Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Vinnie. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Megan Abate I'm calling from the Joelbates Foundation.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Wait you mean Megan abaatee.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well yes, if we were in Italy, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Do you mean that any affiliation to the restaurant on Worcester,
to the family for.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The restaurant, Yes, those are my in laws.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah, I mean I know what a common name it is, too,
but my whole Yeah. Some days it was you guys
want to go to Abates. Other days it was you
want to go to Abates. I mean it's just we
never we never really zeroed in. I don't think a
lot of New Haveners have no.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think it's interchangeable. My father in law just accept
whatever as long as they're buying pizza.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah. Yeah, great food, what a buffet, I mean, just
great food. There is it still relocated? Still not back
on Worcester, still out North Haven Way.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, still on State Street in North Haven. They are
working to rebuild the Worcester Street one, but it might
take a little longer.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Still in north Yeah, and I hear doing at the
very least. When it first started doing big business in
North Haven, I mean the customers went and found them.
No problem.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, yeah, they're thankful for that definitely.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So it's Megan Abate and you're a school teacher, correct,
but you I am. But we're here to talk about
the Joe Abate Foundation. Tell me about this and tell
me about Light Up the Night.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So Light Up to Night is our signature event we
do every year, and before I go into that, I
just want to give a little background, if that's okay
about the foundation.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It was started in memory of my late husband, Joe.
He passed away at thirty seven years old, very unexpectedly
in December twenty twenty from a cardiac arrhythmia. And one
thing that he had always said is just he wants
to do good in the world. He wants to put
the good in the world. And so I felt like
one way we can do that would be to honor
him and have his name shared with so many families.
(01:45):
And he was born with a congenital heart defect. So
our huge program for the Jobate Foundation is our Family
Resources Fund, which provides a variety of different types of
care to babies and their families born with congenital heart defects.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm so sorry for your loss. As you're speaking right now,
so much of this is starting to sound familiar. I
might have even been on I could have possibly been
on Facebook with your late husband, or at the very
least I'm recalling at the time, perhaps this being announced
on Facebook. And what a tragic loss in twenty twenty
(02:19):
smack dab in the middle of the pandemic too.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right, Yeah, yes it was. It was very in the middle.
We had just had our daughter five months before, so
you're you're.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Really you got handed a lot of tragedy there. My
heart goes out to you, no point. Yeah, yeah, having
a little one, your first, you're only, yes, our.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
First and only I know he lives through her. But
what a great way to also spread his name to
many others, you know, by starting something like this. That's
the goal.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And what's her name? Her name is Vienna, Vienna. I
love it. It's my favorite Billy Joel song. You probably
hear that all the.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Time, Well you sure do, and she says that's her song.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Ah, as it should be. It's a great Just saw
him do it live at Mohegan sun So five years
so you got right to it then. As far as
you wanted to do this fundraiser, it was five years
ago you lost your husband, and that is that's wildly young.
You know, I can't help but think of the guys
(03:18):
I grew up with born with congenital heart defects, like
it was known, but they play sports, they live good life.
Still with us, it seems like it's a tricky thing,
the congenital heart defect. You still go about living your
life playing sports. I know one friend of mine, it's
a hell of a ball player. We'd all be reminded, Oh,
that's right, he was born with that rhythmia, et cetera,
(03:38):
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It is actually the most common birth effect. About forty
thousand babies every year are born with congenital heart defect,
so one in every hundred berths. But the thing is,
of those babies born, twenty five percent will have a
critical HD, you know, congenital heart defect, and it requires
extensive surgery, life saving measures, and so it's a really
long road for a lot of these families. But it
(03:59):
is the most common. And you know Joe being born
with it, he had open heart surgery at six days
old and he was able to grow. He was six foot,
very active, played sports. So it's really so unknown the
past that these babies and their families may be on
with conngenital heart effects.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I found a picture of you guys right now. He's
very familiar looking to me, although I've got a Andreanna
probably told you I've got a few years on you
guys here a little bit, you know, younger than I.
But he's very familiar. I can't say that you look
all that familiar to me. The baby is absolutely adorable.
But I have a daughter myself. Andreanna our liaison here
(04:39):
was my daughter's teacher, actually in third grade, I think
it was. And nothing like a little girl. There's just
nothing like that. And I have a son too, and
I can comfortably say to you nothing like a little girl.
I say it to him all the time as well.
I mean he's like, why don't you just say she's
your favorite? And I'm like, well, because she's not. Not. But
(05:00):
there is nothing like that. I don't know there's a
magic with a little girl. Little boys are just they're wild,
you know, they're wild to tame. And I found him
to be considerably more of a handful. She was just
nothing but magic. And Vienna share looks like magic too.
So you guys are going to be at Anthony's Ocean
View on September eighteenth, fifth annual Light Up the Night.
(05:22):
We all know how Anthony's Ocean View does things right,
so you purchase a ticket. There'll be a great buffet
and we.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Start with cocktail hour outside on their really beautiful patio.
I'm sure everyone's experienced it, but they put out a
really nice spread. We do the cocktail hour out there,
everyone gets a chance to mingle and as you're coming in,
we also have different activities, so a huge raffle. We
have an auction, we have different games to play to
raise the money. But one thing we really love that
we've done the past four years and we look forward
(05:50):
to it this year. We have memory lanterns, and so
you come in, you buy a small little lantern, you
write your memory on it, a memory of someone, a hope,
a wish, whatever it might be, and at the end
of the night there all it up all over the
patio and it's just a really beautiful moment for everyone
to kind of, you know, have their own memories and
they're in the head and they're shared with everyone. So
they'll come in and do that, and then it's dinner, drinks.
(06:12):
We have a DJ He's awesome. And I think another
really great thing for this year is we have five
of the families that we have helped over the past year,
five of our congenital heart families will be there in
attendance to share their story and kind of give you
that picture of these people that everyone who's supporting the
foundation is in turn supporting.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is transplant ever on the table congenital heart defects. It
doesn't necessarily beg for a trans It doesn't mean inevitably
we're going to need a transplant, right at least not
as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Not always. Although we have had two different families for
their children they have received brand new hearts, so they
have had heart transplants. But doesn't always mean that. It
could just mean a repair in the venturecle or a valve.
I mean, there's so many different variations of Hdye are.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Really honoring him too. I mean, you've partnered with Yale,
but from what I see here expanding to a hospital
in North Carolina helping families as far away as California,
talk about honoring a life, How did that come about?
I mean, there are so many causes, so many you know,
I hate to say such a thing but so many
tragedies across the country, so many families losing loved ones.
(07:23):
It's amazing to hear that you're helping families, you know,
on the other side of the country too. How did
that come to be?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, we're really grateful for that. They found us online,
they reached out. We had our team, our board, our volunteers.
They helped kind of vet the process and get that
law rolling. We work with social workers typically from these
hospitals and doctor offices that we're working with. They found us,
We chatted with the family and we were able to
support them financially.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's fantastic. Let me make sure I get the website
right here. So is it Joabate Foundation dot org?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes? Dot org, Yes, Joabate Foundation dot org.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And it's the Light Up the Night event, the fifth
annual September eighteenth, in honor of Joe Obey. You know,
it's amazing too. So when you say those are my
in laws, that's you know, this restaurant that I have
so many fond memories at. I've got a great story
tied to that restaurant from back when I used to
be on the morning host on Casey one on one.
(08:20):
We did a great event there way back in the day,
in the early two thousands. What a staggering blow for
the whole family. You know, it takes me Andreanna probably
told you, it takes me a little while to connect
the dots here. So that means your loss is that
wonderful Famili's loss. It's their son. What a staggering blow
to a huge, beloved family in the Elm City, their.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Son, their nephew. Of course, Joe's uncle does all of
that as well, so it was it was a big loss.
But we're just trying to fill it with big, big work,
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, and you're doing that. What grade do you teach, Megan?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I actually teach k through fourth grade because I'm an
el teacher, So all my friends who don't think English
as the first language, I work with them every day.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah. And Vienna must be getting ready for first grade
right not yet. Next year is first grade, which she
in kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Is year she's in kindergarten this year. So far, she
loves it. I'm hoping she always loves school. But it's
been a nice couple of days for her so far.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
We'll give her a big smooch on the forehead for me,
just blessed in a lot of ways. But you're dealing
with a lot of tragedy too. My heart goes out
to you. I wish Andreana, you know, she gave me
a little bit of the backstory here because I just
feel awful now. But I adore her. She's a great person.
I'm imagining your colleagues. You work together, same school.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
We do work together, and she's actually one of my
very best friends. She's on our board. She does so
much so I'm very lucky to have her.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Oh yeah, she's a hell of a teacher too. She
was one of my daughter's favorites when she was a
little girl. She really was. She was very attentive, and
you know those can be chaotic years. She was a
great third grade teacher.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, oh good, I'll tell her that.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I'd like to hear you tell her that. And Megan,
I'll make sure I keep ringing the bell about light
up the night on September eighteenth old. Oh, it'll be
here in no time. Stay in touch with me any
other events that you do, any other ways that I
can help. I'm at your disposal.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Thank you so much, Bennie. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Take care now,
Hey, this is Vinnie. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Megan Abate I'm calling from the Joelbates Foundation.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Wait you mean Megan abaatee.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well yes, if we were in Italy, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Do you mean that any affiliation to the restaurant on Worcester,
to the family for.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The restaurant, Yes, those are my in laws.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah, I mean I know what a common name it is, too,
but my whole Yeah. Some days it was you guys
want to go to Abates. Other days it was you
want to go to Abates. I mean it's just we
never we never really zeroed in. I don't think a
lot of New Haveners have no.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think it's interchangeable. My father in law just accept
whatever as long as they're buying pizza.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah. Yeah, great food, what a buffet, I mean, just
great food. There is it still relocated? Still not back
on Worcester, still out North Haven Way.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, still on State Street in North Haven. They are
working to rebuild the Worcester Street one, but it might
take a little longer.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Still in north Yeah, and I hear doing at the
very least. When it first started doing big business in
North Haven, I mean the customers went and found them.
No problem.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, yeah, they're thankful for that definitely.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So it's Megan Abate and you're a school teacher, correct,
but you I am. But we're here to talk about
the Joe Abate Foundation. Tell me about this and tell
me about Light Up the Night.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So Light Up to Night is our signature event we
do every year, and before I go into that, I
just want to give a little background, if that's okay
about the foundation.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It was started in memory of my late husband, Joe.
He passed away at thirty seven years old, very unexpectedly
in December twenty twenty from a cardiac arrhythmia. And one
thing that he had always said is just he wants
to do good in the world. He wants to put
the good in the world. And so I felt like
one way we can do that would be to honor
him and have his name shared with so many families.
(01:45):
And he was born with a congenital heart defect. So
our huge program for the Jobate Foundation is our Family
Resources Fund, which provides a variety of different types of
care to babies and their families born with congenital heart defects.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm so sorry for your loss. As you're speaking right now,
so much of this is starting to sound familiar. I
might have even been on I could have possibly been
on Facebook with your late husband, or at the very
least I'm recalling at the time, perhaps this being announced
on Facebook. And what a tragic loss in twenty twenty
(02:19):
smack dab in the middle of the pandemic too.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right, Yeah, yes it was. It was very in the middle.
We had just had our daughter five months before, so
you're you're.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Really you got handed a lot of tragedy there. My
heart goes out to you, no point. Yeah, yeah, having
a little one, your first, you're only, yes, our.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
First and only I know he lives through her. But
what a great way to also spread his name to
many others, you know, by starting something like this. That's
the goal.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And what's her name? Her name is Vienna, Vienna. I
love it. It's my favorite Billy Joel song. You probably
hear that all the.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Time, Well you sure do, and she says that's her song.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Ah, as it should be. It's a great Just saw
him do it live at Mohegan sun So five years
so you got right to it then. As far as
you wanted to do this fundraiser, it was five years
ago you lost your husband, and that is that's wildly young.
You know, I can't help but think of the guys
(03:18):
I grew up with born with congenital heart defects, like
it was known, but they play sports, they live good life.
Still with us, it seems like it's a tricky thing,
the congenital heart defect. You still go about living your
life playing sports. I know one friend of mine, it's
a hell of a ball player. We'd all be reminded, Oh,
that's right, he was born with that rhythmia, et cetera,
(03:38):
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It is actually the most common birth effect. About forty
thousand babies every year are born with congenital heart defect,
so one in every hundred berths. But the thing is,
of those babies born, twenty five percent will have a
critical HD, you know, congenital heart defect, and it requires
extensive surgery, life saving measures, and so it's a really
long road for a lot of these families. But it
(03:59):
is the most common. And you know Joe being born
with it, he had open heart surgery at six days
old and he was able to grow. He was six foot,
very active, played sports. So it's really so unknown the
past that these babies and their families may be on
with conngenital heart effects.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I found a picture of you guys right now. He's
very familiar looking to me, although I've got a Andreanna
probably told you I've got a few years on you
guys here a little bit, you know, younger than I.
But he's very familiar. I can't say that you look
all that familiar to me. The baby is absolutely adorable.
But I have a daughter myself. Andreanna our liaison here
(04:39):
was my daughter's teacher, actually in third grade, I think
it was. And nothing like a little girl. There's just
nothing like that. And I have a son too, and
I can comfortably say to you nothing like a little girl.
I say it to him all the time as well.
I mean he's like, why don't you just say she's
your favorite? And I'm like, well, because she's not. Not. But
(05:00):
there is nothing like that. I don't know there's a
magic with a little girl. Little boys are just they're wild,
you know, they're wild to tame. And I found him
to be considerably more of a handful. She was just
nothing but magic. And Vienna share looks like magic too.
So you guys are going to be at Anthony's Ocean
View on September eighteenth, fifth annual Light Up the Night.
(05:22):
We all know how Anthony's Ocean View does things right,
so you purchase a ticket. There'll be a great buffet
and we.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Start with cocktail hour outside on their really beautiful patio.
I'm sure everyone's experienced it, but they put out a
really nice spread. We do the cocktail hour out there,
everyone gets a chance to mingle and as you're coming in,
we also have different activities, so a huge raffle. We
have an auction, we have different games to play to
raise the money. But one thing we really love that
we've done the past four years and we look forward
(05:50):
to it this year. We have memory lanterns, and so
you come in, you buy a small little lantern, you
write your memory on it, a memory of someone, a hope,
a wish, whatever it might be, and at the end
of the night there all it up all over the
patio and it's just a really beautiful moment for everyone
to kind of, you know, have their own memories and
they're in the head and they're shared with everyone. So
they'll come in and do that, and then it's dinner, drinks.
(06:12):
We have a DJ He's awesome. And I think another
really great thing for this year is we have five
of the families that we have helped over the past year,
five of our congenital heart families will be there in
attendance to share their story and kind of give you
that picture of these people that everyone who's supporting the
foundation is in turn supporting.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is transplant ever on the table congenital heart defects. It
doesn't necessarily beg for a trans It doesn't mean inevitably
we're going to need a transplant, right at least not
as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Not always. Although we have had two different families for
their children they have received brand new hearts, so they
have had heart transplants. But doesn't always mean that. It
could just mean a repair in the venturecle or a valve.
I mean, there's so many different variations of Hdye are.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Really honoring him too. I mean, you've partnered with Yale,
but from what I see here expanding to a hospital
in North Carolina helping families as far away as California,
talk about honoring a life, How did that come about?
I mean, there are so many causes, so many you know,
I hate to say such a thing but so many
tragedies across the country, so many families losing loved ones.
(07:23):
It's amazing to hear that you're helping families, you know,
on the other side of the country too. How did
that come to be?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, we're really grateful for that. They found us online,
they reached out. We had our team, our board, our volunteers.
They helped kind of vet the process and get that
law rolling. We work with social workers typically from these
hospitals and doctor offices that we're working with. They found us,
We chatted with the family and we were able to
support them financially.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's fantastic. Let me make sure I get the website
right here. So is it Joabate Foundation dot org?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes? Dot org, Yes, Joabate Foundation dot org.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And it's the Light Up the Night event, the fifth
annual September eighteenth, in honor of Joe Obey. You know,
it's amazing too. So when you say those are my
in laws, that's you know, this restaurant that I have
so many fond memories at. I've got a great story
tied to that restaurant from back when I used to
be on the morning host on Casey one on one.
(08:20):
We did a great event there way back in the day,
in the early two thousands. What a staggering blow for
the whole family. You know, it takes me Andreanna probably
told you, it takes me a little while to connect
the dots here. So that means your loss is that
wonderful Famili's loss. It's their son. What a staggering blow
to a huge, beloved family in the Elm City, their.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Son, their nephew. Of course, Joe's uncle does all of
that as well, so it was it was a big loss.
But we're just trying to fill it with big, big work,
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, and you're doing that. What grade do you teach, Megan?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I actually teach k through fourth grade because I'm an
el teacher, So all my friends who don't think English
as the first language, I work with them every day.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah. And Vienna must be getting ready for first grade
right not yet. Next year is first grade, which she
in kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Is year she's in kindergarten this year. So far, she
loves it. I'm hoping she always loves school. But it's
been a nice couple of days for her so far.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
We'll give her a big smooch on the forehead for me,
just blessed in a lot of ways. But you're dealing
with a lot of tragedy too. My heart goes out
to you. I wish Andreana, you know, she gave me
a little bit of the backstory here because I just
feel awful now. But I adore her. She's a great person.
I'm imagining your colleagues. You work together, same school.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
We do work together, and she's actually one of my
very best friends. She's on our board. She does so
much so I'm very lucky to have her.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Oh yeah, she's a hell of a teacher too. She
was one of my daughter's favorites when she was a
little girl. She really was. She was very attentive, and
you know those can be chaotic years. She was a
great third grade teacher.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, oh good, I'll tell her that.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I'd like to hear you tell her that. And Megan,
I'll make sure I keep ringing the bell about light
up the night on September eighteenth old. Oh, it'll be
here in no time. Stay in touch with me any
other events that you do, any other ways that I
can help. I'm at your disposal.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Thank you so much, Bennie. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Take care now,
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