It's Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm telling you easy. Boston News Radio.
Welcome back everyone. We are about to begin the twelfth annual Knightside Charity Combine. We've done it now for this is our twelfth year, and we start off as always, We're going to talk about representatives of about twenty great charities. Sit back, relax, no phone calls, But as we have for many, many years, going to start off with the official charity of Nightside, and that is the Shadow Fund. With us is the assistant dean at the Massachusetts School
of Lord, Diane Sullivan, who founded the Shadow Fund. Diane, it's going to be getting close to twenty years that you've been doing this.
It is, Yes, it's a good solid eighteen years.
Dan.
Wow. How many people has the Shadow Fund helped during that period of time?
And I wish I could give you a number. I cannot. We have helped thousands, I would say at this point, until we get several calls a day and we're you know, we're inundated with requests. There used to be a few other charities besides us that help the animals, but were the sole standing charity at this point, so we're pretty busy.
So you help people who need you just don't do veterinary care for people, but if somebody really qualifies and it needs to help financially people who do not have enough money to help take care of their pets or get them to a vet. It's you know, I've told you before that there are people who are successful, you know, people who will call and inquire, inquire of me and saying, oh, I understand you guys. Support a charity called the Shuttle Funded gets free veterinary care for people. I said, where
do you live Weston and what he won? A lawyer in Boston like you, Oh, really, Oh it's great, it's great. No, no, no, no, this is people who need the help. You have a coterie of veterinarians who do a lot of this work for you at in some cases the cost that they need. You do everything from literally helping someone get a critical shot for an animal that they might not be able to afford, to actually sometimes surgery. There's a lot of factors. How can people get in touch with you directly if
they really truly do need help? And please, folks, if you, if you're comfortable, make a contribution to the Shadow find Okay, how can they get in touch with you.
Simply either call me or email me. Diane Sullivan the Math School of Lawn eight dixtate one zero eight hundred. I'll repeat that nine seven eight dixtate one zero eight hundred, or you can email me. You can go to the Math School of Law's website and I'm listed there, or you can simply email me at Diane da n E. F. Sullivan at mslaw dot edu.
And of course people also can go to the website which is Shadow fundne dot org. N E stands for New England. There is a shadow fund in California which is unrelated. This one is named after the first dog that you were able to help many many years ago.
Uh yeah, that's right, Ida.
Wonderful cause, a wonderful organization. I just again thank you for the I call you saint Diane.
Okay, oh well that's not true.
Let me tell you if you're not a saint, no one is. In terms of the I'm serious Shadow Fund inne dot org. I encourage everyone jot it down. A five dollar contribution to a five thousand dollar contribution, whatever you could afford. It's helping some person who needs to get veterinary care for their pet. Diane, thank you for what you do. Please say had to all our friends at the Massachusetts School of Law and we'll talk sooner.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you, Dan, and thanks for everything you do to support the Shadow Fund and your listeners the same. Thank some of them. Ganet Forms being one who have been long term supporters.
I thank you.
She's an unbelievable human being as well. She's a saint as well. Thanks, Diane, appreciate it.
Okay, Danny Holiday, Merry Christmas.
All right, We're going to take our next charity is one that's also very close to my heart, and that is the Mark Fidrick Foundation. Everybody I think who's a sports fan remembers Mark Fidrich, the picture for the Tigers, who actually in nineteen seventy six was the talk of
the baseball world. Local guy here from central Massachusetts died very young in an accident, but his wife Anne is with us and he has carried on his cause the Mark Findrich Fidrick Foundation and Fidricks tell us what the Mark Fidrich Foundation continues to do for young people related to sports.
So we provide grants to a number of programs that provide sports related activities for individuals with special needs. And it could be a child or an adult. It could be a physical disability or intellectual disability. We take all comers and some of the programs that we support our unified sports which go on at middle schools, high schools, and now even in the elementary grades. That's under the
umbrella of Special Olympics. We also support Special Olympics, do some water ski collectives in Webster that does a great programming with some disabled children. It's just amazing to see the smiles and for these individuals to have the opportunity to participate in sports where they may not have had that opportunity.
Well, you know me, and I'm sure that Mark is looking down at us and so appreciates the work that you've done in his memory. How many years have you been providing help to so many of these organizations that either reach out to you or you've reached out to.
So it's thirteen years that we've been, you know, raising funds and then distributing funds annually to a variety of organizations that as I mentioned, So, yeah, it's been. And my daughter is really the brainchild behind all of this. She says mommy. We get to keep things going that Daddy used to do. So yeah, we get ourselves together and we're doing it well.
We all loved his spirit, and his spirit lives today through the through the Mark Fiedrich Foundation, and through your efforts and the efforts of your family. How can some of my baseball fans maybe make a contribution to help you help other people? What's what's the website?
So Mark Fiedridgefoundation dot com gives a donate tab on that page. You could go through PayPal or you if you prefer to write a check. The address is also listed there.
And Fidridge, which is not an easy name to spell, is f I d y r h am I.
Correct, Uh, we mix up on the vowel, so f I d yep r y h r y ch Okay.
Well, thank you very much for that. But I think any baseball fan can look up Mark Fiedrich uh and the impact that he had on on Major League baseball as a as a young guy from central Massachusetts, and he continues to have an impact of positive impact. And thank you so much for what you do, and thank you for participating in with us this year of the Nightside Charity combine.
Dan, I can't thank you enough for your help and I wish you all the best.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you as well. Thanks so much. All Right, we are going to take a very quick break here, and when we get back, we're going to be talking about helping men and women in uniform adopt a platoon's southea style. We're coming right back on Nightside.
Now, back to Dan ray Line from the Window World Nightside Studios on w b Z the news Radio.
Next up, Kelly coin Conroy. I met Kelly coin Conroy on several occasions and she is the proud mom of a West Point graduate who soon be a captain in the US Army. He has been deployed and was when his unit was deployed. Kelly coin Conroy come up with the idea of adopted platoon selfie style. Kelly coin you got to explain that one to people who might not be familiar with adoptor plun platoon sealthie style. Welcome.
Thank you, Dan for giving me this platform to talk about something that I feel passionate about. In about twenty twenty one, I hooked up with a group from Fort Drum, New York, and got a list of some soldiers that needed packages. And then once they gave me the list, I realized it was kind of a daunting task because they had so many names and that was only one person.
So I just reached out to my community and everybody just came together and started to send me money, send me different things to go inside the boxes and grind all the bars and snacks and different items for them, cards and letters, and it's just grown and grown. And I'm lucky enough to say that in these few years, we've sent over a thousand packages to deployed soldiers to
ten different countries. We've had several different platoons, and we've been lucky enough to be able to follow them from the beginning of their deployment until they return home.
But the thing that's interesting is that you continue this beyond your son. At that time, he was a lieutenant soon to be a captain, a lieutenant Conroy's deployment. So what kept you doing this even after your son came back home?
Just so rewarding.
You know, every once in a while, we'll hear from different members of the platoon. They'll send us a note or thank you, they'll send us some cards. There are some of those there, I call them kids. Them A lot of them are just like eighteen to twenty one years old.
They don't have a whole lot of people in their lives. They can sometimes come from, you know, tough situations. So they get a box from me in a note or a pod or a birthday card, and it just lifts their spirits. And we just want to make everybody, you know,
feel a little better, you know, boost them around. We all go back to the statistics of twenty two a day, and you just hope that maybe as they realize that there's somebody out there that cares and that's thinking about them, it will help them get through the days they missed, the times they missed from their families, the holidays they give up a lot.
And the reference to twenty two a day. As you and I both know the number of suicides that occur for veterans in this country every day twenty to a day, which is that's too much. So how can folks I join your cause and help out in many forms and fashions. What's the website?
The website is adoptor Platoon.
Sealthistyle dot com and on there is pretty much everything we do.
And you also have a great website. By the way, everybody should visit the website just to see the amount of activity. It's adopt a Platoon, Selthistyle dot com, Kelly Coincnray. I'll tell you're a gift to this nation. Your son is a gift to the nation as well, but you are very much a gift to the nation. Thank you for what you do and thanks for joining us tonight.
As always, thank you so much.
I appreciate this opportunity.
You bet you we'll talk so Merry Christmas. We are now going to talk with Jennifer de Luca, who's with the group that maybe you're aware of called the Fisher House Boston. There are fisher Houses across the country, but this is fish the Fisher House Boston. Jennifer, welcome tonight's side. How are you.
I'm very good, Dan, thank you so much for letting me come on and talk about Fisher House Boston.
I'm sure a lot of people have some idea about Fisher House, but let's nail it down exactly. What is Fisher House, how long has it been around and what do you try to accomplish.
So Fisher House Boston is unique to most other Fisher Houses, other Fisher Houses on VA properties and take care of veterans there and how to the families. We recognized a gap in care ten years ago for military families that needed specialized treatment at our world renown Boston medical centers.
So we started the Fisher House Boston serving all of our world renown Boston hospitals by providing lodging for military families that need to come to Boston from all fifty states to receive treatment from Children's Hospital Dana Farber, Mass General Brigman Women's all of them, and it's free of charge, because we believe they've already paid the price when they raised their hands and said they'd served this country.
How many families do you accommodate in some form of fashion every year?
Oh?
Boy, so I'll tell you.
As of November one this year, we've provided sixty two hundred nights of lodging to over eleven hundred families, saving them two point five million dollars. And in the ten years since starting the program, we've provided twenty six thousand nights of lodging to over four thousand families, saving them nine point five million.
Unbelievable unbelievable, Jennifer, how can people? Do you need volunteers? Do you need financial support? What? What do you are you in most need of?
We need financial support. We run solely on donations. We receive no government funding or state funding. It is truly our communities. And you know, Dan, I say all the time, the best healthcare in the world means nothing if you can't access it. So we provide that access with the help of people like your listeners. So I would ask everyone to visit Fisherhouse Boston dot org and Fisher is spelled Fisher House, Boston dot org. And again all the information is there.
Oh that's perfect, Jennifer, A great explanation. Thanks for breaking it down for us, a very impressive set of statistics. And hopefully some folks might take the opportunity in the next few days to visit your website and maybe help out a little bit, because it is a great cause that you folks have espoused for so many years, and I thank you so much on behalf of all the veterans in their families that you've helped for all that you've done for them, and hopefully my my audience, well,
maybe write a few checks in your direction. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas.
Okay, thanks Jam, thank you, same to you. Thank you, You're very welcome.
We've got to break here. Goodbye, goodbye, Jennifer. We'll talk again. We come back on a talk about Handy Capable Fitness, feeling fit. I have a very interesting guest. We'll also talk to. Well, we have another an hour and a half of great charities to talk to. We've started off strong, we'll continue. We'll be back right after the news break at the bottom of the hour.
It's night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Back on Nightside, our twelfth annual Nightside charity Combine, and we're delighted to welcome back James Norris. He's the founder and president of the Handy Capable Fitness Incorporated. It's a five all one C three organization headquartered in Malden, Massachusetts. James, welcome back to Nightside.
How are you, hey, Dan, Thank you so much for me. I really appreciate it.
So tell us briefly what your organization does. And then one of the things that you've done is you have written three books for children to help them better understand other children who might have a physical impediment and show that really people can accomplish a great deal whatever some of those physical impediments might suggest.
Otherwise, that's correct. So Handicapable Finish started to kind of out on my own Finnish journey, and what I wanted people to realize is that despite having a disability, could live a fin active lifestyle. And how we choose to do that, or how we help people do that is providing them grants for things that is finness, crimen, gym memberships or anything that's going to help them live that active lifestyle. So we work with anybody from veterans to children to anybody in between.
And the individuals that you help. Is there an age bracket? I know you have a great focus on young children, on children that.
There is there is children, but we help anybody. I mean, we've helped get veterans wheelchairs all the way in Kansas, to teenagers you know that wanted to skateboard wheelchair so that they could go skateboarding with their friends. We've done everything in between. So really, if you want to get up, get active, we want to help bridge the gafts to make that happen.
And you have written three books. Tell us about the three books that are available. People at your website not only can contribute, but they also can buy the books. Tell us about the three books, that's correct.
So so the series is called Flow four Kids sl O and Number four Kids dot com. And what it is is it just snapshots in my life growing up with a disability and just showing the kids that yes, there's things that make us different, but those things are actually our superpowers and that with hard work and determination, we can accomplish anything that we set our minds to.
So there are actually four books you've written. I miss mis wrote it, miss said it. It's four. It's four books you've written in this series Feeling Accepted Coast to Coast yep.
So there's there's dreams that are been published. I'm working on the fourth one.
As all right, all right, so give us the website how people can get in touch, either to contribute and support or perhaps purchase books.
Okay perfect through its handy ahn d I Capable v A P A B O E Fitness dot com.
Handy Capable Fitness dot com. Perfect thank you for what you do. I know that you have dealt with a disability that occurred when you were quite young, but you have overcome so much, and you're an inspiration to me and to everybody who knows you. Thanks James, I appreciate it and saying my good friend. Okay, thanks you. All right now we're gonna take you up above the Clouds. And the organization is called Above the Clouds and with us is Greg Bonnie Giorno. How have I done with
that pronunciation? Greg? Not bad?
You did?
Okay?
Right now?
Not back? Compared to a lot of.
People, all right, tell us about Above the Clouds sounds to me like a great program. You get some young people up above the clouds.
That's right. Well, first, thanks for having having me on the show tonight, along with all the other great organizations
that you're promoting here. But Above the Clouds were based nonprofit to five o' one c three based out of norwayd Airport and started about twelve years ago husband and wife team Gary and Martha Oberstein, and they saw a connection of utilizing the utilizing general aviation world, which is a general aviation basically individuals that have their own aircraft, and utilizing those as tools to help bring joy and hope through the wonder of flight, if you will, to
children and teens who have serious illness or disabilities and or underserved facing other adversity in their life. And so it gives these kids an experience that they may not have had access to otherwise, and that's bringing them to the airport, teaming them up with one of our volunteer pilots that has their own aircraft, and we kind of give them an experience during the day where they come
meet the pilot. We have volunteers on the ground and they help facilitate anything that we might need during the During the day, they do a walk around of the aircraft and they they'll actually go for a flight and they'll they have options to explore different areas. Sometimes we'll fly in towards Boston and fly around the city. Other times we'll fly down towards Jilatt Stadium and do a circle around the stadium, or out towards Kate Crod kpe Crod Bay, or if if they live in the area,
they can go for a flight in the area. And so it's a really special exciting treat for these kids to go for a flight. We call them dream flyers and uh and there and there, and pilots love to share the excitement and enjoy a flight. So it's a real great combination for these pilots that have aircraft to give back to the community using you know, they're very generous with their time in their aircraft and it's it's
all donated to the organization. And so that's one of the events we have called Dream Flight Days, Dream Flyer Days, and then we also do Aviation Discovery Days and that entails the kids, usually groups of kids. We have about twenty different partner organizations throughout Boston that feed us kids and we'll do events that Logo Airport get behind the scenes and check out the aviation industry. We've tapped into
Cape Cod Community College down in Plymouth Airport. They have an aircraft technician program and so they'll go down there and it's a beautiful high tech facility at Plymouth Airport and we'll do about a two to three hour event down there and they'll get to explore all different aspects of aviation.
It sounds greg like a great program. I assume you could still use some more volunteer pilots who might want to take some kids up on flights. How can folks get in touch with you either to take advantage of the great service that you offer maybe contribute some financial support or maybe even volunteer as a pilot. What's the best website?
Yeah, so I'll go to Above the Clouds kids dot org. Above the Clouds we have the kids in the end there Above the cloudskids dot org. And our website has all the information as far as who we are, what we do, and if you like to volunteer as a pilot, you can sign up there. If you like to volunteer as someone on the ground, we always need flight coordinators and joy makers we call them. If you'd like to donate, you can. There's a link on there as well to
help donate. And so we just hired a new executive director, Ray Santos, and so he's he's taken us to new levels. And so we're getting ourselves organized again for twenty twenty five and looking forward to a great season of flying kids. We're pushing all about almost a thousand kids we've flown over the last ten years.
Well, Greg, thanks for what you do and thanks for listening to Nightside and joining us this year, and we'll keep in contact this time goes on, but again a great program. Greg Bungeiono Bongono.
I believe thanks Dan, thank you having me. I appreciate it.
Thank you, Greg. Okay, thanks so much. All right, now we're going to take you back to the ground and we're going to talk about Minis with a Mission. Joining us is Laurie Low Lurie, Welcome to Nightside.
How are you, hi, Dan doing fantastic? How are you doing?
Thank you so much for very well.
Tell us tell us what what is Minis with the Mission all about?
Sure?
Yeah. Mini of the Mission is an all volunteer nonprofit. We partner with local outreach programs and charities as well as communities to provide opportunities for all people to receive the healing and joyful benefits of connecting with our rescued miniature horses and donkeys.
Mint horses and donkeys.
Wow.
And is there a geographic area that you serve or do you or how far does your does your mission extend?
Yeah?
So we are have our miniature horses and donkeys in the Ipswich and Newberry area, So we do a lot of our outreach with the north Shore communities. However, we do know as far as to the Boston Schools, which is a really exciting an impactful program because a lot of the Buston school children have never seen a miniature horse or a donkey, so those are a lot of fun to do those.
And what type of facilities do you, uh, do you bring your your minige minis too? I assume a variety of facilities we do, and we really.
Say, honestly, any place where there's a need of joy and healing and and that is often anywhere in the world that we live in today. But we have a very great partnership with Veterans Home Base. We also work with Care Dimensions, so their programs such as their hospice
care and Camp stepping Stone. We also have worked with the Denvers Recovery Center and the Recovery High School, many councils on agings in our local communities as well as Northeast ARC and some of the school programs and I'd already mentioned like the Boston City school programs.
So I assume that if folks want to avail themsel else, they could contact you. If other folks want to help and contribute, because obviously it costs some money to run a great program like this, how can people get in contact with you to either to help you or to participate in the program. What's what's the website?
Thank you? The website is Minis with a Mission, and there are several ways to support us. As you had mentioned, Generous donations do help us care for the rescued courses and donkeys, as well as administrative cost of the nonprofit. We love our volunteers who work passionately and tirelessly. We are an all volunteer organization. We have volunteers of many ages and different interest levels, and we find a way to make them feel welcome. And we would love to hear from you.
So I assume it's Minis with a Mission? Is it dot coma dot org, dot org, dot org? Okay, Minis with a Mission all one word dot org glory. Thank you very much. Thank you for what you do. I know you bring a lot of joy to a lot of people of all ages. Have a great Christmas and holiday season. Okay, thank you, Laurie Ll good bye. We'll take a break, coming back for two more. We'll wrap the hour and then we will have another full hour of ten more great charities here on our twelfth annual
Nightside Charity Combine. Coming back on Nightside right after this short break.
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Just a very quick correction. The website minisw a mission. It's dot com dot org. It's Minis Withthemission dot com. Now I want to welcome Arthur Bembery. He's with a group called part Takers. Welcome Artha. Tell us about Partakers. You've been around now for well twenty five years, since nineteen ninety seven.
Yes, Hi, good evening. Thank you so much for having us. I appreciate the opportunities. We have it around for just nineteen ninety seven. And we're an organized that offers educational opportunities and rentering opportunities for people that are incarcerated and for folks that have been impacted by incarceration post in consceleration when they get out. We work with aranging colleges in the area Tufts University, Emerson Vandeis, Boston College, and
Boston University to provide these educational opportunities. We also have a rentering force of four hundred volunteers from the surrounding the Boston area and the communities that are matched with the students inside and outside when they segue back into the community. Our recentive is aranged is two percent compared with the national three year average of sixty three percent in the local average here in Massachusetts of thirty two percent. So we're very proud of the work that we do.
Ninety percent of the folks in our reentry program go on to establish stable housing, eighty percent of them, if I have gone on to obtain employering upon now the release from prison.
Those are amazing statistics, art that you should be really proud of those. How many folks have participated in this program over the near quarter of the century that you've been operational now, well, actually it's more than a quarter of a century now that I get my math right here, go right ahead.
Dort reminders. During that time, we've had over four hundred preeple go through the program. Some do get out early before they graduate with a degree and they go on to erol in our re entry program and go on to find other forms of employer and others go on to continue your education through to the various colleges that they've been connected with. So it's been a raging journey and it's great to have this type of support from the universities because that was not always the case on
the conservative side. Keeping somebody in prison can range from a to one hundred and fifty thousand dollar fore and Massachusetts. So our work that we do, I'm establishing a pathway for folks to stay out at FRIS and it's definitely better than us sending those resources on that.
Okay, so you've made a very strong case. How can my listeners help you out? Give us the website and what do you need volunteers? Do you need support? What's the website?
First of all, takers dot org, ww dot parth, takers dot org.
And part Takers is p A R T A k E r s like partaking.
Exactly Partakers dot org. And our need is obviously donations are always welcome, but what we really need is for folks to get involved, for folks to become mentors. To go on the website, click on it see how to become involved at the organization because we encourage people to join us in being agentsy change and changing the narrative surrounding people that have been infected by a conceleration.
It's a.
All right, congratulate you, Congratulate you on what you do. Thanks for being in touch with Nightside and we wish you all the best in the in the in the years to come. For everybody who goes in and does their time, pays their price, they should be given an opportunity to get out and get themselves straight straight and straightened out and onto a very productive life. And you're doing that for a lot of people.
Thanks Arthur, Yes, and thank you for the opportunity to just shitty. In fact, we make with your listeners.
You're you're very welcome. All right, We're going to move and talk with Ellen van Erin. I hope I supper announced that name correctly. She runs a program called Companion Animals.
Uh.
It's basically services facilities down on Cape Cod visiting hospitals with companion animals. Ellen, how long has your group been around?
Well, actually I don't run the programpty and I just want to I don't want to take credit.
For that week, Kay, Sure, no problem.
So how long?
But the group spit around since nineteen eighty six. It basically started because there was a woman who was in a rehabit She had a dog at home that she missed, so a group of her friends got together and they started to go in and visit her in the hospital with their animals, and then from there the organization grew. We are approved by the American Kennel Club, so we are an approved training group and basically we have twofold We train owners and their dogs to become part of
a therapy team and join our organization. And then from there we go and we visit various facilities on the Cape. We go into Belmouth Hospital, a Cape Cod Hospital, Spaldi Rehab. We have also visit the various nursing homes that are available on the Cape and group homes and day programs for students with disabilities. We have a children's program where we go into elementary schools and we help students with the literacy programs. We make one time visits when requested
to different libraries. We've participated in suicide prevention walks to provide to try to provide some emotional support to the participants. And basically what we really need is we're looking for more people to become involved and become a therapy team on the Cape with us and join us and have us come with us to our various facilities.
Wed my next question, which was the help that you need. How can folks get in touch with you? You have a pretty impressive website, I believe Companionanimalprogram dot org is that the website.
No, actually it's Companionanimalprogram dot com. And on that day on the website, people can find out the different places that we visit, can find out about our training program. We run a six week training program just teaching the handlers and the odds how to behave in a different facility. They go through devaluation. We provide mentoring for the teams
to ensure that they're comfortable in the different facilities. And we are actually having an open house on Friday, January third at six point thirty at the Requoite Congregation Church. Anybody all of that.
I hate to do this to you, Ellen, but I'm a little bit tight on time here. I just want to make sure people have that website. All this information is available at Companion Animal Program dot com. Com. Yep, perfect, Thanks Ellen, Thank you so much. I appreciate you so much.
Dan, we really appreciate the opportunity.
Bybye, You're welcome. Now, I'd like to talk with a representative of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, Joshua Joshua Kamirov. Joshua tell us about the mass Down Syndrome Congress.
Yeah, great, Thank you so much, Dan, I really appreciate the opportunity and just hearing all the incredible, uh, you know work that other charities are doing out there. So the m d s C has been around for forty years now, and you know, we really just started by parents who you know, had young children who with with Down syndrome and wanted to be able to you know,
provide support for them in their schools. And we've just you know grown tremendously over the years and we have all sorts of programs and you know, big thing that that we really focus on is providing supports throughout the
entire lifespan. So we have an incredible program called Parents First Call that is really like a hallmark of m d SC that provides that has uh, you know, forty plus parent volunteers around the state who when somebody gets a diagnosis, whether it's prenatally or whether it's at birth, that we're able to match them you know, very thoughtfully
and be able to provide and support there. But then on the on the other end is to provide you know, support for individuals as they age, which is you know, really important considering that people with downstad them now are living a heck of a lot longer than they were, you know, several decades ago.
How many folks over the years, how many families have you helped?
I mean, you know, right now we serve about eight thousand families across the state, and you know, you know, specifically with new and expectant families through our Parents' First Call program that I spoke about, then we serve about one hundred and fifty every year with those sort of Yeah.
I don't mean to get emotional, but you do in God's work.
I truly mean that.
What's the easiest way for people either to support your group? I assume that financial contributions would be welcome, or to see about to get some help if they feel they're in need. What's the website?
Yeah, the website is m d s C dot org. So, yeah, Massachusetts Down centde Congress m d s C dot org. And yeah, for certainly at the end of the year, you know, financial donations that allow us to provide support for more families you know, throughout the year is hugely important to There are so many other ways to get involved as well. We have a Buddy Walk program that we run every October. Anybody can start a team. We have you know, scores of teams, and we have an
employment program. It's really important. I spoke about the lifespan and how important it is to make sure the individuals, you know, have rich lives, not just as as children and through their you know, education that we have support for, but as well into the adult years and so our employment. Our employment program is called your Next Star and we have a shop that you can find if you just go to MDSc dot org. You'll get there, you'll see it. But our employment program.
I just want to give that website a little bit most slowly, and that is m D S C. M M is from Massachusetts. D is for for Daniel, S is for Sam, for Charlie dot org, m d SC dot org. Joshua, thank you very much, Thank you so much. I'll be happy. All the families, thank you so much for what you're doing. I hope some of my listeners will be will be generous. Merry Christmas.
Okay, thank you, Jim, You're welcome.
When we get back, we have ten more great charities lined up. Right after the eleven o'clock news here on Night Side