Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I hope you enjoyed our episode earlier this
Speaker 1: week with Aaron Smith of CASA and Thomas. That episode
Speaker 1: really affected me. That interview really affected me, and I
Speaker 1: really haven't gotten it off my mind since we did
Speaker 1: it and produced it. To summarize, Thomas was abused. He
Speaker 1: was tied up by his mother with electrical chords. He
Speaker 1: was one through an institutionaliziz system that really didn't serve
Speaker 1: or care for him and certainly offered him no love.
Speaker 1: He was adopted and in that adoption with provided him
Speaker 1: hope for the first time in his life. He found
Speaker 1: a brother that sexually molested him, and then in defending
Speaker 1: himself by just trying to reach out for help and
Speaker 1: speak up. He then gets taken out of his adoptive
Speaker 1: home and put back into state institutionalized care, and weeks
Speaker 1: later two orderlies that he doesn't know anything about, gives
Speaker 1: him one hundred and fifty bucks and drops them off
Speaker 1: on the campus at Old Miss and says, hey, good
Speaker 1: luck and ride off. There's just no love there, There's
Speaker 1: just no care, and the fact that this kid is
Speaker 1: still trying is an amazing testament to his character and
Speaker 1: his spirit. The other thing I want you to remember
Speaker 1: is despite all of this, this kid made a thirty
Speaker 1: five on a part of his act and got into
Speaker 1: college and even had a full ride to Fisk, which
Speaker 1: is in Tennessee, but he couldn't go there because he
Speaker 1: was under the care of the State of Mississippi. And
Speaker 1: so he went to Old miss having been told by
Speaker 1: the State of Mississippi that they would cover the call
Speaker 1: above and beyond his pel grants and all of that.
Speaker 1: And then they informed this kid, who has been screwed
Speaker 1: by basically every adult in his life, that they were
Speaker 1: wrong funding what in there and you need to take
Speaker 1: some loans. I just don't know what I would do
Speaker 1: if I was Thomas. I just don't I don't know
Speaker 1: i'd handle that. I don't know that I would want
Speaker 1: to wake up in the morning. Yet this kid wakes up,
Speaker 1: has two jobs, goes to class, makes his grades, and
Speaker 1: through his relationship with Aaron, is finding his way to
Speaker 1: be a productive adult and wants to major in psychology
Speaker 1: and criminal justice to keep the very people that abused
Speaker 1: him off the streets so no other child has to
Speaker 1: live what he lived. What a testament to this kid.
Speaker 1: But he's got a twenty thousand dollars debt he never
Speaker 1: expected to have, didn't earn, could have been without had
Speaker 1: he been able to go to FISK, and was tossed
Speaker 1: on him at the last minute, kind of like all
Speaker 1: the other stuff that's been tossed on him, and I
Speaker 1: think it's wrong. He doesn't have family, he doesn't have
Speaker 1: a mom or dad or grandparents to call to lean
Speaker 1: on for help. He's doing more than most his age.
Speaker 1: Du So Alex, our producer, had an idea, we want
Speaker 1: to raise the money. This is not a handout, it's
Speaker 1: not even philanthropy. It's just hopefully showing him there is
Speaker 1: love and care in the world for a kid who's
Speaker 1: been shown very little of it. So Alex is donating
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars. Lisa and I are donating a thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: So that's two thousand bucks. We're eighteen thousand dollars away
Speaker 1: from paying off Thomas his debt that he incurred through
Speaker 1: no decision or fault of his own. My hope is
Speaker 1: that you'll join us, open up your pocket books, and
Speaker 1: give a little money to help the kid out, but
Speaker 1: more importantly show him that his story in his life matters.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty simple. We go to KASA MS dot org.
Speaker 1: That's C A S A MS dot org and click
Speaker 1: on donate And when you go to donate, there's a
Speaker 1: little field there and all you got to do is
Speaker 1: type in Thomas. We've spoken to Aaron, she's ready to
Speaker 1: receive it. One hundred percent of ever dollar that goes
Speaker 1: to this will go to pay off Thomas's debt. So
Speaker 1: again it's KASA, C A S A MS kasams dot org.
Speaker 1: Type donate, put in some money, type in Thomas's name,
Speaker 1: and let's see if we can't can't give Thomas a
Speaker 1: little something that he's not expecting.