Meet The Crew: Ryan and Erica

We are thrilled to have an amazing support team coming together for the swim. Starting this week, we’ll be highlighting those people so you can learn about the rest of Team Tow.

Meet Erica
Erica Karmeisool is a life-long resident of Michigan, currently living in Ludington. Her family introduced her to sailing at a young age, which has equipped her with an immense respect for the great lakes through years of sailboat racing and deliveries. While attending Michigan State University, she played rugby and studied graphic design and sculpture, earning her BFA in 2002. Since then, Erica has worked as a project manger at the intersection of social and artistic problem solving. She will be working on a new maritime project and training for her next triathlon while assisting Team Tow this summer.

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When I first learned about Jeff and Sara’s idea of swimming across Lake Michigan, I was completely amazed and in awe of such a monumental goal. Thinking of the size and severity of such a swim was beyond my full mental grasp. Having completed many boat deliveries the length of Lake Huron, I know the daunting feeling of miles of cold, wind, waves and nothingness for hours and hours… to do that in the water… swimming?! I still find the full comprehension of this escapes me.

The more I learned of the swim and the big picture of, “Through the Blue,” it all made perfect sense. What an appropriate metaphor for the challenges parents face – as individuals and as a couple. Knowing Jeff and Sara’s commitment to helping those who struggle with PMD, there was no doubt in my mind that they were equally committed to this swim; they will complete it. As with PMD, it would require the help and support of others, and I was honored to be asked to be a part of the crew.

Instantly, I felt a surge of responsibility to Team Tow and its mission. What about safety? What about equipment? How do we keep the crew alert? What training does the crew need? All of these questions flooded forward, and are still being answered as the project plunges ahead. I find two thoughts accompany every aspect of planning: “They will make it” and “How can I ensure they will make it?” It certainly takes a team to accomplish any monumental challenge; this is one I am proud to be a part of.

Meet Ryan
Ryan Spencer Reed is a social documentary photographer. He has worked in central and east Africa in the capacity of a photojournalist covering the Sudanese Diaspora since 2002. After returning from covering the War in Darfur, in late summer 2004, he and his work have moved about North America to universities in the form of traveling exhibitions and lectures. They have become the driving force, and ultimately the cultural backdrop, for broader symposiums designed to grapple with the issues facing the Sudanese people. The Open Society Institute & Soros Foundation awarded him with the Documentary Photography Project’s Distribution Grant in 2006. While exhibiting and speaking internationally on the subject of Sudan, he has begun a long-term project on the hubris of power and the twilight of the American industrial revolution. A chapter of this work on Detroit is currently being distributed. Website: www.ryanspencerreed.com

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I am personally looking forward to the opportunity for discovering new things about Sara and Jeff, and, in our quest for a successful venture, growing closer to a family I already immensely admire. I am looking forward to being in the service of your hopes and dreams during this endeavor. I enjoy strategic planning and logistics and therefore relish the opportunity for problem solving in preparation for, and during, the big swim. I am especially excited for kyaking this summer alongside Team Tow and anxiously await the opportunity to reconnect with the awesome force of Lake Michigan as a proud member of the crew.

Ryan and Erica are married and have been renovating Ludington’s former Odd Fellows Lodge for the past two years. Nearly complete, this historic downtown building now hosts AM Galleries, a premier framing and fine art gallery. The second story has been repurposed as two apartments, maintaining most of the original IOOF Building architecture. Ryan and Erica’s vision is for the apartments to house artists-in-residence, cycling throughout the year to bring fresh ideas and quality work to the Ludington area. Their project is on schedule to complete by the summer of 2012.