Latest / The Good Side of Sports Podcast / Heart on Ice: Inside the Predators' Foundation That Changes Lives

Transcript

Heart on Ice: Inside the Predators' Foundation That Changes Lives · The Good Side of Sports Podcast

0:00
Stamp goes to Yosi,
0:04
lets it fly,
0:09
score! Hello and welcome
0:13
to another episode of the Good Side of Sports podcast, where we
0:17
highlight the good being done by athletes and organizations.
0:20
I'm your host Brian Hartong, and today we're coming to you from Music
0:24
City, Nashville, Tennessee, inside the Bridgestone Arena, where you'll find
0:28
the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League, as well
0:31
as the National Predators Foundation. And joining us today is Rebecca
0:35
King, Executive Director of the Nashville Predators Foundation.
0:38
So Rebecca, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. No problem.
0:43
There's so many things I want to ask you about, but before we get into
0:46
all that, I wanted to find out a little bit about you and also how
0:49
long you've been with the foundation. So I've been with the National Predators for 21
0:53
seasons. I've worked, uh, 5 years for an NBA
0:57
team in California, and then I moved here during the '04-'05
1:01
lockout. Okay. And I saw my job posted, and I'm like, if I did an
1:04
NBA, I can do it here. And so I switched and started with
1:08
the Preds and love the organization. I love what we're able to do and been
1:12
here ever since. Yeah. So ever since I first reached out about this
1:16
and got your out-of-office reply, I could not wait to ask you about Guatemala.
1:20
Yes, that is crazy. I just have all these pictures in my head.
1:23
So tell us a little about— is it Soles for Souls? Soles for Souls is
1:26
a nonprofit based in Nashville, but they work worldwide,
1:30
and they are a shoe-based group. And they have— I'm
1:35
not going to do it justice, but they have many different arms. One, we go
1:39
to rural communities in countries such
1:43
as Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican. We've been to Haiti, Colombia,
1:47
and we go to schools schools and local youth centers and distribute shoes
1:51
because a lot of kids can't go to school unless they have shoes. And the
1:54
shoes we see are not in the condition that are of
1:58
standard for any child to wear, right? And then also,
2:01
as a person in Columbus or Nashville,
2:05
you donate your unused shoes and they go to a big warehouse and
2:08
they get sorted, and then they get taken to
2:12
these third world countries and it becomes a microenterprise business
2:16
for people who are then able to sell the shoes
2:19
and make money for single moms.
2:22
Or there's great stories of women whose kids can't go to school because
2:26
they can't afford it, and then they join this microenterprise of selling shoes, and their
2:30
kids get the uniforms and they go to school. And so it's really impacting much
2:34
beyond the donation of the shoes that you provided. So it's
2:37
mostly donation-based, like someone will donate their old shoes or whatever,
2:41
and that's how you get them? The shoes we give to the schools are all
2:44
the same. They're Croc-style shoes,
2:47
so nobody's getting a different shoe and there's competition. So the
2:51
shoes that they sell are the ones that you have purchased. So when you were
2:55
in Guatemala, what all— like, what all happened while you were down there? So the
3:00
initial story of this program is an employee came to us and said, I want
3:03
to go to a country through Soles for Souls and hand out shoes.
3:06
And We said, well, the Preds Foundation is Middle Tennessee based,
3:09
we're very local, we're not here to send money and
3:14
shoes to other countries. And so what our CEO agreed
3:18
to do was assist employees who want to go on these trips to fundraise.
3:22
And so we do auctions and the trip costs about $2,800 and
3:26
we typically fundraise the full amount for every employee to go.
3:30
And there's 10 to 12 of us on a trip. And then we don't
3:34
have to take PTO. So we're given the time off. And so we
3:38
are there for 5 days and we do—
3:42
we've met over 600 kids. And so when we get there,
3:45
there's a person who's from that country that has already set up these distributions.
3:50
And so we sit there for 2 to 3 hours and kids come
3:54
and sit and we size them and they walk away with a new pair of
3:57
shoes. And then our employees have donated goodies for a goodie table. So they
4:01
get a notebook or pencils. And then once all the kids have shoes, we then
4:05
bring out soccer balls and nail polish and chalk, and we stay for another
4:09
hour or 2 and play with the kids and spend time with them.
4:12
And, um, it's one of those life-changing experiences where you
4:16
come back just a little bit different. Yeah, you realize how
4:21
fortunate one is and, um,
4:25
what we were able to achieve and the good work being done through Souls for
4:29
Souls. So I can't imagine what they walk up in as far as shoes
4:32
goes. And then, and then they've probably never even seen shoes like in that
4:36
condition. No, they're, um, rural villages
4:41
that are dirt roads and muddy little feet.
4:44
And it's, um, it is quite sometimes
4:48
life-changing for them because now they have a new pair of shoes to take to
4:51
school. And we did have one little girl come up to us, and there's a
4:55
pair of white shoes or black shoes, and she wanted the white ones really
4:59
badly. Like, they were beautiful and pristine, but she needed them
5:02
to go pick coffee beans in the field. And so she knew
5:06
she couldn't have white ones, and she— you could tell the conflict, but she ended
5:09
up getting the black ones because she was going to use them to go pick
5:12
coffee beans. Um, you said that also it's based
5:16
here. It is based in Nashville. What do they do like locally then?
5:20
Locally, they— we've given them grants and we go to local schools
5:24
and do big shoe distributions. And so a lot of
5:28
local programs, but they do it all over the country as well, so they
5:32
just happen to be based in our backyard. Okay, that leads me to my
5:36
next topic, the number of nonprofits
5:40
or organizations you guys support. You did 199 this year?
5:44
Yes, that's a lot. That is a lot of organizations.
5:47
And I think, so when the Preds Foundation started in 1998,
5:51
hockey was not something people in Tennessee knew about. It was football,
5:55
it was basketball, it was college. And so we
5:59
really had to go grassroots to educate our fans. What is hockey
6:02
and why would you want to support us? And so the foundation intentionally
6:07
was very broad-based. We said we want to help youth and families.
6:10
And so if we had pillars and we said if you're not this,
6:13
this, or this, we can't help you, we're going to alienate a huge large of
6:17
our population. And so by keeping it broad, we can
6:20
say yes to everybody in some capacity, whether it's a donation to an
6:24
auction, a grant, or a player visit, or a Nash visit, or whatever
6:30
it may be. Okay. And did the foundation— how long has the foundation been around?
6:34
Since the start of the team. Okay. So, okay, since '98.
6:37
And, and is $199 a significant number? You just— or you just
6:41
don't want to get to $200? I know people said, why didn't you just do
6:45
$200? But it's legitimately the number of grants. So, okay, we had
6:49
420 applications, and the—
6:53
our board reviews them, so it's divided equally between 10 to 12
6:57
of us, and we sit and read them. And then that reviewer
7:01
is given however much money divided by $855,000
7:06
to distribute between those grants. Okay. And so they could give 10
7:11
$1,000 grants, or they could give just 2 $10,000,
7:15
you know. So they could give big grants, or your heartstrings are pulled so greatly
7:19
you want to give a little bit of money to everybody, right? Our grants are
7:23
$500 to $10,000, and so I will say it
7:27
will cover a program. It's not going to keep your doors open. But then from
7:30
that partnership, we try and figure out, are you an organization we
7:34
can deliver turkeys to? Can we adopt your kids for Christmas? Do you need a
7:37
Kaboom playground? Is this something our player would be
7:41
interested in getting involved in? And we've heard some organizations, because of
7:45
our affiliation, and they got $5,000 and it covered a program,
7:48
but other companies have then seen that the Preds are affiliated
7:52
with them, and it brings attention and it brings more money. And so
7:56
it's helped them leverage our relationship to bring in more
7:59
money and resources. And it's not all just— is it all local
8:03
foundations that you get the grants? All Middle Tennessee. So typically the
8:08
Kentucky border down to the Alabama border, Cookeville to Jackson.
8:12
So it's very centralized. When we do our grant checklists
8:17
presentation, you have to come here. We don't mail checks. Okay, so we do a
8:19
graduation-style event. And so all 199 groups were
8:23
here, and some had 1 and some had 20 people. And so you
8:27
walk up one by one, you get your check,
8:30
fake check, and then a real check. You get a picture, you meet a player.
8:34
Barry Trotz was here, our former GM. Nash is here. We've had puppies
8:38
here. We've funded a horse organization, so someone brought a mini horse that
8:43
you can pet and take pictures with. And at the end we do party poppers,
8:45
and we've had over 400 party poppers to create a big group
8:50
shot at the end. And so charities feel celebrated and appreciated.
8:55
And we— I call it the most powerful room in Nashville because
8:59
it's everybody doing great things, right? And so we
9:02
tell them to bring business cards, and you're supposed to exchange it with
9:06
the people to your right and to your left and to your front and to
9:09
your back, okay? Because everybody has a resource that they can provide to someone else.
9:12
And years later, we've heard of amazing partnerships that have come just by who
9:17
they sat next to in that room. Do you have a story that sticks
9:21
out as far as a foundation that you guys assisted or that has— that
9:25
have grown because of your involvement? Oh,
9:28
so many. Um, I mean,
9:32
I love the small groups that really wouldn't
9:35
maybe survive without the grants. So you guys like
9:39
get in there, like they apply and then you guys go visit them and see
9:43
what's— what they're all about and stuff like that? So our summers are very
9:47
busy. We try and visit 40 to 50, uh, because we have a little more
9:52
time on our hands and we can drive to Tullahoma and some of these outlying
9:55
counties. And what we read in application looks
9:58
amazing, but then when you go see it in works and
10:02
you meet the kids and you meet the founder who is so passionate Suddenly
10:06
we were like, let's give you all our money. We really see like
10:10
the blood, sweat, and tears that they pour into the organization. And then we take
10:13
that information back to our board and we said, we met this organization this
10:17
summer, you should really fund them because we know the good work that's being done.
10:21
That's one thing ever since I started doing this, being around
10:24
you guys, you guys are all just like that, all passionate and like
10:29
want to just make everything great. And I— that's why I try to
10:33
help, to help that situation, but it's, it's great what you're doing. It's a huge
10:37
impact. Yeah, we're like, what else can we do? Right,
10:40
right. Um, that leads me to my next thing. As far as player involvement,
10:43
you guys have a lot of players that, that do stuff.
10:47
They have their own part within the foundation,
10:50
or you guys just support their initiatives? So both multi-level.
10:54
I'll start with our employees. So on your first day of employment, we sit down
10:58
with you and we say you are required to get 40 hours of
11:03
community service. Okay, if you don't want to, that's fine, but this isn't the company
11:05
for you and we'll help you find another job. But to be an employee here,
11:09
community service is a part of who we are and part of the DNA.
11:13
When a player signs here, it's similar. Like, we expect you
11:17
to be a part of the community. In July,
11:20
when we have our rookie training camp and we have our new draft picks,
11:22
we have the opportunity to take them into the community and visit nonprofits
11:26
because we want them as an 18-year-old to realize if you play here
11:30
This is something that you're going to regularly be doing, going to Children's Hospital,
11:34
going to daycares, going to Tennessee School for the Blind, meeting kids,
11:38
being involved in the community because that is a big part of who we are
11:41
in this community. For our players, we don't just say you
11:45
should do this. We'll sit down and have a meeting with them, figure out
11:49
where their passions are, what they're interested in. You can't
11:53
force something. An organization will say, I want a player on my board.
11:56
I said, well, if they're not passionate about your cause, It's disingenuous.
11:59
They're not going to show. They're going to think badly of you. You're going to
12:03
think badly of us and it's just going to blow up. So we wait for
12:06
those moments that really we see alignment.
12:10
Some great examples, Nick Hague was new to
12:13
us this past season. And during our Gladiator shoot day,
12:17
I sat down with him and he was really raw and
12:20
fresh with emotion. And when they were in Las Vegas, his 26-year-old
12:24
wife was diagnosed with colon cancer. And he said, we just met with a doctor
12:28
yesterday. He's like, I don't know what I can do, what I wanna do,
12:32
but I just wanted you to know about it in case there's things
12:35
we can do. And so we took that information and
12:40
came back to him and said, what if you and Ali sit down and do
12:43
a PSA and encourage people not to ignore symptoms and
12:47
to pay attention and to get checked? Because the
12:51
age of people getting diagnosed with colon cancer is dropping.
12:55
And so not only did they do that, we brought in her doctor
12:59
from Nashville and they discussed about her journey
13:02
and just what has been going on in her life and
13:06
kind of really being very open
13:10
about this really scary situation.
13:14
And so they, this summer,
13:17
I think she got rediagnosed. And so she's been having chemo
13:22
all summer and she got to ring the bell. And so now we're gonna do
13:23
some more PSAs with her and the NHL is gonna going to help
13:27
elevate her platform because if you can get a spokesperson
13:32
that's been through it, it's just going to help bring attention to a cause and
13:35
help. She said if one person gets checked and she gets
13:39
to help someone, then it was worth her kind of exposing
13:43
this very private part of her life. That's great. A couple
13:47
other ones that I got information,
13:51
Forsberg and Stamkos and Saros and those guys
13:54
all have their own too. They all have their own. So Saros loves
13:58
dogs. Okay, he foster failed on a dog, and we
14:02
had 2 previous players that were big in the animal rescue
14:06
community. And every college or team
14:10
has a kids club. We're like, what if you don't have kids but you have
14:13
a dog? I said, let's do a dog club, right? And so we created this
14:16
kit of promo merch, and people sign up to become a part
14:20
of the club, and we mail the kit to their dog. And then every
14:24
month we do dog park meetups. And UC Saros shows up
14:27
and we hang out at the park for an hour with his dogs and the
14:30
fans' dogs, and it's just this big celebration.
14:34
And then the money— he donates $10,000 and the
14:38
Pretz Foundation matches it, and we give it to Wax and Walks Nashville,
14:41
and it helps with rescuing dogs that are in overcrowded shelters
14:45
that are going to be euthanized. Is that the one that's right outside the arena
14:49
here? That's our little dog park that we created. We had this dead piece
14:53
of land and we said, what if we gate it? And we created a dog
14:56
park because there isn't one downtown for people that live here. And so we have
15:00
a lot of residents that really rely on that dog park. We saw, we saw
15:03
a dog in there when we were just doing a little tour of the area.
15:06
So it's definitely getting good use for sure. Was it a German Pointer Shorter?
15:10
It was a little dog. I don't— it was a real, real little dog.
15:13
Um, and then Roman Josi. Roman Josi,
15:17
he has been with our organization and such a strong leader
15:21
in the locker room, but also off the ice. Um, he was huge with Best
15:26
Buddies and donations and participation to the point where he rented a
15:29
limo, picked up some buddies, and took them to prom.
15:32
And he and his then-girlfriend, now wife, went to prom
15:36
with some friends from Best Buddies. Uh, he does donate $100,000
15:41
to the National Prayer Service every year to our foundation. And then I sit down
15:45
with him and his wife and we go through organizations and figure out how he
15:48
would like to allocate it. And so Best Buddies, uh, he and his wife
15:52
are big horse people, and so there's a lot of equine therapy programs with kids
15:55
with cancer. And so he helps fund some of these small programs
15:59
that really could use the money. But, um, he is
16:03
our go-to guy. We had a— we were doing a playoff run a few years
16:07
ago, and there was a kid and he wasn't going to survive, and the players
16:11
walked off the plane, got in their cars, and drove to his house and went
16:14
and visited him. And so to have Roman as a captain and a leader He
16:19
is teaching these young guys, like, if you play here and you're here, this is
16:22
what it means. And he is just as amazing off the ice as
16:26
he is on. Do you have former players that come back
16:30
and get involved in things? We do. We have quite a few players that have
16:33
retired here. Like Ryan Johansen lives here and he was a phenomenal community
16:37
guy. Whenever there's a disaster, within an hour he's called. What can I do?
16:41
How can I provide food? Like, he was really in tune and wanted
16:45
to give back. When PK Subban played here, it was a
16:49
lot of— there was kneeling during the anthem, and so they
16:53
had a closed-door meeting, and PK stood up and he's like, I'm not
16:57
going to kneel, but I want to do something. And so we worked with
17:01
him to create a program called Blue Line Buddies because he wanted to do something
17:04
that brought together police officers and inner-city youth. And so this program,
17:09
which started in 2013, still runs today
17:12
even though he went to New Jersey and he's since retired. Every home game,
17:16
we have a police officer and they get to bring a guest, and then a
17:19
big and a little from Big Brothers Big Sisters. They meet pregame, they have
17:23
a VIP dinner together, they meet a player pregame, they get
17:27
autographs, pictures, a t-shirt, and then they sit and watch hockey.
17:30
And so many of the kids have never been to a hockey game, and so
17:33
the officer gets to explain what's icing, what's offsides, why players
17:37
doing this. And we've heard some stories that have come out of this partnership where
17:41
the big and little have gone to the softball game of the officer and the
17:44
officer had a glove waiting on the bench for the kid, or the officer works
17:48
in a crime lab. And so later they went and visited the crime lab and
17:51
got to forge a relationship beyond just hockey games.
17:56
Is there a lot of fan involvement with the
18:01
foundation? There is. The fans are our lifeblood. I always
18:05
want people to make sure they know that we are not just given, here's $2
18:09
million, go do some really good things. We have to self-raise it.
18:12
And so our small but mighty department of 4 puts on about 10
18:17
fundraisers a year, and an auction at every single home game.
18:20
Okay. And so next weekend, we have a dinner with a comedian for 1,000.
18:25
We have a hockey clinic with Philip Forsberg for 90 kids. And then we have
18:29
a golf tournament. It's a double flight tournament with 25 teams
18:33
in the morning, 25 teams in the afternoon. That's a lot. So that's just in
18:36
one weekend. And we used to do a fishing tournament as well. Then less than
18:40
a month later, we do a clay shoot. And then less than a month later,
18:43
we do a bowling tournament. And then in the spring, we do a casino night
18:47
with our players, and that has about 1,000 attendees. We'll do a wine tasting
18:51
for about 1,000 to 2,000 people. We do a beer festival. We've done a fashion
18:55
show. We have a pickleball tournament this weekend. We do the silent auction every
19:00
home game. And so all of that money gets put into our account, and then
19:04
we do our grants program. Our scholarship program, our Kaboom program.
19:07
And so we fund all of these things from the money that we have to
19:10
raise. I was— when I was reading through everything, I think this
19:14
can't all be stuff they do currently, has to be a history. But you do
19:17
all that, all the— there's 4 people. Yes.
19:21
And I will say the National Players is a big oiled machine.
19:25
We don't work in silos. So marketing helps us promote
19:29
our events. Okay. Communications helps do the press releases to get
19:33
the attention. Ticketing will help reach out to our season ticket holders and sell it.
19:37
Hockey ops ensures the players and the coaches are aware. And so all the
19:41
parts of the company have to help us to make it successful, but the nuts
19:45
and bolts of the event is run just through us. The golf
19:49
tournament, is it a local course? Yes, it's out
19:53
in Dixon, and we are whole— any player that
19:57
plays golf will golf in the afternoon. So they're paired with a foursome.
20:01
And so we— the, the really cool story
20:05
about our golf tournament is that we partner with Peterson's
20:09
Foundation for Parkinson's. So one of our assistant coaches who's
20:13
since retired was diagnosed with Parkinson's when he was a coach,
20:17
and he used to do a golf tournament, and we used to do a golf
20:20
tournament, and they were a week apart. And we said, what happens if we join
20:22
them and collaborate? And so we have
20:28
a whole group of Parkinson's patients that are beneficiaries
20:32
of the money that he raises and then also our foundation. So players are
20:36
back in town and so they attend this dinner,
20:39
interact with our fans, and then brings great attention to what Brent is
20:43
doing. And he's had some rough years with Parkinson's and
20:48
it's been hard to watch, but the fact that this event continues and raises money
20:52
for the nonprofit that he created. And through his interaction with Michael J.
20:55
Fox, he has since— that's
20:59
what got him going because he realized he didn't want anyone to feel alone
21:03
in this fight. And that's what he felt when he was first diagnosed, was very
21:06
alone. And so they create a lot of— there's a
21:10
boxing club and a dance program and just opportunities
21:14
to bring patients together.
21:20
What's— what would you say your most successful, um,
21:23
fundraiser is? I think our most successful is our casino
21:27
night that we host in January, February. It is a full team appearance,
21:31
and so we have about 1,000 attendees, and it's
21:34
an opportunity to have conversations with the players rather than just a high
21:38
five and a quick autograph. And so the players are the
21:42
dealers at the games, they're at a photo booth, they're wandering
21:45
around with their spouses. And so it's,
21:49
it's more seeing them as who they are and off the ice.
21:52
And we also, for a $100 donation,
21:56
you can be in the team photo. So we have the players seated in rows
21:59
and then we leave the middle 2 seats open or 1 seat and you can
22:02
sit and get your picture taken and we print it on site and you get
22:06
to take that home that you were in the team picture. That's cool. So there's
22:08
probably a line of people. There's a line of people that sign up to do
22:12
that. And we cover the ice. And so you're in the bowl of the
22:16
arena. So you can really see the vastness of the arena. And that's during the
22:19
season. It is during the season. Yeah, I think with our events, we have something
22:23
for everybody. So if you don't like wine, we have a beer fest. If you
22:27
don't like to golf, maybe you like to bowl. So we have a bowling tournament.
22:30
One of our newer events is our clay shoot. And so when Mike Fisher retired,
22:35
we wanted to stay engaged with him because he lives here with Carrie still,
22:39
and he likes to hunt, and he has a business called Catchin' Deers.
22:43
And we said, well, what if we create a clay shoot that's an alumni event?
22:47
And he said, yep, great, I'm in. And so now we bring in a whole
22:50
different population of people, and they come and shoot clay in the afternoon. And we
22:54
intentionally do it in the afternoon because if the players are not on the road,
22:57
then they come and shoot clay with us and participate in the event. Okay.
23:01
Um, being here in Nashville with all the entertainers and everything, do they get involved
23:06
at all? Do you have very much entertainment? They are hugely involved. And again,
23:09
we figure out where their passions are. Luke Bryan, he and
23:13
his wife and his sister-in-law founded a nonprofit because
23:17
his niece was diagnosed with a heart defect and
23:20
Down syndrome, and she ended up passing away. So the Brett Boyer Foundation
23:24
helps families with CHD. HD. So we host a Heart
23:28
Night every year, and in the meeting rooms pregame, all the families and doctors
23:32
and nurses and therapists come and have this big party. They have
23:35
face painters and a DJ. But then Luke comes and
23:39
he sings the national anthem. And last year we did a bobblehead for him.
23:43
Oh really? And so we really get to highlight the work of his nonprofit
23:47
and help families. So it goes beyond just having them come in and sing the
23:51
anthem. It's also where they're passions. Okay, wow. I,
23:54
I know Dolly just passed away 2 days ago. Does she have any involvement with
23:59
you guys at all? She was very involved. We gave grants
24:03
to the Imagination Library, which is her book program. But several years ago,
24:06
there were huge fires in Gatlinburg, and it destroyed a huge part
24:11
of the community. And so we did create t-shirts.
24:14
And I think that's the important thing with sports teams, is we can activate on
24:18
a dime to create a fundraiser to suddenly bring in a lot of money.
24:21
And so we took the next few games to raise money for Gatlinburg,
24:24
and we presented her a check for $50,000 that she
24:29
did a big telethon. And so we were able to support her efforts. Okay.
24:32
Um, through that. So is there any, any story
24:36
of how an individual life that, that was changed
24:41
or sticks out to you as far as through the work of the foundation or
24:43
anything like that? We had a really unique opportunity when Joel Ward
24:47
was signed here. He was young, single, had no family,
24:50
no wife, no kids, so he had a lot of time on his
24:54
hands once practice was over. And he came to us and he said, I want
24:57
to be a Big Brother. And I thought, that's amazing, but that's a lot of
25:01
responsibility and it's nothing I can do for you. So you have to call them,
25:05
you have to get a background check, you have to fill out the application,
25:09
you need to select the kid, and then you need to spend time with this
25:12
kid, right? And so he did the whole process, and he was signed
25:17
up to meet this kid named Malik, who is a 7th grader living
25:21
in a housing project not far from here. And we
25:25
have an amazing video that we created from Joel talking about his experience,
25:28
but he said initially they would just go to the Y and play
25:32
basketball, and Malik had no idea Joel was a professional basketball hockey player.
25:36
Really? He is a Black player, which is also unusual. So you
25:40
probably wouldn't think initially. And so eventually Malik found
25:44
out that Joel was a hockey player. And so Joel would bring him to games
25:47
and we would watch him at our auction table and he would run credit cards
25:51
and help us with the auction. And then Joel would drive him home after the
25:54
game. Really? Well, Malik had some trouble and he
25:57
was in and out of juvie. And then Joel was traded or signed
26:03
with Washington Capitals, but we still had this young boy that we were trying to
26:04
foster and mentor. And Joel
26:09
agreed to pay for the incidentals,
26:13
and this private school gave him free tuition to go to school because
26:17
he was just going to get his GED and drop out. And he went to
26:21
Lighthouse Christian School. We made him repeat 11th grade. He had all Fs,
26:24
120 demerits. We wouldn't let him play football. Like, he was
26:28
so far behind. And then his senior year, he had straight A's,
26:32
zero demerits, played football, was a leader and a mentor.
26:35
And he was the first kid in his family to graduate high school. And so
26:39
we had 4 or 5 hockey players go to his graduation, including Shea Weber
26:43
and Mike Fisher. And we had probably 40
26:47
to 50 Nashville Predators employees. And then afterwards,
26:51
I think a few players banded together and bought him a car. And he
26:55
said he probably never thought he'd make 18. He thought he'd be killed just
26:59
in the projects and just the trajectory of his life of an organization
27:03
pouring into him. He worked the locker room for a while helping the referees.
27:07
So we employed him here. He now works at Vanderbilt Hospital
27:11
in one of the departments over there, but he's now 30 and
27:15
he still stays in touch and he still comes to hockey games. He plays in
27:18
beer league. Oh, really? He's a hockey player? Yeah, now he's a hockey player.
27:22
When Joel, when he was an assistant coach for the Vegas Knights,
27:27
Joel would come in the night before, they would go have dinner, they still text
27:30
and email and stayed in touch. So it's just amazing if
27:34
you pour into someone, we changed the trajectory of his life,
27:37
his family's life, kind of showed him what's out there, what's possible.
27:41
And he was the first to graduate from his family. From his whole family.
27:45
Yeah. Um, are there any, uh, initiatives or programs
27:49
that you guys have that, that benefit the underserved here in Nashville or the
27:52
surrounding area? We have a few great programs. One is
27:56
our Kaboom Playground Build. So we've done 14
27:59
in 14 years. Okay. Uh, Kaboom is based in DC, but they
28:03
build playgrounds in underserved communities. And so it's actually
28:07
one of our employees' favorite days of the year because you show up at 8
28:10
AM and and it's just a grassy field. And then with 200 volunteers,
28:13
we build a massive playground in one day.
28:18
Granted, the cement has to dry and the kids can't play on it for a
28:21
few days, but to change a community by building
28:24
this playground really gives safe space to play. An organization
28:29
we gave a playground to a few years ago said the day we called them
28:31
to say that they were the KaBOOM! playground recipient, a couple kids had been
28:35
killed in the front yard of a drive-by shooting, and they just didn't have a
28:39
safe place to play. And so it was a really impactful moment that by building
28:43
these playgrounds, you're providing that for the kids and for the families
28:46
of a community. And so every November we build a playground.
28:51
That was— that just makes me think of something. Do you guys have
28:55
any, like, rinks besides here? We do.
28:58
We have, um, Fort Ice Bellevue, which is west
29:02
of town. We recently added Fordyce Clarksville, which is near Fort
29:05
Campbell and the military base, so that's north of town. We have Fordyce
29:09
Antioch, which is southeast, and that's an underserved
29:13
community. And then Centennial Sportsplex is where team
29:17
practices, but it's also a complex that we just recently took over.
29:21
And so we manage all of the ice rinks in town and create programming for
29:25
kids who want to learn to skate, and that's in partnership with Scott Hamilton.
29:30
And to have an Olympic ice skater come out there and teach them how to
29:32
play is pretty incredible. And then we have a lot of like a program
29:36
called GOAL, Get Out and Learn, and it's a 4-week program
29:40
and we give you all the gear for free, instruction for free, you use
29:44
the skate rentals, and at the end of the 4 weeks you keep the stick,
29:47
you keep the jersey, and you're like, I love hockey, right?
29:50
So the parent hasn't spent $1,000 buying the gear,
29:54
they can test it out. And if the kid doesn't like it, they're not out
29:57
anything. So we have some really great programs
30:01
that have developed hockey players in our community. Yeah, I was talking to one
30:05
of my friends and I said, hey, I'm going to go down to Nashville where
30:07
there's an NHL team. They're like, NHL in Nashville?
30:11
So I'm sure it's grown. Yeah, like the— just the focus on
30:15
hockey is— the age groups coming out of those programs of youth
30:19
players. And then recently we got money from the league,
30:22
uh, to develop women's hockey. Oh, okay. And so we've had a few
30:26
sessions of that, and as a 48-year-old woman, I went
30:30
through this learn to play, and now I play on 2 teams in the evening.
30:33
And so our women's hockey program has even grown and developed,
30:37
and just trying to get more people on the ice. Yeah, my buddy
30:40
plays in a league in Columbus because they have a lot
30:44
of ice up there too, and he goes, you should go out and try it.
30:47
So I've been to one, they're called Chillers up there. Yeah. And yeah,
30:51
I can go like 2 miles an hour. So I need to take your program.
30:55
So fast. And my husband's like, this is so boring.
30:58
But I'm like, I'm flying out there. Right, right. But it's
31:03
been a great community of women that we go out and have a beer afterwards
31:07
at the bar at the rink. And that's cool. It's been a really
31:11
fun program. Yeah.
31:15
This— I love sports. Yeah. So that's, that's why I— part of
31:19
the reason why I do this, um, just because I like to be around you
31:22
guys, all these sports people and stuff like that. But it's just all the stories
31:25
are even cooler, all the stuff that you guys do and stuff like that.
31:28
Um, besides the events, is the, uh,
31:31
auctions the most where you bring the most money in besides that? Yes.
31:35
Okay. We probably generate $600,000 a year through our auctions.
31:39
It's our presence on the concourse. Fans know where to find us,
31:42
but it's online. And so people don't have to live here or attend
31:46
the game to bid. So we ship items all over the country as well for
31:50
our fans that are elsewhere. Is it— so is it like you can sign
31:54
up for an alert every time to get that list sent to you? Yes.
31:57
Okay. Yes. Can you donate directly on the website
32:01
too? Yes. So you can go to nationalpredators.com/donate. Okay. And I
32:05
think something that's unique with our foundation is that we learned early on,
32:09
I don't know how to cure cancer, I can't teach kids how to read,
32:12
I can't help in these spaces, and I can't tell you how to do that.
32:16
But I can leverage our platform and our brand and our players
32:20
to raise money, and I can give you money to do what you're good
32:24
at. And so money that is given to us is instantly
32:27
given back out to these nonprofits, so we don't utilize it for operational
32:32
costs. The Preds don't charge us rent. We don't have bills
32:35
with our foundation. And so it's really a money in and then
32:38
direct money out to these nonprofits. Do you do like,
32:41
this is what I took in this year, so that's what I have to give
32:44
out the next year, is how it works? Yes. Well, actually, what we take in
32:47
all this year, we give out by May. Oh, so it's that, that season.
32:51
So now our coffers are empty, and we've started with these
32:54
events in the next few weeks to kind of build back up. And then
32:59
And that's what we'll have in our grants to give away next year. And that
33:00
concludes our show. So tune in next time and I'll bring you another amazing foundation
33:05
doing amazing work. And remember, show your good side out there,