[Kerry] At Kid One, yes, it is more than a job.

More of a calling.

We want to provide families with hope.

We want them to see that nope, that barrier's not hard to climb.

We are here.

We can get you there.

It takes a special type of person to do what we do, and to see these children and see their progress, or their decline.

This job came along, and I wouldn't trade it for, I wouldn't trade it for nothing.

It's easy to be able to get up, come to work, and know that we were able to relieve stress for a parent that was worried about something as simple as transportation.

[Announcer] Funding for this program comes from the Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation, the Daniel Foundation of Alabama, and the Caring Foundation by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama.

(gentle uplifting music) [Michael] 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 10 Americans, providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled, and keeping our communities connected when all else fails.

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

That's where I come in.

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

I connect my profits 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".

Can you imagine living in a home, having a child that has a chronic illness, and you not being able to get them to the doctor?

(soft music) You wake up in the morning.

You need to go to the doctor.

You call and get an appointment.

How are you gonna get there?

Kid One Transport.

We're here to remove that transportation barrier, providing transportation for children under the age of 19, and pregnant women in need of transportation to their doctor's appointments.

So Kid One was founded in 1997.

We were kind of the vision or dream of a young firefighter, Russell Jackson.

And Russell was out on a call, and it was a very traumatic call, and the child that he was there to support, he didn't make it.

And it was very tough on Russell.

He had to try to figure out how to deal emotionally with what he had had to overcome.

So he started volunteering, and he volunteered for a rural low income community here in Alabama.

And as he was in this community, he met a family with a child who had a severe medical issue, but could not get to Birmingham in order to get the treatment that he needed to be successful, physically and otherwise.

So Russell started taking him to the doctor, with the family, of course, and driving the distance every time he had those medical appointments, and the child, his medical issue was resolved, and went on to lead a very normal life.

But from that moment, he was like, "You know what?

There are so many of these kids that just cannot get the medical treatment they need because they don't have transportation, so I'm gonna start a nonprofit."

And that's what he did, and it started out with one van, and then his vision, and that's now grown to over 11 drivers, and over 38 counties.

We have families who are challenged when it comes to their financial needs.

(gentle uplifting music) Transportation is just not within that budget.

Then you think about a city like Birmingham, where there are other transportation options, as far as public transportation.

But can you imagine having two babies?

One in a stroller, one you're holding on by the arm, or even one that you're carrying on the bus line.

In the cold, in the heat, in the rain.

Or even think about this, the family that does have transportation, but the primary breadwinner needs that vehicle to go to work.

So am I gonna continue to miss work to make sure that my baby makes the care that it needs?

Who wants to have to make that choice?

In 2025, we did over 15,000 transports, and that's just covering about 35 plus counties throughout the state.

If it wasn't for Kid One, children would be showing up at the ER, just for their regular care.

Can you imagine the emergency room being overran for simple things as a cold, just because a parent couldn't get to the doctor for the routine medical care?

A lot of times, those routine care is where diagnoses are made for other medical issues that they may have.

It's not just specialty care that we provide the services for.

It's anything that's gonna benefit the wellbeing of the child.

You would be surprised that just generic everyday medical checkups for children, just their routine immunization shots, going to the routine doctors appointments, the eye appointments, physical therapy, behavioral health appointment, those are just everyday appointments that we're seeing.

And then you have those children who are having to utilize our services three days a week for dialysis.

We have children who utilize our services for chemo.

We have children who have a diagnosis of sickle cell.

They have to have transfusions.

You name it, pretty much we see it.

Without Kid One, Children's of Alabama would be missing some of our most important little people, patients who live in areas that are economically disadvantaged.

We would not be able to reach some of the patients that don't have transportation, and some that wouldn't have any way to get to see us otherwise.

So Children's would be missing part of the integral parts of caring for every child.

(bright upbeat music) Without Kid One, we're talking in the local community, we do have some public transit, but that can be challenging when you're trying to get multiple children on a bus.

Uber rides and taxis or Lyfts, that's expensive, especially if you have to go to the doctor multiple times a week, not just once a year.

Without Kid One, my life would be way more expensive.

I would have to honestly take Ubers, or find a way to my, and it's been resourceful and helpful, so I'm really grateful for Kid One, because it saved me time and money.

I am going to a WIC office, because, well, it's important.

(laughing) I need WIC for milk, and they help with the breast pumps, and formula and all that stuff.

My baby's due at the end of this month, so they take me to my prenatal visits as well, too, which is amazing.

It helps a lot, 'cause I don't have a car.

And yeah, I love it.

I love it.

Everyone's been respectful.

And thank you, Pete, for driving me, today.

(laughing) [Pete] Oh, you're welcome.

That means I got a job today.

(Rosemarie laughing) Every day is different.

The transportation that we provide is based on the need of the clients.

So there are not any fixed routes.

A given day, a driver locally in Jefferson County can drive 300 miles and not cross the county lines.

As far as the number of families that we provide services for, once again, that varies.

We can have a day where we are doing 75 transports, we can have a day where we're doing 120 transports.

It just really depends on the need of the family.

The vehicles range in size from the wheelchair accessible vehicles that hold up to 10 passengers to minivans that hold five, and then we are blessed to have Mercedes as a sponsor that provides the four seater vehicles.

So we're just completely blessed to be able to provide the different services based on the need of the families with the various sized vehicles that we have.

[Michael] While the Kid One fleet may include Mercedes, its website is a clunker indeed.

To give the nonprofit some buzz, I enlisted my good friend and website pro, Tiara Lavender, who appeared on the show in 2025 helping Canoe Creek Stables' Light of the World Adaptive Horsemanship.

While Tiara lifted the hood on the site's engine, I rode shotgun with Kid One driver, Pete Woody, to find out more about this amazing organization.

Been with Kid One for, like, 15 years.

I enjoy driving.

And my day this morning started, I woke up around 2:30.

I left, I cranked the car at, what, 4:10?

And I got in the car to leave at 4:20.

I was in Gadsden for my first pickup at 5:15.

And I picked up, like I said, all the way to the Georgia line, all the way to other side of Huntsville, Athens, actually.

You never know what's gonna go on from one day to the next.

So for me, that's a good day.

And you know, some people have a story, and they wanna talk.

And like that taxicab driver, I listen.

And you know, they ask me my opinion, of course I give it to them, but just a normal conversation.

It's just a lot of, just over the years, just a lot of little stories.

And special people.

(bright upbeat music) When you're talking about 11 vehicles on the road, we're talking about driving 300 miles a day, a lot of people don't realize that our drivers, they live amongst our clients.

So we don't have a hub where the drivers drive in to get their vehicles.

They start their day in their yard to where they can start picking up the people in the community that they live in.

My name's Kerry Harrell.

I've been with Kid One for over 12 years now.

Out of the Montgomery area, serving Montgomery, the river and area, out towards the Selma area, out towards Tuskegee, Auburn, Opelika areas, as well.

Doing long distance.

I primarily drive a bus that holds 10 clients in wheelchairs.

But a lot of these parents don't have a lot of answers to what's wrong with their children.

There are a lot of parents that get onto my vehicle, and they have no clue what's going on.

They have no clue what they're stepping into just getting into this vehicle.

They don't know what to expect on the ride, they don't know what to expect at the doctor.

And the more and more interactions that we have, I have time to kind of share my knowledge of health, with what my mother has taught me, my knowledge from my own personal experiences, and other families, and it kind of becomes a community, especially on the bus when you have four or five single moms sitting there, just trying to figure out what's wrong with my child, what's wrong with your child?

Oh, we share the same doctor, and then they come together.

And it's just a beautiful thing.

And that means the world to me.

(Rosemarie giggles) This was my first ultrasound.

I believe this was my first one.

When I found out I was pregnant.

No, this is my second one, actually.

And 'cause they give you two ultrasounds, like your pregnancy, and they're like, "Okay, I'm done."

She definitely grew.

A lot.

(laughing) And then all we saw was her head when we, (laughing) it was very, very known.

They're like, "Um, hello."

She's right there.

(soft music) We're very fortunate in the state of Alabama to have such incredible medical resources.

But if you live in rural Alabama, that access can seem nearly impossible.

I mean, if you don't have a vehicle at all, and it's an hour, two hours, to get to the specialized care you need, if you have a vehicle, but it's not reliable, so you can't drive it, you can't pay for gas, it almost seems like the barriers are just too hard to climb.

We want to provide families with hope.

We want them to see that nope, that barrier's not hard to climb.

We are here, we can get you there.

One of the first things that we have to do when we're working with families is build the trust that we're gonna be there, and we're gonna be able to help them.

We're gonna be part of this with them.

And that's our job from the moment the coordinators take their call to the dispatcher making sure that that driver is set and ready to reach them on the day of the appointments, and then showing up every single time to do what we need to do to make the stress less for them.

When people get on my bus, I just want them to feel secure.

I want them to feel at ease.

I don't want anyone to feel stressed.

I don't want them to feel as though, oh, I don't want them to feel a sense of dread.

Feel positive when you get on the bus.

We're all going for the same reason.

We all love our children.

I have two sons of my own.

And I'd do anything to take care of them, I know those parents would do anything to take care of their children, as well.

[Bree] All the drivers is nice, though.

-Even Pete?

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, wow.

-He's our favorite one.

(Pete laughing) He really is our favorite one.

He always has nice music going.

You know, he'll talk to us pretty much almost the whole ride, then when we get ready to stop, my son always goes to him to either shake his head or try to hug him.

He's very nice to my son.

My son loves him.

If we had a choice to pick a person, he would be our person, but we get different drivers.

But every one of them is extremely nice.

My name is Sabrina.

This is my son, Kimari, AKA KJ.

Tell 'em hey, KJ.

(laughing) I've been using it since my first son.

He's 21 now, so.

I've been using Kid One for over 20 some years.

'Cause Kid One is reliable transportation.

You give them your destination you're going, and the time and everything, and they get you there on time, and they come back and pick you up when you're ready, and bring you back to your destination you're going back to.

It's easy.

Very easy.

Simple.

Being able to do something that's beneficial, not only to me in a positive way, but in the lives of others, it makes it real easy to be able to stay.

And when I think about how long I've been here, it's like, where did the time go?

You know?

It's just, it's easy.

It's easy to be able to get up, come to work, and know that we were able to relieve stress for a parent that was worried about something as simple as transportation.

Being able to once again have a positive impact on the lives of others, you can go pretty much anywhere and get a job, but are you doing something that actually has meaning?

Being able to leave here at the end of the day knowing that I've helped someone along the way, that's what it's all about, being able to help others.

(bright upbeat music) Tell them bye-bye.

-He said, "All right!"

-(all chuckling) We have stories where the children didn't make it.

Those are the hardest.

There's a family in Montgomery, a mother of three, and there was one child that stuck out.

He was one of my very first riders, and they lived kinda on a hill, and this one child, he'll run down the hill, and he'll, "Hey, Mr.

K!"

He'll fist bump me, high five me, always has his hat to the side, but he was always a happy child.

And they were always coming to Birmingham.

The son, they disappeared for about a year.

About two years ago, they disappeared, and again, I've seen this family two, three times a month for eight years, and then they just kinda disappeared.

And I just, I'm worried about them.

They pop up on my schedule.

I say, "Oh, I get to see my friend again.

He's gonna run down the hill, he's gonna come see me."

And I see the child, and he needs assistance to get into the car.

And it hurt me to see him like that, because for, as I said, eight years, he's running down the hill to come see me.

He's happy to get onto the bus.

He was diagnosed with a rather aggressive condition, and within a year, he was in a wheelchair, and he just recently passed away.

Friday, no, Wednesday, excuse me.

Wednesday, I found out Friday.

Just reaching out to the parents.

And just we're talking to the mom, talking to the dad, they were happy that I cared enough to check in on them.

They were happy enough that I helped them with everything that was going on.

They were happy I cared enough, that it just wasn't a job to me, that I actually would go out of my way to check on their status and everything, so.

And he did mean a lot to me.

I will say that.

[Marsha] When a mom calls and say, "Because of Kid One, the quality of life of my baby in the short time that they was here was increased because of you guys."

That makes all the difference in the world.

(soft music) (car engine rumbling) So basically, the kids and families that we pick up, if they have Medicaid, Medicaid supports some portion of that.

For those that don't have Medicaid, our donors support the cost of providing a service to them.

You know, we couldn't do what we do without all of our partners, and we work with over 600 partners throughout the state, and those partners include social workers, they include healthcare providers, the health department, schools, so many people that make sure that we're part of this greater infrastructure to ensure that children and expectant moms get the healthcare they need.

Support from our donors makes it possible for us to do what we do.

One of those donors, who's been with us probably since the very beginning of the organization is Mercedes.

They provide us with many of the vehicles in our fleet, and have for decades, but they also maintain those vehicles for us.

They support the maintenance, they make sure we have reliable and ready vehicles to do the things that we need to do to deliver our mission.

Kid One has an image to where we look like we may be flowing in cash.

That's a perception, that's an image.

That's the image we want people to see.

We look good.

We're providing the services.

But that's a struggle from day to day.

It's about $57,000 per vehicle to operate annually, and that includes insurance, fuel, the driver.

But when you're talking about individual kids, depends on if they're local, if they're coming from rural counties.

It's about 57 one way, $57 one way for a local transport, and obviously that gets more expensive.

So for Kid One insurance, it's about 250,000 a year, just for that transportation, because of the kind of service that we're providing, and those are the types of expenses that most people don't look at and go, "I wanna pay for that."

But it is one of the most important things that we pay for in order to ensure that we can deliver our mission.

We would love to be statewide, but in order for that to happen, we have to have the financial resources to create the stability for us to be able to provide those services.

As a nonprofit organization, Kid One relies on staff.

We rely on community partners, but we also rely heavily on our volunteers, our board, our leadership board is influential in ensuring that we can create the relationships throughout the state to be successful and to be able to deliver our mission, so we would not be where we are without that tireless support of our board of directors.

(bright upbeat music) Kid One is community.

Kid One is special in its own way.

Kid One is family.

Without these resources, it would be very difficult for some of our patients to receive the care that they need to thrive and to grow.

That's kinda my passion, wanting to be able to be instrumental in the lives of others.

I see so many families impacted by our ability to just be there.

I was fortunate that I could get my children to specialized care, but it made it very obvious to me the challenge that these families face, and not only paying for such treatment, but also getting to that treatment is just sometimes seems insurmountable.

And so it was important for me to make sure that we continue to have an organization that can provide families with that hope and that opportunity to get the care that they so greatly desire for their children, and that's why I will work for the mission of Kid One.

(gentle uplifting music) Thank you so much.

You do not know how excited I am to see you.

You're probably my favorite person this week.

Well, you're very welcome.

I'm very glad to be here, and I really do support your mission and everything, to transport kids and families to their medical appointments.

I think that's a very great thing that Alabama kids really do need.

As you can see, the home page now features -a little snippet- -I love the video -in the background.

-Of the video.

And then also, a little bit of a client testimonial video.

[Miranda] Oh, wonderful.

So that's right on the front page.

Awesome.

[Tiara] Other clients that are visiting the website can see this really affects real families, and it's not just an online Google review, you know?

This is very helpful.

I don't think we had a single video on the website before, and now it just provides more personality, but also makes it more real.

We're a real group, and so I mean, the difference between what we have here and what we had before, just cannot tell you how incredible it is.

And this links to your donation page.

You have your mailing list so that people can stay up to date in what you all are doing here.

So then now we have these big large buttons so that they can download the PDF application and the general release form.

[Miranda] Wonderful.

[Tiara] I think in the old website, it was kinda hidden behind the text.

[Miranda] It was.

And it looks like you included the Spanish and English versions so that people can click between those.

Thank you for doing that.

Yes, I've made it so much easier for people to fill out application forms and request a ride forms.

[Miranda] As we update pictures, can we as a team do that, or do we need your help?

[Tiara] You can update anything you want to.

[Miranda] Wonderful.

[Tiara] So WordPress is very easy for people to update content, build websites, and everything else.

That is great.

Is there anything else from us that would be helpful that might add to what you're doing here from a website standpoint?

On the back end, we also need to log into Facebook, but once we log into your Facebook, it'll be really simple to make a post on Facebook, and then immediately see it on the website.

Oh, wow!

Okay.

I cannot tell you how many times over the past few weeks I've had to send someone to our website, a potential donor, or a new client, and I'm a little, ah!

I don't know what to do, you know?

It's kinda hard to find, so I'm kind of walking everyone through where exactly they need to be.

But now I've got this amazing new resource, and I won't mind, or won't feel bad about sending folks to it, and I can't tell you what a game changer that's gonna be for us.

You're very welcome.

I imagine it was a big pain point for you to have to stop what you were doing to help, although I know you don't mind, but it pulls you away from your work, and clients can get frustrated navigating the old website, and I hope that this new website solves at least like 90% of your problems.

Well, it's definitely gonna make us look a lot more legitimate and really display our impact, and that is, that's what these are supposed to do, so thank you.

Yes, welcome.

(bright upbeat music) (music ends)