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November 27, 2024 • 12 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Tony Kruz News Radio A forty w h as
so happy to have Chris Williams back with us from
Coshair ChIL Buddy, I'm doing just great.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
We're grateful and Cossair kids are grateful for you always
having us in man, it's always good to see you
day before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Chris is the senior vice president of Communication, so
that's why he's so articulate.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
And it does a great job with you make too
much credit, buddy.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
From his broadcast days with w HS eleven and now
does a great job with Cosair charities. And we happen
to have a wonderful guest, Tracy, who has a son
who is a coast Air kid.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, her son is Cosair kid Mason, and man, these
people are great.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
All of our Cosair.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Families, Cosair kid families are great. Tracy is with us,
and I want to make sure I don't overstep Tracy,
but she has an amazing story and something that I
think will make your listeners feel grateful.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Is he going to Thanksgiving? How's it going this morning? Tracy?

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Hi, good morning, it's going great.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well. Tell us a little bit of your story in
Mason and how he became a Coosair kid.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, Mason's battling a rare disease and he has been
for the past three years. And Mason became a Cosir
kid because I reached out to co theer when it
was you know, like everything was just challenging at that
time financially and we were just trying to figure out
a balance in life. I was missing a lot of

(01:27):
work because he was missing a lot of school, and
we just reached out to Cosir because we felt overwhelmed.
And they've just been like there for us to help
us that Mason he's gonna need a bone marrow transplant,
and you know, I don't know, it's just been so
hard for us, but it's been the toughest challenges of

(01:48):
our life. It's just, you know, Mason, do you have
anything to say? Thank you Clothes Air for Kids for
helping my family and may it means so much more
grateful for years of.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Fort and Tony.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
That's that's Ma Mason. How's it going, Buddy Good? He
has a big trip on Friday. Oh really, so cosierfer
Kids is helping Mason get to Boston where some experts
are going to try to figure out how to deal
with this new tripinia. His body does not create enough
white blood cells and so a simple infection can do
really awful things for her. And when so whenever he

(02:24):
gets whenever Cosier Kid Mason gets a fever, Tracy has
to rush him in to make sure he doesn't have
an infection somewhere. And you can imagine being a single
mom working and trying to keep things going, and when
your child gets even the slightest fever, you're going to
be in the emergency room. And so we're just grateful

(02:45):
at Coser for Kids that we can be a part
of Mason's life and Tracy's life and help them out.
And so so if you're listening right now and you've
been someone who supported us, know that this Thanksgiving weekend,
you're you're playing a big role in May can sure
that Cocair kid Mason can say help he needs.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, indeed, Tracy, we really really appreciate you introducing us
to your son, and we're going to be praying for
him and also hopefully some people are going to be
helping to donate for not a lot for Mason, but
all the other kids.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know, everybody is going to be spending time with
their families this Thanksgiving hopefully and they get and reflect
on what they're thankful for.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Next Tuesday is Giving Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
It's the biggest day of philanthropy around the world where
people really are thinking about what they're thankful for and
they're donating to their favorite charity. And Cocer for Kids
is participating in Giving Tuesday this year. We're doing something fun, Tony,
I brought you a teddy bear. And so for every
person who donates on Giving Tuesday or in the lead
up to Giving Tuesday, when they go to cosair dot
org slash Giving Dash Tuesday, that's cosair dot org slash

(03:48):
Giving Dash Tuesday. For every one hundred dollars donation that
you make, you can get a bear. We're going to
send you a bear. We're gonna send you a story
of a I threw them the bear. You can't see
that on radio, and he did make a nice catch.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Thank you ver. But is that the softest little teddy
beary you've ever seen?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
That's great, it's great.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
He's wonderful.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
And Mason, we just want to wish you all the
best and look forward to you coming back nice and
healthy and you know, and being with us on the
air here live. How about that? That would be great? Mom?
What do you think?

Speaker 4 (04:21):
Thank you, Thank you guys so much. Yeah, Mason was
just telling me he looks forward to next year and
he could celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and he's hoping
that any of the supporters out there would be able
to come and celebrate Thanksgiving. It just breaks my heart
because this year we're not going to be able to.
But hopefully next year we'll get it all together and

(04:42):
we'll be able to have a nice Thanksgiving here with
the family.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
We'd love that for you for sure. And again you've
got all of our prayers and hopefully a lot of
donations in the name of Mason and his challenges and
the braveness that he has shown us this morning.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
He's such an incredible young man and he is he
is gaining a voice.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
And one of the things that cosierfer Kids has been
a part of with him this year is trying to
educate people about nutropenia, his rare disease, and giving this
young man an opportunity to have a voice.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
He goes to school and.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
He does not necessarily look like he's ill at times,
and so some kids don't understand that he has a
delicate situation. And so by allowing cosher kid Mason to
have a voice through our social media channels and through
people like you, Tony and the wonderful folks here at
iHeart in eight p forty, Mason is able to grow
his voice and grow that confidence to understand, hey, look

(05:36):
this is how I communicate what's going on with me.
So Cocipher Kids is grateful for you, Tony, Thank you
so much.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
No problem here, Let's take a break. Tracy, thank thank you,
and Mason have a great day and great weekend, and we'll,
like I said, we're going to be supporting you with
their prayers and our gifts. Appreciate you all.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Thank you having happy Thanksgiving. Thank you guys, Thank.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
You Mason and Tracy. Well, we'll have a little bit more.
We're going to discuss some other things that are going
on with the costair charities with Chris here in just
a couple of minutes on news Radio eight forty whas
Good morning, I'm Tony Cruz seven fifteen at news Radio
A forty Whas Tony Cruz Wrong, along with Chris Williams,
Senior Vice president of Communications for Coastare Charities. And you

(06:21):
know we see Costair Charities sometimes on television, but that
you know, there's so many ways that people can get involved,
I mean Twitter, so many things that you do as
the chairman or the president of the communications here. What
if you were to what led you to co Sare

(06:43):
and wind up working here and tell us give us
a little bit of history.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, if people can recognize my voice, which I'm not
going to, you know, hold it against you if you don't.
But I was I was in a journalist and I
was the news here for several years, and I had
spent a lot of time in news. I just took
a little break and then I was offered the opportunity
to come and work for Cosare for Kids Coaster Charities.
We ended up changing our names to Coacer for Kids,
to put in the forefront what we're about, what we've

(07:07):
always heard about, and that's been kids.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
And it's just the greatest job I've ever had, Tony.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
When we think about the assistance for folks like Tracy,
who's a single mom who you just heard from a
few minutes ago, whose little boy, cocer kid Mason is
facing a rare disease. We're helping fund Mason's medical bills.
We do medical bills, therapies and equipment that families cannot afford.
This year, we've helped one hundred and fifty four kids

(07:33):
to the tune of almost a million dollars. Families can
go to cosair dot org and check out our financial
assistance program.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
If no one takes, if someone takes nothing else.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Today, from what I'm saying with you, Tony, I want
them to realize that if they know a child, or
they have a child who cannot afford the medical bills,
equipment or therapies that they desperately need, go to cosair
dot org and look at our financial assistance program. It's
all based on financial need, but you know that's the
one that's that's the most important thing that we do.
But we also fund groundbreaking medical research, education, social services,

(08:06):
and child advocacy. We impact children in all one hundred
and twenty Kentucky counties and ten in southern Indiana. So
we've been around for one hundred and one years now
and we're not going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
We want to be here. We want to be in
the fight with you.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
We want to be helping you, and we want to
make sure that every child has an opportunity to live
life to the fullest.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
So when we see the nice men that are in
women or nice men i should say, working there at
the lights on Blanke a Baker Lane's.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I thought it was.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
The Cosier Shrine is very important to us because the
Cosier Shriners one hundred one years ago formed Costier Charities Committee, Inc.
Which is now known as Cosare for Kids, And those
Costair Shriners are are, you know, very important to us.
All of our board members are are Cosare Shriners. We
have an advisory council made up of a diverse group
of community leaders and we're grateful for them as well.

(08:55):
But yeah, those roadblocks, you know, those roadblocks that the
guys with a phezes on that are running, Man, those
guys are real heroes out there, and we're grateful for
everything that the Cosair Shrine does, apparently surf for kids.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
We were talking of air, and it's an interesting story
how Cosaer Charity's wound up here in Louisville, if you
can give us.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, one hundred and one years ago, the Shriners were
putting hospitals run. They had decided that children's healthcare would
be what their mission was. And it's an incredible mission
what the Shiners International does. It's just really truly a
phenomenal thing. But they weren't going to build a hospital here.
And doctor Barnett Owen was an orthopedic surgeon here in Louisville,
and he was a Cosier Shriner, and he was not

(09:35):
particularly happy that kids who were being left out, or
that's how he saw it. So he and some of
the other Shriners formed Cosier Charity's Committee, Inc.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
And they started doing.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
An outreach and they found a little boy in Apple
ash And named Tommy, who was twelve. He'd never walked
without the aid of crutches. He had been stricken with
infantile paralysis, which would later.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Be known as polio.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
And they brought him to Louisville and they did surgery
and physical therapies in over about six months they were
working on Tommy, and then in August of nineteen twenty three,
they had a party. Eleven thousand people were here according
to published reports at the time, and Tommy walked across
the stage without the aid of crutches, and there was
not a dry eye in the House and Kosier Charities
Committee in was well on its way of creating the

(10:17):
Koser Crippled Children Hospital on Eastern Parkway, which is a
building where we still work.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Historic building.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
And through the years, you know, we were hospital, we
funded a hospital. Our name is no longer on a
brick and mortar hospital. Our name is on a nik
You and Hardin County at Baptist Health. And we've done
a lot of work with Baptist Health in recent years,
helping step up, bringing in equipment so they could step
up nik You's and we're grateful for all the work
the doctors and nurses there do and the administrators. But

(10:46):
we you know, we were still involved with making sure
children can live life to the fullest. Kids like Coser
kid Mason that you just heard about utropenia, a rare disease.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
You're probably were.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Driving down the road listening to this or maybe getting
maybe starting to prepare your Thanksgiving stuff for tomorrow and
never heard of it. We're sending them to Boston so
that these experts can try to figure out how to
treat his rare disease.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
All right, real quick, Giving Tuesday, What are you looking.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
At Cosaer dot org slash Giving Dash Tuesday. You can
go to cosier dot org and find more information. But
anybody who donates one hundred dollars or more will get
a Teddy Bear cent to them as a little coasare
for kids. Say very soft, Tony is holding one up
to a camera you can't see because you're watching this
on radio. But Cosair dot org slash Giving Dash Tuesday,
and you know a lot.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Of people next week on Tuesday, it's the biggest day.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Of philanthropy and they're going to be thinking about how
they can give back to their community, and this is
one way you can do it by going to cosaer
dot org Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Indeed, appreciate your time, Chris, Tony.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
No one appreciates this more than we do.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
And the Cosair kids appreciate you and all iHeartRadio and
the folks at eight forty have done for us through
the years. We are just absolutely, eternally grateful. We'll be
thinking of you tomorrow while we're eating a piece of
pumpkin pie.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
There you go, Cosair dot org. You can help us kids.
Chris Williams, Senior Vice president of Communications Cooser Charities. Thanks
so much, Chris,
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