Ep 5 Kalamity Kate & Cartoon Corral

Back in 1971, host Diane M. Simard spent her 5th birthday as a guest on a kids' after-school show called Cartoon Corral. The show, produced by KOLN-KGIN TV in Lincoln, Nebraska, was hosted by "Kalamity Kate," portrayed by Leta Powell Drake.  

In this episode, Diane shares how Cartoon Corral helped introduce her to Unlikely Gifts Podcast Editor/Producer, Larry  King, over 50 years later. Not only did Diane make her "professional television debut" on the show, she learned some valuable early life lessons that day. 


Personal website:  https://www.dianemsimard.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/DianeMSimard1965
LinkedIn (Personal):  https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-moravec-simard/ 
LinkedIn (Unlikely Gift Productions):  https://www.linkedin.com/company/81847025/admin/
Diane's book:  https://www.dianemsimard.com/book/

Larry's Sorta Fun Stories podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larrys-sorta-fun-stories/id1612127522

Transcript

Diane M. Simard: 0:05

Hi, and welcome to episode two of the Unlikely Gifts Podcast. I'm your host, Diane M. Samard, and I'm here with my sidekick, Larry King.

SPEAKER_00: 0:14

Congratulations and welcome to episode two.

Diane M. Simard: 0:17

Today we're going to share a story that prompted us to launch the Unlikely Gifts Podcast. Larry, why don't you start to share the story behind the story of how we met and we decided to join forces?

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

Well, this is kind of like an unlikely gift story to start with. Here, I'm I got a podcast called Larry's Sort of Fun Stories. And one of my fun stories was I was in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was a TV director, and there was a show called Cartoon Corral. And I was trying to find information on Cartoon Corral. So I went on the internet and I found a blog by Diane that she had been on Cartoon Corral for her fifth birthday. So I said, uh that's it. And then come to find out, I was directing the program that she was a she was a participant in. So I I emailed Diane, and what was your response?

Diane M. Simard: 1:12

Well, at first, I actually thought it was a joke that Larry King was reaching out to me. That was my first thought. And and then I realized that it was sincere because you referenced my blog and that you had worked at uh the 1011 TV station and that you were likely working the day that I was on Cartoon Corral. And I thought, what are the chances?

SPEAKER_00: 1:35

What and I was chances, yeah.

Diane M. Simard: 1:37

Exactly. I was so honored, honored that you reached out. So um again, I wrote that blog almost five years ago, and uh my fifth birthday was a very special day. Uh, we're gonna talk more about that here in a moment. And so he we decided to record uh on Larry's sort of podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 2:00

We recorded uh you recorded it for it's on my podcast, which by the way, Larry's sort of fun story, so you can listen to it there. And uh, you know, after 25 minutes of us talking together after we got off the air, we decided that hey, maybe Diane's got a podcast as well. So that's why we're on the unlikely gifts.

Diane M. Simard: 2:21

Exactly. Well, and again, uh Larry has uh a great perspective also about uh 1011 strong in central and Lincoln, Nebraska. Actually, uh everyone in the whole state can watch this television station, which is unique in it in itself. And again, on our next podcast, we're gonna switch roles and actually I'm gonna ask Larry questions about those days in the early 1970s when he was there.

SPEAKER_00: 2:50

I love to be the answer man.

Diane M. Simard: 2:52

Exactly, exactly. And he has some really interesting stories about the the TV broadcasters and stories behind the stories, and we're gonna share those next time. So be sure to uh to turn it to tune in for that.

SPEAKER_00: 3:06

Well, today we're gonna be talking about Calamity Kate Cartoon Corral, your fifth birthday. So um were you a fan of Cartoon Corral? This was this came on at 3 30 in the afternoon.

Diane M. Simard: 3:20

I sure was, and and in fact, when I went to, as I uh mentioned in our last podcast, elementary school at our teeny little schoolhouse in Coatesfield, Nebraska, school would get out at 3:30. And so I would always always run home so I could catch Cartoon Corral. And Cartoon Corral was uh a locally produced all-original content show that was produced there in in Lincoln. And the uh it was hosted by Lita Powell Drake.

SPEAKER_00: 3:51

Calamity Kate.

Diane M. Simard: 3:53

Yes, uh, who we all all of us kids knew as Calamity Kate. So it was uh you can't miss after school requirement to watch Cartoon Corral.

SPEAKER_00: 4:03

So you probably got home at uh uh 340. I mean, you didn't get in there right there in the first cartoon. You're probably seeing the second. And these were the good days when we had Bugs Bunny cartoons. That was the fun thing. I mean, there were good cartoons back then.

Diane M. Simard: 4:17

Sure.

SPEAKER_00: 4:18

Not this wacky stuff they are today. So uh so how what what how did you get to the studio? Mom suggested that you get on the show, or what?

Diane M. Simard: 4:28

So that was the big deal with Cartoon Corral, is that they wanted kids from all over Nebraska to come to the station and be on Cartoon Corral on their birthdays. And so I had been pleading and betting begging my mother to to take me to Lincoln, Nebraska so I could make my professional television debut on Cartoon Corral on my fifth birthday.

SPEAKER_00: 4:48

And so how far away are you from Lincoln to where you're Coatesfield?

Diane M. Simard: 4:55

Yeah, so it was 150 miles away. So that was quite um a trip, a big deal. So mom loaded uh my brother Lee, my sister Marilyn, and me in the car, and we drove and we actually stayed overnight the night before with her sister, um the Breckenridge family, there in Lincoln. They lived in Lincoln.

SPEAKER_00: 5:14

Oh, that's always a good idea to arrive early, give yourself an extra day. That's what we're saying on the travel business today. So you're doing it right.

Diane M. Simard: 5:23

Oh, you have to these days for sure, for sure. So uh yeah, and I remembered it was it's out my birthday is September 1st, and so it's always around Labor Day, which always meant that the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln was going on. It's since moved out to Grand Island, Nebraska, but there was so much going on, but it was a a real rainy period, and I just remember it was rainy and cloudy and miserable, but I was so excited because I was going to be on Cartoon Corral.

SPEAKER_00: 5:49

Well, what was it? What was your opinion? Had you ever seen the station before? Had you ever been close to a TV station?

Diane M. Simard: 5:57

I had no idea. I had no idea what to expect. I I just didn't know. I I thought I just walked into a building and all of a sudden you were on television, and that was magic.

SPEAKER_00: 6:07

That was magic, yeah. So you get to the studio, you're there, you you're with your family, and uh you walk into the building. It was a nice clean building, by the way. It was a very fine building, and it's still there on 40 40th Street.

Diane M. Simard: 6:23

Is that uh I was doing some research, 40th and Vine, I believe. 40th and Vine. The original that building is where the station uh was housed when it launched in 1953, and it's still there today. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 6:35

Amazing, amazing. Yeah, yep. So what happened when you get to the station?

Diane M. Simard: 6:40

So we walked in the side door for Cartoon Corral participants. There was a special door for us, and it and I everything just continued to I thought I am so special. This is my birthday. I wasn't too happy that my siblings were coming to the station with me. Um, I was a little concerned about that, but once we walked in the door, I was just stunned because there were these big television camel cameras and these silver boxes on the floor with these thick black hoses running everywhere, which of course is all the electrical wiring. And and we literally were just stepping over, and I was afraid I was gonna get electrocuted. But but it it was and it was just bright. I remembered they had the all the lights were turned on, and it was just bright, and it was I was overwhelmed. I was just shocked. I got very frightened right away.

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

Oh, really? So had you seen Calamity before you got on the air before the show started?

Diane M. Simard: 7:35

Uh no, and um I didn't really think much about that, but I did happen to look across and I saw her. I knew it was her, but she wasn't dressed up as Calamity Kate. Oh, she was wearing green overalls. I I I assume, I mean, heck, I would be comfortable too. She's got to go hang out with a bunch of bratty little kids for 30 minutes, right? So I would be as comfortable. But she was leaning up against a wall wearing a green jumpsuit and she was smoking. That's what we when you could smoke inside, right? Yeah. And I thought she reminded me of Kate, the car mechanic. And I I it it again, I just began to realize that Calamity Kate, the woman who was Calamity Kate, was not Calamity Kate all the time. And that was the first moment that I realized that. And so all of a sudden, my world, it was the first opportunity I had as a five-year-old little girl to realize that television is to me make-believe. And the characters that you see on TV, not all of them are who they appear to be, and that scared me even more.

SPEAKER_00: 8:46

So so you're in the studio. Now, what happened? Were you I know that they there were benches for this for the studio audience for you?

Diane M. Simard: 8:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:55

How was it sitting in the studio?

Diane M. Simard: 8:57

It was it was so bright, and the I remembered the benches were low. I I thought they were fake benches, but Larry, you told me they were they're made, they were made out of wood.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

Absolutely.

Diane M. Simard: 9:08

Yeah, the real deal.

SPEAKER_00: 9:09

Those were not fake.

Diane M. Simard: 9:11

No, they weren't. And so what you saw on um on camera were rows of benches in the background, and the kids would sit on the benches. And once we got there, they just realized they didn't have apparently September 1st is not a real popular day for birthdays, or it wasn't that day. So my siblings got recruited to be on the show too, and that was let down number two because I was not going to be the only one in the family on television that day. And again, young and innocent, I thought that was I just was crushed. So anyway, they were put in the back is filler, as I call it, and Calamity Kate, sorry, Lita Pell Drake knew enough not to go and talk to them when she interviewed all the kids, but it just was so bright in the studio, and the lights were just I had never been in a room with so many lights. And and yet you couldn't see anything because the lights were so blinding.

SPEAKER_00: 10:06

Isn't that amazing? Now, were you so you couldn't see any of the cartoons? The show the show was a half an hour long and there were cartoons going on.

Diane M. Simard: 10:15

There were, and and we just sat there, we had no idea what was going on, and so things were happening, and of course, you were plugging playing commercials and cartoons, probably, because that's what you used to do, right?

SPEAKER_00: 10:27

Right, right. I was in the glass room on the other side of your it would be to your left.

Diane M. Simard: 10:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

That's where you where I was.

Diane M. Simard: 10:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 10:35

Behind the behind the glass door.

Diane M. Simard: 10:38

Well, so we just sat there, that's all we did until it was time for the interviews. And and I I think what the format was, you probably remember better than I do, but I think they started the show. Calamity Kate said some words and then cartoons. Let's go to a cartoon, yes. Exactly. And then after the first commercial break, I believe, then it was time for the interviews.

SPEAKER_00: 11:04

And you were ready for it, right?

Diane M. Simard: 11:06

Yeah, I well, I thought I was. And so what happens with the interviews is that um Calamity Kate carried, you remember the 1970s microphone with what looked like a stick, and then you know, what looks like um uh the microphone piece with the fuzzy ball on the end.

SPEAKER_00: 11:23

I believe it was an RE15.

Diane M. Simard: 11:25

See? And no one but you would appreciate that, right? And so Calamity Kate would go row by row, it was an interview.

SPEAKER_00: 11:32

It was a hand microphone with wires on it too, back then.

Diane M. Simard: 11:36

There exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 11:37

So there weren't it wasn't a wireless mic.

Diane M. Simard: 11:39

And that's and that's key to the story because she would weave in between all of us kids that were seated there, and then the of course cameraman had to follow her and to get the close-up shots of all of us kids. And so um she would stick them.

SPEAKER_00: 11:53

I was in the control room saying, take one, take two.

Diane M. Simard: 11:57

Exactly, exactly. Avoid that one, get that close, yeah. Watch that little child.

SPEAKER_01: 12:02

Yes.

Diane M. Simard: 12:03

So so the funny thing with the the corded microphone is that she had to whip this microphone in and around kids, and then it was always she kept a death grip on the microphone because we all wanted to hold the microphone and she wouldn't let us. And so we would always try to grab it out of her hands, and so she was swatting kids away. Well, anyway, it um came time she came to me. It was my time to be in interviewed, and she asked two questions, three questions, excuse me. Name, hometown, what do you want to be when you grow up?

SPEAKER_00: 12:35

And you were ready for this.

Diane M. Simard: 12:38

Well, I I thought I was as it turns out. So she said, uh, what hello, what's your name? And I said, My maiden name was Muravik Czech. I said, uh Diane Moravik. And she said, And where are you from? And I said, Coatesfield. And then she said, and what do you want to be when you grow up? And it was at that moment I realized I had forgotten to come up with a really sophisticated career choice. And so in the early 1970s, and again, this was 1970, it seemed like all the kids on Cartoon Corral, if you were a boy, you wanted to be an astronaut, and if you were a girl, you wanted to be, we didn't call them flight attendants, they were stewardesses back then. And so I panicked because I thought, oh man, I had meant to think of a really sophisticated, cool career that I wanted to get into, and I forgot. So I just blurted out stewardess. And it was so I ended up being as average as they come. There was nothing special about me, but I was most disappointed because I had brought a prop. And every once in a while, if you're lucky, Calamity Kate would let these kids talk about a toy or something they brought. And I had brought a purse that my grandma Morabic had made for me out of out of an inch, you know, the plastic dish soap bottles. And I think this was ivory. This was a white one, so she cut off the bottom half, like, and so it was the bottom half of a plastic um soap bottle, and then she crocheted the top, and she had punched holes around, and so she had crocheted, and so it was a crochet purse purse made out of a soap bottle, and I forgot to talk about my prop. And so she was off, and it was impossible for me to break in, and you know, you could just couldn't do that, wasn't allowed, and so I was so crushed because I had failed at my career choice and I had forgotten to talk about my prop. And so then I just was it was really a letdown Lurie, and it was such a cool experience, but I it was the first of many goofs, is what I always say. It was the first time in a lifetime of failures that I I had these high expectations. I thought I was gonna nail it, and I just I didn't fail, I didn't embarrass myself, I just was average.

SPEAKER_00: 14:58

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And I can identify with that. And I'm sure other people have done that as well. But but your your your first time on television.

Diane M. Simard: 15:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:09

And then what career did you happen to get into?

Diane M. Simard: 15:13

Interestingly, um, it was print journalism. I wish I had gotten into broadcast journalism now, but uh I I ended up uh going to journalism school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, which was Kearney State College at the time. And I had been in community college for three years making money. That's just a funny thing about me. And so I thought, well, I need a bachelor's degree. So I transferred to Kearney State another two and a half years of college, and I finally picked it, it was actually a journalism degree with a public relations emphasis. And so in my career, I've done a lot of business writing, and not until within the last seven years have I really started capturing stories. And of course, that was all triggered, as as listeners have learned from the previous podcast by my breast cancer experience seven years ago and writing a book. And come to find out, I just think some of these stories from childhood are just they're just priceless. They're just so sincere and memorable. And I thought my world had just been crushed because I'd blown my cartoon corral debut. I felt like I had. McDonald's always delivered a box full of hamburgers for the birthday kids who are on Cartoon Corral. And so as a really finicky eater back then, I wish I was that finicky now, and I'm not. And so I had it was a day they didn't, I don't think they did that. They didn't did not deliver hamburgers every day, did they, or did they? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00: 17:09

That I do not remember.

Diane M. Simard: 17:10

Anyway, it was the day when they delivered hamburgers, and so um the show started at 3 30. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:17

You think the the hamburgers got there at 2 30?

Diane M. Simard: 17:20

They I'll just say they were not hot off the grill. And so um, I was such a finicky eater, and then I was almost ready to cry because I had botched my television interview, and then we were forced to eat hamburgers on air, and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't do it, and I was almost in tears, and so I just remembered them saying, Well, just act like you like, just take a bite and act like so I did that, so I was faking it, and um, and then it got even more humiliating because then um they brought out the yo-yos, they gave us gifts, and and it was yo-yo, yo-yo day on cartoon corral the day I was there, and so all the other cool birthday kids but me were able to do all these cool yo-yo tricks like walk the dog and all the and I just I mine I couldn't do it, and so it was it was more and more of a letdown. And then as it turned out, my brother and sister got way more attention than than I did because they were kind of messing around in the back, and you know, they just any it it so they they got to be on TV after all, and I was so jealous about that.

SPEAKER_00: 18:26

So, so the thing is you probably wanted to be on the Oprah show and get a car load of stuff and you got a yo-yo and a and a cold hamburger, right? Yeah, that was way before Oprah got on the air.

Diane M. Simard: 18:38

It was, it was, but in all honesty, what a what a great experience, and what I I just commend what that television station did, and we're gonna get into that next time more and more. But how that the concept and the culture at that television station was to really serve the citizens right in in so many ways. And I and that's what I I mean today. You don't get to do this. Today to be on um television, it's a pay to play. You have to pay. If you want it's an infomercial, you have to yeah, you Larry, you and I could go do our podcast. We'd have to pay to be on television, and and they'd put us on at 3 a.m., right?

SPEAKER_00: 19:18

Well, right.

Diane M. Simard: 19:20

And it's still cost us a fortune.

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

But you know, I I looked that up the other day. I wanted to put a an infomercial on. And back in the day you used to go on at 10 30 at night or whatever. Right. They said now it's 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in the morning is when the big time for infomercials. Interesting. That's that's just a sidelight. Now that's nothing extra. I mean, it won't cost you extra for that bit of information.

Diane M. Simard: 19:45

Interesting. Well, I have to say I'm not one up watching infomercials at Odark 30. That would not be me.

SPEAKER_00: 19:52

So you know what we want to do is I think I think so many kids probably went through Cartoon Corral that. That maybe someone else has a story that they'd like to share with you. So how would they do that?

Diane M. Simard: 20:07

Yeah, thank you. Anyone who is listening who is either on the show or has memories of the show, I'd love to hear from you. So feel free, please go to my website, DianeMSemar.com, and uh you can reach out to me through the contact link and we'll we'll connect. And I'd love to hear your story and maybe share your story because these are um again, our generation, many are not gonna even know what we're talking about here very soon.

SPEAKER_00: 20:36

So well, and the name of this podcast and your blog is Unlikely Gifts.

Diane M. Simard: 20:40

Exactly. And and and that really was a an unlikely gift. And I did I have four takeaways that I'd like to to share also, Larry. Okay, that that I learned from that um experience that that stick with me today. And and number one being that even on my birthday, I could be scatterbrained and uncoordinated. That continues to this day. But I still have to keep trying my best. And even though I viewed my television, my excuse me, my professional television debut as a failure, I learned a lot. And it was I I learned that um everything is not as it looks, and it was my first chance to to really realize that. Um, and the the number two takeaway was that I need to give every performance my all, but not expect everything to to go quite as it's planned when the lights go on. And this podcast is certainly an example of that.

SPEAKER_00: 21:34

I think we have gotta learn, gotta learn to roll.

Diane M. Simard: 21:38

Yes, you do roll with it. And if this takes an interesting turn, we'll just go with it, right? And life is no different. Life is no different. And the number third lesson that I learned is that my heroes and heroines are not always who they appear to be on screen, but their impact is perpetual. And obviously, because Larry, you wanted to do some research on Lita Powell Drake who played Calamity Kate, she obviously had quite an impact on you. And the fact that that this show was put together and meant so much to the kids of the Nebraska Heartland was a big, big deal. And so she's remained a lifelong model for me, role model for me. I never met her again, but I've uh once again, I'll just go and see what she does. I know she wrote a book, I know she uh really embraced the Calamity Kate persona her whole the rest of her life, and she was willing to do that. It was a really big deal, it's just a very special memory, and so I I um just admire her for that.

SPEAKER_00: 22:39

I wouldn't want to say, and my name is written in that book. So oh, it is.

Diane M. Simard: 22:44

Well, see, fantastic. Uh, and then lastly, um, to this day, I just can't eat cold hamburgers. Thanks, thanks to Cartoon Corral. It's just a thing. I I am so finicky still. My coffee has to be a certain temperature, and I I just am funny that way. But again, it's just a fond memory.

SPEAKER_00: 23:08

Can you eat a hamburger?

Diane M. Simard: 23:10

Yeah, I love hamburgers. I do.

SPEAKER_00: 23:12

I just because I've just discovered I'm going back to McDonald's now, and when I go through, I don't want to all the high pollutant stuff, I just order a hamburger.

SPEAKER_01: 23:22

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_00: 23:23

Yeah. It's amazing. They taste good.

Diane M. Simard: 23:27

Well, see, we used to get uh when we had a uh our dog at a chocolate labrador, and we're horrible people because we fed them human food. But whenever we would go through the drive-in at McDonald's, we always order just a plain hamburger, and they're like, Do you want ketchup on that? No, just a plane, and they're like, Okay, and I'm sure there's dog meals now. Everybody has dog meals and such, but we'd always get him, and he would wolf it down in two bites, it was gone.

SPEAKER_00: 23:52

Right.

Diane M. Simard: 23:53

The moment lasted all of two seconds.

SPEAKER_00: 23:55

But did you give them the bun too?

Diane M. Simard: 23:58

Of course, yeah. No, we're just we're horrible people, we really are. But um, it was it just fond memories. But um, yeah, so that's the story of calamity, Kate.

SPEAKER_00: 24:09

And as I mentioned, you're bringing up such great memories. I'm almost I'm I'm serious. I'm almost tearing. I mean, yeah. I mean, this is you're bringing back great memories, and I'm sure a lot of who's listening have had these memories as well, and they can share. So I'd love to hear from them.

Diane M. Simard: 24:26

It was uh such a time of innocence, and in such a and and life was so simple back then, and we always thought that our parents' generation that their lives were, you know, they sat around a radio for entertainment, right? We at least had television, yeah. And but it it just that we only had uh where I lived out in central Nebraska, we only had three television stations and PBS on a sunny day.

SPEAKER_00: 24:52

And hey, there was only one there was only one station for you, 10-11 strong. Come on.

Diane M. Simard: 24:57

And that's what we listened or watched most of the time. That's where we got our our news and weather. But anyway, um, we're gonna, as I mentioned, we're gonna talk more about the um story behind the story with that TV station because it's really interesting, a lot of fascinating people, and you want to talk about impact and purpose is is the mission that that station really really filled.

SPEAKER_00: 25:20

They're gonna be glad to hear this.

Diane M. Simard: 25:22

Well, see, we're we're just we're sharing the love, we're sharing the unlikely gifts, right?

SPEAKER_00: 25:28

Yeah, and you know, one of the amazing things is with the technology of today, you and I, you're in Denver, and I'm in sunny Florida, and we're doing this together and sharing great memories of living in Nebraska. That's the great thing.

Diane M. Simard: 25:43

And that's the and that's the um what brought us together. And that the fact you're right that we can we can tell these stories, come together without actually being physically together and do this and reminisce. And people are thinking gonna think either we're absolutely crazy or they're gonna say, wow, that that really brought back to a fond, special memory for me that I hadn't thought about in since I was a child.

SPEAKER_00: 26:08

Yeah.

Diane M. Simard: 26:10

And uh it's it's great to be uh middle-aged and and um having the time to reflect on those special times.

SPEAKER_00: 26:17

Well, I'm glad you said middle-aged. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

Diane M. Simard: 26:22

I'm not gonna get in trouble like last time. So, well, uh again, please share any any listener feedback or comments. Reach out to me on my website as I mentioned, and we always love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_00: 26:32

And and tell your friends about unlikely gifts.

Diane M. Simard: 26:35

Yes, please do.

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

Please do the uh the blog. And uh, you know, we always love to hear from new followers, people who are jumping on. Exactly. So that's a wrap. One more time, I want to hear from you. What is your website? Where do we get a hold of you real easily?

Diane M. Simard: 26:51

Absolutely. My website is DianeMsimard.com. And there's just go to the contact link and uh shoot me. That will send me an email and happy to connect and hear what you have to say.

SPEAKER_00: 27:04

Okay, that's a wrap for today, as they say in the biz.

Diane M. Simard: 27:08

Indeed. For more storytelling fun, I highly recommend Larry's personal podcast, Larry's Sort of Fun Stories. But before we go, I'd like to thank you, Larry, for generously sharing your production and editing capability to make this presentation possible.

SPEAKER_00: 27:23

Well, thank you very much. It's really a pleasure to do with it. You got any other thoughts?

Diane M. Simard: 27:28

Absolutely. I encourage all our listeners to please consider this invitation to remember and to reflect on those in your life who encouraged you or challenged you, taught you, or impacted you in a more memorable way. Those who are, in essence, your unlikely gifts. Thank you for listening. Please share our podcast link with your friends and be sure to join us next time. I'm Diane M. Samard, and this is the Unlikely Gifts Podcast.