An Idea from high school student Maya Fowler / Sacramento, CA

And the legacy that influences this project.

Maya Fowler

(Read below before watching the above video)

When I moved back to Columbus from Santa Rosa, California twenty years ago, it was not the diverse, growing city it is today. Rather, it was a much more provincial midwestern city. Many families had grown up in Columbus and went to OSU and I heard the expression a lot that in Columbus “An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

I was born in LA and went to high school and college out there and felt out of place in Columbus. But my then wife at the time I had agreed to come back to Columbus in an attempt to save a faltering marriage.

One of my best friends during this time were two others that were somewhat out of place in Columbus. They were Ken and Fuson Fowler. Ken was an administrator at Riverside Hospital, the largest hospital in Columbus. Fuson was a resident completing her medical training for an eye doctor.

* * *

The two met while on board a ship that sailed around the world providing a hospital for eye care. Fuson was on the voyage and Ken was also on the voyage. Ken would later talk about all the ports they anchored at and all the people around the world they brought better sight to. Many times, the doctors on the ship saved children and adults from going blind from various diseases.

I immediately connected with them. We were all fish out of water back here in Columbus. Most interesting, Ken was a dreamer and idealist about the world like I was. Ken and Fuson lived in a wonderful stone home near the hospital. The home had an incredible backyard that slowly descended into a line of trees and a creek. My daughter had a birthday party with five girls and they set up a tent near the creek on Ken & Fuson’s wonderful home.

As Ken and I became good friends, he shared with me some of his ideas about global concerns. The global concerns of Ken were many. He had a broad perspective on things.

I was a good recipient of the ideas Ken had. And he was a good recipient of ideas. My wife had a good time with them at social events and we exchanged having dinners at each other’s homes. I would always meet in his workshop when I went over to see Ken. It was a long space that Ken had turned into a long desk with his computer and monitor and behind them, through one of the windows, looking down on the huge sloping lawn below. I recall that for one project, he built a small scale village with a system running it that he designed.

So many more stories but just to say we were the best of friends at this time. I was running a marketing consulting firm (as I had been doing in California) and he Ken always had an idea.

* * *

One day, he called me to come over and see a new project. I drove over to Ken’s home on a nice day in the spring. That’s when I saw it. A container. Just like the ones you see stacked onto freighters. About the size of a trailer you see on big wheeler rigs.

“A new idea,” he said moving me around the container in the drive way.

“You did tell Fuson about this?” I asked when we had walked around the entire container.

Ken batted the question away like he was batting away a pesky fly.

“She knows all about this,” Ken says.

“What is this?” I asked him, making sure to emphasize the word this.

There would be many discussions over the next few months between Ken and me. My son Matt and his best friend Jeff came over to help clean up the container and get it ready for the prototype that Ken saw in the container. I recall it was the beginning of a hot summer in Columbus and was proud my son and his friend worked so hard getting the container cleaned up and all. Per that vision of something out there, few could equal.

* * *

Ken and I have been in email touch over the years. Ever since the last time we saw each other Ken in Carmel, California. 2006? 2007?

Things are now reversed as Ken and Fuson live in the Sacramento area and I am back here in Columbus. Fuson has a very successful practice as an eye doctor. And Ken is still creating projects. Tonight, I received the below email from him that explains the video you see above. If you like what Ken’s teenage daughter is submitting, please be sure to “Like” or “Comment” in the above YouTube video. Ken’s letter to me below asking me to distribute it.

What an amazing daughter! Carrying on a true legacy in the family.

Ken’s email to me below.

_____________________________________________

Hey John….   Hope your holidays are starting well.  Missed you out west this summer … hope to see you next time you’re out this way.  Have been down to Carmel a couple of times of late, always think of you when in town.

Do you remember when I built my cargo container prototype house in my garage out of lumber?  Well, Maya is continuing the legacy.  She is leaning into Architecture as a career, and as such, has designed a W.A.S.H. House project out of cargo containers.  Her WASH House is designed to be installed in the major slums of the world in order to mitigate the core “bad boys” of poverty … lack of clean Water, Access to water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. (WASH)

She has entered her WASH House into the competition sponsored by the United Nations for private citizens to come up with innovative solutions to each of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals they are trying to meet by 2030.  The competition is 2 tiered … first there is a public voting on-line. If a project receives enough public votes (a view = a vote) then the project moves on as a “finalist” to a panel of judges, who decide the winner. Maya is looking pretty good at this point, but needs as many votes/views as she can get to push her over the line into the finals.

Please have a look at her video presentation on you-tube, and click the “like” button … that will get her a vote.  Also, thought you might give this project a shout out on Midnight Oil to all your followers and encourage them to view Maya’s WASH House video.  Video must be watched to the end in order to receive a vote.  This would be most appreciated in helping her get into the finals. The competition ends this Friday 12/13, so if you get the word out, the sooner the better.

I have enclosed a press release for your private reading.  I’m thinking of sending it in to the Sacramento Bee … would appreciate any feedback you might have, my friend.

All the best … Ken