The Weatherboys Podcast: Enjoy Detroit

Hello everybody, Welcome to the Weather Boys podcast. I am Derek Kevra, that is Alan Longstreet, and together we make up the Weather Boys, and this is our podcast. Welcome to you, welcome sir, back to our Weather Boys studio. Our home, our home. Can you hear me? I hear you great. Is everything good? Because I can't hear anything. Oh, you sound excellent. So we're good. It's all great. Then I don't need to hear anything. This is fun. It's good to be back here. We had to take a week off because they commandeered it. For the election. Oh, we got from the room, not from the podcast. No, we will always produce. Look, I'm looking at one of our bosses right up here on the screen. Can you see him up there? No, you can't see him. He's right behind you. He's walking away. We have and we always will produce an episode of the Weather Boys podcast. So it was the election. How do you feel about the results? Specifically about Al Sayed versus Mike Rogers. I mean. I mean, I. Or Jocelyn Benson versus John James. We're not. This is not a politic. Oh, no, it's not politics. No, but it's just about your life and your morals and your convictions. Fictions. So how do you feel? I'll tell you. Blink once if you're happy. I'll tell you what's interesting to me. What was the single blink? What if I just did one eye? I'd like to be moderate. I want to be right in the middle here. Oh, you're a centrist, Chad? You don't really care about either side? Well, I find it interesting how every... If you don't fight, evil will win. A couple years, it just changes. What does? Like the political party in power. In power. Yeah, it does. It just changes, you know? It's the Republicans, and two years later, people are like, they've done a crappy job. Now the Democrats. Then two years later, they're going to say... They've done a crappy job. People are going to hate me. Sometimes I honestly, sometimes I want to do this. I don't do it because I research every candidate individually and make my decision on those candidates. But sometimes I want to just go Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, fight each other. I do not do a straight party. No, I would. No, I do like to sit down. I vote absentee. So I do like to sit down, research the candidates and then make the choice. What I think this person is going to be the best one for sure. That's what I do. Great. Um, how's everything going for you today? Everything's good. Everything's great. Um, everything's real. Everything's real fine. Yeah. We just had some nice little pastries down there from, uh, Bush's Fresh Market. I just undid everything with that pastry because I ate a lot of those pastries. I just undid everything that I had done right before that, which was get my teeth cleaned. Yeah. Oh, no, that's okay. So I went dentist and right to the sugar. Yeah, for sure. Is that an okay thing to do? Yeah. They definitely want you to eat again after they cleaned your teeth. It's not as if you're done eating until your next washing. I do the fluoride, though. They do tell me to wait. Oh, you should have for sure waited. Nothing crunchy, no pretzels, no gluten-free pretzels for sure. Because there's nothing in the world crunchier than those. Yeah. I do, yeah. Hold on, do you have any cavities? Zero cavities. None. Well, you want to, okay. Hold on. Zero cavities. Okay. But I can explain why, and it's somewhat embarrassing. Maybe embarrassing. I don't know. Okay, you should be embarrassed. Always. I have a very active saliva gland. And every time I go to the dentist... Does it have to do with why it's so loud when you chew? Probably. Or is that separate? It's probably that. No, that might be a jaw thing. But my dental hygienist... I joked, and always does, because this is a conversation that comes up every single time. And I try to go back to the same hygienist every time so I don't have to have the same conversation about it. Because they have to clean, like, a tooth, and then they do the suction. And then they do a tooth, and then they do a suction. To the point where she said, I can't believe I thought I could get two teeth cleaned before I had to do the suction. Oh, the rate of suction, the frequency of the suction is a lot. Because the saliva is quite high. So that is why you drool often. That's why we always see you drooling. I remember as a kid, I remember going to the orthodontist and getting yelled at because. I had so much saliva. As if I could do anything about it. You could control that. Yeah, you have a dial within it. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So a lot of saliva in this mouth, but that's the reason I don't get cavities. Got it. Is because, and this is true, this is science, is because there's so much saliva, my mouth is constantly cleaning itself. Yeah, how does that feel? So how does that work with all the kissing and stuff? Is it too much or is it just right? It's probably too much. Is there like a suction? We'd have to ask my wife. Do you have an at-home suction situation? Can we get her on the line? Battery powered. Keep it in my pocket right next to my chapstick. Sure, that's great. Just to suction it out. Yeah, nothing sexier than a little pre-makeout suction. So now I feel embarrassed. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, you should. Well, you have no cavities, though, so that's good. That is good. Yeah, congratulations. I've got something good for you. Well, yeah, is it in that satch? I got a little, I got a gift, and it's, I couldn't carry it up because I knew you'd see it, so I had to bring my entire satchel with me. Yeah, well, I mean, last time you brought me, you gifted me with a bag of pickle chips. Pickle, it's not food this time. It's not food. I must start with a story. I'm coaching. Okay, hold on. Hold on. How much time we got? Buckle up, buttercup. I'm coaching basketball. I'm coaching my son's basketball team again. Got it. And we're having a great time, but we are getting into, we're transitioning from baseball season to basketball season. Yeah. During baseball season, we got really into baseball cards. Now it is basketball season and we are getting into basketball cards. And of all of my friends. You are the friend of mine that enjoys basketball the most, so I would like for the podcast for you to open up a pack of Topps basketball cards. Oh, this is fun. I can do this right now? Yes, it's a live opening. Okay, so wait. So hold on a second, though. This is like when you give a friend a lottery ticket. Like, if I win a million dollars... Yeah, can we split it? But it's in my position. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, I believe they say. No, I would split it. I wouldn't be able to not. My moral compass runs too deep. I have moral OCD. I think you're going to get a good one, buddy. Here we go. All right, show the camera, though, too, because there are people that watch the podcast on YouTube. So we have, okay. Read them out loud. Zubek. That's not Luka. Sorry, Zubac. That's not Luka Doncic. No. Nope. Ivica. Ivica. Ivica. Ivica. There you go. You can have that one. Yeah, you give me all the ones, and I'll... Zach Eady. Okay, you can have that one, too. Keontae George. Don't know who these players are. Okay, well, hey, let's hold on to this one. Dylan Harper. Is he a good player? I mean, he's young, so he's got his whole career ahead. He could be. He's a promising young. I'll just look at it. Oh, this is yours. You're going to want this. Do you have any guesses? Is it a Piston? Is it Franz Wagner? Is it? Isn't that a Michigan man? Yeah. Yeah, it's a Michigan man. There you go. You can have that one. Oh, he went to Michigan. I love that. Magic now. Colin Murray-Boyles. Oh, boy, we got a lot. Are we going to do all these? Reed Shepard, Ryan Rollins, Trey Jones, Nick Claxton, Bradley Beal, Coby White, Jabari Smith, Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole. Doesn't he make those videos? Oh, that's Jordan Peele. Yeah, Jordan Poole went to Michigan, too. Royal Payne. Is that a good? I don't understand that card. Royal Payne. That can't be. Kingston Flemings. No limit. Sean. Well, he doesn't play anymore. Sean Kemp? Yeah, sometimes they throw in old cards like that. That's an old card. That should be a good one. Sergio de la Rea. Cameron Boozer. I think this is a good one because it's got all the shininess on it. Trevor Brazeal. Oh, Darren Peterson. He's a Rook or maybe a second-year player. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, is that Devin Booker? Yeah. Okay. Thunder, keep rolling, and there we go. We got it. Well, that was fun. Nobody good, though. That was fun. No, but that was an enjoyable. That was great. That is a rookie card. Hold on to that one. Let's keep it. That's for you, man. I wanted you to have those. All right. What a treat. What a guy. I know you love basketball, and you don't have a lot of people here at work that you can talk basketball with. No. No. I got John Williams. I got you. You'll listen. You'll stare blankly while I talk. Yeah, but now we can talk about these cards. Well, that's fun. I'm sorry you didn't get rich, though. Did you give me those cards because I bought you a chicken pot pie? He did buy me a chicken pot pie. Yeah, we had a little outside-of-work hangout. It was fun. It was wild. It was, yeah, last Friday we got together. Alan brought over a chicken pot pie and street tacos, which, thank you for doing that. Uh, Trent, uh, Totally handled the food. And then we let all the kids run around and be crazy kids and play flashlight tag. It was great. And they were playing a little baseball out there. Okay, I wasn't sure what was going on. I had to go buy a wiffle ball set for my home. Really? Yeah, the girls, they were like, yeah, we got to play baseball, and I want to play baseball now. Wait, did we? Are you convinced your kids to get into baseball like ours? You can't be an obsessed baseball dad like me? Yeah, I mean, probably not, but they have the initial interest. My kids are like the ADD, like they'll love something for a moment and then they'll move on to something else. But maybe the seed has been planted. We'll see if we can flourish it. Okay, well, maybe I'll buy them some baseball cards. We'll see if we can get this hooked. Do that. Great hangout, by the way. I feel like as our kids are getting older, it's getting harder and harder to lock in things because all of a sudden you've got a gymnastics meet and then I've got a basketball game and then this kid got sick This kid, you know, broke a knee and then this kid. So it's like, it's harder to line it all up. And so for it to finally happen was a lot of fun. Yeah. And Mariel was there. It was delightful. And I will say that we, I don't think we've had a family hangout with the kids for like at least a year, maybe honestly, maybe two years. Did they recognize Campbell? I was, I was genuinely, I wasn't sure because the children are now like mine are eight and then the old one's 11. She wasn't there. But they're at the age where, like, you can't just necessarily throw them together. Like, they have wants, needs, desires, and, you know, and they... They worked out great. Worked out great. Yeah. It was wonderful. There was a lot of... We've got some Nerf toys in the basement. Yeah. And there was a lot of, like, rubber... What do you want to call it? Little arrow thingies? Yeah, little darts. Darts. Thank you. I was trying to not use, you know, a weaponry. Bullets. You don't want to say bullets for fear of burning. I don't know. I just thought I would... You're a weirdo. I know. You're a real... Say gun. No. Say shotgun. Nerf toy. What is, you are such a, what do you think is going to happen? I don't like. FCC is going to call us up. No, but I don't, I don't like, I don't like toys as guns. It freaks me out. But you have toy guns at your home. They're Nerf toys with darts. They're guns. We got shot with them. We were sitting at the adult table, and around the corner, the kids did this cool move where they were like, boom, and they shot us. Yeah, and I found, for the entire weekend, I found darts and little bullets all over the place, which was fun. It was one of those things where I picked them up and smiled, and I said, ah, kids being kids. Oh, those kids. Yeah, that's great. You gotta love it. It was a real treat. So who do we got on the show today, buddy? Are we doing it? We're doing it? Okay, are you ready for it? I'm very excited about this. Yeah, this one's fun, because I thought that I knew this guy, and now I'm like, wait a minute, do I only know you through social media? We're about to find out. Today we've got David Woods. We've got Janelle Dennis from Enjoy Detroit, an organization working to empower young people and strengthen communities across the city. So we're going to chat with them. Janelle, David, welcome to the Weather Boys podcast. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it. We're excited. Look at you guys. I like what you're working on. I like those shirts, those sweaters. Did you bring us one? Actually, we did. No, shut up. Yes, yes. Oh, of course you did. I should have known that. Now, you know Alan's going to wear it without a shirt underneath, right? Because he's going to try to show off that chest of his. Yeah, of course. That's just how he does it. Yeah, why not? That wouldn't be weird, would it? That's totally normal. No, that's fine. Maybe I'll even unbutton the middle, too. Who knows? Everybody loves a little navel shown out there. Yeah. Guys, this is so delightful. David, I feel like I thought when we booked this podcast, I was like, I know this guy. I felt like I knew you in person. And then we started getting closer to the day. I'm like, wait a minute. I don't know if I know him. I think I just social media know you. And I don't even mean like talking to each other on social media. I just mean like I've followed Enjoy Detroit for so long that I created a memory in my brain that we knew it. Like, have we met? I don't think we've met. Have we met? He did. He sold it. He said, he goes, he goes, well, you know him. And I was like, I don't, I don't think I know. And he was like, no, he's been here. Has he? Like, I feel like, you know, like Keon Clinton. Maybe that's it. Maybe I saw you guys in a picture together and I was like, yeah, I'm totally friends with them. For sure. And you are. And I follow you too, though. I don't know. I guess the point of all that rambling is that And we've been admiring the work that you guys do for a very long time. And enough of that. Enough flattery. Let's get into Enjoy Detroit. Tell me about it because the average listener might not know exactly what it is you guys do. So start from the beginning. Tell us what it is. What is the mission statement? So when you say Enjoy Detroit, you got to say it like this. Enjoy Detroit! Shoooy! Go ahead. Enjoy Detroit! Oh, you did that really good. Oh, nice. Well done, Derek. Absolutely. You're better, too. Oh, man. So just, I mean, just to start, I mean, we started so long ago, right? We were just so young, just wanted to give back, turn a negative into a positive. And it's just like. People were saying that, giving Detroit a bad name, and it's like, hey, hold on, we live here, we from here, we born from here, so we wanted to start something just to, you know, like I said, turn a negative into a positive, put smiles on people's face, right, and we created a brand, Enjoy Detroit, and we just started going in the community, any ideas and visions that came to our mind, we did it. We just always wanted to support the city. So you were a part of the comeback. Because nowadays, people would be like, what do you mean enjoy Detroit? Of course we enjoy Detroit. Everybody has always enjoyed Detroit. But I mean, you started, you said, 10, 13 years ago? Yeah, about 15 years ago. 15? Yeah. Yeah, so we really got started around the time where we were facing a bankruptcy. Detroit was facing a bankruptcy. The public schools were closing all the schools. Thank The premises of Enjoy Detroit, we have the entrepreneurial side, which David started when he was 14. And so we just had a lot of young people gravitating towards us coming to the for-profit. Not knowing we were doing non-profit work with the young people that were coming in supporting us. you. And we were taking them out into the communities to help serve the unsheltered population. So that's how things actually, you know. And our for-profit is Esway Print and Promotion. So I started with Esway at the age of 14 and always created a safe space for the youth. Yeah. Right. So printing, graphic designs. You know what I was doing at 14? I was, yeah. I was playing video games. Yeah. Like not very good either. Like you guys both just casually said that. Like, yeah, I just said 14, you started the thing. Yeah. Like, was that, what do you mean? Like, what do you mean? Who are you? How did that come to be? Why? Yeah. And that was inspired by my father. My father actually started several stores in the neighborhood called Soul Town. Okay. Yeah. So I built my store inside his dollar store. Oh, I see. So it's in your blood, huh? Yeah, it's in my blood. Because entrepreneurship terrifies me. I'm so confused. I still have questions. You started your store in his store. A store in his store. What was your store? A print company. Yeah, and what did you do? T-shirts, graphic designs. We designed memorial shirts from family reunion. People come in, they want to start a brand. We had started a brand for them. Like from screen printing, heat transfers, vinyl, business cards, graphic designs. Being creative. So when you were 14 and you had to produce the equipment, you had to buy the equipment. Right. By the time you were 14, I don't know, is this expensive equipment? Yeah, it was. You have a paper route that you saved your money and then you bought it? Like what? No, actually, my mom actually gave me $100 and I started saving my money for my birthday, you know, holidays, right? Then my dad had an old computer in his office that he wasn't using. So I'm like, hey, I'm going to borrow this. Then my dad went out of town, because my dad is actually, he was like a manager for boxing. And I'm like, you know what? I actually hired a handyman to come in to actually put up drywall and everything. It was amazing. Like, I did it without his permission, but at the end of the day. I had to get charged for rent. It was amazing. Janelle, so what's your story? Where does your story start? Because we're going to get to a point where these stories connect. But I imagine you had your own independent story as well. Yes. So I got, well, how I got introduced to Mr. Woods. She was a customer. I was a customer. I was looking for some memorial shirts. I had two nieces who passed away, and it was their memorial time of their passing. And I went to the shop and got some shirts printed. And I was just, you know, being observant, seeing everything that was going on. And I was like, OK, I could see, you know, we just got into conversation. And then, you know, his personality is, you know, kind of infectious. And we just got to talking. And I think areas where I can kind of fill in the gaps of what was going on. So, yeah. You said you did it without his permission? Yes. Like, in a weekend? Yes. Like, he's gone, and you're like, all right, guys, we got to get... And this is when you're still 14? Or were you... Like, 16 at that time. 16 still? Were you nervous when he came back? Or did you know? No, I was nervous. You're like, he's an entrepreneur. He's going to be okay with it. I did, because I was like, damn, that's my father, so I'm going to get away with it. Yeah. But he was like, hold on, there's rules to this. Sure. Like, where does this, I guess, where does this confidence come from? Like. To do something like that, like, on your own, and then, I mean, not really against your dad's, but, like, without his permission, I guess. Right. Like, have you just, you've just always been that guy? I'm going to do the thing, I'm going to have that vision, and I'm going to figure out how to get there? Yeah, no, absolutely, because even, you know, when I was younger, I had, you know, like I said, I had a candy route, so I even sold candy, you know what I'm saying, took that back to school, sold it to my friends, I even resold my clothing. I always had an entrepreneurship spirit inside of me. You know, cutting the grass, you know, raking leaves, shoveling the snow. And these are the things I instill into the youth, even to this day, that you can start a business at a young age. You know, cleaning houses in the neighborhood, knocking on my neighbor's door. So I always just been, I always had the entrepreneurship spirit. But wait, so David, okay, so, but I was a kid once, longer than you guys. When I was a kid and I made money, I just wanted to have money. It sounds like even when you were a kid, you were like, I want to do something good for my community, which is not something that a typical 14-year-old thinks about. So what is it about you that made you feel that way? Like, I don't... I'm not just saving up to buy a new Xbox. I'm saving to change my community. I'm changing to help my city. Yeah, because, I mean, I've seen, even going to school, I've seen a lot of my friends who were less fortunate to bring lunch to school. Right. And even their clothing, you know, I can see that they had holes in their shoes, holes in their clothes. So I utilize my clothes because I had enough to give to them. And at the end of the day, I was a man at an early age because of. You know, my dad made some mistakes along the way and he wasn't, you know, he had to be removed from the family for some time. Right. And I had to step up and be the man, uh, man of the house. Right. And, um, and I just utilize my instinct of being an entrepreneur. And I knew when I was in fifth grade, cause I had guest speakers come in. They like, Hey, what do you want to be? And a lot of my friends and peers said they want to be firefighters, doctors, lawyers. I was going to say, anybody say meteorologist? I want to be a weather boy when I grow up. I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I just knew it from day one, and I still know it to this day. Yeah. There you go. And not to cut you off, I always just had that spirit, but I know that being an entrepreneur in a business in your community, that you're supposed to take care of the surrounding neighborhoods. You're supposed to take care of your community. You're supposed to take care of your customers. And we even built even a stronger instinct on our spirit to give back because I stated that my company was built off memorial shirts. And we've seen the pain and the effects that was happening in our community and families was coming in that they couldn't even bury their loved ones because they didn't understand financial literacy. So all this experience and growing pains, we know, and that's why we give back to our community. Are those things, all things that Enjoy Detroit takes on right now? Absolutely. How? Tell me how. So like David said, the entrepreneurial part, we make that huge with the young people to allow them to see that their creativity is their capital. So that's one of our principles, one of our motives right now, letting them know that, you know, what's inside of you, you can potentially capitalize off of it and allow that to be a resource to be able to assist you, to be able to assist your family or whatnot. Let's say gaming is a really big thing right now. So you can actually turn gaming into a business. Yeah. Styling them on social media or whatnot, letting them know, like, don't just allow it to be a tool for you to access. Capital. Is it a lot of mentorship? So is it a lot of like kids that are paired up with somebody within that to help mentor them along the way? Yes. Yes, it is. And then we also we definitely we find partners. We find people who look like the youth from the community where they're from, who may have been through similar backgrounds as them as well to let them know, like, you know, this is possible. It's possible for you guys to to overcome. So you guys have been doing it, you guys have been doing it for a little while. Tell us one, tell us, think of, is there one person, a couple people you can think of that you've seen touched, changed by this? We got Devin over here, who you said went through the program, right? And now he's working hard behind the scenes, you guys can't see him, but he's your creative photog extraordinaire. Yeah, no, absolutely, because Devin, we met Devin when he was like 13, going on 14 years old. And, man, as soon as he, I mean, he loved everything that we do. He brought the T-shirts and Jordy Detroit. He advocated for us. He came out to help us feed the homeless. And until we get behind the youth to allow them, like, if they have ideas, if they have ideas as well, too, we get behind them, right? And we make a difference. So, Dev, he came back right after college. And, hey, you know what? We say, you know what? We got a spot for you. You know, we believe in your vision. Hey, he's running the media department. He's the director of our media department right now. There you go. Okay. Absolutely. Just giving them an opportunity. But we got it. Man, we serve thousands of youth. There he is. There, we got him. Doing it on the fly here. I got to get him there. I was like, what are you doing? Sorry, Janelle, I took your camera, but I'm going to give it back. We just wanted a show. It's a spotlight. We live this year. Um, uh, uh, but. As I'm getting Janelle's camera back, who's Malik? Malik. There's a video on your LinkedIn. Shout out to Malik. Man. Malik over at River Rouge High School. Yes, he was a part of our summer program. And Malik, what we seen of Malik was that same spirit that David had when he was younger. Just that hustle, that grit, that grind. Like Malik was, we like, all right, Malik, the skills, $2, $3. All right, we got you. He brought snacks to school and sold them. Absolutely. So he was an entrepreneur, and that's what you guys do. Someone like that, I mean, without a mentorship. program or without someone to look up to who's done it who knows what Malik does but he meets you and you're like I see you I see me and you and I see you and me and you help you help build that and it completely changes his life trajectory absolutely yeah not to take away from you guys but I saw that video Malik I think Malik would have done it on his own what he's saying at the end he's like he's like I'm 14 you ain't gotta you're a kid you can do it now you ain't gotta wait I was like man that mindset is just like Derek said earlier like when I was that when I was that young that isn't what I was thinking of yeah No, I was like, how can I buy some more baseball cards? Right, right. I don't know, I can't. I guess I'll just go shoot hoops outside. Right. And I always wanted to be that person that I needed when I was younger, right? That see me, that lift me up, that hears my voice and my concerns. You know, like I said, even with Malik, we see him, right? And we just add it to his foundation, you know, his inventory and everything. How do you guys keep it going? Because like 15 years is a long time. And I got to imagine that you've had struggles with the, you know, I mean, you're building a company from nothing. How do you maintain the enthusiasm? It's not work for us. It's passion. Yeah. Like we do this day and night. Was that passion, was it built? Is it something that you have to work on? Or is it legit? Is it like you just wake up and you're like, this is the work that makes a difference. This is the work that like invigorates me. Well, I feel like every day I think we choose to do this, you know, like you have to continually choose because I mean, life happens. Sure. Life happens to us. And and yet and still we like we're not going to let it get us down. We're going to keep going. And not only that, when you know you have younger people or people just depending on you or looking up to you, it's like you got to show them how to overcome and how to be able to, you know, persevere. And, you know, just linking with like-minded organizations and partnerships, that's what's going. We have the for-profit, which our proceeds, you know, help enjoy Detroit as well, too. Absolutely. Then to our parents, you know, we lost our moms, and they was out there for us, you know, giving back, advocating for us, coming up with ideas to get back to the community. And even when they transitioned, we knew that they wanted us to keep on going. And we had the spirit and the energy to do it. You know, when I lost my mom, you know, our organization was going through a tough time where, you know, we wasn't receiving a lot of donations and sponsorships, right? We didn't have no corporations behind us, that big corporation that was funding us, right? We're just now getting connected with the bomber groups and things in that nation, OST, Miley, it's a shout out to them, and Amazon. We went out there and did a 48-hour homeless challenge where we raised funds to be able to feed multiple shelters and be able to give back to the youth as well, too. What do you do when the money isn't there? Oh, I mean, we definitely scraping from our pockets. Yeah, we're constantly scraping from our pockets. We get creative as well, too. Right. And we do what we can. You know, just like I told the organization community leader yesterday, they was like, hey, I just need some advice. I said, just start. You know, if you can only... And advice is free too, you know, like, yeah, yeah, that was a dumb question now that I think about it, because obviously relationships, the more I'm talking to you guys, the more I'm realizing Enjoy Detroit is relationships. It is. And you know, it's free. Being a good friend. Absolutely. Yeah, like having that relationship. I guess in a perfect world, you have endless funds. Amazon, you know, comes and gives you $100 million and you can do everything you want, but that's not real life sometimes. Right. And sometimes you do have to work with what you have. Yes. And relationships matter and are valuable, too. Absolutely. No, for sure. Like I was telling them, I said, if you only can serve one person, serve one person. If you can serve two, serve two. If you can serve thousands, it's going to get there. But just. Just start and just do it and just be a helping hand. And like you said, just being kind, you know, give us some, give a person a hug. It's free. Hug is free, right? Yeah. Derek lingers. His hugs linger though. If he tries to give you a hug, goodbye, like just know it's going to be, you guys will get one later. 90 seconds. He is going to be there and he's going to like sigh. And it's like, is it creepy? No, it's just nice. It's just nice. It's just Derek being Derek. I love the serve. I love the serve. I love the placement. I love how basic it is, but I love how powerful and how it tells me everything I need to know about you guys. Service, educate, revitalize, victory, and elevation. Yes. Yes. Man. Okay, so if Mackenzie Scott comes around, she hears our podcast. Obviously, she listens. She listens, right, for sure. So she's got a lot of money, and she says, okay, enjoy Detroit. I want to get behind you guys. What's the first thing you do? What's the thing you've been dreaming about? Unlimited funds. Yeah, you've been dreaming about it for a long time. I would say a location. Yeah. Yeah. Because right now we are, thank God for our partnerships with the schools or whatnot. So that's really how we. We can get to the youth. We were just blessed with a partnership with Priority Health where they're going to fund us a vehicle. So we already have the Enjoy Detroit van, which allows us to go mobile. But if we actually had our own hub. Now, Stella, what would happen at this hub? There would be a spot for the mentorships. There would be a spot for the creativity. Because we do it all. I love working out. We've got to have a facility, a fitness facility. Basketball courts, swimming pool, we got to have a lavatory, we got a computer center. Computer, media, then also we will be able to expand our resource pantry. We have a resource pantry as well, which we take mobile and meet the community where they're at in the neighborhood. So that would be, they can come in, get the resources that they need or whatnot to... And just creating that safe space for youth to come, where we always have food there. Just a safe space. Safe space. Yeah, just like the store. Yeah, some people just need a space sometimes just to sit back, relax, and unwind, and get away from their environment. Are there ever moments you guys aren't thinking about? Enjoy Detroit. No, no, this is your, this is you. This is, you found your why. It's like, we'd be waking up in the middle of the night, like four or five with just ideas and just, you know, can't sleep. Just anxious to, you know, get out there, boots on the ground to make a difference. And I like our, our phones is always open. Right. Man, we just, man, we just love our community. We just love giving back. And, and, and I always tell people too, Sometimes it's kind of hard to... defined us when they specifically asked for just a straight mission statement or what exactly is it that you do because we are heart-based we are um everything comes you know from the heart but we do so much and it's hard to kind of you're not gonna be able to put it in a quit trying to put them in a box Derek I'm not let them be who they are when they want to be there okay do it it's enjoy Detroit yes I'm sure there are I know there's great stories. I mean, you know, you've got Malik's story. You've got a dozen other stories. There's probably a story that bothers you, maybe somebody you couldn't connect with that you really wanted to. What do you do in that situation? A lot of what we do is failure and overcoming that failure. Do you have a story about Enjoy Detroit where it's like, I wish it would have turned out differently, but we learned this? I can share. I think everybody can go, but go ahead. Yeah, I would say, so this goes back to Dave's mom story, if it's okay for me to kind of step into that. So around the time when Dave's mom passed, we were serving. People were coming into us speaking about mental health, speaking about suicide, and they were in our presence telling us how they wanted to give up. They came around us, popped in, and it totally changed their mindset, right? So it's like you are able to help a community member. But then we had their mom, who is with us, but secretly, you know, going through what she was going through, her struggles. And she completed suicide. And it was right in front of us. And that was just like, I think that was one of those moments. For us as an organization, and yet even with her still completing suicide, we had a workshop the next day with young people coming in, teaching them about business, and we still had to run the workshop as well. So I think for that, they made us kind of shift our perspective on, okay, we need to check on the people that surround us, check on our strong people, check on our leaders, because she was one of our leaders that was helping God in us. Giving us ideas as well, but that was something that we missed. So that's something that we do prioritize and making sure that we taking care of ourselves and also stressing that to the young people and stressing that to, you know, to their parents, to the community as well. You know, so I think that that was something that was huge for us that we. Like you said, that we, you know, you're doing the good work, but you had that challenge where it was almost like you felt like you dropped the ball or, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Even, you know, what your mom transitioned from from cancer and how we spread a lot of awareness and how we support a lot of people that face some difficulties of that disease, you know, cancers. And that's how Janelle lost her mother as well, too. And we still, to this day, still support people. That's affected by that. And, you know, we talk about having the energy and the enthusiasm to keep going. And these things that happen, you know, to you directly, indirectly, the mentorships, when you have people coming to you, laying their burdens on you, and you want that. That's why you're here. But at the same time, you are human. Like, how do you balance that? Because there's got to be a part of you. I mean, you have serve on your shirt that wants to literally give that shirt. Off of your back to whoever needs it. Wants to open up probably your own home to everybody who needs it. But there is such a thing as burnout. Jesus had to leave the crowds and chill for a minute. You know what I mean? Like, how do you balance that tension between, like, giving everything and leaving a little bit for you? Being intentional. Thank Going to the gym. Going to the gym. Shout out to the free press. We just ran a marathon. Oh, we're putting a pin in that. Are we doing that right now? We'll circle back. Yeah, we will. I got a lot of questions about that one. You know, let me put the emphasis. The half marathon, not the full. It counts in my, in my mind, it counts. you. That totally counts. You know what? Get him out. We don't want him anymore. Half a marathon. That's it. Just 13 miles. Let me, let me say, thank you guys for sharing those stories. I know that that was difficult to share that, but it does. I think it really does show, it provides a bit of insight into Enjoy Detroit's, like how you. Build something because you start with a base and then things happen to you and you react and then you think something else happens and you react to that. And before you know it, you're 15 years down the road and you look at everything that happened. You say, that's why we are here today. Like that is. That led us to being this. And I really, I just want to say thank you for sharing those stories. I think it really comes out and shows who you guys are. I appreciate it. Okay, ask him about the running. Yeah, the running. Did you, this last year, a month ago, two months ago, you guys ran it. The half marathon. Had you run a half marathon before? First. How much had you run? Did you have a training block leading up to this? To be honest, we were so busy in the summer giving back to our community and serving the youth through the programs that we really only had like three weeks to actually get prepared. The only race I had ran was a 5K. Which is 3.1 miles. 4K more than anything I've ever run, by the way. Sure, yeah. He really gets out of the chair. I don't care. Yeah. Okay, great. Congratulations. How was it? How did you feel? Are you still sore? And, too, I want to shout out Rerun 313. I did run with them, with Two Mile Tuesdays and 5K, 10K Thursdays at Rerun 313. Yeah. And that's the most I ran. Yeah. But running a half marathon. It was like, it was intense. So we did the international. Yeah, but it is crazy how much you can do when you don't know. Because like you said, three weeks before that, you probably had never entertained running 13 miles. But you get with a group of people. I see those three, we run 313. And it's so cool just to see all of those folks just jogging around. I don't care your pace, they're all together going through the city, going to the neighborhoods. Like there's like, we don't know what we're capable of. That and that's it right there is and that's what something like a half marathon shows to you is if I can complete this physical thing that I don't think I can do, I can complete this spiritual thing, this emotional thing, this mental thing that I don't think I can get over. But Enjoy Detroit, you know, they can help you do, you guys do that stuff. That's what you do. Yeah, no, absolutely. And so we just take time out. Like I said, you know, shout out to Triumph Church. Triumph Church is our home church. Some of the pastors, Solomon Kinloch Jr., like prayers first, all that good stuff. And, you know, thanking Jesus all the way. Right. You know, because he is our guide. Right. So, but just taking time out, going to the gym. I'll be going to the YMCA downtown, you know, and I'm still in mentorship mode. I'm teaching the youth how to work out and play basketball, sports, but I'm still taking time out for myself because I enjoy it as well. We're coming down to the last five minutes. I want to ask you guys, what is next? A lot. You can take it. What is next? So for Thanksgiving, we are packing love packs. For the unsheltered population, and then, well, I should probably explain what a love pack is. So a love pack is a bag, well, our Enjoy Detroit bags, and they have gift cards in there, they have handwritten letters, they have essential items in them, and we also, we're partnering with Full Course Catering, we're taking meals to the unsheltered, and then Christmas, we have smiles and surprises for you. Which is coming up and with that experience, the youth, parents come out with their youth, they pick out one toy and then we have an activity area for the youth while the parents get to shop. around from the tables of the toys that we have, and we have volunteers that wrap the gifts for them so the kids don't know what the parents picked out on the tables so they can put it under their gift. So giving them that dignity still, like, they have an experience, and then we're preparing for summer and some after-school programming. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Yeah. So if people want to, and they're going to want to, they want to help, they want to donate. Money's important for an organization like your guys'. especially this time of the year when it comes to Thanksgiving meals and Christmas presents. How can people find you guys online and how can they help support your mission? They can follow us on our Instagram at Enjoy Detroit. Yes. Website, enjoydetroit.org. It's the donate button on there too. They can donate to our addresses on there, too. So if people want to mail checks in, they can mail checks. And our phone number is on there so they can call us and we can pull up. And I know you guys are selling that merch. Yes. Right? You got the Enjoy Detroit swag? So if you go onto our website, we do have a shopping center on our website. So enjoydetroit.org. And, too, we do got a big surprise that we haven't really announced yet. We did buy some land, shout out to Detroit Land Bank, right there on East Vernor, where we're actually going to be doing some gardening, right? Oh, yes! Yes! That's huge! Yeah, go ahead and share a little bit about that before we get on. Can we call it a farm, or is it just a garden to start? It's a garden to start. Okay. So we're going to do it in phases, and right now we have our fence up, right now we have some garden beds up. So in the spring, you guys will have more details on it, but it's definitely going to be a... Sounds like... This is not... Who's the green thumb? I was going to say, yeah, who is there? Do you guys know how to garden yet, or is it you're learning? So we're learning, and actually the community over there has been amazing. It's a lady named Miss Ellen. Miss Ellen is 90 years old. And she walks around here with us every day. And she has her own garden over there as well. And she gave us a tour of hers. So she's been telling us what to do, how to compost, just everything. So that's amazing, too. And like you said, that's that power of relationships. Yes, it is. And Miss Katrina, the Bailey Park. Bailey Park, as well, too. And they have so many resources over there helping us, too. Absolutely, because that's going to be our gathering space where we're going to be doing events. And giving out resources and doing youth workshops. Bailey Park, is that new? Last couple of years? Well, I'm not sure how long Bailey Park has been. Okay, maybe I'm thinking of something else. Selfishly, can the Weather Boys come and garden with you guys? Yeah, we would like to. Can we come and garden? Yeah, okay. I mean, I'm good at it. He'll kill everything. So the food that we grow, we got to eat it. Yeah. I know that, right? And he's good at that. You ready? It's his favorite part. We started the podcast by opening up a pack of basketball cards. Are there kids in the program that like basketball? Would they like these cards? Because we want to give them to you guys to hand them out. Can you do that? Absolutely. They love cards. Okay, good. We're going to hand off those cards. Sorry, Alan. They're not yours anymore. No, I know. They're better hands. I gave them to you, and I took them right away. They're better hands. Yeah. All right, guys. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate y'all for having me. Shout out to the website one more time. time? EnjoyDetroit.org. Beautiful. And thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. As always, you can find all of our content on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and of course, the Fox Local app, where if you scroll down, the Weather Boys have our own section and you can listen to everything. Thanks, everybody. See you next time. Let's go. I appreciate y'all. Let's go Detroit. Enjoy Detroit. And cut. Okay.