March 12, 2024 • 49 mins
Every community has its heroes, and today, I'm honored to sit with one of Wake County's very own, Justin Crawford. An entrepreneur who's taken his expertise from the finance world to foster healthier living environments through Green Home Solutions, Justin's story is one of determination, family values, and unmistakable community spirit. Our conversation traverses his transition from investment banking to prioritizing indoor air quality. We celebrate his profound sense of local engagement and involvement in everything from the Fuquay Varina Downtown Association to festive occasions that bind the community, while considering the larger fabric of support that enriches family life and community charm.
Tune in as we dive into Justin's latest endeavors to fund childhood cancer research and bring the community together, yet again. He's stepping up to shave his head for the St. Baldrick's Foundation at an event at Fainting Goat in Fuquay Varina on Sunday, March 24th from 1-6 PM and is ready to rock the Guy Fieri look in the meantime for the St. Patrick's Day parade in Raleigh if his goal is met. We shed light on the immense value of the foundations funding much needed research for new medications and maybe even a cure as well as our local organizations that provide comfort and joy to children enduring major medical treatments, illuminating the powerful impact of individual contributions, whether they're monetary, in-kind, or simply the act of showing up.
Wrapping up our heartfelt dialogue, it's not just about getting to know the man behind Green Home Solutions; it's about recognizing the resilience and strength that emerges when we rally together for the common good. Through this episode, you'll not only gain insight into the invaluable work done by local organizations for children with serious illnesses but also leave with a reminder of the remarkable changes we can effect, simply by being there for one another. From my own experience through my daughter's journey to those touched by these organizations, one fundamental truth shines through: every ounce of support counts. Might you be willing to help?
To contribute directly to Justin's St. Baldrick's fundraiser, you may visit:
https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/1137290/2024
Justin Crawford
Green Home Solutions
(919) 473-6053
ghsraleigh@greenhomesolutions.com
Meg's Smile Foundation
Zach's Toy Chest
As always, if you are interested in being on or sponsoring the podcast or if you have any particular issues, thoughts, or questions you'd like explored on the podcast, please email NCDeepDive@gmail.com. Your contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Now, let's dive in!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (00:10):
Hello friends, welcome back to the NC
Deep Dive.
I'm your host, AmandaBenbow-Lunn, and this episode
we're going to touch on a couplethings near and dear to my
heart, like fabulousorganizations and events that
help those in our community, andfinding those that prioritize
time and resources in theirlives to create and support
(00:30):
these fabulous organizations andevents.
In some ways to me, being awareof these people, organizations
and events is one of my mentalhealth hacks, as Mr Rogers once
said, when I was a boy and Iwould see scary things in the
news, my mother would say to melook for the helpers.
You will always find people whoare helping.
(00:50):
And through my 41 years I havelearned as a helper how
absolutely essential it is tonot only find the helpers but to
help the helpers.
No matter how awful life may beat any given moment, we always
have the ability to do something.
Maybe we can't do all thethings, but quite often we can
absolutely do the next rightthing, and it doesn't matter if
(01:14):
it's big or small.
That right next thing couldsimply be our gift of a smile,
for sometimes it's the greatestacts that lead to the biggest
ripples in our communities andbeyond.
So, without further ado, myfriends, let's dive in.
Welcome Justin Crawford.
How are you doing today?
Justin Crawford (01:33):
I'm doing good.
How are you doing?
Amanda Benbow Lunn (01:34):
I am doing excellent.
Why don't you give us a littlebit of an introduction of
yourself?
Justin Crawford (01:39):
Sure, Happy to do that.
First of all, thanks for havingme on.
I'm very excited to do this.
I own a local business in FuquaVerena cover all of Wake County
and surrounding areas focusedon indoor air quality.
I try to be as involved in thecommunity as possible.
I do a lot of work with localsmall businesses and the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association,among other things.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (02:01):
All right, are you from this area?
Justin Crawford (02:04):
Originally I'm from Canton, Ohio, but I moved
down to Jacksonville, NorthCarolina, at a very young age.
My dad was in the Marine Corpsfor quite a long time, so I grew
up in Jacksonville, NorthCarolina.
I moved to the area in 1999 togo to NC State.
I graduated from NC State.
I moved away for a couple ofyears.
My fiancee at the time now wifeshe was getting her degree at
(02:27):
UAB in Birmingham, Alabama.
So we lived there for two yearsand we moved back the day that
she graduated.
We actually went to hergraduation in a U-Haul and left
from there to move back to here,and we've lived in Fuqua since
2005.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (02:39):
Awesome, and I know you have Green Home
Solutions.
That's your business.
What background do you havecareer-wise?
Have you always been in thisfield?
Justin Crawford (02:49):
No, that's a funny thing when people ask me
about that.
I never went to college to be amold man.
I spent a long time in thefutures world in investment
banking.
I've worked at Credit Swiss for10 years and kind of worked my
way up through the futuresoperations area, and there was a
time where we basically splitfrom Credit Swiss my whole group
(03:09):
globally about 500 peoplebecame employees of a fintech
company and during that time Ikind of struggled with what I
wanted to do career-wise.
I wasn't exactly happy in thatrole.
I tried to find other thingsinternally but ultimately
decided that I was going to takea career step and start a
business on my own.
So for about two years I spentresearching what I wanted to do.
(03:30):
I had a friend that had ownedmultiple businesses and we
talked a lot about potentiallyteaming up on something we liked
the franchise idea, thefranchise model.
You kind of get a business in abox, for lack of a better term
and through that research wespent about six months analyzing
green home solutions, learningtheir process, learning their
products, going on sales calls,going on some of the actual jobs
(03:52):
and just learning it andgetting comfortable with it and
ultimately we decided thatthat's what we wanted to do
Awesome.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (03:57):
Now tell me a little bit about your family.
You mentioned a wife.
Justin Crawford (04:01):
So I've been happily married since 2005.
And we have two kids.
My daughter Peyton is 13 and myson Colton is 11.
Oh nice, they're around my kidsage.
Yep, they're very active.
My wife has a really cool job.
She's a forensic chemist withthe state crime lab.
And my daughter, Peyton, she isvery active at her school.
(04:22):
She's in the school governmentand also does Irish dancing and
some other things outside ofschool.
And my son he just made hisschool's baseball team and he
does some ninja warrior stuffand stuff like that.
So we try to be as active aspossible with the kids and
keeping them involved as well.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (04:41):
Oh, that's awesome.
Does your daughter have anevent coming up with St
Patrick's Day?
Justin Crawford (04:45):
Actually, yes, she's going to be dancing in the
downtown parade in Raleigh thiscoming weekend, so about a week
and a Saturday morning thiscoming up, and I plan to be in
that as well.
That was one of the things thatI had been offering or trying
to raise money for for StBaldrick's.
I'm going to do my.
Guy Fieri, look at the paradein downtown Raleigh.
(05:07):
So I'm pretty excited for that.
Yeah, her school is going to bepart of the parade and she does
a lot of competitions as well.
They call them Fesh, so shejust had one in Charlotte last
weekend and she's got one inGreensboro coming up in maybe
two months or so.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (05:23):
Oh wow.
All right, let's move into someof your community involvement.
I feel like I see you in lotsof different places, so let's
speak towards that.
Justin Crawford (05:33):
Well, I try to be as engaged as possible, and
it's more so.
I've learned about myself thatI really enjoy doing that.
I really enjoy giving back.
A couple of years ago I had theopportunity, through the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association, tohelp plan the barbecue blues
and brews.
It had been a couple of yearssince that had been put on due
to COVID, and it was anextremely enjoyable event,
(05:54):
purely from helping get it overthe line and get it ready to go.
We needed another team at thattime.
So I have a friend, owen Cork,with a wee bit quirky barbecue
and I reached out to him and waslike hey, we need a team, do
you think we can make somethingwork here?
And he's like, oh yeah, likehe's all about cooking and stuff
like that.
And he got one of his friendsto get involved and so we put a
(06:16):
team in there and, lo and behold, we got third place and we won
People's Choice Award.
So we were like Holy smokes, itwas pretty awesome event.
So that's been a staple for us.
We did that this past year aswell and this time we actually
won People's Choice again and wegot second place judges.
So we're shooting for thatfirst place next year.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (06:32):
And for those that might not be familiar
, can you speak towards whatBarbecue, blues and Brews is?
Justin Crawford (06:38):
Yeah, so it's a great community event in Fuquay
Varina, a lot of live bands.
They have a whole section thatis for local vendors.
So you can go, you know, peruseall kinds of stuff.
There's jewelry and cocktailmixers and soaps and you name it
like it's.
You know it's going to a vendorfair.
It's like going to a market,essentially, and then a whole
(06:58):
section of it is, you know, thebarbecue team.
So those teams will spendbasically 16 hours or so
prepping and getting everythingready to go and there's 800
tickets that are sold for it toactually taste each of the
barbecues.
So you know, people can comethrough, they get a sample of it
and they'll decide who theylike the best.
But it's a great community event.
I think last year there wassomething like 5000 people that
(07:21):
came to it.
So it's a really goodopportunity for the Downtown
Association to raise money andjust to get a bunch of people
into Fuquay to help all thelocal businesses.
It's right in downtown, so youknow there's a huge intention
there for you know, people thatcome they'll experience the
barbecue, blues and bruise event, but they can also, you know,
walk down Main Street and walkdown some of the downtown
businesses and shop.
Okay.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (07:40):
Tell me a little bit more about the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association.
Justin Crawford (07:44):
Yeah, I have been involved in that for
numerous years, but over thecourse of the last two and a
half years I was veryintentional about trying to get
more involved, so reached outand said hey look, if there's
anything that you need help withvolunteers, things like that
I'd be happy to get involved andstarted to be able to
participate more in some of theevents that they had and that's
ultimately where the opportunitycame to be on the planning
(08:05):
board, essentially with abarbecue, blues and bruise.
After that they asked me toapply for a board seat and went
through an interview process andeverything.
They selected me on the board.
So I've been on the board for alittle over a year now and we
meet once a month, actuallytechnically twice a month
because I was part of the artscommittee for that as well.
But the goal there is to, youknow, build up the small
businesses and build upcommunity engagement in our
(08:26):
downtown.
There's also a beautificationaspect to it.
So we have an arts committee,we have a business committee, an
economic development committeethat really focused on what are
the things that we can do tohelp the downtown and Fuqua in
general, and why might that beimportant?
Well, I think it's important tonumber one, give back to the
community.
Obviously, the Fuquay Varina isa great town.
There's a lot of greatbusinesses that are here.
(08:47):
There's a lot of great peoplethat are here and it's growing.
So, trying to keep the FuquayVarina feel while experiencing
all this growth, that's part ofwhat we're focused on.
But we also look at things likesafety you know crosswalks and
stuff like that.
So it's really all about howcan we get all these people that
are coming, you know, moreconnected into the community,
help our small businesses intown and, you know, kind of give
(09:08):
that Fuquay Varina feel thateverybody loves.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (09:10):
I thank you for lifting that up, because I
think that charm is what bringsso many people here and what so
many love.
And while so many people don'tnecessarily love all of the
people coming, some of the sideeffects like traffic everybody
is looking for that connection,that feel.
So I love that you're soinvolved and so you have an
event coming up.
(09:31):
It's one near and dear to myheart.
It is the St Baldricks Bald fora Cause event and, for those
that don't know, the StBaldricks Foundation raises
money for pediatric cancerresearch and that event is going
to be March 24th from one tosix at Fainting Goat in Fuquay
Varina.
How is this your first yeargetting involved with St
(09:53):
Baldricks?
Justin Crawford (09:54):
This is my first year actually
participating in the event.
I have certainly donated in thepast and what moved me to get
involved in this capacity thisyear?
I donated a lot to, you know,close friends of mine to help
them.
Last year and this year Ithought, you know, I wonder if I
could do more by actuallyparticipating and trying to
raise funds.
And you know, so far that'sbeen a huge success.
(10:17):
In my mind and, I think, in ourteam's minds.
You know, it's more than doublewhat I've been able to raise
versus what I would have beenable to donate.
So from that standpoint, youknow, I'm extremely thrilled to
do it and the results have beengreat.
So this will be my first timethat I will have a buzz cut or
shave in quite a long time.
So we did reach that goal.
(10:37):
So I will definitely be gettingshaved at the event.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (10:40):
Now are you doing your head hair and your
facial hair, or is it just one?
Justin Crawford (10:47):
So the plan and what I'm hoping to achieve if I
reach $2,000, I'm going to dothe Guy Fieri look with green
hair for a week.
So I'll actually have my facialhair, you know, cut the way he
does it and it'll be all green.
I figured last year probably my10 seconds of fame was dressing
as Guy Fieri for Halloween andyou know, some of my friends
kind of took me around town andtook some photos and posted it
(11:08):
on a lot of the local socialmedia sites.
And now when people see methey're like oh, you're Guy
Fieri, a friend of mine a longtime ago, travis, if he's
listening, he Travis Lau.
He and I worked together for awhile and one day he comes up to
me he's like you know, you looklike that guy from the Food
Network.
And I was like what he's like?
Yes, you know that guy, he'slike I think his name is Guy.
(11:29):
So I look it up and sure enough, I was like, geez, I actually
do look like him.
So over time I guess I'veembraced it and, you know, did
the Halloween thing.
It was funny and that wasactually right around the
barbecue blues and bruise.
So I kept that look for anotherweek to look like him during
barbecue blues and bruise.
So I think that was another wayfor people to be like oh my God
.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (11:49):
When I looked last night, you've raised
$1,236 so far.
That's correct your goal is2000.
If you hit the 2000 mark bythis Friday, march 15th, that is
when you will have your hairand facial hair turned bright
green, and then your plan is toalso be in the Raleigh Parade,
(12:09):
correct?
Justin Crawford (12:10):
That is correct .
I'm really hoping that I get toshow that look during the
parade.
My friend, Mat Quiring, is arevelry barbershop.
He's agreed to do that for me.
He actually helped me get theGuy Fieri look initially, so
he's fully on board.
I just saw him yesterday and hecan't wait, so I'm really
hoping that we get there.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (12:27):
Excellent.
So yeah, St Baldrick'sFoundation is near and dear to
my heart because back in 2013,my youngest daughter, who was
not quite two, was diagnosedwith cancer and I don't know, I
probably from about two weeks.
I actually saw her tumor and Ididn't know that that's what I
was seeing, and so she haswhat's called retinoblastoma.
(12:51):
So it's in both of her eyes andgenerally photographers and
parents diagnosis before anymedical professionals.
It's supposed to be very rareand it shows up in flash
photography as a white glow intheir eyes and so you take the
picture and kind of like the redeye, it's this white demonic
(13:14):
eye glow, and so I actually sawthat in person every now and
again and it would come and go.
But I had a friend once who wewere at a bar celebrating her
birthday and when I looked ather I was like, man, is your eye
glowing?
Like am I seeing things?
And she's like, oh yes, itglows.
And then we just moved on, wedidn't talk about it.
So when I saw it in my daughter, I'm like well, I mean, she
(13:36):
does have some health issueslike diabetes, so maybe it's a
warning sign of something or Idon't know, because it kind of
looked like the when I saw it inperson the yellow, greenish
iridescence of an animal's eye.
So I'm like, well, maybe she'llhave some connection with
animals, which she actually does.
But when she was about 18months old we took my other
(13:56):
daughter to her well visit andat this point Amber's eye was
veering to the right.
So the doctor said, okay, it'stime for her to go see the eye
doctor, potentially for lazy eye.
And so I was trying to battlewith how in the world am I going
to keep this eye patch on herface so that she can work that
musculature?
And little did I know.
Sat in Dr Vito's office andsweetest eye doctor, he was like
(14:20):
I need you to fill out thisinformation.
I'm setting you up for anappointment today to go to the
specialist and you need to bethere.
You need to bring a bag for thehospital because it's possible
that she will have emergencysurgery tonight to remove both
of her eyes.
Wow! And so perspective.
I was worried about this stupideye patch when now I was faced
(14:41):
with my baby, who wasn't two,who had just told me at Walmart
the week before she was sayingsomething, and I was trying to
figure out what she was saying,and she ended up saying ball,
because she saw a ball way onthe other end of Walmart and I
thought, wow, I didn't know kidscould see that far, but that's
pretty cool that she can.
And then after his visit Ilearned that she was blind in
(15:02):
one eye and probably had beenfor quite some time, and that
the tumors were starting to growin her other eye as well.
And so from that moment on wewent to Duke and she had a
couple of rounds of chemo andthen we ended up Dr Fritz, an
orthodontist in Holly Springs,had mentioned her sister wasa
nurse, anesthetist, or DrAbramson at Memorial Sloan
(15:24):
Kettering Cancer Center in NewYork City, and that was a really
big step for us to try to seeif they might be able to help
our little girl.
And we did that because theyoffered a different type of
chemo.
So here at Duke at the timethey just offered the regular
systemic chemo, so general IV.
That chemotherapy affects theentire body.
(15:47):
She only had two rounds, butthey wanted to do six and they
had told me that only the firsttwo would actually kill the
tumor and then after that itwould just hold them steady or
stable.
And so I was questioning as aparent, why on earth would I put
my baby through six rounds, Ifonly the first two were actually
going to kill that tumor orthose tumors?
(16:08):
And so when I reached out to DrAbramson and his staff, they
immediately called me back.
They chatted for an hour, goingthrough all my questions.
They offered what was calledintra-arterial chemotherapy.
So they knock them out and thenthey insert a catheter from the
groin all the way up to behindtheir eye and they shoot the
(16:28):
chemo directly at the eye.
And what's great about thatchemotherapy is that it's a
really, really small amount butit's targeted right where it's
needed.
And so we did learn from thefirst two rounds of the systemic
chemo that she was going tolose her right eye.
The tumor was way too big andwhen the chemo hit it it kind of
exploded the tumor in her eye,and they weren't quite sure
(16:52):
where it extended.
They couldn't see the back.
And so the fear withretinoblastoma is that you have
a little hole in your eye wherethe optic nerve comes in, and if
the tumor stays within the eyethere's like a 95% survival rate
.
But if the tumor escapesthrough that little hole of the
optic nerve, the odds ofsurvival go down drastically.
(17:14):
It can spread, and it canspread quickly, and so they were
worried that it might spread orit might be at that hole.
And so we did have her righteye removed, which as a parent
is really tough.
You don't know how that isgoing to affect your child for
the rest of their life, and Iwill say that removing your eye
is an outpatient surgery,surprisingly enough.
(17:36):
And so we were sent out of thehospital that afternoon and then
we flew back to North Carolinathe very next day, and on that
flight leading up to this, Amberhad said a few words like here
and there, like one or two wordstogether.
On that flight back she talkednonstop, and so from a parent's
perspective, that made me feelso great because she did so well
(17:58):
and it obviously had beencausing her some sort of
discomfort, because the secondit was out she was speaking like
she had never spoke before.
And one thing that really why Ireally love the St Baldrick's
Foundation is because onethey're really good at giving
back the majority of the moneytowards actual childhood cancer
research.
But the other reason is thesekids really, really, really need
(18:24):
better treatments.
A cure would be lovely, butthey really need better
treatments.
Over the past three decades,only seven new drugs have been
formulated specifically forchildren.
A lot of the other drugs theyformulate for adults and then
they just kind of wing it forthe kids.
I remember I think Amber hadfive different drugs three drugs
(18:45):
when she had the systemicchemotherapy and then one of
those drugs and two others whenshe did the intracraterial
chemotherapy, but one of those Ibelieve that was in both of
them.
As I was signing the consentforms, I was looking at the
short-term side effects and thelong-term side effects, and one
of the long-term side effectswas leukemia.
(19:06):
So as a mom going through areally tough journey, seeing my
baby going through a reallytough journey as I was signing
that document, all I could thinkof is is this as far as we've
come, I'm giving my baby thismedication to stop one cancer
that could cause another cancerthat has a worse prognosis.
(19:26):
Am I doing that to my child?
And so for me putting as muchresearch into this as possible
so that another family doesn'thave to make that really tough
decision.
They're a bunch of suckychoices and you just had to
choose the best one.
One in 285 childrenapproximately 15,000 children in
(19:46):
the US will be diagnosed withcancer before their 20th
birthday.
Every 80 seconds somewhere inthis world, a family will hear
your child has cancer.
And I was not involved inorganizations like this before
my child had cancer.
So it's super meaningful to methat you're going out of your
way to do this, Because if I canstop one person from hearing
(20:11):
those words your child hascancer, I can stop one person
from having to hold and pintheir child down so that they
can take the medications and beput to sleep for all these
rounds of chemo and treatments.
It is worth it, and not everycancer is hereditary.
The problem, one of thedifficult things that I think
about, is when an adult hascancer not always, but sometimes
(20:35):
there's a reason.
Right, we made a choice.
Smokers choose to smoke.
Lung cancer is a potentialcomplication.
We go out in the sun for notputting on sunscreen.
Skin cancer is a potentialcomplication.
But these kids, quite oftenthey haven't done those things.
They haven't made those choices, whether it's environmental or
genetic.
(20:55):
They're just faced with thisreally hard journey that might
affect them for the rest oftheir life.
One out of every six childrenwith cancer in America.
They do not survive five yearsand nearly 60% of childhood
cancer survivors experiencesevere complications in
adulthood.
This is one of the reasons whywith healthcare we were blessed
(21:17):
just after, I think, Amber wasdiagnosed, as when the
Affordable Care Act went intoplace, but just prior to that I
had to think about how my littlegirl, who wasn't two, would
likely never be able to getinsurance because of a
preexisting condition.
And with her we did the genetictesting and my ex had a gene
(21:40):
that mutated, so he had oneallele of a gene that mutated
and when Amber was growing, hersecond allele, so she copied my
ex's allele and then the secondallele mutated which gave her
the retinoblastoma.
And now if she's able to havekids which she might not because
of the chemo it is possiblethat any eggs that she had are
(22:04):
damaged, but we won't know that.
But if her eggs are viable andshe is able to have children,
she has just under a 50% chanceof passing that cancer on to her
children.
So this is something that notonly did she have to deal with
once, but she could have to dealwith multiple times in her
lifetime between children,possible grandchildren, great
(22:25):
grandchildren and her families.
We had for probably six, seven,eight years, out of pocket
costs for probably $10,000 ayear.
We hit her out of pocketmaximum almost every year.
She's due for a new prosthesis.
This year that prosthesis isprobably going to be close to
$4,000.
(22:46):
And so, also from a financialaspect, children have to pay for
the side effects of theircancer for a very, very long
time, compared to adults.
When we potentially get cancer,I think the average years of
life after cancer if theysurvive is about 67.
And so that's 67 years thatthey have to worry about.
(23:06):
Will they be covered underinsurance?
What medications do they nowhave to take to compensate for
some of the side effects whenthey were younger?
And so any money that we canpour into childhood cancer
research is super important, issuper important and it's
meaningful, even if it's just adollar.
If you're able to give $1, thatcould be the dollar that makes
(23:28):
all the difference.
Okay, I wasn't quite ready there.
It's been 10 years, just over10 years now, and so, as I was
thinking about this podcast thismorning, like some of those
emotions were hitting and oh,okay, but we are blessed.
She is here with us, she hasminimal side effects, she's now
in middle school.
We're blessed to have her inour lives, but so many of the
(23:51):
kids that we've met along theway, they're not here today, and
so thank you for standing up,Thank you for raising money and
doing what you can.
It really, really, really makesa big difference.
Justin Crawford (24:02):
Well, I appreciate that and again, thank
you for sharing your story.
It's sad that there's so manystories that are out there and
for me, I hear those stories andyou just put yourself in the
shoes and, like man, I don'tknow how you made it through it.
I'm very happy that you cantalk about it today, but that
really what gets me is it's notfair, it really isn't, and
especially for kids to have togo through that, and I want to
(24:26):
do my part and everything that Ican do to help families and
kids that are having to gothrough that and prevent it.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (24:32):
And so retinoblastoma is supposed to be
one of the rarest childhoodcancers.
There's approximately 10different cancers that kids
generally get and I think thelast statistic I saw about 300
children in the US will bediagnosed with retinoblastoma
every year.
So back 10 years ago we had afundraiser Community was awesome
(24:54):
.
So many people came together tohelp us financially and just be
there for us in a variety ofways and for that particular
event we made the news and wewere spreading awareness and I
remember getting at least fivedifferent calls from people
within 100 mile radius thattheir child too had
retinoblastoma.
(25:14):
And since then I think I'vebeen aware of two in the local
Holly Springs Fuquaverina areaand as we move further from
diagnosis I kind of lose touchwith some of those circles.
So I'm not as aware of how manymore children are being
diagnosed.
But if there are that manychildren with retinoblastoma in
this area, it is heartbreakingto know how many children have
(25:36):
suffered from all the varioustypes of childhood cancer.
I know lots of people arefamiliar with Meg's Smile
Foundation.
That is a nonprofit that's runfrom Holly Springs and Meg's
family.
Meg passed away, I want to say,at the age of nine, from
neuroblastoma, I believe, andtheir family has set up Meg's
(25:57):
Smile Foundation so thatfamilies and that particular
child can have a reason to smilewhen they're going through a
really, really hard time.
And that's important because,goodness, when you're going
through the trenches, hope isthe most important thing and to
see your child smile fills yourbucket so much so that you can
continue to go on and carry onand help your child get through
(26:20):
this.
And then there's anotherorganization in town called
Zach's Toy Chest, and Zach wasanother child who's local Holly
Springs diagnosed, and he isstill with us, thankfully.
I believe he's in high schoolnow older high school.
Justin Crawford (26:38):
High school soccer team.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (26:40):
Yes, and I know his mom their family set up
Zach's toy chest to provide thehospitals with toys for their
toy chest, and you never knowhow things are going to come
back and connect.
But our first time at Duke,amber was put under.
So I mean, literally I washolding her and it felt like
they were smothering her with apillow and her arms were
(27:02):
flapping until she was out andthat alone.
I had to go to a corner in ahospital and cry and get myself
together because they needed meto be strong.
So I had to be there.
But once she was back in theroom, she still had a couple of
blood pricks that she had toundergo and they brought out a
(27:23):
doctor's kit, a toy doctor's kit.
And my other daughter is about17, 18 months older and these
kids, they played with thatdoctor's kit.
The medical staff gave masksand gloves and a lot of the
cheaper equipment, disposabletype of equipment that they
would use during her treatmentsso that they could play at home
(27:45):
with them, because play for kidsis a learning experience, it
makes things less scary, and sothe more they played with all
the tubes and the gloves and themasks and the stethoscopes.
When she then went to thedoctors, she was able to do
those procedures with less fearbecause she knew what those
things were and she hadformulated a comfort with them.
(28:06):
Now she never liked shots orpokes and she still hates the
smell of coflex tape which, ifyou give blood, that's generally
what they'll wrap the bandagearound to hold the gauze on.
But that toy, I learned later,was donated by Zach's Toy Chest.
So all of these organizationssignificantly help families in
(28:27):
need and ever since I have alsoparticipated in St Baldrick's
and I have cut my hair threetimes, shaved it, and for any of
you who might be consideringjoining events, there are lots
of events around the Raleigharea.
There are a few here locallyevery year.
But as a woman to shave my head, there was a lot of anxiety
(28:49):
there.
It's not normal, many don't doit, but I have a kid, a kid
that's going through all of this, a kid that may continue going
through all of this, and so it'sreally important for me to do
all that I can to help hersucceed and to help other
families and not have to hearyour child has cancer.
And what I learned was, oh mygoodness, I had so much anxiety
(29:12):
in my hair that I didn't evenknow I had, so when it was cut,
feeling the breeze on your scalpfeels amazing.
Justin Crawford (29:22):
I bet that was a weird one the first time you
did it.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (29:24):
It was Like it's just the way you notice a
breeze.
It's something so small, butlike I noticed it in a way that
I had never noticed it beforeand I could be aware of it in a
way I could never be aware of itbefore and it was just the
silver lining and just ablessing to feel.
And I do want to say that meshaving my head was a choice.
(29:46):
I was blessed with that choice,and so my reaction to it is
probably very different thanother folks who don't have that
choice.
They're going through a medicaltreatment or just a genetic
something or a disease wherethey lose their hair.
That's not the same.
So I don't want this to belight-hearted about losing one's
hair, but for me, for it beinga choice, I could ride in cars
(30:09):
with the windows down or aconvertible and not care.
I could just enjoy and notworry about.
Oh my goodness, this is goingto take me 10 years to detangle
my hair.
It's going to be all over theplace when it rains.
I never knew how much anxiety Ihad when it rained.
Oh my gosh, I have to dosomething different with my hair
or else it's going to frizz upand it's going to do X, y and Z.
When you have no hair, you canjust go out and enjoy the rain.
Justin Crawford (30:32):
It doesn't matter.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (30:33):
It's going to be dry in two seconds once
you go inside.
Showering so much quicker takestwo seconds to dry off Such a
different experience.
So if you are thinking how canyou help, what are ways that you
think of that people can help?
Justin Crawford (30:48):
Well, I think you embrace these organizations
that have a purpose and have agoal of helping in some fashion.
It doesn't have to be a hugeto-do.
Do your part to try to getinvolved.
Figure out a way to be able togive back.
Again, I would say, think aboutthe people that are going
through this and try to help.
I mean, it's every little bitcounts, just as you said, and I
(31:09):
love the story about Zach's toychest and how that came full
circle.
It's a fantastic organizationthat people listening to this
are not going to see it, but Icould see you smiling in
reflecting on such a scary timein your life and a memory from
that was an organization'spurpose in helping you during
that time.
So find something that you canat least get behind.
(31:31):
Maybe me personally, I haven't,thank goodness, have had to
deal with a childhood cancerthing, but I'm a parent and I
can 100% relate to the pain thatyou'd feel going through that,
and so this is a fantastic eventorganization to get behind.
But for anybody listening, justfind something that you can
give back.
You can help in some way.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (31:51):
And I'll share a little bit.
We were gifted with a Meg smileas well, and one of their
requirements is that you haveyour Make-A-Wish trip first,
because if you have a smilefirst, make-a-wish won't grant a
wish.
And so we were blessed withMake-A-Wish to go to Disney.
The girls.
When I asked them, mind youthink they were three and four
(32:13):
maybe, and it's like, if youcould do anything, if you could
go anywhere, if you could meetanyone, what would you want to
do?
We want to ride a unicorn.
Okay, well, there's this placecalled Disney, and I had learned
that the place you stay atDisney with Make-A-Wish is
called Give Kids the WorldVillage and that they did horse
rides.
And so I was all geared up.
(32:34):
I'm like, okay, we're justgoing to throw a birthday hat on
one of these horses somehow andwe're going to call it a
unicorn and that will be thegirls wish, and then Disney is
just going to be the bonus.
But at Give Kids the WorldVillage there was actually a
carousel right on site and wegot there, I took the girls to
kind of tour while Scott wasunloading and, lo and behold,
(32:54):
there was a unicorn on thecarousel.
And so the very first thingthat they were able to do was
ride a unicorn, so that wasfantastic.
And then Amber Smile was backin 2018.
And Amber does not do well beingput under the drug she's given
Gosh, I don't know, becauseshe's so young, so it's really
(33:16):
hard to describe what she'sgoing through, but it's almost
like they give herhallucinations.
They give her a really badheadache.
They have to dilate herremaining eye to make sure that
they can see all the tumors andto make sure that they're not
growing.
And when she would wake up fromthat anesthesia she did not
want to be comforted by me shewould flail her arms Mind you,
(33:37):
she's two.
She would yell at the top ofher lungs Let me down.
By which she would roll aroundon the floor it's a hospital,
but it's still a floor, and soshe's going through chemo.
So then you think about germsand you're like, well, do I let
her just roll around on thefloor?
Is that the best option?
(33:58):
And at that point that's allshe would allow us to do.
And sometimes she would scootaway like she was seeing things.
So I don't know that she hadhallucinations, but I figure
that she must have.
And then afterwards it would bethe sun would be really bright
and she'd have a headache.
So I was very communicativewith her.
She did better when sheunderstood what was coming, when
(34:20):
we could give her options, andso at one point I was telling
her that she had to take themedicine to be put under for her
MRIs, but there couldpotentially be the option where
she didn't have to have themedicine if she could lay still
in an MRI machine for the hourhour and a half that it took.
And at the age of three shedecided that she did not want to
(34:43):
have that medicine.
And so my three year old laidcompletely still for almost an
hour and a half in an MRImachine.
That many adults need vastmedication to be able to do.
And she got through that bylistening to one of Taylor
Swift's CDs and she cracked meup.
She was going through a TaylorSwift phase at that point, and I
(35:05):
think we're back to a TaylorSwift phase, but at that point
she was like Mommy, taylor Swiftis my biggest fan, and so it
cracked me up because she meantit.
The other way of course, butwhat Meg Smile was able to do
for us was to get us tickets toa Taylor Swift concert, which at
that point, they handed youwristbands that kind of lit up
(35:27):
to the music and they flashed,kind of like the lighters did,
but they were in sync and theywere different colors and it was
fabulous.
And right before she was comingon stage, the lights dimmed,
everybody's wristbands werestarting to light up, and the
look on her face, oh my goodness, like the look of surprise
seeing Taylor Swift, the look ofamazement that she was in the
(35:48):
space, the humongous smile thatfilled her face, that is an
image that I will have in myheart for forever, and luckily I
was able to get a picture of it.
So, so long as Facebook isstill a thing, I'll see that
every year on my memories.
And so each of theseorganizations has value.
(36:09):
Some of them are trying to helpkids not have to go through
this.
Some of them are lifting upchildren and families and even
siblings while going throughthese battles.
I know another organizationthat I raised funds for is
Alex's Lemonade Stand, and thatwas created because a little
girl who was going throughcancer treatments wanted to help
(36:30):
her doctors help other kids,and so she set up a lemonade
stand and raised like a milliondollars.
Oh battling cancer.
Justin Crawford (36:38):
Wow.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (36:38):
Having a lemonade stand and having people
show up.
And there is a family here intown.
Their daughter went to schoolin Pennsylvania where Alex lived
and to this day that school.
When Alex was going through herbattle she's unfortunately
passed away but when she wasgoing through her battle and
still attempting to go to school, they built in a chair every so
(37:01):
many feet in her school so thatshe could walk to the chair and
take a rest before proceedingto the next chair.
And those chairs are stillthere in that school.
So that was kind of cool to hearthat come full circle from
somebody in this local area whohad an experience in that way as
well.
So, yes, there are so many waysto get involved.
(37:21):
You can find local StBaldrick's events.
You can set up a lemonade standwith Alex's Lemonade Stand
Foundation.
There's Meg's Smile Foundation,zach's Toy Chest.
There are so many otherorganizations that help children
with cancer or children withmedical illnesses.
But let's get back to yourevent that is happening on March
(37:42):
24th at Faintingoat.
Tell me a little bit aboutwhat's going on there.
Justin Crawford (37:46):
Yeah.
So I believe it's revelrythat's going to be cutting
people's hair and there's goingto be live music, obviously,
access to the brewery to have anice drink.
I think there's going to besome food truck.
So it'll be a fun event and Ithink it's an opportunity to
reflect on the fundraisingachievements but also to
understand the purpose of theevent, and you have to embrace
(38:08):
that as part of the event.
That's why you're there.
I'm looking forward to it.
I hope people show up.
I hope people show up anddonate.
It's amazing to hear some of thestories about the impact that
these organizations can have.
I personally had not heard ofthe Alex Lemonade Stand, but
it's incredible to think beingable to raise a million dollars
through a lemonade stand and Ithink that the person listening
to this that's like how can Icontribute?
(38:29):
How can I do anything?
Well, by a lemonade, I mean amillion dollars from the
lemonade stand is incredible.
But I think it speaks to whenthe community can get behind
something, everything counts andyou create something huge out
of it.
You know, come out, enjoy theevent.
Hopefully you'll get to seesome green hair get shaved off
and we'll have a lot of funwhile we support a really good
cause.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (38:47):
Excellent.
So that is one to six pm atFainting Goat, which is 300
South Main Street in FuquayVarina, and again you've raised
just over $1,200.
Now you are looking to raise2,000, more than 40,000 children
undergo treatment for cancereach year.
So just by doing this I thinkit's through the Alex's Lemonade
(39:09):
Stand Foundation, where Ilearned that it takes $400 to do
research for one day so one day, one moment, one breath in one
breath, your whole life canchange.
I wasn't a childhood cancerparent until that one breath,
and now I will always be achildhood cancer parent and I am
(39:29):
blessed in a way.
A lot of parents are not.
Amber's last active tumor was inAugust of 2015.
So, knock on wood, she has beentumor free and she has had no
new growth.
And how miraculous is this?
She has about seven tumors atone point in her left eye.
Yeah, technology was greatenough 10 years ago to show that
(39:53):
if that tumor was slightlybigger or just 60 cells shifted
to the right, she wouldn't beable to see.
Wow, 60 cells shifted to theright, she would be completely
blind.
But through their treatmentsshe has glasses.
She has a stigmatism, but shecan see and she can function as
a child.
And some of the silver linings,because I love to find them.
(40:16):
At the age of not quite two, shehad to have a spinal tap and
her workplace.
Afterwards they gavehydrocodone and they said you'll
give this to her every so manyhours.
We gave it to her that night.
The next morning I go to giveher that medication and she says
no, mommy, I'm a tough girl.
And so then as a parent, I'mlike, oh my goodness, like do I
(40:37):
allow you the autonomy to makethis decision?
Do I just give you thismedicine because I'm pretty sure
you need it?
And so I just I didn't.
And I watched her and she didokay.
And talking to the nursesafterwards, they're like oh my
gosh, we have to wean the adultsoff of this stuff, because they
will just take it and continuetaking it.
And I think as adults we don'thave the mindset of children.
(40:59):
We know scary things can happen.
We know that there are otheroptions.
When something bad happens tous, we bemoan our fate, we lay
in bed, we get depressed, wequestion why?
Me and for a lot of these kidsthat's their normal.
They know no different and soit might knock them down, but
they are so darn resilient.
(41:19):
They get back up.
When she had her port taken out,they said this time she'll do
well with just Tylenol.
And again at the hospital, shewas three.
At this point we could not giveher the Tylenol.
She had to take it herself.
And I'm like, oh, no, no, no,she has to do it.
If you don't let her do it, shewill melt down and this will
not be great for anyone.
And so she took her ownmedicine.
(41:40):
And then the next time it wasdue, we were in Central Park and
she was doing what she loved todo best in New York City at
that time, which was chasepigeons.
She was chasing pigeons aroundCentral Park after having a
double anesthesia and her portremoved.
And when I went to give her orlet her take the Tylenol for her
second dose, she goes mommy, ithurts, but it doesn't hurt bad
(42:06):
enough for medicine.
And so I'm like through themouths of babes.
There is so much for us tolearn and to take in.
But yes, again, thank you forall you're doing, thank you for
being with me on this podcastand lifting up this cause, and
just thank you for being anactive member in our community
and helping others findcommunity and helping our town
to grow and just be better forit.
(42:27):
So thank you, thank you, thankyou.
Justin Crawford (42:29):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me on,thank you for sharing the story
and all the best wishes in theworld for you and everybody out
there.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (42:35):
Ways people can help.
Again, you can show up forthese events.
Showing up really really meansso much.
You can donate.
Any amount is helpful.
You can show up at the eventsand donate.
I will have a direct link toJustin's St Baldrick's page in
which you can just donatedirectly online.
(42:56):
It is super easy.
You can find an organizationthat calls to your heart.
There are so many organizationsaround this area and all of
them need some level of support,but by showing up for one
another and being there for eachother, we truly create the
charm that so much of us love inthis area.
Is there anything else that youwould like to add before we
(43:17):
close up?
Justin Crawford (43:18):
No, I don't think I could have said anything
better than what you just said.
Right there.
It is showing up and justtrying to be involved.
You don't have to give afortune to really contribute,
just show up.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:29):
All right, Now I do have a lightning round
of questions that I'm going toask you.
This is a little fun and levityand helps us get to know you on
a different level.
What is your favorite book?
Justin Crawford (43:39):
Harrow and Diaries by Nikki Six Awesome.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:43):
Who is someone you look up to and view
as a role model?
Justin Crawford (43:46):
Andy Brady and Brian Brady in Roanoke Virginia.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:50):
Okay.
Justin Crawford (43:50):
Do I need to say why?
Sure, go ahead.
They were my kind of mentorsand trainers in getting into
green home solutions and theyare very active in their
community of multiple businessesand things like that.
So I think I'd try to emulatesome of the things that I've
learned from them over time.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:06):
And what is your favorite way to relax and
let go?
Justin Crawford (44:09):
Sit on a beach with a fishing pole hook in the
water.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:14):
Just sit there.
What's the biggest fish you'veever caught?
Justin Crawford (44:17):
Shark.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:17):
What.
Justin Crawford (44:18):
You know, sharks fight really, really hard
.
I've caught a big shark and Icaught a really big stingray one
time just surf fishing.
I thought it was going to be abig fish and it turned out to be
a giant stingray.
I fought that thing forprobably an hour before I got it
on the beach and it turns outto be a stingray.
So I hook out and get him backin the water.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:41):
What's one thing that fills your heart with
joy?
Justin Crawford (44:44):
Spending time with my family, away from my
kids.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:47):
What's your greatest?
Justin Crawford (44:47):
weakness.
I have a lot of them.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:50):
I think it's .
Justin Crawford (44:51):
Don't we all?
Sometimes I get down on myself.
Yeah it's easy to be yourbiggest critic, I suppose, and
so that's probably the weaknessof mine is just kind of getting
down on myself from time to time.
Okay.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:01):
What was one thing you wished for as a kid?
Justin Crawford (45:04):
I wanted to be a professional basketball player
, but at five foot seven, thatwasn't going to be a reality.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:11):
Did you play basketball in school?
Justin Crawford (45:13):
I played a lot of basketball and a lot of
soccer growing up.
Football from time to time, anysport you know, I would embrace
it and I enjoyed playing it,but I think soccer and
basketball are probably my twobest.
Nice.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:23):
What's something on your bucket list?
Justin Crawford (45:25):
I have a lot of them.
One of the things we reallyenjoy doing is going to national
parks and state parks andthings like that.
So I want to go places likeUtah and a lot of places that
have some beautiful national andstate parks and visit as many
of those as possible.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:39):
Perfect.
And what is your favorite thingabout yourself?
Justin Crawford (45:42):
I think it's trying to find the positives and
things you know I mentionedearlier.
I'd kind of get down on myself,but you take that second and
kind of say, okay, well, whatcan we find the positive about
this?
How can we turn this intoeither a learning opportunity,
or where's the positive, Where'sthe silver lining?
You mentioned that earlier.
I think that that's a mindsetthat I tried to have.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:59):
Well, thank you so much, Justin.
Again, he owns Green HomeSolutions.
It's an indoor air qualitycompany that specializes in mold
remediation, indoor allergentreatments, crawl space
encapsulation and odorremediation.
Again, if you're able to helpany of these organizations, it's
great.
If you're able to show up forthe St Baldrick's event on March
24th from one to six atFanningoat, we would love to see
(46:22):
you there.
And the other option that Ilike to throw out there is you
can always support the cause,but you can also support the
people who are supporting thecause.
So, if you need indoor airquality improvement, if you have
mold, if your crawl space needsencapsulated, I would highly,
highly, highly recommend thatyou seek out Green Home
(46:42):
Solutions with Justin.
I will have all of his businessinformation and social media
connections on our website inthe show notes of this episode.
But thanks again, justin.
I really appreciate you beingon and being a positive aspect
in this community.
Thank you for shining yourlight.
Justin Crawford (46:58):
Thank you so much.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (47:00):
And that brings this latest installment
of the North Carolina Deep Diveto a close.
Thank you so much for listeningand taking part in raising the
awareness, not only forchildhood cancer and those
helping within our localcommunities, but for also
shining a light on ways we canbuild community, support one
another and foster the smalltown charm so many of us have
(47:22):
come to love.
May you always remember, whenthings get hard or overwhelming,
to look for the helpers and ordo the next right thing, for you
are the only you and you have abrilliant light.
Only you are able to shine.
Your part within our communityis of immense value and I thank
you for showing up when and howyou are able.
(47:44):
Again, Justin's St Baldrick'sevent will be Sunday, march 24th
, from one to six PM at FaintingGoat in Fuquay Varina.
All are welcome to come cheeron those shaving their heads and
help raise funds for pediatriccancer research.
There's almost always anopportunity for you to join in
as well.
If you'd like to participate asa Shavee, you can either do so
(48:05):
through Justin's St Baldrick'slink that we'll have in our show
notes or when you arrive at theevent, as always.
If you have any topics orthoughts you'd like to share.
I'd love to hear them.
You may share them throughsocial media or by emailing me
at ncdeepdive@ gmailcom.
If you found value in today'sepisode, I'd really love for you
(48:26):
to subscribe, rate and reviewit so that others are more
easily able to join in as well.
Please be on the lookout forfuture episodes by visiting www.
ncdeepdive.
com, apple Podcasts, spotify,audible or wherever you
currently listen to yourpodcasts.
Until next time, my friends,namaste, the love and light in
(48:50):
me sees and honors the love andlight in you.
Hello friends, welcome back to the NC
Deep Dive.
I'm your host, AmandaBenbow-Lunn, and this episode
we're going to touch on a couplethings near and dear to my
heart, like fabulousorganizations and events that
help those in our community, andfinding those that prioritize
time and resources in theirlives to create and support
(00:30):
these fabulous organizations andevents.
In some ways to me, being awareof these people, organizations
and events is one of my mentalhealth hacks, as Mr Rogers once
said, when I was a boy and Iwould see scary things in the
news, my mother would say to melook for the helpers.
You will always find people whoare helping.
(00:50):
And through my 41 years I havelearned as a helper how
absolutely essential it is tonot only find the helpers but to
help the helpers.
No matter how awful life may beat any given moment, we always
have the ability to do something.
Maybe we can't do all thethings, but quite often we can
absolutely do the next rightthing, and it doesn't matter if
(01:14):
it's big or small.
That right next thing couldsimply be our gift of a smile,
for sometimes it's the greatestacts that lead to the biggest
ripples in our communities andbeyond.
So, without further ado, myfriends, let's dive in.
Welcome Justin Crawford.
How are you doing today?
Justin Crawford (01:33):
I'm doing good.
How are you doing?
Amanda Benbow Lunn (01:34):
I am doing excellent.
Why don't you give us a littlebit of an introduction of
yourself?
Justin Crawford (01:39):
Sure, Happy to do that.
First of all, thanks for havingme on.
I'm very excited to do this.
I own a local business in FuquaVerena cover all of Wake County
and surrounding areas focusedon indoor air quality.
I try to be as involved in thecommunity as possible.
I do a lot of work with localsmall businesses and the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association,among other things.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (02:01):
All right, are you from this area?
Justin Crawford (02:04):
Originally I'm from Canton, Ohio, but I moved
down to Jacksonville, NorthCarolina, at a very young age.
My dad was in the Marine Corpsfor quite a long time, so I grew
up in Jacksonville, NorthCarolina.
I moved to the area in 1999 togo to NC State.
I graduated from NC State.
I moved away for a couple ofyears.
My fiancee at the time now wifeshe was getting her degree at
(02:27):
UAB in Birmingham, Alabama.
So we lived there for two yearsand we moved back the day that
she graduated.
We actually went to hergraduation in a U-Haul and left
from there to move back to here,and we've lived in Fuqua since
2005.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (02:39):
Awesome, and I know you have Green Home
Solutions.
That's your business.
What background do you havecareer-wise?
Have you always been in thisfield?
Justin Crawford (02:49):
No, that's a funny thing when people ask me
about that.
I never went to college to be amold man.
I spent a long time in thefutures world in investment
banking.
I've worked at Credit Swiss for10 years and kind of worked my
way up through the futuresoperations area, and there was a
time where we basically splitfrom Credit Swiss my whole group
(03:09):
globally about 500 peoplebecame employees of a fintech
company and during that time Ikind of struggled with what I
wanted to do career-wise.
I wasn't exactly happy in thatrole.
I tried to find other thingsinternally but ultimately
decided that I was going to takea career step and start a
business on my own.
So for about two years I spentresearching what I wanted to do.
(03:30):
I had a friend that had ownedmultiple businesses and we
talked a lot about potentiallyteaming up on something we liked
the franchise idea, thefranchise model.
You kind of get a business in abox, for lack of a better term
and through that research wespent about six months analyzing
green home solutions, learningtheir process, learning their
products, going on sales calls,going on some of the actual jobs
(03:52):
and just learning it andgetting comfortable with it and
ultimately we decided thatthat's what we wanted to do
Awesome.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (03:57):
Now tell me a little bit about your family.
You mentioned a wife.
Justin Crawford (04:01):
So I've been happily married since 2005.
And we have two kids.
My daughter Peyton is 13 and myson Colton is 11.
Oh nice, they're around my kidsage.
Yep, they're very active.
My wife has a really cool job.
She's a forensic chemist withthe state crime lab.
And my daughter, Peyton, she isvery active at her school.
(04:22):
She's in the school governmentand also does Irish dancing and
some other things outside ofschool.
And my son he just made hisschool's baseball team and he
does some ninja warrior stuffand stuff like that.
So we try to be as active aspossible with the kids and
keeping them involved as well.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (04:41):
Oh, that's awesome.
Does your daughter have anevent coming up with St
Patrick's Day?
Justin Crawford (04:45):
Actually, yes, she's going to be dancing in the
downtown parade in Raleigh thiscoming weekend, so about a week
and a Saturday morning thiscoming up, and I plan to be in
that as well.
That was one of the things thatI had been offering or trying
to raise money for for StBaldrick's.
I'm going to do my.
Guy Fieri, look at the paradein downtown Raleigh.
(05:07):
So I'm pretty excited for that.
Yeah, her school is going to bepart of the parade and she does
a lot of competitions as well.
They call them Fesh, so shejust had one in Charlotte last
weekend and she's got one inGreensboro coming up in maybe
two months or so.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (05:23):
Oh wow.
All right, let's move into someof your community involvement.
I feel like I see you in lotsof different places, so let's
speak towards that.
Justin Crawford (05:33):
Well, I try to be as engaged as possible, and
it's more so.
I've learned about myself thatI really enjoy doing that.
I really enjoy giving back.
A couple of years ago I had theopportunity, through the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association, tohelp plan the barbecue blues
and brews.
It had been a couple of yearssince that had been put on due
to COVID, and it was anextremely enjoyable event,
(05:54):
purely from helping get it overthe line and get it ready to go.
We needed another team at thattime.
So I have a friend, owen Cork,with a wee bit quirky barbecue
and I reached out to him and waslike hey, we need a team, do
you think we can make somethingwork here?
And he's like, oh yeah, likehe's all about cooking and stuff
like that.
And he got one of his friendsto get involved and so we put a
(06:16):
team in there and, lo and behold, we got third place and we won
People's Choice Award.
So we were like Holy smokes, itwas pretty awesome event.
So that's been a staple for us.
We did that this past year aswell and this time we actually
won People's Choice again and wegot second place judges.
So we're shooting for thatfirst place next year.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (06:32):
And for those that might not be familiar
, can you speak towards whatBarbecue, blues and Brews is?
Justin Crawford (06:38):
Yeah, so it's a great community event in Fuquay
Varina, a lot of live bands.
They have a whole section thatis for local vendors.
So you can go, you know, peruseall kinds of stuff.
There's jewelry and cocktailmixers and soaps and you name it
like it's.
You know it's going to a vendorfair.
It's like going to a market,essentially, and then a whole
(06:58):
section of it is, you know, thebarbecue team.
So those teams will spendbasically 16 hours or so
prepping and getting everythingready to go and there's 800
tickets that are sold for it toactually taste each of the
barbecues.
So you know, people can comethrough, they get a sample of it
and they'll decide who theylike the best.
But it's a great community event.
I think last year there wassomething like 5000 people that
(07:21):
came to it.
So it's a really goodopportunity for the Downtown
Association to raise money andjust to get a bunch of people
into Fuquay to help all thelocal businesses.
It's right in downtown, so youknow there's a huge intention
there for you know, people thatcome they'll experience the
barbecue, blues and bruise event, but they can also, you know,
walk down Main Street and walkdown some of the downtown
businesses and shop.
Okay.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (07:40):
Tell me a little bit more about the Fuquay
Varina Downtown Association.
Justin Crawford (07:44):
Yeah, I have been involved in that for
numerous years, but over thecourse of the last two and a
half years I was veryintentional about trying to get
more involved, so reached outand said hey look, if there's
anything that you need help withvolunteers, things like that
I'd be happy to get involved andstarted to be able to
participate more in some of theevents that they had and that's
ultimately where the opportunitycame to be on the planning
(08:05):
board, essentially with abarbecue, blues and bruise.
After that they asked me toapply for a board seat and went
through an interview process andeverything.
They selected me on the board.
So I've been on the board for alittle over a year now and we
meet once a month, actuallytechnically twice a month
because I was part of the artscommittee for that as well.
But the goal there is to, youknow, build up the small
businesses and build upcommunity engagement in our
(08:26):
downtown.
There's also a beautificationaspect to it.
So we have an arts committee,we have a business committee, an
economic development committeethat really focused on what are
the things that we can do tohelp the downtown and Fuqua in
general, and why might that beimportant?
Well, I think it's important tonumber one, give back to the
community.
Obviously, the Fuquay Varina isa great town.
There's a lot of greatbusinesses that are here.
(08:47):
There's a lot of great peoplethat are here and it's growing.
So, trying to keep the FuquayVarina feel while experiencing
all this growth, that's part ofwhat we're focused on.
But we also look at things likesafety you know crosswalks and
stuff like that.
So it's really all about howcan we get all these people that
are coming, you know, moreconnected into the community,
help our small businesses intown and, you know, kind of give
(09:08):
that Fuquay Varina feel thateverybody loves.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (09:10):
I thank you for lifting that up, because I
think that charm is what bringsso many people here and what so
many love.
And while so many people don'tnecessarily love all of the
people coming, some of the sideeffects like traffic everybody
is looking for that connection,that feel.
So I love that you're soinvolved and so you have an
event coming up.
(09:31):
It's one near and dear to myheart.
It is the St Baldricks Bald fora Cause event and, for those
that don't know, the StBaldricks Foundation raises
money for pediatric cancerresearch and that event is going
to be March 24th from one tosix at Fainting Goat in Fuquay
Varina.
How is this your first yeargetting involved with St
(09:53):
Baldricks?
Justin Crawford (09:54):
This is my first year actually
participating in the event.
I have certainly donated in thepast and what moved me to get
involved in this capacity thisyear?
I donated a lot to, you know,close friends of mine to help
them.
Last year and this year Ithought, you know, I wonder if I
could do more by actuallyparticipating and trying to
raise funds.
And you know, so far that'sbeen a huge success.
(10:17):
In my mind and, I think, in ourteam's minds.
You know, it's more than doublewhat I've been able to raise
versus what I would have beenable to donate.
So from that standpoint, youknow, I'm extremely thrilled to
do it and the results have beengreat.
So this will be my first timethat I will have a buzz cut or
shave in quite a long time.
So we did reach that goal.
(10:37):
So I will definitely be gettingshaved at the event.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (10:40):
Now are you doing your head hair and your
facial hair, or is it just one?
Justin Crawford (10:47):
So the plan and what I'm hoping to achieve if I
reach $2,000, I'm going to dothe Guy Fieri look with green
hair for a week.
So I'll actually have my facialhair, you know, cut the way he
does it and it'll be all green.
I figured last year probably my10 seconds of fame was dressing
as Guy Fieri for Halloween andyou know, some of my friends
kind of took me around town andtook some photos and posted it
(11:08):
on a lot of the local socialmedia sites.
And now when people see methey're like oh, you're Guy
Fieri, a friend of mine a longtime ago, travis, if he's
listening, he Travis Lau.
He and I worked together for awhile and one day he comes up to
me he's like you know, you looklike that guy from the Food
Network.
And I was like what he's like?
Yes, you know that guy, he'slike I think his name is Guy.
(11:29):
So I look it up and sure enough, I was like, geez, I actually
do look like him.
So over time I guess I'veembraced it and, you know, did
the Halloween thing.
It was funny and that wasactually right around the
barbecue blues and bruise.
So I kept that look for anotherweek to look like him during
barbecue blues and bruise.
So I think that was another wayfor people to be like oh my God
.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (11:49):
When I looked last night, you've raised
$1,236 so far.
That's correct your goal is2000.
If you hit the 2000 mark bythis Friday, march 15th, that is
when you will have your hairand facial hair turned bright
green, and then your plan is toalso be in the Raleigh Parade,
(12:09):
correct?
Justin Crawford (12:10):
That is correct .
I'm really hoping that I get toshow that look during the
parade.
My friend, Mat Quiring, is arevelry barbershop.
He's agreed to do that for me.
He actually helped me get theGuy Fieri look initially, so
he's fully on board.
I just saw him yesterday and hecan't wait, so I'm really
hoping that we get there.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (12:27):
Excellent.
So yeah, St Baldrick'sFoundation is near and dear to
my heart because back in 2013,my youngest daughter, who was
not quite two, was diagnosedwith cancer and I don't know, I
probably from about two weeks.
I actually saw her tumor and Ididn't know that that's what I
was seeing, and so she haswhat's called retinoblastoma.
(12:51):
So it's in both of her eyes andgenerally photographers and
parents diagnosis before anymedical professionals.
It's supposed to be very rareand it shows up in flash
photography as a white glow intheir eyes and so you take the
picture and kind of like the redeye, it's this white demonic
(13:14):
eye glow, and so I actually sawthat in person every now and
again and it would come and go.
But I had a friend once who wewere at a bar celebrating her
birthday and when I looked ather I was like, man, is your eye
glowing?
Like am I seeing things?
And she's like, oh yes, itglows.
And then we just moved on, wedidn't talk about it.
So when I saw it in my daughter, I'm like well, I mean, she
(13:36):
does have some health issueslike diabetes, so maybe it's a
warning sign of something or Idon't know, because it kind of
looked like the when I saw it inperson the yellow, greenish
iridescence of an animal's eye.
So I'm like, well, maybe she'llhave some connection with
animals, which she actually does.
But when she was about 18months old we took my other
(13:56):
daughter to her well visit andat this point Amber's eye was
veering to the right.
So the doctor said, okay, it'stime for her to go see the eye
doctor, potentially for lazy eye.
And so I was trying to battlewith how in the world am I going
to keep this eye patch on herface so that she can work that
musculature?
And little did I know.
Sat in Dr Vito's office andsweetest eye doctor, he was like
(14:20):
I need you to fill out thisinformation.
I'm setting you up for anappointment today to go to the
specialist and you need to bethere.
You need to bring a bag for thehospital because it's possible
that she will have emergencysurgery tonight to remove both
of her eyes.
Wow! And so perspective.
I was worried about this stupideye patch when now I was faced
(14:41):
with my baby, who wasn't two,who had just told me at Walmart
the week before she was sayingsomething, and I was trying to
figure out what she was saying,and she ended up saying ball,
because she saw a ball way onthe other end of Walmart and I
thought, wow, I didn't know kidscould see that far, but that's
pretty cool that she can.
And then after his visit Ilearned that she was blind in
(15:02):
one eye and probably had beenfor quite some time, and that
the tumors were starting to growin her other eye as well.
And so from that moment on wewent to Duke and she had a
couple of rounds of chemo andthen we ended up Dr Fritz, an
orthodontist in Holly Springs,had mentioned her sister wasa
nurse, anesthetist, or DrAbramson at Memorial Sloan
(15:24):
Kettering Cancer Center in NewYork City, and that was a really
big step for us to try to seeif they might be able to help
our little girl.
And we did that because theyoffered a different type of
chemo.
So here at Duke at the timethey just offered the regular
systemic chemo, so general IV.
That chemotherapy affects theentire body.
(15:47):
She only had two rounds, butthey wanted to do six and they
had told me that only the firsttwo would actually kill the
tumor and then after that itwould just hold them steady or
stable.
And so I was questioning as aparent, why on earth would I put
my baby through six rounds, Ifonly the first two were actually
going to kill that tumor orthose tumors?
(16:08):
And so when I reached out to DrAbramson and his staff, they
immediately called me back.
They chatted for an hour, goingthrough all my questions.
They offered what was calledintra-arterial chemotherapy.
So they knock them out and thenthey insert a catheter from the
groin all the way up to behindtheir eye and they shoot the
(16:28):
chemo directly at the eye.
And what's great about thatchemotherapy is that it's a
really, really small amount butit's targeted right where it's
needed.
And so we did learn from thefirst two rounds of the systemic
chemo that she was going tolose her right eye.
The tumor was way too big andwhen the chemo hit it it kind of
exploded the tumor in her eye,and they weren't quite sure
(16:52):
where it extended.
They couldn't see the back.
And so the fear withretinoblastoma is that you have
a little hole in your eye wherethe optic nerve comes in, and if
the tumor stays within the eyethere's like a 95% survival rate
.
But if the tumor escapesthrough that little hole of the
optic nerve, the odds ofsurvival go down drastically.
(17:14):
It can spread, and it canspread quickly, and so they were
worried that it might spread orit might be at that hole.
And so we did have her righteye removed, which as a parent
is really tough.
You don't know how that isgoing to affect your child for
the rest of their life, and Iwill say that removing your eye
is an outpatient surgery,surprisingly enough.
(17:36):
And so we were sent out of thehospital that afternoon and then
we flew back to North Carolinathe very next day, and on that
flight leading up to this, Amberhad said a few words like here
and there, like one or two wordstogether.
On that flight back she talkednonstop, and so from a parent's
perspective, that made me feelso great because she did so well
(17:58):
and it obviously had beencausing her some sort of
discomfort, because the secondit was out she was speaking like
she had never spoke before.
And one thing that really why Ireally love the St Baldrick's
Foundation is because onethey're really good at giving
back the majority of the moneytowards actual childhood cancer
research.
But the other reason is thesekids really, really, really need
(18:24):
better treatments.
A cure would be lovely, butthey really need better
treatments.
Over the past three decades,only seven new drugs have been
formulated specifically forchildren.
A lot of the other drugs theyformulate for adults and then
they just kind of wing it forthe kids.
I remember I think Amber hadfive different drugs three drugs
(18:45):
when she had the systemicchemotherapy and then one of
those drugs and two others whenshe did the intracraterial
chemotherapy, but one of those Ibelieve that was in both of
them.
As I was signing the consentforms, I was looking at the
short-term side effects and thelong-term side effects, and one
of the long-term side effectswas leukemia.
(19:06):
So as a mom going through areally tough journey, seeing my
baby going through a reallytough journey as I was signing
that document, all I could thinkof is is this as far as we've
come, I'm giving my baby thismedication to stop one cancer
that could cause another cancerthat has a worse prognosis.
(19:26):
Am I doing that to my child?
And so for me putting as muchresearch into this as possible
so that another family doesn'thave to make that really tough
decision.
They're a bunch of suckychoices and you just had to
choose the best one.
One in 285 childrenapproximately 15,000 children in
(19:46):
the US will be diagnosed withcancer before their 20th
birthday.
Every 80 seconds somewhere inthis world, a family will hear
your child has cancer.
And I was not involved inorganizations like this before
my child had cancer.
So it's super meaningful to methat you're going out of your
way to do this, Because if I canstop one person from hearing
(20:11):
those words your child hascancer, I can stop one person
from having to hold and pintheir child down so that they
can take the medications and beput to sleep for all these
rounds of chemo and treatments.
It is worth it, and not everycancer is hereditary.
The problem, one of thedifficult things that I think
about, is when an adult hascancer not always, but sometimes
(20:35):
there's a reason.
Right, we made a choice.
Smokers choose to smoke.
Lung cancer is a potentialcomplication.
We go out in the sun for notputting on sunscreen.
Skin cancer is a potentialcomplication.
But these kids, quite oftenthey haven't done those things.
They haven't made those choices, whether it's environmental or
genetic.
(20:55):
They're just faced with thisreally hard journey that might
affect them for the rest oftheir life.
One out of every six childrenwith cancer in America.
They do not survive five yearsand nearly 60% of childhood
cancer survivors experiencesevere complications in
adulthood.
This is one of the reasons whywith healthcare we were blessed
(21:17):
just after, I think, Amber wasdiagnosed, as when the
Affordable Care Act went intoplace, but just prior to that I
had to think about how my littlegirl, who wasn't two, would
likely never be able to getinsurance because of a
preexisting condition.
And with her we did the genetictesting and my ex had a gene
(21:40):
that mutated, so he had oneallele of a gene that mutated
and when Amber was growing, hersecond allele, so she copied my
ex's allele and then the secondallele mutated which gave her
the retinoblastoma.
And now if she's able to havekids which she might not because
of the chemo it is possiblethat any eggs that she had are
(22:04):
damaged, but we won't know that.
But if her eggs are viable andshe is able to have children,
she has just under a 50% chanceof passing that cancer on to her
children.
So this is something that notonly did she have to deal with
once, but she could have to dealwith multiple times in her
lifetime between children,possible grandchildren, great
(22:25):
grandchildren and her families.
We had for probably six, seven,eight years, out of pocket
costs for probably $10,000 ayear.
We hit her out of pocketmaximum almost every year.
She's due for a new prosthesis.
This year that prosthesis isprobably going to be close to
$4,000.
(22:46):
And so, also from a financialaspect, children have to pay for
the side effects of theircancer for a very, very long
time, compared to adults.
When we potentially get cancer,I think the average years of
life after cancer if theysurvive is about 67.
And so that's 67 years thatthey have to worry about.
(23:06):
Will they be covered underinsurance?
What medications do they nowhave to take to compensate for
some of the side effects whenthey were younger?
And so any money that we canpour into childhood cancer
research is super important, issuper important and it's
meaningful, even if it's just adollar.
If you're able to give $1, thatcould be the dollar that makes
(23:28):
all the difference.
Okay, I wasn't quite ready there.
It's been 10 years, just over10 years now, and so, as I was
thinking about this podcast thismorning, like some of those
emotions were hitting and oh,okay, but we are blessed.
She is here with us, she hasminimal side effects, she's now
in middle school.
We're blessed to have her inour lives, but so many of the
(23:51):
kids that we've met along theway, they're not here today, and
so thank you for standing up,Thank you for raising money and
doing what you can.
It really, really, really makesa big difference.
Justin Crawford (24:02):
Well, I appreciate that and again, thank
you for sharing your story.
It's sad that there's so manystories that are out there and
for me, I hear those stories andyou just put yourself in the
shoes and, like man, I don'tknow how you made it through it.
I'm very happy that you cantalk about it today, but that
really what gets me is it's notfair, it really isn't, and
especially for kids to have togo through that, and I want to
(24:26):
do my part and everything that Ican do to help families and
kids that are having to gothrough that and prevent it.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (24:32):
And so retinoblastoma is supposed to be
one of the rarest childhoodcancers.
There's approximately 10different cancers that kids
generally get and I think thelast statistic I saw about 300
children in the US will bediagnosed with retinoblastoma
every year.
So back 10 years ago we had afundraiser Community was awesome
(24:54):
.
So many people came together tohelp us financially and just be
there for us in a variety ofways and for that particular
event we made the news and wewere spreading awareness and I
remember getting at least fivedifferent calls from people
within 100 mile radius thattheir child too had
retinoblastoma.
(25:14):
And since then I think I'vebeen aware of two in the local
Holly Springs Fuquaverina areaand as we move further from
diagnosis I kind of lose touchwith some of those circles.
So I'm not as aware of how manymore children are being
diagnosed.
But if there are that manychildren with retinoblastoma in
this area, it is heartbreakingto know how many children have
(25:36):
suffered from all the varioustypes of childhood cancer.
I know lots of people arefamiliar with Meg's Smile
Foundation.
That is a nonprofit that's runfrom Holly Springs and Meg's
family.
Meg passed away, I want to say,at the age of nine, from
neuroblastoma, I believe, andtheir family has set up Meg's
(25:57):
Smile Foundation so thatfamilies and that particular
child can have a reason to smilewhen they're going through a
really, really hard time.
And that's important because,goodness, when you're going
through the trenches, hope isthe most important thing and to
see your child smile fills yourbucket so much so that you can
continue to go on and carry onand help your child get through
(26:20):
this.
And then there's anotherorganization in town called
Zach's Toy Chest, and Zach wasanother child who's local Holly
Springs diagnosed, and he isstill with us, thankfully.
I believe he's in high schoolnow older high school.
Justin Crawford (26:38):
High school soccer team.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (26:40):
Yes, and I know his mom their family set up
Zach's toy chest to provide thehospitals with toys for their
toy chest, and you never knowhow things are going to come
back and connect.
But our first time at Duke,amber was put under.
So I mean, literally I washolding her and it felt like
they were smothering her with apillow and her arms were
(27:02):
flapping until she was out andthat alone.
I had to go to a corner in ahospital and cry and get myself
together because they needed meto be strong.
So I had to be there.
But once she was back in theroom, she still had a couple of
blood pricks that she had toundergo and they brought out a
(27:23):
doctor's kit, a toy doctor's kit.
And my other daughter is about17, 18 months older and these
kids, they played with thatdoctor's kit.
The medical staff gave masksand gloves and a lot of the
cheaper equipment, disposabletype of equipment that they
would use during her treatmentsso that they could play at home
(27:45):
with them, because play for kidsis a learning experience, it
makes things less scary, and sothe more they played with all
the tubes and the gloves and themasks and the stethoscopes.
When she then went to thedoctors, she was able to do
those procedures with less fearbecause she knew what those
things were and she hadformulated a comfort with them.
(28:06):
Now she never liked shots orpokes and she still hates the
smell of coflex tape which, ifyou give blood, that's generally
what they'll wrap the bandagearound to hold the gauze on.
But that toy, I learned later,was donated by Zach's Toy Chest.
So all of these organizationssignificantly help families in
(28:27):
need and ever since I have alsoparticipated in St Baldrick's
and I have cut my hair threetimes, shaved it, and for any of
you who might be consideringjoining events, there are lots
of events around the Raleigharea.
There are a few here locallyevery year.
But as a woman to shave my head, there was a lot of anxiety
(28:49):
there.
It's not normal, many don't doit, but I have a kid, a kid
that's going through all of this, a kid that may continue going
through all of this, and so it'sreally important for me to do
all that I can to help hersucceed and to help other
families and not have to hearyour child has cancer.
And what I learned was, oh mygoodness, I had so much anxiety
(29:12):
in my hair that I didn't evenknow I had, so when it was cut,
feeling the breeze on your scalpfeels amazing.
Justin Crawford (29:22):
I bet that was a weird one the first time you
did it.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (29:24):
It was Like it's just the way you notice a
breeze.
It's something so small, butlike I noticed it in a way that
I had never noticed it beforeand I could be aware of it in a
way I could never be aware of itbefore and it was just the
silver lining and just ablessing to feel.
And I do want to say that meshaving my head was a choice.
(29:46):
I was blessed with that choice,and so my reaction to it is
probably very different thanother folks who don't have that
choice.
They're going through a medicaltreatment or just a genetic
something or a disease wherethey lose their hair.
That's not the same.
So I don't want this to belight-hearted about losing one's
hair, but for me, for it beinga choice, I could ride in cars
(30:09):
with the windows down or aconvertible and not care.
I could just enjoy and notworry about.
Oh my goodness, this is goingto take me 10 years to detangle
my hair.
It's going to be all over theplace when it rains.
I never knew how much anxiety Ihad when it rained.
Oh my gosh, I have to dosomething different with my hair
or else it's going to frizz upand it's going to do X, y and Z.
When you have no hair, you canjust go out and enjoy the rain.
Justin Crawford (30:32):
It doesn't matter.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (30:33):
It's going to be dry in two seconds once
you go inside.
Showering so much quicker takestwo seconds to dry off Such a
different experience.
So if you are thinking how canyou help, what are ways that you
think of that people can help?
Justin Crawford (30:48):
Well, I think you embrace these organizations
that have a purpose and have agoal of helping in some fashion.
It doesn't have to be a hugeto-do.
Do your part to try to getinvolved.
Figure out a way to be able togive back.
Again, I would say, think aboutthe people that are going
through this and try to help.
I mean, it's every little bitcounts, just as you said, and I
(31:09):
love the story about Zach's toychest and how that came full
circle.
It's a fantastic organizationthat people listening to this
are not going to see it, but Icould see you smiling in
reflecting on such a scary timein your life and a memory from
that was an organization'spurpose in helping you during
that time.
So find something that you canat least get behind.
(31:31):
Maybe me personally, I haven't,thank goodness, have had to
deal with a childhood cancerthing, but I'm a parent and I
can 100% relate to the pain thatyou'd feel going through that,
and so this is a fantastic eventorganization to get behind.
But for anybody listening, justfind something that you can
give back.
You can help in some way.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (31:51):
And I'll share a little bit.
We were gifted with a Meg smileas well, and one of their
requirements is that you haveyour Make-A-Wish trip first,
because if you have a smilefirst, make-a-wish won't grant a
wish.
And so we were blessed withMake-A-Wish to go to Disney.
The girls.
When I asked them, mind youthink they were three and four
(32:13):
maybe, and it's like, if youcould do anything, if you could
go anywhere, if you could meetanyone, what would you want to
do?
We want to ride a unicorn.
Okay, well, there's this placecalled Disney, and I had learned
that the place you stay atDisney with Make-A-Wish is
called Give Kids the WorldVillage and that they did horse
rides.
And so I was all geared up.
(32:34):
I'm like, okay, we're justgoing to throw a birthday hat on
one of these horses somehow andwe're going to call it a
unicorn and that will be thegirls wish, and then Disney is
just going to be the bonus.
But at Give Kids the WorldVillage there was actually a
carousel right on site and wegot there, I took the girls to
kind of tour while Scott wasunloading and, lo and behold,
(32:54):
there was a unicorn on thecarousel.
And so the very first thingthat they were able to do was
ride a unicorn, so that wasfantastic.
And then Amber Smile was backin 2018.
And Amber does not do well beingput under the drug she's given
Gosh, I don't know, becauseshe's so young, so it's really
(33:16):
hard to describe what she'sgoing through, but it's almost
like they give herhallucinations.
They give her a really badheadache.
They have to dilate herremaining eye to make sure that
they can see all the tumors andto make sure that they're not
growing.
And when she would wake up fromthat anesthesia she did not
want to be comforted by me shewould flail her arms Mind you,
(33:37):
she's two.
She would yell at the top ofher lungs Let me down.
By which she would roll aroundon the floor it's a hospital,
but it's still a floor, and soshe's going through chemo.
So then you think about germsand you're like, well, do I let
her just roll around on thefloor?
Is that the best option?
(33:58):
And at that point that's allshe would allow us to do.
And sometimes she would scootaway like she was seeing things.
So I don't know that she hadhallucinations, but I figure
that she must have.
And then afterwards it would bethe sun would be really bright
and she'd have a headache.
So I was very communicativewith her.
She did better when sheunderstood what was coming, when
(34:20):
we could give her options, andso at one point I was telling
her that she had to take themedicine to be put under for her
MRIs, but there couldpotentially be the option where
she didn't have to have themedicine if she could lay still
in an MRI machine for the hourhour and a half that it took.
And at the age of three shedecided that she did not want to
(34:43):
have that medicine.
And so my three year old laidcompletely still for almost an
hour and a half in an MRImachine.
That many adults need vastmedication to be able to do.
And she got through that bylistening to one of Taylor
Swift's CDs and she cracked meup.
She was going through a TaylorSwift phase at that point, and I
(35:05):
think we're back to a TaylorSwift phase, but at that point
she was like Mommy, taylor Swiftis my biggest fan, and so it
cracked me up because she meantit.
The other way of course, butwhat Meg Smile was able to do
for us was to get us tickets toa Taylor Swift concert, which at
that point, they handed youwristbands that kind of lit up
(35:27):
to the music and they flashed,kind of like the lighters did,
but they were in sync and theywere different colors and it was
fabulous.
And right before she was comingon stage, the lights dimmed,
everybody's wristbands werestarting to light up, and the
look on her face, oh my goodness, like the look of surprise
seeing Taylor Swift, the look ofamazement that she was in the
(35:48):
space, the humongous smile thatfilled her face, that is an
image that I will have in myheart for forever, and luckily I
was able to get a picture of it.
So, so long as Facebook isstill a thing, I'll see that
every year on my memories.
And so each of theseorganizations has value.
(36:09):
Some of them are trying to helpkids not have to go through
this.
Some of them are lifting upchildren and families and even
siblings while going throughthese battles.
I know another organizationthat I raised funds for is
Alex's Lemonade Stand, and thatwas created because a little
girl who was going throughcancer treatments wanted to help
(36:30):
her doctors help other kids,and so she set up a lemonade
stand and raised like a milliondollars.
Oh battling cancer.
Justin Crawford (36:38):
Wow.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (36:38):
Having a lemonade stand and having people
show up.
And there is a family here intown.
Their daughter went to schoolin Pennsylvania where Alex lived
and to this day that school.
When Alex was going through herbattle she's unfortunately
passed away but when she wasgoing through her battle and
still attempting to go to school, they built in a chair every so
(37:01):
many feet in her school so thatshe could walk to the chair and
take a rest before proceedingto the next chair.
And those chairs are stillthere in that school.
So that was kind of cool to hearthat come full circle from
somebody in this local area whohad an experience in that way as
well.
So, yes, there are so many waysto get involved.
(37:21):
You can find local StBaldrick's events.
You can set up a lemonade standwith Alex's Lemonade Stand
Foundation.
There's Meg's Smile Foundation,zach's Toy Chest.
There are so many otherorganizations that help children
with cancer or children withmedical illnesses.
But let's get back to yourevent that is happening on March
(37:42):
24th at Faintingoat.
Tell me a little bit aboutwhat's going on there.
Justin Crawford (37:46):
Yeah.
So I believe it's revelrythat's going to be cutting
people's hair and there's goingto be live music, obviously,
access to the brewery to have anice drink.
I think there's going to besome food truck.
So it'll be a fun event and Ithink it's an opportunity to
reflect on the fundraisingachievements but also to
understand the purpose of theevent, and you have to embrace
(38:08):
that as part of the event.
That's why you're there.
I'm looking forward to it.
I hope people show up.
I hope people show up anddonate.
It's amazing to hear some of thestories about the impact that
these organizations can have.
I personally had not heard ofthe Alex Lemonade Stand, but
it's incredible to think beingable to raise a million dollars
through a lemonade stand and Ithink that the person listening
to this that's like how can Icontribute?
(38:29):
How can I do anything?
Well, by a lemonade, I mean amillion dollars from the
lemonade stand is incredible.
But I think it speaks to whenthe community can get behind
something, everything counts andyou create something huge out
of it.
You know, come out, enjoy theevent.
Hopefully you'll get to seesome green hair get shaved off
and we'll have a lot of funwhile we support a really good
cause.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (38:47):
Excellent.
So that is one to six pm atFainting Goat, which is 300
South Main Street in FuquayVarina, and again you've raised
just over $1,200.
Now you are looking to raise2,000, more than 40,000 children
undergo treatment for cancereach year.
So just by doing this I thinkit's through the Alex's Lemonade
(39:09):
Stand Foundation, where Ilearned that it takes $400 to do
research for one day so one day, one moment, one breath in one
breath, your whole life canchange.
I wasn't a childhood cancerparent until that one breath,
and now I will always be achildhood cancer parent and I am
(39:29):
blessed in a way.
A lot of parents are not.
Amber's last active tumor was inAugust of 2015.
So, knock on wood, she has beentumor free and she has had no
new growth.
And how miraculous is this?
She has about seven tumors atone point in her left eye.
Yeah, technology was greatenough 10 years ago to show that
(39:53):
if that tumor was slightlybigger or just 60 cells shifted
to the right, she wouldn't beable to see.
Wow, 60 cells shifted to theright, she would be completely
blind.
But through their treatmentsshe has glasses.
She has a stigmatism, but shecan see and she can function as
a child.
And some of the silver linings,because I love to find them.
(40:16):
At the age of not quite two, shehad to have a spinal tap and
her workplace.
Afterwards they gavehydrocodone and they said you'll
give this to her every so manyhours.
We gave it to her that night.
The next morning I go to giveher that medication and she says
no, mommy, I'm a tough girl.
And so then as a parent, I'mlike, oh my goodness, like do I
(40:37):
allow you the autonomy to makethis decision?
Do I just give you thismedicine because I'm pretty sure
you need it?
And so I just I didn't.
And I watched her and she didokay.
And talking to the nursesafterwards, they're like oh my
gosh, we have to wean the adultsoff of this stuff, because they
will just take it and continuetaking it.
And I think as adults we don'thave the mindset of children.
(40:59):
We know scary things can happen.
We know that there are otheroptions.
When something bad happens tous, we bemoan our fate, we lay
in bed, we get depressed, wequestion why?
Me and for a lot of these kidsthat's their normal.
They know no different and soit might knock them down, but
they are so darn resilient.
(41:19):
They get back up.
When she had her port taken out,they said this time she'll do
well with just Tylenol.
And again at the hospital, shewas three.
At this point we could not giveher the Tylenol.
She had to take it herself.
And I'm like, oh, no, no, no,she has to do it.
If you don't let her do it, shewill melt down and this will
not be great for anyone.
And so she took her ownmedicine.
(41:40):
And then the next time it wasdue, we were in Central Park and
she was doing what she loved todo best in New York City at
that time, which was chasepigeons.
She was chasing pigeons aroundCentral Park after having a
double anesthesia and her portremoved.
And when I went to give her orlet her take the Tylenol for her
second dose, she goes mommy, ithurts, but it doesn't hurt bad
(42:06):
enough for medicine.
And so I'm like through themouths of babes.
There is so much for us tolearn and to take in.
But yes, again, thank you forall you're doing, thank you for
being with me on this podcastand lifting up this cause, and
just thank you for being anactive member in our community
and helping others findcommunity and helping our town
to grow and just be better forit.
(42:27):
So thank you, thank you, thankyou.
Justin Crawford (42:29):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me on,thank you for sharing the story
and all the best wishes in theworld for you and everybody out
there.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (42:35):
Ways people can help.
Again, you can show up forthese events.
Showing up really really meansso much.
You can donate.
Any amount is helpful.
You can show up at the eventsand donate.
I will have a direct link toJustin's St Baldrick's page in
which you can just donatedirectly online.
(42:56):
It is super easy.
You can find an organizationthat calls to your heart.
There are so many organizationsaround this area and all of
them need some level of support,but by showing up for one
another and being there for eachother, we truly create the
charm that so much of us love inthis area.
Is there anything else that youwould like to add before we
(43:17):
close up?
Justin Crawford (43:18):
No, I don't think I could have said anything
better than what you just said.
Right there.
It is showing up and justtrying to be involved.
You don't have to give afortune to really contribute,
just show up.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:29):
All right, Now I do have a lightning round
of questions that I'm going toask you.
This is a little fun and levityand helps us get to know you on
a different level.
What is your favorite book?
Justin Crawford (43:39):
Harrow and Diaries by Nikki Six Awesome.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:43):
Who is someone you look up to and view
as a role model?
Justin Crawford (43:46):
Andy Brady and Brian Brady in Roanoke Virginia.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (43:50):
Okay.
Justin Crawford (43:50):
Do I need to say why?
Sure, go ahead.
They were my kind of mentorsand trainers in getting into
green home solutions and theyare very active in their
community of multiple businessesand things like that.
So I think I'd try to emulatesome of the things that I've
learned from them over time.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:06):
And what is your favorite way to relax and
let go?
Justin Crawford (44:09):
Sit on a beach with a fishing pole hook in the
water.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:14):
Just sit there.
What's the biggest fish you'veever caught?
Justin Crawford (44:17):
Shark.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:17):
What.
Justin Crawford (44:18):
You know, sharks fight really, really hard
.
I've caught a big shark and Icaught a really big stingray one
time just surf fishing.
I thought it was going to be abig fish and it turned out to be
a giant stingray.
I fought that thing forprobably an hour before I got it
on the beach and it turns outto be a stingray.
So I hook out and get him backin the water.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:41):
What's one thing that fills your heart with
joy?
Justin Crawford (44:44):
Spending time with my family, away from my
kids.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:47):
What's your greatest?
Justin Crawford (44:47):
weakness.
I have a lot of them.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (44:50):
I think it's .
Justin Crawford (44:51):
Don't we all?
Sometimes I get down on myself.
Yeah it's easy to be yourbiggest critic, I suppose, and
so that's probably the weaknessof mine is just kind of getting
down on myself from time to time.
Okay.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:01):
What was one thing you wished for as a kid?
Justin Crawford (45:04):
I wanted to be a professional basketball player
, but at five foot seven, thatwasn't going to be a reality.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:11):
Did you play basketball in school?
Justin Crawford (45:13):
I played a lot of basketball and a lot of
soccer growing up.
Football from time to time, anysport you know, I would embrace
it and I enjoyed playing it,but I think soccer and
basketball are probably my twobest.
Nice.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:23):
What's something on your bucket list?
Justin Crawford (45:25):
I have a lot of them.
One of the things we reallyenjoy doing is going to national
parks and state parks andthings like that.
So I want to go places likeUtah and a lot of places that
have some beautiful national andstate parks and visit as many
of those as possible.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:39):
Perfect.
And what is your favorite thingabout yourself?
Justin Crawford (45:42):
I think it's trying to find the positives and
things you know I mentionedearlier.
I'd kind of get down on myself,but you take that second and
kind of say, okay, well, whatcan we find the positive about
this?
How can we turn this intoeither a learning opportunity,
or where's the positive, Where'sthe silver lining?
You mentioned that earlier.
I think that that's a mindsetthat I tried to have.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (45:59):
Well, thank you so much, Justin.
Again, he owns Green HomeSolutions.
It's an indoor air qualitycompany that specializes in mold
remediation, indoor allergentreatments, crawl space
encapsulation and odorremediation.
Again, if you're able to helpany of these organizations, it's
great.
If you're able to show up forthe St Baldrick's event on March
24th from one to six atFanningoat, we would love to see
(46:22):
you there.
And the other option that Ilike to throw out there is you
can always support the cause,but you can also support the
people who are supporting thecause.
So, if you need indoor airquality improvement, if you have
mold, if your crawl space needsencapsulated, I would highly,
highly, highly recommend thatyou seek out Green Home
(46:42):
Solutions with Justin.
I will have all of his businessinformation and social media
connections on our website inthe show notes of this episode.
But thanks again, justin.
I really appreciate you beingon and being a positive aspect
in this community.
Thank you for shining yourlight.
Justin Crawford (46:58):
Thank you so much.
Amanda Benbow Lunn (47:00):
And that brings this latest installment
of the North Carolina Deep Diveto a close.
Thank you so much for listeningand taking part in raising the
awareness, not only forchildhood cancer and those
helping within our localcommunities, but for also
shining a light on ways we canbuild community, support one
another and foster the smalltown charm so many of us have
(47:22):
come to love.
May you always remember, whenthings get hard or overwhelming,
to look for the helpers and ordo the next right thing, for you
are the only you and you have abrilliant light.
Only you are able to shine.
Your part within our communityis of immense value and I thank
you for showing up when and howyou are able.
(47:44):
Again, Justin's St Baldrick'sevent will be Sunday, march 24th
, from one to six PM at FaintingGoat in Fuquay Varina.
All are welcome to come cheeron those shaving their heads and
help raise funds for pediatriccancer research.
There's almost always anopportunity for you to join in
as well.
If you'd like to participate asa Shavee, you can either do so
(48:05):
through Justin's St Baldrick'slink that we'll have in our show
notes or when you arrive at theevent, as always.
If you have any topics orthoughts you'd like to share.
I'd love to hear them.
You may share them throughsocial media or by emailing me
at ncdeepdive@ gmailcom.
If you found value in today'sepisode, I'd really love for you
(48:26):
to subscribe, rate and reviewit so that others are more
easily able to join in as well.
Please be on the lookout forfuture episodes by visiting www.
ncdeepdive.
com, apple Podcasts, spotify,audible or wherever you
currently listen to yourpodcasts.
Until next time, my friends,namaste, the love and light in
(48:50):
me sees and honors the love andlight in you.
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