Savannah Kitchens, 16, holds her little sister, Kalyssa Kitchens, 4, during a benefit to help pay for Kalyssa's leukemia treatments held at Inez Community Center March 20, 2016.

Representatives of the Japanese nonprofit Kuentai-USA returns the dog tag of Pfc. Thomas E. Davis to his family in Victoria almost 71 years after the soldier's death. Davis earned one of the nation's highest military honors after surviving the bloody fighting on Saipan only to die during the even bloodier battle for Okinawa almost a year later.

Joshua Raines, an Afghanistan combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, smokes from his marijuana vape pen after returning home early from his son's choir performance due to experiencing PTSD symptoms.

Sarah Wolbert carries sacred water from the source of the Potomac River past the U.S. Capitol during a ceremonial walk led by indigenous women called a Nibi Walk. The group of women led by Ojibwe tribe leader, Sharon Day, relayed the water on foot the entire length of the Potomac River in October of 2016. 

Brian Hughes sets off a row of fireworks July 4, 2016 at his parents home on Cedar Creek Lake near Gun Barrel City, Texas. 

Willie Marie Robinson, 50, holds onto her daughter Morgan, 6, the evening after a fire devastated their home on Mumphord Street in Victoria, Texas around 4:45 a.m February 4, 2016. "We have each other and God's grace, that's it."

Gabriel Blanco has worked on shrimp and oyster boats for 13 years. Using an oystering hammer to precisely slice away unwanted substrate from the mollusk before tossing it into a metal drum at the end of the sorting table and grabbing another before it lands, Feb. 9. 

John Flood, conservationist and a founder of the South River Federation, steers his fishing boat loaded down with year-old oysters out to a sanctuary reef on the South River, a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis on September 23, 2016. He and the Federation work to restore oysters by planting sanctuary reefs and letting the oysters perform their simple filter feeding function to clean up the water. 

Kristen Oliver, 23, an intern for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, blows the feathers of a Grey Catbird back in order to gauge its fat reserves while banding and collecting health data from migratory songbirds at Mad Island Marsh Preserve April 22, 2016.

Jordyn and her mom Vanessa Castro interlock fingers during a visit to Cook Children’s Hospital’s neurology clinic for a checkup with Dr. Perry, the lead physician on a drug study studying a seizure medication derived from cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive substance in marijuana. December 14, 2015. Shot for Texas Monthly. 

Greg Shetterly flies his DR 107 aircraft over Victoria, Texas on May 13 for a test flight before an airshow at Victoria Regional Airport the next day. 

Paxton Henley, 12, works on her trampoline routine for nationals as her teammates look on at Manning Gymnastics Centerplex in Victoria, Texas May 25, 2016.

Douglas Meyer, the Devils River project manager for the Nature Conservancy's Dolan Falls Preserve, stands in a large cave at the preserve. Many caves on the preserve served as shelter for indigenous tribes that used to inhabit this area.

Jerry Hassinger, formerly with the forestry service in Pennsylvania as well as a master naturalist, inspects what he calls an LMB - little brown mushroom at the Ned Smith Nature Center near Millersburg, Pennsylvania. There are so many different species of these that even experts debate over identification and proper names. 

A great blue egret walks through shallow waters of the Patapsco River in the Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County, Maryland on September 21, 2016. About 3 months earlier a massive flood ripped down the Patapsco and altered much in the environment. Sediment, nutrient and chemical pollutants as well as debris washed down for miles until it eventually reached the Chesapeake Bay. 

Katrina Buzzell got her cousin and best friend's name tattooed on her wrist as a teenager at a party soon after Megan Daughtry was killed in a car crash on on US 183 in 2011 a few miles north of Goliad, Texas. Photographed at a remembrance gathering of the Daughtry family and friends five years later in 2016. 

Ballet folklorico dancers perform during a Cinco De Mayo festival in Goliad, Texas in 2016. 

Members of church congregations have volunteer security teams. Often the members are current/former service members or law enforcement. They came across Texas get training with GateKeepers, a church security firm in Krugerville.