All right, all right. Feeney talks with friends. Episode 120. I have a wonderful guest here. Tracy, how are you doing? Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Thank you for having me. Tracy Carter, the executive director of camp. Inc.. Acres camp executive director Tracy Carter, so happy that you're here. Don't forget to check out 119. We did a hot wings challenge for breast cancer awareness. Very hot, hot wings. Yeah. The bomb. Like sweating. Yeah, yeah, you could do that. Yeah, I can't do it.
But we'll get some right now. Now we can skip that. But my name is Eric Feeney, founder and president of Friends of Feeney. Our mission is to help children and families that need assistance after heartbreak or tragedy. And I use this podcast. Feeney talks with friends, and I talk to wonderful people that are doing great things in the community, and we're going to get into all the wonderful things that Tracy does in the community. He has a great story. And you're doing great things.
So thank you for being here. Thank you. Family is truly a blessing to be here with you guys. And I know you had 11 points, nine rebounds against Baylor in round one of the NCAA tournament. Yeah. But today I had three touchdowns. O killer ball versus the Raiders killing them. Compare more I can't take it easy on. I know you're the American all these championship team American east all conference second team American east all defensive team. Yet 60 steals you average like two steals a game.
All for coach Gallagher. How was the University of Hartford hoop game? You know it was a it was a great time to be there. You know I was there you know through you know the right before Covid started and then to 2022, 2021, 2022 and, you know, it was just such a great time to be there with great people. You know, I was in I was at a time in my life where, you know, I needed a change, you know, and my scenery and my environment. You know, I needed inspiration, and, you know, you heart.
And John Gallagher gave that to me. Yeah, it was just, you know, it was a fun period in general, you know what I mean? Just to be, you know, a kid and, you know, focus on basketball and. You know, I know you're A61 guard from Philly. Yes, sir. How was that? How's that? How does that help translate to your game? Well, you know, they say, Philly guards have, like, it's Philly toughness. I think I'm body that for sure.
You know, just the environment I grew up, you know, I use that to feel, my game and, you know, it was is really a blessing coming from, you know, so many being from a place where so many legends that come. I came out of it, you know what I mean? Donny? Cars, Colby's, you know, guys that, you know, even, like, you know, Allen Iverson, he from there. But, you know, he embodied Philly toughness. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, I was a is a hero. Yeah. You know, and I was.
Yeah, he's definitely my favorite player growing up him and Isaiah Thomas. Oh nice. Yeah. And then Gallagher was supposed to be a guest. So if Gallagher if you end up watching this, I'm still waiting for you to come on. He had one time. He canceled his kid's little league game was rescheduled. And you just never really followed up. Yeah, yeah, we're going to make sure we get him on. Yes, we got to go down in New York. Deal? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go to a game and then get him after.
Okay. Where is he now? Manhattan, man. Yeah, yeah. They doing well this year. Doing pretty well. We're still. In contact. Yeah. Yeah we talk talk a lot about my guy. Friends and Feeney. Our mission is to help. Our motto, be a good friend. So hold the door, pick up trash, give a compliment, be charitable. What makes. I know John Gallagher was your coach, but what makes him a good friend? He's supportive, you know. You do anything for his friends. He's obviously very intelligent individual.
He's, you know, he's caring, he's compassionate. You know, it's probably two of his best qualities. Yeah. Yeah. And he's, you know, like, he shows you he really cares about you as an individual. And what do you need in order for you to succeed? And that's not just. You know what I mean? It's not just me being a, like, you know, one of his players that was as a friend, I see that he does that for friends, family, you know what I mean? So he's he's just a great individual.
And I learned so much from him. In my short amount of time spent and with him, you know, every day, consecutive days together. Yeah. You know. You played for him. Did you end up coaching with him too? No. Join the staff as a coach? No, no. The only coaching I did with him was coaching Little leagues, Little League baseball with him coaching his son. Nice. And now you are the executive director of the anchor camp? Yep. Which is in upstate. Is it upstate New York or state? New York? Yup.
Founder and executive director of Anchors Camp. Yep. It's in Madison, New York. Yes, sir. So what happened in your childhood or what happened in your path that led you to becoming the executive director of Anchors Camp? Excuse me? Well, I always knew I wanted to help and just, You know, I know how, my my, my ways of helping was very narrow. And then, my little brother passed due to, being killed. You know, it's the difference between, you know, you know, dying and being killed, right?
And, my little brother had an engineering mind where he could take anything apart and put it back together. And, fortunately, didn't get to live out his talents in a, you know, greater, humane way. And he passed short, you know, short lived life at 21, 21 years old, again due to gun violence and, you know, the you can go to every corner and find sports team, a basketball team or soccer team or football team every corner and find some kind of sports team.
But what you can't find is, some type of academic team. What is engineering? Right, right. There's architecture. Right? You, you know. There's very hard to find places to develop talent like that, especially in a community that I live in. It's almost like it's nonexistent. So I wanted to create something for kids who could do that, who had a talent that you necessarily couldn't see through sports.
And I wanted to find ways that we can hone that, because there are a lot of kids who, you know, are much more privy to being, you know, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk versus a LeBron and Kobe Bryant. And I wanted to, you know, create something that could lend help in that area.
So when he passed, my, John Gallagher again told me to come down to his beach house for a couple of days before the funeral and every morning we would get up at like 5 a.m. and go for walks on the beach, and we'd just talk to a bunch of different things. So what is a couple friends of, you know, gals and we would talk and we would talk about what what was needed in the community, what was lacking.
And we stumbled upon a conversation of what was needed and what was lacking and what I thought, and, you know, my business partner Jim knew from, who was the chair of Anchors camp, you know, said he had a form. And I said, well, I always wanted one of the things I said that was needed was change of environment. And, he was like, oh, I got a farm, sits on 200 acres, and I always wanted to do something with it and give back. Maybe this is something we do.
So he challenged, he challenged me and said, you know, bring five kids up or we he said, let's continue the conversation. I came back down a week later, met him at his beach house right next to girls. And, we went over what was needed a plan, put together a plan, a schedule, and, he said, bring five kids up and, I said, all right, I don't know if he thought I was, you know, serious or not. So I brung eight and I showed up. He was like, what is going on? Well, I don't know if we can fit this.
Any kids in house. And, and, you know, from near anchors camp was born, you know, after we got done with that week, we went from Sunday midday to, Friday early morning and we like we got something here, see if we can continue this. So we went back and did all the work to get, you know, the father, once he started on an anchor camp, was built in. It's an eight. That's amazing story. Where did you think of the name Anchors Camp?
You know, the anchors camp came from, one of my good friends back home, and, You know how an anchor holds a boat down and keeps it from floating away? All right, all right. You know, we want kids to be an anchor for themselves, and then you can be anchor for anyone else. You know what I mean? Like, I'm sure you're the anchor for your family. Yep. Right. You hold your family down like I used to be. Like you hold their family down. I know you anchors camp offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes.
Horseback riding. What are some other things? Yeah. I mean, can I join? We'll see. Of course. 45 year old Willis. And we love to have you. We love to have you. I don't know if you will be winning the football games up there. We, so we offer, you know, a whole host of things, honestly, we offer, you know, breakfast, lunch and dinner, horseback riding, therapy, group therapy sessions, ATV writing, financial literacy classes. This past year, we did aquaponics. Wow.
Hiking, you know, and just a whole host of other things. Fishing. Right. So we offer, you know, to a whole host of things where, you know, we want kids to be able to. And that's, you know, not I didn't speak about what our core was, which is plumbing, electrical, carpentry. All introductions to, you know, for trades, for quarter plumbing, electric carpentry and auto mechanics. Oh, so they leave with the skill of or the. Some some type of knowledge, some beginner knowledge of four trades. Right.
And you know, what we hope to do is build confidence by learning things. You know, it's a special kind of confidence comes when you learn and when you begin to learn things. You know, that's that's what you know, what tends to happen in my community is we die well before we're put in a the grave. Well, it's unfortunate, but, you know, that's what happens. So yeah, you're giving them exposure that they want to get right. Right. That's amazing stuff. No, I'm honored to, learn more about this.
Anchors camp and it's anchors camp.org to learn more. And you're looking for donations. You're looking for campers and counselors. Yep, yep. Donations, camp and counselors, in-kind donations. You know. It's in Madison, New York. And they offer ATVs, horseback. Do you get on horses? Yeah. Yeah, yeah you do. Yeah. I'm I'm like a pro at it now. Really? Yeah. I could go play polo now. A nice. Nice fishing and hiking I could get. Yeah. And then the.
Carpentry, auto, plumbing, painting and electrician. Yes. Amazing. Yeah. That's a skill. Lifelong skill. Or, you know, that's a it's a dying trade to, like, everyone says, hey, go to college, go to college. But the trades are, you know, just recently, my toilet clogged problem, you know, that's $80 an hour to some guy for a guy to come check my toilet just to look at it. Right? Right. So I thought it was very expensive. Yeah. You know, you they're always working. He got there.
He was on the phone. He was like, oh, I got to go to another call. When he was leaving, he got another call. So he's like, there's. It's always work. There's always work. Oh there's always a toilet clogged. Or there's. Always paint that needed or something to be fixed. And you know, you know, especially with the especially with the, lack of houses, you know, there is and there's a shortage of, people in the trades as well. There's a shortage on trades, right now.
You know, so we're doing a few things where, you know, help improve a lot, but we also add into the economy and, you know, building, you know, well, or you citizens. Yeah. And, and into the working economy. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, we have some sponsors here. Our newest one, float 41. You ever float? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was that the, is that the, in the salt water? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the egg. Where is it? They do like an egg. Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Thank you. Direct Line Media. Stefania and Dave people's Bank right down the street. Golf law group love it. Keating agency insurance. Parkville market hosted our wing fest. We're here at Luna pizza at 999 Farmington Avenue. Yes sir. The fix is right across the street. You ever get a fix? I ain't never been there yet. They love it, though. Some people I know when we. Have roasting and brewing and West Hartford lock. So West Hartford lock. Thank you Eric and Yuri with West SA for lock.
What are three keys that make you great at it? Being the executive director of Anchors Camp, what are three keys? They need it to be the executive director. You know, number one is discipline. You know, it takes discipline to get up every day and, you know, find new ways to raise money, which is you know, you know, like, I know it's very. Yup. So whoever's listening, you know, go to anchor's camp, donate, go to Friends of Feeney, donate.
You know, I think, You know, I think you have to have the you have to be consistent. Disciplined, consistent consistency. The thing that I find to ring true across all successful people is your persistence. Yeah. And their consistency. And then you just got to be willing to to continue to learn, and you got to be willing to adjust. And I think there were those three things those get you they, those give me the keys to be able to run, you know, anchors camp, you know, it's a great keys.
I always say I'm a lifelong learner. You learn something new every day. Right? Right, right, right, right. And, you know, last one I would honestly say on those three, but this is for is, you know, the ability. To continue to take a step back and see where you at, where you want to go. Yep. You know. Yeah. Discipline to keep moving forward. Consistency and, take a step back and have vision. Right. The vision piece. All right.
Those are three keys sponsored by West Hartford Lock being the executive director here with Tracy Carter. Another game. So anchors camp has been around since 2020. Right. So you're going into your fourth. Is it only a summer camp or is it a year long camp. Only a summer camp at the moment. Gotcha. Yeah. How many weeks? I need two weeks. Very each, summer. But we've been improving. We've been a proven on weeks.
Gotcha. Summer. But it runs from, you know, Sunday, mid day where we pick the kids up, drive them up to Madison, New York. We got some kids that come from Connecticut as well. Nice. And they get we get there probably about, 3 p.m. mid day. We start off with, you know, kids get introductions. They got to go. You know, figure out where room they stand. And then we come down and we do a introductory, where, you know, we switch it up.
So many, you know, every year we know, for example, one year we were kids came and got haircuts and they had to tell us, you know, what did they want? Who made them be here, where they forced to be here, or did they want to come back? No. So, and then, you know, for dinner, we start off with, you know, we have a rooftop deck on top of the hill. Oh, nice. And, we do a barbecue cookout. Oh, yeah. It off? Yeah. You have to go. Came up, going against sun. Came up. Yeah.
We had a basketball team come up too early. Oh, wow. That's great. And you have a lot of different events and activities. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we just, So we got a game first. What was the best activity that you ran? Anchors camp. The worst activity? Your first one. In your last one, the game is best. Worst first. Last. Best. You know, from my perspective in front of kids what I think the kids. I'll give you mine. Because I feel like I'm not. I feel like I do learn, you know, stuff every time
I'm up there. And, And we done. We've done so much, man. It's like, one of the one of the, one of my favorites was we did a, we did challenge where? It's two one, two challenge to us. Two here, two here, two here, two here. One is in front, and you all have strings. And then the middle of the string connected to a big bucket of water and award is filled all the way up to the top. And you got to pull on this string to constantly raise this water up. Okay, to this top.
And you have to sit the water on top without the water falling. And then you have to lift it up. Yeah. And then bring it back down and put it in such a small circle. And you have to do it in a time frame. Nice. The smart teamwork. Very important. Collaboration is very important. 1,000%. Gotcha 1,000%. That would be. Like all right, lift a little bit. Yeah. On a little slow communication. Yeah that's a great game. Phenomenal. We have to use that. It's phenomenal.
It spills and it's fun. And exactly. You get everybody excited okay. That was my probably one of my best. We just did that last year. I want to be honest. You know I need the worse. Something to go wrong or missing or didn't work the way you planned it. We this is during our early years and, we, We usually cook breakfast for the kids or some day.
So we mix it up, we cook breakfast one, and then other days I say, if we got to be true to form at 5 a.m., we, give them, like, snacks or like, morning bars. Right? Water. And they go here this time. I order breakfast. You know, everything is, like, pretty far out out there, you know, stores as far out. Yeah, 20 minutes and most. So order breakfast from this one place and breakfast sandwiches. And, you know, I send one of my good friends to go pick it out.
Camp counselors, go pick it up, and, he gets there and I think he only had, like, $80. It was like $100. He was so upset and so upset with me. And, you know, like, in order for me to go drive back down there and then give him the money was, probably like another 40 minutes. And I was like, ask him, can you bring the money back? It's like, no, you can't bring the money back. So, you know, it was it was just good. It was just, you know, a great story. Yeah.
You know that ain't playing. That ain't go our plan. I thought I was going to spend less money on them. And then, you know, we did some you know, some stuff don't work like you playing or like, you know, I mean, kids don't love the activity. We did, you know, tree identification last year. And, you know, they weren't that into it. Yeah. You know what I mean. What kind of leaf is that thing? Care about all that? You know? Yeah, kids, I know all about it.
And then your first one, and then your last one. Like your first thing. You ever try it up there and then your most recent. You. Yeah. Your first ever. The first thing we ever did was, probably be carpentry. Nice. Carpentry. The last thing we done was, aquaponics. Aquaponics. That's growing plants inside. Yes. Yeah. And then, I can't think of a name right now, but where you were, you were. They grow fish inside as well. Oh, wow. And you learned about the fish.
Do you have guest speakers come up or do you teach it or do we do we have speakers? We do have guest speakers come up. One of our biggest donors came up, spoke and another guys and we have mostly everyone was came up, has been entrepreneurs in some way, shape or form like. Oh, it's a great thing. I actually met a camper. Remember? I met the camper? Oh, I honey. I met him. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I saw honey on a clip on the website. So I was like, hey, I met honey. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He has similar experiences as you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you compare and contrast your experience with his. You know, mostly it's not dissimilar at all. You know, he, come from, you know, a whole host of gun violence in his environment, intelligent kids, which most kids are. Yeah. I mean, they're products of their environments. So, you know, his, he came up to our camp is, is, you know, brother, passed away due to, Gun violence as well.
He got killed in downtown as, like, imagine being killed in the, you know, West Hartford Center or, you know, walking out of a restaurant and, you know, but he was one of the kids that we have been, you know, trying to help and, you know, so one day we was up at the camp and we'd sit around a fire, and in August we do came in August. It's pretty cold at night. It's so chilly at night in upstate New York. And, we do three things. You learn. We do. What did you learn? Sessions that we do.
Three things you learn. Yep. And then you got to give your favorite part of the day. It's helping kids understand who they are, what it is that they like. And one of the things he said when we brought up one of our biggest donors who runs PHP construction, Bill Hardy. Bill was when he learned about what Bill done and how much you know, money makes. He said, I learned his better to get his exact words. Was I learned is better to keep change than it is to get. I mean he said it.
I learned, is better to cop land than it is to get change. And what he was saying was he he learned it was better to get land property. Yep. Versus buying jewelry, material things 1,000%. And we knew we were doing the right things when he said that, you know. No. When I met him, it was great to seem like he enjoyed it. He's been to the camp how many times now? Twice. And then, three times. All in all, once as a camp counselor. I was a junior camp counselor. Oh, nice. Yeah. You know.
That's when, you know, you got a good thing going. When your campers aspire to be counselors to. They look up to the kid. I'm like, I want to. That's what I want to do, right? Right, right. So he grew into the camp counselor role, right? Right, right. Yep. Yep. Job. And he. Treated. Me. You proud of you. I think he's coming back to summer. Yeah. He was there this summer. This past summer. So what about 2025? You know, he's working a lot, so he's actually in the construction field.
So in a young, you know, and that's where we aspire for kids to come up and, you know, get inspired by one of the trees that we teach. And then for us to direct them in that tree and, you know, that's what we done, honey. Moved them to Connecticut, put them into a carpentry school. That's awesome. Put them in the carpentry story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he's in a carpentry union working 100% self-sufficient in 20 years, owns a property. So, you know, he's doing well.
You know what I mean? All right. Know, I'm really excited that I met you. Good job, kid, I worked I did a woodshop class, 1994 summer employment, Waterbury, Connecticut. They offered it to kids, and I did, summer employment. I learned about woodshop. So it's really cool. Very. I feel connection with what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The second family I ever helped when I started friends of Feeney, my fifth grade student, lost her dad unexpectedly to a heart attack.
Gabby Stone lost her dad. Sam. They had twins. I had twins, I felt connected, I had to help the family. I moved down the following year. I went to third grade. My student, Rashad Collier lost his dad, Rashad Collier senior in Hartford, to gun violence after a boxing event. So Friends of Feeney has also been affected negatively to gun violence. Right? Right right. Right. So I'm feeling that connection and I can't imagine how that felt for you or Haneef. Do you want to elaborate or do you not?
Do you feel comfortable talking about that? Do you want to share? How old were you? How did it impact you? Were you playing for you? Ha! At the time? Yeah. Yeah, I was playing for you hard at the time. And, you know, it was it was, such a painful moment, you know, someone, you know, my my mom been on drugs my entire life, and, it's it's interesting because, you know. Oh, I had to take care of him as a kid.
I didn't stop drinking a bottle till I was two years old, and, I was sneak behind a I was five years old. I was sneak behind the the the back door and sip a bottle. And I would go get a bottle for him and a bottle for me and sit on the couch. Nobody home but ma'am. And we'd be watching Teletubbies. Feet. Dirty, you know, But. So I took care of you. You know what I mean? And, you know, when you in that circumstance, you know, when you you have a way out. Me being a basketball player.
Pretty good. Really good one, actually. You know, a lot of pressure is put on you to save. And, you know, to help your family. Yeah. And, you know, the, me feeling like I wasn't I felt at doing that at that moment. You know? So it was definitely a lot. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, you know, you you find a way to continue, move on and keep moving forward, you know, continue to help. I tell, you know, people all the time, I wasn't able to save my little brother, but.
Maybe I was meant to save another young brother like Hanif. And you know, we'll never know why you know that or why that happened or what happened that way. But we got to trust the process and. Yeah, you know, and leave it better than we found it. That's a powerful statement. Yeah. You could help another someone else. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. And Haneef could go on to do great things. All thanks to you. You know, I think that, you know, it takes a village to raise a child.
You know, it's it's definitely it was definitely a village. It wasn't, you know, just all of my, you know, thanks to, you know, Yeah. You know, Jim, thanks to Honey's mom, she raised him to a point where he was able to learn. You know what I mean? But, you know, I had to tell, you know, with me, it's like speaking about help. So many people that helped me out. I could seriously fill up the Excel center with as many people as help me out, Yeah, they're definitely someone you need.
You need a good team. You need some people on your side. Yeah, I do see the. Positive. In you. Yeah. Puts you in the right direction. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. I know. Thanks. You were at the Exchange Club. This is your. This is your PowerPoint from the Exchange Club. Yes, sir. Marty was nice enough to share your exchange clubs. PowerPoint. Shout out to Marty. Marty, one of the reasons I got you here to Marty was he goes, Marty goes like, you got to meet this guy Tracy.
Tracy has a wonderful idea, wonderful story. He's doing great things. He goes, I told him my friends at Feeney, he goes, and he. He didn't remember me. You didn't remember me? What happened? No, no, I did, I knew I told him that I told him I knew where I could never forget. We met at the Sweeney's, Christmas party. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hartford Baking company. Yeah, yeah. We did a, remember we did the fashion show. Yeah, yeah yeah. Yeah, yeah, at the BCC became.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on Facebook Live. Facebook Live, a model. That was I believe. I got the YouTube. I got the Facebook clip here. Oh, you got the Facebook group? Yeah. It's unbelievable. That was great. You were good. Hey, man, I was just trying to live up to your standards. So here's the BCC owners. Oh, wow. And see if they get into us right here. That was a fun night. I was like, mom, I'm a model. Feeney said.
I gotta keep this one. Yeah, I just found that I. I sent it to my mom, so I was like, I went back in a text message like. And yeah. When was it? It was last year. December 606. Wow. 2023. Time flies, doesn't it? Time flies, I know that. Couldn't imagine that was almost a year for one full year ago. Yeah, we can't believe our models. And now, one year later you're on the podcast. Hey man, it's a blessing to be here. How's it feel to be. On the Feeney Talks With Friends podcast?
Listen, it's a blessing to be on here. You know, conversation with you, learning more. You know, I'm just enjoying the conversation. So many conversations. You know, we don't have enough conversations no more. Yeah. You know. About life. Yeah. The listening, the, personal connections lost, possibly because of social media or the world is busy. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad to sit down and talk with you. I think you're a role model. I think you're doing great things.
And I'm honored to know you and happy to help you. Same, same here, brother, let me know. We can do. Same here, brother. Let's get into Jim. New frock. How's Jim? New frock? Jim new frock is doing well, he's, up there on the farm, and we just added some cattle sort of form. So you got his hands full with the cattle up there. Wow. The kids get. To interact with the cattle.
Yeah, yeah, well, we interact with them like this past summer, you know, and, got to see how the whole system works, you know? Is it like Yellowstone out there or what? Close. Well, close. You know, so he's doing good. Amazing. Well, working and, you know, working on the farm. But he's excited about this upcoming year. We all are. Nice. And what does he do for work? So he was, he's an executive of, a, search firm. So he runs a search firm, a lot of hay hunting fan, and.
And then just happened to have this farm. He bought the farm of maybe 12 years ago. For the farm 12 years ago. He's out from that area. Gotcha. Endicott area. Oh, okay. Yeah. Play the Delaware football quarterback. Nice. That a very, you know, fruitful, eventful life for sure. Working a chain of of maybe ten years. Yeah. Great guy. Those, you know, huge, huge special individual. They don't make them like him no more for sure. That's great to hear.
Well thank you, Jim, for doing such wonderful things. And thank you for collaborating with it's a good team. Good partnership. Yeah. Which one. Who's Batman and who's Robin? I would like to say, I'm Batman. I'm Batman, you know, so. So it's been good, though, you know? I mean, it's been good. This is almost like you're a teacher. I'm a teacher. I've been a teacher for 21 years. I taught nine years in Waterbury, where I went to school, and I'm in my 12th year in West Hartford.
So you have a very educational background, right? You're teaching, you're managing the youth. You're trying to educate them. Right? Right, right. Do you have a favorite teacher growing up that inspired you? You know, I look at life as one big school. And every person you come in encounter with is a teacher, whether it's what not to do or whether it's what to do, you know? And if you look at life that way, you'll learn a lot.
Yeah. And you constantly learn, you know, so, you know, I can't really pinpoint, you know, one specific teacher, like school teacher, maybe Mr. Hayes, Mrs. Marchetti, you know, but there's been so many people who came into my life and taught me so many things. Donny Carr basically raised me as my stepfather. You know, Bill Hardy, John Gallagher, you know, the list goes on. So many, you know, I mean, Coach Gal. Yeah. All right. Teachers. Yeah. Teachers make a point role.
We don't you know, we say they don't make a lot of money but they make a difference. So yeah. Why is that. And she wasn't I don't make a lot of money. Right I don't know. That's a great, great question. They should make more right. Right, right. I don't know. They. What's wrong with the system? I guess maybe because we're funded by tax dollars and there's so many of us that they can't pay us all high salaries. I don't know, it's not. It's union based.
Yeah. As well as 64% of our kids reading below their grade level across the US. Yeah. No, that's who knows. I know we started a new program. We just got a new reading science based reading program called Fund Nations. I'm teaching it in third grade. First time in 21 years where we are marking up sounds and we're tapping out words so well, hopefully that will improve the reading. So with that being said, you know, for years people have had that that research that you said 64%.
So they're trying something new. So there has. Been a shift. Right. So we in Science of reading. Do you think that'll make a difference? I like it, I was hesitant and skeptical. But I'm starting to see kids making that connections. Picking up on it. Yeah. We have two glued sounds digraphs, blends. The kids mark, if it's a short vowel, they put a breath over it and then it's a macron for a long vowel. You know what a nice. Mush. Was? An upside down e schwa.
You know, this was Mardi Gras. It's a it's a letter sound. It's like habit or. No, no, no, not a habit. Talent, talent. So talent sounds like it has an at the end. That's a schwa sound, because the two consonants are squeezing the n. If there's a n typically has a schwa, it makes it have the I sound. It sound. Yeah. And that sound is a schwa. So kids are learning that a third grade level again, still still not sure if it's working, but. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen a transition from.
And then are they using it in their own writing yet. Yeah, they still raise their hand and ask and I might tap it out, sound it out, use the skills that we're learning. But we do it every day for 30 minutes. But you can see that they're making the connection. Yes. It's that, there are some some like it more than others, obviously. Like, you know, you see it at camp. You know what? Some are stronger than others. So you got to differentiate.
So sometimes after we do the whole group, the kids, I really need it. I bring them to the table for kids to really pinpoint what their weaknesses are. And they get a little more extra teaching. Right. And then the kids that are higher readers can just off, off they go and go read, read a book. And then there's the middle kids that get that, high level teaching. Right, right. So always like differentiate got to meet the kid where they are and, and build off of that. Right, right right.
Big believer in it. Big believer in it. Yeah. What is what is one of your it's one thing that you want to leave behind when you're done at your role right now you go work on one thing. What is it? Yeah. I tell all my kids, like, I mentioned it earlier. Lifelong learner. Try to learn something new every day. Just instill a passion for the love of learning. Love of reading. You know, I tell the kids, if you don't like reading, you just haven't found the right book yet. You know, I grew up reading.
I learned to read because of Sports Illustrated. I wanted to learn about my players. Or. What was going on. So that encouraged me to read. Or I found something like, oh, I'm going to read this. But if a teacher assigned a lesson and read about, you know, Abraham Lincoln or Possums or something, I'm like, yeah, but it was like sports related. I was like all into it. So just find what you're passionate about and then read. And that's why I try to share with my kids.
I have a huge library in the back of my room, graphic novels. If the kid like sports, I got the Matt Christophers, I got the graphic novels Dog Man, diver, Wimpy Kid, I got the science nonfiction, holidays, all the different genres and levels. So I try to find something. I'm like, here, take this home, borrow it. Right, right, right. So I'm just trying to, you know, encourage them to do the best they can. Yeah. And and again the motto be a good friend.
You know, I want the world to be a better place. If everyone was a better friend, if you drove like a friend. Hold the door for people. Give a compliment. That goes a long way. Right. So that's where. So. You do you think increasing the salary for teachers would bring in more? Possibly. And would, Well, because a lot of teachers don't do it for the money. Right. But we do complain about not having the money. So it's like. What would I do? Something else possibly.
My next move is like vice principal management position. Or who knows? But I'm in 21 years. I got to do 37.5. Wow. It was 30 years. Then they would. Have to do that to be a principal to. To retire. With full. Benefits. 37.5. That's across the. Board, right? Isn't that weird? Yeah. So it's a long time. I started at 24. I'm going to get out at 65. It's pretty crazy. I mean. My buddies, all my friends, just all retired CEOs, probation officer and. Cops, that's what I was. Getting.
All my buddies that have those jobs retired already 20 years and now they say. 25 now. Now they change it to 25. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still I'd be if I was, if I was a or if I worked in a prison or they'd have state teachers I could have taught maybe in prison I'd be out in 25, I'd be four more years left. Yeah, but that's pretty interesting. Where you possibly teach in the youth. But the future of tomorrow, you got 37 years.
And you don't really get to top step until you're in, like, your 20th year. Right? Because I started getting paid peanuts my first year. And that was like the hardest year. So it's like but again with all these changes and different laws and it's not getting easier. I get back to that new reading. So every day it's almost scripted too. So I have to read the book to know what I'm going to teach that day. Right, right, right. When that's new snow.
And my grade level partners one has been teaching for 30 and one has been teaching for 24. So this reading program is new for all of us. So every morning we're like or every night you have to either. So we have homework for yourself. Yeah yeah. Yeah. To know what I'm going to. Look. Like today was dictionary work.
You know, finding words in a dictionary. And, you know, whether it be at the beginning of a dictionary, end of the dictionary, and if the the first two letters of the same, you look to the second letter a lot of kids don't know that. So. Right, right, right. I used to play a dictionary game. I would get up when I was doing Newhart. Me and my friend would get up every morning, go have breakfast movies. We was learning, dominoes too. So we would go play dominoes. Yeah, we play dominoes.
We would sit and we played a dictionary game where we would find a word in a dictionary, go down a dictionary, and we would get you know, we would read a word. Yep. Figure out is that word has a negative connotation or positive connotation. Yep. And then, you know, we had to give an example. That's good. When we talk about the word and anything and detail. And that would leads us to so many different conversations. Yeah. So you know. And and try to incorporate it into your vocabulary.
You got to use it like you had a hundred times before. It gets ingrained into your vocabulary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I do that now. One of the words I'm using now is tilt it. Yep. That's a good one to tilt it. Yeah. So it's good. The dictionary game. Yeah that's great. We do a so the Rotary Club comes in in a couple of weeks. They every third grader in West Hartford gets a dictionary from the Rotary Club. And they've been doing it for 20, 30 years. So then we play a dictionary scavenger hunt.
Like, what's the word, what's your guide word on page 119. So they got a flip to it. Boom. Or what's this word mean? Dictionary game. Like a little scavenger hunt. Make it fun. Yeah, yeah. And then the kid always finds the A word. It'll be word because it's the Webster's dictionary. So they're like, I am like. Wait, I wait for it. Every year. I'm like. If they find it yet some, some have not. But right, right, right. You know, there's a years that they don't find it.
Yeah. You know, the, the, the negative and positive connotation of the word I find to be very important because, yeah, everything is about perspective. So you really get to see whether, you know what kind of perspective a person or a kid is putting on the word, whether that's true or whether it's not, you know. Yeah, I think that's important, you know, because all we want to do, all I want to do, and I'm sure the same for you, is inspire mindset.
You know, once you inspire mindset and you embed the mindset, then you let them go off and run in. Know the. Growth mindset. Thousand percent. You know, I'm not good at this yet, right? I'm going to keep trying. I'm I might not good at this yet, but I will keep trying till I get better at this. Good. And you know, don't try to move the mountain. Move a rock by rock, right? Little by little. Right. A little progress every day, right. Right, right. So yeah, it's tell the kids that.
And if and if all the kids like when it gets hard because we did addition and subtraction in unit one. Now we're in multiplication and division. So there's a little more challenge for the kids. And now if things get hard they want to almost like sit back. Yeah. And hide in their shell or get frustrated. That's when the learning takes place. When things are hard, that's when you're learning. If you went through life and everything's easy, you're not learning anything at.
You know, you only you truly learn more and only out of failures. Yeah, yeah. Hard times, hardships. You know, if you got the right mindset, you learn. Yeah, you definitely learn more from making mistakes and you will from just breezing through things. Yeah. You know, it's just like, you know, if you working out and you, you know, when you lifting weights, you turn those muscles. It's hard. You push it. Yeah.
Sometimes you can't do it. Yep. And then the real learning and the rebuilding takes place. You sit down and you rest and you relax and rebuild. Rebuilding? Yep. And now you become stronger. I tell the kids that all the time. Your brain is a muscle. Gotta work it out. That's great. Funny that you say that. Or they, like the butterfly. So if, you know, if you have a butterfly in a cocoon or it goes in a caterpillar.
But if you crack the cocoon, the butterfly is just going to fall out and not be able to fly. Right. But because the butterfly needs to fight out, and that's how he builds the muscles. He fights out and he breaks out, and then he's got the strength to fly. Yes. So if someone cracked him out, he never felt that strength, right? Right, right right. I use that with the kids too. And I'm like, then I tell my kids they're always. They're like, nah, Mr. Feeney, I'm like, I'm watering you.
You're my flowers, right? You're going to grow your hair. Little seeds. And now I'm going to be beautiful flowers at the end of the year. Right now, I'm now Mr. Feeney. Or you come to me, little babies. And now you're going to leave fourth graders or butterflies ready to fly. Kids are so amazing. Yeah. Now it's a great job. And a hilarious. Oh, yeah. You want to know the truth? They tell you the truth. Oh, yeah. Mr. Feeney, you got a bald spot, Mr. Feeney. You got, you. Know something.
On your head, you balding and. Oh, whatever. Big fat belly, big head. And I'm like, thanks, kids. Thank you. The truth is, I think the kids up at camp, man, you know, they do things, and they, you know, you got to come down to that level. You know, you got to they'll teach you a lot if you willing to learn. Yeah. You know all I kept hearing was no Diddy. No. To pay up. No Diddy got. Sports. Got to learn the slang too. It's so funny cause. The pause. Game is unbelievable. I like this.
Podcast as long. Oh no. Pause. Yeah yeah yeah. Oh no Diddy no. So funny. You got any upcoming events for Anchors Camp or any fundraising events during the year? Nah. Right now, no, not not any on the calendar right now, but, we, we planning a few things. We're really going into planning mode in January. You know. Is there a social media for anchors camp? Yeah. Anchors underscore camp. Instagram. Okay. We on Facebook. Anchors camp. All right, I'll write that down. Yes.
And then, of course, the website anchors camp for you to, you know, we we, you know, we just trying to change one kid life at a time sounds cliche, but, you know, that's what really works like something. That's what really works. One at a time. Can't help them out. Can't help them all sometimes. But you could help. You know I mean, try. The best you can. Listen. The world is made up of haves and have nots. You know. And to have some have is a have not to another have.
Okay. And I believe the world would always be there. Yeah but you definitely can affect make more haves. You know you know people talk about this thing equal you know like nothing has never been equal. Same reason why we in Connecticut and we ain't in Gaza. Yeah. You know, the world has never been equal, has never been fair. Yeah. But you got to do the best for what you got. And you agree, you know, you got to create luck to get luck. And you know, you know why I don't know.
It's just how the world is trying to do the best you can. Do what your circumstance of your situation and then move forward to go in and help others. You got to create luck to, to get luck. I like that, you know. You know, just like you know, you would never you would never hit the lottery if you don't play. Good point. You know. All right. Coming up camp, what do you, plan? What are you going to do different this year for camp than last year?
You know, this year we focus more on, this year we went away from focusing on the core trades a little bit, and we went to aquaponics and, and a whole host of other things. So I want to definitely get back to the, you know, the, core traits. Okay. I mean, working. On that construction. We doing residential construction. You know, this year we went from stand on a form to stand. We outsource everything to stand at a school called, Suny Milledgeville.
And, fun fact, they have, like, one of the few and only, football fields that's black. Oh, wow. Turf is black, grass is black. Absorbs the heat, though. It's got to get hot. Yet not down. They set it down. It's pretty cool. It's like all black. And they got different color lines because for different, you know, sports and all that. Cool. It's pretty cool. Is it a million hits on ESPN? So we end up staying there is in upstate New York. And they live like the dorm and a college life.
And while we was up there was a, EOP program up there with them. So they got to interact with different Kim and, you know, so I think we're going to keep it. He continued. Our source that we spent a lot of time back on the farm as well. So nice, learned how to, you know, do a fire, create a fire with just stuff in the woods, racks, magnifying glass. Oh, yeah. A whole bunch of other things. Did a little challenge with that. You know, but I'm excited for the future. Thanks, camp.
I'm excited for the kids that will be pumping out of there. And we'll be making. Yeah. Maybe we'll take the podcast on the road and take. You have to. Take a tour. You have to, You got to get involved. We, you know, we always do a, water gun fight. Okay, now you're talking. So we, you know, we do. We have some fun, and but we also learn. That's it. Yeah. That's what life is about. I try to make every lesson engaging and fun. Yep. I'm totally full agreement. Yep, yep yep.
What about when we got shot on my God to swanny MJ MJ he was our he he really introduce me to you. So you want. To thank MJ for making it to connection? Marty to following through and making sure that this podcast happened. But MJ, what makes him a good friend? You know, he's just you know, I met MJ, just being in West Hartford. Me like in fashion. I will go in there.
And then, you know, I came to him one day and say, you know, and I just started let's do a partnership that is and, you know, y'all eventually sell as do it. And, you know, we end up doing it. And I our partnership which continues well, after I was done playing basketball and, I know I'm shocked that you're in a hoodie right now. Yeah. The first. Time I've ever seen you in a. Hoodie. Well, you know. I usually wear in blazers and matching suits, and. I wanted to shout out the state police.
I, but, you know, MJ is, you know, especially a individual. Such a great person. You know what I mean? A great friend. Yeah. You know what I mean? We became more friends and business partners. Yeah. You know, and then, you know, I'm blessed to call him a friend. Yeah, he's an amazing person. He made these little lapels for our suits. Be a good friend. Yeah, yeah. You got one. Come on. We got to get you on. And I ain't get one. But I know he may want. And then we.
We work there one Saturday and met people that came in. And if they donated, I think 50 bucks to friends of Fini. They got 20% off their purchase. Yeah, yeah, I was there that day. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's the day we saw you. Yeah. That's right. My man and I met, Haneef. What was I going and then. Yeah, just made, like, 300 bucks off that one two hour visit. Some people are so generous and thoughtful, and MJ talks us up, and I got to meet people. It was a great interaction. You know, he's a great.
Person, no person, nominal person. And he obviously has a world all you business. Yep. You know and you know if you listen and shop at the salon ecom, maybe you can get some gear like me and Eric. Yes. You know, but, yeah. You know, he's he's a great friend. I'm blessed to call him a friend for sure. I spent some time with his family for Thanksgiving last year. Oh, nice. So that's a that's a phenomenal to do. Smart. Yep. To knows the business. Well, yeah.
I mean, you can look at your and just tell your size. Yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah yeah he's a great guy. And you know more importantly in my eyes yeah. Style. Definitely a good dresser. Yeah I got the vest I got the new vest. It zips up. From the bottom now too. So when you see it it doesn't get all bunched and bulky. You could zip it a little bit. Opens on the bottom and it zips on the top. Yeah. Work well for Thanksgiving right now.
Perfect for Thanksgiving. Yeah. Definitely go to Farmington. Have family owned business, been there forever to Swanny clothier. You know, a good person, no doubt. Good golfer two. He is a good golfer. Yeah. So we got some upcoming events. We have a holiday stroll next week December 5th. We have a toy drive here at Luna Pizza. We're collecting toys and coats. We have a pond house event. You around the December 10th. Great networking event. I am, Let's grab lunch.
There's a bunch of guys and they're having an event, so. And proceeds go to Friends of Feeney. So thank you. Let's grab lunch. That's at the pond House December 10th. And, you know, that's about it. Any recommendations? Books, movies, podcasts? You know, a couple podcasts I watch frequently. Just my interest. All in podcast. All in all in podcasts for guys who, are in a venture capitalist space and private equity world, and they talk about current events.
Okay. And it goes always from political all the way to, you know, the, money markets, business untitled. They bring on a bunch of different entrepreneurs or, CEOs. And they even have actors, movies. You know, I, I think that if I was in another life, I would be a CIA agent. I'm in the CIA. Yeah. Movies and. Okay, you know, for movies and all that, lioness. It's pretty good. That's on Paramount. Is that a series? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alex Cross, which is on Amazon Prime.
Gotcha. And then I'm a loverboy. So, you know, one of my favorite movies of all time is hitch. Hitch? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I'll be Kevin James. Don't ever do that again. Hahaha. Yep. Classic. And then books right now. I just got this book, that popular. Oh, yeah, I just got this book is called, Former White Black. Right now I'm looking about some, cashmere goats and, okay, alpacas. Up for the farm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't use them for business. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they just beautiful animals too, you know? I mean, hopefully I can get a cashmere sweater out of it, right? You know, or I'll pack a sweater. They only, It's exotic and unique. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get the money to start selling them. Now you're talking my language. You know, one of my favorite books is called the 5 a.m. club. And, that's a book about.
It's goes in a great detail, and it tells a phenomenal story about why you get up at 5 a.m., why you should get up at 5 a.m.. What, 5 a.m.? Club. Club? Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite books. It took, the artist, of four years to write it. Yeah. And, and and do you think what's the best part about waking up at 5 a.m.? What's what's the most helpful? Oh, well. And adds more time in a day and more time for yourself.
You know, most people are not up at 5 a.m., so you get up and you ain't really checking your phone because you ain't nobody hitting you up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then if you disciplined enough, you get your you can get your workout in. Okay. Go for a walk and read and watch a podcast and then meditate and then start your day. Okay. I've been seeing Instagram things, read a page, get up early workout. Definitely don't touch the phone. Yeah. Get some fresh air, meditate, read a page from a book
and, you know, start your day. Yeah, yeah. It's a great way. Yeah. Just a 5 a.m. club. That makes sense. And cold showers. You you ever take a cold shower? You see that now? Yeah. Yeah. And then I. Take a shower and turn it real cold. Yeah. So I get in the, sauna a lot. Okay. And then I get out of the sauna, Straight into cold, cold shower. Yeah, yeah, I can only do it for a couple seconds, you know? But the sauna is really good. Yeah. You know, they say sauna.
I'm getting in a sauna, you know, reduces all diseases. About 40%. Yep. So, you know. Interesting. I was a little loud. I'm sweat when I'm feeling lazy. And, What's your streak? How many consecutive days have you gotten up at 5 a.m.? I'm not. You know what the. One of my biggest problems is? I feel I'm not consistent. Yeah. I probably say on a days. Oh, nice. Yeah. Narcosis thing. So, you know, I mean, I want to get more consistent. No. It's good. Five and club I'm going to join.
You motivated me tomorrow 5 a.m. workout I try to wake up six a. M and then the new thing that everybody's doing is, for rocking. Whereas walking with a weight. This, Yeah, I have a lot of a. Yeah, yeah, my wife just got one too. Because we. We have a dog, so it's called Rock. Yeah, yeah, we do a lot of walking anyway. So you put the vest on. Actually hurt my lower back. So I kind of stop messing with it. But yeah I try it again. Yeah. New thing everybody's doing.
I want to shout out Juniper Homes. Juniper Home Care. My dance partner Zulily gave me this. I just won dancing With the stars best at West Hartford at the JCC. We beat Dennis house, Ronnie New and the mayor, Sherry Canter and Victor, my bank. Victor. The branch manager just paid his dues. We bet on the last podcast he was podcast 116 and we bought a case of beer. He just paid up. I want to. Thank. You for the shirt. Juniper homes down on New Brighton Avenue. I love that and, we worked hard.
Thank you, Arthur Murray. It was a great time. You ever do ballroom dancing? What do you do? Ballroom dancing? Yeah, I would do ballroom. Yeah. I never done it before it. Oh. Cool. Definitely can get my groove on a little bit. Yeah. Duh, duh. What was it? What was your score? Oh, so you had. They had for the for dancers. All the, the audience got a dime and they had to put it in one jar, and we just had the most dimes in our jar. Yeah, I did bring a roll of dimes from the bank, but I'm kidding.
I had nothing. Any final closing remarks? I had a great time talking with you. We usually shoot for 50 minutes. Stefania, what are we on? And. Hoof hour and three. Love that. I love that. We could talk to you forever. Same here. Great conversation. Doing great things. Like I said, this is Feeney talks of friends. This whole podcast is about talking to great people in the community, doing great things. So, Tracy, keep up the good work. Honor to speak with you.
Please keep me in the loop of all the great things that you're doing, and we'll be in connection going forward. With the world. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the conversation. Oh, the closing remarks. We're done. Now. Yeah. On three will say be a good friend. 1 to 3. Be a good friend.