170. Hope 4 Helen

This one matters! 

Episode Transcript

(00:17):
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
We had a big weekend.
We all had a really big weekend.
Yeah.
Big Minnesota weekend.
Big Minnesota weekend fallscoming.
Feels good.
So in the studio we got MichaelDempsey.
Hello Michael.
Hey, good to see you guys again.
Steve Brown.

(00:37):
Hi Johnny.
Clueless fame.
Yeah.
Kevin Gorg is not able to bewith us'cause the Minnesota Wild
is up at, uh, they're playingsomewhere maybe at, maybe
they're playing at the X orwhatever we're calling it these
days, but he's not here.
And our, uh, 55-year-old internslash engineer.
Is helping.
He's a full engineer.
Um, Jeff, he's a full engineer.
He's a full engineer.
That's fantastic.
And we have a guest in, we'regonna save him for just a

(00:59):
second, but Michael, you had ablessed event in your family
over the weekend.
Wow.
It was a, yeah, it was a bigone.
My oldest daughter, I have threedaughters.
Just as a reminder, um.
She got married.
Oh, she got married in Chicago.
In Chicago, yeah.
Just north of Chicago.
Is that considered a destinationwedding?
Yeah, it, well, it may have, mayhave well been considered that a

(01:20):
very small affair.
It, I think there was, um, lessthan 20 people.
Wow.
At the, uh, yeah, at the, at theevent.
And then we all, um, went fromthere to dinner.
It was great.
It was wonderful.
It was.
It was exactly what she and hernow husband wanted.
Uh, in the Midwest we havethese, we have these weddings

(01:42):
and it's this big to-do, and.
So often it's what the parentswant, right?
Mm-hmm.
And um, it becomes this reallybig, very stressful situation.
Expensive and expensive, right?
Yes.
It's a production.
Yeah.
Sometimes little too much.
Yeah.
That's a different, uh, we'lltalk about the expense later,
but, um, I.
I'm just committed with my threedaughters to just let them,

(02:04):
whatever you guys wanna do.
Very nice.
However you wanna do.
So yeah.
Anyway, it was great.
We got back last night.
Yeah.
My son is, uh, is gettingmarried in August of next year,
and, uh, we've decided just tolet his fiance decide everything
because she's gonna decideeverything.
Right.
And we're gonna be okay withthat.
Right, right.
Anyway, Steve.
Yeah.
The red carpet, the return tothe red carpet, yes.

(02:25):
When was the last time JohnnyClueless played at the red
carpet?
The red carpet is a bar in St.
Cloud.
Mm-hmm.
Michael and I know very well,very well.
Um, the band had played there.
We started there in 1992.
Wow.
So we played there for many,many years.
We played many, many nights.
Uh, they made a lot of money onus'cause we sold a lot of beer
with our drink toast and stuff.
But the last time we played wasabout 20 plus years ago.

(02:47):
My daughter, I think, was justborn and maybe we played and
that was it really.
That was the last time we werethere.
So this weekend was a big 45thanniversary party for this bar.
It's been around for 45 years.
It's a cornerstone of the St.
Cloud community.
Um, it's kind of where at theend of the night, in, in, in
college in the nineties, it'swhere you all kind of converged
at the end of the night.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you go to, you hop around abars, but then there's always a

(03:09):
great band or somethinghappening.
It's kind of the, and then atthe end of the night, everybody
spills out in the street andit's just this crazy thing.
Well, it wasn't quite like that,like the old days, but we played
there this weekend to celebratetheir 45th thing.
They invited us and a lot ofthe, uh, a few of the other
bands from the, from thenineties that they really
enjoyed, these two, uh, owners,Rick and Gary are retiring as
well.
Oh.
So it was a big appreciate, uh,they had an appreciation for

(03:31):
past bartenders and waitstaff.
So all these familiar faces werethere.
Not to mention all of the band,uh, Johnny Clueless fans from
the nineties all coming out.
These, my 50 some year oldscoming out acting like they're
21, kind of 21 years Pathetic.
Do you think?
No.
It was, it wasn't pathetic.
It was beautiful.
It was a beautiful thing.
It was, and it was.
Michael, you know, I had momentsof thinking, were there walkers

(03:53):
or anything like that?
No, no, no walkers.
Okay.
No.
Um, in fact, my, my kids werethere.
My, my kids and their friends,these 22, 20 somethings, they
are now getting to be likereally interested in the band.
They've seen us now mostly atthe dugouts.
So yeah, they all came out.
Clue Nation, we had, we had acouple hotel rooms across the
street, so we all just had agreat, my, my oldest and his

(04:14):
wife and my two kids, my twoyounger kids and all their
friends.
Um, so we stayed up late and hadfun, but they saw us and my son
said.
Yeah.
There's something differentabout watching you there.
We had a great show and we hadtons of people and he said, I
could feel there's somethingdifferent here.
Yeah.
'cause our energy was different.
Yeah.
And I, and to be able to playand sing in that room again was,
was pretty cool.
You would've really, reallyliked it, Michael.

(04:35):
But, um, I think we, I mean, weshined, we shined except I cut
my finger in the first song.
Oh no.
Oh, no.
And so, as I'm a guitar player,I'm, I'm strumming, you know,
with an acoustic guitar firstsong.
Just so excited.
I think I just hit my f the tipof my finger, like my cuticle,
whatever, started bleedingeverywhere.
Oh, sweet.
So bleeding on my like ronnielot.

(04:56):
On your red pants?
Yeah, a little red.
Your red pants.
It was bleeding and, and uh, itwasn't bloody enough to be cool
and rock and roll.
It was just enough to hurt andbe annoying, but we got through
it.
But you played.
So you're, you're, it's kind ofcool.
You're a warrior.
People get people, I asked forbandaid, people were throwing
bandaids at me.
Oh yeah.
Anyway, it, it was awesome.
It was super fun.
It was everything I hoped itwould be.

(05:16):
We were actually kind of nervousabout it'cause it had been such
a.
A buildup.
And we, it was, uh, it wasn'tnailed a perfect show, but it
was exactly what we do, which isreally fun and engaging, and so
you would've loved it.
I I wish you would've beenthere, Michael.
Yeah.
Well, very fun.
You would've been great.
Well, you guys were there.
I was, uh, making the world abetter place.
Wow.
As I do.
Wow.
Yeah, of course you are.
You guys are all gettinghammered.

(05:36):
I'm glad you're, you're pattingyourself on the back.
No, no, no.
Not you.
You enjoyed a beautifulMinnesota weekend.
I had a great Minnesota weekend.
Um, there was a, a.
Program.
The weekend was filled with,university of Minnesota fun
stuff.
It started with a, uh, a dinnerat a place called Butcher's
Tail, which is in downtownMinneapolis.

(05:57):
The program was called Partnersin Progress.
But at that event, I met agentleman and his wife, Dan Bour
and his wife Stephanie.
And, I said, I haven't seen youaround these things before.
Who the hell are you?
And my wife asked the questionof Stephanie, how do you guys
fit into this?

(06:17):
And Stephanie proceeded to tellus this story that made all of
us, well up at the very least.
Wow.
And it's a beautiful story inwhat's being done in.
Mm-hmm.
Reaction to the situation.
So I'm gonna bring in our friendDan Bourne.
Welcome Dan.
Welcome Dan.
Welcome, welcome.
Thank you.

(06:38):
Dan has two children, George.
Yep.
Who's what?
Six.
Six years older.
George is six.
And then Helen, tell us about,hope for Helen.
Yeah, absolutely.
So Helen's four.
Oh, she's four.
Okay.
Yep.
They're, they're, they're twoyears apart.
Um.
You want the whole backstory on?
Yeah.
Tell us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'll tell you a little bitabout, uh, about us.
So, Helen was born and, and, um,she was a happy, healthy little

(07:00):
girl, sweet little girl.
And, uh, really until threeyears of age, there was, uh.
She was exactly that.
Just, just happy and healthy andeverything you'd ever want.
We kind of had our, our perfectfamily, two kids, boy, girl,
cute as can be, cute as can be.
Life was good.
right after Helen turned three,she had her first seizure, uh,

(07:22):
really out of the, completelyout of the blue.
And, uh, a month later she had asecond seizure.
Mm.
Both of which we were, you know,we, we called an ambulance not
knowing what was, what washappening.
And yeah.
Uh, went down to Children'sHospital in Minneapolis and
Helen was diagnosed after thesecond one with epilepsy, which,
um.
I guess is, you know, kindamakes sense.

(07:44):
And she was put on some, somemedication for, to con help
control the seizures and shedidn't have, uh, have any other,
um, any other seizures for, youknow, a number of months.
So at this point you think thatthe epilepsy diagnosis is the
right diagnosis?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And in a weird way, you'reprobably upset by that.

(08:04):
Funny, funny.
But as it turns out.
I'd be very grateful for that.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Oh boy.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Yeah.
Uh, yeah, it may destroyed us.
We, you know, all of a suddenthere's uncertainty and, and
worry.
Uh, but I will say the, thedoctor that, uh, Helen was
seeing at the time, uh,pediatric epileptologist, uh,
had epilepsy as a child.

(08:25):
Oh.
And, uh, and as, I don't wannacall it common necessarily.
Definitely not unheard of.
Uh, he outgrew his epilepsy.
Wow.
And, um, and went into thatfield.
That's why he chose to studythat.
And so we always kinda looked atthat as a guiding light for, for
Helen, for our family.
As you know, this is, this isjust something that, you know,
blip in the road and we're gonnaget, we're gonna get through

(08:47):
this and, um.
Fast forward to, uh, um, thefall.
So that was in the summer.
June was her first seizure.
Um, and in the fall we startedHow, how, how many, just a
second.
How many years ago is this now?
So, so this, I got a year and ahalf.
So this would, yeah, thiswould've been, uh, June of 2024.
Okay.
So not long ago.
Not long ago.
Not that long.
Very recent.

(09:08):
Okay, got it.
Yeah.
No thanks.
Relatively recent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um.
In the fall and, you know,around Thanksgiving, Christmas
time for, we started noticingthat there was some other things
going on.
She would, she would, uh, shewould have these eye flutters
and she would kind of drop herhead at, at weird moments.
And so we went back to, um, uh,her doctor and, and we're asking

(09:30):
some questions and they said,yeah, you know, there's
different seizures present indifferent ways and, um, you
know, we may need some, justsome additional medication.
Uh.
Uh, things continued to not makesense.
She would fall, uh, just walkingacross a, a, you know, a wood
floor or somewhere where sheshouldn't be falling.
And she didn't use to fall.

(09:50):
She would, she, she would falland she would oftentimes shake
after that, uh, for a coupleseconds.
And, um, we started, uh,thinking, you know, maybe we
need to, maybe we need to diginto this a little bit further.
Mm-hmm.
And so we did.
So, um, I guess we're, we'refortunate to have mayo in our
back, you know, close.
Not necessarily in our backyard,but, but very close.

(10:11):
And, um, we went down to Mayoand, and started talking with
them, um, and.
They suggested that we do, uh, a24 hour EEG, which Helen had had
a number of EEGs before thatpoint.
W what, what, what's anE-E-G-E-E-G is a, is a way that
they can read your, uh, it'scalled an electroencephalogram.

(10:33):
Thank you.
Would've me?
I wasn't gonna, I was a biomajor for six weeks.
For six seconds.
Well, that's right though.
Good thing.
Good thing we have John here.
Yeah, right.
I was not gonna come up withthat name.
The measures brainwaves.
Yeah, exactly.
And so how did.
So you wear, uh, like electrodesor a helmet?
I mean, how does that, I can'tremember exactly how many it is,
but call it 20.
They put different, um, yep.
Electrodes, electros on your,uh, on the scalp.

(10:54):
Yeah.
It almost looks like a net thatgoes over your head.
Mm-hmm.
Ah, yep.
Okay.
So for 24 hours?
Yep, we're gonna do that.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they super glue it on and,um, and, uh, but it's like a
water soluble super glue and sothey can take it back off
afterwards.
But, uh, we went through thatand, um.
Also had decided at that timethat we would do genetic testing

(11:16):
because the doctors kinda said,you know, things don't make,
they aren't making perfectsense.
Yeah.
And we believe if we can, thisdoesn't look exactly like
epilepsy.
Exactly.
If we can, if we can figure outwhy things are happening, which
genetic testing will help, thenwe can recommend the, uh, the
right medication and, and getthis under control.
And so, um, we took care of bothof those in one stint and they,

(11:38):
they said, well, um, you know,it takes a little bit to get the
results back, but.
Um, you should hear from, youknow, hear from us in the next
couple weeks.
And, um, it was one week, oneweek later.
Um, I was, uh, I was driving, mywife had already left for work.
I think I had actually justdropped the kids off at school.
And, uh, I got a message fromMayo, uh, from the doctor that

(12:03):
said.
Um, we, we need to talk to you.
Mm.
Um, we receive some results backand, um, we'll make ourselves
available today.
Mm.
But it's, but it's importantthat we talk and, um, so, you
know, it's heavy, it's heavystuff.
Well, I just have an outlook onlife where I, where get, I guess
first of all, it's your kid.

(12:24):
You don't wanna believesomething.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And I also generally have a,have a positive outlook and, and
so I didn't really allow myselfto my wife actually, when, when
I texted her.
Um, the message sh she said,well, this, this is bad.
Mm-hmm.
And I said, no, let's not getahead of ourselves.
Let's, it's gonna be okay.
And, uh, we scheduled a call for11:00 AM so just a couple hours

(12:46):
later.
And, um, it was a Zoom call andwe sat, my wife and I sat at,
uh, sat at our kitchen, uh, theisland and hopped on and, um.
I would say the first time Iknew this is bad was, uh, as
soon as the doctors jumped onand there was a couple of'em in
the room, and you could just seein their eyes like, this is,

(13:06):
this is not a discussion is bad.
We want to have, this is bad.
Yeah.
And um, they started out andsaid, yep, we, you know, we,
we've received the results backand, um, this is, this is really
bad.
Mm-hmm.
And they proceeded to tell us,uh, about something we'd never
heard of before called BattenDisease, specifically for Helen.

(13:26):
It's CLN two.
And they explained what Battendisease was.
And, uh, basically Battendisease is, oh, CLN two, she
lacks and enzyme, uh, thatbreaks down waste in her cells.
Mm-hmm.
The enzyme is called TPP one.
I believe it's Trip Polypeptideone.
See, you were in case you weregoing to No challenge me, John,

(13:49):
is that right?
No, John was gonna, John, I wasgonna say, I believe that, I
believe John corrected me ifwrong, but I believe that's it's
people.
It's Electroencephalograph and Isaid, gram, that's the, forget.
It's, it's very technical.
I would wanna get into it.
I didn't, I didn't wanna correctit.
Anyways, we're, let's not makelight of this.
My God, man.
No.
Well, no.
So, um.

(14:09):
She, she lacks an enzyme thatthat breaks down waste in her
cells.
So her, her cells over overpowerwith, with waste, and, and they
die off.
Uh, they let us know that thisis a, uh, autosomal recessive,
um, gene, which means that it,it came from, you know, both my
wife and I.
Wow.
We don't have this in our, inour families.

(14:30):
Nobody had ever heard of thisbefore.
Uh, just kind of, uh, happenedby chance, if you will.
And, and does it, does it alwayspresent early in life like this?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So, so under the Battenumbrella, uh, there's like, I
wanna say 12 could be off onthat exact number, but roughly
12 different CLN types.
Okay.
So there's CN one that presentsvery, very early CN two, which

(14:54):
is what Helen has.
Yep.
And up, so it presents, um,between the ages of two and four
years old.
Okay.
And it, and it, and it almostalways starts with mm-hmm.
With seizures.
Um, but on this, on this call,they, they proceeded to, to, to,
you know, explain what it is,writing feverishly, taking
notes, and, and, um, and thentelling us what's, you know,

(15:16):
what's to come.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and this is the really, um,this is the really tough part.
Um, you know, they, they tellyou that, uh, your daughter's
going to lose her ability totalk.
And she's going to lose herability to walk and she's going
to go blind and she's going tolose her ability to eat.

(15:38):
And she's going to, um, haveadolescent, um, adolescent
dementia and she's gonna bebedridden on a feeding tube.
And, um, and then it's gonnatake her, that's gonna be the
end.
And there's nothing, um, there'snothing that you can do about

(16:00):
it.
There is no cure for thisdisease.
Um, and so this is, this is yournew life.
Wow.
I, uh, again, it when Beckyasked Stephanie, so what brings
you guys here?
Yeah.
Right.
Um, never have we experiencedthat type of emotion.

(16:23):
You know, as parents ourselves,and of course we pull up a
picture of, uh, of Helen and shecould not be a cuter kid.
And you know, as sad as thatstory is, the story kind of
flipped on itself when all of asudden they tell us what they're
doing to take on this Battendisease.

(16:45):
And I mean, did, did you saythere's like 200 people.
Is all that have thisparticular, particular type of
Batten disease, roughly?
Roughly, roughly.
The numbers are, are, are youthink about that.
Yeah.
I mean, your chances are one inhow many millions to get this,
this terrible disease.
But instead of just acceptingthis diagnosis, um, the borns

(17:09):
decide, I'm not gonna swear fthis.
We're gonna do something aboutit.
And what I was blown away with.
Tell us about what you've done.
It's really, I get goose, I havefull body goosebumps when I
think about just the fact that,I mean, you're not a
professional fundraising guy.
No.
Your wife isn't.

(17:29):
No.
You both are very, obviouslyvery passionate about this
because it's directly related toyour daughter.
But tell us what you've done to,uh.
To take on this scourge.
Yeah.
So I mean, you know, it takes acouple days to like get out the,
you know, get out of the fog ofwhat, what, what just happened.
Um, you know, obviously you're,you're telling family, family

(17:52):
kind of drops her, her parentsdown in Florida.
Hmm.
Um, and immediately pick up andcome home.
My parents are in Michigan andimmediately, you know, uh, come
to town.
Yep.
Everybody wants to support.
But, uh, you know, after thosefirst couple days we, we just
said we can't, like, this is mydaughter, I can't, I can't
accept this.
Mm-hmm.
Um, the answer of there'snothing you can do about it is,

(18:14):
is unacceptable.
Uh, no, I guess there's nobetter way to, no better way to
put it.
And, and yeah, we, we are not,uh, we've never done fundraising
before.
Um, but we are comfortableasking for things and we are
comfortable talking to people.
Uh, I guess you could say we'reboth in, um, in, um, in
technology sales.
Okay.
And, um, in a very, very, veryunlucky situation that we're in.

(18:40):
Uh, we're fortunate to haveresources and.
A network that that can helpout.
So we very quickly, within amatter of days, decided, okay,
we're, we're gonna change this.
We're going to do, we're gonnado our part.
We're gonna do everything wepossibly can to make sure that
that outcome doesn't, uh,doesn't come true for Helen and,

(19:00):
and for other kids that are, arebattling this or, or will battle
this in the future.
And so we started a foundationand the foundation is called
Helen's Pink Sky Foundation.
And that name, uh, came.
From, uh, first Helen loves allthings pink.
You, you'd be, you'd be pressedto find her on a day where she's
not, uh, where she's not in allpink.

(19:22):
That's what she prefers and whatshe likes, if I may.
Yeah, so Becky first asked, whyare you here?
So that, that led to the firstround of, uh, of makeup
smearing.
And then she said, where did thename come from?
And then that's what proceededthe second.
Phase of makeup smearing.
So finish the, uh, where thename came from.

(19:43):
Yeah.
Well that's a lot of makeup,John.
Well, you know, how did you getthe foundation back's?
Makeup we're off to, or is itjust yours?
It was just mine.
Yeah.
She has the waterproof stuff.
Right, right.
You know, by Maybelline, his guyliner is not okay.
Enough.
Back to John, stepped into thebathroom, took care of us, came
out looking, looking beautifulas ever, so, yeah.
Right, right, right.

(20:04):
Um.
So, so the Pink Sky Foundation,the nights that that followed,
uh, for, for a number of nightsin a row, the sunset was, um,
was beautiful.
And, and the sky turned pink.
And Helen would look at it, we'dtalk about it.
My wife, um, looked at me onenight and said, um, this is a
sign from God.

(20:25):
Mm-hmm.
And, um, that became the, theinspiration for the, it's
awesome.
For the foundation.
So that is great.
That's wonderful.
Um.
In case anybody's wondering the,you know, the website for, for
Helen Pink Sky Foundation is, iswww dot hope, the number four
helen.org.
Um, we're gonna get to yourevent here in a little bit.

(20:47):
Yeah.
But can I also ask you aboutthe, uh, so you made a
connection with, uh, one of ourformer guests, Dr.
Brandon Moriarty.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And just to remind everyone, Dr.
Brandon.
The first time I met Dr.
Brandon, he was speaking atthis, uh, cancer center advisory

(21:08):
board that I sit on, and hecomes in, he's got this long
ponytail.
He looks, he does not look likeyour typical scientist.
No.
And you proceed to visit withthis guy.
And it's like, it's just notfair.
How much smarter that guy isthan me kind of ticks you off a

(21:28):
little bit.
Yeah.
But of all of the people thatyou could get the attention of
at the University of Minnesota,this guy is a legit genius.
Mm-hmm.
So tell us, how did you discoverDr.
Moriarty?
Yeah, so I mean, it, it.
We, we put in motion the, thefoundation, it took us a
probably three, four weeks Yep.

(21:49):
To, to get everything, you know,get the website designed and,
and, um, and do things right.
Beautiful branding, by the way.
It great.
It a great branding thankwebsite.
Looks good.
Yeah, it was good branding.
I mean, it is.
Yeah.
Well, we're, we're here for,we're here for big things, so we
had to, we had to do it right.
And, um, the, the other thingwe, we did was, uh.
There's not a lot of research.

(22:10):
There's research out there, but,but it's, it doesn't affect a
lot of people.
There's no money in the, in acure, so pharmaceutical
companies aren't, aren't gonnaproactively go try and mm-hmm.
Figure hundred people.
Exactly.
I, I, I hate it, but I get it sobackwards.
Yeah.
It's here.
I get it.
Before you get to the connectionwith the doctor,, when the
parents come back and you'replan, what do those
conversations look like?

(22:31):
What was the architecture aroundthat?
We know we need to do X?
Does that question make sense?
Yeah.
The first.
Weeks are, are somewhat of ablur.
Mm-hmm.
Um, memory of it.
Uh, I'm not sure I can, uh, I'mnot sure I can give you the full
details on, on, on that.
That's okay.
It, I guess a lot of that comesdown to the network.

(22:54):
Yeah.
I'll mention Steph, uh, my wife,Stephanie's brother, his name's
Nick Schneider.
He spent his career, uh, intechnology now.
Cybersecurity.
Yeah.
Building businesses.
Yep.
Uh, and very successful at it.
And so he had a lot, he has alot of the groundwork.
Uh, I will say Nick is ininstrumental in.
The, the success and like thatinitial like, good for net, what
does the foundation look like?

(23:15):
Right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So you just get on the phone,that's your first step, then you
just start talking to people,right?
Yeah.
So that the right people likethat can just start making
think, getting some Exactly.
Exactly.
Nick had connections.
Yeah.
And we were able to, you know,to, to connect with somebody
that could, uh, that couldunderstand the vision, and, um,
uh, was able to develop awebsite.
able to put things in motionvery, very quickly.

(23:37):
And then you,, you have the verypersonal story to tell that
people then are compelled to, toparticipate.
A hundred percent.
Right.
But you wanna make sure you'retelling as many people as
possible.
So yeah.
Go back to now John's question.
So then now you reach out andyou get connected with.
Who presumably looks like anEnglish professor.
He, yeah, he, um, I, I wouldagree with John's analysis of,

(24:00):
Dr.
Moriarty, Dr.
Moriarty.
He's amazing, but it took awhile to, to connect with him
actually.
Uh, what I did is, is I juststarted.
Doing research and any researchpaper I found that had, I guess
this goes back to my, you know,technology, sales and cold
calling, willingness.
A a anybody I saw tagged onresearch papers that had to do
with baton disease.

(24:21):
I, I sent'em an email and Icalled them.
And I was blown away with howmany callbacks?
Oh, I got back.
That's awesome.
I wish I got the same number ofcallbacks in my business sales
days.
Life as I do, uh, as I do withthis.
But I got callbacks from IvyLeague school professors,
doctors from doctors in Europe,from doctors in New Zealand all

(24:46):
over.
Yeah.
And I would book calls withevery one of'em, and I would get
in and I would talk to'em, and Iwould, I would ask'em what they
know, uh, what they think is onthe horizon, what they've done,
what they could do.
And we, we kind of formed a, abook of, okay, here's, here's
doctors, researchers that, thatwe trust.
Here's doctors, researchers thatwe believe can help us, It
wasn't really an interviewprocess, but somewhat of an

(25:08):
interview process.
We talked to them, we talked tothem about, uh, the funds that
would be required, the time thatwould be required, what it would
look like for them.
So we gathered proposals from,from these folks that were, um,
you know, if you, if you, thisis what we can do for you.
Yep.
With funding and, I will sayUniversity of Minnesota never
popped up on, any of thosediscussions.

(25:30):
I attended a with myfather-in-law.
Um, it was over zoom, but, butwe both dialed in.
It was a rare disease days forthe state of Minnesota.
Okay.
I don't wanna throw shade, butthey talked about spending, a
year running two focus groupsand their biggest takeaways
around rare diseases and, andgene therapy was that it was.

(25:53):
Deeply meaningful.
Oh, good.
Mm-hmm.
And I thought to myself, Iwonder how much that spent, how
much that cost.
I guarantee it wasn't, it wasn'tcheap.
And it took a year of time.
Yeah.
And I, I, but it was deeplymeaningful, but it was deeply
meaningful.
Yeah.
Thank the Lord and I, um, so Ipopped in a couple times and I

(26:13):
said, Hey, I, you know, I'venever been to anything like this
before.
Uh, is it okay to ask questionsor do we wait till the end?
And they said, okay, well, youknow, we do q and a at the end.
Okay.
You know, thank you.
They were polite about it.
But, uh, and then when they get,when they got to the q and a,
they said, I think we all knowDan has something to, you know,
question for us.
Yeah.
Dan, sit dog on the bone.
And I just told him my, I toldhim the story.
I told him what we'd just beenthrough.

(26:34):
Yeah.
Uh, weeks prior and, um.
And I, and I told him, I said,look, if, if, if, you know, it
took you a year to, to get towhat deeply meaningful, like
I'll, I'll come, I'll dropeverything I'm doing and I'll
come talk to you any day of theweek, anytime, and I'll give you
the why.
Yeah.
Because I have the why.
Yeah.
And, um, and, and I luckilythere was two folks from, from

(26:58):
Brandon Moriarty lab, uh, or, orthe Weber in, in Moriarty lab
from the University of Minnesotaon, and they hit me up on.
Um, on Zoom and, and just said,you know, can, can we get your
number?
We'd like to talk.
Yeah, sure.
So I gave my number and I, and,uh, it was a, a girl named Steph
Kennelly reached out to me, uh,very shortly after, and she does

(27:19):
a lot of, she does a lot ofwork.
She's not a scientist herself.
She's actually a cancersurvivor.
Yep.
Um, wonderful, wonderful girl.
And, um, we talked that nightand, and she said, you know, we
haven't done anything with Batonspecifically, but.
We liked what you had to sayand, and we would love to help
out in some way.
Right?
Don't know exactly what that isyet.

(27:41):
Give us a little bit of time andwe'd like to schedule some time
for you to come on, come siteand and, and meet with us.
And so it, uh, I call it acouple weeks later, we schedule
time to go on.
Um, days are busy, everything'sgoing on.
And, and I, and I thought like,what are they gonna do for us?
And, uh, um, almost canceledThe, almost canceled the

(28:01):
meaning.
Like, my time is valuable.
I, I, like, I don't understandwhat, what we're gonna get out
of this.
They've never heard of Battenbefore.
They, and, um, man, thatwould've been a mistake.
So my father-in-law, went overto the lab and met with them.
And the amount of time, I mean,it was, it was apparent from
minutes into this discussionthat like, this is pretty cool.

(28:23):
They had done a ton of research.
They'd updated, like, theyshowed us their priorities and
what had been added as apriority was, was batten to
seats.
Wow.
Like they were touched.
Cool.
They cared.
They cared.
Yeah.
And, um.
They introduced us to somethingthat's called, uh, T-Cell
Therapy.
CAR T.
Mm-hmm.
And it's, uh, that's Brandon'sBrandon's, that's the

(28:44):
centerpiece of his business.
Exactly.
Exactly.
He's, uh, he's done a lot withthat.
Yep.
They use it to treat cancer.
A lot of success.
Number of other things.
I mean, this group has been verysuccessful.
Yep.
In treating, uh, a lot ofdifferent, uh, different
diseases, um, and illnesses.
And we were there for about twoand a half hours.
They gave us this wholepresentation.

(29:04):
Research we've done.
We believe that this T-celltherapy may work and it's worth
looking at.
Absolutely.
Where are we to say who?
Who am I to say no?
And uh, they gave us a tour ofthe lab.
They spent a ton of time, again,I'll go back to they cared.
Like they care and the fact thatyou got, the reaction that you
got from all these, thesephysicians, people immediately

(29:27):
think, well, they're going afterthe money.
Mm-hmm.
That's where their interest is.
Mm-hmm.
And the reality is, is just asyou've described, these
geniuses, generally speaking,would not go into that type of
research if they were interestedin just the money.
Yeah.
They are people who aregenuinely mm-hmm.
Motivated to find they're,they're all.

(29:48):
Detectives and they all want tosolve the c the challenge.
They wanna, it's a challenge,but it's obviously a meaningful
challenge with the, with the,it's so meaningful.
Dan's story is like, that's,and, and you know, the situation
this Batten that, that Danrefers to, I mean, there's not a
lot of money in that.
You talk about God's hand beingon something and the fact that
you did go on that Zoom call andyou did take that call.

(30:09):
And that you connected with thisperson and it just happens to be
in your backyard.
And he is renowned at theUniversity of Minnesota and
renowned throughout the countryand the world.
I mean, he's really already madethat kind of an impact.
So kudos for, hitching your, uh,your objective to a guy who I
think can probably get somestuff done.

(30:31):
Yeah.
Can you look back at that andgo, that's hope.
All of a sudden I spend thesetwo and a half hours, these
people care.
I I get the two.
All of these things.
Do you walk outta there going,wow, I, okay, okay.
I'm an optimist.
You already covered that.
Now I feel like, oh, oh mygoodness.

(30:54):
Someone's in there with methere.
There's, would, did thatovercome you or were you still
like, oh, we're interviewingpeople?
No, no.
It, it abso the, the first, theformer, uh, for sure.
My, my father-in-law, mark, um.
And I walked out after this,after this meeting that we
thought would take, I don't, Ithink we were scheduled for like

(31:15):
an hour and they gave us two anda half hours.
Wow.
And they showed us a whole laband they, I mean, it was
amazing.
And we walked out and it was oneof those, again, I'll go back to
my sales days, right.
You, you leave a customer onsite and you're like, we're,
we're getting that po but yougotta wait until you get to your
car to be like, yeah, we got it.
Like we're going, this isawesome.
It was kind of similar.
We both walked out.
We were kind of, you know, yougot a verbal.

(31:36):
We, yeah, we were a little, youknow, cautious.
We don't want to see us likefist bumping and being like,
what did we just find?
Yeah.
But, but as soon as we got tothe car, we were like, when was
this meeting?
so Helen was diagnosed March10th, 2025.
Yeah.
And this meeting would've beenend of, end of.
March, I would say May, maybebeginning of April.

(31:57):
Wow.
So it's safe to say you guysjust don't sit around.
We don't sit around.
Um, my God, Jesus.
We don't sit, we don't sitaround and especially when the,
when the stakes are of this,this magnitude.
So I have to, I, I have to fastforward to this event, so I
encourage everybody to go to theHope number four helen.org
because when you look at theitems that you have for your

(32:19):
auction mm-hmm.
I hope that there's a lot ofpeople there because this is the
most robust auction package I, Ithink I've ever seen.
And clearly, you know, somebodyin the golfing world that's been
able to get golf course, uh, uh,opportunities at golf courses
that guys like us can'tgenerally get onto unless we

(32:41):
write a big check for it.
But how did you go aboutsecuring that many high-end?, I
guess I'll, I'll go back to whatI said before in a very, very,
very unlucky situation where I,where I, you know, no longer
consider myself to be a, a luckyindividual.
Um, WWW we are fortunate, uh, tohave, you know, a network that

(33:02):
Yeah, that has some, has somework pool, if you will.
That got to work.
That's the, that's the bigthing.
People that, that love.
He Helen, um.
And we'll do anything to, to tryand help her out.
So, uh, you, you touched on itbefore, just the, kind of, the
success of the magnitude of, of,of the foundation.
Um, you know, we launched thisat the beginning of beginning of
April.
We've raised, um, over$2million.

(33:25):
I mean, that's since thebeginning of April.
Wow.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's prettyincredible.
There's a, there's a lot ofgenerous, generous individuals
there that, so they is comingdearly, coming from almost, from
exclusively from individuals.
Mm-hmm.
So you haven't even startedapproaching foundations or any
of that stuff?
Mm-hmm.
M that's a nice network.
No, that's a very nice network.
Um.
That's, it's, it's incredible.

(33:46):
Remarkable.
It's absolutely incredible.
Can I ask a couple questionsabout your event?
Sure, sure.
Um, how many people are youhoping to have at this event,
and where is it at, I think, um,and when?
October 25th.
Got it.
Yep.
Um, October 25th.
It's at Hazelton National.
Yep.
In Chaska.
Uh, the capacity is 250.
Okay.
Um, uh, you know, we're, we'reshooting, you know, I think you

(34:08):
gotta have, obviously I want 250folks there.
Uh, you gotta have the rightfolks there, right?
You gotta have the first, yougotta have the right folks.
Uh, by the time we got around toplanning everything, you know,
the, the, the weekends were,we're filling up, were scarce.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
And, um.
So I think we're gonna, youknow, we're gonna try and move
it into September next year.
Get around, you know, get awayfrom MEA and some of the other

(34:31):
Yeah.
Things that are going on this,this time of year.
Be better golf weather as well.
Um, but we're gonna, we'regonna, I mean, we're, we've
organized and, and I will givemy wife Stephanie, a huge, huge
kudos on this.
She's a gogetter on this one.
She, well, she, first, she's ago-getter, which I, I love that
about her.
Um.
She is in technology sales,probably should be in party

(34:51):
planning.
Um, she is, it's a wholedifferent industry.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
She goes big a lot to it.
And, and this is going to be, Imean, it's gonna be beautiful
and it's gonna be, uh, atop-notch event.
So I, I think, um, you know,it's important to, to realize
this is the first year, andmaybe we'll come up a little bit
short on the, on the two 50.
I think we can get to 1 75.
Um.

(35:13):
Maybe 200, probably close to 1 75, which it'll feel good.
Which is still pretty Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Significant.
You have to step back and justsay, okay, well that's, I mean,
sure we well and 1 2 50, butthat's success.
Yes.
One of the things that I wouldsuggest that you do with an
event.
I mean, just the fact thatyou've, you've gotten this far,
I mean, put aside the fact thatyou've already blown the doors

(35:33):
off with your fundraising priorto the event.
But, you know, with an eventlike this, you know, I would
look at it not just as a thankyou for the gift of your
investment, but with that groupof people.
Ask'em for the gift of theirinfluence, are there people in
your circles that, you know, youare just learning about this
here today, and this is sort ofthe start of something.

(35:56):
Mm-hmm.
When the bell goes off at theend of this event, the money
that's been raised is not theend of this event.
Mm-hmm.
Frankly, it is just thebeginning of this event and this
series of things, and I, uh.
I'll tell you, hats off to you.
I think about all of these rarediseases that people are,

(36:17):
diagnosed with.
And your response is, I'm gonnacurl up in a ball and just be
sad.
Right.
And you guys, I mean, the factthat she was diagnosed in March
and I mean, it's, this is sixmonths later, right?
I, I, I'm blown away.
It's remarkable.
Yeah, it is incredible.

(36:37):
And it does.
Are you interested in coming towork for Masonic Chairs?
It also speaks to your networkand your, and, and your family
and, and the extended, I mean,because you, you, there are
gotta be days where it's, you'rereally, it's hard to pick
yourself up.
Mm-hmm.
But you have surrounded yourselfwith people who.
Are also demonstrating thatkindness to you and helping you

(36:58):
and picking you up and, and youto one another.
So that's awesome.
Thank you.
Well, I have a question.
So, yeah, how is Helen now?
How's Helen right now?
Um, she's not great.
She's, um, she's changed and shecontinues to change.
Okay.
Uh, you know, she's, she's fourand a half years old, and if
you, and if you saw her on thestreet, you, you know, she, she

(37:19):
looks, you know, she looks likea four and a half year old.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Um, but when you get down to it,you know, she doesn't talk.
She's lost her, um, her abilityto, to, to speak almost, almost
fully.
Okay.
Um, it's been, you know, month,two months since, since I've
heard, um, since she said, Ilove you.
She used to say that, um, justin the last three weeks, you

(37:42):
know, she's, she's lost, youknow, she no longer says, uh,
mama or dad or George, Georgieas she calls him.
Um.
So she's changing.
It's, you know, the disease is,is taking its grip.
She, she continues to sufferseizures.
Okay.
Um, her walking is changing.
I mean, her gait, you know, hergait is off.

(38:03):
She, you know, she's kind ofstiffening a little bit.
You know, she holds her, herarm's different than she used
to.
Well, I mean, think about that.
I mean, if your, if your cellcells are unable to get rid of
the waste, good Lord.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't, you know, one thingthat I guess that breaks my, I
don't have the ability to askher, you know, what she's
feeling.

(38:24):
Oh boy.
And so she's agitated a lot.
She's, yeah.
You know, she frustrated.
She doesn't have an attentionspan.
Um, it's hard to find thingsthat like that, that she enjoys
and that she wants to do.
And it has to be something thatHelen wants to do if she's
gonna, you know, if you'regonna, if you're gonna be able
to do it right.
And so it's, it's really kindof, it controls our, it, it
really controls our life.
How, so, how our options are.

(38:45):
Limited.
I'll say, how's, how's BigBrother George doing?
Mm-hmm.
With it?
Mm-hmm.
How's he handling?
Is he understanding what's goingon?
Is he, like, how are you guysdealing with that?
George?
Uh, George is kindergartner,first grader.
He's in first grade, and Georgeis an incredible, excuse me.
Um, George is an incrediblyspecial kid.
Mm-hmm.

(39:05):
He is, uh.
Um, he's a gift.
He, he is Helen's big brother,biggest fan.
He's loved her since the day.
Oh my God.
She came home from the hospital.
Um, and he will protect Helenfrom anything.
Oh my God.
Um, in a way that a 6-year-oldshouldn't have to, you know, he,
he worries about her falling, heworries about her.
Um.

(39:26):
You know, like he, he'll alwaysbe whole, you know, behind her
help, trying to help her up thestairs.
Oh God.
Sometimes it almost causes moredamage.
God, what a guy he is.
He's, he's incredible.
Um, and that's awesome.
And, um, those are the heroesthat we love to talk about.
Show Georgie's the hero.
He's a special, special kid.
Oh my gosh.
He's great you're doing what youcan doing, doing, uh, probably

(39:46):
more than 100% of the people.
Thank you.
So kudos to you.
So thank you.
If, if anyone is interested inattending this gala, uh, it's
taking place.
As I've said several times.
October 25th, I'm planning onbuying a table.
I've got a few people lined up.
My wife and I were talking aboutit and it's like, you know, you

(40:07):
want to get the right peoplethere.
The people that have thecapacity.
To write the big check.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and you're right, theweekend of the 25th of October
is a tough one.
There's so many things thatyou're competing with.
Mm-hmm.
So the people that we know thathave the deepest pockets, we've
already called them and they'relike, oh, I've got this and I
got that.
And oh, that's the same night asthis, Galen all this other

(40:29):
stuff.
We're gonna get some people.
I promise you that, but, uh,thank you.
I I will say there, there arethings you can do from afar.
You bet.
So you, you, you, you askedabout, and I never answered it.
The auction, the auction goonline.
We, we, yeah.
We've, we've put together an anabsolutely amazing auction.
So if you go to, if you go tohope for helen.org and then
click on events, um, and then Ithink it's, uh, buy tickets.

(40:50):
It'll take you to the, to theGive Smart page.
And, uh, through that you canbrowse the auction items.
And then if you want to place abid on the auction items, which
we, we hope you will, uh, youjust have to, you know,
register, create an account.
You can buy, you can also buytickets for the gala.
That, and I gotta tell you,here's where I'm really
impressed with you guys.
The tickets, a single ticket forthe gala is, uh,$750.

(41:14):
That's exactly right.
And what that tells me is we'renot messing around with this.
We are not messing around no andgood by having a$750 price
point.
You are self-selecting thepeople that are gonna be in that
room that night.
It's, I, I don't know whose ideathat was, but what that
demonstrates to me is this ispretty damn important.

(41:35):
Yep.
I just, I'm just blown away byyou guys.
It's just so impressive.
Yeah, that's great.
And, and thanks for the timetoo.
Absolutely.
I mean, you, I mean, timeobviously is precious as you've.
Communicated.
Thanks for coming in and, andjust spending this time with us,
this little podcast that we do.
Well, thank you so much.
Absolutely.
Thank you guys very much for,for hosting me.
Do, do you mind if I just giveplease a quick teaser on, uh, on

(41:56):
some of the items?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's prettyincredible.
It's really incredible what verygenerous people have.
Have donated what we've beenable to come up with.
Um, so we have some VIPexperiences that are true VIP
experiences.
One of'em is, is, uh, twotickets to the Super Bowl.
Um, I mean, how, where do youget something like that?
I can't, I can't, uh, you can'tsay, I can't divulge, I can't

(42:17):
divulge, uh, two tickets to theSuper Bowl with a, with a pass
to the, uh, the NFL's, um,tailgate party transportation,
uh, to and from your hotel.
Um, we have, uh, the F1 AustinGrand Prix.
Mm.
It's actually next weekend, butthese tickets are, are for the
year 20 20 26 next year.
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
Uh, VIP experience paddockpasses.

(42:37):
Um, we have Indy 500 VIPexperience, you know, full
blown.
Well, I noticed one of yoursponsors was some racing
something or other.
Yeah, so that's one of, I, I'lldivulge this because they're,
because they are incredibly,incredibly, um, supportive.
Supportive and, and, uh, vitalto our, to our success.
So, Helen's, Helen's.
Godfather is, um, is a great mannamed Tim Meyer.

(43:01):
And, um, Tim's dad is a co-ownerof Meyer Shank Racing.
Okay.
So Tim works for the race team.
He is their, their COO and, um,he's, uh, uh, we lived in,
before we moved here about threeyears ago.
We lived in Colorado and we wereout.
Tim lived in, and his familylived in Colorado as well.
So we were together all thetime.
Uh, kids are great friends and,um, cool.

(43:22):
You know, he's devastated bythis and, and wants to help out
in any way possible.
And, um, so Indy, you know, Indycar and, uh, and Meyer Shank
racing have just been absolutelyphenomenal with, with coming up
with, with items.
A lot of golf experiences.
Uh, vineyard out in, uh, SonomaCounty is, um, with the owners.
You can have dinner with them.
They're gonna give you a privatetour of the, of the vineyard.

(43:45):
Um, whole multiple days.
Isn't there a Taylor Swift itemon the uh, yep.
There's a Taylor Swiftautographed, uh, autographed
guitar.
Whoa, goodness sakes.
Yeah.
One of the, uh, one of the crazyones that I, I'm actually really
excited to see what it, what itgets, and I would love to, to
bid on it myself is a weekendwith an NFL referee, and so all

(44:08):
you have to pay for the wholetime is, is your airfare, but
you can choose any one of hisgames.
And, and, and go to that game.
So it doesn't have to be own'syour perspective.
Yeah.
Any, any, you could say, Hey,I've always wanted it some Melo.
Is it?
Yeah.
I never gotta find out aboutthat.
Wait, Dan, I have a question.
Sure.
Um, is that a, is that anacoustic or electric guitar of
Taylor Swift's?
Uh, um.

(44:28):
It's a guitar.
I don't know.
Thank God.
Can't, I don't know.
Would you want a Taylor Swiftguitar?
Why not?
Well, I might, I I might, Iwanna look.
Do you want an acoustic orelectric?
Electric?
She plays acoustic.
I, it's probably an acousticguitar, but I think, is your
daughter a Taylor t Is she aswifty?
Um, she used to be.
She's a little older now.
She's too cool for it now, Iguess.
I don't know.
But are you.

(44:50):
Am I swifty?
Yeah.
Uh, yeah, sure.
Yeah.
22.
As much as I need to be.
I'm sorry, go on.
So this, this weekend with thereferee, you get NFL Referee.
Um.
Y you're gonna go to the twotickets to the game, and then
after the game you get to havedinner with him and dissect the
game.
Wow.
Yeah.
PR really cool.
He could break down all themistakes.

(45:11):
Can break.
Why didn't you make that holdingcall?
Oh, he's gonna tell you why youwere wrong as a fan and he was
right.
But let me ask you this.
Is he one of those NFL refereesthat wears the real tight shirt
with the great B Biceps?
Of course.
Oh yeah.
He looks good.
Huh?
He looks good.
That is a super interesting, howdo you know this person?
That's an interesting idea.
I love that idea.
That's the the most creativeitem.
Yeah.
On the list.
I agree.
Keep going.
What else do you have?

(45:31):
We're fortunate with our, withour network and people that know
people.
Yeah.
I think I like don't wanna be inhis network.
Yeah.
I mentioned that you are now.
You are, you are now welcome.
Uh, but I wanna be in yournetwork too.
So, uh, the, um, I mentioned theIndy 500.
Uh, um, you'll be on the track,uh, police escort.
On the bus to, uh, you're usedto that, Steve.

(45:55):
Yeah.
Uh, no.
Same VIP experience for theDaytona 500.
For the Rolex 24, our race inDaytona.
Um, and, and I'll, like, I'm,I'm.
I'm throwing out a lot of these.
There's a lot of local items.
There's a lot of, uh, like Isaid, private golf courses
across the country, but, butlocal to Minnesota where you
can, you can have access torounds, uh, gift cards to

(46:18):
different, uh, you know,different shops, uh, different
restaurants.
I mean, there, there's a lot oflocal items, uh, to Minnesota as
well.
Yeah.
So there was an interlock andOh, good for you.
There is, there is.
So yeah, we've put, we've, uh,we've curated pre uh.
Pretty impressive, prettyimpressive auction year one.
Well, that, but that, that allbig places, that oxygen is, um,

(46:41):
reflective of the, uh, ticket toget in, right?
I mean, it's not like you'regonna have, uh, uh, seeding for
four buca de peppo, right?
As a, as as an item.
Applebees?
No.
I told my wife, as you know,with, I just said like, step
Steph.
This is, this is year one, like.
Let's just, I mean, it's gonnatake a lot as you go.
Future years.

(47:02):
I, I imagine I've neverorganized one of these before
or, or been married to somebodythat's organizing a, a gallop
before.
And, and so like I I just saidit's gonna be a little more plug
and play in future, like, wejust have to, we just have to
get this off.
Yeah.
And she's like, no, no, you'rewrong.
This is gonna be special.
Wow.
Like, this is for Helen and Iwant it to look good, and I
wanna be proud of it.

(47:23):
And, and I'm going big and she'sgone big.
And, um, that's, that's the wayto do it.
So, uh, that it's gonna be thatbigger go home.
That's what that is.
Yeah.
That's what she, that's what sheis.
And, and I didn't mention thisbefore.
We're talking about all this,you know, the, the money we've
raised and, and all these, everysingle penny for this goes into

(47:44):
research.
Yeah.
Uh, we have a million dollarsout the door right now.
Uh, with three differentresearch institutions.
Um, and I'm, I'm really lookingforward to Brandon.
Is Brandon gonna be at theevent?
Brandon will be at the eventSuper.
Brandon and, and, and some ofthe other Joey Skeet.
Okay.
Uh, this is how much they care.
Joey Skeet.
Um, he's on Brandon's team and,and he came to Helen's fourth

(48:06):
birthday.
Mm.
He brought his daughtergoodness.
And, um, so that first importantfor him to, to, to come and, um,
that that first batch of cash isgoing to light fires and get
things going.
Yeah.
And I'm looking forward to thatcall from Brandon saying, Hey,
um, you owe us a big check inJanuary because that means that
that phase one was, wassuccessful.
Wow.
So I'm very, very hopeful forthat call.

(48:28):
Um, so Great.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're gonna get, uh, I, Ihope it's in time for Helen.
I, I pray every night for that.
Um, but you know, it's for the,it's for the broader community
as well.
We're gonna, we're gonna getthis figured out and she will,
uh, make it into my prayers.
I promise you that.
Thank you very much for that.
Pretty amazing.
And, uh, thanks for sharing withus.

(48:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Thank guys for this platform.
Appreciate it.
Appreciate you coming in, and Ihope to see some of you people
there.
I mean, obviously at that pricepoint.
You're not gonna be a negative,uh, revenue podcast host.
Um, that's probably not gonnamake ends meet for you.
But, um, hopeful we can help byspreading the word with our

(49:10):
audience.
Absolutely.
And, and one jump on thatwebsite.
And, and I'll tell you one way,I, I was on there today looking
at the auction items and thereare a whole bunch of items that
don't even have a single bid onyet.
I mean, the big bidding willhappen the night of the event.
Get on there and snap somethingup and help out Helen.
Yeah, let's do it.
You know there's things forstuff like us.
There's longer Burger baskets.
I mean, you're a big longerBurger Basket guy.

(49:31):
Any donut D Kowalski's.
Kowalski's has got a good donutselection.
Donuts there.
Yeah, deal like that.
Kowalski gift cards.
KG it's popcorn.
That's right up Kgs Alley.
I'm sure you could purchasepopcorn with your Kowalski's
gift cards.
And you know when there'ssomething on there that's a
hundred dollars gift card.
Don't be the guy.
That thinks you're gonna get thea hundred dollars gift card for
50 bucks, you pay 150 for the ahundred dollars.

(49:55):
That's how that is supposed towork.
You cheap sobs.
Come on.
Why are you looking at us likethat?
I'm not looking at you.
I'm looking just, turning angry.
Anyways, on that note, thank youvery much for coming in.
Thank you, Dan.
This has been great.
And uh, with that, off we go.

(50:28):
Hope for Helen.
I.