Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Two Brooklyn born gen X guys and a Jersey millennial shooting the shit. Talking about everything and anything. Ready to hear topic suggestions for future podcasts and feedback on those we have recorded. Follow and Like us on FaceBook & Instagram. Email: CCandNJGuy@Gmail.com
Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Healing Hearts and Inspiring Hope: The Rock Hill Run's Legacy of Love and the Power of Community Support
When personal tragedy strikes, it's hard to see the light at the beginning of the tunnel. But Suzy Rhulen Loughlin found a way to ignite a spark of hope, transforming her loss into a legacy of love and support through the Rock Hill Run and Ramble. Our heart-to-heart with Suzy uncovers the story of this extraordinary charity run, which began as an initiative for the American Heart Association and evolved into a lifeline for families affected by blood cancer, through the Trevor Loughlin Foundation. As you tune in, you'll feel the strength of a community united in remembrance and the joy that comes from giving back, all wrapped up in the warmth of the Brittany Beckman Bakery pop-up that sweetens the event each year.
The serene backdrop of the Neversink River sets the stage for an event that's more than just a run; it's a vibrant festival of life and camaraderie. As we ramble along with Suzy, the meticulous orchestration of the Rock Hill Run unfolds, revealing the dedication of volunteers and the communal tapestry that makes this event a local pillar. From the exhilaration at the starting line at Holiday Mountain Lodge to the shared triumphs at the finish, our episode captures the essence of what it means to come together for a cause, celebrating milestones and memories with every step.
We're reminded that our collective efforts ripple far beyond the finish line, as the conversation shifts to the profound impact of bone marrow donations and the pressing need for diversity within the donor registry. Suzy shares powerful stories and emphasizes how simple acts like a cheek swab can carry the potential to save lives. As the run garners support and awareness for these vital health initiatives, we're left with a reinforced sense of purpose and a call to action that resonates with every listener. Join us on this inspiring journey—where every mile run and every story told is a step towards healing, hope, and a healthier community.
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Cotman, crawford and the Jersey Guy podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Kenny Cotman Lewis.
Speaker 1:Crawford, and I'm Tom Ramage, the Jersey Guy.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello. My friends. How are you guys doing today? Good, we're doing great, excellent. That's what I want to hear. You guys had a good week.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:Everybody chilling for the most part yeah, tired Been crazy. Week went by pretty quick though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did, it was all good.
Speaker 2:Too much work. I'm too pretty to work this hard. Whatever, my God, that's great. I love it. I'm glad you guys are good, so I'm going to jump right into our guest today. So Senor Lewis introduce.
Speaker 3:We have Susie Ruin Laughlin with us today. Hey Susie, hello, hey everybody. Susie has been running the race over at the Rock Hill Run and Ramble. That's why we have her on, so we can talk about that and what it's for and what it does. She's been doing that since 1993.
Speaker 4:Wow, Susie, that's a long time. Yes, 31 years. Tell me about it, lewis 31. This will be 32 years.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:Congratulations. That's awesome. More than half my life actually.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I'm sure you're going to be doing it forever, right? I don't know about that.
Speaker 4:I was hoping to have a successor, but I haven't found them yet, so I'm taking anyone who wants to sign up. In case you know, tom Kenny, you know you could do that.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, we'll try to help you out with that. So tell us exactly what the run is for and what the foundation is for.
Speaker 4:Sure, so I guess a little history. We started the run, as Lou said, in 93. And at the time it was really just a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. You know, we were trying to find a way to encourage wellness in our county and so the Heart Association asked if we would start a run to benefit them, which we did for about seven years. And then what changed in 98 was my dad, walter. He was a big runner and a great guy and he was diagnosed with leukemia about five months before he died. It was pretty quick, he was 65. Five months before he died it was pretty quick, he was 65. And, um, you know, after that we decided that we wanted to switch the beneficiary of our uh charity to give money to leukemia and lymphoma. Not that the heart association wasn't very important, it is but, um, this became very personal, that we wanted to work toward finding a cure for blood cancer, and that was kind of the beginning of that change.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay.
Speaker 4:So that's what we've been doing for years. And then you know, unfortunately more tragedy struck in 2013. I lost my son, trevor, to an accident and he was a very big volunteer for the run and he was um knew some of the patients we had helped. He died at 21 and you know we lost other um patients that we were supporting um at different times over the years and we just felt it was important to find a way to keep the money more local. So, while we still give money to the leukemia and lymphoma society, the Trevor Laughlin foundation was formed to handle money for local patients in our region who are battling not just blood cancer but really any catastrophic kind of illness.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Okay, all right. Right. Sorry to hear about the rest, but yeah, that's a that's pretty groovy yeah, okay, that works. So now do the hospitals get with you also to uh to promote and uh run with you and everything for the foundation they do.
Speaker 4:I mean, like the you know garnet health, which is now garnet health. I was used to it being, you know, like we had catskill regional and orange regional and then they became part of the garnet system. But they have been a Garnet Health, which is now Garnet Health. I was used to it being, you know, like we had Catskill Regional and Orange Regional and then they became part of the Garnet system. But they have been a supporter for years, both financially and they. We used to do a health fair. They would always come. But they also send us patients because what we do at the Trevor Laughlin Foundation is we issue grants If a family has a patient that is dealing with you know their treatment and everything.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of out-of-pocket costs that nobody has insurance for, right, you know, even if you have health insurance. You got co-pays, you got sometimes you need child care, sometimes you need a trip down to westchester or new york city or somewhere and just the gas money. You know parking, hotels, all those things for family members is tough. So they can apply for a grant from us. We do $1,500 grants and they can apply even more than once and we just try to help take some of the pressure off. Maybe it's a mortgage payment one month, maybe it's new tires the next month, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting because when you think of people having to pay for when they have cancer or anything like that, you think of the medical bills, but you don't think of all those other expenses. Exactly.
Speaker 4:Well, think of a mother who gets sick, who's got young children, who's going to watch them after school when she has no energy.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:You know, like getting babysitting help. I had one patient. I'll never forget her as long as I live. She actually was at the run a few years ago and she died three weeks after being there and she needed the money so she could get a couch with a pull-out bed so that someone could stay with her to care for her. Wow, because she had nowhere for them to to sleep and she couldn't afford a couch, you know. So it could be for really anything and the needs people have. I have another woman who's got lymphoma and she has dogs and they're her life, those little dogs, as some of you know, in that room. I don't know about kenny and tom, but I know lou, that's a big thing for you, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those are my babies and these dogs.
Speaker 4:She couldn't even afford to keep feeding them, you know. So we gave her money to help pay for her dogs and go to the vet and the boarding and all that. So whatever needs people have, we're here to try to take some of your pressure away.
Speaker 3:And I like the whole community thing too. Yeah, definitely that's really great. You know cause you're keeping it local? And doing that and uh and, I'm sure, local businesses around you right Help with the advertising and donating. I'm assuming as well, like you know, we have.
Speaker 4:We're so lucky. We have so many great sponsors you know that have been with us literally for decades and, and each year we try to get new ones and actually, you know we get them. You know, um, there was, you know, we have a new business out from your direction who, uh, came in as a really big sponsor this year like a $5,000 sponsor. Most of our sponsors give anywhere between a hundred, 250, 500, a thousand, um, and we have a few that do give 5,000. Um, that's a lot, you know. But so we really try to, you know, do our best to promote our sponsors. You know they get. If you do 500 or more, you're on the back of our T-shirt. All of them are listed on our website. You know we still run some print ads for the local paper. Some the Sullivan County Democrat will have an ad and so we try to give them as much coverage as we can. But you know, really community minded businesses that support us and have for really long time. So very grateful to them.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to put I'll definitely put your name out there, you know, cause I didn't know about this until Lou taught me a couple of years ago that he was going to go do the run and you know Tanya was making big goods and stuff for it and whatnot.
Speaker 3:That's another part of it. Yeah, you know, tanya was making big goods and stuff for it and whatnot.
Speaker 2:That's another part of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's like oh, okay, cool. So now I know, and yeah, definitely, I'll put it out there.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Well, you should come too. You should come to it.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I'm coming.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:June 15th, Saturday before Father's Day.
Speaker 4:You don't have to run participants are walkers.
Speaker 3:I'll be a walker too, no, no no, and this year it's a new track, right, so you've actually gone to a different spot to do the race.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I probably should have my head examined after 31 years of things being on autopilot and running really smoothly.
Speaker 4:It's like why on earth would anybody think of moving. But you know it was. You know change is good sometimes and we, because we've been around so long, believe it or not you get people, age, get older, including our volunteers, and you're always looking to try to find ways, spots and the people who help with whether it's cutting bagels in the morning or coffee or or selling merchandise, you know, helping people with the bone marrow drive, because we do try to get recruit people to register to be bone marrow donors. I mean, there's a lot to do on race day and it takes a lot of people who are willing to give up a Saturday and come there and help us. And so over time, you know, a lot of people either move away or they're just, you know, have different interests, which is understandable. So we're always looking for new ideas and new people and we felt there was an opportunity with all that's happening at Holiday Mountain. I don't know if any of you guys have been down there, but really something to take note of.
Speaker 4:The taylor family purchased holiday mountain and that's right. It is being renovated and it's going to be really a phenomenal ski area. You know they're bringing it back to life and um. But I also want to say, though, a shout out to the pasante family, who ran it all, ran it all these years until they sold it to the tailors. They, too, kept it going, and you know, we were just so lucky to have this as a resource in our county, so by moving the run there, we can call attention, I can get my 800, 900 people who come to check out something that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise, and so it's a good way to support them. And they also have a foundation with a 501 C3 that raises money to help get kids on skis like kids who can't afford it, so that any kid could learn, and so we made them one of our beneficiaries this year, and in turn, they're helping us, they're giving us a lot of volunteer support and letting us use their facilities, and so it should be great for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is awesome, man, Listen, I'm telling you because I did a walk so I never walk, I don't do a lot of work.
Speaker 3:Well, no, no.
Speaker 2:I mean as far as like going out to do, like you know, the for fundraisers and stuff like that. I never did it. I was like, nah, I'm not doing it. And I went to one a couple about a week or two ago and I'm going to tell you what it was more fun than I thought it was going to be. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:That's great.
Speaker 2:You know, and, like I said again, lewis and Tanya going over and doing your stuff, you know it's not far, it's a nice ride.
Speaker 3:I just I you said you know people to take, you know, so I'll register. I'll get them registered, so they don't.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, no, I'm going for sure yeah but you know saying that because we get a lot of people from where you guys live. It's not just sullivan county, it's like sullivan orange. Ulster um pike are you? Uh, what county are you guys?
Speaker 3:orange pike well, no orange. Yeah, I'm pike, but they're orange. You're Pike and they're orange.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So you know, and that's kind of the way also the people who apply for our grants, pretty much any zip code where we have runners, walkers, you know we get patients from those. So we're not just Sullivan County, you know, we're really a regional kind of event.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:And people come from pretty far away. Um, it's really nice, but yes, there's nothing. Like you know, when you spend a day helping a cause, you know you come home from that and you feel like you did something, you made a difference and in a small way. You know like I think about our grants. It's 1500 bucks, which in the scheme of things, isn't a lot of money when a patient has cancer, but when you can't make a mortgage payment and it can help you for that one month, just it's one month of peace of mind that you don't have to worry, right, yeah.
Speaker 4:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And it's not giving up a Saturday. You know what I'm saying? It's giving a Saturday, right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:Well, that's a great way to say it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're giving a Saturday to help talk about and everybody you know everybody in their own little way preaches about oh my god, help out. You know you should be. And then nobody gets up because they're watching saturday morning cartoons, you know what I mean. So they turn around and, like you know, for something like really I said well, I mean, think about it, bro. That's what my excuse was.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna make believe. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean. But until I went and I did one, you know, I was like wow, like this is it's worthwhile? Because you can see the people that are, you know, benefiting from it. You know that they're, you're putting a smile on their face, you're helping them out. You know, and maybe in my old age that I'm just looking like. Oh, you know, now I'm feeling love towards people because I didn't like anybody before. But you know, now it's like you know, now I'm like, you know what this is really worthwhile.
Speaker 4:Yeah, now I'm like you know what this is really worthwhile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right now I like them, I can deal with them, I like people now yeah, but you know, but this is something really worthwhile.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know and Well, it's for a good reason.
Speaker 2:It is it's for an awesome cause, you know, because this is something that people that you never pay attention, you know.
Speaker 4:Right and.
Speaker 4:You don't realize Exactly. Yeah, so you know again. You know that this is awesome. Yeah, I'm spreading the word for sure, I'm bringing everybody you should read like and Lou knows these folks because they're the ones who you were mentioning about Tanya baking. And so we have a bakery called the Brittany Beckman Bakery at the run. It's not a real bakery, as in all year round, it's just pops up for the run.
Speaker 4:And Brittany Beckman was a beautiful 25 year old girl who died of leukemia. She never got her bone marrow match and before she died she was a big supporter of the run. She would come and speak at our run. So her family, her aunt Kathy and her mom Kelly and all of the Stanton family, stanton McGrath family they do this bakery and Tanya, who's this master baker, as you guys probably know, helps bake goods for the bakery and then we sell them at the run and raise a lot of money just from the bakery. But when you come to the run it's really like, not like, not. Yes, you can go walk and you know it's three miles, it's not that bad and it's. You'll feel like you did something. But then when you get back, we have the bakery and we have bagels and beer. We get beer donated, so and we also have entertainment as well, right, exactly, john zanger.
Speaker 4:He's a great musician, he donates his time every single year, comes and plays guitar and sings. And actually this year it's going to be a little bit different because Holiday Mountain actually has a like a bar and restaurant. They're going to open that up after the run, after we're done with our part of it, and John Zanger is going to stay and keep playing music and the bar is going to open up for, you know, whatever people want to drink and whatever food they might want to order for lunch or whatever, and have cornhole set up and, you know, just good music just hanging out. It should be a really nice afternoon for anyone who wants to stay.
Speaker 3:I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 4:I'm coming, tom's coming. I think it'll be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to go pick Tom up and bring him too.
Speaker 4:Oh, by the, way, lou, don't forget the raffles too.
Speaker 2:Right exactly.
Speaker 1:The amazing raffle prizes. I was going to ask you about that. We raised a lot of money for the raffles.
Speaker 4:Yep, okay, we have great prizes this year Now. You know, susie, I was just talking to somebody about as well, right, isn't that correct? Yep, and then, majority of the time, they always give it back?
Speaker 3:They do.
Speaker 4:I don't think I've ever seen anybody take it and walk away with it ever. You know every now and then. But I want to be careful about that because I don't want anyone to feel bad that they don't?
Speaker 3:No, of course not.
Speaker 4:Because sometimes they need it too you know, Right, right, they need it too. You know and, and, and.
Speaker 4:It's not a ton, it's like 300 for first place, 200 second and 100 for third, and that's only the top three men, top three women, and then the, the masters which is 45 and older, one, the first place male, first place female masters. They each get one 50. So you know, we give that way about 1200 bucks in in prize money and sometimes it gets donated back, which is great, but again, I don't want people. It's not the expectation. You don't want people to feel like they have to do that because they don't.
Speaker 3:Of course not, and I apologize, I didn't want it to come off that way, no, but you made a great observation, a great point.
Speaker 4:People are so charitable and believe me, the ones that keep it for all. I know they're buying raffle tickets. You know they do really great with the raffles, so yeah, that's right, it's all good it's nice, I.
Speaker 3:I like it because you know everybody's walking around and people are talking, it's right before the race and everybody's getting ready to go, and then when everybody gets back it's kind of all right, we're doing it again. We're just hanging out now, we're just chilling. We did it something to eat, whatever it is, you know I like the bagels and everything I like. Look forward to that with the race yeah, yeah at the end. Oh, we're gonna go get a bagel and some coffee and and just chill back and relax and then and hopefully, the weather.
Speaker 4:We've been lucky and over the years, most, most of the time, we've had pretty good weather. A couple years ago we had crazy wind. I mean that was like I don't know. If you remember that one yes, I do tent was. The tent was almost flying away, but um, but mostly we're lucky we've, and, and this year. The nice thing about holiday mountain is this huge lodge, so if we were to have rain it's big enough for everybody inside that's great.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that makes it even better.
Speaker 4:Of course, you know what the hell and the start and finish will be right in the same place this year, which is not how the course has been. You know, the course starts in one place and it's a good, you know, probably third of a mile apart. So now it'll start and finish right at the same place. So that'll be a nice thing too this year yeah, yeah, it definitely changed up.
Speaker 3:Uh, a question is it hard to do that, to get a location to you know, to find the put you know to have the race at? Is that a difficult thing or is it just?
Speaker 4:oh, definitely, yeah, it is oh no, it's definitely difficult because, again, it depends on the kind of business you know. Are you going to be disrupting them on a saturday morning? You know, we were always very lucky being able to do it at Frontier all those years and then when it became the Center for Discovery, they've been great too to us. But you know, like logistics, like just an example, today, just because we moved the course, we need to basically reroute some traffic for a couple hours so they don't go over this bridge that goes over the Never Sink River. It's a county road but the exits are state and then the town roads are also part of it.
Speaker 4:So today, just today, I had a meeting at the New York State DOT. I had a meeting at the county of Sullivan DOT. I had to go to the town of Thompson Highway Department and then I had to go to Holiday Mountain's biggest neighbor across the river, a company called Calanan, which is like a big quarry where trucks go in every minute. There are these gigantic trucks hauling stone and I basically had to go in and talk to them about the fact that I need to shut that bridge down for two hours and we need to reroute all your trucks on a Saturday. You got the state police, the sheriff, the town of Fallsburg and then you know again the DPW and everyone that we, without them we wouldn't even be able to do any event. You know we need them to help us with traffic and keeping all our runners safe and they do such a great job with that.
Speaker 3:You don't even really think about it right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Going to this 5K but you don't know what's really going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Behind the scenes Exactly going to this 5k, but you don't know what's really going on yeah behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:You know what, what really takes to get this thing going and it's crazy, and that's why it's so awesome yeah I'm sorry go ahead suzy no, no, it's okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I was gonna say that that's why it's so awesome. You know you're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 4:You know yeah, I mean it's like I again, because I was on autopilot for a while. It kind of happened on its own. But like today I was reminded about like probably what I probably did 31 years ago when I had to first get the course going and get permission from all the different you know jurisdictions. But so today was like kind of a reminder. I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize it was this much work.
Speaker 4:But, but, but no, everybody was. I can't say enough good things about all the people who work for those different departments and how supportive they're being about it. It's really quite something. So, and then of course you got the homeowners. Like on one part of our course I got nine houses. Another part I got five houses and for the that just shows you how rural it is, by the way that for a mile and a half we're really only talking about 15 or so houses that we need to get their support. So they're willing not to pull in and out of their driveways for that hour and a half. Right, because we can't have the course runners going by them and having cars pulling out. So there's like logistics around that too. So it requires just a lot of cooperation from a whole community. But so far so good. I think it's going to be a really nice event.
Speaker 3:Well, it probably helped also because they probably already knew about the race anyway. Right, I mean, they knew who you were and where you were originally doing it from. I hope so.
Speaker 4:I don't know. I hope so, Lou. It's like literally as the crow flies. I don't think we're a mile away from where our last course was, but it's technically like we were in Rock Hill. Holiday Mountain is technically a Monticello address. Oh, that's right, it's really like Bridgeville, but if people aren't really in the running community or paying attention, they may not have known about it, so I don't know. We'll see. It'll be interesting to find that out.
Speaker 3:Right, hopefully they'll all be okay with it. Yeah, hopefully.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think we definitely need them to be you know, you know it might you know, it might put them on the map for all they know yeah, you never know, well they, they might like their peace and quiet too and they don't want to be bothered on a saturday morning, yeah yeah, well, at least it's not you cutting the grass or anything like that or starting up your hot rod across the street at like 9 am exactly saturday yeah, exactly that is true.
Speaker 4:And hey, listen, this, this road is so beautiful, this edwards road it's called, which goes right along the never sink river, so you literally have the river on your side the whole time you're going, and it's just beautiful there, and I don't know if you've ever been down that road anybody but it's really going to be nice.
Speaker 3:I just think you know, rob, he used to go there all the time to the holiday mountain. So yeah yeah, I know that road well because I lived in monticello for a little while, you know my kids live there so yeah, edwards road is really beautiful.
Speaker 4:I'd never really spent much time on that road, um, and it's flat. So the course starts at holiday, you know, at the lodge, and the first half mile you're still on that holiday mountain road, but then you go across the bridge to edwards road and it's another mile and you turn around and then come back. But but that road along the never sink, there's, you know, people kayak in there and in fact holiday mountain's going to be doing tubing white water, not white water, um, just like the big tubes you can rent, you know yeah, yeah yeah those are fun.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so they're setting that up as part of activities for the summer. That holly mountain will be operating too. They also have tubing in the winter. You know that's a big attraction there. This year it was, and uh, so they're going to carry it over, so maybe we'll have a bunch of people tubing while we're all out there. Yeah that'd be nice. It'd be fun to see.
Speaker 2:You know what I'll volunteer to do?
Speaker 4:the tubing too, you can just put me on there.
Speaker 2:I'll get all the people to come into the tube and whatnot. Come on the water, the water's fine.
Speaker 4:There you go, that'll be fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The water's just fine. You know what I'm blue? Yeah, teeth are chattering. That is awesome. This is that you know I'm. I'm already excited to go, like I'm gonna do?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's gonna be fun I gotta tell you it's not only suzy's talking about all that what that takes to get that going right.
Speaker 4:But what?
Speaker 3:about. You also have the volunteers helping you set up and get everything ready to as well right, so you have
Speaker 4:all that going on too.
Speaker 3:You got to get it going it takes a lot of people.
Speaker 4:It's just, you know, we set up Friday, the day before, and tables and chairs and tent, and this year we won't have to do the tent because we got the lodge, which is great. But, yeah, to do the tent because we got the lodge, which is great. But, um, yeah, definitely there's a lot of logistics to pull off something that only lasts for just a couple of hours. You know, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just, we got great people. Yeah, well, it's just the walk that takes a couple hours. Everything else is when everybody gets to the finish line, or start finish line, that then you know that lasts a little bit longer.
Speaker 4:No oh yeah, I mean after they get to the finish line, then they're going to hang out for a couple hours listen to music, eat food, stay for the award ceremony. So you know. Basically, the race starts at 9 and by 12 it's done. But it's a good three hours, it's a fun three hours that you're there.
Speaker 3:It's nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I can't wait. Yeah, I'm putting the word out, I'm going to get people to come in. Yeah, yeah we'll go.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just send them to go online and sign up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's going to be great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, tell people, if they want to buy raffles, they can do it online or when they register they can buy raffles or the bakery that helps.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, that's right. How much money do you think through the years since you've been doing that this long? Do you know how much you've ever?
Speaker 4:I think we're about 1.8 million.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:But you know it's basically between, like the last few years, we averaged between 80 and 90,000 clear after all expenses.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 4:In the early years it was a lot less. You know it's maybe 30, 40, 50. But I think total it's like about one point. We should be like hitting 1.8 by now and we've issued over 140 grants to patients, not including the money we donate outright to like the Leukemia Society or, in the early days, the Heart Association, but at least 140, maybe it's probably closer to 150 by now. 140 was a number as of last year, so this year we probably did another dozen grants.
Speaker 4:I would say and we look for people in the community to tell us when they know somebody you know, that's the other thing you know. We asked earlier do the hospitals tell us? Some of them do, but the best thing we get is word of mouth, like people hear about someone they know, a loved one or a friend that's ill, and they're like, hey, wait a second, let's contact the Trevor Laughlin Foundation. You know, let's get a grant for this person. So when you think about your friends and family and people you know, if you're unfortunate enough to have somebody in your life that's ill, then in a small way you could do something like this and steer them toward us and we're going to try to help them that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is way groovy. That is cool, like I said. And then this is when you see people really come out to want to help the community, you know, or anybody else that's just in need, you know, and right now, exactly, you know it is. Listen, I know it's crazy out there. Expenses are, you know, I mean yeah, through the roof.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it does help when, especially people who don't have any, you know, right to pay their rent or something like that yeah, that's what I'm saying. So this is awesome, this is but oh, suzy, but you could also help. Are you still doing the sign up for the blood donor match?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely so. Basically the way it works. You know people with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, any blood cancer they will often need a bone marrow transplant to survive. And some people are lucky where they could do like what they call stem cell transplant, using their own stem cells. But often people need a donor and very rarely even does a. You know, a family member isn't isn't always a perfect match.
Speaker 4:So there's this international bone marrow bank. It's called DKMS and it's Delete Blood Cancer is like their tagline, and when a person becomes a bone marrow donor, they will at our run you could have. Well, yeah, it's a swab of a cheek, it's literally a Q-tip that you swish around in your mouth a little bit and it gets sent away into this bone marrow bank registry and you fill out a form at the run also, and then you'll be in the bank and someday, if it turns out you're a match to somebody in need, you'll be notified and you'll have an opportunity then to decide is it something you want to do or not. You know, we try to encourage people to learn as much about it at the run so they can make an informed decision. But you know, 80% of the time a bone marrow donor is not really donating bone marrow.
Speaker 4:They're donating blood, and 20% of the time it does need I don't actually, I don't think it's 20. I think it's even less than that. They would actually need to go extract bone marrow, which they do from like you know, some like a pelvic bone or something. So that's a more invasive procedure, but it's a. It's in and out, you know, the same day and um, but most of the time it's it's blood. They would give you a medication that you take for a couple of weeks before they take the blood, so it boosts a certain type of cell in the blood that they need and then they can donate that to the person who needs the transplant and that could be what literally saves their life. So we've had over 750 people register since we started this in 2008. And we've had three people who've been matches for someone.
Speaker 3:Wow, I was a match Were you.
Speaker 4:Yes, you got notified. I got notified.
Speaker 3:I went pretty far into the process, uh-huh, and then it stopped, I think yeah, did they get another donor or something? No, I don't think it was going to work for them or whatever they didn't really say sometimes lou the patient sometimes the patient doesn't isn't able to receive it.
Speaker 4:Oh, I gotcha, I gotcha, yeah, something unfortunately, yeah, so unfortunately, that's what happens sometimes and um so a lot has to go right, but every day there's about 6 000 patients looking for a match every day that's why so, and especially people of color um very, very difficult to find a match, so we very difficult.
Speaker 4:so one of the things we really try hard to do is to recruit people of color to become donors, because it could be their family that needs it, their friends who need it, you know. So it's important that that we really encourage this. And I look at all the people I know who died that didn't didn't find a donor, like Brittany, or like a guy named Gil Sandblas. He was in his sixties. He was a good friend of mine's boyfriend and they'd been together for like 20 years and he worked in at um Arthur Glick truck sales in Monticello for the parts, you know, head of parts for like decades. He was this great guy and he um had developed blood cancer and tried awfully hard to find a match and it just didn't happen in time and he passed away. You know, and it's didn't happen in time and he passed away. And it's so tragic because if more people would sign up, maybe people like that would make it.
Speaker 3:Right, right, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So now all these things the donation or just checking the blood donation and stuff do you guys have this at the run?
Speaker 3:Yeah, at the race. Oh, so it's right there so you can do it all at the race. See, so much. She's leaving something out, though Go ahead. She made sure that I went over there and signed up, though that's funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 4:Well, I will say that we could have our tactics for Might be a little.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I'm a family member so you can get away with it, yeah.
Speaker 4:No, you, yeah, you might be able to, not. If my aunt Yoli's there, Let me tell you that she she, I think managed to wrestle 37 people over to the booth last year.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:I think we had 37 new donors last year. She's my aunt from Switzerland.
Speaker 2:She comes over over for a couple of months and she's got this heavy accent and she starts talking to you and the next thing you know you don't understand what she's saying, but next thing you know you're over there. Sorry, that is great. That is great because, see, so, like my wife loves well, she donates blood. Because, uh, what is it? I forgot what type it is. Don't get mad. What is she o positive that you can donate to?
Speaker 3:babies.
Speaker 2:O positive you could donate to any blood type Okay, so that's what she is O positive can't receive Right, except only what they have, that's that's my wife, so she like, she's like I will donate blood all day. You know what I mean, so so she'd be a perfect type of donor.
Speaker 4:I mean people who donate blood are already so aware of the importance of that right so the gift of life. They know it already, yeah, um, so most of them, I think, would also sign up to be a bone marrow donor if they knew all about it, I think they would. It's, by the way, you have to be between like 18 and 55 okay and there are some health questions.
Speaker 4:They ask because there are like, for example, I had this is crazy 33 years ago I had a melanoma on the bottom of my foot and it was treated and you know, obviously I'm fine, but because I had that cancer all those years ago, I still can't be a donor, which is kind of crazy, because you would think if a person had a choice well, now I'm too old anyway, but when I wasn't too old, so that was kind of disappointing. So there are some people who want to be donors but depending on some of your medical history.
Speaker 3:They can't yeah, yeah, and that's got to be frustrating because there are a lot of people out there want to do the right thing, but it's that one thing they can't do. It could be, I'm sure well, you see.
Speaker 2:So then that's what the thing is too if I can't give because I'm trying to do the right thing by giving blood or you know being some kind of donor, that then now I give my time, so that then you know gonna help, volunteer, everything I'm gonna bake this stuff, I'm gonna help out. I'm gonna be there in other ways. You know what I mean. That's, that's to give back, yeah even just selling raffle tickets.
Speaker 4:What that does for us is it does wonders you know, not only does it raise money, but it also spreads awareness about the event Right. You know people learn about it. And they're like oh, tell me about it. And you're like, oh, maybe it's somebody who lives in Mattamoros, near you, lou, or in Port Jervis. Or they're like oh, I like to run, I like to walk, I'd like to volunteer, and they come yeah, so that's what it takes, just everybody talking it up.
Speaker 2:Right, it is. Yeah, I'm putting the word out.
Speaker 3:It's always a good day though. Yeah, no, that's great. Suzy does a great job. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Not just me.
Speaker 3:It takes a lot. You know all those people help out and I know my son's one of the volunteers yeah yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So now, when is this walk, this particular one?
Speaker 4:so it's june 15th saturday, it's the father's day weekend, so it's not on sunday, not on father's day the day before, okay by the way, the bakery is awesome place to stop and pick up all your baked goods for father's day that's what you tell people.
Speaker 3:Take them home with you, that's right. They're delicious.
Speaker 2:So day before Father's.
Speaker 3:Day.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to Albany and I'm going to get my friend Eddie and his wife Marty to come down and some of the other nieces and nephews and stuff like that, because, yeah, that'll be a cool little get-together for Father's Day weekend.
Speaker 4:You could do a team. Yeah, a lot of teams that sign up. They're not. It's not competitive teams, it's just a lot of people will sign up as teams. Some people will form a team in memory of someone and maybe they wear a t-shirt with the person's name or a hat with the person's name. So we get teams. Like teachers will sign up some. Oh, you know what else we have. I should have mentioned this.
Speaker 4:So, in Sullivan County and I know you live in Orange and Pike but there's this ranking in New York State where they rank how healthy counties are by certain metrics, and Sullivan County was the second worst of any county in the state of New York for health metrics.
Speaker 4:And so there's been this quest to really try to improve our ranking through everything from how do we put healthier foods in our schools and educate people on nutrition and get people walking and exercising so in as part of that, one of the things that was determined was that firefighters are one of the unhealthiest group by way of an industry, by by, by their trade A lot of diabetes, high blood pressure, a lot of issues, obesity so there's something called the Healthiest Firefighter Challenge that's going on in Sullivan County now, where these firehouses are competing against each other for points and when they gather the one that wins enough points, they're eligible for this huge grant from another foundation called the gary foundation and I think it's like and they get, uh like, 50 grand from aileen gunther our assemblywoman has gotten that money out of the assembly and the second place is like 25 000.
Speaker 4:So, in any event, these firefighters, by walking or running, they, they can earn points for their firehouses, and so we're really asking all the firefighters in Sullivan County to please come on out and participate in our event and the firehouse that has at least five people and their name will be drawn, and we're giving $500 to the firehouse that has, you know, the most.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's great. Yeah, I'm surprised by that. I I, yeah, I figured firemen would be like one of the healthiest industries as a whole. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like it's funny, cause I right away thought it was the smoke inhalation, but you were saying just the lifestyle of it because, like they have to sleep, especially I know paid firefighters you know they sleep a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the paid firefighters, I think are probably. Yeah, they cook a big meal. You always see it on TV. They cook a big meal at the firehouse, you know.
Speaker 1:Some of the bars and stuff like that. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, but you know what? Again, that's another good cause. You know what I mean Exactly.
Speaker 4:That's awesome, that's but what you could see like there's kind of a theme here which go back to the community word, you know. So now you've got the firefighters who will benefit. We got the Holiday Mountain Foundation that's going to benefit. We got the Leukemia Society, we got the Trevor Laughlin Foundation to issue grants, I mean, and we give a little money to the, to the Catskill, to the Garnett Catskill Hospital. They have a foundation for patients who need help. We give them a little money. We give the United Way a little bit of money, because some of our patients who we raise money for in the past had a fund that it sits in and the United Way helps them administer those funds. So it takes like really a village more than a village. It takes like just so many different organizations to pull it all together. But our event benefits so much more than just our two charities.
Speaker 3:it benefits so many that's great, hopefully, and it'll just keep going in that direction, right, is that what you hope? I hope so that'd be great I hope so.
Speaker 4:Look, I'll always find a way to raise money for the trevor lawson foundation, because that's near and dear to my heart I want to you know, continue to do good in in Trevor's name, and maybe it won't always be a run, Maybe it'll be something else, but certainly you know we'll find ways to to make a difference to to the patients that need it, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, that's great. Yeah, no, no, I'm looking forward to this like seriously you know, there's very few things that I get excited over, and this right now is, like you know what this is going to be really cool? Yeah, Because, like you know, and even like you said, as far as work is concerned, biometrics is what we have to do at work to right To get a certain, to get a certain level right, right, to get to that level of you know, that would be the the excuse to go out there.
Speaker 2:And you know, whatever, now I'm just like I said, I'm excited because it's just it's giving back. You know I've spoken on. You know, for us, on our, on this podcast, I'm like you know what love everybody give it back, pay it forward, and now you're giving me another reason to do it.
Speaker 3:There you go, just saying that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm definitely going to spread the word too, because you know.
Speaker 3:Well, now you know, we're going to get it up on our social media.
Speaker 2:We're going to get it all up there.
Speaker 3:I'm going to make sure I get a post going and get that up there, yep.
Speaker 4:Thank you, that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 3:And just get people to come out. You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you for doing what you're doing. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you and thanks for making time for people like me on your podcast.
Speaker 2:No, are you kidding? This is what we do, thank you so much Susie.
Speaker 3:Really this means a lot.
Speaker 2:So it's a pleasure to have you on with us. Yes, yep, yep, yep, yeah, this is gonna be great. Yeah, I mean like I said definitely.
Speaker 3:You know that you're just I, I just can't get over, maybe because I'm just feeling that kind of way. You know, after the eclipse I'm just like you know what, my god I'm sorry, susie, but the eclipse and the earthquake yeah yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:No, no, that was. That was a little funny, because that's me, you know, that's what I do but you know what, you know this is.
Speaker 2:This is really cool and I appreciate that. You know you took the time to come and speak to us. You know said then you know we can tell everybody, you know, spread the word, because it's just that thing. You know, it's that something that we all have to give back and you know we all should, and yeah, no, I appreciate you for taking the time out to come and talk to us.
Speaker 4:So, thank you thank you too, and I look forward to meeting you guys, and if I can do anything to be helpful with anything you guys are doing, you'll let me know.
Speaker 2:No shit, thank you so much. Just keep doing what you're doing. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:It doesn't get any better, I'll keep trying. Say hi to my screaming grandson for me, please, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What was.
Speaker 2:I was screaming, grandson, for us.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, he's screaming his head off before.
Speaker 2:Anyway, the terrible twos have said it. Oh yeah, it's funny. Yeah, that is funny.
Speaker 4:But it's good, it's all great. We're going to get him out there walking this year?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we will.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:Get him out on a stroll and have him actually walk, that's funny.
Speaker 2:Exactly, he's ready to do it. That is too funny.
Speaker 1:We'll give him something to scream about yeah, I don't want to walk he will probably get reported to social services.
Speaker 2:Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:We won't tell anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3:He'll probably love it.
Speaker 4:Make sure when you get the word out, the kids have a blast. We give medals to every child 10 and under they walk away with a medal so they have a fun time to bring chase with you, yeah yeah yeah, bring my great nephew and there'll be some puppies there from the southern there you go who doesn't love puppies? Yeah, that's true if I hadn't given you another reason to be there sure, that is great man that is great.
Speaker 2:So then with that, miss suzy, give us the whole rundown on everything. So, uh, website, date again everything. What else do? No, that's it, yeah, yeah, just give us the whole rundown on everything 15th, saturday, june 15th, uh, registration will open at 7 am.
Speaker 4:We are going to shut down, you know, just before nine. But of course you can register online right now at rockhillruncom, and please register early. In fact our rates are going to go up may 1 so it's cheaper to register right now. You save like a good five bucks a person if you register before may 1 and um, after that race day you'll show up there, you know, be there no later than I would say like 815. Because who knows how the parking is going to work out.
Speaker 4:That's going to be a whole new thing and we want to make sure everybody gets a chance to pick up their T-shirt, and you know their bib that they're going to wear their number. So but check it out. Everything's on rockhillruncom and you can register there, you can make a donation there, you could buy raffles, you could buy merchandise, anything you like right there on the website.
Speaker 2:Sounds great, awesome. I appreciate you again. Thank you for being here, don't?
Speaker 4:hang up. Thank you guys.
Speaker 2:Yep, don't hang up. We're gonna, um, just do our goodbyes and then, yeah, close out the show and then, uh, we're gonna get back to you in two seconds, so don't hang up, sounds good. So again. Thank you, miss suzy, everybody that's listening. Thank you, love peace and hair grease live long, and prosper and go vegan.
