April 30, 2025 • 40 mins
Welcome to the "Militarily Speaking" podcast with Tom McLean and Jodi Vickery.
In this episode of “Militarily Speaking,” Tom and Jodi talk with Katy Saunders, Program Director at HeroBox. Together they delve into HeroBox's mission to provide personalized care packages to deployed service members, their Hero Day events, and how individuals and organizations can support deployed military members.
“Militarily Speaking” is a podcast produced by Armed Forces Bank that is dedicated to the military lifestyle and all the things that makes the military community who they are.
Ep. 78 – Supporting Deployed Service Members with HeroBox
In a world where everyday challenges often obscure the sacrifices made by our service members, HeroBox emerges as a beacon of support and gratitude for those deployed overseas.
HeroBox was founded with a mission to provide personalized care packages to deployed service members, bridging the gap between home and the frontlines. The initiative began when its founder noticed that a loved one, while deployed, needed a more tailored care package. Today, HeroBox has grown to support nearly a million deployed service members with the help of over 20,000 registered sponsors and countless Hero Day events.
The Power of Personalization for Service Members
A key element that sets HeroBox apart from other care package organizations is its emphasis on personalization. As described by Katy Saunders, donors can directly communicate with service members, ensuring that they receive items that cater to their specific needs and desires. Whether it's a request for gloves in cold regions or a servicemember’s favorite snacks, the personal touch can transform a care package from being merely a box of goods to a heartfelt reminder of home and support.
Hero Day Events: Building Community Ties to Support the Troops
Hero Day events are one of Katy's favorite aspects of her role, as they foster both community involvement and support for the troops. Corporations, businesses, and even classrooms can organize Hero Days to pack and send personalized care packages. The events act as team-building exercises while serving as meaningful contributors to HeroBox's mission.
Spreading the Word and Growing the Impact
Although HeroBox is relatively small, its impact is significant, thanks in part to word-of-mouth and community engagement. The team is dedicated to ensuring that every service member feels the appreciation and support of those at home. With plans to expand into supporting homeless veterans, HeroBox is poised to continue its mission of service and care.
How You Can Help Deployed Military Members
Katy shared that individuals and companies interested in supporting HeroBox can visit their user-friendly website (herobox.org) to get involved. Whether through financial donations or by organizing Hero Day events, every contribution helps extend their reach. The website provides various donation options, including sponsoring individual care packages or supplying essential items for multiple troops.
HeroBox stands as a testament to the impact a small, dedicated organization can have on the lives of our military personnel. By offering personalized, thoughtful support and fostering community involvement, HeroBox not only empowers service members but also strengthens the very fabric of the communities that support them. As listeners and readers rally around this cause, HeroBox continues to fulfill its promise to those who serve selflessly and brav
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Militarily speaking, episode 78, hero Box.
This episode we talked with KatieSaunders, program Director at Hero Box.
(00:21):
Welcome to Militarily Speaking,brought to you by Armed Forces Bank.
This is Tom McLean.
And Jody Vickery, military spouse.
I am the military retailexecutive for Armed Forces Bank.
And Jody, you know thatJody has a new job now.
Katie Jody's, chief Digital Officer.
That sounds so fancy,
doesn't it?
Do you know what it does?
(00:41):
No, me neither.
Me and Jodi we're making it up together.
She,
she's in that first yearhoneymoon where she figures
out her other duties as a sign.
Been, she's been there fivemonths and I've been in this
role roughly five months.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I love
comparing notes.
For sure.
Me and Jody's bond.
No, I love that.
Yeah,
I know you just shifted the bond from uu.
See how that worked?
(01:01):
Yes, Katie.
You can't play that way.
That's what us women do.
That's exactly what we do.
This could go,
this could go south for you
real quick, Tom.
So I'm gonna, I'm justgonna walk away quietly.
Love it, love it, love it.
Again.
Welcome to our show.
We're excited to have you listeningand learning all about our guest,
Katie Saunders and Hero Box.
I wanna tell our audience,Katie, just a little bit about
(01:23):
you before we get going here.
She assumed the role of program directorwith Hero Box in November, 2024.
Prior to that, she worked foreight years in real estate.
As the director of operations withnumerous family members who have served
in the military, Katie feels a strongpersonal connection to Hero Box's mission.
She handles all the hero dayevents, day-to-day donations in
all aspects of customer service.
(01:45):
Could you say hero again?
Hero.
I like that.
Did I say hero?
I say hero.
Oh, har hero.
But you say what?
Do say hero.
You.
Hero.
It's true.
You
accentuate the He.
Hero.
Hero, how do you say it?
Katie?
Hero.
She two to
one.
Yeah, two to one.
I went, I
can't even say it.
Like you say Har.
Hero,
hero,
hero.
Now.
Now I'm gonna overthink it andsay it couple different ways.
(02:07):
Hero.
Is this on?
Oh my gosh, we have lost it.
Goodness.
We, we have questions
for Katie too, right?
Two
minutes in and we are off into the abyss.
So, which is the way
it should be.
Yes.
I
love that.
It often is actually.
Welcome, Katie.
Yes.
Back on track.
Welcome Katie.
Being brave enough tostep into this with us.
She's a hero.
(02:27):
You're a hero for that.
Look at, yeah.
Nevermind.
I'm not even gonna go there.
It is an honor to have you on our showand, and we appreciate you being here.
I'd love to have you just start bytelling our audience a little bit about
Hero Box, and I am confident we'll havelots of questions for you after that.
Yeah, so Hero Box startedproject by our founder in 2008.
(02:48):
Basically, he had a sibling thatwas deployed and found out that
obviously needed a little bit moreof a specialized care package.
And then that way, you know, basically ifyou're deployed, you're able to kind of
pick and choose some things that you wouldlike that you're not a privy to, you know?
Obviously being here.
So that's kind of how we started.
And now we service almost a milliondeployed service members through
(03:12):
our organization and basicallyjust to provide a direct way to
support deployed service members.
Love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So fif 16 ish years later, 1million Heroes supported 20,000
registered sponsors, and Ithink a thousand hero days.
Am I reading those numberscorrectly from your website?
Yep,
that's right.
(03:32):
That is right.
Those are big numbers.
They are.
That makes me proud.
Yeah.
As it should.
As it should.
Yeah.
I think I told you this when I firstmet you, Katie, was we, we did something
with Hero Box at Nellis Air Force Base.
We have a.
Manager out there that had experiencewith Hero Box and she brought that to our
company and did a hero event or hero day,probably, probably within the last 6,
(03:55):
8, 9 months ago in the Las Vegas market.
And we provided care packages to threeservice members that included items
on their wishlists and some one thingwe do here, we take pride in this
too 'cause we do Red Fridays, right?
Re, re remembering everyone deployed.
Each banking center at Armed ForcesBank will pick a particular Friday in
(04:15):
a particular month and identify someservice members that are deployed and
put together care packages for 'em.
Just kind of random, but in thespirit of Hero Box and the spirit
of Red Fridays, we're we're big fansof what you do, especially in the
formality of it, of Hero Box and thereputation you have that it's pretty
(04:36):
cool to be able to tell our audience.
In more detail about how peoplecan get involved and what
people can do to support you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So talk about Hero Day events in justin general, because you know, we, if
we randomly just reach out and, anddid this and we got some t-shirts for
our team there too, from your company,and, but how do, how do people get
(04:57):
involved in the hero day events and.
Tell us what a typical formatis or, or how it gets started.
Yeah, they're actually probablymy favorite thing to do.
Obviously I love to, to talk toindividual donors, but I think
the bond that you build oncesomeone signs up for a hero day is.
Incredible.
Most of the time it's obviously,like you were saying, like either
corporations or you know, businessesthat decide, hey, we've got this, you
(05:21):
know, seminar this week or this month.
But in part of that, like why can't wealso give back so you can, you know,
hop on the website, create the event.
Obviously I'll be your point of contact.
And the cool thing about that isyou can kind of customize that
to how personal you want it.
If it's something that you have to dopretty quick and I, you wanna just call
(05:42):
me and say, Hey, we're having this event.
We wanna host a hero day.
At that point I can say, Hey, do youwant me to send everything to you guys?
You know, the contents, the bags, theboxes, or is this something that you
guys want to pull your team togetherand maybe have a contest and say.
You know, if you divide these peopleup and they bring items in, you
know, whoever brings them amount ofitems in, I like that approach just
(06:05):
because it is incredibly personal.
You're able to, you know, either hop ontoour website, see that deployed service
member's wishlist, snag a couple itemsfrom there, or you're able to reach
out to that deployed service member.
See where they're deployed.
If it's a cold region, you can, you know,completely directly communicate with them
and say, Hey, do you guys need gloves?
(06:25):
Or, you know, things like that.
And I think that's the, the cool thingabout that is that it's a personal.
Personal in the aspect of you'rehelping a deployed service member.
But then I also get to know a wholebunch of people across the United States,
which I love with the same, you know,like-mind morals and values of end of the
day you wanna help these deployed servicemembers who this may be the only time
(06:45):
that they ever get things from back home.
And I love that 'cause it's kind ofa team building exercise for your
business, but then it's also a way togive back and bring that full circle even
after the event, you're still able to.
Keep in contact with them.
They can send you picturesof the items that you send.
It is just incredible.
It's a, it's a great way to, todefinitely give back into, like
(07:06):
I said, also, you know, haveyour teammates help you out too.
So,
yeah, I love that personalizationand that connection.
I mean, there, there are othercompanies that, that provide care
packages and the like, but I don'tknow that I've ever seen one that
connects you like that, where you can.
Com, your customization workconversation back and forth or, or
some kind of a communication back andforth and that, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
(07:26):
For sure.
Let's say www.herobox.org.
Yes, that's it.
Several times.
We have to say that atleast six times today.
Or four hero box.org or Hero Box.
Hero.
That's right.
And it's a user-friendlywebsite, which I love.
I don't say that just because obviouslyit's, you know, I'm a part of it,
but it is, it's so easy to hop onthere and either create the event if
(07:47):
you're doing a hero day or just doa, you know, a donation individually.
It is incredibly user-friendly,easy, easy to, to navigate, for sure.
That's awesome.
I know when I read your profile justa few minutes ago, it talked about
you having numerous family membersthat have served and Yeah, I'd love
to hear a little bit about that.
Obviously it creates aconnection from the military.
(08:08):
You know, my grandpa is my dad, myhusband, they all serve and so it does.
Yeah, you just sort ofwere tied to it, right?
Yep.
Tell us a little bit about your differentways you're connected to the military and
how that helped you make the transitionfrom what you are doing in real estate
to what you're doing now with Hero Box.
Yeah, for sure.
So my grandfather, my dad's dad was Army.
(08:29):
He was infantry and was.
Basically during peace time, he wasactually stationed in Korea, did
some time and stationed in Hawaii.
So obviously always grew upwith like the cool stories that
he always, me and my sister.
My great uncle was also military.
My child's father ismilitary or was military.
He did two tours in Afghanistan andbasically deployed in and did that.
(08:50):
So that's huge.
Obviously being able totell my little boy like.
What his dad did and how much he helped.
So it's always in the back of mymind, like I think if these, you
know, these folks are my family, howwould I want to serve them and how
would I want to make sure that theirexperience was 100% top of the line?
So that's always in the back ofmy mind and I always think, you
know, like these folks make adecision that they don't have to.
(09:13):
And I wanna always make sure that theyknow they have people in their corner
here that are gonna make sure they getthe absolute best care they possibly can.
How did you find hero Box?
So, oddly enough, I have a bestfriend who's still in real estate,
and Ryan, our founder, was, wasan slash, is one of her clients.
And he just said, Hey, I need,I need a program director.
Would your friend be interested?
(09:34):
And I was like, I'm like, I don't know.
But then I was like to work from home.
Job, obviously being a mom,that's my first, first priority.
So I'm thinking.
That would open a lot of doors tobe able to be a more present parent.
So I'm like, you know what,we're gonna roll with it.
So I took the leap of faithand I just, you know, good
for you.
Yeah, and like obviously like religionis a, a huge part of my life and I've
always thought if I take the leapof faith, God will take care of me.
(09:56):
And he always has.
And it has been a huge.
Just positive impact on my life for sure.
And my child's to be able to, obviouslyA, do this and B, just be able to
have a little bit more flexibilityto be the best mom I can be so that
nothing will ever replace for sure.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
You talked earlier about the customizationside of the house and, and maybe the
(10:19):
more efficient approach might be.
As Jody and I talked about this too,about the, whether it's broad brush
approach or if it's, yeah, you know,a one size fits all, might, might,
might make it more efficient, mightmake more cost effective, whatever.
But yeah, maybe back when Ryanstarted this thing, he always
knew it wanted to be a morecustomizable, personalized delivery.
I. Yeah.
(10:39):
Is, is that, are we on track with that?
Absolutely.
I think that Ron and I are verysimilar in the way that we think.
Obviously with him having a, a familymember that was deployed, I think
that he always had that in mind ofthinking, you know, you wanna make
sure that these guys don't just geta bunch of stuff that they're not
gonna use, or just things that, youknow, are, are quote unquote common.
It is still, you are still able togive an absolute personal touch.
(11:00):
And I think that thatis huge in this process.
Our overhead is very low, so it's,you know, it's one of those things
that we've created this platform that.
Virtually anybody in the United Statescan hop on at any time and send a care
package to a deployed service member.
And we never say you can't add items.
I had a lady a couple months ago whowas doing an individual donation and
she said, I've baked some cookies.
(11:21):
She's like, it was right before Christmas.
She said, I've baked some cookiesand I've knitted a few items.
She's like, can Iinclude those in the box?
And I was like, absolutely.
Like, are you kidding me?
Like.
If I was a food computer and I got abox like that, I would be like, jackpot.
I'm like, jackpot.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like we love that.
We love, you know, people putting inpersonal letters of encouragement or you
(11:41):
know, thank you notes, things like that.
I think that's alwayssomething that's nice.
You know, obviously being away from home,having that little bit of a personal
touch from home is just incredible.
So.
Do you think peoplesend Girl Scout cookies?
You could only hope ifyou were getting one.
No.
Tom's a bit of a peanut butter pat.
Well, he's the peanut butter patty pea.
Oh, peanut butter
baby slash thin mints.
(12:01):
But then Jody sends me articlesabout N mints and it scares me.
Don't give him a bad
wrap on our podcast.
Oh goodness.
I don't know if that article was legit.
That article was not legitimateand I will eat them all day long.
Can you ate all, all the boxes I gave you?
Didn't you forget toxicity issues?
I'm just gonna go ahead.
Go for it.
Yeah, I, I don't bring them into my houseanymore because the thin mints in the
freezer, I'll eat the entire sleeves.
Do you do thin mintsin the freezer, Katie?
(12:24):
No, I don't like thin mints.
I like the Samoas and I will literally sitdown and eat an entire box at one sitting.
And I'm hoping that someone fromthe Girl Scouts is on this podcast
right now, so they're like.
We're gonna send you guyssome snow, as I know,
send you a hero box forthe work you're doing.
Absolutely.
I'll take them all day long.
I think, I think she and I noware bonding because when I, if I
open a box of those peanut butterpatties, it, it's not just a sleeve.
(12:47):
It's weird.
They just disappear.
I know.
I don't know what happens.
I don't know where they go.
Oh, I'll tell you later, when
my, my wife does tell me that.
I'll tell you.
Let's, uh, let's keep,how do you pronounce GYRO?
Oh,
that's a hard one.
It is, yes.
I think it's, you can have fun with it oryou can do it the way it's supposed to be.
Like the
Greek sandwich,
(13:08):
right?
Yeah.
Maybe Eero.
Ooh.
What do you think, Katie?
Is it Yra?
Ooh.
Euro box.
Right?
Well least it's not gyro.
Yeah.
A lot of people say gyro.
Yeah, I'm Southern.
We always mispronounce everything
and we get away with it.
'cause we're southern.
How close are you to all?
'cause it just sounds cool.
Albany, Georgia.
(13:29):
Albany, Georgia.
I am four hours from there.
My mom lives, there's, it's
Albany.
'cause people don't want to beassociated with New York, Albany, right?
That's true.
This is true.
Um, yeah, it's, uh,actually they say Albany.
Albany.
Oh.
I think they add an extra syllable.
How do you say Louisville?
Louisville?
Or do you say Louisville?
Louisville?
(13:50):
No, I say Louisville.
Right
who brought this up?
Anyway,
I think you, I think youcontinued to bring those,
I dunno where the, it all started withyou and the Girl Scout cookies and
we then it went south to to Georgia.
Then you transitioned to
Greek sandwiches.
Off track.
Off track.
Although I could eatone of those sandwiches.
Those are very good.
Well, yeah, same.
I bet you've never had one ofthose sandwiches in a hero box,
(14:11):
but what are, what are some of the,
isn't a hero sandwichlike a hogie too though?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, that is, yeah.
For sure.
We're really going tangential.
We
are.
So, but we have a
plethora of, of information to share witheach other every time we get together.
Jody, I.
Uh, yeah, I, my mind can't hardly take it.
So, so
why don't you ask her about the itemsthat are most commonly requested.
I, and there's probably
no hero sandwich, nothing perishable,I would suspect in a hero box.
(14:32):
But what are some of the mostcommonly requested things you get or
anything that's ever surprised you?
Like, Hey, wow, that's,that's an interesting ask.
And by golly, we fulfilled it.
We're gonna keep this a general related,
generally rated GGG rated audience, right?
Keep it clean.
PG
podcast.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So obviously some of the items that wehave got requests for are little out
(14:57):
there and some deemed inappropriate,some of the commonly requested
items that we kind kind of see.
And then I usually includetoo, if I send beef jerky.
Protein bars, the little liquidIVs that you stick in your water.
Oh, Uhhuh coffee.
So yeah, when I tend, I usually try to.
Kind of covered all my bases as faras, you know, things that, you know,
(15:19):
like I said, don't really have a privyto but would obviously love candy,
snacks, chips, things like that.
So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Anything I would send my8-year-old is usually what I,
Hey, it all sounded like somethingyou could send me and I'm not,
I'm absolutely, absolutely.
Eight plus a different number.
Absolutely.
If you just got coffeeall day, you'd be fine.
You just sent me a box of coffee.
Yes.
Yeah.
(15:39):
Coffee and coffee and kit.
And shes, were good.
We could be friends forever.
So let's talk, we'll shift gears over tothe support side of the house too, right?
Because we talked about individuals,companies, we talked about hero days,
talked about different ways that.
People can, can give back andbe inspired for what they do.
But so when I go out, when we go onyour website, hero box.org, there's
(16:01):
like Texas a and m did something.
Microsoft did something.
Yes.
What do you recommend as far as if peoplelistening to this podcast are one of I.
Find out more about what they can do tosupport you is how they should do that.
And by the way, this is a multi-partquestion, so you might have
to take notes on this one too.
Oh goodness.
So
to park that part of it fornow about how individuals and
(16:21):
companies can get involved.
Then how, and then what about the, howthe communities might rally around you?
Yeah, so the George, I, I, I'm,
I'm not finished.
Just let her answer thoseand then come back with her.
Oh, let's do that.
Okay.
Let's more polite.
You gotta keep me on trackor I'm gonna need a coffee.
He's manners challengesometimes I apologize.
(16:42):
Let's
Katie handle those first two.
Okay, so easiest,obviously for individuals.
If you go on the website, you cancreate an account and it's really
cool because you actually can pick aservice member that you wanna sponsor.
So, for instance, if I say I only wannaservice Army or Navy, or, you know, things
like that, you can, you know, hand pickthat as, as far as like branch and, and
(17:05):
things like that and hop on the air.
You're able to see their wishlist.
You're able to see where they're deployed.
You're able to see howlong they're deployed.
When, you know, when it started,when, when it ends, things like that.
So you get a lot of good informationand you're able, like I said.
To directly contact them through theiremail and, and say, Hey, you know,
we're interested in sponsoring you.
What are some items thatyou guys really need?
(17:27):
So that is individual, that'sgonna be the easiest way.
Obviously, if your organization or acompany, a hero day is gonna be the best.
And those are super easy.
And like I said, those are allkind of fine tuneable to a budget.
The amount of people that youhave and then obviously your end
goal of, you know, what, what typeof impact do you guys wanna do?
So those are, those are always,and same thing, hop on the website,
(17:50):
create the event, create an account,and you get to speak to me who gets
to help you, walk you, you know,help walk you through the process.
And.
There's even times where, you know,I've hopped on a Zoom call while
they do one of these events andsay a little bit about Hero Box.
I flew to Dallas, Texas a couplemonths ago and actually helped with the
event that was super fun for a reallyincredible company called Deloitte.
(18:12):
That's in Westlake.
Texas.
So, yeah, it's, there'sa couple different ways.
And then even if you are just like,you know, a classroom, you guys have a,
you know, you're, you're a teacher at ahigh, high school, middle school, things
like that, you want to just pack a boxand send to an employed service member.
You can do that as well.
And like I said, we always allowthe option to mix and match.
If you wanna get things off theirwishlist or you wanna hop on Amazon and
(18:35):
get a few things, we have that builtinto our platform that you can get those
items directly shipped to them, andyou don't have to do a single thing.
And that's incredibly easy.
That's good to know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our hope is that built a platformso easy that, you know, obviously
there is no stress in it.
It's, it's one of those thingsthat you can just hop on and within
15 minutes you've got a packageout to a deployed service member.
(18:57):
So
Will, will the site tell youwhether or not someone has
already received a hero box?
Yeah, absolutely.
Once you have that, there is postagethat we provide that has all the
tracking information and then obviouslyif there is, you know, any type of.
Past deliveries or things like that.
Then next in line it would, itwould show you that as well, so,
okay.
Incredibly smart.
(19:19):
And then I guess the final partof my time with you is, yeah.
Is, is there an appout there for Hero Box?
We don't have one yetin the, in the store?
No.
Have
one yet, but I think that that is coming.
We have some of the bestsoftware developers.
I would say in the United States thatare helping us with this, we actually
just rolled out some new softwarethe last, within the last two weeks,
(19:41):
that have made hero days effortless.
Being able to, once I send yousupplies, having the tracking
information sent directly to you, sothen that way you know exactly where
everything is to keep you on track.
And I think that that willbe something that we are
definitely rolling out very soon.
So.
She just said she has some of thebest developers in the world, right?
Mm-hmm.
So now, now the Apples andthe Microsofts and the, yeah.
(20:03):
Phone calls are gonna start callingHero Box, saying they're gonna start
poaching your people, recruiting
your people.
I'm saying, because I'm hoping thatLarkin's listening, because I told
him I was doing this podcast, I'mhoping he'll listen and he'll be like.
I'm gonna always helpher when she needs help.
Whenever she locks up,pass runs, runs there.
So Larkin Lakin's thegatekeeper on development.
He is, yeah.
He's our, he's our boy.
Hi Larkin.
Hi Larkin.
(20:25):
Hey, Ryan.
You're doing a pretty good job so far.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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Kind of on that.
Are you done with allof your mini questions?
Lemme check your run onplethora of questions.
Yes.
So also on the website, hero box.org, for,it looks like maybe for, for individuals
(21:57):
or companies that might not be equippedfor whatever reason, to actually pull
hero boxes together, there are waysthat they can just donate financially.
Absolutely.
Correct me if I'm wrong or if Isay any of this incorrect, it looks
like there are one time donation.
Options for a $25 for a fully stockedcare package, $50 to support 10, 10
(22:17):
plus troops with essential items.
I'd be curious what, what that looks like.
And then $500 that would send20 fully stocked care packages.
Yeah, uh, maybe explain a littlebit about that and the impact of
those kind of donations as well.
Yeah, so that, that is an easy waytoo, if you don't have the time or the
manpower to do the hero day events.
Those are all something that, like I said,hop on and can be sent pretty quickly.
(22:39):
The essential items like we, wekind of just do commonly requested.
Basically send those itemsthat we talked about.
Some of the toiletries, beef Turkey,things like that, that obviously
we just kind of go down and saythose are commonly requested items.
So those are usually what wesend for those type boxes.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Alright.
And you've
mentioned, so we mentioned Larkin, so
(23:00):
Yeah, and Riri.
Ryan wants his name six more times.
We shout out
Larkin.
So yeah, I do wanna circle back toRyan and make sure we have a chance.
Yeah, the founder.
The founder, yeah.
And make sure that we give you achance to talk about him a little bit.
Your leadership team, anything youwould share about him, his background.
Yeah, Ryan is fantastic.
He is incredibly smart.
He runs a couple businesses, wears acouple different hats, and he has been
(23:23):
incredible in this process for me justbecause I came in, you know, kind of
right in the middle of like we had activehero days going on and things like that.
So he kind of jumped in andhelped me take over that and then
obviously taught me a whole bunch.
He is fantastic with people.
He like can read a room and talkand just absolutely kill it.
He would never admit that, but he can.
(23:44):
Him and I are really on the samepage about a lot of things because
we have some of the same values andmorals and obviously, and goals.
So having, you know, family andmilitary or just understanding
the importance of taking care ofthese folks is, is incredible.
'cause I, I think that, you know,being able to volunteer your
services like that is something that.
No one really understands untilyou have a family member that
(24:06):
does that, or you do it yourself.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that that is, that isthe important thing that I always
think of in the back of my mind.
You know, these folksdon't have to do this.
This is all something thatthey chose to do, and I have
the utmost respect for that.
And I think that Ryan does too.
And I think that that's makesit very easy for me and him to.
Hop on board and do something andyou know, obviously always make
(24:26):
sure that they're taken the bestcare of that we possibly can.
So is it a fairly flat organization atHero Box where you don't have a lot, a
lot of layers, a lot of management layers?
So it's really a, is it a handfulof people that I. Yeah, our box
super, super small.
It's just me and Ryan that basicallyhandle the day-to-day operations
and we have very little overhead.
So, you know, that lets you know thateverything that we do is basically
(24:49):
turned right back around and donated.
And that's, that's I think what sets usapart from a lot of nonprofits or a lot
of our charitable, you know, charitableorganizations because we make sure
that everything you donate we're, we'resqueezing out to get the, the absolute
most back to them that we possibly can.
And that made me be able tokind of take this job and think.
You know, not only is this somethingthat provides for my family, but it's
(25:10):
something that's also able to giveback and that is important to me.
So I do love that.
Well said.
Alright, so Katie, yes.
Fast forward five years from now,you've only been there since November,
but fast forward to let's go to 2030.
What do you, what do what yousee, where do you see hero box?
I think that, I thinkwe're gonna absolutely be.
(25:32):
Twice as size as we are right now,I would love to branch out and
do some homeless veterans stuff.
Brian and I have talked about that.
That is a huge priorityon my list for sure.
I think that, you know, these folks,once they come back from deployment, they
have absolutely very little resources.
And they're thrown back intosociety with really no, you know,
crutch to be able to help them.
And that's something that Iwould love to be able to do.
(25:54):
So I think that that may be somethingthat we, we may be, you know, trying to
work towards and just expand and, and keepthe same, you know, moral compass that
we've had and just that same direction ofhelping and doing the best that we can.
And I think that that's whereI would love for us to be.
I don't think that it, it any, isanything other than just still giving
the absolute best service that we can.
(26:14):
And I think Ryan would agree.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I do think the
numbers don't lie based on how muchgrowth you've had in 16 plus years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I do think there are unfortunatelyopportunities in the homeless veteran
community to, to serve and unfortunately,but yes, to fill, to fill very real needs.
So that's, that's absolutely.
Yep.
And I think that since we do have.
(26:35):
Such a great following and such greatdonor donations and donors, that
that's an area that if we're ableto expand in that, I would hope that
we would have just as much successas we had, you know, with this.
Yeah.
No, I bet you would.
I
sure bet you would.
There's, there's just a couple reviewsI wanted to read about Hero Box.
That have been out there in thelast decade, and not that there's
a plethora of 'em, but I'm justgonna read a handful of them.
(26:56):
Okay, Jody, I've had the incredibleexperience with Hero Box.
I received my soldier withinminutes of registering.
I sent a question a few weeks laterand was responded to very quickly.
I recommend this organizationto everyone I know.
What a rewarding experience.
Here's another one.
There is no greater feeling whenyou hear back from them on how
much of an impact you made on them.
(27:18):
Third one is it made me feelmore personally connected to
the heroes who serve our countryand lets them know that we care.
And then another one is knowingfirsthand the difference I've been able
to make while people were deployed isa feeling you can't put into words.
Thank you.
Hero box for affording me thisopportunity to help those who give so
much of themselves to a nation thatwill never fully understand exactly
(27:41):
what these selfless men and women.
Go through to keep us safe.
So if Hero box is a conduit forthis kind of feeling and emotional
support and emotional reactionto what an impact you can have on
those deployed, then hats off to youbecause you've, you've hit a home run.
Yeah,
for sure.
It makes me a proud mama.
(28:02):
Yeah, it is about giving.
'cause a lot of people, there weremore comments said about how important
it's to give back, and you mentionedthat earlier in the podcast too.
Katie was said, even if it's aclassroom, even if it's an individual
doing a care package, it's givingback that it's so rewarding.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Like probably about a week beforeChristmas, I received one of my first
(28:25):
like really correspondence from asoldier who was still actively deployed.
He had sent an email and said thathe was just in a really tough spot,
and he said, you have no idea.
He said, I received this carepackage, and he's like, it completely
turned my deployment around.
He said I was, you know, in a reallybad spot and he's like, I got this.
And he's like, it.
It gave me the strength to be ableto like, you know, to keep going and
I'm like, that's what it's all about.
(28:46):
That's why, that's why you do what you do.
Yep.
There's the why.
Absolutely.
Yep.
That is my why.
That is
the why.
Yeah.
There's
the why.
She even answered a question.
'cause normally we'll ask like,is there a story or two that
I know she read?
She as complicated as itcould be to read your mind.
I'm up three
to one now.
She read your mind.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So with, with a fairly smallteam doing all of this.
(29:06):
You know, big work.
I, I imagine on any given dayyou wear a lot of different hats.
So what does, what does a normal day look?
Is there a normal day?
What does,
do you know
what the day is?
What does the generally normal daylook like for you doing all this?
Yeah.
So for me, I've had to obviouslyadjust to work from home, which is
the first, this is the first jobthat I've ever had working from home.
(29:29):
So, and I am a social butterfly.
I know you can't tellfrom this podcast, but
that has been a struggle for me,like not having that interaction.
So.
When someone calls or someone, youknow, I'm able to help someone.
Like I'll pile up on the phone with 'em.
'cause I'm like, you're thefirst person I talked to today.
Like, how's your day?
What do you do?
What'd you eat for breakfast?
Like, we're like besties bythe end of the conversation.
(29:52):
But I think that that is nice because I'mable to make a personal connection with
everybody just because it is so small.
You're not, you don't call and talk to.
Three different people who have toget an answer from someone else.
You call and talk to me.
If I can't answer it, then I, Ireport to Ryan and say, Hey, I've
got this issue, what do I do?
And I get back to them.
So I think that that's what's importantto you is that that person that left
(30:13):
the review is a hundred percent right.
If you, you send a message to ourwebsite, you send an email, I am.
I'm right on getting the,getting you the answer.
'cause I don't want you to missout on being able to donate or I
don't want you to not know whatto do to move the process forward.
And that's important to me.
But yeah, I just, I get up everyday, I, I get myself ready, I get my
little boy ready and start my day.
(30:33):
And this is our busy time, Ithink because of like spring
and after obviously tax season.
A lot of corporations are startingto do some of their, you know,
annual events and things like that.
So I've had a huge influx onhero days, which we are so
blessed to be able to have those.
So that's taken a good bit of my time.
Just because those are prettytedious, you know, ordering items,
(30:54):
making sure they get to those eventson time and, and things like that.
So that's, that's kept me pretty busy.
But I love it.
I absolutely love it.
'cause like I said, I'm a, I'm a peopleperson, so love to solve problems and you
know, like I love that study income of,you know, people coming in and calling.
So.
It's nice.
Hey, Katie, you, I know this is a,you said it's a busy season, but,
so when Memorial Day Veterans' Day,military Appreciation Month in May 4th
(31:17):
of July, you think about some of thesewonderful military calendar events.
Is that, do you see a, a spike.
In the, in the interest in HeroBox, or do you do, yeah, yeah.
Do you do digital outreach or digitaladvertising to promote Hero Box somehow?
We do.
We do email campaigns.
We do text campaignsthrough an organization.
That's fantastic.
So we obviously have those.
(31:38):
I obviously have not been throughthis season of 4th of July Memorial
Day just yet, but I know obviouslywith, like I said, this season.
I saw more hero days and when I started,obviously till end of like November and
December, I saw a lot more of individualdonations and I think a lot of people were
doing that for Christmas, which I love.
That was a huge thing for me 'causeyou got to kind of hear all those
(31:59):
stories of people saying, Hey, likefor a Christmas gathering, we decided
to, you know, sponsor a soldier.
So everybody's kind of gettingthings together and you know,
they're gonna send a package.
So I think it's different times ofthe year you see an influx in, in
the different ways of donating, but.
We have been so blessed that throughoutthe entire year we, we've stayed pretty
steady with people wanting to give back.
(32:20):
So that's that's great.
I love that Christmas gathering idea.
Like our family, we get together atChristmas and we all look at each other
like, none of us need anything, so whydo we, let's do something present for
each other we don't need and probablywon't, like when we could pool our
resources and do something of value.
So, yeah, no, I love that idea.
For sure.
(32:40):
So, yeah.
Do you have any lastcomments you wanna share?
You?
We covered a lot of ground.
I think one of the reasons why she andI do this podcast is to find companies
like Hero Box, the Hidden Gems.
Yeah.
That, that are not necessarily householdnames or dinner table names, but they are
names that mean something to people andhave a, have an impact on the military
community, especially those deployed.
(33:01):
So yeah, to be able to showcase.
And you know, if, if our NellisAir Force base location didn't
bring it to my attention a yearago, I wouldn't have heard of it.
No.
Yeah.
And so getting the word outthere, building awareness is a
part of why we do what we do.
I am so thankful for you guys'cause that's incredible to me.
'cause I feel like I always wannasay like, don't sleep on us.
(33:22):
Like, don't sleep on hero boxlike we do for us to be so small,
like we do such great things.
Oh yeah.
You know, like, like I said, end goal isto always make sure that you know, every
customer, rather it is a deployed servicemember or a person that is donating.
We wanna make sure that theyget the absolute most customer
service care that they.
Possibly can.
And yeah, that's, that is my goal.
(33:42):
Obviously we talked about five-yeargoal, but my goal this year is to be
able to get the name hero box out sothat we can, you know, impact even more.
'cause I think it is one of thosethings that you don't always see,
but I think every, anytime anybodyever stumbles on the website, they're
like, man, this is, this is amazing.
Like, what didn't we know about this?
I don't know.
Are you pretty active onsocial media Bureau boxed?
(34:05):
We are.
Yeah.
Actually I'm, I'm doing a little bit morelearning that obviously trying to get a
little bit out with, with social media.
Gonna do like a giveawayin the next little bit.
Ordered some cool swag.
We got some new hats andcoozies and things like that.
So.
Anything like that, that I can evensend when someone has a Hero day event,
to be able to kind of do a littlebit of a word of mouth stuff too.
So we're, we're definitely workingover here trying to, trying to get
(34:27):
some new avenues and stay relevant.
So
Jo, Jody harasses a lot of our podcastguests and oh my gosh, if, if there's
merchandise to be offered, she'slike, well, can I give you my address?
I usually
go out and buy you eyou email me, boo boo.
I'll send you all I got.
Okay.
I'm her
boo boo.
Did I, I thought I reached Booboo status.
Yeah.
(34:47):
Did you?
Clearly,
clearly not.
Tom McLean.
Alright.
Three,
three to two.
Yes, we are in fact Best Eats.
We are at the end of the road.
Yes.
Or the end of the podcast.
Does it?
You don't wanna sing a Voice to Men song?
I do not.
Not what time.
I do wanna play the military
minute.
(35:08):
Okay.
Ooh, do you think, do you thinkKatie wants to play the military?
Minute?
Katie's probably questioningall of her life decisions.
Having join, having joined this podcast,
Katie's, this has beenthe best day of your life.
It really has.
Minus the birth of my child.
Absolutely.
Oh yeah.
We're, we're close second.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll say that.
Yeah.
All right, just a
second.
Yeah, she had her fingerscrossed behind her back.
(35:30):
So I Military minute we, we, we sort oflove the game, but it is a trivia game.
But there are two parts to this today.
So the first one, if you happen to knowthe answer, you can, you can respond.
The second one we're gonna ask youto not answer because we're gonna
tee that one up for our audienceand see, see what they can do.
Do think, do you think she'll
know about Jack, Jack home?
I don't think,
I don't think she'll know the, unlessyou happen to listen to our last podcast,
(35:52):
which, oh, by the way, hasn't dropped yet.
Yeah.
And it hasn't been published,so chances are low.
I got
it.
I got in the pre-download
she's been studying.
Yes.
So our last military minute,it was a two part question.
'cause Tom's been a fan of those lately.
Sometimes three.
Jack Ohm, our guest fromTunnel to Towers Foundation.
He was a student athlete Atwhat university and in what
sport did he participate?
(36:13):
CF Katie knows the answer to that.
Harvard University And he played the pro.
Yeah,
because you don't have thatmany choices about university.
So that's a good guess.
You might guess a sportguess Sport lacrosse.
No, it wasn't.
It was a very good guess though.
Technically it's part oftrack and field, but it
was maybe, yeah, so it was MaristUniversity and Track and Field.
(36:36):
That was my next, so yeah, I figuredMarist would've been your second
choice, but if you are in our audience.
And you listen to that podcast and youremembered 'cause you have a mind, like a
steel trap, and you answered that on ourpost watch for your name to be posted as
the lucky recipient of $50 for yourselfand $50 for a charity of your choice.
Which do you remember what?
$50? Which we established?
(36:56):
What would
$50 get?
Well, a
hundred dollars could buyfour individual hero boxes.
If my math is right.
Yeah.
Math's a little hard.
We'll, we'll check it.
Check the math.
But you could buy multiplehero boxes with that, right?
All day long.
All day long.
Yes.
The next question though, so don'tanswer, don't answer this one because we
went tee this one up for our audience.
But you, you might know this one,this week's military minute takes
(37:19):
us to a question about deployment.
What is the average number oftroops deployed at any given time?
Enter dead silence because wedon't wanna say the answer.
No, but I wanna know, I wantto have a head nod from Katie
if she knows the answer.
We'll say she does.
She said yes.
That's excellent.
So if you're a, if you're a sharp sori
Ryan, be very proud of Katie.
(37:40):
Yes.
So if you
are a sharp cookie to kind of continueour Girl Scout theme here, and you know
that answer, or you can find that answerwhen this podcast drops, make sure you
put that in the comments and then ifyou are correct, most importantly, you
too could be entered to win $50 for youand $50 for a charity of your choice.
So between last podcast and thispodcast, that would've in an
(38:00):
actual terms be eight hero boxes.
Ma Math is, math is working today.
Math is
math and
national.
It's Mathen.
Speaking of, and I will endthis by saying thank you Katie.
You are thank fun to have on here.
But more importantly, it was reallygreat to hear about hero robots and
to share that with our audience.
And I hope they have listened and takenthat to heart and find their way to hero
(38:23):
robots.org and put action behind the wordstoday and help support what you're doing.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate you guys so much.
Yeah.
We, uh, we will take all we can
if my final comments, if youenjoyed today's episode as much as
Jody and Katie did, go out to afbank.com and subscribe to the show.
(38:46):
Also, make sure to rate us, leave us acomment on your favorite podcast platform.
Katie, we are on ApplePodcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
So find us.
We, you can find us anywhere.
Yeah, I'm gonna
do it.
I'm gonna, yeah, I'm a loyal fan now.
Tell Ryan we said hello.
Tell Ryan we appreciate.
Tell Larkin we said hey.
Yeah, tell Ryan that we appreciategetting behind an organization that's
(39:06):
flourished over the years, so absolutely.
Good work.
Absolutely.
Thank you guys so much.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Thanks.
Bye
Bye Katie.
Bye-bye.
Copyright Armed Forces Bank Member,FDIC, equal Housing Lender, all
non Armed forces, bank owned apps,websites, company names, and product
names or trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective owners.
They're mentioned does not implyany affiliation with or endorsement
(39:28):
by Armed Forces Bank of themor their products and services.
They're merely used as examples of themany available apps, companies, and
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Before using any app or website, youshould carefully review the terms
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This information is general innature and is not intended to be
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Although Armed Forces Bank believesthis information to be accurate, it
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Statements or opinions of individualsreferenced herein are their own
(39:49):
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Speaking logo are registered.
Trademarks of Armed Forces Bank.
Militarily speaking, episode 78, hero Box.
This episode we talked with KatieSaunders, program Director at Hero Box.
(00:21):
Welcome to Militarily Speaking,brought to you by Armed Forces Bank.
This is Tom McLean.
And Jody Vickery, military spouse.
I am the military retailexecutive for Armed Forces Bank.
And Jody, you know thatJody has a new job now.
Katie Jody's, chief Digital Officer.
That sounds so fancy,
doesn't it?
Do you know what it does?
(00:41):
No, me neither.
Me and Jodi we're making it up together.
She,
she's in that first yearhoneymoon where she figures
out her other duties as a sign.
Been, she's been there fivemonths and I've been in this
role roughly five months.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I love
comparing notes.
For sure.
Me and Jody's bond.
No, I love that.
Yeah,
I know you just shifted the bond from uu.
See how that worked?
(01:01):
Yes, Katie.
You can't play that way.
That's what us women do.
That's exactly what we do.
This could go,
this could go south for you
real quick, Tom.
So I'm gonna, I'm justgonna walk away quietly.
Love it, love it, love it.
Again.
Welcome to our show.
We're excited to have you listeningand learning all about our guest,
Katie Saunders and Hero Box.
I wanna tell our audience,Katie, just a little bit about
(01:23):
you before we get going here.
She assumed the role of program directorwith Hero Box in November, 2024.
Prior to that, she worked foreight years in real estate.
As the director of operations withnumerous family members who have served
in the military, Katie feels a strongpersonal connection to Hero Box's mission.
She handles all the hero dayevents, day-to-day donations in
all aspects of customer service.
(01:45):
Could you say hero again?
Hero.
I like that.
Did I say hero?
I say hero.
Oh, har hero.
But you say what?
Do say hero.
You.
Hero.
It's true.
You
accentuate the He.
Hero.
Hero, how do you say it?
Katie?
Hero.
She two to
one.
Yeah, two to one.
I went, I
can't even say it.
Like you say Har.
Hero,
hero,
hero.
Now.
Now I'm gonna overthink it andsay it couple different ways.
(02:07):
Hero.
Is this on?
Oh my gosh, we have lost it.
Goodness.
We, we have questions
for Katie too, right?
Two
minutes in and we are off into the abyss.
So, which is the way
it should be.
Yes.
I
love that.
It often is actually.
Welcome, Katie.
Yes.
Back on track.
Welcome Katie.
Being brave enough tostep into this with us.
She's a hero.
(02:27):
You're a hero for that.
Look at, yeah.
Nevermind.
I'm not even gonna go there.
It is an honor to have you on our showand, and we appreciate you being here.
I'd love to have you just start bytelling our audience a little bit about
Hero Box, and I am confident we'll havelots of questions for you after that.
Yeah, so Hero Box startedproject by our founder in 2008.
(02:48):
Basically, he had a sibling thatwas deployed and found out that
obviously needed a little bit moreof a specialized care package.
And then that way, you know, basically ifyou're deployed, you're able to kind of
pick and choose some things that you wouldlike that you're not a privy to, you know?
Obviously being here.
So that's kind of how we started.
And now we service almost a milliondeployed service members through
(03:12):
our organization and basicallyjust to provide a direct way to
support deployed service members.
Love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So fif 16 ish years later, 1million Heroes supported 20,000
registered sponsors, and Ithink a thousand hero days.
Am I reading those numberscorrectly from your website?
Yep,
that's right.
(03:32):
That is right.
Those are big numbers.
They are.
That makes me proud.
Yeah.
As it should.
As it should.
Yeah.
I think I told you this when I firstmet you, Katie, was we, we did something
with Hero Box at Nellis Air Force Base.
We have a.
Manager out there that had experiencewith Hero Box and she brought that to our
company and did a hero event or hero day,probably, probably within the last 6,
(03:55):
8, 9 months ago in the Las Vegas market.
And we provided care packages to threeservice members that included items
on their wishlists and some one thingwe do here, we take pride in this
too 'cause we do Red Fridays, right?
Re, re remembering everyone deployed.
Each banking center at Armed ForcesBank will pick a particular Friday in
(04:15):
a particular month and identify someservice members that are deployed and
put together care packages for 'em.
Just kind of random, but in thespirit of Hero Box and the spirit
of Red Fridays, we're we're big fansof what you do, especially in the
formality of it, of Hero Box and thereputation you have that it's pretty
(04:36):
cool to be able to tell our audience.
In more detail about how peoplecan get involved and what
people can do to support you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So talk about Hero Day events in justin general, because you know, we, if
we randomly just reach out and, anddid this and we got some t-shirts for
our team there too, from your company,and, but how do, how do people get
(04:57):
involved in the hero day events and.
Tell us what a typical formatis or, or how it gets started.
Yeah, they're actually probablymy favorite thing to do.
Obviously I love to, to talk toindividual donors, but I think
the bond that you build oncesomeone signs up for a hero day is.
Incredible.
Most of the time it's obviously,like you were saying, like either
corporations or you know, businessesthat decide, hey, we've got this, you
(05:21):
know, seminar this week or this month.
But in part of that, like why can't wealso give back so you can, you know,
hop on the website, create the event.
Obviously I'll be your point of contact.
And the cool thing about that isyou can kind of customize that
to how personal you want it.
If it's something that you have to dopretty quick and I, you wanna just call
(05:42):
me and say, Hey, we're having this event.
We wanna host a hero day.
At that point I can say, Hey, do youwant me to send everything to you guys?
You know, the contents, the bags, theboxes, or is this something that you
guys want to pull your team togetherand maybe have a contest and say.
You know, if you divide these peopleup and they bring items in, you
know, whoever brings them amount ofitems in, I like that approach just
(06:05):
because it is incredibly personal.
You're able to, you know, either hop ontoour website, see that deployed service
member's wishlist, snag a couple itemsfrom there, or you're able to reach
out to that deployed service member.
See where they're deployed.
If it's a cold region, you can, you know,completely directly communicate with them
and say, Hey, do you guys need gloves?
(06:25):
Or, you know, things like that.
And I think that's the, the cool thingabout that is that it's a personal.
Personal in the aspect of you'rehelping a deployed service member.
But then I also get to know a wholebunch of people across the United States,
which I love with the same, you know,like-mind morals and values of end of the
day you wanna help these deployed servicemembers who this may be the only time
(06:45):
that they ever get things from back home.
And I love that 'cause it's kind ofa team building exercise for your
business, but then it's also a way togive back and bring that full circle even
after the event, you're still able to.
Keep in contact with them.
They can send you picturesof the items that you send.
It is just incredible.
It's a, it's a great way to, todefinitely give back into, like
(07:06):
I said, also, you know, haveyour teammates help you out too.
So,
yeah, I love that personalizationand that connection.
I mean, there, there are othercompanies that, that provide care
packages and the like, but I don'tknow that I've ever seen one that
connects you like that, where you can.
Com, your customization workconversation back and forth or, or
some kind of a communication back andforth and that, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
(07:26):
For sure.
Let's say www.herobox.org.
Yes, that's it.
Several times.
We have to say that atleast six times today.
Or four hero box.org or Hero Box.
Hero.
That's right.
And it's a user-friendlywebsite, which I love.
I don't say that just because obviouslyit's, you know, I'm a part of it,
but it is, it's so easy to hop onthere and either create the event if
(07:47):
you're doing a hero day or just doa, you know, a donation individually.
It is incredibly user-friendly,easy, easy to, to navigate, for sure.
That's awesome.
I know when I read your profile justa few minutes ago, it talked about
you having numerous family membersthat have served and Yeah, I'd love
to hear a little bit about that.
Obviously it creates aconnection from the military.
(08:08):
You know, my grandpa is my dad, myhusband, they all serve and so it does.
Yeah, you just sort ofwere tied to it, right?
Yep.
Tell us a little bit about your differentways you're connected to the military and
how that helped you make the transitionfrom what you are doing in real estate
to what you're doing now with Hero Box.
Yeah, for sure.
So my grandfather, my dad's dad was Army.
(08:29):
He was infantry and was.
Basically during peace time, he wasactually stationed in Korea, did
some time and stationed in Hawaii.
So obviously always grew upwith like the cool stories that
he always, me and my sister.
My great uncle was also military.
My child's father ismilitary or was military.
He did two tours in Afghanistan andbasically deployed in and did that.
(08:50):
So that's huge.
Obviously being able totell my little boy like.
What his dad did and how much he helped.
So it's always in the back of mymind, like I think if these, you
know, these folks are my family, howwould I want to serve them and how
would I want to make sure that theirexperience was 100% top of the line?
So that's always in the back ofmy mind and I always think, you
know, like these folks make adecision that they don't have to.
(09:13):
And I wanna always make sure that theyknow they have people in their corner
here that are gonna make sure they getthe absolute best care they possibly can.
How did you find hero Box?
So, oddly enough, I have a bestfriend who's still in real estate,
and Ryan, our founder, was, wasan slash, is one of her clients.
And he just said, Hey, I need,I need a program director.
Would your friend be interested?
(09:34):
And I was like, I'm like, I don't know.
But then I was like to work from home.
Job, obviously being a mom,that's my first, first priority.
So I'm thinking.
That would open a lot of doors tobe able to be a more present parent.
So I'm like, you know what,we're gonna roll with it.
So I took the leap of faithand I just, you know, good
for you.
Yeah, and like obviously like religionis a, a huge part of my life and I've
always thought if I take the leapof faith, God will take care of me.
(09:56):
And he always has.
And it has been a huge.
Just positive impact on my life for sure.
And my child's to be able to, obviouslyA, do this and B, just be able to
have a little bit more flexibilityto be the best mom I can be so that
nothing will ever replace for sure.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
You talked earlier about the customizationside of the house and, and maybe the
(10:19):
more efficient approach might be.
As Jody and I talked about this too,about the, whether it's broad brush
approach or if it's, yeah, you know,a one size fits all, might, might,
might make it more efficient, mightmake more cost effective, whatever.
But yeah, maybe back when Ryanstarted this thing, he always
knew it wanted to be a morecustomizable, personalized delivery.
I. Yeah.
(10:39):
Is, is that, are we on track with that?
Absolutely.
I think that Ron and I are verysimilar in the way that we think.
Obviously with him having a, a familymember that was deployed, I think
that he always had that in mind ofthinking, you know, you wanna make
sure that these guys don't just geta bunch of stuff that they're not
gonna use, or just things that, youknow, are, are quote unquote common.
It is still, you are still able togive an absolute personal touch.
(11:00):
And I think that thatis huge in this process.
Our overhead is very low, so it's,you know, it's one of those things
that we've created this platform that.
Virtually anybody in the United Statescan hop on at any time and send a care
package to a deployed service member.
And we never say you can't add items.
I had a lady a couple months ago whowas doing an individual donation and
she said, I've baked some cookies.
(11:21):
She's like, it was right before Christmas.
She said, I've baked some cookiesand I've knitted a few items.
She's like, can Iinclude those in the box?
And I was like, absolutely.
Like, are you kidding me?
Like.
If I was a food computer and I got abox like that, I would be like, jackpot.
I'm like, jackpot.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like we love that.
We love, you know, people putting inpersonal letters of encouragement or you
(11:41):
know, thank you notes, things like that.
I think that's alwayssomething that's nice.
You know, obviously being away from home,having that little bit of a personal
touch from home is just incredible.
So.
Do you think peoplesend Girl Scout cookies?
You could only hope ifyou were getting one.
No.
Tom's a bit of a peanut butter pat.
Well, he's the peanut butter patty pea.
Oh, peanut butter
baby slash thin mints.
(12:01):
But then Jody sends me articlesabout N mints and it scares me.
Don't give him a bad
wrap on our podcast.
Oh goodness.
I don't know if that article was legit.
That article was not legitimateand I will eat them all day long.
Can you ate all, all the boxes I gave you?
Didn't you forget toxicity issues?
I'm just gonna go ahead.
Go for it.
Yeah, I, I don't bring them into my houseanymore because the thin mints in the
freezer, I'll eat the entire sleeves.
Do you do thin mintsin the freezer, Katie?
(12:24):
No, I don't like thin mints.
I like the Samoas and I will literally sitdown and eat an entire box at one sitting.
And I'm hoping that someone fromthe Girl Scouts is on this podcast
right now, so they're like.
We're gonna send you guyssome snow, as I know,
send you a hero box forthe work you're doing.
Absolutely.
I'll take them all day long.
I think, I think she and I noware bonding because when I, if I
open a box of those peanut butterpatties, it, it's not just a sleeve.
(12:47):
It's weird.
They just disappear.
I know.
I don't know what happens.
I don't know where they go.
Oh, I'll tell you later, when
my, my wife does tell me that.
I'll tell you.
Let's, uh, let's keep,how do you pronounce GYRO?
Oh,
that's a hard one.
It is, yes.
I think it's, you can have fun with it oryou can do it the way it's supposed to be.
Like the
Greek sandwich,
(13:08):
right?
Yeah.
Maybe Eero.
Ooh.
What do you think, Katie?
Is it Yra?
Ooh.
Euro box.
Right?
Well least it's not gyro.
Yeah.
A lot of people say gyro.
Yeah, I'm Southern.
We always mispronounce everything
and we get away with it.
'cause we're southern.
How close are you to all?
'cause it just sounds cool.
Albany, Georgia.
(13:29):
Albany, Georgia.
I am four hours from there.
My mom lives, there's, it's
Albany.
'cause people don't want to beassociated with New York, Albany, right?
That's true.
This is true.
Um, yeah, it's, uh,actually they say Albany.
Albany.
Oh.
I think they add an extra syllable.
How do you say Louisville?
Louisville?
Or do you say Louisville?
Louisville?
(13:50):
No, I say Louisville.
Right
who brought this up?
Anyway,
I think you, I think youcontinued to bring those,
I dunno where the, it all started withyou and the Girl Scout cookies and
we then it went south to to Georgia.
Then you transitioned to
Greek sandwiches.
Off track.
Off track.
Although I could eatone of those sandwiches.
Those are very good.
Well, yeah, same.
I bet you've never had one ofthose sandwiches in a hero box,
(14:11):
but what are, what are some of the,
isn't a hero sandwichlike a hogie too though?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, that is, yeah.
For sure.
We're really going tangential.
We
are.
So, but we have a
plethora of, of information to share witheach other every time we get together.
Jody, I.
Uh, yeah, I, my mind can't hardly take it.
So, so
why don't you ask her about the itemsthat are most commonly requested.
I, and there's probably
no hero sandwich, nothing perishable,I would suspect in a hero box.
(14:32):
But what are some of the mostcommonly requested things you get or
anything that's ever surprised you?
Like, Hey, wow, that's,that's an interesting ask.
And by golly, we fulfilled it.
We're gonna keep this a general related,
generally rated GGG rated audience, right?
Keep it clean.
PG
podcast.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So obviously some of the items that wehave got requests for are little out
(14:57):
there and some deemed inappropriate,some of the commonly requested
items that we kind kind of see.
And then I usually includetoo, if I send beef jerky.
Protein bars, the little liquidIVs that you stick in your water.
Oh, Uhhuh coffee.
So yeah, when I tend, I usually try to.
Kind of covered all my bases as faras, you know, things that, you know,
(15:19):
like I said, don't really have a privyto but would obviously love candy,
snacks, chips, things like that.
So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Anything I would send my8-year-old is usually what I,
Hey, it all sounded like somethingyou could send me and I'm not,
I'm absolutely, absolutely.
Eight plus a different number.
Absolutely.
If you just got coffeeall day, you'd be fine.
You just sent me a box of coffee.
Yes.
Yeah.
(15:39):
Coffee and coffee and kit.
And shes, were good.
We could be friends forever.
So let's talk, we'll shift gears over tothe support side of the house too, right?
Because we talked about individuals,companies, we talked about hero days,
talked about different ways that.
People can, can give back andbe inspired for what they do.
But so when I go out, when we go onyour website, hero box.org, there's
(16:01):
like Texas a and m did something.
Microsoft did something.
Yes.
What do you recommend as far as if peoplelistening to this podcast are one of I.
Find out more about what they can do tosupport you is how they should do that.
And by the way, this is a multi-partquestion, so you might have
to take notes on this one too.
Oh goodness.
So
to park that part of it fornow about how individuals and
(16:21):
companies can get involved.
Then how, and then what about the, howthe communities might rally around you?
Yeah, so the George, I, I, I'm,
I'm not finished.
Just let her answer thoseand then come back with her.
Oh, let's do that.
Okay.
Let's more polite.
You gotta keep me on trackor I'm gonna need a coffee.
He's manners challengesometimes I apologize.
(16:42):
Let's
Katie handle those first two.
Okay, so easiest,obviously for individuals.
If you go on the website, you cancreate an account and it's really
cool because you actually can pick aservice member that you wanna sponsor.
So, for instance, if I say I only wannaservice Army or Navy, or, you know, things
like that, you can, you know, hand pickthat as, as far as like branch and, and
(17:05):
things like that and hop on the air.
You're able to see their wishlist.
You're able to see where they're deployed.
You're able to see howlong they're deployed.
When, you know, when it started,when, when it ends, things like that.
So you get a lot of good informationand you're able, like I said.
To directly contact them through theiremail and, and say, Hey, you know,
we're interested in sponsoring you.
What are some items thatyou guys really need?
(17:27):
So that is individual, that'sgonna be the easiest way.
Obviously, if your organization or acompany, a hero day is gonna be the best.
And those are super easy.
And like I said, those are allkind of fine tuneable to a budget.
The amount of people that youhave and then obviously your end
goal of, you know, what, what typeof impact do you guys wanna do?
So those are, those are always,and same thing, hop on the website,
(17:50):
create the event, create an account,and you get to speak to me who gets
to help you, walk you, you know,help walk you through the process.
And.
There's even times where, you know,I've hopped on a Zoom call while
they do one of these events andsay a little bit about Hero Box.
I flew to Dallas, Texas a couplemonths ago and actually helped with the
event that was super fun for a reallyincredible company called Deloitte.
(18:12):
That's in Westlake.
Texas.
So, yeah, it's, there'sa couple different ways.
And then even if you are just like,you know, a classroom, you guys have a,
you know, you're, you're a teacher at ahigh, high school, middle school, things
like that, you want to just pack a boxand send to an employed service member.
You can do that as well.
And like I said, we always allowthe option to mix and match.
If you wanna get things off theirwishlist or you wanna hop on Amazon and
(18:35):
get a few things, we have that builtinto our platform that you can get those
items directly shipped to them, andyou don't have to do a single thing.
And that's incredibly easy.
That's good to know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our hope is that built a platformso easy that, you know, obviously
there is no stress in it.
It's, it's one of those thingsthat you can just hop on and within
15 minutes you've got a packageout to a deployed service member.
(18:57):
So
Will, will the site tell youwhether or not someone has
already received a hero box?
Yeah, absolutely.
Once you have that, there is postagethat we provide that has all the
tracking information and then obviouslyif there is, you know, any type of.
Past deliveries or things like that.
Then next in line it would, itwould show you that as well, so,
okay.
Incredibly smart.
(19:19):
And then I guess the final partof my time with you is, yeah.
Is, is there an appout there for Hero Box?
We don't have one yetin the, in the store?
No.
Have
one yet, but I think that that is coming.
We have some of the bestsoftware developers.
I would say in the United States thatare helping us with this, we actually
just rolled out some new softwarethe last, within the last two weeks,
(19:41):
that have made hero days effortless.
Being able to, once I send yousupplies, having the tracking
information sent directly to you, sothen that way you know exactly where
everything is to keep you on track.
And I think that that willbe something that we are
definitely rolling out very soon.
So.
She just said she has some of thebest developers in the world, right?
Mm-hmm.
So now, now the Apples andthe Microsofts and the, yeah.
(20:03):
Phone calls are gonna start callingHero Box, saying they're gonna start
poaching your people, recruiting
your people.
I'm saying, because I'm hoping thatLarkin's listening, because I told
him I was doing this podcast, I'mhoping he'll listen and he'll be like.
I'm gonna always helpher when she needs help.
Whenever she locks up,pass runs, runs there.
So Larkin Lakin's thegatekeeper on development.
He is, yeah.
He's our, he's our boy.
Hi Larkin.
Hi Larkin.
(20:25):
Hey, Ryan.
You're doing a pretty good job so far.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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(21:10):
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(21:32):
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Kind of on that.
Are you done with allof your mini questions?
Lemme check your run onplethora of questions.
Yes.
So also on the website, hero box.org, for,it looks like maybe for, for individuals
(21:57):
or companies that might not be equippedfor whatever reason, to actually pull
hero boxes together, there are waysthat they can just donate financially.
Absolutely.
Correct me if I'm wrong or if Isay any of this incorrect, it looks
like there are one time donation.
Options for a $25 for a fully stockedcare package, $50 to support 10, 10
(22:17):
plus troops with essential items.
I'd be curious what, what that looks like.
And then $500 that would send20 fully stocked care packages.
Yeah, uh, maybe explain a littlebit about that and the impact of
those kind of donations as well.
Yeah, so that, that is an easy waytoo, if you don't have the time or the
manpower to do the hero day events.
Those are all something that, like I said,hop on and can be sent pretty quickly.
(22:39):
The essential items like we, wekind of just do commonly requested.
Basically send those itemsthat we talked about.
Some of the toiletries, beef Turkey,things like that, that obviously
we just kind of go down and saythose are commonly requested items.
So those are usually what wesend for those type boxes.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Alright.
And you've
mentioned, so we mentioned Larkin, so
(23:00):
Yeah, and Riri.
Ryan wants his name six more times.
We shout out
Larkin.
So yeah, I do wanna circle back toRyan and make sure we have a chance.
Yeah, the founder.
The founder, yeah.
And make sure that we give you achance to talk about him a little bit.
Your leadership team, anything youwould share about him, his background.
Yeah, Ryan is fantastic.
He is incredibly smart.
He runs a couple businesses, wears acouple different hats, and he has been
(23:23):
incredible in this process for me justbecause I came in, you know, kind of
right in the middle of like we had activehero days going on and things like that.
So he kind of jumped in andhelped me take over that and then
obviously taught me a whole bunch.
He is fantastic with people.
He like can read a room and talkand just absolutely kill it.
He would never admit that, but he can.
(23:44):
Him and I are really on the samepage about a lot of things because
we have some of the same values andmorals and obviously, and goals.
So having, you know, family andmilitary or just understanding
the importance of taking care ofthese folks is, is incredible.
'cause I, I think that, you know,being able to volunteer your
services like that is something that.
No one really understands untilyou have a family member that
(24:06):
does that, or you do it yourself.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that that is, that isthe important thing that I always
think of in the back of my mind.
You know, these folksdon't have to do this.
This is all something thatthey chose to do, and I have
the utmost respect for that.
And I think that Ryan does too.
And I think that that's makesit very easy for me and him to.
Hop on board and do something andyou know, obviously always make
(24:26):
sure that they're taken the bestcare of that we possibly can.
So is it a fairly flat organization atHero Box where you don't have a lot, a
lot of layers, a lot of management layers?
So it's really a, is it a handfulof people that I. Yeah, our box
super, super small.
It's just me and Ryan that basicallyhandle the day-to-day operations
and we have very little overhead.
So, you know, that lets you know thateverything that we do is basically
(24:49):
turned right back around and donated.
And that's, that's I think what sets usapart from a lot of nonprofits or a lot
of our charitable, you know, charitableorganizations because we make sure
that everything you donate we're, we'resqueezing out to get the, the absolute
most back to them that we possibly can.
And that made me be able tokind of take this job and think.
You know, not only is this somethingthat provides for my family, but it's
(25:10):
something that's also able to giveback and that is important to me.
So I do love that.
Well said.
Alright, so Katie, yes.
Fast forward five years from now,you've only been there since November,
but fast forward to let's go to 2030.
What do you, what do what yousee, where do you see hero box?
I think that, I thinkwe're gonna absolutely be.
(25:32):
Twice as size as we are right now,I would love to branch out and
do some homeless veterans stuff.
Brian and I have talked about that.
That is a huge priorityon my list for sure.
I think that, you know, these folks,once they come back from deployment, they
have absolutely very little resources.
And they're thrown back intosociety with really no, you know,
crutch to be able to help them.
And that's something that Iwould love to be able to do.
(25:54):
So I think that that may be somethingthat we, we may be, you know, trying to
work towards and just expand and, and keepthe same, you know, moral compass that
we've had and just that same direction ofhelping and doing the best that we can.
And I think that that's whereI would love for us to be.
I don't think that it, it any, isanything other than just still giving
the absolute best service that we can.
(26:14):
And I think Ryan would agree.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I do think the
numbers don't lie based on how muchgrowth you've had in 16 plus years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I do think there are unfortunatelyopportunities in the homeless veteran
community to, to serve and unfortunately,but yes, to fill, to fill very real needs.
So that's, that's absolutely.
Yep.
And I think that since we do have.
(26:35):
Such a great following and such greatdonor donations and donors, that
that's an area that if we're ableto expand in that, I would hope that
we would have just as much successas we had, you know, with this.
Yeah.
No, I bet you would.
I
sure bet you would.
There's, there's just a couple reviewsI wanted to read about Hero Box.
That have been out there in thelast decade, and not that there's
a plethora of 'em, but I'm justgonna read a handful of them.
(26:56):
Okay, Jody, I've had the incredibleexperience with Hero Box.
I received my soldier withinminutes of registering.
I sent a question a few weeks laterand was responded to very quickly.
I recommend this organizationto everyone I know.
What a rewarding experience.
Here's another one.
There is no greater feeling whenyou hear back from them on how
much of an impact you made on them.
(27:18):
Third one is it made me feelmore personally connected to
the heroes who serve our countryand lets them know that we care.
And then another one is knowingfirsthand the difference I've been able
to make while people were deployed isa feeling you can't put into words.
Thank you.
Hero box for affording me thisopportunity to help those who give so
much of themselves to a nation thatwill never fully understand exactly
(27:41):
what these selfless men and women.
Go through to keep us safe.
So if Hero box is a conduit forthis kind of feeling and emotional
support and emotional reactionto what an impact you can have on
those deployed, then hats off to youbecause you've, you've hit a home run.
Yeah,
for sure.
It makes me a proud mama.
(28:02):
Yeah, it is about giving.
'cause a lot of people, there weremore comments said about how important
it's to give back, and you mentionedthat earlier in the podcast too.
Katie was said, even if it's aclassroom, even if it's an individual
doing a care package, it's givingback that it's so rewarding.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Like probably about a week beforeChristmas, I received one of my first
(28:25):
like really correspondence from asoldier who was still actively deployed.
He had sent an email and said thathe was just in a really tough spot,
and he said, you have no idea.
He said, I received this carepackage, and he's like, it completely
turned my deployment around.
He said I was, you know, in a reallybad spot and he's like, I got this.
And he's like, it.
It gave me the strength to be ableto like, you know, to keep going and
I'm like, that's what it's all about.
(28:46):
That's why, that's why you do what you do.
Yep.
There's the why.
Absolutely.
Yep.
That is my why.
That is
the why.
Yeah.
There's
the why.
She even answered a question.
'cause normally we'll ask like,is there a story or two that
I know she read?
She as complicated as itcould be to read your mind.
I'm up three
to one now.
She read your mind.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So with, with a fairly smallteam doing all of this.
(29:06):
You know, big work.
I, I imagine on any given dayyou wear a lot of different hats.
So what does, what does a normal day look?
Is there a normal day?
What does,
do you know
what the day is?
What does the generally normal daylook like for you doing all this?
Yeah.
So for me, I've had to obviouslyadjust to work from home, which is
the first, this is the first jobthat I've ever had working from home.
(29:29):
So, and I am a social butterfly.
I know you can't tellfrom this podcast, but
that has been a struggle for me,like not having that interaction.
So.
When someone calls or someone, youknow, I'm able to help someone.
Like I'll pile up on the phone with 'em.
'cause I'm like, you're thefirst person I talked to today.
Like, how's your day?
What do you do?
What'd you eat for breakfast?
Like, we're like besties bythe end of the conversation.
(29:52):
But I think that that is nice because I'mable to make a personal connection with
everybody just because it is so small.
You're not, you don't call and talk to.
Three different people who have toget an answer from someone else.
You call and talk to me.
If I can't answer it, then I, Ireport to Ryan and say, Hey, I've
got this issue, what do I do?
And I get back to them.
So I think that that's what's importantto you is that that person that left
(30:13):
the review is a hundred percent right.
If you, you send a message to ourwebsite, you send an email, I am.
I'm right on getting the,getting you the answer.
'cause I don't want you to missout on being able to donate or I
don't want you to not know whatto do to move the process forward.
And that's important to me.
But yeah, I just, I get up everyday, I, I get myself ready, I get my
little boy ready and start my day.
(30:33):
And this is our busy time, Ithink because of like spring
and after obviously tax season.
A lot of corporations are startingto do some of their, you know,
annual events and things like that.
So I've had a huge influx onhero days, which we are so
blessed to be able to have those.
So that's taken a good bit of my time.
Just because those are prettytedious, you know, ordering items,
(30:54):
making sure they get to those eventson time and, and things like that.
So that's, that's kept me pretty busy.
But I love it.
I absolutely love it.
'cause like I said, I'm a, I'm a peopleperson, so love to solve problems and you
know, like I love that study income of,you know, people coming in and calling.
So.
It's nice.
Hey, Katie, you, I know this is a,you said it's a busy season, but,
so when Memorial Day Veterans' Day,military Appreciation Month in May 4th
(31:17):
of July, you think about some of thesewonderful military calendar events.
Is that, do you see a, a spike.
In the, in the interest in HeroBox, or do you do, yeah, yeah.
Do you do digital outreach or digitaladvertising to promote Hero Box somehow?
We do.
We do email campaigns.
We do text campaignsthrough an organization.
That's fantastic.
So we obviously have those.
(31:38):
I obviously have not been throughthis season of 4th of July Memorial
Day just yet, but I know obviouslywith, like I said, this season.
I saw more hero days and when I started,obviously till end of like November and
December, I saw a lot more of individualdonations and I think a lot of people were
doing that for Christmas, which I love.
That was a huge thing for me 'causeyou got to kind of hear all those
(31:59):
stories of people saying, Hey, likefor a Christmas gathering, we decided
to, you know, sponsor a soldier.
So everybody's kind of gettingthings together and you know,
they're gonna send a package.
So I think it's different times ofthe year you see an influx in, in
the different ways of donating, but.
We have been so blessed that throughoutthe entire year we, we've stayed pretty
steady with people wanting to give back.
(32:20):
So that's that's great.
I love that Christmas gathering idea.
Like our family, we get together atChristmas and we all look at each other
like, none of us need anything, so whydo we, let's do something present for
each other we don't need and probablywon't, like when we could pool our
resources and do something of value.
So, yeah, no, I love that idea.
For sure.
(32:40):
So, yeah.
Do you have any lastcomments you wanna share?
You?
We covered a lot of ground.
I think one of the reasons why she andI do this podcast is to find companies
like Hero Box, the Hidden Gems.
Yeah.
That, that are not necessarily householdnames or dinner table names, but they are
names that mean something to people andhave a, have an impact on the military
community, especially those deployed.
(33:01):
So yeah, to be able to showcase.
And you know, if, if our NellisAir Force base location didn't
bring it to my attention a yearago, I wouldn't have heard of it.
No.
Yeah.
And so getting the word outthere, building awareness is a
part of why we do what we do.
I am so thankful for you guys'cause that's incredible to me.
'cause I feel like I always wannasay like, don't sleep on us.
(33:22):
Like, don't sleep on hero boxlike we do for us to be so small,
like we do such great things.
Oh yeah.
You know, like, like I said, end goal isto always make sure that you know, every
customer, rather it is a deployed servicemember or a person that is donating.
We wanna make sure that theyget the absolute most customer
service care that they.
Possibly can.
And yeah, that's, that is my goal.
(33:42):
Obviously we talked about five-yeargoal, but my goal this year is to be
able to get the name hero box out sothat we can, you know, impact even more.
'cause I think it is one of thosethings that you don't always see,
but I think every, anytime anybodyever stumbles on the website, they're
like, man, this is, this is amazing.
Like, what didn't we know about this?
I don't know.
Are you pretty active onsocial media Bureau boxed?
(34:05):
We are.
Yeah.
Actually I'm, I'm doing a little bit morelearning that obviously trying to get a
little bit out with, with social media.
Gonna do like a giveawayin the next little bit.
Ordered some cool swag.
We got some new hats andcoozies and things like that.
So.
Anything like that, that I can evensend when someone has a Hero day event,
to be able to kind of do a littlebit of a word of mouth stuff too.
So we're, we're definitely workingover here trying to, trying to get
(34:27):
some new avenues and stay relevant.
So
Jo, Jody harasses a lot of our podcastguests and oh my gosh, if, if there's
merchandise to be offered, she'slike, well, can I give you my address?
I usually
go out and buy you eyou email me, boo boo.
I'll send you all I got.
Okay.
I'm her
boo boo.
Did I, I thought I reached Booboo status.
Yeah.
(34:47):
Did you?
Clearly,
clearly not.
Tom McLean.
Alright.
Three,
three to two.
Yes, we are in fact Best Eats.
We are at the end of the road.
Yes.
Or the end of the podcast.
Does it?
You don't wanna sing a Voice to Men song?
I do not.
Not what time.
I do wanna play the military
minute.
(35:08):
Okay.
Ooh, do you think, do you thinkKatie wants to play the military?
Minute?
Katie's probably questioningall of her life decisions.
Having join, having joined this podcast,
Katie's, this has beenthe best day of your life.
It really has.
Minus the birth of my child.
Absolutely.
Oh yeah.
We're, we're close second.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll say that.
Yeah.
All right, just a
second.
Yeah, she had her fingerscrossed behind her back.
(35:30):
So I Military minute we, we, we sort oflove the game, but it is a trivia game.
But there are two parts to this today.
So the first one, if you happen to knowthe answer, you can, you can respond.
The second one we're gonna ask youto not answer because we're gonna
tee that one up for our audienceand see, see what they can do.
Do think, do you think she'll
know about Jack, Jack home?
I don't think,
I don't think she'll know the, unlessyou happen to listen to our last podcast,
(35:52):
which, oh, by the way, hasn't dropped yet.
Yeah.
And it hasn't been published,so chances are low.
I got
it.
I got in the pre-download
she's been studying.
Yes.
So our last military minute,it was a two part question.
'cause Tom's been a fan of those lately.
Sometimes three.
Jack Ohm, our guest fromTunnel to Towers Foundation.
He was a student athlete Atwhat university and in what
sport did he participate?
(36:13):
CF Katie knows the answer to that.
Harvard University And he played the pro.
Yeah,
because you don't have thatmany choices about university.
So that's a good guess.
You might guess a sportguess Sport lacrosse.
No, it wasn't.
It was a very good guess though.
Technically it's part oftrack and field, but it
was maybe, yeah, so it was MaristUniversity and Track and Field.
(36:36):
That was my next, so yeah, I figuredMarist would've been your second
choice, but if you are in our audience.
And you listen to that podcast and youremembered 'cause you have a mind, like a
steel trap, and you answered that on ourpost watch for your name to be posted as
the lucky recipient of $50 for yourselfand $50 for a charity of your choice.
Which do you remember what?
$50? Which we established?
(36:56):
What would
$50 get?
Well, a
hundred dollars could buyfour individual hero boxes.
If my math is right.
Yeah.
Math's a little hard.
We'll, we'll check it.
Check the math.
But you could buy multiplehero boxes with that, right?
All day long.
All day long.
Yes.
The next question though, so don'tanswer, don't answer this one because we
went tee this one up for our audience.
But you, you might know this one,this week's military minute takes
(37:19):
us to a question about deployment.
What is the average number oftroops deployed at any given time?
Enter dead silence because wedon't wanna say the answer.
No, but I wanna know, I wantto have a head nod from Katie
if she knows the answer.
We'll say she does.
She said yes.
That's excellent.
So if you're a, if you're a sharp sori
Ryan, be very proud of Katie.
(37:40):
Yes.
So if you
are a sharp cookie to kind of continueour Girl Scout theme here, and you know
that answer, or you can find that answerwhen this podcast drops, make sure you
put that in the comments and then ifyou are correct, most importantly, you
too could be entered to win $50 for youand $50 for a charity of your choice.
So between last podcast and thispodcast, that would've in an
(38:00):
actual terms be eight hero boxes.
Ma Math is, math is working today.
Math is
math and
national.
It's Mathen.
Speaking of, and I will endthis by saying thank you Katie.
You are thank fun to have on here.
But more importantly, it was reallygreat to hear about hero robots and
to share that with our audience.
And I hope they have listened and takenthat to heart and find their way to hero
(38:23):
robots.org and put action behind the wordstoday and help support what you're doing.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate you guys so much.
Yeah.
We, uh, we will take all we can
if my final comments, if youenjoyed today's episode as much as
Jody and Katie did, go out to afbank.com and subscribe to the show.
(38:46):
Also, make sure to rate us, leave us acomment on your favorite podcast platform.
Katie, we are on ApplePodcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
So find us.
We, you can find us anywhere.
Yeah, I'm gonna
do it.
I'm gonna, yeah, I'm a loyal fan now.
Tell Ryan we said hello.
Tell Ryan we appreciate.
Tell Larkin we said hey.
Yeah, tell Ryan that we appreciategetting behind an organization that's
(39:06):
flourished over the years, so absolutely.
Good work.
Absolutely.
Thank you guys so much.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Thanks.
Bye
Bye Katie.
Bye-bye.
Copyright Armed Forces Bank Member,FDIC, equal Housing Lender, all
non Armed forces, bank owned apps,websites, company names, and product
names or trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective owners.
They're mentioned does not implyany affiliation with or endorsement
(39:28):
by Armed Forces Bank of themor their products and services.
They're merely used as examples of themany available apps, companies, and
websites that offer similar services.
Before using any app or website, youshould carefully review the terms
of use data collection and privacypolicy apps may have an initial cost
or in application purchase features.
This information is general innature and is not intended to be
legal, tax, or financial advice.
Although Armed Forces Bank believesthis information to be accurate, it
cannot ensure that it could change.
Statements or opinions of individualsreferenced herein are their own
(39:49):
not Armed Forces Bank consultant.
Appropriate professional concerningyour specific situation and respective
governing bodies for applicablelaws such as irs.gov for current tax
law, armed Forces Bank, the ArmedForces Bank logo and the Militarily
Speaking logo are registered.
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