28 Why Your Team MUST Volunteer: The Power of Giving Back

It's the season of giving, but as Coach Rodo explains, your time is worth far more than your money.

In this heartwarming and challenging episode, Coach Rodo opens up about his company's work with the YMCA program at Lincoln Elementary—a school facing high poverty, homelessness, and 18 different spoken dialects. Rodo shares incredible stories of "sending the elevator back down," from filling a swimming pool with masks during COVID to the hilarity of bargaining with students at the school's "Secret Santa" shop.

Rodo issues a direct challenge to high school coaches: Get your athletes out of the gym and into the community. Whether it's reading to elementary kids or serving lunch, volunteering isn't just a time-passer; it is essential character development that teaches athletes gratitude, service, and empathy.

#Volunteering #CommunityService #YouthSports #CoachRodo #WinningRegardless #GivingBack #HighSchoolBasketball #LincolnElementary #Philanthropy #mentorship 
(02:50) - The Reality at Lincoln Elementary: 18 dialects, homelessness, and the "hygiene locker."
(04:30) - The Steve Dunning Legacy: Why Rodo chose this specific program to support.
(06:30) - The Secret Santa Shop: Watching kids pick their own presents and bargaining with tickets.
(09:00) - COVID Relief: Renting a U-Haul to fill a swimming pool with masks for families in need.
(12:00) - The Steve Dunning Room: How a room with Xbox and snacks dropped student referrals significantly.
(15:30) - Kids are Honest: The hilarity of volunteering (and the student who flips tables).
(20:00) - Reciprocation: Why children are the ultimate mirrors of energy (smile and they smile back).
(23:00) - The Coach's Challenge: Why you must take your high school team to volunteer at elementaries.
(26:00) - The Payment Plan: How Rodo handled tournament fees to ensure every kid could play regardless of money.
(29:00) - Service Over Self: Teaching athletes what it means to serve rather than be served.

Transcript

2:50

Welcome everyone to another edition of Coach Rodo's podcast, Winning Regardless. With the, the Christmas season and the kids almost getting out of school, you know, as a coach, another thing, and a business owner, you know, another thing that I like to do is, other than coach kids, I like to, you know, volunteer. And, you know, with my local elementary that we... support because there's a program down there it's called uh, it's it's the ymca program and it's at lincoln elementary and believe it or not this school has like uh 18 different dialects I mean we're talking about a school with a community of homeless kids um a community a school of where they have to have a um a chess a big locker with toothbrush, toothpaste, clothes for kids to be able to brush their teeth in the school or they might not even have that stuff at home. um And this locker is filled with toiletries, just your everyday thing that we take for granted, not understanding that there is actually homeless kids out there that need that stuff. so, you know, as a company owner, my mentor, name is Steve Dunning, coach, mentor, his daughter is one of the people that run this program. So of course, with me being, you know, close to him and, you know, with him leaving and the legacy that he left as far as in my mind with knowing how he was about the kids and his daughter carrying on. I felt compelled to take that on as our uh help to help build our Deva legacy as far as philanthropy in the community. um So the kids that she worked with down there, we're talking about kids who have discipline problems, emotional problems, mixed in with good kids and good students. But again, you have kids where you don't understand the language and they don't understand your language, so you're dealing with that. So you can imagine the dynamics that um Takara and Jen are dealing with, not just them, the whole school, and they do such a great job. So we felt as a company compelled to take them as our school of interests, our school of protection, our school of help, and our school of giving. My staff loves it when we go down there, when we bring our staff in from, our corporate staff from Louisiana and California and uh Minnesota. When they come down, We always try to make sure that we go to do something at the school because we took them there one time and they fell in love with it. They fell in love with the kids. They felt because you know the one thing about those kids are they just want somebody to just acknowledge them. You know and there's no better time to be down there because like they were saying when we were down there today you know we'd be in Christmas. Nobody gets in trouble today. They all know what today represents. So she was like we don't have to worry about nobody getting in trouble man when you saw those kids come in and you see the faces and you see the things that your donation from your company has provided for these kids to be able to choose from, get to pick their own presents, which was as a kid, that was a big deal, which is why I love the fact that we do the Secret Santa every year. We donate anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000, not tootin' our... just to let you know, it doesn't take much to help a school of need in your community shoot time. Time is even more precious than money. Going there and read to these kids, going there and sit down and listen to their story or just be an advocate for them for that day. That's one of the things that we love to do. It goes along with sending the elevator back down for me. It all falls into that, being able to see these shining faces. And the funny thing about it is when you do it, as the kids get older, they tend to remember you. But not only that, you remember them because some of them end up being those athletes that you end up coaching or that you go watch play. And it's incredible watching these kids grow. The thing that we love to do down there is when COVID hit, we had qualities mask and couldn't figure out what to do, but we knew that The area where that school is, they were having a hard time keeping their kids in school because the parents just simply couldn't afford masks. Well, we have an abundance of masks. So what we did was we rented a U-Haul, loaded up the U-Haul, and dropped every mask to went into their swimming pool area and we filled that swimming pool up with masks so that these babies can take box, oh a big box of... three or four thousand masks home where their parents could come pick up these boxes and have them in their house, send their babies to school with masks. Another thing that we did was we had temperature monitoring systems, know, the little portable ones. We had about 380 of those. We gave them to them because again, this is one of the most needy areas. in our community, these are the most needy kids in our community because what's the first thing you do when you can't understand a child is you ignore them. And if you can't understand their language, because again, this is a school with 18 different dialects, you ignore them. And no kid deserves to be ignored, whether you understand them or not. You have to find a way to reach those children and... they do such a great job, we want those kids in school. And when we were hearing about that, our first thing was what can we do to help? And we again gave those masks and gave those temperature monitoring uh systems so that these moms and dads can send their babies to school and continue their path of learning. Again, we're dealing with a school of kids where... You know, they might get seven referrals in a day, but we helped them make this room. We call it the Steve Dunning Room, but they call it, I forgot what the name of it is, what they call it, but it's a room where they have Xbox, they have snacks. We help them get a popcorn machine. We help them, we always give them a budget on getting snacks to keep the refrigerator full because again, some of these kids, this is the only meal they're gonna get all day. So we try to do our part. And in this room, again, you got kids that get six, seven referrals a week. And now all of a sudden with the opportunity to go to this room, they're down to like four and three. And people are like, what? Four and three? That's still, no, you moms not understanding. We talking about a kid that can go anywhere from 10 to seven referrals in a week. Down to five. That's a fucking victory. Why can't we celebrate that? Because that's effort. He's making the effort. She's making the effort to not get in trouble as much so that they can enjoy this room. that they've heard so much about, that they've watched us build, watched us put together luxury chairs in there for these kids. They can go in there and watch a little movie if they want to for the little time being. You get the, just for being good in school and in a community like that, that's a big deal. Because I remember being from one of those type of communities, I remember how big of a deal it was when you knew you would get a reward. for being good. You did everything you could to be good. And sometimes you slipped up, but it was. I notice that you're improving. That's what this is about. I notice that you're putting in the effort. That's what this is about. And the thing about volunteering at this school is you get to see it. And you get to talk to these kids, and they know you're a coach. They know that I'm a business owner. They know that my employees are in there to help and man, they make us crack up. The personalities that you get from these kids because the thing about it is they're honest. Grandmother, you used to always say, drunks, kids, and old folks, you want to know the truth. You know, the kids are hilarious and you don't get that feeling unless you volunteer. You don't get that smile from a kid who hadn't smiled all day, but you might've said something to make them laugh, you know, or... And he smiled that day, or the young lady who's having a hard time picking out a toy, and then you reach behind there and you find something in this big box of toys that you didn't have out on the table, and all of a sudden you see the look on her face. Or they come in, they're trying to bargain with you because they get these, their money is these little tickets for being good. So they give you these little tickets, and that's their money, that's their way of buying things. And they have plus five, which is five dollar ticket, plus 20, all the way up to a to 200 on a ticket. know, and it's fun watching them, you know, how much is this? Well, my signs say 50 to 70. What you want to give me? You listen to the kids and play with them and you try to barter with them and they are doing their best to try to get you to come down to what they want. And you even go, it's so fun and it's so great and it fills your heart so much that you go even lower than they was willing to pay. And they're really shot and I mean one little kid didn't have one ticket and I gave it to him. You know, just things like that. A young lady comes over and she didn't have enough tickets to buy this big coloring set. But she said, oh man, I was gonna get this for my sister, for my little sister. I said, how much you got? She was like, all I got is five. How much is it? I said, it's five. You know, I mean, and the smile on her face was worth it all. Because I'm not taking that stuff home with me. What is the school? I mean, this is what it was for. This is what the volunteering is for. This is what the donations is for. I feel that we, I, because I never say me, we as a company, we donate for the smiles, for the smiles of children, you know, to... provide children with happiness because I always believe that the innocence of children should never be taken for granted, it should never be overlooked, and it should always be praised. And that's why I always try to do whatever I can for a child. When we go, me and my buddies go hang out in the Dominican or something like that. If we go to a big water park or whatever and there's kids outside that can't get in, hell, I'll pay for those kids to get in because... One time I paid for 10 kids to get in and it was less than $100 and that was with pizza and soda and stuff like that. I'm like, are you serious? And these kids went in there and had a blast, didn't cause no trouble, didn't, you know, and my Spanish is muy poquito, muy poquito. And so they was coming at me hard and fast and I didn't understand, but I knew they were grateful. Because the thing about a kid's heart is you show them and you treat them with generosity. They don't know how to do anything but show the same. Kids' innate system teaches them reciprocation. If you treat me well, I'm going to react well. That's a child. When have you ever given a child something with a smile and they frowned at you? Never, because a child's innate emotion is to smile when you smile, frown when you frown. Think about little babies. Gaga, Goo Goo, and this, that, and the third, as soon as you smiling and you laughing, what does the baby do? It reacts to you. So that's why I always try to pay attention to the way that I am with children, the way that I am around children. That's why with this being the Christmas time of year, one of my favorite time of year is for children, because it's the time, it's my time to give back to kids that I don't even know. It's our time as a business, as a company, to give back to kids that we don't even know, but when we go in there and we see them, that's everything. You know, I mean, I would love to, would urge my coaches, you know, take your basketball team, take your football team, take them to that elementary school. Let them kids get to meet them. Let them kids get to know them. You know, take them and, hey, y'all serving lunch at the local elementary today. It don't have to be anything big. You know, we always think of, you know, donating, giving, costing money, but you know, donating your time and your energy and your smile and personality. is just as impactful if not more to these kids because they grow out of the things that you buy them, but they always keep the things that you teach them. That's the thing that we gotta understand. And that's another thing that I would love for us as coaches to pick up on, know, run a free basketball camp for the kids during the... during the off season, not the off season, but during the winter, spring, I'm sorry, the Christmas break, the New Year's break. Run a free elementary kids uh program. Hey, y'all coming to the gym, we gonna go over some basketball skills, we gonna talk about life skills, we gonna talk about how to respect people, but we gonna have a lot of fun. I mean, those types of things go a long way for your communities. Those are the things that we need to do. We as coaches need to get back to the volunteering aspect before coaches were paid to do what they do when they did volunteer because they did love what they were doing and they loved the reaction they were getting from the kids. And basically, they loved the kids. let's get back to that, you know. I mean, I know you can say that I'm sitting here saying that and this, that, that. I mean, you gotta, you know, I'm a guy who, you know, I didn't, didn't, the teams that I put together, we didn't put it together with money. We, I went and I spent money on a reversible jersey. We was called the running Rebels. We had a reversible jersey. One side was white, one side was black. uh And the parents, I said, hey, This is our tournament list and this is how much it'll cost each kid. I didn't say give me $1,000 because these are elementary kids. They parents ain't trying to give out that kind of money. And I would say, it's $42 per kid for this tournament. already, I show them I sent the check. And they wouldn't even ask me for it, but I was still I still felt compelled to show him I sent a check and the parents would pay me and one parent even said This is the only way that my kid would be able to play Because I can't afford afford the lump sum. I live check to check a Lump sum ain't good for me if I'm running check to check the fact that you allow me to pay per tournament It allows me a choice And that's what she told me. I didn't realize that that's what that was doing, because I was doing it from a standpoint of not everybody is going to be able to do that. Not everybody's going to be able to give me, this is how much these tournaments cost, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And OK, I'm going charge this flat line. You know, that's not cool to me. That's, you know, especially at that age group, because what are you really getting out of it? You know? um So again, volunteering with your local schools, volunteering to coach your elementary kids, you know, have a little tournament. You know, again, varsity basketball coaches. you know, freshmen, just high school basketball coaches in general. You know, this is that time of year where we can, you know, hey, school district, let's collaborate because I want, let's just take the schools over here, Lloyd North and Kalamazoo Central. Then we take the elementaries, you know, you could take uh Lincoln Elementary and you could take Northeastern and North Glade Elementary. hey, you know what, from... 12 to two, I'm take my basketball team over here and we're gonna serve lunch and then we're gonna sit down and we're gonna read to the kids. Any superintendent or any principal or anybody that is against something like that should be fired. You should want these young kids to help the even younger kids. navigate through the world, navigate through their situation, navigate through the time that they're in right now. know, volunteering is the best way to reach young people. And when you volunteering with them young, and the best way to teach your high school kids is to have them volunteer. You know, we would take our boys down to the mission. You know, not only do you get to see how lucky you have it and how other people live, but you're also gonna know what it's like to be of service to someone other than having someone serve you. I want you to learn what service is about. Volunteering is also a teaching moment. know, coaches, we uh think of volunteering as... oh a time passer, not coaches, I'm saying the kids and other people think of volunteering as a time passer when it is actually very, very educational time if you take it for what it's worth, you take it for what it's for. Again, we were down there dealing with these elementary kids and it's funny talking to T'Kar about one and. This girl went through every table and damn near everything to pick it. And she had the longest of anybody time. T'Kara says to me, she says, oh, yeah, she gets that kind of time. I said, why? She said, right off. that little girl will tip over every table over here if you make her mad. She don't give a shit what she And she said she does it at least twice a year. I said, for real, she hasn't done it yet? She said, yep, she's done it once. We just gotta keep her straight so we can get away with it for the rest of the year without her flipping over a table. But these are the type of kids that they deal with, so you have to learn how to deal with them and volunteering helps you get to see it because now we understood why when we asked the young lady questions, The answer she gave you, like, if you asked her a question she didn't like, was a, you know, Takara said, do you want to get something for your mom? It was a, I'm mad at her. Well, what about your dad? Mad at him. So you getting all three presents for yourself? You know how I mean, That's what you were dealing with. was funny. Takara said, I have to put my weight on the table and say, hey, we're not doing this today. We're not doing this today. But you don't get to see that unless you volunteer. And you get to be around these kids. And even stories like that, because of the way that the faculty tells it to you, I'm sure during that moment, it's not funny. But you know, Takara is such a funny person. Jen is such a funny person that the incident that happened already. So when they tell you the story, you can't do nothing but laugh because you can honestly see when you look at the girl and you see her around quiet as it could be. And you can actually see when she get mad, she'll flip the table over. You know, Takara say, nobody in the school laugh at her because she could throw them things too. You know, but if you look at her, you'll be like. But she's a girl that don't play, she has her issues. it's, don't get to, again, unless you volunteering, you don't really get to know the kids in your community like that. And that's not even my community, but the thing is I hang out in that community. I go to the basketball games in that community. Again, I volunteer and help down at that school in that community. So, you know, a lot of the kids I run into, we volunteer, we do a basketball camp down at the Salvation Army, as a matter of fact, which we probably about to start up here soon because of the holiday. And so we'll be at a basketball game and the kids will come up and say, hey, you guys are the military guys. me and my buddy that run the show, and that comes from volunteering. If you really do volunteer for what it's for, it's not the... Your reward is in them kids. Your reward is in the reaction of those kids. Your reward is in the stories that you hear about those kids. Your reward is the principal so happy that your people and a company that she can depend on because... you've been there from the time that you started. You know, that's us. She knows that, you know, come Christmas time, we're gonna help. Anytime they need any help, they know to reach out to us. You know, if they need volunteer help, you know, my people here, they just love to volunteer because again, they get to see these kids and they're pure innocent and they love it. So, you know, with that being said, I wanna challenge my... high school coaches to involve your students and volunteer and you yourself. I understand that time is of the essence when you're coaching and some of us are doing it for free and some of us are doing it for pay. ah But it's time worth making a kid smile. It's time worth teaching your team value in being good people and volunteering and meeting other cultures, because that's what you do when you volunteer also. 18 different dialects, 18 different cultures. we've met, I can't count how many, but we've met a bunch that we would not have met had we not volunteered. Even my employees, and these are grown people. You know, so imagine what this enlightenment would do for your student athletes. You never know, you might have one of your student athletes on the squad that would have been thinking about it, go and does it, and all of a sudden, it becomes what he wants to do. his future may be tied up in becoming a teacher, becoming a principal, becoming a counselor. uh I apologize, not his, their. I wanna make sure that I include my female athletes in this as well. They might decide that, you know... That volunteering experiment made them want to do it more to the point to where they wanted to make it a profession of working in the field with young children, molding those young minds and getting them to a place where they're becoming productive members of society, because after all, that's all we want. And again, it starts with the kids. I myself am better at donating money than volunteering and other than coaching. I volunteer to coach, but that's something that I love and it's something that's in me coaching and playing basketball. But doing this has brought a different light to me, has brought a different feeling, has brought a different openness to my heart, has brought a different... way of just thinking of volunteering in general. I didn't see not one kid that I thought of as an athlete while I was in there. You know, that's what volunteering did to me. I saw them as these innocent, beautiful, funny, vibrant children. I didn't see one kid that I said, gonna hoop, she gonna hoop, she gonna play volleyball and this and that, he gonna play football. I didn't see one kid, I just saw kids in there making me laugh, kids in there trying to hustle, kids in there counting, you know, using their counting skills. We had some issues, but again, these are elementary kids and they're gonna have their issues with their fun and their loving and volunteering gives you that opportunity to see it. And what better time than Christmas when the help is so much needed in our communities. So with that being said, I would like to challenge our coaches, let's get our students into them schools, them elementaries. Let's get them sitting around reading books to these little kids. Let's have them serving lunch in the lunch line. Let's get with the principals of our elementaries and the teachers and say, hey, let's get their work because they're going to volunteer down here to the school and we don't want them to miss class work. So let's get their work so they know that they have to have this end to you by tomorrow morning and they're going down. Let's collab. Let's be better for our community and let's be better for our children. I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to me. You know, you can find me wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Coach Rodo's Winning Regardless. And again, today's was strictly about volunteering and being better to our community so that we can be better for our community.