A small business owner in Waterford, Wisconsin, was reunited with his work portfolio and $5,000 in cash all thanks to a group of high school students who were in the exact right place at the right time. On May 15, Charles Jessup — the owner of Jessup Tree Services — was finishing up a job in East Troy, Wisconsin, when a client started talking to him. "As I was getting in my truck, the gentleman said, 'Hey Charles, one more tree,' and I said, 'OK, great,'" Jessup recalled. "Well, like a dummy, I put my portfolio on the back of my truck saying, 'Well I'm not going to forget this.'" He did forget it, though. Jessup said he drove off, and somewhere along Highway 20 between East Troy and Waterford, he ended up losing his open portfolio containing several important items including $5,000 in cash."My computer, OK, MacBook Air with my life, my business, records," Jessup said. "And then on the inside is where I had tucked the cash."Retracing his steps, Jessup said he found only his laptop. But he also spotted Waterford Union High School's Future Farmers of America students doing their spring roadside clean-up. "Charles pulled over on the side of the road, and he got my attention, because I was kind of toward the back of the group," Luke Hying, a Waterford Union junior and the FFA president, said. "At first, I was kind of a little confused. I'm like, 'What does this guy want?'"In a last-ditch effort, Jessup explained to the students his situation and asked them to call if they tracked down any of his items. "We were like, 'OK, we're probably not going to find it,'" sophomore Morgan Schoof said. "All of a sudden, I was like, 'there's a $50 bill right here.'""We found money after money after money, and then we found his portfolio," Hying added. "Then we found a bunch of papers with the portfolio. It was actually pretty crazy how much we found in that ditch."Jessup said he then received a phone call from Hying. "It went from having a terrible day, you know beating myself up for why would I be so stupid to leave that on the back of my truck, to like, 'Wow, what great kids,'" Jessup said.Monday, Jessup said thank you by hosting a party for the students during their lunch hour. "I really had no idea it would make such a big impact to Charles and so many people would see it as such a big event in the community," Hying said. The one act of kindness is inspiring more acts of kindness.Doc's on the Fox, a Waterford restaurant, donated pizzas for the party. "I wanted to re-enforce that sometimes doing the right things has benefits," Jessup said.

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia pizza parlor is hoping to help those who've been formerly incarcerated and are looking to revitalize the neighborhood.

“We’re at 28^th and Lehigh,” said north Philadelphia resident Abdulwahid Muhsin.

“It’s been a lot of violence in the neighborhood. You see the stuff changing around,”

Muhsin’s family has been in North Philadelphia for 70 years

“My grandmother bought the house in 1950,”

“These neighborhoods are just a byproduct of a neighborhood trying to survive on limited resources and trying to survive,” said Muhammad Abdul-Hadi.

He lives in the same neighborhood, believing the area is ready for some TLC.

“See, all these buildings are opportunities man, that’s how I look at them. These abandoned buildings are nothing but opportunities for something to come in that could potentially be a benefit to the community,” said Abdul-Hadi.

Abdul-Hadi puts his money where his mouth is, investing in a community restaurant: Down North Pizza.

“Down North Pizza is a mission-based for-profit restaurant. We exclusively hire formerly incarcerated,” said Michael Carter.

Carter spent 12 years of his life in prison.

Today he’s the executive chef at Down North Pizza.

“In Philadelphia, one out of every 23 persons out here in the workforce is on parole,” said Carter.

Two in 3 prisoners will get arrested within three years of their release, according to federal data published in 2021.

Four out of 5 will be arrested again within a decade.

It’s a trend that Down North and other businesses across the U.S. would like to reverse.

“Well, first of all, it's essential for you to know parolees to get jobs in general,” said Becky Trammell, an associate dean at Metropolitan State University Denver and has spent the better part of two decades studying prison populations in the US.

She says businesses like Down North are doing an essential job.

“It's not addressing the problem in the aggregate, but it will change lives. And it will help individuals, and so we need to support these types of programs that are doing something for this it's a big big problem,”

Muhammad wants people to stop seeing the formerly incarcerated as the enemy.

“The modern stereotype is that they’re evil, they’re bad people, they can’t get it right, which for the most part is the total opposite,” said Abdul-Hadi.

“If we keep dehumanizing these people and pretending like they're the monsters in the closet waiting for us to go to bed so that they can pick a machete for us, then we won't be. We won't have any incentive to try to do things to stop crying in the first place," said Tramell.

For Carter and some of his other coworkers, just because they’re out doesn’t mean they’re out.

“I’m on parole. So it’s like, I walk softly out here, every day. Do you know what I mean? Because any day one false move could mean I’m back on the other side automatically,” said Carter.

The hope is that Down North can represent redemption, both for its workers and community.

“We hope that it will get better. We hope that more businesses will open up to revitalize this,” said Muhsin.