Quality Living: Tenaciously Teal – Empowering Cancer Patients

In this episode of Quality Living With Peaceful Support, hosts Amanda Whittemore and Ben McQuaid talk with Tara Green, founder of Tenaciously Teal, and collaborator Alisa Green. Tara shares her inspiring journey from a stage four ovarian cancer diagnosis at 29 to founding TTEAL, which has delivered over 53,000 care packs to cancer patients worldwide. Alisa describes their partnership and the organization’s impact, especially in Native American communities. The discussion highlights the importance of community, resilience, and gratitude, featuring programs like “Brave Shave” that empower patients. Tara encourages listeners to focus on small joys and support others, reinforcing that thriving and connection are central to quality living.

Hosts: Amanda Whittemore, Ben McQuaid; Producer: Amanda Whittemore

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The opinions expressed here are those of the individual participants. Curry Coast Community Radio takes no position on issues discussed in this program.

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Episode Transcript

(00:15):
We are actually in the KCIW
radio station in Brookings, Oregon.
We know who we are. I'm Amanda Whittemore,
co host Ben.
McQuade. McBen McQuade. Co host with the co
host. Yes. Yes.
We're again here making it happen and with
full volunteer support.

(00:35):
This radio station is a 100% ran, volunteers,
donations. So thank you, listeners.
Thank you for being wherever you are, turning
it up, subscribing,
contacting at (541)
661-4098.
And we love it when you call and
ask us questions.
We're still have yet to find out where

(00:56):
that number goes to, right, Ben?
As far as we know, yes. Okay.
Gotta go somewhere. Gotta go somewhere. So, you
guys call and let us know who's answering
that number. (541)
661-4098.
Awesome. This is the Quality Living with Peaceful
Support program and that's what we do here.
We make sure it's quality.

(01:16):
We are definitely alive.
And, we actually have some real live humans
in here with us, Ben.
We do, which is,
the back end of the support part of
it. Yeah. Absolutely. A 100%. Maybe the front
tonight. Maybe the side. I don't know. We're
not sure yet. The rhombus
side if, for all of you people that
are in the geometry out there. Absolutely.

(01:39):
Well, we're just gonna get to it. Let's
just invite,
our guest and introduce them.
We have
Alisa Green from the Green Team.
Hello. Hello. Hello.
How are you tonight? I am doing great.
How are you? Doing alright. Doing good.
And we are here to talk with another

(02:01):
super special guest. But before we do that,
we're just gonna make sure our listeners are
ready. Sit down. They got their popcorn, something
juicy to drink on.
And
we are had been Alisa Green has been
on here many times and a very favorite
guest of ours. And we have a topic
for the Quality Living Show tonight.
T

(02:22):
t
e a l
dot o r g.
Yes. The woman behind tteal.org,
she is from OKC,
that's Oklahoma City, to you
that don't know.
And she NBA champions Yeah. By the way.
Yeah. Okay.
Awesome.
Anyways, Tara Green

(02:43):
is no relation,
but she is
a rock star in her own right. And
I hope that that this interview helps show
who she is
and what TTL is all about.
Thank you for being here. Thank you. I'm
so excited. I love it. Yes.
Right on all the way from Oklahoma.
OKC. Yes. Like I said,

(03:06):
yes. I your listeners will probably hear my
accent. I I do talk with a little
bit of an accent. Although, I lived here
at one time in Brookings, Oregon where my
family dead, but,
yeah. Here Okay. I'm OKC. That's one of
our our our probes that we do here.
We like to ask where and how, like,
how you got like, how did you learn
about Brookings? How did you find us? I

(03:27):
know. Okay. So I was telling a friend
earlier that it's like, if you don't know,
like, if you don't know, you can't get
here. No. But once you get here, it's
the most magical and beautiful place. And
I was so blessed that,
not blessed that I was a pastor's kid
growing up, but my dad did pastor,
Brookings,
Oregon,

(03:48):
Nazarene
Okay. When I was in college. So I
came back here a lot for summers Really?
And, for extended
periods of time. And, yeah, they actually,
were here for almost fifteen years.
Wow.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Rick and Mary Lynn Green,
which a lot of your viewers or listeners
would know. Well, maybe we're gonna have to

(04:09):
put some videos and, make a little video
so we can have viewers too. Yeah. They've
been great. Yeah. They've we got pics.
Yeah. Good. Good. Sweet.
And so from
that session of, you know, being here many
years ago and then your parents moved or
you moved with them, or how did you
get to where you went? And Yeah. Good

(04:29):
question.
Because so,
we moved around a lot as
I was a PK, pastor's kid. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes. And so,
they actually moved. We were in San Diego
and moved here my freshman year of college.
Mhmm. And so I kinda was like, woah.
Okay. I'm gonna stay here in San Diego,
but get to come back to this beautiful

(04:50):
place called Brookings.
And at the time, my dad took the
job. I remember cell phones didn't work here.
Mhmm. You know? They still don't. No. I'm
just kidding.
It's choppy. Right? And I'm grateful. We were
to put. Yeah. Yeah. We're we're grateful for
that.
Yeah. And it's so amazing to be back
here and see

(05:11):
what has become of this town in such
a beautiful way.
It's,
prospered, and there's been a regentrification.
And I just I love it. I love
it for this. I fell in love with
this town when my parents moved here. Although
I was like,
why are you leaving me? Yeah.
Okay. So my abandonment issues.

(05:32):
Yeah. Exactly.
What happened? But,
I'm so thankful I get to be back
here, and it's, yeah, kinda crazy that I
am here right now. Well, I'm glad you're
here. I love your energy, and this is
gonna be really fun when Alyssa says, hey,
I got something super special for you. I'm
like, let me see all of it. Like,
tell me all about it. I'm like, oh,
let's just yeah. Right now. Perfect. Let's do

(05:53):
it. Thank thank you. And so how did
you guys
meet? On the stage. We met on the
stage, and we were both singing.
And when Tara and I met, it was
like, wow.
We just really clicked.
And,
then she went,
on a trip,
and
she can tell more if she'd like or

(06:15):
not. But that's where we met. On the
stage? On the stage of Nazarene Church. We
both were in the choir. Oh, okay. We
were both in the choir that summer.
Yes. Okay.
Yeah.
Alisa's got a really good, alto voice, and
I have the soprano. So we actually,
did do well together,
on that. It's so random. There you go.
I play alto sax. Hey.

(06:37):
So okay. Cool. Musicians, creative artists, like, all
of it is amazing. Right? And I think
you find people in your life along the
way that you connect with. And
what has been so cool about being back
here with knowing Alyssa from the stage, as
I would say, is it's just a full
circle moment. Because when she mentored me as
a 20 year old,

(06:59):
I was the age she
how do I say that? Right?
You're the age that I was. When you
mentored me Mhmm. As
a 20.
You guys aren't 20?
No. No. Let's say there's some I mean,
I'm Ben, but I'm not Benjamin Buttons. Okay.
So I will just say this. I am
a stage four ovarian cancer survivor, so I'm

(07:20):
never afraid to say my age. I am
42 years old. I was born on 08/04/1983.
Way to go. Yeah.
Way
to go. We're we're all high fiving each
other
and have teal shirts on, just so you
know. Epic. And I'm holding a teal piece
if it's blue, but, you know, I'm gonna
hey. Those are my notes from last week.

(07:42):
Okay.
Yeah. So
if I can interject here, when Tara found
out she had stage four ovarian cancer Yeah.
She was 29 years of age. Mhmm. And,
quite frankly,
our group, our people, our family, our and
I say family. You know, people that love,
and care for Tara. Yeah. We were all

(08:03):
going, woah.
And what what happened next
would blow your mind. Mhmm. But
Tara, you think I'm a fighter. Mhmm. Tara
is a fighter. Mhmm. And,
Tara, I think you need to I think
you need to tell that story.
I am a fighter.
So,

(08:23):
Alisa You're here. I'm here. I'm here. Actually
so ironically,
this trip was so spontaneous,
and I put that on my social media
actually today
because I this is a trip you, like,
plan out. Right? Getting to Brookings like we
were talking about. I don't know if that's
on camera or whatever, but we're talking about

(08:43):
how hard it is to get here.
A destination location. Absolutely.
Yes. It's a destination
location. It's a commitment. And I planned it,
like, three weeks ago, and Okay. Here I
am.
But
I'm here just,
to kind of circle back on some things.
And but when I was planning it, I

(09:05):
didn't realize that it was thirteen years since
my diagnosis Oh. This this last week. Yeah.
Holy heavens.
Yeah. Major. I You are a fighter. Yeah.
She is a fighter. Yeah. And with her
And when she found out that she had
ovarian cancer,
she
she started
outreaching to people with bracelets

(09:27):
that said
Fight like a girl.
Fight like a girl. Nice. Yeah. It's a
real deal. Yeah. And then
from that,
she started a Facebook page.
Yeah. Something like that. Something like
that. Oh, okay. I'm a man raised by

(09:49):
women. Okay. So that makes
tons and tons of sense. Yeah. Basically, she
she she used to be a cheerleader. Right,
Tara?
Way back? Oh, gosh. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Top
of the pyramid? So she so she she
collected okay. If you will. She collected her
team for her support through this journey.

(10:10):
I love that analogy, by the way. Mhmm.
Yes. I knew you would. You're great at
those. And this is why I've stayed in
contact with this lady for Yeah. More than
two decades. Like, she's amazing.
And she's right. So I spent my career,
initially in child welfare for
and I just saw so much, like, disparity

(10:32):
in people who didn't have support and poverty
and people needing
some love and light. That's right. And when
I started fighting cancer so I got the
hard news that it's stage four. Like, it's
pretty bad. It's it's terrible.
And you're gonna die from this, but
you have two options. You either

(10:53):
go home and sulk or you fight. And
that's what I chose to do and had
a really hard surgery and
just start reaching out to people and saw
what an impact it made. Yeah. Yeah. We
thank you for that. Oh, thank you. For
sure. Sweet.
Well, and to expand upon that, Tara came
out and talked to,

(11:14):
people in Brookings Mhmm. After she had had
started the chemotherapy.
And the first five months, I believe it
was, she started her chemotherapy, which was radical
chemotherapy. It was, it was a program.
Yeah. It was like a intraperitoneal
chemo. So, like, I got all the chemo

(11:34):
through my,
stomach. Right. Peritoneal is your stomach cavity. So
it made me really, really sick, and it's
like eight hour infusions, and they called it
a belly wash. Yeah. Yeah. And if that's
not
that if that's not intense,
she finished her master's degree
during that time,
which is blows my mind still to this

(11:56):
day.
And,
then in August that year, she came out
and talked to us.
And during that time,
I sat there. I've I've done,
bags all over the world.
And so,
I was sitting there going, man, she started
bringing care
things to the other people that were receiving

(12:19):
receiving chemotherapy.
Yeah. She saw the need and she acted
on it. Mhmm. I mean, it's so awesome.
Mhmm. And so I'm sitting there going, man,
maybe I should make some bags. And so
I called her
and we talked about it. We talked about
what should be in the bags, and,
boy Here we are. Here we are. Like,
53,000

(12:39):
cancer care packs later worldwide
that we've done. Amazing.
Definitely. Cancer fighters. Awesome. Yeah. I, I do
have a question for you guys. Please. With,
two of my best friends just passed away,
that are from the Oklahoma area,
ideally. Their grandmother is part of the Caddo

(13:00):
nation. Yeah.
And is there support available
for native
folks?
I mean, how much are you entrenched in
that community?
Because they're in Bingham as far as I
know,
and they have
a thirty six percent
more,
cancer rate and then seventy six percent more

(13:22):
death rate. Right. So I would assume
you guys be in there.
If you could talk a little bit about
that, that would be awesome. That's a great
question. Yeah. It is a good question.
So I didn't really realize this, obviously, when
my parents were here in Brookings and then
being in OKC now. I have roots in
Oklahoma way back, but there's obviously, like, a

(13:45):
very,
high level of influence of the Native American
population, which is so
amazing. I I have native in me, and
I'm so proud of that.
And I've been so blessed to, like, work
closely with some of the tribes in Oklahoma
City and
receive funding from them. And I actually have

(14:05):
a really funny story about an native, like,
related to that that would never Bring it.
I wanna remind listeners that we are on
KCIW
radio station listening to Quality Living with Peaceful
Support, and we're talking with Teal. Okay.
Yes. So I feel like this would be
a good influence for
maybe anybody in application, but at the time,

(14:27):
it was so freaking embarrassing.
Okay? Mhmm. So,
so in Oklahoma City, our
like, state superintendent
got his wife got a care pack when
she was fighting breast cancer.
And so then in 2019,
we were the, beneficiaries of the speaker's ball.
And so it's a big,

(14:48):
whatever, welcome the legislature to the house that
year. And so I'm speaking in front of
the governor of Oklahoma and all the people
and happens to be the governor of the
Chickasaw Nation. Have you heard of Chickasaw? Uh-huh.
Okay. Yeah. So it's a very big, big
influential tribe. Choctaw.
Absolutely.
There's a country song that's, like, Cherokee, Choctaw.
Yep. I don't know. Chickasaw.

(15:09):
So the governor, Annatebe, is in the room,
and I get a call from his lieutenant
governor, which is basically
short term for his his right hand or
long term.
And,
they want he wants to meet me. I'm
like, oh my gosh. Wow. This is a
big deal. Wow. That is a big deal.
It's a big deal. So I'm gonna go

(15:30):
meet with the governor, and this is so
your listeners know and understand. This is, like,
a sovereign nation. And so I'm literally going
to meet with the leader of this nation
in Oklahoma.
And I'm a new, nonprofit leader. I'm doing
this as a hobby. I'm doing this as
a act
of service and love and,

(15:51):
need.
Right? And Survivor.
Survivor.
A winner.
Yeah.
Fighter.
And,
so I go down to eight Oklahoma, and
I'll
wrap the story up. But, essentially, I pulled
the gas can out too early. I've never
done that in my life, but I poured

(16:12):
gas all over me Oh my god. Right
before my meeting with the governor of the
Chickasaw Nation. And I feel like I had
to set that up and tell this story
in a long term thing that
I had nothing to do. You know what
you do?
You show up. Of course. You show up
to the meeting. Mhmm. And do you know
what that, like, did? He could not stop

(16:34):
laughing.
I walked into this room
smelling My car is full of gas. I
don't need you at all.
And, I mean, it's unfortunate that I'm
known as the gas lady
for the sovereign
nation,
but,
there is something to that. But I'm sorry.

(16:55):
I to your question, yes. Like, we do
work closely with, the tribes and, like, the,
Indian clinic and OKC right there. They're social
workers and,
all the people just to make sure we're
making
I'm very passionate about, like, not, like, duplicating
services, and we and, you know, we wanna
make sure everybody gets the help that they
need.
I assumed as much. I just wanted to

(17:16):
bring it up. I well, it brought up
the gas lady story.
Well Are you Buddhist or no? Come on.
And what's funny not funny, but funny,
one of the supports that Tenaciously Teal does
is they do give gas cards
to people that are receiving. Yeah? That's awesome.
Gas lady. Gas lady.

(17:39):
Love it.
That's awesome.
Because I smell terrible.
No. No. Like, literally You sound awesome. I
was in a business suit and was like,
what do you do? You show up. You
show up. You just show up. Mhmm.
Smelling gas. Real quick, just to on that
point of showing up,

(17:59):
Amanda and I have talked a lot about,
like, surviving versus living.
Love it. And that is living versus surviving.
Yeah. What you just did, showing up, like
you said. It's not it's it's it's taken
that to the next level. Mhmm. You know?
Survive, live, show up. Show up can be
anywhere in there. Right.
Because I could've they all live. I could've

(18:20):
very easily sent an email, right, in that
situation
and been like, hey. I I can't do
that. I'm sick.
So I'm telling you about that. Yeah.
I have COVID. I don't know. No. No.
No. We you you show up. You make
it happen. You do what you gotta do.
And that brings us to a really unique
question that we ask here on the Quality

(18:41):
Living Show. We're at, like, a 105
shows, a 103.
I don't know exactly because I didn't do
my homework last night. But so
I'll make my board tonight. I promise.
So quality living is the name of our
program. And we like to ask our guest,
what does the word how does the word

(19:02):
quality fit into your world? What does it
represent to you?
That's a good question.
I like this.
Whew.
Well, it's thriving
for sure.
Right?
And
life is
so hard at so many different,

(19:23):
points in the,
you know, juncture.
And,
it's like being together Mhmm. Community
Mhmm. But
truly thriving. So I learned this not that
long ago. The last couple years has been
a very
one of the hardest, like, kinda times in
my life, and that's saying something since

(19:44):
I went through,
chemotherapy treatment in 2014.
But the last couple years were hard,
really hard. And I started walking. Mhmm. And,
like, it changed
my trajectory. I was like Forrest Gump. Yeah.
Like, just walking.
Totally. And I walked today, and it was
raining.
Mhmm. And I got back, and I was

(20:05):
wet, and I was cold, but I walked,
and I felt so much better. It was
like a shift in my mindset, and it's
so good for you,
just your nervous system to do that. So
I feel like thriving I have to to
have some movement to thrive.
Yoga Yeah. Walking. Journaling did the same thing
for me.
And that's another thing. Yeah. I've started that

(20:26):
practice
and
had people tell me you have to do
this
and did it over the years, but have
really tried to make that a habit.
Mhmm. And it, again, is so
it's it changes you. It just like, you
get it out, and it doesn't mean
anything besides you or just writing on a

(20:49):
piece of paper.
And I actually was at this conference really
quick,
not that long ago. And this was a
big
AI guy
in,
Silicon Valley. And he was like, you know
what? I do every single day. I I
wonder.
I take a minute to take a piece
of paper and a pen and a paper,

(21:10):
and I sit down without any noise and
any music or anything, and I wonder. And
so if it's just one page,
then you wondered.
Mhmm. Mhmm. And how cool is that?
I love it. I love it.
Yes. And
how in what's the best way for people
to learn about this program if they wanna
get involved or if they want if they

(21:31):
have more questions for you? Or how's your
what's your best contact?
Yeah. I mean, we're here on Facebook. They
can go to our website at tteal.org.
And,
yeah, I'm available.
I spent that's
where I like to connect with people, you
know? And I always tell people I hope

(21:52):
they don't need me, but if they do,
I'm
first and foremost a social worker Mhmm. And
happy to be a support of,
prayer and love
and hope because there is hope. I was
told I wasn't gonna be here, and here
I am in Brookings, Oregon on a spontaneous
trip. Well, that's a great way to put

(22:13):
it. Years later. That's a great way to
put it. I I hope I'm not needed.
You know what I mean? But if I
am, I'm here. Here I am. Yeah. People
can take that, like, the other way, but
that means, like, hey. I'm good.
And that's absolute peaceful support right there. Yeah.
Yes. And we do mail care packs nationwide,
so they can request a care pack from

(22:35):
us at any time,
and we'd be happy to mail them on.
Yeah.
Sweet. Sweet. Good deal. One of the one
of the programs that they do that I
admire is, what's called Brave Shave.
Oh, yeah. They told me about this. Yeah.
Tell our listeners. The Brave Shave.
So a lot of times during chemotherapy,

(22:56):
people lose their hair.
And so rather than
having your hair fall out in the sink,
you,
basically, they throw a party. Basically, it's a
party, And they,
they have a barber
shave your hair with your family and friends
around. They have
light snacks and so forth. And this is

(23:16):
in Oklahoma City, people, just so you all
know,
doesn't happen here at this point in time.
Like we talked about this. And?
So we did. I think we did On
air? They could? No. Just you and me?
Mhmm. Okay. I was just having deja vu,
sorry. Yeah. Just recently, actually. Because I asked
if we could do that here. I was
like, let's have a party. And do other
people shave in conjunction? Like, they're like, the

(23:38):
uncles and aunties and parents?
Yeah. Sometimes. Sometimes.
Yeah. And so what they do, the the
people basically face their
possible hair loss
head on and they, you know, with with
that that bravery.
Yeah.
I love it. What was it with the
water?

(23:59):
ALS thing. Right. Ice bucket challenge. Yeah. If
we can do that, we can do what
we're talking about. Yeah. For sure. A wave
shave.
How are there any
goals or anything you would like to say
to
our listeners that would,
whose
just a words of motivation or advice? Or

(24:20):
I appreciate you asking me that way because
a lot of people ask goals, but, like,
a words of motivation, I think, is a
little maybe more inspiring for people hearing this
and from somebody who,
suffered through fighting through stage four ovarian cancer,
and it was really freaking hard. And there
was a lot of darkness and a lot
of hurt and a lot of suffering. But,

(24:41):
like, every day, I just focused on, like,
what I did have, and I I know
it's
cliche to say, right, the gratefulness thing. But
if you can get down to the tiny
nitty gritty gratefulness things, even the people that
I've seen here in Brookings that maybe are
in an encampment right now and are just
going through a hard time, but, like,
they have,

(25:01):
people around them. They have a smile. They
have,
shelter.
You have a sock. If you, like, start
to be thankful for your socks.
Mhmm. It life gets a little brighter,
you know, and that's what you really have
to do in those times
is to focus on what
Yeah. And then when you focus on what's

(25:22):
good, you look at, like, how you can
be good for other people.
Mhmm. And that makes the world better. Like,
then it it it's a trajectory
and a continuation
and
a mushroom,
if you will. It's,
just kind of
envelops you. Right. The whole healing process that,

(25:42):
like, starts to animate and, like, goes beyond
your own self and then the god in
this universe hears that and gives you more
support and yeah. I believe that. I believe
that. Yeah.
I do too. Yeah.
Yeah. It's hard. It's a practice. Mhmm. Right?
But, if
someone listening can hear that and be like,
man, I'm grateful for my sock today, and

(26:05):
then they can be grateful for the next
thing. Mhmm. And the next thing, like,
every breath, my mickey smile. Totally. Yeah. We
we talk about smiles here a lot. I
love that. You know? Same thing
with you. Felt such a good energy. Opening
a door
or that kind of thing. That's awesome. Smiling
at somebody that you don't know. Well, let's
all have this big huge smile and you

(26:26):
guys are gonna, like, feel the smile. You're
gonna feel the hug all throughout these airwaves,
and we're just gonna give all the support
we have in the most peaceful ways, and
we are here for you. Give a call
or email contact at kciw dot o r
g. Thank you for listening. Thank you for
being here. Thank you. Yeah. Bye. Bye. Love
you.

(26:46):
Much love.
Love.