Empowering Communities with Dan Gilman of Who Can We Help

In this heartfelt episode of Be A Voice, Britt Carpenter sits down with Dan Gilman, President of Who Can We Help, to explore the inspiring work they’re doing to empower children and families in need. From providing vital support through family shelters and children's hospitals to collaborating with local community organizations, Who Can We Help is making a real difference in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Tune in to hear how this incredible organization is fostering hope, dignity, and a sense of belonging for those facing difficult circumstances. Thanks to the dedication of people like Dan and Britt, the world is a brighter place. Visit Who Can We Help to learn more. #BeAVoice #WhoCanWeHelp #CommunitySupport #Empowerment #Hope #Philadelphia #Charity #NonProfit #MakingADifference #FamilySupport #Volunteer #GiveBack

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to be a voice. I'm Brick Carpenter and this
is Usula Media. Thanks for joining me today. I am
excited about today's show. Today's show is following the path
that we followed with the first show with John Cruise
on switching gears, talking about people who on their journey
in life, they switch gears. They switch gears for different reasons.
You know, part of my journey, I switched gears a
lot and that sort of makes me evolved to who

(00:45):
I am today, and I continue to do so. But
my guest today is somebody who knows a little bit
about switching gears and continue it does so and grows
and evolves. But today I'm sitting here with a good
friend of mine, Dan Gilman, of who can we help? Hey? Dan,
how are you? Hey? How are you doing it? Don't
sound so blaw Dan. I know you're an exciting guy.
Yes I am. It's late in the day though for you.

(01:05):
You're an early riser four am. Four. Usually sometimes you're
at work a little before am.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Let's talk about that two am breakfast at three.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
But well, yeah, I've been there. I understand that. But yeah,
you are an early riser, so you are almost this
is like twelve hours into your day at least, I'd
say that that's accurate. Yeah, And how many more hours
you got to go today to at least midnight to
at least midnight today? Will you sleep tonight? Yes? For
four hours? Four four hours, and you get up to

(01:34):
do it all over again tomorrow. Yes. And let's talk
about why. Let's first of all, Dah, I mean, I
know who you are. We've been friends for a few
years here, We've met because we have a common bond.
I mean, we're both in recovery. You're a person of
in long term recovery. And when I say long term
but long term, how many years have you been in recovery?
Seventeen seventeen? I got that right when I sent it
to Lara, I was like seventeen. But that's a hell

(01:55):
of an accomplishment. First of all, what was your drug
of choice? Dan? Alcohol? Oh all right, so you were
a drinker? Yes? Nice? Nice? You know I was a
drinker and everybod used to. I never had a problem
with everybody i's had a problem with it. I never did.
But it was funny because like once, I wasn't a

(02:16):
drinker anymore. It's when the hard stuff came in, you know.
But so you were a drinker, why didn't you start
drinking regularly? I would say round thirteen thirteen? Yes, where
are you from? Originally? Kensington? All right? So you're born
raised in the community. Yes, I'm on Huntington Yoh you
are Kensington all right? So you've seen that community change,

(02:37):
you know when you talk about Kensington and you know,
so seventeen years in recovery and how many years were
you in your active addiction of drinking?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I started drinking when I was thirteen. I got
sober when I was twenty eight, twenty nine, so good
sixteen years.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Sixteen years of your life. Yes, do you think that
you know, people plane like, you know, they talk about
the whole aspect of addiction and let's talk about it.
You know, like alcohol that's in you know, you're that's
somebody who's an addiction. That's an addiction just because it's
separated by aa NA, Alcohol's addiction, you know, do you know?

(03:15):
And then there's that nature and nurture thing and people
talk about it. Was it something that you was like
a learned thing for you? Was it something that you
picked up for what was the reasons. You know, well,
I mean you can look at it both ways.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
It was definitely learned. Uh, there was a lot of
alcohol in my house. Okay, there's a lot of alcohol
in the neighborhood and other things. There was a bar
on every corner I did see. I was attracted to
parts of it and unattracted to parts of it at
a very very young age. The pool, pool games and
card games and dancing and boxing matches with the booze,

(03:48):
you know, going into a bar with my dad or
my uncle, getting that cup of soda, pretzels and playing
shuffle board. All that stuff seemed pretty attractive to me.
But I also seen the bad end of it. I
seen the fistfights, ops at the house, electric being shut off, whatnot.
So those parts seem not very attractive.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
So when you talk about addiction and you talk about
being a you know, a person you know in addiction,
you came from that environment, then, is what you're saying. Yes,
it was sort of something that you grew up in. Yes,
both parents, Mom and Dad both both, I would say,
at times strike alcoholically. Mom like trowin.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Eventually Dad liked crack, and later on in life they
both like prescription drugs very interesting.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know. And you know that neighborhood that you lived in,
you know, is just like every other neighborhood's a great neighborhood,
you know, long term residence stuff like that. But when
you're in a neighborhood like that, it's a lot easier
to acquire things like that, you know, how you know,
and you're very free to talk about this Stuff's why
I'm asking these questions. And you know, if anybody ever
follows Day on social media, you know, he'll he'll talk

(04:56):
about his memories of growing up and and you know,
what you went through and everything, and you know, let's
talk about that. You know, on social media, you do
talk about this stuff. You do share stories about your childhood,
and you share stories about you know, your father and
your grandparents and your mother and stuff like that. Does
that help you overcome some like trauma? Does it help

(05:17):
you heal a little bit? I think so.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
I think a lot of it is, you know, going
through the twelve steps like helped a lot with that
and just accepting things and you can't change things, and
a lot of it we always laughed about whether it
was unhealthy or not, Like we just laughed about it
was either laugh about it or pry about it. But
some of these stories are like they are hysterical to me.

(05:40):
They probably seemed like insane to a sheltered person who
never lived that way. But that was just a way
not only I lived, but a lot of people in
my neighborhood lived. It was normal to have people doing
cocaine in your house all weekend and drinking and not
knowing whether your mom was in there fucking one of
your as friends or doing align with them. That that's

(06:03):
how it was in my house. And you've talked about
that too, And that's how it was in some of
my other friend's houses too, So.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
You know what I mean, it was normal.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's normal for someone to come to my dad's house
to buy percocets or something else and he didn't have that,
but he would call one of the neighbors who did,
and almost like a referral system for drug dealers. Like
that's how it was around there. If you had to
know somebody how to make a phone call. All right,
I'm sending somebody around right now, and like all this stuff,
and you know, sometimes we were runners, like it was

(06:34):
just how it was. That's how my dad actually met
my stepmom. So it's an environment, a total mantle, total
environment of that.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yes, you know. So you know, at an early age,
it was nothing for you to pick up a beer
or pick up a drink and have a drink. I
was able to pick it up in the house.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Actually, it was so socially acceptable to have a few
SIPs of the can of beer if you went and
got it for your dad.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
So do you do you think that a lot of
that was learned?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
So I don't know, because yes, I say yes and no,
because I learned everything everything to do it.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
But I also learned all the warning.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Signs that not to do it, and I did it anyway.
So it was learned, but it was still a choice.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
So when we talk about this, and it's really interesting
that you say that, like you knew all the warning
signs not to do it, I think a lot of
people do that. I think that's sort of out there
in people's faces, the commercials, the billboards, no matter how
tacky they are, what it may have been, or whether
it was a Dare program, if it worked, if it
didn't work, or just knowing about watching the videos. In
today's society, people are aware of it. They're aware of

(07:37):
what can happen. And you said it there was a choice,
so you know your you know it's a choice. So
do you think that it really is inherent that it's
a disease that people or do you really believe it
is that choice more so than it would be something
that is a genetic eye. So I think it could
be either.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
So it would be very hard for me to say
it's not genetic with my family, because it's it scheeps
in every level, grandparents, parents, cousins, like, there's so much
addiction to my family it's not even funny. But I
also think that it can start with the choice, just
like a sexually transmit disease can start with a choice.

(08:16):
So you make the choice to do that the first time,
or you make the choice to do heroin for the
first time, and then you become an addict and then
it is a disease. So I think it can be
a disease that starts with a choice. Now, some people
say that they have this internal hole in the soul
or what emptiness, which I believe that also that eventually
gets filled with drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, whatever it is.

(08:40):
So there is something there, something you're trying to fill
and it ends up manifesting with whatever that is.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
And it's funny you say that, you know, and you
just mentioned all my favorite drugs right there. Oh, I
drugs a choice, you know. But you said that you drank.
You were a drinker more so. But you were also
in an environment that there was there was there was
heavy crack cocaine usage back in those days, which trickled
over then into the opioid you know crisis, which is
now the public health cris. We experiencing. Interesting that it

(09:12):
was alcohol then that you chose to use and not
something on a heavier level. So that's why sometimes I
think to myself, Wow, it could be a learned thing
by environment. It could also be something that is inherent
because you sort of mainstreamed into that one drug a choice,
which was alcohol.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Well, I tried other things, I'm sure, yeah, absolutely, but
I tried. I really didn't like like I tried you know, weed,
and I smoked PCP once by accident.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
I hated that. I don't know how anybody can enjoy that?
Was it laced? Is that even by accident? No?

Speaker 2 (09:42):
No, no, like they knew what they were smoking. I
was so drunk that I just came into the circle
and thought I was smoking some weed. Next thing, you know,
I felt like I was. The whole world was one
big fluffy bill up. I didn't care for it, but
I think with my parents and you know, when I
was younger, there was a lot of hard drug use
and what was going on in a neighborhood. Talk about

(10:03):
the crack and and women selling their bodies for drugs,
and men trying to sell fake old chains and pushing
carts around. I mean, back then people didn't move to
Kensington and pitch a tent, but there was still a
lot of that element there. People went down there to
get their stuff. Usually they you know, they came, they
bought it, and they got the hell out of there.
But we seen all that. So I used to have
to cross Kensington Avenue every single day to go to

(10:24):
visitation and go to school. I see you school visitations. Okay,
So I seen that whole element. So like what an
alcohol eied to me once I drank alcohol, I said,
it was okay, it's okay. Even though on thirteen, you know,
I'm being treated like an adult. I got to raise
my siblings, I got to cook dinner. I'm in total
to this drink, and I truly felt that with the

(10:46):
in the bottom of my heart, I felt like if
I had to do adult things, I should be able
to do adult things I'd like to do. So drinking
and sex were something that I enjoyed. At a young age.
I was very I was very nervous about the drugs
because I won. I see people dying already. I have
friends dying at a very young age and from rug

(11:07):
drug overdoses, and I see my parents, and I know
that I had an addictive personality, and I was afraid
to do cocaine or something that I thought I might
love it, you know what I mean, so I say
to it. I said no to cocaine until about a
month before I got sober, and it was offered to
meet all the time for years. And meth was I mean,

(11:30):
we had meth cokers in my family. All that stuff
was right there. I just wanted to know parts of
it because I was afraid.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I'd like it. That's good, that's good willpower man, you know,
because like I was also the I was the opposite
end where it was like just put it in front
of me, I'll do it, and I'll just keep doing
it until I just, you know, get sick of it,
and you know, there was really no line for me
on that level sometimes, so that's really that's good willpower.
But you know, but you did have that one that
you focused on and that you drank, I mean, and

(11:56):
that seemed to be like a commonplace for you. It
seemed to be a very common denominator in the whole thing,
I mean, and.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Like, especially when I was younger, I loved it, like
I had a love affair with booze, like I enjoyed
I Eventually I did like the taste of it. I
definitely like the effect of it. I like the social
aspect of it. For a long time, I was able
to drink on weekends but still maintained during the week
and being on a roll student, you know what I mean.
So I'm drinking and I'm seeing all this stuff in

(12:22):
this neighborhood going on, and I'm partying with my friends
and I'm having fun, but I also know I want to.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Get the hell out of here.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
And the way I got to get out of here
is to graduate and to get a decent job and
to not get caught up and all this stuff. And
I ended up in jail or any of those things.
And so I was able to do that while drinking
myself into being an alcohol.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
When did it escalate at what point? I think? I
think my early twenties, you know, when you were ready
to becoming that adult and get.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Out well, you know, having all access at that point,
you know, I'm twenty one, I could legally drink anywhere.
I have a decent job, I can buy it whenever
I want. I'm bar attending, I'm shooting pool for the
for the team, for the bar league. Like I just
got caught up in a whole bar scene. And I
worked at a place where it was acceptable to drink

(13:17):
on your lunch break after work.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
I like doring work. It was great.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
I thought it was great, and most of the people
would ever drank away. I drank her maybe even worse
at that point. So it was very easy to just
skatee by there not getting any trouble because everybody was
doing right.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
You know, you know at thirteen years of age, I
mean your body is just growing, evolving, and you know
your mind is nowhere close to being where it could
be evolved. I mean, you know they talk about you know,
fifteen being that base age where the mind starts to
grow and form and mold and become one and you
know solid, and you know, thirteen is really to be

(13:58):
making those types of decisions, of the choices to pick
up and to use anything. You know that that speaks
volumes right there, you know. So you know, you spent
at that point in time until you were twenty eight,
fifteen years of your life in an active addiction, over
half of your life at that point in an active
addiction of some type. You know, So at twenty eight,

(14:20):
which is a great age, and I'll tell you, I
admire that I really wish I would have gotten you know,
you know, into recovery and sober and cleaner whatever the
words you want to use for nowadays when I was
twenty eight, because you know, I wait till I was
forty eight, and you know, I still feel like sometimes
like I missed half my life and half the world.
But what was I mean? I hate to say, because
for me, there wasn't just one. It was a series

(14:42):
of them. It was, you know, ranging from the time
I was laying in jail with my you know, jacket
balled up as a pillow next to the toilet, or
the time that I woke up to paramedics and cops
over me because I were roasted in my car, not once,
not twice, but five times. Like you know, what was
that aha boment for you? Or what was that big
why moment? Said? There was a series of events that happened, right,

(15:04):
I love that. Well.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
One I ended up drinking and celebrating when when my
wife at the time had my son, and you know,
I go at to celebrate and I'm out for days
and she throws me.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Out of the house. Oh so you were married then, yes,
and had a child, yes, and you were still doing
your vendors. Yes, And actually I was at my worst.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
So I was at my worst when she needed me
the most, so when she was pregnant and then once
she had my son, Joan, do you think that was
on purpose?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I think I was terrified to be a father. And
I didn't ask you it was you know, you know
it's it's interesting because you know, I don't know. I
don't have children, so I can't speak to this, but
I can speak to like the friends I've had that
do have children, whether you know, male female, like the
women really have that biological clock, so I you know,
they say it ticks and they want children and the guys,
you know, it's a terrifying thing. So and I don't know,

(15:56):
So it was a terrifying thing for you. What age
were you at, I was like twenty eight twenty.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
I was right before myself, right at that time. So
my son was born on June twenty ninth of verse seven.
I got sober September eighth.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
So your son's born, and you get sober and don't
look back. You don't use again, you don't pick up again,
you don't do anything. No.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, so I went to rehab choice. So the first
time I went, I'll be honest with you, some girl
was driving my car to shouldn't have been and crashed it.
My ex wife wanted to kill me, and I kind
of just ran away. But when I was in there,
I didn't really I wasn't ready yet. And at that time,
Heroin was Heroin. So there was a lot of young

(16:42):
young kids in there that when they drank, they ended
up at Kennings in Somerset. That wasn't my story. So
I kind of excluded myself and I just said, I'm
not as bad as these people are.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
I don't need to be here.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
I left early and I was drunk to night I
got down there, so three more weeks of three or
four more weeks of drinking. The only thing I remember
from the first time in there was they told me
that if I kept doing what I was doing, my
nevers would happen. Whatever my nevers were, they made you
write down your nevers, like, I'll never do this.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I never do that.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Well, I was never a porn shop guy. I'm a
porn shop guy now. I was never one to steal
anything but sleep and peace of mind for my family.
I ripped my grandmam all for like five hundred bucks.
I was never a cocaine guy. Now I'm doing it
and selling it not very successfully either.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, me either. The worst coke dealer ever, I was never.
I was never like that.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
I sold like I financed my senior year in high
school selling percocets. And I'm not saying it's okay, but like,
I was never the drug dealer. I was never the
drug user. I was never the debut. I always had
a job. I was always employable. Now at the end,
I'm living at my dad's sofa in Kensington, full circle, unemployed,

(17:56):
drinking against my will, not wanting to drink, but drink,
and every day not wanting to run into anybody in
the neighborhood I know got for the day ask how
I'm doing or why I'm down there. And it was
just a horrible place to be. And you know, my
conversations with my higher power at that time were like, please,
don't let me wake up, Like I can't do this,

(18:17):
and I didn't think there was a way out, even
though it's crazy because by then my dad had periods
of sobriety. I had an uncle or a cousin with
multiple years, like I think he died with like twenty
something years of sobriety and na Like I knew that
that worked, but like I just couldn't accept the fact
that I needed to be there. And I also knew that,

(18:38):
like because I paid attention to a lot of things
when I was a kid, and I listened to the
gossip and I like to listen to the old ladies
talking shit about the rest of my family, and like
if you were in AA and then you drag again, they.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Were all talking about it.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh, Larry, my uncle Larry realised, Larry's getting high again.
You better watch watch your purse. Don't trust that motherfucker,
you know what I mean, Patty should leave his ass.
All this stuff, like I'm hearing this stuff. So like
I can honestly say that I did not go to
an AA meeting, and so I was truly ready to
try to get it a real shot because I didn't
want everybody in my family judging me if I failed.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Really yes, and they would I do. They talk about you,
that's the way it goes, and call you out. Yeah,
And I think, especially back then, it's because they didn't
really understand it, or because they look down upon it.
There was that kind of sending attitude towards a little
bit of everything. Yeah, you know, rolled into one there.
And you know, also the fact that like I really
think sometimes that like certain parts of family just think

(19:35):
they're fucking perfect, you know, and forget that, you know,
not everybody is.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
I don't know if there was any of that in
my family, Like they knew they were fucked up, but
they still like to remind other people that they were
more fucked up.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
And I think that's part of it, because they don't
want to believe that they're not. Yes, they like to
think that they are, you know, And those are those
people but so you've had that long history. You know that,
like I said, fifteen years of your life. You know,
especially at a young age, you know where it just
started and just out of control. At twenty eight, you know,
twice that's a good time. Two is a good number

(20:06):
for attempts at recovery and treatment. Yeah, I mean there
was people that had so many more times and stuff
like that. And you know you talk about having that
higher power aspect than faith, and what was it then
that you finally said enough enough, I'm done, I'm putting
it down, I'm walking away. Fus this shit stop working.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I drank grain alcohol at a block party in Northeast Philly,
not straight but with like jungle juice lunch, but like
it was poured pretty heavy. Yeah, and what I mean
by it wasn't working. Like I'm sure I was intoxicated,
but it wasn't taking away any of my fears, anxieties, insecurities.

(20:51):
Like I knew I destroyed my life. I knew I
was a deadbeat dad. I knew I was a horrible husband.
I know I was unemployable.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I knew it.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
I turned into everything I said I would never be.
And the booze wasn't even give me the delusion that
that wasn't true for a couple of minutes. So it
was literally either go to Somerset and do the other
stuff that maybe will do that, or go get help.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
And this is three months after your son's born. Yes,
do you think that you know that had a lot
to do with that getting the help. I definitely had
something else to get sober before. Yes, it was probably
like that little pushing point, that tipping point, Yes, you know,
and then you went and got sober and boom? Life

(21:34):
Was it easy right away?

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Then?

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Dan? Was it so what you gotta walk down? A
treatment in life? Was great? Wasn't it? No? No shit?
Well one, I didn't say it louder for the people
in the back would think it's so easy to do
what they do. Well I did.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
I didn't. I didn't do what I asked me to do.
So I'll start with that, okay, Like I didn't get
a sponsor. I made meetings, but I didn't really didn't
make connections. I left as soon as it was over.
I've really didn't go there to make friends, like I
didn't repair relationships, Like I was doing a lot of
things I shouldn't have been doing. I'm dating girls in
AA while I'm married, you know what I mean. My

(22:09):
wife finds out about it. Of course she doesn't have
a very good opinion of AA. I'm not really making
amends properly. I'm not repairing relationships. So I'm sober, but
I still have all this wreckage that's.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Not getting fixed.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
I think a lot of times what happens is we
get sober, you know, and then all of a sudden,
I'm replacing that, you know, the parts of the sobriety
with other things that are not good for us, but
we don't consider them drugs or you know, like you know,
sexing is something that's very common, you know, to replace
the addiction with when you get into you know, your recovery.

(22:45):
That's that's something a lot of people talk about, you know,
It's true gambling. People don't think, oh, well, I gambling
wasn't a problem. I was a drug aduct you know.
But now you're just replacing one for the other, so
as that's that's no different. It's pretty common, don't you think.
I think it's very common.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Like I talked in the beginning about like we have
like a hole in our soul we have some kind
of emptiness that we're trying to some kind of void
we're trying to fill, right, and we have to fill
it with something. So if we put down our druged
choice or alcohol or whatever, and we don't fill it
with with some kind of higher power and helping others
and being productive, then we're gonna fill it with shopping, food, gambling, sex, gossiping, whatever.

(23:26):
We're gonna fill it with some kind of shit that's
not good for us. And if you do that, sobriety
is not going to be very enjoyable. And I suffered
in AA for years because I because I didn't do that.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
You know, it's funny to say that, because that's me
as well. You know, I suffer because I don't do that,
Like I didn't do that. And sometimes I think, even
at this stage, like I don't have to because it's
been nine years, you know, and it's okay if I'm
going to go out and I want to just like
sleep around, you know, No, it's sort of not okay,

(24:02):
you know. And you know, and especially for somebody who
has that addiction, because it leads you back down those roads.
But then we find those places that shift years too so,
you know, and that's important, you know. And I think
when we talk about, you know, recovery, we talk about
you know, your your sobriety journey. You know, you were married,
you had your son, then you had a daughter, yes,

(24:24):
all right. How how many years apart was that? Eighteen months?
So eighteen months so technically one year in two year
sobriety basically, yeah, you had another child, yes? And how
was that for somebody that was just starting their sober journey.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
I mean, I guess it was a lot. I don't
I don't know, Like I I'm still guilty of this.
I'll just disappear in the work. So I'm working a lot.
I have to support two kids now and a wife.
I think things were act kind of okay. But you know,
a few years into her her life, we realized she
was a little development of delayed. She she wasn't saying

(25:06):
as many words as she was supposed to, and we
found out she's on the autism spectrum.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
So that turned into.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
A whole other ordeal that we that I will I
will say this, her mother did a very good job
of advocating for her and getting earlier intervention into the
house and having therapists. And it's not easy. It's not
easy to hear people tell you what's wrong with your kid.
But if you want your kid to get help, you
have to. You have to suck it up, you know,

(25:32):
put your pride aside and do it. And and she did,
and we did, and we she had a TSS with her,
which is basically an adult to help the teacher keep
them focused and in mind for pre kindergarten, I believe it,
maybe even kindergarten. But my first grade, she was she
was ready to be in the class by herself. And

(25:55):
she's now, she's sixteen years old. She's she's doing pretty
well in school. She's a school more equipped for her.
There's only four or five kids in her class. She
was in a regular, regular school in it, and it
was it was a lot. It was hard for her
to deal with.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
So sixteen now, yes, So and your son then is seventeen, seventeen,
almost eighteen, yes, almost eighteen into these years. You know,
it's pretty cool to keep counting how many years you
have with your son's age. Yeah, you know, for him
that's pretty cool, too, pretty easy. You know, that's amazing.
And you know, we talk about you know, we talk
about sobriety, We talk about you know, getting help. We

(26:33):
talk about the things that once we do create our
journey and we start on our journey, about the barriers
that we face now we have to overcome, and you know,
things such as having children, you know, having children then
in the developmental issues that you were experiencing that you
experienced today, you know, those are barriers. Those are barriers
that can sometimes lead people back to the bottle or
to the needle, or to whatever it is that found

(26:55):
their you know, isolation and their comfort in their minds
at that point. But you didn't do that, did you? No?
What was it that kept you from not doing that,
from running back?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I think I had even when I wasn't doing the
whole AA thing, I had a very firm grasp one
step one. A lot of that was from childhood stuff
and from from my parents, and a lot of a
lot of the issues that other people in recovery stumble
I didn't have to. Like, for example, a lot of

(27:26):
drug addicts think they can drink alcohol. Some can, but
I know a lot of them they either start drinking
alcoholically or once they have a few win them, they
end up doing a drug a choice. I know, even
with smoking cigarettes, I know people to quit smoking cigarettes
as soon as they have a few beers are lighting
up a cigarette. So at him, I watched my parents
do that. I watched them drink alcoholically, do hard drugs, heroin, crack, meth,

(27:53):
all that stuff. Get cleaned up from that and then
start doctor shopping. So I've seen like they say, you
should you know, you can't have any minor ordering substances
or whatever. But however they word it, I believe that
because I experienced it. Now a lot of people have
to go out and do that again and learn the

(28:15):
hard way.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Mm hmm. I didn't have to do that because my
parents did it for me. You learn from you learn
the hard way from them.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
So you talked earlier about like learn behaviors, right, right,
So I learned how to drink maybe through them, if
you want to say that, But I also learned a
lot of what not to do through them, and that
lesson really helped me in sobriety.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
That's a that's actually a pretty good lesson. It's a
very good lesson. It's a really good lesson. Wow, it
might have saved my life. That lesson. Interesting, that's really
cool when I think about it, when I think about
how it's sort of like a one eighty told you know,
brought right back to you because of everything that you
dealt with, that would everything that you worked dealt with,

(28:56):
you played those cards well, you know in the end,
which is pretty cool. You know, you talk about the steps,
you know, and people unless you actually work the steps,
and let me tell you, it's probably one of the
more painful things to do in life is work those steps.
The steps. To me, I would rather listen to you know,

(29:17):
like you know, nails on a chalkboard than I would
like work the steps again in my life. But I
know some people who work the steps two three, four times,
and we talk about the steps, and I think for
somebody who doesn't, who has never worked the steps, or
knows anything about them, or doesn't have a connection to them,
I think they probably think, well, what's so difficult about that.
It's a book, you know, you write down some amends,

(29:38):
you do this, you do that. But I think people
don't realize that, you know, you're reliving that trauma that
brought you to where you are or that caused you
all this, and you know, part of it is you know,
finding that higher power, finding that why, finding that purpose,
finding that place in life, place in community, Stop the
isolating stick around after the meeting, go for some coffee,

(30:02):
form some relationships and connections, and commit yourself to a
little bit of service. Because well, as far as I'm concerned,
recovery deals with providing yourself with relief from what almost
killed you and took your life away from you, and

(30:23):
then giving that back to others in the best way
you can. Does that make sense? Yes, So when I
did it, my whole goal was to start a place
in the community that people would be welcome, be accepted.
Bridge some gaps, help people, give back to them, provide
people that not just were unsheltered, but sheltered as well

(30:46):
that didn't have the resources necessary to get by day
by day. Because yes, there are people out there that
live way below the poverty level. Here in our city,
we are one of the biggest poverty stricken cities in
the nation. I think we're number eight or per capita
or something like that. I don't don't quote me on that,
but we're right. That's how that's that's how bad it is,

(31:09):
you know. But giving back is something that you know,
I feel strongly about in my recovery, and I actually,
you know, threw myself into giving back. And you know
that's something that you have learned too, and it's something
that you have you know, committed your life to. And
that wasn't right away, was it. That wasn't something you started.
This is something new. And that's why when we talk
about switching gears. Even in that recovery, you could become commonplace,

(31:31):
you become complacent, you could just become very much like
on a status quo, but you all of a sudden
decide to at you know, this is six years now
going on. I think, what's that to? Who can we help? Think? Yeah,
who can we help? Think this is a movement?

Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think it's five years. I think this is the
third year that is a legitimate nonprofit.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
So you know, we'm gonna let you talk about it.
But five years. So you're talking about out of the
all those years in recovery, those twelve years, now you
shift the gears, You switch gears, and all of a
sudden you discovered this place that you wanted to give back.
What was that? Why? How tell me about this?

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Okay, so part of it going back to the steps
is I had to go through the steps again at
around ten eleven years sober.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
So you worked in a second time, Yes, And I was.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Able to be a lot more, a lot more I
don't want to say honest, because I was as honest
as I could be the first time, but a lot
more clear headed, okay, And I had to get through
the steps again.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I just went through a bitter divorce, you know.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
I went from being a full time father to weekend dad,
went from a five bedroom house in Bucks County to
a one bedroom apartment in Holmesburg. I was very bitter,
like just angry, and and I hoored around a lot.
I acted out, and I just it didn't feel good.
I was in this all in your recovery that this

(32:53):
is ten eleven years, it's sober, embarrassing things like, you know,
all kinds of drama like cards being vandalized and shit
like like ridiculous stuff, and I just was unhappy with
where I was. I I asked a guy, who that's
all he does, Like, like he goes to meetings to
get people to take him through the steps. He's not

(33:13):
one of those guys that like, we're just going to
drive around and hang out in a diner, like, this
is what we're doing, clear cut directions, take it or
leave it, And that's.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
What I needed. So I did that again.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
And when you do that now, this this time, I
had a face pretty much every all the damage that
calls was so so I couldn't even blame alcohol. This
is just behaviors that I'm doing, the same behaviors that
i'm doing sober that i'm when I was.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Drinking, and not one or two years sober, ten eleven. Yes,
So there was a lot of a lot of that.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
And once I went through those steps again and realized,
like my true self and like my true purpose, Like
it originally wasn't who can we who can we help this?
But it was giving back. It was making amends, proper amends.
It was being more empathetic to his drug addicts, and

(34:07):
and and and it started feeding homeless. Right, So it's
feeding the homeless at the at the Lays stop with
Pat Deuley and Lou Brown and Eddie Cavanall and a
couple other people.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right, some of the ogs.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yes, so we're we're doing pancakes at Somerset Street. You know,
the electrics probably on to illegally, like our riddles are
shutting off and ship we're trying our best.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
And so we were.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Doing that for a while, and so I had no
bullshit like I had like a like a spiritual awakening
moment at Kenston in Somerset. Right, So we're feeding the homeless,
and we have trash cans out in all, but they're
shitting on this block like you won't believe. Every plate
we just gave it was on the street. The clothes

(34:52):
we just gave them either they threw them in the
street or once they just switched into in the middle
of the street or on the street.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
And one of the neighbors told me to go fuck myself.
Sounds about right basically, because you just basically destroyed like community.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
So we just helped the homeless kind of help that's
debatable too, but whatever. And then we rephrased that we
fed the homeless and you provided.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
We provided.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
We provided some food, some nourishment and some love to
the homeless. Meanwhile, the people who live there on a
block just got a whole bile of shit on the
street and nobody's helping them. And in that moment, I realized,
and I'm from down there, nobody's helping my people and

(35:44):
you know, I do a little more research on it,
and like, there's hundreds of groups that go down there
to feed the homeless, hundreds, and I'm not knocking any
of them, and I'll still even provide food for them
to do it. There's not very many people that are
helping them. The families that have been living down are
already the grandparents that are raising the kid because mom's

(36:05):
already dead and dad's in jail.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
People forget that just because there's people that are unsheltered
and they are in need, that it is a community.
And there are neighborhoods full of people that are also
in need because they are living below the poverty line
because their communities are taken over by one of the
largest open air drug trades in the country, like Kensington.
So the communities are forgotten. You're right. I'm going to

(36:28):
say that, you're right.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
I mean, I'm sure there are some church groups that
do it, but let's be real, churches are empty. Those
church groups used to have hundreds of members. Now there's
ten of them, fifteen of them, right, I mean, honestly,
the only the only, the only nonprofit I knew of
that was really doing that at that moment was Pink
Elephant and and they were helping the kids left behind
basically for neopulid epidemic. And I started with a Facebook

(36:54):
post just wanting to feed five families a Thanksgiving, and
you know, people will reach it out and a lot
of people want to help, they just don't know how to,
so they're helping, their sending money, they're sending turkeys whatever.
We did like thirty five families that year, rolled right
into Christmas. We did Christmas gifts and evolved into a
Facebook group and we would post things and this is

(37:15):
what we're trying to do.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
People would send stuff.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
You know, a lot of people really wanted to be
involved in that, especially when we were helping the community.
And a lot of the people that were helping me
were either in AA or they grew up down in
that neighborhood and they got out of there and they
just remember, like they remember what it was like to
be poor and need some help.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
And it just evolved into what it is now. And
what is it now? Now? It's what do you call it?
I would say it's a.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's a nonprofit that focuses on family and local low
income areas and community centers. And low income areas. We
try to make sure they have some kind of Easter
baskets or egg hunts. We do school supply drives. We
this year, I would say comfortably, are actually plating right now.
Meals will probably feed over two thousand people this year.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
You see, I don't just call it just a nonprofit
or I call it a movement. What you started with
who can we help? As a movement, you started because
you had a voice in your community, your community, which
was the Recovery Community AA. You had a big following there.
You have a big group of friends there, big connections,
You have a big family. You know, you knew the neighborhood.
You started a movie, you created a movement that helped

(38:29):
people understand that at the end of the day, regardless
of what we go through, we're all the same, but
some of us a little bit more love than others.
And that's what I look at it like. That's why
I'm like, don't don't be so damn humble, Dan, this
is this what you have done. I mean say it again,
how many people are you gonna feed this year? At
least two thousand, two thousand people? And this isn't just
you going out once a week from January to December.

(38:53):
This is your main focus of Thanksgiving. Yes, so Thanksgiving alone,
you're gonna be feeding two thousand people. Yes. And this
is getting turkeys, plating the food, preparing the food. How
many how many kitchens do you have right now going on?
I mean Thanksgiving is you know, three days away. This
is one of your This is your largest push of
the year, next to the toys. How many people you

(39:15):
have helping you? How many turkeys you got going on?
Tell me a little bit about that, and why Thanksgiving?
Why not do it every day? Why don't you go
out there with your little wagon and walking around and
handle the people? Well one everybody else does that? Okay, agreed?

Speaker 2 (39:30):
So we have we have like twenty five turkeys coked
last night. That's a food truck, commissary or whatever you
will call it.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
It's like a shared kitchen.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Huge lady named Lynn, who I met through you, was
kind enough to coke all the turkeys for us, and who.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
She runs Auntie's Vietnamese Cuisine. Yes, it's a kitchen that
she does pop ups and stuff like that. And yes,
last year I was over there with her making tons
and tons of mashed potatoes, which was a lot of
fun and really cool. But how many people you have
over there now? The commissary with her.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Right now, there's least eight people over there plating what
they cooked so over the last few days.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
And this is just at her place.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
We did, I want to say, one hundred and fifty
pounds of red potatoes and a hundred one hundred pounds
of sweet potatoes. Plus she was kind enough to make
a whole bunch of homemade stuffing for us. I bought stovetop,
but she wanted better than that. We also have we
have the Bristol Elks cooked a bunch of turkeys for us,

(40:30):
Santucci's Pizza down in South Philly. Sue's signs got that
hooked up. She did them for us twice. She's dropping
them all right now probably. And then some people just
in their own homes. We tried to keep it simple
for them, just make us a whole bunch of boxes
of stovetop. Or my friend Jeremy his family, that's their
tradition now, like I just give them fifty one hundred

(40:50):
pounds potatoes and they do. So we have a whole
bunch of people making a whole bunch of stuff and
that's going to go to I know a social worker
over an I in Tioga. They service the whole city.
A lot of those people can't cook for whatever reason.
They have mental health issues, they're elderly, they don't have
an elvin that works, whatever, someone will.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Live in hotels.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
A whole lot of reasons why people can't make their
own meal. So we provide that we provide individual serving
microwavable meals Thanksgiving, and then we also provide all the
AA clubhouses that are open on Thanksgiving. See, these people
either don't have families or their families don't want them
back yet, so they have a safe place to be
where they can still feel part of and field community.

(41:34):
We feed all them. We also do the elderly. There's
a senior center on Alleghany Avenue in Port Richmond.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
It used to be a church rectory.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I think we're feeding all them, and that's the cooked
meals and then uncooked meals. We have families sign up.
They just you know, like everybody does. The turkey basket.
We give them the frozen turkey with all the sides.
We put out at least at least three hundred of those.
So if you average that to for per family, you
know what I mean, that's twelve hundred people right there.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
That's a lot and see a lot. Well you just
got what you just got done describing. Wasn't just we
prepare some food and we serve people. You describe the movement.
It's a movement of people who know what their job is,
they know what they're doing, they want to do it.
They show up each year and you get it done,
and more and more it evolves, you know. But you
know this switching gears, you know, sort of just sort

(42:26):
of came out of nowhere. Like how has it helped
you in your personal life? You were talking about your
life being turmoil there a little bit and working in
steps again and then also you switch gears to this
to this nonprofit of and you really weren't looking to
get this big, Like how does it help you in
your life?

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Well, I mean, like it's part of the immense process.
Me and my friends terrorize that neighborhood. We got no
fights with other people. We were drunk on people's steps,
you know what I mean. We would assault local addicts,
we would torment the prostitute. It's like all these things
that we did in my own neighborhood right and like
literally right there, like right there, I get to make

(43:08):
amends to society.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Right.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
So the same neighborhood that we yrorized, we're helping their kids,
We're helping their grandkids, right, same school I went to.
We're very active at that community center.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
We just helped.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
We just dropped off eighty five turkeys and a hunterd
pies there for their event they.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Had last Thurs.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Like like full circle when you talk call them in
full circle. That is like complete full circle. So literally
the same neighborhood that I caused a lot of harm
and when I was an active addiction and a self
centered prick. Now I can try to try to give back.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
That's why you are. You've been giving back. You give back,
You get back constantly. You get back not just to
this with this thanksgiving. You are active with you know,
the other organizations. You give to them when they need.
When people are putting a call out there for something specific,
you show up. You fly under the radar. You're low
key about it a lot. You work very closely with
Saint Mark's. You hop out Philly unknown a lot. You

(44:06):
also have this toy drive every year that you do
for Christmas. Tell me about that and how many toys
get out and how many people are affected by this.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
So this crew every year or two with donations and
with the requests, and basically we do it a few
different ways. So we have we evolved into an email
system now, so if you want a request help, you
have to email us.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Who's the email who can we help?

Speaker 2 (44:31):
One at gmail dot com and they'll give you a
form to sign and we figure out what it is.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
And so so basically.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
We find families to already find us that need help.
We also have families who want to help. So some
families want a more personal connection and they would like
to just sponsor another family. So we'll assign a family
who's giving with a family who's needing. They can connect
on whatever level they're comfortable with. Some of them want
to talk directly to them, make that delivery, do the

(45:02):
whole thing. It's a lot more personal than just giving
me some toys. So we do that. We connect with
places like Saint Mars. It's a lot easier visitation instead
of going to one family family like making fifty deliveries
on fifty houses. We'll just say how many kids do
you have? We'll take care of them, you know what
I mean. Like we we partner with another place called Munich,

(45:24):
you know, and they and they they they help a
bunch of kids. But it's one it's literally one pick up.
We pick up from Munich, we take it to one place.
It's it's helping a whole bunch of kids without a
lot of work we in up beginning, it's house to house,
you know, making every delivery. And we still do that
on some level, but it's a lot easier to find

(45:44):
a community centers.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
That already have the people there that need. It's a
lot of connections, Yes, there's a whole lot of connections,
a lot of connections, and that's part of the recovery
process as well, you know, making those connections, those healthy connections,
non toxic and making things better. You know. So who
can we help? You know, you help everybody. You help
everybody that's in need. You help everybody that may not
be You just help. How about yourself? How do you

(46:06):
help yourself? What do you do for fun? And when
did you sleep? And when did you take time for dan?

Speaker 2 (46:10):
I don't sleep enough all year, but especially this time
of year. But I just went fishing the other day.
Deep sea fishing is.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
A passion of mine. I just started golfing.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Yeah, Like for me,
that's the only way that I'm going to be able
to take a break is if I literally remove myself.
So I have to I have to go golfing, or
I have to go one of the where'reself.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Really remove yourself? Then you leave your phone away and
you don't answer it, you don't respond to text. I try. Yeah, Yeah,
it's kind of hard.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Like yesterday, my wife was trying to handle some things
and it was my fault. I didn't give her a
whole lot of information that she needed, so I kind
of put her in a really screwed up situation.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
So she was calling me a lot. Oh she called
you out on social media. I read that yet and
I deserved it absolutely.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
And that's where like, I need to delegate better and
give people certain certain responsibilities so that I don't have
five thousand things in my mind. And then one of
the two of them slip. It was a simple, simple
like hey, hey, Morgan, Like this guy's going to come
at eleven and this is what he needs and this
is where it's coming from None of that got communicated,
so nobody knew what the hell was going on.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
It's hard sometimes, it's hard trying to manage that all
and to keep it together and to delegate and to
especially when sometimes that control it is hard to disseminate
amongst other people. I get that. I mean I get
that a lot. I totally get it. You know, so
you know, doing things are important for yourself, I mean
for our mental health, especially at this stage. You know,

(47:39):
mental health is important for us. We can't slip in
any way, shape or form. But you know, your your movement,
your team, your nonprofit, your your family and who can
we help? You know, it grows and grows and grows,
and your biggest pushes of the year are the holidays.
And if people want to get involved, they can email
you at who can we help the number one yes

(48:00):
at gmail dot com. Yes, and they can tell you
exactly what it is we're looking to do. They can
get involved. Do they have to show up and make something?
Can they get involved in other way without doing that? Yeah,
for things that they could do, like for example, we're
doing it. We're doing it Dining with Dignity at Saint
Mark's on December fourteenth.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
And basically what we do is we show up with
a hot meal feeded around one hundred and fifty people.
They get seated and we bring the food to them,
so it's almost like a buffet style, but they're not
getting up there to get their food. We're waiting on them.
Some of them people never experience that in her whole life.
I love that, you know what I mean. And they

(48:37):
do that every Saturday. So if you ever want to
help Saint Mark's with it dining with dignity, a different
charity or church organization does that every Saturday all year.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
And at Saint Mark's over in Frankfurt. Yes, and that's
Christina Mancini. Christina, and let her take you for a
tour of that property. If you want to be impressed.
You'll feel like you're in Europe. It's beautiful, Yes, beautiful church,
it really is, you know. So let me ask you
this you know, and and tell you know, are the
listeners like how has this helped you? Talk about? Who

(49:08):
can we help? How has it helped Dan doing what
you're doing? It was these last five years.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Oh, it brings me joy, like it's an easy sell, right,
Like who doesn't want to help little kids. Who doesn't
want to help families, who doesn't want to help grandparents
stuff raising the.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Kids, because you know whatever, for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Like there's all there's there's some heartache that you experience
watching this, but there's a lot of joy and we
get to see I get to see people change their lives. Right,
Like one lady we helped, you know, if she was
newly sober, she just got the custody of her kid back.
She just moved into apartment and burnt down her house
or whatever it was. We helped her out. You know,

(49:51):
we helped her out a lot, right, more than the
average one because of the situation. She stayed sober. She
still has custom to give herse on. She has a
great job now she's volunteering for us. She don't need
our help anymore. She's helping like that whole help people transition,

(50:12):
give them that little bit of a push, like who knows.
I mean, I can't speak for her, but if nobody
helped her and everything she just worked for burnt to
the ground, she might say fuck it and I'm gonna
get high again or drink again or whatever, which is common,
which is very common, and so like sometimes that that
little nugget of kindness can really keep somebody hanging on

(50:33):
one or something they need to need to fight for.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Some hope, giving people some hope by spraining that kindness,
which is pretty cool, you know, And it's interesting what
you just said is sort of the mantra and the
belief of what we need to do. We need to
we talk about it. We need to meet people where
they are, you know, that's definitely what we talk about.
But it's really difficult to keep meeting them where they are,
not bringing them up to where we are. So you know,
you met her where she was at and where she

(50:58):
was indeed and said that there you roast her to
the level where she is now paying it forward and
helping others. And I think that's so important. You're helping
people grow too, and you're growing yourself because I remember
when you first started this and how we connected and
you shut up on my doorstep one on Saturday or Sunday.
I'm like, who's this crazy guy coming over? Roxbury interrupted

(51:20):
my Sunday. But it was amazing, you know, like you
wanted to be a part of it, you wanted to connect,
you wanted to just not be in your little bubble.
But you were willing to reach out, which is a
lot of people don't do. People want to connect in
their own sphere. They don't want to sort of step
out of their comfort zones. And you were willing to
do that. And you know, you started this amazing movement,
this amazing nonprofit. It's who can We Help? It's on Facebook.

(51:43):
It's Dan Gilman. Daniel Gilman. You can find Gilly on
there because who can we Help dot org? Yes, I'm sorry,
there we go. And can they donate through the website too,
Yes they can. There's a QR code right on it.
They can get right in there, donate, do whatever they want.
This is legit. I mean, Dan, you know where the
donations are going. You see where they're going, you see

(52:05):
who it's helping. You want to be getting involved, you
want to change, You want to be able to shift
gears a little bit or switch gears in your life.
This is a good way to do it. Good way
to get involved without happening to make like a weekly
or monthly commitment too, you know. And there's a lot
of things you like sports too, right, yes, yeah, so
you can always find you know, Gilly at one of
the Philly Sports and events. You know, how the Eagles doing?

(52:27):
You think they're going to be I mean, right now,
it's been you know, you want in a row, I know,
but but those seven in a row have given people
such issues like you know, little heart problems going on there,
some stress. Well heart hasn't been very well, very good
this year. But they're winning. I think, Oh, Barkley's around, yes,
you know, you know, that's that's a good. He killed
me a fantasy yesterday. But it's okay, that's right, you know.

(52:49):
So but what's your what's your favorite? You get because
you go to the six Ers, you go to the
the Fills, you know, you go to the Eagles. What's
your favorite flyers to? So that's time call, right.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I think the most energetic is the Eagles. But when
it's freezing out, I love I still don't mind being
at home, but I would say probably the Eagles. My
wife her favorite, the Flyers, my stepdaughter her favorite the Phillies,
and my son's favorites six Ers.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
So I get to take them all all, cover it all, yes,
and you do you enjoy us fun? It's cool. And
I take my little brother to some of them now
that's awesome. And is your brother in recovery or I
don't know what you would call it.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Yeah, he's not righting his way, he's finding his way.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
He's not really active.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
He's total opposite to me, very shy, very uncomfortable talking
about his personal life.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
But he didn't get to see a lot of this stuff.
We were poor. We didn't get to go to you know,
Eagle Eagles games or anything. We got.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
We got the free Phillies, took as you got into
Frank's hot the ballpark, optolk back, you know what I mean.
So I just took my took him to a six
Ers game last night, took him to a Flyers game
a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
It was recovery.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
You got to get a picture on the ice for Christarian.
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
That's awesome. And he didn't know he was getting any
of that. So your connection with him is pretty strong
then getting stronger. Yes, it's improving. That's awesome. Yes, that's awesome.
And I think you know, when we do things that
personally improve ourselves, it improves our relationships with others. And
you're doing that, So thank you so much. You know,
I can sit here and talk to you for hours,
and we have done that many times. But you know
you're doing some great stuff. I'm proud to walk along

(54:26):
saw do you doing what you're doing. I admire the
things that you do and I will continue to support
you those of you out there on Ken who can
we help? Dot org? All one who can we help?
The number one at gmail dot com. This is Dan Gilman.
Gilly loves you is what he'll tell you consistently, and
he really does. And Dan, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you, you got it, and everybody, thanks for showing

(54:47):
up today, Thanks for listening, thanks for watching. Remember whatever
is you stand for, be a voice. This is Brick
Carpenter and USULA Media. Have a great rest of your day.