- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "From Vision to Reality".

We'll learn about a nonprofit connecting our community and bringing artistic vision to life through dance, an organization transforming lives through education, workforce development, and hope with a new Next Story, and a company turning creative concepts into extraordinary live experiences through event production and AV integration.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2025.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The SPARK is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, the Memphis Zoo, and by the Medical Education and Research Institute.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is The SPARK.

They're a nonprofit organization connecting Memphis through dance.

We're here with the interim artistic director with Tennessee Ballet Theater, Camilla Curran.

And let's start out, give us some background on Tennessee Ballet Theater.

- Well, hi, thank you so much for having me.

Yes, Tennessee Ballet Theater is a nonprofit.

We are located currently in east Memphis, and we have been around for a long time, but not always in the same capacity.

Many people know us from Children's Ballet Theater, the ballet school that we share rehearsal space with.

It's a phenomenal school that coaches children in the Vaganova Method of ballet.

It's a mouthful, but it's a wonderful methodology.

And then we are the company that rehearses alongside the school, and often the kids get to be in class with professionals, so that's super cool.

That's unique in our setup.

And the company itself really exists to spotlight Memphis history.

That's what we do.

- So you have a long history when it comes to "901 Stories" and a recent performance as well.

Give us an idea of how that happens, because I know that you look for interesting stories, you bring them to life with Memphis flair.

- Yes, so our founding director, Mary Van Dyke, and our artistic director who's technically on sabbatical, but you wouldn't know it from how much she works, Erin Walter, has partnered with historians, actors, musicians, all from Memphis to bring Memphis history, the good, the bad, the ugly, to life.

And every spring, we highlight a different either landmark or notable Memphian from a specific time period.

So we feature people like that who are just movers and shakers or people who helped found Memphis, like Robert Church.

We did a piece for the bicentennial of the Pink Palace Museum, or I'm sorry, the bicentennial of Memphis, the Pink Palace Museum.

And they commissioned us to create a piece about Robert Church.

It was really cool.

And again, that's a piece of history a lot of people have never heard of.

He was the first Black millionaire in the South.

- When you look at the opportunity to carry that momentum into the fall with "Clara and the Nutcracker", talk about "Clara and the Nutcracker".

- So "Clara and the Nutcracker" is a joint effort by Children's Ballet Theater and Tennessee Ballet Theater every year.

It's really a local treasure.

It's not Christmas without it, frankly.

It just isn't.

So you'll see kids, you'll see professionals, you'll see students who you might think are professional occasionally, which is, it's just so cool to see them side by side.

And it's set in a traditional 18th-century setting when it was written, which is also atypical now in the city of Memphis.

You know, a lot of productions have modernized a bit, which is really exciting, but we like to keep it traditional and have that celebration of all the different cultures represented in a way that is true to the original storytelling.

- Talk about the higher purpose of ballet and dance for our youth in our city.

- I'm going to quote Erin Walter, who, as I said, is our artistic director, who's on "sabbatical", quote, unquote.

She said, "The arts are not a nice to have.

"They are a need to have.

"We must have the arts.

The arts save lives."

And that may sound crazy to some people if they've never experienced it for themselves, but I can attest to the fact that there have been times in my life when I needed the outlet of dance.

It was my sanity in a time that was very difficult.

And for many of these children that are fortunate enough to grow up in the arts, whether it's dancing, singing, visual art, whatever, but for us, obviously, specifically dance, it teaches them that there is purpose beyond just yourself.

You know, there's a greater purpose in life.

How to work with others, whether or not they're your best friend.

It teaches you how to have belief in your own strength and wherewithal when you're called upon to do something bigger than yourself.

You know, it teaches you you have resources within and you have, you know, more strength than you might think you have, both physically and mentally.

You know, it's not just about the athleticism or the artistry.

It's about your mental wherewithal.

And being able to call on those resources in times that may be stressful.

You know, these are life skills that carry far beyond the ballet barre.

They carry far beyond into life for, well, permanently.

- Carry that into then Frayser Dance Project.

- We're at a critical juncture with our funding for this project, and it, again, is life-saving work.

Picture a child who may be in a classroom full of other children who maybe are wonderful at math or science, or the subjects we consider, you know, useful for everyday life, right?

Half those kids, in my experience, and I've been a teacher for a very long time, I've been a dance instructor for about 20 years now, they are not all cut out for math and science.

Many of them are artists.

Many of them are at their core creatives, creators, and they need the space and the room to discover that.

And that's what we're providing in Frayser to these students who may not have ever had the opportunity to realize, "Oh, I fit somewhere.

Oh, I can go to school for something I'm good at."

And then also beyond that, just the exposure to a full-length ballet, the opportunity to perform alongside professionals and be inspired.

- So obviously the financial contribution is extremely important.

Talk about other ways we can help both Frayser Dance Project and also, too, Tennessee Ballet Theater.

- Yes, so Tennessee Ballet Theater provides the instruction for Frayser Dance Project.

You know, that's one of our core missions.

It's very near and dear to all of our hearts.

But come to a show.

Come to "Clara and the Nutcracker".

Support not only Children's Ballet Theater, you know, our beloved school, which trains these kids up into beautiful dancers, but come to a Tennessee Ballet Theater show in the spring.

"901 Stories" is phenomenal every year.

The quote we get more often than not from audience members is, "Memphis needs this."

We need a spotlight on our history, and a spotlight on our history that points us toward a better future.

And there's so much history that just hasn't been highlighted enough that is positive and incredible, and really awe-inspiring, that just goes kind of under the radar, and we're trying to change that.

So come to a production, whether it's "Clara and the Nutcracker", again, a Christmas tradition, or whether it's springtime for "901 Stories", please come to a production and make that donation if you feel called to.

We're at a critical juncture right now.

- So where do we go to, learn more and get involved?

- Thank you for asking.

[laughing] So if you wanna enroll your child in dance classes with quality instructors, you go to childrensballettheater.com.

And to make a donation or learn more about the professional company, go to tennesseeballettheater.com.

You'll also see our social links there.

- Well, Camilla, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you.

[upbeat music] - They're a nonprofit organization transforming lives through education, workforce development, and hope.

We're here with the executive director of HopeWorks, our friend Ron Wade.

Let's start out.

You've been doing this work for a long time.

Give us a little bit of history for HopeWorks.

- Thanks, Jeremy.

It's great to be with you again, for sure.

Yes, HopeWorks has been around a long time, thirty-six years actually.

I've been with HopeWorks about half that time, 18 years.

Our basic tagline is we provide hope and a job.

The hope's in Jesus, the job is removing barriers from four distinct groups that we work with.

- Let's go ahead and dive in, because those four distinct groups will set the stage for the different programs.

And so go ahead and dive in.

- Okay, very good.

The first group that we have been working with for about a decade, Jeremy, are those we call an adult basic education.

They are men and women who have not finished high school for whatever reason.

The other group is also connected with the grant and the state, and it's adult ESL.

So we work with about 800 students from 40 different countries.

We help them with their English.

We help them get their jobs.

And even, but different from the adult basic education, they come pretty well educated.

They have more than a high school diploma.

Many of them are engineers, doctors, pharmacists, just in another area of the world coming to the US.

The third group is justice-involved.

We have a pre-release class, and we've had that for a decade as well in the Shelby County Division of Corrections.

We teach soft skills classes.

We teach culinary, maintenance, and automotive parts.

And then when the returning citizens get out of SCDC, they come to HopeWorks.

We try to put them in jobs.

In addition to that, and I'll talk more about it in a second, Jeremy, is we have a new residential transition center.

It's called The Next Story, as in the next story in a person's life.

It's a brand new 21-bed facility.

This is all men for the transition house.

And so we work through that particular program.

And the last one is just in the community.

We call it Employment Essentials.

And we help anyone in our community get job-ready and then job-placed.

- Dive into The Next Story a little deeper.

- Sure, The Next Story is an answer to prayer.

As I said, one of those areas we've been involved with is justice-involved.

So oftentimes when someone comes out of prison, one of the big issues is where do they live?

Sometimes they can go back into the same environment and end up back in prison.

So there's a real need for housing.

As I mentioned, we're a faith-based organization.

We began praying about it.

And there's a lot of steps I won't necessarily go through, but the first one I will.

In taking this initiative, we just prayed to God, "Can we handle it?

"Is it above our comfort zone?

"Can we actually run something that's a 24/7 transition center?"

And in praying that, we received a $50,000 check.

And the memo part of the check said, "For what you've been praying for."

So from that seed plant, we had some really significant people that support us.

It's about a $4.2 million facility.

Like you say, I know you've walked through it, it is a beautiful place.

We will keep the men for one year.

When they come to us from really 14 different prisons in the state, and we have some flexibility of other jails or prisons, or someone who's not been able to make it for a while, we can accept them as well.

But at the end of a year, we expect them to not only have a job, but have a budget, transportation, able to provide for themselves and their families, and most importantly, not go back to prison and get closer to God.

So that's the next story in the person's life.

- So how can we help HopeWorks?

- We are in charge of two prisons.

One is Mark Luttrell Corrections Center, which is right across on the Greenline from Shelby County Division of Corrections.

And the other one is in Hardeman County.

We're charged with providing 50 mentors where they go in once a month and develop relationships.

It's an incredible change that someone, if you're incarcerated, someone comes in and, "I can't believe you would come in and just wanna visit with me and just wanna encourage me."

Those are the biggest, most recent ways to help.

You can look on our website.

We have a menu, volunteer opportunities, everything from mock interviews to providing lunches, to just doing a lot of things.

Anything that you would like to do.

The best way to find out where your niche would be would be to come and visit me at HopeWorks.

And let me walk you through the program and see maybe what area God's putting in your path to help.

- We'll wrap up, Ron, with where we can go to learn more and connect with you and your amazing team.

- Great, Jeremy.

Our website is whyhopeworks.

And you could click on there and get everything.

If you're dialing the phone, which many of us don't as much anymore, we're 901-272-3700.

We're on Summer Avenue between National and Holmes, facing Sam Cooper as you go by.

And so just drop in and see us.

- Well, Ron, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Okay, Jeremy.

Thank you for asking.

[upbeat music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2025 Nonprofit Award for organizations with a budget under $1 million went to Intunity, Housing Foundation of West Tennessee, Inc.

- I'm Earle Schwarz.

I'm the executive director of the Housing Foundation of West Tennessee Incorporated, which does business in the community as Intunity, or Intunity Homes.

We are an affordable housing solution for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities so that they can live comfortably, safely, independently, in safe neighborhoods, and pay a substantially below-market rental rate.

We've been around since 2012.

The original focus was to house folks as they were coming out of the Arlington Developmental Center, which was formerly a congregate care facility in West Tennessee, serving this population.

The mission remains the same, but the motivation 13 years later is vastly different, because we are now able to be an alternative for folks who are trapped in high-rental housing.

So our mantra is, "A better home leads to a better life."

We presently have 38 houses, 14 in Jackson, and 24 in Memphis, with one house underway.

We are in the process of building a prototype house for this population that we are very excited about.

We designed it with the help of LRK, the local architectural firm, and input from a number of stakeholders as to the type of housing that our population needs.

And if I do say so myself, this is the perfect home for that population.

It's completely ADA-accessible, barrier-free entries, wide hallways, large, wide turn radiuses with technology that increases independence for the folks who live there, provides greater security.

All of our houses are adapted to serve the folks who live there.

We value meeting the needs of any marginalized population and the opportunity to create a normal and independent living opportunity for tenants such as ours, many of whom lived in an institution for a long period of time, and are enjoying the freedom from living in an institution and enjoying the opportunity just to go outside, right, and sit on the deck, and just live a fulfilled life.

[gentle music] - They turn creative ideas into extraordinary live experiences with events and AV integration.

We're here with Kiley Butler, CEO of ProductionOne and Principal AV Integration.

And let's start out, you have a really cool backstory with ProductionOne.

Give us a little bit of that context.

- So I couldn't have planned this.

I just kinda fell into it.

So 24, almost a quarter century ago, my wife and I, we were a nonprofit doing events for teenagers all across the country.

And we discovered that if we were to do that, if we're gonna be a nonprofit, we needed to own our own equipment.

And the next thing you know, our phones started ringing, "Hey, can you help us with this event?

Can you come and do video for this event?"

And the next thing you know, we were a full-fledged production company.

And 20, almost 25 years later, we are working with some of the country's most amazing clients.

And it's exciting.

And it's everything from fairs and festivals, to concerts, to performing arts centers, all the way up to high-end corporate.

It's just, I couldn't have planned this if I had wanted to.

And you mentioned Principal AVI.

That's the big thing that we're excited about.

You know, we've been doing this audiovisual design and installation for over a decade now, but people didn't know that we did that.

And so we had to give it its own name because it has its own staff.

And so we're, you know, that's just the natural outcropping of ProductionOne.

So Jeremy, thanks for having me on.

- You all are cityCURRENT partners.

You bring our events, our Signature Speaker Series to life.

And so you do it with an amazing team and amazing technology, and it's so cool.

But give us a little bit, when you talk about technology, go ahead and nerd out for a little bit, because it's video walls, it's all sorts of stuff.

Give us a little bit of a teaser for your world.

- Jeremy, you know, not long ago, everything was analog.

Everything was copper wires from here to there.

It was very simple.

You flip a switch and, you know, things kind of worked.

And all of these, the audio system, the lighting system, the video system, everything was separate and you had separate people running them.

It just, it was a much simpler time.

And today, it's anything but simple.

It's exciting.

It's far more exciting.

And I wouldn't choose to be in a different time period.

But everything today is a computer.

Everything is networked.

You have multiple staff members running different parts of different systems.

It is Nerd Paradise is what it is.

It is Nerd Paradise.

But our job is not making people's eyes glaze over with, you know, this piece of gear can do this, and, you know, we can make a video wall so large, it'll whatever.

For us, it's about listening.

You know, that's what we did with you, with cityCURRENT.

You know, we took a look at what you were doing.

We fell in love with the mission of cityCURRENT, and what you're doing, not just here in Memphis, but all across different parts of the country where you're working.

And it's so exciting, and we wanted to listen to you, and what are you trying to bring to life.

Because at the end of the day, you don't care if this video wall has this high-definition resolution.

You don't care about that.

You care about, is my message being clearly communicated?

Are the people that are coming to my event, are they walking out going, "Wow, what an amazing time."

And they're thinking about what they heard and what they saw and what they experienced, which is what you want, not, "Oh my goodness, the audio was horrible.

"Oh, man, I wanted to see what they had on the screen, "but it was just blurry and it didn't make sense.

And the timing was all," you know?

Those are distractions.

And so we start by listening to hear what is it you're trying to do?

Because I'm an old bass player.

And I learned a long time ago that sometimes the best notes that you play are the ones you don't play.

And that's true when it comes to- And it doesn't matter if it's a live event, or if it's a, let's say you're in your church and you want audio that's clear and you want clear visuals, and, you know, those things, it's all about knowing what to do and what not to do.

And that's where we come in.

You know, we have some of the most talented engineers on both sides of the company, and they're different.

They're different staff.

It's different personnel, because they have a different focus.

But these guys, they know how to listen, and they know how to get you your vision and bring it to life.

They know what equipment to use and what equipment not to use.

We know personnel-wise, the talent you have on a show, the talent you have on your design and your installation, those things are really critical.

We know the kind of people to put in place to bring your vision to life.

And that's really the magic that we bring to the table.

- We'll wrap up with where we can go to learn more about ProductionOne and Principal AV Integration.

So for those who say, "Wow, I've got an event, or I need some help on the integration side," where do we go?

- Go to productionone.com.

That's production O-N-E-dot-com.

And that's for all of your live events.

It's for equipment rentals and all that.

But that's going to get you the team that can put everything together from the FedExForum Arena to Liberty Bowl Stadium, all the way down to your boardroom, to your small event where you have a group of 35 people.

And for your AV design and installation needs, principalavi.com, principalavi.com.

- Well, Kiley, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for having us.

[upbeat music] - Every great outcome starts with someone imagining what's possible and then doing the work to make it happen.

We're fortunate to have individuals and organizations here in the Mid-South like Tennessee Ballet Theater, HopeWorks, ProductionOne, and Principal AV Integration that are bringing vision to reality.

At Tennessee Ballet Theater, vision becomes art that inspires and connects us, and creates new opportunities for youth and professional dancers.

At HopeWorks, hope becomes opportunity, helping people build brighter futures through education, training, and meaningful careers, and also their new Next Story transitional facility.

At ProductionOne and Principal AV Integration, creative ideas become unforgettable experiences that bring people together and amplify messages that matter.

So whether you attend a performance, mentor someone seeking a fresh start, volunteer, make a donation, or simply help share their stories, you have the power to help turn vision into reality.

Together, we can create a Memphis where more dreams are realized, more lives are changed, and more people have the opportunity to shine.

So where will you help power the good and become a spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]