Pat Fish - Sweethearts & Heroes

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
School school.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, it's a big day. It is day before a
Turkey day, day before Thanksgiving, and boy, the uh the
activity in our worlds is just so much right now.
There is so much to do, so much to think about,

(02:14):
places to be, things to get buttoned up, things to
get ready. We maybe we've got family of friends coming in.
It is just a busy, busy time of year, day
before thanks Yavin, what is this? Is this the busiest
travel day of the entire year? I think it is,
ah Man, we have a lot to talk about. Today.

(02:35):
By the way, is the last day to take advantage
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(02:58):
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get some quality eye wear at an affordable price. And
that's what we've been saying on Facebook, as we've been

(03:19):
saying into the microphones, and we want to get you
over to Optical Expressions on the fourth floor of the
Blancher Block right here in the Granite City. We start
every Wednesday with Deb Phillips from the world. Deb and
Gary are two of the busiest people I know. Deb,
Good morning, How are you?

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Good morning?

Speaker 4 (03:40):
J D doing great.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I have to say my husband did take advantage of
the He's getting new glasses from Optical Expressions. No kidding, Yeah,
you know the deal.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Here's the thing. I know that I need the Progressives,
but I'm just I'm not I'm not telling anyone that
I will not say that into the microphone that I
need that I need bifocals. I won't do it. But
it's a great place and a company that has done

(04:12):
some great advertising with the world over the years.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, definitely. So let me tell you what's going on
in the world. We have a lot in this week's favor.
We have the the Mopilliar Flannel Friday this Friday, and
we have a full page. In addition to the special
savings at the local stores, they also have the Flannel Fairy.

(04:38):
We'll be giving out gift cards, so be sure to
watch out for the Flannel Fairy. Also this week we
have the Christmas and re directory and we have Thanksgiving
wishes from local businesses and plus a bunch of holiday events,
craft bears and things like that's going on.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Wow, I mean it's it's always so packed, it really is.
You guys. You guys always have so much going on
in their depth.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, we definitely try to keep it, keep it local
and get everything we can into the paper.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Anything else in today's issue that you'd like to throw out.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
There, well, we have the flyer from Agway in Montpelier
that's inserted in this week's paper. Then you know, we
have plus a page devoted to events and stuff in
Northfield and Williamstown.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Very nice, very nice. I know there's there's always so
much in there. You guys do such a great job.
And for folks that might want to advertise, might want
to put something out there, what's the deadline for that debt?

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, our deadline is today for next week's paper because
of Thanksgiving. Normally the deadline is Thursdays all right.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
To get in touch with you guys, of course, sales
at VT dashworld dot com. If you want to shoot
over an email with your graphics or whatever it is
in your text of your text body of which you
want to advertise, but eight oh two, four seventy nine,
twenty five, eighty two and VT dashworld dot com if
you want to, you know, see what the rates are

(06:21):
and the sizes and all that good stuff. But so
many people twenty to thirty thousand people a week dev
looking at the.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
World, that's right, that's right, JD.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Incredible, big hello to Gary, and a happy Thanksgiving to
you guys. By the way, Jeanette Kingsbury is going to
be coming on the air with me on Tuesdays and
or on Mondays rather, and I am so excited to
have her from the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce to

(06:53):
highlight some of the things going on in the chamber chatter.
But she's always talking about you guys.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, well, and you'll have fun with their interview.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
She's always a lot of fun. Yes, she is.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Understatement right there.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Deb, thank you, and happy
Thanksgiving to you too.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Happy Thanksgiving. Deb Phillips and Gary Haass of course, just
two of the big hitters over there at the World Newspaper.
We are celebrating over fifty years now, what is it,
fifty three years something like that. Amazing I have with
me my friend, my guest this morning. He's got his

(07:34):
free Hugs shirt on. I got my free Hugs shirt
on as well. Pat Fish, Good morning, buddy.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
How are you amazing? How are you my friend?

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Brother? I'm I'm a little saddened that you're not here,
that I'm not able to give you a free hug.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
We can we can virtual hug it for right now,
j D. We can virtual hug you, dude.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
I haven't seen you in so long.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Man.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Your family over at Sweethearts and Heroes has been hitting
it so hard every single Wednesday, relentlessly injecting nothing put
positivity into the airwaves here at the aired out podcast.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
And I wish I could say that I've listened to
them live.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
I have not listened to a single one of those live.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
I've been at a different school every single one of
those days. As we kind of discussed, as you were like, hey,
when you're going to come back on and we're busy,
you know, we're busy. We're going around to different schools
all over the Northeast. And you know, Tom told me
when I first joined the team, he said, look, you know, sadly,
we're in a business of hopelessness, and it's a business
that is, it's out there and it exists and it's

(08:46):
never going to go away. And you know, we can
keep combating it, we can keep battling it, but the
first thing is showing up. So I've been really happy
to see, you know, when I've watched back, whether it's
the full full interviews or the clips of you know,
my friend Brian who's been on here quite a few times,
and Loud and Win and some of the people that
have been you know, stepping in and really doing a

(09:07):
great job on your podcast. And you know, thank you
for for interviewing us and putting our platform out there.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
J D and Josiah too. I mean, you guys are
all heavy you're all heavy hitters.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah, we got we got a great little team over here.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
It's a it's a small team, but it's an always
growing team. And uh yeah, I couldn't be more proud
of Josiah. You know, he joined our team really towards
the end of uh not last year's May, the May beforehand.
And uh he's really just grown, you know, as a
as a member of our team, and his in his confidence,

(09:42):
he's always had it in him to be a really
great leader in schools and really great communicator. But he
started from scratch. He Joe Sie will be the first
to tell you he was homeschooled growing up. He doesn't
know what it's like to be in school and doesn't
know what the school system operates like.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
And within those confines, that's a piece of what do
you know?

Speaker 5 (10:00):
Understanding the building that we're going into helps us understand
the culture. And he's really just you know, hit it
full throttle and became a really great member of Sweethearts
and Heroes.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Heads up here, I am going to be asking you
to give the definition of what Sweethearts and Heroes is.
What is it that you do and who you are
and all that stuff. But before I do that, I
got to tell you, man, it's every single time someone
from Sweethearts and Heroes comes on the air, it leaves

(10:33):
me with so much stuff to think about. To be
even more transparent with you, I love listening to stuff
when I'm in my truck, when i'm driving, when I'm alone,

(10:54):
I love to be engaged and listening to stuff, and
usually that satellite radio escape I go somewhere. I listen
to new content on Wednesdays after I'm done chatting with
sweethearts and heroes. I find myself getting into my vehicle

(11:16):
and not having any music or any chatter or anything
on but silence, so that it's still resonating with me
my my forty minute drive after I leave here. That's
what I'm thinking about, is what you guys are saying
on my podcast is really powerful stuff.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Ah well, I'm glad to hear that. I thought at
first you were discussing. You know, sometimes I get done
with a group of seventh graders at the end of
the day and I need forty minutes of silence in
my car afterwards, as well from all the talking that
I hear. But it's not for that, it's for what
the words that we're saying. Yeah, that's really great because
I know that every single one of us, for the
most part, we have a job where we talk, so

(12:02):
we can definitely and you know you too, so we
can we can talk people's ears off sometimes. But it's
nice to hear that. You know, as you get in
the car, you're you're really thinking about some of the
stuff that's being said on these on these podcasts, and
I think the clips that I've seen, you know, those
really kind of small sections everybody that has been on
has done a really nice job spreading our message and

(12:23):
talking about what it is to be a sweetheart and
what it means to be a hero. And that's really
a testament to our leadership as well. You know, when
I came on board, uh, you know, Tom took me
under his reins a little bit. And you know, since then,
I can probably count on one hand the amount of
times where I said something and He's gone, oh, maybe

(12:43):
we should do it this way. He trusts me fully,
and I think he trusts everyone fully to be their
own person. Now, if you come to him and you
have a question, he's he's always happy to answer and
help out. But he really kind of, you know, puts
trust in us to do our own thing, which is
a really which is a really great thing.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I want to I want to get caught up with you.
I want to hear about where you've you've been, what
you've done. I know that you've been incredibly busy over
the last couple of months now, but uh, first set
us up here a little bit for folks that may
not be familiar with you may not be familiar with
what we do here at the aired out podcast on Wednesdays.

(13:23):
Who is Pat Fish? And what in the heck is
Sweethearts and Heroes?

Speaker 5 (13:30):
Well two two awesome questions, JD. The first one a
little bit easier to explain. Pat Fish is a guy
from South Glens Falls, New York who.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Grew up and didn't want to really grow up.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
As many of us, you know, have those situations as
we do grow up where we feel like.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
You know, hey, let's still keep having fun. I didn't
want to.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Go into anything school related because I didn't really like
school growing up. I now get to go to school
every single day, but I get to pull kids out
of class, goop around, and have fun.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
And play games. That's what I like to say.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
My degree, my master's degree is in organizational psychology, and
I definitely tie that in in the schools that I
am in. But you know, first and foremost, I like
to have fun and then Sweethearts and Heroes.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
I got some practice the last two days.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
I was in a school that I haven't been in
since twenty twenty one. And usually when I go into schools,
even if I've just been there once before, most of
our team will tell you I have a decent memory
when it comes to this type of stuff, and I
could not remember a single person's face at this school,
and I was like, what is going on? Am I
just getting old? Why can't I recognize any of it?

(14:42):
It was because the last time I was there, everybody
had masks on, and so it's been a while since
I had been in this school. So with that being said,
we were reintroducing a lot of our concepts. You know,
Tom and Rick presented at their school in May, which
that is probably, you know, not the most ideal time
to bring in any type of presentation at a school

(15:03):
because by May kids are usually tuning out of stuff.
But the students remembered it, and you know, I would,
you know, reintroduce some of the messaging of the presentation.
I'd say, you know, my two bald friends were here
in May.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
You know, one of the guys was.

Speaker 5 (15:17):
On the screen kicking and punching people, and then there
was another guy that was bald because he got blown out.
And usually kids are like, like, they're my friends. I
can talk about him like that.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
It's fine.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
And as we start discussing, I go, well, one of
my bald friends. He talked a little bit about how
in the sixteenth century when the word bully was first
invented a really really long time ago. It meant sweetheart,
and it was never meant to be used as that
mean scary bully that we think of that's you know,
give me your lunch money and pushes people around. It

(15:47):
was supposed to be somebody that pushed you, but to
make you better. And as you look around the room,
I might find you know that young man who's a
big basketball player, or that you know young lady who's
a great soccer player, And I'll say you have a
coach in your life that pushed you, but in.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
A good way. You might not always like it.

Speaker 5 (16:05):
But they made you run those extra sprints, they made
you make those extra layouts.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
That's a sixteenth century bully. That's a sweetheart.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
In some ways, it's one some of your teachers, you know,
that teacher that actually can get you to do your work.
Or maybe it's just that friend you know when you're
in fifth grade. It's that friend that you go to
the amusement park and you are afraid to ride any
of the rides, so you're pretending you're going to go
to the bathroom instead of getting on the rides, Like,
oh sorry, guys, I got a peek and they're like,
come on, get on it, your big baby, stop being

(16:32):
a chicken. Well that's not the nicest thing to say
to somebody, but they're doing it because they care about
you and they want you to have fun. They're pushing
you for good reason. As you get a little bit older,
maybe it's that friend that's like, hey, if you like them,
why don't you actually try talking to them, Go ask
them out instead of just being scared, like, what's the
worst thing that happened? They say, no, you got this.
That's a great friend to have. That's a sixteenth century bully.

(16:54):
That's a sweetheart. The people who are there for us
when we need it most. Those are the simplest ways
that a sweetheart can be there for you. As you
move forward, it's those carriers of hope, those people that
give hope to others when they need.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
And then a hero is just what you think it is.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
It's somebody that jumps into action and does what others
aren't willing to do to help people need. And I
think last time I was on your podcast, JD, we
discussed my all my bracelets that I have.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
I have them right over there. I can grab them
for you later and show them to you.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
But every single one of those bracelets on there, and
every single one of my little superheroes that I keep
in that container has a different story. And I've found that,
you know, sometimes students' superheroes are their friends, sometimes their teachers,
sometimes their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, or no.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Maybe they're even fictional ones that they really look up to.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
And you know, Spider Man's a pretty amazing role model
for a lot of young kids out there. I got
Mawana in my bag. Mowana is a really awesome superhero.
She doesn't have any superpowers, but she jumps into action
to save the whole island.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
That's an amazing power to have.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's incredible.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
As we talk about what a sweetheart is and what
a hero is, there are people that do what others
aren't willing to do. On the hero and and sweethearts
are those people that give you hope when you need
the most.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Refresh me. Now, aren't you a new dad who's just
became a dad? Was it was it you? Was it Josiah?
I'm confused.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Josiah became a second a second time.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
Daddy's still live the dad Josiah had his second kid
earlier this year, and then my wife is expecting in April.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
All right, that's what I'm thinking. Man, you guys got
a lot going listen to the the type of messaging
that you you guys are already instilling in your children
and going to I mean, these kids are are Your

(18:52):
kid is lucky before he or she is even born, man,
And I mean that you guys like I couldn't think
of a better thing to teach your kid.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that, JD.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
You know, as I've been in my schools that this year,
I don't know if we discussed this with you or
if Joe has or anything along those lines. This year
we started our community Ambassador programming and what that entails
is myself, I have two schools that I'm in every
single week this year, one being Salem, the other being

(19:34):
Taekwonda Roga. I did luck out they're both purple schools,
So I just got some purple T shirts and we're
ready to go on that. You just add free hugs
to purple. But as I spent more and more time
with some of these young people and some of these students,
it's been really kind of neat because you go into
a school once and you get to.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Interact with staff, you get to.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
Present, you get to have conversations with kids, and then
you go all right, you know, good luck the rest
of the year. Hopefully you jump into act and you know,
help those other people.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
That need it. But I'm not going to see you
again because I'm not going to be here.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
And in these schools where we've had these time periods
where we actually get to grow as part of the
school community and just sprinkling hope here and there where
we can best in these districts, it's been amazing to
really connect and my wife has had the opportunity to
meet many of these students, and I think we have
free babysitters for for life at some of these schools

(20:29):
because every single one of these kids is like looking
forward to it and they all want to know what
the name is and we're not telling anybody.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
It's top secret, but it's uh.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
It's been really kind of cool to need to become
a part of a.

Speaker 4 (20:43):
School community in both of these districts.

Speaker 5 (20:45):
And I think Joe has done the same exact thing
over at oesj where you know, once a week he
shows up and he adds hope where he can, and
you know, whether that's through the programming that we do,
or even you know, stopping in the cafeteria and having
some small conversations with students that look like they need
somebody to talk to.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Where where have you been over the last couple of months?
What have you been doing? Like, give us, give us
a typical day.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
Okay, so I'll just go, you know, with these two
schools Monday through Wednesday on a schools all over as well.
But you know that varies whether it's running a Brave program,
which is our mix Stage leadership program where we take
older students down to younger grade levels to really teach
them what bullying is in ways that you can jump

(21:33):
into action and prevent it so that when you're in
third grade and a cool older kid comes down and
teaches you some of their secret superpowers, all of a sudden,
you have some tools.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
Wow, when you.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
Move up to the middle school that are better than
oh you tell a teacher, because that doesn't really work
so well in the long run.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Sure it stops, it.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
Stops being an action that will do well for that
student and for you, you know, it becomes code. Did
not ride on other people at a certain age level,
and so let's give them some other tools and we
use high schoolers to do that or middle schoolers in
some of our school programs.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
So I've had a few of those going on.

Speaker 5 (22:12):
I've had a few schools where we've been going and
doing our circle visits, which is where I get to.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Sit and listen a whole lot.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
But my heart and soul this year, for sure, has
been into these two schools where it's been our CAP.
I keep saying CAP programming. The P stands for programming,
so that's a little bit confusing. But these schools of
Salem and Taekwonder Roga, it's been really kind of neat
for me to be a part of these districts because

(22:41):
one school, Tae Kwonda Roga, I've been in for the
past three years, and when I walked in on day one,
there were already students that I was really well connected with.
There are already teachers that I was really well connected with.
There's fourth graders now that went through our Brave program
when they were in second grade and had older kids
that have now graduated.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
You had Hayley on.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
Your podcast, Yet we've had these older students that are
now off at college that went down and worked with
some of these younger students who are now getting to
that point where eventually they're going to be the ones
coming down to teach some of the younger students. So
Ty was at this one place and Salem I had
really only come and done circle visits before, and I
had only done a handful of them. So this year
it was really a fresh start for me to just go, Okay,

(23:25):
here's my blank canvas, here's what this school looks like
right now. Let's see where we can get this district
to by the end of the year. And that is
not a solo effort. It's more so just operating in
a way that helps others do what they have to do,
and you know, get students connected and get students having conversations,
get students coming up with games that allow for conversations. Jade,

(23:47):
I got a great one. We can play one right now.
They ever play wavelength before? Negative Okay, this was invented
by some students somewhere, I don't know. When it comes
to TikTok, I always say that, you know, there's no
such thing as a game that's invented by anyone anymore,
and there never really has been. You can even go
back to baseball and well that was inspired by rounders

(24:08):
over in Europe and cricket in some forms, Like nobody
invented baseball. I hate to break it to Tom's from Cooperstown.
He might get mad about that one. Yeah, yeah, that's
that's just.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Not that's only going to be upset about that.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
It was not invented in Cooperstown, New York.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
That was a made up marketing scheme by Actually the
dude's last name was Spalding. He was, you know, the founder,
and he needed to find a way to make it
so that baseball was truly America's game.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
But nothing was truly invented.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
Games are all just reinventions of other games and these
and I tall to kids about that all the time.
They come in with a game and they're like, it's
not good, and I go, basketball wasn't good when it
was first invented.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
The first college game was twelve to.

Speaker 5 (24:51):
Six, sure, and the baskets were closed at the bottom
and people had to grab the ball out. It was
in the ladder and restarts. So you make adjustments as
you go on. But this this really neat game that
these kids from taekwond to Rogua really kind of put
me onto is called wavelength.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
And the way that it works. I want you JD.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
Right now to think of a number and don't tell
me what it is. You can even hold it up
on your screen because I can't even see you right now,
so I'll close my eyes just so nobody thinks that
we're cheating.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
I'll hold your number up one through.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Ten, got it?

Speaker 4 (25:29):
Got it? Okay, Now we got to see if we're
on the same wavelength. Ready.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
Ten is the best in the world, right Ten is awesome,
tens amazing, and one is like this is crappy, this
is terrible. So you know, if I were playing with
somebody that I knew loved candy, then I would be like.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Candy and they might say.

Speaker 5 (25:54):
I'm enjoy and I'm like, I know they hate coconut,
so I think that's gonna be like I'm thinking somewhere
around two right now.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
And then I ask another one, oh.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
Movies, and they say, like the worst movie they can
think of, and I'm like, yeah, it's definitely two. And
that's my guest. So I'm gonna give you the category.
You have your number that you have, and then I'm
gonna probably give you three categories and then we'll see
if we're on the same wavelength.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Sound good?

Speaker 2 (26:18):
That sounds great?

Speaker 4 (26:20):
All right?

Speaker 5 (26:21):
My first category for you, JD, seeing as though you
are you know, we've had conversations about music before. You're
a big music guy. So I'm gonna go with bands
or musicians artists. That's your category. So ten would be
like the best of the best, and one would be
like that's awful.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Got it?

Speaker 4 (26:48):
What do you go for me?

Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm not sure I'm following here.

Speaker 5 (26:55):
Okay, So if ten is the Beatles, you you have
a number that you picked, right, Yes, okay, So ten
might be like the Beatles and one might be I
don't know whoever. The worst band you can possibly think
of is your number is somewhere between one and ten.
You got to think it somewhere in the middle. Let's
start easier than that. Let's go cereals.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Oh no, we can do I want to do. I
want to do serious, but no, let's let's stay with
Let's stay with the bands.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
So, so I'm so right now I'm thinking of my
favorite band and I'm telling you what number I think.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
They are no, no, no, no, no, you're telling me
a band that you think fits your number. Oh so
if let's just say your number was eight, then I'd say.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
You know, maybe it's I got you the band, Maybe
it's the Eagles, right, if you're I don't really know
what your scale is, but we're trying to see if
we're on the same wave.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
All right, I got you totally. Yep, all right, here's
my answer.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Okay, so right now in my head, I'm trying to,
you know, kind of think of that scale there and
you know.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Knowing you and I'm leaning.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
Right now towards you know, maybe a six, maybe a
seven somewhere in there, but it's not we're.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Not official yet, so's I could be close. I could
not be. But let's do cereals next.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yep, you ready, don't. I don't even have to think
about it. Cinnamon toast crunch.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
Oh see, that's a really good one for me, and
that might bump that up. I'm seven or eight right
now on my scale, So I got one more to
try and see if we're on the thingk we're on
the thing that.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
We need to be on.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
And seeing as though it's Thanksgiving, let's go with Thanksgiving
plate items, So things on your plate?

Speaker 4 (28:51):
What do you got for me?

Speaker 2 (28:57):
I would have to go with I'd have to go
with the mashed potatoes.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
I think I'm gonna lock in on that. Seven.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
I've been bouncing back and forth between I think seven's
my answer.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
What was your number?

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Nine?

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (29:16):
Okay, I almost bumped it up to an eighth there,
but nine is a good one. And you know then
from there the next person would go and the next
person would go. But it's really, it really is kind
of interesting. And you play that at your Thanksgiving table.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
And I'm playing this tonight man with Lily.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
I Oh, Lily will love it.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
I played it with, you know, all sorts of different
students who had different ideas and some of the stuff
they came up with. I was at one school that
did it, and they went teachers in this school and
this and this kid go the number was five. This
is the worst part, and this kid goes so and
so on a good day, And I was like, oh,
don't tell me that. But it's neat the perspectives and

(29:59):
the things that you you get to hear from young
people just from playing a silly little game and looping
around and that's one of the ones.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
That I've been playing quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
But you know, you go to a school like Tye
or Salem, and it's really awesome to watch as these
kids connect more and more and more. At tay Kwonda Roga,
we just did this past weekend on two weeks notice,
we got together a team of kids and said, hey,
we're raising money for the Special Olympics of New York.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
There's a they're doing a polar plunge.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
And some high schools they have a challenge for these
kids were like, oh, we're in, we'll join, And within
two weeks we had twenty three participants. They raised well
over two thousand dollars in two weeks and jumped into
a freezing cold lake. And I'd be hard pressed, you
know that. You could have some arguments with some of

(30:51):
the schools there that had like sixty kids, seventy kids,
but there wasn't anyone ladder and crazier on that beach
than the kids wearing the free hug shirt from tay
Kwana Roga.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Wow, dude, it's just.

Speaker 5 (31:03):
Really awesome to get to become a part of a
district and to become a part of you know, how
they connect and how they give hope to others. And
it's just been something that I've been really proud to
watch at Tye and at Salem, and even watching Joe
and the work that he's been doing at Oees.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Jo.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
You guys carry hope right on your shirt sleeves when
you go into a school. That is I think your
your primary, uh, your primary focus that above all things.
And there's gonna be plenty of of crap going on
in your personal life, in the news, circumstantial stuff, But

(31:47):
in the end, if we don't have hope, it's kind
of the foundation, man, if we're going to push through
anything in our lives, it's got to be it's We've
got to have hope and belief that things are going
to turn out good on the backside, and that we
may possibly a couple of months from now, a year

(32:09):
from now, be looking back at what our experience was
and say, wow, look at things are actually better now.
I wish back then that I had more hope, because
now that I'm in the future, I can see that
I should have.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
And you know, the fascinating piece about what we do
with Sweethearts and Heroes to me is that work is
largely being done in schools already. You can go to
any other school in America that's never heard of Sweethearts
and Heroes before, and you know, if you have somebody
on that staff who is trained as a counselor a

(32:56):
social worker or a school psychologist, they're working towards spread
and hope the best they can and doing a really
nice job of it. But the difficult piece that a
lot of these employees of this school have is that
there's also a whole lot of other things in your
job description that you have to take care of, and
you have to you know, a lot of them have

(33:16):
to do with class scheduling, and a lot of them
have to do with the structuring of the way that
the school operation works. And then you know, you're constantly
running around putting out fires because you're working as it's intervention, right.
You have these students that got into a fight, these
students have drama going this student has something really really

(33:37):
difficult going on at home, and that is absolutely needed.
Intervention is super important. But you know, the work that
we're doing at Sweethearts and Heroes can aid in that
by becoming that prevention piece. And let's connect, let's have conversations,
Let's listen to each other, Let's grow empathy, so that hopefully,

(33:58):
down the line, it doesn't get to that point where
these students are getting into fights, where these students are
making hopeless and destructive decisions. And you know, I don't
want to I don't want to add fire to any
you know, ongoing stories, but I've been in a school
pretty recently that had a whole issue going on in

(34:18):
the news with uh, it's bullying, and well, yeah, every
school in America has a bullying issue. Every place in
America has bullies. For all of human history, there's been bullied.
There always is going to be bullies as well. What
we're trying to do is we can't go into schools good,
don't bully kids. Okay, maybe that works for a day

(34:40):
and you're super inspired if you're getting bullied, stand up
for yourself, and then we leave. So what we're trying
to do is we're trying to give those other students
that see it happening, that see students that are being bullied,
see students who are hopeless, that see students who are
dealing with other issues. They are carrying around that invisible
suitcase that has nothing to do with bullying sometimes or

(35:02):
it's just the tip of the iceberg. And have those
students that have you know, a lot going for them,
have people that look up to them, have you know,
a great season in this sport, are the leader of
the play. And take those students, say hey, you see
this stuff happening, do something about it. Be the person
that is someone's hero, Be the person that can give

(35:23):
them hope. And now down the line, maybe we don't
need to have that intervention because they don't necessarily get
to that point where they need it. And you know,
that's the work that we're being done, that we have
being done in these schools that we're in and I
think for us it goes hand in hand with the
amazing work that the counselors and social workers and psychologists

(35:43):
and schools across America.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Are doing all the way.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, you know, as as children kids, I mean, you
could you could point the finger at maturity, you could
point the finger at the old cliche kids will be kids.
But man, it's like kids joke around a lot, and

(36:13):
especially among among their peers, there's a lot of joking around,
goofing around, silliness that can be misinterpreted by the on
the receiving end as I'm I'm being bullied or I'm
getting ribbed too you know too often? Uh too much.

(36:37):
It's cross, it's across the line. Where's the threshold? How
do you how do you teach kids? Hey, there's there's
a there's a real difference between having fun with with
people that you you enjoy being around, that you like like.
You know, you've you've pat You've heard the the you

(36:58):
know people say, Uh, I wouldn't make fun of you
if I didn't like you, If I didn't like you,
I wouldn't make fun of you.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
There's a massive difference between teasing and bullying.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
I mean I get it all the time from from
from people that I love. I mean Tom is constantly
hammering away at me my height, my height, my weight,
my hair, I mean, the list goes on, and I'm like, bro,
who's who's got the fingernails painted?

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Here?

Speaker 2 (37:32):
What would you you want to go there? I'll get
in the cage with.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
You that you know. It's funny Tom.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Tom's a big he loves to tease and he really
When I first joined Sweethearts and Heroes, him and Rick
go back at each other and forth at each other
like crazy, unbelievable. You know, you know, you don't want
to get into a burn battle with a roast guy
is one of Tom's favorite lines that he goes to.
But yeah, you know, I don't. I hate the challenge Tom.

(37:59):
But Tom seems to be pretty nice to me for
the most part. And at first I was like, maybe
he just doesn't like me that.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
No, he's intimidated.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
Yeah he knows I'll give it right back. And you
know that I don't want to get into the ring
with Tom.

Speaker 5 (38:12):
But you know, we get into a roast battle, I
think I got him.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Rappers can think of words at a lightning speed.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
We have the comeback game is certainly strong, and you know,
those are those are things that I think are beneficial
for young people to watch and to see. And that's
you know, when I go into a school and I say, yeah,
you had a presentation with two bald guys. One you know,
was on the screen kicking and punching people and the
other one got blown up. And the kid's like, I'm like,

(38:41):
they're my friends. I can talk like that, right. There's
a reason that I say those lines.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
It's not just.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
Because, oh, I like to pick on Tom and Rick
it's because, hey, it should be encouraged to laugh a
little bit. Sure, and Rick will be the first to
tell you when he got blown up in Iraq, one
of the first conversations that he had with one of
his buddies who looked down at him, and Rick was like,
how bad is it? And the guy liked to him

(39:08):
because he felt bad and was like, oh, it's not
that bad. And you know, Rick said back to him,
he goes, well, I'll never be as ugly as you are.
That should be encouraged. Rick's sense of humor is what
gave him hope. You know, guys like to joke around
and rip each other quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
And this is a guy, this is a guy who's who's,
frankly at the time, was brushing against death.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
Yeah, and still had that sense of Okay, I'm gonna
joke around with my friends. And you know, I sit
in circles all the time with young people when you know,
so and so just had a conversation about their you know,
uncle who has cancer, or somebody's talking about you know,
their pet who had just passed away, or you know,
somebody's talking about, uh, you.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Know something really personal that they're going through.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
And it gets to this young man who you know,
awkwardly makes a joke and ever it kind of falls flat,
or the teacher's given that look of like, well, you know,
he's just practicing his superpower.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
He doesn't have it down yet.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
He's working on it, and to be honest with you,
I think it should be encouraged at some level. Now,
if he's saying something disparaging to the other student on
purpose to harm that student, to make them feel small
or weaker about what they said, that's a different story.
Then we're venturing into bullying territory. But if that student

(40:38):
is just trying to alleviate the tension that they feel
in the room and that they feel for this young person,
well that is really close to empathy. We're working on it,
you know, we're working on okay, making a joke to
try and show some level of compassion to make that
person feel better. And guess what, I've had times in
my life where I've been going through something difficult, I've

(41:00):
had a tough day, and the friends of mine that
could cheer me up, well, those are the best people
to be around because they can make me laugh, they
can make me smile.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
That's a really helpful thing. So all of those things
should be able to exist together.

Speaker 5 (41:13):
We should be able to tease people, we should be
able to have fun with people. But you know, eventually,
sometimes it does venture into that bullying territory. And when
that's the case, well it should be addressed and there
should be discipline involved. I am a firm believer in that.
But JD, if you were to judge me for the

(41:33):
things that I did when I was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
even eighteen, I wasn't a bully, but I certainly made
some mistakes and I certainly did some things that could
really venture into that territory of not so nice. And
most of it was not with the intention of being harmful.

(41:56):
Most of it was with the intention of being funny,
you know, having fun, goofing around, playing games. Sometimes we
get into that gray area between teasing and bullying, and
that's where we mess up. Yeah, you know, Tom and
I had a long conversation just this week about, Hey,
you know, we've made mistakes in our lives. We do
some dumb things, you know, someone It wasn't me. It

(42:19):
had absolutely nothing to do with me.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
JD. But somebody for a senior prank in our school
was not I had nothing to do with it. But
somebody in our school put up the class of twenty
fourteen spread across eight different butt cheeks or however many
butt cheeks it was, and there was about five thousand
of those pictures just randomly placed throughout the school. I

(42:43):
don't know who did that. I don't know why anyone
would do that.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
It's a really terrible thing, but somebody did it, and
it's a mistake, right, it's it's stuff that young people
do and they mess up.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Again. I had nothing to do with that, JD. It
wasn't me.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Oh oh, you've that very clear. Yeah, man, I hear you.
I hear you loud and clear. You know. I think
it's it's got to be uh, you know, there needs
to be some attention put on the receiving end. It's
it's mostly it's how did you feel when when that

(43:21):
was said to you? And when my good friends rip
me if if we if we're all laughing, and I'm
laughing because I know they're right. It's healthy. It's healthy,
and it makes us feel maybe more connected.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
But if outside of that, at almost at a younger level,
at a primal level. Even you know, there's been studies
done where it's been shown that you go into tribes
of people and they will pick on the weekend slink.
And what it really is for is that weakest member,

(44:05):
when dealing with outsiders, is now going to be more
prepared for having dealt with the teasing they have dealt
with within.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Their own group.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
And you know, I have a I have a younger
cousin who who is on the autism spectrum and you know,
growing up, uh, he was he was the manager for
his basketball team.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
And you know, in my.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
Experience, I was that basketball player at a different school
and we had we had a manager on our bench
who was awesome, but a special needs student. And you know,
we loved him, but we picked on him a decent
amount and when and it wasn't like, you know, bad,
We just had our secret handshakes and he'd make us
laugh and you know, we'd kind of you know, crack

(44:48):
jokes with him and get him riled up on the
bench and you know, get him going, and he would,
you know, be excited for but he felt like he
was part of that family. Sure, And what I thought
was really cool was in my conversation with my uncle
about my cousin. This was years ago, but he was
a manager on this team. You know, he kind of
watched it as he would notice like, hey, they yes,

(45:10):
they goop around, they pick on him a little bit,
but if it was anyone from the outside, they're going
to stand up for him. And that's the piece where
I think it ventures into. Okay, teasing is beneficial because
it's been shown that, yeah, we can pick on him
because he's ours, right, that's our brother. We can make
jokes about that person, but if somebody from the outside

(45:32):
does it, we're going to stand up for that person
that because he's ours. And you know, as we talk about,
we're going into schools and there's all these different inner
groups that exist within schools. You know, we're trying to
create as many new inner groups as humanly possible with
the circles.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
That we do. Bringing kids from different.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
Clicks is you know we used to call it, and
bringing them together and getting them having conversations so the
empathy can foster within that unit. And uh, I think
that's where you know, a little bit of teasing is
a great sign for that unit because if there's some teasing.
That means they're comfortable enough with each other where they
feel as though they can make some jokes and it's

(46:13):
not going to be taken as this person is coming
after me.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Yeah, who you can joke around with?

Speaker 5 (46:18):
And you know who you can go a little bit
further with Rick, well enough to go a little bit
further with him and.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Sorry, yeah, And are we reciprocating too?

Speaker 4 (46:32):
I mean, you know back and forth.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
It's just a healthy it's just a healthy exchange here.
Or is it unwanted and there's you know, there's negative
feelings that are attached to it. That's what we have
we have to ask ourselves.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
There's a great There's a young man I love, and
he gave me a Pokemon card last year and he
signed it on the back and he was like, you
can use this as your talking piece of different schools,
and I have.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
I've used it at quite a few different schools. Now.
A young man's name is Heaven.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Is this little guy seventh grader And just about every
time I've been in Kevin's school, he's been somewhere in
or near or around the.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Office for getting in trouble. Tell him every single time,
because he's he makes me laugh, he makes me chuckle.
He's a funny kid.

Speaker 5 (47:16):
He's you know, raised by his grandparents and they did
a you know, a really nice job of creating this,
you know, very socially, he's he's he's socially strong as
a young person, but he's always trying to be funny
and he crosses the.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Line quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (47:35):
And I always, like my constant reminder is just, dude,
the best jokes make everybody laugh. And he's working on it, right,
you gotta It takes steps, it's a process, but the
best jokes can make everyone. It's not just you know,
this person that person and we're laughing at that person.
It's okay, we're all laughing together. Great, that's the place

(47:58):
where we want to get to.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
The thing that you guys have that you have figured
out so much and so well. Is that, and you
were alluding to this earlier, is that coming into a
school putting on presentations assemblies even a couple of circles

(48:21):
where you're you're sitting with students and maybe faculty in
a circle and talking about some really profound subject matter.
The effectiveness of that has to be sustained beyond when

(48:41):
you guys leave the doors and walk out of that
out of that building, out of that school. And the
fact that you all have figured out that, hey, we
need to start dividing and conquering here. We need to
get Joe over here, we need to get Pat doing this,
and we need to teach these schools and these students

(49:04):
how to carry this message after we have left their doors.
Is really it's it's really the biggest stuff that Sweethearts
and Heroes I think is made of.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
So you probably can't see it that well, there's a
picture on my screen of a cracked phone case that
this student came up to me, and it's a it's
at Tykonda Roga. It's at a school that we're in
quite a bit. And I think you know, I've talked
with those students. We're going to get you to tie
to do a podcast at some point this year, JD.

(49:42):
Because there's a plenty of students that could talk your
ears off for days about you know, the work of
Sweethearts and Heroes and would ask you far more interesting
questions than I even have for you. But I she
this young lady Avery, who's absolutely awesome. She'll come down
choos in our program at Tyler last year. And you know,
now she just comes. She wants to be a photographer

(50:03):
when she grows up, and she's awesome at it, and
she'll do our picture taking for whenever we do our
Bully Rails down at the elementary school and our Brave
program down there. But she came up to me and
she was like, hey, I have a list of questions
on my phone and I'm like, well, for circle, and
she's like, yeah, we do a circle with just our
friends when we're hanging out on the weekend. We'll just

(50:24):
we'll just do circles. And these are some of the questions.
And you know, as I combed through it, I used
them the rest of the week.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
Like these kids were sitting around in a circle at
home talking about do you think there are good and
bad people? Question mark? Can people change? Question Mark? What's
a challenge you're facing right now that people can't see
from the outside. This one's one of my favorite ones, JD.
Not in a romantic way, but who do you think

(50:49):
would be a great father slash mother for your children?

Speaker 5 (50:53):
Like so just like who's going to be a great
parent someday? And you know, these questions are conversations. There
are teenagers discussing, listening to each other, making eye contact
at the very simplest level. I know some schools ready
to go to we can't even get them to look.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
At each other.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
Yeah, And you know, these are young people that are
sitting around actively listening as they have deep, thoughtful conversation
about who they are, what they want to be, and
what they struggle with, and they're being open about those things.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Those are people that when they get to their.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Twenties, when they get to their thirties and so on
and so forth, those are the people that when they
are people struggling in their families and their communities, they're
going to be the ones that jump into action and
change those people's lives, which is the goal from the
outset of Sweethearts and Heroes when it started as just
a simple little bullying presentation way back in the day.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
The one circle that I did up at Peru, I
didn't know the rules going in that there's no follow
up questions, there's there's there's no questions when there's only
one person at a time that's speaking and the rest

(52:13):
of you are listening. And that was so difficult for
me because I've got a million follow up questions. It
was like very difficult for me to just sit there
and and have to be forced to listen. Man.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
Wow, And and you know Leon pretty well, he actually
I got.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Him to participate in one of these activities and he
thrived at it. Yeah, he's like he's like circles no ready,
So he's like you in that his brain is constantly
operating on Oh, I'm curious about this next right, which
we don't want to get rid of that.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
That's a great thing to have.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
One of the things that I've done in some schools
because if I'm going into a school or a building
and an organization, whatever it might be, and I'm asking
a question for circle, well, I've talked with fifth graders
about this, sixth graders about this and said, hey, your
question of who's the best quarterback in the NFL? I

(53:14):
love that question. It's a great question. But there's ten
people in the circle that don't watch the NFL. So
I still don't think it's a bad question. It's just
not the right context for it. We got to make
a question that fits for everybody.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
And definitely not the apex question.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
And I've had those students that do the you know, oh,
what's your favorite makeup brand?

Speaker 4 (53:35):
What's your favorite thing to play with it on fortnite?

Speaker 5 (53:38):
All these questions that you cannot tell this young person
it's not a good question, because it is, and it
could be the apex question in a.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Group of people that are interested in that.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
If I got a Lord of the Rings question, and
I'm at a Lord of the Rings convention, that's really great,
but it's not elsewhere because there's.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Going to be people in that.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
So you almost have to go more broad, especially someone
as an outsider coming into a district that doesn't know
everyone so well. I got to rely on things that
I know to be true as a human that most
people can connect.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
On in some way shape.

Speaker 5 (54:13):
But I want to encourage those students to ask those
types of more specific questions because they are great questions.
So what we've been doing quite a bit of in
some of these schools where I have more time to
actually be there are what I call a reverse circle.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
And a reverse circle is pretty much what you think
it is.

Speaker 5 (54:33):
Instead of the facilitator being the person that asks a
question for everybody, and it goes around and every single
person answers what I like to do is say, okay,
that person in the facilitating role, here's your answering piece,
and we're going to pass around a question piece and
everybody's going to ask you a question. So one person
asks you a question, than the next person, than the

(54:55):
next person, and you answer all of them as it
goes on.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
And what you'll find is students.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
Know how to ask those follow up questions quite a bit,
those questions that you have in your mind. They are
better at those than they are at questions for everybody
because they've never had to ask a question for thirty people.
It's not and they're not trained for that. They've never
learned how to do that. What they've learned how.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
To do is ask questions specifically to friends and conversations
in the cafeteria right and conversations on the bus. So
they are very very adequate at asking great questions. But
it's just not necessarily going to fit for everybody. So
let's utilize those strengths. And Leon was amazing at it
because he'd be the sixth in the order and after
the first five questions, it get to him and he'd go, Okay,

(55:44):
based on what I've learned from these five answers. My
question is now going to be this, And you'll get
some students that, no matter what, are just going to go,
what's your favorite movie because that's what they want.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
To talk about and that's what they're interested in learning.
And that's fine, but it really gets to to practice
having questions and following their curiosity based on their interactions
with other people and connecting more. And I always say, hey, look,
if your best friend in the entire world is in
the circle and you're like, well, I don't have any
questions for them, I know everything, that's just not true.

(56:17):
You have better questions for the people you know better.
I know that you have a daughter.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Now for my knowledge that you have a daughter, I
can ask you questions about that.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
If I didn't know you have a daughter, I could
not ask you questions about that. And that's just one thing, right,
it expands into all these different interests likes. You know,
if I know that this kid plays football and baseball
and those are the two most important things in the world, Okay,
you have to give one up?

Speaker 4 (56:46):
Which one are you quitting? Dude?

Speaker 5 (56:48):
Like, that's a that's a question that I need to
know those basic pieces of information in order to ask it.
So getting them asking great questions I think stems from
acknowledging the fact that they already can ask great questions.
Let's build on them.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
This is fascinating stuff, man, And you know you've taught
us since so is tom circle is something that goes
back how far man like?

Speaker 5 (57:20):
So you know the anthropological evidence as hundreds of thousands
of years right, just based on the fact that human beings,
it's known we sat around fires, you know, and we
got to this point where we started having conversations and
the large amount of the time was spent around fires.
And you know, that's where storytelling took place, That's where

(57:41):
lessons were taught, that's where things were learned, that's where
communication developed, and that's what made us as a species
the most dominant species on earth is because we learned
how to communicate with each other so effectively. We were
not the strongest animals in the animal kingdom, we were
not the fastest, but we work together. And when we

(58:02):
were hunting down that you know giant beast, well, okay,
you go on the right side. I'm going to go
on the left side, and we're going to run for
days and this thing can only go for so long.
But if we just keep pestering it and keep working together,
we're going to take this thing.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Down and we'll both benefit, and we'll.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
Both benefit and we'll grow from them. Right, And there
are all sorts of things that we learned as human beings. Hey,
I'm going to survive much better if I work with
this group. The last thing that you want to do
is be excluded from the group, because you won't survive.
Now you wonder why when you have a middle schooler

(58:39):
who is going through some really difficult things and is
being excluded. They're not fearful, but they're being excluded from
their inner group, and their parent comes to you know,
their counselor us says, hey, my kid is being bullied. Well,
you know, they're not afraid, so they're not being fullied yet,

(59:01):
but that doesn't mean they're not going through some they're
being excluded.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
That's a really.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Difficult thing to have to deal with as a young person,
especially at some of these smaller schools, where as you
get excluded, it's really tough to go hop to another
inner group and find it because.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
There isn't another intergroup.

Speaker 5 (59:15):
So you have to, you know, find your way to
venture back into that path and all of this stuff
that we're working on. These you know, basic human skills
that are now all of a sudden everybody wants to
learn them from a textbook or learn them from this
you know software. Well, yeah, we can utilize some of
those things, but at its core level, even though Sweethearts

(59:36):
and Heroes has all of these online programming options, at
our core, we're never going to get away from the
number one thing that can be done for creating peer
networks for young people is having conversations.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
So we have those conversations and we get them to.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
You know, I was going to say, Tom is so
lucky to have all of you on his team, but really,
you're all so lucky to have each other equally. Man,
it's you guys are just you're all dialed in. You
all get it. You'll all bring something different to the table.

(01:00:17):
And man, Sweethearts and Heroes, something that started in Vermont
has has now grown to a regional thing, and even
beyond regional. I mean, you guys, I don't know how
many schools you've been into and in the last year
maybe you know that number. Do you know a lot?

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
So here's the thing I would say, actually, if you
looked at our our you know, the peak numbers of
what Sweethearts and Heroes was doing. As far as the
schools that they've been into, that would be pre Patfish,
pre anybody on me. When it was just Tom and
Rick living together on the road and the you know

(01:00:59):
two and tens era, when you know I was in
high school and you know Tom and Rick were working
hard just Monday through Friday, spending every single day together
and driving.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Each other nuts. That was the most schools that they
had been into for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:01:15):
You know, it'd be one school present the next day,
go to a school present, the next day, go to
a school present. But as far as the impact that
we have, we've been in less schools recently. What we've
done is we've focused on those schools that want to
bring us in to utilize our programming and said, okay,
these are where we can actually make the biggest impact.

(01:01:37):
And because of that, we've put all of this focus
on our Community Ambassador program, our Brave Program, our Step program,
all of these different things that we have that you know,
you go to Peru and Peru I have a few
visits this year, but compared to when I first joined
the team.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
I was in Peru NonStop.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
But we've been in Peru so much that we feel
as though there are at a place now where you know,
they can keep this thing going. We'll come in and
we'll sprinkle some new ideas and I'll come in and make.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Everything go crazy for a couple of days.

Speaker 5 (01:02:11):
But they have a pretty strong system going there, So
let's go build it somewhere else. Let's go build this
programming and continue to reinvent ourselves and change it so
that we can have the biggest impact. The amount of
schools to us, you know, I think it's it's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
It's a great number to look at.

Speaker 5 (01:02:30):
But what it comes down to is, you know, we
can go to a school and present one time and
you leave. And if you taught me something one time
in high school, JD, good luck with me remembering that
at the end of the year. I probably wasn't paying
attention that one time. Tom and Rick came to my

(01:02:51):
middle school and presented. I don't know if I was
even there. I didn't like, I couldn't tell you anything
about it. If I was, maybe the presentation just got
a whole lot better. But I like to think I
would have remembered then. So while the presentation is absolutely amazing,
it is the thing that starts the.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
Fire, right. It is that match, It is that light
or whatever you want it to be.

Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
So now we got this fire going, but we got
to keep throwing wood on this thing to keep it moving.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
And you want to spread hope, you can't just say Okay,
here's your hope. Good luck. Yeah, that you know might have.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
That impact on a handful of students, and it did
in the twenty tens. You could ask Tom, you could
ask Rick. There were all of these students that benefited
so strongly. It changed and saved lives. I'm absolutely sure
of it. But when it comes to the programming piece
of what Sweethearts and Hero does, it's making sure that
those buildings that we are in we spend more and

(01:03:50):
more time in so that we can continue to change
and save lives in the best way that we know how,
which is showing up and being there and listening.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Bro let's throw some some love before we close out
this morning to Alderman, Chevrolet, Littleton, Chevrolet, Cody, Chevrolet, all
the Chevy dealers, Welch River.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
Let's show some gratitude. It's Thanksgiving, Jody.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Yeah, man, Yes, these these dealerships, these Chevy dealerships, embrace
so much what you guys are doing and saying, hey,
we're going to do everything we can to make sure
they're getting into as many schools as possible.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
You know, I was, I wasn't in Vermont one time,
this a couple of years ago, and I was, you know,
heading to a school and that you know, you go
to Vermont and every once in a while you're wearing
the free Hug shirt and because of that, somebody remembers
you from you know, whether it's the early days of
sweetet As the Heroes, when it was back when Tom

(01:04:59):
owned a restaurant, when it was that, whatever it might be.

Speaker 4 (01:05:01):
You see that free Hug shirt and you're like, oh,
I remember that. I know that. And uh.

Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
I had this this guy that was at this coffee
shop and he was like, well, you know, do you
work for uh do you work for the free Hugs
thing like Sweethearts and Heroes? And he's like, yeah, yeah,
that thing. He's like that. You know, that guy just
goes around and you know tries to, you know, look
all high and mighty, because you know, he just wants

(01:05:28):
to but like you get paid for that. You you know,
the schools pay you to come in, so you're really
just doing it for money, You're not doing And I said, okay,
and I listened, and I, you know, I'm not going
to start an argument with anybody in a coffee shop.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
That doesn't really you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Know, that doesn't really seem like the best spot to uh,
you know, seven o'clock in the morning, just getting really
fired up about something. And so I just listened, and
at the end of it, I kind of looked at
the guy and I said, you know, uh, we need
to travel to the schools, and we need to show
up at the building, and we probably because of that,

(01:06:06):
have to stay somewhere overnight, and we probably because of
that need to eat something to food. All of this
stuff like seems like it might you know, matter And
by no.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
Means, did you mention gasoline?

Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
Did I mentioned gasoline?

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
And look, when I joined the team, I you know,
I went to school for my.

Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
Masters was an organizational psychology.

Speaker 5 (01:06:37):
And you know, as I look at, you know, my
degree and what I could go off and.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Do with my degree, there's a whole lot of businesses.
There's a whole lot of HR departments.

Speaker 5 (01:06:48):
There's a whole lot of places where masters in organizational
psychology and experience working in a whole bunch of different
buildings could probably bode me pretty well. But I'm going
to work for Sweethearts and Heroes because this is an
organization that cares and does things for people, and we're
only able to do that if we have the funding

(01:07:09):
necessary to get into buildings. And let's be honest, there's
a lot of schools out there that are struggling when
it comes to money, when it comes to their finances.
And to ask one of those schools, hey, you know,
we want to bring in a brave program. It really
help your young people, and they're yeah, but you know,
we have this teacher whose family lives in our community

(01:07:30):
and we just cut their job. It's probably not going
to look so great to bring in this, you know,
organization that we're paying all this money for.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Yeah, we can't.

Speaker 5 (01:07:39):
So having those outside fundings that you know, are putting
their their hard earned dollars into the young people of Verman,
of New York of the places where we go, is
something that is I can't express gratitude enough for because look,

(01:08:01):
a lot of a lot of people out there are
struggling right now.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
It's just the truth.

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
And you know, it's really tough to go and say, yeah,
you know, we want to spread hope to all of you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
We got to be.

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
Able to get there though, and you know, if you're
struggling on your income, it's a that's a hard sell.

Speaker 4 (01:08:19):
So what Chevy has.

Speaker 5 (01:08:21):
Done for us is allowed us to spread our message
of hope in schools and in young people that would
not have seen our message if that wasn't the case.
And that's a really amazing thing that they should be
they should be proud of and we are all extremely
grateful for.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
And you know what, if you walk into any Chevy
dealer or you know someone that works at one, just
thank them. Say hey, we saw pat Fish on the
Aired Out podcast the other day. Sweethearts and heroes. Thank
you for for supporting them so much and allowing them

(01:08:58):
to get to infiltrate into into so many schools. Just
thank them.

Speaker 5 (01:09:07):
Yeah, I want to ask you something real quick before
I know, I know we've been going on for ages
as we usually do when we get together.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Oh, I want to ask you something too.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
What's your Thanksgiving looking like? Man?

Speaker 5 (01:09:19):
Talk to me because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in
the entire world, So I'm always curious what other people do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
On this I will be I do you know, someday
you'll get there because you're so You're so young right now, Pat,
but at some point in your life, you will be
purchasing a pair of pants with an elastic waistband. It's

(01:09:46):
going to happen at some point. I do have a
pair of those. I don't necessarily wear them proudly in public,
but I will be wearing them on Thanksgiving. We're gonna
be with some friends and we're gonna do like a
friends giving thing, and there's gonna be tens of thousands
of kids running around and and uh rollerblading around the

(01:10:09):
inside of the house. But we're gonna have a great
time and we're gonna be surrounded by love, and uh
that's that's more important to me than what kind of
food is going to be served up. Maybe maybe with
the exception of the deviled eggs, but we're gonna have
a awesome We're just gonna have a good time. We're

(01:10:30):
just gonna sit and relax. We're gonna watch some football,
and I'm gonna I'm gonna pass some gas and with
my elastic waist pants and I'm just gonna have a
good time.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
But it's the best holiday in the world, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Is it was uh initially put into place as a
national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the
Civil War era. So it was divided as our country
ever was. You can argue that, but that's just the truth.
We were literally at war with each other. Yeah, as
divided as our country ever was. And there was a

(01:11:04):
there's a.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Woman who strongly, strongly pushed for it.

Speaker 5 (01:11:08):
For about ten years beforehand, and finally it got passed
as a way to say, hey, you know, during this
time of strife, during this time of division, we should
be able to come together and you know, talk about
the things that we are grateful for, talk about that
love and and you know, just just spend time with
one Yeah. So it's a great day and I think,

(01:11:31):
you know, a great purpose as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
You know, I'm thankful to be alive, and I'm thankful
to be surrounded by my family and some friends. I
think more than anything else regardless, again, if there's any
food on the table, just to be together with people
that care about you and that you love That's that's

(01:11:57):
what I'm thankful for. Man, I gotta ask you green
bean cast role from petfish.

Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
So so I've been talking to you know, first of all,
kids here, Thanksgiving is your favorite hotday. And they're like
most kids, especially you get to that younger level Christmas, Halloween,
you know, can or whatever that they're like Thanksgiving huh.
But you know, I've been having quite a few conversations
with young people about, you know, what's.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
The favorite dish.

Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
We even did one kid ask food fight starts at
the at the Thanksgiving table, what are you grabbing? Like,
are you grabbing the turkey to throw? Orre you grabbing porn?
Or you grabbing mashed potato? But when it comes to
my favorite dish, it Thanksgiving j D. I am whatever
is on that table grabbing a piece of bag rout
and it's just getting mixed into one big giant pincoction.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
So yeah, there's green bean cast role in the mixed grain.

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
If there's stuff, he's got to be stuffing in the mix,
gott to be mashed potatoes in the mix. But all
of it is just it's going into one place. Yes,
we'll start that mixing early. That's my mindset. When I
go into it, I have some people that are mortified
as I say, the food's touching and it's all going
to the same spot. Yeah, and you know, after a
long day of in the morning. I've since since my

(01:13:14):
dad was a kid. Actually my hometown it's and it's
really kind of neat because it's not sponsored or anything
like that, but it's been There's a group of like
twenty people. They get together and you know, play football
in the morning and we just throw a football around
and run around. And I've been doing it since I
was a kid. And now you know, some of the
older guys that used to play in it just watch

(01:13:35):
on the sides as we run around and have fun.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
But so I'll get nice and tired.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Because they blew out their meniscus a couple of years
ago on that Thanksgiving Day. That's why they're standing around.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
But oh man, I'll never forget the year where my
dad switched from being you know, he was the all
time quarterback on one team and there was a couple
of years where we were both.

Speaker 4 (01:13:56):
Quarterback going again. That was fun.

Speaker 5 (01:13:57):
But then then I'll never forget at one year he
just became all time center and he just kind of
hikes the ball and doesn't block anybody, and he takes
the ball nice, but he goes, I'm gonna be it
for both teams, and he still whole participate a little bit,
he'll hike it, which is really kind of great. But yeah,
that's that is kind of as as it happens. Everybody's
got that career ending injury. I think my uh, my

(01:14:20):
uncle Steven is the longest going, and I think that's
a piece. He's a third grade elementary teacher. So they
keep them, they keep them working. He's a big hiker,
so you know he's still going. He's had his injuries
here and there, but over you're ending it. Everybody's got
their career ending injury.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Well, listen and we find out who the real football
players are in the backyard on Thanksgiving when it starts
to rain or it starts to snow a little bit.
There's a percentage that are like, dude, I'm going in
man the game, son. Uh. The others that are that
are staying behind and getting a little muddy and frankly ugly,

(01:15:01):
those that's the real lifeblood of Thanksgiving right there. It's
those people.

Speaker 5 (01:15:08):
That's what I I got my practice in that polar plunge.
I went swimming in Lake George last weekend, so I'm so,
you know, I'm ready for the cold whatever whatever mother
nature brings at us.

Speaker 4 (01:15:20):
I'm showing up. I'm playing. You know. You know it's
two hand touched. But you throw on the free hug shirt.

Speaker 5 (01:15:26):
Maybe you can get away with a little bit more
of a tackle exactly. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
But before we before we head out this morning, a
question in a comment question, we're talking about poking fun
at others and stuff. Tom, do you think the biceps
are implants? Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:15:49):
Or no?

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
Do I think that? No?

Speaker 5 (01:15:54):
I absolutely do not think that's the case. I really know,
but I will say I do so, so you want
to know what they are the cause of. And this
is almost worse, Jadu.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
They are.

Speaker 5 (01:16:08):
Holiday inns across America have experienced this where you know,
have these little tiny gems, right, Yeah, and there's some
cute little old lady walking on the treadmill watching whatever
she's watching. And you know, maybe one guy, Oprah, maybe
one guy's on the you know, on the bicycle. And
you know, I've seen it before. I've walked in and

(01:16:29):
I've walked in seen Tom in the gym and turned
around him then like I'll go later. Yeah, because this
one guy, it's on the treadmill right next to the
sweet old lady who is he's got it on, you know,
full incline and he's walking taking his little breaks, but
in between those breaks he is doing one hundred sets
of burpie pull up shoulder rays down to burpie pull

(01:16:53):
up shoulder rays with like fifties in his hands because
that's as high as it goes, and just getting sweat
every where and grunting and making loud noises and making
everyone in the room uncomfortable. So that's that's one hundred
percent what it what it's from, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
And they're not implants them, they are not implants.

Speaker 5 (01:17:12):
They are they are hard earned biceps to to the
discomfort of old ladies and holiday ins everywhere. Which again,
that's that that I think is kind of awesome in
its own way. And you know, we we've been doing
everyone here at sweet not everyone at Sweetheart's and Euros,
but a decent amount of us have been doing three

(01:17:34):
hundred and thirty three push ups a day for all
of November.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
Yeah, man, Tom was telling me about that Holy.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
Crap I texted him.

Speaker 5 (01:17:42):
I was like, dude, you picked bulking season to do
three hundred and thirty. I'm trying to get bigger, so
you know, when Tom's walking down the presentation in a walker,
somebody can.

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
At least have some decent biceps.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
And instead we're doing three hundred and thirty three push
ups a day, and I think I've I've lost more
weight than anything.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Listen, I don't need to be.

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
Doing I just had my surgical consult yesterday and got
the date on the calendar for my complete shoulder replacement.
And Tom has asked me how many push ups are
you doing? JD. And I'm like, Tom, I couldn't do
one push up for a thousand bucks, bro. And He's said, well,
can't you just do it with one hand? You know

(01:18:25):
this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:18:27):
Pat, Yeah, Yeah, I I love it because I am
a When I joined the team, I saw, you know,
Tom and Rick to me, were the perfect balance of
yin and y You had this one. Yeah, if he
was not your cup of tea. At a school, which
I've seen it before, there's teachers that are a little

(01:18:48):
bit put off by the energy, by the excitement that
Tom brings and you know, maybe it's a piece of
that has more to do with them than it has
to do with Tom. And you know that's that's a
whole other conversation. But if you get put off by
that high energy, high gung ho, like in your face
style that Tom has, Rick is the perfect counterpart part

(01:19:09):
of Like, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:10):
It's true, we could talk football if you want to
talk football, yea.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
And I when I joined the team, I was like,
I fit somewhere in the middle of that. Sure, I
do have an intensity about me, but I also, you know,
can rewind it a little bit and you know, chill
out a little bit too. So I love working for
sweethearts and heroes in this, you know, in the way

(01:19:35):
that we have it because everybody is comfortable in being themselves. Yes,
we can give you know, we can give hard times
here and there, and we can you know, poke fun.
But I've always said, we're we're going a million miles
per hour in a direction. We never exactly know the
exact direction we're going in, but it's a million miles
per hour and I can work with that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:56):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
No, didn't you just get me married?

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
I got married in July.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
All right, who just got married just recently on the team,
didn't somebody? Or maybe it's you that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:11):
I'm thinking, Yeah, I'm the most recent marriage and heroes.

Speaker 5 (01:20:17):
Yeah, everybody else I think is married already.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Yeah, did I did I see a picture of you
wearing a pink suit?

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (01:20:29):
Okay, yep, so that was at that was at a
friend's wedding actually, and JD, I gotta be honest with
not the pink suit but the white shirt underneath.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:20:40):
So I go out and you know, I'm doing my
three hundred and thirty three push ups a day.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
Shoulder they're getting a little.

Speaker 5 (01:20:46):
Bit bigger, maybe, And so I go out and within
a couple.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
Of minutes on the dance floor, yeah, rip all the
way from right here to right here.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Wait a minute, the pink suit or the shirt a shirt?

Speaker 5 (01:21:01):
Luckily I had the pink suit over on the side,
but my entire shirt was just like y.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):
And then of course, you know you're with.

Speaker 5 (01:21:08):
Your friends from college, and you know they're coming up
behind me and like ripping it more or tickle in
my arm.

Speaker 4 (01:21:14):
But yeah, so that that.

Speaker 5 (01:21:17):
Was probably five minutes before my shirt was like hanging
by a thread.

Speaker 4 (01:21:21):
Ring.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
Wow. I those are some obviously some very serious dance
moves which I would love to know which one blew
out the shirt. But Tom, I'm guessing was maybe. I
don't know if he was there, but he's got to
be a little jealous of another guy who can get
away with wearing a pink suit. Not everybody can do that, Pat.

Speaker 5 (01:21:46):
So Tom, Yeah, Tom's the originator of the pink You
know that was definitely a little.

Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
Bit Tom inspired.

Speaker 5 (01:21:54):
But I will say Tom, Tom cannot touch my stuff
when it comes to the pink sh shoes I got.
I understand, I've been around Sweethearts and Earros for long
enough and bought a new pair of pink shoes that
I have a different pair that I could wear Monday
through Friday. Whether it comes to Patrick star ones. I

(01:22:15):
got my pink flowery ones. I even got like winter
boots that are that are pink and fuzzy stop. We
could go across the board. And I got pink shoes
for every single day. And uh, you know Tom is
Internet savvy. As Tom is, he hasn't quite figured out
the internet shoe market, so he's he's not there yet
when it comes to the pink shoes.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
Now, when you wore the pink suit, did you have
the painted fingernails at the same time?

Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
I did? I did.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
And you know, that's just good question. I'm just, you know,
just asking. I'm not implying anything. I'm just I'm just
asking if you were really able to get away with that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:22:57):
I especially at you know, the wedding with the college
friends that you know I have, even though it was
a it was a close friend. Obviously you don't know
the family members. You don't know the other side, Like
I know her husband, but I don't really know his family,
their friends, any of that thing. But you immediately walk

(01:23:18):
in to a room with the pink suit and your
fingernails painted.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Yeah, And it's there's people that are saying, what the
hell's going on around here?

Speaker 5 (01:23:29):
One hund I think that exists in this world, But
who is this guy? It is way more oddly enough,
like you'll get it in first grade where they're like
really confused about it, and you're like, then you go
out at recess and you play basketball and they're like, oh,

(01:23:51):
I want to paint my fingernails.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
Yes, and play basketball aggressively at.

Speaker 4 (01:23:57):
An older level. And I say this to high school
all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:24:02):
We have a fear of vulnerability humans do and making ourselves,
you know, making ourselves weak, making ourselves, you know, lesser
than That's what we, you know, think of vulnerability as.
But truly it's a it's a superpower. And I had
a group just this week where I asked the question,

(01:24:24):
what was your first ever childhood crush, like when you
were little, like that goofy one right that you know
Tom's is I'll tell you right now. Tom's is Princess Leah,
and Rix is Punky Brewster or something like that, poor yeah,
and mine is mine Selena Gomez Wizards of Waverley Place,

(01:24:48):
or you could go back even further and go Meg
from the movie Hercules, the cartoon movie there. But you
asked a question like that to a bunch of kids,
and even though it's not the crush right now, it's
talking about in the past or like, and then you
get this one kid who steps up and goes, my

(01:25:08):
crush wash the bread from Scooby.

Speaker 4 (01:25:14):
Doo passed it on.

Speaker 5 (01:25:15):
And then you get another student because oh Flinn Ryder
from Kangled, they pass it on. And then you get
the you know, the student that one time I had
a girl go it's like Nae McQueen and passed it on.
And I get to the end of that and I
always look at the group afterwards and I go, what.

Speaker 4 (01:25:33):
Do you think the point of that question was?

Speaker 5 (01:25:35):
Yeah, let's sit around and well it's they say the
number one reason that young people don't jump into action
when they see somebody being treated the wrong way is
that they're afraid to look silly or ridiculous. I got
leaders for you to JD. That's not young people, that's all.
People were afraid to look silly or ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (01:25:52):
But someone does it.

Speaker 5 (01:25:55):
Overwhelmingly, others appreciate that superpower that they have. Yeah, appreciate
that uniqueness that they have because they're willing to put
themselves out there and open themselves up to.

Speaker 4 (01:26:06):
Attack because they're a superhero.

Speaker 5 (01:26:08):
And the more that we as a society can celebrate that,
the better. You know somebody that's willing to go out
there and be themselves. And you know, Taykonder Roga, there's
a young man that I will one hundred percent have.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
We have time.

Speaker 5 (01:26:23):
He's he's only a he's not even a senior yet,
so we got some time with him. But there's a
young man named Carter who he was in my program
years ago in ninth grade and now he's still in
uh you know, works very closely with the work the
Sweethearts and Heroes does. He worked with our step program
and he presents to younger students. But Carter had a

(01:26:45):
role in his school play last year that you know,
Carter's a young man, he's a you know, he's a
straight young man. He's you know, I have girlfriends, he's had,
you know, all that stuff. And h Carter in his
school play played a flamboyant gay guy.

Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
That was his role. JD.

Speaker 5 (01:27:07):
I got to tell you, I was a pretty confident
young man. I was a pretty fun loving I wasn't
afraid to be goofy, wasn't afraid to embarrass myself a
little bit. I don't know if I would have had
the courage and confidence to go out in the school play, yeah,
and play a gay guy. I just and you know,

(01:27:28):
maybe it's a difference in time. You know, maybe it's
that fear of and I you know, I had gay
friends growing up. But the courage and confidence that is
shown by some of today's young people verages one of
those examples is absolutely unbelievable. And the more that we
can celebrate that is is just something that I think

(01:27:50):
is beneficial to everybody. You shouldn't be afraid to be
a little bit goofy. You shouldn't be afraid to be yourself.
It's a part of what makes you who you are.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
That's amazing. I love to hear this, man, It's incredible. Listen, man,
I can't thank you enough, Pat for all your time
this morning. You guys, what you're doing, You're changing the world,
kid by kid and frankly adult by adult. I mean,

(01:28:21):
everything that you guys are doing is absolutely amazing. You
gotta follow them on social media, get them on Instagram,
get them on Facebook, get on the web sweetheartsnheeroes dot
com read more see more about what they're doing and
the lives that they're changing. And I mean that when
I say you guys are literally changing the world. I

(01:28:45):
love each and every one of you.

Speaker 1 (01:28:47):
Men.

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
Reach out to somebody that you love and that you
care about, that you know might not have that person
to go to on Thanksgiving. Just just send it. You
give somebody a call all because this time of year, especially,
this is a difficult time for for a lot of
people out there. You know, those people that you know,
maybe this is their first Thanksgiving without someone they really carry,

(01:29:11):
their first holiday season without that person.

Speaker 4 (01:29:13):
Know, maybe they just got fired from work.

Speaker 5 (01:29:15):
But this is a you know, well, well, it's a
great time of year to be thankful and grateful for
what we do have. It's also an important time of
the year to acknowledge that there's other people out there
that need that does to hope.

Speaker 4 (01:29:27):
So that's I.

Speaker 5 (01:29:28):
Wanted to make sure that I said that at the
end here, JD. I'm sorry for interrupting you, but.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
Now, brother, thank you so much. Pat appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (01:29:39):
Thanks j D.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
Light years dude. Now, I can't wait. I don't know
what I'll see you next, but I can't wait all wait.

Speaker 4 (01:29:46):
I got to get onto that red couch again sometime soon.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
Yeah, man, and listen, I'm still hoping to actually get
to see sweethearts and heroes at a school. I keep
checking my mailbox for the invitation from time. There's nothing
in there but at.

Speaker 5 (01:30:03):
Point and we could talk after this, but I'm in
Taekwonder Roga, which is a little under two hours away
from you, but I'm there every single Thursday for the
rest of the school year. So we're going to find
a time where you can come in and visit and
be a part of the day, be.

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
A part of Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
But don't I need Tom to invite me?

Speaker 5 (01:30:24):
No, dude, No I have I have Tom's blessing. Maybe
not inviting you to the school, but anyone to this. No,
he We have a large amount of trust within our organization.
You can come by whenever and we'll set up we'll
set up our space for for Tae kwonder.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
Roga, dude, I can't wait. Awesome, Thanks so much, Pat,
Thanks j D. Pat Fish right there. One of the
greatest guys that I know, And what an honor it
is to to have him on the air. To have
Sweethearts in here with us every single Wednesday right here
on aired out is massive for me. It's a I'm

(01:31:08):
so humbled, I'm honored, and it's a big big deal
to be partnered up with them. It is Wednesday. Don't
forget five dollars. Wednesdays are at the Paramount Theater, Skip
the line, get out to a movie. FGB Theaters dot
Com one of our presenting sponsors and has been forever.

(01:31:30):
Follow them ed FGB Theaters on Facebook and Instagram for
updates for added showtime special events, and they do update
things quite a bit, especially right around Thanksgiving. So a
lot of people get out to see movies on Thanksgiving.
There's a couple of blockbusters. Wicked for Good is just

(01:31:52):
one of them. I mean, there's there's some great great movies.
And listen, I'll say this, and I know Rusty would
would back me up. If the family's driving your nuts
and you need to escape from the planet for a
couple of hours. Uncle Ron said, too much to drink
and around the Thanksgiving table, Go get in the car,

(01:32:18):
Go to the Capitol Theater, Go to the Paramount Theater,
go see a movie, Go by yourself. What do we have?
Rain showers today? Hides around fifty degrees for your Wednesday tonight,
we got rain showers gonna be clearing late down around

(01:32:40):
thirty three, and then Thanksgiving tomorrow. If you're playing some
backyard football, looks like you're gonna be in luck. Here
a few clouds from time to time on Thursday, but
some sun as well, and hides around forty degrees tomorrow.

(01:33:03):
So yeah, that's that. I want to say a couple
of things here this morning before I forget Amy Anderson
Amy's Armoir. Amy was on the air yesterday. She's doing
a great thing right now. She's trying to get fifty
two I got it reversed, fifty two families and one

(01:33:26):
hundred and twenty eight kids Christmas gifts, and she's asking
the community to get on Amy's Armoir dot org and
sign up registered to be a sponsoring individual or family.
We've got just under one hundred kids who are on

(01:33:47):
the wait list and they're trying to do this and
get this all secured by December twelfth. So time is
running out, it is. I know the window is pretty
small here. December twelfth is coming fast, So please get
on support this nonprofit thrift store and their mission to

(01:34:09):
support foster families and everything else that they do which
is a huge positive in our community. They're right down
the road here on North Main Street Amy's Armoir. Get
on Amy's Armoir dot org and click right there. You'll
see it. It's all over the Facebook page too, It's

(01:34:30):
all over aired Out's Facebook page. Register your name and
let's see if we can get this. This list of
just on I think it's like eighty nine kids I
think that are on the waiting list right now, let's
see if we can get that down to zero quickly, quickly.
December twelfth is coming fast. Also, the Battle in Bury eighteen.

(01:34:56):
Been in touch of course with Donnybrook Fight Promotions. They've
got a special promotion going on right now. They're giving
away free tickets to the Battle in Bury eighteen on
December sixth at the Burry Auditorium. Bottom line, if you
stop into Bury Treasures or Treasures Treasures Buried in the

(01:35:20):
Berlin Mall, if you stop into Wilkins, if you stop
into Gusto's or Harrington's Food and Fuel, you're going to
see a huge poster right there for the Battle and
Bury eighteen. Take a selfie with it, drop it on
the aired out page, tag me, tag Donnybrook Fight Promotions,

(01:35:42):
either one, and we're going to get your name into
the drawing for a chance to win two tickets. And
Rex is going to be doing this an awful lot
right up until December fifth. That's the awayans of the
Burry Auditorium Friday, December fifth. And Rex's isn't just going

(01:36:03):
to give away two pairs of tickets here, He's gonna
give away a lot more than that. So grab a
selfie and be part of this. All right, watch the promotion.
It's on the aired Out Facebook page. You've already seen
Darlene Avery. I think she was the first one to
do it. But yeah, participate, have some fun, all right.

(01:36:29):
Tomorrow Thanksgiving g and I want to we want to
give you some love. We're going to give you some
laugh and we're gonna be with you tomorrow morning, Thanksgiving morning,
and hopefully be able to it's absolute least bring a

(01:36:55):
smile to your face and maybe cut through some of
the stress that you maybe having this time of year.
Friday gonna be off Black Friday. I'm not gonna be
on the air, but we're gonna try to join up

(01:37:16):
with you tomorrow morning. All right, be good, take good
care and listen. Thanks for catching the podcast this morning.
Thanks to Sweethearts and Heroes for teaming up with me
and for being a part of a huge part of
my mission here to connect with people on the aired

(01:37:37):
Out podcast. If there's an episode that you like, don't
forget to share it, comment and push the good word.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody, have a fantastic rest of your day.
Take a deep breath. You're gonna be all right, we'll

(01:38:00):
get through this together. God bless you as