Latest / The Scene Projects / Mike Turner on Legacy Foundation, Community Support, and Upcoming Game Night Event

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Mike Turner on Legacy Foundation, Community Support, and Upcoming Game Night Event · The Scene Projects

• 0:23
  Welcome in to Real Biz.
• 0:24
  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today from the Legacy Foundation and Owens
• 0:30
  Outfitters, Mike Turner.
• 0:31
  Mike, welcome to the show.
• 0:33
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:34
  I mean, really glad to be part of it and, excited to talk to you today.
• 0:38
  Yeah.
• 0:39
  This probably won't be as exciting as going up and flying with the Blue Angels, as it was for
• 0:44
  you maybe a month or so ago, but, you know, I'm gonna do my best.
• 0:49
  Yeah.
• 0:50
  Yeah.
• 0:50
  It was the Thunderbirds, here at the local air show in Sioux Falls.
• 0:53
  But, I mean, you know, both teams are just awesome.
• 0:57
  Just plain awesome.
• 0:58
  Well, huge shout out to the Thunderbirds.
• 1:01
  Obviously, the Sioux Falls air show just is such a staple of that.
• 1:05
  I happen to be up and and working with the Sioux Falls Canaries that day, so saw a few of
• 1:09
  the planes flying over.
• 1:10
  But we were more focused on sending balls out of the yard and and not necessarily into the
• 1:15
  stratosphere.
• 1:16
  So, Mike, absolute blessing to have you here.
• 1:19
  Love everything that you guys are doing with Owens Outfitters.
• 1:22
  I think it's really incredible, and we're gonna talk a lot about that.
• 1:25
  But before we get into that, really just wanna give you a few minutes here.
• 1:28
  Give us a little bit of your backstory, and then we'll get into all the good stuff that
• 1:31
  you're doing in Sioux Falls.
• 1:33
  Yeah.
• 1:34
  Absolutely.
• 1:34
  So me, personally, like, born in Sioux Falls, moved all over the place, and had a great time
• 1:43
  working and started raising a family.
• 1:47
  Our oldest kid, Owen of Owen's Outfitters, our first kiddo, was great, but he also had a
• 1:55
  chromosomal abnormality.
• 1:56
  And so that meant that he needed a ton of medical care growing up and needed assistance
• 2:02
  with a whole bunch of different stuff, you know, everything from walking to eating and,
• 2:07
  you know, a little bit of everything in between.
• 2:09
  And so we relied on nonprofits and, lots of support groups to get us through that.
• 2:16
  And that was despite the fact that we had insurance and, you know, a decent job.
• 2:21
  And it was hard.
• 2:23
  Like, we struggled mightily at times.
• 2:26
  And so the fact that, like, two adults, college degrees, one kid, both working with insurance,
• 2:34
  if we were struggling, we just had to look at that and say, hey.
• 2:38
  Like, how can we make this easier for other families?
• 2:42
  And so we were living over in Wisconsin at the time.
• 2:45
  There's a great organization there called Katie's Closet.
• 2:48
  We learned a lot from them and then just said, you know, we wanna kinda make it our own, do
• 2:53
  our own thing that's a little bit different, and basically said, hey.
• 2:57
  What we'll do is we'll take donations of medical equipment, anything, literally anything
• 3:03
  from Band Aids to hospital beds and everything in between, diabetic test strips, CPAP
• 3:08
  machines, gauze.
• 3:10
  You name it, we'll take it.
• 3:12
  And then we give it away to literally anyone, young, old, rich, poor, black, white, Native
• 3:18
  American, have insurance, don't have insurance.
• 3:20
  Literally anyone can come in because what we found is just that, no one comes and gets a
• 3:26
  wheelchair for fun.
• 3:27
  No one wants a hospital bed in their guest bedroom because it's cool.
• 3:33
  And so, yeah, families basically come in and say, hey.
• 3:37
  Can I need this item?
• 3:38
  And we say, okay.
• 3:40
  You know, every time.
• 3:41
  As long as we got it, it's theirs.
• 3:43
  So nice and simple.
• 3:45
  Yeah.
• 3:46
  Absolutely incredible.
• 3:47
  And I had not realized that there was the, the the personal story.
• 3:51
  You know these struggles from experience.
• 3:54
  You lived it.
• 3:55
  And that makes you, I I think, really, great people to head up this, foundation and show
• 4:01
  people what's possible because, the turnover and I think most people would think that, like,
• 4:07
  oh, you know, grandma needed a wheelchair and then she died, and so we donated it back to
• 4:11
  that.
• 4:12
  But you're actually getting a lot of donations from the large medical facilities there in
• 4:17
  Sioux Falls and around throughout the area.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:21
  Absolutely.
• 4:21
  We get equipment donated from kind of every source.
• 4:25
  I mean, you're right.
• 4:26
  You know, your your grandma needed something.
• 4:28
  She had equipment at the end.
• 4:29
  They donate.
• 4:30
  But, also, you know, when a clinic remodels and they get all new equipment, you know, they're
• 4:36
  not gonna sort of say, hey.
• 4:37
  Like, let's clean this up and leave it in storage for nine months and then bring it back.
• 4:41
  You know, with the remodel comes new equipment.
• 4:44
  And so for many years, they were throwing that stuff away.
• 4:48
  And we're like, hey.
• 4:49
  Bringing it over.
• 4:50
  And so, yeah, now we get things like six hospital beds at a time or, hey.
• 4:54
  We had a closet full of stuff, and we switched vendors.
• 4:58
  You know, we're not with vendor anymore.
• 5:00
  We're moving forward with vendor b, and so we've got a closet full of stuff that we are
• 5:04
  not gonna sell, you know, at all anymore.
• 5:07
  And, again, you know, old thinking was toss that in the trash, and so now we can take that
• 5:12
  and get it to people who need it.
• 5:16
  Well, beyond just providing that recycling and upcycling things that are still very usable but
• 5:22
  aren't going to be used in the facility where they come from any longer.
• 5:26
  And instead of just putting them outside with a free sign on them, we have a much better system
• 5:31
  here to actually get them into the hands of the people that need them the most at the time that
• 5:36
  they need them.
• 5:38
  Yeah.
• 5:38
  Absolutely.
• 5:39
  We've kept, over a 151 tons out of the landfill, which we feel like is pretty cool.
• 5:45
  I mean, you know, everything gets to the end of its useful life at some point, but you're so
• 5:51
  right.
• 5:51
  You know, you good example is a knee scooter.
• 5:54
  Right?
• 5:54
  You usually use those for five, six, eight weeks, and they're built to last for years.
• 6:00
  Right?
• 6:01
  You can't build something to take, like, our weight, take it out the door, down the
• 6:06
  sidewalk, up and over a curb, into a building, support their weight that whole time, and make
• 6:12
  it last only five or six weeks.
• 6:15
  Right?
• 6:15
  Could you can't build a bike that only lasts five or six weeks.
• 6:20
  And so the fact is you use it, and then it's got, like, 90% of its life still left, maybe
• 6:26
  95.
• 6:27
  And you're like, well, okay.
• 6:29
  Now what?
• 6:30
  And, yeah, the curb isn't a great option.
• 6:33
  You know?
• 6:34
  You gotta what?
• 6:35
  Hope that someone who needs a knee scooter is gonna drive past your house on your block, you
• 6:42
  know, where bring it to us, we see hundreds.
• 6:46
  We we, you we see a little over a thousand families a month right now.
• 6:49
  And so we can get it from those who don't need it anymore and put it into a good home.
• 6:56
  Well and I think that what you do is you end up starting a a cycle of your own, right, where it
• 7:01
  comes into your facility, and not everyone who needs a piece of medical equipment needs it for
• 7:06
  the rest of their lives.
• 7:07
  Some do, right, the hospital beds, maybe go to one person and they may stay there and never
• 7:12
  come back.
• 7:13
  But a lot of this stuff can go out and come right back in, you know, three months because
• 7:18
  it's outlived its usefulness for each person.
• 7:21
  It's wild to me that and I'm sure there's other organizations that are doing it, but I've never
• 7:26
  heard about a lot of this stuff.
• 7:28
  And I think that one of the big, you know and for me because we've lived it, my father-in-law
• 7:34
  broke his leg a few years ago.
• 7:36
  I have several friends who have children that are diabetic.
• 7:39
  A lot of stuff that you think should be covered by insurance and even, you know, not just
• 7:45
  Medicaid, Medicare, but a private insurance.
• 7:48
  There is a lot of things that are not covered that are going to end up coming out of pocket.
• 7:53
  And it's really sad to see with, you know, the best health care in the world, really bar none.
• 7:59
  I know several people that live in countries where they have free health care or state
• 8:03
  sponsored health care.
• 8:04
  We have a great system, but it there's many, many ways that it could be a lot better, and
• 8:09
  you guys are filling in a hole that ends up costing people up to tens of thousands of
• 8:15
  dollars sometimes.
• 8:17
  Yeah.
• 8:17
  You're absolutely absolutely right about, you know, some things aren't covered and some
• 8:22
  things are.
• 8:23
  And, you know, where we see it and where we wanna see some of our impact is, you know,
• 8:29
  you're you're talking about, like, you have someone who's gone through surgery.
• 8:32
  Right?
• 8:32
  They've had knee surgery.
• 8:34
  They've had hip surgery.
• 8:35
  They've had back surgery.
• 8:37
  And especially some of those, like, lower leg ones, if a shower chair you know, just
• 8:42
  something as simple as one of those chairs designed to sit in your bathtub or shower, if
• 8:47
  you're not using one of those, then you've got someone, like, hopping into a shower, you know,
• 8:53
  like a wet environment with a a knee that's just undergone surgery.
• 8:58
  Like, hey.
• 8:58
  Don't just don't fall.
• 9:01
  And if they can't afford that thing, you know, a $100,150 bucks for to keep them safe, now
• 9:06
  we're risking an entire surgery.
• 9:09
  Because if they fall wrong, if they have a nasty slip in there, now you're talking about
• 9:14
  fixing it or rehab or, you know, a different type of injury.
• 9:19
  And all for like, you're you're risking this $45,000 surgery for a $150 shower chair.
• 9:28
  And so if we can give that to them, keep them safe, we feel like that is a knock on effect.
• 9:34
  If we keep them out of the hospital a second time, if we keep them out of rehab, if we
• 9:38
  shorten their recovery, it actually makes the health care system have a little bit more
• 9:42
  capacity, a little less cost for everybody.
• 9:46
  Yeah.
• 9:46
  Hopefully, it saves somebody some money someday, not just in the medical equipment, but
• 9:51
  down the road.
• 9:52
  There's just so much that that we don't think about.
• 9:56
  Those of us fortunate as I am to have healthy children, never had any complications, you
• 10:04
  know, that they've never been, you know, in a major injury, knock on wood, or or have had
• 10:09
  that.
• 10:09
  But you guys lived this with your boy and with Owen of understanding very intimately the gaps
• 10:18
  that there are in the medical system.
• 10:21
  And while you're never going to plug all of them, that you found one that you are very
• 10:26
  capable of doing and just went headlong into it.
• 10:30
  And that came with, you know, some some, I would say, benefits to you as well.
• 10:36
  You know, maybe spending a little bit more time with your family and not so much time in just
• 10:41
  working when you see that, you could work as much as you can, and it it takes one small
• 10:47
  thing to completely derail an entire life and career.
• 10:51
  You're absolutely right.
• 10:52
  We had an electrician come in.
• 10:55
  And so he had two kids, you know, working, wife working.
• 10:59
  They're putting food on the table, and he got pretty candid with us.
• 11:03
  You know?
• 11:03
  He said they had about $14,000 in savings.
• 11:07
  So, like, if there was something, if they had a little car accident or the kids needed braces
• 11:12
  or whatever it all, they had a bit of a cushion.
• 11:15
  But he got t boned.
• 11:17
  You know?
• 11:17
  Someone ran a red light, hit him from the side, and he was just in bad shape.
• 11:25
  And so they had a $12,000 out of pocket.
• 11:29
  Right?
• 11:29
  $12,000 deductible.
• 11:31
  So they blow through most of their savings, and then he wasn't able to work for, like, six
• 11:36
  months following this.
• 11:38
  And so they came in, and we were fortunate to be able to, like, give them a bunch of the
• 11:45
  medical equipment that they needed, but we also connected them with other resources.
• 11:50
  You know?
• 11:51
  Medical debt accounts for, like, two thirds of the bankruptcies that are out there.
• 11:57
  And so he was worried about losing his house, and they went from, like, a hardworking family
• 12:05
  to worried about food and the mortgage and all this stuff.
• 12:10
  And so we were just, like, one piece of that.
• 12:12
  Give them the medical equipment that they need.
• 12:15
  And he came in months later, brought the stuff back.
• 12:19
  He was back on his feet.
• 12:21
  He made a donation.
• 12:23
  You know, this was a family that was I don't know.
• 12:26
  I mean, if they weren't living the American dream, they were close.
• 12:29
  And in that one accident, you know, all of sudden, they needed help, and it it wasn't
• 12:35
  through through the lack of preparation on their part.
• 12:39
  Right.
• 12:40
  And and by no fault of his own.
• 12:42
  Right?
• 12:42
  You get t boned in an accident, someone else at fault, and your whole life can be turned upside
• 12:49
  down.
• 12:50
  And I think the the American dream is is somewhere inside of that story.
• 12:56
  Right?
• 12:56
  It's not necessarily the beginning of that where they've had it all, but it's the fact
• 13:00
  that they had these nonprofits and people like you and organizations like the Legacy
• 13:05
  Foundation and Owens Outfitters to lean on in that time of need and a myriad of others that
• 13:10
  are out there that will assist with those.
• 13:13
  That is truly, the the dream to be an American, to know that we will have community to reach
• 13:19
  each other up and people that will contribute.
• 13:22
  And then to keep that going to come back afterwards to re donate the equipment that had
• 13:27
  gotten you through that tough time and to make a donation to pay that forward.
• 13:31
  I think in so many ways, that is the dream that we have forgotten out there, that the personal
• 13:37
  success, is only to be able to give back to our community that made us.
• 13:43
  Yeah.
• 13:43
  And, like, honestly, I talk about it all the time, but we are so lucky to be doing what we
• 13:50
  are doing.
• 13:51
  Last month, we served a 33 families, and that's great.
• 13:55
  Like, we help them.
• 13:56
  But the flip side of that is that a 33 families had to donate.
• 14:01
  Right?
• 14:02
  They had to bring in the stuff that they didn't need anymore.
• 14:05
  And not because they're gonna be on the news or they're getting paid or they're gonna get an
• 14:09
  award.
• 14:10
  They just wanna pay it forward.
• 14:12
  Like you said, they wanna make someone else better.
• 14:15
  They wanna take care of another family that is having a tough spot and that they can help.
• 14:21
  And so out of the goodness of their hearts, instead of doing the easy thing, throwing it
• 14:25
  away, ignoring it, leaving it in the basement, selling it for a dollar at a garage sale, they
• 14:31
  bring it to us, and they're just like, I want this to help another family.
• 14:36
  And when you get to see that every day and get reminded of, like, how great humanity and the
• 14:42
  community is here, I mean, it it's easy to go to work when that's your job.
• 14:48
  Yeah.
• 14:49
  Exactly.
• 14:49
  And for someone like me who who spent, you know, the better part of, you know, six years
• 14:55
  having moved across the state in a very, you know, a a meat grinder of of corporate America
• 15:04
  working on a factory in an assembly line, it's very easy to forget all the good things that
• 15:10
  come from communities like ours.
• 15:13
  We're very fortunate to live in a part of the country that doesn't see itself necessarily
• 15:18
  divided amongst the lines, whether they're political or otherwise, and that we can all
• 15:23
  come together to support one another.
• 15:25
  And I think that is something that's missing altogether in American society these days.
• 15:31
  I hope that we're able to get back to it, and I feel like each one of us in our own ways kind
• 15:37
  of providing an example of that.
• 15:39
  I didn't become extremely successful in media and have a lot of money before I went out and
• 15:45
  sought the opportunity to serve our veteran community and to serve others in so many ways
• 15:52
  because there are skills that I have and that you have, Mike, to be able to help others even
• 15:59
  without all the money in the world.
• 16:01
  You don't have to be rich and famous to do some good, and we're not people that are out here
• 16:06
  doing it for the PR in any way.
• 16:08
  We're doing it because it feeds our soul.
• 16:11
  And I I really appreciate that about you and your family and the time that you spend in
• 16:16
  helping so many other families.
• 16:18
  I mean, a thousand people a thousand people in and a thousand people served on the outside,
• 16:24
  that's an incredible testament to what you're doing and how needed it is in the community.
• 16:30
  Yeah.
• 16:30
  I mean, you you're hitting a lot of the points about why we got started is Ella and I my wife
• 16:37
  and I, like, when we had Owen and he was young, there were times when we were talking about
• 16:42
  divorce.
• 16:43
  And it wasn't because, I had gambled all our money away or one of us had cheated or, you
• 16:49
  know, like, there was nothing catastrophic that had happened to happened to us.
• 16:54
  But when you're caring for a child, when you're doing two or three hours of medical care a day,
• 17:01
  it doesn't leave a lot of time for date night and to remind each other why you love each
• 17:07
  other or just to think about it and be like, you know what, honey?
• 17:12
  What you said the other day, I thought about it, and you were right.
• 17:15
  Instead, you're still, like because you haven't slept, you're still mad.
• 17:19
  You're like, you know what?
• 17:20
  I thought about it, and you're still wrong.
• 17:22
  I hate you.
• 17:23
  You know?
• 17:24
  And it's hard.
• 17:25
  It's hard when you're in those situations.
• 17:27
  And, you you know, you said it before, but this isn't a silver bullet.
• 17:31
  It is not gonna cure everything.
• 17:34
  But if we can lift that burden a little bit, if you can come in and we could just give you this
• 17:40
  equipment that you weren't sure where to get it or how to get it or that you were gonna be able
• 17:45
  to afford it or, honestly, you're like, am I gonna have to go to a a church or a nonprofit
• 17:51
  or get on Facebook to try and find this stuff?
• 17:55
  If we can make that little bit easier, you know, not just once, but time and time again if
• 18:00
  you if you got long term stuff and we can just make that easier, I hope we just pay it
• 18:05
  forward, make other couples, other families' lives that little bit easier so that, yeah,
• 18:12
  they can get through the same situation we got through.
• 18:15
  And I think that comes from your lived experience.
• 18:18
  And we talked a little bit about it off the top that, most people or I would say at least some
• 18:25
  people who would start a nonprofit, and even though they're serving, maybe don't know the
• 18:29
  ins and outs of the the very personal stories that are inside of that.
• 18:33
  You and Ella having lived this with Owen and now having other children as well, you know the
• 18:39
  strain that these can put on the families themselves, and it's gonna give you a little
• 18:44
  bit more of a tenderness, I feel like, when you're dealing with people, first of all, and
• 18:50
  then sharing a little bit of your story, whether it's here on the podcast or it's with
• 18:53
  them inside of the office, you're going to build those relationships and let those people
• 18:58
  know that they are not alone in this instance of their lives either, that people have been
• 19:04
  there.
• 19:05
  In fact, the ones sitting right in front of you now have been there, and we've made it through
• 19:09
  it.
• 19:09
  You're going to make it too.
• 19:11
  I think that's all as human beings that we're really looking for in this life, especially
• 19:16
  when we find ourselves, in situations where, life can feel like it's walking all over us.
• 19:23
  Yeah.
• 19:24
  And some families just need to have, like, even a little bit of encouragement.
• 19:31
  We had a family come in, and we say this all the time.
• 19:35
  When people come in, it's like, we don't call ourselves a charity very often.
• 19:40
  We refer to ourselves as a nonprofit.
• 19:42
  Because when people take care of themselves, if that shortens their rehab, if it keeps them
• 19:48
  from another injury, they're actually doing a good thing.
• 19:51
  Like, if we had a daughter come in, she's taking care of her mom, and they were
• 19:56
  struggling.
• 19:56
  And so we gave her a Heuer lift, know, like, one of those things to get out of bed, and we
• 20:00
  gave them some, you know, adult incontinence, and we gave them a whole bunch of stuff.
• 20:05
  And we just talked to her a little bit.
• 20:07
  Like, honestly, you taking care of your mom is keeping her from extra doctor's appointments.
• 20:14
  It's keeping her at home where she wants to be instead of being in a nursing home.
• 20:20
  And you are actually reducing costs by not putting her in the home in a nursing home.
• 20:26
  Like, the Medicare and Medicaid costs are actually way lower, and it's what she wants.
• 20:32
  And so she's doing this great thing.
• 20:34
  She's coming to get help, coming to get this equipment, and then she's, like, immediately
• 20:39
  paying it forward to her loved ones by taking care of them and making their lives better.
• 20:45
  And when we told her that, like, you're doing this great thing.
• 20:49
  We see you doing this great thing.
• 20:51
  She honestly just, like, broke down and cried because no one had told her, like, she's doing
• 20:59
  a good job or that she was making people's lives better or that honestly coming and
• 21:05
  getting equipment from us was, like, already paying it forward.
• 21:09
  And so getting that encouragement, she's like, oh my god.
• 21:13
  I feel so much better just having Colin here and not just getting the cup equipment, but
• 21:20
  sort of what you're seeing saying.
• 21:22
  You know, seeing the other people, seeing that it's gonna be okay really, really helped her.
• 21:29
  That was just you know, I I remember.
• 21:32
  That was years ago, and I still remember it, you know, like it was yesterday.
• 21:35
  Yeah.
• 21:35
  Well, and it makes me think that maybe we need to get together with, the SCENE projects and be
• 21:40
  able to put together, an event to celebrate these people in this community that you've now
• 21:46
  built around you and to remind them of why not just why you're here, but why they are here,
• 21:52
  why these caretakers, are are so important because most of us are not getting paid any
• 21:58
  amount of money for that.
• 22:00
  And and I would you know, my my mother had taken care of her mother inside of her home
• 22:05
  towards the end of her life.
• 22:07
  And I see the the the struggle that can be and but it was so important to the quality of the
• 22:14
  end of that life of my grandmother.
• 22:16
  That was so important and that we often forget some of the most precious moments that we have
• 22:22
  are going to be inside of our home, not inside of a a nursing home or another medical
• 22:27
  facility.
• 22:28
  So, Mike, you you're really doing an amazing job with everything.
• 22:33
  People can go to the legacy foundation s d dot com.
• 22:38
  That is sdasinsouthdakota.
• 22:40
  Owens Outfitters, I'm sure people can find out more about that if they look it up online as
• 22:45
  well.
• 22:45
  Everything's on the website.
• 22:47
  Mike, anything that I missed that you wanna make sure to plug before I let you go?
• 22:51
  Can I talk about our upcoming event?
• 22:54
  Yeah.
• 22:54
  I would love it.
• 22:55
  Alright.
• 22:55
  We're doing game night on September 19, and we're talking, like, big games.
• 23:02
  300 people playing Price is Right, Family Feud, speed puzzle building, trivia, and then, like,
• 23:10
  one arms, two arms, no arms, which is a fast one.
• 23:13
  Like, it's sort of like it's almost like 300 people flipping a coin at the same time.
• 23:18
  And so you're gonna have this fast game, and then we give away prizes.
• 23:23
  And so, yeah, the the event is way more celebratory.
• 23:27
  It's like, you to the community.
• 23:29
  Thank you for all the people who make this possible.
• 23:31
  Thank you to everyone for being so cool.
• 23:34
  And so, yeah, game night, very little of me talking, you know, which is a selling point for
• 23:39
  a lot of people, and just a lot of cool fun that people to get a common celebrate together.
• 23:46
  So, yeah, September 19, game night with Owens Outfitters.
• 23:51
  Awesome.
• 23:51
  Well, we will make sure that we get all that information inside of the show notes and
• 23:55
  everything as well.
• 23:56
  Mike, just really appreciate spending some time with you.
• 23:58
  Can't wait to come up and meet and and see the facility in person one day.
• 24:02
  Hopefully, not because I need to, but purely because I I want to be there and to see more of
• 24:07
  it.
• 24:08
  Appreciate you spending some time with me today, and thank you for being part of the
• 24:12
  scene.
• 24:13
  Yeah.
• 24:13
  Thanks for the invite.
• 24:14
  Thanks for your time today.
• 24:15
  It was a lot of fun.