Profound joy and deep sadness inspire the work of Kelli Clodfelter, who spends every day running programs that help make her community a better place.

Clodfelter is the executive director of Warren County Pathfinders (formerly Warren County Handicapped Services), a nonprofit organization that provides recreation, employment, housing and transportation services for people with developmental disabilities.

But in her free time, Clodfelter is an unwavering advocate for people facing very different disadvantages and struggles. Clodfelter is the founder of a local program called Substance Abuse Victims Experiences, or S.A.V.E. The program provides intervention for people struggling with addiction to help them understand how substance abuse can affect not only them, but the people who care for them.

Clodfelter has also organized community marches to raise awareness for the devastating impact of opioids taking hold in the community, and was a founder of Jordan’s Place, a youth activity center in Warrenton that provided a free place for disadvantaged teens to go for recreation and social support.

For those reasons and more, Clodfelter was nominated as a Hidden Hero, someone who makes a positive difference in her community without expecting anything in return.

Clodfelter’s family was struck by unimaginable tragedy in 2014 when she lost two of her children. Her infant daughter, Gracie, suffered a medical incident, and then several weeks later her teenage son, Jordan, died of a drug overdose.

In the days after those losses, going on with life was like trying to remember how to breathe. She said she was saved by the unconditional love given to her by the disadvantaged people she works with every day.

“I can’t begin to imagine how I could have kept going ... without these folks each day telling me how much they love me,” she recalled. “In this field, everyone is your family. And so when we went through our tragedy, everyone went through that tragedy with us.”

That love, and connecting with other parents who had suffered similar loss, inspired Clodfelter to become that same sort of support for others, and maybe even save someone else’s family from going through what she did. 

Several months after Jordan’s death, she started organizing marches to raise awareness for heroin addiction and the need for more programs to help those who are struggling. She founded the S.A.V.E. program, which uses testimony from families who have lost loved ones and first responders who have seen overdose deaths, in order to help motivate people to overcome substance abuse. And she ran Jordan’s Place for several years, hoping to give young people a place to go where they could stay out of trouble.

Recently, Clodfelter traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in a program called Trail of Truth, an awareness campaign for overdose deaths. There, she witnessed a crowd of thousands, made up almost entirely of groups of just a few people trying to make a difference in their home communities.

“One of the hard things with what we’re trying to do in the world is that we do them in small communities. You feel beat down because people forget, they move on when it’s not their problem. It’s very easy to do that, and so it’s very easy to feel like you’re not being heard, like you’re all alone,” Clodfelter said. “But then, (going to Trail of Truth), you realize you’re not so small after all, you’re just spread out, reaching out over the whole world.”

“I want to put all the good I can out into this world in honor of my kids. When I first started these things, I wished I could just wipe out all the bad, but that’s not going to happen. So now I take the small wins,” she added. “If we’re all getting small wins ... if you put all those wins together, we’re changing the world.”

She added that none of the programs she does would be possible without amazing, dedicated staff members and volunteers who work together with her every day to try to make their community a little better.

Do you know someone who volunteers their time to be a hero to others?
Every month, the Warren County Record and supporting sponsors will unmask a Hidden Hero and present them with their very own superhero cape. Help us find these Hidden Heroes by nominating someone you know who is going above and beyond in our communities.
Go to warrencountyrecord.com/hiddenhero to nominate a deserving hero.