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May 20, 2025 • 34 mins
Founded in 2019, Dad Guild is a Vermont-based nonprofit organization that is home to a growing network of over 1,000 dads across the state. We believe that when dads and masculine-identifying caregivers are engaged in their caregiving roles, children experience positive outcomes, dads experience positive mental health benefits, large steps towards gender equality are taken and cycles of generational trauma are disrupted.

Myers Container Service Corp. is the area's most reliable in garbage removal and recycling services. We are a locally owned company with 12 years of industry experience. Every week here on the Trash Talking and Giving Back Podcast, we highlight local heroes and organizations that are doing great work in our community.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hey everybody, and welcome to the Trash Talking and Giving
Back Podcast. I am Aaron Colefield Barker, joined by my
co host Joe Sinagra, the operations manager over at Myers
Containers Myers Waste and Recycle. I've never sure which one
I'm supposed to use to be appropriate, so let's just
start there before we get to our guest today. Who

(00:35):
is Marlon Fisher from the Dad Guild? Joe, what is
the appropriate name to you?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We go buy Myers Waste and Recycling usually, but when
we started out we were just Myers Container, and then
over the years it kind of morphed as we got
into more of the recycling things and doing other stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So we go buy both, changing changing the brand to stick.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
With the times exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
How was your week?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Week was good? I do have a question.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I come to you for live advice, and you're probably
the most ethical person I associate with. Don't get to
excite you. People I associate with aren't exactly the most
ethical in the world. But so the question I have is,
so you're out at a big box store one of
these places, and you see something on the ground, a

(01:26):
lot of money or something of real value. What's the value?
What's the amount of the money that you would have
to pick up for you to keep or turn in?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Like cat like, it's just cash on the ground, but cash.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
On the ground, like you know, for me, you find
five or ten dollars, twenty dollars on the ground, oh
you know, nice little windfall and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
You know, is it fifties and one hundred? You know,
it's just cash.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
So and I'm assuming we didn't see who dropped it,
because then we would get it and just give it
to them. It's just like pan there.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Course, so this happened this last weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I was at one of the local big box stores
and there was a fair amount of money that was
on the ground sort of you know, watted you know,
fold it over and everything, and uh it was turned
in not by me but by somebody else. And then
got started the conversation around how much would I have

(02:24):
to pick up for me to not you know, turn
it in. And as I said, sometimes my morals and
ethics can be questioned, so I might not be the
best person to ask, but well the like, so.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I now I feel like awkward because you put me
on this like ethical pedestal, but like I don't I
feel it. I mean definitely not like a dollar five dollars,
Like that's just like finders keepers, like I thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I think my issue would be, like what if I
turn it in? Are they are they going to find
the person?

Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean, I guess if it's like a big enough
amount of money, maybe who dropped it? It is gonna think
there's like a world where someone nice turned it into
the loss and found. But like, I don't want to
be judging here.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
But I feel like if I turn and I look
at customer service and I don't think they're gonna continue
the good deed.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I don't know, Like just it's a fascinating topic. You know.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I've been asking friends and family about that, and the
numbers range from like, oh, anything over twenty dollars I
would turn into.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
A tough way, would they?

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Would they? That's not being transparent car payment? I mean fine,
well true, I mean who kids five hundred dollars cash
these days?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Though, well, yeah, you know you'd be surprised, Arren, you'd
be surprised.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I mean, yeah, I guess in the event, I think
I would be super stunned if I just saw like
a lot of cash.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Might also depend how the cash is rolled.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
If it's rolled the way someone who earned it in
an illegal manner may have it right, and it's like
stallar amounts written on the side of it. I may
just decide it's like for the better good, but.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Maybe do something good with the money? Does that make
me more ethical? If it's like, well, maybe I'll keep it,
but then I'll like, you know, go donate some money
to an organization.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
So we don't have enough time, but we're gonna have
to explore how you know so much about illegal means
of money and people who have you know, a little
baggies and other rolled up you know, dollar bills and twenties.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
So this is a whole other diversation.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
No, I've got streets waters.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well you are from the eight to six h right,
Well what I am from the eight six?

Speaker 6 (04:34):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (04:34):
What?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
What's your answer? Though?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I would say anything fifty over fifty to one hundred,
I would turn in if I'm not twenty dollars on
the ground at Low's, you know, sorry.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yes, maybe there's some.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Maybe Jeff Myers is walking up and down the hall
at big box stores just like dropping money to make
someone's day.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
But you talked about larger wads of money.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
You remember, at like a Lowser home depot, you have
a lot lot of people who are going helping a
friend and they're buying, you know, shingles and stuff of
that sort. So them having five hundred or one thousand
dollars in cash wouldn't be that unusual.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I would be more likely to turn it in if
it was an envelope of cash, because that feels like
it had a purpose. Yes, absolutely, But yeah, I don't
know it'd be I could find a million ways to
justify it and make myself feel better. I think, do
you think?

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Well, of course? And where are you at life? You know?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
If if you know, I'm I'm at the ice cream
shop with your husband and we find twenty dollars. We're
each having an ice cream for lunch.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Fair This is very true.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
If you watch the person in front of you drop
the twenty dollars, we're still buying an ice cream. We're
asking him if he will well, no, we'll give it back,
but we'll say, maybe you what, what'sn't ice cream for
giving it?

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Exactly exactly?

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, okay, let's go ahead and bring in Marlon Fisher,
who is the co founder and development director of da Guild,
which is a really cool organization here in Vermont. Marlon,
I'm very curious if you would like to weigh in
on finding money on the ground and.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
What you would do.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
I'm with Joe.

Speaker 6 (06:18):
If it's a lot, if it's if it's a five
dollars ten dollar, I mean I've done it before. It's
I just pocketed. You know, I'm looking around and I
know it's happened to me. I've dropped five ten dollars
out of my pocket and some people have found it,
so bigger bills, you know. Well, well we'll search, maybe
go to the store, because someone will notice that and
probably come back to the store and see us.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
Win turn it in.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
So yeah, or maybe I would pick it up and
keep it in my hand and like walk around looking
for if I see someone who looks like they're looking
for something.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Right, Yeah, sure, I'd love to see that.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, let's go try it out. We should just go
to home. Let's go, let's go do a test, Joe.
Let's go to home depot and drop money and watch
what people do.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
Sounds good to me. That could be an nice podcast.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
I love it all, right, Marlon, tell me about the
dad Guild. I know, I've actually been to a couple
of events before, and I've heard a lot about it.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
I few of my friends participate pretty regularly. But explain
for folks who don't know what the dad Guild is,
what's it all about?

Speaker 6 (07:16):
Yeah, So, dad Guild is a We're a nonprofit we
founded about six years ago, and we saw this need
for connection for dads and community members and kids, and
so dad Guild we offer. We have among's largest fatherhood
focused organization, and we offer a ton of programming and

(07:37):
different at different avenues. So and I like to answer
the question why dad Guild. So, why why we exist
is because men have half as many friends as they
had thirty years ago. Two thirds of dads have there's
an increase in mental health challenges in the first five
years of parenting and then and then men are likely

(07:58):
are have as likely to seek mental health support when
they have challenges. So that's why we exist. And we've
created so many programs to address some of these issues.
So we have our peer support network, which is mostly
like dad events only, so we create opportunities for connection
and these things look like Fires with Fathers, our New
Dad Cohort or Welcome to Fatherhood group we offer that's

(08:22):
our through our peer support network, and there's tons of
programs there. We have Dads and Kids Dads and Kids
events again, which is which is programming that dads go
to and the opportunities for connection and with other caregivers
and kids get to be a part of that, which
is pretty amazing for kids to see their dads connect
with others. We have caregiver educations. We offer education classes,

(08:42):
workshops on all different topics from dysregulation to biting, to
divorce and separation, so just the wide variety of what
families are seeing today. And then we have whole family
events and those events look like our music playgroups, our
playground playgroups. Sometimes we offer our Winter Toasting Jam series,
which is really cool at which we have bread toast

(09:04):
and jams. People can toast and make some and put
jam while there's music in the background, and and are
like we have an event zero Gravity coffee and waffles.
So those that's kind of a gist of what Dad
Gil does and some of the things that we do,
and it's pretty exciting.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
So fun stuff, oh.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
It was Joe's turning to ask a question. Ben, my
producers messing us up.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's all right, I've got you anyway, though, I actually
the event that I went to I think was one
of the toast and jams because I remember having breakfast
food and tons of music and there was mini golf
and Jack, who is three, he was like, yeah, having
a great time. Had to watch that he wasn't hitting
people with the golf club. But I write, so I'm married,
my husband could use something like this at times because

(09:49):
I am definitely the social one of our family, and
so I feel like the need, like you said, like
it's great to have something where men can go and
hang out with people that are in the same life phase, right,
And I feel like for my husband that was what
was the hardest when we had kids, as a lot
of his friends didn't yet and so our life was
looking very different from what theirs was, and it was

(10:11):
hard to make connections with people that are in your
same life phase. And so you guys are kind of
making it easy for men to find other men in
their similar situation and that can be married, but that
can be if they're going through a divorce. And that's right,
girls chitchat, girls call each other right, and guys don't.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
My brothers recently divorced, and the whole time I used
to call them like who do you talk to? Like
who do you have to talk about this? And so
that need right, So what has been the reception from
people from dads? Maybe when they come for the first time.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
Yeah, so when we get that, and we know this
through our annual survey, which we have our twenty twenty
five annual survey is being conducted right now. But through
our twenty twenty four survey, we saw that eighty percent
almost eighty percent of dads felt or seventy two percent
of dads felt more confident in their parenting ability. They
were able to sort of you know, when they felt connection.
Eighty percent of dad said that there's no other organization that,

(11:05):
no other parents in organization that they were connected to.
So when we when we see numbers like that, we
know that what we're doing is working and it's benefiting
not only dads and men and or you know, we
also say mass identifying caregivers because we think about you know,
uncles and grandpa's and stepdads. You know, So there's like
this whole realm of anybody who identifies as a father.

(11:27):
So when we see those numbers like that, you know,
results like that, we know that what we're doing is
working and helping not only benefiting that that individual, but
the family in the community as a whole. So when
when people feel connected into some things, it really it
really manifests in a way that you know, people are
more feel more healthy and through connection.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
So, Marlin, I know you do a lot of events
all over the area. Can you talk a little bit
about the costs associated with some of them? I know
they're some are free and some do costs. And then
what is kind of your your general area is it
more of a Burlington or or where are we where
are you basically around?

Speaker 6 (12:03):
Yeah, so so most of our events take place in
Chinnin County. But right now and as of April first,
we expanded into our northern windsor in Orange Counties, UH
through our expansion grant that we got through building Right Futures,
which is pretty cool. We've we're also we're offering program
down here. We have dad fellows who are running programming

(12:23):
down there. So we went down and did a community assessment,
saw what the local resources were so that dads are
down down there, we'll be able to provide them with
resources in terms of mental health, physical health, you know,
doctors in the area, uh, anything that's child related, so
that so people can be pointing in the right direction.
The cost for our programming so to the user, uh,

(12:45):
everything is free. There's no cost to any user and where.
And the way we pay for that is through you know,
through our the grants and the donations that we receive
so that we can provide, uh, provide these opportunities for
people to connect, and and the goal of that is
for them to be no barriers. We don't want anybody
have any barriers to attend. So you know, we have

(13:07):
a little bit money, So we have a little money
set aside for people who may may have transportation issues,
so we can give we can give them Uber gift cards,
or if they can't afford a babysitter, we might have
a little bit of funds to help support that so
they can attend a Dad to the Old event that
is a dad only event.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
Part of our peer support program.

Speaker 6 (13:24):
So cost wise, you know, that's that's where where we
are at. And as development director, my job is to
build continue to build our development program so that we
are are so that we can continue to provide programs
for people with no barriers.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
And so I know your Facebook is an amazing resource
your website as well to find out when there are events,
But a lot of them are kind of like regularly scheduled,
let's call it right, like second Sunday, first Tuesday, and
so I know we have some info on some of them.
Our producer is going to pull up, but as he does,
if you could just kind of explain to us, I
believe some of the events we've pulled info on our

(14:02):
dad only, like you said, or dad with kids, but
then even also like including the family as well, because
I'm sure it's nice. Right A dad goes to this
dad hang and meets these new friends and comes home
talking about him like the wife's gonna be like, oh
to meet these people, and they seem fun and cool.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
So all right, first off, the dad jam what's this
small about?

Speaker 6 (14:20):
Our dad jam is the third Fronday of every month.
It's pretty cool. Dads will bring their their instruments to
our space which is located on in Pine Street and
the Soda Plant, and they're just and just jam out.
I mean, you know, drums, guitars. It's a good time.
Some people have a lot of experience playing music and
others don't, and so it's a good time to learn.
And and I'm hoping that someday we'll be able to

(14:43):
play a concert for kids, for our kids in some
at some point. But that's a really fun opportunity. We've
seen a lot of good participation and engagement with that.
And and what happens is some dads. You know, again,
with our events, people don't have to sign up if
they they sign up with a for some events, but
if they show up to an event, it might foster
them to come to a different, more more events and

(15:04):
and through that connection they might meet you know, like
here in this photo, uh, the step brothers and say,
let's go now to the playground playgroup without our instruments
and hang out. So it's really it's really fun and cool.
So that gym is something that started just a few
months ago. A lot of fun, a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
All right, Well, now we got the playground playgroups.

Speaker 6 (15:23):
So the playground playgroups, you know, if you keep a
watch for on our calendar, these pop these are popping
up throughout Chittnhing County and then like I said, through
the expansion into windsor South northern Windsor in Orange Counties.
But these these are just times that we show up
to any playground, kind of hang out, let our kids
do a thing, have conversations. We might provide coffee or

(15:44):
you know, tea or coffee it's at times, or donuts.
But it's just a really a really fun time to
watch our kids interact with each other and just also
have you know, be outside or and connect. So those
happen all the time. Library playgroup, Uh, this is pretty cool.
This happens at Fletcher Free. We probably we're going to
be doing it in other libraries as well. This usually
takes place on Sundays that we partner with the libraries

(16:05):
and again coming in hanging out with our kids.

Speaker 5 (16:08):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (16:09):
You know, I think what's really important for young children
is when fathers who were engaged in uh or there
not fathers with just parents in general, if they're engaged
in like the literacy portion of a child's child development.
So that's really fun. It's a fun time.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (16:24):
And again it's all about community and being exposing kids
to like all to all these books that are free
and fun to have.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
Friday night hangs. This is my favorite.

Speaker 6 (16:35):
I like this photo that you put up here because
this was from I think one of our first not
our first Friday night hang. But if you look at
this photo, there's a bunch of wood blocks down there,
and we had found these little, tiny remote control matchbox
sized cars. You can see all the dads up top
who are racing these cars around this track, and it
was it was so much fun. We put obstacles on

(16:56):
there and dad's a lot of time. But normally what
happens that Frida and It hangs is we may set
up like old school video games, Nintendo or some emulator
of some sort. We might throw on a sports game.
So you know, in the last year when we first
started this, we were watching the NCAA Women's Championship games,
which is really cool, draw a lot of a lot
of attention and uh, you know, and again this is

(17:19):
like we will We'll do a little bit of food, uh,
a little bit of B BYO B. But it's a
good time, like just hanging out. We got a custom
corn hole set come in soon. We today added the
dart board into our space, so that's gonna be fun.
So we might have dart board tournaments. But it's a
good time. It's the first usually the first Pride every
month and a lot of fun, a lot of fun

(17:41):
from that can.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Like Joe, still go Joe. Yes, even if your kids
aren't little anymore.

Speaker 6 (17:47):
Well, that's the thing, even if your kids aren't little more, Dad,
the fatherhood of parenthood is forever. You're always gonna be
a parent no matter what. So like you know, you
can have a you could be an empty nester, you
could be a new have newborns. Anything that like part
of the our peer support network program and feel free
to come and join anyway, and it's open to anybody.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
You're going to have to send Joe home to his
wife to say they had to have another baby.

Speaker 4 (18:09):
Well, right right right here.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
Our Sunday Fami Jams.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
This is this.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
This is our family like a family event.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
This is so much fun because it's facilitated this We
got the this is the community, the Vermont Community Foundations.
We got a grant to sponsor this and we do
this on a weekly basis on Sunday morning. So it's
a fam jam that goes into a casual play group
in our space. Families who decide to stay can get
they get like a little discount on some food here

(18:40):
at Haymaker Bun Company, which is pretty cool. This is
facilitated by this our one of our dad fellows, Alex Barron,
who is a dad, also an early childhood educator, and
and and and before he became an early childhood educator,
this is this is cool. He played in a band
that would trap toward the country, So this is and

(19:02):
and and and My highlight is he was my kid's
preschool teacher, my youngest son's preschool teacher. And and Alex
also played on uh played on Tiny Desk for MPR,
which is pretty amazing. So that's pretty cool parents, families
get to experience that.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
That's weekly.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
Uh, you can again look at our calendar. You'll see
what pops up on our on our website.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
So how many I know, your organization has grown over
the years, So how many families are you participate? You know,
maybe not every week, but how many how many families
are you touching now?

Speaker 6 (19:36):
Yeah, so we have over fifteen hundred dads throughout the
state within that are in our network. And then I
mean we I should have pulled out specific numbers for you, Joe,
but we we we do offer.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
We have.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
This you know when we look at the hours of
programming and people who attend. So some of our events
you have the rs VP for UH, and we can
to pull those numbers up. And then some some programs
are just as you show up. So you know, if
one person shows up to an event that is that's
more than you know, that's great because now we know
we make it an impact on that person's lives. Our

(20:12):
Toasting Jam series, I mean we've had you know, we
where we filled that space to capacity on two different occasions,
so that it just depends on the event and usually
you know, if one person shows up, we're good. Five
people depends on the event.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
So but we how how long had Dad Guilt been around?
And I know so your kids are seven and eight,
so how like how old were they I guess maybe
when this started? And then how has it been for
you and the other you know, co founder and key
players to see, you know, in the beginning being like, hey,
let's like make this a thing and then see the
way that it's grown.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
Yes, so Dad Gil's been around officially as a five
of a nonprofit since March of twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
UH.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
But prior to that, Uh, you know, I call it
the Orange Book.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
We have the Orange Books like an archive where you know, Kegan,
our founder direct exec director, had notes of what our
logo was going to look like, what our name would
have been, and he met and I remember him setting
out a bunch of emails in September of twenty eighteen
to a bunch of dads in the community saying let's
meet at this coffee shop, and then having a few
several meetings from there and uh, like coming up with

(21:16):
the name, the logo, coming up with what program might
programming might look like, and then when we and so
so yeah, so that's how we started. And so twenty nineteen,
my oldest son was almost turning three, and yeah, I
think so we've been around and now and so in
the beginning, yes, that was it. We started off with
like we're gonna bee at the former's market and hang

(21:38):
out and push our strollers. We're gonna bee at this playground.
But to but and I remember in March of twenty twenty,
when we had our board retreat, which was three of us,
we did our five year plan. And to know that
last year we surpassed a lot of the goals and
visions that we had for five years in terms of
of of what what dad Gil would look like, the

(21:59):
types of program we were offer, the number of dads
that would be involved, another number of organizations that we
might partner up with. So we really turned this into
a movement because again, like I mentioned on top of
the top is we'll see it. There's a need for
this in terms of addressing mental health and general equality
and all these things that our communities are suffering from.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
In a way, well, you did that in March, sorry, Joe,
March of twenty twenty. So you guys met and had
this big plan of like all the cool hangouts you
were going to do.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
But then the world shut down and the world.

Speaker 6 (22:29):
Shut down, and we grew during that time. Would you
believe that we grew during that time. So the way
we grew is we offered weekly zoom calls and weekly
we did a Jackbox game nights on so people can
log onto their computers. We used in that called Marco
Polo that dads can communicate with Through Marco Polo. There
was a lot of growth during that time because again

(22:50):
if you remember, people were looking for connection, and I
remember there was a lot of dads who I met
during that time, and then you know, once things where
we would open up and and seeing seeing people like, oh, well, wow,
you're actually taller than I thought, or you know, it
was great to meet people in person and have our
kids interact. I mean we were there were times when
dads would show up to the front doors away from

(23:12):
kids and like wave and sing carols and to our families.
Or I remember one time I was telling a bunch
of dads about these these exfoliating rags and I ordered
a bunch and I just drove to all their houses
and dropped them off.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
In the boxes.

Speaker 6 (23:24):
You know. So yeah, we it was a lot of fun.
And to see the growth during that though, that that
two year period was pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
So it's wonderful, you know, I think for so long.
I remember when my kids were younger, there was built
in mom groups that my wife would go to when
they're little. And you know, there's this very popular movie
with Kevin Hart where he's stay home dad and the
challenges of being a stay home dad and going into

(23:52):
a mom's group. So it's wonderful to see you know,
a group like yoursmorrow and being around and helping the
community as as much as they are. So if people
want to learn more or or come to one of
your events, I know social media is big for you,
but Facebook, Instagram, can you maybe give us your handles?

Speaker 6 (24:13):
Yep, so Facebook where dad Guild on Facebook and uh
and then on Instagram where dad Guild as well, and
a lot of our events are on our website which
is dadguild dot org. If people want to, they can
come visit. We're here in the office sporadically and not
a sporatically. We're here all in our office at here
on Pine Street and Soda Plant. They can come visit,

(24:33):
have a chat, and and check out the space which
is pretty incredible.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (24:38):
So those are the ways to connect. Those are the
ways to connect. And you know, if you on our website,
you can look at our staff and reach out if
you if there's something specifically you want to ask from
our our program officer or executive director or me, you
can just reach reach out via email and those usually
our name So Marlon at dad Guild, Patrick dad Guild,
and uh Keegan at dad Guild.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
So those are you know, just the way, those are
the ways to reach out.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
What's maybe something about the Dad Guild. Most people don't
know that you wish they did, or like a misconception
or something like that.

Speaker 6 (25:11):
Oh, a misconception that those things that people don't know. So, uh,
if you're a dad, you can attend. You know, no
matter how old your kid is, you should you can
attend any of our peer support network are peer support programming.
We don't shut out moms. That's that's a misconception. So
moms can are included as well, right in some of

(25:33):
the program that we do, program that we do. And yeah,
I think those that's it. That's that's I mean, there's
some things, but those are some of the biggest things
moms thinks moms thinking that it's for dads only. So
it's not all dads only. So that again, we're all
about community building and building and raising the family up.
So you know, again that's why we offer those dad
and kid events and and the all family events.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Well, like you said, right, like, the word is dad,
because that's easy, that's the easy descriptor. But it can
be an uncle, it can be a caregiver, it can
be it doesn't have to literally be dead, right the yeah,
a fatherish figure in Yeah, that makes sense. I'm cool, Joe.
Any other questions, any burning questions from you.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
No, No, I think it's I think you know, the
hit the nail on the head that you know, we
just had Mother's Day recently, And like the Dad's Guild,
you know, you don't have to be a man to
be a dad. Dad's come in a lot of different
shapes and sizes and by blood and not by blood,
you know. So it's important that there's a lot of

(26:36):
moms out there who are better dads, and a lot
of men were dads, and there's a lot of dads
out there or better moms and moms out there.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
So it's great to hear that.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
You know, you're you're open and supportive of everyone who's
just helping because it's it's hard to raise kids nowadays.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
It is.

Speaker 6 (26:53):
Yeah, And it's just one more thing I forgot to
mention that caregiver education. So we offer education workshops from
uh you know again I said, navigating relationships to understanding
this regulation by even biting Uh.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
You know.

Speaker 6 (27:08):
One thing I just forgot to mention is we have
a podcast as well. Dad Guild has a podcast. It's
called dad Pod, a dad Guild podcast, and you can
find us on all streaming platforms as well.

Speaker 5 (27:17):
And that's a lot.

Speaker 6 (27:18):
A lot of that is sort of you know, talking
about I think we have an episode about climate and
the and the impact on how we talk to our
children about that.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
So yeah, there's a lot that's let's we offer that
as well.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Thank you so much, Marlin for taking a little time
out of your day to share with us all of
the exciting things that are going on with a dad guild.
And my challenge to all of you dad jammers is
that you guys, the goal should be to have like
a dad jam and a dad toast and jam with
you guys as the band at one of those one.

Speaker 6 (27:49):
Time yes, reach out if we went for a band,
If a band wants to come and play, well we'll
vet them out.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
I want your band, I want the Yeah, I want
the dad jam band. And that should be the goal.

Speaker 6 (28:01):
That's so yeah, that's your goal maybe in March March
of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
So well we can get that all right, at least
you said twenty twenty six.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Well, thank you all.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
R Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Be Jo.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Can you imagine if there was something like that around
when you were when you had this, it.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Would definitely be helpful. You know, when when my kids,
I my oldest didn't have the best sleeping. He had
a lot of challenges of sleeping. So we didn't have
twenty four hour coffee shops, we didn't have all that
stuff around. So I can remember driving with him just
to get him to fall asleep for you know, twenty
minutes a half hour to no place, just driving around

(28:39):
and trying to find other people to try to keep
your sanity. So it life would probably be a little
different if it was around it. It's great that that
we have that.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I think it's really very awesome. How was Mother's Day
at your house? By the way, did your wife get
hurt day to herself?

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Partially?

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yes, her family came over and we had a little
cookout and it was nice and it was casual. Her
goal is after working so long all week, her goal
is not to leave the house on Sundays. That's her thing.
So she accomplished the goal of not leaving the house
on Sunday shows. She was happy about that, which was great.
The weather was perfect, So how about you. I know,

(29:19):
sometimes little ones don't understand that it's Mom's Mother's Day
or Father's Day when it comes around.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, that's all right though.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
I mean school made sure that they had some like
you know, little mom projects to give me.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
We went to Echo that morning to you know, go
go check out the Children's Museum and what's new there.
And then came home and my father in law You'll
actually like the story. My father in law dropped off
like a nice plant to write on our front porch.
She kind of does that every year. It was like,
you know, great surprise, nice happy Mother's Day. So they
come over for dinner that night and he's like, he

(29:54):
takes our dog a lot on the.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Weekends because he's obsessed with him. And he told he
shared that Bogie had peed on the plant he bought me,
and that's why he bought the plant. Like, he's like,
we were walking around the plant place and Bogie just
decided that was a great place to pee, and.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
The guy was looking at me. He's like, so then
that was the one I had to buy.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Well, you talk about dogs, you know, I absolutely love dogs,
and I you know, we lost our dog over a
year ago, and my new neighborhood, you know, there's a
lot of dogs in the neighborhood. So I'm out and
interact with them, and there's this dog who was across
the way, a goldendoodle named Rosie. I don't know the
owner's name because that's not important, but Rosie, and she's

(30:41):
the most adorable dog, and I want to play and
have fun with her. So I go outside and she
growls at me, and I watch her interacting with everyone else,
and she doesn't interact. It doesn't do that with anyone else.
So finally, I think the people, the owners knew that.
So they told me that the people who moved out
of my house had a similar dog and Rosie and

(31:01):
that dog would play and everything like that. So she's
angry that her best friend moved out and has taken
it out on me. So I can't argue with it.
So I see Rosie and I just say hello, and
I tell her someday maybe we'll get along.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, I tell you what, I have a mini labradoodle,
which is very similar to a golden doodle. So yeah,
if you want, you can borrow Wogee sometime and then
maybe Rosie will approach you.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
I tried that with women back in college, and it
didn't work as well.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Oh goodness, oh goodness, or anything else for this week
before we wrap it up.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
No, just one challenge for you as you're going around
as the weather it's nicer and I'm out and out
and about a little bit more. I have a lot
of things people make fun of me about, and one
of them is, you know, names and vanity plates. So
I've been seeing a lot of interesting vanity plates, so
you know, just keep the back of your.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Mind when you're out driving around. I'm not as good,
you know.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
I'm sure you are, what your journalism background, you know.
It takes me a while some of the vanity plates,
I'm like, what's that mean?

Speaker 5 (32:08):
You know?

Speaker 2 (32:08):
And I find myself taking pictures and bringing it home
and being like what ones does this mean?

Speaker 4 (32:12):
So some are really cool and I get right away
and some some I don't.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
But you know, I think it's a topic that we
can talk about later about interesting and unique vanity plates.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
That's a good one. And a quick nod to Marlin,
as we learned he actually has one that's big Fish, yeah, which.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
Which is great.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
And I said, you know before we started that I'm
not a big fan of and andy plates, but but
big Fish being Marlin.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
And his last name Fisher. I mean that that's a
home run. I like it.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
I like it all right, sounds good. I'm gonna keep it.
I'm gonna keep my eye feel and I'm gonna start
taking photos of them for you. I did see one
one love the other day.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
That one I got.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
But I know what you mean. Sometimes you have to
like sound it out and try to figure out what
it is.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah, exactly exactly or what I prefer.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
You know, the ones that are little dirty or a
little off color, that you know, you try to get
through the DMV, those are the ones I really enjoy.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Okay, then this is a little off color, and then
we're gonna let it go. But when the DMV got
through the g's and then there was a whole bunch
of them that were gfy, which can mean go yourself right.
I can say that on a podcast. I didn't say
the middle word that like, then you're gonna learn something
about my family now, within the Kofield family growing up,

(33:23):
that that was kind of like just saying like be quiet,
and so it got abbreviated, and that's like a running
joke in our family text. So when I start driving around,
I just saw all these licenses like that are.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Like GF why two four three, GYP why. I was like,
oh my god, do these people even know they're just
like yelling at us?

Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, they probably don't.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
And that's one of the If I was smarter and
I was willing to pay that sixty hours for vanity play,
maybe I would have something cute like that. But you know, I,
as a New York Italian, I am too aggressive in
the car, so it's too easy for people.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
To remember it.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
All right, all right, Well people listening though, If you've
seen any good ones, drop them in the comments or
let us know what they are and maybe we'll be
able to talk about them in future weeks.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
On the podcast. Sounds great, all.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Right, everybody.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Thanks again, Thank you to Marlon Fisher for joining us
from the Dad Guild.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Check out their events on their Facebook page and on
their website. And we hope to I guess we hope
you all tune in and listen to what we're up
to again next week.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Have a good week.
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