Brad Paisley Gives Back on Amazon’s “Regular Heroes”

Brad Paisley will be featured in this week’s episode of the Amazon series, Regular Heroes. The series highlights the contributions and personal sacrifices of generous individuals who are going above and beyond to support their communities during the COVID-19 crisis

Brad Paisley on Country Music News Blog

Episode 6 titled “The Farmer, the Mechanic, and the Bus Driver” will air Friday, June 19. In the episode, Brad Paisley will surprise these heroes with special donations so that they can continue to pay it forward in their communities. 

The Amazon Original docuseries Regular Heroes is continuing to highlight the contributions and personal sacrifices of just some of today’s most generous individuals who are going above and beyond to support their communities during the COVID-19 crisis. These timely new episodes, filmed over the last few weeks, will feature a doctor, animal rescue worker, drive-in theater owner, farmer, emergency vehicle technician, bus driver, inventor, pediatric nurse practitioner and art supplier. Additionally, professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist Chris Paul, Grammy-winning country music entertainer and songwriter Brad Paisley and professional football player J.J. Watt will make special guest appearances, surprising these heroes with donations of goods, services and more so that they each can continue to pay it forward in their communities. 

As previously announced, the eight-part docuseries, which premiered on May 8th with a special guest appearance by Alicia Keys, shines the spotlight on these heroes’ tireless work and amplifies their efforts across America. New episodes of Regular Heroes will be available every Friday through July 3rd in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, and in all other territories on the following Tuesdays.

Episode Five (June 12, 2020): “The Doctor, The Animal Rescue Worker, and the Theater Owner” with a special appearance by Chris Paul featuring:

DR. NANA B. AFOH-MANIN (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA)

Dr. Nana Afoh-Manin is an emergency room physician who co-founded MyCovidMD, a company that brings Free Testing and Telehealth to under-resourced and underinsured people and connects them to health resources. The app, which launched on March 2nd, offers medical assessments, crisis buddies and virtual provider appointments within 15 minutes. In addition to the app, her organization also runs free pop-up drive-thru testing centers, where anyone can stop by for a COVID-19 serology test. When she’s not working overnights in the ER, Nana is traveling around the country going to urban communities, churches, co-working spaces and parking lots to host her pop-ups.

JESSICA VACCARO (NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA)

Jessica Varro runs the no-kill animal shelter Animal Rescue New Orleans (ARNO). Since the pandemic began, the shelter has been taking in almost triple the number of animals as many people have been surrendering their pets because they are either sick or out of work. Additionally, at least once a week Jessica and her team make house calls and remove abused and malnourished animals from different properties. Running the shelter has been difficult as they’ve seen a decrease in funding and cannot do the usual fundraisers which make up most of their income. However, Jessica is constantly thinking of other ways to keep their doors open.

ANDREW THOMAS (HOUSTON, TEXAS)

Movie enthusiast Andrew Thomas is the proud owner of the Showboat Drive-In Theater in Houston, Texas.  But with no new film releases planned during this time of COVID, he has decided to give back to his community by hosting high school graduations at his drive-in.  For the graduating class of 2020 who thought they would never get to celebrate the milestone, Andrew works hard to provide a safe social distancing venue for students to receive their diploma, even if it means spending more time at work and less time with his family.

Episode Six (June 19, 2020): “The Farmer, the Mechanic, and the Bus Driver” with a special appearance by Brad Paisley featuring:

                DANIEL HAYDEN (WHITESVILLE, KENTUCKY)

Daniel helps run Hayden’s Farm, his family’s sprawling cattle and chicken farm that humanely raises commercial poultry and beef and is a partner of Perdue Chicken. Community engagement and education about how the farm really works is important to Daniel and since the pandemic began, the farm has amped up their social media presence, posting self-made educational videos weekly, including the virtual “Chickenology” classes Daniel teaches so students of all ages can understand the value of humane animal farm production. Perdue Chicken has been donating product to local food banks and Daniel helps reach out to members of the community experiencing food insecurity and connects them to these food source outlets.

FRANCISCO GOMEZ (SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS)

Francisco is an Emergency Vehicle Technician who does repairs on fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. Since the pandemic began, Francisco has been going out on five to six emergency repair calls a week. Due to Covid-19, more community members are calling 911 causing the vehicles to need more major repairs. As he is one of only a few technicians at his company and in the area that has the specialized knowledge to repair these vehicles, Francisco is finding himself living out of his car at times and driving to do repairs as far as five hours away. These days it’s normal for him to work a 14-hour day, making it difficult to spend quality time with his wife and four daughters.

TIFFANY UNDERWOOD (SEATTLE, WASHINGTON)

Tiffany Underwood is a coach bus operator for Community Transit in the Seattle area. Since the pandemic hit, Tiffany’s job has become one of the most dangerous yet important jobs during this time. She drives the commuter route and typically drives nurses, doctors and grocery store workers to and from work and even stops in front of a hospital to drop off patients needing assistance. She takes pride in playing a key role in getting essential workers to their place of employment safely. Since many of her coworkers have called out of work due to fear of catching Covid-19, Tiffany has had to put in many extra hours of overtime and on some days, may work up to fourteen hours.

Episode Seven (June 26, 2020): “The Inventor, The Nurse Practitioner and The Art Supplier” with a special appearance by J.J. Watt featuring:

                BRAD HALSEY (ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA)

Brad is a Navy Veteran who founded Building Momentum on the notion of training service members to solve problems with any tool available through innovation and critical thinking. Since COVID hit, Brad and his company have been developing new technologies to ease the coronavirus crisis, including several UV-C robots that disinfect and sanitize surface areas killing up to 99% of germs and bacteria. They’ve also developed a UV-C conveyor belt sanitizing system, a re-usable LDPE face mask with significant filtering properties and a UV-C power/flux dosimeter that can provide sanitization efficacy data and validate UV-C sanitizing technologies. He is now selling his innovative inventions and collaborating on new technologies with organizations including the Navy, hospitals, police departments, disaster relief groups and other non-profits.

                PAMELA DOUGLASS (LAS VEGAS, NEVADA)

As a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner for a Mobile Clinic, Pamela is responsible for treating homeless youth, refugees and those who have fallen victim to sex trafficking. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, she has seen a huge increase in the number of patients seeking help because many of her clients worked at casinos and have been furloughed, now facing homelessness. In addition to treating patients with all kinds of medical issues, she has also added COVID screenings to the list of services she offers, all free of charge. Pam is on call 24/7 for her patients and has teamed up with her local church in order to help provide her patients and their families with the resources and essentials they need during this time.

                CHELSEA PHAIRE (DANBURY, CONNECTICUT)

Chelsea is a fifth grader who founded Chelsea’s Charity last year, a self-funded organization that donates art supplies to children in need. She assembles kits of crayons, markers, paints, paintbrushes, smocks and sketchpads then distributes them to homeless shelters, underprivileged schools and schools affected by gun-violence. Because of COVID-19, Chelsea is unable to deliver the supplies in person; however, she has begun mailing out the kits and has sent over 1,500 so far to kids across the country. Art is Chelsea’s outlet for dealing with her emotions, and she wants to make sure that everyone like her has access to art supplies during this trying time.

ABOUT REGULAR HEROES:

Regular Heroes is an eight-episode docuseries highlighting the contributions and personal sacrifices of just some of today’s most generous individuals who are going above and beyond to support their communities during the Covid-19 crisis.   The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia on Friday, May 8 and in all other territories May 12. In addition to shining the spotlight on the heroes’ tireless work and amplifying their efforts in cities including New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, and Seattle among others, the series will continue to offer support and assistance with donations of goods, services and more so that they can continue to pay it forward and help their communities. New episodes of Regular Heroes will be available every Friday through July 3rd.  

Regular Heroes is produced by Amazon Studios in association with Philymack, TyTy & Jay Brown Productions and MGM’s Big Fish Entertainment. Philip McIntyre, John Lloyd Taylor, Laurence “Jay” Brown, Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith, Dan Cesareo, Lucilla D’Agostino and Jordana Starr serve as Executive Producers.

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About Shauna "WhiskeyChick" Castorena

Shauna "WhiskeyChick" Castorena is a freelance writer for both Country Music News and Country Music On Tour. Want to collab on some content? Email me. Want my rates for commercial promo work? Get them right here.