The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is a long-form conversational podcast that dives deep into the journeys of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers in Northern Colorado. Hosted by Curt Bear, Founder of LoCo Think Tank, the show brings real, raw, and unfiltered conversations—where guests share their successes, struggles, and lessons learned along the way.
LoCo Think Tank is Colorado’s premier business peer advisory organization, founded in Fort Collins to help business owners gain perspective, accountability, and encouragement to grow both personally and professionally. LoCo chapters bring together business owners at all stages of the journey into professionally facilitated peer advisory chapters, led by experienced business veterans. These groups provide a trusted space to share challenges, seek advice, learn togethter, and support each other’s success.
The LoCo Experience Podcast extends this mission beyond the chapter meetings— bringing the wisdom, insights, and stories of local business leaders to a wider audience.
Our triad mission with this podcast is simple:
Inspire through real stories of resilience and success.
Educate by sharing valuable business insights.
Entertain with engaging, unfiltered conversations.
If you love “How I Built This” and the free-flowing style of Joe Rogan - but with a Northern Colorado focus - you’ll enjoy The LoCo Experience! Our closing segment, "The LoCo Experience," asks guests to share their craziest stories — and we get some doozies!
It’s a passion project with purpose, and we invite you to listen, follow, and share, and maybe consider sponsoring. Know someone with a great story? Nominate your favorite business leader for an episode!
The LoCo Experience
EXPERIENCE 229 | The Power of Strong Relationships with Bob Hewson - CEO of Colorado Youth Outdoors
In this episode of The LoCo Experience podcast, I sat down with Bob Hewson, the CEO and co-founder of Colorado Youth Outdoors,which will celebrate its 25th year in 2026! We started by inquiring the why around the organization’s focus on building relationships through traditional outdoor activities like fishing, archery, and trapshooting.
We talked about the importance of intentional one-on-one time in relationships - especially any parent-child relationship - and how his own upbringing influenced his career shift from corporate life to founding a nonprofit. Bob shared how the organization thrived during the COVID era due to its reliance on private funding and commitment to its mission, and positioned them for an upcoming expansion to a Colorado Springs area campus.
Bob also highlights the significance of having a strong board and community support in overcoming business challenges, and their future plans for a national presence. Additionally, we delved into Bob's personal life, including his family, kids, grandkids, and a memorable stint working in the fishing industry on Orcas Island.
Bob's story underscores the power of relationships in personal and professional life, and the principles involved in making them stronger. So please tune in, as I’m sure you’ll enjoy my conversation with Bob Hewson, CEO of CYO.
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
In this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, I sat down with Bob Houston, the CEO, and Co-founder of Colorado Youth Outdoors, which will celebrate its 25th year in 2026. We started by inquiring the why around the organization's focus on building relationships through traditional outdoor activities like fishing, archery, and trapshooting, and then we talked about the importance of intentional one-on-one time in building relationship, especially any. Parent-child relationship and how his own upbringing influenced his career shift from corporate life To founding a nonprofit, Bob shared how the organization thrived during the COVID era due to its reliance on private funding and commitment to its mission and positioned them for an upcoming expansion to Colorado Springs campus. Bob also highlights the significance of having a strong board and community support in overcoming business challenges and their future plans for a national presence. Additionally, we delved into Bob's personal life, including his family, kids, grandkids, and a memorable stint working in a fishing industry on Orcas Island. Bob's story underscores the power of relationships in personal and professional life, and the principles involved in making them stronger. So please tune in as I'm sure you'll enjoy my conversation with Bob Husson, CEO of CYO. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Bob Houston. And Bob is the CEO and founder, I believe, of Colorado Youth Outdoors. Yeah. Co-founder Kurt, co-founder. Okay, great. Well, thanks for. Spending a a little time with me here today. You bet. Um, local Think Tank is doing our member event this fall at your facility, which you might not even know about. I did not know that. I'm glad to hear it. So, yeah. Yeah. I was hearing a little bit about the background of the organization and I've learned it before Uhhuh a little bit, but, uh, yeah, we're doing what we call Aim to Thrive. Fantastic. So kind of some, uh, leadership training, workshopy stuff. And then when is that? Uh, September 12th. Oh, good time to be out at the ponds. Yeah. It should be real nice. And then archery and fishing after. Oh my gosh. So you put a little bit of, uh, you know, skills training in the team, you're doing it right. That that's what we do best. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Your team has been very, uh, accommodating, like just setting up tours and great communicators and. And Luke said you'd be a great guest on the podcast. Well, so when Luke tells me to do something, show up Luke. Uh, if, uh, if this doesn't turn out Yeah, yeah, exactly. A lot of pressure. Nope. Yep. So can you set the stage for listeners that might not be familiar at all with, with Colorado Youth Outdoors? Uh, I'm familiar with the North campus, but maybe describe the big organization first. Yeah. And then we will zoom back to how it all started, I think. All right. Yeah. Well, thanks for the opportunity to de to describe it. Um, well first, you know, Colorado Youth Outdoors is a 5 0 1 C3, uh, you know, charitable trust or a private charitable trust, which, you know, um, some people, you know, hear that and they think, oh, it's, you know, so private that can't be part of it. But private charitable trust just simply means that we really don't rely on, on, uh, public funding. Mm. And so, um, and we are so nobody can tell you what to do. You have a board of directors and stuff, I assume. Yeah, we still, yep. We, we have, uh, plenty for the board. Plenty of command. Yeah. Yeah. That, uh, um, but yeah, we have, you know, really it's our mission that, you know, drives us and, you know, our core values. So that's, you know, um, from board on down, you know, that, uh, that's what keeps us in our lane. Dwell on who you take money from, affects how you do your business. Well, you're in, in this era, you know, during this time with the new administration in, and, you know, uh, it's just the way it is. You know, if you're relying on federal funding hurt. Um, you're really adrift at, you know, depending on potentially dangerous spot each, each four years, you're probably really interested. Yeah. You're on the good side of the bad side of the administration in this kind of environment. And it's unfortunate, you know, we, we have some, uh, peer organizations that you are simply struggling because they had been, you know, become too well. The government gravy was too easy. Government gravy. Yeah. We just, you know, the COVID era, we, uh, we actually, you know, as an example, we thrived through the COVID era because, um, you know, private funds were still coming in. Yeah. Knowing that we were kind of the, the only game in town Right. That was still open. Well, plus you had a bunch of outdoor activities. Yeah, yeah. We could, we could separate they, I forget what they called us cohorts or something, you know, we had to have a. You know, groups of 10 cohorts and, uh, whatever that scatter all around the grounds. One group on this pond, another group on this pond. Yeah. So we were so fortunate. But anyways, um, uh, you had asked me to kind of get high level, so, uh, yeah, Colorado thought doors. Um, and, uh, I love this about our organization that I can describe Colorado Thought doors in one word. And that's relationships. Hmm. That's what we're about. Hmm. And you know, the title doesn't really say that. You know, the title says Youth, the title says Outdoors and, uh, totally get that. Um, but our mission, our purpose, um, our gift, uh, in the communities we serve, um, is all about relationship building. And we use traditional outdoor recreation to do it. So, Colorado Youth Outdoors, um, you know, we, uh, uh, while it may, uh, not stand alone, just fully describe who we are. Um, the one word relationships totally describes who we are. Okay. And you build relationships through activities a lot. Yeah. Uh, and through facilities. Yep. Also, right? Yep. So, so yeah. In, uh, so put those together. You know, you get, um, that's pretty good, Brian. You can use that if you want. Yeah, that's right. Right. Um, the, uh, you know, the secret sauce, if you will, is, you know, ensuring that, um, that there's, there's at least a pair, you know, there's two people working on our relationship, kind of takes two to tango and, uh, we just picked, you know, traditional outdoor recreation.'cause it's, it's fun. It's, you know, it's got a, a great heritage and for most people it's people together. For most people's new, again, and well could be brand new to some folks for kids especially, could be a reintroduction to those who have been there, done that, but never had the, didn't in the last 25 years. Yeah. Couldn't find a place to go and do it. Yeah. Um. And, uh, our sweet spot. Um, our flagship program is built for, uh, parents with their youth. So when we talk about the, the paired up, um, certainly we have thousands that come through, um, our program and they're, they could be peer to peer, it could be kids to kids, could be adults to adults, but really our flagship, I always say if we were McDonald's, our Big Mac would be what we call core. And that's where the parents attend with their children. And uh, and do you segment that even? I'm thinking that the relationships between father, son and father daughter are sometimes different. Our mother, son, mother daughter, we blend them all. We all together. Okay. Yeah. We have a, yeah. Our model, the PAC model, which it's one one which we're getting into it is Yep. It's always paired up, so it doesn't work. Uh, as well, it's not that we haven't done this, but it doesn't work as well when we have a parent and they're bringing two or three children. Right, right. Because everything is so built for paired up Well, and. Children naturally compete for their parents' attention. You, you got it. You know, and they're little birds and they should, that's part of the, the, if I say issue, um, the challenge. The challenge is that, you know, in life, um, especially as, as parents, and I'm one of them, that, uh, it's far too easy to, to try to, um, take care of everyone at the same time when, you know, what we've learned about relationship building is there's gotta be intentional one-on-one behaviors. Time. Yeah. And, uh, and focus. Um, and focus. Yeah. Yeah. Really be that word. Intentionality is, is a strong word. Um, because, uh, oftentimes we, um, we just, we think we're, we're, we're servicing. You know, we think that we're supporting, um, those relationships that we find important, but when it's blended. You know, oftentimes those relationship, uh, uh, inclusions don't hit the mark. Hmm. And so this, this one-on-one time, you know, with, with, uh, being intentional about, you know, a, uh, adult and a youth, um, has really served us well for 25 years. I want to mention something while I'm thinking about it. Sure. But this, the workshop, uh, leader and the person that's gonna guide this thing, this event in the fall, is a guy that's been on the podcast a couple months ago. Greg Vanek is his name. Okay. And he wrote a book called Triple Crown Leadership with his father recently. Oh sure. Yeah. Um, which has probably a lot of similar principles. And when I asked him one of our, one of our. Ping pong ball questions. Uh, it became the, what's the best business advice you've ever had? Uhhuh, it was from his father, which, and the, and the advice was business is a set of relationships. Uh, uh, so if you travel I 25, I, I so agree with that, that we put it up on our, our banner on the interstate, you know, our business property and it is, is, uh, adjacent to I 25. And so if you're northbound on I 25, um, throughout the year, we put different slogans on there. But, um, one of the one banners I love the most is it's all about relationships. Yeah. And when people say what is all about relationships, I say everything right is all about relationships. And really every relationship is a one-on-one relationship. Whether you're talking about my relationship with Ava, my podcast producer, or with my wife Jill, or you and I, it's fresh. Yep. You know, we just met Yep. A minute ago. Yep. Not a minute ago. 10 minutes ago. Yeah, sure. Um, but it's still already a relationship. You gotta, it just when you, when you take the time to just, you know, just absorb it for a minute and all the way to the point of which, you know, the, the power of relationships. And so if you think about, and how critical it is in the human form and how we, you, you know, how we get the most outta life. And while we're not, this is, we kind of back to who we are, but while we're not, um, a faith-based organization, we're certainly faith led and that starts with our leadership. Yeah. And, and I love that because we get the opportunity to, um, talk about, you know, use relationships to get us to whatever God, you know, or, you know, spirit that you believe you belong to and you follow. Um, I love the, the, you know, I, I see the, the, the audience with the question of, you know, who invented relationships, you know, it's so powerful and it's so needed, it's so integral to, um, a, uh, healthy life. There's gotta be an author, right? Somebody had to create it, somebody had to know how important Yeah. Relationships were going to be and will always be. Yeah. And so it, I tell you what, everything, you find that path of that all of economics, all of civilization depended upon relationships. Absolutely. Kurt. So, you know, I appreciate that. You, you, you know, you get it. And it's not that, you know, it's, it's that, uh, you know, well, and I, sometimes I jump ahead. Well, I love it to the point, I use this example of how, how, um. Um, ubiquitous. It is in, in everything we do, but sometimes, uh, especially kids that in no doubt, we have some programs that are built specifically for kids that are, uh, at what are labeled at risk. Sure. Yep. We, we use the term that everybody's at for children, everybody's at risk of not having a healthy relationship through the right life. But the ones that are actually in that demographic, um, sometimes they're not ready for working on relationship between peer to peer. Yeah. So we talk about, this goes all the way back to your point of it could be in economics, could be we, we use the, um, environment itself. We say, for instance, if you want to, um, you want have green grass, you know, we grow grass not to watch it be brown, but we want green. There's gonna be this relationship that you probably don't even think about, but the grass is relying on you to water it, to fertilize it, to weed it. Hmm. Because it can't do that on its own. Yeah. Yeah. And you're relying on the grass if, if that's what you want in your relationships is green grass. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds kind of corny. Sounds very low. Elementary. Well, yes, but you start there and then we get into, it's similar to, you know, next step might be, well, we're gonna go out fishing today and. How important might you think about a relationship with the fish and why is that important? Well, it's just like, you know, if you wanted to build a relationship with a friend that you, you don't know yet, you probably ought to find out about'em. Where do they like to eat lunch? Um, what do they do in the mornings and evenings? Where do they hang out? Well, fish is doing the same. Are you catch me and throw me back? Are you gonna eat me? Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, exactly. Are you gonna be a great steward? But a fish, you know, a fish a fish has to eat at some point, right? And it's gotta find locations in the pond that are conducive to its, you know, make its survival. So it's your job. To build a relationship, start finding out about, oh yeah, the sun's up high. So I guarantee you, I really, you wrote five love languages of this fish. I've, I've learned that this fish is gonna, I love shady shadows. Shady spots in the sunny the sunshine. Yeah. And so it'd be like, you know, and then take that into your, your life and, you know, there's a relationship that you're hoping to build with somebody. Um, they kind of go through those same, you know, steps about where do they, where are they at three o'clock in the afternoon'cause Right. That's when I have time to go see'em or something. Well, and I, I, I was on the board for a while and still do advocate for the Matthews house. Oh sure. I'm sure you've probably interaction. Absolutely. We have. Yep. Their programs. Some We do. Yeah. We support their program a lot. And they've become probably too unhealthily dependent upon the federal government for funding. We'll see, I, you know, I pray for them. Um, and what I wrote down here is, is. The absence feels like abandonment probably to a lot of teens. You know, it's not even that the parents are abandoning their relationship, it's just that there isn't much of one because dad's too busy or mom's too busy, or both mom and dad are too busy. You know what, Kurt? It can be. So you're right. You're absolutely right. Um, and that's what largely Christ that yeah, it, you know, those, that risk is some of that, um, sometimes from feeling that way, some of that occurs, um, in a manner that is, is, uh, very pronounced. And, you know, sometimes, you know, families just, uh, you know, sometimes parents don't fully understand the commitment takes to be a parent. Yeah. And so I, and I don't want to pretend like I know it all, but, but what I will say, what I can use an example is my own life where, um, even. Yeah. Um, watching our kids grow up and, uh, team sports, you know, sure. Doing the right thing, having our kids involved in, in extracurricular, but what you, what could sneak up on you is the fact that you're becoming a spectator. Right. More and more often get good. Well, the values are being created by the coach of the sport. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or something. You get good at being a spectator. But you start to, uh, move away from being a participant. Meaning, you know how, if, if my son loves baseball or, well, I can tell you that was his sport, right? Our daughter's with volleyball. Finding ways in to participate, meaning how can I practice, how can I watch, you know, a practice and then take that home and be, and participate with my son, daughter, go ball around a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Rather than, rather than just relying on the coach or, you know, the, the, um, the team itself to, uh, um, feel healthy. There's, there's opportunities everywhere. And so it's like getting involved with your, your children's, uh, homework, even though if they seem to have a handle on it, rather than just saying, Hey, how are you coming along with it? Maybe have them teach you what, what they're learning and, um. You know, I, uh, I, you know, I, I I reflect a lot. Not to cut you off, but No, no, I'm fine. Uh, my mom founded my little league team when I was an 8-year-old. Uh, our town didn't have a baseball team and, and the next town away, you know, but she rounded up a bunch of kids and founded the baseball team Wow. And taught me how to catch ground balls mm-hmm. And all that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And, you know, she didn't work. She was a house mom of four kids, had plenty of work to do. Right, sure. Right. But that. Relationship of, of her investing in my favorite thing, which was baseball. Yeah. Like that's, I probably haven't given her enough credit for that over the years. Well and that's really, you know, and she coached it for three more years until I had to move up to the fast pitch leagues. You know, she wasn't ready for teaching that'cause she was an under underarm slow pitch player. Yep, yep. Oh, that's a, a great story. And, um, well, what a blessing that is. Like how many kids have that kind of an experience? Yep. Not it's one in a hundred, maybe that of that level. It's uh, it's probably, you know, I didn't realize it when I was a child. Took me till, you know, my mid thirties actually, you know, the kind of, the advent of CYO itself, that looking back, you know, in hindsight being 2020 for sure. But looking back at what my folks invested in our, in their children, myself and my brothers and sister. Yeah. And. Um, you know, we came from a family that didn't have much, you know, for means, you know, a, a teacher is, you know, for a dad and then four kids, you know, you just know that you're not gonna be afforded all these extras. Well, our, we didn't know any better. Our extras were, were literally a wicker basket with, with a picnic lunch in it, going to either, you know, a city park or, um, you know, I grew up in Loveland, so it wasn't hard to get into the foothills or the mountains. And, um, my parents, um, and I didn't understand fully then. I, they were intentional. About spending ki investing in their kids. Right. Right. And um, and that investment was hands-on. I mean, it was, yeah. Yeah. You know, they were right. They were present. Yeah. They were really present at the time. Much like your mom. Oh, my dad was teaching me to be a farmer at the same time. Gotcha. You know, so, well it was free labor to him, but I was still learning how to be a farmer. Yeah. Yeah. Well I think that's actually, I think that's, you know, part of the, the healthy fabric of farming families or, you know, those in ag businesses is that, uh, you know, they're relied upon to, you know, help each other out. And that whole, while they, I'm sure they, they kind of square about the know cousin square about, oh man, a hot day out on the, in the field or all that. And, but at the end of the day they look back and go, not anymore a fabulous, the air conditioning on the news stuff primo. Yeah. I actually wanted to, uh, interject also a quote from my guest last night, which was, uh, Moses Horner from Horner painting my landlord here. Yeah, sure. And he. Was reflecting on business and life and not grass, but he said, healthy things grow. And when I reflect that toward relationships, that's like what you're trying to do too. Yeah. And I, uh, um, I love a, an another phrase that we use, you know, it's, uh, CYO where we're relationships grow. Oh. And so fits right in. We're vibing here, huh? Yep. And, uh, um, and maybe that's, you know, part of the, you know, the horners that know about CYO, which I, we very much appreciate. They, uh, um, we've had their support. So hey, um, you know, it's just you, it all blends very well and, uh, um, but yeah, this is about our organization is Yeah, get back to it all about, well, it's just, you've got a few campuses. Now let's get back to the big picture. It's all about growing. Yeah. Growing relationships. So yeah, back to the big picture. So we have been blessed, um. To, uh, watch our organization. Um, well, one is survive, but the, the beauty is that we've, we've actually been able to thrive in what will be 25 years of CIO next year, 2026, we celebrate our silver anniversary. If this is fun enough for both of us, then I'll have you back for your 25th year too. Yeah, there you go. Um, love to and, uh, but along the way, um, not only have our programs grown locally, right here at, uh, what we call the Swiss campus, so this is the OG here. Yep. Yep. Okay. This is, I thought, so this is headquarters. Yep. Um, but, uh, we've, we've, um, always had a program down in Colorado Springs. It wasn't, uh, fully vetted, it wasn't our full program, and we certainly didn't have a home base like we do at Swift Ponds. We were, we were, uh, using other, uh, other people, facilities. Facilities and stuff. Yep. And we're really good at that. Um, you know, bootstrapping, they call that in business, so we call it big borrow and steal. Well, kind of the same except non-profits get away with the stealing part there. Yeah. Right. In the, be in part. But, uh, um, two years ago, we, uh, um, made a commitment as board members to, uh, formally invest in Colorado Springs and. Look at how closely we could emulate what we have up here with, you know, a, a facility that we could call home base. Mm-hmm. So I hired an executive director, uh, Marty is the equivalent of Luke up here that you mentioned. Okay. And, uh, Marty's done a fabulous job. He's been in the, uh, Colorado Springs community for a long time. So those relationships, you know, making it important. And, uh, we just, uh, you know, uh, earlier this year, um, signed a MOU on a piece of property Oh, okay. That we're investing in. Gotcha. But we've had the program up running for the past two years under the formal program of, um, and using our model, the PAC model. So we wanna make sure we spend a little time on the PAC model. Yeah. Do you wanna jump into that right now? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Pact, um, you know, PACT can be spelled in many different ways. Our PACT is PACD. Okay. And the P stands for participate. Um, the A stands for appreciate, C is communicate and D is dedicate. So when. It, it really, you'll see this when you come out as a, you know, the group that you're gonna come with. Yeah. Um, you know. Uh, the, when folks use our campus and whether they're using our instructors or their own, they, um, to even be part of, of c's, uh, facilities and, and recreation, um, you have to have some understanding in some appreciation for pact the PACT model. So when, uh, folks could be a school group when they come in, they're gonna learn about. Participate, appreciate, communicate, and dedicate. And because that, you know, again, what pays our bills, you know, those who are donors and supporters of CYO are really supporting, um, relationship building. And so let's say there's a group that would love to come and just purely fish because we do have a great fishery. Um, I get it. Um, however, if this isn't a, a, a stepping stone towards a stronger relationship. And start relationship building. Um, you're probably not going to, uh, be able to use the facility because we have another group that would love to come in. They still want to fish, but they want to fish and learn about and use the pact model while through their experience. Cool. So our, our, uh, our facility, so built into our like, uh, fishing and archery experience, arche will be that trap shooting probably You, uh, fire, I thought about doing the trap shooting. Should we do the trap shooting? Oh my gosh, Kurt, are you, is that a question? Well, I'm like really good at it and I hate to embarrass everybody by like, being good at something everybody else is trying. Yeah. One of those, I shot a lot, I played a lot of duck hunter growing up and I shot a lot of birds, you know, and it just, no, I, I love it. I, but maybe, um, think about the others who haven't had the experience. Right. And where else are they gonna go to do that? I guess so, so, um, I would highly recommend it and, um, and it could be optional for those that don't wanna. Sure. Make guns go banging or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They want to wanna fling arrows or you will fling arrows. Okay. Oh, it could be how we,'cause it's our, it's an internal member event and they have a plus one that they can bring. Oh yeah. But how I can incentivize is we've only got 12. Uh, trap shooting spots at each of these hour slots. Well, we, the sooner you sign up, the sooner you can get into there. Yeah. We have a lot more space than that, but, well, I know, but I can lie to them. You can, well, this never anymore. They're gonna listen to this. So you ruined it. But no, I, you know, what I, and while we talk about, you know, trap shooting, it, it's unique in the fact that trapshooting is one of the things. Well, any, anything you have to do with the firearms, it, we really have an opportunity to talk about appreciate and, and you, especially those who have grown up around firearms. Mm-hmm. And we might lose sometimes that know, you never appreci a pointy in that something somebody might not. Yeah. Well, and just, just the bang and the, you know, and the, the recoil and appreciating that not everybody comes. You know, prepared for the same thing. And so, you know, in, just like in relationship building, we have to, so oftentimes we miss, um, the, the appreciation moment for where these people are coming from. And as they're coming into this new relationship, um, there's just a, uh, uh, um, critical aspect of success in the relationship building to truly take the time to appreciate where this person's coming from. From, because they might, I mean, all the way to the point they, it, it's easy to be an anti-gun person, you know? Yeah. That there's a, there's a big, you know, sure there's population of it and, and for whatever reason, but if I truly want that person to share an experience that, you know, I'm just like, oh, but you probably don't know how much fun it is. I've got to come and meet them in the middle and appreciate where they're coming from. Sure. They may have had been in part of a horrific, uh, yeah, been taken off sage by a bank robber or have a, a inadvertent firearm, you know, a firearm go off inadvertently. And, uh, that's important and, and ultimately there may be a reason to say, you know what, we don't have to do any, you know, shooting. We can go fishing, we can go fishing, we can flinging arrows, or you know, we can simply go for a walk and, and talk about the experience that you had. That sounds like a really tough one. You're not quite over it. Hmm. Yeah, so that's relationship. But I, I, I, uh, we're very proud of the campus in whole. Um, but we're, uh, specifically proud that we were able to bring a firearms, uh, range. Into what is now, you know, kind of central, northern Colorado. Right. You know, and uh, that doesn't happen every day. Right. Well, and your property's so amazing with how many ponds you have out there? 12 ponds. 12 ponds. You know, water's so scarce around here. Can I take my boat out there? You, uh, well, you could take your boat. You just can't put in the water. Is that what you're looking like? How about my paddleboard? There you go. Yeah, we do actually. You know, it's, yeah. Do you have like a membership program where I can just pay You do not, yeah. Honestly, that's a revenue builder there. I would probably pay, I don't even have to fish. Mm-hmm. Like. A hundred bucks a month just to have those nice ponds to paddleboard around to make sure that it's loud and clear to all your listeners. No, we do not have a pay to play. We'll probably open, so I was sneaking at night now is what you're saying. That's called trespassing and uh, there's, yeah, but the patrols are probably really infrequent out there. No, we have a great relationship with our sheriff's department. Yeah, my car would probably stick out like a sore thumb if I was parked anywhere around there. Yeah, no, we, uh, how hard is your fence to climb? It's not that hard, but, uh, still don't do it. That's not an invite. Okay. Stay with your programmatic, uh, you know, part of coming out there. Well, it would be pretty cool, you could just indicate water or two ponds for the recreational floaters. No, I love it. Love it. And we get that often we, we, uh, we get that often as to, you know, um, hey, can I, you know, is there an opportunity where we could come in and pay a fee and have, you know, the privilege of doing, you know, whatever. And it's, it's purely because we are so busy. Um, yeah, we have very little capacity Kurt, to, so we're lucky to get a spot out there. Kind of. You really are. Yeah. I mean, I'm not, it's not that you're privileged, it's just that you're fortunate to find a space. Well, and we're doing stuff like, we're not a faith oriented. Mm-hmm. Or you know, and you're not even, you could been, it sounds like we could've been plenty of church, but we're also about relationships. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And, and in this case, our members were giving them one pass to bring one person. That's cool. Whether that's a coworker or their spouse or a business friend. Seems like relationships. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah. So I'm ready to pack it up, you know, it's cool. I like it. I'm vibing with that. Yeah. So it's, it's a pretty small team overall. Then. Oh, can you tell me where in Colorado Springs is this new place? Or is that too early? Oh, heck no. I'm excited to tell you. So, and for those who, I lived down there for a few years. Oh. So I'm familiar. But our listeners might not be. Here's your test where you're familiar with Tucci Farms. No, come on Kurt. You couldn't maybe been there. Maybe, I don't know. Gimme some roads. The old, the place where you'd get free pumpkins. Mm-hmm. Um, on the south end. South, south of, uh, south Academy Boulevard. Yep. Y'all I 25. Yep. Yep. What, what's interesting is head to fountain kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, fountain Fort Carson. Yeah. We're actually, we're right across the interstate from the entrance to Fort Carson. Right, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was just there not too long ago there, like south to south side Johnny's and stuff. Yeah. There's a, uh, an old, uh, farm called Tu Dick Ucci was the guy. Okay. Ucci Farms. And, um, before he passed, he gifted the property to, um, the Pikes Peak Community Foundation. Oh yeah. Which they have a real estate arm, so they, they hold it under their real estate arm and, um. Kinda until they find the right user. Yep. And so we approached them and, uh, um, we, you know, um, hey, heard you have this property. We didn't hear they had em, we went and looked at it like, do they have water too? Because Fountain Creek flows right through it. So different from what we have up in Swift Ponds. Um, they don't have, uh, ponds yet, but, um, well, with Trump in office, you can pawn that thing up. There you go. Um, we, uh, we really celebrate the fact that, you know, there's this beautiful stream, right? The mainstream that comes through Colorado Springs. Yeah, yeah. And we're gonna celebrate that. But, um, yeah, I mean, uh, just today, you know, um, we were in conversations about how we're gonna activate, you know, uh, certain portions of the property and, uh, we acres, we look great things, acres. So the total campus is 220 acres or 200 acres, I'm sorry, 220 here, 200 acres. And we'll activate 87 acres of that. Right away. I mean, we're doing it right now. Wow. Wow. And so, um, yeah, our, our fall semester will be the first class. Oh, so you're busy. Yeah. First class fall semester will be our first class of, they'll shoot archery down there. They'll have an air rifle towards the station, uh, range. Uh, they won't shoot because right across the street is, uh, Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex. Oh. Which is a beautiful complex, and, uh, we have, um, time with them already set up that, you know, CYO gets, uh, oh. You can do trapshooting and different things if you want to. Mm-hmm. Well, an air rifle shooting is pretty cool. Oh, you ought see how busy our air rifle. Uh. Ranges on swift lawns. Really? Oh, oh, here's the deal, Kurt. Out. So here's a, another example. What, what would you recommend as an air rifle? A a kind of a generalist user kind of thing? Yeah, yeah. If you want something that goes about 800 feet per second, which is, you know, very accurate. Yeah. Um, uh, which can tell you it also can be deadly to small orit. Um, Stoger makes a fabulous, you know, um, air rifle for, you know, a hundred and maybe even like a hundred bucks, 150 bucks. Right, right. And, uh, um, but I'll tell you what's more popular, okay. Is the old Daisy Red Rider BB guns, I don't know. I don't know how many we own. We own a bunch of them. And, uh, so our, our summer campers, that's what's, you know, right now we have, uh, summer camp going on along with our, our core classes. But, um, summer camp, what I find is so cool, um, the kids are there from Monday through Thursday and then the parents join them on Friday and the. Kids get to be their guides. Well, lo and behold, and they get to go show, crush their parents whatever they want, you know, and, uh, may you watch, you just watch the army of people going to the air rifle station, the lion, and those parents want to, you know, these adults, they're out there plinking these metal targets with the, the old, uh, red Rider or Bebe Gun. Love it. Love it. Where you can actually watch the bebe in the right light conditions. Yeah, exactly. So, um, one of those maybe 250, 300 feet per second? Uh, yeah, probably even less than that. Yeah. 150, something like that. Yeah, just under 200. Gotcha, gotcha. Interesting. Yeah. But they'll still sting you. So you got probably what, you have half dozen staff at the north location and then just a handful of one or two or three south. Well, and then a bunch of volunteers, I would imagine. Yeah. Or contractors or what's your, what's the business model? Yeah, thanks. Um, so we have, uh, I think we're up to. I wanna say 14 full-time staff. Okay. Okay. And which includes, you know, Marty's our only full-time staff down in Colorado Springs, so, um, 13 up here. Um, and then he's here to grow so he can get a half-time helper or something. Yeah. And then, and then we have, uh, a probably 45, maybe 50 part-time staff. Oh, wow. Okay. So it's a big group. And then, so like program leads and different things like that, right? Yeah. Program experts at shooting, officating, arche staffers and, and counselors and stuff like that too. Well, so you use that word. And we, we stay away from counselors. Yep. So it has a, a little bit of a clinical know. Yeah, you're broken. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but pro staff, well we have instructors and pro staffers and, um, um. And that just means that they've been formally trained on the PACT model. Okay. And so, so they might not be a social worker background or things like that. Even. Not even, we, we employ several, uh, public education, you know, teachers. Yep. Um, but we don't target that specifically. We, um, you can really have a, uh, next to no background in, um, traditional outdoor recreation. You know, you don't have, you don't have to be an avid fly fisherman or an avid archer. Um, but what you have to be ex, you know, just, uh, uber avid about, enthusiastic about the mission relationships. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to, if you want to help folks, um, build relationships, you can, you can come pretty raw into our community. So it's almost like a paid partners volunteership kind of thing That's Yeah. It's a, as a part-time employee. Yeah. Um, yeah. But, and there a lot more responsibility obviously and stuff too. But you get to do things that are. Relationship building. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, in that case, in the case of these folks, not as. Like you're building relationships between other people mm-hmm. Is your focus. Mm-hmm. You're help, you're fostering, you're facilitating. You're supporting. Facilitating. Yep. Um, and so, uh, yeah, there's a formal training that, um, you go through and, you know, we're always looking for, we, we'd love to fill the pipeline with, uh, potential instructors. Okay. And again, you have to, you have to, you sha to be an instructor. You shadow an instructor, um, for the first semester. Yeah. And, and again, we're, we're fortunate in our core class, it's, it's a full semester. It's a 14 week program. Wow. And so, you know, you get a lot of, so you get a lot of skillset. Yeah. If you wanna do that. Yeah. So you shadow for a semester is the shadowing volunteer. Yep. Yep. Get paid the shadow. Um, just, and you don't pay much for the part-timers either? Probably. No. Just like in life shadows are free, so, um, but, uh, uh, but you are, you know, you're, you're, um, gaining expertise and understanding and then, uh, yeah, if you, you know, get in involved in the class and then, uh, you can, um, if everything goes well, you can become an instructor, which you're still underneath a pro, what we call pro staffer. Yep. Yeah. But you're, uh, you know, you're basically the right hand man to whomever. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, ultimately to oversee. A group of instructors and a group of, uh, volunteers that are hoping to be instructors. You become a pro staffer. Yeah. Yeah. So what a cool structure that you've built. Yeah. It's really, it's great. I mean, I'm guessing that it started much smaller than that, and you just kinda solve problems that you discovered along the way in creating this, our early beginnings. Um, it's, it's fun, but it's a little bit scary. You know, we didn't, we, we didn't always have a site. We didn't always have the facility. Oh, really? So we started as, can you Yeah. Take, take me back to the scene. What were you doing? Did you have like a day job and stuff? Well, yeah. Okay. So yeah, if you wanna go way back to the beginning Yeah. Just, yeah. Well, we'll go all the way. We, we go all the back to when you're like a first grader. Eventually. I was a first grader. Yeah. But we're gonna just zoom back to, well, that's two years ago, so that's hard. But, but I want to hear just like where you were Sure. What was your place in life? Okay. When the first, uh, sprouts of CYO started. Sure. Okay. Well. Yeah, let's just go for it. Um, so, uh, yeah, I got a degree at CSU, went to Hawk Company, which is a local company, you know, water analysis company, and um, uh, now part of Dana or something. Dana. Mm-hmm. Dan Company. Yep. And, uh, that happened while I was, um, with Hawk. I was, uh, originally employed by the family of the Hawk family. Yeah. And then, uh, Danaher came in and purchased, uh, Hawk and, uh, folded into their big model, the Danaher Business Model System. And very fortunate I was at the right place, right time, you know, and so my career advanced quickly and, uh, got into, um, uh, a role, uh, through, um, in the engineering group, the r and d group, whereas, um. I was asked to go look at different companies for their intellectual property. Hmm. Well, that meant some of the companies, you know, Glen, uh, Danaher's a global company, and so when they ask you to travel, sometimes the travel is, uh, extensive. Yeah. And so, uh, we had, uh, purchased a company in, uh, uh, Manchester, England. And we had companies, well we companies all through Europe. And so I spent a lot of time in, uh, um, you know, just outside of London in Manchester and then, uh, but also up in Berlin and Dusseldorf and Okay. So, um, my, uh, role and responsibility, you know, I, I spent a lot of time away from my family and, um, yeah. My wife, wife and I absentee two. Yep. Two young children. Yeah. And, um, it's, so, it's, it's, it's, it's tough because it, it affords you, you know, they compensate their, their folks well, and so yeah, we were making a living that a lot of vacation time. You just, and when you come home, I found myself, you know, uh, making sure that our kids. Uh, when we, we did, we, you know, I never went to Disneyland as a kid, ever, you know, never thought of myself ever being able to Right. But my kids, you know, because we had, you know, um, we had finances that were different than how I grew up. Um, we were able to afford, you know, you really can kind of go do whatever you want, right? And however, um, I remember Disneyland builds memories, but it doesn't really build relationships there. You, you know what? I didn't think about that, but that, that has some staying power for sure. Um, but, um, it was, uh, you know, came home from one of my trips and my wife met me at the door and she has her career too. And, uh, and so we were both, you know, building on our careers and thinking that we're doing the right thing for our kids, you know? And, uh. And we were, you know, our, our, our kids, you know, we had a, we had a, a good relationship, right? Yeah. But going to the next level of great really meant we, we needed to find how to spend more time. Intentionality. Intentionality. And so my wife met me at the door. I remember coming home and I was like, uhoh. And, uh, she said, this just, this isn't working. You know, you being gone and, you know, and then come back and shuffle the family again and, you know, kids kind of get to know you again. You know, and I'm thinking that's So you were gone like for a month at a time stuff it like Yeah. Several weeks at a time. Yeah. So, um, uh, and, but that's kind what we were all doing. And you in my prime years of Yeah. You know, being a young professional and, um, so. Um, yeah. Even if you weren't traveling, you were still busy as get out, you know, you got a banker this or that, trying to get established, you're still working 60 hours a week. Yep. And I love my job. That's the other thing. I love the staff, love my job, love the company I work for. So everything seemed to be in line except for, you know, there was a tug of, um, what is my real purpose? You know, is it going out and trying to make as much money as I can for the family? Um, or, you know, where's this at? And then I reflected back to, you know, again, my family as I grew up, we, we didn't have that right. But yet we had something very special, you know? And so, you know, it was the next, I think it was the very next travel trip that I took. I, you know, sketched out a business plan that, um, would basically take me away from that company and we'd start a nonprofit. Wow. And so, um, but I knew I didn't have the expertise to really. Um, dial it in. And so my, my family, the whole family, my brothers and sister, my parents, all educators, and, uh, I was kind of the black sheep in that, uh, um, you know, getting in sch, nerdy. Yeah. Little more entrepreneurial. So, and, but, so I went to my, uh, my, uh, brother Tom, and, uh, I said, Hey man, you are the most clever. You know, you, you write the best, uh, um, uh, uh. Uh, what do they call it? Um, class, um, essays or whatever, or Well, the, yeah, the, the, um, curriculum class. Curriculum. Oh, sure. Okay. And he was a science teacher, and, uh, I said, you know, and he shared the same dream about, you know, getting families together. He saw what, you know, what that great fabric we had as a family. And so, um, he wrote a, uh, curriculum that, uh, much of which is still intact today. Um, and, uh, he was actually our first employee, so, um, okay. My, I, my wife allowed me to give you 150 bucks if you write this thing with 12 hours of your life. Yeah. Right. So, um, but you know, we're, we're, you know, our family is, has a long, uh, history of being, uh, coaches and successful coaches. And so you use that coaching and, and a, a set curriculum and, um, so quickly, um, we were successful, um, CYO, um, and, uh, and so you like, tell your boss one day, told my boss one day, Hey, you got this plan and I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave the company. Yeah. And, uh, and it, it, that was tough. Was were you not tempted to like start first a little bit or you couldn't really do it, you had to travel. I had to go to Berlin, had to go, you know, whatever. I, you know, I stayed well, I, I committed to the company that I would stay till they found my replacement and we kind of. Probably on both sides. They drug it out a little bit. I probably drug it out a little bit and, you know, used contract services. I, I became a contractor. Right? Right. And that, that helped us, you know, afford, but the eventuality was, we're gonna, I was gonna quit that, that was, you had to build a new boat to float in. So, you know, my wife and I, much smaller boat, we talked a lot about that. And we set some milestones, some markers of, yeah, hey, you know, we'll watch how this thing works and if it's not working, you know, right up to a certain milestone, you're smart enough, you could get another job if you need to. Yep. I'd go right back to where I was, you know, and, uh, so, uh, the risk wasn't that high really. I'd love to, I left a in great, uh, great standing, I think. And, uh, I'm not saying they would hire me right back, but, um, it was, uh, so we started the foundation in 2001. I formally left talk in 2003, so that was that little bridge period. And, uh, but you know, we, I was never gonna make enough to, you know. Build a trust that would, you know, financially be stable. Well, and even now, your salary probably might be less than it was. Absolutely. Yeah. So I left there with, um, uh, and it, so this is where I, you know, the purpose in my life. Um, where, well, it's really how old were you? Where Guide and I met? We, uh, I was, I was just turning 40. Yeah. I left the Hawket when I turned 40. So you're 65 now? 62. Oh, okay. I'm, yeah, because you have 25 years next year. 2003. In 2001. Next year is your 25 year thing. So I was 38 when, when we launched Sea Whale, but I left Hawk in, in when I was 40. Okay. So that's when I, the math thanking too, roughly. Okay. Uh, similar. Uh, well, that's a big, that was a big gear though. Leap of faith. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, but yeah, leap of faith that, um, yeah. You said you, I, well, I. Grew up in a Christian home is awesome. You know, my mom was our Sunday school teacher, so we could never Ms. Church. And, um, however, in the Lutheran church and I, you know, think highly of, of, of that, but the experience was religious instead of relationship. Yeah. And so, um, you know, when I said that I didn't, I really was exploring my purpose in life and, you know, some might call it a midlife crisis. I just, it just, I, I didn't have as much purpose in life and I knew I had gifts that I, that I could share. But where I was at, uh, in my career, I did, I couldn't find that place. So started the foundation. Started learning how to pray. That words meaningful to me, um, uh, became very, you know, let my emotions, you know, really drive some of my decision making. Whereas before, it was always very cautious and, and pre-planned and, you know, go through, uh, a little bit of, uh, not a little bit, a lot of, you know, um, uh, you know, thinking trials and errors about making decisions like that. But I let let things just kind of run. And, uh, so, and God opened doors. I felt like God said, well, I, I guarantee he said, you know, I'll take care of it. You know, just, you gotta go and you gotta just quit your job. And don't worry about the finances. They'll work, it'll find, it'll, you know, we will find a way. I'm telling you, Kurt, after five years of CYO. I didn't see that. I, I panicked really? Um, yeah, I started another company Oh, wow. And ran it alongside to try to offset like an engineering company or something? Nope. It was totally different. And, uh, and it, you was bringing some revenue into the house, however, um, it was, you know, detracting from the mission. Yeah, yeah. I just couldn't focus and Well, and your relationship with your kids wasn't getting any stronger, what you were trying to do two full-time jobs. Yeah. Yeah. I was back to, you know, I imagine anyway, way too much, um, on my mind. So, um, I remembered, you know, what I felt was God saying, you know, I'll take care of this. Just, you gotta go. And so at the same time, and so at the, the, the reality was we were going broke. CIO, you know, my wife and I had, had come real close to the, the biggest milestone that we said shows that this isn't gonna work. And, uh, that was rapidly approaching and we, part of this was. Um, I'm, I'm, I, I'm sure I'm a control freak. I'm, I'm, you know, I, I, I, I've been told that just you're trying to do everything and, uh, um, I thought I could do it on my own. And, uh, there were plenty of people out there willing to help. And, um, there's a, there was what we called the Core four that was just fabulous, fabulous families, and they'd do anything for CYO. They'd been through the program and they just, you know, yeah, just, just would do anything. And so I relied on them as a Core four, but I never thought about what a board, a really good board could do. Yeah. And, uh. Uh, so brought in some business people Yeah. Who, uh, also fully understood the power of, of what Cwell had was Stan one mission. One. Stan Everett. Stan Everett. Wow. You bring him up. He's, well, because that's where I first was at your property. I just was thinking with the Legacy project. Legacy Project. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, can we put a pin and do, I'll come back to it. Let do,'cause he is important. Okay. Um, and, uh, but no, the answer is no. Stan's never been on our board. Um, but I, I he offers his support. He would add value if he wanted to. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Aaron's one of my best friends. He's, uh, Aaron. Questions Aaron? So, um, boy, we could go off on one tangent. Well, we, we got extra time. Amy, do you got extra time today? Not really. Okay. Alright. That's great. But, uh, back to, you know, we put a board together and uh, um, and I allowed board members to find other board members and not, not rely on what, and you were a good engineer and a good r and d guy, this and that, but you didn't really know business. No. Really? No. And you know, in finance, that was, you know, the one class I got a D in in college that I had to take over was accounting. Accounting 1 0 1. Come on. Who care? It's boring. I struggled. I barely pulled on a c just saying it, but I think I just thought it was gonna be that easy anyways. Um, so brought in, uh, business people and it was, I, it blew me away when, uh, um, the board said, well, the first thing we're gonna do is, um, we're gonna write the ship and we're gonna go out and get a loan and it's gonna be banks dollars, not. Marine and Bob's dollars I see. That are funding this. I'm like, wait a minute. Why we, we already, we couldn't pay back a loan if that's what we're gonna do. Right. And, uh, but it wasn't about, it was just taking the, the heat off of Yeah. You know, the, the family element. Right.'cause you'd probably racked up a bunch of credit cards and stuff. No, we maybe not that it was just our, it was saving. But you were tied as a drum. Yeah, we were, we were, we were, we were, you know, dipping into savings like our, our retirement. Right. You know, and, and so anyways, um, uh, my wife would hate it that we're talking about our finances, but, um, the, uh, it's better now. The, yeah. That's the only way I can talk about now. But anyways, um. So we, we saw that, and then at the same time we recognized that what we called, um, uh, site-based programming, meaning we would go CCYO was in many communities and many more than we are today because we, um, our, we brought our programs, programs to high schools. Yeah. And we had in teach a instructor hour bound thing or whatever you're saying, people into each of these. And so we just, we used the high schools as our, you know, for, certainly for our classroom stuff. But, and then that's where the big bar on steel came from, is that we had to go to find the local, you know, shooting range. Right. We had to go find live body waters to go fishing. Right. Um, archery ranges. And so we were out there, we were really good at right. Shaking hands and, you know. Yeah. And archery range is like, well, we're never busy on Tuesday nights. We'll take it. You got it. And so 50 bucks whatever bucks session, that's perfect. Whatever took, and, uh. But very inefficient. Yeah. And, uh, very costly Scattered. Yep. Scattered quality. You know, we had some, uh, you know, it was tough. And again, you know, I was, I, uh, my, my brother was leading, um, the, the, uh, programs out of the Thompson School district where, but we were in different school districts along the state. So I was, I was traveling a lot back and forth, trying to help, help program, you know, and travel lifestyle. And, uh, but um. So the board, that same board that talked about, um, you know, where the finances were gonna come from for a while, um, it was the same board that was intact when the eventful day. Um, we got a notice, we got noticed from, um, uh, the Swift family, which is, um, you know, the, uh, upon passing of Louis Swift, he was the gentleman who, uh, developed, if you will, that put the ponds in at Oh, okay. Swift, swift Ponds. That's why we call it Swift Ponds. Yeah. And Louis Swift was a developer in the, in the region. Oh. And was he gonna build houses around all that or something? No, in the future, he, he had a, he, he put a conservation easement on it. Okay. Even though the interior did have, uh, room for houses or was platted for homes. Yeah. But 213 acres of the 240 acres, um, um. That we were on. Um, he had in his will was to be gifted to a charitable cause. And fortunately he had mentioned, because we were fishing in the ponds, we were, you know, quote unquote leasing his ponds. Oh, right. So we had this, we built a relationship Yeah. Very early on. Yeah. But upon his passing, um, you know, it was just kind left open. And the, the, the, the kids, um, were, you know, uh, looking at his, we pick you trying to, well, yeah, they, they said instead of something like CYO, let's, let's ask CYO if they want it. And, but get this. So, um, uh, and the board said, you know, uh, the board at the same time was looking at, we need a new model. Right. And, uh, maybe the model would be moving from site-based programming to facilities based programming, meaning rather than us go to them. Right. Let's have them come to us. Right. If we can find a centrally located facility, nothing more centrally located. Right. Between Fort Collins and Loveland. Exactly. Right. On the interstate. So, uh, so anyways, um. In the interior of the property was 27 acres and it was platted for estate homes. Mm. And it happened to be the Wil, the widow of, of Louis who owned that portion. And she, you know, at the time, didn't wanna make that part of the gift. So, um, the board said, you know, boy, we'd love to, um, take this gift, however this isn't gonna work'cause we're gonna be held repo. You know, we're we got guns, it doesn't go well. Yeah. We're gonna have these estate homes that are gonna probably dictate to us what we can and can't do. And we don't want to do that. So. This is, this is, I love sharing this, uh, story. It's a miracle. The Providence stuff. Um, yeah, exactly. So the board said, unless we can find somebody who can write a check for$1.2 million, we're gonna have to turn down this gift.'cause that's what the, um, widow wanted for that 27 acres. Yeah. Yeah. And we were like, oh man, you know, and we gotta do this pretty quick. So, you know Right. Putting a capital campaign together might not work. And, but I had met a gentleman through the course of the early years, um, his name was Charlie Gates or is Charlie Gates. Okay. Um, Charlie Gates was the, from the family of Gates Rubber Company. Okay. Yeah. And Mr. Gates. Yeah, I remember that. Down in Denver, north Denver. There's a Gates Recovery Building. Yeah. Gates water tower and stuff. And, and, uh. Mr. Gates and I, um, were, we were, this is through a couple other relationships that, you know, uh, you know, that I, that they ultimately got me to this relationship with Mr. Gates. And so, you know, credit goes to so many folks and great stories along the way, but ultimately, Mr. Gates, um, and I had built this relationship. And for over a year, almost two years, um, we, he, he would ask me how it's going, wanted to see CYO you know, grow, prosper, keep you grow. And, you know, I, I never once did I ask him for a dollar, right? I just asked for some wisdom and right experience. You'd have been scared to death to ask him for 10 grand, but now you had to ask him for a million. He, yeah, he told me one day, we, um, he said, uh, by golly, Bob, you know, um, someday it's gonna click, someday we're gonna figure out how to get these kids, you know, um, get, get fi. He really, he was an avid hunters fisherman, but really into the shooting sports. So he said, I just can't believe that it's so easy for a kid to, you know, that has golf courses on every corner. But yet, where are these shooting ranges? How are we gonna teach firearm safety and allow them to explore the opportunity to, you know, become avid, uh, sportsman. And, uh, he said, I just think I, I believe in you. I think CYO is gonna be an answer. And so he left me with this. He said, um, um, he said, uh, Bob. The day that you have a project that you need my help, you know you're gonna need to come to me, right? And I said, yep, Mr. Gates, you'll be the first one to know about it. This was before you knew about this and didn't even know about Swift Ponds. Swift Pond's opportunity comes up. But Mr. Gates had passed two months prior. Oh. And, and I'm telling you, Kurt, this is, you know, this is the, the, the meat and potatoes of the story is again, you know, I felt oh my gosh, you know, missed it by that much. And not that I was ever a doomsday. I'm, I'm a eternal optimist, but there was a tugging in my heart Sure. That I, that said, I need to call, I need to call his office. And so I just blindly called not knowing who was gonna pick up the phone because I knew who it wasn't gonna be. Right. But I was so hoping that it was his secretary. He had a personal secretary. Yeah. And she answered the phone and she said, Hey Bob, you know, how you doing? You had a, oh my gosh. Relationship with her a little bit. Yep. Well, she set up all our appointments and she said, uh, I'm so sorry, you know, that the, the, um, funeral wasn't a public, it was family only. And, um, but um, I said, well, I certainly wanna call and pass my condolences, however. I have this thing, I have this question and I don't know where to go with this. And the whole time I'm feeling really sheepish about making this call. And because to me, you know, I'm gonna sound like an ambulance chaser and get, this is what she said. She said, oh my. She said, well, what, what were you hoping to, you know, talk to Mr. Gates about? And I said, well, I'm really cautious in this. She said, uh, well that's because you don't wanna sound like an ambulance chaser. I said, oh my gosh, you said it just what I want. And she said, tell me about it. And I told her about the project and she said, you know what, before I retire, I called on a Wednesday. And the reason why I know it was a Wednesday is because she said, I retire on Friday, the coming Friday, two days later. And she said, before I retire. You're gonna have a meeting with his daughter.'cause I think she'll be interested in hearing about this. Okay, so Diane, his daughter, you're like, my schedule is open. Yeah, exactly. And, uh, I went down to Denver, met with, uh, his daughter. She said I'd love to come up and see it. My, my brother and I, they came up and just cut, you know, to simplify it. Guess who wrote a$1.2 million check. Yeah. Mr. Mason daughter. And she's like, she's, yep. She said, I see it. Um, I think the vision's great. And so they, um, gave us the funds to acquire the 27 acres. Yeah. We took, put the two pieces together. Yeah. Board said, yep, let's go for it. And that was in, uh, um, 2007 that that occurred. Okay. 2008 we actually acquired the, the land and uh, um, and is the 27 acres where the buildings are and stuff now? Yep.'cause that's out of the floodplain, I'm guessing It's outta the floodplain. It's not part of the conservation easement. Yep. And so we, you know, that's where build whatever you want the shooting range in. Yep. And, and it happens to, it's just, it's so perfectly Yeah. Neat. Aligned. I'm sorry. Of a big baby. Like, I get emotional when I hear miraculous stories. So tell them, do I tell that story without it, it, it driving me to that it, um. This is the epitome of relationships. Yeah. I mean that is, and I, the thing that pains me the most is that Mr. Gates didn't get to see it. You know, I mean, he gets to see it, depending what you believe. You might be seeing it right now. Oh yeah. Totally. Totally. I get that. I, and I believe that. But, um, so anyways, um, uh, yeah, with a board said, let's go for it. We put together and then we started the capital campaigns, plural. Yeah. Some of them, um, were, you know, typical campaigns were made up public. Others were just meeting and greeting with folks. There's a lot of fabulous community members in Northern Colorado Yeah. That are passionate. Wasn't it hard to find, figure out who they were? Uh, how did you go about that? Uh, I mean, some of these are names that are, everybody knows household names and companies that, you know. Yeah. Yep. That, that, um, that, and they're, they're, um, some want to, you know, you know, they're, they're okay with their names. So there's a reason why it's called Richardson Hall. For example, the Richardson family, you know, Kurt, Nancy said, well, I'd love to, you know, our boys are totally into the, uh, traditional or recreation as as they are too. And yeah, they said, you know, if there's something we can do for you, let's, let's get her done. Yeah. And so they were, you know, part of that. And as, so I, I, I caution myself to even bring up one name'cause there's, I bleed out so many people that have, I believe out too many dropped, dropped opportunity here. But, um. So anyways, what started with, you know, how would we ever even come up with our first million has turned into, I think we've invested somewhere around 12 million into that campus. Oh, wow. Over those years. Building the building, you know, doing the, the vertical construction. Bringing, you know, when we, when we acquired it, when we acquired the ponds and, um, I mean, there were still reclamation permits that had to be closed and finalized and Yeah. There were no, there was no infrastructure and any maintenance on anything ever. Well, there's no infrastructure. There's no power. Oh, no roads, no power water. Oh, really? Any Oh, dang. Yeah. It was raw. It was gravel pits. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, so you can imagine, you know, well for those who come today, I, I, it, and it, and I'd be one of'em if I did not know what I know about that, I couldn't see it. Right. I couldn't see the path to where we, how successful we've been. But that's how blessed we are. Huh. And, uh, it's just an amma the community just rallied around this really cool spot. Yeah. And, uh, continues to do so. And so here we are. So what's, uh, what's next? Like do you have imaginations of taking this to more communities, uh, beyond Colorado Springs? Absolutely. Um, you know, we're Colorado Youth Outdoors, but, um, there's no, there's no boundary for relationship building. And so we believe that, um, there should be a national presence someday. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you know, the spoiler alert for, uh, our 25th, uh, anniversary, but you know, right now we're, we're really looking, uh, seriously, um, you know, performing the due diligence in what this would, what CYO would look like on a national level, um, you know, a national youth outdoors. I have another introduction I wanna make to you is, uh, one of my former facilitators, Allison Seabeck, do you know her already? Boy, I, I do Allison and Dave Seabeck. Uh, she was with Prosci. Okay. For a long time. She was actually the, she took over from the founder. When the founder sold to private equity, she was, became the president and CEO Gotcha. And grew that and her big innovation. She was kind of the head of global expansion for them, and Prosci used to just deliver all the goods on their own. Mm-hmm. But she developed the program by which they could develop subcontractors that could deliver the Packed way, God, the Prosci way. Yeah. That were already business coaches, that already had client bases that needed this. I need to Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always introduce you to her as well as Greg. The, the, the. The Triple Crown leadership. I think both of those might be fun. Appreciate. Yeah. Yeah. Because it really will be, because that's the secret, right? It's the pact model that we will, you know, be able to, you know, share with, but training other people to deliver the goods effectively and monitoring their adherence to the model and stuff like that is probably the secret sauce. And having, um, how, how fortunate are we to have what would be, I think the national training center right here in Fort Collins, you know? Sure, of course. Who doesn't wanna come to Colorado? You know, the OGs facility. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. So, um, so anyways, well hopefully that'll be worth, uh, you spending your time here today that Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, well, it's all about relationships and so, um, uh, I look for'em and I think we, all those who do look for relationships wherever they go, I think are rewarded with finding relationships that are meaningful and. I want to call a short break. Sure.'cause I'm starting to have to go potty. Okay. And, uh, I've got a couple things I wanna circle back to. Gotcha. Alright, let's do it. So, I wanted to bounce back a little bit to kinda that transition to kind of a more professional organization and having a board that gave feedback mm-hmm. That I'm guessing that was kind of your first experience with, you know, quote unquote peer advisory. You know, what local think tank does, or had you gotten perspective outside of, I guess your brother and some other. The, the, the famous four or whatever they were called. Yeah. Core four. Core four, yeah. So, um, that's a great question I had, uh, it, um, you got me thinking about, you know, some of the similarities or differences, um, in, you know, advisorship, let's call it. And, uh, really what it comes down to is, you know, um, who you, you, uh, trust, you know, your trusted advisors. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, you get a lot of advice and, um, everybody couldn't tell you what to do. Um, and certainly through my, you know, working 16 years at, uh, at Hawk and, and then Danaher, um, you know, you work with a lot of fabulous business professionals. Sure. I mean, some, many, my boss, uh, at the time when I was leaving, uh, was a Harvard grad, and, um, he had been, you know, in, um, you know, some great companies and so some extreme wisdom, you know, in that respect. But, and I shouldn't say, but I should say. And, um, there, there's. Always room for the kind, the relationship piece, you know, the trusted moving into, you know, just, you know, having wisdom brought to you and what, um, in informs that just are raw. But when you build a, when you have truly have a relationship and you have that respect and, and you and trust, um, it's such a bigger thing. And so you, this is a great opportunity for me to talk about Stan Everett. And I, I hope he appreciates that. I, I, I'm gonna take some time to talk to him about, um, I was told I never, I didn't know Stan. Um, and I made a call one day'cause I just simply wanted to get rid of some concrete and I wanted some dirt brought in, uh, to the, the property. And Stan had a development nearby, and so I just, maybe you got some extra dirt. I said, Stan, I, you know, we've never met, but here's who I am and blah, blah, blah, and running this little, uh, you know, organization and, um, and I could just tell, I mean, just the patience. The, the, uh, interest to really fully understand what, uh, my objective was. And I thought, man, I've gotta meet this guy someday. And so, and I was told by others that, yeah, someday, Bob, you ought to, you really ought to be intentional about mm-hmm. Finding out where Stan is, build a relationship. And so we met at Legacy, legacy Project, and, uh, like was it at CYO? Was he Nope. No, nope. This one. This was what, before then? Yeah, we were, we went to different locations. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, um, I, I fell in love with the subject matter. I really did. Yeah. And then, uh, but I probably more importantly, I really, uh, um, appreciated the leadership and, and the, the, the approach Yeah. That Stan took. He's one of the most patient guys I've, I've ever met. And, uh, um, and a and a, a fabulous working professional, very wise. So anyways, um. You know, picking where you elect to, to really, um, allow yourself to be filled with what you would call wisdom. I think that's the difference of just having, you know, some, and the core four were more than buddies, but we, we really, we, we gravitated to each other through just being buddies, and then we started sharing wisdom and then. That expanded to the point where we started recognizing where our weaknesses were. Mm-hmm. Or are, and we start filling in those gaps. And when you're being intentional about, you know, searching out those who, you know, have a toolkit that would, is useful to your cause, is very, yeah. Is, is needed and useful. Oh, we have this big piece of real estate and who knows more about real estate than Stan Everett. Yeah, exactly. That kinda stuff. And uh, or whatever. I guess he's never been on your board, but he's never been on board. But he certainly gets calls, but that philosophy Absolutely. Right. Well, he, he and I have had the chance to work together on a couple things and it's just, well, before I let you continue, I wanna reflect on, that's kind of part of the local think tank model too. Okay. In my experience as a banker, I've seen kind of people really skilled at different things, Uhhuh. And so when I'm doing my job really well, I'm grabbing people that are really skilled at different elements of business and different kinds of business because that. Diversity of perspective really benefits everybody in the room. Sure, sure. It's, you know, I mean, having, um, and no big gaps, right? There's, there's, and the gaps, um, suddenly appear and you're like, okay, so you, there's not the smarter, you are the dumber. You realize you've been, and you still are in some ways. Yeah. And you, and, and, and you start to see opportunities. Um, but you, you recognize that, well, that that's only an opportunity if we backfill with the right people mm-hmm. To help us get there and really get the most outta that opportunity. And, uh, and these things happen on the fly, Kurt, as you know. You know what I mean? Yeah. I can't even, well, and providentially like somebody's put in front of you that you really, actually need at the time. Yep. And, and it could be, and it, it many times shows up as a challenge to begin with. And then you turn that into, you know, could this be an opportunity with the right people? Most times it turns into opportunities. That's neat. It's just so cool. And so, um, I appreciate, um, you know, you've got me very interested in, in, uh, um, the think tank, you know, uh, uh, element and how you're, how you're going about that, because we are blessed in, in this community being, it, it, it's so diverse, but, and, and broad, but it also is, um, very deep. We have, we have some extremely well seasoned voices out there. Yeah. Yeah. And what more is more important in this community is that they're willing to share. I mean, I can only imagine in, in some of the tactics districts, you know, in, in, like in California where everything's privatized, everything's siloed. Mm-hmm. And it's important for them to keep it that way in some respects, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, for some reason in our, in our community, there's this willingness to share. I have yet to come across somebody that didn't want to participate in some way. It doesn't mean that they wanted to fully vet into a board member, but, um. But they certainly were willing to share what they knew and or who they knew that might be of assistance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I'll tell you, if there's, um, an element of success that I would share with the, um, the next generation or those who are interested, it's, um, you'll, uh, I be willing to go out and ask Hmm. You know, be, be willing to'cause that, that, that takes, there's a little talent there. Um, but you've got to understand that you're not gonna know it all. And so therefore you gotta have a a, um, you gotta be good at asking others. I just, uh, just today I should, maybe I shouldn't even talk about this, but we can edit it out if we need to, but Alma has been my right hand gal for the last four plus years. Okay. Operations manager. And earlier this year, she kinda raised her hand and said, I think Loco needs more talent in marketing and sales than we have, and. I don't wanna be that, and you can't afford that while I'm here. Right. And so, like, I'm, I'm gonna slow fire myself and we're gonna fight Wow. The right person. And today she got a, a job offer from a local accounting firm in a administrative support role for$10,000 more than I've been paying her. Yep. Uh, she's 22, no college degree, but she's upskilled herself so fast at Loco that she's now qualified for. Uh, is that cool? And that's rewarding. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so proud of her. Absolutely. We, uh, we, you know, um, it's interesting you, in that, I'll take this maybe down a, a path that wasn't fully intended, but we chase any squirrel around here. Yeah. You know, CYO is a business. I, I, I get a kick out of, um, folks and I'm still some, I have great friendships that, you know, come from, uh, my past profession and, uh, and sometimes you'll get, um, in a conversation and just nonchalantly as say, um. Yeah. But back in the business world, and I'm say in the real world where people think about money and stuff, right? Right. And I said, if you don't think the nonprofit world is you built on business, you'll, you're, you're seeing it, you'll run through the wrong lens. You just gotta set it up to build a fat salary for the executive director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah's what? It's all about's mission, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, so, um, uh, people will ask me often, you know, well, what, what's in it for you? And the trust? You know, this, your private charitable trust, so do you own it when you leave? I'm like, no. The trust, trust owns everything. The intellectual property, the physical property, everything. And that's the fun part, is that, you know, it's just we're building equity in this trust. Yeah. That's gonna be hopefully in this community forever, and then gets to be emulated in other communities. Yeah. You should listen to my podcast from a few weeks ago with, uh, Constantine Ger Ggi. He's a Russian economist at UNC. Uh, but he, his big passion as we were talking is things that catch enough traction organically to, to spill out of Northern Colorado. Yeah. And that could be the big driver to our success.'cause we're, we're running out of the attracting really smart 30 year olds juice. Yeah.'cause it's too expensive to live here. Yeah, absolutely. And so those ideas like Telus outdoor gear that I just had on recently and, and, and your thing, frankly, like what an even an economic impact of bringing, you know, hundreds of instructors. Out here. Payroll. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, and yeah, and you're, these are good jobs. We, we have great jobs. We pay well, I, you have those programs and you're gonna take some margin from those programs and bring it back here and keep building the trust to do more cool stuff. Well, and, and people think, you know, I think it's, it would be very easy to think about, well, the, the economy that's built around, um, you know, traditional outdoor recreation so that, you know, the shooting sports fishing and all that. And, and you know, certainly there's plenty of retailers in the area. Um, shields being one of the biggest, you know, in that, in or Liberty firearms and stuff. Liberty and, but, but the mom paw shops of Rocky Mountain Shooter Supply, shoot, and I, I, we've never, we've never taken the time to really do a study as to how we are support, you know, what kind of, um, uh Oh. Right. If you create a bunch of shooters for them, they're selling a bunch more ammunition and guns. Yeah. And, uh, I'm sure there's great business models out there, but, but my point being. These people who, um, they, they support us, not because they expect that to be in their return. Maybe in some, you know, some form. Sure. But they're doing it for the fact that this is healthy for the community. Yeah. Relationship building families, you know, health of families. Um, that's, that's what makes, makes this thing click. And I was gonna say, that's what makes a, a great donor. Really what I, I, I say I use the word investor. Yeah. And so these are people who are willing to make an investment in CYO, which then they expect this investment to, you know, um, radiate out. Yeah. Um, and the ripple effect. It. And we've, we, I, I, so far so good. What I can tell you is yeah, 20 some years of this. Do you have a good relationship with the Community Foundation here as well? We do. We actually actually have a fund at the Community Foundation. Oh, great. Okay. For those listeners that are, are wondering where, uh, or they need to go. Well, and if somebody donates an awesome property to the Community Foundation in Steamboat or in, oh boy Sterling or something like that, you know, they could, uh, pass it along to a good operator. Well, what I will tell you is, um, you know, again, I don't have the background, uh, to, um, call myself even, even, you know, uh, efficient at it or effective, but, um, planned giving, you know, this, there's so many assets that, that people or families or, uh, corporations own and they don't see, they don't see the full asset value. I mean, just, they're, they're trying to figure out where that, that value would be and whether it it comes to CYO or other nonprofits. Um. If they, they use that as a planned gift in a, like a piece of property and, uh, um, oh, you, you, it's amazing. You get Uncle Sam out of the pocket a lot. Yeah. They, they receive benefits. Yeah. And, but, but, um, and as important, or more important is the legacy that they've created when somebody can activate it and use it to its highest and best purpose. Yeah. Like that gravel pit was just laying there. It was approved, but nobody had the balls to take on the project'cause it was too hard or whatever. Who knows? And I use this as an example, excuse my, that they, uh, look, they that, um, think, well let's, let's, you know, oil and gas obviously is a, a hot topic around here and a big topic and employs a lot of people. And it, it brings a lot of funding into, you know, our, our region. And, uh, and certainly they've, they've, they've, uh, we have their attention, uh, through CYO and uh, um. But they also get labeled as, you know, rape and pillage of the lands. And spoiled of the lands. Yep. And when, when in fact, you know, they, they are some of the best stewards of, you know, the land. And the more energy we have, the stronger we are as a nation. Tell you what, you can't survive. So I use this example, Kurt, that I say, you know, when we get into these discussions again, it's about ha having relationships. And if you wanna a relationship with your natural resources, think about, um, the accountability that Louis Swift had when people physically saw him raping what they said, raping pillage of the resources they had excavators out there just hogging ground out outta there. Yeah. Hogging out the gravel, the aggregate. And, but we say, okay, well for one, why was he doing it? Well, what do you think? Our roads and homes and all that, they don't make him out a ferry dust. Yeah. Right. So, so there was a need. He's, he was helping fulfill a need. Did he make money off it? Absolutely. He had every right to, but just like that was a mineral being extracted. Yeah. Our oil and gas, same deal. But what I, what I love to get to the end of conclusion of is had he not done that right, where are the fish gonna live? I mean, if, if you're enjoying fishing. Yeah. I haven't caught a fish yet on land. Yeah. And that's all that used to be was farm country. And so to when, when people think beyond just, what is it the puter goes through there? Or is it just a little stream that the, that's, uh, the groundwater. It's groundwater. Groundwater. Oh, it's not connected to the river system? No. Groundwater is connected. That's, well, it is getting a little technical, but Yes. But I mean, on the surface it is not as the, as the pooter flows, so are ponds, you know. Okay. Rise and fall. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but um, point being, you know, if fishing is important, could you imagine if we didn't have gravel pits? Right. I mean, this is, we're, we're a tight or reservoirs plain desert. If drinking water is important, maybe we should have, yeah. One of my favorite bumper stickers is, uh, save the Pooter stored in Glade. I, well, the fact that, yeah. Well, now you're gonna take me, I'm a water guy and, uh, boy would, I love to get heavy into that, but, um, we don't have an extra hour today, so that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um. So, uh, using, you know, having a relationship with our natural resources, having a relationship with, well, the silver lining of community. Hey, they're digging these big holes, getting all this grow water here. Oh, wait, now we got this holes. What could we do? Yeah, yeah. What could we do with this? Yeah. And, uh, so, um, that's kind of like my recycling of, uh, savvy business veterans for our facilitator roles. You know, I love it. I kinda the same thing. Seriously, it's an underutilized resource. Don't just retire and play golf all the time. Like, go do something hard. Do you want to, you want have a, a special morning come to CYO on a Tuesday morning. This is a plug for the Sportsman's group. Okay. Anybody who's retired and has a, you know, whether you have a history in being involved in traditional outdoor recreation, you know this, you know, if you classify yourself as a sportsman and you're looking for something to do, you know, if you're finding yourself spending too much time watching, you know, t TV on a Tuesday morning. Yeah. Every Tuesday morning. Outside of Christmas week, every Tuesday morning at CYO at eight 30 in the morning. Okay. A group of sportsmen. They're, it, the group's probably got, we probably have 45 guys officially on there, but you know, any given Tuesday, you're gonna see 20 to 30. They come for biscuits and gravy and coffee. Okay. They come because they, they're, they're a volunteer base. They, okay. They, you know, they're retirees. They're on call, but for some do. Yep. And they get, um, they get a, uh, um, and it's very structured. The first 15 minutes is just general BS time, you know, people get big fish story time. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, but then Luke leads the conversation. He has a, a handout, the agenda, and he talks about development of, you know, what's going on in development, what's going on in programming, and what's going on in facilities. Okay. And. So, um, the sportsmen find what's interesting to them and in development, for example, they, we may be talking about our next big fundraiser. Sure. And the sportsmen are, they're, their claim to fame is they're the parking crew. So any event that has a big, you know, influx of, of cars Yeah. Yeah. They're out there flagging parking people. They do a fabulous job and uh, um, holiday lights for example. Holiday lights. Lights. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. Winter wonderland. And, uh, but maybe they want to, they want to interact with the programming and so they find out, like tonight, um, is trap shooting and I bet every one of our trap houses has a sportsman tonight pulling the clays. Hmm. Simply just doing that so the pro staffers can do what the instructors can do, what they need to do, how cool is that? And, um, but if it's, um, facilities, and this is where mowing, you can only imagine on, you know, we now have 2,220 acres we had to give. 20 acres up to CO but, um, for the expansion of the interstate, that's fine. That's a whole nother story. But, uh, um, the, uh, so they're on mowers, you know, we have beautiful zero two mowers or, or they wanna drive a tractor and Yeah. Um, or they're about, you know, they want to, uh, get involved in our farming operation, you know, the irrigation, and it's, oh, do you farm out there? Yeah, we have, uh, out the s some gardens kind of, we have, uh, you have an alfalfa field. Oh, okay. And then, uh, we have Christmas tree farm. Yeah. And, uh, we pumpkins. It would be really cool if you've got all the water rights to actually go beyond that and build, like, teach the skill of gardening. Well, here's the deal. We, we get, it's very, it can be very technical. You're like, welcome to start that program, Kurt. Yeah. Well actually I'll say Kurt, you're one step behind. We're already, we're doing some cool stuff. Um, but water, um, we do have, uh, significant water rights. Uh, it is wonderful and, uh. Another billionth of Louis Swift. And, uh, but part of that has been, you know, the, the water rights were built for flood irrigation. That's, you know, what, how they quantified how much water we needed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, flood irrigation is the most in, it's, it's efficient for the crop, but it's inefficient water, uh, usage. Yep. And so, um, being responsible stewards, um, we spent some money, and we still have one field that we flood irrigated really more for demonstration purposes. But then we bought a pivot so that we can, you know, show the, um, uh, the, uh, the fraction of the water that we need to grow the same crop. And then just as of two years ago, Luke, uh, uh, put in drip irrigation. Oh, wow. So now we're just dripping the Yeah, yeah. The trees that we want water. And so we can show all three. Um, technologies. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, uh, you know, and, and when people say, well, why do you, you know, how do you, uh, justify the expanse or whatever farming? So that's part of our, our relationship with our, our property. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's, it's gotta be just like that relationship with that fish. I can have that with a cucumber. Yeah, exactly. Or a tomato plant. Well, how do you think, you know, when we, we go into a fundraiser of pumpkin patch or something? Yeah. Um, how does that get there? Well, you've gotta have a, a, a plan and you've gotta develop a relationship with what kind of soils would be conducive to, you know, growing pumpkins over here, alfalfa over here, and trees over there. Um, it, I, I get, I get really jazzed about all this an hour on that, but, but I get, you know, uh, obviously the, the, um, the, the pinnacle is when we're teaching folks how to build relationships with one another. Yeah. Um. We're gonna have to keep moving, otherwise we'll run out of things. Let's go. Yeah. Um, do you wanna do the ping pong ball challenge? Don't even know what that is. So I should say yes. You should say yes. Yeah, yeah, sure. So you're gonna, you're gonna pull three, three balls out of there. You can grab it all the way over to you if you like. Is this, uh, each is attached to a, uh, unusual or interesting question. Is this how they do the Powerball? Kind of like, I don't, I don't play Powerball. Don't. Good. Yeah, I think so. And, uh, so these are kind of random question hour and um, we a lot of times tie a prize to it. Uh, what is the prize answer? We'll answer it differently. It could be like a day pass to a Colorado Youth outdoors activity or something for two if you wanted it to be Gotcha. Something like that. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. We'll, we'll hook you up. We'll put it out there on the internet. Okay. Um, what's the, what's the numbers of those ping pong balls that you got? I have a 10. Okay. We'll start with that one. Okay. I have a 10, 15, and 30, so. Okay. Alright. I can remember those. Okay. You can put back if you want. 10, 15, 30. I'll write it down so I can't forget. So the number 10 question, what's a hobby or skill you've always wanted to pick up, but haven't yet? Boy, I'm pretty good about going after the things that I want to do. Um, but I, uh, my wife will laugh. I've always wanted to play the banjo. Okay. And she even got me banjo lessons years ago. Oh, okay. Never. They didn't stick very good. I never did it. I never did it. Alright, so give, get back in there. Yeah. I, I dig it. I dig it. I noticed actually, I sent my wife a, uh, just today, uh, a note and said, do you wanna go see this, uh, ukulele virtue? So that's gonna be at AKA next Tuesday, so it's not quite a banjo, but, uh mm-hmm. Anyway, if you want some inspiration, you might go check him out. Well, I hope I know the difference between a ukulele and a banjo, but maybe I don't. I think they both go. Yeah. Yeah. What was the last thing you googled? Or, uh, used AI to search out like something that you were curious about? What was the last thing I Googled or AIed? Aren't those the same thing? Kind of. Oh, okay. I mean, I, I, I gr things sometimes instead of Googling it. Yeah, because I just want the, um, summary. The last thing, it, uh, it probably was, it, it, it wasn't today, but I think it was yesterday. Um, I needed some, uh, insight on, uh, some, so I guess, uh, uncover it, that we, we may be gaining some more land. Oh. And so I wanted a little bit of, uh, information on, um, a new entity that I'd never heard of. Um, that the go is a go through the USDA. And so I googled that and found out about this agency. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Not very fun. That wasn't a, oh, this one. Your wife will like this one depending on the answer. Okay. Describe your first kiss. Well, that wasn't with my wife. Is that what? I don't know. It was, maybe you can describe your first kiss with her if you'd like to, if you'd prefer to. Oh, yeah. Uh, go that way. Yeah. Well, I will because it's, I think it's, it's another fun part of my life is, uh, um, before I ever dated my wife, before I ever kissed my wife, um, I knew she was gonna be my wife on my, my choice. I mean, I was gonna choose. You were, you were optimistic. I was hoping, yeah. But I, I remember we, uh, so you describe that circumstance a little bit. We both went to CSU and so I'd see her on campus and, uh, I was, I was being tell roommates intentional of stuff. You're like, was I'm gonna marry that girl. Well, it, my best friend, um, we were going to Washington's and we were out in the parking lot of Washington's, you know, Thursday night used to be the night at Washington's. Yep. And, uh, we were in the parking lot and I just happened to watch, I mean, she, she was in the parking lot also with her friends. She was walking by and I told my, uh, my buddy, um, I said, I'm gonna marry that girl. Huh. And, um, I hadn't even got her name. Did. I just, I had seen her on campus and there was something about her. So, um, what's her name, the first name? Her, her name's Maureen. I'm Maureen. And, uh, yeah. So, um, uh, yeah, fell in love. Well, I probably, I, I, I, I was very attracted to her weeks or months before as I saw her on campus. Um, but watching her walk across that, that parking lot, um, I probably had a few beers before I made that beer. Goggles were on that, that, well, I didn't have, I didn't go necess that necessarily. They were not necessary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They weren't necessary, but I was probably that bold to tell my best friend, oh, that I'm gonna marry her. Did you go talk to her that night or anything? That night we danced at. Okay. The wash? Yeah. Oh, dig it. Yeah. Yeah. And then we started dating and so ultimately the first kiss probably didn't even happen that night. I think the first kiss was, uh, yeah, we just went for a drive and. Yep. First kiss led to you leaned in. Uh, you, you, yeah. You know, I think at that time she was, she was ready for it. She was probably, uh, leaning. We probably met halfway. Uh, let's talk a little bit about why she thought you were, uh, worthy of that second date or third date. That took some time, Kurt. And, uh, she, she wasn't as convinced as I was. Um. Um, we, uh, it took us a while to, you know, figure out that that was gonna work and, uh, um, boy, it's worked well. We've been very, very blessed. How many years now? We will celebrate 35 years, uh, this coming November. And so we're gonna get a little bit early jump on that anniversary. We're going for two weeks, um, to New England. We're gonna travel. Okay. We've never experienced, neither of us been into Maine and spent some time there, but so we're gonna make that a color. We're gonna do it in, uh, the, uh, middle weeks of October. Yeah. To catch the colors. I dig it. I dig it. So we're really excited. Congratulations. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Talk about your, your daughters, is it? I have a daughter and a son. Daughter and a son. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, like it seems like you were kind of, even though you left your job'cause you were too busy, it seems like you were kind of busy. For a while, but did you find that intentional time with those Sure. Yeah. The kids through this experience and they're, what, what are they up to these days? Yeah. So, oh, we, we actually, uh, we do a one word description of the kids. Would you like to give each child a one word, uh, description? Yeah. Yeah. Easy. Uh, for our daughter, it's competitive. Okay. And for our, what's her name? Sarah. Hi. Sarah. Yep. And so, and for our son, entrepreneurial. Okay. And so, um, and I'm blessed in the fact that we, we have a family business. Um, the three of us they're involved with. Yep. CYO. Yep. Well, outside of CYO we have another, oh, another business. Okay. Yeah. Cuco. And so we get, we get to chat at least one time a week, if not. And what does that business do? Uh, anything that makes us money. And that's, that's really my, our son being the entrepreneur and our daughter being competitive. Okay. And so you mold those two and I get, I get to like, buying containers of Chinese goods and reselling them on the black market, or what, what are we talking about here? But, uh, well, here's a, here's a great example. Uh, so my, our, uh, son is in commercial roofing. And so when he called me one day and said, dad, there's, there's money in this idea. Well, great. There's money in all our ideas. And, uh, he just got find it. Anyways, as he, as he, he was taking off, uh, that's called ballast. That's on big, these are big roofs, you know, in commercial roofing. He's, he's, he, he puts roofs on the biggest of buildings in the state and beyond. He's, he's president of, uh, empire Roofing outta Denver, which he sees of many states. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And anyways. When he recognized how much rock they were taking off of roofs, right. He said, this is landscape rock, same rock that you're gonna go down and buy at the landscape from. Right. So we started, uh, buying the rock, salvaging off the roof roofs and then upcharging and reselling. Did you have to clean it up or anything? Uh, for the most part, no. Sometimes, sometimes rock that we were like, uh, this needs to, needs to go to, uh, like a, um, equipment yard, right. Like a heavy construction equipment yard. Yep. Yep. Or oil and gas and so, right, right. So that's just one example of, of many of things where we saw value that most people saw because it was going to the landfills. Right. Right. And, um, well, and I love that if you can divert stuff from the landfills and make money off of Absolutely. And so, um, that has turned into some, you know, other wild stuff that, um, and so we're maybe, we'll that on next year's podcast Yeah. It feels like we go for a longer one, but it allows us to, you know, get involved. You know, we're, we're obviously, you know, donors in at CYO and it, um, that plays a role in that. Sure. And you. Um, and was that started before, or was that started? No, Yuko came about. It's only been, uh, past five years or something. Okay, interesting. Yeah. Um, what about the, uh, no grandkids yet, I guess? Oh no, we have three grandkids. Oh, you do? Three children, two grand sons and a granddaughter. Oh, I usually, I do the, the one word description of the grandkids if I realize they're there. Should we try that too? How old are the, how old's the oldest? Yeah, the oldest is Harvey and, uh, Harvey's. Three. And um, gosh, that's gonna be harder for me to come up with a one word. Yeah. Especially if they're little There. There. Yeah. Haven't quite starting to yet. So it's Harvey and Hodge. That's our daughter's. Two boys. Okay. And then, um, ho Hoge, that's a fun name. Hodge is, Hodge is one years old. And so three and one for, on that side of the family. And then our son and his wife Preston just had their first, uh, child, which is our first granddaughter. Okay. And her name is Covey. Hi, co Covy Capri. Well, you won't hear this for a while, but hopefully you'll listen to this. Talk with grandpa when you're old enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He'll still be out there on the internet. We are so fortunate to, uh, we all live right here. Um, uh, Nate and Bertha, our son and his wife and Cove are in Bert that, uh, Sarah and her, uh, husband Taylor. Yeah. And, uh, their two boys, um, live on north side of Loveland Marina, and I live out West Loveland, um, in the Foothill. So we're, we're actually 15 minutes from each of our, our families. Yeah. And then, uh, do you keep a family dinner intentional cycle or anything like that now? Or is it just happen enough because of business and whatever? You know, Sundays would be that day. We, we get, we're, we're able to get together often. Um, but uh, we try to make Sundays, but our, our, um, son-in-law, Taylor, my wife's or my, our daughter's husband, he's a pa uh, pastor. And so Sundays, he's busy on Sundays sometimes. Yeah, Sundays are tough. Weird. Oh, isn't that weird? You know, they need to change that for us. But, um, so, you know, sometimes that complicates how, you know, a rhythm of, uh, getting together. But, um, you know, I look forward to, that's one of the things that I really, um, I, um. I, I'm in awe of the families who have that as a tradition. You know, our family, like I said, was, was, uh, together a lot, but with my dad being a swim coach, and it was around sports and stuff that we had to really, you know, uh, work our schedules. But finding a rhythm this month, finding a rhythm for, let's get kind of a perfect size right now. You got, you know, three couples and three kids, like, that's great. Yeah. Our, our, our Christmas Eve and Christmas is awesome and we just continue to, we're running outta space for the socks on our mantle. Um, but, uh, um, I, I expect that our son, uh, and his wife will have more children. Our daughter and, and her husband are done with the two boys, so. Yeah. The Houston family and then, you know, Sarah's last name and now is Mickelson. But, um, yeah, I look forward to it. The last segment is the Loco experience. Yeah. And that's the craziest experience of your entire lifetime that you're willing to share. Okay. With our listeners. Craziest experience. Craziest experience of my lifetime. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Um, it could be a day, it could be a week, could be a month. Uh, you know, yeah. We didn't even really go back in the time. Capsule. It's a 5-year-old, uh, Bob. Yeah. Craziest experience. My goodness. Well, you know, I, uh, my first year of college. Um, I, I, um, my, my, my brother Tom and I both, we called each other and said, you know, this college thing is just not working. Okay. And so we quit. Okay. I mean, we quit like, and too hard to like, no, we're just not into it. Okay. It's too expensive. Oh, yeah. I don't know what we're gonna get out of it. Um, and, uh, um, and you know, it was coming out of our own pocket, so we knew Yeah. How expensive it was. Yeah. Yeah. And so this was in 1982. I, um, uh, I didn't go back to, um, college, uh, for several years, but during that time, crazy experience, he and I headed to, uh, um, uh, Washington State. Okay. To work on a fishing resort on the, on Orcas Island. Oh wow. Not knowing anything. We didn't know what we were getting into. We had heard about this job. Okay. We didn't even, we, we had to borrow money from our folks to get us up there, had to borrow their car. And, um, so we stayed up there and they were already not that happy because you were dropping outta car. Oh gosh, probably. Oh my gosh. Especially they, they, maybe it was maybe not so much as a surprise for Tom to maybe take some time off school, but for me too, you know, and, uh, then they're, you know, more mad at Tom for talking you into it too. You're bringing him up there in Washington. Come on, Tom. So, uh, we went up there and we worked out an island. And Kurt, it was, it, it had everything. It, it, it, uh, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of new, um, experiences. And then it was, I mean, I just, it brutal long days. It sucked for a while. I mean, it just, it island life, not for me. You know, within months you recognize that. It's an island and all these people that are there that came by ferry or their own boat, they're the people that are there. Yeah. That's all you got. Yeah. Yeah. And so we got claustrophobic in a hurry. Interesting. But we were committed and, uh, we, how many people were on the island? Oh man. Not, you know, uh. I don't know, but it seemed like a hundred or four something at the time, you know? But I mean, it was, you know, there, I mean we had an influx of people, you know, visitors and stuff, but the people who were Islanders Yeah. The dating options weren't that great. No, no. Um, in fact, I, I, I, yeah, don't date the fish girls. Um, so it, you know, that was probably, you know, um, that, that, that's about as, yeah, you know, more different than anything else. You know, having, having, having business in Europe, different parts of the world, that was crazy, you know, too, and having some experiences with that. But, um, on my own choosing to go up and, and work on Orcas Island, it seems kind of outta character for what became your kind of, uh. Life as a Yeah. You know, corporate riser and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did it, did it prepare you more for going back to school then later? Oh, it certainly incentivized. I better get my butt back in school. That job sucks. I wasn't gonna be working on a fishing dock all my life and, uh, um, no offense I was up, I would like to go to Alaska and try that for a while. But, um, the, uh, no, it, yeah, it, it, it told me where I, you know, the next step and so, yeah. Cool. Well, I hope you've had fun today. I know I have. It's been great. And, uh, I wanna thank you, Bob, for being on the show. Thank you for the invite and, uh, we look forward to our next conversation. Sounds good. Alright. Cheers.
