On this trip across Indiana, we're exploring what it means to be a good neighbor.

Whether you're in a small town or in the city, you might be surprised by just how many helpful Hoosiers are out there willing to lend you hand.

I'm here on the northeast side of Indianapolis, where volunteers from Habitat fo are working to keep this community healthy through the construction of safe and affordable housing.

So imagine my surprise when we stumbled upon an arcade in Shelbyville with a somewhat similar goal Across Indiana visits with ‘Survivor alumni Rupert Boneham at Rupert's Kids Arcade.

In downtown Shelbyville.

Located in central Indiana.

Tucked away on the square, there's a place that doesn't quite look like what you'd expect from a charity.

This is the Rupert's Kids Arcade 2.0 Pinball machines, arcade cabinets, and graphic posters line the walls, but none of it belongs to Rupert Boneham, And that's exactly the point.

All of these machines are owned by other men and women here in the community, other fellow Hoosiers.

That want to give back.

None of these machines are ours!

It started by the community getting together saying “well, this is what we should do.” *Celebrating* But it's not all fun and games.

The arcade is just one piece of something much bigger.

Rupert's Kids is a reentry program.

30 years in the making built on a simple idea that people deserve a second chance.

So what Rupert's Kids is, is a 12 bed reentry program right now our program has been up and running since the early 90s, and now instead of just working with juveniles, we work with adults to coming out of the detention centers and off the streets teaching them how to make that legal living.

how to have that sense of self-worth and work ethic, how to go out there and, you know, enjoy life.

And they do it entirely on their own.

All without any city, state, federal funding, without any grant dollars, The man behind the program isn't your typical social worker.

Before Rupert's kids took off, he was a contestant on one of the most watched reality shows in television history, and one I myself grew up watching.

Survivor.

Now I've played four times, but I won All America's Tribal Council after season eight, they had 38 million votes in 72 hours.

I got 87% of the vote and won a million dollars for losing the game twice.

It was wonderful.

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

It's a question many of us are asked as kids, and one that Rupert knew the answer to... Even before his victory.

When I won the million dollars, I spent it in three weeks getting myself and my family out of debt, making sure my mother, my family, my world was set.

What was left?

He gave away.

I ended up letting my wife and my daughter and myself all pick different charities.

I picked the children, my wife picked the elderly, and my daughter picked the animals.

But the money wasn't the only thing Survivor gave him.

so many people that we would battle before Survivor that wouldn't want to give you a second chance.

After Survivor, they would look at me and say, oh my gosh, if you believe they get another.

If Rupert believes they deserve another chance, we should give them another chance.

That second chance, takes shape inside a donated building just a few miles away from the arcade, they call “The WhereHouse” because it's where recovery happens.

We knew back 20 years ago when we were running our work crew and our mentoring program, that you had to have someplace safe for young men and women to go.

At the end of the day, The program runs on individual plans.

You'll find no one size fits all approaches here.

There are a thousand different ways of getting away from the booze and drugs.

it's not to us to pick what's the right way and what's the wrong way for you.

It's to you to show us what you want and we use our peer recovery coaches and our mentors to help guide you in making positive choices, We've created a space where you can get assistance paying your rent.

having food.

We've worked it so that you can even pay for your services by work so you can save your money.

To get first and last and deposit rent to maybe get that first house, maybe buy that first house.

We've got one young man there he's getting ready to move out, but he's actually got a realtor and he's looking at properties!

And the arcade is all part of that goal.

We have used the arcade for years to be some of the community's first jobs.

This has been that reentry job for learning how to deal with the public again.

And as we are dealing with coming out of the system, getting away from our addictions, showing that we are doing better, we want to get back with our families.

We need places like this where we can have multi generations playing together and teaching our parents how to interact and and play with their kids again, From the warehouse to the arcade.

Rupert's Kids provides a safe space for those who are barely surviving and reminds them the best is yet to come.

It's a self-generating empowerment program.

All our best mentors are men and women that we raised in our program.

You gotta be able to go to work, pay your bills, take care of yourself.

And like I did out on Survivor, you know?

Enjoy life.

Know that it is not just your island and your game and know that it is... It is all of our game.

It's all of our adventure.

It is our game to win.

*Cheering* Welcome back from the arcade.

And don't worry if you're all out of quarters.

I'm here with Abri Hochstetler from Habitat for Humanity, and she's going to give us her two cents.

Abri, thank you so much for meeting with me.

Glad to be here today.

So for those who don't know, what is Habitat for Humanity?

Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

And what that actually looks like is partnering with households to help build, educate, preserve and finance affordable homeownership.

So today we have volunteers who are helping finish the inside of the home.

So they're doing things like doing painting projects, installing hardware.

Helping us get that inside of the home ready for that long term homeowner.

And why are volunteers so important to the program?

The key part of Habitat's mission is bringing people together.

So we rely on thousands of volunteers across our community to walk alongside of us and that homebuyer to help make this affordable home possible.

So that means helping to raise the walls, helping to do all of the construction, the siding, the interior work to understand why affordable homeownership is important to our community, and then also help make it possible for local families.

So I hear there's a special guest on the team today.

The homeowner!

So why are they here?

The core of our mission is our homeowner.

They're choosing to partner with us to help make this dream of homeownership a reality.

So all of our homeowners qualify for our program based on need, affordability, and willingness to partner.

And they go through Habitat University as part of those partnership hours.

They not only volunteer on their own home, but other habitat homes, and get that experience of working alongside volunteers and making their home a reality.

Habitat University includes financial literacy classes, as well as home maintenance courses so that they will be successful as a first time homeowner.

And how many homes are you constructing in the community?

So here on this site we are at our Devon Creek community.

And it is our first small neighborhood development in 25 years.

So today we are working on three of the ten homes that will be in this community And so this is ten of about 40 homes that we're building this year.

And that is a record for Habitat.

Greater Indy Habitat builds in five counties.

So we built in Marion, Hendricks, Hamilton, Hancock and Shelby County.

Now the construction in each of those areas looks a little different.

One area we're expanding our program is through these small neighborhood developments.

So this community, the Devon Creek community, started years ago when we actually acquired the property.

And then we added the infrastructure, the streets and the sewers and all of that work.

And then the home construction actually started May of this year.

So it is a long process before we actually get volunteers on the job site.

And then it moves really quickly.

We expect these first eight homes to close in November, and they will be in their homes for the holidays.

Our next story brings us up north to Purdue Bee Lab, where the Beekeepers of Indiana are helping each other learn the skills they need to make their own queens.

Let's see what all the Buzz is about.

Bees are beeutiful.

They make our gardens a sight to beehold.

And they make beelicious honey.

So today at Purdue Bee Lab, The Beekeepers of Indiana are learning how to make their own queens to keep their colonies happy and healthy.

Yeah.

I'm Krispn Given, a senior apiculture specialist here at Purdue University.

We have a queen rearing class that we've been conducting for about 21 years, and the students are basically learning how to produce their own queen.

So they want to produce queens that are superior quality.

But unlike Krispn here, I'm not much of a bee lover.

So I ask this beekeeper what he would say to someone who's a self-described buzzkill.

Number one, I would ask them if they like to eat.

Because bees, of course, are responsible for about 30% of the food we eat.

Anything that has a seed in it is generally pollinated.

They even help put meat on the table.

Now, not that bees have to pollinate beef, but if you think about it, if the farmer feeds his cattle, alfalfa.

Alfalfa has to be pollinated.

So tie together okay.

So bees make good food.

But aren't they aggressive?

In my opinion, no.

So remember this.

All right.

If you get a bee in the veil try to kill it in there because a lot of guys will pull it off and then there's 50 of them on the outside waiting to get you.

Got it?

No mercy?

All right.

No mercy.

What are some of the things you shouldn't do?

Like to a colony?

I wouldnt throw rocks at it.

Turn it over.

Generally, as a rule, bees are not going to say.

“Oh, look at that guy.

Let's go get him” You're talking yellow jackets now.

I mean.

*laughs* While this is interesting to me, to The Beekeepers of Indiana this is elementary stuff, but they are still learning new things every day, and they do it together.

The Beekeepers of Indiana, of course, is registered as a nonprofit organization under the laws of 5013C stuff, but primarily we're focused in education, networking, we network with clubs and we support research.

You know, we also go support laws that are helpful to beekeepers.

We greatly depend on each other with over a thousand members and counting.

The beekeepers of Indiana treat this as a shared craft supporting up and coming beekeepers.

I'm here today to learn a little bit about grafting.

Part of what my goal is for today is to change some of the genetics in my yard.

Looking for better bees mite resistant bees.

Grafting so I can continue the genetics that I have in my yard currently and move forward and increase the number of colonies that I have.

The class attracts students Indiana, the country , and the world.

But to learn something like this with a large group, you mean an equally large facility, which is why the Beekeepers of Indiana has partnered with Purdue Bee Lab for this weekend course.

So I'll give you the tour, and then I'll pass it off.

This is one of five apiaries that we have.

We keep about 50 colonies at each apiary, give or take.

This is our primary research apiary.

So all the colonies here are used for, student research.

We have, about seven PhD students and three postdocs in the lab that do research on basic honeybee biology, bee breeding, bioinformatics, biochemistry, you name it.

We're the honeybee lab here.

And with 200 colonies, custom equipment, and some of the world's best bee researchers, I couldn't think of a better place to learn.

The male bees in those four colonies right there.

Have RFID tags on their back, and every time they enter and exit the colony, we know because it gets tagged.

So we're continually monitoring them 24 7.

It's pretty fun.

And the fun doesn't stop there.

Purdue Bee Lab is home to the Purdue mite biter, a unique type of honeybee and one that's changing the world.

And that's by design.

For the past 20 years, Krispn has been selecting on bees that are resistant to Varroa mites, which is our primary threat to bees.

Our bees actually chew them up when they're inside of a colony.

They kind of beat them up.

They chew off their legs.

So they're they're lovingly called the Purdue mite biter.

So Krispn manages that program.

We work with the Beekeepers of Indiana and the Indiana Queen Breeders Association to keep that trait going.

So this is a bee that has behavioral resistance to these parasitic mites.

So the Varroa mite you can think of as a it's like the size of your fist.

So it's a vector parasite, it vectors viruses.

So the more mites in a colony, more viruses, more mortality.

So with the mite biting strain, we've reduced the impact of that through selective breeding.

So it's a constant selection process.

It takes a lot of resources and specialized beekeeping skills to accomplish that.

Skills and resources that these beekeepers hope to gain.

I actually took the class last year and, wanted to come back because as most adults know, you're going to retain 40% of what you're taught.

So I wanted to come back and make sure that, I can recap some of the stuff that I was trained on last year.

The process of grafting larvae to create queens is one worth learning because, well, a hive without a queen will eventually become a hive without honey.

Now, normally, only one queen would emerge from a queenless hive like this one.

But through careful larval grafting, the beekeepers can enable the hive to produce a whole batch of them.

And step one is selecting your larvae.

So this is the hunt method.

So I'm searching for the right age larvae.

I want something under 36 hours.

So larvae that are grafted earlier will have more ovarioles.

So more ovarioles means more egg laying, more eggs means more workers, more workers means more honey.

Then the larvae are placed into artificial cups, which are inserted back into the queenless hive to grow.

Now the larvae starts out, it's not really going to be a queen, it's destined to be a worker.

So what happens is when we graft them and put them into this queenless, hopelessly queenless scenario, they want to produce new queens so they can survive.

So what happens is they'll turn those worker destined larvae into queen larvae, so they feed them what we call royal jelly.

Produced by young worker bees.

This royal jelly is ultimately what transforms these larvae into queens.

So the young larvae destined to be queens are fed ad lib all they can eat.

So very often there's royal jelly left.

They don't consume all of it.

In a perfect scenario, that's what you want.

You want them to have more food than they can possibly to ensure a quality queen.

But if you get the timing wrong, nearly the whole batch fails.

You know, if you can attempt to graft on your own.

But if you don't know what you're doing, you put the wrong size larva in there?

You can literally end up.

If you put one in there older than all the rest of them.

This one's going to hatch out first.

And you know what a Queen's first job is?

When she hatches out?

Seek and destroy any other queens.

Assuming everything went well, though, these hopeless hives will be queenless, no more in about two weeks, giving each colony a future and a renewed sense of purpose.

Something these folks never lost.

But what keeps them coming back?

We make a little bit of honey, but we're not really looking for the honey.

Really, what we're looking for is pollinating, sharing an experience.

And, it's time consuming, but fun.

I'm not into it to buy a new car, or for the money, but I do love it.

And I love teaching about beekeeping, so it gives me something to look forward to and I am passionate about it.

Like I said, I've always seen or had bees.

For me, its the discoveries like the the hexagons and then the formation of the comb, the complex social behaviors that they have, they're not just one individual that works.

They work together collectively, somewhat like we do.

And there's so much we have yet to discover and I hope to be a part of that.

I'm back with another worker bee of sorts, Scott Vowles, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I've been doing Habitat for Humanity, for several years now, and I really enjoy it.

do you have a background in construction?

No, I don't, I have a little bit of DIY, you know, experience at home and doing a little of those kinds of things.

But honestly, I've been on several builds and you don't have to have any experience at all.

Really?

You learn everything you need to know when you come.

And so have you learned any like, new skills on the job?

A little bit.

Yeah I've learned to be a little bit more meticulous about my painting, I've had a chance to to use a nail gun on site once before, so.

Yeah, I got a chance to use some things that I would never have used at home.

What is it like to work alongside, the future homeowner of this property?

Oh.

It's fantastic.

I love that, our company has an opportunity to be able to give back to the community and to be able to help folks, be able to establish themselves and get moving in the right direction and, and have a home to live in.

So it's it's fantastic.

I really enjoy giving back to the community.

I enjoy working with my hands.

I like being on site and doing these things.

It's different every time you come.

Sometimes you're painting, sometimes you're installing hardware like I'm doing today.

you get a chance to do lots of different things.

And regardless of what you're doing, you get a chance to be part of something bigger.

We're giving back and helping someone build a home that they get a chance to live.

What is the atmosphere on the job site like?

Oh, it's lots of fun.

Because we're here with coworkers.

And today I get a chance to bring my son, who's old enough because he's.

He's over 16.

He's 20.

And so I get a chance to be here with people who enjoy being around to begin with.

And then on top of that, we get a chance to, you know, interact with each other and have lots of fun.

What would you say to someone who is considering volunteering?

Oh, please do it!

Absolutely.

The more people that they have an opportunity to have join this, organization and doing the good things that they're already doing, the better that we're making our communities.

You know, having a place to rest and call home is such a gift.

But we aren't the only ones that need a place to go.

In our final story, we'll meet with Shari McCullough, a well-known “bird nerd” who maintains a wetland nature preserve in Crawfordsville, a place that serves as an oasis of sorts for our feathery friends.

Nicknames people have called me over the years would be “Chicken Obsessed”, “Bird Nerd”, maybe “Nature Freak.” If my chickens would give me a name, I would say “Mama Shar” for sure.

My name is Shari McCollough and I'm the owner and caretaker of this lovely place called the Lye Creek Prairie Burn.

So the Lye Creek Prairie Burn is an 80 acre wetland prairie that's designed basically for conservation and habitat for birds and wildlife.

Lye Creek Prairie Burn got its name back in 1936 due to a farmer who raked up some corn stalks, burned all the corn stalks and then caught the ground on fire.

So it burned for months.

That's when they figured out that it was a very organic soil.

Wetland prairies like this one are some of the most ecologicall for birds and other wildlife, this place serves as a crossroads, a refuge, a home.

So the birds use this place for many reasons.

So we have resident birds, and those birds live here all year long.

They breed here, they nest here.

They stay here the entire winter time.

And then we have our migrants.

So those are birds that come in in the spring and then use the property to nest, live here throughout the summer months, raise their young and then they migrate back south.

And then we have birds that use this place as a stopover.

So there's birds that just come.

They call staging where they come in, and they might spend 7 to 10 days and they just use it as resting grounds before they move to their actual nesting grounds, which are many times as in Canada.

So it's used by a variety of species.

And that's the thing you never really know what you're going to get here.

“Here comes a white crowned sparrow.

” Keeping a place like this alive takes patience, knowledge, the kind of stubbornness that refuses to let beauty disappear.

So maintaining the property is an ongoing, never ending job.

I always am thinking about how I can make this place better for the birds.

What's invasive, what's not, what's good, what's to get rid of?

And it's been such a huge learning curve about all the different plants when to treat them, what to treat them with.

How is the best way is to manage those plants?

Is it mowing?

Is it spraying?

Is it both?

But yeah, it's always a balance.

While the Burn is first and foremost a sanctuary for nature, Shari welcomes visitors with open arms, year round.

It's privately owned but open to the public.

For like minded folk that like to come out and hike, see birds, enjoy the wildlife, there's always something to see.

Oh my god!

Thats so freaking cool!

It's a little less than a quarter of a mile walk back here, and there's a wonderful place that people could come and sit and watch the bird feeders.

And then a nice trail system.

People can walk and Shari doesn't just watch over the property, she documents it.

We have documented 242 species of birds that have visited this field.

I got into photography, kind of started out the bird part of it by accident.

I've always like to take pictures, start doing nature stuff, like anything spiders, butterflies.

And then I started taking pictures of birds because, you know, they're outside, they're in nature.

And I started noticing their different colors and different stripes.

And that kind of led me to research.

But for me, it's like, I love capturing the birds in like a natural environment, you know, of them preening or bathing nest building, just like naturally doing what they would normally be doing.

I love it, but her love of birds didn't start at like creek or even with the camera.

Before the wetlands, Shari was one of the most decorated competitive chicken breeders in the nation, so we bred a lot of different chickens over the years.

But I've been known for competitively and consistently, silky.

And I loved every minute of it.

Like I was chicken obsessed.

I got really heavily into breeding for perfection.

There is a lot of care involved, specially with with heavily feathered birds.

I was at every show my son and I traveled all over the place together and showed together, and we kicked but all over the place.

While Shari was competing, the Burn was managed by someone else.

Someone who would change her perspective and purpose forever.

So before me, the Burn was maintained by my really, really dear friend Clint Murray and we became fast friends after I really started liking birding and getting into bird photography, and my daughter happened to be doing a Google search.

She goes, “mom, there's a like a nature preserve right over the down the road from us!” And I was like, “What?

!” He introduced me to this place.

And so we were friends for 11 years.

He taught me so much about birding, about birds, about habitat, about native plants.

So he really gave me that bug.

You know, what an amazing person he was to introduce me to all those good things that I needed to know.

I had a conversation with Clint later in life, and he started talking about, “well, I'm not sure what I'm ever going to do with this place when I pass away” and and I said, I will do it.

I will absolutely do it.

So once that baton was passed, it was like, then it was like he just started talking about, you know, this is how I do this.

This is when I do this.

And it's been a very spiritual, I think, experience for me, I feel very responsible for taking care of this place, but in a good way.

The Burn truly is an oasis for wildlife and one that lives on thanks to the passionate preservationists who refuse to let it fade.

This work is done for the birds, it's done for the wildlife, and it's done for the good of this property.

And I can only hope that someday I find somebody passionate, you know, like I am about this place.

And like, Clint was.

Welp.

Thats all the time we have for this episode of Across Indiana.

From myself and all the folks at Habitat for Humanity.

Thank you for watching.

And remember... Every helping hand makes a difference.

So why not pitch in?

We'll see you next time.