Ep. 39 - What Happens When You Tell Someone They Matter

What if the moment you finally decide to give up turns out to be the moment everything begins?

Helice Bridges, who everyone now calls Grandma Sparky, talks with host Pam Feinberg-Rivkin about the years before that question found her: a thriving real estate career, a home overlooking the Pacific, two young sons, and a marriage that quietly left her feeling invisible. At thirty-seven, she reached a point where she didn't think she could go on, until a small, unexpected voice told her she still had something to give. She walked away from that life with little more than a potted plant and an idea she couldn't ignore.

That idea became a simple blue ribbon, one that says who I am makes a difference, born from her time serving as co-chair of the San Diego Hunger Project, where she realized people everywhere were starving for something money could never buy: to feel seen and valued. Sparky shares the story that became a television movie, about a chain of honoring that reached a father just in time to change everything he said to his son that night.

Now in her eighties and still working toward a goal of reaching a billion people, Sparky's life is proof that the smallest gesture, a sentence, a ribbon, a moment of being truly seen, can change everything.

Contact Pam Feinberg-Rivkin:
Facebook: @FeinbergCare
Instagram: @FeinbergCare
LinkedIn: Feinberg Consulting Inc
YouTube: @FeinbergConsulting8059 

Looking for a practical takeaway from this conversation?
Download our complimentary companion resource, Looking Beyond the Behavior, designed to help parents and caregivers shift from asking "What's wrong with my child?" to "What might my child be communicating?" The guide explores how looking at children's emotional, behavioral, and physical health through a holistic lens can open the door to greater understanding, connection, and support.

Contact Pam Feinberg-Rivkin:
Facebook: @FeinbergCare
Instagram: @FeinbergCare
LinkedIn: Feinberg Consulting Inc
YouTube: @FeinbergConsulting8059 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Resilient Butterfly Podcast. My goal is to share inspiring stories of healing and recovery through many diverse approaches and models. Our guests bring incredible lived experiences, insights, andor professional expertise, each with their own unique path. While we highlight and celebrate these stories, our intention is to inform, inspire, and demonstrate resilience and creativity. This podcast does not endorse any one approach. We believe there is more than one way to heal. And we're here to showcase the resilience and possibilities that exist. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Resilient Butterfly. I am your host, Pam Feinberg Griffkin. And today we have a wonderful guest, Halise Bridges, otherwise known as Grandma Sparky. And you will know why her name is Sparky once you hear her throughout this podcast. She is a light that keeps lighting up the world around her, I'm sure internationally, but for sure, nationally, and oh yeah, internationally, because I just read a story from South America. I was reading uh some more stories in your book. So Halise, I'm gonna say Sparky, is um has is the founder of Blue Ribbons Worldwide, and who I make who I am makes a difference, blue ribbon. And I just completed a leadership program, six-week program with Sparky, with some other people who are just amazing. One woman from Australia and the others, oh, one woman from Michigan and others from California. So it was really very interesting and inspiring. And I'd like to go start with you, Sparky, in your early life and what led you into this work.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Okay, so the loving, the great question you ask is my early life. And I went back to is that mean when I was born, or is that how far back do you want me to go? But I'm 83 right now, so I figure, well, okay, well, let's let's start 46 years ago. How about that?

SPEAKER_03 2:29

I I think it was probably after you got married, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Yeah, but let's do let's do that. So uh um after I got married, um I became um I wound up being in in business. Uh I went from a secretary of a um of small firm that went public and I became the the overseer of three major subsidiaries when I was 27. And then I went into real estate sales and um I bought 60 homes in six months with no money down because we didn't have any money. And my husband and I became millionaires in real estate. And that was the you know, we had all this stuff. So we had a beautiful home, you know, fancy cars overlooking the Pacific Ocean, two amazing preteen sons. Uh, when my life changed 180%. And uh and at that moment in time, and I think it was, let's see, uh 1979, I was 37 years old. So in 1979, um our marriage was um uh less than excellent. Uh I'll just say that I was subservient to my amazing, brilliant entrepreneurial husband, and he was I was invisible in his in his wake, even though I was really super successful in business. And I uh over the years uh feeling like I didn't matter anymore, and decided to take my life. Out of just being chipped away over 18 years of marriage, I uh and not being noticed, not being loved, not being uh empowered, not being supported, not being heard, not being valued. And this is the great gift that that God and the universe sometimes gives us like a bolt of lightning. And I remember the day that um that I decided to take my life, and I just was sobbing and crying and in a naked in a fetal position, rocking back and forth, and I just yelled to the heavens, stop the world. I got to get off and find a way where people love each other. And in that moment, I heard a little sweet voice whisper inside of me that said, You can't take your life because you're gonna sing, dance, write, and have a musical on Broadway, and you're gonna bring love to the whole wide world.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Such a beautiful, beautiful thing to hear. Not everyone hears and follows, you know, a lot of people unfortunately follow through with suicide. But for you, it's it was different. What then?

SPEAKER_02 5:20

So, what then was when I decided to leave my husband, leave my million-dollar career, uh, and leave everything and not know where I and I walked out with a potted plant and my and uh and some clothes, and and I gave up my my my real estate career. I gave up everything. And here's the great gift that came out of that is I decided to go into some personal development courses, and uh yet I got clear on it uh on me being able to be to find my own self, uh, to know not make my husband wrong. That took a while. That's I just want to say that.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

We always want to make the other person wrong. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

My theory, you know, I went through the therapy, I went through the little bit, you know, is he was I was always blaming him. Okay, if only he would change, God only knows. But but the great gift is that what happened is I became co-chair of the San Diego Hunger Project. I volunteered as co-chair, and um uh just something I stumbled into. And in the process of um of speaking on behalf of the Hunger Project, I discovered that people were starving not just for food, but they were starving to be to know that who they are made a difference, that they mattered.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

And and I felt like that for me too. I felt like I needed to be loved too. So I created a blue ribbon. It's right here, I think you can see it. Yeah, and it says, Who I am makes a difference. So I created this ribbon, and I decided I would go and um I brought about 12 people together in my home, kids, grandparents, business people, and I said, Here's bags of ribbons, go out and honor people and tell them how wonderful they are. Cheer them on for their dreams and come back and tell me what happened. And they came back, and here's where everything changed. They came back and they told me what worked about honoring people and what didn't. Uh, you know, as people said, get away from me with that ribbon. What do you want? How much money do you want? Is this religious? Is this this and that? And it would talk, and don't touch me, you know, don't try to put that ribbon on me. Um and so we looked at and we wrote us uh together a seven-step blue ribbon ceremony about everything that would uh have of somebody being engaged, being honored, and rescu be not only being able to give this ribbon, but receive it uh graciously. And uh today there's 50 over 50 million people that have been impacted by this message now um and stories written in chicken soup for the soul. And mostly it's because what happens in 60 seconds or less is that when when people feel seen and heard and loved, they have hopes and dreams and they become innovative. It's a it's a fertile soil for that.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Why do you think that why do you think seen, heard, and loved is so important to us as humans?

SPEAKER_02 8:52

It's fundamental. It's innate in us that love and connection is is fundamental. It's is Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. Basically, after you have food, shelter, and clothing, you want you have uh the next tape is you need to feel a sense of safety, and then from there a sense of belonging, and so that you can esteem feel esteem for yourself, esteem for others, and self-actualize is a basic human need.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Um so you had you had millions of dollars in all of the things that you wanted, or all the things that you could have in your life, right? But yeah, that was not enough. So uh there that basic need was still unfulfilled, which that is what you sought out for.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yes, and I didn't know it. I think we were all stumbling, all of us in back in the in the late 70s, uh were a lot of us were leaving jobs and things and careers that we didn't like and and tripping into something that we didn't know yet, but we knew that wasn't it. Right, right. But when we came together and we started to um to meet and and and and be authentic and vulnerable and talk about what we're feeling, and yet we were really pretty savvy folk. Uh and we we sort of like like people came together and we learned from each other and we grew together, and we're still growing together. It's just it's um the the you the question you asked is is why do people uh you know the need to feel seen and heard and unvalued and uh and valued. And and I will say this, that fundamentally, if you're in in going to school from the time you're in grade school to probably now, uh you might get a red mark on the top of your page that told you how many you did wrong.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Instead of how many you did right.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Exactly. And what and you're always looking at something's wrong with me. And and and our society is based on uh on not on love, but on on money, uh, you know, on profit, profitability, instead of the inner uh the inner soul of of love and respect and and valuing. We we just don't know how to do that. I've honored hundreds of thousands of people personally with this blue ribbon, which I'll do in a moment for everybody that's watching, so you can see how in 60 seconds or less you can take a deep breath and know that you do matter.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

But I um so you have several stories in Chicken Soul for Chicken Soup for the Soul, as well as this book that you published, Who I Am Makes a Difference, and a story after story that is so powerful. Is there are there a couple stories that you can relate to people listening?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

I I think one of the most one of the powerful stories that was made into a television movie, actually, is um is is about a school teacher in New York who ordered our blue ribbons. She decided to do a community-building project as an experiment with her high school seniors, and she went up to each of her seniors one at a time with the blue ribbon, and she looked them from her heart through her eyes, looked at them, and said, I have a blue ribbon for you. It says who I am makes a difference, and I want to tell you how much you matter to me. And she did that with each of her students, asked them if they would accept her gift, because she had permission to place it on them, and she gave them, she chered them on for their dreams by going, Bing! It's a sound that makes dreams come true. She gave them each three extra ribbons and said, Go out, uh, let's do a community-building project. Go out and honor somebody with the ribbon, and then give them, pay it forward, give them whoever you honored, give them two extra ribbons so they could honor another, and so forth. And so this is the story in Chicken Soup for the Soul. And and that afternoon, a high school senior went to a junior executive. This is in Wall Street in New York, and he honored him for helping him with his career planning. Now he he honored him, gave him a blue ribbon, placed it above his heart. Let me show you where it goes. You see that right there? Goes up and uh put it on his suit collar, a suit jacket, and chewed him on for his dreams, and then he gave him an extra two ribbons, and he said, Go honor others. Because I want to report, I need to report this back in class, tell the story. That afternoon, the junior executive goes to his grouchy boss, and he says, I just want to honor you for being a creative genius. You gave me the job, can you make a big difference? And he honored him, placed the ribbon above his heart, and gave him the last ribbon. He said, This kid's doing a class project. And I need to know what happened. That grouchy boss is driving home in New York traffic that evening, thinking, Who am I gonna honor? I didn't know. He sits down, sits his 14-year-old boy Dan on the sofa, looks at him and says, Every night I come home and I yell at you for not cleaning up your room and getting better grades in school. But tonight, son, I just want to tell you that who you are makes a difference to me and that I love you. And the boy starts to sob and sob. He goes over to a drawer, opens a drawer, pulls out a gun, looks at his dad, and says, I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. And now I don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

This um every time I've hear this story because you've told the story to us in our leadership program, it's in this book, it's in Chicken Soup for the Soul. I always get tears in my eyes because of the young man that was saved, and how many more in school, young kids who don't think that they matter, that can be saved. And I was reading one of the other stories where you were asked to come up into Los Angeles during the riots that there were gangs that were fighting against each other, and they brought them in. I don't even know how they all brought them in to an auditorium. Can you tell that what happened there?

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Oh, I I did I didn't forgot all about that. This is a you know, we are instantaneous when something is an idea, this time has come. So I live in San Diego, and uh some women were down here uh and they were talking about the riots, and they were putting uh these rival gang members together, and and they were looking for people that speak, and I said, Oh, I can do that. The next thing I know is I'm up there during the week where they had the bloods in the crypts together in the same room, and um I had no idea what to do. Actually, I never spoke it before like that. And um up in front of the um room, I get introduced as um I was introduced by um a comedian, an Afro-American comedian, and he gets up and he says, You see the white woman in the corner? She's Jewish, and she comes from San Diego. Oh, goodness. Did you want to run out of the auditorium at that point? That's right. And so I remember that exactly, and I that was my introduction. And so I went up and I just stood in front of everybody, and they had their hands crossed above, you know, their chests and kind of, you know, in the leather jackets and kind of looking at me like, what is this woman doing? And I said to them, I said, Who would like to come up to the front? Be and and and so to so I can teach you how when you walk in the room, everybody will turn and look at you and want to be like you and and be impressed by you. And everybody's just staring at me. And finally, I pointed to uh a young fellow and he gets up, he's like, I'm five feet tall, well, 4'11 now. On the doctor, I lost an inch. Okay, well, that this is another story. Okay, so but anyway, he's like six foot two, and he's slender, and he's looking down at me, his head is dipped down, he's got his hands in his pocket, he's got his knee kind of bent, he's kind of, you know, like, yeah, show it to me, lady. And I said, May I have permission to touch you? And he goes, huh? So I took my hands to his and I put it up like that. I touched his uh his leg so he could straighten up. I took his hands out of his pockets so he could straight up and down, and I looked at him, I said, Good job. And I walked away for a few steps, and I turned around, he's back slumped again. I did this about 25 times. I didn't know what else to do. I kept going up and I said, Okay, here. I freaked him up and I said, good job, and I walked away. And that was all I all I did at the end. I honored him with the blue ribbon, and I said, I'm gonna all ask you all to honor each other now with the blue ribbon. And bloods in the crypts, I want you to honor each other and tell each other how much you matter. And you've got 60 seconds each to do that, and they're all honoring each other. And I said, now I want you to go home and let somebody know how much they matter. And I will just tell you that they I I spoke uh I was the first speaker and the last speaker during the week. They had a lot of other great speakers, and and when I came back, everybody's sitting there, you know, like frozen. And um uh and I I I said, um, who would like to come up to the front and uh tell us what the difference they made? And one this girl that had drool coming down her face, and she I was always sleeping. She was kind of a big figured, strong girl. She gets up, she stands up, she stands straight, she looks at everybody and said, I went home, I told my mother that who she is made a difference to put her cigarette butt out, get herself dressed up, and I'm gonna strut her down the street because I want to be proud of her. And everybody starts applauding and they yell, give her a ribbon. I honor her, she sits right down, and um and oh, she says also. She said, Um, yeah, so she sits right down, and then uh she said, uh, and I told my teacher that she has no longer has the right to to speak to me in that manner because I I make a difference. And I looked up and I saw this woman in the back of the room. She must have been the the bus driver or the teacher or whatever, but I could feel her pulse beating. And I said, You want to come up here? She came up and she stood and she said she stood and looked at this girl and she said, You know, you're right. You did make a difference. I apologize.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

And everybody yelled, give her a ribbon. You know, um, we all need to be loved and honored, and a chance to um say I'm sorry, and a chance to learn from each other. And that's um what happened. You know, I made that up, and I forgot that while I was honoring this boy and straightening out his face and his putting his hands straight so he could stick straight up and down, that nobody had seen anybody get acknowledged.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Not in that notes.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

I didn't know I didn't know I was teaching that. I never made him wrong. I just kept good job. But that's all I knew to do. Uh and that became a powerful story. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

That's really interesting. It be it it is very difficult for people to acknowledge others. It's one of the, for whatever reason, I I I think, you know, I can say for myself personally, it's awkward. It I because I was never acknowledged myself.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

Um And I'm sure based on your marriage you were not acknowledged. What drew you into the ability to naturally acknowledge someone without question?

SPEAKER_02 22:14

That is a really good question for me. I I you know something came through me to create the blue ribbon. And I first started to honor my kids' teachers and my neighbors. But I was terrified that they would reject me and think I was a crazy lady with the ribbon, which a lot of people did, by the way. I was, I took it was a risk. And when I honored them, I got invited to speak and train and do things that I I couldn't even imagine. At the other end of that scope, I really was uh when I stepped out of of people that I didn't know very well, uh, and I'd honor them, and then I'd look later and I did they didn't have the ribbon on, and I had just honored them, and I thought, uh, they think that was stupid. And um, they and I would try to avoid them. And then it would yell at me and say, Hey, you know that ribbon you gave me? And I go, Yeah. They said, You wanted me to pass it on, right? And tell somebody else they met her, because at the early days I didn't do that. And I said, Yeah, and they said, So I gave it to somebody else. And I said, Wow, you know, and it was me stumbling into, I will say this giving and receiving, I learned so much from the blue ribbon ceremony. It's a lot of us have a uh fundamental, especially for women, of an ability to give a lot, rarely to receive. The acknowledgement coming back, oh, this old thing, or my hair doesn't look good. And um, you know, you know, if I only had a little bit of that and a little bit of that. I've done all that, so I know I know that. Fundamentally, we look at what's not working in us, and it's we're fed that in the in our television and our society. Yeah, but it's it we're talking about we're talking about 15 billion years of evolution and top-down management. You know, them that has the goals make the rules, and we feel subservient. Um, it's rare that we're in an environment where a teacher or somebody that we we look to that tells us, yes, you can do it. I believe in you. You matter and make a difference. Um, and that is rare, by the way. Uh it takes a lot to stand up and stand out.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Sure. And then in the educational system, and it's not about just what the teachers are teaching fundamentally, it is about how the student is going to be able to receive it. And if they don't feel acknowledged in their own way, they can't receive. Um, it is just one of those, as you say, fundamental.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yes, and then the in the short time that we have left, I I just first of all I want to honor everybody and get and and and and and do this so that you understand this, because we're going for billion people to be honored by 2034. That's eight years from now. John F. Kennedy said we're gonna put a man on the boon at the end of the decade, that was eight years and bring him back safely to earth. And that nobody had the technology for that. It's so when we speak boldly into our conviction of something that we want to see happen, it's an idea whose time has come to be able to show people how much they're loved and respected. So I want to do that for you. Okay, this is a blue ribbon for all that are watching this magnificent program. The blue ribbon says who I am makes a difference. And I would love to honor you for your heart and your soul for believing in yourself, for going and telling people that they matter, for looking at your own heart and and uh checking in and watching uh uh and being this butterfly, this really resilient butterfly in your own self constantly. Would you accept this gift from me? Yeah, yes. May I have permission to place it on you? Yes. Thank you. I place it above your heart, you'll see it again. I place it above your heart. It points up toward all your greatest dreams coming true. Tradition is I take my the spark from my heart and put it in the cheerleaders in your ribbon. It's the sound that makes dreams come true. Pam, do this with me. And the count of three, go snap, and you go and a one, say and a one, and a two, and a two, and a three, and a three. Bing! And bing makes you smile. And every time you hear a bing, you'll know a child just got their dream. We're fundamentally we're pointing and lighting people up and telling them that they matter. I'll give you two extra ribbons to pay it forward. That is the tradition, so that we can reach a billion people.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

So Janine has a really good question, and I actually don't know the answer, and I'm uh so I'm really curious myself. I I kind of think I do, but how do you know how many blue ribbons? How are you keeping track of how many blue ribbons have been given up?

SPEAKER_02 27:35

That's a really, really good question. Uh a lot of it is is the inventory in people that buy the ribbons over the years. Uh, and it's not all of it. It's the the story that got in chicken soup for the soul, and then it got into a television movie, and then it got on YouTube, and it was number one for 10 weeks in YouTube, and that other books, and my story is in hundreds of books. That blue ribbon story of the boy that didn't commit suicide has been picked up by everybody, spoken in every school. We're in 12 languages, we're all over the world.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

And so, yeah, go ahead. One of the questions also, excuse me, because I read this in the book about your trip to um Rio de Janeiro with the and when the Dalai Lama and so many others were there.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Tell us how you got there and what what was that about?

SPEAKER_02 28:32

I tell you something. Uh for all of us, I said at the beginning, to be able to listen, to be able, it it you might get downloads, you might avoid them, you go, I don't, you know, I can't hear, it's too big. But all of a sudden, I get a uh I'm just beginning this this this ceremony, and I get a call uh from a woman in Texas, and she said, We heard about your ribbon and uh and that it saves the lives of children all over the world. And so we want to uh invite you to the Environmental Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Uh we'll pay for that, and um uh and um because it's environmental earth summit, and I said, Well, thank you. I didn't and she said you'll be following the Al Gore and the Dalai Lama on stage. All right, so now I don't know from Dalai Lama, I've been a real estate lady, okay, and a mom. I don't know from these things. Um Al Gore was uh senator. I uh he later became you know vice president of the United States and nominated, but he I didn't know him. So I told a lady, I said, Well, thank you very much, but I don't read the newspaper and I don't drink soda, so I don't recycle. And I hung up. Okay, seriously, I hung up. Oh my goodness. And I walked away. Okay, so about a couple days later, I'm getting this God bumps and a voice that comes through me and says, You're going to Rio. And so I call back and I say, I can go now. And I said, Well, we gave the money to somebody else. And I went, Okay, well, you know, I don't need yellow, I don't know why I'm going. And then a few days later, here's the miracle. Um uh Terracja Communications had raised $500,000 to send people there. And Terry Pezy, who is the founder, who I didn't know at all, never had met her, understand her secretary called and said, Terry Pese is went across the street to get a loan, and uh so that you can go to Rio and speak, but you have to pay it back in 30 days. And I said, uh-huh, okay. And I hadn't enough for underwear at the time to buy new underwear. I mean, I was I was broke, I was pinning ribbons on people, I was going from millionaire to nothing here, you know, and I that's all I wanted to do. And um fortunately, my my my sister-in-law um had a credit card and um she said, Don't tell your brother that I'm using it, that kind of thing. And I get there, but I am surrounded by 2,400 world leaders. Uh uh President of Earth Day USA, I followed on stage. Um the uh, you know, the the Dalai Lama, the the uh um there you you couldn't I'm in, I've got a ribbon for goodness sake. And I will tell you this that I was so intimidated by everybody I was around. You know, Neil Armstrong is is walking past me, uh Neil Darman is going up the escalator, Olivia Newton Don is coming down, the Dalai Lama's walking in, you know, and I'm just like like stuck in my thumb. Uh and I started to honor, I think I honored 3,000 people in 14 days.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Uh I was I was a speaker on the 14th day, and there are 300 people in the room, and they're having um they're all with different languages, so they have the earphones on, the translation. I have no clue what I did at all. Except that when I got home, and I I without telling all of the experiences that I had, which are so tremendous, uh, the 14 days that I was there, and that a transformation uh happened for me and and and the spiritual uh evolution that occurred for me. But when I got home, um I got a call from uh Terry Pese, and she said, You did a great job, you owe us nothing. Oh, wow. And that was 14 days I would have to pay for a round trip ticket and 14 days at a hotel and food and lodging and everything else, and I didn't have to pay a penny.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Wow, that is a miracle. Well, you provided miracles for everyone in the audience for the and also over the 14 days that you did that. I mean, your stories go on and on and on. Can I also ask? You say eight days. I mean eight years, not eight days, eight years, a billion. Why are you choosing eight years?

SPEAKER_02 33:24

I made it up.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

I just wondered if it had to do with how old you're gonna be, or just you know that that's a that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

I I make up everything, I just make it up. I just say something and I I I decided 2034, eight years from now, I just and I did that a few years ago, okay? So um that I thought about it, but I didn't declare it yet. Uh and and um but what I was told by um uh you met Randy initially, who is a graduate of Standing Strong Together, who is a um he's retired Chief Master Sergeant of the U.S. Air Force. We speak every every uh every week. Um he said, what I love about the fact that you picked eight years, he said, is John F. Kennedy, when he said, I believe our society is ready to land a man on the moon uh at the end of the decade and bring him back safely to Earth. He said, You picked eight years, and he did it in eight years when there was no technology for rocket ship. Well and uh and so I I think it comes through me.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Well, there's a lot there's a lot absolutely, I believe in intention declaration, because you're really putting it out there into the universe, and a lot of people would say it's woo-woo, and it is really the energy of and then taking action on it. You can't just put it out there, but taking action on it, and you are an action-driven person that has spent so many years in creating what you know, with just a little blue ribbon, an amazing saving lives, making people feel that they, you know, who knows what their lives in front of them are. Um, my question also is where what can be done to get people in the all the school districts in the entire world, school districts. I don't know what they're called in the in the world, but getting the blue ribbon into schools.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Yes. So here's what's so amazing to try to get anything into schools, uh the the teachers are overwhelmed, the money comes and goes. Uh, it's trick, it's tricky. So I decided not to do it that way because I I've done that. Um so right now we've got a university in Mexico and a college in San Diego, and the students are meeting with me, with their professors, uh, and they are engaged uh as a project to help us get to a billion people. Um and they're going to redo all of our social media stuff and all that. Their focus is on ages 15 to 25 years old, and that everybody will be learning how to do the blue ribbon ceremony, everybody will be part of something big enough, like the rocket ship that goes to inner space rather than outer space. So they can know that young people can matter, make a difference, and and be able to change this globe and focusing on what's working. The woo-woo part of this, let me just say that when I first started this, it is um how much time do I have? Do I have a couple minutes?

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Yeah, you do. Yeah, we have maybe five, five, ten minutes.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Okay, let me just tell you this, and this is important for everybody. When I first started this, I I spoke for uh I got $500 to do uh uh a program for uh a sick sixth, seventh, and eighth graders close to me in San Diego. And uh and and the kids would come up to me after in the movie lines, and we live close by, and they say, when are you coming back? When you're coming back. I said, I can't come back until you get me into the school because they kicked me out. I only have a ribbon. I got a high school education and a ribbon. They said, You have to get to our school. I said, You got to make that happen. The kids raised $2,500 in 1991, and they went to their principal. Principal is a great principal. I said, they said, she said yes, I can do it three three assemblies, six, seventh, and eighth, three days in a row for an hour. And she said, I said to them, I said, I'll only do this, sure enough, to get the money, but I want you to get the press behind it. They brought the Los Angeles Times, the LA uh uh the San Diego Union Tribune, big newspapers, uh, Channel 8 news showed up, and Copley uh showed up. It was on the radio station, and I stood up in front of, imagine there's like 600 kids in each of the classes, and I stood up and I said, one out of every four of you in those days has been abused, and I know it. So if it's not you, it's somebody on both sides of you. What I'm gonna invite you to do now is to come up to the microphone. If you've ever bullied anybody, put anybody down, hurt anybody in any way at all, I want you to state what your name is, what you did, and apologize to that person, have that person come up, shake a hand, give a hug, clean it up. If you have been abused, I want you to get up and share how you've been abused and how it hurt you. And those kids lined up. And this is, by the way, it's it's two pages in LA Times Union Tribune. Um, and so you could see that they got up, and I will just share one story because there's many, you know, of the three days. But uh the one boy gets up, Todd, uh small boy, small frame boy, and he gets up and he said, They call me a hot shot in class. I always interrupt everything, uh, but I'm not a hot shot. And he just bursts out crying and he turns his back to the audience. I put my hand on his shoulder, look at everybody, and I said, A minute, Todd has something important to say, and I turned him back around and I whispered in his ear, I'm right here for you. Keep talking. And he looked up at everybody and he said, But I don't know what to do. I lost my girlfriend last year. Kids ran up and circled around him and hugged him and was sobbing because she committed suicide the day that year before, and nobody was talking about suicide then. And he couldn't talk about it. You couldn't, even today, you can't name the person in college campus or anything. Uh uh, to even to have that connection. He broke the whole room open. Every kid after it talked about and apologized, and the newspaper covers all those stories, um, some of them in my book, yes, um, The Assembly of Love.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

Those are miracles.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

By the way, there's gonna be a musical on Broadway. We've written it um for Broadway in New York. Um so it's you take a moment, and what we talk about is touchy-feely, is because it's so embarrassing for adults, like you said earlier. I uh people do know how to criticize, but do not know how to love uh sincerely and vulnerably and authentically. We don't know how to have conversations like that yet. But we can crack the code on this sucker. And uh and I'm gonna allow the young people to lead this with our veterans, by the way, because you met the veterans in your training program, and they're actually on November the 11th of this year, 2026, we will launch the global blue ribbon heroes movement. That's good grassroots initiative that is encompassing all our veterans being honored, our young people being honored, and our community leaders around the world being a part of this, and we're going to have um a hundred people that are going to be impacting a hundred thousand. We'll get to a billion. That's the goal, that's the intention. We're laying the foundation for that.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

Miracles upon miracles.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Miracles upon miracles.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

So I want you to tell the listeners how they may be able to get the blue ribbon and go to your website and order this book. All of that. Everything to find out how they can be a part of the billion.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Yes, please do that. And uh, by the way, I didn't I didn't show you my children's book, but it's on our website. So go to our website, it's blue ribbons, B-L-U-E-R-I-B-B-O-N-S.org. Make sure you got the s at the end.org. And you will see the blue ribbon, you will see the documentary with Jack Canfield, who is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul on our homepage. If you scroll down, you will see the movie, the blue ribbon movie about the boy that didn't commit suicide. You can scroll down and get 10 free ribbons or go to our website, to our um online store. Please do that. And for a hundred uh to get a hundred ribbons is only 30 bucks. Um, and you'll honor people. We want to capture your stories and invite you to email me at Sparky S-P-A-R-K-Y, Sparky at Blue Ribbons, B-L-U-E-R-I-B-B-O-N-S. Tell us your story. Take a picture of yourself with a blue ribbon on you, and the person you honored, tell us what how they made a difference so we can post that. We're going to be doing that throughout the year and for the next eight years, you're going to see all these great stories of people that have been honored, our teachers, our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our neighbors, um, the great people in our world that that really deserve to be honored. And um and let me know how you would like me to speak into your school, to your classrooms, to your organizations, your businesses, your institutions. I want to be able to teach you how to honor people and um and do a program for you because we have programs for corporations, organizations, and schools worldwide. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:04

Thank you so much for being such an amazing woman who has created love, love, and authenticity in the world. I appreciate you, and so many others I know will learn to appreciate you and um honor you as well with a blue ribbon. Who I am makes a difference. You are amazing, loving, authentic woman. And thank you for being part of my life.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

And I received that. Thank you. God bless. This has been a this is awesome. Go out and better fly yourself. Recillion, who you are makes a difference for uniting humanity through the power of love one person at a time. Have some fun with this. Thank you. Get over yourself.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Thank you for joining the conversation today. If you are seeking help for yourself or a loved one, please reach out to our Feinberg Consulting Team at 248-538-5425. That's 248-538-5425. And check out our website at feinbergcare.com. I'm grateful for our guests and all who have joined us today. Make sure you follow us on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.