(upbeat guitar music) (relaxed guitar music) (relaxed guitar music continues) >>Back when we had a big staff, you know, these were all full.

So this is a cleaning in-process.

But this used to be my office, so I had a desk in here.

There are my little children.

(laughs) We shut the press room down in 2000.

This is where we used to keep the newsprint, and there's some still here.

Here's your ampersand.

(relaxed guitar music) Imagine putting every letter.

Newspaper rack, we stopped using these when we went to a dollar.

We're five dollars off the news rack now, that's expensive, nobody carries around five dollars in quarters.

You know, at one point years ago, this community had probably 6,000 people in the county.

It started to steadily decline.

The kids grow up, they can't find work here, they end up having to leave, go somewhere else.

We have more deaths than we have births, that's the way it's going.

(gentle guitar music) >>In Highland County, being retired and being older is a norm.

Children are kind of an anomaly in a way.

>>And you brought your mother-in-law!

>>Whatever mom wants, mom gets.

Absolutely.

>>I wish my kids would've realized that.

(gentle country music) >>I told Dr. Herbert, I said, that's the day before... (indistinct) Season coming in.

>>Some of our regulars aren't here, which makes me concerned because I'm wondering if they're okay.

>>We are now seeing the leading edge of the boomers age into not being able to do everything on their own.

That's very difficult for my generation.

We were going to be young forever.

We were never going to trust anyone over 30.

(upbeat guitar music) >>I got to be 79 and I have this little tiny part of me that's practical, and it said, "Hilda, get a base."

(upbeat guitar music) >>I feel so blessed to have all these children, but I still want to be independent on my own.

I still live in this house by myself, but you wouldn't believe it because they always hear... (indistinct) (upbeat guitar music) >>This community has saved my life.

My dad was a Vietnam vet and I saw the dedication that he had for it, and then, when I turned 18, my dad said, "I need that bed," and I knew what that meant, so I went to the recruiter's office.

>>I went in finally in '64.

My dad was flying in B-17s in World War II.

>>I grew up in the military, my dad was a Marine, I actually wanted to be a Marine.

I wish there was a deeper answer, but I just really wanted to be in the military.

(upbeat guitar music) >>They're volunteering to go into harm's way and possibly not return.

It's something to take seriously, and something to provide an opportunity, as a native people, in our tradition, in our way, to give honor to our modern warriors.

(upbeat accordion music) >>There's no cure for trauma, you know, it changes you forever and there's no going back, but what you can do is manage your life in such a way as to live your best life.

(upbeat accordion music) >>The military experience and everything I'm doing now, it's all been building on top of what the future is gonna hold for me.

>>I'm trying to, like, thrive at life, I'm trying to have a life.

I'm not trying to relive all of that stuff, I'm trying to put that in the past.

(upbeat guitar music) You're suffering from the illness, there's been trauma, there's been hurt, there's not been diagnosis and people are self-medicated.

>>Historically, rural communities have been taken advantage of in a way that just generationally and systemically affected the way we react to any sort of assistance.

(gentle guitar music) And so a lot of what I'm trying to do is meet people actually physically where they are.

(gentle guitar music) >>There's always this thing where...

Here, right?

I'm the teacher, you're the student, right?

I'm the clinician, you're the addict, right?

But a peer kind of levels the playing field.

Recovery in a peer means I've been where you are, I'm still there.

(person laughing) (indistinct) (people laughing) >>Logan and I wanted to set up another day just to tie dye.

>>I'm not about getting messy, but I'd love to wear it.

>>If we made you one, would you wear it?

>>Yes.

When you come to the peer groups, it's good because there's familiar stories, it's like, "Okay, I'm not alone in the world."

Just trying to be in community.

(gentle guitar music) >>meeting people where they are at, loving them where they're at, we are trying to save lives, so that one day, that they can thrive.

>>The benefit of meeting the workers where they live is that everybody there has an opportunity to come out and ask questions, and if they have a certain need and we can meet it, we do.

So I'm just gonna drop this medication off, it looks like the guys aren't home yet, but I'll just stick it on their table.

(gentle guitar music) >>Most people don't want to leave the community they're born in.

They want to succeed in that community.

They have ties there.

(gentle guitar music) (indistinct) To some extent, it is a reconstituted processing program.

In Virginia and North Carolina, especially the south, rely on the... (indistinct) Every single year to get hundreds of workers in... At their site, or tens of thousands overall every year to come in, harvest, and leave, and this is that old political equation where you don't necessarily want Latino communities, instead, you're basically... You just get the workers.

(gentle guitar music) (Cecilio speaking in foreign language) (person speaking in foreign language) (person speaking in foreign language) >>To me, this is our community, and these guys are an integral part of it.

(gentle accordion music) >>You know, I've been on these dirt paths, and done all this stuff, and planted it back, and it makes me feel wealthy, it makes me feel rich.

I got families that work for me, 35 families, not 35 people.

>>I grew up in Brunswick, Virginia, in Rawlings all my life.

I've known him since I was two years old.

(gentle accordion music) >>My father put me on a John Deere tractor when I was nine years old.

By the time I was 13, I was doing the work of a full-grown man.

We used to handle pulpwood by hand, didn't have a machine.

>>Used to tow wood on your shoulder, and your shoulder gonna get tough, black... (indistinct) >>Just, like, a big callous on it.

>>It won't ever get back like this one did.

>>He always gonna be my father, and then, he my boss man too, so sometimes he don't know how to get there.

>>They are not my bosses, but I am their mama!

(laughs) (indistinct) >>Eight year... 30... >>30 years.

>>30 years, 30 years.

>>Our company was established in 1965 by my grandfather, so if we can make it a few more years, we'll have been in the business 60 years.

(gentle accordion music) >>This is where I've lived my entire life, so it's personal for me.

I wanted to be a part of the change.

(gentle accordion music) >>The thing we need is a generational consciousness to leave the world better for the next people to come.

(gentle accordion music) (ethereal piano music)