Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Warrants, Wheelchairs & Whiskey Legs: Mike Keating & Tommy Donahue on Giving Back | Ep 255
Transcript
- Nobody would have thought that I would be the Wanda. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. With the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't what? You said tip? Yeah. Tip. Okay. The p. Would Keep jamming. The ticket the ticket colon, nothing but a big Gen X jerk on the set. Is this a cool night or what? I thought somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Why? No. No. No. No. Can't possibly do this. Why are we doing this? I don't want Whatever you do this is the longer I can set up stuff for our livestreams. What the hell? Where Why didn't you tell me this was about to happen? There was no heads up. God. No warning. What? Oh, you Yeah. Zip. Yeah. I swear. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody. Not just what's the way. Mm-mm. Not like I said, five minutes, ten minutes, thirty five seconds. It's just There you go. No communication here. I know. Awful. And these are your friends. They're your employees. They're your friends. Love you. Love you. Alright. Alright. Alright. It is time for another episode of Your Dark Companion, this being episode number 255. Wow. I just wanna say something real fast. Oh. Mike said he's only got two of these left in him. I do. I do. I'm a witness. Big day for us then, I guess. I totally I did say that and it's absolutely true. I don't believe it. He better plan better for $2.57 then. It's gonna be a big one I guess with What do mean a better plan better? I never planned for any of them. Levi Weaver has no idea what he's getting into then. He's bringing two bats. He's been known to leave without notice. Yeah. That's right. Gonna hate me even more now. Well, guess what time it is? Oh. Tell us. It is time for the fifth annual Giving Moss Golf Classic. I mean, it's not like time, like, in the next ten, fifteen minutes or so. It's not happening right now. No. It's not happening right now. We're in tournament. We are not in tournament, but it is time for us to start thinking about this because it's coming up on the September 24. It will be at Tennyson Park Golf Course. It benefits Giving Moss and the Dallas Amputee Network. And we have one example of each in here with us today. You never really referred to as an example. Yeah. A fine example. Now one was here for this last year. Mhmm. And I was here for others. Yeah. Was here just to I was just here promoting and talking about sharing about Giving Moss. Yes. He is Mike Keating, and he is back with us again touting Giving Moss and all that they do. And happy to be here and thankful to be here. And on his immediate left, Tommy Donahue. Yay. Yeah. Please. He is touting the Dallas Amputee Network and Milo Butterfingers. No. Oh. No? Oh, dear. Alright. Retired after early nineties. Heck yeah. News. Wow. Breaking news, Mike. That is breaking news. You totally disowning them then? Well I didn't say that. Okay, just making sure, you scared the hell out of me. Took a job yesterday as a consultant at Barley House. Woah. Woah, breaking news, breaking news. Boy that is breaking news. We've been there a time or two. Yeah. I think have a little history there. I got a little history there Yes, for absolutely. So what is your role there going to be? I am a consultant. You tell Scott Cecil how to do his Well, job we're gonna work together, Scott and I. Oh, Yes. Okay. How do you feel about consultants, Mike? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Do you feel about consultants? I do. And what are those? I was told once by a great man that consultants are like pigeons. They fly in, shit all over everything, and fly out. So how do you feel about your job, Bobby? Well, that that may be the case and it may not. Yeah. Either way, I'm sure you'll do it well because you I a little history. You do have a little history. You've seen some You've it done right and I bet you've seen it done not so right Exactly. As you've made your way through it. Yes, Milo's was a nice run, thirty nine years of God, I can't imagine doing anything thirty nine I can barely imagine doing anything thirty nine minutes. Well, I woulda done it till the day I died, but as things would have it, somebody swooped in and picked it up a couple years ago and it really wasn't my scene anymore. You know how that works when somebody new comes in, Mike? Oh, you have no idea what kind of knowledge I've had of that scene. I know you do. So I tried for two years to do the corporate thing and it wasn't my scene, I'd never done corporate, I'm 67 years old now and I couldn't do it anymore. It's too late to start now. Nope, it sure is. So, I've moved on and took a little vacation for a couple of months, and now I'm gonna do a little part time work down the street. At the party. My friends out, yes. Alright. SMU Yeah. Football coming up and we're gonna try and have a great fall with We've got a We've actually got a thing at Barley House tonight with Coach's Show and Kevin Jennings and looking forward to that. Alright. After I leave here, that's the next That's where you're going, Yep. Yep. What's the status of Giving Moss these days, Mike? Give us a little background on that, how you got involved in it, where it's at today, what you guys do for those who may not know. Yeah. It's we kinda go the backwards way. Like, a lot of organizations and charities will go for the children. Yeah. Try to get them shoes and we deal more with the parents. We ask the parents if if they wanna get their kids off of those GivingTrees or if they wanna give and start living subsidy free, what's stopping them? And then we'll deal with them for six months to two years to get them. Maybe they're you know a sanitation worker but they want to be a CDL driver but they can't afford the school. We help them get the schooling in. Yeah. You know maybe they're driving without a driver's license. We clear up the hurdles to help them get a driver's license so they can drive legally. Maybe they've got some outstanding warrants that are hindering them from getting a different kind of job or a Alright, now you're talking to me. Oh yeah, we can can help. We've taken care of warrants in several counties. God, I'm a mess. Well, I don't think I have any current ones, but. Oh, you got that one expunged? I guess. It still may be out there for all I know, but that wasn't me anyway. It was a it was a false arrest. What is it? Marco Hernandez Ramirez or something? Something like that. Something like that. Somebody who who I was clearly not. Yeah. But same initials and that's all it takes on Yeah. That's right. Five o wouldn't I buy remember that story though. Yeah. Five o wouldn't buy it and I spent the night in the brig on account of it. Well, that's great. Important thing just to recap it is it's very collaborative. So it let's say they'll they'll ask us, can you help us get our car fixed? And we will say, probably, but two questions first. Do you have a driver's license and do you have Mhmm. If you don't have either one of those, let's work on that first so that you're driving legally. And if you don't have insurance because you don't think you can afford it, we'll sit down with their budget and look at things and we'll say, okay. Well, maybe you can't afford a $100 a month, but you can't afford 20. Yeah. We'll pay 80. They pay 20. We'll keep paying our 80 as long as they keep paying their 20. And then eventually it'll become $50.50, and then eventually they'll take over all of it when when they've graduated the program. So. How does somebody get in touch and you know, fall in with you guys if they want There's several ways, other nonprofits refer their graduate programs for like people that have graduated from Family Gateway, Exodus House, Restored Hope, the VFW, they don't necessarily have a program. They will when their people have reached the graduation of their program, then they're kinda out and on their own. And they don't really understand how to attack the credit, how to attack getting a, how to go apply for a job, or how to how to go ask for a raise. So we said And you guys teach them all that or work with them on all that stuff. Absolutely. Let's say they've got creditors, they've got in collections and they've got three of them. We'll we'll call two of them and we'll negotiate it down and get it down and then we'll set up another payment plan like we did with the insurance. And then once we've done with the two, we hand the phone to them and say it's your turn. And do they know what to do by then? They fudge you through it, but yes. The idea is for them to, you can't know until you try. Yeah. Can you help Ashley? I'll answer that. No you can't. I knew it. I had a feeling. Lost cause. Well. The average family, their credit score will will raise by 70 to a 100 points by the time we're through. How long does the process usually take? It's very It's very varied varied. According to the needs and the ambition of the families. Generally six months to two years. If they haven't gotten there by two years, they're probably we're not gonna. But you know, but we do. And when they do make it through, we've we've done some really good things. Like we just gave away a car or gave a young mother a car who totaled her car. I mean like literally two days ago. She had told her car, she had just gotten a job, she was just being able to support her family and she totaled it. It's not the premier car, but we got her one. In the last three years we've given some families that have really you know gotten their credit score, gotten, they're paying their own rent, they're standing on their own, they've gotten that. And we've been able to work with Planet Ford to get them some, well last year's was a brand new Ford Fiesta. How do you guys find people to work with and and what kind of criteria do you have? For the families? Yeah. For the families. Somebody in the family has to be working. We're offer a hand up, not a handout. So they have to be kind of being able to sustain themselves. But let's they're just struggling. They don't know how to get any further than just meet the rent, meet the bills, meet that kind of stuff. And they've got these hurdles. They maybe have these warrants or these credit issues or they, again, maybe they wanna be a different kind of career, but they don't have the means to go and get those certifications or schools. We put a couple through college. We help out with them. We don't pay the whole things because we don't have those kinds of resources. And do they come find you or you No, like a Okay, I see what you're saying. No. They are generally nominated by family gateway restore Okay. Okay. And then it goes they you fill out a nomination form on our site, and then it goes to our nomination committee. And if it you know if there, I mean I hate to say it, but if there's really nothing we can do to help them, we have to say sorry you know. If they are legitimately trying and struggling and we feel like we can we can make a difference, we call it changing a life. Yeah. One family at a time. That they can really do it. Then they go to the the committee says yes and then it goes to the board. Had to do that. I needed to get some separation from my picking the families or doing that kind of stuff. Yeah. And do they have to come in and interview with you? Oh, yeah. But, you know, we've had families that have interviewed and said they don't want the help because they don't want to reveal what their incomes are, what their bills are, what they're help in and stuff. Does that happen often where somebody come thinks they wanna do it and comes in and takes a look around and says, nah. Not often. I'd say probably about one out of 10. Yeah. Or or they'll get into it and go, oh, I didn't know I was gonna we had one one gal, one mother say, well do we have to do this every week? And in the beginning it is every week and after that it's like monthly and then it's every three months or whatever. And I said, well we don't have to do it at all. There's a way out here. You can quit anytime you want. Well, that's great work you guys are doing. We knew that. It's you know, that the whole charity scene is a pretty expansive situation, you know? Yeah. It's getting more and more struggling, is it not? Yeah. How, what kind of shape is it in now, say, compared to, like, five years ago? Or is there any difference, really? It's, we've grown, from a family standpoint, we've grown, financially, it's pretty close to run a 100 running around the same thing. And each family, this is the part that is the hardest. Each family takes between ten and twenty five thousand to actually make a total difference in their lives. Yeah. So resource wise, it's a little bit better, but it's not better enough that we could add five more families or something like that. That is probably the limitation of being able to help more families is not having. And you know, we tell that we because of our, you know, our desire and to teach them and have them living subsidy free, you know, we don't apply for any government grants because we'd feel that'd be kind of hypocritical. You know? So now we we do apply for foundation and other non pro or grants. So where do your resources come from? Golf tournaments and our annual event. Hell yeah. Hint hint. Yeah, that's really That's much That's where we come in folks. How many families are you helping at a time generally? Between three and six. Okay. Like right now there's four. And actually there will be six by the golf tournament because we have got two in in the cropper. Alright. And Uh-oh. Sorry. Scoochoopy. So do families just find out about you all or does somebody recommend you or how does the the hookup process go? Another organization doesn't nominate them, then we've had employers nominate families because they know somebody's got this, but they can't give them the training or whatever they need to get up there. Yeah. And then, yes, if you're you're a family out there and you feel like it's you wanna go through it and stuff, you can nominate yourself. How'd you get involved in this? It was purely in in not on purpose. I can tell you that. He's struggling. Now now what did you do or what do you do work wise in your career? Well, previous to this, spent seven years in the cabinet with Governor Janklow in South Dakota. I owned some employment agencies And then I was an HR director here in Dallas at Allied Marketing Group. And then this kind of is just evolved in and kind of just I like great I'm very grateful for what I get to do. Yeah. Did somebody just come along and pitch the idea to you or what? The governor and I would go around every year and you at Christmas and Thanksgiving, and we'd throw a truckload of turkeys and baskets of food in, and we'd go to the reservations. Then we just throw out baskets of food. So when I moved to Dallas, I thought, you know what? I'm gonna keep that up, but I obviously couldn't keep it up to that magnitude. Yeah. And I adopted a family from Goodwill, and I asked them to fax over the family's bio so I knew what to pry buy and everything. And some one about the admin lady where I was working, she she got it, and she was reading it and I said I think that's for me. And she said Mike, what are you doing? I said nothing, it's no big deal. Days later she comes up and hands me an envelope with $200 in it. She had gone around to the other employees. So I I tell my best friend when I get said, man, I work at a pretty cool place. They this is what they did. He says, well, we're hailing our Christmas party this Friday. Why don't we turn that into a I said, because that's not what it is. That's not what we're doing. And he insisted and so took a couple of the people from that party with us on the first give. And the next year, we put it on Facebook and told us, you know, and just said, and the next year, the Lakewood happy hour group kind of really brought it in, took it in. And so we couldn't have it in their backyard. We had to do it at Cosmos. And we started raising 1,600 or $2,400 and then when somebody they people are asking, well, if we're raising more money, why aren't we helping more families? And that's when the I don't know. The lightning bolt hit. Ding ding ding. Yeah. Yeah. That's when they ding. You know, I something said to me, quit changing a day, change a life. And that's where we just started to say instead, we're not gonna just make Thanksgiving or Christmas good. Let's make it so you're you're not you can make your own Thanksgiving and Christmas good. Was that a drastic turn in the way you do something from going from, you know, just a day to Oh, yeah. When it first started, it was just here's your Christmas, and we we we, you know, we might help them pay off some utility bills or something like that, but it was one family and it was done in a month. The we've evolved into this, you know, you've got to participate in your own things. And we, you know, learned that early by if you do too much, then they're right back in it. If you do too much too quickly Yeah. They're right back in it. So, no, it's evolved all that. And and we've had everything from, you know, we we had one family called the Brady's because they were three of his and three of hers and they got together and everything. He had warrants, talk about warrants. He had warrants all over and we got him his first driver's license at 37 years old. Hell yeah. Cleared that out. That's awesome. It's good work man. Was he a good driver? Well, you know the end of this, don't you? Oh. Well, he was, but I mean this is kind of the reward. About six months later he got a speeding ticket. And I was, I'm like, Zeke, do you know what this does to your insurance and how much it's gonna be? And he's like, yeah, I know it's bad, but he always had this kind of like half grin on his face. And I'm like, don't are you taking this serious? Do you understand what this is? And he said, Mike, it's the first time I've ever been pulled over that I knew I wasn't gonna get arrested. I love that. That's awesome. Yeah. That's great. Something to be said for that. Yep. So we've had a gal that we took care of seven or eight of her warrants, and she said, you know what? I probably could have done this, but I couldn't have done it if you hadn't shown me out. Mhmm. You know, that's Mhmm. It's a big part of it. Yeah. And just not being afraid, You know? And tell us a little bit about the golf classic. What's gonna go on there? How that got started and Good. And all that. It got started so we could help more families. And, you know, and just it's kind of evolved throughout the year. And now it's truly one of the things that people ask when's your tournament? When's your tournament gonna be? And then, this year, we kind of evolved and I went to Tommy and said, you know, we kinda do some of the same things as far as helping families get to themselves or take care of themselves and then bring that. And thought that because the that charity dollar is really harder to get to find nowadays. We thought by expanding your your participation, being able to help two organizations instead of just one, hopefully that would incentivize some people to And get we worked before together, I used to be on his board and we've done crawfish boils benefiting both outfits. We're very involved in East Dallas and the charity scene and we have a lot of the same people that support And so it was a no brainer to team up for this. Well tell us a little bit about the network and how it works and everything. Well, Dallas Amputee Network, next year will be our twenty fifth year I believe. We started in 2002 and I became involved maybe 2004 or 02/05. I had James Raglan who used to write for the Dallas Morning News wrote an article, I used to sit next to him at the Oasis down in Greenville and he asked me my story and I told him and he said, well what happened to the woman that pulled over and saved your life on the side of the road? And he said, I don't know. I said, my mom has her name written down but I was in intensive care, etcetera, etcetera. By the way, I got hit between two cars when I was 21 years old, lost This my is twenty five years later. He writes an article in the paper about me trying to find the young lady that helped me that night, which he did find her. And through that article, a couple of young ladies came to the bar at Milo's and said, hey, we've got a support group, this little support group for amputees, we'd love to have you come. And I said, ladies, I don't need a support group. I'm fine, look at me, I'm running a bar, I'm walking around on a Friday night. And they said, No, I don't think you understand what we're asking. We need you to come and show people that you can be a productive, active amputee. And I said, Well, you're nice ladies, I'll go once or twice. Well, yeah. Here I am years later, running the whole thing so yeah, that was an eye opener. I went to a couple meetings and immediately was just blown away by the stories of the, it was a very small group at the time. Maybe ten, twelve people coming together. But they would tell their stories and then what I did find out was I had an opportunity to go to hospitals and visit other amputees and someone did that for me when I lost my leg because I didn't know any amputees in 1981. I thought I'd be in a wheelchair the rest of my life. I had no idea what it meant. And it wasn't like today where there's so many active young people with showing their metal as Back you then it was a hush-hush, people wore long pants, nobody So knew I found this nurse I had sent somebody to see me and this guy came in the night before they were taking my leg off and he said, hey, just wanted to come talk to you. And I said, Hey, it's not a good time. And he said, No, I just wanted to talk to you. And he rolled up his pant leg and said, Hey, I ride in the rodeo on Friday nights. I just wanted to show you that it's gonna be And I was like, Oh my God, just was the greatest thing anybody could have done for me. So twenty five years later, I have the opportunity through this little amputee group to go to hospitals and be a peer visitor as they call it. And I said, hey, I'm in. I'm gonna keep coming. Yeah. And I kept hearing these stories and I was just immediately involved. Are you still in touch with that guy today? The guy who came to see you? No, I have no idea who he was. Get James Ragland to write another article. I wish but I it was the night before my amputation and it was such a unreal moment. I didn't expect it and it was like that and it was gone. But I always remembered it. It meant the world to me. So that being said, twenty five years later they write this article in the paper, I get involved in this group and I'm an active member for a few years. I get to do hospital visits and one day I'm out having our Sunday brunch. We had a little group that would get together here in East Dallas and we're having some mimosas and Bloody Marys on our Sunday deal and somebody says, hey Tommy, when are we gonna do another leg party? So I'd get a new leg and we christened a new leg by drinking beer out of it. And I said, I don't know. I said, I'm not getting a new leg and somebody in the group says, hey, maybe we can do a, get people to pay to drink out of your leg and raise a little money for a charity. I'm like, nobody's gonna pay to drink out of my leg, that's ridiculous. So a couple of more Bloody Marys and the next thing you know it's like, well maybe we could have a party, raise a thousand bucks for this little amputee group I'm part of, right? Make some t shirts, get a band on a Sunday afternoon at Milo's, I've got the venue, let's do it. So first year we raised $3,000 Everybody has a good time. We have t shirts, a band, etcetera. Let's do it again next year. 8,500, then 11,000, then 20,000. We're in year 17, October 18 at the Barley House. We've raised $750,000 after expenses for the Dallas amputee network. Damn. Which is now the, according to Google and AI, the largest in person support group in the country for amputees. Wow, damn. That's great. Good for you, man. Yeah, so it's become my life mission. I actually was having a discussion with your grant writer, Mike, that you turned us on to and I was talking about how when Legapalooza started that in the beginning, it was an excuse for me to throw another party. I was in the bar business. Yeah, sure. Any excuse to have a get together, get your friends together. Okay, it was a party. Okay, for two or three years. And then after two or three years, I started spending the money, or I say I, our group started spending the money to send our members to the National Amputee Coalition conference every year. Said we'll pay all your expenses, we'll pay your airfare, hotels, everything. And we were sending people, eight, ten, 12 people the first couple years. And these people had, some of them never been out of Dallas, never been on a plane, never done anything like that. And they would come back from this conference and they'd come to the next meeting and they'd say, hey what'd you get out of the conference? And they'd say, I never thought I would dance again and I got to dance. Oh my god. I never thought I could swim again and I got to swim. Wow. And they're crying, they're literally crying and all of a sudden it dawned on me, this is why I'm doing this and this is why I gotta keep doing this. And then it became real. And then instead of being just an excuse to throw a party, it became my purpose. It Mike became a had found his purpose. Yeah. I found my purpose and that's running this amputee group and I have dedicated just about everything I can do to keep this going and I just love it. And we're growing. You were asking Mike earlier about charities and the hit we took. Yeah. Well the pandemic was a big thing. We were getting in our monthly meetings, we were up to fifty, sixty people coming every month to our amputee support meetings. And after the pandemic, it got down to fifteen twenty again and we were we're starting all over. Well, we're back. We're back now. But it took a lot of hard work and a lot of cleaning house, if I must say. We had a lot of people not come back obviously, but we also had a stale, what we were providing was stale. Yeah. We had to reinvent ourselves. And so we brought some new, young active amputees in that kinda took over because as I told them, I said, I'm your fundraiser. I'll do my Legapalooza event, but I can't do the other stuff. Yeah. The support, all the other things we need to do. And so I've got some people now that are doing that. And as I said earlier, Mike turned us onto a grant writer because that's the next step for us. For all of us. After seventeen years of doing the same thing, doing Legapalooza, Mike and I both found out that our base of the people that come support us every year, after a few years they say, well you know I've given to that charity. Yeah, yeah. I spent my $100 my $500 my $1,000 I've got other places I can spend that money, I've given to them. Yeah. So you have to find new ways to keep that money coming. Alright, I wanna get into the grant writer aspect of this in just a bit and find out how all that works. It's a very interesting story. Right now though, it's time for us to stop down for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Don't be scared, guys. What do we have up and running here today? Anything? No. You know what you're doing. Go ahead. Okay. It's Dudley's. It's Dudley's. It's it's it's football. Alright. Let me tell you about Dudley's. Let me tell you about fantasy football at Dudley's. Football is nigh up on us. It will be here before you know what that means. It's fantasy football time. And the place you ought to get into for football and fantasy football and all things football, College, NFL, whatever the case may be, is Dudley's up on Henderson. I believe 2927. Nice. Henderson, if I recall right. Did I recall right? You did. You nailed it, Shoopy. It's right around the corner off of Central Expressway, just a little bit to the Southeast of Central and Henderson. And we've done some stuff up there at Dudley's over the last few weeks, and I could tell you, it's a really neat place. Every month. We do the OG every month there at Dudley's. And if you like to just go hang out and watch football or any other sport, Dudley's is the place. Food units, divine. Beverages, all you could possibly want can be found at Dudley's. Vibe, immaculate. It is a really cool place. I'm very glad we found it. Very glad to have Dudley's involved with the with our little podcast here. And, I dig it, and I think you will too. So give Dudley's a shot for all your football and sports and fantasy football needs and what? Remember, this is their first rodeo, their first year anniversary. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Dudley's coming up on its one year anniversary. So this is definitely the time to check out Dudley's. We go there a lot. We dig it. We think you will too. It is Dudley's 2927 North Henderson in Lobsterfest. In the d with Lobsterfest coming up. Oh, and, yeah, they got a Rockwall location too. So check out Lobsterfest at Dudley's in Rockwall. Going on right now. It's going on right now. Right now. I'm winging this. Right now. I'm so proud of you. You're doing so great. Yeah. You're doing wonderful. You think? Yeah. We're also about to start a a whole live music series up here. Oh, they are? A live music series? Do they have any TVs? Just a few. They have one or two. Yeah. And they have a ticker. They do. They do. They've got a sports book, Betty Ticker, that runs around the box. Yes. I might have more TVs in this place than they do theirs, but I seriously doubt it. Yeah. I do. Highly unlikely. Yeah. Unlikely. Very unlikely. They have more in one room than you've ever thought of. Mhmm. Anyway, it is Dudley's. Check it out. You will like it, I think. You've earned yourself a beverage break. Look at that. Just a sip. That's all. Just a sip. Alright. Now what did I say we're gonna talk about next? Grant programs and stuff? Yes. Grant writers. Grant programs and grant writers and stuff like that. How does that fit into what you do, Tommy, and if it fits you into ever seen Mike? We started with her and then we shared her, our grant writer with Tom. Oh, okay. I owe Mike a big favor for that. Yes, she's wonderful. I had a luncheon with her yesterday at Ozona and she's very well knowledgeable about that game and Mike could probably tell you more about her than me. But is, like I said, it's a next step for us when you've exhausted your sponsors after so many years. Every year I've been lucky, Mike too, that you lose a sponsor, you're able to gain one. And we have quite a network here at East Dallas between us to reach out to some local outfits and a couple of outside of the local, but you're gonna lose one or two every year because of the reasons I said earlier. People give for a while and then they say, I'm gonna move on So to somebody you gotta find other ways to bring in income. The golf tournament's one thing, but where do you go from there? Well the next step is you've got the Lowe's, you've got the Walmart's, you've got the people like that Sam's Club, they give a ton of money away, but you have to have somebody that knows what they're doing to apply for it. Writing a grant is a skill. It is a skill. And she has the skill and the she just enjoys it. I mean, that's Yeah. That's She really does. People who are grant writers are very, very good at it. Like, it's hard to win grants without a grant writer. It's almost impossible. We tried to do it ourselves and it didn't work. There's a skill to that for sure. Alright. If I were to write a grant, what would be the first thing I would do? Hire grant writer. Absolutely. No. If I if I were going to try and do it myself, what is the first thing I would have to Well, first thing is you you you'd have to look for an organization that wasn't out for profit. Okay. That's kind of a key element. Yeah. Yeah. Clearly this is something I know nothing about. Every every It's okay Shoopy. There's a lot of family foundations out there that have grants, but they're designed for certain things. So grant writers are good about going out and finding a grant writer that wants to give to let's say medical people that need amputees, okay, for Or they might be giving to autism outfits. You know, grant writers are good about finding family foundations and things that are giving grants to certain things. And each foundation has kind of got their unique set of things that they focus on, and they gotta go in there and say, this fits Dallas amputee. This fits Givi Moss. Yeah. And, you know, I we were fortunate. She's been really good for us, and I know she's gonna be good to You know, been really good. She was a played a big role in us receiving the Dallas CEO, family mobility forward award this year. And that's it. So. Yeah, he won the magazine. Excellent. Thank you. Excellent. Well, it's excellent. It's great work both of you guys do, man. And and I really enjoyed I I know I'm full of really stupid questions because I don't understand it all. Those are the best ones. But they don't give really stupid answers, so that That's works out for right. But I would be remiss if I don't slip this in quickly. Tommy said, he was on our board in the infant days of things. You talk about a consultant. Tommy was a consultant. He really laid, helped us lay down a foundation to get to where we are. It takes a village. It takes a village. It does take a village. Well, you guys are providing it. You guys are providing that village for a lot of people. I'm sure they appreciate you. And it's guys like you that make our Fairburg a great city. You know what? We're very blessed, all of us, to live where we do, to have what we have. I think about it every day that I could have been born in Kenya or wherever, but I was born here and I have a lot of gifts and it takes nothing to give back with what we have. So that's what you gotta do, give back because we're very lucky. Alright, if somebody is watching this and they wanted to get involved with either of your organizations, how would they do that? Websites. Google. Yeah. Google. Canaskdallas amputee.org, legapalooza.com. You know, all the information's there. Kibinmaas.org, Facebook, whatever. Google. Other words, can Google. They're out there and you can find them. Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you boys for coming in here once again. I know you were here last year. We enjoyed you then. We enjoyed you now. What? Oh, didn't you? Yeah. We need a little more info on the golf didn't mention that Ellie Balfour is playing at the tournament. Yeah. That's right. Eddie Balfour. You're gonna be broadcasting. Okay. Yes. A few more things about the golf event that's coming up, the giving the Giving Moss Golf Classic. We thought we could just tell people to Google it, but apparently not. We could. We could. But while we got you, let's tell you. Fair enough. It's Thursday, September 24. Tennyson Park is the place we will be podcasting from our Is that possible? At, like, one Oh, they podcast? Lunchtime. We're do the lunch so that all the golfers can watch. Yeah. Something like that. They're all gonna be buzzed. Doing their star player. But we probably don't offer enough star power for you to come out there on your own, but I bet Ed Belfour does. And he is going to be playing golf, and he is going to be doing that Ed Belfour thing that that he does. Do you think he's a good golfer? He's a very good golfer. He does a lot. Bet he's pretty good. He's that hockey swing. He was excited to golf. And you can go to the websites for us and if you want to play with him, there's an opportunity that you could bid on having him in your team. Your group. Yeah. Yeah. There's also an opportunity that you could bid to sit right in front of us when we're doing the podcast. But that's that's probably not a real high dollar item, I would think. But you could do it. Yeah. You can do it if you want. Oh, yeah. I'll I'll start with for anything. Yeah. Alright. Once again Probably mention that. Oh. Unfortunately, because it'll be lunchtime. So Grooves won't be joining us, but Grego will be joining us. That's pretty good substitute then. He actually knows how to talk. I mean, but Grooves September twenty fourth twenty sixth is the He didn't bother to repeat it. As I was saying, 09/24/2026 is the date. Mhmm. 8AM the start time, Tennyson Park Golf Course. It's the fifth annual Giving Moss golf classic benefiting Giving Moss and the Dallas Amputee Network. So check it out. Go out there. Get involved. Play golf. Have yourself a big day and keep in mind the good work these guys are doing. Some golf shots and alcohol shots. Yes. There you go. There you go. Two kinds of shots. Hell yeah. Play. And don't forget, Eddie Belfort will be there too. Yes. Mhmm. Alright. That is it for YDC for today. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you, Shoopy. Thank you, Ashley. And till next time. Thank you, Becca. Thank you, Becca. You, Becca. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Thank you, boys. Thank you, boys for coming in. Thank you, Shoopee. Till next time. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're dark companion is a stolen water media