Seven six seven hundred WLWRL Carrier Sports Talk brings you going to buy Kelsey Chevrolet Amliance Macuntleister eighty. Thanks for making your way here tonight and hanging out. We'll do it for three hours tomorrow night. Can't wait for that six to nine o'clock. We'll do it off the beaten path topic. We'll recap the day that was at Paycoorps with Duke Toba. It's so much more. But let's get to our next guest. It's been way too long since we talked with him. And a little backstory here, little
background Joe Nux. We love talking about the Joe Nucks America Lake Fields and the old left hander had a vision for building a Hope Center. Imagine, if you will, thirty one thousand square foot indoor facility with recreational experiences in a variety of different sports. Well, also imagine a dream like that cost a lot of money, like twelve
million dollars. Well, that dream has taken a gigantic and I mean gigantic step forward, and what a way to ring in twenty twenty six with this news, Let's go straight to the source. He's the executive directory, He's the the show, he would be Tyler Bradshaw.
How are you, Lance, I'm good. I'm actually calling to hire you as my agent and we're gonna go get one of these lame kiffing deals where I can, I can, I can leave and I can just get a bunch of money in that something. It really is, It really is.
I don't understand any of it, but a world, a world I do understand. There's just incredible news that has developed on the front of the Nuxhall Miracle League Fields. Let me start with this, explain to listeners what Walt Lunsford and Mahttan Foundation initially put up and what the response was to it.
Yeah. So actually, gosh, it's hard to believe that it's already been over over two months since we got to honor you Lance as our our Joe Nuxsall Humanitarian Award winner and our annual Miracle Ball, which was such a special night. Now I wanted to make sure Lance that we we thanked you again for letting us honor you.
It was so special to have Kasey and Peyton there to speak on your behalf, so many other people who came out just to love on you and thank you for everything you do for our cause for so many nonprofits throughout Cincinnati, and we knew it was going to be a special night because of that, But then we got to add an additional layer of excitement. Walt lunch Heard and the Hatton Foundation have just been incredible supporters
of ours since since before day one. They were actually the folks who when we when we wanted to build a miracle League Fields Vacuum twenty eleven, they offered a half million dollar matching grant that that was the biggest gift in our history up until the night of the Miracle Ball, because Walt Lunchford took the stage and announced that the Hatton Foundation was going to be offering a one million dollar matching grant to help us build the
Hope Center. So that was our first seven figure gift, first million million dollar gift in the history of the Nuxhall Foundation. There was there was a little asterisk though on there when we got the offer. Not not a bad one by any means, but it kind of you know, you look at your calendar and you're like, Okay, we got to do this quick. Because the goal that the Hatton Foundation laid down, they said we would like for you all to meet this this grant, this matching gift.
We'd like you to do it by December thirty first, which nobody was counting, but if they were, that was sixty eight days. So we had sixty eight days to go out and raise a million dollars towards this project. Met with lots of people, talked with lots of people, had lots of great conversations, and boy lance, it is hard. Here we go. We're starting off. I made it eight days into twenty twenty six, and I'm crying on air
with you. Our donors stepped up and donated. They set a million's not enough, they said, let's go a quarter more. In two months, we raised one point two five million dollars to meet and surpass that matching grant. Took the total of our campaign to six point six million dollars raised, which is just saying it out loud. It still doesn't feel real that we've been able to make that kind of progress. You know, I shared on stage at the
Miracle Ball. If you were have talked to us. Back in September, our campaign was sitting at about three point two million dollars raised. To go from three point two million dollars raised in September to end the year at six point six million. It's an incredible feeling. And I know that we've got a lot of our supporters and a lot of our donors out there listening because they love you and they listen to your show. And on behalf of myself, the Knuxall family, the Hatton Foundation, everybody
involved in this. We just have to say thank you, thank you, thank you for showing us how much you believe in this dream, how much you love Joe, how much you want to see this facility built. It's an incredible feeling.
I am uh, I have I have chills, I have goosebumps, and look, I'm a I'm a I'm a spec in the big picture of all of this, but that night was was life changing for me and for my family. I'm still recalling moments that I didn't realize were actually happening in real time. I'm realizing they were happening now, which is incredible. What Larry Tischler told me, he said, so call this in because you're not going to realize everything that happened, and he was exactly right. But I
what you just laid out, and if you're crying. That means Kim is crying, and that means I'm about to cry hearing all this.
Yeah, but if I'm if, I'm if I'm crying Kims and crying for two or three days exactly.
But to do this, and you allude to this in the release, this isn't one person or two or a handful. This is the power of community getting something done. Yeah, I mean hundreds, hundreds of donations that came in. I mean, lance, I I'm not the fastest guy responding to emails, but I am still.
Answering emails from people who donated back in back in December, and and I think the amazing thing was was first time donors. I have to share a couple stories. One in particular, we had a gentleman and his family, Dave Welsh, who stopped out at the fields. He'd never been there, He'd always wanted to come out, he always wanted to stop by, wanted to check the place out. And Kim, you know, you just talked about the stars aligning. Kim
happened to be there. It was probably about thirty minutes before he was headed to grab lunch at Skyline on Hicks Boulevard, and he talked with Dave for a while.
I met with him a few days later, and a few days after Thanksgiving, Dave reached out and said, our family is just so touched by this, this dream and what you guys are doing, and we would like to donate a half million dollars to name the court in the arena so that that court, which is going to host special Olympics basketball games and special needs proms and theater performances and all kinds of things, that'll be the Welsh Family Court at the Hope Center. And we're so
thankful to them for doing that. My other favorite was, like, I want to say this was probably the thirtieth of December. I get a call number I don't recognize. I answered, that's a guy. He said, Hey, I actually I'm on my way to Kim Knoxall's house. I got a check I want to drop off for fifty thousand dollars. And it was just like, you know, just jaw dropping to see people respond to this message to the local news organizations, and you all helped us get the story out to
brand new people. I would venture to say I haven't run the numbers, but I would venture to say fifty to sixty percent of the people who donated to help us get to that one point two to five million raised. We're brand new, first time donors. That's an incredible thing. It's really amazing to see the response from all of
Cincinnati to want to make this happen. But whether it was a five dollars donation or whether it was a half million dollar donation, they all added up to do something absolutely remarkable.
And Tyler, in and around all that, I just flashed to a memory that has forever burned in my head and in Kelly's head, back to that the evening of hope that you had and yeah, and seeing one of the young boys who's part of the Nuts on America League family.
Danger, I know, I know what story takes his piggy bank and he sets it down on the stage and he puts on goggles and he takes a bat and he bashes down on it, and all the money that comes out he donated that night for an evening of a hope.
And that the hair is standing up on my arms as I say that right now.
Yep, yep, for sixty three cents, and we've still got the the glass yards from the piggy bank and I can tell you we're we're gonna display those in the Hope Center someday because it's that kind of giving, you know. And Lance, I mean Sam, Sam uses a walker. Sam has had some some he was diagnosed with dwarf Ism
after he was born. And to see the smile on Sam's face every Saturday when he comes out there, to see him talk about what this building would mean for him, not just next year, the following year, but for the entirety of his life, that he'll have a place where he can go that will meet his needs, that will be there to serve his family, It's unbelievable. And I
mean you you know. That night at the Evening for Hope, that was another incredible reason that we were able to make such a big jump here over the past few months. Are Our board members Ron Ready and Chad Kiddell put on an incredible event and we were very transparent with people. We were asking people to come out and make three year pledges to support this project, and we had a couple hundred people there in attendance with us that night.
Our family shared their stories, including Sam and his family, and we had our supporters pledge about eight hundred and ninety thousand, and that's separate from the one point two to five million that I'm talking about that was raised through the Hatton Foundation MAT grant, and every donation more than the more than the money that ends up in
the total line lance. It's it's a vote of confidence from people who say, yes, we need this, Yes this is something that will benefit our family, that will benefit our community. That's what every time I see these donations, that's what I think is that it's not just somebody giving their money, although that's a that's a you know, that's a really worthy thing to do. They're giving us their support and they are giving us their validation that
a project like this matters. And that encouragement coupled with a dream from the old left hander himself. I don't know, I don't know what more you need to want to work for this every single day.
Tyler will will in fact, will shovels go on the ground in twenty twenty six, and if so, tell listeners where where exactly the location is and where the shovels will go.
Yeah. The only way I'm gonna be able to prevent Larry Tishler from putting a shovel in the ground is if I find a straight jacket and Larry might have his shovel right now driving out to the field. So the beautiful part about this is the building is going Let me answer right out of the gate real quick though, Yes, shovels are going in the ground in twenty twenty six. Based on these sundraising totals of what we're seeing, we are going to be able to break ground in twenty
twenty six. Obviously, we still got a long way to go. We still need to raise around five and a half million dollars left, so that's we need to get to ten million to completely build the building and then another two million for a maintenance and operations endowments. But we are planning to break ground this year. The building itself the beautiful part about it. It will be positioned adjacent to the Miracle League Fields where they are right now.
So if you are standing in the parking lot at the Miracle League Fields to your left hand side, the building will basically be right there. Sot'll share a parking lot with our currently existing facility. And the reason I say that's a beautiful thing is because for our families,
predictability is so important to them. If we can give them a predictable routine that they can follow, whether they're coming to play a baseball game, whether they're coming to play mini golf, coming to hear a nutrition class, coming to play basketball, whatever it is, If we can give them a place that they're comfortable, that they're familiar with, that takes a little bit of that that work out of the equation of raising a child or an adult
with with physical or developmental disabilities, it makes all the difference. So so with the addition of this building, we will create, you know, what we think is the world's most comprehensive, inclusive recreational campus for athletes with special needs. Because whether it's indoor, outdoor, summer, winter, it'll all be right there on that one plot of land. It's going to be really cool to see it all kind of build out there and complement one another. And the best part about it,
no more rain delays for us. If you know, if it does rain during a baseball game, will just be to shift everything indoors.
All right before I run out of time, and to keep the momentum going. For those listening who say, wait a minute, I want to be a part of that. How do they go about doing that?
Yeah, just jump on our website Nutsawmiracle League dot org slash Hope. If you go on our website, there's opportunities to give there. You can watch an incredible virtual fly through a video of the building narrated by our friend, the Hall of Famer Marty Brenhaman. I've watched that video about seven and forty eight times and it never gets old, and especially hearing hearing Marty talk about what that dream meant to Joe. So check out the video. You can
give online. You can also reach out to us at the Nutsall Foundation. We're happy to discuss giving plans, happy to discuss giving opportunities, naming rights, corporate sponsorships, whatever it may be. But you know, Lance, as you saw that night at the Evening for Hope, what this will mean to our families, you know, many of which you just
deal with challenge after challenge every single day. We can take some of those roadblocks out of the out of the way for them and give them opportunities to do things that unfortunately they've been told their child or their loved ones never going to have an opportunity to do. Uh, That's what it's all about and that's what this building will do. It will create that hope that they deserve.
You know, we love you guys, pass along our best to everybody, and we hope to see you soon.
Yeah. And Lance, you joked at the Miracle Ball that we all thought you were going to pass out. I didn't show you the stretcher we had underneath the state just in case that happened. We had some some salts and cool pals things like that. But you're you did an incredible job. And Lance, I'll say you your your speech still sharing Casey's story. That meant so much to me as a father, It meant so much to our
families who who deal with struggles. We're going to be sharing your speech out on on social media and things here in the coming days because it was really really a powerful testimony and just a reinforce Smith that we we picked the right guy when we honored you. You were you were incredible that night, as you are every night, and we're just thankful for your friendship.
Well right back at you, and uh we we are so blessed and uh, I was so good catching up with you, and let's uh let's talk soon, all right.
Yep, hope to hope to call you in a few weeks and say we got another couple million, my friend, let's do it. Thanks Tyler, all right, Thanks Lann.