Homeward Bound: Leaving the big city behind for a better life

Detroit was the only home Stacy Marcell Harper had ever known, so leaving all that was familiar should have been difficult. But making the decision to leave was easy. It was everything that led up to that decision that was hard. As a divorced, single parent she wanted the best for her son Justin, 12, and her daughter, Ta’sia, 11.

Stacy said leaving Detroit was a “survival call.” Read more…

At Home on the Road

The Walmart parking lot in Butte, Montana resembled a campground. More than twenty RVs, campers and travel trailers were parked on the outskirts when we arrived in the late afternoon. The vehicles varied from top-of-the-line, bus-shaped motor homes to old, creaking models that had seen far better days.

Our 1986 Toyota Escaper fell toward the less attractive end of that spectrum and, for the first time on our trip, we shared the Walmart parking lot with a vehicle just like it. That’s how we met Mike and Jane. Read more…

“In an Instant:” From Affluence to Bankruptcy in Denver’s Housing Meltdown

Bob and Callae didn’t know it, but in 2007 their family was on the precipice of a devastating slide from affluence to bankruptcy. They lived in an upscale Denver neighborhood, were members of a country club and employed a nanny for their two young boys. Read more…

Growing Difficulties: Kansas farmers caught between good times and bad

Dan Daniels says there are few things he loves more than a challenge, and this year he’s getting just that. He stands to lose more than $100,000 on his farm near Topeka, Kansas. It’s a story that began a year ago, strangely, in one of the most profitable growing seasons farmers there had ever seen. Read more…

“That Piece of Paper”

No one seems more surprised at what a single piece of paper can do for you than Cory Willingham.

Had he known what life would be like, the constant struggle to find and keep a job that did not require a high school diploma, he might have done things differently. Twenty years ago, Cory dropped out of Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kansas. He says he fell in with the “wrong crowd” and that once his father got sick, he had to get a job to help out. Cory says it went downhill from there. Read more…

Maisie’s Pool

We arrived in Eskridge, Kansas on the Maisie DeVore Highway. It said so right on the big green road sign outside of town.

We were on a tour of rural Kansas with friends from Topeka and were prepared to roll right through Eskridge without stopping. It wouldn’t have taken long; the town’s population is about 500. But the decision was made that we should see “Maisie’s Pool,” a few blocks off the main drag.

It would be easy to miss the amazing story here. The facility looks like any other community pool, but the forty year effort behind it is unique and inspiring. Read more…

An Animal’s Best Friend

Around Lexington, Missouri they call Tina Bratcher the “Cat Lady.” The name makes her laugh, but she comes by it honestly.

As a child, Tina’s mother refused to let her keep any of the animals she brought home. It wasn’t until she was all grown up with a place of her own, that Tina decided she could finally keep the stray cats she found while delivering mail along her postal route in Independence, MO. She brought home so many, that she and her husband decided to move out from the city to Lexington where they could have plenty of land for the cats to roam free. Read more…

A Patchwork of Hope: Donna Sue Groves, the woman behind barn quilts, faces the challenge of her life

Losing a job and learning you have cancer would devastate just about anybody – except for Donna Sue Groves. She is a survivor. What helps Donna Sue fight is the love and support of family and friends, and the community she has helped create through a simple idea of painting colorful quilt squares on barns. Read more…

The Long Walk: Cross-Country with Her Horse

As the economic turmoil has played out in the lives of ordinary Americans, many face a long, difficult road ahead.

Few, though, face a journey quite like Ann Byrns of Pelham, Massachusetts. She’s walking across the country with her horse. Read more…

Life Lessons

Growing up on a farm in rural Ohio, Jared Rowley would daydream about city life and one day going to college. It was a dream not shared by his parents. So after high school graduation, Jared was on his own. He made his way to Ohio University, but college life was far from what he imagined it would be. Read more…

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