Shopper Blog: The Maker City Summit: safe space, creative protocols

NORTH KNOXVILLE

The Maker City Summit: safe space, creative protocols

Carol Z. Shane, Shopper News

Like everyone else, the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center — umbrella organization for The Maker City — has faced its share of pandemic challenges. Its annual Maker City Summit — intended as a gathering of all of Knoxville’s makers under one roof — was all-virtual last year through the online platform Lunchpool, founded by Rocky Hill resident Alex Abell.

The sixth annual Maker City Summit begins next week and will be live, with COVID protocols in place during the event, and access to comprehensive recordings afterward.

Under “Summit Safety Measures and Guidelines” on themakercity.com, you’ll find the usual precautions — decreased capacity, masks, plenty of hand sanitizing stations, individually wrapped lunches.

But The Maker City Summit is traditionally heavy on networking, and the presenters still want to support that option.

So, being the creative types they are, they’ve come up with a system.

“At registration we will provide attendees with a green, yellow or red name tag to indicate to others their comfort level during networking times. Attendees who choose a green name tag are open to personal contact without distance considerations; attendees who choose yellow are open to conversation at a polite distance; attendees who choose red ask that you not approach them.”

Does anyone else think this might be a good system to have in place generally, even if you’re not at The Maker City Summit? Just kidding.

After a week of small, pre-registered, in-person workshops with experts in marketing, sales channels, photography; workshop planning and presentation; legal compliance and accounting, the main Summit happens at Jackson Terminal on Sunday, Sept. 19, beginning with a welcome from Mayor Indya Kincannon at 9:15 a.m.

Featured will be three keynote speakers who have taken the entrepreneurial bull by the horns and created their own path in life.

Shannon Downey, founder of badasscrossstitch.com, uses her sewing and needle skills to build community, spread messages of empowerment, and create beautiful art.

She’s been featured on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “CBS Nightly News,” is a popular podcaster and published author. In early 2020, she sold everything she owned, bought an RV, and hit the road in order to spread her art, passion and singular mission as a “craftivist.” She’ll inspire attendees with “Create and Contribute.”

Knoxvillian Kandis Troutman is the founder and chief consulting officer of “The Creative Architect.” She’ll help Makers to distinguish between their talents and their gifts, and build a purpose-centered business from the inside out with “Process to Prosper, Business Growth Strategies.”  

Kiran Singh Sirah is president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Born in England to a family of Ugandan refugees — all born in different countries themselves — he grew up listening to stories from many cultures. He will offer “Storytelling: A Radical Gift of Hope.”

Each speaker will offer post-talk Q&A sessions.

For more info, visit themakercity.org/summit.

KARNS

Six Karns teachers receive $500 grants

Nancy Anderson, Shopper News

Principal Brad Corum put smiles on the faces of six teachers at Karns High School with $500 grants to each, sponsored by Grayson Motors.

“It all started in 2019 with our Principal for a Day Program when Grayson Auto Group Marketing Coordinator Dan Moyers came out for the day. He said he enjoyed his experience and wanted to partner with the school through the Subaru Loves Learning Partnership," Corum said.

“I couldn’t be more pleased that he thought of us. It’s always a good thing to partner with the community and it helps us out tremendously.”

Subaru Loves Learning is a partnership with AdoptAClassroom.org. Subaru helps supply classrooms across the country with the supplies necessary to ensure success for students nationwide.

Corum put together an administrative team to choose six teachers. They looked at teachers who had been considered for teacher of the year, teachers in health science and STEM, and those whose classrooms were in particular need.

Teachers BJ Arvin, Bethany Burnette, Misty Crowley, Jacob Neblett, Bobby O’Dell and Meredith Rogers were presented with certificates at the first faculty meeting of the academic year amid cheers from their peers.

All the teachers said they were thrilled to accept the grant and plan to put it to good use in the classroom.

Neblett, a Culinary Arts teacher, was especially pleased to receive the grant. He said his program is in constant need of resources.

“We go through food and equipment like nobody’s business. It’s a constant struggle to keep the program supplied. I’m very thankful.”

Info: www.knoxschools.org/karnshs

NORTH KNOXVILLE

East Knox arborist's nonprofit works the way nature intended

Carol Z. Shane, Shopper News

When it comes to “all creatures great and small,” East Knoxville resident Elizabeth Hamilton can tell you a lot about the latter and how important they are.

Hamilton is an expert on microbes — infinitesimal organisms that can’t be seen with the naked eye — specifically as they relate to plants and plant health.

Since 2018 she has run Better Nature Solutions LLC, currently a 501(c)3 nonprofit “in the making.” With an impressive CV featuring multiple degrees and postdoctoral studies, Hamilton is certified as an arborist by the International Society of Arboriculture and was a visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, where she was on a team that developed a patent for reducing agricultural climate impact through microbes.

When she talks about these tiny beneficial creatures, it’s as if she’s talking about friends.

“You have a team, and you can select the members of your team based on their expertise. So we selected members that can ‘play with everyone.’ There’s one microbe able to increase antioxidants — just as in humans, that creates a stronger immune system.

 “Another is able to tolerate drought; another can take up nitrogen, so you don’t need to add as much fertilizer. The tree or plant is more resistant to bugs and pests, it costs less to farm, and because you’re not using pesticides or fertilizers you’re not emitting greenhouse gases. It’s cheaper for the farmer, homeowner, gardener and landscaper, and better for the world. And really important in developing countries.” 

Jim Richards, the executive director of the Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum, has relied upon Hamilton’s expertise many times.

“She did some work on the redbuds and made some recommendations on helping us with a chestnut that we had on the property. And she helped us out a couple of years ago, pruning and getting our boxwoods under control. She’s super knowledgeable.”

With fall coming on, Hamilton says trees are particularly deserving of attention. “Fall is actually the best time to prune your deciduous trees,” says Hamilton. “Pruning them at any other times will expose them to disease.”

She’s very happy to see more native pollinator gardens popping up around town, and says that fall is also a perfect time to get one in place. And if you’re skeptical that you can make a difference, Hamilton says, consider butterflies.

“The Fourth and Gill neighborhood has all shifted to pollinator habitats. Now migrating butterflies have a nice way station that they can stop at that’s safe, where they can get food.

“But once they fly out of that, they’re in the desert again, and they’ve got to cross it, along with traffic, to get to another place for food. If we had more streets and yards landscaped with dedicated native plant patches, then migrating butterflies would have more way stations.”

She’d love to see a local native pollinator garden contest like the one she saw recently while on a consult in Baltimore.

“We have one of the most diverse floras in the world and we don’t celebrate it. People want to move here because it’s so beautiful. So I think through the yards we can start to make a little bit of difference and celebrate what we have.”

Check out betternature.solutions.

FARRAGUT

After 10 years in the movies, FHS alum just getting started

Holly Gary, Shopper News

Farragut grad Linds Edwards had a breakthrough at age 15: He realized he could make a living by playing pretend.

Make-believe was “my favorite thing as a kid,” he says. “Movies were always like this mythical thing to me.”

After watching “Fight Club” as a teenager, he had his epiphany: “I want to be in movies like this. I want to play those characters, be them just for a little while… I was like golly, I could have the funnest life in the world by making movies.”

That’s what he’s done for the past 10 years. Now he’s making the jump from actor to producer, a long-term goal of his. His co-producer? His wife, Ashley Shelton, a Bearden grad. Though they’re both from Knoxville, they met on a movie set. Now they’re working together on “Best Clowns.”

“It’s about a clown competition,” Edwards explains. “It’s shot in the format of a mocumentary, like ‘The Office.’” He emphasizes that it’s not a scary movie: “We’re trying to make clowns cool again.”

They filmed in Knoxville, including at Sir Goony’s in Farragut. Edwards says his wife was

adamant about shooting here, and he agreed. “I want to make a movie, but I want to be able to go home. I love Tennessee. I think this is the greatest state in the country.”

They pulled in friends to work on the project with them: Independent Spirit award-winning producer Summer Shelton, and Clayne Crawford, Edwards’s costar on the shows “Lethal Weapon" and “Rectify.” Thomas Lennon and Robyn Lively are also in the movie.

He says that “wrangling egos” and “maintaining everybody’s sanity” were the difficult parts of the process, but that overall it’s been rewarding.

“To finally have my own stake, my own horse in the race, is very thrilling,” he says. “To make your own movie with your best friend, it’s a gratification you can only have doing it.”

They hope to take the film to national festivals and to release it either in theaters or on a

streaming service.

Over the past 10 years, he’s had a lot of memorable experiences as an actor. Driving a

Lamborghini around Los Angeles on “Lethal Weapon” was a highlight. He remembers asking himself, “In what other life or profession would I get to drive this in Echo Park?”

For a role in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2,” “I got to put a gun to Jennifer

Lawrence’s throat,” he recalls. “We were in Hitler’s airport in Germany” (Tempelhof in Berlin).

“The history behind that, when you’re filming ‘Hunger Games,’ you’re like, this is awesome.”

Before all that, in his first feature film, “Get Low,” he had a scene with Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. When they’d finished the scene, Murray told him, “You’re good, kid, you can stick around.” Edwards replied, “I’m gonna go home and write that on a wall: Bill Murray said I can stay.”

Having also worked with Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and other stars, Edwards admits that he does name-drop a little, but, “I’ll celebrate anybody that enjoys what they’re doing.”

HALLS

Sand collected from 90 beaches helps avid beach goer get through the winter

Ali James, Shopper News

Joanne Gilpin recently had her unique collection of sand and beach mementos on display at the Fountain City Library.

“I was born and raised in New York City, so we didn’t need a family car,” said Gilpin.

“When I was younger we went all of the time to Coney Island. In my earliest beach memory there would be 20 people, going on the subway train with coolers and singing camp songs with cousins. It was an expedition.”

Gilpin spent her teenage years visiting Rockaway, Jones Beach, Long Island and the Jersey Shore.

Years later, Gilpin found herself far, far away from the beach when her husband’s job transferred them to Clarksville. “I would make arrangements to go home in the summertime and spend time at the beach,” she said. “I did a lot of traveling with my two older sisters and a brother. In the mid-'90s, when our kids were grown we would book ‘Sibling Sabbaticals’ and no spouses were allowed.”

When the siblings started going to the Caribbean and Mexico, Gilpin decided to start ‘squirrelling’ away a bit of sand on each trip.

Gilpin estimates she has visited 90 or so beaches, but surprisingly she has never been to Hawaii. And the Irish sand is perhaps one of her more unexpected additions to the collection.

The vast sand collection in various antique bottles and jars is artfully displayed in the guest bedroom.

Fountain City Library likes to feature unique collections and displayed just a sampling of what Gilpin had for the month of August.

In 2000, Gilpin collected sand from Bondi Beach during the Sydney Olympics. “We won the trip from using my Visa card. You were automatically entered into the sweepstakes and I got a notification,” she laughed. “I thought sure, then I investigated it.”

Gilpin went with her daughter. Visa gave the group jackets and totes to wear and tickets to whatever events they wanted to watch. Gilpin seized the opportunity to see the beach volleyball and collect some more sand.

“I even tried to be retroactive about collecting sand from the places I have been,” she said. “I never collect sand from a beach I haven’t been to, but if I knew someone was going to Jamaica for instance, and I didn’t get any sand I would ask them to bring me some. I used to get a sandwich bag full, but you don’t need that much.”

“I wanted to have sand from Rockaway Beach in New York, so when Facebook started up, I found someone who lived there and wrote to them saying I know this is a little crazy, but…” she said. “He did send me sand and took a picture of where he got it from.”

Gilpin, who is a retired florist, likes to display her sand collection in glass bottles of various shapes and sizes, as well as beach-themed books.

Beach badges have long been purchased and worn for access to the beach in New Jersey.

“When my Dad passed, amongst his things was a tag for the Atlantic City beach, and I have a little frame of badges,” said Gilpin. “I do have a lot of mementos and too many shells. I put it in one room so it’s not all over the house. It gets me through the winter to see it all and think about it.”

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KARNS

Karns Lions luau makes a splash at renovated pool

Nancy Anderson, Shopper News

More than 100 guests, dressed in colorful Hawaiian shirts, attended a fundraiser luau sponsored by the Karns Lions Club to benefit the pool Saturday, Aug. 28. The delicious aroma of BBQ pulled pork and BBQ chicken prepared by Lions Tony and Karen Gross filled the air. 

Tony smoked 10 full birds and six pork butts, while Karen prepared a multitude of side dishes such as her famous macaroni and cheese and rice pilaf.

Silent auction items including tickets to MagiQuest in Pigeon Forge, various gift baskets, and tickets to Ripley’s of the Smokies and Smokies Baseball.

The luau was planned after the success of a Low Country shrimp boil earlier in the summer. The luau was not only a fundraiser, but an opportunity to show off the now pristine pool.

“It’s been years since we’ve done a luau,” said Karns Lions Club President Scott Gross. “We wanted to have it here poolside so everyone can see what great shape the pool is in now that the extensive repairs have been done.”

Gross said the luau would probably not become an annual tradition as the shrimp boil has because the luau is so much more work.

“We had a good time pulling it together, but it really is a lot of work. Much more than the shrimp boil. This is a special event. We’ll have another one for sure, but not every year.

“I’m tickled to see everyone here and I’m tickled to see water in the pool, to be honest.”

The pool has been a major source of family fun in the Karns area since 1969, but it could not be opened in 2020 or 2021 not only due to the pandemic, but because it was in a state of extreme disrepair.

Lions Club members found it would cost $100,000 to repair the Olympic size pool.

Once the renovations began, the price went to $165,000.

With the help of a grant from Knox County, Karns Lions Club was able to raise all but $50,000.

“We’ll be receiving a grant from Knox County sometime this week and we’re grateful because we exhausted our savings,” Gross said. “Money that should go for eyeglasses and other things went to the pool, so we need to put that money back.

“We’re very grateful to the Karns Community Club, too, for the generous donation they gave. Now, we need for the community to step forward and help us out. If everyone that loves the pool would donate just $10 we’d be where we need to be.

“The pool is an absolute landmark of the community,” Gross said.

“We sold corporate sponsorships for $500 and we’re thankful for them. Many Karns community businesses have come forward to help us out.”

Classic Pools and Spas oversaw renovations, including having the paint and tile removed, sandblasting, grinding, new paint and tile, handicap ramp repair, steps repair, concrete repair, diving board repair, lifeguard station repair, pump and filter maintenance.  

“We wanted to be open this season, but we just couldn’t pull it off,” Gross said. “We’ll be back next season, though, and I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised.”

Donations can be made via PayPal: KarnsLionsClub1954@gmail.com, through a GoFundMe at: gf.me/u/zhpdi7, mail a check to Karns Lions Club P.O. BOX 7251 Knoxville, TN 37921, or you can contact the club on Facebook about a sponsorship banner.

OPINION

Sisters again share the small stuff

Leslie Snow, Shopper News

I’ve always been close to my oldest sister, Shelley. When I was little and afraid of thunderstorms or monsters, I would crawl into her twin bed to snuggle with her until daybreak.

She told me the trees around the house would protect me. She told me my sister Laurie wouldn’t always pick on me, and that my dad and I would learn to get along.

She comforted me when I struggled in math and when I was teased on the bus. She let me watch TV with her and her high-school boyfriend, Dale, and she let me tag along when her friends came over. I remember watching her put on makeup before a date and thinking everything about her was grownup and glamorous.

I always wanted to be with her, and most days, she was OK with that.

When I got older, Shelley became less of a caretaker and more of a friend. She was my fishing partner and my vacation buddy. And when I met a boy and fell in love, he had to win, not only my parents’ approval, but my sisters’ approval too. He had to pass the Shelley test before I could marry him, and he did.

As adults, we never lived in the same city. The last time we shared an address we were just kids.

Shelley left for college when I was only 11 years old, and she never came back after that. We kept our relationship strong through occasional visits and weekly phone calls.

Those calls became a detailed recounting of our lives and activities. We’d take turns summarizing the worries and successes of each of our children then move on to our spouses.

“How’s Ethan,” she’d ask, and I’d tell her. “How’s Molly?” I’d want to know. And when we finished with our families, we would talk about ourselves and how we were coping with one problem or another.

We did our best, but we became big-picture friends. There was too much to say and too little time to share the small details of our lives. I knew what Shelley was thinking and feeling about the things that mattered most, but her day-to-day life was a mystery to me.

A few weeks ago, when Shelley and family moved to Knoxville, all that changed. I got to introduce her to my world and show her the small pieces of my daily life.

I showed her the abundance of shopping on Kingston Pike and the wonders of Turkey Creek. “This is where I grocery shop,” I said, pointing out the window. “This is my bank, that’s where I take Buttercup to the vet, here is my post office, there is my bakery.”

She laughed at my tour and smiled at the two of us being together again.

I talk to Shelley all the time now. Somehow, having her in the same city has made daily phone calls seem necessary and normal.

I want to know all the little things I missed when we lived in separate cities. I want to know how long it takes her to get to work, who she talks to, and if she likes her neighbors. I want to know if the plumber came late or if her hibiscus finally bloomed.

Shelley and I have moved beyond the big picture. We drive the same roads now and know the same people. We don’t need the full summation of our children’s activities or long weekly updates. After 45 years, my sister and I are small-picture friends once again.

Leslie Snow may be reached at snow column@aol.com.

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