>> I went through one of the reentry simulations thinking I KET everything, but I really >> How a restaurant owner is giving some people a taste of life after incarceration.

>> Fortunately, I have a steal.

That I can make a real contribution to this effort.

>> See how this local Brock Smith is trying to forge a pass toward peace.

I came home, talked to my sister about it.

And we KET we had to do something.

Why some students could know Ford prom dresses.

These 2 sisters took action.

So this total retirement, we honor we don't retrain them when they come here.

They come here totally to retire.

>> And meet a man who has dedicated his life to helping former racehorse is enjoy the rest of theirs.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

The owner Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky of this.

And we hope you had a wonderful day to day.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding it down with us on this day of giving.

Thanks.

We're bringing you stories of those who are giving back and making their community and Kentucky.

>> A better place.

Their neighbors helping neighbors and the case of cake Clemens.

It's been one neighbor helping thousands.

She's been serving ready to eat meals and not county since last year when flooding devastated eastern Kentucky and now with her newly formed nonprofit, she's finding other ways to meet the needs of the community.

>> So every day is like Tetris to make everything fit.

I think that it was truly a stern.

Kentucky's darkest hour just to have something >> So strongly in such a short amount time that many people.

It's unthinkable.

When I found out just how severe it was.

I just KET I had to try to get my hands on whatever resources I could was 3 days after the flood.

I was driving by and I just saw this period Operation BBQ.

I would pick up the meals from Operation BBQ and then I would first drop off at the Sportsplex and then now a go and drop off at the various school drop-off points.

Sometimes I would take to charges just wherever ad said, but by the end of the day, all I say this 1000 mail as they were left out or so that's set up in downtown comment.

So I just part of my car.

And put at the top that and serve starts our emails out of my car.

Hi, how are you?

I had no idea how long it can continue.

I just KET I had to KET going until the papal where okay, I would probably serve 1000 meals in under an hour.

That's how quick and some days I would even do take 1000 if I can get my hand on their resources.

Just in nature, food was insane.

I KET I wanted to be more than male.

I wanted to help get them on their face.

So in August, I created a needs assessment it was where anything from housing repairs trying to obtain safe housing medical appliances, start to sway ever to convey.

All right.

I can't promise you anything.

Ballot trauma that has to do what I can do at the six-month Christmas.

I thought it was Remember going to bed?

And the way before Christmas and and is praying to God.

Really just bait him to help me find a local church or any church to help hook up that morning.

10 message from Greg Johnson.

His great runs, a charity raffle.

I got the call from him saying that they had chosen major save $31,500.

then have minutes later, I got a message a church in us around the county saying that they would like to purchase a motorcycle trailer from a dependent parking lot.

I use that opportunity to create the nonprofit unnamed at Roscoe's daughter after my dad.

And I'm just so excited for what I can do with it.

I appreciate you law.

We are at the one-year mark now.

And it's the greatest honor taping launching a food pantry to serve all not county.

Yes, it will be banks and food insecurity that I was very articulate, including language to allow the program to respond to any disaster when disaster strikes help can't wait.

I mean, you have to be on the ground and you have to stay in the game as it progresses.

You can't simply just, you know.

Here the items needed.

You have to stay with the people because as time moves forward than AIDS change.

When I talk to people, they are quote what you get to next.

I don't know him and whatever God fans I'm just so humbled because I never dreamed that he would have allowed me to create a nonprofit to still be here with people.

I love so much.

You're about that.

>> Thank goodness for Kate's good work.

Now receiving a cancer diagnosis is one of the hardest things to go through and getting treatment isn't always easy.

That's why one Louisville woman started travel to Hope.

A nonprofit helping cancer patients get to the lifesaving care.

They need.

That's often out of state.

>> Well, even though we launched last September, our story really starts back in June of 2015, where in one week's time both my mother-in-law and my husband were diagnosed with rare and aggressive cancers and they both needed to travel for the treatment that they need.

And it was actually David's inspiration to start travel to hope and we named it.

We came up with a logo and began the process and then unfortunately, Davids health took a pretty rapid downturn and he passed in September of 2017.

And we've lost colony the the year before.

Flash forward 5 years.

My son's almost nearly grown it this time.

So I'm I'm thrilled that on hit the 5th anniversary of his passing, we launched travel to help last September.

8th.

We fulfill our mission by helping provide information to cancer patients on lodging, transportation and other financial resources and organizations that can help them for their travel.

However, when that is not enough, and a patient has significant financial need beyond what they can offer, then that's where travel to hope can come in and provide direct financial assistance to get them the rest of the way so that they can afford to travel for that life saving treatment.

They need.

It's estimated that over 250,000 Americans have to travel every year to receive trip cancer treatment.

But what I am seeing and what the data which show is it's particularly acute for rural cancer patients.

They're over 70% of counties in the United States do not have on college us or cancer specialists.

So it's impossible for them to get the physician care that they need.

And then coupled with that, the regional hospitals often don't have expertise as well as the specialized equipment to be able to effectively diagnose and treat cancer.

So by the fall, almost rural Americans need to travel for their treatment.

And so we have supported 44 patients in 14 states and we have funded over 175 trips for treatment.

And unfortunately, right now we are on a We, you know, frankly, have more patients needing support like what travel to hope can give than our current funding can allow part of our model is to provide ongoing support to the patients that we are working with.

And so, you know, for those patients, those 44 that we have worked with so far, they can count on us as best.

Our funding will allow for ongoing support and new funds that come in.

That's where we can continue to add in new patients that we're supporting.

You know, one of our patients and that up and brought him to tears.

Said that she was so grateful for the support that we were able to give her because it will enable turn not to have to choose between feeding her family and getting the treatment she needed and nobody should ever have to make a decision like that.

>> After years of offering second chance employment Rob Perez of Dv 8 Kitchen says he thought he KET at all when it came to the challenges faced by those reentering society after addiction or incarceration.

But a re-entry simulation by the Kentucky Department of Corrections opened his eyes.

Now he's helping educate others about the hardships.

>> We've been employing people that have passed for over 6 years.

And I went through one of the reentry simulations thinking I KET everything, but I really didn't understand all that people had to go through with just trying to get back into the community after jail or addiction.

This is the first simulation and we're setting up a series of them so that we can get people that currently may not have the understanding that we were lucky enough to have.

I work at not only sisters which isn't on it kind of helps woman who attended the situation.

So I thought that.

>> I had kind of a better understanding of it.

And I was sorely mistaken.

>> Was a lot harder than I thought.

>> The first week I walked around like that 5 times in a circle because I couldn't find you know what I needed to go forward.

And I was like in real life.

You know, that's absolutely something that they go through.

We needed to have a bus pass for every place that we went, which is also something that I deal with on a daily basis that work.

>> But I didn't think it had its big of an impact as it does in real life.

When I was reviewing an application and weeding out people to interview because they have gaps in their employment.

I didn't know how many barriers an employer I put up.

We all say that people when they get out of jail or out of recovery, they need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

The reality of it is that the private sector decides to put barriers on jobs.

>> Housing opportunities every day.

And it becomes so far hard to just make ends meet the people go back to addiction, go back to jail because it's just not possible.

People.

>> I think that getting it is super easy getting, you know your Social Security card.

Super easy.

But you can't do any of that.

If you don't have an address, if you're coming straight out of jail, you don't have.

And I just got to start paying rent.

They pay right.

You have to have a job to have a job.

We have to have the house and it's just it's a cyclical type of thing.

I'm open to people that have jobs offer, have housing and offer opportunities that they re-evaluate.

Just saying no.

When asked if they can get the opportunities to people with the past.

>> It's easy to look at somebody and say, you know, they were in car rated, know they did this to themselves.

And I think having that is that the looking at it from their point of view is a big step in being able to acknowledge that these kind of issues do happen in the best way to >> an important program, helping those on the road to recovery.

>> Now a Louisville block Smith.

This forging a new path for his city.

He's partnered with local churches and gun safety activists to steer the city away from gun violence and towards healing pace and even gardening.

>> This is a barrel of a rifle.

>> That I'm going to be turning into a little hand.

Whoa.

And I've been using him in my garden and they're absolutely terrific.

>> Guns to garden is a subcommittee of.

Gun Violence Prevention Key that takes with guns and forges them into garden tools and other kinds of artwork.

Right now, it's people who no longer want to guns.

Some of the guns may have been suicide.

Some of them have been inherited the guns that people no longer want nor do they want them being going back in on the street.

>> It's hard to get rid of a gun in in Kentucky.

The state laws are such that if you do want to give turn over a gun to law enforcement they're required by state law to sell that gun at auction.

So then it's bought by again dealer.

He then turns it around and resells.

It just someone else.

And so there's no way to know what that person's intentions are for And this is a way that has to stop that cycle.

>> Well, you know, it's scary stuff.

If you want to make something and of the guns and, you know, the biblical passage of turning.

So it's into plow shares.

So this is a a religious metaphor for tearing guns, which is you would say the modern day equivalent of swords and little hose of plow shares making act.

>> We have added control gun violence.

You can't be sure of going to the theater or going to shopping mall or parade and not.

Be afraid of of gun violence.

I don't want to sit around and do nothing.

And fortunately I have a skill.

That I can make a real contribution to this effort.

We events of surrender events.

The guns are brought to the group.

And while the the owner is there the guns to cut up right on the site?

>> So they're no longer a weapon anymore.

They're no longer going to hurt anyone else.

For some people.

That is an amazing healing process to go through.

We collected 28 weapons the first time last December.

This time we had a little few or weapons 20 but more people were coming.

So it's small in number, perhaps.

But it's big to us because we know that it's that many less guns that are out there in the world that potentially could harm someone.

>> Now we all know that parenting can be tough, but the founder of the organization called Operation Parent and Oldham County is using her personal experience to better equip parents to handle some of the more challenging situations that life presents.

>> Our oldest son was involved in a very violent fight at the same time, our oldest daughter who is one year younger was involved in that.

I what I call kind of a toxic relationship and they were just 2 issues that we didn't see coming.

We weren't prepared for and we didn't know how to parent And so my natural reaction was to withdraw and isolate.

And that's probably the worst thing you can do when you're you hit a bump in the road.

So the heart behind this organization is the same man.

This stuff is out there.

Don't don't feel the need to hide.

There's a community of parents going through the same or something different.

We're called Operation Parent.

So our focus is on parents.

We're all about prevention and education.

We're a nonprofit that focuses on today's top is parenting challenges, things that include everything from technology to drugs and alcohol to mental health.

And we're just trying help parents who have children between the ages of say first grade and 12th grade.

Be aware of what issues could be affecting their child.

Nonacademic issues help them.

No early warning signs and things they can do to prevent major problems.

So we deal with cell phones, anxiety.

>> Vaping, bullying, gaming drugs, eating disorders, Depression, Sosa social media, which is always changing alcohol and relationships.

And these are sort of the most prevalent topics that we see and feedback from parents and schools.

It all started with our parent handbook and it's a handbook that addresses about 25 of today's toughest parenting challenges.

>> And we update the information every 18 to 24 months.

So it's never stay out.

And parents really appreciate that.

It's a non-clinical publication and it's a practical tips for parents on how to identify issues and what to do if they spot them.

We have many families say that our resources have literally saved a life.

We've also heard family say they were in the middle, something with their children and they went to open this parent handbook and how it helps them.

>> And how some freedom came from that and how some breakthrough in their family came from that.

And so really what our handbooks are so valuable because they give you the information, but they give you an action item to take with you to kind of and implement with your teens.

>> I don't know of any other community that's going to be able to drive up and point to a building and say that's all about parents.

And that's a place where parents can be loved.

And that's a pair of a place where parents can be educated so that they can hold their family together.

The concept of let's equip our parents.

Let's give them my the right resources at the right time is resonating across the state and we want to be the ones that can help parents with what they need.

>> Kudos to Jean and her team for helping parents.

Now prom is a rite of passage for many high school students, but not everybody for it to.

Mercer County sisters saw this in their community and they sprung into action helping some students step out in style for a night to remember for ever.

>> Why I >> 2 sisters.

Prom shop really came together about 2 years ago.

We KET there was an a E I work full time at the hospital in Mercer County and we realized that wasn't me that a lot of the girls, a lot of the guys could not go to prom for the simple fact that could forward to calm attack any cash.

I came home, talked to my sister about it.

And we KET we had to do something.

So from there we thought why not do a Facebook post just that would out there if anybody has any prom dresses, any suits we would love to You know, there isn't a unique and it completely blew that.

We never expected it to be as big as it is.

Now.

So last year we gave away 167 dresses and non states and this year, the need will be more.

We are one of the only organizations that does not charge one dime.

We do not do an application process.

We do not ranch.

Let go when they, you know, pick out their tax, they travel on their dresses shoes and yeah, they're out the door.

We even have all of the jewelry.

My sister and I are making and debate nears the risk or causes.

We do have giveaways some of our local solace will give away free Heyer.

We'll do a drawing.

We take everybody's name into a drawing.

Some people will donate gift card so that they can have a meal to go out to eat anything that is prom related.

We usually get a donation.

And if not, my sister now will purchase set ourselves were just 2 sisters.

That's it.

Nothing special at all.

We're just ordinary people are grandparents have always instilled in us.

You always pay it forward.

If there's somebody in need, you help those people in need.

got stuck in our heart and we just went with it and I hope that from this people.

Will be inspired to do something, you know, not dresses or states or whatever, whatever they're passionate about.

You know, it just pay it forward.

Last year.

Our goal is to make everybody had one magical night that they remember forever.

Haha and certainly those 2 sisters are doing just that.

>> And the past the life of a thoroughbred after their racing and breeding courier was over often, I was often bleak 20 years ago, a man who believed that deserve better open old friends farm where many of these horses are able to live out their golden years.

>> Friends is a place where thoroughbred racehorse, who can go after their racing and breeding and secondary careers are over.

So this total retirement, we don't know.

we don't we try and win this.

Come here.

They come here totally to retire.

We started was one horse who is one of the horses that plate see this get in the movie they rich in Dallas.

Now we have 161 here.

We have 42 down it down the road here Winding Oaks, which is a subdivision and we have another 18 appear cash in Grove, which is a senior citizen facilities.

When I first started, I didn't have any idea what I was doing.

And I went to see Burn Jones, a former governor of Kentucky.

And when I got done explains what are going to going to do, he goes well, let me get this straight.

You're going to get the sources.

You're going to be some of the hall from Japan.

They said that's correct.

But you're not going to sell now and you're not going to breed of know you're not going to race of know, just what exactly is going to do with said, Well, I'm gonna put it in my yard.

Hope people come to this.

The that's ever happened here was December first 2000, a 5th day when Silver Charm came home from Japan and we still have him and he's a superstar.

We just got a lot of a man.

He's a superstar.

But there are the magnets that attract people to come here.

But for every one of those horses, we try and get a horse who just needs a home.

I've, of course, I claim for $3500 in 1999.

At Finger Lakes, up in upstate New York.

And he's still with me here.

So I think if I could do that with the $3500 for us, you know, we can do a better job of taking care of some of these other ones.

That is the backbone of this whole Central Kentucky area.

All their lives.

They have to be told what to do.

So when they're breeding, you have to be told what to do when their racing has to be told what to do going.

The stock modest, all go for a workout, come back to the stalled.

Get one, you know, it's humans dictating everything that they do.

And look, it's literally sure that when they come here, they're the boss and all our job, the city at what they want to do and when they want to do it and comply because nobody's coming here to see me.

They're coming here to see these great.

He's great athletes.

I never a drug that this place would be this way because my dreams aren't that good.

It evolved as they say, it took me along with it.

So the bomb deserves credit for creating itself.

So when I look ahead, 20 years, I'm hoping that will be places for these horses to go when they're breeding and racing careers are over.

And this is one way to do >> From the farm to the street messages of positivity were sprouting along one Lexington Street recently posted on what's being called a trio of love.

We talked to the woman who planted it to find out why she felt this botanical beacon of hope was needed.

The dear friend and colleague Cummings, Merrill Russo.

>> She's lives in La and she started this on a hike that she was and the canyons and LA and when I saw the joy she had at the stories that she was telling about it growing in people taking it that could have the life of his own.

>> I just I I'd love to replicate that.

Symmetry of love is meant to be something that gives to you and can receive from you.

So I encourage people to write their own notes that can take the post notes.

We KET them outside of the box and as pens or you can make your own and bring them.

I have close pens and I tax that people can us put to the strings on the tree.

You bring a note of your own.

You bring a thought of your own a quote that you love or something.

They hope that will encourage somebody else and you can take as well.

So there's if there's a note there and it speaks to take it and KET it with you.

Same with the rocks.

You can make rocks and leave them or if you see a rock to speaking to you, please take it and have it be a part of your world?

I wasn't sure how people feel about it.

If they would just be an eyesore or if it would be something that people loved.

And then when it was clear that people liked it and that they they want it to be a part of the neighborhood at the least, if not more, the community you're right.

It grew.

People are really writing what's on their hearts, but they're really frames are feeling really alone.

And this is a place where they can the scene.

I really love it when I hear other neighbors have said that they're talking about the tree and they're meeting over the tree of have people introduce themselves and say that this is like an excuse to introduced, introduce themselves to other people or to be a part of something that feels like it's growing and that I've had numerous conversations like that.

And I've had people ask how they can make their own tree happen.

Anyone can do it and it can tree that is near you or could be on a pathway that's allowed for the pathway is.

And and I have people that are doing smaller versions that is portable, that it's not a life tree and you can put notes on it that way.

There's just so much that is hard and negative that it's wonderful when you can grow and love and connection and have that reminder as well.

It sometimes getting hard to find that and it's nice when someone else can can plant for you.

>> Indeed, it is what we hope.

You've enjoyed our tribute to the good Samaritans who are lifting up communities all across Kentucky.

Thank you so much for watching Kentucky EDITION today.

We hope you'll join us again tomorrow at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central.

We inform connect and inspire.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Take good care.

And also the Senate.