Community Connection - May 14 2026 - Tina Cosby with guests Kurt Moore and Danny Bridges - Community Connection With Tina Cosby

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Center in Hammond, Indiana. All of them are two hours.
All of them are on Saturdays, with the exception of
a time change or to most of them are taking
place around the noon to two pm time frames, So
they are all two hours, usually around noon to two.

(00:20):
Some are eleven to one, you know, depending on what
times on you're in.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
So they're all on Saturday too.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
They're all on Saturday. They're all two hours long. And
access is you don't have to register anything. You just
show up and the lawmaker representing your area plus a
couple of others are usually there and you can just
talk to them about what's on your mind, what are
you thinking, what is it that you need, What can

(00:47):
you do to maximize the fact that you are one
of their constituents and you want There's just so many
different options. If nothing more, just show up and be
seen the state so that they know exist.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So whoever came up with that idea, it's a great
idea because it's a relaxed setting. It's on a Saturday,
which gives you time to go over and it's not
all day.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Good time to sleep in. Yeah, you can sets say
they like to sleep in on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's true. You can sleep in, get a late breakfast
before you go you want, and yeah, be informed and
ask questions.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So that's that's that's coming up. And again Indiana Housedemocrats
dot org. Indiana House Democrats dot org. Congratulations to our
our friend Jerry who's seeing the doctor right now.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That correct, But he got to take us.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
But guess what I would have been too. I would
have been too. Hopefully that made his doctor's appointment a
little bit better.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
I hope, so lack hope.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Uh, but stay tuned because we're going to give away
some more. So we are wearing the show. We don't
leave here until about three o'clock around it, and so
just stay with us. Our good friend, Reverend Jim gave
us this flyer about a firefighters summer camp that's going
to be taking place at Phillips Temple. It's June first

(02:08):
to July seventeenth, eight am to four pm before and
aftercare available. Let's see summer camp location. Oh no, no, no,
Ips School, eighty eight East sixteenth Street. I wonder, yeah, okay,
this is the Saint Florian Centers.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Okay, I was I was.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Asking him because I was reading this, so they came out.
Remember they came on and talked about that with us,
and so the Cadet Junior Cadet Core Cadet youth employment
you can earn money all of that. I guess registration
is still open.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
It was just a few months ago when they were
in with it.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, it was a few months ago because they were
encouraging families to start getting their youngsters ready for summer camp.
So you can go to the Saints which is spelled
out SAI in t Saint Floriancenter dot org or SFC
Summercamp at gmail dot com. S f C Summercamp at
gmail dot com is the the email inquiry or Saint

(03:10):
Floriancenter dot org. There's also a number here three one
seven seven nine seven oh oh seven seven three one
seven seven nine seven oh oh seven seven or three
one seven four four two four five oh eight three

(03:31):
one seven four four two four five oh eight if
you would like for your youngsters uh to be involved
in the Firefighters Summer Camp. I hear it's quite it's
quite nice, very very positive, very inclusive.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
That's what I've heard.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Field trips, leadership development, robotics, art skills, life skills, just
a whole.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Good stuff that's really good stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, it is, it is, And so, uh just wanted
to remind families if you missed this segment with Battalion
Chief former Battalion Chief Tony Williamson, then we are just
reminding you again that they are still taking applications. The
camp doesn't start until June first, so there's still some time.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
And they have fun stuff to do, educational things to do,
and they won't have to have a summer of what
can I do? I have nothing to do?

Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know what? This is interesting and I don't know
how many people know about it, but since I've been
on this show, there have been folks that have called
and finally remembered what they said was the best time
in the city ever. Yeah well yeah, yeah, Well, because
they were talking about the community togetherness, everybody coming together

(04:45):
having a nice time doing the same thing, and they
said that they pointed to the Indianapolis Recorders Community picnics. Right, yeah,
well I saw that. According to this the Recorder Community
Picnic is coming back, and it's going to be on
Indiana Avenue, celebrating legacy culture community in collaboration with Purdue University,

(05:09):
and it's coming up Saturday, June twenty seventh from noon
until four weather five oh one Indiana Avenue. Back to
the Avenue is what it's been called for generations. The
Recorder Community Picnic was one of the most anticipated gatherings
in Indianapolis's black community. What started decades ago is a
way to bring families, neighbors, businesses, churches, and community leaders

(05:30):
together became a powerful tradition rooted in joy, connection, culture
and pride along the historic Indiana Avenue, Yeah and Avenue.
But this wasn't just a picnic. It was a reunion,
a celebration, a reminder of the strength and spirit of
our community. Now the Indianapolis Recorder is proud to bring

(05:51):
that tradition back home. It says, join us back to
the Avenue as we honor the legacy of the Recorder
Community Picnic and create new memories for the next generation.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Outstand It's noon to four Yeah on June twenty seventh.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Recorder Community Picnic five oh one Indiana Avenue, Saturday, June
twenty seventh. This year live music and a DJ, great food,
face Yeah face painting, walk and talk, community conversations, family
friendly activities, community resources, special guests, and local leaders. Bring

(06:28):
your yeah OK, go.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Ahead that's it's just got to be wonderful. Bring your family,
your friends and everybody. Yeah, create some new memories and
some remembering the old ones too.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah. And so the invitation is out. The Recorder Community
Picnic is back. So that should be fantastically. We got
to get somebody in here, oh to talk more. But
we'll see if we can get Christian.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Oh yeah, that's at the walker.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's right there on the avenue or whoever. This is
in conjunction with the universe, the recorder. So somebody back
to the avenue, back to the avenue. Indeed, well, we're
gonna be back in just a few moments because we're
gonna talk about you know, talk about community. This is
a big event that just gets bigger and better each
and every year, in part, largely in part due to

(07:15):
the man you're about to meet or I don't know,
talk to again, let's put it that way. He's been
with us before. We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Let's get back to the conversation. It's Community Connection with
Tina Cosby on Praise AM thirteen ten ninety five point
one FM.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
And we're back with community Connection, back with Community Connection
and back with us. Today is none other than mister
Kurt Moore. He is the founder director of Straight Up
Mentoring Foundation, And we are back to talk about something
that I find it a joy to talk about each
time it comes up, the community love Fest and Kurt Moore,
this is all you. I mean you you started this

(08:02):
from a tiny seed that you planned and look at it.
Look at it now.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
I can't take all the credit.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
Our organization, Straight Up Mentoring Foundation, is one of the
leading organizations of it, but I have to give credit
to also James Lomax and l n O like no
other uh and and several other organizations that came alongside
and kind of pushed this to where it is now.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Man in the community.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
Definitely got to give it to the community and and
all the sponsors as well. We have some sponsors that
have been there with us since day one, but you
know how hard that is to even to get sponsors
right now this day at time.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
So it's still ye.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Sponsorships have dried up right and left. It's just it's
so sad because it used to I mean, it used
to make all the difference and it still can make.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
It right right.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
So for those who aren't for mail, can you let
him know what straight Up Mentoring is, how it came
to be, you know, give us this story.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
So straight Up Mentoring is a mentoring organization that we
created back in two thousand and twelve, twenty thirteen at
Arlington High School, myself and a gentleman named Cecil sink
Field let him rest in peace. At the time, he
was the athletic director at Eastern Star Church. We were
playing ball over there one day and we had a idea, Man,

(09:26):
let's go into my alma mount of Arlington High School
and let's do a charity basketball game or charity car wash.
At the time, IPS was just taking I was just
taking Arlington back over.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Principal.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
Doctor Stan Law was a principal, and he was saying
that he was in need of some men, in particularly
black men, to be in the halls to be mentors.
And so we took on the task of taking twenty
five quote unquote there were students, so it was twenty
five seven eighth grade boys that were.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
All most challenging man change.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
And we'll say that boys that were potentially flunking out,
borderline flunking out. Some of them had already been through
the juvenile system and things of this nature. And so
within a very short period of time we were able
to change their grades, their academics, their behavior, and so
forth by sixty.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
If you don't mind you say within a short period
of time, it was.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Within like six seven weeks that quickly, yes.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
And it basically was just us giving them meeting and
meeting them where they are and then giving them the
attention that they were seeking, but at the same time
directed them in a positive manner and rechanneling their energy
from the negative to the positive. And so I'm a
firm believer that kids, and particularly want for what they see.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
So if all they see every day is.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
School in the hood were pooky on the corner, that's
all they're going to want for. So we was like, well, man,
we have to do some things. Let's get them out
on field trips. So we started taking them on to
museums and college colleges.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
But the most important one was that we're still doing
to this day.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
We created a thing called straight up Character Building Camp,
and we took them out to the campgrounds and brought
in different speakers, pastors, police officers, ball players, other xogs
like myself, and we talked to them about their character
and their choices in life, and then we split them
in teams hike through the woods through team building activities
in the woods, go canoeing, horseback riding, things this nature

(11:27):
catered to lunch and it's all they feel tripped from school,
but at the same time they're having fun but they're
also learning something. And so that has been one of
the most impactful things that we have been doing over
this last twelve thirteen, fourteen years or so, so impactful
I didn't even realize it Malea as I was like, Kurt,

(11:48):
do you realize that close to ten thousand kids has
been through your camps, has been through your classes. And
I mean and then with that, I have kids now
or young adult now they come to me and say, yo,
I went to one of your camps when I was
a kid. Now I'm married, or I'm getting married, or
I have a good career of things of this nature.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
And that's priceless.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
That that beats any amount of money, man, that you
can even think of.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
So from that we also do uh, we do tutoring.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
We do a weekly class in which is a straight
up class at Washington High School right now in war Central.
We also mentor over and Ben Davis with the basketball team.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Uh, we do a lot of.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Conflict resolution, financial literacy, things of this nature. We also
sponsor families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we sponsor kids
for prom and for their graduations. We just finished a
program that we've been running for the last four years
called straight Up Car Giveaway. And so in Washington say.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
That again, you didn't Carr.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Do you hear that air?

Speaker 6 (12:54):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I did.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
So we need to get.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
It's so very impactful because a lot of times we
are all of our attention are on, like you just said,
the most challenging kids, and we kind of forget about
those that have been applying themselves, that have been doing
the work, that are you know, have good grades, that
are going off to college and things.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
This nature, and we forget to reward them sometimes.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
So we created this program because my business partner, Travis
Reed and TNT Collision, he came up with the idea
him and then my liaison at Washington High School. Well,
Travis wanted to give a car away in the honor
of his late wife, and so then it was it
was kind of ironic because only a few weeks before that,
my liaison was asked me for things all the time

(13:43):
and think I can come through. She was like, do
you think you can give us a car? And I
was like a car, it's like you guys said. So
the light bulb went off and we created this program
in which we honored the student with the best academics,
the graduating senior that is from the best academics, the
best behavior, best attendance, and then it breaks down pretty
quickly to the last ten and we have them write

(14:04):
an essay. An essay is how they think this car
would benefit them or impact them, but also a little
caviat to that is how do they see themselves impacting
the community in the future. And so yesterday we gave
away our fourth car at Washington High School to a
student named Cameron Brewer. He was so excited it was
crazy could.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Get a car.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
He could stop.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
Tomorrow will be giving away our second car at Warren Central,
so that would be tomorrow at eleven o'clock. So, yes,
it's been it's been very impactful.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Man.

Speaker 5 (14:41):
I enjoyed a lot of other businesses and things get
involved on out of detailing on thirty eight Keystone, so
I deal in detailed cars for many other dealerships. So
one of the dealerships is Indy Motors Direct that donates
a car. The other one was north Side Outo on
ninety six and sixty nine donated the other car TNT

(15:02):
Collision Travis reading them.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
They do the body work we do all over pain Dyves.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
We get mechanics through the mechanics, and then of course
I do the final touch, which is the detailing and
the cleaning up of the car and we get it
ready man to be given away.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
So wow, thank you to all of those.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yes, hey, you know what Tina, that deserves, uh, that deserves.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, man, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I appreciate Luke.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
So you know what, when people present an idea, it's
interesting that you're like, you know, it might surprise you
a little bit, but you're like, Okay, let's see what
we can do, as opposed to thinking, well, we can't
do this or can't do that. I love that about
you and this organization, this foundation, because it's like, well, okay,
let's see how we you know, how we happen. Yeah,

(15:50):
and that's that's important, especially with our young people today.
And some some are challenged, some create some are very
challenging in terms of getting them. Like you say, we're
on the right track and where you want them to be.
So you started out with twenty five, twenty five, it's
thirty five boys and how many you ten thousand?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Well that's what she said. Man, that's I found that
hard to believe too.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
But it's like, and I mean, we track our stuff,
but sometimes, you know, I don't pay much attention to
a lot of the tracking far as how many students
have been either through our class, to our camps, on
our field trips. This past Black History myth February, we
did a boys conference where we brought out fifty boys
from Washington High School, fifty from Ben Davis and fifty

(16:36):
from one in Central Over to my church High ten
and pastor doctor doctor Daryl K. Webster and the Manu
Missionary Baptists, and so we brought the boys out. Keynote
speaker Corey Harrison played in the NFL. This's a Hallville kid,
played for Ben Davis. He was a keynote speaker. But
we also had the new chief of police speaking. We

(16:58):
had Quincy Webster, the owner of Webster's Funeral Home, and
some other business people from around the community, and we
were just speaking life into these young boys. So That
was another big thing that was very impactful, to the
point to where we're hoping next year that we really
open this thing all the way up and possibly have
it at a much larger facility where we can invite

(17:20):
kids from definitely every city high school there is, and
we can get fifty to one hundred boys from the
four IPS schools and maybe a few other charter schools
man and really try to just speak life into these
young boys, let them know that that God does have
a purpose for them, that you know what I'm saying,
that the streets is not the way to go. There's
much more to life than that.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Man. Then, you know, I feel like we did our job.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
I think. So, So, how did these young men and
young men by the way, that's your lane its young
men specifically, and that's fantastic. How did these young men
get to you or how do they come to you?
Is it a refer I mean, yeah, how do they all?

Speaker 5 (17:59):
Most of the most of the boys that we've been
dealing with has been through the high schools that we
mentor at, and we're mostly freshmen. So that's thirteen up
through eighteen nineteen.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
We also.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
But we also have done things in junior high schools
as well, and we also I end up mentoring young
adults as well, some that were boys that went through
our program, but some that just came to my place
of business and needed a job or so forth, and
before you know what, we end up mentoring them. So
we started this thing this past fall where we started mentoring,

(18:35):
mentoring young adults and trying to get them information on
how to either finish up their education or get some
type of job training or get a job lead them
in the right direction. A lot of them need housing
or homes or somewhere to live. Things in this nature,
So it ends up being a snowball effect, man, because

(18:55):
there's so many issues and situations that you know that
we're faced without here nowadays, and you end up if
you have And basically, I'm not saying I'm the smartest
person in the world, but I just use my resources,
my relationships.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
So if I have a relationship with this.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Guy over here, he is a business owner, and I
know he needs help, and this guy over here needs
a job, then I just try to connect the dots.
Or my pastor has a transition home and I try
to connect guys that may be transitioning from the penal
system or transitioning off of drugs, and I connect the dots,
or another gentleman, that mister Thomas that has a treatment

(19:31):
centered fresh Start, and I know, you know, we run
into a lot of people that are you know, more
through different addictions and so forth.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
I just try to connect the dots.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
How are some of the kids not I guess I
should say, still, there's some of the kids we're not reaching.
Some of these young people we simply are not reaching
or not able to reach. Do you know why or how?
Because organizations like yours are fantastic. Pastor Webster, I mean,
he's been out there boots up fro a year for decades.

(20:03):
How are so many escaping possibilities like what you Pastor
Webster and your partner's offer, and how can we try
to reach them?

Speaker 3 (20:13):
I think, and I take my hat off.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
I'm not one to say, well, this organization is doing
a better job than that one, or that one's not
doing anything, because I.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Believe everybody's got their lane.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Everybody has their lane.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
I believe, like I just said before, if you're saving one,
then you did your job. But I think that, uh,
there's many organizations doing great job and are reaching the ones,
like you said, that's in their particular lane. But there
are going to be some kids that fall through the crack.
They're gonna be some young people that we just not
that we're not there, not that we're not visible, but

(20:48):
we just for some odd reason, haven't made that connection
with I'm a firm believer even in the schools, we
need as many mental organizations as we can get because
we may, yeah, we may grab the the students that
are soorter on the line teeter toten one foot on
one side and the line the other foot on the
banana piel, ready to get in trouble. But there are

(21:09):
some organizations that we need that actually, unfortunately, can't grab
the kid that already has the gun in his hand.
They can't grab the kid that's already been through the
juvenile system or on his way back, or that is
already involved in some type of criminal activity. We need
those organizations as well, and we need organizations that can

(21:33):
meet young people where they're at and that understand their language,
because I think that's a huge problem. I'm fifty seven
and I'm out here, but I don't understand all the
language of the young people. So I bring along guys
with me that are a little bit younger, maybe in
their early twenties or their late teens, that can help
us mentor because they speak their language, they understand, you know,

(21:56):
their situations, you know, a little bit better than somebody
there's a middle age like myself.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, So we need, we need.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
I mean, it's all hands on deck because and even
with our hands on deck, we still may catch a
few that may slip through the cracks and we may
not be able to reach, or not intentionally, may not
be able to reach, not accidentally, it just is what
it is.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
We may not just been able to reach it.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Are the are some of the or the organizations like
yours are are more and more connecting these days, or
at least being aware of what you know, what's going
on here and what's going on there, and what's going
on down there and up here. I mean, because it
seems like if we had a I don't know, a
network that can compliment each other and can talk you,

(22:41):
you know, the net could be spread even wider. Are
you seeing things like that developed at all?

Speaker 3 (22:46):
I think we are. I know.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
Pastor Danelle Howard just invited me to a thing where
he was trying.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
To bring several in his organization.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
He's a pastor of the Hope Street Church, but he's
also the president founder of Evolved, and he was trying
to bring organizations together like myself and James low Max
and Eleano and so forth, some other organizations together at
a different school. Uh this past couple of weeks, and
we'll go to a different school, set up our tables
and present ourselves to the students, and the students then

(23:18):
can come and choose which organization that they would love
to be a part of. I think we have some
pioneers like that, or even Pastor Webster or others like
even Pastor Christopher Tyrone Smith of True Belief. They have
those ideas and we tried, but we have to quit
fighting each other there.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
We have to.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
And then, I mean, let's just face it, the elephant.
We got to face the elephant in the room.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
Because you got grant money or I don't care because
you got this huge sponsor, or I don't care because
your program does these events over here and they were
huge and had means and kids and it doesn't matter.
We need everybody and we need to stop fighting each other.
I think the ultimate goal is the same for all
of us. We just have all different paths to get there.

(24:11):
But that doesn't mean one is better than the other one.
We got to stop back biting each other, especially in
public on social media and so forth. Man, because it's
if us as adults see.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
It, then you think our children.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
So how can they trust in any of the programs
if they see it where they can't get along?

Speaker 3 (24:30):
So why should we get along?

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Agreed? And at some point in time, when you're doing
things like that for young people whatever, you have to
take a bag. It's not necessarily your you know, the
all praise goes to you because you're leading this or
leading that or whatever. That that leads to some of
the fighting as well, like who's going to get the glory?
You know, glory seeker, honor seeker, all these folks that
are seeking, you know, doing trying to it just that if.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
Reason, you can't even be in it for the money,
because I mean, let's look at it.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
What what teacher do you know? Is rich?

Speaker 5 (25:06):
And they deal with this on a regular basis. They
deal with our youth every day because they want but
they but the good teachers are the ones that have
passion for their kids.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
I mean even principal doctor Stan Law.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
Now he has a ninety eight percent graduation rate and
getting national awards. But at the same time, I saw
where he started out with kids that were, man, we're
off the chain. But now he is. His vision is
coming to fruition and things this nature. But at the
same time he has a passion for our youth and
for change and for our youth being successful and prosperous.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Indeed, uh three one seven for eight zero thirteen ten
three one seven for eight zero thirteen ten. Our guest
is a mister Kurt Moore, founder of Straight Up Mentoring Foundation,
the Straight Up Mentoring Foundation, And we're going to get
to talk about the community love Fest. Sure, pretty so
I know you, but I just I just wanted to
let our listeners know, in case they aren't familiar with
with you, what you do, what your passion is, and

(26:03):
what your your mission. You know your mission and it
has not changed since the first time we sat down
and talked. I mean, it remains the same. And I
think that is something worth noting and and and applauding
and appreciating. So three one seven four eight zero thirteen ten.
LaToya you have a question for mister Moore.

Speaker 6 (26:23):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Good, Yes, ma'am, good afternoon.

Speaker 6 (26:28):
My question was simple because I'm at work, so I
have to make this quick.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Mike Gods goes.

Speaker 6 (26:34):
To he goes and Warren. How where does he go
to see about this program of yours?

Speaker 5 (26:39):
Uh, well, if you're in the Warren township, we're in
Warren High School.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
You can go through.

Speaker 5 (26:45):
We deal with quad Lolis, which is the dean of
students or the dean of boys.

Speaker 7 (26:51):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
We also are Leah Ason over there. One of them
is uh Miss Phillips. Okay, and uh that's if you
have a student at Warren High School. But we are
starting to come together and do things outside of the
schools because we see such demand for our program. So
here shortly we will have information out there where we

(27:13):
will be meeting a couple times a week with students
that may be from any and everywhere.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Okay, Yeah, he definitely goes to Warren year.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
That's great, that's great.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
So yeah, if he asked about the straight up mentoring program,
Miss Taylor, the principal there, can definitely let him know,
or one of the deans and students as well, would
definitely let him know when our at list. Past week
was our last week there because of course they get
out of school next week. But for incoming freshmen, we
have been talking, uh and hopefully they may open it

(27:46):
up to some southomores too.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
We will do a summer camp for the Warren students.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
So just like the straight up character building camp we
just did this past spring for Washington High School, we'll
do one this summer and definitely one in the fall
for one of high school boys.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Okay, and you have a website, Yes.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yes, I do in this straight Up Mentoring Foundation dot com.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
And the numeral the number eight. The number eight.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
So straight up, I'm sorry, thank you, straight up is
spelled s t R.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
The number eight up Mentoring Foundation.

Speaker 6 (28:24):
Okay, I appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (28:25):
I appreciate the information and and thank you for your time.
And yes, please keep up the good work because we
need a lot more of you if you can just
multiply yourself.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 6 (28:39):
Yeah, well you guys all have a good blessed day.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yes, ma'am, thank you, thank you, Bye bye.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Kurt. Have you been doing this long enough to where
some of the young men have matured into adulthood and
have come back and wanted to give back.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
Uh. And we called it basically for lack of vettertary recycling. Yeah,
we definitely try to recycle some of our students that
we had there are now young adults. I've given many
of them jobs before and things this nature. Actually had
one come to me a few months ago. His name
was Josh. Mister Josh was like, mister Kurt Man.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
I want you to be in my wed and that
touches my mind. That touched me.

Speaker 5 (29:23):
And then I had another one that I didn't even know,
and he didn't come did you do well?

Speaker 3 (29:28):
He's supposed to send me the information.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay, okay, that is so uh.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
I had another one though, that approached me when we
were doing the camp just three weeks ago and Washington
High School and he's one of the football coaches and
he was like, man, you don't.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Remember where I am. And I was like, I mean
you want the coaches?

Speaker 5 (29:48):
He said, Man, you know I used to work for
you when I was only like fifteen sixteen years old.
Because I give a lot of the kids jobs working
for me. H. We go out to card dealerships and
mobile wash the lots and so for and he was like, man,
I really love that job. I learned a lot off
of it. So that's what I mean. That's pay, that's
prices that pay. That outweighs any monetary value that you

(30:11):
can think of to have a young person come to
me later in life and tell me how much they
were impacted by our program or by just us showing
them attention and showing them love.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Has anything changed since the very first day of the
Straight Up Mentoring Foundation to now over the years, anything
changed in terms of the young people or the students
or is it basically you know, kids are kids and
they're gonna this is what they need. Have you noticed anything?

Speaker 5 (30:42):
So I've been doing it now sixteen years, and I mean,
you know my backstory. Grew up on the east side
of town, played sports, played college sports, came home then
and became part of the problem. End up serving thirteen
years in federal prison. Of course, changed my life while
I was in prison, gave my life a christ and
actually started mentoring in prison where they were actually taking

(31:02):
me and leading a group of guys out to the schools.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
In that particular area. And we were speaking to kids.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
Then, and that's what kind of gave me an idea,
But I don't think much has changed. I don't even
think much has changed since we were kids.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
We were bad too.

Speaker 5 (31:17):
Now, don't get me wrong, these kids are much more
informative than we were back then because of social.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Media, access computer or that access.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Their information and weapons and things of this nature.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
But I mean that's a worldwide or total society problem
as well. But I don't think a lot has changed
as far as kids.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Being kids, kids that are not.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
I mean, you just talked about it during the commercial break,
even some of the worst kids. When I was coming
up with kids that didn't have the proper parental guidance
or the proper parental structure around them. So even now,
I think that's the bigger that's the biggest part of
the problem. Is because we can do our job as

(31:59):
mental as educators, as community centers, as all these things.
We can man do all that we can, but we
only have these kids for a short period of time
each day of the week. So we go so once
they go home, if their environment is not conducive to
what we're trying to help them with or vice versa.
We're trying to concrete the values that we're hoping they're

(32:21):
getting at home. If they're not getting that, then all
of that gets sucked back out of them very quickly.
And so with that said, man, you know, I think
even back then, it's just a larger scale of it
now that we have a large amount of parents that
I don't feel like are really rather intentionally or unintentionally
maybe they're going through situations or giving that guidance or

(32:45):
that structure like it needs to be.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, indeed, well we want to find out about the
Community Love Fest if you've got a few more minutes,
because we definitely you know, when we get to talking.
So we're going to take a quick commercial break right here,
and we'll be right back with more communit Connections and
Kurt Moore straight up Mentoring Foundation right after this.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
WTLC AM W two three six C are Indianapolis broadcasting
from the Praise Indi, Indie Ghost Studios, Indiego Boldly Moving
Indy Forward. It's Community Connection with Tina Cosby, brought to
you by Child's Advocates, a champion for justice, opportunity and
well being for children on Praise AM thirteen ten ninety

(33:33):
five point one FM.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
And we're back with Community connection. Heading into our second hour,
our guest mister Kurt Moore, founder and the director of
the Straight Up Mentoring Foundation, the man with the plan.
I mean, he's We were teasing a little bit, not
to We were enjoying the fact that you have had
cars to give away for the past several days to

(33:56):
deserving youngsters and that there's nothing better better than that.
But I think our conversation the last thirty minutes had
shown that the car is the least of it. The
car's nice, the cars are nice, but in terms of
where you started and where a lot of these young
people start to, where they get to the point where

(34:16):
they receive a car, that is, that's the work. That's
what we celebrate.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
Definitely, definitely celebrate the works, to celebrate them the sacrifice
that they put through in order to not only get
straight A lot of them students were straight A students.
The one kid that got the car was in the
top thirty of his class. It was an award ceremony,
so he had received many other awards. He has a

(34:44):
basketball scholarship. I mean really good kid. But also his behavior,
his behavior, I mean no incidents of being in trouble.
His whole attitude, his character was on point. So that's
what's rewarding. That's what the reason why what we want
to come alongside you and help you get to the
next level of your of your ambitions and your goals

(35:04):
and so forth.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, often here I used to hear a lot, especially
more so when I was on the street. But it's
still valid that the five to ten percent that they
say squeaky wheel gets it.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Well.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
The five to ten percent of young people are folks
who just don't behave They're the ones that get all
the attention, the special programs, the mentoring and things of
that nature. The kids that are in the middle doing
what they're supposed to do. Uh, and no celebration, seldom
if any money because they you know, they fall right
in the middle. It's just a lot of things. But

(35:36):
that group in the middle, and so you're able to
you know, you're able to reach all levels. Yes, and
these cars, you know, the group in the middle, that's
that's absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
And we got to remember, man, that just like our
economy now where there's no middle class, I think it's
the same way with our kids now and one with
sports and things this nature.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
But even in academ I mean, and so forth.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Of you have the halves and then have nots, so
you don't have much of that middle.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
And then the middle that you do have.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
Like you said, who's celebrating them, who's rewarding them, who's
helping them or encouraging them to push them along? So yeah,
it's it's a bigger problem than I think we even realize.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Well, well, Kurt, we don't have a car to give away,
but we do have a couple of tickets to DJ
Gino's Celebration Acchoirs. So I'm gonna let you pick a number.
You're gonna give away tickets for us. Okay, you didn't
know that Gino man the number between one and ten seven.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Seven, okay, Eric number seven.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Caller number seven. If you are the seventh caller to
the number three one seven four eight zero thirteen ten
three one seven four eight zero thirteen ten, mister Kurt
Moore himself will hand you well kind of electronically. He's
gonna see to it that you get two tickets to
DJ Geno's Celebration Acchoirs coming up May thirty first on

(37:01):
the campus of Butler University. So go ahead, give us
a call and you know, once we find caller number seven,
mister Kurk Moore will congratulate you and give Eric to
go ahead and make those tickets possible. So three, one, seven, four, zero,
thirteen ten caller number seven, good luck. So the Community

(37:22):
Love Fest is always one of my favorite events to
talk about because it's just not one day. I mean,
this is a this is a celebration of community like
no other, like no other. Yes, so tell us about it,
tell us about.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
It Community Love Fests.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
So everybody remembers the dust Bow Basketball tournament that has
been in our city and historic and sports in our
city since the Oscar robertson days. So organization lno like
no other. A few other ones than myself with straight
up mentoring and Mark Western Troy Dumas, we brought it
back and we put a name on it called Community
Love Fest. Yes, we have the dust Bow Basketball Tournament

(37:57):
with the youth grade school, high high school and then
the open division which we will be giving away ten
thousand dollars to the winner of the Open Division. We
still have that very important that's on June sixth and seventh.
But the wrap around services that go around it, man,
the things that are the healthfare with the Health Department,

(38:18):
all the different vendors. Last year, I think we have
almost forty something vendors of food trucks, retail vendors, resource vendors, nonprofits.
I think that's very important as well. This year we'll
have a kids zone with DJ Mama Mia from Skala Rin.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Yeah, she would be.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
Out there DJing and doing all the games and the
kids zone and the bouncy houses. Of course, we'll have entertainment.
One of the biggest things that affected us and really
blew us up last year, which will be again this year,
is our own Mike Epps will be sponsoring and hosting
with JD Sports. JD Sports have come alongside man and

(38:57):
sponsoring and doing some different things in the park as well,
and Mike Epps will be giving JD Sports I think
will be giving away different things from their stores and
to the winners and the winners of the kids and
the youth divisions, but definitely a young adult division. The
open division will receive ten thousand dollars to the winter.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
But we'll get.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
Started on the third, June third, and I know I'm
kind of all over the place, but June third, on
that Wednesday, we will have a kickoff rally. The kickoff
rally will be at the Manual Missionary Baptist Church with
Pastor doctor Duyl K. Webster as the keynote speaker. But
it will be a rally and the rally will it
will include us preeing for our city. This is the

(39:40):
main purpose of Community Love Fest. We want to kick
the summer off with us to a safe summer in
particularly for our youth.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
So we'll be praying for our youth. We'll be praying
for our city in our community.

Speaker 5 (39:51):
But it also will have different speakers myself and some
mothers that we haven't named yet that we'll be talking
about different things that will be going on throughout the
summer that kids can be a part of, adults and
so forth, be talking about the you know, where we're
at as a community as a city right now. But
we want to come together in love and that's what
this whole weekend is definitely about. The next day, which

(40:12):
is June fourth, we will have our annual community clean up,
which we will meet on the corner of thirty thirtieth
and Sherman Drive at the address of thirty thirty North Sherman.
We will meet there we will congregate fellowship for a minute.
Then we'll band out south and southwest into the bright
Wood Community area and pick up trash and fellowship and

(40:36):
commune with our neighbors and so forth, man and keep
any beautiful as partnering with us. So we will have
the pickers in the trash bags and the gloves and
so forth.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
That's on the fourth.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
On the fifth, there's nothing really major plan, as you know,
I'm gonna throw this out here. I DJ at Cosmo
Nights every Friday night, so we'll be there.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
So there's a kid every Friday, so I'll throw that.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
We'll make that out.

Speaker 5 (41:02):
Yeah, we'll make that the kickoff party at Cosmo Knights.
We call it Friday Nights at Cosmo Knights with djk Love.
So I'll be there. And then Saturday, June sixth and
Sunday we'll be in the park, uh, lord willing Mike
Epps will possibly be in the park like he was
last year on that Sunday.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Yes, June sixth.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
In the park, Sunday in the park, and.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
June seventh, uh in the park as well. That's that
Sunday sixth is Saturday, seventh is Sunday.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Oh, June fifth, sixth is Saturday, Yeah, Saturday in the Park,
and seventh is Sunday.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
Sunday in the Park, and so Sunday is normally when
we play all the championship games. Uh And last year
I know Mike came to the park on that Sunday.
Last year he brought Pete Pablo, who performed during the
halftime show of the championship game. This year, we don't
know who he's bringing this yet, uh, Lord willing, I'll
find out soon so I can start promoting that. But yes,

(42:00):
June third through the seventh Community Love Fest, Community Love
Fest dustbo with straight up mentoring like no other l
and O you Nack, Anthony Leech and S and MS
Sports Real Taste Catering with Mark Webster, Pastor Daryl K.

(42:21):
Webster and Men's boot camping Manu Missionary Baptist Church, Christopher
Tyrone Smith. I'm trying to run through our little Noble
and Kamarader, Williamman, Regina Marsh and her program. It's so
many other organizations and people that have come alongside man
and to help make this a great weekend and a
great way too. As I said before, And Ashley Gerviz

(42:43):
is the one that came up with that phrase to
kick it off to a safe summer.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, it's always a kickoff to the safe summer. You
always have the love in there and always have the cleanup.
And I mean you just run the gamut of every
single thing. And this again is like a but four
day events, three or four day event. Yes, yeah, yeah,
So Eric has just told me that we have a winner.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
We do, okay?

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Can you let him know who it is?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Vivian Villan? Are you there, Vivian?

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Yes, I am. I cannot believe it.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
That's great, that's great.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
You well you can thank miss thank mister Kurk Moore.
He picked the number, he certainly did.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
Yes, no problem, no problem, congratulations, congratulations.

Speaker 7 (43:37):
I am so thankful, thank you.

Speaker 6 (43:39):
I'm okay you. I just couldn't believe it when he
picked that phone. U.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
I'm telling you, god, it's so good.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
That's great, that's everything.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
The phone was.

Speaker 8 (43:49):
Ringing it so long and I'm and what number to
hang up?

Speaker 1 (43:53):
And the minute I looked at my phone, he picked
the phone.

Speaker 6 (43:55):
About all right, the messagestic week. But anyway, thanks you.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Got so much servation of boers.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Yeah, so who are you gonna take me with you.
Who are you gonna take my cousin Della? Okay, you
got to stick to that now because you've said it
on the air. Somebody, Colin Teller, said he's gonna take
you to the concert.

Speaker 6 (44:25):
Oh I already knew that anyway.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Oh okay, Well, enjoy the concert. Enjoy the show, and
thank you so much for listening to us here, Vivian.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Hold on for me, hold on for me before you go.
It gets more information, hang.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
On for me. Okay, thank you, Thank you Curgin for this.
Thank you so Yeah. But the what the idea behind
it being a multi day event was that yours as well?

Speaker 3 (44:48):
I mean, it's a collaborative of all of us.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
You obviously wanted to be more than the day in
the park.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Yes, I definitely wanted to be more than that.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
I played in the destbow basketball tournaments back in the day,
and I saw where the Soul Fest when they're in
Black ass Bo had that and they had so many
other things around it, and.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
I think we really miss that.

Speaker 5 (45:07):
We need that as a community as a whole, as
a day or week that we can come together and
love and peace and bring other things in informative information
or things like this to people that may need it
or other resources. I mean to wrap around things or
what's the most important. The food is great, the basketball

(45:27):
is great, but it's somebody out there that may need
some type of health screening with the Health Department coming
on and doing that. Last year we did a mental
health segment on the stagement.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Somebody needs to hear that.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
And so with that saying man or if nothing else,
some kid that's in the park and just so happened.
We had so many other adults and business owners, but
some kid may need that adult to just come and say, hey, man,
I love you.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
And I think that's what this is all about.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Do people have to register or do anything special to
be able to attend any of these events?

Speaker 3 (46:00):
So you don't have to register to a ten.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
If you want to be a vendor, you can go
on my page on Kurt Moore or either k loves
Auto Detailing page and you can register to be a vendor.
Or you can go on Mark Webster's page, who kind
of runs our vendors, the owner of Real Taste Skater
h to be to put a team in.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
You can go on my page, or.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
You can go on James Lomax or l n o's
page in order to register in order to put a
team in, whether it's one of the youth teams already open,
the Vision team. Yeah, an yes, k K U R
T and my last name is more m O O
r E. Or you can look for DJK Love and
it will pop up as well.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
So the last two or three attendants, what's it been like,
because I want I want our listeners to man.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
I think last year to be I said three to
four thousand people as a whole, but somebody said it
could have possibly got up even bigger than that to
where it.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Was like four or five. It was hard to tell,
but it was. It was.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
It's even from the first year where we had several
hundred and possibly a thousand.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Uh, it was growing and growing.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
But of course when Mike Epps came alongside and believed
in us and wanted to, you know, be a part
of it.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
And push it further, of course the numbers skyrocketed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Now, did you know him before all of this?

Speaker 3 (47:24):
I knew yes, yes and no not personally.

Speaker 5 (47:27):
I have a better relationship with Regina Marsh But Mike
knew him, knew up of course, knew of him, and
so forth and probably had seen him in several other occasions,
but nothing to the level to where we are now
really appreciate Mike and his love for the community.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
He also sponsored a thing and we walked alongside the
Mike Epps Foundation, which we gave out Thanksgiving meals.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
That was great.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (47:52):
You had me dj at at his fifty fifth birthday party.
That was something I'll never forget. But his love and
passion for indian Napolis. This man, oh man, you can't
even fathoms he loves the city, but he loves helping
the city and giving back.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Man.

Speaker 5 (48:09):
And I love that about him, And like I tell
him all the time, Man, if you ever need me
for whatever, man, I'm there.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Wow. So, speaking of the city, how do you see us?
I mean, from from your viewpoint? Where are we?

Speaker 3 (48:24):
I don't think. I don't look at it.

Speaker 5 (48:27):
I kind of dislike a lot of people that always
harbor on the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad.
I don't see us being as bad as a lot
of people paint the picture. I see Indianapolis as having
a lot going on, a lot of opportunities here, a
lot of jobs, a lot of things that are I'm
out here running a business and so forth. But no question,

(48:50):
I think we have a lot of the similarities of
some of the other cities. I mean some of our groups,
so to speak of the unemployment rate or graduation rates
and things in this nature. I mean, they definitely need
some fixing, definitely need some changing. But I don't think
it's as bad as we look at I think we
sometimes we harbor on the bad stuff so long that

(49:12):
we forget that there's a lot of good over here
as well, just like we were talking about with the
students that are doing the work. Yes, we do have
a problem with our youth and violence and guns in general,
and then access to guns and so forth, But there's
also a huge amount of young people or people that
are really doing great things, that are graduating in the

(49:33):
next two or three weeks and going off to college
and doing great things and getting jobs and starting did
There's a lot of great new and up and coming
businesses that are out here.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
So I don't want us to get so now, mind you.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Yes, do we need to pay attention to some of
these problems and try to fix them, Yes, we do.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
But at the same time, let's not.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
Forget man, that there's a lot of great things going
on in our city that we can support, man congratulate,
and you know, try to push them even further.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah. Well, by the numbers, there are more kids doing
well and doing not not causing trouble. I guess you
could say, then there are that are doing it. It's
just that the ones that are doing it are getting
the most attention, making the most noise. But most most
young people are not getting into trouble.

Speaker 5 (50:19):
No, they're not, and they're and they're kind of I
hear from those kids a lot. Uh, they start to
feel some kind of way because, like you said earlier,
you know why the bad kids get to go here
or get to do this, or they get all the
attention or all the love, and we you know, I'm
doing this over here and I haven't got any attention
and so forth. So I mean, you know, we have

(50:40):
to pay more attention to the ones that are doing
well as well.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah. Wow, that's that's that's quite a bit there, It's
quite a bit. So your goals for the next next
couple of years? Next? What are you? I know, there's
always something going on up there.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
My vision is for this particular weekend community love Fest
weekend to be one of the biggest weekends in the country,
one of the biggest festivals in the country, where we
have some of the larger organizations and businesses that will
support it and build it out even bigger than we
possibly be too big to even have it in Washington.

(51:19):
Part maybe we need to have it downtown, you know
what I'm saying, when we close off all of downtown
and do how the Gus Mircert used to do and
have basketball courts all over downtown, but at the same
time have businesses and vendors and things this nature and
different resources. I think one of the main reasons why
we named it love We was trying to think of
a name. Of course with the dust Bow back in

(51:41):
the day you had the Soul Picnic, but with all
our violence and things that are going on in our city.
I was like, man, the only thing that's gonna conquer
hate is love. We got to call it love Fest.
And then I think somebody else in the group said, man,
community love Fest.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Cool. That's it.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
So my dream or my vision is that this event
becomes big enough that it will spread love all across
this city and possibly the state in this.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Country, and every event you've ever had has been. I
guess I can say this event free.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
Yeah safe.

Speaker 5 (52:13):
We haven't had we haven't had any issues, thank god,
thank god. And we don't go into it looking like
we're going to have an issue or anything, because and
I think that's just spreading what the theme is.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
This is about love.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
If you're coming over here for any problems or whatever,
then you need to take that somewhere else, because that's
not what we're doing right now with anything. We're trying
to love on you and help you to change your
mindset of trouble or violence or getting it or doing
any type of crime or whatever. We want people to know, man,
that we love you and we see better for you

(52:49):
than you're probably seeing for yourself. I tell kids this
all the time, and it's crazy. Don't let me love
you more than you love yourself. So what that said, Man,
what I need you to do is find something in you,
because it's in you to start loving yourself for and
in return you eventually you'll start loving your neighbor.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
And that's what this event is all about.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Man.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
They's spreading love across the city. Hey, let's lay down
the guns man and pick up love and and you know,
try to come to a common agreement on how we
can be successful and reach our goals.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah, indeed, very quickly. We talked about this during the
break as well, and it kind of runs contrary to
what you're saying. You know, we don't have to do
all of this, but then it kind of answers what
some in the community have called for, and that is
the stricter curfew crackdown on young people for a temporary

(53:41):
amount of time this summer. What are your thoughts on
that the city County Council got involved and that was
that was one of the solutions.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
I guess I think I think that I don't think
it's a bad thing, but I think it will only
work if we have more than just law enforcement enforcing
the curfew. We can't just have law enforcement by themselves.
We also have to have the community as a whole,
whether that's businesses, rather that's other nonprofit organizations. But first

(54:11):
and foremost, the parents have to enforce it. And we know,
I mean, let's just be honest. We got to stop
avoiding what's right in front of us, and that is
that a lot of these kids that are causing the
problems have no parental guidance at all. Some of them
don't even have a parent that's in the house, or

(54:32):
they have granny that may be too old to try
to enforce rules and regulations on these kids. Or they
have a single parent mom that's working a job, a
night job, and so forth, and doesn't even realize what
are kids were doing, or some situation where the kids
are basically running the household. So it's going to take.

(54:53):
As we said all the time, it takes a village,
but it really does. It really does take a village,
and we're going to have to come up with strategic
ways in order to enforce that curfew.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
Now what that curfew help?

Speaker 5 (55:05):
It may it may not because the curfew from what
I understand, yeah, you can't be outside after this particular time.
But who's to say a lot of our situation issues
are not coming within some homes, you know.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
What I'm saying, Where you have to escape? Yeah, yeah,
where you at?

Speaker 5 (55:22):
Okay, these kids are not violating the curfew, but they're
at home fighting each other, other family members or neighbor
that may be staying all night or things this nature.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
We have to go even deeper than that. We have
to do something.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
About this easily this easy access to guns.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Well that and that's a whole nother story. Well, yeah,
because it entailed that is a state law that was
passed by state legislators, passed by lawmakers that were elected
to office. So you know, it's kind of a domino effect.
We have to get more involved as voters to put
people in place who will vote in our best interest,

(56:02):
laws and legislation that will take best care of our
young people and our community. And the problem being that
the last primary election, what was their fourteen county election
officials fourteen point nine percent. That is something that parents
or people of voting age can do, doesn't cost anything.

(56:23):
It's not a problem not you know, you boom. You
can do it in five minutes, and you can get
people in place who can vote your best interest when
the whole you know, the whole Senate or the whole
House of representatives down there on Market Street are voting.
But to connect those dots is difficult. We try here
a lot every day, but if we want guns off

(56:45):
the street, we've got to find a way to get
people in there who can do some kind of past,
some kind of legislation that is going to neutralize this
permitless carry, which a lot of people think gives them
their you know, they think falsely about it. Can't tell
you how many times I've been in grocery stores or
department stores or whatever and seeing you know, guns longer

(57:07):
than people's legs hanging. You know you've seen that too,
And that's not the point. And and well, I'm gonna carry.
I'm gonna get them before they get me, or I'm
gonna and it just and that all started right there
at the state House. Well what about the state House?
Vote these people out of there that are making your life,
your children, and your community's unsafe because they want to

(57:30):
satisfy a gun lobby that's giving them money to their
campaign so that they can keep hold of offices that
they want to keep hold of because they like the perks.
It's really hard to unravel, and it's really hard to
get folks in that mindset. And I think we're getting there.
Maybe I don't know, Maybe there's enough pain out there

(57:51):
right now that we're all thinking, you know, what, what
else can I do? Voting is if we say it
all the time, don't we are? It's not time not
to be all end all, But it's sure.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
And we have to vote.

Speaker 5 (58:02):
Definitely that, But I also believe that we also have to, uh,
we have to lead our young people into more character building.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Absolutely, that's true.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
You have to we have to be strategic and how
we're teaching these young people conflict resolution, because I think
even even I mean until the time comes, I mean,
who knows when that will be, hopefully sooner or later,
that we're able to vote some of these guys or
some of these people out of there. But in the meantime,
what do we do? The guns are here, so what
we have to try to change the mindset of our

(58:34):
youth that that's not the way to go.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
That these guns are made.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
For one reason, one reason only, and that's to kill
these guns. It's not a game or that you're a
video game that you're playing on.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Then we have to look at social media, social media,
social media, which is creating a culture of uh, you know,
no responsibility whatsoever, a culture that really doesn't exist in reality.
You know, that's our reality. But social media, I mean,
so many of these conflicts that the police have been

(59:06):
called two have been strictly a result of social media.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
You can hide, yeah, exactly, yes, definitely, which falls back
to once again, character, where's your mindset?

Speaker 5 (59:20):
There's so many mental issues, and then you compound the
mental issues with the drug abuse or the alcohol abuse
and things, and then unfortunately, we end up with a
walking time bomb because when you put a gun in
the hand of a person that's already addicted to drugs
or alcohol and these already had some mental issues, and
what do we have. So we have to address this
from all the different walks of life, from all the

(59:41):
different ways. And we got us that do have a
little bit of a sound man. Gotta quit fighting with
each other. True, you know what I'm saying, because just
because what I'm saying, that doesn't make that, like you
just said, as far as the voting.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
That's the one all be all. My opinion is not
the one all be all.

Speaker 5 (59:58):
But my opinion with your opinion us make it a
little bit stronger and we can be a little bit
more than you better.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Yeah. Indeed, hey, you keep doing the work. We love it.
We love what you're doing. Thank you for being out
there for our young people and anything that we can
do to help along the way. Always let us know
thank you to thank you mister Kurt Moore, everybody, founder
of straight Up Mentoring Foundation doing fantastic works.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Could you give that that web address one more time?

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
Oh yeah, it is straight upmntor foundation dot com straight
str number eight up Mentoring Foundation.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
There we go, Thank you, sir. All right, we'll be
back with more. We're gonna switch to sports right after this.

Speaker 9 (01:00:47):
Reality and we are back back back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Indeed, well, there was something I was going to play there,
Well it couldn't get it to play, so we'll.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Be all right, Okay, love when Kurt Moore comes in
love what he does?

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Absolutely? What what an outstanding program? I mean, he's really
he's doing a great job. He's turning reaching young adults,
men who are in just in need of that direction,
who many times desire that but aren't getting it. That's
the thing. And he's doing everything he can to go ahead. Yeah,
they don't know how to ask exactly exactly. And men

(01:01:34):
really do need to be mentored I think by men,
especially how to be men. And he's teaching.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
That good point that's so important. So are we gonna
let's switch horses here, gears horses us.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Switch horses and go ahead, And.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Uh, I don't know what switch horses mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
I don't know you just if you're in the derby,
I guess you could.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Is that the same as switching? They got the Freakness
this weekend too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I think so. I believe it is coming up this weekend.
I think Danny won't know for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
On that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Danny would Danny didn't do horses.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Didn't do horses.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
He does horsepower.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Okay, horsepower, that's right, Yeah, we're lots of horsepower.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
I don't do horses, Danny Bridges. Are you there with
the Indianapolis Recorder?

Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
Hey, you're dead wrong. I once won two hundred and
thirty one thousand dollars on a pitch six and you're
killed down.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
WHOA, Well, let's talk after the show.

Speaker 6 (01:02:27):
Let's talk about Okay. I don't know horses, Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
No, okay, I just thought she didn't do horses, that's all.

Speaker 6 (01:02:34):
I just gamble on. I don't really ride about.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Them, okay, okay, all right, Like I said, let's talk
after the show. I don't know anything about gambling as
far as making two hundred and thirty one thousand. I
mean I know how to what my mother used to know.
My mother loved.

Speaker 6 (01:02:50):
After the rs got their cut, I think I had
like sixteen dollars left.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah, that's kind of how I had.

Speaker 6 (01:02:57):
What hadn't bought myself a lemon shake up and called, well,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
I don't think that there's any race richer than the
Kentucky Derby. I mean, you can wager on the Preakness
and on the Belmont or Belmont and Prenus. You can
wager on those two, but you're not going to get
the money you get at the Kentucky Derby. That's for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:03:14):
Forrust me. If I had won two hundred and thirty
one thousand dollars on a horse race, she'd have known
about it before.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Now, okay, Oh yeah, I was taking your word for it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:23):
Well yeah, that was your first mistake.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
Okay, okay, okay, Well I'll have to take a look
at the field. I haven't even looked at him. So
I did win. I won. I think I told you.
The Derby is a tradition in our family. I mean,
that's the only horse. My mother always loved it, and
she would go by the jockey. She she bet the jockey,
and the others would bet the color of the horses

(01:03:47):
chestnut or whatever, and then so we all just would
pick one. And I picked one and I picked it
because I said, oh, there's a lady trainer in the field.
Because I didn't know what to do. There's a lady trainer,
So I took six dollars which is pretty much close
to my ten dollars that I usually bet on the derby,
and I bet on the lady trainer, and lo and behold,

(01:04:09):
she won.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
Well, that's an interesting story, you know that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
That's how horses. It was a lady in the field.
I'll bet on her.

Speaker 6 (01:04:18):
That particular story is an interesting one if you dig
into it a little bit. And I don't mean anything
from a derogatory way about this, but her father was
a big in harness racing, her brother oh so active
in horse racing, and they kind of went their own
respective way. I don't know what happened, but I'm not
going to say there's any bad blood. But you can't

(01:04:39):
tell me when one of your family wins a Kentucky derby,
you wouldn't be involved from a family perspective'd be happy
about it. They were nowhere to be found. So I
thought that was a bit, a little bit unfortunate. I'm
just going to call it unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
But see that's why, well, again, my bedding was very surface,
the only one in the field, and I thought, you,
she deserves some love. And I put six dollars on
it and got thirty three. So I'm ready to go
right off into the sunset.

Speaker 6 (01:05:06):
She was the prettiest female trainer in the race, So
there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
I wasn't looking at her beauty. I was looking as
a woman. She's up against all these guys, and maybe
she'll hold her own. That's all I was thinking.

Speaker 6 (01:05:18):
So, well, you get my point.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yeah, I know what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (01:05:21):
Yeah, I mean they were one the others. But what
a pretty girl. And what a nice.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Story, very nice story, very nice story. So Danny had
how you know, and I read your article in Today's Record.
It was today, right, Today's Recorder came out. Yeah, before
we get to anything else, and it was I just
wanted to you know, folks can read it because you
bring up a lot of points, uh you know that
are food for thought regarding Lebron James and whether he

(01:05:46):
should stay, should I stay or should I go? You know,
should he stay? Should he go?

Speaker 6 (01:05:50):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
And what do you let me ask you this? And
and for folks that want, you know, go ahead and
read it and read all of Danny's point counterpoints. But
this doesn't have anything to do with reading or not
reading the article. I just want to ask you, what
do you think it is that's keeping him in the game.
Do you think it's himself? Why do you think it's fans?
Because I don't think he's under any pressure to stay

(01:06:12):
in No.

Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
Now, he's a highly competitive individual. I'm not going to
claim to know what makes him tick. I had one
conversation with him one time, and we talked more about
not for profit than we did anything, and that made him.
He was very interested in doing that, you know, from
a standpoint of opposed to, you know, talking about basketball.
He was really encouraged about the conversation because it wasn't

(01:06:36):
about basketball and it was about it's not for profit ventures.
But I do believe two things. Number One, he doesn't
owe me an explanation or anyone else. And number two,
I do believe that as much as I would like
to see him drive off or right off in the sunset,
I think he might give it one more go. But

(01:06:56):
I hope he doesn't for a couple of reasons. Number one,
there's nothing left proof you've been a phenomenal athlete at
the top of the game. For you know, twenty plus
years now, you know you're financially secure. Obviously, he's taken
extremely good care of his body. You know, he spends
better than a million dollars a year. It's publicized in

(01:07:18):
terms of nutrition and training. No one has gotten more
out of their physical capabilities than Lebron, Rum and James.
So I just think that that's an interesting story in itself.
But no, I can't say which way it's gonna happen.
I think if he plays next year's one of two
things will happen. He's gonna have to take a pay cat,

(01:07:39):
which has not been his history obviously, to stay in
Los Angeles because they've got new ownership, they've got a
new direction, they're retooling that team, They've got some big
salaries coming up. He's not in their long term picture.
He's in a one year picture. If he'll take a
pay cat. When I say payket, he made just over
fifty last year. He's not going to get more than

(01:08:00):
twenty five to stay in Los Angeles. Will he take
that kind of pay cat? Will he allow that? I
don't know, But if he doesn't, I do believe he'll
play for Cleveland. I believe that they'll accommodate him and
it will be a last Hurrah type thing close to home.
And what a story that would be. They're playing pretty
well right now. I don't know that they necessarily want

(01:08:23):
Orlebron James to play thirty five forty minutes to night
as much as maybe twenty or twenty five minutes to night,
but he'd be a good addition. He's still in great shape,
he's still playing at a high level. But I hope
he walks away and enjoys himself. He's he's he deserves it,
he's earned it, and let's just give him his props.

(01:08:43):
Whatever he does is whatever he does. But boy, I
think it'd be a really great story for him to
call a press conference this summer and say, you know what,
it's been great. I'm gonna walk away, leave it to
the younger guys, and what's your question, you know, take
a few questions, and just right off into the sunset.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
You know, It's interesting the history that he said he
wanted to create has already been created. He played in
the league with his son. They were both not only
they were both on the same team. Right in both in.

Speaker 6 (01:09:12):
The nah that became a sticky wicket then and now,
and I'm going to leave it alone. But I think
the consensus is that his son is not an NBA
caliber player at this juncture of his career, and he
was brought into play Kate Lebron James. That's my cake.
A lot of people feel the same way. People can
disagree if they lie, where is his son?

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Is his son in a D league now development?

Speaker 6 (01:09:33):
No, his son was on the active roster when the
when the season, and he did spend some time in league. Yeah,
but he But look, here's the thing. Would he have
been drafted? Would he have been a commodity at the
NBA level without his father's you know, shall we say
assistance for lack of eder turn? I don't think so.

(01:09:55):
The other side of that, coint is who wouldn't do
everything they can?

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
I was gonna say, my it would be why not?

Speaker 6 (01:10:01):
You know, no, No, it's a unique thing to happen.
It probably will never happen again, and it'll be interesting
to see what happens to his son if Dad heads
toward Cleveland or if he hangs it up. But I
wish him all the best and One of the things
I found out talking to him personally was that I
don't believe he really cares what the professional perception is

(01:10:28):
of his game. I've done it and everything. I'm at
the top of the mountain. Take the shots as you may,
but you know, I'm still Lebron James at the end
of the day. And you know, if I live to
be one hundred and five, I'll never forget when they
were down three to one to Golden State when he
was in Cleveland. He put that team on his back.
Granted he had Kyrie Irby and Kevin Love helping out too,

(01:10:49):
but that was a performance of the ages. I don't
know if I'll ever see that again, and I appreciate
what he's done. I've always made the effort to get
out and see him play when comes to town. If
he plays one more year, I'll be there. But go
ahead and go ahead and get in that uh in
that retirement mode, Lebron. Go ahead and have that extra

(01:11:09):
glass of wine after dinner and relaxed, because boy, you
sure have earned it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
Line directly from the article that you can see in
this week's Recorder. Time for Lebron to enjoy life by
Indianapolis Recorder sports writer Danny Bridges there it is. Okay,
So Danny, when you were last here that I'm losing
track of time. The Pacers draft had are what I'm
trying to remember.

Speaker 6 (01:11:33):
They were hoping to get a draft pick, but it
didn't they.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Did, okay, yeah, yeah, so there's a lot of fallout
from that. So what what's say you? Now? What do
you think? Now?

Speaker 6 (01:11:43):
Well, here's what we have to do to be to
be certain about what has happened. First of all, you
can't make a trade in the NBA for a good
player without.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Giving up something that's sports.

Speaker 6 (01:11:56):
Yeah, they got a solid center, and you know, we're
gonna have to wait and see how he plays. And
we're also gonna have to wait and see how the
draft picks they didn't get in position to pick pan
out in the NBA. We're not gonna know about this
trade or this draft situation I think for at least
two maybe three years in terms of the picks that

(01:12:16):
we didn't get. And I say we mean in Indiana Pacers.
So you know, I think you have to look at
everything that way. I mean, you can't just say, uh,
we gave up a good draft pick. Yep. We gave
up one potentially on paper to get the center depending
upon how that pick landed, and it went the opposite way.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
So, look, did Pritchard lose his job because there were
a lot of people calling for you?

Speaker 6 (01:12:38):
No, No, I don't think he loses his job over that.
I think it's time to move in a different direction.
Prior to that, he's the last connection to Larry Bird.
And you know I've talked about this on your program
and other places that while Larry Bird was a phenomenal
basketball player, one of the greatest ever, I don't believe

(01:12:59):
he was a great general manager, and I don't believe
that his disciple, Kevin Pritchard is a great general manager either. Now, look,
they both did some good things. I'm gonna make that
perfectly clear. But at the end of the day, in totality,
I think it's time for the Pacers to turn the
page with new leadership. I'd like to see Rick Carlisle
get kicked upstairs and run the franchise. Pickest predecessor. I

(01:13:24):
think he's tired of traveling. I'm not saying I've got
a story here, I'm just simply saying that, you know,
until you ask the guy. You don't know what the
answer is, but you have to have a plan. You
don't just fire someone for the sport of it. You
got to know who's going to replace them and how
you're going to do that. So Pritchard is an affable guy.
He's a nice guy. I think that this thing with

(01:13:47):
the draft pick is that grounds for his dismissal on
a standalone basis. I think collectively the Pacers need to
go in a different direction. But I've been saying that
for about three years, So I'm going to get off
the horse a broken record.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Yeah. One of our guys, who's the floor im C
for the Pacers and the fever be Swift, said that he,
you know, as upsetting as that was, he's not mad
at the Pacers. He said, I'm mad at the NBA,
and changes need to be made in that. You know,
the league has to change. He said, I'm mad at
the NBA. And I said, Swift, that's an interesting Uh,

(01:14:22):
that's an interesting take.

Speaker 6 (01:14:24):
I see what You're to take care of the draft
real quickly. Really, it's real simple. The team with the
worst record gets the number one pick the team but
the second worst record gets the number two pick. And
so forth. Yeah, they used to do it that way
ages ago. I know it's different now, the lottery what
have you. That's the way it should be in my opinion,
and that will certainly take care of the dilemma of

(01:14:46):
the shall we say, the lottery draft today. So I
agree with b Swift. I've never met him before. I've
heard his vocal tone, and.

Speaker 7 (01:14:54):
I've done an job.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Yeah he's that's not.

Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
Easy to do, by the way, but I've never met
the man, but I agree with him. When I see him,
I'm gonna have to buy him a top.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Yeah, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Actually, he just went
down the hall just now actually, uh so, so yeah.
But anyway, So there's that. And then I guess the
Cold schedule leaked and they're going to be in London
against the Commanders on the fourth of October? Is that correct?

Speaker 6 (01:15:22):
I think we could talk a mant and just staying
over there. What do you think is that a possibility? So,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
I know.

Speaker 6 (01:15:30):
There's a lot of support for the Cold and there's
a lot of people in this community who purchased season tickets.
So that was tongue in cheek. I do believe that
the NFL would like to have a team in a
foreign country. Perhaps London would be the ideal choice over there. No,
I do think I would like it's moving that way

(01:15:51):
events that I be believe. Yeah, I think they'll have
a team at some point in London on a full
time basis. Does that mean they travel over half the
time and the opposition travels over half the time. I
don't know how you would do it, but I do
believe that there is a market for it. As you
can see, they continue to increase the number of international games.

(01:16:12):
The appetite for American football is very strong in foreign countries.
So I'm going to say here we are what twenty
twenty six? By twenty thirty, I would be surprised if
there's not a team in London.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Would it be an expansion or do you think it
would be an existing team?

Speaker 6 (01:16:29):
Good question. I just think there'll be a property there
that says NFL on it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
I just do well they've been I mean if we
can't figure it out me that makes absolute sense because
I mean all of the attention going over there each
and every year, you know, the groundwork is being laid
to get a team over there. Permanently. I think so.

Speaker 6 (01:16:47):
And I think it's big money and that's what's going
to make the needle.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Move is logistics, I guess, because all of the games,
the majority of the games that have to be state side.
I mean, you know, I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:16:58):
How they would work it out, but I do believe
it's gonna happen. And I believe that the money will
change hands and you'll have a sellout for every game
and that absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
Yeah, So practice started this week out at the Yard
of Bricks, and yeah, somebody is just showing out like
I mean, they may as well hand him the trophy
right now. He's just been fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
Alex Plow is a special talent. He is someone who
is I guess special is the best way to describe it.
He's the man to beat. I do believe there's a
half dozen other guys you have to keep an eye
on and to be serious about. I think Pado Award
is one of those guys. I think Joseph Newgarden is

(01:17:48):
one of those guys. I still think Scott mcgloughlin can
win the namplus five hundred. He's got some demons to
exercise after last year wrecking on the Parade Lap of
Swords of the Pace lap, but that was tough. There's
a couple other gentlemen that could do it. I think
Marcus Ericson can win then Napolis five hundred again. He
could have been a three time winner by now. He

(01:18:10):
won it once, has had some bad luck out there
on a couple of occasions or the end of the race.
But at the end of the day, I think, you
know what I think is it always correct, irrelevant, but
out there you have to have a little bit of luck.
You have to have a really strong engine. Chevrolet has
shown some strength out there, but so has Honda. I

(01:18:32):
think you're going to see Alex Bulow win the race
unless he has some mechanical trouble or somebody gets in
his way and takes him out. From a collision standpoint,
I just they're just so precision. Chip Ganassi, Barry Wanzer,
Ricky Montgomery, all those guys on that team that are
so they're just so precision. That's the word I like

(01:18:55):
to use to describe them. They don't make mistakes that
beat themselves. They're not gonna have really bad pit stops,
They're not going to be penalized on the track for
something they shouldn't have done, per se. So for him
to lose that race, which would be a second consecutive
victory for him, something has to go awrye because if

(01:19:15):
nothing goes wrong, I think that guy wins that race
going away.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Really, what about the crowd favorite Eliot kastron nevis I
hear that he's going to give it one more shot.
This would be his last thing.

Speaker 6 (01:19:28):
He is running for Meyershank Racing, which he has a
partial ownership in. Now, look, he's got the ability, he's
got the the savviness, he knows what to do. I'm
not sure they've got a car that's commensurate with all
of that. I just don't know. In fact, I don't
believe he's got a shot. Even though you don't want

(01:19:50):
to count a former champion. Now you can say the
same about Ryan Hunter Ray at McLaren or Alexander Rossi
at Carboner Racing. Those guys have to be given more
than simply a dark horse classification because they've won that
thing out there. It's so hard to win that race.
You think about all the things that go into it,
all the preparation. The race itself is gruelly It's two

(01:20:13):
hundred laps. Now things get interesting about lap one seventy
but you have to get to that point. And Rick
Meer said it best to finish first. You must first
finish and it is a like that challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:20:27):
It's a challenge, and that is so true of any race.

Speaker 7 (01:20:30):
Actually, yeah, life, the length of the race, the speed
you have to maintain, uh, the unexpected aspect, whether it
be a collision or a mechanical failure.

Speaker 6 (01:20:42):
So much history out there has been told about who
could have won it but didn't win it and why.
And I think that we can save some conversation for
next week a little bit about the race itself. But
I do believe this that I've already said. I think
Alex Blow is the guy to beat. Well, there's four
or five other guys that can be a factor as well,

(01:21:03):
and I hope all those four or five guys are
in the money around lap one seventy five and we
get to see them sort it out that way. But
if Palo just gets out front and says, hey, come
get some of this if you want it, it could
be up boring. It could be a boring affair for
the television. By the way, as you know, the blackout
has been lifted, all the results ask have been sold.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Yeah, but weren't they projecting that. Weren't they projecting that
a while ago though that they were Yeah, and I
think you said about it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:33):
Yeah, But now people can You can have a cookout,
you can have a race party, you can have somebody
come over, or you can just watch it in the
privacy of your home on the couch with your better
half and your dog. Right. But the point is it's
gonna be on Fox fifty nine. And I think that's
a tip in the cap for two things. Number one,

(01:21:53):
all the work that goes in out there at that
particular track, and number two, the demand for the Indianapolis
five hundred tickets. It's come together nicely, and uh, it'll
be fun for those to watch it on TV. Unfortunately,
I'll get out there about five am and come crawl,
not about eight pm. But the bottom line is I
love it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else on

(01:22:13):
that day. And the race this year is the day
after my sixty seventh birthday. So for those of you
listen and you want to drop off a gift to
the station, Teama go for you to get in the address.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Will Yeah, tenderloins welcome, right, absolutely, Gift tenders or smash burgers, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:22:33):
Yeah, or a gift card to purchase one or the
other would be serparly fine.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Yeah, gift card to purchase one or the other, that
would be fantastic. Yeah, the earlier the better. As far
as getting out there on race days.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Oh absolutely learned.

Speaker 1 (01:22:47):
Yeah, five or six in the morning is not to
for me.

Speaker 6 (01:22:51):
It's about a fifteen hour day. But you know, it's
a labor of love. Unfortunate. It's the best media center
in the world. Fox Sports is also a great working environment.
I'm doubly blessed, if you want to look at it
that way. But as long as they'll have me back,
I'll keep going out there.

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
You know what the heck and that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
That's all out is awesome. That everything sold the reserve season, and.

Speaker 6 (01:23:13):
Again for those to be able to watch it on television,
that's important. Let's face it, a lot of folks can't
afford to buy a couple of tickets and pay for
parking and go out there, but yet they enjoy the race.
Now they can watch it at home, and they can
look at it live, and you know, they can go
to the bathroom during a commercial, go to the refrigerator, whatever,

(01:23:35):
turn the hamburger over on the grill, whatever they want
to do, and have a good time with it. And
that's what it's about. People who I think you're probably
going to see between eight and ten million people watching
that race. I really as far as the national audience
is concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
Wow, Doug Bowles has really turned things around since he's
been president.

Speaker 6 (01:23:54):
Well, Doug Is, he's incredible. His blood type is IMS Doug.
I guarantee you Doug probably won't sleep the night before
the race. I'll probably take a nap from oh, I
don't know, maybe one am to about three point thirty,
and then after that he'll get up and he'll stay up.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
Doug is.

Speaker 6 (01:24:16):
He's very driven. He is. He's kind of like energizer
Bunny if you can look at it that way, always moving,
always doing things. It's been a great ambassador for the
Napolis Motor Speedway, been a great ambassador for any car racing,
been very good to yours truly. I have known Doug
personally about fifteen to twenty years, and he's always been

(01:24:37):
a gentleman. He's always been polite. He'll do anything he
can for a newspaper or a radio outlet that will
help promote coverage of the greatest race in the world.
And I think the Annapolis Motor Speedway and the greater
Indianapolis community are really fortunate to have Jay Douglas Bowles
at the helm.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
Well, with that, we'll let that be the last word.
Unless there's something we forgot, Danny that you wanted to.

Speaker 6 (01:25:02):
Yeah, real quickly. We're just wrapping up National Nurses a Week.
Want to give a shout out to Sharna at the
Veterans Hospital. She's worked out there for three decades taking
care of our wounded and are unfortunately ill soldiers. So
shout out to her. She's a special lady. There's a
lot of great nurses out there, but she's at the
top of that list.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Happy Happy Nurses Week to her and to all of
the great nurses they You know, anybody that's ever been
hospitalized knows who does the real word.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
That's very true.

Speaker 6 (01:25:31):
Yeah, real quickly. I'm one of those. They were down
in twenty seventeen and they were angels. I made sure
to take in pizza and cookies when I got discharged
because I wanted them to know that I wouldn't have
made it without him.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Yeah. Same here. I took gifts after they took such
excellent care of me around ten to fifteen, well maybe
seventeen years ago, but anyway, they're fantastic nurse are fantastic nurses.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
We salute you, We certainly do.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
We do.

Speaker 6 (01:25:56):
Indeed, all right, don't forget fast Friday at the Actor
Moraw qualifications for the poll on Saturday and Sunday. It'll
be a great time. Come on out and as usual,
if you look me up, I'll buy it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:07):
Annoy alrighty, we love it. Love Danny's good for that too.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
And the tenderloins, oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:12):
The till Thank you Danny.

Speaker 6 (01:26:14):
We're talking lunch today, Yeah, no problem, take care.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
Okay, you too. He had one for lunch today, so
I bet it was good. We had a good lunch today.

Speaker 2 (01:26:21):
We had a good lunch.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
It was good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
We want to thank Radio one and Urban one for
that great cookout. It was just really, really nice.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
It was very nice. I didn't know we had the
area that we had there.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
It's an outdoor kitchen.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
The kitchen, I had no idea. Well until the other
day you mentioned it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:37):
Well, I was talking to the chef, and I said,
as you know, I was asking about his grill and
he said, my grill's in the car, he said. When
I came up here and found this, he said, I'm like, oh,
we're good, we can rock and roll. We'll be you know,
food will be ready in just a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
And he did it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:50):
I mean, everything was really good. So thank you, thank you,
thank you. That was nice. And we'll do it again tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
Right yeah, we will, well or will we.

Speaker 1 (01:27:00):
Anyway, that's all the time we have for right now.
Our website is praisindie dot com. Williemore Jr. On the
radio is up next. Everyone, Thank you so much for listening.
We'll be back tomorrow. Until then. For Eric Garnes, I'm
Tina Cosby and this is Community Connection

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Community Connection - May 14 2026 - Tina Cosby with guests Kurt Moore and Danny Bridges

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Community Connection - May 14 2026 - Tina Cosby with guests Kurt Moore and Danny Bridges