After two years in the virtual only realm, Visioncon 2022 is back IN PERSON April 29-May 1st and will welcome thousands to the Springfield Expo Center.  If you love cosplay, graphic novels, anime characters, flash fiction, light saber training and much more, this is your event and K9s for Camo is the benefitting charity.

In this episode, Lissa Hamblen learns what participants can expect from Emcee and Celebrity Wrangler, Zack Wilson. 

"To improve ourselves, we have to improve our environment."

Retired journalist Lissa Hamblen shares perspectives of three Jefferson City Correctional Center inmates who work as trainers for P4P and K9s for Camo.  They describe rediscovering a sense of humanity they thought was long lost before dogs entered the prison.  Joseph Wilson, Jason Barr and David Manwarren were brought here because they are criminals but now they're known as something else -canine caretakers.

  "We get a little piece of our humanity back."  

   Words from an inmate at a Missouri prison who spends hours each day training a rescue dog for someone else to eventually love.  The inmates know the dogs they train - the ones that often steal their hearts - will have to graduate someday, leave the prison to make another person's life better.  Still, the task is cherished and considered a privilege.  Retired journalist Lissa Hamblen goes behind the walls at the Jefferson City Correctional Center to learn how Puppies for Parole and K9s for Camo improves life for the staff, inmates, dogs and eventually a deserving veteran.  

Ben Stephens is in training for a task that has more than once reduced him to tears.  In his words, he wants to face "what scares me."  On March 20th, Ben will virtually complete the Bataan Death March Memorial Run.  It honors the tens of thousands of American and Filipino soldiers who surrendered to Japanese forces in 1942 and were forced to march more than 60 miles through blistering jungle heat. Thousands died, many others survived only to be imprisoned in POW camps.  The Bataan Run is made for people with strength, training, and endurance.  Ben had none of this when he began training months ago.  Still, he wants to honor those fallen soldiers and benefit his two chosen charities, K9s for Camo and Gis for GIs.  He's ready to test himself but there's a major obstacle- he's recovering from knee surgery.  Can he complete the 27 miles?

Mikey Miller was looking at life behind bars when he made a decision in the prison yard that would determine his fate.  A dog named "Minnie" wagged her tail against his leg, begging to retrieve a thrown ball, and it was the signal to Mikey that his next choice would alter the course of his life.  Either choose "Minnie" and a program that would enhance his future or choose a bad move behind prison walls.  In this episode, journalist Lissa Hamblen learns how K9's for Camo was one of the programs that steered Mikey away from a lifetime of wrong moves toward a life helping veterans and pet owners.

In this episode, K9s for Camo founder, John Lopez, meets James Wright at one the nation's busiest retail outlets to test his service dog, Tango.  She's undergone re-training and will see her veteran for the first time in several weeks.  Will she pass the public test?  We also learn more about why Afghanistan veteran, John Lopez, started K9's for Camo and hear from one veteran who tearfully explains how he felt only safe at home until his dog, "Chase" proved he was covered in public.

On a brisk, fall afternoon in Springfield, MO, veterans and their families gather at a local brewery.  With them, their four-legged lifelines that make being in this public arena a possibility.

Journalist Lissa Hamblen charts the impact of K9's for Camo, an organization created to reduce stress and provide coping strategies for veterans.  With each dog presented to a vet, three lives are saved.  First, a dog is adopted from a local rescue.  Second, prison inmates find a renewed purpose by learning to train the dogs, a skill they can take with them after release.  Third, the dog is presented to a deserving veteran struggling to live with the scars of service, such as PTSD or medical issues.

Follow on this journey as we explore the work of trainers, offenders, and volunteers.  Hear the powerful stories of veterans who say they are able to live again thanks to K9's for Camo.