Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 3 - Episode 42, Thomas Sweitzer, A PLACE TO BE

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The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 3 - Episode 42, Thomas Sweitzer, A PLACE TO BE · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

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Welcome to the Why Not Today podcast where we celebrate courage, determination, and the
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power of saying why not today.
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I'm your host, Leslie Cain, and in each episode we dive into inspiring stories of individuals
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who have taken bold steps, faced their fears, and embraced the possibility of today.
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From entrepreneurs to artists, dreamers to doers, we explore the moments when they said
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enough waiting, why not today?
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Join me as we uncover the heartwarming, the audacious, and the transformative.
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Whether it's pursuing a lifelong passion, overcoming obstacles, or simply choosing joy,
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our guests share their journeys and inspire us all.
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I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often said why not today.
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And remember we're just one decision away from changing our lives.
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And so welcome to the Why Not Today podcast again, and really why not today?
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I'm kind of evolving as we're going.
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This is almost three years, and I really feel like why not today is a movement, and a movement
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to encourage people to live their life, live their lives with courage, and pursue their
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dreams.
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And so I love all the stories that I've heard, the story behind the story, the why not today
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moments.
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And so my guest today is Tom Thomas.
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Did you go by Tom?
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Tom?
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Tom is good.
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Tom, Tom Schweitzer.
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And I heard about you about a year ago at the social collectives team.
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And then I've had several people say, oh my gosh, you have to have Tom on your podcast.
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And then we happened to be at a gala about a month ago, and somebody walked, you walked
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up with your co-founder, and I'm like, oh, and we tried to connect and we couldn't.
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And so I'm so excited to have you on.
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And I love the connections.
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Another good friend of mine, Kelly, well, Kelly Goose is now I know, or Kelly Barr, you
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worked with.
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Just fun to see all the connections in the community, and I'm excited to have you on.
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You've got some amazing why not today moments and stories of courage.
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And I love what you're doing.
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And it aligns with my heart with working with special needs and my sister Amanda, which
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we've got to get in the fold of you.
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So Tom, introduce yourself a little about you, not your whole courage journey, not your
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whole just who you are and a fun fact.
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And then we'll get into courage.
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Leslie, thank you for having me.
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I'm very honored.
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And so I'm a music therapist.
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I'm the co-founder of a place to be in Loudoun County, Virginia.
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We are 15 years old.
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We're a nonprofit organization helping the world find community belonging and hope working
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with people with and without disabilities.
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I'm an actor.
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I'm a writer.
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I'm a lover of life.
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Fun fact about me, about my family.
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Maybe my I'm related to a very large Italian family that owns an amazing amusement park
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outside of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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Oh, well.
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And also we have a spaghetti sauce that is international called Del Grosso sauce or La
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Familia.
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So I always find that's a fun fact.
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Oh, that's a fun fact.
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Do you have the family recipe that you share?
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I do.
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I do.
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But I think around here you can get it.
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I got it at Wegmans, Martins and probably Walmart, I think.
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Harris Teeter was holding it for a while.
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But yeah, so that's because you're going to learn all the other personal things about
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me.
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So I love that.
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Well, I might have to look for the sauce.
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Yeah.
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Not know the Italian background.
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And we are doing for the first time my sister's hosting Christmas Eve and we're doing seven
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fishes.
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I guess an Italian thing.
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So you will smell for seven days after.
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Oh, well, we're doing it at her house, so yay.
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Yeah, that's the thing in our family too.
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We always were like, whoever hosts that night, let them host it.
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And it's such a good night.
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I love the seven fishes.
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Well, when we're done, you might have to give me some suggestions and ideas.
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So she just sent an invite.
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I'm not sure what we're doing, but I think it'll be fun.
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Huge missions.
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Yeah, you want to bring an outfit that you can put over, an outfit, and then you take
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that off.
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Okay.
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Good tips.
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So love that.
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And I love that you said community, involvement, and hope.
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Community belonging and hope.
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Belonging, even better.
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And that's really what I am about and love all those.
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So all right, what does courage mean to you, Tom?
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Courage to me means, it means vulnerability.
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It means that you're not afraid to reach deep inside of what is vulnerable inside of yourself.
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Where your darkest thoughts, your dreams, the part of yourself that you have some fear about,
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where loneliness resides, where there's a hole, where you dig inside of that part of
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yourself to make a difference in the world for others.
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And I think anybody that has, the people I admire very much in my life who have had courage,
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so many people either faced with some sort of trauma.
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And we both, I'm sure you and I both have tons of friends, either cancer survivors or
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something is going on or a car wreck.
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And our life is so fragile right now, our lives.
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And there's so much chaos going on that I think it's the best time to be courageous and
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it's a really hard time to be courageous.
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And so I learned courage a long time ago when I learned that I would have to dig inside
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to really find who I am and then to see what I could dig up, what I could excavate from
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myself to go out and help other people.
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That's my, that's sort of the definition I see.
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And we can just stop now because that's an, oh my goodness, I love that.
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And so true.
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And I was just listening to a podcast and I said, talk about loneliness and that's just
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something that has hit my heart so hard that people are so lonely and our world is upside
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down and we're just talking about a situation.
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We're not going to go into the situation right now because hopefully by the time somebody
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listens to this or 20 years from now when you listen to this, it's a matter.
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So we're not going into it, but I think you said, yeah, this world is upside down.
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It is upside down and loneliness is obviously more in a crisis.
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And that's, so when you are mission here at a place to be community, belonging and hope,
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belonging that middle word is so important.
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And there are studies that have been done now on, you know, what is belonging, how a
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person's life is forever changed when they belong to something.
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And at the end of the day, Leslie, that's all we're trying to do.
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We're trying to wake up in the morning and belong to something.
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And that is something we are extremely, we're very passionate about here that everybody
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that walks through our doors here at a place to be feels like they belong.
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Well, I think the whole belonging thing, it's the connections to like, if you can find that
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mutual connection, that was something my dad was brilliant about, like getting to know
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people asking questions.
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Like, can you find that mutual connection?
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Like I went immediately when we first met, you told me you grew up in Altoona.
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I'm like, oh, we drove past Altoona, you know, I stopped at McDonald's or, you know, nothing
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more than drive through, but a media life out connected to you.
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Hopefully not McDonald's.
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Get that.
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It's in the news.
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So, but yeah, we'd stop there on the way to go skiing.
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And but that was immediate connection.
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Yeah, you went to Blue Knob, right?
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Yeah.
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Did you ski there?
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Yeah.
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Well, no, I was not a skier.
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I went there with I went there with friends to watch them ski.
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Okay.
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So yeah, our good friends of our family owned those mountains.
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Okay.
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So that's exactly I mean, connection is it right?
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And that is what we are missing.
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Right.
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And if you can find that connection, you went to the same school you even if it was
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20, 100 years apart, you find that connection.
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And I think once you can find that you build that trust with people.
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Totally.
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And so, and you feel like you belong, which is exactly.
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And something that connects, you know, and that's the thing that we're having a problem
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with in the world right now is, right?
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How do you connect to other people?
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And people are shut down.
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A lot of people are shut down.
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A lot of people don't know how to connect.
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And when you work with the populations we work with, which you know very well, if you're
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in a minority, if you're in the world of disability, connections are hard.
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Try being in a wheelchair and how isolated you feel most of your day anyway, or autism
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that has trouble communicating.
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So what we do here is the moment you walk in, we want you to feel like, you know, without
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the religion, you're at church, you're here as a community, gathering place.
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And that's what we, that's what we hopefully do for all of our clients here and all the
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performers we have here at a place to be.
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And music is such an important thing.
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I met somebody the other night in an event and he walked up to me, introduced himself,
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so what do you do for fun?
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And not what do you do to make money?
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I don't, he says, I don't care about that.
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I'm like, well, what I do for fun is actually a business when I talked about the podcast.
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And he said, the reason I asked that question is he said, a couple years ago, I was in ICU
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dying and I had to call my daughters and tell them, no, I'd probably never see him again.
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And obviously still on the side of the earth and doing great.
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But he said, ever since that moment, he's like, I've been passionate about asking questions,
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getting people to know people.
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And we talked about the music.
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And he said that when people that he know, unfortunately are dying, cancer, something,
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he creates a music playlist for them of their favorite music and shared that with them.
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He said he had a good friend passing away and he was pretty unconscious and he played
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his, their favorite song that they had as friends.
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And he said he opened his eyes and so music is so powerful.
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So I want to get into the whole place to be and how that came about, but I want to go
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way back.
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You told me your first why not say moment and it goes back to the starfish I always wear
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and you never know who that one person that's going to make a difference.
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It's going to take your life completely pivotal.
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And you told me a story and I can remember it vividly when you told me where I was sitting.
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So it was a why not say moment for me.
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So share that first why not say moment that changed the trajectory of your life.
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Sure.
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Born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania in the 70s.
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Very gray, dismal time in Pennsylvania in Altoona at that point.
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I lived in a very crowded neighborhood.
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My mom was very ill.
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She was obese and had diabetes and a very severe heart condition.
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My dad was paranoid schizophrenic.
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I was an only child and my household was pretty much hell.
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Although my mom made sure to make beautiful moments for me and I was loved.
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I was loved by the rest of my family.
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I was loved by the neighbors.
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Around eight years old, I always fascinated about the church that was across the street
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from my house.
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And one of my my father being schizophrenic, one of his triggers was religion, which is
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a very common thing for paranoid schizophrenia.
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He had complete conversations with God, with the devil.
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But I would hear this beautiful music pouring out of these stained glass windows across
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the street at the church.
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And you would hear the organ.
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Every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, all week long, I'd hear the bells.
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And at that point in my life, I slept in the living room with my mom.
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I slept on one couch.
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She slept on another.
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My couch was up against a big window.
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That's where I felt safest.
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My mom felt I was safe, my dad was also abusive.
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And at night, I would pull back the curtains and I would stare across the street at that
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church and I would pray.
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And as I say in my show, I used to pray to, I thought it was a radio tower because remember,
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radio was really big, seven, eight, and I thought the steeple of the church was a radio
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tower.
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And I myself, if I live that close to a radio tower, you know, I must have amazing reception.
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So I thought that God, God, we hear bears a little bit louder.
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Love that thought process.
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Yeah.
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So one Sunday morning, I just, I couldn't take my house hold anymore.
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I couldn't take the screaming.
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I couldn't take the abuse.
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And I was in my pajamas and I heard the music from across the street and I ran out as fast
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as I could across the street.
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I went up to the steps.
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And at the top of the steps, this part, all of this is actually how it happened.
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And this next part, sometimes people hear this next part and they think, oh, no way.
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I also think there's no way this happened, but it did.
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I got up to the top of the steps, the big red doors open, and there stands this Sunday
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school teacher.
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She has a three-piece skirt suit and she had a big, tall beehive and these little cat glasses.
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And she asked me, what took you so long to cross the street?
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We've been waiting for you.
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And to this day, you know, I don't know.
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I don't know if she saw my face in the window throughout the years, but her name was Erdine
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Grissinger.
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She died in her midnight.
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I was going to say, she's still alive.
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Oh, she, she passed away, I think it was probably about 10 years ago, but I did get to see her
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before she passed away.
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Wow.
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And there was it.
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And I walked into her Sunday school room and there was a piano.
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The first piano I ever touched and she sat beside me and she, you know, it's kind of
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cool.
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I have one here.
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And I played and, you know, all she had to do and oh, and she was, she played a song
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for me.
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And every time she'd play a song, she'd end the song with what she called a grand finale.
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So it could even be amazing grace.
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It would end like this.
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Love it.
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And if you're listening and not watching, he looks like somebody with a grand finale.
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He's funny.
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And then I stayed there with her for about eight years every Sunday.
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I never missed.
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She taught me how to play the piano.
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She taught me how to sing.
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She without knowing it was a music therapist.
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She was music therapy to me.
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And so, yeah, that's when my life was saved.
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That's why not today.
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And I mean, that eight year old who I was, I was like, why not today?
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I'm going to cross the street and follow the music.
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And yeah, so that's to hear that story.
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So that started to directory your life obviously turned around.
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She made such a difference.
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And you also shared how she had food for you.
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Oh, yeah.
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So she also she caught on fast, you know, that I didn't really have a great home to
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go back to.
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So when Sunday school was over about 1145, she would pull out her lunch and she would
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like by mistake, she packed two sandwiches and she would say like, oh, oh, my, look
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at this.
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I packed two sandwiches.
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You should stay here.
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She would ask me to water her plants.
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Anything to get me to stay longer.
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And I would stay all afternoon.
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I mean, there were times I don't know, you know, that when I got older, I became head
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of the youth choir.
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I did shows.
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I became so I had a reason to be at church from nine to nine.
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Like there were nights I didn't go home until about eight or nine and I never had to come
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home, which, you know, almost brings me to tears to think about how many kids, even children
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today, they'll do anything to stay out of their home because there's something.
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Yeah.
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And if she didn't give me that refuge, if she didn't give me the literal sanctuary,
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I know I would not be here.
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I would not I would not be in my own sanctuary here.
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I sit at a place to be while right across the hallway, there are two or three children
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having music therapy.
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And that that I do like every morning I wake up and I think, you know, it's about connecting
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our stories.
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Leslie said about connecting, right?
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Like how do we make it of our lives and ourselves?
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Well, people like storytellers, people like people that have a story, but everybody does.
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But we have to be awake and open.
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Like I it took me years.
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It took me into my late twenties to understand the importance of how my life was saved.
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Then when you find that moment when somebody opens a door for you, when somebody gives
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you something that propels you into the next chapter of your life, our duty is to then
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help somebody else.
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There was a there was a pastor in Upperville, Virginia.
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So I moved, went to college.
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I did go to college and went to Shenandoah University to be an actor.
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I went into music theater.
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But then I started to teach in Middleburg, Virginia at a private school.
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And that's another Godwink, you know, how did I find that job just happened to be a kid
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that was in a camp that I was teaching and the headmaster came by and saw me and said,
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Hey, do you want to be in my office tomorrow for an interview?
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But there was a pastor, you know, I've now lived in Middleburg for 31 years.
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This pastor passed right before I moved in.
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And all I heard Leslie, the first year I started to teach in Middleburg was, Oh my, you remind
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us of this pastor.
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His name was Dick Peard.
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Oh, you you're so much like Dick Peard.
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Well, I found out I was honored to be compared because this man was an amazing man.
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But he said one statement in a graduation speech that he gave that I use all the time.
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When you find your place in this world, help others find theirs.
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Okay, I repeat that when you find your place in this world, you find your place when you
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find your place in this world, help others find theirs.
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Those two sentences boil everything down to why we're here.
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Now in some of us, I'm very, you know, although I grew up very poor, there was abuse in my
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house.
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I'm going to tell you, I was still privileged.
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I was privileged because I had love around me.
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I had teachers.
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I had mentors.
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I had I had the church.
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I had God, whatever.
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And I believe in, I believe in everything.
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But whatever God I was told, I kind of created in my head, you know, I had to create him,
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you know, when I went home, because you have to have something to hold on to.
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And you know, it was great to hear the church's version of God.
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But as I grew older, I say this in my book, God grew with me.
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So my definition when I was a child was sort of, you know, it's what you're taught, what
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the Bible teaches you or what somebody preaches, but as I got older, he kind of like went along
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with me.
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He kind of adapted because this all I think of God is love.
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That's it.
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And so, and the love guided me to this day.
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And so that when I started teaching at in Middleburg, that saying just those two sentences,
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when you find yourself, when you find yourself in this world, help others find theirs, that
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was the end all for me. And that's hence where some of my service came from.
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And I've always wanted to help children.
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This is something I think I told you about Leslie too.
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And I don't share this one all the time, but I'm a very proud person to share this now
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is I was also in Easter Seals until I was seven.
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So I was in a classroom full of people that are diagnosed disabled.
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And I found a certificate that a schooling certificate in a shoe box that I put away
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a long time ago.
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And it said it was for Easter Seals.
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And it said I was diagnosed with MR, which is mental retardation, because they didn't
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have I I've always known I'm probably somewhere on the spectrum somewhere.
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But I couldn't say my S's, my T's, my R's or my W's and my last name was Switzer.
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So they didn't know where to put me.
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And plus this energy you're seeing right now, I had that energy.
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It was like a five year old.
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And I wanted to create and draw and paint and dance and sing.
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By second grade Leslie, my teachers understood me so well, you know, it's the old fashioned
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school in 1978, whatever that was, you know, big old brick building, cement hallways.
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My second grade teacher was so brilliant.
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She knew I had ADD and ADHD.
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I don't know what they called it back then.
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And she knew I love to dance.
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So my mom bought me a pair of tap shoes.
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So between classes, she would let me get my tap shoes on and I would just tap myself
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up and down that long hallway for like three minutes and then she'd be like, Tommy, come
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on back in.
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So that's what I mean.
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Like I didn't have a privy life with money.
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I didn't have a home that was safe.
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I was also a fat little kid, made fun of.
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But I had privilege of love.
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And I think that that is when we're looking for the resilience, right?
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And I know we have, we've lost a lot of the power of resilience in our world too.
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But some people don't have that much love around them.
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Some people aren't understood or hugged.
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You know, we come into this place, a place to be all the time and it's like a, it's a
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massive hug.
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Not everybody has that.
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And so that is bringing us to today.
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That is where Kim Tapper, my brilliant co-founder and I, she has her own story, which is amazing
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of how she got here.
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And we're really excited to have her on the podcast as well.
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Yeah.
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And we have two totally different stories, but we ended up together.
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We're also, we knew at one time we were like only 2% of men and women who run an organization
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together and we're not married.
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It's quite peculiar.
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And we also, we've been best friends for 22 years and we finish each other's sentences.
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And but we both knew that the world needed more love.
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So music therapy is when I went into, she went into psychology and life coaching and
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we started to see the same clients.
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They go see her.
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They go see me.
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I write a song, we perform it.
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And you know, our first year, Leslie was 2010.
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And between the two of us, we had about 23 clients.
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We kind of looked over.
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Let's talk, I mean, we've talked around a place to be.
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So I know there was a moment, another why not say moment where you started it, but talk
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about how you started it and exactly what a place to be does and your mission.
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And it is a nonprofit.
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And what you're doing it then, I know you're changing lives and I know just talking about
24:06
all the things and I can relate the connection.
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My sister Amanda, who has Down syndrome, born in 82, people asked my parents that they were
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going to keep her because at that point they institutionalize many kids with Down syndrome.
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That's what they do.
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And so my parents are like, no, we actually have a letter and stories.
24:25
My dad shared about the day she was born and people are like, do you want to be in the
24:28
hospital away from the normal mothers?
24:32
And they said Amanda was going to be special.
24:34
My dad's like, I have five other kids that are special.
24:37
And so it's funny.
24:38
I was just messing with a friend the other day and Amanda was in the car and sent a message
24:43
and my friend's like, you know, Amanda just makes me smile and Amanda makes everybody
24:47
smile.
24:48
And the joy Amanda brings and I just went to her workplace and our old boss was there
24:52
and she's like, I miss Amanda.
24:54
Can I call her to just hang out with me and do I'm like, yes, you love that.
24:58
But yeah, so we just need that love.
25:02
And all right.
25:03
So that was a tangent.
25:04
So tell me how did a place to become about that quickly that night when I met your sister,
25:10
you can.
25:11
Oh yeah, you'd better.
25:12
Well, authenticity, you know, any of us that are blessed and honored enough to live or
25:20
work live with any of these individuals who maybe have autism, Down syndrome, and then
25:27
there are many hidden disabilities.
25:30
The resilience they have, the authenticity they have, we need to learn from them.
25:36
Yes.
25:37
And then I have all but all the bag is like one time I was with a friend and we were walking
25:41
around the lake with Amanda and Amanda's like, Oh, captain flipped over the sailboat and
25:44
they went all the way over like this was 20 some years ago.
25:47
I'm like, I mean, the things she remembers and my friends like, you know, she doesn't
25:51
have all she's not worried about where meals coming from.
25:53
She's not worried.
25:54
I mean, she does worry about some things, but she had all the crap in her head that
25:58
we do.
25:59
Yep, exactly.
26:00
And she can just be who she is and be honest about who she is in her feelings.
26:04
Like when my dad passed away, she was sad and she was and even to this day, it's like
26:09
I miss my dad, I'm sad and she says the things that we might not be vulnerable enough to
26:14
say.
26:15
Yeah, I would say that in Down syndrome could can be sometimes an autism, obviously, there's
26:21
a portal that some of these different populations live in that are very blunt, truthful, don't
26:32
have a lot of veneer and not a lot of screen, you know,
26:38
Yeah, maybe I'll call you out.
26:40
Oh, Catherine Greg too much last night.
26:41
She's, you know, and she's watching and she's paying attention on social media too.
26:47
She knows everything about everybody.
26:49
Oh my God.
26:50
Just kind of fun.
26:52
It gives her some fun things to do.
26:54
Yes.
26:55
All right.
26:56
So place to be how did what was that why not summary moment and how did that.
27:00
So how it came about is for 14 years I was teaching at the Hill School in Middleburg,
27:06
Virginia.
27:07
Yeah, but I was giving voice lessons acting lessons and I started to work with arts for
27:11
all which was called very special arts where Kelly and I have worked together.
27:17
And that was my first real in involved moment where I got to work with people with disabilities.
27:24
My first show was Cinderella.
27:26
It was this was all started in our area by an amazing woman by the name of Alice power.
27:32
And she wanted a new director.
27:33
I came in and to be really honest with you very unlike my days when I was six or seven
27:38
years old in Easter Seals.
27:41
I hadn't spent a lot of time with people with disabilities until this came about that night.
27:46
That cast had approximately 45 individuals, maybe 1015 will chairs in front of me.
27:55
I was overwhelmed.
27:56
I did not know what to do.
27:58
And then what you do.
27:59
Why not today?
28:02
I have been.
28:03
Yeah.
28:04
And I can remember Leslie, I it was at the Hill School, we're in the theater area.
28:09
I welcomed everybody and also one of my first time seeing parents with handcloths wiping
28:16
up their children's saliva.
28:20
Children bent over hand flapping screaming at I didn't have a lot of training.
28:27
I went into the bathroom and I looked at myself and I thought, who do you think you are?
28:32
Because for a moment I thought, I'm an actor.
28:35
I'm into theater.
28:37
I want to go to Broadway someday.
28:39
Like, you know, and who do you think you are?
28:42
And I can remember what I was wearing even I was wearing a white sweater.
28:46
I looked at my natural day moment.
28:48
Yeah.
28:49
And that was it.
28:50
Then I went back and I took over.
28:53
And so that started that.
28:55
And then about four years later, I was given a voice lesson to a young man who was 13.
29:01
His father had taken his life just weeks before.
29:05
Kid comes into a voice lesson.
29:08
He asks me to start to help him write a song that he gave me a poem about his dad.
29:14
He said, could you help me write a song?
29:15
I said, sure.
29:17
That one half hour of voice lesson went on for two hours that night.
29:21
So I knew something was happening.
29:22
Like I was like, oh my God, this is where I do my best, right?
29:26
And that night I was in Shenandoah University, you know, they have a professional summer
29:32
series of music theater.
29:35
And I played Horton the elephant there many times.
29:40
So that night I was playing Horton and I still am a big, I love Shenandoah Summer Music Theater
29:48
and I help out wherever I can.
29:49
But that night I was on a net.
29:51
If you remember the story of Horton, he tries to hatch an egg up on a nest.
29:55
I'm in an elephant outfit.
29:57
I'm on a nest.
29:58
I'm singing a beautiful song called Salah Saloo.
30:02
But it hits me and I'm watching hundreds of people who pay to watch me sing as an elephant.
30:07
And I thought about that boy all during the show.
30:11
I could not get the kid out of my head.
30:13
I went home and I thought, I'm a music therapist.
30:17
That's it.
30:18
And then I went back to school that next term and, you know, it's a four year program.
30:24
We are trained just like a regular therapist.
30:26
We take anatomy.
30:28
We have to, it's almost like the bar exam.
30:30
When you're done, you have to, you have to get accreditation and certified.
30:35
And at that time, right before that, I met Kim Tapper.
30:39
And Kim was running another nonprofit in DC at the time and she came to dance at the
30:45
Hill School.
30:46
I needed a choreographer.
30:48
We talked, we talked.
30:49
We were like, oh my God, I feel like we knew each other our whole lives.
30:53
Wow.
30:54
So then after that night of hoarding the elephant, I went back to school, but as soon as I graduated,
31:00
she and I opened up a place to be in 2010 and started out with 23 kids between the two
31:07
of us.
31:08
And today we sit here.
31:09
It's 275 families per week, 14 full time music therapists.
31:17
And we are a nonprofit and I unfortunately, unfortunately, spent a lot of my time right
31:23
now raising funds because we have never turned a child away because of financial reasons in
31:28
15 years.
31:29
But Kim and I, we both have between the two of us, this is financial aid.
31:35
We have to raise close to a million dollars a year because we are paying certified therapists
31:42
and we have been working that are living in Loudoun County.
31:46
So yeah, we're doing our best and everybody that works here is working because of love.
31:52
You know, they're not working here because they have great salaries.
31:55
They're working here because right before I walked in here, there's a young man here
32:00
that is nonverbal, but he's not nonverbal when he goes in there with one of our music
32:05
therapists and sings.
32:07
So that is one of the difference you're making.
32:09
I love it.
32:10
And I want to get involved.
32:13
We want to get a man involved.
32:14
We want to spread the word and get you support.
32:19
And I know we're recording this and it's coming out in December of 2024, but there's a couple
32:25
things coming up.
32:26
So if somebody listens to it real time, like what's going on in December of 2024 with the
32:30
place to be in December 2025, it'll probably be happening too.
32:34
And there's other things to get involved.
32:35
But I thought timing wise, let's share a little bit.
32:38
I can share it in the show notes too.
32:40
Like what's going on.
32:41
Okay.
32:42
So the biggest one, we have Charlie Brown Christmas.
32:44
That's this weekend.
32:45
So that's very soon.
32:47
That's Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
32:49
You can go to our website, a place to be VA like Virginia.org, a place to be VA.org.
32:54
But the thing I would invite everybody to is my, this is my Christmas.
32:59
It's December 22nd, Sunday, December 22nd at two o'clock.
33:04
It's at Salamander resort.
33:07
The resort is nice enough, kind enough to give us the entire ballroom.
33:11
We usually have about 300 to 400 people show up, 500 at one year.
33:16
And it is our concert.
33:18
And this year, the theme is vintage variety show.
33:22
If you remember the Andy Williams shows from the 60s, 70s, and it stars our children.
33:28
And keep it about 85 minutes.
33:32
So you can get in at two o'clock and you can get in your car before it gets dark.
33:36
We hand out tissues on your way in.
33:39
It's a very happy, happy tears, very moving experience.
33:44
Cost is nothing.
33:46
We will ask you if you want to become a donor.
33:48
We have many ways you can do that.
33:50
A one-time gift, you can become part of our Firmata circle, which is like a monthly sustainer.
33:55
That can even be at $10.
33:57
Everything goes to programming and financial aid, but you don't pay anything to come to
34:02
the December 22nd.
34:03
I would just say if you want to come, get there at 130 for a good seat.
34:08
And yeah, just be ready to have a good day.
34:11
So can you get tickets or you just show up?
34:13
Just show up.
34:14
Okay.
34:15
I'm going to give me a gift to my mother, so she won't listen to podcasts.
34:18
I'm like, show up.
34:20
I love it.
34:21
Leslie, that's a great idea.
34:22
I think that is very cool.
34:24
I think a lot of people bring people back every year.
34:27
It is like much better than the HomeMark channel.
34:29
I was going to say the HomeMark channel.
34:31
It's like the real HomeMark being right in front of you.
34:36
But one of them I created, I had somebody on the podcast a couple months ago and she talked
34:40
about a local bucket list and I've always been all about bucket lists, but I've always
34:45
done a holiday bucket list.
34:47
And I have my holiday bucket list of places and one of the things I think is, Middleburg
34:51
is magical at Christmas.
34:53
It is a Hallmark town kind of thing.
34:55
And so one of the things was to go there and I like to do things with my mom and sister.
34:58
So I think we might just have to come and just surprise her and definitely want to get
35:04
a man involved and other people involved.
35:07
Next year, Leslie, now that we know each other and our friends, my house is on the parade
35:12
route and I have parking.
35:15
So I will be there because I saw it the other day.
35:18
I'm like, oh, I wish I would have gone to that.
35:20
Yeah, you can park in my yard.
35:22
You have to get there early and you just watch it from the yard.
35:25
Well, I love that.
35:26
All right.
35:27
So we are a little longer, but this is so good.
35:29
Before we go though, talk about your book.
35:31
I know I heard about it when I first heard of you and you were signing copies, but tell
35:35
me about it and how we signed it.
35:37
Yeah, so there's two things connected there.
35:40
I was lucky enough to have a one man show off Broadway last year in 2023 called 20 Seconds.
35:46
So the book is called 20 Seconds.
35:49
It's only privately.
35:51
It's not published quite yet.
35:53
We're waiting because of the hope right now the off Broadway show 20 Seconds is being
36:00
made into a Broadway type musical with people.
36:06
Yeah, it's with it's being produced.
36:10
One of our producers is Joey Parnes, who is one from the original Jersey Boys and many,
36:15
many others.
36:16
I have two amazing producers here.
36:19
Ben Graham, Frank Baltz and some people would know around here is Teresa Wheeler.
36:26
She's one of the biggest philanthropists here in Loudoun County and she helped get this
36:30
show off the ground and the show is about how music saved my life.
36:35
So by spring of 2025, it will be sold on Amazon and hopefully we will be going to publishing.
36:44
So how do I get a copy?
36:45
You have to wait till spring of 2020.
36:47
I will give you a copy.
36:49
And if anybody really wants it, they, this is how I keep my Facebook as my blog.
36:56
Because I didn't want to do it.
36:57
So you do great things on Facebook, by the way.
36:59
Thank you.
37:00
Thomas Switzer, not Tom.
37:02
Thomas Switzer and you can go right to my Facebook.
37:05
I keep all place to be.
37:07
And we'll share all your show, all your contact information as show notes.
37:11
Great, great.
37:12
But yeah, and then, you know, hopefully in a theater somewhere next fall, you'll see
37:18
the show and can get your book there too.
37:20
So, so fun.
37:22
So yeah, we'll definitely share all your contact.
37:25
And when the book comes out officially, we'll have you back on the podcast.
37:28
That would be great.
37:30
And one of the things that I've talked about here a couple of times that I mentioned to
37:33
you, and it's kind of a Godwink passion project to me is to really have why not today be a
37:39
movement that changes people's lives.
37:41
And I read something the other day and there's actually a phrase and I don't remember exactly
37:45
what it is, but talks about how the clothes we wear, if it's got words on it, how we can
37:50
live our life that way and how it makes a difference in our life to give us courage to
37:54
do.
37:55
It was some organization that has t-shirts that talk about it.
37:59
That it's just not words.
38:01
Yeah, no, but so I really feel like why not today is a movement and a message that we
38:05
need to give people courage to do the things.
38:07
And so part of my passion is to partner with nonprofits that when you buy a why not today
38:13
swag percentage goes to nonprofits.
38:15
So we're putting that together and we'll definitely partner with you guys to raise some funds
38:19
in the future.
38:21
Wonderful.
38:22
So how would you encourage somebody else to say why not today to be brave, to be courageous,
38:28
to do the thing?
38:29
So walk across the street to the church.
38:32
I think going back to the beginning to bookend our conversation, right?
38:36
Courage, right?
38:38
Where do you find it?
38:40
It takes a big breath in.
38:42
It takes some silence and you have to go down here.
38:47
And inside there are where all of your childhood dreams are still alive, where all of our
38:52
childhood dreams are still alive.
38:54
And so I would say that the first thing that you do is make sure that you give yourself
39:00
a space and time to feel.
39:03
Because we are moving so fast, especially when it comes to around these seasonal times,
39:10
that we don't stop and feel.
39:12
And as a music therapist, I would tell you that sometimes it's silence and sometimes
39:17
it's not a feeling.
39:18
And as a music therapist, I would tell you that sometimes it's silence and sometimes
39:22
like you were talking about the playlist, it's putting on a song and saying, I'm going
39:26
to sit on my hands.
39:29
I'm not going to do anything but listen to this song.
39:33
There you will find your courage.
39:35
Yeah, so true.
39:37
And we don't give ourselves enough.
39:39
And my word last year was space to give myself more space.
39:43
And like my ideas come when I'm going for a walk, when I'm in the shower, when I get
39:47
in my car and listen to music.
39:49
And that's because during the day, I just, I fill my space with so many things and we
39:55
don't take the time.
39:56
And going back to your childhood dream, the childhood dream I remember is to be financially
40:03
in a place that I can give back and volunteer.
40:05
I'm with you.
40:06
Where am I going?
40:07
I'm with you.
40:08
I know.
40:09
So connecting back to my dad, I think he's definitely the belonging part, as I said,
40:15
just being, connecting, finding people.
40:18
Obviously Amanda, he was a proponent of anybody with disabilities with, you know, getting
40:23
Amanda in schools that wasn't being bussed off and making Amanda was just like anybody
40:29
else.
40:30
Yeah.
40:31
I think you're doing that as well.
40:33
And just, you know, he started a group home and just being able to give back.
40:39
And then he was an only child like you.
40:41
And so he surrounded himself with other people to fill his life and always did.
40:45
And our house was always full of a million people because nobody was excluded.
40:49
Well, I think that you creating what you're creating with this takes all of those pieces
40:55
of his legacy and then makes it your legacy.
40:58
Yes.
40:59
Keeps going, keeps rolling.
41:02
And I, you know what?
41:03
Every episode I do, I was telling somebody the other day that like sometimes it's not
41:06
easy and you know, the podcast isn't really a financial thing yet.
41:10
Yes.
41:11
But I just keep doing consistently and I'm not missing.
41:15
And I'm just like, you know what?
41:16
I'm just following the path that God is putting in front of me, the people I'm supposed to
41:21
meet.
41:22
And you know, we tried to connect months ago and somebody got COVID and it wasn't the
41:25
right time.
41:27
And so just following.
41:28
It's always the right time.
41:29
And I felt the same way Leslie about my one man show, right?
41:33
So I'm 52.
41:35
So it took me to 51 to get to Broadway, right?
41:38
I never even tried.
41:40
Like that whole world up there is a world to itself.
41:42
But what you just said about your podcast took seven years to get the show there.
41:47
I never dreamt it really would be going to off-Broadway.
41:50
I had no idea that would be, you know, on 42nd Street for six weeks, doing my mission.
41:57
And but what I did was just kept going, kept going, kept going, kept going, kept going
42:00
because don't give up.
42:02
Don't give up.
42:03
Just keep going.
42:04
If you, and whatever ends up, at least you're doing what you love.
42:07
Yep.
42:08
And when those coincidences happens and those Godwings and those things happen.
42:13
Rabbit.
42:14
Because you were living your life in alignment to your values.
42:17
And I'll never forget exactly where I'm standing in that dull, smaraght when I met you officially.
42:22
Hey.
42:23
It's gonna be a one-man thing moment in my life.
42:25
And then your sweet sister.
42:26
I mean, yeah, I'm sure we have a lot to do together and I just appreciate.
42:31
We're not done.
42:32
Hearing other people's stories too.
42:35
Thank you for putting that up into the world.
42:37
Thank you for being a guest, honored to have you on here.
42:40
And we'll share all your contact in the show notes.
42:43
And if anybody's listening real time and you want to go to the concert with me on the 22nd,
42:46
I'm going.
42:47
So we'll figure that out.
42:49
So share the, share the mission of why not today, everybody listening.
42:54
It's a movement.
42:55
Be courageous.
42:56
Do the things that you love.
42:57
Your little childhood dreams, the things that keep you up.
43:01
And thank you everybody for enjoying and are joining us for this inspiring journey.
43:05
For every day is an opportunity to take action, chase your dreams and make a difference.
43:08
So why not today and make sure you're subscribing, liking, sharing, telling other people about
43:13
the why not today message.
43:15
You can find everything you want about why not today at whynottodaypodcast.com or on
43:20
all the social and let's make a movement and remember why not today.
43:25
Thanks again, Tom.
43:26
Thank you.
43:27
Bye.
43:28
Bye.