We visit with members of the Boime Family who have experienced the joys of working in the special education field. We also check in with KG and the Gorg Girls...heading to a movie.
welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota Nice that it desperately needs we've got a special program today, a special ed program today. We have a family of special education people. And a dog in the background. Sorry, that's Linda's dog. Could we put that dog to sleep, por favor? And we got KG, Caroline. I'm just gonna do a really, I'm gonna do a quick introduction. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Yeah. We got Steve Brown with us. Howdy ho. Uh, we got Leo Boehm. We'll explain who he is. He's a, a Colorado Buffalo. We got a Minnesota Golden Gopher here, Sam Boehm. Hi, Sam. Hi. Very good. Very good. Brenda. Boehm is on the line, and some yippie dog, and uh, KG, KG, where we calling you at? I am not far from where Brenda is stationed at her special, uh, girlfriend Christmas party. I'm in the great city of Edina, uh, with my daughters. Had a little, um, appetizer bonanza at the Crave, at the Galleria, and we're gonna head to see a movie at the, uh, AMC Southdale here in about, uh, 40 minutes. So, real quick, what did you have at Crave for dinner tonight? We always like to have a little talk about I'm so proud of my girls because they, even though they're much, much skinnier than I am, they know how to eat. And so we did five appetizers. Oh. We did the firecracker shrimp. There you go. The calamari. The, uh, egg rolls. The chicken wings and the highlight for me, the truffle mushroom flatbread. Oh, so good. So the firecracker shrimp, I think when you go to Crave you only get like five of those. So I'm guessing you probably had two and the girls each got one. Be honest. Did you get more than five? No, I think it's five. Wow. KG, you still there? We lost him. I think I offended him with that comment. KG, are you there? Well, what happened? We're gonna have to pause. Hold on for a second. He got offended by the movie. Yeah, maybe the movie started Yeah, probably not So let's just forget about KG for a while. Let's call back. Let's start with Brenda Brenda You and I, uh, went to college together, and I just have a couple of comments about Brenda before we, uh, let her talk. Brenda is one of those people that when you go to your Facebook and you see if you have any mutual friends Yeah. It's always Brenda Boym. Oh, she's the connector. Her and Scott Berg have more Facebook friends than any two human beings that I know. Anytime I mention that I went to St. Thomas, they inevitably say, Well, do you know Brenda Brown or Brenda Boym? I'm like, I know both of those people. And they're the same people. So, Brenda Um, I want to talk specifically about special education. You've had kind of an interesting career. You've done a lot of really neat things and I would say that the neatest thing that you're doing is what you're doing right now but give us just a little background on your career. I know you were like in the accounting business for a while. Yes, got my accounting degree at St. Thomas when I was at school with both John and Kevin and their significant others Then went to work for Pricewaterhouse, where, where your sons are. Yes, yes. Um, and worked for them in Minneapolis and Chicago. Then decided I wanted to go into marketing. Went back and got my MBA from Northwestern. Oh, my. So you went to Kellogg? Is that Kellogg? Got my degree there. My MBA. Then moved to San Francisco working for Oracle in product management, which I did. And then I worked there for 10 years and started. Later had kids for a few years of kids lives. I kept, I still work with Oracle and then did contract work on and off for So the kids came along and it kind of wrecked your fun. No, I can't believe I would say that. The kids came along and that wrecked all your fun. There goes the neighborhood, yeah. Kids show up. No, no, no. Um, and then, um, let's see, and then now, I went back and got my masters in special education And I am now a I'm an elementary special ed teacher at Sam Henson Elementary. I think it's safe to say you're the most educated person we've ever had on the podcast. That's quite a bit, that's quite a bit of learning. Although we do spend a lot of time with knuckleheads. So, that's probably not a huge surprise. Speaking of a couple knuckleheads In studio, I will say. Yeah, we got in studio in the, in the, uh, the leather chairs, the red chairs. Sam Boem. How are you, Sam? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Sam, you were at, was it Montana State? I was at Mon Montana. I did a semester at Montana, which, um, before I was gonna, I decided to do education. I was gonna major in computer science. Oh, geez. I did a semester there. Why would you do that? I don't know, then when I decided I wanted to do education instead, they didn't really have a program for special ed. so what I would have had to do is do major in elementary ed and then get my master's in special ed, so then I transferred to UMD. More focus is on the elementary, and I kinda said I wanted to do high school, so now I'm transferring to the Twin Cities. So now you're going to UM Twin Cities. you want to teach high school special ed? Yeah, why did you decide to do that? There was a lot of high school special ed teachers who I met through, my own experience, but also through Unified and the Special Olympics Club. I got to know some of the ones who worked with some of the athletes in that club, and I thought, He just had a really strong connection and helped those kids a lot and I thought it'd be cool to be able to do that one day. you have autism. Yeah. I have diabetes and morbid obesity, so we all have things. Brenda, when, uh, when you learned your eldest son decided he wanted to do that, what, uh, what was your reaction? I thought it was great. I thought that's what he was meant to do. He had, he makes such a strong connection with all the kids. He was a leader of our Unified Club at Minnetonka High School, um, where the neurotypical and neurodiverse kids get together once a week, and sometimes more. They have many events throughout the school year that they meet regularly on Mondays early morning before school, and he always had such a strong connection with the kids where a lot of their I Parents asked if he could spend time with them outside, or if they could hire him to work with, to spend time with their kids, and, um, and help them when they needed additional help, and he, so I thought it was always a natural thing he should do, but he was pursuing computer science, cause he liked, computers as well, and liked programming, but I was hoping he would go in this direction, cause I feel like it was, And that is definitely what he was meant to do. Sam, not only works with, these families where they, um, you know, actually he won't even usually take money for half of the things he does when they try to pay him. But he just enjoys spending time with these kids. Some of them have Down syndrome, some autism, some other developmental delays. Great, great people. Now I shouldn't call them kids because some are older than that now, but I met them when they were younger kids. I just think it's the best thing for him. I think it's his calling, and I think he'll do a great job. Uh, real quick, are you underwater right now? Does it sound like it? Yeah, does it sound like it? I'm trying to get away from the dog. Oh, stay away from that dog. Actually, maybe I can go in the garage. We also have with us Leo Boym. Leo, you, uh, are notorious for having the best hair in Minnetonka from what I understand. You've always had a fabulous head of hair. But you also have a connection to special education. I understand you played a role in the adapted sports, program at Minnetonka at the high school. Tell us about that and what was it that compelled you to do that? I also was part of the Unified Club, as Sam was talking about, and then I was a part of it since freshman year and then I slowly got involved a little bit more and more, uh, really involved my junior year and then started to get to know the people that were Putting it on and just became, Leo became, can you talk louder? I can't hear you. Oh, I just became a bigger role, and ended up becoming a leader for my senior year. And with that, there's different segments within, the leadership program. There's a few to choose from, and I ended up choosing to do adapted sports, and that wasn't necessarily through Minnetonka, it was a combination team with Minnetonka and Moisetta. Oh, cool. The two sports that I mainly managed were, soccer. And, floor hockey. Oh. I chose that one because, or adapted sports, just cause, I mean, I like sports. I like watching them compete, and they also just have, like And didn't you play those sports as a kid? I did. Okay. Yes. Uh, I played hockey. I played soccer a while back. Haven't played in a long time. Um, and then, there is a third Boym brother, and, uh, coincidentally, his name is Ed, so we refer to him as Special Ed. There's a theme here. Yeah, There's definitely a theme going on here. Back to Sam. What is your perfect job? What do you hope to do with these high school students? You want to be, Superintendent, probably. Um. Well, obviously there's a special ed, high school special ed teacher, what do they do? Well, there's a particular teacher at Minnetonka that would like to do his sort of job, right, Sam? Who's a person at your high school That you would like to emulate that you'd like to be like um, there was a teacher named mr Moon who he worked with the students with like down syndrome who more um, we're like in the special ed classroom all day Okay, instead of like just for an hour and I think that's kind of what I want to do they just kind of help the students with their daily tasks. What's the thing about that guy that you really liked? What was his ability in your eyes? He had like a really good connection with all of them. For some of the students that were harder for some people to, like, communicate with, he just was always able to connect with them in some way. I remember Leo once said he was a whisperer. Oh, really? Okay. The special ed whisperer. If I, yeah, if I could jump in on Mr. Moon, I never knew him super well. I had my interactions with him through various things because he's also the weightlifting coach at Minnetonka. so I, I had encountered him, but this summer, this past summer, I did an adapted lifting program where I would, mentor or, coach. Before we continue, what is Adapted? You guys keep saying that. What does that mean, Adapting? Adapted. For our audience. Just Making sure that the kids that do have special needs are getting the same opportunities to, enjoy things that everybody gets to enjoy. Okay, cool. When I talk about adapted sports, obviously it can't be the same, but they deserve that opportunity to know what it's like to compete. And I mean, so they have a level playing field to, to be on. Yeah. Okay, cool. A little bit different. It's set up differently. There's a kind of a different dynamic obviously, but at the end of the day, they're getting to enjoy a sport that they love and they get to genuinely compete against one another. Cool. And. They get to experience that drive. there's state tournaments. Yeah, no, it's very competitive. everyone's trying their hardest. It's, it's awesome. It is very cool. So in a special ed classroom, are there more than one teacher in the classroom at a time? Are there paraprofessionals? How does that work? Is it the same ratio, like one teacher to 20 kids or? There's like the main teacher, which was Mr. Moon, at our school. And then I think there's, also a couple of paras in there. they keep the ratio down. Now, Brenda, tell me about your gig at the Chanhassen grade school. So I am more of a resource teacher where Sam's looking at more center based. And center based is for kids that aren't trying to be in the least restricted environment, which is your general ed classroom. So, I am center based. They will sometimes be in the general ed classroom for short periods of time, but with my program, when you're a resource teacher, we're trying to have these kids be in the general ed classroom as much as possible. And they get pulled out just for additional help if they need help in the areas of reading and phonics or math, social skills, behavioral issues, then they come to my classroom. So, I have a schedule of kids. Coming in and out, but I'm in my own classroom with kids coming and going throughout the day. Whereas when they're in the general ed classroom, there are paraprofessionals in the classroom as well that help. But Sam's looking more at like a center based program. And we do have those at San Hudson Elementary, one for those that have, um, more severe autism and those that have developmental delays, including Down syndrome and other, developmental disabilities. So, we do have two of those programs at the school I'm at, and I do work with them a fair amount, but I'm a resource teacher, so a little different from what Sam's. I do joke with you about how smart you are. And you're, you are the smartest one of all of that group the competition's not super high with that group. Yeah, but your kids seem pretty smart, so I think it's safe to say. You worked for Oracle, you worked for Pricewaterhouse, you had all these opportunities, you went to Kellogg for your MBA. Which is a big deal. I mean, Kellogg is, one of the best business schools in the country. It's so admirable that you would do this because people that go to Kellogg tend to be people that are, right, and kind of, you know, they tend to be selfish people. I mean, I know some guys that went to Kellogg and they are selfish people. And so, how did you make this career turn? What caused that? a couple things. I always liked my career, I don't know, I think you get to a certain age and you enjoyed what you did. I never hated my job. I never hated what I did. I just wasn't getting a lot of fulfillment from it. That's part of it. And so you can, but you don't have to get all your fulfillment from a job. I think you can do things outside of it. Like you guys doing your podcast and bonafide you and all the other great things you do. Those things can give you your fulfillment or, you know, a lot of the work you do anyway is very fulfilling, but mine. For, you know, those early years wasn't as fulfilling. You were just climbing that corporate ladder. Then I had kids, and then Sam was hit by a car when he was almost three years old. so he went through special ed, and he was evaluated as having autism when he was five. And so we went through special ed all the way through high school and we were really lucky though because he just did really well. The programs worked really well for him. He improved so much and everything. It was amazing. And, um, but we worked with amazing teachers and those teachers were my lifeline at many times. So, um. They did a lot for me just as a parent being scared. What's my future gonna be like? What is, um, how do we navigate through the whole system? How do we make sure we get everything we possibly can for our child and advocate for him? And I had some really special teachers that helped me and so I guess I don't know. I decided I wanted when I went back to work. I did take time off. I did a lot of contract work and consulting throughout my years that I was sort of off. Got my real estate license, sold real estate for a little while. Oh my gosh. Did some other side gigs. But um, Another thing in the tool belt. Yeah. I need some dental work done. Could you come over and help me with that? I'm sure she's done it. Yeah, she's ready for it. One of the things that I was most impressed with the boy and boys the other night is just how matter of fact they were When they were leaving, after we had talked about the girls at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which is where Leo is at, and the girls from, you know, Minnetonka High School, I may have said something inappropriate along those lines. But we started talking about this, the idea of having them on the podcast, because I found them to be very engaging. And they said to Sam, well, you know, Sam's got autism, and they said it with just, it was such a matter of fact, and it wasn't like something that we were hiding from. And I just think, and Sam's like, yeah, I got autism, and I said, well, I've got diabetes, and we've all got something. You hear people joke about the fact, well, you know, they're on the spectrum, and, you know, other people will say, well, everybody's on the spectrum, it's just kinda how you deal with it. Yeah. And one of the things that I know about Sam, when he was in high school, Sam wasn't a kid that, shied away from friendships. In fact, uh, just seeing some pictures over the years of you going to different events and stuff, it seems like Sam was kind of the life of the party. And any time I would run into a kid at St. Thomas who had a Minnetonka connection, I'd say, do you, do you know who Sam Boym, well everybody knows Sam Boym. I just think it's great. I have a quick story, I don't know if you guys have ever heard this story, um, Your mom mentioned, uh, Bonafide U. Well, we have a scholarship program that's now run by the, the Masons. It's called the Selfless Scholar. And one of the first awards that we presented was to a young man who was a hockey player at North St. Paul High School. And I've told this story in the past. Have you guys heard this Okay, we did a program with all of the East Metro high schools. This was back in 2018 and we invited kids from the schools to nominate a student for their kindness, the kindness that they show. To the rest of the students. And the principal of North St. Paul High School nominated a young man, and she did it on behalf of a boy with Down syndrome. And the way that the nomination went, it said, this student Nick, came into my classroom at the beginning of the school year and said, I'm sick of math. I don't want to take any more math classes. I want to do something different with my third hour or whatever it was. And she said, I looked at this kid who's this popular hockey player and said, what do you got up your sleeve? He said, I'd like to work in the special needs classroom because at North St. Paul high school, the special needs kids are isolated in a particular classroom and that's Sounds like one of the things that Minnetonka might do, like they keep them all together. And he said, I just don't like that. I want to get to know those kids. I want them to get to know me. And so he went in and he started hanging out with these, these kids and he invited his friends and his friends started hanging up out with them. And part of the nomination came with a letter from the mom of this boy that had Down syndrome and it said my son Andrew is 16 years old and he had never had a play date with a non special needs kid until Nick and his buddies came along and now every Friday they're going to movies, they're going to B Dubs, they're going bowling, they're doing something and these kids are having a much more fulfilled high school experience and they become genuine friends and it's you know, it just took that one, one guy to kind of get it started. And it's turned into a thing like that, like those kids are now part of the school community where they weren't before. It takes a popular kid to do that sometimes. Sometimes it does. And I would say that Minnesota High School does, did do a good job with that by becoming part of that unified, that many high schools in the metro area have as part of their clubs. Um, it's one of the clubs at the school. That's where I give my boys credit is they were very involved and they did those friendships that they formed. Like, on a given Saturday night, I'll ask them what he's doing, or Leo, and they're going out with. Our good buddy Colin, um, who lives right down the road from us and has Down syndrome. He is now, he's Leo's age, he graduated with Leo. Our, um, Lucas, our Aidan, all these wonderful kids and they just treat them like, you know, that they don't have their disabilities. And it's great they need some extra attention with certain things that they do, but I think that those friendships between neurotypical and neurodiverse kids is More valuable than anything they could ever ask for. And you, you know why it's, you know, also why it's so awesome. You're 15, 16 years old. What matters more than just having some friends to do stuff with? You're such, it's such an important time for that. Like, how great that someone seeing that and making that connection because you just want to have a friend. So you want to fit in. You want to, you know, that's recognizing that is pretty amazing. And being able to just the little things like, but being able to like drive with them, like you said, going to D Dubs or wherever. Yeah, it's all that matters. Like to get a ride. A lot of them don't drive. And to get a ride and be out and have that independence with your buddies the way 16, 17, 18 year olds do in high school. That's, I think that's so important for them too to have that level of independence. Leo, what are you studying at, uh, Colorado? Um, I'm going into marketing, and then I'm gonna, I plan on double majoring in, uh, media communications as well. Something along those lines. Oh, really? Yeah, uh, in high school they did a lot of videography and graphic design. Oh, that's right, yes. Yeah, so, I wanna do something along those lines. Um, not exactly sure how I'm gonna Well, you know, on this wildly popular podcast, maybe next, uh, we had a great, uh, intern last summer. Mario Esteb, who goes to, uh, Syracuse University. And Syracuse apparently has a really strong, sports media program. And I'm sure that this will be the highlight of his resume. So if you're looking for a little, you know, boost to the resume, we could use a little Leo Boehm. And if you're a video guy, I mean, nobody looks better on camera than, you know, these two guys here. And And KG, you know, we mentioned that, uh, He's always camera ready. Sam, credit wise, where are you at? Yeah, I think I'm a sophomore. Well, the transfers Or credit wise, wait. Yes, credit wise, now technically this semester I'm a junior because I took a semester off between my first semester at Montana and my first semester at UMD. Are you living at home or are you going to live on campus? What's your plan? I have a studio apartment that's like right by campus. Oh, cool. Nice. Right, Dinky Town. Dinky Town, stay out of trouble down there. My goodness. Are you a skier, Leo? Do you ski or snowboard or something? I snowboard a lot. Oh, you're a snowboarder. Have you taken advantage of being out there for that? Yeah, uh, I mean, it was open for three weekends. I, well, I went the first two. I went four times, got a concussion on my second time, ignored it, came back. I was told to take a, take a few weeks off. I took, I took one week off. So the concussion really had its impact. Yeah. It's gone now. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So, um, yeah, we're heading out to Breckenridge in a couple of days. Is there going to be any snow out there? I mean, I've been talking to my friends, it turns out that they had a remotely white Christmas. Okay, remotely white Christmas. And it gets snowy up there, up top. Yeah. At the resorts. Lovely. Lovely. Brenda, we're going to let you go and we're going to try and reconnect with KG. But thank you, you guys have fun. guys. Yeah, you can, yeah, release the muscle of the dog. Thank you, Brenda. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Enough for her. You just cut her off. I just cut her off. I'm sure she had something real nice to say. We're going to try KG one more time here and see how that works. Hold on. Hello. Hi. Hi. We're back. Are you with the Gorg Girls? I am, uh, just walking in right now, yeah, to meet them. Into the movie theater? Well, let's, let's, let's have this like a live, uh, live event. I'd like to talk to Annika about her, uh, experience as an RA are we gonna pound a little popcorn and raisinets tonight? We'll Yeah, I bring the bags. It looks like a gift bag. Oh with the candy. We've got raisinets We've got uh, Reese's pieces and we've got some Of those, um, Red Vines. Oh, there you go. I think John's going for the record for how many interviews he can do in one episode. We're gonna, yeah, this is gonna be fantastic. I, um, I watched Oppenheimer today. Yeah, it's, uh, very deliberate, but it's good. It's long. It's long, but it's well done. You enjoyed it? Very deliberate. Well, the, the deliberate, that must be like a movie person term. Yeah, it's used in those terms. Yeah, you usually don't use that many syllables in a word. But, that's okay. Have you found your girls yet? I'm walking in, I see one of them, I don't know how they got in because I have the tickets. Interesting. Well, they're very cute. They're attractive and charming. They probably were able to There's part of that here. Oh, it's packed in here. Oh, wow. That's a big movie night, yeah. Everyone's home, everyone's on break. The Ferrari movie, wasn't that out like a couple years ago? No, no, no, this is new. Adam Driver. Oh. It looks good. Wasn't he in the Gucci movie too? He was, an Italian guy in that movie too. Covering all the Italian guys, who's next? Is he gonna be Mussolini? Huh? There's a Napoleon movie out. Well, that's French. Yeah, that one was just okay for me. I know Napoleon was from France. I'm just making sure you got college guys here. We gotta, we gotta keep, uh, Keep it real. Keep it real. Keep it smart. Keep it real for college guys. Well, the girls are at the bar getting a drink, the older two. Annika, I need you to do on the podcast. No, no, just come quick. Well, John, you're here. Oh, God. Hi, Annika. Hello. Hi. Hey. Hey, I just wanted to quick, you know, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with the dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. There it is. You're at Wisconsin Eau Claire, is it? Yes, I'm at Eau Claire. You're at Eau Claire, which has kind of got the world famous marching band. Isn't that true? Yes. Are you still Yeah, we have about 500 members in this band, yeah. And are you still a member of that band? Yes, I am, but you're also an RA. I am an RA as well. Yeah So do you have any stories of kindness that that you could share with us real quickly? Being an RA, you know freshman year kids moving in tell us a story Anika One story is well I have in my dorm in my I have a straight down hallway and being in the I put a bunch of streamers up you know for decoration and then I I was gone a weekend for marching band. We went to St. Louis for the weekend, and I came back and some hooligans had come in and And, um, ripped down all the streamers. Well, they'll do that. And so I came back, I texted my, my resident group chat, and I was like, Oh gosh, guys, this is horrible. And my residents came to my door right after, and they were like, Do you want help cleaning up? And I was like, they came over and they were like, Are you okay? And so sorry, do you want me to help? And they helped me, it was so sweet of them. Oh, that was very nice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The kindness of strangers, helping out. Well, they're not strangers. They're fellow RAs. Yeah, I just met him, so I mean. Yeah, it's strangers. I would have done it differently. I would have knocked on every door and said, Get your butts out here and clean this shit up. That's what I would have said. Well, I, I think my resonance, I think it was like some guys running through and hitting him down from a different hall, a different floor. Don't be that guy. Cause I have really sweet girls. They don't really get into much trouble, thankfully. How about like the kid that has trouble fitting in? Were there any kids like that, that, that somebody stepped up and made him feel welcome? Do you have any stories like that? Well, I think in marching bands, so I'm in the trumpet section, and there's about, about 70 of us, there's quite a few trumpets. And there are a couple people who are kind of outliers. Okay. And one of my friends, we noticed that one of the freshman girls was really nervous, like she was just kind of introverted and like coming into this band like everyone's loud. Yeah. Everyone is, you know, it's a lot of people and so my friend invited her to lunch with us which is kind of scary because like we all are friends and we're older and like, you know, we're very loud, but We invited her in to lunch and she was so sweet and she like, was like, I'm so scared, but I'm so happy you guys invited me to lunch. It was so nice to actually meet people and that was, and she's actually a really good friend now. So I was really glad my friend did that. Yeah. That warms my heart. If only you had a little enthusiasm, Annika. She's got a little of her dad in there. You're so reserved. She's great. Well you guys have fun at that Ferrari movie and don't let your dad eat all the Raisinets. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Sounds good. Bye bye. You think KG will come back? Oh no, they hung up on us. A side note, um, my wife Jennifer is a huge, famously huge fan of marching bands. Oh really? She loves marching bands. And UW Eau Claire has a tremendous marching band. See, I didn't even know that. Um, I have a, just a quick question before we, uh, before we shut it down. Your experience this year, at the University of Colorado. Did you go to any football games? I did. What was that experience like? It started out pretty fun. Yeah. Big time? Um, I never really bought into it. I mean, I knew, I knew, I knew kind of going into it, it wasn't going to be, I mean, media overhype for sure. Like, I knew that it was coming. I knew they weren't going to get above. A bowl game would have been nice, they switched it around so fast that it's just like, you can't be that good in one year. It's gonna take time, but, uh, I don't know, I just didn't like how much the media would hype them up so when they lost, people would be like, oh, they're like, not good. Like, it's like, obviously, they're not good, I mean, they're very new to the team. Like, 80 percent of the players were brand new to the team, weren't they? Yeah, there's, I knew this number at one point, uh, I want to say, I think it was four people or four players stayed. No kidding. Yeah It was it was like four to twelve. I think it was four though. What I do think is cool is, Deion Sanders, primetime. Yeah, he became the head coach there. What do they call him coach prime? Yeah Once you saw him at rec center he was Right there. Was he looking all prime? Oh, yeah. He was all primed out. Nice shoes. He's got a big vest on. Oh, yeah. Fluffy vest. But, you know, he brought in a bunch of kids from these, uh, HBCU schools, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and I think it's great because it gave those kids an opportunity to play on the big stage where they're playing against, Power Five teams. they started out strong, uh, but they had a really tough schedule. Must have been exciting on campus and just being a part of that kind of explosion. Must have been kind of cool. It was fun. I have a few stories. I mean, I could get into it. Get into it. Let's hear it. Uh, well, I mean To be fully honest, they were not really ready for this kind of like, excitement, like, cause they never dealt with this before. So they would have these big events, like big noon kickoff most of the time, and they did not know how to handle them. Oh, that's funny. So, one day, uh, they did a, um, giveaway. It was first 500 people to, in the morning, to get to this thing, get a cowboy hat. Okay. Like a cowboy hat, cause that's what Deion Sanders would wear. Sure. Like a white, all white cowboy hat. They were giving them out, and I was like, you know, why not? So I get up at like 4. 15, thing starts at 7. Uh, get in this line, I'm about probably 200 back. I was like, oh, I'm for sure gonna get this. And, I mean, like, I was just like, cool. I mean, I got up, I'm probably gonna get it. Yeah, uh, they opened the gates. They did have, they didn't have anything organized. They just had a big bucket. Everybody's just, they're so impatient. They just start. Like bolting in there, everybody's like beating each other up. Uh, I just got pushed into this pile and I was like, I am like, I have more self-respect than to like punch a kid over a cowboy. That's nice. Minnesota nice. It's a like a Black Friday event. So I'm like trying to get out of there and I just, I'm hearing like screams and oh my god, kid. I look over and there's just blood. What all over this kid's face. And then one kid snapped his arm. Oh my god. Everybody's just like dog minded. Is this breaking news? Well we're talking about it right now. At five in the morning. Bloody nose and broken arm. I get pushed out of there. I'm like, okay, I'm leaving. But then some kid looks at me and he's like, Yeah, I got two. And he gives me one. I got a hat. There's a great kindness story there. Uh, Kindness in the Chaos. Yeah, ooh. Ooh. There's a good segment. Yes. Oh, yeah. That was, that was probably the craziest thing that happened. And then, like, Dwayne Johnson was there too, but. The Rock? Yeah, he was there. I saw him. Really? Did he take out some people for a hat? Or was he not a part of that? Uh, no. Uh. He can afford his own hat. Yeah. Wait, wait. Yeah, Dwayne Johnson was there. He was there. I was about 30 feet away from him, yeah. Very cool. The Rock. Did you see anybody famous, Sam? Oh, well, I mean, I have two. Okay. Uh, the bigger one is Johnny Depp, which was when I was in What? Was that the one you were thinking? No! that was, um, the summer of 2015. It was after six and Before 7th grade, it was in July, I did an audition thing that I heard about on the radio, cause I did a little bit of theater and I thought, that'd be fun, so I went, they, uh, Flew some people out to LA for another audition. Okay. I was like, okay, that sounds cool. And I like got chosen for that. So I was like, why not? So I went and, um, Johnny Depp was in that hotel. When we first saw him, everyone else was like freaking out. Like, Um, and running up to him, I didn't want to be that, so I just chilled. Be cool, man. Be cool. I just kind of walked around until eventually Johnny Depp, shook my hand and introduced himself. There you go, dude. And then I walked back to my mom. I'm like, okay, that went perfect. My mom hands me a piece of paper and she's like, go get his autograph! Go back! Go back! So then I go after and I'm like, can you sign this? Well, you did have an in, though. You did meet him. No, yeah, and then, um, later that night, my mom and I were walking through Hollywood and then we hear a Excuse me. We jumped out of the way and Johnny Depp is on a segue right behind us. Jesus, he was kind of stalking you it sounds like. Hey, you played it cool, man. That was the way to do it. So one thing that we've learned is that the boy boys know how to play it. Cool. They do. And they're not, they're not afraid to try stuff. They're, these are, do we, do we think Eddie would play it that cool? Yeah. Eddie seems pretty. He seems pretty chill. I don't think Eddie cares about much. Is he your older brother or younger brother? Younger. Younger. Younger. Okay. He's a high school, old junior. Yeah, he's junior right now. Is he ambitious as you guys? He's a, he's a trip. Yeah, he would have been fun to have. You said, uh, you knew which one I was, which one were you? What were you going to say? Didn't you run into, like, one of the Minnesota Wild guys at It could have been me. Was that you? We ran into Kobe Bryant at Hamilton. Oh, we saw Kobe Bryant. Yeah, in L. A. At Hamilton? Yeah, in August of 2017. Yeah. I think there was wild players at Maynards once and we saw him, but I That's right. I've caddied for, for Zach Ey and Devin Nik. Really cool. Yeahinteresting. I think I remember somebody really interesting was, was that you or was that Eddie? Well, one of you guys ran into Caril. Caprica. Yeah, that was that. That was, that was that. I was gonna go there. I ended up not, not making it in time, but um, yeah, I'd say my favorite encounter though was Dub Nick Niks. A funny guy. So I have a funny Nik story. Um, I have one after, I don't know who that is. Devin Dub. Nick was the goalie for the Minnesota Wild for a number of years. Got it. Great guy. Big dude, like six foot five. Um, his dry cleaning. Was delivered to our CFO's house. What? Yeah, in Edina. She lives in Edina. And she saw that the name on the, the, the tag was Devin Nik and it had the phone number. So she, what's her and her name is close to that or something? Not, not even close. Okay. Okay. But lives in Edina. Got it. Okay. Calls the number. And what's really fun is her son was a, a hockey player at Edina on the varsity hockey team. Big fan. And, yeah. And I guess Nik couldn't have been nicer, like, was just a cool guy. Wow. He's awesome. Yeah. Um, where did, where were you canning? Well, Interlochen. Interlochen. Okay. Uh, so yeah, I mean, we, I cad for, for, I think we win 18, but it was originally a nine hole round. Uh, in the first nine holes, he went through probably about 12, no, probably like 15 beers. Oh, that's all. No, yeah, it was great. Uh, I thought you were going to say 15 balls. he was actually solid. Zach Prusy, on the other hand, was not as solid, but, uh, but Devin Dupnick, uh, yeah, he um, we were on the green. I'll have to swear. Sure, go ahead. Well, we were on the green and, I was double bagging, so I had two guys. I had him and his friend. Um, I had one bag, but we were on the green. Uh, the other guy needed his ball cleaned. I cleaned his golf ball. I rolled it back to him, and while it was rolling his way, because he, like, called for it, he set down his beer. Oh, no. And the ball knocked it over. Oh, no. And then, I mean, obviously, like, that's just a coincidence. Beer on the green? Nobody really cares. Uh, it's, like Wednesday night, but Dubnyk just goes Leo you fucking idiot That was the highlight of your life getting called a fucking idiot by Devin Dubnyk He said it in jest. Obviously. He's having fun with you. Yeah, that's cool. So he was totally joking Which is the par 3 where when you're hitting to the par 3? There's like the place that you can get the beers on the left there. Oh yeah, that's 13. So 13. I played in a tournament there this summer, and my uncle was part of my, my foursome. And he tops the ball off of the tee box, and it literally does not make it to the women's, or the forward tees, forgive me. To the red tees. He, so he takes another swing, his second shot from those tee boxes and he put it in. Oh, that's the biggest fear. That's huh? That's my biggest fear. You get the, yeah, he had the hole in one in two, too bad. Oh man. That's my biggest fear. Or besides like getting a hole in one while playing alone. Oh yeah. Those are like two of my biggest fears. You guys have to have a witness with you. We may have to have a biggest fears, uh, program at some point. So, you, uh, Johnny Depp, who's the other one that you met? I was gonna say, um, I met the guy who's currently dating Ariana Grande. Oh. It could have been you dating Ariana Grande. What happened there? Just passed up that opportunity? Yeah. Yeah. How were you in that circle? I don't understand. Well, so he, um, Ariana Grande's in the New Wicked Movie and another actor in that was, um, in the SpongeBob musical on Broadway. Okay. And my dad and I saw it when we were in New York and we met him after the show. Okay. And now he is dating Ariana Grande. Oh my God. There you go. Famous by, uh, so you guys spend a lot of time in LA it sounds like. No kidding. New York. Our grandma's from la Yeah. So we we're always out there. And your, your dad is a, uh, he's a professor at. San Diego State. San Diego State. Very cool. Such a smart family. They, well, it's just, they're all a bunch of academics. I love it. You know, it is. It's, you've really brought the average intelligence up for this episode. Especially around the fire. There's a lot of flames around this fire. It's kind of hot. The fire is blowing heat today. It's fantastic. It's fantastic. Well, I just want to thank the Boyne Boys for coming in. Uh, we'll have to, uh, maybe we can call Eddie and just get his take on things. Eddie is, if you met Eddie, you'd think he was like a 72 year old guy. He's just so chill. He's got wisdom for a young guy. Well, and he's just got this big stupid grin on his face constantly. Doesn't he? Yeah, no, he totally does. I mean, that is my assessment of him. You know, he's the guy that always has, I'm sure he always has got his baseball hat on backwards. Right. Oh, yeah. And he's got the wings. He's got the sweet wings hanging out. Sweet. He was a hockey player. He's still a hockey player. He's still a goalie, yeah. So he's at practice tonight, and that's why he couldn't make it. But we're grateful that you guys came in. Thank you very much. Congratulations on, uh, on making great choices in your careers. Keep it up, man. Keep going. And, uh, you know, be safe on the hills. Okay. The kindness chronicles off we go. Thank you.