Camp Odayin (with Sara Meslow)

After a brief episode of Wooden Sticks with KG and the Bob Dylan Chronicles with Steve, we visit with Founder and Executive Director, Sara Meslow, from Camp Odayin, a unique camp for children with heart disease. A program that not only provides a wonderful experience for the kids, but incredible resources for their families.

Transcript

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​Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs I wish we could inject the State of Minnesota with a dose of the warmth that it desperately needs. Oh, it's coming. Yeah, that's Steve Brown coming to you live from in front of the We got a fire blazing down here in the basement studio. Who else we got? We got KG. KG's back. Hi guys! Hi! Yep, we're back. We're back. Uh, cold. Cold, cold. The, uh, the dogs just got walked and I'm still warming up from that endeavor. I, I think we got a week to go with this crap. And I think by next week, it's in the rear view mirror March. We'll maybe get some snow, but we've lived here for a long time. You know, we're looking at thirties, forties. Maybe the end of March for fifties, uh, I'm ready. It's like a full weather forecast. Yeah, weather report. Dr. Kevin Gorg on the line with us. Meteorologist. I subscribe to the Farmer's Almanac. I'm no dummy. Very nice. Hey, by the way, was there shrinkage out in the cold today? 100%. 100%. Yeah, no. You can go with it. It's still. 100 percent shrinkage. Oh my god. Yeah, it was tough. Yeah, the turtle went back in the shell. That could be problematic. Hey, so you're out, you're out taking the dogs for a walk. For those of you that don't know, KG's dog Fenway was having a tough go last, uh, last week. Can you give us an update on how Fenner's is doing? Well, I appreciate the question. Yeah, he was really sick. He had, uh, sepsis and it was a pancreatic issue. And as of Super Bowl Sunday, the doctors over at, uh, the Blue Pearl, uh, emergency vet over in Golden Valley were not. overly hopeful. And so from saturday night through Wednesday, he was overnight and hooked up to all kinds of different tubes and wires. Amazing staff over there. Um, and we call it a small miracle that he found a way back at age 11. He's an older dog, uh, to fight it off and to get better. And we got to bring him home late Wednesday and every day he's more and more like himself. And it was a scary deal. Super Bowl sunday for us. Was miserable. Christy and I were, you know, kind of trying to come up with the realization that he might not be coming home. Uh, and you know, you have three different hours set where you can go visit. There's a morning time, an afternoon time, and an evening time. And the folks on staff over there were laughing because each day. In that time slot we were both there at some point, so we probably overdid it, but they were awesome, and he's better, and that's all that matters. So, explain this. We recently, uh, didn't we have an episode on kindness to pets? Maybe not. Ha ha, that's a good idea. It's a great idea. We did kids. Who doesn't? We did kids and then old people. Did you get kids and pets confused? Yeah, but they're sort of like kids. They're, you know, Fenway and Bruce. Yeah, they are like kids. Yes, of course. How did Brooks, how was Brooks handling it? Well, it was tricky for Brooks because, you know, they were from the same window. They've been together for 11 years consecutively. They have never been overnight, really never without each other for any more than an hour. And so he, he was a little off his game and he was looking for his brother when the coolest thing. Uh, midweek last week, Brooks was waiting and, you know, jumped all over him, cleaned his eyes, which is kind of his thing, he likes to clean his eyes and do, you know, licks and stuff. But it was pretty cool to see another reminder of how, how close these two brothers are. So yeah, it was, it was a great finish to, uh, what could have been a really Heartbreaking story, so it was nice of you to ask. Yeah, the cleaning the eyes is a combination of really sweet and kind of gross. When you think about it. It is gross. So Fenway, as I recall, had a reputation for maybe stealing Brooks food once upon a time. He gets after it. If Brooks doesn't finish his food quick enough, Fenway slides over to his plate. Uh, so Brooks is adapted and he's learned and he eats just as fast as Fenway. These guys love their food like I love my food, so it's kind of fun to watch. Are they blue buffalo people or purina or what are we feeding them? Well, Fenway's always had stomach issues, so it's a prescription called soft ID food. Okay. And most veterinary clinics have it. Um, we go through it. It's like a soup can, right? And it's got this soft, mushy food inside. John, you've seen the feeding. It's, uh, it's something. It's gross. They love it. They just love it. Yeah. Have you ever tasted it? No. Okay, you know, cause some people Some people do that. There was a guy that you and I went to high school with that was that's in the real estate business and if he didn't make 200 cold calls in a day he would eat a can of Elpo. Oh God. I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. Do you want to say who that is? I can't say who it is. I might get, uh, yeah, he's, um, he's got, he's in the hospital now. He, no, no, I think he's a very successful real estate agent because he didn't want to eat that damn dog food. Challenge himself. That's quite a challenge, but that's, I think the standards are pretty low when it came to that. His first name is, uh, I'm not going to say it. No, that's all right. And he was a little, anyway, um, so Kevin, uh, we haven't had a wooden sticks conversation in some time and I would just like your assessment. of the, uh, the big tournament that's taking place, the Four Nations Tournament. Yeah. That really, uh, hit the peak. It was making all the news. Yes. Uh, the other day, cause them Canadians, them Canucks up in Montreal were booing. Yeah. The national anthem. My office was all abuzz about that one. Yes. Yeah. What would, give us your assessment. Well, and truthfully, well, I'll tell you, the, the anthem being booed doesn't surprise me. Um. And I'll start by saying this, I've been traveling in and out of Canada for three decades, counting my years back in junior hockey, and they are some of the nicest, most polite, like, docile, down to earth human beings I have ever encountered. Like, they're, the saying is when, when they go to put their, their cash card in the cash machine and it spits out money, they, they actually verbally thank the cash machine. So, the fact that they're this upset, I mean, and again, we don't talk. A ton of politics, but when you've got a sitting United States president that calls their prime minister a governor and says they're going to be the 51st state, you know, the gloves come off. And so that whole thing, I think, yeah, and it led to, again, there's always been intensity with these two, um, proud countries in hockey. And I think, you know, there's, there's a, there's a backstory here for sure. I think you're going to hear the fans. in Boston this week. Boo. You know, Canada, that stuff bums me out but the hockey has been unbelievable and you you saw that kind of bubble off into that opening 30 seconds with three different fights. The Kachuk brothers on Team USA are are always going to be antagonists. They're going to be in your face. They're going to be physical. They're gritty. Um they're a lot like their dad uh who played many many years and was the exact same player. They're awesome at what they do. Uh, we, we just saw, you know, the Florida Panthers win a Stanley Cup last year. And again, Kachuk right front and center there. Uh, you know, so it's, it's going to be fun to see how this plays out. Uh, Canada probably has the higher end roster when you've got Crosby and McKinnon and McDavid, you've got three of the all time best forwards in the history of the league. Are they on the same line? No. Well, they're on the same power play. Um, and two of the three can be, can be, uh, dispersed on the same line. They've been juggling lines. John Cooper, their coach has been a little sheepish about how they're going to match up, but the U S has one edge and that's their goaltender. Um, right now, it's probably the number one goalie in the world and he's been awesome throughout this tournament and he'll have to be a difference maker. I think you're going to see Canada come out um with an absolute effort on Thursday. The cool thing is though the the US has the home ice advantage. They went into Montreal and beat them there and uh now they get the home ice advantage. So, it's going to be must see TV, get the popcorn ready. And here for hockey guys, you know, it's, it's still of the big four before. And so to see last Saturday night. Where there's nothing else going on. Football's over basketball is doing that clown show. We call it the all star weekend. Hockey was finally front and center. When those fights happen, social media absolutely blew up. And so everybody came to their television sets, 4. 5 million viewers. I think you're going to see that, that amount of viewers, maybe more for the rematch. And bottom line is this is great for hockey. They're growing the game and it's been unbelievably fun to watch the talent, the skill with all four of these teams throughout the tournament. Hey KG, uh, my, uh, my buddy Brad from my office who, who watches your wardrobe quite, quite closely, um, was, he just made a note that he said, this is crazy because There's wild players on the U. S. that are playing against, like, last night, the Swedish team and how, how wild is it that, how crazy is it for that, where the wild teammates are playing each other? Is that, do they have an advantage because they know their styles really well? They, like, is that, is that unique? It is, you know, and it only happens whether it's, you know, the Olympics or something like this every, every few years. And so even in the game we're talking about Thursday, the championship game, you're going to see. Mitch Marr being one of the top forwards on team Canada, Austin Matthews being one of the top forwards on the U S they're very close line mates, teammates with Toronto, uh, for the Maple Leafs for years. But yeah, that, that game last night, but with Ek and Brodine going against Foldy and Faber, um, you know, from a wild perspective, we were just hoping they all got out of the game, uh, healthy and they did. Um, but if there's an advantage, it probably would have been if got the citizen goal, because I think. You know, Boldy has alluded to this too. When you face a goalie every day in practice, you can pick up on some of the tells and some of the the sweet spots. It didn't play out that way. Gustafson played the first game. He did not play the game last night but uh, you know, the cool part for all of us as wild fans is all of these guys have had fantastic tournaments. Brodine and Eck have been amazing and you're seeing Boldy in favor. These young rising stars in the National Hockey League. Out there against the world's best, not only holding their own, I mean, Brock Baber's playing first set D, and Matt Foley's playing the power play, like, it's really cool to see this. Sports question. That is because of my friend Brad, but we talked about it. Have you been practicing all day? A little bit in the mirror this morning. I would, I would. Oh, that's great. I have a question about the hockey game. Hey, you remember when you were that? Hey, by the way, did anybody watch the SNL 50? Oh, I watched all of it. I saw bits and pieces. Every second of it. Debbie Downer is my favorite. That was pretty good. Um, I, the, the, to me the greatest skit that ever was on SNL. And most people don't come up with this one. You know, they come up with like the Chippendales or the More Cowbell. When Chris Farley interviewed Paul McCartney, that, honest to God, was one of the funniest. What happened to my voice? I don't know. Oh my God. That was one of the funniest. It's great. Oh God, it's just so sad that that poor guy had to pass so young. Yeah. It is sad. He was, he was an all timer, and he's one of those guys that can't be duplicated. You know, you can look, look at the vacancy that's been gone since he passed, and I think that, that sequence, I mean, I don't know how Paul McCartney was able to even keep it together because watching it, I couldn't stop laughing. That's one of the all timers. Yeah, he was the, he kept a straight face. I mean, it was Well, I think because, uh, Farley was so endearing, he, he was like, You remember when you said, I love you, gives all, you know, I love you, take us, whatever. Is that real? Is that true? Yeah, he was just like, he was so like, enamored with him. It was like, truthful, and it was funny, because it was so good. That's what, by the way, that's what improv is. You're not trying to be funny, you're trying to be truthful. Just a little, a little, you know what? You're just bringing the, you're bringing it today. Yeah, well, I've been He's got the heat today, Johnny. He's got the heat. Yeah. He's got the heat. We have a guest. Gotta bring it. We got a guest coming up here shortly. Okay. Uh, her name is Sarah Meslo. Mm hmm. And, uh, if you're a Mata Midi person, you know that the Meslo family is very, uh Of course. well known in the, uh, district. Mr. Meslo, I don't even know what his first name was, Mr. Meslo. Meslo. Senior. See, well this, um, he was the athletic director at Mata Midi High School for many years. Yeah. Had some, uh, children that were great athletes. I think Sarah is a cousin, or her dad was Mr. Meslo's brother. We're gonna get to that. Yeah. We're gonna find out that, but the two Meslo boys, uh, one of them is a, uh, uh, an official, uh, in the NFL. Mm hmm. And one is, I think, in the Big Ten. And they are both members of the prestigious. Indian Hills Golf Community. Mm hmm. I know. I know Jeff Meslos. He must be the college guy? Jeff, it's, there's Or it's a different brother, maybe. He's There's two, Jeff is one of them. I don't know, I get them mixed up. He's a fantastic guy. They're both really good guys. I really like Jeff Meslos. They're super good guys. You know, it might be fun to have them on. To talk about, uh, being an official and the kindness that you probably don't experience from some of the players. Yeah, that would be quite insightful. You know what? That's what we're going to go with. Yeah. That's a fantastic idea. I like that it can't go on Wooden Sticks because it's really not hockey related. I'm sure He can't take that from us. He, he might. He might. Uh, real quick, KG, the Oscar nominations were announced. Uh, any I'm, I'm all in on, on the, uh, Bob Dylan movie and the performance by Timothy Chamelet. I, um, I, I don't know if you guys caught 60 minutes on Sunday, but they had a sit down with, with Timothy and the work he did for five years, um, learning to play. And I'm sure Steve, you can appreciate this, but learning not only to sing like Bob Dylan, but to play the harmonica to play. Um, all those instruments, it's a mind blowing performance and if he doesn't win the Oscar and he's not favored, which shocks me, he's the second favorite right now, but I'm telling you this performance blew me away. I've seen the movie three times and really I'm not a big Bob Dylan guy. I am so impressed with this acting performance by this young man. Um, I, I just couldn't stop watching. I'm, I'm with you KG. I saw it and I was, did not expect to like it that much. Biops, the biopics are always pretty templated and like, there's always a thing. Right. It was so good. Did we already talk about this before? I don't know, but it was such a great movie. And you know what I liked about it the most? I really appreciated how far he went. But, it wasn't, Chalamet wasn't really trying to do an impression. It was impressionistic. But he wasn't trying to like, Mimic him. He was just bringing out a true character in it. It was such amazing acting and, and, uh, perfection in getting you into that character in a full way. And it was actually quite touching a couple of moments. It's really, really good. Very impressive. You know what's very funny is I don't get Bob Dylan. Like I just, I don't find him too deep. You'd like this movie, I'm sure I would like the movie. Yeah. And I'll probably see it when it comes out on DVD. It gives you a good You gonna go for the red box on this one? Yeah. I'm thinking that, you know, I'm gonna red box. Is this still a red box around God? It's like finding a pay No, I think there is one in front of the, uh, the Walgreens here on the corner of, uh. What was it, happiness and sunshine? Um, uh, Timothee Chalamet went on SNL and played, um, three Bob Dylan songs and, uh, he was the musical guest and, and I, and I thought it was going to be like, oh boy, here we go. It was super impressive. Not songs that you would know, but he did it and he wasn't really even trying to do Bob Dylan. He was just doing Bob Dylan songs. It was just, the guy's kind of amazing. I'm a Dune guy too. You're a Dune guy too, right? KG? I'm not a Dune guy. Oh, Dune. I'm not a Dune guy, but I, I am a Timothy Yep, me too. Chamelet guy, so now everything he's in I have to see, and I, I had no idea. Bob Dylan, um, 55 albums, I had no idea. Yeah, I, I've been into, I like old Dylan, but I like, I like, um, the latter albums. I like his, you know, froggy sounding voice. I like, I like his music. I like all of it. What a talent. Yeah. Well, welcome to the Bob Dylan Chronicles. This is fantastic. He's a very, uh, inspiring character once you get to know what he's doing. He just sticks, stays true to himself, didn't burn out, just kept going, didn't fall into all the fame, just did his own thing. Okay, I'm going to call this person. KG, if we lose you, I'll call you right back. Don't worry. Alright, hold on. Let's see here. Hello? Is this Sarah Meslow? It is. This is John Schweitz calling from the Kindness Chronicles. How are you? Hi, John. I'm great. How are you? I'm good. I'm going to merge Kevin Gorg onto the call. One moment, please. Kevin Gorg? Hello, Johnny. Meet Sarah Meslow. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Kevin. Nice to meet you. And we're also here with Steve Brown. Hi, Sarah. A product of Mata Midi. First of all, can you tell us again how you're related to those Meslow boys? Those Meslow boys are technically my cousins, but in my heart, they're my brothers. Awww. So like, your dad is the brother of their dad. Correct. See? Yep. And it's funny because they both married Karen. So my mom is Karen Muslow and my aunt is Karen Muslow. Oh wow. Yeah, how fun is that? And I kept my maiden name so everybody thinks I married Doug, Dave, or Jeff Muslow. I'm like, no, I'm related to them. Oh. It's a little confusing sometimes. It is. But we're a small family. The Meslo family is somewhat, I would say, legendary in Mata Midi. We always have a reference to Mata Midi. Hopefully we can get to Hillmurray at some point. Because we always talk about Hillmurray as well. But Sarah, you are the executive director of Camp O'Dayen? Is that how we pronounce that word? That's correct. And tell us a little bit about what Camp Odeon is and, uh, how it is that you became the executive director of this organization. Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, uh, as a part of this podcast. I'm super excited to, uh, share the Odeon story. Well, manage your expectations because I don't know how exciting it's actually going to be. Settle down a little bit, Sarah. So I actually started the organization 23 years ago and it came out of, um, kind of a blend of a lot of different things in my life. So my past life, I was a school social worker, my master's degrees in youth development. I worked and volunteered at camps throughout my life, and I'm also a heart person. So, all these things kind of came together, um, and what happened is Camp O'Day Inn, and we have been around since 2002, was our first summer of camp, um, and we serve kids with heart disease. So one in a hundred babies, every 15 minutes, a little sweetheart is born with congenital heart disease. Oh, wow. It's the number one birth defect. Oh, holy smokes. So just sarcasm is my superpower and when you said past life, you're not talking about like a reincarnation thing. You're talking specifically about a former career. I, I, I mean I, I think I was a monkey in a past life, I'm not sure. I think I was a dog. I'm talking about a past career, yes. I have a recurring dream that I'm running on all fours. What is that about? Very interesting. Okay, anyway. Maybe you were a monkey too. This is a serious topic, I apologize. So you started this yourself. I did. So how did that, how do you start, and it's really, it's, I was looking at your board of directors and you got people from all over the country. So this isn't just some rinky dink mata midai charity that you started. You've uh, you've blown up. We have grown leaps and bounds. Um, you know, like I said, our first summer, we had one fundraiser and we had one week of camp in 2002. We served 53 kids. Oh, wow. Um, fast forward, I always give pre COVID numbers because we're still kind of building back. 2019, we served over a thousand people. Holy cow. Four weeks of summer camp, two family camps, two mom's retreats, winter camp, dad's weekend. So, um, we really have, I've grown a ton and you know one of the things that I think makes us really unique is we have a pay what you can model for our families and we want to ensure that every kid with a special heart gets the opportunity to come to camp that wants to come to camp so we're removing any financial barriers and we ask for a 50 registration fee. Families can always pay zero and our costs are about a thousand dollars. per kid per one week of camp. So we fundraise all year to make sure that these sweethearts get this life changing experience that they really need. So if you haven't been able to figure this out Sarah Meslow sounds like our kind of people here on the Kindness Chronicles I was gonna say I'm not great at math, but the difference between fifty and a thousand that's a big number Yeah, so how do you go about raising funds? We have five fundraisers every year. We have three in the Twin Cities, one is in Milwaukee, one is in Chicago, because we pull a lot of kids from the Milwaukee Chicago Madison area, and we have some of our programs down there as well. So kind of buckets of revenue, five fundraisers is about a third of our budget. Second bucket of revenue is a lot of grants that we write, whether it's a family foundation or a big corporate grant. And then our third bucket is individual donors. So our budget is just over a million dollars a year that we need to raise and spend. I suppose if you're serving a thousand kids and your budget's a thousand or a million bucks that, that, that math works out. We won't have to have the Department of, uh, ODAN efficiency. You love to get into the numbers right away. I love that. Can I, can I? Yeah, you can back it up. Can I change it more into the, um, The heart of the matter. Touchy feely aspect of it. Please. Um, Sarah, I, I, I saw, I was looking at your website today and, and uh, something really struck me. I think this maybe says a lot about what you're doing, because I want to kind of understand, you know, kind of how it works or how the, what the kids are getting out of it. I have a, I have a quote here from a kid named Anders. And he said, Camp O'Dayen gave me back the childhood that my heart disease took from me. Oh boy. That is powerful. You must be doing something pretty magic there. Well, I, I'm smiling right now because Anders is in medical school at the Mayo Clinic to be a pediatric cardiologist. Oh my goodness. Right there. Full circle. Chills. That is full circle. Oh wow. So he's also a show off. Yeah. Overachiever. Overachiever. Right. Yeah. So, so obviously kids are, you, they get to be level set and, and get things back that they didn't get if they were when they were younger and had all these, this horrible stuff that they went through. So what are they, how was it? How was your camp different? Yeah. What are they doing? Um, yeah. Um, you know, for, for our campers, they have experienced, um, a lot, um, a lot more than their healthy peers and they have experienced medical trauma, which is a reoccurring thing for our kids. And, you know, we talk a lot with our, Our doctors and nurses to say, okay, you guys work on this physical heart and the surgeries and doing all the things in the clinic and the hospitals, and then they come to a day and to kind of heal their emotional heart and to find their family and to find these people that really understand what they're going through. Um, one of my favorite stories, and this is from so long ago, but I, I say it all the time. Um, we were doing cabin closing and we kind of go through what was your high of the day and what's your higher or sometimes we do highs and lows and a group of girls were sitting around talking and they were sharing their heart stories kind of organically. We let them just share when they want to and one of our campers was having a valve repaired right when she got back from camp and another girl in her cabin said, aren't you nervous? And she said, Why would I be nervous? Every surgery I have means that I get to live longer. Oh boy. Oh wow. I'm a 14 year old kid. Wow. We had winter camp last weekend and one of our campers just got listed on Valentine's Day for her heart transplant and she is so excited. She goes, can you believe it? I'm going to get a new heart. She said, I'm not going to hold my friends back anymore. Oh my god. And I mean, so these kids have just the maturity, uh, you know, that they're wise beyond their years because of what they've been through. And, um, you know, we have kids that say that when they're at Odeon, it's when They're the most them. We've had kids say, I'm the most me when I'm here. And that's what we try to do is just provide this space where kids can be authentic and really find support that only their heart peers know. Well, and to, and to be able to make a connection with people that are dealing with some of the same, situations that you've been dealing with. And, I would imagine that some lifelong friendships are born of Camp O'Dayen. Absolutely. And we see this come full circle. Just this last weekend, we had 77 heart heroes at winter camp, and we had about 40 volunteers. I would say half of those volunteers were former campers that have now come back to volunteer. We actually had a nurse, and she's a former camper. So, it's pretty great. I always Tell people come to our office and look at this massive Bulletin board because we have families that send us holiday cards and graduation And I was like I didn't do that for my kids camp So we you know, I think what started as Getting kids this experience, and we know the positive things that come out of a camp experience and the independence and kind of growing grit and trying new things. What's really morphed is we've become a support organization for these families in a way that's really beautiful and we kind of never dreamed. I want to hear about the mom's retreats. I'm sure you do. Because I imagine, well no, not like that. But no, if, if you're going through something like that with your little one and anything to do with the heart that serious, there's, there's stress on the parents and clearly this mom's retreat, these ladies have quite a bond, I would assume, and is this an overnight thing? Is this a day thing? How does that work? It is. We have two moms retreats. We have one in White Bear Lake and we have one down in Lake Geneva in the Southeast corner of Wisconsin. We get over a hundred mamas that come. to these retreats and we pamper the daylights out of them. We have some spa time. We maybe have wine tasting. We have ax throwing. We have educational speakers. Um, and then four years ago, we started a dad's day and, um, that's morphed into a dad's weekend. And my favorite quote was last year, one of the dads said, shoot, now I got to go home and tell my wife she was right. So they, you know, and we're, we're. We're seeing that the entire family needs support. And if you think about someone going, you know, an eight year old going off to heart surgery, and you're a sibling, and you're all of a sudden grandma and grandpa are living in your house, and they smell funny. And, you know, you hear your mom talking to the insurance people, and dad's taken off work. I mean, it affects the whole family. And so we are working really hard to support the parents. Um, when, when it's a family camp, we have special name tags that say Super Sib on them for the siblings, because we want to elevate those people and. I understand they've got a lot of worry. Yeah, I would imagine that, the siblings dealing with a brother or a sister that are having these challenging situations, do they get an opportunity to bond with each other? Because they have a unique experience that probably their other friends can't wrap their heads around. They really do. And we do some specific things at family camp where we try to, you know, break up the heart kids and the Super subs and do some separate programming for them. Um, in our strategic plan, pre COVID, we did have a plan to do a sibling camp or kind of a retreat and you know, it's just funding at this point. It's, it's having the funds to, we can make, we've maintained all of our programs, we haven't had to cut anything, but we're not in a spot to grow. Right now until we can secure some more funding, so we'd love to support those good Sarah so I get a sense that you're obviously a pretty compassionate person obviously you've You've honed in on something really great here. When did you know? That you had something you you obviously you put the thought together for the first one But when did you actually go? Okay, cuz it's also just gonna work. You're establishing a whole network in the community How what do you have any stories about when you felt it? You're like, okay, I Got something here I would say, you know, that first year was really building the community and, um, I had an advisory board at that time that morphed into this board of directors. For me personally, it wasn't until we had that first summer of camp. And, um, one of the things that we really talk a lot about at ODEON is our kids have special hearts and they also have grateful hearts. And we have a, uh, Our long session at camp where campers write thank you notes. And we take their picture and they write thank you notes and I keep them and I mail them out to every donor throughout the year, whether it's a 5 gift or a 5, 000 gift, everybody gets a handmade thank you card from a camper. And I think that's when I really, when I got it and when it really sank in was going back to the office after that first summer camp in 2002 and reading those cards. And, you think you're making an impact, but when you hear it from a camper, um, You know, you know that the impact is pretty significant and it's, it's, uh, been a humbling journey. I'll tell you that much. Well, what, uh, what's the price tag on the sibling camp? Well, who knows? We've got to develop that. It depends on a couple million dollars? Sure. Let's just, you know, open up the vault. Check back there. Um, you know, all kidding aside though, that's got to be different programming than it would be for The kids, with the heart disease. Yep. And, and, you know, when we, uh, look at a site for our heart heroes to go to camp, it's very different. So, um, they have to have air conditioned buildings. Heart kids don't tolerate heat very well. Uh, pretty flat surface. We've got some kids that need golf cart rides to get around. Sure. Um, proximity to medical facilities where they're healthy siblings. I could probably take to a little bit more remote location. Um, you know, I think about our parents retreats, our, You know, 15 grand for a weekend. So, I'd say our sibling camp would be somewhere around there. You know, to start with kind of a weekend retreat for the super sibs. So where, just curiously, you mentioned White Bear Lake, and of course we like to keep it local here. That's on the other side of the Mata Midi, Mata Midi's lake. Yep. Where in White Bear Lake do you guys have the, the mom's retreat? Well, we're just shifting there, so we have been in Stillwater for years, and we're just shifting to White Bear, and we're gonna use the hotel right below Rudy's Red Eye. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Can you believe it? There'll be some rooftop, uh, bad choices made on the roo Rudy's rooftop. Rudy Teenies. Rudy Teenies. Yep. Oh, God. I'm familiar. Yeah, that's, uh, we call that the, uh, the desperate housewives. There's, uh, you might find a desperate housewife or two having, pounding a Rudy Teenie on a, uh, Tuesday night. I love it. Um, So, if, if people are interested in learning more about, camp, where would we send them? Yes, our website is CampOdean. org. Uh, we also have a really active, uh, social community. We have over 6, 000 people on Facebook, Instagram. We're building our TikTok platform, which is really fun. This is so you can find us all over. And how about for folks that want to make a donation? We've got a lot of wonderful listeners here on this side. Podcast many of which would like to get involved. Do they go to the website? Is there a different direction if they want to be a donor? That's the best place to go. There's a whole page on how to donate. There's a button to donate with a credit card Uh bitcoin, you know, we'll we'll take all the things People to give so people can volunteer We, you know, we always welcome new people into our H. E. A. R. T. family. Well, John, maybe you and I could chaperone the, uh, the moms retreat. I mean, we've got good practice with the two that we deal with, with Chrissy and Becky. Well, I mean, you're the one that, you started it. You know, you turned something that was really sweet into something just kind of creepy. You drew first blood. That is true. I couldn't resist. I couldn't resist. Sarah, where did the name come from? I was curious about that. Very good question. Thanks. Yes, great question. I had a Name That Camp contest back in 2001, and two people actually submitted O Day en, and it's the Ojibwe word for house. Oh, wow. Yes. That's rude. There's um, a camp in California that has a Spanish name, there's one in Louisiana with a French name, and being 100 percent Norwegian, I wanted like, Bernehile, you know, but that wasn't going to fly. So, um, you know, we're really proud of our name and I found a manila folder in my desk labeled history and I actually consulted with, um, Dr. Anton Troyer, who is a professor of Ojibwe language at the Vichy State, Elise Fairbanks, who is an elder in the Ojibwe community, and two other places, and on the bottom of my chicken scratch it says Ojibwe. Okay to use the name. So you got approval. In fact, you know, isn't that sad that that's where my head automatically went, I'm like You know, I wonder if this is cultural appropriation, but I'm hoping I thought it was just a play on like words I can a day a day camp kind of thing. Oh day in but you'd be wrong. I know that's cool It's very cool and camp camp Kevin Gorg that wasn't available. So sorry to hear that My last question would be the the age parameters for these kids I would assume it Zero to 18, but I maybe it's a different set of numbers. Great question. So kids that come for overnight camp So it's winter camp or summer camp. It's grades 1 to 11 And then for our family camp, it's ages birth to 12th grade We've had a lot of families that come to us with a one year old a two year old. Oh my god How fun they want to get engaged with us early on and so their kid is very familiar with odeon when it's First grade in time to go to sleep away camp. Well, and what a great opportunity to connect with other families. That to me is the, is the magic in this whole thing. They can really understand each other. That's why I have such a, a, a, just a personal interest in the idea of this sibling camp. I was at the uh, Crescent Cove. Are you familiar with Crescent Cove? Oh, very much. I know Katie who is the founder of Crescent Cove. Oh God, isn't she something? Oh my God. She's wonderful. So, Crescent Cove, we had their, their gala a couple weeks ago and when I heard the stories about, the siblings of these kids that are dealing with these just terrible maladies and the opportunity that they get to connect with each other I thought, God, that is really That's really cool because they, they're experiencing something that probably no one else in their school or anybody that they're close to and it's just, uh, yeah, it's very interesting. We should talk about that, Sarah, at some point. Yeah, I would love it. And, you know, they talk about this pandemic is loneliness. Oh my God. And everybody wants connections. Everybody wants to be in a place where they feel like they fit in. And that's Crescent Cove. That's Odean. You know, we're really working hard to make these. Important connections for these families. Yeah, it's really, what a unique, uh, a unique opportunity for people to, uh, wrap their arms around something that's very meaningful for these families. I'm sure these families are very thankful that you got this thing going, Sarah. It's pretty, uh, it's a pretty remarkable thing you've got going, so thank you for doing this for these families. We're gonna switch gears for It's my honor. One quick question, uh, we were thinking it might be fun to have your, uh, Your cousin's on the, uh, the, the NFL referee. Could you send me their contact? No, I'm teasing. Um, we just think it would be interesting to find out, we have Kevin Gorgon with us and we always devolve into sports and movies. And when we did our show prep, which we do a lot of on this program, um, we sure do. Paige, as Steve Brown here said, is she related to those Meslo boys? You know, they're such great guys and he didn't even know what they did for a living. So I'll edit all this out. It's kind of this official conspiracy that, that the, uh, NFL officials conspire to help the Chiefs win, which I think is a facade, but people, especially on social media, continue to go with this. Um, so we can, we can go right to the, uh, directly to the source. We will have an NFL official on our show. I think we should find out if it Patrick Mahomes. Is there a guy? They would love it. And Jeff, you know, Jeff's Big Ten. Yep. And Dave is NFL. Oh, cool. And those two are, you know, they would, they would love it. Like, I don't know if, John, are you a St. Andrews? Did we talk about this? No, I'm a, I'm a St. Jude's guy, but we are both members of the, uh, the, as I mentioned earlier, the Indian Hills Golf Club community. Wow. Prestigious Indian Hills. Prestigious. And, and. Well, I know Dave's done some. And he did, like, an NFL presentation at St. Andrews. He did one down at a church in Arizona. So, he loves to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, I, uh, Let's get it done. We gotta have this. This is good. So you don't seal them for, uh, for your other podcasts. Thank you, Kevin. We appreciate that. Alright, well, Sarah, it has been a pleasure having you on. Tell us, when is your golf tournament? Golf tournament is June 10th. June 10th. Okay, well, let's see if we're available. Let's go to the calendar here and put that I love it I've had the pleasure of playing in that June 10th a Tuesday Yeah, because they usually make us do those on a Monday Um, Judd Sather, uh, mutual friend, Judd Sather, uh, put our little foursome together and we, we wore matching shirts, which was pretty cool. Fancy. Mm hmm. It's like teenage Wait, we've got pictures of that. Oh, yeah. June 9th, it is. Uh Alright, well thank you Sarah and uh, if people are interested in playing in the golf tournament or participating in one of your events, go to uh, the Camp O'Dayen website and uh, give generously. Now make it look like there's a lot of listeners. Let's see, let's hammer. Right. Let's really show, let's show them and it better be more than 12 bucks. We'll get this posted on social media and we'll make sure the website's on there and we'll direct everybody to check it out. And if there's crickets, we've got a bunch of losers listening to this show. All right. Thank you, Sarah. Thanks chatting with you. Thank you. All right. Bye bye. off we go. Oxytocin