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Staff Report

Jamie Vaught, a sports columnist and professor at Southeast Community and Technical College (SKCTC), is featured in a new book for children called “Kentucky’s Everday Heroes for Kids”. The book tells how Vaught was a premature baby, born with impaired hearing in Somerset. However, with strong family support, and through his own hard work, he was able to overcome his handicap.

Vaught writes many sport’s columns containing a heavy dose of University of Kentucky sports and are carried in newspapers throughout Kentucky including The Daily News. He has also written four books about UK sports.

In addition to his love for UK, Flairty writes that Vaught is a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball fan, and tells of a meeting he had with hall of famer Roberto Clemente, his childhood hero.

Along with his career as a sportswriter, Vaught is a professor of business administration and accounting at SKCTC. He received his master’s degree of business administration from UK.

He put his degrees in accounting and business administration to work in Somerset, where he served for four years as an internal auditor at a bank, including one year as head auditor. The bank was part of the large and now defunct banking empire of Jake Butcher in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The author of “Kentucky’s Everday Heroes for Kids” is Steve Flairty, and the illustrator is Rita DeLozier-Abshear, an elementary school art teacher. The book is a follow up to earlier books about Kentucky heroes by Flairty.

The latest effort is aimed at children, and he was assisted by elementary school students in Jessamine County. They were asked to read stories and make suggestions about how the stories could be adapted for children.

Flairty took the suggestions to heart and has written a compelling book about 28 everyday heroes. His idea to have student advisers came naturally since he was a teacher. He is also a public speaker, senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly and a columnist for KyForward.com.

DeLozier-Abshear brought a touch to the new book with her drawings of each of the featured characters.

Books may be ordered from her via email at rdabshear@hotmail.com. The price for the book is $16. The book is also on sale at bookstores in Lexington and other outlets across the state.