Speaker 1: Ben Albright, everybody, and it's time to talk about the heroes.
Speaker 1: Thank you, which I keep calling a heroes welcome for
Speaker 1: some reason. And I don't know why.
Speaker 2: People have long compared me to a younger son.
Speaker 1: Ever, not one time compared you to a younger hotter, Enrique,
Speaker 1: except you you're looking in the mirror. You're like, am
Speaker 1: I a younger hotter?
Speaker 2: In?
Speaker 1: Actually?
Speaker 2: But does that mean he's saying he's better on a podcast,
Speaker 2: but when he's live he's gone awful? Is that I'm
Speaker 2: saying I also dated Anna Krdkova?
Speaker 1: You wish let me come on.
Speaker 2: Nobody buying that one either, No, nobody's buying that.
Speaker 1: You're not laying that down now. Ben Albright, who he
Speaker 1: love to tease because he well all, he's created something
Speaker 1: of a reputation for being that guy who likes to
Speaker 1: argue and complain about things.
Speaker 2: M don't call me Tony Hcliff.
Speaker 1: But by the way, and what they don't know about
Speaker 1: Ben Albright is his softer Inny goose Guey Center, the
Speaker 1: part where you actually on occasion gets his little teeny
Speaker 1: tiny heart to come up three sizes too big. And
Speaker 1: then he does something super nice every year and that
Speaker 1: is a Heroes thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. I mean I think most people who
Speaker 2: know me know I'm a veteran as well, and I
Speaker 2: try to involve myself in a lot of veterans causes.
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna be mceing the Denver Veterans Day Parade
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: That's very exciting for you.
Speaker 2: So super yeah. I am super honored by that. Like
Speaker 2: I'm actually like super yeah. Talked about it's like this
Speaker 2: is like throwing out the first pitch for.
Speaker 1: Me, you get to Yeah.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so Heroes thank You with something that it
Speaker 2: was actually created by Jeff Johnson here and Jeff had
Speaker 2: approached me about it when I first came on at
Speaker 2: KOA because the first year had been done with some
Speaker 2: other people and he knew as a VET, and I
Speaker 2: was only like right away, yes, let's do this, let's
Speaker 2: do this. And we have managed to expand this thing.
Speaker 2: I mean like from the second year we did objectives
Speaker 2: like triple We now give I think four times the
Speaker 2: beneficiaries now because we get great sponsors for this stuff
Speaker 2: every year. But basically we're handing out a couple of
Speaker 2: thousand dollars checks twenty five hundred depending on the year whatever.
Speaker 2: The sponsors are willing to get in there too, you know,
Speaker 2: veterans and first responders to families in need around the
Speaker 2: holiday season. And man, we love doing it. We get
Speaker 2: some get to be some great people doing this and
Speaker 2: surprise people. It's great. This is the surprise and the
Speaker 2: people and just the emotional reaction they have.
Speaker 1: And let me ask you a question. How many of
Speaker 1: the veterans that you have had a chance to go
Speaker 1: give the giant check to and do we have an
Speaker 1: account with a giant check?
Speaker 2: Do we have a giant to have check? We don't.
Speaker 2: By the way, you can't take those giant checks to
Speaker 2: the banks. They will not care, just ignore you.
Speaker 1: Look at why din't you just ride out on that
Speaker 1: giant check? He wrote in ont Forge one of the
Speaker 1: giant knobs kids. Not this year anyway, those charges have
Speaker 1: been expunded. So how many of the guys or gals
Speaker 1: that you've given checks too have said something along the
Speaker 1: lines of, you know, somebody else should get that, because
Speaker 1: that's my issue? And I say issue or with air
Speaker 1: quotes with veterans is they always think somebody deserves it
Speaker 1: more right.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of that privately, you know, that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. But to these nominations come in from their family,
Speaker 2: so I don't want to do that, they don't want
Speaker 2: to be so it kind of it kind of works
Speaker 2: out that way, a little bit that we have to give.
Speaker 2: You know, you can't give this away buddy your family. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: but there has been that. A matter of fact, we
Speaker 2: did have one winner turned down their award and have
Speaker 2: it donated somewhere else. We did have that.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Don't get me wrong when I say that.
Speaker 1: I always feel like I don't want to be the
Speaker 1: person who makes a person who gets one of these
Speaker 1: checks feel like, well, I have to donate it. No,
Speaker 1: I want you to keep the money and spend it
Speaker 1: however you want to spend it. But if it makes
Speaker 1: you feel good to donate it and you can do that,
Speaker 1: that's wonderful too. I never want to make someone feel
Speaker 1: bad about getting one of these checks, because I think
Speaker 1: that everybody that you've given them to. The stories are
Speaker 1: heart wrenching.
Speaker 2: We do video of it.
Speaker 1: We put it on the blog later so you can
Speaker 1: see it. It's just it's nice to appreciate people who
Speaker 1: did most of them did their service and they just
Speaker 1: are quietly going about their lives and not making a
Speaker 1: big deal out of it and not you know, expecting anything, right,
Speaker 1: And those to me are the people that deserve it the.
Speaker 2: Most absolutely and get being able to be able to
Speaker 2: do that and see you know, the faces. It's I
Speaker 2: think it's a ve like. You don't want the constant adulation, right,
Speaker 2: or at least I don't want to speak for all its
Speaker 2: I don't want it, but I do as much as
Speaker 2: I ham it up, you know, all the time. I
Speaker 2: really don't and and but you do. It is nice
Speaker 2: to be appreciated every once in a while and remember that, hey,
Speaker 2: these people appreciate that I did this or that I
Speaker 2: you know, those kinds of things, and it.
Speaker 1: Is certainly is nice.
Speaker 2: And then the addition, you know, especially for the ones
Speaker 2: that really needed it, there's been some just I mean
Speaker 2: some gut wrenching stories on Some of these family lost
Speaker 2: their home. This was able to float them. So this
Speaker 2: money was able to float them through tell their insurance
Speaker 2: came in because their home had burned in a fire.
Speaker 2: There was a young lady whose husband had was the
Speaker 2: hero who was nominated, who had unfortunately committed suicide. Gone
Speaker 2: for US health time committed suis I'd leave a ham
Speaker 2: and their young daughter alone, and this is you know,
Speaker 2: to help them, help get them through, you know, get
Speaker 2: through these There's been some gut wrenching stories with some
Speaker 2: of this stuff. We're glad and I you know, for me,
Speaker 2: it's not just about this. I try to follow up
Speaker 2: with these people as much as I can. You're after year.
Speaker 2: Some of them I've been unable to. One of them
Speaker 2: passed away shortly after they got the award, but but
Speaker 2: following up, try to follow up and see where their
Speaker 2: lives would go on and see what I can do
Speaker 2: to help, you know, if there's anything else I can
Speaker 2: do to help, you know, kind of behind the scenes,
Speaker 2: and it just connects. I think it just connects people,
Speaker 2: and I think that's great. One of the.
Speaker 1: Things that you know, we we have here in Colorado
Speaker 1: that I think in many cases, I've talked to so
Speaker 1: many veterans' charities and there are so many veterans' charities
Speaker 1: that do different things and they help different people. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that you know, I want to
Speaker 1: do a better job about. And I try to set
Speaker 1: a show goal for the next year. So I'm already
Speaker 1: looking at twenty twenty five, and I'm going to try
Speaker 1: and feature a veteran's charity every month, just letting people
Speaker 1: know what's out there, not necessarily so you are forced
Speaker 1: to give them money. They all need money, trust me,
Speaker 1: they would love a donation. But to also reinforce all
Speaker 1: the veterans out there. There is so much help. A
Speaker 1: vast majority of it is veteran directed. So it's like
Speaker 1: you have these organizations. It pains me so much to
Speaker 1: know that so many veterans are still struggling and that
Speaker 1: our suicide rates are so high, when there are so
Speaker 1: many people ready, willing and able. They're on the starting
Speaker 1: blocks to help in any way you can. So if
Speaker 1: you are a veteran or you know someone who's struggling,
Speaker 1: first of all, reach out, just reach out, and there
Speaker 1: aren't there are so many people who want to help you.
Speaker 1: But this check would be a great way to honor
Speaker 1: any veteran in your life, Old Yong veterans.
Speaker 2: I think we've expanded to first responders to try to
Speaker 2: help out with that. I'm aout one hundred on that,
Speaker 2: but go ahead, and you know, go ahead and put
Speaker 2: those nominations in any way by way at least, so
Speaker 2: you know, you can go to ka Colorado dot com
Speaker 2: slash contests and you'll see the little link there and
Speaker 2: then you can you can put in the nomination stories.
Speaker 2: This year, we're letting people do video nominations as well,
Speaker 2: because somebody, you know, you don't necessarily want to sit
Speaker 2: there and type out the war and piece of nomination
Speaker 2: stories sometimes and sometimes it's easier just to say it,
Speaker 2: you know. So we're letting people do video nominations too
Speaker 2: if they want to do that, and accepting those. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we have the money, we have the sponsors, We have
Speaker 2: the ability to get this money out to people who
Speaker 2: need We just don't know who needs it. So we
Speaker 2: need you guys to step up to the plate and
Speaker 2: tell us who needs it and we can get that
Speaker 2: money out to them and hopefully make the holiday season
Speaker 2: just a little bit brighter for people who need it.
Speaker 1: So I put a link at the very very bottom
Speaker 1: of the blog. I put the video that you and
Speaker 1: Nick Ferguson did together, and it has linked to the
Speaker 1: contest page. So if you can't find it, just let
Speaker 1: me know and I'll make sure that you get it.
Speaker 1: I have another question, can people nominate themselves.
Speaker 2: I don't see any reason why not has anyone ever
Speaker 2: nominated themselves, and not till my knowledge, we read all
Speaker 2: of them, and I don't remember anyone read. I don't remember.
Speaker 2: I don't recall in six years of doing this, recall
Speaker 2: reading anyone nominating themselves. And I think that there's kind
Speaker 2: of a reticence to maybe do that sometimes, feeling like
Speaker 2: you know, right, but yeah, you're absolutely nominated. So if
Speaker 2: you need help, man, please feel free to nominated.
Speaker 1: We're not going to do that as just says ask
Speaker 1: for help if you need it. Yeah, that's like the
Speaker 1: new should be the new motto of the VA ask
Speaker 1: for help if you need it. There's a billion people
Speaker 1: waiting to help you, right, And so yeah, we're.
Speaker 2: Not viewing that as there's anything on, you know, self aggrandizement.
Speaker 2: If you're nominating yourself, I promise you, and I can
Speaker 2: understand as a vet how you'd be hesitant to do
Speaker 2: that sometimes, but no, please, if you if you need it,
Speaker 2: please feel free to nominate yourself. We'd love to make
Speaker 2: sure that that you know that you got the money
Speaker 2: if you need it.
Speaker 1: I nominate myself for stuff all the time. Most of
Speaker 1: it's not stuff I'm qualified for, But you never know.
Speaker 2: I did dominate that.
Speaker 1: I can see true of the year. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe you might, I can dry.
Speaker 2: I believe exactly been all right.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, Appreciate this. Thanks for making time for us
Speaker 1: to check that out.