September 16, 2019 • 9 mins
In episode 7 Brandon & Sebastian interview Omar Blanco, the President of the Local 1403 Fire Union. Omar talks to us about the importance of the new bill, SB426, that was recently signed by Governor Desantis to provide much needed assistance to firefighters fighting cancer as a result of their occupational hazard.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Are You Kidding? Podcast? I can listen with
my kids. Come on, kids with brothers Sebastian and Brandon Martinez.
Who are kids helping kids? What's up? Guys? We're with
another podcast with Mr Omar Blanco, a K known as
v I P. Mr v I P. What's up? A
Brandon Sebastian. How you guys doing? What's r I Long
(00:22):
time and long time? You know we've been Uh, you
guys have been busy doing great things. I see that. Yeah,
thank you for coming to our podcast. Hey, listen, you
guys call them all in. You know, we forgot to mention.
Mr v I P is also the head of the
President of the Chief Miami the Miami Dad Fire Department. Yeah,
Miami Day Firefighters. I represent the men and women who
(00:44):
provide service all throughout Miami Dade County about two thousand
plus firefighter, paramedics and dispatchers. That's a lot. Thank you
for supporting our charity stock campaign for the past four years.
It's amazing to have the support of our community. Well,
I'll tell you what, you guys, it's easy. You know.
What you guys do is inspired other kids like my kids.
You guys know very well, Lauren and Kevin, and uh,
(01:06):
what I think you guys have done in the community
has been phenomenal and and really, you know, I thank
you guys because for me, I wake up every morning
and I have a privilege to serve our community. But
you guys are doing things that have reached far outside
Miami Dade County. I mean the socks that we've partnered
up with you guys have sold and outside of the
state of Florida. We did the never Give Up one
(01:28):
for firefighter cancer awareness. And I gotta tell you, I
always get people calling me asking me for those socks.
So you know, what you guys do is awesome. You
could always time to go to www dot com. All right,
you know it, man, you know and I'm I'm I'm
all about you guys. So that's awesome. So tell me
about what you guys are doing here. What's what's going on?
This podcast is is obviously, uh gonna be about what
(01:51):
you do with kids and four kids and all that stuff.
I'm I'm excited about that. You know, my kids love
what you guys are doing. You know that. So what's up?
What's going on? So we wanna we want to tell
you about the Stand Up to Cancer campaign that we're doing.
So Sad to Cancer is an organization you know that
stands up to cancer. So what we did we made
(02:12):
socks for them so that we could sell and donate
back m fun to Stand Up to Cancer. So one
day hopefully we can find a kre for cancer. You
guys design some killer songs and we're gonna started doing
up national with schools and we're gonna dance in our thoughts.
No no shoes, no shoes, shoes, just our thoughts, and
we're gonna be dancing in the honor of those battling cancer.
(02:35):
You said that you like your design, the design for
Stand Up to Cancer sock, Well, actually one of the
people and Send Up to Cancer named Poppy. She actually
created the sock for us and on the bottom of
the sock you can see a poppy flower. So and
it represents it awesome. There's always so much meaning into
all the socks you guys have designed, you know, there's
always you know, they're not just somebody throwing something together.
They you guys really do a great job of capturing
(02:59):
what this organization is all about and stand up the
cancer something that we uh are very uh you know,
cancer itself and the fire services. You guys know has
been a very serious issue for firefighters. You guys helped
me out a great deal getting the getting that word
out so much so that we were blessed this year.
And I know you guys want to talk a little
bit about it is about our our cancer firefighter cancer
(03:22):
Initiative and supporting that. So did you have a question
about that about the SP four two six? Uh? Why? Why?
I want you to tell us why this bill is
so important to all firefighters because we know that SP
four two six was recently signed into law by Governor
DeSantis to provide the much needed assistance the firefighters fighting
cancer as a result of their occupational hazards. So tell
(03:45):
us more about that. So, what we've noticed over years
is that firefighters started to get cancer like you would
notice someone at your school getting a cold, right. I mean,
we were working with these guys and these are you know,
men and women who are in top physical shape. In
order to get high in the fire department, you've got
to be in a great physical shape. They come in
there great and then what we're finding is there there
(04:06):
get catching cancer, and not only cancer, but cancers rare cancers,
you know, and over the last five you know, maybe
about I want to say more than ten years ago,
we started to see it, but it became very evident
over the last five to eight years. So we've been
fighting for this bill every year. And you know this
year's Senate bill. That's awesome that you know that. And
(04:28):
I'll tell you there's a state UH senator named any
Terror Flores who really champion this for us. She fought
for us like a firefighter, just like you guys are
fighting to help bring awareness to cancer. You know that.
That's that's such a beautiful thing that you guys are doing,
such an amazing thing. I get chills just thinking about
what you guys doing for cancer, because while we are
(04:51):
having to focus on what we think is an epidemic,
you know, with our firefighters, the truth is we hope
that through this initiative, we can fix cancer for everybody.
And that's a partnership that I promise you I will
be with you till the very end, you know. So
let's do this. Why don't we do a stand Up
to Cancer sock initiative with the fire department And I'll
talk to them and say, every firefighter, we'll do. We'll
(05:12):
wear those socks for for the month of whatever this
initiative starts. Let's do that. What do you think about that?
That is amazing And we always want to help give
back to charities because I think every kid deserves to
be healthy and you never know Wendy will need help, right,
That's a that's a great thing. Listen, it's um, we
are very blessed, right, you know, we're very We're we're
we're blessed. You guys are awesome. You've got amazing family,
(05:35):
your mom and dad who I know, and uh, they're
great people. But you guys have been blessed. And what
you're doing is you're taking those blessings and you're giving back,
you know, And and that's just the most heroic thing.
I think that for guys like me, are are very
uh we're just touched by you know. In our line
of work, it's always about taking care of others. And
(05:56):
in my opinion, you guys are as much firefighters and
heroes as any of guys that that I have the
pleasure of working with and representing. Thank you, And I
have another question, sure, why is it so important to
continue to educate others? How do you feel about our kids.
Helping kids initiative phenomenal. Listen, the the how life is
what teaches us experience as you guys, what you're doing
(06:18):
is you're providing you know, my kids awareness to issues
that they didn't even know about, you know. I mean listen,
most kids right now or are playing a Fortnite You
guys like that game. Oh I don't know about it
that much. It's not as cool in my age to
to do it. But uh, what I will tell you
is you guys are also doing something to get back
(06:41):
and uh, and that's what's important as educating kids there,
you know. I always find it that, um, there's a
certain sense of you know, as a when you're a kid,
there's such a certain sense of doing good things, you know,
whether you're you know, helping out your friends or going
out and having a good time. It's such a wonderful thing.
And you guys are taking this opportunity early on. I
(07:04):
look forward to being your friend for many many years
and working together with you for many many years because
if this is where you're starting, yeah, your guys are
gonna do great things and and and and listen, We're
in this till the end, right all right, all right,
so yeah, so let's keep doing it. I mean if
we can help. You know, one of the great things
about being a firefighter and a paramedic for us, every
(07:24):
firefighter and paramedic in the world, uh, is that kids
love to see the fire truck. And there's nothing you know,
while we're fighting fires and while we're dealing with these
very uh tough situations saving lives, you know, sometimes where
we find our peace and kind of an opportunity to
kind of remember what we're all what we why we
do this is we get to visit schools and we
(07:46):
get to talk to the children who love the fire truck.
And you guys are kind of doing the same thing
with your sock uh uh what do you what's the
official name of it? You're no, No, the thing you
do with the dancing in the school the sock ops. Yeah,
so that's cool. So I want to do so a
cop at the firehouse, a very firehouse, and let's work
on that. And you're going to be supporting right absolutely,
(08:10):
Mr v Happy, never let you down. But about the
kids are supporting the firefighters. I feel like they're rooting
for you guys to beat the fires and save the
people's lives. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I listen, when
I was a kid. Uh, there's a picture of me
my brother wearing fire helmets and let me firefighters. So
it's fun. But you guys have your own right, you guys,
we got you set up right. You guys are five. Yeah,
(08:32):
that's right. I know. That's a cool one. It's a
cool and so we'll have to do more stuff together,
you know. I think it's important that you guys get
out there and that we support you and listen. I
thank everybody here who's supporting you because they've really provided
you an opportunity to expand that message. And it's such
a great message, good message about good things and about
(08:53):
doing the right thing. And uh, and so thank you
to all the folks here in Rique Santo's and and
their team here because this is uh, this is a
beautiful thing. It's a great thing. Thank you, no no problem,
Thank you so much for being here. All right, noble,
what are we doing next? What are we what's our
What are we doing next? Are we gonna go? Uh?
We gotta go on the fireboat, right, I gotta visit
the fireball. Yeah that's cool. Do you think we should
bring Enrique with us. Yeah, I think you'll like it. Huh.
(09:15):
I'll be there. Awesome. Guys. Well, listen, thank you again
for having me and listen, believe me, our firefighters out
there in Miami Dade and all throughout South Florida. Uh,
I know who you are, and they appreciate you, and
they want me to be here to thank you for
doing the right thing, for standing up to cancer, for
all this initiative, and wherever we can be of service
(09:36):
to you. UH, count on us every time. Thank you,
Mr b I P. Thank you all right, guys, thank you.
You just heard Are You Kidding? Podcast with brothers Sebastian
and Brandon Martinez who are kids Helping Kids
This is Are You Kidding? Podcast? I can listen with
my kids. Come on, kids with brothers Sebastian and Brandon Martinez.
Who are kids helping kids? What's up? Guys? We're with
another podcast with Mr Omar Blanco, a K known as
v I P. Mr v I P. What's up? A
Brandon Sebastian. How you guys doing? What's r I Long
(00:22):
time and long time? You know we've been Uh, you
guys have been busy doing great things. I see that. Yeah,
thank you for coming to our podcast. Hey, listen, you
guys call them all in. You know, we forgot to mention.
Mr v I P is also the head of the
President of the Chief Miami the Miami Dad Fire Department. Yeah,
Miami Day Firefighters. I represent the men and women who
(00:44):
provide service all throughout Miami Dade County about two thousand
plus firefighter, paramedics and dispatchers. That's a lot. Thank you
for supporting our charity stock campaign for the past four years.
It's amazing to have the support of our community. Well,
I'll tell you what, you guys, it's easy. You know.
What you guys do is inspired other kids like my kids.
You guys know very well, Lauren and Kevin, and uh,
(01:06):
what I think you guys have done in the community
has been phenomenal and and really, you know, I thank
you guys because for me, I wake up every morning
and I have a privilege to serve our community. But
you guys are doing things that have reached far outside
Miami Dade County. I mean the socks that we've partnered
up with you guys have sold and outside of the
state of Florida. We did the never Give Up one
(01:28):
for firefighter cancer awareness. And I gotta tell you, I
always get people calling me asking me for those socks.
So you know, what you guys do is awesome. You
could always time to go to www dot com. All right,
you know it, man, you know and I'm I'm I'm
all about you guys. So that's awesome. So tell me
about what you guys are doing here. What's what's going on?
This podcast is is obviously, uh gonna be about what
(01:51):
you do with kids and four kids and all that stuff.
I'm I'm excited about that. You know, my kids love
what you guys are doing. You know that. So what's up?
What's going on? So we wanna we want to tell
you about the Stand Up to Cancer campaign that we're doing.
So Sad to Cancer is an organization you know that
stands up to cancer. So what we did we made
(02:12):
socks for them so that we could sell and donate
back m fun to Stand Up to Cancer. So one
day hopefully we can find a kre for cancer. You
guys design some killer songs and we're gonna started doing
up national with schools and we're gonna dance in our thoughts.
No no shoes, no shoes, shoes, just our thoughts, and
we're gonna be dancing in the honor of those battling cancer.
(02:35):
You said that you like your design, the design for
Stand Up to Cancer sock, Well, actually one of the
people and Send Up to Cancer named Poppy. She actually
created the sock for us and on the bottom of
the sock you can see a poppy flower. So and
it represents it awesome. There's always so much meaning into
all the socks you guys have designed, you know, there's
always you know, they're not just somebody throwing something together.
They you guys really do a great job of capturing
(02:59):
what this organization is all about and stand up the
cancer something that we uh are very uh you know,
cancer itself and the fire services. You guys know has
been a very serious issue for firefighters. You guys helped
me out a great deal getting the getting that word
out so much so that we were blessed this year.
And I know you guys want to talk a little
bit about it is about our our cancer firefighter cancer
(03:22):
Initiative and supporting that. So did you have a question
about that about the SP four two six? Uh? Why? Why?
I want you to tell us why this bill is
so important to all firefighters because we know that SP
four two six was recently signed into law by Governor
DeSantis to provide the much needed assistance the firefighters fighting
cancer as a result of their occupational hazards. So tell
(03:45):
us more about that. So, what we've noticed over years
is that firefighters started to get cancer like you would
notice someone at your school getting a cold, right. I mean,
we were working with these guys and these are you know,
men and women who are in top physical shape. In
order to get high in the fire department, you've got
to be in a great physical shape. They come in
there great and then what we're finding is there there
(04:06):
get catching cancer, and not only cancer, but cancers rare cancers,
you know, and over the last five you know, maybe
about I want to say more than ten years ago,
we started to see it, but it became very evident
over the last five to eight years. So we've been
fighting for this bill every year. And you know this
year's Senate bill. That's awesome that you know that. And
(04:28):
I'll tell you there's a state UH senator named any
Terror Flores who really champion this for us. She fought
for us like a firefighter, just like you guys are
fighting to help bring awareness to cancer. You know that.
That's that's such a beautiful thing that you guys are doing,
such an amazing thing. I get chills just thinking about
what you guys doing for cancer, because while we are
(04:51):
having to focus on what we think is an epidemic,
you know, with our firefighters, the truth is we hope
that through this initiative, we can fix cancer for everybody.
And that's a partnership that I promise you I will
be with you till the very end, you know. So
let's do this. Why don't we do a stand Up
to Cancer sock initiative with the fire department And I'll
talk to them and say, every firefighter, we'll do. We'll
(05:12):
wear those socks for for the month of whatever this
initiative starts. Let's do that. What do you think about that?
That is amazing And we always want to help give
back to charities because I think every kid deserves to
be healthy and you never know Wendy will need help, right,
That's a that's a great thing. Listen, it's um, we
are very blessed, right, you know, we're very We're we're
we're blessed. You guys are awesome. You've got amazing family,
(05:35):
your mom and dad who I know, and uh, they're
great people. But you guys have been blessed. And what
you're doing is you're taking those blessings and you're giving back,
you know, And and that's just the most heroic thing.
I think that for guys like me, are are very
uh we're just touched by you know. In our line
of work, it's always about taking care of others. And
(05:56):
in my opinion, you guys are as much firefighters and
heroes as any of guys that that I have the
pleasure of working with and representing. Thank you, And I
have another question, sure, why is it so important to
continue to educate others? How do you feel about our kids.
Helping kids initiative phenomenal. Listen, the the how life is
what teaches us experience as you guys, what you're doing
(06:18):
is you're providing you know, my kids awareness to issues
that they didn't even know about, you know. I mean listen,
most kids right now or are playing a Fortnite You
guys like that game. Oh I don't know about it
that much. It's not as cool in my age to
to do it. But uh, what I will tell you
is you guys are also doing something to get back
(06:41):
and uh, and that's what's important as educating kids there,
you know. I always find it that, um, there's a
certain sense of you know, as a when you're a kid,
there's such a certain sense of doing good things, you know,
whether you're you know, helping out your friends or going
out and having a good time. It's such a wonderful thing.
And you guys are taking this opportunity early on. I
(07:04):
look forward to being your friend for many many years
and working together with you for many many years because
if this is where you're starting, yeah, your guys are
gonna do great things and and and and listen, We're
in this till the end, right all right, all right,
so yeah, so let's keep doing it. I mean if
we can help. You know, one of the great things
about being a firefighter and a paramedic for us, every
(07:24):
firefighter and paramedic in the world, uh, is that kids
love to see the fire truck. And there's nothing you know,
while we're fighting fires and while we're dealing with these
very uh tough situations saving lives, you know, sometimes where
we find our peace and kind of an opportunity to
kind of remember what we're all what we why we
do this is we get to visit schools and we
(07:46):
get to talk to the children who love the fire truck.
And you guys are kind of doing the same thing
with your sock uh uh what do you what's the
official name of it? You're no, No, the thing you
do with the dancing in the school the sock ops. Yeah,
so that's cool. So I want to do so a
cop at the firehouse, a very firehouse, and let's work
on that. And you're going to be supporting right absolutely,
(08:10):
Mr v Happy, never let you down. But about the
kids are supporting the firefighters. I feel like they're rooting
for you guys to beat the fires and save the
people's lives. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I listen, when
I was a kid. Uh, there's a picture of me
my brother wearing fire helmets and let me firefighters. So
it's fun. But you guys have your own right, you guys,
we got you set up right. You guys are five. Yeah,
(08:32):
that's right. I know. That's a cool one. It's a
cool and so we'll have to do more stuff together,
you know. I think it's important that you guys get
out there and that we support you and listen. I
thank everybody here who's supporting you because they've really provided
you an opportunity to expand that message. And it's such
a great message, good message about good things and about
(08:53):
doing the right thing. And uh, and so thank you
to all the folks here in Rique Santo's and and
their team here because this is uh, this is a
beautiful thing. It's a great thing. Thank you, no no problem,
Thank you so much for being here. All right, noble,
what are we doing next? What are we what's our
What are we doing next? Are we gonna go? Uh?
We gotta go on the fireboat, right, I gotta visit
the fireball. Yeah that's cool. Do you think we should
bring Enrique with us. Yeah, I think you'll like it. Huh.
(09:15):
I'll be there. Awesome. Guys. Well, listen, thank you again
for having me and listen, believe me, our firefighters out
there in Miami Dade and all throughout South Florida. Uh,
I know who you are, and they appreciate you, and
they want me to be here to thank you for
doing the right thing, for standing up to cancer, for
all this initiative, and wherever we can be of service
(09:36):
to you. UH, count on us every time. Thank you,
Mr b I P. Thank you all right, guys, thank you.
You just heard Are You Kidding? Podcast with brothers Sebastian
and Brandon Martinez who are kids Helping Kids
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