Embark on an unforgettable audio adventure as we follow Terry Vroman Little's voyage from the icy grip of Michigan to the nurturing embrace of Humboldt County. Their story is a rich tapestry of endurance and transformation, illustrating the profound influence the wild can have on an individual's life. From grappling with the bare-boned beginnings in California to the life-altering stints with the California Conservation Corps and Kings Canyon National Park, Terry's narrative is more than just a chronicle of change—it's a testament to the indomitable spirit of human growth and the relentless pursuit of education. Through the corridors of College of the Redwoods to the halls of Humboldt State University, we trace the footsteps of someone who dared to dream beyond their circumstances.
In our heartwarming session with Terry, the spotlight turns to an unconventional revolution in education sparked by a visionary woman from another era—Montessori. Terry guides us through their personal journey with this transformative educational approach, from the early influences that shaped their admiration for Montessori to the establishment of a local school that stands as a beacon of alternative education. The discourse blossoms into an exploration of Montessori's psychological nuances and the tailored learning experiences it offers, proving to be a beacon of empowerment for young minds. As we navigate the landscape of teaching, we share the pivots and leaps educators, including myself, have made amidst the pandemic, painting a picture of adaptability and ingenuity in the face of adversity.
Tying up our conversational marathon is the actual Humboldt Bay Marathon—an event synonymous with community and grit. We revel in the tales of its inception, the comeback post-pandemic, and the joys of participating in this cherished local tradition. The marathon stands as a metaphor for the episode's theme: resilience and celebration of the human spirit. We wrap up this episode with a nod to the simple pleasures and hidden gems of Humboldt County, with Terry imparting their reflections on a sustainable future and the legacy they hope to leave behind—a narrative that truly captures the essence of this extraordinary slice of California. Join us for this episode of 100% Humboldt, where inspiration runs as deep as the redwood roots.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Embark on an unforgettable audio adventure as we follow Terry Vroman Little's voyage from the icy grip of Michigan to the nurturing embrace of Humboldt County. Their story is a rich tapestry of endurance and transformation, illustrating the profound influence the wild can have on an individual's life. From grappling with the bare-boned beginnings in California to the life-altering stints with the California Conservation Corps and Kings Canyon National Park, Terry's narrative is more than just a chronicle of change—it's a testament to the indomitable spirit of human growth and the relentless pursuit of education. Through the corridors of College of the Redwoods to the halls of Humboldt State University, we trace the footsteps of someone who dared to dream beyond their circumstances.
In our heartwarming session with Terry, the spotlight turns to an unconventional revolution in education sparked by a visionary woman from another era—Montessori. Terry guides us through their personal journey with this transformative educational approach, from the early influences that shaped their admiration for Montessori to the establishment of a local school that stands as a beacon of alternative education. The discourse blossoms into an exploration of Montessori's psychological nuances and the tailored learning experiences it offers, proving to be a beacon of empowerment for young minds. As we navigate the landscape of teaching, we share the pivots and leaps educators, including myself, have made amidst the pandemic, painting a picture of adaptability and ingenuity in the face of adversity.
Tying up our conversational marathon is the actual Humboldt Bay Marathon—an event synonymous with community and grit. We revel in the tales of its inception, the comeback post-pandemic, and the joys of participating in this cherished local tradition. The marathon stands as a metaphor for the episode's theme: resilience and celebration of the human spirit. We wrap up this episode with a nod to the simple pleasures and hidden gems of Humboldt County, with Terry imparting their reflections on a sustainable future and the legacy they hope to leave behind—a narrative that truly captures the essence of this extraordinary slice of California. Join us for this episode of 100% Humboldt, where inspiration runs as deep as the redwood roots.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to my new best friend, terry Vroman, to the 100% Humboldt podcast. Hi Terry.
Speaker 2:Hi, can I correct my name? Yeah, it's Vroman Little.
Speaker 1:Vroman Little. It is. Yeah, Thank you. You absolutely can correct your name. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you. How are you? I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited. Everybody, I never lead with that. I've never said that.
Speaker 2:All right, I'll try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you're going to do great.
Speaker 2:Tell us how you got to Humboldt. It's kind of a backstory from leaving Michigan I had lived and gone to high school in Michigan and had just had it with winters. I lasted one winter out of high school and I absolutely didn't want to go to college. And so I just up and left and made my way to California out of high school and I absolutely didn't want to go to college. And so I just up and left and made my way to California. And then I landed in California with 20 bucks and a suitcase, which is not really a sustainable way to live in California. So the California Conservation Corps was hiring at the time. So I got a job in San Luis Obispo at the CCC Center there.
Speaker 1:Nice down in SLO SLO yeah. Did you arrive in SLO when you came to California?
Speaker 2:Eventually, I had taken a job selling magazine subscriptions door to door.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, that one.
Speaker 2:With this pretty sketchy group. I mean, looking back on that, I'd be horrified if any of my kids thought to do that, but I did and I went from Michigan and made my way all the way west and got to Oregon, saw the ocean and the next morning I thought I cannot do this, even one more day.
Speaker 1:Right, because Oregon's still cold Sometimes, not quite like Michigan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was just the whole knocking on doors and telling the story and the people most likely to give me money were the least likely. Like they should not be giving me money, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that that was a thing. Yeah, kirby vacuums Right Magazine.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Back in Iowa, where it's super cold, we had the Fuller Brush man and we had a Milk man, ice Cream man, fuller Brush man. Some other guy came by with something back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, CCC, ccc, and that I had worked in the Youth Conservation Corps in Michigan for a summer and I hadn't really fully thought of myself as an outdoorsy person but clearly I am and so I got to work on a fish and game crew for a while and then kind of a pivotal moment for my life was I applied to be on a backcountry trails crew. My life was I applied to be on a backcountry trails crew, and so I don't know why they took me, because I was smoking cigarettes and like it was not in great shape, but they took me and so I went to Kings Canyon National Park in 1982. Beautiful, worked on trail crew, lived out of a tent.
Speaker 1:It's up by Sequoia out that way.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:To Larry out that Visalia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just up out of Fresno. That was kind of the last town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, joni's from my wife's from Porterville, south of there. There you go. She corrects me. She's not from there. She lived there for a time.
Speaker 2:There you go yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good place to another, good place to.
Speaker 2:I was a back-of-the-pack hiker, which I did not like because apparently I'm competitive sometimes too. So I quit smoking and got okay at trail work and just living in the wilderness, and the work ethic specifically in Kings Canyon National Park was amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long were you up there in the woods?
Speaker 2:It was a six-month program, and so we were in the wilderness for a good four months, probably, maybe five.
Speaker 1:Just living in camps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, yeah, and getting resupplied mostly by helicopters. Back in those days that's really tapered off. We actually got flew in by a helicopter, which that doesn't happen now. You hike.
Speaker 1:Right, times were different, you have to walk in. Yeah, but times were different, you have to walk in. So is that on the Pacific Coast Crest Trail? Does it go through there?
Speaker 2:It does, yeah, and the John Muir Trail Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a beautiful park.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:So what happened after that?
Speaker 2:So after that I wasn't quite done with the CCC, so I went ahead and applied to be an energy conservation worker, and that was some training and then you get a green hat.
Speaker 2:And then I got to do like a retrofitting of state buildings all over the state with, you know, insulation and weatherstripping A little different from the rankings. Yeah, but it was. We had to go through an academic program, and so that's where it started to kind of hit that maybe I really should get an education. So, yeah, maybe a degree, maybe I should go to college, did you go to Humboldt then, or did you go somewhere else? That's a good story too.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, Cal.
Speaker 2:Poly, I have to call it Humboldt still.
Speaker 1:I do that might change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I applied at Humboldt and they told me that I couldn't go there because my GPA wasn't high enough. And I said, what's a GPA? I don't know what that is, because I didn't care in high school. I really did not like school. It was kind of the old Midwestern. You know, corporal punishment, I think, was done in my high school at the time, but it was just, it wasn't my thing. So, anyway, they sent me down to CR and I spent two years there getting my grades up and then, you know, went from a 1.8 to a 4.0. Wow. Then they took me and CR is a great school.
Speaker 1:It was amazing, yeah, college of the Redwoods, located in south of Eureka, california, down toward Fortuna, here in the handy-dandy Humboldt County map 100% Humboldt County map Ding ding, Ding, ding. So so you went to CR then. What did you study at Humboldt?
Speaker 2:Then I had thought at CR I was going to go into environmental studies of some kind, but that was just too heartbreaking and disappointing. It felt like everything was wrong. And so I shifted over at some point to education. Oh yeah, I shifted over at some point to education, oh yeah, with the notion that I could have a bigger impact by working with children and helping them understand the natural world and you know everything else. Yeah, but like having an impact at that level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I came up as an ocean major in wildlife and just discovered I was not particularly too bright. What? And so not too bright.
Speaker 2:And wound up as a recreation major.
Speaker 1:There you go, liberal arts, so with five minors or something whatever. But you know what Solid education Felt like. I got my money's worth and ready to go right into, of course, got pregnant and radio sales. I was in sales for well, still am, I guess as a state farm agent, but yeah, for many years in media.
Speaker 2:What years were you at Humboldt?
Speaker 1:78 through 82. Oh okay, I'm 100 years old now.
Speaker 2:You don't look it.
Speaker 1:You do not. I feel pretty good actually.
Speaker 2:Right on.
Speaker 1:For 100. It was the sun in Maui that was helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that really preserves your skin.
Speaker 1:It really does, preserves my soul, anyway. So you graduated and then stayed here.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and during like through College of the Redwoods and through my time at Humboldt, I went back to Kings Canyon National Park as a federal employee and worked on backcountry trails. It was a really nice balance, because by then I was pretty fit and so it was. I could keep up with everybody. You know I was small but strong, and so I could work all summer and there was nowhere to spend the money, so it all just went into my bank account and then I would come back in the fall and take more classes.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, so you did that in the summer and then came back and yeah, and I had to skip some initially it was quarters and then semesters just to fit in a full season.
Speaker 1:I remember the quarter system. Yeah, that was a great way to go 67 bucks a quarter plus books.
Speaker 2:I don't remember. It was cheap back in the day. Yeah, yeah, well, cr was free when I was there.
Speaker 1:It is a better deal. Yeah, that's even better, but Humboldt yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So it took me way longer than four years to finish. Even while I was at CR I didn't go all the time, gotcha, but it was because I was working.
Speaker 1:Well, you had a good gig down there, I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hard work fun.
Speaker 2:It was, and looking back on it now, because I'm a smaller person, I had to use tools to manage the big rocks, the rock bars, where other people who were bigger were more likely to just use brute force, and that's great, except many of my bigger friends ended up with back problems at a super young age and I don't have that.
Speaker 1:You used the tools, you had Right. So did you get? You graduated, got married, stayed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not quite in that order I was. I got pregnant with my oldest, who's now 34. When I was just, I think, I had a semester to go, and so she was born and I needed one. Like I had to take six more units after she was born, and so we walked through graduation one weekend and then had our wedding the next weekend. So, yeah, so the family came and got to do all the fun things together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was with my former husband, so the dad and my two kids. Yeah, so the family came and got to do all the fun things together. That's cool, yeah, and that was with my former husband Gotcha. So the dad and my two kids.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, and so how old are your kids now?
Speaker 2:The older two are 34 and 29. Wow yeah.
Speaker 1:And are you grandma?
Speaker 2:I'm a grandma. The 29-year-old has an eight-year-old son, who I adore Cool an eight-year-old son who I adore.
Speaker 1:They're here local.
Speaker 2:Those two are yes.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then our oldest is up in Portland, which is accessible, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a day, it's a long drive, but yeah, yeah. So then you got into Montessori.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I back up though? Oh please back away?
Speaker 1:Well, no.
Speaker 2:That's actually a better path. So while I was doing my teaching credential, so once I had my daughter my oldest I finished up those last few credits and then took a year just to be a mom and then went back to get my teaching credential and at that point my daughter was two-ish and my master teachers were at Alice Burney School. That's where I did my student teaching. It was Michelle Leftridge at the time and Mary Scott. Mary Scott's a county school board member, I remember those names.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing people Was Alice Burney the one that's, that's, not Jacobs.
Speaker 2:It was next to jacobs I mean jacobs is scraped now, but yeah yeah, yeah okay yeah. So, um, michelle, who has a daughter very close in age to my daughter, said, oh, you need to send kelsey to montessori preschool and I said, well, okay, look, I didn't. I knew about montessori but I didn't really understand it. And so it's, having sent her there and seeing what Montessori education was about as a new teacher, it just kind of Tell us about Maria Montessori.
Speaker 1:What's it all about? Oh?
Speaker 2:my gosh.
Speaker 1:Some people will know, but many of us don't know the deets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's been fun over the years that people have asked well, what religion is that? Well, it's not a religion. It's just a person that people have asked well, what religion is that? Well, it's not a religion, it's just a person. Maria Montessori was born in Italy at a time when the options for women were to stay home and have a baby or possibly be a teacher, and that was like as far as you could go in education, and Maria Montessori wanted to be a doctor. You read different stories, but she was very convincing and I think her mom was quite an advocate. And there's a word that possibly the Pope intervened.
Speaker 1:Early 1900s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was born in. Oh dear Well, she died in 1952. So I think she was born in 1859.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Something like that. I should know those dates but I don't in this moment. She lived a long life. She did, yeah, very, um, just brilliant life. So she initially got picked on in medical school, she think. You know, it was just a whole different era. Women were not supposed to work on cadavers next to men. So you know, the men would get to do that work in the daytime and she have to go downstairs in the dark at night and do her studies by herself.
Speaker 1:With dead people.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, just their bodies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just their shell. Yeah, pastor Jim calls that your earth suit there, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean that kind of stick-to-itiveness, amazing. So it didn't take too long before people started to understand who like what she was and how amazing she was, and so the picking on her tapered away. She actually got to give a speech at graduation. In those days it was called an insane asylum or some other. It's derogatory now, but just a facility for children with pretty severe developmental disabilities. Wow, yeah, because I don't know why. Because so she started observing the children because her background was science and just watching what they were doing and hearing all the people saying, well, these kids are terrible, they're playing with crumbs on the floor, and she said, well, there's nothing there for them to work with except for spilled food. So they had nothing. They had no enrichment at all. It was like an asylum. So she got busy and did research and went back for more education and that's kind of where her whole approach to teaching and learning started was there.
Speaker 1:Interesting, yeah, from nothing yeah. Yeah, but again a really brilliant person Watching and learning and going. Well, maybe there's something. So what's the premise of Montessori education?
Speaker 2:There's a few tenets that I mean. There's all kinds of amazing materials that some she developed from scratch, others she made good use of the science and materials that were already out in the world. So some of her stuff came from other brilliant people at the time, especially the math materials. Anyway, hands-on learning, because especially young children and grown-ups too, there's a lot of sensorial information you can get. So really visual and hands-on materials. Freedom Within Limits, which is brilliant. I mean it works in any program where you're free to make choices that you can. If you're using materials correctly, you're allowing other people to work, love it, and then, if you can't use those correctly, you're allowing other people to work, love it, and then, if you can't use those correctly, that's where the limits come.
Speaker 2:And if you can't, limit yourself, then I, as your educator, will step in and help you and set some limits until you're ready to push again Three-year age cycles in a traditional Montessori classroom which allows for that kind of span of developmental progress, because not every child in first grade on day one can do these 10 things. You know, some of them did them a year ago, some of them it's coming. So having that choice of materials and a span of materials, yeah. And then for the teachers it's pretty great because you only change out one third of your class every year and so there's a more sustained culture in the room. So the older children are helping model for the younger ones.
Speaker 1:What are the three-year increments.
Speaker 2:Typically it would be like in a preschool. It would go through kindergarten so kind of two and a half to three-year-olds all the way through about six, and then first, second, third, together, fourth, fifth, sixth and then the adolescent program. There's not many models of that Like. Even our program can't quite pull that off because ideally there would be a farm and the kids would go out and work on the farm.
Speaker 1:Because this has an ag component to it.
Speaker 2:Especially at the adolescent and into high school years, because that's such a hard time for any kid whether they've got everything they want, if they're struggling like it's just their bodies are changing so much.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So having them like do work, that they could like have a farm stand, have their hands in the dirt, be outside, use their bodies Perfect.
Speaker 1:Watch nature do its thing, use their bodies.
Speaker 2:Perfect Watch nature do its thing, yeah, so there are some amazing models. There's one in Hershey, ohio, where we've sent some teachers for their training.
Speaker 1:So your job and title is what At the local school?
Speaker 2:Well, that's where it gets tricky. So right now, my main title is I'm the school founder, which doesn't mean I founded it on my own, but it was my brilliant idea.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty nice title.
Speaker 2:I like it I founded podcasting in Eureka.
Speaker 1:No, that's Nick, sorry, I founded the Hammond Family Ranch. I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you were part of the start.
Speaker 2:I was, yeah, and I was so backing up to my kids. My son came along five years later and he went to the same Montessori preschool and it was just clear like he's a very bright person, as is my older daughter, but he's just wired differently and it was looking like traditional education was not going to be so easy for him. My older child made the leap okay, so I got busy and went back to school and started Montessori training with the vision of opening an elementary program here locally.
Speaker 1:Back to school meaning humble.
Speaker 2:No, not right away. I went down to San Luis Obispo area, ironically because there was a kind of a hybrid program where I could do a lot of the studying in the school year time and then go down for intensive hands-on learning in the summers. So I did that through kind of four summers to get both levels that I wanted the preschool level.
Speaker 2:So you had a private Montessori training center, or was it through SLO it's private and it was kind of like you could get extended ed through UC Santa Barbara. It was kind of like you could get extended ed through UC Santa Barbara but it's a standalone program supported by a couple of local Montessori's Love that area.
Speaker 1:It's such a cool area. Yeah, we're going down soon to Paso or Tascadero, somewhere Nice. Yeah, joni's sister has a restaurant in Slope.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we should talk about that later, yeah.
Speaker 1:Pizza Republic. Hey, lisa, hey, shout out to Lisa Yay, tim, yeah, so what a great area. So you came back then and started this school.
Speaker 2:So that would have been so easy. But it was really hard to get anything off the ground. Initially my husband and I thought, oh well, we'll make it a private program and that just was not. It's just not going to happen. And I'm really glad it didn't, because that would have set us up to just have families that could pay to go, get to go, and that was not ever really Montessori's model. Like she started with inner city slum kids, that was her first classroom Available for everybody. Come on, come on, yeah. So I approached Eureka City Schools and at the time Jim Scott was a superintendent and he got it. He understood what the vision was and being able to offer that with Eureka City Schools. So that's where I started. I had a small standalone classroom at Grant Elementary.
Speaker 1:That was Montessori-specific. Yes, that's rad Under the public school system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, huh, yeah, and that lasted 40.
Speaker 1:Is that done much? Do they do that much?
Speaker 2:It's becoming more common, but the more likely scenario is what we are now, which is an independent charter school. So you're funded through the state, but as a separate entity? Yes, and so we're under the umbrella of Arcata School District, because of where our first site ended up being so.
Speaker 1:do you have access to the resources through? Can the kids play sports, for instance, or if they wanted to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, um, we do compete in with other schools in sports and like there's no way our high school students are ever going to be able to compete against like a you know.
Speaker 1:I'll be Eureka, Eureka yeah.
Speaker 2:No, but um, what we did for the first time ever, which is pretty amazing, shout out to College of the Redwoods. We fielded a basketball team and there's a whole program for small school basketball teams. All right, and so, yeah, they got to play basketball against other little schools. That's cool. They came in fourth out of six at the tournament hey come on, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. They came in fourth out of six at the tournament. Hey, come on, yeah, hey rocking it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were kids that were out there that had never played basketball before, along with some really skilled kids who had kind of lost steam in the whole super competitive piece. So it was really, really magical to watch. That's cool.
Speaker 1:So, as the founder do you come and teach.
Speaker 2:Do you show up? So I had been the first through third grade classroom teacher. That was my sweet spot, and I had done that with Grant Elementary for four years. And then it was declining enrollment in the district and Jim Scott had retired and the new forces there just didn't really appreciate or whatever. So I was at a board meeting saying are we going to get to be here next year? Because if not, like I need to know now. And so the board just sat silently, which was the kindest thing they could have done really. And so I walked out of that meeting thinking it's done. And then a bunch of parents followed and said, okay, well, what do we do now? So I thought, oh, we're not done, we're just moving on. We're just moving, just transitioning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's kind of a long drawn-out story, but Toll Valley Charter School took us under their wing and we were able to get a school site in Cooper Gulch, straight across from where Mistwood Montessori is. It's a city-owned building. It was amazing for a small program that we were at the time Right, so we had three years there. Huh, loved it.
Speaker 1:Is it over by the Frisbee golf course? Yeah, yeah. It's right over here yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see it, it's right there yeah. Okay so.
Speaker 1:So what's what's cool about Montessori? What have you seen? The fruit of the kids that come through it.
Speaker 2:Well, one thing I have to say is that Montessori, the approach to Montessori, teaching and learning, so the freedom within limits follow the child, which means you're not going to follow them around with like a little helicopter or a snowplow, but you're observing, taking note of what the children are interested in and then supporting what they want to learn in that moment with the materials on hand. Yeah so, but other like really subtle things are supporting. There's a lot of psychology about education that Montessori understood so far back. Yeah, so just the phrasing of what you do, not making it oh, I'm so proud of you Like, oh my gosh, look how hard you worked on that Like those basic things to empower the children.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, so we homeschooled most of our nine kids. Yeah, not all of them. And then Joni finally fired the last two, threw her the towel and said get out of here yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of kids school, actually Worthington, right around the corner, and they did fine, they got through. But the net is she learned early on the whole unlearning model which is feed them what they love. Man, let them do what they like within parameters. Kalia was very artsy and hands-on and kinetic and creative. And Jesse, we would just go get him a big box of books at McKinleyville Library I mean the big ones and Joy loved to see him coming. The librarian, she was amazing She'd go. Yeah, well, he could go over the limit. That's fine, take two boxes today and so just feeding those gifts, and funny, we don't do that as much in the old model. No, well, the old model.
Speaker 2:No, well, the old model was a like factory. I'm not I can't say for sure, but I think my elementary classroom desks were bolted to the floor in straight rows because a lot of that like that whole like industrial approach to education. Well, that was actually Indiana. We moved to Indiana for a while Bolted to the floor. Well, yeah, because it was kind of based on the factory model and factories are all pinned down, lined up, everybody does the same thing, which can work really well for a lot of kids, but not every kid.
Speaker 1:Some of us got through it and I came to Humboldt. It was very creative. We had a program called Cluster which was no tests, no grades, show up, get 16 units in the quarter system, which was beautiful and it was all interdisciplinary and you did have to show up, you did have to journal, you did have to do your darn work and be present. But the no grade thing was really kind of hard on folks. People were so used to the factory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And getting there, you check the boxes and you get through and it's like this was a really nicely different program which was really well well-rounded. It made me hunger to learn things.
Speaker 2:Yay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like like recreation administration, right, kids go. You majored in recess. I go kind of yeah, don't mess with me, come on outside, man. Yeah, come on outside, let's go for a hike. Yeah, so no, it's wonderful. So I appreciate that because you know, coming from that homeschool background, there's such a big homeschool and charter school community here yeah.
Speaker 1:That's. You know that stuff's so important, so let's shift over to your. Well, I want to ask about COVID and what that did to the school and kids and kind of, and then transition to your running and the Humboldt Bay Marathon and stuff.
Speaker 2:Great, yeah, ok, so there's a couple of pieces I still have to fill in. So I, when my son was born, my, his dad, the dad of my two older children, and I split up, actually before Huxley was even born, so that was a really tough time for all of us. So I ended up needing to work very part time for a reasonable amount of money, and so a job came open to teach inside the Humboldt County Jail, and that's what I did. I call it my seven years hard time, because it was hard. It was men, women, both, yes, all categories of jumpsuits. So like violent murderers, you know, sexual predators, everybody who was cleared to be educated, I worked with all of them.
Speaker 2:So mostly classroom setting or yeah, yeah, and it was early enough, where it was still the old jail model, the new jail was being built while I was teaching there, so I got to kind of transition over. But my point was that while I was doing some of my Montessori education, while I was still teaching in the jail and was able to implement some of those approaches, they were getting some Montessori, yeah, without ever saying that to anyone.
Speaker 2:Right, right, heartbreaking and also really inspiring to see people pull it together and then devastating because many people were still in the addiction cycle and just you know, I'd see repeats come in and really young people who did really horrendous things and I still, like that's been. I haven't worked there in 20 years, but every once in a while somebody will recognize me out in the community and say, oh, I got my GED when I was working with you. Wow, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've done jail ministry and it's a mix. Yeah, yeah, yeah Tough. So what did COVID do to education and kids?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Well, by the time COVID came, like I had already been out of the classroom for a while before COVID. So I, like we were our family, was living through it. I was, you know, seeing how the school was doing and helping we. It was rough and was rough. It was super rough. Our youngest at home, who's now almost 18, she was an adolescent. So any child, though, going from a hands-on learning environment or whatever, even in traditional education, from that to being home and facing a screen, asking that of children was a lot and then asking that of families was super hard too. Let's Zoom live for the rest of three years, so I don't think she'll be mad. But we got a phone call from our daughter whose parent or her teacher was like I don't know if she's really paying attention because she's at the screen, but kind of looking sideways and smiling. We busted her. She's just watching little cute videos on the side while she was supposed to be paying attention.
Speaker 1:Like all the kids were yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I was, like I still do. Right, don't tell anybody at my Zoom class, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out over time. But I think the kind of cool thing is that nobody got out unscathed, like everybody's education got jammed up. So there's this whole generation of students who have had to weather that and make the best.
Speaker 1:Went and got our daughter from Chico State, michaela, and brought her home from the dorms and she stayed there and graduated two months later from home. Hey, never went back to Chico.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just all Zoom and distance learning. So yeah, I think it's just kind of coming out now how people have survived and thrived and not I work with really young children now.
Speaker 2:So my job title it's through Humboldt, first Five, and so I'm a zero to five-year-old playgroup leader, and so it's children that are zero to five. They come in with some kind of adult, so either a parent, grandparent, babysitter and those like the children who are now turning four, five, six. They were super isolated in that developmental phase. So a lot of them, the parents, have been saying, yeah, they just they never had the chance to learn how to share when they were tiny. So now that's a thing that you know it's workable, but it's a thing that was skipped.
Speaker 1:You have to relearn or unlearn some things. Yeah, I think our 19-year he he suffered greatly came through with a really good guitar skill because he was on YouTube all the time and he could bench 450 pounds, which is, in America, a lot of weight in the world.
Speaker 2:It's more than two people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh it's, it's. It's four or five plates on both it hardcore.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And ate a lot of protein. Yeah, but socially I think he is catching up. Like you said, kids were resilient, you implied it, you didn't say it, and then we can relearn and unlearn and go forward, but yeah, kind of a tough setback.
Speaker 2:It was yeah and go forward and but, yeah, kind of a tough setback.
Speaker 1:It was all yeah, yeah, and even for adults I, lots of adult friends are right now I think I'm just seeing some some hangover PTSD, anxiety, depression, abuse of whatever like addiction cycles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's. I don't know that many people are immune from all of that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree. It doesn't matter what your background is.
Speaker 1:All that and an environment of separation and political dissension and insanity. Yeah, other than that, we're doing great yeah.
Speaker 2:And you never know who is going to pull through better than you think and those people that you think are going to be fine, when really they're not.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah. It's interesting you'd say that because I found that in a church setting the people that I thought were really cool, totally like great people. As soon as there's crisis, they're out of here. Man, yeah, they check out and it's like I love you, but I'm gone.
Speaker 1:And then the people that I thought were kind of you know, just not negative, just ambivalent turned out to be the amazing people during a crisis or a down cycle or a problem or trouble. And it's funny how that works. The people that came and saw me after my hip surgery were not the people that I thought were going to come by to say hi, to bring a sandwich, to bring some strawberries to you know whatever.
Speaker 2:Make you walk.
Speaker 1:To make you walk, to inspire you to get off your couch and start walking on those hips. So, speaking of walking, yes, okay. So you're the. Are you the founder of the Humboldt Bay Marathon?
Speaker 2:Rich Baker and I were the original directors, so co-founders. What I like to say are co-director.
Speaker 1:Who's?
Speaker 2:Rich Rich Baker is. He's a local legend himself. So his I met him because his two younger daughters came to our school, oh okay, and they had gone through the Montessori preschool as well and he was kind of an off and on runner but had just decided somewhere in there to get busy running. Yeah, and our daughters were also singing together. I guess that's how we got to spend more time while they were at chorus practice. We were chatting it up and I just started talking about how amazing it would be if we could have a marathon that goes all the way around Humboldt Bay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that just oh, oh, we have the bay right here. That's so amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, no, we don't, we got a piece. Oh, we do, sorry.
Speaker 1:If we were at Arcata, is that where it starts at the plaza?
Speaker 2:It starts in Eureka. Okay, and do you go all the way around and grabbed some mileage out in the Arcata Bottoms, that's right.
Speaker 1:So you come up and then back around Manila, Samoa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and over the bridges, yeah. Are we allowed to say cuss words in here? Sure, okay, people, we're not using those bridges for the last few years, but people call them the dam bridges. Ah, because they come in the last several miles, which, for a marathon, is grim timing to have any kind of a hill.
Speaker 1:And they're little hills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Those damn bridges. So they're coming back, we are going to come back. Yeah, I'm sure people have all kinds of words. So that was the end of the race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And I had trained running around Humboldt Bay a few times with some like my friend Jesse Hunt and my friend Susie Seaman, that we had trained up to run Santa Rosa Marathon together. Okay, so that like we had done some of our long runs around the bay and that was kind of what got me thinking about it some years before. Wow, yeah. So Rich Baker said yes, let's do it. And so we worked together pretty tightly for the first couple of years. So the initial year was 2015.
Speaker 2:So we're on. This will be our ninth running this coming year. Wow, already we skipped a year due to COVID, so it's not really an annual. We can't ever quite claim that. We just call it the whatever running, right? So this will be the ninth. And what's the date this year? So it's Sunday, august 11. It's always the second Sunday in August. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:We're in town. I think Joni's signing up going for it. Yeah, she's running she got green lighted yesterday from the doctor. Yay.
Speaker 2:So she's going for it. Rumor has Grasshopper Peak might be in her.
Speaker 1:Could be yeah, actually. Yeah, we're going to her sister's, so we're going to. Okay, it's a kerfuffle. So I have to tell you a few more things about the marathon.
Speaker 2:Please, because there had been a marathon around Hubbelt Bay back in the mid-70s. I've got some really cryptic paperwork about that and I think it went for two or three years, I think. Registration was $5. There was no T-shirt involved, the permitting was zero and they just ran it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who did that? Like the jogging shop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I almost. Oh, I wish I had looked that back up, because I can't hold that kind of.
Speaker 1:That was a strong running community then. I mean they were hardcore, humble people yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's still like people, there's hardcore runners here now.
Speaker 1:Oh sure.
Speaker 2:They've maybe diversified a little a lot more trail runners, anyway. So we were not the originators of it, but we've kept it going with a lot of support from local people, local businesses, volunteers, yeah, and last year we helped a man qualify for the Olympic trials Whoa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:He set a new course record that's going to be really tricky to beat unless somebody else is trying to qualify. His name is Mason Searles, from Colorado, and he brought a friend with him who had already qualified and was just going to try to re-qualify or run it. Yeah, it was amazing. So he ran 2.17.46.
Speaker 1:That's really fast Smoking. Yeah, that's super fast.
Speaker 2:So part of why they picked us is that we're sea level. It's a very flat course. It's a double out and back right now for this year, and so there's a lot of great things about that. You know the course, you know the turns.
Speaker 2:So for those damn bridges, yeah, well, those are not part of it right now. For now, okay, so that going around the Bay was really really expensive and the we couldn't charge enough to really make up for that. So eventually we had to back away from that and kind of regroup. Um, once those miles along Highway 101 are put in as trail, oh, that's going to be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so all indications are that by next year by 2025, our 10th running we can make it sustainable and financially viable to go back around the bay because that's amazing.
Speaker 1:So what's this year's?
Speaker 2:route. So the start and finish is at the Madagascar Plaza. So the foot of C Street, and then the marathon and the half do the same thing, although the marathon gets to do the half twice. So they go up the waterfront trail all the way up to the Tid Street. They do a little loop all the way down, okay, and then come back to the foot of C.
Speaker 1:Street, so all the way down to Elk River and back.
Speaker 2:We haven't because that just got added after we certified our course a couple years ago and there's some time and expense to recertify. So we're looking at that for this year, whether we can grab that, because that's gorgeous down there, oh yeah, and really flat.
Speaker 1:And really really flat, yeah, and newly paved yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's a nice turnaround where we could have an aid station down there. So Marlene Allen is the person to get your course certified. So we've got ideas in the hopper.
Speaker 1:And that's a big thing. The certification is a big deal right.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah, so it's with the USATF, epf. Don't ask me to explain what that is right now, but that's what makes you a Boston qualifying race is if you get certified, and then to qualify people for the Olympics, you also have to get sanctioned, which requires some more things and a little more money.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. So how do we let link to the registration there? It's through Race Roster, which a lot of races use.
Speaker 1:Race Roster yeah, only runners would kind of know that. Yeah, well, probably, yeah, yeah Many.
Speaker 2:So I have to back up, though, and explain a little another detail about the race. So the reason I'm not teaching in the classroom anymore is that I was running with these three or two friends that we had. Actually, we did the Santa Rosa Marathon. All three of us qualified for the Boston Marathon at that race. Yeah, that was 2011. And I didn't realize how phenomenal that was. That. How many people can't ever get there.
Speaker 1:It's a big thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have to brag. I qualified with 15 minutes to spare.
Speaker 1:Whoa, I know, yeah, I look back and that-. Did you go race Boston then?
Speaker 2:We did, yeah. So Susie decided to not go to Boston. Her children were younger than Jesse's and mine and she just decided that wasn't going to be a thing for her that year. So Jesse and I went and ran the 2012 Boston Marathon. How cool? No, it was hot, it was painfully hot. They were saying, if you don't start the race, you can just come back next year and you don't have to re-qualify. It was 79 in the shade at the start.
Speaker 1:Wow For Humboldt people that's grim, early, you're dying yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we just regrouped and just decided we're going to run it and we're going to finish without needing help at the end. So we just had a great time, got lots of high fives, took treats from kids on the sides Sure, it was amazing. And then soon after that, we were out. I guess it was that September, so I just turned 50 in early September of 2012.
Speaker 2:And we were out running one morning and we were hit intentionally by I just kind of vacillate between sociopath and psychopath, but it was a really intentional thing sociopath and psychopath, but it was. It was a really intentional thing. Um and uh, susie was killed at the scene, as was Jesse's dog, and Jesse and I were just grimly injured. Um, and so that was 2012. Um, the community stepped in so many ways. There are things, I'm sure, that I still don't know today, but the running community, the school communities, people who didn't know us, the Bay Area, so that was really heartwarming. And I didn't know much to begin with because, along with everything else, I had a brain injury. So that's kind of.
Speaker 1:So for the record, this guy committed crimes up in the mountains and he did.
Speaker 2:He had already murdered somebody else up in the mountains.
Speaker 1:He did, he had already murdered somebody else up in Hoopa and he came back down and he Took a car, yeah, and he turned around and came after everybody, right, is that kind of how it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't remember, but he, like from all the evidence, he drove past us, turned around and came back and drove through the back of us.
Speaker 1:There's a doubling back. Wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then turned around and came back and drove through the back of us there's a doubling back, wow yeah. And then turned around again to go wherever he was planning to go and get rid of the car. Huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but somebody saw it and came to the rescue.
Speaker 2:Somebody. There was a postal worker who was on her way to work, who lived out on Oliver Cater Road and saw the vehicle turning around but didn't think anything of it. Thought it was a farmer because it was early in the morning, it was still dark yeah, you guys are running early yeah, with all the right stuff.
Speaker 2:We had the headlights and reflecty stuff. Even the dog had a little light up collar um, on the correct side of the road on the shoulder, so but she thought it was just a farm vehicle out early and didn't think a thing of it, so just came along and then saw the car go around a bunch of our debris in the road, and so she was going to go along and around too and looked over and realized that's a person Right, so she stopped her car, parked it across the road to make sure the person that was Jesse was safe, called for help, and then the next person on the scene was an Arcata police officer on his way to work. Whoa, what are the odds?
Speaker 1:What are the chances?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then, soon after that, a CHP investigator coming home from the gym. So there was, just help came.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Quickly, which was good.
Speaker 1:And he was arrested that day right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they found the vehicle later and just kind of.
Speaker 1:Huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they found the vehicle later and just kind of yeah, I don't need to tell that story, but yes, he was arrested later and it there's no gift about it. But it took a long time for the trial to come about and with that time I was able to like recover a lot of what I could get back and kind of think things through and be able to go to the trial with a clearer head than if it had happened right away. Wow.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what a thing to go through ordeal.
Speaker 2:It is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I would gosh forgiveness, all that stuff. How do you move through all that? I guess you have.
Speaker 2:Well, no, yeah, I don't think I ever will, I don't think anyone can.
Speaker 2:But there's there's a lot like I went about wanting to like own all the information, which is not what everybody needs, but I had to look at all the files, look at all the pictures. I needed to just own the story. I had to ask my husband many times like, okay, so what did I do in the emergency room? I don't remember. So that was my approach to recovery, Not that I was thinking, oh, I should do this, that's just what I did. The process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so Jessie doing okay.
Speaker 2:She has recovered a lot too. Neither one of us could get everything back, and that's her story to tell.
Speaker 1:Is she? Running she is yeah, she could yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we actually did a race together with another friend who could have easily been with us that morning and just wasn't. She's a professor down at Sac State. So we went and did a race over in Reading, a relay, and we took first place in our age group Nice, yeah. So, yeah, we're back running. We kind of like we don't run together very much anymore. One thing Jessie's younger and she got a lot of her speed back. I'm older and you know I'm speedy enough. But anyway, we just kind of, you know, regrouped and pointed ourselves in the direction that made sense.
Speaker 1:Joni's working on her speed, Hi hon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Go Jodi.
Speaker 1:Go, jodi, she doesn't get it back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just to wrap that in.
Speaker 2:So having a friend be killed can't really be a reason to put a race on, so it wasn't, but yet also it was a way like putting Humboldt Bay Marathon together was a way to honor Susie's memory and everything about running and everybody else who cared about running and what happened.
Speaker 2:And so the first couple of years when it went around the bay, it went out Old Arcata Road and we didn't tell people, but our local friends knew that the course went right past the hit and run site. Wow, local friends knew that the course went right past the hit and run site and some of our really close friends ran the aid station right there. Um, just as a silent, not silent, but you know, yeah, and honoring, and we still go out there every year and redecorate the, the little memorial plaque that's there. You wouldn't know it was there unless you stopped to look at it. So, yeah, so now there's a heart that somebody at Susie's children's school had drawn and it's a heart shape that has Susie's initials in it and that has been woven into every piece of marathon gear that we do.
Speaker 1:It's in the artwork. Sarah's designed it in the artwork too. Yeah, is she doing the artwork this year?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, she'll do it until she says no, because I'm never going to not have Sarah.
Speaker 1:Sarah Starr shout out to the artist Yay, we love you. Yeah, yeah, they've become our good friends, her and Peter.
Speaker 2:I heard they're just special to us.
Speaker 1:So, hey, that part of our show where I pull out the bell, okay, and I ring the bell into the mic, that should be crazy. I've never done this Dude, that's loud.
Speaker 2:It resonates.
Speaker 1:So this is the quiz where you might earn Dick Taylor.
Speaker 2:That bag is empty man.
Speaker 1:Well, you don't know that it could be full. There's a lighter, there's a shot glass over there. Oh, those belong to Nick. So here's the quiz Ready. Favorite burger at Humboldt Go.
Speaker 2:Ooh, oh no. We were in Chico and had such a good burger recently. I can't think of where it is. Oh no, Is it always the burger question?
Speaker 1:Can we look back to that?
Speaker 2:I get kind of excited under pressure.
Speaker 1:Question number two Okay, favorite coffee place. Oh, old Town Coffee of excited under pressure. Question number two Okay, favorite coffee place.
Speaker 2:Oh, Old Town Coffee and Chocolates, Okay good.
Speaker 1:Number three Favorite chocolate.
Speaker 2:Dick Taylor, madagascar, oh wow, that's fine. Ironic because my husband and I honeymoon in Belize and we like that just fine. But Madagascar, that's the winner. Dick Taylor, it's kind of creamier, it's good, I like that one. We just finished a Madagascar bar. What's your favorite running trail? My favorite is the McKay Community Forest all the way out to the end and back. It's about I don't know about 11 miles round trip.
Speaker 1:That's a good run. It's not too hilly, which is what I like. Yeah, okay, you can go anywhere you want for dinner. Where do you go? Uh, brick and fire. Brick and fire, oh, good choice. And last question your favorite beach in humboldt county?
Speaker 2:oh, okay it's. I think it's called college cove. It's on the way out to elk's head.
Speaker 1:You drop down in there, yeah, yeah, um, because Cove yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we take our dogs there early in the morning once in a while, when nobody's there.
Speaker 1:I've never been down. I've worked as a rec leader in Trinidad, but we never. I've got to go. Okay, what's a nude beach? Right Clothing optional. Sorry to do it.
Speaker 2:Back in the day.
Speaker 1:No, and usually the people that go nude at nude beaches just shouldn't.
Speaker 2:I think anyone can go, man, if you don't want to see it, they can.
Speaker 1:If you want to go nude, go for it, but you probably yeah, some people Anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. Well, I have to tell you why that's my favorite beach. It's because my husband and I got married on Elks Head 25 plus years ago. Not too bad.
Speaker 1:Because it can really blow there we lucked out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was early October, which is kind of a sweet spot for weather.
Speaker 1:Like all the way out at the end where that archway thing is Down and then on the big flat. Oh, wow, okay, that's a ways to go out to.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah, we kind of forgot to tell people it was a bit of a walk. It's a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's funny, well cool. So my question for you and I save this for last for someone is who are you and what do you want? That was Joni's runner. Father Tom's favorite questions. He was a recovery guy and had all these pithy sayings that were really kind of fun. But if you could answer who are you? Terry and what do you want? We'd love to hear that who's Terry.
Speaker 2:I am a mom and a wife and a granny. I am tenacious and vicious. Vicious is my trail name.
Speaker 1:Is that the competitive thing? That kind of vicious?
Speaker 2:Well, it was when I was working trails, and because I'm a smallish person again, it was just kind of ironic that I could be vicious. So it fits. Yeah, and I can be vicious if you mess with me in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:Vicious comes in all sizes. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So I'm also a runner. I love wild. Swimming out in the bay and the lagoons, not the ocean. Swimming out in the bay and the lagoons, not the ocean.
Speaker 1:And I Wait hard. Stop, what is a wild swim?
Speaker 2:You swim in open water Just go swim yeah. So wetsuit, no wetsuit. Swimsuits, yes, usually yeah, and I am a get after it, like part of after I was injured. My one of my things is I wanted to get back into Kings Canyon National Park that following summer and be able to backpack in and it was really excruciating, I believe in wilderness as a route to reclaiming yourself, to recovering from pretty much anything that's wrecked you, and I'm optimistic about our future. I believe in small children and their value. Is that enough, that's?
Speaker 1:great yeah. And so what would you like to see happen? What do you want?
Speaker 2:What do you want for Humboldt? I want for Humboldt the resources for small children and other people who to be able to have their needs met, not spoiled, like accountability, the freedom, within limits, to be able to thrive, to support the people, supporting them with a living wage, and I want Humboldt to be sustainable for everyone.
Speaker 1:I like it, yeah, yeah, me too. So when we come to your funeral and see your tombstone, maybe at the same event.
Speaker 2:I have to find my ashes somewhere.
Speaker 1:What's your legacy, what's your funeral, what's your message? What's your tombstone going to say, or what would you like it to say?
Speaker 2:Oh, I want it to say that I was a good mother to all my children. I have two that I barely ever spoke of today, anyway, two younger children that we adopted. So there's four of us.
Speaker 1:How old are they, by the way?
Speaker 2:Oh, wanda is 20. She's a junior down at UC Santa Cruz. Oh, that's right. And then Helen is turning 18 really soon and she's a junior at Redwood Coast Montessori High School. Wonderful educator, advocate for children and their rights to a good life.
Speaker 1:Amen, yeah Good stuff.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I love it.
Speaker 1:Let's do a shout out for the marathon one more time. What's the website?
Speaker 2:Humblebaymarathoncom.
Speaker 1:Dot com.
Speaker 2:There's a half marathon which is half of a full it's just halfway there and then the full marathon.
Speaker 1:And it's not terribly expensive, like some are. I remember yours as being very affordable, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's we want it to be. We also have a program for high school runners if they want to do the half marathon. There's, I think it's 25 or 30 bucks. I should know that too, but I don't. Yeah, I set the prices Somewhere in there. So it's accessible, and part of that is because it's a small local race and a lot of local folks help and we always need more help.
Speaker 1:So if you want to volunteer, so they could call or go to the website and contact somebody and come on out. That's cool. Are you going to do booths at the finish line again and support booths?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then food trucks are welcome. Oh, wow, oh. And gosh Terry, one of our major supporters is Eureka Main Street, so they're kind of our finish line supporters. And then the Finnish Arch, which was new last year, so fabulous.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's from. Oh, I'm.
Speaker 1:Lulox, did they? No, did somebody make one for you?
Speaker 2:No, they got one Pivotal Connections. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I just got I get so excited Pivotal. Connections yeah so they're a physical therapy practice on the plaza in Arcata.
Speaker 1:And a fish archway is pretty important stuff for a race.
Speaker 2:It's a big deal. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool and they bring their A game with support too.
Speaker 1:I said how can we support Montessori and Humboldt?
Speaker 2:You can pay attention to what's going on with Redwood Coast Montessori specifically we're the only public Montessori program and then donate. You could volunteer at the school.
Speaker 1:So there are private Montessori programs locally as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is one. I don't know what grades they go through now because they've shifted a little bit. And then there's at least two preschools, and those are also private. Wow okay, which doesn't I mean there's nothing wrong with that, it's just.
Speaker 1:Different model. Yeah, yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:Well, actually you wouldn't even know if you walk in, except that people have to pay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, smaller scale, probably. Yeah, parting shots, anything we missed?
Speaker 2:I love my husband so much.
Speaker 1:What is his name? I don't think I've seen him. Brian Little yeah, hey, brian, what's up?
Speaker 2:He's the school director of Red Coast Montessori. So he we had the plan that even before I was injured he was going to come in and be the director. I had to sort of be the director and a teacher in the beginning, and that was not ever my goal, I just wanted to teach. So he stepped in big time when I had to just disappear. And so yeah, Brian Little, the doer of many things, woodworker.
Speaker 1:Brian Little amazing man. That's cool, all right, shout out to Brian hey, thanks for coming. Thanks, scott, 100% Humboldt. Thank you, terry.
Speaker 2:All right, bye.
Speaker 1:Bye.