Avista Utilities is taking their services on the road setting up their mobile Energy Resource Team in communities throughout the area. Today, they were in the Spokane Valley with Second Harvest's mobile food bank offering tips and supplies to make homes more energy efficient.

“The biggest goal is to educate people on ways to conserve energy in their homes,” says Ana Matthews, a Consumer Affairs Program Manager with Avista. The Energy Resource Team provides resources and materials to help people who are struggling lower their monthly bills and set them up with resources such as SNAP when they need more help.

Avista workers handed out bags with rope caulk, window insulation kits, fridge coil cleaners and compact florescent light bulbs to help get homes on their way to a lower bill. Matthews says the biggest energy sucker is drafts in the home and they come from places you might not think to look such as your outlets.

In 2008, three-year-old Kyra Wine became the victim of the worst case of child abuse in Benewah County history, her injuries so severe doctor's amputated her feet. Now, five years later, she's an active, happy eight-year-old girl.

The abuse Kyra and her sister Amanda endured is heartbreaking and unimaginable but now they are thriving.

"Every birthday, yeah, every birthday is special," Kyra's grandma, Deanna Wine said.

For her eighth birthday, Kyra didn't ask for anything special.

"I just let them get whatever they want," Kyra said.

Making the gifts on her grandma's kitchen table an even bigger surprise; a birthday is always a big deal when you're a kid, but when you're Kyra, each candle carries more than a wish. They're a symbol of survival, a light of hope.

"When this all happened with Kyra the doctors said that basically she had hours," Deanna said. "If she hadn't been taken to the hospital she had just hours to live."

On June 17, 2008 Benewah County Sheriff's deputies responded to a home for a welfare check on Kyra, then three-years-old, and her six-year-old sister Amanda. They couldn't have found them any sooner.