Four-year-old Gavin Mayes, of Monroe, WA, was diagnosed with Pre-B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on March 15, 2013 and has received 16 blood transfusions. Eight months prior to his leukemia diagnosis, doctors told his parents that Gavin is on the autism spectrum. While many of their friends are single and starting careers, Gavin's parents Ken, 27, and Charlene, 24, are learning to navigate the medical world while juggling work and the schedules of three kids. Gavin has a brother, Koen, 7, and sister Lucy, 3.

Personal photos from motorbike trips through Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China.

While their friends are sleeping in, watching Saturday cartoons or playing video games, 15 teens stand at attention at 7:55 am, in the rain outside Station Portland, a U.S. Navy and Coast Guard base on Swan Island. They are members of the Portland Division of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps and they will spend the next eight hours participating in a bi-monthly “drill’ that involves physical training, classroom instruction on military skills and history, uniform inspection, close-quarters combat exercises and exposure to the military lifestyle. High-ranking cadets bark orders and new recruits fall in line, as they march into the Naval Operations Support Center to begin their day. According to Navy-sponsored USNCC organization “The Naval Sea Cadet Corps was formed at the request of the Department of the Navy as a means to ‘enhance the Navy image in the minds of American youth.’ To accomplish this, ongoing training illustrates to Naval Sea Cadets the advantages and benefits of careers in the armed services, and in particular, the sea services.” Joining the USNSCC can give cadets a head start on a future military career. About 11,000 11-17 year old cadets were expected to be enrolled in the program in 2011, many of whom will enlist in the military when they are of age (over 700 sea cadets joined the Armed Forces in 2009).

Firefighting has always been a male-dominated occupation. Women make up only 5% of all firefighters in the United States and many are the sole woman working in their rural fire departments. The average salary for a female firefighter is nearly $20.000 per year (or 28%) less than the average male salary. The first known female firefighter was Molly Williams, a slave who became a member of an engine company in New York in 1818. Now there are over 14,000 female firefighters in the US. These women come together annually to a women-only fire camp where female firefighters have a chance to meet and train with other women in live fire, power tools, auto extrication, and forcible entry drills.

A fatal mudslide brought debris down the Stillaguamish River near Oso, Washington, Saturday morning, stopping the flow of the river and destroying the Steelhead Haven neighborhood and a section of highway 530, March 22, 2014. Forty-three people lost their lives in the slide.

In 2010, Brandon and Lauren Sheard opened Farmstead Meatsmith on their property on Vashon Island. They offer small-scale abattoir, butchery and charcuterie services as well as teach classes on the art of slaughter, butchery and cooking. These photos were taken over the course of a 3-day pig harvesting class, Jan. 14-16, 2016.