When gingerbread season rolled around in the Algoa Correctional Center Culinary Arts program, vocational teacher Mary Connell encouraged her students to challenge themselves. In addition to building traditional A-frame houses topped with cereal-tile roofs and inhabited by gummy bear families, the students took on the task of constructing a massive gingerbread replica of the Missouri State Capitol, in honor of the state's bicentennial.

Under Connnell's guidance, the team drew out their plans to scale and got to work on construction, along the way conquering obstacles such as the creation of curved gingerbread components for the Capitol dome. The resulting massive edible structure — 50 inches long, 25 inches wide and 36 inches tall — had to be moved in sections and re-assembled in its home on display in ACC's administrative building.

The builders paid careful attention to detail; the gingerbread Capitol is even topped with a tiny replica of the real Capitol's statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, made with a 3D printer with help from automotive vocational teacher Kenneth Connell.

Trey Dawson struggled with substance use and spent much of his early adulthood in and out of dozens of county jails and state prisons in multiple states. It was at Algoa Correctional Center, where he had the chance to participate in Puppies for Parole, that he discovered his passion for training rescue dogs.

After release from prison on Christmas 2019, he found a home with In2Action, the Columbia reentry program run by former offender Dan Hanneken. There, he connected with the house dog, Jobe, and was inspired to pursue dog training as a career.

Now Dawson owns Backyard K9, a business offering one-on-one and small-group training services for dogs and their owners. He also serves as the In2Action activities coordinator, acting as a role model for other men involved in the criminal justice system.