LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Good ideas come to us at a steady drip, like water from a faucet. Caden Gunn's take shape behind a keyboard.
He wants to make his art his career.
"I want to help people in the way that I know how, (and) that's through art and animation," Caden said.
College comes first. He got the grades in high school. All As with only one B.
"This year,” his mom, Cathy Gunn said with a smile. “Don't let him trick you."
The Doss High School graduate has his eyes set on Bellarmine University.
"Bellarmine is worth every penny, but it’s a nice investment," Cathy Gunn said.
Scholarships are a must. Caden was just awarded with a new one.
"I'm the first to receive the scholarship," he said.
It was for $10,000 over four years. Every dollar was soaked in symbolism. The Louisville Water Company started the scholarship after taking a deep dive into its past.
"After the racial unrest happened in Louisville, we started asking questions," said Kelley Dearing Smith, a spokeswoman for the company.
"We started in 1860, and slavery/race relations, it's part of our history," said Kelley Dearing-Smith from Louisville Water Company.
What she found in the archives hurt.
"We started in 1860, and slavery/race relations, it's part of our history," she said.
Nothing specifically says slave labor was used to build some of Louisville Water's facilities we know today, but Dearing Smith said, “you could probably draw those conclusions.”
Also in the archives, white employees were well-documented with first and last names in photos. For a while, Black employees were in the back, only their first names were listed.
"It's not something we should just keep in the archives," Dearing Smith said.
The Water Company wants a future to be proud of, and it thinks the Thomas Family Scholarship, named after the first Black family to work for the company, is a step in the right direction.
"It's nice to see some inclusivity and diversity," Caden said.
To earn it, he had to do his homework. He gained knowledge on the Thomas family and wrote about water crises around the country.
"Flint, Michigan, was the No. 1 focal point of the essay," he said.
The Water Company scholarship panel was impressed.
"There was something about his story that just spoke to our employees," Dearing-Smith said.
Even after reading though, they didn't know the true scope of how race has impacted this bright young man.
"My aunt, Vicki Jones, was killed in 2018," Caden's dad, Kevin Gunn, said.
He’s referring to the shooting at the Stony Brook Kroger. Jones was killed because of the color of her skin.
"It's always something we have to deal with, unfortunately," Kevin Gunn said.
No one will ever truly understand the pain the family still feels, but Kevin Gunn has always encouraged his son to live a certain way.
"You still have to find the positive in life and keep going and set a positive example," he said.
That's what Caden is doing. The art and animations he hopes to make are meant to get others through the same kind of struggles he's experienced.
"It could be helping with a tough teacher, dealing with racial injustice," he said..
Every creation will use all colors to define the bright young man’s future.
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