November 21, 2024 • 30 mins
Kenny Mayne, legendary SportsCenter host and sports reporter sits down to discuss his passion for helping wounded veterans through his grassroots foundation, RunFreely.org. He tells stories of those who have escaped pain, those who have participated to help out and many more people we can still help access a pain-free life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Jessmon McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio in Seattle, and I am
super thrilled to welcome in my friends colleague, someone I've
known for quite a while, Kenny Mean Kenny, Thank you
so much for joining us, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
For having me. Congratulations on whatever your new dealer is.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I am really excited because my favorite part about radio
is actually connecting with the community, and I know that
that is something that you've been extremely passionate about throughout
your career, and you do kind of what I do
is you take any opportunity you can to help out.
And one of the things that I've seen you do
in up close in person, because I went to your
(00:40):
Michael Menex event at you dub and I've seen you
do this multiple times. You run an organization called Run Freely.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, I wrecked my ankle playing football, not very well,
long long ago, like literally nineteen eighty October of eighty
You and Olvius where I played, and we were at
Oregon getting beat up. Oregon was pretty good that year.
Reggie Augburn anybody, he was their quarterback. So I'm in
there because I'm second string. Last play of the game,
some guy who wanted to grade on film on Monday
(01:13):
put his helmet on my ankle as I threw the
last pass of the game. Right, So guys are shaking
hands and talking to cheerleaders whatever people do after games,
and I'm still on field like it's funny, now funny,
not funny, but like the film old school football film,
the game would end. The camera was instructed to always
kind of hand left to right and stop on the scoreboard,
(01:34):
and our film showed that. But you see in the corner,
I'm still on the ground kind of writhing around. So
I had what was called a fractured dislocation. I played
one more year. I played the next year at UNLV
again back up to god named Sam King Randall Cunningham
was on our team that year freshman side story. And
every year it got worse. Every decade I got even worse,
and pretty soon by the time I was in my
early fifties, I would guess it was in a really
(01:56):
bad way, like I was limping. I would travel all
around the world for you ESPN getting off airplanes. You know,
it looked like I need a wheelchair and I don't
mean that derogatorily to anybody who needs one, you know,
I just I would limp my way through. Right. So
I found a guy who made this brace that kind
of protected your bad joint, and it worked for a while,
wasn't It wasn't my final one, but it got me
(02:17):
through a couple of years where all right, I'm gonna
when I want to play golf or I want to
play flag football or something, I you know I can't
do it without some support. So some years later, this
is twenty eighteen. I know there's a long answer.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
But you asked this is why I had Penny.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I met a guy in Gig Harbor named Ryan Blank.
He works with a hangar clinic right off I sixteen,
and my sister told me, you got to go see
this guy. And I was like, I already got a brace.
I don't need another guy. But I finally went in
and he, in one meeting, convinced me to give it
a try. And like I told Jim Zorn, who also
has an issue with his left ankle, he got the
first brace that I told you about. And I said,
(02:53):
no offense to that guy, but you're in a station wagon.
This thing's a Ferrari like it's a whole thing up,
you know, and I can't perfectly explain the science behind it,
but it essentially displaces the pressure off your joint. So
you keep your bad ankle, you don't fix it, but
this thing lets you do stuff you can't do without it.
So Gretchen, my wife, and I I called her on
(03:14):
day one I ran on a treadmill with no pain
like day one, like literally I'm running fifteen miles an
hour and called her. I was crying for two hours.
I couldn't believe the gift I had just been given.
And we said, let's do some good. So we started
this thing called run Freely. So the website's run are
you in Freely fr e e o Y run freely
dot oorg Run freely dot org. I was repeated and
(03:38):
we have been raising money since. I guess it was
the August of twenty eighteen. I remember the Pearl Jam
Home shows were happening at Safe It's old safeguorre Right,
and it happened, I think middle of those two shows,
we did this little event over at Lake Samamish and
it was unbelievable. Who showed up? You know, I'm thinking
We're going to sell out Key Arena or something. Instead
(03:59):
we end up at high school, which I appreciate that
they gave us the space. I had Steve Largent, Jerry
Rice Wow, Gary Payton, Jamal Crawford, Lenny Wilkins. That's a
good crew, you think. I mean, I'm not saying it
to brag about the names. It's just that shows what
kind of people they are. I think most of them
(04:19):
knew about my injury thing, and I just say, hey,
I'm gonna have an event. I don't know if it's
gonna be big or small or what, but it'd be
cool to get some name value people showing support for it.
That always helps, right, And they all showed up and
it wasn't the biggest event in the world, but it
was cool what we did do, what we what we
pulled off, right. We took people out of the stands
and they got to throw a past to Steve large
and or Jerry. They got to play d against Jamal
(04:41):
Crawford or try to score on Gary Payton. We did
like a fun It was just like a fun, participatory
thing and we've done that since. Like that you mentioned
Michael Pennox. We had people that paid money to catch
a pass for Michael from a ten year old line,
and we brought in a few kids for free, and
you know, we tried to make it kind of family fun.
And in one what was the half hour session. In fact,
I think Panick stayed longer than I did. I had
(05:03):
to go play golf. He stayed and talked to people
and I was like, dude, I gotta go, I gotta
catch fair. And then I did it with Joe Montana
in at the Super Bowl in Vegas, inside Bobby Flay's restaurant.
Joe Montana through a little eight yard, like you know
the past he used to throw to Roger Craig Right,
I put him in the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think I saw that on social media. I think
I saw.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So we're trying to do little good things and even
if it's a ten minute thing, you know. Dale Earnard
helped out. He gave people a tour of Charlotte, an
older racing community. Steve Kerr helped out. He had lunch
with the prize winners and his deal. I'm leaving out
other people. I think Chris Long helped a little bit.
We just keep asking favors, you know, so I tell
people the story I got a wrecked ankle, I found
(05:46):
this amazing device. Now we're trying to raise money, and
then I'm not part of the company. I always trying
to make that clear, like you know, I wish I were. Actually,
we raise whatever we raise, and then I call Ryan, Hey,
we got enough money, let's do another one, and he
keeps the list more than I. Sometimes will get people
contact me directly or the website, but more often it
just goes through him because people hear his name and
(06:07):
they call that clinic and then they say, hey, are
there any programs helping veterans? And we're one of them.
So we do it when we can.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's pretty amazing. So is there a separate parent company?
Is that what you were saying?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
No, I'm saying I have nothing to do with the operation.
All I do is raise money my own or others,
and then I call up the guy in charge and say, hey,
we got enough for the next one. Because they vary
in price under ten grand and kind of depends on
what the person needs. Some people need a secondary knee thing,
or they might need two of them or whatever. But
every time we get to the right amount, you know,
(06:40):
we're not the Red Cross. We don't have a building,
we have no staff. It's me, Gretchen. People like you,
you know, friends of mine that tell the people of
the word right. I mean, it's amazing at that Michael
Pennox thing. How much good happened from that one event
that was beautiful and just the event itself, But then
how much could happened later? So there's a guy named
(07:01):
Sean Carney, good friend of mine. We used to work
together before I was at ESPN, when I was selling
long distance for MCI.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We all had a side gig while.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I was freelancing to try to get back to TV.
Right i'd left Channel eleven. I'm doing different jobs, you know,
doing my best paybills and trying to get back into
what I wanted to do. So like, I'd be at
work at MCI and they'd espnoll call, Hey, go interview
Gary Payton before the game. You know, we're going to
run a feature on SO and so tomorrow. So I'd
pretend I was going out to a sales call and
hired my cameraman really quickly, and we'd rush over at
(07:30):
the coliseum. What was I giving me?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So, Sean was my old friend still is he had
a different friend, nam Ken Sinner, and he came and
was one of the people there at the Penis event.
And then since that time he's on his own with
his company, on his own bought two more just like,
let me sponsor the next guy or girl. So my
point is because Penick said yes, and it drew a
crowd and we met new people that spawned something even
(07:55):
greater than we would have imagined just from showing up
that day.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
It's literally grassroots. That's amazing. This is Jesamon McIntyre. I'm
talking with Kenny Mean, you know him from locally ESPN
National Theme and his wonderful dry sense of humor, which
we absolutely appreciate very very much. I like that you
talked about the you know, it's basically like I said, grassroots.
It's the roots that spread because I'm always going to
(08:19):
be a supporter of this, and I was wondering if
you could share a few stories or just one of
someone who was impacted throughout what you've been able to give.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh yeah, well you know what I wanted to mention too.
Our most recent event was over at you know, there's
the Seattle queen An Beer Hall, and now they have
one in Kirkland, Moss b and Juice the guy running
the joint. So I'll I'll open it up for you.
So we had a really fun event a couple of
six weeks ago, two months ago. I remember when we
showed my movie Whiffle Ball, and we're going to have
to get to that. Yeah, no, we will. I wasn't
(08:52):
doing it for that reason. I was just saying what
we did that night. And then we had a handful
of items that we auctioned off, and right there in
one night, I got to call Ryan and say who's next.
Because we just raised enough in one night having a
really fun time. It was like a ninety minute event.
You know, it wasn't It's not a gala, it's not
a golf tournament. My goal is to keep doing little
things like that. I can just get the next quarterback, whoever,
(09:15):
whatever quarterbacks available. Can we bring ten people who pay
a thousand dollars and bring a couple kids for free
from the boys Club and in ten minutes. You know,
it doesn't take very long to throw a ten fades.
I could do it in five minutes, two minutes, you know.
And the other part is the athlete sees how cool,
like Appennox was really moved by that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
He was you can tell he's an amazing human being,
and he was, he really was. And I don't know
if we can share this, but he didn't ask for
money to do it. Now, this is the nil world,
you know, back when he was at Washington.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I was trying to figure out what was I
going to have to and yes, of course, you know,
if he needed something he didn't, you know, And I
brought it up more than once, like make sure you're
you're just shown up because you're a good guy. So
there's a bunch of guess starts because I think I
should know this answer, but I I don't keep tracking
email as well as I could. But the girl that
helps me with this, yes, named Mara. So I do
have one person on staff who doesn't take money either.
(10:08):
She does kind of some of the administration when I'm confused,
and we could probably get account but I think we're
around fifty so we've been you know, what is that
six years and whatever that math is. You know, sometimes
we go dry and we don't do anybody for six months,
then we do like three and two months. So obviously
we're just kind of going step by step, but dollar
by dollar. But there was one woman that stands out
(10:30):
to me because she came up to Seattle in a wheelchair,
like off the airplane wheelchair, and I think she had
her own actually, and the story goes. I think it's
true she literally left it behind.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The man. That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We had another female, because you know more have been males.
I don't know the exact count, but another one that
stood out to me. It was during the height of
COVID and she couldn't work because she was in such pain,
you know, from the sankles thing, and she went and
got the brace or device. He always cray me, don't
call it a brace, because you get a brace anywhere
right off the shelf. Sure, this is just for the
one person. She was able to get out of pain
(11:08):
and went to an interview and she got a job
and she became a nurse I think at Tacoma. Wow,
all in a month, you know, and a turn of
her life happened in one month, that all those things happen.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's unbelievable. So this device again Kenny Maine joining Jessamin McIntyre. Here,
your hosts of Seattle Voice. We are your Community Voice
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And is there a limitation on
what it effects Because you've mentioned me, you've mentioned ankle,
I'm assuming these are all lower body devices.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah. Well, this thing is called an exosim. This is
specific for people who have wrecked ankles or foot problem.
I was saying some of the candidates secondarily might have
had a little knee thing, so maybe they had to
do you know, like some other device that kind of
stabilizes their works in concert. They make all sorts of
things done there, but specifically the thing that we're doing,
and it turns up there's a lot of people with
(11:59):
messed up ankles, saying that even to be you know,
joking about like and they all from different things. Fell
out of the helicopter, got blown up by an ied
training accident. Some were involved in a car accident while serving.
So while that's not you know, official veterans or military stuff,
it still was while they were on duty. There's been
(12:19):
a few cases of actives that we've got them out
of pain and they've went right back in Wow. But
mostly I'd say ninety percent are people that are otherwise
you know, doing other things. And that's the great thing
is in some cases the blessing has been I remember this.
One guy wrote about I got to walk on the
beach with my daughter.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Oh my goodness, that brings a tear to the eye.
That's amazing. I love it. You said sixty sixty people
about I think in the fifties.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think it's in the fifties, Okay, And it's and
the whole story, it's a very simple story. We show
my injury, we talk about the people who've helped us,
and we show some success cases. I forget the guy's name.
One guy went back to competitive sprinting. He was an athlete. Yeah,
he's you know, I can run him. Mind, I'm not
you know, quite moving like I once did.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
But I've seen him get out there in a couple
flag football games.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah. I got older, though.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Not according to me.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, no, I can still move like I can play
flag football. I can't dance around like you know, any
speed rush is going to hurt me. But can I
drop back three steps and step up and throw? I
can still do that with no pain. So that's to me.
That's like some people love to go hit a bucket
the balls. I still love go play catch, go throw balls.
You know, the one thing I could ever do. It's
fun not.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
To let it go, and you personally knowing how much
it helps is amazing because you know what it's going
to do for other people.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah. Yeah, because I got, like I said, I got
this amazing gift. And then I was like, for one
there was the kind of the guilt of do I
even deserve this? Because Ryan, you know, he was making
them for veterans that they did the R and D
so to speak right, and then here I came as
a as a civilian. I need one of these because
I got a rect ankle, and I remember it was
one of the other veterans kind of like like, dude,
(13:56):
pain is pain, you know, no matter what, no matter what.
Derived from what we were able to do, then a
good thing for those, you know, and it would be
great if that we're bigger and helped anybody and everybody.
But kind of we made a specific mission based on
the fact that Ryan had developed this in the first
place for veterans, so I should repay it that way.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it's beautiful again. Kenny Maine joining me. This
is Jesamond McIntyre, host of Seattle Voice, and your voice
is so important in this community, and you've done so
many amazing things in your career. And as we find out,
this is a perfect time to be talking to you
because you have a movie short film coming out as
we're recording this, it is actually coming out today. Can
(14:34):
you tell us about whiffle Ball?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, it's going to keep coming outbo Fubo Sports, Fubo TV.
So for those who don't know, I think a lot
of people who follow sports radio would already know. But
you know, it's another disseminator of all the sports channels,
sort of like has a bundle of a zillion different
sports things you can watch for the people that primarily
want that more than other things, you know, through the
whole new world of TV and streaming and all that.
(14:59):
So they're putting it out out as we tape tonight,
the fourteenth. I don't know when this is running, but
whenever it is, it's still running a few more times
as they put it out, like quote unquote broadcast it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But then for Fubo subscribers and others who can get
Fubo Sports through other sources, it gets complex. But you know,
like if you have Roku or there's other ones that
will let lead you to if you search bar it,
you'll find it just been in wiffle ball two words,
no h wiffl e whiffle ball, and you'll find a
way to see it on demand, right, just like Gretchen
(15:28):
Knight last night watched The Diplomat on Netflix and we
searched around and clicked there, you know, So you'll have
that opportunity to do that on Fubo Sports going forward.
And it's about a day. The whole movie is about
a day in my life.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The greatest movies of my time, you know, like those
early two thousands movies where it's like one night of
debauchery or something one day where you get everything done.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, well to hangover, you know, it's not quite.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That hangover can hardly wait. You know, all the classics, and.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's not meant to be either. It's I mean, it
really is a true documentary. I really did interview people,
try to find the truth of what happened, you know,
get to the bottom of it. Done, and hopefully a
comedic life. So when I was at Channel eleven, I
was probably two years deep on TV. I think I
got on in eighty six, so maybe it's three years whatever.
We didn't used to have sports down there. There was
a Monday through Friday ten o'clock news Charles Johnson and
(16:24):
Wendy Man Dave Corsia with the weather, and I was
a writer for them. I wrote the national news. I
did some producing. I was not on TV now, and
then they'd let me go to an interview or something,
and then I finally got on start doing local news.
I'm doing, you know, all the stuff you do on news,
day to day coverage. And then they added a weekend
show and Jack Eddie said, hey, you play football, You're
(16:44):
doing sports. And I didn't even at the time that
wasn't my interest. I was trying to be more serious
and do like real journalism and all that interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Started having fun doing sports as it turned out. So
it was August of eighty nine and Harold Reynolds and
King Griffe, Jan Kuahara, my photographer, and me, four of
us met at the Seattle I think we met at
the Space Needle, that little circular parking lot, and then
we walked over to the Science Center and I don't
even remember did we go there for a purpose or
did we just say let's meet at the Seattle Center
(17:14):
and walk around and talk and see what happens. For
whatever reason, we go inside the Seattle Science Center, a
Pacific science and they had a whiffleball speed pitch. It
turns out it wasn't even a real Whiffleball's like a pickleball.
And the three of us threw and Jen filmed it,
and you know, you're seeing the number show up. It
was pretty inferior technology. I'm not sure it got our
correct numbers, but I've been telling people all these years
(17:36):
that I won by one mile per hour. That's my
memory of what happened that day. But the tape has
you know, that's thirty five years ago. The tape's been
in basements and garages and moving vans and shelves, and
some miracle events still had the tape and it came
up because remember two Seattle Sports Award shows ago, Griffy
won the legendary award and give great speech. It was,
(18:00):
you know, went up and think or congratulated him after,
and he somehow brought up that day. I can't remember
how he said it, but he referenced that day that
we threw those whiffleballs thirty four years ago at that time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Oh my gosh, okay, I remember that speech. I was there.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, he didn't say it on stage, he said it
to me afterwards.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Oh okay. I was like, weird, hold on, he was
kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Making the joke of I wasn't going to bring you
up because I didn't want to go into the whiffle whatever.
So it just I like, I'm looking for new things
to do, and I was always wanting. I got a
good friend named Jason Jobes, lives out on Bainbridge and
we play golf and we're good friends. He does money
and a football stuff. He kept encouraging me just pick
some stupid idea and let's go make it. You know,
(18:40):
Let's not worry about what happens to it, or making
money or getting a sponsor. Just all work. You'll do
your work, we'll hire the other people we need to pay.
And we did. So I was like, I think I
got an idea. I want to find the tape, find
out what's on the tape, try to get different people
involved in, you know, the making of it. Ken Burns
is in it, the famous document No way. We got
(19:02):
music from famous Seattle bands. We've got Sam Lechow, the rapper,
a sale kid, did great job on his. My brother
in law Robert helped out with the score, and ken
Burns obviously a good name. We got the president of
wiffle ball, We got a University of Washington science professor.
We went back to the Seattle Center to try to
go inside and find out is the whiffleball speed pitch
(19:22):
even still there. It's been replaced by toys for tots
or something or no tots for something. I don't know
what it's called. They've done this sort of stuff in
there that's cute, and we just we just made it.
We just all these little elements had to come together.
But the key thing was trying to prove my point
of what happened. But the tape I had was like
this ancient kind of tape that nobody uses anymore called
(19:42):
broadcast beta. Sp came after three quarter inch, which came
after film.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Oh so you have to find it advice to even
play this?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yes, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
When I first started nineteen eighty two, right out of college,
Channel eleven was just discontinuing shooting their news on film.
They went out with film cameras. They to sync the
audio like a very complex project to get the local
news to happen, right, you have to go out and
shoot the whatever story and come back and edit, you know,
or developed the film anyway. A couple few years later
(20:11):
came this fancy stuff called Beta sp not beta like
beta or VHS, not that, but whatever. Don't worry about
that part, okay. So to my good fortune, I remembered
Joe Wrenn, my good friend who's worked at Komo forever,
and I was like, do you guys have one of
those machines? And then I had to get the okay
from his boss. They were fine with it. We filmed
(20:32):
me coming into Como to find out what's on the tape,
so that's kind of a key scene in the whole movie.
And then a really good tease.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
By the way, this is a really good tease. Oh
and I just interrupted you the best part of the
teas so you got to the truth.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We get to the truth. Finally, it's actually slightly inconclusive,
which is the title of essentially the credit song. I
talked the head and the heart in that I wrote
a really dumb song, like so dumb on purpose, and
they sang it and made it sound like a real song.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh, that's just brilliant. That is just brilliant.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I think the lyrics are like in conclusion, he was inconclusive, confused, conflicted,
the truth elusive. That's actually a real statement there, But
the rest of it is just making fun of me
and making fun of the movie.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well, I think it's brilliant. Kenny May joining me Jessamin
McIntyre here, host of Seattle Poyson, Kenny, I want to
bring this all back around. We know you do so
much for the community, and you get to see a
lot of other people that do. You've referenced a lot
of people who have come out and showed up for you.
You know, throughout your whole time, run freely. Everything that
you do, you always seem to have an impact and
(21:38):
bring people in to have an impact around you. Can
you tell us a little bit more about the people
who you know in Seattle who are doing more than
we might know about oh Man.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, and for one, Marshaun's still doing it right, he
shows up. I remember the campaign that he did. I
don't know if he's still doing it not, but it
sounded funny at first, and it's like, no, it makes
a lot of sense that they were giving away cell phones,
and I assume some service on it to people on
the street because that reconnects people who they might just
have missed one last job. Right. Like the whole thing
(22:10):
about the homeless issue is so difficult because so many
people they talk about it as though it bothers them,
as opposed to being bothered by the fact that's happening.
You see the difference.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yes, And there's you know, Uplift Northwest is doing great
things second or Northwest Harvest. There's all sorts of people
that are trying to keep people from that situation, get people,
you know, kind of back into society. And that was
what I thought was so cool about what Marshaun did.
Like okay, now then Google, you know, part time job
or whatever it is, or low low housing or so
(22:44):
obviously Jamal Crawford, I mean the list is pretty long.
You know, there's all sorts of people doing good stuff.
And the teams are always good too. There's so many
all the professional teams, you know, have their own whole
network of we're going to do good do I remember
when I was so disappointed, I you know, like only
getting to be at a high school for that first
event instead of ten thousand people coming for this thing
(23:06):
I had in my head. I remember two people said
the same thing, almost the same words of Jeff AmAm,
my friend from Pearl jam and Jamal and they were
both like, just keep doing the little good things. You know,
you know, I don't have the wherewithal to do some
stupendous you know, I'm happy just chipping away and doing
nickel and diamond and one at a time. We're doing
a good thing. And if it ever became something bigger, great,
(23:28):
and you know, we could do it that way. But
I almost I kind of like how small of it is.
I'd rather do more help. But I also like that
there's no there's no politics, and there's no infrastructure to
worry about. This just having an interview like this. Somebody's
gonna hear this. They're gonna go to the website. Maybe
they hit a sports bet last night, you know, throw
a hundred bucks to us, whatever. But we've had other people.
(23:49):
The mysterious ones are the funny ones to me, like
more than once, I'd say five six times, suddenly a
ten thousand dollars check shows up and it's from Usually
it's like a family that has their own kind of
fund for helping different things, and it goes through a serve,
So it's it's not like we even know who they are.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Right, it's anonymous in a way.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah. Sometimes it's just a good group of people or
family or somebody gave money to the such and such
charitable fund and you're one of the you know, one
of the people getting a cut this week. So you're
always hopeful. I have a PO box. They send me
mail when necessary. But when I see their mail show up,
that's good news. I just got this. What a sweet
lady is Sandy Gregory?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Remember I know Sandy. She is wonderful and she does
such good things.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
There's another name. She's doing good things all the time.
She started a fund for some of our ex pro
athletes who, you know, a lot of people would think
they're all millionaires. And you know, the people who play
basketball twenty thirty years ago aren't getting these max deals
that were so used to we think everybody makes two
hundred million. You know, they don't and they didn't, and
so some of them in certain health situations or whatever,
and they it's just kind of a way to thank
(24:55):
people who might have inspired us through the years. I
used to go watch that guy play, and you know
I can do him or her. But anyway, Sandy sent
She went to my event in Kirkland and then she
sent her own little contribution, so she should be noted.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I think that it's a wonderful person to note. Actually,
you know, everything that you're saying reminds me of a
poem that I used to read when I was younger.
Maybe it's technically like a kind of a short story,
but this little girl is walking along the beach and
starts throwing starfish that are washed up back into the ocean.
And there's hundreds of them and hundreds of them, and
someone comes up and they're like, you're not this doesn't matter.
(25:31):
This doesn't matter because you're not going to be able
to throw them all back in the ocean. And she
flings one in and goes it matters to that one.
And that's the way I like to operate, is by
doing one small thing a little bit at a time,
or it could turn into a big thing, like exactly
what you were doing. So I can't tell you how
much I appreciate this and everyone here you're impacting. I
(25:51):
think you and I aligned pretty similarly, and The way
we like to operate is if I can smile at
someone instead of taking my own anger out on someone.
If I can and you know, tell someone have a
good day. If I can help someone walk across the street,
that's going to make their day a little bit better
and maybe they'll make someone else's day better. And you're
taking people from pain. And I think that pain actually
(26:12):
is one of the impressions we don't pay attention enough,
which allows people to be both physically and emotionally impacted.
And you're saving them from that, and they're going to
live better lives and they're going to impact people more positively.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So yeah, so many of those who've gotten the device
and had their lives, they all want to in small
ways or big ways. Hay, what can I do? I said,
most of the time, you don't have to give money.
If you can, great, but if you can't, just retweeting
it or telling five friends this week or maybe everybody's company,
just about everybody's company has some kind of thing they do,
maybe around Veterans Day or maybe around the holidays, and
(26:46):
they nominate different charities. So we've had that happen a
few times where we've just somebody heard about its. Hey,
my company wants to match my five hundred dollars or whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Right, the matching programs people don't take as much advantage
of those. I take one d percent advantage of those.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Sometimes five dollars from one person is like five thousand
from another, right all, you know, it's all relative. So
we're just going to keep doing little ones I have.
I have handshake deals with a couple of former professional receivers,
and I want to do that. Like what if Megatron
wants to run ten fade routes I fly to Detroit.
(27:21):
We get people to have the wherewithal to show up
and pay enough money because we don't want to make it.
We want to make as inclusive apostle as possible by
trying to bring in maybe, like I said, a couple
of kids from the boys club or whatever. But you
have to charge on a thing like that enough to
make a dent, you know. So the goal is always
can we get at least one more veteran out of
one of those kind of events. We get two, that's
(27:42):
even better, But you know, we got whatever it is
getting somebody of his stature. I think there's there's ten
people in Detroit that want to throw them a Touchdow.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That's yes, there are people with means that will absolutely
lose their minds over that. And then some people might
want to, you know, donate that as a Christmas present
or you know, a gift to their son, nephew, father, anyone.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yes, sorry, but you just reminded me the one with
Mike Panix that we did. There were like two or three,
maybe four. They just said, here's one thousand dollars, send
some kid, Yes, and I ended up you know what
they ended up doing is I called over to Rainier
Beach George Foster I played JAYC football with because I
just felt like that was a nice place to pick
given all the good stuff Jamal does and what he's
(28:27):
done for me. And we got a couple of kids
that got scholarshiped in so to speak, right, they just
got to show up with their mom and catch a
ball from Mike. And that's a great way to do.
So it doesn't have to be the rich guy running
the route. He or she can sponsor or do two
do one for you and one for somebody else. Yes,
So my hope is we do that one. Randy Moss
gave a yes as well. I think he's done. In
(28:48):
South Carolina. I went to I went to Megatron's golf
tournament for his foundation, and they had a football clinic
the day before and I got to coach the quarterbacks
and throw the ball around. That football camp for kids
who are high school age. Hearing this, like you go
to these seven on sevens of these different camps. The
receiver coaches at our camp were Randy Moss and Kelvin Johnson.
(29:09):
That's good tutoring right there.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, that's okay, that's okay. You know what, I can't
believe we're running out of time here because I could
talk to you for another three hours and we'll have
to do this again sometime when we get more. I
am going to watch whipple Ball tonight because I have
cut the cord so I have all the streaming surfaces.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So just remember our o'clock Pacific. Even though people who
hear this that won't matter to them. They'll have to
look up on their site. It tells you the other
dates over the next week. Whenever this airs, there should
be some more feelings.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I can't wait, and it's going to be amazing. And Kenny,
thank you so much. Thank you for everything you do,
and I just consider myself so lucky to call you
a friend.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So thank thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
All right, guys, you have been listening to Seattle Voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. I'm J Justainman McIntyre. For show
ideas or to find out how your voice can be heard,
email Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com
This is Jessmon McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio in Seattle, and I am
super thrilled to welcome in my friends colleague, someone I've
known for quite a while, Kenny Mean Kenny, Thank you
so much for joining us, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
For having me. Congratulations on whatever your new dealer is.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I am really excited because my favorite part about radio
is actually connecting with the community, and I know that
that is something that you've been extremely passionate about throughout
your career, and you do kind of what I do
is you take any opportunity you can to help out.
And one of the things that I've seen you do
in up close in person, because I went to your
(00:40):
Michael Menex event at you dub and I've seen you
do this multiple times. You run an organization called Run Freely.
Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, I wrecked my ankle playing football, not very well,
long long ago, like literally nineteen eighty October of eighty
You and Olvius where I played, and we were at
Oregon getting beat up. Oregon was pretty good that year.
Reggie Augburn anybody, he was their quarterback. So I'm in
there because I'm second string. Last play of the game,
some guy who wanted to grade on film on Monday
(01:13):
put his helmet on my ankle as I threw the
last pass of the game. Right, So guys are shaking
hands and talking to cheerleaders whatever people do after games,
and I'm still on field like it's funny, now funny,
not funny, but like the film old school football film,
the game would end. The camera was instructed to always
kind of hand left to right and stop on the scoreboard,
(01:34):
and our film showed that. But you see in the corner,
I'm still on the ground kind of writhing around. So
I had what was called a fractured dislocation. I played
one more year. I played the next year at UNLV
again back up to god named Sam King Randall Cunningham
was on our team that year freshman side story. And
every year it got worse. Every decade I got even worse,
and pretty soon by the time I was in my
early fifties, I would guess it was in a really
(01:56):
bad way, like I was limping. I would travel all
around the world for you ESPN getting off airplanes. You know,
it looked like I need a wheelchair and I don't
mean that derogatorily to anybody who needs one, you know,
I just I would limp my way through. Right. So
I found a guy who made this brace that kind
of protected your bad joint, and it worked for a while,
wasn't It wasn't my final one, but it got me
(02:17):
through a couple of years where all right, I'm gonna
when I want to play golf or I want to
play flag football or something, I you know I can't
do it without some support. So some years later, this
is twenty eighteen. I know there's a long answer.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
But you asked this is why I had Penny.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I met a guy in Gig Harbor named Ryan Blank.
He works with a hangar clinic right off I sixteen,
and my sister told me, you got to go see
this guy. And I was like, I already got a brace.
I don't need another guy. But I finally went in
and he, in one meeting, convinced me to give it
a try. And like I told Jim Zorn, who also
has an issue with his left ankle, he got the
first brace that I told you about. And I said,
(02:53):
no offense to that guy, but you're in a station wagon.
This thing's a Ferrari like it's a whole thing up,
you know, and I can't perfectly explain the science behind it,
but it essentially displaces the pressure off your joint. So
you keep your bad ankle, you don't fix it, but
this thing lets you do stuff you can't do without it.
So Gretchen, my wife, and I I called her on
(03:14):
day one I ran on a treadmill with no pain
like day one, like literally I'm running fifteen miles an
hour and called her. I was crying for two hours.
I couldn't believe the gift I had just been given.
And we said, let's do some good. So we started
this thing called run Freely. So the website's run are
you in Freely fr e e o Y run freely
dot oorg Run freely dot org. I was repeated and
(03:38):
we have been raising money since. I guess it was
the August of twenty eighteen. I remember the Pearl Jam
Home shows were happening at Safe It's old safeguorre Right,
and it happened, I think middle of those two shows,
we did this little event over at Lake Samamish and
it was unbelievable. Who showed up? You know, I'm thinking
We're going to sell out Key Arena or something. Instead
(03:59):
we end up at high school, which I appreciate that
they gave us the space. I had Steve Largent, Jerry
Rice Wow, Gary Payton, Jamal Crawford, Lenny Wilkins. That's a
good crew, you think. I mean, I'm not saying it
to brag about the names. It's just that shows what
kind of people they are. I think most of them
(04:19):
knew about my injury thing, and I just say, hey,
I'm gonna have an event. I don't know if it's
gonna be big or small or what, but it'd be
cool to get some name value people showing support for it.
That always helps, right, And they all showed up and
it wasn't the biggest event in the world, but it
was cool what we did do, what we what we
pulled off, right. We took people out of the stands
and they got to throw a past to Steve large
and or Jerry. They got to play d against Jamal
(04:41):
Crawford or try to score on Gary Payton. We did
like a fun It was just like a fun, participatory
thing and we've done that since. Like that you mentioned
Michael Pennox. We had people that paid money to catch
a pass for Michael from a ten year old line,
and we brought in a few kids for free, and
you know, we tried to make it kind of family fun.
And in one what was the half hour session. In fact,
I think Panick stayed longer than I did. I had
(05:03):
to go play golf. He stayed and talked to people
and I was like, dude, I gotta go, I gotta
catch fair. And then I did it with Joe Montana
in at the Super Bowl in Vegas, inside Bobby Flay's restaurant.
Joe Montana through a little eight yard, like you know
the past he used to throw to Roger Craig Right,
I put him in the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think I saw that on social media. I think
I saw.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So we're trying to do little good things and even
if it's a ten minute thing, you know. Dale Earnard
helped out. He gave people a tour of Charlotte, an
older racing community. Steve Kerr helped out. He had lunch
with the prize winners and his deal. I'm leaving out
other people. I think Chris Long helped a little bit.
We just keep asking favors, you know, so I tell
people the story I got a wrecked ankle, I found
(05:46):
this amazing device. Now we're trying to raise money, and
then I'm not part of the company. I always trying
to make that clear, like you know, I wish I were. Actually,
we raise whatever we raise, and then I call Ryan, Hey,
we got enough money, let's do another one, and he
keeps the list more than I. Sometimes will get people
contact me directly or the website, but more often it
just goes through him because people hear his name and
(06:07):
they call that clinic and then they say, hey, are
there any programs helping veterans? And we're one of them.
So we do it when we can.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's pretty amazing. So is there a separate parent company?
Is that what you were saying?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
No, I'm saying I have nothing to do with the operation.
All I do is raise money my own or others,
and then I call up the guy in charge and say, hey,
we got enough for the next one. Because they vary
in price under ten grand and kind of depends on
what the person needs. Some people need a secondary knee thing,
or they might need two of them or whatever. But
every time we get to the right amount, you know,
(06:40):
we're not the Red Cross. We don't have a building,
we have no staff. It's me, Gretchen. People like you,
you know, friends of mine that tell the people of
the word right. I mean, it's amazing at that Michael
Pennox thing. How much good happened from that one event
that was beautiful and just the event itself, But then
how much could happened later? So there's a guy named
(07:01):
Sean Carney, good friend of mine. We used to work
together before I was at ESPN, when I was selling
long distance for MCI.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We all had a side gig while.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I was freelancing to try to get back to TV.
Right i'd left Channel eleven. I'm doing different jobs, you know,
doing my best paybills and trying to get back into
what I wanted to do. So like, I'd be at
work at MCI and they'd espnoll call, Hey, go interview
Gary Payton before the game. You know, we're going to
run a feature on SO and so tomorrow. So I'd
pretend I was going out to a sales call and
hired my cameraman really quickly, and we'd rush over at
(07:30):
the coliseum. What was I giving me?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So, Sean was my old friend still is he had
a different friend, nam Ken Sinner, and he came and
was one of the people there at the Penis event.
And then since that time he's on his own with
his company, on his own bought two more just like,
let me sponsor the next guy or girl. So my
point is because Penick said yes, and it drew a
crowd and we met new people that spawned something even
(07:55):
greater than we would have imagined just from showing up
that day.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
It's literally grassroots. That's amazing. This is Jesamon McIntyre. I'm
talking with Kenny Mean, you know him from locally ESPN
National Theme and his wonderful dry sense of humor, which
we absolutely appreciate very very much. I like that you
talked about the you know, it's basically like I said, grassroots.
It's the roots that spread because I'm always going to
(08:19):
be a supporter of this, and I was wondering if
you could share a few stories or just one of
someone who was impacted throughout what you've been able to give.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh yeah, well you know what I wanted to mention too.
Our most recent event was over at you know, there's
the Seattle queen An Beer Hall, and now they have
one in Kirkland, Moss b and Juice the guy running
the joint. So I'll I'll open it up for you.
So we had a really fun event a couple of
six weeks ago, two months ago. I remember when we
showed my movie Whiffle Ball, and we're going to have
to get to that. Yeah, no, we will. I wasn't
(08:52):
doing it for that reason. I was just saying what
we did that night. And then we had a handful
of items that we auctioned off, and right there in
one night, I got to call Ryan and say who's next.
Because we just raised enough in one night having a
really fun time. It was like a ninety minute event.
You know, it wasn't It's not a gala, it's not
a golf tournament. My goal is to keep doing little
things like that. I can just get the next quarterback, whoever,
(09:15):
whatever quarterbacks available. Can we bring ten people who pay
a thousand dollars and bring a couple kids for free
from the boys Club and in ten minutes. You know,
it doesn't take very long to throw a ten fades.
I could do it in five minutes, two minutes, you know.
And the other part is the athlete sees how cool,
like Appennox was really moved by that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
He was you can tell he's an amazing human being,
and he was, he really was. And I don't know
if we can share this, but he didn't ask for
money to do it. Now, this is the nil world,
you know, back when he was at Washington.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I was trying to figure out what was I
going to have to and yes, of course, you know,
if he needed something he didn't, you know, And I
brought it up more than once, like make sure you're
you're just shown up because you're a good guy. So
there's a bunch of guess starts because I think I
should know this answer, but I I don't keep tracking
email as well as I could. But the girl that
helps me with this, yes, named Mara. So I do
have one person on staff who doesn't take money either.
(10:08):
She does kind of some of the administration when I'm confused,
and we could probably get account but I think we're
around fifty so we've been you know, what is that
six years and whatever that math is. You know, sometimes
we go dry and we don't do anybody for six months,
then we do like three and two months. So obviously
we're just kind of going step by step, but dollar
by dollar. But there was one woman that stands out
(10:30):
to me because she came up to Seattle in a wheelchair,
like off the airplane wheelchair, and I think she had
her own actually, and the story goes. I think it's
true she literally left it behind.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The man. That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We had another female, because you know more have been males.
I don't know the exact count, but another one that
stood out to me. It was during the height of
COVID and she couldn't work because she was in such pain,
you know, from the sankles thing, and she went and
got the brace or device. He always cray me, don't
call it a brace, because you get a brace anywhere
right off the shelf. Sure, this is just for the
one person. She was able to get out of pain
(11:08):
and went to an interview and she got a job
and she became a nurse I think at Tacoma. Wow,
all in a month, you know, and a turn of
her life happened in one month, that all those things happen.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's unbelievable. So this device again Kenny Maine joining Jessamin McIntyre. Here,
your hosts of Seattle Voice. We are your Community Voice
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And is there a limitation on
what it effects Because you've mentioned me, you've mentioned ankle,
I'm assuming these are all lower body devices.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah. Well, this thing is called an exosim. This is
specific for people who have wrecked ankles or foot problem.
I was saying some of the candidates secondarily might have
had a little knee thing, so maybe they had to
do you know, like some other device that kind of
stabilizes their works in concert. They make all sorts of
things done there, but specifically the thing that we're doing,
and it turns up there's a lot of people with
(11:59):
messed up ankles, saying that even to be you know,
joking about like and they all from different things. Fell
out of the helicopter, got blown up by an ied
training accident. Some were involved in a car accident while serving.
So while that's not you know, official veterans or military stuff,
it still was while they were on duty. There's been
(12:19):
a few cases of actives that we've got them out
of pain and they've went right back in Wow. But
mostly I'd say ninety percent are people that are otherwise
you know, doing other things. And that's the great thing
is in some cases the blessing has been I remember this.
One guy wrote about I got to walk on the
beach with my daughter.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Oh my goodness, that brings a tear to the eye.
That's amazing. I love it. You said sixty sixty people
about I think in the fifties.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think it's in the fifties, Okay, And it's and
the whole story, it's a very simple story. We show
my injury, we talk about the people who've helped us,
and we show some success cases. I forget the guy's name.
One guy went back to competitive sprinting. He was an athlete. Yeah,
he's you know, I can run him. Mind, I'm not
you know, quite moving like I once did.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
But I've seen him get out there in a couple
flag football games.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah. I got older, though.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Not according to me.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, no, I can still move like I can play
flag football. I can't dance around like you know, any
speed rush is going to hurt me. But can I
drop back three steps and step up and throw? I
can still do that with no pain. So that's to me.
That's like some people love to go hit a bucket
the balls. I still love go play catch, go throw balls.
You know, the one thing I could ever do. It's
fun not.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
To let it go, and you personally knowing how much
it helps is amazing because you know what it's going
to do for other people.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah. Yeah, because I got, like I said, I got
this amazing gift. And then I was like, for one
there was the kind of the guilt of do I
even deserve this? Because Ryan, you know, he was making
them for veterans that they did the R and D
so to speak right, and then here I came as
a as a civilian. I need one of these because
I got a rect ankle, and I remember it was
one of the other veterans kind of like like, dude,
(13:56):
pain is pain, you know, no matter what, no matter what.
Derived from what we were able to do, then a
good thing for those, you know, and it would be
great if that we're bigger and helped anybody and everybody.
But kind of we made a specific mission based on
the fact that Ryan had developed this in the first
place for veterans, so I should repay it that way.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it's beautiful again. Kenny Maine joining me. This
is Jesamond McIntyre, host of Seattle Voice, and your voice
is so important in this community, and you've done so
many amazing things in your career. And as we find out,
this is a perfect time to be talking to you
because you have a movie short film coming out as
we're recording this, it is actually coming out today. Can
(14:34):
you tell us about whiffle Ball?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, it's going to keep coming outbo Fubo Sports, Fubo TV.
So for those who don't know, I think a lot
of people who follow sports radio would already know. But
you know, it's another disseminator of all the sports channels,
sort of like has a bundle of a zillion different
sports things you can watch for the people that primarily
want that more than other things, you know, through the
whole new world of TV and streaming and all that.
(14:59):
So they're putting it out out as we tape tonight,
the fourteenth. I don't know when this is running, but
whenever it is, it's still running a few more times
as they put it out, like quote unquote broadcast it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But then for Fubo subscribers and others who can get
Fubo Sports through other sources, it gets complex. But you know,
like if you have Roku or there's other ones that
will let lead you to if you search bar it,
you'll find it just been in wiffle ball two words,
no h wiffl e whiffle ball, and you'll find a
way to see it on demand, right, just like Gretchen
(15:28):
Knight last night watched The Diplomat on Netflix and we
searched around and clicked there, you know, So you'll have
that opportunity to do that on Fubo Sports going forward.
And it's about a day. The whole movie is about
a day in my life.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The greatest movies of my time, you know, like those
early two thousands movies where it's like one night of
debauchery or something one day where you get everything done.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, well to hangover, you know, it's not quite.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That hangover can hardly wait. You know, all the classics, and.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's not meant to be either. It's I mean, it
really is a true documentary. I really did interview people,
try to find the truth of what happened, you know,
get to the bottom of it. Done, and hopefully a
comedic life. So when I was at Channel eleven, I
was probably two years deep on TV. I think I
got on in eighty six, so maybe it's three years whatever.
We didn't used to have sports down there. There was
a Monday through Friday ten o'clock news Charles Johnson and
(16:24):
Wendy Man Dave Corsia with the weather, and I was
a writer for them. I wrote the national news. I
did some producing. I was not on TV now, and
then they'd let me go to an interview or something,
and then I finally got on start doing local news.
I'm doing, you know, all the stuff you do on news,
day to day coverage. And then they added a weekend
show and Jack Eddie said, hey, you play football, You're
(16:44):
doing sports. And I didn't even at the time that
wasn't my interest. I was trying to be more serious
and do like real journalism and all that interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Started having fun doing sports as it turned out. So
it was August of eighty nine and Harold Reynolds and
King Griffe, Jan Kuahara, my photographer, and me, four of
us met at the Seattle I think we met at
the Space Needle, that little circular parking lot, and then
we walked over to the Science Center and I don't
even remember did we go there for a purpose or
did we just say let's meet at the Seattle Center
(17:14):
and walk around and talk and see what happens. For
whatever reason, we go inside the Seattle Science Center, a
Pacific science and they had a whiffleball speed pitch. It
turns out it wasn't even a real Whiffleball's like a pickleball.
And the three of us threw and Jen filmed it,
and you know, you're seeing the number show up. It
was pretty inferior technology. I'm not sure it got our
correct numbers, but I've been telling people all these years
(17:36):
that I won by one mile per hour. That's my
memory of what happened that day. But the tape has
you know, that's thirty five years ago. The tape's been
in basements and garages and moving vans and shelves, and
some miracle events still had the tape and it came
up because remember two Seattle Sports Award shows ago, Griffy
won the legendary award and give great speech. It was,
(18:00):
you know, went up and think or congratulated him after,
and he somehow brought up that day. I can't remember
how he said it, but he referenced that day that
we threw those whiffleballs thirty four years ago at that time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Oh my gosh, okay, I remember that speech. I was there.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, he didn't say it on stage, he said it
to me afterwards.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Oh okay. I was like, weird, hold on, he was
kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Making the joke of I wasn't going to bring you
up because I didn't want to go into the whiffle whatever.
So it just I like, I'm looking for new things
to do, and I was always wanting. I got a
good friend named Jason Jobes, lives out on Bainbridge and
we play golf and we're good friends. He does money
and a football stuff. He kept encouraging me just pick
some stupid idea and let's go make it. You know,
(18:40):
Let's not worry about what happens to it, or making
money or getting a sponsor. Just all work. You'll do
your work, we'll hire the other people we need to pay.
And we did. So I was like, I think I
got an idea. I want to find the tape, find
out what's on the tape, try to get different people
involved in, you know, the making of it. Ken Burns
is in it, the famous document No way. We got
(19:02):
music from famous Seattle bands. We've got Sam Lechow, the rapper,
a sale kid, did great job on his. My brother
in law Robert helped out with the score, and ken
Burns obviously a good name. We got the president of
wiffle ball, We got a University of Washington science professor.
We went back to the Seattle Center to try to
go inside and find out is the whiffleball speed pitch
(19:22):
even still there. It's been replaced by toys for tots
or something or no tots for something. I don't know
what it's called. They've done this sort of stuff in
there that's cute, and we just we just made it.
We just all these little elements had to come together.
But the key thing was trying to prove my point
of what happened. But the tape I had was like
this ancient kind of tape that nobody uses anymore called
(19:42):
broadcast beta. Sp came after three quarter inch, which came
after film.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Oh so you have to find it advice to even
play this?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yes, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
When I first started nineteen eighty two, right out of college,
Channel eleven was just discontinuing shooting their news on film.
They went out with film cameras. They to sync the
audio like a very complex project to get the local
news to happen, right, you have to go out and
shoot the whatever story and come back and edit, you know,
or developed the film anyway. A couple few years later
(20:11):
came this fancy stuff called Beta sp not beta like
beta or VHS, not that, but whatever. Don't worry about
that part, okay. So to my good fortune, I remembered
Joe Wrenn, my good friend who's worked at Komo forever,
and I was like, do you guys have one of
those machines? And then I had to get the okay
from his boss. They were fine with it. We filmed
(20:32):
me coming into Como to find out what's on the tape,
so that's kind of a key scene in the whole movie.
And then a really good tease.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
By the way, this is a really good tease. Oh
and I just interrupted you the best part of the
teas so you got to the truth.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We get to the truth. Finally, it's actually slightly inconclusive,
which is the title of essentially the credit song. I
talked the head and the heart in that I wrote
a really dumb song, like so dumb on purpose, and
they sang it and made it sound like a real song.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh, that's just brilliant. That is just brilliant.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I think the lyrics are like in conclusion, he was inconclusive, confused, conflicted,
the truth elusive. That's actually a real statement there, But
the rest of it is just making fun of me
and making fun of the movie.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well, I think it's brilliant. Kenny May joining me Jessamin
McIntyre here, host of Seattle Poyson, Kenny, I want to
bring this all back around. We know you do so
much for the community, and you get to see a
lot of other people that do. You've referenced a lot
of people who have come out and showed up for you.
You know, throughout your whole time, run freely. Everything that
you do, you always seem to have an impact and
(21:38):
bring people in to have an impact around you. Can
you tell us a little bit more about the people
who you know in Seattle who are doing more than
we might know about oh Man.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, and for one, Marshaun's still doing it right, he
shows up. I remember the campaign that he did. I
don't know if he's still doing it not, but it
sounded funny at first, and it's like, no, it makes
a lot of sense that they were giving away cell phones,
and I assume some service on it to people on
the street because that reconnects people who they might just
have missed one last job. Right. Like the whole thing
(22:10):
about the homeless issue is so difficult because so many
people they talk about it as though it bothers them,
as opposed to being bothered by the fact that's happening.
You see the difference.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yes, And there's you know, Uplift Northwest is doing great
things second or Northwest Harvest. There's all sorts of people
that are trying to keep people from that situation, get people,
you know, kind of back into society. And that was
what I thought was so cool about what Marshaun did.
Like okay, now then Google, you know, part time job
or whatever it is, or low low housing or so
(22:44):
obviously Jamal Crawford, I mean the list is pretty long.
You know, there's all sorts of people doing good stuff.
And the teams are always good too. There's so many
all the professional teams, you know, have their own whole
network of we're going to do good do I remember
when I was so disappointed, I you know, like only
getting to be at a high school for that first
event instead of ten thousand people coming for this thing
(23:06):
I had in my head. I remember two people said
the same thing, almost the same words of Jeff AmAm,
my friend from Pearl jam and Jamal and they were
both like, just keep doing the little good things. You know,
you know, I don't have the wherewithal to do some
stupendous you know, I'm happy just chipping away and doing
nickel and diamond and one at a time. We're doing
a good thing. And if it ever became something bigger, great,
(23:28):
and you know, we could do it that way. But
I almost I kind of like how small of it is.
I'd rather do more help. But I also like that
there's no there's no politics, and there's no infrastructure to
worry about. This just having an interview like this. Somebody's
gonna hear this. They're gonna go to the website. Maybe
they hit a sports bet last night, you know, throw
a hundred bucks to us, whatever. But we've had other people.
(23:49):
The mysterious ones are the funny ones to me, like
more than once, I'd say five six times, suddenly a
ten thousand dollars check shows up and it's from Usually
it's like a family that has their own kind of
fund for helping different things, and it goes through a serve,
So it's it's not like we even know who they are.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Right, it's anonymous in a way.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah. Sometimes it's just a good group of people or
family or somebody gave money to the such and such
charitable fund and you're one of the you know, one
of the people getting a cut this week. So you're
always hopeful. I have a PO box. They send me
mail when necessary. But when I see their mail show up,
that's good news. I just got this. What a sweet
lady is Sandy Gregory?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Remember I know Sandy. She is wonderful and she does
such good things.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
There's another name. She's doing good things all the time.
She started a fund for some of our ex pro
athletes who, you know, a lot of people would think
they're all millionaires. And you know, the people who play
basketball twenty thirty years ago aren't getting these max deals
that were so used to we think everybody makes two
hundred million. You know, they don't and they didn't, and
so some of them in certain health situations or whatever,
and they it's just kind of a way to thank
(24:55):
people who might have inspired us through the years. I
used to go watch that guy play, and you know
I can do him or her. But anyway, Sandy sent
She went to my event in Kirkland and then she
sent her own little contribution, so she should be noted.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I think that it's a wonderful person to note. Actually,
you know, everything that you're saying reminds me of a
poem that I used to read when I was younger.
Maybe it's technically like a kind of a short story,
but this little girl is walking along the beach and
starts throwing starfish that are washed up back into the ocean.
And there's hundreds of them and hundreds of them, and
someone comes up and they're like, you're not this doesn't matter.
(25:31):
This doesn't matter because you're not going to be able
to throw them all back in the ocean. And she
flings one in and goes it matters to that one.
And that's the way I like to operate, is by
doing one small thing a little bit at a time,
or it could turn into a big thing, like exactly
what you were doing. So I can't tell you how
much I appreciate this and everyone here you're impacting. I
(25:51):
think you and I aligned pretty similarly, and The way
we like to operate is if I can smile at
someone instead of taking my own anger out on someone.
If I can and you know, tell someone have a
good day. If I can help someone walk across the street,
that's going to make their day a little bit better
and maybe they'll make someone else's day better. And you're
taking people from pain. And I think that pain actually
(26:12):
is one of the impressions we don't pay attention enough,
which allows people to be both physically and emotionally impacted.
And you're saving them from that, and they're going to
live better lives and they're going to impact people more positively.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So yeah, so many of those who've gotten the device
and had their lives, they all want to in small
ways or big ways. Hay, what can I do? I said,
most of the time, you don't have to give money.
If you can, great, but if you can't, just retweeting
it or telling five friends this week or maybe everybody's company,
just about everybody's company has some kind of thing they do,
maybe around Veterans Day or maybe around the holidays, and
(26:46):
they nominate different charities. So we've had that happen a
few times where we've just somebody heard about its. Hey,
my company wants to match my five hundred dollars or whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Right, the matching programs people don't take as much advantage
of those. I take one d percent advantage of those.
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Sometimes five dollars from one person is like five thousand
from another, right all, you know, it's all relative. So
we're just going to keep doing little ones I have.
I have handshake deals with a couple of former professional receivers,
and I want to do that. Like what if Megatron
wants to run ten fade routes I fly to Detroit.
(27:21):
We get people to have the wherewithal to show up
and pay enough money because we don't want to make it.
We want to make as inclusive apostle as possible by
trying to bring in maybe, like I said, a couple
of kids from the boys club or whatever. But you
have to charge on a thing like that enough to
make a dent, you know. So the goal is always
can we get at least one more veteran out of
one of those kind of events. We get two, that's
(27:42):
even better, But you know, we got whatever it is
getting somebody of his stature. I think there's there's ten
people in Detroit that want to throw them a Touchdow.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
That's yes, there are people with means that will absolutely
lose their minds over that. And then some people might
want to, you know, donate that as a Christmas present
or you know, a gift to their son, nephew, father, anyone.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yes, sorry, but you just reminded me the one with
Mike Panix that we did. There were like two or three,
maybe four. They just said, here's one thousand dollars, send
some kid, Yes, and I ended up you know what
they ended up doing is I called over to Rainier
Beach George Foster I played JAYC football with because I
just felt like that was a nice place to pick
given all the good stuff Jamal does and what he's
(28:27):
done for me. And we got a couple of kids
that got scholarshiped in so to speak, right, they just
got to show up with their mom and catch a
ball from Mike. And that's a great way to do.
So it doesn't have to be the rich guy running
the route. He or she can sponsor or do two
do one for you and one for somebody else. Yes,
So my hope is we do that one. Randy Moss
gave a yes as well. I think he's done. In
(28:48):
South Carolina. I went to I went to Megatron's golf
tournament for his foundation, and they had a football clinic
the day before and I got to coach the quarterbacks
and throw the ball around. That football camp for kids
who are high school age. Hearing this, like you go
to these seven on sevens of these different camps. The
receiver coaches at our camp were Randy Moss and Kelvin Johnson.
(29:09):
That's good tutoring right there.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, that's okay, that's okay. You know what, I can't
believe we're running out of time here because I could
talk to you for another three hours and we'll have
to do this again sometime when we get more. I
am going to watch whipple Ball tonight because I have
cut the cord so I have all the streaming surfaces.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So just remember our o'clock Pacific. Even though people who
hear this that won't matter to them. They'll have to
look up on their site. It tells you the other
dates over the next week. Whenever this airs, there should
be some more feelings.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I can't wait, and it's going to be amazing. And Kenny,
thank you so much. Thank you for everything you do,
and I just consider myself so lucky to call you
a friend.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So thank thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
All right, guys, you have been listening to Seattle Voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. I'm J Justainman McIntyre. For show
ideas or to find out how your voice can be heard,
email Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com
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