Tommy McBrayer, Don't Shoot Guns, Shoot Hoops.

Buckle up for the enthusiasm of Tommy McBrayer, the Founder and CEO of aptly named non-profit, Don't Shoot Guns, Shoot Hoops. Living with gun violence in Minneapolis, Tommy, a two-time  gun violence survivor turned his trauma into hope for hundereds of young men and boys in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Transcript

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Alrighty, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again, we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. Unfortunately, Kevin Gorg is, uh, not here tonight. He is, uh, working at Canterbury Park, as he usually does. And, uh, you got to hear from him earlier in the week anyway, so, so Yeah, we got enough of him. We can live without him. And then he's, all I want to do is talk about, uh Horses and Culvers drive thrus, so we will we'll move on but you got a really cool guest for us today Yes, and my name is Steve Brown. Welcome to the kindness Chronicles. You never introduced me John you just go right to me I think people listen enough. They know who you are. They don't That gentleman laughing in the background is the is our is our guest today. I want to introduce. Mr. Tommy McBriar He's a community organizer. He started a group called don't shoot guns, shoot hoops. This is a anti gun, uh, anti gun violence, anti gun violence, um, organization, a nonprofit in Minneapolis. It's a basketball camp for young, uh, teens, teen kids in, uh, in the Metro. So, uh, and it's dedicated to nonviolence, uh, working on work ethic and compassion and leadership, all kinds of really good stuff. Um, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, Tommy McBriar. Oh man, thank you, guys for having me. I'm glad we made it happen. Yeah, we want to hear all about you, so we've seen, people have probably seen the story on you, there's been a bunch of stories on you and your organization, all the cool stuff you've been doing, um, but we want to hear all about it, how it started, and uh, and really dig into what you got going and what, how it's been going since we've heard from you. And can I ask a quick question? Sure. Tommy, you've been shot. Not to sensationalize this, but I don't know many guys that have been shot, twice. Shot. What is that like? Yeah. Let's get right to it. Yeah man. Get right to it. Right? It's part of the story. Right? So, yeah. It fits in with the story. But, um, yeah. So I'm Tommy McBrayer. Born and raised in South Minneapolis. I'm a real Minnesotan. I say that because I went to high school. Where'd you go to high school? I went to high school. I went to Roosevelt High School. Roosevelt. Okay. Yep, and I went to, uh, I went to college at a community college in Ely, Minnesota called, uh, uh, Lake Vermilion. Oh, yeah! Yep, Vermilion, Vermilion Community College up there in Ely, Minnesota. And then I transferred to a school in Brandon, Minnesota called Central Lakes. Central Lakes, sure. Yeah, so I've been out there with the Iron Range and I've been around, uh, uh, a lot of places. You've been everywhere. That's Minnesota, man. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. So I'm a real Minnesotan. When people, when they say, where you from, I'm proud to say I'm from Minneapolis. But I'm like, listen, I'm really a Minnesotan. Got that tough skin, that thick skin. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, yeah, so growing up, you know, growing up as a kid, um, Uh, after, after, um, dropping out of college, uh, because I had a daughter named Samara. Um, I had her when I was 20 years old. So, um, her mom was pregnant and I found out I had a daughter on the way, so I dropped out of college. And in dropping out of college, you know, there's a lot of the reality check, you know, you back to reality. Yeah. A lot of kids, you know, figuring out what's next and, um, and I would say like, you know, You know, not having a father figure around certain times in my life, I was just trying to figure out what was next. Um, without no guidance. But, you know, a lot of people in the urban city, you know, they smoke weed, you know, everybody, you know, that's just the typical thing, the quickest thing to get your hands on sometimes. So, as a kid, I would just, at 20 years old, I started selling marijuana. I used to pay my rent. And, um, and I didn't, uh, at 20 years old, I was tied up, shot, left for dead in a hallway in a duplex hallway at 20 years old. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. So, it was a drug deal that went bad and, um, you know, that was my first eye opener, you know. Uh, didn't know, like, didn't even think I was doing anything bad, right? You know, you just, you know. You're just doing something that's making a living. Yeah, there you go. Trying to make a living. Um, so as I, after, after I got shot, it was just one of them things is if you want to live this lifestyle or you're going to wake up and smell the coffee. And so that was my first time waking up and saying like, you know what? I don't want to live this lifestyle cause that's not the type of person I was. So no matter what it, no matter how many times I got shot, I still wasn't a person that shot people. I never was a person, uh, hung around people with guns, you know, things like that. So. Have some good mentors in my neighborhood. Uh, one of the guys was named VJ Smith. Oh wait, I know VJ. What? I know VJ. Mad Dads. Yeah, there you go, Mad Dads. I know VJ. He was a real pillar in the neighborhood. Awesome dude, small world. Yeah, so he came up to my hospital, my hospital bed, and he just basically said like Tommy, you know, people that usually sell drugs are people that can't get a job. You know, he said, you know, you just got out of college, don't mess up your background, you know, trying to sell drugs, and it'll stop you from getting a job. So, so that's all. I was like, it was like the first eye opener. So, after Um, I went like on this recovery journey, moving out of town, staying with my grandparents and stuff like that for a whole year. And then when I got back, I just had a different mindset of just like, okay, I wanted to do something with my life. I wanted to live with a different purpose. So I started doing these Thanksgiving dinner things where I'm bringing family together. And, uh, I started with my own family. Then I went to my neighborhood, then my extended family, you know, and I did that for 10 years. You know, I did that for 10 years. I did that all the way from 2012 to 2022. Um, and it got bigger and bigger as it, as we've grown, um, And then, 10, my 10 year anniversary of getting shot the first time when I was 20 years old, I got shot again at 30 years old. Most people celebrate 10 year anniversaries in a different way. That's the funnest celebration. Exactly, right? And here I am thinking like, okay, it's been 10 years. And, um, it was an argument that went the wrong way with being a family friend. Somebody, somebody you call family, man. Like, literally, somebody that you call your family. I've been at family dinners with, gatherings. Uh, uh, uh, conversations go the wrong way. Pulls out a gun and I get shot two times in my stomach in July of 2019. Holy cow, can I just ask, was that person apprehended? no, they never went to jail for the crime that they committed, no. Oh my god. Um, it was crazy as I'm learning, as I'm learning how the system works. It's hard. It's in my, the people that should be going to jail don't never go to jail. And sometimes it's in my, the people that shouldn't go to jail just get going to jail so fast. The world's turned upside down. one of the things about it, I just kept my faith high. You know, I had some good people around me. Um, but it's crazy. After I got shot this last time, I just became the community organizer for my neighborhood two weeks before I got shot. So, I'm already changing my life. I'm already doing time with Thanksgiving dinner for nine years, and I'm rocking and rolling. I changed my whole lifestyle. I'm not selling drugs no more. I took the environment, the whole nine. And I still get shot two times. Wow. Um, just even painting that picture, you guys, right? Like, for the people that's listening, even you guys. touch your stomach with both of your hands. Like, you can't even try to laugh. Like, try to laugh. Like, like, you can't even laugh without using your stomach. So, that just painted a picture. At one point in time there was a dark, I had a dark phase in my life where it was hard to, it was hard to laugh. and just imagine like being in that phase, like, you want to be in a joyful state of mind, but it's killing you literally to laugh. some people always say like, Tommy, what does it feel like to be shot? Right? I had to take too much out of my body and I said, Traumatized mentally, paralyzed physically, and emotionally detached. That's the only word I could figure out. I was really detached from anything other than what Tommy was going on because I had to worry about yourself. Right? And of course you got the PTSD that you live with every day after being, Yeah. So you're traumatized. And then when I got shot two times in my stomach, it was hard for me to stand up because I had, my stomach was stapled up. So, I, it was hard, so yeah, like I said, traumatized, I'm paralyzed, and I'm emotionally detached from a lot of different things and that's all I can describe of what it feels like to be shot, to be a survivor of gun violence. something took you from being, this person that was, violently violated and you decided to turn that into something positive To be honest, yeah, these days are like good, like, you know, when you're healing and you, you know, like one thing about this, not in life for the kids about here in this world that don't have father, um, it's always that question that nobody ever asked is, do you want a father though? Right. A lot of it go through these traumas and go through these weird times in life. And we want a father, but we don't have one. Right. And come before, you, uh, reaching out to people that don't. really represent you or represent a real man. And so I was glad that I had people like in my corner like DJ Smith that really was a real man and gave me a real man response instead of, you know, where these fake men are trying to, you know, refer to say, well, you should go shoot that person back. Or you need to get your girl back. Or, you know, you need to, if you gave, if you shot, if you shot you, you should go shoot somebody back. You know, and then that cycle continues, right? But he didn't tell me that. He told me to go get a job and continue to work and, and things like that. So, like I said, thank God for DJ again. I got back his last time nine months before George Floyd. And I told y'all two weeks after I became a community organizer, the community organizer's job was Central Neighborhood and George Floyd got killed in Central Neighborhood. You bet. So here I am, not even knowing what's passing, about to be, uh, uh, uh, like in my face in nine months. So I got nine months to get prepared for this next big event. How did you or where did you find the resources to get that even started? Before I was a community organizer, I was working in group homes for six years. Okay. So working in group homes, I would work with people that were paralyzed for like a couple of years. I worked with people that had traumatic brain injury, TBI. Now, and then I was, I was dealing with people that were just born with RS, you know, born with a mental disability. Yep. And that just showed me people's skills right there. Then I started working with being a community organizer where I learned. That the biggest thing about partnerships and success is partnerships and collaborations and teamwork and, uh, giving these, uh, communities a voice and put the people first before anything and things like that. So when I started my own nonprofit, I was working for a nonprofit for three and a half years, and I sat on the board for a nonprofit two years before I started working for a community organizer, I mean being a community organizer. So it was just a lot of the work that was already paving the way and learning how to do my own events called Tommy Thanksgiving Dinner for nine years. So by the time I got my own nonprofit, I understand really how to run a nonprofit. I understand the concepts and what you have to manage and master to run a nonprofit. Um, but it's all, all starts with putting people first. Tommy's Thanksgiving dinner. what is that? Being a survivor, gun violence, you realize how many people lose people from the totally the same thing, but they don't have the same outcome. So I ended up dying from gun violence. And I remember when I thought it was Thanksgiving dinner, yeah, I've been shot, but I think it was like a year right before Trayvon Martin died. It just sparked something in me, like, we need to get together at certain times. There's not enough family reunions. There's not enough, you know, like family reunions are almost like four years, five years, you know, you only have one every four or five years or something like that, it's that. So I said, what about every year for Thanksgiving? Nobody in my family or nobody that I'm affiliated with or in my neighborhood has to worry about having a hot plate of food for Thanksgiving. That's how I started. Wow. And then, I started saying, Okay, let's take it as soon. So now you're getting 300 to 350 people, everything is given now. So now I'm like, okay, let's keep on growing it. So, so I kept on growing it. So I'm like, okay, let's give away turkeys. So for the last five years, we've been giving out a hundred turkeys. Everything is given. The family, so they won't have to worry about you know, What they're eating for Thanksgiving because we understand that it's a privilege to enjoy your holiday without any trauma involved with it. It's a privilege. there's a lot of households that struggle. Everything's good because their dad's missing now or their mom's missing now. Or this is the time where you think about like, Oh man, your grandpa's not with us no more. Grandma's not with us no more. Things like that. So it's just important to create that loving atmosphere where now you're not even thinking about your loved ones that's missing. People are replacing that love in your heart. By just being together. so I did that question, Tommy. How, so how did you round up all that food? Was this, you, you, were you producing, uh, donations from people you helping find groups to donate? Or how did you round, how did you feed 300 people? So, so, so, okay. So how we first do it Popup scene, every family brings, bring a plate. So that's how it first started, and then you realize everybody can't cook, so then you're like, okay. Well, it sounds to me like you were a community organizer before you were officially a community organizer. Holy cow. That's what my boss told me when she interviewed me. She said, Tommy, I don't even know how to interview you because you've been a community organizer before. Yes! She literally said the same word. I swear, I'm like, wow. Because I'm just doing the authentic. that's what makes, you know, don't shoot guns, shoot hoops, and just me being a leader is different. We did it before the people wanted to do it for likes, and views, and uh, for streaming, and all. We did it before Instagram. We did it before Snapchat was involved. We did it before anything with Facebook Live was even invented. Like, we was doing work before all of that. So what even made it even more, right, is, When you're being a survivor of gun violence, you have a different, like, motivation. And I realized there was a lot of people around me that never got a reward for doing the things that they do, right? You can probably think of right now, right now, of people that have been doing their work, the same work since you've been a little kid. Like, and this person's still working at this barbershop, or still working at this facility, or still working at this church, or still working at this clinic, right? So I say, well, as you have your own business, you realize how hard it is to keep your doors open every day. Right, so like for 36 years this person, this barbershop person been opening their doors, no matter what's been going on in their life, ups, downs, divorces, not divorces. This person been keeping that door open, right? So I gave away awards every year when my Thanksgiving dinners. So since 2012, when I got my first, when I did my first event to 2024, when I gave out 75 awards to people in the community, entrepreneurs, um, just recognition awards. Your recognition award. Just a little tap on the back. Sounds familiar. moving ahead to don't shoot guns, shoot hoops. Uh, in our little conversation before the program, I mentioned how much I love the name. It's like, let's just get to the heart of what this is all about. A lot of organizations try to get cute with their branding You just went right after it. It's like, we're gonna tell you what we do. I love it. So my first question is Tommy, what, um, and I think you answered it in a couple of these videos, but I want to make sure our audience understands why basketball, what is it about basketball? That is the draw for, is it, is that something you love to do? Is it something just tell us why basketball? Yeah. So first basketball, like it was, was my first love, love for anything, right? I feel like it stopped me from joining gangs, selling drugs and things like that. And it kept me off the street just long enough to miss, Some shootings, drive bys, and things like that. So basketball has always been a safety net for me. Anytime I'm playing basketball, it's just you're in a good environment. And then being a survivor of gun violence, you know, putting them two together. Don't shoot guns, where I work, basically. Well, my passion for basketball and then being a survivor of gun violence, when I put them together, it's don't shoot guns, shoot hoops. Yeah. how many, uh, young people are participating in your program right now? Um, within the last two and a half years, we have tested 750 youth. Holy cow. 750, like, which has been aggressive, like, like, and like going back to like the title, right, when you said all you guys are being very blunt with it. It's like, when you understand the root causes of gun violence and how many things are in place of why there is gun violence, you realize you're really going against a virus. So, when you're going versus a virus, you have to kill it with a virus, right? You have to kill, like, you can't kill it with just kindness. Like, this is something that's taking people, 214 people get shot a day. Yeah. So, like, you gotta be, and like you said, You don't even understand what these people are representing until you look at their mission, their vision, and their business plan. Like, oh, you do do by the profession. Oh, okay, didn't know that. Yeah, no, like, we're being straight forward with it, we want these kids to know as soon as you put this jersey on or you want to play even in this tournament, we're here to represent you. The, uh, the level of ability is probably from very, very good to probably like me last guy on the bench. So look, so I mean, when I tell you, we, it's a, it's a perfect fit for urban city because it's exactly what it needs. It speaks to our target audience is kids that are affected by gun bombings. And that's way more kids than people are mad. Yeah. So when I said, so our first tournament will be just I'd say, okay, so in 2021, November, that was our first tournament for don't shoot guns, shoot hoops. And it was just, I just wanted to do a, it was like almost a charity game. It wasn't for, I didn't have an organization. It was just called Tommy. Thanks. Give him a dinner. And I just do a game called don't shoot guns, shoot hoops. Because. The violence in the city has erupted because of George Floyd, you have police officers laying off because of PTSD, so me being a community organizer, I know I had to do something about it, so I said, okay, let's be bold about it, and let's make this for 18 plus, because I know our kids are the future, but the 18 plus right now are struggling on So, yeah. What to do next. You bet. And it's that midlife crisis. That 18 to 18 to, I say 18 to 30 years old is real still trying to figure out what's next. So I hosted this basketball game. I had four different teams and it was 40 players. When I tell you a year later, that four teams turned 160 players. I'm a hundred. I mean that four teams turned to 16 teams and that 40 players turned to 160 players. Wow. Oh. Hmm. And one year, and then we did it two years in a row. So last year, 2023 did the same thing. 16 teams, kind of 60 players. So already just with those two right there, that's 320 people, 18 plus, and then like probably nine. And probably 90 percent of them are African American that live in the inner city of Southside, South and North and St. Paul, uh, Twin Cities. And zero violence, zero shooting, zero argument, zero scruffles, just basketball. Now wait a minute. That's awesome. Now, basketball lends itself to scuffles. Zero scuffles? Come on. Zero. Like, like I said, it's a different, it's a different environment. Vibe. Like, like, like one thing about it, like. Living, we all, okay, I, I, I thought took a, uh, anti racism training, right? They said, Tommy, you can't say black on black crime. That's, that's a racist statement right there, right? So I had to learn how to talk to inner city youth about being prejudiced. So you'll see me in a space where just 90 percent of these kids. And I can, and I can tell you, I can literally say, start off with a statement, how many of you guys hate black people? And when I tell you that is the most powerful statement to create a space of just welcoming right then and there. Because if you, if you agree with yourself, because like you said, one thing we're dealing with inner city is we, there's a lot of African American or African American crime. There is. But why is that? So that's what we talk about. We try to think about, okay, you must hate somebody that looks just like you. You might not even know it, but the action that you're doing every day shows it. Yeah. So when you create that, when you create that energy and say, how many of y'all guys hate each other? And none of them say that. They say, Oh, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't hate none of these guys. I don't know none of these guys. Oh yeah, you're right. Okay. So now the energy is different throughout the world. My God. Smart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got, uh, you got a couple of white guys looking at each other going, Holy shit. That'll get your attention. Yeah. That's incredible. Actually, the fact that you acknowledge you, you understand you have to approach that differently is, it speaks to your character, your, your intelligence and your, your point. Your, your appointment to this, your, how you were rising to this occasion. It's pretty amazing. I'd also say, Tommy, that you, um, you're meant to be a speaker. Like I've been sitting here and I looked at Steve and I'm like, this is the easiest interview that we've ever done. I do it, man. I've been doing it for a while, man. I really have. I mean, I talk from the heart, but I have a lot of experience. I have a lot of experience. So I, so aside from. Being shot so you've been shot two different times it kind of it kind of woke you up the first one woke you up the second one Solidified your your thing But what I'm I'm also kind of looking for what is what drives you because you're still going you're still Pushing and you have all this energy for this Is it your family? Is it your is it just what you're seeing turn around like is a store Is there are there some stories you can tell us about what you've seen in some of these kids? Yeah, man. Um, it's a whole, it's a little bit of everything, right? It's one being a survivor of gun violence. And when I say a survivor, it's like not just getting shot and going about your day. Like no getting shot. Like both of the times I'm telling you guys are being tied up, shot, left the day in the hallway. That could have ended my life right there. Getting shot two times in the stomach. That could have ended my life right there. So, it's a different thing where I feel like I really think the other side of life. Like, I understand that you can die today and nothing else matters. Right? And, it's just like, that's why, so it's, so it's, so I'm hungry. It's like, I, like, the PTSD in me is still thinking every day, I can die today. no matter what, like, it's not, it's not even a thought. Sometimes it's a reality because you have been shot before. I'm saying is that like, that's what is on my back of my mind, that's what drives me to keep them going in. And I just need to do a bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and try to reach as many kids as possible as fast as possible. And that's where I've been doing it with groups of people. Like I said, so I'm shooting for my first tournament, 160 players, like that, you know, just, Just being bold about things like that Tommy, where does the money come from? You're not getting this space for free or are you getting the space for free? so there's, there's multiple ways. when I first started, don't shoot, gun, shoot hoops. All I did was when I host the tournament, they let me use the gym for free the first year. what gym? Uh, urban venture, uh, Cole and Powell center. Sure. One of the greatest, one of the biggest and nicest and newest gyms in South Minneapolis. Yeah, that's like right, isn't that attached to Crystal Ray? Yup. My daughter's done gymnastics meets there. Yup, so I mean like just like a non profit. Yup. You know, the one thing about owning a business, you know, they say you gotta show two years of revenue, but then like with your non profit, how can, how is there ways for you to make money? So, People feel like there's some time when you got a nonprofit, you can't charge anything. Well, no, there's limitations to how you go about things. So how I did things was being a community organizer to understand the value of vendors. People are paid to be at your event. People are paid to be on your flyer, right? So now you're offering like a base level sponsorship of, you want to be on this flyer that's coming out? And they said, okay, and you realize it's 100 to get on the flyer. So all these businesses, cause they love what you got going on. What do you want to be part of the way? So if I got 36 vendors, I mean, 36 sponsors that want to be on my flyer, that's 3, 600 right there that you just raised by just people that want to be part of the way of what you got going on. So then you try to get a full vendor, then you pay for people to get tickets, you know, um, to, to watch the game and things like that. Cause there is a game, four games going on at the same time. That's a, that's a great thing about the Colvin palace. And there's like, that's big court. So. Yeah, very huge. So that's the way you raise money, but that's, but when it comes to the kids, so that was 18 plus, that's an 18 plus event. And that's every year that's November madness. But when you want to do stuff for the kids, like my boys, the man camp that I do every year, you do that, you do that for free. So that way everything balances. So now you do stuff for free, but at the same time you do stuff that you need to raise some money. But then the biggest thing is grants. Right. So, um, Governor Walsh came to my first, my, my, my first three on three basketball tournament, it was outside of the community center parking lot. And, um, I remember he was like, dang Tommy, this is, this is awesome. And you got like 400 kids in this parking lot. I'm like, he said, man, this is what we need to be funding I said, I said, yeah, I said, but I had a pause for a second. I said, look around, it's a little bit harder. And he looked around, I said, realize there's no police here. He was really, he was like, there's 400 plus kids in this parking lot with no police. You are kidding me. And we are five blocks away from George Floyd Square. You are kidding me. He wrote me a personal letter. He wrote me a personal letter from his office that said, thank you for what you're doing to curb gun violence. It's working. Clearly it's working. You must have some people that are helping, right? Are there a volunteer teams that you have that help organize all these kids or is it all you? Yeah. So when it comes to the event, yes, I get advanced. I got like staff that does like, um, they're called like independent contractors. So if I do a midnight basketball, right, we do a midnight basketball. We partnered up with, um, the boys and girls club and midnight basketball is, you guessed it. These kids are playing basketball at nine o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning. we got, we got, so we got them to help us out. Uh, uh, but yeah, I got independent contractors that help us out. Um, I got a nice team of people, a nice team of eight, ten people. You know, having a non profit, you got a board. So, I got a board that helps me, keep the energy right and keep, make sure we head in the right direction. Yeah. Things like that. Um, How did you choose your board? Just curiously. Um, first, you know, you just realize when you got a first people that's not your friends, right? You know, it's not really your friends more like people that like coaches mentors. Yeah. Yeah So my old basketball coaches on my board, you know people that was already been mentored in my life That just always been important to me I asked them there's always some type of high level or director or CEO of some other organizations because You know, boards are voluntarily, and a lot of people don't have a lot of volunteer time. So you try to, try to aim for people that at least, like, either retire, so my coach is retired, and people that do got, like, some type of level at their business so they can, you know, they, they understand, like, the value of being on boards and stuff like that. I know you have some cool stuff in the works. Tell us about, um, your actual building you got cooking, like your actual place, right? Yeah. I won a pitch competition, three weeks ago. I won a pitch competition, uh, through the Doe Foundation, and it was, It's programmed through the Wyzetta Community Church in Wyzetta, Minnesota. they do a pitch competition. You pitch your business in five minutes and just tell us, you know, uh, what you're about, why you, and basically like, you know, what you're asking for. And I won. You know, out of 86 contestants, I was one of the five, five finalists that won. And what I asked for is 45, 000 to help me get a physical location and hire Additional staff. So, with the 45, 000 that we want, I have a physical location. It's a back in the community center in South Minneapolis. it's a nice, nice welcoming space that has an auditorium in the building, has a gym that we're going to have access to full access to. And, um, it's just the perfect fit, so we named it Don't Shoot, Gun Shoot, Hoops in it for Excellence, and that's just another, just a pivotal moment of just another level where we're headed, man, yeah. And I saw on your website that October 26th you're having your first gala listen, I, yeah, yeah, I know it's a lot, I know, hey, callers, I know, I know it's a lot right now. But. Kind of hold on. You know, is this a potluck gala or is this a different kind of gala? Everybody brings stuff. No, this is, this is, no, this is, you know, you grab your business friends and you come and, um, one thing we we're just, it's like our ribbon cut to the city. That's what we'll call it. Um, there's a lot of people that know about us, but just enough people that don't know about it. We're just, we're just below the radar of. When you get to these big people, like, even when y'all just heard about this organization, it's like, why haven't we heard about this organization? Or, and what have we did to support this organization? So we wanted, the theme is bringing hope to the city. What we're doing at Don't Shoot, Go Shoot, we have, that we are almost guaranteed that we're bringing hope To Minneapolis, to these kids, to these parents, to these schools, to these parks. That we're like trying to figure out what's next. And how to keep up with the wave. And how to teach these kids the right things. That's really going to teach them life lessons. So, we uh, took that money and we opened up our first Don't Shoot, Don't Shoot Center for Excellence. We just want to get that collective group of people that want to be part of this wave of bringing hope to the city, you know? We owe it to ourselves, with all this Joyous Boys stuff that happened that really got our City not the same, you know, like it really ain't the same and it's hard to try to vision our city bouncing back, but, you know, that's why I just, we gotta keep on stout and hopin to the civilians that we see every day and program the don't shoot, gun, shoot and lead the way. So, so Tommy, um, let's talk about your trip to DC just briefly. I got to know you through my friend, uh, my good old partner at Target, uh, Michelle Hanson, who's just a great person and she's an activist and gets involved in stuff. And she told me about you and she said that you guys took a trip to DC. And, and did some, you visited a bunch of people there and, and tell me about what that was all about. Man, so, yeah, I was, uh, well, Mom is in Manhattan, man. Thank you to Mom in Manhattan. And every town is like the umbrella they're under. Every town, like, they, they in every town talk about gun violence. So Mom, you know, so God, if I, to a national conference, our first business trip, man. Um, you know, these guys, I can't even talk about the hospitality that they really showed me not knowing anybody from there. Nobody else is from Minnesota besides don't you go and shoot and a couple volunteers on mom's a man that's from Minnesota. But the only organization at this nationwide conference It was just, it was, it was, it was awesome, man. Like they, the hospitality, they paid for me plus one, uh, for a fully full trip, you know, flight, hotel, food while you're there, breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, um, it was, we met, I mean, we got to be in the same building as president Biden. Um, the, the event is called GSU, uh, Gun Sense University. So it's a lot of, uh, violent prevention, um, uh, organizations throughout the United States that are just in the same fight to end gun violence. So it was awesome to network with so many different people from all over the world. Um, it was good to see, like, being around, uh, other survivors of gun violence and just hearing their testimonies and what they've been doing with their, uh, trauma, you know, and it's It was just great to be here. It was like something, you know, when I said, I'll tell me, you know, you ain't the first person I said, you're a good speaker, but they're like, tell me, you know, are you planning on running some time? But I believe Washington DC is where the most powerful people in the United States live at. So if you see yourself being a separate, you know, uh, whatever it is, you gotta, you gotta go to D. C. and leave with that, with that atmosphere of life. So it was good to go to the Capitol, the U. S. Capitol and see the offices and talk to, um, you know, the, the representative of Minnesota and things like that. And it was, it was really great. Cool. I think it was teaching me more than I thought, for sure. Well, I am inspired. You are doing the Lord's work. I just want to say thank you so much, Tommy. It's it is. It's amazing work you're doing. It's remarkable. You're a pretty inspiring guy and I love your attitude. I love that you're out making a difference. This is what this show is all about. Trying to find people that are making a difference. We're trying to highlight them, spread them around, and get this kind of stuff in front of more people. Thank you. Man, it's a privilege to be on the show, man. man, you guys. You guys are using your platform to spread my platform, so that's all I can ask of all. Well, with that, uh, Tommy, we need more Tommies in the world, so thank you for all you're doing and off we go.