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