WEBVTT

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Good morning, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome,

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and it's time now for our community
connection right here on gay one,

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Well one, you trust, Hi? How you doing there? We have

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Brienna in here with us and she's
an executive director with the Young Scholars of

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Bartelesville. And we changed the name, but it's still the same same.

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Tell us a little bit about Young
Scholars of Bartleshill first of all, because

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we've got a big event we're going
to talk about here. Yes, yes,

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so, Young Scholars of Bartlesville is
an organization that focuses on helping students

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who are at the free reduced rate. So you're economically a little challenged whose

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parents are working for right. You
know, we've got jobs, we're working,

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but it's hard to get things paid. So we are looking for students

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who need help paying for college,
and so we also provide other opportunit unities

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for them, work opportunities. We
teach a bunch of life skills so that

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they are able to go off to
college and be successful. We have a

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ninety seventy three percent rate of graduation
versus the twenty percent average college graduation rate.

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Holy so yes, yes, our
program works really well. And so

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we have a lot of great things
going on. Obviously being a nonprofit,

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we are looking for donors, We're
looking for mentors, we also look for

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students. So there's lots of ways
you can help if you're interested. How'd

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we get ahold of you giving me
a phone call at nine one eight seven

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six six six six seven five or
we just went live with our website,

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yay. Our website is Bartosville Youngscholars
dot org and so we are looking forward

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to being able to show off our
new website. We would love you to

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check it out. Definitely want feedback
from you. Man, this is great.

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Now, what we've got coming up
is something that's going to move you,

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It really is. So I want
everybody to carve out a special little

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time on Saturday, January sixth,
and it's going to be at the library,

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right, that's correct. Now,
when you were talking to me about

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this author, you mentioned his name
and I started going okay, oh,

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and then about three minutes later he
clicked, I know who Alton Carter is.

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Oh you do interesting and so yeah, So there's this thing called YouTube,

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yes, yes, and you can
find him on there, Yes you

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can. And then tell us about
Alton and his powerful story. Alton started

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off life as one of five children
to a father who took off and didn't

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return an abusive mother. At the
age of eight, he and his siblings

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were removed from the home and put
into foster care. Well, no,

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I'm sorry. They were put in
with the grandmother and the uncles. And

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they didn't leave one situation for a
better one. He just went from one

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abusive situation to the next. And
finally he was removed from that home and

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sent to a boy's ranch. And
during his time at the boy's ranch,

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there was an abusive counselor. Yes, yeah, yeah, we'll call it

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the counselor. And so life just
didn't quite get better. And the book

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is called The Boy who Carried Bricks, and that's because one of the punishments

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on this farm, this boy's farm
in Perkins, Oklahoma, was that they

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would have to take five bricks and
carry a certain distance down the road as

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punishment, set him down and go
back and they would have to do those

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for hours on end. So life
didn't get better. He ended up leaving

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the boys home. Unfortunately, he
was placed, which you know, somebody

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was willing to foster him. It
happened to be the bad counselor who had

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gotten fired from there. Had filed
to be a foster parent, and as

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luck would have it, he turned
out to be the person that he would

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go live with, and he lived
there for about six months so until he

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finally ran away. He had a
really rough upbringing, but he was determined

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he was going to change his life. He was the first one in all

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of his family to ever graduate high
school. He jumped about seventeen foster homes

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just after that one bad foster home, and so he had a really rough

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upbringing. But he stated that you
know, carrying the bricks. We all

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have bricks we have to carry in
life. Load. Yeah, there's a

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load that has to be carried,
and that sometimes we have to let that

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load go or set it down.
And so he has had an extraordinary life.

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He went on to get a college
degree, he became a sheriff,

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and he has been a youth pastor
in Stillwater for many many years. He

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has such an incredible story and such
a wonderful outlook about how no matter what

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adversity you face, you have the
ability to overcome it. And so we

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would love for you guys to come
out and hear his story, his books.

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The tickets are going to be on
sale for twenty dollars to be able

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to come hear him. But if
you pay twenty nine then you get his

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book at cost. He's willing to
do that for anybody that wants to come

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hear him. You don't have to
pay the full book price. You just

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pay at cost. And so twenty
nine dollars. And you're going to be

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helping me get this on a website, yes, will, Yeah, we

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do that. We will have the
story out this afternoon, okay. And

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you're going to see a little bit
of Alton, and you're going to see

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a whole lot of the information what
you're going to need in order to be

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a part of this. And once
again, the entrance is twenty dollars.

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Twenty dollars if you want the book, and I strongly suggest you walk out

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of there with the book because it's
only going to be at cost. You

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won't get it any paper. It's
only twenty nine dollars, that's right.

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So they're all totaled. And this
is going to be a nice fundraiser for

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the young scholars of Bartlesvild. But
you're also going to walk away inspired and

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a lot more understanding and a lot
more willing to understand that the world that

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maybe we grew up in isn't everybody's
world, right, and it's got lessons

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that you can teach your you know, your nieces and your nephews and your

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grandchildren or your child and yourself.
Yeah, there's a lot that can be

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learned from this. I have had
the pleasure of getting to hear him speak

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prior, which is why I knew
I needed to get him to come to

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Bartlesville. You know, he's an
Oklahoma author, but it is. His

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story is absolutely amazing and I look
forward to getting to see you guys.

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I'm hoping that we can get you
guys in the door. Oh, this

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will be great. This will absolutely
be awesome. And like I said,

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you you'll come out of change person
a bit. You know, you're gonna

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you're gonna have your eyes opened a
little and your heart's gonna open a whole

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lot more. And that that's what
I like about his delivery and the way

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he speaks to an audience. He
doesn't talk at them, he speaks with

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them. Yes. And also his
book is an awesome piece. You just

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really need it. In your library, and he needed to be out,

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maybe on that coffee table. So
when the youngsters come by, say take

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a look at that, and and
you know, good things can start happening.

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You know, we all have detours
and road stops in our life.

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His you would have thought, oh, hopeless case. And for some of

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us we think, well, tough
luck means, oh, well, jeez,

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the prices are a little too high
Christmas. We're going to have to

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cut back a little bit. Oh
wooh, boo hoo, tri carryon bricks

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like this kid had, yes for
miles and miles and jumping seventeen foster homes.

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That was more than seventeen, Yes, that was seventeen. Just after

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he had gone to live with this
mentioned the bay the bad guy, and

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yes, unfortunately that he's that's adversity
of it. That is adversity, and

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you know, breaking the odds and
moving along no matter what bricks were laid

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in front of him getting And it's
a great metaphor, it truly is.

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So once again, this is the
young scholars of Bartlesville. We had the

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name with the Low family at first, so in case some folks are kind

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of thinking, I think I know
what the yes, we were prior to

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low family young scholars. Now we're
in the rebrand to make it easier to

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understand he is, and it is
easier to it rolls off the tongue a

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little easier, yes, and it's
easier to put together, and it tells

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us exactly what we're doing and how
we do it, and how are you

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doing on mentors? Right now we
are trucking along, but we could definitely

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still use some mentors. We were
so excited we were able to let in

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fourteen new students into our programs.
So we upped our students from nine to

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fourteen. So obviously do the math, that's twenty three twenty three students.

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I believe we are still in need
of two male mentors and then I want

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to say seven female mentors. So
if you are interested in becoming a mentor

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and having a place in your heart
for somebody that you know needs needs it,

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needs it, Yeah, you know, because sometimes kids come from these

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situations and you know, they have
to face adversity and they need somebody standing

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in their corner, just like he
had found along the way, which is

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part of his story, somebody to
help guide him. And that is something

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that we are hoping you find in
your heart that you could mentor, which

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you know doesn't may seem scarier unknown, but you know it's a different story,

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you know, meeting with your mentor
mentee two times a month to go

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do something fun and build a strong
relationship, just so that they have somebody

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that loves them and trusts them,
you know, and a lot of our

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kids, we are very fortunate we
have. They come from amazing homes.

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This is not quite our situation,
but they need the extra love and support,

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and you know, the numbers speak
for themselves. They say it works.

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You know, we're talking scholars here. Many of these kids are in

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kind of Alton's arena there and many
times their parents or even their grandparents have

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never gone to college. With our
mentors, they kind of give them a

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little bit of a shaping as to
what that's going to look like. And

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you know, if you're someone who's
says, yeah, well, look I

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gotta I have great grades and I
have the potential to do things, but

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I'm a little afraid because I don't
know what that college looks like. I

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don't know what that entails, and
that's kind of a scary jump. I

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don't know how to do that.
And you can read up all you want,

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you still won't know how to do
that. Having one of these mentors

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in your corner, I can keep
you on the tracks, keep you guided,

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and keep you focused. Yes,
mainly keep you focused. There's a

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lot of diversions out there, but
they can give you the picture of what

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that's going to look like and really
kind of set your expectations. And there's

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so much you can learn from these
kids. I mean, they give back

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to you just as much as you
give to them. So you know,

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it is a truly a maze kind
of dynamics to see played together. You

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give them the benefit of your wisdom
and they open your eyes to a world

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that's out there that maybe you forgot
about. Yes, absolutely, so you

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learn too. Yes, I love
that, Brianna. Thank you very much

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for being with us today. Thank
you so much for having us on.

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Don't wait so long the next time. Okay, I know, I know

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it's been big. It has been
really hecktic my first year as executive director,

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so but I'm loving it. It's
been a great journey and I appreciate

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everybody who's out there willing to help
our organization succeed. And be able to

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keep helping these students. So thank
you so much. Well, thank you

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very much, and once again,
the big event is Saturday, January sixth

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at the library. It's the upstairs
Room A and it's a two to four

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and you can get tickets to see
author Altren Carter, The Boy who Carried

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Bricks and Ching out a true story
and he's also a law enforcement man,

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analogy, a youth pastor. You
can get your tickets at nine one eight

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seven sixty six sixty six seven five
and I'll put the website up there.

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On the our website, we'll give
you the link there for tickets as well

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a little bit later today. Entry
is twenty dollars and if you want to

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enter for twenty dollars you can,
But if you want to leave with a

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book, it's just a scant nine
dollars more. It's all well worth it.

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Thank you for being with Thank you
everybody. Merry Christmas and to you