Danny Rodriguez & Miami's BLUE Missions: Connecting Communities, Transforming Lives

On Sneaker Impact News Episode 51, host Bryan interviews Danny Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Miami-based nonprofit BLUE Missions, about its mission to “connect communities to clean water and people to their purpose.” Danny shares how a high school trip to the Dominican Republic inspired him to co-found BLUE Missions in 2010, later scaling it from a passion project to full-time work, and growing from nine to 21 projects in a year. He explains their community-led model with local water committees and gravity-driven aqueducts, plus sanitation work building ventilated improved pit latrines, in-home filtration, and a developing sustainability pillar focused on composting, reforestation, and education. BLUE Missions has completed 100 water projects, connected 42,000 people to clean water, and built bathrooms in 200+ communities. They also run the 16-week Building Young Leaders program and invite volunteers, chaperones, and donors to get involved.

Stay Connected & Learn More

Website: https://www.bluemissions.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluemissions

Danny’s Recent Tedx ‘Find Your Drop’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPRy765oILo

Support/Donate: HERE

Transcript

Welcome and Guest Intro

Bryan The Botanist 0:00

Welcome back to Sneaker Impact News Today. Our special guest is Danny Rodriguez, the founder and CEO of Blue Missions. Danny, welcome. How are you?

Danny Rodriguez 0:09

I am doing great. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me, Bryan. Uh, looking forward to sharing a little bit about our mission.

Blue Mission Explained

Bryan The Botanist 0:15

Awesome. Well, it's Blue Mission and I'm wearing blue today for Blue Mission. It's all about water and um, about improving lives and this amazing, um, nonprofit that you are the founder of. So can you tell us. In a nutshell, like if you're in an elevator with someone that you just met on a plane with the first couple sentences about Blue Mission,

Danny Rodriguez 0:37

Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, blue at, at the core, it stands for building love, uniting everyone, right? And, and that's important because a lot of people interpret our mission as is water. Which is a key part of our mission where we're working towards a world where there's water for all forever. And the way we do that is by inspiring our youth and providing them with ways to engage with the water crisis, to travel abroad and help communities connect with clean water, um, while also working here locally to. Kind of stress, the urgency of how important it is to protect our water sources wherever they're under threat, and to advocate, uh, for the protection of what is life. You know, we, in the first world, water is something that we've never had to walk for or struggle for. But the reality is, is that there's over a billion people on the planet who every morning don't know where they're gonna get their, their fresh water or have to walk, um, far distances to get that water. So Blue's Mission, in a nutshell is to, to connect communities, to clean water and people to their purpose.

Bryan The Botanist 1:45

Wow. Connecting communities to water and people to their purpose. You guys are based in Miami. I got to come and be part of your Building Young Leaders program, which we're gonna talk about in a little bit, and. I've actually known about Blue Missions for a couple years but didn't know a ton about you guys. I started meeting your team and hearing about how many kids' lives you're changing. I got to meet the kids themselves, how dedicated they are, how mature, and just amazing these kids are that you're working with, and the huge numbers and you know how your dad's involved. So I just wanna get into it all today and, um. Uh, how can you tell us the origin story? I wanted to start out with that.

Danny Rodriguez 2:25

For sure, for sure. And, and you know, this story Blue was founded in 2010.

Origin Story Begins

Danny Rodriguez 2:30

Um, but the journey actually began a few years before that. Uh, when I was a junior in high school, um, I had a service hour requirement and my dad had been asking me to go on mission. He had taken my sister on mission a few years before, and uh, he had traveled to the Dominican Republic, uh, to work on clean water projects in small mountain towns. You know, somewhere in between 30 families, then 150 families. Um, so he went on that mission and he said, Danny, why don't you come with me? You need the service hours. You need something to write about in your college applications. Um, so I went, I went, even though maybe I didn't go for all of the right reasons the first time, the experience impacted me in all of the right ways. And I fell in love with the work, um, as a 16-year-old, you know, in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Um, you know, in that 10 day experience, you know, I was. Waking up early, digging trenches alongside community members, mixing cement, uh, doing everything that was required to ensure that by the time this project was complete, that, that the community would have clean water. Um, and I'll never forget when the water arrived on that last day. And the entire, yeah, the entire town gathered and we tested the system and when that water shot out through the pipe, um. You know, the, the young kids that have been working with us all week ran under that pipe, started dancing, playing, and then I just looked around and saw the elders in the community, their grandparents, you know, crying, crying tears of joy, knowing that their grandchildren wouldn't have to walk for water the same way they did. Right? So at the age of 16, it was transformative. You know, I, I don't think it fully clicked in the moment, but it made me furious and it made me want to keep going back with that organization. So I returned with that group, uh, called Life Omissions three times, uh, before co-founding Blue Missions in 2010. Um, I was 19 at the time, uh, studying finance at FIU. Um, and I just wanted to find a way to, to keep going back and really the, the founders of Life Omissions. Approached me and said, why don't you start a group and we can help two communities every year instead of one. Uh, so the vision early on, you know, I saw this as a passion project. I didn't see it as a career, a vocation. I saw it as a way that every year I can raise a few thousand dollars. Gather a group of friends, go do some good and um, kind of check off a box of philanthropy, of giving back, showing gratitude for all the blessings that I have. But the original vision was never, you know, to create a, a huge organization working with thousands of youth. Yeah. Yeah. So those are the origin stories of Blue and how we got started.

Bryan The Botanist 5:19

So you guys have been. Doing this for over 15 to 20 years now. Your dad got you inspired. I love that story so much. Um, I love the, also just, I was looking at your Instagram yesterday and on your website and seeing the kids and the adults carrying the tube or the pipes and the first, they have the trench, they have to build the trench and you know, I think that's really good stuff that the, those then rewarding and then so powerful. And beyond a value. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit. How this is changing lives and change. I mean, it's changing lives in so many ways in Dominican Republic, changing lives in Miami, changing kids' lives, changing communities, generations. I mean, it's so powerful. Water is so important and it's so overlooked, um, sometimes, but it's the first thing to improve their life, um, and so close to us. So, um, now tell us like kind of over the years, what. Are some of your accomplishments, the numbers of kids you've taken

Water Crisis and Impact

Bryan The Botanist 6:18

there, how many trips a year? Um, communities affected?

Danny Rodriguez 6:22

for sure, for sure. And, and. Water is life, you know, and I think that's why I was so moved as a teenager. Coming from the first world and really getting to a place where you understand that there's just barriers, right? Um, you start to appreciate what you have, right? And I re I remember me reading, you know, sort of continue the story. Um, once I graduated from FIUI decided to move to the Dominican Republic. This was in January of 2012. Um, and spend nine months working with an NGO on the island, just kind of. Continuing to explore, you know, what, what it was that, you know, my destiny was in terms of career and purpose. Um, and that experience really gave me more details and insight into why. Some communities struggle with water and what are the systemic issues behind water? And you start seeing that it's the foundation of everything. If you don't have water, you can't pave your roads, you can't build concrete structures. Uh, you're losing hours every single day just going to collect it. You're spending the majority of your income on medicines if you're forced to drink dirty water, right? Or. Um, there's some communities that are healthy, but they're spending half of their income to purchase water from a truck that drives by and fills it up in their homes. So Im immersing myself into the country and into the issue really

Bryan The Botanist 7:48

deal with those issues in the US until people travel. Like I've gone down to Guatemala, into the mountains. I've never been to Dominican Republic. But yeah, once you leave the country to go deep and you'll see and. The Amazon in places, how people, they don't have the same services we have and if we, they, it's, it's health too, but it's also for helping them to grow. Right. And just become more prosperous, more, um, healthy, but also more connected and, and less, like you said, it's spending hours a day just hiking to get enough water to cook and clean with. I'm assuming forget about construction projects or anything else. Um.

Danny Rodriguez 8:26

Exactly, exactly. So it's so foundational on that and the ability to see, uh, such a transformation in such a short amount of time. You know, what's, what's really unique is that for, in our early years, um, when we started, we were connecting people to clean water for less than $30 per person. You know, so it's such a, as a community, an average project is about 15,000 in, in material costs, right? And when you back that into the amount of people in the community, it really doesn't take much to, to solve these issues. But it takes a partnership between the organization and the communities. And that's something that we knew from day one, that we wanted to make sure that these were community led projects. Right? So. We receive requests from hundreds of communities across the Dominican Republic, um, expressing their need for water and, and what their situation

Community Led Model

Danny Rodriguez 9:18

is. And then we go evaluate these commun communities. We see how feasible the project is, both from an engineering standpoint and from a logistics standpoint. Um, and then we make selections. And once a community is selected. They go into a process of training where we work with them to elect a local water committee, um, so that they understand everything from the construction of the system to the maintenance of the system, um, to having every family sign a water contract, right. And they com each family commits to working on the project, but also paying a, a monthly fee, whether it's a dollar, $2, $3 a month. That goes to the water committee and now the WA water committee has a reserve to be able to pay someone to maintain the system. To repair the

Bryan The Botanist 10:05

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent.

Danny Rodriguez 10:07

Yeah,

Bryan The Botanist 10:07

cool. I didn't realize that there was a water committee and like a way to take ownership and to empower and also get investment in it. That's so cool.

Danny Rodriguez 10:16

yeah, it's foundational.

Bryan The Botanist 10:17

a one pop in for the weekend or a week. And dig the dig. We're gonna talk about how you get the water to the communities too. 'cause I didn't understand it first. I thought you were going straight down into the earth. Um.

Danny Rodriguez 10:28

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So,

Bryan The Botanist 10:30

the mountains and you're bringing it in through, um, through like a gravitation. Gravity. Gravitate gravity.

Danny Rodriguez 10:37

correct, correct. Um, so yeah, I'll dive into some of the technical aspects

Bryan The Botanist 10:41

that's so cool. There's a water committee, so thank you for explaining that and continue if you need to.

Danny Rodriguez 10:46

Yeah. And they become key in, in everything having to do with the project, right? And we ask them, where is it that your ancestors used to go during the worst droughts to

Gravity Aqueduct Breakdown

Danny Rodriguez 10:55

get their water right? And every community has an answer. Of where that fresh water spring, uh, could be, right. And they may have a few answers. And then our team goes out, tests those water sources for quality and, and quantity, um, to, to see if they qualify for, uh, what it is that we build, which is a gravity driven aqueduct. Um, 95% of our systems are gravity driven aqueducts. And what that means is we're tapping into water sources that are at a higher altitude than where the the homes are. Community. And when we locate that source, a micro dam gets built. Um, and then PVC pipes come out of the bottom of that dam. There's filtration that goes on near the source, and it flows with gravity into a reservoir tank that gets constructed together with the community, with the volunteers, and, and that tank, the water gets treatment. That tank is also at a higher altitude than where the homes are. So gravity brings the water down from a water source down to a tank, and then from that tank, it flows down to the homes in a community, and every home actually gets a faucet, right? So in the span of a a couple weeks, you're able to see a community go from walking to collect water, to having a faucet. In their home, um, and they have all the water they need right on site. So I, I do believe that's one of the, you know, the reasons why we've had so much success. Why we've seen so much growth as an organization is because the transformation. There's no questions about the transformation of, of volunteer sees it from taking bucket showers on the first week of the trip to, by the end of the trip they might have a faucet over their head and they're able to take a,

Bryan The Botanist 12:39

The word word spreads in the, in the Dr. That this good work is going on. Uh, I'm sure, and I'm sure once you do a good job with one community. They all are interested in improving their, you know, the ability to have that modernization of water. Um, you know, it's so interesting. I was watching on YouTube a, um, documentary about the la uh, Los Angeles, uh, aqueduct and how they got the water to la It just popped into my algorithm and, 'cause I'm a dorky scientist and it was so fascinating. It was like 50 minutes and it's not just, I didn't realize that like. LA is getting their water from like super far north in these foothills of the Sierra Nevada or Sierra Madres and like all the different political fights that went on and how the history and when they started the projects and they did second and third projects and how they're just like, they start from a source and they, and Aqueduct can be a, a canal, it can be a underground, it can be, there's so many like an aqueduct transports water. It uses gravity and they actually, in some places have to push the water up a little area through pressurization, um, through a special technology to get it instead of building around, you know, the topography. But I just, it was fascinating to me that most people take for granted, I'm sure in Los Angeles where their water's coming from or in any major city, Miami. Where's our aquifer? Where are we getting our water? Like Okeechobee, all these aspects may, people don't even realize all the management going on, and that a lot of it's stored in a certain area. Just like you said, it just doesn't come gushing in. You know, they're, they're treating it if they need to. I'm sure in LA they talked about treatment and the dr you're getting it right outta the mountains too. Um, so I'm just, it's so cool to me, it's like, um. This is like a art form I feel like that, you know, that people have forgotten about because it's one of those things we take for granted. Um, and so to see you guys doing this work, wow.

Danny Rodriguez 14:38

the Romans pioneered it, right? The Romans brought, you know, invented the aqueduct, and

Bryan The Botanist 14:43

So it started with the Romans.

Danny Rodriguez 14:44

is, it's such a simple, right? That's, and that's why we love it for, for the types of communities that we serve. Um, we want as. of moving parts as possible, right? We want to make sure that if a pipe breaks, if something is off on the system, that they can repair that from right where they are. And that once you start bringing in motors and pumps, um, it becomes a little more complex in terms of the maintenance of the system. But when it's all gravity, until gravity fails, those, these systems will never fail.

Bryan The Botanist 15:17

Awesome. Um. The DR is such a beautiful country. Um, Dominican Republic, the forest there, um, the mountains, you know, it borders Haiti and not everyone may know, you know, that it's this lush, you know, rainforest. They just might not know if they're not into, you know, travel or botany. Um, I've always heard super amazing things about the DR as a Botanist. Um, it's a wild, beautiful place to visit. Um, so it's so cool that you've focused on that country to help. Um. And it's so near to Miami and you're taking the kids. So now can you tell us more about, um, how the organization has grown about your staff and team, um, the kids, some more of the, um, uh, aspects of the organization,

Danny Rodriguez 16:04

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so, so we'll, we'll kind of

Bryan The Botanist 16:07

or

Danny Rodriguez 16:08

walking you through the journey. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that first year in 2010, I took 10 friends on mission. Uh, we completed our first project the following year. There was 20

Trips Growth and Turning Point

Danny Rodriguez 16:19

friends that were interested, and, uh, the third year there was 35 friends that were interested. Right. So, what's cool about the blue experience when it comes to the service trips and the mission trips is that. You know, we rarely get a chance to truly disconnect and reflect, right? We live in such a fast paced world where especially coming from a city, um, where your calendar drives you, right? Um, you go from one thing to the next and there's always something to kind of take care of. And. When you go on a blue mission service trip, you truly have an opportunity to disconnect from, from all these distractions. 'cause that's what they are here, back at home. And reconnect with what's most important, right? Which is your true nature, right? And, and to be able to do that in the modern world is something that we don't take for granted and, and something that we believe is critical for our youth, right? So that's why we've grown the service trip program. And after that third trip. That's really when the, the next inflection point happened in my journey. Um, we were working in the town of Carrasco, which is the poorest community that Blue has ever worked in. Only about 30 families. Um, you know, they produce rice, so mostly everyone in the town worked the rice fields and we had to go get that water from 10 kilometers away. It was the furthest source we had ever tapped into, and. that water down. You know, working with the 30 families, a lot of kids in this town where you could visibly see the impacts that they had from drinking the dirty river water, um, down the road. You know, they had spots on their head. The bellies were out, you know, malnutrition. A lot of, you know, there was no concrete structures, right? So you're talking about dirt floors in the homes. That's how parasites can enter as well, through the bottom of your feet. Um. So, so it was just a very impactful project. We knew that. This was gonna make a major impact in, in the lives of this community. And on the last day, um, a young girl named Violi, who I had become close to over the course of, uh, the preparation of this community since I was living in the country. Um, and, and she was kind of leading all the kids that were working with us. You know, they carried pipes with us all the way, the 10 kilometers to the source. They mix cement with us and then they celebrated with us when the water arrived. And on the last day, she told me. Thank you for giving me a chance to go after my dream of becoming a lawyer. Um, at 10 years old,

Bryan The Botanist 18:55

Whoa.

Danny Rodriguez 18:56

she understood the magnitude of this project because she knew what it meant to carry the weight of the water crisis. She was carrying the weight of the water crisis for her family, and she knew that this meant that now she can go to school every day. That now those dreams that she, that kept her up at night. We're actually on the table and we're a reality. And for me, that was very impactful. You know, I, um, that was the end of my gap year. It kind of culminated with that blue trip and called up my parents. I said, can I move back in with you in Miami and work for free for Blue and see where this could go? You know, I, I have a feeling that this is more than a hobby, that this is, could be a vocation and got to work that year and, and grew the projects from one project a year to four projects. It wasn't enough to sustain an employee, so I went out and got another job. Um, and I started now selling pipelines throughout all of Latin America selling to governments, 60 inch lines instead of three inch lines, like what, what we were doing at Blue. Um, but it gave me a huge opportunity to, to grow, to grow as a professional, to understand the issue, um, to understand the engineering of systems. Um, and my, my boss at the time. Loved the mission, was a supporter of the mission, and he allowed me to keep growing. It gave me a lot of flexibility to, to do both my job and grow the mission. Um, and when we got to 20 15, 2 years into that, I was able to quit that job and, and dedicate myself full-time to the organization. Uh, I called up my two best friends who had been involved in the mission and. Said, Hey, if I could pay you $30,000 a year to work out of the third bedroom of my house, uh, do you wanna go after this dream? And they said yes. And the three of us got to work. And that year we grew from nine projects to 21 projects. And we knew that we had proven the concept that we were onto something. And, um, you know, kind of, that's when the real growth started to happen in the organization. And it went from, from passion project to, to life's work and vocation.

Bryan The Botanist 21:02

Wow. Talk about origin story. This is great. No, very powerful stuff. Um, started with just one trip, you and your dad, and then just really, I love how you got, so, you know, you really wanted to explore, you know, what this meant to you. It's gonna mean to a lot of people what it meant to the community. It's gonna mean to even more communities you can make, help all these communities that just need, you know, some assistance. You know, maybe whether it's technical knowledge or hands, or just someone to come in and help them. Um, okay, so where do we go next, Danny?

Danny Rodriguez 21:42

Yeah, no, I mean, something you said there kind of resonated with me and you know, I think from a young age I knew that I wanted

Finding Your Drop Purpose

Danny Rodriguez 21:51

to do something I loved with my life. You know, I knew that. Money wasn't the end all, be all, you know, that was never what drove me think when I was thinking about my career, my profession, it was never dollars. It was always, you know, I'm gonna be spending so much time doing this thing. I hope it's something I love. I hope it's some. And then, and then as I started having these experiences, it evolved from not only I hope it's something I love, but I hope it's something I love and I hope it's something that impacts people in a positive way. Right? And, and. Now at Blue we call that framework your drop. You know, finding your drop

Bryan The Botanist 22:27

I love that. Finding your drop.

Danny Rodriguez 22:30

and that's when you combine your talents and passions with opportunities to give back. Right? So I. That has become an essential part of this mission, right? How do we inspire our youth to live that sort of life? To believe in that, to say, my life is about more than just making a lot of money, my life is about. Purpose. My life is about helping others. It's about using my gifts to help those who aren't as fortunate or haven't had the same opportunities, um, that I've had. Right. So a big part of our mission and, and the duality of our mission is that it's that we believe that the ripple effects of our programs, we'll never know how far they reach. Right. And, and that's the goal. That we can plant these seeds of purpose, of hope, of service in the hearts of our youth, um, while introducing them to maybe careers that they've never heard about and showing them, helping to guide them, giving them safe spaces to really reflect and look inwards because that's the key part of all this, right? We all do a lot of things. We do good things. We do things that are just for work. We do, uh, fun things. How do we align that, uh, with purpose, right? And, and that becomes kind of the guiding light, uh, for us as an organization. If we can create those safe spaces for reflection, the pause is the key. That's what we don't see a lot of in our society. The stopping to think, how does this moment that just happened in my life, uh, affect my life going forward? Right? So. That's kind of how the, the, the blue message goes out, right? Whether it's through one of our international service trips or through our domestic programmings, which, you know, I'll kind of take, um, the story in that direction.

Reach Program at Home

Danny Rodriguez 24:22

Um, the international program continued to grow once we had employees here stateside. Um, but we, we knew that not everyone could travel with us. I think in the late, uh, 2010s, we started to think how do we take these messages that we're trying to instill in our youth and bring them home? How do we make sure that price, you know, the barrier volunteers pay their own way to travel with us? Um, if you can't pay your way to, to travel on a mission. How do we bring that education to you here at home and start, um, and get you on that purpose journey, right? To start thinking about it. Um, and that's how Reach was Born. Reach is our domestic arm. Um, it stands for reflection, education, and Action to connect humanity. So that's the framework of our learning model. You know, everything that we do has three components in it. It has a learning component, it has a service component, and it has, uh, the reflection component, right, which becomes, um, that key moment where we ask our volunteers and youth to now think about what they've learned and how it fits into their life. So, so ultimately here, locally, we're, we're building the next generation of water warriors. You know, we want to teach them about our water sources like you were talking about earlier, about the Biscayne Aquifer, about the Everglades, about South Florida and how water is the foundation of, of everything down here. It's the economy, it's health, it's it's opportunity. Um, we we're seeing such a mass migration into South Florida and into Florida in general. We, we need to keep pace with that, right? In the way we steward our resources, right? Because one day if we don't protect them, if we don't steward them, you know, then we have to start thinking about how do we ration it or how do we split it up, or how do we repair it? But if we take action now, if we teach our youth to fall in love with the environment that surrounds us, if we create that emotional connection between us and our resources. Now we're building a generation that it's in their DNA to protect our water. Right? And, and that's why I always kind of ex say that the water crisis is a generational issue. And when we can inspire our youth to love our water, that that's when we have the breakthrough, um, where we can guarantee water for all forever.

Bryan The Botanist 26:50

Wow. Yeah. Water's foundational. I went for a swim in the ocean this morning and it's so lovely. I swim at this local swim club and it's healing. And Biscayne Bay you're just talking about, and you know, I see what's, people that don't live here might not know there's been a lot of fish kills oxygen or, uh, sorry, the fertilizers and the, but yeah, it, it depletes the ecosystem of oxygen and then the fish die and like thousands and hundred, you know, tons of fish kills and other marine lifes affected. The ecosystems affected our local water health affected people, trash our bays when they come here sometimes. And, and, and it makes the news and people like, you know. Local 10. I love Luisa Gary, what he is doing with Protect Our Bay. And I love what you guys are doing and you know, so many other great organizations in Miami that are all, it's really taken off in the last 10 to 20 years. I've lived here about 18 years and I moved here from a very progressive place in the Midwest. Um, that's, you know, very environmental minded. And Miami didn't have that reputation. But now it's just like with Debris Free Oceans and you guys and the Zero Waste Movement and all these different organizations that we've had on Sneaker Impact News and also just out there that I meet every weekend, we're going this weekend to Southwest ranches for their, you know, they're a leader in sustainability and, you know, um, for their in International Day of Zero Waste and the Coral Gables Sustainability Village this weekend, you know, at their farmer's market. Just so many things going on in South Florida for. Sustainability. Um, also, you know, improving good for people and the planet social good, um, is so important. It's like we can't put a value on this. Uh, that's what you and I were talking about when you came for a visit to Sneaker Impact a couple weeks ago. Um, I'm sure you guys can quantify some of the impact you're making, but just on the kids alone, who you're taking, you know, on these. Um, on the, on the missions, on the trips, uh, international trips, like, or just working with them here in Miami, in the building the Young Leaders program. Like you can't put a dollar amount on any of this work that you guys are doing. Like, it's impossible. It's priceless. I truly believe that. And so, but is there any, have you ever attempted to think about how much you're impacting and changing people's lives in

Measuring Impact With Data

Bryan The Botanist 29:10

and here and around the world? Like as an organization without looking at the. Bottom line in terms of profitability as the key KPI, they would say of like success. I.

Danny Rodriguez 29:25

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean we're, we're big believers in, in Data at Blue Missions. You know, we're a data-driven organization. Um, you know, we believe in research. We believe in understanding, uh, the impacts of your work. And, you know, I agree with you that the

Measuring Ripple Effects

Danny Rodriguez 29:42

ripples go so far that. It's hard to track all of the impacts, right? Because it's so generational. Right? The impacts, uh, they, they spread

Bryan The Botanist 29:50

And this inspiration could be the one thing that takes the kid in the direction to become a leader versus just a cog in the system.

Danny Rodriguez 30:00

correct. Correct. Correct. And, and it's up to us to, to be able to figure out ways to track, monitor, evaluate. Our programs, uh, for success, right? But there's nothing more powerful than the testimonies, right? And, and what we see with return rates, right? Kids coming back to serve multiple times, then coming back as the interns once they're in college to, to now provide that same experience that impacted them, to now take it to the high school generation. Um, and then eventually potentially become employees within the organization, um, or donors of the organization. So. You know, we see it, we see the impacts. And then on the, on the actual water project side and the impacts through water and sanitation, you know, we've been able to

Water Project Milestones

Danny Rodriguez 30:48

connect over 42,000 people to clean water over 16 years, across a hundred communities. Actually, this summer we're gonna celebrate our 100th water project in the Dominican Republic. Um, and yeah,

Bryan The Botanist 31:00

Each

Danny Rodriguez 31:01

100 communities, 42,000 people, and

Bryan The Botanist 31:05

that's great. That's incredible. That's a legacy.

Danny Rodriguez 31:09

Thank you. Thank you. And we've worked on sanitation, uh uh, in another 200 plus communities as well, connecting over 15,000 people with bathrooms. You know, that's something that

Bryan The Botanist 31:20

right. We didn't talk about the latrines yet. People can find that as well. On your Instagram and on your, uh, website, how you guys designed these, what, how would you describe it? Not only hygienic and sanitary, but it

VIP Latrines Explained

Bryan The Botanist 31:32

changes their lives. How can you

Danny Rodriguez 31:34

Yeah, they're called ventilated. They're called ventilated. Improved pit latrines. Right. And, and they're a model that's used. It's a model that's used in the developing world where there is no access to sewer. Right. Obviously, if these are small mountain towns that don't have access to clean water, they're less likely to have access to a sewer line.

Bryan The Botanist 31:52

This is very rural projects. We should remind people, these are very rural projects.

Danny Rodriguez 31:57

Yeah. Yeah. We're we, one of our criteria is what is the likelihood that this project is gonna take place if we don't. Um, you know, select it, right? So we're going to the areas that are very difficult to work in, and we added a sanitation program because as I kept learning and growing in this profession, you realize how closely tied water and sanitation are, and the success rates of water projects go up exponentially when you combine it with a sanitation project. Right. So not only are you bringing people clean water, but now you're providing them with a safe place to go to the bathroom that contains the contaminants, uh, that could get back into your water, right? So we have, it's not just a health issue, it's also a dignity issue, right? Um, imagine being the only kid who has to wait till he gets to school to use the bathroom. Or, or being a young girl and not having a, a safe place with a door that locks to, to be able to use the bathroom, right? So the families we, we serve through bathrooms, you know, they're so proud of their bathrooms once they're built right? And they're so happy to, to have somewhere in their home, um, that's safe and sanitary to use. Um, sometimes we're replacing bathrooms that are overflowing. Pit latrines that when it rains, all that fecal matter can spread, uh, you know, throughout their yards, right? And these are people who live off their land. They're people growing crops, right? So, um, water and sanitation go hand in hand. And, um, you know, we feel really blessed that we're able to go into a community, address the water issue, and then phase two becomes to come back

Long Term Community Phases

Danny Rodriguez 33:36

to that community and build family, build bathrooms for as many families. That need 'em. Usually we'll do 16 at a time. So the, these are long-term relationships with these water committees and with these communities where over the course of three to five years, we might be working in their community five or six times, um, to address these needs. Uh, but always we

Bryan The Botanist 33:58

wow, I didn't realize that. Five to six potentially, um, you know, what would you call mission projects with them.

Danny Rodriguez 34:05

Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist 34:06

Wow. To help improve not just the water you're bringing in, but then individual families. Yeah, these are, these are nice latrines in the sense of, you know, like wood and like, are you using locally sourced wood? That's my first question. As a forester, former forester or locally

Danny Rodriguez 34:21

Yeah, for sure, for sure. We're using their, what they call their pinot cyo, right? So it's their, their local pine. Um, and, um, yeah, the, the, so every family is responsible for digging their pit. That's the commitment of the family. And then we come in with the materials for throwing the concrete base. Um, a ceramic or fiberglass toilet. Um, there's ventilation in the,

Bryan The Botanist 34:48

there's like a opening at the top, really cool diagram on your website. I'll, I'll flash that up right now.

Danny Rodriguez 34:55

Yeah. And those are standards that were set by, you know, the World Health Organization. They're, they're used by many organizations around the

Bryan The Botanist 35:02

Oh wow.

Danny Rodriguez 35:02

and they're, they're those ventilated, improved pit latrines. We call them the VIP latrines.

Bryan The Botanist 35:09

Much better than what the porta potties. I think they're more natural.

Danny Rodriguez 35:13

yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, um, mm-hmm. So that's, I'll kind of

Bryan The Botanist 35:20

that that really kind of ties a couple things together, that it's not just providing water, it's also protecting the water and the community and giving them the dignity and the health. To be able to these basic human needs going to the bathroom. That we take advantage in first world countries, but if the grid went down, we would all have to figure out.

Danny Rodriguez 35:41

Yeah, that's it right there. And, and we've been able to add a couple other pillars to our programming. Um, so, so phase three has become our filter program where we work in specific

Home Filter Program

Danny Rodriguez 35:52

communities to, um, gift, uh, filters in the home, right? So something that we learned throughout this work is that there's a cultural. Barrier with water in the Dominican Republic as well for generations. Um, they've been told they can't drink out of the faucet, right? So the bottled water subsidized, many people purchased those five gallon jugs for about a dollar each. And they'll buy one every day or every other day. And that's what they'll use to consume, right? For drinking and for cooking. Um, but we've been able to reduce that expense in a lot of cases by educating the community on how to use a point of use filter,

Bryan The Botanist 36:34

Okay.

Danny Rodriguez 36:35

right? So, so these are two five gallon buckets with a media filtration component inside we use a char charcoal activated filter, um, and it drips, right? So you pour the dirty water in the top bucket, drips through the filter. They, they sit on top of each other. Right. So the water just drips down. Yeah. And, and, and the clean

Bryan The Botanist 36:56

Oh, wow. I never thought about that. That that's a great system.

Danny Rodriguez 37:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have 'em here at our office.

Bryan The Botanist 37:04

can you do that with rainwater?

Danny Rodriguez 37:05

great. Yeah. You can do it with any water.

Bryan The Botanist 37:08

Whoa. I wanna definitely. Wow. Well, I'm, this is so cool. So that's, that was the third pillar, is filtration. Is there more? More pillars?

Danny Rodriguez 37:16

And then, and then our fourth pillar, which is in development. Um, we've, we've run a few pilots, um, in the area. It's our sustainability pillar, right? So

Sustainability For Forever

Danny Rodriguez 37:25

a few years ago, we added the word forever to our mission because we, we started seeing that water was under threat. Right, that climate change and, and a lot of factors are really stressing our water sources out. So our mission went from just being water for all, to water for all forever, and that's where that sustainability pillar comes in. Where after we've addressed. Water access situation in a community. After we've addressed sanitation, after we've addressed filtration, we wanna now work with that local water committee and that community to sustain the system long into the future. Right? So within that sustainability pic, um, pillar, you know, we we're doing composting stations at the schools. Um, in these communities that we're working in, we're looking at reforestation projects to reforest the areas around the sources. Um, where we're tapping into this water. Um, and then we're looking into youth education, right? Taking some of the stuff we're doing here locally and how do we inject that into the Dominican countryside, right? How do we empower local teachers to have the materials they need to help their youth fall in love with nature and. What surrounds them, right? It's, it's up to them to protect this environment, right? They, they're uniquely aware of it. They're uniquely using the resources within it, right? So if these teachers can inspire those kids to love that nature, that surrounds them and to love that aqueduct that they now have, you know, they become the stewards forever, right? And it fits into our, our vision where it's a generational, uh, transformation that we're working on.

Bryan The Botanist 39:04

Wow, so much education. It's so important. Um, this is the type of story that should be featured on the evening news. Um, I know you've done a TED Talk, um, we talked about before the, uh, podcast

TEDx Roadmap To Purpose

Bryan The Botanist 39:16

started today. Um, so was this one of the official TED talks on the stage where

Danny Rodriguez 39:21

Yeah, it was a TEDx, right? So it was a community event. Um, this one was hosted by, uh, the high school that I attended. And, and today I, I'm a board member at the school, Christopher Columbus High School in Westchester. And, um, you know, they asked me if I can participate in their first, uh, TED event. And the whole theme was a roadmap to purpose, right? I, I. A lot of the points we've touched on already here on this call, but it's, it was challenging the audience to stop, pause, and reflect, right? That, that we all have these inflection points in our lives that when you're looking back hindsight, it's a, it's a lot easier to see when you look backwards. Um, but there's these things that happen to you, these moments throughout your life that have the ability to take, take your life in a certain direction, right? And, um. The talk was all about how do we recognize what those moments are? How do we realize that we're in one of those moments, and what do we do when we're in those moments? Right? And, um, you know, pausing and reflecting, um, volunteering, you know, getting involved, getting your hands dirty. If you learn about an issue, it intrigues you. Figure out who are the local players who's working on this in my area? And you start volunteering your time first, right? And, and learning about the issue. And that's gonna give you more context as you kind of think about what the next steps on the journey are. Um, but the important thing is that we all realize that we are on that journey and that we are in control of that journey, uh, somewhat, right? So.

Bryan The Botanist 40:59

We're the authors of our adventures and our, our life, um, is so important. So stopping, pausing and reflecting. Right.

Danny Rodriguez 41:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Identifying those inflection points. Um, kind of did it throughout the course of the Ted Talk as an anana an an analogy to a road trip, right? So, I love road trips, and when you're on that road trip, you know, if you're, you have the ability to stop with what, whatever catches your eye, whatever catches your attention,

Bryan The Botanist 41:30

a good analogy. Yeah.

Danny Rodriguez 41:32

To dive into it deeper and, and then, um, you know, I talked about the gaslight, right? The gaslight, your heart will tell you when it's time to reflect, right? But you have to have that open mind, uh, that open heart to, to actually stop and not just get pulled into the next thing and, and let it, uh, you know, you drive by that billboard and you never pull over.

Bryan The Botanist 41:55

Hmm. Yep. So cool. Alright, so we're gonna link to that Ted talk so people can watch the whole thing and, uh, become inspired. 'cause I'm just getting so inspired by this, by your, by, by, by this journey that, you know, all started in with one pers one, you know, one family and now is spread. I got to come down and present at your building Young Leaders meeting you do a once a month. At your headquarters where you bring together

Building Young Leaders

Bryan The Botanist 42:23

30 to 40 high schoolers from 16 to 18 years old that are part of the Building Young Leaders Program and BYL, and it was so powerful for me. I've done a fair amount of toxic at universities in high schools and middle schools, but this one in particular, these kids were so patient, they're all entrepreneurial. They're all into either the STEM sciences or environmental and social good. Um, and other types of entrepreneurial, you know, which this is as well, what you're doing at Blue Missions is an entrepreneurial spirit. Um, and they're, they, I presented on Sneaker Impact and they had some great questions, and then one or two weeks later they got to come take a tour of our facility on a Saturday morning and you joined them. And, but it all started with you guys inviting me to come and present about the company that I work for, and I'm an entrepreneur at. Um, and believe in, you know, in the sense of like we are doing social good, um, that this is, um, an inspirational story for people to see, oh, this is what happened. They're taking shoes that would go in the landfill, and they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're changing people's lives with these shoes and they're, uh, prevent, they're also helping the planet. Um, so, uh, I think the kids were fascinated and then they got to come by and see. What happens here and, and they all ask some great questions. Uh, it's a rare thing to get a behind the scenes tour here on a Saturday. We're closed normally, and none of the machinery was going all over the place. None of the grinders were grinding, but, um, they still got to meet the founder. And here, um, you know, the same passion. We're hearing your voice today. Um, and I got to meet you then as well for the first time. But before that I had met, um, Samantha from your team and Olga. So I wanna give a shout out to a couple of your amazing teammates that I've met so far. Uh, so can you tell us a little bit about your team? I just named a couple of them, or, sorry.

Danny Rodriguez 44:21

Yeah. I mean, we have an incredible team that's driven by the impact, you know, driven by purpose, right? That's a core value of ours here. Um. The Building Young Leaders Program. You know when, when we decided we were gonna go after this, right? It's a 16 week program. Uh, we have a cohort of 30 high schoolers who participate each year in this program. And they go through a journey. They go through a journey exploring five different impact pathways. Uh, one of those is social entrepreneurship. Um, there's a STEM category, a policy category, um, as well as education, nonprofit programming, and. We really just wanna introduce our youth to all these different impact pathways than people in our local community who have found purpose through their work. Right? So this program was built as like, you know, my dream program that I wish I would've had, uh, when I had my first experience in the camp. And, and when I kind of did my first mission, right? Like, this is the program that would've really helped me lock in. Um. On kind of how to take that fire that was burning inside of me and how to put that to good use, right? So our hope is to inspire 30 leaders every single year, uh, 30 local change makers who one day will be leading our city, leading our community in a variety of ways. Um, teaching them to, to lead, to lead with purpose, to lead with empathy, um, to, you know, prioritize our environment. You know, there's no planet B. We need it for everything that, that we love to do on this planet, right? So over the course of those 16 weeks, they go through that journey, explore the five impact pathways, and then the program concludes with a pitch day. Where they each select a pathway and work on a project throughout the program. And at the end they present it kind of

BYL Pitch Day Success

Danny Rodriguez 46:16

Shark Tank style and a few of the projects get funded, uh, for them to, to go out and pursue, uh, those dreams that, that they've been working on. And, um, it's one of the proudest things we do here at Blue. You know, we, we had the opportunity this past weekend to honor one of our young leaders at our gala with the Be Bold Award. And there's a young gentleman, he's a senior at Columbus High School. His name's Robert Chere, and after he completed the BYL program, he launched an initiative called Enabling Access. And Enabling Access is using 3D Printing to create assistive devices for people with disabilities. Um, he did such a good job in, in building out his vision for this program, that he actually placed first in a separate launchpad competition and was awarded $25,000 to accelerate the impact of his initiative. Um, so the program's exceeding even what we could, could even imagine of what kind of impacts, um, it can make on our youth. Right. And to see someone like Rob leaning into his purpose, the excitement he has that I've, I visited him after school one day in the robotics lab and before I could even step foot in the lab, he was. Leading me to a robot showing me prosthetics he was working on. And I recognized that excitement. You know, I, I, it took me back to when I was 1920 in the GC ballrooms in the FIU library, you know, kind of working on this dream, on, in, on this vision. And, you know, I'm just so proud of him and what he's building and who he is becoming. And, um, I know he's gonna leave his mark on this world.

Bryan The Botanist 48:02

Wow. That's a amazing story. Congrats to Robert on his, uh, be Bold and this amazing initiative. We'll keep an eye out for that for sure. Um, so much. Uh, amazing things going on at Blue Missions. I, I know we're coming up on the end of some your time possibly here, but as much time as you have, we'd love to learn a little bit more. Um, so the pitch competition's coming up, um. I am honored to be invited, so I'm gonna be there it sounds like, um, as one of the judges. You need chaperones, you need mentors, you need, um, just people that wanna come and and do good. Uh, you looking for anyone? How does

Join A Mission Trip

Bryan The Botanist 48:36

that work?

Danny Rodriguez 48:37

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we, I encourage anyone who you know is, is hearing this podcast and says, you know what a mission is, something I'm interested in. Um, I encourage you guys to go to our website, explore it. Uh, we have 35 projects taking place this year. Uh, every single week this summer, there will be four different projects taking place on the island. Um, you know, I think

Bryan The Botanist 49:00

So the summer's a big focus. Is that because of the availability of people?

Danny Rodriguez 49:04

Yeah The, the majority of our volunteers are high school youth, but we have programs for all ages, you know, so whether you're a company that maybe wants to take your leadership team on mission, or whether you're a church or a parish who, who wants to bring service, international service to your. Uh, constituents and, and to your parishioners, you know, there's an option for you if you want a chaperone and, and mentor the next generation of leaders. Um, you know, we have a, an incredible chaperone program. It's a discounted rate. You get to experience the blue program, almost like a volunteer, you know, with some additional responsibilities. But, um. The mentorship you're able to provide to youth, right? And to watch them, watch them discover that purpose, something real special. So definitely anyone who's interested in traveling with us, um, check out our calendar. There are still spots available for, for this summer. Uh, we welcome you, we invite you to serve with us, um, and we promise that, that you'll have an incredible experience, um, and come back home ready to keep leaning into purpose.

Bryan The Botanist 50:09

Incredible. Um, so Blue missions.org is the website and Instagram is Blue Missions

Danny Rodriguez 50:16

Mm-hmm.

Bryan The Botanist 50:17

Awesome.

Danny Rodriguez 50:18

Yeah. Follow us on socials. You know, we definitely pride ourselves on. Our storytelling, our marketing, our branding, uh, since day one we knew that we wanted to do things a little bit unconventionally when it came to the, the nonprofit sector, right? So, um, we do a really good job of, of showing you the impact, being transparent, showing exactly where every dollar goes. Uh, we have a 100% model where a hundred percent of public donations go directly to programs. Um, and we're able to track that every year in our impact report. So if you can't go on mission, uh, but still wanna support our mission, uh, look for ways that, that you can get involved. Whether it's joining our monthly giving community in the source, donating $5, $10, $25 a month, uh, to help connect people to clean water or whether it's through, you know, like how Sneaker Impact and Bryan have, have impacted

Transparent Giving Model

Danny Rodriguez 51:12

our mission by sharing their stories with our youth. Right? If you think you have value to share. With the next generation, uh, send us an email, reach out on our website, and maybe you can get involved with our Building Young Leaders Program and inspire that next generation.

Bryan The Botanist 51:27

Yeah. I mean, everything happens for a reason. I do believe that, and. Really good. It was just amazing to be invited to meet your group and to speak to them. I was blown away, inspired to the maximum. I remember driving home, it was, you know, I live, um, you guys are way down south kind of by, uh, tropical park and I'm kind of on the Upper East side by the northeast part of Miami and I was, I think I was talking to my dad on the way home. I'm like, wow. I was just like, wow. And just everything you're saying, I'm just like, wow. It's just like, 'cause. That's, that's, that's how you know you're, you know, when you, I can tell you love what you do and that you're, you're making a big difference in the world, and I know you're not even feeling good today. You didn't get your best sleep last night. Your son, you told me is ear infections, if I can say that. And, but yet you're still here and you're still just on, just on like, just in the flow. You can tell, you know, telling how it changed your life and then how you. Have found that purpose, you know, found your purpose, and you, it's just every single analogy makes sense. You know, find your drip. Um, I love every, all these inspirational, um, parts of blue missions from the different pillars. It's not just come in and give them the pipes to make from the mountains, you know, it's also, you know, helping them. Keep it forever. I mean, that's very powerful stuff. So just thank you so much Danny, for what you guys do. Um, we're definitely gonna keep the partnership going between Sneaker Impact and Blue Missions and, um, yeah. So again, thank you for coming on today. Would you like to close with anything that you'd like to share? I know we're running up on the end of our time here.

Danny Rodriguez 53:04

Yeah. Yeah. No, I just want to thank you. I want to thank MO and Sneaker Impact, you know, for what you guys are doing. Right. And, and for not only growing your business, right. Um, and doing well from a business standpoint, but for caring about the community, uh, for giving back, giving of your time to our youth, right. Um, means the world to them to be able to connect with, uh, adults who are changing the world. So thank you for that. And thank you for your kind words. You know, for me, you know, the passion you hear is because this is an urgent issue, right? This is real, you know, and we are in these communities, we're eye to eye with, with people who are, you know, they're in tune with the, with nature, right? They are the ones closest to the consequences when things are out of balance. So for us, we have to be their voice, right? That's our role and our vision at Blue is to. Of cast

Final Thanks And Call To Action

Danny Rodriguez 53:59

that wide net inspire a lot of youth so that they can go out and, and do the same.

Bryan The Botanist 54:06

Well, just incredible. Um, every single, just, you can tell this is well thought out and has helped and has grown. Like you said, 30 some trips just this summer. I mean, how, I can't even. Guys get involved. That's all I gotta say. We're gonna be putting this out there, Danny, right away. And I wanna share some, some more how people can learn more. And you're gonna see it more in my feed too and in Sneaker impacts because um, this is incredible work going on in Miami. Guys that is international and local. And, uh, we got the founder right here, Danny, telling you how it all happened. And thank you Danny, so much. Uh, really incredible to have you on. Thank you for this opportunity.

Danny Rodriguez 54:47

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. It's an honor.

Bryan The Botanist 54:49

All right, well keep up the great work. I'm gonna let you get back to that work and your son, who I know ear infections suck. I had a lot of those growing up, so I hope he feels better.

Danny Rodriguez 54:58

Thank you very

Bryan The Botanist 54:59

All right, take care Danny. Have a great day. Bye guys.

Danny Rodriguez 55:02

Bye.