Big Meaning

     Most weekends on the lake are spent enjoying the sunlight and the water, but every year on the weekend of September 15 th and 16 th the Birmingham Sailing Club goes above and beyond. This year eighteen boats lined up at the starting line to compete in the Club’s 30 th anniversary annual race for leukemia. The Leukemia cup is the Club’s biggest event of the year, and the goal is to raise money for the leukemia Lymphoma Society, or the LLS. “This lake was the start of this event,” says LLS Campaign head Julie Moon. She has been the head of this event, at the BSC, for the past couple years. Julie was assisted by a woman who, herself, had survived leukemia. Kate Siqueira is a two-time cancer survivor who graduated from Jacksonville State University and now assists with charity campaigns, working for the LLS.      Events like this are now held nationwide, at various other sailing clubs. This is all thanks to the Leukemia Lymphoma...

     There are few people who get both the marketing and craftsman side of making a living off of a persons own art. Allen is one of these people. Like many Craftsman he knows his art has value, and takes pride in every board he shapes and sells, putting his all into every piece he makes. These are not just average surf boards, they are works of art that people can use for the rest of their lives. Allen pours his soul into his boards and there are not a lot of places better to do it that the quiet little surfing town of Cocoa Beach. I had a great visit there, and hopefully many more to come. Next time I'm down there I think I'll stop back by and see how the man who carves waves is doing. Thanks Allen! Allen on the left, me on the right.

      As soon as the ancient Polynesians hopped on to pieces of driftwood and rode them into shore, man became fascinated with the art of surfing. Not long after that they started carving that wood, and later numerous other mediums, into something that could tame those waves. Humans began to explore the spiritual connection they have to the waves. Thousands of cultures, including that of the native Hawaiians, even based much of their deeply ingrained cosmology on surfing. As time went on man mastered the creation of those things we call surf boards. It has been many decades since those past Hawaiians passed that trade onto the rest of the world, and the world has taken the hobby by storm. Today there are over twenty-three million people who consider themselves avid surfers, and many more boards that are being sold every year. Surfing has become a major industry and has spread far from those sandy Hawaiian shores to the farthest reaches of the earth, inc...

     Sand Mountain Shooters Club showed me a great time and I learned so much that its impossible to accurately write the feelings after one of these adventures. Dan and his family take great pride in their work and a great deal of interest in their community. It seems now that's a word lost to today. The value of community and working for one another without expectation of what is necessarily in it for one's self. There seems to be a multitude of political movements that mask themselves as community. Another thing seemingly lost is a true family business, and with it the value of family. those values are still alive out in Boaz, Alabama, and you can find them at Sand Mountain Shooters Club. Dan on the right, me on the left.

     There certainly is something to be said of the unassuming; the people whom you would never expect something from, and there are few who personify this more than a Chicago born Italian named Dan Cooper. Standing just over 5’3’’ with a lazy eye and in his 70s, Dan appears of humble stature but lives a life on many fronts. Through his worn hands one can see that Dan is, at heart a true craftsman, and a master in his trade.      In 1966 Dan was drafted into the military and was to go to Vietnam. He wanted to go but says that God had other plans. Because of his eye he was sent home, much to his dissatisfaction. His father had been in the military, and he was eager to serve his country. Dan found another life in construction, and anything he could do with his hands, and though he never went into the military he followed his passion of guns and gunwork. He and his family moved from Chicago in 1975, to Boaz, Alabama to escape from the crim...

     Last night, at around 8:45 pm, Jacksonville State University, and the surrounding apartments, and houses, were hit by a massive tornado. Ranging at least an F3, possibly an F4 on the Fujita scale, many were lucky to survive. As of yet, only two major injuries, and no deaths, have been reported and confirmed. The devastation started near the Jacksonville Dollar General, north west of the campus, and ended among the houses to the north east of the campus. At the moment the scale of the total damage is still yet unknown, as brave men and women, both city employees and volunteers, search among the wreckage.      Buildings effected include: Numerous homes sustaining a wide variety of damage. Apartments “Gamecock Village” and “The Reserve” sustaining some of the heaviest damage, being declared unsafe to enter by former residents. One Jacksonville City police officer who was on scene late last night described how he assisted personally wit...