(INTERVIEW)- Tech Harnessing & Publicity for Charity-- Richard's Heroic "Primed for Charity" Story: From PPCLI Infantry Officer to the Cat-Man-Do

Check out Canadian Grit's First-Ever Official Interview! Also available on our BRAND NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL WITH VIDEO! 🏴‍☠️

🌀YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erOPxMEIDFY

🌀Primed for Charity HomePage <--CLICK

All audio episodes now there, too-- animated editions to come later. ❤️‍🔥

Here's an ingenius *FREE* grassroots mission YOU CAN HELP in under 15 seconds if you have Amazon Prime: $3 "sub"  to Richard's charity.

• Richard is a local hero 
• From our time together at RMC to community engagement
• LIVE LINKS: WHERE  FUNDS ARE GOING TO HELP PEOPLE AND CATS NOW!!!
• Innovative fundraising: "Primed for Charity": the power of tech for charity: Indigenous youth programs; street missions; no-kill cat shelters, biospheres, environment
• Trust within community: essential for success
• Richard's personal struggles: finding purpose in helping others
• Stream for charity: significant impact & awareness
• Understanding platforms like Twitch can empower individuals to contribute to causes
• Donation transparency fosters trust; encourages more contributions
• Connecting with Indigenous communities is vital for cultural understanding and & support
• Leadership involves recognizing value of community & role of elders.

In this engaging conversation, Jamie interviews Richard Desaluniers, a local hero  in Edmonton dedicated to community service & innovative fundraising. His unique approach using "Twitch" for fundraising emphasizes the power of technology in making real change. The discussion touches  personal struggles, the significance of Indigenous communities, & the role of elders in leadership. To inspire listeners to take action and contribute to their communities.

🫵KEY Takeaways:

• Every action is heroic.
• Community is the heart of change.
• We can change the world together.

Keywords: Agency, Power, Individual empowerment, fundraising, Canada, mental health, Indigenous youth; Indigenous ways of kno

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Are we ready? Let's

SPEAKER_02: 0:05

go. Hey, everybody. It's Jamie from Canadian Grit, and today I bring you our first official interview with a local Canadian Grit hero, Richard Desaulniers. Welcome, Richard.

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

Thanks for having me, Jamie. I'm excited to be here. I'm good. Canadian Grit. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02: 0:22

Fantastic. So for starting Canadian Grit, a big thing, if you've been listening, you've heard the history episodes, but a big part of the goal of what we're doing here is bringing in people like Richard, who are working really hard in their own communities to shed light on what other volunteers are doing. Richard has found a really cool way of raising money for local initiatives that he's into from his hometown of Langley, British Columbia, and he now lives in Edmonton and he's doing some work. Today we're going to spread the mission of what Richard is up to. He's going to do most of the talking, but to bookend the interview with some information so people understand who it is that we are speaking with. I'm setting the scene. Richard and I met, it seems like a long time ago, right after high school. So we graduated in 2005. Yeah, 2005. And we both got into the prestigious Royal Military College of Canada and met in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, just on the Rive Sud de Montréal, the south shore of Montreal. And Richard immediately struck me as a a spirit larger than life. One of the most caring and genuine guys that I've known. And to this day, I believe people are put on our paths for a reason. And little did I know about 20 years later, we'd be sitting here doing this interview. So that's pretty cool. And one of the most impressive moments that I remember about Richard was we had to do physical training, PT. And one of the things we often did was a pool workout, swimming. And little did anybody know that Richard was a very competitive swimmer. He got up on the diving block with his swim cap on and the rest of us, I don't know, I was probably doing the doggy paddle or my best freestyle and Richard Hopson and does probably the most beautiful butterfly I had ever seen other than on television so that to me watching you swim was you know to see someone in their natural element that's what I always remembered about you and your kindness looking back on that time the biggest thing that took away other than a lot of great friendships was the discipline you know the idea of patriotic service we grew up in a bit of a different time than now right it was still pretty romantic to maybe go and be in the military and also the bonds of brotherhood. The idea that you get to know someone so deeply in some of these situations, right? So that was pretty special. So I'm going to hand it over to you now, Richard, maybe discuss... You know, since I, when I left the military college, I mean, just to sum up, how did you get to this fundraising initiative of what you're doing, your website?

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

Yeah, it's a bit of a journey. I continued on with RMC and you continued on with your own education, going to that teacher, teacher realm, which is great, right? We need caring, compassionate teachers. Obviously you seem to care quite a bit about it, which is, which is awesome. I guess this sort of vibes into it, right? And you are also teaching people. other people other ways people are making impact so you're still in that teaching role yeah and

SPEAKER_02: 3:10

after i left rmc it wasn't a straight path i went to the university of guelph i studied french and german european studies i thought i would be in diplomacy or maybe working in the european union built a couple of houses and things with my dad and thought about the trades and then yeah the path of teaching my mom is a teacher a caregiver so i come by that honestly um and this feels like the next natural step to embrace my role as teacher and as a connector, networker, and bringing people's stories like yours to life.

SPEAKER_00: 3:39

I feel you're a lot better than I am. I find it always very awkward to talk to people and you always seem to have like a very good vibe or a very good fluidity about you when you're talking to others or talking with others. But if

SPEAKER_02: 3:50

I can, the teacher, I say whenever a kid goes, well, you can do this. And I say, well, you can't maybe yet, yet. And the thing is, I've been teaching and refining this process for over 13 years in front of a live audience, getting a lot of feedback. It's like a standup comic, right? Kids are pretty well the most honest audience. So you're not alone, Richard, in feeling like this is nerve wracking because like I was telling you before I started recording, looked up a lot of tips online. Imagine you're talking to just your friend across the table. That keeps me centered a bit, but yeah. So your, your courage again in helping your community, but also coming out here and putting yourself out there is it's admirable. So thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00: 4:29

So what happened at RMC? I swam there as well. We went to Kingston from St. Jean. And then I was able to compete in the World Games in India, which was pretty cool. I got to meet this guy from Togo, and he was also a swimmer. But basically, he's like, I'm the only guy that could swim. So basically, I got to go, essentially, because apparently swimming is not that popular in Togo.

SPEAKER_02: 4:54

I wonder how many swimming pools they have in Togo. I don't know. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 4:59

I think not that many

SPEAKER_02: 5:00

it's like cool running bobsled team you know jamaica have a bobsled team

SPEAKER_00: 5:04

it's like the only guy that can swim in the military anyway and so he's their entire navy anyone goes overboard he's the guy that we communicated in very in very rough french so that was fun a cool person i got to meet some other people just like one of the many sort of things you could sort of do within the colleges or do in the military there's always like these venues you can get yourself to that you know maybe 30 or 40 other people are in and it honestly just allows you to do all this cool stuff And there's so many varying bits of it. Yeah, a lot

SPEAKER_02: 5:32

of international opportunities. I would never talk anybody out of it. It took a lot away that I treasure to this day.

SPEAKER_00: 5:39

Yes, went to RMC, got my degree, did my training. Then I got put into the PBCLI, Princess Patricia's Canadian infantry.

SPEAKER_02: 5:46

APCLI, here we are. Shout out.

SPEAKER_00: 5:48

It's a great regimen. The Canadian Army. Yeah. So I was there in Edmonton for a few years. Moved there 2011. Moved away 2015. Went to Vancouver. Started an ice cream chocolate business with my ex-wife that sort of fell apart. And then we stopped that business. One of my coolest years there, I was a reserve support staff officer or regular support staff officer at a reserve regiment, the Royal Westminster Regiment. Filled with a lot of good dudes and ladies. Really good time working there. I got to use a bit of my own power to influence stuff like, oh, hey, we're doing this paperwork stuff. And I can say, we don't need to do it this way and then change it. And then, you know, read all our procedures and everything and try and do it a bit more efficiently instead of like, okay, sometimes we've got to do paperwork, but we can do it better. Right?

SPEAKER_02: 6:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:35

Efficiency is a more efficient way to do stuff. And there's instructions out there. That's right. Procedures and

SPEAKER_02: 6:40

resources. And that's what we're doing here. We're showing of how we can more easily become empowered by getting rid of some of the older systems that no longer serve us like pushing paperwork right we can find better ways we're at the the dawn or advent of an amazing time it's a super cool time

SPEAKER_00: 6:55

yeah and we can use those procedures in place for our own benefit totally we just have to know about it and how to do it

SPEAKER_02: 7:01

and the more people we get then those systems become easier to change as well it doesn't seem so daunting maybe to have to confront it because we always feel alone

SPEAKER_00: 7:09

yeah and you know it's it's about doing uh i think you're a believer right absolutely it's like sort of it's it's the new wine And so this is just sort of showing people that there's a new wineskin, there's a new way, and we've sort of got to have a new vessel to take that idea on, right?

SPEAKER_02: 7:27

Yeah, absolutely. And Generation Z is at the forefront of the end of this materialism age. Gabor Maté calls it late-stage capitalism. I see us, we're sort of in between the baby boomers as millennials, and we're a bridge generation, and we need to bring these generations together. Because what I'm seeing in the research that's existed for 70 years since John Dewey in 1938. He believes in experiential education from people's own lived experiences and building their own knowledge from that as opposed to these bigger abstract ideas. And we're finding our power in things that you're doing. We're relying on experience and helping people find ways to connect. The older generation may not understand why children or people are feeling disconnected as much, whereas the whole universe has changed. So we need to make these connections as we're doing an output Hopefully older people can get involved as well, showing the younger generation how we come together in the middle and make things happen.

SPEAKER_00: 8:23

Amen. I agree. We got to tell each other how we can do these

SPEAKER_02: 8:26

things. It's democratizing it. And I keep saying, you know, Canadian Grit isn't for me. And I hope that this is a demonstration of what I mean. The first of what will be a number of interviews. It may not seem like a lot on the surface, but that's why I want to say any action is heroic these days. We have a sort of skewed concept of hero. Philip Zimbardo talks about this. He did this Stanford prison experiment, which is pretty famous and now infamous for sort of how it was carried out ethically. However, he has a great video on YouTube called The Psychology of Evil, and he talks about the opportunity for anybody every single day to become a hero. And for a generation, we've been watching superhero movies, and I think the idea that we're going to be saved externally, you know, Batman or they're going to come, but actually it's us, Richard. That's why I'm not being facetious or joking that I want to showcase this because it's incredibly powerful what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00: 9:14

Thanks, Jimmy. I got injured a few years ago and so I'm like well I can't really do the infantry officer job anymore maybe I could have hid the injury or whatnot and then just done another job that would have been probably okay but I didn't really want to I'm like well if I can't do infantry I'll just get out so I got medically released so what happens I was on retraining period for two years during that time I went through a depressive period I felt really down in dumps I didn't really know what to do I had a bunch of thoughts of suicide for quite a while and you know I just felt sort of useless like what am I doing like I'm not really controlling sorry to hear that yeah uh thanks and so then i was just like well i'm not doing anything and i'm literally just sitting in a basement just running away so i'm like well i'll try streaming my i might as well stream away and then other people could watch me just be miserable i guess so i did that a few people watched uh enough that i got affiliate then a buddy of mine uses his amazon prime account he's like oh hey i can subscribe to you i'm like oh sweet so he did that and i'm like oh how many people like use amazon prime like over 100 million just in North America. It's like 30% of the population. So I think it's 150 million or something.

SPEAKER_02: 10:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 10:22

Whatever. Sure.

SPEAKER_02: 10:23

Yeah, yeah. Give or take. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:25

And then I'm like, okay, what's the current revenues Twitch is showing in terms of Prime subjects? It's like 1 or 2 million a month, which means that less than 1% of these people using Amazon Prime are doing this. I basically have a market of several hundred million dollars a month that people aren't doing something, right? So if I can convince a small portion of people to subscribe to me, that's a few million dollars a month why why don't i try and do that it's pretty easy everyone a whole bunch of people use it so well then i went just literally standing on the street with the sign up like use your amazon prime for charity and people are like fuck you amazon prime yeah i'm like man it could be huge if we just get even a small portion that reaction is just

SPEAKER_02: 11:04

so people who are inundated with spam and i don't know people who are just at their wits end i guess so

SPEAKER_00: 11:09

yeah it was very surprising to me how much how much people were maybe it shouldn't been this surprising but it was surprising to me how ready people are to hate and like uninformed hate

SPEAKER_02: 11:21

yes and to be uninformed disdain for others and it's not arrogance i don't know well it comes across as arrogance but it's it's unseated i don't think it's necessarily processing that people are acting that way but it could normalize these sorts of crappy behaviors through warrior keyboarding and you know we could go on that for another show my word yeah what a way to start

SPEAKER_00: 11:42

well i i made some signs i made some branding another Another friend of mine, he was from RMC, David, he does graphic design. And so I'm like, oh, hey, could you make me something? And then we made like, oh, we have a heart that's made up of individual components to show that everyone contributing shows love, shows basically like a bigger picture, right? Just a pixel by itself doesn't make a picture, but a thousand pixels, 10,000 pixels shows you a more refined picture, right?

SPEAKER_02: 12:10

I started to realize that I was up on a lot of terms and internet terminologies that maybe some people who are listening may not know for example richard can you please explain what twitch is as if you know somebody had never heard of it very basically what is twitch

SPEAKER_00: 12:24

so twitch is a streaming platform basically people streaming themselves recording themselves broadcasting themselves whether they're playing video games in real life it started with a guy just recording himself 24 7 and putting it on the internet you're just watching live youtube so it's most people

SPEAKER_02: 12:42

basically youtube but it's also and correct me if i'm wrong but a lot of games basically

SPEAKER_00: 12:47

that was the big start for it okay for sure was in the whole gaming world and it's still a large part of its revenue i believe

SPEAKER_02: 12:53

you've mentioned twitch a streaming platform like youtube and anybody who subscribes to amazon prime can because we pay for a membership to subscribe to amazon there are also benefits within that subscription correct

SPEAKER_00: 13:08

there's a bunch of stuff you know the old free shipping the prime video skip the dishes membership or something there's one is what's called a prime subscription that you can use on Twitch. And one of the analogies I'm using is think of Twitch as an arcade that Amazon owns, right? And as part of your subscription, basically Amazon gives you a token. Sure. I think we all probably recall tokens in arcades. You can only use it in that arcade, right? Yep. Yeah. A lot of people seem to get that one, don't we? Absolutely. I'm just kidding with you. And so I say, I'm basically a machine in that arcade just asking you to put the token in my machine. There you go. Essentially. And you just get this token and you're already paying for it anyway, whether you use it or not.

SPEAKER_02: 13:51

Right. Every month in your Amazon Prime account, you get a$3 token that you can give to Richard via his Twitch account.

SPEAKER_00: 13:59

Yeah, exactly. You click on a button and then I get a subscription from you.

SPEAKER_02: 14:04

All right. So this, how can they find the link to this?

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

It's on my website and I will individually send this link to everyone that signs up if they want

SPEAKER_02: 14:14

it. Okay. And this is just to show anybody, we'll show you where that money is going and what's being done with that.

SPEAKER_00: 14:19

Ideally, the first time we do this, how are you going, when I give you this message, how are you going to receive it? Yep. Let's sign up with that method. So you don't sign up with your phone the next time you use your computer and you're like, oh, what's my password, et cetera. And yep, they can do that through my website. I have all the links and all the process on my website

SPEAKER_02: 14:35

this is a way for amazon to get more people into their arcade richard has an account amazon gives you a free token three dollars you go around and hopefully you find people like richard that you want to support

SPEAKER_00: 14:46

it's also like i think probably one of the big things is people that are already using twitch right maybe they want us to subscribe to one or two streamers they know they say hey you can use your prime sub use amazon prime which is a few more dollars or whatever than a sub i see it would normally cost and so it's like you get normally charged for that Amazon Prime, but because you have to come back and do this sub manually, they're relying on that basically recurrent income of you not doing it, you not remembering. And that's sort of what I'm doing is I'm remembering for you. I'm like, hey, you can use this thing again and click the button. And that's when you get that direct link because...

SPEAKER_02: 15:23

And again, you're using your sub and you're taking that money, you're giving it to charity, whereas other Twitch streamers may use that for personal gain or whatever they are doing.

SPEAKER_00: 15:33

Yeah, which is fine right yeah yeah that's what it's there it's not my my goal

SPEAKER_02: 15:38

it's not it's not your chi bro it's not your vibe so i'm going to subscribe with prime free one month sub

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

it'll tell you too when your sub will be up at the bottom of the page there anniversaries will be effect on july 13th so okay if you aren't being reminded by me yep you'll know to come back on that day to do this again right here or you know a day or two later right

SPEAKER_02: 15:59

and today is friday june 13th friday the 13th buddy they don't whatever you do if you're walking out in edmonton today don't walk under any pianos hanging by a rope all right right how the uh how are things out there with the oilers just interrupt

SPEAKER_00: 16:16

they

SPEAKER_02: 16:17

seem good

SPEAKER_00: 16:18

yeah yeah let's go

SPEAKER_02: 16:19

all right so I mean, that's it. So I'm over on your Facebook page now. And if people were to come looking for you, you want to pull up your website first or you want to go to your Facebook page?

SPEAKER_00: 16:31

We can go to my Facebook page. I'm going to

SPEAKER_02: 16:33

pull up your Facebook page. Richard's organization is called Primed for Charity. So here's his Facebook group. There's a sign up button here as well. You did make a video to show people how to go through the process. On my website? Website. Yes. Okay. I'll B roll. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 16:51

This is the blooper reel.

SPEAKER_02: 16:52

Yeah. All right. So I was just trying to see if I could get you out of the way a little bit. That's why I kept clicking those buttons. So I'll just put you over here for now. Here we are on Richard's Facebook page for Prime for Charity. Explain to us, Richard, what you do here on your Facebook page. So on the Facebook

SPEAKER_00: 17:08

page, Facebook every time I make a donation I post it on here along with the receipts so essentially showing I'm actually donating the money people could say I guess oh you could doctor the things but why why would I the whole point here is to show that I'm doing it and you know each of these places has acknowledged they've received these funds from me as well

SPEAKER_02: 17:31

absolutely yeah and it's all here folks like they're again Canadian Animal Rescue and Extended Shelter Society we're going to show you out in Langley this is these are all real establishments that you can check and if you're not comfortable doing this type of thing then ultimately that's your choice and we respect that however let's not just forgo any opportunities based on our own mistrust when we have good information in front of us we have the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention we're doing amazing things how did you say this biosphere name again Richard

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

Cloquette Biosphere

SPEAKER_02: 18:07

Trust. Cloquette Biosphere Trust Society. Again, so donation amount$71.61. However, there's been a... What's the matched amount up here that I keep seeing?

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

That's just some people I've been able to get sort of donation doubling. So I've gotten the amount I've raised, and then some people have decided to match or basically double my contribution. Wow. So...

SPEAKER_02: 18:31

When

SPEAKER_00: 18:31

did you start this all? I started it basically around January of 2023. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 18:38

And so January of 2023, you're now approximately, let's say, 2.5 years into this journey. Have you been doing this pretty well all by yourself?

SPEAKER_00: 18:48

Well, I mean, I can't do it by myself.

SPEAKER_02: 18:51

Yeah, but so far, I mean, how have you gotten all this going? Started

SPEAKER_00: 18:58

a Facebook page, started an Instagram page. But

SPEAKER_02: 19:00

you did that.

SPEAKER_00: 19:03

Well, also I had a friend help me with the webpage and he offered to do it for free. I had a friend help me with the branding, the design, and then he helped me with a bit of a discount rate because essentially I'm using my own money to fund this and not money from the charity.

SPEAKER_02: 19:18

So that's something right there again, Richard, that is worth noting because you are starting this yourself. But what I think I'm hearing you say, but correct me if I'm wrong, is that you're getting to the point where you feel like it's getting bigger and you want to get to the point that you have help so that you can keep growing it. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

I mean, that'd be fantastic. And really, I need everyone's help to do it. That's what I mean, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if it was just me, I would have raised only 70 bucks so far, right? But I've had a whole bunch of different people consistently help and I've had a whole bunch of people support me in other ways as well with encouragement. There's been some not so nice conversations too.

SPEAKER_02: 19:59

Sure, but that,

SPEAKER_00: 19:59

yeah. Some people have thought.

SPEAKER_02: 20:01

And having worked in sales, I don't know, you know, putting yourself out there will always come with rejection. But again, through your whole story of what you talked about, through leaving the military and finding, you know, through streaming the this amazing portal of available funds. This is an amazing venture. So in two and a half years, in all that you've invested, including probably, you know, hundreds of hours of time, you've gone to farmer's markets, you've gone out, you've tried to get people to talk to you. How many people would you say maybe in person you've spoken with just trying to, you know, solicit interest in this? So you've gone to farmer's markets. Where else have you gone?

SPEAKER_00: 20:36

I've gone to farmer's markets. I've been outside. I've been sitting outside Oilers Games. Come on. Yeah, good. And I've been basically just waiting for people to come out and then people talk to me. But I was doing this when it was like minus 20, minus 30. So maybe people are like, why is this crazy man sitting at minus 30 with a table asking for Amazon Prime stuff? But that's their projection, man.

SPEAKER_02: 20:57

If they think you're crazy, you could say it's crazy to go spend hundreds of dollars on a game and then all that money. But I love hockey. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just presenting a different perspective. And somebody asks you for a free$3 to give to charity and all of a sudden you're questioning your motives. I think you're a pretty special human to go do that. That's dedication. That goes back to what I was saying about heroism. You could be going into the game or staying warm and you're out there trying to raise money for your communities. It's pretty special.

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

I mean, for me too, like the big reason, I guess I wanted to share this too, is that basically when you go down to it, most people have been doing it in about 15 to 20 seconds.

SPEAKER_02: 21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:38

And it's no time. Yeah, no, I get in terms of Europe, but I'm thinking in terms of everyone, in terms of time value, right? Like if you were to put a dollar value on your time, and thankfully with this, I sort of can, right? And then I can say, hey, you're worth$600 a minute. an hour like that's what you can do with your time right that's and that's amazing critical thinking for the course of three minutes over the course of a year you can give 36 yeah and that's

SPEAKER_02: 22:03

value and you know we've lost a lot i think perspective about value even i don't take for example i don't know first thing that pops into my mind let's say a new pair of shoes well i don't want to spend a hundred dollars or whatever on shoes well if you wear those shoes 100 times that's a dollar every time you wear them that's pretty good value actually

SPEAKER_00: 22:23

yeah yeah no i do this for the same thing with myself i'm like oh if i do this i wear it so many times use it so many times what's its value to me

SPEAKER_02: 22:30

that's critical that's a great point to involve in this conversation is the value of what you're bringing so in all of the farmers markets the oilers games and putting yourself out there how much money have you raised in two and a half years

SPEAKER_00: 22:43

uh well it's been about uh nineteen thousand five hundred buddy that's big

SPEAKER_02: 22:48

it's really big congratulations and uh that's that's no small no

SPEAKER_00: 22:52

and here's the i guess the real kicker for me and it obviously you know whatever there's gonna be rejection not everyone's gonna buy it but i think as time goes on as maybe more people see me more often i think if it was just an issue of trust and if say people first saw me they're like you know what this guy's a trustworthy guy i'm just gonna do whatever he says if people just did it whoever saw me like if people just like the people that just saw my signage physically not like on the internet it didn't go viral whatever there's people that saw me i would have been able to raise probably 10 to 20 million so far that's wild just people like glancing you know what this guy's great

SPEAKER_02: 23:27

that's right if people if people who had just physically seen you had taken the 15 seconds to go and give this three dollars that's not going anywhere but back to amazon and this is something that you know it's amazing to see you're saying you could have had between 10 and 20 million dollars yet people are literally resisting yeah and that's the fact that you're still doing it shows your passion and and that's why i care so deeply richard because i personally know you and to see you doing this and again watching you over the years as you've evolved this and how we've sort of our paths have re-emerged is really special because together we're gonna do we're gonna get up to that I know it and this is just the start of something great so I'm really proud of all your work and take away the judgment and people who don't understand it ultimately are projecting their own fears onto you you don't need to change your trusting caring ways because somebody else doesn't see your vision because people here who are on this channel who are already subscribing I've over 300 downloads of my podcast in nine countries and 75 cities so this is the thing these are the things that we can accomplish together and again it's not to say way to go canadian grit way to go jamie but this is us you see what you are you are canadian grit and i'm bringing this together because we all deserve to see we're not alone we're not islands but in this current day and age i think we're starting to feel a bit that way when we shouldn't be you know so you're you're you're creating you're creating these ways back for people to connect

SPEAKER_00: 24:50

yeah and that's sort of my goal and then also just to show people like they're there is literal so much value in just trust right and being able to use that trust in good ways that say hey this is a trustworthy thing or even just being able to and displaying that information in such a way that people can understand because my mind works very differently than a lot of other people's not always in good ways sometimes in good ways but we're

SPEAKER_02: 25:15

all different and that's why you know what i talk about in the podcast and what i've learned through history my travels is that even if you go to developing countries now is they're they're still very happy they don't have the material possessions yet they still have the community and spiritual bonds that fuel you see you've gone into something more communal based and you found a connection to a higher power in our connected humanity and the part of the journey that i'm on is realizing that i my power is in teaching and to take big ideas and to help people articulate them so that was the goal of canadian grit because i think a lot of people have amazing ideas and when we start to connect it's going back to those sort of tribal days more so when we're living in a community. We call people neurodivergent, but it's actually neurodiversity. Because if there were 20 of us living out in the forest, we need people who are good at all of these things. People with ADHD and different types of neurotypicalities, you know, would have had their purpose in a tribal setting. My high sensory, hearing, high energy, you know, and you're the caring guy. We would have had very specific roles. But when we bring all these people people together going back to your point on trust and I've been doing a lot of work on trust and it's relational so in order to develop trust we need relation and in order to develop relation there needs to be that basic awakening and reconnection to our humanity we're so fragmented and dissociated that we can't even believe that here's this guy Richard trying to raise money and in some sort of unconscious or subconscious way people are deciding despite you know they do all of their own logins there's nothing except for the actual transaction of the from you to the organizations, which you're proving on your Facebook group, and which could easily be verified, which is by the companies or the organizations you're giving to. So, you know, there's nothing shady about this. It can all be backed up, and you're making a huge difference through Primed for Charity. You're donating to CARES Cat Shelter, No Kill Shelter in Langley, B.C., You're giving to the...

SPEAKER_00: 27:19

The First Nations Youth Program.

SPEAKER_02: 27:20

The First Nations Youth Program, but it was a sub... It was a sub...

SPEAKER_00: 27:25

Cloak Youth Biosphere Trust.

SPEAKER_02: 27:26

Right, so why don't you tell me, because this is really important, I've been talking about Turtle Island and Indigenous people in the next episode of Canadian Grit, all about Champlain and his encounters with the First Nations.

SPEAKER_01: 27:38

All right.

SPEAKER_02: 27:39

A big part of my PhD in educational sustainability involves Indigenous ways of knowing and carrying on with the message of truth and reconciliation and working towards the points that were discovered by the Canadian government and also with Gord Downie at the last hip concert calling out the entire country that we need to do better. But in, you know, the last episode of Canadian Grid I talked about Turtle Island interrupted and 14,000 years Indigenous people lived in Canada, what is called Canada, which was a misnomer by, but we think this way of living that has always been. It's only five or six hundred years old. What we've normalized, you know, war movies, war games, and stuff with children. Other cultures might look at us and say, well, what's wrong with you? As we look at potentially how our relations have been with Indigenous people in Canada, it's a very important thing. So this First Nations Youth Program, it's an initiative supporting Indigenous youth in leadership and cultural empowerment.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

I mean, essentially, taking young men out on the land, teaching them skills teaching them how to become leaders in their community and giving them the support asking the youth hey what do you want to do and then doing it right and maybe they don't have an idea right maybe they're not used to being asked that question

SPEAKER_02: 28:51

well and this is part of the crisis in education i'm studying is that children do not have the mental capacity as adults and we say you know what do you want to do today they're acting from a very limited set of experiences and it's very overwhelming it's i don't know if you've ever experienced it richard like netflix or something and you turn it on and there's five Yeah. Yeah. building community, we're going to go back to, you know, the good old days, I guess. But the good old days is not necessarily the 90s or 80s, but this Indigenous sort of community of knowing and dependence that shaman or knowers can be children or younger people and that elders have a very important role in what we're doing. But again, you are an elder. You're here. You're a cultural elder. You're a torchbearer. And I've talked about John McRae's torch, you know, and we... Yep. Interesting stuff. You know, it's worth the chew because ultimately I don't want to underestimate or undervalue what it is that you're doing because part of my notes here is, you know, addressing skepticism and many people are wary of online donation models.

SPEAKER_01: 30:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:51

You know, growing up, don't give information over the phone. Don't give your social insurance number. Don't give banking information. And privacy has become pretty fluid. And it's funny because when we sign up for an account, for example, there's eight pages of legal documents and we click agree without ever looking at it. yeah with a company and developed by people we've never met and then we get people like Richard on the street saying hey give me 15 seconds of your time and we could raise millions and I can prove it that's the difference we're making and that's big that's cultural that's that we can change that and it's pretty cool

SPEAKER_00: 31:21

I think there's you know there's nothing wrong with being skeptical no it's like following the information seeing what's there and so I think the big thing for people that are concerned about awareness I have no idea who is actually subscribing to me other than Like you just had an obvious name, right? And then you told me that you subscribed to me. So I know it's you. Wait, are you, are

SPEAKER_02: 31:43

you, have you hacked my computer right now, Richard?

SPEAKER_00: 31:46

Exactly. And there have been a few people that have subscribed to me that I have no idea who they are because they either didn't do it immediately after a conversation we had or didn't tell me that they did it personally. So I'm just like, there's, there's people that have subscribed to me. I don't know who they are, so I can't contact them. I don't have anyone's contact information. So unless someone like subscribes to me and tells me yeah to get a hold of them it's i don't know because i just i don't know any information about you yeah other than what you tell me

SPEAKER_02: 32:13

and so where i was thinking we could talk to is that i've been building a website and it's it's pretty well ready to launch i have the home page but i'm going to build it in a blog in a gallery but there's going to be a community outreach page and it's going to so what i'll do is i'll get a picture of you or your website and on my second page i'll put all of your information all the steps and your videos and part of it too is that creating a an email list so people can send information and we'll figure out a way of getting people to let us know who's involved with this and maybe we can work on getting you some better data in the short term and moving forward right so I mean you've done$20,000 almost yeah so again on our way to 20 million my friend you've you have done so much but this is the power of the networking and I know lots of people in in Ontario and in different provinces who have started joining Yeah. Yeah. It's going to take 40 million people to make these types of changes. And I think it's like when you go to a buffet, how much of the food did they just throw at the dumpster? And that's kind of like not to, but that's our culture and it's not good. It's not sustainable, but it's a great metaphor. I think that's just sort of coming to me as a teacher and storyteller that I am. I like to make connections to make them meaningful to my experiences and to make them meaningful to other people. Are you okay with just consistently, here's, you know, imagine going to the grocery store And every time you go, they give you a$3 gift that you just literally walk outside and throw it in the garbage, a loaf of bread. You know, and that's, and that's, it's not exactly the same. It's a sustenance, it's food, but this is our culture of sort of planned depreciation or planned obsolescence. Get an iPhone now and get another one in the new year, you know. So this is leadership, my friend, and your project, it fits into the larger civic action orientation of Canadian Grit. You're a good human being and a good friend and again, a cultural and community leader. in edmonton and for all the people back in langley you're helping i don't know if like you before rmc what was something maybe in your life you know when did you know that you felt called to maybe something bigger or the military you know when you were younger helping people just gives maybe give uh people listening a little bit of an idea of who you were growing up in your family context

SPEAKER_00: 34:57

well as a kid i was a bit of a shithead so i was just a bit obnoxious more more i would say more than most probably i was like definitely the annoying kid among I think

SPEAKER_02: 35:07

that's probably why we were buddies.

SPEAKER_00: 35:10

Yeah. And I love how you're banging on the, you're

SPEAKER_02: 35:12

drumming on the desk like this is a trip down memory lane is not where you want to go.

SPEAKER_00: 35:17

Yeah, I got into a bunch of fights too when I was younger. I had some good friends, but didn't have some others. I was swimming then, doing a bunch of different sports. Didn't do my homework, but still did all right at school.

SPEAKER_02: 35:29

But you always, would you say you always felt connected though, very deeply socially to everybody else? I would not say that I felt that way. No,

SPEAKER_00: 35:37

I was a bit more of a loner and an outcast. Okay. But I still like helping people. So

SPEAKER_02: 35:44

yeah, they're

SPEAKER_00: 35:44

not mutually exclusive,

SPEAKER_02: 35:45

right? You can't be, you don't have to be an introvert and be like, oh, you can't help people.

SPEAKER_00: 35:49

Yeah, exactly. I

SPEAKER_02: 35:50

think,

SPEAKER_00: 35:52

yeah. And there were times too, I mean, I was, I was still plenty social, but I like taking leadership in the roles I did, like organizing events for friends or encouraging people to go swimming. And so that's sort of what led me. And then since I was a kid, I was like, I don't want to be a I want to be a firefighter or I want to be in the military. And just when I was a grade 12, yeah. Well, it's just like the sort of being able to do some sort of service, right? Or help people in need or help people that are advocating for people that don't have maybe as much power or as much ability to.

SPEAKER_02: 36:25

Yep. And that's exactly, that's what we shared, my friend. And that's the gravity or, you know, as believers or, you know, other people, synchronicity, gravity, call it chance. I don't know. I think calling things coincidence or whatever can be a little... In my own spiritual existence, you know, I've been through a lot. Obviously, you have as well. And we can talk about that another time. We're going to do an update, you know, in the future to see how things are going for Prime for Charity because these things will ripple out into a stronger, more connected Canada. And that's what I'm seeing is I was watching online and I met a couple of my favorite, like, musicians and I started to think, why not me? And I watched this interview with Judd Apatow. If you know who he is, he's like, you know... a lot of comedy movies and he's a director he's anyway he said all you got to do is just make something he said even if you think it's a bit funny he said the difference between you and me sitting in this chair i think he was doing a master class is he's just like i made something silly and somebody saw it you know and i see you richard and you see me and people like us we see each other and and this is the advent like i say canada 2.0 a reformation where we're going to show that caring and kindness and the inclusion of people that the diversity that we have everyone has a strength when there's we're all talking tied up in a lot of self-judgment looking back and you say you know I was an outcast or this or that a lot of those things are our own perception sometimes absolutely things happen but what I'm saying now is that you're a hero Richard and you're a leader and you're not an outcast here you're cared about and that the amount of stuff that you're doing to help people is is absolutely remarkable I mean you've already helped so many people you should be really proud of those accomplishments because I'm proud of you as a friend and as a human being you know it's pretty special to know somebody because I honestly have met a lot of people I've been around and to meet people who are doing these things like you are out in minus 30 um and and still getting the rejection you know people might go out for one day and be like I'm never doing that again you've been doing this for two and a half years and you've raised twenty thousand dollars congratulations man it's really cool honestly I think that's like the coolest thing ever and that's it is cool to care it is cool to be kind you know and that's all of these things are not mutually exclusive and that the idea of not caring being cool I think it's you know such a cultural we grew up in a time I think the movies and everything kind of showed us and as sports guys you know the 90s hockey players

SPEAKER_00: 38:41

I think we're a bit more segmented too right so it's so much easier not to care like if we're it takes a village to raise a child but that's a child raised in that village cares about it right if you're only raised by your mom and dad like you don't have as much connection to that village either right

SPEAKER_02: 38:56

that's right and the other thing too is when I mean obviously we're using the technology is a huge part of the problem like digital online everyone's escaping and it's It's what I'm relating to Dr. Marshall McLuhan, who was a famous Canadian guy in the 60s. The medium is the message and digital media is this new theory in my PhD I'm developing called the hybrid reality theory and hybrid reality disorder. And Nell Noddings, who's at the center of my theory of the theory of caring, she talks about our proximity of care. And in the early 80s, you know, with the advent of television and everything, people used to be more involved locally in these grassroots. But now with TV, we see instead of us at the center and then our family and then our communities physically, that has all become fluid in this what i'm calling the hybrid reality we're all living on the cloud but we're still physically and genetically bound to our physical realities we can't leave however instead of being friends with our neighbors or trying to fix the problems people will say well what's happening in the middle east what's happening in china what's happening in japan it's like well i mean at the end of the day your lived reality in edmonton or in toronto or are we doing enough in our own backyard and so that's why i'm trying to highlight people like you because ultimately as much as i morally care about you know people who are somewhere else is I have much more power here if I center myself and connect with people like you we can make a powerful change here and that's how we remain grounded I think that's big in our day and age I don't know what you think

SPEAKER_00: 40:20

yeah no I think I mean I think there's like there's so many factors that sort of go into why this is so powerful for me and it's also just showing people like you do have power even if it's in some small way to make a difference and you you have power now what will you do with it will you make a change for a better world or will you sort of just assume that it can't be done even though and it could it could be quite easy too right and we have to stop overestimating just how difficult stuff is to do

SPEAKER_02: 40:49

it is we and that's it we're overestimating it we i think and that's the realm of celebrity or we we idolizing you know back to the good book you know idolatry and not really what's meaningful material objects and we've forgotten actually what you're calling our power it's our individual agency and that's at the heart of my educator theory and caring is when we put up our own good boundaries and we realize the power we have, instead of just accepting defeat or that something's incredibly difficult, when we take small steps, we can see what we can accomplish in a very short amount of time. And then when you amplify that, it becomes collective. And that's social change. With my students, I often say, okay, let's just pretend everybody in here uses their cell phone for four hours a day. There's 30 kids, 120 hours a day. What's 120 times seven? Thousand kids in the school. I don't know I'm not great at math But that's just one school every day or you know every for every month times that by a year times that by 40 million Canadians There's nothing we can't do and that's the power of the ripple, right? We're all with social media without the connection. We think everything is so hard We're reinventing the wheel every day for ourselves as opposed to taking from our elders the past and using it to help us You know indigenous ways of knowing before Turtle Island. How did they live in community? Because again, I'm not saying all the tribes got along They didn't. However, they lived for 14,000 years in their, you know, in peace with the land as one. I think there's something powerful in that in this digital age, reconnecting with our humanity and with nature and what that means together because we are nature experiencing itself. It's pretty beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 42:22

Yeah, I think it is, right?

SPEAKER_02: 42:23

How one person can make a difference. You highlight both the human heart and a good sense of humor, my friend. And I think that what we've done here is a great start. I'm really looking forward to what we accomplished together and I hope people will continue to be involved. So if you're interested in helping over here at Canadian Grit, make sure you check out Richard's Facebook profile called Primed for Charity. You're also on Instagram, right Richard? What's your handle on Instagram?

SPEAKER_00: 42:51

It's Bert Reynolds for life.

SPEAKER_02: 42:52

At Bert Reynolds for life. So when this interview goes live, man, you're cooler than Bert Reynolds though. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. 10-4 breaker, breaker, breaker. Motorcycle doors. Perfect. Yeah, man. All of your information will be shared in the story on the podcast. So I'll give all the links and everything. So we'll make sure that everything gets out to where it needs to go.

SPEAKER_00: 43:37

Yeah. Basically all of my social media, it's all one continuous circuit. It's all linked with each other. So any social media you find, you will link to everything else I have.

SPEAKER_02: 43:47

For sure. Anybody who's feeling they want to participate, we really encourage that. I just want to make sure they're aware that all the information is readily available and that either by contacting me or you, that everything can be rendered very And we'll be back. Yeah, let's watch how things go, but maybe in the next month we reconnect and we see how things have changed and evolved and see how Canadian Grit and how Primed for Charity is going.

SPEAKER_00: 44:13

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02: 44:13

I look forward to it. Well, I look forward to it more.

SPEAKER_00: 44:16

No, I look forward to it two times more.

SPEAKER_02: 44:18

No, times infinity. Double stamped it, no erases.

SPEAKER_00: 44:22

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 44:23

All right. The easy button. Dude, I do this every time I work. I was like... That was easy.

SPEAKER_00: 44:28

It actually wasn't. It took much too long. That was not easy at

SPEAKER_02: 44:32

all. Well, hey, thank you, sir, for being here. It's been an honest pleasure to have you.

SPEAKER_00: 44:37

All right, thanks a lot for your time, Jamie. Much appreciated, and thanks for listening. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 44:41

and thank you to everybody for coming in and hearing Richard and me have a discussion and shoot the breeze about some old memories of days gone by, the days of yore, as it were, you know, back in our days in the military. Anyways, it's just the start of some good new days. So thanks for being here. I'm proud of you. Keep it up. That's primed for charity anywhere. Again, we want to help these causes. We're helping cats. We're helping the environment and we're going to grow it. And if you have a story of grit or anybody else like Richard in your community, or perhaps you're like Richard, who is an amazing swimmer, was formerly in the PPCLI, went to RMC with me and has another great story of how to give money to cats. Well, that would be great. And again, there's so much more of than what meets the eye here. We're helping Indigenous communities. We're helping Edmonton and BC communities. Let's keep growing. Thanks, Richard. Amen. Thank you.