The B Team Podcast

Ep. 100 - Business Leaders Supporting Local Teens With TASC

• The B-Team Podcast • Season 1 • Episode 100

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Super Bowl energy meets real community impact as we crack open prop bets, swap bourbon notes, and rally behind TASC’s All-In casino night, our favorite way to turn a rowdy room into real support for teens in Northwest Arkansas. We start with light-hearted Jets nostalgia and a wager sheet that could cost us twenty bucks, then jump straight into why this event works: it’s joyful, it’s social, and every laugh helps fund counseling, after-school programs, and life skills for kids who need a steady hand.

Hannah joins us to map out the night, from a VIP happy hour with first look at silent auction items to a main floor that hums with blackjack, craps, poker, a horse-race game, and a big central bar. We talk tickets, early-bird pricing, and how to proxy-bid if you’re out of town. If you’re hunting for auction gold, the lineup is stacked: Orphan Barrel age-statement unicorns, a Heaven Hill 17-year, plus an AMP concert package paired with a hotel stay and dinner. It’s the rare fundraiser where bourbon lovers, music fans, and first-time bidders all find a lane.

Then we dig into the heart of TASC. This local nonprofit delivers sliding-scale mental health counseling, First Steps for pregnant and parenting teens, and hands-on life skills like budgeting, car maintenance, banking, scholarship prep, ACT strategy, and driver permits. Teens often arrive because they have to, then keep coming because they want to. Programs like Bucket List Summer get them off screens and into real adventures that fill up fast, proof that connection still beats the algorithm.

If you’ve ever wished charity nights felt less stiff and more human, this is your night. Come for the blackjack stories and bingo redemption arcs, stay for the knowledge that your chips translate into therapy sessions, service hours, and second chances. Grab your tickets at tascnwa.org, invite a friend, and if you loved this conversation, subscribe, share the episode, and drop us a quick review so more neighbors can discover the cause.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host, Matt Mars, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bettonville, bourbon, and business. The B Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Saffron, with our permanent guest, Bobby.

SPEAKER_02

And our Jim? Jim. And our co-host. And our Jim. He's just now Jim. He's just can't be a permanent alternate. He's here. Yeah. I still like permanent alternate. You do? But season three. It's like you're you're you're just Jim. I I go with the flow, whatever you want to call it. All right. We'll call you Joe today with Joe Namath. Joe Namath, babe. Shout out. Joe Willie. We're going to talk about this in a minute. All right. A few things I want to say. Jim's got an agenda. He does. I got an agenda. This is going to be Jim's podcast. Yeah. He's amped up. He's like the all business. I've got an agenda for this. I'm not playing around. And our co-host, Matt. Matt. Matty. And we're here every Thursday for all things Bentonville Business in Bourbon. And this is your podcast.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, they're all practical purposes because Jim tells us he does all this work for tasks, but the reality is I'm not sure. But he says, I'm going to go out of my way today to put in a good impression for Hannah because I want her to know that I'm really supporting the charity.

Super Bowl Week And Jets Riff

Prop Bets Challenge And Picks

SPEAKER_02

Well, and we're going to get there. We're going to get to task. But I got to talk about something very important to me. Uh-oh. And that is the New York Jets. Oh, God. No, no, no, no. This is important. Super Bowl week. So everyone. They'd all play this. I don't know that I don't know that everyone knows this, but you know, we film on Thursdays, and then usually the subsequent few Thursdays, this will be released. So this is the Thursday before the Super Bowl, or as I like to call it, Jet Week. And then this will be set out the Thursday after, where we're going to be hyping up the Teen Action Support Center all-in event, which happens once a year. It's going to be end of February, February 20. Shout out Teen Action Support Center. Twice I've done that. But I don't think enough credit is given to the fact that the Jets have the most consequential Super Bowl win of all time. Super Bowl three, Joan Amoth. I was hoping, Rob, you'd be wearing your mink coat today in our Joan Amoth and Super Bowl week. I got I got our football here. Was anybody here born when they had won the Super Bowl? Let's just go. Well, yeah, we got the football here. Feel free to toss that around. Like that. The other thing is, to commemorate my first guest appearance with you guys, I've brought a little bit of a brought gifts? No, no, no. I've brought a little bit of a survey here. So I'm challenging you guys. 20 bucks ahead. Whoa, Alany Bucks. Big big money. You got five questions on here to answer. Simple enough. What's the coin flip going to be for this Sunday? And this is going to air after the Super Bowl. So we're either going to look really smart or really dumb, and someone's going to win 20 bucks from the others. Here's your pen. I need everyone to sign the top. I need you to circle your five things, get it back to me here. So again, coin flip, so who are we uh who are we playing against? You? We're playing. Whoever accumulates the most correct answers is going to be the winner of these 29. And what happens if it's a tie? At the bottom, you'll see closest. So the total points scored is our tiebreaker. And uh that's not it. We're not gonna be tie after that. So I'm putting my last name on it, or can I just go with Josh? No, you can just go with Josh. I know who you are. I'm I'm I'm I'm very confident. Tails never. I don't know what's gonna happen here. Uh let's see. All right, so I'm done. Done first. I knew the questions in advance. But again, the questions for the audience is you know, what's the coin flip gonna be, heads or tails? Game line, Seattle minus four and a half, or New England plus four and a half. The over-under is at 45 and a half, over or under. Do you know how that works, Matthew? The over-under? Just I guess. You guessed. Is there gonna be a lead change in the second half? Right. Any lead change? And will the first score of the game be a touchdown, or will it be something other than a touchdown, which it can only be a field goal and safety? And then the total point score will be a tiebreaker, and then we will have everyone kind of we'll we'll know where we stand a week from now, but I figured we we'd share with the group. So I've got Tails, Seattle, under, no lead changes, field goal or safety, 44 points. Bobby, what you got on there? I haven't decided my points yet. Well, I need you to decide. Josh, I'll go to you. Well, I I know I like the Patriots, and I went Tails because Tails never fails.

SPEAKER_00

Don't let Matt change his bet. That's where I'm at. All right. I the lead change second half, yes, field goal or safety. I'm struggling on the over-under because that's that's a tough one, and which will allow me to come back to my total points.

SPEAKER_02

It's only a 50-50. In the meantime, it's pretty easy. In the meantime, I'd like to just ask you for a second to envision if the Jets had never won Super Bowl III. Perhaps we don't have a merged NFL. Perhaps all the all the box squares that you do, we wouldn't have them, Bobby. Like the Jets, I I just want to have a little bit of recognition Super Bowl week. They won the Super Bowl in 1969, Matthew. 1969. How old were you? Zero. The greatest guarantee. The greatest guaranteed in sports history, the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, and Joe Namot said, I guarantee it we're gonna win with his mink coat. That I again I'm disappointed. Jim, I'm gonna rant on your parade because wasn't Joe Namuth the guy on the Monday Night Football podcast with the lady who was so sexually inappropriate with her that he kind of was blackballed for life? Listen. True or false? It's a true statement that Joe had a few beers during halftime of the game and definitely made a pass at the sideline reporter. Can I kiss you? Uh on national TV. Magnificent. But again, that's the face of my franchise right there. Sorry for that. Okay, so what are you what are your picks? All right. Uh I'm gonna just go. So he hasn't finished. All right, so I won heads, uh, Seattle. Seattle. Under 45. Under. Uh yes, there will be a change. Okay. Okay. Uh first score, field goal. Okay. And total point scored 45. All right. So there we go. We've got that. I'm in for mine. Bobby's in for his. We're gonna we're gonna determine once and for all who is the football guru of the group. Now, well, Venmo payments? I mean, because we know Bobby takes a little while to pay out the winnings on the Venmo. No. All right, so Josh is Tails, New England over. Yes, field goal 47. How come Hannah did have to participate? This is this is we're gonna we I don't know where we'd get the 20 bucks from a winning.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, Hannah!

SPEAKER_03

At least I got it.

SPEAKER_02

I got to have a clear line of payment. So Matt's got Tails, Seattle under, no lead changes, a touchdown, and 58 points. 58. A scoring, a scoring frenzy. Matt, you should just give us your 20 bucks now. That's not good. I will let everybody know where we land. I will let everyone know where we land in a couple weeks when we uh film our next podcast in the meantime. Is it safe to say because I'm not very trusty that you could take photos of these and put them in a group chat? So we all said them. We've said every one of the bets have been said. They're on the article. No, I'm assuming you do the editing for it.

SPEAKER_00

You know what's gonna happen? I'm gonna have it dubbed out and have my stuff put right in as the winning stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Now, I also brought Project X Penelope bourbon today. Okay. Not left in the car all day, so it's not 140 degrees. I can't drink two at once. This is Matt's got the high west. Oh, Matt got high west. Yeah, I'd rather say I'd rather have it. He likes Project X. All right, we're gonna do Project X. This is good. High West is the one. Which one is it, though? I like High West. That's a new one that they have. Is it the High Country? It's called. Oh, I thought you said it was the High Country and we'll save this one for the next. I thought you said it was the campfire. That's not bad at all. It's good. Oh when you said you were bringing the campfire once. Oh, I must have told you they're on one. That's the kind of doubt. Matt doesn't even know what he's doing.

SPEAKER_00

Did I tell you that when Emily was out um Emily's out in Colorado and she's going uh bourbon shopping and she's in the store, she goes, she's FaceTiming me and she's showing me all the bourbons and she goes, What about this one? I never heard of it. I go, it's dry flight. No, no, that's Matt's bourbon. We don't buy that one.

SPEAKER_02

Someone gave that to me to be fair. Would you like a drink or can we get you a water?

SPEAKER_04

Okay, thank you.

Introducing TASK And Casino Night

SPEAKER_02

Can we talk about tasks? Yes, we can, Josh. It's it's appropriate because it's Super Bowl week. Where do you think of with Super Bowl? Vegas. And the Vegas night casino night for task is our biggest charity event of the year. So Hannah, who ran it last year and is running it again this year, does a phenomenal job, and I'm very anxious to let you know. Can I just do a survey real quick? Go ahead. Who in this room is gonna be going this year? Let's We're out of town. But we're out of town this year. Otherwise, I would be there.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I can say that these three did have a great time. I'm not gonna tell you all well, I'll probably during the podcast tell you all the things Josh Josh did during the evening, but PG 13. It was but um so tell us about the the all-in night coming up. What date? Sure. How can people get tickets, everything like that?

Why The Event Is Actually Fun

SPEAKER_04

Sure. We're we are just a couple weeks out. February 28th is our big night. Um, we'll be at the embassy suites again um this year, and we'll we'll have the same format um that we did last year, but we are planning for a few more people. Um, we've expanded some of the games, we'll have a few more tables set up.

SPEAKER_00

Um this could be a lot of fun. Can I can I comment on the we go to a lot of charity events? Some of them are stuffy, but they're all for good things. This one is just a riot. Like we laughed, like we laughed the whole time. Like we right, we set up that table. I I mean, I don't know why we laughed. We were playing blackjack blackjack, right? And of course, you can't touch the cards in real world, and you can't, and we're everybody's passing cards, the dealer's like looking around, and we're just and we just laugh the whole time.

SPEAKER_02

You're definitely breaking the rules.

SPEAKER_04

Sure, right. When it's not for real money, it's also a little more fun, too, because it doesn't matter. Stakes are high, but yeah, not really. It's true.

SPEAKER_02

Some of the events you're like, I have to go because it's the right thing to do. This one, like, people want to go. Yeah, like that's my feeling on this.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's one I have been on staff with task for um two years on this now, but this is the one event that my husband and I would go to and have for over 10 years. Yeah. Um, so it's it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02

I like how you pass out all the candy and like there's all the candy that flash. Oh, all the sponsors with um yeah, and all the skip links and uh was the the gummy, what was it with Nerd's clusters? Are they gonna be here this year too?

SPEAKER_04

Not sure yet. We're still waiting to see.

Sponsors, Auction Highlights, And Prizes

SPEAKER_02

Nerds clusters, get on it. Get on it, get on it. Nerds clusters. That's good. That was what a sugar high for sure. Primo water is gonna be a big sponsor this year as well. Ozarka and Pure Life and Mountain Valley Water. So yeah. Do you have something to do with that? I'd yeah. Oh, and and you said there's a ton of bourbons they're gonna have. Ton of bourbons off of the auction.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. That's right. We've got a great lime auction. There's there's a lot of fun and interesting things that are a little bit different than what you typically see. Um bourbon is a big one every year. Um this year we do have an amp um package. An amp package? Which it's uh it's four seats to any concert. Pitbull? Any easy. It's going down.

SPEAKER_02

The biggest part of that is it's four seats. Four on the grass. Seats.

SPEAKER_04

Right. If they're in a corporate box.

SPEAKER_02

That's gonna go for a big box because now it's you go there and it's packed. It's not like the old days when you could just spread out on the lawn.

SPEAKER_04

Right. And we also um Hotel Avail that's right across from the amp. Oh, yeah, has donated a night with a dinner for two at Oaksteakhouse. So that will all go together. Didn't you buy it? That's gonna go for big bucks.

SPEAKER_02

The casino from there, yeah. We bought the casino. Yeah, casino.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, they're doing another package.

SPEAKER_02

And it was we had a blast. Matt was excited to do like a$3,000 package. It was a concert to it. And an overnight. Yeah. It was a$3,000 package, Matt, because I can get it for$400. Forget the charity, and like he got it, and he felt very good about himself. It wasn't pouring. Yeah, no, you bid no, you bid you did good on that one. Yeah, but but I mean so okay.

SPEAKER_01

One thing I want to ask you before I forget is since I'm not gonna be able to be there, can you still bid on things? Is it on your phone or no?

SPEAKER_00

If you give us your credit card, we'll bid for you that he would bid for you. I'll bid for you with your credit card.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I'll have to call you to bid that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we've had people do bids by proxy before.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So I'll have to look through the list so I can hopefully down.

VIP Perks, Schedule, And Setup

SPEAKER_00

So if the top bid's like a thousand and Matt's boo at Matt, you got to bid$6,000 to get it. Like, we'll help the charity out. It's for the kids. That's right. It's for the kids.

SPEAKER_02

I cannot tell Josh, my bid. It has to be Rod. Yeah. These are the only two that can be trusted. I'm here for the charity. I wanted to make some money. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

How many people are you expecting this year?

SPEAKER_04

We're expecting around 300.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Well, you got your VIP ticket or what was it last year? How many did you get for that?

SPEAKER_04

We had, well, we sold about 250 tickets, but then we had the weekend of, I think there was a big flu outbreak.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I remember it was real cold. Yeah, it was super cold. Terrible weather. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And so we ended up with around 200 folks.

SPEAKER_01

So it's gonna be big this year.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It was it was so fun. I I I like to gamble anyway. And what was the game we played in the other room? Bingo. That's that was so fun. Corey lost her shit. Shout out, shout out to Corey. Shout out to Corey. She won, and they went out and chaptered, and they were like, Yeah, you didn't win. Well, that's because Josh, you dotted her on our car.

SPEAKER_03

So this is what happened. Oh, let's call it.

SPEAKER_02

She was so embarrassed. Such a troublemaker. So this is what happened. So Corey is uber competitive. Uber competitive.

SPEAKER_00

And so I took our card and I kind of like. And so, so, and anytime you're playing bingo, when the person up to win, you go, recount, recount, redo, because you always want to hope to win. So I yell, redo, redo, redo. And of course, the 100% of the time, that person is normally legit. Well, Corey had something X'd off accidentally. Me?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it wasn't accidental. It was Angela Burning. She was crazy angry.

SPEAKER_01

It's like when you walk up to get on the airplane and they reject you and tell you to go sit down. That's that.

SPEAKER_02

That's pretty. She was out for herself. I mean, nobody ever goes up to say I won bingo and then they're like, no, you didn't. Oh shit, I didn't. Is there gonna be bingo this year? There will be bingo. Like Cory Redemption on the 28th Corey. I'm not playing it. I just won last year. I'm not doing it. Is there a is there a theme that wasn't there a theme last year or no? It's just you know that just you know, I'll dress it up for that. I'll be I'll be dressed up.

SPEAKER_04

Things like in purple and those were colors. This year it's black and white and gold if you feel like dressing.

SPEAKER_02

Black, white, and gold? Yeah, because I thought there was like might have to bust out the fur. Oh dame is the glasses. I don't know for sure. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm gonna wear. So so for people who hadn't been there, uh why don't you go through uh the games that we offer and like what else is going on that night?

SPEAKER_04

Sure. Um we've got a VIP. If you have a VIP ticket, you can come to VIP Happy Hour from 5:30 to 6:30. You'll get a preview of all the silent auction items um in advance before everybody else gets to see them. Plus, there's a bar that's open during the VIP hour.

SPEAKER_00

We like that. Um just to be clear, one person at the table bought VIP tickets and one person couldn't afford VIP tickets. So I I'm I'm gonna have to show up after the VIP tickets.

SPEAKER_02

I can't afford it. You're so big picture renovation. I mean, at the price you got it for, you should you should be buying us all VIP tickets.

SPEAKER_01

And Rob buy them for stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You don't know what it costs you 20% more. Yeah. Shout out to my wife. So the event is and Rob.

SPEAKER_04

The main event will be at 6 30, 6 30 to 10. And then that's when all the games start. So we'll have food, um, heavy hors d'oeuvres, um, a big bar in the center this year instead of bars. Oh, that's cool. I like that. That's a big round bar in the middle.

SPEAKER_02

So where the dance floor was.

SPEAKER_04

Um, yes, we still have the dance floor, but it'll be right in front of it.

What TASK Does For Teens

SPEAKER_02

Okay. So I like that. No food for you, Josh. I need food. You need to buy one of the upgraded technology. Come on. The main thing we know is anyone that doesn't know what to ask is like, will you explain to us what this charity is about? Sure, of course. I didn't until I went last year. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

So we uh we have a lot of different kinds of wings or arms, if you will, under our umbrella. And we do support services for teens. So that is uh we have a restore arm, which is mental health, mental health care. Kids can come in in their families for um counseling free or low cost. It's on a sliding scale based on what they can afford. Um, we have after school programming. So um sometimes kids are referred to as from the core system. Sometimes they need volunteer hours for school or for scholarships. Sometimes they just want to connect and they need friends, and so it's a great place to come that's safe. Um they're taken care of, they can get community service hours.

SPEAKER_02

Um And they all need that now.

SPEAKER_04

They all do, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02

It's genius because then they can whether they need that or they get to go see to help that's right. That that's a gif for our kids to have to do that kind of stuff. Well, and it's one of those things where we've seen such growth in in our community over the last several years. With that, there's an increasing need and and people really need those services. So uh I I've been involved with task now for 13 years. Wow, is that long? 13 years. Golly, I'm old. And then I interrupted you. So is there anything else that you guys do?

SPEAKER_04

Or yes, we have a first steps program for pregnant and parenting teens. Um so we've got kind of something for almost every team that you could you could imagine. Um the the service hours, yes, school requires a hundred hours to graduate now. It's roughly 20 hours each year, each four of the four years in high school. Um, but many of our kids get way more than that. I think um some of our teens um for teen of the year or vol teen volunteer of the year, um they had a competition to see who could have the most hours. And the winning teens just from the fall already had 90 to 100 hours for this year. Not for all four years, but just for this year. So that's how they can stand out on scholarship applications as well by having above and beyond what's required for school graduation. Um, and the things that they do are they're volunteer, uh they're volunteering, but they are doing it in a fun way.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and there's so many good things about this, and and anything that Jim's passionate about, obviously we are all our as well, because we're good friends of Jim. But the the fact that it's all local and all the money stays local and all the work is done local here. I mean, that is fantastic, right?

SPEAKER_04

That's right. We've been around 20 years, started by a local couple, and it's it's stayed local. So we have expanded uh into the Northwest Arkansas corridor, so we have an office um where we can serve kids in Washington County and in Benton County, and then we have a standalone counseling office in Rogers, too.

SPEAKER_02

And we we actually have brands that have used you guys and they speak highly of everything that you guys do. So for us to have what we have here.

SPEAKER_04

It's really neat to see the transformation too that the the kids go through. And even um we were talking, I was talking with John and Greg last week about a fundraiser that we hosted in the fall with a large corporation. Um setting up one of the the associates um with the company, just threw it out there casually that he was a former test team. He had been in first steps when he was a teen and now he is grown up. You know, his kid is probably almost a teen by this point, too. And he's very successful. Um and it and n nobody that he worked with had had known it.

SPEAKER_02

So it's cool to see these stories that not everybody knows and how it's well and the perception here in northwest Arkansas is it's very affluent and nobody needs this type of help. And the reality is that's far from the case here. I mean, you guys have a waiting list of kids to come through there, right? I mean, it's just packed all the time.

SPEAKER_04

It is packed, it is packed. And we've got a lot of the same kids, we have a lot, we've gotten great retention. So you'll see we see a lot of the same kids come back to to programs week after week after week because they've made a real connection. So sometimes, like I mentioned earlier, they're referred to as because the court system says you need to be involved in this because you need community service hours or whatever. And then they they have a connection and something shifts inside of them and they realize that they are not the whole of the worst mistake they've ever made, and they can come out of it on the other side and have good, strong friendships and um give back, but also make good choices in that they are smart, they are capable, they can do big things.

SPEAKER_02

Are you helping with job placement on the back end? Are you helping them get ready for l leaving the program and get successful in life?

SPEAKER_04

We have some life skill programming that is part of our after school programming. So one of the cool things that I got to participate in last year, I don't really work with the kids much. I'm on the fundraising and development side, but I do volunteer my time when I can. Um and they did a really cool life skills um program that means I left my brain.

SPEAKER_01

That's fine. We'll come back to you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. But basically they gave them a budget. They gave each kid like a paycheck and they got a job, and you know, then they went to all these different booths, and this was how much money they had for rent. And this and then, oh no, it's like kind of the game of life. Um you had a medical bill, this is how much it cost, how much do you have left? And so at the end of the rotations, how much money do you have left in your account? Some of them were negative, and they had to go to the bank and ask for a loan or you know, different things like that.

SPEAKER_02

Super smart. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Right. That's right. And then they have other life skill things. Um car maintenance, changing oil. What what does that mean? What does it mean to have to change your tires or rotate your tires? What does that cost? Um banking information, how to apply for scholarships, how to take the ACT, how to um do your driver's permit, all things that they need to that they need to know and that aren't taught in school.

Life Skills And Real Outcomes

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I agree. I I always tell people calculus geometry, like what are you ever gonna do with that stuff? They they need to be teaching this kind of stuff, these life skills for people, and you're oh I passed my calculus, I got a C minus, and you never use it for the next 50 years of your life. But this type of stuff, my son comes to me, he's asking questions about balancing his checkbook and writing a check. And I'm like, dude, like these are basic life skills. We we all have those things too. I remember, you know, first house I bought. I didn't know I had to call the oil company and get an oil delivery. So all of a sudden it was winter and didn't have eaten house. And all so you look, you know, those basic things. Um the thing that I think also is great about task is it it really drives a level of engagement and it it's easier than ever for teens, especially to be kind of lost in their phones or lost in computers. One of the great programs we we had the last three years is the thing we call bucket list summer. So we have some local activities and all of a sudden get the kids engaged. And you talked about a waiting list earlier, Josh. Like those spots fill up so fast, and we've expanded it every year. And every year we're not able to give the supply for the demand that's out there for kids to be active in these in these uh in these uh endeavors.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. And when else would they get to go kayaking or ride a horse or go rock climbing or insert whatever? There's a lot of different coal activities that they get to do.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you're primarily on the fundraising side. Okay, so ticket sales, are there still tickets available for the event?

SPEAKER_04

Yes, as of right now there are.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Still plenty of tickets for especially the regular tickets. The IP tickets will be getting a little closer to to sell.

SPEAKER_02

Act quickly, Josh. Yeah, you need to upgrade those. Come on, Josh. What are the what are the what are the ranges for the tickets?

SPEAKER_04

Um tickets will be are$150 for regular tickets until um February 14th, and then the price increases to$175. And then the VIP ticket. I'll have to look and I'll get on that. I think you're$220 or 220.$225.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And so then they'll go up to$250 after February 14th.

SPEAKER_02

Got in early, Bobby. Get jobed. I'm in. Thank Angie. Thank you. Yes, we we shout out to Angie. We knew, we knew who bought the tickets. Oh yeah. Now I will say it's in our name. Uh bourbon is one of the bees. You were telling us a little bit about some of the auction items. Do you mind reading from that list again so that our listeners can hear about some of the fabulous bottles that we've got? Pappy23, Pappy 20. Matt's gonna go into his personal stash and don't.

SPEAKER_00

Since you can't be there, hold on, hold on. Since you can't be there, Matthew. Here we go. Like charitable to put a couple bottles into the auction.

SPEAKER_02

I wanna talk to the border, though.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I know these are all blue bottle orphan barrels. Um, Fable and Folly, 14 year, Forged Oak, 15 year, Copper Tongue 16 year, The Gifted Horse, 17 year, Barter House 20 year, Last Profit 22 year, Rhetoric 23 year, Muckity Muck 24 year, Old Blowhard 26 year, and there is also a Heaven Hill 17 year.

SPEAKER_02

That's a good how now how many also how many of those bottles have you tasted? Very few, right? Yeah, very few. So you would you would bid on a bit now. Are those being auctioned off individually or is it an entire lot?

SPEAKER_04

Um the Heaven Hill would likely be pulled out separate.

Tickets, Pricing, And Availability

SPEAKER_02

Everything else will likely be just one. So how much do you want to start the bidding at since you're not there for the for the bottles? A thousand bucks? What do you want to start? I mean, yeah, we'll start at a thousand. Started a thousand. There we go. Sold. Which is which is unbelievable because I mean, if you look at how many bourbons are there that are well aged, 15 plus 20 years. Yeah. Impossible to find, allocated. And and I mean, you know, if nothing screams Josh Saffron like old blowhard. Yeah. Did I buy that one by myself? I get that. I'm gonna give him a bring that to the podcast. I'm gonna give it to the girl that you made cry about the the shout out to Lauren. And then you'll be like, hey, can I have a pour of that? The old blowhard won't let me have any. I'll tell her just put it up front center. And no one's put my picture on the bottle. That's my bottle. That'd be yeah, so it sounds like an amazing event. Is what all is included, what uh so you it's whatever 200 or 175 to 250, let's say.

SPEAKER_01

What is included when you when you go there?

SPEAKER_04

Sure. The regular ticket includes food.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So I didn't so it does include dinner.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Temple or darp, yes, okay.

SPEAKER_04

And uh a couple of drinks.

SPEAKER_02

They were good.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you. Hopefully they'll be around the same. It'll they'll be a little bit different. There's a bit different, but yeah, basically the same. And then games. Um blackjack, poker.

SPEAKER_02

Uh the craps tables last year were pretty crowded.

SPEAKER_04

Um horse racing game.

SPEAKER_02

I think if it's a horse racing game that I'm thinking about, like they have in Vegas, like is like a it's covered and you bet on the horses going around the track.

SPEAKER_04

I'm not sure.

Bourbon Auction Deep Dive

SPEAKER_02

I bet you it is. That game, like, it's the best. Well, and the other thing is there are games that you know you can bet over under a certain amount, and they flip dice over. So like this there's games for the people who aren't real, real knowledgeable gamblers. And then there's a horse race game comes in too. It's one of those. We get the wives on the horse race game. Angie and Jenny were in Vegas, and you could clearly hear them across the flipping casino betting a dollar on which horse was gonna win, and they had the best time ever. I mean, we have to beat Corey at that game. I mean, no matter what we do, we have to have Corey has been training at these games. Did you have the horse race game flashing?

SPEAKER_04

We didn't. We swap.

SPEAKER_02

We decided just to horse race. Right? The horse race, the horse race game is two crap stables this year instead of one. Is the horse race game only for VIP or is it directly?

SPEAKER_04

You'll be all set.

SPEAKER_02

I'm all good. Yeah, you'll be all played. It's not all things we should switch. Not like jets. We should switch tickets because I'm always late, so by the time I get there, VIP will probably be over. So fair. Um so you did talk about off-air about fundraising and needs for better help from the support group that's not probably carrying their weight with the fundraising. I mean, just yeah, anything that we could talk about. Is Jim carrying his weight to help? I mean, he's great. All right. Wink wink. He's hit his head helping. He could always do more, right? Hannah's not biting. No, no, he's not fighting. He's not gonna play your game. He could always do more, right?

SPEAKER_04

Everybody could always do more. There you go, Jim. But every he does a great job. We have a great job.

SPEAKER_00

He's a huge ambassador for this.

SPEAKER_02

Like, I remember the first year you did this, it was out at Cherokee Casino the first two years, yeah. And I drove all the way out there. I'm like, what are we doing out here?

SPEAKER_04

I was at that one too. I was incredible.

SPEAKER_02

We were like running around with the microphone. The first year was incredible. The second year, true story, two days before the event, Cherokee called us and said, Hey, uh, the Oklahoma Gaming Commission said we're actually not allowed to do casino games and we're not gonna have tables for the event. And it was two days before the event. So what we did was we called uh I forget even who we called, but it was a they basically did like carnival games. And so we had a guy show up with a skee ball thing, and people show up at Cherokee? At Cherokee Casino, because we weren't allowed to do two days before we found out we weren't allowed to do it. So I'm sure there were a few F bombs on the phone, they F this and it's crazy. No, I mean they were still donating the room, so we wanted to be as nice as we could, but it certainly was That was the last year at Cherokee. That was the last year at Cherokee. That was the last year at Cherokee. Then the next year we've had it.

SPEAKER_04

Great sponsors and we left.

Games Lineup And Accessibility

SPEAKER_02

Yes, we love Cherokee. It wasn't Cherokee's fault. The Obama Gaming Commission they they need to follow the rules, right? I remember obviously ruined it. Jim said it was a charity and they were gambling in the back. And yeah. I remember last year they had the big wheel where you swim to beef jerky and they had the Cherokee girls there. That's right. That's right. Cherokee's been a great sponsor. Um, but I mean we've had it in the Dave and Busters uh right here in Rogers. It used to be kind of like an empty, almost cafeteria looking room. We had it in there one year, and then we moved to Embassy, and it's been there ever since. And Embassy's been great partners for us as well. Very cool. Well, yeah, it's nice because you could make it a weekend, you could stay the night and spa. Or you could avoid the whole weekend. Send it over to the spa. Yeah, yeah. Jim, are you setting up uh Limo Joe to come pick Josh and Emily and myself too? You know what? That's not a bad idea. I'll see if Limo Joe's available. I'll I'll offer him a ticket and to go from Shadow Salad to go. He's come pick us up and make a night out of it. It's not an Uber driver. I can I can see about that. I'd be happy. I'd be happy to do my part. Yeah. I'd be happy to do that. Since Josh was very clear that everyone can do a little bit more. You forgot to Limo Joe if he was donate at night. Limbo Joe. I wouldn't ask Joe to dump that. Um I'm yeah, Joe works too hard. What we should do is ask Limo Joe to pick up Matt from the cheer competition and drive him back there before the event. Let's do that. Let's get him on the horn. Limo Joe is our last podcast guest, by the way. So just uh Where are you gonna be? Where's the where are you gonna be? I have no idea. Matt just goes. Somewhere. Somewhere that's not here until April. So if we drove Limo Joe out to Ole Miss and then drove you back, and then we could do it. You're not doing enough, Jim. We should get to get a little bit of that. Josh, tell us again about your moves at the table last year. So if you had the cards go around, what exactly were you doing so we know what to look out for this year?

SPEAKER_00

Well, you're getting all this play money to play with for free, and it's all for fun. And at the end of the night, you're right, right for Apple Tacks. But it's all for fun. And so the dealers got like uh an ace and a king, and we would take the king and put it on Bobby, who had a king and a five, and then Bobby had 20, and the dealer had 16. I don't know what happened, and then Bobby wins, and the dealer busts. Like the kind of stuff that you want to do in Vegas, but you can't do. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

That's what we did all night along. You had a s I mean, you didn't lose a hand. You're on a you were on a here. No, I didn't get involved in that. It's very narrow. Bobby had a stack of chips. I mean, it was it was yeah, it was massive. It was fun. It was fun. But you didn't win anything though. The wraps in except for a couple bags of those beef jerky sticks. Well, everyone went home with beef jerky, that's for sure. There's a Jack Lynx uh provides a lot of samples for anything. Didn't they have the Bigfoot running around? The Bigfoot runs around.

SPEAKER_04

Bigfoot will be there.

SPEAKER_02

I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_04

And the chair casino girls will be back.

SPEAKER_02

Bobby, we got a picture of you with your mint on and the cherry next to the cherry. Oh my god, next to the cherry girls and Bigfoot. No, no, Bigfoot can't be in a certain girls like this with your glasses and the band. That'd be good. Love your new uh cover photo on Facebook. Love it. That'd be great. That'd be great. Do we need Cappy to come up for that event? Uh no. Cappy's I got Cappy work. Yep. So Hannah, anything else that you want to make sure we hit on before uh before we thank you? And and again, these these guys will attest to all of our rabid listeners how much of a fun time it was last year. But anything else you want to hit on?

SPEAKER_04

I think tickets are available. They can go to our website, tasknwa.org, and find the late ticket tickets. Um, we have an event on Facebook as well, but easy enough to remember Task NWA.org.

SPEAKER_02

And what would you say to Josh directly to get him to upgrade his ticket to a VIP versus regular? If you gave me a$100 bill right now, would you ever? Oh, you've got to go hard on him. Yeah, he's not gonna he's not gonna give it on Thanksgiving. He made all of us buy the VIP. That's right. It was twice the money. But the VIP came with a bottle of Buffalo Trace. I mean, that was that$25 bottle is that's right.

SPEAKER_03

Autographed.

SPEAKER_02

I don't even buy 50 tickets, we'll give you a bottle. I'll give you a bottle out of my deal. You will? Yeah, if you want to be hold of it. Hold on, hold on. Can I get any any bottle out of your closet? Two buffalo trays. Two buffalo trace. Oh Josh. I mean, that's who you gave. I'm just trying to be trying to keep it even. No, that's fair. I'll have to talk, I'll have to talk to Emily. We'll have to check the bank account. Seriously.

SPEAKER_00

We use it, we use our bank account skills to see like the X's and O's and the deposits and the withdrawals and see what we can afford to upgrade.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, you do still have a few invoices.

SPEAKER_02

I got a lot of invoices. Well, so again, February 28th. It's the last Saturday of February, the last day of February. And uh it is a you don't want to miss it type event.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we we do a lot of ball breaking on here, but the reality is we get it, we get asked to at a lot of charity events. This is one of the few that I I like put on the calendar. I mean, as soon as Jim put the date out, like I didn't say yes immediately because I had I had um cardio tennis on the calendar that was fine. I wasn't sure if I could get around that, but immediately but immediately we also said like we're in.

SPEAKER_02

Like not only because it's you, but we would do it for you anyway. But it's just it is really a fun yeah, 100%. Well, actually it was your first year. But uh was it my first year? I think so. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, because you go with virgin. Yeah, yeah, it was good. Oh it was good. And Matthew, yeah, what do we have to do? Do we have to call Carrie now? How do we get you there? Calling Carrie's probably the last person, yeah. Shout out to Carrie. We're in traveling cheer season, so well, it's good to keep your marriage together because otherwise you'd be a task asking for some help and they'll be like, you're too old.

SPEAKER_03

We can't help you.

The Cherokee Pivot Story

SPEAKER_02

That's him sale about three years ago.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I'm glad you guys will be there.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes. I mean, most of us will be there. Yeah, we'll be there. Maybe we'll do dinner before. Yeah, especially if Lil Mo Joe picks us up. Lil Lo Joe. I'll I'll call Lil O Joe after this. I think it'd be fine. I think we work something out. Yeah. That's I'll feel like the offset the VIP hour by having dinner beforehand. Yep. Absolutely. You could just sit out in the in the car. I'll sit the car with Limo Joe from tell me. We could have Limo Joe pick us up and you could host a nice dinner in your new kitchen. And from there we could out. Yeah. We put saran wrap over the countertop. You know how like in the 70s with the couches. Oh, for sure. That's what my countertop looks like right now. We have the saran wrap over it. Nobody's gonna ever use that kitchen.

SPEAKER_00

Hannah, thank you for coming in. One of our favorite events. One more time, the date on the website, please.

SPEAKER_04

February 28th. And it is tasknwa.org. T-A-S-C-N W A.org.

SPEAKER_00

Get your tickets before they sell out. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Go to the VIP. Don't be cheap and go to the regular tickets. No. Don't get the VIP. It's the Super Bowl of charity events in New Source Artists. I mean, you get a Super Bowl. You get to hang out with Bobby for an hour. Bobby from the podcast. So if you go to the VIP. Bobby is yeah, Bobby might be able to autographs that night.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.