June 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow visits with Founder and President for The Jake Cassell Fund, Steve Cassell to talk about losing his autistic son Jake several years ago, and out of unbelievable tragedy, he and his wife started 'The Jake Cassell Fund' in his sons name that is dedicated to supporting special needs children, young adults, and their families in underserved communities. Their mission is to channel donor dollars to established and reputable organizations effectively serving the special needs community, particularly in areas of extreme need. They focus on partnering with a select number of organizations to strategically deliver grant funding that expands and enhances their services.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasco. This morning, I want to
introduce a very special person, Steve Castle, and an even
more special person, Jake Castle, who Steve and his wife
lost due to a bike accident in Bethesda several years ago. Now,
Steve and his wife not planning on it, but watching
some very generous people step up after their tragedy to
(00:20):
start the Jake Castle Fund, which is a nonprofit organization
that directs funds and resources to organizations serving special needs
children and young adults in underserved communities. Their mission is
to support these organizations by providing grants and other resources
aiming to enhance equality and reach of their services. At
Jake Castle Fund, besides raising money for grantees, is in
(00:42):
partnership with the Bike to the Beach which is coming
up this Friday. We'll talk about that and hear from
Steve himself about starting the Jake Castle Fund and what
a very special person Jake was. This is a very
personal story and while quite emotional, it's one you have
to hear. So here's my conversation with jake'stad Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning, Steve, morning, are you Dennis.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm well, I did a little intro to what this is,
but I didn't do it any justice, Steve, So please
tell us about the Jay Castle Fund for Special Needs,
how it all came about, and what it's about, and
then we're going to get in some great things. What
you're doing, including back to the Beach is coming up
pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Great. Thank you so much, and thanks for having me
on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Jake Castle Fund for Special Needs was founded three years
ago by myself and my wife with two specific purposes.
Number One, we wanted to honor the life of our son, Jake,
who we lost in a bicycling accident back on July
thirty one, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Jake was a very special.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Human being and young man, which we'll get into, and
we just wanted to shine a light on who he
was and what he was and who he continues to be,
because he was worthy of celebration, and we just wanted
to shout from the rooftops how much.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We love him and how proud we are of him
as a young man.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And secondly, Jake was on the autism spectrum and we
were fortunate enough, you know, because of the resources available
to us to get Jake, the best services and therapies
available frankly on planet Earth. But ASDA, Maryland is obviously
an athlic community, and it's very highly regarded in the
(02:26):
medical community, and the therapy is available here are.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Truly world class.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But we know there's a lot of families living in
places that are very unlike Bethesda throughout the.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Mid Atlantic and beyond, where.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
They simply don't have the personal resources available or the
therapists and medical services available to you know, get their
kids what they need to develop both when they're you know,
you know, and the and the and the developing stage
of early age and beyond during adolescent years and thereafter.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So it was our hope and it is our ongoing.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hope to give a leg up to families throughout the
Mid Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I look forward to sharing.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
More about what we've been able to do today and
what we hope to do in the future.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So before we talk, Steve about mission vision and the
events and including back to the Beach on the time
of the year, it's only five days away, so we'll
get people excited about that. How to donate and volunteer
and be part of what you, your wife and your
team are doing. I would love to hear because I'm
a parent too. Steven, you and I talked before we
came on, and you know, it's really remarkable what your
(03:44):
family has been through and I can't imagine. And of
course you and I agreed that we would never wish
this upon anybody, but it's happened. You guys chose to
do this amazing pivot and change a horrific thing into
something that I know was special to you and your
wife and your team. But I would love to you
and I sure listeners, what about what kind of kid
Jake was, because I know he's a special guy.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Jake is a very special guy. The story is pretty remarkable.
The eve of Jake's birth, I was painting the nursery
in my house at eighteenth of Lamont Northwest in Mount
Pleasant in Washington, d C. And at about three thirty
(04:26):
four am, a major fire broke out in the town home.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Attached to ours. It was It was very dramatic.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think we had six fire hoses running up all
three flights of our stairs, and the firefighters were fighting
the fire from our roof and the roof on the
other side of.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Our adjacent house.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Seven fire trucks in front of the house, and hundreds
of people in Mount Pleasant were out front watching this
this event.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Needless to say, we.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Had to scramble to get out of the house and
to get get you know, the things out of the
house that we we felt we needed to save. But
it was it was pretty traumatic, and uh, you know,
after the whole thing was under control, I had gone
to work the next morning and I was making phone
calls to the insurance companies and that's when I got
the phone call from my wife around nine am that
(05:15):
that her water had broken, that she was in labor.
And this, of course was six weeks before the due date.
So you know, Jake arrived with rather dramatic, uh you know,
in a rather dramatic fashion. And he was a little
bitty guy. He was five pounds seven ounces. He was
(05:38):
born blue, He had jaundice, he had apnea, and he
was having a whole He had a very difficult time
breathing and latching on to nurse and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And we spent two weeks in.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
The adolescent or the the neonatal intensive care at Sibley Hospital,
and we had him on oxygen monitors for about two
months until we were kind of in the safe zone
with his development, but you know, things started to see
him a little off there. Really within the first couple
(06:17):
of months. His body was really stiff. He had enhanced
muscular definition, and he would he would get over stimulated
when we were driving down the road when he would
see headlights or other things that were visually stimulating to him.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know. Rewind to two thousand and one. When he
was born, we.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Didn't know anything about anything as it related to delayed
development and other developmental.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know, abnormalities.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And we did get him into early interventions, you know,
different types of therapies and had him had seen multiple doctors,
and in the fall to one thousand and two, we
moved to ann Arbor, Michigan, where I was attending business school,
and they had great programs in ann Arbor. And after
a few months, this therapist made a home visit and
(07:14):
was talking to us, and that was the first time
we heard the word autism, and frankly, I was not
prepared to hear that. Our only reference at that point
in history was rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise,
and I did not receive that diagnosis very favorably. But
(07:37):
in the subsequent years with many many therapies, you know,
and as we got to know Jake better, we realized
that that we weren't dealing with a problem. We were
dealing with a blessing. Most babies wake up their parents
with crying. Jake used to wake us up every morning
with songs. He would be sitting in his career of
(08:00):
singing nursery rhymes to himself.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And he just had this incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Loving, sweet demeanor to him from the very beginning, and
as he grew it became evident that, you know, any
environment that he was in, he would just bring sunshine
and love and happiness and joy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
To that environment.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And you know, obviously there were many years between what
I just described and when we lost him, but you know,
he attended special needs school at the Dinner School in
be VEESDA, Maryland for four years age ages or grades
three through seven, and then we were able to mainstream
(08:43):
him in middle school in high school and he was
absolutely thriving. You know, he participated in theater across country,
He did several kind of adaptive sports with his peers,
softball and bachi ball, and he ended up being the
bulldog mascot at Churchill High School. For the last two
(09:07):
years of his life because he was just a walking,
uh bag of enthusiasm and uh he he.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Never missed an event.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
He was He was at every single girls and boys
sporting event. He was going out with the athletes and
meeting little kids, uh at elementary schools and you know, subsequently,
he literally knew every single kid in the high school
and he would he would stand in the in the
foyer at the beginning of the school day so he
(09:37):
could high five everybody and say hi and smile. And
he was just a kid that liked to spread love
and cheer everywhere he went.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know. As as far as the other things going
on in his.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Life, we went through multiple years of Cub Scouts and
then Boy Scouts.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You know, because of.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Jake's aut he was really challenged with a lot of
the individual skills. There was a lot of you know,
hand over hand assistants that I had to provide to him,
and you know, we went on countless campouts, and just
watching his development through his teen years and all the
obstacles that he overcame was incredibly rewarding to me. We
(10:22):
were working on his Eagle Scout project when he had
his accident we were probably about six to eight weeks
away from completing his Eagle Scout, which for a kid
with autism is a pretty remarkable accomplishment, especially you know, his.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Nature of autism.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
And you know, in the last two months of his
life or three months of his life, he went on
two mission trips. One to Honduras where he was working
for a nonprofit called Project Hunter and Child, you know,
delivering backpacks and school supplies and uniforms to elementary and
(11:01):
middle school kids. This was a nonprofit founded by my
mother in law, Doris. And he also went on a
mission trip with with our church, McLean Bible Church to
the Dominican Republic where you know, they they were you know,
helping people with different projects, and he was literally out
(11:22):
on the streets witnessing to people and and just spreading
the love. So he had a heart for service, you know,
and he was he was all about, you know, growing
and maturing to the point where he could live an
independent life. And you know, we were looking forward to,
(11:44):
you know, graduation college, you know, seeing him fall in love,
getting a job, living independently, and having a family, and
we really believed we had all of those wonderful things
ahead of us to look forward to, but that wasn't
God's plan for j Ork for us.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And here we are.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, Steve, I really appreciate sharing this very personal story,
and my next question is going to be also very
personal too. The whole thing is and Jake sounds like
a wonderful boy, and we're also sorry for your loss,
especially me as a parent. I did want to ask
you about what had happened and then moving forward, and
you and I talked a little bit last week about this,
(12:25):
and you know, I know that nobody would want to
be in this position, and nobody knows what to do,
and there certainly is no manual to be a parent
with then a loss of a child, But you and
your wife took it upon yourself after going through a
very horrifying thing that nobody should have to go through
and starting the Jay Castle Fund for Special needs. And
I want to know what the process was like about
after it happened and you guys choosing to do this,
(12:47):
because it's really special what you and your wife have
chosen to do moving forward.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, thank you. I really appreciate those words. So you know, Jake,
it was it was late and Jake was on summer break.
He had gotten back from these trips I just described,
and he had spent a couple of weeks with his
grandparents down in Lexington, Virginia.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And it was a Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Jake had started a lawn and landscaping little business for himself,
and he was mowing the yard for a neighbor and
it was a hot day. He came home and Jake
absolutely loved going to the YMCA pool, which was only
about three blocks from our house. So he told his
mom he was going to go swim, and he jumped
(13:34):
on his bike and rode up our street. And there
were a myriad of safe routes that he could take
to the YMCA, But for some reason, on that day,
he rode his bike up to Old Georgetown Road, which
at the time had three lanes of traffic on each side.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's a road, but it's also a state.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Highway and people, would you know, drive up to fifty
miles an hour plus on Old Georgetown Road, And he
was riding on the sidewalk, kind of going up and
down the driveway bibs and inexplicably, the county had a sign,
a no parking sign right in the middle of the sidewalk,
(14:15):
and it was trash day and there was five trash
cans lined up right on the other side of that sign.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
So as Jake rode his bike of this.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Curb and he swerved to the right to go around
this no parking sign, and then he had to swerve
left to get.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Around the trash cans.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
He was simply going too slow and he lost his
balance and fell over and the bicycle fell in the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And after the accident, it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Was the bicycle was still in the sidewalk, but he
tumbled out into.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The road and was immediately hit by a vehicle that
was going the speed limit.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The driver did nothing wrong, He did not have a
chance to respond.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It happened so.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Fast, you know, God bless the tesda ems and firefighters.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You know, they got to him quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
They got him to Suburban hospital and the doctors fought
for nine hours to save our son's life.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But he had massive internal injuries.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
He had a horrible head injury and he was just
losing too much blood.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And at about four in the morning.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
This happened at about five pm and at about four
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We had a hail.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Mary Jake and I flew in a helicopter to Baltimore
Shock Trauma, and they had resources.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Available that were not available at Suburban.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
But you know, after about ten minutes of arriving, the
doctors came in and said that there's nothing they could
do and we needed to say our goodbyes. So that
was the morning of August one, twenty nineteen, and of
course all held broke loose.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
After that, it was absolute mayhem. You know, news.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Groups in my front yard and hundreds of people descending
on my house and you know, text messages and calls
were coming in by the scores, and a lot of
people who were you know, also mourning and also feeling.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know, a lot of sadness kept reaching out and saying, well,
what can we do to help? And the answer was nothing, obviously.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
But after a while we kind of knee jerked into
establishing a scholarship fund at the Diner School, which again
Jake had attended for four years. He was in the
second class at Dianer. It is a truly wonderful, world
class school, and we have close relationships with the founder
and with you know, the folks that were running the school,
(16:55):
and in fact, the head of the school, Kathy Tumas
was Jake's original occupyational therapist, so we had we had
connections there that ran back years and years.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So we established a scholarship.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Fund in Jake's honor at dinner and within literally two
weeks over one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars where
the donations came in from around seven hundred people. And
it was mind blowing, to say the least. But you know,
in those weeks and months that followed, the last thing
(17:27):
I was thinking about was raising money.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know it was.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It was brutal, beyond measure. And sorry, I'm getting choked
up thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
No, I get it. I get it, Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
It took about three to five months to learn how
to breathe again and to be able to talk. But
a few months later a good friend of mine approached
me and said, Hey, Steve, this may sound crazy you,
but I got some friends who would like to meet
you and really like to talk to you, and just
bear with me. I think it's worth your time. So
(18:06):
I agreed to meet a couple of guys at Compass
Coffee in Washington, d C. And it was two of
the three founders of the Bike to the beach organization.
Bike to the Beach was founded I think about twelve
or thirteen years ago now, maybe even further back, and
they partner.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
With different.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know groups who are raising money for different special
needs causes. So in other words, if I have a team,
we specify, you know, where those funds that were raising
in the event would be directed, and this would be
to you know, certified five oh one C three's that
are providing services in.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
The special needs community.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
And Bike to the Beach has sponsorships from like Autism
Speaks and all kinds of different corporations in the DMV
and they have five events around the.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
United States, so it's not just local.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Anyway, the guys started telling me about the history of
the organization and.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'm like, okay, okay, and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
You know it was a bicycling event and all the
money they'd raised for the special needs community. So I'm like, okay, Well,
there's some a couple of things aligned here. Jake loved
his bicycle, he lost his life in a bicycling accident,
and you know, this event raises money for the special
needs community. But again, the last thing I was thinking
(19:27):
about at that moment in time was raising money and
then I was like, okay, guys, well when is this event?
And I should also mention that I hadn't been on
a bike in about ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It was just not part of my life. And I
asked them, you know, when.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Was the event, and they said July thirty one, twenty twenty,
which was the exact one year anniversary of Jake's accident.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And that was the moment that the two x four
hit me.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Across the face and I realized that none of this
was random, that this was not you know, a random discussion,
that this was an assignment, and the only thing I
could say was yes, fill in the details later. And
that's how we started back to the beach six years ago,
(20:13):
and the couple of my friends came together and.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
One of my in laws, and we rode fifty miles.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
That first year and raised about thirty five thousand dollars
again for the scholarship fund, and we had a great time,
so we decided to do it again the next year.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Our team got bigger.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
We raised fifty five thousand dollars, so all of a sudden,
we have, you know, two hundred thousand dollars in the
scholarship fund for families who want to send their child
to dinner, but couldn't afford what is a rather significant
tuition to attend that school. So after those first couple
of years, you know, I was I was really pleased
(20:53):
with what we had been able to do, but I
had this feeling in my gut that I was just
feeling really dissatisfied about the fact that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
We were raising all this money. But there were some communities.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Out there that can't afford, even with the scholarship, to
send their kid to dinner or to a similar special
needs school. And I really wanted to reach an underserved
community or the underserved communities that are in the Mid Atlantic,
And that's when we decided to found the Jake Castle Fund.
(21:28):
In that first year, you know, I had applied for
a corporation.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
In Maryland, but it hadn't been granted yet because it
takes like two months.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I didn't have a five oh one C three because
you got to have your entity first, didn't have a website.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But what we had was Jake's story.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And I got on Facebook and LinkedIn and started making
phone calls and sending emails to our universe of friends
and family and colleagues, and the story was simply this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
We are founding an organization to honor Jake's life.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
We will operate with absolute transparency and integrity. Our goal
is to have ninety nine cents of every dollar that
we raise go to third party organizations five oh one
c three's in schools that we have vetted and that
we feel are you know, providing excellent, best of class
(22:30):
services to their communities.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And we wanted to focus on uh, you.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Know, small and poverished communities in West Virginia Coal Country,
you know, uh, predominantly African American communities that have you know,
low per capita income and you know, reach world communities
all throughout the mid Atlantic. And the other audience we
(22:57):
wanted to focus on was uh, the indigenous community. So
we started making outreach to some of the reservations, trying
to identify organizations and or schools that you.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Know, serving families there.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And if your listeners don't know, you know, one example
the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, where I had once
been on a mission trip years ago. The average lifespan
for men is about forty three. Alcoholism is you know, epidemic.
(23:36):
Domestic abuse is awful, and most kids never make it
off the reservation, so we really wanted to include them
in our outreach as well.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All right, well, listen a lot to digest. I want
to thank you again for sure in such a personal story.
We only have about five minutes left, so there's a
lot to get in. Steve and I. Let's go ahead
and talk about a Bite to the Beach because it's
right around the corner. We're going to give the website
a couple of times everybody about being involved, how to donate,
but can you talk about the event please?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yep. So this is year six for a Bike to
the Beach.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, there's there's a one hundred mile, there's a
seventy to fifty and twenty five mile ride. You know,
we've had an awesome team Jake every year. Again this
is our sixth.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Year, and you know we're hoping to you know.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Attract and find new donor partners that will support our team.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You know, there's a revenue share with Bike to the Beach.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
They take enough of the donations to help with the
event itself. But it's it's a wonderful organization and you know,
we just have a great time every year. It's in
June this year because the last three years has been
heat indexes between ninety five and one hundred and ten,
(24:57):
and it's it's been pretty brutal. But we're hoping for
better weather this year and again Friday, June twentieth is
the dates and we're really looking forward to, you know,
getting on our bikes again and raising money for the
Jake Fund.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All right, let's give the website. We're going to do
it a couple of times with the website where they
can get more information just about Bike to the Beach.
There's a lot of information on the website. But how
do they go on the web and get the website?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Steve Okay, Well, there's there's two websites, you know, for
the Jkecastle Fund. We have a lot of information about Jake,
about our mission, about the organizations that we've supported, about
our board of directors, and other governance issues.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And you can go to www dot Jake j A K. E.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Castle, C A S S E L L Fund dot
org and for the Bike to the Beach site for
Bike to the Beach itself, the email addresses HTTPS, call in,
double backslash rides dot Bike to the Beach dot org,
(26:04):
slash d m V dash or slash support su P
P O R T slash number sign Steve st e
ve E, Castle C A S S E.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
L l okay very good. Those are going to be
on the websites of the station you're listening to on
Community DC. We're going to give them a couple more
times before we finish up. And you also, as I
looked at the donate button and the support the campaign,
it looks like you're already halfway to your fifty thousand
dollars goal, right.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Correct, So we're getting some good traction.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
You know, over the last couple of years, we've been
able to raise one hundred thousand dollars and some of
the money that I'm raising is coming in the in
the form of sponsorships from some local companies, uh and
those numbers will not be included. So the bike to
the beach site is for the individual donations primarily, and
(26:58):
you know, we got a long way to go, but
it's really been the aculative impact of a lot of
small donors. You know, the average donation is one hundred
dollars and we've had on average four to five hundred
people who donate each year. So you know, if you
can give us ten thousand dollars. God bless you.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And thank you. If you can only give us fifty
dollars or one hundred dollars, that's.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Okay because everybody who makes a contribution is part of Team.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Jake, and your dollars are being grouped with.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Others to enable us to support these one full organizations
that we've been able to support in recent years.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
At Standing Stive, we have about a minute and a
half and we'll give the two websites one more time
before we wrap up. But I just want to give
you some final thoughts in the ninety seconds that we have,
so the floor is your, sir.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
First of all, it's an incredible privilege to lead the
j Castle Fund.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
It's provided a wonderful.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Outlet for us honor Jake and also to kind of
navigate our grief to be to be honest, you know,
I would encourage all the listeners who are interested in
what we've talked about today to go to our website
and read about the grantees. We don't have the time
today to go into all those, but we've given away
three hundred thousand dollars in the last three years to
(28:20):
nineteen different organizations that are incredible and the stories are
so wonderful and I think you all be you know,
impressed and moved by you know who we're able to
support because of the generosity of our donors.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
All right, well, Steve, we're going to have you back,
so we can talk about that next time. Let's give
those two websites one more time, please, Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
The Jcastle Fund website is www dot.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Jake j A K E. Castle C A S S
E l L Fund dot org and the Bike to
the Beach contribution.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
R L is htt colon double Backslash rides Dot Bike
to the Beach dot org, slash DMV, slash support slash
number sign Steve Castle, C A S S E l L.
And you can make donations on either of those sites.
(29:20):
And we invite you to make direct donations on the
Jake Castle Fund site or at Bike to the Beach
either go to the exact same place at the end
of the day, and thank you everybody who's listening for
your consideration and for taking the time to hear about us.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Well, it's our pleasure, Steve, and I'm glad our mutual
friend made the introduction that we could meet you and
here Jake's story and you and your wife. God bless
you guys, God bless Jake, and God bless all the
people that are not only into bike to the Beach
that are donating towards the fund. It's very cool and
I really appreciate you sharing your personal story. We'll have
you back on Community DC, but all the best to you.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Okay, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Dennis Y.
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasco. This morning, I want to
introduce a very special person, Steve Castle, and an even
more special person, Jake Castle, who Steve and his wife
lost due to a bike accident in Bethesda several years ago. Now,
Steve and his wife not planning on it, but watching
some very generous people step up after their tragedy to
(00:20):
start the Jake Castle Fund, which is a nonprofit organization
that directs funds and resources to organizations serving special needs
children and young adults in underserved communities. Their mission is
to support these organizations by providing grants and other resources
aiming to enhance equality and reach of their services. At
Jake Castle Fund, besides raising money for grantees, is in
(00:42):
partnership with the Bike to the Beach which is coming
up this Friday. We'll talk about that and hear from
Steve himself about starting the Jake Castle Fund and what
a very special person Jake was. This is a very
personal story and while quite emotional, it's one you have
to hear. So here's my conversation with jake'stad Steve.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning, Steve, morning, are you Dennis.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm well, I did a little intro to what this is,
but I didn't do it any justice, Steve, So please
tell us about the Jay Castle Fund for Special Needs,
how it all came about, and what it's about, and
then we're going to get in some great things. What
you're doing, including back to the Beach is coming up
pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Great. Thank you so much, and thanks for having me
on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Jake Castle Fund for Special Needs was founded three years
ago by myself and my wife with two specific purposes.
Number One, we wanted to honor the life of our son, Jake,
who we lost in a bicycling accident back on July
thirty one, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Jake was a very special.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Human being and young man, which we'll get into, and
we just wanted to shine a light on who he
was and what he was and who he continues to be,
because he was worthy of celebration, and we just wanted
to shout from the rooftops how much.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We love him and how proud we are of him
as a young man.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And secondly, Jake was on the autism spectrum and we
were fortunate enough, you know, because of the resources available
to us to get Jake, the best services and therapies
available frankly on planet Earth. But ASDA, Maryland is obviously
an athlic community, and it's very highly regarded in the
(02:26):
medical community, and the therapy is available here are.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Truly world class.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But we know there's a lot of families living in
places that are very unlike Bethesda throughout the.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Mid Atlantic and beyond, where.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
They simply don't have the personal resources available or the
therapists and medical services available to you know, get their
kids what they need to develop both when they're you know,
you know, and the and the and the developing stage
of early age and beyond during adolescent years and thereafter.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So it was our hope and it is our ongoing.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hope to give a leg up to families throughout the
Mid Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I look forward to sharing.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
More about what we've been able to do today and
what we hope to do in the future.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So before we talk, Steve about mission vision and the
events and including back to the Beach on the time
of the year, it's only five days away, so we'll
get people excited about that. How to donate and volunteer
and be part of what you, your wife and your
team are doing. I would love to hear because I'm
a parent too. Steven, you and I talked before we
came on, and you know, it's really remarkable what your
(03:44):
family has been through and I can't imagine. And of
course you and I agreed that we would never wish
this upon anybody, but it's happened. You guys chose to
do this amazing pivot and change a horrific thing into
something that I know was special to you and your
wife and your team. But I would love to you
and I sure listeners, what about what kind of kid
Jake was, because I know he's a special guy.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Jake is a very special guy. The story is pretty remarkable.
The eve of Jake's birth, I was painting the nursery
in my house at eighteenth of Lamont Northwest in Mount
Pleasant in Washington, d C. And at about three thirty
(04:26):
four am, a major fire broke out in the town home.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Attached to ours. It was It was very dramatic.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think we had six fire hoses running up all
three flights of our stairs, and the firefighters were fighting
the fire from our roof and the roof on the
other side of.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Our adjacent house.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Seven fire trucks in front of the house, and hundreds
of people in Mount Pleasant were out front watching this
this event.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Needless to say, we.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Had to scramble to get out of the house and
to get get you know, the things out of the
house that we we felt we needed to save. But
it was it was pretty traumatic, and uh, you know,
after the whole thing was under control, I had gone
to work the next morning and I was making phone
calls to the insurance companies and that's when I got
the phone call from my wife around nine am that
(05:15):
that her water had broken, that she was in labor.
And this, of course was six weeks before the due date.
So you know, Jake arrived with rather dramatic, uh you know,
in a rather dramatic fashion. And he was a little
bitty guy. He was five pounds seven ounces. He was
(05:38):
born blue, He had jaundice, he had apnea, and he
was having a whole He had a very difficult time
breathing and latching on to nurse and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And we spent two weeks in.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
The adolescent or the the neonatal intensive care at Sibley Hospital,
and we had him on oxygen monitors for about two
months until we were kind of in the safe zone
with his development, but you know, things started to see
him a little off there. Really within the first couple
(06:17):
of months. His body was really stiff. He had enhanced
muscular definition, and he would he would get over stimulated
when we were driving down the road when he would
see headlights or other things that were visually stimulating to him.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know. Rewind to two thousand and one. When he
was born, we.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Didn't know anything about anything as it related to delayed
development and other developmental.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know, abnormalities.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And we did get him into early interventions, you know,
different types of therapies and had him had seen multiple doctors,
and in the fall to one thousand and two, we
moved to ann Arbor, Michigan, where I was attending business school,
and they had great programs in ann Arbor. And after
a few months, this therapist made a home visit and
(07:14):
was talking to us, and that was the first time
we heard the word autism, and frankly, I was not
prepared to hear that. Our only reference at that point
in history was rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise,
and I did not receive that diagnosis very favorably. But
(07:37):
in the subsequent years with many many therapies, you know,
and as we got to know Jake better, we realized
that that we weren't dealing with a problem. We were
dealing with a blessing. Most babies wake up their parents
with crying. Jake used to wake us up every morning
with songs. He would be sitting in his career of
(08:00):
singing nursery rhymes to himself.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And he just had this incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Loving, sweet demeanor to him from the very beginning, and
as he grew it became evident that, you know, any
environment that he was in, he would just bring sunshine
and love and happiness and joy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
To that environment.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And you know, obviously there were many years between what
I just described and when we lost him, but you know,
he attended special needs school at the Dinner School in
be VEESDA, Maryland for four years age ages or grades
three through seven, and then we were able to mainstream
(08:43):
him in middle school in high school and he was
absolutely thriving. You know, he participated in theater across country,
He did several kind of adaptive sports with his peers,
softball and bachi ball, and he ended up being the
bulldog mascot at Churchill High School. For the last two
(09:07):
years of his life because he was just a walking,
uh bag of enthusiasm and uh he he.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Never missed an event.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
He was He was at every single girls and boys
sporting event. He was going out with the athletes and
meeting little kids, uh at elementary schools and you know, subsequently,
he literally knew every single kid in the high school
and he would he would stand in the in the
foyer at the beginning of the school day so he
(09:37):
could high five everybody and say hi and smile. And
he was just a kid that liked to spread love
and cheer everywhere he went.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know. As as far as the other things going
on in his.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Life, we went through multiple years of Cub Scouts and
then Boy Scouts.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You know, because of.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Jake's aut he was really challenged with a lot of
the individual skills. There was a lot of you know,
hand over hand assistants that I had to provide to him,
and you know, we went on countless campouts, and just
watching his development through his teen years and all the
obstacles that he overcame was incredibly rewarding to me. We
(10:22):
were working on his Eagle Scout project when he had
his accident we were probably about six to eight weeks
away from completing his Eagle Scout, which for a kid
with autism is a pretty remarkable accomplishment, especially you know, his.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Nature of autism.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
And you know, in the last two months of his
life or three months of his life, he went on
two mission trips. One to Honduras where he was working
for a nonprofit called Project Hunter and Child, you know,
delivering backpacks and school supplies and uniforms to elementary and
(11:01):
middle school kids. This was a nonprofit founded by my
mother in law, Doris. And he also went on a
mission trip with with our church, McLean Bible Church to
the Dominican Republic where you know, they they were you know,
helping people with different projects, and he was literally out
(11:22):
on the streets witnessing to people and and just spreading
the love. So he had a heart for service, you know,
and he was he was all about, you know, growing
and maturing to the point where he could live an
independent life. And you know, we were looking forward to,
(11:44):
you know, graduation college, you know, seeing him fall in love,
getting a job, living independently, and having a family, and
we really believed we had all of those wonderful things
ahead of us to look forward to, but that wasn't
God's plan for j Ork for us.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And here we are.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, Steve, I really appreciate sharing this very personal story,
and my next question is going to be also very
personal too. The whole thing is and Jake sounds like
a wonderful boy, and we're also sorry for your loss,
especially me as a parent. I did want to ask
you about what had happened and then moving forward, and
you and I talked a little bit last week about this,
(12:25):
and you know, I know that nobody would want to
be in this position, and nobody knows what to do,
and there certainly is no manual to be a parent
with then a loss of a child, But you and
your wife took it upon yourself after going through a
very horrifying thing that nobody should have to go through
and starting the Jay Castle Fund for Special needs. And
I want to know what the process was like about
after it happened and you guys choosing to do this,
(12:47):
because it's really special what you and your wife have
chosen to do moving forward.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, thank you. I really appreciate those words. So you know, Jake,
it was it was late and Jake was on summer break.
He had gotten back from these trips I just described,
and he had spent a couple of weeks with his
grandparents down in Lexington, Virginia.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And it was a Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Jake had started a lawn and landscaping little business for himself,
and he was mowing the yard for a neighbor and
it was a hot day. He came home and Jake
absolutely loved going to the YMCA pool, which was only
about three blocks from our house. So he told his
mom he was going to go swim, and he jumped
(13:34):
on his bike and rode up our street. And there
were a myriad of safe routes that he could take
to the YMCA, But for some reason, on that day,
he rode his bike up to Old Georgetown Road, which
at the time had three lanes of traffic on each side.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's a road, but it's also a state.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Highway and people, would you know, drive up to fifty
miles an hour plus on Old Georgetown Road, And he
was riding on the sidewalk, kind of going up and
down the driveway bibs and inexplicably, the county had a sign,
a no parking sign right in the middle of the sidewalk,
(14:15):
and it was trash day and there was five trash
cans lined up right on the other side of that sign.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
So as Jake rode his bike of this.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Curb and he swerved to the right to go around
this no parking sign, and then he had to swerve
left to get.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Around the trash cans.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
He was simply going too slow and he lost his
balance and fell over and the bicycle fell in the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And after the accident, it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Was the bicycle was still in the sidewalk, but he
tumbled out into.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The road and was immediately hit by a vehicle that
was going the speed limit.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The driver did nothing wrong, He did not have a
chance to respond.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It happened so.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Fast, you know, God bless the tesda ems and firefighters.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You know, they got to him quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
They got him to Suburban hospital and the doctors fought
for nine hours to save our son's life.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But he had massive internal injuries.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
He had a horrible head injury and he was just
losing too much blood.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And at about four in the morning.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
This happened at about five pm and at about four
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We had a hail.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Mary Jake and I flew in a helicopter to Baltimore
Shock Trauma, and they had resources.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Available that were not available at Suburban.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
But you know, after about ten minutes of arriving, the
doctors came in and said that there's nothing they could
do and we needed to say our goodbyes. So that
was the morning of August one, twenty nineteen, and of
course all held broke loose.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
After that, it was absolute mayhem. You know, news.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Groups in my front yard and hundreds of people descending
on my house and you know, text messages and calls
were coming in by the scores, and a lot of
people who were you know, also mourning and also feeling.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know, a lot of sadness kept reaching out and saying, well,
what can we do to help? And the answer was nothing, obviously.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
But after a while we kind of knee jerked into
establishing a scholarship fund at the Diner School, which again
Jake had attended for four years. He was in the
second class at Dianer. It is a truly wonderful, world
class school, and we have close relationships with the founder
and with you know, the folks that were running the school,
(16:55):
and in fact, the head of the school, Kathy Tumas
was Jake's original occupyational therapist, so we had we had
connections there that ran back years and years.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So we established a scholarship.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Fund in Jake's honor at dinner and within literally two
weeks over one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars where
the donations came in from around seven hundred people. And
it was mind blowing, to say the least. But you know,
in those weeks and months that followed, the last thing
(17:27):
I was thinking about was raising money.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know it was.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It was brutal, beyond measure. And sorry, I'm getting choked
up thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
No, I get it. I get it, Steve.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
It took about three to five months to learn how
to breathe again and to be able to talk. But
a few months later a good friend of mine approached
me and said, Hey, Steve, this may sound crazy you,
but I got some friends who would like to meet
you and really like to talk to you, and just
bear with me. I think it's worth your time. So
(18:06):
I agreed to meet a couple of guys at Compass
Coffee in Washington, d C. And it was two of
the three founders of the Bike to the beach organization.
Bike to the Beach was founded I think about twelve
or thirteen years ago now, maybe even further back, and
they partner.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
With different.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know groups who are raising money for different special
needs causes. So in other words, if I have a team,
we specify, you know, where those funds that were raising
in the event would be directed, and this would be
to you know, certified five oh one C three's that
are providing services in.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
The special needs community.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
And Bike to the Beach has sponsorships from like Autism
Speaks and all kinds of different corporations in the DMV
and they have five events around the.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
United States, so it's not just local.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Anyway, the guys started telling me about the history of
the organization and.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'm like, okay, okay, and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
You know it was a bicycling event and all the
money they'd raised for the special needs community. So I'm like, okay, Well,
there's some a couple of things aligned here. Jake loved
his bicycle, he lost his life in a bicycling accident,
and you know, this event raises money for the special
needs community. But again, the last thing I was thinking
(19:27):
about at that moment in time was raising money and
then I was like, okay, guys, well when is this event?
And I should also mention that I hadn't been on
a bike in about ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It was just not part of my life. And I
asked them, you know, when.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Was the event, and they said July thirty one, twenty twenty,
which was the exact one year anniversary of Jake's accident.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And that was the moment that the two x four
hit me.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Across the face and I realized that none of this
was random, that this was not you know, a random discussion,
that this was an assignment, and the only thing I
could say was yes, fill in the details later. And
that's how we started back to the beach six years ago,
(20:13):
and the couple of my friends came together and.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
One of my in laws, and we rode fifty miles.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
That first year and raised about thirty five thousand dollars
again for the scholarship fund, and we had a great time,
so we decided to do it again the next year.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Our team got bigger.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
We raised fifty five thousand dollars, so all of a sudden,
we have, you know, two hundred thousand dollars in the
scholarship fund for families who want to send their child
to dinner, but couldn't afford what is a rather significant
tuition to attend that school. So after those first couple
of years, you know, I was I was really pleased
(20:53):
with what we had been able to do, but I
had this feeling in my gut that I was just
feeling really dissatisfied about the fact that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
We were raising all this money. But there were some communities.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Out there that can't afford, even with the scholarship, to
send their kid to dinner or to a similar special
needs school. And I really wanted to reach an underserved
community or the underserved communities that are in the Mid Atlantic,
And that's when we decided to found the Jake Castle Fund.
(21:28):
In that first year, you know, I had applied for
a corporation.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
In Maryland, but it hadn't been granted yet because it
takes like two months.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I didn't have a five oh one C three because
you got to have your entity first, didn't have a website.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But what we had was Jake's story.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And I got on Facebook and LinkedIn and started making
phone calls and sending emails to our universe of friends
and family and colleagues, and the story was simply this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
We are founding an organization to honor Jake's life.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
We will operate with absolute transparency and integrity. Our goal
is to have ninety nine cents of every dollar that
we raise go to third party organizations five oh one
c three's in schools that we have vetted and that
we feel are you know, providing excellent, best of class
(22:30):
services to their communities.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And we wanted to focus on uh, you.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Know, small and poverished communities in West Virginia Coal Country,
you know, uh, predominantly African American communities that have you know,
low per capita income and you know, reach world communities
all throughout the mid Atlantic. And the other audience we
(22:57):
wanted to focus on was uh, the indigenous community. So
we started making outreach to some of the reservations, trying
to identify organizations and or schools that you.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Know, serving families there.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And if your listeners don't know, you know, one example
the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, where I had once
been on a mission trip years ago. The average lifespan
for men is about forty three. Alcoholism is you know, epidemic.
(23:36):
Domestic abuse is awful, and most kids never make it
off the reservation, so we really wanted to include them
in our outreach as well.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All right, well, listen a lot to digest. I want
to thank you again for sure in such a personal story.
We only have about five minutes left, so there's a
lot to get in. Steve and I. Let's go ahead
and talk about a Bite to the Beach because it's
right around the corner. We're going to give the website
a couple of times everybody about being involved, how to donate,
but can you talk about the event please?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yep. So this is year six for a Bike to
the Beach.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, there's there's a one hundred mile, there's a
seventy to fifty and twenty five mile ride. You know,
we've had an awesome team Jake every year. Again this
is our sixth.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Year, and you know we're hoping to you know.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Attract and find new donor partners that will support our team.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You know, there's a revenue share with Bike to the Beach.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
They take enough of the donations to help with the
event itself. But it's it's a wonderful organization and you know,
we just have a great time every year. It's in
June this year because the last three years has been
heat indexes between ninety five and one hundred and ten,
(24:57):
and it's it's been pretty brutal. But we're hoping for
better weather this year and again Friday, June twentieth is
the dates and we're really looking forward to, you know,
getting on our bikes again and raising money for the
Jake Fund.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All right, let's give the website. We're going to do
it a couple of times with the website where they
can get more information just about Bike to the Beach.
There's a lot of information on the website. But how
do they go on the web and get the website?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Steve Okay, Well, there's there's two websites, you know, for
the Jkecastle Fund. We have a lot of information about Jake,
about our mission, about the organizations that we've supported, about
our board of directors, and other governance issues.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And you can go to www dot Jake j A K. E.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Castle, C A S S E L L Fund dot
org and for the Bike to the Beach site for
Bike to the Beach itself, the email addresses HTTPS, call in,
double backslash rides dot Bike to the Beach dot org,
(26:04):
slash d m V dash or slash support su P
P O R T slash number sign Steve st e
ve E, Castle C A S S E.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
L l okay very good. Those are going to be
on the websites of the station you're listening to on
Community DC. We're going to give them a couple more
times before we finish up. And you also, as I
looked at the donate button and the support the campaign,
it looks like you're already halfway to your fifty thousand
dollars goal, right.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Correct, So we're getting some good traction.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
You know, over the last couple of years, we've been
able to raise one hundred thousand dollars and some of
the money that I'm raising is coming in the in
the form of sponsorships from some local companies, uh and
those numbers will not be included. So the bike to
the beach site is for the individual donations primarily, and
(26:58):
you know, we got a long way to go, but
it's really been the aculative impact of a lot of
small donors. You know, the average donation is one hundred
dollars and we've had on average four to five hundred
people who donate each year. So you know, if you
can give us ten thousand dollars. God bless you.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And thank you. If you can only give us fifty
dollars or one hundred dollars, that's.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Okay because everybody who makes a contribution is part of Team.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Jake, and your dollars are being grouped with.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Others to enable us to support these one full organizations
that we've been able to support in recent years.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
At Standing Stive, we have about a minute and a
half and we'll give the two websites one more time
before we wrap up. But I just want to give
you some final thoughts in the ninety seconds that we have,
so the floor is your, sir.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
First of all, it's an incredible privilege to lead the
j Castle Fund.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
It's provided a wonderful.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Outlet for us honor Jake and also to kind of
navigate our grief to be to be honest, you know,
I would encourage all the listeners who are interested in
what we've talked about today to go to our website
and read about the grantees. We don't have the time
today to go into all those, but we've given away
three hundred thousand dollars in the last three years to
(28:20):
nineteen different organizations that are incredible and the stories are
so wonderful and I think you all be you know,
impressed and moved by you know who we're able to
support because of the generosity of our donors.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
All right, well, Steve, we're going to have you back,
so we can talk about that next time. Let's give
those two websites one more time, please, Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
The Jcastle Fund website is www dot.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Jake j A K E. Castle C A S S
E l L Fund dot org and the Bike to
the Beach contribution.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
R L is htt colon double Backslash rides Dot Bike
to the Beach dot org, slash DMV, slash support slash
number sign Steve Castle, C A S S E l L.
And you can make donations on either of those sites.
(29:20):
And we invite you to make direct donations on the
Jake Castle Fund site or at Bike to the Beach
either go to the exact same place at the end
of the day, and thank you everybody who's listening for
your consideration and for taking the time to hear about us.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Well, it's our pleasure, Steve, and I'm glad our mutual
friend made the introduction that we could meet you and
here Jake's story and you and your wife. God bless
you guys, God bless Jake, and God bless all the
people that are not only into bike to the Beach
that are donating towards the fund. It's very cool and
I really appreciate you sharing your personal story. We'll have
you back on Community DC, but all the best to you.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Okay, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Dennis Y.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.