Reinventing Lives Through Athletics and Mentorship: The Inspiring Journey of Ashley | Mentoring Through Athletics Ep 85

We often hear stories about people whose lives have been changed by a great mentor, but what’s even more inspiring are the stories of people who use their experience to make an even bigger impact on the world. Today, host Jamie Truman introduces us to one of these remarkable people as she talks to the founder of Mentoring Through Athletics, Ashley Montgomery.

In this episode, Ashley shares his first experience of mentorship with his beloved childhood coach, why he became a coach himself, and how he uses athletics to help the children in his community. You’ll also hear stories of young athletes that have greatly benefited from the organization, how Mentoring Through Athletics is meeting the needs of both children and parents, and what they’re doing to take their work to the next level.

Like most organizations, Mentoring Through Athletics started small before growing into the powerhouse that it is today, but mentorship has always been the backbone of their mission. So if you walk away remembering just one thing from this episode, it should be that mentors play a pivotal role in empowering children and giving them the tools to succeed in life.

Tune in now to learn more about Mentoring Through Athletics and how you can show your support!

Connect with Mentoring Through Athletics:
Website:
Facebook:
Instagram
X

Connect with Jamie at Truman Charities:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Website
YouTube
Email: info@trumancharities.com

This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Thanks, Ashley, so much for coming on and speaking with me today.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Well, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:06

Of course, you know my husband and I we well I interview you know hundreds of different charities and we've been involved with so many, and I have been looking for a charity like yours for a while, because there's there's a lot of charities that do great things and they're helping people in the short term, but there's only a couple of that I'll come across that I really feel like are moving the needle for your kids and making a significant impact in their lives, and when I heard about your organization, I got really excited when looking at it. So I'm so happy to talk to you and find out exactly what you're up to and how you're helping these children.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Awesome. Well, yeah, I can tell you I'm I'm excited to be here and I can't wait to get to it.

Speaker 1: 0:52

So Well, you know you had mentioned that you attribute athletics and coaching and your coaches to helping shape you into the man that you have become today. Can you tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 1:09

So that's, that's my story. So I, predominantly, was raised by a single mom. She did the best she knew how with all the tools that she had, but it wasn't always like that. My dad you know he was around my dad actually was a coach as well. So coaching is kind of like generational and but my dad had substance abuse challenges and so because of his challenges, he didn't achieve all the greatness that he could have as a coach.

Speaker 2: 1:41

Now I'm going to be wrong. He won a national championship as a high school basketball coach and he did a lot of great things in the community, but it was cut short because he could not overcome those challenges at that time. You know be remiss to say, though you know he is 20 plus years clean at this particular point, but it was because, you know, in the beginning we have not being there, I've really gravitated to sports and I really wanted to be sports, and so when we first moved out into suburb of Prince George's County, you know I beg my mom hey, mom, I really want to play football. You know what? Can you, can you sign me up? And so at that particular time my mom she worked for the government and most people caught the metro to work, you know, at that time, and so because of that she didn't often get home until like 630, 637 o'clock, depending on. You know what kind of took place there. So it was hard for her to get me to a practice.

Speaker 2: 2:38

One day she gets home early enough. She says, all right, well, boy, you keep bothering me, I'm going to take you up there. So she takes me up and she my mom is very direct. She goes, takes me up to the field and she meets the coach was supposed to coach the age group that I was trying to sign up for. And she tells him. She says listen, you know, I work, I'm a single mom and I'll get him here when I can, but but if I can't, you know he won't be here. And so if you're willing to still let him be a part of the team, I'll sign him up.

Speaker 2: 3:10

And so this coach, he looks at my mom and he says listen, mother, if you sign him up, I'll commit to picking him up every day for practice, you know, if needed, and getting them home, as well. As you know if, even if he needs rise to the games, and my mom says, no, I should be good for games, but you know, this coach did this for a period of about three years, picked me up every single day for practice and he had a beat up old Dotson that kind of sometimes would smoke and put the windows down, but that did not deter his commitment from picking me up for practice and I really attributed that to the seed that was planted in me. And I think the awesome part about it this coach looked nothing like me, he was an older white gentleman who had clearly been coaching for years, but he truly had a heart and a passion for children and that was the seed that at some point would spawn mentor through athletics.

Speaker 1: 4:12

All right, so tell me a little bit about how long you played football and what that meant to you.

Speaker 2: 4:18

So the first time I played I started when I was like five, but then it was like this long break and I picked back up. I was about 10 years old. I played through high school, had a car accident when I was going into my senior year, so I didn't get to play my senior year high school. But I played for a good chunk of my life and then, when I eventually had children, my son turned about four or five years old and he said, dad, I want to play. And so then he started playing and then I kind of started coaching and I just I found another love and so it's been a part ever since.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So let's talk about when you decided to create mentoring mentoring through athletics and then I also want you to get into what you call dare Okay.

Speaker 2: 5:05

Um, so okay. So so, as I say, I started coaching my son. He's like four or five years old and it was a blessing because the kids who were part of his team we wound up working with those kids for like the next seven years and for the most it was like a core group of about seven or eight kids that were on the same team together from the time we were like five years old, always up to the time when they turned 13, when they went into high school, and so when the team kind of got until about the sixth grade and I saw the work that we were doing, you know, not just with these kids on the field, but what we were doing with them off the field, you know, taking them to ball games and just spending time. You know it was never a dull moment. I always had kids at my house spending the weekend with me and these kids, you know they enjoyed it. It's crazy. Their parents would pack a bag on Friday, so we'd come to football practice on Friday night and the parents would get them on Sunday. It was like clockwork every single weekend. I loved it because my son had somebody to constantly interact with. But again, you know some of these kids, you know they didn't have a consistent role model in their house and even in the instances where they did, we say it takes a village, but it really does take a village. And so, you know, I got to play in a role in the lives of these young people.

Speaker 2: 6:37

So when this group of kids got to about the sixth grade, I looked at the guys I was coaching and I was like man, this is going to be over in a couple of years, you know. And I said it would be a travesty to stop. Look what we've done with these kids. And you know the coaches agree. And so, you know, I said what would it look like if we just started working with kids outside of our team and started building something where we touch more kids in the community, instead of just this small group of 20, 25 kids? And they were on board. And so I started it with a couple coaches and a couple of team moms and we just started duplicating what we were doing with kids already. And that's where the principles of dare kind of took hold.

Speaker 2: 7:22

You know our team, fortunately, we had a lot of success playing up and down the East Coast, going to national championships, which was extremely, extremely taxing. And so I recognize what made our team unique. Our team played with discipline, which was the D and D. They were accountable not just to us as the coaching staff, but they were accountable to one another. They were humble enough to accept correction from one another as teammates. Right, they were responsible in the sense that they recognized that they had to study on and off the field to be eligible to play, not necessarily in youth football, but you had to have a certain GPA, but there was an expectation that we placed on our student athletes to be responsible in the classroom as well as on the football field, and it endorsed.

Speaker 2: 8:12

Many of young people who we came across in that time span had challenges that far past the football field. One young man in particular, I remember his dad really struggled with alcohol abuse and struggle in the sense that you know, it kind of took him away from the household. And this young man, he really felt the effects of it. I mean, he really struggled with the fact that, you know, maybe his dad was gonna come see and play this weekend, maybe not. And then you know it was always this struggle for him, five, 10 minutes before the game, just trying to see if his dad was gonna show up, and this was also one of the young men that would spend the weekends with me, and so one day after the game he was over at the house and we just kind of sat down in one of the rooms and we just talked about it.

Speaker 2: 9:06

You know, I shared with him that I completely understood, because my dad had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse as well, and I recognized how important it was. And this is one of the times when I really realized how important a dad was in terms of presence, and not just physical presence but emotional presence in their child's life, and I saw how boys get their confidence from their dad. And so, you know, the blessing was this young man did have a grandfather who played an enormous presence in his life, but it's something about being able to look up to those things and see your dad. And so that's where dare, how we kind of came up with that acronym, just in the sense of we recognize these four things were truly important in order to have any kind of success on or off the field.

Speaker 1: 9:58

So do you think that your upbringing helps you connect more with these children?

Speaker 2: 10:04

Oh, absolutely Absolutely. You know it's when you have a parent that struggles with substance abuse. It creates so many different dynamics in the household and whether or not you have a parent that has, you know, challenges with substance abuse because, you know, a lot of times it's rooted in a self-centeredness, and so having to navigate that, having to recognize that, you know, or having those feelings of abandonment when that comes into play, or rejection, right, when you have to experience that, that's what creates the empathy. So when you come in contact with another young person, who you can often just see it in their eyes, you know, oh, wow, I get it right. And so they know that you get it when you talk to them, right, Not necessarily that you just share their story. Whether you share your story or not, they'll know that you get it, by the way, in a manner in which you connect with them.

Speaker 2: 11:10

And so I know for certain that the challenges that I experienced growing up, you know, really, really helped me. You know one of the things that when it was just my mom and she was trying to figure it out, we oftentimes didn't I ain't gonna say often, but there were times we didn't have food, and so you know you don't know what it's like to go to bed hungry until you've had a hunger headache and try to have to sleep through that. I know what that feels like. So when we support families with food like it's not just a, it's not just something nice to do, Like I know what that feels like. I know how tough it is. You know to try to get some sleep when you're hungry. Try to get up and focus in school when you're hungry, and so, yes, absolutely, this work is definitely a result of my upbringing.

Speaker 1: 12:06

So, do you wanna, I would love to hear a few stories of some athletes that have really stood out to you.

Speaker 2: 12:15

So I told you about. So I was telling you about the young man who was struggling when his dad not being present. The blessing is this young man is now going into his second year of division one collegiate football and you know he had many, many highlights as a freshman, true freshman on the field, did extremely well and just being able to see that unknowing where he was extremely proud of him. He's doing amazing in the classroom, doing amazing on the field. So proud of him. Another young man and this young man has both his parents, this other young man I'm gonna tell you about. He has both his parents, but they allowed me to come in and play a role in his life. He's now at Temple University, doing really well. He just signed what they call the NIL deal, where he gets paid to represent a brand. And so you know another young man who spent every single weekend with me for about three and a half years. He's doing extremely well at University of Maryland and so it's being able to experience that, it's being able to see these young men who often, you know, listen, and I'm a coach, coach, and so I'm not gonna tell you oh, I'm the come on. You know, tommy, you can do this. No, I'm gonna get in your face, I'm gonna push you right. I wanna push you till you're ready to quit, and the reason I do that is because I truly believe that when you get to a place of wanting to quit but not quitting, it creates a whole new capacity for you. So, these young men, you know I love the fact that I was able to play a part and getting them to a certain space. You know that eighth grade team that we had in terms of the football team. We had 23 kids on that team. 18 of them had the opportunity to play high school football at a private school where they got financial support. The reason that meant a lot to me is because you know not that I'm not an advocate of the public school system. I'm a public school educator, but I know that their every system is not for every child, and so some of our students, some of our student athletes, they had learning disabilities, so they needed to be in a private education situation where they could get certain types of support. Well, they were able to get that right Because they performed well on the field and then that translated in the classroom. So I'm excited about a lot of our young men who were doing well, not just still playing, you know, ball. But some of them are working and some of them, you know, I often have them come back and speak to our younger student athletes.

Speaker 2: 15:20

I would even say one of the young men I'll call him by name, just because or where I'm about to share with you. His name is Malik Baker, and you know I had him from the time. He's probably like nine or 10 years old. I actually got to coach him in high school as well, and so now he is in his second year of college. Now he's still playing ball, but the reason I bring him up? Because I also had the opportunity to coach his younger brother in football as well, and now I get a chance to coach his younger sister in soccer. So it's like, you know, you've made an impact when they keep bringing the siblings back to you and, like I said, it went far beyond what we were able to do with these kids on the field of play.

Speaker 1: 16:13

So tell me a little bit about the programs that you guys offer.

Speaker 2: 16:17

So on the sports side, you know we offer flag football, we offer soccer, basketball, cheerleading, and you know they do well. Right, I'm super happy with how they perform. But, as I told you before, you know, the sports is just a draw, so that once we can establish the rapport, to be able to connect with these kids and to figure out, okay, where else does Ashley need support? Right, I can kind of see he's a little withdrawn today, like what's going on, and then being able to get in there, connect and figure out. You know, all right, how can I support?

Speaker 2: 16:54

We get a young man come out last spring season and we actually met him at one of our after school sites and so we invited him out to participate in one of our soccer teams and in this, you know him coming out, mom was able to bring him out a couple of times, but then she would miss practice or he would miss practice, and then we had a conversation and, you know, coming to find out, you know to show him as a major deficits academically as well as socially at home, and so then to be able to connect him with another young man on the team and the mom being able to get support from other families within the organization. You know, one of the things she said was this wasn't just sports. I've been able to find a whole new family that's able to support me as a mom. That's what this is about Like. It's utilizing the thing that we love called sports, bringing people together and creating community that can thrive together.

Speaker 1: 18:03

You know you said that and I was thinking that in my head when you were talking. I was like you're creating a community for not only these children but for their parents too. But I do have to ask you keep bringing up that you're having all of these kids over. How many kids do you have over on a weekend? Well, well, I have three boys myself, but I'm like that's a lot.

Speaker 2: 18:27

But now my kids are grown so it's a little different. But when they were younger especially my son and my daughters, you know they my oldest didn't play as she wasn't, and I actually kind of ruined her. To be honest, I was so hard on her when she first learned how to play basketball, but she was the most athletic of all of my children. I blew it. I was a young dad and so I didn't know how to balance, you know, dad and coaching, and so I was just driving so hard so she kind of shot away from sports. But other than that, my youngest daughter and my son, you know they both were athletes up through high school. But, like I said, now they're grown families, households, they're kind of doing that thing. So I don't have as many children over as I want to be. Now when I have them over, you know it's just hey, we're gonna hang out at Coach House for a little bit and then Coach is sending them back home. No more weekend excursions for me.

Speaker 2: 19:23

Yeah, kids aren't little anymore, right, so it's my time and the mind, no one's size, so it's completely.

Speaker 1: 19:30

All right, so I want to talk a little bit about what you were saying before. So you have all of these wonderful athletic programs, but you also have specialty programs that you started from learning about some of the needs of these children and families. So let's talk a little bit about those specialty programs that you offer.

Speaker 2: 19:49

Sure. So in 2017, I think it was like 2017, you know, we were meeting as a team and we were kind of talking about some of the kids who we had worked with and some of the families we had worked with, and we realized that, yeah, we were just we were doing a sports program. That was primarily what we were focused on, but what we realized was that what these kids needed was so much more in terms of not just the kids but the families, and so it kind of became a thing where we were like, well, what do we do? Right? And so it kind of made me stop and pause and we got together and actually we changed our mission statement. And that's when it kind of we kind of went away from just the sports part to just making a positive impact in decision-making, and what that allowed us to do was that gave us the opportunity to not just work with the student athletes but also the parents.

Speaker 2: 20:47

And so, again, going back to my upbringing, it was that coach that decided to go beyond just coaching me on the field but providing me transportation to get to the field. That became an outlet. And when I talk about this outlet, sports was a distraction from the chaos I was experiencing at home. I needed that. I needed that tremendously, because when you're a thinker and you're just sitting in challenging situations, you're constantly trying to figure out, even as a kid, what can I do, what can I do? But that wasn't my job. I shouldn't have been trying to figure out how can I make the home better. At 10, 11, 12 years old, that's not what I should have been thinking about. And so sports was a healthy distraction.

Speaker 2: 21:36

So when we started looking at, okay, what we need to do is make an impact beyond the field, not just with the athletes, but with their families as well, that made us come up with different programs, such as the food support program we now call it because we care. And this program I spoke a little bit about it earlier, having to go to bed and with a hunger headache before this was to alleviate those things supporting students going back to school, back to school drives, and so you can't be a great student athlete if you don't have the resources to be a great student, and so it's like well, we need to be able to do that, and then I'm sure we'll talk about it at some point. But as the months start getting a little colder here. We had to realize that a pair of people need coats and hats, like all these things affect a family. So we kind of began to offer more wrap around support services in addition to what we're doing and the way we did that.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Honestly, it wasn't because we just had access to all these resources. We had to partner with other organizations that were doing similar things, that that was their wheelhouse and so we would bring them in to support the families that we were already working with. And then, in addition to that, going back to the student athlete, we hadn't realized these kids, the foundation they had been robbed. So many kids have been robbed of their foundation academically, so we had to offer tutoring as well and again partner with other organizations and in some instances even having to bring on tutors too to kind of make it happen. And so mentoring, tutoring, food support, we've even connected families with resources for housing and, like I said, back to school, coat drives, all those different things have kind of become stables in terms of what we do annually now.

Speaker 1: 23:45

So let's talk a little bit about what you mentioned, which is mentoring. So you have a mentoring program. Let's talk a little bit about that and maybe some of the kids that have been through the mentoring process no-transcript.

Speaker 2: 23:58

So, um, like I said you have pretty much how it works is, once a kid works with comes through our program and Most of time they come through the sports part, and so when they come through the sports part that coach Then may identify wow, you know, I actually had some challenges, the far beyond. You know, I can kind of help him with on the football field or the soccer field or the basketball court or the cheerleading map. So then that's where the mentoring part comes in. If that coach has a time and space to be able to provide mentoring services, then we then pay that coach to become a mentor in that child's life. If not, then we then connect them with a mentor, that that that works with them off the field or off the mat or, you know, at home, at school, and then you know, when a kid feels supported, you Unlock so many doors for him or her.

Speaker 2: 24:57

You know, I Often I remember this one time I was doing some research on why kids join gangs and I was looking at it and I was looking at, you know, a gang indoctrination process and how they do it and and how they feel the mind with propaganda and and and when that that Individual over with to their way of thinking. But the thing that it says it started with was acceptance, unconditional acceptance, and so when these kids experience that unconditional acceptance, it automatically they had this undying loyalty to this group of people, and so that's one of the things that we talk about with our mentors. When they first make this, you know their initial connection, you got to accept them for whatever it is that they may be experiencing. You got to start with acceptance, establish the roof, poor, with acceptance, and when you do that, the barriers and the guards come down, and then and then what you find out is that, just like any other kid, right, they want, they want the same things that every other kid wants, and so that's how our mentors break through. It's it's.

Speaker 2: 26:14

I wouldn't call it a special formula, I just would say it's. It's unique for us Because we do have the sports component, where it allows us to make initial connections, so that we can kind of almost get some background, an arm, a mentor with you know, some, some information. And I always say this if you, if you say to a child hey, I'm gonna sign you up for a mentor session, then go meet with this stranger, you know, once a week or twice a week for the next eight weeks, most sure you're not gonna do that. But when you say to that same child hey, I'm gonna go sign you up for football For twice a week for the next six to eight weeks, are you good with that? They say yes. And so we don't just call our coaches coaches, they're called mentor coaches for a reason.

Speaker 1: 26:59

And I love the fact that you Listen to each of these children and then you can navigate their needs to whoever is going to be best fit for that particular child. Absolutely, absolutely so you've done so much with this organization, what do you think your proudest accomplishment is?

Speaker 2: 27:20

So Good question. I would say this I Would say probably my proudest accomplishment is this, and it has something to do with organization, but not necessarily it's the fact that I did not become a Public success and a private failure. Here's what I mean by that. I Didn't choose the organization over my family or my children. Any lesson that I gave a child in our organization, I gave it to my own children first, and so the reason I think that's important is because, you know, I I guess you could say my children were the, were the, were the test pilots for everything that we do through the organization.

Speaker 2: 28:08

Because there were times where, again, I told you before I was a young dad, so I made a lot of mistakes with my first child, but then Recognizing how to repair that relationship, recognizing it's okay, even as a parent, to go back and apologize, right when you recognize that you've missed a mark.

Speaker 2: 28:29

Listening, you know, allowing your child to have a voice, and not just listening for the sake of letting them talk, but listening and, in some instances, being able to follow their direction, listening to what your child wants from you and giving it to them. So when I talk about, when I work with these kids and when I challenge my mentors and my coaches to work with these kids, these are the things I'm telling them. You know and they can see. This is not, again, it's not a secret formula, but when, when a child feels heard, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And so that goes up and down the line and so you know. I would say my proudest achievements or accomplishments Was the fact that did not sacrifice my own children for the sake of the children of this organization.

Speaker 1: 29:18

So where do you see your organization in the future?

Speaker 2: 29:22

Well, we are now working towards working on a facility. We currently run after school programming throughout Prince George's County and a couple sites in the district, and it's great. You know the work we get to do with. These kids are literally coming right out of school, and most of our we're working with these kids actually at the schools, and so after school program is typically over about five o'clock, five, 30 ish, and so what we need to do now is we have to have a facility of our own, and what this will enable us to do is to work with these kids and these families beyond the hours of the school domain. We know that families need support throughout the day, right. So being able to offer classes in terms of job preparedness and job readiness you know that's something that's that's important, right? An individual that can support their family can now also show up emotionally a lot better for their family, for their, for their children, and one of the things that we're also working on as well.

Speaker 2: 30:37

As we want mentoring not just to be a part time position, but we wanted to be an actual industry, and so we're currently working with the shared humanity project right now on creating mentoring as a professional industry. This will allow other people who may not have, you know, the capacity to go to school and spend a three to two and a half three years, four years, five years, whatever may take them to kind of finish, but they have life experiences. They're far beyond, you know, go beyond a classroom. Then we equip them with the additional tools that we've learned throughout human services education and in our knowledge base to equip them so they can go out and actually now perform a job that really is a full time job. Every person needs a mentor, and it even as young as seven, eight years old, all the way up to 78 years old. Like everybody needs a mentor because it's it's. It provides direction and people prayers because they don't have enough direction.

Speaker 1: 31:47

So it's interesting that you mentioned the shared humanity project, because I just interviewed Mark, like two weeks ago.

Speaker 2: 31:54

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 31:56

I did, and so I'm talking to him and talking to you. You guys are very like minded, so I can see how it would be a good fit for you both of you.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 32:07

So tell me a little bit about how people can get involved within your organization.

Speaker 2: 32:11

And you know, just like everybody else you can, you can check us out on the social media is you can go to the website mentor and through athletics or social media. You know Instagram at mta, underscore dare and Facebook mentor and through athletics. Those are the ways that you can. You can reach out to us and you know we're always at some community event and in some way shape or form. But, but I'll say this you know, whether you decide to work with us as an organization, support a child in some way, shape or form, whether it's some formal way or not, right, do something like don't just sit there, do something, take a moment, find somebody that could use your support and provide it for him, because it it, I promise you will change the life. Sunny Kimball changed my life and I'm so forever grateful for this man's sacrifice that he did not have to do, and so I'm just, I'm challenging anybody is watching this whether you decided to support mentor through athletics, support someone.

Speaker 1: 33:16

Now, before I let you go, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you'd want to share?

Speaker 2: 33:25

I know one of talked about a couple projects that we are working on, that we have coming up, and so now, like I said, is against, against coder or whatever. You know, we are preparing for coats and hats and we've done this in the years past and a lot of times when you do these drives you know most people are doing. But I'm going to share really quickly A quick story and we can kind of get close out. Here is we kind of prepare, start collecting coats and hats. Last year we were distributing, you know, the coats and hats and we were at one of our sites in Washington DC and it was a dad with probably about, I want to say maybe, four, four or five children, and so they were trying on coats and you know we were pretty much getting them squared away, getting the kids squared away, and that slides up next to me. He says you know, coach, you think you got anything that will fit me. And I said you know what we may, and so I go in the back and I grab one, bring out a couple, and we were able to find one to fit them.

Speaker 2: 34:38

Now, initially, when we were doing this, the plan was just to make sure we had coats and hats for children, because that's kind of like our wheelhouse, that's what we focus on.

Speaker 2: 34:49

And then, when I was so happy that his dad actually said something, I was like, oh yeah, because we did. He was, he wasn't a big frame guy, but he said you know, I work outside and you know and the code I have is a little tattered, and so we were able to bless this man with a coat. And again, this goes back to what what I said earlier, just in terms of we go into this thing thinking we're supporting a child, you support a father, you support a mother, you support a family, and so for us, this work, you know is is a life's mission, and I am grateful to my creator for birthing this in me, that I can now be a part of something so great in the earth. And so I also want to thank you, jamie, you and your husband, for for fording us this opportunity just to be able to share about the organization and just super excited about everything that's kind of on the pathway for us as well. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 35:52

Of course, thank you. Listening to you, I've really found a lot of things that were alike, and, as you're talking about your organization, I grew up with a single mom as well, and there's only so much that one parent can do. They can't do a job of two people, as much as they try, until they're blue in the face, and they'll do whatever they can, but it's impossible. So to have a community that comes together and helps you know, children that don't have a lot of the opportunities that a lot of other children have is really incredible, and so I absolutely love the work that you're doing, and it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

Speaker 2: 36:33

Well, thank you so much again for the opportunity to share.

Speaker 1: 36:36

Of course, all right, and I want to thank all of the listeners for tuning into another episode of the Trimentarity podcast. Until next time.