Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
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And I want to welcome back to the program. Charles
Holler and Tim Dwyer. They are the representatives here for
the Charlotte Kawanas Club. How you doing, guys, Good to
see you, excellent, good good and so Charles, let me
start with you. You are the vice president of the
Kawanas Club of Charlotte, So real quick, tell us like
what is the Kawanas Club and then we'll get into
why you're here or is Tim want to take this?
I don't care who takes Tim will take it. He's
thea he had the title, so I just referred to
the vice president.
Speaker 2: You know how, they are doing all the work like
we are. We Kowanas is a group of volunteers dedicated
to serve the world, one child in one community at
a time, and in general. What does that mean? Basically,
we come together, We meet every two weeks and we
figure out ways to generate revenue to help kids, all
different age groups of kids, from helping with after school
activities to literacy to summer camps. And basically that's we
all come together and men, women, executives, worker bees, all
different kinds of people, have lunch, break bread together and
figure out a way to help the next kid.
Speaker 1: Helping kids, that's a very controversial thing you guys have
chosen to do, but we're here for you. We're going
to help you. We've helped in the last two years.
This is the third annual now Coolest Dog in Charlotte
contest and so I guess the goal this year is
to raise twenty thousand, still twenty thousand dollars right, okay?
And for people who want information on this go to
Charlotte dash Kawanis dot org and that's spelled ki w
A n I S Charlotte dash Kowanas dot org. So
who wants to take up the explanation of what exactly
is the Coolest Dog in Charlotte contest Charles. All right, Charles,
you're up.
Speaker 3: Well, you know we we a few years ago we
heard from some of the local nonprofits that we support
that literacy was a huge concern, and I think of
our children aren't reading at grade level, and I think,
if you the other statistic i'd heard was one in
six kids that's not reading at grade level, we'll probably
not graduate from high school. And so that's pretty powerful.
We wanted to have a fundraiser and we borrowed an
idea from the Kuanas Club of Columbus, Ohio.
Speaker 1: En y'all stole it. I talked to Mark last time.
He said he totally stole it because that's where he
came from. And he's like, that's a great idea. I'll
bring it.
Speaker 3: Borrow's fine with their permission. I think we might even
borrow some of their art graphics. And so we reached
out to a local brewery, Suffolk Punch, and they're going
to brew a beer for the winning dog. And it
kind of basically you just sign up your dog and
it's ten dollars and you gets your friends, family, co
workers to vote for your dog. Every vote is a dollar.
Every dollar goes to our fund, and the fund then
gets distributed in grant money to local nonprofits that support
kids and literacy. Over the past couple of years twenty thousand.
This year our goal is another twenty. We have corporate sponsors,
Tyler Too Construction. We're kind of having a dog theme here.
Skipped Down is donating some things. Charlotte Chluer Police has
animal control and they'll be at our event at Suffolk
Punch when we release the you know, when we tell
who won the contest, and they'll be checking microchips and
dogs and giving away dog tags. So it's kind of
an animal theme, but it all goes back into this
community every dollar you spend.
Speaker 1: Queen City Canine also still with you, guys, or no,
that was last year. I was last year. I pulled
last year's data apparently, so Suffolk Punch Brewery they're still there.
Tyler I Construction, they I think didn't one of their
people win last year or two? They had a popular dog.
Speaker 3: They have a company dog.
Speaker 1: And yeah, well a company dog.
Speaker 3: Well their logos a dog. They don't have project managers.
Speaker 1: They have lead dogs, lead dogs and so actually I
remember talking when y'all first did this when the idea
we migrated down here from Ohio, let's say, but it
was it was right after the pandemic, and you know,
kids had been you know, shut out of the schools
and they were you know, remote learning, and the literacy
the test scores just plummeted. And to your stat that
you gave earlier, it's like if kids don't know how
to read at that third grade level by third grade,
like the data is not good for them. And so
if ever, there was a time to help kids with
the literacy programs, and we're only two years three years
removed from that, so you've got their still this need
to get those kids up to a grade level in reading,
especially reading.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, I mean it's it's a I don't know
if it's a pandemic or an endemic, but but sure,
and and who's going to do it who? And we
as a club can't do it for everybody, So we
need other organizations who are already doing it and help
support them. So that's part of what the Kuanas is
is helping the people that are helping the people, and
in this case, helping the kids that need the help.
And and it's it's very empowerful. It's empowering. And to
see these these organizations that the you know, when they
get this thirty five hundred dollars of donations to their
charity and what what it's going to be used for,
it's it's pretty remarkable. But most of the most of
the money goes to literacy. We also help with after
school activities, which are important to keep kids busy between
three and five. And you know, so there's a lot
of things that the that these kids need. It's it's literacy,
it's it's activities, it's summer camps, and it's just a
lot of different things. And if there's people out there
who also maybe you don't have a dog, but you
want to volunteer, We're always looking for people to help,
who want to contribute, who want to do something different.
All the money that we raise goes to help our community.
That's it. So we're just a group of volunteers that
get together, break bread and figure out a way to
help help some more kids in town.
Speaker 1: Well, and I've said for years, if you know people
who are limited government conservative types, if you want government
to do less, then that means people do more. Whether
it's through these types of civic organizations, which really have
been the backbone of American society since its founding. Alexis
de Tokeville wrote about them, like these civic groups like
kawanas churches, like this is how people do things on
their own. And if you do it on your own,
you are you know, you're right there. You see how
all the money gets spent and you have the personal
interaction with the people that you're impacting.
Speaker 2: Right, and you can make a difference. And that's a
lot of people want to help or it takes it
doesn't take that much time. I'm saying that the average
Kiwani Kiwanian. I guess we are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was told last year it's Kawanian.
Speaker 2: Kawani, And I mean we spent about three to five
hours a month. I mean we'll have some different events
like the barbecue event will come in May. You might
put in a little extra time for that, and in
a in a Christmas time event that might take it
a little bit. But in general you're spending three to
five hours a month and contributing. What the other cool
thing about the Kuanas Club is everybody's got their own
individual skill. You know, I'm in marketing and Charles's im flooring,
and we have accountants and lawyers and yeah, it's just
an amalgamation of society and everybody can do something and
it's really fun when people step up and figure out
a different way to help help the group grow.
Speaker 1: So this event, Coolest Dog inst Charlotte Contest it is
running now. Is the voting? Well, first off, if you
need people to get their dogs on camera, get a
good picture of them, right something you know, don't put
a person in it, just a dog, right, you want
just the dog, and then submit it onto the website. Right,
and then then people can vote for the dog. Yes,
that's how it.
Speaker 3: Works, correct. I think I saw this morning we had
ten dogs. Shelby is in the lead.
Speaker 2: I happen to know.
Speaker 3: Shelby shots us up the street from me. Her owner
thinks she can talk, but I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 1: Don't ever teach a dog to talk on command. You
will regret it.
Speaker 2: And then the key thing is to work the crowd, right,
I mean, so, if you want to win the Coolest
Dog Contest and get your dog to be on a
beer brewed by Suffolk Punch on the label of a beer,
then and you get to name the beer, by the way,
then keep the pictures coming. The crowd that's coming to visit.
You know, you might go because your friend has a
dog and you wanted to vote for them, but then
you see this other really cute dog. You're like, oh man,
that's a really cute one. So anyways, you.
Speaker 1: Could throw a vote to them too. It's only it's
a dollar per vote basically, and it's a fundraiser. So
the more you know the votes, the more money you donate,
the more votes you can cast. I have always offered
up my votes for sale. Always. I'm willing to be
bribed for that.
Speaker 2: It's for the kids.
Speaker 1: It's for the kids exactly. So you submit a photo
of the dog, you write up a couple of sentences
why your dog is the coolest of the cool and
then the photo gets you know, posted, it should be
in focus. I feel like I need to say that
no filters. People don't be putting in the like I
don't know, fat ears, Yeah, don't be yeah doing yeah,
fake ears or fake hats and stuff on the dogs.
And then the photos are the votes. Ten dollars to
post the dog, but you get ten votes when you
enter your dog So if you've got multiple dogs, take
separate photos, enter them separately, create the rivalry in the household. Right,
that's a good thing. Probably ten dollars posting fee applies
to each dog that you enter, and the votes are
a dollar per vote. No maximum on how many votes
that a person can buy. Very This is very like
Tammany Hall ask here it comes down to the wire.
Sometimes it comes down to the wire. That's right.
Speaker 3: We had a call from a senior living facility in Charlotte.
They asked if the dog had to be living.
Speaker 1: Good question.
Speaker 3: The Kawana's board met and we agreed, that's fine. That
could be a dead dog, could be a dead dog.
Speaker 1: It can be so in memoriam. So the coolest dog
in Charlotte could be deceased.
Speaker 3: As long as you have a good picture of it.
Speaker 1: No ashes, All right, no judgment here. Here's a great idea.
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minutes here with the fellas from the Kowanas Club of
Charlotte Tim Dwyer. He is the co chair of the
Coolest Dog in Charlotte contest, ongoing well starting up now.
Voting runs for about a month and you can go
to Charlotte dash Kawanas dot org. Charles Holler also co
chair of the event, but also the vice president of
the Charlotte Kawanas Club. Do you guys meant to ask
you do you have a theme for this year? Because
don't you guys use like an annual theme or something.
Did you used to do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Have fun.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good one.
Speaker 2: That was Mark Mark's theme. I think the new the
new president of Kawanas gets to bring his own theme.
And I do not think Don Williams is our new
as our new president. I don't think he has introduced
He does a.
Speaker 3: Good job recognizing our members and he has a Quanian
of the month. Yeah, and he'll recognize folks for their
volunteer hours and bringing new ideas to our club.
Speaker 1: Okay, so one of the ideas that you guys have
been doing for a long time. And uh, you've probably
seen the bumper stickers on people's cars. I have a
terrific kid at some school and so that's you guys,
are your bumper sticks? So what's that program about? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And that's the funny thing is people have probably seen
these bumper stickers all around town and they don't really
know what is that. You know, like my kid doesn't
get good grades?
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 2: The Terrific Kid. Terrific Kid is a program that we
use to recognize children in these different schools, and Charles
can go into the specific schools, but we asked the
teachers to recognize somebody. This last one. I was one
at recently February twelfth at Barry Hill School which is
over by the airport and it's got a lot of
underprivileged kids there and they got recognized that month for
the word responsibility. So everything in terrific. Although Charles and
I just found out that they're missing one are, but
everything stands for some responsibility was the issue. And to
see these kids from kindergarten to a fourth grade or
fifth grade, to see them stand up and get awarded,
they get recognized. You know, it comes over the PA system.
You know, Tim Dawire, please come down to the the
oh boy. You know, as a kid, I would get
scared to hear that message. But these kids are going
to get a Chick fil A gift card, they get
the Terrific Kids Magnet, they get a pencil, they get
a bunch of different things and a recognition award that
they get to bring home and just to see their
faces grin and ear to ear, they were recognized for
having responsibility and the teachers do a great job and
they write a little note of what you know, Junior
did to receive the responsibility award. So yes, we give
away these terrific kids things. We do this every month,
I believe Charles right, and so we do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're we're in four schools CMS schools, so Raymond School,
Berry Hill, Wind Get Park to Park and o Kirstein.
Speaker 1: So you do summer camps as well, Yes, yes, sir,
so tell us real quick about the summer camps.
Speaker 2: Summer camps are camp career and we use we have
a barbecue coming up in May that we will hopefully
get to talk about on here air. But the summer
camps are to send kids that might not get a
chance to go to a summer camp, give them their
first opportunity. So underprivileged kids get to have a week
of summer camp. And that means staying in the bunks,
playing with friends, you know, shooting bb guns and bows
and arrows, and canoeing and jumping off you know, diving
boards and just have being a kid for a week.
And it's just a lot of these kids will go
to that camp and we don't necessarily see them go
to the camp and we don't get to see them,
but they'll come back and they'll thank us at the
Kawanas Club and they'll say like, Hey, that was the
first time I had ever been away from home. And
then one one kid came back and said he had
become a counselor at Camp Career.
Speaker 3: Right Charles, He said, first time he's ever played in
a creek, first time I ever been in a canoe,
first time he ever sell Stars came back the next
year on scholarship, and now he's a camp counselor at
Camp Career. That's a partnership we have with First Press
Church Uptown. They work with the guidance counselors at cms.
They identify kids that need that opportunity to get away
in the summertime. It just it changes their lives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I was gonna say, and you've impacted that
kid for the rest of his life because of the
programs you guys do.
Speaker 2: And then and then also during Christmas, you know, when
you offer a Christmas break and the holidays, you know,
the you don't think about this, but a lot of
the kids, a lot of these underprivileged kids, they need food.
They're getting food from the school system and when they don't,
you know, So the Quanus Club not only do we
rally and get them some presents and uh and and
help them out like that, but we give the family
food so that they can make it through that two
week period or so to you know, they're not going
to have meals anymore, so they're gonna they need to
get some food in the house. And so we'll do
that during the Christmas season. So it's always ongoing. We
always meet. We're always having these meetings on every other
Thursday to figure out what we want to do next
and who we want to help or what what what
somebody will bring something to our problem. You know, it's
a problem. Literacy is a problem, you know, So we
didn't know. So now we give away books.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's like anything else. It's it's the people
and what they're willing to uh to do to help
the effort in the organization. So if you want to
be a part of the solution, Charlotte Kawanas would love
to have you. Charlotte dash Kowanas dot org. That's Kiwa
Nis Charlotte Dashkowanas dot org. It's the coolest dog on
Charlotte Contest. You can get the details at that website.
Enter your dog, raise some money, help some kids learn
to read and put them on the right path for
the rest of their life. Guys, good to see you, Thanks,
thanks so much, and we'll touch base again. The contest
runs for about another month. Register your dog. You know.
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dot com. North Carolina House lawmakers moved a bill through
committee aimed at curbing student cell phone use during classroom
instruction time. The House version of the bill, Housepil. Eighty seven,
is a companion bill to a similar bill that was
introduced over in the Senate earlier this month. The bill
directs governing bodies of public school units to adopt a
cell phone free education policy to eliminate or severely restrict
student access to cell phones during instructional time. Now, how
that looks in each individual school will be up to
the individual schools, According to the bill's primary sponsor, Neil
Jackson from Moore County. The bill does not apply to
remote charters or academies. Seventy seven school districts already have
policies on cell phone use in classrooms, according to the
bill's summary, So this would just you know, mandated for
the remaining schools. And look, this is a smartphone use
is one of these topics that I have been following
for several years. I know that I know that smartphones
are addictive. I know this, Okay. I use my my
cell phone, my smartphone mainly for Twitter, and I tell
myself it's because of the work that I do. I
have to be aware of what's going on at all times.
And truth be told, that's a little bit of a crutch.
That's an excuse. I sometimes check it when I shouldn't.
But I've become way more over the last two three
years or so. I've become way more cognizant of how
often I use it and when I put the thing away,
and I tried to, like, I put it away on
weekends and stuff. I don't try to open it up
during the weekends. It is rare that I will check emails.
That was sort of the first thing that I did
years ago. I stopped, you know, wearing the email handcuffs.
I know I would have missed the email from Elon.
If I was a federal worker, I would have totally
missed it. But I try not to open emails if
it's important enough for people to tell right, I still
look at If somebody texts, I will look at the
text messages and stuff. Obviously, people make a phone call
to me, I will answer the phone. But as far
as like going through and monitoring emails, don't do it.
And so the only thing that I'm really looking at
in a lot is Twitter. And I know that I
shouldn't be looking at it as much as I do.
That's why I know that for people who do not
have fully formed brains, mine is fully formed now people,
despite what you may think it is fully formed. It's
never going to get any better than it is right now. Okay,
I have achieved peak brain maturation, and actually I'm probably
on the down. I'm probably on the decline now right
because your brain does not fully form until you're in
your like early twenties. Are we are going through a
real time math experiment because the technology that was introduced
to us within the last fifteen years the human race
has never had before. We don't know all of the impacts,
but we're starting to figure it out. We're starting to
realize it. And the all of these all of these studies,
they're showing the same sorts of behavioral problems that are
attached to smartphone use screen time in general. Right, just
screen time increased rates of anxiety depression. Right, You've got
people's lives that get ruined because they're tweeting stuff or
texting stuff. There are you know, I mean all of
the the scams that are out there, and the extortion
and the I mean just awful things. Right when the
Internet is wide open, and that means a lot of
bad people now have access to your kids, right, they
have access to you. And with AI coming on board,
now you're going to be able to, you know, just
fabricate stuff about people. It is a mass experiment we
are in. We have to be able in a rational
way fighting back our addiction to the screens. Right, we
have to be able to step back and say, on
the net, is this technology good or bad? Is it
beneficial or not or detrimental? Right? And for which age groups?
Because what might be perfectly appropriate for somebody in their
thirties may not be so for somebody in their teens.
This used to be well understood. But now apparently, you know,
people are resistant to this because I think convenience. I
think a lot of people just find it very convenient
to give their kids a tablet and then the kid
shuts up. Really like, I think that's it's easier. I
get it. It's just like the television was. Put the
kid in front of the TV, turn it on, put
some cartoons on, and then the kid leaves you alone
for a while. I understand that. One of the arguments
that I hear all the time though about why we
can't ban the cell phones in class is for safety.
And I don't buy this argument either. All right, if
you're listening to this show, you know I try to
keep up with all sorts of current events, and I
know you do too, and you've probably heard me say
get your news from multiple sources.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is
why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an
app and it's a website and it combines news from
around the world in one place, so you can compare
coverage and verify information. You can check it out at
check dot ground dot news slash Pete. I put the
link in the podcast description too. I started using ground
News a few months ago and more recently chose to
work with them as an affiliate because it lets me
see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The
blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by
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ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent.
All right, So the smartphones in schools like this is
now it's becoming very obvious, so much so that even
govco has started to ban the smartphones in schools. There
was a debate about this in the North Carolina House
on a committee where they moved the bill through their
committee that would curbs students cell phone used during class
room instruction time. And one of the people who spoke
against it was a Democrat from Durham, Representative Marsha Moury.
This woman was a judge, by the way, and she
questioned the bill for its potential to limit parents contact
with their child in schools. Now, this woman, Marsha Mory,
she's I believe older than I am, and and not
to be insulting or anything, but she remembers a time
before kids were in constant communication with everybody and parents
in constant communication with their kids throughout the school day.
So like you have a personal memory of the way
things were before everybody had a supercomputer in their pocket. Right,
she says, I think the idea behind this bill is
really good, and if I were a teacher, I would
really like it. When I have gotten some emails from constituents,
it's been the parents. They are worried about being in
touch with their child, especially if it's an emergency, if
it's an active shooter, they want to be in touch
with their kids. Right. So, first off, and I've heard
this argument too. First off, the school shooter scenario is
such a rare phenomenon. It is so rare. Right, this
is not a realistic fear. I understand it's a fear,
but it's not a realistic one because the chance of
it happening is so remote. Number one. Number two, if
it is an active shooting situation, why would you want
your kid to have a phone that might ring while
they're hiding, or that they might be calling you and
talking to you, and then the perpetrator hears them. Why
would you want to set the conditions for that kind
of a scenario. Also, if there are instructions that are
being given, you want your kid to hear them, not
to be trying to dial out. And also, what exactly
do you intend to do? What is the point of
the communication? Right? It's right, because you can't you're you know,
you're at work or you're at home, you're miles away.
You can't stop that thing from happening. You can't come
and save them. So what is the purpose of the communication.
Is it to tell them that you love them in
a very scary situation?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: You should tell them you love them before they go
to school every day. Right, Make so this way there's
never any doubt. Is it to provide comfort in that moment?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Okay? But does that outweigh all of the other potential
harms the downsides there? Are they going to be so
worried talking to you trying to get comforted, that they
that they don't do what might be necessary to save themselves.
And again, this is a very very very rare thing anyway,
So I don't I really don't put a lot of
weight behind this argument that because again, there are no solutions,
there are only trade offs. The trade offs here are
so far in one direction. Versus keeping the smartphones right,
banning them in the classroom, you can like they have
lockers or bags, you can put them in that. You know,
then they're out of sight, out of mind. Like the
studies are all there, all on the same page with
this stuff. Like even having a smartphone, like, oh, I'll
just keep it at my desk and I won't turn
it on. That's distracting. They've done studies on that too.
You sit at a desk and you're taking a test
and you have your smartphone next to you. The brain
keeps wanting to go over and grab it and turn
it on. It is still a distraction. You have to
take the thing out of the room. It's got to
be set aside somewhere. I went to one school I
recently visited, gave a speech to a couple classes, and
this school had all of the cell phones out in
the hallway. They had a big rack and all the
kids would come and they would plug their phones in
and sit them on the rack, and then during the
switching of the classes, they could come over and pick
the phones up and they could you know, snapchat away
or whatever for the minute that they have. So there
are things you can do to mitigate this because the
harm being done to the kids in the instructional time.
I think it's pretty clear what's happened. All right, that'll
do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.
I could not do the show without your support and
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thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.