They're not the rich and famous.

Their profit comes not from the thing they sell, but the good they do.

Our nation has more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations that employ one out of ten Americans, providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled and keeping our communities connected when all else fails.

But nonprofits often like the tools to properly promote themselves, to inspire more donors and volunteers and clients to their cause.

That's where I come in.

I've been in the nonprofit world for 25 years.

I connect nonprofits with marketing professionals who donate their time and expertise so that at the end of the day, these life giving organizations can do more, do better by creating more.

That's right buzz.

Three years ago, I brought my TV show buzz to my home state of Alabama to highlight nonprofit organizations and help them attract more donors, volunteers, and clients to their cause.

In short, to achieve more buzz.

Since then, we have featured 20 different nonprofits that provide Alabamians with critical resources and hope while making our communities even better places to live.

so on these next three episodes, I'm going to go back in time and revisit some of these life changing charities.

I'm going to share with you my favorite moments from their shows, and chat with their leaders to find out what they've been doing and how we have helped since they first appeared on buzz.

What I love about nonprofits is that they literally do everything.

Consider in our first season of Buzz in Alabama in 2023, we featured an art studio for people with autism.

The Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama.

A college scholarship program for children of slain police officers, and a diaper bank for low income moms.

We will revisit bundles of Hope diaper Bank next week.

But on today's show, I want to check in with children of slain police officers and studio by the tracks children of slain police officers, also known at the time as co-sponsor, provides college scholarships for children who had a parent killed while serving in the Birmingham Police Department.

Lieutenant who have been killed in the department's history.

Today I'm meeting Sergeant Coleecia Cannion, the department duty.

So on the wall, we have plaques that were made for all the officers that suffered a line of duty that died in the line of duty in the history of the Birmingham and the history of the police department.

And it shows.

To me it shows that the wall represents heroism, because the ultimate the officers paid the ultimate sacrifice.

They got up in the morning, came to work, put on a blue uniform to protect the citizens and and the community of the Birmingham of Birmingham.

And they lost their lives.

Currently, we're servicing I have service for families.

So here we have Officer Charles Robert Bennett.

He was killed in 2004 along with Charlie Chisholm and Carlos Owens.

And we service his daughter Caroline Bennett.

It's amazing because according to hear, these officers were killed in 2004.

Yes, sir.

And here we are almost 20 years later and is there to help them get through college.

Their kids get through college?

Yes, sir.

We faced a lot of challenges here at the police department, and our most recent one would be Sergeant Carter for that for, you know, his bravery.

He was killed in 2019.

In the line of duty.

What happened?

They responded.

He responded to a call along with some more officers and situation turned.

Took a turn for the worse.

And he was killed trying to arrest the suspect along with the officers that night.

He was.

You knew him?

I did, yes, sir.

Friend of yours?

He was a very good friend of mine and coworker.

And right now I am, you know, the liaison for his family.

And I've been standing in the gap since 2019.

With the police department and his family.

Tell me about his family.

Awesome family officer.

He has an awesome wife, Tiffany Carter.

At the time when Sergeant Carter was killed, his son, Talon Carter, he was a student at Oak Mountain School.

And now he's, in college at University of Alabama.

So he had, great mom and awesome father.

He come from a good family, and he was an outstanding officer.

No problems while he was here at the police department.

Everybody loved Sergeant Carter.

I suggest that quite the responsibility for you to be there for his family in kind of places.

Yeah.

So with the family, I had to plan the funeral.

And that consisted of officers from all 50 states.

So it was a big event for the police department.

Right.

Well, what does it mean to be the ones who are honoring his memory?

Not always memory, but his children and his family moving forward?

It means a lot.

Yes, sir.

It means a lot.

for the nonprofit that raised thousands of dollars, but also coordinated a rebranding for the organization to its new name, Beyond the Line.

We were obviously proud of the buzz we facilitated, but the most poignant moment in that episode was getting to talk with Officer Robert Bennett's wife Susan and daughter Caroline, who was just four years old when her father was murdered Within the first week of of his death.

He was a sergeant Alan Treadaway, but he was kind of our liaison.

And he would bring the information, tell us that we were entitled to these benefits.

And at that time, he said, and as for college, you don't have to worry about that.

Her college will be paid for.

And he mentioned but I mean, think how many years there was between age four to age 18.

But that I mean, her dad would be about that.

He was very avid about your education.

He never went to college, but he was he wanted.

He wished he had.

And he wanted nothing but the best for his little girl.

I was I was thinking about it the other day, too, in the sense that, like, such a blessing was able to come out of such a tragedy.

And it's one that I'm really grateful for.

It's like I had told you, not on a club that you want to join, not benefits you even really want.

But you're so glad that you have them.

Ever since I was quite literally for afterwards, when mom knew that my school would be paid for right out of the gate.

She's pushing.

You've got to go to school, you're going to go to school, you're going to take advantage of all of this opportunity.

So there was never a question whether or not I was going to go to college at all.

So you try and take as much advantage of the opportunity that was given?

Yes.

So for my first four years, I went to the University of Alabama, and I double majored in psychology and addiction recovery.

I graduated summa cum laude.

A big proud of that one.

And I have continued that journey.

I'm at Samford University right now.

I have one more year left.

I'm studying clinical social work, One of the big things as an ode to him that I'm doing currently is my research project for grad school is how first responders handle vicarious trauma, and I'm doing that through Birmingham's police department.

So I kind of get to have that tie still with him of giving back to even his own personal department and seeing the ways that I can help them.

So I don't think she would have been able to get as much education.

I mean, you you certainly wouldn't have been able to go to Stanford for your masters if I was going to have to pay for it.

But, you know, it abled.

It enabled her to open doors for her education, to go to the best place to train her and to get her expertise and her knowledge and education that she needs to pursue her passion.

And there are no amount of words that I could say to thank them for what they did.

The end goal for the education is to give back to the community that's given me so much.

So I want to focus in trauma informed therapy for first responders.

So I'll come.

All comes full circle.

So, yeah, it's a great, great organization, all I can say.

And very thankful for it.

I would give everything back if we could have Rob back, but obviously we can't.

So we just go on and move on day by day, and we honor him every day.

I know that I wake up and I do what I do to honor my dad and make him as proud as possible, and I know that he's proud of me.

I will say one of the hardest parts of the educational journey is knowing that someone who would be so proud of me doesn't get to attend graduations and be there for any inductions, any honors, anything like that.

So those are really hard moments that I hate.

They asked him, miss, but I know that he's there.

Birmingham's police department has been there to support me through it all.

I've had officers come to my graduations and stuff like that.

So I still know that he's being honored and his presence is still there.

Cosby was been a absolute blessing.

There's a lot of hardship and stress and financial stress that comes with higher education and getting to remove some of those stressors so that I can purely focus on doing the best academically that I can, that I hate that I had to have suffered and that we had to have lost him, but that I still get to go forward, live on and, pursue ways that I can help others through it all.

Yeah.

I'm eternally grateful for everything that Cosby has done for my family.

It's been amazing.

We also traveled over to the Birmingham community of Irondale to feature the nonprofit studio by the tracks where we met autistic artist Colorful Ribbons screensaver with Wheel of Fortune forces.

I got it right.

Write that down.

My name is Mychal Hicks.

I am 30 years old and I am from Birmingham, Alabama.

Well, I appreciated art since I was little, and I really liked to draw.

And then until I started taking an art class in high school.

And then in 2012, that's when I heard about this place.

And.

And I've been here for ten years now.

Well, actually, it's been 11 years now because I started coming in 2012 of August.

I mostly draw a lot of my friends, and what I do is I talk about my relationship with that person.

So I was right.

The bio is I would write it, you know, talking about them first, and then I come in and talk about my relationship with that person, and I tell them how, how long I known them and stuff.

And, and that's the part that's one of the most popular things with my artwork is that everybody loves the stories that I have done.

And these are all real people.

That's cool.

I'm not as natural as Michael.

Okay.

I'm ready.

I'm Tara Lee.

I'm an artist here in Birmingham, and I am an artist collaborator with Michael Hicks.

I think it's a great way to share yourself as an artist.

But also, being with all kinds of artists feeds my artistic practice.

Yeah, it's a similar thing.

This is actually a second home for me as an artist.

It's a very comfortable, safe, welcoming place to be.

And it's fun.

Without saying about a trace.

I would be very bored at home and and to be honest about it, I just don't like being at home all day.

But bored.

Michael was not.

In addition to his work as an artist at studio by the Tracks, Michael also works every Wednesday as the MC at a popular sports bar called Walk ONS.

Maria, why is everybody on the right time so far down?

He may soon have another job as my publicist.

I want to let everybody know that.

And here with us tonight is the host and creator of buzz.

Michael Hemphill was right here with us tonight.

So.

If you are ready for more music, let me use the app.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I could be in a museum and, and then maybe branch out to also provide more artwork, you know, for the other.

Qualcomm's that that the owner has just one.

I'm just trying to expand my artwork, you know, and I really enjoys it.

How much does it cost for you to be here?

It's free.

Free?

Yes.

So.

So all of our art sales, 60% goes to the artists, which is almost a little bit over half.

And then the 40% goes to the studio, which covers the supplies and the classes, and one of the bills that they have to pay.

Any idea how much you've made?

By being part of studio by the tracks?

Well, that's a little hard to keep up with, but I don't even know because some people be asking me, like before an art show.

They ask me like, how many pieces are that I have in the art zone?

I don't even be knowing and and that and I told them that's not my department to do that.

And people who collect some of my art, and sometimes they might have a gallery for my artwork.

And every so often when I start making New order, I'd be trying my best to introduce new people into my artwork.

And and everybody seems really like it.

I just have a lot of fans.

Here in 2026, Michael Hicks is still an artist at studio by The Tracks and still leading the nonprofit Are My Friends.

Boo Gilder, who is now executive director, and Lauren Cushman, director of development and communications.

I asked them what buzz they got by being on buzz.

Although we don't know for sure.

Like, exactly how many new people the show brought to the studio or how many new donors.

I think it did bring quite a bit of visibility to our organization in general.

it's just it was just nice to be kind of like, grouped in with those kind of bigger, what we would consider like bigger organizations, because, like, we know that what we do is we've been here for so long and that we do really important, impactful work and that we work with a lot of people.

But sometimes it's just kind of nice to see us on the same level as some of those other organizations.

So I think that was lovely.

Yeah, it's nice to know, to be reminded we're part of an ecosystem.

Because what we do is so particular to us sometimes outside, you know, we feel pretty connected to, like, creative.

Landscape here.

But the larger nonprofit landscape, is not always as visible to us.

So it's nice to kind of see ourselves amongst our, our fellow nonprofits and what they're doing.

Yeah.

And for our final check in, we fast forward to our most recent series that aired in May 2026 on Alabama Public Television, and our episode starring Hank Poor Foundation.

Born with cerebral palsy, Hank Poor didn't let his condition stop him from becoming a bicycling enthusiast.

And now, through his foundation, the Tuscaloosa native helps other Alabamians with disabilities fulfill their dreams, such as the paralyzed hunter and outdoorsman who can now traverse the woods.

Thanks to his poor foundation funded track chair.

Or Evan Heller, an Ohio native born with spina bifida, which limited his ability to walk.

Hank.

Cathy.

Ashley, great to see you all again.

What's been going on?

Yeah.

What's been going on at Hank?

Poor foundation.

Well, we've had a lot going on.

We're getting ready for a on wheels.

Our sixth annual Allen Wheels fundraiser.

We had our first event fundraising event in Birmingham, which you kind of helped build a bit with that as well with DD with, so that was a lot of fun.

We had a concert with his band, Partridge, and raised some money and, got the word out in Birmingham a little bit about the foundation.

So we're excited about that.

Wonderful.

All right.

And you're Allen Wheels is in Tuscaloosa.

What's the the date of that up tober 30th.

October 30th.

And then meanwhile, that's that's the sixth annual Ale on Wheels in Tuscaloosa.

But we've got the first annual we Hope Ale on Wheels type event at Auburn University.

Beta Chi and the unnamed band are teaming together, with us to do a benefit concert in Auburn on October 22nd.

That's a Thursday night, and they're going to be food trucks and lots of good music and a lot of fun.

And.

He said he's excited for it and he's ready.

And he plans to be on the front row.

Yeah.

we love the episode.

We've gotten a lot of positive feedback.

Everybody that's seen it says it's wonderful.

And it's just a great tool for us to have to kind of share our story and what we do.

It's kind of hard to to explain it and not see it sometimes to understand it.

So you've given us the ability to really sort of share.

This is this is the impact we make.

And we are so appreciative.

Well, it's my pleasure.

You guys are the ones doing the incredible work.

I'm just happy to give it a little buzz.

And pink has been speaking at more and more conferences lately, and I think this is also going to be a great tool would be something really useful to add to his talks.

Wonderful.

Well, hey, you're an incredible speaker.

I really enjoyed listening to you when I was down there.

Birmingham.

And, Keep on going, man.

You're doing great.

He said, thank you.

Next time on the show, we revisit some of the 20 nonprofits we have featured so far in Alabama to see how they have been fitted from being on buzz.

We talk about our capital campaign.

We were introduced to the Goodrich Foundation, you know, doing buzz.

They were actually one of our first yeses to purchase our building through being on your show.

We've connected with some people that really wanted to help us kind of grow and get the word out.

And look how cool this is.

So we have tumblers.

Every time that I send an email to a potential donor or to a new parent.

I always include the link for our episode.

Yeah, we had just rebranded to Iron City Trikes shortly before that, and so it was really great timing for us to be able to kind of get the new name out there.

And I feel like people in today's society really like to get a visual.

So the video has helped, really paid the picture of what our organization is so grateful for you and the work that you do create and buzz.