May 9, 2025 • 34 mins
We are joined by Erin Elliott and Shawn Keenan (University of Minnesota Foundation).
Hear how their day-to-day partnership with the Masons is making the lives of fellow Minnesotans better for tomorrow.
Cancer research, children’s health, volunteer opportunities, and advancing critical research and care through your philanthropic support.
“The impact of your support is not only changing people's lives in Minnesota, but also throughout the region and the world, thanks to the support of the Masons.”
For more information, please contact: reed.endersbe@mnmasonic.org
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi again, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back.
It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Today's guest, we have beenworking on getting in studio for
quite some time.
Aaron Elliot and Sean Keenan,welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having us.
Lemme give a little backgroundon both of you.
So Aaron, you are a very proudMinnesotan.
Born and raised in SouthMinneapolis, later moved to the
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suburbs for high school.
Where did you go to high school?
Edina.
I know.
That's why I don't put it inthere.
we love Edina.
We love all schools in thestate.
So you pursued your curiosity ofpeople by earning an undergrad
degree in sociology from the Uof M academic journey continued
at Hamlin University, youobtained a Master's in public
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administration.
Currently, you live in St.
Anthony Village, you and yourhusband's life a whirlwind of
activity, balancing the demandsof being a mom.
You have 8-year-old twins.
Mm-hmm.
We have to hear about that in alittle bit.
Can I get you a coffee before wecontinue various sports
activities, keeping you busyyear round.
You are known for your ambitioushome improvement plans, and I
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understand a prowess in thebread making department.
Are you known as a bread mavenat home?
I mean, if you'd like to hearabout below average sourdough, I
can talk about that.
It's not below average, really.
You can attest to that.
Okay, we'll get to that in alittle bit.
Professionally, you havededicated 12 years to the
University of Minnesota whereyou now serve as the
developmental program manager inMedicine and Health at the
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University of MinnesotaFoundation.
Sean Keenan, thank you for beinghere.
Grew up in the western mountainsof Maine, in the small town of,
is it Emden?
Yes.
That's it.
How small is that?
800 people.
Is that a high school classwhere you knew everybody and
then some Yeah.
Graduated with 35.
Wow.
And those five, five or fourother towns that I went to high
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school with that combined, theymade up that 35.
We'll have to talk about that'cause that is a, a small, know
everybody.
That must have been quite achallenge.
You attended Vi TurboUniversity.
Lacrosse and you earned anundergrad and master's degree in
business administration on agolf scholarship.
Remind me to never go golfingwith you.
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You're currently serving as alead development officer for
Cancer and Children's Health atthe U of M Foundation, where you
help advance critical researchand care through philanthropic
support outside of work.
Obviously you are a golfer,hunting, traveling with your
wife.
And a loving dad to an energetic15 month old daughter, Margot.
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So there's a 15 month old and8-year-old twins.
How do you do it?
It's every day.
Just do it every day.
I, I'm serious.
How in the world do you manage awork schedule?
Hopefully having hobbies and funthings?
On your radar and then theactivities involved in that.
Twins too.
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I mean, I think I have a, awonderful, supportive husband.
I mean, I feel like that is thekey.
Just the high fives like we madeit today, good job.
I don't know.
It's, it was actually when wehad the twins.
We were looking at childcare'cause we were both working and
we realized that like childcarefor two infants was kind of the
same price as one of us working.
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And so Ryan actually stayedhome, um, with the kids, Mr.
Mom.
Mm-hmm.
And he, I mean, we never thoughtthat this would be an option,
but he stayed home until thekids went to kindergarten.
And it was honestly the bestthing for our family.
And just to see theirrelationship, you know, being
with Dad and the kids, it was,it was really awesome.
I'm gonna ask a personalquestion.
Yeah.
What, what is it like.
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On that first visit to thedoctor, when they say, oh, by
the way, there's two.
Yeah.
I just kept saying two.
Like, I was just like 2, 2, 2,2.
You know, like I, I feel likeRyan was like, I saw you go
through the emotions of just bysaying two, and I was like, come
back to us, Aaron.
Come back and it mean it.
Yeah.
And it's like, everyone's like,what's, what do you do with
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twins?
I'm like, well, we didn't, wedon't know any different.
That's all we had.
That's like two and done.
So.
It just is our crazy, crazylife.
I, I know of so many friendswith kids in activities, sports,
dance, and it's different thanwhen we were young.
Yeah.
It it's a year round thing.
It's hardcore even at a youngage.
Yes.
Hockey is wild.
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Yes.
Gray plays hockey and the seasonstarts at the beginning of
October and runs through the endof March.
And he's eight and he's on theice three days a week.
and that, and like it just getsmore intense from there.
And so like, you kind of have todecide like, do you wanna play
hockey?
I mean, at age eight, did, doesanyone know what they wanna do?
No.
For sports at age eight, no.
Right.
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So pivoting to 15 month old, wehad our first swimming lesson
the other day.
Really?
Yeah.
How was that?
Super competitive Parents in thepool.
Not kidding.
Is that the vibe?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, you seelike the dads and the moms and
like.
They're like pushing theirnewborn children, like it's like
swim and it's like float damnit.
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This is not, this is not howthis is gonna work.
You know, I never thought aboutthat dynamic of that competitive
parent factor of why aren't youswimming yet?
I'm calling Michael Phelpstomorrow and gets you ready for
the upcoming olympiad personalcoaching.
So both of you work for theUniversity Foundation and for a
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novice like me to look that up,the University of Minnesota
Foundation is a key partner withthe university in Building and
Sustaining Excellence.
How does that fit into theMasonic Cancer Center, the
Masonic Children's Hospital, thenew Institute for Biology and
Metabolism?
It, it's a pretty broad spectrumof.
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Activities and fundraising andendeavors.
So, as the University ofMinnesota Foundation, we're
responsible for fundraising forthe entire University of
Minnesota system.
So that's Twin Cities Campus,Crookston, Duluth, Rochester.
All of our campuses across thestate, and Erin and I have the
really fortunate opportunity tobe able to, you know, work as
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part of our Twin Cities campus,but really truly also serving in
the whole system, uh, to be ableto raise money for the cancer
center, the, you know,children's hospital, the MIDB,
and the new, um, the newInstitute on Healthy Aging in
which that just got started.
Thanks to the Mason support.
and it's been really fortunate.
I've had the opportunity ofbeing at the foundation for
almost 10 years now.
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Uh, nine of that's been spentspecifically within medicine and
health and Minnesota MasonicCharities has been one of our
most steadfast dedicatedpartners in this space.
And I think one of the mostincredible things about the
Mason support, it's not justfocused in one area.
It's really truly focused on allaspects of.
Truly human life.
You know, whether it's, youknow, child, you know, newborn
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children to older adults asthey're, you know, potentially
being diagnosed with cancer.
And then, you know, also just afew years ago, the start of the
Masonic Institute for theDeveloping brain, you know,
being able to look at theneurodevelopment of really young
children, um, and to be able tosupport them in their most, you
know, developmental early stagesof their life has just been
absolutely incredible.
And I truly think speaking for,you know, Aaron here as well is
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that, you know, working withone, the Masons has been truly
one of the most.
Opportunities in which that wehave in your, on our jobs.
Just in terms of how engagedyour community is in terms of
like wanting to be able to learnabout the research and the
impact of your support and trulyis to be able to understand how
we're not only just changingpeople's lives in Minnesota, but
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truly throughout the region andthe world.
Thanks to the Mason support.
I'm really grateful to have youboth here today as there's still
a bit of a disconnect whensomebody drives by the Masonic
Children's Hospital, the MasonicCancer Center, the Institute for
the Developing Brain, they maynot always correlate that.
That is directly connected tothe Masonic Lodge that's down
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the street from where they livein their community, and this has
been a partnership of many, manyyears.
It is very special to now havesuch a broad range of, from the
developing brain, the children'shospital cancer, and now to have
the Institute for BiologyMetabolism, the healthy aging
endeavor.
The really, the, the full lifecycle is, is covered.
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I.
I think the one thing aboutthat's unique about my role too
is I get to really see the depthand breadth of the Minnesota
Masonic Charities gift becauseyou span across so many entities
in medicine and health, and Ithink it's been really fun to
hear kind of your vision ofshowcasing how this connection.
Is impacting, you know, theMinnesota Masons and beyond.
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It's like to have this Masonicname on all of these entities
and to be able to be inpartnership with you to work
towards like, how do we tellthat story better?
You know, how do we share thisunique partnership?
And I know when we havesomething coming up where, um,
the bus tours, you know, to beable to showcase all of these
spaces on campus, bringing them,showing them, having the faculty
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and researchers say.
Your gift makes an impact andhere's how glad you brought that
up at the time of recordingToday, we are just a few days
ahead of a bus tour that isgoing to depart from Duluth and
head down to the Minneapolis St.
Paul area and going to stop atthe Cancer Center Children's
Hospital, the Heritage Center,the Masonic home in Bloomington,
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and give the attendees anopportunity to see firsthand
some of the tremendous thingshappening within all of these
facilities.
That will be on May 14th.
Yep.
And we're also looking at, inAugust, there'll be another bus
tour leaving from Rochester.
Yep.
It'll be in South.
And then on October 1st, we'llget those dates, uh, reiterated
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between I.
Now and then, but October 1stwill be starting in the
Minneapolis St.
Paul area heading to these samelocations.
but a great opportunity to jointhat bus tour.
It's gonna be a luxury bus.
By the way, that was one of thefirst questions.
We are not taking a ricketyschool bus that distance.
This will be a luxury bus mealsprovided along the way.
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Some great conversation.
We're very excited to partnerwith you on that.
there's a video capabilities,thanks to the Masons video, will
be on the bus if anyone hasn'tseen that.
It is so well done with thosetestimonials of families and of
kids that have had their livesso positively impacted by the
care that they have received ata number of these facilities.
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Part of your roles obviouslyentails fundraising,
institutional development,awareness.
How do you go about doing thaton each day?
I, you're the network that youcover with the entire University
of Minnesota network and all ofthese different endeavors with
the foundation.
overwhelming?
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I would actually call it reallygratifying.
you know, in terms of theopportunity which that we have,
I think certainly there's daysin which that certainly feel
overwhelming and could be reallydifficult.
Um, especially like working inthe space of medicine and
health, where oftentimes, youknow, working with families and
loved ones that are, they'vegone through a really
challenging time, you know, andsome of them are experiencing
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gratitude and some arepotentially have experienced
great loss as part of that.
And I think, you know, for us,as you know, development, you
know, one of the things that Iwas amazed by when I first came
into fundraising within MedicineHealth, that I didn't
anticipate,'cause I'd always,you know, fundraised in like the
scholarships and education sideand.
within medicine and health,people truly see us in
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development as a, as anextension of their care team.
And I always felt like whenraising money on the scholarship
academic side is that peoplewould often, you know, you'd
spend a lot of time likebuilding and developing rapport,
but like, you know, when talkingwith somebody that's, you know,
interested in beingphilanthropically involved from,
I'm just gonna say a cancerperspective.
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There seems to be oftentimesmuch less of that.
They kind of go to some ofthose, you know, deepest and
dark, darkest moments in whichthat they experienced.
And, you know, you know, foranybody facing a cancer
diagnosis is not just physicallydifficult, but it's also
tremendously emotionallychallenging.
Um, so it's, you know, I think,you know, I would really call,
you know, I.
That this is a really gratifyingopportunity to be able to serve
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and to be able to help people,um, be able to, you know, find
this fulfillment, you know,through philanthropy and support
causes in which that are reallymeaningful to them and their
families and their, and theircommunity.
And I think it's a piece of, forme, overwhelming but also.
Really privileged to, I mean,we're storytellers, you know,
we're, we're there talking topeople and they're telling their
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stories and like Sean said,being a part of their care team,
I mean, this is a piece of theirjourney.
And I feel like even on thehardest days where, I mean,
you're at, I.
The, you know, MasonicChildren's Hospital and you're
seeing parents have the worstdays of their lives, you know,
and it's just like, it can it,you just take it.
You just take it with you andyou realize what an impact, you
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know, your job and the peoplethat you work with and the
providers that are at theuniversity and the institutions
that support all that is really,it's really powerful.
this is something in whichthat's really stuck with me, you
know, since the entire, youknow, for the entire time that
I've been, you know, on our teamfor the last nine years is I.
One of the very first visits Ihad was over at the Masonic
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Cancer Clinic at the Clinic andSurgery Center over off from
Fulton on campus, and met apatient family that was over
there that was undergoing care.
Somebody I'd reached out to thathad been, you know, supporting
the cancer center with, ahundred dollars a year.
Um, I think, you know, in termsof annual support and, you know,
just reached out to them to beable to thank them.
And, you know, I met with themin the clinic.
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This is.
I was just incredibly moved as,this wasn't something I was
anticipating, but.
This person at this point was, Iwanna say a 16 year lymphoma
survivor.
And when they were firstdiagnosed with cancer, they were
just given potentially a fewmonths.
They told them they originallywent to Mayo Clinic.
You know, at that time, MayoClinic didn't have, you know, an
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opportunity, which, that theywould be able to provide them
for treatment.
And they suggested that theyeither go to two places.
It was either Fred Hutch or theUniversity of Minnesota.
And, um, so they chose to go tothe University of Minnesota
living in Bloomington.
And for them, you know, whatthey did is, what they brought
to this visit was these booksthat they had put together.
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It was all of these photos ofmemories that have been able to
be made possible.
Wow.
Through, through the care inwhich that, you know, he, that
he had had.
And you know, sadly, you know,he passed away just a, just a
few years ago.
but his wife actually just cameto the Masonic Cancer Center
annual dinner that we had here afew, few weeks ago with her
grandson.
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Um, and just a really, you know,just a really special family in
which they've had theopportunity to get to know, but
it's.
It's really support, you know,advancements and research that
have contributed to, you know,the, the memories in which that
their family was able to make.
And I'll never forget, like, youknow, when he was first
diagnosed, uh, with cancer, hisgoal was to at least get to the
age of like where all of hisgrandchildren got to be five
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years old, because that's whenthey get to develop memories in
which that will last them alifetime.
and tha and fortunately for him,he got to have many more years
with his grandchildren before,um, he's sadly passed away.
But that was, that was a reallyspecial aspect to me when I was
just getting started, uh,working with the cancer center.
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We had Dr.
Douglas Yee on this podcast, andI recall asking him how does it
work with the collaborationbetween entities, between Mayo
Clinic or another cancerspecialty research area?
And he shared in depth how thatcollaboration occurs, that
nobody's making any sort ofrevelation or research
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breakthrough in a silo and notsharing it elsewhere.
But then he went on to say, wetalked about the donations and
the giving, and it's not alwaysabout who can give the most, or
in my travels and working forMasonic Charities, there seems
to be a bit of reluctancesometimes.
Well, I can't make a significantgift right now, but that's okay.
(16:01):
He put it in a, maybe you canword that for me better, but
something to the effect that wejust don't know whose dollar or
$5 pushes that research into thenext realm.
Yeah, so when I first started,uh, working with the cancer
center, Dr.
He was part of my onboardingexperience and I had a very
similar question, um, to him.
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And he, you know, what you said,and I think his is about a
phrase in which that he's usedhis whole career is, you know,
we don't know which dollar it is'cause gonna push something over
to an e, you know, the edge interms of.
Helping a researcher get thatbig NIH grant or push something
into a clinical trial or pushsomething into developing a new,
new drug, um, that's gonna beavailable for patients.
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So I think, you know, when you,you really think about
philanthropy, whether it's adollar,$5, or$500,000.
Is it's truly that$1 when youcombine it with all of those
other resources, like that'swhere it really creates this ma
magical opportunity.
And you know, I think that's,you know, been one of the really
fortunate aspects of, you know,Minnesota Masonic Charities is,
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this is truly a.
A, a really large community ofsupporters that are coming
together and doing fundraisersand, you know, when all those
resources get combined is, youknow, been able to, you know,
allow for, you know, Minnesota'sMasonic charities investments to
be able to.
Get allocated into a researchproject that, you know, provides
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them 50,000 or a hundredthousand dollars in pilot study
funding to be able to get thatproject going, that leads to
potentially a$3 million grant.
and specifically, you know, Iknow one example, um, in which
that we recently highlighted atpart of one of our events is
that, you know, the Masonsupport for our clinical
translational research program.
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Has had a 14 fold return oninvestment for every dollar.
Yeah.
We keep, go into that a littlemore detail.
So for every dollar that ismultiplied by 14, 14 times, wow.
So specifically too, in that,you know, you know, over API
think it was a five year periodof time on the Mason said,
invested$2 million into ourclinical translational, uh,
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research program.
Translated into$28 million infunding for cancer research
through additional grants inwhich our faculty were able to
go out there and be competitivefor at a national level.
Um, that's like one of thereally important aspects that
really philanthropy allows us todo is to be able to get that
really early stage preliminarydata that allows us to be able
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to go out there and compete forthese large grants, uh, with
other peer institutions.
That's something we talk aboutfrequently in our travels for
charities that for those whowant to give masons or non
masons, I've been having a lotof great conversations with
companies and just people thatwant to support something.
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These great endeavors happeningright here in our state that are
impacting the world and not tojust.
Send that check or click that QRcode, but to go call me, call
one of us so we can discuss themost effective way to ensure
that that donation reaches thatopportunity for the 14 fold or
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the 14 times addition to how wecan leverage some of these
grants and the the ability tomake that donation even larger.
Erin, what are some of thegreatest needs right now in
terms of fundraising or researchthat you're seeing on the
day-to-day?
Well, right now we are closelyfollowing the NIH grant, so our
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researchers right now are comingto us because they are worried
that, um, research projects aregoing to be delayed.
Canceled.
And so I think right now there'sa lot of worry in our research
community about just kind ofwhat's going on.
Um, what kind of projects aregonna be, you know, either
stalled or coming through,especially some that are like
close to maybe going intoclinical trials or some that are
(19:59):
close that were maybe, you know,on the deck to be funded by the
NIH.
So I feel like right nowresearch is, really big.
I don't know Sean, The one thingthat I, I'd like to add to that,
Aaron, is specifically the, um,Technology and equipment.
Um, and that is, you know,specifically ones that allow us
to be able to advance our marginof excellence, both on the
(20:20):
research and the care careperspectives.
And, you know, thanks.
You know, I think everybody'saware that, you know, technology
is rapidly evolving and to beable to, you know, need be able
to remain on that cutting edge,it's, you know, being able to
have those investments to beable to, you know, acquire that,
you know, some of these piecesof technology that can cost.
If not in the millions to tensof millions of dollars
(20:41):
potentially.
And that's really important.
And you know, especially for thecare in which that we want to be
able to offer to our, you know,in our patient community.
Um, it's really, it's a reallycritical, uh, need in which that
we have right now.
I think it's easy for someone onthe outside to forget about the
cost of technology and the paceat which things are moving in
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this world right now is likelyhard to fathom.
Are you aware of any otherendeavor quite like this where
this collaboration occurs?
What I think is really uniqueabout the partnership in which
that exists between theUniversity of Minnesota and the
Masons is that this is truly arelationship within in which
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that's extended, more than sevendecades.
And I think, you know, if youlook nationally in which that,
that is something that can bereally difficult to find, is
that this is.
Not been something in whichthat's been a transactional
relationship.
This has truly been anextraordinary partnership in
which that's existed between theUniversity of Minnesota and
Masonic Charities.
And you look back all the way to1955 when the Masons named the
(21:45):
first hospital on campus.
And incredible like when youhave the opportunity just to
look through all of themilestones in which that come
after that, and.
I think, you know, it's one ofthe things that excites Aaron
and I just so much about, youknow, our day-to-day working
with the Masons is that this istruly a, this is a partnership
in which that we have togetherand, you know, it's really
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committed in the essence ofwanting to be able to, you know,
make the lives of fellowMinnesotans better for tomorrow,
um, and health and education inevery facet of their lives.
I just think too, what's sounique about this is I think
about just getting introduced tothe Masons when I started at the
foundation and the fact that wecelebrate, you know, Masonic
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traditions together, like TableLodge.
I mean, I just feel like that isso.
Amazing.
Just to be able to be, have eachother, you know, learning from
each other, understanding ourtrue foundations, our purpose,
and then coming together inpartnership.
That is a great memory ofNovember's Table Lodge with then
(22:51):
Grand Master Foster Solem andPresident Cunningham That was a
really, really special night.
I had to do the math for amoment.
It's 70 years strong now.
Mm-hmm.
I talk to a lot of youngermasons that have schedules like
yours with kids, family, youngcareers, working on their
(23:13):
personal and professional lives,who have really taken by storm
the opportunity to supportMasonic Charities.
With that donation going towardsthe Masonic Cancer Center, the
children's, all the things we'velisted today.
being part of this greatermission.
It's such a gift for MinnesotaFreemasons.
(23:34):
Well, and Reid, you're justreminding me of our wonderful
time spent at the MasonicChildren's Hospital.
You know, you took a group ofmasons from different lodges
that maybe may or may not knoweach other, but coming together,
you know, to be a part ofvolunteering for, um, around the
holidays to sorting toys for,um, kids that got to shop that
weren't able to leave thehospital.
(23:54):
We'd like to do that again.
I know we're working on someother endeavors to engage our
members and their significantothers and spouses to volunteer.
It was an easy day, but it wasso impactful.
Mm-hmm.
To meet the staff.
Mm-hmm.
Of the Masonic Children'sHospital and some of the
patients even walked by andwe're thanking the Masons for,
it was just amazing.
I'm so excited for what thefuture holds.
(24:17):
So needless to say, you two bothhave a very interesting,
gratifying, and fulfilling rolewith the University of Minnesota
Foundation.
Every day is.
Different in such a good way.
And I also feel like, I feel solucky, and I really will say
this, I feel so lucky to besurrounded by such talented
(24:38):
colleagues.
I mean, we're there together onthe hardest days.
We're there together tocelebrate together.
And I feel so thankful becausethe work is hard.
The, the work is hard, but the,the work that we do together is
so rewarding.
And you know, like Sean said,working with partners like you.
Is the reason that we find joyat work.
You know, like it is just, it issuch a gift.
(25:01):
So thank you.
Well, thank you guys for thework that you do and the
collaboration that we keepseeing that is growing all the
time between Masonic CharitiesUniversity, our lodges
coalescing around this missionhas just been.
incredible.
(25:22):
On this podcast, we'd like toask a few random questions in
order to get to know you asguests a little better, more on
the personal side of things.
what common grammatical errorsannoy you the most?
I.
Is your boss listening?
Are you worried that, can I, canI say it?
(25:46):
Yeah, you can say it.
I can say it.
So Sean and I are.
We have really great skills inother things, but neither of us
are great at writing I don'tknow that I, like, I don't, I
don't know that I have anythingthat's like, oh my gosh, I can't
believe people do that because Iprobably do every grammatical
error there is your, yourwriting's pretty is pretty good.
I think sometimes for Aaron andI, we can be own our own worst
(26:08):
critics.
Yeah.
In term, in terms of ourwriting, but.
yeah, we occasionally like justget some like really broken
things.
Yeah.
Especially like working with ourdocs.
Mm-hmm.
Oh yeah.
I can't even imagine.
They're, they're, they're superbusy, you know, sometimes
they'll only put their contentin the subject line of the email
and they don't write anything inthe body.
Really.
Yeah.
So I think, I mean, if you hadto give me a pet peeve.
(26:31):
again, really grateful for ourdoctors and researchers and care
teams.
They're incredibly busy ofcourse, and they're very
talented in their, but, buthowever, go on.
Yeah.
They, they just sometimes could.
give a little bit more contextwould be sometimes helpful.
I, I don't like the, the emailwritten out in the subject line.
So sometimes Sean and I justhave to make a little magic
(26:53):
happen to be like, I think thisis what they would want us to
say in this case.
Yeah.
And well add one time too, whenI first started, I was trying to
get a hold of a doc and he saidto asked for me to page him.
I had never paged anybody in mylife on his pager.
Well, on his pager, on his page.
This wasn't like a use the, the,uh, the phone system to No say
(27:14):
doctor.
Okay.
Yeah.
See, that makes me feel old.
I know, because back in the day,in the nineties, we had pagers
before, there's pagers beforephones, and there was little
codes in the pager.
Not only would you get the phonenumber to call, but there was a
little insider.
If there was a, a certaincharacter that meant call fast.
Mm-hmm.
Call right away.
Call immediately.
Yeah.
(27:36):
What popular movie have younever seen?
Probably all of them.
I feel like.
let's go with a little bit offorgiveness in the window that
you've had children, but like,let's talk like what The
Godfather A one.
A Wonderful Life.
I've never seen that.
Never seen it.
Really?
No.
Why not?
Did you avoid it or it justnever happened?
(27:58):
Just never happened.
You don't, you don't have adisdain for Jimmy Stewart or
something?
No.
Okay.
No, not at all.
I've also never seen The Wizardof Oz.
Whoa.
Well, I guess we're gonna endthis podcast right now.
Whoa.
Goodbye.
Never seen it, Sean.
Really?
Yeah.
Kind of embarrassed, I guess.
A little bit about it.
Aaron.
You gonna make him drive?
(28:18):
Walk home today?
Yeah.
You're gonna drive alone.
I can't believe I'm even, I'mstill here.
Wow.
So you've learned somethingabout your colleague?
I have.
How about you?
Movie You've never seen, um, bigtime Movie.
I have a, I've never seenGoonies.
I don't know why I just thoughtof that.
That's so random.
Not that I, I don't even know.
Great movie.
Okay, great movie.
Um, I also have not seen This isnewer.
(28:39):
Any Harry Potter ones?
I'll give you a pass on that.
Neither am I.
Okay.
Not interested.
I feel like people talk about ita lot, but, but people that are
into it are way into it, reallyinto it.
That's my wife.
She loves, she loves HarryPotter, Harry Potter movies, and
I can't, I can never sit througha whole one.
I just can't do it.
what overused word.
(28:59):
Are you tired of hearing?
Let's even go with phrase.
Aaron's wheels are turning.
Overuse word or phrase you'retired of hearing.
Are you reluctant because thismight call out a colleague that
you don't want them to know orfriend or spouse?
(29:21):
No, I'm like really thinkingabout like, what have I heard?
Agency's a big word right now,agency.
Um, I would say for me, like onethat.
Keep on hearing right now isthat we're like living in
unprecedented times is, I don'tknow.
I was having a conversation withsomebody the other day and it's
like, I think right now, I thinkactually what's precedence is
(29:45):
living in unprecedented times.
Wouldn't every generation saythat though?
It could.
Case could be made that what thehere and now feels different
than as we navigate life.
I would imagine living on thefrontier in the prairie days,
those felt like unprecedentedtimes too.
(30:06):
Absolutely.
I, I know that was hard.
Yeah, that was tough.
That was tough.
That was tough.
Alright, this is an easy one.
Okay, last, last, uh, lastrandom question for you.
What's the worst thing you'vestepped on in the dark?
You have kids, I have to imaginethere was something left.
There was a mystery.
Yeah, it was my dog.
(30:26):
Oh, I mean, not my dog, but mydog poop.
I stepped on it in the dark andI was not okay with it.
It send me, it just, that wasthe worst thing.
I just was not ready for it.
I was so tired.
What time of day was this?
This was at like three in themorning.
Of course.
And I just, I, I just, I didn'thandle it well.
(30:47):
Hmm.
It was a whole house awoken as aresult of this.
The whole house was up.
You were up for the day.
'cause of my own problems thatYep.
We're up for the day.
Yep.
We're up for the day.
Yeah.
Related to that, and this wasmaybe just three weeks ago, as I
stepped in our dog's vomit,going, walking to the bathroom
at night.
I'm not getting, it's, he likesto eat grass outside and nobody
(31:07):
heard him get up during thenight and mm-hmm.
That was.
A lovely joy.
We love our dogs.
However, Uhhuh, there's a, so asa result of that, are you using
the phone flashlight?
Are you turning the, when youget up and I should move around
in the night?
I, you would think I would learnto like just have a little more
light before I walk.
I have not done that.
So because that's one stepcloser to be becoming our
(31:28):
parents using a flashlight or.
Even the, the light on the phonewould be mm-hmm.
Smart.
That would've been, I, I'm gonnastart you.
No, I probably won't.
I probably won't.
I'll probably just do what I do.
There's gonna be a, a Masoniccharity flashlight in your next,
uh, it's actually a great swigidea.
Lemme write that.
Everyone will use it.
Let write that down.
(31:48):
That in a tape measure.
Right.
Tape measure.
You always need one.
You do?
Yeah.
Really.
Especially shopping, homeimprovement projects.
Yeah.
Improvements.
I'm always looking and likelittle ones.
Great.
Bring'em along.
All right, so let's add that tothe list of the wishlist for the
marketing departmentsflashlights, tape measurers.
Mm-hmm.
(32:08):
What's next on the to-do listfor the University of Minnesota
Foundation, whether it's withMasonic Charities or otherwise?
This weekend, uh, we have winefest.
So benefiting the MasonicChildren's Hospital and Mason's
will be there with us onSaturday night in support.
So really excited, uh, toast toChildren's Health.
(32:29):
This is our 28th, uh, annualwine fest.
So, you know, really hopefulthat, you know, as part of this
event that we'll be able toraise more than$2 million that
we've benefiting the MasonicChildren's Hospital and, you
know, the Masons in which havebeen a, you know, really big
aspect of, uh, partnership withthis event through the years.
So really looking forward tobeing able to spend Saturday
evening with you all.
We also have Couture for Kids.
(32:50):
Um, great Minds Couture for Kidsis benefiting the Masonic
Institute of the DevelopingBrain coming up on July 18th.
Um, it is a kids' fashion show,um, where we get to highlight,
um, kids helping kids.
So kids are out there raisingmoney for the MIDB and we'll be
showcasing their fundraisingevents at.
The event with a largepresentation.
(33:10):
So we have double the modelsthis year.
There's a lot of excitementaround the event.
and hopefully, um, we'll bejust, just wonderful I'm gonna
put my email address in the bioof today's podcast to contact me
for information on that.
ultimately talk about how togive, how to contribute to
(33:30):
Minnesota Masonic charities andall of these tremendous things
we've been talking about today.
There is a number.
It is innumerable opportunitiesto contribute time, talents,
financially.
Future looks very bright andexciting.
we really look forward to seeingMarcus and, uh, his fellow
Masons next week, uh, for the,for the tour on campus.
(33:52):
Another thing to email me aboutif there, there's still room on
the bus, correct?
We have a, it's filling upquickly, but the bus leaving
Duluth heading down to theMinneapolis St.
Paul area for the day that willreturn to Duluth.
That it'll be a long day, butit'll be a very fun day.
Yes.
We are so excited to haveeveryone on campus.
I know all the, all the stopswill be, be ready and for some
(34:13):
fun.
Sean Keenan.
Erin Elliot, thank you so muchfor being in studio with us
today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having us.
And this has been anotherepisode of Minnesota Masonic
Histories and Mysteries.
Hi again, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back.
It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Today's guest, we have beenworking on getting in studio for
quite some time.
Aaron Elliot and Sean Keenan,welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having us.
Lemme give a little backgroundon both of you.
So Aaron, you are a very proudMinnesotan.
Born and raised in SouthMinneapolis, later moved to the
(00:22):
suburbs for high school.
Where did you go to high school?
Edina.
I know.
That's why I don't put it inthere.
we love Edina.
We love all schools in thestate.
So you pursued your curiosity ofpeople by earning an undergrad
degree in sociology from the Uof M academic journey continued
at Hamlin University, youobtained a Master's in public
(00:44):
administration.
Currently, you live in St.
Anthony Village, you and yourhusband's life a whirlwind of
activity, balancing the demandsof being a mom.
You have 8-year-old twins.
Mm-hmm.
We have to hear about that in alittle bit.
Can I get you a coffee before wecontinue various sports
activities, keeping you busyyear round.
You are known for your ambitioushome improvement plans, and I
(01:05):
understand a prowess in thebread making department.
Are you known as a bread mavenat home?
I mean, if you'd like to hearabout below average sourdough, I
can talk about that.
It's not below average, really.
You can attest to that.
Okay, we'll get to that in alittle bit.
Professionally, you havededicated 12 years to the
University of Minnesota whereyou now serve as the
developmental program manager inMedicine and Health at the
(01:27):
University of MinnesotaFoundation.
Sean Keenan, thank you for beinghere.
Grew up in the western mountainsof Maine, in the small town of,
is it Emden?
Yes.
That's it.
How small is that?
800 people.
Is that a high school classwhere you knew everybody and
then some Yeah.
Graduated with 35.
Wow.
And those five, five or fourother towns that I went to high
(01:48):
school with that combined, theymade up that 35.
We'll have to talk about that'cause that is a, a small, know
everybody.
That must have been quite achallenge.
You attended Vi TurboUniversity.
Lacrosse and you earned anundergrad and master's degree in
business administration on agolf scholarship.
Remind me to never go golfingwith you.
(02:09):
You're currently serving as alead development officer for
Cancer and Children's Health atthe U of M Foundation, where you
help advance critical researchand care through philanthropic
support outside of work.
Obviously you are a golfer,hunting, traveling with your
wife.
And a loving dad to an energetic15 month old daughter, Margot.
(02:30):
So there's a 15 month old and8-year-old twins.
How do you do it?
It's every day.
Just do it every day.
I, I'm serious.
How in the world do you manage awork schedule?
Hopefully having hobbies and funthings?
On your radar and then theactivities involved in that.
Twins too.
(02:50):
I mean, I think I have a, awonderful, supportive husband.
I mean, I feel like that is thekey.
Just the high fives like we madeit today, good job.
I don't know.
It's, it was actually when wehad the twins.
We were looking at childcare'cause we were both working and
we realized that like childcarefor two infants was kind of the
same price as one of us working.
(03:12):
And so Ryan actually stayedhome, um, with the kids, Mr.
Mom.
Mm-hmm.
And he, I mean, we never thoughtthat this would be an option,
but he stayed home until thekids went to kindergarten.
And it was honestly the bestthing for our family.
And just to see theirrelationship, you know, being
with Dad and the kids, it was,it was really awesome.
I'm gonna ask a personalquestion.
Yeah.
What, what is it like.
(03:32):
On that first visit to thedoctor, when they say, oh, by
the way, there's two.
Yeah.
I just kept saying two.
Like, I was just like 2, 2, 2,2.
You know, like I, I feel likeRyan was like, I saw you go
through the emotions of just bysaying two, and I was like, come
back to us, Aaron.
Come back and it mean it.
Yeah.
And it's like, everyone's like,what's, what do you do with
(03:53):
twins?
I'm like, well, we didn't, wedon't know any different.
That's all we had.
That's like two and done.
So.
It just is our crazy, crazylife.
I, I know of so many friendswith kids in activities, sports,
dance, and it's different thanwhen we were young.
Yeah.
It it's a year round thing.
It's hardcore even at a youngage.
Yes.
Hockey is wild.
(04:14):
Yes.
Gray plays hockey and the seasonstarts at the beginning of
October and runs through the endof March.
And he's eight and he's on theice three days a week.
and that, and like it just getsmore intense from there.
And so like, you kind of have todecide like, do you wanna play
hockey?
I mean, at age eight, did, doesanyone know what they wanna do?
No.
For sports at age eight, no.
Right.
(04:34):
So pivoting to 15 month old, wehad our first swimming lesson
the other day.
Really?
Yeah.
How was that?
Super competitive Parents in thepool.
Not kidding.
Is that the vibe?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, you seelike the dads and the moms and
like.
They're like pushing theirnewborn children, like it's like
swim and it's like float damnit.
(04:55):
This is not, this is not howthis is gonna work.
You know, I never thought aboutthat dynamic of that competitive
parent factor of why aren't youswimming yet?
I'm calling Michael Phelpstomorrow and gets you ready for
the upcoming olympiad personalcoaching.
So both of you work for theUniversity Foundation and for a
(05:18):
novice like me to look that up,the University of Minnesota
Foundation is a key partner withthe university in Building and
Sustaining Excellence.
How does that fit into theMasonic Cancer Center, the
Masonic Children's Hospital, thenew Institute for Biology and
Metabolism?
It, it's a pretty broad spectrumof.
(05:39):
Activities and fundraising andendeavors.
So, as the University ofMinnesota Foundation, we're
responsible for fundraising forthe entire University of
Minnesota system.
So that's Twin Cities Campus,Crookston, Duluth, Rochester.
All of our campuses across thestate, and Erin and I have the
really fortunate opportunity tobe able to, you know, work as
(06:00):
part of our Twin Cities campus,but really truly also serving in
the whole system, uh, to be ableto raise money for the cancer
center, the, you know,children's hospital, the MIDB,
and the new, um, the newInstitute on Healthy Aging in
which that just got started.
Thanks to the Mason support.
and it's been really fortunate.
I've had the opportunity ofbeing at the foundation for
almost 10 years now.
(06:20):
Uh, nine of that's been spentspecifically within medicine and
health and Minnesota MasonicCharities has been one of our
most steadfast dedicatedpartners in this space.
And I think one of the mostincredible things about the
Mason support, it's not justfocused in one area.
It's really truly focused on allaspects of.
Truly human life.
You know, whether it's, youknow, child, you know, newborn
(06:40):
children to older adults asthey're, you know, potentially
being diagnosed with cancer.
And then, you know, also just afew years ago, the start of the
Masonic Institute for theDeveloping brain, you know,
being able to look at theneurodevelopment of really young
children, um, and to be able tosupport them in their most, you
know, developmental early stagesof their life has just been
absolutely incredible.
And I truly think speaking for,you know, Aaron here as well is
(07:03):
that, you know, working withone, the Masons has been truly
one of the most.
Opportunities in which that wehave in your, on our jobs.
Just in terms of how engagedyour community is in terms of
like wanting to be able to learnabout the research and the
impact of your support and trulyis to be able to understand how
we're not only just changingpeople's lives in Minnesota, but
(07:24):
truly throughout the region andthe world.
Thanks to the Mason support.
I'm really grateful to have youboth here today as there's still
a bit of a disconnect whensomebody drives by the Masonic
Children's Hospital, the MasonicCancer Center, the Institute for
the Developing Brain, they maynot always correlate that.
That is directly connected tothe Masonic Lodge that's down
(07:45):
the street from where they livein their community, and this has
been a partnership of many, manyyears.
It is very special to now havesuch a broad range of, from the
developing brain, the children'shospital cancer, and now to have
the Institute for BiologyMetabolism, the healthy aging
endeavor.
The really, the, the full lifecycle is, is covered.
(08:07):
I.
I think the one thing aboutthat's unique about my role too
is I get to really see the depthand breadth of the Minnesota
Masonic Charities gift becauseyou span across so many entities
in medicine and health, and Ithink it's been really fun to
hear kind of your vision ofshowcasing how this connection.
Is impacting, you know, theMinnesota Masons and beyond.
(08:28):
It's like to have this Masonicname on all of these entities
and to be able to be inpartnership with you to work
towards like, how do we tellthat story better?
You know, how do we share thisunique partnership?
And I know when we havesomething coming up where, um,
the bus tours, you know, to beable to showcase all of these
spaces on campus, bringing them,showing them, having the faculty
(08:48):
and researchers say.
Your gift makes an impact andhere's how glad you brought that
up at the time of recordingToday, we are just a few days
ahead of a bus tour that isgoing to depart from Duluth and
head down to the Minneapolis St.
Paul area and going to stop atthe Cancer Center Children's
Hospital, the Heritage Center,the Masonic home in Bloomington,
(09:11):
and give the attendees anopportunity to see firsthand
some of the tremendous thingshappening within all of these
facilities.
That will be on May 14th.
Yep.
And we're also looking at, inAugust, there'll be another bus
tour leaving from Rochester.
Yep.
It'll be in South.
And then on October 1st, we'llget those dates, uh, reiterated
(09:32):
between I.
Now and then, but October 1stwill be starting in the
Minneapolis St.
Paul area heading to these samelocations.
but a great opportunity to jointhat bus tour.
It's gonna be a luxury bus.
By the way, that was one of thefirst questions.
We are not taking a ricketyschool bus that distance.
This will be a luxury bus mealsprovided along the way.
(09:53):
Some great conversation.
We're very excited to partnerwith you on that.
there's a video capabilities,thanks to the Masons video, will
be on the bus if anyone hasn'tseen that.
It is so well done with thosetestimonials of families and of
kids that have had their livesso positively impacted by the
care that they have received ata number of these facilities.
(10:15):
Part of your roles obviouslyentails fundraising,
institutional development,awareness.
How do you go about doing thaton each day?
I, you're the network that youcover with the entire University
of Minnesota network and all ofthese different endeavors with
the foundation.
overwhelming?
(10:36):
I would actually call it reallygratifying.
you know, in terms of theopportunity which that we have,
I think certainly there's daysin which that certainly feel
overwhelming and could be reallydifficult.
Um, especially like working inthe space of medicine and
health, where oftentimes, youknow, working with families and
loved ones that are, they'vegone through a really
challenging time, you know, andsome of them are experiencing
(10:56):
gratitude and some arepotentially have experienced
great loss as part of that.
And I think, you know, for us,as you know, development, you
know, one of the things that Iwas amazed by when I first came
into fundraising within MedicineHealth, that I didn't
anticipate,'cause I'd always,you know, fundraised in like the
scholarships and education sideand.
within medicine and health,people truly see us in
(11:19):
development as a, as anextension of their care team.
And I always felt like whenraising money on the scholarship
academic side is that peoplewould often, you know, you'd
spend a lot of time likebuilding and developing rapport,
but like, you know, when talkingwith somebody that's, you know,
interested in beingphilanthropically involved from,
I'm just gonna say a cancerperspective.
(11:40):
There seems to be oftentimesmuch less of that.
They kind of go to some ofthose, you know, deepest and
dark, darkest moments in whichthat they experienced.
And, you know, you know, foranybody facing a cancer
diagnosis is not just physicallydifficult, but it's also
tremendously emotionallychallenging.
Um, so it's, you know, I think,you know, I would really call,
you know, I.
That this is a really gratifyingopportunity to be able to serve
(12:02):
and to be able to help people,um, be able to, you know, find
this fulfillment, you know,through philanthropy and support
causes in which that are reallymeaningful to them and their
families and their, and theircommunity.
And I think it's a piece of, forme, overwhelming but also.
Really privileged to, I mean,we're storytellers, you know,
we're, we're there talking topeople and they're telling their
(12:23):
stories and like Sean said,being a part of their care team,
I mean, this is a piece of theirjourney.
And I feel like even on thehardest days where, I mean,
you're at, I.
The, you know, MasonicChildren's Hospital and you're
seeing parents have the worstdays of their lives, you know,
and it's just like, it can it,you just take it.
You just take it with you andyou realize what an impact, you
(12:46):
know, your job and the peoplethat you work with and the
providers that are at theuniversity and the institutions
that support all that is really,it's really powerful.
this is something in whichthat's really stuck with me, you
know, since the entire, youknow, for the entire time that
I've been, you know, on our teamfor the last nine years is I.
One of the very first visits Ihad was over at the Masonic
(13:09):
Cancer Clinic at the Clinic andSurgery Center over off from
Fulton on campus, and met apatient family that was over
there that was undergoing care.
Somebody I'd reached out to thathad been, you know, supporting
the cancer center with, ahundred dollars a year.
Um, I think, you know, in termsof annual support and, you know,
just reached out to them to beable to thank them.
And, you know, I met with themin the clinic.
(13:30):
This is.
I was just incredibly moved as,this wasn't something I was
anticipating, but.
This person at this point was, Iwanna say a 16 year lymphoma
survivor.
And when they were firstdiagnosed with cancer, they were
just given potentially a fewmonths.
They told them they originallywent to Mayo Clinic.
You know, at that time, MayoClinic didn't have, you know, an
(13:52):
opportunity, which, that theywould be able to provide them
for treatment.
And they suggested that theyeither go to two places.
It was either Fred Hutch or theUniversity of Minnesota.
And, um, so they chose to go tothe University of Minnesota
living in Bloomington.
And for them, you know, whatthey did is, what they brought
to this visit was these booksthat they had put together.
(14:14):
It was all of these photos ofmemories that have been able to
be made possible.
Wow.
Through, through the care inwhich that, you know, he, that
he had had.
And you know, sadly, you know,he passed away just a, just a
few years ago.
but his wife actually just cameto the Masonic Cancer Center
annual dinner that we had here afew, few weeks ago with her
grandson.
(14:34):
Um, and just a really, you know,just a really special family in
which they've had theopportunity to get to know, but
it's.
It's really support, you know,advancements and research that
have contributed to, you know,the, the memories in which that
their family was able to make.
And I'll never forget, like, youknow, when he was first
diagnosed, uh, with cancer, hisgoal was to at least get to the
age of like where all of hisgrandchildren got to be five
(14:56):
years old, because that's whenthey get to develop memories in
which that will last them alifetime.
and tha and fortunately for him,he got to have many more years
with his grandchildren before,um, he's sadly passed away.
But that was, that was a reallyspecial aspect to me when I was
just getting started, uh,working with the cancer center.
(15:16):
We had Dr.
Douglas Yee on this podcast, andI recall asking him how does it
work with the collaborationbetween entities, between Mayo
Clinic or another cancerspecialty research area?
And he shared in depth how thatcollaboration occurs, that
nobody's making any sort ofrevelation or research
(15:38):
breakthrough in a silo and notsharing it elsewhere.
But then he went on to say, wetalked about the donations and
the giving, and it's not alwaysabout who can give the most, or
in my travels and working forMasonic Charities, there seems
to be a bit of reluctancesometimes.
Well, I can't make a significantgift right now, but that's okay.
(16:01):
He put it in a, maybe you canword that for me better, but
something to the effect that wejust don't know whose dollar or
$5 pushes that research into thenext realm.
Yeah, so when I first started,uh, working with the cancer
center, Dr.
He was part of my onboardingexperience and I had a very
similar question, um, to him.
(16:22):
And he, you know, what you said,and I think his is about a
phrase in which that he's usedhis whole career is, you know,
we don't know which dollar it is'cause gonna push something over
to an e, you know, the edge interms of.
Helping a researcher get thatbig NIH grant or push something
into a clinical trial or pushsomething into developing a new,
new drug, um, that's gonna beavailable for patients.
(16:45):
So I think, you know, when you,you really think about
philanthropy, whether it's adollar,$5, or$500,000.
Is it's truly that$1 when youcombine it with all of those
other resources, like that'swhere it really creates this ma
magical opportunity.
And you know, I think that's,you know, been one of the really
fortunate aspects of, you know,Minnesota Masonic Charities is,
(17:06):
this is truly a.
A, a really large community ofsupporters that are coming
together and doing fundraisersand, you know, when all those
resources get combined is, youknow, been able to, you know,
allow for, you know, Minnesota'sMasonic charities investments to
be able to.
Get allocated into a researchproject that, you know, provides
(17:27):
them 50,000 or a hundredthousand dollars in pilot study
funding to be able to get thatproject going, that leads to
potentially a$3 million grant.
and specifically, you know, Iknow one example, um, in which
that we recently highlighted atpart of one of our events is
that, you know, the Masonsupport for our clinical
translational research program.
(17:48):
Has had a 14 fold return oninvestment for every dollar.
Yeah.
We keep, go into that a littlemore detail.
So for every dollar that ismultiplied by 14, 14 times, wow.
So specifically too, in that,you know, you know, over API
think it was a five year periodof time on the Mason said,
invested$2 million into ourclinical translational, uh,
(18:11):
research program.
Translated into$28 million infunding for cancer research
through additional grants inwhich our faculty were able to
go out there and be competitivefor at a national level.
Um, that's like one of thereally important aspects that
really philanthropy allows us todo is to be able to get that
really early stage preliminarydata that allows us to be able
(18:32):
to go out there and compete forthese large grants, uh, with
other peer institutions.
That's something we talk aboutfrequently in our travels for
charities that for those whowant to give masons or non
masons, I've been having a lotof great conversations with
companies and just people thatwant to support something.
(18:52):
These great endeavors happeningright here in our state that are
impacting the world and not tojust.
Send that check or click that QRcode, but to go call me, call
one of us so we can discuss themost effective way to ensure
that that donation reaches thatopportunity for the 14 fold or
(19:15):
the 14 times addition to how wecan leverage some of these
grants and the the ability tomake that donation even larger.
Erin, what are some of thegreatest needs right now in
terms of fundraising or researchthat you're seeing on the
day-to-day?
Well, right now we are closelyfollowing the NIH grant, so our
(19:36):
researchers right now are comingto us because they are worried
that, um, research projects aregoing to be delayed.
Canceled.
And so I think right now there'sa lot of worry in our research
community about just kind ofwhat's going on.
Um, what kind of projects aregonna be, you know, either
stalled or coming through,especially some that are like
close to maybe going intoclinical trials or some that are
(19:59):
close that were maybe, you know,on the deck to be funded by the
NIH.
So I feel like right nowresearch is, really big.
I don't know Sean, The one thingthat I, I'd like to add to that,
Aaron, is specifically the, um,Technology and equipment.
Um, and that is, you know,specifically ones that allow us
to be able to advance our marginof excellence, both on the
(20:20):
research and the care careperspectives.
And, you know, thanks.
You know, I think everybody'saware that, you know, technology
is rapidly evolving and to beable to, you know, need be able
to remain on that cutting edge,it's, you know, being able to
have those investments to beable to, you know, acquire that,
you know, some of these piecesof technology that can cost.
If not in the millions to tensof millions of dollars
(20:41):
potentially.
And that's really important.
And you know, especially for thecare in which that we want to be
able to offer to our, you know,in our patient community.
Um, it's really, it's a reallycritical, uh, need in which that
we have right now.
I think it's easy for someone onthe outside to forget about the
cost of technology and the paceat which things are moving in
(21:02):
this world right now is likelyhard to fathom.
Are you aware of any otherendeavor quite like this where
this collaboration occurs?
What I think is really uniqueabout the partnership in which
that exists between theUniversity of Minnesota and the
Masons is that this is truly arelationship within in which
(21:22):
that's extended, more than sevendecades.
And I think, you know, if youlook nationally in which that,
that is something that can bereally difficult to find, is
that this is.
Not been something in whichthat's been a transactional
relationship.
This has truly been anextraordinary partnership in
which that's existed between theUniversity of Minnesota and
Masonic Charities.
And you look back all the way to1955 when the Masons named the
(21:45):
first hospital on campus.
And incredible like when youhave the opportunity just to
look through all of themilestones in which that come
after that, and.
I think, you know, it's one ofthe things that excites Aaron
and I just so much about, youknow, our day-to-day working
with the Masons is that this istruly a, this is a partnership
in which that we have togetherand, you know, it's really
(22:06):
committed in the essence ofwanting to be able to, you know,
make the lives of fellowMinnesotans better for tomorrow,
um, and health and education inevery facet of their lives.
I just think too, what's sounique about this is I think
about just getting introduced tothe Masons when I started at the
foundation and the fact that wecelebrate, you know, Masonic
(22:31):
traditions together, like TableLodge.
I mean, I just feel like that isso.
Amazing.
Just to be able to be, have eachother, you know, learning from
each other, understanding ourtrue foundations, our purpose,
and then coming together inpartnership.
That is a great memory ofNovember's Table Lodge with then
(22:51):
Grand Master Foster Solem andPresident Cunningham That was a
really, really special night.
I had to do the math for amoment.
It's 70 years strong now.
Mm-hmm.
I talk to a lot of youngermasons that have schedules like
yours with kids, family, youngcareers, working on their
(23:13):
personal and professional lives,who have really taken by storm
the opportunity to supportMasonic Charities.
With that donation going towardsthe Masonic Cancer Center, the
children's, all the things we'velisted today.
being part of this greatermission.
It's such a gift for MinnesotaFreemasons.
(23:34):
Well, and Reid, you're justreminding me of our wonderful
time spent at the MasonicChildren's Hospital.
You know, you took a group ofmasons from different lodges
that maybe may or may not knoweach other, but coming together,
you know, to be a part ofvolunteering for, um, around the
holidays to sorting toys for,um, kids that got to shop that
weren't able to leave thehospital.
(23:54):
We'd like to do that again.
I know we're working on someother endeavors to engage our
members and their significantothers and spouses to volunteer.
It was an easy day, but it wasso impactful.
Mm-hmm.
To meet the staff.
Mm-hmm.
Of the Masonic Children'sHospital and some of the
patients even walked by andwe're thanking the Masons for,
it was just amazing.
I'm so excited for what thefuture holds.
(24:17):
So needless to say, you two bothhave a very interesting,
gratifying, and fulfilling rolewith the University of Minnesota
Foundation.
Every day is.
Different in such a good way.
And I also feel like, I feel solucky, and I really will say
this, I feel so lucky to besurrounded by such talented
(24:38):
colleagues.
I mean, we're there together onthe hardest days.
We're there together tocelebrate together.
And I feel so thankful becausethe work is hard.
The, the work is hard, but the,the work that we do together is
so rewarding.
And you know, like Sean said,working with partners like you.
Is the reason that we find joyat work.
You know, like it is just, it issuch a gift.
(25:01):
So thank you.
Well, thank you guys for thework that you do and the
collaboration that we keepseeing that is growing all the
time between Masonic CharitiesUniversity, our lodges
coalescing around this missionhas just been.
incredible.
(25:22):
On this podcast, we'd like toask a few random questions in
order to get to know you asguests a little better, more on
the personal side of things.
what common grammatical errorsannoy you the most?
I.
Is your boss listening?
Are you worried that, can I, canI say it?
(25:46):
Yeah, you can say it.
I can say it.
So Sean and I are.
We have really great skills inother things, but neither of us
are great at writing I don'tknow that I, like, I don't, I
don't know that I have anythingthat's like, oh my gosh, I can't
believe people do that because Iprobably do every grammatical
error there is your, yourwriting's pretty is pretty good.
I think sometimes for Aaron andI, we can be own our own worst
(26:08):
critics.
Yeah.
In term, in terms of ourwriting, but.
yeah, we occasionally like justget some like really broken
things.
Yeah.
Especially like working with ourdocs.
Mm-hmm.
Oh yeah.
I can't even imagine.
They're, they're, they're superbusy, you know, sometimes
they'll only put their contentin the subject line of the email
and they don't write anything inthe body.
Really.
Yeah.
So I think, I mean, if you hadto give me a pet peeve.
(26:31):
again, really grateful for ourdoctors and researchers and care
teams.
They're incredibly busy ofcourse, and they're very
talented in their, but, buthowever, go on.
Yeah.
They, they just sometimes could.
give a little bit more contextwould be sometimes helpful.
I, I don't like the, the emailwritten out in the subject line.
So sometimes Sean and I justhave to make a little magic
(26:53):
happen to be like, I think thisis what they would want us to
say in this case.
Yeah.
And well add one time too, whenI first started, I was trying to
get a hold of a doc and he saidto asked for me to page him.
I had never paged anybody in mylife on his pager.
Well, on his pager, on his page.
This wasn't like a use the, the,uh, the phone system to No say
(27:14):
doctor.
Okay.
Yeah.
See, that makes me feel old.
I know, because back in the day,in the nineties, we had pagers
before, there's pagers beforephones, and there was little
codes in the pager.
Not only would you get the phonenumber to call, but there was a
little insider.
If there was a, a certaincharacter that meant call fast.
Mm-hmm.
Call right away.
Call immediately.
Yeah.
(27:36):
What popular movie have younever seen?
Probably all of them.
I feel like.
let's go with a little bit offorgiveness in the window that
you've had children, but like,let's talk like what The
Godfather A one.
A Wonderful Life.
I've never seen that.
Never seen it.
Really?
No.
Why not?
Did you avoid it or it justnever happened?
(27:58):
Just never happened.
You don't, you don't have adisdain for Jimmy Stewart or
something?
No.
Okay.
No, not at all.
I've also never seen The Wizardof Oz.
Whoa.
Well, I guess we're gonna endthis podcast right now.
Whoa.
Goodbye.
Never seen it, Sean.
Really?
Yeah.
Kind of embarrassed, I guess.
A little bit about it.
Aaron.
You gonna make him drive?
(28:18):
Walk home today?
Yeah.
You're gonna drive alone.
I can't believe I'm even, I'mstill here.
Wow.
So you've learned somethingabout your colleague?
I have.
How about you?
Movie You've never seen, um, bigtime Movie.
I have a, I've never seenGoonies.
I don't know why I just thoughtof that.
That's so random.
Not that I, I don't even know.
Great movie.
Okay, great movie.
Um, I also have not seen This isnewer.
(28:39):
Any Harry Potter ones?
I'll give you a pass on that.
Neither am I.
Okay.
Not interested.
I feel like people talk about ita lot, but, but people that are
into it are way into it, reallyinto it.
That's my wife.
She loves, she loves HarryPotter, Harry Potter movies, and
I can't, I can never sit througha whole one.
I just can't do it.
what overused word.
(28:59):
Are you tired of hearing?
Let's even go with phrase.
Aaron's wheels are turning.
Overuse word or phrase you'retired of hearing.
Are you reluctant because thismight call out a colleague that
you don't want them to know orfriend or spouse?
(29:21):
No, I'm like really thinkingabout like, what have I heard?
Agency's a big word right now,agency.
Um, I would say for me, like onethat.
Keep on hearing right now isthat we're like living in
unprecedented times is, I don'tknow.
I was having a conversation withsomebody the other day and it's
like, I think right now, I thinkactually what's precedence is
(29:45):
living in unprecedented times.
Wouldn't every generation saythat though?
It could.
Case could be made that what thehere and now feels different
than as we navigate life.
I would imagine living on thefrontier in the prairie days,
those felt like unprecedentedtimes too.
(30:06):
Absolutely.
I, I know that was hard.
Yeah, that was tough.
That was tough.
That was tough.
Alright, this is an easy one.
Okay, last, last, uh, lastrandom question for you.
What's the worst thing you'vestepped on in the dark?
You have kids, I have to imaginethere was something left.
There was a mystery.
Yeah, it was my dog.
(30:26):
Oh, I mean, not my dog, but mydog poop.
I stepped on it in the dark andI was not okay with it.
It send me, it just, that wasthe worst thing.
I just was not ready for it.
I was so tired.
What time of day was this?
This was at like three in themorning.
Of course.
And I just, I, I just, I didn'thandle it well.
(30:47):
Hmm.
It was a whole house awoken as aresult of this.
The whole house was up.
You were up for the day.
'cause of my own problems thatYep.
We're up for the day.
Yep.
We're up for the day.
Yeah.
Related to that, and this wasmaybe just three weeks ago, as I
stepped in our dog's vomit,going, walking to the bathroom
at night.
I'm not getting, it's, he likesto eat grass outside and nobody
(31:07):
heard him get up during thenight and mm-hmm.
That was.
A lovely joy.
We love our dogs.
However, Uhhuh, there's a, so asa result of that, are you using
the phone flashlight?
Are you turning the, when youget up and I should move around
in the night?
I, you would think I would learnto like just have a little more
light before I walk.
I have not done that.
So because that's one stepcloser to be becoming our
(31:28):
parents using a flashlight or.
Even the, the light on the phonewould be mm-hmm.
Smart.
That would've been, I, I'm gonnastart you.
No, I probably won't.
I probably won't.
I'll probably just do what I do.
There's gonna be a, a Masoniccharity flashlight in your next,
uh, it's actually a great swigidea.
Lemme write that.
Everyone will use it.
Let write that down.
(31:48):
That in a tape measure.
Right.
Tape measure.
You always need one.
You do?
Yeah.
Really.
Especially shopping, homeimprovement projects.
Yeah.
Improvements.
I'm always looking and likelittle ones.
Great.
Bring'em along.
All right, so let's add that tothe list of the wishlist for the
marketing departmentsflashlights, tape measurers.
Mm-hmm.
(32:08):
What's next on the to-do listfor the University of Minnesota
Foundation, whether it's withMasonic Charities or otherwise?
This weekend, uh, we have winefest.
So benefiting the MasonicChildren's Hospital and Mason's
will be there with us onSaturday night in support.
So really excited, uh, toast toChildren's Health.
(32:29):
This is our 28th, uh, annualwine fest.
So, you know, really hopefulthat, you know, as part of this
event that we'll be able toraise more than$2 million that
we've benefiting the MasonicChildren's Hospital and, you
know, the Masons in which havebeen a, you know, really big
aspect of, uh, partnership withthis event through the years.
So really looking forward tobeing able to spend Saturday
evening with you all.
We also have Couture for Kids.
(32:50):
Um, great Minds Couture for Kidsis benefiting the Masonic
Institute of the DevelopingBrain coming up on July 18th.
Um, it is a kids' fashion show,um, where we get to highlight,
um, kids helping kids.
So kids are out there raisingmoney for the MIDB and we'll be
showcasing their fundraisingevents at.
The event with a largepresentation.
(33:10):
So we have double the modelsthis year.
There's a lot of excitementaround the event.
and hopefully, um, we'll bejust, just wonderful I'm gonna
put my email address in the bioof today's podcast to contact me
for information on that.
ultimately talk about how togive, how to contribute to
(33:30):
Minnesota Masonic charities andall of these tremendous things
we've been talking about today.
There is a number.
It is innumerable opportunitiesto contribute time, talents,
financially.
Future looks very bright andexciting.
we really look forward to seeingMarcus and, uh, his fellow
Masons next week, uh, for the,for the tour on campus.
(33:52):
Another thing to email me aboutif there, there's still room on
the bus, correct?
We have a, it's filling upquickly, but the bus leaving
Duluth heading down to theMinneapolis St.
Paul area for the day that willreturn to Duluth.
That it'll be a long day, butit'll be a very fun day.
Yes.
We are so excited to haveeveryone on campus.
I know all the, all the stopswill be, be ready and for some
(34:13):
fun.
Sean Keenan.
Erin Elliot, thank you so muchfor being in studio with us
today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having us.
And this has been anotherepisode of Minnesota Masonic
Histories and Mysteries.
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