Guest Star Tracelyn Sutton discussing non profit fundraising

Hello everyone. Hello friends. I, I got my crying out of the way. I want to introduce you to one of my favorite reasons besides my son Rudy living in Tucson. And this is Tracelyn. Tracelyn Sutton is with the American Cancer Society in Tucson, who now has been working from home. We work together and I just think back on all the conversations we would network together. I love you. I, I don't know how to say else. I, I love you. And just so you know, Tracy has the most amazing blue eyes, so like when you're with her, it's really like you just stare at her eyes. So Tracy, how are you?

I'm doing great, Adrienne. I miss you so much. I mean, we had just the loveliest talks, and you are just, um, I'll tell you what you are. You are really inspiring. You really bring out people's creative side. You're such a You know, such a strong thinker about connections and networking and really a driving force behind, you know, shaping those connections and getting the ball rolling on things. You know, I miss that about you. I miss the fact that I could just pop over to your office and say, this is what I've got going on, and you would just fly with all these great ideas and people you wanted to get involved with, with that. Project I was working on. And, you know, I miss your sunshine. I miss the joy you brought to our office.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I remember, so it was really a cubicle. I would be focused so much and then all of a sudden I would jump. And then finally one day I remember someone, I think it was Dan, kind of, kind of Dennis, he kind of knocked a little bit and he said he was very sensitive to the fact that I was focused so much that he's like, he would want to give me a little bit of an announcement because I wouldn't really hear. So, but I miss the office too. I loved, um, I just love the fundraising aspect of it. I, I loved being able to, uh, not catch my own mistakes but catch everyone else's mistakes so that someone else would catch my mistakes. Because when you're looking at a flyer for so long So, okay, so you, you, when you, so you, how many years have you been with American Cancer Society?

12, 12 years and they've gone by so fast and, you know, I've really been blessed to continue to be with the American Cancer Society, but also the, all the adventures I've been on while I've been there. I've, you know, talk about an organization who encourages its employees to try different things and that includes job hopping internally. So over the years, you know, it's always been encouraged that Hey, if you see a job opportunity come up and you— that looks interesting to you, apply for it, you know. And if you, if you land in that job and you're there a week and another job opens that you think is even more interesting, apply for it. Don't hesitate. And I just love that about our organization, that they want people to land in places that really pull at their heart and where they feel like they can pour their talent into a specific area. And I just I love that. And so I've had the chance to do exactly that. I've lost track of how many different job titles I have. I think it's somewhere around 8 in 12 years, but it can't be quite that many. But some of them are repeated as well. But, you know, it's, it's a great organization and I'm very, very blessed to still continue to be in the fight against cancer.

I miss it. I absolutely miss it. And I'm happy to be part of the Making Strides here in Volusia County with— I will tell you that our chairs are unlike any other chairs that I've ever actually worked with. They are so responsive and how they built it. And, you know, they're a couple, so he's more a little serious. And so is, so is Jamie. But I mean, together, how they work is just nice. Jamie's got the softer side of her. You know, and Rick is a little bit more like, let's move it along. And they've never missed a beat and have gone through all the changes like you're going through where it's not going to be an actual event. And how does that work? And I'm proud digital sponsor. So I have Sensible Sundays that I paid for, for my sponsorship. But, you know, it's just nice to see like chairs working together and doing everything how they're supposed to. Meeting with each of the additional heads of each committee. It's, it's pretty wow.

Yeah. You know, I'll tell you, that's one of the most awesome parts of working for this organization is not just the great staff that you get to interact with, but the volunteers are amazing. And I have worked with some just phenomenal volunteers over the years and meeting them in so many different communities and working on so many different projects with them. And I am constantly inspired by the volunteers who jump in and just wanna take ownership and just run with that ball and just make amazing things happen, pour in their creativity. It's just fantastic. And I'll tell you, we're gearing up also for our Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event in October. And Adrienne, you know, I'm sure that you saw last week the national kickoff. So that was really inspiring. It kind of helped us to kind of transition into the pink thinking 'cause everyone, you know, knows, or a lot of people are aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And so we start really putting the pink on in August and we kind of shift gears from some of our other projects and activities that we work on throughout the year. And this time of year, we really go pink. And so that was exciting to kind of, for the very first time, have a national virtual kickoff And as you mentioned, we're having to switch everything up this year, just like so many other organizations and companies. And, you know, how are we connecting with our audiences? How are we connecting with our donors and our, our, the patients we serve and, and people who take advantage of our services? And, you know, it's, it's a different world that we're in at this moment in time. And it's neat to see how You know, those barriers are just being broken down and we are now meeting people in their living rooms. You know, how cool is that? You know that people don't have to come to our office. We're going to, you know, just sit in your living room and connect with us. And that's pretty cool. You know, it's so that's a neat way that that's going on. But you mentioned that you guys weren't planning a face-to-face event. But I'll tell you, Adrian, chat with your chairs around this idea. And you know, you're, you're in Florida. I'm in Arizona. We've both been hot hotspots as far as COVID-19 goes. So there's still a lot going on as far as, you know, how do we make things work? What can we do in person, especially with our COVID numbers being so high right now? But I'll tell you, we're kind of being creative, trying to push that envelope of what can we do that is face-to-face and yet socially distanced. And, you know, that's a real challenge when we're talking about making strides against breast cancer walks because The participants number in the thousands with these events. And so normally we're seeing this beautiful sea of pink people walking together arm in arm, you know, celebrating survivorship and, you know, fighting back against cancer. And so instead of that sea of walkers walking downtown, we are talking about doing a Strides ride. And so What that's looking like is everybody stays in their cars and we're going to do a car parade through town and from one end of the city to the other end with some stops along the way. We've got some sponsors jumping in with some activities for them to stop in and do a pit stop. Our, our media partners are just being amazing and they're jumping on board and getting some ideas rolling on how to make this event really fun. So it won't be quite the same, we won't be elbow to elbow, but we'll be bumper to bumper. And so that's what we're working on for our Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event.

I don't think— so we're— so our, our October 31st event is canceled, and I don't, I don't think we were— I don't know, like, live what, what the plans were, but I don't know if I heard about the bump. That is amazing. And I, yeah, I hope that we can put that together here. That I got— Cheryl, are you watching? I love our staff. They're great. And they, they, I think that the office, I don't know if the, is your office still open or what's happening with your office?

No, everyone's working from home at this point. And so yeah, we're, we're, nobody's allowed to go in the office right now. We still have the building, of course, but we're all working from home. So yeah, we're trying to get through that, but you know, there's several offices who are doing the Strides Ride. So that could be a South Region thing that we're surprising folks, but we'd love for our friends in Florida to join in that party.

That's great. I love that.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's a great solution. You know, people can pink out their cars, they can get dressed in their cars. Our event is gonna be October, I wanna say the 18th. I don't have my calendar in front of me, and I should have the date memorized, but it's the third Sunday. And, you know, we're hoping people will be able to roll down their windows, that it'll be cool enough by then if we do it first thing in the morning that it won't be quite too hot to not have the windows rolled down. People can be all pinked out inside their cars, and, you know, because I'm sure in Florida, just like with Arizona, everybody has their windows tinted on their cars to help block out some of the sun and the heat. So we're hoping people can enjoy the cool morning and roll down their windows, have all their feather their crazy hats on and make some noise as we're driving through the city. So that should be a lot of fun.

I love that. Now, yesterday, I saw something yesterday that struck me as a little off. So I am now a census— part-time I work for the Census Bureau as a numerator, which is really kind of fun. But yesterday when I was driving around, I saw a group, probably like a birthday. One car had all the balloons and then they had the kids standing up with the sunroof. I, I, you know me, I'm like a freak about things like that because one accident, one quick stop, and that child could really be hurt. So I think it's important to actually let people know, do not have someone standing outside of that sunroof because it is a dangerous situation. Anything can happen in a second. And I was surprised to see about 8 cars come by me with all the kids were just like over the head of the sunroof, and I'm like that's really dangerous.

So yeah, yeah, you know, I, yeah, I think as, as we transition through this time and different people are doing the car parades, which I did one for a retirement party that was so much fun to be part of that, is that we forget, you know, and with the Strides ride, we're not blocking off the street. We are having our traffic be right amongst regular traffic. So all traffic laws apply. So yes, seat belts on, no standing up, no standing up in the back of a pickup truck, you know, none of that stuff. We've got to obey all the safety laws, but let's have fun while we're doing it. Let's spread some great awareness. Let's celebrate our cancer survivors and just kind of lift them up and show them some love at this time, because let's face it, we all need that right now, is more connection and more affection for each other. And I think we're getting that. I think it's, you know, Adrian, I think what COVID has taught all of us is the value of people and the value of friendships, the value of family members, the value of, you know, the people that you care about. I think it's really kind of elevated relationships because that's been the void. You know, I think it's so easy for people to get involved in their lives, in their daily lives. And I'm talking about pre-COVID where, you know, you've got work, you've got school, you've got sports, you've got, you know, clubs and organizations. You got to get to the gym. You got to go to the grocery store. You got to pick up your dry cleaning. I mean, there's a thousand things. Don't forget to walk the dog. You know, there's a thousand things we're trying to cram into our day. And I think it's it's been so easy for time to get away without making those connections. And I think what COVID has taught us is that time can stand still. I feel like I've been busier than ever during this time, but in some ways time has stopped because there are certain activities that we haven't been able to do. Most clubs aren't getting together and meeting, you know, maybe in some places they're opening back up and their people are getting back together and finding those connections again. But being in a hotspot state, there's a lot of things that are still closed, you know, gyms opened and then closed again. There's just ways that we're, we're finding ourselves more stationary at home. And with that comes the void of interaction with people. And I think it's given us that time to pause and reevaluate what's really important in our lives. And I think the strong thing that's coming forward that people are realizing is that they've allowed stress to take over too much of their life, that they've allowed, um, the busyness of life to get everything so cluttered and in the way, and that people are what they miss the most. And just appreciating the small moments you know, whether that's a walk in the park, whether that's, you know, taking a weekend road trip, you know, grabbing a friend or just piling in your family members and just going for a drive unplugged. And I think people are kind of coming back to that. So I think that's kind of a hidden blessing in all of this, you know, this crazy year that we have had, it's been a roller coaster and the roller coaster just seems to keep going down. It doesn't go up too much. There aren't very many peaks But I'll tell you, I think that's the key. And I think that we are going to see, I hope we are going to see a better connected world on the other side of this. I think the human connection is going to be so elevated because I'll tell you, I can't wait to just start hugging everybody again.

I want to touch your hair. I love your hair. Sorry. I just, I'm looking at you and I'm like, oh my God, everything you're saying is so beautiful. And, and I, I just, I, I just think about what I just— you and I at the end of the day at both of our cars, tired, kind of wanting to go home but enjoying the conversation so much. And it was always really hard to peel ourselves away. Like, I always felt like it was like, okay, bye, we gotta go, bye-bye. Like, it just— I love that time of reflection. And, uh, that was amazing. And of course For me, Strides Walk, I lost my mom when I was that— remember that morning? So it was really such a— it was such an honor to high-five everyone that day. And you and Dennis was so sweet. He's like, you sure you don't want to go home? And I'm like, Dennis, my mother wouldn't even allow me to go home. Like, they would be like, keep working. So I had to do that. But you're right. And also during this time, for those that have cancer, it's a very scary time because getting the treatments and some treatments are on hold. And I heard the Hope Lodge, some of the Hope Lodges were actually used for COVID-19. Is that correct?

Yes. So this is really interesting. So our Hope Lodges, for those who don't know, our Hope Lodges are the American Cancer Society's guest houses. So they're kind of like our own guest hotels where traditionally only people going through cancer treatment who's had to travel from wherever their home is to a different city for their treatment, we've allowed them to stay there for free. So themselves and a caregiver can stay. And it's different than a hotel because one, it's free and everyone there is going through cancer. And so there's this wonderful support aspect. Of our Hope Lodges. So when COVID-19 came into play, we made the extremely difficult decision to close them because we could not guarantee that the safety of our staff, the safety of the volunteers, and the safety of the patients staying there to be able to protect them from COVID-19. Because as you can imagine, Adrian, anyone whose immune system is compromised especially through chemotherapy and other therapies like that, the risk of getting COVID-19 is really a terrifying thing. It's a very real fear. And so many patients have had to pause their treatment until we are seeing the other side of COVID in their localized community. Other patients have, you know, continued on their cancer journey path through their treatment process, but going back to Hope Lodge, we had to pause those services being provided because, again, we just couldn't guarantee the safety of keeping COVID out of those spaces. And so after some thought over the weekend, I think that decision to close was made on a Wednesday or Thursday, and by Monday morning a plan was in place because through the weekend it was so, it was so heart-wrenching for us to close the Hope Lodges because we know what it means to these families that we really saw an opportunity because most of our Hope Lodges are located right next to big medical treatment centers, university hospitals, Mayo Clinics, things like that. They're usually really, really in close proximity. And so we saw a real opportunity to not just let our Hope Lodges be vacant, but to lend them to those hospitals so that staff who were treating COVID patients or who had the great potential of coming in contact with COVID patients would have a place of respite, that if they were uncomfortable or couldn't for whatever reason, go home to their families and risk infecting their families with COVID they could come to our Hope Lodge and, and receive respite and care there before going back and working at their shift. And so many of our Hope Lodges opened to, and we're literally, we handed the keys over to the hospital and allowed them to use it for that purpose, which is such a beautiful, beautiful thing. And now we're seeing those keys being handed back over to the American Cancer Society. And so then we have to go through a process of cleaning and converting them back and readying them for cancer patients again. So yes, thank you for bringing that up. That is one of the unique partnership opportunities that's come out of COVID It gives me chills.

I actually, my whole body is kind of like chilling right here because it's It's so beautiful. And I only got to understand that because being on the committee allowed me to— Cheryl had mentioned that and I was like, wow, that is really a beautiful thing. And I also, you know, I am just working for American Cancer Society is people say, well, why American Cancer Society? And I was like, you're going to work for a nonprofit, might as well work for the number one, the best, you know, and I enjoyed my time with muscular dystrophy. They're amazing, too. But having that corporate and learning just everything that they do. I remember the month that they have the cybersecurity and how they really would like almost like can catch you if you'd make a mistake. I had that idea like 10 years ago about the fact of, you know, because it's so easy to like teach the choir and say, okay, know the difference in what you're doing, what you're going to touch when you're going on a page or getting an email. And how do you know that it's something that's going to infect your computer? But I love the fact that they actually said, oh, let's, let's test it too. Let's, let's see if everyone's already also like awake that whole month and that who's going to, who's going to let down their guard and maybe respond to something. And then if you respond to it, you get a little notice saying, oh, you, you got hacked. But I love— I guess I want to say in my crazy way of talking that it's such an amazing organization to work with and all that they do. And one of the other things that American Cancer Society offers that's not actually spoken a lot about is the local resources. And that a local resource place— like here we have Healthy Souls International, Maria Davila, who takes anyone who is vulnerable, 65 and old over, diagnosed with COVID-19, and as a senior has the food sorted, clean, sanitized, and delivered a week's worth of groceries to their door.

Wow, wonderful.

Amazing. And she wants to do the same if someone also had cancer and is going through this and even has COVID on top of that. So she was able to team up. And I don't know if it's been finished, but just the ability to work together to say, okay, because there is a spot on the website that actually has your local resources. So for people that don't know it, I definitely say go to cancer.org and go into your local resources. And look to see what's there. And then if what you provide is not there, call the 1-800 number and talk to someone about how you can get your resources available. Am I, am I right that that's something you can do?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and, and, uh, as with everything, COVID's kind of thrown us that curveball and what we can provide directly face to face right now. Um, but most of our programs and services are still available in perhaps a different shape or a different format through COVID, but we're still, you know, able to provide those direct services. And one example of that is our wigs program, where in the past patients could stop by our office, look through an assortment of wigs, try them on, see what they like, see what kind of fits their own personality and identity, and be able to take that home. And because of COVID we're not able to do that. However, Through different programs, we're able to make some connections where somebody can reach out to us who's in need of a wig and we're able to give them a certificate, so a discount that's worth a certain amount of money towards them getting a wig. And so we're able to send that to them so that they can still get the wig, but we're not able to do the face-to-face interaction. So we're finding ways to still provide for the need that exists, but able to do it in a socially distanced manner.

Isn't it crazy though, the one thing that I find when I talk about American Cancer Society and what they offer, the services, is that so many people don't know that that 1-800 number 24/7 is available. So speak about that please, because I want people to realize what that really means, that you have a voice on the other end of the phone that can can help you.

Yeah, I would— thank you, Adrienne. I would love to talk about our National Cancer Information Center, which is our 1-800 number. As you said, it's available 24/7, 365 or 366 this year since we had a leap year. They are literally never closed. 2:00 AM Christmas Eve, they're there. There is someone there. You are going to get a live person in a matter of seconds. I think the last report I saw that it is, you, from the point of dialing to the point of speaking to a human, I think right now had reached, I wanna say it's 33 seconds. So it's very quick. Yes, the first few prompts you do go through a phone tree because we have people calling that 1-800 number for so many reasons. We have researchers, medical researchers who wanna apply for grants, that's the number they call to. So they have a number they click on, but very quickly you identify yourself, that you're someone inquiring about patient information or cancer information, and you're very quickly given to a live spokesperson. We have nurses on staff who— patients who are just having some questions or some symptoms at home, they've got questions. We have nursing staff available. We have insurance specialists available. So if you find yourself without medical insurance due to the loss of a job or just changes in your life, we have staff on duty who can help find an insurance package and help navigate you through that process. For families who are maybe facing a very difficult cancer journey and having to make some very major life decisions, we have end-of-care, end-of-life support services that can help you navigate the important paperwork and what you might need to get taken care of during that time. We have staff available just to talk. We have staff available who can find resources for you in your local community or, um, nationwide resources who can help you find those resources that you're looking for. Um, so there's just a plethora of resources available through our National Cancer Information Center. But one thing that a lot of people don't know, one of those first prompts that you get after you identify that you're someone who's looking for cancer information is languages. We, we don't just offer it in English and Spanish. We work with the translation services who can translate into dozens of languages. So it is very important to us that people receive cancer information in their first language, not in their second or third language that they've learned down the road, but the language they speak most often. We want to be able to give them medical information in that language. And that ties me into our cancer.org, which is our national website available worldwide. It is massive.

It is—

you will never find the end of this. Website. It is just incredibly massive. There's so much information on cancer treatment, diagnosis process, different surgical outcomes, prevention, what you can do as a parent to help your teen walk through stopping tobacco use. I mean, there's information about how to stay healthy. You know, what are our recommendations on physical activity? What are our recommendations about alcohol consumption? You know, it's all in this massive website that is designed to be very user-friendly. It's designed like an onion. So you ask for a little bit of information, we're going to give you a little bit of information, but there's some links, there's some quick quick prompts like, would you like to know more about this, this, this related to that? So you can keep clicking, peeling back the onion and, and diving in deep. I love that because sometimes you just want a short answer for your question. You don't want an encyclopedia that you have to read through, right? So sometimes we want it in the doses we're ready to take it in. So I love that. Um, there's all kinds of resources on there listed as well. Um, there's volunteer opportunities on there. We have a brand new volunteer platform on there that just launched, I think, last week. And I know as staff, uh, we have got to get busy. I know myself included, I've got to get busy enlisting some of the volunteer opportunities that I have and getting those listed on there. So you can find that just on cancer.org. Um, there is a volunteer tab that you can click on and look for volunteer opportunities. Some of those are short-term, some of those are long-term. And there's a real broad spectrum of different types of volunteer opportunities. And those are updated all the time by different staff throughout the nation that we kind of hop on there and plug in what I've got locally. And like I said, I've got some that I need to get posted on there because I definitely have some volunteer opportunities for people. And that's changing all the time. In Tucson, yes. I have some volunteer opportunities in Southern Arizona. But I'll tell you, there are volunteer opportunities around the world. We have some great partnerships with other cancer organizations in Africa, in Southeast Asia. We're best friends with the Cancer Society in Great Britain, the Cancer— the Canadian Cancer Society, we're best friends with them. So we've got— there's opportunities. No matter where you are in the world that you might hear this broadcast, there's opportunities for you to get involved in your local community to everything from being an advocate to, you know, talking to different people in your community about getting health screenings done. That is so important because if you can find it early, your outcomes are going to be so much better. And that's really critical. And especially in some of our third world countries or even just poorer communities right here in the United States. We, you know, getting people to get those screenings to find it early is, is just— I can't stress how important that is. If you can find cancers in stage 1, which is the lowest stage, and get it treated quickly, your outcome is going to be completely different. The less treatment you'll have, the shorter duration most likely of your treatment process, the less of an impact it will have on the rest of your life. And other—

hold up one second. If you take Alana, don't put him on your bed, he has to go pee. So you got to take Candida. So you got to— okay, take— don't— I don't want to see that he— be careful. Pickles is old now. He's like, poor Pickles.

Poor thing.

The volunteer— the volunteer for American Cancer Society is also a lot of leadership development. I don't know if people realize that, that when you're volunteering and you go in, the platform for education and leadership and the roles that you take on, they— I mean, if you're, if you're younger and looking to, you know, how can I serve on a committee? How can I learn to serve on committees in the future? How do I want to go into nonprofits? American Cancer Society does an amazing job. And then once you respond to all of that, you have access to the brand toolkit, which is really lovely too. And kudos to ACS for really understanding that, you know, being a volunteer-driven nonprofit, that you're giving them the tools for leadership development. I mean, brilliant.

Yeah, yeah, you know, great point, Adrienne. Yes, we have a lot of volunteer training available that people can hop on and take the training. Meetings that are interesting to you. That might help you to identify what you want to do as a volunteer. But like you said, it can also help shape your career path. I mean, you might discover something through these volunteer trainings that might be the light bulb that says, oh, you know, I think that's what I want to do for a living as well. And so, yeah, there's a lot of volunteer training information. Again, cancer.org and click on that Volunteer tab to find all of that. Yeah, there's, there's just so many ways to connect and get involved. And yeah, I mean, beautiful.

Oh, the other thing too is if you— so, okay, so if I had a family member in California that calls and says, I just got diagnosed with melanoma, and I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't have the melanoma, my family member does, but I have a question, a burning question, I could call that 1-800 number and ask my question, right? Like, it's—

Absolutely. Absolutely. And someone will answer that call and they will answer your questions. They will be happy to either, like, email you some links to find that information where you can read additional information on that.

Yeah.

I mean, it's— it's— that's one of the neat, neat things about being a national organization. And we used to have an old slogan that said cancer knows no zip code. So neither do we. And that means that if you are sitting in South Africa and that's where you live and you're diagnosed with cancer and you can't find local information, you can call our 1-800 number and talk to someone who will provide you with the information and answer your questions because we don't care who needs the service. We care that people get the services they need.

Amazing. So, Tracy, I, I've got to get going because I have another call at 3:30 for another, um, organization I volunteer for, Healthy Souls International. But I wanted to give you an update, a little poopy update, that I did do the screening, the pre-screening. I was told by my doctor I didn't need a colonoscopy because I wasn't at risk, but that I would do the Cologuard.

Okay.

The Cologuard sat for a little bit of time. I'm not— maybe, you know, maybe 6 months or so until I got a notice of the doctor saying, you better take a poop and put it in a box and ship it to us. And then when I did it, I gave them so much. I think I gave them like, like a, like 5 pounds of the poop. I didn't even know what to do after I did it and I sealed it away. And I put it through, I thought, oh, maybe I gave it too much. But anyways, it came back negative. I'm fine. And I had that on my mind because if you remember, I had taken the pledge, and then you guys pledged to you that I was going to do it. And Alana, she did have her second HPV. I got that done the day that I— before I said goodbye to everyone, I went— remember, I went to give her her, uh, second HPV shot, so I took care of that. And I, I miss everyone, the office and the work and what we all were able to do together. And then, um, and I'll never forget when I did the, the Western Talent Show, and I didn't know how that was going to be, but when we had the meeting after that and Dennis said, Adrian, they, you know, they're really just happy you took the risk I thought, wow, that really— thank you so much because that really helped. And I, I knew that that was— it's just such a great organization to work for. I am— part of me is sorry that I left to go to China because I really did love every second. Like, you know, being a servant leader and that your career is dedicated to a nonprofit, I don't know if there's anything more beautiful. And I don't know if you could go back to real life. Like, it is really, really hard. To go back. So for me, you know, I'm still involved with SCORE, so I'm the new Vice President of Volusia Flagler here. But I just— and before I let you go, I want to just remind you, so Stacy Fowler, who we love, she has, um, one of the nice benefits of COVID-19 is that you can now go to some of these meetings and that she has— I think she may charge a little bit of like $5, but she has her Zoom Connect, which is really cool, and I know that's open And so a lot of the different groups, because I'm kind of still in the midst of everyone because I, you know, I love Tucson and my son is there, Rudy is there. So I'm always thinking of just, um, you know, like just get it. So I'll hop on once in a while to see everyone. So don't forget that that's a great way in the evening that you can network, uh, still with them because they're doing those kind of Zoom things. So very, very fun. Even Toastmasters, each, every organization and Uh, you got some great volunteers in Tucson that I've spoken to too that are still active and, and excited. So you remember Tim? Did you meet Tim Helm? Tim Heim?

It seems like I must have met him at one point.

He— yes. So he, so he opened up a new hotel, so we have to get you that information in downtown Tucson. So very nice. So I'm sorry I have to go. I love talking to you. I, I miss you. Thank you for all all that you're doing to help and support those with cancer. It's so important. And then, and then thank you for giving your volunteers an opportunity to do something so special, because I know working with you, I've seen how you work, and they definitely have a really lovely staff member that has a lot of empathy. You're very caring, and you make sure that their experiences is just as great as the experience they're giving to someone that has— that's going through it.

Well, thank you, Adrian. It's so good to get caught up with you. I just appreciate this chance to chat with you today. And yeah, we love our volunteers. And thank you for making sure that Alana is preventing 6 types of cancer by getting her human papillomavirus vaccinations done and out of the way. So congratulations to her. I'm very glad to hear that your colon cancer screening was clear. So very, very positive with that. And stay on top of it because with those color guards, you're not out of the woods next year. You've got to go through it and keep, keep going with that. Whereas a colonoscopy, if you didn't have any preexisting conditions or family history, if it was negative, you could have skipped it for 10 years. But that's all right. You choose the test. That works best for you. So I'm glad you chose Cologuard though.

I know I didn't have a choice. She said I had— no, I didn't actually have a choice. I was Cologuard or Cologuard. She had— I had to do— but I wasn't like, do you want to do a colonoscopy and Cologuard or Cologuard? It was like, you, you're not— it was like I couldn't get the colonoscopy, I had to get the Cologuard. I don't know why or if it was my insurance or what, but she said if you don't hit the the reason for the colonoscopy, then they want you to do the Cologuard.

Oh, that's really interesting. I'd like to hear, you know, when we chat again, I'd like to hear more about that reasoning behind that because most insurance should cover a colonoscopy once every 10 years for people between the ages of 45 and 75, I believe, is when we no longer recommend getting those unless you have, there were some positive findings. But I'm glad you're getting that done. It's important to do. So very nice.

What are you doing about— have you thought about— so what, during the Stride Drive, do you have someone that's offered to do the video? Are they gonna— are they videoing from the front? Like, how will the— like, because you want to— are you gonna try to livestream it or video, or have you had that conversation yet?

You know, all of those ideas are floating right now. The committee's working hard on pulling those ideas together and coming up with some ideas. I'm sure I'm sure that there will be some video cameras going on, but we, you know, the drive is going to be from one end of the city to the other, lots of different stops. So it'd be hard to capture all of that on film. But, but we will work with different sponsors to get some good footage of it, as well as our media to get some great camera shots and action shots and things like that going. So, and they're also planning something very special for the survivors during that as well. So trying to figure out the details on how to do that, um, and do something really cool with survivors.

Wow, one end from the other. You almost have to— are you going up Catalina then? Like, that's— you sound so interesting.

The route is completely determined, and then we'll publicize.

Oh my God, maybe I'll have to visit Rudy during this time. All right. Yeah, I love you. Thank you, Tracy.

You too, darling.

Thank you. You look beautiful. Thank you for all your time. Very interesting.

Thank you. You can take care.

Thank you, you too. That was great. Wow, a lot going on. That's really— I'm so