CHATTANOOGA’S

MONDAY / NOVEMBER 2, 2026

GOOD ENERGY. CHATTANOOGA EDITION.

Hillary Rupert · Chattanooga Free Store

ORIGINAL SCOOP ILLUSTRATION

My hope for the Scoop is simple: to spread a little more positivity around Chattanooga and encourage us all to look for the good. If this newsletter helps us feel a tad more positive each week, that’s a win.

This week, I’d love for you to reply with something good you notice. Maybe you catch someone doing a good deed, or spot a small kindness that makes your day. I’m going to try to share something a reader sends in each week.

I’ll get us started: this week, we noticed someone had left quarters in six grocery carts at ALDI. Just $1.50, but six people didn’t have to worry about finding a quarter. A small gesture that could make someone else’s day a little easier.

01 / Good news. Better mood.

Hurst United Methodist Church has received a Change for Children grant to support weekend food for students at Normal Park Elementary. The church is joining Snack Pack, the East Brainerd Church of Christ outreach serving 30 Hamilton County schools. Holston Conference reports that 51 Normal Park students need that weekend support. The award puts new funding behind a practical neighborhood effort: helping children have food when school meals aren’t available.

Read the Holston Conference update →

UTC junior Autumn Reagan earned both the undergraduate pitch prize and the undergraduate People’s Choice Award at the university’s Oct. 21 research competition. Her project explores a wrist brace whose stiffness could change at the push of a button, allowing support without keeping the wrist rigid all day. The mechatronics student is working with Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu in UTC’s Biomechatronic and Assistive Technology Lab. A promising idea, and a well-earned double win.

Meet UTC’s student researchers →

The Tennessee Aquarium is building a $5 million animal hospital inside River Journey, with an opening targeted for June 2027. Expanded surgical, imaging and recovery facilities will help its veterinary team care for animals on site. Partnerships with Chattanooga State and the University of Tennessee’s veterinary college in Knoxville will also give future veterinary technicians and veterinarians hands-on experience with aquatic animals.

See the plans →

Know someone who’d love the Scoop? Use the referral link in your Scoop email — every friend who signs up is one entry to win a $100 gift card to 2nd.

One referral, one entry. Winner drawn every month and announced right here.

02 / MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR

Hillary Rupert first volunteered at the Chattanooga Free Store in February 2024. She was having a hard time seeing the good in the world and wanted a way to do something meaningful. What she found was a group of neighbors whose care for one another keeps bringing her back.

The Free Store offers clothing, food and other supplies at no cost, with no ID required. Hillary, a volunteer and member of its leadership coalition, says every part of the store is run by volunteers. Behind the open doors are evenings spent bundling diapers after work and car trips hauling supplies so families have what they need.

Lately, one of her favorite questions has been asking new shoppers how they heard about the store. The answer, she says, is almost always another person who shops there.

“When people feel welcomed, supported, and cared for, they want to share that resource with others who may need it,” Hillary says.

Some come for extra support. Others come because they want to reduce waste. Hillary wants neighbors to know there’s room for both.

“The Free Store is truly for everyone,” she says.

Learn about the Free Store →

Hillary Rupert. Photo: Chattanooga Free Store.

03 / REAL ESTATE · LISTING OF THE WEEK

1604 S Orchard Knob Ave · $1,500,000

Built from seven steel shipping containers, this Chattanooga home packs 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 2,085 square feet into a design you won’t mistake for the house next door. Take a look inside.

See inside on Redfin →

Provided by Zach Taylor, Chattanooga.

I don’t just write about Chattanooga. I help people find their place in it. Buying, selling, or just kicking around an idea? Let’s talk.

Dan Hicks | Senior Lead Agent | REDFIN
423-605-0773 | TN License #353819

04 / A LOCAL VOICE

by Sharon Smith Shadrick

Working at The Leader Downtown in the 80s (Part One)

The Leader downtown, owned by Herb and Ival Goldstein, sold work clothes in its humble beginnings. Sometime in the 70s, it converted to preppy fashion, becoming the hotspot for back-to-school shopping. I remember buying a body suit and bell bottom pants from there in 1973.

In 1984, I accepted a job at the downtown store as a computer specialist. Bob Miles, Chief Financial Officer, hired me to enter the accounts payable information on an Apple Lisa computer, purchased from Peter Drew, using Great Plains software. I programmed the cash registers as needed.

After a thorough onboarding which included a lie detector test, I showed up as a stranger in the basement office with already bonded co-workers. They were much more sophisticated than I. Initially, I kept to myself, reluctant to join in, feeling the cultural disparity like the country mouse vs. the city mouse. I felt like a dowdy imposter next to their curated styles and worldly knowledge.

It wasn’t until after the grand opening at Nashville’s Belle Meade location that the ice broke. I was required to work the “A Store is Born” event because the cash registers needed attention. I wasn’t required to drink too much champagne during the festivities. The next morning, hung over and queasy, I made my way to the Nashville store, performing the required tasks before heading back to the Chattanooga office. Everyone awaited my return, wondering how it went and eager for gossip. While stopping for gas, I locked my keys in the car. I phoned the office to relay my ordeal, but still made it back in time for everyone to witness my post-party state. It turns out vulnerability is a great ice-breaker.

After that fiasco, I no longer felt like an outsider. I still struggled with putting outfits together, taking cues from my co-workers who would diss an outfit with a look. Eventually, I figured it out, copying trends and styles until I got it right, most of the time anyway.

Sidenote: If you worked at The Leader during the timeframe of 1984-85, I would love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected]. Watch for Part Two next week.

Sharon Smith Shadrick
Co-author of The Power of a Paper Clip and the upcoming poetry chapbook, Housedresses.

05 / A LITTLE IN THE WILD

Good news for gardeners:

On the outskirts of Chattanooga on a mountain on a lake …we can rest in the fact that the snapping turtles will be going under the water to get under the mud at the bottom of the lake to hibernate for the winter; not to worry because they can still breathe. They absorb oxygen from the water through their skin. They have wreaked havoc long enough for this season.

They crawl out of the water when they smell something they want to eat.

In my case it was all my watermelon in the watermelon patch.

We can all hope that they rest well all winter. Until next gardening season.

Sharon Hicks

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Dan Hicks

DAN HICKS | REDFIN CHATTANOOGA | TN LICENSE #353819