Water for Haiti

A few days ago I hightailed it up to Springport Elementary to see a talk given by two sisters who are about two weeks into a 10 state horseback trip to Texas. Brandy and Ashley Nelsey are aiming to raise $15,000 to purchase three wells for church's in Haiti. It's a pretty cool project for a really deserving cause. If anyone wants more information on them: www.horsebackforhaiti.jimdo.com.

Jackson in the Mist

From a feature hunt this morning.

Thanks for looking.

the most alluring popcorn of alltime

Someone Else's Work

Some little children hate the camera. Then again, some of the just love it.

Oh Hi September

I snagged this frame about a month ago while on a NASCAR assignment. I was in a boat being shuttled around Wampler's Lake during a charity bass fishing tournament when a boat carrying this woman and an absurd amount of dogs (there are two or three more on board than what you can see) cruised by.

I have no idea what was going on but I am so glad I had my camera.

Thanks for looking.

Tax Foreclosure, Part IV The Move Out

After months of uncertainty the time finally came for Annie to move out. Members of her family came from all over town to help. Sisters, brothers, sons, grand children and great-grand children carried boxes and appliances out of her dilapidated house.

Annie eventually went to stay with one of her sisters a few streets over. We've since lost contact with her, but I'm hopeful we'll be able to reconnect.

This project is ongoing, so I'm anticipating covering the next county auction in September, as well as tax forbearance hearings in court in January. The truth is, it's a problem without any easy solutions, just another situation in a cycle of poverty claiming more and more once-middle-class people. Annie worked all her life. She raised four boys on her own and helped raise two more generations of her family after that. She didn't have much money, but when someone would drop their kids off without notice she'd feed and care for them.

Tax foreclosure is something I hadn't heard of before April, but it's an issue continuing to plague our community even as it flies under the radar.

Tax Foreclosure, Part III Introducing Annie

I met Annie while Holly (the reporter) and I were making the rounds with Karen to check on the tax foreclosed properties in early April. We followed up with her over the next few months as she went back and forth about what to do.

Annie's story seemed to be pretty typical for tax foreclosures.

Three generations of her family had lived at the house, and she had let her children, grand children and great-grand children stay for months at a time without helping to pay rent, utilities or for their own food. When the bills piled up, she didn't tell many people in her family. Those she did tell generally played down the issue. So flash forward three years and her home was taken by the county for back taxes on April 1.

Despite the several notices posted by the county on her door and a personal visit from Karen, Annie was still unsure whether or not she would need to leave her house.

In late July, the county's process server finally came to evict her. Annie and her family pleaded for more time to move out of the house and were granted almost a week's reprieve. Still, when the locks were finally changed many of the possessions she had lived a life time with remained behind.

Tax Foreclosure Interlude

Had a spot of rather fun weather tonight. It rolled in while I was shooting a slow pitch softball tournament and then proceeded to dump buckets of rain on us.

I finally was able to shoot some lightening. On a side note, I am pretty much the worst storm chaser ever, as Libby March can attest. However, in the immortal words of Mr. Nick Dentamaro, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes Katie."

Thanks for looking.