Small & Gutsy: Nonprofit Stories with Heart

There is a gap in elder care that almost nobody knows about until they land in it: too much income to qualify for public assistance, not enough to pay roughly $40 an hour for private help. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Marla Lahat, who has spent nearly four decades in that gap — building an Alzheimer's home care program in 1986 when people told her adults with dementia could not possibly live on their own, and running Home Care Partners since 1999. It is a conversation about what Medicare actually covers and doesn't, about aides who walked through a frozen city to reach their clients, about the private-pay division this nonprofit's own staff refused to run, and about a question Laura is living through herself while her mother sits in a memory care unit several states away.

Marla Lahat, MSW, LICSW, Executive Director, Home Care Partners. Marla has been a leader in the field of aging and caregiving for decades. She began her career in nursing homes — work most people don't enjoy, and she loved, particularly engaging residents with Alzheimer's and other dementias at a time when, as she puts it, staff simply weren't taught how to communicate with them. She joined Home Care Partners in 1986 to develop its Alzheimer's home care programs, which were then essentially unheard of, and became executive director in 1999. She has authored articles and presented seminars on Alzheimer's disease, caregiving, and home care services, and serves on several community-based committees working to improve care for older adults and their families. In 2013, she received the EXCEL Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership.

What is Home Care Partners? A private nonprofit serving vulnerable adults across the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area — D.C., Maryland, and Virginia — so they can remain safely and comfortably in their own homes. The mission is to preserve dignity, independence, and quality of life through home care services, support for family caregivers, and home modifications that make aging in place possible. Critically, it is built for people who cannot afford essential home care and do not meet the threshold for public assistance.

• The home health aide program is the core of the work — help with activities of daily living: bathing, dressing, light housekeeping, and the smaller tasks that quietly determine whether someone can stay home.
• Safe at Home does home modifications and fall prevention. The logic is that you can't fix one part of a person's life in isolation: providing an aide doesn't help much if the client can no longer manage the stairs and is effectively stranded on one floor. One fall can be devastating for an older person.
• The D.C. Caregivers Institute, funded through the D.C. Department of Aging, supports and trains family caregivers — who are still providing the bulk of care in this country.
• Social workers and nurses on staff, which is unusual in home care, carry out the assessments that determine what level of support someone actually needs.
• Funding comes from donations and grants alongside public support in the region, including the D.C. Department of Aging, agencies on aging and human services departments in Arlington, Montgomery and Prince George's counties, and the Veterans Administration.
• A graduated model. One of the areas they've expanded most is care for people who need only a little help — not daily assistance, but someone to do the laundry, take out the trash, or wash the hair they can no longer reach.

Key Topics Covered

• "They can't possibly live on their own." When Marla began building an Alzheimer's home care program in 1986, the condition barely had a usable name — people were still saying senility, organic brain syndrome, old age forgetfulness. The program eventually specialized in something people told her was impossible: supporting adults with dementia who were living alone. Her answer then and now is flat. Yes, they do. They can. They need support. She's still proud of it.
• How you know it worked: The measure of success came years later and in an unexpected form: the separate Alzheimer's program stopped being necessary. Every aide — both licensed home health aides and certified nursing assistants — was trained and supported well enough to work with that population, so dementia care was folded into regular home care. She's quick to add that it isn't all they do: plenty of their clients, in her words, are sharper than she is.
• The gap almost nobody knows about: Most people assume Medicare covers home care. It covers a small portion of it, tied to very specific nursing needs. It does not cover the help people actually need — bathing, dressing, light housekeeping. Nor, as Marla points out, will a private insurer. The result is a large population of older adults who need daily support, can't get public assistance, and can't afford roughly $40 an hour. That's who Home Care Partners was built for.
• Easing into being helped. Nobody likes change, and accepting help is a particularly hard change to accept. So rather than waiting for a crisis, they offer a smaller tier of service — someone who comes twice or three times a week. Marla puts it in the client's own voice: I have a wonderful aide, Miss Mary, who comes to see me. Maybe she can come a little more often now, because I really do need a bit more help. And I trust Miss Mary. The point is that trust gets built before dependence arrives, not after.
• Why the training is in person: Being a home health aide is isolating work. You leave your house in the morning, you go to your client, you come home at the end of the day, and you've seen no one else. Aides in the D.C. area need 12 hours of continuing education a year, and it could be done online or through packets. Home Care Partners insists on doing it in person anyway — partly for the quality of the training, mostly so the aides actually see their peers.
• They never shut down. Through COVID, the office stayed open. Aides were going out into an extremely confusing situation and needed somewhere to pick up personal protective equipment, which in the early days Marla describes as gold — unobtainable, and ruinously expensive if you found it. Clients who canceled at the start were calling back within weeks. Training moved temporarily online and to printed packets, and went back in person as soon as it safely could.
• "Without our aides, we don't exist," Marla says she's focused on two groups: the people receiving care, and the people providing it. The organization fundraises specifically so it can offer better pay and benefits to aides, on the straightforward logic that quality staff produces quality service and people who aren't treated well don't stay. It isn't a program; it runs through everything, and it's written into the mission statement.
• The policy argument: Marla's broader wish is for greater public support and for insurers to cover far more of this than they currently do, on the obvious preventive logic — a fall and the rehabilitation that follows cost far more than the help that would have prevented it. Her diagnosis of why they don't: a trap of medicalizing everything. The services she provides aren't medical in nature. They support health and wellbeing, but they don't require a physician's order. What matters is what people need day to day in order to go on living well.

• Learn about services, programs, and ways to give: https://www.homecarepartners.org/

Connect with Small & Gutsy

Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/

Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org

Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

Two former competitive tennis players spent their careers inside a sport where somebody wins and somebody loses every single time — and watched the disappointment on parents' and coaches' faces when it went the wrong way.

Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Tim Harper and Peanut Louie Harper, who built a free character education program around Coach John Wooden's definition of success and brought it into roughly 50 California elementary schools, with the single goal of getting children to measure themselves against nobody but themselves. It's a conversation about why Wooden was teaching this to college athletes who were never going pro, what happens when you ask a room of critics which blocks they'd take out, and why a third grader settled an argument the adults couldn't.

Tim Harper, President and Co-Founder, Harper for Kids. Tim has spent his life working with young people to help prepare them for a successful future. He owns and operates ITP Design — a graphic design, advertising, marketing, and publishing business — and is an avid painter and tennis instructor. He and Peanut met during their competitive playing years. On the recording, he's candid that nobody ever asked him as a child what he was good at or what he liked to do; his father's position was get an education, then get to work. He says it wasn't until Harper for Kids that he found the thing he genuinely loves doing, and that he still runs Wooden's standard on himself daily: am I doing everything I can today to be the best Tim I can be today?

Peanut Louie Harper, Co-Founder, Treasurer and Program Director. Peanut played professionally for 16 years, reaching a career-high world ranking of No. 19 in 1985. As a junior, she won 14 USTA national titles, reached the final of the Wimbledon junior singles championship, and held the national No. 1 ranking in the United States in her age groups. She is a co-author, with Coach John Wooden and Steve Jamison, of the award-winning children's book Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success, illustrated by Susan F. Cornelison. She runs the program side of the organization, handles the school relationships, and does the asking — including the cold outreach to prospective guest speakers.

What is Harper for Kids? Harper for Kids is a nonprofit character development program, founded in 2008, that helps schools implement UCLA coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success — a teaching tool built around becoming the best you are capable of being rather than measuring yourself against anyone else. Based in San Francisco and now in its nineteenth year, it is the only charity working with the Wooden family, and Tim says that it was the only character development program Coach Wooden himself authorized.

• It's free. Always has been. As Peanut puts it, they don't want there to be a hurdle for kids not to learn about this. The only cost is commitment — specifically a school-wide commitment carried through the full school year.
• Scale. Roughly 50 schools across California, plus some out-of-state schools that find them. They began with a single school around 2010.
• How a year runs. Schools get a sample calendar that typically opens in September with hard work and enthusiasm — the cornerstones — and adds a block each month through May, finishing at a personal best. Beyond that, teachers adapt it however suits their classroom.
• Visits. About 30 minutes, to a whole school, a grade, or a single class — reinforced continuously through the year rather than once and done, which Zoom has made far easier.
• Special guests. Hundreds to date: Olympic champions, engineers, writers, and, recently, an astro farmer working on how to grow crops in space for long missions. Every guest is asked for a word or phrase they use for positive self-talk.
• The core exercise. Students are asked to write down, on paper, how they define success — so the definition is theirs rather than inherited from social media or from home.
• A clearinghouse, not a curriculum company. Teachers send in their own lesson ideas and classroom projects; Harper for Kids collects them, keeps them as shareable PDFs, and posts them so nobody has to reinvent the wheel. "We're not expert educators," Peanut says. "The teachers are the expert educators."

Key Topics Covered

• Why two tennis players built a program about not winning. Tim's framing is the premise of the whole organization. In tennis somebody wins, and somebody loses every match, and Peanut spent her career watching the disappointment land on parents' and coaches' faces — and then there's another tournament next week. What they want children to understand is that success isn't about winning or losing, and isn't about fame or fortune. It's whether you can find the thing you genuinely love, give it your best effort, and be a decent person while you do it.
• Nobody asked him what he was good at. The block on Wooden's pyramid that hits Tim hardest is enthusiasm, which he connects to happiness — what are you good at, and what do you like to do? Nobody put that question to him as a child. The instruction at home was get an education and get working, and while he says he's had a good life, it took founding Harper for Kids to find the work he loves. That gap is a large part of why the program exists.
• Wooden wasn't coaching only future pros. The clearest explanation of the premise. Most of Wooden's UCLA basketball players were never going to play professionally — he was trying to set them up for a happy and successful life regardless. So Tim and Peanut asked the obvious next question: if it works at the college level, what happens if you start at elementary school? "Then we'll be way ahead of the game."
• How the children's book happened: Steve Jamison, a professional author, was a member at the tennis club where Peanut practiced. She read the first book he wrote with Wooden and immediately thought the material belonged in a book for parents and kids. Jamison had heard the same request from others, including Wooden's granddaughter, a teacher. Getting Wooden to agree to anything with his name on it was normally hard — he was, by Jamison's account, deeply humble and uninterested in attention — but a children's book was the easy yes, because it was for kids. Then at book signings teachers kept telling them they were already using Inch and Miles as a character education program. A philanthropist friend and Wooden fan told the Harpers that if they became a nonprofit, he could support them. That was 2008.
• Teaching kids to be proud of nothing external is Peanut's most quotable line, and the one aimed squarely at the world children actually live in now. She and Tim grew up without social media; today's students see comments about themselves constantly, which she calls deeply detrimental. What she wants is for kids to find a way to be proud of themselves based on nothing external at all. The companion idea: Wooden's philosophy locates success inside the person — so a child without much support at home can still believe it's still within me.
• Two founders, two takes on failure. Peanut notes that every single special guest they have ever hosted treats failure as a prerequisite for success rather than its opposite, and that the pressure on kids today is nothing like being told to go outside and play. Tim goes further: throw the word out entirely. It carries too heavy a connotation. Things go right, and things go wrong, and if they went wrong, the only useful question is what do I need to do to get to my goal.
• Role models, and the ones you choose. Asked how teachers counter role models who model the opposite of all this, the answer is notably apolitical: talk with students about who they surround themselves with. What traits do you admire in other people — and if you admire them, why wouldn't you want them for yourself, and look for them in the people around you? Laura adds a useful corollary: a good role model isn't someone happy all the time. It's someone who, on a bad day, says I'm having a tough day rather than putting it on somebody else.
• Energy as a superpower: A radio host friend came into a school with them and asked the students whether they could feel the energy she was putting out — then asked them to send it back. Without saying a word, you can sense it. You also always know whether you're raising the energy of a room or lowering it. Be mindful of which, and people want to be around you.
• The stories that tell them it's working: A sixth-grade teacher in Chino Hills who's worked with them for years was invited to the high school graduation of former students — who wrote her notes mentioning the Pyramid of Success. A school in Indio sent their yearbook, where a fifth grader's artwork of the book's two characters became the cover. And early on, when they were getting feedback that it was simply too many blocks for young children, Peanut's answer was a question: which blocks would you take out? Then she asked a third grader after an assembly what he thought of the pyramid. He said it's always with me. She asked what he meant, and he pointed at his heart: it's right there. "And I said, okay. I'm done. I'm good. We're keeping all those blocks."

How to Get Involved

• Schools and teachers: Harper for Kids has an inquiry form, and Peanut replies to submissions generally the same day
• Volunteer as a special guest. This is the easiest and most concrete way to help. The ask is roughly 30 minutes to talk with students about what you do, how you define success, and any words of wisdom someone passed to you. They host Olympic champions and engineers and writers — and they are actively looking
• Follow along: Harper for Kids on Instagram and Facebook
• Read Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success by John Wooden with Steve Jamison and Peanut Louie Harper
• Website and donation details: http://harperforkids.org/

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

Title: Small & Gutsy Features Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association

At twenty-two, Andrea Wilson Woods took custody of her eight-year-old sister. At twenty-eight, she came home from teaching and found that sister — fifteen, straight-A, thriving — curled on the floor saying she couldn't breathe. Six hours later, a doctor said the words: tumors in her liver and lungs. Adrienne lived 147 days. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff talks with Andrea about the years before the diagnosis and the twenty-four years since: a rejection that accidentally founded an organization, a medical dictionary bought because no patient materials existed, and the public health message Adrienne herself wanted people to hear. It is a conversation about grief that doesn't resolve, about what it costs to run an organization whose patients almost always die, and about the difference between justifying a loss and learning how to carry it.

A note for listeners: this episode includes frank discussion of a child's death, parental addiction, and the guest's own experience of suicidal thinking in the year after her sister died.

Guest

Andrea Wilson Woods, Founder and CEO, Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association Andrea was twenty-two, newly graduated from USC and living in Los Angeles without financial stability, when her mother called the day after Christmas and said she no longer wanted to be a mother. Her sister Adrienne, eight years old, had arrived for what was supposed to be a two-week visit. Andrea told her mother that if she took Adrienne then, she would not be giving her back — and later went to court and won full legal custody. She raised Adrienne through her entire twenties, working four part-time jobs at one point and eventually becoming a teacher largely so she could be on her sister's schedule. Adrienne was diagnosed with stage four hepatocellular carcinoma on May 16, 2001, and died 147 days later at fifteen. Andrea founded Blue Faery in Adrienne's memory, is co-author of multiple academic articles on HCC, launched the podcast Better Off Bald in 2017, and published the medical memoir Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days in October 2019 — a number one Amazon bestseller in multiple categories and the winner of several awards.

What is Blue Faery? Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association is dedicated to preventing, treating, and ultimately curing primary liver cancer — specifically hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC. When Andrea went looking in 2002, not a single organization in the country was working on it. The name comes from Adrienne, who loved Ireland and fairies and preferred the older spelling, faery; the logo is modeled on a picture of her face.

• Three pillars from the start: research, education, and advocacy.
• Research. The Blue Faery Award for Excellence in Liver Cancer Research, launched in 2009, funds investigators working on HCC.
• Education. Patient resource guides distributed through oncology centers, physicians, and nurse navigators — more than 115,000 copies in under five years, in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
• Community. A moderated, HIPAA-compliant patient and caregiver forum — deliberately not a Facebook group, for reasons Andrea states plainly in the interview.
• Structure. Five full-time employees including Andrea, plus volunteers, vendors, a board of directors, and a medical advisory board. The team is entirely remote and distributed, which Andrea credits for both talent access and low overhead.
• Funding. No government money. Revenue comes primarily from corporate grants and sponsorships, with diversification as an active goal.

Key Topics Covered

•

The afternoon of May 16, 2001. By her first year of high school, Adrienne had let go of everyone else's expectations and was, in Andrea's words, a hundred percent herself — a 4.0 student, a gifted artist and writer. The house rule was homework first, so Andrea usually walked in to find her at the kitchen table. That day she found her on the floor, crying, saying she couldn't breathe. Six hours later, after the pediatrician and the local ER, a doctor told them there were tumors in her liver and lungs. She was transferred by ambulance that night to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

•

Fifteen years, and fifteen years old Within two days Adrienne had imaging and a biopsy, and the diagnosis came back Stage IV HCC. The doctors asked why Andrea had custody and what their mother's history was, then tested Adrienne for hepatitis — and found chronic hepatitis B and C. They believed she had acquired both at birth: there was no prenatal hepatitis B screening in 1986, and hepatitis C had not yet been identified or removed from the blood supply. When Andrea later found the literature, she learned the average interval from chronic hepatitis B to liver cancer is fifteen years. Adrienne was fifteen years and one month old. Had they known of the exposure, she would have been under surveillance with scans at least twice a year — and at her age, if caught early, she would have been eligible for a liver transplant.

•

The rejection that founded the organization: At the first anniversary of Adrienne's death, Andrea was acutely suicidal. Her partner John, who had been present for most of the years she raised Adrienne, said one sentence that stopped her and sent her looking for somewhere to put the grief. She approached the largest liver disease nonprofit in the United States, offering to volunteer — writing the liver cancer content their website didn't have, for free. They refused; she learned years later it was an internal policy against touching the subject. She admits that if they hadn't said "no", Blue Faery wouldn't exist. Then she found that no organization in the country was working on HCC at all, and remembered a line attributed to Lily Tomlin — "I thought somebody should do something about that, and then I realized that somebody was me."

•

A medical dictionary and a stack of photocopies. The education pillar came first, and it came from a specific grievance. When Adrienne was diagnosed, Andrea was handed one-sheets about the chemotherapy and nothing at all about the disease. She asked the doctor who performed the biopsy for more; he told her nothing like that existed, then photocopied pages from his medical textbooks and brought her a stack she couldn't understand. So she bought a medical dictionary — which she still has — and a copy of Gray's Anatomy, and began translating it into plain language herself.

•

Writing the book was not cathartic. Andrea is direct about this because people keep assuming otherwise. The first draft took two years, and she describes it as cutting yourself open every single day, letting it start to scab, and cutting again. The organization came first; the book came later.

•

Why leaving Los Angeles made the organization national: Andrea moved to LA at eighteen for USC and never expected to leave. Adrienne is buried at Hollywood Forever. She left in 2014 anyway, and says the organization genuinely took off afterward — the board could no longer meet in person, which forced a national focus, and she began meeting the advisors who helped it grow. She didn't become a full-time employee until 2020. The distributed team also meant that when COVID arrived, Blue Faery was already remote, already equipped, and not dependent on events for revenue.

•

Why liver cancer is caught late: The liver has no pain receptors. If you don't know you have underlying liver disease — and most people with liver cancer do, but not all — and you aren't under surveillance, the cancer is usually found by accident. In Adrienne's case, her liver had swollen enough to press on her diaphragm, which is why she kept saying she couldn't breathe. Her only other symptoms were acid reflux, which can mean anything, and right shoulder pain, which turns out to be a sign of advanced liver cancer because of a nerve running from the liver to the right shoulder. Her pediatrician had seen her for that shoulder two weeks earlier and misdiagnosed it — which Andrea is careful to say was not his fault.

•

Fatty liver disease is now the leading cause. For a period, hepatitis C was the most common underlying cause of primary liver cancer in the US. With curative hepatitis C drugs on the market, that has shifted: fatty liver disease — MASLD, and its more severe form MASH — is now becoming the most common cause in the US and in some other Western countries. What frustrates Andrea most is how the diagnosis gets delivered. People are told they have fatty liver and advised to lose weight, and nobody tells them it puts them at risk for liver cancer. Her instruction is plain: if you are told you have fatty liver, you need to be screened for liver cancer. Worldwide, there are more than 900,000 cases annually and almost as many deaths, around 800,000; in the US, roughly 42,000 cases, which still classifies HCC as a rare cancer — with a death toll nearly matching the case count because it is found too late.

•

"I didn't know she was a drinker." When Adrienne was diagnosed, the only thing Andrea knew about liver cancer was that it came from drinking. She wasn't alone. More than one of Adrienne's friends' parents said, out loud and in front of Adrienne, that they couldn't believe it — they hadn't known she was a drinker; she was a straight-A student. Andrea and Adrienne laughed, because how much would a fifteen-year-old have to drink? You'd have to start with the bottle. Andrea says Blue Faery was born partly out of Adrienne's own wish that people understand the real underlying causes.

•

What she'd tell another founder: two lessons, both stated against her own instincts. First, pay yourself. Blue Faery was proudly all-volunteer for years and couldn't grow; if you aren't taking a real salary, your numbers don't reflect what the organization actually costs. She mentors a younger nonprofit leader and told her flatly, having looked at her 990, that she was underpaying herself. Second, don't found an organization with your friends. Blue Faery's founding directors were all people Andrea knew, and the result was early drama, misunderstanding, and lost friendships — including one friend who later revealed she had thought the whole thing was monthly group therapy for Andrea rather than a corporation registered with the State of California.

How to Get Involved

• Patient and caregiver resources, the liver cancer guide, and the moderated community: https://www.bluefaery.org/
• Clinicians: patient guides and professional resources are available to order through the site
• Read Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days, or listen to the Better Off Bald podcast
• Andrea's own site, including speaking: https://www.andreawilsonwoods.com/
• Corporate grants, sponsorships, and donations — inquiries through the Blue Faery site

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

What does it take to turn a single moment of compassion into a lifelong mission? After a career spent supporting children in Vancouver's inner-city classrooms, Patti Shales Lefkos set out on a journey that carried her far beyond anything she'd imagined — into the remote mountain villages of the Nepali Himalaya, where a village asked her to help rebuild a school that was falling down around its students. She didn't promise anything. A year to the day after she stood in that village, the 2015 earthquake flattened it. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff talks with Patti about the schools, homes, and scholarships that grew out of that moment, what she learned about listening instead of assuming, and why, at 79 and about to turn 80, she's packing for Kanchenjunga.

Guest

Patti Shales Lefkos, Founder, Nepal One Day at a Time Society. Following a rewarding career as a teacher, administrator, and advocate for Vancouver inner-city children, Patti studied journalism at Langara College. She's a graduate of the University of Toronto, Toronto Teachers College, Simon Fraser University, and a wilderness leadership program. She is the author of Nepal One Day at a Time: One Woman's Quest to Teach, Trek, and Build a School in the Remote Himalaya and Grounded by Granite, a coming-of-age story of family connection and personal resilience framed by summers on a remote island in the Canadian Shield. A third book, about the 800-kilometre Great Himalaya Trail trek she completed at 77, is currently seeking a publisher. She founded the British Columbia nonprofit Nepal One Day at a Time Society to support education, health care, and home building in Nepal, and lives near Silver Star Mountain in the BC interior.

What is Nepal One Day at a Time Society? A small British Columbia nonprofit that funds education, health care, and home building in remote Nepali villages — the kind of places that sit at the end of the road, where children walk two hours each way to reach a classroom and the nearest bookstore is a two-day journey to Kathmandu. The organization works through long-standing relationships with a Nepali trekking company and its affiliated NGO rather than parachuting in.

• Two partner schools. The first, whose original 55-year-old building had a condemned top floor and rain coming through into the classrooms below, now runs kindergarten through grade ten and serves roughly 350 students. The second, a small primary school in the far northwest reached during the Great Himalaya Trail trek, serves about 150 children in classrooms with dirt floors and bare cement walls.
• Three homes rebuilt after the earthquake, at roughly $15,000 USD each — a two-room house with an outdoor bathroom and a front porch, built to post-earthquake standards with rebar corners.
• Student sponsorships. Rosina, sponsored from grade five in the village, is now 23, has graduated in physiotherapy, and lives in Australia. The guide's 12-year-old son is next.
• School supplies and technology. A first gift of $500 for library books — the school had none — followed by $6,000 for supplies, more books, and three computers for a staff that had none.
• Low overhead. The partner NGO is staffed by young people from the region who handle administration through the trekking company, keeping admin costs to roughly 3–5%.
• Funded by Rotary clubs in Vernon, BC, and Kingston, Ontario, profits from Patti's books, photo art cards of Nepal and Tibet, speaking engagements, and individual donors.

Key Topics Covered

• A book in grade ten, and forty years of waiting. Patti grew up an outdoor kid on an island with no electricity, drinking straight from the lake, long before screen time. Then a novel on the grade ten curriculum — Lost Horizon — put the magic of the Himalaya in her head, and she filed it away. A year of high school in Switzerland got her a passport and a taste for adventure, and then she did all the expected things: university, teachers college, a career. It was only after retiring, and after journalism school, that she and her husband picked up passports again and started walking. A coast-to-coast hike across England was the shakedown. Tibet was next, including a three-day circumambulation of sacred Mount Kailash at an altitude she'd never experienced. She was hooked.
• The decision to go alone. They'd planned to return to Nepal together to visit their guide's and porter's villages and volunteer as teachers. Days before departure, her husband ruptured his Achilles tendon. Friends and family were getting sick. Her reasoning was blunt and worth hearing: you don't know what will happen to you next. With her husband's blessing, and with the same guide and company guaranteed, she went by herself.
• "Would you help us build a school?" After her volunteer teaching, her guide Raj took her to a village at the end of a road that had never received outside help. The school building was 55 years old, built by the villagers themselves. The top floor was condemned. They were still using the main floor, with rain coming through from above. The villagers asked her directly. Her honest first thought: they think all Westerners are rich — what could I possibly do? She promised nothing and went home to think.
• A year to the day, while still in Nepal, she'd met a Buddhist monk in Upper Mustang who was building a school for children with no access to education at all, funding it by giving teachings in Singapore five months a year. That conversation about what was possible stayed with her. She came home, mulled it over, looked into what starting a nonprofit would take — and then, a year to the day after she'd stood in that village, the earthquake hit. The area she'd visited was at the epicenter. Every home in the village was gone. Her husband, an outdoor guy who hates computers, built a slideshow. They showed it at Silver Star Mountain and raised $1,000 the first night. Then she joined her local Rotary Club, and everything scaled from there.
• Coffee, tea, and the discipline of listening. The most transferable lesson in the episode, and it comes from Vancouver, not Nepal. Trying to get parents involved at an inner-city school, Patti's team put out coffee every morning for the grandmothers dropping off the primary kids. They didn't want coffee. They wanted tea. She carries that into every village: don't decide what people need. Ask them. When she stood on that school playground in northwestern Nepal, the question she asked was simply, " Do you have any library books? Would you like some"?
• Being told about her own privilege, Patti recounts a former staff member giving her what she describes as a long lecture — that as a white, middle-class woman whose parents and grandparents went to university, she was operating from privilege. Her response, decades later and on the record: "that was really good for me to hear." Laura connects it to the reason the relationship works — the villages hold parades for her, which is not how a colonial dynamic looks.
• How she vets where the money goes: Patti admits she was long reticent about charities and what share actually reaches the work. Her answer has been to build relationships rather than write checks: a good feeling about the head of the trekking company that a first trip confirmed, a principal who traveled two days to Kathmandu to buy books and sent photos back, a guide who translates and vouches, and a partner NGO whose admin is handled by local young people at a few percent of the total.
• 800 kilometres at 77 In 2023, believing they had one last long trek in them, Patti and her husband designed their own route on the Great Himalaya Trail, which runs the length of Nepal. They walked 800 kilometres over 75 days with a guide, a cook who had cooked as high as Camp Two on Everest, and a donkey man with five or six animals carrying food and camping equipment. In the first 50 days they met perhaps seven or eight other Westerners — which is exactly what they wanted, because it meant being with Nepali people the whole way. She journaled daily and photographed a wipe-off sign each night recording the day number, kilometres walked, total distance, and altitude.
• Why she doesn't trek with big groups anymore On the Tibet trip, a man on their trek died of altitude sickness — a man who had climbed Kilimanjaro the year before. On her first Nepal trek, feeling sick at 12,000 feet, Raj simply said they'd stay put another day and see. She was fine. In a group of thirty, she notes, you're pressured forward: go ahead when you don't want to, or lose the group. Being able to make your own call is the whole point.

How to Get Involved

• Learn more and see photos of the schools, the children, and families in their new homes — and reach Patti directly through the contact form — at her website http://pattishaleslefkos.com/
• Follow the September trek: Patti will post to her Facebook page as reception allows
• Read the books: Nepal One Day at a Time and Grounded by Granite — profits go back into the projects, an idea Patti took from Conor Grennan's Little Princes
• Photo art cards of Nepal and Tibet are also available, with proceeds supporting the work

If you are a nonprofit or want to donate goods directly to a nonprofit, check out Givelink: www.https://givelink.app/en?

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

In this episode, Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff speaks with Keith Lietzke, Co-Founder of Character-Wise, an innovative after-school program designed to address two critical challenges facing young people today: the mental health crisis and the declining state of civil discourse. Character-Wise teaches seven character strengths to third graders through interactive, experiential learning while simultaneously creating meaningful volunteer opportunities for recently retired adults. The Connection Between Civil Discourse and Character Development - How the way we argue reflects who we are becoming - Aristotle's belief that character is formed through habit and repeated action - The role of respectful disagreement as a moral exercise The Origin Story of Character-Wise - Keith and Mark's concerns during COVID about mental health and during the 2020 election about civil discourse - Discovery of positive psychology research from the 1970s-80s showing that building character strengths leads to improved individual well-being and better interpersonal relationships - The decision to focus on elementary school students, specifically third grade Why Third Grade? - Third graders have the mental ability to understand concepts like fairness and courage - They are still receptive to adult guidance The Dual Mission of Character-Wise - Building character strengths in young people - Providing meaningful volunteer opportunities for recently retired adults seeking purpose and community contribution - The name "Character-Wise" reflects this dual focus **Program Structure** - 8-week program with 7 classes focusing on individual character strengths plus one wrap-up session - Classes include: quick introduction, group activity, read-aloud, and small group breakout sessions - Students create leaves for a tree visual metaphor, writing how they demonstrated each character strength - Free add-on to existing after-school programs at elementary schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, and YMCAs - Intentional sequencing alternates between other-centered and me-centered strengths **Teaching Methodology** - Minimal adult lecture; maximum student engagement through activities - After sitting in school all day, kids respond with enthusiasm when given hands-on activities - Read-alouds performed by adults to avoid shaming students with varying reading levels - Small group discussions before leaf-writing to help kids who struggle with ideas - Visual posters and slogans to reinforce concepts **Pilot Program Results** - Kids were deeply engaged and understood character content - When a class was cancelled due to a coach's illness, students were disappointed and looked forward to the program - When asked if they'd recommend the program to friends, responses were enthusiastic, with all hands raised - Four volunteer coaches in pilots; only one had previous classroom experience - All coaches expressed desire to continue coaching - Program uses a manual with activity prompts and ongoing support for coaches **Parent Engagement Component** - Weekly emails to parents about the character strength being taught that week - Suggestions for group activities families can do together - YouTube readings of character-themed books - Video recommendations aligned with weekly topics - Future plans include more robust parent materials **Future Vision and Goals** - Currently piloting in the Northeast - Rolling out in fall to full production mode - Audacious goal: 1,000 character coaches across the United States - Plans to expand office hours and peer mentoring among coaches - Potential integration into public school curricula - Website under development: http://character-wise.org/ - Interest in partnerships with influencers in the retirement community About Small & Gutsy Small & Gutsy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. Recently ranked: - Number 8 on Feed Spot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts - Number 3 and Number 9 by Million Podcasts for Top 30 Volunteer Podcasts and Youth Empowerment Episodes, respectively --- Contact Information **Character-Wise:** - Email: keys.lipski@gmail.com - Website: http://character-wise.org/ (launching soon) **Small & Gutsy Podcast:** - Email: laura@smallandgutsy.org - Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/

Every legal dispute comes down to a judgment call made with incomplete information — and wherever there's judgment, there are mental shortcuts quietly shaping the outcome. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Tricia Schafer, a full-time neutral who mediates and arbitrates cases nationwide, ahead of her TechTainment panel on implicit bias in tech-driven mediation. Together they unpack what implicit bias actually is (a normal function of the human brain, not a character flaw), why it matters most in entertainment and intellectual property disputes where there's rarely one objectively correct answer, and the practical, sometimes surprising strategies practitioners can use to design bias out of a process instead of pretending it isn't there.

Tricia Schafer, Tricia Schafer Dispute Resolution PLLC: A full-time neutral and former litigator with 31 years of experience across all aspects of commercial controversies, Tricia is known for connecting people and concepts to outcomes that transcend the sum of their parts. She mediates and arbitrates cases nationwide, both privately and through the American Arbitration Association, handling commercial, real estate, health care, and consumer matters, and was recently approved as a mediator for the United States Postal Service. Based in Arizona, she also volunteers with the state court system in civil and probate matters and offers reduced-rate work to select Arizona nonprofits. She first attended TechTainment in 2024 at a friend's suggestion — arriving knowing exactly one person and leaving with roughly two dozen new friends — and has been a loyal follower since. At this year's conference, she co-presents on implicit bias with longtime friend and colleague Maria Crimi Speth, a partner at Jaburg Wilk in Phoenix and a career intellectual property litigator.

What is TechTainment? TechTainment is an annual, one-day conference produced by LAIPLA, now held in partnership with the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU) at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles. The conference brings together leaders in technology, entertainment, business, academia, and law to discuss the issues reshaping every industry, long before those issues become mainstream news.

• This year's conference: Friday, October 16, 2026, at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles
• Tricia's panel: "Implicit Bias in Dispute Resolution and Mediation", co-presented with Maria Crimi Speth of Jaburg Wilk

• What implicit bias actually is: Implicit bias is not prejudice or intentional discrimination. It's a mental shortcut the brain uses to make decisions under incomplete information, limited time, or uncertainty — a normal part of being human, not a character flaw. Tricia's example makes it concrete: a Mercedes pulls into your driveway versus a beat-up pickup truck, and you've formed a judgment about the driver before you've seen them. It doesn't matter until you have to help that person resolve something that matters in their life.
• Why "neutral" is a noun: Tricia explains that "Neutral" is the catch-all for someone who serves as both mediator and arbitrator — a private-pay, secure way to resolve disputes outside of court. She also walks through the tradeoffs of arbitration: it's faster, it's private, it never becomes public record, and critically, you get to choose your decision-maker. File in court and you may draw a judge who spent 20 years in family law and just moved to the civil bench. Through the American Arbitration Association or another provider, you can ask for an environmental lawyer, an engineer, or a water lawyer. The cost: you pay your neutral's hourly rate, and there is almost no right to appeal.
• Positions versus interests, and the last orange in the house: Tricia walks through the foundational mediation exercise: two kids fighting over the last orange, and a parent's instinct to cut it in half. The better move is to ask each child why they want it — one is hungry, the other needs it for a science project — and suddenly there's a solution that makes both of them happy. As she puts it, a position is what you say you want and an interest is why you want it. Do you really want the money, or do you want the security of knowing you can keep the house? The related insight: "No" is never permanent. "No simply means I'm not going to change my position based upon the available information that I have right now."
• Designing bias out of the process: Tricia describes wanting software that would strip law firm letterhead off position statements before she reads them, and assign parties fake names, so she isn't forming judgments about counsel or making assumptions from the ethnicity of a surname — the same logic behind employers removing photos from resumes. She also shares a technique she uses now: she dumbs the fact pattern down, renames everyone, and spends half an hour working through the dynamic with an AI assistant. Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith fighting over a commercial building becomes Bob and Larry fighting over a pickup truck. The AI has no idea who anyone is, which is exactly the point.
• Where implicit bias shows up in entertainment and IP: Assumptions about how long creative work should take a human, and whether AI could do it faster. Assumptions about what a market wants and will pay for, made without consulting anyone who lives and works in that market. Confirmation bias in data used to argue for one direction over another. And the structural disadvantage facing independent creators, who often lack the resources to register, protect, or aggressively enforce their intellectual property — so their disputes get read as less significant. Tricia names the persistent disconnect between the rooms where decisions get made and the people actually watching and streaming the content.
• Dispute resolution is dispute prevention: One of the episode's most quotable lines, and the practical center of Tricia's advice. It's not if a dispute arises, it's when. Mediation clauses are now common in contracts — and, Tricia notes, most people don't realize those clauses are negotiable in any contract involving personal services or securing talent. "We'll mediate before we arbitrate before we litigate" means very little on its own. For how many days? What kind of mediator — an entertainment lawyer at $1,000 an hour, or a court-appointed one? In person or on Zoom? In good faith, and what does good faith mean? She points listeners to the sample clause language published by the major providers, including the AAA's ClauseBuilder tool, and notes you can even name the specific mediators you'd accept.
• Strategies for creators and practitioners without deep pockets: For anyone younger, newer, or under-resourced walking into a negotiation: go in without defensiveness, but look in the mirror first and ask what the other side is likely to assume about you — then stay ahead of it. On the other side of the table, for the corporations and the streamers: you know statistically what your audience does, but you don't know what's in their heads or why they're watching what they're watching. Follow the data, and also build a team of decision-makers with genuinely different perspectives.
• Normalizing bias instead of denying it: Tricia's hope for what people take away from her session: bias is not bad. Bias is not negative. She'd like to see the same shift the culture has already made around therapy and health tracking — from something you'd never mention to something you say out loud. Her image of what that looks like in practice: a mediator who can say "I feel like I'm getting a little biased from this room, I need to take a five-minute break." Laura's response: when you pretend it doesn't exist, it creeps in anyway.

How to Get Involved

• Register and learn more: http://laipla.net/techtainment
• Pricing: Multiple tiers are available, including discounted rates for in-house attorneys, law students, LAIPLA members, and ASU alumni
• Attend: The conference includes breakfast, lunch, and extensive networking opportunities
• Connect with Tricia: https://triciaschafer.com/

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

For more than a decade, one conference has been getting ahead of the headlines instead of chasing them. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Mark Treitel, founder of TechTainment, and Konrad Trope, the conference's co-chair, ahead of this year's event to talk about how a niche gathering on technology, entertainment, and the law grew into one of the country's premier forums for examining AI's legal, ethical, and business impact, and why staying "gutsy" enough to tackle hard conversations before they go mainstream is the whole point.

Guests

Mark Treitel, Founder, TechTainment A senior intellectual property and technology litigator with Quinn Emanuel, Mark recognized 12 years ago that no conference was seriously addressing the intersection of technology, entertainment, and the law. Rather than wait for someone else to fill that gap, he created TechTainment under the auspices of the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA). What began as a small gathering of a handful of speakers has grown into a full-day conference featuring more than 30 speakers and nearly 200 attendees from across the country.

Konrad Trope, Managing Shareholder, Trope and Trope Konrad comes from a family of eight attorneys whose legal careers date back to 1954, when his father, Eugene Trope, and his uncle co-founded the law firm Trope and Trope. Over the following 75 years, the firm has represented some of Hollywood's most illustrious names, including Cary Grant, Alan Ladd, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Cassavetes. Konrad has focused his own practice on entertainment and intellectual property litigation for the past 40 years. He was introduced to Mark and TechTainment in September 2022 after chairing a panel on ethics in the age of digital media at the seventh annual conference, and became co-chair in January 2023, since carving out a niche recruiting panelists and keynote speakers who are defining the boundaries of artificial intelligence.

What is TechTainment? TechTainment is an annual, one-day conference produced by LAIPLA, now held in partnership with the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU) at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles. The conference brings together leaders in technology, entertainment, business, academia, and law to discuss the issues reshaping every industry, long before those issues become mainstream news.

• This year's conference: Friday, October 16, 2026, at ASU's California Center in downtown Los Angeles
• Keynote: David Alpert, CEO and co-founder of Skybound Entertainment, known for transforming intellectual property like Invincible into television, film, games, and tabletop products
• Panels include: recent developments in AI and entertainment law; recent developments in IP and entertainment law; how AI is changing greenlighting decisions in film and TV (moderated by Konrad, featuring Craig Wagner of Paradigm Talent Agency); managing AI data and addressing bias in prompt design (featuring speakers from Tokyo Broadcasting System, Microsoft, Lexus, DLA Piper, Amazon, and Oracle); algorithms and arbitrators, on implicit bias in tech-driven mediation (featuring Tricia Schaefer and Mike Murray of Vertex); a civility and professionalism panel featuring Dr. Wittcoff, the dean of Washington University School of Law, and a leading Southern California legal ethics expert; and a secret panel still being finalized at the time of recording
• Panelist Tracy Freed has spoken at all 12 years of the conference

Key Topics Covered

• A new civility requirement for California attorneys Beginning April 1, 2026, every California attorney must annually affirm a civility oath, pledging to conduct themselves with dignity, courtesy, and integrity, alongside new required training on civility and mental health awareness. Mark and Konrad discuss why professionalism and ethical conduct matter more than ever as AI transforms how lawyers practice, and why the legal profession, historically slow to prioritize wellbeing, is finally catching up.
• Clients "playing lawyer" with ChatGPT Mark shares how attorneys across the profession are now spending more time managing clients who arrive already convinced they've diagnosed their own legal issue using AI tools, requiring lawyers to sort fact from AI-generated assumption before real work can begin. His takeaway: these are powerful tools, but only tools, and lawyers still need the expertise to use them ethically and effectively.
• The pushback against "AI slop" Mark points to a growing cultural backlash against AI-generated content in entertainment, and a corresponding renaissance of audiences seeking out simple, well-told, human stories, citing the independent film Obsession and anticipation for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey as evidence people still want real actors and real storytelling.
• Reading, learning, and the future of legal education Both guests raise concerns about AI's effect on critical thinking, particularly in law schools, where the traditional grind of close reading has historically been what makes lawyers effective. Mark argues bluntly that if students lose the ability to read and analyze because AI is doing it for them, the consequences extend well beyond the legal profession.
• The bigger picture: AI, dystopia, and the future of work The conversation turns to bigger-picture anxieties around AI, from military robotics to questions about what a society looks like if AI eliminates the need to work, framing these as exactly the kind of uncomfortable, ahead-of-the-curve conversations TechTainment exists to have.
• A shared love of things "AI can't replace" In a lighter moment, Mark reflects on losing an entire digital music collection to digital rights management, and his frustration with ads creeping into the modern moviegoing experience, both examples of technology's tradeoffs even in entertainment he loves.
• Why they're still doing this after 12 years Mark closes by reflecting on the sheer number of hours he and Konrad have poured into the conference over more than a decade, admitting there were plenty of moments he could have walked away for more billable hours or family time. His answer for why he hasn't: a genuine, long-term commitment to the vision, one he hopes people are still gathering around in 10 or 20 years.

How to Get Involved

• Register and learn more: http://laipla.net/techtainment
• Pricing: Multiple tiers are available, including discounted rates for in-house attorneys, law students, LAIPLA members, and ASU alumni, with early bird pricing through the end of August
• Attend: The conference includes breakfast, lunch, and extensive networking opportunities
• Sponsor: Sponsorship tiers include Matrix, Luminary, Beacon, and Circuit level sponsors; interested organizations can reach out directly

Connect with Small & Gutsy

Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/

Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org

Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

What if the fastest way out of predatory lending isn't a lecture on budgeting, but $50 saved at a time? That's the model behind Mint to Prosper Foundation, a savings marketplace built for asset-limited households to step away from payday loans and rent-to-own traps and build their first real financial cushion. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with founder and Executive Director Nesha K. Brown, who turned the loss of both her parents and a period of homelessness into a peer-cohort savings program now operating in two states.

Guest Nesha K. Brown, Executive Director & Founder, Mint to Prosper Foundation

Nesha is a social impact strategist focused on financial empowerment and systems design, specializing in structured savings pathways that help asset-limited households step away from predatory lending and reach long-term stability. Her work is rooted in personal experience: after losing both parents by age 19, she was pushed into homelessness and had to unlearn and relearn everything she knew about money. What began as her own financial "social experiment" grew into a program that has since served over 1,500 people.

What is Mint to Prosper Foundation? Mint to Prosper Foundation is a nonprofit savings marketplace that helps unbanked, underbanked, and asset-limited households build their first financial safety net and move away from predatory lending. Its core offerings include:

• The Community Savings Program, a 12-week hybrid cohort model combining an in-person opening retreat, virtual workshops, one-on-one financial coaching, and an online peer community, culminating in an in-person closing retreat and certificate
• Purpose, a fintech app currently in production that helps users build micro savings habits and connects them to safer financial pathways, expected in app stores by late 2026
• Active programming in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Nesha's hometown) and Tulsa, Oklahoma, with each region running its own opening and closing retreats

Key Topics Covered

From personal crisis to nonprofit After her father's death at work, Nesha discovered her survivor benefits, meant to be her safety net, had been misused due to his financial illiteracy. Determined to change the trajectory for herself, she began teaching herself financial literacy and sharing what she learned online. Within six months, at age 20, she had earned $55,000 simply talking people through budgeting and credit basics, an accidental start that organically grew into Mint to Prosper Foundation.

The pilot program In 2024, Mint to Prosper received a grant from Louisiana State University to run a social experiment with 30 unbanked or asset-limited participants, in partnership with Chase Bank, helping them build a first $500 safety net over ten weeks. The average participant was 34 years old, had never saved more than $800, and had experienced some form of financial trauma, insights that shaped the program's focus on micro habits and behavior change rather than large, intimidating savings goals. The pilot's success, including one participant who leaned on her cushion during a Louisiana hurricane rather than meeting the full $500 goal, evolved into the current 12-week Community Savings Program.

The highlighter exercise After her father passed, a financial coach had Nesha print her last bank statements and highlight her spending into needs and wants. Seeing her spending laid out visually was an awakening, showing her that her "wants" had surpassed her needs, and became a simple, repeatable technique she now teaches others: assess your reality, then ask what you're willing to sacrifice to change it.

Predatory lending, up close Nesha shares her own early experience taking out a payday loan against a paycheck stub at triple the typical interest rate, and describes how loans marketed as two-week solutions trap borrowers for an average of five months. She and Dr. Laura also discuss rent-to-own furniture schemes, using Nesha's own washing machine and dryer purchase, paid at $30 a week, as an example of how affordable-looking payments can end up costing double the item's value. Nesha notes that the predatory lending industry has been extracting wealth from vulnerable communities since before World War II, an estimated $280 billion industry today.

Turning awareness into action Rather than only warning people about the risks of predatory lending, Mint to Prosper reframes the conversation: showing participants what they could have done with the money instead, whether that's a certification, child care access, or another upward-mobility opportunity, so people see themselves as part of the solution rather than victims of the system.

An intergenerational cohort Participants range from age 18 to their mid-60s. Nesha shares the story of a participant in her late 50s, a grandmother, who told the group she'd made "careless mistakes" raising her own kids but was determined to get it right for her grandchildren. For Nesha, it was a powerful reminder that it's never too late to reset, regardless of age, and that the work is fundamentally intergenerational.

Advice for anyone feeling stuck Nesha's core philosophy: start small. Before you can save $500, you need to know how to save $50. She encourages people to assess where they are honestly, choose a micro starting point, and remember that, as she puts it, "Rome wasn't built in a day," but the bricks still count, no matter how small.

How to Get Involved

• Personal website: http://neshabrown.com/
• Instagram: neshakbrown
• LinkedIn: neshakbrown
• Nonprofit: Mint to Prosper Foundation https://minttoprosper.org/

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org

Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

If you are a nonprofit or want to donate goods directly to a nonprofit, check out Givelink: www.https://givelink.app/en?

Check out this episode!

What if the fastest path out of exploitation isn't aid, but a paycheck? That's the premise behind Theodora Africa, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged women in Ghana escape poverty and exploitation not through short-term assistance, but through real, paid work. Small & Gutsy host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Theodora Africa Founder and CEO Michael Podolny to trace how a business consulting trip to Ghana turned into an organization named for a 6th-century empress who rose from actress to co-ruler of the Byzantine Empire, and reshaped the systems that once judged her.

Guest Michael Podolny, Founder & CEO, Theodora Africa

Michael brings decades of experience coaching businesses and building professional networks in the US. He had no intention of starting a nonprofit when he traveled to Ghana through Rotary International to offer free business coaching. A chance introduction to a young woman named Mary and the discovery that her polished business plan was written by a woman surviving through sex work with no other options redirected his mission entirely.

What is Theodora Africa? Theodora Africa takes a market-first approach to social impact. Instead of starting with aid or training alone, it starts with paid, in-demand work, specifically virtual assistant services for US-based solopreneurs and small businesses, and builds skills, training, and a pathway to greater independence around that income. The organization operates two connected entities: a US-based corporation that handles client billing, and a Ghana-based company that covers salaries, rent, and operating costs, with funds flowing directly from US clients to the women providing the services.

Key Topics Covered

The Empress Theodora connection Empress Theodora, born around 500 CE, rose from a low-status background as an actress and performer to become co-empress of the Byzantine Empire, actively shaping policy and using her position to improve protections for vulnerable women. Michael, a self-described history buff, chose the name deliberately: it's a symbolic through-line for women moving from constrained circumstances into agency and influence, and it resonated immediately with the women in the program when he shared the story with them.

Mary's story Theodora Africa's origin traces back to one woman, Mary, whom Michael met while coaching small businesses in Ghana through Rotary. After a couple of meetings, Mary revealed she was a sex worker, having been left on her own as a teenager, unable to find legitimate work despite writing a genuinely strong business plan. Michael began teaching her marketing skills, newsletter tools, and connecting her to a built-in network of business contacts who owed him favors. That one relationship became the model for the entire organization. Mary is now Theodora Africa's operating manager in Ghana and sits on the board of a Rotary Club focused on ending human trafficking, with plans to become its president in 2027.

Jobs first, not just training Michael is direct about what sets this model apart from many social service and anti-trafficking programs: most offer job training and placement, but placement often doesn't hold. Theodora Africa instead built its own small virtual assistant business first, so women are earning income and building real client relationships from day one, rather than being trained and released into an unsupported job market.

Navigating cultural change Michael speaks candidly about the friction of building a US-style participative management culture inside a system shaped by generations of distrust, a legacy he attributes in part to the historical effects of the slave trade on West African society. He describes a period, worsened by COVID-19 fundraising collapses, when he was forced into day-to-day operations he wasn't suited for, and a crisis where staff felt he had favorites. His advisors, he says, often let him make mistakes rather than warning him in advance, believing that was the only way he'd truly learn.

"Self-trafficked" and the illusion of choice Michael shares a phrase one of the women in the program used to describe her own path: "self-trafficked," the feeling of having made choices when, in reality, a lack of alternatives had made the outcome nearly inevitable. He describes this as one of the most effective forms of gaslighting, and frames Theodora Africa's economic model as a way of restoring real choice, not by preaching or condemning individual decisions, but by building better options.

Scaling the model Theodora Africa currently supports five women with about 15 US-based clients, each biller earning wages that place them solidly in Ghana's middle class. New trainees go through roughly a year of training, paid throughout, before taking on their own clients, with recruitment and training handled through vetted partners like local Rotary clubs and the Muslim Family Counseling Service rather than direct outreach. Michael describes a "champion" model for expanding into new markets or regions: a US-based partner who understands a specific market's needs, paired with a local partner on the ground, tested and iterated over roughly a two-year pilot period. The organization also maintains an internal resource hub, "Theodora University," to help onboard and train new team members as tools and best practices evolve.

A note on inspiration Michael describes his path into this work as something he didn't set out to do, framing it in spiritual terms as a kind of unexpected calling that reshaped his plans after arriving in Ghana with an entirely different mission in mind.

How to Get Involved

• Learn more about the nonprofit: TheodoraAfrica.com
• Hire a virtual assistant or explore services for your business: TheodoraGhana.com
• Connect: Theodora Africa is looking to build a community of people and organizations who share similar goals and are rethinking how social impact is delivered

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: SmallandGutsy.org Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org

Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

If you are a nonprofit or want to donate goods directly to a nonprofit, check out Givelink: www.https://givelink.app/en.

What if the path to healing wasn't a straight line, but a trail — one that combines the physical challenge of hiking with the mindful presence of yoga? That's the vision behind Hike to Yoga, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit blending guided hikes, nature-based yoga therapy, and community connection into what founder Laurie Hang calls a "mini urban retreat." Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Laurie to explore how a self-described non-athletic, first-generation immigrant built a movement now approaching its 100th event — and why she believes self-care is world peace.

Guest Laurie Hang, Founder & Executive Director, Hike to Yoga

Laurie has been a certified yoga therapist since 2014. As the daughter of Chinese Vietnamese refugees, born in a refugee camp in the Philippines, she grew up with little access to the outdoors, sports, or peer community. After adopting the habit of stretching following daily dog walks in the Baldwin Hills/Culver City area, she noticed her body growing stronger — and a chance conversation with a neighbor led to the first Hike to Yoga program at the park. Founded in 2019, the organization has since grown by word of mouth to more than 100 events, with zero dollars spent on advertising.

What is Hike to Yoga? Hike to Yoga is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community initiative making mindful movement, nature connection, and holistic wellness accessible to all. Here's how a typical event works:

• Participants gather at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area (with occasional partner events at Franklin Canyon) every month
• The morning opens with a group circle where each person shares their name, where they're from, and their roots — a practice Laurie says helps people fully "arrive"
• The group hikes together, with mindful moments along the trail: listening to sounds, smelling native sage, learning about local plants
• Upon reaching the hilltop, the group offers a land acknowledgment of the Gabrieleño/Tongva people
• Yoga is practiced in a circle formation Laurie calls a "yoga wave," so participants can see and connect rather than facing a mirror or instructor
• No yoga mat is required — a blanket or towel works fine — and modifications are offered for every ability level and age
• RSVP and optional donations are handled through Eventbrite; no one is ever turned away

Key Topics Covered

Why hiking before yoga? Laurie explains that walking warms up the body organically — similar to the effect people seek from hot yoga, but without the discomfort of an artificially heated room. Getting the body moving first also helps quiet the mind before settling into stillness and breathwork.

Yoga therapy vs. conventional studio yoga: Laurie draws a sharp distinction between commercialized, for-profit yoga studios — which she says often only teach the physical postures, not the deeper practice — and yoga therapy, which considers the whole person and adapts to individual needs. She notes that yoga was historically passed down one-on-one, not to rooms of 20 or 200 people, and stresses that the instructor's own state of mind directly affects what students receive in a class.

Nature-based yoga therapy and accessibility research: Laurie presented her first research project at the International Association of Yoga Therapists symposium — a qualitative case study following a blind participant, Tony, who attended one of her hikes. His feedback that describing the surrounding colors and scenery (not just body alignment) would deepen his experience led Laurie to a guiding principle: designing an experience for a visually impaired person makes it more accessible for everyone. She distinguishes her approach from "forest bathing," describing it instead as actively engaging with nature as a participant, not a passive observer.

Community, identity, and social justice Every May, Hike to Yoga partners with API-RISE, an organization supporting formerly incarcerated Asian American and Pacific Islander community members, bringing them onto the trail — many for the first time in decades. Laurie, herself a refugee and first-generation immigrant, sees this work as inseparable from social justice: "Yoga is a way to refine this tool... to help us be more clear and focused in our energy."

Founder's journey and resilience: Laurie shared candidly that from 2022 to 2024, she took a 16-month hiatus from Hike to Yoga after feeling overextended during the pandemic years. Choosing to step back — rather than run the organization into the ground — allowed her to return in 2024 with renewed clarity. She connects this to her personal "Root to Rise" framework and the metaphor of transmutation: using what you've been through, including pain, to grow into something new, "like the lotus growing in mud."

What's Next: Laurie hopes to expand into a second location and eventually relaunch a hike leader training and certification program. She's also interested in developing research and partnerships focused on connecting children — particularly kids without regular access to nature or organized outdoor activity — to the benefits of hiking and yoga.

How to Get Involved

• Attend: Find upcoming hikes and RSVP via Eventbrite, linked at http://hiketoyoga.org/
• Volunteer: Hike to Yoga is currently seeking volunteers, interns, and board members
• Shop: Check out the "Rest is Rebellion" merch line on the website
• Follow: Instagram and Facebook @hiketoyogala

Connect with Hike to Yoga Website: http://hiketoyoga.org/ Facebook: http://facebook.com/hiketoyogala Instagram: http://instagram.com/hiketoyogala

Connect with Small & Gutsy Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org

Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

If you are a nonprofit or want to donate goods directly to a nonprofit, check out Givelink: www.https://givelink.app/en?

Check out this episode!

SHOW NOTES:

What if your charitable dollars could come back to you — and you could send them right back out into the world to do even more good? That's the elegant premise behind http://renewables.org/, the first nonprofit that lets everyday people fund solar projects across India and the Global South for as little as $25, with monthly repayments over five years. Host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with co-founder and CEO Lassor Feasley to explore how a background in product design, a failed for-profit startup, and a connection with http://kiva.org/ co-founder Premal Shah led to one of the most innovative climate finance models in the nonprofit world.

Guest

Lassor Feasley, Co-Founder & CEO, http://renewables.org/

Lassor is a product designer and entrepreneur trained at the School of Visual Arts Product Design program. He leads product, brand, and strategy at http://renewables.org/, channeling philanthropic capital into high-performing solar installations that expand energy access while reducing carbon emissions.

What is http://renewables.org/?

http://renewables.org/ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and Global South solar crowdfunding platform. Here is how it works:

• You purchase a solar panel for as little as $25
• Your funds are deployed into solar projects across the Global South
• You receive monthly repayments over five years
• You can reinvest those repayments into new solar projects or withdraw your funds
• Every panel is tracked on a personal rooftop dashboard where you can monitor repayments and your real-world impact

Over 95% of repaid funds are reinvested back into Global South solar.

Key Topics Covered

Why the Global South?

• Solar costs approximately one-third as much to build in the Global South compared to the US or Europe
• Each kilowatt-hour fed onto the grid avoids 2 to 3 times more carbon because those grids run heavily on coal and diesel
• Projects receive, on average, 20% more sunshine per year
• The result: http://renewables.org/ estimates 550% more carbon impact per dollar compared to investing in US solar — a figure Lassor believes is actually conservative

The financial model http://renewables.org/ operates on a 0% interest loan model, similar to Kiva. Investors are made whole but do not earn a financial return. This structure avoids securities regulations while keeping the model sustainable. The spread between what http://renewables.org/ borrows from investors at 0% and what it charges solar developers funds the organization's operating costs — meaning they do not plan ever to solicit donations for salaries or administration.

The donor option Investors can also choose to make a tax-deductible donation into the fund. Donors receive the same dashboard experience and see their funds being repaid and redeployed, but the withdrawal option is removed. http://renewables.org/ also accepts contributions from donor-advised funds, IRA minimum distributions, and offers employer matching compatibility.

Design as a competitive advantage Lassor's background in product and UX design shaped every aspect of http://renewables.org/ — from the financial model itself to the user interface and dashboard experience. He draws a parallel to how Instagram was built by tapping into a latent behavior Facebook users were already exhibiting, and applies the same thinking to the satisfaction people get from tracking their solar productivity.

What's next http://renewables.org/ is preparing a major software platform redesign, enabled in part by new AI coding tools. Upcoming features include the ability for climate influencers and fundraisers to open personal crowdfunding pages to rally their own communities around Global South solar. The long-term vision is to reach Kiva-scale — tens or hundreds of millions of dollars raised annually — and catalyze solar development across the Global South.

How to Get Involved

• Invest: Purchase your first solar panel for as little as $25 at http://renewables.org/
• Donate: Make a tax-deductible donation through the Renewables donor account option
• Employer Match: Check if your employer matches charitable contributions
• Connect with Lassor: Reach him at lassor@renewables.org or search "Lassor" on LinkedIn or Instagram

Connect with Small & Gutsy

• Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/
• Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org
• Do you know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way!

If you are a nonprofit or want to donate goods directly to a nonprofit, check out Givelink:

• www.https://givelink.app/en?

So many mothers — especially those from patriarchal cultures — are conditioned to believe that everyone else knows better. The doctor is right. The priest is right. The attorney is right. Everyone except them.

South Central LAMP Executive Director Diana Z. Pinto is on a mission to change that. For over 30 years, her organization has been helping mothers in South Central Los Angeles find their voice, recognize their worth, and become the powerful advocates their children need them to be.

Because when a mother knows her value, her whole family feels it.

This is the kind of work that doesn't make headlines — but it changes generations.

Check out the entire episode at http://smallandgutsy.org/.

Check out their website: https://www.southcentrallamp.org/

Imagine a place that dares to speak truths many are afraid to say. A place that celebrates communities too often forgotten and tells the stories rarely heard. Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Raymond O. Caldwell, Artistic Director, and Johannah Maynard Edwards, Managing Director, of The Fountain Theatre — a nonprofit performing arts organization in Hollywood, California, that has been producing bold, socially conscious theater for 35 years. Raymond and Johannah share how they found each other through what Johannah calls a "cosmic poof," how they're navigating the transition from the theater's founding leadership into a new generation, and why they believe cultural institutions must serve as places to practice humanity in a post-pandemic world. From the Living Ticket model that removes price barriers to community dramaturgy that develops new plays inside faith communities and neighborhoods across Los Angeles, this conversation is a masterclass in mission-driven, human-centered arts leadership. Founded in 1990 by Deborah Culver and Stephen Sachs, The Fountain Theatre was created as a creative home for artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. Its mission is to develop and present bold new plays and unique interpretations of established works that reflect the cultural richness and social issues of contemporary Los Angeles and the nation. The Fountain Theatre has built a reputation over more than three decades for producing thought-provoking performances and supporting voices that may not always be heard on traditional stages. The organization is also known for presenting flamenco performances and running educational outreach programs that connect young people and communities to the arts. Johannah Maynard Edwards, Managing Director Prior to joining The Fountain, Johannah served as Executive Artistic Director of the National Women's Theater Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she produced, directed, and championed hundreds of productions by artists of underrepresented genders. A nationally recognized leader in arts accessibility, Johannah received the Kennedy Center's LEAD Award for Emerging Leaders and is Chief Ambassador for PAAL, the Parent Artist Advocacy League. She is passionate about developing new sociopolitical work and fostering equitable, inclusive spaces for artists and audiences alike. Raymond O. Caldwell, Artistic Director Prior to The Fountain, Raymond was the Artistic Director at Washington DC's Theater Alliance for six seasons, where he directed, developed, and produced socially conscious, thought-provoking programming that transformed the region and had a global impact. Under his leadership, Theater Alliance was chosen to lead an American Arts Envoy with the U.S. Department of State. He devised and directed new work with 23 artists and activists from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and the United States exploring what inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility mean on the global stage. Raymond was a faculty member and resident director at Harvard University's Department of Theater Arts, holds an MFA in Acting and New Play Development from Ohio State University, and a BFA in Acting from the University of Florida. Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff is the host of Small and Gutsy, a podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. Small and Gutsy has been ranked number 8 on Feedspot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts and number 3 and number 9 by Million Podcasts for the Top 30 Volunteer Podcasts and Youth Empowerment episodes, respectively. - The founding mission of The Fountain Theatre and its 35-year history of producing socially conscious work - How Raymond and Johannah found each other and transitioned into leadership from the theater's founders - Raymond's personal journey from Germany to the U.S., from actor to artistic director, and the mentor who told him "Don't wait for someone to give you a story — go make your own" - Johannah founded her first nonprofit at age 19 at NYU and her philosophy of not waiting for gatekeepers to open the gate - The creation of "Poetry for the People," a play about poet and activist June Jordan, developed over three years and three iterations with playwright Adrienne Torf - How The Fountain Theatre responds to the cultural moment with every production — from the LA fires to ICE enforcement to the situation in Iran - The pandemic of loneliness and the role of cultural institutions as places to practice humanity - Audience cultivation and the challenge of building new, multigenerational audiences in a distracted digital age - Community dramaturgy — developing new plays inside faith communities and neighborhoods across Los Angeles - The Living Ticket model — transparent pricing that trusts audiences to name what they can pay - The Fountain Voices summer education program connects young people with volunteerism, civic engagement, and playwriting - The expansion into flamenco and classical Indian dance programming - Storytelling as a tool for community building - Emergent strategy and the philosophy of critical connection over critical mass - Moving at the pace of humanity as a leadership philosophy - The reveal that The Fountain Theatre operates with a staff of five HOW TO FIND THE FOUNTAIN THEATRE Website: http://fountaintheatre.com/ Follow The Fountain Theatre on social media for upcoming productions, events, and community programming. HOW TO CONNECT WITH SMALL & GUTSY Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ Email: Laura@SmallandGutsy.org Know a nonprofit or social enterprise doing incredible work? Send them our way.

In this episode, host Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Tarik Kitson, Executive Director and co-founder of Active Plus NYC, to discuss how a chance volunteering opportunity in East Harlem evolved into a transformative nonprofit serving thousands of underserved youth across New York City. Active Plus provides free fitness, nutrition, mindfulness, and leadership programs to children and teens ages 5-18 who lack access to quality physical education and wellness resources. THE ORIGIN STORY Tarik, a former collegiate athlete with a background in health and fitness, started visiting a middle school in East Harlem on Saturday mornings to volunteer with students. What he discovered was shocking: children weren't getting recess, physical education classes had over 50 students, and there were no after-school sports programs. A consistent group of 30 kids showed up every Saturday morning hungry for structured activity and mentorship. When the school invited Tarik and his co-founder back the following fall, they launched after-school programs in football, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. Local news coverage of their work sparked interest from other schools and community organizations, and Active Plus was officially born in 2013. THE GAPS THEY'RE FILLING Active Plus addresses multiple critical needs in underserved communities. In New York City's massive public school system of over one million students, many neighborhoods lack adequate physical education, mentorship, and guidance on health and wellness. Additionally, school curricula often don't include nutrition education, leaving elementary-aged children who buy their own food at delis and corner stores without knowledge of healthy choices. The organization also recognized the need for mindfulness and emotional wellness programming years before the city mandated it in schools. COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMMING MODEL Active Plus operates a multilayered approach that goes far beyond athletics. Their programs include physical fitness activities like basketball, dance, yoga, running, boxing, and calisthenics; mindfulness and emotional wellness through meditation and stress management; nutrition education for kids and families; and leadership and life skills development. They deliver these services directly to students in schools, parks, housing developments, and community centers across all five boroughs, rather than requiring kids to come to a facility. This go-to-the-community model ensures accessibility for the most underserved youth. THE FAMILY FLAVORS PROGRAM Tarik's favorite initiative is Family Flavors, a nutrition and cooking program that engages families together. This program has proven remarkably effective at drawing parents to school events—something traditional parent-teacher conferences often fail to do. When families cook together and learn about nutrition, they take that knowledge home and can replicate it, creating lasting behavioral change across households. RECESS AS AN ENTRY POINT The most requested program by school principals is Active Plus's structured recess programming. In New York City schools with limited outdoor space and over 100 kids at recess, unstructured free play often leads to chaos and injury. By providing trained, structured activities during recess time, Active Plus solves a major operational problem for schools while getting kids moving and building healthy habits. SCALING WITHOUT LOSING QUALITY Tarik emphasizes that the organization's growth from serving 30 kids to nearly 3,000 annually came from deliberately building infrastructure. He highlights the critical mistake many nonprofit founders make: trying to do everything themselves. Active Plus grew when Tarik and his co-Founder focused on building a strong board of directors with specialized committees for programming, marketing, finance, and fundraising. They treat the nonprofit like a business, recognizing that nonprofits generate income through multiple streams—grants, donations, volunteers, and sponsorships. MENTORSHIP ACROSS GENERATIONS A unique strength of Active Plus is how they leverage older youth as mentors. High school students from the neighborhoods where programs operate serve as summer camp instructors, coaches, and role models for younger children. This creates natural peer mentorship, makes younger kids feel safer, and provides meaningful employment and internship opportunities for teens. Several alumni have gone on to successful careers—including one former youth coach who is now a lawyer but still volunteers with the organization. DISRUPTING CYCLES OF CRIME AND GANG INVOLVEMENT Active Plus strategically uses its programs to reclaim community spaces and provide alternatives to gang involvement. When a new basketball court was installed in a housing project but became a site of crime and drug use, Active Plus activated it with structured programming and recruited high school youth from the neighborhood to participate. This created a safe, supervised space for younger children. Their "Heal Our Youth" program combines restorative justice practices with mindfulness and physical activity specifically for high school students ages 15-18, addressing trauma and building resilience. THE PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVE With a master's degree in public health from Columbia University, Tarik approaches youth wellness holistically. He advocates in Albany and works with government officials to highlight gaps in services and push for policy change. He's been surprised to discover that many elected officials aren't fully aware of conditions in their own districts, underscoring the importance of nonprofits doing advocacy work and holding government accountable. EXPANSION BEYOND NEW YORK Active Plus has recently expanded beyond New York City's five boroughs to Connecticut and Nevada. They partner with the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, providing sports science activations that blend basketball with STEM education. This national expansion demonstrates the scalability of their model and video-based curriculum. WHAT MAKES THEM GUTSY Tarik identifies Active Plus's gutsy nature as their refusal to accept the status quo and their vocal advocacy on behalf of underserved youth. Despite receiving a $1 million Department of Justice grant to research their programs, the grant was cancelled by those who question the organization's approach. Yet Tarik continues to speak up about systemic failures and champion evidence-based solutions. HOW TO GET INVOLVED Active Plus is actively seeking board members to fuel continued growth and expansion. The organization welcomes supporters from anywhere, not just New York City. To learn more or inquire about board opportunities: Social Media: Active Plus NYC Website: www.activeplus-nyc.org Email: TKitson@activeplus-nyc.org KEY TAKEAWAYS The power of organic grassroots organizing when you witness a real need. How proper infrastructure and delegation multiply nonprofit impact. Why mentorship and role modeling are irreplaceable in youth development. How holistic wellness programming addresses not just physical health but mental health, nutrition, and life skills. The critical importance of advocacy in creating systemic change. Why treating nonprofits as businesses—with committees, multiple revenue streams, and strategic planning—enables sustainable growth.

Small & Gutsy Mission Small & Gutsy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. The show elevates the visibility of small but mighty changemakers doing bold, passionate, and impactful work. Small & Gutsy has been ranked #8 on FeedSpot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts and #9 by Million Podcasts for Youth Empowerment episodes. Do you know a nonprofit doing incredible work? If you know of a nonprofit or social enterprise making a real impact, nominate them to be featured on Small & Gutsy. Contact Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff at laura@smallandgutsy.org. Check out other episodes of Small & Gutsy at http://smallandgutsy.org/.

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Masha Merkulova, founder of CLUB Z, a national organization dedicated to educating and empowering Jewish teens to become articulate, knowledgeable leaders and advocates for themselves, Israel, and the Jewish people. Masha shares her remarkable personal journey from discovering her Jewish identity at age 16 in the Soviet Union to founding an organization that now serves over 200 students across the San Francisco Bay area, Boston, the tri-state area, and beyond.

Who Is CLUB Z?

CLUB Z is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a network of educated, articulate Jewish teen activists with a commitment to Zionism. CLUB Z's mission is to raise modern-day Zionists who are knowledgeable leaders, equipped to advocate for themselves, Israel, and the Jewish people while addressing issues of bigotry and antisemitism head-on. The organization operates two primary programs. Basic Training is an entry-level monthly session covering foundational knowledge: Jewish peoplehood, Jewish indigeneity, Jewish rights, and Jewish power. There are zero prerequisites—students simply need to show up once a month and learn. These sessions are separated by age group, with eighth and ninth graders together, and tenth through twelfth graders together, allowing for appropriate peer bonding and connection across different schools in the area. For students ready to go deeper, CLUB Z offers Sacred, a formalized two-year advanced program that combines rigorous academic study with practical leadership development. Participants meet every other week for three-hour sessions where they build on foundational knowledge while developing debate skills, presentation abilities, public speaking confidence, and personal writing proficiency. The curriculum covers Jewish history, Israel history, and professional development—skills that have largely disappeared from traditional schools but remain essential for navigating the world. Masha's Origin Story Masha Merkulova's journey to founding CLUB Z began in the Soviet Union, where Jewish identity wasn't something you could openly celebrate. Born to a Jewish mother and Russian father, Masha discovered she was Jewish at age 16 when a passport office bureaucrat casually informed her that despite her Russian nationality on every school roster, her mother's name—Riva, daughter of Levi—made her Jewish. The revelation was stunning but detached. She knew it as a nationality, nothing more, with no concept that Jewish people faced discrimination or persecution. When she encountered antisemitism, she simply gave it back. It ended there. Everyone moved on. What Masha inherited instead was her Soviet upbringing's deep commitment to justice and her mother's quiet, unwavering knowledge of who she was. When the Soviet Union began to crumble, she explored Christianity out of curiosity rather than conviction, but that exploration revealed how disconnected she was from any spiritual identity. It wasn't until Masha moved to America and her son began attending a Jewish day school that she started genuinely learning what it meant to be Jewish. Then came 2005. While living in California, Masha began watching YouTube videos of Israel's Gaza disengagement—something that would forever change her trajectory. She watched Jews in blue hats dragging out Jews in orange hats or regular clothes. Both were crying. And Masha recognized something that stopped her cold: "What I am watching is a pogrom." Her Soviet identity, trained to recognize injustice and respond, clicked into place. She dove into education—every event, every book, everything she could access about Israel and Jewish history. And once you learn the story of Israel and how miraculous it is, Masha explains, you can't look back. For her, Zionism wasn't a slogan or a political buzzword. It was a movement of justice, a response to centuries of exclusion and persecution, a restoration of balance. Something happened to the Jewish people 2,000 years ago, and they never gave up. They never agreed to disappear. And now, with the restoration of Israel, the justice had been restored. Why CLUB Z Exists Years of volunteering in the San Francisco Bay Area, funding pro-Israel events on college campuses, gave Masha a front-row seat to a troubling pattern. She kept encountering bright Jewish students—kids who had attended Jewish high schools, gone to Israel, been part of youth groups and summer camps, received extensive Jewish education. And yet they didn't know basic facts. They couldn't explain the difference between the Independence War and the Six-Day War. They didn't understand what Zionism actually was. They had no foundational history. At the same time, Masha was watching something worse: these same educated Jewish students were being turned into anti-Israel advocates. Their reasoning was heartbreaking in its simplicity: "I didn't know Palestinians were suffering. I didn't know there were all these people." They had been given no context, no counter-narrative, no inoculation against the compelling stories being told to them on campus. Masha realized the solution wasn't to react after the damage was done. Prevention was cheaper and more effective. Why weren't we telling young Jews what the other side was saying? Why weren't we preparing them with information, context, and historical understanding? Why weren't we teaching them about the Palestinian narrative itself so they could understand what others believed and why? She began looking around the Jewish community in San Francisco for an organization doing this work. Federation. JCC. Hebrew schools. Nobody was having these conversations. The status quo was simply accepting that Hebrew schools would hire whoever was willing to take the job for minimum pay—no standards, no accountability, no meaningful education. Masha decided she couldn't accept that anymore. From Three Boys to 200 Students It started with her son bringing three of his friends together. Three boys. Masha began teaching them using a curriculum called "Israel and Jewish Identity" that she'd come into possession of—a framework that literally connected Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood, and Zionism as three interconnected pillars. This became the foundation of everything CLUB Z would build. Word of mouth spread. Kids wanted more. They asked to meet bi-weekly instead of monthly. Then more frequently. Masha worked with a local JCC that had a beautiful Teen Center with no programming, and they welcomed CLUB Z to use the space. What started as an informal gathering evolved into something more intentional and structured. Today, CLUB Z operates across multiple cities with approximately 200 students currently enrolled (numbers fluctuate—last year they served over 400). The organization has grown because it fills a void that no other institution is addressing: the need for comprehensive, honest Jewish education that equips teens not just with information, but with confidence, community, and the tools to stand tall in their identity. What Makes It Gutsy CLUB Z is gutsy because it goes against the grain of everything in the current Jewish institutional landscape. Its very existence is a reminder that what we have right now doesn't work. By design, the organization is pushing back against systems that have failed to prepare Jewish youth, against narratives that have been allowed to go unchallenged, against the idea that teens should shrink from their identity instead of claiming it with pride. But CLUB Z is also gutsy in how it trusts young people. The organization believes that teens can handle complexity, nuance, and difficult conversations. They can learn about Palestinian narratives while maintaining their own. They can understand historical grievances and moral arguments. They can debate respectfully without compromising their beliefs. They can recognize propaganda without becoming cynical. And they can do all of this while maintaining their humanity and sense of humor. Perhaps most gutsy of all is CLUB Z's commitment to showing up for students when it matters most. When a student calls with a problem at school, CLUB Z doesn't just offer advice—they strategize with parents, connect families to legal resources if needed, and stay involved through resolution. When alumni face antisemitism on college campuses, CLUB Z is there. When a resolution against Israel comes up for a student government vote, CLUB Z has trained students to be in those spaces ahead of time, ready to speak up. The organization has built a safety net, and students know it exists. Teaching in a World of Misinformation One of CLUB Z's most critical functions is teaching students to recognize and counter propaganda. In a world saturated with misinformation, deepfakes, and algorithmically-driven content, young people need media literacy skills that go far beyond any single issue. CLUB Z teaches students to ask: Who are the reliable sources? How do you fact-check? What makes something intellectually dishonest? For example, when a student encounters an AP exam question asking them to calculate how Israeli bombing has affected global warming in Gaza, they need more than outrage. They need to articulate exactly why that framing is intellectually dishonest, why it's propaganda, and what the actual facts are. They need to respond professionally and factually, not emotionally. The organization partners with CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) and maintains connections to sources in Israel and international media. In sessions, educators help students evaluate what's real and what's not. Students can post questions in private groups and get immediate feedback from educators and peers. And every single session opens with "what's happening in the news," allowing older students to help younger ones develop critical thinking skills in real time. The Power of Intentional Community One of the biggest surprises Masha has encountered is how little it takes to help a young person rise up—but how essential it is that the support be intentional. CLUB Z isn't just "come learn, go do." It's a community that says: we have your back. If you call us, we will be there to catch you. This matters immensely during the vulnerable teenage years. When a student faces an incident at school, they often call CLUB Z educators before they call their parents. Educators then work with families to make a plan before escalating to the school or other authorities. For college-aged alumni, the support continues. Students know they can reach out to their regional educator when they need guidance, when they face antisemitism, or when they need to make a strategic move. Masha is clear about why this matters: if you know you're going to stick your neck out, you don't want to be left hanging by a thread. Young people need to know that taking a risk doesn't mean being abandoned. Building Trust Through Transparency CLUB Z has also discovered the power of keeping parents informed and engaged. After each session, parents receive a detailed email summarizing everything discussed, including links to all videos shown and a series of 3-5 discussion questions designed to spark conversation at home. This seemingly simple practice has profound effects. Parents aren't left wondering what their teens are learning. They can have informed conversations at the dinner table. They understand the context and nuance their teens are being taught. If a teen comes home with questions or concerns, parents are equipped to respond thoughtfully. And if parents need support, they know they can call an educator to discuss how to handle a situation together. Dr. Laura notes during the episode that this creates a beautiful feedback loop: teens can go home knowing their parents understand what they're learning. They don't have to fear that their parent will overreact or dismiss their concerns. And that open communication, that sense of being supported at home and in the organization, fundamentally changes how young people navigate their identity and advocacy. Looking Forward When asked what's at the top of her wish list for CLUB Z, Masha doesn't say funding (though like all nonprofits, they need resources). She says people. She needs educators who are articulate, educated, and willing to invest their souls into these teens. It's not a typical teaching job. It requires presence, commitment, and a genuine belief in the work. She also wants the broader Jewish community—the legacy organizations, the philanthropists, the adult leaders—to wield their power on behalf of the next generation. Instead of allowing others to define Jewish terms and Jewish identity, instead of remaining silent while narratives go unchallenged, Masha wants to see adults step up and protect the space for young Jews to claim their identity with pride. But perhaps the most poignant wish Masha articulates is simpler: she wants American Jews to understand that no matter how assimilated or hidden you are, eventually somebody will ask you questions about who you are. You might as well know the answers. You might as well be grounded in your identity, connected to your people, and equipped with the knowledge and confidence to stand tall. How to Connect Website: http://clubz.org/ Instagram: @zionismforteens Email:masha@clubz.org YouTube Channel: CLUB Z has extensive educational content available on their YouTube channel Partner Organizations: - CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis): http://camera.org/ Small & Gutsy Mission Small & Gutsy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. The show elevates the visibility of small but mighty changemakers doing bold, passionate, and impactful work. Small & Gutsy has been ranked #8 on FeedSpot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts and #9 by Million Podcasts for Youth Empowerment episodes. Do you know a nonprofit doing incredible work? If you know of a nonprofit or social enterprise making real impact, nominate them to be featured on Small & Gutsy. Contact Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff at laura@smallandgutsy.org. Check out other episodes of Small & Gutsy at http://smallandgutsy.org/.

Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff interviews Josh Thye, Executive Director of The Academy, about the transformational power of competitive drum and bugle corps for youth ages 15-21. The conversation explores the intense 11-hour daily rehearsals during the summer tour, the behind-the-scenes logistics, and powerful alumni stories that demonstrate how this experience shapes lives far beyond performance. What Is The Academy? The Academy is a world-class nonprofit organization offering a competitive drum and bugle corps with brass sections, drum line, front ensemble, and color guard. Most participants join in middle school, though color guard members often start in high school or later. The summer experience involves 11 hours of daily rehearsal plus travel across the country—from North Carolina to California. Every minute is accounted for as participants not only perform but also handle logistics, load trucks, prepare meals, and manage all behind-the-scenes operations. What Makes It Gutsy The organization is "all guts." Whether performing in a parking lot or an NFL stadium, the group demonstrates true grit. Participants endure physical exhaustion, work through breaking points, and learn that they're capable of far more than they imagined. Many don't make it through, and the organization compassionately counsels them, but those who finish carry the experience for life. The mentors are often alumni who returned to give back because people invested in them.

How to Connect Website: http://arizonaacademy.org/

Small & Gutsy Mission

Small & Gutsy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. The show elevates the visibility of small but mighty changemakers doing bold, passionate, and impactful work.

Small & Gutsy has been ranked #8 on FeedSpot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts and #9 by Million Podcasts for Youth Empowerment episodes.

Do you know a non-profit doing incredible work?

If you know of a nonprofit or social enterprise making a real impact, nominate them to be featured on Small & Gutsy. Contact Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff at laura@smallandgutsy.org.

Check out other episodes of Small & Gutsy at http://smallandgutsy.org/.

Carlecia Bell, Executive Director of Phenomenal She shares the inspiring story of how Phenomenal She was born from a simple birthday club among friends and has grown into a transformative mentorship program serving young women of color ages 12–24 in the Federal Way and Des Moines areas of Washington state. Learn how Phenomenal She is, interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline through mentorship, life skills training, academic support, and mental health counseling. Key Topics Covered: **The Origin Story** - How Phenomenal She started as an informal "birthday club" among women celebrating each other - The inspiration from Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman" - Building the organization with multiple co-founders who remain engaged on the board **Program Structure & Offerings** - Age range: 12–24, with programming focused on middle and high school girls - Multiple entry points: clubs (art, dance, STEM, cosmetology, entrepreneurship) that don't require prior commitment - Core mentee programming includes: - "Being a Better Me" group sessions with a licensed therapist (addressing self-esteem, confidence, and generational trauma) - STEM engagement and academic assistance with tutoring - Life skills and development curriculum (vision boards, financial literacy, banking basics, sisterhood, health and wellness) - Summer STEAM program: 6-week intensive with coding, aviation, dance, art, culinary arts, and farm-to-table experiences; $1,000 stipend upon completion - Outdoor adventure club (monthly) in partnership with Game of Life Mentoring and YETI **Recruitment & Access** - Referrals from probation counselors (diversion programs), school resource officers, parents, and community events - Visible community presence through tabling at school lunches and dance team performances - Free programming with food and transportation provided for Federal Way mentees - No barriers to entry—girls can join clubs before committing to full mentorship **Mentor Matching & Mentee Journey** - Intentional matching process using surveys from youth and parents/guardians - Initial meeting with mentor, parent/guardian, and youth to establish boundaries - Long-term relationships: mentors stay engaged with girls through high school and often into adulthood - Alumni return as instructors, dance coaches, and leadership volunteers **Cultural Competence & Safe Space** - Deliberate curation of instructors who are culturally relevant and can relate to girls' lived experiences - Parents are not permitted in programming—creating a dedicated youth-only space - Response to the lack of representation in schools and the misunderstanding of young women of color - Emphasis on trust-building with both youth and families **Leadership Pipeline** - Alumni brought back as instructors and art coaches - Internship opportunities (paid when funding allows) - Volunteer opportunities at six community outreach events annually **Board & Organizational Strength** - Diverse board makeup: licensed therapist, attorney, accountant/bookkeeper, entrepreneurs - Every board member also runs their own business, modeling entrepreneurship for girls - Entrepreneurship club reflects this value **Expansion & Vision** - Dream project: a dedicated clubhouse similar to the Boys and Girls Club or YMCA - Desire to expand to other locations (co-founders from Louisiana, Philadelphia, and other states report demand from their home communities) - Digital campaign: "Fuel Her Fire, Fund Her Future" focused on investing in young women with passion and potential **Current Initiatives** - Partnership with King County's Best Starts for Kids grant - Expanding into Highline School District (Des Moines, Washington) - Three times per week engagement with young women in programming - Focus on interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline --- Notable Quotes: *"They're brilliant. And sometimes just the lack of resources holds them back. And so we're able to be that connecting piece."* —Carlecia Bell *"The ability to be ourselves unapologetically and then also letting our girls know to do the same in spaces that they occupy. So not being afraid to have a voice regardless of what people think."* —Carlecia Bell *"In order to be a mentor and an effective one, one must care. You must care."* —Maya Angelou (quoted by Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff) Resources & Links: **Phenomenal She** - Website: http://www.phenomenalshe.org/ - Instagram: @phenomenal_she_ - Facebook: @PHENOMENALSHEISALWAYS - Digital Campaign: "Fuel Her Fire, Fund Her Future" **Small & Gutsy Podcast** - Website: http://smallandgutsy.org/ - Rankings: #8 on FeedSpot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts; #3 and #9 by Million Podcasts for Top 30 Volunteer Podcasts and Youth Empowerment episodes - Contact: laura@smallandgutsy.org

About the Host & Guest: **Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff** is the founder and host of Small & Gutsy, a podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. She is passionate about elevating the visibility of small but mighty changemakers. **Carlecia Bell** is a native of Monroe, Louisiana, and a financial and relationship management expert with 13+ years of leadership experience at a Fortune 500 financial services company. She is inspired by her husband, Winston Bell, who has dedicated 25 years to community service. Carlecia co-founded Phenomenal She to address the lack of mentoring programs available to young women of color in the Federal Way area.

In this episode, Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff sits down with Shilpa Alva, Founder of Surge for Water, to discuss how a childhood moment of witnessing inequality in Mumbai sparked a lifelong mission to bring clean water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health solutions to underserved communities worldwide. Shilpa shares her journey from the corporate world to founding an organization that operates on a revolutionary model: women-led, community-owned development that breaks the cycle of poverty. Through candid conversation, she reveals how listening to communities—truly listening—transforms the effectiveness of international aid work. KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED The Power of Childhood Witnessing How Shilpa's observations as a seven-year-old in Mumbai planted the seeds for her life's work The difference between recognizing privilege and understanding injustice From Corporate to Calling Shilpa's journey climbing the corporate ladder while feeling unfulfilled How she heard her inner voice calling her back to purpose Why she took six years to transition from corporate work to full-time nonprofit leadership The Education-Water Connection Why 120 of 150 students didn't show up to school in rural India How water scarcity directly impacts educational access The health consequences of unsafe water on children's ability to learn Learning From Mentorship in Haiti The transformative lessons from living with a local partner organization leader The cautionary tale of millions spent on beautiful houses with no infrastructure How "staying with locals, listening, and learning" became the foundation of Surge's model Surge for Water's Women-Led, Community-Owned Model What makes Surge different from traditional international aid organizations The three core values: Equity, Respect, and Stewardship Why community ownership isn't just ethical—it's essential for sustainability Water Plus: A Comprehensive Approach Water access goes beyond wells—it includes sanitation and hygiene How Surge teaches communities to make their own soap, creating women-run enterprises The critical role of menstrual health education in girls' empowerment and school attendance Geographic Strategy and Intentional Depth Why Surge reduced from 12 countries to 3 (Uganda, Haiti, Indonesia) Working in remote, rural areas where other NGOs don't operate Building partnerships with local government and community-based organizations Cultural Humility and Gender Dynamics Navigating patriarchal societies without imposing Western values How Shilpa meets women in kitchens and under mango trees—safe spaces for real conversation Respecting cultural context while amplifying women's voices The difference between cultural respect and tolerance for harm Partnership Over Colonialism Why Surge works through local partners, not directly with governments How trust-building with community leaders comes before government engagement The importance of pilots and data alongside relationship-building Recent Evolution and Future Vision The exciting new model of supporting smaller women-led organizations to scale How Surge is thinking about creating a "feeder system" of partners The expansion happening in Uganda this week ABOUT SURGE FOR WATER Surge for Water is a movement led by women and owned by communities. The organization delivers safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health solutions through an investment in women-led, community-owned models that create lasting change and break the cycle of poverty. Currently operating in Uganda, Haiti, and Indonesia, Surge works in remote, rural communities—often described as "forgotten lands"—where other international NGOs don't operate. Their comprehensive Water Plus approach addresses not just water access but the interconnected challenges of sanitation, hygiene education, and menstrual health. Surge for Water is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the United States with headquarters in Chicago and a branch in Dubai. ABOUT SHILPA ALVA Shilpa Alva is the Founder and Executive Director of Surge for Water. Her passion for global equity and community empowerment began at age seven during a visit to Mumbai, India. After earning her degree and working in the corporate sector, she felt called to dedicate her life to international development work. Shilpa's approach is rooted in cultural humility, genuine partnership, and a deep belief that communities hold the solutions to their own challenges. She has lived and worked extensively in Haiti, Uganda, and Indonesia, learning firsthand the importance of staying with locals, listening, and building trust-based partnerships. RESOURCES & LINKS Visit Surge for Water: http://www.surgeforwater.org/ Follow Surge for Water on Social Media: @SurgeForWater (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X) Connect with Shilpa Alva on LinkedIn: Search "Shilpa Alva" WHAT MAKES SURGE GUTSY? According to Shilpa, Surge is gutsy because: They dare to dream and follow through, refusing to take shortcuts that compromise their values and model They're willing to acknowledge when they're not doing things correctly and commit to fixing and improving They operate with a decolonizing lens, centering community wisdom and leadership They stay true to their mission even when it's harder, more stressful, and more expensive than easier alternatives SMALL & GUTSY MISSION Small & Gutsy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit podcast spotlighting nonprofits and social enterprises with budgets under $10 million. The show elevates the visibility of small but mighty changemakers doing bold, passionate, and impactful work. Small & Gutsy has been ranked #8 on FeedSpot's Top 30 Social Impact Podcasts and #9 by Million Podcasts for Youth Empowerment episodes. DO YOU KNOW A NONPROFIT DOING INCREDIBLE WORK? If you know of a nonprofit or social enterprise making real impact, nominate them to be featured on Small & Gutsy. Contact Dr. Laura Scherck Wittcoff at laura@smallandgutsy.org. Check out other episodes of Small & Gutsy at http://smallandgutsy.org/.

Dr. Laura Scherck Wittkoff welcomes Ann Medlock and John Graham, the founders and leaders of the Giraffe Heroes Project—an organization that has spent over 40 years celebrating ordinary people who "stick their necks out" for the common good. From their serendipitous Superman movie meet-cute to building a global movement around courage, compassion, and community, Ann and John share how storytelling became their most powerful tool for inspiring action and creating change. Key Topics Discussed The Power of Storytelling Over Preaching - John's evolution: realizing that 10,000 years of human history—from Neanderthals to troubadours—proves that **stories inspire action** in ways speeches cannot - How storytelling bypasses the mind's objections and goes straight to the heart - The role of narrative in communicating core values and inspiring heroism Redefining Courage - Courage isn't gender-specific—it's something we all possess - Ann's bold stance: firing an advisor who claimed courage was a "man's issue" - John's journey: recognizing that emotional and spiritual courage are as powerful as physical bravery - Why physical courage (climbing mountains, dodging bullets) was easier than the emotional courage required for real change The Giraffe Heroes Project: Mission & Impact - Founded in 1981 by Ann Medlock as an antidote to violence and trivia in media - Nearly 2,000 giraffes honored across 30+ fields and 16+ countries - Seven overseas affiliates extending impact globally - Civil disobedience (à la Gandhi and MLK) is celebrated; actions must benefit significant numbers of people Collaboration Over Competition - The Giraffe Heroes school program is built on collaboration, not competition - Free, digital-accessible curriculum for teachers worldwide - The program transforms classrooms: creating "communities of learners" instead of isolated, competing students - The powerful bicycle story: a student's classmates cheer when he masters riding a two-wheel bike—something that wouldn't have happened before the program Education & Youth Empowerment - Over 2,000 classroom downloads; approximately 375,000 children reached through print materials - Materials available free at http://giraffe.org/teachers (email sign-up only) - The US Navy uses the program in overseas schools - Cartoon characters "Stanley" (Stand Tall) and "Beatrice" (Be Tall)—giraffe twins—tell stories to 3-year-olds about bravery and caring - Grandpa and Grandma tell different versions to reach multiple learning styles - Teachers report that kids shift from isolated to connected when exposed to the program The Ripple Effect of Recognition - Many heroes don't see themselves as heroic and are reluctant to share their stories - Telling giraffe stories inspires not just the public, but the giraffes themselves - Real example: a small-town barber doing community work thinks no one is watching—until the story is told and volunteers and support arrive - Some giraffes report they considered quitting but were re-energized by hearing their own story shared Overcoming Barriers - **Funding:** The biggest ongoing challenge. Some funders prefer direct interventions (saving redwoods, backing candidates) over storytelling - Early federal grants supported classroom curriculum development (over $1M across 10 years) - Money and mindset: convincing people that purpose-driven storytelling is as important as tactical giving - The "lightweight" perception: early critics dismissed storytelling as trivial until results were undeniable The Love Story Within the Hero Story - Ann and John met at a writer's group in New York, 1981-1982 - Ann invited John to see the original Superman movie (somewhat reluctantly) - Their three-day courtship led to a 44+ year partnership - John initially thought the giraffe concept was "lightweight" but came to see Ann as a "troubadour for our times" - Wedding entry music: Superman theme - John writes the bylaws; Ann does the creative, bold work—"it works out well" Aging, Purpose, and Public Health - Doing good has measurable health benefits, especially for aging populations - Purpose-driven service is a form of preventive medicine - Ann is 92 years old and "not quitting"; John is 83 and still creating TikToks and short-form videos - Stories of older heroes: a woman in her 80s smuggling pharmaceuticals to Central American revolutionaries, organizing environmentalists and tribes in the Pacific Northwest - The Swiss watch metaphor: a life without purpose is like a watch with no hands—what's the point? Adapting & Staying Relevant - Evolution from LPs (33s) shipped to radio stations → print materials → digital access - Now on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and other social platforms - Constantly reinventing tactics and strategies while staying true to the 1981 mission - Not falling behind culturally is essential to remaining impactful The Dream: "Giraffe" as a Verb - Ann's top wish: for "giraffe" to become a verb—"Let's giraffe this!" - Similar to how "Google" and "Kleenex" became verbs - A measure of cultural penetration and lasting impact Global Scale, Tiny Budget - Working on less than $100K annually - "Tiny but mighty" organization with genuinely global impact - Known from North America to Singapore - Seven overseas affiliates amplifying reach Inspiration from Other Heroes - Ann draws inspiration from Nelson Mandela's autobiographies and insightful life stories - John's personal mantra: Robert Frost's "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / I took the one less traveled by / And that's all the difference" - Ann's personal song: "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees—she's created something from nothing and keeps iterating **Website:** http://giraffe.org/ - **Teacher Materials:** http://giraffe.org/teachers (free, digital, email sign-up) - **Contact:** Laura at Small and Gutsy (laura@smallandgutsy.org) - **Social Media:** Giraffe Heroes on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts **Ann Medlock** is a freelance editor, publicist, and writer who founded the Giraffe Heroes Project in 1981. She was named an Education Innovator by the National Education Association and received the Caring Institute's Caring Award. At 92 years old, she continues to lead the organization and develop new materials. **John Graham** is the Executive Director of Giraffe Heroes. A former US Foreign Service officer, he has worked on peace initiatives across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He has climbed Denali's north wall, hitchhiked around the world, and worked as a war correspondent. He and Ann have been partners for 44 years.