With the current weather-related and financial challenges Kentuckians are facing, this seems like a good time to share some positive things happening in the Commonwealth. As always, it’s because of good people — whom I believe are abundant in the Bluegrass state. No doubt… these are a small and random variety of items, just a sample. Hopefully these few will bring some good vibes. We need ‘em!
Let’s get started thinking happy thoughts:
• At the Versailles United Methodist Church, a new ministry is starting called “Diaper Bank.” The outreach hopes to “insure every child has the essentials they need,” says the church web site. Diaper distribution begins April 27 and continues every 2nd & 4th Sunday of each month, 6:00 to 7:00 PM. The church is located at 230 Paynes Mill Road, Versailles, KY 40383. Call or text Leah at 859-421-7816 for further details.
• Reset Ministries, an addiction recovery organization based in Newport, is “much more than a place to sleep,” the organization states on its website, resetministries.org. It is “a Christ-centered, voluntary program for men and women in the Greater Cincinnati area that desire to radically change their lives . . . (and) to transform broken and lost men and women into servant leaders as they discover their identity in Christ.”
Thursday night, Suzanne and I attended Reset’s 2025 Annual Banquet fundraiser, called “The Table,” at the Receptions Event Center, on Donaldson Road, Erlanger. We were invigorated by the number (several hundred) who showed up and demonstrated their support financially and with obvious enthusiasm. Reset executive assistant Carolyn Reid noted that two particular donations given, she said, “rocked me. One was a significant donation from a lady who was recently widowed. She has a strong faith and is just beginning to become acquainted with Reset. The other woman is not widowed, but her husband has been out of work for a good while, and she is the breadwinner due to his health issues. She reminded me of the ‘widow and her two mites.’”
• Back before formalized and regulated special education programs existed in Kentucky in the early 1960s, six-year-old Bill McCann, of Lexington, had great difficulty learning. In those days, he related, “families were responsible for providing an education for their differently abled children, at their own expense.” His parents had the resources and because of that, he was sent from Kentucky to live and learn at The Cove Schools in Racine, Wisconsin.
In his new book about his childhood, Yearnings: A Memoir in Prose & Poetry, the successful overcomer shares his experiences at the residential school. An accomplished poet, the now Winchester resident McCann writes using Japanese-styled poetry to paint a picture of life during his stay. He includes historical, medical, and educational records, as well as letters home and family photographs to tell the inspiring story, one that is quite authentic. Email McCann at WHMwriter@gmail.com for questions or purchase information.
• The Kentucky Veteran & Patriot Museum, in Wickliffe, Kentucky, exists to recognize America’s active and retired military personnel and was established by advocate Sandy Hart. Housed in a former church building and supported by legions of people who have supported the effort, Sandy would be happy to give a guided tour sharing plenty of memorabilia and compelling stories, all in honor of those who keep our nation safe. Call Sandy at 270-210-2452 for details.
• Brent Leggs developed a strong sense of place, justice, and historical perspective early in life as a Black man growing up in Paducah. With that impetus he gained, according to Kentucky Humanities writer Linda Elisabeth LaPinta, he founded and now directs the African American Cultural Action Fund (AACAF), which makes up the largest part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in Washington, DC. Its purpose is to make “an important and lasting contribution to the American landscape by preserving sites of African American activism, achievement, and resilience.”
Through Leggs’s leadership, AACAF has worked to preserve such sites as Paducah’s Hotel Metropolitan, where such notables as Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, along with Ike and Tina Turner performed. Another is a site in the Aurora community in Western Kentucky, at Cherokee Park, which was a state-owned recreational space for Blacks during the Jim Crow era. In Mayfield, the AACAF financed preservation of the St. James AME Church. Many more preservations led by AACAF are taking place across America because of this Kentuckian’s leadership.
Brent Leggs certainly is a bright spirit in keeping alive Kentucky’s cultural heritage. Check out the AACAF website at savingplaces.org.
• In Georgetown, the Amen House does awesome work in feeding the hungry in the Scott County community. Check out their wonderfully done video to get a look. Also, visit their web site at amenhouse.org.
• Down in Richmond, successful EKU hoops coach A.W. Hamilton coaches his players to excel in more things than basketball, getting them involved with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace outreach in Central Kentucky.
“We had a plan to reach out to the Richmond community,” he said. “We delivered and built beds for kids in our community that don’t have beds. It’s eye-opening because I didn’t realize how many kids didn’t have a real bed in their house. And for our guys (players) to be able to do that, I thought it was phenomenal.” The EKU basketball program has also reached out to the community in other ways, and I plan to share more in a future column.
• Who is telling Kentucky’s story? Kentucky Humanities is, for sure! Based in Lexington, the organization recognizes a “need to build civic engagement as well as literacy, and we want to involve all ages and all places from Pine Knot to Princeton,” adding that “everyone has a story to tell, and everyone can learn from the stories of others.”
I should mention that I have a personal involvement with KH, being a member of KH’s Speaker Bureau and was interviewed for its “Think Humanities” podcast.
The organization is not state-financed but has existed on private donations and largely grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). KH has been notified that it will lose that funding because of cost-cutting efforts from the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
• A Morehead resident, Julie Sloan, notified me that “there was a flatbed truckload of bagged grapes donated and given away to dozens, if not hundreds, of families yesterday (Friday), in Morehead.” I checked further and found that it was an outreach of the Hazel Green Food Project.
Are you feeling positive vibes? Just look around Kentucky and you’ll find plenty good being done. Share your favorite stories or outreaches by emailing me at sflairty2001@yahoo.com.