The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett

Talk About Something Good Tuesday: Hallmark Reviews, Good News & Giving Back

• Chris Bennett • Episode 161

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Today’s “Talk About Something Good Tuesday” is packed with holiday heart, feel-good stories, and a powerful reminder of how much good happens right here in the White Mountains.

We kick things off with another Hallmark Christmas Movie Review from Andrea — this time diving into An Alpine Holiday, a sweet sister-driven story that delivers tradition, romance, and just the right amount of cozy winter magic.

Then we check in with Jineane Ford from Majik 101.7 and ITalk 106.7 to swap uplifting headlines, including the kind that make you smile all day — from remarkable acts of kindness to everyday people doing extraordinary things.

Our studio guests, Faith Tremble and Bill Plants from the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Bank & Thrift Store, share the incredible work they do for seniors, families, and kids across our community. They also give us a preview of this year’s Light the World Giving Machine, arriving in Snowflake from December 18th through January 1st.
You’ll learn exactly what items you can “purchase” to help — from hot meals and fuel cards to food boxes and more — with 100% of donations going directly to those who need it most.

It’s an episode full of warmth, generosity, and genuine good news — the perfect way to start your Tuesday.

If today’s show lifted your spirits, follow the podcast, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can join the fun.

SPEAKER_01:

From the Horn Auto Center Studios, Chris Bennett and the Morning Brew. And now it's time for Chris's wife to give us her Christmas Hallmark movie reviews. Alright, my love, what Hallmark movie from the 2025 collection are we reviewing this morning?

SPEAKER_04:

So today we're doing an Alpine holiday.

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh, an Alpine Holy.

SPEAKER_04:

And they were waiting for their grandmother. And when she passes away, he has a final wish for them to go on the freezer. And he has all kinds of whether he could eat. And of course, there's some romance as well.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, no. The sisters uh have love interest.

SPEAKER_04:

But there's some side romance as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. I bet you love this one because you love your sisters and you love family. Yeah. So uh how many uh cups of hot cocoa do you give this one?

SPEAKER_04:

I gave this one four cups of hot cocoa.

SPEAKER_01:

Four cups of hot cocoa out of five. That is a really good review. So my wife strongly suggests you watch an alpine holiday. Thank you, my love.

SPEAKER_04:

You're welcome. Love you. Love you, baby.

SPEAKER_01:

Janine, you there? Yes, I am. Heck yay. It's talk about something good Tuesday. You ready to share some good news? Yes. Heck yeah, I'll go first. Sound good? Yes. All right. My story comes to you out of Maryland, uh, where a former police officer turned a simple moment into something life-changing, Janine. His name's Wade Milliard, and he's a retired canine officer. And he says he heard a voice from out of nowhere while responding uh to a call to homeless camp, and the voice said, ask them about their laundry. So he did and learned that uh the couple washed their clothes in a nearby creek. And so he never forgot that he started collecting donations, added his own money, and created Fresh Step Laundry, a full-service laundromat on wheels that provides free, clean, dignified laundry for the unhoused community. And since retiring in January, he's been traveling around uh his city washing clothes over 2,000 pounds just in the last few weeks, and he never charges a cent. But he says the payoff is seeing people feel proud and refreshed with clean clothes. And his next goal is adding a second mobile unit to help even more people. Now that's something good to talk about.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. People doing good and giving back.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, Janine. What good news do you have for us on this Talk About Something Good Tuesday?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I love this. And this is from Michigan, okay. And this is uh I love his name, Bombas. That's his last name. Bombas. Bombas. People online have now donated donated, get this. Almost two million dollars to help an 88-year-old in Michigan and uh so he can retire. He he keeps working, but he is retired now. Ed Bombas went viral last week after a positivity influencer shared a video of him working at the grocery store. He's 88. Okay. He lost his total pension when GM went bankrupt. Then his wife got sick and she passed away. He went back to work to try and pay off over 200,000 in medical debt. Okay. So he loses all his pension, medical debt. Over the weekend, he found out how much people donated. And you might want to grab some tissues for this one. Are you ready? A reporter asked, um, and and he found out the two million, and a reporter asked him what he'd say to his wife if he could send her a message. And he said she did all of this from heaven. He said, Tell her, thank you, honey. Isn't that sweet? Two million dollars through GoFundMe. Paid off his pay. Can you imagine he's trying to pay all his debt off in ease 88?

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, man. What a guy. You gave me goosebumps this week.

SPEAKER_03:

Ed Bombas. Ed Bombus. Ed Bombas.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that is some more good news to talk about on this Talk About Something Good Tuesday. Janine, thank you so much for having fun with us, and uh, we'll talk to you tomorrow. All right, love you, Chris. Bye bye. Bye bye. I am so excited to have some guests in studio today. It is Faith Trimble and Bill Plants. They are with the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Banks and Thrift Store, and they are one of the local nonprofits that are going to be uh one of the nonprofits you could donate to at the giving machine that is coming back to the White Mountains going to be in Snowflake starting December 18th. Thank you so much, Faith and Bill, for being on the show. Thank you. Awesome. Um, what uh tell us a little bit, what does the Silver Creek Senior Center, Food Banks, and Thrift Store uh uh do and who does it help?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, we are a nonprofit in Snowflake, and our goal is to get the seniors out and moving, and we feed them every day. It's a way to socialize. We have different groups and different game days, and uh they can just come and be together, um, even if they just want to come and drink coffee. It's proven that seniors need to get out and socialize, and it makes their life so much better. So we provide a congregate lunch daily from noon to one. We also for the homebound, we have meals on wheels. We also provide meals for the Head Start, breakfast and lunch. So there are so many things that that we do to help our seniors and our young ones.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great. And I uh I I've heard I have a friend that goes to the Silver Creek Senior Center for lunch, and he says it's some of the best food on the mountain.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll tell you what, our head cook is amazing, and he's been doing this for four years, and we appreciate him so much. Uh, his name's Matthew, our assistant cook. We she does the salad bar every day. She makes a homemade soup, and it is amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

We are talking with Faith Trimble and Bill Plants. They were with the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Banks and Thrift Store, and uh they are a nonprofit that you can donate to at the Giving Machine that's gonna be in Snowflake starting December 18th. You might remember it, it was just here in Sholo. We had some different local charities that were uh in uh that round, and the giving machine is coming back to the White Mountains, and it's such an amazing thing because a hundred percent of your donation uh goes towards the item that you're buying for that nonprofit. And uh, Faith and Bill, what are some items that people can buy at the Giving Machine in Snowflake starting December 18th to benefit the Silver Creek Senior Center?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, our first item is a dinner. You can um we have a chicken on there, but it's many other different dinners for ten dollars. And our second item is our meals on wheels.$25 will pay for five meals for one week for one of our seniors. Another one is holiday pies, it's not just holiday, we serve desserts at least twice a week, and also for 10 senior dinners to feed 10 people, it's$70. And also to fill a tank for our meals on wheels. Um, gas has gotten so expensive, so you can buy a card to fill a tank for our meals on wheels drivers. And how much is that? That one is a hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_01:

So you have a lot of options. Uh I love this time of year because it is about uh giving back. And this uh the White Mountains is all about uh giving back and helping others, and this is a great opportunity to help the Silver Creek Senior Center. You have options starting as low as ten dollars, it makes a big difference. You're able to get five meals uh for a senior for$25. And uh I have a big place in my heart for the Meals on Wheels program because uh my grandfather had used them many years ago, and uh it's just a great thing. And$100 gets you uh$100 worth of gas for the Meals on Wheels mission, helping out the Silver Creek Senior Center. Make sure you stop by the giving machine and help them out. It's gonna be starting December 18th in Snowflake. Bill, tell us a little bit about the uh operations for the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Bank and Thrift Store.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure, Chris. So let me begin with the thrift store. Uh we're open five and a half days a week, uh, nine to three Monday to Friday, and nine to one on Saturday. That is um all donations that uh are provided to us. We sell through there, and it's staffed by all volunteers. The center itself, besides offering meals, doing a meal delivery, etc., also provides a uh an area for seniors to participate in various classes. We have Ocupressure, we have Tai Chi, um, there's a weekly writer's club, uh, and those are weekly events. The food bank is comprised of basically two operations: go get the food and then give the food out. Um that's staffed 100% by volunteers as well. Last month we uh food rescued about 18,000 pounds of food from local stores here in the Snowflake area or Taylor, the Walmart, and as well as uh up here on the White Mountains, uh Pine Top, Eddie's, uh, Dollar General's Mavericks. They all contribute to us three times a week. And then we give out the food bank itself is open five days a week. Uh 10 to 4, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8 to 4, Tuesday, and Thursday. We gave out 1,600 boxes last month. And this is out of an area about 500 square feet that's lined by refrigerators and shelves.

SPEAKER_01:

My goodness. And where is this located?

SPEAKER_00:

We are at downtown Snowflake, right behind the MPC campus. The address is 1658 South Main Street.

SPEAKER_01:

In our last segment, you talked about uh basically volunteers is what makes this thing happen. Like you you have a lot of volunteers that do a lot of good, and you need you need more volunteers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, absolutely. We have a small staff of four uh employees. Um, the rest of the operations, thrift store, food bank, are uh served by volunteers. And currently at the food bank, I have a couple ladies that are doing uh 16 or 24 up or 24 hours a week, and I'd like to be able to cut their hours back. If I could just get some volunteers that would come in for a four-hour shift once a week, that would help us greatly. We could uh reduce some of the hours that these other people are putting in those because I don't want anybody to get burned out.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Yeah, and so just four hours a week. People can spare four hours a week. And are is there an age limit? Are there different types? Are you looking for meals on wheels driver? Anything particular that you need or yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

We can use um a couple more meals on wheels drivers. Of course, you need to have a valid license. Um we do have transportation that we could let them use, and uh, or they can provide their own vehicle and we'll reimburse them for gas.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh if people want information on volunteering, they can email you at silver creek uh silvercreekcenter at gmail.com or what's that is silvercreek srcenter at gmail.com. Silvercreek srcenter at gmail.com or can they give you a call? Yes. And that number is 928-536-2222? That's correct. All right, it is time for me to let our best friends Faith Trimble and Bill Plants uh head out of here. They're with the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Banks and Thrift Stores. And uh you're gonna be in the giving machine that's gonna be located in Snowflake at the Freeman Historic Pioneer Home, and that starts when?

SPEAKER_00:

It starts December 18th, going through January 2nd, uh 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It'll be staffed, but it's open 24 hours.

SPEAKER_01:

And you can go and go ahead and make a donation to the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Bank and Thrift Store, and 100% of your donation goes towards that item helping the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Bank and Thrift Store. And the uh opening ceremonies for that are gonna be December 18th. And on December 18th, uh you guys have an amazing uh uh Christmas lunch going on for everyone, right? Yes, we do. Awesome. What time's that at?

SPEAKER_02:

That starts at 11:30. Uh you can come in and get salad and soup, and we will serve you dinner. And what is for dinner? For dinner we have ham, scalloped potatoes, carrots, uh salad, and we have trapper's pie. Yum, yum, yum. And this is open to the public. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, that's gonna be December 18th at the Silver Creek Senior Center Food Bank and Thrift Store starting at 11 30. They're located at 1658 South Main Street in Snowflake. Thank you so much for everything you do for this community, and thank you so much for being on the Morning Brew this morning.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you, Chris. Yep, thank you for having us.

Contributor

Chris Bennett

Host