Olympic Hot Tub and Behind the Badge Foundation

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Everybody, Welcome to the public Affairshow of your favorite iHeartRadio station. I
am Lee Callahan, glad to haveback with me to discuss what Olympic hot
Tub is doing for the community thisyear. I have got mister Don Riling,
he's the owner of Olympic Hot Tubon the phone. Hi Don,
helloly and I have the recipient ofthis year's Honoring Heroes event dedicated to giving

(00:27):
back to the charitable causes tied toour heroes, the military, first responders
and public school teachers. I've gotBrian Johnston on the phone, the executive
director of Behind the Badge. Excuseme, I'll say it again, Behind
the Badge Foundation. Hi Brian,Hi Lee, thank you, you bet.
It's great to have you on now. Is this the first time you

(00:48):
two have met. Yes, itis actually well, Don, it is
your correct. That's great. HiDon, Howdy Don. Before we get
into talking about what Behind the Badges, you'll probably explain and explaining why you've
chosen this group as your beneficiaries.Tell us maybe a little background on Olympic

(01:10):
hot Tubs history of giving back tothe community, to do it twice a
year. Talk about this first partof the year, and then why you
chose behind the badge. Sure,well, I purchased a company from our
previous owners. Gosh, it's goingto be eight years ago in July already.
I can't believe that. But i'dworked for them for about yeah,

(01:30):
thanks, I'd worked for them forabout twenty one years before that. And
we always had a you know,a mission I guess, to help support
the communities in which we do business, but we really hadn't done it in
a way that I felt was reallymagnified the way that I thought we should,

(01:51):
especially with how our company has grownsince I purchased it. So I
created these two charitable events, thefirst one being in April, which is
our Honoring Heroes event, And asyou said, I like to choose a
charity that's focused on our first responders, our military, and our public school
teachers, which to me, thoseare who I view as great heroes for

(02:15):
our communities and our country. Andyou know, I mean what we do
is we just dedicate the sales thatwe that we get for that particular month
of April and give a portion ofthat to the charity that we choose.
The last several years, we've beenkind of focused on charities that worked with

(02:38):
the folks that are, you know, dealing with what's going on in Ukraine
right now, and with JBLM,and with their Fisher House, which was
actually the first charity that we hadfor our events when we started to doubt
eight years ago. But I hadthe last several years, I'd always wanted
to do something for law enforcement.And Jackie Fisher, who is my marketing

(03:01):
agency, we get together and lookat these organizations that are an option for
us every year and kind of vetthem, and other ones just standed up
kind of winning out, and thisyear Behind the Badge Foundation was the charity
that I felt made the most senseand the time was right. So here
we are. That's great, andstarting tomorrow and I'm going to play this

(03:23):
on Sunday. So starting tomorrow,April first is when folks can go into
any of the Olympic hot tub locationsand buy one of your awesome spas or
swim spas and proceeds will go toBehind the Badge for the next month.

(03:45):
Correct, That is correct? Andyou know, I mean my big mantra
is that everybody needs to feel betterand everybody needs to feel healthier, and
hot tubs and swim spas. Bothdo those in incredible ways for people.
Yeah, but if you have thoughtabout it and you really want to support
what we're doing for Behind the BadgeFoundation for the month of April, it's

(04:08):
prime time to actually step up andcommit to your own health and wellbeing,
but do something great for this worthycharity. Absolutely two things, two great
things in one. All. Rightnow I have on the phone from the
Behind the Badge Foundation, Brian Johnston. He's the executive director. Hi,
Brian high Lee. Hey, tellus what Behind the Badge does for police

(04:31):
officers. Well, first of all, if I can, I think you
know, we feel absolutely blessed afterlistening to Don and the types of the
organizations that they've focused on in thepast. And you know, we tend
to be an organization that believes wedo really good work, but we don't
believe that we should be in thespotlight to make that recognition as we're doing

(04:54):
work, because most much of it'sreally traumatic. So I just want to
say thank you that I think partnershipslike this are the are vital for us
to be able to continue to dothe work. And so just from my
heart to Don, thank you sovery much and it is just like you
said, oh sorry, and itis like you said, it is very

(05:15):
tragic circumstances that behind why your organizationhas been founded and started and is necessary.
And it seems to me that therehas been an increase in police officers,
first responders who have been killed inthe line of duty, and these
families are who you're helping, right, Yeah, that is a very accurate

(05:40):
statement. Especially in the last fiveyears, there's been an increase in violence
and an increase, an increase inofficers injuries, and increase in in line
of duty deaths. And that's that'sthe you know, that's the core of
the work that we do, andthe core that we've worked for for the
last twenty six years is honoring ourofficers who have in the line of duty

(06:00):
and developing their families with wrap aroundservices to help them navigate this new reality,
and then also supporting those officers stillworking in the department and their family
members and hopefully that extends all theway through to the communities in which they
serve. So tell us what aresome of the things you do, what

(06:26):
these wrap around services, And don'tlet me forget to talk about the other
officers. The surviving officers. Iwant to talk about that too, So
what do you do for these familieswho are just initially hit well, if
when an officer is killed in theline of duty, we are more frequently

(06:46):
than not called by the agency andlooking for what kind of assistance and what
kind of abilities that we might have. And we have a very developed team,
especially around line of duty death ofabout the individuals who are mostly volunteers
who embed themselves with that agency tohelp them in the planning of a memorial

(07:09):
service. But ingrained in the middleof that is also another very highly trained,
very emotionally intelligent group and that comesand sits exactly with the family and
from the hours or a couple ofdays following the that's of an officer,
our Family Liaisons, led by ourPrograms Director Meg Dabucci, comes and helps

(07:35):
with walking through that shock, helpingto navigate those more business kind of decisions
that you have to make in thein the immediacy of of a line of
duty death, and helping to makesure that the service, that is the
service in which we will memorialize thatofficer, is what that family wants and

(07:58):
that we are able to show honorfor that officer, but also really you
know, focusing on who that personwas, who he or she was in
their personal lives and their family lives, and then beyond that there is you
know, and there are years andyears of trying to figure out what the
new normal is like. And whatwe're able to do is from anywhere,

(08:22):
from connections of you know, counselingservices who counselors who are betted out for
grief and trauma, on our culturallycompetent for law enforcement, all the way
through to building a community within thesurvivor groups we call the surviving members survivors,

(08:43):
the surpriving family members are are areknown as survivors, and what we're
able to do is bring them togetherin a number of different places in a
number of different ways throughout the year, whether it's a it's a small coffee
group or a meetup or more orchestratedto have like an event where we bring
our survivors together, and it couldbe a very specific group like the moms

(09:05):
of a police officer, or thekids of a police officer, or all
of the family members. In avariety of ways too. Maybe it's an
event, maybe it's something that's alittle bit fun, but it's always,
it's always, it's always supported bytrying to create that support group, that
community from within, creating relationships withother survivors so that in the middle of

(09:28):
the night that they have somebody toreach out to or that has experienced what
they have and they don't feel asalone in their experience. Certainly still fill
alone with the loss of their familymember, their loved one, but now
you have somebody that has a similarloss or a similar situation and you can

(09:48):
talk with that person or you cancan just be with that person at that
point in time where you need them. Well, this is so much good
stuff. I have got on thephone with me Don Rilink, the president
of Olympic hot Tubs, who isproviding income for Behind the Badge Foundation.

(10:09):
You go into Olympic Hot Tub forthe month of April and proceeds from purchases
there go to Behind the Badge,And from Behind the Badge, I've got
executive director Brian Johnston. Now,Brian, you were a police officer.
What force were you with for howlong? I started very young with the

(10:31):
City of Monroe and I spent thirtysix years there, most of that within
the patrol section and most of thatas a patrol sergeant, and I very
much loved that job. But Ialso very much loved this job. Well
during your time, there was anyonekilled that you knew at that time that

(10:54):
or did you have an experience thatled you to behind the badge. I
had a unique opportunity to play aninstrument in the early years and still do.
I played the bag pipes, andbecause we were the only police bagpipe
band in the region, we wereat a number of services, whether they

(11:16):
were lying to duty death services,or they were officers who had passed away
after their after their their service intoretirement, and so being in that group
and having a lot of you know, intimate moments with family members and intimate
moments with department members. I wasinvited by our founder, Frank Hampson,

(11:39):
who was a sergeant with Seattle,to help in this vision to create the
Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial, whichis which we did in the most beautiful
spot on our capital campus. Andtoday we are still the moral and financial
caretakers of that monument, and soso having been involved with that for so

(12:00):
many years, and as the foundation, you know, progressed and grew,
and our understanding of what was neededin our families of our fallen officers as
well as the traumas that law enforcementofficers face on a daily basis. We
had an ability to affect that ina number of different ways. And as
we continue to grow, we're findingmore things to do and trying to make,

(12:24):
you know, make officers and theirfamily members more healthy, trying to
uplift the family members after they havehad a traumatic event, and trying to
do a number of things that youknow, we feel very strongly about that.
We feel strongly we're doing really goodwork and that it affects a very

(12:45):
very specific community. Wow. Thatis Brian Johnston, the executive director of
the Behind the Badge Foundation. Andtell me where and what the memorial looks
like. The Washington State Law EnforcementMemorial. It is a gorgeous memorial.
It took us a little bit oftime. We dedicated it in two thousand

(13:05):
and six, but we started inthe Layton in the late nineteen nineties to
trying to build this memorial and itcreated a really interesting and good relationship with
the actual state of Washington or ourstate memorial sits at the foot of the
Temple of Justice on the North sideof the Capitol campus in Olympia. It

(13:28):
overlooks bud Inlet and Lower Puget Soundand the Olympic Mountains, and we made
a commitment that not only to thestate, but we made a commitment to
all of our survivors that we wouldbe the caretakers of that memorial. We
had seen a number of memorials thathad fallen aside, a number of regional
memorials in the state that had becomedecrepit and had you know, had fallen

(13:52):
from their initial beauty, and wejust chose to be ever present. And
again to this day, we arethe caretakers. We know public moneys have
ever been expended on the memorial andit looks as beautiful today as it did
in two thousand and six when wededicated it. Our officers' names put on

(14:16):
that. Yeah, there are almostthree hundred and fifty police officers in Washington
State who have died in the lineof duty, and so many names and
it's way too many names. Yeah, that's so sad. Hey, you
need money to do all the stuffthat you have to do maintain the memorial,

(14:37):
but helping all of these families forquite a while, living expenses funeral
expenses and sorry now I've forgotten theword mental health expenses, all kinds of
stuff, assistance with medical bills,even for injured officers. Well this is

(15:01):
where Don Riling and Olympic Hot tabcome in. Don tell us how people
can help, Well I will.I just wanted to say that, you
know, when you sit and listento talk to what Brian said about what
they do and that memorial, thatmemorial is actually breathtaking. I had not
even had any awareness of it untilwe started connecting with Behind the Badge Foundation,

(15:24):
And if you go on their websiteor you go online and look at
some of these photos of it,it's pretty It's got serious impact. I'm
sure when you're there in person,but even online it looks stunning. So
and this is one of the reasonswhy I chose this charity this year,
because you know, when you talkabout Behind the Badge being the foundation's name,

(15:46):
they're also behind the scenes and theyjust don't get a line a light
shone on them the way it should. So that's one of the things that
I was kind of hoping. Andregardless of whether people want to buy as
a hot tap or a swim spotsI hope they will go to their website
and will donate to them directly becauseit's such a worthwhile cause. But of
course I'm not going to turn awayyour hot tub or swimspa purchase, especially

(16:10):
when it's going to help support themand give us a good donation to give
to them at the end of Aprilwhen we're finished. So come to Olympic
hot Tub. We've got eight locationsand if you've been thinking of a hot
tubb or swimspa, this is thetime to buy them and you'll be doing
something good for yourself and also goodfor our law enforcement community in Washington State.

(16:32):
Perfectly said. For Brian's organization,Behind the Badge Foundation, it's Behind
the Badge Foundation dot org. Andfor Don's business, it's Olympic hoot tub
dot com olympichot tub dot com.I want to thank you both so much
for what you do for our community, and it's been a great experience to

(16:55):
hear about Behind the Badge today.I'm very grateful, thanks for having absolutely
thanks you million, and thank youso much. Don. It's our pleasure