Sometimes the best things occur when you get STUCK

State Representative Ronnie Crudup Jr. from Jackson, Mississippi, discussed his role in New Horizon Ministries, Inc., which serves youth and families in South Jackson. The nonprofit offers childcare, after-school programs, food and clothing pantries, and youth sports and arts programs. Crudup highlighted the organization's impact, including feeding over 500 families monthly and providing safe spaces like the 110,000 sq. ft. ARC facility with five basketball courts. He emphasized the importance of education and community support, noting the success of youth who have gone to college and the need for second chances. Crudup also mentioned the challenges of urban decline and the importance of faith and mentorship in community development.

The Ark - Jackson, MS

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Transcript

Terence Shigg: 0:21

Welcome back to legacy by design. I think we're on episode seven now, and I'd like to introduce, well, I'll let him give the full introduction, but my mini introduction is state senator Ronnie Crudup junior, and he is from Jackson, Mississippi, and we met years ago, and our mission to help youth, and he has agreed to kind of come on here and just and and chop it up with us a little bit and see how that can help someone else. So thank you for being here. Oh, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Alright, so that was my little introduction. I know that you have done much more than that. Can you kind of give a brief idea of where you been, where you're at, where you're going?

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 1:22

Okay, again, I'm Ronnie crude up Junior. I am a state representative here in Jackson, Mississippi. I represent district 71 which covers a big portion of South Jackson and saw the small city of Byron. But I'm also an executive director of New Horizon ministries, Inc, where we focus on a lot of youth and youth in the family issues here in Jackson, Mississippi, specifically in South Jackson, where, you know, we get a lot of bad press at times. But I'm married. I've been 20 years now. I have three children,

Terence Shigg: 2:03

and congratulations. I am Thank you.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 2:06

I am born and raised from Jackson. I like to say that I tried to leave, but God wouldn't let me, and so I am stuck here to do the will of God or whatever he calls me to do. And so I am glad to be here today.

Terence Shigg: 2:22

Oh, well, thank you and a very impressive resume, and you mentioned that you're an executive director on the New Horizon church.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 2:34

Yeah, we have a nonprofit at the church called New Horizon ministries, Inc, which I'm executive director of. It's our 501 c3, when I said, we do a lot of things dealing with the family. We have a childcare center and after school program. We also have a food pantry and clothing pantry where we feed and clothing area also dealing with water issues, also, but, but we also have do a lot of youth programs from the arc, which covers a lot of things sports related. But we also have another facility where we do other things around the arts and all other type of stuff as well. So usually, I like to say we sort of get involved in a lot of things that, you know, where there's a need here in this community, we sort of get involved in we've had a we've had a water crisis in Jackson, and so we use our nonprofit to kind of meet those needs there. We've had food insecurity. We've done things. We have a food pantry that we do. We provide food once a month to over 500 families, and we just continue to do the work here in the community. And so I'm executive director of this. I sort of lead it, but I have a big team of people who make all this thing go, and so I would not be here without them.

Terence Shigg: 3:50

And that is amazing, especially for the history of Jackson. If people aren't aware, it was a booming industry for a while, and then those industries left, and now you guys are starting to build it back. Yeah.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 4:10

So Jackson, I like to say we at our peak. Jackson had a population of about 200,000 people. We are now pretty much about 140 between 143 and 140 and so we've had a huge population loss over the last 1520, years, and with that, we've lost a lot of industry as well, and so a lot of our jobs and and everybody has left and moved to the suburbs. So the suburbs, I say, the people haven't left the area. They just left the city, because our suburbs have grown tremendously. And Jackson is sort of, you know, created, almost like a donut hole, uh, everything gets out or sound is going but we got a big hole of blight and just other issues going on within the city, and so we're we're doing our best using our nonprofit and other organizations trying to help make a better quality of life for the residents here in the in the Jackson area.

Terence Shigg: 5:07

And you mentioned something that stuck with me is you said that you tried to leave, but God brought you back. Can you give us an idea of your connecting to the the community? I know your father runs one of the largest churches there. So you you've seen the the the movement, the shifts, the change, and really been able to make an impact right there, because you're from there.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 5:35

So yeah, I'm like most of the youth who come through Jackson. You graduate high school, you go to college, and soon as you get out of college, you want to move or go somewhere else. And I was one of those young people as well. And so when I my plan was, when I left college, I I was really big. I was really heavily involved in an organization called Young Life. At one point, it's a huge organization. And so I was going to North Carolina, doing internships every summer. And so, you know, when I graduated, they had our told me, Hey, you got a job here whenever you're ready. So my plan was I was going to move to North Carolina after I graduated college. And quickly God said no. And you know, I still tried to kind of Buck and try to go, but God said No, you stay right here. So my one of my mentors, Doctor Perkins, love to say, sometime the best things occur when you get stuck. And so I got married again, and I thought I said, sometimes the best things occur when you get stuck. And so I got stuck because I got married, I got started having children, and so I had to kind of set my roots, and I couldn't just jump up and leave anymore. And so I had to start figuring out quickly, how do I do the things that I want to do in the Jackson area? So with having children and seeing my kids, wanting them to participate in sports and other programs, we started to build a lot of these things right here in our community. And so I like to say, and my wife like to say, a lot of this stuff I build for my kids, but everybody else, kids get to get the, you know, have opportunities, get to enjoy it too, yep. And so that's what we've been doing. And God just blessed us to have friends and resources to help out in the in the mission that we we're going and so right now, even as we speak, there's a lot of people not in Jackson, but outside of Jackson, who's dealing with the ice storm, and so we've been able to help send water and food and other things to other areas. Outside of Jackson, we're dealing with a lot of ice Uh, thank God. God spared us this time. We didn't have any a major shutdown in Jackson, but outside of Jackson, in the northern part of Mississippi. They're dealing with a lot of stuff right now, and so, but yeah, our our area in the decline and the shift I've seen it, you know, we're our church that my dad is sort of retiring now, the pastor of we were the first African American church that moved to this part of town. And so as we move to this part of town, we've seen the shift over the last 2025, years of just decline, not only of just, I guess, white flight, but I would say economic flight too. Now so a lot of even a lot of even a lot of the middle class begin to leave. And so now you you really got a lot of people who are on the poverty level that we're dealing with in this in this side of, in this side of part of town and in Jackson. So, but, you know, we know that God has called us to be a light and dark places, but also help meet the needs of the poor. So that's what we've been doing, doing the best we can to love on our neighbors.

Terence Shigg: 8:41

Yeah, that that's amazing. And you mentioned Doctor Perkins as who's your mentor? Can you? Can you share who that is? I'm aware of of his legendary status in my mind. But can you, can you share a little bit about about who his history?

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 8:59

Yeah, so Doctor Perkins, I mean, that's the first time ever had to kind of share who he is. He's a man that I loved out of purpose. I think that was about 9697 still living. And he's been the, I guess the father of people say Christian Community Development. He started CCDA years ago, and he's been someone that has encouraged Christians to move back into the community. You know, don't run from the problems. Run to the problems, and from there, you begin to start seeing things change. You know, it kind of goes off the scripture of, you know, God incarnate himself back in with the people, you know, from heaven. And so we should incarnate ourselves as Christian and believers, back into to the community where the problem is, and how, how can we look to solve the problems if we're not there? And so I've been, I've been able to witness full hand pledge of what he's done over the years, and sort of, kind of gone down the same path even the house I live in right now. He was the one, one of the guys, that really encouraged. To me, I think you you need to move right there and stay right there. Because at one point I moved here, we about my wife, and I thought about moving. He was like, No, I think God has you here for a reason, and I've seen it full fledged on where done so. Doctor Perkins, he's been a great mentor over the years, participating in his Bible study for at least 10 plus years, where we met every Tuesday

morning at 5: 10:27

30am just going over and learning parts of the Bible. Got a chance to travel with him and go other places. So he's been a great person of impact all over the world. I mean, Leon is probably more California than he's done here. He's even though he's done a lot, he's probably more well known on the West Coast, and he's known actually here in the Jackson, Mississippi area. And it kind of goes along with this scripture said as a prophet, is, is, is beloved everywhere else it's home. And so he's been somebody that's been, been beloved a lot of places, and people just had, really, just hadn't known with him here, like he's known other places.

Terence Shigg: 11:04

And he was big in the civil rights movement, and talk about, just like you said, is developing where you are and allowing that community and nurturing that community. And I think back to I was born in Los Angeles, in the inner city, and just like you said, everybody's goal was to grow up and then leave, yeah, and I really started to think about that, because I ended up moving and then coming back. And now I live in a San Diego, which is near La, but a different spot. But one of the things, as we work with youth, and I think we both have kind of the same idea is, is that loss of intellect, intellect and passion, when the best and brightest don't want to be in the places where they're needed? Yeah, yeah. And I think this is a perfect example from Doctor Perkins, your father and yourself, which you guys have said, Okay, we're going to put our heels in here, and we're going to make this better. I'll go around the world, but I'm also going to take responsibility for here too.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 12:26

Yeah, yeah. And so that's, that's the beauty of what's been going on. You know, saying God has blessed me. I say God has sort of put me in my grace place that even I typically all the time. People ask me all the time, why are you living in South Jackson? Why are you moving you could afford to go somewhere else, or you shouldn't have to. You shouldn't be over there. Why would you want to raise your children over there? And I tell them, I said, this is my grace place. This is where God has put me, and wherever God has put you, at the safest place in the world. And so this is not only the safest place, but also where I found my joy of getting resources. I mean, I mean, you know, I've been blessed to have friends who have sent, you know, large donations, because they realize the work that I've done. You know, we're in the sense you've been here, you've been to the arc. We have a huge gym called the arc, which is 110,000 square square feet facility. We have five basketball courts right now. We actually had discussion, we're about to get our six court now, so that's going to be filling that place almost to capacity. We got boxing there. We got kickboxing, MMA, we got volleyball. We just have so many things there, and it has been a real blessing and an asset to the community, because our community didn't have anything we were in an area where the YMCAs left, a lot of the other gyms left, and so we left a lot of the kids to themselves. There's no public swimming pools. There are no the city is taking all the basketball courts down, and so we've been able to provide these things now in a structured and a better environment than not only the community trust, but the parents trust too. So parents feel safe and comfortable to to drop their kids off and they're in a safe place,

Terence Shigg: 14:08

and that's so important, to have a safe space where they can know what it looks like to be nurtured, to be in a place, in an environment where people are going to look out for them, where there's a sense of community. And I know from growing up in a background of being an athlete, those are some of the the relationships that last with you forever. And you learn so much from a good coach, being on a good team, or just being consistently working at some to get better. Because you see, the older kids are better than you, and if you want to play with them, then you gotta get better so you learn discipline sacrifice. You can't be up all night and not going to school if you want to come and participate in the activity. So you guys have encapsulated all the lessons that if you were to sit them down and try to teach. One by one, they would ignore you, but you got them in a safe environment with their friends and community, and you can love on them and teach them the same thing.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 15:21

Yeah, we, we can do all those things. I mean, we, we've been able to get very personable with a lot of the youth and the kids and the young adults that come through there? Because, be honest, our average age range probably is about 16, about 25 we deal, we deal with a lot of those young men. And 90% of 95% of who we deal with is

Terence Shigg: 15:41

young men, and that's a crucial age.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 15:44

Yeah, we're sort of kind of maybe getting their lives really find out who they want to be, trying to encourage them to even dream, because a lot of them don't even have dreams and so, but we've been blessed, I would say to one of our friends, Charles, you met him too, the basketball coach. Yes, we we've been blessed that a lot of the youth that have come through us our program are now in college. And so, matter of fact, we went to go see a young one of our young ladies play last night. She's at a junior college. And so we're able to show these kids, if you decide to, what we call put in the work and really lock in to develop your skill set, there's opportunity for you to go to college too. You know, not only just go to college, but on scholarship. And we know the rules of the NCAA right now are the way it is. There's a chance for not only go to college, but change some of their lives from a financial standpoint. And so we're able to kind of show them these things and teach them in a in a way that, you know, I think God has blessed us to do this in this season where he are. So we have, we have, I think, right now, at least two or three guys who are off, out of state in college, and they're all like 22 and 23 who've actually, you know, have had some issues where they struggle. We have one young man who got locked up for a year because of a gun charge or something else he did well, he's still a good ball player. And so at this point now, a lot of these coaches, they want a young man, 22 or 23 who's made some mistakes, who wants a second chance, and so really convince some of these guys, hey, listen, there's still opportunity for you to help make a change in your life and do something good, and not only for yourself, but it encouraged the younger generation. My son, he's 12, and he went with us to the game last night. He got just a seat. Even so many young men who come to our gym to say, listen, hey, you follow these steps. You you can actually go to school and play ball too. And so it's a beautiful thing to see, right?

Terence Shigg: 17:38

And you're changing lives for generations, like you said, now they can see what it looks like, not just on TV, not just the story that they heard, but you remember them from being playing with them next to you, and now they're playing for college, and maybe the first in their family to ever go to college. And now that's a possibility and and that's something I think a lot of people don't know or don't think about, is that there are communities where that's not the norm, where they don't know somebody that's been the college, or they don't know someone that's that's even traveled outside of that, that small community and been successful. So that's a big thing to change, not just one person's life, but a family and generations. Yeah.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 19:58

I mean, it's so hard sometimes for a young person to believe in something they can't see. So sometimes they have to see it. Oh, if this person went to college and I played best, I beat him a couple of times. I mean, I played with him, why, you know, so it sort of has, you know, encouraged some of these other guys. I haven't, I have an opportunity to, you know, I haven't used all my eligibility up. I can go to college, do something good for myself. Can't come back. I tell all the guys, hey, we have a lot of guys sometimes that go to college. They don't finish, and I tell them, I said, your options, your options become limited. Then I says, once you get that college degree, you have more options. I'm not saying it's the end all of everything, but at least you have more options. Then I said, so let's go ahead and get that finished. Get that degree, and that way your options are a little bit better at that point.

Terence Shigg: 20:51

Yes, and I know there's been like a big push late leaders tell people, Oh, you don't have to go to college and and my argument has always been, it's not so much the information that you learn in college, but it's the life skills and how to learn, information that you learned in college, the piece of paper open doors, but the the information that and what you learned and how you grow, and I tell kids all day, this is the time when nobody's going to wake you up. Mama's not going to make you breakfast. You got to get up. You got to figure out where you got to. Go and how to get there and how to eat in between.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 21:35

Yep, yep. But then, and prior example is, but I tell kids all the time too, with the options is a lot of these guys who are athletes. I mean, even they decide, man, I could be a good coach. Well, you can't coach without a college degree. You know, you can't even, you can't even coach middle school to high school without a college degree, that's going to be in a requirement. I mean, you go even to like you look at, I mean, prior example, like Dion Sanders. One of the reasons Dionne Sanders able to come to Jackson, because no other school would give him opportunity, because he didn't have a college degree at first, you know, so he was able to go to school. Then Jack state took a chance on him. He got his degree, and now he's in Colorado. He did the same thing for Warren Sapp. You know, Warren said, Yo, I want to coach. Okay, you can't coach without a degree, so they had to help get him in school. And so I'm telling guys why you should have don't wait till you're 40 and 50 do that. Let's go ahead and get that done now, that way your options become, I mean, you end up picking up a job just on a middle school range and become a junior high coach, and next thing you know, 10 years from now, you might end up being a pro somewhere, but it had to start somewhere,

Terence Shigg: 22:38

and I think that's a great point. And I don't think most people know that. I didn't know that when you said that Dion came, went to school, got his degree, and then was able to coach because he was at Jackson before he went to Colorado, yep, uh huh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, that's a great point to make, and especially to the the youth. And that's a very tangible example, because he was the hometown coach.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 23:10

Yep, he was the hometown coach. I said they and they didn't understand, Oh, why this person can't go coach, man, they can be a date. They play ball to be good, I say. But the requirements? I mean, there are standards and requirements for certain jobs, and you have to meet that. And so I try to encourage those guys, hey, I know you play ball. Go ahead and finish. I mean, so many of them said, Man, I only got nine hours left. Okay, let's go finish those nine hours. I don't I don't care. It takes you two years. Let's go ahead and start knocking it out little by little, just because we can go ahead and get that degree behind you. And it changed their lives, like sitting live for generations.

Terence Shigg: 23:45

And one of the the ideas behind this whole program that I do is, is the system that you guys have created has really been something that not only is an example, but my phrase is a sample. It's something that they can it's tangible, that they can touch, feel, see, and really get and become a part of. It's not just something that you guys say, okay, here are the steps that you need to go through. You're like, no, let's and I love your language, and I can, I can hear your passion in it. It's, why don't we go knock that out? Not okay, man, what's wrong with you? Just go do that. Yeah, and there's a sense of family and community that's needed in every community, if you ask me, but especially in the in communities that don't have all of the resources or don't get as much of the spotlight as some of the other ones.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 24:49

Yeah, I mean, we're creating hope. A lot of times, people Project HOPE TO areas and to young people who don't have hope a lot of times, and their communities are just so hope discouraged. You know that they don't see the opportunities to be able to grow it or make anything out of themselves. And so one thing that we've we've seen, and we're doing it in Jackson, but this can be pretty much done in any African American community. I mean, young, young African Americans, basketball is a part of our culture. You can I tell any church that has a gym, no matter where you are in a black community, if you open your gym up and say, is basketball available? Kids are coming. Youth are coming. Young men are coming. Why not use that? Because that's a part of our culture to help reach these young men, you know, bring them in the gym and try to then from there, teach them some life lessons. You know, find a guy who decide, hey, listen, I made some mistakes. Our guy, Charles, like that. Charles can tell you, Hey, I went to college for a year. I mean, a couple of years, I was good ball player. I ended up getting a girl pregnant, and next thing you know, it's sort of just like he said, I got married quickly. Shouldn't have got married as fast as I did, and then had to get a job. And he just, you know, made some decisions that changed his whole trajectory, where now he's able to help these guys say, Listen, do not do that. Or if you go to this college, sit for a year, no, don't, don't get the attitude where I'm not playing and man, I mean, they don't. I gotta go transfer. No, stay there, you know, let us try to help work the things, or sit there and take the learning game, just whatever you guys do. So Charles able to help so many of these guys now. Know, to help with those lessons that he didn't learn. So what we're telling folks, what we're doing at the ark, can be duplicated. You know, God has blessed us with a building. You know, we might have the largest build like we do. We have a huge building that we've been able to meet at least because, you know, basketball is something. We didn't even have a gym in our community either. So all the fitness gyms left too. I said the YMCAs left. We didn't have a planet fitness, or LA Fitness, things like that. So it's decided, You know what, why don't we make the two work together? So that way you got the basketball portion of it, but also the fitness part of it too. Because we have a lot of seniors in our we have a lot of seniors that come to our gym that we have a walking track inside of our gym around three basketball courts. So we get a lot of seniors that come in through the daytime. They just want a safe place to be able to walk, you know, without all other elements of somebody trying to do something and so, and we have security on site too, so people feel comfortable in knowing, hey, I'm here. You know, we're faith based. We're a Christian organization. We make no men, no, no. You know blanks about that we're playing, you know, Christian hip hop, you know, the whole time, just kind of trying to encourage guys, hey, you don't have to listen to the same stuff you hear all the time on the streets and people, they say, Man, I like that song. So we're everything that we're doing is very intentional, of helping, trying to encourage and really build some I said the ark. We built it to be a safe place for our youth, but it has become so much more a safe place for youth, adults, seniors, but also the entire family. And so that's what we could we want to continue

Terence Shigg: 28:01

to do, yeah, so creating a safe space, and the I love the idea of taking that system and being able to to use it in different places, because the idea of creating a safe place that's somewhere that they can learn and grow, learn, discipline community, and actually you can be responsive to the community through them, because that's where you're going to get that information. That's That's boots on the ground. That's where you get okay. This is what's going on in the community. This is where we need to help and assist. And just like you said, you guys can provide meals, water, tutoring, education, interview, help, all the things that fall through the cracks when families are just trying to survive,

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 28:56

yep, yep. And so a lot, there's so many young men to come. I mean, I've met so many new young men from this from from this arc. You know, there are people I would not have met without this. And you know, to be able to encourage so many of these guys. You know, some of the guys who we see who are good athletes, but they realize you might be a better boxer or you may be a better football player. Why don't you go try these things that can help change your trajectory and kind of really see the skill set. I mean, I tell folks all the time, God has given all of us a skill. A lot of times, we just haven't figured out what their skill is. And so that's part of our job at the arc, is trying to help these young men dream and find out. You know what, you're pretty good at this. You got to look at this a little bit more and try to develop this skill set. And again, we want to, we want to see what's the best for their lives. I mean, it's not all about us trying to make a huge gym or people say, Oh, you're trying to make all the money. Listen, we're not making a lot of money. We're bringing even we got staff that we pay and things like that. But we're just blessed to be able to be a part of so many of these young men's family, and also, even the single moms. It's been a prime example lately, a lot of single moms are bringing their sons in. And so when it's up, when, when a when a Youth First comes, they're under 18, they have to have a parent that come and registers them, you know, or an adult. And so a lot of time that parent and Mom will come and register them, and the young man just sitting back on his phone, it's kind of like, you know, not, not say anything. And I even teach that Mom, Mom, let him speak for himself. You know, I tell them, if you continue to allow, if you continue to do that for him, he's going to let you do that for him. So encourage him. Alright, Kinn, you start speaking up, because when you get grown, your mother's not going to do all this stuff for you. And so I'm trying. We're teaching at every level of the things that we see that hurt our community. How can we help change that narrative and helping those parents to see I know he's your baby. I know he's your boy. We want him to be a young man, you know, and so, and kind of help them see those things so,

Terence Shigg: 31:07

and that's the thing, this is a safe space that you've created where you can teach them it's okay to make eye contact. Here, it's okay to speak up for yourself, give a firm handshake. All those things that they've learned through survival in that community will hurt them out in the job market and having a safe. Space where they can really learn that and be encouraged to learn that, and told that, yeah, you can do this, and it's okay to do this here. That's worth its weight in gold. It is, it is and, and I truly, truly, thank you guys for what you guys are doing, because that is, that is God sent. And I, I pray that more communities take this system of saying, Okay, we don't have to hit you over the head with it. We'll just, we'll get you in here on what you already like. Do you like basketball? Do you like boxing? You like? MMA, alright, come on in and do that. But in the meantime, you might hear some gospel music going on. We might pray every once in a while, and all those things, if nothing else, it gives them an example and a sample. I always like to say a sample of what it what it's supposed to look like. So even when they mess up, they know where to go, Yeah, and so many times that's not available. You mess up and you're done, and we don't want anything else to do with you. But you created a place where they can come back and they can try again and it's safe, and that's incredible.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 32:56

Because, I mean, so we do this thing, at least, what we do it every other week during the summer, but also doing like Christmas break, Thanksgiving and probably spring break coming up too, is, think our arc out the dark, and what it is, sort of a form of Midnight Basketball. What we start allowing the kids to come on Friday night at 8pm and we go our way to midnight, always 12 o'clock. So usually we get a sponsor. We normally average about 250 300 kids on those nights. And we feed, we not only feed them, but we actually preach a gospel message, or a just a message of hope to the to the young man who's pretty much there. So we do is, you know, we start at eight o'clock. We'll start about 930 45 about 10 o'clock, we'll stop, stop all the games. Everybody hold the ball. We'll bring everybody in the center court, and then, usually, either myself or somebody else, we're going to do a five or 10 men devotion. Just give them something to encourage them. Okay, hey. Then Hey, we say who the sponsor is. We're going to feed them that night. So then we have people who actually have sponsors say, Listen, I want to make sure those young men get a good hot meal. Because some of them, they only eat hot dogs or pizza and junk food. And so I have guys that come and cook real food for and they get a hot meal. And those guys, they'd be they're so happy to get a real meal sometimes. And okay, after that, hey, you go back playing ball until we leave at 12 midnight. And so we you those opportunities to encourage and also share something of hope and let them know. Hey, listen, it's okay to have a good, a fun, safe place to come to, even in the middle of night that you don't have to go to go to the night club, you come hang out with us at night, and we do do something good and positive here.

Terence Shigg: 34:39

Yes, and that, in and of itself, is changing the legacy and the mindset of some of those kids. And I say kids I know who's 16 to 25 there's no kids to us. Yeah, that seed has been planted. No matter where they go or I always say, you giving them the contrast when they go back out and they're not with you guys, and they see something going on, they know the difference. Now they can make a choice to do it, but they know the difference. And that's a big thing.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 35:14

Yup, yup, you're exactly right. And so again, we we've had our ups and downs this past year. In 25 we had two of our we have two young men who were part of our family. They got killed. One of them was one of them was killed a gunshot, and the other one actually lost his life on a ATV accident. And so even even in those points, we still got a chance to talk with the families. We had what we call a balloon release at the ark, and we had opportunity to people to share. And we actually have their pictures, you know, on our wall now, saying hey, under the spot say, hey, gone, but not forgotten. And so, and we've encouraged the families, hey, listen, come and be a part of what your sons were a part of. And most of them, the moms, they both of them the moms, they all said, Man, this gym changed my son's life. You know, even though they had some other things going on, it still changed their lives. And so we just continue to keep that going on, but it's a chance to let those other guys know, Hey, you can't do everything. You can't hang out in the streets, because there's consequences for certain behaviors. And so, yeah, every everything that we try to do is used to try to teach a better way and opportunity.

Terence Shigg: 36:25

Yes, and that's that is so needed and a blessing. Well. Brother, I want to thank you for for spending the time with me. I know it took us a while to coordinate this thing, and I know you busy. You're in the middle of the session and took a break to come out and talk to me. Yeah.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 36:46

I mean, hey, we finished for the day. Fridays is normally easier or a shorter day, but hey, it was good to be able to be able to come on here. And thank you for this opportunity to be able to share what's going on in Jackson, Mississippi. Alright.

Terence Shigg: 36:58

Well, thanks again. Well, first, and also, do you have a website where people can can donate? Uh, yeah,

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 37:07

they can go to our website. It's actually the arc six Oh one.org. The Arc six. Oh, one.org tells you a little bit more about the organization and what we do and how we continue to move forward. A lot of other updates going on. I'm still we. We're rebranding our new horizon ministry site right now. So that's not necessarily complete, but we had a complete real soon.

Terence Shigg: 37:31

Okay? And I'll make sure I put that in the show notes as well, okay, so that people can just click on it and come and get some more information.

Ronnie Cruddup Jr.: 37:39

And we have a Facebook page and an Instagram page, and anybody want to see more what's going on, we do a lot of update on that on both of those social media platforms to kind of see a lot going on there.

Terence Shigg: 37:51

Okay, I'll put those in the show I'll put links in the show notes so they can follow you on there too. Thank you. All right, thanks a lot, brother. You go ahead and get some rest, and I appreciate you. Okay, you have a good day. All right. You too. You you.