February 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Meet Andrew Lacey! We have a wonderful chat getting to know Andrew's background from being born in Australia to living in Brazil, Pennsylvania, Boston, New York, and finally Montclair, NJ. He shares his experience working as a teacher and then transitioning to working in finance while practicing philanthropy. Andrew discusses the importance of inclusivity in education and sports, highlighting TOP Soccer, a program that fosters relationships between children with disabilities and their peers. Andrew also shares his involvement in the Increasing Access to College Program at Montclair State University, aimed at providing opportunities for young adults with intellectual disabilities. With humor and heartfelt stories, Andrew illustrates the power of community and the impact of giving back, making this episode one you don't want to miss.
Increasing Access to College Project at Montclair State University
The General Store at Cornerstone Montclair
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Jeanette, hi Rachel, we had a great interview
today with Andrew Lacey, who isthe husband of one of our other
guests that we had.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yes, he is a friend of ours but also a lot of people
know him in town and know hiswife, wendy, for all the
wonderful work they do in thecommunity in so many different
areas.
He will take us through hisbackground and how he got to
Montclair, which is a greatstory, and also that he was a
teacher and then in finance andhe and Wendy have the Lacey
(00:33):
Family Inclusive Education Fundand we're going to talk a lot
about that.
Inclusivity within soccer, topsoccer and also education and
providing a pathway for kidsafter they graduate high school
and that in-between phase beforebecoming an adult, take through
to the end.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
He tells a lot of very funny stories that are just
really enjoyable, especiallyhis.
One of his favorite things thathe loves about New Jersey story
is very funny.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It's definitely and it's also very unique.
It's not what I thought I wasgoing to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Enjoy this interview.
Andrew, thank you so much forcoming on the show.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thanks for having me.
It's great to join you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I love that when I've seen you out, you mention an
episode, so I know you've heardsome, so it makes me happy that
you're a listener.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I mean you got to tune in to Charles Rosen and
some of the other amazing guestsyou guys have.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Have you ever heard Wendy Lacey?
Have you ever?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
heard her.
I mean, there's a good chance.
I listened to that one.
She was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, she was yeah she was great we what.
the reason Rachel and I werelike, oh my God, we have to ask
Andrew and we told you this aswell is that Rachel was at a
party with you and she wastalking to you and she came and
told me the story that you toldher about how you ended up in
Montclair, and I was like he hasto come on and tell us his
(02:12):
backstory and the story, becauseI thought it was so.
You know, it was so great.
It was a great story.
So tell us about yourbackground.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
And we know, but for our listeners, where you grew up
and all of that.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Sure.
So yeah, and I'll zoom out andthen get to that part of the
story that you like so much.
Yes, sure you know, I grew up.
I was actually born inAustralia.
My dad is Australian, my mom isBrazilian.
They somehow met in Indianawhen they were at graduate
school Brazilian.
(02:48):
They somehow met in Indianawhen they were at graduate
school and then went back toAustralia and I was born there,
lived there for two years, theymoved to Brazil for a couple of
years and then ended up inSwarthmore, pennsylvania, where
my dad was a philosophyprofessor for years and years
and years.
And so one of the things thatreally impacted me was, you know
, swarthmore is this little tinytown, sort of like Glen
(03:09):
Ridge-esque, with a prettycollege campus on it, had like a
hundred-year-old high school,tiny school, and in around 10th
grade well, in 10th grade theydecided to merge our school with
a neighboring school.
It's kind of like, if you sortof think about Glen Ridge having
to merge with, like, bloomfieldHigh, something like that.
(03:32):
And you can imagine the chaosthat would have, the chaos among
parents and the angst and thefears and the concerns and the
bad stuff, and thankfully therewas no social media back then.
Concerns and the bad stuff andthankfully there was no social
media back then yes, but as akid, right went from this tiny
(03:53):
little school to a much biggerschool and it was crazier, it
was bigger, it was less of astraight path, but it was
awesome.
It was just so much better, youknow from from every
perspective, the breadth ofpeople, economically, racially,
everything.
And so I kind of took from thathey, I want my kids to go to a
school that's, you know, got alot going on the South.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I grew up in Texas and they bused me to another.
You know we lived in a prettybig town, but they bused us to a
different neighborhood, adifferent town and it was just
so much more.
All of a sudden, you, just,your life, your world expanded
and you were only supposed to bebused for like that one year
and then I chose to completelyjust stay being a bused student
because I loved you know, it'sinteresting how, when you get,
open your eyes and yourperspective yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's what it was, and it's very unpredictable
, you know, and that's where thegrowth comes from, I think.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And so.
So I mean how that relates is.
Then I went to, I went tocollege.
I went to Wesleyan inConnecticut and you know, the
first day of I played soccer.
And the first day of soccerpractice there was this big guy
who was the goalie and I waslike how come this guy's not the
captain?
And because he was like thebest player, he was a leader,
(05:18):
and it turned out he had grownup in Montclair.
We became kind of fast friendsand roommates and stuff after
freshman year and so I think itwas my second year.
It's one of those like 80sthings you get on the phone.
He's like, hey, what are youdoing?
It's like during, I think,thanksgiving or early winter
(05:39):
break.
And he's like you guys come upto Montclair, come to this party
.
I say, all right, whatever,jump on like the SEPTA train.
You know I was trying to makeit as cheap as possible SEPTA
train to Trenton, trenton toNewark.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, in the middle of Newark, up Bloomfield
Avenue, keep asking the bus.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You're like where am I going?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah Well, no, seriously it just you know,
because, right, it was back then.
He's just like yeah, come tothis address on Lloyd Road.
I'm like yeah, whatever.
Yeah, I'll figure it out and Ikeep asking the bus driver are
we in Montclair yet?
Are we in Montclair yet?
(06:27):
And but I get off, it's likeyou know way down near
Lackawanna Plaza and I got toget to Lloyd Road.
It's pretty far and it's uphillin the freezing cold against
the wind you know whatever.
So I'm walking along, I'm goingup, I'm like God, where's this
Lloyd Road?
But then you sort of start tonotice like, wow, this town's
got a lot going on, right.
You know the whole landscape'schanging and so I get to this
(06:48):
big party.
It's super fun, and I sleptover, like in the third floor
loft or whatever it was, youknow, with a view of the city.
I'm like God, this town isunbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's what I was going to say.
Lloyd Road looks straight intothe over the skyline, totally so
Right into the over the skyline.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Totally so.
I'm looking out, I'm like thistown is just absolutely
incredible.
I liked, you know, lovedeverybody.
But the funny part was that soI always like love Montclair.
From that it was like love atfirst sight, literally.
You know, love at first walk inthe freezing cold.
But then, 30 plus years later,my oldest daughter, paige, was
like hey, you know, drive me tothis house.
(07:23):
You know she was probably in10th, 11th grade and we pull up
to the house.
I'm like, oh my God, that's thehouse.
I stick it in.
You know, the first night I wasin Montclair it turned out I
was one of her best good friendof hers house and you know it
was just kind of a full circlething.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Wow, Total full circle.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It's like it was meant to be, you know you know
you just the life and the factthat it stuck with you for so
long that you're like you knowwhat after you get married.
You're like you know what?
Montclair is a good place tolook.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh yeah, Because, like right after college, I was
a teacher for five years, acouple of years in Boston, and
then I moved down and taught atthe Pingree School and I lived
in.
I was actually, I lived.
I'm pretty sure I'm the onlyperson who's ever paid $200 a
month in rent to live in ShortHills, New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's got to be the cheapest, it was like a, it was
a school owned.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It was a school owned house.
So there was a couple ofteachers living in there.
It was, it was, it was great.
But I mean I sort of was like,hey, should I move to Montclair
then?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But did you not move to do the New York route to New
Jersey?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, I did.
So I taught.
I mean, it was like one ofthose I did not know what I
wanted to do.
When I was a senior in collegeI sort of followed the herd and
at least some of the herd doinglike investment banking
interviews and that kind ofstuff.
I just sort of realized afterone day of a bunch of interviews
in the city I was like boy, I'mgoing to hate this if I get
(08:51):
this job.
I mean, I didn't get the jobbut I was like I don't think I'm
going to like this.
And then I started thinkingabout like what can I, you know,
what can I do?
And I started looking atteaching jobs and I was lucky
enough to get one and I was justsort of thinking I'd do it for
two years and then go to lawschool or something.
And I really loved it and youknow.
So I taught and coached.
(09:12):
I ended up doing it for fiveyears.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then did you parlay your way back into
finance, or how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, when I moved to Pingree which is out in kind of
like Basking Ridge area overthere, their upper school I got
to teach AP economics.
So I was teaching ninth gradehistory and seniors in AP
economics and I just started to,you know, literally just call
up parents who worked in financeand do sort of informational
(09:42):
interviews.
And I had applied to a coupleof business schools and deferred
one, and so I was starting tothink that route and just sort
of between talking to parents, Imean I had a super lucky
encounter.
I mean it's like one of thoseschool event type thing met a
guy.
(10:02):
We're talking about baseballfor like half an hour and then
he, you know, he says, yeah,well, you know, what are you
going to do with it?
You know, you're going to teachforever, you're going to do
this, you're going to do that.
I was like, oh, I'm going to goto Columbia Business School
next fall.
And he's like, oh, I'm on theboard of Columbia Business
School.
I was like job at and workingout for the last 30 years.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh, my God, you know what, andrew?
That reminds me of a story thatRoger just told me.
Well, but it's so, it's.
You know, it's not notnecessarily luck, because I
would say this Roger just wentaway to a fellowship for a month
and there was all these artistswere there and a lot of them
were from New York City andBrooklyn or whatever, and they
(10:49):
all had different disciplines.
He was like I can't believe.
Everybody knows where Montclairis, everybody knows, and they
said somehow a conversationhappened where, and somebody
said that every time I havesomebody that says to me you
know, or like they want to getinto journalism, they just just
have your family move toMontclair and have the parents
join the soccer team, they'llfind their way into the
(11:10):
journalism degree, journalismindustry.
I mean, you know, it's likeit's kind of that way about New
Jersey and we've talked aboutthis a lot on the podcast that
you know you go to New York City, you can make it happen
whatever, but here in the burbsof the city you're able to have
conversations on a lessstressful level and make
(11:33):
connections and talk to people.
You can talk to people of alldifferent disciplines and all
different levels of theirindustry, and so that's why I
say it's luck, but it's also,you know location.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
No, well, completely.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
So in finance, what was your or what is your
specialty?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
There's a lot of different things.
So what I've done, what Istarted out doing, was I was a
research analyst for aninvestment firm, so doing
research on, like, differentindustries, different companies,
and you know what I thought.
There were two things I thoughtI would like about that, going
way back.
That attracted me to it.
(12:12):
One was you know, I figured youcould there was way too much
stuff to learn that you couldnever possibly get bored.
I mean, you're just basicallygetting paid to read stuff, talk
to people, investigate things.
Yeah, I love the challenge ofbeing a first year teacher in a
subject because you're justscrambling and soaking
(12:34):
everything in and learningSecond year.
I love because you know you,you sort of made a plan to get a
little bit better and you'relike, oh man, that lesson was a
disaster, how do I make itbetter?
Bit better.
And you're like, oh man, thatlesson was a disaster, how do I
make it better?
And but by the third year I waslike, oh man, can I try to
teach something else now, whichis not?
(12:55):
That's not the right way.
That's kind of what made merealize I'm not going to be a
great teacher, you know, and Igot it.
I got to change because thepeople who are real master
teachers, right, it's a craft,they do it for years and years
and I looked up to some of thoseand I was like I'm not going to
be that guy but anyway.
So I liked that idea that youcould kind of change, you could
dig into different things.
And the second part I liked wasin investment management with
(13:17):
the stock market, when you'remanaging money for a client
who's like a pension fund can belike a police department
pension fund or state teacherspension fund or whatever.
There's sort of there's a veryobjective scoreboard.
You're, you know your job is tohave an investment process and
(13:38):
the job is to, you know, try tooutperform some benchmark.
That's out there and you'reeither.
It's very clear, you're eitherdoing it or you're not doing it,
and I sort of like that fromyou know just the clarity of it
all.
And those two things have sortof held for a long time, you
know, forever really.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And we you know from all indications you've been very
successful at this, because weknow you in town as being a very
philanthropic family, very muchgiving to the community and
helping people.
Was that always something thatyou had in your family, or was
that something that started todevelop when you became a father
, and how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
You know, I think it was pretty ingrained by my
parents just the idea of termsof community and sort of looking
out and seeing what you can doto help build communities.
And then the second you know,wendy obviously is somebody who
really is all over doing stufffor the community all the time,
(14:44):
and so that was something Ithink we felt we shared.
But for me I mean personally alot of it was having been a
teacher moving to finance,realizing that what teachers do
every day is number one, muchharder, much more important and,
for whatever set of culturaland societal reasons, gets paid
(15:07):
a lot less.
When I got in a role and hadsome success, kind of just
realizing like, hey, you know,you got to realize, you know
this is ridiculous, that you getpaid what you get paid to do
something that's not ofcomparable importance to so many
other things, and you know thatyou got to find ways to
(15:28):
contribute.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And you also were saying how you, when you were
teaching, you were coaching aswell, and I know you're very
involved in top soccer andsports, and also through your
kids.
So how was that just a naturallike's, something you just enjoy
in general, and how did TopSoccer come about?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I mean there are a lot of coaches I had when
I was young that it's a couplein particular that just I really
admired and were superimportant to me and I really
enjoyed that time like coachinghigh school kids and middle
school kids.
And so the Top Soccer piece youknow it's something that's
(16:10):
really cool.
Top Soccer stands for theOutreach Program and something
that the US Soccer Federationcame up with and then local
youth soccer clubs sponsoressentially.
So Montclair United here inMontclair has had a top soccer
program for about 13 years.
Great guy named Mitch Heislerstarted it and still involved as
(16:33):
one of the leaders, as theleader along and I help him out,
and so what it is is a programwhere kids and young adults with
a whole range of disabilitiesget together with typical kids
once a week for a whole range ofsoccer activities.
What we've done in Montclair isa little bit different.
About eight or I guess eightyears ago, instead of running
(16:56):
the program ourselves, insteadof thinking up the games and
running the drills, what we didwas we decided this is going to
work much better if we actuallyempower the high school students
to do it, and it's really takenoff since then.
Just the ownership.
We've gotten way morevolunteers that come
consistently.
They're absolutely awesome.
(17:17):
And then the kids you know thekids who come.
We typically have, like in thefall and spring, 25 kids with
disabilities.
That not just from Montclair.
I mean, there's a couple kidsthat come from Rutherford.
They come from a variety oftowns, caldwell, and then it's
25 to 35 high school kids and itused to be all Montclair High
(17:40):
kids.
But we've had this amazingstudent leader the last couple
of years from MKAA, so nowthere's sort of 15 or so MKAA
kids.
The student leaders runeverything.
They plan the games, they greetthe kids, the parents, they do
all the emailing to getvolunteers and it's about 21
(18:02):
sessions every year and it'sawesome.
And so the whole thing for us isit's not about soccer, it's
about relationship building andyou know people seeing each
other in town in differentsettings and they know each
other.
Yeah, and you know that'sreally great.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I can see why that's so important, because we saw you
recently at the Heroes Salutefor Montclair Local and they
were talking about one of theorganizations.
There was like for firstfriends making friends for
people that have disabilities,how hard it is and how isolated
and secluded you can feel in agroup of people and secluded you
(18:43):
can feel in a group of peopleand this is one of these type of
organizations that I think thatreally helps in that area.
It gives people, like you said,like a thing to belong to is
not so much about the soccer,it's more about like hanging out
with people and having acommunity.
Yes, you know, and so into that.
I wanted to just segue into theLacey Foundation.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, Inclusive.
Well, let me just say on thatone, I mean Candy Carter was the
person she started- that, yes,Candy Carter.
She's just an awesome amazingexample, like the type of people
you encounter in Montclair, newJersey.
Right, she's a super rock starTV producer.
(19:29):
You know her son, you know shejust decided, hey, she's going
to do something to solve theproblem or to address the
problem of developingrelationships, and that thing is
really taken off.
It's got friends and, you know,is another great part of the
town.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, it is pretty moving.
We actually were going to reachout to her, to come on and talk
to you more about it, becauseit was such an incredible
program.
So many people are doingamazing things, and I was
researching a little bit of whatyou have done and I saw you've
got this connection to theMontclair State University, that
(20:03):
you've been given a donation tothe school in order to help
with inclusion.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Can you tell us a little bit about that part of
your yes, the increasing accessto college I thought was such a
fantastic idea.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, sure, yeah, I mean, I think so, like Wendy and
I always are on the lookout forthings that you can kind of
invest in, that that have someobvious social returns.
And Wendy, through some thingsshe does, you know met two
professors at Montclair State,jessica Bacon and Susan Baglieri
(20:39):
, probably five or five yearsago, and they had great I mean
great ideas about um, how to,how to bring, you know, how to
address.
Now, at the time there weresome kids with disabilities or
some young adults withdisabilities, auditing classes
at montclair state.
Some were taking sort ofone-off classes.
(21:01):
They wanted to put together aprogram that was somewhere
between getting a full degreeand auditing, that had some
structure, had some realstandards to live up to, but
also had a component where therewas mentoring and interaction
with students.
And they you know it was one ofthose things fighting for
(21:24):
resources at Montclair State.
They needed a little bit ofhelp just in terms of getting to
the proof-of-concept phase.
So we, you know we made a grantto Montclair State specifically
for this program.
It's called the IncreasingAccess to College Program.
You know, only about 2% ofpeople with intellectual
(21:49):
disabilities go to college inany way, shape or form, but it
is a growing trend.
There's a lot more schoolstrying to provide programs.
One of the issues at some ofthem there's some great programs
at places like Syracuse andClemson, but one of the problems
is affordability, and so theyhad really thought through how
(22:10):
to make this more affordable,how to get access to different
funding sources, and so wethought that was super important
, and so it's now off the ground.
I think in this fall there's acohort of 10 students that's a
two-year program 18 to25-year-olds.
Everybody has like at least oneor more student mentors that
(22:34):
they meet with to facilitatesome of the social stuff on
campus.
But you know, all reports areit's off to a great start and
we'll continue.
You know, these things sort ofblossom in time and as word of
mouth gets around, as highschool counselors get more
(22:55):
knowledge yeah, I mean.
So the room was.
You know we thought thereweren't going to be that many
people.
We walked in there was probablylike 80 people, sort of
potential students, familymembers.
You know it's really cool.
So there's a lot of interest's.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Next, rather, you know to have options for their
kids and sort of that in-betweenphase where it's helping
(23:33):
guiding them into adulthood, butwith some you know scheduling
and some goals.
But also to give them someskills for, you know, any sort
of jobs, even jobs working atyour wonderful general store.
It's a need out there.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I mean, it's an incredible, incredible need.
Our daughter, evelyn, is 20.
And so she's in the midst ofthat transition program she ages
out.
One of the I think sort ofunknown jewels of our district
is it's called the transitionprogram she ages out.
One of the I think sort ofunknown jewels of our district
is it's called the transitionprograms, run by a woman named
Leslie Wallace, who's amazing.
(24:13):
They help place somebody likeEvelyn in different jobs, teach
them how to take the bus ontheir own across town, which you
know I personally find a littleterrifying.
That she's like getting on andoff a bus at Montclair State,
whatever, but it's working, it'sgreat.
So all that stuff.
(24:34):
But then you know, and it isamazing, there's so many
community organizations fromMountainside Hospital to the
police department to ThriftStore at St James there's a lot
of different things who arehelping provide opportunities
and teaching some of thoseskills.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
But yeah, it's a big challenge good.
You know it's hard to sayfederal assistance.
Is there something nationallythat you can point to that is
(25:11):
doing something about this?
Like to help with thetransition?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I think there I can't point to something nationally.
I think a lot of it is.
It's very local.
I'm not a super expert on a lotof the different things that
are happening, but you know partof the issue.
You know there's such a rangeof ports that people need right.
Some people can grind out aneight-hour day.
(25:37):
Some people have to do it inchunks.
Yeah, you know, and so it'svery challenging if you own a
business to employ differentpeople.
But people find ways to do itand there's a lot of creative
things happening.
Another big issue is hopefullywill be coming to Montclair
around housing and social groupsthat are pretty cool that we've
(26:11):
been talking to some peoplewith.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
That's great, and then also, with it being at
Montclair State, since they'reknown for their education,
teaching, teaching teachers,creating teachers.
Yeah, it's a wonderfulopportunity for those students
to be able to work with thepeople that are in the IAC
program so that they can betterunderstand and relate and grow
(26:35):
their knowledge and relate andgrow their knowledge.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, that's, I think , the biggest thing I've
observed consistently over thelast 20 years of being a parent
of somebody with a disability isthat people who interact with
people with disabilities get somuch out of it, right, yes, and
just love, joy, but alsoperspective.
And you know, I see that withthe kids, the kids who really
invest themselves at Top Soccerfor four years.
(27:04):
I mean, they do, they say it,they say this has really been
something special.
That's added to who I am, and Ithink the same is true.
I already have heard studentsat Montclair State say the same
thing about their relationshipswith people in the program.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, it's so special and it really can change the
trajectory of these kids' lives,of what they end up wanting to
do with their lives and howthey'll always give back and
remember what that feels like.
It's really special.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's super.
It's neat to see.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I think that all your kids, I think your last kid is
graduating this year from theschool system, the high school.
So you're going to be out ofthe Montclair and I am too.
Rachel you're still going to bein it.
I'm still in it Four more years.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You got a few more years, huh.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, four more years .
You got a few more years.
Huh, yeah, yeah.
And but one of the things thatI wish and and I think it's
starting to happen a little bitwith the, with the Montclair
local and but I think it's oneof the things I like about what
you guys do is, you know, I w Iwish there was more.
It's easy to shine a light onthe negative.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's important to shine a light on the positives.
Yeah, a negative it's importantto shine a light on the
positives and not to ignore thenegatives but just, there are
plenty of positives.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Exactly right when people ask me oh, what do you
think of the school system?
You have three kids in theschool system.
I've been so glad with the upsand the downs, because that's
life, like every time, you know,I hear all the negatives, I was
like, yeah, but look at alsoyour kids' friends.
Like they have a greatinteresting group of friends.
Or they have this one teacherthat they love so much, that
(28:52):
ignited their passion to be adoctor, or I mean, it's life.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I don't know.
Or they struggle, or theystruggle difficultly and they
have no friends.
But it teaches them the yearsof struggle You've got to learn
how to be really, really sad andreally, really depressed, you
know.
You just have to learn it, youknow, and then rebound, you know
move on.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Listen, it's a challenging, it's challenging
right.
It teaches you resilience andgrit and all those kinds of
things.
It does, whether you realize itnow or later.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, you don't like it when it's happening that's
for sure.
Well, andrew, it's been reallya pleasure to hear your
backstory.
When I see you, I'll have todive in a little farther into
your Brazilian roots and yourAustralian life.
Australian, you know life.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I want to know food-wise.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
What food or place or thing that you love about New
Jersey?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
All right, Food-wise Sbarro's, which is right across
the street from Cornerstone.
It's in that little thin Really.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I've never been there .
Oh they have great sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I just learned that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Amazing sandwiches.
I just learned that, yeah,amazing sandwiches, and they.
You know that little space hadnever been successful.
And I think people like shyaway from going in there, but
they're succeeding and theirsandwiches are amazing.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Oh, that's good to hear what else you got.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, I mean, you know.
So, concept wise, it sort offlows from what we've been
talking about Last 14 years.
I played in the soccer game.
That's Saturday morning, 7 am.
Unless there's too much snow onthe field, we play Like it
doesn't matter how cold it isand I mean I've sort of slowed
down a little bit because I hadto get a new hip last year, but
(30:32):
the group like one of the coolthings, like years ago, right
before covid, the band ironmaiden um yes but it's so random
.
But they basically called up theguy who runs the game.
Their guy did and said hey, allright, we play.
Our guys love soccer.
They play, you know, randomly,we heard about your game and you
(30:55):
know they want to play, youguys what?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
oh my gosh no way so.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But they're like but there's rules, there's like, you
it's got, you got to have refs,you got to have a scoreboard,
it's got to be very official andthere's got to be cases of beer
after the game.
We're like yeah, sure, noproblem, that's easy, that's
done um and so it was like youknow, iron maiden comes, their
bus rolls up.
There's actual groupies,because it's apparently a thing
(31:20):
if you're an.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Iron Maiden fan, is this at Anderson Park.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
No, it's at Pitzer Field up there at Montclair
State.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And it was hilarious.
But the point is like theconcept is, we've got this group
of, we've got this like group,this group of we've got this
like group and it's, you know,there's there's people born in
in montclair, lifelong montclairpeople, people I mean a lot of
brits, some german, the peoplefrom all over the world.
But somehow, like, we all kindof came together because we got
(31:49):
sick of playing like indoorsoccer where there's always some
lunatic who wants to kill you,and sort of came up with this
loose association of rules andexpectations.
And but you know, it's justfrom all walks of life and I
think sort of only in jersey canyou get that range of a group.
Nobody cares who does what,everybody gives each other a
(32:12):
hard time if they do somethingstupid on the field you know,
and then it got such areputation that, like this
random group of you know becauseapparently Iron Maiden does
this all over the world becausetheir lead singer, bruce I think
it's Dickinson is like afanatic and so they hire like
roadies who can play soccer.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Oh, my God who knew.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So the whole thing was like very random.
I felt like only in Montclairdoes something like that happen.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Did they sing for you at all.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
They gave, I did not go.
A bunch of guys they gave abunch of tickets.
I didn't go, but a bunch of theguys went that night in
Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, it's good to know that they are healthy and
doing well, considering you knowhow you view Iron Maiden from
the 80s Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
I'm shocked they're still alive.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
They were I was surprised by all of that.
And they were not just alive,healthy, they're pretty damn.
You know some of the older guys.
They were pretty good, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
You're like ah.
That's such a great story,Andrew.
Oh, that is great.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Well, I do love that about New Jersey and I love that
that must be a coveted soccerteam.
You're on now Like people wantto be in this team.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's, it's a, it's a whole culture.
It's the again the guy same guyruns Top Soccer.
Mitch Heisler, he's got a very.
It's a top-down runorganization.
That works.
Autocracy that works actually.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That's the way we joke about it.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
He's a benign dictator.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Sometimes it works.
I guess that's one of the mostenjoyable stories that.
I've heard from what is myfavorite thing about New Jersey.
Wendy loved the sidewalks,which was very unique.
All right, well, thank you somuch, andrew, for coming on Lost
in Jersey.
You're now an alumni, awesome.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I don't know if we've interviewed anyone else and
their significant other.
No we haven't no, or just Roger, just Roger oh yeah, yeah, yeah
, roger was on.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yes, he was.
And you know what, by the way,roger was like I told him.
I said that we're interviewingandrew today and he said I'm
gonna listen to that one allright well, I listened to rogers
.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I really enjoyed it, yeah, but thank you guys, this
was so much fun.
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I'm so glad.
Thank you so much, Andrew.
I hope we'll see you aroundtown soon.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
This podcast is produced by Rachel Martens and
Jeanette Afsharian.
Please follow us on Facebookand Instagram.
We hope you share this pod withyour friends and family and let
us know what you think.
Check out our website atlostinjerseysite and don't
(35:11):
forget to get lost.
Hey Jeanette, hi Rachel, we had a great interview
today with Andrew Lacey, who isthe husband of one of our other
guests that we had.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yes, he is a friend of ours but also a lot of people
know him in town and know hiswife, wendy, for all the
wonderful work they do in thecommunity in so many different
areas.
He will take us through hisbackground and how he got to
Montclair, which is a greatstory, and also that he was a
teacher and then in finance andhe and Wendy have the Lacey
(00:33):
Family Inclusive Education Fundand we're going to talk a lot
about that.
Inclusivity within soccer, topsoccer and also education and
providing a pathway for kidsafter they graduate high school
and that in-between phase beforebecoming an adult, take through
to the end.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
He tells a lot of very funny stories that are just
really enjoyable, especiallyhis.
One of his favorite things thathe loves about New Jersey story
is very funny.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It's definitely and it's also very unique.
It's not what I thought I wasgoing to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Enjoy this interview.
Andrew, thank you so much forcoming on the show.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thanks for having me.
It's great to join you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I love that when I've seen you out, you mention an
episode, so I know you've heardsome, so it makes me happy that
you're a listener.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I mean you got to tune in to Charles Rosen and
some of the other amazing guestsyou guys have.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Have you ever heard Wendy Lacey?
Have you ever?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
heard her.
I mean, there's a good chance.
I listened to that one.
She was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, she was yeah she was great we what.
the reason Rachel and I werelike, oh my God, we have to ask
Andrew and we told you this aswell is that Rachel was at a
party with you and she wastalking to you and she came and
told me the story that you toldher about how you ended up in
Montclair, and I was like he hasto come on and tell us his
(02:12):
backstory and the story, becauseI thought it was so.
You know, it was so great.
It was a great story.
So tell us about yourbackground.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
And we know, but for our listeners, where you grew up
and all of that.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Sure.
So yeah, and I'll zoom out andthen get to that part of the
story that you like so much.
Yes, sure you know, I grew up.
I was actually born inAustralia.
My dad is Australian, my mom isBrazilian.
They somehow met in Indianawhen they were at graduate
school Brazilian.
(02:48):
They somehow met in Indianawhen they were at graduate
school and then went back toAustralia and I was born there,
lived there for two years, theymoved to Brazil for a couple of
years and then ended up inSwarthmore, pennsylvania, where
my dad was a philosophyprofessor for years and years
and years.
And so one of the things thatreally impacted me was, you know
, swarthmore is this little tinytown, sort of like Glen
(03:09):
Ridge-esque, with a prettycollege campus on it, had like a
hundred-year-old high school,tiny school, and in around 10th
grade well, in 10th grade theydecided to merge our school with
a neighboring school.
It's kind of like, if you sortof think about Glen Ridge having
to merge with, like, bloomfieldHigh, something like that.
(03:32):
And you can imagine the chaosthat would have, the chaos among
parents and the angst and thefears and the concerns and the
bad stuff, and thankfully therewas no social media back then.
Concerns and the bad stuff andthankfully there was no social
media back then yes, but as akid, right went from this tiny
(03:53):
little school to a much biggerschool and it was crazier, it
was bigger, it was less of astraight path, but it was
awesome.
It was just so much better, youknow from from every
perspective, the breadth ofpeople, economically, racially,
everything.
And so I kind of took from thathey, I want my kids to go to a
school that's, you know, got alot going on the South.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I grew up in Texas and they bused me to another.
You know we lived in a prettybig town, but they bused us to a
different neighborhood, adifferent town and it was just
so much more.
All of a sudden, you, just,your life, your world expanded
and you were only supposed to bebused for like that one year
and then I chose to completelyjust stay being a bused student
because I loved you know, it'sinteresting how, when you get,
open your eyes and yourperspective yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's what it was, and it's very unpredictable
, you know, and that's where thegrowth comes from, I think.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And so.
So I mean how that relates is.
Then I went to, I went tocollege.
I went to Wesleyan inConnecticut and you know, the
first day of I played soccer.
And the first day of soccerpractice there was this big guy
who was the goalie and I waslike how come this guy's not the
captain?
And because he was like thebest player, he was a leader,
(05:18):
and it turned out he had grownup in Montclair.
We became kind of fast friendsand roommates and stuff after
freshman year and so I think itwas my second year.
It's one of those like 80sthings you get on the phone.
He's like, hey, what are youdoing?
It's like during, I think,thanksgiving or early winter
(05:39):
break.
And he's like you guys come upto Montclair, come to this party
.
I say, all right, whatever,jump on like the SEPTA train.
You know I was trying to makeit as cheap as possible SEPTA
train to Trenton, trenton toNewark.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, in the middle of Newark, up Bloomfield
Avenue, keep asking the bus.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You're like where am I going?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah Well, no, seriously it just you know,
because, right, it was back then.
He's just like yeah, come tothis address on Lloyd Road.
I'm like yeah, whatever.
Yeah, I'll figure it out and Ikeep asking the bus driver are
we in Montclair yet?
Are we in Montclair yet?
(06:27):
And but I get off, it's likeyou know way down near
Lackawanna Plaza and I got toget to Lloyd Road.
It's pretty far and it's uphillin the freezing cold against
the wind you know whatever.
So I'm walking along, I'm goingup, I'm like God, where's this
Lloyd Road?
But then you sort of start tonotice like, wow, this town's
got a lot going on, right.
You know the whole landscape'schanging and so I get to this
(06:48):
big party.
It's super fun, and I sleptover, like in the third floor
loft or whatever it was, youknow, with a view of the city.
I'm like God, this town isunbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's what I was going to say.
Lloyd Road looks straight intothe over the skyline, totally so
Right into the over the skyline.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Totally so.
I'm looking out, I'm like thistown is just absolutely
incredible.
I liked, you know, lovedeverybody.
But the funny part was that soI always like love Montclair.
From that it was like love atfirst sight, literally.
You know, love at first walk inthe freezing cold.
But then, 30 plus years later,my oldest daughter, paige, was
like hey, you know, drive me tothis house.
(07:23):
You know she was probably in10th, 11th grade and we pull up
to the house.
I'm like, oh my God, that's thehouse.
I stick it in.
You know, the first night I wasin Montclair it turned out I
was one of her best good friendof hers house and you know it
was just kind of a full circlething.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Wow, Total full circle.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It's like it was meant to be, you know you know
you just the life and the factthat it stuck with you for so
long that you're like you knowwhat after you get married.
You're like you know what?
Montclair is a good place tolook.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh yeah, Because, like right after college, I was
a teacher for five years, acouple of years in Boston, and
then I moved down and taught atthe Pingree School and I lived
in.
I was actually, I lived.
I'm pretty sure I'm the onlyperson who's ever paid $200 a
month in rent to live in ShortHills, New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's got to be the cheapest, it was like a, it was
a school owned.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It was a school owned house.
So there was a couple ofteachers living in there.
It was, it was, it was great.
But I mean I sort of was like,hey, should I move to Montclair
then?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But did you not move to do the New York route to New
Jersey?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, I did.
So I taught.
I mean, it was like one ofthose I did not know what I
wanted to do.
When I was a senior in collegeI sort of followed the herd and
at least some of the herd doinglike investment banking
interviews and that kind ofstuff.
I just sort of realized afterone day of a bunch of interviews
in the city I was like boy, I'mgoing to hate this if I get
(08:51):
this job.
I mean, I didn't get the jobbut I was like I don't think I'm
going to like this.
And then I started thinkingabout like what can I, you know,
what can I do?
And I started looking atteaching jobs and I was lucky
enough to get one and I was justsort of thinking I'd do it for
two years and then go to lawschool or something.
And I really loved it and youknow.
So I taught and coached.
(09:12):
I ended up doing it for fiveyears.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then did you parlay your way back into
finance, or how did that happen?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, when I moved to Pingree which is out in kind of
like Basking Ridge area overthere, their upper school I got
to teach AP economics.
So I was teaching ninth gradehistory and seniors in AP
economics and I just started to,you know, literally just call
up parents who worked in financeand do sort of informational
(09:42):
interviews.
And I had applied to a coupleof business schools and deferred
one, and so I was starting tothink that route and just sort
of between talking to parents, Imean I had a super lucky
encounter.
I mean it's like one of thoseschool event type thing met a
guy.
(10:02):
We're talking about baseballfor like half an hour and then
he, you know, he says, yeah,well, you know, what are you
going to do with it?
You know, you're going to teachforever, you're going to do
this, you're going to do that.
I was like, oh, I'm going to goto Columbia Business School
next fall.
And he's like, oh, I'm on theboard of Columbia Business
School.
I was like job at and workingout for the last 30 years.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh, my God, you know what, andrew?
That reminds me of a story thatRoger just told me.
Well, but it's so, it's.
You know, it's not notnecessarily luck, because I
would say this Roger just wentaway to a fellowship for a month
and there was all these artistswere there and a lot of them
were from New York City andBrooklyn or whatever, and they
(10:49):
all had different disciplines.
He was like I can't believe.
Everybody knows where Montclairis, everybody knows, and they
said somehow a conversationhappened where, and somebody
said that every time I havesomebody that says to me you
know, or like they want to getinto journalism, they just just
have your family move toMontclair and have the parents
join the soccer team, they'llfind their way into the
(11:10):
journalism degree, journalismindustry.
I mean, you know, it's likeit's kind of that way about New
Jersey and we've talked aboutthis a lot on the podcast that
you know you go to New York City, you can make it happen
whatever, but here in the burbsof the city you're able to have
conversations on a lessstressful level and make
(11:33):
connections and talk to people.
You can talk to people of alldifferent disciplines and all
different levels of theirindustry, and so that's why I
say it's luck, but it's also,you know location.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
No, well, completely.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
So in finance, what was your or what is your
specialty?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
There's a lot of different things.
So what I've done, what Istarted out doing, was I was a
research analyst for aninvestment firm, so doing
research on, like, differentindustries, different companies,
and you know what I thought.
There were two things I thoughtI would like about that, going
way back.
That attracted me to it.
(12:12):
One was you know, I figured youcould there was way too much
stuff to learn that you couldnever possibly get bored.
I mean, you're just basicallygetting paid to read stuff, talk
to people, investigate things.
Yeah, I love the challenge ofbeing a first year teacher in a
subject because you're justscrambling and soaking
(12:34):
everything in and learningSecond year.
I love because you know you,you sort of made a plan to get a
little bit better and you'relike, oh man, that lesson was a
disaster, how do I make itbetter?
Bit better.
And you're like, oh man, thatlesson was a disaster, how do I
make it better?
And but by the third year I waslike, oh man, can I try to
teach something else now, whichis not?
(12:55):
That's not the right way.
That's kind of what made merealize I'm not going to be a
great teacher, you know, and Igot it.
I got to change because thepeople who are real master
teachers, right, it's a craft,they do it for years and years
and I looked up to some of thoseand I was like I'm not going to
be that guy but anyway.
So I liked that idea that youcould kind of change, you could
dig into different things.
And the second part I liked wasin investment management with
(13:17):
the stock market, when you'remanaging money for a client
who's like a pension fund can belike a police department
pension fund or state teacherspension fund or whatever.
There's sort of there's a veryobjective scoreboard.
You're, you know your job is tohave an investment process and
(13:38):
the job is to, you know, try tooutperform some benchmark.
That's out there and you'reeither.
It's very clear, you're eitherdoing it or you're not doing it,
and I sort of like that fromyou know just the clarity of it
all.
And those two things have sortof held for a long time, you
know, forever really.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And we you know from all indications you've been very
successful at this, because weknow you in town as being a very
philanthropic family, very muchgiving to the community and
helping people.
Was that always something thatyou had in your family, or was
that something that started todevelop when you became a father
, and how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
You know, I think it was pretty ingrained by my
parents just the idea of termsof community and sort of looking
out and seeing what you can doto help build communities.
And then the second you know,wendy obviously is somebody who
really is all over doing stufffor the community all the time,
(14:44):
and so that was something Ithink we felt we shared.
But for me I mean personally alot of it was having been a
teacher moving to finance,realizing that what teachers do
every day is number one, muchharder, much more important and,
for whatever set of culturaland societal reasons, gets paid
(15:07):
a lot less.
When I got in a role and hadsome success, kind of just
realizing like, hey, you know,you got to realize, you know
this is ridiculous, that you getpaid what you get paid to do
something that's not ofcomparable importance to so many
other things, and you know thatyou got to find ways to
(15:28):
contribute.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And you also were saying how you, when you were
teaching, you were coaching aswell, and I know you're very
involved in top soccer andsports, and also through your
kids.
So how was that just a naturallike's, something you just enjoy
in general, and how did TopSoccer come about?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I mean there are a lot of coaches I had when
I was young that it's a couplein particular that just I really
admired and were superimportant to me and I really
enjoyed that time like coachinghigh school kids and middle
school kids.
And so the Top Soccer piece youknow it's something that's
(16:10):
really cool.
Top Soccer stands for theOutreach Program and something
that the US Soccer Federationcame up with and then local
youth soccer clubs sponsoressentially.
So Montclair United here inMontclair has had a top soccer
program for about 13 years.
Great guy named Mitch Heislerstarted it and still involved as
(16:33):
one of the leaders, as theleader along and I help him out,
and so what it is is a programwhere kids and young adults with
a whole range of disabilitiesget together with typical kids
once a week for a whole range ofsoccer activities.
What we've done in Montclair isa little bit different.
About eight or I guess eightyears ago, instead of running
(16:56):
the program ourselves, insteadof thinking up the games and
running the drills, what we didwas we decided this is going to
work much better if we actuallyempower the high school students
to do it, and it's really takenoff since then.
Just the ownership.
We've gotten way morevolunteers that come
consistently.
They're absolutely awesome.
(17:17):
And then the kids you know thekids who come.
We typically have, like in thefall and spring, 25 kids with
disabilities.
That not just from Montclair.
I mean, there's a couple kidsthat come from Rutherford.
They come from a variety oftowns, caldwell, and then it's
25 to 35 high school kids and itused to be all Montclair High
(17:40):
kids.
But we've had this amazingstudent leader the last couple
of years from MKAA, so nowthere's sort of 15 or so MKAA
kids.
The student leaders runeverything.
They plan the games, they greetthe kids, the parents, they do
all the emailing to getvolunteers and it's about 21
(18:02):
sessions every year and it'sawesome.
And so the whole thing for us isit's not about soccer, it's
about relationship building andyou know people seeing each
other in town in differentsettings and they know each
other.
Yeah, and you know that'sreally great.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I can see why that's so important, because we saw you
recently at the Heroes Salutefor Montclair Local and they
were talking about one of theorganizations.
There was like for firstfriends making friends for
people that have disabilities,how hard it is and how isolated
and secluded you can feel in agroup of people and secluded you
(18:43):
can feel in a group of peopleand this is one of these type of
organizations that I think thatreally helps in that area.
It gives people, like you said,like a thing to belong to is
not so much about the soccer,it's more about like hanging out
with people and having acommunity.
Yes, you know, and so into that.
I wanted to just segue into theLacey Foundation.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, Inclusive.
Well, let me just say on thatone, I mean Candy Carter was the
person she started- that, yes,Candy Carter.
She's just an awesome amazingexample, like the type of people
you encounter in Montclair, newJersey.
Right, she's a super rock starTV producer.
(19:29):
You know her son, you know shejust decided, hey, she's going
to do something to solve theproblem or to address the
problem of developingrelationships, and that thing is
really taken off.
It's got friends and, you know,is another great part of the
town.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, it is pretty moving.
We actually were going to reachout to her, to come on and talk
to you more about it, becauseit was such an incredible
program.
So many people are doingamazing things, and I was
researching a little bit of whatyou have done and I saw you've
got this connection to theMontclair State University, that
(20:03):
you've been given a donation tothe school in order to help
with inclusion.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Can you tell us a little bit about that part of
your yes, the increasing accessto college I thought was such a
fantastic idea.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, sure, yeah, I mean, I think so, like Wendy and
I always are on the lookout forthings that you can kind of
invest in, that that have someobvious social returns.
And Wendy, through some thingsshe does, you know met two
professors at Montclair State,jessica Bacon and Susan Baglieri
(20:39):
, probably five or five yearsago, and they had great I mean
great ideas about um, how to,how to bring, you know, how to
address.
Now, at the time there weresome kids with disabilities or
some young adults withdisabilities, auditing classes
at montclair state.
Some were taking sort ofone-off classes.
(21:01):
They wanted to put together aprogram that was somewhere
between getting a full degreeand auditing, that had some
structure, had some realstandards to live up to, but
also had a component where therewas mentoring and interaction
with students.
And they you know it was one ofthose things fighting for
(21:24):
resources at Montclair State.
They needed a little bit ofhelp just in terms of getting to
the proof-of-concept phase.
So we, you know we made a grantto Montclair State specifically
for this program.
It's called the IncreasingAccess to College Program.
You know, only about 2% ofpeople with intellectual
(21:49):
disabilities go to college inany way, shape or form, but it
is a growing trend.
There's a lot more schoolstrying to provide programs.
One of the issues at some ofthem there's some great programs
at places like Syracuse andClemson, but one of the problems
is affordability, and so theyhad really thought through how
(22:10):
to make this more affordable,how to get access to different
funding sources, and so wethought that was super important
, and so it's now off the ground.
I think in this fall there's acohort of 10 students that's a
two-year program 18 to25-year-olds.
Everybody has like at least oneor more student mentors that
(22:34):
they meet with to facilitatesome of the social stuff on
campus.
But you know, all reports areit's off to a great start and
we'll continue.
You know, these things sort ofblossom in time and as word of
mouth gets around, as highschool counselors get more
(22:55):
knowledge yeah, I mean.
So the room was.
You know we thought thereweren't going to be that many
people.
We walked in there was probablylike 80 people, sort of
potential students, familymembers.
You know it's really cool.
So there's a lot of interest's.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Next, rather, you know to have options for their
kids and sort of that in-betweenphase where it's helping
(23:33):
guiding them into adulthood, butwith some you know scheduling
and some goals.
But also to give them someskills for, you know, any sort
of jobs, even jobs working atyour wonderful general store.
It's a need out there.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I mean, it's an incredible, incredible need.
Our daughter, evelyn, is 20.
And so she's in the midst ofthat transition program she ages
out.
One of the I think sort ofunknown jewels of our district
is it's called the transitionprogram she ages out.
One of the I think sort ofunknown jewels of our district
is it's called the transitionprograms, run by a woman named
Leslie Wallace, who's amazing.
(24:13):
They help place somebody likeEvelyn in different jobs, teach
them how to take the bus ontheir own across town, which you
know I personally find a littleterrifying.
That she's like getting on andoff a bus at Montclair State,
whatever, but it's working, it'sgreat.
So all that stuff.
(24:34):
But then you know, and it isamazing, there's so many
community organizations fromMountainside Hospital to the
police department to ThriftStore at St James there's a lot
of different things who arehelping provide opportunities
and teaching some of thoseskills.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
But yeah, it's a big challenge good.
You know it's hard to sayfederal assistance.
Is there something nationallythat you can point to that is
(25:11):
doing something about this?
Like to help with thetransition?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I think there I can't point to something nationally.
I think a lot of it is.
It's very local.
I'm not a super expert on a lotof the different things that
are happening, but you know partof the issue.
You know there's such a rangeof ports that people need right.
Some people can grind out aneight-hour day.
(25:37):
Some people have to do it inchunks.
Yeah, you know, and so it'svery challenging if you own a
business to employ differentpeople.
But people find ways to do itand there's a lot of creative
things happening.
Another big issue is hopefullywill be coming to Montclair
around housing and social groupsthat are pretty cool that we've
(26:11):
been talking to some peoplewith.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
That's great, and then also, with it being at
Montclair State, since they'reknown for their education,
teaching, teaching teachers,creating teachers.
Yeah, it's a wonderfulopportunity for those students
to be able to work with thepeople that are in the IAC
program so that they can betterunderstand and relate and grow
(26:35):
their knowledge and relate andgrow their knowledge.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well, that's, I think , the biggest thing I've
observed consistently over thelast 20 years of being a parent
of somebody with a disability isthat people who interact with
people with disabilities get somuch out of it, right, yes, and
just love, joy, but alsoperspective.
And you know, I see that withthe kids, the kids who really
invest themselves at Top Soccerfor four years.
(27:04):
I mean, they do, they say it,they say this has really been
something special.
That's added to who I am, and Ithink the same is true.
I already have heard studentsat Montclair State say the same
thing about their relationshipswith people in the program.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, it's so special and it really can change the
trajectory of these kids' lives,of what they end up wanting to
do with their lives and howthey'll always give back and
remember what that feels like.
It's really special.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, yeah, that's super.
It's neat to see.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I think that all your kids, I think your last kid is
graduating this year from theschool system, the high school.
So you're going to be out ofthe Montclair and I am too.
Rachel you're still going to bein it.
I'm still in it Four more years.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You got a few more years, huh.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, four more years .
You got a few more years.
Huh, yeah, yeah.
And but one of the things thatI wish and and I think it's
starting to happen a little bitwith the, with the Montclair
local and but I think it's oneof the things I like about what
you guys do is, you know, I w Iwish there was more.
It's easy to shine a light onthe negative.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's important to shine a light on the positives.
Yeah, a negative it's importantto shine a light on the
positives and not to ignore thenegatives but just, there are
plenty of positives.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Exactly right when people ask me oh, what do you
think of the school system?
You have three kids in theschool system.
I've been so glad with the upsand the downs, because that's
life, like every time, you know,I hear all the negatives, I was
like, yeah, but look at alsoyour kids' friends.
Like they have a greatinteresting group of friends.
Or they have this one teacherthat they love so much, that
(28:52):
ignited their passion to be adoctor, or I mean, it's life.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I don't know.
Or they struggle, or theystruggle difficultly and they
have no friends.
But it teaches them the yearsof struggle You've got to learn
how to be really, really sad andreally, really depressed, you
know.
You just have to learn it, youknow, and then rebound, you know
move on.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Listen, it's a challenging, it's challenging
right.
It teaches you resilience andgrit and all those kinds of
things.
It does, whether you realize itnow or later.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, you don't like it when it's happening that's
for sure.
Well, andrew, it's been reallya pleasure to hear your
backstory.
When I see you, I'll have todive in a little farther into
your Brazilian roots and yourAustralian life.
Australian, you know life.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I want to know food-wise.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
What food or place or thing that you love about New
Jersey?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
All right, Food-wise Sbarro's, which is right across
the street from Cornerstone.
It's in that little thin Really.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I've never been there .
Oh they have great sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I just learned that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Amazing sandwiches.
I just learned that, yeah,amazing sandwiches, and they.
You know that little space hadnever been successful.
And I think people like shyaway from going in there, but
they're succeeding and theirsandwiches are amazing.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Oh, that's good to hear what else you got.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, I mean, you know.
So, concept wise, it sort offlows from what we've been
talking about Last 14 years.
I played in the soccer game.
That's Saturday morning, 7 am.
Unless there's too much snow onthe field, we play Like it
doesn't matter how cold it isand I mean I've sort of slowed
down a little bit because I hadto get a new hip last year, but
(30:32):
the group like one of the coolthings, like years ago, right
before covid, the band ironmaiden um yes but it's so random
.
But they basically called up theguy who runs the game.
Their guy did and said hey, allright, we play.
Our guys love soccer.
They play, you know, randomly,we heard about your game and you
(30:55):
know they want to play, youguys what?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
oh my gosh no way so.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But they're like but there's rules, there's like, you
it's got, you got to have refs,you got to have a scoreboard,
it's got to be very official andthere's got to be cases of beer
after the game.
We're like yeah, sure, noproblem, that's easy, that's
done um and so it was like youknow, iron maiden comes, their
bus rolls up.
There's actual groupies,because it's apparently a thing
(31:20):
if you're an.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Iron Maiden fan, is this at Anderson Park.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
No, it's at Pitzer Field up there at Montclair
State.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And it was hilarious.
But the point is like theconcept is, we've got this group
of, we've got this like group,this group of we've got this
like group and it's, you know,there's there's people born in
in montclair, lifelong montclairpeople, people I mean a lot of
brits, some german, the peoplefrom all over the world.
But somehow, like, we all kindof came together because we got
(31:49):
sick of playing like indoorsoccer where there's always some
lunatic who wants to kill you,and sort of came up with this
loose association of rules andexpectations.
And but you know, it's justfrom all walks of life and I
think sort of only in jersey canyou get that range of a group.
Nobody cares who does what,everybody gives each other a
(32:12):
hard time if they do somethingstupid on the field you know,
and then it got such areputation that, like this
random group of you know becauseapparently Iron Maiden does
this all over the world becausetheir lead singer, bruce I think
it's Dickinson is like afanatic and so they hire like
roadies who can play soccer.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Oh, my God who knew.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So the whole thing was like very random.
I felt like only in Montclairdoes something like that happen.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Did they sing for you at all.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
They gave, I did not go.
A bunch of guys they gave abunch of tickets.
I didn't go, but a bunch of theguys went that night in
Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, it's good to know that they are healthy and
doing well, considering you knowhow you view Iron Maiden from
the 80s Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
I'm shocked they're still alive.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
They were I was surprised by all of that.
And they were not just alive,healthy, they're pretty damn.
You know some of the older guys.
They were pretty good, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
You're like ah.
That's such a great story,Andrew.
Oh, that is great.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Well, I do love that about New Jersey and I love that
that must be a coveted soccerteam.
You're on now Like people wantto be in this team.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's, it's a, it's a whole culture.
It's the again the guy same guyruns Top Soccer.
Mitch Heisler, he's got a very.
It's a top-down runorganization.
That works.
Autocracy that works actually.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That's the way we joke about it.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
He's a benign dictator.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Sometimes it works.
I guess that's one of the mostenjoyable stories that.
I've heard from what is myfavorite thing about New Jersey.
Wendy loved the sidewalks,which was very unique.
All right, well, thank you somuch, andrew, for coming on Lost
in Jersey.
You're now an alumni, awesome.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I don't know if we've interviewed anyone else and
their significant other.
No we haven't no, or just Roger, just Roger oh yeah, yeah, yeah
, roger was on.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yes, he was.
And you know what, by the way,roger was like I told him.
I said that we're interviewingandrew today and he said I'm
gonna listen to that one allright well, I listened to rogers
.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I really enjoyed it, yeah, but thank you guys, this
was so much fun.
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I'm so glad.
Thank you so much, Andrew.
I hope we'll see you aroundtown soon.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
This podcast is produced by Rachel Martens and
Jeanette Afsharian.
Please follow us on Facebookand Instagram.
We hope you share this pod withyour friends and family and let
us know what you think.
Check out our website atlostinjerseysite and don't
(35:11):
forget to get lost.
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