Ep. 054: Jonathan Daige - The Thin Blue Ride

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Welcome back to Generator, my friend.

Speaker A: 00:00:02

This is episode 54, and I'm calling it the Thin Blue Ride because, well, that's the non profit started by my next guest.

Speaker A: 00:00:11

Jonathan Dej is a veteran.

Speaker A: 00:00:12

He's a retired cop from Worcester, Mass.

Speaker A: 00:00:15

And he's the founder of the Thin Blue Ride.

Speaker A: 00:00:17

It's an organization that helps other veterans and law enforcement and first responders with their battles against cancer.

Speaker A: 00:00:26

JD has a hell of a backstory, which I'm going to let him tell you all about, but it involves multiple forms of cancer, multiple surgeries, leukemia, and everything that goes along with years and years of fighting for your life.

Speaker A: 00:00:42

And if nothing else, JD is a fighter.

Speaker A: 00:00:46

I was absolutely blown away by his ability to move forward every day when most of us would have thrown in the towel.

Speaker A: 00:00:53

As much as I talk about mindset being the important, important thing, when it comes to success, JD is the embodiment of it.

Speaker A: 00:01:02

One of my best friends from college, his name's ac, he was a fellow SWAT officer with Jonathan, and he was the one that originally introduced us a few months back.

Speaker A: 00:01:12

I am so grateful that he did.

Speaker A: 00:01:16

While I recorded this episode a little while ago, it just so happens that I'm releasing it here on July 4th, which seems pretty appropriate given JD's background.

Speaker A: 00:01:27

Sure, we had a handful of technical difficulties throughout the interview, but the message here is really inspiring.

Speaker A: 00:01:34

It's incredible, actually.

Speaker A: 00:01:36

And it's matched only by the humility of JD himself.

Speaker A: 00:01:40

To date, Thin Blue Ride has raised over $800,000 for what he calls cancer warriors.

Speaker A: 00:01:46

And they're just getting started.

Speaker A: 00:01:49

So why don't we get started so you can hear all the details from the man himself?

Speaker A: 00:01:55

Here comes my conversation with Jonathan Dej.

Speaker A: 00:01:57

I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker A: 00:01:59

And Happy fourth of July, America, actually really excited you here because when you first got in touch with me and started telling me about Finn Blue Ride, first, you know, you bring up AC's name, and I'm like, okay, well, now you've got my attention, right?

Speaker A: 00:02:37

Nobody knows ac.

Speaker A: 00:02:38

And so in reading about everything you're doing, I was admittedly a bit skeptical.

Speaker A: 00:02:44

I was just like, all right, here's somebody started a nonprofit.

Speaker A: 00:02:47

Great.

Speaker A: 00:02:47

And then I started looking at what you were doing, and I was amazed at everything you've been accomplished, been able to accomplish in a really short period of time.

Speaker A: 00:02:57

You seem like you're insanely busy with all this stuff.

Speaker B: 00:03:00

Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's, you know, that pushing the rock up, and I tell.

Speaker B: 00:03:03

It stops.

Speaker B: 00:03:04

And I, you know, if I'm not Driving it.

Speaker B: 00:03:06

And there's been so many open ended emails that I send out.

Speaker B: 00:03:10

I'll, I'll reach out to a name brand and be like, because you know, I stand behind the bry, stand behind Ridgeline.

Speaker B: 00:03:16

I stand behind softly, you know, the things that the, especially the paramilitary drug police stuff that I go after.

Speaker B: 00:03:24

Like every shirt I wear is either Thimble Ride or another nonprofit or another organization.

Speaker B: 00:03:28

Right?

Speaker B: 00:03:29

And it's good seeing the gwat guys like supporting one another and driving their business and it's just, you know, trying to get exposure.

Speaker B: 00:03:38

And it's funny because sometimes I'll ask like I use the protect products, like the liquid stuff, hydration, sleep, all that good stuff.

Speaker B: 00:03:47

And I, you know, I drink like two of these a day and I reach out to them, I'm like, hey, I got a golf tournament, I beat cancer like a whole bunch of times.

Speaker B: 00:03:54

I use your stuff every day, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker B: 00:03:56

And they're like, oh, you know, we can't really give stuff out.

Speaker B: 00:03:58

It's like, we're big enough, but we're not big enough to where people like companies like Five eleven are like, hey, you're stuff.

Speaker A: 00:04:06

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:04:07

So it's, we're, we're breaking that mold.

Speaker B: 00:04:09

Especially now that we have a vehicle that like is all decked out and they came all their names on it.

Speaker B: 00:04:15

So now I could pull up to a business and say, hey, can we get all kind of sponsor shit for a golf tournament?

Speaker B: 00:04:20

And they look outside, they're like, oh, these guys are legit.

Speaker A: 00:04:23

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:04:23

And it's, I mean mainly it's, it is me that is the driving force and I have my buddy Joe who does more of the organizational stuff and it's a little more like harder to get other people involved in what we're doing.

Speaker B: 00:04:36

But sometimes people pull through and other times it's, you know, just grinding, man.

Speaker A: 00:04:42

That's the, that's the, the day to day now in terms of influencing or trying to get sponsorships on board is there's such that game to play, right, where you have to sell yourself enough that they see some return on their investment unless they're, you know, connected to the organization.

Speaker A: 00:05:02

But yeah, we all, you know, we're all doing the same things and sometimes it's, it can be a little bit demoralizing.

Speaker A: 00:05:09

But it seems like through all of your efforts, all that marketing, that natural marketing is really starting to come along.

Speaker A: 00:05:16

So we're going to talk about all of that.

Speaker A: 00:05:18

I want to hear about the truck, I want to hear about the rides.

Speaker A: 00:05:21

But let's start at the beginning and talk a little bit about, you know, I'm always curious, why'd you enlist?

Speaker A: 00:05:29

Why'd you get into the army in the first place?

Speaker A: 00:05:31

And then let's cover that, you know, period of Iraq and then law enforcement.

Speaker A: 00:05:37

And this isn't Sean Ryan's podcast, right?

Speaker A: 00:05:40

We're not going to be doing this for the next three hours or Rogan.

Speaker A: 00:05:43

My audience can only hold their attention for me for so long.

Speaker A: 00:05:47

They love you only listen to me for so long.

Speaker B: 00:05:50

So, yeah, why don't we start at.

Speaker A: 00:05:51

The beginning, like tell me about your, your career and then we'll move into how you beat cancer.

Speaker A: 00:05:59

Spoiler alert, right?

Speaker A: 00:06:00

So, yeah, let's, let's start at the beginning.

Speaker B: 00:06:03

So I worked for a family business.

Speaker B: 00:06:05

Grew up doing construction steel work, working in my father's metal fab shop.

Speaker B: 00:06:11

And it was cutting, putting steel on the saw, cutting it, drilling holes in it, welding clips.

Speaker B: 00:06:17

And then the best part that I loved about that job was going to a job site, starting with a foundation and then leaving with a structure at the end of the day, which was pretty cool.

Speaker B: 00:06:27

We were union workers, so we didn't have any of the huge, you know, buildings like you see in Boston, but a few stories up and that was, you know, exciting enough to be walking on some beams and throwing some three quarter inch bolts in.

Speaker B: 00:06:40

And it's funny because now I'm back in the family business.

Speaker B: 00:06:44

My father has a crane company so I'm going out to job sites and I'm looking and seeing what guys are doing and it's like night and day from when I did it.

Speaker B: 00:06:52

So I mean, I started officially probably I think when I was in the 8th grade working for my dad on job sites.

Speaker B: 00:06:59

So, you know, late 90s and 911 happened.

Speaker B: 00:07:04

So I remember being in the shop that day, all over the news radio because we didn't have any TVs in the shop.

Speaker B: 00:07:11

And then seeing that, I remember going to grab lunch at a local spot, pick up all the food and just walk.

Speaker B: 00:07:16

You know, everyone sees the planes that they keep showing hidden towers.

Speaker B: 00:07:20

So right after that I decided I always was driven towards the military.

Speaker B: 00:07:25

And that was the catalyst of being like, okay, yeah, I'm going to sign up.

Speaker B: 00:07:30

So probably a day or two after that I ended up going to Park Ave. Down in Worcester talking to the army recruiter.

Speaker B: 00:07:38

I wanted to drive cool army trucks.

Speaker B: 00:07:40

I kind of wanted to go full time.

Speaker B: 00:07:42

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:07:42

And I told myself, if this sucks, I'm stuck there for two years no matter what.

Speaker B: 00:07:48

And it's a big, like when guys sign up, I mean, it's.

Speaker B: 00:07:52

You're.

Speaker B: 00:07:52

You're just saying you're.

Speaker B: 00:07:53

By putting your life on pause for who knows how long and you're going into the unknown.

Speaker B: 00:07:59

So, you know, hats off to those guys who would just sign up for enlisted officers who do that active duty time.

Speaker B: 00:08:05

And they're like, hey, if it sucks too bad, I'll figure it out.

Speaker B: 00:08:10

So.

Speaker B: 00:08:10

And in the reserves, you could actually put in to go active duty.

Speaker B: 00:08:13

So my thoughts were I wanted to be a cop as well.

Speaker B: 00:08:17

And having that veteran status is something that I needed because I do not test well.

Speaker B: 00:08:24

I'm not one of those training students.

Speaker B: 00:08:26

So at that time I was like, well, all right, I need that veteran status.

Speaker B: 00:08:32

And I wanted to join.

Speaker B: 00:08:33

So, you know, that was the reason for signing up initially.

Speaker B: 00:08:37

So in October 16th was my start date in Fort Knox in basic training.

Speaker B: 00:08:42

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:08:43

And we were in limbo for about two weeks because they were pushing all the combat arms, like infantry guys, and down there they have cap scouts and tankers.

Speaker B: 00:08:52

So they were pushing those guys over so they could get through basic and their job training.

Speaker B: 00:08:55

It just sucked.

Speaker B: 00:08:56

It was limbo.

Speaker B: 00:08:58

So we, you know, we couldn't do the basic training stuff.

Speaker B: 00:09:01

It's not like the movies where is.

Speaker B: 00:09:02

You get off the bus and you run right into the barracks with all you do.

Speaker B: 00:09:06

You shave your head, right?

Speaker B: 00:09:07

It was close to that, but it was a lot more waiting around, which, you know, you sign up to do army stuff and you're sitting in the barracks with a shaved head and some cammies, like, all right, then we got to when we can do something.

Speaker B: 00:09:19

You know, Once basic training started it, I thrived.

Speaker B: 00:09:22

I was, you know, I'm like, they're paying us to march around and shoot stuff and learn all this cool stuff.

Speaker B: 00:09:27

I'm like, this is awesome.

Speaker B: 00:09:28

And, you know, I loved it.

Speaker B: 00:09:31

Went to the job training school, which is in Missouri.

Speaker B: 00:09:35

So learn how to drive trucks in.

Speaker B: 00:09:37

My unit was out of Brockton, Massachusetts, the 325th transportation, and we drove 5,000 gallon fuel tankers.

Speaker B: 00:09:45

And once I knew I got that job, I told myself, everyone's looking at me like, you're driving a bomb.

Speaker A: 00:09:54

That's exactly the thought that went through my head.

Speaker B: 00:09:57

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:09:57

But typically.

Speaker B: 00:09:58

And it's, we're driving JP8, which is Jet fuel, diesel fuel, and it's a very stable fuel.

Speaker B: 00:10:05

That's why the military uses it.

Speaker B: 00:10:07

So there were times when we were in Iraq.

Speaker B: 00:10:10

,: 2003

Speaker B: 00:10:14

And I remember we took civilian flights over there, landed in Kuwait.

Speaker B: 00:10:18

And we're getting our gear off the, off the plane, and we hear lightning.

Speaker B: 00:10:23

Lightning.

Speaker B: 00:10:24

Lightning.

Speaker B: 00:10:24

And we're looking at each other like, what is that?

Speaker B: 00:10:26

You see people putting their gas masks on, running to bunkers.

Speaker B: 00:10:30

And we're, you know, in the military, it's gas, gas, gas.

Speaker B: 00:10:33

But yeah, for whatever reason, it was lightning.

Speaker B: 00:10:35

And people are donning their masks for a chemical attack.

Speaker B: 00:10:39

We're running to bunkers.

Speaker B: 00:10:40

And I'll never forget it.

Speaker B: 00:10:41

I was going to a bunker.

Speaker B: 00:10:43

This guy's shutting the door, a British soldier, he goes, there's no room in here, mate.

Speaker B: 00:10:50

And we're like, okay, you gotta find another bunker.

Speaker B: 00:10:53

So I mean, it was like sitting there and I remember having a bottle of water, because in the military they give you canteens.

Speaker A: 00:11:01

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:11:02

And on the top of a canteen, there's a little.

Speaker B: 00:11:05

One of your mask is on.

Speaker B: 00:11:06

There's a little straw that you could grab with your tongue, you know, another straw that's on the exterior part of your mask, plug it into the canteen and you could drink with your mask fill.

Speaker B: 00:11:14

Well, we didn't have canteens, we had bottles of water.

Speaker B: 00:11:16

So we're in the bunker, put our chemical suits on, hood and everything.

Speaker B: 00:11:20

So this is.

Speaker B: 00:11:21

You got your military camouflage, your desert camouflage.

Speaker B: 00:11:25

And we had a Jay's list, which was called the chemical suit.

Speaker B: 00:11:28

And basically it's like a winter jacket.

Speaker A: 00:11:30

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:11:32

And then, you know, the pants with the bib, the rubber boots, the rubber gloves, you gotta cinch everything up.

Speaker B: 00:11:38

And I'm just looking at my water, I think, can't drink this.

Speaker B: 00:11:42

So that was day one in Kuwait.

Speaker A: 00:11:46

Welcome to war, sir.

Speaker B: 00:11:48

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:11:49

For the next couple days, we're intense staging.

Speaker B: 00:11:53

Initially, our unit was supposed to go to Turkey and bring fuel missions down from Turkey to northern Iraq.

Speaker B: 00:12:00

And that didn't happen.

Speaker B: 00:12:01

Turkey didn't want us.

Speaker B: 00:12:02

So we were in theater waiting for orders, and it came down.

Speaker B: 00:12:07

Our company commander said, all right, we need volunteers to go up to Iraq.

Speaker B: 00:12:11

And me and my buddy were like, hey, let's go.

Speaker B: 00:12:14

I don't remember how many of us there were, but we all get in the back of a 5 ton military cargo truck.

Speaker B: 00:12:20

We just had our rucksacks.

Speaker B: 00:12:21

There were so many people.

Speaker B: 00:12:22

You got the rucksacks on the outside, like strapped to the benches.

Speaker B: 00:12:26

So the whole bag was filled with our rucksacks.

Speaker B: 00:12:29

Soldiers are filled on the benches.

Speaker B: 00:12:31

There's some guys on the floor.

Speaker B: 00:12:32

We had like a box of MREs.

Speaker B: 00:12:35

And just driving up north to the Iraqi border, you know, Going into the unknown.

Speaker B: 00:12:40

20 years old.

Speaker B: 00:12:40

Like, what the.

Speaker B: 00:12:41

What the hell?

Speaker B: 00:12:42

What the hell are we doing?

Speaker B: 00:12:44

Soon as we get to the border, we take our chemical suits off.

Speaker B: 00:12:48

I could.

Speaker B: 00:12:48

Because typically we, we wouldn't wear them.

Speaker B: 00:12:50

But we have them ready and have our masks, right?

Speaker A: 00:12:52

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:12:53

So because it was so hot, it was about 120 with humidity in Kuwait, which was pretty brutal, especially coming from Fort Drum, New York.

Speaker B: 00:13:01

We were there January 20th to March, you know, to the end of March.

Speaker B: 00:13:06

Right.

Speaker B: 00:13:06

So we were doing PT in 2ft of snow.

Speaker B: 00:13:09

We went from one extreme to the other.

Speaker B: 00:13:12

Like literally overnight.

Speaker B: 00:13:13

We get to the Iraq water.

Speaker B: 00:13:15

Everyone's taking their J's list off.

Speaker B: 00:13:16

And you know, it's typical punky see monkey do.

Speaker B: 00:13:19

We see some other guys doing it.

Speaker B: 00:13:20

We're like, okay, we could take our stuff off.

Speaker B: 00:13:22

They're not gonna.

Speaker B: 00:13:23

Iraq's not gonna buy my Iraq.

Speaker B: 00:13:26

They're trying to bomb Kuwait.

Speaker B: 00:13:28

So take our J's list off.

Speaker B: 00:13:29

And then we go up through the demilitarized zone and we see these trenches and fences and there's a small village in southern Iraq.

Speaker B: 00:13:37

And then we drive a little further, we see some vehicles burnt to a crisp from, you know, from a push a few weeks before.

Speaker B: 00:13:45

Okay.

Speaker B: 00:13:45

See a burnt counter with some bodies in it.

Speaker B: 00:13:47

Like, all right, let's see what else.

Speaker B: 00:13:49

Keep going.

Speaker B: 00:13:50

Then we kind of drove up a few hours from the border and it was a highway of death from Desert Storm when all those vehicles got bombed from the, from the jets and they were just literally pushed off to the side of the road.

Speaker B: 00:14:03

So hundreds of vehicles and we're driving by that, oh, piece of history.

Speaker B: 00:14:08

And, you know, keep driving, get off the trucks.

Speaker B: 00:14:11

Our FOB Forward Operating base was random off the side of the highway.

Speaker B: 00:14:16

They call it highway, highway death highway.

Speaker B: 00:14:18

MSR Tampa, the military term for it.

Speaker B: 00:14:21

So we were right off the highway and we were doing fuel missions.

Speaker B: 00:14:24

So it was easy on and off.

Speaker B: 00:14:26

And there was nothing around that base.

Speaker B: 00:14:28

Moved to another base and we would do daily missions.

Speaker B: 00:14:31

We'd enter, we'd drive for a couple hours.

Speaker B: 00:14:33

It'd be pretty mellow.

Speaker B: 00:14:35

Then there would be like into the south part of the SUNY triangle, into areas where it'd be a little more, you know, here I'm back to your neck standing up.

Speaker B: 00:14:43

And we got lucky.

Speaker B: 00:14:44

We did missions every day.

Speaker B: 00:14:45

We had pop shots, we had some bullets in the tankers where fuel was coming out.

Speaker B: 00:14:51

The fuel is actually more dangerous as vapors.

Speaker B: 00:14:53

So we would have.

Speaker B: 00:14:54

It'd be a 5,000 gallon tanker, but we'd have about 4,700 gallons of fuel in it.

Speaker B: 00:14:59

We did missions every day, anywhere from three hours to 15, 16 hours, sometimes getting lost, sometimes going to bases like we went.

Speaker B: 00:15:07

We ended up one time in Babylon, which was pretty cool.

Speaker B: 00:15:11

And we were trying to get out to check out Babylon because it's beginning of civilization.

Speaker A: 00:15:17

When did you become desensitized?

Speaker A: 00:15:19

How long Ian was.

Speaker A: 00:15:20

It was a week.

Speaker A: 00:15:21

Was it a day?

Speaker B: 00:15:22

Initially, I remember, vaguely remember being the.

Speaker B: 00:15:27

All right, we're at war, right?

Speaker B: 00:15:28

Like, we're not combat arms.

Speaker B: 00:15:29

We're not going after the fight.

Speaker B: 00:15:31

We're, you know, fueling the fight was our motto.

Speaker B: 00:15:33

But it was, you know, 20 years old, just out of basic training, and I was ready for anything mentally.

Speaker B: 00:15:40

And I think looking back, that's what's helped me this whole time of battling everything else.

Speaker B: 00:15:46

But I think in my head it was always.

Speaker B: 00:15:48

It was, yeah, being surprised initially, expecting the worst, because when we were there, we were down to one MRE a day, two bottles of water.

Speaker B: 00:15:56

One bottle of water to shave and shower, the other bottle of water to drench.

Speaker B: 00:15:59

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:16:00

And in my eyes, I said, it could always be worse.

Speaker B: 00:16:03

We were getting reports from Baghdad that there were guys in hand to hand combat.

Speaker B: 00:16:07

And I'm like, these guys are fighting.

Speaker B: 00:16:09

I'm like, we're.

Speaker B: 00:16:10

We're just driving trucks.

Speaker B: 00:16:12

And of course, in my head, the trucks are so loud, you can't really talk to the driver or passenger in the Humvee.

Speaker B: 00:16:18

I was in the Humvee a lot as well.

Speaker B: 00:16:19

And we did like a gun truck.

Speaker B: 00:16:21

So we would have about 30 fuel tankers, three platoons.

Speaker B: 00:16:24

Each platoon had a Humvee.

Speaker B: 00:16:26

So we had a Humvee, no armor.

Speaker B: 00:16:28

And then at one point, we traded our doors for MREs.

Speaker B: 00:16:31

So then I'm like, we're driving Humvees with no doors on them.

Speaker B: 00:16:34

Like, this is cool.

Speaker B: 00:16:34

IEDs weren't a thing.

Speaker B: 00:16:36

It was more pop shots from a distance.

Speaker B: 00:16:38

You know, sounded like hunting season.

Speaker B: 00:16:40

You drive and you hear a shot, you're like, oh, nobody get hurt.

Speaker B: 00:16:43

Keep going.

Speaker B: 00:16:44

Yeah, I remember we had 818s were the trucks we had.

Speaker B: 00:16:48

They were like the Vietnam style trucks.

Speaker B: 00:16:50

We had Vietnam style vests.

Speaker B: 00:16:51

We had the 818s that had stuff tops like a canvas.

Speaker B: 00:16:55

There'd be these random, you know, bridges in the middle of the, like, over the highway.

Speaker B: 00:16:59

And there would be stories of snipers on bridges or hanging grenades or, you know, some type of explosive devices.

Speaker B: 00:17:06

And we're in a truck that we can't, you know, really get the gun out.

Speaker B: 00:17:10

The front, unless you popped the window open.

Speaker B: 00:17:12

So a lot of us took our knives and cut like a C shape and then stitched it with parachute cord so we could stand up, flip the seat up and make a five ton, you know, tractor trailer like a gun truck.

Speaker B: 00:17:26

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:17:26

And some guys are saying, hey, you're.

Speaker B: 00:17:28

You're ruining army equipment.

Speaker B: 00:17:30

I go, I'm not going to get shot.

Speaker B: 00:17:32

Or, you know, I'd rather be at the ready than 84.

Speaker B: 00:17:35

The unknown.

Speaker B: 00:17:37

Always playing scenarios in your mind is getting you ready for.

Speaker B: 00:17:40

You don't want to be surprised.

Speaker B: 00:17:41

Basically, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:17:42

What if this happens?

Speaker B: 00:17:43

What if the truck in front of us flips over or gets ambushed?

Speaker B: 00:17:46

What are we going to do?

Speaker B: 00:17:47

Are we going to push through?

Speaker B: 00:17:48

Are we going to wait?

Speaker B: 00:17:49

Are we going to drive around?

Speaker B: 00:17:50

Like, there's.

Speaker B: 00:17:50

There's so much that goes on.

Speaker B: 00:17:52

So when something happens, you can react.

Speaker A: 00:17:54

And I think that scenario, prep that mission, prep, whatever you want to call it, is a part of the training that I think a lot of people forget about.

Speaker A: 00:18:04

No matter what your industry is, right.

Speaker A: 00:18:06

Whether it's being a war fighter, whether it's being a CEO at a company, you have to think through all of the angles so that when that moment arises, you've at least thought through.

Speaker A: 00:18:16

All right, here are my options.

Speaker A: 00:18:17

A, B, C. Which one is the best in that moment?

Speaker A: 00:18:21

So with two tours in Iraq and then transferring over to law enforcement, and you're in Worcester, and your head is still on a swivel, Right?

Speaker A: 00:18:31

So what was that transition like?

Speaker A: 00:18:32

Was it easy?

Speaker A: 00:18:33

Was it hard?

Speaker A: 00:18:34

Did you find it natural?

Speaker B: 00:18:37

I thought being a cop had, because obviously it's a paramilitary organization.

Speaker B: 00:18:42

There was a lot more wiggle room in the department.

Speaker B: 00:18:45

Good and a bad thing.

Speaker B: 00:18:46

Right.

Speaker B: 00:18:46

Like, you want to let officers function in a way that they can use their own discretion.

Speaker B: 00:18:53

And when I get on, we went through the academy, and Worcester's got a great academy.

Speaker B: 00:18:57

They exceed what the state levels are as far as shooting domestic.

Speaker B: 00:19:02

All the stuff that we go over, you know, it's not minimum, it's, you know, surpassing whatever that is for the station.

Speaker B: 00:19:08

So when we get on, myself and almost my whole class, we were stuck in the cell room driving the Patty way.

Speaker B: 00:19:14

I didn't work with prisoners for.

Speaker B: 00:19:16

I mean, I was in there for three and a half years.

Speaker B: 00:19:18

So I went in ready to, you know, do the city comp thing and have fun.

Speaker B: 00:19:23

We were having fun in the cell room, but we weren't doing any police work.

Speaker B: 00:19:26

It was driving the dirty way and doing fingerprints, doing bookings, grab some Bologna sandwiches for the prisoners, like.

Speaker B: 00:19:32

And it was, I'm glad it happened because when I got on the road, I wasn't making any bullshit arrests.

Speaker B: 00:19:39

Meaning you could have 10 scenarios or you could have one scenario and 10 cops.

Speaker B: 00:19:44

There's going to be 10 different outcomes.

Speaker B: 00:19:45

You know, you don't have to arrest anybody all the time unless it's a violation of a restraining order.

Speaker B: 00:19:50

And you could write complaints.

Speaker B: 00:19:52

You could, you know, you could do so many different things as a cop in the city.

Speaker B: 00:19:57

It's great because you're never really going to a call alone.

Speaker B: 00:19:59

You'll go to report calls alone.

Speaker B: 00:20:01

But if they say, hey, there's a guy with a machete on Milbury street, everybody on that side of the city is going.

Speaker B: 00:20:07

Being a city cop, you get a lot of experience real quick.

Speaker A: 00:20:10

I bet Worcester was no joke.

Speaker A: 00:20:12

I mean, I, I went to school there and I remember working, I would stay there year round and I'd work in the city.

Speaker A: 00:20:17

And mid-90s Worcester wasn't all that pretty.

Speaker A: 00:20:21

And I've driven through it a handful of times.

Speaker A: 00:20:23

And while there's, they put some lipstick on a pig here and there, it's still a big urban playground.

Speaker A: 00:20:30

And you know, I don't know how many are sworn on the, on the Worcester PD.

Speaker B: 00:20:35

I'd say like 350.

Speaker A: 00:20:36

350.

Speaker A: 00:20:37

So I mean, it's a, it's a big force.

Speaker A: 00:20:40

So yeah, there's a lot of ground to cover and I can't imagine you guys had a ton of downtime.

Speaker A: 00:20:45

So when did you start to move over into the SWAT team?

Speaker A: 00:20:50

Right?

Speaker A: 00:20:50

Totally different group, totally different dynamic, different types of calls.

Speaker A: 00:20:54

When did you start moving over there?

Speaker B: 00:20:56

So initially I wanted to join the swat.

Speaker B: 00:20:59

Of course it was, hey, I want to do swat.

Speaker B: 00:21:01

And I remember in the academy, hey, recruit age.

Speaker B: 00:21:03

What do you want to do?

Speaker B: 00:21:04

I want to be a good cop and I want to be on the SWAT team.

Speaker B: 00:21:06

And they're like, Give it 10 years, kid.

Speaker B: 00:21:08

I'm like, okay.

Speaker B: 00:21:10

On the SWAT team, they don't want guys right out of the academy because they want to.

Speaker B: 00:21:14

It's a selection process and they want to know how guys act under pressure.

Speaker B: 00:21:19

They want the guys on the team to vote.

Speaker B: 00:21:22

You know how they, it's, you could be a student, you could shoot every target, you could get the best pt the, you know, run times and everything else.

Speaker B: 00:21:31

But if you're one of those guys that's in the gray area as far as moral values or whatever, then it's all right.

Speaker B: 00:21:39

Take a back seat for now until the next tryout.

Speaker B: 00:21:41

And typically it's tryouts every three years.

Speaker B: 00:21:43

My thing, I tried out for the SWAT team when I was still in the cell room on my third year, and I knew I wasn't going to make it.

Speaker B: 00:21:50

But I said, well, maybe with my military time, they'll look at me and be like, this kid did two deployments.

Speaker B: 00:21:55

He's got enough knowledge.

Speaker B: 00:21:58

But I just wanted to do it, to do it.

Speaker B: 00:22:00

So did the SWAT tryouts.

Speaker B: 00:22:01

Obviously didn't make it.

Speaker B: 00:22:03

I mean, I'm driving the paddy wagon.

Speaker B: 00:22:04

They're not going to call me today.

Speaker B: 00:22:08

hat third year ended up being: 2012

Speaker B: 00:22:13

And that's when I got diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Speaker B: 00:22:15

Well, I was 29 years old.

Speaker B: 00:22:17

I had pain in my groin.

Speaker B: 00:22:20

Backtrack to: 2003

Speaker B: 00:22:22

I woke up in the middle of the night and I had an inguinal hernia.

Speaker B: 00:22:26

So I had an excruciating pain, and my intestine dropped through my intestine wall, and I. I was in pain.

Speaker B: 00:22:33

I woke up, the pain went away, and then I sucked it up until I got home.

Speaker B: 00:22:37

Then I had surgery.

Speaker B: 00:22:38

So then Fast forward to: 2012

Speaker B: 00:22:40

I thought I had a hernia again because I was getting ready for the SWAT tryouts, working out.

Speaker B: 00:22:44

A lot of went to the doctors, went to the er and they said, you have a growth.

Speaker B: 00:22:48

Come back next week.

Speaker B: 00:22:50

So I sat in the urologist office, they did an ultrasound on the testicle, and they said, you have testicular cancer.

Speaker B: 00:22:57

I was like, shit, don't go to the doctors thinking you have cancer on a Friday, because then you'll wait till next week.

Speaker B: 00:23:03

Plus, I remember calling my parents and telling them, hey, this is effective testicular cancer.

Speaker B: 00:23:08

But it would take two weeks after the surgery to get the biopsy, to get the numbers and everything.

Speaker B: 00:23:13

So that next week I had a surgery.

Speaker B: 00:23:15

A couple hours, I was home, came back, it was a mixed germ cell, non seminoma tumor testicular cancer, and, you know, on the road to recovery.

Speaker B: 00:23:24

Then I went for some more scans, and they found my lymph nodes were swollen.

Speaker B: 00:23:27

And they said it could grow to be a teratoma, which is basically like a.

Speaker B: 00:23:31

It could be a ball of hair, skin, bone, like, pretty disgusting.

Speaker B: 00:23:36

Like sci fi type stuff.

Speaker B: 00:23:37

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:23:38

Or I could have surgery or remove it.

Speaker B: 00:23:40

So I opted for the surgery.

Speaker B: 00:23:42

They basically tore me open from my waistline to my sternum.

Speaker B: 00:23:46

They take everything out.

Speaker B: 00:23:47

You're like a human canoe.

Speaker B: 00:23:49

Take your lymph nodes out, put everything back in.

Speaker B: 00:23:51

So that surgery, I was out for six months and two weeks, and that was a very painful, slow recovery.

Speaker B: 00:23:58

My diet was like five grams of fat a day.

Speaker B: 00:24:01

Oh, five grams of fat a day.

Speaker B: 00:24:03

And, yeah, I just dropped a ton of weight.

Speaker B: 00:24:06

And then I was into the more holistic stuff too.

Speaker B: 00:24:08

You know, no alcohol, no dairy, no gluten, Stuff like that.

Speaker B: 00:24:11

Fast forward, I get better.

Speaker B: 00:24:13

Small tryouts.

Speaker B: 00:24:14

You're coming up and start coughing up blood.

Speaker B: 00:24:17

I coughed up blood once on one day, and the next day I coughed up blood, then the next day coughed up blood.

Speaker B: 00:24:22

Because guys are stupid, you know, just like, yeah, whatever.

Speaker B: 00:24:25

No bpi.

Speaker B: 00:24:25

This has only a little blood.

Speaker B: 00:24:27

So I ended up going to the PR at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester, and they did a blood draw and they did a scan, and they said, you got six tumors, your chest and lungs.

Speaker B: 00:24:38

So my alpha fetal proteins is a blood draw.

Speaker B: 00:24:41

It's like their cancer numbers.

Speaker B: 00:24:43

And 15 is the number.

Speaker B: 00:24:44

15 and under is what it should be.

Speaker B: 00:24:47

My numbers were like 55,000.

Speaker A: 00:24:49

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:24:49

So I had two on my lungs, one pushing on my jugular, another one on my stomach.

Speaker B: 00:24:53

And I was losing weight.

Speaker B: 00:24:54

And the only time I lose weight is if I eat super clean and I work out hard.

Speaker B: 00:24:59

And I was doing enough to have that noticeable weight loss.

Speaker B: 00:25:02

And I was coughing with blood.

Speaker B: 00:25:04

So that was, you know, a sign of, hey, something drum.

Speaker B: 00:25:07

So at St. Vincent's they said, we'll start chemo in two weeks.

Speaker B: 00:25:10

And the urologist there said, you need to go to Boston.

Speaker B: 00:25:13

This is beyond us.

Speaker B: 00:25:14

So we went to Boston on a word of advice.

Speaker B: 00:25:17

If your insurance doesn't want to cover it, if you ask your primary care for an out of network visit, then it's a, you know, okay visit in your insurance.

Speaker B: 00:25:26

So I went for out of network visit to Dana Farber.

Speaker B: 00:25:28

Met Dr. Sweeney, my oncologist, and he didn't let me leave.

Speaker B: 00:25:33

Like, I went for a second opinion.

Speaker B: 00:25:34

And he said, you're technically stage four cancer.

Speaker B: 00:25:37

You're not going home.

Speaker B: 00:25:38

Got admitted, and then I was hooked up to chemo eight hours a day, five days a week.

Speaker A: 00:25:43

I want to go back just a minute to when you first got the diagnosis that, you know, maybe you thought it was another hernia.

Speaker A: 00:25:51

Everything that I've seen about you and talk to you about.

Speaker A: 00:25:55

Mindset's a big thing, right?

Speaker A: 00:25:57

You go into the military like, this ain't going to be that bad.

Speaker A: 00:25:59

And you work your way through it.

Speaker A: 00:26:01

You get into the PD and you're like, this ain't Going to be that bad.

Speaker A: 00:26:04

I can work through it.

Speaker B: 00:26:05

Right?

Speaker A: 00:26:06

And you just kind of always staying positive, always looking forward.

Speaker A: 00:26:09

That seems to be part of your character, right?

Speaker A: 00:26:12

Part of your work ethic.

Speaker A: 00:26:13

When you first got told, they're like, yeah, we.

Speaker A: 00:26:17

We found a lump.

Speaker A: 00:26:18

It's where you definitely don't want it.

Speaker A: 00:26:21

What.

Speaker A: 00:26:21

What does your mind do at that point?

Speaker A: 00:26:25

Do you default to negative or do you default to.

Speaker A: 00:26:29

Well, I got this.

Speaker A: 00:26:30

Where was your mind at that moment?

Speaker B: 00:26:32

I think it was more of a figure it out type thing.

Speaker B: 00:26:34

I feel like cops, veterans, it's an alpha kind of mindset of, there's a problem, let's fix it.

Speaker B: 00:26:39

Which isn't the best case when you're, you know, trying to help people.

Speaker B: 00:26:44

Like, not everyone always wants an answer, right?

Speaker B: 00:26:46

And I've realized that over time, it's.

Speaker B: 00:26:48

Sometimes you just need to shut up and listen.

Speaker B: 00:26:51

So in my eyes, I was like, holy shit, cancer.

Speaker B: 00:26:54

And then I was like, wait, so you're going to take the testicle, take the tumor out and then put the testicle back in?

Speaker B: 00:27:00

He goes, no, we take the whole testicle.

Speaker B: 00:27:01

So all of a sudden I'm like, wait, now I'm gonna have one testicle like cancer?

Speaker B: 00:27:06

And then I just said, can I get a fake nut put in?

Speaker B: 00:27:09

And they said, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:27:10

I'm like, all right.

Speaker B: 00:27:11

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:27:12

I'm like, here's a problem.

Speaker B: 00:27:13

Here's a.

Speaker B: 00:27:14

You know, you have cancer.

Speaker B: 00:27:16

We're having surgery next week.

Speaker B: 00:27:17

We're gonna give you a fake nut.

Speaker B: 00:27:18

I'm like, all right, cool.

Speaker B: 00:27:19

And then it was lymph node dissection.

Speaker B: 00:27:20

You could either not have surgery or you could have this major surgery to, you know, dispel any discrepancies in the future.

Speaker B: 00:27:26

So I opted for that.

Speaker B: 00:27:28

Then it was six tumors in the chest and lungs.

Speaker B: 00:27:30

Chemo eight hours a day, five days a week, three different types of very strong chemo on top of, like, potassium and steroids and all this stuff.

Speaker B: 00:27:37

So I do eight hours a day, five days a week, go home for two weeks, go back eight hours a day, five days a week, go home for two weeks.

Speaker B: 00:27:44

I did that for five sessions.

Speaker B: 00:27:46

Not that I had hair anyways, but I was down to like seven eyebrows at one point.

Speaker B: 00:27:50

And I was £230.

Speaker B: 00:27:53

A lot of water weight because of all the IV fluid, swelling.

Speaker B: 00:27:56

So there was scar tissue on the lungs.

Speaker B: 00:27:59

They did a lobectomy.

Speaker B: 00:28:00

So they went into the back.

Speaker B: 00:28:02

I have, like, this huge scar.

Speaker B: 00:28:03

Looks like a shark bite, basically.

Speaker B: 00:28:05

It sounds cooler if it's a shark bite.

Speaker B: 00:28:07

They cut it open, broke the rib.

Speaker B: 00:28:10

And your right lung is made of three lobes.

Speaker B: 00:28:12

They took the top and bottom lobe of my right lung.

Speaker B: 00:28:14

The surgeon ended up saving the middle portion.

Speaker B: 00:28:17

He reconstructed a blood vessel because I told him I'm like, look, I'm an athlete.

Speaker B: 00:28:21

And this guy is like, Harvard Med, Dr. Swanson.

Speaker B: 00:28:24

He goes, look at my reading room.

Speaker B: 00:28:25

Everyone's 70 years old with COPD.

Speaker B: 00:28:28

And I'm trying to tell him, hey, what's my two mile runtime energy?

Speaker B: 00:28:31

If you take.

Speaker B: 00:28:34

And you know, he wasn't having it.

Speaker B: 00:28:35

He was just trying to do the best that he could.

Speaker B: 00:28:37

And he, because he knew I was, I'm like, look, I'm an athlete.

Speaker B: 00:28:41

I'm not a paid athlete.

Speaker B: 00:28:42

I'm a police officer.

Speaker B: 00:28:43

I've always worked out like, at, I need to know what's going to happen.

Speaker B: 00:28:46

He saved it, you know, for me, which was huge.

Speaker B: 00:28:50

Then I went two weeks later after the lung resection for a follow up to check on things because it was a major surgery.

Speaker B: 00:28:55

And then I go home and they called me and they said, hey, you're mixed germ cell on seminoma.

Speaker B: 00:29:00

Tumor spread to the brain.

Speaker B: 00:29:02

So then I went back brain surgery, brain radiation, a handful of times.

Speaker B: 00:29:07

Then I went and had to have the scar tissue on my left lung removed.

Speaker B: 00:29:10

So they did a scope surgery, removed 10% of my left lung.

Speaker B: 00:29:13

And then I had chemo again, outpatient, you know, to be safe.

Speaker B: 00:29:17

I guess this was all normal to me because I kept, well, I get cancer again.

Speaker B: 00:29:22

All right, let's do something.

Speaker B: 00:29:23

Oh, you get cancer again.

Speaker B: 00:29:25

To me, I'm like, oh, I'm in Boston.

Speaker B: 00:29:26

This is like normal.

Speaker B: 00:29:27

And everybody's like, this isn't normal.

Speaker B: 00:29:31

So after the chemo, it spread to the brain a second time.

Speaker B: 00:29:35

And this is all the mixed germ cell, mouth, seminoma, the testicular cancer that spread everywhere.

Speaker B: 00:29:40

So then after that second brain surgery, radiation, then I was good.

Speaker B: 00:29:44

I was back to work and, you know, back to being a cop again.

Speaker B: 00:29:48

But in the meantime, in between those surgeries, I started cycling.

Speaker B: 00:29:51

My buddy Mike worked at a bike shop at Bike Alley in Lister.

Speaker B: 00:29:55

And then he's, you know, mentioned, hey, you should start riding.

Speaker B: 00:29:58

I bought a bike.

Speaker B: 00:29:59

I bought this Fandex suit.

Speaker B: 00:30:01

And at the time we were, you know, he was very, he's a extremely knowledgeable, like, Pike Alley sent him all over the country to go to these fit schools.

Speaker B: 00:30:09

So every time we rode, I had like a personal coach.

Speaker B: 00:30:11

Okay, you might want to raise your seat a little bit or move your handlebars or get your cadence up to, you know, 85 or 90 RPM or something like, okay.

Speaker B: 00:30:20

So going into it, I got a lot of knowledge and he always said, if you go out for a ride, make it 20 miles minimum.

Speaker B: 00:30:25

Don't do less than 20.

Speaker B: 00:30:26

I'm like, okay.

Speaker B: 00:30:28

So that summer I rode over a thousand miles between like May to August 1st.

Speaker B: 00:30:35

My ecologist mentioned doing the Pan Mass challenge and I didn't know where.

Speaker B: 00:30:38

It was basically a 192 mile bike ride in two days.

Speaker B: 00:30:42

And all the money you raised for your team goes to Data Farber Cancer research.

Speaker B: 00:30:46

My oncologist, Dr. Sweeney was riding in that, that, that weekend that he told me about it.

Speaker B: 00:30:51

And I wanted to start my own team.

Speaker B: 00:30:54

So I came up with Finblue Ride the Cops.

Speaker B: 00:30:57

Three of my friends from work signed up.

Speaker B: 00:30:59

It was like the Bad News Bears.

Speaker B: 00:31:01

We're learning how to step in and fall over, you know, we were not cyclists except for Sergeant Mike Caf, who was, he was, he was a cyclist.

Speaker B: 00:31:09

All of us were trying to learn how to grab water bottles, tire and all this craziness.

Speaker B: 00:31:15

But it was, it was a hard thousand miles.

Speaker B: 00:31:17

And we raised a lot of money.

Speaker B: 00:31:20

Nice story.

Speaker B: 00:31:21

Got some traction with like local media.

Speaker B: 00:31:23

With four of us, we raised $27,000 our first pan, which was huge.

Speaker A: 00:31:29

Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker A: 00:31:30

How did you stay grounded throughout that whole period?

Speaker A: 00:31:34

Right, so they're staying positive and then there's faking it till you make it and then there's the, oh shit.

Speaker A: 00:31:42

Life just really took a left turn.

Speaker A: 00:31:44

I've got to believe there's, there's something that you went to, to kind of stay grounded.

Speaker A: 00:31:48

Right.

Speaker A: 00:31:48

We've talked about your, your mindset of, well, we gotta figure out this problem.

Speaker A: 00:31:52

But how did your perspective on everything shift during that period?

Speaker B: 00:31:58

Yeah, so I think one of the big things that helped me was keeping my mind busy.

Speaker B: 00:32:03

And with me keeping my mind busy, it was even when I was doing chemo and radiation, I'd still like, for example, I do five days of chemo.

Speaker B: 00:32:11

I'd go home Sunday night, Monday morning, it would be like, picture one of your worst hangovers.

Speaker B: 00:32:16

That's what Monday felt like.

Speaker B: 00:32:17

Tuesday felt like your second worst hangover.

Speaker B: 00:32:20

So I would just lay low.

Speaker B: 00:32:22

I have a big family and a lot of friends, a lot of friends from work, a lot of friends from home.

Speaker B: 00:32:27

Anyway, so even when I was in the hospital, I had guys working overnight shifts coming in during the hospital to the hospital during the day.

Speaker B: 00:32:33

My parents would come after they get out of work.

Speaker B: 00:32:36

So it Was a lot of support.

Speaker B: 00:32:38

And it was a lot of keeping busy, like just mentally.

Speaker B: 00:32:42

Conversation, watch a movie.

Speaker B: 00:32:44

I always enjoyed going to movies.

Speaker B: 00:32:46

I always enjoyed watching movies in Iraq because I would escape for an hour and a half.

Speaker B: 00:32:50

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:32:51

And then the movie's over, and you walk outside in the sand everywhere.

Speaker B: 00:32:53

You're like, but.

Speaker B: 00:32:58

But I mean, it was.

Speaker B: 00:33:00

It's an escape.

Speaker B: 00:33:01

So I, you know, I used that working out.

Speaker B: 00:33:03

I remember I built this, like, CrossFit gym, and I still use it to this day.

Speaker B: 00:33:08

And I remember, like, I built this when I was going through chemo.

Speaker B: 00:33:11

Keeping the mind busy is super helpful.

Speaker B: 00:33:14

And luckily I have a big family and a good friend group where people were showing up.

Speaker B: 00:33:18

I think it would have been a lot harder if people weren't showing up.

Speaker B: 00:33:21

When you feel like shit, you look like.

Speaker B: 00:33:23

And then you're just, like, basking in that all day.

Speaker B: 00:33:27

Like, I feel like crap.

Speaker B: 00:33:28

This stuff's driving me down.

Speaker B: 00:33:29

You know, when you're surrounded by it in the hospital.

Speaker B: 00:33:32

Like, I had him bring a stationary bike into my hospital room so I can, like, hooked up the chemo.

Speaker B: 00:33:37

Like, spinning.

Speaker A: 00:33:39

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:33:40

To do something.

Speaker B: 00:33:40

And I would sneak out with, like, the tree and everything, the IV tree.

Speaker B: 00:33:44

And I'd go to, like, the Harvard.

Speaker B: 00:33:46

They Fort yard across the street.

Speaker B: 00:33:49

And then the nurses get a hold of that and they're like, you can't leave.

Speaker B: 00:33:52

Like, I'm not sitting in there for five days.

Speaker A: 00:33:54

You're the worst patient ever.

Speaker B: 00:33:56

Definitely.

Speaker B: 00:33:57

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:33:57

There had to have been a time to, like.

Speaker A: 00:33:59

Or maybe there wasn't.

Speaker A: 00:34:01

Maybe I'm just assuming on those down times.

Speaker A: 00:34:04

No one's around, movie's over, can't leave your room.

Speaker A: 00:34:08

There's got to be this moment where I gotta quit.

Speaker A: 00:34:11

I can't do this.

Speaker A: 00:34:12

I gotta give up.

Speaker A: 00:34:13

Did that.

Speaker A: 00:34:14

Did that thought ever enter your mind?

Speaker B: 00:34:16

No.

Speaker B: 00:34:16

I remember feeling.

Speaker B: 00:34:17

I think it was more towards the end of it.

Speaker B: 00:34:19

Like, I was just tired of being able to add cancer.

Speaker B: 00:34:23

So it was more like.

Speaker B: 00:34:24

I remember talking to a co worker.

Speaker B: 00:34:26

Like, I see.

Speaker B: 00:34:27

I'm like, yeah, I got another brain cancer, brain tumor, so I could have surgery again.

Speaker B: 00:34:31

And he was just like, man.

Speaker B: 00:34:32

And like, just his.

Speaker B: 00:34:34

Like, it drained him.

Speaker A: 00:34:35

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:34:36

And then he got me down.

Speaker B: 00:34:37

I'm like, no, no, I'm fine.

Speaker B: 00:34:38

Stuff like.

Speaker B: 00:34:39

Like, I started to get upset too.

Speaker B: 00:34:41

I'm like, wait a minute.

Speaker B: 00:34:42

I'm like, no, I can't do that.

Speaker A: 00:34:43

Right.

Speaker B: 00:34:44

So, yeah, that happened a few times, I think more towards the end because I'm like, I work out.

Speaker B: 00:34:50

I supposedly eat healthy.

Speaker B: 00:34:51

Like, I'M not never going to have a pizza again.

Speaker B: 00:34:53

But getting cancer free.

Speaker B: 00:34:55

I was cancer free for seven years.

Speaker B: 00:34:57

And in that time we turned Thin Blue ride into a 501C3.

Speaker B: 00:35:00

So we raised money for military veterans, first responders and their families when they get cancer.

Speaker B: 00:35:05

And since we started in: 2016

Speaker B: 00:35:10

We raised money.

Speaker B: 00:35:11

So we continue to raise money for panmast.

Speaker B: 00:35:13

We've done a handful of rides, we've stopped just because the dollar amount is very high.

Speaker B: 00:35:19

If we had a corporate sponsor that would be like, hey, put our name on your jerseys and you're on kit and you guys could ride.

Speaker B: 00:35:24

We would love to, but I can't.

Speaker B: 00:35:26

Timber.

Speaker B: 00:35:27

I found her to be.

Speaker B: 00:35:28

Hey, let's spend, I mean, we've spent $40,000 on a pan match, right, to cure cancer.

Speaker B: 00:35:35

And I could give four families $10,000.

Speaker B: 00:35:39

I would rather, you know, and that's what's, that's what keeps us going is I was down for the count.

Speaker B: 00:35:44

My friends had a benefit for me at Mechanics hall in Worcester.

Speaker B: 00:35:47

I had my high school football team there, had the guys I went to Iraq with there.

Speaker B: 00:35:51

The whole police department was there.

Speaker B: 00:35:53

There was like: 1200

Speaker B: 00:35:59

I couldn't even go to the bathroom because people were just coming up.

Speaker B: 00:36:02

And like, I remember I was like gray in the face.

Speaker B: 00:36:05

I'm like, I need an orange juice, something.

Speaker B: 00:36:07

But you know, people are coming out of the woodwork and showing support.

Speaker B: 00:36:12

So that's what drove me to say, let's help other people the way they help me.

Speaker B: 00:36:16

So now I'm, I see where like I'm a facilitator.

Speaker B: 00:36:20

Somebody has cancer, talk to them directly.

Speaker B: 00:36:22

Hey, do you want our help?

Speaker B: 00:36:23

I don't care if you say yes or no because we're going to help you anyways.

Speaker B: 00:36:26

Send me some pictures.

Speaker B: 00:36:28

Don't just show some paperwork that you're a veteran or a first responder and that you have cancer.

Speaker B: 00:36:33

And people more likely show that stuff real quick.

Speaker B: 00:36:37

And then we'll raise some funds and then we'll get the funds and we'll cut a check to the, to that person.

Speaker B: 00:36:42

And typically we'll add more to it.

Speaker B: 00:36:44

tially, you know, if we raise: 2500

Speaker B: 00:36:56

So, you know, we've done $500 on the low end.

Speaker B: 00:36:59

And we donated up to $50,000 on that.

Speaker A: 00:37:03

There's gotta be beyond the feeling of satisfaction that you're able to help people and the camaraderie of the shared experience with someone.

Speaker A: 00:37:14

You, you know what they're going through.

Speaker A: 00:37:17

Their family might not know what they're going through.

Speaker A: 00:37:19

You know what they're going through.

Speaker A: 00:37:22

Has there been a family that really.

Speaker A: 00:37:24

And I'm sure they all have unique stories and are touching in their own way, but has there been an instance that really stood out to you that said, this is what I was put here to do and help people like this?

Speaker B: 00:37:37

Every case is different too.

Speaker A: 00:37:38

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:37:38

We also get the.

Speaker B: 00:37:40

These cancer.

Speaker B: 00:37:41

Not everyone gets better.

Speaker B: 00:37:42

Right, Right.

Speaker B: 00:37:43

And I struggle with that.

Speaker B: 00:37:45

And my wife likes to keep me in check because I'll get dragged out sometimes because it drags you down.

Speaker B: 00:37:50

Like we're dealing with some people that don't make it.

Speaker B: 00:37:52

And that's, That's a lot for me, it's more like she, she.

Speaker B: 00:37:57

Kelly does a good job of being like, you're making a difference here, you know, doing great things.

Speaker B: 00:38:01

So it helps to.

Speaker B: 00:38:03

It's like we get shitty news and then all of a sudden we turn it to be like, okay, it's.

Speaker B: 00:38:07

It's about them.

Speaker B: 00:38:09

Let's help them with getting the right help, getting the right mindset.

Speaker B: 00:38:13

And I even find it hard for myself to talk to some other people that have cancers, like, especially with terminal.

Speaker B: 00:38:20

Like, I was never terminal, essentially.

Speaker B: 00:38:21

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:38:22

If it wasn't treated, it could have been, sure.

Speaker B: 00:38:24

But it's.

Speaker B: 00:38:24

It's tough to.

Speaker B: 00:38:26

What do you say to somebody with terminal cancer?

Speaker B: 00:38:28

And I found myself using my wording cautiously, like I say, how are you doing today?

Speaker B: 00:38:34

Because it's like, how was Iraq?

Speaker B: 00:38:36

Oh, great.

Speaker B: 00:38:37

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:38:37

War was awesome.

Speaker B: 00:38:38

And I think in our society there's a lot of that.

Speaker B: 00:38:40

Like, if you lose a loved one.

Speaker B: 00:38:42

Oh, you lost your grandparents.

Speaker B: 00:38:43

Oh, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:38:43

How old?

Speaker B: 00:38:44

That's like, you know, oh, they died from old age.

Speaker B: 00:38:46

It's common.

Speaker B: 00:38:47

It's right.

Speaker B: 00:38:47

It's societal thing, the conversation thing.

Speaker B: 00:38:51

Some people don't know what to say.

Speaker B: 00:38:52

So it's.

Speaker B: 00:38:53

I try to say the right thing, obviously.

Speaker B: 00:38:55

I think the latest, one of the latest ones, a couple years ago, AJ Laponic, he was a middle girl cop, Special forces soldier, you know, SWAT guy, father, husband, like all around awesome guy.

Speaker B: 00:39:08

Like, I didn't know him, but another friend reached out to me and said, hey, this guy needs help.

Speaker B: 00:39:12

He's not going to ask for it.

Speaker B: 00:39:14

He's not going to take it.

Speaker B: 00:39:15

Don't My.

Speaker B: 00:39:16

My spiel is, hey, I had great insurance, and I had $26,000 in CO pays, and people, very lads, and they're like, oh, Jesus.

Speaker B: 00:39:24

Like, okay, like, yeah, let's raise some money.

Speaker B: 00:39:26

You know, with AJ that, it was tough.

Speaker B: 00:39:29

Talked to him a lot, text message, some phone calls.

Speaker B: 00:39:31

Had cancer.

Speaker B: 00:39:32

He got.

Speaker B: 00:39:32

Got better, got sick again and passed away from his cancer.

Speaker B: 00:39:36

And we're still in touch with his wife, Tracy.

Speaker B: 00:39:39

She came and spoke at our Bell tournament last year.

Speaker B: 00:39:41

And, like, hearing.

Speaker B: 00:39:43

Hearing the family speak, like, I don't care about us, it's like, are we helping them?

Speaker B: 00:39:48

And it definitely shows.

Speaker B: 00:39:50

We started doing that a few years ago at our tournaments where we have people that we help out.

Speaker B: 00:39:53

I'm like, hey, do you want to speak in there?

Speaker B: 00:39:55

More than happy to.

Speaker B: 00:39:56

You know, you could hear a pin drop with, you know, 200 people in a room, because it's showing what we're doing is making a difference.

Speaker A: 00:40:03

What do you wish more people understood about this process, specifically as it relates to first responders?

Speaker B: 00:40:11

Right.

Speaker A: 00:40:11

Because y' all are a different breed.

Speaker A: 00:40:12

Everybody that's a first responder of any sort has what I found to be generally a different mindset than the rest of the civilians.

Speaker A: 00:40:22

And.

Speaker B: 00:40:22

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:40:23

What do you.

Speaker A: 00:40:24

What do you wish that more people understood about that community when they're going through cancer?

Speaker B: 00:40:30

There's really nobody like this group.

Speaker B: 00:40:33

I kind of feel like there's veterans versus farmers.

Speaker B: 00:40:36

And there is.

Speaker B: 00:40:37

In that group, I put people with cancer.

Speaker B: 00:40:40

I call them cancer warriors because, you know, survive.

Speaker B: 00:40:43

We survive a car crash or a plane crash.

Speaker B: 00:40:45

Like, you're a fighter if you're fighting cancer.

Speaker B: 00:40:47

Like, you have to do that on a daily basis.

Speaker B: 00:40:49

If you take a veteran, whether it's Iraq, veteran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, you put them in a room, they're going to have that commonality versus findings.

Speaker B: 00:40:59

Same thing.

Speaker B: 00:40:59

Somebody with cancer, Same thing.

Speaker B: 00:41:01

Stories are the same, but a little different.

Speaker B: 00:41:02

And I think our network of helping each other out stands out a lot more than, you know, other occupations.

Speaker B: 00:41:09

Obviously it does, but I think with other jobs, some people, our jobs, we're paying ourselves away a lot of the times.

Speaker B: 00:41:16

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:41:17

And it's not really thinking about it, and we do it.

Speaker B: 00:41:20

And I think that's why the support is there, and that's why we've been successful with getting.

Speaker B: 00:41:26

Getting everyone rallied around this one person or this one family, which is huge.

Speaker A: 00:41:31

What's it been like to get your health back while managing this nonprofit, while helping people, but trying to maintain your health, but working long hours?

Speaker A: 00:41:42

Right.

Speaker A: 00:41:42

There's a There's a cycle here that is very constructive and destructive.

Speaker A: 00:41:47

How do you manage that?

Speaker B: 00:41:48

I don't know if I updated the site, but I still have.

Speaker B: 00:41:51

So three years ago, I got diagnosed with leukemia.

Speaker B: 00:41:53

So, dude, yeah, keep everyone on their toes.

Speaker A: 00:42:00

Doctors don't need more work.

Speaker A: 00:42:02

You don't need to keep bringing them work.

Speaker B: 00:42:05

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:42:07

So, yeah, three years ago I diagnosed with cml, chronic myocardial leukemia.

Speaker B: 00:42:12

And I've been taking.

Speaker B: 00:42:14

It's.

Speaker B: 00:42:14

You know, they say it's super rare, super treatable.

Speaker B: 00:42:16

I'm like, yeah, of course that's.

Speaker B: 00:42:18

It's all about me and keep it interesting.

Speaker B: 00:42:21

So basically I was.

Speaker B: 00:42:22

I started taking Sprycel, which was a daily morning.

Speaker B: 00:42:26

Two pills.

Speaker B: 00:42:27

Like, two pills.

Speaker B: 00:42:28

I'd have to fast two hours before, one hour after taking them.

Speaker B: 00:42:31

And it was causing leg pain.

Speaker B: 00:42:34

And this is when I was still working.

Speaker B: 00:42:35

I was on the mounted unit, riding the horses, full lister.

Speaker B: 00:42:38

And it was just.

Speaker B: 00:42:39

I remember telling my buddy Joe, who helps you run a nonprofit.

Speaker B: 00:42:42

I'm like, dude, today's not every day.

Speaker B: 00:42:44

Like, my legs are killing me.

Speaker B: 00:42:45

So, you know, we cover for each other and.

Speaker B: 00:42:47

Or he coming for me.

Speaker B: 00:42:48

I started to lose oxygen level.

Speaker B: 00:42:51

Not lose oxygen levels, but when I work out and run, my O2 levels would.

Speaker B: 00:42:54

You know, everyone's at 100 or right around there.

Speaker B: 00:42:57

I would run and then my levels would drop to like the high 80s.

Speaker B: 00:43:00

And I went to a pulmonologist and she said, that's not good.

Speaker B: 00:43:03

So they switched my meds.

Speaker B: 00:43:04

Then I started taking to Cigna.

Speaker B: 00:43:06

My oncologist said, oh, it's not a chemo pill.

Speaker B: 00:43:09

And then I get a call from the pharmacy, like, yeah, and this chemo pill, don't touch me, dog.

Speaker B: 00:43:13

Eat it.

Speaker B: 00:43:13

Just take it.

Speaker B: 00:43:14

In the morning, I'm like, oh, okay, super toxic.

Speaker B: 00:43:15

No B.

Speaker B: 00:43:16

So, yeah, it's a chemo pill.

Speaker B: 00:43:18

Because if I don't take it, my Philadelphia gene, the white blood cells are going to elevate.

Speaker B: 00:43:22

VCR able is the reading for this level.

Speaker B: 00:43:26

So that would get elevated.

Speaker B: 00:43:28

I retired officially from the Police Department after 18 years in December on a medical.

Speaker B: 00:43:34

So I retired at like 50% of the pay medical.

Speaker B: 00:43:36

I bought back some military time, which was nice.

Speaker B: 00:43:39

So retired free and clear of the city.

Speaker B: 00:43:41

But it was, you know, 18 years in the city.

Speaker B: 00:43:44

That's.

Speaker B: 00:43:44

That's a good amount of time.

Speaker B: 00:43:45

And eight years on the SWAT team.

Speaker B: 00:43:47

SWAT team was a lot of fun sniper with them and me and AC did emergency operations.

Speaker B: 00:43:53

So basically it was a full time SWAT team role.

Speaker B: 00:43:55

And we were on the day ship.

Speaker B: 00:43:56

So it was great.

Speaker B: 00:43:57

We'd listen to the radio and then there would be a call for a guy with a knife, guy with a gun, guy wanted to jump off a roof.

Speaker B: 00:44:04

I don't know why they call SWAT because we're not stuff.

Speaker B: 00:44:08

But, you know, we would go to all those hot calls essentially and step back once I was trying to retire officially and I had to tell myself, like, am I good with this?

Speaker B: 00:44:18

And it was kind of easy.

Speaker B: 00:44:20

It's tough because being a cop is not like any other profession.

Speaker B: 00:44:23

I, you know, put it up there with being the military, being.

Speaker B: 00:44:26

I don't know, any like maybe a doctor or something.

Speaker B: 00:44:29

Not medically or intellect wise, but like, oh, there's J.D.

Speaker B: 00:44:34

he's a cop.

Speaker B: 00:44:35

I was never jee welder before.

Speaker A: 00:44:37

Right.

Speaker B: 00:44:37

You know, so it's, it's one of those jobs that you just don't switch.

Speaker B: 00:44:41

You go to another one.

Speaker B: 00:44:42

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:44:42

Accepting that, hey, I'm done 42 now.

Speaker B: 00:44:45

So it's now I want to get my health in order.

Speaker B: 00:44:47

So I've been, I've gotten stem cell treatment.

Speaker B: 00:44:49

I had this wonderful lady and her mother hear my story and then say, we want to pay for your stem cell treatment.

Speaker B: 00:44:55

So I went to California.

Speaker B: 00:44:57

The Dr. Joy Collins clinic out there had three treatments and that those actually helped my liver numbers because they were super elevated from the chemo pills.

Speaker B: 00:45:05

They were like, you're pre diabetic.

Speaker B: 00:45:07

Even though I stopped drinking, I stopped doing, I stopped doing liver cleanses.

Speaker B: 00:45:11

And it got my ALT levels down to normal.

Speaker B: 00:45:14

And you know, it was elevated for about a year and a half.

Speaker B: 00:45:17

So stem cells are awesome.

Speaker B: 00:45:19

I love to do them again for anti.

Speaker A: 00:45:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:45:24

Your DNA, their parasitic tissue in your lungs.

Speaker B: 00:45:27

And on top of that, I started taking this at neoma peptide.

Speaker B: 00:45:30

It's like BPC157, which is a huge anti inflammatory.

Speaker B: 00:45:35

I started taking methylene blue.

Speaker B: 00:45:37

I bought a red light from red light therapy.

Speaker B: 00:45:39

There's another machine.

Speaker B: 00:45:41

It's that Axion 2.

Speaker B: 00:45:42

It's like a oxygen, it's like a briefcase fleet.

Speaker B: 00:45:46

It pumps oxygen, but with the oxygen it has distilled water that turns into hydrogen and the hydrogen oxygenates your blood cells.

Speaker B: 00:45:53

Cancer hates oxygen and I guess similar to what a hyperbaric chamber would do.

Speaker B: 00:45:58

And I know, okay, people are doing the chamber with cancer treatments.

Speaker B: 00:46:02

So this guy's gonna send me one to try out for 60 to 90 days and I'm going to put it to the test.

Speaker B: 00:46:08

And I'm the type of guy who likes numbers.

Speaker B: 00:46:10

I'm gonna go, you know, run A half mile as fast as I can right now, engagement numbers.

Speaker B: 00:46:14

And then I'm gonna get a scheme for a day, for a week, for two weeks, and then see if it's actually working.

Speaker B: 00:46:20

If it's working.

Speaker B: 00:46:21

Like my, my baseline has changed from, you know, a couple years ago SWAT team fit to now it's.

Speaker B: 00:46:27

Yeah, it could be fit, but my O2 levels drop pretty quick if I'm doing some kind of hiit workout.

Speaker B: 00:46:33

So I've been learning more about the alternative medicine side too.

Speaker B: 00:46:37

I mean, honestly, it's a little pricey at some points, but so is in your health, right?

Speaker B: 00:46:42

Like $26,000 in CO pays with a bunch of toxic stuff in your veins.

Speaker B: 00:46:46

Or 20 grand for some stem cells or 50 grand for stem cells.

Speaker B: 00:46:50

Like, you know, realistically all you have is your health.

Speaker B: 00:46:53

So it's worth, it's worth the investment.

Speaker A: 00:46:55

You've got this whole new mission now you got to stay healthy for.

Speaker A: 00:46:59

Right?

Speaker A: 00:46:59

You've got to try to do your best for that.

Speaker A: 00:47:02

So let's talk about thin blue rye.

Speaker A: 00:47:05

You're still riding to any degree?

Speaker B: 00:47:07

Yeah, I'm actually, I get the peloton bike in front.

Speaker B: 00:47:10

That's an easy.

Speaker B: 00:47:11

Throw the shoes on and go.

Speaker B: 00:47:13

Right.

Speaker B: 00:47:13

And I'm actually sitting on the.

Speaker B: 00:47:15

I get these jiu jitsu mats and I'll meditate and do yoga and stuff.

Speaker B: 00:47:18

But, well, like usually do road cycling in the summer.

Speaker B: 00:47:22

Now it's the season to start riding.

Speaker B: 00:47:24

I'm a fair weather rider.

Speaker B: 00:47:25

I'm not going out with cold weather gear.

Speaker A: 00:47:27

I hear you.

Speaker B: 00:47:28

Yeah, mountain biking, the same thing.

Speaker B: 00:47:30

Like going up to Highland Mountain Bike park or whatever around here is good too.

Speaker B: 00:47:35

But yeah, like getting on the bike and we're going to try to get, I mean, we're going to have our golf tournament, but we're trying to get kind of something in the work as far as cycling.

Speaker B: 00:47:43

Logistically, it's one of those things.

Speaker B: 00:47:45

Where do we want it in the city?

Speaker B: 00:47:46

Do we want to do a big ride, a small ride?

Speaker B: 00:47:48

Like, there's a lot of moving parts.

Speaker B: 00:47:49

So we're trying to figure out what we want to do.

Speaker B: 00:47:52

And you know, we just, just want to promote like the, I guess, healthy lifestyle, right?

Speaker B: 00:47:57

Like you can build up cancer and be an athlete.

Speaker B: 00:48:01

Like whether it's getting up and walking down the hall or running a marathon, right?

Speaker B: 00:48:05

Like, you can, some days suck, some days you could crush it.

Speaker B: 00:48:08

I mean, there's been days after, like after my brain surgery, I put on one of those wet caps and I get out and went wakeboarding.

Speaker B: 00:48:14

On the wake.

Speaker B: 00:48:15

Just because I'm like, yeah, if you could do it, do it.

Speaker B: 00:48:18

And everyone's different.

Speaker B: 00:48:19

It doesn't mean you have to be slamming weights or running fast.

Speaker B: 00:48:22

It's if you can get after it.

Speaker B: 00:48:24

Like, I remember I loved skiing because the chemo was so severe.

Speaker B: 00:48:29

Like, the.

Speaker B: 00:48:29

I like the cold air and the fresh air.

Speaker B: 00:48:32

So, you know, doing that in winter was great.

Speaker B: 00:48:34

Cycling in the summer, being outside, like, it's, you know, it's all good stuff.

Speaker A: 00:48:38

Well, it's.

Speaker A: 00:48:39

It sounds like beyond the physical health, right.

Speaker A: 00:48:42

Which is a mix of big pharma and the farm next door.

Speaker A: 00:48:47

Right.

Speaker A: 00:48:47

Which is all this, you know, the holistic stuff and the pharmaceuticals that takes care of the shell from your head to your feet.

Speaker A: 00:48:54

But internally, you still gotta keep this thing healthy.

Speaker A: 00:48:58

Right?

Speaker A: 00:48:58

You still gotta keep the brain going.

Speaker A: 00:49:00

So keeping yourself busy, whether it's with exercise or meeting with people, seems to be core to your health regimen as well.

Speaker A: 00:49:10

Right.

Speaker A: 00:49:10

Just making sure that the mental fitness is there.

Speaker A: 00:49:13

So do you feel like when you're talking to the men and women that the foundation is helping?

Speaker A: 00:49:21

Do you feel sometimes like a psychologist, like you're.

Speaker A: 00:49:24

You're working more on mindset than the physical health with them as you're talking about, like, hey, how can we help you?

Speaker A: 00:49:31

But I assume you're going in there and you're having these conversations.

Speaker A: 00:49:35

I gotta believe that some of the conversations you get into are more about what's between the ears than necessarily what machine you're hooked up to.

Speaker B: 00:49:43

It's funny now that you say that, I feel like going into any situation, I always feel like everybody is at the same level as me.

Speaker B: 00:49:50

Better.

Speaker B: 00:49:52

I feel like if, you know, because I go into it, and I was talking to a mother whose daughter's in a battle right now, and she walked in and she almost started crying.

Speaker B: 00:50:04

And I'm almost started to cry, just.

Speaker B: 00:50:07

And I told her my story, and she's like.

Speaker B: 00:50:09

She mentioned all this holistic stuff, and then I'm spitting off all of my experiences, given me a lot of knowledge.

Speaker A: 00:50:15

Right.

Speaker B: 00:50:16

So I think with me, you know, met a lot of people, have two partial lung resections, two brain surgeries, two rounds of chemo to rounds.

Speaker B: 00:50:23

Really place cancer surgery, leukemia, you know, the list goes on.

Speaker B: 00:50:27

Where?

Speaker A: 00:50:28

Overachiever.

Speaker B: 00:50:29

Oh, so.

Speaker B: 00:50:30

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:50:32

But it's more like, oh, I've had brain surgery, and the first thing I say is go to Boston or go to whatever cancer clinic.

Speaker B: 00:50:38

Like, I don't have the Anderson.

Speaker B: 00:50:40

And in Texas is a good one.

Speaker B: 00:50:42

Data Farber.

Speaker B: 00:50:43

Is good.

Speaker B: 00:50:44

Then there's another one in la.

Speaker B: 00:50:46

There's a bunch in la, but I forget, you know, all the names.

Speaker B: 00:50:48

You know, some people that I talk to don't want to leave Worcester because it's convenient.

Speaker B: 00:50:53

They're like, oh, it's the same system as Dana Farber.

Speaker B: 00:50:56

And I'm like, it's the same computer system.

Speaker B: 00:50:58

It's not the same doctors.

Speaker B: 00:51:00

It's not the same quality of care that you get in Boston.

Speaker B: 00:51:03

And I was misdiagnosed in Saint Bees.

Speaker B: 00:51:06

My grandfather passed away from skin cancer.

Speaker B: 00:51:08

He was misdiagnosed.

Speaker B: 00:51:09

My Aunt Nancy was misdiagnosed in St. Vin's St. Vice said, get your affairs in order.

Speaker B: 00:51:13

And I do know some people that work at St. Louis, and I love them.

Speaker B: 00:51:16

I don't know if it's the whole.

Speaker B: 00:51:18

The heads or whatever, but I knew I had brain tumors before they told me I had brain tumors because my numbers were elevated.

Speaker B: 00:51:26

And I knew that, and they didn't say that, but I also knew this was at St. Vi's.

Speaker B: 00:51:30

I knew I was going to Dana Farber in two days.

Speaker B: 00:51:32

So I told my oncologist, and then that was rectified there.

Speaker B: 00:51:36

Some people are rigid, and they're like, oh, we don't want to drive the hour.

Speaker B: 00:51:40

I'm like, it's an hour.

Speaker B: 00:51:41

Like, an hour's nothing.

Speaker B: 00:51:42

Like, I'll drive you.

Speaker B: 00:51:43

We get this range, we get this new truck donated from to us from Marty's gmc.

Speaker B: 00:51:50

They wrapped it with in the Ride logos and everything.

Speaker B: 00:51:53

And we got AJ's name on it.

Speaker B: 00:51:54

And AJ's call sign was Anarchy.

Speaker B: 00:51:59

So we have anarchy written on it.

Speaker A: 00:52:01

Great call.

Speaker B: 00:52:01

Suck, you know?

Speaker B: 00:52:02

And I say his connection was AJ's good friend's mother was a manager at the dealership.

Speaker B: 00:52:08

She found out what we did, and then we kind of pushed, like, hey, you know, we could do money sponsorships.

Speaker B: 00:52:15

I'm like, we have a trailer where we sell a lot of T shirts.

Speaker B: 00:52:18

And I'm like, I pulled it with my Jeep Wrangler, which is not safe.

Speaker B: 00:52:23

It's, like, overweight.

Speaker B: 00:52:24

So I remember we drove up to Ridgeline here at our shootouts.

Speaker A: 00:52:29

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:52:29

And I was like, I felt more comfortable driving in Baghdad than I did at this point.

Speaker B: 00:52:34

And I threw it out there.

Speaker B: 00:52:35

I said, hey, can you use a truck?

Speaker B: 00:52:37

And then a couple months later, hey, you guys want to pick up your truck?

Speaker B: 00:52:40

Like, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:52:41

Awesome.

Speaker B: 00:52:42

You know, putting ourselves out there is huge.

Speaker B: 00:52:44

I'll ask for anything.

Speaker B: 00:52:46

Essentially, it's not for me.

Speaker B: 00:52:47

It's for the nonprofit.

Speaker B: 00:52:48

It's to help people.

Speaker A: 00:52:50

What can they say?

Speaker A: 00:52:51

No.

Speaker B: 00:52:52

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker B: 00:52:53

Worst we could say is no, I know a guy right now who's getting some holistic treatment, driving three hours back and forth to New York and I'm like, I'll give you a ride.

Speaker B: 00:53:00

I'm like, we good or anarchy truck right outside?

Speaker B: 00:53:04

It's trying to get people to see the big picture of not really telling people what to do.

Speaker B: 00:53:10

But like, this is my experience and this is a good option to take.

Speaker B: 00:53:15

And then, you know, explaining the quality of care, the bedside manner of the oncologist and everything.

Speaker B: 00:53:20

The, the amount that you're going to have to deal with financially because money isn't the cure, but it fucking helps.

Speaker B: 00:53:29

We've helped people where there's a stay at home mom and the dad's battling the cancer, so he's not working.

Speaker B: 00:53:35

There's no overtime or there's no pain at all.

Speaker B: 00:53:38

So it's, you know, you're kind of stuck.

Speaker B: 00:53:39

We don't take any percentage.

Speaker B: 00:53:41

Like we're just design volunteer stuff.

Speaker B: 00:53:43

So we're giving away more than we take in.

Speaker B: 00:53:44

So if, if you raise, we raise five grand for somebody, they're getting more than five grand that we're donating back to them.

Speaker A: 00:53:51

You know, you mentioned a few minutes ago, folks not wanting to take that hour long ride, not wanting to be inconvenienced.

Speaker A: 00:53:58

I always feel like that's such a.

Speaker B: 00:54:01

And I'm not.

Speaker A: 00:54:02

I judge nobody.

Speaker A: 00:54:03

Right.

Speaker A: 00:54:03

I haven't been in their shoes, I'm judging nobody.

Speaker A: 00:54:05

But I always feel like as humans, fear of the unknown is what keeps us from seeing things on the other side.

Speaker A: 00:54:12

Right.

Speaker A: 00:54:13

Well, I, if I go to Boston, maybe things are going to be worse than they are at the diagnosis that I have here right now.

Speaker A: 00:54:22

I don't want to face that.

Speaker A: 00:54:23

You, on the other hand, went into it and came out on the other side, or went into it with optimism.

Speaker A: 00:54:29

Came out with optimism of, yeah, okay, well, this is just one more obstacle to get past.

Speaker A: 00:54:36

Do you feel like there's a point where people shift or is it they either got it or they don't?

Speaker A: 00:54:44

Do they give in to the fear or not?

Speaker B: 00:54:47

I think there's been a little shift with.

Speaker B: 00:54:49

Because when I talk to somebody, like if we're raising money, I like to talk to somebody even if I'm not raising money.

Speaker B: 00:54:54

If somebody's like, hey, my uncle has cancer, my dad, whatever, I'll talk to them on messenger, I'll try to get them on the phone.

Speaker B: 00:55:00

Depending on how severe is, sometimes I'll Talk to the spouse and go like, look like not telling me what to do, but this is my experience.

Speaker B: 00:55:08

I'm not trying to scare anybody.

Speaker B: 00:55:09

I'm just trying to say like, hey, this is, this is what it is.

Speaker B: 00:55:12

Like, yeah, I didn't have a great experience here.

Speaker B: 00:55:14

I had a good experience here.

Speaker B: 00:55:16

And not only that, I feel like the boomer generation is you never question your doctor.

Speaker B: 00:55:23

And now especially with some of these guys who are Reanon vets who have these cancers, I'm like, no, you are your own advocate because you get 15 minutes to tell them.

Speaker B: 00:55:35

The doctor gets, you know, anywhere from five to 15 minutes to tell you you have cancer, to tell you that this life changing surgery is going to happen.

Speaker B: 00:55:41

Or, you know, you name, they get that 15 minutes or very short amount of time to tell you to, you know, crumble somebody.

Speaker B: 00:55:50

Some of them can do it tactfully, but it's, you know, if you're changing somebody's leave, telling somebody that cancer, you're telling somebody that they have so many muscle and it's tough for that person to understand the scope of it all.

Speaker B: 00:56:01

It's, you know, you get derailed, like many times I've been told I have cancer.

Speaker A: 00:56:06

They're telling you your life is never going to be the same from this point forward.

Speaker A: 00:56:09

Life as you know it is going to be different.

Speaker A: 00:56:12

No matter what the end result is, life is going to be different.

Speaker A: 00:56:15

Are you up for it or not?

Speaker A: 00:56:17

Having very close friends like all of us do that have gone through similar things, it's, it's very interesting how many different ways people handle it.

Speaker A: 00:56:29

And I think that's, that's all built in your overall outlook on life.

Speaker A: 00:56:33

Are you looking at this as something I'm not ready to give up yet or.

Speaker A: 00:56:37

Well, I had a good run and that's it.

Speaker A: 00:56:40

Now let's just try to make it comfortable.

Speaker A: 00:56:42

So Thin Blue ride.

Speaker A: 00:56:44

You're writing a book, right?

Speaker A: 00:56:45

Because you have all this free time.

Speaker A: 00:56:47

Right.

Speaker A: 00:56:47

You got all the free time in the world.

Speaker B: 00:56:49

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:56:49

You're working with sponsors.

Speaker A: 00:56:50

Let's start talking about how everybody out there can help you.

Speaker A: 00:56:55

What's the book about?

Speaker A: 00:56:57

Like what, what is the big plan for the future?

Speaker A: 00:56:59

Because you're going to be around now for the next 40 years.

Speaker A: 00:57:02

So yeah.

Speaker A: 00:57:02

What are you going to do with all this free time?

Speaker B: 00:57:04

You got the book started.

Speaker B: 00:57:05

My way travels a little bit work.

Speaker B: 00:57:08

So I think it was, it was in the middle of me being out of work because it was, you know, unsafe because of the oxygen level.

Speaker B: 00:57:14

You know, I think A big part of that was I started listening to audiobooks.

Speaker B: 00:57:18

I'm like, you know, I love music, but at the same time, if I'm driving a half an hour, work every day.

Speaker B: 00:57:22

I always wanted to read the American Sniper book, Stolen Survivor books.

Speaker B: 00:57:27

So when I was going through treatments, that's what I did.

Speaker B: 00:57:29

I'm like, I want to read about heroes.

Speaker B: 00:57:30

I want to read about real stuff.

Speaker B: 00:57:31

Then when I was working at the barn, it was a half hour drive there and back.

Speaker B: 00:57:35

So it was.

Speaker B: 00:57:36

I listened to a ton of books before.

Speaker B: 00:57:38

Soldiers First Guys Stand.

Speaker B: 00:57:40

That was a huge, you know, that was a good one.

Speaker B: 00:57:42

And then I got into like the Jack Carr stuff.

Speaker A: 00:57:44

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:57:44

And I love the way he wrote.

Speaker B: 00:57:46

So I kind of took, you know, and I'm no, I'm no, I'd say no author, but essentially I guess I'm an author because I wrote a book.

Speaker B: 00:57:52

But I kind of took the way he described things and I kind of like that style.

Speaker B: 00:57:57

And I'm like, all right, let's, you know, honestly I thought, I didn't know if it was my heart or my lungs that was messed up at the time.

Speaker B: 00:58:04

And my kids were that are 10 and 13 now.

Speaker B: 00:58:07

So I started writing a year ago.

Speaker B: 00:58:09

And my thing was I don't remember when I was 10 or 12.

Speaker B: 00:58:13

Like, you know, if I'm gone, I need them to read my story.

Speaker B: 00:58:18

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:58:19

So I kind of, you know, this was, I guess the cliffs notes of the book, but more of like the mindset.

Speaker B: 00:58:24

Talk about some police stories, talk about some military stuff, some tips and tricks on what I did.

Speaker B: 00:58:29

Like I would go into the doctors and I'd write 10 questions down prior to a visit.

Speaker B: 00:58:34

Hey, am I going to give me pills?

Speaker B: 00:58:37

What are the, what are the side effects of the pills?

Speaker B: 00:58:38

All right, you know what I mean?

Speaker B: 00:58:40

You just come up with 10 questions because that way you go in prepared rather than, you know, you're going for a follow up visit and the doctor tells you X, Y and Z.

Speaker B: 00:58:47

And then all of a sudden you're sitting in your car like, crap, I'm not going to see him for another three months.

Speaker B: 00:58:52

Right.

Speaker B: 00:58:52

And I totally forgot about, you know, could I still go skydiving or skiing or whatever.

Speaker B: 00:58:57

Whatever it is, you know you're going to do that, that leaves undue anxiety and stress that your body doesn't need.

Speaker B: 00:59:05

So stuff like that in the book again, like, I tried to make it a.

Speaker B: 00:59:08

Not a self, say non self help book, but if it helps you, that's great.

Speaker B: 00:59:12

Like I did the speeches before and I say, I'm not a motivational speaker, but if my story motivates you, then that's great.

Speaker B: 00:59:19

You know, I'm here to do this rah rah stuff.

Speaker B: 00:59:21

When he's like, I'll tell you.

Speaker B: 00:59:23

I'll tell you my story.

Speaker B: 00:59:24

I'll tell you my mindset.

Speaker B: 00:59:25

Because to me, this is the only way that I know.

Speaker B: 00:59:28

Like, I remember being at a event and I was telling the guy next to me my story, and the guy across from me was saying, oh, my God, how did you get through that?

Speaker B: 00:59:37

And then I stopped and said, how?

Speaker B: 00:59:39

How would you get through that?

Speaker B: 00:59:40

And that, you know, listening to it.

Speaker B: 00:59:42

He was totally.

Speaker B: 00:59:42

And I'm trying to listen to him.

Speaker B: 00:59:44

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:59:45

And he was like, you know, I had this scare when I was 21 and blah, blah.

Speaker B: 00:59:49

And he's like, I don't think I could do it.

Speaker B: 00:59:50

And I'm like, you know, you're stronger than you think.

Speaker A: 00:59:53

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:59:53

The book is out of publishing now.

Speaker B: 00:59:55

We're going through it.

Speaker B: 00:59:56

It'll be on Amazon.

Speaker B: 00:59:57

I'm going to have it on the website and everything.

Speaker B: 00:59:59

So we have similareye.org which has our event.

Speaker B: 01:00:02

And we just started doing our online store.

Speaker B: 01:00:04

So these shirts are on there with a flag on the back.

Speaker B: 01:00:08

And then we have OD green shirts, similar style that we sell on the site.

Speaker B: 01:00:13

We also have a golf tournament at Blackstone national, so we looked for sponsors for that.

Speaker B: 01:00:18

We look for raffle items to donate.

Speaker B: 01:00:21

So we do a really good tournament.

Speaker B: 01:00:22

We've been doing it since: 2017

Speaker B: 01:00:25

Wow.

Speaker B: 01:00:26

Like, it's such a good tournament.

Speaker B: 01:00:27

We give away guns.

Speaker B: 01:00:28

We give away paddle boards, Weber grills.

Speaker B: 01:00:30

Then it, you know, it keeps getting better.

Speaker B: 01:00:32

And we're not asking a lot.

Speaker B: 01:00:33

I think we're doing 175 a person.

Speaker B: 01:00:36

Like, we.

Speaker B: 01:00:37

We give the money back to the golfer.

Speaker A: 01:00:38

Sure.

Speaker B: 01:00:39

Of course.

Speaker B: 01:00:39

A little resistant.

Speaker B: 01:00:40

You know, we've done Bluetooth speakers.

Speaker B: 01:00:42

We've done, like, YETI tumblers, and with our logos and stuff.

Speaker B: 01:00:44

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:00:45

But we want to make it so people come every year.

Speaker B: 01:00:47

And I think Joe said last year, he goes, maybe we outrun our tournament time.

Speaker B: 01:00:51

I go, dude, I'm like, we just sold out, like $144.

Speaker B: 01:00:55

I'm like, thank you.

Speaker B: 01:00:57

So if it works, let it keep working, you know, and then we'll have random events.

Speaker B: 01:01:02

If somebody.

Speaker B: 01:01:03

We do fundraising online.

Speaker B: 01:01:05

Like, I'll put a story up, a picture, explanations, and sometimes people will want to do a fundraiser.

Speaker B: 01:01:11

You know, we'll pick a date, pick a location.

Speaker B: 01:01:13

And then fundraiser.

Speaker B: 01:01:14

Give the person the money from the FundRaiser.

Speaker B: 01:01:17

There's a 5K release that we're going to have in October.

Speaker B: 01:01:19

I have some more details on that of the website.

Speaker B: 01:01:22

I do a lot of the Instagram and Facebook stuff under Thin Blue Ride.

Speaker B: 01:01:26

It's easy to do that.

Speaker B: 01:01:27

Post some pictures and, you know, get some funds going.

Speaker B: 01:01:29

Two of our cancer warriors on hospice right now, which I'm trying to get some funds in for that.

Speaker B: 01:01:34

I try not to put up too much information because I'll put out as much information as they want me to, you know, so I don't want to go too deep and say way into detail.

Speaker B: 01:01:44

But sometimes we'll pick up our temple a little bit, get some good donations.

Speaker B: 01:01:47

Other times it'll be a little low.

Speaker B: 01:01:49

I'm like, all we do is ask for money.

Speaker B: 01:01:50

That's why we try and sell shirts and have events where people can enjoy it, right?

Speaker B: 01:01:55

And then spread our network.

Speaker B: 01:01:56

Because if we have a couple thousand people watch this and 50 of them donated bucks, like, that's awesome.

Speaker B: 01:02:02

That money's going to look good for.

Speaker A: 01:02:03

You're not buying yourself new skis.

Speaker A: 01:02:06

You're not out there like, oh, I'm going to get the best bite ever.

Speaker A: 01:02:09

Right?

Speaker A: 01:02:09

This is all going to help other people that have not only had the luck fortune to get cancer, right?

Speaker A: 01:02:17

Whatever happens, they get this cancer.

Speaker A: 01:02:20

They've also come from a community that is all about service and help.

Speaker A: 01:02:24

And it'd be nice to give back a little bit.

Speaker A: 01:02:28

They gave a lot of themselves to in whatever capacity.

Speaker A: 01:02:32

So how can we help them?

Speaker A: 01:02:33

How can we give back for their sacrifice at a time that they need a little bit of help?

Speaker A: 01:02:38

So how can we step up and do that?

Speaker A: 01:02:40

Everybody can find everything.

Speaker A: 01:02:42

ThinBluride.org is the hub.

Speaker A: 01:02:45

Correct.

Speaker A: 01:02:46

And then is it Thin Blue Ride everywhere on social as well.

Speaker B: 01:02:49

My email on there.

Speaker B: 01:02:50

I even have my phone number on the website.

Speaker B: 01:02:51

Our web guy is like, dude, do you want that?

Speaker B: 01:02:54

Anyone can call me at any time.

Speaker B: 01:02:56

But yeah, at this point, like.

Speaker B: 01:02:58

And people don't know we're local, but we've helped out two or three guys in California, two guys in Texas, a couple guys in Florida, a couple, like, we've helped out guys all over the country, especially with the toxic exposures.

Speaker B: 01:03:08

With the global warrants, our Veterans Hunter 7 Foundation is great.

Speaker B: 01:03:12

They.

Speaker B: 01:03:12

They're involved toxic exposure.

Speaker B: 01:03:14

So they'll always tag us in posts and then I'll reach out to the person and say, hey, we're going to help.

Speaker B: 01:03:19

Will they, you know, connect us with Veterans from around the country, and we just try and help out sometimes.

Speaker B: 01:03:25

I've reached out to a few, and some people haven't replied back.

Speaker B: 01:03:30

Typically when I reach out, people will be, you know, will accept the hand.

Speaker A: 01:03:36

There's a thing in guys, man.

Speaker A: 01:03:38

Especially in.

Speaker A: 01:03:39

In vets and law enforcement, there's a thing.

Speaker A: 01:03:42

We're never going to ask for help.

Speaker A: 01:03:44

Not a chance.

Speaker A: 01:03:45

We're way too much of a stud to ask for help, Right?

Speaker B: 01:03:49

Yeah.

Speaker A: 01:03:49

But when.

Speaker A: 01:03:50

When someone says, hey, dude, you need a little bit of help, a lot of times we're like, yeah, as a matter of fact, I'm not able to do this myself.

Speaker A: 01:03:57

So sometimes it just takes that little bit of a push.

Speaker A: 01:03:59

And I love the fact that you're out there pushing.

Speaker A: 01:04:02

Right.

Speaker A: 01:04:03

You've already fought the hard battles or some of the hard battles.

Speaker A: 01:04:06

Right.

Speaker A: 01:04:06

There's more to come, I'm sure.

Speaker A: 01:04:08

But this is an incredibly noble pursuit, and I love the fact that you're the guy heading it up, because it's not like, hey, you know, I. I know some friends that have gone through some battles and let's help them out.

Speaker A: 01:04:23

This is.

Speaker A: 01:04:23

Hey, I walk the walk.

Speaker A: 01:04:25

I know what you're going through.

Speaker A: 01:04:26

I've been there, done that, got the T shirt.

Speaker B: 01:04:29

Literally, like, when I.

Speaker B: 01:04:30

When I go in and try.

Speaker B: 01:04:31

Like right now, I'm trying to be a golf sponsor.

Speaker B: 01:04:33

Would you both sponsors.

Speaker B: 01:04:34

We're doing like 200, 500, a thousand, and like 7,000.

Speaker B: 01:04:39

And I walk in and now I could drive up with this truck, that's all official, and then hand out a form and say, hey, we're raising money for cancer.

Speaker B: 01:04:46

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:04:47

I'm a retired cop.

Speaker B: 01:04:47

Two tours in Iraq, two brain surgeries, two lumber sections, two runs, a chemo, two other surgery.

Speaker B: 01:04:52

Oh, I'm still better than leukemia, but no big deal.

Speaker B: 01:04:55

Typically, people are like, here you go.

Speaker B: 01:04:57

Take our money.

Speaker B: 01:04:59

Well, that's why I open.

Speaker A: 01:05:02

It's a hell of a sales pitch, man.

Speaker B: 01:05:03

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:05:05

But it's funny because a lot of that, I stand behind stuff that I enjoy.

Speaker B: 01:05:09

Like, I, you know, I like supporting other veteran companies.

Speaker B: 01:05:12

And I'll reach out to.

Speaker B: 01:05:14

I'll reach out to anybody.

Speaker B: 01:05:15

I reach out to Smith Glasses.

Speaker B: 01:05:17

I reach out to Trek Bikes.

Speaker B: 01:05:18

I reach out to everybody.

Speaker B: 01:05:19

Typically, they never go answer because we're not big enough.

Speaker B: 01:05:22

Right.

Speaker B: 01:05:23

But at the same time, sometimes I'll write my story and they must read it and be like, this got to be spam, right?

Speaker B: 01:05:30

And then a couple of times.

Speaker B: 01:05:31

So, Brendan response like, hey, former Leo, former veteran, can you help us out and they'll help us out.

Speaker B: 01:05:40

But I think when people hear my story, it helps.

Speaker B: 01:05:43

Like you said, it's been there, done that, and it helps us grow, and it helps us get some more support.

Speaker B: 01:05:48

Because my thing is.

Speaker B: 01:05:49

That's why I tell my story so much, is if my story is going to help somebody, I'll tell it a thousand times.

Speaker A: 01:05:55

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:05:55

And if that person reaches out to their grandfather who's a Vietnam vet who's sick, like, we helped out this former Vietnam vet who was a vice cop, you know, a drug cop, he needed.

Speaker B: 01:06:06

The family asked us for the stairs.

Speaker B: 01:06:09

You know, the chair.

Speaker A: 01:06:11

Yeah, the chair lift.

Speaker A: 01:06:11

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 01:06:12

They're like.

Speaker B: 01:06:13

They're like, we don't need anything else.

Speaker B: 01:06:14

He just needs to get up and down the stairs.

Speaker B: 01:06:16

So we, like, rented it from the company.

Speaker B: 01:06:18

It was a ridiculous price.

Speaker B: 01:06:20

He ended up passing.

Speaker B: 01:06:21

And then, you know, we just.

Speaker B: 01:06:23

We helped out for that little bit of an amount of time.

Speaker B: 01:06:25

That's, you know, that's all the family asked for.

Speaker B: 01:06:27

That's, you know, we try to do as much as we can on top of the.

Speaker B: 01:06:31

Keeping a hand on the pulse with the support and.

Speaker B: 01:06:33

Hey, do you guys need anything?

Speaker B: 01:06:34

And some text messages, phone calls.

Speaker A: 01:06:36

Is it just you?

Speaker A: 01:06:37

How many.

Speaker A: 01:06:38

How many folks is Thin Blue ride at this point?

Speaker A: 01:06:41

You've got a.

Speaker A: 01:06:42

It sounds like you've got a team with you, right?

Speaker A: 01:06:44

You and Kelly.

Speaker A: 01:06:45

And.

Speaker B: 01:06:46

Yeah, so Kelly does a great job of keeping us boys in line.

Speaker B: 01:06:50

I wanted to go.

Speaker B: 01:06:51

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:06:51

And his wife steps up for the golf tournament stuff as well.

Speaker B: 01:06:54

My buddy Mike, the one who got me into cycling.

Speaker B: 01:06:57

And then our buddy Justin, who's.

Speaker B: 01:06:59

He was a Worcester cop in the Marine.

Speaker B: 01:07:00

So we tried to get all our ducks in our own.

Speaker B: 01:07:02

And it's.

Speaker B: 01:07:03

Again, I'd like to grow our poor to where people are.

Speaker B: 01:07:07

Like, this is a guy in California.

Speaker B: 01:07:09

His daughter just passed away.

Speaker B: 01:07:10

We're trying to raise money for his family.

Speaker B: 01:07:12

And it was a friend who reached out.

Speaker B: 01:07:14

We heard a recent podcast that said, hey, I want to reach out.

Speaker B: 01:07:17

His daughter, they took her leg, and then the cancer came back and she passed.

Speaker B: 01:07:22

I was talking to the father, and he said, yeah, you know, I want to get into a nonprofit.

Speaker B: 01:07:26

I go, dude, you could do something under us if you want as timber.

Speaker B: 01:07:30

Like, you know, if you want to hold a race or whatever.

Speaker B: 01:07:33

As far as our books go with money.

Speaker B: 01:07:34

Like, you could look at all of our tax stuff.

Speaker B: 01:07:36

Since: 2017

Speaker B: 01:07:43

You know, there's stuff that we have to Pay for like the shirts, the trailer, that of course, all the other stuff, of course, it's like nobody's taking a dime.

Speaker B: 01:07:51

This is all volunteer basis.

Speaker B: 01:07:53

All the money's going in the right place.

Speaker B: 01:07:55

Not like some of the stuff you hear with other organizations that, you know, people are getting six figure salaries.

Speaker B: 01:08:00

And again, I would love to take a salary if we were making a ton of money.

Speaker B: 01:08:05

There's a lot of work that goes into this and a lot of it is research, finding out, sending emails, calling people, going to places like this.

Speaker B: 01:08:13

It's a lot.

Speaker B: 01:08:13

I love doing it.

Speaker B: 01:08:15

I wish I was more organized as far as getting that stuff in place.

Speaker B: 01:08:19

You know, I went from being a cop to making sure it's raising money, giving it to fan mass and then it's hey, let's help this family.

Speaker B: 01:08:26

Hey, let's help this family.

Speaker B: 01:08:27

So it's, to me, it's easy stuff to facilitate a fundraising event or make a T shirt or put something up online and let it run itself.

Speaker B: 01:08:36

But again, you know, there's always room for growth.

Speaker A: 01:08:38

It never happens alone.

Speaker A: 01:08:39

Right.

Speaker A: 01:08:39

You need, you need the support staff around you.

Speaker A: 01:08:42

So I would love for the folks that are listening to check out the website, think about assisting in any way you can.

Speaker A: 01:08:52

Even if it's, you know, someone that may be interested in helping, you know, someone that may need some assistance, you might have some ideas for events that you can host in your area where Thin Blue Ride can come in and partner with you or you can work with them.

Speaker A: 01:09:10

I would love to see some of that come of these conversations because it's clear this isn't going anywhere.

Speaker B: 01:09:15

800.

Speaker A: 01:09:16

800 grand is no small amount.

Speaker A: 01:09:19

This is a significant amount of money for people who definitely need it.

Speaker A: 01:09:23

So I can only see this growing more and more in the future as I land this plane here.

Speaker A: 01:09:29

We could sit here and talk for another hour anyway, because I, I've got a list of questions that I could ask you.

Speaker A: 01:09:34

Yeah, but people can go to Thin Blue Ride.

Speaker A: 01:09:38

Anything that I missed talking about that you really want people to know here so that they can get a better understanding of what you're doing or how they might be able to help.

Speaker B: 01:09:48

I'd say even, you know, even if you don't want to make a donation, follow us on social media to see what we do.

Speaker B: 01:09:55

And that's going to show you, you know, kind of full spectrum of you could say, hey, your social media guy sucks, which is me.

Speaker B: 01:10:01

Okay.

Speaker B: 01:10:03

Or, you know, the content is there.

Speaker B: 01:10:05

We're trying to help people, we're trying to push stuff like, again, the more we spread our network, the more people we can help just, you know, help spread the network.

Speaker B: 01:10:13

We find it very hard to say no to people or not.

Speaker B: 01:10:16

You know, reason.

Speaker B: 01:10:16

Like, we've helped out corrections officers.

Speaker B: 01:10:18

We've helped out.

Speaker B: 01:10:19

If people come to us, we're.

Speaker B: 01:10:21

We're going to help them.

Speaker B: 01:10:21

And if we can't help them under the scopes of our first responder, veteran or family of, we'll point them in the right direction and, you know, hopefully coach them into, you know, some more knowledge on what they're about to embark on.

Speaker A: 01:10:34

Jd, you're an incredible man.

Speaker A: 01:10:36

I'm glad you're still around.

Speaker A: 01:10:38

I'm glad you're still doing the work that you're doing.

Speaker B: 01:10:40

Yeah.

Speaker A: 01:10:40

And I can't wait to bring you back here at some point down the line, maybe six months, maybe the end of this year, and we'll kind of get caught up on how the year went, how some of the events went, find all the information on the website, follow social media.

Speaker A: 01:10:55

Hell, he put his phone number out there.

Speaker A: 01:10:57

Give him a call, Right?

Speaker A: 01:10:58

I might just do that to test you.

Speaker A: 01:11:00

I might just call you at 3am and say, hey, what are you doing, man?

Speaker A: 01:11:05

All right, man.

Speaker A: 01:11:06

Thank you so much.

Speaker B: 01:11:07

Thank you.

Speaker A: 01:11:07

Please, Everybody, check out thinbluride.org and JD, I can't thank you enough for being here, man.

Speaker A: 01:11:13

And I can't wait for people to hear this.