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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army in normal folks,

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Speaker 1: and we continue now what part two of our conversation

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Speaker 1: with Kim Im? Right after these brief messages from our

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Speaker 1: general sponsors.

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Speaker 2: So I wrote a letter to the twenty two churches,

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Speaker 2: and six called me and said, we want to help ad.

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Speaker 2: What do you want us to do?

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Speaker 1: Do we need to call out the other sixteen that

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Speaker 1: didn't know I'm kidding, go ahead.

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Speaker 2: They started coming some time, but I've just been right away.

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Speaker 2: Six called right away, and one church said we actually

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Speaker 2: knew about this problem, but we didn't know what to do.

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Speaker 2: And the other five said, we were shocked, just like

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Speaker 2: you were, Kim. We didn't know there was even a problem.

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Speaker 2: And so they said, what do you want us to do?

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Speaker 2: And I said, well, clearly, I'm going to say up

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Speaker 2: a free summer lunch camp like they like what exists

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Speaker 2: in the urban communities for the children, and so how

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Speaker 2: about if you help with that?

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Speaker 1: Are the urban city free lunch camp things? Are they

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Speaker 1: typically city run or are they private organizations too?

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Speaker 2: They're usually nonprofits, so whether it's a religious organization or

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Speaker 2: a nonprofit a city community center, they're usually run by nonprofits.

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Speaker 2: Many of them are under the USDA Summer Food Service Program,

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Speaker 2: but they yes. And the concept in my mind was, oh,

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Speaker 2: I could just receive a free lunch and hand it

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Speaker 2: to a child. Okay, I could do that.

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Speaker 1: That seems easy, but nothing is easy safe. I think

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Speaker 1: it's interesting though, that you said that, like in the

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Speaker 1: urban areas, there were three different places children growth on

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Speaker 1: the suburban none. But here's the thing, and that's why

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Speaker 1: I asked if it was like a public or a

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Speaker 1: private nonprofit. You said nonprofits they went where the need was,

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Speaker 1: but the need has shifted, so now there's no one

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Speaker 1: meeting the shifting need, which I found upon really interesting.

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Speaker 1: And so you get these churches to meet this need.

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Speaker 1: What do you need? And you said, well, I'll just

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Speaker 1: get a free lunch and give a free lunch. It'll

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Speaker 1: be easy. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I have to say, I feel like I'm

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Speaker 2: the perfect person to say out loud, there literally is

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Speaker 2: no such thing as a free lunch.

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Speaker 1: That was econ one O one first day.

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Speaker 2: I think, literally there isn't. So I uh so I

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Speaker 2: recruited about eleven people. There were twelve of us to

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Speaker 2: help and sort of lead this as volunteers'.

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Speaker 1: Six five churches. Six churches, Yeah, yep.

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Speaker 2: And like I found a man who had just retired

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Speaker 2: at our church, that senior pastor I reported to connected

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Speaker 2: me with him, and he said, you had me at

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Speaker 2: hungry children. What do you want me to do? He

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Speaker 2: ran an international company, had just retired. He brought to

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Speaker 2: retired and with him.

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Speaker 1: Cool.

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Speaker 2: There was a stay at home dad that joined us,

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Speaker 2: some other moms that I knew from the community who

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Speaker 2: joined us. So there were this group of twelve people,

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Speaker 2: just volunteers who wanted to feed children in our town.

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Speaker 1: And so in the summer, yes, when they didn't have

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Speaker 1: a free lunch, got it.

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Speaker 2: And again I learned on March fourteenth, and summer starts

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Speaker 2: in June, so of course I needed to start this summer.

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Speaker 2: So we uh.

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Speaker 1: April May June. You had three.

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Speaker 2: Months, Yeah, three months months, four.

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Speaker 1: Churches, twelve people who love serving, feed twenty one hundred

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Speaker 1: kids and bring the community with you. No problem, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: No problem. And again, we weren't an organization, so we

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Speaker 2: don't own a building, We don't have a board of directors,

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Speaker 2: don't we don't. I mean I kind of pictured myself

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Speaker 2: slapping together peanut butter and jellies out of the back

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Speaker 2: of my van, which my children will tell you is

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Speaker 2: insane because I don't. I'm not I cook because I

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Speaker 2: need to eat. I don't cook for any other reason.

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Speaker 2: And quite honestly, once I started this, my husband started cooking,

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Speaker 2: my children would honestly say to me, how are you

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Speaker 2: feeding people for a living when you hardly are cooking

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Speaker 2: for us. So the fact that I'd be called to

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Speaker 2: feed people is the irony is insane. Truly, I'm not

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Speaker 2: a foodie. I'm the opposite of a foodie. So then

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Speaker 2: I learned, well, you could order in, and I thought,

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Speaker 2: that's perfect, I'm going to order in. So we and

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Speaker 2: none of us, by the way, had ever seen a

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Speaker 2: free lunch program because we didn't know about this the

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Speaker 2: summer previous, so we couldn't go visit one, and so

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Speaker 2: we just pictured in our minds what it could look like.

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Speaker 2: And long story shore we found a strip mall. We

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Speaker 2: would walk around the city kind of praying, like, where

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Speaker 2: should we have this? It should be at a place.

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Speaker 2: And the superintendent, one of the assistant superintendents of schools.

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Speaker 2: He had worked in Columbus and he knew poverty better

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Speaker 2: than I did. And he said, Kim, if I was

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Speaker 2: going to do this in Hilliard, I would go to

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Speaker 2: this intersection right here because there's a bunch of apartment

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Speaker 2: complexes and the children could walk to you. So we

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Speaker 2: just walked that intersection, the twelve people and I looking

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Speaker 2: for any space, and we found strip malls and none

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Speaker 2: of them were full, and so we thought, well, we

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Speaker 2: could use an empty storefront of a strip ball. So

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Speaker 2: there was a grocery store, a local grocery store that

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Speaker 2: had gone under and it was the anchor of this

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Speaker 2: strip mall in this intersection, and it was empty for

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Speaker 2: eight years. So we found the out of state property owner,

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Speaker 2: who was a woman living in Chicago. She'd only been

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Speaker 2: to Columbus once to sign the papers to buy the

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Speaker 2: strip mall. And I found her and she took my

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Speaker 2: call amazingly, and I said, I'm this lady in this

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Speaker 2: town who wants to feed twenty one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: eight children this summer. Would you let me use one

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Speaker 2: of your empty storefronts for free? Because I don't have

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Speaker 2: any money. She said, I have two children, and I

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Speaker 2: can't imagine if they were hungry. So yes, So we're

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Speaker 2: kidding just like that. We never met. I couldn't tell

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Speaker 2: you her name right now if I tried. Wow, okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: So she and she said, well, how about the end

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Speaker 2: unit because it had been a pizza shop, so you know,

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Speaker 2: lunch pizza. You could use that. Now if I lease it,

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Speaker 2: then all bets are off. I'm going to have to

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Speaker 2: say you have to stop. And I said, well, I'm

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Speaker 2: just going to risk that. I'm going to pray you

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Speaker 2: don't lease it for twelve weeks of the summer. And

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Speaker 2: so she called me back. So we figured out how

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Speaker 2: to order lunch in under Columbus Parks and wreck. They

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Speaker 2: said they'd sponsor us and they'd send us the food.

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Speaker 2: We started recruiting volunteers. We started telling families, we're going

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Speaker 2: to be at this intersection at this strip mall, come

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Speaker 2: at this time every day for ten weeks and we'll

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Speaker 2: serve lunch. And I'm at the grocery store personally, just

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Speaker 2: doing my shopping and I get a call from the

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Speaker 2: strip mall lady and she says, Kim, bad news. I

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Speaker 2: leased the pizza shop. You can't run it. And this

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Speaker 2: was Memorial Day weekend and we're supposed to start the

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Speaker 2: first week in June lovely. So I hung up the

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Speaker 2: phone and I just started crying there in the grocery

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Speaker 2: store with my cart. And I called that first volunteer,

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Speaker 2: the man who was the retired CEO. His name is John,

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Speaker 2: and I called him and I was crying, and he said, Kim,

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Speaker 2: are these happy tears? Are sad tears? I said, they's

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Speaker 2: sad tears and he said, what's going on? I told

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Speaker 2: him and he said no, I'm gonna pound on your desk.

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Speaker 1: Bill.

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Speaker 2: He said, no, you call her back and you tell

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Speaker 2: her we are feeding hungry children and we need to

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Speaker 2: use a different one of her empty spaces. If we

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Speaker 2: can't use that one, there's other empty spaces in her

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Speaker 2: strip mall. We need one of them. And so I

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Speaker 2: called her back and call her Dy. She knew it

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Speaker 2: was me. She took the call and I said, no,

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Speaker 2: I have to feed hungry children. Can I have a

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Speaker 2: different space? And she said, well, what space do you want?

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Speaker 2: And he's over here saying to me, ask her for

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Speaker 2: the old grocery store the cart storage area, And I

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Speaker 2: said what he said, the cart storage area, It's like

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Speaker 2: a thousand square feet. So I said to her, could

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Speaker 2: we use the cart storage area of the old grocery store.

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Speaker 2: It's a thousand square feet and she said, yeah, you

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Speaker 2: could use it.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: So a church donated those cafeteria style tables you see

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Speaker 2: in a lunch room of a school, ten of them.

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Speaker 2: They fit perfectly in the current storage area. And so

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Speaker 2: early June we started free Summer Lunch camp. And the

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Speaker 2: day it started, I had to drive maybe three miles

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Speaker 2: to the lunch site and it took me about forty

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Speaker 2: minutes because I drove two miles an hour. Why because

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Speaker 2: I was having a total tantrum fit with God in

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Speaker 2: the car.

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Speaker 1: What was that all about?

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Speaker 2: I was telling them I didn't want to go. Why, Well,

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Speaker 2: because I knew, I mean, my skill set is to

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Speaker 2: rally groups of people administrative. I can vision cast and

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Speaker 2: get her done. And I'd done that, and I knew

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Speaker 2: if I went there and I had to look into

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Speaker 2: the faces of the children, that my life would never

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Speaker 2: be the same. And I was scared about that. But

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Speaker 2: you will, Yeah, I felt like, you know, God like

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Speaker 2: let me tantrum, and then he just said to me,

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Speaker 2: I know, go and so I went, dragging my feet,

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Speaker 2: but I went and we were both right. So I

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Speaker 2: looked into the faces of these beautiful, amazing, gifted, talented children.

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Speaker 1: Hungry children.

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Speaker 2: We're hungry, but very similar to the amazingness of my

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Speaker 2: own children. And I knew my life was never going

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Speaker 2: to be the same because I just I had a

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Speaker 2: love for them that I couldn't explain.

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Speaker 1: Did you ever go hungry?

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Speaker 2: I am. I never went physically hungry.

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Speaker 1: You were close. If you're coming up in a five

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Speaker 1: times divorced thing, you're not that far away.

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Speaker 2: I would say that's probably true. I didn't know that

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Speaker 2: as a child, though. I never Yeah, well.

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Speaker 1: These kids also didn't know they were not supposed to

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Speaker 1: have lunch on summers, but it doesn't make it right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, first day.

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Speaker 1: Just to know what the first day was.

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Speaker 2: Well, we honestly didn't even know if anyone would come.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we put flyers, we had grassroots flyers all

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Speaker 2: over town, We had an article in the Columbus Dispatch,

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Speaker 2: all these things, but we just really didn't know. We

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Speaker 2: didn't have registration, We didn't know who would come. And

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Speaker 2: we served two hundred and forty six children that summer

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Speaker 2: with over one hundred and seventy volunteers, and they just

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Speaker 2: they walked along the edges of the strip mall, and

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Speaker 2: they just came to us and ages, oh, babies to

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Speaker 2: eighteen year olds, babies, moms brought their children, their littles

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Speaker 2: with them. They would sit and help their little ones eat,

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Speaker 2: they would chat with us. We realized very quickly. And

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Speaker 2: then the library came and said, hey, we really want

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Speaker 2: to expose this demographic of children to books. But guess what,

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Speaker 2: they don't come to the library. Could we just come

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Speaker 2: and bring the summer reading program here to your lunch site?

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Speaker 2: We said sure. Another church, a woman who's one of

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Speaker 2: my dearest friends now pastor Irma. She brought her youth group.

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Speaker 2: She said, we heard you were feeding hungry children. We

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Speaker 2: brought face pain and balloon animals. We thought, maybe we could,

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Speaker 2: you know, do something on the sidewalk after they leave lunch.

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Speaker 2: So quickly we could see what camp could look like,

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Speaker 2: and quickly we realized that simply handing food to a

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Speaker 2: child might help them live better in poverty, but it

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Speaker 2: was probably not going to help them out of poverty.

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Speaker 2: And we couldn't look in the faces of our new friends,

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Speaker 2: these beautiful children and their family.

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Speaker 1: That's it.

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Speaker 2: Our exact neighbors, I mean children were saying my children.

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Speaker 2: The volunteers. Children were saying, oh, I know, I know

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Speaker 2: Mohammed from school. We go to the same school. I

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Speaker 2: mean they knew each other, The children knew each other.

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Speaker 1: Were these Smalian kids?

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Speaker 2: You know they were children from It's interesting.

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Speaker 1: I knew when I say Samalian kids, let's be candid

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Speaker 1: Samali refugees.

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Speaker 2: We came to understand over the course of the summer

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Speaker 2: that they were children from all over the globe. I

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Speaker 2: knew that we would see all different beautiful skin tones

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Speaker 2: and ethnic groups and cultures and races and religions. I

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Speaker 2: didn't anticipate that we would meet parents who were foreign born.

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Speaker 2: That surprised me. I didn't know that until the last

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Speaker 2: day when we threw a big party and the children's

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Speaker 2: whole families came. When I heard the accents of the parents' voices,

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Speaker 2: when I saw their clothing, that's when it hit me, Oh,

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Speaker 2: you weren't born in this country, not one hundred percent,

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Speaker 2: but the majority.

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Speaker 1: What does that look like?

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Speaker 2: Especially what nations just it it literally is the United Nations. Then,

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Speaker 2: when we started saying, you know where, what's your family's

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Speaker 2: country of origin? Where where was your where were your

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Speaker 2: parents and your grandparents born. We were blown away.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back. That had to have been. I

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Speaker 1: gotta be careful here as we think about the vitriol,

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Speaker 1: and I want to be real careful from both sides

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Speaker 1: of the aisle regarding immigration and everything else, and all

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Speaker 1: we have dealt with, and in fairness, not only this administration,

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Speaker 1: but the Ford administrations before this one. I have a

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Speaker 1: real thing on the whole immigration deal. As you're sitting there,

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Speaker 1: feeding hungry children and meeting these families and parents and

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Speaker 1: people and everything else, did you have maybe some and

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Speaker 1: I don't mean ill willed, preconceived notions, but did you

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Speaker 1: have some notions that you thought you understood about our

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Speaker 1: culture to destroyed? In that moment?

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Speaker 2: You know, I realized that there was a huge mosque

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Speaker 2: in Toledo, and I grew up not ever knowing one

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Speaker 2: Muslim person. And I remember the first day that I

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Speaker 2: had a significant conversation with a Muslim mother. And it's

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Speaker 2: strange because I even have a picture of it. Someone

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Speaker 2: just happened to snap a picture right before the conversation.

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Speaker 2: But she was walking to me, straight to me, because

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Speaker 2: I was in charge of this lunch program, and she

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Speaker 2: had a question and I remember thinking to myself as

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Speaker 2: she approached me, Oh my word, I don't know what

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Speaker 2: I have in common with this woman who is walking

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Speaker 2: toward me and I'm about to have a full conversation with.

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Speaker 1: She's wearing a head dress or whatever.

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Speaker 2: Yep, And I just thought, I don't have any life

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Speaker 2: experience to prepare me for this moment right here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're suburbanite, white Christian mommy with a van

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Speaker 1: with a van with a minivan.

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Speaker 2: I've never lived outside of Ohio, who's no ever left

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Speaker 2: the country.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So what was that chat? Like?

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Speaker 2: I felt again a whisper in my ear from God

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Speaker 2: that just said, I know, go just she's a mom

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Speaker 2: like you. Just talk to her. And we talked, and

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Speaker 2: she had questions about her children, and I introduced her

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Speaker 2: to my children because they were right there. And we

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Speaker 2: had a full, really great conversation, and I felt like

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Speaker 2: I had things in common with her beyond what I

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Speaker 2: could have dreamed or imagined. Quite honestly, that is not.

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Speaker 1: What Sinn and Fox tell us we're supposed to do.

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Speaker 1: What is wrong with you? You're so weird, Kim, you know,

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Speaker 1: being human?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like, you know, there's a lot to

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Speaker 2: my Christian faith. But love God, love your neighbor is

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Speaker 2: a pretty key verse for me, and I feel like

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Speaker 2: once I've mastered those two things, I'll go on to

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Speaker 2: the next. And my neighbor. I mean, I've asked dozens

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Speaker 2: of five year old kindergarten does when I say neighbor,

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Speaker 2: what does that mean to you? They can explain it

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Speaker 2: really easily. To me, It's that person right there. It's

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Speaker 2: the person who lives right next to me. It's the

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Speaker 2: person who lives above me, beside me, below me, who

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Speaker 2: goes to school with me, who's driving the car next

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Speaker 2: to me. Those are my neighbors. And so you know,

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Speaker 2: those two calls on my life, love, feed and serve

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Speaker 2: your neighbor, and bring the community with you. It's just

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Speaker 2: pretty simple. I mean, it's complex, but it's also simple.

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Speaker 2: And I came to realize that all of the children,

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Speaker 2: all of the volunteers, all of these people were my neighbors.

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Speaker 2: And I didn't know most of them before this.

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Speaker 1: Twenty one hundred or so of which we're living in poverty, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and hungry. So that's first year, yep, take us through it.

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Speaker 2: So at the end of the summer, the parents said

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Speaker 2: at that party. What are you doing next? We like this, literally,

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Speaker 2: what are you doing next? Because this was amazing. This

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Speaker 2: didn't feel like charity. We didn't feel ashamed and embarrassed

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Speaker 2: to pull up here. Our children couldn't wait to come

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Speaker 2: every day, and they didn't have to come. It wasn't school.

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Speaker 2: What are you doing next? And I said, well, maybe

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Speaker 2: we'll come back and do this next summer. How about that?

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Speaker 2: And they said, that's lovely. But we have and you've

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Speaker 2: identified a significant issue this summer, hunger. It is significant.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. But the parents said, we have

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Speaker 2: another really big problem we want to talk to you about.

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Speaker 2: I said, okay, and they said, we believe in education.

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Speaker 2: We know education is our children's way out of poverty.

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Speaker 1: We get that, which is why we're here in the

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Speaker 1: first place.

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Speaker 2: That's what they said. That's why we're here. No, that's

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Speaker 2: why we came as a refugee.

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Speaker 1: We're so bad. Everybody listening to us would understand. People

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Speaker 1: are not uprooting their families. Listen. Of course, there are

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Speaker 1: bad actors and YadA, YadA, YadA. It's the smallest, smallest

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Speaker 1: percentage people are not uprooting their lives and walking away

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Speaker 1: from everybody they know look like, worship like, and speak

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Speaker 1: like and risking life and limb to come to this

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Speaker 1: country because they're trying to get free crap. No, they're

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Speaker 1: doing it simply because they want opportunity for their kids.

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Speaker 2: The same exact things I want for my children.

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Speaker 1: So let me ask you a question, Not you, yes, you,

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Speaker 1: but everybody listening, every parent out there, ask yourself this

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Speaker 1: question right now. If you are surrounded by gang violence

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Speaker 1: to the point that you were afraid to go outside,

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Speaker 1: you could not find enough money to put a roof

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Speaker 1: over your head other than a dirt floor, and you

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Speaker 1: feared for your children's life, and you knew that just

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Speaker 1: to make ends meet by your child's twelfth, thirteenth or

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Speaker 1: fourteenth birthday, they would have to quit going to whatever

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Speaker 1: kind of remedial education they were getting and go to work.

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Speaker 1: If you knew that that was the existence for you,

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Speaker 1: and probably generationally the only opportunity for your children and

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Speaker 1: their children, would you try to do something different? Would

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Speaker 1: you be willing to live that way your whole life?

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Speaker 1: If there was opportunity elsewhere, would you take that risk

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Speaker 1: to better the possibilities for yourself and your children? Would

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Speaker 1: you and I mean, I think every parent would say,

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Speaker 1: of course, I'd do everything I could, even though it's

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Speaker 1: rought with misunderstanding and cultural norms and desperation and everything else.

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Speaker 1: I would do that for my children. So it's not

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Speaker 1: at all surprising that you met people that said we

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Speaker 1: need help with education, because the whole reason they're here

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Speaker 1: is to try to better their lives. The vast, fast,

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Speaker 1: fast majority.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a restauranteur who works closely with me

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Speaker 2: as a mentor, and he says it this way. You

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Speaker 2: know what if if bomb started going off in my city,

365
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Speaker 2: in my state, in this country, and I'm out.

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Speaker 1: In Hillard where people started dropping bombs all over you.

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Speaker 2: And I had to gape and leave this country and

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Speaker 2: start over with my wife and my children and not

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Speaker 2: know the language or the culture or have any connections

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Speaker 2: in that country, would I want someone to help in

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Speaker 2: any way? And I think that's that's what it comes

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Speaker 2: down to. I mean, I know families, a beloved family

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Speaker 2: to me if I call them my family of ten,

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Speaker 2: but they're from Africa and they came as refugees after

375
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Speaker 2: living in a refugee camp for eleven years.

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Speaker 1: And eleven years in a refugee.

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Speaker 2: Camp or they left the Congo and were in Burundi.

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Speaker 1: Oh boy, and that's that's civil war and ethnic cleansing,

379
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Speaker 1: which is.

380
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Speaker 2: Still going on today. And they got the magic golden

381
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,800
Speaker 2: ticket from the UN, not Australia, not England, the United

382
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,399
Speaker 2: States was the golden ticket and they got it and

383
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Speaker 2: they got to come here. So so yeah, I think

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Speaker 2: the parents said yeah, which is comparatively from infinitely better.

385
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Speaker 2: And so when the parents said, we believe in education,

386
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Speaker 2: we want education for our children. We are going to

387
00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 2: this great suburban school district. But guess what, Kim, they

388
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,760
Speaker 2: said to me, our children are falling behind in this

389
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Speaker 2: school district, unlike yours. Kim, And I said, why why

390
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:42,640
Speaker 2: in a great school district are your children falling behind?

391
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 2: They said, because of our own illiteracy, lack of English,

392
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 2: lack of knowledge, work schedules, and lack of technology they

393
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,639
Speaker 2: were naming the fourth utility back in two thousand and seven.

394
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Speaker 2: They said, those are the reasons we can't help our

395
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Speaker 2: children with homework. And they said, Kim, how much do

396
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,399
Speaker 2: you help your child with homework? And I'm thinking, you know,

397
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,160
Speaker 2: the ten o'clock run to Walmart for the poster board,

398
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,720
Speaker 2: A lot and they said, we can't help our children

399
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:08,119
Speaker 2: with homework. They're falling behind in school every year and

400
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 2: they're not gonna be able to compete or catch up.

401
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 2: Could you help us with that? We can't afford a

402
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:16,200
Speaker 2: private tutor. And I thought, okay, that makes sense to me.

403
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Speaker 1: That falls under love.

404
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 2: Serve, Yeah, and feed the educational mind of the children,

405
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Speaker 2: because we'll start with the body. If you're hungry physically,

406
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:32,719
Speaker 2: you can't learn, but once that need is met, feeding

407
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 2: the mind is next for the longevity of the thriving

408
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 2: of this beautiful child. And so I had again tutored

409
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,480
Speaker 2: for years, but I never ran a tutoring program, and

410
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 2: I'm not a teacher or a social worker. So I

411
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 2: was like, let me get back to you on that.

412
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 2: Let me look into that. So I went back to

413
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Speaker 2: the volunteers and the team, and again we had one

414
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Speaker 2: hundred and seventy more volunteers as summer, and I said,

415
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Speaker 2: how do we run a tutoring program that's free effect.

416
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Speaker 1: We're still in the basket area in the abandoned grocery store.

417
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:09,040
Speaker 2: Well, we'd moved out because she just said for the summer.

418
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Speaker 2: So now we had no physical location at this point,

419
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Speaker 2: and so I spent the whole fall trying to figure

420
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 2: out how do you run a tutoring program that's again

421
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 2: effective about effective and helps children with their homework, but

422
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,840
Speaker 2: also safe for children above reproach. And so I figured

423
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 2: that out and in January of two thousand and eight,

424
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 2: we started after school tutoring and homework help. And I

425
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,879
Speaker 2: went to because in Ohio it's kind of chilly in

426
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 2: the winter, so I didn't want to be outside, and

427
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 2: I went to one of the biggest apartment complexes in

428
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,360
Speaker 2: that intersection and I went to the manager and said, Hey,

429
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 2: can we use this leasing office and do some tutoring

430
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Speaker 2: after school? And she was like, uh, who are you again?

431
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,119
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I'm just this lady. Did you like

432
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 2: here children going to summer lunch camp? That was me?

433
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Speaker 2: And she's like, who do you work for? I was like,

434
00:23:57,119 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 2: not really, anyone that would help you trust me better.

435
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,679
Speaker 2: So I said, We're gonna bring volunteers. Background checked volunteers

436
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:06,439
Speaker 2: will be here in your leasing office. She said, how

437
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 2: about one afternoon a week. We'll see how this goes.

438
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 2: And so we started after school tutoring every Wednesday January

439
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 2: through May of two thousand and eight, and in about

440
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,199
Speaker 2: two months. We had so many children we could not

441
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:22,679
Speaker 2: pack them in like sardines in this leasing office. So

442
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 2: we started praying for decent weather in Ohio on Wednesday afternoons.

443
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 2: And I'm here to say that from March until May,

444
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,120
Speaker 2: it didn't rain on a Wednesday afternoon, and it wasn't

445
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,520
Speaker 2: bitter cold. So we would take half the children outside

446
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 2: and blow some steam off, play some soccer and jump ropes,

447
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 2: and tutor the other children and then flip them half

448
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 2: and half. We had over one hundred ohly smokes. Again

449
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,920
Speaker 2: scratched an itch. And so then the next summer we

450
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,640
Speaker 2: went back to summer lunch camp and we had two locations,

451
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 2: this time one in a church, one across the street

452
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 2: in a different strip mall. And again half day camp

453
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 2: now to official half day camp. And very quickly children

454
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 2: we noticed translating for their parents to talk to us

455
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 2: this whole time, you're kidding. Very quickly, and then parents

456
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 2: started saying, where can we learn English? Can you help

457
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 2: us find a place? We are desperate to learn English.

458
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 2: Can you help us find someplace?

459
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 1: Nah, but maybe we create it.

460
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,639
Speaker 2: And we looked around. In fact, today Columbus is the

461
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 2: fourteenth largest city in the country bigger than San Francisco.

462
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 2: I like to tell people because my mom lives in

463
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 2: California and a fastest growing in the city or in

464
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:38,880
Speaker 2: the country, fastest growing city in the country, Columbus. And

465
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:41,680
Speaker 2: there are so few adult English programs that four percent

466
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 2: of foreign worn people can find one.

467
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,640
Speaker 1: Really, so what did you do about that?

468
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 2: I found a couple English programs, and God bless them.

469
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 2: It was a lovely, caring human who ordered some books

470
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,160
Speaker 2: online and were like, I'm gonna give this a whirl. Again,

471
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 2: God bless them. But it was sort of like Laura

472
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 2: Ingall's Wild or one Room Schoolhouse, which there's a reason

473
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:07,120
Speaker 2: we don't do that. Fuck, there's a reason we don't

474
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 2: do that. It's like perfect for two people and too

475
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 2: hard and too easy for everyone else. And so I

476
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 2: again didn't want And here I'm again families are in

477
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 2: pover tea food on the table for their children. They

478
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 2: want to learn as fast as they can. Lower Engle's

479
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 2: one room schoolhouse is not fast. It's the slow boat.

480
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,360
Speaker 2: And so I started saying, well, we could do better

481
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 2: than that. What if we found a way to do

482
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,919
Speaker 2: better than that? And there was one English program in

483
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 2: our town that I had sent people to that the community,

484
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 2: a technical school was running with a church adults only English.

485
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 2: I had sent some parents there. They came back the

486
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,360
Speaker 2: next summer and I could have a little more conversation

487
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 2: with them, So I thought, oh, I think it works.

488
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 2: I think the class is pretty good. So I went

489
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,479
Speaker 2: the summer of two thousand and eight to see that

490
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 2: class because after summer number two, we were going back

491
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 2: to do after school homework help and I didn't know

492
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,679
Speaker 2: where to go because we ran out of space at

493
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 2: the leasing office. We had to go somewhere bigger. So

494
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 2: I went to the church that we ran summer camp

495
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 2: in and said, could I do it here? The pastor said, yes,

496
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 2: we built this to be full, and it's empty more

497
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,400
Speaker 2: than it's full, so come and bring as many people

498
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 2: as you want. And so we started doing that and

499
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,919
Speaker 2: I went to see the English program at the same time.

500
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 2: And when I went there, I heard these wee small

501
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 2: voices in the hallway, miss cam and I turned around

502
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 2: and I saw a ton of children from the summer

503
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 2: because that's what they called me, and they were hanging

504
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,760
Speaker 2: out at this English program in the church nursery by

505
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 2: themselves while their parents were learning English. And I'm a

506
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 2: mom first number one, and I thought, that does not

507
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:56,960
Speaker 2: look so good. You know, like twenty children ages two

508
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 2: to fifteen hanging out in church nursery by themselves, night

509
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 2: after night. Not bad things could happen. I mean from

510
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 2: toddler's falling over and six year olds not being able

511
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 2: to find something to do in getting bored, and fifteen

512
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 2: year olds I'll be able to get their home. We're done.

513
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 2: So I went to the leaders of the program, but

514
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 2: the English classes looked good. So I went to the

515
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 2: leaders of the program, the church and the technical school,

516
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 2: and I said, what's going on here in your nursery

517
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 2: and they said, yeah, it's kind of a problem. We

518
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,359
Speaker 2: have all these children because parents don't have a sitter

519
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 2: or family to watch them. And I said, so take

520
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 2: me down the path. What happens? They said, people start

521
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: and then they quit. I said, okay, what if we

522
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 2: brought our after school tutoring program and we combined with

523
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 2: your adult English program and we took care of all

524
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 2: the children. And they said, oh, thank god, yes, please,

525
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 2: could you do that? That would be amazing. And so

526
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 2: we said we'll care for the children babies to eighteen

527
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 2: year olds you teach English and we'll work together. And

528
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 2: the church and the school, the technical school had been

529
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 2: working together for ten years. Had fifty five adults coming,

530
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 2: which is the biggest English class I had found, by

531
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 2: the way, well three four different classrooms. We started in

532
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 2: the fall. By January of two thousand and nine, one

533
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty one adults were coming.

534
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: Because they had a place for their kids. Phenomenal. We'll

535
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: be right back. Let me ask you something as I'm

536
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: listening to this story, because we got more to go,

537
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 1: but I want to ask you this. One of the

538
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: biggest gripes cultural gripes is you know, we're a nation

539
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: of immigrants. We want people to come, but you know

540
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: what they need to assimilate to our culture when they

541
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: get here. My question is, if you don't speak to English,

542
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: you don't know the culture, your kids are kind of ostracized.

543
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: Exactly what can you assimilate to? However, if you see

544
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: a program like this that's caring for your children and

545
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: you're learning the language. An interviewer and an attorney are

546
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: supposed to adhere to one basic fundamental, which is never

547
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: ask a question you don't know the answer to yet,

548
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: and so I'm breaking that right now because I really

549
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 1: don't know the answer to this. But I'm curious. As

550
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 1: you see these adults and families go through the English

551
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: classes and go through these programs, do you see them

552
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: become quote more American assimilated because they're able to have

553
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 1: you seen a cultural shift at all?

554
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 2: Like someone said to me, it's like eating like beef stew,

555
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 2: where you've got chunks of beef, chunks of potatoes, chunks

556
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 2: of carrots, but it's all in this really delicious broth

557
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 2: called stew. I would say people keep the parts of

558
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 2: their culture that they love that define who they are

559
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 2: as a person. They add on things from our amazing

560
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 2: country called the United States of America into that.

561
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: Because see, I think that's awesome. And I don't think

562
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: that's any different than the Italians and Irish that settled

563
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: here one hundred and fifty years ago. I don't think

564
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: that's any different than the large Swedish community that is

565
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin and Minnesota. From they I think as a

566
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 1: bunch of MutS, the melting pot we are. We're always

567
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: When I asked you what your name was, you said

568
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: it was Swiss German. You're an American but you still

569
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: honor that culture and that heritage. And that's what you're saying.

570
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: These people are doing.

571
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 2: Right.

572
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: What's the difference except that they're from Africa not Asia,

573
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: I mean Africa not Europe. There's no difference. And the

574
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: until we see that, we're not being all we should be.

575
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 2: In my mind, yeah, my Mexican godfather we had Tamali's

576
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 2: most times when we went to eat at his house.

577
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 2: My mom's Polish. I still get pudo y at Easter.

578
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 2: I mean, these are parts of who make us who,

579
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 2: the parts that make us who we are. And they're beautiful, amazing.

580
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: But they're not anti American. They're just part of our culture.

581
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: But if we can learn the English and our children

582
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: can grow and become educated and become tax paying members

583
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 1: of society, then the quote assimilation looks like the very

584
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 1: thing that quote assimilation look like one hundred years ago,

585
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 1: just from Europeans.

586
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 2: That's right. And let me be clear, people are that

587
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 2: I have met in the last eighteen years are desperate

588
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 2: to learn English and learn how and feel you absolutely

589
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 2: learn how our education system works, and our medical system works,

590
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 2: and our legal system works. And they're desperate to learn.

591
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 2: In fact, I've had a women who I've become friends

592
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 2: with who say to me, I want to hang out

593
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 2: with more Americans because I want to learn, I want

594
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 2: to understand, I want to know more. The curiosity is there,

595
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 2: and it's beautiful. It's people are hungry.

596
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: Being from one culture and being an American are not

597
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: mutually exclusive.

598
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 2: I agreed.

599
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: So it's so interesting that we're having this conversation on

600
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: the heels of simply wanting to feed some hungry kids. Right,

601
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 1: It's phenomenal where this goes, how deep this can go.

602
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: I mean, we've gone from feeding a few hungry kids

603
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: to cultural assimilation, which is one of the things that

604
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: our country is struggling with right this very second. Okay,

605
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: you keep saying eighteen years, get me there.

606
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 2: So we partnered in that way for about four years.

607
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 2: We ran out of space at that church to run

608
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 2: what became a three generation family English program, so we

609
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 2: moved it to what is my home church again, one

610
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 2: of the biggest Lutheran churches in the country, which has

611
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty eight thousand square foot building. We

612
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 2: moved it there in twenty twelve and it just exploded.

613
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:28,879
Speaker 2: We kept serving free summer lunch camp. We started adding

614
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,280
Speaker 2: adult English to it in two thousand and nine, though

615
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 2: I just I had met with hundreds of people in

616
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 2: Columbus trying to figure out how to structure this, how

617
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 2: to put some infrastructure around it, and about eighty people

618
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 2: said to me, you need to start a nonprofit. I

619
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 2: thought I should just go under another nonprofit's umbrella, economic brain.

620
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 2: I didn't think the world needed another nonprofit. Quite honestly,

621
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 2: I thought we should like work together better. But they

622
00:34:56,160 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 2: all said, wait, suburban poverty, hundreds of volunteers, no Bill bilding,

623
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 2: and you're running serving hundreds of people, will squealsh you.

624
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 2: You need to start your own thing. Because it's so

625
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 2: unique what you're doing and how you're doing it. You

626
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 2: need to start your own thing. And so most of

627
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 2: them said they'd help me. So in two thousand and nine,

628
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 2: we started our own nonprofit called Serving Our Neighbors Ministries.

629
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 2: People called us SUN Ministries for sure. We rebranded to

630
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:25,840
Speaker 2: FESTA twenty twenty one, but we got some infrastructure because

631
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,880
Speaker 2: I started feeling like, if I follow the turnip truck,

632
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,880
Speaker 2: what happens? How does this continue to sustain? And so

633
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:38,880
Speaker 2: we just continued to all through the years build real

634
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:44,000
Speaker 2: relationships with each other. So volunteers with children, families being served,

635
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 2: relationships that went far beyond the lunch camp or the

636
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 2: family English program where people met, that went into their

637
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 2: own living rooms, into the parks, into the PTO meetings.

638
00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 2: People building relationships across every line of difference you can

639
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 2: think of.

640
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,399
Speaker 1: You mean, bringing that community alone, that's it.

641
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 2: That's what it was. And the community coming that whole

642
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 2: piece isn't sprinkles on the cupcake. It's the sugar and

643
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 2: the cupcake. Because if children get education and food and

644
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:22,800
Speaker 2: then they go into a community, a workforce, a school

645
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: district where people don't understand them, have prejudice against them,

646
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 2: that's not that helpful. So if they go into those

647
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 2: places and they know someone because that guy came in

648
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:41,359
Speaker 2: and taught business skills at their summer lunch camp, and

649
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 2: now they need a job and they're asking him to

650
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 2: hire them, that's great. That's all the better. And so

651
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 2: we knew that the volunteers, just like me standing on

652
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 2: the tar roof, needed to be prayed for. The volunteers.

653
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 2: I mean, the surgeon gener says, American epidemic is loneliness.

654
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 2: I mean, the volunteers need relationships with their neighbors, people

655
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:12,719
Speaker 2: who look different, sound different, but have a lot in

656
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 2: common with them.

657
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 1: Oh, we talk about almost every episode that the payoff

658
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:20,799
Speaker 1: all of this is you get a thousand times more

659
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:22,479
Speaker 1: out of it than you put into it. And that's

660
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: what you're saying, you know, moving into the most recent

661
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: of the years, tell me about Ukrainian and Afghany families.

662
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:35,960
Speaker 1: That's crazy to me.

663
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, whoever, wherever the problems in the world,

664
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 2: wherever we see those problems, we then within the next

665
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 2: year to three years see those people at our programs.

666
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 2: And so we had in the very beginning we had

667
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 2: lots of Iraqi refugees, really lots of Iraqi in fact,

668
00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 2: more than Somalian refugees. By the time we started, we

669
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,400
Speaker 2: had more Iraqi refugees and heard all kinds of stories

670
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 2: of you know, dads who knew English helping the American soldiers.

671
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden it became really dangerous

672
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 2: for them to be there because they got found out

673
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 2: and had to get moved so they wouldn't be killed.

674
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:18,920
Speaker 1: And I know that happened with Afghany.

675
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:23,919
Speaker 2: Same thing. Oh my gosh, we had eighty that December

676
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 2: of twenty two. I think December of twenty two, we

677
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 2: all went home for our Christmas break and I felt

678
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 2: like God was saying, You've got to let Afghan families

679
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:38,480
Speaker 2: into this family English program. And by then, Bill, we

680
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 2: had over seven hundred people coming to one program.

681
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 1: Seven hundred. You know, the next time you squinch up

682
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: your face or look down your nose at somebody that

683
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: looks like they might be from Iraq or Afghanistan, you

684
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: might run to remember that it's very possible to the

685
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: member of their family saved Americans lives by translating for

686
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:00,000
Speaker 1: our troops.

687
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:00,479
Speaker 2: It is true.

688
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,879
Speaker 1: You better get your arms around the facts about that.

689
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:04,719
Speaker 1: And I will tell you the oddest thing in the

690
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 1: world is retired American military service people that served in

691
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:13,359
Speaker 1: Afghanistan are the very first to stand up for these

692
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: Afghanistani people.

693
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 2: We have a donor who was in the Marines, and

694
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:19,399
Speaker 2: that is why he donates to.

695
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: Us because of as Afghanian interpreters and the people that

696
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 1: he made friends with. Another thing, boy, I'm well off

697
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: your subject. But another thing I learned there were a

698
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:34,680
Speaker 1: very big misconception is when we were in Afghanistan, there

699
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 1: were far more Afghanistans fighting than there were American military personnel.

700
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: And once we left the country and abandoned it, especially

701
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,200
Speaker 1: in the way we did, all of those people's guns

702
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 1: were taken from them and they ended up being the

703
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 1: enemy of the state and were hunted. They thought alongside us.

704
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:01,240
Speaker 1: We left and left them in their families to be hunted,

705
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,319
Speaker 1: and now they end up in the Lord, Ohio with

706
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,839
Speaker 1: hungry children, not knowing how to speak English. Literally, we're

707
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: not supposed to do something about this. Literally, you know

708
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 1: these things to be true. Yes, you serve these people.

709
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 2: That's it I mean. And so that Christmas I thought,

710
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,279
Speaker 2: oh gosh, well, we had eighty nine people that we

711
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 2: let into the program that January, even though we were

712
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 2: full and had a waiting list, and it was nine families,

713
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:34,480
Speaker 2: eighty nine people.

714
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 1: Holy Oly Afghanistan.

715
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:43,280
Speaker 2: And there were some families that were from rural Afghanistan,

716
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 2: like you said, helping our soldiers. And we had to

717
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 2: start in our adult English part of the Family English program.

718
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:56,560
Speaker 2: We have seven classrooms, six levels of English, and two

719
00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 2: of the true beginner classrooms. One is if you're literate

720
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,840
Speaker 2: in another language. One is if you're not literate in

721
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 2: any other language.

722
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 1: They were illiterate in everything.

723
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 2: We had Afghani refugees who were from rural Afghanistan who

724
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:15,000
Speaker 2: couldn't read or write in Pashto their language. Wow, and

725
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 2: they were farmers, I mean they they didn't. We even

726
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 2: learned over the months of getting to know them in

727
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:27,759
Speaker 2: the beginning that they didn't have the mental construct of

728
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 2: a calendar.

729
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 1: Living in suburban Ohio for goodness sakes, can we want

730
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:37,800
Speaker 1: these folks to quote a smolite right, They're just trying

731
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,560
Speaker 1: to get through a day. Yeah, And then we throw

732
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: their kids in an American school and say, hey, learn

733
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: free education. What's wrong with you?

734
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 2: Right? Right right? And we watched in Ukrainian I mean

735
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 2: same thing. We do this registration night in the falls

736
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:58,440
Speaker 2: when we start our family English program. And again, let

737
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,360
Speaker 2: me be clear, at this point we take eight hundred

738
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 2: people in our large program. People start coming hours before

739
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 2: to get registered. And there was a Ukrainian couple two

740
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 2: years ago and they were at the beginning of when

741
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 2: I had to start a waiting list, and the wife

742
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 2: started crying because they were so desperate to get into

743
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:22,520
Speaker 2: an English program. And I said, We're opening a second

744
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,319
Speaker 2: site in two weeks. Here's the address. Come to that

745
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 2: one and then long story short, they got into the

746
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 2: second program, and every single time I saw her at

747
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 2: that program, biggest smile on her face. She would come

748
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,279
Speaker 2: and hug me, thank you, thank you. The camaraderie that

749
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:41,920
Speaker 2: people have with one another, with a Ukrainian, with an

750
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 2: Afghani with Iraqi theship. Yeah, the relationships that people build

751
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:53,800
Speaker 2: together because they have a common life experience of moving

752
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 2: to America.

753
00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:58,000
Speaker 3: Speaking of the registration line, given you went there, can

754
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,440
Speaker 3: you talk about how you always make sure you're at

755
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:01,840
Speaker 3: the registration line and why?

756
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 2: Yeah? So now our three generation Family English program picture

757
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 2: picture your own family bill, so infantstagrandparents. Everyone comes to

758
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 2: the same place at the same time, and every single

759
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:15,880
Speaker 2: person in the family gets the education they need to

760
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 2: go from surviving to thriving. So babies, toddlers, and preschoolers

761
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 2: get preschool. Their best way out of poverty is to

762
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:25,359
Speaker 2: be ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten through eighth grade, get homework, help.

763
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 2: Two year olds to eighteen year olds get dinner every

764
00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:31,560
Speaker 2: night that they come. Eighteen year olds are teen interns.

765
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:35,799
Speaker 2: They're gaining work experience. Second to eighth eighth graders run

766
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,400
Speaker 2: their own business inside of the program and then adults

767
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 2: have seven levels of English, so they're exactly where they

768
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 2: need to be to learn as fast as their brain

769
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 2: can learn English. So that's what the three Generation Family

770
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:52,359
Speaker 2: English Program model is that we have honed since two

771
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 2: thousand and nine and want to scale. So when we

772
00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:01,480
Speaker 2: start registration, clearly we could do online register. We choose

773
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 2: not to because we want to serve the people who

774
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 2: are struggling the most in poverty and you have to

775
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 2: be able to get to our location to come anyway.

776
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:14,440
Speaker 2: So we have people come in person and in ten minutes.

777
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 2: The last two years of opening our registration, we have

778
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 2: brought in eight hundred people, which is full for that program.

779
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:28,319
Speaker 2: And I, as the founder, stand at that line to

780
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 2: start the waiting list line. Quite frankly, my coworkers just cry.

781
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 2: They just they can't.

782
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: Do it, and so I bes you have to say no.

783
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we have to say no to another five

784
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:41,720
Speaker 2: hundred people.

785
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: You could serve fifteen hundred, thirteen to fifteen hundred a year.

786
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:48,720
Speaker 1: What's prohibiting you from opening more?

787
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we have a second site and we are

788
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 2: serving one one hundred and sixty six people right now.

789
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 1: Again, do you take a second to realize what you

790
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: just said. You fed eighty kids one summer, yeah, one thousand?

791
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:06,399
Speaker 1: How what?

792
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 2: Yeah?

793
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 1: How much?

794
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,760
Speaker 2: And sixty six people were in our two family English

795
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:12,879
Speaker 2: programs this school year.

796
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 1: Are you still doing the summer feed?

797
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,440
Speaker 2: Yeah? We saive about eight hundred children and then parents

798
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 2: with adult English in the summer.

799
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: Yep. How many volunteers over one.

800
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 2: Thousand a year in Pillard, Ohio. Yeah, it's Columbus wide

801
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:35,760
Speaker 2: now because people come from forty eight countries and forty

802
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,920
Speaker 2: nine zip codes to come to our programs because there

803
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,799
Speaker 2: isn't anything else like it. They are desperate and they come.

804
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 1: Please tell me someone wants you to scale those elsewhere.

805
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,040
Speaker 2: That's what is on my heart. We want to scale

806
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 2: it across the country.

807
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:50,360
Speaker 1: How does that happen?

808
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 2: We have started to teach other communities how to do this.

809
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 2: I don't think I need to run them all, Bill,

810
00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:59,800
Speaker 2: I can just teach other people. We spend five years

811
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 2: with the AmeriCorps Vista program documenting everything we do and

812
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 2: how we do it. Because clearly, when you bring people

813
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 2: in from ninety one countries, including the United States, into

814
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 2: the same space, whether it's a gymnasium to play soccer

815
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,359
Speaker 2: or an adult English class and you just hope it

816
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 2: goes well. It's not quite that easy, but we have

817
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 2: written down how we create the environment that's built on respect,

818
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:30,400
Speaker 2: built on honor, built on relationships and community. So we

819
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,600
Speaker 2: have started teaching other communities how to do this. We

820
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 2: taught Springfield, Ohio last year.

821
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:51,960
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Howled were you and you were

822
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: standing on that roof, tarn.

823
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:56,359
Speaker 2: It, I would say fifteen.

824
00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:03,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny two things that you mentioned in our

825
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:08,240
Speaker 1: short talk that were really obviously imprinted on your mind.

826
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:11,520
Speaker 1: What country was that in? Where were our appalationships? I mean,

827
00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 1: what state was that in?

828
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:13,880
Speaker 2: We were in West Virginia.

829
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: West Virginia is a West Virginia man with an oxygen

830
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 1: mask on when you're fifteen years old, slopping tar on

831
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:28,480
Speaker 1: his roof, and a Mexican godfather. I just wonder if

832
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,799
Speaker 1: without those two, one was a long term and one

833
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 1: was kind of an instant influence on your life. I

834
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:39,440
Speaker 1: just and of course, your your stepdad taking you to church.

835
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:44,800
Speaker 1: I mean, isn't it weird how three separate, very innocuous

836
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:51,319
Speaker 1: seeming events culminate themselves into what becomes one's life's work.

837
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't underestimate the power you can have in

838
00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 2: someone's life, whether it's one moment or days and months

839
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 2: in years, it's to encourage another person, to serve another person,

840
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 2: to see another person, really see who they are and

841
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 2: care about them is hugely impactful.

842
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,640
Speaker 1: After eighteen years, you have to have kids that you

843
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 1: served those first couple of years that are now adults,

844
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 1: that you know. Tell me a story, tell give me

845
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:27,719
Speaker 1: a heartwarming they were hungry and you fed them and

846
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,160
Speaker 1: what they're doing now. Story. I know you have to

847
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:30,760
Speaker 1: have those.

848
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 2: I have so many that I in fact, I love

849
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 2: your job here, Bill, because just to talk to people

850
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 2: about their stories is pretty much my life dream. I

851
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 2: love stories. I love people's stories. So you have a lovely,

852
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:47,960
Speaker 2: lovely role here that I am honored.

853
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. But Alex is the whole reason I

854
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 1: do all this.

855
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 2: Alex love.

856
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 1: I mean, I was minding my own business about two

857
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: years ago when he came up with this idea and

858
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 1: told me it would take about two hours a week,

859
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: which is a complete another lot, but anyway, tell me

860
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:08,399
Speaker 1: so there, Thank you, by the way. That's gracious say,

861
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:11,239
Speaker 1: but it's you just talk to cool people and let

862
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 1: them tell their stories and trust stay out of the way,

863
00:49:13,239 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 1: which I do a poor job of. Oh, shut up,

864
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: you've all the day, Hey, Cassius, would you pull the

865
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 1: sheet back so he's no longer in the room. Shut up.

866
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: It's like the Wizard of Oz. He's the guy back there, right,

867
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: it's an irritating dude behind the hurtin Go ahead, would

868
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,480
Speaker 1: you say so? Yeah? Shut up, She's about tellus a

869
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 1: cool story.

870
00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 2: There's a young man that I am just over the

871
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 2: moon proud of who I met when he was in

872
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,120
Speaker 2: elementary school. In fact, he's the star of one of

873
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:49,120
Speaker 2: our videos. So in twenty twelve, he was in elementary

874
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 2: school coming to our summer lunch camp with his siblings

875
00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:57,319
Speaker 2: and his neighbors and just a lovely, lovely young man.

876
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 2: And he was part of eleven children at one of

877
00:50:00,760 --> 00:50:03,880
Speaker 2: our summer lunch sites who came to me. Actually the

878
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:07,960
Speaker 2: leader that summer said to me, Kim, the children are

879
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 2: getting They're just I'm trying to swim upstream. They're swimming downstream.

880
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 2: Every activity I plan, they they poo poo it. Will

881
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:18,080
Speaker 2: you come talk to this group of about eleven children

882
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 2: with it, who are sort of spearheading the opposite of

883
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:21,839
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to accomplish here.

884
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:25,000
Speaker 1: So I buttholes, which is what kids are.

885
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:27,399
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was like, okay, let's chat. And she said

886
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:29,320
Speaker 2: you know them, she was just hired for the summer.

887
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 2: She said, you know them better than me. So I

888
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 2: sat down with these eleven children and they're sort of

889
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,799
Speaker 2: second to fifth graders, and I said, you know, what's

890
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,880
Speaker 2: the deal. Why why are you not really wanting to

891
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,319
Speaker 2: do the activities we planned for you this summer? And

892
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:44,360
Speaker 2: they said They looked at each other and they said,

893
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 2: we're bored. I said, okay, I respect that. I mean,

894
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 2: I'm not a teacher, I'm not a social worker. I

895
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 2: plan these activities, but you know I didn't get it.

896
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:57,080
Speaker 2: I didn't get it right. So what do you want

897
00:50:57,080 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 2: to do here? Because we're going to be together every

898
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 2: day for the next seven weeks. What would you like

899
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 2: to do here at camp if you don't like the

900
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 2: things we planned because we could do that. What is it?

901
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 2: And they kind of looked at each other. I said, no, seriously,

902
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:14,240
Speaker 2: I'm seriously asking you and they said, well. They started

903
00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 2: brainstorming and they said, well, what if what if we

904
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 2: ran a restaurant? What if we what if we ran

905
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:25,240
Speaker 2: it ourselves and made the food. And I said, well,

906
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:28,600
Speaker 2: who would you serve? And they said maybe the younger

907
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:30,680
Speaker 2: kids at camp, like the kindergarten and first graders. And

908
00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:33,920
Speaker 2: I'm thinking I order lunch every day. I don't think

909
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:36,600
Speaker 2: that's gonna work. So I said, well, you know, that'd

910
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 2: be fun. But like, what if I brought you real

911
00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 2: customers that you could serve, like the mayor and the

912
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:47,080
Speaker 2: head of BMW Financial Services and the guy who sells

913
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 2: insurance down the street. What if they have to eat lunch?

914
00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 2: What if they came to your restaurant to eat lunch.

915
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 2: I brought you real customers. And they started just squealing.

916
00:51:55,440 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 2: They said, we could use our family recipes and we

917
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:00,360
Speaker 2: could do the whole thing. We could run it again,

918
00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 2: second to fifth.

919
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: Grade, fifth graders, fourth graders second to love it.

920
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 2: And I said okay, so when would you like to start?

921
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:12,040
Speaker 2: And it was the Monday before fourth of July and

922
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 2: we were closed for fourth of July. And they said, well,

923
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:20,040
Speaker 2: how about how about next Monday? And I said in

924
00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 2: one week and they were like yeah. I said okay.

925
00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:26,640
Speaker 2: So I told the leader of the camp, this is

926
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:28,319
Speaker 2: what they want to do. Will you help them do it,

927
00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 2: and I'll go find people to come eat. So I

928
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:35,279
Speaker 2: called on my friends and said, you know, will you come.

929
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're going to find, but you

930
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:40,320
Speaker 2: should come. So we that day. We came back down Monday,

931
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 2: and one of the little boys met me in the

932
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:54,120
Speaker 2: hallway and said, welcome to Taco Bell Junior, Miss Kim.

933
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:52,440
Speaker 1: Taco Bell Juniors.

934
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:55,440
Speaker 2: And I was like what what and they said, it's

935
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,120
Speaker 2: Mexican restaurant. And I said, okay. He was in a

936
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 2: three piece suit and it was July.

937
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: That's hilarious.

938
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:08,239
Speaker 2: So they started a full restaurant. They had like the

939
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 2: plastics silverwhere in the napkins with little turly ribbon on it,

940
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:15,799
Speaker 2: I mean the whole thing. They had music, they had

941
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 2: some of the best beans and rice I've ever had.

942
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 2: I mean it was great. And so that exploded. So

943
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,680
Speaker 2: this young man was one of those inventors of what

944
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 2: we now affectionately call Taco Bell Junior at our company.

945
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:36,200
Speaker 2: And he grew up and he became a teen intern

946
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:38,320
Speaker 2: for US, which we affectually call orange shirts because we

947
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 2: buy them orange Veesta T shirts. And so he was

948
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 2: a teen intern with US and volunteered and served the

949
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 2: younger children at camp and family esl and then he

950
00:53:48,719 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 2: got hired at McDonald's and got a paid job in town,

951
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:59,439
Speaker 2: and he started believing that he could do more. In fact,

952
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 2: like I said, he's in one of our videos with

953
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 2: a microphone like this in front of him, and I said,

954
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 2: someday you're gonna have a microphone because he just picked

955
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:07,319
Speaker 2: it up as a young child and started talking on

956
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 2: our video. No practice was amazing. And so he decided

957
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:12,880
Speaker 2: he was going to go to college. Lives in the

958
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:16,360
Speaker 2: trailer park, the least expensive place in all of central

959
00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:19,680
Speaker 2: Ohio for a family to live, and so he applied

960
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:23,760
Speaker 2: himself at school, got good grades, applied to the Ohio

961
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:27,719
Speaker 2: State University, got in. He just graduated two years ago

962
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 2: with a double degree in mathematics and meteorology microphone and

963
00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 2: kept working at McDonald's. He was working there all through school,

964
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:40,719
Speaker 2: and because of the things like the PELL grant, he

965
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:44,279
Speaker 2: was able to go to school with no payment. He

966
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 2: banked all the money that he made at McDonald's because

967
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:50,160
Speaker 2: he didn't need it for school, and he could live

968
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 2: at home while he went to college. And so when

969
00:54:52,520 --> 00:54:54,560
Speaker 2: he got out of college, he decided to buy a

970
00:54:54,719 --> 00:54:57,440
Speaker 2: house and he bought a house in Hilliard with a

971
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 2: pool in the backyard. And he's twenty two years old.

972
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:01,120
Speaker 1: And what's he do now?

973
00:55:01,640 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 2: He still works for McDonald's. He's a regional manager and

974
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:07,719
Speaker 2: they have treated him well and he's very happy there,

975
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 2: and so he stayed. He has stayed.

976
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 1: Without showing up for a free lunch one day. What

977
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: do the demographics say he'd be doing now?

978
00:55:18,719 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's clearly the first person in his

979
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:26,480
Speaker 2: family to go to school to dream of something much bigger.

980
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:29,839
Speaker 1: Can I ask a question? Yeah, what's more American than

981
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:33,200
Speaker 1: a house with a swimming pool? Warris regional manager for McDonald's.

982
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:34,520
Speaker 2: Isn't it the best?

983
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:36,880
Speaker 1: It's the American literally?

984
00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:41,000
Speaker 2: And he I asked him, what do you love about

985
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 2: your job? And he said, I love because you know

986
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,960
Speaker 2: you've been to McDonald's. You've got adults and you've got

987
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:51,120
Speaker 2: teenagers who work there. He said, I love to work

988
00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 2: with young people and pour into them and challenge them

989
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:56,480
Speaker 2: about what they could do and what their dreams are.

990
00:55:56,920 --> 00:56:01,120
Speaker 2: And clearly English is not his family's first language. Spanish is,

991
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:05,640
Speaker 2: and so he's able to be completely multi lingual in

992
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 2: this franchise's business, which helps tremendously on every level.

993
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 3: McDonald's actually a great business. Most field don't know this.

994
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:16,200
Speaker 3: I've interviewed the former CEO and the chairman and two

995
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,319
Speaker 3: thirds of their executives had their first job at McDonald's

996
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:20,720
Speaker 3: and rose up within the company.

997
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 1: The thing is, though, this kid grew up in a

998
00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:29,840
Speaker 1: trailer and suburban poverty, so the phrase we now need

999
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:35,480
Speaker 1: to normalize in suburban poverty and showed up one day

1000
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:41,399
Speaker 1: at a vacant grocery store for free launch and look

1001
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: where it is now.

1002
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:45,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

1003
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 1: If there is any better way to love servant fee

1004
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:51,560
Speaker 1: to human being them out and it goes far beyond

1005
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 1: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

1006
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it, and the relationships that get built.

1007
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:03,279
Speaker 2: The French said he still has today with so many

1008
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:05,840
Speaker 2: of the children he spent all of his summers in

1009
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 2: school years with at Our programs are thick and beautiful.

1010
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:14,800
Speaker 1: How do people hear more about FESTA?

1011
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:18,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, you go to our website or contact me. So

1012
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,760
Speaker 2: our website is we are Festa dot org.

1013
00:57:22,160 --> 00:57:24,919
Speaker 1: And uh we are Festa dot org.

1014
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:28,560
Speaker 2: Yea, we are fested dot org. And our phone number,

1015
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:31,680
Speaker 2: our address, everything is on there ways to contact us.

1016
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:33,880
Speaker 2: But like you said, we want to scale this across

1017
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:34,280
Speaker 2: the country.

1018
00:57:34,280 --> 00:57:36,120
Speaker 1: We can't. How do people find you?

1019
00:57:36,240 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 2: Oh it's k and then my last name emch at

1020
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:42,520
Speaker 2: Werefesta dot org. We can't find anyone else doing three

1021
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 2: generation family English across the country. We're working with a

1022
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 2: national group who's also searched and they have not found

1023
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 2: it either. And so we know that every major city

1024
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:56,120
Speaker 2: needs this and we can teach it to them.

1025
00:57:56,320 --> 00:57:58,120
Speaker 3: What's so cool about that part of it, too, Bill,

1026
00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 3: is so many people cannot go to these literacy classes.

1027
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:04,920
Speaker 3: There's nobody to watch their kids. So I mean, the

1028
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:07,200
Speaker 3: three generation it's just so huge.

1029
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 1: It's just amazing that just from a I found out

1030
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:14,640
Speaker 1: that these kids don't have anything to eat during the

1031
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:22,400
Speaker 1: summers has evolved into what it is today. And it

1032
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:27,720
Speaker 1: just speaks to just go across the street, open the

1033
00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:31,840
Speaker 1: door and try, and you never know what can evolve

1034
00:58:31,920 --> 00:58:36,240
Speaker 1: and happen as a result of the effort. And the

1035
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: person behind all this is the daughter of five divorces,

1036
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 1: who grew up with trauma, who had no family that

1037
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:50,640
Speaker 1: ever really been to college, who stupidly went to college

1038
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:54,280
Speaker 1: because she got one piece of mail from a questionnaire

1039
00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:58,240
Speaker 1: she left in an offering plate, who was living the

1040
00:58:58,360 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 1: two kids and married life, working at a bank, who

1041
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:05,880
Speaker 1: simply felt called to love, serve, and feed their neighbors

1042
00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:08,560
Speaker 1: and bring their community along. And now look at the

1043
00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:11,400
Speaker 1: lives that are being changed. If it is not the

1044
00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:14,360
Speaker 1: quintessential story of what an army of normal folks is

1045
00:59:14,360 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 1: supposed to be about, I don't know what it is.

1046
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 1: Do you allow yourself when taking stock of the last

1047
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: eighteen years, do you allow yourself celebrate what you've done?

1048
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:32,920
Speaker 2: I think I love most to celebrate with my friends,

1049
00:59:33,160 --> 00:59:37,000
Speaker 2: the families that I've met through through doing this. I

1050
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:41,080
Speaker 2: mean that gentleman I called in tears at the grocery store,

1051
00:59:41,160 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 2: who said call her back. You know, he became a

1052
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,520
Speaker 2: father for me. His one of the men he brought

1053
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:52,200
Speaker 2: with him, John and Bob were two fathers to me. Man,

1054
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:54,960
Speaker 2: God knew I needed that. I'm going this summer for

1055
00:59:55,040 --> 00:59:58,040
Speaker 2: a month in June to Jordan with a family I've

1056
00:59:58,040 --> 01:00:02,080
Speaker 2: known for twelve years through through this nonprofit ministry work,

1057
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:05,520
Speaker 2: who want me to come to their country and meet

1058
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:10,640
Speaker 2: their family. And it's an honor of my life. So

1059
01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:14,680
Speaker 2: that's the way it looks like to celebrate. My Thanksgiving

1060
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:18,960
Speaker 2: dinner table is full of children and families that we serve,

1061
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:22,720
Speaker 2: we have served and gotten to be in close relationship with.

1062
01:00:22,760 --> 01:00:25,640
Speaker 2: And I think the biggest joy for me is watching

1063
01:00:26,160 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 2: families thrive, seeing when we meet them, whether it's depressed

1064
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:36,520
Speaker 2: and sad and full of grief and not enough food

1065
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:40,560
Speaker 2: on the table, to running their own restaurant and employing

1066
01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:44,680
Speaker 2: ten other immigrants to work for them. I mean, that's

1067
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:48,160
Speaker 2: the celebration for me, to watch people thrive.

1068
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:51,000
Speaker 1: I'm in all of you. It has been just an

1069
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:55,440
Speaker 1: honor to meet you. And somehow I kind of believe

1070
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:57,760
Speaker 1: that you are going to scale this. It just doesn't

1071
01:00:57,800 --> 01:00:58,520
Speaker 1: seem like you.

1072
01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 2: Have a stop but I can't not stop it.

1073
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:07,880
Speaker 1: And anybody who wants to support Kim or learn more

1074
01:01:08,840 --> 01:01:12,640
Speaker 1: you know how to go there now. And anybody who's thinking,

1075
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:15,200
Speaker 1: my goodness, this would be great in the community. You

1076
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:18,760
Speaker 1: have an email address, reach out and I would imagine

1077
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:21,600
Speaker 1: you're the kind of person that would say, come see

1078
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:23,200
Speaker 1: what we do. We'll teach you everything.

1079
01:01:23,600 --> 01:01:27,440
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And like Alex said, there might be people are

1080
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:31,160
Speaker 2: who have an ESL classroom, a one room schoolhouse, or

1081
01:01:31,240 --> 01:01:34,960
Speaker 2: even a couple, but they see their students drop off

1082
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:37,680
Speaker 2: and quit through the year, or they might be doing

1083
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:41,600
Speaker 2: an after school program and seeing foreign, boring children coming

1084
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:43,720
Speaker 2: to their after school program and they just want to

1085
01:01:43,720 --> 01:01:45,919
Speaker 2: figure out how to put the whole thing together. I mean,

1086
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:51,440
Speaker 2: that's the family model. I'll say it this way. It's

1087
01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:55,600
Speaker 2: not it doesn't. I'm not lost on how amazing it

1088
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:58,240
Speaker 2: is that people from Eastern culture, which I consider the

1089
01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:01,320
Speaker 2: whole world except for America and Europe, which is all

1090
01:02:01,360 --> 01:02:03,120
Speaker 2: the countries that we are serving.

1091
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:06,920
Speaker 1: Except for Australia, New Zealand, but the rest of.

1092
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:11,640
Speaker 2: The whole complanet Earth, so who love hospitality so much,

1093
01:02:11,680 --> 01:02:15,920
Speaker 2: who are so dedicated to family, would come to America

1094
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:20,080
Speaker 2: to teach us to keep families together. And this family

1095
01:02:20,240 --> 01:02:27,080
Speaker 2: model of serving the whole family together is so simple,

1096
01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:33,960
Speaker 2: but yet we've missed it pretty categorically in serving people,

1097
01:02:34,360 --> 01:02:40,000
Speaker 2: whether it's workforce development or anything else, we've missed keeping

1098
01:02:40,040 --> 01:02:43,120
Speaker 2: the family together and serving them together. And that's the

1099
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:46,200
Speaker 2: model that we've perfected, and we just want.

1100
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:51,680
Speaker 1: To scale kim imps, I'm still don't know they I'm

1101
01:02:51,680 --> 01:02:54,280
Speaker 1: saying it right. You're doing great, Bill, founder of FESTA.

1102
01:02:54,640 --> 01:02:58,360
Speaker 1: What an amazing legacy you've left on your community, and

1103
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:02,560
Speaker 1: there's just so many lessons to have been learned from this,

1104
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:08,520
Speaker 1: starting with suburban poverty and all the way through all

1105
01:03:08,640 --> 01:03:12,280
Speaker 1: the lives can be affected. You're awesome and I just

1106
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:15,040
Speaker 1: can't tell you how much. Thank you for joining me

1107
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:15,960
Speaker 1: and telling your story.

1108
01:03:16,240 --> 01:03:20,520
Speaker 2: Oh Bill, it's truly an honor to be here. Thank

1109
01:03:20,600 --> 01:03:24,400
Speaker 2: you so much for inviting me. Thank you, It's.

1110
01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:26,880
Speaker 1: It's by honor. I'm just sorry you had to spend

1111
01:03:26,920 --> 01:03:34,640
Speaker 1: so much of the time with Alex. Alex Alex is great,

1112
01:03:34,680 --> 01:03:36,520
Speaker 1: but I got to have somebody to poke it, right.

1113
01:03:36,640 --> 01:03:38,440
Speaker 1: I can't poke my guests, so what have I got

1114
01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 1: to do? Thanks for being here, Kim, Thank you so much,

1115
01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:47,040
Speaker 1: and thank you for joining us this week. If Kim

1116
01:03:47,280 --> 01:03:50,240
Speaker 1: mch has inspired you in general, or better yet, to

1117
01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:54,720
Speaker 1: take action by starting something like Festa in your community,

1118
01:03:55,240 --> 01:03:59,360
Speaker 1: donating to them, or something else entirely, please let me know.

1119
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:02,520
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. You can write me

1120
01:04:02,720 --> 01:04:06,960
Speaker 1: anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise

1121
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:10,880
Speaker 1: I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share it

1122
01:04:10,920 --> 01:04:14,960
Speaker 1: with friends that on social subscribe to the podcast, rate

1123
01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:18,200
Speaker 1: and review it. Join the army at normalfolks dot us.

1124
01:04:18,480 --> 01:04:22,360
Speaker 1: Consider becoming a premium member there any and all of

1125
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:25,520
Speaker 1: these things that will help us grow an army of

1126
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what

1127
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:30,200
Speaker 1: you can