An Army of Normal Folks - Erin Smith: Advocating for Thomas (Pt 1)

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Thomas is a foster child who’s been physically and sexually abused. He never had an adult advocate until Erin Smith stepped in. Erin is the founder of the North Mississippi CASA program – a program which nationwide has 85,000 volunteers who advocate for 260,000 foster kids in the legal system and in life. But there are still 140,000 kids who need the Army's help.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/support-1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Going from home to home, forever hating this endless room, told to keep the faith in hope, yet no one stayed to teach me to cope. Wanting to speak up, yet who will listen, and if done, will it even make a difference? All I truly desire is a mother's embrace, and to see a smile on a father's face. To finally know that I can really call them my own. What a thing to dream and so far fetched it seems. For now, that's how I shall cope. It is how I will keep my faith and hope.

So written by Thomas. Well done young man. Thank you. It's beautiful. Aaron, first time you read it, Jacquire. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I bet you're bummed like a baddie.

Yeah, I'd like to cry a lot. Yeah. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm just a normal guy. I cry a lot. I'd like to cry a lot. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm just a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur.

And I'm a football coach in inner city Memphis. And the last part unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits, using words that none of us understand on CNN and Fox. Rather an army of normal folks, us, you and me just deciding, hey, I can help! That's what Aaron Smith, the voice we just heard, has done. Aaron started the North Mississippi program of CASA, whose volunteers are massed with foster children,

to serve as their advocates in the core system, but most importantly, advocates in their lives. And oftentimes, there are these kids one true and only advocate. And that's been the case with Thomas, the young poet we also heard, who's been subjected to an unbelievable amount of trauma that we'll hear about. and when you hear it, a dare you not to cry.

Aaron is the first real advocate that Thomas has ever had in his entire life, and nationwide, Kasa has more than 85,000 of these volunteers serving 260,000 foster children across 950 different programs in our country. But even more volunteers, even more programs, and even more donors are needed. So let's get started right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. So Aaron is a kid that came from a divorce family and grew up in Jackson, moved to Yazoo, went to Ole Miss to school, and just a normal, old person doing life.

Yeah, yeah. And let's talk about, is it Casas? Is that how I pronounce it? Casas. Casas. It's okay, everybody says that. Is it supposed to be like Spanish house? Is that the idea?

And I will quickly correct, and you buy that cause it. Casas. All right. So you're this normal kid. Never been a foster kid. And you come to Oxford and because you're going to be you, you join a sorority. That's right. And that's Theta's right?

That's correct. All right. So you're a Theta and you're living life. You're being an Ole Miss sorority chick. Yeah. That's right. And Theta has a national philanthropy. Yeah. Tell me about that. Yeah. So like I said, it came here in 2002. Group of Mississippi my whole life. So I knew a lot about Ole Miss. Although I had planned to go to Mississippi State, I came here one time and decided this is where I was gonna go.

Yeah. I mean, you can, you can assume how that happened. Yeah. You go here, you go to Starkville, you, you come here. Yeah. I just lost all of our Starkville listeners. But we gained more Ole Miss listeners. I'm saying go ahead. Um, yeah, so I joined a cap Alpha Theta and, as you mentioned, but we gained more. I'll miss listening. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, so I joined Kappa Alpatea, and as you mentioned,

their national philanthropy is Kasa. Never heard of it. Didn't know anything about it. Well, for those who are listening that don't understand Ole Miss and the Greek system here, it's robust. I don't know the numbers, but there's 20 or 30 fraternities, 20 or 30 sworees, very active.

And a sworee has 25,300 members usually. Yeah, it's actually right now, it's probably around 400 to 500. 400 to 500 members per swore. Mm-hmm. Faternities are 2,5300. The houses on campus sleep. Depends, but they're usually about $10 million say yeah and I mean they do they sleep two or three hundred dwell no probably 50 to 125 members and everybody eats breakfast

lunch and dinner at the houses together it is a robust system and each sort of eternity always has a philanthropy and so Theta's was this thing you'd never heard about called. Cosa. Cosa. And actually it stands for Court of Pointed Special Advocate. So. Court of Pointed Special Advocate, that's acronym. But we're just gonna go with Cosa.

Yeah, absolutely. If I have to say that again, I'll screw it up. But your kid, your college kid, and there's this philanthropy called Cosa. That's right. Cassa. You'll get it right eventually. Eventually. By the end of the day. So you don't know anything about it, but you're probably required as a sorority sister in there to do something to raise money because that's typically a requirement of membership in the Greek system. Absolutely. yeah. So the truth is you're required.

Yeah. Required, I mean, you know, it's, it's required. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, but that's, we're going back to the beginning, right? Yeah.

Yeah. All right, so you're required. So would you find out from this requirement? Yeah, you know, honestly, I didn't really find out a whole lot because Kasa is such a different type of organization. And so it's really hard to be hands on and really Unless you have a local program. It's definitely Impossible to be hands on so really what we did is we would raise a lot of money

And give it to them and give it to them and hope that it was impacting you know another program across the United States and that was it So so Something happened and you found out about it. Yeah. So are the gentleman, the judge that started Kasa, you know, he out one day he said, I can't keep making these decisions with these children and foster care with not enough information. And so he'd one day just gathered a group of volunteers together and said, hey, I want to start a program where y'all are advocates, volunteer advocates for children in the youth court. And they do exactly what social worker, CPS workers do.

But. They're volunteers. Offery. MinimumPS workers do. But. They're volunteers. Offer. Minimum age. 21. 21. See gotta be. 20 legal at all.

Yeah, yeah. Pass background checks, all that good stuff. But the other side of this is that these volunteers only have one to two cases at a time. Whereas case workers, I mean, they're overburdened. We have so many children in the system. And and that's not a no thought of their own, but also that's the important thing about Kasa. So these Kasa volunteers, they spend time with foster children they're assigned to every single week. And then they provide written reports and recommendations to the youth court judges, and they do it all as volunteers.

And their reports and the recommendations, it's all about what's in the best interest for the health of the child, and no one else. And what I mean by no one else, they don't care what the court thinks, they're not worried about the parents, they're not worried about the system. They're simply providing written reports and recommendations for what's in the best interest of the child. Again, they're the advocate. After graduating from Ole Miss, Aaron wanted to become one of these volunteers, one of these advocates. She had a heart for the kids, but they're one of the Kasa program in Oxford or the county at Sim Lafayette. She then thought, well maybe I'll start a program in Oxford, but she didn't think she could do all that, well, at that point in her life with all she had going on.

So she simply started as a volunteer elsewhere. In addition to her actual job to pay the bills like everybody has to, once a week, Erin got her car and she drove to Memphis, an hour there, and then an hour back the same night just to be a constant in children's lives. So I tell people all the time that our purpose is to ensure that children find a safe and permanent home whether that's reunification or adoption. Reunification with their family or adoption. Reunification with their family or adoption. And that comes in a lot of ways. So it's really given a voice for those children

and youth in the court system. It's also supply and resources for them and be in that consistent adult in a child's life. That's one thing that we really, really. And we're talking about oftentimes five, six, seven, that your old abused child who's scared, angry at the world, and all about themselves and selfishness because they have to survive. And they don't trust anybody. And they've been through trauma, and they're broken. Right. And they don't trust anybody.

Yeah. So you're supposed to go in there and be trusted. Yeah. And be their advocate and they're supposed to fall in love with you. Yeah. And I'm sure they do a meeting. I don't know. We'll have to ask Thomas that.

But that, I mean, that's the goal, right? Is to break through that barrier they've had to put up to survive and and and be a trusted be able to be constant. Right. Yeah. And so that's what you did Memphis. So what I did in Memphis. Tell me about your first case. Well, it was a when you didn't know what you were doing. No, I did not. It was a child that had been severely abused as an infant. Infant. Infant. Like. She was three months old had been severely abused as an infant. So much an infant. Like she was three months old when she was abused,

she had a baby syndrome. Oh God. So much so that it she was a special needs child, but the abuse caused brain fracture and so of course didn't cause her to have to. There's not a deep enough hole to put those people. Yeah, I know. It's tough.

I will be honest after that first case. That's my question. You know, I definitely have to think about it. Yeah, it's tough. It's not something... There's not enough training or really, really, any real life experiences to prepare you for it.

Just the things that you see. And so the heartbreak and the walks and the sadness. And I already have a super sensitive, emotional heart as it is. So how do you deal with that? You know, when I was in Memphis, and I was, you know, I was still in my early 30s. I mean, late 20s. And it, honestly, which is this might sound crazy, but it just empowered me more to do more, to help more, to what could I do to help this child? So the way you dealt with it once you decided to dig in and do better. Yeah. That's impressive.

Yeah. For an average person. So you spend four years in Memphis. Yeah. And now you say, I want to revisit this idea in LaFant County. Yeah, 2017. Because you decide you got to do more. Yeah, that that's a lot of it. But also for anybody that knows much about, you know, good Oxford. I know that it's often, as I said earlier, scam a lot, the face. Yeah, and it's I think that, you know, we're lucky to live in a town that has, you know, a great public university. The town's beautiful to retiree place. And we have great public school, some of the top in the state. Good jobs, good community colleges. We have a lot of successes here, but one thing that's a hard fact for people to face

is that there's abuse and neglect going on around them. Could be in your neighbor's home, poor homes, richest homes, it's happening. And so one thing that I knew going into this was that it was needed here. And a lot of people didn't know that. There's no cost of burgers in this part. In this part of the state, except for this one.

And so, my goal. Did you know that need existed when you were in Memphis? Oh yeah. The four years kind of taught you. This is going on in my own back door and I'm driving to Memphis. First of all, you're working, trying to make a living,

and you're burning your gas, and all your time, going back to Fort Memphis, and, you know, I can do it here. Yeah. We'll be right back. Now let's return to Aaron on starting Acosta chapter. So you started it? Yeah.

How'd you start it? How long did it take? It was a long process. How long? So I started trying to start it in November 2017. That was when I had my first meeting with the Youth Court Judge. And I will never forget, and I tell this story often that I called him, but I emailed him actually.

I like to give my youth court judge a hard time because he still has a flip phone. So he either call him a phone or a split phone. Mississippi. Um, but yeah, he's, he's great, but he's been doing this for, for over 20 years and, um, I sent him an email and I asked him, you know, if I can meet with him one day and we met up here in the youth court. And I still give him a hard time because we walked in and the, there's a bunch of windows in the courtroom. And there's a lot of blinds.

So if the blinds are open, you can still see pretty well. He never turned those lights on in that courtroom. And I was like, well, this is not gonna go good. And I remember him sitting down and he said, well, you know, people have wanted to start programs like this before, but nobody's ever followed through. And I will never forget him saying that to me. And I tell people all the time, and I tell him,

and I said, this is something that I've got to follow through with. Now I'm not wanting to either, to back down easily, either when things get hard, because I tell you this was no walk in the park and starting this organization. So that was November of 2017. And so, then I hit the ground running,

and February the 5th, we got we got our nonprofit status of 18. We're the fifth of 18, so it took you four months to get your nonprofit status. And I guess to get the court to approve you guys to. Yeah, so that's the very first thing we have to do is basically have him sign a sheet of paper and say he's willing to support us. And then there's obviously a ton of paperwork. And we started with three volunteers, seven, six children. And then just in 2021, we served every 115 children.

How many volunteers? We had, I had to go back and look. I have all these stats in my phone. Paul pardon me. Yeah, there's 2021, we had 37. And you have how many volunteers today? 42. 42. 100% of the kids in foster care and Lafayette County are served by you guys. That's correct. It's very rare for a casa program as young as we are. We've been serving kids for since November of 2018. It's very rare for a program program as young as we are. We've been serving kids for, since November of 2018.

It's very rare for a program to be serving 100% of the foster care population that quickly. How did you find volunteers? I really, you know, I think when you talk about something that, and let me, let me, let me prep a suspect and I always tell people, this is not a sunshine and rainbed volunteer job. It's a commitment. Any volunteer jobs with their salt are not sunshine jobs. So it comes with a commitment and I make sure individuals know that ahead of time.

But I really firmly believe that we have built this program due to the success and the impact we've had in children and family's lives. And now because of her success, they're building it beyond Oxford and Lafayette County. They expanded the Lee County, which includes the city of Tuplough, Earthplace of Elvis Presley, and Aaron's ultimate goal is to serve five un-served counties

all across North Mississippi. So, which proudest moment, Aaron? You know, it's really hard to identify one proud moment. You know, a lot of people don't understand is like not all parents are bad parents and so, you know, some people can turn their life around and I've

seen some really, really, really good reunification situations where the parents are doing well, still doing well, still stay connected. I've seen some incredible adoption stories. Is it oftentimes parents are struggling with drugs? Yeah. And so they get their lives cleaned up and then they're able to reintroduce the children

into their own families. Yeah. And a lot of times I just need somebody to support on, you know. The parents themselves. Yeah, and that's where, you know, myself and my staff and my volunteers come in and provide that support. It's not just about, you know, often time, more often than not, these parents have been through the same thing that they're going through with their children. And it's very, it's very...

I had to say hereditary, but when you go through it, that's all you know, then more than likely you're going to be involved in it too. It may not be genetically hereditary, but it could certainly be culturally hereditary. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a tough world that we live in. You know, just in my family. I mean, I've seen, in my sisters in recovery.

And so I've seen a lot of that, I carry into my day to day work because I've seen it in my own family. Just, you know, and she's come a long way and she's doing great, but, you know, she's been there. And so it's easier for me to relate to these parents because I have, I can't relate in all ways, but I can't relate in those ways.

Makes sense. So a lot of proud moments, you know, I'm just proud that I get to wake up and do what I love every single day. That is a blessing. It is. And Thomas, maybe your story is a little different. Tell me about where you were born. I was originally born in St. Louis to my knowledge when I was

two or on two months. We moved to Batesfield with Mississippi. With your mom, your dad, both. With my mom and my grandmother and grandfather. Got it. We moved into a small little grandmother and grandfather. Got it. We moved into a small little burkin down trailer. My mom was a struggling drug addict, who was abusive, she would often time me up with electrical cords. This is in baseball.

Batesfield, Mississippi, there was a news article about us. So how old were you? I was five. When I was five, I remember the police suddenly like banging at our door My mother she went to hide in a closet the policeman eventually like knocked down our door They brought my brother. Yes. Yes. No trauma involved here. I remember pretty much everything from then The police came and got my brother and my sister. And I, and they went in to search the home.

I did what I usually did. And I took off running from the police officers. I stopped at a tree, and I thought, you know, let me climb it, but I realized I didn't have to climb a tree. So the police came and he got us. And from then on, we went to CPS. I went to a foster home with my younger brother and I. We also had an older sister, but she went with her biological father who did not

want any biracial children. So my brother and I went to a home. I was deemed a problem child and I was sent to a facility after facility. Or you a problem child. I would say I definitely was. is a problem? Shopping I threw a lot of temper tantrums when things didn't necessarily go my way and stuff like that. It doesn't sound like a whole lot Once you weigh early in life. It did not know. So you were mad. Yeah, I was yeah You're allowed to be mad when things don't go your way when you're a child and

Someone ties you up with an electrical cord. I think you're allowed to be mappin' things don't go your way when you're a child and someone ties you up with an electrical cord, I think you're allowed to be angry about that. So you're angry, right? Yeah, I was. And so, how cared do you feel about? How cared do you feel for when you're in a group home? I mean, Thomas, I'm sitting here thinking about being five years old with my door getting kicked in and running to a tree, I don't know what a climb and some cops taking me away.

After having been taught up and abused by my mother and then being put in a facility, very angry, very confused, very scared with a whole bunch of kids who have a similar experience. What's that atmosphere like there for a kid? It's, that atmosphere is pretty chaotic. The, those places tend to, attend to the need of the group rather than the individual, so you don't really feel cared for or like your needs are being met. And so the root of those behaviors I never really talked about or tried to be like solved or anything. So because you have no real parental care and you get systemized, I guess institutionalized,

maybe as a better word in a system and you may be in one foster home and then another foster home, but in the middle of that you're in a group home. I can't imagine that there's anything constant for you other than chaos. Yeah, there really isn't. I would go from one facility, they were deemed you know that I did not complete treatment and so I just be sent to another facility in hopes that I would complete treatment. In the meantime, you're not issuing treatments, you're just just instant being loved. Yeah, then that wasn't there wasn't a lot of love in those facilities. I mean, you act up and then they inject you with a shot to put you to sleep, even at, you know, Then there wasn't a lot of love in those facilities. I mean, you act up and then they inject you with a shot to put you to sleep, even at, you know, eight years old. So it's not really a whole lot of help.

I do not like victims in this world. And what I mean by that is people who do the woe is me and take on the presence of a victim because they want to they want to become victims as an excuse. Okay? On the other side of the ledger, heartbroken by true victims. And I can see that as a child, you're a victim, yet I'm looking at this seemingly well-adjusted, 19-year-old, bright kid.

How's that happen? I mean, I was adopted at eight. That family... Somebody had adopted this pain in the kid who couldn't complete treatments who was angry and didn't even know how to climb a damn tree. How's that work? They came to a place called Youth Villages and we had a couple of visits and I didn't think it was possible but one day they just decided that they wanted me and so I lived with them,

the adoption eventually got finalized and I would love. I did to an extent, it's a very complicated family dynamic with them. There was a lot of love but also I'd say a lot of hatred and sometimes regret. We'll be right back. Shortly after I was adopted, I also had an adopted brother who got adopted some years before me. And shortly after the adoption process was over, he began to molest me on numerous occasions and one day my mother walked in on it and she proceeded to be delivering crap out of us both. I actually still have some of the marks

on my upper thigh, the point to where I had to wear long socks. Your adopted parents meet you both. My adopted mother yes. Beat you. Yes, that a eight. For being the most. Yes, eight. That would be like if someone walks in to rob the chevron station of the police show up and they beat the hell out of the clerk for being robbed yeah, yeah, so that happened And she let us know that if it ever happened again that we would both be removed from the home

Did she think you were complicit? I suppose so. I didn't hear you're 13 years old. I'm sorry. Go ahead. They were heavy on just praying for somebody would make them stop those deeds. And so when I was 13, it happened again.

And I did not want to tell anybody because I did not want to be removed from this home. And even though this home was rough, yeah, I mean, it was still better than know home. Yeah. And at 13, I just started not having any behavioral issues. I had just got off all medication. I was doing well in life. Eventually, my adoptive brother told him himself

and he was removed and sent to jail. How old was he when he went to jail? Was he an adult or a child? Is an adult? 22? Okay, so he went to big jail. Yeah. He got out January of what? What did the

January? Whenever I went to jail, did you stay in the house? I did. Yeah, I did. Uh, January 2020. Yep. And once he was released, there was a quarter of his saying he was not supposed to be around me until I was at least 18 and all this. February came and he was basically living in our household. And I tried to talk with my parents about how I felt about it and how I did not want to be in the next bedroom, next to the person who did all this,

did not listen to me and I was however. I can't even believe that. I mean, because it's, if you're a, if you've been, my understanding is, if you've been convicted of a sexual offense, you're not even supposed to live next to schools or churches. How in the world can you live with the person that you offended against?

I don't even understand how that works. I don't know any of the legal details. I was kept out of all of that. But the bottom line is, you move back in your house. Yeah. And I tried to sit down with my mother and my father and talk about this. I mean, you should talk about these kids, Aaron, that are just, they don't feel safe. They've been beat. They don't trust anybody. I mean,

my gosh, I can't even fathom how that must have made you feel, Thomas. I mean, my, my mother, you have been just screwed with since day one. Yeah. Um, my mother, she showed up reminded me all the things that I had going at her household. I was, they were paying for my senior trip to Europe. I was part of the National Honor Society, a whole lot of clubs, and she reminded me that if I would say anything that I would be removed, and I would lose all of that. And I kept all of that in until November 2nd, I had started college courses, and it was distressed, became too much. And so November 2nd, I told my therapist,

in November 3rd, I was put back into the system. And... And therapist, because there's danger, consteption, and change things. And I mean, I had thought about it a lot, and I... So you knew that. Yeah, it was one of those situations. So you hadn't told your therapist yet,

because you knew it was going to happen, and you finally said, this is my autumn at home with her. Yeah, it gets the point to where you know you're going to be uprooted from everything that you had gotten used to, but it it far outweighs staying in that current situation. I can't help but think what I'm thinking. And I got to ask this question. Do you do you think your adoptive parents look at that molestation and patent abuse, which is exactly what that is?

Do you think because it was brother doing to brother that they saw it more as a homosexual act rather than an abusive act? Yes. homosexual act rather than an abusive act. Yes, we would, we would have late night discussions and stuff like that. And it was, it was, they didn't see it as molestation. They saw it as just plain, simple homosexuality. And that he was my brother and that I throughout everything. I should always love my brother. And that in prayer, it will all work out.

Look, I want to say this. I'm a Christian and I pray and I believe in the power of prayer. So before I say what I'm about to say, I want to make sure that I'm not hypocritical on what I say. I am a Christian. I do believe in the power of prayer and I pray every night and I believe in redemption and I'm really not sure how I can face the next day from all the things I do wrong without my prayer of redemption. Having said that, you're not going to pray away as sexual predator. Yeah.

predator. And that's was the answer here. And instead of this being a sexual predator, this was in their view, a homosexual act, not a predatory act. And once again, nobody's protecting you. No. Wow. Thomas. Amazing. Amazing story. The fact that you're here. And so you are representative in this conversation of thousands of kids across this country and the sadness that so many children live with in the world, yet you're also, to me, and to mine eyes, a really interesting example of what can happen. Thomas is in college now, which is where he met Aaron and Kasa, but to get to college, he figured that out all on his own. Before Kasa, who advocated for you? Um, uh, two blows, Mississippi Child Protection Services. How'd that work out?

It didn't quite work out. Once I turned 18, they removed me from the facility that they had placed me in. And I went straight, I went to a shelter for a couple of days before I came to Ole Miss. To school. Yeah, for college.

What do you mean you went to a shelter? A homeless shelter? No, it's a children's shelter in Tupelo, a payday, yeah. Because they turn you out at 18. Well, no, there was just, they couldn't find a home, a foster home that you ended up in a foster home to turn it up at a shelter. I was in a dorm room.

Yeah. Um, how in the world did you get into college? Well, I just a few, a few months back, uh, I decided I wanted to go ahead and, uh, graduate from high school early because I knew if I didn't then the state, which is, yeah, the state would just find somewhere where that would be a facility like they eventually did or a group home or something where I had no technology, had no contact with my friends. I would be even more stranded than I was then. And so in December all of that was finalized and I decided I wanted to go to

college. Nobody from the agency talked with me about it or anything or told me about any resources and scholarships and I applied to a lot of them and I didn't want to come to Ole Miss. I had a scholarship to a FISC University in Nashville for ride, but I was required by the state to stay in Mississippi. So I chose Ole Miss. I was no scholarship, but they told me that that was all right since the state would pay for everything um, in the summer I was transported by two interns that I'd never met. So your experience of being dropped off college was not mom and pop and some people that cared for you and you loved you and everything else. It was two interns you'd ever met drop y'all from, there's your dorm room, and you probably have a bag of stuff, and that's that. They gave me about $150 of cash. I didn't have a working phone per say. It worked through

Wi-Fi. Let me just say this, really. If anyone listening here has a 17-year-old or 18-year-old that's able-bodied and minded that says they can't get to college, they need to listen to Thomas because that's amazing, Thomas. Thank you. That really is. That concludes part one of our conversation with Aaron and Thomas and I hope you'll listen to part two that's available right now. Before we sign off there's a production note I've got to address and it has to do with Elefitz Gerald and Louis Armstrong. There was a song once called Tomato Tomato. there was a song once called Tomato Tomato.

And it addresses the different pronunciation of different words. And my fancy producer says, I don't know how to say philanthropy or for philanthropy or Ph. I. Philanche, I don't know how to say it. But here's what it is. It is basically giving of your time and your effort and your resources to help another person who needs help. And an army of normal folks obviously is predicated on the idea that fancy people in fancy I don't know how to use fancy words. And frankly, I think I need a medal for it.

And, you know, they're from Chicago. I'm from Memphis. I guess it makes them feel important using big words. So anyway, I'm glad we addressed that. To join an army of normal folks, go to normalfokes.us. That's right, normalfokes.us and sign up to become a member of the movement even if you can't say for philanthropy. I hope you'll join us. It only takes committing to doing one good thing a year to help others and there will be a ton of awesome ideas on this

podcast from the folks who are featuring. Some of you may resonate with the stories deeply and others may not at all and that's okay because we're all called to different things because we have different talents and some of those talents include producing and some include pronouncing philanthropy. But together with each of us doing what we can, we literally can change the country. We'd love to hear what you do and if there's stories you've heard that you think we must tell write me at any time at billatnormalfokes.us. As you've heard, everyone we're featuring and myself included are sharing our direct contact information.

The reason is, we want to build a community that's unlike anything America's ever seen. Guys, we're not just making a show or podcast. We're trying to build a movement. If you enjoyed this episode, rate it and review it. Share it with friends on social. All these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks.

I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week. you