Grab *** Kleenex. My God and *** hammer because we're ready to build *** home for three siblings who had never had one because we got adopted and *** monument to family history. It was an experience. It really was. We're making thousands of squeezable friends. He keeps company for me while I'm reading and life's next chapters. She saved my life. It's time to get to work. This is Iowa K C C. I presents *** celebration of the people who make our state special. This is Iowa. There are *** lot of building projects going on across our state right now. Some are working to build up families, others are working to preserve the history of our state and still others are honoring the next generation of Iowans and we'll get to all of those stories. But first let's start with the story of *** surprise that still has one of the biggest hospitals in the state buzzing because of the gift one woman gave to set up the future for one woman's health. The moment you're about to see is incredibly rare. Debbie Cooker there in the hospital gown in front of the I. V. Pole just got *** new kidney 24 hours ago. But at this moment she still doesn't know who gave it to her, but she knows her donor is behind that door coming. Oh my God, emotions overflowed because of *** call Debbie got *** year ago when her blood work showed her kidneys were failing. It was devastating. Um joe and I have been married *** year. Excuse me. And um I had found happiness. You know, the Monroe Bank employee with *** big family and an even bigger smile was suddenly overwhelmed with dialysis fear. Yeah, yeah. It was scary and the reality that she needed *** new kidney, but she didn't want to ask. I never wanted anybody to hurt because of me. Everyone close tested. No one was *** match until Debbie's phone rang again in december. It was extremely emotional. Lots of tears, lots of praising God on that. So, at that point, what did you know about your donor? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I didn't know if it was male female. I knew nothing. She didn't even know who it was when january 23rd she rolled into surgery and closed her eyes. I was *** nervous wreck as soon as they opened, my first question was, how is my donor? That was the first thing I asked because I needed to make sure that they were okay. Even then, she didn't know that donor knew her as she cares about people more than herself. She cares about others with her whole heart Carol Wallace is only 20 years old. Her family's been close to Debbie's family for decades and Karen knew Debbie so well. She knew her gift had to be top secret because I know Miss Debbie and she would not let me go through with it or she would talk me out of it. She would do everything in her power so that I wouldn't have to go through that. She's right. She's right. Yeah she's right. So transplant day. So to pull that surprise off was was hard. Everyone in the hospital was on edge. You've got two surgeries. You've got *** donor, you've got *** recipient. This hospital is big but it is not that big when you're trying to hide *** person. It is not that big during surgery. They even kept the families who are friends apart. We work even coordinating walking in the hallway because we didn't want them to walk in the hallways at the same time. If they ran into each other that was it. They would have known. But the next day after surgery when it was too late to cancel that door crept open. God. And for the first time Debbie saw that 20 year old that she knew had given her life. Your sunshine girl. Thank you. What? I didn't know. Oh sweetheart. This is so much for you. Never in *** million years. Never could have guessed 500 times. And that sweet girl would never have come to mind just because she's so young and Oh just sweet. Very hard secret to keep very very hard on *** morning when scars were still fresh. Everyone in the room felt the love. There's tears everywhere and *** few weeks later you shocked me *** little bit *** little bit reveal caught on camera was still the buzz around Iowa methodist doctors were still talking about it. I cried *** lot. Oh yeah it was very emotional. Karen knew the pain she'd be going through would be so intense. They couldn't hug. But she did this anyway. Thank you so much. I mean you've been through so much pain. It really was worth it. Why have you met her? She's just such *** sweet woman. She's always so kind and generous, giving the ultimate gift she gave me my life. You know, she's so selfless and just so generous and just an amazing human being. As Debbie builds back her health with her new kidney. Another Iowa family is building onto their forever home. But the walls of this Garner house aren't the only thing expanding. Plus it was an experience. It really was from humble horsepower to the zoom of electricity. The iowan on track to cement our streetcar passed into history. And sometimes the best listener doesn't say *** word. We're building life skills. One page at *** time when this is Iowa continues home construction projects are *** lot to take on. Especially one of this size. But this large addition to *** Garner home is making room for dreams to come true. I really enjoy it. Yeah. Building what is basically *** second house connected to your home takes *** lot of work and then that's gonna go right there in the dead of winter. It can be even more daunting. So I've eat up here and then I'll be doing, I'll get my installation but I did all the wiring and the plumbing. But this couple from Garner will tell you it's worth it for *** reason. Well three reasons we got, you know, got this call about, here's these three kids. They're amazing and we need to find them *** home but they weren't sure because Amanda and eric had already adopted Aiden and Avery from Taiwan just months after they were born. I'm just thankful for my parents because if my parents wouldn't have gone to Taiwan and got me I would be in *** totally different place than I am right now. The four of them have lived in this house for years. So when they got the call about three more kids possibly joining the family. So I was like no there's three kids. No way. The logistics of going from *** family of four to *** family of seven just didn't add up. When we heard about these kiddos, we just kept saying, oh we're not qualified. You know, we don't have *** big enough house in june. They were asked to watch 10 year old Jordan's eight year old Jocelyn and seven year old Jonathan for *** week. It was going to be their 17th temporary stay in less than five years. But yeah, you see their smile and you see you read their story and it's like they yeah, they made *** decision that was kind of when I knew temporary stays couldn't continue. This was their new permanent home. Like literally they were just dropped off and they've not left, we're so thankful, but they were still seven squeezed into *** small house and it was supposed to be *** weekend thing. So it was like um we don't have bedrooms, you know, all these things, all the things you'd want to offer *** child to make it perfect. So in august they started by knocking down the old garage to build *** new foundation on faith. So I hired an excavator with the money that we had and he dug his hole and I remember thinking We're just gonna have *** hole in the ground, but *** small community that knows Jordan Jocelyn and Jonathan decided to help out by starting *** fundraiser because they believe in these kids and so they're like, you know, we know we're not giving you this money so that you can have this big house, but we're giving you this money because we want to invest in these kids to the tight knit group raised $50,000. Another donor match that donation raising *** total of $100,000. Giving eric the money he needed to start building your door side as money came in. I bought stuff and then I just started building, but it was more than money and the sweetest notes in the mail, we believe in you, thank you for what you're doing. Yeah, it was just people we didn't even know while building room for more, there were still scars that needed healing something as simple as packing bags for *** christmas trip to grandma and grandpas sparked bad memories. You know, I pack *** bag and I know I'm coming back home. Um, but because they have been bounced around so much every time they packed *** bag, it was never coming back, I went and bought them all brand new bags with their favorite characters on them. And they came in and they were like, what's this for? What are we doing? Where are we going? Yeah. And so one of the little boys said mom, you're really going to adopt us right? And I said, yeah, you promised. Yeah. And he said, well can we call them something different? Like sure buddy, what do you want to call them? Let's talk about adventure bags. So that's what we call them And their best adventure unfolded on February three in an old Clear Lake Church when the Williams made it official, Jordan's Jocelyn and Jonathan Aren't going anywhere. You got your mom and dad now what does that mean to you guys means? I have jesus, am I hurt right now? I like having *** family this big Jocelyn, how happy are you right now excited? What makes you so excited? Because we got adopted, what are you looking forward to the most hugging them and never letting them go. *** family chose love before logistics and now these three have *** brighter future and *** whole world of possibilities in front of them. I want them to know and to feel like this is for sure forever now the opportunity to change *** life. It's worth it. I mean it's, it's worth giving up vacations, giving up stuff that we don't necessarily need in order to so somebody can have *** shot at their life shot at *** dream because to them that you're outside, it's worth it to build *** family. His stories have taken us all over our state. Now. K C C I steve Carlin tells us his final story before retirement with the nostalgia of the street cars and just kept living honoring our past and our coworkers. Next this is Iowa for more than three decades you've welcomed KCC I steve Carlin into your home. He's shown off our state's beauty and his Carlin covers Central Iowa stories and let our state fair coverage from the KCC I stage and he's been here daily anchoring our morning and evening newscast across his career, steve has told thousands of great stories in his 34 years at K C. C. I. And now he's writing *** news story in retirement. Well before his next chapter, he's sharing one more Carlin covers Central Iowa, *** new monument honoring *** slice of Iowa history playing with the trolley. Well they weren't quiet. They made their own noise kind of like judy garland in the classic Hollywood golden age musical. Meet me in ST louis. Earl Short was never the same after he saw *** des Moines street car, we did not have an automobile. So for Earl, from toddler to teenager it was either walk or take the trolley. So I grew up using the streetcar as our transportation wherever we went short became so fascinated with streetcars because for nearly 40 years, his father, Simon, was *** city operator, 1923 to 1961 The des Moines streetcar system started humbly on the hoof 18 86 with *** horse drawn. But pretty quickly the horsepower was permanently put out to pasture. And then in 18 88 he went to electric with the father. At its peak, dozens of din inducing trolleys trundled all over town on 16 separate streetcar lines traveling to 27 different destinations, fingers went out all the areas of the metro and the fair, according to Earl was just five cents. Noth Nothing more than *** nickel. It was an experience. It really was diesel powered busses that could cozy ride up to the curb were des Moines public transit's ultimate destiny. So in 1951, *** streetcar named retire made the city's final official run. But the nostalgia of the street cars just kept living. Earl is *** street car expert endlessly researching for the roughly 20 trolley talks he puts on per year all over town. I worked on these power points every day In 2017 he started raising money for the new city streetcar system monument. He also helped historians settle on the site. The old Waveland turnaround right in front of the public golf course on de Moines West side. I don't want to see that destroyed. That's *** valuable piece of history because just like judy garland, Earl Short immediately settled on something to love when he hopped on *** street car come with me and it was grand and the pencils have never been sharpened. Carlin's covered central Iowa from basements packed with pencils. There ain't no place like this place to roadside oddities, legs are made out of light poles. He's introduced us to dogs. Starting out of ditches in *** few circles in *** special spot. People will see me uptown and comment that they just love that dog and taught us about our home. I came to the first dance the last 75 years our state. Thanks you Steve for letting us tag along. They're not your ordinary teddy bears. One little chubby tummies and little chubby legs building bears by the thousands. So entire communities of kids can build their future. This is Iowa, you can buy or build *** barrette plenty of stores across our state, but after *** few weeks they start collecting dust. Well that's not the case in Northern Iowa where we found hundreds of bears building up our next generation of Iowans every day. First grade teachers know the key to learning if I write the number seven is masking it with fun whether it's math in the morning or put your hands on your hats please. What's coming next? So we are Are going to move to our reading rounds. Such *** highlight. These first graders hop to their cubbies to grab their buddies who've been waiting all day for this 20 minutes. Maddox's bear and eva's friend Ariel get to sit on their laps and hang on. Every word. Learning to read is hard nap on the mat and teachers know confidence is key. I'm *** little bit learning about the ring but to help here in Eagle Grove Elementary mrs Peterson's first graders all have *** personalized listener. My bear has farmed stuff on it and the event has *** pocket that I can put stuff into it. You won't make fun of kids wrestling with the words I see sometimes I get mixed up in the bear tells, tells me not to sound it out so I do and then I sound it out and it gets better. Personal reading buddies sit in these little laps and just listen 20 minutes every day. It makes it better because it feels like I got someone to read with, which is exactly why 20 miles away. Okay, Deb townsend's thread just found its needle, her passion project that's coming together. This is the tummy piece, one tummy at *** time, one little chubby tummies and little chubby legs. You see when she was in elementary, I was probably eight years old. Deb learned to sew but when her daughter became *** teacher and shared stories of the struggles so many kids face, what I'm finding out is there *** lot of kids that don't have *** lot of things? Deb grab some fun fabric and dove in? This is the head head first, making sure every bear she makes is as unique as the seven year olds who will get them. *** lot of the students that the bears are for english is not their first language and she's been told first generation readers can help their moms and dads navigate life. You know, it's really important for us to do *** good job with these kids so that they grow up and they can help their whole family. So Deb invest three hours building each bear boys like them, girls like them and more time hands stuffing them, knowing when she delivers them the first week of school, once they pick their bear, they hold it like *** baby cat. Mrs Peterson's class suddenly looks forward to reading things. Couldn't be better with their buddies in their laps down the hall. Hey, your class, so does mrs Conaway's class, let's have my Purple Row go get your book bags please because this year, what color our pumpkin. Deb Townsend has hand sewed reading buddies for every first grader in Eagle grove and in humboldt plus more entire classes in Webster City and Grundy Center. In fact she's made 1600 of them for kids like maddox at home. I have *** baby brother. I kind of read to him. It's kind of like that and Henry because he keeps company for me while I'm reading and their teachers, the light Bulb comes on, they tell Deb their class. Reading scores have soared since her bears moved in. Now it improved last year to this improved 120% more than the previous year. I know I'd be foolish to say Reading Buddies was the only reason why. But I do think it helps. I really do because we can snuggle and we can read *** book through them. So it helps me to keep working on books that I don't really know the words to it and it helps me figure out what the word is because english is tough weeks with, I agree, but it gets better with each page. Sure you could buy bears in bulk but they wouldn't be personal. They're all different. They're all unique. They all have like something special to them. I think that's what's really cool about them is that she takes the time. They're just so you know, amazingly made hand stuffed with love. So classrooms of seven year olds. Deb doesn't even know can have *** listening ear built especially for them. *** warthogs nose isn't pretty, but it's the perfect food finder. First Henry will keep reading those stories and we'll keep telling them because there are characters all around us honoring, inspiring and helping our neighbors. I'm eric Hanson. This is I.