EXPERIENCE 30 | Craig & Molly Secher - No Child Forgotten at Realities for Children

Welcome to the LOCO Experience Podcast with LOCO Think Tank Founder Kurt Bear. Listen in as Kurt digs deep into the business and life stories of business owners and thought leaders at different stages of growth from all walks of life. Launching and growing anything can be a crazy experience, so expand your thinking and level up your understanding of what it takes to find success in the world of free enterprise. Welcome back to the LOCO Experience Podcast. This is your host Kurt Bear. I'm joined today by Craig and Molly Secker and Craig is the executive director of Realities for Children and Molly is the membership relations coordinator and together they've built an organization that just really inspires and amazes me and benefits so many children's causes across the community. Craig, if I may, why don't we start with you? What's being the executive director and janitor at Realities for Children and Molly? It's just that. Thanks for having us here. It's fun to be able to get together and appreciate you being able to share so many great stories out in the community about programs and services that are happening. So yeah, so my role is obviously oversight of the entire organization. Now, Realities for Children provides for the emergency unmet services, unmet needs of children that have been abused, neglected to ban or at risk in Larimer County, and we also have a well-county outreach. So the bulk of what I focus on is the emergency services. The grant requests, it's a very significant side of what we do. It's what we're most known for of our six core services. So I'm dealing with right now through the pandemic we've been seeing on average about 15 plus emergency grants every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So that's a big focus. And then of course, also supporting all of our other departments that work on everything from our youth activities, our membership marketing and outreach, member relations that Molly works with are our events and fundraising and that side of things as well as of course, item distributions that we deal with every single day. Just a big scope of services and you brought to Remy and Rio. Rio today, your therapy dogs and Molly's been learning training as a therapy dog trainer or something like that recently. Molly, what's your, how would you describe your role within that? And then Craig, I want to come back to you and have you kind of give us the scope of services a little bit more. Be back. Within my job description, I managed the membership billing with over 250 business members. And I run all of our networking opportunities as far as the relations and we have one every month. It's a great opportunity for our members to get together and support one each other and being like-minded and wanting to make a difference in our community. Yeah, and I'm a member, so I kind of understand what that means. But tell listeners like who are the members that you're talking about? Oh gosh, our business members are, so we serve children in Larimer County. So any businesses in Larimer County, it could be a bank, it can be a restaurant, local think tank, all local people coming together to make a difference. So they're signing up to be members of your organization. They get, we get marketing benefits, we get connection and networking and things like that. But we also, I guess, acknowledge that some of our dollars go directly to help in kids and those causes, right? Absolutely. And that kind of goes to the design of the organization. Why we've created this private social partnership with the nonprofit community and the the for-profit community to make sure that no child is forgotten. That's been our battle crisis. We founded the organization in 1995 to see that no child is forgotten. And we found the best path to do that is to create this really collaborative network in our community to do. So what really separates realities for children is creating that network of nonprofits that all work together so that we, like I said, in Larimer County, we have 39 amazing organizations. You can learn about all of them on our website. But it's our business members that underwrite all the administration of the organization. And that's what helps to unite these nonprofits. Not only does that help to see that by underwriting all the administrative costs knowing that a donor gives a donation 100% of that goes to direct services for children as a big deal. But the really big deal is that it really creates a non-compete environment where all of these agencies can work together collaboratively to provide the best continuum of service. So our business members, they're the backbone of what we do. They're everything. And I'm happy to share a little bit more of the history of how that evolved and where that came from. But I just echo Molly Salazar, our business members are amazing. They are the leaders in our community that have chosen, like yourself, to make it part of your business to make a difference. We all know that running a business, running, you know, there's a lot of work. There's a lot that goes into that. But when you go to the to the business member list of realities for children, you're looking at the leaders in our community that are really taking a stand against child abuse and saying together, we can make sure that no child has forgotten and creating this amazing family of Smolley mentioned. Over 250 businesses that that worked together to help us do that. So just amazing. Amazing group of folks, yeah. Over 250 members. Molly, you mentioned the events that these business members take part in. Can you describe that into purpose? Absolutely. So we out of the 12 months in a year, we have 11 networking opportunities. The only month that we don't invite people to do something as a networking opportunity is December, because that's when we have one of our premier events, nightlights. And so we encourage everybody to come to that event instead of. But we do networking lunchens. We have some breakfast and then we have two very large socials. We have a summer social this year. It'll be out at the realities for children home base and we'll have Wendy Wu will be there performing and we have the playground available for the kiddos. So we're very excited and it'll be in July to actually have time to come together. Yeah. And then we have our holiday social. The other thing is so great about these events. It's not only our business members that attend. We usually have a guest speaker from one of our partner agencies that come attend. And then at the summer social, we do the partner agency Expo. And then at the holiday social, they're just invited to join us and we just all get together and have a good time and cross each other's paths. And I want to compliment you and your team Molly that puts these events together. You've largely had events most every month, you know, managed it in a way that was outdoors safe. And but still a lot of people to get together because I think most of us have been kind of starving for connection. And when we build these relationships with people that are like minded, it's hard not to see them. Absolutely. I think when COVID happened, we missed one month completely. And then we went to Zoom for two months. And then we were able to gather, you know, and be respectful of each other's, you know, social distancing and wearing masks. And because of the facility space that we have, we were able to gather outside in a picnic kind of style. And then the caterers brought individual meals and they were handed out, you know, appropriately. And so we're very grateful to have that kind of space to continue to get together. Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned home base. And that's a relatively new element of the reality's organization. Craig, do you want to describe home base just a bit? Wow. Yeah. So that is, you're right. We have six core services that we provide. And that is the most current, the most recent one that we've added to our services for our organizations. And that started in 2016. Every year we meet with all of the executive directors of all of our agencies and say, you know, what are the areas that we can we can excel at? Where are some areas that maybe need some additional support? Where are the areas of struggle for each of us being able to meet our mission and you know, be 100% at our reach for children in need in our community? And in 2016 when we met, there was one, I think it was virtually every agency, only but a few that brought that didn't bring this up. And that was the facility space. As this community grows, there's less and less facility space available for agencies. And it was interesting. As we delved into it a little bit further, we realized more than just having access to space for larger gatherings or get together as your item distributions or activities, we started looking at where nonprofit community at large has been going. And what we concede around that. And we looked at it and we said, you know, we have these large events too. And oftentimes nonprofits will go to wherever there's a space, whether it's a church or a service club or even renting a space at the Lincoln Center. And we realized the first thing we concede for our children right away is confidentiality, which you know, it's unfortunate because there's a lot of confidential cases. We don't want to do that, but this is how we're allowed to do it. We can't control the parishioners and the, you know, members and those sorts of things. We also control consistency. We have a very transient population of children from going from home to home oftentimes, different case workers and by borrowing space all the time for every agency and it's a different location every time, it really kind of reinforced some of those those transient issues. Yeah, yeah. Would you been at 40 foster families in 10 years that moving to a different place to place is really a big deal. Absolutely. And the third thing was quality. The places that we did have consistency and control confidentiality were often abandoned buildings, tore up rugs and no running water and half the lights didn't work. The rent is free. Yeah. There's a reason. Exactly. And so we realized the same thing there. We're really reinforcing it down and out piece where we want to be driving our children into a better place and it really opened all of our eyes and we also realized that not none of the agencies needed all the space all the time, but all of us needed some of the space some of the time. Yeah, yeah. And it also is an expense factor that we were looking at. So we looked at, we took it upon ourselves in 2016 to announce the home-based capital campaign to create a for-acre facility that is free to all of our partner agencies to utilize for all of their programs, all of their services. And it was such an amazing journey, Kurt. We had we announced it in April of 2016 to our membership base and we moved into the new for-acre facility, April of 2017. So from concept to completion to fully funded, it was a fully functional and built was about 18 months. That is amazing. And I know you had some of your business members, you know, I got a concrete company. You need concrete. I got bricks, you know, it's a true reflection soup kind of thing. It's a true reflection of how necessary this sort of a resource was in our community that the county commissioners, the planning, I mean, there's the change of use and everything that we had to go through just was just so quickly. And you're right, all of our business members had gifts to bring and the community got behind it, our agencies got behind it, everybody did. And I don't think I've ever seen such a tremendously collaborative program go so quickly. And it started, we started hosting our our children in there in 2017. And in 2019, before the pandemic, the facility hosted 8,232 children and guardians on site above and beyond our own programs at that facility. So it shows you how important that need was. But in short, the home-based facility is a private agency hall. It houses our distribution center has a private park, a playground, a childcare center. It's it just allows for all of the service for your group and offices for for for administration as well. Yeah, you know that are you you know that our listeners might not that I've been a big advocate for the Matthews house for a long time and named such because it had a place on Matthews Street, you know, a real house where kids could come and hang and feel loved and be in relationship. And I think there was a big part of that organization's growth and draw as well. And so I think the home-based can only be a strengthening element for a real reason. And they're one of the agencies that are out there literally every week because it allows one of the things that the the founder of Matthews house has a partner agency really wanted to have is and all of our agencies really were lacking. It's oftentimes you have trainings, resources and programs that you want to provide to the families. But there's no place for the kids to go. And if you don't have a place for the kids to go, it's hard to have the families there. It's hard to have foster parents get training if they don't have a place for their foster kids to go. So on a site like this, they were able to come in, get their trainings, get their services. Yeah, I think Matthews house had their resource cafe, they manage everything and they have a site with us and there's so many other organizations doing just allowed this place for the programs could be provided and the kids would be provided for at the same time on the same site. Very cool. I want to I think we might want to paint this picture in layers a little bit. It's such a complicated element that reality is not complicated, but there's so many different service elements to it and stuff. Maybe we can go back to the the founding timeline. Molly, have you been involved with realities for children since the very start or were you just married to this crazy guy that started doing this thing? She is the founder of realities for children. She is the founder. Okay. That's what I like to say. Tell me about that. Well, gosh, I mean, really going back to the very, very like when it first happens. Yeah. So before we start this podcast, that was kind of some of the things that we were chatting about. Craig was working as a child protection officer at Department of Human Services. And I was working at kindergarten care as assistant director. And we were young. I was 22. I think Craig, you were pray 24, 25. And you know, throughout his profession, he just saw so many kiddos, just slip into the cracks. And he just thought that maybe he could help do it in a different way. And I'll let you speak more on that Craig. But I just remember the intimate part, you know, between Craig and I is that he had come home. And he's like, I got this great idea. And I was like, okay, what is it? And he's like, I'm going to quit my job. And I'm going to start this other program called realities for children. And you know, you had these great benefits. And you know, we're this young married couple. And I was like, yeah, we got this. And we were just so young that we just we didn't know any different. Yeah, too ignorant of the challenges ahead to really be too scared. Right? That was a blessing. But I have, you know, Molly's being modest. I had worked in child protection for many years at that point. I think I've been working child protection services for six years. And I did that. We watched kids slip into the cracks. And I can tell you the aha moment at child protection where we realize that we need we can do better. We can do better as a community. We can make sure that no child has forgotten. But it's going to take a community working together. And it was it was a it was a pretty neat moment in in my path and and calling my heart. And I came home and it was it wasn't quite as lighthearted as as I think Molly likes remembers that I came in saying, I have this idea. I really think we can do better. I think if we were to create a way we could connect the agencies connect our community connect the the business leaders. We could make sure that no child's forgotten. She looked at me with a smile on her face and says, then we should do that. And as simple as that. And and I you know, we had like I said, just got married, just got her home. Yeah. Just had a career in place. And so it was a lot to walk away from. But from that's why I say Molly's real the real founder because had she not had that response and just say, I said, are you crazy? You know, that would have been a different thing. But she's just like to say, if we can help more kids, if we can do a better job. And obviously she shared her heart. She'd been working in certain kids. In fact, we had overlaps of some of the children in my caseload. She took care of that. Her child care facility. And so there was you know, there was that kind of connecting point. She has that heart for children. And I think both of us just said, if we have the ability to do better, we have the responsibility to do so. And I don't believe that I don't believe that there was ever a looking back moment. The fact that she just embraced it. She didn't say, what about the house payment? What about your benefits? She just said, then we should do that. There's there's a really intriguing video, I guess, that you've probably seen over the years. It's kind of that first follower where there's lots of visionaries with ideas in the world. But the first follower is the brave one. Because there's lots of morons just marching off alone. And until somebody starts following that person and getting behind it, then it's just some dude or some gal. But when there's a follower, somebody that believes and trusts and so I just wanted to compliment that bravery you shared there or showed their Molly. And really Craig, I want to go back to a word you shared. You said a call in my heart. Yeah. And I want to like, you already had the name and no child forgotten. And like so much of that was stewing in your head and already even the kind of the base of the model where it's business community, nonprofit community. Like what was the factors at play? And if you can describe what that call was more and the why and the how it was like one aha moment or was it like a stew that stewed for months and years and then all of a sudden it gave birth to this idea. That's it. That's a great question. And there was several aha moments in the process. I think one of the things we're blessed in addition being blessed to being married to Molly and she has been a guiding part of this process from the very, very beginning. We've also been blessed by being around amazing leaders in this community that have helped us to grow and do that as well. But the beginning moment was like I said, I originally worked as a counselor with severely emotionally disturbed children as a result of extreme cases of abuse all under the age of 13. It was a residential facility. They couldn't even be placed in foster homes because of the extent of that. And then I became an addictions counselor and I worked with chemically dependent to link with teens as a result of domestic violence and abandonment, this and parole supervision with the same population. And so I'd worked with all ages of children and continued to see lack of resources, not having what we needed to have there. And so I kind of wanted to work my way up the food chain to be in a position where we could enact that change and make sure that these kids were provided for. And so I ultimately became a child protection. I actually was a child protection investigator originally, which you know I was a court expert in the investigation side and recommendations. But that really wasn't my heart. I'm more in the heuristic and healing side of things. So I transferred out of investigations and became an ongoing case manager at the department of human services here in Larimer County. And it really was at the point where I thought we could really enact some of these connecting points and changes. And this is what I realized is we would do these things once a month called debriefings. We'll just keep talking through the train. That's fine by me. Otherwise we never could done with this podcast. We could trains all day around here. And we do these debriefings where we get together in a room with all the case workers and we talk about the lack of resources or you know the you know the having too many cases and the challenges that we faced are having even some of the court ordered resources services that were too readily exhausted or just not available. And we would do this once a month. And I was very excited about it first. And I realized ultimately this was never there's no resources. Yeah and I talked to the supervisor and I said well what are we how are we working to fix some of these issues. And I say well that's not what this is about. This isn't about this is more of you know we have such a high turnover rate and child child protection. It's a very difficult job. Very difficult task. And so we have such a high turnover rate. A lot of this is about the cathartic ability to be able to kind of get some of the things off your chest and go back and do your job. And I and that wasn't that didn't sit well with me personally. I think I think it's has a place. I went back to that the next meeting. And I said and this was that first aha moment we were talking about I looked at everybody and I said look if if complaining about the same thing every every month without a hope of changes is cathartic and it lets you to keep doing your job and by all means you know keep coming and keep doing this but this is my last meeting. I said the way I see it you know we have three options. We either accept the limitations of our job quit wine and get out there and do the best we can. We don't accept the limitations of our job and we go do something else or three we find a solution to the limitations. And that was what was that was the original call it was put on my heart was just to say okay let's this is broken. Yeah somebody needs to fix it. Let's find that solution. Can you circle me a little bit what year was this Craig. That would have been early 1995. Okay. Okay. And I think you and I actually met right around 1999 2000. Yeah. When I was at the bank there on Mulberry and something something. Yeah. Link Lane and Mulberry I remember meeting you way back when I was at my first job in town. And that would have been yeah that would have been the early days for sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely involved. What I love about this town and I love about our members you know is that we have business members have been with us for 23 years. Right. Plus here. Yeah. So there's these great relationships and why we talk about I didn't have a business until a couple of years ago. Well no I followed you. I followed your your backyard barbecue. We've had some. Right on. Right on. Molly talk to me about maybe the the tone of your heart as as Craig's unfolding these things and it sounds like you guys at least had a had a very connected it from a heart and values and things like that anyway. But how was it that you were excited to follow and and enthusiastic about losing all of your insurance coverages and salary and I think it wasn't hard because of Craig's passion and his confidence behind it. It was easy for me to be by his side through all of it. I mean it was it was difficult I think because then we we were expecting our first child Jordan pretty quick there and the business was run out of our home. Sure. And then yeah I don't know I just I mean I know there are struggles but I think because realities for children is so family focused with it's all relational I mean I feel like it's all about the relationships that we make whether it's with a partner agency executive director their staff if it's with business members with volunteers and so we've formed these relationships with people through every year with realities for children it kept us going. I don't know just I don't remember ever being difficult or stressful to to be in the process of it. I think it was hard growing membership there was definitely years where like gosh how's this going to happen and we're going to be able to keep doing this and well I always think of myself as you were describing that I don't love for you to take the listeners through Craig because it's kind of like a it's a big vision kind of thing I'm going to unite these nonprofit partners with these business members and we're going to do these marketing things but until like you've got some of that built it seems like a pipe dream to the people that you're talking to when you got a flyer you're like we're going to have this thing in just a few months and it's going to be great all I need you to sign up now so that I could get other people to sign up to yeah like talk to me about that I must have burned the leather off your shoes you know it was really interesting I thought working in child protection that many years that worked you know at that point five six years before founding the organization that I had had thick skin we're dealing with some of the worst possible scenarios we're dealing with the most horrendous situations like Molly said I I'm more about the focus on how do we help one more child and so you can you can muscle through a lot of stuff when you when you feel that that's on the other but I found out really quickly there's different kinds of skins and I'm not a salesman I'm not a you know I had to go out and explain a concept to people right that we can make the world a better place we can make our community a stronger place we can make sure that no child is forgotten if we if we work together we can do that and I believe in it and the first few nose I got where I realized my thing is my skin is not that thick because that just wasn't my world I wasn't really but you know again you you just look at what the end piece of it is and it was really you know the membership side was really led by the agency side and as far as the process goes all right so you get these agencies involved and then some of the supporters of those agencies and stuff are like hey here's a thing well tell me about that even the way we we came to doing that because I'll back it up we weren't there was an evolution of the design there was a process of understanding how the best way these things would fit together it wasn't like the that aha moment walking out of child protection I know exactly what the model was going to be I knew that if we were together we connected if we could provide an emergency resources and certain programs we could make sure that no child was forgotten what that path was was something that I really wanted to to connect with the other leaders in our community and at that time I sat down with 11 executive directors of nonprofits that were on my caseload as a child protection worker and we sat down in a room and I said look I want to create an organization that can be this this catch all that make sure that no child is forgotten when there's there's nowhere else to turn and it had a really interesting meaning hurt we had it was 11 executive directors I worked with them on a regular basis through my role but it it struck me that really none of these directors knew each other and as we went through and I said I want you to help me design the core services of an organization that would help make sure that none of your children are forgotten that we could really make this this safety net in our community and we did we hammered out the four core services of you know agency sponsorship special youth activities emergency funding community awareness and education about all of that stuff and what we're doing and but at the end of it it really started becoming clear that we have a bigger issue we have a bigger problem where you can throw all the money in all the awareness it's something but unless we were all working together unless the nonprofit community was working collaboratively connecting we're never going to have a good continuum of service and if you don't have a good if agency a doesn't know what agency b is doing or where they start and stop we're always going to have gaps we're always going to have overlaps yeah and in efficiencies and so through this meeting I was my second aha moment and that was that you know the number one thing we got to do is we got to create a truly connected collaborative non-profit community and that's the only way we're going to see that no child is forgotten and at the end of this meeting all of these directors you know one of the directors said and it could tell it was a kind of a mutual mindset the deal is is the nonprofit community still in many areas are competitive they see that everybody's going after the same slice of the pie of donations grants and fundraising dollars yeah and they're so have a mindset of lack that they're afraid to keep their doors open oh my gosh I don't I don't want that and and it's scarcity mentality it's exactly what it is and and I said I looked I looked and I said why the one fellow said look if you're if you're going to be another non-profit that just goes after this this slice of the pie you know we're not so sure we want it and I thought my goodness we just spent two hours itemizing four core services and actually no child would be forgotten in our community and we're still scared of this of this collaborative kind of mindset so I realized at that moment that to really be effective we need to create a collaborative network and to do that we wanted to create a way that we could we could set a non-compete design so by bringing in the business membership side by bringing in the business members that underwrite all the administration and allow us to see a hundred percent of every donation go to direct services right it became a win-win so the problem with money is that it always steals the attention right and so when I say a hundred percent of your donation goes to direct services donors love that because gosh that's great great efficiency that's wonderful that wasn't the reasoning we didn't create a hundred percent distribution of the dollars to to be a hundred percent distribution of the dollars we did that so we could create a non-compete environment in which agencies could work collaboratively together and we could create the best possible continuum of service so every agency knows every agency and they all work together and today we've grown from those eleven agencies in fact that was my question to them I say if we can create a way that all the money that we we generate goes to direct services that we just outlined that you have a need for would you all agree to play nice in the sandbox and we can we can hit this mark and and the response was they they laughed at me of course maybe if you can do that yeah sure if you can do that then yeah and then again the same thing you walk out going how the heck you can do that but that was the calling that was what united that created the true private social partnership that we could create a partnership with the business community that can underwrite all the expenses it takes to run an organization and make sure that what they're doing is truly uniting the nonprofit community as a business member I want you to know that because it's so much more it's so much more uh yes you're helping kids every day with what your your membership is but you're really uniting a nonprofit community so exponentially these children can be sure that's one of the biggest values is the uniting of the nonprofit community the the underwriting all that that's gravy and the community connections and whatever yeah I was thinking and I've I've talked with lots of nonprofits I've been involved a long time and they have this sense that you know if they to if this donor X chooses not to support boys and girls club that they're just going to go give that money to humane society yeah or whatever and that really isn't the case with most people it's a it's a heart led journey and they're there for a reason and you don't just like change teams no because somebody called on your donor or whatever and really what you want is a right fit you want you know I mean if you're just giving because you're used to doing that that's one thing what we really wanted is why we educate people about all these amazing organizations because there may be something you're not aware of in this community that you're like gosh darn that's something I'd really like to get more involved with and you choose to do that isn't it and I think that's that's part of our job is to educate aware make the whole community aware of the great organizations how they can get involved the different ways that they can serve and really create a way that no matter who you are you can make a difference in this community and that's what we're trying to do is open doors to everybody but yeah that it's become we do annual summits in addition to the events that Molly talked about with the expose we do an annual summit where all the executive directors meet they get a new book of services they all know what each other does we're having a luncheon next week with 24 leaders of 24 different nonprofit agencies just so they can connect and the more they're connected that those resources those opportunities historically just weren't there yeah and so by creating this family if you will of nonprofit community for profit community community at large we're just able to have such a tremendous impact and really achieve our mission of seeing no child forgotten well I want to swing it back to you and are you working for realities for children in these early days or are you still at kindergarten managing and helping where you could and stuff like that I was working at kindergarten and then when we're expecting our second child Jake I ended up staying home until he was going into kindergarten okay yeah that's great and then I came on to realities so talk to me about that mom's I view wife's I view during those you know that second pregnancy and and then those stay at home years you're you're probably watching Craig out there you know wearing his shoes out those were probably some of the hard years for him I think growing realities for children I think yeah um I would say even though she Molly has always been part of realities for children my confidant she's been the person there she's been part of leadership from the very beginning so despite whether you're working there or not she's always been working there and and that's the team that that we are and I think that's the makes it successful yeah Jill's right here and look what think tank you know she's not right here right now yeah right on so yeah but it's funny I do remember you know we would participate and be it all like the foster child Christmas parties and take the kiddos to that and we were always at like bikes for tikes and all of the distributions so our kids grew up in a different environment than a lot of children do sure they were exposed to um well great things and just yeah families and and kiddos in need and um how to just be kind to everybody who was well and leaving some of those really hard seeming impossible circumstances behind yeah you know some of your graduates in trying to award winners and stuff like the stuff they've been through is just so hard but yeah they know that that's just part of their pasture it isn't part of their person you know and for our children our our children they literally grew up with these kids yeah whether we we hosted all of the foster children's Christmas parties in Easter egg hunts and you know all the things so our kids were just part of that in fact uh we realized we you know we never distinguished that oh these children are this these are our these are children that we care about we love and and this is who our kids grew up and I think uh my peace I look back on was a moment we realized we probably should needed to have a little bit of an explanation of some of these when our daughter came up and asked us who her case worker was right because she's uh you know just around other children talking about their case well that's my case worker that's how this ends and my daughter's like what's her name is Molly right so yeah our children uh definitely we have videos of Jake barely old enough to carry helmets and for bikes or tikes and he's they've been a part of their whole life so can you kind of talk to me about some of the evolution of some of the major milestones Craig I don't know if you can tell me by memory or what as far as years and launches but a lot of the core programs the bikes for tikes and in the you know just connecting these foster youth and things like that was they're right from near the beginning yeah uh you know the it's interesting is you're saying some of these things like oh did you have this all mapped out and I really don't now so I I knew what we the goal was I knew our goal was to make sure that no child was forgotten I knew that if we just we were the areas were gaps the same way we asked about the new facility the facility needs every year we looked at those were areas that we can improve and that was that was our call that year to do that and you're right bikes for tikes um was as our actual our single largest our oldest program oh really yeah that uh we're 26 years in the community here now and and that that we just had our 25th annual bikes for tikes distribution last year so that one's been around yeah yeah from the very very beginning and Molly why don't you just grab bikes for tikes for us so I can make sure you get some good air time here um so we have um people in the community that donate bikes uh we um new used whatever yep new used we partner with gosh how many bike shops crack five yeah five different bike shops um they drop them off at the bike shops to make sure that they're safe to check um that they're the tires they need to be or they're all tuned up and good to go um and then they are brought back to realities for children um it's just such a beautiful event um but on the day of the event we have all the um it has evolved over the years sure um it used to be the the case workers um and staff would come and shop for the kids and then it got to be where the families come themselves with the kids um because they're getting sized for the bike to fit sure sure um and then it's grown to where now they we have like face painting and food and stuffed animals and um emergency items like clothing shoes um boots yeah it's a major distribution and and how many bikes are we talking here so that's I was thinking of that so our our very first year I remember that I but we have a photo of the very first year it was uh I think we distributed 23 bicycles okay and now it averages um it averages between three and four hundred bikes a year I think at our biggest distribution was just over five hundred bicycles one year so and we're talking in in a few hours we're distributing over five hundred bicycles and it has become quite a a wonderful place and as our kids now with home base you know they have that consistent location it is there we call it home base because it is that central location for them place they can be proud of its their space that they can go to but we're so blessed this year with uh with the pandemic that we we like how do we do this we have five hundred kids and guardians coming out and selecting bikes and there's this whole part you know and we uh we were able to adapt it into uh I think Mueller's about to speak to that a drive a drive through event this year and oh it was really quite beautiful it was we had an amazing team that put it together and we kept smiles on the kids faces and you want to speak to that anymore well it was like a maze they kind of drove through that front like two acre wheel because you got to pick out your bike and stuff a little bit right yeah well they they had sent in their sizes oh sure but they drove through a maze and like every corner they would turn there was someone handing out like a puzzle that they could go home and and complete at home or a Christmas ornament that they could make at home uh Craig and I um happily gave out stuffed animals at another corner and yeah it was a great process and it ran very smoothly but again it's because the space that we have were so thankful and our program manager she you know this is a very 25 year old event being done in a way it's never ever been done uh because usually the kids do come in they select their bike they get size they get ready to make sure it's there these had to be she had to have the size the gender the color preference and then when they pulled up have some runners going and get that bike selected specifically for them and run it out to them so it was a lot more like everything in the pandemic we worked twice as hard to be able to continue to provide the services but to uh Molly and I into our entire team uh I just can't speak highly enough they everybody really stepped up and said yep this is going to be a tough year for everybody and we're going to make sure that we don't we don't miss a beat for the kids that we serve yeah actually before we go on in the business journey too much let's just let's talk about that team a little bit uh you mentioned your program manager like how many people make all these amazing things that realities come to life and what do they do to find their roles just a little bit well we we are a very small organization as far as the number of staff that we have but we're blessed to have so our staff you know we have a staff of six you know six people in the office that focus at seven I guess with our events team and everything but and that that's not all full-time people many of those are our part-time roles and positions and what they do everything from you know on the membership side we we have a whole department that really works on taking care of our business members from you know membership membership recruitment well you have a bunch of members who are volunteer ambassadors for you to do a lot of that work too right and that's what I was going to say we're we're a very small organization with a very big reach because we have this family and that's that's the power of you know I don't like to talk about realities for children as an entity or an organization or a business or a nonprofit I talk about it as a family because it that's how we get things done we get things done when it's considered more of a mission yeah yeah or of a that sort of thing where we get to really well when you're a family it's not about getting paid this or the you know sacrificing that or whatever it's who's the most suited in the family to get this thing done I guess that's me yeah it's my chart you know and and we all work that way right on so you know we have our we have an ambassador group of business leaders that that helped to to work on the membership side there are lead volunteers in the community we have one of the single largest volunteer bases I think our our active volunteer base spent over 500 people at one time so we've been really really fortunate with that extension of course the business members too you've mentioned that with the with the facility when we went to build a facility guess what we had hundreds of business members that were able to go cash I do concrete and I do construction and I do this and I do that and and it really people exactly right opening the doors giving everyone an opportunity to to get involved and there's a there's a whole other level of that with our business members to the community at large I'd like to speak to it a bit as well so sure yeah anything else you want to touch on in that last segment they're all here no just our staff is phenomenal um you can shout out my name if you want to if they're not shy go by office we've got Jill Foster um Tanya Whitt Shelley Carroll uh Megan Kaster Carrie Stadmieler Molly Sucker and the janitor and the janitor that got Greg but then even our staff you know from the past we've had people come and go and I still talk to them oh yeah for sure and we just love them well like joystick and I know it was absolutely we have we have staff will even become business members when they start their own businesses like they're saying or we have children that have emancipated from the system and become volunteers become donors become members themselves so it really when I it's it's it's more than just it's a it's a it's a it's a real it's 26 years of family in the community and it's it is amazing so our staff is wonderful I agree with Molly I I think we've been blessed with every person that's been with us since the very beginning I feel like they've been very ordained connecting points and in roles of what we're doing and each each person that's come on board of us have helped take us to the next level of service yeah along with us to reach just a little bit further and one more child and one more child and well you're not profit so you probably don't pay worth of ding so they must be better be passionate yeah I think better be passionate about it you wanted to expand on something there in relation to that business members well yeah I think this is a part another piece that sometimes gets overlooked I talked about that and this is in the nonprofit community historically we we we can actually disenfranchise people from getting involved and it's it's something that I take very seriously about really wanting to create a way that everybody can be involved in our community there's a lot of nonprofits that would really stick to the statement that you know oh why why why works so hard to generate this you know I'm a million people to give a dollar or whatever you know versus just go to one major donor and have a good care yeah or nine for us it's all about that connecting point for us it's about having that strength of and power resources of people coming together more than the the money side it's we'd rather we'd rather have a million people give a dollar because it's getting connected in the way they can but historically you know the nonprofit community has a really good job of disenfranchising people because if you ask somebody how do you how do you help how do you help in the nonprofit world there's good money you give money and volunteer and volunteer is a two exactly those are the two things you can do to help nonprofits the beautiful thing about the the diversity of realities for children with this private social partnerships absolutely donate time with there's so many great volunteer opportunities to get involved and then it'll change your life and if it's with us or with our partner agencies or with you know any things that are going on out there that's that's wonderful donate donate money that's great it's necessary there's so many we had a young man donate is his check he got from the government resources I just want this to go to something you know I can I can do this now because they didn't have the money nor I don't normally have the money but I got this and and I don't need it and let's see it go do something better and so yes donations are absolutely necessary and we we we we're excited that you know we serve an entire demographic with those donations we work a 39 agencies that benefit from it 100% of that goes to direct service there's a lot of good reasons to get involved with that but still we all only have so much time and so much money right and at the end of the day you know when you don't have time or money left over what do you do well okay I guess I can't help and that's where we disenfranchise people we get this kind of 80 20 rule of giving and and what we want to be able to do is say yeah that's great donate time and donate money but there's another way you can get involved and make a difference in a child's life and that's just by choosing to do business with the business members in our community yeah these these 250 leaders in our community you you get you make a choice every day where you can go eat where you get your oil change who's going to do your taxes you can you know you can look at these 250 businesses and it's virtually any service that you would ever want to have in our community yeah you're going to spend the same time and same money and and do it with a business that believes in making it their business to make a difference and in doing so just by doing what you were going to do anyways you can you can be part of helping a child creates another way that community can get involved and make a difference I like that and I think that speaks to why to be a business member why to care who the business members of realities for children are so Molly take us to kind of some of those early years and and kind of big picture moments you know I want to kind of get from your view because you're you're not outside and you're inside in but but you're watching Craig build these things and getting he's talking about all his ideas I'm sure about new things and this and that like what were some of the big important parts along the way from your perspective I think gosh I feel like it's been kind of steady like the whole time like it's just one brick at a time and whatever yeah let me ask a different question but a big thing that has changed I would say are some of the premier events you know and then it kind of got zoomed into what they are going to be but we've had some that have been great but they just didn't stay around we did a bicycle event a bike ride that has come and gone that was in conjunction with newest fest right taste of work on okay yeah and then we had the kid zone like tour to fat is such a big thing and so I must be right yeah and then we had a cat about it was an eating event above the Rio in the agave room we would have like a passport and go around and get your your page stamped at each different you know location of a country it's a lot of testing of ideas and some things stick and some things don't but the the big the spring and fall motorcycle events are really become a big part of that has that been a good a load time yeah I think this reality's ride I think you know you know I'm probably your listeners too as well we that's at the Guinness Book of World Records it became the world's largest motorcycle poker run I think in 2012 or 2013 and this is a 20th year of that ride so it's been okay all the events that we've done we've been again the community supports been amazing the business members support the agency supports a lot everything to be successful our challenges with events was they were all being successful and we had to kind of weed out we don't have a big enough team well and you can't have an event every right you know it's tired of your like it's the boy the crowd wolf after a while you're like hey another reality's event next week so well and I think mostly in our in our circumstance it was really just about efficiency how do you want a really good event if if it's like a garden I mean it doesn't mean that you have to weed in between the carrots so that certain carrots can grow more and so we yeah we just weeded out areas so that we could see really stellar events and really diverse uh programming as Molly brought up the event so um yeah reality's ride is 20th year our tree lighting the night lights events I just celebrated 23 years bikes or tikes 25 years um the uh the golf tournaments 16 17 years reality's cup and I've never participated that was probably one of our our young our young events 17 years old this year um the gala is 24 years um sorry are these events have been here since the very beginning and as they continue to grow and grow and grow we did have to weed some of those out and say we're the ones we really want to put our focus but yeah the the goal in a lot of the deciding factor for that too is diversity um my my belief system is that uh in most your donors that believe in you and know you your business members they're going to give to you because they believe in you and they know you our goal isn't to just keep going back to the same people that that want to do that every year we we certainly want that that the loyalty in those pieces but our goal is to go out into the community into diverse crowds and share our mission and share our message and and see who that sticks with so we put together the best golf tournament in the front range and and you know who goes to those people who really love golf right and and at the end of it if we have that opportunity to share our mission in our story and that sticks in people's hearts we have we have more people that are going to be out there and be a voice for for the children that we serve we run a great motorcycle rally the the realities ride that we do every year um and you know it comes to that is bikers who really love to ride right and this is it become a you know we've it's become part of their life and it's uh it's a chance for us to share a message you miss with diverse populations so from nightlights to if you'll notice none of our events are the same totally allows us to have a very diverse population that we get to speak with share with and in fact nightlights is probably the neatest one mully when you say in the sense of a melting pot it's kind of a year-end call it's a true community event so you'll see bikers at that and golfers at that and you see kind of people from all of our walks of life come down and and and be a part of that and i think that's a beautiful thing too is it connects people and i i think if that's the the big piece i'd say is the power of connection in our community and that's the one thing that we yeah we're really excited that we get to do throughout the community yeah mully i was gonna jump back in because you're asking what before i brought up the events um those big uh-huh moments um i would have to say probably the biggest one where i was like oh wow okay was about three and a half four years ago when we were starting to outgrow the building that we were in on sixteen ten south college and we were bursting at the seams with our staff and i think when you walk in the lobby there is three of us right there there was no private phone conversations and you've got people doing you know membership and billing and all right there and but it was fun those are like some of the fun memories that you have um and then we realized that we were needing to to move and expand um and again we were bursting at the seams the basement was full and we're having to do events of you know thankful partners you know first press period church and the the building next to us was empty and so we're doing events out of there or distributions right and so we met with a realtor to start looking at property and we just were looking at other buildings like the one that we were in small homes or small offices and we didn't realize what was in store for us um talk again about our calling and our um you know we're being guided to go and um we were taken out to this property and it was an old church and it's massive it's for acres of land and we were like oh wow we never even thought about this and the the area that it had for us and um and then we started working with SPD architect um and he drew up plans and it was at the gala that Craig was announcing this to over 600 people and I'm in the front row and it's on the big screen of the the drawing the rendering of what's gonna look like and I'm like sweating I'm like oh wow this is it this is this is this is it we're here we're here to stay I mean I never thought that we were leaving but this was a big moment I was like it was it was scary but this is a structure and it's it's real and it's happening and well I was just thinking about the like starting with the bikes I so I grew up pretty poor too my dad was a motorcycle mechanic that that started a farm on the side which didn't make any money for lots of years and whatever but um so we always had second-hand bicycles and fixed them ourselves and this and that and free school lunch and all these things and that wasn't a big deal where I came from rural North Dakota everybody's poor mostly but but some kids clearly had much nicer bikes than me you know and it's kind of an equalizer I would have to think it can you speak to that Craig is that something that was meaningful it's interesting that that one sticks in your heart because I had a banana seed you did yeah the banana seed probably had the big old handlebars on there oh yeah well the backrest thing and it was did you have the flag I did not have a flag I should have I wasn't that cool we couldn't afford it well yeah I grew up in a similar circumstance on a farm in Wisconsin as well but no you know honestly the bikes for takes the really big part for that why why that called to us in the very beginning is is it there's a sense of freedom that goes with that our children that we work with don't have a lot of control over their circumstances whether they're coming out of a domestic violence or an abuse of household they're going from foster home to foster home or treatment facility or you know the ups and downs and and so that we we found that there was really there can be a real feeling of I don't have a lot of control in my life and a lot of freedom and the bicycles yes it's a it's a beautiful gift to something special I think it makes them feel like they've got something that they wouldn't have otherwise but I personally believe in so many the kids have you know we've been doing for 25 years we have generations of children we just kids that have donate back to bikes for types that received bikes when they were children and now they're you know citizens in the community and that's the conversation is that that from this curb to that curb I could do whatever I wanted right now but that was my freedom that was my special and I think that's why we see such a big crossover in our realities ride our our bikers our motorcyclists that ride with us they understand that sense of freedom they understand that importance and being able to give that to a child gosh that's an easy gift that we can do and and you know it's it's hope is a key thing for our children they have to believe in a better tomorrow totally and a chance to give them a sense of freedom a sense of choice a sense of something that's just theirs that was that was why I think that that spoke to us from the very very beginning and why that is never going away yeah yeah I love that love that I I love the smiles and glances that you two give to each other when you're giving answers and reflecting on this I think it's indicative of a real strong commitment to each other in this cause I like her a lot I can tell I can tell so actually a lot of times I like to go into that the the relationship you grew up in Wisconsin let's go ahead and jump in the way back machine and then we'll catch ourselves back up to present day on the realities for children and kind of get that scope of program and talk about some of those partners and the impacts I know you're equipped with a little bit of impact it but so northern Wisconsin regular growing up life farm kid big family tell me about tell me about that background Craig where did this child protective services work or in Fort Collins like it is start I yeah so I worked as grew up on a farm in Wisconsin as a produce farm my dad Karen Dale farm and it's actually just south of Madison so I saw their Wisconsin area and that's like apples and stuff like that apples and cherries and grapes and probably the largest the largest crop by far with strawberries okay and so very very much produce produce farm grew up in that area very rural and went to college up and and Steven's point got we've got my degree in psychology and human services okay I actually did some some published research in that time as well and I immediately knew I wanted to come out and work in the in the counseling services side and yeah where did that come from like why I mean because you're like a big strapping football player tough biker looking guy and it's not what people think about frankly for counseling and psychology and child protective services and and whatever do you have any like what's what's the deep roots of realities for children you know I'm going to uh parry that just a little and and I say you know I did I that was my degree that was my I always have had a a love for people and a care for those and you're right my my role did come in a protector role quite a bit my size and in in the things that I did would would oftentimes be the guy that helped the kids that were bullied and was there for the the people that were struggling and growing up very very you know growing up poor and having those challenges also realizing you know there's there are there are people in different circumstances out there in the community so I think for me it it you know there was a call to know that that I was capable of helping other people I was the oldest of of three helped to raise my brother and my sister on the farm that's a that's a tough job and so there's a lot of responsibility there and so that was I think I always had a level of of responsibility for helping others because I was able to I think I mentioned that if you I truly believe if you have the ability to help somebody you have the responsibility to do it and that's that's how I grew up that's you know my dad has that same mentality I wrote the very first article I ever was asked to write in realities for children who was by Lutheran Family Services one of our early partner agencies and it was it was titled uh because that's what neighbors do and it came from a story with my dad who woke me up when I was probably was six years old and it was probably four in the morning and I he woke me up and said we got to go and there was a fire at a neighboring farm it was miles away and and I said well why do we get to go and he says because that's what neighbors do yeah and and and that's that's the that way I was raised and that's what I I believe in um so when I to answer your question about really what the call was I think there was some of those roots in caring for being capable of and and that's I think we have that responsibility to one another to reach out to care and love each other and and not just people that are downtrodden but but people that need help but we saw that probably more importantly this past year than ever before with the different kinds of challenges and mental health and everything else that we struggle with with with the pandemic um but uh once you come out and and I think the the long that the most immediate answer to your question and where it took me here was I came out here knowing that was my my interest like I said I had done published I had done research but I knew I wanted to do counseling and I came in why Fort Collins how did you learn here to find my true love just just like that Molly why don't you take up the road I'll finish that sentence okay only because I think it it drives to the point but yeah I I came I I I had worked in different places I knew I love Colorado I picked four Collins relatively randomly um leaving Wisconsin uh when I graduated uh new I like the area close to the mountains it looked good on a map and uh my very first job interview came 24 hours after coming here and working as a counselor with the severely emotional disturbed children in a residential facility and what I will say is once you meet one of these children once you you get connected to those kids you see their their heart break you see their confusion you see their loss you see what they've been through yeah I don't know how you do anything else yeah and so for me from that moment on uh and probably with the seeds planted and how I how I was raised and and in those pieces to me this was the path and and my my my call in my life's journey has been to see that no child's forgotten to be there and fight that fight every day for them yeah and when did you meet this lovely young lady uh how did that shake out almost uh almost immediately upon moving out you think a job I know I moved out here in May uh and uh I met her on October 12th of the same year and uh we just uh we just absolutely had so many interests she was she was still in in school and in studying to to go into a child care services that she went into and uh we met and we just uh we never we never we never left each other she just know yeah Molly do you want to describe that uh time period and and maybe set us up a little bit with uh who's Molly were you're not from Wisconsin I gather um I was born in Cincinnati Ohio um I lived there till I was five my dad um early on on was in the Navy but then his professional job later in life was he worked at IBM and so he used to joke said that IBM stood for I've been moved um right so we I've been in Ohio to Colorado back to Connecticut and then we landed in Boulder Colorado and I lived there um most of my life um and then when it was time to go to college I went to CSU because all three of my older brothers went there right um so I followed them and young youngest of four oldest of three right yeah it works very well um but yeah and so I met Craig and um can I share where we met yes you must church me jokes we met so again because Craig was a counselor um and it doesn't pay very well his nighttime job was a bouncer um so he was a bouncer at a bar that my brother was a bartender at okay and so I was there um visiting my brother and Craig and I ended up playing pool and chatting and we walked to city park that night and talked until the sun came up wow and literally just we're together so let's love it first sight yeah almost certainly huh it was pretty crazy and that was thirty thirty one thirty one years ago what did you uh what did your roommate say when you came home at 8 o'clock in the morning because she's like Ruby Ben I met this guy city park that's awesome yeah that's awesome so um and you know got into your career and then yeah and so now circus in the in the reality story we're probably getting into the early 2000s and stuff any other key moments we should talk about like levers that you had to turn or or key staff key decisions that really made the difference or has it really been just kind of the slow accumulation of of more people more members more partners things like that is there any big shifts along the way yeah there there has been you know for me I mentioned this being a call put on my heart from the very beginning and uh and I really do believe this is God's call in my life and and I try to really I do my best to try to follow where that's led and that's that's a hard thing to do you know we to listen and to surrender and do those things and um but that that really has been a guiding piece and I think when you can when you can uh you know obviously I'm constantly striving to be better at what I do I'm a counselor that has just taken my passion to to the level of serving you know tens of thousands of children a year but uh it's really about uh just striving to to meet that next need I that we talk about these big numbers and all those kind of things and for me it boils down to that that one child of those individual needs so yeah yeah um that one that does get forgotten when you learn about them you're like her yeah we got to do a little better so so there's been I heard that honestly there's been a million moments I just as I speak at a leadership summit yesterday and uh as a presenter and I and I say the first thing I want to say is I I think I'm blessed to be surrounded by some tremendous leaders in our community we talked about our amazing staff uh we talk about our amazing organizations and what they do and the selfless and tireless work and how we work collaboratively for these kids but we're also surrounded and blessed be around these these great community members and these great business leaders you know like yourself that uh that we get to learn from we get to grow from and I think um again I don't want to oversimplify though yeah I was just a one one foot in front of the other the whole way there were steps backwards and there were learning lessons and there were mistakes and there were there are errors and there are opportunities to grow and I always look at all of those things as opportunities to grow whether their successes or failures or whatever yeah how do we become better what do we learn from that if we learn something from challenges then it or struggles or even even failures and they're not failures my my attitude and all the things that we've done has uh the only the only real failures never having tried right right and and so for me and once you redefine what success and failures are it it makes life a lot easier it's definitely every lesson has a cost yeah and uh it was pretty meaningful to me because you know sometimes you know what the cost is going in and you get that lesson and sometimes it's it's taken out in in tears and and blood can we touch on something that felt like a failure at that time but then looking back it will it opened a new door or I opened my eyes to some other opportunity or anything along that line right and you put me on the spot to come up with a specific one I I I don't think you know one all right sir well I can track all my failures actually well and I don't know if it's a fail but again when we are at 1610 south college yeah and we had the community and this is kind of almost pre-systems or as the evolution of realities we got systems in place and then we solidified them right so we didn't we had distributions but they weren't necessarily consistent yeah so what happens is the community we come to work and there be like five bags of donations and this is when I kind of started working at realities I'm like okay let's let's have a store like like in the basement we set it up like a clothing store and people could come in and shop I wanted to say it was a fail but we weren't staffed to manage it was an exercise in doing a lot of things yeah and and and again we had a business member Carrie Thompson with the ES she came and pain in the basement and she was our hearts and horses at the time sure and helped build shelving and it was a beautiful situation but then it was to manage it and it was limited space yeah so I want to say it was a fail but it was an early on stage of how we can do distributions better now yeah well and a lot of the failures of that is what informed what you did instead I would imagine yeah well absolutely and we talk about I I think those early days and they're all part of the evolution so I guess again by redefining of what failure is I look at that and go like we we define what what where we could do that we don't want to duplicate services ourselves so you know the clothing side and some of the things that we do on distributions and now it's you know it's back to school and it's bikes for tikes and it's Santa's workshop and and that's even from some of those experiences grown to the the new Kind Connect program if people want to check out rfckindconnect.org which is a direct delivery system that during the pandemic provided distributed items to like 1,600 items in our community direct direct delivered to children's homes valued over 120,000 dollars and resources and directly to our kids I think all you know we talk about those early things I watch the evolution of every one of them yes that success fail have it don't have it but it was all part of the building blocks to to really refining it and I think that's not overlap services because that's better suited for homeward alliance right you know yeah and as our in as our partner agencies grew we could other areas could be put out there well and you mentioned your faith perspective and you know that the bible talks a lot about that refinement of people through testing and trial and challenge because nobody ever got to be an amazing person by just kind of strolling through life and having everything go easy for them right seems like anyway so let's actually talk about some of those impacts and you mentioned kind of connect already but and you mentioned thousands of kids do you have like like what's reality is doing you mentioned the emergency grants thing that I think is probably a little vague to some listeners and stuff but tell me about some of the impacts and specific like ways that you engage with all these partners it it seems crazy to me that there's 39 different partners that all are serving neglected and abused children's causes in some fashion or another that's that's also pretty amazing and that's that's an essential part of seeing no child forgotten we want to create a safety net that's so connected that no matter how a child is at risk in our community they're going to be have access to the resources we have so by having 39 eight we fund you know these are you know not small nonprofits large now I mentioned you know Matt when Matthew South started I know you're a huge advocate for that wonderful organization when when Jerry started the organization the first thing before she even opened her doors she applied to become a partner agency three artists which is like this is what we need to be a part of right connected to the nonprofit community and to be effective in that in that region you know it's it's beautiful so we have we have just such a diverse group of small nonprofits large nonprofits we fund government we we fund Learner County Department of Human Services so the case workers come to us for emergency services they come to our youth activities absolutely there there you can't have a safety net for all abuse and at risk children without having department human services involved in most recently the most one of the newest partner agencies believe it or not is FBI special victims unit we actually fund emergency services and direct support for FBI that are working with child trafficking child pornography issues and that sort of thing in our community so our reach is beyond nonprofit it's it's to government entities and it was just local government and now we're funding government on a massive level and it's it's it's really just we want if there's a child that's been abused neglect that abandoned or at risk in Learner County they need to have access to all of the services that we provide and to do that we need to be working with every partner that works and touches and works with that that probably yeah maybe three or four different organizations are needed or seven yeah so I would encourage anyone to do we're not going to obviously read a list of 39 organizations but I would encourage go to our website go to the about section learn about the partner agencies because it that'll get they're wonderful they're amazing organizations same with our business members yeah I really want everybody to know about some of the realities but yeah let's talk about impact I did throw some of the stats and of course with the pandemic it was really a very different year as well but the number one thing we're focused on is emergency services when all other resources are exhausted or are unavailable we want to make sure that that child is prepared to provide it for that's the number one thing and last year in 2020 we provided emergency services to five thousand six hundred and eighteen children the that that was a huge increase that we generally averaged about nine I think in 2019 we provided for about thirty six hundred emergency grants well it's a little more than nine children a day what happened in 2020 as we saw a huge increase in my family I forgot to tell you to put yours one on silent we saw a real increase in that demand for services we went to averaging over 15 children a day so well emergency funding that's like a what 60 percent increase for almost a day per day so going from nine children a day to 15 plus children a day in 2020 huge so five thousand six hundred eighteen and those emergency services when it's an emergency service the real key is access yeah and so working from the government prior to this seeing how slow things move that was just unacceptable to me and so I wanted to create something was expedient and so our our guarantee to our partner agencies and to our services is that we can respond to these emergency grants request within sixty minutes 24 hours a day seven days a week so we are an immediate response yeah I need five hundred bucks for a place to stay for this person that just got rescued out of a child trafficking yeah for a sex trafficking situation and it's there in 60 minutes so that's what we're able to do so the emergency and when you when you think it's it's averaging that I don't say we have 15 a day of it some days we have 50 some days we have less but that's that's a pretty big job to be monitoring everything and that's you mostly that's primarily I'm the I'm the stopgap we have the you know the what's assigned through our board of directors to our agencies our agencies to understand what resources they have they make sure they fit our our requirements that there's no other resources we're not a quick easy alternative we are the last stop gotcha so by time they come to us there's no there's nowhere else to go right right so that being the case it's all that more important that we're there immediately for those resources are there for them they're they're there and ready and once they've said yes we need it we've we've allocated they say yes we need it I'm able to do the the final eye on it and go yep absolutely click there you go so that's the emergency services side our youth activities it it sounds like such a fun thing and it is fun it's designed to be fun but it's so much more than that from the heuristic side of what I do if you're in a if you're a physically you're a sexually assaulted child you know say you're a six-year-old sexual assault victim you are still a child right and in children deserve to be able to be children and one of the things that why why this is one of our original core services and right right after emergency funding was because our so many of our partner agencies they they're doing their services they're providing their but they're not able to do that above and beyond that just as a child be a child during a difficult time yeah so we provide monthly youth activities for our kids where they get to come out they get fed they get unique experiences and and they create a level of camaraderie they just get to be children and that is so valuable for for our kids a child to be a child during difficult times it also has heuristic potential we used to do you know a lot of female sexual assault ropes courses at CSU and they'd have to learn to communicate they would have to learn to trust they would have to there was value what they're thinking or whatever absolutely so youth activities we provide our items distributed last year we distributed six thousand two hundred items to six thousand two hundred eighty four children well so and in addition it's clothing it's Christmas present it's it's beds it's strollers it's shoes it's anything that's an item and kind connect make sure that those kids have it we have our major distributions in addition to our direct direct distributions we don't have stats on well total stats on these we actually are the distribution location for nappy which is a diaper distribution they just crossed a million diapers distributed and as are all distributed out of our home based facility and the department of human services just moved their distribution of suds and and and hygiene items to our facility as well so for that no that's all part of being a collaborative network so our facilities are our business guy I'm looking for yeah yeah yeah well it's not gonna it's not coming from our agencies it's coming our children so we're about connecting and this is how what your membership allows it's what our our partners in the community so yeah that's the item distributions above and beyond our item distributions the facility we talked about that in 2019 our facility hosted eight thousand two hundred thirty two guardians so children and their guardians and provide services above and beyond almost daily there's somebody yeah you're using it that's not you guys right at that let you know and obviously 2020 has been quite different and that's a whole another conversation about how the pandemic has affected the population of children that we work with yeah why we've seen that but absolutely can we look can we touch that a little bit and and Molly I see you're nodding like this has been well gosh I think in the paper today or it's yesterday they're they're the headline was about the gap of education between kids and differences economic totally oh I there's a kid I've talked to a few times over at the asset lawn here and he basically told me last April when I went over and shot a couple hoops with him that he quit going to school when classes were out and then I saw him again this fall and he's like yeah classes aren't in yeah you know and because he had four siblings and one computer in the house and spotty internet and and mom and dad have to work and mom and dad are both working all day yeah so if you've got young kiddos at home you know the average parent gets to stay home and is it probably getting that child to be where they need to be yet and some I've heard some friends saying their kids are reading at a higher level totally right but then you have these kids that are home loan you know you normally wouldn't leave an eight year old home alone but if it's a single mom and she has to work well then that eight year old's home alone yeah fitting for themselves or left at home with their their abuser it's a perfect storm um it's unfortunate we'll be seeing it for years you seem to have some particular insights into that like I know even with the Matthews house that they were talking about how it's essential that they get out there for these home visits and stuff because it might be the only lifeline that this abuse child has to the outside world now that they're not going to school that they're not going to these other places yeah yeah so let's talk about what the pandemic stem obviously for our organization it's been we've been a lot a lot of businesses a lot of these were able to close down or they had to close down we we you lost some members probably for a while we went into overtime we we in this way I talk about our team being so amazing we we've never had a moment off even the county was like you keep going you need to be there and from the deliveries the items everything else so I mentioned our our jump from you know nine emergency services a day to fifteen a day a lot of that growth was within our population of open cases already um isolation is a huge trigger when you're a child coming out of an abusive household or domestic violence household and so or anybody else in the world you you yeah fair enough you uh you you know these are kids that need to get to sexual abuse counseling they need to get to their therapist they need to uh their their placements are being threatened because these foster parents didn't expect to be teaching for children of four different ages you know right or or they can't get to their family visitation they can't see their brother or sister or you're right they the the as Molly mentioned the the educational device we distributed ended up distributing nearly 250 to 300 laptops to our population of kids because they just didn't have the ability to plug in and then those not only educationally but was also there for them to do their visitations we we equipped our our our our our child safe which is the sexual abuse counseling one of our partner agencies with all of their therapists to have uh the headsets and everything that they needed so they can continue their their therapy with the kids and then of course the kids needed to have on the other end the computer to be able to do that and so there's so many things behind the scenes but this huge increase in uh in need was largely within our population of kids with open cases already which normally we see that need with open cases and new cases coming in what we saw in 2020 um I've seen a lot in 30 when years in in working in child protection but what we saw in 2020 that we really caught my attention is during the time where we see you know more domestic violence and and drug and alcohol use and uh self harm and in these things that were going out in the households was the first year and and I think my 30 years I saw an actual it was the first year in 2020 we saw a drop in the reports of child abuse in Larimer County and a significant drop right at one point because a lot of those reports are teachers at school or the person at the preschool so you're so plugged in but most people go that's good thing and I'm like no it's not that it's not happening it's not being reported and and that's our concern that's our fear and so we you know we look at that and we we're concerned that we're gonna get looks good but there's gonna be some the tale of dragon and could come around and show more needs than ever and we are the the cases we're seeing now that are coming to light are more complex but you're right we didn't have teachers we didn't have counselors we didn't have extended family members we didn't have neighbors that could make these reports and in reality if you look at what isolation is a perpetrator the number one thing they try to do whether it's a domestic violence and a partner relationship or in children is to isolate them from any support systems the pandemic created the perfect storm to be able to support and do that and and so it was so key like you said to have those family visitations to be able to have the deliveries that came in to have eyes on to educate our community to encourage everybody to do the best they could to be out there and be aware that we need to do that and that's again the power of that family that power that network of business members community members and agencies and everybody that's involved with what what we're all about and that's open our kids yeah and we we just came out of April national child abuse prevention month you guys did was it a first year event the rooftop raised them yes a pandemic inspired event right of all of you want to describe that it was down at the rooftop of the Elizabeth hotel and we had live music it was also the pinwheel was partnered with this month right and we still did the triumph awards and so it was a combination of many things coming together yeah the goal was that we could do this in a safe way obviously broadcasting from a rooftop separated crowds or anything else that we were dealing with and in a lot and our partners at town square media long-term business members of ours as well they actually had their DJs broadcasting on the roof for 36 hours straight to increase community awareness and that's what you know it's child abuse prevention month sure we kicked off the month the child abuse prevention the pinwheel has become the national as Molly mentioned the national or international symbol for child abuse prevention that that kind of playfulness we want all of our children to have a good childhood and our goal was to distribute 10,000 pinwheels and have them planted all over our community and and that goal is just to empower each of us to be able to be a voice and to help kids and then something we're going to continue we're going to continue the pinwheel initiative and and it's just one more way people can get involved and it was it was it was fun it was it was neat to create a new way but I think it was essential not just in the education to community but to our trying for kids that we didn't steal I just hate anything this pandemic has stolen stolen too much stolen too much and you know Molly mentioned the trying forwards we run several programs that are about empowering children to to fight the good fight and the trying forwards is really about breaking that cycle of child abuse and honoring our children that are emancipating from the system of trying to over their childhood abuse personally socially and academically and we're we're providing scholarships right it's collegiate scholarships it's post emancipation support it's a partying part of this alumnus 21-year alumni yeah of children that come together and support each other and additional resources and so to be able to honor them you know CSU President Joyce McConnell presented their awards on the rooftop of the Elizabeth is right yeah sure it was it was it was neat but I think at the end of the day that our goal is always the same as to try to find new and unique ways to to get people connected to do good things yeah we'll come back and talk about all the ways that people can get connected I know we get the rally coming up here just a few weeks and and the nightlights and such but I want to jump into our faith family politics section and Craig you've already mentioned you know you felt a call of on your heart of faith did you Christian church I assume yeah I guess and I have to reflect I've been a lot of my early youth I didn't become a Christian until I was 28 and a lot of my time before that was felt feeling guilty because of how much suffering I hadn't done compared to a lot and and I was gifted I was a little shorty for most of my life and I'm still skinny but I got tall and I was smarter than the average kid and you know I felt guilty because of all these blessings and then it was really a turn kind of like what you you know if I've been blessed so much then I guess I have to try to give back and that really became the the foundation and maybe not the foundation but the the anchor that helped me to to feel okay about that I wondered I wonder ask you you know was that have something element to your own background Craig or or talk to me about that was faith a big thing and you're growing up yours in Wisconsin yeah it was for me I was raised Lutheran and Molly and I are members and married at the first press material church both of our kids I was an elder there and serve and for me it's it's been a guiding part of my life 100% and how about Molly speak to to that for her that on the on the realities for children's side of that's been really interesting because I've had businesses you know we we we try to represent all these agencies and all of these businesses who all have differing belief systems sure all have different different political systems all have all of these things and my my my messages you know we can still all work together to a greater good and I had a business years ago it was really an interesting eye opening moment they asked if this was a Christian organization and we've we've we've not made the statement or Christian organization because we want to be we want to be available to anyone wants to make a difference in the community but I looked at them and I had to I had to be honest and I said well we're we're not identifying that as a Christian organization but it's being led by a Christian who is called to do this by God and so that's good I mean I mean for that I don't I don't really part of a Christian organization but that's fine and I thought well okay you know and so so for me it has it is it's it's a it's been a guiding part of my life my entire life and and and it is the reason that realities for children exist and why we continue to do what we do because we believe that that's our call and where we need to be yeah and I think in our marriage um we know being a Christian couple and um just walking through life hand in hand through all this together and he's our rock and I think maybe when I keep saying I don't know there was never this huge struggle and there were there were struggles but because we can lean on Jesus for everything it makes it doable yeah it doesn't make it everything perfect and easy it just makes it manageable yeah fear not is a big recurring theme sort of the Bible and if you feel like you're you're doing the right things you don't have to I saw you when you bring up the but what do you call this your your faith politics faith family politics yeah you know it's it's a really interesting thing is that um in all of these things we you know I believe our witnesses interactions yeah we we put out there we we we do what we believe every day um my goal and in that witness is is how we help children how we we serve the widows and orphans in our in our in in our community and not I'm not a particularly focus on the proselytizing side because I really want to find this is an invitational yeah safe environment for so many people to get involved and uh in in a safe place to do that and whatever their belief systems are yeah hundred percent agree with that and Molly was that also your background or yeah you're up in a Christian home um but yeah I think when I met Craig that very first night that we met and we talked until the sun came up we talked about our faith and and kids and wanting to make a difference in in the world and do you kiss that first night we did our listeners would want to know yeah right no Craig such a gentleman no I appreciate that anyway yeah um and uh I believe I asked right it was just one charlotte blessed the city park get too steamed up yeah but yeah um and do you remember that like you grew up in a Christian family but probably for both of you there was a time when you went from being the son of a Christian couple to some of it believe for themselves is there anything of use in in your stories there or of significance well certainly I think everybody who goes through those has those trials and tribulations and and has those moments where they have to practice surrender in life and I think we we still do that you know right there's still those things every day and it's it's not something that you're you're never there we're we're always striving all the new things to the crowd we're always on the walk you know and um but yeah there's there's been some tremendous I the clarity of the call has been probably the greatest blessing in that sense and um you know we've had I've had some struggle moments I I with those things and uh some of some of it's been really what the call was in going I didn't I didn't necessarily know I'd be here three decades later right uh the council was hey go out and you know knock down some walls and bring some attention to the problems of child abuse in our community and uh and then I figured at some point we'd hand that over to a finesse player that was gonna I'm really good I'm really good at I'm really good at doing that and and I thought okay we're letting now that's that and and you know it was really something I prayed about a lot and it was put on my heart going no this yes well that's not me I'm not that's not that's not my place and and they said figure it out and and that's been my my job I'm trying Lord's face figuring it out so yeah it's been a big guiding part in our life and I think the most the most beautiful thing that I've enjoyed in this journey um is the diversity of belief systems that that we get to work with and I just I think that's sometimes unfortunately um people can get well we've seen it more than ever this passion or the polarity of these things and how people get very uh very adam especially when you talk about politics but right really in all things there's that I've seen this this more black and white all the time and and and and and my goal is dreams yeah my goal is that we we're always invitational we're always available we should always be listening we're we're a country that's got so uh so short on on listening and uh and and so fast on talking and responding and responding and reacting and accusing and anger threatening and all those and and and my goal is is honestly um and we we have the number one thing is how do we help more kids right how do we make difference in this community and that doesn't come from being angry that comes from being available and and honoring people's there so you know my closest friends and and the diversity that we get to be around it's it's educational for us we grow we become better we be concerned by being available and uh and I think that that unity that that pieces what I what I love the most so I uh I guess I I just make that statement because yeah I think it's important for because I claim this doesn't mean I I disavow you or that I that you're if you feel a different way that you're just terrible or whatever like it's just yeah and we need to be we need to be available I mean I don't know what it's like to grow up like some of the children that we serve but to we have different ways of viewing the world because of that and sure and to not listen just because we we see the world differently doesn't make sense to me agree so I think when we come to to healing it starts with listening it starts with being there it starts with yeah you know that that kindness that we yeah we love your neighborhood right Molly um I like to in the family section so we'll say politics for last before the local experience but in the family section I like to start with a one word description of your children so you can start with Jordan or Jake if you'd like and Jordan's how old now like 23 or 22 or some 24 24 yeah getting so big I would say to for both of them I guess the first word is adventurous for both of them oh that's a testimony to their parents uh upbringing I would have to say to you uh yeah they're very and I didn't go but they all went skydiving I kept my feet on the ground and watched them oh that's cool I love that I mean um but we are an adventurous family we're very active and high travel but I have to give Molly some kudos Molly signed up to be a runner on our uh on our Matthew's house Wild West relay team last year and she's a beast yeah I'm pretty sure she cannot run you as distance right yes that's a funny one never try yeah I think we're we're interactive family yeah you know I think generations change and um you know my mom didn't know how to swim no and so I apparently that stuck out in my life and you know and we're we swim in the ocean with our kids and we're active and um but yeah our hold is Jake no 2021 okay 22 this summer yeah no yeah yeah yeah and when where is he at he's in California okay San Marcos um it's just north of San Diego yeah um he's going to school for environmental resources okay and uh Jordan lives here in Fort Collins and works at no post-doc magazine yeah yeah she's making a difference over there I can tell too yeah yeah and uh what else about family would you like to observe any props to mom siblings parents anything like that while we're in this quick stop um we've had a great family support um all we have three sets of parents um they regularly donate and support and attend events and it's great when they can come um yeah well in your whole railings for children family right yeah you got an extended family of about 10,000 people or something like that well and I well I just gonna say again I said earlier um our business members are truly our family like when you come to a luncheon who we're going out to dinner with that night it's a business member I mean that's who we hang out with um our weekends and evenings is hanging out with our family and those are our business members yeah yeah it's so much like like almost every member we're I'm not as big as you guys I've got about 90 members now look what think tank but almost every member and their spouse or significant other or whatever I wish I could have them over to my house for dinner once a month yeah I can't my wife would like throw me out and then I would be you know I have to invite them here to the office to hang out or something but it's really cool it's a neat thing where you can like feel that warmly about the people that are party organization um faith family politics well I'm gonna I'm gonna piggyback I'm always come on the on the kids too on the family so it really is a uh you know we feel very blessed the group we have and I think our kids have been one of the exact they great joy in is that they're their best friends you know so that is super cool they they they they are just the closest to friends and then that as a parent I think I love I love seeing that um and you know they they've also brought awareness to us and I think it's something I'd share with uh uh with everybody is you know our our kids have grown up in around child protection about the kids that we work with and and I think that the people right now I want to speak to um really our whole community that we're dealing with uh challenges that that would don't make sense to us with with the pandemic and coming out of it and and all of these pieces and I think the one thing that it's important for people to realize a lot of times they could do comparative like you were saying earlier about comparing well I had it I had challenges but you know I have so many good things going on I I shouldn't feel bad about that or whatever and yeah and I think the one thing I want to always share with with listeners because I've been around them my entire life I've been I've 31 years in in this field of child protection services that you know pain and challenge is not a zero sum game if if there's people out there today that are listening to this and they're feeling forlorn they're feeling you know they're struggling in those sorts of things that that's that's okay somebody that has trusted has done them wrong and all those kind of things or just the you know depression or anxiety that can come from from what we've been through with the pandemic something we've never experienced before and I think what I I guess I'd like to share is is don't don't say well it's not as bad as these kids that we're talking about here today you know right the reality is is that how people are feeling we need to be validating each other in their place all the time and you know I think that's that's important to realize especially as we're we're seeing more and more people come out of this feeling struggles so I think growing up in in this environment and then being around the children that we serve one of the things that we've learned as a family is that we still need to be validating where we're at and the struggles that we're facing even though they're maybe not as bad as that person to you and those are those are important things right if if Molly's feeling neglected by Craig because he's been too busy building all these things well it might not be as bad as being a six-year-old as being abused but it's still isn't you still for that yeah and I think that's you know it's like that yeah it's we sum to them and it last piece on family and then I know you know it's my avoidance on politics is we here blessed we've been doing this for so long that we really do have when I think of the extended family I think of our kids I think I mean I mean our children that we have served for 31 years right they still you know our our trying for its alumni I have if your house is burning there's a bunch of kids with buckets they'll be ahead of that way and you know I get we get to be grandma and grandpa you know Craig and Molly too because we have our kids have these children that we've helped through tough times have their own children yeah and are doing well and I literally take such a joint being grandpa Craig to so many of these next generation kids and that's what I want to share with our members and our donors is we that breaking the cycle of abuse true prevention a generation that never knows abuse that happens when a community gets involved and we get to see that and only happens usually when when there's relationship and community involved right maybe not only but it's rare and I've got a young man right now is one of our kids he's he's probably 30 now but I mean we've been doing this a long time so right you know he's been the age of this is him he's buying a house he's texting me regularly calling me saying I'm buying a house they just accepted our offer or a guy that just got a job promotion or had a big sale and he wants an edible yeah what anything or a kid that just got out of prison because he had some hard time who's the first person I talked to is I get to be in these roles and Molly and I that when I think they're part of our family big big big part of our family I was just visiting one of our our kids out at harvest farms and and sure they have their challenges they have their struggles but we we're there through this we don't love them anyway we don't go away when they turn 18 we we're this is part of our world and and I think that's what makes the world a better place so we do have a you're right we have a very big family and we're very thankful for that are you able to handle all of that like I know I've got like so many relationships and connections and sometimes it's just intimidating almost and and I don't know like for the two of you is that are you on a good plane there but sometimes it's just like too many relationships is almost too many it can it can be a lot but we we went to a wedding for example a few years back of a young gal that uh we worked with since she was three years old wow and uh she was actually one of the kiddos in my class when I was at the preschool right one of your overlaps between yeah overlap and Craig was her caseworker and we went to her wedding and uh and I'm grandpa Craig now so sure come a little on that but we went to her wedding and there's a few stories in there but at one point she came up to us in the reception and and she said you know and she has her foster her adopted parents there and and you know her you know she's you know there's nobody at this wedding that's been part of my life longer than you and I think that was a a pretty amazing moment to realize I have those connections so yeah you know what if it's overwhelming it's it's it is easily overwhelmed by the joy of I don't I don't feel that I feel like we're very fortunate fair enough fair enough Molly would you like to kick us off on the politics section since Craig has avoided it so well and you don't have to say only what you want that's the that's the tone of this meeting really I would say no nobody here needs to go to the bathroom I don't know where that's coming from either oh it's the escape room next door oh okay I feel like at least I am I'm a happy medium um really loud yeah you know with with how everything's been the last several years and so extreme and anything from you're in the two different camps where a mask don't wear a mask vote this way vote that way you know everything's so extreme and yeah you're the dots you're a comedy or whatever right yeah I find myself actually kind of backing off and not wanting to have anything to do with it I'm I'm probably just more passive I don't jump into one or the other and take a super strong stance on because it just makes me kind of I hate conflict is my biggest problem yeah Molly um and so what I think I'm hearing you saying is kind of because of how toxic that environment is and any language around it I'll just I don't want to be part of it really I don't want to play yeah and I mean I guess you know I want to be an example especially to young people and my kids being their 20s of how to take a healthy stand on something but uh so we probably have private conversations with with our kids about things but as far as publicly or you know at work or social media I really just I back off big time yeah that's fair well in place you've got to like me you've got a big diverse membership organization of business people that also for the most part yeah don't choose to be to wear that in their sleeves right yeah well we have a we have a pretty big job to focus on yeah serving thousands of children a year that need our help and I I want to put my energy there I believe in the I believe in the power of kindness I think it's the I think it's the most available commodity that is probably least utilized and I think I've seen it I've seen it just a little a small the smallest acts of kindness can make such a huge impact and I think if we can we're regardless of what the conversation is the political opinions are the obviously we all have our opinions sure um I think the key is regardless of how diverse those opinions are that we treat those in kindness we're respectful of people that believe differently than ourselves that's one of the beautiful things about this country that we live in that we have the ability to do it but I I share it with the story because I want to talk about the unity I had a this was some several years ago now um Lou Gator who was a wonderful man he he was being put in as our county commissioner and he'd sat on our selection committee for or I'm sorry he'd sat on our program to build the trying forwards endowment for our collegiate scholarships he'd been a member forever a huge advocate yeah um and he'd asked me to come speak at his uh being brought in as as the republican um uh Laramacani commissioner yeah and of course I was happy to do that and I'm in a room with you know a thousand you know uh all the laundry publicans right in there and I get to speak about it and share about what Lou has done to to help children and to to make a difference and to make a priority in those things and and and everyone is just so excited yeah this is what we believe in this is what we think is so important and I think that's that's wonderful and and and a week later we I was given an award um by national public radio achievement award for our services at the Lincoln Center and uh it was probably you know a thousand quite quite different political opinions uh sure those sorts of things and and sharing you know how this community coming together or helping kids and could make a difference and they say that yes that's what we believe in and that's what's so important to us yeah and I think sometimes we get so focused on what we disagree on that we can really separate ourselves in really harmful ways on all the things that we we believe in that we have commonalities in and and I just don't ever want to have that be be a divisive point I think there's it's good to be different it's good to have different opinions it makes us stronger as a country yes stronger as a community but it's when we stop communicating it's when we stop uh we stop acknowledging one another and accepting those differences that we become that we become ineffective I think that's the interesting thing about today is it's like for most for the most part everybody wants more human flourishing we want more education more human connection more opportunities it's just we we disagree sometimes pretty heavily on how to achieve those outcomes right absolutely and I think that's the healthiest environment we could have right well if there's a person able to be a conversation around right and a discussion of words and that iron sharpens iron kind of thing and so I guess that's what would be maybe I could hear the call from from you is to listen to each other and to respect one another always and to allow that free that's kind of why this section is in the podcast because I want to allow that free flowing of ideas because I got put in Facebook jail if I shared my ideas there and bad things happened and so anything else on the political realms that that Molly that's sparking in you I don't think so no I I and I get to see that great diversity within our membership base you go to any one of our lunches or so it fills our gatherings and the diversity is massive and yet everybody can treat each other with kindness because you know I think I think the key thing is at least within the realities for children family there is a uniting sure of service beyond self and changing lives and and how we can make a difference in that value and I think valuing one another's key and that's yeah that's something I'm very I'm proud that we get to be a part of very cool thanks for sharing that all right the final segment is the local experience and so what's the local experience oh one of our first one that was shared was a young man who stumbled upon a dead frozen mousse and they cut off his head and drug it two miles and took the and so it's whatever the craziest experience of your entire lifetime is that you're willing to share in a public sphere and you can do these together or you can do them separately if they're if it's appropriate so I don't know what it is not jumping out of the airplane when everybody else did is not a local experience model it doesn't count that doesn't count no wow I don't think I don't think it's fully prepared for the the logo now you know we did that's the idea that's why we don't have a script here I'm thinking I mean this whole thing this whole journey in some ways is kind of a local experience right like having now this this organization with you know well over 250 members and and 9,000 kids served and 6,000 you know did you ever think it would come to here or is it bigger does it need to get bigger I mean I what don't you have like or did you have like a boulder county boulder county well well the county so and and right now we're in the process of expanding the kind connect to other communities and yeah is that what's next for for realities you know if that's where it's called to go that's where we're going to go for me it's I don't want to get so caught up in in the concert or the the desire for growth that we we sacrifice any single service that we provide to to a child so I think growth has been a byproduct of of I think care and and service and and doing things right not and not necessarily an intention yeah but to see no child forgotten requires that we continually evolve and we grow so I think if I think you've probably just interviewed us on our local experience you know from 26 years ago walking and saying I have this idea and having my wife look at me and go let's then we should do that and and we've been on this this journey which has been you know wonderful and challenging and and upside down and in all of these things it's been it's been pretty amazing and to land where we are currently and and the adventure continues for sure right and we just want to keep doing it I mean overall it's not like a crazy experience but just overall our time here I mean Fort Collins is our home and I mean we met I was going to CSU we met at you know a local brewery and I worked a brewery or more of a tavern right that breweries then yeah watering hole we can call it and I worked at the Rio as a cocktail which was for five years and they've been members of the realities for chilling for 21 years yeah yeah that's how I was able to afford Kriegs wedding ring all right yeah boom and that they're still friends and family yeah I mean it's just it's such a great community um yeah and like connections like how you talk about Joyce you know in your connection at Matthew's house and then Joyce worked at realities and you know the people that come in and out of your life as long as we've been here it's just awesome it's a joy and I think that's one of the I think that I would say that about Fort Collins in this region my wife and I lived in color spring for a few years during our early marriage and and they're like it's not one big community but in Fort Collins and in loveland you know separately but differently but similarly like people are they're Fort Collins first and then their citizen second in some respects you know they're four Fort Collins very very consistently whereas in color spring there is no such vibe that's in the same way and I think that that community community cohesion that we have here can really be a message to the world of of having that intentionally diverse groups of people that are focused on doing positive things for one another absolutely and for those that need it the most especially yeah yeah I think we're we are very fortunate in that but I think it I think that starts with each of us too right it's uh it's a mindset when you go into a conversation yeah are we accepting are we are we arguing are we looking and that creates community that creates family that creates love that creates kindness and that creates change yeah so I think that's that's something that we get to do every day individually so um one more question we've got uh some events coming up the realities ride uh what how do people learn about that what's the morally we can yeah it's uh so this is the 20th annual the realities riding rallies you mentioned earlier it's the world's largest motorcycle poker run um it's been a major downtown event for years and years uh and it's of course with the pandemic we're taking a lot of precautions last year it went to a no boundaries ride inviting everybody everywhere to ride anything they wanted just log your own virtual hell right we ended up amazingly and and kind of hard you know hearteningly it brought back we ended up having riders in in 31 states across the country that joined the realities ride and in multiple countries and uh this year we're actually going to have an actual ride uh we're not going to have the big rally downtown it's going from a two-day event to a one-day event but to not shorten any for our 20th anniversary it's going to be uh virtually we're hosting five separate events in five different cities so it allows us to have five times as many people involved as the guidelines it also it's easy for your team yeah that's five times the work no problem um but it's great we so people register sign up they'll actually have people will actually start at different locations and they'll all rotate to every location yep so the rides in it's it's the world's largest poker run so there's a fifteen hundred dollar ride with us yeah you're riding this year i maybe i'm is it the 30th yep it's the 30th okay there's a good chance i'm i'm catering my nephews uh graduation party uh and um i just learned the other i was imagining like 30 or 40 people they're like we're expecting about 200 people to come by and so i have a bigger project than i realize yeah um but uh i will if i can i hope you'll i hope you'll ride or this we had fun when you did it it was awesome yeah and this will you know be a little different format and i think maybe in a way and you do we have a 20-year challenge coin that's going to be out available for our riders but each ride location has its own event so you'll you'll start wherever you start get signed up to start at we'll rotate to five different cities we have uh stunts shows going on we have skydiving presentation of the colors going on we'll have a special um axe throwing uh benefit going on with carving out as well axe throwing that that's going on with one of our our our member sponsors out there and then uh uh we're doing a car show uh that's happening of the auction involved we're actually partnering with american legion is their hundredth anniversary oh wow and uh of course this is a memorial day ride so we take great pride in that we always honor those who serve and serve those in need on this weekend yeah so we will be doing a benefit out there as well that will provide um service uh their service dogs and uh focus on prevention of suicide prevention with veterans as well so we're really connecting with our we've been connected for years and service to our veterans so it's a it's a really great ride and I would say if anyone who rides please register come join us yeah get out there it's very safe very safe ride we're doing everything to protect all of our riders but we put together a great event we're working very hard to keep it going and we want to we want to see great things happen and if you're listening somewhere outside of this region the no boundaries ride is going on you can sign up and ride whatever you got where you got people on lawnmores to airplanes last year so Molly was Craig a rider when when you met him oh oh already brought it from Wisconsin I've been riding since about 11 years old oh cool me it's part of it's part of my work yeah what were you riding when when you met this young lady I think yeah that was a Yamaha I had a uh 1100 Yamaha that I uh I had rode in and already a pretty big machine at that at that stage and what are you riding now I'm trying to remember road king road king yeah that's a sweetie yeah well I'm looking forward to spending time with you guys again real soon every week if I could I would um but thanks for being here today and and Molly um thanks for your just continued support of this vision um I see every part of you just being excited to continue with this and I'm so glad thank you for listening to today's episode of the local experience podcast this is Kurt Bear founder of the local think tank and hosted the local experience and I'm here with Mori Sharr local business developer and hosted the local shorts episodes we hope you heard some new ideas and business perspectives in this episode our mission and all that we do including this podcast is to share collaborative business ideas and solutions that uplift the business community subscribe and follow us for you listen to podcasts to get new episodes as they are released curious about logo you can learn more about us at localthinktakes.com where you'll find more information about our chapters business resources and events for business owners and teachers if you're looking for perspective accountability and encouragement along your business journey why not apply for a chapter near you today why not why not why not we'll catch you next time on in-depth local experience podcast with me Kurt and with me Mori provide size business lessons in the local shorts bye