Foster Kids - Olympic Angels

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on pay for HD radio and Talk or TV. I am Angela Sharp, your host our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and thank you for joining us here at a Sharp Outlook.

1:00 Today we're going to talk about foster children and that they have an organization called Olympic Angels that are here in this country to give assistance to foster parents. Foster care, as you know, is a temporary living arrangement for children who cannot safely live with parents or other family guardians for a period of time. They protect the child from abuse, neglect, abandonment, unsafe conditions including addiction, violence, and trauma. Most of the time, courts and child protective agencies are involved as a last resort.

1:41 The goal is to keep the children safe and cared for by providing a stable and loving home while everyone works toward the best long term plan for the child, including unification with the family when possible or another permanent plan. Foster parents take care of the daily needs such as food and school and health and emotional support and activities to keep the children safe and warm and feeling that they're being loved and feeling safe. Foster care doesn't end with just a roof over their heads, though, and food to eat. Both the children and the foster parents need a break and where can they go for wholesome and healthy reprieve My guest will share information on where foster parents can go to get the needed help. Today, I have Tasha Fitzgerald who is the executive director of Olympic Angels here in the state of Washington. I'd like to invite you to join me.

2:46 Tasha, Hi, thank you, I appreciate having me on today. Oh I have been a foster parent of four beautiful teen teens and one child, and I'll tell you when I saw that this organization was there. I was like, I need to share this information with everyone because being a foster parent and going through sometimes just the overwhelming amount of work that is involved and needing a break, and the kids want a break from me too. They need to have a place to go, you know, that is safe. They can see other children, they can have activities, they can interact with someone younger than me, so they can have fun and at least all that energy. So I just feel, you know, just blessed to be able to have you here to share this with others that are listening. First off, I wanted to ask why was the Olympic Angels started.

4:00 Thank you, Well, it's not just Olympic Angels. We actually are a national network and there are eighteen Angel chapters across the United States and the goal is to hit every metropolitan city by twenty fifty, which is honest around the corner. So Olympic Angels, though, is set in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, and we are a rule chapter. We're a little bit different in the way that we don't have as much access or readily available resources as some of our bigger metropolitan cities, and so our founder Morgan Hannatt set out to say, you know, we know that foster care is everywhere. We know that trauma exists in foster care, either before and even just being removed from a home rather no matter the cause or the need, that's a traumatic experience in itself. So we we create some trauma in the system, and Olympic Angels really exist to connect people, to rebuild a village around our fostering families and youth and children experiencing foster care. And through that village, we're building these deep relationships that helps offset trauma and create protective factors and build resilience into not

5:32 just our youth and children, but the caregivers, our volunteers, our community as a higher hole. Oh that's so wonderful. I love this the way you said a village, because it does take a village. It takes a community for children to grow, to grow up and have that homelistic, you know, lifestyle that encompasses so many, so many different things. And as like I said, being a foster parent, foster care is kind of a heavy burden to carry alone. I was alone as a foster parent, but then some foster families have their own children and so there's just you know, even more burden there. And you know, and you have to remember the kids didn't enter this care because they did something wrong. Caregivers are doing sacred hard work and often doing it isolated. And I want to say, from the bottom of my heart, all of you that have become foster parents, blessings to you that you would give so much love for someone who really needs it more than anyone. It's just so blessed of you to make that sacrifice, and I just want to say thank you, thank you, very very much.

6:58 So well. Does Olympic Angels provide support. I'm so glad you asked that, and I really want to build on what you just said. You know, just talking about the village. When you were saying that, I thought it's good to know that on average, our youth and care change placements or change homes up to seven times within two years, and with each change can come a delayed development. And academics we see behavioral challenges social emotional challenges as well. And so I can remember one of our youth who were in care. They who was in care when he got his love box, and a love box here on the Olympic Peninsula is a group of people and other places. It may be one to two people who come together to support an entire household, so everyone that is under this roof, rather it be a kinship, caregiver, Grandma Auntie and other children in the home, so everyone, we want everyone to know they're they're seen, they're heard, and we're going to show up for them.

8:16 And that can look a lot of different ways. It can look like dropping off a mill. It can look like taking a youth to their soccer practice or helping to get them involved in other sports or extracurriculars. And it can be going to the park, coming over for a game night. It can also be just calling up a caregiver and being a non judgmental listening ear just letting them say the things they need to say, because it is a lot, Angela, and you've spoken to that a little bit. It's a lot for a caregiver. So to just know that they say the things that need to be said and just let it go to somebody is quite amazing. Well, this one youth that we had in care, you did change face challenging behaviors in the school and after school care, you know, and a caregiver is getting a phone call every day or being suspended from after school care, which puts a bit of a hardship on our caregivers. And so once this youth had their love box around him, we started to see changes in all of that and he knows, now, wow, my community shows up for me. People care for me, and they are here to cheer me on and see me do well. And so a year later, this youth was the youth who is showing students around when they're new to a school. He gets to be their introductory coach,

9:48 if you will, and is winning leadership awards from after school care. And that's amazing. That's just a complete turnaround, you know. And that is not only a relief for a caregiver, but it's changing this child's trajectory. He's seeing that people really do care. They're going to show up for me. And I can do this. I have the confidence and the ability to just be the amazing and child that I am and reach my fullest potential. Yes, and I can, you know, tell you more about some of the emotions that they have, because the children that I had, and they come in with their emotions crushed.

10:35 They don't feel any value of themselves. They call themselves stupid. They do you know, I'm no good. I mean, they just have so many negative things that they now have attached to who they are. And so I was grandma because I'm an older woman, and so I said, you know, and I had these little signs peace, love, empowerment and all these little things, and I would point to them and said, these are the words we use in this household. We don't say we're stupid, because there's no such thing as being stupid. And I just would have to go on and on and on and change their language so they were actually speaking words that I can achieve, that I can do this. They were behind in their classes.

11:25 They were like two years behind their classes. And I went to the school and I talked to the teachers. I said, these are bright kids, but they don't know it. And I really need you to help me out, and I need you to give them the extra classes, the extra courses, whatever it takes, but I want them to graduate on time. And we worked hard for those two or three years, and my boy and my two girls they graduated. They wore their caps down. That's amazing. It was just so that the community that helped me that agreed that this was possible, and they worked with me, and it was every day they were giving me the assignments and everything, and those children, they worked really hard because they really did see that, wow, I'm not stupid, I can do this. And they got their grades and they graduated in the year they were supposed to. And it was just so amazing that those people would even put that energy in to help me push them through so that they can feel successful, be successful. So it really it takes people that care, and thank you for all of them, all those volunteers you get that actually care and want to see others have an ability to live their dreams. One of in fact, it was one of the girls. She wanted to work on cars. She ended up going to text school to learn how to

12:59 fix cars. That was her dream. And I'm like, you don't want to be a nurse, No, no, I want to fix cars. I'm like, well, you go for it, girl, you just go for it. So it was just an amazing experience, you know, and then I. So much. Yeah, just the Olympic Angels is there to bring consistency and relational community and support, you know, and the thing is for all of those who don't understand the foster care system. It's not there to replace their normal life or anything. It's there to strengthen the families. It's there to strengthening the children while you as the parents who may have made some bad decisions or you're in a trauma and you have gone to you know, taking drugs or alcohol or different things to maybe you know dead in your pain. You can't have the children in that environment.

14:09 So it's just temporary. Well, everybody is able to heal, So I want to make that clear. No one's trying to replace anyone. They're just here to maybe come in and show up and create a steady community for these kids. Why does all of that matter, Well. What when youth are in care, it is they have a higher likelihood and later in their adult lives of facing homelessness after aging out of extended foster care, or dealing with and cars duration, early pregnancy, there's and mental health challenges, and so all of this matters. Community matters, relational support matters because it completely changes the trajectory. And again I do want to emphasize that not every youth is going to face this, not every just like not every every other caregiver is going to face this as well. However, when we can really pull in people, a consistency of those people showing up changes the trajectory. So if we do have a youth and we have another program called

15:40 the Dare to Dream program, which is a one to one mentorship, So a positive, healthy adult is connected with a child who chooses them and they choose the child, and or sorry, the child chooses them and they choose the child. And when they're connected through this mentorship, the mentor is an advocate for those things to happen, to help a child graduate on time, to become a cheerleader, to be in the backgrounds helping them to navigate life. And so that just changes at all because without that relationship, a youth could continue a path that you know, with hardship is not beneficial for them, the most beneficial for them.

16:28 And so and the truth is we all need a cheerleader, we all need that mentor. And so when we put it, when we put someone with what our nation calls the most vulnerable population in the United States, we're doing everyone a We're just we're doing everyone a positive of making a positive change for everyone, including our volunteers. Because that voluntary, really taking the lessons that I have learned and being able to say to my mentor let me tell you all the things I did. I mean to teach you the things that I wish someone had told me to make my life easier. It's just such an amazing thing to have for everyone.

17:12 Oh yeah, it really is. And you know, helping people understand. Without this help, like you said, they could end up facing homelessness, end up going from you know this home to being incarcerated nobody. I mean that just takes all of their hope away. And you know, yes, the removal is traumatic, and you hear it from the children. You know, you hear it the tears and the hunger to be with their parents and different things like that. In fact, to be honest, I did break some of the rules.

17:53 Eye contacted the parents because I wanted to know just grandma. But you are mom and dad, and I really need you to straighten it up. I need you to clean it up. I need you to care enough to want them back, and you have to do some things to get that opportunity. They need you. No, no, no, they don't need me. Yes they do, and you better not say it again or I'm getting in a car and I'm coming down. We're gonna have a face to face talk. And you're not gonna like it because I could hear the I could hear the hurting. They still love their parents.

18:39 No matter what went on, those children still love their parents. And so one of the things would be great is while we're getting a community for those children, get a community for those parents. They probably have gone through trauma and they're just acting out what they the pain that they have and they need somebody to be honest and truthful and maybe even a little firm and say it's time for you to get it together and just to make the story the way it should be. Yes, I did contact them, Yes I was a little firm with them.

19:23 But I want you to know those parents, they gave up the addiction, they got jobs, they got an apartment, and they were able to go and be with their parents when they left foster care. And I want you to know that's another road that we need to start considering someone who really feels that passion and understands that we need another nonprofit organization for the parents because they need healing too. I just have to throw that out there. Well, idea. I get it. I get it, and especially it's not uncommon that there are generational occurrences that lead to children in care, and so I always think, oh what if, what if community? What if there was a village around this family before it got there to this point.

20:19 And so something that is unique about our Love Boxes and our Dare to Dream program is that once a match is made when a youth is in care, should reunification happen and should a parent prefer this? We do ask our volunteers to follow the youth into the home. And I think that that really is a helpful connection. It's it's. Right kids that love their parents, it doesn't matter the background that they came from. That was there, that was their normal. They didn't know anything other other than that. And so when they're you know, way by strangers so much, it happens. That's where that traumatic event comes in when it's in care, When children are in care, So when we have someone who has been consistent for twelve months or eighteen months showing up for a youth and it's time to go back home, a lot of times kids look to that volunteer or to that mentor just to help guide them and fulfelt safety, and so when they're allowed to be a part of this new household, I think that it's a really important view for the parents to have too, to say, oh, my goodness, community does exist.

21:40 Community wants to see me successful and they want to my child successful. And so I really do think it's really important that it be a holistic approach and support. Yeah, so how often, I mean, how often can foster parents actually participate in the program. Is it something one time or I'm. So glad you're asking that. So we do ask for a twelve month commitment. We're very intentional about who we're matching together. We want there to be a shared capacity, shared interest, shared goals, and so we ask in our love box that people show up at least monthly and dare to dream this a month. However, it's not uncommon for people to be showing up each week, depending on a caregiver's capacity as well, you as can probably speak to people you had to talk to in a day and help organize to get your youth where they needed to be as far as whether it be academics or visiting a doctor, a dentist, a therapist. In addition to extracurriculars.

22:58 So that's where a lot of caregivers either one more person. It can be a lot to talk, or it can be Okay, I have this person to call on and help me when I need it. And so it's really about that capacity, and it's just nice to know that you have someone waiting in the wings, or a group of people waiting in the wings, available and ready to help you with that. So again monthly for twelve months for the Love Box, and twice a month for a year in Dare to Dream. However, however, when I was talking about how intentional we are, the hope is that these matches stay so solid that even when we're not overseeing them in an official capacity, it's as if our volunteers became chosen family. Even when we're not in the picture.

23:54 We want our families and youth to know that community still there. It's not just something sign up for and then when it's done, it's done. It's we're signing up for this relationship, and should we really kick it off, Let's let it be a lifetime occurrence. Let's let's grow up and continue to show up for these families and for our children and youth. Wow, that is that is incredible to be you know what, like I said, I wish I had that when I was a buster parent, because you know, they were teenagers and they wanted to do certain things, and you know, I'm working also while I'm you know, rearing these children, and so it was a heavy load, and I can, I can you know, empathize with some of the foster parents who are feeling that burned out or whatever, and so being able to have a resource where they can have a chance to rest, a chance to maybe do some personal things on their own. I think that is really exciting that you offer those two programs for them to just be able to just breathe a little bit, because you know, it may extend them wanting to be foster parents, because when you end up having such a rough time and so much you know, drain and you burn out, you drop from the program and every foster

25:28 parent is needed because there's generally not enough foster parents, so one of them wanting to drop out don't want that happening. So you know, that's that's really super Yeah, definitely. You know, on average, fifty of license foster homes quit within the first year. And I do think that it is because it's it is a lot to take on, and we once we're in it, we don't know it until what we're living in, and so once we're in it, we see the load and especially like you mentioned, working full time. Wow. Wow. So when we can help as a community come in and through our programs wanting to build not just that relational permanence, but the placement stability. When we know that because we're showing up and we're here for a family, they're going to continue to keep their license and continue to open their youth and children. Gosh, what a difference that makes and what a way to work together and support one another.

26:38 Yeah, definitely, Like I said, it's definitely something that I can understand and relate with. And remember it was a few years back. It was two thousand and seven and I had them for like two three years. Yeah, it was a long journey, a very long journey. And there are good days, there are bad days. You know that they've already gone through trauma, and then they go to school and they have to deal with bullying, and then they're coming home and you're going to go back through the whole cycle of trying to get them to you know, feel good about themselves. And so I mean I had to go to the school and say this behavior that you're permitting going on in the school, it's not going to be tolerated. I'm going to contact, you know, someone national to make sure that you're upholding your responsibility of protecting children. So you make this stop, or I'm going to I'm going to be a real problem for you here at the school because I'm not going to have my children bullied. They've been through enough. And you know what, by the time I got home, I heard that the principal had gotten on the speaker and said we're getting ready to have an assembly and he said, these are things we're not going to tolerate here at the school. So, like I said, I really appreciate all of them understanding what we're dealing with and what's going on and being you know, willing to do their best to make sure

28:11 that the children were safe. And then they succeeded and you know, different things like that. So when when the community shows up, like you're showing up, the foster parents are showing up, and other you know, resources are showing up. What statistics you know, find a word on that are you seeing that there's more success with the foster children when they have that support. Or absolutely absolutely so, we do have. We run a survey every year and I am excited to say that we have really positive outcomes, not just here at Olympic Angels, the nationwide in our caregiver saying yes, this has helped me be more stable in this placement, keep this youth in my home longer, or to help me just overcome even my own secondary trauma, knowing that I have someone in my corner, because again it is about the caregiver as well, and so and we have you know, even our volunteers in the community that is coming alongside these families have said, oh, I didn't realize what what foster care really fully was, and so now I have a deeper understanding of how it affects our youth, how it

29:41 affects our entire community. And I definitely want to be a part of that change and show up for a person and really be their advocate, and really be that person who says you're valuable, you are worthy, and I want to walk along side you in this life and guide you and let you guide me, because it's never a one way street. Is it. Absolutely certain. I'm certain you've you've carried some lessons out of out of your experience as well. Yeah. Absolutely. And the one thing no one ever talks about is the emotions that the foster parent goes through feeling inadequate, because, like you said, you don't know what's going to happen until they show up, and then you know, you you've kind of analyze, oh, yes, I'll be doing this, this, this, this and this, and then you you end up with maybe a lot more trauma, a lot more acting out, a lot more difficulty than what you ever anticipated. And then you began going through emotional feelings and things like that, feeling down and feeling like you're inadequate. Oh no, I'm not competent enough to do this. Oh you know, all of these self doubts that you have because a lot of times it's because you're tired and you need to

31:13 rest or, you know, or maybe just be able to talk it out with someone who can give you some advice, you know, and encourage you. You're doing fine. It's just it's a slow walk. It's not a run, it's not a race. It's a very very slow walk that starts with a crawl. And you have to be aware of that. But just having that encouragement that you're doing fine, it's going to be okay for the foster parents is really great that you're there to do that to encourage them, you know, because with a fifty percent turnover, and I can relate. I can hear it because we used to have the foster parent meetings and we would hear, you know, just the devastating things that we're going on and how the foster parent was like, I just can't do this, I just can't do this, and then imagine, oh, now this child has to be moved again. So that's going to throw more self doubt on them because the foster parent, you know, it's gonna you know, couldn't handle it and things like that. And so having you guys there, thank you, angels to hell a lot.

32:31 I'm really glad that you are sharing that because the caregiver side of the truth, their truth is that they often feel invisible. And that makes sense, right because who is alongside them and saying, how can I help you? What is your brand of milk? Can I I'm at the store. Can I please just grab your favorite brand of milk or your favorite paper tiles and drop them off on your porch. I'm going to show up for them in that way and be seen is so life changing. We do carry that secondary trauma. There is a high emotional load, like you're referring to. You know, you have youth coming into their home, your home that may have big behaviors or you know, they're they're working out some of their social emotional situations and that's a lot. That's a lot for a child and uh and to be working with them. And I think what I hear a lot too from caregivers is that it's isolating. It's an isolating experience. And so would you have someone who is like you mentioned in the beginning, we have them background checked, They're they're completely background checked, fingerprinted, ready to go. We have them training in trust based relational intervention and on the science of hope. So when we have people who

34:02 are coming in knowledgeable, yes, I just wow, and bringing their own experiences into their own life trajectories, coming in and saying, hey, do you know what I had when I was a youth that really helped me? Or hey do you know this lesson I learned when I was a kid. Can I share this with you it is. It is changing again, not just for the the youth, but for the caregivers. And it's not uncommon in our groups we see former caregivers being party saying you know, maybe that wasn't but this is and this is what I know, and this is how I can support the community.

34:46 Yes, absolutely, you know, I've just you know, said, my mind is going back to those days. I'm not sure how my name got out, but whenever a foster parent he needed a break, their children always got dropped off at my house. So I had a lot of groups of children that showed up and then I ended up somehow being considered a therapeutic foster parent. And my last foster child had multiple personalities. I mean to point, the voice changed, his demeanor would change. That was probably the most challenging thing I've ever experienced in my life with a child. And he had been passed around so many times because you know, some of the personalities that he had, you know, were dangerous. The way he would speak. And I'm talking about a child that's like eight years old, not a teenager, this tiny little child, and so you know, I would kind of talk with him and I'd say, you know, Grandma's house isn't big enough for all of your friends to come, so you're going to have to leave your friends outside. And that's how I kept the other personalities from showing up and acting out. I respected

36:23 and recognized that they were there, but I said, they're not allowed to come in the house, and they're not allowed to talk here in this house. So if you're going to talk with your friends, you have to talk with them outside, but you can't talk with them in here, because, like I said, some of them had threatened the other foster parents. And so he ended up in my home. But I ended up not being able to handle him for a long period of time, and I had to take him back to the foster care center. He cried so so much, Grandma, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, but he had been he had been brutalized, and so he probably took on all these personalities just to survive.

37:19 But I had to take him back, and he had been, you know, in so many foster homes. The children's homes said that would I would be their last, his last time out, and I feel so sad about that, but I felt inadequate. I didn't have anyone to help me, and I couldn't handle him. I couldn't, you know, change the behavior because it was something that needed more than just my love and my attention. And I accept that, but it still breaks my heart because I didn't know he would not be able to get out until he aged out. I feel badly about that. But sometimes we just can't solve all the problems and we have to recognize that and ask for help and trying to get that help. And like I said, if someone was there even just for me to talk it out and say this is what's happening, it's too much, you know, having a picking because he's out there kicking and you know, acting out, and me having pick him up and carry him.

38:28 Like I said, I was I was older at the time, and having to pick him up and carry him up the steps and different things. It's like, oh, this is physically not going to be healthy for me, and so I had to I had to do that. And I think about him and I hope he's well, and I hope he got healed and they resolved, you know, the schizophrenia, and but yeah, I definitely need that loving care and so do the Boster parents. And so it's like you say, not all children, but you know there they can use volunteers that can Some of you are therapists, you would probably be great, you know, volunteers and situations like that because you understand what's going on. So I'm going to say it, we need you to volunteer, We need you to take some time. We need you to be one of those angels that can step in and work with a child that actually really needs you, you know, something that can can make this whole community work even better.

39:43 You will hear a lot of us say that not everyone is called to foster adopts, but everyone can play a part foster community. And that's exactly it, you know, whether it's joining a love box team, or mentoring a youth, investing in the mission, or just advocacy. And that's really important, getting the word out, spreading awareness to the community that you know, foster care exist and that can look a lot of different ways. And here's how we can come alongside one another as a group or as community and really show support.

40:24 Right And like you said, everybody may not be able to be a foster parent, but I like the fact you have that love box you can join as volunteers, you know, maybe used to be a softball coach and you can go out these children now to play softball or just different things. You know, some of us old gray hairs, we don't have to sit at home watch TV all the time. You can go out and still be productive and change lives and do things. Come on, let's make this happen. I truly believe that everyone has a talent that they can lend to our organization. And maybe some people don't don't feel comfortable in working directly with children, and that's okay.

41:13 I say that's okay too, because I remember back in November I was looking for a calligrapher. So there is something for everyone, and I absolutely believe in that you can volunteer with this organization in some capacity, whether it is to working directly with children, or being that person that is dedicated to a caregiver, or even working in the background helping me address envelopes for whatever need is that day. There really is a place for everyone. And what a relief that is, because when we are showing up for one another internally, I think that it shows externally as a whole as across a.

41:59 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, mentoring a youth, I mean right now. We could really use some mentors that have that capacity to work with our youth and mentor our youth and help mold and shape them to be able to say, you've got dreams, Let's see how we can help you reach those dreams. There's so much we could be doing. And I don't want to get on a soapbox, but some of the stuff we're going in, the energies we're putting out, they're not positive, and they are not you know, something that benefits anyone. But take that energy. Since you've got energy that you want to have a whole lot to say, then have something positive to say and mentor some youth, mentor someone who has gone through some trauma.

42:54 You'd be surprised how much joy it brings to you to give to someone other than yourself. There's just nothing more. I mean, I'll tell you it's the most wonderful feeling, Tasha, to see the smiles on their faces, to see the happiness and the laughter, and to see them succeed. We all want to succeed. Some of us start at a different starting gait in this race called life, but it doesn't mean we can't go and help pull them forward. So they can meet that dream. Oh yes, mentor youth or by the way, since you got money, you're spending on things, yeah, that you probably don't even need and you probably don't even use. Think about investing it in a mission like this that changes lives, that fixes things.

43:58 You know, give some money, I know you have some of that. You don't have the energy, I know you got some money. Help help these organizations so that they can do even more and they can expand even to more places, because, believe me, if there are children, there are some that do not have families, and so let's make things possible for them. I just have to say that, Okay. Oh, thank you, I appreciate it. You know, just like you were saying in volunteering gives so much back to yourself. I mean, and it really does science behind it. And if you don't have the time, then maybe that is how you can help help fund the mission, help help keep this going. And I think that that gives a lot of meaning to the money that we are earning, and meaning for our legacies as well and what we're standing behind. And so and I'm always for standing behind a better, more positive community. Absolutely.

45:08 Yeah. Yeah, And as I was thinking about that, and you were talking about giving. You know, some of you are directors in organizations, you're CEOs in corporations, and sometimes you have like these fundraisers or money is given from the employees. Well, this is a very good cause to actually help society and change the trajectory of the lives of people who started out in it way behind the eball. Think about that when you're thinking, when you're picking a nonprofit, you're thinking about a mission that you would like to support, think about the lives you would change, and consider that being one of the donations that you that take in your organization. So one of the things I have learned that no foster family should walk alone. They should have your organization.

46:15 Absolutely, absolutely, they should have our and the neighbors my book club, you know, are our other family members or a church family coming together and just being in this ticket, this work together. Truly, Yes, yes, I absolutely agree. Yeah, because we're better together, right, We're all better to get And just knowing that that's not only happening on the Olympic Peninsula, that it is happening in various places across our nation is so just it gives me a lot of hope. It really does. It adds a little pep of my stuff and gives me the spark in my eye to think, Wow, people are really out there. They really do want to learn about adverse child good effects. They want to learn about how to build resilience into others and themselves along the way, and and just help this entire community as and when I say community in this way, I mean as an entire nation.

47:14 Wow, Yes, that's everything. Like I said, I mean just building the community and and and changing lifestyles and changing attitudes and everything. It's a winner. I mean, this is one of those win win. You get self satisfaction, but you also change the world with just volunteering or you know, giving to this mission that's out there. So Tasha tell our audience how to get in touch with Olympic Angels. If they're in the Pacific Northwest.

47:56 Absolutely well. You can reach us directly by going to our website at Olympicangels dot org. Again that's Olympicangels dot o RG. Or you can call three six zero two zero seven for sixty six one. You'll reach me directly and I will get to you wherever you need to be. And would love to talk more, would love for people to explore our website, really dig into the program, see the work that we're doing and the changes that we're making. Absolutely please get in contact in it. It's life changing. And if you're on the Olympic Peninsula and you're listening to this and you know a family, your neighbor, maybe took in their grandchild recently, please please get them connected to us. And that is we want. We want to make that as verrier free as possible. So if it's a phone call, let it be a phone call. We're here for that.

48:56 Absolutely, absolutely, So you know I'm going to put that out as something that my audience. You need to share this information with people that you know. We will be also sending out information so you can share it with others who can watch this live show and let people know. You don't have to be at home saying that you're bored or I don't have anything to do. There is a whole world of people out there that are meeting you. And since we are all here living together, we all should be caring about one another. And this is a way to care. And I love positive organizations like this.

49:39 I love to see things that have the capacity of changing the world and changing lives, and especially people that are hurting. You have to understand when you're hurting, it's hard to get past that without a helping hand. And these angels here, a limping angels, are helping hands that help you get over the bridge and help and so that you can make it to the other side. So I'm saying, oh, please, please help. Thank you Tasha for being here. I have really enjoyed this conversation and I know our viewers and our listeners are ready to write this checks today. Thank you, Thank you for tuning in a Sharp Outlook. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern time and eight am Pacific time. We're here with information for you to have more knowledge to make great decisions and whatever you do, stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook. We have been informed and energized to take the next steps.

50:59 We have posted thanks to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on k for HD radio and Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.