The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 337: Chad Pregracke—America's Hardest Working Garbage Man

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

The founder of Living Lands and Waters talks about how his do-goodery removed over 13 million pounds of garbage from America's waterways, how he's turning discarded plastics into durable pallets, and why his volunteers refer to his flagship as the "Love Barge."

It's the way I heard at episode number 337, specifically America's hardest working garbage man, featuring the one and only Chad Pagrake. And Chuck, I'm guessing you would agree. You haven't met anybody like Chad Pagrake recently, if ever? No, he's kind of one of a kind. I mean, he's a guy who stumbled into the do-goodery accidentally, and now he's on a mission to clean America. America's arteries, which are our waterways, the Mississippi, the Ohio River. He's pulling up just literally millions of pounds of garbage out of these places. 13 and a half million pounds so

far over the last 20 years. If he sounds familiar, it's probably because I've been singing his praises in some way or another since 2010, I think. Chad sent a video to the Dirty Jobs production office years ago, just outlining what he was doing on the Mississippi. And in a nutshell, he had raised enough money to buy a barge, a giant garbage barge. And he basically was just a self-appointed custodian of the rivers. And he put together a modest crew of volunteers, and they took it upon themselves to start pulling refrigerators and tires and refuse. I mean, It's just everything you can imagine and a lot of things you can't out of our rivers. And so this video was so good, but dirty jobs in those days, we were basically booked.

I just couldn't fit him in the schedule. And then I heard about this contest that Mitchum, the deodorant guys were sponsoring, called the hardest working blank in America, hardest working baker, hardest working bricklayer. And so people would write in their nominations for people they knew who worked their butts off doing something important. And I just thought, well, let's see what happens. I was shooting in a gar. I was at a dump, Chuck, here in San Francisco. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to nominate this guy and send in this video.

And I filmed it at the dump in San Francisco. And anyhow, that's how I met Chad. Long story short, he won that contest, won like 100 grand, got a new barge and some nice things happened. and we've been friends ever since. So I just wanted to have him on to check in to see if he's done yet. And he's not. He's not. Spoiler alert, he's not.

It just always keeps coming. With every natural disaster, every time, you know, the river's flood, it causes a lot of stuff to get washed downriver. Every hurricane, every, you know, heavy downpour, it all just causes a lot of damage and puts a lot of stuff in the river, which is then washed up on the shores of it. And he's taking it out. So the guy that I first introduced as America's hardest working garbage man is now a kind of first responder. You know, he works with cops in solving crimes sometimes because cars and various other pieces of evidence wind up in the river.

And he's uniquely suited with his barge and all his crazy heavy equipment, you know, to get it out. of there. He's doing this thing, and you'll hear us talk about it, which is brilliant. With pallets, he's taking all the plastic. I mean, tons and tons of plastic, and he's fabricating pallets made of this stuff. So they're sturdier than wood pallets. They last longer. And with any luck, the success of that endeavor is going to fund his entire nonprofit. This is not a small do-gooder. This is a big guy. He started very, very small when he was a teenager with a project he was super passionate about. But he's since worked with over 120,000 volunteers, all kinds of Fortune 500 companies. They organize these giant events on the rivers.

And he's cleaning it up. Look, we make this point too, Chuck, but I'm going to repeat it now because I think it's important to note that when it comes to the environment and energy and all things green, we're at each other. throats. You know, a lot of people have different opinions about fossil fuels and the future of our country vis-a-vis global warming and climate change. You know, I created a bit of a controversy a couple weeks ago on Facebook, writing about my friend Harold Hamm's new book. My point is, it's refreshing to talk to a guy like Chad because he doesn't care. Yeah. It's not political. It's not partisan. He doesn't care. What he cares about is litter and pollution.

and cleaning it up. And I have met a lot of people who share his objectives, but I've never known anybody who shares his passion or his single-minded determination to make a difference. He's just a great guy, and I really can't wait to introduce him to you. So why would I? Why wait? Why wait?

It's America's hardest working garbage man. my good friend Chad Pagraki, who is standing by to win you over right after this. Shameless plug. Long before she was Peggy Rowe, my mom was Peggy Noble, daughter of Carl and Thelma Noble. It was her father, Carl, who inspired me to pitch a show called Dirty Jobs to the Discovery Channel and later start a foundation that honored the kind of work Carl Noble did for a living, trade work. skilled labor. That foundation is called MicroWorks and today I'm proud to tell you that we've helped thousands of people get the training they need to begin a career in the skilled trades.

In fact, we'd love to help you. You can apply for a work ethic scholarship right now at microwworks.org. We've set aside $10 million for this year's applicants thanks to a number of very effective fundraisers, including the one with my grandfather's name on the label. I refer of course to Noble, Tennessee whiskey, K-N-O-B-E-L, which is now available in a variety of delicious mash bills, all of which you can peruse at noblespirates.com. In fact, if you spend $100 and use code Carl, C-A-R-L, you'll get one tube of orange-bitter-infused sugar cubes for free. That's code Carl with a C to get nine sugar cubes, ingeniously engineered to make nine

perfect old fashions every time. It's my favorite way to support microworks and my favorite whiskey to sip responsibly after a long day of interviewing people on this podcast. Pick up a bottle at noblespirates.com. K-N-O-B-E-L-Spirits.com. Soon may the noble men come to bring a bottle for everyone. One day when the waitin is done, we'll take a drink and go. Hi, Mike. As I live and breathe. Hello, Chad. How you doing, man? Good to see you.

I'd say it's good to see you, except I'm lost in the array of all your awards and accolades and plaques. And what are you sitting in front of, my friend? Yes, I've been recognized quite a bit. There is a lot of awards and all that. But it was weird displaying them because it's weird to, you know, it's just kind of like, look at me. but they sat in boxes in my in my addict and I never had a place and now they have an office that they deserve to be on the wall and all that so and you know I never I just accept awards because you know there's a lot on behalf of everybody that made it happen so I'm not like look at me you don't

have to explain look at this all right I figured you had some stuff on your walls too so uh you know uh-huh well you know what it was cheaper than wallpaper and you got to put them somewhere true Right? Well, I can't make out exactly what they are all are back there, but I'm sure you've earned every one of them. It's been a hot minute, man. When did I see you last? I don't know. I think we were in maybe Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

You recall they were doing the show. You just starting the new show. Or you spoke at, I think you gave a speech in Iowa, and then you called and like, hey, let's have dinner or whatever. So my wife and I came at you guys. And yeah, so it's been a while. Yeah, a lot's happened since then, for sure, up to a bunch of other things. But, yeah, it's good to be on a show, and it's an honor, dude. It's good to see you.

That's too long. Sorry, it's been so long. How is the beautiful Tammy, speak of the devil? The beautiful Tammy is great, man. She's doing good, and, yep, working side by side with her still and trying to do big things. But, yeah, she's doing great, man. Now, is this office that you're in, Chad, on the barge, or are you actually on land right now? No.

your guy, Chuck, wouldn't let me be on the barge because he was worried about connections. So I went to land. It's my land-based office. So I do have a new barge that just kicking off. But nope, I'm on land right now. And so it's my land-based office. I don't know that I've ever seen you on land, except in a couple restaurants that we went through over the years. But let's start. You know, when did the barge become the barges and how did they become the love boats because as I recall, you know, you guys were doing more than just picking up trash out there. There was romance in the air on the Mississippi and the Ohio. And a lot of it, as I recall. That's how you met your wife, isn't it? Yeah, no, they're definitely so, we'll just go right to the love.

You know, I live on a barge part of the year, and there's a crew of about 10 that do so as well. And if you come to work at Living Lands and Waters, you have a one and ten chance of getting married to another crew member. I think there's 13 marriages, only one divorce out of it. So we got good odds here, too. So it's kind of a selling point, get people to come. Hard job, but love is in the air. And so we got done with love and still deeply in love with Tammy here. But yeah, yeah, barges are awesome.

Well, let's riff on it for a minute because, you know what? I thought about this the last time we filmed on the barge, you know, and we just kind of glossed over it and laughed. But is it, I mean, is all that, that romance can't be a coincidence. So what do you think, is it like-minded people being in close proximity? Is it hard work? Is it something magical about just turning something ugly into something beautiful and doing it as a team? Is it the nautical mystique of being on the water and all the romance that has been written about by guys like Mark Twain over the years? Is there something in the air?

Is there something in the water? What the hell is it? I think it's everything you said. You know, first of all, like-minded people. We try to, you know, it's one thing to work with somebody for eight hours a day at a normal job for 40 hours a week. It's another thing to travel with them for months on end and live with them. always traveling in so long days, long hours, all that, you know, doing good, being part of something that's bigger than you.

I mean, I think that's the attraction. And through that, it's a, you know, co-ed crew, and you're always the outsiders in these different river cities that we travel to. So it's kind of like being in a band on tour, you know, and you're the outsider, but you're doing something good and you're well, it's appreciated. But also it's just, you know, so I think all of them, the things you said, coupled with that, it's a tight-knit crew, and, you know, so things happen out

there, you know? Yeah, I do. You're probably sick of telling your own story over and over, you know. I mean, it's what you've been really doing since you were 17, as I recall, but for people listening right now who aren't quite sure, you know, how this romantic wound up meeting his wife picking up trash out of the Mississippi River and why he's still doing it. Give me the thumbnail. How did it start and what's new? So it started. I grew up where Interstate 80 crosses the Mississippi River.

My parents' house is right on the water. And then when I was 15 years old, my brother got me into commercial shell diving, which is essentially spent an 8 to 10 hours a day in the bottom of the river. You have a go-kart engine that runs an oilish compressor that pumps air through a garden hose down to you. You're the anchor for the boat, so you're wearing anywhere from 80 to 100 pounds of lead around your waist. You adjust it depending on how much current there is. And we weren't using depth finders at the time or anything. So, you know, was it sketchy?

Absolutely. Did it almost drown quite a few times, totally. But it was, you know, getting down into a different world. And there was a lot learned. At the time, it was just fear a lot. It was, you know, it was scary. As a teenager, started when I was 15, and then worked up doing that. that for six summer seasons. I crawled not every inch, but I crawled about 150 miles stretch of the

Mississippi River from Fort Madison, Iowa to Dubuque, Iowa. But being down on the bottom is kind of where I learned like what a cool thing the Mississippi River is. It's kind of like it's hard to describe down there, but the thing is alive, you know, it's so many fish. And you can hear really well underwater in certain places. So you could hear thousands of fish, communicate, like certain times a year when catfish are in love. They are spawning and they're making tons of noise. So there'll be thousands of fish around you. Drum is another fish, like a perched drum,

but they make clicking sounds, click, click, click, click. So, you know, hearing all this around you and then feeling kind of the movement and all that down there, I was thought, like, this thing is its own living life force. And I just had a different experience with it, you know, below the surface. And I was diving from muscle shells as well. it was and it's selling the shells. But through that taught me a strong work ethic. I liked it because the more you put into it, the more you got out of it. And it was adventurous. And so

that's what I was doing in the daytime with my brother and then at nighttime to save money because I was trying to save money to go to college. And once I was in college, stay in college. I camped out on all these islands. The upper Mississippi River, you know, there's hundreds of different islands. It's an amazing place. And so there's where I started to see all of the garbage, the thousands of barrels, the tires, the appliances, you know, all the stuff that came from floods or people over the years dumping in it intentionally, whatever the reason it was there. And there was no agency, nobody doing anything about it.

And I started to focus in on it. It was like, this is disgusting, you know. And I thought Mississippi River is a symbol of the nation and national treasure. And I was not the smartest guy by any means, just wanted to do something about it. So that's where the whole garbage thing started from that. Were you angry? You say disgusted, and I totally get that feeling. And I think that, you know, a lot of people feel very differently

about different levels of green and different levels of, you know, predictions for what's going to happen in the world and our relationship with fossil fuels. And there's just so much room for so much debate around so many topics. But I don't know anybody who is, isn't at least no, you know, emotionally sane or healthy person who just isn't repulsed by the sight of garbage on the side of the road or garbage in our rivers. It really goes back to the Weeping Indian, you know, in that old campaign. Everybody can agree that littering is just a

base and horrible thing. And so when you were confronted with that, I'm just wondering, did it, like, did you immediately see a lifelong mission, or did it just make you nauseous? I didn't see either really. I really thought of like, you know, it's tangible. It's there. It's a problem. It's a really big problem. The more I look at it.

But I can also do something physically about it and make a difference and see a difference. And yes, it's an overwhelming problem. And, you know, the Mississippi River is 2,300 miles long and it's huge and all that. But, you know, I can't even remember really being overwhelmed. Certain places I've went in the country, you're kind of like, whoa. there is so much stuff here and it is disgusting and all that but what I think more propels me than focusing on the negative is like can I do something about it and what is it going to take to really do something in a bigger way and it wasn't

learned overnight but I don't remember being like pissed off about it or or that sort of thing just more just like there's something needs to be done how do I do it how can I do this you know and so I remember more about that and still to this day I don't I'm not mad about that I'm just it's more like a challenge or something. I think that would be how I'm sort of frame. I don't think much about how I think about it. So I'm kind of putting out spot.

But yeah, I think that's pretty much, yeah, what it is. No, no, look, full disclosure, I kind of knew what your answer was going to be because we've talked around this before, but I don't know that I ever told you this. You know, somebody's got to do it really was, I mean, it was an idea that came before Dirty Job. but when I brought it back and started thinking about it again and talking about it again, it was really you.

Like, you were the example that I always used to try and sell that show to a network and also, you know, what I told to producers to look for. Because for the very reason that you're not certain about what you were feeling in that moment, the only thing you seemed to be certain about was that something had to be done and somebody needed to do it, and why not you? We can gloss over it and we can make it sound really, really simple. But the truth is, many millions of people have looked at the garbage that you saw and didn't do anything about it. So what is it with you, man?

Is it something in your brain? Is it something in your heart? Why were you compelled to do this thing and turn it into a lifelong mission? Well, you know, I guess personally, I loved the adventure of shell diving, and I worked on barges and commercial fish. I love being in the outdoors. I love the adventure and going to new places. And, you know, with clamming, you're just trying to make money, you know, by diving.

But in this, what was unexpected, and once I got my start, which I saw a NASCAR race, and it gave me an idea to get a sponsor. So I got a small sponsor. Alcoa was my first sponsor because they're big in my hometown. And anyway, so I started, and I. I didn't realize how many people really appreciated the work. I mean, just within the first couple of days, like, people just loved it. And so, yes, millions of people have, you know, saw it and been disgusted,

but I've also had literally hundreds of thousands of people to straight up say, thank you for what you do. And, you know, I have a much bigger team, but at first I was like, so it helped drive it just like people like this. I can see this. I can do this. And I like it. And truthfully, like being on a.

bottom of the river and drowning, almost drowning at least two or three times. I could take a breath every time I wanted when I was picking up garbage, so it was a little less dangerous. So that was something to you. I mean, just looking back, you know, and, but I love what I do. I've loved it then, and I love it now, and I love the progression of the organization. And so, you know, I've been, I mean, look at me. I'm on my podcast with you, man, and I've known you for a long time, and that's been one of the great perks. No, I mean, serious, it's a cool thing and a lot of people just don't have those opportunities or what have you, but it came out of a good thing and, you know, been able to keep a good thing going with a great, great team of people.

By the way, just throwing this there, Mike, you have a great team of people and people that have been with you a long time, and I know a lot of them, and I just want to say that is awesome, and I just, I love your team, dude. Well, thanks. I love them too. Chuck will probably be fired later today or maybe next week. I'm definitely going away soon. But, you know, I mean, I've known in 43 years.

That's got to count for something. You know, Mary and I have been in business now 18 years. She says hello, by the way. Yes. Tell her, I said hello, the best ever. Yes, yes. Yeah. Good stuff.

Team. Well, look, it is important. And it's one of those four-letter words that gets thrown around a lot, you know. And sometimes people get a little suspicious of what a team really is and what teamwork really means. but when it comes to cleaning up America's aorta, right? Because that's basically what we're talking about. The Mississippi is just the, I mean, it is our rivers are our circulatory systems, right? And right now they're filled with plaque.

So cleaning that up, it couldn't happen without a team. I know that. But the fascinating thing is the team building that you guys have engendered with big companies. who bring hundreds of volunteers out. Like you've mobilized the Fortune 500 in this giant yet very simple act of bending down and picking up a piece of crap and putting it in the proper barrel. None of this happens without a team. No.

And I mean, I believe in teamwork, and that's really what it takes to get it clean and keep it clean. So that's two different things. But I named our barge, our last classroom barge teamwork. because that's what it's all about. But you're right, mobilizing some of the Fortune 500 companies is what I didn't realize, you know, I've learned, I didn't start out with this massive plan. It was like you learn what works and you build upon that. And I still do some community cleanups, but what I've learned at works is doing cleanups with companies.

The difference is, you know, we're kind of an industrial strength river cleanup operation with, we have six boats and we have barges and cranes and excavators. and all that. So if we come into a place and we're expecting to work with, you know, 100 people or 50 people or whatever it is, like we have the equipment there and it takes a lot of planning and all that.

We need those people to show up because we've got money invested to get there. Well, with the community, if it's a Saturday morning and people are out at the bars late or whatever, they don't show up and there's no rec... I mean, you're just kind of... You're out with it.

But if you're dealing with a company and the boss says, hey, I'm going to have 38 people there at the boat ramp ready for you to work hard for four hours on Thursday afternoon. Guess what? They're going to show up and they're going to work hard. And so truthfully, those Fortune 500 companies and small companies and just general people have really helped make the difference. We've removed over 13 million pounds of garbage and I've worked side by side with over 124,000 people from all walks of life. But the companies have definitely made a big difference,

and I think they just make a big difference in general. So I love the relationships I've had. Some of my sponsors, I mean, Elkoa's first one, 26 years later, still sponsored by them in a big way. You know, I mean, just amazing sponsors, man, of all walks. Who else is there now? Who do you want to give a shout out to? Because, you know, they're part of the team.

Yeah, yeah. Budweiser has been really big. Cargill has been big. A lot of the aggrine, ADM, work with all the different elevators. The whole marine industry, every barge company, most of every barge company has been huge, giving us rides, giving us financial help, muscle power, and everything in between. The list just goes on and on.

And it's a big list. But I also have like, I think 6,000 people donate just, you know, like, you know, 50 bucks, 20 bucks, whatever. So it's a great diverse mix of funders. You know, we don't really, we never seek out government help. or anything like that. If somebody's offering or something there, great,

but normally 99% of the time, it's just a project of the people. And that's, you know, and that's kind of what it is. How much crap do you think is actually in, not just that river, but what are we really, I mean, when you say you've pulled 13 million pounds out.

Over, yeah. What do you think's in there? And is this just, I mean, is it just Sisypian? Like, are you, done yet? When are you going to be done? Do do, do do do do do do. Dumb!

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Well, we certainly have made a big difference without a doubt. And it's the commercial fisherman. It's the barge captains. It's, you know, recreational boat. A lot of people have said, hey, what a difference since you've started. And I'm saying that is because of all the people and all sponsors and all that. But yes, there's still a lot of work to do, a lot of places to go. And floods do happen.

but I truly think we've made a big difference. But just thinking then people think all the stuff is in the river and on the bottom. From diving, I know that there are things on the bottom. And we do, like today we're pulling out four cars off the bottom in Louisville, Kentucky, because the police department got some sonar. Anyway, my point, though, is it's not as much as you think on the bottom because when the river rises, it scours. The current's so strong.

It blast all that stuff. And where the next bend in the river, the current comes, it will push it up into the trees and on the banks. And then the water will recede. So like the Ohio can go up 24 feet and 24 hours. It recedes slower than that, typically. But just so a lot of stuff is there, presents. It's not like in the main part of it. So hard to answer that big question of how many pounds are in there.

But, you know, what, I mean, I still feel like I got a lot of years in me and a job security. Well, okay, job security. Well, it sounds like it's easier to get that stuff off the bank than it is to go down and pull it up, you know. So the river's doing you a favor in that regard. For sure. So one sponsor I didn't mention this because there's a lot, but as John Deere gave us an excavator and they custom had a long reach on it specifically. like a $300,000 piece of equipment. And, you know, we use that to pull the cars out and all the big stuff. And we literally in a certain place can just pick plastics and garbage all

day long, you know, with it. Or go back, people pile it up in piles. And then the excavators comes and it makes it a much more efficient. They're an amazing sponsor. And this year, you know, they gave me more than what we asked for. So that's your hometown, right? Aren't you on a Moline? Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. East Moline. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep, they build the combines right by us. So, yeah, go on. Yeah. No, I'm just wondering, you know, as a guy who runs a foundation,

I've observed some things over the years, especially with raising money. And is it getting easier for you now in that you can simply point to the stats, right? 13 million pounds, right? In every measurable way, living lands and water has moved the needle. So it's not just, you know, impassioned Chad with a story to tell and a vision to share. You can actually point now

to like real data. How, how transformative has that been for your efforts? Well, you know, fortunate for us, everything we do from the number of trees, we either planted or given away 1.9 million trees. We, you know, 13 million pounds of garbage, uh, thousands of students through our existing classroom. I mean, those are all tangible, measurable results. that's great for us. And so it does make it a little easier. And I think what our sort of motto is and what I hope to do is always exceed people's expectations. So if we say we're going to do this, we actually do this and this or, you know, and on and on. So I think that just good partnerships, good communication, just being, you know, cool and being honest and, you know, whatever. I just,

you know, most of these relationships have been 20 years plus. So most people don't come on. And then, go away as a sponsor. Most people like the continual progression and results. But unfortunately, for a lot of organizations, it is tough because things, you know, there's a lot of causes out there that you just can't measure the results. You're making a difference, but it's not as tangible. And also a lot of organizations are just in one place, whereas we work kind of nationwide and much bigger scope so you can draw from different places. and so, you know, a multitude of things that, you know, necessarily weren't planned, but, but it is what it is.

And it's a successful operation and organization because of it. Yeah, but people don't realize, Chad, you know, they think of nonprofits like hobbies. And the reality is if you're going to run one, it's a business, right? And you've got employees and you've got stacks of paperwork and you've got all sorts of things you have to worry about. And you, I mean, especially, it's all of that, plus you're in a fairly hazardous environment, or at least a potentially hazardous one. You've got a lot of people on a barge with a lot of moving parts in a thing with current. I mean, it's going to take you where it goes.

I mean, all sorts of things can happen. It's no joke. But I think my point was at some point in all of this, people look around. and they go, you know what? He was not full of crap. He's still doing it. Like year one, year two, whatever. Year three, year four, good for you. You get past five years, six years, ten years. You're still doing it. Now, you know, you said Living Lands of Waters has been out at 20 years as of now? Yeah, like 26 years, yeah. And how old are you? I'm 48. All right, do the math, folks. This guy started a foundation when he was,

teenager, basically. Yeah, I mean, you know, just, but you talked about the, you know, it's like there's a lot to it behind the scenes, certainly. Like, you know, if you come to one of our events, it's going to be a good time. We're going to exceed your expectations. We like have a new DJ boat. That's an old jambox that we put on a pontoon. It's a banging system.

It's awesome. But behind the scenes, I mean, it's just like you on your show. I mean, how much travel does it take and behind the scenes shit that you have to do to make that, get the production done and what Chuck has to do of Mary and contracts and there's just so much to it. But that's not what people think about. They think about seeing you and they think about an event. But behind the scenes on our end, safety, you know, and I've learned this from every, the Fortune 500 and they've helped in the barge industries help with our safety program. It's a big deal. It's a culture here. So all jokes aside, it's serious what we do and can be

hazardous and we have an impeccable safety record and way proud of that. I mean, that's one of the biggest accomplishments that I don't really don't talk about, but that's a culture here. And so I just want to point that out because, you know, you deal in so many different jobs and you see the dangers and all that. But I'm proud of what we've done there and continue to do, you know. What's the secret? Because I guarantee you there are people listening right now who have sat through so many mandatory lockout, tagout sessions and confined space trainings and mandatory and compulsory meetings and checklists and everything else. And they've sat through so many of them, they don't hear them anymore, right? It's just noise. It's like white noise. How do you keep your people safe? What do you do to

keep them frosty? I mean, just, you know, focusing more on a team and then on the, you know, you live with all these people so you care about them and and we're working with a lot of volunteers and um that we need to just be as safe as possible and um you know what if this person gets hurt this is your best friend you know these different i mean what's the scenarios and you know i guess bring up worst-case scenarios but um and focus on how what's ahead of us and just i think it's just bringing it up the realities and you know doing everything you can to keep it as safe as as you can and i've definitely proud of what hasn't happened, you know, and why it hasn't happened. That's exactly. You know, that's not bad. Let me write that down. Proud of what hasn't happened.

We're always looking for titles for these things as we go. That's a good one. Yes. In that lockout and everything you said, you know, I'm, I don't know if this is a segue or what. But so one of the things that the organization struggled with financially and just, you know, I'm, I'm, I don't know if this is a segue or what. But, uh, so one of the things that the organization struggled with financially and just, just trying to be able was when we pull the stuff out of garb or out of the rivers at all the cleanups everything with millions of pounds barge loads the organization went from boatloads to barge loads but with those barge loads it's a big problem because what you have to do is you have to pay and figure out how to get rid of it you know there's some hazardous stuff in one area you got tires on another area you have propane tanks over here batteries over here and you've got

millions of pounds of plastic well no one would recycle it you know and And that was a big problem. And as an organization, I think we spent over the last like, I don't know, $12,000 or $349,000 that we could have put back into our operation and move it forward or hired more people or what have you. But instead we're spending that to just take the plastics and throw them into the landfill. And so that was just mind-boggling something my wife and are like, there has to be a better way.

And then with our tree program and the 1.9 million trees, and all oak trees. We wanted to do something bigger. We wanted to solve the problem. And what we came up with was making pallets, plastic pallets out of 100% recycled material. So literally that's where my office is. Now it's in the plant.

We bought an old tractor plant. They made tractor cabs for Caterpillar and John Deere, which Caterpillar's sponsor as well, just throwing it in there. But we bought this old plant. And we made a big, business plan and so we're making palettes now very heavy duty industrial strength plastic pallets out of the stuff we pull out of the river and then we're getting other sources as well and so

it's a pretty complex thing so the lockouts and the safety it's you know now there's a whole other thing my wife is off the river she's CEO of this it's woman owned and we have an amazing team here as well so it's a whole other thing but it solves a problem you know it solves a bunch of problems. It's saving trees. Wait, my, wait, minute. You're taking litter, discarded plastic, and you're using it to make pallets. And then are you selling the pallets? Yeah. Well, you kind of buried the lead, man. I guess you get, you know, you get lemons, you make lemonade. So, I mean, I did go on your site just a minute ago. It looked like you made up a word with pallet in it. Palat gonia. Yeah, yeah. Palat gonia. Yeah, yeah.

Palatonia. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, honestly, like, you know, there's the company, Patagonia, which I've read the book, Let My People Surf, and I love what Yovon has done and what he's done there. And there's very similarities. I work with Patagonia and there are different places in Chicago, Nashville, St. Paul, and those stores. And I love the company.

My parents been buying their products. And anyway, Palatgonia, I would go to some trade shows, you know, where There's other people doing a lot of stuff and everybody's gaining you, trying to get your attention. And the name of our company's Green Current Solutions, but at the trade shows, I'm like, we got to have something catchy that people remember because they just need to sell Palatgonia. My brother came up with it. I'm like, that's so simple. So we're not really, our business name isn't Palatgonia, but it's something that people,

if they want a pallet, so, you know, they can easily, yeah, palletonia.com, and then it goes right to our website and all that. That's great, man. So, yeah. I love it. Yeah, I think it's good and it works. So, yeah, if anybody needs a pallet, let me know. Chuck, write that talk. That was selfish plug, yes.

If anybody needs a pallet, let me know. Who's buying them? Are you trucking companies, you know? Yeah, all sorts. I mean, every company transport stuff on pallets, you know, and it was just such a waste of trees. And that's a thing, like 43% of all the hardwoods cut down go to sometimes a single-use palette.

And it's just such a waste, you know. And so I think this solves a lot of problems. And it's, you know, there's CO2 gains from it. Like, I think it's, if you buy 100,000 pallets as a big company, and some of them use three or four million, you know, certain companies do. You buy 100,000 pallets. You save 12,500 trees. And so, again, it's tangible.

You can make a difference. It solves a thing. It helps the rivers. It helps the forests. And it's a good thing. And they last longer than woodmen. pallets, correct? Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, like Virginia Tech says a heavy-duty plastic pallet, and that's what we make, it'll last up to 400 turns. So 400 uses on semis back and forth, different plants. And I would say it's a no-brainer,

but there is so much into it. Like, we have a chemical engineer on staff. We have a logistics person that just started with from the largest logistics company in the world. And we have an aerospace engineer with a material processing background, so we can take stuff out of their plants. like shrink wrap and things and then certain challenges we can put into the palette so it makes it more circular for them and and we need the feed you know as well so um not something that happened overnight they are brilliant yeah yeah and chuck best of all when you're done with them you just throw them back in the river right and so

no that's that's not doing it do it man we'll no we'll buy them back and we'll regrind them and make another palette out of it so nice nice but you mentioned that you buy them back, but what's the price of these? Is it economical for trucking companies to buy your pallets over the wooden pallets? Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, for the number of uses, for sure. Absolutely. And as far as in the plastic pallet space, we are extremely cost competitive. We're not, listen, I live in a little tiny house. I don't even have a garage. Money's not my goal here. Making pallets and doing something and having tangible results is. So our margins are very slim, but also our price is extremely good.

So we think we have that going for us. And again, my wife runs this. I'm still on the water, but it has taken a lot to get this whole thing going. This is a, it's a very complex operation, more than my little P-Brain can handle. But I've got the general concept down, though. I like it, man.

I mean, I really do. And it goes without saying, I mean, if there's something I can do to help, I mean, hopefully this will help. But, I mean, beyond that, I just, I mean, like, what percentage of the pallets themselves are made from plastic literally pulled from the rivers you're cleaning? So it depends on where it's at. Like, so we have 16 acres here in the Quad Cities.

It's right on the Mississippi River here, but we have, on the 60 acres, we have 71,000 square foot warehouse, I'm sorry, factory where they make the palates. And then we also have the grinding operations. So we take the stuff off the barge, load it, semis, bring it back. back here and then we can grind it down. We can do about 3,000 pounds an hour. And so the percentages to your question, it depends on where we're at. For instance, a tornado hit two years ago. It was the longest touchdown of an F4 ever recorded. It went 156 miles, did so much devastation, jumped up for a mile, touched back down, went a total of 226 miles, started in Tennessee, went through Kentucky, ended in Indiana, where it crossed the Tennessee,

River, it threw an, it literally through an entire community housing addition into the water. We started Christmas Day, got the call, we just shut down, we fired back up, and we did in three months, we did 1.3 million pounds of debris out of that, the most we've ever done in that period of time. A lot of that was plastics too. So anyway, we've been storing this stuff and filling up the warehouse. And but it depends on the percentage of where we're at like different rivers hold different kinds of plastics and bulky. So when our excavators running certain rivers, it's just literally picking and picking.

Or if we have a lot of volunteers here, we get a lot. It just, it varies, but it just depends on the year. But we also have other sources. So, you know, just trying to fix the sort of waste problem. And that's the only way you're going to do it domestically is like you've got to have people taking big risks, which it totally is. And we have taken risk. But domestically, you got to have, you got to work in volumes, you know, and big volumes

to help solve it. Do you guys now think of yourselves from time to time as first responders? You mean for like hurricanes and things like that? Yeah. You know, honestly, so you talked about like the Fortune 500. and, you know, I have friends in so many different companies and built great relationships. And, you know, I go to them for help. You know, we go as an organization.

We ask for stuff. We ask for things. And so how it came about was after Katrina was the first time we went down and helped, you know, we thought we could make a difference there. And that's where our services were needed. So we took our barge down there and started working. But that was because, like, the aggrine companies, like car, and the ADMs, and then a barge industry is huge in New Orleans, and the poor of New Orleans,

they needed help to get their workers back, and the first thing they needed was their roofs fixed and things like that. So we put a, I think I had 25 people working carpenters from all over the country, people I knew came down and we lived on the barges and campers, and we kicked ass. And there's been a bunch of different ones we've done since. The last one is Hurricane Harvey, and we did we just patched roofs first and delivered water and ice and just what we could do,

but we also kept the river cleanup operation going. But we patched like 75 roofs in two and a half weeks or something. But that was never part of the plan, right? I mean, that's just, I mean, you're just freelancing, dude. Making pallets, patching roads? Yeah. What are you doing?

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Hey-haw! Well, if somebody asked me to do something that has said yes to me a thousand times and they really are in need, I typically don't like to say no, because I don't like knows either. And so that's how I got into doing that. That's not what I do. I guess it's a small part of what I've done. but I am trying to stay much more focused on the cleanups and all of that.

So, yeah. No, it's obviously what you're doing. And, you know, I mean, like calling attention to things. I remember, and this might be around the last time we actually saw each other, but that terrible flood in Iowa that I guess was it Cedar Rapids that was basically, you know. Unbelievable. Yeah. I forgot about that one.

Yeah. Well, that's my point. And there, and you're right there. Like the country didn't. understand the totality of that flood. I think there were some other natural disasters happening around the same time that sucked up a lot of the air in the room. But the pictures I saw were unbelievable. And I took my crew up there. I talked to the mayor and we met an organization. What were they called, Chuck? Matthew 25, I think. Something like that. It was like a church-based group

that was helping people just basically get their homes back in Living Water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just talk for a minute about the way these river towns are so often forgotten and misunderstood on a national level from the kind of communities they are, to the way they come together in the wake of a disaster, and to the fact that they're always at risk, it seems, you know, and for some reason, nationally, we just can't seem to get our head around their particular dilemma. So there's a lot to dissect there and what you had said,

but I will say that the flood you're speaking of was the one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it was so powerful. It's hard, like, it looked so that there was train bridges and they knew this flood was coming up. So they filled train cars full of rock and parked them on the, train bridges to keep them from washing away? Well, not only did they wash them away, but it looked like God had grabbed the train bridge with two hands and twisted the whole thing. It toppled. I've never seen a force quite like that. And then, you know, it wiped out so much. You know, that's another one we went to was right, you know, it's an hour and a half from where we live.

I will say, you know, just about communities. So communities, obviously to me are built on people. You know, I worked in Katrina, I worked in some others, but when I went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and worked, I had never seen such a strong work ethic, okay, this happened. We know what happened. We can't dwell on that. We're not going to wait. We're going to roll up our sleeves. We're going to roll up our pants, and we're going to put work boots on, and we're going to go in there.

And we're going to shovel the mud out, spray it out. We're going to get back to what we need to do. It was definitely a Midwest sort of work ethic there. I mean, the same smells, the same thing I experienced in Katrina, just the amount of action that happened and how fast was when you know the community's pulling together and lots of volunteer folks. And in Kentucky, it just happened with that tornado as well. Like there are a lot of great organizations helping. And so that's my community take. But as far as rivers rising and more floods, there are more frequent floods.

The weather's more volatile. now dumps more moisture, but also the river in the Mississippi. When they dammed it up first, it was a lot deeper, but silt has filled the river in, so it can't handle the amount, it doesn't have the amount of capacity. So the floods are just getting more frequent and higher. But, you know, most communities have levees and are pretty well good plans. Not all, but some do. But yeah.

You know, it's interesting. I've been through towns that have been completely devastated by fire. Yeah. And I've been through towns that have been completely devastated by flood, water. It's different, right? I mean, it's a very different feeling. I've tried to articulate it before and failed, but it has something to do with the fact that a flood,

a fire will take everything, right? And there's just nothing left and you just go, wow, now you see it, now you don't. many times with a flood, it doesn't take it. Right. It just wrecks it. Just wrecks it. It just subsumes it and it goes away. And like there's a very different sort of feeling that I've heard people talk about when they open their basement door and they go downstairs and there's just three feet of mud and silt.

And it's just so demoralizing. In some ways, it's worse than a fire, I think, because it's not gone. It's just trashed. Yeah. And, you know, fire, it's gone. But I will say that dealing with floods and helping people got their houses and doing clamps can be kind of certainly emotional and you've got to be sensitive to it. Because the worst thing to hand somebody and the real value in someone's house, in my opinion,

is pictures, you know? And when you go to hand them that photo album that came and it happens every house, just people open it up and their pictures are half destroyed or like, you know, you just, that seems to make people cry a lot because everything else. But what I've also learned, too, is stuff is just stuff, you know? Like after people start throwing it out, you know, it's like they sort of get into it. And they're like, it's done. There is nothing I can really keep here except for this, you know, just small things.

But I think it gives you a sense like, you know, you don't really need all that much stuff. And we got a lot of stuff in this country. Oh, my God, isn't that the truth? God, we can riff on that for hours. You know, well, you just made me think of something. This is probably inappropriate to share. Cool. Because it's not really funny.

But, man, well. Better. Very early on in dirty jobs. Ironically, we had set up a job with a disaster cleanup company, and we had arranged to go in with them to clean up after a fire, specifically in a home that had been. kind of burned from the inside out but was still standing, right? And the night before, the guy at the company called and said,

hey, look, we can still do it as planned, but we got another call. There was an explosion in a sewer line, and through some awful twist of fate, all of the sewage in one neighborhood blew backwards and came out one lady's toilet in her basement. Her name was Mrs. Frazier, right? And this is one of the first things we did on the show. But Mrs. Frazier's exploding toilet was unlike anything I'd ever seen because it was a flood in the basement.

But it wasn't rainwater or river. It was a flood of turds. It was her neighbor's crap, right? Probably like the crap from a hundred neighbors. And it was about a foot deep and it covered every wall. And it also covered all of, well, it covered every square inch of everything. But there was like a credenza. with a bunch of photos on it.

And let me just say, Chad, to your point, when you see your wedding photo covered in your neighbor's poop, it takes you to a place of demoralization, I think. That's unique. That's unique. And yes, that could be one of the worst floods

you have just laid out there. Definitely, yeah, that's, I can't say I've worked in any of that, per se, but, you know, glad you got to experience it and you kind of get a sense. But there is some realities and all truthful when your wedding picture has got poo on it or mud or whatever and it's wrecked. That's not your own. That's the key.

When it's not your own food. Yes, yes, for sure. That's right. Like you can live with that. Whatever you're into. I don't know if you can live with it. I mean, you're still going to get rid of it, right? You're not going to go, wow, that's only my poo.

I'll just leave it on the pictures and the wall. It's just poo. Yeah, it's just my poo. So that's... You're going to clean it up. You know, the feedback that I got after we did a segment with you for somebody's got to do it, so many people wanted more information on the messages in bottles. Yeah, yeah.

You know? Oh, cool. Yeah. And so I want to ask you about that, but I also just want to talk in general, you know, beyond the trash, beyond the garbage. Like the Mississippi and the Ohio, these rivers are our history. And they give up their secrets from time to time. And talk about all of that, the unexpected treasures you've found in this 13 million pounds of trash.

No, that's cool, man. I'm glad you brought that up. One, I owe you a thank you because, you know, like these awards behind me, you know, the other thing sitting in the attic was boxes of messages and bottles. And after I counted them, I had over a hundred, which I believe is one of the largest messages. message in a bottle collections in the world. So where they come from is the river cleanups. And I walk hundreds of miles. Before a cleanup, I've got to go through because check everything, see what's there. So I spent a lot of time there. And then all the volunteers find them and give them to us, whatever. And so they sat there. And I saw you the first time, told you about them,

or you ask, what's funny you know, told you? And then you're like, what are you doing? And then the next time, are you doing anything with them? You need to get those on tour. They need to be out in the public, they're too interesting. And then the third time, you're like, why haven't you done that? So then I'm like, all right, game on. I'm going to do it. So we made a traveling exhibit. It's here right now to sitting here, but it's been to Virginia. It's been to Texas. It's been to Florida. It travels all over. There's like, I think we have 50 different bottles. And, you know, people, like the secrets, you said, a lot of these messages, it's not like, hey, I'm John and I'm sitting here and call me or something. It's more like,

These are messages that aren't necessarily meant to be found. You know, some of them are, you know, just really heavy and intimate. And, like, you know, again, writing to a higher power and things aren't going good in people's lives. There's death that just happened or somebody's ashes. You know, there's a lot. Some of them you find and they travel from town to town. People find them and they say throw them back.

And a wide mix, there are some really funny ones that, you know, there's like 50 ones that are like have sexual stuff in them we don't put on tour uh that's this random stuff but uh so weird ones and uh but uh it's the after dark tour yeah yeah it's uh pretty strange but uh yeah so they're interesting people love them and honestly i owe you a thanks for just saying make that happen they're too cool to not just hoard you know um so anyway yeah it's out there now and thanks to you. But so message and bottles are always like, I love finding them. They're interesting.

They're fun. We've found, you know, a kid one time came up and handed me a grenade. It's like, thanks, kid. Appreciate that. Thank you. But, you know, looked at it, you know, and it's drilled out of the bottom. It was more like a paperweight or something, but didn't know, you know. Probably the funniest thing we've found or weirdest

thing was I had a, I was in Paducah, Kentucky, and we had a big cleanup. with the marine industry and then we had a barbecue on a barge. It was a wavy day with hundreds of people out there, bunches of boats and come back in. It was time after the wrap-up barbecue to take people back. The boat launch, I had switched boats and when I got in that boat, there was this round thing and I thought it was a bit off a directional

boring bit like the front that drills under roads. I didn't know what it was. It was coming, whatever. It was bouncing in the boat and I'm talking to people, you know, and all that. And I pick it up, I look at it, I'm like, I threw it back down. Then I got back and the guy calls and the guy who was driving the boat says, hey, I found out what that was.

It was a Civil War artillery shell. It's worth $2,600. Can I have it? I'm like, yeah, come take it, you know. Anyway, three days goes by. The weekend went, whatever. And it was like on Monday. I'm like, hey, text that dude and see what he ever found out about.

That's interesting, you know. So he texted me. He was like, hey, what did you find out? His text back was basically, yes, I called the Civil War people. They called their people. then basically figured out it was a live bomb and the bomb squad came to my apartment, evacuated my entire apartment complex and basically it ends on how was your Monday. So that was a funny deal there, but, you know, I mean.

I'm guessing he didn't get his $2,600. No, no. Yeah, they didn't give it back. So, you know, it's a wide range. It's cars. It's all sorts. You know, they're pulling out cars with the police department. Louisville today. That's really cool. It's exciting. The job in general, the lifestyle, it's

pretty adventurous, pretty exciting. You know, it's not monotonous. He's finding all sorts of things. Pretty exciting. Look, anytime you find an unexploded bomb and your Louis Love Barge turns into an episode of the Hurt Locker, you're like, oh, stuff's happening. That's a big day. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah, that's a big day. You know, just on that, like the cops need to be there because of what's They're trying to figure out what's in the cars, if there's any, you know, things. Unsolved crimes. That's exactly right. Yep.

So we did like, I think, so that tornado relief that I talked about earlier, the last stage was to get everything out of this bay. So I called all the different places that had water around and dive teams and got all these different divers to come in, flag it. And then we lifted it all the stuff out as the Cincinnati crew dive team, which they were, amazing. They're just awesome. It's like, hey, the guy turns, the sergeant. I'm like, hey, man, you ever need anything? Let me know. And he's like, actually, I do. We just got sonar. We've got 21 cars in the bottom of the Ohio River. We would love for you to come. And I said, dude, you just came all the way with your whole team, and we killed it because of you. So I'll send the barge up there. And so that's what we ended up doing last year with them. And that was good.

And now other police departments are asking. And so it's kind of one of those things. Yeah, let's do it. So now you're CSI. Now you're solving cold cases. You're a first responder. You're like, I mean, dude, you're a little barge. When I met you, I just remember thinking this is a self-appointed garbage man who's on a mission to clean up a stream or something. And it is bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

And now you're making pallets out of recycled plastic and helping cops solve crimes and showing up at people's doorsteps. And, you know, after a natural disaster, I love your life, man. I mean, it's no wonder people are just standing in line to volunteer for your thing and getting married and hooking up on your barges, just lying around and having fun and a giant bed full of rubbish. I just think it's true. A giant bed full of rubbish? A bed of rubbish. Right?

Yeah. I'm just imagining young couples in love having like an hour to themselves. off, right? And like the sun is going down on the Mississippi, and it's a nice slow tide, and everything is just beautiful. And maybe they crack open a couple of Budwisers, and they just sit down on this bed of rubbish. And one thing leads to the next. And before you know it, baby's on the way. Is this in the volunteer brochure, Chad? This is in the handbook. Is this how you attract your volunteers? Yes, yes, for sure. It's in the handbook. That's that kind of, that's on the cover of it, the shadow, the sunset. How do you get volunteers? Um, you know,

honestly, we have so much requests. It's hard to keep up. You know, like right now, our stuff is in Louisville. It's heading to Cincinnati. We have months of different groups that are going to be helping us. There's a real need. There's a lot of stuff in the river there. So we're going to be there for a long time. Um, one thing, uh, in good company is like Cliff Barr is a big sponsor of ours. And, And like the owners started, and they're super nice people, they just sold it, but whatever. Anyway, they started in good company, and it's a bunch of companies that are sort of like-minded and want to do events. So they put on like a trip where people come in.

It's kind of like spring break, but for adults, that's how we kind of do it. We have bands play and, you know, country band, reggae bands, whatever. And they spend, you know, eight to ten hours a day. It's hard work, but we fill a bar. in four days with those. They do that for like three weeks and then spring break we have for colleges. We've had over 100 different universities or colleges come. It's typically in Memphis, Tennessee. A lot of stuff to do there, but we spend all of our time. That's where the DJ boat came in, making it fun, and they're a big force that helps us. So yeah, just, you know,

there's just a lot, like a lot of different 1% for the planet helps us out. And a lot of people are members there and they ask, hey, got anything in the Midwest we can do for. for team building and just one difference that I've seen that relevant to like sponsors and change not just in the rivers but in companies like companies used to just give money hey yep it's good thing here you go but now they're looking for things to do they want active involvement from their employees to their CEO you know and and everywhere in between and so that's been very helpful for us to put some and it's very you know it's people want to get into it And so it's been a good change to be able to be part of that too, you know.

What do you need right now that you don't have? I mean, we just got off the ground with the pallets. So I need, if somebody needs a pallet, I need to sell pallets. I really do. And I'm not trying to be selfless plug. It's true. That's the reality of it. Love to work with people.

What I need is more time. As a lot of what I'm wanting to do, as you know, you need, more time. I mean, that's the reality. I wish I didn't have to sleep. But I don't know what I need. I mean, as far as like, I feel like things are going pretty good. And that's because I, again, going back to team and teamwork, it's just having an absolute amazing team as you do as well. And I feel like things are good. You know, we just open a new classroom and stuff. Yeah. The last time I saw you at a loss for words like you are right now, you were standing on stage accepting the CNN Hero Award. You were wearing a suit, which meant for a minute I didn't recognize you.

I was like that guy looks like Chad Begracki, that guy in a tie. I was, yeah. What did that feel like? And is that award somewhere behind you right now, or do you just keep that up in the attic with all your other commendations? No, that's at my house. That's on the mantle. That's a big honor. You know, I've had a lot of great honors, and certainly, but that was really cool.

And you're kind of, when you're at those kind of events, at least I am, you're a little outside yourself. So it's kind of like it happens, and you're like, holy cow, what happened? And that, I won it, didn't expect to win it. I didn't have a speech written. I didn't even think about winning it. And truthfully, I didn't want to win it. Obviously, did. Thank you.

Thank you. It was hysterical. Chuck, have you seen this footage, by the way? No, I have not. Okay, so I've been to a lot of award shows. I've seen a lot of celebrities at a loss for words and humana, humana, homina, homina. And so what Chad does is he basically gets up there and he looks around. He's like, this is, clearly there's been some sort of mistake.

And then he starts talking about what an honor it is to be nominated with these like nine other people who are all doing great work. And then, and it sure looked like it was spur of the moment. He takes his $100,000 prize and says, oh, screw it. basically just gives 10 grand to everybody. Right. Yeah. And says, thank you very much.

And walks off the stage. Yeah. I mean, it's the equivalent here. It's the equivalent of me taking this stupid Emmy award. Cool. Unscrewing the head. And dividing it up among the other nominees.

And just say here. Exactly. So, yeah. So, Chad, my question is, any regrets? Do you wish you would have held on to the hundred grand,

for God's sake? No, no, not at all. You know, was spur of the moment. And I'm totally glad I did. And truthfully, I was not embarrassed to win, but I just, you know, everybody there is doing

such great work. And there's like doctors from Africa. And I mean, I just, I feel blessed to be as fortunate as I am to, you know, live in a great country. And the generosity, this country is amazing. The people are amazing. And there's places that are less fortunate and people are less fortunate. So I really was like, I didn't.

really want to win and I won and that was the only right thing to do and it was spur of the moment. I did have one board member in my head, you know, because I didn't approve this from the board of directors and I'm like, shit, he's not going to be happy. That's what I thought, but he was fine. But that was in my head, but here's what happened. I won the award. I went and then I did an interview with Anderson Cooper. Then boom, I was in a car and back to my hotel.

I'm sitting there and I was drinking a beer going, that just happened, you know? But what happened was by the time I got back to the hotel room, I had a text from ADM, which is a big aggrine company. And they gave me that money back. And then I went to Budweiser and they surprised me after this cleanup with 200 people, this big event. I went inside and the CEO had a check for what I gave away. And I just, it was like a total surprise. I just walked in there. They're like, hey, come have a beer.

Everybody's in the audience. And I came in there. And like, so when you do good stuff, good stuff. stuff. It typically happens back, but that was just unexpected, but things have been good, you know. That's great, man. I did not know that happened. Headlines being what they are, Budweiser could probably use some nice press right now, so good for them for covering your- Your generosity. Philanthropy, man. Absolutely, it's great. Chuck, we've got to land the plane. Is there anything here you want to say before I wish my friend of Thon Farewell? Well, you covered a lot of

what I was thinking, which was great, but I just want to mention that two people, if they would like to either give money to the cause to help clean up America's waterways, go to living lands and waters, lands and waters.org. They're both plural, livinglands and waters.org. And also, maybe sign up to volunteer and, you know, with 13 marriages out of that, those are pretty good odds. I like to start on love and end on love, yeah. Right on. Yeah. That's right. And of course, if you're looking for a really tasteful wedding present, for a friend, a family member, a loved one, whatever, and I know this is a little out of the box, but just consider a palette.

Thank you. Thank you. It's not typical. It's not China. You're probably not going to find it at a registry. But if you really want to give a gift that people can display and comes with a story, saves a tree. Go to the website and save a tree, order a pallet, put it out there. You know what? Get a couple of pallets and make some outdoor furniture out of them. Sure. It's been done before.

No, guys, hey, I really appreciate just knowing you, Mike, and you've helped me personally a lot over the years. It's just a great dude. And people wonder, is he just like he is on camera, is off camera? And you spot on art and always have been. and it's an honor to know you and just appreciate everything and being on the podcast and just what you do. And just thanks, man. Appreciate it.

You're welcome. Hey, man, we could have watched the first episode of somebody's got to do it anywhere. We chose to watch it on your barge. You're right. Yeah, you're right. In 2000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah. I forgot that. Yeah, man. They set up a screen. We had a whole screening party. We were right there. It was. It was special.

It was. I know, so I'm a fan of what you're doing. Obviously, I'm a bigger fan of the fact that you're still doing it. And good on you, brother. Right on. Keep it up. Let me know if I can do anything. Right on, man.

And next time we'll do this in person. Sounds great. All right. Have a great day. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, Chad. Already did, brother.

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