Author Archives: Lydia Odom

Zach Sprau recently received his Master’s degree from Appalachian State University, and is the head project coordinator for United Solar Initiative’s project with the Hospitality House, a homeless shelter in Boone, NC. Here, he talks about his experience with USI and what he hopes to do with solar energy in his future career endeavors. 

USI: When did you first start working with USI and what got you interested?

Sprau: I first started working with USI towards the end of the Spring 2016 semester. I learned about them through the Clean Tech Summit at UNC Chapel Hill. They had a booth and I signed up to check out the chapter at Appalachian State.

The main thing that got me interested in them was their partnership with World Vision doing solar water pumping. Prior to grad school, my wife and I worked with a similar organization in Haiti for a year, so it was exciting to see that USI was combining international development and renewable energy.

USI: Can you tell me about your experience working on the Hospitality House? What drew you to head up that project?

Sprau: As the USI team was meeting at Appalachian State, Jack mentioned that we were looking for additional projects, and that USI would be interested in doing some local projects. I am good friends with Jordan Duke, the Hospitality House Facilities Manager. We’d discussed projects he’d done there in the past such as solar thermal, the vegetable garden, and the chicken coop. I’d remembered him mentioning that he’d love to have PV for the Hospitality House, so I mentioned it to Jack, and we decided to give it a shot.

Several things drew me to head the project. Jack and Sam (the experienced USI members on our team) were graduating, and Jack asked me to head up the project after he left. It was also a natural fit as I had the relationship with Jordan and we’d worked together before. Finally, I believed in the project. I was using renewable energy (something I’m passionate about) to serve an underserved population. The Hospitality House is doing amazing work. I have learned so much about what they do through working on this project.

USI: Have there been any particularly challenging aspects of the Hospitality House project for you? 

Sprau: The main challenge has been time limitations. I’ve been trying to manage this project while going to school full time and working two part time jobs. As you can imagine, there have been many times where it has had to take a back seat to other obligations, and therefore has taken a bit longer than we were originally hoping.

USI: What have you enjoyed most about working on the Hospitality House?

Sprau: One of the main things I’ve enjoyed is getting to work with people who are truly interested in using resources to help others, and working with an organization that has been established to do just that. It also doesn’t hurt that I genuinely find solar power fascinating, and it’s potential to positively impact the lives of people.

USI: Do you plan to continue working in the solar energy field post-graduation? If so, what do you envision doing and why? 

Sprau: Since graduating, I’ve gone full time with the company that I was working with part time during grad school, SunVolt Electric. It’s an electrical contractor in Boone that does most of the PV (photovoltaic) installs in the area. I plan to keep working with them for a while to learn as much as I can, but the eventual goal is to return to the international relief and development sector (where I worked prior to grad school) to use solar energy to address energy poverty in developing nations.

Read more about the Hospitality House of Boone, NC at http://www.hosphouse.org

Article by: Lydia Odom

Photo provided by Zach Sprau

USI board member Ed Witkin visited Kenya and Zambia in late February of this year to lead trainings for World Vision staff. They focused on installing solar panels on water pumps that were previously installed by World Vision in a few communities. Below are his accounts of his second day in Kenya. 

On day two of our training in Kenya, we decided to switch the schedule and go out to a water pumping site to give us time to review the system and critique the installation. The pump site, Enkejju Errap, was about 1 1/2 hours northeast of where we stayed in Namanga. The road was dirt and we crossed about 45 km of fairly flat land with low scrubs and many cows and goats being herded by their Maasai shepherds. When we arrived at the pump site, there were quite a few local Maasai men and women gathered around the water outlet. The overflow feeds into a large trough, which is used to water the cattle and goats.

The water tank is quite impressive, though we questioned why it needed to be so high up (and therefore more expensive), as the water only served one outlet and did not appear to be distributed to other locations. There was one broken module in the PV array, which possibly happened during transport, as the array is in an unpopulated area and it doesn’t seem likely that someone would have thrown a rock up there.

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We found that, as in a system we saw in Ghana, the angle steel that protects the modules from theft is too wide and shades the edge of the cells, thus reducing the panel’s efficiency.

One of the main issues with all the PV systems we’ve seen here is that there is no monitoring, either on the PV side or the plumbing side. We are looking at remote monitoring equipment that is available for the system. Since cell phones are so prevalent, and cell service is excellent, this would be a logical improvement (and necessary for maintenance and troubleshooting). For the site we visited we have found that Lorentz has remote PV and water pumping monitoring which could keep track of array output and performance as well as water pipe pressure, flow rates, etc. There are cell phone apps for this system. Without any monitoring, and with the limited in-house PV experience, World Vision is currently in the dark about how the systems are performing. All they can really tell is if water is coming out the tap, but there’s no easy way of knowing if the tanks are full, if the pump is pumping efficiently and up to its desired specs, etc.

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The local Maasai community is incredibly grateful for the water and are friendly and welcoming to visitors. So much so that they roasted a goat for us and welcomed us to stay and eat under their “free” dining area (under a large bush). Accepting their invitation was “fitting into their shoes” and it would have been quite rude not to accept their offer. There was plenty of laughter and taking of photos. Most of the local Maasai only spoke Swahili, which almost all of the class participants also speak. I remembered a song I’d learned about Kenya in Swahili when I last visited in 1984 (the dark ages). I’d forgotten some of the words, so I had a few of them sing it while I recorded their singing.

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An interesting observation I had is that the Maasai women wear beautiful beads and both women and men tend to have very large holes in their earlobes to hang various beads and jewelry. I met a group of women who were selling their wares and noticed they are part of a large cooperative of women who are making their beadwork available to tourists both locally and via the internet.

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Article and photos by: Ed Witkin

Edited by: Eric Fitch

Cole Anderson graduated from Appalachian State University in the spring of 2014, and following his graduation, joined students from ASU and volunteers from USI on a trip to Nicaragua to work on solar projects in communities there. He specifically worked in San Ramón and helped install solar panels on a local art center and community center. He now works as a project manager for Yes! Solar Solutions. This interview is edited for brevity.

USI: What made you decide to go to Nicaragua?

Cole Anderson: I was ready to do a little bit of traveling. I actually did get a couple of credits out of it as well. Most of it was that I had a lot of professors who I was involved with and they were telling me about it and it seemed like a pretty cool opportunity. I actually majored in renewables, so that seemed like a good way to get some real-world experience doing some installation stuff while also getting to do some traveling.

USI: What was the most memorable part of the trip for you?

Anderson: The first week we were there we stayed at a place called Finka Esperanza Verde. We worked on some projects while we were there but it was memorable because it was my first hands-on experience to get to do some solar stuff and micro-hydro outside of the classroom, and actually see how it was benefitting this eco-lodge. This place was completely off the grid and run by renewables and had a battery system. It was neat to see an actual eco-lodge that was running 100 percent off of renewable energy.

USI: Did you witness specific ways that the projects you were working on benefitted the community there?

Anderson: Yes, especially in San Ramón The night right before we were leaving we were coming back from a hike or dinner, and we actually walked by the community center and saw that the lights were on and there were a bunch of kids in there reading and playing board games and stuff like that. It was pretty neat to see that just a few days ago no one would have been able to be in there—there was no electricity in that building. So it was pretty neat to see that turn-around time and see how it was impacting them right then and there.

USI: Did this experience help propel you into the solar industry at all?

Anderson: We don’t necessarily get to see the impact [solar] makes in individuals’ lives, because a lot of it is about reducing your energy bill and making your life a little bit easier so that you still have all these commodities available to you. That’s great, but the big thing that stuck out to me [in Nicaragua] was that you saw these people’s lives are completely changed just because they now have access to power, in places where they otherwise might not. That alone reassured me that if I get into doing this stuff I’m not able to do projects like this all the time, but if once a year I could come back over here or figure out a way to do stuff like this and actually see it and make a solid difference in people’s lives, then that’s exactly what I want to do.

We really take it for granted. Here you get so used to pitching to people and trying to convince them why they should spend money and put this thing on their roof and to reduce their bills. And there are tons of benefits, even if you’re not necessarily a green-minded person, but [in Nicaragua] there’s no convincing involved—you’re allowing people to harness the sun to improve their lives.

Article by: Lydia Odom

Seeing a lot of people show up to support the great cause of USI’s Lug-a-Jug event on an early Saturday morning was a pleasant surprise, it showed that a lot of people care.

I believe that making people empathize is one of the most effective ways to raising awareness on issues like this. Here’s the main reason I was very pleased with the event format and USI’s mission overall: At some point down the road, I want to work at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya because I can be more effective and practical once I’m on the grounds where I would closely observe the culture and see what people are actually going through. Similarly, USI is represented in various locations in Africa and the Lug-a-Jug event was a great way to convey the message of what they’ve been facing & how we as current residents of the Triangle Area, could help provide what the people really need. For some, it’d be easy to just donate the $20 and not even show up to the event, but seeing how much it takes out of you to walk the 3K with empty 5-gallon jugs and making your way back with that precious water makes you appreciate something you take for granted every single day. That mindset is the difference-maker in making people volunteer & donate more down the road, and spread the word.

A lot of people, including myself, were exhausted by the end of the event and one thing should be clear: even though the solar panels are a great start & will indeed make people’s life easier in Africa, it still isn’t the solution. Not having to manually pump water from wells is going to save time and energy but they still have to walk long distances to have access to the most basic need of mankind. Thus, we need to keep spreading the word and get to work. 319 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to reliable drinking water sources[1] and even 620 million people live without electricity[2]. For people who want to get involved to any extent, there are a lot of opportunities to volunteer, donate or invest.

I want to thank USI for their efforts in such an important cause. Let’s aim even higher!

Article by: Serkan Erdem

[1] https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/water_stats

[2] http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/africafocus/

United Solar Initiative has recently committed to donate a 13.3 kw solar array for the Hospitality House in Boone, N.C. This is the largest system USI has plans to install to date.

Zach Sprau, a graduate student at Appalachian State University and project manager for USI, led the initial efforts for this installation with Jack Schaufler, an ASU graduate and USI board member.

Earlier in 2016, Schaufler mentioned to Sprau that USI was seeking to do more local projects, especially in the Boone area. Sprau’s long-time friend Jordan Duke is the facilities manager at the Hospitality House, so he approached Duke about the possibility of installing solar on the shelter. Duke was interested, and soon after he initially met with Sprau and Schaufler, USI conducted a basic site assessment with help from Collaborative Solar’s president Landon Pennington. After Schaufler graduated, he began working for Strata Solar in Chapel Hill, N.C. and Sprau has been managing the project since August 2016.

Sprau has continued to form a relationship between USI and Collaborative Solar throughout the process of the project. He hopes the installation will be completed sometime in the spring of 2017, but no specific dates have been set.

Pennington will teach a class on photovoltaics in the spring at ASU and his students will help install the system. This will not only give the students hands-on experience with solar installations, but it will reduce labor costs for USI and the Hospitality House and help to strengthen ties between all the organizations involved.

The Hospitality House is a transitional living facility staffed by 20 individuals who work to house and assist people struggling with homelessness in Boone. They have 8 beds for women and 16 beds for men in their emergency shelter, 29 beds for transitional and family housing, as well as rooms for permanent supportive housing. During the winter they expand and can accommodate up to 94 people, and try to avoid turning anyone away by setting up additional cots, if needed.

Duke emphasizes the importance of helping individuals pursue independence through the Hospitality House’s programs. Clients meet with social workers during the week so they can be assisted with a variety of needs.

“We’ve got to work with people where they are,” Duke said.

“Housing First” is the primary principle that staff at the Hospitality House believe in. Through meeting the need of adequate housing first, clients are better equipped to accomplish long-term goals, such as finding a stable job or moving into their own home. The “housing first” mentality contributes to the 70-75 percent success rate that the emergency shelter sees with its clients.

Duke is a proponent of renewable energy and thinks installing solar will help demonstrate to the Boone community that the Hospitality House is making an effort to be environmentally sustainable. The Hospitality House will cover a portion of the installation costs, but the solar panels will help during peak load hours and reduce the shelter’s energy bill to its utility provider.

The system USI installs will generate over $1920 in annual savings, which will allow the Hospitality House to provide more services for its clients. Duke said money generated from utility savings will go toward housing application fees, birth certificate fees, toiletries, or other financial or tangible needs the clients face.

USI is excited to partner with Collaborative Solar, ASU, and the Hospitality House for this project.

“This project is a great opportunity to put USI’s mission into practice by partnering with non-profits, the university, the solar industry, and local business to benefit those in need in the high country,” Sprau said.

This photo shows where part of the new solar array will be installed. The existing solar panels are part of the Hospitality House's solar thermal system.

This photo shows where part of the new solar array will be installed. The existing solar panels are part of the Hospitality House’s solar thermal system.

Article and photo by: Lydia Odom

For the majority of Americans, living entirely without access to electricity is a thought that almost never comes to mind. In a country where livelihoods revolve around the energy grid, going without access to devices as simple as light bulbs seems unfathomable. But for 1.2 billion people on Earth, access to energy is not an option. When the sun goes down, people are forced to either stop their activities for the day or resort to dangerous alternatives to energy, such as kerosene lanterns or open flames.

Alex Wilhelm, a senior business major at UNC-Chapel Hill, recognized this problem and decided it was time to make a change. Ed Witkin, a member of Strata Solar LLC, heard about Wilhelm’s idea and connected him with Steven Thomsen, who also worked for Strata. The three men, realizing their shared visions, founded United Solar Initiative.

In May 2014, USI confronted energy poverty head-on when it launched its pilot project in the region of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. USI installed panels on an art center and community center in a town called San Ramón, Nicaragua. The solar panels benefit the students and the adults of the community because it allows for meetings and education to take place outside of typical daylight hours.

In December 2014, Thomsen and USI Project Development Coordinator Charlie Egan helped install solar panels on two schools in a mountainous region outside of San Ramón. The schools, Mina Verde 2 and San Antonio de Upa, received panels so that community members could use the building at night, similar to the first project.

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Don Nelson Soza, a member of the community outside of Managua, realized the full benefits of the solar system.

“This system has a good impact for us,” he said. “Now, we have meetings at nights. …This building is a very important community center in this city.”

Wilhelm said one of the goals of the solar panels is to enable adults to take classes at night because they are not afforded the chance to do so during the day.

“They’re always working during the day and don’t have the opportunity to learn like their children do,” Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm was drawn to Nicaragua because of a connection in Durham, North Carolina. Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua, a nonprofit that focuses on developing education projects, partnered with USI for its first project. SCSRN built the schools that received solar panels from USI.

In addition to its partnership with SCSRN, USI partnered with a solar company based in Nicaragua called Suni Solar. Suni Solar installed the panels, while USI oversaw the process from start to finish. The partnership with Suni Solar is integral to USI’s mission of uniting the solar industry and addressing global issues of energy poverty. USI also has local partners that make its work possible. Strata Solar LLC and Schletter Inc. donated money and materials to USI for the projects in Nicaragua.

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The solar panel systems are designed to be sustainable and long-lasting. Each system should last 25 years and the batteries have to be replaced every five years. Also, each system produces enough energy to power 16 LED light bulbs, which sufficiently provides light for the schools. Wilhelm is proud of the work USI accomplished in the two communities in Nicaragua.

“I think we can do more in a developing country with one solar panel than we can in the U.S., and I think that’s pretty special,” he said.

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Whereas a couple of solar panels in the U.S. would not be able to generate enough power for one family, 300 watts of power can sustain an entire community in Nicaragua.

“When we installed solar in the first  two communities, it was like an entire event, everyone was involved,” Wilhelm said. “I think the communities really understand how big of an impact these panels can have.”

He admitted that he was initially worried about how successful the panels would be. He knew that security could potentially be an issue, and was concerned that the panels would be taken shortly after being installed. However, to his excitement, Wilhelm’s expectations were incorrect.

“One of our concerns was theft,” he said, “but the community members understood that this material was so valuable to them that they protected it themselves.”

Wilhelm and other members of USI continue to follow up with the communities in Nicaragua on a quarterly basis. They ensure that the panels are functioning properly, and if there are concerns, they let Suni Solar know so they can be addressed. Wilhelm considers the projects in Nicaragua a huge success and is pleased with the difference the panels have made.

“We’re able to apply technology that is picking up in the U.S., but in developing countries, it’s making more of an impact,” he said.

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Written by: Lydia Odom

Rob Pinder, the founder of NextClimate, is determined to take action on climate change through affordable renewable energy. NextClimate is a nonprofit based in North Carolina that helps provide cost-effective renewable energy to homeowners. Pinder has used NextClimate to launch several campaigns called SolarizeNC that have pushed for solar in various communities.

United Solar Initiative: Why solar?

Rob Pinder: Our mission at NextClimate is to help people take action on climate change in ways that strengthen communities. We looked around at different ways to do that, and solar is a powerful way for people to reduce their emissions by a lot. Also, it saves them money. Everything lines up very nicely with solar, for people putting in on their homes. There are other ways to reduce your electricity use and be more efficient, but we have been really excited about our Solarize programs because it makes a big difference that is measurable. 

USI: What drove you to start NextClimate?

Pinder:  I was really drawn to the idea of NextClimate because we’ve learned a ton about climate and there’s obviously a lot more to learn. We know there are challenges to be solved right now and we have the technologies to do it right now, but there’s a gap between people knowing about it and people doing something about it. So, I really wanted to help fill that gap, by making it easier for people to do something. There are a lot of magazines that show “here’s the top 10 green tips you can do,” and it’s like changing lightbulbs. And that’s good, people should change their lightbulbs, but we wanted to make it just as easy to improve your efficiency. I was really drawn to that goal because it seems like climate change is accelerating a lot more rapidly than we thought. So we need to do something now, and I wanted to be part of doing something about it now, instead of studying it and raising an alarm about it.

USI: How are the Solarize programs connected to NextClimate?

Pinder: Solarize is a program that NextClimate runs. The whole idea behind Solarize started in 2009 when a bunch of neighbors got together in Portland, Oregon, and they said, “We don’t know much about solar, and it seems kind of expensive, but I bet if we all got together we could negotiate a better price from our local installer … ” It helps lower the social stigma. If all your neighbors are doing it, then you’re not the weird person with solar on your roof. 

So they brought together the three forces that really made a big impact on the adoption of solar. And the Department of Energy saw what they did and funded a couple other pilot programs in other places, and out of that came a sort of handbook on how to do it in your town. So at the end of 2013, I saw the handbook and thought it was a great idea, and about the same time there were folks in Asheville thinking about the same idea, there were folks in Durham thinking about the same idea, and we started out all working independently, but over time ended up working very closely together and collaborating. Oftentimes, different nonprofits are kind of vying for the same space and they end up butting heads, but it has been really great having different groups with different expertise being able to share what works and what doesn’t, and resources and methods.

USI: Is Solarize a one-time thing, or do you plan to do it again in the future?

Pinder: Originally, we thought about it as just getting the pump primed, and once we got the pump primed the water would be flowing and take off. So we did that and doubled the number of installations in Orange County. But the state tax credit for renewables went away this year, so we’ve been thinking that we probably need to do another push. … So we’re gearing up for another campaign in 2016 and trying to be creative about other kinds of options we can help people with that make up some of that price difference that used to be there with the tax credit. 

USI: Beyond just the benefit of renewable energy, what do you think is the value of the installations NextClimate has done at the schools in Carrboro?

Pinder: The renewable energy aspect is nice, but it’s actually really small — a school uses an enormous amount of power. But I think it really serves two purposes. One is sort of a reminder to the community. Here’s this technology that we have at the school, why doesn’t every school have it? Why doesn’t every house have it? And the second is a learning tool. We spent a lot of effort making sure that the amount of electricity being generated is pushed out onto the Internet, so you can view it on each panel. The one at McDougle is next to the middle school, which is next to the library and the elementary school, so when they have different events people go out and tour it. … The renewable energy part is nice, but I think the goal was to make it accessible for students, and hopefully inspire some of them.

USI: What else have you observed while working in the solar industry?

Pinder: Something that we’ve observed is that most of the people who’ve switched to solar buy it outright — they purchase the whole system upfront. And those people were also able to take advantage of tax credits. So, that tends to be people who have higher income or more savings. We’ve been working a lot on how to make this same opportunity available to people who aren’t in that situation. Lower income groups spend a much bigger chunk of their disposable income on energy, so if we can save those groups ten dollars a month on their electric bill, that’s a much bigger dent. So we’ve been thinking about the next phase and how to find that nexus between making energy more affordable and making energy more renewable. We have a couple programs in different stages of being ready, but they aren’t quite approved and ready to go. But that’s what we’re really excited about going forward, just trying to broaden the access to renewable energy as best we can.

Article: Lydia Odom

Photo: Yee Lam

Jessie Robinson, the co-chair of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee, spoke with USI volunteer Lydia Odom about the recent solar panel installation on the roof of the UNC-CH Student Union. RESPC is a student organization that promotes renewable energy on campus.

United Solar Initiative: How long have you been involved with RESPC?

Jessie Robinson: I joined my freshman year, and I’ve been involved since then. I started out just on projects. … The next year, I was assigned a project to lead, and the year after I was leading several. And now, I’m a co-chair.

USI: Who or what organizations were key in making the solar panels on the Student Union happen?

Robinson: It was a big effort of those in RESPC and our advisors. The project came to us in the spring of 2013 and it just got finished, so we’ve had three cycles of co-chairs working on that project. … A lot of different parties have been working on it, along with members of the club and our advisors helping us get the logistics together.

We had done the solar thermal project on Morrison dorm, but that was in 2005. So we hadn’t done this in a while, and we weren’t at school when the last project happened. We kind of just figured stuff out as we went.

USI: What does it feel like now that it’s complete?

Robinson: It’s super cool. It just dawns on me sometimes, like, “Oh my gosh, we put panels on the Union!” And now we’re all super hype about getting more solar projects out there, like the one for the Friday Center we’re working on, and we have another one in the very beginning stages that we’re going to try to make happen. It’s an exciting time.

USI: Do you think students know that there are panels on the roof now? How do you plan on making people aware of that?

Robinson: I definitely think more know now than did. I think the ribbon-cutting ceremony really helped, and especially with it in the environmental newsletter and sending out press releases. I think people in the environmental community of UNC know that it’s there, and the hope is that the live feed in the Union showing the energy consumption of the solar panels will bring awareness to it also. 

We do our best for any project to let students know what’s going on and who RESPC is, because most people haven’t heard of us. It’s a constant struggle to get the word out there, I mean everyone is trying to promo what they’re really passionate about, which is totally fair. But we’re like, “I don’t have time to think about that, I’m passionate about this.” But the ribbon-cutting was pretty neat because we haven’t done that for any other project, I don’t think. That helped increase awareness. And the live feed is going to be awesome. 

USI: What’s your vision for the future projects RESPC will do?

Robinson: The Friday Center is replacing its roof, which is the perfect time to do solar projects because roofs may not be able to handle the weight of solar panels if we put them on an existing roof. Or, if the roof is going to be replaced in a couple of years, the solar panels would have to be taken off. So it’s a great opportunity to do the solar project, and it’s awesome that it’s happening.

USI: What do solar and sustainability mean for UNC?

Robinson: UNC has a carbon zero plan for 2050 and RESPC is helping us move toward that, but we alone will not make that happen. The hope is that RESPC can educate people about what renewable energy is and the importance of it. I think you hear so many conflicting ideas about it in the news, with all the politics and stuff, but we want to show students that, “This is what it looks like, and this is how it’s helping UNC, and this is why it’s important.” Because we’re reducing our energy consumption, which is not only saving the University money and you money, but it is also reducing emissions and the reliance on a non-renewable fuel source.

So, I guess that’s the energy education aspect of RESPC, which is one of our mandates: renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy education. That’s a huge thing we consider when we do projects, which is why we have the live feed out there and the ribbon-cutting ceremony. We do whatever we can to show students that this is what is happening.

Article and photo by: Lydia Odom