- Today we're talking lives reimagined.

What if inside you, you had a piece to the puzzle that could change this world?

That's what's coming up.

- I would go to my grandmother's in Columbia and we had to wash clothes by hand there and then come full circle to come work for an appliance company all these years later.

It really connected me to the cause and wanting to change that for other women and girls out there.

- You didn't go to Bonton unless you had a reason to go to Bonton.

- It was just kind of tucked away and, you know, a back part of the city and no one really went there.

But now, I mean, they have a light shining, they're illuminated now, right?

Totally difference.

- You know, for a lot of us, it has been a long time coming and, and we put literal blood, sweat, - And tears into this joint right - Here.

- Both of our characters are so strong and firm and who they are and what they wanna do and what they believe and positive in that kind of conviction.

And seeing that type of conviction in a young woman is encouragement for whatever your passion is in life.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multi-family investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort.

Creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning Center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by FE o Dr.

Stacey McClain, facial Plastic Surgeon, high five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong Empowerment Apparel.

- Hello and welcome to the season premier of the Whitney Reynolds Show.

If you're new to our program, we wanna be the strongest voice of hope when it comes to media, but also, if you're coming back from our past seasons, you might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level and kicking us off today, we are talking lives reimagined, awakening the soul of our story.

Come for the stories, save for the heart.

Wear every journey.

We might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

Whitney's - Here dream you.

I watching the Whitney Reynolds show, Chicago - Voices Lives.

- This is the Whitney Reynolds show.

Around the world, millions of women and girls spend hours each day, hand washing clothes.

But what if laundry wasn't just a chore, but actually a barrier to education, rest and opportunity.

This is the story of a simple solution with transformative impact.

When - I was growing up in New York City, we didn't have a washing machine.

So Laundry day was always about hauling big bags to the laundromat and then hoping that a machine was open.

- But for Rosa, laundry was never just laundry.

It was woven into her story across generations.

- When I was a little girl, I wouldn't go to my grandmother's in Columbia and we had to wash clothes by hand there.

That was a real eye-opening experience.

I, I remember washing in cold water and how that stung my fingers.

I did notice that my grandmother, you know, it was backbreaking work and it was three hours per day.

So that was very difficult and, and I think just that awareness and then come full circle to come work for an appliance company all these years later is really interesting to me because it really connected me to the cause and wanting to change that for other women and girls out there.

- What started as a childhood memory became a mission and now a calling for Rosa.

It led to advocacy inside Whirlpool and for our next guest, it was the invention.

The founder of the washing machine project joins us in studio to share how one neighbor, one promise and one prototype became a global movement.

- That's when the penny dropped and the light bulb moment happened and I said to Divya, I'll make you one.

- You were in India trying to fix something else and identified another issue.

- I found myself in India because I really wanted to help the planet not hinder the planet.

And it was an amazing place.

You know, these are people that have so very little but love so much, and yes, they don't have continuous running water and if you don't have a generator, there's frequent blackouts.

But they welcomed me with open arms.

And I was next door neighbors with an incredible lady called Divya - Divya.

And when you met her, you noticed a trend that was happening day in hour upon hour and even keeping some young girls at home.

- Mm, yeah.

So - And outta school.

- Yeah, exactly.

Whitney.

So Divya used to spend hours and hours a week on unpaid labor, hand washing her family's clothes.

She'd spend up to 20 hours a week doing this.

And it wasn't just her, it was every lady on the street, every girl in the village.

And you know, there was a big problem there.

And I wanted to find out why and how can I fix it.

- Nav didn't go to India to fix laundry, but when he saw the burden, he couldn't ignore it.

- I offered her an electrical washing machine.

- Oh, you said, Hey, let's just hook it up.

- Yeah, I'll just, I'll buy you an electric washing machine.

- She's like, hang on, there's a little issue with that.

- Yeah.

So that's when the penny dropped and the light bulb moment happened and I said to Divya, I'll make you one.

I promise to come back here and bring you a washing machine.

- Wow.

And not only did you sign sill, you also delivered that promise.

- Yeah.

- And named the machine.

- Divya - One woman's name now represents Hope for Millions.

But designing a machine is only part of the story.

Bringing it to life takes innovation, commitment, and a team.

Behind the scenes at the heart of the effort is Greg, an engineering leader who helped transform dya from concept into global distribution.

- The Washing Machine project is a not-for-profit based out of the uk.

That kind of crossed paths with Whirlpool a few years back.

And we both had the same mission of reaching underserved communities with solutions for washing clothes as an alternative to hand washing.

And we found that we could combine our efforts and be more impactful.

So we entered into a multi-year relationship with them, Whirlpool and the Washing Machine project.

And when they came to Whirlpool and we started this relationship, they brought their initial design and we started collaborating, looking at how we could make it more user friendly for assembling it, lower cost for manufacturing, it easier to distribute it around the world.

So we started this great collaboration, their engineering team, our engineering team, and improving the design.

And we improved the design, both for the end user, but also for the manufacturing and distribution of the machine.

- For me, it was very important that volunteers not just come and show up and check a box.

So for me it was very important that they connect to the cause, which is why we started with the washout experience, which is an immersive experience.

We make employees wash clothes by hand first.

I think one of the more meaningful stories for me was when a gentleman from India who has grown up seeing his family members, women washing clothes by hand, came here to the experience and he said, this is the first time that I've had real empathy for what my mom and sister go through Every day - We've set up the manufacturing line to where anyone could show up.

A Whirlpool employee can take a day of their time and come here and, and we've built it in a way that you don't have to have any expertise in manufacturing, but we have a multimodal work construction.

So it's written text, it's pictures showing how the machine goes together.

We also have a video that has some AI generated steps in it that helps them see how the machine goes together of, of us building the machine.

And then they can follow along at their own pace and build the machine.

- This isn't just a side project, it's a company wide effort rooted in empathy.

- And it was immediate impact.

It was really emotional for me to see just how fast a machine could change a girl's life.

You know, laundry isn't just a chore.

It, it really is a sacrifice of time.

- The whole time that we're with her, it was so emotional and she said something really beautiful to us.

She said, you've supported me now, but there's millions of women just like me around the world.

So go find them because they need your support.

- And that's exactly what they're doing.

There could be a boy and a girl in the same family, and the girl gets to stay home and, and wash clothes while the boy goes to school.

So you think of the impact of that losing that opportunity at a young age.

You can never reclaim that back.

So to be able to be doing something to, to change that, I think about what possibly my grandmother or my own mother would've been able to do if they would've had that time.

- We have already distributed hundreds of machines to countries like India, the Republic of Congo, Mexico, Uganda, Ghana.

We just loaded a sea container last week.

72 machines rolled out on a truck heading to Congo last week.

- A machine built in Michigan.

Changing lives around the world.

- Honestly, the reason I I stick around is those opportunities to get to improve people's lives at home every day.

It's what has kept me at Whirlpool for 15 years.

One day we'll be laughing, at the - Time we only made just washing machines.

- A washing machine might not seem revolutionary, but when it gives a girl her education, a mother, her dignity, and a grandmother, her piece, it's an actual - Turning point.

- We head to Dallas, Texas on this show.

I put on my boots and helped plant seeds of change.

Let's take a look.

- The old Bonton, you didn't go to Bonton unless you had a reason to go to Bonton.

- It was just kind of tucked away in, you know, a bad part of the city and no one really went there.

But now, I mean, they have a light shining, they're illuminated now, right?

It's totally different.

- It's one way in, one way out a whole different story.

We get deliveries, like we, we, we get piece of deliveries.

It was no way possible.

We get the piece of delivery 25, 30 years ago.

Like no, this was just a neighborhood of it.

It was a, a town left alone.

All forgotten about.

- The way that we've been growing is really just providing hope.

It's really crazy to think that a community like this has been without the, the human and essentials that communities where I live here in Dallas have, and just being able to provide something for them to, to be able to build their life on has been tremendous.

- What is it like for you to be here now and see the change that has created?

I mean, I would say in a very time, - Yeah.

It's, you know, it's very affirming.

When we started this, I don't think we had a single person that believed in what we set out to do.

As hard as this is to say, I think that by and large, the bulk of society has written off people that come from places like this.

- I ended up losing my 16-year-old son to gun violence.

364 days later I lost my grandmother.

- Did you seek drugs and alcohol?

- Basically at that time?

It wasn't as bad as it was before because I was trying to come out of a space, a recognizable space.

And so when I got here, I had that opportunity.

- Did you ever see yourself finding your new story on a farm?

- I heard the stories, but to actually come and see it, I was shocked.

I've been down the street all of this time and I didn't know - What was it like to hear that there were people in the city that believed in this area, believed in change.

- That was, that was the icing on the cake for me.

And the reason being is because I'm a grandmother's baby.

And so my grandmother was my world and the love that she exhibited, I thought that nobody else could do - That for some reason.

We always try to focus on the differences and not what we have in common.

That is way more in abundance than what we have different.

And so connecting those dots helps us connect as human beings instead of rich, poor white, black - Bonton located in South Dallas, bears the heavy legacy of Jim Crow's segregation, discriminatory housing policies and racial violence, unavoidable aspects of America's urban history.

When our film crew arrived, we noticed open gates hinting at the possibility of a new story unfolding for this community.

And that's where Darren Babcock stepped.

In - March of 1998, my wife was diagnosed with cancer and then two years to the date of her diagnosis, she died.

And just all of that stuff kind of tipped over and I just had never built up the muscle to deal with it, - Right?

- And so started this really reckless behavior of hurting other people so that I could feel okay for just a minute.

And so I did a line of cocaine that night for the first time and it's like, oh, I have this same relief Wow.

From hurting other people now, now I don't have to hurt other people.

And so I started on cocaine and alcohol to, to feel better, right?

Until it didn't.

And I was, by that time I was just in a really bad spot.

I just remember falling on my knees one night and saying, God, I don't know if you're real or not, but if you are, I quit.

And everything changed.

I don't think I chose Bonton in some way.

We just chose each other.

- Bonton farm started as a garden in a food desert, transforming what was a vacant lot into a source of fresh food with a lot of hope.

One of his primary goals has been to support residents, particularly formerly incarcerated men in finding meaningful work.

The mission here goes beyond farming is about community transformation, restoring lives, creating jobs, and igniting hope.

Today, Bonton Farms features a market, a coffee shop, and its newest edition, a wellness center.

- When the 2022 census data came out, we learned that our average median household income over that 10 year period increased 106%.

- Wow.

- Our high school graduation rates went from perennially at 54% to now 76.7%.

- Five girls, ages seven to 12 on a Sunday afternoon did $15,000 worth of damage to the farm today.

These five girls are some of our biggest ambassadors, but more importantly, we've helped their mothers to get jobs.

One's now a medical assistant at the Health and Wellness Center.

One is working with one of our partners.

Another one is excited to continue the education so she can work with us.

Wow, what could have been a very fracturing and detrimental situation turned out to be one of the biggest blessings.

- We had a, a partner organization that brought a, a homeless person here at four o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday.

And they went up to hand this gentleman a blanket and he was in the process of actively trying to take his life and just didn't know what to do.

So they brought him here.

And I'm like, what are you like, what?

You know, this place is miraculous, but like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do at four o'clock on a Friday.

I'll give you a place to stay tonight if you promise me that you'll eat your meal, go to bed.

And then we'll start the conversation tomorrow.

And I just remember going home and going, you know, that was a bad decision.

What happens if something happens here?

And so I didn't sleep much that night.

I got here the next morning and I went to the house he was staying in and he wasn't there.

And so I started to panic and went back to where the goats are.

And he was sitting on a bench back there and had two baby goats, one on each side nibbling on both of his ears, trying to nurse from his ears and he was smiling.

When you meet people, you don't know their story, you haven't earned the right to know their story yet.

You just see them for who they are.

And all I saw were these beautiful people that were just filled with d dreams and potential and that were resilient because they've endured so much more than me in my life.

And we're still fighting and still standing.

- You know, they say every seven years you somebody different.

Yeah, you a different person.

And so if you don't give yourself that opportunity, you'll never know.

- Today this land is not just about survival.

In fact, it's a thriving hub, welcoming a diverse group of entrepreneurs from around the city, eager to lend their skills and support.

This transformation is empowering residents and sparking change a pocket now known for being the largest hope dealer in South Dallas.

- I see myself in all these people.

These are my people just like you.

I see some of myself in you.

Your your kind nature and your desire to help and be a good person for your city and your community.

We share that some of the things that the people in these communities may suffer from is that they've been neglected and they don't carry that gene.

It's been almost beat out of them.

Wow.

But, but if I can, I'm here to bring it back, to make them understand that this is theirs.

- It goes back to the hope, it's hope realized.

It's the community seeing they said this and I kind of believed them, but now it's happening and my life is changing.

- Just being able to break that cycle, that cycle that just repetitively, basically suppresses of a certain demographic.

And so it's a great, it's a great way to really make sure they're expanding on that.

And really, Bonton does better.

Dallas does better.

Dallas does better.

Texas does better.

Texas does better.

Country does better.

- First time I heard these folks say we're going to Bonton.

And I turned around and I was like, who, who's going to Bonton?

And why are we going?

And then I, they told me about the relationship that they have now.

And the first time I went, I was like, this is not the Bonton that I knew.

- The view itself and the people in this environment are inspiring.

- Life is hard for all of us in different ways.

The answer of how we get through all that stuff is community.

We need each other.

- My stepdad - Used to say the best way to know a thing, dad, - To take it apart when the mind of a genius is fueled by heartbreak and rebuilt by resilience.

This is Iron Heart.

Hello and welcome to Chicago Girls.

Thank you.

I have to say Iron Heart, the whole AI version, dramatic theme, really showcasing Chicago.

There were so many different emotions.

So glad it's finally here.

Oh my God.

- And I can't say that I've been waiting as long as Miss Dominique, Lauren has over here, but you know, for a lot of us, it has been a long time coming and, and we put literal blood, sweat, and tears into this joint right here.

So I'm, I'm excited for everybody who's a part of it.

- There's so many different plot points.

What did you think Lyric?

Whenever you got the script and you're like, okay, I'm like dead and then I come back as a ai, it, - It was exciting coming from a character that I was so used to doing for the past five years.

You know, deja from TIU, just, she was very specific in, in the opposite way, right?

And I was very excited to, to just do something completely different.

And that is exactly what Natalie is.

- Both of our characters are so strong and firm in who they are and what they wanna do and what they believe.

And it's really hard to kind of convince them otherwise that, that either of them are wrong or that, you know, things should be done some way other than how they see it.

And as we see in the show, that comes with its own set of challenges.

The plus they're the positive in that kind of conviction.

And seeing that type of conviction in a young woman is encouragement for whatever your passion is in life and whatever, especially if it has to do with utilizing this skill or this knowledge that you've been able to craft in mind within yourself.

Sometimes reinvention - Isn't a choice, it's a calling.

We see that grief doesn't break her and actually rebuild her.

The armor is smart, but the heart, that is where the real story lives.

- You should take your dads and face, - Break yourself down, see what you're made of.

- We definitely see how Iron Heart kind of got that name from her losing her stepfather, GSW straight to the heart.

And I think out of that, we're seeing Riri try to navigate this.

I don't know, it's, it's, it's honestly still a bit of a mystery to most people still today.

But trying to navigate that thing called grief.

And I think I can absolutely understand, empathize, relate to commend her desire to sort of keep going for the sake of her family to, you know, make them proud and do all these shoulder, all these additional responsibilities because she knows that it would have honored her late stepfather.

But also having that grief kind of quietly eat away at you because you're not acknowledging it and you're not taking the time to really sit with it and give it the attention that it, that it deserves.

So I think that is also a pretty big theme coming outta the show that I'm, I'm grateful that we get to talk about - Right - In this way and that I hope it encourages those who may be, you know, having that conversation within themselves currently to take a moment and do a bit of that reflection as well.

- We walk away kind of on a cliff thing or just to be completely, you don't know what happens, what goes on after this.

- Who knows?

Who knows?

You don't know.

We'll just have to stay tuned.

Season two, we'll - See.

Oh my goodness.

So many dot points for everybody to watch.

Thank you both ladies.

Thank you.

And before we go, we wanna remind you we have more hope-filled interviews on today's topic streaming on the PBS app.

We caught up with the stars from the legend of Ochi who remind us that when purpose meets power lives are reimagined.

- I think to be able to finally like release it years later is like such a, it's such a great feeling.

So many artists put so much of themselves into this movie and it's been a long journey, but, but very excited for it to be finally out.

- Today's show was packed with visionary.

They didn't just see the world as it is, but reimagine the possibilities.

Remember, your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multi-family investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse their selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning Center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by Fe o Dr.

Stacey McLean, facial Plastic Surgeon, high Five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong Empowerment Apparel.

- Want to stay connected to all things.

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