Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Pegasus Special Riders shares organization updates

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Talk Line: Pegasus Special Riders shares organization updates · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley, and welcome back. You're here with
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  Speaker 1: the Waking Crew on FM ninety five to one and
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  Speaker 1: AM fourteen sixty WIXN. It's eight thirty five on your
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  Speaker 1: Thursday morning, and that means it's time for the promised
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  Speaker 1: double dose of talk line. I'm joined in the booth
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  Speaker 1: for the first time at least since I've taken over
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  Speaker 1: the helm here by the Pegasus Special Riders Board president
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  Speaker 1: Stacy Seaworth and board member Kathy made him up? Did
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  Speaker 1: I get that right, Kathy? You did? Thank goodness for phonetics.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start off by telling folks about Pegas's Special Riders.
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  Speaker 1: Who are you, well, thanks for having us on.
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  Speaker 2: We are a small nonprofit just located just south of Oregon, Illinois,
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  Speaker 2: and we cater to children adults with special needs through
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  Speaker 2: horse activities, so equan activities, and we try to build
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  Speaker 2: that bond between the rider and the horse for those folks.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I'm glad to find you're not a
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  Speaker 1: biker gang. I didn't see you in here with any
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  Speaker 1: leather today, So all that horses, I absolutely love that.
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  Speaker 1: I always wanted to ride a horse, never never had
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity, so I love the fact that these kids
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  Speaker 1: are getting that opportunity. How long has the organization been around.
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  Speaker 2: This program's been around since nineteen ninety six, and so
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  Speaker 2: it was founded by a group of ladies, but the
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  Speaker 2: most prominent founder was Donald Fellows, and she retired about
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  Speaker 2: a year and a half ago. Okay, she was with
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  Speaker 2: it for a good twenty plus years.
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  Speaker 1: All right, And how did you two get involved?
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  Speaker 3: Well? I got involved by an article I saw on
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  Speaker 3: the newspaper. Really, yes, it sat on our desk at work.
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  Speaker 3: I worked for Sock Valley Bank and it was sitting
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  Speaker 3: on the desk at work and I walked by it
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  Speaker 3: for about two months and decided I better open up
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  Speaker 3: and check it out. And I saw they were looking
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  Speaker 3: for volunteers, and so I went out and I got
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  Speaker 3: to meet everybody. I got to watch one of the
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  Speaker 3: sessions that they had with the children on the up
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  Speaker 3: that were on the horses and stuff, and I got
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  Speaker 3: to meet all the horses and stuff as well, and
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  Speaker 3: I just fell in love with what they're doing instantly.
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  Speaker 3: And then I just started kind of checking out the
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  Speaker 3: board and what was going on there. And then in
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  Speaker 3: January they brought me on as a board member, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm every time I'm out there, I just fall more
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  Speaker 3: and more in love with it all the time. What
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  Speaker 3: they do is just wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So I retired from the service in seventeen and then
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  Speaker 2: worked for about five or six more years and decided
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  Speaker 2: that it was time to give back to the community
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  Speaker 2: again in some way, and so I retired from full
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  Speaker 2: time paid work and moved into the unpaid, nonprofit side
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  Speaker 2: of it. And it's been very rewarding.
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  Speaker 1: I absolutely love that. Kind of give the folks an idea,
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  Speaker 1: how does it work with kids, you know, wanting to
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  Speaker 1: come on? And for parents who are kind of wondering,
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  Speaker 1: like I like the idea of this, like how does
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  Speaker 1: that work?
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  Speaker 2: That's a great question, and I do want to add it.
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  Speaker 2: So it's for children and adults.
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  Speaker 1: Children and adults awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Start as young as four and we'll go as long
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  Speaker 2: as you're able to ride. And so we do have
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  Speaker 2: riders today that are in their forties. We have writers
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  Speaker 2: that started at four and are in their twenties and
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  Speaker 2: they're still riding with us. So it's for individuals with
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  Speaker 2: any sort of physical, emotional, social, or mental challenge, And
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  Speaker 2: if you have any of those things. You simply apply
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  Speaker 2: to ride with us. We double check with your doctors
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that it's a good fit for you.
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  Speaker 2: And if we have a slot open, we bring you
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  Speaker 2: on and you ride for thirty minutes each week.
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome. So if somebody wanted to start this process,
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  Speaker 1: like what's the best way online the phone calls.
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  Speaker 2: We always recommend folks start online with our website. It's
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  Speaker 2: Pegasus Special Writers, and it'll give a whole lot of information.
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  Speaker 2: We have a packet on there that you can fill
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  Speaker 2: out that we need before you can ride, and once
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  Speaker 2: you do that, then we do a screening and we
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  Speaker 2: try to get to slotted in. So it's that simple.
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  Speaker 2: But certainly on that website there's all the information that
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  Speaker 2: email and phone numbers two.
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  Speaker 1: To call us. Okay, do you are you looking for volunteers?
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  Speaker 1: Is there way for people to get involved?
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  Speaker 3: We thought so, but we always died volunteers. And that's
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  Speaker 3: the wonderful thing about the organization. The volunteers come out
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  Speaker 3: and they see what can do I mean, I was
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  Speaker 3: we had a workday here not too long ago where
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  Speaker 3: we were just emptying out some of the sand to
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  Speaker 3: level things out in the arena, and we had all
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  Speaker 3: kinds of different volunteers that were out there, and as
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  Speaker 3: much of hard work as it was, we had a
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  Speaker 3: good time. Everybody got to know each other a little
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  Speaker 3: bit more because some of them were the families of
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  Speaker 3: children that are out there going through the program. One
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  Speaker 3: of them was one of them in the program, and
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  Speaker 3: I got to sit and talk with her for a while,
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  Speaker 3: and it just warms your heart whenever you're out there.
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  Speaker 3: It's just the love of everything that's going on out
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  Speaker 3: there is just incredible.
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  Speaker 1: I love that. If folks wanted to reach out about volunteering,
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  Speaker 1: what would be the best way for that?
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  Speaker 2: I would say the same thing. So we have a
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  Speaker 2: tab on that same website that talks all about volunteer
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  Speaker 2: opportunities because ninety percent of what we accomplished is all
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  Speaker 2: through volunteers. So we have to have volunteers to feed
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  Speaker 2: the horses every day and to help with the lessons,
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  Speaker 2: and then if you special skill in construction or other things,
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  Speaker 2: we can find something for you to.
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  Speaker 3: Do out there.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. Are you guys hooked up with the
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  Speaker 1: Impact program?
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  Speaker 2: I am not familiar with that.
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  Speaker 3: That's the one we I talked about that last year.
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  Speaker 3: I know I talked about that with one of the
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  Speaker 3: other board members last year that we and we that
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  Speaker 3: the Impact program and I think we have been before
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  Speaker 3: and we really need to probably hook up with them
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  Speaker 3: a little more now. But that's one of the one
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  Speaker 3: with the college kids that are the one wanting to
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  Speaker 3: go to college to get the free college education.
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  Speaker 1: Sitting you're playing matchmaker for for nonprofit and kids. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but you're absolutely right. It's a great program where our
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  Speaker 1: our local high school students are able to earn paid
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  Speaker 1: tuition for volunteering at local organizations and it gets their
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  Speaker 1: tuition paid at Valley Community College. So it's kind of
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  Speaker 1: our answer to free higher education for our kids in
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  Speaker 1: this area. And it's just it's been exploding, so we.
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  Speaker 2: Always have we always need help to bail.
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  Speaker 1: Hey see there you go in the kids. The kids
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  Speaker 1: love it any especially me and Jim were he was
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  Speaker 1: actually in here from SOCC and he was saying, he said,
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  Speaker 1: you know, more than the tuition anything else, he said,
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  Speaker 1: the kids love feeling like they've done something that like
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  Speaker 1: actually helps and makes them feeling like they're contributing. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, and I think they all do kind of
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  Speaker 1: thrive on that, so I know those kids would would
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  Speaker 1: love to be able to help out here. So that's great.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad I put that out there. That's that's my
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  Speaker 1: two cents on that. But speaking of supporting great organizations
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  Speaker 1: like yourself, you guys have an upcoming golf outing we do.
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  Speaker 3: It's coming up on Juneteenth. It's a holiday, so if
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  Speaker 3: you're off work, we really would like you to come
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  Speaker 3: out and golf with us. It's going to be at
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  Speaker 3: Lost Nation Golf Course and we're just going to have
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  Speaker 3: a lot of fun. We've got a lot of we're
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  Speaker 3: going to have raffles going on during the day. We've
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  Speaker 3: got they'll you know, they'll have they'll be food, they'll
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  Speaker 3: they'll get the golf cart. We've had a lot of
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  Speaker 3: sponsors that are sponsoring holes and are sponsoring carts, and
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  Speaker 3: we're really looking for golfers right now. So if you've
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  Speaker 3: got the day off, we would love to have you there.
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  Speaker 1: You go, you don't. I mean again, I always say
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  Speaker 1: if you have to make an excuse to go hit
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  Speaker 1: the links, there's none better than for a great cause.
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  Speaker 1: And you can you can tell your partner like, hey, honey,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta go out there and help.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, because we all of our funding is private, so
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  Speaker 2: we keep our lights on only through the generous donation
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  Speaker 2: of folks in our community, one check at a time.
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  Speaker 2: And so this golf fighting is a way for us
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  Speaker 2: to try to raise a little bit of funds to
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  Speaker 2: help cover the cost of our horses and our programs.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, get out there, help support. Is there anything else
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  Speaker 1: you want to share, anything else you got coming up?
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  Speaker 1: We still got a few minutes if you like.
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  Speaker 2: Well, certainly the golf fighting and then of course in
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  Speaker 2: the fall is are big, we do a big dinner
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  Speaker 2: which is called our main event. I love that we
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  Speaker 2: have a good dinner in another auction to raise funds
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  Speaker 2: for our events. But we just really encourage folks to
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  Speaker 2: check us out, think about helping in some way with
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  Speaker 2: your time or talents or funds, because it really does
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  Speaker 2: make a difference in a lot of lives, and not
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  Speaker 2: only the lives of those who ride the horses, but
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  Speaker 2: the family members who who get the opportunity to see
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  Speaker 2: their loved one.
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  Speaker 1: Have such joy.
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  Speaker 2: And it's you know, and the volunteers get as much
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  Speaker 2: reward from it as the clients do.
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  Speaker 1: They really do, and that and that's absolutely well said.
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  Speaker 1: Could not have put that better. It's it's the best
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  Speaker 1: reason in the world to go out there. I know,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's so funny, right you're you're doing something selfless,
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  Speaker 1: but it's some of it's kind of selfish because that
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  Speaker 1: feeling you get from it is is one that keeps
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  Speaker 1: people coming back for things like that. So Stacy Katy,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on sharing the information,
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  Speaker 1: but more importantly for the important work that you're out
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  Speaker 1: here doing. Folks go online connect with them and you
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  Speaker 1: got more and more things, more updates. I'd love to
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  Speaker 1: have you back in the booth letting the community know
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  Speaker 1: more about what you're doing.