His Name Was Larry Hernandez: A Letter from the Founder
To the 1,300 people who’ve been watching this journey unfold
His name was Larry Hernandez. He used to play a game with me during our weekly Costco runs for the gay bar I operated in Reno. Larry had been through hell his entire life and claimed nothing could surprise him anymore, so I turned our trips into a challenge: getting Larry to say “eew.” We’d have the most outrageous conversations until he’d finally tap out, look at me and go “eew, Shannon,” knowing the game perfectly. We’d both laugh and do it again the next week.
Larry died of diabetes complications in 2017 because he couldn’t access healthy food consistently and didn’t know what to do with it when he had it. That’s when I realized individual intervention wasn’t enough—I needed to build coordination infrastructure that could keep people like Larry alive.
Everyone else has been telling my story for the past decade. Time to reclaim my narrative.
What Actually Happened: Moving Forward from Complex Challenges
After experiencing systematic misinformation campaigns across two states, it became clear that certain interests were invested in maintaining community dependency rather than building resilience. The pattern was sophisticated: whisper campaigns through trusted networks, protective responses triggered in communities that would benefit most from coordination infrastructure, false narratives about financial impropriety and intent to “supplant existing systems.”
When formal complaints documenting these activities received no response from oversight bodies, the message became clear: these barriers would persist regardless of evidence or community need.
So I pivoted to international volunteer advocacy. Not as defeat, but as strategic redirection toward fertile ground.
What I’ve Built While Others Spread Rumors
While domestic barriers persisted through coordinated misinformation, I discovered something remarkable: communities worldwide were ready to embrace coordination strategies that US systems actively discouraged.
Kenya Village Water/Food System: Within one hour of a Zoom call, I helped Walter Okombo’s village reconceive their $700,000 water tower dependency project as $100,000 community-owned infrastructure. Kubota tractor + reverse osmosis filtration + credit card processing = clean water from polluted Lake Victoria AND food production AND earth-moving equipment paid off in 18 months through operational revenues. No grants, no dependency—just economic viability serving community needs.
Caribbean Waste-to-Value Networks: Through volunteer advisory support with Leonard Seucharin and respected solid waste management leaders across Trinidad and Tobago, I’m helping develop coordination infrastructure that transforms disposal costs into revenue streams. HumiSoil bacterial photosynthesis processing (24/7 operation creating water molecules instead of CO2), blast chiller food rescue, and boat-mounted equipment enabling island-to-island scaling. Communities own production capacity instead of depending on external providers.
International Partnership Development: As Vice President and co-founder of Regenerative Impact Alliance, I now have platforms for sharing these coordination strategies globally. My volunteer advisory role leverages thirty years of cross-sector experience to help communities recognize they already possess everything needed for environmental restoration—they just need access to coordination frameworks.
The Global Pattern: Asian communities embrace HumiSoil technology because it amplifies traditional composting wisdom without gatekeeping barriers. Caribbean communities coordinate waste streams with agricultural producers because survival requires cooperation over competition. Mexico’s colonias solve water challenges through upstream intervention rather than waiting for systemic fixes that never arrive.
The solutions exist. International demonstrations prove they work. The coordination strategies scale across cultures because they focus on community empowerment rather than institutional dependency.
The 35% Climate Opportunity Everyone’s Missing
Climate advocates often tell me “I don’t do food systems” while overlooking 35% of global emissions. Food systems generate massive climate impact across transportation, refrigeration, waste management, and methane production—deliberately distributed across over a hundred subcategories to obscure the total impact.
There’s no single corporation to oppose in food systems, so many activists miss the biggest coordination opportunity we have. They focus on having enemies instead of building solutions that make old conflicts obsolete.
Meanwhile, communities worldwide implement waste-to-value coordination that simultaneously reduces emissions, sequesters carbon, builds adaptation capacity, and creates economic resilience. The solutions exist and work—the barriers are artificial rather than technical.
Fellowship of Living Systems: What I’ve Created
I’m no longer operating through nonprofits or begging for grants. Fellowship of Living Systems (a Colorado Public Benefit Corporation) represents my volunteer coordination infrastructure enabling communities worldwide to own production capacity rather than depend on external providers.
My Volunteer Advocacy Focus:
- Knowledge Transfer: Direct community-to-community sharing bypassing gatekeeping systems
- Technology Integration: HumiSoil, blast chillers, and coordination strategies proven globally
- Business Model Development: Revenue-positive approaches eliminating dependency relationships
- International Networks: Communities learning from each other’s successes across continents
Current Volunteer Projects:
- Kenya village water/food security implementation support
- Caribbean island waste-to-value coordination advisory
- Asian technology transfer and replication guidance
- Global South community capacity building
- Documentation and blueprint sharing
I’ve discovered that communities possess everything needed for environmental restoration—equipment, engineers, resources, traditional knowledge—they just need access to coordination strategies that gatekeeping systems deliberately limit.
Where I Am Now: Thriving Through Strategic Redirection
Four years past the challenges that dissolved On Common Ground (properly closed December 2022 with assets donated to aligned Colorado gleaning nonprofit), I’m not just healed—I’m thriving. Eighteen months with an amazing partner who provides not just love but intentional growth and healing support at levels I’ve never experienced before.
I’m a certified regenerative practitioner through Regenesis Institute’s TRP program, bringing Living Systems design frameworks and powerful systemic understanding to my volunteer advisory role. The misinformation campaigns ultimately failed—instead of stopping community empowerment advocacy, they drove innovation toward international communities where fertile ground exists for coordination infrastructure that transforms lives.
I operate at systems coordination level—where conservatives and progressives discover they both want community resilience, food security, and economic sustainability. The only people who can’t see these connections are those whose identity depends on having enemies, whose roles depend on not solving challenges, or who reject wisdom that doesn’t come from approved institutional sources.
The Current Reality: Global Momentum Building
Domestic barriers prevent community coordination here, but communities worldwide embrace strategies that work. While misinformation creates confusion about community food access innovation, Kenyan villages implement clean water and food access business models. While coordinated suppression targets soil technology advancement, Caribbean islands scale regenerative coordination integration.
The Pattern Is Clear:
- Global South communities adopt coordination strategies immediately when they learn about them
- Artificial barriers prevent US communities from accessing identical approaches
- Solutions exist and work—coordination infrastructure is the missing piece
The Choice Is Simple: Continue navigating artificial barriers designed to maintain problems, or build coordination infrastructure communities actually need to thrive.
Who I’m Supporting: Solution Builders Over System Fighters
If you’re reading this and feeling defensive about approaches you’ve supported, consider: Did you come to those positions through independent analysis, or did trusted sources provide warnings without specific evidence? Have you dismissed coordination opportunities because someone suggested “ulterior motives” without demonstrating actual problems?
I’m Building With:
- Communities ready to own production capacity rather than depend on external providers
- Practitioners who prioritize outcomes over institutional loyalty
- International networks sharing knowledge freely rather than hoarding for market advantage
- Progressive organizations that understand community empowerment creates better returns than extraction models
I’m Moving Past:
- Coordinated misinformation campaigns protecting certain interests over community empowerment
- Scarcity management disguised as social justice
- Opposition addiction preventing solution implementation
- Gatekeeping systems that treat survival knowledge as proprietary
The Invitation: Reconnect or Move Forward
To the LGBT community in Reno who knew Larry and witnessed my commitment: you understand what drives this volunteer advocacy. Community care through infrastructure that keeps our people alive and thriving.
To the farming communities who’ve heard rumors: I’m helping build markets for your production while converting urban waste into soil amendments you want to buy. No ideological conversion required—just coordination opportunities serving mutual benefit.
To the climate advocates discovering food systems matter: 35% of emissions await coordination strategies that build community wealth while addressing planetary healing.
To the international networks already embracing these approaches: let’s accelerate knowledge transfer and replication across continents through RIA and other platforms.
To everyone who’s been wondering what happened and what’s next: this is who I am now, this is what I’m building globally through volunteer advocacy, and you’re welcome to reconnect if solutions interest you more than institutional drama.
Moving Forward: Water Flows Around Obstacles
His name was Larry Hernandez. I’m building coordination infrastructure that could have saved him and too many others—with or without domestic permission.
The water is flowing around artificial obstacles toward fertile ground where communities are ready to build what they need. Climate solutions that create community wealth. Food systems that eliminate dependency relationships. Coordination infrastructure that enables traditional knowledge enhanced with appropriate technology.
Everyone reading this has a choice: Keep playing games with people who need enemies to feel important, or rise to coordination intelligence level where we build solutions that make old conflicts obsolete.
Through my volunteer advocacy, I’m supporting infrastructure addressing 35% of climate emissions while creating community wealth and food security across three continents. If that doesn’t seem like legitimate climate advocacy to you, examine whether you’re focused on opposition rather than committed to outcomes.
Fellowship of Living Systems represents what becomes possible when communities bypass gatekeeping systems to build coordination infrastructure they actually need. We’re just getting started.
The door is open. The water is flowing. Choose your level.
Shannon Dobbs
Founder, Fellowship of Living Systems
Vice President & Co-founder, Regenerative Impact Alliance
Certified Regenerative Practitioner
International Community Coordination Infrastructure
P.S. To those who participated in spreading misinformation: your efforts accelerated innovation toward solutions you can’t suppress. Thank you for the unintended motivation to build something better.