Food, Family, & Philanthropy

Ep. 46 - Dennis Miles And Vincent D'Aria On Supporting Families Before Crisis

• Michael Nathanson

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What if the biggest impact happens before a family ever reaches a breaking point?

In this conversation, Michael Nathanson sits down with Dennis Miles, Executive Director, and Vincent D'Aria Palm Beach Advisory Board Chair of Children’s Home Society of Florida, to talk about the real work happening behind the scenes to support children and families across Palm Beach, Broward, and the Treasure Coast.

They break down what the organization actually does beyond what most people assume from the name. From preventing child abuse before it starts, to creating community hubs and family resource centers, to building a cradle to career model through community partnership schools, this conversation highlights how early support can change the entire trajectory of a child’s life.

Along the way, they share how programs like Safe Harbor, mentoring initiatives, and family visitation centers provide structure, stability, and connection for kids and families navigating real challenges. They also talk about the role of community collaboration, why prevention matters more than reaction, and how volunteers, donors, and local leaders can all play a part in creating lasting change.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make a meaningful difference in your community, this conversation makes it clear there’s a place for you in the work.

To learn more, support, or get involved with Children’s Home Society of Florida, visit their website or join their upcoming community events like the annual Generations Walk.

Contact Michael Nathanson:
Email: Michael@soldbythebros.com
Website: https://soldbythebros.com/

SPEAKER_03

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Food, Family, and Philanthropy, the podcast where we bring together the people who are truly making a difference in our communities. And today, we've got a powerhouse conversation. Because this one, this one hits right at the heart of what this show is all about: taking care of kids, strengthening families, and creating real impact where it matters most. Today I'm joined by two incredible leaders from Children's Home Society of Florida, serving Palm Beach, Broward, and the Treasure Coast. First up, we've got Dennis Miles, Executive Director, someone who is in the trenches every single day, leading the charge to protect children, empower families, and break cycles that have gone on for generations. And joining him is Vince Diaria, board chair of the Palm Beach Advisory Board, a guy who's not just talking about change, but actively helping drive it through leadership, strategy, and deep community connection. Now here's the thing a lot of people hear children's home society and think they know what it is, but what they actually do goes so much deeper. We're talking about preventing child abuse before it happens, supporting families in crisis, helping kids find safe, stable homes, and giving them real opportunities to thrive. This isn't just charity, this is life-changing work. So today we're going to dive into the stories, the impact, and most importantly, how you can get involved because there's a role for all of us in this. Let's get into it. So, Dennis, Vince, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us. I am very excited to have you here. We were kind of talking about before the show started, Dennis, how we got together and and I talk about this a lot on the podcast, how this came about, right? I've been doing this podcast for over three years now. Near the end of 2024, I'd had a nonprofit on who I hadn't heard of before. And I was kind of sitting there thinking because I'm very involved with nonprofits and the community. And I said, if I haven't heard of it, our viewers and listeners probably haven't heard of it. So I decided for 2025, I dedicated my show to only nonprofits, bringing in local leaders. And then it was so awesome and selfishly. I met some great people and had some great times that I decided to continue it for 2026. Well, in 2025, I hit most of the people I know. Yeah. A couple of people still I'm going back and forth with, you know, best foot forward, you get to come on. Um and I reached out to my sphere and said, Who do I need to know? And Kelly, who works with me in my businesses. Uh again, I don't remember how she put us in touch, but she put us in touch. So we're here. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Absolutely awesome to be here. I'm really glad. So obviously, we're gonna talk a lot about what you do today, and it's uh unbelievable the amount of things that you guys do. But we're gonna start with uh my favorite part, which is food, right? So I like to ask, so are you are you foodies by chance at all?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes, awesome.

SPEAKER_03

I had someone in here once who's like, I don't really care about food. I'm like, what are we gonna talk about?

SPEAKER_02

Well, all my kids are out of the house now, so me and my wife eat out a lot. So you can afford to eat out again.

SPEAKER_01

The kids are uh I have no kids, so we eat out a lot as well.

SPEAKER_03

That's why you look great. This is by the way, this two kids, Brazilian wife, the hair started turning gray. I think I think after my first date.

SPEAKER_01

Enough said, enough said.

SPEAKER_03

But uh, we've been together for over 20 years at this point. Happy love. I got my I have to shout this out. I I can't believe this. My older son is turning 18 years old tomorrow. I'm gonna have an adult. Add something else. Uh I'm not old enough for this. I don't I don't know what happened. But, anyways, let's talk about food. So I'm gonna ask each of you. And I know so you live in the Boca area and you're in the North Palm Beach area, Dennis. So what's a favorite local spot? Whoever wants to start as I'm taking notes.

SPEAKER_02

For me, I live in North Palm Beach, which is you know, right around the bin from Singer Island. And uh so we go to Singer Island quite a bit to eat. I've got a favorite there, Johnny Longboats. Um Johnny Longboats. It's it's an institution, been there it seems like forever. It's you know right next to the beach and open air type environment, and they have a seafood broil to kill. Yeah, but yeah, absolutely love it. And we probably go there too often for the seafood broil. But that's how much we like it. That's that's one of my go-to's.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool. I'm glad you're you said how good it is because what I found, and tell me if you agree or not, when you eat at those restaurants by the water, you're paying twice as much for half as good food typically. And I have trouble with it. Like, I don't want to spend, I don't mind spending money on food, but I want to see the value. Like, I don't want a$40 Mahi sandwich just because I'm right by the water. I understand how economics works and how they have to do it, but so I'm glad to hear that it's good. And uh, so is that like your go-to is the seafood royal?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's it we love it. Uh, they also have, I mean, they have a full menu, a lot of seafood. I I'm a steak and potato guy or a seafood guy. I mean, that's that's my two, you know, main interests when I go out to eat. And, you know, my wife would tell you that uh for each restaurant that we go to, I order the same exact thing from that restaurant every single time we go.

SPEAKER_03

I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_02

I never look at the menu. They know me when I walk in, what I want. I don't even have to order, and and I do that everywhere I go. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_03

I'm the same way. I I think it's a fear that what you order isn't gonna be as good as what you know you is good. So I'm the same way. Luckily, my wife's about yay big. And so whatever she orders, I get some of that too. Yeah. Uh, I'm the same way. Like every Italian restaurant, chicken parm. I have to get the chicken parm. Yeah, that's my go-to. Even if there's other good stuff, I that's how I'm choosing. So, do you have a go-to? It doesn't have to be from Johnny Longbows. Do you have a go-to meal? You're like, okay, honey, I need it.

SPEAKER_02

What is it? Anything seafood or I like a long John Silver Smith. Uh uh, I like a medium rare bone-in ribeye. Okay. And there's uh where's the best one? Uh, we go to uh Longhorn Steakhouse. Um, there's a new restaurant that's in off a US one in Lake Park/slash Riviera Beach. It's called um uh Seahawk Prime. They just opened and uh had my first meal there, and it was absolutely fantastic. A little bit on the pricey side, but the food and the ambiance was just out of this world. And uh, you know, if I'm not getting seafood, I'm typically getting a um medium rare bone-in ribeye.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. Love it. I love it, man. I love it. Vince, you live close to me, so I'm hoping you get some.

SPEAKER_01

I got I got three for you, and I'm gonna go buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner because I like that. Yeah, I like that. So weekend go-to is always gonna be modern rose for breakfast. Is that the one in Deerfield? Used to be in Deerfield, now they have a location in Del Rey. They do. They do that. Place was cool.

SPEAKER_03

I don't remember if it was good, but I remember the decorations were really cool.

SPEAKER_01

Literally right here. No kidding. Yeah, very close.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01

So I typically go with the modern egg sandwich, which is just your traditional egg sandwich over medium eggs. I add avocado to it. If you want to make it spicy, they do a spicy corn with a cream sauce. Very good. I'm in, man. And what really sold me on Modern Rose is their cold brew, is to die for. They have a churro cold brew. It's amazing. Very, very good. So we typically will go there usually every Saturday. It's kind of our go-to. We know Saturday we're waking up, we're going to Modern Rose. That's awesome. And um, to your point, the consistency is just there every time.

SPEAKER_03

Very good.

SPEAKER_01

So we have support. We're we're pretty consistent with our meals and our coffees and everything.

SPEAKER_03

They know you by this point.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. They definitely know us. We're usually the first people there. That's it. So they open at 8, we're there at 8.02. I love it.

SPEAKER_03

I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Big fan. Um, lunch. I'm gonna have to go Bukan Sandwich Shop in West Palm.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

So Bukan is a long-standing high-end restaurant in West Palm. A few years ago, they decided to open a sub shop outside of their restaurant off the side road. There's a little side window you go up and you order. And now they just opened a second location in downtown West Palm.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

They are known for their beef carpaccio sandwich, okay, which is incredible. Um, every sandwich on the menu is incredible. They have a meatball bomb sandwich, they have a yellow fin tuna tuna salad, which is very good. Um, even their turkey club is amazing.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna take my wife. She's a big tuna salad and she loves her tuna.

SPEAKER_01

Highly recommend it. It's very good. It's, you know, obviously a little pricey, but you get what you pay for, like you said.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Again, I don't mind spending if it's worth it. Yeah, I don't mind. Dinner.

SPEAKER_01

Dinner, we're gonna go Alley Cat in Boca, which is also connected to Sunset Sushi, which is a uh omakase. So uh Ali Cat, I was a kapow guy for years. Yeah, and Alicat is just a little different. It's not as crowded and it's closer to my house. We'll usually walk there and have dinner there and they have great drinks. I've never been there. It's a very, very relaxed atmosphere. It's um maybe a half a mile from A1A off Palmetto.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So you have to.

SPEAKER_03

I know I've seen it. I know I've seen it. I've never been there.

SPEAKER_01

They moved locations over the past couple of years. They used to be in Royal Palm and then they moved over to Palm Meadow. So those are those are our three go-to's. So, what do you get there? Uh, I depends. We always go with their Caesar salad, which is an Asian Caesar salad. It's delicious. It's a wasabi Caesar dressing they put on it.

SPEAKER_03

I like that.

SPEAKER_01

It's very good. Um, we'll usually go with their um spicy tuna sticky rice, which is awesome. And then we'll usually do you could pick three rolls, specialty rolls, and we'll do like they have a scallop roll, which is amazing. Awesome. And then we'll usually do like a salmon and a tuna roll. And um, that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_03

I'm hungry. Yes. I'm gonna tell you what. Oh, that's awesome. Thank dude, you came prepared. Not that you weren't prepared, Dennis. Like above and beyond anyone who's been on this show.

SPEAKER_01

I thought about it. I'm like, I got I have to like go through what I do on a weekly basis. And obviously, Modern Rose was kind of the the one we're the most consistent with. And then I was like, where else do we go? And yeah, Bukan is definitely a favorite for sure.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome. I so I have to give a shout out to someone. He actually asked me if I was going to. My younger son, he's 13 years old, just recently got into fishing, and he was going over to his buddy's house to go fishing. I went to go pick him up, and the dad goes, Oh, so you stopped by for smash burgers, right? I'm like, No, but oh, I I guess my wife's out. I don't think I'll get in trouble if I do this. And so I went in, it was about six o'clock. I ended up leaving at nine. We stayed and they made smash burgers. He had a griddle out back. Oh my God. So Justin, Justin, thank you so much for those Smash Burgers. Unbelievable, great flavor. My kid, he made one triple. My kid grabbed the triple and ate the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

It was awesome. Thank you. He did the egg, bacon.

SPEAKER_01

Like it was he gonna be the new food sponsor of the podcast? Maybe he should. Sounds like it.

SPEAKER_03

10,000 a week. So you think that's enough? There you go. It'll go to charity. Yes. Um, no, I think that's awesome. I told him I would give him a shake. Are you gonna talk about it on your podcast? So, Justin, I talked about it on my podcast. So you're famous. That's awesome. Um, very cool. I need to give another shout out, too. So there's a pizza place that I've talked about a million times on here. I was trying really hard to get Dave Portner, I could not get him to answer me. I reached out as many different ways as I could to try and do an episode because he does a lot of nonprofit stuff, to do an episode of this show at the pizza place. Well, last week he freaking went to the pizza place.

SPEAKER_01

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03

So Peter's Pizzeria. If you've never been, it's not far from you. Best pizza I think I've ever had. He gave it an 8.5, which is one of his top scores. So that place you're not gonna be able to get in anymore, anyways. Hopefully, uh, hopefully, Peter, you get me and my bro back in at least. We're yeah, we're old school guys. But uh Peter's Pizzeria, Portnoy went and loved it. Um we'll have to check that one out. Oh my god. I'm telling you, the pizza is unbelievable. Do you ever go there? You've been eat pizza.

SPEAKER_01

I know I've been, but um, it's funny. Like I'll tell people about it and they've never heard of it. Yeah. And it's been there for a while.

SPEAKER_03

Well, the one in Boca, it's it's a little it's been there. Tiny little hole. Yeah. But it's a tiny little hole. Yeah. It's the kids that go to the beach, stop, yeah, stop.

SPEAKER_01

Every time I go there, that's what that's their crowd, for sure.

SPEAKER_03

They opened up a bigger place in Pompano. Okay. On uh federal, across from, you know, Gulp, Gulapis. Yep, like literally across the street from the entrance to there. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um I have to check that out.

SPEAKER_03

And everyone's this guy has so much passion for pizza, right? It's he's got different crusts for different pies. He studied in Italy with like Michelin chefs. Like that's what you want. Unbelievable. It makes a difference. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I'm getting hungry. All right. I guess we gotta move on. Um you travel ever? Yes.

SPEAKER_02

My wife just got back from Greece. Oh, awesome.

SPEAKER_03

I was there a few months ago. Where'd she go?

SPEAKER_02

Uh don't ask me. I have no idea. They it was a tour, a girls' trip, and every day I was just getting the pictures and the updates, and uh, you know, they went all over the place and then got uh their flight canceled on the way back. So they end up staying an extra day, which nobody was complaining of. I was gonna say, I'm sure they were upset about that.

SPEAKER_03

I had a friend texting me this morning. She's stuck in Madrid. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. You gotta stay for two more days? Poor thing.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, travel I do is local. I'm not like she likes to go and do the sightseeing stuff. I'm not into that at all. I like the keys. We go down to the keys quite a bit, Bahamas, things like that. Um, but uh not not not the trips. I'm just not I'm not a sightseer at all.

SPEAKER_03

That's okay. You're allowed. Different strokes for different folks. You know, the reason I ask is where I go, like I have almost everywhere I go, I've got a place, like a restaurant that I have to go to. So is there like a out-of-town restaurant that's like when you go, I have to go there?

SPEAKER_02

Uh not for me, really. Um, you know, I I'm just one of those guys that I like everything. You know what I'm saying? I I I I've never sent food back and said this wasn't cooked well. I just like everything that's put in front of me. And uh, and I do like Italian also. I left that out earlier. Um, but no, not any one particular place. Um there in Key Largo, there's a place called the Fish House that has, you know, a lobster dinner with the best black beans and rice I've ever tasted in my life. Really? Uh so whether even if we're going farther down uh or when we're coming out of the keys, we always stop there for a meal. Very, very good.

SPEAKER_01

And since we're on the keys topic, uh go-to for me in Ala Marada when we go down is Lazy Days. Yeah. It's a very, very good one. They have one in Ala Marata, they have one in Marathon, and um, you can get your fish cooked with different crusts on them. And they have a jalapeno crusted fish. You pick your crust and you pick your fish. Very cool. It's really, really good. I'm a I'm a big fan of the Florida Keys as well.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So we try to go there when we head down there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, awesome. Very cool. I mean, no kids and no kids in the house. You can do what you want. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I need permission for everything.

SPEAKER_01

We'll send pics.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I appreciate that. Is there another place anywhere in the world like you're like um I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I haven't really thought about it. I would say that that one is definitely a staple when I think about places is laziness. And we've been probably 10 plus times every time we've been down there.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. I love it. I love it. Awesome. So we're gonna jump into sports now. Sports fans? I know you are. Oh yeah. Yes. You sports fans? Yep. Are you where are you guys from?

SPEAKER_02

I'm from uh Norfolk, Virginia, but moved here as a very young child and been here ever since, except for the period of time that I was in the Marine Corps. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Long Island, New York, but moved here when I was 11. So pretty much most of my life I've been here.

SPEAKER_03

So do you like those crappy teams from New York or not? Excellent. Okay, good. I just want to see where this where this was gonna go. Yep. From Boston, so I just want to make sure.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Uh who's your favorite sports team?

SPEAKER_02

Miami Heat and any Florida Gator team, any sport. Big Heat fan, though. I'm uh I mean, I'm a we talked about it earlier. I'm a I'm a basketball junkie.

SPEAKER_03

So we're gonna talk more about that. Just don't don't think we're getting out of here, not talking about coaching. I'm a longtime coach. You are yeah, a longtime coach. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit. But so the Miami Heat are your favorite and anything gators? Anything gators, yeah. So you know Elijah Martin, who won the championship last year. Yeah. That's my guy, right? He was an FAU guy. We if he walked in right now, he'd come over and talk to us.

SPEAKER_02

In the league right now, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

He's killing it. It's really cool to see. Um, I told you my son got into UF. He's going next year, could care less about sports. Uh, but I told him, You're getting me tickets to everything. Like, I'm gonna come. And it's very cool, right? So I think I told you before we started, I'm from Boston, all Boston teams, and Florida Atlantic. Those are my teams, right? And the first football game of the year is FAU at Florida. I'm like, oh my God, it's perfect. Amazing. Someone wear my owls hat and like a gator dad shirt. And I'm going with my younger one who loves sports too. Yeah. Um, so heat or gators, you know, as a Celtics fan, yeah, whatever. Uh, I've had some great experiences there though. Uh people know that I'm a big Celtics fan, and it seems like every time, and we seem to play each other in the playoffs every freaking year. I keep getting they keep giving me tickets to the playoff games. So a couple years ago, you remember when Miami went up 3-0 on us in the playoffs, and we brought it back to a game seven. We almost blew it. So, game four, I had bought tickets for me and my younger son. So, my younger son, basketball player, hell of a player. He's 13 years old. His goal is to make it to the NBA. I don't discourage it, he puts in the work, he's really good. He's a big fan, so we go to games when we can, and in my house, you have to be a Celtics fan. So we were going to the game, we're taking the bright line down to Miami, and there were no there weren't two seats open next to each other. So he sat here, I sat across the aisle, and then I'm just I talk to people. There's a guy sitting next to me, and we start talking. Turns out he happens to be an attorney in Boca, who also happens to be the scoreboard guy for all the Miami Heat games. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Really good dude. And he goes, Hey, like we talked the entire time. He's like, Hey, I gotta run, I gotta get in there and get set off. He's like, But I'm gonna look for you. So he found us, brought us down onto the court, right by where the Celtics come out. So as they're coming out, getting high fives, dabs, pictures. It was super cool. My son's favorite player, Jason Tatum, ignored us and he was upset. And I'm like, look, dude, it's a playoff game. They're down three-nothing. Like, you can't be mad. He's trying to focus and bring his team back. One of the security guards saw that happen. He went into the locker room and brought us out this giant Celtics towel, gave it to my kid. It was the coolest experience ever. That's awesome. And then we went to our seats, and we happened to be sitting with the University of Miami football team, was literally surrounding us. So we had the best time. The only problem is now my kid expects that every time we go. Exactly. But uh, it was a super cool experience. We ended up getting it back to game seven and and lost it. But um whatever. But again, another FAU guy is on Miami. So I love that. Vlad Golden.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That big Russian guy. Yeah. He played uh center for FAU. Yeah. He was a really nice kid. All right. And uh, I think pretty good at basketball. I think when he finally like gets more minutes, he's he's gonna be a decent player. All right. Um, all right, so Heat and Gators. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01

Heat, Dolphins, and Panthers.

SPEAKER_03

Ugh, I'm sorry, that's something in my throat.

SPEAKER_01

Don't worry. My company's based in Boston. So I like your company. And our owner is part owner of the Celtics.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, awesome. So could you get him here?

SPEAKER_01

Potentially, yeah. So he um, you know, he gives it to us all the time. He always shows us his ring.

SPEAKER_03

That is so freaking cool.

SPEAKER_01

We'll be on customer calls and I'll bust out the ring when we're talking to someone in LA or something. I like this guy. Whatever, whoever he is, I like it. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03

Um I mean, listen, I respect, I like going to the games, it's fun. They're rivals of ours. It's not that I hate them, I really don't hate them. It's just when they're playing my team. Right. No, thank you. Dolphins.

SPEAKER_01

Tough, very, very tough.

SPEAKER_03

It's um, I have a lot of friends who are Dolphins fans, and they're kind of like how Red Sox fans were before they started winning World Series, which is next year. We'll get them next year. Yeah, and I've been in Florida for I think 23 years now, and it's been the same exact story every single year. And a lot of next years. It is crazy. Again, I do not like the Dolphins at all. I feel so bad for them. I feel like every decision they make seems good, and it's the wrong decision. Everything they do tends to blow up in their face. It is crazy. I don't know how it's possible to have such bad luck. And every year, you know, they go on that six-game winning streak, and all my friends, I'm like, they're gonna be nine and eight. They're gonna be nine and eight. You already know they're gonna be nine and lucky. Right. And they end up nine and eight, eight and nine, ten and you know, whatever it is. And uh, however, I think they're doing the right thing by kind of cleaning house. Yeah. Uh, I think HN is close to getting traded as well, even though I don't know why they would trade him. I can't imagine he's getting paid a lot. Uh, but Waddle, they got a great return for him, which actually sucks as a Patriots fan because they got what, a first and a third for Waddle. And we're trying to go after AJ Brown or potentially George Pickens. And if Waddle's getting a first and a third, those guys are probably getting more so sucks as a Patriots fan, but uh right, they're retooling. I mean, any given Sunday, you never know what's gonna happen. But um, and then the Panthers, whatever. They say that they're the Bruins rival, but they're not. They just keep knocking us out of the playoffs, right? We had literally the best season in the history of hockey, and they knocked us out of the playoffs. Like I give them props. I was actually at a really cool meeting last week uh with the Rotary Club of downtown Boca, and they brought in as their speaker, it's uh Bill Lindsey, who's their radio announcer.

SPEAKER_01

Nice.

SPEAKER_03

And he was a hockey player as well. And his big thing is he hit a big goal against the Bruins to beat us in a playoff game. And so he's there, and I stood up and like Congratulations. You know, this is really hard to say, but I want to wish you, you know, congrats. The Panthers deserve what they're getting. You know, they've been doing great, and uh it sucks, but congrats.

SPEAKER_02

Back to the Dolphins. The hard part for me was I was a kid in South Florida when the Dolphins were 17 and 0 and went in a couple of Super Bowls, and Shula was, you know, the you know the best coach on the planet, and you know, Zonka and Kick and Morris. And then from there, nothing. Yeah. It's like, you know, Marino, the Marino years were pretty fun, even though they were fun. They just didn't win the championship. Super fun.

SPEAKER_03

He's he's probably the best quarterback to never win, I think for sure. But um wow, so heat dolphins, panthers, they they got you here. Yep. Um, do you have a favorite sports moment where you were live there?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I couldn't really think of one. I the I came up with just the excitement level. It was a heat game, and the whole family went down. And it was the game, you know, Dwayne Wade had left the heat for a little while. Went to Cleveland or Chicago or Chicago, and I think both, yeah. Both. And it was the game that he came back to the heat, and it was it the place was packed, and the energy was just crazy. So emotional, right? He had an unbelievable game, and the place was just going wild. They were cheering for him?

SPEAKER_03

Oh good, yeah, yeah. But he gave his heart and soul to Miami.

SPEAKER_02

He deserved that. And it was just so much fun. Just it was like, okay, we're back. Yeah, D. Wade's back with us. We're good. Awesome. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03

That's really cool. How about you, Vince? Do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_01

I don't remember the year, but and this was not planned, so I don't think I planned this on you. That's okay. It was uh Dolphins versus Patriots, and we were not gonna go anywhere, but it was the last game of the season, and they were reversing the ball several times, and it was basically we everyone was leaving the stadium, and we ended up winning the game. Do you remember that game? No, no, not at all. Okay. Why was Gronkowski on the field?

SPEAKER_03

He was injured. Why the hell was Gronkowski on the field?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that sucked.

SPEAKER_01

So I'll just, you know, and I think Dennis is probably a more memorable in a positive way, but that was just so awesome to see in person because everyone had left the game. Yeah. And we're like, oh, let's just stay. And you know, we got nothing going on. And we saw it live and we're like, did that really just happen?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And uh, I was watching it with my family in my living room.

SPEAKER_03

I remember it. It was unbelievable. My older son happened to be sitting with us. Again, he does not like sports, and he was like, Oh, so they won. I'm like, dude, it's not over till it's over. And I'm like, it's your fault. It's your fault.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So that that was it for me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. That's cool, I guess. Uh it's so hard. I don't talk politics, I don't talk religion. I will fight with people over sports any day because I think it's healthy insane. Same way.

SPEAKER_01

It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And listen, we're gonna move on, but I want to talk a little bit about you, Dennis. Okay, because you mentioned to me when we first chatted that you were a basketball coach. Would you tell the world a little bit about what you coached? Because I I love it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I started coaching um basketball when my kids were coming up and getting involved in sports. And uh, you know, originally I spent my oldest son was a very good player, and I started coaching with him. Um, I never would coach girls basketball, I never wanted to. And you have to understand, back in my day, like a high school girls' basketball game, the final score was like eight to four. Okay, it was like, you know, and so I just uh I just didn't want to do it. And my daughter started playing. She's a couple years younger than my oldest son. And uh in mid-season, uh their coach had to leave. And so people looked at me and said, Well, you're a coach. Can you take over the team? I was like, no, not really. I don't, you know, I'm coaching another team. My daughter begged me, and of course, she's got me wrapped around her finger. I was like, Yeah, I'll coach girls. And I coached girls basketball ever since then. I mean, I just loved it. Uh, had a great time and started coaching. You know, I started at my kids all went to Holy Name uh in West Pond Beach. So I coached there, you know, it's elementary, middle school combined, uh, K through eight. I coached both the um elementary age girls, we call it the JV and the middle school girls, which was the the varsity, coached that for a number of years, won a bunch of championships, had a blast. And uh meanwhile, I'm also coaching AAU basketball, boys and girls, and at a pretty high level. I mean, we we traveled, I mean, not just in-state, but even out of state. Awesome. Uh, and had a lot of success, uh, winning tournaments and uh got uh an opportunity uh in 2010, I think it was, uh, to take over as the head girls basketball coach at Carlton Newman High School in West Palm Beach. Um, and all my kids went to Carlton Newman. So uh I I jumped at the opportunity and I absolutely loved it, had a had a great time. Uh coached for 10 years, won almost 200 games. Uh we won uh three or four district championships, uh, the first regional championship in school history uh for the girls uh program. Uh put several players into pretty high D1 uh situations. One who went on to become a professional basketball player overseas. Wow. Uh one who uh is now she went to after she she played ball at Boston College and then transferred to Georgetown. So it was pretty good D one basketball. Um when she graduated, she uh became the first female assistant coach at Michigan. Uh she was the assistant coach for quarterbacks at Michigan, and now she is a high-level, I think, talent scout for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Her younger brother uh just won a Super Bowl to Seattle Supersonics, you know. So just great family there. But I just I enjoyed it, I loved it. Uh, you know, we had a lot of success, and and a lot of the reason for the sex success was I had these kids uh starting in travel ball at a young age, and they just stayed with me, you know, eight and under, nine and under, ten all the way through until they graduated high school. And then many of those kids played for me in high school. So we had put together a real long-term program, had the greatest kids, greatest attitudes. And you'll know this as a coach. Uh, what makes it so much easier is we had the best group of parents. Yeah. You know, oh, they can make or break it. They, they, I mean, they were just fantastic. And uh, we didn't have a lot of the typical drama that goes on in in you know, in organized sports, especially nowadays. Uh, it was just it was just a really fun experience. Um, and and we won a lot, you know. And I'm a very competitive person. So that helps. So I was gonna ask you, I believe in development and and sports, I all, but I also believe that all of that's not mutually exclusive from from winning. Yeah. So we play to win, and we always did, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Pat Summit, I think was her quote. It was we're not always gonna win. Right. We're gonna try to win every single game. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, and I think the key is when you have that kind of focus on winning is how you handle losing. And as competitive as we were and obsessed with winning, uh, we had an attitude of when we took a loss, okay, back to the lab. Yeah. But what do we what did we learn from that? You know, it we it wasn't to go back and berate the kids or you know, point out everything they did wrong. Uh, we just used it as a learning experience and then got after it the next game. And yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Another great quote, I think it was Nelson Mandela, I believe, was I either win or I learn. Yeah. And that's so important. And so let me ask you, as a coach, your very calm demeanor. Are you a yeller? Yes. I could tell. I could tell. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

I could tell. Well, I'm a Marine, and I had many a young girl say to me, Coach, we're not in the Marine Corps. But yeah, I'm I'm loud. And uh, but I also I had a great story one time because I overheard. They didn't know I was we were in the gym and I was behind the curtain at the stage, and two girls were talking. One was a freshman, one was a senior. And the freshman was saying to the senior something along the lines of, I don't think coach likes me. Uh, and she's like, Well, why do you say that? Well, he he like gets on me a lot. And it was the senior who said to, you know, no, that means coach loves you. Coach is going to do everything he can and pour into you because he sees, you know, your potential. And as tough as he seems, you know, now wait till we get to our end of the year banquet. He's never made one banquet where he didn't break down when he was talking about his players. And that's the truth. Every single banquet, at some point, I just get choked up because I just we just poured ourselves into each other uh and were successful. And and you know, it was just a great experience, you know.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome. Listen, I love hearing that. I told you on the phone. I've been coaching uh just uh rec ball, but I take it very seriously. Um I coach my son, I've been coaching him since he's five, he's 13 now. He also does travel ball, but I made a decision that it was best for him to have another coach to do that to help with his development. So I go and I'm actually a parent. It's very tough to be a parent after being a coach. It is. Um at the, you know, I saw I coach at the YMCA in Boca. We just two weeks ago won our second, our back-to-back championships with undefeated seasons in a row.

SPEAKER_01

Congrats.

SPEAKER_03

Uh thank you. It's so much fun. I love it. And I also coach a girls' team. I've been coaching girls for about three years. I don't have a daughter. It all came about. It was I was at the Y one day, and the coach didn't show up and they're like, Hey, could you step in? And I stepped in. I'm like, wow, they they listened to what I said. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's holy crap. That's that's the difference, is because the girls are like sponges. Yeah. They when you're talking and you're explaining something, man, their eyes are on you. They could burn a hole for you. They're so intent on what you're saying. Where you know, some of the boys, it's like, okay, back here. Yeah. We're talking. You know, with them, it's easier.

SPEAKER_03

I just go, hey, you don't listen, no problem. Get on the bench. No problem. When you're ready to listen, we'll talk again.

SPEAKER_02

But the girls, and it's it's the purest form of basketball. I mean, I love it. They're not trying to dunk and show boat. I mean, it's it's the purest form. And when you really get a team that buys in, it's fun to watch. I mentioned earlier my high school days, you know, a girls' basketball game ended eight to four or something. We were regularly scoring 70, 80 points in a game. Uh back then, the Palm Beach Post used to put stats every weekend in the paper. And we always had the top three-point shooters. I mean, it was just it was just a good time, you know. We had so much fun with it, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Good for you.

SPEAKER_02

And uh I love it. I just finally got to the point where, you know, between work and getting older and trying to make practices after working all day and and then the travel schedule, it just got to the point where, you know, it's time to step away. And that was hard. That was real hard.

SPEAKER_03

I I dread that day. I'm gonna coach as long as I can. I absolutely love it. Uh, what was your favorite offense to run?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I I ran two offenses uh primarily. See, I did I didn't run plays for the most part, other you know, baseline plays and out-of-bounds plays, but our offense, uh, I literally designed uh uh off a dribble drive concept that used that got popular in those days. Uh we called it 41, four out, one one in. And a lot of the entire offense, and we had another one 50 where we had all five out, but the entire offense was not a play. It was an offense, it was a set with a lot of ball movement and player movement. And I used to say to them all the time, how's the defense gonna defend us? Because we don't know what we're gonna do. We're gonna move the ball and we're gonna move uh so quickly and with such determination that whichever angle, whatever option breaks open, that's the play. So we we can we don't go into it saying, you know, Mary's gonna get the ball or Sally's gonna get the ball. No, we're gonna run the offense and take what the defense gives us. And we were a high-scoring team because we drilled and drilled and drilled on that offense. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. So I run similar at a four-out, and I like to run it through the foul line. I get someone at the foul line, you know, so it's the top in the foul line, and it just creates so many opportunities for layups, mid-range jumpers, corner threes. I freaking love it. I love it. And it's uh so much fun. Listen, we could talk about this all day, but I guess we have to talk about the nonprofit stuff. Um, so we just quickly, so family, right? So you said you're married, Vince. Yep. Uh no kids. That's why you look so happy. No, I'm missing.

SPEAKER_01

I love my children very much.

SPEAKER_03

Uh how long have you been married for?

SPEAKER_01

Uh, just did 10 years, actually, in January. Congratulations. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Appreciate it. Awesome. It's uh it's a beautiful thing. Keep going, keep fighting, and uh make sure you do your date nights. Very important. Dennis, how about you? May will be 35 years. Wow, awesome. Awesome. And how many kids? Three. Three all in their 30s. Good for you now.

SPEAKER_02

So and did any of them stay local or they all of them are local. They all live uh we uh lived out in Loxa Hatchie for many years, and now all we we're now in a condo uh in North Palm Beach, but all the kids stayed in Loxa Hatchie, and they're probably in a five-mile radius of each other. Awesome. And they're close to each other, like uh relationship wise.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, awesome. I love that. Listen, my brother, best friend, business partner, neighbor, he lives seven houses away from me. Like yeah, so I I appreciate that so much. I love it. Awesome. So, all right, so now let's talk about the nonprofit stuff. Okay, I guess that's yeah the whole reason we're here. Children's Home Society of Florida. So you are the executive director. All right. What does that mean? What do you do?

SPEAKER_02

Well, let me give you a little background. So I came from the Department of Children and Families. I was the regional managing director for the same region I lead now for CHS, Palm Beach, Broward, and Treasure Coast. That was my region in DCF. And I was there for 20 plus years uh and was the that I was the regional director for the last 13. Uh, absolutely loved it. But in 2024, I decided to retire uh for the second time. So I'm not I'm not good at retirement. I'm 0 for 2 in retirements. Uh but I'm not sure. I'm not going to the Hall of Fame there, buddy. Sorry. So I uh I I was retired for almost a year, and I got a call one day from uh somebody who's a very senior executive at CHS. I said, I don't know if you're you know interested or if you've heard, but we've got an opening for the executive executive director position it down in your area. Would you be interested? And I really wasn't. And she goes, well, let me just tell you about our strategic direction moving forward. Now I knew CHS because with DCF, you know, I also ran four of the six regions in the state for DCF at one time or another. Okay. So everywhere I was uh leading a region, uh CHS was there. So we were working collaboratively for all those years. So I knew them and I had great respect for them. Um but, you know, she said, let me tell you what we're doing now. And, you know, CHS is the uh longest serving nonprofit dealing with uh serving children and families in the state of Florida. We've been doing it for over 120 years, uh, focused primarily for many of those years on foster care and adoptions. But she was telling me we're making a very strategic move uh towards prevention. Yeah. And uh trying to get upstream to get to these children and these families before they're in crisis. Even with the uh DCF, you know, oftentimes DCF would get involved when somebody called the hotline with an allegation of abuse or neglect. And so we would have to go in and make a very hard decision on whether or not those children needed to be removed from the home, you know, uh, or did they need, you know, or could we prop them up with services and resources? But this was after the family was already in crisis.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So what CHS was doing was they're saying, wait a minute, let's let's start working towards keeping these kids out of the system entirely. Yeah, let's get out front, let's get upstream and provide those services. So they came up with a compute uh community impact model uh with a concept of cradle to career. And as the lady's name I was talking to, executive vice president Kim uh Cook, I think is what we're gonna be doing over the next few years is creating uh community hubs, family resource centers where we go into identified neighborhoods, neighborhoods, neighborhoods we know are struggling. Okay. We're gonna set up a community center, a hub of services and resources in their neighborhood to start working with them before they're in crisis.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. And some of the some of the services and resources that will take place in this hub will be things that we do. That we'll it's a program of ours and we'll run it. Others will be community partners coming in to our hub and providing some of theirbody does it alone.

SPEAKER_03

So you gotta right, you gotta work together.

SPEAKER_02

So just a fantastic concept, and I loved it, you know. And then they they started telling me about the the uh cradle to career and how that works. And so we're one of the the leaders of the community partnership school model that's been created. It's been around for a few years now. There's 50 community partnership schools in the state of Florida right now, and we're the nonprofit partner in 37 of them. So we kind of own that market, okay? And a community partnership school is a school with four pillars uh that hold it up. There's a the school district, obviously, because it's their school, uh, a health partner, uh, a university, uh, and a nonprofit. And we're the nonprofit in this area. Here we have Lakeworth High School and JFK Middle School in in Palmage County. So you have this community partnership school, and ideally, when this is built out, you know, however long it takes to build it out, what we'll have is the neighborhood center that will feed into an elementary school that those kids in that neighborhood go to. In that school, there is a similar hub. It's gonna have a it has a food pantry, a clothing closet, uh, it's gonna have you know, tutoring, uh parent engagement, expanded learning, you name it, all on campus. These kids do not, if they have a uh, you know, toothache or an earache, uh, a need set of glasses, whatever their need is, it can be handled on campus. Oh, that's it. And I love I love that. So, and anyone in the neighborhood of that school can come get those same services, which is awesome. Yeah, the kid might have siblings that are not in that school, but they're open to come to this school and get any of the services. So now they graduate elementary school, they go to the the feeder school, the middle school, and instead of losing that awesome you know, program, they just uh go into the next school with the same program on site. And then from middle school on to high school. And when they graduate high school, this is where the cradle to career comes in. After they've gone through the neighborhood, grew up in that neighborhood with the center, went through the elementary, the middle school, and the high school receiving massive services, um, you know, all of that. Then we talk to them at graduation, like, what's next? What do you what do you want to do now?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh many kids today, more than you, more than in my day, even I think, say, I want to learn a trade and go to work. Yeah. And many of the kids, because we're talking uh families that are, you know, disadvantaged backgrounds, they don't just want to go to work. They have to go to work, they got to support, help support the family. They're struggling. So we say to them, okay, we are gonna be partner, you know, have partners in the community, maybe somebody like Career Source or or other agencies that help students, high school graduates, uh learn a trade and then help with job placement, get them into a job earning money. The other kids are gonna say, you know what, I've done well in my academics. I want to pursue a college education, and we'll be partnering with those agencies in the community that can help them navigate, you know, the application process. And these are kids that don't have this kind of help at home. Yeah. So that we're we're gonna have a process there for them where someone's gonna take them by the hand and help them with the nav, you know, uh the application process, choosing a school, choosing a major, you know, the whole, the whole nine yards. Yeah. And so that's to cradle to career. That's amazing. And because all of that is right there in front of them, they are going to have a lifetime of uh of these services and resources um and never enter the uh child welfare system.

SPEAKER_03

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02

So even though we were so big in in foster care and adoptions, we're almost trying to work ourselves out of that business by keeping those kids good out of that system, you know.

SPEAKER_03

That's I think that's amazing. And Vince, you have a completely different, you know, part of this because right, he's employed, you're a volunteer, you are the chair of the board for the Palm Beach area, right? So as one chair, so I'm the chair of the board of the YMCA in Boca Ratone. So we kind of right, I probably have more of an idea of what you do, right? So of right, you're giving your time, you're giving some money, you're helping, you're just kind of there for what they need. Yep. Uh and it's a very important role, too, because they couldn't do what they do without people like us. So tell tell me, what is it? What do you do to help?

SPEAKER_01

So it's first off, it's collaboration, right? We work very well with the CHS staff. Yeah. And I will say, just I've been involved for nine years now. Awesome. Eight years on the actual board. The thing that we bring to the table as an organization is we give the children and the families structure. Yeah. They don't have structure at home or they have inconsistent structure. We do a great job. And obviously, we don't do it. We Help support Dennis and his team do it. Right. But just seeing it and seeing these kids just turn around. Like we have a um a program called Safe Harbor, and uh Dwayne is a gentleman who runs that. And he tells us that when kids do, you know, they come to Safe Harbor by choice, or sometimes they're dropped off there. And when they're gonna leave Safe Harbor, they don't want to leave. Right. Because they appreciate and they really like the structure that they're given. There's been parents that try to bring the kids back to Safe Harbor because they're like, when they were in Safe Harbor, they did so well and then they came home and they didn't.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So it's just amazing to see the impact and actually see how it, you know, all pays off. Um, I've been the board chair for five years. I've been on the board for eight. I've been involved with CHS for nine. When we started initially, I was actually asked by one of my colleagues, George Schubert, got to give him a shout out, um, to do a team building 5K. He said, Hey, I found this 5K. His wife's grandma, like 50 years ago, used to be involved with CHS. She said, Oh, yeah, I know CHS, it's a great organization. He's like, Hey, do you want to do it? Um, so they send me the link. We all sign up. And I said to them, I go, guys, it's great we're signing up and we're participating, but we're supposed to raise money as a team. And we raised like$4,000, maybe. Nothing crazy. We were the number one team. Everyone's like, who's this granite telecommunications? Well, I want to meet him. I was recruited to be on the committee for the 5k the next year. And then when they saw how obviously involved I was, they said, Hey, would you like to join our board? Would you be interested? So over time, and then obviously I moved into the chair role. And uh, we hold quarterly meetings as a group. Uh, we have about 18 board members.

SPEAKER_03

We've had up to 20 answering all the questions I'm gonna ask before I say. I'm just gonna say just keep answering the questions that are in my head.

SPEAKER_01

Up to 20. Um, we do hold major events, one being our generation's walk that's coming up in April, that we'll talk more about in a little bit. Uh, but really our goal is to make sure number one, that we're helping raise money.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Number two, that we're getting the word out there. And children's home society in the name could be a little misleading sometimes. So, you know, Dennis kind of explained our mission and how we're kind of tweaking that approach. Uh, and of course, we want to get people to spread the word within the community to get more people involved in our mission.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, it's uh what you're doing is phenomenal. I I, you know, when I have guests on, I don't just have guests on, I do some research as well. I was on the website looking and I printed up a little bit of stuff that I just want to touch on. We're gonna do it briefly, obviously, because we got to get out of here at some point. We could probably talk about this for nine minutes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, of course. Vince wouldn't say it, but last year he was the statewide board chair of the year. Wow. We have a congratulation. We have a board in every community in the state.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Vince was the board chair of the year. Listen, I appreciate that so much because I I joke all the time about being on the board. Like, not only so I'm at the YMCA, I think more than a lot of the employees. And I always joke and say, not only do they not pay me, I pay to do this. Right. So, right, you have to have passion and I want to like, and there's a lot of great causes. So I fight for children. Like, that's a big thing for me.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for doing that, by the way.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Listen, absolutely. And uh, I'm not stopping until they kick me out. So I just want to touch on some of the things you do because I'm reading, I'm going, oh my God. And then I'm keep scrolling, I'm like, oh my God, like you already talked about it's all encompassing, but right, so they talked, starts with adoption, right? So when there's foster kids and they need help, you help them with getting adopted. Right. Post-adoption support. You're not just adopted and okay, bye, good luck. You're offering support after that to help the families get acclimated and figure out when there's issues and things, because I imagine there's probably issues sometimes, you know. Absolutely. And uh bridges, right? So families, right? This is for Lake Park, Lake Worth, and the West Palm and West Palm Beach. Bridges, right? So connecting with resources to raise safe, healthy children. This is zero to eight years old.

SPEAKER_02

I was talking about earlier family resource centers. Yeah. In effect, that's what bridges is. They are family resource centers. So those three we already have up and running.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Sins and Finns. Is it sins? Is that how you say C-I-N S? Children in need of services, family to in need of services. Right. Families raising children, six to seventeen, who are defiant, truant, and or struggle with behavioral challenges. So you're that offer counseling, help, because listen, it's put yourself in these kids' shoes, right? This is not just a wake up and life's amazing. Right. They're at one point and probably throughout most of their lives, they feel unwanted, even if they're adopted and taken in because that's how their lives started.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right. And it's uh issues come with that. You can't blame them. Yeah, it's just how it is. But to be able to help them, right? Community partnership schools. You talked on you talked about that already. It's amazing. Family visitation centers, right? So kid uh families involved in the welfare system and they're separated, it's a place where they can go.

SPEAKER_02

Imagine being a parent and having your child removed, or being a child and being removed from your parents, and uh you have no way of seeing them. And you know, that's where we step in. We have a beautiful uh family visitation center where the families can come and meet with their children and you know, continue to bond you know, as they work to reunify their family.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Model mentoring, right? Kids ages six to twelve who live in a single parent household looking for a mentor. Like, how cool is that? Like it's like a big brother, big sister kind of thing, right? That's huge to have that role model to be able to show you what to do. Project eight to eighteen mentoring, right? Uh teens in foster care, again, guidance, help, safe harbor emergency shelters, ages 10 to 17. If there's a family crisis, there's a place for them to go. Right. And Wyman's Teen Outreach Program, right? So obviously it's for teens. So it helps them creating a positive future, basically, right? And just self-guidance. I mean, this is amazing. And this is just words on a piece of paper. Right. What you're actually doing is unbelievable. And I think it's absolutely awesome. So you talked about volunteer, you talked about money, right? So obviously, money is what helps make things makes it go round. So you'll take donations. I mean, absolutely. Five dollars, five billion dollars, anything in between.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes, please.

SPEAKER_03

Excellent. And just make sure you know when we put us up on social media and all that stuff, it's gonna be in the show notes where they can go for for donating. Great volunteers as well, right? You need help volunteers. I imagine that's on the website as well. It is where they can go and sign up and sure there's checks and stuff like that. But it is a great way to for people to get involved. Because listen, there's people watching and listening that are gonna go, oh, I've heard of CHS. I didn't know what they did. Oh my god, that's amazing. How do I help? Yeah, I was a foster kid, I was adopted, whatever it is, connection. It's a connection, and that's the goal of this podcast is I want somebody, at least one, hopefully thousands, right? But at least one to go so they can help because it's it's the the butterfly effect, right? One person turns into 10 people, it turns into a thousand people. Selfishly, I just want the world to be a better place, right? So by doing these little things, it just makes it a little bit better. And if everybody does it, it makes it a lot better. So the programs are amazing, right? So volunteers, money, and events. You talked about a walk coming up. I would love, please make sure to get me that info so I can share that as well. We'll do um because listen, the more people that show up, the better, right? And I imagine you have multiple events throughout the year. We do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you're involved and see everything going through, and it's a lot and it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01

It is, right? It is, and people enjoy the events. Yeah. And you know, the goal is to just get one person who attended an event in the prior year to bring a friend, yeah, or to spread the word, or to create a team and bring their office. And it it's it's grown over the years, and we want to continue to see it grow. Yeah. Because we know, like you said, a lot of people don't know what CHS does. They the name is a little misleading. So they they really need to talk to someone, and we're getting the word out there, and we're growing and we're spreading the word, which is great, and and we really appreciate all the support locally.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. Uh, I think it's great. And listen, so as we start to wrap up here, we're gonna do another segment that I love that we're gonna do, and then we're gonna come back and see if you have anything else you want to add to for the people to see and know. So this is called the book of awesome. Okay. Okay. So what I'm gonna ask you to do is is just open it to a random page. There's a bold print at the top. Tell us, tell the world if it brings up a story, a thought, a good feeling. Uh, there's some really cool stuff in here, and I'll let you each go. So whoever wants to go first, please go. And by the way, if you don't like the one you get, feel free to pick another one.

SPEAKER_02

I can't even believe this is in here. Sleeping with one leg under the covers and one leg out. I do that, and my wife thinks I'm crazy, and and I can't have my feet, uh, my my feet can't lay on the bed. They have to either be at the bottom end or on the side. And she thinks that's the craziest thing. So I this is like it's weird how the world works, right?

SPEAKER_03

You open to that and it was for you. It was put in there for you. I think that's awesome. So so his wife thinks he's crazy. Yeah, mine's mine's the same, but it's all good. All right, Vince, what you got?

SPEAKER_01

Paying for something with exact change. So obviously, we don't use cash much anymore, right? We use card. And it's crazy that I just read that because we were at a coffee shop with my mother-in-law on Sunday, and she paid for the meal with exact change. I'm imagining the big purse. She's pulling out the little wallet, and I saw her go in and grab the coins, and then she took it and she turned it over, and coins went everywhere. And I go, You're seriously gonna pay with coins? And she goes, They need it. And um, so yeah, that that resonates with me well. So that is so hilarious.

SPEAKER_03

I love I'm telling you, this book is magical. You just open up to stuff that hits, right? I it's awesome. This is a great book. I I think that is so cool. So let's go back to CHS real quick before we wrap paper. Is there anything else you want the world to know? Anything to add? Two things. Yes, please.

SPEAKER_02

One is, and you already hit it, so I don't have to spend any time on it, is the need for volunteers, the need for donations. Yeah, uh, you can go to our website, it's all on there. It tells you how to get involved with us and all the different opportunities.

SPEAKER_03

So for volunteers, individuals, groups, everything.

SPEAKER_02

Everything and everything. Okay. Uh and the second thing is we want to just amplify a little bit the the walk that's coming up next month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Saturday, April 25th. It's at Okahilly Park. It's at 7:30 a.m. Uh, it is a walk. All are welcome. Children, strollers, dogs, friends, family, whoever wants to come out, we would greatly appreciate the support. Uh, we've been doing it for over 20 years. We've raised several million dollars. It is one of our largest events we do on an annual basis. Uh, so we're we're really just looking for as much support as possible. And we'll get you the information. Please, I'll share it. I have at least three.

SPEAKER_03

We'd be grateful for that. Yes. Absolutely. Listen, I have at least three people look at my social media, so I'll get it. No, I'm just messing.

SPEAKER_01

And it is I'll get out there. And it is a free event. So it is a totally free event. Obviously, we you know want people to raise money and we want donations, but it is a free event. We want as much community support in person that we can get as possible.

SPEAKER_02

And the runners can run, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, runners can start. Call it a walk, but yeah, you know, we've wanted to change running structure. Yeah, I ran last year. I ran every step. My only his goal is to win. My goal was to finish. And I ran every step. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. That's awesome. Awesome. Well, listen, what you're doing is so vital for our community. So thank you, both of you. And right, I know you're the executive director. Obviously, that's very important. As a fellow board chair, what we do is super important too. Like I said, it's couldn't do without you. It it's we're out there in the community. Right. We're not getting paid to do it. So it's sometimes, you know, if you're getting paid, they're like, oh, he's just getting paid to say it. We're not getting paid to do it, right? So we're out there. It's true emotion, it's true commitment. Commitment. Thank you. And it's uh it's wonderful. What you guys are doing is awesome. Please keep it up. I'll definitely get this word out. I can't wait for people to listen to this because more people need to know about Children's Home Society, right? CHS is important, wonderful, and awesome. Uh and again, thank you for taking your time out of your busy days to come out here and spend some time with me because again, the goal is this can make a difference, right? This can really make a difference. And if it's one child or a million children, it makes a difference. Right. So thank you again. And I want to say, you know, everybody at home who listen and watch, thank you. Please make sure to like, subscribe, leave a five-star review on this podcast because it helps. Because the goal is to get these people more money, more volunteers because they need it. So share this with a friend, share it with an enemy. I don't care. Just share it. And I want to say thank you again for watching another episode of Food, Family, and Philanthropy.