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AcadianaCasts Presents:
AcadianaCasts Presents:
Helping Others Help Others: Love of People's 2024 Community Impact with John Williams
Discover the heart and soul of community impact in this episode featuring John Williams, Executive Director of Love of People. From the transformative Blue Monday Mission that bridges generations through music to community initiatives like the Williams Bros Diaper Drive and Community Thanksgiving, John shares how small acts of love grow into meaningful change.
As part of a 2024 Year in Review, John reflects on the success of initiatives like Fight Fest, introduced this year to support Parkinson’s and Dementia causes, while building excitement for what's ahead in 2025.
This episode is a celebration of community, service, and the enduring mission of "Helping Others Help Others."
AcadianaCasts Presents: John Williams
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Follow Love of People on Facebook and Instagram to start "Helping Others Help Others" today!
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"AcadianaCasts Presents" is the Flagship Podcast of the ACADIANACASTS NETWORK. Lafayette, LA based host, Carter Simoneaux talks with entertainers, business owners, athletes, chefs, and more - anyone who can help tell the story of Acadiana.
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If you want to watch this episode on YouTube, check out our channel!
helping others, help others. It's about educating not just giving people the opportunity to help and serve, but teach them how to do it on their own.
Speaker 2:Glad to have you. I'm Carter Semino, host of Acadiana Cast Presents. Today's episode is brought to you by Love of People Nonprofit. You can go to loveofpeopleorg to start helping others. Help others today. And you might be asking what does Love of People do, carter? Well, you know this is not going to be a traditional ad. We're going to just talk all about Love of People, their initiatives, with their executive director, one of my good friends, john Williams, joining us today. John, I know you don't always like being on the soapbox and talking about things, but we've done a lot with Love of People this past calendar year and shoot you have the past 11, 12 years, however long it's been going on. Real quick. Just let folks know what is Love of People on a service level.
Speaker 1:A non-profit organization that my dad actually started in 1993. And it was just designed to really show love and support to the community, not only the people who receive, but the people who wanted to give. It was helping others, help others.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that is our slogan. What does that mean? Helping others, help others, help others, help others. Yeah, and that is our slogan. What does that mean? Helping others, help others, help others, help others.
Speaker 1:So when you look at the way that Love of People is actually filed with the state and everything it says on there. Love of People Clinic Inc. My dad's a pharmacist and clinic. He always looked at it. As you know, I want to help the community, but I want to teach people like aka put on a clinic of how to show people how you can connect, help the community. But I want to teach people like aka put on a clinic of how to show people how you can connect with the community and truly impact the place that you live. So helping others, help others. It's about educating not just giving people the opportunity to help and serve, but teach them how to do it on their own.
Speaker 2:Well, love of People has all these different initiatives that you kind of do just that through. And we're going to kind of go through some of these initiatives that we've done throughout this past year that have become staples of Love of People. And you know, when your dad started it and then I guess for a while there was kind of nothing, you kind of brought it back after you started your career and slowly but surely, each kind of initiative started growing. Other initiatives were added, more and more businesses and community leaders got involved, and now it's this, this kind of beautiful thing, that just has a bunch of momentum yeah, it's like a ecosystem now at this point you know some of the initiatives that that have grown so much.
Speaker 1:You know part of my journey is learning how to let go and let other people take ownership and love it just as much as I love it. And I'm at a point now where I can enjoy kind of the things that I've helped create. But, most importantly, I'm able to enjoy it with my two sons, teaching them that next generation how to take this torch and keep it going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and before we kind of get right into that, just a little quick back story of how we got acquainted. I used to work for the news here in Lafayette and I was tasked with doing a story. We were helping you guys promote a Blue Monday jam, or I assume it was just one of the jams or one of the themed jams, I think it just just one of the jams, or I think the themed jams.
Speaker 1:I think it was just one of the jams um, you'd come to bubbles and blues that we did at the end of the year I think it was the second one we had done and um, and from that we got the story that you came and produced here at the office and, uh, it's just been beautiful ever since.
Speaker 2:Yeah and we don't have to, because we're gonna argue for 10 minutes about it, you cried you cried, you cried, I made you cry and then after that you're like you should come work here because you made me cry, so I started working. It's your show, I yield. You're damn right, I could just edit, you can edit that out.
Speaker 2:I can edit your audio out and just put my voice under you like, yes, carter, I cried, you're correct, there's the clip. But you know, I was looking to get out of the news at the time and I really wanted to get into podcasting and I didn't know if I wanted to create my own thing or I was like you know, I don't think I have. We have the market here just to go all in on one show. I've got some different thoughts on that now after seeing some of the way that the landscape works in this TikTok world. But I wanted to create a business and you have a business developer kind of background.
Speaker 2:You've done a lot of that in your world and so you allowed me to come work for Love of People while helping me start Acadiana Cast, and that is kind of a snail's pace, what I was comfortable doing until you know certain things aligned and then now I still help with a lot of Love of People stuff. But you are a big part of Acadiana Cast and where we're at today and it's been really cool to see a lot of these initiatives. Some of them I've seen them come to fruition for the first time. Some of them I've seen just expand and to fruition for the first time. Some of them I've seen just expand and grow and others that haven't really necessarily grown but have kind of shifted. But the impact to be able to see that and be able to talk about that and highlight that has been a true joy in my life the past few years.
Speaker 1:Well, to answer your question from earlier about what does it mean for helping others help others like you just described it from your own personal experience. You know, um, you came over to work with me, yes, and I was there to help you build your business and in return, without us even knowing it, you continue to help. Uh, after you stop working for love of people, you stayed on to help us continue to grow our mission, connect to the community, and that was your way of giving back you know.
Speaker 1:So, dude, I appreciate everything you've done, uh, thus far. I can't wait for us to keep on growing this thing, yeah and vice versa.
Speaker 2:We're gonna go yell at kevin, you gotta go somewhere else. I wonder if you can even hear that, uh, but there's, yeah, there's a, there's a cast of characters that are always, always around here uncle kev and a lot of people that won't care. Let's talk about some of these initiatives, highlight them. This is you want this to kind of be love of people's, 2024 year in recap, and so that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to recap the initiatives that we did and kind of talk about where they came from and where they're going and kind of who's involved in all these initiatives, because so much of them, like you said, you've had to learn how to let go of the rope, delegate and let other people come into this world that you've created and help grow it with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean for anybody out there that's working in the nonprofit arena and or even a for-profit business, as an entrepreneur or developer. You have to get to a point where I say, now get out of your way. You know you can't grow something really exponentially if you're thinking that you're going to choke it to death and try to do it just the way you want to do it. You have to open yourself up to other people's opinions and, most of all, other people's criticism and be strong enough to take it and then develop it and keep moving forward. And that's what we've done.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now we talked slightly about it, but how we met. But Blue Monday, the Blue Monday mission, it goes on throughout the year. Tell folks what exactly the Blue Monday mission is.
Speaker 1:It started from the beginning. It was designed to increase quality of life for aging musicians and artists. It was designed to increase quality of life for aging musicians and artists. Most musicians service industry workers. They work for a cash business. They're not paying in the 401ks. Very few of them have health insurance and here in Louisiana, specifically Acadiana I mean, we're built off of our music and our food.
Speaker 1:And when Sammy Parbu started identifying some of these older musicians who didn't have a savings for various reasons, didn't have much access to service for various reasons, I wanted to utilize Blue Monday Jam, which was every second Monday of the month, to help highlight and educate the community on the need of the people that created the culture here. As everybody knows, throughout Acadiana, we all you talk about Lafayette, first things out of your mouth is music, food, fun, you know, and everything like that. But whenever you find some of these older musicians living in situations where we could do better not even to get into the details of it, but I think that if the majority of the public knew the reality of what it takes and the sacrifice it takes to create this culture that we love, if they truly knew on the back end, how they end up retiring and then dying, they wouldn't have that problem paying the $20 at the door or tipping the bucket, you know. And that's what Blue Monday Jam really the intention of it. It was to bring these people together, bring the community together, especially that retired community, let them see the people they grew up listening to.
Speaker 1:And what was beautiful about that monthly jam is that very quickly the younger musicians started coming. So I was able to recognize and see the benefit of connecting the younger musician with the old musician. And it wasn't so much for the music, it was so that the older musician could share and start the conversation with the younger one about how they could avoid pitfalls moving forward in their career, be more aware of saving, be more aware of starting an LLC and treating yourself like an actual business and collaborate with one another. Besides the impact that we've had on the older musicians, another beautiful piece of Blue Monday Mission was seeing how the impact on the younger musician really took fire. I see collaborations now that I know came from Blue Monday and it's a very special thing for me to watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I always find it funny, like well, I'll go out with some friends or something. Then I'll see like a Ray Boudreau or a Miles Meagle, and they got Lee Allen's, you know, playing with them.
Speaker 1:In Lee Allen's defense, especially Ray and Lee. That was a relationship that was there before me. Lee Allen's you know Cal Fran would tell me, you know Lee, he liked peanut butter, he liked to spread himself thin. And I say that lovingly because Lee Allen is very prolific. He's played with a lot of these younger cats Ray Boudreau, he was on Ray's first album. He had played with Mark Broussard already, hunter Romero, which was, and the love and affection that these guys have for Lee Allen. It was intoxicating to see, I mean, the respect they have because the level of quality musician he is really you just got to shut up there and appreciate that he's there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Now. Lee Allen is kind of the band leader of the Blue Monday All-Stars, which is essentially the house band for these Blue Monday jams and some of these other events that Blue Monday is kind of associated with. Tell folks just a little bit about the Blue Monday All-Stars and that powerhouse.
Speaker 1:I mean it's exactly that, it's a powerhouse band, grammy Award winners, louisiana Hall of Famers, steve Adams, lee Alenzino, tony Gula, and then we bring in a lot of different surprise guests over the years. I mean we've had, you know, kenny Neal I don't even want to. Anthony Doopsie is somebody we love. Sir Reg, we've had so many people that step in and play and the dynamic in the beginning was, uh, with leo, because, truthfully, my biggest blessing in blue monday uh was sitting down with, like warren storm, little buck, carol fran, lee allenzino, steve adams these cats gave me the game when it comes to the music industry. I'm not gonna say the music business's not much business in this thing, but the music industry. And they taught me very early on how to recognize things, because not everybody's out for themselves really, which was another beautiful component of Blue Monday, because I feel it brought people together very intentionally, very intentionally.
Speaker 1:But in the beginning, you know, sammy was concerned about musicians coming. You know, historically and I'm not trying to be rude, but historically creatives can have a little bit of an ego in things. No Right, like since when? But when I tell you, when Lee Allen's sitting on that stage, I don't care who walks through the door. You know they go. You, when Lee Allen's sitting on that stage, I don't care who walks through the door, they go and tap Lee Allen on the shoulder first. Hey soul, can I play today? And so Lee Allen just commanded that respect and it kept the flow on the stage very clean.
Speaker 1:Were there some people that felt slighted because they didn't get to get up and play that time? Yes, but like Lil Buck said, you can start whenever you want to start, but if it says it ends at 9, end it at 9 and leave them wanting more. So we had a very controlled jam. We weren't going until 10, 11 o'clock. We'd do it on a Monday and you got more than what you came here for, because you never knew who was showing up. And for those musicians who maybe didn't get on, we had developed a contact system for after. You know, let me know and we'll make sure that we invite you the next time and then even highlight you and then jam with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sometimes even they show up the week before or two weeks before in this room to practice yeah, and then they can plug in a couple of songs and be ready to absolutely jam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, at one point we were curating shows. Yeah, I mean by year three, by year in the year two, year three. I mean this was, it was a hell of a lot more than a jam. I mean we were doing like country rhythm and blue monday. Uh, we, we did uh, collaborate, collaborative shows with, um, the symphony in town. It was just the collaborations were off the charts, man, it was beautiful.
Speaker 2:But this year has kind of gotten back to more of its roots when it comes to the Blue Monday Jam, and I know we were messing with the potential of maybe make it quarterly, then back to the monthly. Where did things kind of end up by here, 20 at the end of 2024 and looking forward to 2025? What can folks expect from a blue monday jam which is kind of the the heart and soul of the blue monday mission? Amen.
Speaker 1:So um, you know, blue monday was seriously impacted by COVID, of course, and you know, with the brand of my private company and the mission of Blue Monday, I mean I take care of old people so there was no way that I could be out there claiming I take care of old people and like pushing for, hey, let's, let's play, let's play, you know. So Blue Monday mission didn't go away during COVID. We fed, with the help of Gerald and a few other people, we fed a lot of people throughout COVID and we helped a lot. But then, coming out of COVID, we had been away from the Blue Monday Jam monthly for so long that I was almost intimidated to get back into it. You know, because I'd filled that time gap with so many other things, you know. Hence new projects that came out and we, so I said, okay, let's do it borderly.
Speaker 1:The board of directors said we're going to do this quarterly decrease the expenses, let's go. You know, focus more on the mission, raise the money so we can actually start impacting. You know, even the younger musicians again. And, uh, after the first one, we did, we did the band comes in the back in the kitchen. I'm cleaning the kitchen in the back at grouse room and they said steve, I can still hear steve, but oh, no man, we got to get back to monthly on this and that was a fact. Jack like um, the crowd that came and I think it was like a, like a rainstorm even a tornado ripped down Jefferson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some big weather event in like May, April. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:And we still had like 40, 50 people on a Monday in Grouse Room. Yeah, they couldn't go anywhere. Hey, we locked in. And what was great like the show started at 6. And like at 6.10 was when that tornado came down Jefferson. And then it ends at what? 8 or 9? It ends at 9, let's say, and the rain stopped at 8.57. So it was great. It was just a great experience. But that goes to show.
Speaker 1:I always say Blue Monday miracles. So we immediately went back to monthly. We're going to continue to host Blue Monday Jam at Grouse Room every second Monday of the month. But to your question earlier about how we're making that happen, I got to give props to Ray Flores with Industrial Safety Solutions because when the guys told me we got to go back to monthly, you know, keep in mind, the monthly jam we talk about like health insurance for people, we're talking about transportation for people.
Speaker 1:A jam won't necessarily bring in the money that we need to really impact. I use the monthly jam, truly impact the need. So the monthly thing was intimidating for me because I knew I'd have to go back to, you know, pretty much paying for it. But it was the second Blue Monday we did, coming back and Ray Flores was sitting in the front and I said, hey, man. I said, as long as Ray's willing to help sponsor this thing every month, we're going back to monthly. And so much props to Ray Flores because he did it, he ended up for it and he's been sponsoring us every month to at least eliminate the expenses of what we have to throw the event for. Big props to Matt Chasson for really working with us and being a great venue to host this at, because his heart and love for the culture is off the charts and the hospitality that he's showing the love of people in the Blue Monday Mission at Grouse Room it's humbling. So I'm really excited about being back monthly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and with Ray he also has something. He started Pink Trailer Productions, which was partly inspired by what you've done with Blue Monday and with Pink Trailer he's been able to bring some of these younger artists that he's cultivating and plugging and playing them with our older musicians kind of back to that art of business thing that you were kind of alluding to. I don't think you said art of business, but the younger musicians and giving them the game so they don't make the same mistakes or go through the same trials and tribulations that the older musicians went through. So he's been a great source for that. And also to echo with Matt Chasson, owner of Grouse Room.
Speaker 2:I'm excited that we kind of have a home base now, kind of locked in going into 2025. Like you said, blue Monday is the second Monday of every month. It's the only Facebook page for an event or initiative that we have. That's just for the initiative. We have our Love of People content page, but we also have one just for Blue Monday. So make sure you guys go follow that, keep up to date when all these concerts are, even though we just told you that the second Monday of every month, but if you haven't seen it, I know it's. You know the idea of going out on a Monday, maybe not that appealing kind of trying to get your week going right.
Speaker 1:I don't mean to interrupt you, but I said from day one when I went to Gus and I'm telling them, hey, we're going to do a monthly jam every month, every second Monday of the month at JSP. And I'm saying that to Gus and he's like John, nobody goes out on a Monday. I'm like I'm going after retired folks. Every day is Saturday. That's my audience. You know I wanted older people in the community to be able to come downtown, enjoy a lovely venue. You know, at a time of day where it's nice and safe, parking is available, everything shut down on Monday. You can park anywhere. You know it was designed for these older people, man.
Speaker 2:I love old people, so that's what I'm about. Yeah, I like the idea, though, that, as we continue growing, some of this get the attention of some of these younger audiences, more people, kind of millennial age, to kind of beat the drum and bring some excitement into this. But to your point, yeah, it's great seeing some of the faces of the retired folks who come out and they look they're all dressed up, dressed to the nines, you know the way old people do it.
Speaker 1:They do it right. And to the point of these, you know, incorporating the younger kids. Man, I'm enjoying Tyler Show. Kid Wilson is one of those great resources for us. I have a video of him dancing with Carol Fran years ago and he's a hip-hop all-around dancer. And again, what Blue Monday has done is really, when you walk into a room where Blue Monday is playing, I mean you see old, young, black, white, asian, laotian. It's just a, it's a whole, it's every. It's what make Acadiana special in one room.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely, and it's been cool to see the Blue Monday all-stars play on stages like festival international. Uh, you go up and you kind of give your spiel about what blue monday is what, how this whole thing got started.
Speaker 1:You're holding court in front of all these people at festival right, it was the year that we opened for festival international and I had, uh, we did a tribute, living legend tribute, um, and we you know, know, kyle Fran got a special award. Lil Buck was up there. Oh man, that was a show and I had Julian on my hip and, like you say, holding court. Sometimes I say talking shit, but I mean really giving it. And what was so cool about that moment one?
Speaker 1:I've never been in front of that many people in my life but the way the lights work, you can't really see out in the crowd like how far it goes. You can just see like the first maybe 10 rows. And when I looked down at the first 10 rows it was like everybody that comes to Blue Monday, it was literally like I felt like I was in a Blue Monday room. I can remember seeing, like Jerry Prejean's face, pat Tron it was the faces that I see once a month and they were standing all right there in the front of the stage, big, smiling. It was amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, like I said, guys go check out a Blue Monday Jam at the Grouse Room every second Monday of the month in 2025. Going to be bigger and better. Music's also fantastic Some of the best music you're going to hear in South Louisiana, in the state in the world. Let's move on to Fight Fest. Now. This is a new initiative as of 2024, we launched it this year. It is Love of People's Fight Against Parkinson's and Dementia, supporting Rocksteady Boxing, acadiana and Bell's Tower. We're going to get into all of that, john, but first just tell me, tell folks, what is Fight Fest? I kind of just said it's a fight against Parkinson's Dementia, but what is the event, what's the initiative?
Speaker 1:Fight Fest is one of those examples of how helping others help others and how things just grow. Roddy O'Quinn and Carrie Hoffpower. They started a business, rise Physical Therapy, a few years ago. I kind of talked to Roddy on and off about, you know, going and being an entrepreneur and prior to that Roddy would come to like our community Thanksgiving, our community Christmas Gumbo, and she would bring her kids. You know, even until today she's like we raised our kids in love with people and I hear that loud and clear, you know. So Roddy and I had this relationship through service, that we kept growing that relationship. It carried over a little in the business but we never really left love of people together, you know um. So, roddy, a few years ago they invested in uh rock steady boxing, which is a non-contact boxing class for uh people diagnosed with parkinson's. And you know you've done a few stories on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can click this link. You can go right and watch that kind of explanation story about Rocksteady Boxing Acadiana.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful thing. I've been able to witness, you know, transformations in people's lives because of Rocksteady Boxing. So the funny story with that is, roddy came to me. She's telling me, you, me, she started picking my brain about nonprofit world and she's telling me what she's doing. And I'm like Roddy, we have something very similar with this Rocksteady Boxing thing. And I said, why don't you just put this under love of people? And she says, yeah, well, we're going to talk about it, but we're going to start a nonprofit. I'm like, okay, it's kind of a hard thing to do. And then she was like, well, who helped you start yours? And I was going to kill him. But Winky is what we call him and he's a lawyer from Villplatt and O'Quinn is his last name, mr name, mr okwane, and so I'm never putting this together. So roddy looks up, mr winky talks to him about starting a non-profit and mr winky tells him you need to. You know what you need to. Go talk to john williams he has love of people.
Speaker 1:Long story short, it turned out that winky is roddy's father-in-law, who he helped me start love of people. She goes to start one and he said you gotta go talk to john. So again, that's just how you know god works. It puts people together. The ones that need to be together continue to impact the community. So, to get to the point, roddydy started Rock Steady Boxing.
Speaker 1:At the same time I had an initiative going for people with dementia, which is Bell's Tower, and it's named after Ida Bell Pesson, who was one of my original three clients when I started QLS 12 years ago. Not that she had dementia or anything, but Miss Ida Bell Pesson was known in the community of Broussard as that person that just showed up to your house when you had a loved one that was sick or dying, and she would just show up and pray with you and love on you. I knew her as a very strong, opinionated woman who helped her. Her. She was the youngest sibling of seven and she was the only girl. She had like six older brothers. She helped them all run their businesses. She was just a, a very strong foundation of a woman is what I, what I can say. Um, so whenever it came to me to create a day space for people with dementia and their loved ones. I knew that it was called Bell's Tower after I had a Bell Pesson, so Love of People's Fight Fest is our fight against Parkinson's and dementia. You can go to loveofpeopleorg to find out more details about each, and also bellstowercom to find out more details. We are planning on opening by March of 25.
Speaker 1:And you know just the angels that came in to help me with this project. You know this was a house, you house, an old house that I found, and years ago when I walked in and my foot hit the wood floor and it creaked, all of a sudden I could smell my grandmother's frying chicken, seriously baking a cake, smoking a cigarette. Listening to her records, I immediately was transported back to when I was a kid and the house is like 90 years old. So we kept the same facade in the house. I knew that this would be for people with dementia, because what a comfortable environment. Tony Davern helped me build what we call a memory care garden in the back, which is designed to help decrease anxiety and stress for people with dementia. Darren Domain changed my roof. I want to say for free, but I don't want to put him out like that, but it was for free. Thanks, lafayette Roofing. Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's just, you know, know the people that have gotten involved with our fight fest to make these resources happen for people. Dementia and parkinson's are neurological diseases that really suck, you know, for lack of a better way to explain it, yeah, um. However, my goal, raleigh's goal, carrie's goal, her team over there at Rise Physical Therapy, if we can do anything to increase the quality of life in people that experience these diseases, then we're going to do it, and that's what Rock Steady Boxing represents. That is what Bell's Tower represents. So what our Fight Fest is. It goes throughout the year. You can go online and you can donate to Rocksteady or Bell's Tower and what you're doing is to help pay for either boxing sessions for the Rocksteady Boxer or memberships for Bell's Tower, and I can assure you that that money goes straight to people, giving them access to these resources, and I'm just blessed to be part of being able to develop these assets, these resources.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been able to interview some of these folks at Rocksteady Boxing and hear some of the stories of people walking in there with a walker and then you know, several months, months later they're not even needing a cane, just due to some of this acute movement. It's scientifically very fascinating how that works. And then from the Bell's Tower side of things though the day space isn't ready quite yet we've been doing some of these things like music therapy. I've gone and played for a client of yours who has dementia and you can just see her face light up whenever I play certain songs. She's verbal, granted, it's only a couple of words that she says, but sometimes there's a song and she's able to pull out a couple of words from that and it's really powerful and it's a cool thing to see. So being able to help with those resources improving the quality of life for folks with these neurological diseases.
Speaker 2:Like you said, it's a year-round thing. We launched it in the beginning of kind of 2024. We did it at Vermillionville. We kind of had just this event with some live music. We know we had a little fun. But, you know, raising money for these boxers and for the day space and to raise awareness and what are the plans going forward? Are we going to have some more like an event, like that kind of a figurehead event, even though you said it's year-round?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that you know, when it comes to Fight Fest again, just like Blue Monday, some of these initiatives that we've chosen to take on in Love of People there are gaps that need to be filled.
Speaker 1:And you know, can we get it done with one blowout event in a year? In all honesty, no, Right, you know. And so that's what Love of People kind of focuses on. Let's find that most at-risk area or where that greatest need need is, and let's create a mechanism excuse me, create a mechanism for the community, private business owners, sponsors, donors, grant writing ability and let's just establish a pipeline to where, when people want to impact like it shouldn't be once a year, yeah, because, because people are dealing with this every day, right, we cannot expect a nonprofit organization to throw seven major events in a year while doing monthly events to raise money. You know, we have to create this mechanism in a way that, when you feel compelled to engage in whether it's older musicians, young athletes or people with parkinson's or dementia um, I want people to know that love of people is where you need to go to truly connect absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, let's move on to the williams bros a diaper drive, formerly julian's diaper drive it is. We just had our 10th or 11th, 9th, it was a 9th annual Williams Brothers Diaper Drive. I should have known I typed every single graphic, but we had over 4,500 divers collected this year, 2,700 wipes collected, 700 puppy pads and pet diapers were collected, sent to Acadia and Animal Aid and this is something that's grown every single year and this is close to your heart because it involves your sons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my son turned eight and people how you do nine. But for the baby shower we had a co-ed baby shower and that was epic. There's still so many people that talk about that baby shower. Man, we had it at, like it's crazy, the first three years of my son's life we had birthday parties for him at places where kids couldn't even go. It was hilarious, but we were collecting diapers for it.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't believe in spending $300, $400, $500 on a kid's party. Who wouldn't remember it? So I wanted to plant a seed. You know, I went to St Leo's Seed and Grow Up, growing up, and we would get these mustard seed awards and what one seed can do, the potential of what it can grow into Julian's Diaper Drive. Originally was that seed in my son and so over the end again another example of something that just grew way out of control, meaning it grew so large, you know, having nine, ten different companies that serve in collection sites.
Speaker 1:And then also our channel partner, alan Green, who owns Greenhouse Psychiatry. He fell in love with now Williams Bros Diaper Drive because I had my youngest son. Fell in love with now Williams Bros Diaper Drive because I had my youngest son and to to witness Alan take over not only take over the event but really leading the charge on getting businesses involved, uh, getting his, his network to donate and he and his wife going pick up cases in cases of diapers, uh, but also seeing the connectivity he has with my sons. Um, you know the old saying a cliche, it takes a village. Uh, that has been one of my biggest blessings in love of people, in that my sons are being imprinted on by people that I just have the utmost admiration and respect for. You know, you being one of those people Ray Flores, again, todd Citrin but Alan really embodied all of that whenever he just connected to Williams Bros Diaper Drive. So the goal in Williams Bros Diaper Drive is to collect diapers for women's shelters. Thanks to Jill Merkel, she brought in the animal aid for the adopt-a-dog type people and also rural nursing homes.
Speaker 1:When you get older, a lot of people who don't have insurance. Man, if you never had kids or you never had to put on a depend before, let me tell you these packs of diapers for kids and undergarments for adults, these things can cost upwards of 20 30 bucks a case and you can go through a case in a week. So that need for this at-risk demographic, demographic. Um, it just blew my mind. And for my son, who turned eight this year, for him to be more excited about how many cases of diapers that we were going to collect versus, hey, dad, what toy am I getting for my birthday?
Speaker 1:Um, I just got to sit back and say, hey, I got you. You know like it worked, you know? And his little brother is sitting there watching and following in his footsteps and a lot of times leading his big brother. You know, I don't know which ones will take over first, but again, it's just to just provide true connectivity to our community and my biggest blessing is that my kids will deliver these diapers each year and they know what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was with the boys when we went and dropped off all these collection boxes at all these businesses across Lafayette. They love doing that. Alan was a big help with that as well when we posted a video from that. But you know, we collect for like a month, month and a half, two months, and then we have this kind of distribution day. We keep some to bring to some of these shelters and whatnot privately, but people can come and pick up their diapers through almost like a car line. You got, you know, you got the Hub City Ford Barbecue pit trailer Barbecue pit trailer.
Speaker 1:We actually do. We do the distribution day on my son's birthday, right? So his birthday party is to distribute these diapers and each year I like to invite my friends. You know, of course, his friends, a few of his friends come, that way we can cut cake and things. And the people we invite we're like, hey, bring diapers, you know, and Julian's excited about bringing diapers. Now, I love my people like Robin McMillan or Karen Rue, that child's getting a present invite. We're like, hey, bring diapers, you know, and julian's excited about bringing diapers. Now, I love my people like robin mcmillan that are karen rue, at child's getting a present. I don't get in the way of that, you know. I mean he needs three, four, five friends. That's fine, you know, but bring a case of diapers as well, uh, or pack, uh. But I like to invite my friends who have young kids, uh, and you'll see him come. Like, you know, gus rosendale come with his two boys and Gustavo and so many people.
Speaker 1:But it allows me to share this blessing with others, you know, and that that shows the growth and love of people. Where I used to have to break my back and my pocketbook to make these things go break my back and my pocketbook to make these things go. Now I've had so many angels involved that I'm actually able to take a step, even two steps back and really start engaging people on a different level so that I can bring you in and I can share this blessing with you. Like I'm not calling people for every event now to say give me a check, you know, we got people for that. Now I'm calling people because I'm like, hey, make sure you bring your kid, or make sure you bring your niece or your nephew, or go get your grandma. You know, and again, it's humbling, but I'm just, I'm so appreciative, I'm just excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we do that during the summer, but we do collect diapers and wipes and puppy pads year-round. You can go to loveofpeopleorg get in touch with us that way if you want to make a donation in December. But I'm excited to see what the 10th annual Women's Bros Diaper Drive has in 2020-25.
Speaker 1:We can allude to a little bit. So this past year, through working with and I don't even know how that happened, but, um, best stop, we actually extended. Oh, that's what it was. So, um, my son so after we finished the diaper drive, then he's able to choose. All right, where do you want to go? Do you want to go to the beach? Normally it's the beach and I'm like, hey, I want a beach trip. But this past year he's like I want to go to Nanny Candy House in Texas and I'm like what?
Speaker 2:What part of Texas, oh, Katy Texas.
Speaker 1:And I'm like son, you're giving up the beach to go to net. First of all his nanny candy. I get it, nanny candy is super cool. And we end up in katie texas and then on the way I could see my son's face like he realized wait, if I'm in katie texas, dad, then I won't be able to do my diaper drive. So for the first seven years of his life, on his birthday we would distribute the diapers. This past year we did it the weekend before because I always said once my kids got old enough to tell me what they want and it makes sense for their birthday, then we'll do that. So we did that. We moved the diaper drive up a week birthday, then we'll do that. So we did that. We moved the diaper drive up a week. But then I could see that his feelings were hurt that we weren't doing it. So I'm like lord, how am I gonna fix that? Because we're going to katie texas and we are already playing the distribution day it was over with.
Speaker 1:So I look and I see that best stop had opened up a katie texas uh branch right down the street from nana candy house. So man literally made a phone call and these beautiful people over there allowed me to, for a week, promote that. We bid in katie, texas with best stop collecting diapers. I think you know we did a few cases.
Speaker 1:Uh, my sister she lives, lives out there in Texas. She got a bunch of friends to donate and I guarantee in 2025, you're going to see Julian's Diaper Drive, william Bro's Diaper Drive in Texas and New Orleans because of these people that just connect man, it was beautiful to see and for something between Community Christmas Gumbo and my son's diaper drive. Those are the things that are like deeply rooted in me, that I'm deeply connected to and for no reason outside of that, those are the things that are growing way well outside of acadiana, you know, and it's just beautiful to see well, moving on, we talk about some of these things like, uh, you kind of tease the the christ gumbo which we'll get to last, kind of these smaller things that are close to your heart but growing.
Speaker 2:But let's talk about what just happened, the Mac Daddy Community Thanksgiving. Lord, the 11th annual Community Thanksgiving we just had this year successfully fed 5,000 people to the following areas Opelousas, new Iberia, youngsville, sunset, grand Coteau. We've talked with folks who want to expand it to St Martin Parish, to Vermilion Parish and beyond, so this thing has become a life of its own. Just briefly, just tell folks how Community Thanksgiving started and then what we did this year.
Speaker 1:Community Thanksgiving started 11 years ago. I didn't even mean for it to become what it's become. In all honesty. My mom and dad were retired. They needed to get engaged in something. So I went to the store and I bought like 13 turkeys, I think, in the sides, and I started making turkeys and making Thanksgiving dinner and I ended up with I think it was like 139, 150 meals. And when I finished I'm like what am I going to do with these meals?
Speaker 1:My mom had gotten diagnosed, she was sick, so she couldn't be around anybody at the time and I didn't want to just sit in the house, you know, being sick. So I wanted to make sure that she felt a purpose and that's why I did Community Thanksgiving for the first year. So I end up with all these meals and I called Shatero Johnson. She was the mayor of Grand Coteau at the time and I'm like hey, shatero, you know what I can do with these meals. So I meet her, we load the meals up in our trunk and we just started walking around Grand Coteau and Sunset and I would literally walk to the person's door, knock, offer them a meal, sit down, have a few words and then go on to the next one.
Speaker 1:I've always been on fire for community service but knowing that I started that as a selfish thing, you know, I didn't want my mom sitting down feeling useless. I knew I could do something, but I did it for her and me, like I wasn't even thinking about what I would do with the food, like it came from a very selfish thing. It really did, you know, it really did. I just wanted to help my mama and then I had to call and ask for help and then that is the spirit of Community Thanksgiving. You know it was out of my control by year two. Know, uh, david Goodwin, he called Todd Citron. You know he paid for my to all the turkeys, like for the first five years. Once we got up to having to cook a hundred turkeys and more, he's like, hey, man, I'll pay for half.
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't blame you, you know, but um that's like you're uh another backtrack, but your sister uh, every single year donates the amount of cases that the year of diapers, that uh the diaper drive, represents.
Speaker 1:So she's screwed because julian is not gonna stop his diaper drive bro.
Speaker 2:Oh lord, when turned 20, she better start investing, yeah, so todd was smart to back out and I gave him the way out.
Speaker 1:I don't. He was like so you still want me to pay? He asked me you still want me to pay for all your terms? I'm like no man, I'm going to get some other helpers, just stop.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you get folks like a Todd Cichorin and David Goodwin come in and they see the impact.
Speaker 1:It was crazy, mark broussard for the first five years and people didn't even know that. But he would come in and that's how he and I met. I want to say it was maybe year three of community thanksgiving. He rose it because I would use jsp's prep. I would use that kitchen, the store, everything and prep everything. And he and tony and sheila davern, they walk in with a, with a, a whole trailer full of sweet potatoes. He would buy the sweet potatoes every year. You know, uh, and that is what grew. That is how communion thanksgiving grew into this animal.
Speaker 1:It was a in year three or four, uh, rotary club stepped in and I remember those years because this one, you know, when all these people started stepping in, is like, alright, well, we got to keep adding numbers. You know why, underutilize the people that are willing to help. But all that was falling on me, you know having to go to the store. But here's me and Julian he's in the back in his car seat we going to Sam's picking up all this stuff. And when the Rotary Club stepped in, it was. It was one of the most amazing feelings because I would literally pull up in my truck Every supply I thought we needed to make this work was in the truck. And I would just look at the Rotarians and they're like so, john, what do you want us to do? And I just look at them like cook.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm cook and they just took over. You know, it's not brain surgery. We making rice dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans with sausage, and john jenkins of taco sisters had stepped in by year, three or four to handle the turkeys and in the beginning, like, let's say, like I could not cook 30 turkeys by myself, that would be insane. But let's say, the first year John did it, it was 30 turkeys and he was like, bring your ice chest, I got your turkeys ready and I'd go and he would cook all that like in a day, a few days before Thanksgiving, like two days before Thanksgiving. Or I would go pick them up even the day before and start carving up turkeys like crazy. Melissa Llewellyn, bobby Frugge, they would help me, they were through the 705 group, they would come help me carve turkeys. We'd pan that up, put it in the coolers and we'd serve it the next day. Well, once you start getting the 100, 200, this year we did what 375 turkeys Like that ain't nothing you're about to do in a day, you know. Yeah, again one of those love of people initiatives in Community Thanksgiving because of the talent of the people we have around, the love of the people we have around and especially these business owners that have these business minds on how to scale and have the resources to scale.
Speaker 1:This year we did 5,000 meals. That was made possible because people like Chad Terrio of CBM Technology he brought in his brain and his spreadsheet that really helped organize the process Amanda Jordan, amanda Landry of House Unalume one of the most talented people I've ever seen work a Post-it note that truly takes over 100 volunteers and puts them working. It looks like you know a Oompa Loompa factory or something Like you know. I mean, everybody falls in line. It's a well-oiled machine, oh my God, and you know. And then, like Ray Flores, this year, again with Industrial Safety Solutions, they stepped in. And Ray, the first year he involved himself with Community Thanksgiving was three years ago. He cut a check to help. The second year he cut a check and brought his family to serve. And the third year the man utilized his business to help create these 2,000 meals and his staff yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have our base of operations in Sunset have for the past several years where all these people, these volunteers, come in and help cook People. Organizations come in, like Katie and Total Securities. They bring in their big grill truck and are you know, cutting up and grilling the sausage. But then we created a second one, thanks to Ray over in Youngsville, so that we can better serve that south part of the area.
Speaker 1:It's just this year, absolutely blew my mind. And then another big one that came through so heavy was Seth Citrin and Craw Daddy's. You know.
Speaker 1:Just, I didn't realize again, you know, I never worked in a restaurant and things. I just have a big heart and I got a lot of cool people around me so we could pull it off. However, you know, I didn't realize, to do 5,000 meals, the infrastructure you would need, you know, in order to pull this off, this is industrial type equipment and I'm like I ain't got it. You know, in order to pull this off, this is industrial type equipment. Yeah, and I'm like I ain't got it. You know I don't have it, and. But but then when we start, as the problems would arise, like hey, john, we're ordering, you know, 800 pounds of sausage, like where we gonna put this, you know. And then here comes matt chasson, again withouchoom and had a deep freezer in the back, and we're able to start utilizing the deep freezer from the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cutting up the turkeys weeks ahead of time.
Speaker 1:It's just this year absolutely blew my mind, even with my QLS staff utilizing my staff like Luke to help.
Speaker 2:He's running the cameras right now.
Speaker 1:It's all about helping others help others Like this is what it's about.
Speaker 1:You know. This is why you hear some of the same names coming up, because it's the way that Love of People operates. You know, whether you have an affinity to want to help raise diapers or help somebody with dementia or cook a turkey, it just doesn't matter, because the way we work together in this environment of love of people, it's all about the purpose, and that's, after 12 years of seeing us grow this organization. The way we work together, I believe, is what attracts people year after year. I believe that the people that we have come I say it all the time I don't care what religion, what race, what political background you come from. It has nothing to do with what our purpose, as to what brought us here. So as long as we come together with that common purpose in mind, then watch out, and that's what I that's what I see now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and speaking of those names, can't talk about the 11th annual community thanksgiving without shouting out poches and mr poche and another process that got streamlined and and and bettered. And you know, uh, where I'm from in covington. You know we call it dirty rice here, it's rice dressing. But my dad, I brought back a few meals. My parents came in for community Thanksgiving this year and helped volunteer and it was cool for them to see it with their eyes what I've been involved with the past few years. But my dad, I brought back those meals and my dad went to town on that rice.
Speaker 1:Yes, look, there's two things. Let me make a point. One, love of people. Uh, I will not donate a stitch of clothes, a toy or a meal that my kids wouldn't play with, wear on their backs or eat at my table. You know, uh, we make sure that quality is is provided, no exceptions, okay, um, damn, I said that too hard. I forgot my second point. Oh, and look, let me tell you I have a cool network of people. Man, like, I don't consider myself to be no cool guy, anything, but I know a lot of cool people.
Speaker 1:But when mr poche you know an og steps up and not only hands you the keys to poche's but also hands you his number one rice dressing maker, his daughter and him, he himself, this man, on thanksgiving morning, three, four o'clock in the morning, is cooking our rice dressing at Poche's, I cannot get. I will get caught in the weeds if I go down the road of how much headache. I mean, just the rice could have shut down. Community Thanksgiving at any point, yeah, at any point. Amanda would have a lot to say about that. I mean, there was one year we did I forget how many, you know, I guess it was maybe 1,500, 2,000 meals and you know we had just gotten to that many. I didn't know where the hell I was getting this rice from, so I started telling all the Rotarians and volunteers like bring rice pots. Man, we ended up with had to be better than 20 rice pots.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. And we in this large building and didn't think well, we're about to start blowing breakers because all these rice pots. We couldn't even play the radio because it was so many rice pots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you probably could have flagged. The federal government Probably could have got flagged. What kind of domestic terrorism event is going on here?
Speaker 1:We were creating some serious radiation, for sure, something was going down with all these rice pots. And then, from that, then it was, you know, hey, let's rent a refrigerator cooler and start, you know, getting pre-cooked rice from here. And, oh man, vic Ragsdale, he had become my rice warrior. Like Vic, was trying to figure out so many different ways to cook pre-cooked rice. And then, when they said we could go par-ball rice, that's when I said, no, hey, stop, I'll blow breakers, I'll do, but I am not putting par ball rice in my rice dressing.
Speaker 1:It just ain't happening, uh. But vick stepped up, man, year after year, he and his family would cook rice like early that morning and bring rice to us. It had just become such a headache, uh, the rice. And then when mr poche stepped up and did that, uh, between mr poche and all that infrastructure john jenkins stepping up the way he did, ray flores stepping up the way he did, um, chad terry still being willing to run this thing, um, there is no reason that community thanksgiving can't do what what chad and I set to do, and that is to ensure that anybody who wants a meal or wants to eat with somebody, and not alone on Thanksgiving Day in Acadiana, we will achieve that goal Went from 3,600 meals last year to 5,000 this year, excited to see where it grows and gets even more next year.
Speaker 2:You can find out more about Community Thanksgiving at yearroundlovablepeopleorg slash community-thanksgiving something like that. You'll find it on the website. Go over there. But let's wrap up here talking about it's coming up for us next Saturday. By the time this is out, it'll already happen. But the Community Christmas Gumbo and Toy Drive Now this is more of a intimate, smaller event that uh is all because of kind of coming from the mantra of yours never forget what you came from. Uh helping kids in the sunset grand coteau area get a christmas gift during the christmas season and a delicious uh bowl of gumbo as well. Santa comes out. This thing has grown. What is it this year? And just tell folks a little bit more about what it means to you. Community Christmas Gumbo.
Speaker 1:Community Christmas Gumbo. You know a lot of the things we did in love of people. It starts out with my parents, a lot of it, you know, and even my dad, my dad, uh, he would do a community christmas gumbo ever since I was a kid. And uh, just to tell one quick funny story about it. But, um, you know, I've been. I've been six to 260 pounds since I was like 13, you know.
Speaker 1:So my dad would always make me play santa claus and and this is the year I met my wife We've been together 22 years now but I think I was like 20 years old and I still played Santa every year. And my dad was like, hey, son, you play Santa this year. And I'm like, no man, I just met this girl. I'm like I'm going to tell her. You know, I'm being Santa, you know. And my dad was like, all right, didn't tell me anything. And then the next day I go to my new girlfriend's house and I walk in her room and she's like look what your daddy got me, and she holds up a Mrs Claus costume and I'm like I'll be there, you know. But in that moment I could hear God's voice tell me, son, when I call you to do something, you better listen, you know. And that was when I was 20 years old and I knew from that day on that I was going to utilize my talent, my time and my resources to continue to bless others, you know. And Community Christmas Gumbo is just that for me, you know. It's that stake in the ground where this is me. I got nothing left to prove and what I did was there was a suspicious corner on MLK and Sunset that was known for being a, you know, not so good corner. That was known for being a not-so-good corner, and my initial intention was to change what people thought of that corner and so much beauty came out of it.
Speaker 1:Man, I set up, I built this decking for a backdrop, I had a big old pot of gumbo going and right when we were about to get going, a big monsoon comes down. It just like it was raining so bad. And that was another miracle. Within 10 minutes, my Uncle Joe, my Cousin, gerald Dixon, they immediately I called Mayor Charles. He was the mayor of Sunset at the time and when I tell you, it felt like three minutes.
Speaker 1:We were packed up out of there, loaded up, and the gumbo was boiling at the community center, out of the rain, just like that, and I could tell that there was something so special about this. It was crazy. I something so special about this, I could, it was just it was crazy. Uh, I get chills thinking about it. So just to explain, so that first year it didn't go the way that I wanted it to go, but in all honesty I felt like God kind of did that on purpose so that it could become what he wanted it to be the next year, year two, we did it. I'm like all right, let's go behind my Uncle Joe house. And I started having a couple of people reach out to me about wanting to do some community service. The 705 group was a big one Melissa Llewellyn, alan Green, again Matt Zombreka, uh, melissa luellen, um, alan green again, uh, matt zombreaker.
Speaker 1:It was all right. I'm gonna be very transparent with this, all right. So we on we on mlk and sunset, and I have a lot of these white friends and and and business partners that I do things with out of lafayette and I had the opportunity. You know I tell people all the time I had the best of both worlds. I went to during the school year, I went to St Leo Seton. I was one of the few black guys over there during the school year, but then during the summer I grew up at my grandma's house on MLK. So I had a very what I believe unique understanding of people, especially when you talk about different races. I knew it was the same because I was going to school with a bunch of white people and I was chilling on MLK and Sunset and I wanted to share that blessing with people, you know. So now, full circle where I'm at with love of people. Now, now I'm all about just sharing the blessing with others. You know I don't have to work as hard as I had 10 years ago to make these things go and I'm all about be with the people and it will not take you long to realize that we are the same. And when I tell you it was right, right, robbie Bergeron, robbie Bergeron. One year I tell everybody, look, I'll be there 3, 4 in the morning and start cooking the gumbo. And Robbie shows up to my uncle's house in the hood on MLK and Sunset, knocking on the door like 3 o'clock in the morning, like hey, guys ready to start cooking gumbo. And I pull up like an hour and a half late and he's got the gumbo going. But it had been his second year there, he had already felt that connectivity.
Speaker 1:And for me, man, just to be able to do that, to be able to one get people out of their comfort zones, you know, to be able to one get people out of their comfort zones, but mainly to just strip away the preconceived, ignorant, wrong notions that people have on both sides of that aisle. Sure, just because you're black and live in a rural area doesn't mean you don't have opportunity or connectivity. Just because you're white and you know, know, upper middle class or whatever, doesn't mean that you don't have any connectivity to an underserved area. Creating the opportunity for people to come together is what community christmas is about, and sharing in the spirit of love and and beauty. You know, um, and that's what it's become.
Speaker 1:And now, now, in all honesty, after Community Thanksgiving, I'm exhausted. So it was like two years ago, because I've had, like Ronnie O'Quinn, miss Margaret from Fit Girl Coach, kurt Richard of Calm Sense, the Daverns with Celtic Bayou Festival. Let me tell you something the businesses that have come together and taken over this thing, even though it's so special to me, it's probably why I was willing to let it go, because you know people like myself, we tend to forget about ourselves and we want to take care of others first these business owners and these community leaders, they've stepped in and they've taken over Community Christmas Gumbo for me, and for me that is the biggest gift that I've had given back to me for all this service, because I don't even think they realize how special community Christmas gumbo is to me, and without them, it wouldn't keep going, and you guys can find out more information about it by, you know, reaching out to us.
Speaker 2:once again, loveofpeopleorg throughout the year, we can. Yeah, if you want to give us gifts in March, we'll take a gift, we'll hold on to it till December. But, john's point, there's so many of these other organizations and businesses that are coming together because we've, and you have, created this helping others, help others, mantra and coming out the woodwork or just, you know, right in front of your face sometimes, people you look over your left shoulder, there's someone willing to help and they come in and they help bring this thing and take the burden off of one person to to do it all. And and 2025 is, I think, going to be an astounding year for love of people.
Speaker 2:We talked about some of these, these main initiatives that we do. Uh, there's all kinds of things throughout the year that pop up little, you know, kind of tiny little community events. You know the people who help you, you help them, and some of their endeavors, their their festivals, like a celtic bayou festival. I know luke and I were out there last year helping to put up the the bar that they do yeah, the wind knocked it down.
Speaker 2:That was heartbreaking. But you know there's there's so much going on and I guess you know to not put words in your mouth, but I kind of echo things you said before. You know, bring your ass. Yeah, bya baby, show show up and uh see you for yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bring your ass, yeah we talked to our friends at complete. We'll get that going, um, but look, if anyone's ever wanted to know what love of people is, and for those who are listening or watching, who are already supporters, take this our little plus conversation. Make them listen, make them watch, because you'll get an education into what Love of People does by what we just talked about. And I know you just talked for over an hour. You're probably getting hoarse and whatnot, but it wouldn't be an Acadiana Cast Presents episode without giving you the floor. So take a look at your single camera right here. John, we're going to wrap this up. Put a nice little bow on it. It can be a word, a phrase, it could be a song lyric, it could be an echo of what we just talked about. Whatever you want to do to wrap this episode up and impart any sort of wisdom on the Internet land at large.
Speaker 1:I just want to encourage people to get out of your comfort zone, get out of your way, identify your purpose and, uh, what you choose to engage your time in, it'll be simply beautiful and bring your ass, and bring your ass hey, thanks for tuning into the show.
Speaker 3:Since you made it this far, might as well give us a like, a follow and subscribe. You know whatever you got to do to alert you that there's a new episode out. Look, it helps us grow and it allows us to give you the content that, well, you deserve. If you want to be a sponsor, if you want to be a guest, if you just want to berate me, hey, all goes in the same place. Info at Acadianacastcom, email info at Acadianacastcom. And for more local resource podcasts, go to Acadianacastcom. And for more local resource podcasts, go to Acadianacastcom. Bye.
