1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,200 Welcome to episode number eight of the Dan Time podcast. 2 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:11,520 I'm your host, Dan McCardell. 3 00:00:12,040 --> 00:00:17,320 And however you landed here in Dan Time, on Dan Time, I'm happy to have you. 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:18,240 I mean that. 5 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:21,360 I appreciate you as a listener. 6 00:00:22,020 --> 00:00:23,440 You're in the right place, my friend. 7 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,640 I said that way back on the trailer episode and today, especially, 8 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:34,000 you're going to see what I mean. Now, last week, we had a fantastic guest in Vic Penn, 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:39,320 a former college football quarterback who modeled his quick release throwing style 10 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,960 after none other than Dan Marino. 11 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:47,760 If you missed it, go back and listen to Vic's exciting memories of playing in big time 12 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:51,200 games and especially what it all meant to him. 13 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,800 Then, of course, we had a bonus episode last week. 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,680 I won't get into the details, but check that one out. 15 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,080 You'll see more of them as we move along. 16 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:06,480 On this episode of Dan Time, we go north of the border to Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. 17 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,440 Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to bring you Dan Kabelka. 18 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:16,160 If you haven't heard of him before, well, you heard of him now on Dan Time. 19 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:21,200 And trust me, at the end of this episode, you will not soon forget him. 20 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:26,960 Dan helped make it possible for youth and adults with special needs to experience the joy 21 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,920 and fulfillment of playing on a baseball team, wearing a baseball uniform. 22 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,160 He was instrumental in bringing challenger baseball to Chatham. 23 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:44,720 Dan also survived two separate heart transplants and had surgery to remove a brain tumor. 24 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:47,920 I'm so inspired by Dan and his story. 25 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:52,480 And listen, it's not all about what he's gone through, which is a lot. 26 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,040 It's about his outlook on life. 27 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:01,040 I'm still in awe that he agreed to appear on this podcast and share his incredible story with us. 28 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,080 You just don't meet a Dan Kabelka every day. 29 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:09,520 I discovered Dan while doing some research and it seemed like I landed on him by accident. 30 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:16,240 But once I read the reporting by Elwood Shreve of ChathamThisWeek.com, I had to take a shot. 31 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:18,240 I had to invite Dan to be a guest on the show. 32 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,360 Luckily, he agreed and we had a great time connecting for the call. 33 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:28,400 Okay, if you'd like to be a guest on Dan Time, whether or not your name is Dan, 34 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:34,800 or if you've got an idea for a great guest, send me an email at dantimepod at gmail.com. 35 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:40,720 All right, sit back, relax, open your ears, open your minds and get ready. 36 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:42,720 It is Dan Kabelka time. 37 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:45,760 Well, hey, Dan, thanks for joining the show. How are you doing today? 38 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,080 Fine. Thank you there, Dan. Dan and Dan. 39 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:49,600 Dan and Dan. 40 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,480 When you said you were searching the internet for people named Dan, I'm glad you didn't look for my middle name, which is Metro. 41 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:04,160 Thanks for having me on and I bring all your listeners greetings from, we call it the great Green North this time of year. 42 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:06,480 We hit 80 degrees today in September. 43 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:08,960 Is that near a record high? 44 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:10,640 Yeah, for us it is. 45 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:22,160 I was watching some of the, you know, with a lot of cities, you can go on YouTube and see some good drone aerial footage and uh, wow, it's just a beautiful riverfront town. 46 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:24,160 I understand you're born and raised in Chatham. 47 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:33,200 Actually, I was born in a little town called Guelph, Ontario, and my family moved to Chatham when we were five years old because my father had work here basically. 48 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:35,600 So I've lived here most of my life. Yeah. 49 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:44,880 Well, Dan, you're, and I'm not trying to butter you up, but you're precisely the type of guest that I would like to have on the Dan Time podcast. 50 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,320 Somebody who has made an impact for many, many years. 51 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:54,880 And I mean, in your case has really gone out of his way to think, Hey, who can I really touch? 52 00:03:54,880 --> 00:04:02,160 Who has, you know, maybe been marginalized or not really given as much of a role in the podcast? 53 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:08,320 Marginalized or not really given as much attention as other types of people. 54 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:13,040 And I'm just really fascinated with your story and was interested. 55 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:18,480 Just wanted to ask off the bat, just, uh, growing up over some of your interest and maybe what kind of led you. 56 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,400 Were you always curious about other, other people and making friends? 57 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:24,400 Oh yeah, absolutely. 58 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:32,000 I was in a therapy session once and the therapist said, you're so kind and generous to the people who live on the fringe, but you're so hard on your friends. 59 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,120 And I said, the people on the fringe, that's my peer group. 60 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,480 That's how I feel having been through the transplant surgeries and such. 61 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:43,360 You know, when you go through the transplants, you kind of feel like you have to give back a little bit, if you will. 62 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:48,000 And, uh, you know, look for ways that you can contribute and just kind of make it all go worthwhile. 63 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:58,720 Now, from what I understand, you're going back to your mid late thirties, you're experiencing some health problems and were in pretty dire need of a heart transplant. 64 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:00,000 That's correct. Yeah. 65 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:05,440 And, um, I'll let you fill in some of the details, but like, you know, flash forward about 30 years. 66 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,520 I know that it always been on your mind, you know, who was this young man? 67 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:10,240 Oh, yeah. 68 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,840 This, this guy that is responsible for me still being here. 69 00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:17,440 He walked the earth for a short time. He had a story. Who was this guy? 70 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:23,200 And your curiosity led you to reach out or locate his mother. 71 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,800 What a touching story. I wanted to ask you about that. 72 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:34,240 Okay. I had my first transplant in 1989 and after a while, I got kind of curious who was this young man. 73 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:38,320 And I want to add how I found out who he was and did not use confidential information. 74 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:48,640 And that's really important to add in or point out because if donor families think somebody's going to knock on their door, call them up out of the blue because they got confidential information or level not to donate. 75 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:50,960 So we really have to be careful about those things. 76 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:59,920 But anyway, after about a year, I found out who he was, his name and his parents name and a little bit about what happened to him, you know, the cause of traumatic brain injury. 77 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:04,960 Although that's not something we like to talk about because it wasn't a very pleasant thing. 78 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:11,840 And 30 years later, I found his mother on Facebook and I thought 30 year anniversary, maybe I'll just send her a Facebook message. 79 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:14,560 Hi, my name is Dan. I'm doing well. 80 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:21,120 I just want you to know how grateful I am for your and your husband's gracious act in donating your son's heart. 81 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:23,040 I'm not looking for anything from you. 82 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:26,400 If you want to contact me, here's my email address. 83 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:32,720 And the reason I did over Facebook messenger was because if she didn't want the contact, she didn't have to say to my face. 84 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:33,600 Sure. 85 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:40,160 And the first rule of donating or contacting your donor families is your donor families feelings have to come first. 86 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,240 They are they have to be the priority over yours. 87 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:43,520 That's just the way it is. 88 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:51,360 So anyway, about a week later, I get an email from my donor's mom, Aggie St. Hilarious, her name and with her phone number. 89 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:53,360 And we began talking to each other. 90 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,480 And for about two years, we contacted each other. 91 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:59,520 We wrote each other emails and got to know each other a little bit. 92 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,400 And this is where the Challenger Baseball program comes in. 93 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:06,320 In one of our emails, she wrote, I really want to meet your ballplayers. 94 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:08,320 And that's when I said, I think I'm going to like this lady. 95 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:09,860 Right. 96 00:07:09,860 --> 00:07:17,460 And maybe two years after we started to communicate, I got an email from her saying, my daughter's name was Lee and his sister was getting married. 97 00:07:17,460 --> 00:07:20,420 And we would like to invite you out to Winnipeg for the wedding. 98 00:07:20,420 --> 00:07:22,900 So I was just, as you can imagine, thrilled. 99 00:07:22,900 --> 00:07:25,860 And people would ask me, are you going to go? 100 00:07:25,860 --> 00:07:27,860 And I said, I crawl up there on my hands and knees. 101 00:07:27,860 --> 00:07:30,500 And I got to go to his sister's wedding and meet his family. 102 00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:33,700 And I got to do a speech about him and his dad at his wedding. 103 00:07:33,700 --> 00:07:39,780 And some of the other his other relatives and friends actually took me aside and they told me about Lee and what he was doing. 104 00:07:39,780 --> 00:07:43,540 And he was like, and that meant a lot to me because he's more than just my heart donor. 105 00:07:43,540 --> 00:07:48,340 He was a real person with love, with loves and likes, and he was a well-rounded person. 106 00:07:48,340 --> 00:07:50,340 And there's more to him than just being my donor. 107 00:07:50,340 --> 00:07:52,340 So and we had a very good visit then. 108 00:07:52,340 --> 00:07:57,220 And this past summer, I went out for a week out to Winnipeg for a visit and we get along very well. 109 00:07:58,340 --> 00:08:06,980 And what I like to point out to people was we had to get back past, we had to get past the fact that he was my donor's mother in order to have a friendship. 110 00:08:06,980 --> 00:08:08,980 It had to be bigger than that. 111 00:08:08,980 --> 00:08:10,980 You know what I mean? That makes sense? 112 00:08:10,980 --> 00:08:12,260 Absolutely. 113 00:08:12,260 --> 00:08:16,660 And so I thought for a full well-rounded relationship, we have to move past that. 114 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:23,780 And Eggy and I are at the point now, she came to Chatham to visit someone we met and for the whole weekend, his name never came up. 115 00:08:23,780 --> 00:08:28,260 So the relationship is just between my donor mom and I right now, which is very satisfying to me. 116 00:08:28,260 --> 00:08:36,180 As far as my second donor goes, about five years after my surgery, I got a letter from the hospital and it was from my donor's mom. 117 00:08:36,180 --> 00:08:44,900 And she wrote in the letter her daughter's first name and she wrote that her daughter was 44 when she passed away of an aneurysm and that's all I was. 118 00:08:46,180 --> 00:08:51,460 And then she wrote, my daughter was the first girl in Canada to get a delighter pilot's license. 119 00:08:51,460 --> 00:08:53,460 And I went holy mackerel, I know who that is. 120 00:08:53,460 --> 00:08:55,460 I taught her how to fly. 121 00:08:55,460 --> 00:08:57,460 Get out of here. 122 00:08:57,460 --> 00:08:59,460 I went to high school with my donor. She was one year behind me. 123 00:08:59,460 --> 00:09:00,340 Yep. 124 00:09:00,340 --> 00:09:02,340 You couldn't dream that up. 125 00:09:02,340 --> 00:09:04,340 Oh, you couldn't. 126 00:09:04,340 --> 00:09:14,340 The other thing I'd like to add is the person who got my second donor's liver, her and I met in the hospital getting our transplants and we're best buddies because we have the same donor. 127 00:09:14,340 --> 00:09:18,340 What a story and what a network. 128 00:09:18,340 --> 00:09:20,340 Yeah. 129 00:09:20,340 --> 00:09:32,340 You know, I think it gets lost on people sometimes, this life of ours, the time that we have, the hours of the day, and the types of friends that you can make. 130 00:09:32,340 --> 00:09:42,340 It's really easy to just kind of stay in your bubble, stay around your types of people, people that look like you, sound like you, all that sort of thing. 131 00:09:42,340 --> 00:09:48,340 And it doesn't take a lot to form some very rich friendships. 132 00:09:48,340 --> 00:09:50,340 If you just take a look around. 133 00:09:50,340 --> 00:09:52,340 You know, you want to talk to me about the Challenger program. 134 00:09:52,340 --> 00:10:02,340 And when we have new volunteers, I tell them by the end of the summer, you are going to understand whether or not you like to be around people that aren't just like you. 135 00:10:02,340 --> 00:10:04,340 And there are people that have a hard time with that. 136 00:10:04,340 --> 00:10:08,340 And it's different ways of forming relationships. 137 00:10:08,340 --> 00:10:16,340 You have to, you know, your methodologies for performing or developing relationships has to go around their disability or their special need. 138 00:10:16,340 --> 00:10:18,340 We have someone with Down syndrome. 139 00:10:18,340 --> 00:10:23,340 We're going to treat him differently than someone who has autism because they're just very different people. 140 00:10:23,340 --> 00:10:28,340 And if our volunteers are not comfortable around those folks, they're just not cut out to be our volunteers. 141 00:10:28,340 --> 00:10:29,340 It's just that simple. 142 00:10:29,340 --> 00:10:44,340 I could see where volunteering in a program like this, you really need some special people who can pivot from personality to personality because just like you said, you know, it's a bucket that includes a lot of different types of people, different needs. 143 00:10:44,340 --> 00:10:54,340 Some people have short attention spans, long attention spans, maybe some hearing disability, vision disability, mobility, and all sorts of things. 144 00:10:54,340 --> 00:11:02,340 And you really have to be, I guess, at your core, Dan, don't you just have to be empathetic to your human brothers and sisters? 145 00:11:02,340 --> 00:11:07,340 Sure. When we get new volunteers, usually the first year I assign them with one of our players. 146 00:11:07,340 --> 00:11:11,340 And I said, this is your job for the summer is with this player. 147 00:11:11,340 --> 00:11:13,340 And your job is to develop a relationship. 148 00:11:13,340 --> 00:11:18,340 That's all I want from you is to learn how to develop a relationship with people that aren't just like you. 149 00:11:18,340 --> 00:11:21,340 And that means they have to learn what the other person is like. 150 00:11:21,340 --> 00:11:27,340 And they have to realize you have to accept people where they are and not where you want them to be. 151 00:11:27,340 --> 00:11:34,340 And we can try as we might. Some of our ballplayers are just never going to be tremendous athletes or tremendous intellects. 152 00:11:34,340 --> 00:11:37,340 And that's just how it goes. And you have to accept them for what they are. 153 00:11:37,340 --> 00:11:43,340 And I love in some really good reporting by I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly, Elwood Shreve. 154 00:11:43,340 --> 00:11:52,340 That's correct. Yeah. With the Chatham Kent This Week publication or online newspaper where and he may quoted you saying it's not about baseball. 155 00:11:52,340 --> 00:11:55,340 It's not entirely about baseball. It's really about relationships. 156 00:11:55,340 --> 00:12:01,340 So absolutely. One of the things we do with the adult program, every player wears the same color shirt. 157 00:12:01,340 --> 00:12:08,340 And our volunteers ask me, can we wear the same color shirts as our players because they want to break down that barrier. 158 00:12:08,340 --> 00:12:11,340 And they didn't want the players to think that somehow the volunteers were superior to them. 159 00:12:11,340 --> 00:12:16,340 And our volunteers don't feel that way. And that's really, really important. 160 00:12:16,340 --> 00:12:21,340 The other advantage I coached House League Baseball. 161 00:12:21,340 --> 00:12:27,340 And you're going to get a kid for maybe one, maybe two years to develop a relationship with the Challenger program. 162 00:12:27,340 --> 00:12:37,340 I have players that I've known for 30 years. And so you really get to develop those relationships and see them grow and facilitate their growth both on and off the field. 163 00:12:37,340 --> 00:12:47,340 Now, in the very beginning, 30 years or so ago, as I understand it, you got the program underway through word of mouth largely, right? 164 00:12:47,340 --> 00:12:51,340 Correct. Well, just a little bit of history. I think it was 91. 165 00:12:51,340 --> 00:12:56,340 I was watching a television program and they had a segment on something called Challenger Baseball, which I never heard of. 166 00:12:56,340 --> 00:13:03,340 And it's a product of Little League International. I've been going since 89. So it was about two years into its provision. 167 00:13:03,340 --> 00:13:09,340 And I thought this is really interesting. And then they zeroed in on one kid who aged out. He's over 18. He couldn't play with the kids anymore. 168 00:13:09,340 --> 00:13:14,340 And they brought him back as a volunteer. And I said, oh, this might be really interesting. 169 00:13:14,340 --> 00:13:18,340 This might be something worth pursuing because it's more than baseball. 170 00:13:18,340 --> 00:13:22,340 Now, getting the resources and tying in with the baseball organizations was easy. 171 00:13:22,340 --> 00:13:26,340 But I just can't show up out of the blue and expect people who don't know me to trust me. 172 00:13:26,340 --> 00:13:29,340 So it took a couple of years before we really got enough kids to play. 173 00:13:29,340 --> 00:13:35,340 But once the program got going and the parents read the word and the kids and then it kind of rolled from there. 174 00:13:35,340 --> 00:13:38,340 But we had to establish our own credentials, our own credibility first. 175 00:13:38,340 --> 00:13:44,340 And with this adult program, most of our advertising is our players telling their friends. 176 00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:46,340 So that's how we get our players in this program. 177 00:13:46,340 --> 00:13:55,340 Dan, this has really got to be something special for the parents also with watching their young children. 178 00:13:55,340 --> 00:14:00,340 I have a cousin with Down syndrome who's six years younger than me. So he's in his late 30s. 179 00:14:00,340 --> 00:14:05,340 And it must be a really rewarding experience to connect with those parents. 180 00:14:05,340 --> 00:14:10,340 I mean, now you've got decades long relationships with those people as well. 181 00:14:10,340 --> 00:14:17,340 During our first children's program, one of the fathers, he'd always sit by himself and look over and he's crying. 182 00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:21,340 And he just said to me, I never thought I'd see the day I see my son on a baseball field. 183 00:14:21,340 --> 00:14:28,340 This is something that these dads and moms that they never see their day, their kids could be in sports and athletics. 184 00:14:28,340 --> 00:14:31,340 And we provided that for them. The parents were just so grateful. 185 00:14:31,340 --> 00:14:36,340 And one of the things we push is we have three groups. 186 00:14:36,340 --> 00:14:40,340 We have our players, our volunteers and our families. 187 00:14:40,340 --> 00:14:43,340 And each group has an equal say in what goes on. 188 00:14:43,340 --> 00:14:48,340 They own the program. And that's what we push with the adults is it's your program to the players. 189 00:14:48,340 --> 00:14:51,340 It's your program. Whether or not it runs is up to you. 190 00:14:51,340 --> 00:14:56,340 So it gives them more of an incentive to get along with each other and to do what it takes for everybody to have fun. 191 00:14:56,340 --> 00:14:58,340 That is wonderful. 192 00:14:58,340 --> 00:15:08,340 People, if you know, or may not be aware, in Canada, over 200,000 kids are living with a disability. 193 00:15:08,340 --> 00:15:15,340 I think it's something like one in six in the United States, kids aged three to 17 have some sort of developmental disability. 194 00:15:15,340 --> 00:15:26,340 And this presents a challenge for a lot of families where sometimes people have to reduce their hours at work or leave jobs or kind of struggle financially. 195 00:15:26,340 --> 00:15:32,340 And then that brings on a set of challenges. And this has just got to be a wonderful outlet. 196 00:15:32,340 --> 00:15:42,340 And I love the story, the picture you just painted of the father in the stands, just getting to see his kid in a baseball uniform on the field having a good time. 197 00:15:42,340 --> 00:15:47,340 Yep. And our parents are pretty, they're a tight knit group. 198 00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:58,340 No, they're a very diverse group in terms of culture and age and station in life. But when it comes to having a child with special needs, that's the bond that brings them together. 199 00:15:58,340 --> 00:16:04,340 And this year, the last two years, for the first time, we had a young gal playing who was Muslim. 200 00:16:04,340 --> 00:16:10,340 And her parents are so grateful that they could bring her out there and she's going to be treated well and treated the same as us. 201 00:16:10,340 --> 00:16:15,340 And we made an attempt to understand their culture to make her experience a better experience. 202 00:16:15,340 --> 00:16:23,340 It's really about inclusion. And I love that everybody wears the same color. There's no division there. 203 00:16:23,340 --> 00:16:24,340 Correct. 204 00:16:24,340 --> 00:16:33,340 I got to ask you a kind of silly question. Is it hard sometimes to say, all right, that's it for today, everyone, let's pack up and go home? 205 00:16:33,340 --> 00:16:38,340 Are there some players that are just having a blast or they don't want to go home yet? 206 00:16:38,340 --> 00:16:41,340 After an hour, they're all pretty tired. 207 00:16:41,340 --> 00:16:48,340 I want to say after an hour, they're all pretty tired and they are players have respect for us as volunteers. 208 00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:57,340 And if we say game's over, then that's how it goes. But like I said, an hour's worth of playing in the hot sun, they tire out pretty quickly. 209 00:16:57,340 --> 00:17:02,340 And we can see that they're starting to droop. And if they're starting to droop after 45 minutes, then we just call the game. 210 00:17:02,340 --> 00:17:12,340 Now, there is an award named in your honor, the Spirit of Challenger, the Dan Kobeleka Award. 211 00:17:12,340 --> 00:17:13,340 Yeah. 212 00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:15,340 And please stop me if I didn't pronounce that correctly. 213 00:17:15,340 --> 00:17:18,340 That's OK. That's a good story. 214 00:17:18,340 --> 00:17:28,340 This is awarded to players who exemplifies Challenger baseball through his or her involvement in the program, I guess all the qualities and the mission of the program. 215 00:17:28,340 --> 00:17:37,340 Well, after you read in the article, after seven years of learning the children's program, I stepped down because I had to go on the list to get my second heart transplant. 216 00:17:37,340 --> 00:17:45,340 And the board decided they would name an award in my honor and give an award out to the, I said, the Spirit of Challenger, the kid who exemplified the program. 217 00:17:45,340 --> 00:17:51,340 Well, I really suspect they named that that particular award or trophy after me because they thought I wasn't going to survive the second transplant. 218 00:17:51,340 --> 00:17:54,340 It was really designed to be the Dan Kobeleka Memorial Award. 219 00:17:54,340 --> 00:17:58,340 And we followed them. I'm still here 23 years later. 220 00:17:58,340 --> 00:18:08,340 It's just incredible. And Dan, do I understand that you also had this is around the same time that the adult program was launched, a brain tumor removed? 221 00:18:08,340 --> 00:18:12,340 Yep. God's timing. What can I say? 222 00:18:12,340 --> 00:18:16,340 I got to tell you. 223 00:18:16,340 --> 00:18:21,340 You know, I couldn't do anything that summer because of the brain surgery. And that's the summer we couldn't play because of COVID. 224 00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:24,340 So that worked out well, too. 225 00:18:24,340 --> 00:18:32,340 Maybe that was a and speaking of the pandemic, I know that that it was really difficult on so many different types of people. 226 00:18:32,340 --> 00:18:44,340 As hard as you've been working and as involved as you've been, I've heard some people say that at least for a few weeks or a couple of months, it was a welcome break, you know, to just slow down for a minute. 227 00:18:44,340 --> 00:18:51,340 Maybe maybe it came at a good time for people to address some health concerns or that sort of thing. 228 00:18:51,340 --> 00:18:55,340 Well, the thing for me was for what, two years almost, I couldn't do anything. 229 00:18:55,340 --> 00:19:05,340 I'm like my different activities. And it was kind of hard getting going again, you know, after it was over, getting motivated and getting to get out of my apartment and get doing things again. 230 00:19:05,340 --> 00:19:11,340 And as I think you read in the article, the first game back after COVID, we did not know what to do. 231 00:19:11,340 --> 00:19:16,340 We're only going to remember what to do and how to do it. And it was like no time had passed. 232 00:19:16,340 --> 00:19:26,340 They got out in the field. They did what they had to do. And one of my volunteers come up to me and said, Dan, they really get it. They don't really need us. And I said, yes, but we need them. 233 00:19:26,340 --> 00:19:36,340 And I've had more than one volunteer say, I have a crappy week, but I look forward to Thursday night, 730. It's the highlight of my week. It gives me joy. 234 00:19:36,340 --> 00:19:38,340 And that joy comes from our players. 235 00:19:38,340 --> 00:19:41,340 That is just terrific. 236 00:19:41,340 --> 00:19:46,340 Dan, I understand one of the fields and this is the local legend, Fergie Jenkins. 237 00:19:46,340 --> 00:19:47,340 Correct. 238 00:19:47,340 --> 00:19:52,340 One of the ball fields named after him. Has Fergie ever made an appearance at the facilities? 239 00:19:52,340 --> 00:20:00,340 Oh yeah, he's in Chatham visiting. And they just put a statue up for him down by the City Hall. But he will come back for different events. 240 00:20:00,340 --> 00:20:13,340 And we're getting a minor league ball team starting up next year, the inter-county league. And so he'll come back for publicity for them. And everybody in Chatham knows him. 241 00:20:13,340 --> 00:20:29,340 Well, I'm a huge Cubs fan. He played a little bit before my time, but I think he was a seven-time, 20-game winner, three-time All-Star. Of course, the Cubs didn't win a World Series for a long time, but he's right up there with Ernie Banks. 242 00:20:29,340 --> 00:20:30,340 Oh yeah. 243 00:20:30,340 --> 00:20:41,340 Billy Williams. Dan, I want to switch gears real quick. When you were growing up, the Toronto Blue Jays were not yet a franchise. So were you a little kid getting into the Detroit Tigers? 244 00:20:41,340 --> 00:20:48,340 Absolutely. One of our little rites of passage for those who live in this area is listening to Ernie Harwell call the Tiger games on the radio. 245 00:20:48,340 --> 00:20:55,340 And the prototype, if you will, is that young fella with a transistor radio under his pillow listening to Ernie Harwell call the ball games. 246 00:20:55,340 --> 00:21:00,340 So it was really quite romantic too because if you've ever been to Tiger Stadium, it's a beautiful little ball field. 247 00:21:00,340 --> 00:21:20,340 I was never able to go to the old ballpark, but what you just described, I wish that I had had that childhood experience where you listen to the games on the radio, where you got a good signal at night, maybe stay up a little bit past your bedtime, and just fall in love with the broadcast team. 248 00:21:20,340 --> 00:21:30,340 Now, I was just going to mention some of those Tigers teams. This may have been when you were a little bit older, but the 68 World Series, I think they were down three games to one. 249 00:21:30,340 --> 00:21:31,340 Yep. 250 00:21:31,340 --> 00:21:43,340 And they storm back and actually get to Bob Gibson, I think, in game seven. What do you remember from that particular postseason or World Series? Do you remember it pretty well? 251 00:21:43,340 --> 00:21:54,340 Oh, yeah, very well. I remember Bob Gibson striking out 18 in the first game. And the throw, I think Lou Brock was on third and somebody hit it out. 252 00:21:54,340 --> 00:22:00,340 Willie Horton in left field threw the ball home, and until the day he died, Lou Brock said he was safe. But the umpire called him out. 253 00:22:00,340 --> 00:22:17,340 Here's the memory too, and we're going back to the Tigers. In 1967, there were riots in Detroit. And one of the riots happened on a Sunday afternoon, and Willie Horton, who was a legend in Detroit, because he was like the east end of Detroit to left field Tiger Stadium. 254 00:22:17,340 --> 00:22:25,340 And he went downtown to help stop the riots wearing his uniform. And he just said, I have to go out and do this. So they were a huge, huge part of the city. 255 00:22:25,340 --> 00:22:44,340 You know, that was a difficult time. The late 60s with just a lot of civil unrest going on. Now a few years later, the Tigers, the 1972 ALCS, I think they came back after being down two games to none. 256 00:22:44,340 --> 00:22:56,340 Those were some really great teams. I didn't pick up on the Tigers until the early 90s. Is Travis Freiman still spoken of around there? Oh, absolutely. My younger brother's name is Travis. 257 00:22:56,340 --> 00:23:10,340 And so here's a funny little Dan time connection or, you know, the premise of this show. So I always think that people, whatever their name is, they should maybe be a fan of ballplayers that have the same name or what have you. 258 00:23:10,340 --> 00:23:18,340 So when my brother Travis was a kid, I would say, Hey, do you like this guy, Travis Freiman? I mean, of course you do. Right. 259 00:23:18,340 --> 00:23:29,340 So I try to just will him to like these guys that were that shared the same name. Well, we had Danny Petrie pitch for Detroit. That's right. Yeah. 260 00:23:29,340 --> 00:23:36,340 You know, it's funny when the other day when you said you searched the Internet for people with your first name. My middle name is Metro. 261 00:23:36,340 --> 00:23:47,340 What's the story on Metro? I don't think I've ever heard that. My ancestors came from the Ukraine and in the Ukraine, every second little boy is Metro. 262 00:23:47,340 --> 00:23:58,340 And my father was Metro. So I kind of got named after him. So and they came over. My grandparents came over in 1917, settled in Saskatchewan, you know, the side huts, the whole thing. 263 00:23:58,340 --> 00:24:07,340 And what I found out is the history for you. When the immigrants from Ukraine come over in the early 1900s, their passports didn't say Ukraine. They said Austria-Hungary. 264 00:24:07,340 --> 00:24:17,340 And during the First World War, Austria-Hungary was the enemy. And a lot of Ukrainians, like sadly the Japanese in the Second World War were uprooted and they were moved into B.C. to work in logging camps. 265 00:24:17,340 --> 00:24:24,340 So some of my distant relatives were actually in internment camps in B.C., British Columbia. How about that? Yeah. 266 00:24:24,340 --> 00:24:34,340 Now, Dan, you attended the University of Western Ontario. Correct. Yep. Did you enjoy your college days? What are some memories from those times? 267 00:24:34,340 --> 00:24:39,340 Well, I have two degrees. I got my degree from University of Windsor, Bachelor of Honors, Bachelor of Human Kinetics. 268 00:24:39,340 --> 00:24:47,340 I graduated in 78. In 81, my heart went on me and my cardiologist said you can't go to work for at least a couple of years. 269 00:24:47,340 --> 00:24:58,340 So I had two options. I could live in the back of Mrs. Cabell's house back room for two years. I could go back to university. So I went back to university and got a second degree at Western. Yep. 270 00:24:58,340 --> 00:25:08,340 That's where you got a degree in psychology? Correct. Yep. Yep. Now, at this time, that psychology was my minor and I just kind of fell into it. I was really interested in history. 271 00:25:08,340 --> 00:25:17,340 Were there other areas of study that you thought, oh, I might want to be a anthropologist or I might want to do this, but you just I would love to have been a history teacher. 272 00:25:17,340 --> 00:25:25,340 Actually, my degree from the University of Windsor, which I really didn't get to use because my heart went so quickly after was in what we call adaptive. 273 00:25:25,340 --> 00:25:31,340 And that is taking phys ed or recreational programs and adapting them to special needs, people with special needs. 274 00:25:31,340 --> 00:25:40,340 And then the program teaches more than sports. It teaches them academics as well and relationship traits. That was what I went to school for. 275 00:25:40,340 --> 00:25:48,340 But my heart went on me in 81. That kind of threw that out the window. So you're a young man when you're developing heart problems. Yep. 276 00:25:48,340 --> 00:25:56,340 And you've got some some decisions to make and pretty quickly. I mean, was this a scary time in your life or did you just think, OK, well, I got it. 277 00:25:56,340 --> 00:26:02,340 Let's put a plan together. And even around that time, there's a lot of people that maybe wouldn't have survived. 278 00:26:02,340 --> 00:26:12,340 I can tell you that Christmas Eve of 81, I was taken up to the from a chat on which is about 50 miles, 60 miles away from London to the heart unit up there. 279 00:26:12,340 --> 00:26:17,340 And the doctor said you're in what we call grave condition, which means you're not expected to make it. 280 00:26:17,340 --> 00:26:20,340 And then they told my parents that they'd have to do a transplant. 281 00:26:20,340 --> 00:26:26,340 And at that time, I would have been the third transplant in history at University Hospital up in London. 282 00:26:26,340 --> 00:26:30,340 And when the transplant doctor come over to talk to me, he said, you're getting a little better each day. 283 00:26:30,340 --> 00:26:35,340 So let's put off this transplant talk. And about nine months later, my heart was back down to normal. 284 00:26:35,340 --> 00:26:44,340 It just God's will. I don't know what else to say. And then about seven years after that, when Laura and I were married and I said to her, I said, you marry me, you have to understand something. 285 00:26:44,340 --> 00:26:51,340 I have heart problems and eventually I may have to have a transplant. We didn't count on me going into heart failure two weeks after we got married. 286 00:26:51,340 --> 00:26:58,340 So that was a stressor. But by then, I think mentally I was ready to go. You know, I had seven years to think about it and plan it. 287 00:26:58,340 --> 00:27:04,340 And yeah, you know, I knew what was on the line and I just had to, you know, accept it. 288 00:27:04,340 --> 00:27:11,340 And as we say, I didn't have time for emotions. I had to put my nose to the grindstone and do it had to be done to make this work. 289 00:27:11,340 --> 00:27:25,340 Well, from all that I've read and like I said, I just came across your story here recently and I thought here is this is exactly who I would like to have on the show and promote his cause and just your way of living. 290 00:27:25,340 --> 00:27:38,340 I really think, Dan, that you've clearly lived a purposeful life and thought about not so much what's in it for me, but how can I make a difference in other people's lives? 291 00:27:38,340 --> 00:27:41,340 Have you ever seen the Shawshank Redemption? 292 00:27:41,340 --> 00:27:43,340 Yes, it's been a long time. 293 00:27:43,340 --> 00:27:50,340 But anyway, there's a line in the movie where he gets angry and he says, it's really very simple. You have a choice. You get busy living or you get busy dying. 294 00:27:50,340 --> 00:28:02,340 And I said, I'm going to get busy living. I'm not going to. I went through so much. I'm not going to get cheated, if you will, in my time, because I went through all this and you know, two people, I got their hearts. 295 00:28:02,340 --> 00:28:12,340 And I just decided I was going to I call it. I had a life worth living. And that's kind of my goal to have a life worth living. And I honor my donor families with my behavior and how I act. 296 00:28:12,340 --> 00:28:21,340 What sort of advice would you share with somebody who is kind of like we were saying at the top of the call, maybe not doing a whole lot wrong. 297 00:28:21,340 --> 00:28:29,340 You know, they're working hard every day. They're providing for their family, but they're maybe stopping short of making even a small impact. 298 00:28:29,340 --> 00:28:37,340 You know, when you when you're out in public and you see a small kid, maybe even a baby in the shopping cart ahead of you and they're looking at you. 299 00:28:37,340 --> 00:28:44,340 And sometimes it's fun to make a funny face or just goof around with them. And that's one small thing that you can do. 300 00:28:44,340 --> 00:28:51,340 I'd love to see more people just take advantage of those little fleeting moments with strangers and just it's a small moments account. 301 00:28:51,340 --> 00:29:04,340 We play indoors, the Challenger program, and we use this big rubber ball indoors in this one girl's her first time up to bat and she had a line drive through the middle and middle and she hit square off my nose. 302 00:29:04,340 --> 00:29:07,340 You know what that made her summer. 303 00:29:07,340 --> 00:29:19,340 Nothing else that she did that summer is going to add up or make trough the fact that she hits a coach in the nose with the ball. So when we had our banquet, we had a special award just for her called Please Don't Kill the Coach. 304 00:29:19,340 --> 00:29:29,340 And you know what, Dan, that's not a big deal, but it's a lot to her. And that's the point. Sometimes the little things we do in life that we don't have to do is what people are going to remember. 305 00:29:29,340 --> 00:29:32,340 And I worked in a mental health field for a while. 306 00:29:32,340 --> 00:29:39,340 And oftentimes my clients would say you did this for me, but that's your job. But when I did the little stuff I didn't have to do, that's what they remembered. 307 00:29:39,340 --> 00:29:56,340 And that's what had the effect. And one of the things that was in the paper, I do church services in nursing homes, nursing home ministry, and I find it very rewarding. But I did a sermon one day on how we should, our priorities should be assessed by the word JOY. 308 00:29:56,340 --> 00:30:06,340 And it's Jesus, others, yourself. And I said to myself, if you're going to live putting others ahead, or going to preach living others ahead of yourself, you have to live it. 309 00:30:06,340 --> 00:30:10,340 And that was a real key moment for me when I said if I'm going to preach it, I have to live it. 310 00:30:10,340 --> 00:30:15,340 And since then it's been a matter of extending to other people grace and putting other people first. 311 00:30:15,340 --> 00:30:24,340 That is just wonderful. And I think people you look around that are the most fulfilled are living that type of life. 312 00:30:24,340 --> 00:30:32,340 We certainly run into our share of curmudgeons and people that all the money in the world could never please them. 313 00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:36,340 It's the friendships that count, it's the relationships that count. 314 00:30:36,340 --> 00:30:38,340 That is so true. 315 00:30:38,340 --> 00:30:42,340 If you read in that article by Elwood, we encourage our players to volunteer. 316 00:30:42,340 --> 00:30:49,340 And when we play indoors in the wintertime, the cost of playing is an unperishable or canned goods. 317 00:30:49,340 --> 00:30:57,340 And we try to get our players to volunteer at the Salvation Army Kettle or one of our players volunteers at the local animal shelter. 318 00:30:57,340 --> 00:31:02,340 And they say that gives them a more full life. And for some of them, they never saw themselves in that role. 319 00:31:02,340 --> 00:31:06,340 How rewarding is it for you to see someone branch out like that? 320 00:31:06,340 --> 00:31:14,340 Yeah, it's incredible. And what wasn't in the paper, because my heart disease was genetic, I made a conscious decision not to have children. 321 00:31:14,340 --> 00:31:21,340 And they're like my kids. And I had a 48 year old woman, one of our players say, you treat us well. 322 00:31:21,340 --> 00:31:24,340 And I said, well, you're like my children. And she said, you make a great dad. 323 00:31:24,340 --> 00:31:29,340 And I went, you just got me. They just got me when she said, you make a great dad. 324 00:31:29,340 --> 00:31:36,340 And at our banquet, a little retirement speech. And I thank the parents because I get to be a dad for an hour a week. I get to be a dad. 325 00:31:36,340 --> 00:31:38,340 How fulfilling is that? 326 00:31:38,340 --> 00:31:45,340 Dan, that is incredible. You recognize that there's a chance I may not be around a long time. 327 00:31:45,340 --> 00:31:51,340 I don't want to have a couple of kids and then I'm gone and I've got a two year old and a five year old or whatever. 328 00:31:51,340 --> 00:31:54,340 And you actually stopped and thought about that. 329 00:31:54,340 --> 00:32:00,340 What I thought about it wasn't that two of my brothers have the disease and one of my nephews. 330 00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:05,340 And there's a very, very good chance if I had a son or a daughter, they were going to have the same heart disease. 331 00:32:05,340 --> 00:32:07,340 And that's why I purposely said I'm not going to have children. 332 00:32:07,340 --> 00:32:13,340 And the thing about transplant and maybe even the Challenger program, you realize you're not the only person in the world. 333 00:32:13,340 --> 00:32:19,340 You're part of a big picture. And it's really easy to focus in on me when it comes to the transplant. 334 00:32:19,340 --> 00:32:23,340 Dan, I watch people die waiting and that really sobered me up. 335 00:32:23,340 --> 00:32:27,340 And I realized I'm just one person. There's more two in the world than just me. 336 00:32:27,340 --> 00:32:32,340 And I'll do my organ donor pitch here. I got a happy ending and everybody does. 337 00:32:32,340 --> 00:32:38,340 And if you're considering organ donation, think about it very, very seriously and talk to your family. 338 00:32:38,340 --> 00:32:45,340 That's absolutely true. I've been an organ donor as long as I've been licensed to drive. 339 00:32:45,340 --> 00:32:51,340 And I would recommend exactly what Dan just said. It can change somebody's life. 340 00:32:51,340 --> 00:32:55,340 Well, I had lunch with my surgeon a couple of years ago. 341 00:32:55,340 --> 00:32:58,340 I said to him, you have a thousand patients. Why do you remember me? 342 00:32:58,340 --> 00:33:02,340 And he said, when I told you you were going on the transplant list, I asked you how tall you were. 343 00:33:02,340 --> 00:33:07,340 And he said, you jumped out of bed and drew yourself up to your full five, three and said, I'm a strapping five foot three. 344 00:33:07,340 --> 00:33:12,340 And he said of all the patients, that's what he remembered. 345 00:33:12,340 --> 00:33:15,340 But I foolishly, I asked him how bad was my heart when you took it out? 346 00:33:15,340 --> 00:33:19,340 And he said you had about a week like it was really close. 347 00:33:19,340 --> 00:33:25,340 Oh, wow. And the thing about heart recipients, too, is we probably get better faster than anybody else. 348 00:33:25,340 --> 00:33:30,340 And that's because the heart just pumps. So once you got the heart in, you got blood pressure and then all the symptoms are gone. 349 00:33:30,340 --> 00:33:33,340 And then you're stuck taking the pills for the rest of your life. 350 00:33:33,340 --> 00:33:40,340 But that's just part of the deal. And one of our models is when you get a transplant, you're not being cured. 351 00:33:40,340 --> 00:33:45,340 You're making a trade. I trade a fatal disease for a chronic condition because of the medications. 352 00:33:45,340 --> 00:33:48,340 But they educate you. You know what you're getting into. 353 00:33:48,340 --> 00:33:50,340 What a great outlook, Dan. 354 00:33:50,340 --> 00:33:56,340 And thank you. You know, I like to think that we're life is really a series of moments. 355 00:33:56,340 --> 00:34:02,340 Some people think, oh, I probably got another 20 years left or I've they kind of think in terms of years and decades. 356 00:34:02,340 --> 00:34:09,340 And I just think that life is this daily life. It's the moments, the hours you get up, you go to bed and you awake. 357 00:34:09,340 --> 00:34:17,340 I try to wake up now with a different perspective than before, where I felt like I took life a little less. 358 00:34:17,340 --> 00:34:21,340 Well, I don't take it seriously. But I guess what I'm trying to say is I took it for granted. 359 00:34:21,340 --> 00:34:28,340 We should all use our unique tools to go out there and make a difference. 360 00:34:28,340 --> 00:34:33,340 And for the people that maybe have that mental block and they feel overwhelmed and they think, 361 00:34:33,340 --> 00:34:39,340 well, I just I don't have the time to volunteer for for 12 hours or eight. Don't think of it like that. 362 00:34:39,340 --> 00:34:45,340 Start small. Start just trying to make a difference as you're walking through your local town. 363 00:34:45,340 --> 00:34:54,340 Yeah, I live. It's called geared to income, which because of my health, 30 percent of my income is my rent utilities. 364 00:34:54,340 --> 00:34:56,340 So I live in a building where there are people with disabilities. 365 00:34:56,340 --> 00:35:02,340 And there's one girl, Karen, and she had a hard time walking in with her gate and she's really stiff. 366 00:35:02,340 --> 00:35:06,340 But then she hauled her laundry up and down those stairs and her groceries up and down those stairs. 367 00:35:06,340 --> 00:35:09,340 And one day I said, if Karen could make it work, I can make it work. 368 00:35:09,340 --> 00:35:12,340 And that's kind of one of my little things I tell people, make it work. 369 00:35:12,340 --> 00:35:16,340 You can't control that your cards are dealt. All you can do is make it work. 370 00:35:16,340 --> 00:35:20,340 Make it work. Yeah. Wonderful advice. 371 00:35:20,340 --> 00:35:25,340 Well, Dan, this has been such a treat to talk to you. Thank you. And be with you, too. 372 00:35:25,340 --> 00:35:30,340 I got a couple of questions. Sometimes I ramble on and on with these silly questions. 373 00:35:30,340 --> 00:35:33,340 But, you know, what's your favorite type of movie? 374 00:35:33,340 --> 00:35:37,340 Are you an action movie guy? Are you a drama comedy? 375 00:35:37,340 --> 00:35:42,340 I'm a biographical history buff. Oh, you and I need to spend some time together. 376 00:35:42,340 --> 00:35:47,340 We could talk about the history or history of things that you probably never heard of that are so interesting. 377 00:35:47,340 --> 00:35:52,340 Yeah. Favorite type of music. Are you do you have a genre that you like? 378 00:35:52,340 --> 00:35:58,340 I'll give you a hint. I haven't liked any music since 1980. 379 00:35:58,340 --> 00:36:04,340 I'm an old time rock and roller. First concert I ever saw in 1977 was Queen at Cobalt Hall. 380 00:36:04,340 --> 00:36:07,340 And it was really special. That's a show. That's a show. 381 00:36:07,340 --> 00:36:11,340 But I was born in 55. So I grew up in the rock and roll era. 382 00:36:11,340 --> 00:36:15,340 Oh, you saw all Led Zeppelin coming on to the scene and. 383 00:36:15,340 --> 00:36:18,340 Oh, my one of my first concerts was Frank Zappa. 384 00:36:18,340 --> 00:36:21,340 That was really interesting because Frank's an interesting guy. 385 00:36:21,340 --> 00:36:25,340 That was quite a time for music. Yes, it was. 386 00:36:25,340 --> 00:36:28,340 Do you have a favorite all time ballplayer? 387 00:36:28,340 --> 00:36:32,340 This could be or maybe an old Detroit Tiger or a current Toronto Blue J. 388 00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:36,340 Or do you have players that you like that are kind of in your top one, two or three? 389 00:36:36,340 --> 00:36:38,340 Yeah, Willie Mays. Willie Mays could do everything. 390 00:36:38,340 --> 00:36:44,340 And if I was going to start a baseball team, Willie Mays would be my first pick because he could do everything. 391 00:36:44,340 --> 00:36:46,340 The say hey kid. They say hey kid. 392 00:36:46,340 --> 00:36:51,340 And being a history buff, I've watched a lot of documentaries about the old Negro leagues. 393 00:36:51,340 --> 00:36:56,340 That's an interest of mine and I would have loved to have seen Satchel Paige pitch and Josh Gibson hit. 394 00:36:56,340 --> 00:36:58,340 You know, that would have been great. 395 00:36:58,340 --> 00:37:06,340 There were a lot of players from that that era that wow, if the color barrier had been broken just a decade earlier, 396 00:37:06,340 --> 00:37:12,340 you would have seen pitchers with different ERAs that had sparkling ERAs because they didn't have to face some of these guys. 397 00:37:12,340 --> 00:37:18,340 Well, here's the thing, too. I've seen some of these older ballplayers and they get interviewed and they say, 398 00:37:18,340 --> 00:37:22,340 were you bitter because it was Jackie Robinson was the first and you didn't get to play. 399 00:37:22,340 --> 00:37:26,340 And they said we're not bitter at all. We got to play baseball. Again, we loved. 400 00:37:26,340 --> 00:37:28,340 We didn't play at the major league level, but we don't care. 401 00:37:28,340 --> 00:37:31,340 And that lack of bitterness was really inspiring for me. 402 00:37:31,340 --> 00:37:39,340 I meant to mention this at the top, but I learned that Chatham was a destination point for the Underground Railroad. 403 00:37:39,340 --> 00:37:42,340 That's correct. Just saw that Chatham is a little town called Buxton. 404 00:37:42,340 --> 00:37:50,340 And there are quite a few slaves, slave slaves. And the thing is, they have some very, very good schools out in Buxton. 405 00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:56,340 And a lot of the white families in this area and middle class would send their kids up to Buxton to school to get a better education. 406 00:37:56,340 --> 00:38:00,340 So we have a really rich history of the Underground Railroad. 407 00:38:00,340 --> 00:38:05,340 In fact, Uncle Tom's Cabin is only about 20 miles from where I'm sitting right now in Dresden. 408 00:38:05,340 --> 00:38:08,340 So it's part of our culture and it's a pretty big part. 409 00:38:08,340 --> 00:38:12,340 Well, I would certainly like to take my family up there for a visit. 410 00:38:12,340 --> 00:38:20,340 My wife is from upstate New York near the Canadian border, actually probably about three and a half hours east along the 401. 411 00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:24,340 I have friends who visit me from Atlanta and they just love it up here. 412 00:38:24,340 --> 00:38:30,340 It's more relaxed living, if you will, and they really like the idea of socialized medicine. 413 00:38:30,340 --> 00:38:37,340 I did an interview with a lady out of New York and she said, what's the difference between Canada and America in terms of health care? 414 00:38:37,340 --> 00:38:41,340 And I said, I've had two heart transplants and a brain tumor removal and I've never seen a bill. 415 00:38:41,340 --> 00:38:45,340 And that's one where I never had was financial. It was a big help. 416 00:38:45,340 --> 00:38:48,340 Well, Dan, I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation today. 417 00:38:48,340 --> 00:38:51,340 I wish I wish we didn't have to pump the brakes. 418 00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:53,340 Would love to talk to you again sometime. 419 00:38:53,340 --> 00:38:58,340 Sure. Just let me know. Is there anything else you'd like to promote with the Challenger program? 420 00:38:58,340 --> 00:39:01,340 The Challenger baseball program is good for everybody. 421 00:39:01,340 --> 00:39:11,340 The families, the players, the volunteers, and the analogy I make and the closest thing I can make to it is you may not know this, but they actually have athletics for people with organ transplants like sporting events. 422 00:39:11,340 --> 00:39:15,340 And I participated in the Canadian games in 1991, 92. 423 00:39:15,340 --> 00:39:19,340 But what I noticed was everybody there, not just the recipients, really enjoyed it. 424 00:39:19,340 --> 00:39:21,340 Like the donor families really got something out of it, too. 425 00:39:21,340 --> 00:39:24,340 And we do a program and some people are left out. It's not worth doing. 426 00:39:24,340 --> 00:39:26,340 You know what I mean? We don't leave people behind. 427 00:39:26,340 --> 00:39:32,340 And the Challenger program, one of our mottos is this program is designed for the weakest player out there. 428 00:39:32,340 --> 00:39:38,340 He can play or she can play. And if we have a player who's really good and it's not competitive enough, we just say go find a competitive league. 429 00:39:38,340 --> 00:39:40,340 You know, but we're there for everybody. 430 00:39:40,340 --> 00:39:42,340 Dan, one last question on that end. 431 00:39:42,340 --> 00:39:52,340 How rewarding is it when a player joins the program and you don't see much emotion at the beginning, 432 00:39:52,340 --> 00:39:59,340 but as the season goes along and you see those eyes sparkle or you see some little sign that they are really having a good time? 433 00:39:59,340 --> 00:40:00,340 How cool is that? 434 00:40:00,340 --> 00:40:05,340 It's so cool. And we had a couple of players and they live in a group home. 435 00:40:05,340 --> 00:40:07,340 And like for two weeks, you couldn't get them out of the dugout. 436 00:40:07,340 --> 00:40:12,340 First of all, if you're not used to being around other people, a dugout is not a good place for you. 437 00:40:12,340 --> 00:40:15,340 But once they got out, we couldn't slow them down. We couldn't stop them. 438 00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:20,340 And their group home manager said when they come home on Thursday night, the first thing they do is put on their shirts. They're ready to go. 439 00:40:20,340 --> 00:40:22,340 They can't wait. 440 00:40:22,340 --> 00:40:28,340 Oh, absolutely. And when we see them grow in so many ways, and that's important to us. 441 00:40:28,340 --> 00:40:33,340 Our volunteers buy into that too. This isn't just about baseball. 442 00:40:33,340 --> 00:40:39,340 And as our players enjoy it more, our volunteers enjoy it more, our parents enjoy it more. And that's the goal. 443 00:40:39,340 --> 00:40:43,340 Well, Dan, Dan, Kebekah, I say it right that time? 444 00:40:43,340 --> 00:40:46,340 Close. I've heard worse. Let's put it that way. 445 00:40:46,340 --> 00:40:50,340 OK, well, what a pleasure. It's been to have you on the show. 446 00:40:50,340 --> 00:40:56,340 Guys, remember, you have an opportunity, however small, to make a difference. 447 00:40:56,340 --> 00:41:00,340 Take somebody under your wing. Make somebody smile. 448 00:41:00,340 --> 00:41:07,340 Smile at a little kid that's looking at you and waiting for you to show them a goofy face or something. 449 00:41:07,340 --> 00:41:12,340 Take advantage of that moment and have a little fun with your life. 450 00:41:12,340 --> 00:41:14,340 You're only here for a little bit. Have some fun. 451 00:41:14,340 --> 00:41:17,340 Well, how much does a smile cost? You know, nothing. 452 00:41:17,340 --> 00:41:23,340 And all the work I put into the baseball, it's been worth it to me personally to see this grow. 453 00:41:23,340 --> 00:41:27,340 And now after this year, to be able to hand it off, one of our players is actually taking over the program, 454 00:41:27,340 --> 00:41:30,340 which is one of my goals, was to have the players take over the program. 455 00:41:30,340 --> 00:41:38,340 And so that'll be kind of the fulfillment of it for me next year when I see Chris out there running the program, because that was the goal. 456 00:41:38,340 --> 00:41:45,340 What a great story, Dan. And I'm so happy to promote you and your cause and your life's work. 457 00:41:45,340 --> 00:41:49,340 People look all over the place for riches and for things to fulfill them. 458 00:41:49,340 --> 00:41:53,340 And I think you've just done it the right way. Well, thank you. 459 00:41:53,340 --> 00:41:59,340 And I just I thank you for coming on the show. Your cup. What did they say? My cup overfloweth. 460 00:41:59,340 --> 00:42:05,340 I'm not saying it correctly, but yeah, my cup runneth over. That's what I did. 461 00:42:05,340 --> 00:42:08,340 Well, I did a mass, a sermon on good works once. 462 00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:16,340 I said your cup is full of good works like wine. As you pour it out, God will pour more back in to refill it. 463 00:42:16,340 --> 00:42:19,340 But if you don't pour it out, that wine turns to vinegar. 464 00:42:19,340 --> 00:42:24,340 You know, it gets sour. So you have to pour it out and use it. And that's my analogy. 465 00:42:24,340 --> 00:42:29,340 Well, folks, that's it for Dan time this week. What a conversation. What a guest. 466 00:42:29,340 --> 00:42:33,340 And Dan, I hope I can call you a friend. Thank you. I call you a friend, too. 467 00:42:33,340 --> 00:42:35,340 We'll see you guys next week. 468 00:42:40,340 --> 00:42:45,340 Hey, if you like that episode, please take a minute to leave a five star rating for the Dan time podcast. 469 00:42:45,340 --> 00:42:48,340 I'd really appreciate if you download and subscribe. 470 00:42:48,340 --> 00:42:54,340 And to keep up with Dan time throughout the week, you can follow any one of our social media pages. 471 00:42:54,340 --> 00:42:59,340 There's at Dan time pod on Twitter slash X Dan time pod on Instagram. 472 00:42:59,340 --> 00:43:03,340 And the Dan time podcast also has a Facebook page. 473 00:43:03,340 --> 00:43:30,340 Check us out on YouTube. That's where you can find all the Friday challenge videos in every episode.