Tonight on Colorado stories from studio 12.

A diagnosis, a triple organ transplant.

And a dream the doctor said was impossible.

But listen, Bohm had other plans.

Find out how she defied the odds to become a mother and why she is finally sharing her story.

And she once came to a roller rink with nowhere to go.

Today she owns the place.

How socko skate land helped a Jamey Johnson turn her life around, and why she's now fighting to keep its doors open.

A Colorado Saint, a journey back to her roots, and the surprising stories that our own Kyle Dyer uncovered in Italy.

Tonight we're retracing the footsteps of Mother Cabrini and discovering the legacy that she left behind here in Colorado and all around the world.

Stay with us.

We've got all of this and more right here on Colorado.

Stories from studio 12.

From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Good evening.

I'm Bosie Kanani, and I'm Ryan Hare.

Thank you for joining us.

This is Colorado stories from studio 12.

For most people, becoming a mother is a life changing experience.

For incandescent balm, it was something doctors once told her would never happen.

After battling cystic fibrosis and undergoing a rare triple organ transplant, Anka was told the pregnancy was impossible, but she refused to accept that as the end of her story.

Today, her son is 12 years old and Inka is sharing her remarkable journey in a new memoir.

Here's more.

I love to ride.

I need to ride to stay sane.

I'm a published author in Germany.

After reading a gazillion English books, I feel like.

Okay, you know what?

I think I'm.

I'm ready.

So yeah, the first English book that I know wrote.

Yeah, it's my it's my memoir.

Who was Inca?

I would say mostly I would say I'm a normal person, I just do, yeah, everything everybody else does.

But maybe I'm just a little bit more happy that I can do everything that everybody else does.

Like working and laundry and dishes and all the stuff everybody does.

Yeah.

Because I, was born with cystic fibrosis.

So cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease.

And the main problem of cystic fibrosis is that all the mucus that, the body produces anywhere is thicker than it should be.

I have diabetes because of cystic fibrosis.

It's impacts the digestive system, the liver, as I said.

So, yeah, but it's mostly known as a lung disease.

When I was like ten, I think I spent like a month in the hospital.

So that was the first time really that, the cystic fibrosis knocked me down when I was 22.

Then I knew, okay, this is not working anymore.

I had, had aside as a lot of aside, this is coming from the liver.

So my liver was the main problem.

And.

Yeah, that's about all I knew.

All right?

I know it's not working anymore.

I was dying.

We knew.

I mean, we all knew that.

Yeah.

If I wouldn't get, If I wouldn't get new organs, then yeah, that that would be it.

I constantly had to fight, you know, just to just to get okay again.

And then when I was at 23, I needed a double lung and liver transplant during the waiting time.

My biggest wish was just to live normal.

I waited 15 months.

I was a very impatient waiter.

It was like, you know, it was always like, okay, but maybe tomorrow the phone is gonna ring.

Well, and I finish this book.

It's gonna rain like stupid stuff.

It was December 27th, and then we hear the phone ring, and my mom immediately thought, oh, it's one of my stupid friends who was calling, you know, late.

And, you know, why do they call that late?

They know we are all waiting for the call.

You know, I'm like, okay, whatever.

So I went up to the office and picked up the phone and then.

Yeah, then the person said, hi, here is doctor.

And so he said, yeah, do you still want to get transplanted?

And I thought that was the most hilarious ever.

I laughed and was like, yeah, you know, that's what I've been waiting for.

So my dad stayed home.

My dad is not good at hospitals, so he is the one who, you know, keeps everything running at home.

And my mom is the one who would always accompany me.

So and when we got in the ambulance and, drove out of there, you know, a little neighborhood.

And then I looked out of the window and saw him there.

This is all right.

I get emotional, I thought, you know, will I ever see him again?

Because I didn't know.

Right.

Will I ever drive down this road again?

Was this the last time I said goodbye to him?

The operation took ten hours.

While they were putting in the lungs, my liver, checked out.

So they, you know, they stitched me close up here and then cut me open.

So they did it one after another.

How long ago has this been now for you?

And how do you feel today?

Almost 24 years.

Yeah.

So in December, right.

It's my anniversary.

And is this a lie?

I can say I live longer with spare parts and the originals and.

Yeah, slowly, slowly.

I, I think it took me like, two, three years to be, like, fully.

Okay.

You know, I'm healthy, I'm transplanted, but I'm healthy.

I can do this.

I finished my psychology degree and I met my future husband, 2019.

I suddenly, lost, a liter of my lung function, and nobody could figure out why.

So they checked me with checked the lungs and everything, but they couldn't find anything.

And then as a default diagnosis, you are, diagnosed with, chronic rejection.

And that was, of course, like, you know, chronic rejections, like, wow, I can, you know, on on myself, a coffin on Amazon.

That's it.

I was, of course, always telling my husband, tell me again, tell me again that it's going to be fine, you know, to get this, this fire under control.

And then eventually he said, you know what?

Why don't you get up and start running again?

And I was like, how am I supposed to run with one liter or less?

You know, I can't run.

And he was like, yeah, normally that doesn't stop you, you know, just stop sitting whining, do something about it.

I thought, you know what?

You're right.

And then, yeah.

When I was in the hospital doing my treatment, I started my running because I was like, okay, you know what?

I'm just gonna run as long as I have to to get to get this go away.

Yeah, yeah.

And I just thought, like, am I allowed to say that effort?

Thank you.

Chronic rejection.

You know, this is.

Yeah.

This is how you do it.

And then, it took me a whole year to get all my lung function back.

When I met my husband, my my mom was immediately like, you know, that she cannot have children.

Just to make sure you know that it's not like marrying somebody was, was wrong or wrong idea.

So my mom was never let when we arrived in the US.

I mean, I would say doctors are a little bit more progressive here.

We had one doctor in Saint Louis and he said, you know what?

We can talk about it.

My husband was very positive, you know, but he also never met me.

Sick, right.

He only met me healthy.

So I thought like, okay, yeah, it's easier for him to believe, you know, me having a baby would be easy because, yeah, he never seen me dying.

And eventually he just did it.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank God it was.

Yeah.

My name is.

No.

My mom is super.

I think she's kind of badass.

Yeah, he is 12 years old now, and he is like, any other annoying 12 year old.

Yeah.

Everybody wanted to write an article about my pregnancy.

And then it was so eventful that nobody wrote an article.

So one, I was the first with double lung liver, and then maybe a year after me, and I know a lady in the UK, she had a baby post double lung, liver and heart.

So she upped me one.

And then once I had my kid and then so lung transplant had already and so healthy, I thought, you know what?

Yeah, maybe I should, I don't know, be more vocal about it or share the story more.

Yeah.

To just give hope.

Yeah.

Because like almost 24 years is.

Yeah it's quite a lot.

A roller rink in southern Colorado has been bringing people together since 1942.

But for one woman, Soco Skate Land did something much bigger than provide a place to skate.

When Jamie Johnson was homeless and struggling with addiction, the people at Skate Land gave her a home support and a second chance.

Now Jamie owns the rink, and she's working to make sure the place that saved her can continue saving a piece of the community.

PBS 12 photojournalist Rico Romero brings us her story.

Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

I am living the 80s dream.

I am living above a roller rink and roller skating and the music and the people.

And, it is the, other kind of happiness that I forgot even existed out there.

Bam!

Ha ha ha ha!

We're at Circus Skate.

London.

Trinidad, Colorado.

Hi, I'm Jamie Johnson.

I am the owner of Soco Skate Land, Colorado's oldest running rink.

Soco Skate Land is the oldest rink in Colorado.

We got established in 1942 and we have been running ever since.

We have the original hardwood floors.

We are just a treasure for Colorado.

I will put my skates on.

The vibe is fun and colorful, just like Jamie's personality.

We have skate gardens here and they volunteer four hours a week.

I take care of the skate size.

Sometimes I watch the park and I skate around and make sure everybody's okay.

Excuse you, sir.

So a skateboard is kind of like a lifeguard.

So, like, if you go to a pool, you got the lifeguard watching you, a skate guard.

Make sure everything's safe.

We'll help you with your skate.

Push up.

There.

This place has five generations of our community that is still coming to it.

The vibe is nice, the energy is good, and it's safe.

It is the one thing that has been a constant in our community's lives.

It is just a huge community hub where great great grandparents can bring their kids, their great grandkids and tell them, you know, stories about what their experiences here and what they did.

I met a lot of friends here.

I love your outfit, by the way.

And then my feelings.

I feel really happy about this place.

I'm glad I can work here.

When I was a little girl, I loved to roller skate.

I had a pair of Garfield roller skates with a pocket, and my mom gave me a quarter.

And if I skated too far, I could call it and come pick me up.

I have been known to roller skate here, with Derby in the past, or with my my kiddos and family.

This place feels like another home, and I feel really safe every time I come here.

And I get really happy and excited when I come.

How do you do it so fast?

The majority of our population, it's, is like, money is very tight.

We do have a lot of people that struggle with addictions.

So I was actually homeless.

I was really I was a really bad, in the substance abuse all substances.

And I was really down on my luck.

I didn't have anywhere to go at that point in my life.

I wasn't very trustworthy.

People didn't trust me, and I felt like I felt abandoned.

I had two pugs and the current person who was I who owns Skate Land.

They saw me on the corner and they told me there was an apartment up above Skate Land that wasn't very livable, but like, I could stay there and so.

And I could work at Skate Land, help pay for my rent.

And to for them to do that.

That was like so huge.

And then but it gave me purpose.

And because they believed in me and the kids that I was working with here, they believed in me.

And so I had to keep my life together.

And that's how I got reintroduced to the love of skating.

It has changed my whole life.

I was down here trying so hard to learn how to roller skate again.

Like I was on the floor falling.

I clomping like this and I was so busy with that that like, I didn't like the withdrawal and everything from all the substance abuse.

I skated through it, I skated through it.

And so now I have 12 years of complete sobriety.

The one thing that I love so much is that at that point in my life, I had never had a safe place ever coming to skate land and over time, developing this safe place.

There.

I can't even explain what that means to me.

It's still to this day is my safe place.

I want to provide that for other people.

I want to provide that for my community.

Every single person deserves a safe place.

So I was here for about seven months, and the owners came and told me that they were going to have to shut it down.

They were going to it was going to get turned into storage units.

The kids that I was working with, they got really upset and they trashed the place.

And they were like, this is the only place we have, you know?

And now we're going to lose it.

And they were so upset and it just came out of my mouth.

I was like, I'll try to save it and deny it.

After it came out.

I'm like, what am I doing?

What am I even saying?

And so we cleaned up the mess and we started doing everything.

We made little buckets and we went like everywhere, asking for donations.

We had bake sales, we tried a car wash.

We did everything we could think of, but I think we needed like $5,000 or something.

And with everything we did and we tried everything.

I think we had like $200 and I had until midnight that night.

And I was like, how am I going to tell these kids?

Like how am I going to let them down?

Like, this is awful.

And this guy rides up on a bike.

And he was like, did you make all the money you needed to save Skate land?

And I was like, no.

And he was like, how much do you need?

And I told them and he was like, oh, okay.

And so I'm just sitting here, he leaves and he comes back like 15 minutes later with an envelope with all of the money.

Yeah.

It was it was awesome.

And here we are.

It meant everything to me.

That was probably a huge stepping stone because, I succeeded.

I was able to see it through.

Welcome to Skate Land.

All right, you guys got fun.

She talks about this place being a jam.

I think she's also a gem for this community.

And if it weren't for her and her efforts, I'm not sure that the rink would be open.

And maybe it would be story.

I made a promise to this community.

And it's not just those kids, but this whole community like Trinidad especially, but also Lake Raton, New Mexico, but actually all over the world.

Even people in Australia and England have sent money to keep skate land open and going.

So it has brought in an entire community of people.

And the community here is so supportive of me.

So many people thank me for saving skate land, but truly it was skate on this evening.

Trading baskets.

Every time I go backwards really fast, I always end up dying.

Our youth here are youth everywhere.

They need stuff like this.

It's so healthy.

Like get off your phones and come and have fun with your friends.

Listen to loud music.

I'm up to 15 miles a day.

I started with five laps and now I'm doing.

And I'm in the best shape I've ever been.

And it's so great and therapeutic like so.

I think I'm going to start a new thing for adults that we just scaled.

All of it has given me a life that I never imagined I would have, and I'm just so grateful that I have everyone that stands behind me and supports me and encourages me.

This community is amazing.

Bye.

Thank you guys.

Jamie has also started a nonprofit to help youth and their families in Trinidad called Soco Clubhouse.

For more information, you can go to Soco clubhouse.com.

in this historical year for Colorado, we're uncovering many stories woven into our 150 years of being a state.

One of them is that of Saint Francis Cabrini, Mother Cabrini, Colorado's saint.

She was canonized 80 years ago.

If you've driven I-70 through the foothills and golden chances are that you've seen the signs for Mother Cabrini Shrine, or looked up and noticed the towering statue of Jesus at the top of the hillside.

It's a familiar landmark to many Coloradans over the last decade, our Kyle Dyer has uncovered stories about Mother Cabrini, who first came to Colorado in 1902, along with stories of the impact she had here and all over the world.

Kyle's curiosity took her over to Italy earlier this year with three dozen Coloradans who retraced the footsteps of Mother Cabrini.

Early life.

Here's Kyle with more.

In Denver, Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini has been a person of mystery.

Pictures of her.

The stone house.

The spring.

Oh good heavens, the spring.

Things that she touched.

And the way that she has touched so many people.

The desire among Coloradans to know even more about Colorado Saint led to a pilgrimage to Italy.

So now we'll go to the house where Francesca Cabrini was born and raised, and where she took her vows and founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Now she's a person of history.

She is so real.

She is so phenomenally real.

So this room was hers.

The petticoat was the petticoat.

She was wearing when she died.

This is her traveling bag.

Her little slippers, her rosary.

Our first time in Europe.

First time in Italy.

Obviously.

First time being this close in the footsteps of Mother Cabrini.

I just feel really close to her.

We're going to be going down towards the chapel.

It's a really wanted to walk in her actual steps.

I'd never been to the towns that she was born in or the towns that she worked in.

And so I just wanted to see, you know, what was that like?

Colorado, that Colorado scene.

I think the humble beginnings of her, her birthplace is really impactful.

Her own life was pretty fragile.

But even in the midst of that, she she persevered.

It puts everything in perspective, and it makes you realize even more how dynamic she was and what a wonderful person she was.

She never took no for an answer, and she would just turn around and say something to the Lord and she got everything done the way that she has touched so many people in her short 67 years of life spanned over 15 countries and 67 schools, hospitals, orphanages from the 1900s to this very day.

Absolutely astounds me.

I was just thinking, wow, this is just so much information about her.

How do I categorizes?

Where do I put it?

What do I do with this?

What am I supposed to do next?

The two days that we spent in Sant'Angelo and Colonia were just, I don't know what other word to use other than inspiring and just wonderful.

Just seeing the sisters there, all of the senior sisters.

That was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip, getting to meet with them and talk with them, and just seeing the joy in the sisters hearts.

Every single sister that we have come across, no matter what city.

The joy that they have.

And it just.

It just burst.

It's contagious.

Yes.

Yeah.

The love.

Everywhere we've been, there's also been a sense of healing, a sense of watching.

What mother did this week has just been so wonderful.

It's like I don't even know how to capture it.

It's just been so busy, but still very, like, very still at the same time.

Seeing all these people here.

It just it you just feel the love of God.

It's such a beauty to see.

See the history come alive throughout Rome.

Mother Cabrini, whose presence is very much felt from a statue above the altar inside Saint Peter's Basilica to a sculpture in Saint Peter's Square honoring immigrants.

Her legacy is visible across the city.

And for the pilgrims from Colorado, few places felt more personal than Casa Cabrini.

To just feel her spirit is so special.

She's still so relevant today, even after all these years for so many people.

Mother Cabrini is my confirmation saint.

I was baptized at the Easter Vigil.

To me, she was an advocate, not just for immigrants, but also for anybody that was forgotten who was left behind.

That's how I have that personal relationship with her.

I have a daughter who is intellectually disabled, and I spend every day of her life since she was born.

She's 26.

Advocating for her in times where I just need an extra pat on my back.

An extra.

I can do it.

Go forth.

Somebody that gives me strength when I need it.

That's what she is.

Me strength.

Frances Cabrini is my role model.

She's been my North Star for many years, and she continues to be.

And she will continue to guide and inspire generations to come.

I love the expression on her face.

It's that expression of someday, you know, holding on to those those little paper ships in Rome.

The letters and journals of Mother Cabrini are still being preserved.

A reminder there's much more to discover about Colorado Saint.

And for those who walked in her footsteps through Italy, she is no longer a woman of mystery, but a woman of history.

Since 2020, the first Monday of October is known as Cabrini Day, a paid state holiday.

And in fact, it's the first paid state holiday in U.S.

history to recognize a woman.

Make sure to tune in next Tuesday, September 29th, when PBS 12 will share a program Kyle has put together for us.

It will air right after this show, so be prepared to learn a lot and be inspired by this exceptional woman.

music may come from a violin, but for one local craftsman it carries the voice of generations.

Rooted in his Mexican-American heritage and indigenous ancestry.

Eric Trujillo is turning his love of repairing violins and cellos into a way of keeping his culture alive, all while giving back to there's an art to bringing an instrument back to life.

And for Eric, it's a passion that goes far beyond the work bench.

12 photojournalists Alan Dominguez and Rico Romero share his story.

Then.

Arts.

Arts is an amazing world to live in and to make a living at.

It is one of the great challenges.

But it's it's also rewarding it.

I had to drop my saxophone the night before practicing, and I brought it in to get some work done.

And, a guy that I knew there, we started talking while I was getting my instrument looked at and he said, hey, would you be interested in coming to work?

Work in the shop here?

And I had a lot of natural inclination with my hands as well.

My family does.

My dad, you know, my uncles all built hot rods and lowriders.

When I was young in high school, I actually started doing Native American jewelry, silversmithing work, and I was always into woodworking, too.

So when the opportunity to, try to go work in the violin shop came up, I had a good skill set.

I always admired some of my musician friends who have come from places where they really didn't have access to the greatest instruments, and so they really learned on some stuff that most people might even discard, you know, throw out.

But this is the only option they have.

And, they become masters, man.

They learn how to play on some things that.

You know, you couldn't even imagine.

And you get a real high quality instrument set up, you know, for them.

And they can just do amazing things.

And, and the literary world and building instruments and restoration, a lot of things haven't changed in 4 or 500 years, a craft that sometimes takes months or years.

Even some of these restorations, with time and patience, the best work happens.

These are amazing acoustic machines, and there's a lot of science in them.

And, you try to build this perfect, an acoustic box as you can, and then you hand it over to a person to allow them to express themselves and, inspired divine way.

That's hard to quantify and find.

See, watch both worlds collide and you hear this beautiful music that comes out of that, that, that journey.

That's where I'm at here in the in the string world.

I remember the big date debate at the time was, are we really going to call it give it a Latin, Mexican sounding name?

We felt like that was a big risk, but we stuck to it and wanted to honor, my family, my traditions, the my ancestors, the people and the culture.

I came from.

As far as American born, Mexican, American, Chicano in the string instrument world were very little that I can think of.

That's always something that's a challenge to is to help society understand that the Latino is a very, very generalized word.

So many flavors and spices of us out there.

I get so excited.

You know, just really learning in the last couple of years, our roots in the Ocho, in gay pueblos, in, in northern New Mexico.

But we've always been there.

For.

It's important for people like us who have established shops and businesses, schools that we continue to find ways to make sure we can continue to give back.

Also try to make sure that if somebody comes through that door from the local community, that or the high school or the middle school that needs a good instrument, we find a way to, to help them get an instrument in their hands.

We've had a lot of wonderful people that have donated instruments, and we fix them for free so people donate the instruments.

So we find the next forever home for them.

So it's hard to reach the communities we want to.

And, but we, we need to teach them that there's these amazing opportunities.

And I. Truly an inspiration.

Shortly after we shot this story, Eric had a stroke.

His wife said that he's on a long road to recovery, but together, she's confident that they will get there.

And we are sending all of our best wishes to him and his family.

If you would like more information about me, Vida strings, you can go to Eric's website.

Me Vida strings.com.

for people living with a spinal cord injury.

Driving represents freedom, independence and possibility.

Now, a Colorado neurosurgeon and an engineer are helping make that possible through adaptive driving technology.

In tonight's viewfinder, PBS 12, photojournalist Rico Romero takes us to Pikes Peak International Raceway, where patients are doing something that many thought they'd never do.

Drive a NASCAR Cup car.

All right, get ready.

He's going to fire it up.

All right.

Ready?

We're here at Pikes Peak International Raceway today.

Let go!

What a storm, trooper.

You look like a storm trooper.

All right.

Having a little fun behind the 850 horsepower race car.

Sounds like he's opening it up a little bit.

It's pure adrenaline.

If you go to the museum park all the time.

Right.

So some of us grow up real quick, and then others don't.

And we just.

Then we race cars.

This is a genuine NASCAR Cup car.

They said like, each lap gets a little bit faster and faster as it goes.

We're giving rides today and letting the occupants drive.

My favorite part is seeing the reaction when they come in after driving in particular belts.

A lot of the people that haven't done anything like this feel sick here.

Last November, I had surgery with Doctor Fauci.

Just through our conversations, he brought up this event that he does every year.

I'm Scott Fauci.

I'm a neurosurgeon.

So this is an event basically, Doctor Fauci, you know, developed, a race car that's adaptable, for, paraplegics like myself and even quadriplegics.

I've been doing this for 34 years and have been specially specializing in those with an injured spinal cord.

And, I learned along the way, that many of, my patients are very interested in cars.

Oh, yeah.

It's crazy.

Because it's mobility, right?

I mean, you lose mobility.

It's a way to get around.

And if you have a way to drive on the street or anywhere, it's you're kind of like everybody else.

All of a sudden, you if you can adapt the car.

So we have six patients that, varying from quadriplegic to, pairs that are driving with hand controls.

Travis.

All yours.

Phil.

I formed this foundation in 2013 when I approached, the NASCAR, Cup team, Furniture Row racing at that one, the NASCAR Cup championships.

They loved what I was doing.

And they went on and said, let me build you a car.

They're incredibly generous for doing that.

This took us to a whole different level.

So it's the original car.

But we had to put some modifications in it.

And that's where I needed an engineering team that I had had.

And that's doctor Harry.

Doreen.

It's Harry.

Doreen.

I have a PhD in, electrical engineering, so I have a doctorate of interior.

My sons and I are the ones that actually developed all the, technology for this race car so it can be driven under head control.

They said, you know, let's work on something where they can steer right, steer left, throttle, brake, but just moving their head and mouth.

So I wanted all levels of, spinal cord injury so they could use their arms.

I wanted hand controls that if they couldn't use anything, still wanted to drive.

Doctor felt you had actually asked me the following the fall before we were at at Dover and said, can you, you know, make this technology, make a car that can be controlled on head control.

And I said, as an engineer, well, sure.

How hard could it be?

So with a series of infrared cameras and gyroscope on the helmet and, little insignias on the helmet, it can gauge how much you turn your head right, left.

And then, electrical signal goes to a motor, which then turns the steering wheel with a little straw that comes out of it and into your mouth.

Yeah, you puff into it.

You, Just the pressure differential.

Another electrical signal goes to the throttle.

So the accelerator goes down.

You want to brake?

Yeah.

Set back a little bit.

Brake goes down.

So you can do, So yeah, we've had people at very high speeds, controlling it.

Of course, there's always a safety driver.

All right.

It's amazing.

It's amazing feeling.

There's nothing for an engineer like getting a system to actually work.

When, we first got this car working a few years ago with my son and I were out here at this track, I was trackside, he was driving under head control, down pit road, around the track, and you could hear the car behind you, and I as I turned around and watched that car come up, go beautifully through a turn.

Holding the line chills down my back because I felt like the Wright Brothers when thing something just came together and just worked.

It's pretty cool to watch, in particular a quad who's lost so much of their freedoms, being able to have a 850 horsepower monster underneath them because it shows, you know, accessibility, it shows freedom, shows independence.

You realize that they've got their freedom back for a few minutes.

It means the world to them.

And it makes me cry every time.

People in wheelchairs can can do, you know just as much stuff as, as a able bodied person?

It just has to be adjusted.

Adjust it a little bit.

Okay, caretakers.

Okay, let's get his chair over here.

Chair.

Come give me a ride on.

The injury sucks, but, you know, it's like, maybe there's a reason for this.

It's, led me to do, you know, some incredible stuff like this today.

You know, just, celebrated a year of marriage with my lovely wife.

We had a lady that drove in the beginning, and she came in and made a comment, something similar to this.

She said 20 years.

She's still sitting in the car.

It's like, wait, 20 years since I lost my mobility 20 years ago.

And it all just made it worth it.

Think about that.

The weight.

If you ever give some thought to what happens if you lose your mobility, the ability to run down the convenience store or do this and now you have to have a caretaker get you up in the morning that drive me, or at least me.

You know, a lot of people, they see, you know, somebody in a wheelchair and they think that, you know, they can't do anything but, you know, with, Doctor Fauci and his crew trying to make, a sport like this adaptive is just it's amazing just to show the world that, you know, we're not we're not just injured.

You know, we can we can live our lives in the fun.

Doctor Scott Fauci says his goal is to continue expanding adaptive motor sports to more people with spinal cord injuries.

Can experience the freedom and independence of driving.

Hello, Colorado.

A lot of the conversation right now is, you know, maybe about the elections.

But beyond the politics and the personalities, there are some very practical issues.

The next leaders of Colorado will have to deal with.

And one of the biggest is how the state pays for health care, specifically Medicaid.

And after some recently released figures, it is clear the state needs to figure this out.

Stat.

Here's a listen to what's happening from our Colorado Inside Out panel.

Well, while there is so much talk about who might be Colorado's next leaders in the new year, there is one certainty and it is not very good.

Colorado's top expense in the budget.

Medicaid ran over budget last year by $158 million, and next year, that number is expected to be more than double that.

Medicaid provides health care to low income residents, the elderly and people who are living with disabilities.

Marianne, our top legislative expert, has been tuned into this all week.

Yeah.

On Thursday, the Medicaid Commission met and got some incredibly grim news from the health care Policy and Financing department leader and from Mark Farentino, who's the head of the Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

And they Farentino in particular, pointed to the fact that between now and maybe 2043, if they don't rein in Medicaid, the only general fund money the state will have will all have to go to Medicaid.

That means no money for education corrections, which is 100, almost 100% funded by general fund dollars.

Higher ed, you know, any agency that is reliant on general fund, there will be no money left for them and Medicaid will suck up all of it.

What are the solutions?

One is to cut provider rates, which they they've already done.

Two is to cut the number of services that are provided in.

Three is to cut the number of people who are covered.

And what you get from all three of those, no matter which one you pick or all three of them, which is seems very likely, you're going to drive people to hospitals for basic medical care because the providers won't provide services if they don't get paid anymore.

People kicked off a medicaid, they're going to head to the hospitals, and hospitals are already in trouble, especially in rural Colorado.

You've got several that have only that have less than 30 days cash to operate.

So, you know, we're already in a crisis situation.

This just blew that up exponentially.

As a person who is an executive for a nonprofit.

We saw our own health insurance go 58% in one year.

And we were like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?

How are we going to make up for this revenue?

We ended up having to change providers.

It impacts people's ability to access health care, just like you're talking about.

And in rural Colorado, I mean, you're lucky if you even have a hospital.

You're lucky if you even have a general provider to be able to give you resources when you're sick.

And so I think this is going to result in, of course, people not getting care, which leads to death.

Let's also talk about Medicaid in the sense that there are people being exposed to toxic pollution all over the place.

This is part of the Maha movement, right?

Make America Healthy again.

I think there are people on both sides saying, hey, look, there's industrial pollution is impacting people.

This is a conversation we've been having in North Denver of trying to understand is the tax base from industry outweighed by what people are paying in Medicaid, in particular for cardiovascular, for pulmonary issues?

And these are real conversations are going to happen.

And I will say that this grim news, I don't know how that's going to impact these votes that people are about to take when they get their ballots about our budget.

Are we going to see Bruce change Taber, raise more revenue, or are we going to set a flat tax that's going to lock us into a place that perhaps we're going to have to cut so many services as a result?

When it comes to Medicaid, I think about, first of all, the reporting on $158 million over budget for the Medicaid program.

I mean, in 20 since 2019, the Common Sense Institute found that 182 bills on health care were passed by the legislature, leading to an expansion to $858 million in spending annually on the program.

And this is the result of a government that has decided to expand that program.

We've seen the number of enrollees go down, yet the program's expenditures continue to grow.

And at the same time, I look at it and say, this is just the nature of a government program.

When the federal government, when the state government goes and says, we are going to expand, for example, Colorado accepting years back under Obamacare, Medicaid expansion, that opens up Pandora's box.

And so it's no surprise that you will continue to see growth in expenditures and otherwise with these programs when you don't put those constraints in place in the beginning.

And so I think that this is a problem that the legislature has brought to itself more than anything.

And I expect it to get worse beyond that.

Well, it's going to get worse because it's not just Colorado that has this problem.

It is a national problem.

I don't know if there are any states that aren't facing the problem, but it's something the feds are not going to be able to get everybody out of.

It's it's just really catastrophic as we see what could happen to people who don't have health care to wind up at the hospitals, which have no money.

And here at home, we will have to see what's going to happen with our budget, with all the different I can't remember how many the initiatives out of the 13 will affect the budget, but most of them will, and they're going to be really critical.

And we don't know which way we'll go with the graduated tax or not.

For a budget here in the city, in the state of Colorado right now, you have to be panicking.

But let's also remember, even as it's government growing, it's the health care costs that are going to that's outside of government for the most part.

And we've seen just how as astronomically those have grown and how profits have grown for some of those companies, just to add a little, what the state will have to cover over the next over this budget cycle that we're in right now, and the one that they will start working on in January, $1.5 billion estimated in overspending.

And most of this is due to utilization.

People are just sicker, they're older and they're sicker.

And that's what's driving all a lot of this.

That was a lot a good lesson in Medicaid and state budgeting.

There are many other things we talked about on our most recent Colorado Inside Out.

You can watch the entire show on our YouTube channel, or check out the PBS passport app or the PBS 12 website.

And you can always listen in on our podcast, which is on Spotify and Apple.

Of course, we're already busy working on new issues and new topics for this week's show, so join us Friday night at 8:00 right here on PBS 12.

Have a good week.

Summer is winding down into the fall.

But your crops don't have to.

I'm here with the wonderful jungle Judy, and she's going to show me how to take your crops into the fall season.

Right?

Right.

So, Erica, fall is my absolute favorite time of the year.

Because during fall, I follow the seasons.

The shortening, daylight hours, and I learned to actually prune extra foliage off plants that are getting out of control.

Okay.

That's squash.

That may be four feet long.

I learned to harvest things at the right time.

I learned to cultivate my soil carefully around my plants, and then I learned to cover the earth so it stays nice and cool and permeable to water.

This is a lot to learn, but I believe in myself.

Where are we going to start?

I think we're going to start in a garden plot in our horse fern community garden, where we can demonstrate all this.

Okay.

Shall we do that?

Let's head out.

Let's head on out.

So today we have some wonderful winter squash.

We have a butternut, but we've got a lot of extra blossoms.

And I'm going to have Erica prune back.

Okay.

First of all right.

Here.

Okay.

This is my very first prune.

She's not only going to use a pruner, but then she's going to use her finger to pinch at this blossom.

And if it's hard to pinch off, you can use the right.

What she has done then is remove extra growth which is going to allow more of this ripening for fruit that's already on the plate.

I feel so weird pinching off something.

So I don't know, it feels like you're killing the plant.

And actually, I'm going to have her really quickly take the pruner.

That's that blossom.

That's not going to have time.

It would need about 45 days.

And Miss Erica, can I have you?

We're going to do some pretty rampant pruning.

Go ahead and prune back to here.

Right over there, So we've actually removed this extra growth, some of which looks healthy.

But any of these blossoms which would open would not have time to produce fruit.

So we're allowing that squash plant to maximize its energy in producing the fruit.

I'm ready to step in here.

And we like to use board to step on.

So we're not compacting soil.

I know it's hard.

I'm going to have you work when we're harvesting tomatoes.

We prefer to not let them get completely ripe at this time.

They ripen indoors.

Outside the fridge.

Okay.

I'm going to hold this.

You are going to cut it.

Don't pull it.

All right, cut it right there.

Eric is going to cut.

Oh, look at that.

Beautiful.

This is about two days away from eating.

So that's going to promote more blossoming.

But we're going to do one other thing.

As long as we have the tomatoes to remember the way we prune back blossoms on the squash.

Yes.

I going do a similar thing on these tomatoes.

I'm going to have you just prune it back to here.

All right.

The whole thing, the stem.

Let me hold it.

You're going to prune right there for me.

Right there.

Right above it.

Right here.

You got it.

And chop all of it.

Blossoms and all foliage.

Oh, I know you may think you're killing the plant, but again, you're promoting ripening for fruit, which is lower down on the plant.

Okay.

So another thing that's really important is our soils have worked really hard okay.

So we need to make sure that the water will permeate infiltrate into the soil.

I like to keep the soils nice and loose.

So you bring back the tomato.

She's lightly going to cultivate, so she's not digging deeply like she would when we plant soil sprouts.

These are weeds.

But let's see what you can do with the river.

You can cultivate them right into the soil.

The weeds, into the soil.

Yeah.

They're not going to sprout again.

Okay.

It's organic material.

You don't just yank.

No.

This is so easy job on using the gory horror.

You can see how nice and loose and soft it is.

And I want to feel it, because you can.

You feel how much different that feels in this.

That feels hard.

The roots can go down deeply on this.

I would almost want to sit on that if I were a worm.

Yeah.

Would you want to crawl through?

Absolutely.

I think we would love to cover the soil when you get a big handful of that strong.

Absolutely.

We the birds won't say.

Oh, and, Erica, I'm going to have you spread it around the base of the plant.

This is mulch.

This is organic straw.

I get so excited.

I know she does.

I can see that.

Great job.

We can.

Scarecrow, by the way, do scarecrows actually work?

Yeah, they work for our soul.

Oh, okay.

You know, it's garden art.

God keeps you in your garden.

Works okay.

All right.

If it's scarecrows, that's great.

But this is tomato.

Would be for you to work on with this.

What I'm saying she's not going to.

Yes.

Give it another day on the counter to right there.

Never ripen in the fridge.

I'm going to pretend I grew this.

Well, you can.

Judy, tell me, what is your favorite thing to make with tomatoes?

Seasoned, dry tomato slices.

Yeah.

Ooh, that sounds very wonderful.

I have an American Harvester dehydrator.

Okay.

It's supposed to hydrate tomatoes.

Oh, but they work so well.

So spread the slices out, and then I sprinkle them with some organic, no salt seasoning.

Do you dare me to try this?

Because I have a dehydrator?

I think you should try.

I'm going to try this.

This is fabulous.

Thank you for all the amazing tips today.

I'm so excited for the fall and give us like a little recap.

So during this segment we talked about ways that you can maintain your garden, keep warm season crops growing a little bit, but also realize that there's more than one season during the year.

So I saw right?

Yeah, the really hard I think sometimes we only celebrate summer, the season of proliferating crops.

But during this season of the year when we have a little bit cooling temperatures, we can replant certain crops for fall that we did in spring.

And most importantly at all, I think we can celebrate the fact that we've learned 1 or 2 new things.

It seems to me that you've fallen in love with a horror story.

You like the horror.

I've fallen in love with the wing leader here, but I'm also celebrate in the fact that fall is a time when we can really celebrate the changing of leaves, learn to use them as a resource, and realizing.

Most important to me is that gardening is not a race.

It's not about the biggest tomato, but it's about learning one more thing each year, not making the same mistake each year.

And perhaps most to me, finding a place of reflection and peace that allows me and the soil to deepen our roots.

I will cheers to that.

Cheers, cheers to the season of deepening roots.

We're just continuing.

Oh my gosh, at your phone.

Tomato plant.

Come on over here.

Oh real quickly watch out.

By the way, if you would like to support Doug, you can head on over to their website where they also have so many great fall workshops so that you can sign up for.

And we will see you there.

Happy gardening!

we hope tonight's stories inspired you to be informed, explore and connect with the people and communities around you.

You can watch these stories again, plus more of our Colorado storytelling on our YouTube channel or at PBS 12.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Ryan Hare and I'm Bazi kanani.

See you next week.