April 10, 2024 • 30 mins
"It's Derby Day on Saturday, May 4th at Greystone Brew House in Dillsburg. Enjoy a traditional Derby Day Menu, Cocktails, Silent Auction, Best Dressed Contests and a live showing of the 150th Kentucky Derby. Proceeds go to Veterans Outreach of PA and benefit local veterans who are homeless. Get info and tickets at Greystonederby.com."
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi, I'm Sylvia Ausin. Thisis Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia where
we really do care about our localcommunities and all our listeners who live here.
They're back, and boy, ohboy, am I glad that they
are with us. Are Tom Zimmerman, he's the chairman and co founder of
Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania. And BillHobbsitt Let me do it again, Habasivitch
(00:20):
that I did it. He's theexecutive director. We're going to get an
update on the fifteen tiny homes thatall house homeless veterans and the incredible community
center where homeless veterans will receive manydesperately needed services that are going to help
and rebuild their lives. Additionally,you're going to meet Jason Viscount and Michael
Glazer. These guys are here toinvite you to the event of the year.
(00:43):
It's called Graystone Derby Day. Jasonand Mike are the co chairs of
this awesome event. Guys, letme start with you, dear. You
know with Tom, you and Italked about this before over and over again.
We say we support our vets,but I don't think we totally know
what they go through and what's workis. We don't know what happens to
a lot of them when they comehome. Tell us why we should care
(01:06):
about our veterans. Well, firstof all, thank you for having us
again, Sylvia. It's always wonderfulto see you. Thank you. You
know, our veterans are very veryspecial people, and they are willing to
sacrifice their life for our freedom,and Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania feels that they
deserve better. There are certain veteransthat have not succeeded in the transition back
(01:32):
into society and corporate world for whateverreason, and they've fallen on some very
very hard times. And I thinkus as Americans need to step up and
to help those and give a handup, not a handout, but a
hand up to give them the guidancethat they need to get their life back
on track, to give them thatempowerment and that life of dignity that they
(01:53):
deserve. Well, you know whatbothers me too. A lot of them,
as we said, for lots ofreasons. They do slip from through
the crack, so go for thebetter benefits for one reason or another,
and then they give up. There'sa good reason why they give up.
Could you talk a little bit aboutthat, Well, veterans are very proud
people, and you know, thesystem is antiquated, it's very hard to
(02:14):
maneuver. Some of the veterans don'thave a support system, and as you
mentioned, they will try, theywill reach out and they get frustrated because
they can't talk to a live person, or they get transferred to a different
line and they get dropped, andthey will try a couple times, and
then they are very proud people andthey're taught not to ask for help.
They're taught to solve problems and tocomplete their mission. And even though they're
(02:38):
not fighting the battle all overseas oryou know, in they're fighting a battle
internally, and sometimes they become veryvery frustrated and then it shuts down.
Well, you know, you're one. If you could share a little bit
about how this concept came to you. And a lot of people have things
come to them but they don't putthe effort through. For one reason or
another, it just doesn't work out, and then they worry about these things.
(03:00):
But this I came to you becauseof your dad. Could you talk
about that, Well, my dadwas a War War two veteran, was
in the Navy. Was born innineteen twenty six during the Depression, up
in schoolgle County where you're from,and lost both his parents when he was
seven and had to work in themines at age eleven and had a third
(03:22):
grade education, and he lied abouthis age to go into the Navy during
World War Two and went to Normandyand then from Normandy to the Pacific and
fought the Japanese. When he cameout, he came to Central Pa here
and got a job with the railroadworked there for forty three years. But
the Navy saved his life and changedhis view and because of that allowed us
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to continue his legacy and to continueon. And so it's my turn.
I've been very blessed to have acouple of businesses, a past entrepreneur,
I'm retired now and with the supportof my wife Lisa, we have decided
that we were going to help veteransand veterans that really needed the help and
didn't have the support and that couldn'tspeak for themselves. And so that's how
(04:04):
the whole concept got started, kindof in honor of my dad, but
yet also realizing that we need tohelp others and that's just the right thing
to do, the right thing todo. Absolutely, that's the way our
generation was raised. So that's whatstarted. We keep talking about the concept,
but that's actually what started the fifteentiny Homes project, and the resource
(04:26):
center tell us about that and alsowhere you are with it and when you're
going to announce that, we cango check this out. So as I
was getting ready to retire into goingto my pastor so to speak, I
knew we were going to me.I knew we were going to help our
veterans. We didn't know how.And a friend of mine that I went
to high school with, Val Fletcher, who recently passed away unfortunately, but
(04:50):
she was also one of the cofounders, posted a video of a media
clip from a Racine, Wisconsin ofa tiny hole home village in downtown Race
for homeless veterans. I saw itand I reached out to her, and
this was late in twenty eighteen,and I said, we need one of
(05:11):
these in central PA. And shesays, I'm in if you're in.
And that's how the concept got started. So what we did was we actually
researched and looked at different parts ofthe country of different organizations that were doing
something similar and we really are verybored, strong, and very diverse in
our veterans outreach of Pennsylvania and thesystem started with the concept of we were
(05:36):
going to help our veterans by providingthe tiny homes and the structures and the
brick and mortar part of it.From there, we decided we were going
to address the issues that caused themto become homeless and make it a therapeutic
clinical model, which is unique.And of course having Bill Havisvagen here and
his experiences has taken us to thenew level. We needed to raise over
(05:58):
four million dollars with the help ofDerby Day. It's been phenomenal and we're
just blessed to be the beneficiary againof this upcoming great event. And we
raised the four million dollars we brokearound in June of twenty twenty three,
and we're looking to do We're gonnabe completed very very shortly, maybe even
around Derby Day. Who knows,Oh my goodness, that's wonderful and who
(06:19):
raises that amount of money in acouple of years. The community, i
mean the Harrisburg, Central PA hasbeen phenomenal. People like Jason and Michael
stepping up and saying what do youneed, how can we help and by
making us beneficiary the corporations, thefoundations, the inkind donations. It's just
been humbling with the support that wehave and to do this all during COVID
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was very, very difficult. Butwe had some challenges, but we've overcome
them all. You know, I'veoften talked, as you said, about
people in central Pennsylvan they're incredibly generous. But one thing I have found about
them as well is a lot oftimes when I talk to people, they'll
say here in a Habsburg area thatgoes on for a lot of issues,
but tell us about the veterans they'rehomeless in the Harrisburg area. So we've
(07:04):
actually looked at the analytics and wedid all this prior to picking the location,
which was key to us. Inthe country, there's over thirty three
thousand homeless veterans in a state ofPA were close to eight hundred homeless veterans,
and in Dolphin County we're up tothirty homeless veterans on any given night.
We looked at the different surrounding areasof different counties. Lancaster York,
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Cumberland, Lebanon, and Dolphin Countyhad the highest concentration. By meeting some
of these other organizations that have providedin the other parts of the country,
they said to us, we needto be in downtown Harrisburg or downtown whatever
city that you picked, because that'swhere they feel comfortable, that's their home.
So we needed to be near publictransportation, we needed to be near
(07:48):
healthcare, we needed to be allthose And thank God for Peggy Grove,
who's a local philanthropist who has donatedthe five acres of land to us just
south of the pen Dot building andwe as we mentioned, the area is
just surreal, but we're close toa VIA hospital, we're close to a
satellite office in Mechanicsburg. The publictransportation can get our veterans to and from
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the local healthcare that is right therethey can walk to. And then we're
gonna be working with corporations to helpour veterans get jobs once they get to
that point. And what I likeabout it too is excuse me. Through
your resource center, you recently hiredsomeone that's going to run it. She's
her name's Angel. She's an angeland she's had the experience of that,
and she knows about not only thatfamilies of vets come back and they don't
(08:37):
know how to guild these guys.It's through different worlds. But these veterans,
as you said, post traumatic stressdisorder, drug abuse, all these
kind of things, you have individualplans for each one of the guys,
right, absolutely, so part ofthe therapeutic model and the clinical is that
each veteran will have an individual serviceplan and that individual service plan will be
customized to that veteran because there's somany different reasons that have them to become
(09:00):
homeless, some very extreme and somenot so. So there's not really a
time limit that we're putting on ourveterans day. However, they will be
having a contract that they will helpdevelop and to create, and it's really
about holding them accountable and building themback up to the person in that pride
that they did when they were inthe service. And as they continue to
(09:22):
go through this plan, we willmonitor and we will hold them accountable,
and when it gets to a pointthey will graduate and then move back into
society and live a life of prideand dignity that they deserve and their resource
for other people, other veterans thatcome in for you, right, absolutely,
So we have a six five hundredsquare foot community center. Other organizations
that are having recovery programs, supportsystems will be using our facility. Any
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veteran that is struggling or has anytype of questions or a class that they
might go to and we're offering it, they have the right to come down
and to use our facility. Sowe think that we're going to be experiencing
at least another one hundred to onehundred and twenty five veterans that we'll be
serving and helping throw that. That'sso wonderful. You know. Typically boards
of directors have people who raise money. In your wisdom, you have found
(10:13):
somebody who's a great money raiser.But all the people on your board have
something to do with the military.They get it, they walk the walk.
I think that's so important. Tellme about that. It is and
actually I call it board strong,you know, and we're very diverse.
As I mentioned earlier, over fiftypercent of our veterans or I'm sorry,
our board members are veterans. Andone thing that we found very early when
(10:37):
we started this concept in twenty nineteenis that the veterans that we're going to
be serving are those that don't trustthe system. The system has broken,
and they don't even trust just regularhuman beings or people who have not experienced
what they've experienced. However, theywill trust their brother or sister that have
been in their boots and have beenthere. And so that is part of
(10:58):
that model of of helping our veteransand keen it up and understanding. Uh.
And and Bill, our new executivedirector is a marine. Our first
four ve our first four employees arethree of them have military service. So
it's just going to be it's justreally not only were we board strong,
for employees strong. And I'm veryvery pleased. Let's talk to that marine
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right now, Bill Havisivic, he'syour new executive director. Right, you're
dynamite. I have to tell youthat you have so many things going on
to raise money. And I wantto introduce the big event coming up in
just a couple of weeks. It'scalled Derby Day. Tell us about the
bout what that concept coming? Youhad it? Wait? Wait, you
had one? This is the secondor third? This is number three?
(11:41):
Great number three? Uh? Youhad one again? Uh, you had
one? You had one again,even though it rained, and now you
have this one again. Tell meabout that. Derby Derby Day is our
single biggest event of the year.Awesome, it's awesome. We're thrilled to
be the not needy to participate.We'll be there on the ground with our
(12:03):
own boots helping out, but we'rethrilled to just to be the recipients of
all the money. I mean,there's so many things going on. There'll
be games and contests and raffles andsilent auctions and music and of course the
big race. I mean, thisis one hundred and fiftieth year of the
Derby itself, so that's kind ofexciting and of itself, and it's a
great party. It's a great timeto raise money for our veterans and to
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support our cause and particularly our operationalexpenses. Now moving forward as we getting
ready to open our doors here inJune, and we're just thrilled to do
that. We're thrilled with our bigsponsors, like the Faulkner family of dealerships.
We know Obi Anderson members first.Some of these guys Faulkner really stepped
up there. It's incredible that they'rebehind us. We're just thrilled to be
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there. We hope that we're thereevery year for the next ten years because
just how much it means to us. If we could raise one hundred thousand
dollars at this event, which isnot outside the realm of psibilities, and
I could do that every year,that's one tenth of my budget for an
for the year. I mean,that's incredible to men in one event,
one swoop to be able to dothat. And of course the excitement of
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Derby Day. Uh, you know, people come dressed the hats and I
know I got one. I wasthere, I got the hat exactly.
I mean, it's just it's ait's a really fun day. It's a
great day. We're hoping for sunshinethis year. And the food's fantastic,
the drink's fantastic, the fund's fantastic. The family people can come and just
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enjoy the day and uh and supportour veterans. And that's that's the root
of this thing. And the twogentlemen there are the co chairs of that
with us two, Jason Viscount andMichael Glacer. You were gonna talk about
go ahead, Yeah, So onething I do want to add to what
Bill said, is the food.The food is unbelievable. So the gentleman
sending to the left of me,and so it's gonna be a great introduction.
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But I we would be remissed theVeterans outreach did not mention the food
that will be provided and the rinksand so forth. So we are just
blessed. Jason tell us about thatfood. Well, we have a great
lineup of food this year. Wehave brisket and uh, shrimp and grits.
We have John Gross does a rollbar for us, so I have
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shrimp and crab and oysters. We'redoing some roasted oysters this year. Urban
Churn is actually going to be dippingice cream at the dessert bar this year.
Oh yeah no, and they actuallydonated a churn day. It's gonna
be one of the silent auction itemswhere you can actually go design your ice
cream, name it, and they'regoing to do part of the proceeds to
vote. But also that's great.And the gentleman sitting to your left is
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Mike. Mike pronouncing your name rankLesser. Okay, how did you guys
come together? How did you becomethe CoA chairs of this? Yeah,
I went to Jason, you know, early on, and the two people
that did a great job last year, Surely First and Kato oiler they're both
going to be out of the countrywith their with their companies. So I
went to Jason and I said,Jason, we need two new chairs.
(15:03):
And he looked at me and said, see one new chair. I said,
I got to do this again.But then I went and had brunch
with him and we decided to partnertogether. And you know, we you
know, I'm doing a lot ofthe corporate sponsorships, Jason's managing the event
on site, and we're working itwell as a team, and the whole
committee is doing a great job.A lot of new people in the committee.
(15:24):
But this is an opportunity. I'mhonored and humbled to be to be
the coach chair with Jason. Butit's a blessing to me. You're very
involved in the community to begin withit. They're always fundraising for something.
But why does this, uh,this organization mean so much? Do you
guys? I think when I calledTom's Immerman out of the blue, I'll
(15:46):
never forget the conversation we had andI said, I'm interested in having you
be a benefactor of Graystone brew House, Kentucky, Derby Day. He goes,
what's that? So I explained tohim. I said, I'm not
sure how much money we're going tobe able to raise for you in the
first year, but by the timewe get done the second third year,
everybody in this town is going toknow who you are. So you came
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to hint to Tom with the idea. I didn't know that, and I
came. I read about it onlineand to me, it had a great,
great marketing idea behind it. AndJohn Frish, who is the owner
of Higher Information Group, partners withJason. He wanted a military veterans organization
tied back to Derby Day. Thisis perfect and I just read about it
(16:27):
online. I picked up the phone, call Tom and said, we got
something for you. And right awaywe had a lot of people renewed by
Anderson for example. Yeah, andI met We've met a lot of people
through our connections in the community.And everybody after they found out about everybody
want a chance to touch it andput their hands, put their signature on
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on Derby Day, or put thesignature on Veterans Outreach of PA. It
just had a great, great,you know theme behind it and it's worked
out really really well. What wouldyou say to Jason as far as your
biggest selling point about this event,Well, one thing is VOPA that they
are well organized and they spend theirmoney wisely. You know, there's so
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many organizations that you actually don't knowwhere your money is going and how it's
being spent. I feel with VOPAlike it's all going to the project and
to help veterans. You know,my dad's was in the Marine Corps.
He retired as a defense contractor,so you know, helping out veterans is
important to me. I don't.I mean, that's a no brainer to
(17:32):
me. Go ahead. Well,on one thing I would like to add
to what Michael and Jason just saidis is that when I got that phone
call Michael, and I was notkidding. I didn't know what Derby Day
was. However, that put uson the fast track to get us to
where we are today. Because asyou mentioned, Michael is a people connector.
He's very involved in a community.And he said, I like to
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have a not a team's call,a zoom call because back then during the
COVID zoom was very big. Andhe says, and I want to have
people on there. So I dida fifteen or twenty minute presentation about who
we were, what we were,but it was just a concept at that
point. It was a vision andthey bought into the vision. And I
am so grateful for the opportunity andthe people who you mentioned as in Linda
(18:18):
but are renewed by Innerson. Shewas one of the first ones to call
me and says, I need toknow more. And I had a half
hour conversation with her. She goes, renewed by Innerson is going to donate
all the windows, and I'm like, wow, what else did she Wow?
Well, that was the very firstthing, you know, and that
was in the first conversation. Shedidn't even have to And then she started
reaching out and challenging other corporations andother essential PA. Then she decided that
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she was going to do a littlebit more and I actually approached her and
say, hey, we have abig community center. You said you're gonna
help with the tiny holmes. Canwe do the community center? And it
was a very very big ass butpeople like the Plomba Construction, Vision Resources,
Mohawk Flooring and Harrisburg Wall and Flooring, I mean all the flooring,
(19:02):
the siding, all those has beendonated. But it was introductions through Michael
and through Linda to get us towhere we are and to be able to
the point where we can open ourdoors and start really helping our veterans.
And a lot of people say,gosh, you guys are almost done.
Now we're just starting. Yeah,and yeah, we're gonna be We're gonna
be shifting from our bricks and mortarsin the capital campaign and the construction out
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of it. But as Bill mentioned, we're going to have a million dollar
budget every year because it's a twentyfour to seven facility, because we're different
than all the organizations out there,and we want to be the thumb to
the glove and we want to helpthose veterans that have really fallen on hard
times and haven't succeeded in the infrastructure. So it's going to be a costly
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operation. However, we're going tomake difference in the lives of our veterans.
And you know, we're gonna talkmore about Derby, Bet, I'd
like to talk about some of thethings you have going on. As you
mentioned, it's going to take operatingcapital to get this thing rolling and continue
you have a campaign now called fifteenfor fifteen. Talk to us about that.
So fifteen for fifteen it's actually Bill'sbrainstorm. We have the finances,
(20:11):
so I'll let him talk a littlebit about that. Yeah, fifteen for
fifteen. We've got fifteen tiny homes, and I'm asking people, I'm challenging
organizations all over the state of Pennsylvaniato consider giving us fifteen dollars a month,
one dollar for every tiny home.That fifteen dollars donation. I call
it rabbit hunting. We've hunted alot of elephants out there, and we've
gotten some great donations from great corporations. But in the long run, you
(20:36):
have to feed your family by huntingsmall games, right, And so it's
rabbit hunting for us, And it'ssmall individual donations of fifteen dollars that are
going to make the difference. Ifone thousand people give me fifteen dollars a
month, that's one hundred and eightythousand dollars a year. That's a chunk
of change. We waste more thanfifteen bucks a month on coffee. Yeah,
I'm you go give that every week. So yeah, I'm I think
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it's important. I think it's Idon't think it's in a stretch. I'm
going to all the vfw's in AmericanLegion posts. There is a thousand between
them, and I'm asking them forfifteen dollars a month. The Elks Club
of Mechanics Breger recently had a conversation. I have two thousand members. I'm
challenging them fifteen dollars a month perperson. That fifteen dollars a month is
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really what it's going to be inthe long run sustain It also demonstrates something
critical. It demonstrates that the community, the individual community members, the ground
troops are involved and behind us,not just the larger corporations, which we
dearly love and need. We're goingto continue to need them, we still
need their help it but the involvementof the individual people is going to speak
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louder than anything to everybody. Andyou know what I think, Excuse me,
I mentioned this before when you guyswere here. Some little girl,
some little girl raised a couple thousandbucks. Yes, anybody can do it.
Schookill County. We had a nineyear old girl who raised money four
thousand dollars. We brought her downto the site, we got her gave
her a big check, and Tomand I were there to greet her and
(22:03):
her family. She had smiles allover the place. She was as cute
as a button. And we're justyou know, that's the type of community
involvement I'm looking for, and widespread, not just here in the immediate surround.
I'm looking to impact and get peoplefrom around the state. Individuals to
go ahead and consider donating fifteen dollarsa month. Talk to us, you're
(22:26):
gonna say, Tom, So whatI wanted to say was and add to
what Bill said, this is wonderful. Go to our website, Veterans Outreach
of PA dot org. The tabon top where says how to contribute,
You click on there and there's abutton that says fifteen for fifteen to learn
more about the project, and againit's that fifteen dollars. You put your
credit card in and every month you'llbe charged fifteen dollars, but it all
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goes to VOPA, and we getenough people, it's going to make it
sustainable for many, many years tocome. If you can, briefly,
Bill tell us more about there's anarmy is it? Seven Wins of an
Armory ride coming up? There's abig Armory ride coming up and we're thrilled
to have them on board. Andif I recall right correctly, and Tom,
maybe you'll have to help me withmy memory. That's a former marine
also that owns the armory. Itis Pat Conahan and that event is on
(23:11):
April twentieth. It's just right aroundthe corner. Yeah, and they're riding
for us and raising money and that'sjust fantastic. Another corporation is sponsoring a
clay shooter later in May. Right, that is correct as well, and
they're located stone Bridge Financial and they'reright in Wormleysburg and he is a West
Point graduate. So they've all beenvery evolved and very and so we've been
(23:36):
very, very blessed and that's comingup, I think the end of May,
May twenty third. That's great.And that's a Blue Rich Sportsman's Club
Blue Rich course over towards Central DolphinHigh School. Right. We're looking for
teams to sign up for that,by the way, and so the more
teams the merrier, and they canget in touch with you through your website
or May and Eytime got a holdof me also to tell us about the
brick that's okay, campaigns. Youknow, the bricks are very important.
(24:00):
Or we have a star memorial.If you go to our website or follow
us on Facebook, you're going tosee pictures of our star memorials. Where
our flags are. It's in thecenter of the tiny home village. We've
got a heart shaped tiny home villageand right there in the center is a
big star. And that star ismade up of bricks. And people can
purchase bricks two hundred and fifty dollarsfor the three by five brick, or
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we have the larger brick for fivehundred dollars. What's great is you can
have them engraved with the names,service, the date of birth, anything
you kind of want on there.But more importantly to me, and more
importantly to our men and women whowill be at the center or at our
community center, is that there's alittle place in there where you can add
a storyline. You get five hundredwords to type in something. I am
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asking people to consider typing in wordsof encouragement so that veterans who are alive
today, even deceased veterans, ifthe family buys a brick for somebody to
honor them, sure that that deceasedveteran can actually speak into the lives of
the veterans who are participating in ourprogram. Because every morning at Choo,
when we go at zero seven hundred, when we get to the chow hall
(25:03):
and breakfast starts, we're going toread off the stories or read off the
names and the stories of those peoplewho have purchased bricks. Oh, and
if they can say, we wantyou to hang in there, we want
you to prevail, we want youto succeed, we want you to win
this battle. We're behind you.I think that speaks volumes and further tells
(25:25):
us about the greater community involvement thatwe're going to need to surround our veterans
and to accomplish this last mission andget them home. What do you guys
need, Jason and Mike as faras the derby day's coming up, and
excuse me a couple of weeks Mayfourth at gray Stone in Dillsburg. What
do you need right now? Whatkind of support do you need right now?
(25:47):
We're actually in really good shape withplanning and the food. John Gross
really came in with the food andwe had a bunch of beer, liquor
and wine companies come in so reallywe're geared up ready to go. May
be some more silent auction items andgift cards from restaurants, stuff like that,
the prices, but besides that,we're geared up, ready to go.
(26:08):
And I think this is actually gonnabe our biggest year ever. Yeah,
there's so many great things to doa Derby day. There's a lot
of game. My favorite thing isProsecco Pop where you can buy a bottle
of prosecco champagne, shake it up, you launch your cork and whoever cork
goes for this one surprize at theend of the day. But more importantly,
Branning give you a really long strawso you can put it in your
(26:30):
bottle and you can walk around withyour champagne bottle all day. So there's
gonna be a lot of slid auctions, putting solid auction, seventy five different
sold auction gifts, a lot ofunique baskets. It's five o'clock somewhere,
Champagne liquor basket for celebration, sothere's and there's a couple of nice gifts
(26:53):
for fly fishing gift basket as well, and you can there's a brewery that's
gonna let you go on site anddesign your own beer and name it after
you. And they're going to doit a beer launch and every dollar from
every beer that's purchased we'll go backtoo as well. I think that's why.
So we're doing it'll be a reallycreative, fun day. The women
(27:15):
always look beautiful in their beautiful dresses, big hats, you know, derby
jents. So it's a fun day. It's the funnest party of the day.
And you know, say that prayerif you would plays for the weather.
Oh yeah, yeah, but youguys do it whether the weather's good
or not. Get that great bigcan they do and they do a phenomenal
job. However, when it's niceout, it makes it a lot easier.
And it's right on the golf course. The Graystone brew House is just
(27:38):
right in the background. It's justperfect. It's it's erennial, it's it
looks perfect, you know. Butwe need people to attend. We need
to sell tickets. We need toyou know, increase the number of people
that come because that raises the amountof money that we raise. And of
course bring your wallets. There's alot of different events throughout the day.
That you can you know, purchaseand as Michael and Jason said, so
it's to me. It's one ofthe premiere parties splash beneficiaries for anywhere in
(28:06):
Central PA. And I think lastyear we had over three hundred people.
It was close to four hundred wowall forth. So so let's get five
hundred there. So you know,so people here are listening, sign up,
have fun, dressed to the dress, you know, use your best
Derby Day outfit. There's contests allday long and it's just a great and
(28:27):
fun event. And we will haveour tiny home there. We have a
tiny home that's on a trailer.We will have a model that people can
come in and look at and seewhat it's going to be like. It's
not exactly what's on the in ourcommunity at Veterans Grove, and it will
be available for people to you know, stop in and to say Hi.
It's you're gonna say, Jason.Yeah, it's going to be May fourth
(28:51):
at Range and Golf Course, Graystonebrew House. Tickets are for sale at
graystonederby day dot com. You didthat for me and you can buy the
tickets there. You can actually alsopre start bidding on some of the silent
auction items which should be up inthe next week or so. Okay,
And to reiterate what you just said, Derby Day is on Saturday, May
(29:14):
fourth or time about two o'clock twothirty and the race starts at seven,
so we wind down around seven o'clockright after the race, and it is
May fourth, that's fourth be withyou, that's Star Wars Day. So
that's a good another military guy aboutit. Graystone brew House in Dillsburg gets
a traditional Derby Day menu, asJason said, cocktail, silent auction,
(29:36):
best dressed contest, a live showing. We didn't mention that. One hundred
and fiftieth Kentucky Derby proceeds again goto Veterans Outreach of PA and benefit local
veterans who are homeless. Get informationcheckaus Jason ware greystonederby Day dot com.
Guys, I can't thank you enough. I want to say to my listeners,
if you listen to this program,please spread the word that on any
given day, thirty Harrisburg veterans arehomeless. That's horrible, that's heartbreaking,
(30:00):
it's wrong, bottom right line.But you can change them by helping Veterans
Outreach continue to work providing a homeand greatly needed services. Again, you
can do it by attending Derby Dayor any other event by a break volunteer.
They ask for your donations and it'sagain Veterans Outreach of PA dot org.
And here's my reminder for you tocatch insight on one of our iHeart
(30:22):
stations this weekend or on your favoritepodcast step I'm Sylvia Moss. This has
been insight. Thank you so muchfor listening. Go to Derby Day.
See you next week.
Hi, I'm Sylvia Ausin. Thisis Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia where
we really do care about our localcommunities and all our listeners who live here.
They're back, and boy, ohboy, am I glad that they
are with us. Are Tom Zimmerman, he's the chairman and co founder of
Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania. And BillHobbsitt Let me do it again, Habasivitch
(00:20):
that I did it. He's theexecutive director. We're going to get an
update on the fifteen tiny homes thatall house homeless veterans and the incredible community
center where homeless veterans will receive manydesperately needed services that are going to help
and rebuild their lives. Additionally,you're going to meet Jason Viscount and Michael
Glazer. These guys are here toinvite you to the event of the year.
(00:43):
It's called Graystone Derby Day. Jasonand Mike are the co chairs of
this awesome event. Guys, letme start with you, dear. You
know with Tom, you and Italked about this before over and over again.
We say we support our vets,but I don't think we totally know
what they go through and what's workis. We don't know what happens to
a lot of them when they comehome. Tell us why we should care
(01:06):
about our veterans. Well, firstof all, thank you for having us
again, Sylvia. It's always wonderfulto see you. Thank you. You
know, our veterans are very veryspecial people, and they are willing to
sacrifice their life for our freedom,and Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania feels that they
deserve better. There are certain veteransthat have not succeeded in the transition back
(01:32):
into society and corporate world for whateverreason, and they've fallen on some very
very hard times. And I thinkus as Americans need to step up and
to help those and give a handup, not a handout, but a
hand up to give them the guidancethat they need to get their life back
on track, to give them thatempowerment and that life of dignity that they
(01:53):
deserve. Well, you know whatbothers me too. A lot of them,
as we said, for lots ofreasons. They do slip from through
the crack, so go for thebetter benefits for one reason or another,
and then they give up. There'sa good reason why they give up.
Could you talk a little bit aboutthat, Well, veterans are very proud
people, and you know, thesystem is antiquated, it's very hard to
(02:14):
maneuver. Some of the veterans don'thave a support system, and as you
mentioned, they will try, theywill reach out and they get frustrated because
they can't talk to a live person, or they get transferred to a different
line and they get dropped, andthey will try a couple times, and
then they are very proud people andthey're taught not to ask for help.
They're taught to solve problems and tocomplete their mission. And even though they're
(02:38):
not fighting the battle all overseas oryou know, in they're fighting a battle
internally, and sometimes they become veryvery frustrated and then it shuts down.
Well, you know, you're one. If you could share a little bit
about how this concept came to you. And a lot of people have things
come to them but they don't putthe effort through. For one reason or
another, it just doesn't work out, and then they worry about these things.
(03:00):
But this I came to you becauseof your dad. Could you talk
about that, Well, my dadwas a War War two veteran, was
in the Navy. Was born innineteen twenty six during the Depression, up
in schoolgle County where you're from,and lost both his parents when he was
seven and had to work in themines at age eleven and had a third
(03:22):
grade education, and he lied abouthis age to go into the Navy during
World War Two and went to Normandyand then from Normandy to the Pacific and
fought the Japanese. When he cameout, he came to Central Pa here
and got a job with the railroadworked there for forty three years. But
the Navy saved his life and changedhis view and because of that allowed us
(03:43):
to continue his legacy and to continueon. And so it's my turn.
I've been very blessed to have acouple of businesses, a past entrepreneur,
I'm retired now and with the supportof my wife Lisa, we have decided
that we were going to help veteransand veterans that really needed the help and
didn't have the support and that couldn'tspeak for themselves. And so that's how
(04:04):
the whole concept got started, kindof in honor of my dad, but
yet also realizing that we need tohelp others and that's just the right thing
to do, the right thing todo. Absolutely, that's the way our
generation was raised. So that's whatstarted. We keep talking about the concept,
but that's actually what started the fifteentiny Homes project, and the resource
(04:26):
center tell us about that and alsowhere you are with it and when you're
going to announce that, we cango check this out. So as I
was getting ready to retire into goingto my pastor so to speak, I
knew we were going to me.I knew we were going to help our
veterans. We didn't know how.And a friend of mine that I went
to high school with, Val Fletcher, who recently passed away unfortunately, but
(04:50):
she was also one of the cofounders, posted a video of a media
clip from a Racine, Wisconsin ofa tiny hole home village in downtown Race
for homeless veterans. I saw itand I reached out to her, and
this was late in twenty eighteen,and I said, we need one of
(05:11):
these in central PA. And shesays, I'm in if you're in.
And that's how the concept got started. So what we did was we actually
researched and looked at different parts ofthe country of different organizations that were doing
something similar and we really are verybored, strong, and very diverse in
our veterans outreach of Pennsylvania and thesystem started with the concept of we were
(05:36):
going to help our veterans by providingthe tiny homes and the structures and the
brick and mortar part of it.From there, we decided we were going
to address the issues that caused themto become homeless and make it a therapeutic
clinical model, which is unique.And of course having Bill Havisvagen here and
his experiences has taken us to thenew level. We needed to raise over
(05:58):
four million dollars with the help ofDerby Day. It's been phenomenal and we're
just blessed to be the beneficiary againof this upcoming great event. And we
raised the four million dollars we brokearound in June of twenty twenty three,
and we're looking to do We're gonnabe completed very very shortly, maybe even
around Derby Day. Who knows,Oh my goodness, that's wonderful and who
(06:19):
raises that amount of money in acouple of years. The community, i
mean the Harrisburg, Central PA hasbeen phenomenal. People like Jason and Michael
stepping up and saying what do youneed, how can we help and by
making us beneficiary the corporations, thefoundations, the inkind donations. It's just
been humbling with the support that wehave and to do this all during COVID
(06:41):
was very, very difficult. Butwe had some challenges, but we've overcome
them all. You know, I'veoften talked, as you said, about
people in central Pennsylvan they're incredibly generous. But one thing I have found about
them as well is a lot oftimes when I talk to people, they'll
say here in a Habsburg area thatgoes on for a lot of issues,
but tell us about the veterans they'rehomeless in the Harrisburg area. So we've
(07:04):
actually looked at the analytics and wedid all this prior to picking the location,
which was key to us. Inthe country, there's over thirty three
thousand homeless veterans in a state ofPA were close to eight hundred homeless veterans,
and in Dolphin County we're up tothirty homeless veterans on any given night.
We looked at the different surrounding areasof different counties. Lancaster York,
(07:27):
Cumberland, Lebanon, and Dolphin Countyhad the highest concentration. By meeting some
of these other organizations that have providedin the other parts of the country,
they said to us, we needto be in downtown Harrisburg or downtown whatever
city that you picked, because that'swhere they feel comfortable, that's their home.
So we needed to be near publictransportation, we needed to be near
(07:48):
healthcare, we needed to be allthose And thank God for Peggy Grove,
who's a local philanthropist who has donatedthe five acres of land to us just
south of the pen Dot building andwe as we mentioned, the area is
just surreal, but we're close toa VIA hospital, we're close to a
satellite office in Mechanicsburg. The publictransportation can get our veterans to and from
(08:13):
the local healthcare that is right therethey can walk to. And then we're
gonna be working with corporations to helpour veterans get jobs once they get to
that point. And what I likeabout it too is excuse me. Through
your resource center, you recently hiredsomeone that's going to run it. She's
her name's Angel. She's an angeland she's had the experience of that,
and she knows about not only thatfamilies of vets come back and they don't
(08:37):
know how to guild these guys.It's through different worlds. But these veterans,
as you said, post traumatic stressdisorder, drug abuse, all these
kind of things, you have individualplans for each one of the guys,
right, absolutely, so part ofthe therapeutic model and the clinical is that
each veteran will have an individual serviceplan and that individual service plan will be
customized to that veteran because there's somany different reasons that have them to become
(09:00):
homeless, some very extreme and somenot so. So there's not really a
time limit that we're putting on ourveterans day. However, they will be
having a contract that they will helpdevelop and to create, and it's really
about holding them accountable and building themback up to the person in that pride
that they did when they were inthe service. And as they continue to
(09:22):
go through this plan, we willmonitor and we will hold them accountable,
and when it gets to a pointthey will graduate and then move back into
society and live a life of prideand dignity that they deserve and their resource
for other people, other veterans thatcome in for you, right, absolutely,
So we have a six five hundredsquare foot community center. Other organizations
that are having recovery programs, supportsystems will be using our facility. Any
(09:48):
veteran that is struggling or has anytype of questions or a class that they
might go to and we're offering it, they have the right to come down
and to use our facility. Sowe think that we're going to be experiencing
at least another one hundred to onehundred and twenty five veterans that we'll be
serving and helping throw that. That'sso wonderful. You know. Typically boards
of directors have people who raise money. In your wisdom, you have found
(10:13):
somebody who's a great money raiser.But all the people on your board have
something to do with the military.They get it, they walk the walk.
I think that's so important. Tellme about that. It is and
actually I call it board strong,you know, and we're very diverse.
As I mentioned earlier, over fiftypercent of our veterans or I'm sorry,
our board members are veterans. Andone thing that we found very early when
(10:37):
we started this concept in twenty nineteenis that the veterans that we're going to
be serving are those that don't trustthe system. The system has broken,
and they don't even trust just regularhuman beings or people who have not experienced
what they've experienced. However, theywill trust their brother or sister that have
been in their boots and have beenthere. And so that is part of
(10:58):
that model of of helping our veteransand keen it up and understanding. Uh.
And and Bill, our new executivedirector is a marine. Our first
four ve our first four employees arethree of them have military service. So
it's just going to be it's justreally not only were we board strong,
for employees strong. And I'm veryvery pleased. Let's talk to that marine
(11:20):
right now, Bill Havisivic, he'syour new executive director. Right, you're
dynamite. I have to tell youthat you have so many things going on
to raise money. And I wantto introduce the big event coming up in
just a couple of weeks. It'scalled Derby Day. Tell us about the
bout what that concept coming? Youhad it? Wait? Wait, you
had one? This is the secondor third? This is number three?
(11:41):
Great number three? Uh? Youhad one again? Uh, you had
one? You had one again,even though it rained, and now you
have this one again. Tell meabout that. Derby Derby Day is our
single biggest event of the year.Awesome, it's awesome. We're thrilled to
be the not needy to participate.We'll be there on the ground with our
(12:03):
own boots helping out, but we'rethrilled to just to be the recipients of
all the money. I mean,there's so many things going on. There'll
be games and contests and raffles andsilent auctions and music and of course the
big race. I mean, thisis one hundred and fiftieth year of the
Derby itself, so that's kind ofexciting and of itself, and it's a
great party. It's a great timeto raise money for our veterans and to
(12:26):
support our cause and particularly our operationalexpenses. Now moving forward as we getting
ready to open our doors here inJune, and we're just thrilled to do
that. We're thrilled with our bigsponsors, like the Faulkner family of dealerships.
We know Obi Anderson members first.Some of these guys Faulkner really stepped
up there. It's incredible that they'rebehind us. We're just thrilled to be
(12:48):
there. We hope that we're thereevery year for the next ten years because
just how much it means to us. If we could raise one hundred thousand
dollars at this event, which isnot outside the realm of psibilities, and
I could do that every year,that's one tenth of my budget for an
for the year. I mean,that's incredible to men in one event,
one swoop to be able to dothat. And of course the excitement of
(13:11):
Derby Day. Uh, you know, people come dressed the hats and I
know I got one. I wasthere, I got the hat exactly.
I mean, it's just it's ait's a really fun day. It's a
great day. We're hoping for sunshinethis year. And the food's fantastic,
the drink's fantastic, the fund's fantastic. The family people can come and just
(13:33):
enjoy the day and uh and supportour veterans. And that's that's the root
of this thing. And the twogentlemen there are the co chairs of that
with us two, Jason Viscount andMichael Glacer. You were gonna talk about
go ahead, Yeah, So onething I do want to add to what
Bill said, is the food.The food is unbelievable. So the gentleman
sending to the left of me,and so it's gonna be a great introduction.
(13:54):
But I we would be remissed theVeterans outreach did not mention the food
that will be provided and the rinksand so forth. So we are just
blessed. Jason tell us about thatfood. Well, we have a great
lineup of food this year. Wehave brisket and uh, shrimp and grits.
We have John Gross does a rollbar for us, so I have
(14:15):
shrimp and crab and oysters. We'redoing some roasted oysters this year. Urban
Churn is actually going to be dippingice cream at the dessert bar this year.
Oh yeah no, and they actuallydonated a churn day. It's gonna
be one of the silent auction itemswhere you can actually go design your ice
cream, name it, and they'regoing to do part of the proceeds to
vote. But also that's great.And the gentleman sitting to your left is
(14:41):
Mike. Mike pronouncing your name rankLesser. Okay, how did you guys
come together? How did you becomethe CoA chairs of this? Yeah,
I went to Jason, you know, early on, and the two people
that did a great job last year, Surely First and Kato oiler they're both
going to be out of the countrywith their with their companies. So I
went to Jason and I said,Jason, we need two new chairs.
(15:03):
And he looked at me and said, see one new chair. I said,
I got to do this again.But then I went and had brunch
with him and we decided to partnertogether. And you know, we you
know, I'm doing a lot ofthe corporate sponsorships, Jason's managing the event
on site, and we're working itwell as a team, and the whole
committee is doing a great job.A lot of new people in the committee.
(15:24):
But this is an opportunity. I'mhonored and humbled to be to be
the coach chair with Jason. Butit's a blessing to me. You're very
involved in the community to begin withit. They're always fundraising for something.
But why does this, uh,this organization mean so much? Do you
guys? I think when I calledTom's Immerman out of the blue, I'll
(15:46):
never forget the conversation we had andI said, I'm interested in having you
be a benefactor of Graystone brew House, Kentucky, Derby Day. He goes,
what's that? So I explained tohim. I said, I'm not
sure how much money we're going tobe able to raise for you in the
first year, but by the timewe get done the second third year,
everybody in this town is going toknow who you are. So you came
(16:06):
to hint to Tom with the idea. I didn't know that, and I
came. I read about it onlineand to me, it had a great,
great marketing idea behind it. AndJohn Frish, who is the owner
of Higher Information Group, partners withJason. He wanted a military veterans organization
tied back to Derby Day. Thisis perfect and I just read about it
(16:27):
online. I picked up the phone, call Tom and said, we got
something for you. And right awaywe had a lot of people renewed by
Anderson for example. Yeah, andI met We've met a lot of people
through our connections in the community.And everybody after they found out about everybody
want a chance to touch it andput their hands, put their signature on
(16:48):
on Derby Day, or put thesignature on Veterans Outreach of PA. It
just had a great, great,you know theme behind it and it's worked
out really really well. What wouldyou say to Jason as far as your
biggest selling point about this event,Well, one thing is VOPA that they
are well organized and they spend theirmoney wisely. You know, there's so
(17:10):
many organizations that you actually don't knowwhere your money is going and how it's
being spent. I feel with VOPAlike it's all going to the project and
to help veterans. You know,my dad's was in the Marine Corps.
He retired as a defense contractor,so you know, helping out veterans is
important to me. I don't.I mean, that's a no brainer to
(17:32):
me. Go ahead. Well,on one thing I would like to add
to what Michael and Jason just saidis is that when I got that phone
call Michael, and I was notkidding. I didn't know what Derby Day
was. However, that put uson the fast track to get us to
where we are today. Because asyou mentioned, Michael is a people connector.
He's very involved in a community.And he said, I like to
(17:52):
have a not a team's call,a zoom call because back then during the
COVID zoom was very big. Andhe says, and I want to have
people on there. So I dida fifteen or twenty minute presentation about who
we were, what we were,but it was just a concept at that
point. It was a vision andthey bought into the vision. And I
am so grateful for the opportunity andthe people who you mentioned as in Linda
(18:18):
but are renewed by Innerson. Shewas one of the first ones to call
me and says, I need toknow more. And I had a half
hour conversation with her. She goes, renewed by Innerson is going to donate
all the windows, and I'm like, wow, what else did she Wow?
Well, that was the very firstthing, you know, and that
was in the first conversation. Shedidn't even have to And then she started
reaching out and challenging other corporations andother essential PA. Then she decided that
(18:42):
she was going to do a littlebit more and I actually approached her and
say, hey, we have abig community center. You said you're gonna
help with the tiny holmes. Canwe do the community center? And it
was a very very big ass butpeople like the Plomba Construction, Vision Resources,
Mohawk Flooring and Harrisburg Wall and Flooring, I mean all the flooring,
(19:02):
the siding, all those has beendonated. But it was introductions through Michael
and through Linda to get us towhere we are and to be able to
the point where we can open ourdoors and start really helping our veterans.
And a lot of people say,gosh, you guys are almost done.
Now we're just starting. Yeah,and yeah, we're gonna be We're gonna
be shifting from our bricks and mortarsin the capital campaign and the construction out
(19:25):
of it. But as Bill mentioned, we're going to have a million dollar
budget every year because it's a twentyfour to seven facility, because we're different
than all the organizations out there,and we want to be the thumb to
the glove and we want to helpthose veterans that have really fallen on hard
times and haven't succeeded in the infrastructure. So it's going to be a costly
(19:48):
operation. However, we're going tomake difference in the lives of our veterans.
And you know, we're gonna talkmore about Derby, Bet, I'd
like to talk about some of thethings you have going on. As you
mentioned, it's going to take operatingcapital to get this thing rolling and continue
you have a campaign now called fifteenfor fifteen. Talk to us about that.
So fifteen for fifteen it's actually Bill'sbrainstorm. We have the finances,
(20:11):
so I'll let him talk a littlebit about that. Yeah, fifteen for
fifteen. We've got fifteen tiny homes, and I'm asking people, I'm challenging
organizations all over the state of Pennsylvaniato consider giving us fifteen dollars a month,
one dollar for every tiny home.That fifteen dollars donation. I call
it rabbit hunting. We've hunted alot of elephants out there, and we've
gotten some great donations from great corporations. But in the long run, you
(20:36):
have to feed your family by huntingsmall games, right, And so it's
rabbit hunting for us, And it'ssmall individual donations of fifteen dollars that are
going to make the difference. Ifone thousand people give me fifteen dollars a
month, that's one hundred and eightythousand dollars a year. That's a chunk
of change. We waste more thanfifteen bucks a month on coffee. Yeah,
I'm you go give that every week. So yeah, I'm I think
(20:57):
it's important. I think it's Idon't think it's in a stretch. I'm
going to all the vfw's in AmericanLegion posts. There is a thousand between
them, and I'm asking them forfifteen dollars a month. The Elks Club
of Mechanics Breger recently had a conversation. I have two thousand members. I'm
challenging them fifteen dollars a month perperson. That fifteen dollars a month is
(21:18):
really what it's going to be inthe long run sustain It also demonstrates something
critical. It demonstrates that the community, the individual community members, the ground
troops are involved and behind us,not just the larger corporations, which we
dearly love and need. We're goingto continue to need them, we still
need their help it but the involvementof the individual people is going to speak
(21:41):
louder than anything to everybody. Andyou know what I think, Excuse me,
I mentioned this before when you guyswere here. Some little girl,
some little girl raised a couple thousandbucks. Yes, anybody can do it.
Schookill County. We had a nineyear old girl who raised money four
thousand dollars. We brought her downto the site, we got her gave
her a big check, and Tomand I were there to greet her and
(22:03):
her family. She had smiles allover the place. She was as cute
as a button. And we're justyou know, that's the type of community
involvement I'm looking for, and widespread, not just here in the immediate surround.
I'm looking to impact and get peoplefrom around the state. Individuals to
go ahead and consider donating fifteen dollarsa month. Talk to us, you're
(22:26):
gonna say, Tom, So whatI wanted to say was and add to
what Bill said, this is wonderful. Go to our website, Veterans Outreach
of PA dot org. The tabon top where says how to contribute,
You click on there and there's abutton that says fifteen for fifteen to learn
more about the project, and againit's that fifteen dollars. You put your
credit card in and every month you'llbe charged fifteen dollars, but it all
(22:47):
goes to VOPA, and we getenough people, it's going to make it
sustainable for many, many years tocome. If you can, briefly,
Bill tell us more about there's anarmy is it? Seven Wins of an
Armory ride coming up? There's abig Armory ride coming up and we're thrilled
to have them on board. Andif I recall right correctly, and Tom,
maybe you'll have to help me withmy memory. That's a former marine
also that owns the armory. Itis Pat Conahan and that event is on
(23:11):
April twentieth. It's just right aroundthe corner. Yeah, and they're riding
for us and raising money and that'sjust fantastic. Another corporation is sponsoring a
clay shooter later in May. Right, that is correct as well, and
they're located stone Bridge Financial and they'reright in Wormleysburg and he is a West
Point graduate. So they've all beenvery evolved and very and so we've been
(23:36):
very, very blessed and that's comingup, I think the end of May,
May twenty third. That's great.And that's a Blue Rich Sportsman's Club
Blue Rich course over towards Central DolphinHigh School. Right. We're looking for
teams to sign up for that,by the way, and so the more
teams the merrier, and they canget in touch with you through your website
or May and Eytime got a holdof me also to tell us about the
brick that's okay, campaigns. Youknow, the bricks are very important.
(24:00):
Or we have a star memorial.If you go to our website or follow
us on Facebook, you're going tosee pictures of our star memorials. Where
our flags are. It's in thecenter of the tiny home village. We've
got a heart shaped tiny home villageand right there in the center is a
big star. And that star ismade up of bricks. And people can
purchase bricks two hundred and fifty dollarsfor the three by five brick, or
(24:21):
we have the larger brick for fivehundred dollars. What's great is you can
have them engraved with the names,service, the date of birth, anything
you kind of want on there.But more importantly to me, and more
importantly to our men and women whowill be at the center or at our
community center, is that there's alittle place in there where you can add
a storyline. You get five hundredwords to type in something. I am
(24:41):
asking people to consider typing in wordsof encouragement so that veterans who are alive
today, even deceased veterans, ifthe family buys a brick for somebody to
honor them, sure that that deceasedveteran can actually speak into the lives of
the veterans who are participating in ourprogram. Because every morning at Choo,
when we go at zero seven hundred, when we get to the chow hall
(25:03):
and breakfast starts, we're going toread off the stories or read off the
names and the stories of those peoplewho have purchased bricks. Oh, and
if they can say, we wantyou to hang in there, we want
you to prevail, we want youto succeed, we want you to win
this battle. We're behind you.I think that speaks volumes and further tells
(25:25):
us about the greater community involvement thatwe're going to need to surround our veterans
and to accomplish this last mission andget them home. What do you guys
need, Jason and Mike as faras the derby day's coming up, and
excuse me a couple of weeks Mayfourth at gray Stone in Dillsburg. What
do you need right now? Whatkind of support do you need right now?
(25:47):
We're actually in really good shape withplanning and the food. John Gross
really came in with the food andwe had a bunch of beer, liquor
and wine companies come in so reallywe're geared up ready to go. May
be some more silent auction items andgift cards from restaurants, stuff like that,
the prices, but besides that,we're geared up, ready to go.
(26:08):
And I think this is actually gonnabe our biggest year ever. Yeah,
there's so many great things to doa Derby day. There's a lot
of game. My favorite thing isProsecco Pop where you can buy a bottle
of prosecco champagne, shake it up, you launch your cork and whoever cork
goes for this one surprize at theend of the day. But more importantly,
Branning give you a really long strawso you can put it in your
(26:30):
bottle and you can walk around withyour champagne bottle all day. So there's
gonna be a lot of slid auctions, putting solid auction, seventy five different
sold auction gifts, a lot ofunique baskets. It's five o'clock somewhere,
Champagne liquor basket for celebration, sothere's and there's a couple of nice gifts
(26:53):
for fly fishing gift basket as well, and you can there's a brewery that's
gonna let you go on site anddesign your own beer and name it after
you. And they're going to doit a beer launch and every dollar from
every beer that's purchased we'll go backtoo as well. I think that's why.
So we're doing it'll be a reallycreative, fun day. The women
(27:15):
always look beautiful in their beautiful dresses, big hats, you know, derby
jents. So it's a fun day. It's the funnest party of the day.
And you know, say that prayerif you would plays for the weather.
Oh yeah, yeah, but youguys do it whether the weather's good
or not. Get that great bigcan they do and they do a phenomenal
job. However, when it's niceout, it makes it a lot easier.
And it's right on the golf course. The Graystone brew House is just
(27:38):
right in the background. It's justperfect. It's it's erennial, it's it
looks perfect, you know. Butwe need people to attend. We need
to sell tickets. We need toyou know, increase the number of people
that come because that raises the amountof money that we raise. And of
course bring your wallets. There's alot of different events throughout the day.
That you can you know, purchaseand as Michael and Jason said, so
it's to me. It's one ofthe premiere parties splash beneficiaries for anywhere in
(28:06):
Central PA. And I think lastyear we had over three hundred people.
It was close to four hundred wowall forth. So so let's get five
hundred there. So you know,so people here are listening, sign up,
have fun, dressed to the dress, you know, use your best
Derby Day outfit. There's contests allday long and it's just a great and
(28:27):
fun event. And we will haveour tiny home there. We have a
tiny home that's on a trailer.We will have a model that people can
come in and look at and seewhat it's going to be like. It's
not exactly what's on the in ourcommunity at Veterans Grove, and it will
be available for people to you know, stop in and to say Hi.
It's you're gonna say, Jason.Yeah, it's going to be May fourth
(28:51):
at Range and Golf Course, Graystonebrew House. Tickets are for sale at
graystonederby day dot com. You didthat for me and you can buy the
tickets there. You can actually alsopre start bidding on some of the silent
auction items which should be up inthe next week or so. Okay,
And to reiterate what you just said, Derby Day is on Saturday, May
(29:14):
fourth or time about two o'clock twothirty and the race starts at seven,
so we wind down around seven o'clockright after the race, and it is
May fourth, that's fourth be withyou, that's Star Wars Day. So
that's a good another military guy aboutit. Graystone brew House in Dillsburg gets
a traditional Derby Day menu, asJason said, cocktail, silent auction,
(29:36):
best dressed contest, a live showing. We didn't mention that. One hundred
and fiftieth Kentucky Derby proceeds again goto Veterans Outreach of PA and benefit local
veterans who are homeless. Get informationcheckaus Jason ware greystonederby Day dot com.
Guys, I can't thank you enough. I want to say to my listeners,
if you listen to this program,please spread the word that on any
given day, thirty Harrisburg veterans arehomeless. That's horrible, that's heartbreaking,
(30:00):
it's wrong, bottom right line.But you can change them by helping Veterans
Outreach continue to work providing a homeand greatly needed services. Again, you
can do it by attending Derby Dayor any other event by a break volunteer.
They ask for your donations and it'sagain Veterans Outreach of PA dot org.
And here's my reminder for you tocatch insight on one of our iHeart
(30:22):
stations this weekend or on your favoritepodcast step I'm Sylvia Moss. This has
been insight. Thank you so muchfor listening. Go to Derby Day.
See you next week.
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