An Army of Normal Folks - Big Al Holdren: An Army of Normal Elves

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Al is the co-founder of Secret Families, which just over two weeks ago provided over 10,000 Christmas gifts to 2,000 kids whose families couldn’t afford them in their community of Muncie, Indiana. Their Army of 2,200 volunteers, more like elves in this case, make it all happen on a single Saturday in only 10 hours! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many families did you provide Christmas for this year? 385 families, approximately 2,000 children. Okay. Yep. How many gifts per kid, typically? Two, three, five to six. That's 10,000 kids, five gifts. That's 10,000 kids, 5 gifts. That's 10,000 gifts.

2200 rolls of wrapping paper, 250 rolls of tape. I bought one year out on eBay or a printing company that was going out of business. I bought 30,000 gift tags. 30,000 gift tags. They're in 100, hundred to a sheet. We just used up the last one of them this year. It was so big. It was crazy. And I paid $25 for them. It was awesome. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy, I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach and intercity Memphis in the last part. It unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. That film's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people

and nice suits talking big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather an army of normal folks. Us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That is exactly what big owl holder in the voice we just heard is done. Owl is the co-founder of Secret Families, which provides all of those Christmas presents for families who can't afford them in this community of Muncie, Indiana. There should be a secret families in every area of our country, and I cannot wait for you to meet Big Al right after these brief messages from our generous

sponsors. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social, emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacson five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines And it's almost like kids playing on the playground just choose them up left right in center

And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde he doesn't even remember it getting the bars done excuse being a total But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe and this is on Musk with Walter Isaacson Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers

of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of cozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries

and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kites flying and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you, and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world.

Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for the Cat Miss Live Music event of the holiday season, our I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special coming to ABC December 21st. Starring, share, Olivia Rodrigo, Siza, Nile Horan, Sabrina Carpenter, one republic, Jelly Roll, Big Time Rush, and more.

Tune in to the I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special on Thursday December 21st at 8-7-Central on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. Thanks, because Big Al's awesome. But because it's such an awesome Christmas story, we had to break our usual protocol, which is we bring guests to Memphis, or I go to the guest and we do in-person interviews, because I just feel like face-to-face conversations are more compelling, but because we got this information late, we just didn't have time to do this interview in person. So we did do this one online on Zoom so that we could quickly edit it

and sneak it in before Christmas. So this episode might sound a little different than normal because of the challenges of clear conversation over Zoom. challenges of clear conversation over Zoom, but big owls, big personality more than makes up for it and you're about to hear that. And guys, y'all really keep sending us stories and ideas at normal folks dot us. Your programming of this podcast has been incredible. So let's get started. Our Holdren, an interesting dude, thanks for joining me, Al, how are you? I'm doing great, Bill. Thank you for the, thank you guys for your time and for the interest.

It's a pretty cool stuff, man. It's gonna be a great conversation. I love it. Well, what you do is pretty cool stuff. And the timing of it is obviously appropriate and topical. But before we get to, while we're talking to you and the very cool thing that you do which I'll

tease is Secret Santa right secret secret families Secret families well secret families and I'm sorry. I've done that three times my family I'll at Christmas we we do what's called Secret Santa. And so it's, it's my wife. It's, it's my wife, me, the four kids, my mother and father, my mother, my uncle, my sister and my brother and law. And I think that's it. There's 10, 11 of us. And so what we do is we say everybody spends a hundred bucks max and you have to buy a pair of socks, a household item,

and a book, and you can only spend a hundred bucks. So you could buy an $80 book, but now you got a $4 pair of socks and a $16 household item, right? You can mix up. Probably a goodwill buying a toaster. There you go. Perfect. Yes. And then we, and then everybody shows up with their three gifts, unmarked, puts them on the table and we have three rounds.

So round one is book. So everybody chooses one gift from the book pile. And then, right, but here's the thing. It rotates upon opening it. So when I open my book gift, now I've got my book. Now the next person to open, they can either keep their gift or take mine from me. I'm just kidding.

Absolutely. And then it goes all the way around. It's called Secret Dirty Santa. And I got gotta tell you, Christmas Day at my house ends up people throwing stuff at each other half the time because everybody wants one. Yeah, it's been great.

No, no, no. Nobody wants, you know, whatever for the soul. Yeah, whatever it is, that's it. That's it. And I mean, somebody made by, somebody who makes five books on a book and 90 on a house. Yeah, that's it. That's it. I mean, somebody made by somebody on makes put five books on a book and 90 on a house. So the quality of each item varies dramatically and everybody anyway, it's a

blast. And so we call that secret Santa. And so when I see secret families and think Christmas, the work you do, it is not anything like what we do, but that's why. And it's common terminology. That's the secret Santa. And you know what? It all applies, but the game's still the same. And that's what we love about it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's what I know. Enough about me. Where'd you grow up? Tell me where you came from. Here, this is, I actually grew up in Muncie is county seat and I grew up in a little town, literally attached to it, but just 10 miles north of Muncie, Indiana, eaten Indiana, population 5,000 people. My dad and everybody in that town all worked it.

One of the two general motors plants that were in, were, keyword, were in Muncie. One is now, well both of them are completely non-existent. They don't exist and the buildings are even gone, but it was a little small community up there and went to Delta High School. So I'm a local kid other than I've been here my whole life I'm 61 been here my whole life and had a four-year stint in Milwaukee with a

Business that I owned up there and and then came back here and started her family and You know the rest is history. So you're a you're a Midwest West Indiana boy all day long you name it it? A little basketball and big basketball. And you're in Indiana. I go. Are you a basketball? Absolutely. Are you a hater then? Well, I'm a yeah, who's your who's your by state? I you fan. I you basketball fan. Noter named football fan. So we always have, and most of us have split allegiances. Ball State is a, is in our community. And we're always ball state fans. We go to those games, but I grew up as a Bobby Knight fan and grew up with a Notre Dame

football. So, you know, we kind of wouldn't get anymore Midwestern than that. Oh, God, no. and one of our friend arm's length friend is Matt Painter who's ball state or I'm sorry who has produced basketball coach currently. Right. So and he grew up he was an old Delta high school guy. You know, it's funny everybody. We say the world eventually all is connected to Muncie. Eventually. You know, it's not Kevin Bacon, it's Muncie. That's how it rolls. So we're going to come back. I'm going to throw something at you.

I'm going to challenge you at the end of our conversation with your secret, with your secret Santa. I have something to throw at you. So do it now. What is it? Quit doing that yeah there's $1,100 everybody throws a hundred in the hat you go to the local whatever Meyer Walmart whatever's close to you oh oh to stop yep you can't challenge me yet you can do it at the end because I don't want to,

I don't want our listeners to know yet. Oh, great. I know where you're going. I know where you're going to. So you are, we'll do it at the end. It'll play better there. Yeah, yeah, I have an idea for you. So, okay.

So you're a Midwest guy born and raised, yeah, blue collar type community, just good Midwest community. and you go off to Millwalk and start a business, but then you come back to Yorktown, which is just outside of Muncie, basically Muncie area. That's where, yes, where, that's where home I live in Muncie, my business that I own the collection agency that I own currently is in York, but I live in Muncie. Right.

So it's interesting because obviously being here, you're involved in a philanthropic work. And you know, you wouldn't be, we wouldn't be highlighting your story without that. But your profession is a collection agent. And I find that interesting. And candidly, out in a business, I've had bad accounts. I have used collection work. But I think guys in your industry, you know, get a maybe a bad rep because it's oh, the dreaded Bill collector guy. And the dreaded Bill collector guy is often seen as an evil villain in the process of credit.

Yes. But the truth is when people spend money on credit, whether it's credit card, writer bad check or enter into a business arrangement that they don't pay off the bank or whatever, arrangement that they don't pay off the bank or whatever, those bills have to be collected. And the business that extended that credit is out the money unless they're able to receive it. And people that do what you do are a valuable spoke on the will of business. But we've certainly heard of the predatory overly aggressive collection tactics, and then like any industry, there's good and bad. Just briefly tell our listeners what you do on a daily basis and how you approach it. Sure.

The company Atlas Services based here out of Yorktown. We've been here. We were in Muncie, Delaware County area since 67. My group is the second group to own it and we bought it from a couple of older gentlemen. And we work with medical, a lot of medical property rental. right, there is good, bad, nougatly in our business as there is within the industry. We think we're in that good side of it. A lot of times, sometimes it's an oversight, sometimes it's intentional that people don't pay, but we always say, hey, our clients like to get a paycheck on Friday too. You got the services, you took the services, you just didn't pay them. What if somebody did that to you? How would you feel? And you know, just having that conversation, a little bit of guilt. I mean, doesn't hurt.

And is usually the best way to collect. And then at that point, they may have a circumstance that payment arrangements or needs. So, but that's what we do. We really are calling people as soon as we can get them out of debt, their credit's going gonna go back up, and they're gonna be in a better circumstance because they're not robbing Peter to pay Paul the time. So sometimes all we're gonna do

is we're gonna focus individuals into, let's get this paid off, then let's pay this off, then let's pay this off. And that's really what we do. So we sometimes are more like their mom and dad because maybe they weren't taught appropriately. And that's what we end up becoming sometimes bill. So that's what you do for living. You collect money for organizations who have provided a good or service to people who haven't paid them. And you try to respectfully and civilly collect that money.

And that's it. And you know what? That's not a bad thing. That's just a spoke in the will of business. Yep, everybody needs that. Someone's got to, somebody didn't pay them their businesses close and everything shuts down.

And that's just reality. So, and those things. So you're not, so you're not the grim reaper debt collector that we've all grown to learn, to fear, and oh gosh, don't call me at my job, and don't call me at midnight, don't threaten me. It's not that.

No, we're more, we're probably more heavily regulated than anything in the world. In the medical, than F FDA, you name it, federal trade commission, they do not play around. You screw up in our industry, you go to jail, you pay a fine automatically, and they're going to take everything you got, and you go to jail. So you do not mess with those people at all. We run and we play and the good companies, the good companies are in business everybody else is insane saying

What how many people in your company 10 10 We're not talking about this massive organization dollar It's not for dollars. I do a small family run business where you make a good living and that's what you take That's it and I can run down to the gas station and buy everybody and carry back everybody in my company at Coke in about 20 minutes. I got it. And that's a small business. That's what it's all about. That's it. So a midwest, so the whole point is.

Yes. It's an army of normal folks. What's more normal than a midwestern guy who likes Notre Dame Purdue, IU, lived in Milwaukee, returned to Yorktown, Muncie, Indiana, has a 10 person small family run business making a good honest living. There you are. Bill, I've always made a quote, always say a comment, the Holdren family, we are 6.5 on every scale that you can imagine. That's hilarious. We do everything at 6.5.

We are not brilliant at any one thing. I'm about a 6.5 guys you'll ever see. And if you want to come and set on the deck, we'll buy you a cold one. And if you need a makers and set on the deck, we'll buy you a cold one. And if you need a, makers and, it's makers and makers and cook in a cherry life saver. That'll make you happy. And once in a while, after a long week,

you need one of those on a Friday evening. Or just 6.5, dude, we don't drink the big bourbon. We drink the bubble before. I love it. It's a good day. It's hilarious. Oh, it's so true. So true. So your friends call you big out big. Owl. That's a third grade nickname. It's stuck. I am a big dude. Big guy.

When you go six to two 90, they call you big. Owl. It's stuck and it is a term of endearment. We always laugh, Bill. If someone walks up to me, if they call me Al Holdren or Mr. Holdren, I know that they don't know me and they're trying to sell me something. Well, and Mr. Holdren is probably above a 6.5. Big Al was dead on 6.5. Big Al's 6.5 all day long.

And if somebody walks up and says, I need to see Big Al, I know they've talked to one of my friends, they've got permission to do that or all my friends, it's funny. A lot of people and a lot of these people that work within some things we're going to talk about here in a little bit. They only know me as big out. They have no idea what my name is. And as far as I'm concerned, don't care. It makes no to emissions important. The details are not. They're not. Tell me about your wife. Yeah. Oh my gosh. The reason that we get up in the morning.

Coolest classiest thing you'd ever meet. And I still am amazed that she deals with me. Well, Chris is apparently attracted to 6.5. She loves 6.5. She loves 6.5. She a fifth grade teacher, Selma Elementary, Classiest, Coolest thing you'll ever meet in your lifetime. And I need that so sincerely. I'm going to blow how many years we've been married, but it's going to be, we're going to say 35 plus puts me in, I believe it's around 38. Bill, I really don't, those details with everything you'll find that I don't have, I have a dear friend Jason May, who's a state farm agent here in town. He's a brother by another mother, okay?

And he has always made a comment that 87% of everything that I say is true and the other 13%, he just can't remember. And so he just make it up to fill in the holes and build the water to build everything else. And boy, that is probably as true as anything. There's just too much in the memory. There's too much in the hard drive. So I have to erase something to have room to add something in. But I know Chris has taught there guys, 36 some years, some elementary, fifth grade teacher, just phenomenal. She's now been there long

enough. She's teaching students' kids. Yes, she's on second generation. She's on second and with some, just remember, we're in a rural area. Sometimes it's third generation, it was an early breeding schedule. That's great. It just is what it is and that's and she is but she's phenomenal and this whole the thing that we're going to what we'll talk about all of this came about because of her and there's a story there that we'll get into. Right after a few messages from our generous sponsors but first this one's kind of crazy. After only six months, our podcast has been named a finalist for the Anthem Community Voice Awards

for the social contributions that we've helped inspire. Honestly guys, I'm humbled. And Turkey Person Alert here, we're not doing the podcast to win awards, we're doing it to inspire change. But the more things like this that come along, the more awareness of the podcast and the more subscribers and the more people that join the army, and that gives us more opportunity to have more impact. So, This more opportunity have more impact. So, we're asking if you'd be open to help us, that you visit celebrate.anthomawords.com, scroll down to choose the army,

then register and click the celebrate button. It takes about a minute and a half. But we'd love your support to help grow awareness, help grow the Listership to our podcast, help grow the Army. Thanks a lot for thinking about it. We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak

attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social, emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines. And it's almost like kids playing on the playground. Just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it.

Getting the bars, done an excuse, being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast nothing much happens. I'm an architect of Kozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default.

When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys, old houses, bookshops, beaches where kites fly and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us for the Cat Miss Live Music event of the holiday season. Our I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special coming to ABC December 21st, starring Cher, Olivia Rodrigo, Siza, Nile Horan, Sabrina Carpenter, One Republic, Jelly Roll, Big Time Rush, and more. Tune in to the I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special on Thursday, December 21st at 8-7 Central on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. Your wife of 35 plus years call it 38. You and Chris have how many children? Two girls, Katie, my oldest has her first grandchild and has just bought a house across the street from us. So grandma is out of her mind. You can't but 50 yards and I'm going

to have to apologize to the one neighbor because I believe the grand shot who's 11 months old now, the grandchild and my wife have are going to beat a pad, wear a hog path in their yard going back and forth. Now she could go see her literally just walks over and goes, you guys go somewhere to a movie. I got the kid and how does Katie Katie? Um, Katie is 28. Got it. And second daughter. Maddie has married lives two miles from us. So then they're set in their homes. And that's great. We love that they're not going to live in California and Australia. We like love them being that close. We like love it being that close. Maddie, let me see, graduate 16, 25. Got it. So, you got you and Chris married forever. Katie, 28, Maddie, 25, all living in Muncie,

normal folks, do a normal things, live in a life. And your wife, one day, and December of early December of 2004. Which we're talking that's 19 years ago so years don't mean much to you. Came home and said, uh, let's stop by presents for each other. This Christmas, let's do something different. Tell us that story. Yeah, um, well, the story goes, um, I was on the local school board, which is where Maddie and Katie and Katie's husband all teach currently. So I'm in the world of educator. They all teach in the corporation that I graduated high school from and they all graduated

high school from. Um, I came home from a school, I was on the school board back in the day. And I came home from a board meeting. And the deal was that all the principles would send out a sheet for any family that needed help. And you would check the box. Need Thanksgiving meal, Christmas meal, Christmas presents, whatever else you had, comment area, they would check that. And every person in the corporation, no matter what their financial situation, would get one of these sheets. We got one personally, we got one. And you just throw him away if you don't need him, if somebody didn't, they turn him back him. They're supposed to get him approved by the board before they send him out. He did not do that. He's a brand new principal. He sent him out, got him back. The one he submitted had a family on it already filled out. So he submitted it after the fact. So he called

a lot of flat, cut a lot of hell for that. And I just happened having in my board packet. I came home and she said, I don't need to talk to you for a second. The girls are in there. She goes, the girls I've been talking. And she said exactly that. She said, what do you think about buying me for Christmas? She goes, by the way, I don't need another sweater. I said, okay, well, it takes out the girls. Now I'm down to zero ideas. And I said, well, by the way, I don't need another sweater either. She goes, how much money is in your sock drawer? Said, I don't know. She goes, go check. The builders, an old envelope in my sock drawer, I've been there forever. I don't know how old it is. It's over 20 years old. And whenever we come back from a, if we go away for a weekend or we go on a vacation,

whatever cash that I have in my billful, the game is is I just take it change and everything and put in that envelope. And then at Christmas for years we would just take that divided and that's what we would use to buy each other something for Christmas. It could be $70 or a thousand. It never I went there and I pulled it out with a hand at tour. She counts it real quick. I mean, it's ones and five, it's 20s and I'll maybe 100 in there. There's $550 in there. That number is going to come back again to us here in a second bill. There's $550 in that envelope. She said, I think we should quit buying each other Christmas presents With that money and don't buy each other anything else now and let's go out and let's why don't you call one of the schools And get a family see if they can give us a family and let's take that and go buy them Christmas

You're like all right, we can do that now the next day we get a snowstorm of about 13 inches of snow. She takes the $550 and I said, I think that's great idea. I said, I've got one. I went to my board pack, I pulled it out and built. It is the girl that I grew up next door to in Eaton, the little 10 I grew up next door to in eaten the little 10 I grew up my entire life till I was 22 years old.

There was literally the girl next door and her husband had just died of cancer and her daughter is in my daughter's fifth grade class. Wow. The bus weather. They don't have enough to have Christmas. They don't. She's a registered nurse. So they had their paying their bills.

But the cancer took all of their money. So they're just getting by month to month till things, you know, until time. He just died the month before. So they decided that I said, here's one call, call her and ask her if we can help her. And she called they were ecstatic and said, I didn't know what is going to do for Christmas. I just don't have the extra money. And we said, we got it. My wife takes it a list from her that next evening.

As we're driving to Meyer in the freaking snow storm, we get to Meyer. We're the only people at a Meyer store, which is like a wall mark for those that don't know what a Meyer grocery and clothing and cosmetics and everything else store. We're the only people in the store that there's five of the employees sitting on one of the belts of the checkout, trying to figure out whether they're going to have to sleep that night or not, or they should close the store to this 24 hours then and go home. We walk in, kick the snow off and go,

oh lordy, they're like, what are you guys doing here? I said, we have these lists, they go, we're in. So the Meyer family, the Meyer employees, were our first shopping family ever. They went with us. We shopped quickly for everybody. We spent exactly $550. Actually, we spent $500.

There was three kids, two kids, and then the white is surviving white. We spent $400, $450. We took the $100, bought a Myerer gift card so they would have Christmas dinner. And that started the whole thing. They came home. The girls wrapped that stuff all night. The next night we went, took it to him, dropped it off. This whole thing was supposed to be done. It's this including a Christmas tree, everything? Yeah, we had a, we had the worst looking artificial Christmas tree

That we were gonna get away to goodwill and buy a new one and I I worked I went out in the shop one of my shops and made a new stand for it and we had a couple strands of lights So we took the our old Christmas tree the bags of Myer gift card, and my wife had a little Bible, and she stuck the Myer gift card in the Bible, and that's what we took to them. And that started... Well, tell me... This lady's husband died 30 days before this, right? After probably long illness, so not only, are they not having gifts and the celebration

of Christmas, but they're also probably still dealing with a great deal of sadness and loss that they haven't completely moved beyond, right? It was awful. He was a great guy. He had small engineering pair out in his garage and he worked on mowers and anything small, any weed eaters and that kind of stuff. And it was phenomenal. Everybody in the community went to him. Everybody out in that area,

all used him. He was quick. He had it done. He was inexpensive. And he really made a nice living doing it. So they've lost his income, but there was nothing, there was no extra. There was just, yes, it was, it was just pitiful. So they're dealing with all that grief. And so how, and so how, when you showed up with a tree and presents and the gift card, how were you greeted? And I mean, not that point of a question, I'm certain they were happy to see you, but people that need things at Christmas, certainly they're happy to get the things,

but whatever led people to not having enough money to handle Christmas, there's almost always trauma and loss behind all of that. So my question is, you know, did it even dawn on you that you were filling holes more than just the holes under a tree? No, not at all. Your point is exactly, exactly correct. In every situation that we've had that we've delivered to after that.

And I think we get caught up sometimes and we forget that point, Bill, that we get caught up in doing what we do just getting the stuff to them because it's such a crazy thing now. But no, we, I think we thought about it after the fact, but after we all quit crying, both their family and my family, quit crying after 10 minutes, we were actually able to function because it did as soon as you walked in the door, she starts crying because I don't think they actually thought we were going to come. Because of the year. Yeah, I mean, I haven't-year-old, you know, or 36-year-old, you know, adult, then I knew her as a child, but we'd lost touch. I only knew her because I'd heard that he had

passed away and that I forgot, I didn't even know they were husband and wife, and they lived within a mile of us. I didn't even know they were husband and wife, because whenever I, if I dropped something off, possibly for him to work on, she wasn't there, she was at work. I didn't even know that was her last name. So it was a total surprise. So yeah, the whole emotional thing and the trauma,

and they've all had some kind of trauma, job loss, husband loss, fire. We've dropped four, we've served four families this week They've all had some kind of trauma, job loss, husband loss, fire. We've dropped four, we've served four families this week because we call them firebibles. They have a gift card in a Bible that we just take to them. When they have that fire, they just need to get out, they didn't get new pair of shoes, some jeans and a sweatshirt. I mean, they're just trying to survive at that point.

So we've had all that happen literally within the last six days. So here's the thing. That was a great Christmas for you guys and your daughters, your daughters were part of it. Y'all wrapped the gifts together in the garage and you went and did this. But that was in 2004. Yeah. What happened in 2005? My brother and I want to give you a great quote Bill. I mean, I guys love great quotes. Yeah. And big owls got more of them than you can handle. You haven't got enough time. You give me 24 hours. You'll need 25. Givers are not born. They're taught. What we did to finish your to answer your question, what I didn't know what we I didn't know that we were doing. That Chris and I were doing. Thank girl, thank goodness my children have at least one great parent. And then they also have me too. That you know, what we were doing, we were teaching Katie and Maddie to give. And that's what people do.

They follow their parents, they watch Mom and Dad, they watch the grandparents, and they will emulate that with their lives. I think they struggle if they don't see that ahead. That's what, that's what this thing has all become. So, sorry, ask me that next question. Ask me that. 2005. 2005. So first year when it comes home, you get the money out of the sock drawer, you do this thing, it ends up being for someone you knew that you didn't even know what was gonna be. You kinda happened into that because you were on the school board and you happened to have this information.

It just got thrown together in three days. You did a wonderful, good thing for a person in your community. But that's not an organization. That's not an effort. That's just a one-off. But then the next year, what happens? Well, and to continue with that first year a little bit, the rest of that story is, my brother-in-law, his name's John Neiman, just a great person my life has,

just one sibling. John comes in the night that we're getting ready to take the presence. He goes, I want to go with you. This is your one. This is this is your one. So it was going to be one family. And so John is vice president of super value foods in based on it. Well, it was Oscar drugs around here, and then super value foods restaurant and drug stores, and he was living in California. He comes in for Christmas and he stays with us. John comes in, John has a credit card that you can buy a home with.

Okay. All right. I need that little, the limit on that credit card with a bought or home. He could just walked up sweat credit card, walked out and he said, he goes, I won in. I won in, get everybody in the, everybody back in the van, find me another family. I'm in, we're gonna do this again

and we go back and do it again and we me another family. I'm in, we're going to do this again. And we go back and do it again. And we found another family that happened to be at our church. We called our pastor, because it was on the weekend, called the pastor and he was, oh, these guys are struggling. The mother is blind. The father had lost his job. And the two boys were first coming to our church. And then the parents came later on, came to our church and they were not going to have Christmas either. So we go on his credit card. He said, I'm in for the it. Got him a Meyer gift card for food. And we went, now this one, we ding dong dashed him. We went up, they didn't know we were coming. We didn't have permission.

We just knew some things from the pastor that they needed. And we didn't have time and didn't want to interview him. Pastor said that the father probably would not accept the presence, so we had to spoof him. So we went up, rang the doorbell, left the presence, no tree this time, left the presence on the doorstep with the Bible, with the gift card, and then ran like hell back to our cars. Everybody dove in the cars and we took off.

And they never figured it out. The boys came and helped, I think, a couple years later with one of the when the event, they finally figured out who did it based upon what they had heard we were doing later. But they didn't figure it out for a couple years, which was perfect. So you're one, your one is these two, these two, and then year two, the 2005, the word got out. It's a, Muncie's a, is not a small town, we have a large university here, but it also, everybody's connected. We always say that where I, what I was in high school, either said I was related to him or I dated him. either said I was related to him or I dated him.

One, one, one of the two. Well, it's this, it's the biggest small town you've ever seen. Everybody's, you know, you know, you know, you know, wow, there's parts of the country that actually both of those are true, but that's all another. Oh, absolutely. It's a little, it's about five hours from here. It's a little, it's about five hours from here. Yeah. Yeah. Where you're related to him and you're dead.

You're really dead. It's in cousins. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they, but that's another show. That's another show. The, the, the next year, what happened was that just be a church and just via some conversation, the word got out, the word got out and that we had done this. And I was involved with and I had people coming to our house saying, we want in, how do we get in?

How do we do? Here's a check for 5.50. Why don't you talk to all of our friends and then the next year it's seven. Then it's 25. And here we go. And that's it literally had no money, no administrative costs, no nothing involved, no advertising. It was literally word of mouth, just as some friends. And they all then were their first teams that came and have been involved with us since day one. That next year, the third really family that we were going to serve and he is on our board now. He's named Chris Crabs, jazz and photography, local photography business here.

He came to me and said, hey, I think you need to put a name on this. And it was originally going to be called secret dads. And that was what he had talked about. I said, but we're really serving families. He goes, all right, secret families. And what he had, he had someone working for him that was struggling, but was too proud to ask. So he gave me the money, and he knew that I knew this person's mom. He gave me the money. I gave it to the mom

and was not allowed to tell the mom, I'm sorry, the mother of the lady, where the money came from. He didn't want her to know that the employer took care of her. They wanted it to come from me. So all of a sudden, I am the conduit. Okay. What's again, secret families. All day long. And we have to keep it secret. And that's what he said. Give it to her, but keep it secret. And that's where it all came about was that we were going to do all this anonymous, all the families that we serve, we still, I'm the only one that knows who they are.

That's the reality. We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacson five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like

kids playing on the playground. Just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it getting the bars done excuse being a total ****. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like easy listening, but perfection.

If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Katherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast nothing much happens. I'm an architect of Kozy, and I invite you to come spend some time

where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite fly and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you, and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of Nothing Much

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for the Cat Miss Life Music event of the holiday season, our I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special, on the show. rush and more. Tune in to the I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special on Thursday, December 21st at 8 7 Central on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. So what year did this thing become, quote, secret families? How many years in? Probably about three years in Bill. Okay, so yeah, so from this first idea that Chris had that you and your family pulled off that your brother-in-law fell into that year, then you then you do a little more and then after year three going into year four you have a thing now

We have a it's a grassroots thing called secret families. Yep, and the idea is this each family We're gonna raise $550 for and we're gonna provide them a Christmas tree About $400 in gifts about a hundred dollars gift cards so they can buy and prepare a true Christmas meal. Yeah. And it's all in the creative tree if they choose. And it's all anonymous.

Yep. Absolutely not. And it's not only the givers are anonymous, but even the receivers are anonymous. Very anonymous. are anonymous. Very anonymous. Very nice. So it's one not to elicit on the giving side, hey, look at what wonderful things I'm doing

for people, pat me on the back. It's anonymous. So the people that are giving it are doing it simply to do some good. And they're doing it for people that they don't really even know who they're doing it simply to do some good. And they're doing it for people that they don't really even know who they're doing it for because the receivers, we don't want you to feel embarrassed or any of that. So the whole thing's anonymous on both the giving

and receiving side. Absolutely, the, the, all the families, and I would tell this to any of your listeners, which are immense, as I have done the research while totally amazing. And I tell you that I don't want to be remiss. I'm very honored that you'll even talk to me. Oh, the guy I know exactly. No one's got a guy we're looking for.

I know it's what you do, but dude, is I love people, I love success stories in this program. It's a success story because you care about people and you go do things for just folk and dude, that is unbelievable. So anyway, you got to spit down. Yeah, we got to smooch up a little bit here. We're going to be buddies. I'm going to be in the deck. My God, I got to know you.

Yeah, I know. I like it. The families we serve, the filter we have, Bill, is every family we serve has to come to us exclusively from a school principal. Schools and for anybody out there, if you ever want the best filter to make sure you're serving a need Not a want that is a school a counselor and or school secretary They know more than anybody about a community now that is really interesting because You know in sales You always want to get you always want to get, you always want

to build a relationship with the gatekeeper. Oh, that's what I know. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. That's what we call the secretary of the guy that does the purchasing order has been a straight-versistent. But if you build a relationship with the gatekeeper, because the gatekeeper is really the one that the informator, the gatekeeper, typically someone who you don't think of as an integral

part of an organization, but so much information flows to that gatekeeper that if you want to sell somebody in a business, if you get a relationship with the gatekeeper, you will ultimately get the audience you need to go sell something. So that's not a bit, but what you just said is really interesting. You're saying that school secretary, they're the ones that are getting the absentee list, they're the ones that are getting the parent's calls, they're the ones that are patching through

this person and social services to the principal. They're the ones that really do know what, that is so interesting. They see the ones that really do know what that is so interesting. They see the kids coming into school because the kids go right to a classroom in an elementary, right? So they have a relationship with their teacher. They have no relationship with any other teacher in the school unless they had them as a teacher. So they would only have a fifth grader, would only have six relationships with 40 teachers. The secretary is commonality with all 40 teachers. They all report to her. They all vent to her. She is the gatekeeper for them to get to the principal when they're throwing

a fit because they're because something broken their classroom. They go to the secretary. They don't go to the principal. The secretary then either just tells the janitor to go fix it or if it's a major issue, she takes it up the line to the principal. Though they also talk with, they're the ones that when the kid got in trouble or when that kid comes in, if they don't have the right shoes

or they don't have a winner coat, that secretary is the point guard. She distributes the problems to the people that can fix it. So they know she goes to the councilor and she goes, oh, the councilor says this family's got problems. She goes, no, their parents are just idiots. The secretary knows she knows that. she talked to him on the phone. The counselor may or may not have talked to him the phone. They're dealing with the kid at the school. The parents called in and cussed out the bread. The secretary, dad's just an idiot. She's like, you don't need anything. He's got that. He and she all she knows who within those schools she knows the parents that are having

Affairs she knows she hears it all so they are that point person They give us the list and then at that point now here's the thing we know that 98% of everything we knew is serving in need 2% will be a want because they buffalode somebody. They got through, they buffalode that secretary. We miss those. We don't care. It's not my place to judge. It's only my place to serve. I collect the money in good faith. I distribute it in good faith. I'm just the point guard for Jesus. But your people that you serve, you get all of them through the information you receive. Yeah. Anonymously. Yes. Through the secretary and the guidance counselors at the elementary school. Yeah. That has been that has been that time has taught

you that's the best filter. It is. And we started right, we did it from the get go. We just knew that it was a good, and it said, oh, it's a good filter. I take, I took this year, probably over a hundred phone calls, which is typical to me, because I'm very transparent with my information. My email address is out there. I get emails and I have families trying to put themselves on the list, or they're trying to put their sister on the list list or they're trying to put their sister on the list or they're trying to put their neighbor or they know somebody that needs help.

I don't need help finding people. I can find all the families I want. It's just at what layer am I gonna quit cutting? And we try to cut only when it has need, anything below that need level we we're in anything above that we're out. And I tell you, they go, well, you know, I just, I had, we'd spent all the money on this and I said, you're not, you don't fit that, not like that. I don't want you to put it on the, on the list because how do I know that you need something? You say

you do. But if I walk into your house and there's a 105 inch big screen hanging on the wall with the kids playing the PlayStation, you're out. All right, so you collect them through these means and you have, that's a lot of stuff. How many, okay, yeah, how many kids just quick answer on this one? Yep. Because it's a second question coming that I want to hear a lot about. Sure.

How many families did you provide Christmas for this year? 385 families, approximately 2,000 children. Okay. That's just, how many? That's just in my county. We have seven other affiliates also. Okay. Yep. How many gifts per kid typically? Yeah. Three five to six. That's 10,000, 2000 kids, five gifts. That's 10,000 gifts.

5 gifts, that's 10,000 gifts. 2200 rolls of wrapping paper, 250 rolls of tape, no bows because they get torn off. I bought one year out on eBay or a printing company that was going out of business. I bought 30,000 gift tags. Hold it. 30,000 gift tags. We had 100, 100 sheet and I and I had my guy.

We just used up the last one of them this year. I've had 20 almost totally. Oh my god. It was crazy. God. And I paid $25 for him. It was awesome. But the model out is you get together on one day, you wrap this

stuff and you deliver the next. No, it is all done in one day for 385 deliver one day. We start shopping at six o'clock and by four o'clock I'm at a restaurant having a ribeye. Okay. Ha ha. I, but hold on. Yeah. How many people does it take to rap, by rap and deliver from six to four, 10 to 12,000 gifts, 2200. Largest one day charity in the state of Indiana happens in Delaware of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana.

The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana.

The state of Indiana. The state of Indiana. 25 tree team trees tree teams out delivering trees. So we set up 200 Christmas trees decorated Christmas trees for families. I have 72 wrapping teams of 10 people each. I have 70 probably plus shopping teams of 10 people each all shopping at the same time. I have 26 delivery teams out delivering and we take over a Toyota dealership, they shut down a car dealership for one day on a Saturday. Only place probably the United States that have these guys. Now, now like that, they shut it down but sold 10 cars that day, just want to say. And that all happens at the same time. people we had why did they shut down the car dealership? Well, because he because they had people trying to come on the on to the lot and no, what do you?

You know, you as facility to We wrap and deliver out of their facility. It's right across the street from each other. So the I'm going to give you the rat. I'm there. Here's the rabbit trail. So 700 people they put me in a lift, a man lift in the front of my ear because I can't talk to everybody. There's 700 people at the registers all crowd around this man lift to give them the instructions on how much we're going to spend per family or per person.

So we give them all the instructions. We welcome them. I cry. I tell a story, blah, blah, blah, I clap a little bit. We all go, okay, we're ready to go. And then these team, 70 teams with 10 people each launch, and they literally, it, Meyer looks like it's been robbed when we're, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah So I drop $175,000 in four hours, and that's just in the one-myer store here

that we're shopping at. So there's 700 people go out and everything is put in bags. So we have these big bags that I could put you in. And we have these big-myler bags. Every bag has a kid, somebody's name on it. We buy for all children and everybody in the house, grandma's living in the house, grandma gets a present.

We don't want the kids to say, grandma, are you naughty? Did you not get a present? Everybody gets a present. So everybody has a bag, they're all rolled up, they're everybody has a bag, and then there's five shopping lists rolled up with rubber bands around, and there's a family number

Nobody knows the last names of the family, but I'll hold you that's the secret part So that way people shopping they could be shopping for their neighbor We don't want to know that they Pull those bags out and then they have a shopping list. I've had I've got 30 ladies who have interviewed I've had 30 ladies who have interviewed every one of the families, 385 families all got interviewed prior to that. So we have an interview team, we have a data entry team, we have an IT team that does all the routing of all these together. That's all done prior to.

That makes up 150 people. So then it comes over to us. We have all these big bins of these ABCD and E. Those are all of our deliveries that go out, and they deliver three families at a time to deliver. So the shopping goes on, we come through 10 shopping lanes, and they're lined up behind them for 20 yards of carts behind each lane

checking out and we have a team of people that do nothing but swipe thousand dollar gift cards. They just stand there and swipe cards and check them out. If the people go over the limit of 80 dollars a person, the people coming through the line, we either have to remove a gift or they take out their credit card and they swipe it. They can buy as much for anybody as they want. They make up the difference themselves. Yes. And if they don't, they put something back. I've never put anything back. I have to be patient difference. They, they, they, they raise their own money than that they don't give to me. They may have sponsored a family with me for $5.50,

but they come with their own credit card, and I have people that spend probably over probably a thousand to $1,500 because they if they think the lady should have a new pair of boots and they're a hundred bucks, and that's over our limit, they just sweat, they don't care. And so from there, all this stuff goes to this dealership. Yep, it all comes out. Now I have 20 friends with trucks outside of Meyer lined up in front. And those drivers never get out of their truck. Now we're only driving a thousand yards, but it's across the road and over to to a Toyota.

The bag, all these bags come out as a family. They get checked off. They get put in a truck by a ball state baseball team, they load the trucks, the trucks drive over. We have we have another ball state team unloads all the bags and they're set up in rows by one by family numbers one through 50 up through 350 through 400 outside. They're staged outside and And then inside in the showroom, they have cleaned out the entire showroom. There is 26 to 30 wrapping teams. We have three shifts

of two hours each inside the dealership. That's another 300 people per shift inside wrapping presents. And then they wrap for two hours and we throw them out and they have to go then they leave and then another shift comes in. We have so many people wanting to volunteer. We have to do it in shifts to build more places for them. So they wrap all the presents, they get put back in the bags, read, they tie up the handle and then they they'd ball state golf teams, ball men's and women's golf teams and another local high school baseball team Carry them to the back to the service area. They get restaged again for deliveries and then the delivery teams 26 delivery teams come up Take three bag three families and they're off delivering and they deliver they make five runs of

Three bags each and they go out and deliver. All of this is going on at the same time. So, my trees are being delivered, packages are being delivered, others for later deliveries are being wrapped, all the teams are moving on all these bags. So, we'll have 2200 bags that we have and they're just big, large, clear garbage bags that have people's written name to them. Plus, there's a team of 70 people that came the Thursday night before that mark all the bags. Somebody has to put those names on the bank. So we take over at church gymnasium and those people on tables come with, with shark. I'm surprised they're not all high when they leave because all that sharky smell is going on out there.

And build the next night after that, the other thing that people get now, they get a box, they get a toiletry box that has toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, and then there is a group of 30 people that come over to another facility and they packed 400 of these boxes So every family gets toiletries for the month or maybe a cup Razor shampoo the odorant and all that and that was added later on so that that's an add-on to the things that we give them

That's the game. That's the rabbit trail goes on So this goes on and then at four o'clock, we're sweeping up. We wrap everything up. And then the tradition is I take my entire family. My family is not allowed to thump their chest. Be proud. three hundred and sixty four days and twenty three hours a year. We don't we don't we don't we don't want to talk about it. We don't brag about it. We just raise money. I have to raise all that money in six weeks every year. They just work. But one hour when we're done, when we go to dinner, this is my immediate father, my wife, my two girls, their husbands, my little granddaughter. For one hour, we talk about how frickin awesome we are. We celebrate. We talk about one out and I mean everything's on the table and we're in a restaurant and there is and and we're at the boys or whoever would like to have a drink. That's fine. We order rib eyes and we talk about how frickin great we are for one hour. And then when

it's done, when we get up from the table, it's a new year and we start all over again. But we do not allow to talk about that. You need to be humble about this. We give glory. We give glory to God. We're there to serve Jesus that day. That is all we do and that's who we are.

That one hour, I ask for one hour to just talk about. We killed it. We're freaking awesome. You've got, if you don't celebrate once in a while, they're, you know, working toward anything. There's got to be a little bit of a celebration. And we're hugging and high five in and everybody in the restaurants wondering who the hell are these guys. And they're nuts. That's the Holdren family. And it's funny, we did that as a tradition. There's a gentleman in the back. I've got several teams, Bill. There's three or four teams.

I call them sloppers. They're my sloppers. And what they are, they're groups of guys that really don't want to be assigned to a job. So what they'll do anything I ask. A lot of them sometimes ask, could you just go to McDonald's and get me a coke? I have anything to drink all day.

And they, they run down and they come back with some apple pies. Could you go set this one tree up, they got forgot. Johnny didn't get his bag, he got kicked under a table. Can you run that across the country, across the county, I shouldn't say, and drop that bag off? They just do whatever, they fill all my holes for me. There's one of those gentlemen who he happened to be at the restaurant with

his wife when we were there all eating that one year and we got ready to leave and the bill was paid. We paid a $200 bill on that and we didn't know who he was. I didn't know he'd done that. I finally had to get the waitress through Shiraiz to figure out who he was and actually she went and pulled his credit card and told me his name and I knew who it was then at that point. Now, he said, I hear you looked me up because the gal told him next time they came in the restaurant

and said, big Al, who was buying the meal. And I'm like, so now he just comes up and we call it the $200 handshake. So now as he's leaving that evening, he walks up, he's at $200 bills. When we shake hands, there's $200 in my hand. He said, just buy your family dinner. I appreciate you allowing me to be involved with something. We never did anything philanthropy whatsoever. Thanks for allowing me to be involved with something we never did anything philanthropy whatsoever. Thanks for allowing me to be involved with this.

It serves me much better than any of the families you serve. That answers a question you asked earlier. And I think that our volunteers are much more blessed than anybody any family I've ever taken a gift to. Well, I have said a thousand times, the pay off to this kind of work is you get a thousand times more out of it than you put into it. Oh, there is no doubt. And that's a low number. I think a thousand is even a low number.

You are so, you're so right. We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel

for social, emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacson five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint, and they're just putting big axes on machines. And it's almost like kids playing on the playground, just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done and excused being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to Onmusk on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of Cozy and I invite you to

come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite flying and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for the Cat Miss Life Music event of the holiday season. Our I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special coming to ABC December 21st, starring, share, Olivia Rodrigo, Siza, Nile Horan, Sabrina Carpenter, One Republic, Jelly Roll, Big Time Rush, and more. Tune in to the I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special on Thursday, December 21st at 8-7 Central on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. It's interesting that Indiana has a city or town called Santa Claus Indiana. Yeah, absolutely.

Down south. Yeah. And it's cool. If you ever get a chance, go as crazy. Well, and you're 6'2 to 90. I'm just wondering if big owl and Santa Claus Indiana and Muncie are somehow in this weird cosmic twilight way combined? Because Owl, for so many children in your community, you are Santa Claus.

I'd say that's probably a fair statement. We had a great story this year that's continuing, and you're going to love this, Bill. This may be the story of all Christmas stories. Actually, they'll end up making a movie of this. Sometimes you'll be involved with this. You'll be right in the middle of this. Or it should be.

We have a gentleman who I did not know growing up, but I played tennis in high school with his brother, who is the best student. Oh, the 6-2-290, you played tennis in high school. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but that's a whole wow. Yeah, big, big, big biggest tennis player net net. We can play. I can play my daughter Maddie. My young just played collegially for all of that Nazarene in Cancuncule. See, that's that's not 6.5 L. But now in high school, it was 62220.

in high school, it was 62220. I got you. More mobile in a little, a little fewer sugar cream pies, which is a need to kind of. That's fair enough. And I need to send you a sugar cream pie. Have you had your head just? Please do.

No, but I'm certain I would love it. We would love it. Well, Wix makes him over in Winchester. We'll, we'll get some in the mail to you. You'll love it. You'll love it. You'll love it. The story goes, we have the coolest Santa Claus.

I mean, this dude looks like Santa Claus. I mean, I actually believe he is. I think he just moonlights as the parts manager at a Chry uh, at a, uh, Chrysler dealership on the site. But he, um, he has come every year probably for 10 years and he just comes and he's in full battle mode. I mean, he is, he is it and he is, he is the part he never breaks stride, he never breaks it. Even with adults, he talks, it's, it's unbelievable. So he always just randomly picks one of the delivery teams and goes out on, believe me, those 15 families of kids. So he is the first guy up with a bag of presents

over his shoulder on their doorstep. Dude, it is so cool. So this year we have a family that's living in a facility called Christian Ministries and they have a couple of apartments upstairs and it's just that they they provide food and clothing to homeless and anybody can just walk in during the day get a meal and they have these two really really nice apartments up above the second story of this building. That was one of the families we're

gonna serve. My oldest daughter Katie, I get an email from her as she's doing the data entry, the callers put a special note and stapled on it and said, you may want to call this lady. Okay, is that okay? She called her. The little boy is nine years old. The only thing that he asked for for Christmas was a Santa outfit. He wants to be Santa Claus. That's it. No other presents, no nothing else. They end up buying other things too, just really, they didn't give me anything else in there. So Katie, I told Katie, I said, you get on Amazon and you buy one. It doesn't matter what it costs. We, she goes, Dad, we always have a budget. She, these, my girls are real followers. Dad, we have a budget. I said, you have a budget. I have no budget. I do what I want. You remember who she was,

oh, that's right. You're the dictator. I just thought that was on the first Saturday in December. I said, it is and of the and this conversation. I said, buy a nice one. I don't want something paper cheap thing. I want a good one. So she did found one very reasonable, had it shipped to our house, put on my credit card, where we go. So we have to do some moving around because Santa's got some commitments middle of the day, so it's got to be on the first delivery route going out. So we flip-flop some stuff around, and I usually screwed it up a little bit. And so Santa goes out, he's the first family deliver. So I'm going to have my Santa deliver, because this little boy believes, he's absolutely

believes. Santa calls delivered a Santa suit to junior Santa. And see, we don't have pictures of any of these families that we've ever delivered to because we're not a we don't we have we would have to get permission from the schools and the secret families and families. And we don't want anybody to know who they are. So nobody's allowed to take pictures. If the family asks for it or allows it or takes a picture, they can sign off on it, but we don't even ask them. But this little, this lady I ask, I call

to the mom and said, would you be okay if we had some, if we took some pictures because Santa wanted pictures with him with, and she said, oh, absolutely, we don't care. That's that's no problem whatsoever. So we have pictures with him delivering that Santa and the kid ran right into his clothes off, put the Santa suit on, come back out. So there's junior Santa with the big Santa. The mother calls me yesterday. She said, Mr. Holdren, I said, yes, she was, I have a request. My son has asked me something and I know that it's and the kids standing right there. So we have to, her and I have to have this correct conversation. And she was, it's about Santa. I said, oh, yeah,

I said, she was, how busy is he? I said, well, you know, this time of the year, he's got helps making presence and, you know, he's got, he's got me on speaker phone with this little boy. I said, I said, I don't know, we delivered some, he had to get some out of the other day for, hey, the rain deer like Alfa, so we had dropped some, we had dropped some hay off to him. And, you know, he's got, he's working with all the elves and they're all kind of crazy. And you know, so we're playing this up for this kid. I said, well, why do you ask? She said, well, my son would like to have milk and cookies with Santa.

Bill, Bill, dude, winner, chicken, dinner, I don't have, I don't, I haven't got better stories than this. So I call Santa and Santa and he goes, at the park store, you call Santa over the park store. Yeah, because you know, your ram might need a, you know, might need a head gasket. Right. So, I said, Santa, he goes, yes, he said, I said, um, I said Right. So I said Santa goes yes he said I said junior Santa would like to have milk and cookies with you he goes anytime

he said I will take I will whatever you want just tell me when and where and because he's really has a lot of gigs this time that you're in the evening yeah and the weekends and he goes no problem I the weekends, and he goes, no problem. So we've set it up. So she's calling Santa to set it up. And we're going to a local caffeine or even coffee shop to have, and they're gonna come, and he's coming, the kids coming in his suit,

and Santa's gonna be in his suit. And we're gonna go to a caffeine or they have hot chocolate and brownies or cookies, or whatever the kid wants here sometime next week. Now this is a boy. This is a this is without secret families that wouldn't have even had a tree. Wouldn't even have wouldn't have a Christmas tree. They got they've got Christmas tree.

They've got Christmas. It's just him and her mom and one mom and I'm sorry, that's right. She has an older son son there is one older son that's not in the house. He's nine years old wouldn't have had anything whatsoever because they're living in a place that takes care of homeless. So this kid will tell this story for the rest of his life and now you know unbelievable. 2500 volunteers all in one day spending about $150,000 on one day, serving two to three hundred families every Christmas. All because Chris came home one day and said, I'll get the money out of your shop drawer

and let's not spend it on sweaters that we don't need. Let's exact some measure of kindness for a single family. All of that has led to how many families have had Christmas because of this organization today. I went through and I knew you're gonna ask that question, so I did a little math, and this is what we would refer to as out math. Remember the 87%?

Yeah, I got it. Okay, 86 hundred families. I know that we're outside of the rib eye one hour holdings are allowed to admit they're above a 6.5 meal. So we're going to have to break into that for the purposes of the show. Sure. 8600 families now. Yeah. Have you have you and Chris and your family looked yourselves in the mirror and really thought that maybe

the North Pole is in Yorktown, Indiana. I hope it's here and everywhere else. We just hope that it catches fire. You know, it's caught fire here with seven counties here around Muncie, one down in Lexington, Kentucky, because he owns the car dealership that he closes down and Bill Gates who owns that dealership, home dealership and Richmond, I think Bill owns that dealership home dealership and Richmond and he belongs six dealerships

The deal he was that he was up here. They were scouting us Because he knew this was going on. I didn't know who he was I I tried to getting to go around picks and paper up because he was standing outside I didn't know he was the owner of the dealership I never met him And he did him and his crew went over and picked all the paper up through the trash can. And then the General Manager come and said, I'm an air-dution of Mr. Gates.

I said, I'm so sorry. He goes, I'm no better than anybody else. He goes, I said, we're going to do this next year down in Kentucky. We just came up to, we've been following, he followed me all day. I thought he was a stalker. I didn't know what I knew he was.. He said we've been following you all day taking

notes because we want to know how to do this. Can you come down and teach us to what that we've been down and taught him. But he said along those along those lines, how how do you raise the money? We have $150,000 a year worth of gifts at $550 bucks pop. We have a couple fun rangers. We do play a little Texas Hold'em, which is great. So, a little poker tournament running the back of a photography studio, which is great. I have a gentleman who in honor of his brother who passed away who was a provost at Ball State, Bob Morris, Rick Morris, his brother runs a golf tournament and that raises some bill. All of our money comes from sacrificial giving.

And what we ask our goal is we want 400 families, what we ask are for adults to quit buying presents for each other, just like Chris and I did. And take the money that they would spend on each other and give it to me so I can go take care of one family. If I get 400 families to give up the adult buying, buy for the kids, give up the adult buying and give me the money, I have no funding problem at all. We actually have a moratorium on giving.

No company or one individual is allowed to sponsor over five families a year. We have, why do you do that? The reason we do it is because there's other charities in the community that are that are going broke and I want to spread the wealth and I think there's so many other charities that do a lot of other great things, not just at Christmas other time. If they give all the money, I, the story goes, I had a gentleman hand me a $25,000 check, then I return. And I asked him to write me a check for $27.50 and to go to 10 other charities and give them each $25,500. And he did that because they needed the money.

I don't want it all, if it all comes from one place, if I have one company, give me $50,000, and they're not able to help me the next year because things don't go well, or they go out of business, or private equity buys them, or they just sell, I can't replace that, and I've already asked for that many families, I can't replace that, and I've already asked for that many families, I can't replace that 50,000,

but if I have one family, we've lost my mother-in-law this year. Well, I could replace her by finding one more family to sponsor a family, but if she'd been giving me 50,000 a year, I couldn't replace it and I'm in trouble. So I like to build things that have white bases and aren't very tall.

Yeah, you went, you went broad rather than deep all day long and that's what we're in and, and, and you're also asking people to be philanthropic elsewhere not to be a hog of all the money, which is also amazing. Absolutely, and that's, and we want so that we may be the only charity in the world that has a limit on what you can actually donate. And we just want, we want, that gets more families involved, that which is why I, I see I have a volunteer problem, but it's not lack of. I have so many people coming to me, we shut, they shut down our website, taking registrations for volunteers in August.

In fact, we could open it up for a week and it would just be full. I got people screaming at me, I don't have a spot to put them. I say, just help me raise money. The money raising is the hardest of all because, see, we don't start until October. I don't get in everybody else's way up. When it comes October though, you have to get out of my way. And when I start shoving, I shove pretty hard.

But you gotta come to me now. You gotta step up and play right now. I don't, but at the rest of the time, you worry about the other organizations that function somewhere else. And when secret families comes around, I do ask for my turn. We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a

world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also soared chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks. When I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines, and it's almost like kids playing on the playground.

Just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done and excused being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of cozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys.

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So, why is this not scalable in every community in the United States? It is. It is. And I teach them all. I teach them all. It's simple. How do people, how do people find you to learn? They just, they're just going to call me, call me or email me. It's

a holdren at atlascollections.net. They can go out to a secret families, or secret families website is typing secretfamilies.com. You you can pull that up and my phone numbers there you can call me they can reach me at 7657440369 and we'll teach them it's a simple system initially they don't need a lot they just need some the base of what to go do but it is absolutely scalable we do it by counties because that gives everybody a defined geographic to work in. I don't solicit money outside of my county. We think local should take care of local. Also, because I've got all these other secret families, I don't want

to reach into those counties. And I could, I've got clients from my business. I could reach in. If those people come to me, if I have some of my clients, they say, why want to give to you? I go, no, give the Black for County or Grant County, they're in your county. Here, let me connect you with the guy that runs that area and we just drive them to there. Months, he should take care of months. And when we do that, if everybody did that in every community, that would be good. That's what I was gonna tell you, Bill. Don't do the secret, don't do the secrets anymore. Take the $1,100 from the 11, go sponsor two families

and go do what I just told you to do. That's what you go do. I think I'm gonna have to challenge my family how much like Chris challenged you those many years ago. They'll love it, they won't love it. And here's the thing, being who you are and the and just I mean, if you lived and if you lived, if you lived in Muncie, dude, we'd

be, we'd be dear friends. The personality, the personality is attractive to sell. I'm just going, we would be, we would be shooting at the range. We'd be shooting at the range, and probably a little golf being played, I would imagine it would be, it would be, we'd add you into the circle. It would be freaking awesome, but. I gotta take a quick secret.

You'll love it. I have played in the state, regional, and national championships in USDA team tennis myself. No way. Oh my God. I love it. And I am six foot and a half and about 260. How can you imagine the two of us playing together in adult doubles? I'm telling you, we would scare. It would be 500 pounds. That's a lot of beef on one side of the game.

Oh my God. And here's the thing. If we a guarantee you, if we can't beat them on the court, we can beat the crap out of them after them. Yeah. They have no, oh, but you know what? The great thing would be with walking out there. They'd be like,

dude, we're going to run those two big boys to death. And then all of a sudden, when they get schooled, they're really like going, what did all happen? Well, and if we played on clay, can you imagine what we would do to a court, run around on it for two sets? Well, I guarantee you have to resurface it. Oh, I guarantee you'd hear something beeping on the background. That need the truck bringing the extra load in. He's backing it up. He's backing it up right now. Oh my God. I agree, Al.

I think we get along. I've read I got gotta tell you something. You know, you have done exactly what we're begging people to listen to and challenging people to do, which is not only join an army of normal folk, but how you've created your own little Muncie army of normal folk that one day a year get together, 25, 100 people and make Christmas what it should be for verifiably deserving and needy families. And I gotta ask, families get on their feet, do you have served families come back

and then become volunteers in the organization for others? Yes, actually they're back. Is that not the greatest part of the whole story? And see, I don't know who they are because I don't see them. I don't deliver the presence to them. I'm just the general. I'm I'm directed traffic around. I'm I'm pulling volunteers and putting them here and filling holes. So what do they do come out and say thank you for what you did three years ago. We heard a get back. Yeah, we served you served my family over the 20 years. You served my family three years. My husband was abusive to me. We lived in we were living in Christian ministries. We were live. I one guy come up and said I was awful to my family. You served my family while I was living at the Muncie mission because I was a drug addict and

I would didn't want my kids to see it. So I went to live at the mission until I got clean and then I came back and helped. And now here I am back reunited with my wife and my family, but you saved my bacon while I was gone. I was off doing this. I was just, or kids coming and saying, you know, all of a sudden it's been 20 years.

So we served the kid as a 10 year old. He come back, you know, as a 25 year old, sponsored a family on his own with his wife introduced me and said, oh, these guys brought us Christmas. One of every five years we sponsor a family every year. Now, I had no idea he was unbelievable. So just make you feel oh my God. Well, you mean when I quit crying, then I walk outside,

you're going to die and go walk around the side of the dealership. Everybody thought I went around there to use the bathroom, you know, to the bathrooms were full and I'm like, you got to leave me alone. You got to give me big, I don't need two minutes here. I got to get it together. And it's like an easy way to get me to make it. It was I didn't mean to make you mad I said you didn't make me mad you made me proud

Thanks so much, but my gosh. I just Yeah, you just you hear those stories and You just but it doesn't usually doesn't catch up with us till the next day Then we're at home. We're having dinner and we're telling the stories that Chris was like she was did you see Bill did he been looking for you for an hour He's not like a fart in the whirlwind, you know, that day running all over the place, trying to get, I always tell people, you want to talk to me, you got to walk with me

because we're just moving from one point to the other. But yeah, Bill, that's what it's all about. And it really was, here's the thing, the guy that we served, the kid that we served, wasn't being taught by his parents. He got taught by secret families how to give. Now, we've ended the cycle. All I'm trying to do, all we want to do is break the cycle. Fill the hole, be the one year, get out of jail free card, and then have a move on.

My goal is that we have no families to serve. I hope I try to work my way out of a job. I don't want to do it. I'm going to be out. But we know right now that's probably not going to happen. Big Al, president and co-founder with his wife, Chris, of secret families. Well, co-founder, I would say, I think Chris has to get the credit. It was wouldn't have started with her out-her-idea first. Absolutely correct.

And secret families, changing lives and making Chris was better for deserving and needing families in Northern Indiana and an operation that is scalable can be done in a community. And all you gotta do is contact Big Al. Big Al, you're a phenomenal guy. I thank you for joining me and from the depth of my heart and from all of those in Northern Indiana. Merry Christmas.

You too, my friend. Honored to know you. Honored to know you too. You're the best. Love you. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Anytime. And thank you for joining us this week. If Big Out Holdren or another guest has inspired you in general or better yet, take action by donating to Secret Families at secretfamilies.org.

By providing a secret Christmas to a family in your community or starting a Secret Families in your community, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at billatnormalfokes.us and guys I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast rate and review it. Become a premium member at normal folks.us. All these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Merry Christmas everybody. I'll see you next week. Walter Isaacson set out to write about a world-changing genius in Elon Musk and found a man addicted to chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social

emotional networks. The book launched a thousand hot takes, so I sat down with Isaacson to try to get past the noise. I like the fact that people who say I'm not as tough on musk as I should be are always using anecdotes from my book to show why we should be tough on musk. Join me, Evan Ratliffe, for On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Listen on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much.

Like Easy Listening, but for fiction. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai and I'm an architect of COSI. Come spend some time where everyone is welcome and the default is kindness. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the Village of Nothing Much

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for the Cat Miss Life Music Event of the holiday season. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. one republic, jelly roll, big time rush, and more. Tune in to the I Heart Radio Jingle Ball Special on Thursday, December 21st at 8-7-Central on ABC, and stream next day on Hulu.