Editing The Pen Addict 662/transcript (section)

== Visit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ==

* I was on a trip recently to go see the campus at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So I just wanted to talk about this real quick. If you don't mind, I know you don't mind. I want to hear about it. Because this is your first time at St. Jude, right? This is my first time at St. Jude. And obviously, you know, this is a big deal for us at the Relay Network.
* Our September fundraising efforts for St. Jude is the highlight of a lot of our years. And this year, I'm going to get to be on the podcast-a-thon live in person in Memphis, which we've mentioned, I think, before you went. So excited about that. Yeah. So one of the things I got to do was go to this Play Live event that they have, mostly for Twitch streamers. But every year, they invite members of the Relay crew out to come see the behind the scenes of St. Jude, get to hear from doctors, nurses, patients, you know, marketing CEOs. Like, literally everyone comes together. And, you know, it's basically like, hey, like, we couldn't do this without you. Like, we appreciate all the work you do. Here's, like, where your money's going. Like, here's why it's important, you know, to help fundraise. And it's really cool. It was a really, it was an epic event. Like, it went by so fast. Like, we had two full days of doing things. And it was super well organized, super fun. We had brilliant weather. Apparently, this is a time of year where the weather's usually sketchy. They actually gave us all ponchos in our gift bag, apparently, because it's, they've had some weather. I once went to Memphis in March, and it snowed.
* Yeah, Memphis is in a weird spot, like weather-wise. Yeah. They get all the seasons. Everything. And they get, they're, like, on the edge, and so when it hits there, it's heavy, whatever it is, whether it's rain or snow or sleet or ice. I have no doubt Stephen mentioned this, but they had something called once-in-a-generation rain, like, two weeks ago. Yeah. Or generational rain, it was called. Generational rain. So when I landed, we had perfect weather because that storm had passed. Right. But the Mississippi River, so for those not in the U.S., Memphis is on the banks of, like, the biggest river in the U.S., and it was past its flood stage, like, when we landed. And you could see just how far the river, how far the water had gone over where it should be. So it was crazy. It didn't affect us. It didn't look like it was affecting the city, but it was teetering, if you will. Mm-hmm. But the St. Jude experience, it's something I'll never forget. I hope I get to do it again. Obviously, I'll get to do it again in September. But, like, I'm still reliving so many moments from that trip to this day, just thinking about everything that goes on there, how important they are in the scope of not just U.S. health, but global health, and how important it is to them to, you know, keep these survivor strip rates up for these kids and support the families that come in there when they're getting care. And it's just an unbelievable organization. I'm really, really happy to be a part of it. And thank you and Stephen for, you know, inviting me this year and getting to go on this trip. And, yeah, like, September is going to be awesome. I'm really, really excited and looking forward to this. You were an obvious addition. I'm really excited to the crew for the year because you do so much for the fundraiser every single year. You raise so much money through the pen addict. And we're all super thankful of it. And you got to see the Wall of Gratitude, the relay name of the Wall of Gratitude before me. Yes. Stephen made a point that, oh, Myke is going to be jealous about this. This is not going to go well for us. Casey-less of all people, you know, before me. What's happening here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a Wall of Gratitude when there's, like, certain fundraising levels for, like, for their biggest fundraisers. And I don't know if Stephen told you this, but, like, if you look at the close-up of that picture, Myke, I don't have it in front of me. So are we on the hope? Like, there's dream hope. Yeah. We're in the dream. Those are ranked in fundraising amount order. Oh, they are? Yeah. So we're at the top of that group, which puts us ahead of, like, Apple and IBM and, like, all these other great companies. So it was pretty hilarious. We're no joke. Yeah. We're no joke. Like, we're serious business out there. And so that was pretty cool to see. And then in another part of the building, like, we got to sign the wall. We got to do some of the parts of the tour that were not available for everyone who was there. We got, you know, a little VIP tour action going. So we got to see some really cool stuff. And, yeah, mind blown, like, on what they're trying to do. It makes me want to work even harder for them. So I'm going to do some different stuff in September. We're not going to spend time talking about it today. But we're going to change what I do for fundraising in September, just in general terms, mostly because I'm going to be gone for a week in Memphis.
* So we're going to do things a little bit different, but we can discuss that as things get closer. But, yeah, things are starting to ramp up for planning here in the next couple weeks. And it'll be here before you know it. Call late.