April 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Don Riling, President of Olympic Hot Tub discusses why he and his company put their efforts into positively impacting the local community, most recenty with 'Honoring Heroes'. Ian Coon, Director of the Alliance for Education shares the positives impacts the partnership has had on a micro and macro level.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And joining me now
is Don Riling, the president of Olympic hot Tub.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Don, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I am very well.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, that is fantastic and I think you are a
swell human being because you are actually getting involved in
the community in ways that I didn't know until I
got introduced to you.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So can you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Sure? Well, my name is Don Riling, and I'm the
president of Olympic Hottub, as you said, and I actually
next month will be celebrating my thirtieth anniversary with the company.
I worked for the previous owners that founded the business
for twenty one years before I bought it from them
almost nine years ago now and I'm just here plugging
(00:50):
away every day focused on wellness through water and heat
now that we've added sauna's, but water's always been our
passion for wellness.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, you know what, I am a huge believer in that,
having been a lifeguard. Every time it didn't feel good,
I just jumped in the ocean. But my husband is
a huge sauna enthusiast too, and awesome. If he doesn't
even work out at the gym, he has to go
in the sauna. What kind of benefits does that actually provide?
Because I don't understand. He just says, I just need
(01:20):
to do it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, you know, I mean, especially when you're doing it
after working out. It helps to It helps your body
deal with the lactic acid it gets built up in
your muscles when you're working out and gives you a
way to sweat that toxin out of your system. Obviously
it feels good too. Yeah, so it's probably the reward
of doing it after doing the workout. But you know,
(01:42):
I mean, sauna use has been around for thousands of
years and it's just so good for your immune system.
They found that it's terrific for your heart health. Obviously,
if he use it before bed and you are using
it about forty five minutes to an hour before bed,
your core temperature is polling down, will signal your body
to sleep and get in a.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
M sleep faster.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So there's all kinds of great benefits from Sonia's.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I like that, and I like just the feel good part.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
This is Don Don Riling joining me Jessaman McIntyre here
with Seattle Voice, Your community Voice here presented by iHeartRadio Seattle,
and I want to talk about April because we are
early on in the month and every April Olympic Hot
Tub raises funds to help support American heroes. And as
I have read up on you, it looks like your
(02:31):
goal is to highlight and give back to charitable causes
that are tied to the military, first responders or public
school teachers. So that's a wide variety of people that
you are benefiting. Can I ask you what motivated you
to get into it?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
After I purchased the company from the previous owners, I
just really wanted to raise our philanthropic profile as a company,
and I really wanted to make sure that we were
giving back to the communities in which we do business.
So I started two charitable efforts the first year that
I bought the company. One is the Heroes event that
(03:07):
we're talking about today, and then in October we do
a Founder's event, which is kind of designed honor Alison
Blair who started the company. They were really passionate about
homelessness and hunger, you know, helping with that as well
as the arts, so we focus on those three categories
in the fall and in the spring we focus on heroes,
(03:29):
which you mentioned a few seconds ago. And you know,
it's just a feel good thing for me too. And
I believe in karma. I feel like everything comes back
to you somehow, and I just feel so fortunate to
be in the position that I'm in running this business.
So I just it's just one of those ways that
you know, we can help out a little bit and
(03:52):
give back to the communities in a way that kind
of supports the health and wellness of the communities where
we're at, in addition to what we do with our
products that well the customers all the time.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Don That is why I love having this show.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know, it's called Seattle Voice, and we actually have
a voice in the community. Can you just take me
back to the beginning of I mean, you have a
lot of things, but we're talking about the Alliance for
Education April first through the thirtieth, How are you fundraising?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What we do is during the month of April, every
hot tub, every swim spa, every sauna that we sell,
we designate a portion of each one of those purchases
into a bucket and hopefully raise at least eighteen thousand
dollars a minimum to give to the charity.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That we've chosen.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We end up raising anywhere typically around twenty two to
twenty eight thousand dollars for the charities, depending on how
well we do in the month. So that's one of
the reasons why I like to talk about this on
the airways with people so they they know anybody that
has been thinking about a hot tub, arisauna or a
swim spa even this is definitely a great motivator to
(05:01):
buy during this month.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That is absolutely excellent knowing where it goes.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Can you tell me a little, just a little more
of what you know about the Alliance for Education? I
can read one sheet, but you obviously had motivation to
get connected to that.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah. Well, you know what I normally do each year
is I ask the marketing agency that we have for
our company to do a little bit of research in
those arenas that we talked about, military virtu responders, public
school teachers. And if I'm leaning heavily or feeling like
in my gut that I want to give to one
of those areas more than another, then they kind of
(05:42):
focus on that area and look for charities that would
be from that. I'm trying to think of a different
word besides aria to say, but I'm going to say
aria again.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So they brought it together.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
They brought a list for me this year on public
school teaching, which we haven't a lot for that. We've
really focused on military and first responders over the last
seven eight years, so I really kind of wanted to
focus on public school teachers. And when I got the
list from them, usually I get a really good feeling
or a really good sense of where I want to
(06:16):
go after I've read what has been provided to me.
But this year I was narrowed down to two and
I was kind of stemied. I couldn't figure out which
one I really wanted to go with. So I thought, well,
why don't I just go to the people that know
the most about this, which are friends of mine who
are public school teachers. So I went to a couple
(06:37):
friends of mine. One of them have known for almost
twenty five years. He sings with me in the Salemen's
Chorus and he is a music teacher in elementary in
the sale of public schools, and the other one is
a librarian for one of the schools in the district.
So I sent them the information and I told them, hey,
I would like your opinion about these, and one of
(06:59):
the to came back to me and just raised about
Alliance for Education and about his interaction with their programs
and actually working in his school district with people who
ended up interning in their schools to become teachers and
were now actually teaching in the district. So you could
(07:20):
really see that their programs were working, and there was
really a lot of enthusiasm from the other people that
are doing this job every single day in the districts.
So that was kind of the catalyst to make me
choose Alliance for Education.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, it sounds like you do your research done.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
This is pretty awesome because I know that some people
will just throw money at things and you do not
do that. Don Riley joining me Jessaman McIntyre here on
Seattle Voice, your community Voice in Seattle presented by iHeartRadio Seattle.
And you do actual grounds, boots on the ground research,
(07:58):
which is to me, makes a lot of difference of
how I look at charitable donations. I will just say
that I was a volunteer board member with Leukemi and
Laphoma Society for a long time, but I got in,
I got involved by running my first marathon with them
because I fundraise through team and training, and so I
(08:22):
really feel like it means a lot if you learn
first instead of just going with it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So what is Olympic Hot Tub.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I know that you probably have a ton of other
people that work with you and are involved in these decisions.
So what does everyone around you at Olympic Hot Tub say?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, you know, I mean, I try to get them
kind of in the know about the charity that we choose,
so they're a little bit more passionate about talking about
it when we have customers in the showroom. One of
the things that we do as a company is we
get our team together at least as many of them
as we can on an afternoon one week a month,
(09:03):
and we do what's called a lunch and learn, and
we invite a charity in this case or a vendor
to spend time with our team. It's virtually and we
buy lunch for the crew and then they get a
chance to get educated about what's going on with that
particular vendor or that particular organization. So we actually did
a lunch and learn with Alliance for Education last week
(09:25):
and we had our team on there. To let them
talk firsthand about what they do and their programs and
what the money that we raise means to the organization,
so they really get a sense of how important it
is that we promote it and that we do our
best to highlight the charity during this month in our showrooms.
(09:45):
And you know, we do a direct mail piece that
we sent out to potential customers. Obviously, we talk about
it on social media, and I did a blog about it,
and we sent out a PR release, and we're doing
things like this today, you know, which is really I'm
really appreciative of being able to talk about it today. So,
you know, anything that I can do to get the
word out and raise the awareness of the charity and
(10:08):
what they're doing is part of kind of my passion
about doing this, because it's not just about us selling products,
you know, although obviously we need to do that every
single day.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We all have job raising.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, I mean the money, you know, and no pressure.
But I'm sure your husband would love us on at home.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But anyway, oh my gosh, don't make me do that.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Done, don't make me do that.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But anyway, you know, I mean, I just I just
think that it's got to be about more than us
just selling the product and raising the funds, which is
obviously important, but for me, it's about getting the word
out and really making some public recognition and public applause
happen for the work that the charity's doing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I think that is absolutely lovely. Again, Don Riling from
Olympic Hotub joining me here. He is the president of
the company and obviously an extremely active community. So Don,
I'm going to put you on the spot here and
you can answer however way you want. But I do
this on most of my shows where I ask about
a starfish story.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I'm going to share a story with you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It's a short, short poem slash story that my mom
used to share with me when I was a kid.
And so there's this little girl walking on the beach
and there's thousands of starfish just washed up on the
beach and she is chucking them one by one into
the sea, and an older gentleman comes up and says,
(11:32):
why are you doing that? It's not it doesn't matter,
and she flings one into the sea and goes it
matters to that one. And I always like to ask
people if they have a starfish story, if you were
able to see the output of your efforts if you
have one.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean the thing that
comes to mind for me, which you know, it kind
of blew my mind when we were doing searched one
year for the Heroes event and we came upon the
Washington State Nurses Foundation, and this was in the height
of the pandemic. And when we were looking at a
(12:12):
charity and I talked to them, I discovered that the
emergency funds that they needed for nurses was entirely depleted
and had been depleted for quite some time. And so
when their nurses were getting sick or when something was
happening I mean talk about starfish, none of them had
(12:33):
anything for support. Is something happened to one of them
when they were in the thick of giving care and
helping all of these people that were dealing with COVID,
and it just really it was gut wrenching to me. So,
you know, that was the reason that I chose them
that year. And ironically, you know, the pandemic was very
(12:54):
good for my business, and it ended up that we
gave them the most that we've ever given in a
donation to a charity. During the Heroes event. I think
it was forty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But for the people that are trying to take care
of us every single day in crisis, to have nothing
there for them to turn to when they're in crisis
just blew my mind. And that kind of makes me
think of the starfish on the beach. You know, they're
in crisis, and how do you get them help? And
it wasn't like the ultimate answer for them in terms
(13:26):
of support, but at least we were able to give
something back and put something back in the coffers where
they had nothing for I don't know how many months
it was, but it was really tragic.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It was pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I worked for the state, the state Secretary of Healthier
during the pandemic, and I got to visit hospitals, you know,
full PP gear and everything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It was very eye opening, I can just say that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And then every single hospital I visited they said, we
need nurses, we need nurses. And the fact that you
were able to give back like that is the ultimate
starfish story. Even though you know it might be a
drop in the bucket, but you did you did something.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, you know, and I think that and this is
what I always tell my my my people here, you know,
my team, that you know this isn't going to solve
the world's problems or to solve the charities problems maybe,
but whatever we can do to help, you know, nobody's
going to turn away a dollar it's going to help
if it's going to help a student, if it's going
to help a nurse, if it's going to help a firefighter,
(14:32):
you know, we've got to do what we can. And
like I said before, it for me, it's a Carmen thing.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It's all about putting good out in the universe when
we can.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I'm a big believer in good energy and that is
why I'm so again privileged to have this show because
I get to meet people like you, I get to
put you on the air, and you get to put
more good energy out into the universe.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Just tell us a little bit more before I let
you go about Olympic hot to Let's revisit that and
where the percentage of sales goes, because I believe it's
pretty solid.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Sure well, we've got eight locations in Pugetown, so we've
got plenty of showrooms to go visit and we sell
hot tub swim spas and saunas. Fortunately, really the best
brands in the entire industry are what we sell, and
we've been the exclusive dealer with them for over four years.
So when people buy from us, they can buy with confidence,
(15:29):
and a portion of each one of those sales during
the month of April will go towards the donation pot
that we will be giving to Alliance for Education help
them with their work.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I love it and I am really really happy that
you are a part of our Seattle community. So thank
you Don Riling of Olympic Hot Pub joining me here
on Seattle Voice.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You have a great day.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Thanks a lot, and with that, after talking to Don again,
this is Jessaman McIntyre, host of Seattle Voice, presented by
iHeartRadio Seattle.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We are airing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
On multiple stations today and after talking to Don, I
wanted to dig in a little deeper when it comes
to who we're talking to here, who they are sponsoring,
and right now, the communications director of the Alliance for
Education is joining me, Ian kohon how are you today.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
I'm great, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm extremely privileged to have you on because I love
this show because we actually talk about what's going on
in the community. And the first thing I like to
do is allow my guests to introduce themselves to our audience.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Yeah, my name is Ian and I lead communications at
the Alliance for Education. I'm originally a Midwesterner by way
of Washington, d C. To land here in Seattle. I've
loved it ever since, and I think in part because
of the community that I landed in with sit in
a really interesting position at the Alliance for Education, serving
(17:00):
as a local education fund for Seattle public schools, and
so it's really very fulfilling every day to get to
pair the needs of our educators and students and families
with the resources and philanthropy that exist in this wonderful city.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It is a wonderful city. I thought I would be
out here for like two to three years. I've been
here for sixteen, So I get it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It just it does getcha.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I really didn't think it would again, Ian Cree joining
me here. Jessaman McIntyre, Seattle Boys, can you tell us
more about I kind of want to dig down into
what the Alliance for Education does.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Yeah, so, for thirty years, since nineteen ninety five, the
Alliance has served as the education fund supporting Seattle Public Schools,
and so our mission has been to connect those outside
resources into the public school system, knowing that it takes
all of us to provide a hand and help lift
(18:00):
those schools up. They can't just be just our teachers
doing all of this work. And so today there's a
couple of things that we do. A couple of programs
we do along with fundraising for initiatives and work the
district wants to do, we also run a teacher residency
program which has trained almost three hundred educators to work
in schools impacted by poverty across the city. And primarily
(18:23):
those educators are are educators of color and so reflective
of the students, which is making such an impact in
classrooms to have someone that students can look up to
and that care about them. There's a couple other programs too,
like the Right Now Needs Fund, which was developed in
partnership with Amazon and over the past five years has
(18:44):
distributed six million dollars to all one hundred and four
schools in Seattle Public Schools. Wow, and Yeah, the focus
there is really to be able to provide basic needs
for a students so that they can focus on learning
right so rather than thinking about where their next meal
may come from when they leave the classroom, or where
they're going to go home to at the end of
(19:04):
the night, we can help take care of some of
those needs like shelter and food and clothing so that
they can focus on what's happening right there in front
of them. And so that's been really, really impactful.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
It's quite amazing in how the focusing on basic needs
that might not be met for certain young people. We're
talking about children here who are getting educated. It can
take precedence over actual education. And it's just a sounding
to me, but it makes sense. I am privileged enough
(19:36):
to not have to worry.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I hadn't when I was young, Like we all had
a cast role. It was a big meal. But I'm
privileged enough to not actually worry about being hungry. And
I I'm wondering what motivated you to get involved?
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Yeah, So, I mean my own personal story is maybe
similar to yours. It sounds like I had a wonderful,
great public school education growing up, and also recognize that
that wasn't a privilege that everyone had across town. From
where I grew up. Their schools looked very different than
the one that I went to, and you know, on
(20:14):
a personal level, I didn't think that was fair me too,
or equitable before I you know, before I even had
any language to put to it. And so that's really
driven my personal passion for this work, and I think
Seattle's poised to be a really thoughtful leader again with
all the resources to people that care and the knowledge
to do something to try and tackle those inequities that
(20:38):
exist all over the US and all over the world.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Frankly, I completely agree with you, and I one hundred
percent say if I have anything more that I need,
I will give it away or I will use whatever
resources I have to at least help someone else, because
all I need is what I need.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And you know, we we do sound similar in that way.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I was just talking to Don Riley of Olympic Hot
Tub and I don't know how far a dollar goes.
I know that they have fundraised for a long time
and any dollar is a dollar, is what he said.
You know, nobody's going to turn down even one dollar.
And having Yeah, I fundraised for Lukemi and La Poma
Society for a very long time. I was a volunteer
(21:23):
board member for six years. I ran marathons with them
through team and training, and it was kind of one
of the most prideful things that I've done. Not to
be prideful, but I understand the motivation and I just
like seeing the people. So anyway, I just wanted to
know how Olympic hot Tub has impacted your alliance.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I mean we rely on you know, private businesses
and resources like Olympic hot Tub to fuel our mission
and keep our lights on and pass those dollars through
to the district and the students that need them the most.
And so donations like can let the cop tubs is
really helpful for that we you know, like you said,
(22:09):
hard to put a dollar amount of things, but thinking
about like how one kind of inflection point in an
education cycle for a student makes an impact. But like
it doesn't matter what you're learning in the classroom if
you don't have glasses to see the board of what
they undred dollars, Like, that's one student that can actually
(22:30):
participate in class now. Or you know the cost of
an uber of a ride share to get a cross
town when your family's car breaks down so you can
actually show up to school that day, right, fifty dollars,
but they got them there to do that. So I
think you said at all different.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Levels there are there's always a need.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's always a need, and you know, for for people
who and I don't want to say I took anything
for granted, but I probably did when I was younger.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Because I didn't know what I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And I would like you to share with our audience
right now about how they can help out.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah, so it's really exciting. It's our thirtieth anniversary. By
the way we've been thank you. Yeah, it takes a
lot to have have made it here this far. I
think one of that the public can help. Obviously, donations
are always useful to any nonprofit. The cost of goods
keep going up and that's the same for us as well. Uh,
(23:34):
and so those are of course really helpful. Making a
legacy gift and honor of thirty years on our website
is a great way to do that.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
There's lots of say the website, the website.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
The website is alliance for ed dot org and it's the.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Number four alliance number four ed dot org.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
There's also lots of opportunities to volunteer and get involved
in this work. And I think, last, but not least,
like being a messenger, Seattle is a place that has
really high standards for our community and for each other,
and not you know, passes along to our schools. We
want our schools to be the best they can be,
(24:19):
but we also have to recognize that there's a lot
of really good stuff happening in them. So sometimes our
schools can get a bad rap because we always want
more and more and better, which is a great thing
to strive for, Yes, but I don't think we always
do a great job recognizing some of the brilliance and
the great work that we have done here and that
does exist. And so you know, just thinking about that
when you talk about schools with your neighbors or with
(24:41):
your colleagues. Of like, I had a great public school education.
I love you know, Seattle Public, and there could be
ways to improve.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yes, I think that striving for better is not a
bad thing to go for. I mean, I like, like
we had talked about, I see it problem, I just
want to fix it. I have actually like a serious
fixation on that. So just so you know, Ian, I
am right there with you again, Jessamine McIntyre, Ian Kuhn
(25:12):
joining me from the Alliance for Education here. I do
this to everyone, so I might catch you off guard,
but I'll give you some time to think.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I always talk about the Starfish Story.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It was a short story slash poem that my mom
read to me when I was a child, and it's
about this little girl on a beach who sees like
thousands of starfish just washed up, and she is flinging
them one by one back into the water.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I mean, they're clearly going to dry out on the beach.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And then an older gentleman comes up and says that
it doesn't matter what are you doing, Like nothing that
you do here will matter, And she chucks another one
into the sea and says it matters to that one.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And then there's this.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Great iteration of that story where the guy actually starts
helping her. And I was wondering, if you have a
starfish story.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's so hopeful.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
It's just, yeah, that's what we need right now.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, you've been working with the Alliance for Education, and
I'm sure that you've seen some great things happen.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, I mean I think that maybe this relates to
multiple aspects of our work, but we try to think
in terms of like systems and scale and so a
lot of the programs and the work that we do
in the fundraising, whether that's like suppliers for teachers classrooms
(26:48):
start filling those basic needs, or educated recruitment any you know,
however that work looks came from one individual need in
a school, and our programs have worked to systematize that.
So you know, like rather than one teacher, you know,
(27:09):
paying for a meal or sending food home with a
student that day and it makes a difference that one student,
we thought, how can we make that larger and more
impactful and scale it And that's how we got to
that program with the Amazon of providing you know, six
million dollars over five years. But it probably did start
with one educator that had a heart to think through.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That it matters to that one, that's all that matters. Yeah,
like we had talked about earlier again, Ian Kuhn with
an Alliance for Education joining me, Jessaman McIntyre. This is
Seattle Boys, your Community Boys, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle, and
I love that whether you are on the giving end
or the receiving end. I feel like it's all about
(27:52):
community and it is absolutely wonderful to talk to you.
And I don't know how to thank you because I
have not been a giver or a recipient.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
But your voice is out here now.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And what more, if anything, can you share about the
Alliance for Education?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Yeah, I think as we celebrate thirty years, you know,
it takes all of us to pitch in and care
for our public school system here. You know. I like
to say it's an old kind of proverb of each one,
reach one, teach one, and I think that fits perfectly
in the essence of the show. When I work with
Olympic hot tubs here is that it could be you know,
(28:34):
just one business or just one classroom, just one student,
But that does make a difference. And as we keep
making a difference going forward, it will snowball and keep going.
And I think that's what we need to do, is
keep building snowballs and pushing them down the hill.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Together, they're the starfish. You could be a beach or
of snowy mountain. They're the starfish.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And one more time, just because I want to get
this out here, how can people contribute.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah, people can contribute and get engaged with our work
at Alliance four. That's the number four eded dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Well, I love it, Ian, It is an absolute pleasure
to meet you. I hope sometime that you're able to
come into the studio and maybe we can do this
in person sometime.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, that'd be awesome. I am admittedly not a you know,
radio listener for my age group, but it's always fun
to do like actual interviews like this versus just writing
stuff down.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
So you deserve your voice out there, and I appreciate
everything that you do for education and for the community.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So thank you for your time.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you. Likewise, thanks for amplifying it.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yes, you've been listening to Seattle Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I'm Jessamin McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
For show ideas or to find out how your voice
can be heard, email Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com.
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And joining me now
is Don Riling, the president of Olympic hot Tub.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Don, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I am very well.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, that is fantastic and I think you are a
swell human being because you are actually getting involved in
the community in ways that I didn't know until I
got introduced to you.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So can you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Sure? Well, my name is Don Riling, and I'm the
president of Olympic Hottub, as you said, and I actually
next month will be celebrating my thirtieth anniversary with the company.
I worked for the previous owners that founded the business
for twenty one years before I bought it from them
almost nine years ago now and I'm just here plugging
(00:50):
away every day focused on wellness through water and heat
now that we've added sauna's, but water's always been our
passion for wellness.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, you know what, I am a huge believer in that,
having been a lifeguard. Every time it didn't feel good,
I just jumped in the ocean. But my husband is
a huge sauna enthusiast too, and awesome. If he doesn't
even work out at the gym, he has to go
in the sauna. What kind of benefits does that actually provide?
Because I don't understand. He just says, I just need
(01:20):
to do it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, you know, I mean, especially when you're doing it
after working out. It helps to It helps your body
deal with the lactic acid it gets built up in
your muscles when you're working out and gives you a
way to sweat that toxin out of your system. Obviously
it feels good too. Yeah, so it's probably the reward
of doing it after doing the workout. But you know,
(01:42):
I mean, sauna use has been around for thousands of
years and it's just so good for your immune system.
They found that it's terrific for your heart health. Obviously,
if he use it before bed and you are using
it about forty five minutes to an hour before bed,
your core temperature is polling down, will signal your body
to sleep and get in a.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
M sleep faster.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So there's all kinds of great benefits from Sonia's.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I like that, and I like just the feel good part.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
This is Don Don Riling joining me Jessaman McIntyre here
with Seattle Voice, Your community Voice here presented by iHeartRadio Seattle,
and I want to talk about April because we are
early on in the month and every April Olympic Hot
Tub raises funds to help support American heroes. And as
I have read up on you, it looks like your
(02:31):
goal is to highlight and give back to charitable causes
that are tied to the military, first responders or public
school teachers. So that's a wide variety of people that
you are benefiting. Can I ask you what motivated you
to get into it?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
After I purchased the company from the previous owners, I
just really wanted to raise our philanthropic profile as a company,
and I really wanted to make sure that we were
giving back to the communities in which we do business.
So I started two charitable efforts the first year that
I bought the company. One is the Heroes event that
(03:07):
we're talking about today, and then in October we do
a Founder's event, which is kind of designed honor Alison
Blair who started the company. They were really passionate about
homelessness and hunger, you know, helping with that as well
as the arts, so we focus on those three categories
in the fall and in the spring we focus on heroes,
(03:29):
which you mentioned a few seconds ago. And you know,
it's just a feel good thing for me too. And
I believe in karma. I feel like everything comes back
to you somehow, and I just feel so fortunate to
be in the position that I'm in running this business.
So I just it's just one of those ways that
you know, we can help out a little bit and
(03:52):
give back to the communities in a way that kind
of supports the health and wellness of the communities where
we're at, in addition to what we do with our
products that well the customers all the time.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Don That is why I love having this show.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know, it's called Seattle Voice, and we actually have
a voice in the community. Can you just take me
back to the beginning of I mean, you have a
lot of things, but we're talking about the Alliance for
Education April first through the thirtieth, How are you fundraising?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What we do is during the month of April, every
hot tub, every swim spa, every sauna that we sell,
we designate a portion of each one of those purchases
into a bucket and hopefully raise at least eighteen thousand
dollars a minimum to give to the charity.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
That we've chosen.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
We end up raising anywhere typically around twenty two to
twenty eight thousand dollars for the charities, depending on how
well we do in the month. So that's one of
the reasons why I like to talk about this on
the airways with people so they they know anybody that
has been thinking about a hot tub, arisauna or a
swim spa even this is definitely a great motivator to
(05:01):
buy during this month.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That is absolutely excellent knowing where it goes.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Can you tell me a little, just a little more
of what you know about the Alliance for Education? I
can read one sheet, but you obviously had motivation to
get connected to that.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah. Well, you know what I normally do each year
is I ask the marketing agency that we have for
our company to do a little bit of research in
those arenas that we talked about, military virtu responders, public
school teachers. And if I'm leaning heavily or feeling like
in my gut that I want to give to one
of those areas more than another, then they kind of
(05:42):
focus on that area and look for charities that would
be from that. I'm trying to think of a different
word besides aria to say, but I'm going to say
aria again.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So they brought it together.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
They brought a list for me this year on public
school teaching, which we haven't a lot for that. We've
really focused on military and first responders over the last
seven eight years, so I really kind of wanted to
focus on public school teachers. And when I got the
list from them, usually I get a really good feeling
or a really good sense of where I want to
(06:16):
go after I've read what has been provided to me.
But this year I was narrowed down to two and
I was kind of stemied. I couldn't figure out which
one I really wanted to go with. So I thought, well,
why don't I just go to the people that know
the most about this, which are friends of mine who
are public school teachers. So I went to a couple
(06:37):
friends of mine. One of them have known for almost
twenty five years. He sings with me in the Salemen's
Chorus and he is a music teacher in elementary in
the sale of public schools, and the other one is
a librarian for one of the schools in the district.
So I sent them the information and I told them, hey,
I would like your opinion about these, and one of
(06:59):
the to came back to me and just raised about
Alliance for Education and about his interaction with their programs
and actually working in his school district with people who
ended up interning in their schools to become teachers and
were now actually teaching in the district. So you could
(07:20):
really see that their programs were working, and there was
really a lot of enthusiasm from the other people that
are doing this job every single day in the districts.
So that was kind of the catalyst to make me
choose Alliance for Education.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, it sounds like you do your research done.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
This is pretty awesome because I know that some people
will just throw money at things and you do not
do that. Don Riley joining me Jessaman McIntyre here on
Seattle Voice, your community Voice in Seattle presented by iHeartRadio Seattle.
And you do actual grounds, boots on the ground research,
(07:58):
which is to me, makes a lot of difference of
how I look at charitable donations. I will just say
that I was a volunteer board member with Leukemi and
Laphoma Society for a long time, but I got in,
I got involved by running my first marathon with them
because I fundraise through team and training, and so I
(08:22):
really feel like it means a lot if you learn
first instead of just going with it.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So what is Olympic Hot Tub.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I know that you probably have a ton of other
people that work with you and are involved in these decisions.
So what does everyone around you at Olympic Hot Tub say?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, you know, I mean, I try to get them
kind of in the know about the charity that we choose,
so they're a little bit more passionate about talking about
it when we have customers in the showroom. One of
the things that we do as a company is we
get our team together at least as many of them
as we can on an afternoon one week a month,
(09:03):
and we do what's called a lunch and learn, and
we invite a charity in this case or a vendor
to spend time with our team. It's virtually and we
buy lunch for the crew and then they get a
chance to get educated about what's going on with that
particular vendor or that particular organization. So we actually did
a lunch and learn with Alliance for Education last week
(09:25):
and we had our team on there. To let them
talk firsthand about what they do and their programs and
what the money that we raise means to the organization,
so they really get a sense of how important it
is that we promote it and that we do our
best to highlight the charity during this month in our showrooms.
(09:45):
And you know, we do a direct mail piece that
we sent out to potential customers. Obviously, we talk about
it on social media, and I did a blog about it,
and we sent out a PR release, and we're doing
things like this today, you know, which is really I'm
really appreciative of being able to talk about it today. So,
you know, anything that I can do to get the
word out and raise the awareness of the charity and
(10:08):
what they're doing is part of kind of my passion
about doing this, because it's not just about us selling products,
you know, although obviously we need to do that every
single day.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We all have job raising.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, I mean the money, you know, and no pressure.
But I'm sure your husband would love us on at home.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But anyway, oh my gosh, don't make me do that.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Done, don't make me do that.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But anyway, you know, I mean, I just I just
think that it's got to be about more than us
just selling the product and raising the funds, which is
obviously important, but for me, it's about getting the word
out and really making some public recognition and public applause
happen for the work that the charity's doing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I think that is absolutely lovely. Again, Don Riling from
Olympic Hotub joining me here. He is the president of
the company and obviously an extremely active community. So Don,
I'm going to put you on the spot here and
you can answer however way you want. But I do
this on most of my shows where I ask about
a starfish story.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I'm going to share a story with you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It's a short, short poem slash story that my mom
used to share with me when I was a kid.
And so there's this little girl walking on the beach
and there's thousands of starfish just washed up on the
beach and she is chucking them one by one into
the sea, and an older gentleman comes up and says,
(11:32):
why are you doing that? It's not it doesn't matter,
and she flings one into the sea and goes it
matters to that one. And I always like to ask
people if they have a starfish story, if you were
able to see the output of your efforts if you
have one.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean the thing that
comes to mind for me, which you know, it kind
of blew my mind when we were doing searched one
year for the Heroes event and we came upon the
Washington State Nurses Foundation, and this was in the height
of the pandemic. And when we were looking at a
(12:12):
charity and I talked to them, I discovered that the
emergency funds that they needed for nurses was entirely depleted
and had been depleted for quite some time. And so
when their nurses were getting sick or when something was
happening I mean talk about starfish, none of them had
(12:33):
anything for support. Is something happened to one of them
when they were in the thick of giving care and
helping all of these people that were dealing with COVID,
and it just really it was gut wrenching to me. So,
you know, that was the reason that I chose them
that year. And ironically, you know, the pandemic was very
(12:54):
good for my business, and it ended up that we
gave them the most that we've ever given in a
donation to a charity. During the Heroes event. I think
it was forty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But for the people that are trying to take care
of us every single day in crisis, to have nothing
there for them to turn to when they're in crisis
just blew my mind. And that kind of makes me
think of the starfish on the beach. You know, they're
in crisis, and how do you get them help? And
it wasn't like the ultimate answer for them in terms
(13:26):
of support, but at least we were able to give
something back and put something back in the coffers where
they had nothing for I don't know how many months
it was, but it was really tragic.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It was pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I worked for the state, the state Secretary of Healthier
during the pandemic, and I got to visit hospitals, you know,
full PP gear and everything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
It was very eye opening, I can just say that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And then every single hospital I visited they said, we
need nurses, we need nurses. And the fact that you
were able to give back like that is the ultimate
starfish story. Even though you know it might be a
drop in the bucket, but you did you did something.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, you know, and I think that and this is
what I always tell my my my people here, you know,
my team, that you know this isn't going to solve
the world's problems or to solve the charities problems maybe,
but whatever we can do to help, you know, nobody's
going to turn away a dollar it's going to help
if it's going to help a student, if it's going
to help a nurse, if it's going to help a firefighter,
(14:32):
you know, we've got to do what we can. And
like I said before, it for me, it's a Carmen thing.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It's all about putting good out in the universe when
we can.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I'm a big believer in good energy and that is
why I'm so again privileged to have this show because
I get to meet people like you, I get to
put you on the air, and you get to put
more good energy out into the universe.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Just tell us a little bit more before I let
you go about Olympic hot to Let's revisit that and
where the percentage of sales goes, because I believe it's
pretty solid.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Sure well, we've got eight locations in Pugetown, so we've
got plenty of showrooms to go visit and we sell
hot tub swim spas and saunas. Fortunately, really the best
brands in the entire industry are what we sell, and
we've been the exclusive dealer with them for over four years.
So when people buy from us, they can buy with confidence,
(15:29):
and a portion of each one of those sales during
the month of April will go towards the donation pot
that we will be giving to Alliance for Education help
them with their work.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I love it and I am really really happy that
you are a part of our Seattle community. So thank
you Don Riling of Olympic Hot Pub joining me here
on Seattle Voice.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You have a great day.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Thanks a lot, and with that, after talking to Don again,
this is Jessaman McIntyre, host of Seattle Voice, presented by
iHeartRadio Seattle.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We are airing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
On multiple stations today and after talking to Don, I
wanted to dig in a little deeper when it comes
to who we're talking to here, who they are sponsoring,
and right now, the communications director of the Alliance for
Education is joining me, Ian kohon how are you today.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
I'm great, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm extremely privileged to have you on because I love
this show because we actually talk about what's going on
in the community. And the first thing I like to
do is allow my guests to introduce themselves to our audience.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Yeah, my name is Ian and I lead communications at
the Alliance for Education. I'm originally a Midwesterner by way
of Washington, d C. To land here in Seattle. I've
loved it ever since, and I think in part because
of the community that I landed in with sit in
a really interesting position at the Alliance for Education, serving
(17:00):
as a local education fund for Seattle public schools, and
so it's really very fulfilling every day to get to
pair the needs of our educators and students and families
with the resources and philanthropy that exist in this wonderful city.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It is a wonderful city. I thought I would be
out here for like two to three years. I've been
here for sixteen, So I get it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It just it does getcha.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I really didn't think it would again, Ian Cree joining
me here. Jessaman McIntyre, Seattle Boys, can you tell us
more about I kind of want to dig down into
what the Alliance for Education does.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Yeah, so, for thirty years, since nineteen ninety five, the
Alliance has served as the education fund supporting Seattle Public Schools,
and so our mission has been to connect those outside
resources into the public school system, knowing that it takes
all of us to provide a hand and help lift
(18:00):
those schools up. They can't just be just our teachers
doing all of this work. And so today there's a
couple of things that we do. A couple of programs
we do along with fundraising for initiatives and work the
district wants to do, we also run a teacher residency
program which has trained almost three hundred educators to work
in schools impacted by poverty across the city. And primarily
(18:23):
those educators are are educators of color and so reflective
of the students, which is making such an impact in
classrooms to have someone that students can look up to
and that care about them. There's a couple other programs too,
like the Right Now Needs Fund, which was developed in
partnership with Amazon and over the past five years has
(18:44):
distributed six million dollars to all one hundred and four
schools in Seattle Public Schools. Wow, and Yeah, the focus
there is really to be able to provide basic needs
for a students so that they can focus on learning
right so rather than thinking about where their next meal
may come from when they leave the classroom, or where
they're going to go home to at the end of
(19:04):
the night, we can help take care of some of
those needs like shelter and food and clothing so that
they can focus on what's happening right there in front
of them. And so that's been really, really impactful.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
It's quite amazing in how the focusing on basic needs
that might not be met for certain young people. We're
talking about children here who are getting educated. It can
take precedence over actual education. And it's just a sounding
to me, but it makes sense. I am privileged enough
(19:36):
to not have to worry.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I hadn't when I was young, Like we all had
a cast role. It was a big meal. But I'm
privileged enough to not actually worry about being hungry. And
I I'm wondering what motivated you to get involved?
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Yeah, So, I mean my own personal story is maybe
similar to yours. It sounds like I had a wonderful,
great public school education growing up, and also recognize that
that wasn't a privilege that everyone had across town. From
where I grew up. Their schools looked very different than
the one that I went to, and you know, on
(20:14):
a personal level, I didn't think that was fair me too,
or equitable before I you know, before I even had
any language to put to it. And so that's really
driven my personal passion for this work, and I think
Seattle's poised to be a really thoughtful leader again with
all the resources to people that care and the knowledge
to do something to try and tackle those inequities that
(20:38):
exist all over the US and all over the world.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Frankly, I completely agree with you, and I one hundred
percent say if I have anything more that I need,
I will give it away or I will use whatever
resources I have to at least help someone else, because
all I need is what I need.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And you know, we we do sound similar in that way.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I was just talking to Don Riley of Olympic Hot
Tub and I don't know how far a dollar goes.
I know that they have fundraised for a long time
and any dollar is a dollar, is what he said.
You know, nobody's going to turn down even one dollar.
And having Yeah, I fundraised for Lukemi and La Poma
Society for a very long time. I was a volunteer
(21:23):
board member for six years. I ran marathons with them
through team and training, and it was kind of one
of the most prideful things that I've done. Not to
be prideful, but I understand the motivation and I just
like seeing the people. So anyway, I just wanted to
know how Olympic hot Tub has impacted your alliance.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I mean we rely on you know, private businesses
and resources like Olympic hot Tub to fuel our mission
and keep our lights on and pass those dollars through
to the district and the students that need them the most.
And so donations like can let the cop tubs is
really helpful for that we you know, like you said,
(22:09):
hard to put a dollar amount of things, but thinking
about like how one kind of inflection point in an
education cycle for a student makes an impact. But like
it doesn't matter what you're learning in the classroom if
you don't have glasses to see the board of what
they undred dollars, Like, that's one student that can actually
(22:30):
participate in class now. Or you know the cost of
an uber of a ride share to get a cross
town when your family's car breaks down so you can
actually show up to school that day, right, fifty dollars,
but they got them there to do that. So I
think you said at all different.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Levels there are there's always a need.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's always a need, and you know, for for people
who and I don't want to say I took anything
for granted, but I probably did when I was younger.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Because I didn't know what I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And I would like you to share with our audience
right now about how they can help out.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah, so it's really exciting. It's our thirtieth anniversary. By
the way we've been thank you. Yeah, it takes a
lot to have have made it here this far. I
think one of that the public can help. Obviously, donations
are always useful to any nonprofit. The cost of goods
keep going up and that's the same for us as well. Uh,
(23:34):
and so those are of course really helpful. Making a
legacy gift and honor of thirty years on our website
is a great way to do that.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
There's lots of say the website, the website.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
The website is alliance for ed dot org and it's the.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Number four alliance number four ed dot org.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
There's also lots of opportunities to volunteer and get involved
in this work. And I think, last, but not least,
like being a messenger, Seattle is a place that has
really high standards for our community and for each other,
and not you know, passes along to our schools. We
want our schools to be the best they can be,
(24:19):
but we also have to recognize that there's a lot
of really good stuff happening in them. So sometimes our
schools can get a bad rap because we always want
more and more and better, which is a great thing
to strive for, Yes, but I don't think we always
do a great job recognizing some of the brilliance and
the great work that we have done here and that
does exist. And so you know, just thinking about that
when you talk about schools with your neighbors or with
(24:41):
your colleagues. Of like, I had a great public school education.
I love you know, Seattle Public, and there could be
ways to improve.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Yes, I think that striving for better is not a
bad thing to go for. I mean, I like, like
we had talked about, I see it problem, I just
want to fix it. I have actually like a serious
fixation on that. So just so you know, Ian, I
am right there with you again, Jessamine McIntyre, Ian Kuhn
(25:12):
joining me from the Alliance for Education here. I do
this to everyone, so I might catch you off guard,
but I'll give you some time to think.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I always talk about the Starfish Story.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It was a short story slash poem that my mom
read to me when I was a child, and it's
about this little girl on a beach who sees like
thousands of starfish just washed up, and she is flinging
them one by one back into the water.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I mean, they're clearly going to dry out on the beach.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And then an older gentleman comes up and says that
it doesn't matter what are you doing, Like nothing that
you do here will matter, And she chucks another one
into the sea and says it matters to that one.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And then there's this.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Great iteration of that story where the guy actually starts
helping her. And I was wondering, if you have a
starfish story.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's so hopeful.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
It's just, yeah, that's what we need right now.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, you've been working with the Alliance for Education, and
I'm sure that you've seen some great things happen.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, I mean I think that maybe this relates to
multiple aspects of our work, but we try to think
in terms of like systems and scale and so a
lot of the programs and the work that we do
in the fundraising, whether that's like suppliers for teachers classrooms
(26:48):
start filling those basic needs, or educated recruitment any you know,
however that work looks came from one individual need in
a school, and our programs have worked to systematize that.
So you know, like rather than one teacher, you know,
(27:09):
paying for a meal or sending food home with a
student that day and it makes a difference that one student,
we thought, how can we make that larger and more
impactful and scale it And that's how we got to
that program with the Amazon of providing you know, six
million dollars over five years. But it probably did start
with one educator that had a heart to think through.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That it matters to that one, that's all that matters. Yeah,
like we had talked about earlier again, Ian Kuhn with
an Alliance for Education joining me, Jessaman McIntyre. This is
Seattle Boys, your Community Boys, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle, and
I love that whether you are on the giving end
or the receiving end. I feel like it's all about
(27:52):
community and it is absolutely wonderful to talk to you.
And I don't know how to thank you because I
have not been a giver or a recipient.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
But your voice is out here now.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And what more, if anything, can you share about the
Alliance for Education?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Yeah, I think as we celebrate thirty years, you know,
it takes all of us to pitch in and care
for our public school system here. You know. I like
to say it's an old kind of proverb of each one,
reach one, teach one, and I think that fits perfectly
in the essence of the show. When I work with
Olympic hot tubs here is that it could be you know,
(28:34):
just one business or just one classroom, just one student,
But that does make a difference. And as we keep
making a difference going forward, it will snowball and keep going.
And I think that's what we need to do, is
keep building snowballs and pushing them down the hill.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Together, they're the starfish. You could be a beach or
of snowy mountain. They're the starfish.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And one more time, just because I want to get
this out here, how can people contribute.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah, people can contribute and get engaged with our work
at Alliance four. That's the number four eded dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Well, I love it, Ian, It is an absolute pleasure
to meet you. I hope sometime that you're able to
come into the studio and maybe we can do this
in person sometime.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, that'd be awesome. I am admittedly not a you know,
radio listener for my age group, but it's always fun
to do like actual interviews like this versus just writing
stuff down.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
So you deserve your voice out there, and I appreciate
everything that you do for education and for the community.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So thank you for your time.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you. Likewise, thanks for amplifying it.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yes, you've been listening to Seattle Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I'm Jessamin McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
For show ideas or to find out how your voice
can be heard, email Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com.
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