleaners is an opportunity for students around the Chattanooga area to pick up a side gig in their busy schedule, while also providing a cleaning service for those looking for an affordable option.

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