Scott Arthur from Star of Hope

Katie r h. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r H. Garden Line with Skip Rictor It's crazy. Just watch him as so many things gotzy gas comes back again. They're not a sid Well Good Sunday morning. We are glad

you're listening to Garden Line. And right now, for this next hour, we have a special guest, Scott Author from Star of Hope Mission is here and we are going to talk about a lot of things that I'm sure you may not have known about Star of Hope here in the Greater Houston area.

Star Hope's been around a long time and they have been serving our area a long time, not only helping individuals, but it makes a difference in our whole community when that kind of work gets done, when people's lives get put back on track, when hope comes back again into somebody's life. And you know, we see the face of homelessness maybe on the road sides, but

we don't always see the whole face of homelessness. And I'm going to let Scott talk to us a little bit about some of that as well as some of the ways that out of our compassion, we can make a difference in people's lives, a difference, a difference that not only changes their life now, but the life of their children as well. Scott, welcome so much. We're just so glad to have you back here again. Well, good

morning, and thank you for the invite. And actually you just said everything I had to say, so oh really, so we're done now, that's good. I only have one request out of you, and that is good. We trade voices because I love your voice, So thank you boy. I can understand why you had some time in radio. Yeah two years. We'll leave it at that. But you've been doing a great job, by

the way, you really have. I appreciate you know. I listen up and obviously the fans and the listeners like what you do, and so do I, which is why I'm here. Well, thank you. I appreciate that very much. I would like you to just kind of tell us a little bit, give us a big kind of a thirty thousand foot overview of

Starve Hope. You know it's here. People are thinking, well, is that a building somewhere over there or is that the ones that you know they bring people in and feed them or over give us a kind of big picture view. JUSTO sure, I'll be happy to Yeah. Well, Star of Hope is one of the oldest and largest homeless providers in America and they've been

around for one hundred and sixteen years. We started back in nineteen o seven and down around Market Street, Franklin Street around there used to be back in the early nineteen hundreds, that was basically a waterfront. You know, those little tiny bayous that you see now used to be big bayous and they had big tall ships coming in and there was lots and lots of they sold wine, they sold beer, things like that, and all sorts of freight and

it was basically a waterfront. But then in between two World Wars around nineteen oh seven or so, there was a lot of jobs that suddenly went away, and well, a lot of people were let's say, they started to drink. They started to just lose faith, lose faith, and there was a lot of people sleeping in doorways, on park benches and things like that. And what happened was that Reverend Piveto had a message from God who basically said, you go to Houston and you help these people, and you call

it Star of Hope pretty specific, and that's what we did. So we had our first shelter back in nineteen oh seven, probably held maybe twenty twenty five guys and mostly with alcohol problems, and it was faith based. We

are a christ centered community, so that's very important. And with that foundation, we reached out to help these guys and we did that for years and years and years over the years to the point now we have a men's center which is about two blocks north of Minute Maine Park, and the latest one that they built was back in two thousand and it holds I believe it has about three hundred and twenty four beds, and I'll tell you a little bit

more about that later. But we've come a long way. That is amazing. I did not know that full history. That's oh yeah, well to know. I've said this on the ear before. But years ago my wife and I volunteered with Star Hope and we were in a church up north of town that came down and did some of that. And recently, I don't know how many months ago has it been since I've been out to Star Hope. It's been a long time, it has, but I could not believe

the change growth, the development of programs and benefits that help people. You know, you describe that spiral of going through going from what we would call a normal life whatever that is, to spiraling down into a place where not only are you helpless, but it's like there's no hope, right, And that's a tough thing. And I've never been through that, you know. I think I've had hard times, but no, I haven't had hard times, not like that. That's true. A lot of people can hear about

this, but they really can't feel it. They can't relate it, right, And that's what you and I try and do actually in the next hour, you know, and tell you a little bit about the face of homelessness. Yeah, and what it really is about that is true, you know. I think I guess it was you that it kind of painted me a picture one time in my head of a mom living in a car with kids and good mom. There are a lot of reasons she could be there,

and many may be no fault of her own. But either way, I mean, we all make our mistakes that sometimes I have consequences that are tough. And here are these kids living in a car, and how does that lady suddenly have a place to live, a job, a way to get to the job, food to put on the table in the meantime. And when you think about that, you kind of feel that grip of fear home, helpless, where's the hope, where's the future, What's going to happen

to me? What's going to happen to my children? And suddenly that becomes a face. It's not just you're one of those people, right. These people are still homeless, but they're not hopeless. Yeah, and well, let me take you back to nineteen oh seven again and let me show you the evolution. Okay, So in nineteen oh seven, we had this small men's shelter and it kind of grew and grew and grew, and back in the i'd say late eighties, the whole world was changing, especially America.

There was a lot of domestic violence, a lot of things like that. And I will tell you in just a miny exactly how that evolved into what it is today. Well, you know that that is good. We I want to I'd like to hear more about that, and then I'd like you to give us some pictures that we can see and understand when we think about the people that Star of Hope reaches out to and so that that is really

important. You know, there are so many, so many good causes out there that we can help people with, but they're they're, in my opinion here locally, you're just not going to do better than a Star of Hope. We're going to take a little break here in just a moment. When we come back, we're gonna let's go continue with what he was talking about. But then I want to get into some of the specific gifts that we

can give to people through Star of Hope. And you guys, you guys have a real nice little collection of those really appropriate during the holidays, but appropriate any time of year. And whether it's you know, you're listening to a show on New Year's Day or whatever it's it's hope for the New Year, those same kinds of packages of giving can still make the differences that we're

gonna be talking about. So there's a teaser for it. We'll be right back the phone number if you'd like to call to talk about Star of Hope. We're limiting calls to that for this hour seven one, three, two and two fifty eight seventy four. Well, welcome back to garden Line.

We are here to normally answer gardening questions. For this hour, we're talking with Scott, author of Star Hope Mission, and we're talking about things that you, I'm sure didn't know about a lot of things that I didn't know about when I first started reinvolving myself after coming back into the Houston area with

Star of Hope. I'm going to turn it back over to Scott. We were we were talking about I think some examples, some stories, and I kind of cut you off when you were giving us the we used to be this and now we're this. Oh that's okay, and you know appropriate for garden line. I'm here to plant some seeds and grow hope. How's that?

So we had the Men's Center and the nineteen eighties, maybe the late eighties or so, we had so many women knocking on the doors of the Men's Center saying that you know, there was domestic violence, they needed a place to go, they had children. So we created a women and Family Emergency shelter and that was open for a lot of years and the last I'd

say six or eight years, we were over capacity every single night. And that had I think about two hundred and fifty bids and when I say over capacity, I mean we had another one hundred on the floor every night, and that includes babies, moms, dads. It was amazing. And then

we had what we called our transitional Living Center. A lot of people don't realize that, yeah, we're here for the short run if somebody needs help for a week or so, but we would rather have you for a year with structured recovery programs, helping you with education and employment and of course learning more about your faith that's important to us. Helping you get that job, helping you get life skills, helping you with recovery from substance abuse. It's

so much that people don't really associate with starf Hope. Yeah, and it's also part of the disconnect and understanding where people are and what that means. Like, you know, for example, I could go, well, why don't you just go get a job, you know, quit panhanda go get a job or something, and and like I was saying, the lady in the car while ago, but there are situations where that's not an option. Not an option they read someone who plugs in and walks alongside them rather than

just well here's some bucks. To pay your rent. Well, you're good at this because it's really been eye opening for me to kind of think through these sort of things, you know, and that's what we ask people to do, is think through. That's that's very well put. So you know, you drive by and you see this bumb on the street and you say, hey, got a job, you bum that type of thing. There is so much more to that on every single person homeless. And believe me,

most people just see the top of the iceberg. They don't really understand about the mom who has two or three kids and she's living downtown in her car in fear that the police are going to see her and she's going to lose her kids. Or you know, maybe a gentleman who he used to be a vice president of a company but he did too many drugs or something like that and he lost everything, his family, his job, and now he's just on drugs and he's downtown living in a haze, and you know

that's his life. I mean, there's so many stories there are, and we could spend three weekends just you telling stories of the difference that have been made. As you've heard people give a testimony of their life change what's happened where they were and what was meaningful and why it worked. Let me give you an idea of this. We had a group called the Trees of Hope, which helps out the Star of Hope all the time, and they had a big yellow on Friday and I was able to help them with a testimony.

Reached out to some of our people who have graduated from our programs and are now into independent living. And she tells a story about how she was from New York and went down to Florida, got married and things just didn't work out. It was a toxic situation for her. So she decided to take her youngest child and something told her to go to Texas. I didn't know anybody in Texas, but it did and she ended up in Houston, and she reached out to Star of Hope and we helped her. She had

a little eight year old girl, so so cute. So we helped this woman get her faith back, We helped her get her her hope. We helped her with education, recovery from substance abuse, life skills, and we're feeding her, We're putting a roof over her head, we're giving her clothes, and we're giving her hope as well. So after about a year with us, she is now in a new setting and she has changed her life. But she said when she first went in there, she was just so

upset. She had lost everything. She had come to Houston, gotten a job with the City of Houston, but because of all the toxic relationships and everything like that, after about a year, she just had a breakdown. And because she had a breakdown, it got to the point where she was, you know, not really good at her job anymore. So what happened was that the City of Houston said, you know, we love you, but we have to change, you know, we have to move on.

So now she has got a house payment she can't make. She got a little eight year old kid going to school, and she and she's having trouble. She had a mental breakdown, so she had treatment, but she was also getting notices saying that they're about to be evicted. And after a couple of months they were and they ended up at Starfope. She had her year with Starfope and now she has a new life, a new hope. Wow. And that's how it goes. And we have hundreds and hundreds of those

stories. YEA you know, there's we have time for one quick more, sure, go for it. This is my favorite story. Okay. This is a gentleman who was almost appropriate to veteran's day. He was in Germany with the Air Force and he was a sergeant and he was very, very very good at what he did, so much so that he was a decorated sergeant. Wow. And he was selected as a decorated sergeant to go to

England and be celebrated with a number of other members of the military. And what that decorated, what that celebration was is he got to have tea with the Queen. Now, when I was helping him with his testimony, I was saying, hey, listen, you can use this four kre this for we were having lunch. I was kidding, and he said, yeah, I know. I had to take the course. I said, of course.

He said, yeah, it's a courtesy course. Why because we were having tea with the queen, I mean, like your majesty the Queen. He said yeah, And you didn't mention that before. So this guy actually had tea with the Queen, went back in became a great sergeant. He

got an honorable discharge. But he had also there was some sort of an accident or something and he got paid some money for it, and he took all that money when he got discharged and came back to Houston and just blew it, I mean thousands and thousands of dollars and just became an alcoholic drug addict and just lost his life. And he literally was living in a cardboard box next to the Greyhound bus station downtown for about a year. That's a

change. But then he ended up at Starfope. We have outreached people who go out and just talk to these folks and say are you ready to come in? Here's what we can do for you. Jesus loves you, we see you. This is great And after about a year he turned his life around. He is now a preacher in the Houston area. He has a

wife and a couple of kids, and he just couldn't be happier. Wow, so many life changes, and every one of you people who donate, whether it be a dollar, a thousand dollars or anything in between, you help change those lives. It's not just putting some money in an envelope or calling somebody. So definitely continue to help us. That is great. Stories, great pictures. You know, about one hundred more of those stories, and I think we would begin to see a more and more complete picture of

it. It doesn't all fit in one box when it comes to why people are where they are. The situations are in the things they struggle with, and I just think of it. For me, it's just the overall everything from the actual circumstances I lost my job, to the practical I don't have any more I need to go buy food, to all the things that that does to you mentally, to your hope, to just your perspective and just the hope that you have and bringing people in and walking alongside of them that

is so important. Just you know, it's my wife actually worked in counseling, and you know, to walk by somebody and give them a quip that belongs on a refrigerator and hope that changes their life. Versus coming alongside somebody and actually engaging in their life where they are, with them without a judgment, to bring them to where they need to be. That is huge. That is just huge, And that's what you guys do. There are some ways that people can give. I mean, of course you can give in

a lot of ways, but I like the way you put together. It's during the holiday season, but this is good all year. The little gift guide and for example, you can give the gift of a good meal and tell us a little bit about you can feed twenty people for fifty six bucks right there. So what is involved in that. Star Hoar produces a lot of meals? Oh? Absolutely, we serve around six thousand meals a week. Did you hear that at Star Vote six thousand meals a week? Wow?

That is a lot of feeding people. And again it's not like they come eat and they're gone. This is part of getting back on your feet. Absolutely, we serve three meals a day, three sixty five and two separate facilities. And they have that many people to feed. And you have a ton of beds for people to have a place to come in even with their kids, and to have a place to live that's safe. You take

moms that are they're afraid of being found by somebody. It's a bad situation and this is a safe place for them, big time, and we all make sure that that's one of the things that we provide is safety and security. We have a brand new well it's not brand new now we opened up two days before Harvey. And there's nothing like what I'm about to describe to you in America. You folks out there should be very proud of this.

Okay. It is called Cornerstone Community. We have a women in family development center where we have taken the quick emergency shelter, put it together with the long term so now we have an amazing facility that hosts one hundred and eighty single women and one hundred and thirty families all on one campus. And you're not talking about an overnight stay. No, we're talking about you're plugged in with us. We're committed to do all the things you need to get you

where you need to be. Absolutely, if we have intake and we decide, you know, if this is somebody who really is serious about this, you know, and we've got all the id and everything we need, you go and you get a place to stay, and you are welcome to stay up to a year if you have to, and we help get you a job, we help you prepare for that job, and then we help you get housing, you know, And that's a those of us who are not in that situation at this time time, it's kind of hard to think about

the fact that just being taught how to go in and do an interview for a job. For some folks, that's starting from scratch. And just simple things like that that you guys provide, and the education in certain fields are certain directions toward getting a job is important, absolutely, and not just that, but going back to the fact that a lot of this is generational. So we have to teach things like how to make a nutritious breakfast, how to write a check, how to balance a check book, et cetera,

et cetera. Yeah, all those things that people just don't think of when they go by or they think about homeless. But it is so deep, it's like peeling an onion. Well, I tell you, I actually get emotional about this because the thought of taking someone and really connecting and making a difference, that just excites me. You know, you can get your conscience appeace by giving away a few bucks, but thinking about a life being changed,

Oh my gosh. And I know people listening to this, you know, it's not like they have money just laying around everywhere, and so to do something compassionate requires a commitment from them to do it. And yet when you do this knowing what's going to happen from it is just it's just exciting to get to be part of it's money well spent. Yeah, thank you Scott. Well, we're going to take a break. If you'd like to

call and talk. We are going to We're talking with Scott, author of Starve Hope Mission, and our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Well, fim back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are able to take your phone calls. Did you know that our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I want to You've heard me talk about the Bee Supply before, but if you are interested in being a beekeeper, or if you are

a bee keeper, you need to call these folks. They are number one. They're still taking orders for bees that will be coming in next spring, so you can get going. But they do the training of you to help you have success. Their website is Thebeesupply dot com. They're out in Dayton. If you'd like to just give them a call nine three six seven seven six o seven three nine. If you got kiddos, you got to go

out there. They have an observation hive that is unbelievable. It's like seven feet high or something, and it's got all these bees working in it. You can watch them coming in out of the tubes. The wonders of bees. The more you learn about the world that bees live in, it just blows your mind. It is so cool and be supply. It's free. You can go out there. You can do a honeytour out there too. By the way, the honey tours are free. You get to sample different

kinds of honey and whatnot. If you're injured into birds. While Birds Unlimited is your place. A lot of people care about having backyard birds. They love to feed birds watch birds. You know, in the garden we've got the visual appeals of flowers and beauty and whatnot. We also have things like birds flying through adding their antics to the scene. And it's so easy to bring them in when you go to Wildbirds Unlimited and let them get you set

up Their feed first of all, is totally bird consumable contents. And here's what I mean. Some of the cheap bird feeds you see out there with

all those little red bebies, birds kick those out. They don't want to eat them unless they're just starving to death, and so you end up maybe you paid less for that feed, but you really paid more for the feed that actually went to feed the birds when you buy Wibirds Unlimited blends like their Unlimited Super Blend, which is what we should be feeding now because there's a

lot of fat and protein to get through this winter. It is just all the difference in the world in terms of quality feed and seeing the difference that it makes in terms of bringing birds to your place. Just go to a Walldbirds by the way, that's a great Christmas gift shop too. The Wildbirds Unlimited has so many things that even a non gardener would love to have, and when you go in there, you won't have any trouble finding what you're

looking looking for. Today we're normally call in about gardening, but today we're calling about Star Hope Mission. If you'd like seven one three, two one two fifty eight seventy four for the next thirty minutes, we'll be talking continuing

to talk with Scott Arthur from Star of Hope Mission. And I don't know where we left off, Scott. I think I was talking about some of the gifts that can be given the things that make it easy, like a package gift, for example, a gift of a fresh clothing to start a new life. You know, twenty five bucks shoes and socks for a child, thirty bucks shoes and our shirts and pants for a child, and then professional shoes for an adult. Again, we're going out to get an interview.

We can't look like we just came off the street, and you guys provide that. When I was there, I was impressed by your shop. It was like I walked into a nice clothing store and you know, not Gucci stuff, but it wasn't just like some hand me down shop. This was stuff that really helps someone present themselves well, and you make it available

to them as part of this whole life change package that you are. That's right, And in the old days it was basically a whole bunch of donated clothes on a rack and people go by and just go through the rack. But that had a sort of a charity feel to it, and we wanted to add some dignity. So literally, when we have this brand new facility I was talking about, we created a boutique which put the dignity into it.

So now they walk into that thing, and you know, they get to take a couple of you know, maybe addresses and some shoes and things like that once every couple of months. If it's special occasion like a job interview or something like that, or their graduation, we make sure that they get something super special to make them feel good as well. And it's it's

a beautiful boutique, it really is. Well. Giving people dignity is such a huge, huge thing, and it I think about the guy that went from dinner tea with the Queen to a box outside living in a box outside this bus station. There's not a lot of dignity there. There's probably a lot of self condemnation. Is what have I let happen here? You are

correct? But what we deal with that as well? Walking in with well tell us a little bit about that, because walking into that life and turning that around and letting them see the real value they have and have hope instilled again, that's it. And we have classes exactly for that, Biblical classes. We have classes about individual life skills, et cetera, et cetera.

So we pretty much strip everything away and start again. You know, my favorite is a woman came in once and she said, I am so embarrassed. I am so full of of just just shame. Yeah, and she said, I am at rock bottom. You know what their answer was, It's okay, Jesus is the rock. There you go, and we take it from there and hope and seeing it in their eyes and faces. And when you see these testimonies, you just see a living, vibrant person inside

who has knows where they came from and knows where they're going. And I love it. And you mentioned this when you came and toured and you said, everybody that is here looks like they want to be here. It's not like they're you know, three hots and a cop. There's people who literally want to change their lives. Well it's because of what they've experienced. Yeah,

very much. So it's the hope, you know. Talking about the gifts, the gift of education, sixty bucks provides all the educational supplies for a person, eighty dollars for tutoring for that person. And there's a lot of folks that need a ged because again we say that this is a generational problem and they will come in and they will say, look, I never even graduated high school and they have kids. So we make sure that they have a ged program, they're good at it, they graduate from it,

and most importantly, that's a good example to the kids. So we tell the kids, you know, it's not if you go to college, just when you go to college. Well yeah, and for those of you listening, here's another picture into the world that you know, our eyes just haven't looked into before. But another gift is time, attention and love. Sponsoring

a how today fifty nine dollars a day, and what this provides. There's chalker, there's the daycare there, but there's other things, like there's medical needs that you there's other And if you're a mom and you really love your kids and you're trying to get your life in order, but what are you

going to do with them? Knowing that they're in a place where they're growing too, and you see the hope on their faces and you see the care they're being given, it's just it makes the package so much more hopeful and better. And we have downtown our Men's Facility, and we have hundreds and hundreds of men in there as we speak, and they go through the same

thing. You know, we help them with biblical counseling. We help them with recovery from substance abuse, getting a job, getting that ged, feeling good about themselves and changing their lives. Yeah, that's true. I keep talking about moms, but it's not just moms, and no, it isn't just so many, so many ways and so many kinds of help that you guys provide. Hey, I want to step in here real quick and simply say, folks, this is not a segment that Star of Hope is paid

for. No, this is something where Stip called up. I asked you to come in. Skip called up and he said, I am passionate about Star of Hope I'd like to take time out in my program and talk about them. So thank you so much. Well that is right. Well that's a little thing I can do, you know, to I can give you a platform here to tell the story that I completely believe in and am sold on. And again, I know a lot of folks. You know when it comes to money, you know what's going to happen here. Am I

just supporting a drug habit or whatever? Knowing that you can put a dollar into something that has it makes a difference in a human being for decades and decades to come, and then their children for even longer than that. And in our community too, when you look at the big picture, it's helping the Houston community in general. That's right, That is true. All right, folks. Well, we're going to take another little break here. You're

listening to Guardline and I'm visiting with Scott Arthur from Scar Hope Mission. We'll be back for another fifteen minutes here right after the break, and here we go. We're going to get a little but a news and other information. If you welcome back to garden Line. We are glad you're listening this morning, and we're going to do our little final segment here with Scott Arthur from Star of Hope Mission. Scott, we were talking about different gifts and different

ways to help people. Are there some other things that you would like people to be aware of? Again, you're giving us a peak behind the curtain here, indeed, and this is a peak that a lot of people do need to be aware of. And one of the gifts that you're helping me give is just that awareness, you know, letting people know that that guy on the street, that family that you might see. There are so many individual stories and so many ways that Star of Hope can help them out.

And we do change lives. And that's not just something you say over and over again. It's not an advertising point or anything. We change lives and every single dollar, every single penny, helps us do that. And there are so many situations of need out there, right, I mean literally, we are at capacity all the time. Right, It's a very fluid population. But we you know, we are reaching out to help everybody twenty four to seven. Well, the need is always going to be immense, especially

in a city region the size of the Houston area. Yeah, well yeah you do. And and again, folks, this is a this is an opportunity to put your compassion into action. We're all grateful for where we are, you know, for the blessings that we've enjoyed in our lives, and and uh, when it comes to helping somebody else, I just I know I'm a broken record, but I can't I can't say it enough that this

is a difference. Your dollar makes a difference that changes people and and it and it brings hope, and it just all the ramifications of the loss of a job, ending up on the street whatever wherever someone is, all the ramifications of that star of hope has baked in to their helping that kind of thing like the education we're talking about, like caring for the kids, like providing clothes so you can go get a job, like providing training so you

can go get a job, like providing meals so at the meantime you're not starving to wonder where the next meal is coming from. And I just think that's really really critical and I so appreciate what you and all the folks at starfuck Boy. You've got a huge team over there are doing. Thank you, so very welcome. And the endgame is getting people into housing and we

help with that as well. Oh really yeah, So that you know, after all of this training, they are ready, they've graduated, they have a better outlook on life, they have hope, and they take all of that, pack their bags and move on and start their life again. So that you know, and again, you know, people say, you know, well, you know, I stop at an intersection, I give a guy five dollars, and I feel good about it for the rest of the

day. Well, if we just freeze that frame and back up a little bit, for five dollars, you have probably helped him buy his alcohol for the day. And that meets he'll be on the street a little bit shorter time, right, so he can go to where he is by his alcohol and he'll be there again tomorrow. So you might as well say, hey, listen, I know you have an addiction. Yeah, let me give

you five bucks to help you out and i'll see tomorrow. That's a good point because think about this, folks, that when you hand a dollar to somebody, you don't know where it's going to go. Maybe it goes to good maybe they really are hungry. There is that possibility, and you wonder. But when you go to Starve Hope with that dollar, they vet people and they have rules there. I mean you people can't just come and do

whatever they want to do. They have to provide or abide by reasonable things that we would all expect to be part of being taken care of in a place, obeying the rules and taking care of the things that you're being provided. And so if you've ever kind of wondered, I wonder where this handout is going to go, well hand it to star of Hope and then you know where it can go. That's kind of that's kind of thing that's very wellful. You guys, do that really good job of that. And I

want to say, we have a website which is just amazing. It's s O H Mission dot o RG And if you go there, they have some videos and I'd like you to watch this one and it's called in their Shoes, In their Shoes, In their Shoes. Go look it up and it'll take you on a couple of days of some people who actually just went on the streets and we followed them with cameras and they are experiencing sort of sort of like someone like you who really had no real idea and they live that

life. And they came back saying, we will never look at someone homeless again the same way. Yeah, that's true. Wow, that is such. That is such good stuff. You know, we're encouraged. I'm encouraging you to consider giving uh you know, it's the end of the year. How about this a new year for a new life. The money you put in providing the opportunity for someone to be able to turn things around, and also consider giving a mostly basis, I think that's important and you can sign

up to do that. They have all kinds of packages. By the way, they we haven't had time to get into this today. But if people want to volunteer, there's a lot of practical ways to volunteer, from you know, very involved in reaching out to the streets, to just simply coming in and doing simple tasks around to help Star of Hope do what it does because you guys focus on certainly not wasting a penny, but putting everything you can into the people you're trying to help. So when people come in and

volunteer, they're helping you do that. Absolutely. You say that, so, well, really I think we should switch places. No, maybe for the voice quality, that would be a good We really really appreciate your passion for this things s s o Hmission dot org. S o Hmission dot org.

Write that down and and just just consider this. This is gosh, it's such a wonderful opportunity because you know, all my life, I've wanted to be able to help people, but then there's all the the package of I don't know, you just don't get around to it, and I find that when you just go in, We've I've been trying to convince you of the validity and the fact that this is a straight up organization doing unbelievable work. If you will go in and look at those videos on sohmission dot org,

learn more about it, and then make that commitment. Just sign up. And it's just as simple as that. And I'm telling you, for the price of what people spend on coffee in a week, you can change a life and just simple things. You never know that that even hardly went out because it doesn't take a lot, but it does take a lot of people. And Star Hope isn't supported by one or two people. There are people all over this region that are making them possible and making that kind of

difference that you can make. Scott, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm going to wind it up here, but I could go another three days here. I'm enjoying this well and I want to personally think not only KTRH, but also the folks listening who donate to Star of Hope. It is nothing we take lightly. Every dollar helps and literally it changes a life. So thank you so much. Well, that's good. We're about to wrap up another hour here and I just want to thank you for listening.

We'll be back next hour to talk all kinds of things gardening seven one three, two, one two fifty eight seventy four. Just a couple of reminders though, if you you know we talked about fertilizing your lawn for fall. If you have not put azmite on this year, that is a good supply of all those trace elements that are essential for plant growth but only needed in small amounts. That's why a forty four pound bag covers six thousand to

ten thousand square feet of lawn. It doesn't take a lot, but it is an important thing because those nutrients are important, and azamite can do that for your lawn. It's azamite Texas dot com if you want to learn more information, and you can find azamite all all over the place. I've been talking all more warning about the importance of getting your trees planted. Now get them done now. This is the best season of the year to plant a

tree. You put the tree on the ground, let's say today. That tree next summer, when the heat comes and the drought, has more of a root system, which makes it more resistant, resilient, excuse me. And it also makes it just thrive better. You know, when you plant a tree, your first question is when can I hang a hammock? Well, how do we get them from here to a hammock as quick as possible. First step plan in the fall. Verdant Tree Farm. They're loaded up

with trees. They have trees and large shrubs and everything else you could possibly imagine they can take care of you. Just go to Verdant Treefarm dot com. They're in West Houston on Barker Cyprus and Perilin on Broadway and up in the Heights area where ye else comes into Interstate ten. Simple as that.

Verden Tree Well, we're here, goes the break. I just want to remind you that next Saturday I'm going to be out at rc W Nurseries and making appearance out there at eleven thirty all the way to one thirty two hours out at RCW for their their Fall Fling. I almost said spring Fling. Man, I'm losing track of time. Fall Fling. They're gonna have barbecue sandwich lunch. They're gonna give away lace bark elms, live oaks and Mexican

white oaks seedlings. They're gonna have fifteen percent off every shrub and a lot of the trees as well. And they've got the sand Filippe red maple that normally one point fifty is one hundred bucks. The live oaks normally one hundred and fifty one hundred bucks. That'd be. That is a huge deal, So don't miss out on that. We're gonna be giving away different kinds of fertilizers out there. They're gonna give away some flowers and some frostcloth. Just

come out, bring me your samples, bring me your photos. Let's help make your lawn and garden more beautiful.