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SOCIAL DISTANCING wasn’t a priority at the United Way of the Ocoee Region’s 2019 Day of Action, but these volunteers still gave each other space when working outside. This year’s event will feature fewer in-person opportunities, but organizers are hoping for strong response from “Virtual Volunteers.”

VOLUNTEERS help with a painting project during the United Way of the Ocoee Region’s 2019 Day of Action. In-person teams have been scaled back for this year’s event, due to COVID-19 concerns.

Candice Natola

HISTORY-MAKING U.S. Navy pilot Capt. Rosemary Mariner is shown in this photo. Bradley Central High School student Jessie Henderson chose to feature her in her History Day documentary.

CAPT. ROSEMARY MARINER is shown with her plane in this photo taken in 1991. During Operation Desert Storm, she became the first woman to command an operational naval aviation squadron. She was the subject of Bradley Central High School student Jessie Henderson’s recent documentary.

Capt. Rosemary Mariner

Jessie Henderson

EDITING AT HOME, Jessie Henderson works on her History Day documentary about Capt. Rosemary Mariner, one of the U.S. Navy’s first female pilots.

PERUSING the personal files of Cmdr. Tommy Mariner, Jessie Henderson does research for her History Day documentary about the late Capt. Rosemary Mariner.

JESSIE HENDERSON is shown with her first-place Tennessee History Day medal. She later went on to the National History Day competition, where she won an award. Her documentary about the late Capt. Rosemary Mariner won the Captain Ken Coskey Naval History Special Prize.

DAVE WHITAKER survived a painful encounter with flesh-eating bacteria. This is how one of his legs looked on day two of treatment, before developing festering wounds.