October 21, 2024 • 42 mins
Dale Jackson’s love for Auburn University spans decades.
As a youngster, the LaGrange, Georgia native would spend afternoon’s tossing around the pigskin on Auburn’s campus before jetting to Jordan-Hare Stadium to watch the Tigers battle on the gridiron.
It’s a memory Jackson cherishes.
“I wanted to be in the action,” recalled Jackson. “I was crazy. I wore an orange wig, screamed my head off. I was an insane fan.”
But when his son Colin, now 16, was born and diagnosed with autism, Dale wasn’t sure going to Auburn football games was something he’d be able to pass down to the next generation. That is, until the father of five and owner of Jackson (HVAC) Services came up with an idea of providing those with special needs a cool spot to call home before kickoff.
Driven by Jackson and his family’s passion to provide a helpful resource for those with special needs, SNASY was introduced in 2023 in partnership with Jackson Services and Carrier, official partners of Auburn Athletics. SNASY is an acronym that stands for Special Needs Assistance Stations For You. SNASY provides comfortable and inclusive climate-controlled tailgates and tents with privacy areas at all Auburn home football games.
Along with a helping hand from Auburn College of Nursing, East Alabama Health, a handful of sponsors, and Auburn Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl, SNASY’s concept has caught on. This year, the organization is giving countless families a chance to experience gameday like they never thought possible.
But the mission is bigger than just a game.
“It’s not about a football game,” said Jackson. “It’s about bringing forth knowledge, exposure, understanding, and access back to families. We’re using this platform to really change lives.”
It’s a great example of the Auburn Creed in action.
Take a listen as Jackson tells Everything Auburn’s co-hosts Carter Gustin and Dalton Odom the touching story of how his son inspired the start of SNASY, plus learn about SNASY’s mission to take the concept across the SEC and beyond.
If you’d like to sign up for a SNASY gameday experience or volunteer for the organization, please visit https://snasy.vip/.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to everything, Auburn.
My name is Carter,and I'm so glad that you are here.
From theWEGL studio here in the student center
from the campus of Auburn University.
Thank you for comingand take some time with us today.
I am very thankfulyou're here and sitting next to me.
He's 50% of a cinnamon stickbut he's my personal mic man.
It’s Dalton Odom. Hey, everybody.
How's it going?
Welcome back.
(00:25):
Dalton had a here.
It's always been torturing mein the office with a cinnamon broom.
Yeah. Yeah.
On his door.
I hate cinnamon, so that's awful.
Carter, hatesthings that are filled with joy.
That's me.
He, He's not a fan of it.
I thought was my favorite season.
It's just my favorite season.
Okay, but you don't.
I love Auburn campus, the university.
(00:46):
It's beautiful.
The trees are turning. It's great.
I smell cinnamon, I crown a whole and die.
Okay, well, it's I like it.
I'm gonna keep it there. Keep it inmy office.
Just don't come there.
That's why you look like cinnamon.
It's just like, you know.
You know, I,I saw the temperature right below 80.
I said, we're going to out the flannel.
I might sweat to death, but, you know,it's just you do what you gotta do.
(01:07):
It's what it is.
It is what it is.
So here with us today,we have a very special guest.
We have mister Dale Jackson joining us allthe way far away from LaGrange Georgia.
Big hike.
The big hike from LaGrange Down85, down 85.
Dale, thanks for have coming in today.
I'm thrilled to be here.
I have basically lived my lifeacross the river,
(01:28):
and I started, as an Auburn fan as a youngeight year old kid having no idea
where in the world Auburn University was.
But I was an Auburn fan,and then I grew up as an adult
and realized, hey, it's 32 minutes away,just like I do.
So how do you become of eight years oldthen?
Well, that's kind of a funny story,and hopefully my mom's family
(01:49):
is not listening to this podcast.
Perfect. But we'll send it.
I grew up traveling, three hoursevery Christmas morning to go visit
my family that happened to live about15 minutes away from Athens, Georgia,
and they were all Georgia fans. I'm sorry.
And needless to say,I might not have gotten along the best.
Yeah, that's fair.
(02:09):
And so I determined as an eight nine yearold kid that, well, you know,
I'm just going to be an Auburn fan.
I had no idea.
I live 32 minutes away from Auburnbecause, you know,
as a eight year old kid,you don't have a clue where you live
geographically.
That could have been a thousand miles.
It could have been.
And I wouldn't have cared.
I still would have been an Auburn fan.
And so now my entire family,my dad, my brothers,
(02:30):
my sisters, my nephews,everybody are now Auburn fans.
You did that. And yeah,because I just wasn't.
Anyway,I wanted to gravitate toward Auburn
and I just I've loved itever since I was born, so that's awesome.
Hey, you and me both.
I know before I know anything else,I know being an Auburn fan.
So I. I'm the same way.
I just, I think I remember coming to gamesa little kid and getting like, confused
(02:52):
by when my dad was red in the faceand couldn't talk and was angry, you know,
it's like, yeah, it's justhe seems intense about it and likes it. So
sign me up.
Yeah.
I, I grew up in a divided housemy entire life.
My dad was Alabama, mom was Auburn.
Not everyone's perfect.
Not everyone's perfect.
But it's weird.
(03:13):
He's like the black sheep of his family.
Everybody on his side of the family,both sides.
They're all auburn.
At least on the immediate family, he just.
I think he just likes Bear Bryant.
But, you know,so we all kind of forget we can. Hey.
And you know what?
And I'm proud to reportnow that he bleeds orange and blue.
Once I started cheering, he, That'll help.
He. Well, he was forced to come down hereall the time, so he was like, hey,
(03:34):
I kind of love this place.
This place is great.
He, he got rid of every piece of Alabamaclothing in the house.
I feel like I'm inadequate at this pointnow because you've turned
your whole family fan converted.
An Alabama fan did.
And I just come from a family of Auburnfans.
They're still Auburn fans.
But you was perfect to begin with. Then.
You know, I'm glad you said that.
Yeah, yeah, I did more of that.
(03:56):
But the tone well it's pop.
There you go. Yeah.
But so you've been coming to gamesfor your whole life.
Is that, well, obviouslysince I was about 8 or 9, matter of fact,
my very first game,I say I've been a fan since 8 or 9.
My, again, this is just the providenceof God, really?
That my dad and his best friend, again,like my dad's not a college football fan,
(04:19):
but he had some of the best beaglesin the entire southeast,
and coachPat dye wanted to get into beguiling.
And so he bought all of his dogsfrom my dad.
And so my very first gamethat I ever attended, this was after
I went rabbit hunting with coach Pat dyeas like a eight and nine
and ten year old little kid.
Oh my gosh, with all the journalists.
(04:41):
And like, it blew my mind.
As a ten year old kid,I'm used to going with my dad
and all his friends, like five of us.
And then you go rabbithunting with 70 people,
and we're just prayingthat nobody gets shot.
And just tohear the stories of coach
Pat that I told was just hilarious.
And he I still have the letter framedthat coach Pat
sent me my very first two ticketsto the Auburn, Georgia game in 1992,
(05:06):
which was his last gameat Jordan-Hare Stadium.
And and that was the my very first collegefootball game,
which happened to be his lastin Jordan-Hare Stadium.
And, so that's a very first memory I have.
So have the two ticketsstill have the letter that he sent me.
So that's kind of where I got startedgoing to games.
The very first game I went to by myself.
(05:28):
It was right after I turned 16, in 1996.
Guess what?
It was the LSU gamewhere the frickin gymnasium burned down.
Literally flamescoming up behind me by myself
there in the upper deck on the east side.
And, so that was my very first gameby myself. Wow.
That's like royalty.
Everything match. Yeah.
(05:48):
The first game I ever came to as a kid,Auburn lost,
I think was like 32 to nothing.
USC came to town number one in the nationthat ‘02,
because I was at a somewhere around ’02or ‘03, somewhere
on their very first game of the year.
All I remembersome of us bad, some of it from memory,
some of it's from my my my dad.
Tell me his story.
But it was it was right after JimFyffe had passed. Yeah.
And the whole stadium did their best.
Jim Jim Fyffe impersonation.
(06:09):
Touchdown Auburn before the game.
And Auburn respondedby not scoring a touchdown
for like the firsteight quarters of the season.
Gosh it was brutal.
Yeah that was my first.
That was my first Auburn game.
So you've done better than me. Yeah.
Good job.
Well, and then as a kid or I will sayas an adult and kind of leading in
to where we're going todaywith, with SNASY
(06:30):
my whole entire life growingup, kind of wanting to come to games,
but then as a very young adult,and having a special needs child
that tends to change directions in life.
And so, as I mentioned, as an eight,nine year old kid, as a fan growing up,
then as a young adult, 16, 18 years old,coming to games like my idea of
(06:54):
being a dad was coming to an Auburn gameand tailgating with my son.
But then when you have your first sonand you realize life is not going to be
normal, life is not going to be easy.
Life is not going to bewhat you thought it was going to be.
And so the hard part and reallywhat kind of formed a lot of my future
(07:17):
and this is a very important pieceto special needs families in general.
And because because I'm not going to lie,like when it comes to fanatics,
like I am a fanatic,I am a literally a lunatic.
I believe, like you,you know, the truck that drives
around Auburn's campus with the big haul,the wagon, the war wagon.
(07:40):
Okay, so I followed him for like ten yearsin my company
pickup truck with a ten foot Auburn flag.
I followed him every game day,every morning from like 8 a.m.
until 10 a.m..
And that was me.
I had season tickets.
Well, it would be row one.
It was the physical row one, buttechnically it was row two in the north
(08:01):
end zone, right on the N of Auburn.
And like I was,I wanted to bend over and touch the grass
like I wanted the playersto jump up into the stands where I was.
That I was literally therewearing an orange wig
into my 20s until I had my first son.
Nothing wrong with that.
Absolutely wrong with that. So.
(08:22):
So that's where I started at.
And so and so maybe you can kind of graspwhere I'm kind of going to.
So that's where I start at.
And then I spend thenext eight years after I realized
once my son is born and I realizedthis is not going to be easy,
and chances are I'm not going to be ableto attend games like I had dreamed.
(08:45):
And so I spent the next eight, eight yearsconvincing myself
that I was not even an Auburn fan.
Oh my gosh.
Because I knew I would never be ableto attend a game like I had dreamed.
Because to me, being a dad literally meantthe picture of throwing the football
to your five year old,seven year old, ten year old son
(09:07):
in the shadows of Jordan-Hare Stadium,and my son's 16 today
and still wears a diaperand so I don't know
if you've ever had to deal with an adultwearing a diaper,
whether it be your 80 yearold grandparents
(09:28):
or your 70 year old parentsthat have recently had a stroke,
or your 16 year old special needs sonthat still wears a diaper,
it can completely change your life.
Yeah, and and what you're able to do.
And, it was really an epiphanythat I had back in 2017
(09:50):
because my company, Jackson Services,back in Troup County, across the state
lines, we were sponsoring the fireworksfor our entire community.
And so I had literally preparedfor 6000 people
to show up in this big, huge open field.
I had prepared for 300 of my staffand their family members to show up
(10:12):
in a 100ft, air conditioned tent,because I own a heating and air company,
so I'm not going to invite my my staffand my guests
to show up in an on air conditioned tentin the middle of a field in July the 4th.
I always trust the fat chef,always trust the air conditioning guy
to get a air conditioner tent.
I'm not going anywhere without airconditioning. You can't, you can't.
(10:33):
But itwas literally on July the 3rd night.
I was there by myself. And.
I never will forgetsurveying this 100ft tent that was just
now air conditioned because we.
(10:53):
And it was not that easy, to makeshiftair conditioning for a 100ft tent.
And I kind of looked outover the entire space,
and I've envisioned the 6000 peopleshowing up the next day.
And I realized thatI had literally prepared
for the entire county to show up,except for my own family.
(11:16):
Oh my gosh.
Because at that point,my son was now eight,
going on nine and when when you have a sonthat's past that point of taking them
to the 30 inch Chick-Fil-A,you know, changing table in the bathroom
(11:36):
there, beyond taking them to the backseat of the car and changing their diaper.
They're past the pointof laying them out in the grass
in front of 6000 peopleand changing their diaper, like,
what do you do with that?
Yeah.
And and that'swhen I kind of had this epiphany
(11:56):
that, hey,we have this air conditioned tent.
And because it's air conditioned,we could put
another tent inside of this tent,you know, just a standard $100 Walmart
pop uptent with a privacy curtain around it.
And we put a $53Walmart cot inside that tent.
(12:17):
And now all of a sudden,I have a location to take my son
and change his diaperwith a little bit of privacy
and most importantly,a little bit of dignity.
Yeah, yeah.
And so from 2017,from July 4th, 2017, my company,
(12:39):
we set up a 40ft air conditionedtent at over 700 events. Wow.
And the whole timeI was doing this really because
and I don't even know what was recordedand what was, was captured. But,
you know, that timethat I spent those eight years
convincing myself that I wasn'teven an Auburn fan anymore, and I did that
(13:01):
because I didn't want to endure the pain.
Of notbeing able to go to the game with my son.
And so from from July the 4th, 2017,I set off on a mission.
To get inside the stadiumwith my son.
(13:24):
And, God did a lot of thingsto, to make that happen.
One of those thingsthat I'm most grateful for is here.
He connected mewith, Coach Bruce Pearl, who,
And, wehad been lucky enough to do the heating
and air, in the housethat Coach Bruce Pearl had purchased.
(13:46):
And I won't go into the details becauseI was involved in when it was built.
So the general contractor who built it,he decided to design the heating
and air himself against my wish.
Would you advise that to not advise?
Quite the opposite.
Public service announcement, but, hey,he built it.
He owned it. Whatever.
(14:07):
Sure.
Coach Pearl bought itten years later, and he's like, hey,
you need to come in here to fix on this.
And so literally,it was the summer that coach Pearl
was over in Israelat the basketball tournament.
And we literally spent a month insideCoach Bruce Pearl's house
and really developed a good relationshipwith him
and really learned of the many, many waysthat he and his entire
(14:29):
family support special needs.
Matter of fact, just this past weekendwe volunteered
at the basketball camp and that my sonparticipated in with Coach Bruce Pearl.
That's awesome.
For, the, downsyndrome families of Alabama.
Wow. And, we volunteeredat that basketball camp in 2022.
(14:54):
And right after that camp,I sent coach Pearl a text and just,
basically begged him.
To, to help me,get my tent on campus.
So that I could attend the gamewith my son.
And in a bigger way,I wanted to provide an avenue
(15:17):
for other families that have been toldtheir entire life
that not literally told,but just physically told.
You're not welcome here.
Yeah, it's one thingif you believe that, you know, it's.
You might as well be told, right? Right.
(15:39):
Because it is so difficultfor special needs families
that have children that are eitherin wheelchairs or that make loud noises
or that are wearing diapers,I mean, every one of your listeners,
I would like to ask you right now,and you in this room,
if just imagine for just one secondthat you're 78 year old.
(16:04):
Fill in the blank.
Grandmother. Grandfather. Parent.
Mother. Dad, whatever.
They're in this room right nowand they poop their pants.
Where do you take them to deal with thatsituation?
Yeah.
Now imagine you're in a restaurant.
(16:24):
Imagine that you try to act normalfor one night
and go out to a restaurant,and that happens.
That's a reality that I livewith every single day of my life.
Yeah.
My family,my extended family lives with that.
When when my parents went to celebratetheir 40th wedding anniversary,
they have to think about my 16 yearold son.
(16:47):
When right nowI'm trying to figure out I'm actually
communicating with the president of Deltaand trying to design a method
so that I can fly with my son.
Yeah, because now imagine you're on a 3.5hour flight to Pennsylvania,
which my nephew'sgetting married on November
the 3rd, and I have to figure out howto get my entire family to Pennsylvania.
(17:08):
And yet I've got a 16 year old sonwith a diaper.
Yeah, and what happens when I'mflying with him and he poops his pants?
Yeah,I think that's the. That's the thing with,
you know, challenges, like, it'sI don't think about because I'm
someone has to deal with every day.
It's something youth.
It's very easy for people who aren'thaving to deal with it every day to just
it doesn't.
Why would it cross my brain, my mind?
(17:31):
It's not something I have to think about.
So it's very easy for thereto not be a competition.
Accommodations. Because most peoplesetting up the accommodations
aren't thinking about iteither. Yeah, right.
And there's so many blind spotsthat you kind of just found yourself in.
But can I just props to youfor doing something about it.
You know, it'd be so easy to just notit'd be so easy.
(17:53):
Just like you said, eight years. You just.
This is going to be my life.
I convinced myselfI was not even an Auburn fan.
That makes that. That's.
And I think, you know, we're joking.
It's like our favorite memoriesto Auburn football games.
But like, that's that'sthe spirit of Auburn is that.
Yeah it's more it's you know it's it'syeah it's a football game.
(18:14):
Congrats.
But it's it's yourit it's who you are in my core
you know and getting to that'swhat makes going the game so special.
It's the people sit next to meI mean that's my best friend.
I have no idea what the person's nameis with my best friend.
And we're all there together.
And to be able to.
You want to do that with your family.
Like there's.
Yeah, that's there'snothing more genuine than that feeling.
Yeah.
And that's, that's what that nightthat I was there looking out over
(18:37):
that field on July the 3rd, in 2017,I envisioned all of the families
that have been told for years,you can't come.
You're not welcome.
So, so now, as a business owner,how many people
am I not able to serve who want to come?
And so that that kind of sparkedmy desire to
(19:00):
I want to enable our familiesto get to come to an Auburn game.
But more importantly than gettingjust getting them here
is I want to do it in a waythat supports
businesses and create an opportunityfor businesses to partner together
to provide a service at Auburn University.
(19:23):
And I wanted it to be somethingthat was not a handout.
So I don't even know if you're familiaror aware of this,
but have you noticed the carrier logoin the backdrop though?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that carrier logois there 100% because of SNASY
carrier is the corporate sponsorthat is sponsoring, well, SNASY.
(19:48):
We created a three and a half yearpilot program.
Okay.
Because Coach Bruce Pearlgot my tent on campus
and then I like, took thingsway too far and started advertising like,
we're the official blah, blah, blah.
Well, let me tell you,like, Auburn is a institution
and anything that you do here,I mean, we got to work out the details.
(20:09):
I am not one that's good for details.
I'm from I same, same.
And I'm familiar with company.
Yeah. The big machinethat is this university.
Yeah.
No, you're that's, you know, so they, theythey had a very serious talk with me
that following Monday morning.
But but that's but that'swhy I love Auburn is because play fly
(20:31):
came and sit down with my with meBrant Moore from 9 a.m.
until nearly 12.
And for three hourswe literally sit down and we brainstormed.
What is it going to take to createan official program at Auburn University,
and then how are we going to includecorporate sponsorship in that so that it's
(20:51):
beneficial for Auburn University?
But it's also beneficial for my familiesbecause they get this all for free.
Sure.
And it's also now beneficialfor a corporation like carrier
who I buy my air conditioners from.
You know, it's a win win win.
And that's what Auburn is all about,because that is the number one thing.
(21:13):
And when you want totalk about Auburn
and people ask me all the time why Auburn?
Why listen to the Creed,the creed of Auburn I believe in Auburn.
I believe in work.
I believe in hard work.
And that is what SNASY is.
SNASY is not just a sponsorship.
SNASY is a service.
(21:35):
SNASY is doing something.
SNASY is helping familiesthat have been told for years that it.
I'm sorry that you've been an Auburn alum,and I'm sorry that you had a stroke
ten years ago, but we just don't knowhow to help you get into the stadium.
But now we do. Yeah.
And that'swhat we're now just starting this year
(21:56):
because we officially started this backlast year.
But it was kind ofstill kind of in its infancy.
And we were just kind of figuring outwhat we didn't know.
Yeah.
And so the Auburn University reallydidn't want to publicize it too much,
because we were afraid that likea thousand people were going to show up
and we were going to be abletake care of them. Sure.
We just wanted to figure outwhat would this look like.
(22:16):
So we set up a tent there at the ROTCbuilding at the corner of War
Eagle Way and South Donahue.
And this year we've been ableto really formalize it into a program
where people are ableto go to the website at Auburn University,
they're able to register at sansy.orgfor this specific game
that they want to come to.
(22:39):
We are able to give them universityparking passes in the parking lot,
direct across from our tents.
Incredible.
So now we have families that inbecause this
if you can hear one thing and one thingonly okay.
This is what I wantyou to walk away with this
SNASY’s job is to.
(23:03):
Visually help a family understandwhat is it
going to look like to come to a game? Yep.
Because I can assure you,those special needs families.
And this is this is a typical scenariothat happens every single football season
as you've got some single mother,more than likely with two children.
(23:26):
One of them is a special needs child likemyself, 16 year old son wearing a diaper,
who has a 13 year old little brotheror a 19 year old older brother,
and that older brother or younger brotherisn't allowed to come to a football game
because his brother can't come with him,means his mom can't come with him.
And so what we want to dois help that mother see, hey,
(23:47):
this is where you're going to park.
You're going to walk across the streetand you're going to tailgate in our tent
with air conditioning, with a special roomto change your son's diaper,
and you're going to have all the foodand drinks you can handle and dessert.
We've got a golf cart that's going to takeyou from our tent into the stadium.
(24:08):
And then when you get to the stadium,we have a
now special pod outside gate number onethat is set up for autistic children,
for nursing mothers, for veteransthat are dealing with PTSD
or older individuals that are dealingwith Alzheimer's, a stroke, Parkinson's.
(24:29):
Whatever the case may be,everyone is welcome inside.
We've actually partneredwith the nursing program here at Auburn
to help facilitatethat with the Tiger Babies,
and with the sound room that they have.
And we've really takenthat to the next level.
We've also partnered with EastAlabama Health.
(24:50):
If you've noticed, every single,first aid station in Jordan-Hare Stadium
has a SNASY logo on the outside of it.
So every nurse insidethose first aid stations,
they're aware that, hey,there might be a special
needs familyor just simply someone that 78 years old
(25:10):
that needs to come in here and laytheir loved one down on a hospital bed?
Yeah, pull this curtain over.
Need some help and just change their diet?
Yeah, like this.
Not a life or death situation,but it's all about that communication
to let that family know that.
Look, you can go in this first aid stationand you don't have to be almost dead.
(25:30):
Yeah.
Like if you just need to change your lovedones diaper, if you need to deal
with a feeding tube issue, it's okay.
You're welcome here.
And then we've got the golf cart serviceto get them back to our tent.
And that is my favorite part of thisof an entire weekend
is when everybody leaves the gameand they come back to our tent and,
you know, obviouslyanytime you have 50,000 people
(25:52):
leaving the stadium at one time,there's going to be lines
left for the shuttle bus and everything.
And that'swhen I love getting to communicate
and talk to all of our families.
And they literally hang out in our tentthat's air conditioned or soon
to be heated.
Yeah.
You know, for an hour after the gameand we give them,
(26:13):
Momma Goldbergs subs, sandwichesand cookies and drinks and everything,
and just get to talk to themand get to share with them
that that this isthey're really on the cutting edge
of whatwe're doing to serve families again,
whether they be military veterans,whether they be special needs families,
or just simply whether they besomeone that's 73 years old,
(26:36):
it needs a little bit of extra helpgetting in and out of the football
stadium. Yeah.
What an incredible memories that like.
Yeah, you're able toI mean you're creating
you know, you're creating those memoriesand you've allowed those to be created.
I can't help but wonder like,how would you that's, you know,
if the tables were turned and you didn't,you hadn't create that someone else had.
(26:58):
But you got to experience, you know,you had this dream that you get something.
I just wonder how you would feeland your family would feel getting
to take advantage of this,having had the dream of taking,
you know, your son to a gameand you get to experience this
and have that memorythat you're creating for so many people.
I appreciate you.
(27:20):
Sensing that becausethat is the essence
of why this is going to be successful.
Because society normal.
And no offense,but normal people have no idea
what it feels like.
(27:43):
As a.
As a a special needs familyto not only feel and sense
being welcome.
Everyone is deserving of a memory 100%.
(28:04):
And it's justmaybe a few people might need a little bit
more help making it.
Yeah. And so let me.
And there again I have no ideaif we've gone way too long at this point.
I don't even know. But you're fine.
But but let me tell you,this is the heart of SNASY
And this is the heart of whythis is important at Auburn University.
And this is the reason whyit has to start at Auburn University.
(28:26):
Because if we circle back aroundto what we started talking about,
I believe in work hard work, and that'swhat we're doing with this SNASY program.
And the reason my carrier has sponsoredit is they are building
an infrastructure hereat Auburn University.
So that and that'sthe important thing
that I want your listeners to understand.
(28:48):
The finished product is not here at AuburnUniversity.
It's not here at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It's not here at Neville Arena.
The finished productis what we're building here.
Okay.
But we're going to take itto downtown Auburn, Opelika, Columbus,
LaGrange, Newnan, Carrollton, Mobile.
(29:12):
Atlanta. Birmingham. Tuscaloosa.
Okay, cause see,I want to take my son to a football game,
but hey, look, I'm a lunatic,but only I want to take my son to
maybe 1 or 2 games a year.
All right, that's 1 or 2 Saturdays a year.
Yeah. All right,but guess what I need to do.
Guess what I need to do?
(29:34):
I need to take my son to dinnerevery single week.
That's 52 weeks a year. Yeah.
And so if we can build a systemthat can show a special needs family,
a military veteran,any individual over the age of 70,
if we can show themhow they can attend a football game
at Jordan-Hare stadiumand we can show them where to park
(29:56):
and we can show them where to tailgate,and we can give them a golf
cart to the stadium.
We can show them how they cantake care of their loved one at the game.
We can get them back to the tailgateafter the game.
We can get them to the parking lotand get them home safe.
Well, guess what we also can do?
And this is where it changessomeone's life for real.
(30:18):
If we can get them to a restaurant
on a Tuesday night, 7 (30:21):
00, that is how you change a life.
And that is what Auburn is doing rightnow, is we are building the infrastructure
because that SNASY stationthat we have outside gate one,
the second football season is over.
That SNASY stationis going to go somewhere
(30:42):
downtown Auburn or downtown Opelika.
And so that's what is so importantabout what we're doing at Auburn
is we're building the infrastructureto allow families
to get out in their community,not just Auburn University,
not just the big fancy football game.
Yeah, but everyday life.
(31:05):
And that's where you change lives. I,I just want to say, I think it's,
And I'm going to try not to get emotional.
I get emotionalwhenever I talk about the Creed.
I think it's really, really cool.
Whenever we see Auburn men and women,Auburn men or women
genuinely living out the creed and,man, you're doing it. And,
(31:31):
I keep I keep think going back to thethe line about human touch and,
as you get as you were talking,I kept thinking
about how all these familiescan come to these games.
And and now that I'm thinking about to.
I think I met you last yearout of ten, out on the ROTC field,
the cheerleaderscome out there every week.
And I'm pretty sure I got the opportunityto meet you last year, but,
(31:53):
anyway,those families are meeting other families.
You know exactly what y'all were goingthrough.
And just having being ableto see other people and just knowing that
they're not alone.
That is the Auburn family coming togetherand working it.
It's such a beautifuland powerful thing. And,
I think whatyou're doing is absolutely incredible.
That's the whole point.
That's all point.
(32:13):
I mean, that's what makes me so proud isknowing that you're here at Auburn games
and Auburn University is helping you,and you're helping Auburn University
to make the world that we livein, the community
that we live in and beyonda better place.
And that's the whole point.
Yeah. And I'm not even a alum.
I just love Auburn that much.
(32:34):
Yeah.
And I since I knew that Auburnwould respond when I asked them for this.
Yeah.
And that's what I'm so proud of Auburnthat they are living out
the creed on a daily basis.
And that's why I'm here.
And that's why I love SNASYAnd that's the reason why
once we build this out,our dream is to take it to the entire SEC.
(32:59):
And that's what so many people.
Because I'm in business.
Yeah. And guess what?
I served Georgia fansand I serve Alabama fans.
And initiallythey see what we're doing at Auburn
with Jackson's services and SNASYAnd they say, whoa.
Well, I'm a Georgia fanor I'm in Alabama fan.
I say, great, because guess what?
Guess what?
Who SNASY is there to serve?
(33:21):
Again, I've told you, I've been comingto games for a very long time.
I know how to go to a gameeven with my son.
But guess what?
What about that familythat happens to live in Columbus
and some business owner knowsthat this family is Auburn fan.
Or maybe they are a Georgia fan.
Maybe Georgia'splaying Auburn at Auburn this year,
(33:42):
and that business owner gives that mothertickets to the Auburn, Georgia game.
She's never been to a game before.
She's a Georgia fan.
Her boys are Georgia fans.
She's never been to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
She is who we need to help. Yeah.
Know how to navigate Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It's the Alabama fans and the Georgiafans, the Georgia Tech fans
(34:03):
that are traveling to Auburn.
They're the ones that need help.
And so I want to then transplant thisin Tuscaloosa, in Athens,
because guess what?
I want Auburn fans to be ableto go to games in Tuscaloosa
and go to games in Athensand know how to do that now.
So it's not just about serving Auburnfans,
(34:25):
it's about serving any individualthat needs assistance.
Going to an event on campusat Auburn University,
that event might be graduation.
That event might be a basketball gameor a volleyball game or a softball game.
And that iswhy Auburn is making a difference,
because they see thatand they want to play a part in
(34:46):
making that happen across the entire SEC.
Do you mind, going just briefly abouthow did the, partnership
with the College of Nursing start?
How did that happen?
So, I reached out,started the conversation
last yearand really finalized it this year.
(35:06):
Because they have the nursing mother podsaround the stadium
and even around Auburn'scampus and around Auburn
and forever, I have been seeingthese nursing mother pods.
And the problem with them not not aproblem, but just a limitation on them,
is that they are designed to go kind of inquasi conditioned space,
(35:27):
like it has to be kind of in the shade.
And soI realize all that, well, if this little
nursing mother pod was a foot widerand a little bit deeper and it had a full
six foot cord in there, well guess what?
Not only can a nursing mothergo in there and nurse her or baby,
but I could take my son in thereand lay him down on a full size
(35:50):
table and change his diaper.
So how much more of a servicewould that be to the people
coming to a game is if SNASYand Tiger Babies and the nursing school
could partner together.
And as soon as I had that conversationwith a an
and Morgan at the school,like they just fell in love with the idea.
And so now that's why outside gate one,we now have a full service
(36:13):
set up with nurses whereif you're at the game,
you can actually go outside the stadiumand come in to either
the Tiger Babies Little Sounds podor the SNASY pod,
and you can change an adult diaper.
You can you can have your autistic childjust kind of desensitize in there,
(36:35):
or you can nurse your baby. Yeah.
And it's just a perfect partnership.
And the nursing school, and even the VCOMschool has, has bought into SNASY 100%.
So any volunteers that we have,they get free
parking passes at the VCOM lotand they get to ride the shuttle
to our tent.
(36:55):
They get to serve families all day long.
And so it's just been a beautifulpartnership with Auburn University,
the School of Nursing,and the VCOM school.
And we're really looking forward to a soonto be, kind of ribbon cutting
that we're going to have, to kind ofannounce the whole entire program.
That's awesome.
Well, I just want to, you know, beforeyou, I just thank you, you know, it's it's
(37:20):
it's it's incredibleto see people doing things for other.
It's so easyto just ignore the world. Yeah.
And just look out for yourself. It's hard.
It's work we should do, but it's hardwork to do to help other people
and to sacrifice time, effort, energyfor other people to have good experiences
and good memories.
And I'm very proud that Auburn is beinga part of that, and you're a part of that.
(37:42):
And I just want to say thank you. Yeah.
To to the from from the world to you.
Thank you.
Because that's aI can only imagine how difficult
and a thankless job that is sometimes.
But it's important work,you know, and it's powerful work.
Yeah.
And every, every I've been blown away withthe Auburn fans that they see the work
that that right now me and my wifeLindsay are we're we're catering the tent.
(38:04):
We're showing upand we're setting everything up.
They literally are bringing us donations.
They're bringing us anniversarygifts for me and Lindsay like they are
because they appreciate it.
Yeah. And and I'm like, look,we don't need your.
No, no, we want the donations.
But we're not set up that way.
That's not what we're here for.
So I just but it's the Auburnpeople are living out
the Creed every game,and they're appreciating what we're doing.
(38:28):
And they're the reasonwhy this is going to work.
I know it is. Yeah.
They are just here to wrap up.
If there is anybody who's listeningto this, watching this, that,
they want to get involved,they have more questions about it.
Where can they find that up?
Yeah.
So, matter of fact, I just posted a videoon my TikTok account this morning.
Heck, yeah, I love TikTok down here.
(38:52):
Because, someone whoattended the Auburn,
Alabama game last yearand they took down our name and number
and our website and they're like, look,we're wanting to make a donation,
but there is no place to make a donation.
And so I made a video and I said, look,I appreciate
you wanting to give us a donation,but that's not what SNASY is about.
(39:13):
And by the way, SNASYLet's slow it down a little bit.
S N A S Yit stands for I appreciate you going
slow for me because I needed that.
But everybody wants to add an extras in there when you just say SNASY
But it stands for Special NeedsAssistance Station for You the for silent.
(39:37):
But the point is, isthat SNASY is designed to be
a free market service for people.
Now, I say that becausewe, we, we appreciate sponsorships.
And so instead of donating to SNASY,this is what we need you to do.
And I'm goingto provide a link to our Linktree.
(39:58):
And now we've we've enhanced ita little bit so that you can volunteer.
We need volunteers to show upand help us on game day.
Right now it is me and my wifeand whatever kids we have with us
that weekend.
And, you know,they're ten and 11 and seven, you know,
not that much help, but,we're teaching them how to serve others.
(40:18):
Yeah, but so one with our link tree,you have the opportunity to volunteer.
But what we're really asking you to do,if you really want to help SNASY is
I would ask you to visit Auburn Universityand let Auburn University
know how much you appreciate SNASYbeing on campus
and how we're living out the AuburnCreed with SNASY,
(40:39):
because what I'm really looking forwardto doing is when we're able to harness
the power of Auburn Universityand raise money.
Not for SNASYI'm not looking to raise money
to pay some executive director $100,000.
What I want to do is I want to dosomething that's never been done before.
I want to develop a processand in a way, for people at Jordan-Hare
(41:03):
Stadium, at Neville Arena to donate moneyand then give it directly to
families.
Now, can you imagine that familyin Columbus, Georgia, or Coweta County
in Newnanor Lagrange or Auburn in Opelika?
Not only do they get to go to a restaurantand have the services
that we're building at Auburn Universityvia SNASY but what if they also
(41:25):
got an allowance once a monthfor a $20 discount to go to a restaurant?
Yeah.
Oh man, it's awesome. Now that's powerful.
Yeah.
Now, not only do you give them the abilityto go eat at that restaurant,
but you give them a $20 discount.
Yeah, because I don't want that restaurantto have to give them a $20 discount.
I don't want that businessowner to suffer.
I want them to learn.
What does it feel like to actually makemoney by serving special needs families?
(41:50):
Yeah,and that's what I'm looking forward to.
So anyway, long story short,I'll, I'll I'll send you the link tree.
You can volunteer or you can visit oneof our sponsors and just say thank you.
Okay. Awesome.
Well, once again, we just wanted to saythank you, for being on this episode
of Everything Auburn.
We we really appreciate it.
(42:12):
Not just us, but honestly,I think the whole Auburn family
and beyond is just very gratefuland thankful for what you're doing.
And ifyou enjoyed this episode of Everything
Auburn, make sure you tune in every monthfor new episodes.
And if you want to check outall the incredible podcasts
that are going on across campus,make sure you visit our our podcast hub
War Eagle, War Eagle, War Eagle!
Welcome to everything, Auburn.
My name is Carter,and I'm so glad that you are here.
From theWEGL studio here in the student center
from the campus of Auburn University.
Thank you for comingand take some time with us today.
I am very thankfulyou're here and sitting next to me.
He's 50% of a cinnamon stickbut he's my personal mic man.
It’s Dalton Odom. Hey, everybody.
How's it going?
Welcome back.
(00:25):
Dalton had a here.
It's always been torturing mein the office with a cinnamon broom.
Yeah. Yeah.
On his door.
I hate cinnamon, so that's awful.
Carter, hatesthings that are filled with joy.
That's me.
He, He's not a fan of it.
I thought was my favorite season.
It's just my favorite season.
Okay, but you don't.
I love Auburn campus, the university.
(00:46):
It's beautiful.
The trees are turning. It's great.
I smell cinnamon, I crown a whole and die.
Okay, well, it's I like it.
I'm gonna keep it there. Keep it inmy office.
Just don't come there.
That's why you look like cinnamon.
It's just like, you know.
You know, I,I saw the temperature right below 80.
I said, we're going to out the flannel.
I might sweat to death, but, you know,it's just you do what you gotta do.
(01:07):
It's what it is.
It is what it is.
So here with us today,we have a very special guest.
We have mister Dale Jackson joining us allthe way far away from LaGrange Georgia.
Big hike.
The big hike from LaGrange Down85, down 85.
Dale, thanks for have coming in today.
I'm thrilled to be here.
I have basically lived my lifeacross the river,
(01:28):
and I started, as an Auburn fan as a youngeight year old kid having no idea
where in the world Auburn University was.
But I was an Auburn fan,and then I grew up as an adult
and realized, hey, it's 32 minutes away,just like I do.
So how do you become of eight years oldthen?
Well, that's kind of a funny story,and hopefully my mom's family
(01:49):
is not listening to this podcast.
Perfect. But we'll send it.
I grew up traveling, three hoursevery Christmas morning to go visit
my family that happened to live about15 minutes away from Athens, Georgia,
and they were all Georgia fans. I'm sorry.
And needless to say,I might not have gotten along the best.
Yeah, that's fair.
(02:09):
And so I determined as an eight nine yearold kid that, well, you know,
I'm just going to be an Auburn fan.
I had no idea.
I live 32 minutes away from Auburnbecause, you know,
as a eight year old kid,you don't have a clue where you live
geographically.
That could have been a thousand miles.
It could have been.
And I wouldn't have cared.
I still would have been an Auburn fan.
And so now my entire family,my dad, my brothers,
(02:30):
my sisters, my nephews,everybody are now Auburn fans.
You did that. And yeah,because I just wasn't.
Anyway,I wanted to gravitate toward Auburn
and I just I've loved itever since I was born, so that's awesome.
Hey, you and me both.
I know before I know anything else,I know being an Auburn fan.
So I. I'm the same way.
I just, I think I remember coming to gamesa little kid and getting like, confused
(02:52):
by when my dad was red in the faceand couldn't talk and was angry, you know,
it's like, yeah, it's justhe seems intense about it and likes it. So
sign me up.
Yeah.
I, I grew up in a divided housemy entire life.
My dad was Alabama, mom was Auburn.
Not everyone's perfect.
Not everyone's perfect.
But it's weird.
(03:13):
He's like the black sheep of his family.
Everybody on his side of the family,both sides.
They're all auburn.
At least on the immediate family, he just.
I think he just likes Bear Bryant.
But, you know,so we all kind of forget we can. Hey.
And you know what?
And I'm proud to reportnow that he bleeds orange and blue.
Once I started cheering, he, That'll help.
He. Well, he was forced to come down hereall the time, so he was like, hey,
(03:34):
I kind of love this place.
This place is great.
He, he got rid of every piece of Alabamaclothing in the house.
I feel like I'm inadequate at this pointnow because you've turned
your whole family fan converted.
An Alabama fan did.
And I just come from a family of Auburnfans.
They're still Auburn fans.
But you was perfect to begin with. Then.
You know, I'm glad you said that.
Yeah, yeah, I did more of that.
(03:56):
But the tone well it's pop.
There you go. Yeah.
But so you've been coming to gamesfor your whole life.
Is that, well, obviouslysince I was about 8 or 9, matter of fact,
my very first game,I say I've been a fan since 8 or 9.
My, again, this is just the providenceof God, really?
That my dad and his best friend, again,like my dad's not a college football fan,
(04:19):
but he had some of the best beaglesin the entire southeast,
and coachPat dye wanted to get into beguiling.
And so he bought all of his dogsfrom my dad.
And so my very first gamethat I ever attended, this was after
I went rabbit hunting with coach Pat dyeas like a eight and nine
and ten year old little kid.
Oh my gosh, with all the journalists.
(04:41):
And like, it blew my mind.
As a ten year old kid,I'm used to going with my dad
and all his friends, like five of us.
And then you go rabbithunting with 70 people,
and we're just prayingthat nobody gets shot.
And just tohear the stories of coach
Pat that I told was just hilarious.
And he I still have the letter framedthat coach Pat
sent me my very first two ticketsto the Auburn, Georgia game in 1992,
(05:06):
which was his last gameat Jordan-Hare Stadium.
And and that was the my very first collegefootball game,
which happened to be his lastin Jordan-Hare Stadium.
And, so that's a very first memory I have.
So have the two ticketsstill have the letter that he sent me.
So that's kind of where I got startedgoing to games.
The very first game I went to by myself.
(05:28):
It was right after I turned 16, in 1996.
Guess what?
It was the LSU gamewhere the frickin gymnasium burned down.
Literally flamescoming up behind me by myself
there in the upper deck on the east side.
And, so that was my very first gameby myself. Wow.
That's like royalty.
Everything match. Yeah.
(05:48):
The first game I ever came to as a kid,Auburn lost,
I think was like 32 to nothing.
USC came to town number one in the nationthat ‘02,
because I was at a somewhere around ’02or ‘03, somewhere
on their very first game of the year.
All I remembersome of us bad, some of it from memory,
some of it's from my my my dad.
Tell me his story.
But it was it was right after JimFyffe had passed. Yeah.
And the whole stadium did their best.
Jim Jim Fyffe impersonation.
(06:09):
Touchdown Auburn before the game.
And Auburn respondedby not scoring a touchdown
for like the firsteight quarters of the season.
Gosh it was brutal.
Yeah that was my first.
That was my first Auburn game.
So you've done better than me. Yeah.
Good job.
Well, and then as a kid or I will sayas an adult and kind of leading in
to where we're going todaywith, with SNASY
(06:30):
my whole entire life growingup, kind of wanting to come to games,
but then as a very young adult,and having a special needs child
that tends to change directions in life.
And so, as I mentioned, as an eight,nine year old kid, as a fan growing up,
then as a young adult, 16, 18 years old,coming to games like my idea of
(06:54):
being a dad was coming to an Auburn gameand tailgating with my son.
But then when you have your first sonand you realize life is not going to be
normal, life is not going to be easy.
Life is not going to bewhat you thought it was going to be.
And so the hard part and reallywhat kind of formed a lot of my future
(07:17):
and this is a very important pieceto special needs families in general.
And because because I'm not going to lie,like when it comes to fanatics,
like I am a fanatic,I am a literally a lunatic.
I believe, like you,you know, the truck that drives
around Auburn's campus with the big haul,the wagon, the war wagon.
(07:40):
Okay, so I followed him for like ten yearsin my company
pickup truck with a ten foot Auburn flag.
I followed him every game day,every morning from like 8 a.m.
until 10 a.m..
And that was me.
I had season tickets.
Well, it would be row one.
It was the physical row one, buttechnically it was row two in the north
(08:01):
end zone, right on the N of Auburn.
And like I was,I wanted to bend over and touch the grass
like I wanted the playersto jump up into the stands where I was.
That I was literally therewearing an orange wig
into my 20s until I had my first son.
Nothing wrong with that.
Absolutely wrong with that. So.
(08:22):
So that's where I started at.
And so and so maybe you can kind of graspwhere I'm kind of going to.
So that's where I start at.
And then I spend thenext eight years after I realized
once my son is born and I realizedthis is not going to be easy,
and chances are I'm not going to be ableto attend games like I had dreamed.
(08:45):
And so I spent the next eight, eight yearsconvincing myself
that I was not even an Auburn fan.
Oh my gosh.
Because I knew I would never be ableto attend a game like I had dreamed.
Because to me, being a dad literally meantthe picture of throwing the football
to your five year old,seven year old, ten year old son
(09:07):
in the shadows of Jordan-Hare Stadium,and my son's 16 today
and still wears a diaperand so I don't know
if you've ever had to deal with an adultwearing a diaper,
whether it be your 80 yearold grandparents
(09:28):
or your 70 year old parentsthat have recently had a stroke,
or your 16 year old special needs sonthat still wears a diaper,
it can completely change your life.
Yeah, and and what you're able to do.
And, it was really an epiphanythat I had back in 2017
(09:50):
because my company, Jackson Services,back in Troup County, across the state
lines, we were sponsoring the fireworksfor our entire community.
And so I had literally preparedfor 6000 people
to show up in this big, huge open field.
I had prepared for 300 of my staffand their family members to show up
(10:12):
in a 100ft, air conditioned tent,because I own a heating and air company,
so I'm not going to invite my my staffand my guests
to show up in an on air conditioned tentin the middle of a field in July the 4th.
I always trust the fat chef,always trust the air conditioning guy
to get a air conditioner tent.
I'm not going anywhere without airconditioning. You can't, you can't.
(10:33):
But itwas literally on July the 3rd night.
I was there by myself. And.
I never will forgetsurveying this 100ft tent that was just
now air conditioned because we.
(10:53):
And it was not that easy, to makeshiftair conditioning for a 100ft tent.
And I kind of looked outover the entire space,
and I've envisioned the 6000 peopleshowing up the next day.
And I realized thatI had literally prepared
for the entire county to show up,except for my own family.
(11:16):
Oh my gosh.
Because at that point,my son was now eight,
going on nine and when when you have a sonthat's past that point of taking them
to the 30 inch Chick-Fil-A,you know, changing table in the bathroom
(11:36):
there, beyond taking them to the backseat of the car and changing their diaper.
They're past the pointof laying them out in the grass
in front of 6000 peopleand changing their diaper, like,
what do you do with that?
Yeah.
And and that'swhen I kind of had this epiphany
(11:56):
that, hey,we have this air conditioned tent.
And because it's air conditioned,we could put
another tent inside of this tent,you know, just a standard $100 Walmart
pop uptent with a privacy curtain around it.
And we put a $53Walmart cot inside that tent.
(12:17):
And now all of a sudden,I have a location to take my son
and change his diaperwith a little bit of privacy
and most importantly,a little bit of dignity.
Yeah, yeah.
And so from 2017,from July 4th, 2017, my company,
(12:39):
we set up a 40ft air conditionedtent at over 700 events. Wow.
And the whole timeI was doing this really because
and I don't even know what was recordedand what was, was captured. But,
you know, that timethat I spent those eight years
convincing myself that I wasn'teven an Auburn fan anymore, and I did that
(13:01):
because I didn't want to endure the pain.
Of notbeing able to go to the game with my son.
And so from from July the 4th, 2017,I set off on a mission.
To get inside the stadiumwith my son.
(13:24):
And, God did a lot of thingsto, to make that happen.
One of those thingsthat I'm most grateful for is here.
He connected mewith, Coach Bruce Pearl, who,
And, wehad been lucky enough to do the heating
and air, in the housethat Coach Bruce Pearl had purchased.
(13:46):
And I won't go into the details becauseI was involved in when it was built.
So the general contractor who built it,he decided to design the heating
and air himself against my wish.
Would you advise that to not advise?
Quite the opposite.
Public service announcement, but, hey,he built it.
He owned it. Whatever.
(14:07):
Sure.
Coach Pearl bought itten years later, and he's like, hey,
you need to come in here to fix on this.
And so literally,it was the summer that coach Pearl
was over in Israelat the basketball tournament.
And we literally spent a month insideCoach Bruce Pearl's house
and really developed a good relationshipwith him
and really learned of the many, many waysthat he and his entire
(14:29):
family support special needs.
Matter of fact, just this past weekendwe volunteered
at the basketball camp and that my sonparticipated in with Coach Bruce Pearl.
That's awesome.
For, the, downsyndrome families of Alabama.
Wow. And, we volunteeredat that basketball camp in 2022.
(14:54):
And right after that camp,I sent coach Pearl a text and just,
basically begged him.
To, to help me,get my tent on campus.
So that I could attend the gamewith my son.
And in a bigger way,I wanted to provide an avenue
(15:17):
for other families that have been toldtheir entire life
that not literally told,but just physically told.
You're not welcome here.
Yeah, it's one thingif you believe that, you know, it's.
You might as well be told, right? Right.
(15:39):
Because it is so difficultfor special needs families
that have children that are eitherin wheelchairs or that make loud noises
or that are wearing diapers,I mean, every one of your listeners,
I would like to ask you right now,and you in this room,
if just imagine for just one secondthat you're 78 year old.
(16:04):
Fill in the blank.
Grandmother. Grandfather. Parent.
Mother. Dad, whatever.
They're in this room right nowand they poop their pants.
Where do you take them to deal with thatsituation?
Yeah.
Now imagine you're in a restaurant.
(16:24):
Imagine that you try to act normalfor one night
and go out to a restaurant,and that happens.
That's a reality that I livewith every single day of my life.
Yeah.
My family,my extended family lives with that.
When when my parents went to celebratetheir 40th wedding anniversary,
they have to think about my 16 yearold son.
(16:47):
When right nowI'm trying to figure out I'm actually
communicating with the president of Deltaand trying to design a method
so that I can fly with my son.
Yeah, because now imagine you're on a 3.5hour flight to Pennsylvania,
which my nephew'sgetting married on November
the 3rd, and I have to figure out howto get my entire family to Pennsylvania.
(17:08):
And yet I've got a 16 year old sonwith a diaper.
Yeah, and what happens when I'mflying with him and he poops his pants?
Yeah,I think that's the. That's the thing with,
you know, challenges, like, it'sI don't think about because I'm
someone has to deal with every day.
It's something youth.
It's very easy for people who aren'thaving to deal with it every day to just
it doesn't.
Why would it cross my brain, my mind?
(17:31):
It's not something I have to think about.
So it's very easy for thereto not be a competition.
Accommodations. Because most peoplesetting up the accommodations
aren't thinking about iteither. Yeah, right.
And there's so many blind spotsthat you kind of just found yourself in.
But can I just props to youfor doing something about it.
You know, it'd be so easy to just notit'd be so easy.
(17:53):
Just like you said, eight years. You just.
This is going to be my life.
I convinced myselfI was not even an Auburn fan.
That makes that. That's.
And I think, you know, we're joking.
It's like our favorite memoriesto Auburn football games.
But like, that's that'sthe spirit of Auburn is that.
Yeah it's more it's you know it's it'syeah it's a football game.
(18:14):
Congrats.
But it's it's yourit it's who you are in my core
you know and getting to that'swhat makes going the game so special.
It's the people sit next to meI mean that's my best friend.
I have no idea what the person's nameis with my best friend.
And we're all there together.
And to be able to.
You want to do that with your family.
Like there's.
Yeah, that's there'snothing more genuine than that feeling.
Yeah.
And that's, that's what that nightthat I was there looking out over
(18:37):
that field on July the 3rd, in 2017,I envisioned all of the families
that have been told for years,you can't come.
You're not welcome.
So, so now, as a business owner,how many people
am I not able to serve who want to come?
And so that that kind of sparkedmy desire to
(19:00):
I want to enable our familiesto get to come to an Auburn game.
But more importantly than gettingjust getting them here
is I want to do it in a waythat supports
businesses and create an opportunityfor businesses to partner together
to provide a service at Auburn University.
(19:23):
And I wanted it to be somethingthat was not a handout.
So I don't even know if you're familiaror aware of this,
but have you noticed the carrier logoin the backdrop though?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that carrier logois there 100% because of SNASY
carrier is the corporate sponsorthat is sponsoring, well, SNASY.
(19:48):
We created a three and a half yearpilot program.
Okay.
Because Coach Bruce Pearlgot my tent on campus
and then I like, took thingsway too far and started advertising like,
we're the official blah, blah, blah.
Well, let me tell you,like, Auburn is a institution
and anything that you do here,I mean, we got to work out the details.
(20:09):
I am not one that's good for details.
I'm from I same, same.
And I'm familiar with company.
Yeah. The big machinethat is this university.
Yeah.
No, you're that's, you know, so they, theythey had a very serious talk with me
that following Monday morning.
But but that's but that'swhy I love Auburn is because play fly
(20:31):
came and sit down with my with meBrant Moore from 9 a.m.
until nearly 12.
And for three hourswe literally sit down and we brainstormed.
What is it going to take to createan official program at Auburn University,
and then how are we going to includecorporate sponsorship in that so that it's
(20:51):
beneficial for Auburn University?
But it's also beneficial for my familiesbecause they get this all for free.
Sure.
And it's also now beneficialfor a corporation like carrier
who I buy my air conditioners from.
You know, it's a win win win.
And that's what Auburn is all about,because that is the number one thing.
(21:13):
And when you want totalk about Auburn
and people ask me all the time why Auburn?
Why listen to the Creed,the creed of Auburn I believe in Auburn.
I believe in work.
I believe in hard work.
And that is what SNASY is.
SNASY is not just a sponsorship.
SNASY is a service.
(21:35):
SNASY is doing something.
SNASY is helping familiesthat have been told for years that it.
I'm sorry that you've been an Auburn alum,and I'm sorry that you had a stroke
ten years ago, but we just don't knowhow to help you get into the stadium.
But now we do. Yeah.
And that'swhat we're now just starting this year
(21:56):
because we officially started this backlast year.
But it was kind ofstill kind of in its infancy.
And we were just kind of figuring outwhat we didn't know.
Yeah.
And so the Auburn University reallydidn't want to publicize it too much,
because we were afraid that likea thousand people were going to show up
and we were going to be abletake care of them. Sure.
We just wanted to figure outwhat would this look like.
(22:16):
So we set up a tent there at the ROTCbuilding at the corner of War
Eagle Way and South Donahue.
And this year we've been ableto really formalize it into a program
where people are ableto go to the website at Auburn University,
they're able to register at sansy.orgfor this specific game
that they want to come to.
(22:39):
We are able to give them universityparking passes in the parking lot,
direct across from our tents.
Incredible.
So now we have families that inbecause this
if you can hear one thing and one thingonly okay.
This is what I wantyou to walk away with this
SNASY’s job is to.
(23:03):
Visually help a family understandwhat is it
going to look like to come to a game? Yep.
Because I can assure you,those special needs families.
And this is this is a typical scenariothat happens every single football season
as you've got some single mother,more than likely with two children.
(23:26):
One of them is a special needs child likemyself, 16 year old son wearing a diaper,
who has a 13 year old little brotheror a 19 year old older brother,
and that older brother or younger brotherisn't allowed to come to a football game
because his brother can't come with him,means his mom can't come with him.
And so what we want to dois help that mother see, hey,
(23:47):
this is where you're going to park.
You're going to walk across the streetand you're going to tailgate in our tent
with air conditioning, with a special roomto change your son's diaper,
and you're going to have all the foodand drinks you can handle and dessert.
We've got a golf cart that's going to takeyou from our tent into the stadium.
(24:08):
And then when you get to the stadium,we have a
now special pod outside gate number onethat is set up for autistic children,
for nursing mothers, for veteransthat are dealing with PTSD
or older individuals that are dealingwith Alzheimer's, a stroke, Parkinson's.
(24:29):
Whatever the case may be,everyone is welcome inside.
We've actually partneredwith the nursing program here at Auburn
to help facilitatethat with the Tiger Babies,
and with the sound room that they have.
And we've really takenthat to the next level.
We've also partnered with EastAlabama Health.
(24:50):
If you've noticed, every single,first aid station in Jordan-Hare Stadium
has a SNASY logo on the outside of it.
So every nurse insidethose first aid stations,
they're aware that, hey,there might be a special
needs familyor just simply someone that 78 years old
(25:10):
that needs to come in here and laytheir loved one down on a hospital bed?
Yeah, pull this curtain over.
Need some help and just change their diet?
Yeah, like this.
Not a life or death situation,but it's all about that communication
to let that family know that.
Look, you can go in this first aid stationand you don't have to be almost dead.
(25:30):
Yeah.
Like if you just need to change your lovedones diaper, if you need to deal
with a feeding tube issue, it's okay.
You're welcome here.
And then we've got the golf cart serviceto get them back to our tent.
And that is my favorite part of thisof an entire weekend
is when everybody leaves the gameand they come back to our tent and,
you know, obviouslyanytime you have 50,000 people
(25:52):
leaving the stadium at one time,there's going to be lines
left for the shuttle bus and everything.
And that'swhen I love getting to communicate
and talk to all of our families.
And they literally hang out in our tentthat's air conditioned or soon
to be heated.
Yeah.
You know, for an hour after the gameand we give them,
(26:13):
Momma Goldbergs subs, sandwichesand cookies and drinks and everything,
and just get to talk to themand get to share with them
that that this isthey're really on the cutting edge
of whatwe're doing to serve families again,
whether they be military veterans,whether they be special needs families,
or just simply whether they besomeone that's 73 years old,
(26:36):
it needs a little bit of extra helpgetting in and out of the football
stadium. Yeah.
What an incredible memories that like.
Yeah, you're able toI mean you're creating
you know, you're creating those memoriesand you've allowed those to be created.
I can't help but wonder like,how would you that's, you know,
if the tables were turned and you didn't,you hadn't create that someone else had.
(26:58):
But you got to experience, you know,you had this dream that you get something.
I just wonder how you would feeland your family would feel getting
to take advantage of this,having had the dream of taking,
you know, your son to a gameand you get to experience this
and have that memorythat you're creating for so many people.
I appreciate you.
(27:20):
Sensing that becausethat is the essence
of why this is going to be successful.
Because society normal.
And no offense,but normal people have no idea
what it feels like.
(27:43):
As a.
As a a special needs familyto not only feel and sense
being welcome.
Everyone is deserving of a memory 100%.
(28:04):
And it's justmaybe a few people might need a little bit
more help making it.
Yeah. And so let me.
And there again I have no ideaif we've gone way too long at this point.
I don't even know. But you're fine.
But but let me tell you,this is the heart of SNASY
And this is the heart of whythis is important at Auburn University.
And this is the reason whyit has to start at Auburn University.
(28:26):
Because if we circle back aroundto what we started talking about,
I believe in work hard work, and that'swhat we're doing with this SNASY program.
And the reason my carrier has sponsoredit is they are building
an infrastructure hereat Auburn University.
So that and that'sthe important thing
that I want your listeners to understand.
(28:48):
The finished product is not here at AuburnUniversity.
It's not here at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It's not here at Neville Arena.
The finished productis what we're building here.
Okay.
But we're going to take itto downtown Auburn, Opelika, Columbus,
LaGrange, Newnan, Carrollton, Mobile.
(29:12):
Atlanta. Birmingham. Tuscaloosa.
Okay, cause see,I want to take my son to a football game,
but hey, look, I'm a lunatic,but only I want to take my son to
maybe 1 or 2 games a year.
All right, that's 1 or 2 Saturdays a year.
Yeah. All right,but guess what I need to do.
Guess what I need to do?
(29:34):
I need to take my son to dinnerevery single week.
That's 52 weeks a year. Yeah.
And so if we can build a systemthat can show a special needs family,
a military veteran,any individual over the age of 70,
if we can show themhow they can attend a football game
at Jordan-Hare stadiumand we can show them where to park
(29:56):
and we can show them where to tailgate,and we can give them a golf
cart to the stadium.
We can show them how they cantake care of their loved one at the game.
We can get them back to the tailgateafter the game.
We can get them to the parking lotand get them home safe.
Well, guess what we also can do?
And this is where it changessomeone's life for real.
(30:18):
If we can get them to a restaurant
on a Tuesday night, 7 (30:21):
00, that is how you change a life.
And that is what Auburn is doing rightnow, is we are building the infrastructure
because that SNASY stationthat we have outside gate one,
the second football season is over.
That SNASY stationis going to go somewhere
(30:42):
downtown Auburn or downtown Opelika.
And so that's what is so importantabout what we're doing at Auburn
is we're building the infrastructureto allow families
to get out in their community,not just Auburn University,
not just the big fancy football game.
Yeah, but everyday life.
(31:05):
And that's where you change lives. I,I just want to say, I think it's,
And I'm going to try not to get emotional.
I get emotionalwhenever I talk about the Creed.
I think it's really, really cool.
Whenever we see Auburn men and women,Auburn men or women
genuinely living out the creed and,man, you're doing it. And,
(31:31):
I keep I keep think going back to thethe line about human touch and,
as you get as you were talking,I kept thinking
about how all these familiescan come to these games.
And and now that I'm thinking about to.
I think I met you last yearout of ten, out on the ROTC field,
the cheerleaderscome out there every week.
And I'm pretty sure I got the opportunityto meet you last year, but,
(31:53):
anyway,those families are meeting other families.
You know exactly what y'all were goingthrough.
And just having being ableto see other people and just knowing that
they're not alone.
That is the Auburn family coming togetherand working it.
It's such a beautifuland powerful thing. And,
I think whatyou're doing is absolutely incredible.
That's the whole point.
That's all point.
(32:13):
I mean, that's what makes me so proud isknowing that you're here at Auburn games
and Auburn University is helping you,and you're helping Auburn University
to make the world that we livein, the community
that we live in and beyonda better place.
And that's the whole point.
Yeah. And I'm not even a alum.
I just love Auburn that much.
(32:34):
Yeah.
And I since I knew that Auburnwould respond when I asked them for this.
Yeah.
And that's what I'm so proud of Auburnthat they are living out
the creed on a daily basis.
And that's why I'm here.
And that's why I love SNASYAnd that's the reason why
once we build this out,our dream is to take it to the entire SEC.
(32:59):
And that's what so many people.
Because I'm in business.
Yeah. And guess what?
I served Georgia fansand I serve Alabama fans.
And initiallythey see what we're doing at Auburn
with Jackson's services and SNASYAnd they say, whoa.
Well, I'm a Georgia fanor I'm in Alabama fan.
I say, great, because guess what?
Guess what?
Who SNASY is there to serve?
(33:21):
Again, I've told you, I've been comingto games for a very long time.
I know how to go to a gameeven with my son.
But guess what?
What about that familythat happens to live in Columbus
and some business owner knowsthat this family is Auburn fan.
Or maybe they are a Georgia fan.
Maybe Georgia'splaying Auburn at Auburn this year,
(33:42):
and that business owner gives that mothertickets to the Auburn, Georgia game.
She's never been to a game before.
She's a Georgia fan.
Her boys are Georgia fans.
She's never been to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
She is who we need to help. Yeah.
Know how to navigate Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It's the Alabama fans and the Georgiafans, the Georgia Tech fans
(34:03):
that are traveling to Auburn.
They're the ones that need help.
And so I want to then transplant thisin Tuscaloosa, in Athens,
because guess what?
I want Auburn fans to be ableto go to games in Tuscaloosa
and go to games in Athensand know how to do that now.
So it's not just about serving Auburnfans,
(34:25):
it's about serving any individualthat needs assistance.
Going to an event on campusat Auburn University,
that event might be graduation.
That event might be a basketball gameor a volleyball game or a softball game.
And that iswhy Auburn is making a difference,
because they see thatand they want to play a part in
(34:46):
making that happen across the entire SEC.
Do you mind, going just briefly abouthow did the, partnership
with the College of Nursing start?
How did that happen?
So, I reached out,started the conversation
last yearand really finalized it this year.
(35:06):
Because they have the nursing mother podsaround the stadium
and even around Auburn'scampus and around Auburn
and forever, I have been seeingthese nursing mother pods.
And the problem with them not not aproblem, but just a limitation on them,
is that they are designed to go kind of inquasi conditioned space,
(35:27):
like it has to be kind of in the shade.
And soI realize all that, well, if this little
nursing mother pod was a foot widerand a little bit deeper and it had a full
six foot cord in there, well guess what?
Not only can a nursing mothergo in there and nurse her or baby,
but I could take my son in thereand lay him down on a full size
(35:50):
table and change his diaper.
So how much more of a servicewould that be to the people
coming to a game is if SNASYand Tiger Babies and the nursing school
could partner together.
And as soon as I had that conversationwith a an
and Morgan at the school,like they just fell in love with the idea.
And so now that's why outside gate one,we now have a full service
(36:13):
set up with nurses whereif you're at the game,
you can actually go outside the stadiumand come in to either
the Tiger Babies Little Sounds podor the SNASY pod,
and you can change an adult diaper.
You can you can have your autistic childjust kind of desensitize in there,
(36:35):
or you can nurse your baby. Yeah.
And it's just a perfect partnership.
And the nursing school, and even the VCOMschool has, has bought into SNASY 100%.
So any volunteers that we have,they get free
parking passes at the VCOM lotand they get to ride the shuttle
to our tent.
(36:55):
They get to serve families all day long.
And so it's just been a beautifulpartnership with Auburn University,
the School of Nursing,and the VCOM school.
And we're really looking forward to a soonto be, kind of ribbon cutting
that we're going to have, to kind ofannounce the whole entire program.
That's awesome.
Well, I just want to, you know, beforeyou, I just thank you, you know, it's it's
(37:20):
it's it's incredibleto see people doing things for other.
It's so easyto just ignore the world. Yeah.
And just look out for yourself. It's hard.
It's work we should do, but it's hardwork to do to help other people
and to sacrifice time, effort, energyfor other people to have good experiences
and good memories.
And I'm very proud that Auburn is beinga part of that, and you're a part of that.
(37:42):
And I just want to say thank you. Yeah.
To to the from from the world to you.
Thank you.
Because that's aI can only imagine how difficult
and a thankless job that is sometimes.
But it's important work,you know, and it's powerful work.
Yeah.
And every, every I've been blown away withthe Auburn fans that they see the work
that that right now me and my wifeLindsay are we're we're catering the tent.
(38:04):
We're showing upand we're setting everything up.
They literally are bringing us donations.
They're bringing us anniversarygifts for me and Lindsay like they are
because they appreciate it.
Yeah. And and I'm like, look,we don't need your.
No, no, we want the donations.
But we're not set up that way.
That's not what we're here for.
So I just but it's the Auburnpeople are living out
the Creed every game,and they're appreciating what we're doing.
(38:28):
And they're the reasonwhy this is going to work.
I know it is. Yeah.
They are just here to wrap up.
If there is anybody who's listeningto this, watching this, that,
they want to get involved,they have more questions about it.
Where can they find that up?
Yeah.
So, matter of fact, I just posted a videoon my TikTok account this morning.
Heck, yeah, I love TikTok down here.
(38:52):
Because, someone whoattended the Auburn,
Alabama game last yearand they took down our name and number
and our website and they're like, look,we're wanting to make a donation,
but there is no place to make a donation.
And so I made a video and I said, look,I appreciate
you wanting to give us a donation,but that's not what SNASY is about.
(39:13):
And by the way, SNASYLet's slow it down a little bit.
S N A S Yit stands for I appreciate you going
slow for me because I needed that.
But everybody wants to add an extras in there when you just say SNASY
But it stands for Special NeedsAssistance Station for You the for silent.
(39:37):
But the point is, isthat SNASY is designed to be
a free market service for people.
Now, I say that becausewe, we, we appreciate sponsorships.
And so instead of donating to SNASY,this is what we need you to do.
And I'm goingto provide a link to our Linktree.
(39:58):
And now we've we've enhanced ita little bit so that you can volunteer.
We need volunteers to show upand help us on game day.
Right now it is me and my wifeand whatever kids we have with us
that weekend.
And, you know,they're ten and 11 and seven, you know,
not that much help, but,we're teaching them how to serve others.
(40:18):
Yeah, but so one with our link tree,you have the opportunity to volunteer.
But what we're really asking you to do,if you really want to help SNASY is
I would ask you to visit Auburn Universityand let Auburn University
know how much you appreciate SNASYbeing on campus
and how we're living out the AuburnCreed with SNASY,
(40:39):
because what I'm really looking forwardto doing is when we're able to harness
the power of Auburn Universityand raise money.
Not for SNASYI'm not looking to raise money
to pay some executive director $100,000.
What I want to do is I want to dosomething that's never been done before.
I want to develop a processand in a way, for people at Jordan-Hare
(41:03):
Stadium, at Neville Arena to donate moneyand then give it directly to
families.
Now, can you imagine that familyin Columbus, Georgia, or Coweta County
in Newnanor Lagrange or Auburn in Opelika?
Not only do they get to go to a restaurantand have the services
that we're building at Auburn Universityvia SNASY but what if they also
(41:25):
got an allowance once a monthfor a $20 discount to go to a restaurant?
Yeah.
Oh man, it's awesome. Now that's powerful.
Yeah.
Now, not only do you give them the abilityto go eat at that restaurant,
but you give them a $20 discount.
Yeah, because I don't want that restaurantto have to give them a $20 discount.
I don't want that businessowner to suffer.
I want them to learn.
What does it feel like to actually makemoney by serving special needs families?
(41:50):
Yeah,and that's what I'm looking forward to.
So anyway, long story short,I'll, I'll I'll send you the link tree.
You can volunteer or you can visit oneof our sponsors and just say thank you.
Okay. Awesome.
Well, once again, we just wanted to saythank you, for being on this episode
of Everything Auburn.
We we really appreciate it.
(42:12):
Not just us, but honestly,I think the whole Auburn family
and beyond is just very gratefuland thankful for what you're doing.
And ifyou enjoyed this episode of Everything
Auburn, make sure you tune in every monthfor new episodes.
And if you want to check outall the incredible podcasts
that are going on across campus,make sure you visit our our podcast hub
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