The First Tee of Louisville bringing kids together when it's needed most

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Being an IT director of sorts is not in D'Shawn Johnson's job description, but the executive director of the First Tee of Louisville is doing what it takes to help the city's young people.

Three days a week in a couple of different sessions, you can find Johnson and others helping bridge that digital divide at the Shawnee Golf Course.

"Our P.A.S.E. (programs and access sites for e-learning) is something we brought on this year to help with kids in the neighborhood with the NTI learning," Johnson said. "We know that there were youth in the area that maybe didn't have access to laptops or WiFi or maybe some instruction."

Shawnee is the main hub for the First Tee Program that uses golf as a tool for youth development, teaching life lessons through its nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.

Locally, it's grown from one location and about 75 participants to six locations and over 600 participants under Johnson's leadership. An in-school program reaches thousands more.

"We use golf to teach them and show them that they have these skills and abilities and help them with their confidence," said golf and life skills coach Brooklyn DiPaolo. "It's been great."

Johnson is a retired Louisville police officer who got the golf bug later in life. He was recently honored for his work with the Distinguished Service Award from the Kentucky Golf Foundation.

"It's a great award," Johnson said. "I'm very thankful. It means a lot, because it's coming from people that are in the industry that you're in."

He's also aware that the work being done in the program has really taken on an extra special meaning in this extra divisive time in our city and country.

"We have a mixture of youth from all different ethnic backgrounds, all different zip codes and education gaps and incomes," Johnson said. "You take a kid from 40212 and 40059, and you put them together on a golf course, and you put them in teams, and they start working together and having fun together. And guess what? They start tearing down stereotypes about each other, and then they realize that they're the same, and they become friends. So that's the unique perspective we have here."