Speaker 1: Hey, folks, We're back for another the second episode of
Speaker 1: Ask Kevin Almost Anything. This is our second one. I mean,
Speaker 1: the idea is that people have written in and reached
Speaker 1: out and said, you know, we got some questions that
Speaker 1: we're wondering, and so we look through and we decide
Speaker 1: what would be fun to respond to it, and we'll
Speaker 1: see how this goes. I am joined now by the
Speaker 1: executive director of six Degrees dot Org Stacy Houston, who
Speaker 1: is awesome and I concur yeah, and who's a little
Speaker 1: tired because she saw Madonna last night, but has decided
Speaker 1: to rally today and coy and join me here in
Speaker 1: Ask Kevin Almost Anything.
Speaker 2: I stays, Hi, Yeah.
Speaker 3: If Madonna can do it, I can do it. I'm inspired.
Speaker 3: That's for sure.
Speaker 1: Good idea, good idea. She's something amazing. It really is.
Speaker 2: Talk about a show.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever seen Madonna alive. I think
Speaker 1: that it probably didn't quite line up with my age,
Speaker 1: and then I don't know. For some reason, I just
Speaker 1: that that's a show that I never saw, but it
Speaker 1: must be incredible.
Speaker 2: It was really incredible.
Speaker 3: It was a pretty diverse audience for sure, But I
Speaker 3: think that, yeah, she put on on one hell of
Speaker 3: a show called the Celebration Tour. So it's kind of
Speaker 3: like all all of her music throughout the year, so
Speaker 3: something for everyone.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of young people there, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Think so and not so young. I mean she's sixty five.
Speaker 1: Is my age, same age as Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she was definitely it was very theatrical, so
Speaker 3: I think similarly to a lot of the you know,
Speaker 3: the bigger pop stars of today, Like she's still moving
Speaker 3: around that stage and telling a story and a lot
Speaker 3: of actual social impact stuff, right, A lot of things
Speaker 3: that she talked about through her music that she kind
Speaker 3: of highlighted with the stage design and the sets and
Speaker 3: those sorts of things, especially around like the LGBTQ community
Speaker 3: and the HIV crisis of the eighties and things like that.
Speaker 3: So it was powerful. It was really really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny you bring that up, because when you
Speaker 1: really think about it, she was really there is an
Speaker 1: element of UH pop female pop stars who you know,
Speaker 1: have sort of empowered the various sometimes unrecognized factions of
Speaker 1: their uh their audience and given them a voice and
Speaker 1: support in ways. And I think she really was one
Speaker 1: of the first. I mean, you know, followed certainly by
Speaker 1: Gaga and now you know Tailor and Beyonce, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you you you you go beyond just making
Speaker 1: the music and and even beyond just having the adoration
Speaker 1: of of your fans, but you actually are are trying
Speaker 1: to support people to you know, kind of be who
Speaker 1: they are, you know, Harry Styles and you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting, but but Donna was really sort of a
Speaker 1: you know, a pioneer in that way. I think that
Speaker 1: you know, in music, a lot of the early rock
Speaker 1: stars and the idea was that you just you were
Speaker 1: kind of trying to keep it distance. That was kind
Speaker 1: of part of what rock and roll was that you
Speaker 1: were this sort of distant, you know, kind of persona
Speaker 1: and and not necessarily you were more kind of speaking
Speaker 1: two people than speaking four people. So I think I
Speaker 1: think it's interesting that she was early in that that movement.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it definitely I think probably inspired those that
Speaker 3: came after her, right for sure, Yeah, to not squander
Speaker 3: that opportunity, Yeah, and definitely not shy away from it
Speaker 3: because she's bold now. But I can only imagine when
Speaker 3: she started, you know, forty years ago. Yeah, that was
Speaker 3: like a moment.
Speaker 1: So well, I first saw her in Uh, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: whatlder that movie? I feel like maybe it was a
Speaker 1: Jonathan Demi movie. I'm trying to she had a small part.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, what was it? And but she was it
Speaker 1: was you know, a lot of it was like her
Speaker 1: kind of singular style and the look and her you know,
Speaker 1: just she's attitude. You know, she was just kind of badass. Anyway,
Speaker 1: this is the Madonna, So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she deserves her own episode.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Madonna for letting us just riff on you
Speaker 3: for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Well let me read the first question. How's that? Since
Speaker 1: this is called ask Kevin almost anything? Uh, this is
Speaker 1: from CHRISA And she says, Hi, Kevin, I'm from food Bank,
Speaker 1: Victoria in Australia. Love what you do. I was wondering
Speaker 1: if you have any budget type recipes that we can
Speaker 1: share with our folks. I just thought it could be
Speaker 1: a fun thing to do. Oh yeah, if you have
Speaker 1: any other ideas. I know you help so many people already,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was worth asking. Cheers Chris. Okay,
Speaker 1: so when she's talking about budget type recipes, I can
Speaker 1: tell you that one of our favorite things that we make,
Speaker 1: when you know, a lot of times will be thinking, well,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do tonight? What are we
Speaker 1: going to get? You know, cures very big on like
Speaker 1: finding new recipes. You know, she does searches and follows things,
Speaker 1: and I'm a little bit more, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of improvisational. But you know, it's usually we have some
Speaker 1: kind of big idea and every once in a while
Speaker 1: we want to stay in but we're out of big
Speaker 1: ideas and we've we have a short handle. We'd just
Speaker 1: go pantry and she says yes, and I say pantry, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's really pantry pasta is what it is. So
Speaker 1: you generally have lying around at least a couple of
Speaker 1: clothes of garlic or an onion. And then that's always
Speaker 1: like the basis for anything, right, any any any thing
Speaker 1: that's worth eating, It starts with it, you know, some
Speaker 1: garlic or some onion. So you you put that in
Speaker 1: the pan and you start you like, so I tell
Speaker 1: you that, and then you open up the pantry and
Speaker 1: you see what's in there. And so it could be
Speaker 1: a can of tomatoes, it could be a lot of ours.
Speaker 1: Is like a can of tomatoes we get opened up,
Speaker 1: a can of tuna we throw in some you know,
Speaker 1: whatever kind of herbs you have, we're lying around and
Speaker 1: even if they're dried, you know, some regular basically you
Speaker 1: just make a sauce, add a little bit of wine,
Speaker 1: something has to be, you know, make it liquid enough,
Speaker 1: and then you make some pasta and you put it
Speaker 1: on and that's pantry pasta. We've we've oftentimes have a
Speaker 1: lot of people have some capers lying around, some olives
Speaker 1: lying around, some you know. I mean, it sounds it
Speaker 1: sounds like I'm just making something from garbage, but it
Speaker 1: really is is these are all things that will keep forever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's that's what we do Petripasta.
Speaker 3: So this kind of reminds me of this woman that
Speaker 3: I met recently and feeling pretty bad right now that
Speaker 3: her name is escaping me. But she has an Instagram
Speaker 3: page and she I don't know if she's coined this,
Speaker 3: but she does this thing called shelf Timber where it's
Speaker 3: like in September she challenges everybody to only use fifty
Speaker 3: dollars a week for groceries. I think she's a pretty
Speaker 3: large family. I think she has like six or seven
Speaker 3: kids something like that. Well, so I think this might
Speaker 3: help Chris's community as well, you know, and they are
Speaker 3: challenged to use only what's in the pantry on their
Speaker 3: shelves for this whole month, and then they can buy like,
Speaker 3: you know, chicken or some of those additive type things
Speaker 3: to round out a meal with the fifty dollars. And
Speaker 3: it's a way that they save up for the holidays
Speaker 3: that are quickly approaching. Right, So it's like we're gonna
Speaker 3: eat in, We're gonna just clear out our pantry because,
Speaker 3: like you said, I mean, have you ever got I mean,
Speaker 3: this is my experience. I'd go to my mom's house
Speaker 3: and I would go into her pantry and I would
Speaker 3: see something from like two thousand and and four, and
Speaker 3: I'm like ah, and I'm like, like, you're what It's
Speaker 3: like a can of olives and You're like, hey, I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure this is expired. And she's like it's fine.
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, Like, I don't think you should eat this.
Speaker 3: Like there has to be some reason why we can't
Speaker 3: just keep things forever, you know, But.
Speaker 1: Can't you eat a two thousand and four tour Alli?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I probably would. I'm embarrassed
Speaker 1: to say I don't really check the labels that often
Speaker 1: although my mother she uh, well, first off, she wasn't
Speaker 1: a good cook. Nobody likes to say that about their
Speaker 1: mother once. My mother was a bit, but my mother
Speaker 1: was a terrible cook. Let's face it. She had six kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and she was kind of often doing what it
Speaker 1: is that talking about just kind of you know, finding
Speaker 1: some stuff and whipping something up. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that we're a lot better at making it taste good.
Speaker 3: But she wasn't as good as improvising as you're saying.
Speaker 1: No, And she would she would take things and she
Speaker 1: didn't believe she's very much ahead of her time in
Speaker 1: terms of this, but she didn't believe in like single
Speaker 1: use plastic. And and so she would just take food
Speaker 1: and just put it in a bowl and just stick
Speaker 1: it in the refrigerator and sometimes it would sit there
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks. And that that's the stuff
Speaker 1: that I was like not not going near in a
Speaker 1: case something that was actually vacuum fact or sealed. I'm
Speaker 1: okay with it. And you know, I'll tell you something
Speaker 1: interesting in terms of like, as we know, fresh food
Speaker 1: often goes hand and often people who have food insecurity,
Speaker 1: it becomes very hard for them to find fresh food.
Speaker 1: There aren't places that actually have you know, fresh produce.
Speaker 2: There are in food deserts often, yeah.
Speaker 1: Food deserts. Yeah. But one thing that is true, and
Speaker 1: I'm not a nutritionist, but I can tell you that
Speaker 1: I recently read an article which was had to do
Speaker 1: with which was written by you know, smarter people that
Speaker 1: me scientists saying these are the things that we wish
Speaker 1: people would stop believing in terms of food nutrition, and
Speaker 1: one of them was that canned fruits and vegetables are nutritionous, nutritional.
Speaker 1: They You can have a frozen or canned or frozen
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables, if they contained a whole ton of
Speaker 1: sugar like that's added, then possibly that's you know, going
Speaker 1: to you're gonna have to kind of keep an eye
Speaker 1: on that. But if you're talking about a can of
Speaker 1: peas or or or a bag of spinach that's been frozen,
Speaker 1: these are that you don't lose any nutritional value from
Speaker 1: from vegetables when they're when they're frozen or can Apparently
Speaker 1: it's some yeah, and in some cases it's actually they
Speaker 1: actually have more vehements and minerals than they do if
Speaker 1: you cook them down and cook them fresh. So when
Speaker 1: I when I learned that, I said, well, that's really
Speaker 1: that's interesting because it it means that if there are
Speaker 1: things that are on shelves that people can get, you know,
Speaker 1: some good nutritional value from those from those fruits and vegetables. Anyway,
Speaker 1: good question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, all right. Question number two do you want
Speaker 3: to read it?
Speaker 4: Coup?
Speaker 1: Okay? This is from Rebecca Graham. Kevin, you with your
Speaker 1: wonderful family are so special? A question for you? Would
Speaker 1: you do Footloose too? U? Footloose too has been done?
Speaker 5: Has it?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 3: I thought it was like a remake, you know, like, well,
Speaker 3: what's your right?
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel your foot.
Speaker 3: Loose two would be like a sequel like you are now, John,
Speaker 3: let's go.
Speaker 1: And I'm not banning dancing, not.
Speaker 2: Your banning dancing.
Speaker 3: But you know, like you're older, you've raised your own
Speaker 3: your kids are are in high school, right, like I
Speaker 3: feel like that's the sequel, right, like it's your son right.
Speaker 1: Never say never. I think it would be a disaster.
Speaker 1: It's funny because they they made countless Friday the thirteenth,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was in the very first Friday
Speaker 1: the thirteenth. Then they remake Footlosts and they remade Flatliners,
Speaker 1: and then I decided that they're just remaking all the
Speaker 1: movies that I was in the beginning with F. So
Speaker 1: if I do another movie that becaus with F will
Speaker 1: probably probably, I don't know.
Speaker 3: You know, a few good men, let's not.
Speaker 1: Few good men? There you go, there you go? Well
Speaker 1: that actually they're they're doing that too. No, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so that.
Speaker 2: Just makes me angry. Just leave well enough alone.
Speaker 3: No, seriously, I have a couple things like Dirty Dancing, obviously, especially.
Speaker 2: In my generation, that is like a classic. You watch it.
Speaker 2: I watched it to death.
Speaker 3: I watched it so many times I could quote most
Speaker 3: lines from that movie. They remade it, right, they did
Speaker 3: a kind of part two Dirty Dancing Havanah Knights or
Speaker 3: something like oh yeah, right right right, no offense who
Speaker 3: everyone was in it. But no, it was not Just
Speaker 3: leave leave them alone. If they ever try to remake Breakfast.
Speaker 2: Club, oh, I will start.
Speaker 3: A petition like, wow, is that one of your favorites?
Speaker 3: That's my my yearbook quote? Was you know that closing
Speaker 3: line of the movie, No, I doubt which of us
Speaker 3: are a princess? A brain? The act of you know
Speaker 3: a criminal and an outcast or.
Speaker 2: Something like that.
Speaker 3: Someone that loves that movie is actually really angry with
Speaker 3: me right now.
Speaker 2: They're like, you don't love that.
Speaker 3: Movie this is the quote, but it shouldn't be remade.
Speaker 3: But I feel like those are the types of movies
Speaker 3: that are yeah, like on the chopping block, someone's going
Speaker 3: to try to remake it.
Speaker 1: M I may yeah, yeah, Yeah. It's a funny thing
Speaker 1: with remakes because I kind of agree with you. There
Speaker 1: is something about let's just leave well enough alone unless
Speaker 1: there's really a really kind of fresh idea. But the
Speaker 1: other piece of it is that in our business, everyone
Speaker 1: wants intellectual property and wants to, you know, revisit intellectual property.
Speaker 1: That being said, you know, I'm in Beverly Hills Cop four,
Speaker 1: and I think that's actually going to be really fun movie.
Speaker 1: I think I think it had Top Gun, you know,
Speaker 1: when they redid Top Gun recently, you know, or I
Speaker 1: mean so anyway, I don't know what the story would
Speaker 1: be for Footloose. It would have to be you know. Actually,
Speaker 1: they actually offered me a part in the second, you know,
Speaker 1: in the remake of Yeah it was terrible. The part was,
Speaker 1: and I was like, why would I be in this playing.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. Like it doesn't. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense here. I'm not I'm not really understanding.
Speaker 1: So anyway, they I said, no, they didn't. They didn't
Speaker 1: miss me. Actually I thought I thought the dancing was
Speaker 1: incredible in that movie. Yet the second one was in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways a lot better than what we did.
Speaker 1: But anyway, thanks for that question.
Speaker 3: And awesome, so we have a the special next question. Actually,
Speaker 3: I received a note from Sharon Sawyer and Sharon was
Speaker 3: writing in about her niece and her niece Kelsey, who
Speaker 3: will hear about it because we have some audio clips
Speaker 3: to play. But in short, Kelsey has had a really
Speaker 3: has gone through some pretty hard circumstances. Right, So she
Speaker 3: lost her brother to cancer when she was a kid
Speaker 3: and he was a kid, and then in her early
Speaker 3: twenties she lost her mother.
Speaker 2: And she was one of.
Speaker 3: These people who basically stared at grief and decided to
Speaker 3: use it to fuel her to create pretty incredible impact
Speaker 3: through starting a nonprofit. And so I read this note
Speaker 3: that we had submitted and I just thought, I.
Speaker 2: Need to call Sharon. I want to talk to her.
Speaker 3: I want to, you know, hear her voice and hear
Speaker 3: her talk about Kelsey and then following up with Kelsey
Speaker 3: as well. So I want to share a clip from
Speaker 3: that conversation with Sharon Sawyer where she really talks about
Speaker 3: her niece, Kelsey's story and what she's done over the
Speaker 3: last few years. So we're going to play that clip now.
Speaker 4: My niece Kelsey took tragedy, you know a lot of
Speaker 4: tragedy in her life and turned it into something really
Speaker 4: really good. Kelsey and her brother went to camp when
Speaker 4: they were children. And when they went to camp, he
Speaker 4: was eleven and she was thirteen, and it was a
Speaker 4: pediatric cancer camp that.
Speaker 6: Is held locally.
Speaker 4: It was what everyone came to say Cole, her brother,
Speaker 4: Cole's best week of his life. And she loved it
Speaker 4: there too because they had siblings of children with cancer
Speaker 4: there as well, and it was just a place you
Speaker 4: could be yourself and you could be around other people
Speaker 4: that had cancer.
Speaker 7: And her mother, Stacy was very, very.
Speaker 4: Involved with this camp after Cole passed away, and Stacey
Speaker 4: became president of the local.
Speaker 7: Foundation that runs his camp and just had a huge
Speaker 7: passion for it.
Speaker 4: Kelsey, as well as my children and a lot of
Speaker 4: people in our family, all worked at.
Speaker 7: This camp retreat, you know, every year when it would come.
Speaker 8: But the biggest need they had was a facility or
Speaker 8: a place that they could hold it that was safe,
Speaker 8: that was like ADH eighty eight approved, close to the
Speaker 8: local hospital. It just there was not a facility or
Speaker 8: a place to do this locally, and so they were
Speaker 8: taking children to the upstate and it was just a
Speaker 8: long distance if someone got happened to get sick, you know,
Speaker 8: the week of the thing. But Kelsey and all my
Speaker 8: Kelsey became just very passionate as every counselor for Camp
Speaker 8: Chemo ends up getting for the children.
Speaker 7: And that's where kind of it, that's kind of.
Speaker 4: What drove her to try to help build this retreat
Speaker 4: center that her mother dreamed of years ago.
Speaker 7: After her mother had passed away.
Speaker 4: You know, when her mother passed away, they immediately, I
Speaker 4: mean it was very suddenly when her mother passed away,
Speaker 4: they immediately started a foundation named after Kelsey and I
Speaker 4: mean named after Cole and Stacy and then with the
Speaker 4: idea that they would possibly donate it to a camp
Speaker 4: or build a camp. And the next thing you knew,
Speaker 4: they were flying with it, and Kelsey and others in
Speaker 4: the community decided to support this idea and build Camp Coal.
Speaker 6: And how much did they end up raising to build
Speaker 6: Camp Coal.
Speaker 7: The initial.
Speaker 4: The initial capital campaign was nine million dollars and they
Speaker 4: achieved that in under two years. When you're starting from
Speaker 4: grassroots and nothing thing, it takes a lot to get
Speaker 4: to that place. And there's a local family that was
Speaker 4: just very instrumental in this.
Speaker 7: They bought the Fawcett family bought.
Speaker 4: The land that was donated to Camp Cole, which is
Speaker 4: forty acres and they donated it to Camp Cole and
Speaker 4: they bought it for this purpose. Their daughter too, was
Speaker 4: a counselor at Camp Chemo and understood what it meant
Speaker 4: for these children to be at camp for a.
Speaker 7: Week, and so you know, it started rolling from there.
Speaker 4: Those were friends of the family and friends at Kelsey
Speaker 4: and her Dad's got new and they believed in the
Speaker 4: dream and helped them a long way to get it
Speaker 4: rolling on.
Speaker 3: You know, Kevin, when you first started six Degrees, did
Speaker 3: you ever think about, like how difficult that fundraising piece is,
Speaker 3: Because like when I hear that nine million dollars, that
Speaker 3: is a ton two days in two years, amazing, It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing. It's that is a that is a
Speaker 1: lot of money. Yeah, and and and it's something that
Speaker 1: I honestly I still you know, I still kind of
Speaker 1: struggle with a little bit. You know, obviously if you
Speaker 1: if you're if you're doing well, you're going to be
Speaker 1: on the other end of people asking for money, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot. And I think that, uh, you know, what
Speaker 1: people do with their money and how much of it
Speaker 1: they give away or or don't. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: very private, very personal kind of decision. I mean I
Speaker 1: think that uh, you know sometimes you know when when
Speaker 1: people I'm sure there's people that like this family, that
Speaker 1: that go out and just say, okay, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: buy this this, you know, forty acres for for these people,
Speaker 1: and they probably do it quietly and aren't really you know,
Speaker 1: looking for a big pad on the back. And that
Speaker 1: there's people that publicly, you know, will donate you'll hear
Speaker 1: about it, you know, donate millions of dollars to something.
Speaker 1: And and I think those are both really really super
Speaker 1: valid ways in order to to uh to you know,
Speaker 1: spend your money or or or donate. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't pass a judgment on either one. Of those things,
Speaker 1: either saying privately or being public about it. But I
Speaker 1: do know that it's it's not in my nature to
Speaker 1: ask people for money. It's just for some reason, it's
Speaker 1: it's not I've always found a little bit uncomfortable. We've
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that, you know, I never really
Speaker 1: wanted to do sort of typical fundraisers, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: rubber chicken dinners and you know, auctions and that whole
Speaker 1: that whole way of you know, working with with charity.
Speaker 1: But it is a it's that's just the way it
Speaker 1: I mean, that's there. There's no way around it. So
Speaker 1: to answer your question, I didn't know how difficult it
Speaker 1: was going to be, and but I did know that
Speaker 1: it was going to be something that I was not
Speaker 1: going to, you know, feel all that you know, comfortable
Speaker 1: with in my situation. Also, there's this other piece of
Speaker 1: it I think if you know too truthfully, which is
Speaker 1: people can look at something like asking for a donation
Speaker 1: and I'll say, well, why don't you just you know,
Speaker 1: why don't you just pay for it? You know? But
Speaker 1: I think this is really this is impressive that in
Speaker 1: that amount of time that they're nowhere, where is this.
Speaker 2: Camp by the way, it's in South Carolina.
Speaker 3: South Carolina m H And yeah, no, it's incredible, And
Speaker 3: she touched on a couple of things in there that
Speaker 3: I think were really powerful, and it actually ties back
Speaker 3: to your point that you just made. I think sometimes
Speaker 3: when there's a celebrity that's like a founder of an organization,
Speaker 3: it can be even more difficult because of that very reason.
Speaker 3: People are like, well, why don't you just like solve
Speaker 3: world hunger yourself?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: But the key that makes I think Kelsey's organization Camp
Speaker 3: Coal and Sharing story so powerful is that all these
Speaker 3: people were touched by the work of Camp Chemo, which
Speaker 3: was this earlier camp that they experienced as kids, and
Speaker 3: they were so touched by it because they saw the
Speaker 3: way it impacted their loved ones and their niece and
Speaker 3: nephew that attended it, and then family members got engaged
Speaker 3: and other community members got engaged. And I think that
Speaker 3: that's the key. It's like, if there was just one
Speaker 3: source of throw money at it, it actually doesn't do
Speaker 3: anything right. You actually need people to be inspired, yeah,
Speaker 3: to have skin in the game and to roll up
Speaker 3: their sleeves and want to stand like shoulder shoulder with
Speaker 3: you on this work right, because it's not just money
Speaker 3: to build something like to operate something like this, which
Speaker 3: they'll get into. It's an immense undertaking and I just
Speaker 3: think it's is so incredible to think that, especially a
Speaker 3: young woman that was, you know, facing that type of heartache,
Speaker 3: was able to turn that into something so inspiring. I
Speaker 3: want to play a little bit more from my conversation
Speaker 3: with Kelsey, because I got a chance to reach out
Speaker 3: to Kelsey, who is a dolt, just as Sharon braved
Speaker 3: about her niece, I'm just so so so kind, and
Speaker 3: she shared a little bit about you know who she
Speaker 3: is and who Camp Cole was named after, and you
Speaker 3: know why she started it. So let's play that clip now.
Speaker 5: My name is Kelsey Sawyer Cole and Camp Cole is
Speaker 5: a camp for children, teams, and adults with illnesses, disabilities.
Speaker 6: And life changes.
Speaker 5: Camp Cole really started and was birthed out of a
Speaker 5: place of pure love, joy and excitement.
Speaker 6: So Camp Quoe really came.
Speaker 5: About because at the age of eleven and I was
Speaker 5: thirteen at the time, I had a younger brother who
Speaker 5: was diagnosed with a really rare form of cancer, rapdomyasar coma,
Speaker 5: and so with that diagnosis, we really saw our normalcy
Speaker 5: in our daily lives kind of be flipped upside down.
Speaker 6: And so for.
Speaker 5: Us, you know, days were packed in the hospital. Cool
Speaker 5: had multiple shots in the evening times. It was pretty
Speaker 5: ill the bit I watched his entire kind of physical
Speaker 5: physical stature shift and change, and so it was just
Speaker 5: really difficult for my family and I to kind of
Speaker 5: navigate this new sense of life in the way that
Speaker 5: it looked. Fortunately for us, we were introduced to a
Speaker 5: camp program that provides the camp experience for children who
Speaker 5: have cancer in their siblings, and so that's really where
Speaker 5: Cole and I were able to be with other people
Speaker 5: who understood what it was like to be walking in
Speaker 5: the shoes that we were walking in. For Cole to
Speaker 5: be able to open up the doors and see other
Speaker 5: kids with bald heads and other kids with ports, and
Speaker 5: to have discussions over chemotherapy, treatment and oral medication, and
Speaker 5: to talk about the realities in a safe space. For us,
Speaker 5: it was just something I'll never forget. And then selfishly
Speaker 5: for me to be around other siblings who knew what
Speaker 5: it was like for mom and Dad not to be
Speaker 5: able to make soccer practice or not be there to
Speaker 5: pick you up after school. It was just this community
Speaker 5: that could feel all the way that we felt a
Speaker 5: lot of times, we found this an intense sense of
Speaker 5: empathy at a time where our community was so incredible
Speaker 5: to us, but they showed us so much sympathy, and
Speaker 5: so for us, it just was it was a It
Speaker 5: created these memories, It created these experiences at a time
Speaker 5: where I felt like cancer took so much from us.
Speaker 6: It took my family away.
Speaker 5: From me, it took Cole being able to participate in
Speaker 5: soccer and skateboarding and swimming and surfing. But camp, for us,
Speaker 5: it gave us something. It gave us friendships, it gave
Speaker 5: us so much more. And so we came back after
Speaker 5: that week long overnight camp and would not be quiet.
Speaker 6: So Cole and I talked about it NonStop.
Speaker 5: And that's really where my family saw the benefit that
Speaker 5: camp can make in a child's life.
Speaker 6: So my whole family got really involved.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, about four months after that camp experience, Cole passed away.
Speaker 5: But for us, once again, we were surrounded by this community,
Speaker 5: this group, this family who knew what it was like
Speaker 5: to be walking in the shoes that we were walking in.
Speaker 5: And so that for us, maybe just an incredible impact
Speaker 5: in our lives. Those counselors, those other campers are still
Speaker 5: my best friends are still We're still in my wedding,
Speaker 5: We're there through my child's first birthday. So it's just
Speaker 5: been incredible to see the way that lifelong friendships can
Speaker 5: really be birthed out of some pretty intense obstacles that
Speaker 5: we have.
Speaker 6: To go overcome.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is some some story. What a uh I
Speaker 1: mean talk about taking something so painful and so difficult
Speaker 1: to even bear and you know, turning it into something
Speaker 1: uh just kind of beautiful. And you know the thing
Speaker 1: that I'm struck with. And when we talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot with six degrees dot orger these kind of
Speaker 1: grassroots movements because and I'm not I'm not you know,
Speaker 1: saying this is not also this this would also be
Speaker 1: something great to do. But you could also find have found,
Speaker 1: you know, an organization pediatric cancer research or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and started to do you know, fundraising in your own community.
Speaker 1: But in this case, you know, she took something that
Speaker 1: was so important, so experiential to her and really really
Speaker 1: personal and built something that is really really super personal,
Speaker 1: you know, to her, And that's what was really kind
Speaker 1: of so impressive about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that a lot of what she talked
Speaker 3: about was connection, which we often talk about at six
Speaker 3: degrees as well, and that need that we all have
Speaker 3: for human connection. Yeah, and I think that when you're
Speaker 3: in that like kind of coming of age time period
Speaker 3: of your life, especially like eleven, twelve, thirteen years old,
Speaker 3: a week it can't can feel like one of the
Speaker 3: most life changing things that you've experienced to date.
Speaker 2: Right, you're away from.
Speaker 3: Your parents, you have some autonomy, you're with your peers,
Speaker 3: you are learning to kind of navigate in the world
Speaker 3: without that adult in your life being there telling you, you.
Speaker 1: Know nature, Yeah, sometimes it's your first yeah, disposure to nature.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, So yeah, a lot of friendships are
Speaker 3: formed that way because they're experiencing that together. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think what they're doing is incredible. The other thing
Speaker 3: that this camp does really well is how they structure
Speaker 3: their camps so that kids that have similar lived experience
Speaker 3: or similar disabilities are actually at camp at the same time,
Speaker 3: so that they're around more children that they have like
Speaker 3: this very unique experience with right, creating just more belonging.
Speaker 5: Camp Cole is actually located in Columbia, South Carolina. In
Speaker 5: so we love our location. It's able to serve thousands
Speaker 5: of children that really range from a very wide variety
Speaker 5: of different critical illnesses and disabilities. So we get the opportunity,
Speaker 5: and I say, we have the privilege to serve campers
Speaker 5: who have real genetic disorders, part and kidney disease, children
Speaker 5: experiencing homelessness, children who've experienced severe burns.
Speaker 6: So it is.
Speaker 5: Very incredible to be able to see the diversity that
Speaker 5: we have the opportunity to give those those transformative experiences
Speaker 5: that spark the joy year at camp. And so we
Speaker 5: really at the nucleus of Camp Coal were really focused
Speaker 5: on providing an experience that otherwise would not exist for
Speaker 5: these populations. And so for us being able to give
Speaker 5: a child with a very severe critical illness an opportunity
Speaker 5: to catch a fish, or to play basketball, or to
Speaker 5: get on the back of a horse to hold a chicken,
Speaker 5: these are all little things that I feel like so much.
Speaker 5: So we are so blessed with a good, clean health,
Speaker 5: and so when.
Speaker 6: Something like this.
Speaker 5: Happens in your family or to a loved one, you're
Speaker 5: really challenged to think about wait a minute, you know,
Speaker 5: health is such so important to us and being healthy
Speaker 5: and living healthy, active lifestyles. And so for us, Cole
Speaker 5: was very active, loved being outdoors, loved team building activity,
Speaker 5: and loved his peers and being social and that was
Speaker 5: something that with the critical illness all his things, for us,
Speaker 5: it became a lot harder.
Speaker 6: And so I really think back to.
Speaker 5: Being at a young age, at the age of thirteen
Speaker 5: and when Cole was eleven, just really seeing the little
Speaker 5: things in life that we take for granted and how
Speaker 5: do you remember, and showed a great gratitude and appreciation
Speaker 5: for them.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. I mean, it's interesting because again this is
Speaker 1: this isn't an example of someone that is taking something
Speaker 1: super personal, like a super personal experience, and even taking
Speaker 1: the details of that experience and shaping the the you know,
Speaker 1: the foundation, the movement, the idea around those those very
Speaker 1: very specific personal ideas. And you know, it is true that,
Speaker 1: I mean, camp experience is not everybody get as the
Speaker 1: luxury of having them, but can be you know, very profound,
Speaker 1: even as you pointed out Stacey in a week and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that there's also a lot of great impact
Speaker 1: for the families surrounding the people that are the kids
Speaker 1: that are going and you know, not just the not
Speaker 1: just the kids, but the families that get a chance
Speaker 1: to witness that or experienced that, or be able to
Speaker 1: offer some kind of i don't know, respite from what
Speaker 1: must be a really very challenging and difficult time.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: It had me reflecting a lot in my conversation with
Speaker 3: Kelsey about what we take for granted all the time
Speaker 3: when you have a kind of quote unquote clean bill
Speaker 3: of health. And you know, I've talked about this a
Speaker 3: little bit before, but my mom was legally blind and
Speaker 3: she was in a car accident when I was eight,
Speaker 3: and so it was, you know, just kind of a
Speaker 3: cute accident. Then when she came out of the hospital,
Speaker 3: you know, she everything changed about you know, she couldn't
Speaker 3: you know, be a nurse anymore. And she wasn't able
Speaker 3: just to jump in a car and drive to the
Speaker 3: beach if she wanted to drive in the beach. I
Speaker 3: mean little things like you know, being able to catch
Speaker 3: something on your periphery right and being.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, there's a there's a dolphin over there, did
Speaker 2: you see that? Just jump?
Speaker 3: It's like, there's no way she was ever going to
Speaker 3: see things like that again. And I think when although
Speaker 3: she wasn't a sibling, as a daughter, it had a
Speaker 3: similar impact when you are growing up having to be
Speaker 3: more aware of this person and create more space for
Speaker 3: them and their needs. And it can be it can
Speaker 3: be a lot, but it also can really help shape
Speaker 3: you and make you passionate about you know, equal access
Speaker 3: and accessibility and inclusion for those that are disabled and
Speaker 3: are you know, do have ailments that we don't talk
Speaker 3: about a lot in society, and so yeah, it's it's
Speaker 3: just it sounds like a really beautiful space, camp Coal,
Speaker 3: and I can only imagine that these kids are and
Speaker 3: their siblings are having some of the best times of
Speaker 3: their lives.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, that's I'm so glad you reached out
Speaker 1: to them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was let's tell you, it was a hard call.
Speaker 3: I was like, I could not do this all the time.
Speaker 3: It was very emotional, right, and I think, well.
Speaker 1: Kids of your own, no, I mean, you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's when this kind of thing really starts to
Speaker 1: really starts to hit you.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely. And I've had friends that have lost their
Speaker 3: their children as well from pediatric cancer, and so yeah,
Speaker 3: I think about Abigail and Eloise and I think about
Speaker 3: what you would do as a parent. But such an
Speaker 3: inspiring story, and we're going to make sure that people
Speaker 3: know exactly where they can learn and help Camp Coal
Speaker 3: and Kelsey's work further with a great call to action.
Speaker 5: Our call to action for Camp Coal would be for
Speaker 5: people to get involved be a part of our team.
Speaker 5: Follow us on social media. Camp Coal at Camp Cole,
Speaker 5: South Carolina. Our website is campcol dot org. It is
Speaker 5: not inexpensive to send these campers to camp. While they're
Speaker 5: out here, we don't get to just say, wait a minute,
Speaker 5: let's stop treatment for a week. Let's stop your medical
Speaker 5: treatment plan for a week.
Speaker 6: We have to do We rock on.
Speaker 5: Even at camp, so we're really quickly administering the medication
Speaker 5: and getting them back out to having fun. And so
Speaker 5: that cost is something that prohibits some of our campers
Speaker 5: to have this experience. So financial donations means such a
Speaker 5: great deal to us. We're big on Amazon wish List
Speaker 5: and getting those you know, the band aids, the bug spray,
Speaker 5: all the fun different sports falls out here to Camp Goal.
Speaker 5: So those are all different ways that you can really
Speaker 5: help and be a part.
Speaker 6: Of our team.
Speaker 1: Stacy like I said, I'm so happy that you reach
Speaker 1: out to Kelsey and shared, and Kelsey and shared. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on and sharing your story
Speaker 1: and telling us about the camp. Uh, it's it's it's incredible.
Speaker 1: What's what what you guys are doing there and you
Speaker 1: should be very proud of this work. And as everybody heard, uh,
Speaker 1: those are there's ways that you could help. There's ways
Speaker 1: that you can reach out and things that you can do.
Speaker 1: I can tell you. Let me just tell you a
Speaker 1: funny camp story. Well you can decide if it's funny
Speaker 1: or not. When I was in camp what it has
Speaker 1: to do with things of a charitable nature. When I
Speaker 1: was in camp, every year at this camp, they would
Speaker 1: do this thing called the fund and campers would either
Speaker 1: pick blueberries or strawberries. It was kind of like a
Speaker 1: work camp, and or they would forego a meal. They
Speaker 1: would do different things that would raise money for a
Speaker 1: specific fund that the money that these campers, either from
Speaker 1: giving up or from working, we're going to donate each year.
Speaker 1: And then campers would pick a particular fund and do
Speaker 1: a little research on it to the extent that you
Speaker 1: could I don't even know how you could research something
Speaker 1: where we were out. There was no computers. Obviously, this
Speaker 1: we're talking about the I don't know, probably late sixties
Speaker 1: or seventies, and and and then they would make a
Speaker 1: presentation for this fund to the camp body and everybody
Speaker 1: in the camp would vote, and then the winner of
Speaker 1: that vote would get the money that the campers raised
Speaker 1: that year. So the year that I was there, and
Speaker 1: let me just say generally, it was you know, Save
Speaker 1: the Whales, Save in the Redwoods Unise, you know, charities
Speaker 1: like that. I decided that we should raise money for
Speaker 1: the Black Panthers, and so I I stood up in
Speaker 1: front of the camp body because at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: the Panthers were doing you know, they had this breakfast
Speaker 1: program that was you know, very popular. They were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of you know stuff. And I stood up
Speaker 1: in front of the camp body and then, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, okay, folks, this is this is why I
Speaker 1: think that the money should go to the Black Panthers.
Speaker 1: And we won the vot vote. But here's the hilarious thing,
Speaker 1: and this taught me a lot about the world. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the people that ran the camp just
Speaker 1: freaked out. They were like, we can't give the money
Speaker 1: to the Black Bess. I said, you have to. We
Speaker 1: won the vote, and it went back and forth, and
Speaker 1: this this big argument. They had no problem with me
Speaker 1: presenting it, but once it actually won, all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this can't happen.
Speaker 1: And so the compromise, which I was very unhappy with.
Speaker 1: But you know what was I going to do I
Speaker 1: was eleven years old, was that the money would be
Speaker 1: divided between for the four charities that were presented. So
Speaker 1: in the summer of whatever this was in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: one or this is in nineteen seventy there was probably
Speaker 1: a check for about twelve dollars and thirty five cents
Speaker 1: that presumably came from Camp Tree Tops to the Black Panthers.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go. That's that's my camp story and listen.
Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for checking this out. See you next time.
Speaker 1: Hey send us some questions and we will hopefully respond
Speaker 1: to ask Kevin almost anything. Thanks, thanks, thanks.
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