June 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Meghan Masterson started her career supporting children and families in 2008 at a small public school in New Hampshire, ultimately joining KidSafe Collaborative in September 2021. She fundamentally believes that all children deserve to be loved, cared for, and celebrated for who they are.
Meghan received her undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire, a masters degree from Ball State University, and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Meghan’s work began with a focus on early intervention services and support to caregivers to understand this critical time in their child’s development. Over time it evolved to helping families to understand their children as unique individuals and to create safe, stable, and enriching homes. These experiences along with her own lived experience led her to a deep connection with and passion for the field of improving child welfare.
Meghan was born and raised in New Hampshire and moved to Vermont in 2010. She lives in Burlington with her husband, son, dog, and 2 cats. When not at work she enjoys reading, crafting, and spending time near the water.
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.
Meghan received her undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire, a masters degree from Ball State University, and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Meghan’s work began with a focus on early intervention services and support to caregivers to understand this critical time in their child’s development. Over time it evolved to helping families to understand their children as unique individuals and to create safe, stable, and enriching homes. These experiences along with her own lived experience led her to a deep connection with and passion for the field of improving child welfare.
Meghan was born and raised in New Hampshire and moved to Vermont in 2010. She lives in Burlington with her husband, son, dog, and 2 cats. When not at work she enjoys reading, crafting, and spending time near the water.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, everybody, It's Aaron Colefield Barker joined by my co
host Joe Sinagra of Myers Containers. This is the Trash
Talking and Giving Back podcast. Another week time is just
flying by.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I feel like we just talked, but here we are again.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Getting ready to highlight another great organization in the community
up here in Vermont.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, absolutely excited about it.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, how was your week?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
My week was good.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
You know, I noticed now that the weather's getting warmer.
You know, there's two types of people in the world,
those who are excited and those who are getting a
little more aggravated. So with the world we're in, So
I noticed the other day on a busy road there
was I'm in traffic and often I tell these stories
and then later I admit it's me. This one on
(01:00):
isn't me. I witnessed this. So I saw a young
man on a small motorcycle and he was popping wheelies
on Dorsey Street with all kinds of traffic, and he's
just being an overall idiot, as young twenty somethings can be.
So there was a car that he passes, and so
(01:23):
we get to the traffic light. People in Vermont might know,
the corner of Wilson and Dorset Street.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Kind of cars and everything like that. That white car.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
The guy gets out, middle aged man, mid fifties, typical
looks like your typical light Vermont or that you hear
like you know on a n actional news, you know
when they have Vermont. Guy he gets and he goes
up to this motorcycle and just gives it to this
twenty something year old man and our kid, And I
can hear him because I'm the car behind him saying
(01:53):
how stupid he is and he could die and all
this other stuff. And to the young man's credit, he
shook his head and didn't really engage with this older guy.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
So my question is, you know, should we.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
All want to engage because this guy's an IDIA for
popping wheelies? But nowadays you can't because you know, it's
a good way to get yourself shot. So I was
a shot that this guy got out and confronted this kid.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think I always lean to like write,
what is I'm no therapist, but what is the reason
this man felt compelled to do it?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And I've got a wonder like was he just right?
Just like that?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Annoyed so he was like road raging mad at him,
but like, or what if this man like has a
son who died on a motorcycle, So now he thinks
he's like giving advice to someone to help save like
another kid's life and saying, you know, kid, like I
had a son who was your age and he did
a similar thing and it didn't end well and you
really shouldn't do that, and like blah blah blah. I'm
(02:53):
also like, right, I'm the daughter of like a Harley guy.
My dad like loves to ride his motorcycle. But he's
like the king of like it's it's not if he
gets in an accident. He's always like it won't necessarily
be me, it'll be like someone else. But he's not
like right popping wheel. He's like he's a very safe driver.
But he gets very frustrated at people like this kid
(03:14):
because they give the whole like sport like a pretty
bad name by just acting like an idiot.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Well, and I think it's I think this guy how
the young man was kind of shaking his head that
I think the older guy got out and said more
like I saw somebody die that way or that, you know,
So I think that's the side. And it's never the
Harley riders, you know doing the wheel he's this was
you know one of these? Yeah, just you know, So
(03:43):
it wasn't It's typical. And the proof is it obviously
wasn't me because I have never been on a motorcycle
in my life and be if I was, I don't
think I could do it wheeling.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh you're thing you wait, hold on to clarify you're
you were telling us you weren't the motorcycle guy.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But were you the guy that got out of the car.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
No, I'm not the old man. I'm not you know, No, No, it's.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Just I can't maybe.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
A while ago, but you know, over the years, my
wife has beat me down that I can't really. You know,
my name ends in a vowel, so I'm supposed to
like be hot headed, and I was in a much
younger days and every now and then I still do.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
But no, it honestly wasn't me. I was I was watching.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
I had my Traders Joe in the my Traders Joe
ordered back seat. So you know, if you have Traders
Joe in the back seat, you can't confront people. It's
just it's against their policy when you leave, you sign
that form there fair.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I was had Trader shows recently, and then we'll get
to our guest. But you'll like the story because we
often talk about my life. When I was on TV
regularly and I was there with the three year old
Jack and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
This is Causeure was like, are you Aaron from the
News And I was like I am, Well, like I was,
I am. And she's like, I even't seen usage you
were pregnant. And I was like, well, here's one of them.
There's actually two.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And Jack was, of course being like a typical three
year old boy, like not listening, like jumping around, and
I was like, yoh, this is my chaotic life now instead,
but like this is why I have a lot of
oxy wine for really cheap.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Thank you Trador Joes.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Absolutely I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, let's let's bring Meghan in.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
This is We've got Megan Masterson, who's the executive director
from Kid Safe Collaborative, secretly hoping that she is also
a fan of the grocery chain we are discussing that
is not a formal sponsor of our podcast, but we're
just giving him a little love here today. Megan also
is a mom we were seeing earlier.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
She says she has a.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Nine year old. How's your week, Ben, How's life? What
is your take as the mother of a son?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
If if someone else saw him driving a.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Motorcycle like this, it'd be okay for someone to let
him know he's out of line, right listen.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I'm a like it takes a village kind of person.
So if he is being wild, I will.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Take care of it.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
But if I'm not there, I start and we hope
someone else will take care of it. So yeah, I
hope he never rides a motorcycle. But a few years
till I have to cross that bridge.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think I.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Say that too.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I have a I'm a big fan of the community
parenting is what I call it, basically, Like if you're
there and like we're at the playground and I haven't
gotten to my kid where he's about to jump off
of the side, but you're standing there, like, please just help,
please do.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Us all a favorite? Please?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yes, absolutely, go ahead, Doe. I see you're gonna say something.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
No, no, no, I was just gonna get things started.
I'm just you. You helped run.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Such a wonderful organization that I think unfortunately, maybe not
enough people know about you're out there in the community,
so you know, want to give you a little opportunity
to just tell us a little bit about it, and
you guys are all about awesome.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Well, thank you. Yes, Kids Safe Collaborative is a nonprofit.
We have an office here in Burlington, Vermont, but we
serve a lot of chitten In County, actually most of
chitten In County, and in fact, we also have a
few statewide initiatives.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So I like to say that while we're.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Based here in Chittnham County, we are an available resource statewide.
Our mission is focused on helping the community respond to
child abuse and neglect. So it's in our name where
a collaborative organization. Our goal is to help people work
better together and keep kids safe and healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So can you give us an example maybe of like
a day or what is something like how if someone
is in need, how do you find out about it?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And what do you guys do?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
So one of our major sort of components of the
work that we do are what we called our child
protection teams, and we have a few of them, but
they're all sort of the same.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And so if there is someone in the community.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
It could be someone working at another organization, but it
also could be a parent, a care for a grandparent
if they are concerned about a child in their life,
either they're worried about them being abused or neglected, but
also quite frankly, just feeling like I think this kid
in this family needs a little bit more support. They
(08:16):
can reach out to us. And what we do is
our Child Protection and Family Support Team, which is like
a very long name, but we bring together people from
all different organizations across chitten And County that serve children
ethan families, and it's sort of this like bring everyone
to the table at the same time. Like we were
(08:36):
just saying this like community parenting, but I think this
is like community support.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And so if you think about it, right, like anyone.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
If you are a parent or if you love a kid,
it can be really stressful and there can be like
so many different things going on. Kid Save School is
like bring everyone together at the same time and help
figure it out. Like parents and caregivers do the best
they can with the support that they have, and our
goal is to help them access the supports that they need.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
So you sent us some wonderful photos and in a
previous life, I spent a lot of time in mont
Pilier as a lobbyist. And Aaron's talking about in one
of her fun facts is that she was on a
court TV shows as a younger person. And one of
my fun facts is that my great uncle ran for president.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Of the United States.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
And so politics and government is the thing I've always enjoyed.
And I know your organization spent some time with a
legislative forum. Maybe talk a little bit about what the
legislature and what the state can do to help your
organization but also help our most vulnerable, most vulnerable.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Oh gosh, I am so jealous that both of you
have these like amazing political ties.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I feel like I watched.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Law and Order and like Judge shooting and that's like
the only funerio.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
By the way, he loves Judge Duty.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
We can talk about it later.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He falls asleep to Judge Judy every night. That's his shock,
not Duty Justice Judge Judy.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
All right, Well, yeah, so like I've never been on
Judge Judy.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I've never like run for president.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
But yes, kid Safe does host an annual legislative forum.
We've been doing this for more than twenty years. At
this point in every late January early February, we gather
together Chittenham County legislators and folks who work in Chittenham
County interested community members, and we come together and talk
(10:41):
about kind of whatever topics related to child safety. Child
well being is sort of at the forefront of people's
minds because I think, right there's always advocacy to do
to better support kids and families, but I think we
know that the exact topics kind of ebb and flow
based on the years. Really, So Kids Safe is a nonprofit,
(11:04):
which sort of limits what we can do, like we're nonpartisan,
we have to be et cetera, et cetera. But we
do advocate, and we advocate for the best interests of
kids and families and their safety and well being. And
so for us, that means our role is really educating legislators,
and that's what the Legislative Forum is about, is bringing
(11:27):
them together so we can sort of say, like, hey,
we know you're going to be hearing a lot about
housing this year, or we know.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You're going to be hearing a lot about this thing
over here.
Speaker 6 (11:37):
From our perspective, from what we know, let us tell
you what's going on. It's sort of that like boots
on the ground, so that when they go back to
Montpelier and do the work of legislators, we hope that
at some point they'll say, oh, I heard that at
the Kids Safe Legislative Forum, and.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You know, do right by kids and families.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, so you guys kind of are like the pulse
for them. You give the pulse of like, what's happening exactly.
I want to make sure that I understand this, and
if I'm totally wrong, just tell me that because I
don't care, won't be offended. But so it sounds to
me like you guys are kind of like a mediator, right.
So it feels like when it comes to children and
(12:19):
the safety of children, right, obviously, if you see something
terrible going on, people often are just like, I need
to call DCF and like once you call, right, and
that is a very not that's a very big step, right,
not extreme step, because if it's needed, like great, But
you guys are kind of like a little like a
middle ground, right, Like it's like this isn't really like
(12:40):
so so so extreme that I feel like I need
to call them, but I something doesn't something feels ichy,
something feels off. I feel like I should just call
Kids Safe and let them navigate if this is the
bad situation, if I'm mis understanding, if this kid does
need help.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
So it's like a little bit less aggressive. Is that
the right word or.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
I think that's one of the coolest things about kid
Safe is that we can do and be a lot
of different things, and so we are absolutely a resource
for people in the community. We get calls to our
office quite often with people saying I'm worried about my
neighbor's kid, or I'm worried about my kid, or I
(13:19):
don't know what to do, what should I do? And
so we have the opportunity to support people, whether that
is you know, calling the child Protection hotline and making
a report, whether it's thinking about are their resources in
the community that they could call.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Like if someone calls and says, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
I'm in a relationship and my partner is violent and
we have a child and I don't know what to do,
we might talk about like you can call steps to
and domestic violence or these other community resources. So our
goal is to really help everyone in the community know
what they can do and play a role in keeping
(14:01):
all kids safe. Our perspective and our belief is that everybody,
regardless of whether you're a parent or not, everyone has
a role in keeping our communities children safe, and so
we want to equip people with the education and the
knowledge and the support to play their part in that
and that role.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And well, it's sorry, no, no, it's great that you
guys kind of help like someone qualify their concern, let's say.
But also I could see like a lot of family dynamics,
like maybe like a grandparent is like I.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Can't I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I don't want to call DCF on my daughter, like
I but I like, I don't know. And so I
feel like it helps for you guys to be able
to be that person. So well, you know, you would
think maybe grandma just needs to get over it, but
like that is that is.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
An unfortunate part of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Sometimes people worry about the fallout from their actions. And
so I think that it's great that there's you guys
to be like, you know what, thanks for giving us
the tip, Like we've got it from here. You can
honestly look your daughter in the face, see you didn't
call on her or son right, like in that it's.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, that there's that there for them.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
I think sometimes people, you know, people like love their
kids and love kids.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And they just want to do right by them. And
I think if.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
You don't work in this world, if you're not like
a teacher or a childcare provider, and you're faced with
like I'm worried about a kid, it can feel really
scary and overwhelming and not you know, not.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Knowing what to do.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
So sometimes a call to us is just like validating,
like I yes, like I hear you. You should make
a report. Here's what you can expect when you call.
You know, kids say collaborative. We produced the online mandated
reporter training that over forty thousand vermonitors have now.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Taken since we launched it.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
And so our role, like I said, is really just
to help empower people to protect the kids that they
love and just kids in our community.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
So, you know, any organization like yours, it takes funding
to make it keep the lights on and to keep
the keep going on the stuff you're doing. Talk about
a little bit about how you get your funding. I
know you you ask community for donations, but the other
places where you get your funding and how that all
goes about.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Yeah, so we are really lucky that we have different
support from different places.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So, like you said, we do rely.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
On donations from you know, people in the community, individual donors, families,
also businesses and corporations.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And then we do also receive.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Some money from the State of Vermont to support a
couple of our specific projects and child protection teams. And
so Kids Safe is really lucky that I think we
have a diverse pool of funding, but we absolutely rely
on the support of our community members to help us
sort of like you said, keep the lights on, run
(17:07):
the programs. The heart of Kids Safe really is the
people doing the work, and so donations in addition to
you know, lights building, Brent, they also support our programs,
and they also support the staff who work here that
do all of the great work that we do.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And maybe they pick up the trash we.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Actually do take out and pick up our own trash.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
No I met, Sorry, I was getting Myers in there, Joe,
talk about talk about talk about.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Myers obviously has a lot of different organizations they give
to and that are near and dear to their heart,
but this is also one of them.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You talk about it, and then Meg gonna add to it.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Yeah, No, absolutely, There's so many worthy organizations out there,
and because of being a family business, we really rely
on the members of our family to really help us
determin and where we go with our both in kind
donations but also actual cash donations. So you know, Megan's
(18:06):
organization is one of them that Jeff and the entire
Myers family has donated financially too for a number of
years because it's such a you know, family is so important,
So it is something that's been important to us and
to Jeff and the whole red Can family.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
We're so grateful for Meyer's support. I mean, like you
all have been supporters of us for many many years,
and I mean quite honestly, like we couldn't do what
we do without Myers. You are a big part of
how we keep the lights and more importantly, how we
help kids in our community.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
But Megan's also got to take the trash out herself, Joe,
so you need to get over there and help her
out sometimes.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Listen, I take my own trash out, so you know
that's that's we all have to.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So Spencer was the trash guy for you.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Yeah, so our son spent my son Spencer was the
one who has to take the trash out every week.
You know, our day is Mondays. And now that he
has a little at home, that falls to me. So
I try to get my wife, but she that's not
one of her. She vacuums, so I can do the trash.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's a that's a great marriage. That's a very good
division of power there.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Easy we.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Have we have one of those rooms of vacuum cleaners,
so you easy, don't, don't patter on the back too much.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
She just makes sure it's charged.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
No goes back by itself.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
She just pushes the button.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
My husband thinks I don't know how to do the dishes,
so he just he does the dishes. He thinks I
don't know how, and that's fine. Good for you, Megan.
What is something about kids Safe that you wish more
people knew?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
My God, what a great question.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Well, I mean, I guess I wish more people knew
that we existed. We're a small organization, but we do
like some really amazing things, and so I would also
love that.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The other thing that I want people to know that.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
We do is every year we host our Outstanding Service Awards,
and this event is it's honestly my favorite day of
the entire year, like even more than like Christmas, Thanksgiving,
my birthday. The awards event is amazing. Each year we
honor individuals and a group who are doing outstanding above
(20:30):
and beyond work keeping kids safe.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It's our way of sort.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
Of highlighting like the day to day work that people
are doing, often really quietly.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So this was our Awardi group, not this past year,
but the year.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Before, and it is just like the most joyful morning
to like bring together a few hundred people and celebrate
people doing amazing work.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Like you can't ask for anything more than that. So
what time? I beer?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
What time year is this?
Speaker 6 (21:01):
So we do it every April, which corresponds with child
abuse prevention months, So we didn't quite pick it randomly
as part of how we recognize that month.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
The date varies kind of year to year, but we
do it every April, so.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Your Christmas just happens.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So now you've started planning next year, I'm sure, but
now you've got to have find like birthdays and Christmases
to look forward to doing stuff exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Yeah, So Megan, about tell us how can people find
you if they want to get more involved or if
they want to learn more about the organization.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So you can find us online.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Our website is www dot kidsafevt dot org. We're also
on Facebook and Instagram as well, and you can always
call or email us. You can find our emails and
our phone number on our website and we are located
in Burlington.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
So people are welcome to stop by too. If everyone
to see her office.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Well, I'm finding out that a big facebookers now, so
you know that generational thing, so you know that'd be.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Good for her.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I mean, hold on, let me ask this one question, Joe,
and then I'm going to get back to that, because
I think I know why you are anti Facebook, and
I think Megan will be on my side for why
we are pro Facebook. But Megan, if someone sees something
and wants to call, is that are those the same
things they do?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Go to the website call It's all the same place.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
So if someone sees a kid in danger, like a
media danger crisis, call nine one one.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
If somebody is.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
Concerned about child abuse and neglect, they should call the
Vermont Child Protection Hotline. That is the place to report
those types of concerns. If you're not sure, if you're worried.
If you don't know what to do, you can call
us and we will help talk you through that.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Back to Facebook, Megan, when did you join Facebook when
your college made it available?
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (22:55):
I joined Facebook back when you needed a dot edu
email address in order to be on Facebook and there
was like no news speed, it was just your page.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yes, So like, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Too, I too had to wait for the wave of
my college to be able to join. And I feel
as though this is why Joe's upset, because Joe is
a little bit older than us, Meghan, So I'm not
sure that Joe had an ed you email address and
he had to wait until it was open to just everyone,
not just those fine college students.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
That's absolutely correct. I'm a little older, absolutely that. My college,
we did not have phones in our dorm rooms or
internet in our dorm rooms. And this is mid nineties,
by by the way, and we're not talking his eighties.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Mid nineties.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
There was no phones in the dorms and we didn't
get internet in the dorm rooms until my sophomore year.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So no, I love Facebook. I'm a big facebooker.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
He's it, Meghan, Are you a TikToker. Yes, Joe is too. Yeah,
jo is too.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I have I don't know, it makes you feel better.
When I went to college, we did have internet, but
there was no Wi Fi. You had to like plug in, so.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I think that's how it was for me too. And
I had my huge laptop. Oh yeah, it was in
the era of those colored max too.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Well I was matrix printer so yeah. Our one producer,
Jay was a Fountain panel.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Oh my goodness. Okay, Megan, I'm that note. I'm gonna
let you go. Thank you so much for well, is
there anything I didn't ask you about?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
No, I am just so excited to be here. Thanks
for having me. Like I said, I'm like, this is
my first podcast, so thanks for making it super easy.
And I would love to have people learn more about
kids safe. So check out our website and our socials
or give us a call.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
We're always here to help perfect. Thank you so much
for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Oh I love it. I think that will be her
new favorite podcast.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Well, I was gonna say, you know, at least her
first podcast wasn't some you know, serial killer podcasts that
that you both like.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Okay, listen, but.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You're new to listening to podcasts, right, and so what
are your podcast likes and dislikes as you listen?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Like what's your what's your jam?
Speaker 5 (25:23):
So I'm definitely a sports guy, but I love my
my sports ones. And I am a financial guy, so
I like more not so much like investment, but like
I'm always intrigued by how people budget their money, both
adults and couples, and people like that because they're it's
(25:45):
like a whole nother thing. And to show that we
haven't pre talked about this, like these married couples that
venmo each other. You know, it makes me left so hard,
you know, like, come on, you're married, for God's thinks,
You're you're really gotta send thirty dollars for the pizza?
Like yeah, I like those podcasts, you know, budgeting and
(26:08):
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I that is a peppyve of mine too, Like I'm like,
what are what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Just figure it out? Like or be private.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Don't let the whole world know that you had to
pay them for your slice of pizza tonight, like exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
My other favorite is when they go back and forth,
like it's like two of my girlfriends, I like call
them on it, so now they just make it private.
But they're like best friends and do a lot together,
so I'll like text them.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I'm like, oh, looks like you guys got coffee and
then went shopping and then had lunch and then did this.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Because it's like she paid her for that, She paid
her for that, she paid her for that, And I'm like, come.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
On, and thanks for the invite.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, oh yeah that too, Like, oh, look, so you
guys are hanging out without me. Cool, Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
You know, I do like Facebook.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I'm a larker and what I'm one of the things
that I found and you're not this way, ern So
I gotta give you.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
A little prop. You know, these people on Facebook.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
You know, oh I went for a walk and you know,
I took four thousand steps and you know.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
But I have to say, it's very impressive. You ran
the marathon.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I mean, hold on, yes, well you ran part of
the marathon.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I ran the Glory leg, the two point eight miles
to the finish line of the marathon.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
But I'll take all the credit. That's fine.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
But listen, you listen. You've ran anything part of the marathon.
That's impressive. That's the stuff you put on Facebook, not
that you know. Oh I you know, Jimmy made it
to school on time today. I mean, those people are
just dumb.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I'm a big Like Facebook is my personal photo album.
I like to make reels of like fun things that
we do, and then it's really fun. The kids like
to watch the reels, and I'll try to do like
maybe like a week in recap, like because I'm also
not a huge fan of the people that are like
in the middle of something like I got to go
put it on here and tell everyone this is what
I'm doing right now, like.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I'm happy to throw up.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
You know, hey, we had a really fun weekend, Like
here's a bunch of the stuff we did, or like, hey,
my kid's super cute today, so now you got to
see her.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But it is the faith that because this could be
a whole nother.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Podcast though, like Facebook, maybe we should start screenshotting some
and we'll just like redact people's names.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Though.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Oh and you know, I'm the youngest of four kids,
so my my older siblings like they don't really understand
they do. So anytime I post anything, I instantly get
text messages for my siblings like, why.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Are you telling the world about that?
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Nobody cares that you went out to dinner, and I'm like, no,
it's a nice picture of like a nice meal, and yes,
it's like this is nice.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
And they're just jealous they didn't go and get the
same meal.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Joke.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
No, but I will say you learned stuff about your
friends as well, Like I learned that you recently got
a new dining room table. I think because I saw
that you were trying to sell one.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I moved, so my old house had a dining room.
My new house does not have a dining room. So
I'm trying to get rid of the dining room table,
which been sitting in my storage unit since I moved.
And I realized this is done, paying money to store
a table I don't even want.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Okay, well, okay, let's make a deal with our listeners.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
If you need this table, and you reach out to
Joe because you find it on Facebook Marketplace, tell him
you heard it on the podcast, and he'll give you twenty.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Five dollars off.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah, half off, absolutely perfect.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I hope this happened.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And while you're out, everyone should have also probably liked
subscribe and share this podcast with all of your friends.
We've had it rolling now for a little bit, with
different organizations, different people, race car drivers, Ronald McDonald, house,
wiffleball tournament, people like. It's been so much fun getting
to learn so much about stuff.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I will be.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Honest, I didn't know about Kids Safe Collaborative, but I
think that's like an awesome resource.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
That we have.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Sure is Sure is all right?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Everybody till next week, have a great week. Let us
know your thoughts in the comments below.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
No
Hey, everybody, It's Aaron Colefield Barker joined by my co
host Joe Sinagra of Myers Containers. This is the Trash
Talking and Giving Back podcast. Another week time is just
flying by.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I feel like we just talked, but here we are again.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Getting ready to highlight another great organization in the community
up here in Vermont.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, absolutely excited about it.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, how was your week?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
My week was good.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
You know, I noticed now that the weather's getting warmer.
You know, there's two types of people in the world,
those who are excited and those who are getting a
little more aggravated. So with the world we're in, So
I noticed the other day on a busy road there
was I'm in traffic and often I tell these stories
and then later I admit it's me. This one on
(01:00):
isn't me. I witnessed this. So I saw a young
man on a small motorcycle and he was popping wheelies
on Dorsey Street with all kinds of traffic, and he's
just being an overall idiot, as young twenty somethings can be.
So there was a car that he passes, and so
(01:23):
we get to the traffic light. People in Vermont might know,
the corner of Wilson and Dorset Street.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Kind of cars and everything like that. That white car.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
The guy gets out, middle aged man, mid fifties, typical
looks like your typical light Vermont or that you hear
like you know on a n actional news, you know
when they have Vermont. Guy he gets and he goes
up to this motorcycle and just gives it to this
twenty something year old man and our kid, And I
can hear him because I'm the car behind him saying
(01:53):
how stupid he is and he could die and all
this other stuff. And to the young man's credit, he
shook his head and didn't really engage with this older guy.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
So my question is, you know, should we.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
All want to engage because this guy's an IDIA for
popping wheelies? But nowadays you can't because you know, it's
a good way to get yourself shot. So I was
a shot that this guy got out and confronted this kid.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think I always lean to like write,
what is I'm no therapist, but what is the reason
this man felt compelled to do it?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And I've got a wonder like was he just right?
Just like that?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Annoyed so he was like road raging mad at him,
but like, or what if this man like has a
son who died on a motorcycle, So now he thinks
he's like giving advice to someone to help save like
another kid's life and saying, you know, kid, like I
had a son who was your age and he did
a similar thing and it didn't end well and you
really shouldn't do that, and like blah blah blah. I'm
(02:53):
also like, right, I'm the daughter of like a Harley guy.
My dad like loves to ride his motorcycle. But he's
like the king of like it's it's not if he
gets in an accident. He's always like it won't necessarily
be me, it'll be like someone else. But he's not
like right popping wheel. He's like he's a very safe driver.
But he gets very frustrated at people like this kid
(03:14):
because they give the whole like sport like a pretty
bad name by just acting like an idiot.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Well, and I think it's I think this guy how
the young man was kind of shaking his head that
I think the older guy got out and said more
like I saw somebody die that way or that, you know,
So I think that's the side. And it's never the
Harley riders, you know doing the wheel he's this was
you know one of these? Yeah, just you know, So
(03:43):
it wasn't It's typical. And the proof is it obviously
wasn't me because I have never been on a motorcycle
in my life and be if I was, I don't
think I could do it wheeling.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh you're thing you wait, hold on to clarify you're
you were telling us you weren't the motorcycle guy.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But were you the guy that got out of the car.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
No, I'm not the old man. I'm not you know, No, No, it's.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Just I can't maybe.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
A while ago, but you know, over the years, my
wife has beat me down that I can't really. You know,
my name ends in a vowel, so I'm supposed to
like be hot headed, and I was in a much
younger days and every now and then I still do.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
But no, it honestly wasn't me. I was I was watching.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
I had my Traders Joe in the my Traders Joe
ordered back seat. So you know, if you have Traders
Joe in the back seat, you can't confront people. It's
just it's against their policy when you leave, you sign
that form there fair.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I was had Trader shows recently, and then we'll get
to our guest. But you'll like the story because we
often talk about my life. When I was on TV
regularly and I was there with the three year old
Jack and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
This is Causeure was like, are you Aaron from the
News And I was like I am, Well, like I was,
I am. And she's like, I even't seen usage you
were pregnant. And I was like, well, here's one of them.
There's actually two.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And Jack was, of course being like a typical three
year old boy, like not listening, like jumping around, and
I was like, yoh, this is my chaotic life now instead,
but like this is why I have a lot of
oxy wine for really cheap.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Thank you Trador Joes.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Absolutely I love it.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, let's let's bring Meghan in.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
This is We've got Megan Masterson, who's the executive director
from Kid Safe Collaborative, secretly hoping that she is also
a fan of the grocery chain we are discussing that
is not a formal sponsor of our podcast, but we're
just giving him a little love here today. Megan also
is a mom we were seeing earlier.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
She says she has a.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Nine year old. How's your week, Ben, How's life? What
is your take as the mother of a son?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
If if someone else saw him driving a.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Motorcycle like this, it'd be okay for someone to let
him know he's out of line, right listen.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I'm a like it takes a village kind of person.
So if he is being wild, I will.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Take care of it.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
But if I'm not there, I start and we hope
someone else will take care of it. So yeah, I
hope he never rides a motorcycle. But a few years
till I have to cross that bridge.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think I.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Say that too.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
I have a I'm a big fan of the community
parenting is what I call it, basically, Like if you're
there and like we're at the playground and I haven't
gotten to my kid where he's about to jump off
of the side, but you're standing there, like, please just help,
please do.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Us all a favorite? Please?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yes, absolutely, go ahead, Doe. I see you're gonna say something.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
No, no, no, I was just gonna get things started.
I'm just you. You helped run.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Such a wonderful organization that I think unfortunately, maybe not
enough people know about you're out there in the community,
so you know, want to give you a little opportunity
to just tell us a little bit about it, and
you guys are all about awesome.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Well, thank you. Yes, Kids Safe Collaborative is a nonprofit.
We have an office here in Burlington, Vermont, but we
serve a lot of chitten In County, actually most of
chitten In County, and in fact, we also have a
few statewide initiatives.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So I like to say that while we're.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Based here in Chittnham County, we are an available resource statewide.
Our mission is focused on helping the community respond to
child abuse and neglect. So it's in our name where
a collaborative organization. Our goal is to help people work
better together and keep kids safe and healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So can you give us an example maybe of like
a day or what is something like how if someone
is in need, how do you find out about it?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And what do you guys do?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
So one of our major sort of components of the
work that we do are what we called our child
protection teams, and we have a few of them, but
they're all sort of the same.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And so if there is someone in the community.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
It could be someone working at another organization, but it
also could be a parent, a care for a grandparent
if they are concerned about a child in their life,
either they're worried about them being abused or neglected, but
also quite frankly, just feeling like I think this kid
in this family needs a little bit more support. They
(08:16):
can reach out to us. And what we do is
our Child Protection and Family Support Team, which is like
a very long name, but we bring together people from
all different organizations across chitten And County that serve children
ethan families, and it's sort of this like bring everyone
to the table at the same time. Like we were
(08:36):
just saying this like community parenting, but I think this
is like community support.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And so if you think about it, right, like anyone.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
If you are a parent or if you love a kid,
it can be really stressful and there can be like
so many different things going on. Kid Save School is
like bring everyone together at the same time and help
figure it out. Like parents and caregivers do the best
they can with the support that they have, and our
goal is to help them access the supports that they need.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
So you sent us some wonderful photos and in a
previous life, I spent a lot of time in mont
Pilier as a lobbyist. And Aaron's talking about in one
of her fun facts is that she was on a
court TV shows as a younger person. And one of
my fun facts is that my great uncle ran for president.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Of the United States.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
And so politics and government is the thing I've always enjoyed.
And I know your organization spent some time with a
legislative forum. Maybe talk a little bit about what the
legislature and what the state can do to help your
organization but also help our most vulnerable, most vulnerable.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Oh gosh, I am so jealous that both of you
have these like amazing political ties.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I feel like I watched.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Law and Order and like Judge shooting and that's like
the only funerio.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
By the way, he loves Judge Duty.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
We can talk about it later.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He falls asleep to Judge Judy every night. That's his shock,
not Duty Justice Judge Judy.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
All right, Well, yeah, so like I've never been on
Judge Judy.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I've never like run for president.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
But yes, kid Safe does host an annual legislative forum.
We've been doing this for more than twenty years. At
this point in every late January early February, we gather
together Chittenham County legislators and folks who work in Chittenham
County interested community members, and we come together and talk
(10:41):
about kind of whatever topics related to child safety. Child
well being is sort of at the forefront of people's
minds because I think, right there's always advocacy to do
to better support kids and families, but I think we
know that the exact topics kind of ebb and flow
based on the years. Really, So Kids Safe is a nonprofit,
(11:04):
which sort of limits what we can do, like we're nonpartisan,
we have to be et cetera, et cetera. But we
do advocate, and we advocate for the best interests of
kids and families and their safety and well being. And
so for us, that means our role is really educating legislators,
and that's what the Legislative Forum is about, is bringing
(11:27):
them together so we can sort of say, like, hey,
we know you're going to be hearing a lot about
housing this year, or we know.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You're going to be hearing a lot about this thing
over here.
Speaker 6 (11:37):
From our perspective, from what we know, let us tell
you what's going on. It's sort of that like boots
on the ground, so that when they go back to
Montpelier and do the work of legislators, we hope that
at some point they'll say, oh, I heard that at
the Kids Safe Legislative Forum, and.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You know, do right by kids and families.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, so you guys kind of are like the pulse
for them. You give the pulse of like, what's happening exactly.
I want to make sure that I understand this, and
if I'm totally wrong, just tell me that because I
don't care, won't be offended. But so it sounds to
me like you guys are kind of like a mediator, right.
So it feels like when it comes to children and
(12:19):
the safety of children, right, obviously, if you see something
terrible going on, people often are just like, I need
to call DCF and like once you call, right, and
that is a very not that's a very big step, right,
not extreme step, because if it's needed, like great, But
you guys are kind of like a little like a
middle ground, right, Like it's like this isn't really like
(12:40):
so so so extreme that I feel like I need
to call them, but I something doesn't something feels ichy,
something feels off. I feel like I should just call
Kids Safe and let them navigate if this is the
bad situation, if I'm mis understanding, if this kid does
need help.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
So it's like a little bit less aggressive. Is that
the right word or.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
I think that's one of the coolest things about kid
Safe is that we can do and be a lot
of different things, and so we are absolutely a resource
for people in the community. We get calls to our
office quite often with people saying I'm worried about my
neighbor's kid, or I'm worried about my kid, or I
(13:19):
don't know what to do, what should I do? And
so we have the opportunity to support people, whether that
is you know, calling the child Protection hotline and making
a report, whether it's thinking about are their resources in
the community that they could call.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Like if someone calls and says, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
I'm in a relationship and my partner is violent and
we have a child and I don't know what to do,
we might talk about like you can call steps to
and domestic violence or these other community resources. So our
goal is to really help everyone in the community know
what they can do and play a role in keeping
(14:01):
all kids safe. Our perspective and our belief is that everybody,
regardless of whether you're a parent or not, everyone has
a role in keeping our communities children safe, and so
we want to equip people with the education and the
knowledge and the support to play their part in that
and that role.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And well, it's sorry, no, no, it's great that you
guys kind of help like someone qualify their concern, let's say.
But also I could see like a lot of family dynamics,
like maybe like a grandparent is like I.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Can't I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I don't want to call DCF on my daughter, like
I but I like, I don't know. And so I
feel like it helps for you guys to be able
to be that person. So well, you know, you would
think maybe grandma just needs to get over it, but
like that is that is.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
An unfortunate part of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Sometimes people worry about the fallout from their actions. And
so I think that it's great that there's you guys
to be like, you know what, thanks for giving us
the tip, Like we've got it from here. You can
honestly look your daughter in the face, see you didn't
call on her or son right, like in that it's.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, that there's that there for them.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
I think sometimes people, you know, people like love their
kids and love kids.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And they just want to do right by them. And
I think if.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
You don't work in this world, if you're not like
a teacher or a childcare provider, and you're faced with
like I'm worried about a kid, it can feel really
scary and overwhelming and not you know, not.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Knowing what to do.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
So sometimes a call to us is just like validating,
like I yes, like I hear you. You should make
a report. Here's what you can expect when you call.
You know, kids say collaborative. We produced the online mandated
reporter training that over forty thousand vermonitors have now.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Taken since we launched it.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
And so our role, like I said, is really just
to help empower people to protect the kids that they
love and just kids in our community.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
So, you know, any organization like yours, it takes funding
to make it keep the lights on and to keep
the keep going on the stuff you're doing. Talk about
a little bit about how you get your funding. I
know you you ask community for donations, but the other
places where you get your funding and how that all
goes about.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Yeah, so we are really lucky that we have different
support from different places.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So, like you said, we do rely.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
On donations from you know, people in the community, individual donors, families,
also businesses and corporations.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And then we do also receive.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Some money from the State of Vermont to support a
couple of our specific projects and child protection teams. And
so Kids Safe is really lucky that I think we
have a diverse pool of funding, but we absolutely rely
on the support of our community members to help us
sort of like you said, keep the lights on, run
(17:07):
the programs. The heart of Kids Safe really is the
people doing the work, and so donations in addition to
you know, lights building, Brent, they also support our programs,
and they also support the staff who work here that
do all of the great work that we do.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And maybe they pick up the trash we.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Actually do take out and pick up our own trash.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
No I met, Sorry, I was getting Myers in there, Joe,
talk about talk about talk about.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Myers obviously has a lot of different organizations they give
to and that are near and dear to their heart,
but this is also one of them.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Joe.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You talk about it, and then Meg gonna add to it.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Yeah, No, absolutely, There's so many worthy organizations out there,
and because of being a family business, we really rely
on the members of our family to really help us
determin and where we go with our both in kind
donations but also actual cash donations. So you know, Megan's
(18:06):
organization is one of them that Jeff and the entire
Myers family has donated financially too for a number of
years because it's such a you know, family is so important,
So it is something that's been important to us and
to Jeff and the whole red Can family.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
We're so grateful for Meyer's support. I mean, like you
all have been supporters of us for many many years,
and I mean quite honestly, like we couldn't do what
we do without Myers. You are a big part of
how we keep the lights and more importantly, how we
help kids in our community.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
But Megan's also got to take the trash out herself, Joe,
so you need to get over there and help her
out sometimes.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Listen, I take my own trash out, so you know
that's that's we all have to.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So Spencer was the trash guy for you.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Yeah, so our son spent my son Spencer was the
one who has to take the trash out every week.
You know, our day is Mondays. And now that he
has a little at home, that falls to me. So
I try to get my wife, but she that's not
one of her. She vacuums, so I can do the trash.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's a that's a great marriage. That's a very good
division of power there.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Easy we.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Have we have one of those rooms of vacuum cleaners,
so you easy, don't, don't patter on the back too much.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
She just makes sure it's charged.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
No goes back by itself.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
She just pushes the button.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
My husband thinks I don't know how to do the dishes,
so he just he does the dishes. He thinks I
don't know how, and that's fine. Good for you, Megan.
What is something about kids Safe that you wish more
people knew?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
My God, what a great question.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Well, I mean, I guess I wish more people knew
that we existed. We're a small organization, but we do
like some really amazing things, and so I would also
love that.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The other thing that I want people to know that.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
We do is every year we host our Outstanding Service Awards,
and this event is it's honestly my favorite day of
the entire year, like even more than like Christmas, Thanksgiving,
my birthday. The awards event is amazing. Each year we
honor individuals and a group who are doing outstanding above
(20:30):
and beyond work keeping kids safe.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It's our way of sort.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
Of highlighting like the day to day work that people
are doing, often really quietly.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So this was our Awardi group, not this past year,
but the year.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Before, and it is just like the most joyful morning
to like bring together a few hundred people and celebrate
people doing amazing work.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Like you can't ask for anything more than that. So
what time? I beer?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
What time year is this?
Speaker 6 (21:01):
So we do it every April, which corresponds with child
abuse prevention months, So we didn't quite pick it randomly
as part of how we recognize that month.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
The date varies kind of year to year, but we
do it every April, so.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Your Christmas just happens.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So now you've started planning next year, I'm sure, but
now you've got to have find like birthdays and Christmases
to look forward to doing stuff exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Yeah, So Megan, about tell us how can people find
you if they want to get more involved or if
they want to learn more about the organization.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So you can find us online.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Our website is www dot kidsafevt dot org. We're also
on Facebook and Instagram as well, and you can always
call or email us. You can find our emails and
our phone number on our website and we are located
in Burlington.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
So people are welcome to stop by too. If everyone
to see her office.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Well, I'm finding out that a big facebookers now, so
you know that generational thing, so you know that'd be.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Good for her.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I mean, hold on, let me ask this one question, Joe,
and then I'm going to get back to that, because
I think I know why you are anti Facebook, and
I think Megan will be on my side for why
we are pro Facebook. But Megan, if someone sees something
and wants to call, is that are those the same
things they do?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Go to the website call It's all the same place.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
So if someone sees a kid in danger, like a
media danger crisis, call nine one one.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
If somebody is.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
Concerned about child abuse and neglect, they should call the
Vermont Child Protection Hotline. That is the place to report
those types of concerns. If you're not sure, if you're worried.
If you don't know what to do, you can call
us and we will help talk you through that.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Back to Facebook, Megan, when did you join Facebook when
your college made it available?
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (22:55):
I joined Facebook back when you needed a dot edu
email address in order to be on Facebook and there
was like no news speed, it was just your page.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yes, So like, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Too, I too had to wait for the wave of
my college to be able to join. And I feel
as though this is why Joe's upset, because Joe is
a little bit older than us, Meghan, So I'm not
sure that Joe had an ed you email address and
he had to wait until it was open to just everyone,
not just those fine college students.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
That's absolutely correct. I'm a little older, absolutely that. My college,
we did not have phones in our dorm rooms or
internet in our dorm rooms. And this is mid nineties,
by by the way, and we're not talking his eighties.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Mid nineties.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
There was no phones in the dorms and we didn't
get internet in the dorm rooms until my sophomore year.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So no, I love Facebook. I'm a big facebooker.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
He's it, Meghan, Are you a TikToker. Yes, Joe is too. Yeah,
jo is too.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I have I don't know, it makes you feel better.
When I went to college, we did have internet, but
there was no Wi Fi. You had to like plug in, so.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I think that's how it was for me too. And
I had my huge laptop. Oh yeah, it was in
the era of those colored max too.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Well I was matrix printer so yeah. Our one producer,
Jay was a Fountain panel.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Oh my goodness. Okay, Megan, I'm that note. I'm gonna
let you go. Thank you so much for well, is
there anything I didn't ask you about?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
No, I am just so excited to be here. Thanks
for having me. Like I said, I'm like, this is
my first podcast, so thanks for making it super easy.
And I would love to have people learn more about
kids safe. So check out our website and our socials
or give us a call.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
We're always here to help perfect. Thank you so much
for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Oh I love it. I think that will be her
new favorite podcast.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Well, I was gonna say, you know, at least her
first podcast wasn't some you know, serial killer podcasts that
that you both like.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Okay, listen, but.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You're new to listening to podcasts, right, and so what
are your podcast likes and dislikes as you listen?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Like what's your what's your jam?
Speaker 5 (25:23):
So I'm definitely a sports guy, but I love my
my sports ones. And I am a financial guy, so
I like more not so much like investment, but like
I'm always intrigued by how people budget their money, both
adults and couples, and people like that because they're it's
(25:45):
like a whole nother thing. And to show that we
haven't pre talked about this, like these married couples that
venmo each other. You know, it makes me left so hard,
you know, like, come on, you're married, for God's thinks,
You're you're really gotta send thirty dollars for the pizza?
Like yeah, I like those podcasts, you know, budgeting and
(26:08):
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I that is a peppyve of mine too, Like I'm like,
what are what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Just figure it out? Like or be private.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Don't let the whole world know that you had to
pay them for your slice of pizza tonight, like exactly.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
My other favorite is when they go back and forth,
like it's like two of my girlfriends, I like call
them on it, so now they just make it private.
But they're like best friends and do a lot together,
so I'll like text them.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I'm like, oh, looks like you guys got coffee and
then went shopping and then had lunch and then did this.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Because it's like she paid her for that, She paid
her for that, she paid her for that, And I'm like, come.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
On, and thanks for the invite.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, oh yeah that too, Like, oh, look, so you
guys are hanging out without me. Cool, Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
You know, I do like Facebook.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I'm a larker and what I'm one of the things
that I found and you're not this way, ern So
I gotta give you.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
A little prop. You know, these people on Facebook.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
You know, oh I went for a walk and you know,
I took four thousand steps and you know.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
But I have to say, it's very impressive. You ran
the marathon.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I mean, hold on, yes, well you ran part of
the marathon.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I ran the Glory leg, the two point eight miles
to the finish line of the marathon.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
But I'll take all the credit. That's fine.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
But listen, you listen. You've ran anything part of the marathon.
That's impressive. That's the stuff you put on Facebook, not
that you know. Oh I you know, Jimmy made it
to school on time today. I mean, those people are
just dumb.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I'm a big Like Facebook is my personal photo album.
I like to make reels of like fun things that
we do, and then it's really fun. The kids like
to watch the reels, and I'll try to do like
maybe like a week in recap, like because I'm also
not a huge fan of the people that are like
in the middle of something like I got to go
put it on here and tell everyone this is what
I'm doing right now, like.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I'm happy to throw up.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
You know, hey, we had a really fun weekend, Like
here's a bunch of the stuff we did, or like, hey,
my kid's super cute today, so now you got to
see her.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
But it is the faith that because this could be
a whole nother.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Podcast though, like Facebook, maybe we should start screenshotting some
and we'll just like redact people's names.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Though.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Oh and you know, I'm the youngest of four kids,
so my my older siblings like they don't really understand
they do. So anytime I post anything, I instantly get
text messages for my siblings like, why.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Are you telling the world about that?
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Nobody cares that you went out to dinner, and I'm like, no,
it's a nice picture of like a nice meal, and yes,
it's like this is nice.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
And they're just jealous they didn't go and get the
same meal.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Joke.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
No, but I will say you learned stuff about your
friends as well, Like I learned that you recently got
a new dining room table. I think because I saw
that you were trying to sell one.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I moved, so my old house had a dining room.
My new house does not have a dining room. So
I'm trying to get rid of the dining room table,
which been sitting in my storage unit since I moved.
And I realized this is done, paying money to store
a table I don't even want.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Okay, well, okay, let's make a deal with our listeners.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
If you need this table, and you reach out to
Joe because you find it on Facebook Marketplace, tell him
you heard it on the podcast, and he'll give you twenty.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Five dollars off.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah, half off, absolutely perfect.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I hope this happened.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And while you're out, everyone should have also probably liked
subscribe and share this podcast with all of your friends.
We've had it rolling now for a little bit, with
different organizations, different people, race car drivers, Ronald McDonald, house,
wiffleball tournament, people like. It's been so much fun getting
to learn so much about stuff.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I will be.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Honest, I didn't know about Kids Safe Collaborative, but I
think that's like an awesome resource.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
That we have.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Sure is Sure is all right?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Everybody till next week, have a great week. Let us
know your thoughts in the comments below.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
No
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