DSC_6783 I recently had the opportunity to photograph not just one, but eight teachers, who overcame the challenges that Hurricane Florence brought to the beginning of their school year in September, 2018. They all taught at Jones (County) Middle School, but because the hurricane deemed their school unsafe to occupy, the entire school had to be transitioned to the local high school. Additionally, many of the students, as well as teachers, also lost their homes and many of their belongings. 

One of the teachers - Victoria McDavid-Credle (located on the right end of the front row in this photo) - who was just beginning her career as an educator, knew the students would have much to overcome, and she did not want them to have to also be concerned about obtaining school supplies, so she looked into ways to be able to provide the essentials for them. She found an effort by Duke Energy whereby she could apply for funding to purchase things like notebooks, binder, pencils, dictionaries and the like, so when the kids were finally able to return to school in October, these things would be waiting for them. What a blessing her efforts must have been to those students.

Duke Energy will be spotlighting Ms. McDavid in an upcoming article on their Illumination website. I'm grateful to Duke Energy for sending me out to photograph her and the other teachers so that I too could learn of their passion and drive for their students.