612 N Main welcomes Curt Hamilton to the turret.
Curt has an amazing story. Hear it all (well almost all) here.
We talk Chamber, Sports, Cars, Community Service, SCUBA, DHP, Wellness, Famous friends, and so much more...
Here are some links to a few of the things we discussed:
612 N Main welcomes Curt Hamilton to the turret.
Curt has an amazing story. Hear it all (well almost all) here.
We talk Chamber, Sports, Cars, Community Service, SCUBA, DHP, Wellness, Famous friends, and so much more...
Here are some links to a few of the things we discussed:
Hey guys, welcome to six 12 North Maine. If you're interested in learning more about the Henderson Evansville Owensboro area, well, you're in the right place. This is where you hear the story of us and amazing stories. They are to sit back and relax while we welcome our special guests to the turn. Welcome to six 12. My guest today is
Speaker 2:My favorite people. One of my favorite hinder aliens. I met Kurt Hamilton at the chamber of commerce government affairs committee meeting. We almost never agreed. We were always on the opposite side of every issue until one certain one came along and then we've joined forces. And when that happened, uh, you know, the other side really didn't have much of a chance. We both like a microphone. We both have opinions, believe it or not, but, uh, I'll let you determine whether we have anything worthy to say Kurt Hamilton. Welcome to sticks. 12. Thank you so much print, man. It's great being here. I love the studio. I love that we have people in Henderson that are doing this sort of platform. Uh, so you can introduce folks in Henderson to everyone. Um, it's fantastic. And you know, we may have disagreed, but we always disagreed respectfully. We did. And, and that is the idea what I remember. We really got to know each other when we were in this little dance competition, if you'll recall. So that's right. One of us maybe got three tens in that dance competition. Yeah. I had a Bel-Air I danced a slow Bolero. That was awesome. Just saying you were great. Um, neither one of us
Speaker 1:Won. No, neither one of us. One, uh,
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. The fix was in, which is what we wanted to have happened. She had some big donors that, and people voted with their dollars. So Hey, you know, we raised a lot of money for the, uh, for the arts in Henderson, and that was a great event. One of the coolest things I've ever been to, it's been 10 years, Brett. I know it was so much fun to do that, but you're, you know, you're known as someone who supports the community and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you here. This podcast is all about the Henderson area. We want to present a vehicle for those that have interesting stories to tell, to come on and let the folks know what's going on. So we're going to start with you. So Kurt Hamilton, who in the heck are you? Oh man, I'm a mishmash of a lot of things. Definitely. I am. So, um, it's funny. I was born in Huntington, West Virginia and my mom was a kindergarten teacher from Huntington. My dad grew up in the heart of the billion dollar Coalfield in Williamson, West Virginia. Um, he worked at a factory that made steel bumpers, uh, in, he was a young manager in, in the buying department for this company in Huntington and my grandfather Curtis James Hamilton, the first he was the chairman of the County council, basically, you know what? He was the Brad Schneider Mingo County, West Virginia, the home of the chamber of commerce building made out of coal, which then burnt down. I actually went there as a little kid. It was crazy said it's a little bit. Right? Right. So, so funny enough steel bumpers became not a thing, uh, on the, uh, the Dodge Aries. Well, the Dodge Aries came along. That factory closed down. My dad was one of the few people to get transferred out. So we moved to Northern Illinois about an hour and a half outside of Chicago. And it was cold. Brent, that sounds cold. Sterling, Illinois. It was cold. Uh, it was 24 below one Christmas. My parents said, that's enough. We need to get back South a little bit. And I was 15 years old. I didn't know anything. And dad came home one day said, well, I took this job in Henderson, Kentucky, Kentucky. What? You know, we live in Illinois. I'm going to go to Northwestern. We can go to bears games an hour and a half away. What's in Kentucky. He's like, well, there's a job. And it's not that cold. The people are nice. It's on the Ohio river. So we, we have a boat that we can use. The water's not going to be frozen over so much. So, um, we moved to Henderson, Kentucky on the opening ceremonies day of the 1984 Olympics. Wow. I cried like a baby ride. I was like, no, I'm never going to have to wear shoes again. What am I going to do? And Kentucky says the kid from Western Virginia. Right. But you find out interesting. Kentucky has a lot. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And that was, um, yeah, so I was here for three years of high school and it was a three-year high school at the time. When I, my very first day of school, I had gone to an open high school. So I wanted to go home for lunch. And I thought, what's the big deal. My parents live across the road and Highlander acres. So lunchtime came along. I didn't know anyone. Not only was I a new kid, but half those kids thought I was from North. So they didn't talk to me. The other half thought I was from South, but they didn't talk to me. I'm going home for lunch. So at my lunch break, I go out the front door and this, uh, this smallish, but very stout man literally grabbed me by the back of my shirt, back of my neck son, where are you going? Like, I'm going home for lunch. What do you think this is? You can't just go home for lunch. The cafeteria is that way. And I was like, well, how are you? I've never had a good, you know, I've never been good with authority. And he said, my name is Mr. Dawson come to find out it was bull Dawson who everybody loved. Yeah. So, um, so anyway, that was my introduction to Henderson, but I, I played basketball in Henderson. I was on the academic team. I really, I really got involved in and my family got involved, be an Accuride where my dad worked and we were close enough that we could actually see as factory, I guess, at the time. So Henderson is really home. Henderson was home. When I went off to college, people would ask me, where are you from? And I'd lived in Henderson for three years. I'd lived in Sterling, Illinois for four years. I lived in Chesapeake, Ohio, which is really right across the river from Huntington West Virginia, the first 12 years of my life. So I really didn't. I was like, yeah, I'm from Kentucky, but I don't really sound like it. And it was always a kind of a confusing story. So I went to college at, um, will private school in North Carolina. I don't know. Maybe you've heard of it, but, uh, uh, do they play any sports there? Well, we have a football team every once in a while. Um, lacrosse has been really good, but they got in trouble once and yeah, basketball, uh, Duke blue, devils basketball, and we just lost most of our audience about it. For those of you who are still here. Right. We appreciate that. Right? I'm not going to brag or anything. However, the four years I was there, we went to four final fours, won the title of my senior year, the first title for Duke in 1991, I stayed there another year, a gap year before law school started and we won the title again. So five years in Durham, North Carolina, five final fours, three title games, and two national championships, man. I was spoiled Brent. I was school. Yeah. And we, you know, Duke gets a bad rap in Kentucky. Um, so Christian Laettner is such a sweet guy.
Speaker 3:I did not say any words.
Speaker 2:I feel like this is going to get edited. Um, but you know, when he accidentally tripped over, um, oral amino Timberlake, everybody got mad. You know, he was 10 for 10. That game, give him some love. So well I've lived in Kentucky now longer than I've lived anywhere else saying most people know that I'm from Tennessee, Tennessee fan. So you and I have enjoyed, uh, not worrying friends in basketball season. I'm pretty quiet during basketball season until the last couple of years. But let me tell you if there are any Kentucky fans that go a little bit too far with the nothing sucks, like a big orange line. All I have to do is say two words and that's Christian lightener and the conversation is over and we've moved on to other things. So maybe we should move on as well. Duke is an amazing school. Uh, and you went to school with some pretty influential people, right? Yeah. It was, you know, it was weird that I even got in. Um, I totally didn't expect that I applied early at mission. I thought it would be a cool place to go because I knew all about the Cameron crazies. We had just lost a Louisville in the 86 title game. They were nuts. I wasn't good enough to play basketball in college. So I ended up going there, literally site in sight unseen. They gave me a good financial package. And I went, I was not one of the typical duties. I drove buses for four years on campus, 20 hours a week driving the rich kids around. And there's nothing better than making a left turn up on somebody's bumper, who's in a BMW. And then having to back out of the way, um, that was great. I learned that people are people, you know, it doesn't matter what your background is. Um, influential people. Sure. Christian was a jerk. I'm saying that publicly, he really was, he was hired jerk and he was a great basketball player. You know, who wasn't a jerk Bobby Hurley. That kid was cool as he could be. Um, I remember once in particular, he was over at my fraternity where I was, and let's just say he had enjoyed himself an awful lot. I mean, he's still a public figure. He's coach at Arizona state. And so we, um, some brothers and I, uh, my fraternity brothers, we were a little worried that the head basketball coach would have something to say about what we had been doing. So we helped Mr. Hurley out a window and laid him gently to sleep on the bench outside of a sorority house where he didn't wake up till the next morning. And then he came back around and was asking us questions and his New Jersey w what up. And I woke up
Speaker 4:Outside the pie fives. And I didn't know,
Speaker 2:You know, uh, like, I don't know, Bobby, were you on, did we see you? So he was pretty fun, but yet, um, I'm really proud of some of the folks, uh, that have done well that I went to school with. One of my best friends is the editor. He's now the managing editor of the Charlotte newbs and observer. Wow. That's right. He had bill O'Reilly, uh, threatened to throw him under his desk one time. That was fun. Um, well, when you, when you get that from bill O'Reilly, you know, you're doing something right. You're doing something right. That's right. That was in the whole bathroom. You know, the back, all that, they had a few years back, you know, one of my buddies is the CEO of the sub air corporation that he has family owns that they put basically air pipes under, uh, golf course greens. And they also outfitted most of the soccer fields in Brazil for the world cup. That was pretty neat. That's cool. I've got another buddy that I'm good friends with. That is the CEO of this little hamburger place, you know, um, little hamburger place. Yeah. And I'll just say that, uh, ki and grimace are on a first name basis. All right. He signs grimaces paycheck. So it's been fun. Gosh, it's been 30 years since I graduated from college, it's been fun to track some of the careers of the people that we knew there. I actually met Dick Gephardt. His son was my, uh, another one of my fraternity brothers. I keep talking about, I mean, it was a big part of my life back then. Um, I actually met the house majority leader when he was unpacking his son stuff in his room and, uh, building a loft. And he, he was asking us for advice cause we were two years older and this is, you know, a guy who's making policy and eventually Dick Gephardt ran for president, but he's asking us for advice. Um, you may have heard of Travis stork. Another one of my pals from college. Yeah. Bachelor. He's one of the original chancellors. Yeah. Now on the doctors. So we just got our audience back. That's fantastic. You know? Well, sorry. He didn't pick them, but you know, we have a great undergrad undergraduate career. I can't say that word today. Uh, did you go to graduate school there as well? No, no, no. So when I graduated, um, there was this girl. Oh yeah. There's all, there's always a girl, a girl or a guy. And um, we made a decision. She happened to be from Henderson, which to me has been the most wonderful, fantastic thing about Henderson. Kentucky is the former Emily Weiland. She told me we got married young and start a family. And she told me if we're going to move away for law school, it's not going to be the wake forest or somewhere like that, Carolina. I didn't get admitted. I got wait-listed. There are a lot of reasons. I don't like the university of North Carolina. I don't know anything powder blue, Brent. There you go. And, um, so anyway, we decided to move closer to home and I ended up at the university of Cincinnati for law school. That was a great experience as well. I worked at a small firm, had offers a bigger firms, but I worked during school at a small firm with three lawyers. And they gave me a ton of responsibility as a law student, which I really appreciated a lot of client contact with a variety of clients. We were a general litigation firm and I stayed with them for the first two and a half years of my career. And then I had an offer from a firm in Henderson. They called me out of the clear blue sky. I thought about, I was like, yeah, I don't know. Well, Emily and I had just had our fourth kid in six years. Our parents all lived here in the same neighborhood in Highlander still, which is one of the reasons I got to know the divine, miss Emily. And, uh, so we made the decision to move back to Henderson and raise our family here in 1997. I love it. I mean, I just, I can't believe how great Henderson has been to us, to our family. We have not only is this my hometown now that I sing Henderson's praises everywhere, but it's, it's where all four of my kids were born and raised and raised right here. Not really born, I guess, but they were raised right here in Henderson is their hometown. Two of them, uh, still live here with us, which is great. So that's fantastic. So you committed to becoming a hinder Sonian and you have lived up to that the entire way. So you have businesses here. Yes. Yes. Tell me a little bit about that. Sure. So I started out as an associated, uh, at, uh, on main street. I started work in 1997 and, um, I spent two and a half, three years, uh, with that one law firm and got a lot of experience doing some different things. Then I moved to another law firm, which I focused more on specifically civil litigation. You know, I was doing some criminal work and domestic relations, which, you know, I guess, like I say, I was getting pretty good at it quite honestly. And uh, really felt a connection with clients and would go to bat for clients. And people knew that. But the problem with domestic relations is that families are always splitting up and it's just sad at the end of the day, the problem with criminal law are the criminals, right? They're kind of a big part of criminal law. And truthfully, I don't, I mean, I am a judge, I judge my clients and I don't, you know, I don't like dealing with criminals. Um, so I didn't do that. I can't even spell bankruptcy and I never was one to feel like people should Welch on their, their debt. So you found your niche, you found your place in my niche. Thank you, Terry. Nofsinger my mentor. One of the best lawyers Evansville has ever produced. I was, I had the foresight to get licensed on both sides of the river immediately and started practicing in court on both sides of the liver of the river. I'd tell people I ain't scared. I'll go to Indiana. And because it felt more like Cincinnati, honestly, with the bigger court and the laws are a little bit closer to that than they are in Kentucky. So Terry Nofsinger introduced me to civil litigation, contingency style litigation, and personal injury. We looked at the landscape and there weren't, there just weren't many people doing what I do representing people who had been hurt through no fault of their own. There were no other firms doing it at the time in Henderson. So we decided to do that. I started a firm in 2004 called Morton and Bach with my partner, my former partner and still good friend, Sam Bach. And we kept that and he was a defense lawyer for workers' comp. He's represented a lot of companies and does well for them, but the business model just wasn't working for us. So in 2011, we, uh, I started, um, uh, heard Hamilton injury law. It's been 10 years and we've represented in the last 10 years. We're right at the thousand Mark in terms of clients we've helped. Now we have an office over in Evansville on the West side, we have an office in Henderson and it's been great, you know, I mean, that's, we have been well and truly blessed and
Speaker 1:Folks that need some sort of protection when they're injured. Yeah, yeah. So
Speaker 2:No, everybody hates lawyers. Brent, I don't think that's any sort of flash news. And, uh, I get that upfront, uh, for sure. We have that, that conversation with people that come in, the people that come in, that we help our folks that well. And I just talked to a client who was in a head-on collision, broke his leg. The insurance company for the other guy says that, well, you should have known that the other car was coming your way and you should have gone over more to the right. So 25% of the liability we're putting on you. Well, that's crazy. And so he called me because, you know, he didn't feel like he was being treated fairly. And so we're able to represent him. And typically what we do is it's not just the big number at the end, which is great, but we manage people's cases from the time they come in, when they're hurt there. I mean, I had a client in a wheelchair today, a man that I love really gotten to know. Um, but from the time they're hurt to the time we finish their case, we help manage their medical bills or expenses. We help them replace lost wages and deal with all the aggravation that comes with a momentary snap. Your fingers decision that someone made that hurt our clients. Yep. Well, for the lay person, the court system is extremely intimidating. I don't get intimidated by very many things, but a few years ago I went through a divorce and I was scared
Speaker 1:To death to go in there because I had no idea how my future was going to turn out. And it was in the hands of other people.
Speaker 2:So, you know, if I had a choice between trusting my, uh, lawyer friend, who's my neighbor or a, um, insurance
Speaker 1:Bunny that has an office in New York or Connecticut or something, it's pretty clear as to what I'm going to do, but right. You know, Kurt Hamilton
Speaker 2:Law, one 10, uh, North main street at one 10 North main, uh, Kurt Hamilton injury law, because literally all we do is represent people that have been hurt. And we also, uh, you know, and that's car wrecks, semi-truck racks. We've had a lot of those just lately. Um, motorcycle cases. I've had more than a hundred of those. We did. We used to do some professional negligence cases. We don't really do that anymore. Nursing home abuse cases, I've done a bunch of those. My partner, Nathan Bishop does social security disability cases. And he helps people who have been denied disability, get this ability. And now, uh, we also have another lawyer that I've brought in Shannon King and she is, um, workers' compensation cases. All of what we do is on a no recovery, no fee basis. We don't get paid by anyone for anything until the case ends and we win period. And, uh, that's why there are no clocks at all in my office, which means I can babble on and on and on, on a podcast. Without any respect to your time, Brent, I'm sorry. Well, we're going to put a link to, uh, the firm in our show notes. So you can find that there, you can find those@sixtwelvenorthmain.com. That's six one two N M a I n.com. Kurt. I've got to ask you about some of your hobbies. Yeah, sure. You are. Or an international traveler. You're a scuba diver. You hike, you used to run. I don't know if you still do that or not, but one of my absolute favorite hobbies did you have, uh, is centered on a certain type of sports car? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a dude, Brent, uh, as you know, I'm six, five used to be a whole lot bigger. Yeah. Uh, girth wise and, you know, I had my first good fee, um, on a case we'd been paid off. Some debts, uh, felt like college was taken care of for our kids. So I decided to get, I want to get a sports car and I loved the last generation Corvette, fantastic two-seater car. I love the way they look. I went to our local Chevrolet dealership. Uh, you know, Henderson Chevrolet love the folks there bought vehicles there. And I went to sit in this Corvette and the guy looks at me. He's like, well, you better try the convertible. I put the seat all the way down all the way back, sat down as low as I could. My knees were hitting the dash and I could see right over the top windshield. So I thought, well, okay, is anything going to fit as, as good as my old, uh, two 80 Z, my Datsun two 80 Z, my first car home. And those were great. Oh, it was great cars. You know, inline six gas tank strapped your butt, two seats, steering wheel four tires, man, that thing would ride. I saw Porsche nine, 11 was used. It was maybe eight years used at the time over, uh, in Evansville. I sat in it and test drove it. I didn't even drive it with the seat all the way back. I did a bunch of research and ended up buying one very similar, but with an upgraded motor. So that was six years ago. I joined the, uh, Porsche club of America, which is the largest single Mark, uh, club, uh, of any par club in the world. And I became the president. I don't know who asked me to do this, but they wrote me into being the president of the Southern Indiana region of the Porsche club of America. We have about 160 members. We get together on the first Saturday of every month at D Patrick, uh, Porsche, which we use as our, uh, showroom or our clubhouse, I guess. So I've got this moderate out, this nine 11. I just got a quick check thing. My friend, Rob Tearney an engineer here in Henderson has helped me put an upgraded muffler system on it. I love going down
Speaker 5:Your neck of the woods and Tennessee driving the dragon, which I've done maybe two
Speaker 2:20 times. Um, it's a lot of fun and people say, well, wait a minute, you're a personal injury lawyer. How is it that you drive these little fast cars? It's like, well, I'd drive them safely. Most of the time fully within the constraints of the law. Yes. You can go places where no one's coming the other direction. And if you don't take the turn correctly, you slide off in the grass, right? Like the Corvette track and like the Putnam park track in Indiana. Well, I was going to ask you if you have you met a corner that you can't take yet. No comment. Okay. Very good. I understand that. Yeah. So I love the sports cars. That's something you and I have talked about throughout our, our, um, acquaintance has had a Mercedes. I have to, I have to stop here and tell you that, uh, after my divorce, Kurt was kind enough to allow me to rent the awesome. I mean the coolest apartment in Henderson is above his law farm, the lifeboat, the lifeboat. Yeah. It truly was a lifeboat for me.[inaudible] yeah. Thank you. So w one of the things I will never forget is I had no garage had the park on the street and of course I had to move the car every two hours, but that's a different podcast altogether. Every three now, you know, every three, wow. I'm going to save all kinds of time. But, uh, one of the things I had to do was take my door off the hinges of my little Mercedes sports car convertible right in front of your office. And it was like this ghetto garage. And of course, everybody, I know walked past that on that particular day. Like I never see anybody until I'm out there doing some craziness, but, uh, I love the sports cars I got to ask you about scuba diving is the most memorable location you've ever. Oh, easy. That one's easy. So Emily and I have done maybe 80, 85 dives, um, for her birthday a couple of years ago, she wanted to go to Hawaii and swim with Montereys at night, which was great. We had these mannerisms that were 10 feet across, literally going right over our heads. We 45 feet underwater in the dark of night on the big Island. That was number two, number two, number one, the previous week we did what's called a Blackwater dive. And basically what we did was we got into wetsuits. Um, we got on the boat in Kona, the big Island, you know, the under really a lot like Henderson truth be told except Hawaii. Um, very low key. As the sun went down, we went a couple of miles off shore to where it was seven, 8,000 feet deep. And the dive is called pelagic magic. So it was kind of rainy and stormy, but we tied off, we got our gear on, we tied off on a 50 foot rope, got some flashlights and went straight over the edge. Now, see, that sounds more like tiger shark bait diving the bat. Right. Right. Right. Well, I mean, sharks don't hurt divers. What was the last time you heard of a diver getting hurt by a shark? Never. You know, it just doesn't happen because they think we're part of it. Now, if you're slapping around on top, like a seal, uh, then, um, yeah, they want to come to have a taste, but divers, they don't hurt. So how'd you get into diving? Well, we had, our first honeymoon was for our 25th anniversary on a Lark, like a lot of other things in my life. I was like, Hey, you want to try this? We were at a resort in the Caribbean at a sandals. I actually, um, plugged them and Emily said, do you want to share? And so we got a little pool. Okay.
Speaker 1:If you know, Emily, that was the world's perfect imitation right.
Speaker 2:Of Emily. So, yeah, that's a, so we, we tried it on a Lark. Um, we ended up doing five dives on that trip. Um, met some friends, uh, on that same trip and we got into it. And then we ended up buying our own gear. And, you know, so, like I said, we've done probably 85 dives now. And I I've, I was just talking with Jordan, Myra Cole, um, the executive director of the Ohio Valley art league about underwater photography and how to make my camera work better. Brent it's, it's a completely different, unique and interesting world that no one really gets to see too much when you snorkel, you can see some of it, but snorkeling scuba is a whole lot easier and it's all about safety, but it's a whole lot easier than snorkel because you're not getting slapped around by the way. And it's very peaceful and quiet in the fish. Don't bother you. And it's, you know, but yeah, that, that pelagic night dive when we're shining our light on these weird UFO looking things that have all this, uh, bioluminescence of different colors and a lot of jellies and invertebrates and squid like passing us everywhere. And that was crazy. I mean, I get like chills just thinking about it, cause it was scary kind of ankle. I'm going to have to try it again,
Speaker 1:As you know, went to sandals for our, our, uh, wedding moon as well. And, uh, I tried the dive class after talking to you. It's like, Oh man, I'm so excited about this. And I just couldn't get comfortable in the little short time that we have to train. So I'm going to come back and do it maybe in a pool that I know where I can sit there at the bottom of the pool for a little longer
Speaker 2:Get comfortable breathing, but I want to move on
Speaker 1:And ask you a little bit more about your community service. You've already told us about being the president of the Porsche club, but you're also on other boards.
Speaker 2:I see you all over town helping others. Uh, tell me a little bit about downtown Henderson partnership and the lions club. Sure. Well, I'm going to take them in reverse order. Um, and first of all, again, Henderson has been so wonderful to my family. Um, such a great place to live. How could I not give back? I mean, both of us do, how can we not do that? That's the bigger question stuns me that people can live here their entire lives and not do something to give back to their community. Um, you know, volunteer, volunteer to help your fellow man, instead of complaining about things, go fix the things that you're complaining about. Anyway, that's my PSA. So, um, as far as the community service, I actually started with the lions club, a local realtor, Jim Collier, uh, asked me to go with him when I was a new lawyer in town. Then the idea with civic organizations and that sort of thing, we're about really got to like the lions club. I started, somebody nominated me for an office and I moved my way through the presidency of that. Uh, I was the one I was chairman of the auction committee when we moved it from the old way out at the community college and the old TV show into an online deal. And 2011, I guess. And, uh, you know, all I did was I was the chair, but everybody else was doing the work. The lion's club was great. And that was an introduction to a number of other things. I got heavily involved in the chamber of commerce, where I was with you. And, um, I was the vice chairman for public policy, or I guess it was a vice-president or public policy at the time we chaired the public policy board. I did that for two or three years. Um, even though my politics might be a little different from some others, but it was interesting to have discussions. And I always encouraged us to have open and honest discussions and I encourage people that it was okay to disagree. If we don't disagree, then all we're going to find is the lowest common denominator where everybody agrees and that's simply not going to happen. And if I'm in the minority, you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to fully support the majority decision of our organization. And I really wish the world were more like that.
Speaker 1:Right. We can, we can disagree, but do it respectfully and kindly and we grow
Speaker 2:As you. I don't, I'm sure it's no secret that as I've aged, my political views have changed. They've softened quite a bit, uh, moved more to the center saying we can do that because we can have adult conversations and hear each other out. And if we all agreed
Speaker 1:All the time, what a boring place, boring
Speaker 2:Place that would be. Yeah. So, um, so I was very involved with the chamber. Um, my office has hosted, uh, with the downtown Henderson partnership. We sponsored events, uh, concerts and whatnot. You know, I own a building in downtown Henderson. We have a business in downtown Henderson where I've been for a long time. Um, we had hosted the, uh, art hop gallery since its inception rate event. I love that rate event. And so, uh, one of the former directors asked me to be on the board. So I decided to do that. I was on the YMCA board as well for five or six years, but so downtown Henderson, I've now, uh, I'm now the president of our Henderson board, which is, it's really been a fun year because we're reopening and we can, and people are itching, itching to get out Brent and to do things and to see things and to see each other for me, going to court. Good Lord. I love going to court. I haven't been to court since March 9th of 2020, but I've got a live hearing next week over in Warren County and I'm digressing. But when I'm in person, you get all of me, all six foot five inches with the loud volume on zoom. I'm five foot eight, like everyone else. And you can just turn me down or hit the mute button. And, uh, and I'm sitting at my desk. So, so anyway, yeah, the DHP has been great. We have a fantastic executive director and Lindsay LaCosta who has a number of great events planned. Um, we've been, we've had a new membership drive where we have individual members who live in the downtown district, like at six, 12, North main for a hundred dollars each you get t-shirts you get this cool mug and some schwag, and we're going to have a couple of members, only events for people. So we have Porchfest coming up next month, which was a huge hit on South main private event. We've got the 3rd of July fireworks coming. I mean, just people need to go to downtown henderson.org and fit in, see what, what exactly we're doing there. So yeah, if you're looking for influencers in the Henderson area, I would highly recommend downtown Henderson project along with the chamber and tourism. Those, those three are really doing amazing jobs. I will tell you that. I think that I'm the most recent, uh, member and downtown Henderson partnership paying my dues this morning. Welcome as well. Thank you so much. I appreciate the presidential welcome in. It means a lot, but yeah, you know, there is value there and there is service there that just needs to be done. So I appreciate that group moving the needle in Henderson and I can't wait to be a part of it if I could. Brent, um, I like to highlight something else I'm very proud of in Henderson and that's, uh, I was one of the founding directors of the Henderson community foundation, which is a very quiet organization in what we do. Um, it's partners with pal, uh, partnership, uh, women and the, uh, bourbon society, um, that you remember of. Yes, absolutely. It's one of the Henderson community foundation, um, organizations, and we've raised two,$3 million, uh, somewhere in that neighborhood. Um, I wrote the bylaws for that and was on the board. I sort of have a self-imposed firm limit of five, five years, six, if you bag. And then I think new blood needs to come in, but man, that was great. And, uh, the Henderson community foundation and its organizations have done so much good, quiet work for people that doesn't get a whole lot of publicity, but I'm really excited about the text in it being a part of that group. Yes, absolutely hoping to move that forward. So Chuck is as an amazing guy and I'm, I'm glad to hear that he's going to be a part of that. Uh, we plan on talking to both Chuck and to some other folks, uh, about where the community foundation is going and what they've done, but thank you for being a part of that. I thank you. Thank you for being a part of this show today. I really appreciate you being here. You're a great community servant. You're a fantastic friend and you're one of the interesting stories to be told in Henderson, Kentucky. So we're going to have you back and, uh, I know you like a microphone, so I hope you, I don't have to twist your arm pretty much. The only way to get me away from a microphone is to drag me or just turn it off then I'll just shout louder. I promise. All right. Kurt Hamilton. Thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for having me. Yes. Thank you, Brett.
Speaker 6:This has been[inaudible].