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Martin Altersitz HOBY, Habitat For Humanity volunteer!

Connect with Martin Altersitz!

Hoby.org

@PAeastGroupD

Listen as Martin talks about how he transformed his life from being an introvert to becoming a teacher!

Buy Cage the Elephant’s Shake Me Down

Episode 10

TRANSCRIPTION

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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire

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you

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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who’s living their dreams

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yeah

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welcome to jerz podcast on your most Joe
part of and today I’m interviewing for

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it was living history through
volunteering at each welcome to the show

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Martin

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Hey Joe thanks for having me today
thanks for being on let’s get started by

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giving the audience some background
about yourself

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well I’m 29 years old went to kings bay
regional high school from there went to

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stockton state college where I studied
communications from there wasn’t really

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sure to do and moved home i got involved
with a couple of volunteer programs

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which led me to the education field and
now I’m an educator so what would you

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say inspires you the most

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what inspires me the most is probably
the just helping out when I see the way

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that people’s faces light up and the
things they learned and can do after

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we’ve worked with one program or another
whether it be Hopi which is the hero

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Brian youth leadership or habitat for
humanity

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they’re both very different
organizations but I mean that inspires

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me because I’m helping someone either
change their life or I’m changing their

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life as far as education being a teacher
goes just the satisfaction I get from

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you know a child learning a new concept
just seeing their their eyes lit up

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because they grasp fractions or they
grasped the concept of an adjective

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versus an adverb so it’s just nice to
see that I’m making a difference

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somewhere that’s really nice how did
your dream come about

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like i said when i graduated from
stockton with my communications degree i

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came home and was very very unsure what
I wanted to do i got involved with a

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couple different jobs if I’ve had a lot
but eventually I i got involved with

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your body needs leadership which is a
leadership seminar for high school

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sophomores I’m where they learn
different leadership abilities and

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skills they get to meet people from the
media political figures other volunteer

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activists and that sort of gave me this
drive to to want to change children’s

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lives and I want to be a guidance
counselor I went to visit my old

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guidance counselor she was like well you
know if you want to be a guidance

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counselor should probably in the
classroom first I said ok what do you

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recommend to you as well as couple
positions here so i got the classroom

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you know I think three or four days into
being a paraprofessional or teacher’s

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aide i said i don’t wanna be a guidance
counselor I want to be a special

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education teacher uh and I start I just
ended up sticking with the volunteer

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program Hobie and with my you know my
dream of being a teacher

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and from there things just sort of kept
spiraling and i got involved with

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Habitat for Humanity and it was just
it’s been great how was your dream

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received by your family members when i
first started a hobie um my mom was

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super excited because I was never a kid
to get out and do much even when it came

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to summer camps or or any kind of sports
it was not very outgoing as a little shy

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sort of reserve you probably say
introverted so my mom thought it would

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be a great idea and she was really
pushing for I had no desire to do it

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when it was first offered to me my
sister sign me up and even forged my

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signature to make sure i could go and
that i would go and I mean luckily i

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ended up loving it

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when I found out I want to be a teacher
I mean my family was just ecstatic in my

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I’ve been being pushed to be a teacher
since I was probably ate my mom was a

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was a teacher principal superintendent
my dad was even in the education

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business for a while so it was you know
that was well received when it came to

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doing Habitat for Humanity my mom wasn’t
super excited that I be leading 30 may

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be in charge of 30 college students let
alone be out of contact in the middle of

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Kentucky you know for an entire weekend
that wasn’t she wasn’t super excited

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about it when i came back and told her
all the amazing things that went on she

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was much happier about it

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so what steps did you take to get
started with volunteering and then

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education later on like I said with the
volunteering I was sort of thrown

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headfirst into the deep end into a
program that i had no idea what it was

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you know the first day were jumping up
or cheering and you know making up these

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different chance and it was it was
overwhelming but when i realized that i

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loved it i said ok let’s keep going

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so when I wanted when I finally decided
that I want to be in guidance or

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education i went to do some research on
the internet i looked at Rowan’s

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graduate programs i looked at other
graduate programs i finally decided on

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one in delaware mainly because it was an
accelerated program so instead of having

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to do three or four years because they
had no education background for my

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college classes i was able to do it in
two years and not only receive my

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teaching certificate but for regular I’d
but also for special education to and

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from there it just sort of you know the
steps are

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are tougher because then just like any
job you have to go and have to interview

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you have to find a school that you know
like your credentials and you know

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sometimes it’s who you know and luckily
i have some people who know some

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educators so it was a it was nice to go
on a lot of interviews and finally

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figure out what I couldn’t couldn’t do
so there any verb block starting with

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your volunteering and also grow box did
you hit with your education path

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well with her with volunteering the
first roadblock was not knowing what I

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was getting myself into

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it’s very difficult to say alright I’m
going in I know what I’m doing when you

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have no idea what you’re doing

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i mean i looked around and i had the
table of eight students who were sort of

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looking at me going ok what’s next and
i’m looking at every other table going

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alright what’s next

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because i had no idea but uh you know
and that’s difficult being sort of the

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new be the new guy up and finding your
way but now I’m seen as a veteran and

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you know I’m actually lead all an entire
section of people who do the same thing

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i do so it’s you know once you get over
the robots is no big deal with Habitat

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for Humanity the roadblocks are you know
i’m driving a 15-passenger van with 10

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college kids crammed into it you know on
roads that are you know what most people

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see as one lane on the side of a
mountain

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you know and it’s two-lane road so the
obstacles there are you know geographic

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ones you know you’re you’re in a place
you don’t know with a bunch of people

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you don’t know driving a van that you’re
not used to after that it’s pretty

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simple once you get to your destination
you start to talk to the kids and

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develop a rapport I don’t call kids
they’re college students you know you

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start to develop this report and you
know those those obstacles roblox sort

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of diminish with education

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I mean obviously you have you have to go
through classes and i would say the

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biggest obstacle roblox that you face is
when you’re done your classes and you

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get into a classroom you realize that
you’ve learned almost nothing you know

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nothing in that classroom can teach you
how to deal with a truly irate parent or

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a child that what’s themselves nine
times out

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and you know so these are things that
you have to learn just within your first

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couple years and and really develop a a
whole new system what you thought was

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going to work and what actually works

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so is there any parts of your dream that
hasn’t quite worked out for you or the

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way what you expected it to there are
plenty of things that don’t come to

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fruition especially when you have
expectations so one of the biggest i

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would say parts that doesn’t really come
to 2b is when you have scheduling

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conflicts you know I want to do 34
homies in a year but I don’t have that

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time to take off work or maybe I’ve
already taken too many days and i can

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only do one whatever it may be for like
Habitat for Humanity they changed the

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date this year so i simply can’t go
because it’s in the middle of a week in

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may in fact they’re there right now so i
hope they’re having a fun time you know

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so it’s really scheduling with the
volunteering and like I said with the

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teaching it’s it’s really you have this
entire expectation that you see in your

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head of what your classroom is going to
be how it’s going to be run and you know

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you’ve got it all ready to go and in
five minutes completely shut down by one

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kid so you really have to go with the
flow when you’re an educator when you’re

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a teacher so a lot just doesn’t happen
and you have to be ready to to either

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change what you’re doing or go with what
is going on

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so if you were stranded on a desert on
with your family what are three things

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you would bring well as i mentioned
before I do I was kind of introverted

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when I was younger and i still have
those tendencies

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I mean with my family that’s great
because I get the interaction that I

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would need but i would need some time
away so i would definitely say would

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need my ipod with endless battery a
great book it could be my favorite book

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it could just be a brand-new book as
long as it’s good i don’t care and my

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surfboard is you know from one island
don’t want to be able to get on those

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waves

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do you have any dreams for the future
yeah i mean my biggest dream is to do

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more and more hobbies in different
states and different sites supposedly

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Alaska is starting one and i would love
to get involved with that any volunteer

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programs that i could do overseas would
be welcome

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you know even if i’m not getting paid if
i had to pay my way I go

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I just to see some of the world to be
able to help someone you know across the

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world would be would mean the world to
me

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so those are my big ones so do you have
any last thoughts you’d like to share

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yeah if there’s anything that you want
to get involved with and that even

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remotely piques your interest i would
say that you should do it

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I know river winds is doing a thing they
call i can wear teaching you know kids

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with disabilities to to ride bicycles so
I’m getting involved with that I have no

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idea if I’m gonna like it i’m sure i
will but i’m giving it a shot

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you know what’s the worst that happens I
don’t like it and I don’t do it again

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but you know so if there’s something
that you see and you’re like you know

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what that looks pretty cool just go for
it especially if it’s a volunteer

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program gonna be making a difference in
someone else’s life

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the big thing is it makes you feel good
to sort of the little secret about

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volunteering is yeah everybody else you
make someone else feel good but in the

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end it really makes you feel better and
good about yourself and I think that’s

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really where it’s at

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with the bicycle volunteering let me
know when you’re gonna go do that

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because i’d like to try to if I can
schedule it i’d like to be able to be

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there

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yeah we can coordinate data uh look at
the dates again we can pick and just go

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together so that would be awesome

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alright i was their twitter or facebook
page or website you’d like the plug

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well if you want to check out what hope
is all about you can go to Whole b dot

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org i’m sure i think it’s faceboook
backslash Hobie you can do that too

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as for twitter there are probably
hundreds of different holy sites so

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finding one would be difficult maybe the
one by you you could find but my

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personal one if you want to see what
we’re doing this coming weekend is at

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$TIME p.m. east group d at PA like the
numbers are the different numbers the

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letters P and a group d the letter D and
that all have pictures and status

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updates about what the kids are doing at
that moment and you know how they’re

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enjoying it how they’re receiving it
that sort of thing and i usually keep it

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so that the parents can see what their
kids are doing for the weekend because a

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lot of these kids have never been away
from home and not only is it up for the

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kids

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sure they don’t care after a while with
the parents

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can be tough one so it’s nice for them
to see what’s going on but you guys can

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always check it out and see what we do

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well thank you so much for coming on the
show are and i really appreciate it

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not a problem thanks for having me thank
you for joining us for this episode of

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the dreamers podcast follow us on
twitter and dreamers podcast join us on

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like to be a guest on the dreamers
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. co this podcast is copyright 2014 by j
parr . comb

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