Marie Younger-Blackburn and Chase on Band Together for Inclusion it's a party wherever Chase is

book and Stephanie was terrible at this book I really sto at book club I did not fabulous I'm what I just had a visual just had a visual proud of it hold on hello and good morning on a Wednesday we are here live at Mas P TV thank you very much to Chris Ball and the team over here at Mash PTV uh Justin is phenomenal the entire crew over here Works real hard and uh we're going to be seeing them a little bit later this morning over at the Cape Cod Children's Museum because they have big announcements happening this morning and uh like they're always working in our community like you miss Marie younger and Chase Blackburn thank you so much for joining us this morning thanks for having us Stephanie I know it's early in the morning everybody's trying to wake up I know you like to uh you're good about bedtime though right he's like I like bed was funny because last night he fell right asleep no you know usually it's a little give and take but last night thank God yeah good so talk to everybody about include me band together for inclusion we got another year here yes so we're excited um we're gearing up for a band together for include me 20 25 um if you don't know if you haven't heard um band together for inclusion is um an offshoot of Chase's senior project Chase is a student at mashie Middle High School um he's in his transition years now so he has about a year and a half until he ages out of high school at 22 but um a couple years ago he officially graduated and he did uh what's called a senior project um his project was uh banded together for inclusion and we did the first year over at Sandwich Recreation Center in sandwich and then we moved to mashby high school where we had 550 seats to fill and that was a bit large so um last year we moved it to the navigator in fouth where I think we found a home it was absolutely perfect I was so excited that I got to be there and witness this because it was just such a great group of people from drums to movement to spoken word there were wonderful auction items there was food all over the place uh and just it was full right it was fun it was it was and we plan to expand that this year again so let me just go back and tell you what band together for inclusion is yeah start from the beginning please let start from hi Ryan thanks for joining us um band together for inclusion um we do work around uh inclusion we say the i in Dei right is for inclusion and um you know that's not a scary word and what that means is we all belong and that we all can come together um chase you know he was he's going to be 21 this year and so that's another reason to celebrate um we chose the day uh his birthday is May 5th CLE Dem so what day that better day to party so the the event is always around his birthday so this year it's going to be Sunday May 4th um the day before his birthday so we'll be celebrating his 21st birthday so band together inclusion for inclusion um it's just it means just what it says we come together we band together with all genres of music right all genres that we can fit in because we can't possibly um hit every genre but we do the major ones um and we bring together um people of all cultures all genres all abilities all genders all bodies um come together in band together um so in the past music yeah through music and we and we tell a story you know through music and dance and fun and storytelling so the event has been free every year this will be our fourth year we invite the public to come free and we raise money for the college Light Opera Company their Dei Fellowship commit um uh committee and we what that does it brings um kids from all over the country to Cape Cod to perform um 10 light operas at the college light opera down in um Highfield theater he's like he needs to find something to do right Chase he's a drummer now join the conversation Chase yeah so we bring um kids from all over the country right the college light opera is in um their home is located in West fouth on Chapo Road the kids come from colleges all over the country and they come to learn every aspect of theater from um the pit the musicians to the front of the house they run the box office um the makeup the costuming and everything how exciting is that though yeah to put yourself out there go to another country and now you're running a small little Orchestra theater yeah pretty cool good morning tivy funus loves Chase oh cool yeah right so we rely on people like funus and other um bands from all over the cape other musical acts to come and be part of this event and we have um the watermelon alligated theater wonderful they're amazing they do our stage management and they do our lineup so we ask we simply ask um different bands and musicians could you perform for us and we have not heard no yet people fit Us in and they come and we have a backline set up we have two students um Patrick and Hunter from mashby high school that has always built our backline um we rely on our friends from soulle purpose Tori and Paul and Dicky and they're awesome yeah and Dave tomor says good morning Chase good morning good morning Marie and tomorrow would be an amazing addition to our event doing a little spoken word she is Magic she is she's just a a talented um funny uh bright individual and we appreciate her um adding to the Arts here on Cape c yeah she just did her one woman show and uh she had to cut it a little short just because of the weather that rolled in and they chose the side of safe but I'm excited to see if you're going to bring that show around a little bit more because I want to see it I didn't have a chance to and I need to see it we're going to get to Broadway with that show that's it and Mary Jane thanks for joining us your drum teacher's wife I believe oh hi right Mary Jane Vasquez yeah so Chase um is a drummer he's been with steeple Street music for the last three years and we appreciate them having them right here in our community for a big source of um music and inspiration we spend a lot of time there seeing musicians from all over the country all over the world I think they bring different genres and we're just really a big part of the music scene here I cannot believe you the schedule that you keep and you are so amazing about supporting everyone in the Arts as much as you possibly can you're out you're out dancing you're finding things to do you're finding things to do for you but also for Chason I think it's so important for him to be out and about and just checking it all out not missing a thing right you're lucky so we use Chase's life and his story as well to tell a story right inclusion and just being a part our hashtag is hashtag include me we have Mak space for Chase so we um have been out there for years just supporting um and supporting every genre yeah you know he he gets exposure to everything from Opera to Jazz we um not only attend the music we study music we study um the different genres we want to know about the origin of music so we'll go to a music Talk um for instance like we went to pamet this summer we drove all the way down the cape early in the morning to hear about the blues oh and what we found is that the blues is the basis for um all music or most music right so the blues which origin ated um like in the fields of slavery they were telling stories right and using instruments and using their voice to tell stories and then out of that um comes Jazz and comes um rock and roll and comes country and comes popular music and there's just things about music that people don't really realize so we use band together as symbolism for all of those Collective stories and all of those genres so in the past we've had um again we've had um soulle purpose we've had Olivia Yingling she's a jazz artist uh she is incredible she got to play at the mashby farmers market this summer and I gotta tell you I she blows me away she's so Soulful that voice is incredible Gretchen says hi Chase also hi Denise hi Diana thanks for joining us this morning we're here live at Mash b tv we're talking to Marie we're talking to Chase talking music we're talking about some of the great artists that we have here on the cape and ones that you kind of as you support but also have assembled this wonderful group of humans um I Heard Vanna's birthday is coming up Vanna's birthday's coming up and we attended her party um two years ago when she turned 16 now she's turning 18 we will be in the house I already got my gown I'm this one thing if you've not hung around with Marie she's got Style and when I tell you we're going out we're having a party your birthday party you're like we're dressing in Orange this is what we're doing there's a theme there's an element of I don't know art to everything that you do and I love it yeah so my background's in culinary arts and Hospitality management um I look at life like art in like a party I like dream and Technic color so um yeah and Fashion's always been a big part of my life um my grandmother's passed down that um love for getting dressed up so I have a beautiful gown this year I'm working on getting into it right you know how we women have to do and um and then we'll dress Chase up as well and have a good time with Vanna and she was one of the performers uh last year so we had Vanna we had Olivia we had so purpose we had a Storyteller who came we had Sam homestock open up with drums oh that was incredible to do that again we have African dance with Victoria um dance Queen her yeah what is the number yeah and um she 508 like knew it was the number and she does work of inclusive dancing and and we love that so we hope to have them telling a story through dance um there's some that I have yet to reach out to this year um we've partnered with the symphony Cape Symphony showed up for us and and B students and musicians um that's one thing we do in our home is we host musicians for the symphony and that's been really eye openening because um I always open my doors to people all Races all cultures um you know they're welcomed and you know you do the same at my house I find it so enjoyable to learn about other cultures when you intimately live with someone like that and it's not like we're all like huddled in the same room but I mean sharing and coexisting together and learning about their culture has been wonderful for my family specifically but also for us I find it so enriching we just took a trip uh in Europe last summer and we visited two or three of the the people that lived with us in their homelands and it was really just incredible an exchange of arts and love and food and culture it was it's really I find it really invaluable exactly and I don't think that I would have ever have been on this space if it wasn't for living on the cape and meeting all these wonderful people we were just looking at the population of mash P yesterday for something and normally we're about 15,000 people we to 37,000 Plus in the summer and it's just all people from everywhere yeah and I would encourage anyone to do that um it's not for everybody but it works for us and it helps us to see the world right through music without leaving home yeah and we love to travel and leave home as well but um you know Chase has some sensitivity issues so flying has been a challenge lately but we hope to get back to it but um yeah so when we open our doors we talk you know we share we tell our stories we share food right so food and music are kind of synonymous right it's a way to show love a way to show connection um so we we do do a lot of feeding of folks right I love it yeah and then we get to learn about different instruments in their journey and how they started when they were kids our last um host uh person was a violinist and I mean we just had the best time I love the violin we had a harpist come and stay with us and I can't wait to see what's next so um That's the basis of inclusion right you open your door you invite people in and then you help them to be successful period simple you know I know I know it's for all for everybody for everybody I always send um folks that were hosting a little bio about my family that's a good idea yeah well when they first came you know our first set of um J1 students for instance they were from Mongolia and they um just came in three girls and you know they were from the same place but they didn't know each other and we all ended up as family right I know them you know 10 years later and they called us Mommy and Daddy and we learned through food and and and just different culture in our stories but I I started to think How brave folks have to come in honestly all the way from a different country and they walk in they see a black woman a white Irish man a you know a a young man with Down syndrome and Vitiligo and I'm wondering what are they thinking you know and no one's ever said they were thinking anything but I started to share pictures of us in advance in um a little bio and then they would share back and I think we just um got to know each other on a different level but it's it's never been um an issue you know and I think that's what music is like so every year we choose it's the same language right we like it no matter what it's it's a language we all understand the song Stevie Wonder sings right it was one of the funniest things when our Turkish girls came and we were listening to each other's playlists and we found a lot of similarities obviously not with their belly dancing music that was very funny and I had no idea that males were belly dancers there that was something that I learned yeah but it's when you're sharing those cultural moments like that and you realize you got a lot of similarities but it's always with mus music music right so we had um Dominican girls last year and they were really self-conscious about their language they spoke Spanish and we got them a job at polave a second job and they went and they shout out Mark Lawrence thank you very much very much looking for my uh Valentine's Day little cake that I have ordered oh I want one come get one um yeah so Mark we could do what we do in this community without Mark and we just have to give a shout out to markk um he's just open so many doors for Chase talk about inclusive right so when you walk into Polar cave I don't care how many people are in line what they're doing he stops turn around and shouts out Chase and then he introduces everyone to chase right I think that is such a boss move you know what I mean yeah yeah um and I I just I love that but back to you know just the music so the girls spoke Spanish and they really struggled with English they doctors they're doctors now um they knew English but the way they were taught that the dialect was different so some of the ways they interpreted the language so and they were self-conscious um and we need to be nice to people who speak other language know I mean that is not an indication of who they are or their intelligence you know um you know actually they are bilingual so anyway but when popular music came on they spoke perfect English you know what I mean so when they were singing their whatever they're singing Taylor Swift or Justin beaver whoever they spoke perfect English and that's like Chase Chase has a barrier to language you don't hear Chase talking full sentences a lot of people don't understand what he said but put a song on and watch Chase sing a song whether it's opera or jazz or Bluegrass I love it I mean he was belting out a cab Callaway song at at the uh Brothers this weekend at mashby high school and I'm how does he know these different eras he can sing what he can't say y you know and that's music music can help us to feel and to think in ways that we can't articulate and when everybody's on the Dance Floor Just banding together and dancing with all abandon it it's just a special moment yeah I agree and that's banded together so we use that opportunity to raise some funds for the college light opera so that all kids who can't otherwise afford to come to Cape Cod for um two and a half months without a paycheck can come I love that so this year the first year we raised $6,000 the second year we raised 10 and because Chase is turning 21 we want to raise $221,000 these are lofty goals right here good morning Denise Gina Dave Rebecca Romo uh Carol thanks for joining us in sunny Florida $21,000 it's a lot of money particularly in a time when people holding on to their money yeah but just think about the impact that your money could make in the Arts right and bringing people together if that's a concern of yours if you just want to help in your community because it stays right here in the community every dime um that is made for the event is goes to the college light opera right for years so we have their QR code their website goes directly when you make a donation so you can make a donation of $5 or you can make that thousand pledge to get us to that number um and we just believe we just set out to do work we don't you know see the barriers to that not everybody is like that though I have to tell you I I don't have anything to lose right I I feel the same exact way and people are like what are you doing I was like well there's always more or there's always something else and there's it's there yeah and you know um a lot of what I do in this community is service right and it comes back to you in ways that is is not even quantifiable I think right and it's just the right thing to do so we look for the right thing to do and the rest takes care of itself I have nothing to lose right and I've been in this community um I've been on Cape Cod for in excess of 30 years maybe 36 years or more um I have two sons one is uh in his early 40s and one's in his early can we just talk about Ralph for a hot second because I was never so proud of this man when he's like we're giving away free breakfast on Fridays and come on over and if you're hungry and you want it we got it and I I love for fouth f fouth Residence at um the brewery so but I love that though I did want to make sure I didn't forget to give a shout out to my son Ralph anything you've seen me do in the community anything you see me do creatively um he's behind it um my show this afternoon conversations that matter we're going to do our fifth um annual episode of Young gifted in Black where we had young and gifted in black um people from all around the country a lot of local people today the the why Achievers we have Bobby Brown who is a Young author um we have um Alexis from AC creatives and um we yeah so who we have some awesome people here we just have awesome people um on the show but Ralph is um you know I raised him like I raised him Ing and doing parties and we are so much alike we think alike in Technicolor and it's like how can we make this beautiful but I did go to the free um breakfast sandwich because we do our breads there right where did the bread start so the bread started when Chase turned 16 years old and in 2018 I believe and you know like every other child Chase wants what every other young person wants they want to work they want to be a part of they want to be connected they want to be contributors and so you know a traditional job wasn't in the cards for Chase right we have people like Gretchen who has helped Chase over the years um in terms of employment or volunteerism um he volunteers as an usher at College Light Opera at Center for the Arts there as an usher theater with the um found theater Guild so I said how can I help Chase to work to be a contributor and my background like I said is in culinary ads I had a couple of good Breads in my belt right couple of cakes and I said let's just concentrate on what we do well so we have a banana bread a um blueberry bread that's the good one that I like yeah blueberry banana and then Apple in the fall I mean they're all good but I like the blueberry so I baked the cakes Chase is not food certified so Chase does not bake cakes um I bake the cakes Chase folds boxes labels the boxes right and he works with an aid or with someone to help him to do that and then we um deliver he delivers the cakes right so you see ches walking in in pictures into different businesses or people's homes and he delivers the cakes and then he up leveled it and brings his acoustic guitar and we'll Sing Happy Birthday birthday oh what a service so we wanted Chase to have opportunity for Chase to have um a way to contribute um to society so that's what we do right and that's one of his streams of um service and income and he also has an advertising guide called hashtag include me cap cod's first inclusive advertising guide right Chase yeah and you'll see Chase's picture on the front with our our vision and Mission on the front and in it is um different businesses around Cape Cod and beyond that aligned with our values it's just that simple they're coste effective ads and um we'll be sending out an email shortly and please join that book it just goes so far it means so much and then we drop them in doctor's offices and um they're all over the place yeah they're put together quite nicely good morning Kristen Keith Chase you're famous good job buddy keep up the great work Tommy Bev thanks for joining us Bev says Hey Chase hey be be's a great friend she's fabulous and um she's great in the Arts and her beautiful scarves I she shows up you know what I mean you got an event you got a thing beev shows up does whether it's dancing whether supporting wherever she can be a part of it she shows up and I think that that's really what we're talking about this morning showing up being a part of the community and involving yourself in things what frustrates me is when people sit back and say I can't do anything I'm not making a difference I'm not doing things but then they don't do anything yeah and um that bothers me too so what I feel I can do in life is to um Inspire yeah inspire people by people say you're everywhere or do you sleep or whatever um no I don't sleep and we were just talking about that before we were on the air and no I'm not everywhere no I don't know everybody except maybe I do right I mean I was at an event the other night um given by Amplified PC the Arts and Justice collaborative and um at C Center for the Arts and I swear I went home and I go I know everybody everybody came up to me and said hi Marie hi Marie hi Marie and um it is nice you're not sitting at home waiting for people to come to you you're just showing up and you know what said to myself why that happens first of all I'm my mother's child my mother passed away a couple years ago but she I'm so my mother my mother's door was always open she was very community and she did things she made things happen if something there was a void in the community she filled it right and that's the kind of family I come from but I thought about it and I said I say hi to everyone I say hi to the stranger and and you can't walk past me if you know me either like I'll call you out and I'll go hi you know so I think um that's a lot of How I build connection you know just just be open yeah but you're you're doing the things that you're asking others to do and I think that that's really important when you say include me it's not you're including everybody regardless if they want to be included you're in let's go where are we going every year my birthday party for the last I don't know 20 years or something when I'm talking and I'm messaging I'm talking to you I don't know you yet but I will but when I say I'm having a party it they I don't have a guest list people you didn't invite me you're all invited it sounds weird it sounds hokey but um I've never had anybody inappropriate show up at anything that I had um and people know they're welcomed yeah you know and that's the basis of community and I think we all have an opportunity to do some micro activism find something you love find something your child loves and help them to fill a void that exists in the community you know step out and do we just use Chase we don't change Chase into anything we show up as Chase when he's standing at the door CA center of the Arts he's using his skill set which is love and connection so you may get a high five you may get a hug you know you're supposed to get a program but you know eventually you'll get we do our best Denise says Marie you are inspirational and you know everyone good morning Jase morning Denise hi Denise hi Tina Gina good morning to all hi Gina we are here talking to Marie we are here talking to chase at Mash P TV once again thank you very much to mash P TV channel HD 1072 uh if you don't have the HD channel go get a new box and it's free call 1800 Comcast and I'll swap it out for you oh I need one oh thank you is it right here so no but you can just call them and they'll come and pick it up they'll swap it out oh okay right yeah cool so I just want to give a shout out to a couple of people in the community is that okay and like I said Mark Lawrence one of them we couldn't do what we do without you um Scott Rosenthal he's a DJ with oh yes he's our friend um the folks at elevated Impressions the folks at Family Table collabor Brian yeah Brian and Jenny and um Frankie's barara anybody know Frankie Barbara he he's been cutting Chase's hair since he's been a little kid and he's just like the most wonderful person a lot of the men in the community are just there for us it's ammen I mean that you guys the men are showing up and they protect Chase they open doors for Chase and they they make it happen and I I I always go home and I get a little teary and I want to say that you know the folks at Cape Symphony um you know Richard and Matt Levesque and folks who just kind of make things happen love you Matt and bring yeah Matt's like so cool and and people who bring folks together those those are my people right Lisa drenan from merge that's my girl you know Tracy cadero sorry guys I'm just shouting out no as you should I feel like it's nice to be seen and recognized for some of the contributions that we make it's not always dollars that matter sometimes just recognition and hey I see you you're doing a good job keep up the good work in any way I can support you please reach out like this show this is exactly why I started this show is to connect with our community what's going on this is why we built the mashby farmers market how do we help how do we make it more accessible how do we make food more accessible how do we get better things for our people I had a great meeting with our friends over at Southport and they expressed they wanted more tables and chairs they wanted to be able to sit down and enjoy and I said okay we're going to make that happen I had a great meeting with one of our community members that said we needed to be a little bit more accessible we were in a chair and we want to get around we're working on those things but unless you say something we can't make a difference oh yeah and so we're always trying to be better this was our first year really doing this and we're we're growing we've got a little bit more contribution we have a lot more community outreach I reached out to capecod healthcare and said we would love to Branch our Wellness programming okay we have um a brand new EMT that's going to be coming to help some some of our older um adults and some of our younger adults work on things like choking or what happens in this food safety situation small little things that are free yeah come and spend time with us we are building this community that is open for anything so if you have ideas for programming or maybe you're doing something cool that not everybody is seen we have this beautiful community space right in our green that is totally free and open to you to be able to Showcase something that you do that you want to bring to the community and Chase and I spent a lot of time the you really did you were great visitors show to most of them and we get great um weers and good food and excellent music so it was great Sunday afternoon right to do you know and I I really appreciate you in the community overall I appreciate your contribution to band together in this platform giving everybody a space and to have a voice you know to share what they're doing and I I think um that goes a long way to micro activism we see what others are doing it inspires us to do something the community benefits right we all benefits and we need to um continue to come together and I think music again is symbolic every year we we choose a different song right to mark off our um being together and we get a different t-shirt and then we invite people to do little you do a really good job I'm telling you what this is your family puts together a real good party you really do hi Danielle Rachel good morning beautiful people so this year's song is one nation under the groove right oh I love it one nation and Clinton like I've been trying to figure out what song what song what song right and um and then I I thought of that and I thought one nation I mean we need that right now right we need to come together as one nation right under Groove music is symbolic for bringing us together and here's our chance to dance our way right out of my conviction right so meet us on the Dance Floor on Sunday May 4th it's not going to be good unless you're there and yes I'm talking to you um Sunday May 4th you can mark your calendars now Chase's birthday's the next day so come celebrate no he will not be drinking a margarita he's going to be 21 I will kill you if you try to give him something do not yeah um so that's not how we're mocking his birthday we're gonna party man we're gonna dance our way love it right so um get a t-shirt our t-shirts will be ready soon wear a t-shirt create a small video share the video on social media help us to get to that 21,000 number yeah that's a big lofty goal this year so we got to start to I love it we know break it down either 21,000 people can give us a dollar or or 10 people can give us ,000 see that's a great way to break it down got five bucks 100 people can give us 25 you know however we got to get it done let's set the goal to get it done right and it benefits we're gonna have talent coming from all over the country are going to give you um beautiful Productions at the Highfield theater all summer long she said remember Yaya Fran last year yeah friend oh I would be a miss so gaale is a friend of ours and we met her during the pandemic on Facebook like we met a lot of people who are like lifelong family now for us Colleen Crawford we met her she's she works in the DA's office up in quinsey we met folks like Gail and Colleen during the pandemic on social social yeah they ended up meeting Chase becoming lifelong friends Gail is the one behind those beautiful cakes and cupcakes and cake pops and our whole dessert table so we have these massive dessert tables made by one person last year Gail had a broken foot and she came in a cast in like this rolling chair I don't know if you remember seeing her dance in the chair mean one broken foot was not stopping her she's um a middle-aged woman who can do the Running Man like nobody I've ever seen right so she can bake and dance like nobody it's business so her and her um husband Bill they're Chase's second parents right they call them mom and dad right daddy Bill and yeah hi Daddy Bill and um yeah so she's been doing our um thanks Holly yeah right she said she's also my son-in-law's Aunt very cool hey Lindsay is Michelle Michael yeah we were just talking about Vanna's big birthday party 18 years old we love um Michael and Holly and Vanna I mean we show up for them they show up for us we you know we can't get enough that's what it's about right we can't get enough we can't get enough of um Vanna's music but her parents we we kind of like mirror each other because we we support our kids so we're everywhere for our kids and we we see each other and and Holly didn't tell you but she bakes too so Holly always has a secret bag of like what is there today a different cookie or a cake or whatever in that bag and you get some and you're like Yay you know so um I I just appreciate this community we're out here and we're meeting people last week we're were at the pelum house you know it was a little fancy and we had like some Gourmet Burgers and we we saw African drummer oh cool and and his team and you know um this weekend we'll be at Center seeing um come of my what's it called come to my house no she's not doing come to my house um I'm sorry I know I haven't driven by there I didn't see what was on the uh the lineup oh so they have been doing so many wonderful things shout out to our friends over at the K Center for the Arts uh their Mash P chamber members but also the programming you've been putting out into the community chef's kiss to you so many great different opportunities and I love that you're really stepping up in that aspect and and welcoming all kinds of people to show up and check your Studios out I love it exactly so they are committed to the work of inclusion and they um work with a lot of people in chases um demographic people with diverse abilities they are in the back of the house they are in the front of the house they are on the stage they are ushering and they are um trained and fully prepared um to do it all there are shows and it's amazing work that David and in in the um in the crew over there doing and they are so welcoming to us you know I want to take a pottery class I told my husband I need to do something for my mental health I Potter class good stuff so despite what you see and or experience right now things feel bad and if you kind of turn the social media down a little bit or TV down a little bit and experience your own Community yeah and see see how you can be the change in your own Community I TR it like TV I changed the channel you know you're being negative we don't need to look at you anymore we'll sze you for a little while oh you're having a bad day we'll just steze you for a little while I've created my own lovely little bubble of humans that are positive doing wonderful things and I just stay there and in my loving light in my little corner yeah that's good and also um we need L um part of us said has that little activism Spirit as well but you don't have to be unkind about it you don't don't stifle your voice use your voice but you don't have to be unkind I don't think I I always try to leave a little purple heart on everything I say and do just to know you let you know I come from a place of love y you could count on that I come from a place of love but sometimes you have something to say and there's nothing wrong with that but I think music is going to save us I'm I'm convinced and there's always going to be a push back to everything we saw it during the Super Bowl the people didn't like the genre but that's what music is supposed to do it tells a story it gets us to think um there's never been a time in history when music wasn't used in activism um you know I think of different movements and different times um different songs We Are the World music is used to bring people together it's used to to raise money it used to um cause um movement so you know embrace it take what you like out of it and leave the rest that's why we try to hit different genres and open people's minds up to things maybe I didn't think I like bluegrass music you know but I do maybe I didn't think I liked rock and roll you know I went to a predominantly wealthy white high school they played you know and college you know Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones would you like that too no I mean I grew up in Soul Town you know gospel and Soul music and it wasn't that I didn't like it it wasn't how I was raised it wasn't what I was used exposed to and you know I kind of look at white folks and I'm like what are they Hearing in their head that causes them to move differently and I'm being honest guys so you can count on me being honest and then I look at it and I go wow that's really cool like they move with a different abandon we if you study music people we clap on a different there's a one and a three and a two and a four something like that we clap on a different down downbeat right so um but does that make it wrong no it makes a difference and that's a good thing about music and then you come to love I mean I'm in the music room like three four times a week I'm listening to grateful Dad and to Rolling Stones and I'm partying with my friends right so you take what you like about something leave the rest do that for somebody else they like it you know what I mean but you don't have to be mean-spirited about it absolutely and that's what band together does it exposes us to all the different genres right and there's a chance to join in or leave it alone you're exactly saying some fine words and lessons that I have learned over the years Earl thank you for joining us Sher Lauren so inspiring Marie Dawn thank you for joining us on the show Tom loved Chase and his mama Kendra and her mama thank you so much for joining us Kendra one of my friends um Julie and she said it to my daughter when my daughter Lily very picky eater very tough when she was little very like just uncomfortable in her skin very and you two grew up together yes right you guys went to school together you and Lil did a lot of theater a lot of Arts a lot of music yeah and Lily did not like anything food any sort of meat any anything and my girlfriend Julie said to her and I'll never forget it because I've used this for everything in life now give it a no thank you taste yeah have one bite of it and say no thank you and move on to something else but give it a no thank you taste whatever it is whether it's music whether whether it's food whether it's a group whether it's just showing up give it a no thank you taste to know that you don't like it or why you don't like it before you say you don't like it exactly and people and people's ideas give it a no thank you yeah you know what I mean listen we do conversations at matter right a show that started in 2020 at the request of Kennedy denovan Center and Department of Developmental services so I bring on panelists and we talk about issues of um diversity Equity inclusion social justice um just we talk about current events whatever's out there I'll look for a current event and I'll do a show we've been doing a show for four years not once have we have had um disagreement or acrimony people say what they want to say about the topic and we leave it there yeah we just say what you know we want to say in love or kindness or sometime people are riled up about what they want to say and we leave it there really important it's a good message and and I I've never had any acrimony on my show and I I love the show and I I just invite more voices to come to the show it's not just for anybody it's for everybody we need parents of people with diverse abilities we do a show called um the parent toolkit and we just bring resources to share a couple times a year so we try to hit current topics I look for what's in the news you know somebody might call me and say do a show on this so whatever I love young people I love youth so important to have youthful voices because they are the change oh they come on and they share what they're doing I love it I love that this started with Chase's senior project that you are now here and how this is grown and blossomed yeah so join our um hashtag include me advertising guide if you if you can and if you will very lowcost advertising we leave the books everywhere um we you know we just try to our best that's all and we try to do things with Excellence um and and just do something that is reflective of what we want to see in the world right Chase yeah and we just have a whole village of amazing people Chase's teacher who's been with them since like third grade um and you know Christine Phil Patrick and and just other people in the community are neighbors um yeah so one last thing but he chase the summer we did a project called Summer book buddies and we read 81 books I'm so jealous 81 days incredible so Chase got a grant for $1,000 we turned that th000 into books um we didn't know when we walked into stores that they were gonna say oh we want to donate books so then we had more books um Fab Villa thank you bahava amazing she's amazing I absolutely love her I me she you didn't even have to ask she's like here and she came to my house with a bag of books um so she's a great friend um uh eight cousins bookstore they're they're like what can we do and they want to do it with us again this year so we were able to invite people again everyone come to our porch we had people of all ages on our porch from teens to little kids to retired Librarians um seniors and we read together so Chase is a non-reader he was um we you know we've had um Loretta Croft from East FMA the retired librarian coming to our house for about three years reading to chase but we invited people we sat on the porch I made some blueberry bread brought out some fruit and we read right we would go to parks and festivals and libraries and meet people there and just give out random we're still giving out books randomly I love it we could be eating in a restaurant people have Littles that are like crying or whatever we walk over with brand new books and we hand them books and expose them and and I use that word to chase because people kind of still look at Chase like what's going on there you know they you know they kids are trying to figure out Down syndrome they're trying to figure out Vitiligo the discoloring of the skin um they're trying to figure out people who are different and we bridge that Gap with a book here's a book here's Chase's story we're writing a series of books and so we want to do that again 81 books in 81 days and we accomplished that we learned a lot about kids a lot about reading we need to read more your children are not reading people um Massachusetts I just read a statistic that we're still a half a year behind where we were for covid and we're on the good side yeah there are places in the United States right now that are years behind in their reading comprehension and it really is a problem and I know I'm not going to fully blame screens and I'm not going to fully blame anything else but um moms dads get in there and get reading with your kids so important caregivers whoever you are just read to them please send them to my porch you can help we'll read you know once um a kid reads they it's like music right you expose them to different stories so we had different stories different genres of books and different abilities you know and and um other kids reflected you people want to see themselves I can tell you that right now so we had um a friend who showed up with a a character who had Vitiligo she bought the book to us and that exposed to that book we have all kinds of authors and we people want to see themselves in the story so we do that but a lot of kids said even teenagers I had five teenagers on my porch and they they all passed the book to each other because they didn't want to read out loud they struggle with reading yeah they don't read guys because that I feel like that's also confidence confidence yeah because I think they know the words they can see them but saying them out loud is sometimes a little scary there I couldn't say hi in on the phone when I was a teenager yeah and now I public speak for living and train but I I couldn't say my name yeah it's confidence I'm telling you and I'm I'm it needs to be fostered this is all I have to say come to the POR yes we're going to do it again and we bought it to our neighbors to our um Association barbecue gave out books there um we want to do those little houses with the books in them that's my next goal to build some of those baby libraries all over Li you just have book you know and um y ya Fran is now here Cher can I come up for breakfast what do you got Patty Erikson Hi how are you Emily good morning thanks for joining us on the show we're about to wrap things up here at Mash P TV but I how many things are you involved in is just incredible so you're in a conversation tonight you've got a show tonight conversations that matter on Zoom the links all over social media we have an event page conversations that matter um we're doing our fifth annual young gifted in Black show come and see how we celebrate some youth from on Cape Cod and around the country yeah so we have that going on we have our um advertising guide that we're working on we can send you um an email you so you can have an ad in the book we have band together for inclusion May 4th mark it off put it in your c25 this is our fourth year we're going to have a t-shirt for this year the song is One Nation Under a Groove you can create a video wearing the t-shirt and dancing yeah friend you're really good at that um a lot of you have done videos um and summer book buddies this summer we're going to do again and 81 days reflects the day school lets out to the day it begins right so it was 81 days in between um last summer um yeah so that's uh some of the stuff we got and honestly what is the best way for people to keep up with you just because there's always so much so we have um you can hit me up at my email address Chase's email include me 18 at yahoo.com I'll share that in the link also at the bottom you can visit our website and read all about um us at Marie homemade breeds.com Chase is a member of the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce and um they graciously you know he's he's a member full-fledged you know and and and someone created Chase's website for us love Dave dittle I didn't know the man he reached out I don't know if he wanted me to say that but there's so many good people in this community that reach back I want to give a shout out to rep da Viera who is always um available to us when we need to um anyone available to anyone honestly the most wonderful human being he really does mean what he says it's really nice to have somebody in politics that means what they say and does what they say they're for years we went to the Leadership Institute together um he was a leader when he was a kid in his 20s he's a leader now Boy Scout um he's helped us um with venues with access with resources so when I say to him I want to raise 21,000 it's not oh you can't do that his mind just goes on how you can get to the number you know he he helped me with driven women my conference um and you know if you see something that I'm doing probably he's somewhere in that that's amazing I thank him for that um and like I said there's so many good folks out here in businesses that lend to us when we ask they say yes musicians this year's been Monumental for Chase he's been on stage with everybody from well occupy whether it's a sidewalk or a stage tor's here with Tor with briyan Sans with fly down they sing Hey Jude with him love it hope they'll be a band together just to sing Hey Jude um with Vanna um with um zigg and wiim the group ofad we love them with Olivia so Michael Dunford Andy tranos Chase has occupied the stage with so many of you Sarah Sneed is amazing um and again the folks that to It Center for the Arts and college light opera but people make space right that's the hashtag May space for Chase so inclusion is about opening the door allowing somebody to come in helping them to be successful that could be you that could be Chase right and we all need that little support in some kind of way so um it doesn't have to be a bad word it doesn't have to be a scary word it means all of us and that's what band together is intended to do bring us all together around music help us to tell our stories help us to dance it out you know dance it out don't dance it out right um and I want to give a shout out to Bruce Burns um he's an attorney he's awesome and he is behind so many nonprofits which we are not we we support nonprofits um he's behind so much and he's such a a a genuine helpful voice in our community a giant I call him in our community right yeah he brings people together and he's very thoughtful so I want to give um a shout out to him as well I hope I didn't miss folks but you know you well you just have to come back and support them yeah there's so folks in this community who are just we're blessed people say how do you do it Marie I don't do it alone that's the thing and my husband the two dads markk and and rain today is Daddy rain's birthday so if you can give Daddy rain a shout out um I have to figure out some kind of birthday party tonight or magic want meet us at bad Matha tonight we're gonna be celebrating dad daddy rain after pickle ball Jas says pickle ball so anywh who I just schedule yeah I know he his schedule is so huge it's great he's in every sport every you know the music lessons the shows and it is good it is good yeah good morning Christie proud of you Victoria thanks for joining us shout out to our friends over at the quashnet PTO they're working really hard on their new fundraiser which I think is great they've got this mini golf company that they've set up and they're going to be setting up is that Victoria yeah hi Victoria Victoria hair she's fabulous she is she's a wonderful addition to the community if there's anything you could do to support Victoria and her efforts join her so they're setting up this mini golf course that's all over the school and so it's their fun little fundraiser so definitely support them in any fashion I'm going to be putting that in the newsletter with the mashby Chamber of Commerce I would like to invite Chase to be an honorary member of the mashby Chamber of Commerce if you would like because we are doing some amazing things and I would love your involvement Chase yeah can we accept Chase yes he's like maybe I'll think about it no he's in Chase is thinking Chase is thinking about a breakfast sandwich yeah right so we need to feed Chase whatever it is that you're out there doing this morning please support somebody our community Maria is a specific example of just one of the amazing human beings that we have right here at mashby and we love this if you want to ever come on the show it's open to all please just book A Time whether we're here or Sundays at knockabout for our community show it's open it's wonderful Vanna is gonna be joining us soon which I feel very blessed to have Vanna get up before 9:00 am to come on my show I'm psyched about it musicians are not notoriously known for their morning hours it is not usually the time in they operate so we're excited that and if you want to dress up and have a good time get a ticket to Vanna's birthday party that's coming up next month um and support that F Well it's going to Tommy's place to Tommy's place so um the party's fun we went last year good food good friends good dancing good music and her family is phenomenal so we're gonna be there with Bell's on and um yeah so May 4th guys Sunday at the Navigator and all are welcomed and help us to get to that number Chase's 21st birthday $221,000 to go to the college light opera so kids can come from all around the country and perform amazing shows for you and your families love it for Chase Marie I am Stephanie Viva thank you so much for joining us this morning thank you to mash P TV once again Channel 1072 and HD I'll be back here tomorrow with Hank for another show we appreciate the support of our community and uh we are heading on over to the Cape Cod Children's Museum for a big announcement that they've got doing some major things over there shout out to our friend Lisa Bates who is just continuing to create wonderful things in our community have a great day everyone bye bye bye thank you Stephanie woohoo look at you a full hourong show my little friend crushed it w