TheSecondChances.com

There are many second chance stories in progress.  Some people have just realized that they have received a second chance.  Others are in the middle of doing something productive with them.  Some have had success and are finding ways to give back.  All are inspiring and motivating in their own ways.

Lee Kluck turning over a new life leaf with his parents' support

Graduate student,Lee Kluck, had a heart attack at 28.  He believes that he has gotten a second chance.

After undergoing heart bypass surgery, he has led a much healthier life and is motivated.  He said, "It's my turn to work hard to keep myself healthy because all of the doctors and nurses worked so hard to help me. If I don't, I'll feel like I've let them down."

Read more by Heather Mawhiney in the Spectator News, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire.

Click photo example of wheelchair to see interview with Jason Wheeler

A soldier finally gets a wheelchair that he considers a second chance

Jason Wheeler felt like he had fallen through the cracks with no hope of getting the motorized wheelchair that could change his life. A training jump with a malfunctioned parachute left him jobless and disabled.
Once he connected with the wounded warriors  and the teamster's union, they presented him with a wheelchair within a few weeks of his request.

Where Second Chances are Happening - Combating Drugs in Kansas City

A program, appropriately called, COMBAT, is a consortium of 80 law enforcement, public health, mental health and youth agencies. It has spots to treat more than 4,000 people a year.

In an article for The Kansas City Star, Jackson County Executive Mike Sander said: "The program has had a positive impact on the community since its inception.For example, since 2002, drug crime prosecutions have dropped about 6 percent, while nationally there has been a significant increase. We are bucking the trend, and this is one national trend you want to buck."

Read more about this effective program in The Kansas City Star, written by Glenn E. RIce

Drug offender Luigi Nocerino at right, assists unidentified tourists on a tour of downtown Naples, southern Italy. Nocerino, and an unidentified colleague, at left with yellow vest.

In Naples, Italy, ex-cons are working as tourist guides. 

Some recently released ex-muggers and pick pockets are keeping tourists safer and increasing traffic to restaurants and shops. Here is an innovative program that has reduced pretty crime in some areas of Naples by 85%. 

Jack Harris has donated what will be a total of 12 sculptures, nine of which have already been installed, as well as patios, trees and landscaping, to North Central Michigan College in Petoskey.

Jack Harris, 81 years old,  gives back every day.

He lived through the depression and had rough lean years teaching art.  When he subsequently became successful as a  gallery owner,  he gave back with donations of artwork and with the goal of doing something good every day.

According to the Petoskey News in Michigan, "he doesn't give presents for Christmas, rather he donates money in his friends' names for food, education, children's causes and animals.... His hope is that people think of him as a guy who tried to be nice."

Read more in the Petoskey News, by Marci Singer

Dwayne Betts , arrested at 16 for a carjacking and incarcerated in Virginia's adult prisons.

He was the speaker at his graduation at University of Maryland.  He also had his first felony arrest at 16 and was in jail for 9 years.

Dwayne Betts told Stephanie Chen at CNN: "You can teach yourself anything you want.. You can be more than any one mistake you make."

This is an amazing personal story of how he achieved near-perfect grades in college and received a full scholarship to graduate school. Betts details his journey and how he triumphed to turn his life around in his memoir, "A Question of Freedom", released last month.