Built Union Strong: Marc Fucarile’s Story

Marc Fucarile, a union roofer and survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, shares his story of resilience, recovery, and the strength of union brotherhood.

From the jobsite to life-changing adversity, Marc talks about what it means to rebuild, stay grounded, and keep moving forward.

Through the M.A.R.C. Foundation, he’s now helping others facing serious challenges, providing support and real resources when it matters most.

Learn more or support the mission: marcfucarilefoundation.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

What do you think of this little studio? I love it. This is pretty cool, right? This is this is uh was a little broom closet or shirt closet, storage closet for the longest time. She emptied it and built this little studio and uh put it together for us. I'm telling you. Like right?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah. This is I seen you doing it. I'm like, that motherfucker. But it's good for the guys. Yeah, it's good for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yeah, just trying to get more um have conversations. It's the future. The way we approach uh conversations with our members, you know what I mean? This is where everybody's at. They're all listening to podcasts. Everybody everybody's watching videos, nobody's really fucking reading shit.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You're behind, you're behind the fucking you're behind the eight ball if you're not out in front of it. That's right. And this is out in front of it. Yeah. 100%. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, I know we've been trying to put this together for uh a few months, but uh I'm psyched. I'm psyched here.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Dude, you're world traveling, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

You're everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I know. I'm leaving, you know? I'm leaving on the 15th after my mom's um surprise birthday party uh on Saturday when then Sunday morning, man, I'm fucking on the road. Yeah. I literally drive back, I'll be back in Texas on March 18th. Yeah. So what do you what do you get?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Kind of dual residences? You're living in Texas half the time, back here half the time?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I'm up here, I'm up here probably 65% of the time. Yeah. I have to be. I have my son, I have 50-50 custody. Yep. So uh I've been up here since February 5th, 16th. I got back. Yeah. So I'm leaving after 30 days. Yeah. You know, so and then I'll be so then I'll go I'll drive back down to Texas. I'll get there on the 18th in the RV. And then I'll drive right up on the 22nd. We're gonna head up to California, Long Beach. Oh, wow. And we have the expo uh for four days. I have to set up and then three days of the expo, and then we drive back, two-day drive back to Texas. I'll be in Texas till about April 12th, maybe 11th, 11.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

So let's talk about the expo a little bit. Just about about Mach Network, and we'll do kind of a big circle. We'll kind of be all over the place if you're okay with it. Obviously, Mark Fucarillo, Marathon Bombing Survivor. Let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back to April 15th, 2013. And you know, we can talk as much as you want to talk about uh into up to all that you've been through, and then where you are now and what's going on with mock network and you you know what you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

We um so yeah, April 15, 2013 is when my life changed, you know, forever. We all know here in Boston what happened on that day on Patriots Day. Um I was working for a union roofing and cheap metal company, yeah. Marshall Roofing, you know, one of the best, Bob Marshall and Mike Kelly and Robin up there. Uh great company, family-owned business, amazing. Uh we had a ton of work in Boston. I was working for them. Uh Monday we had the day off. A group of buddies of mine gave me a call, JP, and asked me if I wanted to go to the marathon, and initially I said no. You know, and then he began to tell me about our buddy, Mike J, who we went to high school with. Uh Mike J was a couple years younger than me, but he went into the Marines and uh he was in the Marines for a while, and he had just got his retirement. He retired out of the Marines, and um he was gonna be running the boss, the marathon. So, of course, I was like, Yep, I gotta go support Mike J, like the right thing to do, you know, everything he risks for our country and for all of us. So it was like eight of us that went in to go meet up, and we all met up at the forum restaurant, right in front of the forum restaurant on Boyleson Street.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

And we were hanging out, trying to make up our minds, like where to go grab a bite to eat, grab a drink, because we got there a little early, and Mike J was a little bit later in the you know, the corral. So all of a sudden, bang, the first bomb went off. You know, we all looked down the street. It was so you were right there at the finish line. So we were 300 yards up from the finish line at the forum. So we're on Boylleson Street. I mean, it's only a short run there. Uh so we heard the first bomb go off. We looked and it was huge. Man, it was oh wow, it was big. Like the cloud of dust and smoke and stuff was crazy. And 12 seconds later, second bomb goes off.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Right next to my right leg. And you know, I wake up on the ground looking at the sky and trying to get up. And, you know, through videos and pictures, I could see what you know what happened better.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So you were awake, you were conscious.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

I was in and out of consciousness. Was your head ringing? Was your oh it was it was bad.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

You can't imagine the chaos. Never mind. It's part of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, nothing was in color. That's the only thing I can remember. Really? Like it was just gray, you know, and I don't know if it was from the smoke, because I was on fire. Yeah. Um I watched the video through the FBI, the actual camera footage from the forum restaurant in another location, um while I was in the hospital to because they were questioning me about who everybody was around me, because me and the uh bomber actually had an interaction because he kept pushing me because I kept getting too close to where his bomb was. Shut up, really. Yeah. So they were asking me, like, who is he? Who is he? And I didn't understand why they were asking me that. And they only played the video to a certain point. And one of the times they showed me the video, it passed by that certain point, and it was me pointing over my shoulder after tapping my buddy, and I was like, Oh, I was told JP, like, this guy keeps bumping me. Yeah, and that's when I'm like, that guy bumped me, and I told him to stop bumping me because they were wondering what I said to him. And I was like, I don't even know who he is. Yeah, and then when I realized by by my actions in the video, it reminded me of what happened. Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Do you actually memory memory remember it, or was it just like you're watching the video going, okay, it's coming back to me now?

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Yeah, it came back to me. Yeah, that helped because my brain injury's severe. Like I did 12 weeks of speech therapy to learn how to talk again and complete a sentence. I still struggle a lot uh keeping my focus, you know, uh with the brain. I'll always have that brain injury. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

So um, yeah, my leg was amputated instantly at the scene. Jesus. Uh luckily um I mean, someone came to the city. Jimmy Davis, Kayla Quinn, and there was a firefighter uh from the local the close fire station that had came down. Uh Kayla Quinn actually stepped over me. She didn't think I was alive because I was unconscious at that time. She was trying to get, from what I remember, she said she was trying to get to Lindsay Lou, but there were so many people around her. Yeah, um, she couldn't get in, and she noticed like she wasn't gonna she she she wasn't gonna make it.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Uh she's a nurse, it's Kayla Quinn.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Uh so Kayla But she was at the finish line. She was across the street, yeah. And her and another off-duty nurse rushed in to help people. They were just watching. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a there's a couple guys, a couple people I've met that were paramedics and that were off-duty nurses and doc that were there that just ran in to help.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Thank God.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Um, yeah. My buddy from him and his son. Yeah. Uh they Ron and uh his son, Ron's a military guy and a medic, and so he ran over. And I've met him now. We developed a lot of good friendships out of the people that jumped in to help.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Um, you know, and that's what a lot of- She put a tourniquet on you?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

So she came over right away, recognized what was going on.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, then she recognized I was still on fire, had to get the rest of the pants off me, this, that, the whole, like, yeah, she was keeping me calm, she was talking to me.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Uh, just amazing. And um, you know, I just kept saying I wanted to see my son. You know what I mean? And that was that was the big thing that day. They Jimmy Davis and Shayna threw me in a uh, they they got me into a one of the the guys from the Boston Police Department, I actually finally just met him last year at the Red Sox, leaving the Red Sox. He grabbed me, he's like, hey Mark, I want to introduce myself. He's like, I'm glad I made the decision I made that day. He's like, I've never been able to talk to you about it. Um, but he's like, I had to make the call whether to put you in that paddy wagon to have Jimmy Davis take you to the hospital or wait for an ambulance, and I'm glad we just made the call. Just get in there and get it. I was like, that saved my life. Yeah. Like I was I wouldn't have been there. Mass General. Mass General, yeah. Yeah, and then Dr. George Varamos and a few other doctors over there like stabilized me, saved my life, and it was crazy. The last thing I remember was the the doors opening up.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

And then just people being there, and that was it. Yeah. Yeah. I remember bouncing my head off the you know, the ride.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah, so you I mean you were standing next to your buddy JP, who was also and Paul, his brother Paul, too. Right, that's right. The Norton brothers, yeah. And their um amputees as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, so that day there was roughly around 265 injured people. Yeah. Uh, roughly, uh, depending on the statistics you say. Were you all up and down the whole marathon stretch from both bombs? There were 17 amputees, and three people passed away that day. Um and we were three of them.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

And you were closest to the bomb going the second bomb that went off. Yeah. No one was closer to it than you. Um in the in the Richard family.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Probably the Richard family would be. Richard family was on one side and you on the other. I just showed you the video, right? Like you could see how close that was.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I mean, it was Yeah, yeah. I mean, I watched the video. It was my head, the tree. And that was the bomb was there. I mean, you you've seen it a million times, and I've I have not, and I tell you, it's that's it turns your stomach. It really makes you kind of sick to your stomach. Uh seeing it live like that. Oh, like, holy shit, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, people forget.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

You know, uh, and you just saw what happened in New York with the guy that threw the two pipe bombs, those two guys that do the pipe bomb, right? I mean, it's it's a reality, it's a sad, it's a sad, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

I mean these trigger some fucking emotional anxiety, huh?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, I mean, you know what it stems from. It's like everybody wants to do good, but sometimes good being good or doing good gets in the way and takes and hurts some innocent people. Yeah. Right? You think you're helping, but you never know, right? In the in the real scheme of things. You know, that's you know, there's all that controversy about open borders and policies with our country, unfortunately. Um you know, i it's a tough situation and it's a part of our life now. It's unfortunate, it's sad. Um you know, I love looking at those pictures and videos because you know, sometimes we get caught up focusing on the bad, right? And we forget about the good. Right. And in those pictures and videos, it shows all the people that rushed in to help. That day, two bad people did bad things. Yeah. Um but then hundreds of people rushed in to help.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

And then millions of people days later that supported us.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

You know, so the good outweighs the bad, and unfortunately we get caught up on that, you know, as a community, as a country. Yeah. You know, I witness it even in the unions, right? Like you guys, like I work for a union roofing and sheet metal company, right? And you see the carpenters hate the roofers, right? And they're fighting, right? Like at the end of the day, everybody's just trying to feed their family. Everybody's trying to work, right? We're all in the same boat. And you know, it takes more effort to fight than work together. Yeah. You know, um, you know, and that was, you know, we talk about all the good, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, the division in this country or in in our neighborhoods or with our friends or on social media, but then, you know, you look at how people were brought together by something that's so terribly and tragic that happened, and you look at it at a different lens. I'm they are sick to my stomach, oh my god, and you'll go and look at all these people that came to my rescue. And I said, What what a what a lens it is to look through. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

It's you know, it takes you a while to get there. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Um it's easy to be negative, it's hard to be positive, and you were you know, what happened to you was such a bad thing, yet you get you're so positive. I don't know how you do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, it's you know, I have my moments at the same time, but it's like, how can I be mad when so many people support me that don't know me? Yeah, you know what I mean? That was like waking up and in the hospital and being like, hey, I need my laptop, I need to pay these bills because I was working on my credit to go buy a house. You know what I mean? And I needed to keep my bills up to date. Like the first thing I went to was and they said, Don't worry about it. People taking care of your bills. And I'm like, what? And and then that moment on, people were doing fundraisers and benefits and yeah, all this great stuff. And now you like us, not just me, but I know JP and Paul too. Like, we took on this responsibility to succeed for those people that supported us. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

What a great way to think about that.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Like, you know what I mean? It's it's like our relationship, you know. Well, my relationship with Local 103 really truly began back in the day with Marshall Roofing, being on job sites, giving a pick to the electrical guys, getting them up on the roof, getting their stuff up there, getting, you know, um instead of waiting for the elevator all day, you know, um, helping each other like at the loading dock. I'm there, I'm not gonna stand there and watch this guy unload it in freezing cold weather with no gloves. I'm gonna give him a pair of gloves, you know. And those were stories that when I needed that addition on my house, and you know, consigly showed up to manage it. Yeah, you guys donated employees to come and wire and do all the electrical, and you guys encouraged and got companies to donate the electrical supplies, and the roofers did my roof, you know. Um, the heat and the plumbing did my heating, you know, and stuff. Yeah. And it was all that support that I received. And and those guys all came to my house, like random dudes on their days off.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

We were at my house stripping the siding off my house to get ready to cut through the walls and take the windows out and replace doors. And they all heard stories about running into me on the loading dock, you know, or something that I'd helped them with, like a hard hat that they had gotten stolen out of their job box, and now their boss is sending them home because he doesn't have the safety gear. Well, I had the credit cards, and I was always the one that supplied the safety gear for the roofers. So when someone's getting yelled at and he's cussing and walking off the job, and I'm like, What's the matter? He's like, Wow, my heart hat. Someone took my heart out, now I'm getting sent home. I'm gonna lose a day. I need that money. I'm like, I got a hot hat for you right here.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Like, what do you mean? Like, get back to work.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Yeah, the camaraderie in the trades. Yeah. You know, from a simple, hey, I got a hot hat right here, I got a pair of gloves for you, to giving you a pick to the roof to showing up at your house when you're in the hospital and trying to get it. You're trying to make a difference. I did all that when camarader is just second to none. And people, most people don't understand it, but it really is what makes the union so strong. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

And then it's it's sad when you see guys fighting too, right? I mean, and that happens. We all have tempers, we all have odd things. And, you know, but I did all that unexpected to receive anything back from any of that, you know. And um, but I was blessed with all that, and and like I said, it really shows like our community of like what were really truly the good outweighs the bad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

After after the obviously after the explosion at the marathon uh finish line, you went to the hospital and then you went to rehab. You didn't go home right away. How long were you in the hospital and then how long were you at rehab?

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah, that was that's like a lot of people don't know. You know, the city did do a good job trying to tell everybody we were good. Yeah, you know. Um but it wasn't we had some arguments. Yeah, we had some arguments with some of the news stations that were trying to like, oh, everybody's doing great. It's like we're all looking at each other.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

There are people lost my friggin' leg, I'm not doing great.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, where people were still having surgeries to lose legs and lose limbs. You know, like um, you know, me and Jessica um Kenskey, you know, um we're fighting to keep our left leg, like I rather she was keeping a fight her right leg. I was keeping a cut keep my left leg fighting, like we were trying to figure this out. Yeah. And uh and then there was Rebecca Gregory. She lost her leg a year later, yeah, right? And she was fighting that whole time to keep her leg. She was a girl from Texas. Yeah. Now she has uh Rebecca's Angels, it's her nonprofit. Yep, you know, uh, so I did three and a half years in and out of hospitals before I was really on a prosthetic leg back to kind of normal. Yeah, three and a half years. Jesus. I actually got blessed with um being able to go down to Walter Reed in 2015 for a year. I had to live down there away from my son. Yeah, Jesus. It was not easy, you know. And but through all this experience, I learned so much. Yeah, you know, to where we where I am today and why I do what I do. So obviously they took your right leg right away.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Right. My leg was amputated at the scene. It was right, there was no there was no saving it. So they amputated, you were you lost it there. And then I know we when we talked and we first met back, you know, 10, 12 years ago, I remember you were still having a lot of issues with your left leg, and it was up in the air whether you were going to be able to keep your left leg. And I see that you you have the brace on almost looks like you're you're wearing a prosthetic almost on your left leg, but that's not your actual leg, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Yes, it's severely re-recreated, many surgeries later. Yeah. Um, I have some serious arthritic pain in it every day.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Um I know you got the scars on your leg, and and you still you guys you have shrapnel still on your leg?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Covered in my whole body. It's in my heart, actually. It's in my right atrium. I have um nails in my bicep, nails in my abdomen, I have BBs up and down.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

But in those pressure cookers. Yeah. Fucking motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, it was crazy. Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

It was you know, there's I mean, you're you're still dealing with the physical. Oh, I mean you'll be dealing with the rest of your life. There's no question about it, but it's just not like, okay, they cut your leg off. Now here's a here's a prosthetic, you're on your way.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

You're you're No, it's like all of a sudden you can't wear a prosthetic for six months. Right? It doesn't fit because your leg's like so my leg was I didn't just have one amputation the day of the marathon. Like, and then when I got to the hospital, they amputated it. I had five revisions. That means I had five amputations. Like they had a cut bone because it got affected. I had a wear a wound vac inhaled from the inside out for months. I was 45 days in the ICU at Mass General. I never should have left there. They moved me and rushed me out of there just to say that we were all out of the hospitals. I was told I would never leave the hospital with a wound vac or an open wound. I left with three. Jesus. And I went to uh Spauld and rehab. Um, which was funny because Marshall Rufen did a section of the roof at Spauld and Rehab, and I brought every material to that job site, you know. Before that. Before that. Yeah, right before the wheel, right? The new one. It did leak. And it wasn't our section, though. It wasn't Marshall's section. It wasn't. My boss, my boss made sure that you'd have to edit the spot up for uh for Marshall's. And uh, you know, I I ended up there. It wasn't even open when the bombing happened. It opened up shortly after. And some of the survivors, I was in the hospital for so long. Yeah, like I was able to go to the new hospital.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Um how long were you in the rehab? You said 45 days in ICU, 55 days at the rehab.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

And then I and I was doing day surgery from rehab back to the hospital, back to rehab same day. They just kept doing that. Yeah, kept doing that. And you want to talk about like communications, like the person at the hospital didn't like the person at the rehab, and they wouldn't communicate. So I would so you know you have to fast before you're going for surgery. They gotta do all this blood work. Like, this is stuff that people don't know about what we went through because we don't lie and sound like complainers, right? But uh the reality is it's um Dude, you're a hero, you're not a complainer. Don't worry about that, you know. The fight was a lot of unnecessary days of fighting that shouldn't have been because of people's egos and people just arguing. Bullshit bureaucracy type shit, yeah. And I would show up at the hospital, right? I mean, you know the Boston streets. Yeah, yeah. I'm in physical pain. I have skin grafts where they shaved my skin off my back. Yeah. And I have these bandages that are stuck to my back, and it just hurts to lay down. And I'm laying on a gurney like on the stretcher, and I'm bang, bang, bang, bang, going over these bumps, and it everything hurts. And I get there and I haven't eaten, they take in blood. I hate my needles, my veins are collapsing because I've been so stuck in probes so many times. I uh and I hate needles. And they have to do that before surgery, check all your levels and everything. And I get to the hospital and my doctor comes in and goes, Why are you here? We canceled this a week ago. And it's like, oh, the communications were so messed up. I was in Spauldon and they were giving me medications that I was definitely allergic to. They were trying to. I had to have advocates sleep and stay in my room. Family members had to take turns staying, so I didn't get medication in the middle of the night. They were trying to wake me up and give me medication in the middle of the night. And I mean, I was on 86 pills a day, Lou.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

86 pills a day when I got out of the hospital. I'm on none.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I'm on a whole different medication now. I'm on my cholesterol medication and my allergy medication. Back to normal. Back to normal. Back to normal shit, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And those 86 pills that weren't even taking those back then. They just pump you like of unnecessary stuff for like in the I bet you have some of it though, you need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Some of it I needed at the time.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

At the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

100%. Your body used to me.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, and a lot of the pills were to counteract the other pills and kind of it was it was scary. It was it was a doctor at Walter Reed that looked at me and said, I had my list of uh subscrip uh prescription medication, and uh he said, That's what's gonna kill you. Yeah, yeah, right. That's always what kills people, right? It was my list was crazy. Yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

You were laying in the bed, the hospital bed, and you you don't know. You mean just got there, you've been there a couple days, maybe. We did you ever have doubts that you were gonna make it out of that hospital? Or did you always know that I'm I'm I'm surviving this thing, I'm getting past it.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, it it didn't even you know, never crossed my mind. Like I don't know if it was just didn't have the time to think about it. Yeah. And I was so heavily medicated, look. Like so heavily medicated. Like people walked in my room and walked out because they're like, That's not Mark.

unknown 21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Like I was unrecognizable. Yeah. Like my whole face was burnt. Yeah. Like like Black, like like a marshmallow.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Like it was bad. Um, and it's hard to see now, but like you could see the scarring under you know my beard and stuff from some of it.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

But I know you showed me the the scar in your hand.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yeah, that was taking my belt buckle off. Just to reach the belt buckle, yeah, because you're both. Just to get the rest of my because my pants was what was left of my pants was still on fire. Yeah. But laying in that hospital bed, man, it was it was, you know, we were blessed, and and this is like a big part of what I'm doing is Semper Fi gathered a whole bunch of different combat and just wounded veterans, soldiers that showed up to our rooms to talk to our families, to explain to them that like just because they're an amputee doesn't mean their life's over. Yeah. And they were there to answer questions and show our families. So that's community. Yeah. Right? Like it just shows you the importance of it. And it made everything so much better for all of us. For me, for JP, for Paul, yeah, to see people and be like, wow, you're okay. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna be okay. You were in the hospital with you in the hospital, the same hospital with those guys? No. So JP and Paul, even being brothers, we're in two different hospitals. Yeah, the distribution of patients was amazing. Yeah. By whoever orchestrated or however that played out was definitely something special. Yeah. Because they made it so it was always manageable for all those hospitals. If this had happened at the start line, more of us would have been dead. 100%. Right. There's seven, I think there's seven major trauma hospitals.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, downtown Boston, right? Boom, boom, boom.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

They were at Brigham's. They were at um Mass General. We were at um, oh gosh, Boston City. We were at uh the other one, JP and Paul were at. I can't even remember. I got brain injury. Brain fog. I'm getting old. You know. But yeah, I mean, in that moment, I was scared waking up saying, like, oh my God, like, I'm not gonna be able to coach my kids' hockey team. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'm not gonna be his baseball coach again. I'm not, you know, like what am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 24:05

You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm stuck here, I gotta get home. What am I like walking down the room? What am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Like my sister was like, he's gonna be living on my couch, I'm gonna be taking care of him, feeding him for the rest of her rest of his life. Yeah. You know, that was like that was what we thought.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

You know, we didn't know any better. Right. Like there was nobody telling us except for when those veterans came in. Yeah. And they told us, you know, so it kind of gave that hope, but it's still doubtful. Yeah. Because you're like, yeah, you guys got the backing of the US military. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

You know, you got I mean, there's a lot of amputees that come out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, if people see you, they probably ask you if you were in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm sure, right? All the time. Yeah. It's very crazy. It's very common here at that age, very common injury for those guys. My build, yep. You know, my high and tight. That's very good. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Like just, you know, my build and my age puts me right at that demographic. So it's always so you got a lot in common with those guys that are returning soldiers. They pulled me in down at Walter Reed and accepted me as one of their own. Um, I done nine marathons with the freedom team now, Achilles Freedom Team. Wow. Um, I've gone skydiving with veteran organizations. I did hog hunting out of helicopters with veteran organizations, you know, nighttime bow fishing with Dana Bowman, like his, you know, my buddy TK Tim Klunn. I play in celebrity softball games. Um the nonprofit I founded just donated $10,000 to DAV, Disabled American Veterans, because they've always been so inclusive. Yeah. Um, and in what they do for their veterans is amazing. Yeah. I witnessed it out at the Super Bowl. You know, speaking of, you know, the Super Bowl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Um, he's a huge uh you know, a huge thing that people like to support, you know, and feel good about returning veterans that you kind of fit into that almost. I mean, with the way your injury came was very patriotic. You know, we were attacked. The country was attacked, right? That's that's patriotic. You might as well you were a frontline soldier that day, that's for sure, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, we um you know, I play they do a celebrity football game. They did it for years out at the Super Bowl, and then they did away with it after I think it was COVID, put a stop to it, and they finally just started to backup this year.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Uh so I was a celebrity, right? Um so witnessing what they do, it's it's been that way for me for a lot of organizations I support.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

And I participated in with a lot, you know, which the marathon brought a lot of media and publicity around me. Yeah. Uh which gave me a little bit of an edge than most people dealing with what I deal with. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

I mean, you're a humble guy, and but you are a celebrity and you are a hero. I mean, you I think a hero fits more than than celebrity does. You know what I mean? Yeah. I know you're humble and you don't you don't look at yourself that way. But we look at you that way. You know, you you you took the impact that was gonna three other things.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

He's like that impact really, he's like, you did absorb a lot of that because all the BBs that were just in me, like being that close.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yeah, but nails, BBs, other fucking shit.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

I can accept that word of a hero just because, and only reason I can accept somebody saying that to me is because I I know I've changed people's lives. You know, being so outspoken about my prosthetics and my life and you know, the struggles that I've gone through. And, you know, I know, you know, I had a buddy of mine, I went to high school with his cousin, and he graduated a couple years older than me, and he just reached out to me back a few months ago and was like, hey man, I'm struggling. I'm in Tennessee. Uh I had my leg amputated in July. Is there any organizations you know down here? Because I know you you're connected to so many things because of this. Um I said, give me a minute, I'll call you right back. Yeah. And I called 50 Legs, Steve Chamberlain. And I said, Steve, I said, bro, do you know anybody in Tennessee? I said, You guys got an office? He goes, We do. Chaganooga. I said, All right, I got this guy. He's like, All right, give me five minutes, I'll call you right back. And he texted me an address and then he called me back. He goes, send that address to that your guy and tell him to head there now. We're gonna put him up in the hotel. This guy's living out of his car now, mind you, this amputee.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

He goes, send him to this hotel and he's gonna have an appointment tomorrow. I just don't know what time yet. I'll call you back in 15 minutes. I said, Okay. So I sent Todd Lamorne, I sent him the address, and I said, Head there. I said, You're gonna be hotel, you can check in under your name.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Put up in the hotel, get ready. Because tomorrow morning, you have an appointment at POA in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He goes, Are you serious? I said, Absolutely. So within 15, 20 minutes, I had this kid on his way to a hotel with an appointment for the next morning. Within 48 hours, he was walking on a prosthetic leg from the minute of a phone call. That's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

That's heroic.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

And I mean it's but it's I I don't I don't put that on my it's just it's what I developed and what I was blessed with. Yeah. And it's, you know, in in in maybe in one sense of a hero I could accept that was when uh I did a media day at Disabled Sports USA ski spectacular out in Breckinridge, Colorado. Yeah. I took a couple hours away from my son and went skiing with the media and they covered me and they talked to me. And um years later, a guy came up to me in the airport and recognized me, and he wanted to thank me because I saved his sister's life. They had done interventions with his sister um about getting out there and living life again because she lost her leg in an accident. Oh shit. And now she became heavy overweight by sitting on the couch for three and a half years. Depression says, Depression sits in. Yeah, but she saw me on TV and she said, if he could do it six months later, I can do it. Yeah. And she got off her butt. And then she went back out to hiking, she went back to kayaking. He just wanted to thank me.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

So, you know, that's why I do the media stuff. I uh I don't enjoy it. You know, I mean, I just I just hope it helps somebody. Yeah, you know, and it shows somebody a different angle and a different perspective for life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

I know uh I know you you live in Reading and you when you came home from the hospital and rehab, now you're ready to go home. And uh you know, after spending the next last three or four months after the after the bombing, after you know, your rehab I think you were in a wheelchair at the time. Yeah, no weight bearing. Yeah, yeah. There was no weight bearing.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

I couldn't even transfer with my foot.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

And I remember your house was not ready for you to come home to.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

No.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

And I remember um whether it was Consigli that really started that with with you through the roofing company and reached out to a bunch of different trades. And I remember we um we did some volunteer stuff and you know, really they put an dish on your house and changed your house up and um our guys uh spent a lot of time at your house and really got to know you. And it was really you know, that's how I got to know you. And talk a little bit about uh about that whole effort to to get you back home in your house. It was uh and you know how everybody came together and what they did, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

It was amazing. You know, it was obviously amazing. And um, you know, I had some challenges. We had some hiccups with, you know, some of the neighbors and some of the town, local, you know, political stuff in the town of Reading. Um, but it was amazing, like totally unexpected, you know, uh grateful, couldn't have done it. I'd be in a whole different situation if you guys hadn't stepped up and companies hadn't stepped up. You know, that that's where my drive is. Yeah. You know, my drive is witnessing every organization and everybody from Semplify, from the Clatter Foundation, from the Greg Hill Foundation, yeah. You know, so many organizations, America's Fund, um, you know, so many companies and you know, organizations like Local 103, and seeing what you guys did and how you guys give back all the time. I'm like, yeah, this is you know, I was leaving my job that week. I told you to start my own nonprofit with kids with off-street music. Yeah. But witnessing that and experiencing and and having, you know, knowing that a trade like local IBEWs doing my work on my house, it was like, you know, reassuring.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

I remember, you know, Billy Mahoney, Dave O'Laughlin, Phil Zackley, they they were like roommates of yours for a while. They were coming.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

My wife was like, are they ever gonna leave? But they were bouncing from like my house, then you guys would do something at a church or you do something other than a community center. You guys always had like community outreach going on. And I was like, you know what's bizarre? Like being in the union, I never knew. Like, and I wasn't in the union. Like, so I was a private, I was worked for Marshall Roofing as an employee of Marshall Roofing from the building. I wasn't a guy, I was on every job site. I wasn't a worker on job sites. And I mean, some of the trades try to steal me from Bob, but I didn't want me and you talked about this when we first sat down. About I always saw myself working for myself. Yeah. So if I hadn't seen that, I would have jumped on a union because I know the benefits, I know the package, I know the retirement. Yeah, there's all that value. Yeah, but I wasn't gonna be laborist. Like, come on, Mark. Like, how much is Bobby paying? I'm like, listen, Bobby gives me, I got profit sharing in the business. I said I get paid vacations. At any time, I just say, My son, I need to pick. Go ahead. They don't question, there's no hard time. I could do the freedom, is what I benefited, not the dollar. Sure. Right. And um it was but I didn't know that companies and and unions were doing that outreach. Like, and I'm like, these guys need to be recognized for what you guys do. Right. Right. And and that's kind of why, you know, I reached out with the Mark Network about, you know, Lou, I need help. I got and you're like, Mark, I want to support you 100%. And, you know, you guys chose to, you know, step up. And we got the IBEW, Local 103, I love it. But the Mark Network, and it's like, I think it's important that all your workers, all your brothers and sisters there a part of Local 103, should know and really truly understand what you guys do. And I think other trades and other people out there in the community, you know, they just look at it the union. Oh, they're a bunch of overpaid guys, blah, blah, blah, right? Like you know, you hear like I'm gonna be honest with you, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Yeah, um Yeah, that means that's yeah, people think we suck. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, no, it's you know, there's jealousy of everything. Yeah, you know what the value is, right? Really, truly there. And they give back to the community, right? And and it's also like the more money I make working for you, the more money I could dump back into local businesses, right? That benefit that's right. It's a economy. It's economy. Yeah, people don't understand that. They think they do, but they don't.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Um when you I remember after you you did your we did the work at your house, and um you was before Mach Network, obviously. Oh yeah. But it was probably it's probably 10 years ago now. You came to a local 103 union meeting, and um and Kevin Consigli, I forget his name. He came to Todd. Yeah. And uh Todd Flanders. Uh guy, yeah, that's right, Todd Flanders. And those guys, uh, you know, Dave and Billy and Phil were here, and uh, and you get up on the stage and you you thank the members, like you told your story, told about the marathon. I remember that place. I'd never seen that place so racious as I as I have that day, um, to support you and to uh to hear your story and that the applause you got was was was unbelievable. I think about that table all the time.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

And yeah, it reminded me walking into the building. Yeah, I'm like, ah, I forgot to remember the building and then the room. Like if I had walked that's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Yeah, the main hall there.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

The main hall.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yeah. But that was uh that was great.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

And for our guys to know that we're we were part of your recovery stream. Yeah, and is uh special to all of to everybody here, even though they may have not worked on your particular job side of your house or everybody known your story, everybody knew about the marathon, obviously, and then the fact that we were were part of it. I think you telling it that way really, really made uh brought it home for them, you know?

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Yeah, I mean, like I said, I think it's it's it's like the IBD, you know, I wear I wear that badge on this shirt and I get stopped everywhere, man. Like I was just out in San Francisco thanks to you guys' support for the map for the uh for the Super Bowl on Radio Row and bringing awareness to challenges people are facing. Yeah, uh, I get stopped all the time and be like, oh, my brother's IBEW. Like, you know, oh my what, you know, what local is that? I'm like, that's all it's Boston. You know, I'm in Florida, I'm here, I'm there, you know. And um at the expos that I go to and bring awareness to what we're building as the mark network, people are always coming up to me and just like praising the IBEW, you know, all over the country.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Yeah, here in Boston, one all three, we're just one little small little flag. I mean, we IBE was nationwide internationally, you know what I mean, Canada too.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Yeah, and there's what there's a different local union in every city and every town. So yeah, you know, it it it uh our net is cast wide across this country, and everybody knows everybody. And I know that local.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

I've been I work there.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah, my cousin worked there, my brother worked there, you know. I'm out here and he's there, and I was an iron worker, and you know, like so it's yeah, it's a whole nother network that you've tapped into through the through the IBW, which is awesome, you know? It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

And we love we love supporting you because we've always you know been uh cheering you on and been behind you the whole way. When did uh when did mock network um, you know, when did you decide, hey, I gotta I gotta step up this what I'm doing when it comes to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

After three and a half years, I I had a focus on getting better for my son to be a father, you know. And after that, I started being more involved in nonprofit organizations. I wanted to give back, right? And I started really learning from all these different organizations. I started learning from their families and all these different people with different disabilities, the challenges that they face, right? Their struggles. And I encountered those same struggles. I thought like my story was one of, right? Like I got taken advantage of. I got sold the most profitable wheelchair, not the best wheelchair. And I'm like, well, how do we prevent every family being taken advantage of? Right? And all these statistics I started learning. 300 to 500 scheduled limb amputations every day. I'm like, so you're telling me here in the United States that there's 300 to 500 people waking up today, missing a limb? And they're gonna be just like me, lost, not knowing where to go, not knowing what prosthetic. It took me three and a half years to find the right socket to wear that didn't have me back at my prosthetics office every couple months. I said, How can we stop this from happening? How can we reach each other? How can we talk? So I just kept doing research and kept learning. And one day at Camp No Limits, uh, Jack Wallace, who's out killing it right now in Italy for the Paralympics, uh, again, he was a camper at eight years old. He'd lost his leg and he found camp and camp introduced him to sled hockey, and now he's like a two-time, three, you know, gold medalist, paralympian. And he came to camp with his gold medal from Sochi. And these kids were looking up to him like he was Superman. I mean, the kid looks like Superman. He has blue eyes, he's built like him. He's this guy looks like King, like clock and so um, but then he left, and he's and you can see the wind come out of the sail, you know, these guys, these these kids' sales. And um I said, And they don't know if they're gonna see him again until maybe next year. And I said, This is wrong. Like, why can my son turn the TV on every day and watch uh Tom Brady or Rob Gronkowski at that time, Edelman. And he can go out in the yard and inspire to be these athletes. But these kids with missing limbs and limb differences, all right? There's over 4.6 million uh limb differences and amputees living in the United States right now, right? I said, why can't they see uh athletes like theirs? I said, Well, I want to create a network where I can do a scheduled programming because I know Jack plays hockey on a regular basis. I play hockey against those guys sometimes when they step down or I step up into a league and they're just a part of a team to keep keep warm during offseason. Um and I know they're busy schedules. I'm like, these should be broadcasters. These kids can follow them, they can be inspired, they can motivate them to get out there and do this. I said that's you know what I wanted to do. But like I said, I learned more about some of the other challenges, like where to go to get a prosthetic, what wheelchair to use, you know, and how do you figure that out? You figure it out by talking to somebody that's experienced it, somebody that lives it, right? And that's where I initially I wanted to start a television station. But in 2020, I realized no one's watching TV, everybody's on their i their phones. So a buddy of mine uh back about three years ago said, Hey man, you I should connect you with this guy that builds apps. It's a mobile community app. I said, Oh my gosh, that's it. That's what I need. And I went and I met with this company, and I wrote a check right away. And these this company stole tens of thousands of dollars from me and couldn't create a project and took seven months of wasting my time. But that was okay. I took it. My lawyer's like, just let it go, take it on the chin, take it as an experience, and start over. So we did. I mean, um, I I brought in a family and friend to help look at a couple other companies that offered a similar service and find the best one that would be suitable for what I wanted to accomplish. And we found them out of the UK and we hired them and they built the Mark Network. It's a free mobile app. It's called the Mobility Awareness Resource Community. It brings awareness to resources available for our community. And our community is anybody facing any kind of challenge, physically, mentally, disability-wise, um, because we utilize a lot of the same products and services, like uh drug rehabilitation, mental health, right? In our community, unfortunately, we self-medicate for pain and depression, right? And we do it through drugs and alcohol sometimes. Uh our loved ones, like a mom or a dad that becomes overwhelmed with their child with a disability, will turn to drugs and alcohol sometimes. Um, mental health, right? So we have, you know, so those are two facilities that you know, companies that we utilize a lot of, but also physical and occupational therapy. Sure. Right? Like, and the best way to figure out what's going to be best for me as an amputee is talking to other amputees that utilize those services somewhere. So that's what we're created, this network to be able to share information, share resources, and support, motivate, and encourage each other. And that's what the Mark Network is about. It's a free app, it's in Apple and Google. Anybody can download it. What we need is advocates, right? We need people to advocate on the platform, share information that they have so others could benefit from it. Uh we we me and you talked about the um the expos that we go I go to. So there used to be one here in Boston. It's no longer. The nearest one to us is in New Jersey or Chicago. It's crazy because I go to seven expos a year. They're in seven different cities. So what are they, like medical health type of expos, or are they actually mobility impaired, dedicated to like mobility disabilities, right? Autism, Down syndrome, amputation, spinal cord injuries, people living in wheelchairs or on prosthetics, people that need assisted walkers or bathrooms. Like it's all that technology. Yeah, sure. Um, which it's very important.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Because if you go to a medical place here in Boston, they're only going to show you what they have. It's like a Chevy dealership. They're not going to try to sell you a Ford. Right. They're going to show you what they have, Chevy's. And unfortunately, the medical facilities and even prosthetics offices, some deal with OSAR, some deal with um Audubok, and some deal with others. Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

So you could go to get them all in one place and you go and you can kind of see what the whole industry has to do.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

See what the whole industry has to offer. Yeah. And it's sad to say, like, we go to trade shows.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

It's almost like a tra it's like a trade show for uh see what's offering.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Yeah. Yeah. So which which is sad that there's only seven a year. Yeah. Think about that. They're only in six states. How many states are in our country? So where do the other 44 states go? Where does the family in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut? It, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

You know, where do Rhode Island? Where do those families go? New Hampshire, Vermont. Where do they where do they go to see what the new technology is?

SPEAKER_02 44:09

So you do you go there as a guest to walk through and see what some of the technologies are? Or do you go and set up shop and a table and kind of offer um, you know, mock networks resources to people that are looking for them?

SPEAKER_00 44:22

Yes. So we go and we rent a we rent a 10 by 10 spot. Yep. You know, um, and we have our whole display and we have our flyers um where people can scan and download our app. Yeah. And we tell them what the app's about. So we're just bringing awareness to it, which is tough because we're on a screwstring budget, you know what I mean? And we're trying to do it like one at a time. Sure. You know, we have a strategy working with nonprofit organizations, right? We're gonna bring in different communities. Um, a lot of nonprofit organizations are struggling on growing their support groups, right? Growing their members. Um, and I've seen the problem in that. And I mean you've talked about it this whole episode supporting one another, coming together as a community. Yeah, you know, unfortunately, a lot of nonprofits view other nonprofits, which I'm a public benefit corporation. We're, you know, a B Corp. And we have the nonprofit, the Remarkable Foundation, which is our 501c3. That's our that's our avenue to give back to the community. Um, but the Mark Network when I talk to other organizations, they're like, Oh, they view other organizations as competition, right? That's the old mindset. You know, um, we can get more and better together than we can be in individuals. And that concept has been proven out in business. My business partners, brother-in-law, had proven that out with big companies in the retail business, right? Pooling your data together works out benefit for everybody. Sure, it does, yeah. It does, it just does. It's in and people get stuck on this, they think it's always competition, right? Uh, but if we're all in it to help people, we all need to come together and introduce our community to other communities that they can benefit from. And in return, that community from that nonprofit introduces them to our community and then we benefit from. And we all grow together.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Um, so yeah, the Mark Network, we're out there just trying to bring awareness to what we're doing. Uh, we have investment opportunities, we have um we're a digital advertising marketing platform. Our community doesn't even know about certain products that are available to them because these companies can't advertise to us. Right. There is no one central location for us as a community with people facing these challenges. You know, I'm in a wheelchair 80% of the time.

unknown 46:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Right? But I'm not a spinal cord injury. Right. So people don't people in wheelchairs view me as an amputee, not as a wheelchair user.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

But in reality, I'm more of a wheelchair user than I am a prosthetic user.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

And it's this misinception conception of what people are, right? And it's not really truly opening your mind and listening and seeing what people really are about. It's like MS, Parkinson's, CP.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

They're all wheelchair users at some point or eventually.

SPEAKER_03 47:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

And uh not just spinal cord injury, people use that. So our community is made up of 60 million people here in the United States. We control a trillion dollars in spend globally. We're 1.8 billion people that are affected by mobility disabilities globally. And we control 13 trillion in spend, right? Companies spend 400 billion a year on digital advertising. 400 billion. They spend 200 billion on cybersecurity.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Think about that. They spend more money getting you to be a customer than protecting. Right? So we're in the right world. Yeah. Digital advertising.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Sure, that's where everything is at now, right? Everything's digital, everything's on the end of your hand. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

But the the big thing is, Lou, is it's a win-win. It's a win for the companies and it's a win for our community. Because our community needs to know what's new. I've been pulled over and like, oh, what's that wheelchair? I'm like, I've had it for 12 years. Yeah, right. I've never seen it before. No kidding.

SPEAKER_03 47:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

But if you think about it, Lou, would you invest in a business that you can't even advertise your product to because there's no way to do it? Yeah, right. And then HIPAA, right? You know. So us as a community by being divided individually by our disabilities, like, oh, you're blind. Join the coalition of blind. Join the amputee coalition. Oh, join the spinal cord, you know, community, join MS, join CP, join stroke survivors. We're weak. You know what I mean? Because our numbers are separated. But if we all came together, we have a bigger, stronger, powerful voice. Yeah. And it gives these companies a chance to advertise to us, but also to invest in us, invest in our community, invest in our future. Because I'd rather just go buy a pizzeria and sell pizzas. Because I'm going to make more money quicker and faster than I develop a new wheelchair. Right? Right. That could change the world. But it would take me forever to recoup my investment. But if our community would get to one location where people could advertise and tell us and we could find these products, we would have better lives. And that's and that's it's a community of communities, the Mach Network, where we want to take over a lot of the expenses for nonprofits on our platform to help promote their events. Yeah. Where they could share their events and grow their events, make them bigger.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Is that what the radio role at the Super Bowl is all about? It's just bringing awareness. It's to bring an awareness. It's kind of like another trade show or another.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Um it's a combination of both. Yeah. It's a combination to to motivate and inspire people with disabilities. It's to show because a lot of people with disabilities feel like, and everybody I talk to is you wake up in that hospital or you're in that room with the doctor and you get that diagnosis, even the family, you feel alone. You feel like you're on an island. The Radio Row shows people that even though an NFL football player or ex-NFL football player is a hundred percent physical and able-bodied person, they still face challenges. And this is how they overcome them. We get that diagnose, I lose my leg, that's just a challenge to overcome. It's all the same. It's all the same. Divorce, that's a challenge, mental challenge to overcome. Right? Um losing your job, it's a challenge. Everything's, but it's about overcoming them challenges. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

I mean, life is all about challenges and teaching people how to overcome them is it's just survival right there, right?

SPEAKER_00 50:26

But seeing somebody else overcome something, it makes you feel that it's possible. And that's the message with the Super Bowl, right? And with these athletes. It's like, hey, even though he played in the NFL and he made all this money, he still struggled mentally. He still struggled being away from his family, just like you in the hospital. Uh like I was in the hospital three and a half years, I was away from my son. These guys are on the road. They're away from their family too. Granted, they're making, you know, the money or they're getting paid. It's their job and there's some choice. But it's like, hey, we're all human. Like in and these guys are facing the damage that they're doing to their body. They're gonna need the same equipment that I use. You get what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 51:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Um, so there's there's a there's a lot of brain injuries, yeah, you know. Oh, sure. And we could help that community of football players because I have a guy, Leonard, um, Lewis Leonard. He actually played for the Patriots for a short run. Um, Lewis Leonard. And I talked to him and his wife from his, you know, the hitting and hitting and hitting, he has Parkinson's. He has Parkinson's and he has kidney dits, and his feet, his ankles are like fused, yeah, and his wrists. You can't even like bend his wrists. This guy's struggling. Yeah. But now he's into this world of struggles, and there's nowhere for him to go to get that handbook to talk to people. He's in a powered wheelchair. I'm like, that's the wrong chair. You shouldn't be in that one. Right. You should be in something like this. And he's like, Well, I didn't know. I'm like, see, if you were part of my community and you talked to somebody, we would make smarter choices.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

And I'm just now it's just getting the word out about getting into that community, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:57

It's huge, yeah. That's the biggest thing. Yeah. It's just about so what we need as the Mark Network is is, you know, Lou, and I in I'm not political in any sense with this. It's I was just at the dentist's office and I was watching the news and they were drilling walls about Minnesota and the fraud. And they were talking about the three. So in 2014, I'm just putting these numbers out there, it was a million dollars were into programs for children with autism in 2014. And then it showed the progression. And last year they did 347 or 8 million into children with autism, Minnesota. Their population is 5.7 million people, and they're dumping 300. And that for programs for children with autism. Right. I have a business plan with my business partner. We need $2 million to kick this off and change 60 million people's lives for 2 million. Yeah, right. I need that state money, I need that funded, I need that support. I have the team. We got Marble Street Partners, right? Uh Ken, Ken Marshall, and Mike Curtin. We have John Stoner, who is the you know, CAO, CFO, children's hospital out of Ohio. He's my business partner's brother-in-law on our advisory board. Jen Frazier, granted state adaptive sports, 30 plus years doing adaptive programming in New Hampshire. Uh, physical therapist. Yeah. Uh Kirk Hansen, an amazing businessman with data and uh unbelievable. We have the team, I just need the funding to change 60 million people's lives. We're dumping, as a state of Minnesota's dumping 300 million into autism, children with autism, which is probably what, maybe a 70,000, maybe in the whole state. I can change the life with 2 million and be profitable in 18 months. Right. And that's just starting locally here in the United States. We're obviously planning on going global and helping 1.8 million people. That's amazing, yeah. 1.8 billion people. Yeah. I'm sorry, bigger than the population of China. You know, so like that's our goal. Like that's my goal. But like I said, I'm seeing these states in in even here in Massachusetts, we have a ton of money going into programs. Like this is a program that benefits everybody in the state, occupational, physical therapist, mental health. Imagine you right now, like me. I woke up in the hospital and it took me three and a half years to figure it out. You know that struggle mentally. I thought I was okay. I wasn't okay. Right. It changed and destroyed my sons in my relationship as a young kid. I was angry, I was confused, I was scared. You know? Now imagine just by opening an app on your phone and being able to communicate with a thousand other guys like me. Yeah, right. What that would have done. What it would have seen if I could have opened up that app. So schedule limb amputations. We can actually get this to early care, to doctors and nurses, to give people when they get that diagnosis, like, Lou, you're going to be amputated next week. Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? Panic sets in. Yeah, sure. It takes 10 years to build a network for a family with disabilities. Caretakers, wheelchairs, providers, and you piss through them because I went to a physical therapist, they knew nothing about amputees, and I wasted two weeks with the physical therapist that didn't know anything about prosthetics. Right. Then I had to go find another one. So I wasted two weeks of my life. But I also wasted two weeks of paid by my insurance company. Right. So imagine being a week away from being amputated. You could open up an app and you could see me doing marathons. You could see someone skiing on a monoski with a family. You could see them skydiving, you could see them snorkeling with the organization that takes you scuba diving as an amputee. Uh watching people play sled hockey. And that's where it changes the negative to a positive in your mindset and it helps that family recoup.

unknown 55:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

And also to say You're an amazing example.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

You know what I mean? You really are. I lived it. You know? Lived it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

I mean, you and I know the struggles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's that's where this is a benefit to a state program, right? Like, you know, all these organizations helping, you know, workers or, you know, Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ, you know what I mean? Like these groups came together. True. That's what the disability community needs to come together.

SPEAKER_02 56:24

With power numbers, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:25

There's uh a cappella singer versus choir. Who are you gonna hear? Right. You know, and we as a community need to get together. Yeah, because we have handicap parking, even in this state, right? In every state. There's a difference between handicap parking and accessible device parking, meaning like wheelchairs, um, walkers for your mom, for your dad, right? Your grandmother, your grandfather, um a family that has a kid that's autistic to the point where he has to be strapped into a stroller. We need that three and a half feet, four feet between vehicles to get those devices between our cars. That should be a hundred percent different than handicap accessible. Like you could have a bad hip, a bad knee, or a bad anything, and you can still get in and out in a tight spot. Yeah. I can't. I need my door to fully extend to get my prosthetic foot out between the pillar and the seat. Yeah. And people don't realize that. Right. That's why we need these parkings. Right. And I always say it as a community with those numbers, the power in numbers, what happens is I don't need legislation written. I don't need laws written. We control a trillion dollars in spend every year. Right. We can go to Home Depot and say, Home Depot, if you're not gonna put in these accessible parkings bases with on both sides, because me and my wife are both in wheelchairs. You go to a handicapped parking spot, it's all the lines are on one side. Right. Well, what about me? I can't get out now, you know? So um I can go to Home Depot and say Lowe's is gonna put these in. If you're not, I can one message to my whole community on my mobile app. You know as well as I know, if my son's in a wheelchair and Home Depot isn't gonna do what Lowe's is gonna do, I'm going to Lowe's. Right. That's you get it. That you get a loyal customer by supporting their loved ones that need it.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

Yeah, I I forgot your wife is also in a wheelchair full time and yeah uh, you know, she was born with no arms and no legs, yeah. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, she's an inspiration though.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

Yeah, Texas AM graduate, smart as a whip, too smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

I love following you guys on uh on social media. You know what I mean? That's the easiest way to follow people these days. Is that true? Yeah, and that's why I built an app. It's awesome. It's a social media rap.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

You can like, comment, direct message each other. You can communicate with physical and occupational therapists right on our app. Other physical and occupational therapists can communicate with others and ask them questions about a patient they might have. Yeah. Obviously without using names and hip hop. But just say, hey, I got a patient that's you know 45 years old, struggling, going up and downstairs with an X3 prosthetic. How did you get your guy to do that?

SPEAKER_03 59:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Right. And you can share the tips, that you know, the tricks of the trade.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Yeah. Um, girl who used to work here, close friend, her son just got um got paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. And I'm not sure. I mean, they're just fresh. I think it's been a year. They're just uh she's in a wheelchair at the house trying to kind of go through the same stuff that you went through. A little bit different of an injury, but still the same struggles. Same challenges, same challenges, same struggles.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

Yeah, it's trying to find the right doctors, trying to find the right. I I suggest stem cell. Yeah. My buddy who was shot in combat. 100%. Yeah. No, that's what we're here for. Yeah. That's what it's about. It's and that's what the network like in Radio Road. It's the network. It's about asking for help. You can't do it alone. Right. It's easier to do with help from others. But again, you can't be a taker, you got to be a giver too. Right. It's a two-way street. You know, you got to help and take. At first, you take and then you give.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:59

Right? Um, because you're in a situation where you need the help. Yep. Um, so that's it's yeah, it's amazing. And like again, you guys have been great supporting me on this crazy wild journey that I'm on, and I'm all over the place, but I'm not. I'm focused. We have bigger dreams, bigger picture for the Mark Network.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Um we're proud, we're proud to support you. Right. We really are. We believe we're helping our our neighbors and our friends. And if you, you know, if we can support you, reach out to more, yeah, then that's a win-win. That's what we're all about, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

I love it. And you know, we have the we have the foundation, the nonprofit remarkable foundation. We have a big event coming up April 17th, uh, for a family in Wuburn. Um, Mark Hutchinson, he's CP, cerebral palsy. Um, he's in a wheelchair. Uh his caretaker passed away, so now his sister has to step in. His mom passed, and um she needs to bring him into her house to take care of him because it's 24-hour care for him. Um, so it we have uh in Wuburn, so we're always looking for support. The Remarkable R-E-M-A-R-C Foundation. Well, Remarkable M-A-R-C, not K in Remarkable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

Um, we'll post that. You gave me that flyer, we'll post that flyer as part of this. I think we can do that. I think we get the technology guy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

So yeah, we have you know, and then we got an event at King's. We're gonna be selling tickets on Marathon Monday. Oh wow. Uh the sooner people buy tickets, the bigger headcount I can get and rent more and more of Kings. Yeah. Uh we need sponsorship for Kings too, from businesses and corporations to cover some of the food for the runners. Uh I think it's $60 a ticket. Yeah. Kings is right at the top of Boylson Street. Yeah. Um, right there. It's a short walk right over to the Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

So, so Marathon Monday, right? So there's been 13, this will be the 13th marathon since um since the marathon bombing. What's what's marathon Monday like for you? I mean, every every day is a is a struggle and a constant battle and you know, to be positive. What what what do you wake up on Marathon Monday every year? How does that day go for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

You know, it's it's a mixture of different emotions. You know what I mean? It's it's it's crazy. There's no real one, I mean, it's a it's a roller coaster all day, every day. You know? You know, we have people that always say, oh, just leave him alone, let him just rot in jail. Let's not hear about him anymore. Like, well, I unfortunately I gotta wake up every day and jump in a wheelchair and put a prosthetic leg on. So I'm reminded of him every day. Like, I wish I could just forget about him and what he did to me. Like, because you're fine, right? Like, because you had, you know, some smaller injuries that day that you're not reminded of every day. You know, um, that day's a reminder. You know, that day is a reminder of, you know, my life changing. You know, not necessarily, you know, for the worst, but not for the best either. Right. You know, I a lot of good has come out of that situation that day. But there's a lot of negative that came out of that situation for me that day. Like I said, my relationship, it it totally changed my relationship with my son. Like totally changed it. Yeah. And like we're finally now that he's 18, he's growing up and he's maturing, like, he's starting to get it. He's starting to understand it. But it was hard, man. It was a hard, it was a hard joke.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:17

How old was your son when that happened?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

My son was five. Five years old. Yeah, almost five and a half. Yeah. Five and a half years old, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:23

And then And we were we were talking earlier, like it was he was almost with you that day. Yeah, he should have been. He would have been right next to Martin Richard. Yeah. You know what I mean? You guys are right there together as a couple families, crazy. It was yeah, yeah, he should have been there. What a blessing that he wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:37

He wanted to go to Teddy Bear picnic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

Thank God. Thank God. Thank God to Teddy Bear picnic, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

Yeah, and that was because he was in daycare, not in for kindergarten. Yeah. If he was in kindergarten like he should have been, if he was born on the initial day, he would have been, he would have had to come with me because I wouldn't have had anybody to watch him. Yeah. Um, but because it was a daycare, the lady had a lot of first responders, and she's like, no, we're open. I was like, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

But that was my first day off in 21 days. Yeah. 21 days. I worked Saturday, Sunday, and then like I told you, I went to real estate school for two Saturdays and two Sundays in a row. So for 21 days, I hadn't had a day off. Yeah. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:15

But we're blessed. We're grateful for all the support the IBEW does, local 103, you guys. Uh, I'd love to get some more of those business trades. I'd love to get into the state and see. I know there's funding in the state. We got to fill out a grant. We had our number and stuff. Um, it's just there's really two of us running the Hallmark Network, you know, so it's really difficult. We need a lot of different support. Uh, so if people can reach out, you know, we're always looking for corporations, businesses, companies. Yeah, we talked about the other trades and we need advocates.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

Yeah, we need advocates too, like people in the medical field, and you know, we want to really get into the early care. We have stri we have strategies in place that we're putting together, and um, we're gonna be doing a pretty good push. But you know, it always thumbs down to money. Yeah, of course it's always it's always funding. I mean, with the funding, we could literally change millions of people's lives every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

Yeah, one dollar at a time. Yeah, we'll get there. We'll get to it. And like I said, we're we're so we're so proud to support, you know, financially your your spread the word and spread the love around. Yeah, it's been huge, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:18

It really oh, and with that being said, we have we do have something that we wanted to give you, you know, and I know it's been a couple of years, but yeah, there's a little little something for the IBEW and for yourself. And you know, I know there's some some major players. We have um, you know, challenge coins. The challenge coins that says, you know, thank you for your support. And that's like a global because you know everybody loves challenge coins.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

Yeah, so I have a couple here for you because it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:45

Yep. Um and then, you know, I'm sweating over here, dripping, dropping everywhere. But we also, you know, I have a shirt fire with the local IBEW, you know, the Mark Network. That you guys are always great supporting us. I want to give that to you. Awesome. And uh yeah, man, it's it's huge.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

I Google looks great next to the mock network. Yeah, really does, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

Um so it's it's it's we've been blessed, you know. I've been blessed, really. And I couldn't even ask for anything more with you guys, but I always do. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:20

That's that's okay. Because we uh we we appreciate the friendship that we have with you and we support uh your mission and you know getting the word out and everything that you went through that day. Um, you know, that weighs heavily on this whole region, and we want to be supportive. Our members want to be supportive of guys like you because our members are guys like you. Yeah, I was a guy like you guys. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

I was standing on those platforms, the loading docks with electricians, riding up and down the elevator with material, you know, helping them offload and onload different material. You know, that's what we did. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

Yeah, that we're you're one of us. Yeah, we're one of you. We're all the same, we're all the same, right? I um suburban neighborhood, and you know what I mean? Just like everybody's stoneham. I grew up in Stoneham.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

Yeah, you know, all these guys live in Stoneham. You know what I mean? A lot of these mock, I can't remember Mark's last name right now. He's IBEW, local 103, is my brother's neighbor right across the street from my brother in Stoneham.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:13

Um, my brother's father-in-law, Richie. Richie Fresco. He was a local IBEW 103 guy. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

Stoneham's a good working-class town, you know what I mean? Yeah. Trades allited in towns like Stoneham and Reading. All day. Everywhere. Wilmington. Now you, you know. Yeah, Wilmington, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

So I am, and I and I love the connection, and it, you know, it's just a you know, it's it speaks so much of like the whole support of what it means. I'm that living example of complete strangers supporting one another. Yeah. Like you saw the picture of me laying on the street, right, bleeding, out, unconscious. And then you saw the picture of me on fire, waking up, trying to get up. You know, it it's without the support of your company and so many other other companies and individuals, I wouldn't be standing here wearing this prosthetic leg, wearing this shirt, you know, living my life the way I do. Yeah. You know, if it wasn't for that support. And it just shows how important and how successful people can be when they have the right support. Right. You know, and like and and that's what the Mark Network is all about. It's about supporting families and people and the community that services us, like occupational physical therapists, like nonprofits. But the importance behind supporting and giving support to each other is huge. It's it changes the life.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

Yeah, well, we're glad to be support. You'll always have a supporter here at the local one of three. You'll always have uh yet. So we're not gonna, we're not gonna. We we we believe in what you're doing. Yeah, we believe in the challenges and want to be supportive of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

Like I said, if one's never enough though. You know what I mean? And that's what's sad. I've seen great I've seen great inventions and great ideas, amazing ideas that just not get the support it needed. Yeah. And we st I struggle with that every day, you know, and I worry, and I'm like, I know I got Lou in my back, I know I got Lou in my pocket, like I know I'm good, but we you know, and it makes me work harder to show you that. You have a website? Yeah, we do. We have and that was I was I was actually gonna mention it's the Mark M-A-R-C network.world. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

So if you know because we can put that on the expressway sign.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

No, we could just that's free advertising. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Appreciate that. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

That would be huge for the for the Mark Network and for the community of people.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

Early care and yeah, certainly if you got events that you want to advertise, certainly we can put them up there. Oh my god. And then this would be huge. The Mark Network. Um to advertise advertise your website and get people to drive people to it and to into your mission, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:58

And then that would be huge for my sponsors too, right? That's right. In the sense of maybe not their logos, right? But the Mark Network is going to be broadcasted on that sign X amount of times a week or a month or whatever. Um, and that would drive business, that would drive an exposure to the site. Yeah, which then would that's the least we could do. That's you know, uh that would be honestly that that's huge.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:20

Yeah, we we I feel like we're part of the Mark Network. You are, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:23

Like, yeah, literally from the ground up.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:26

From the day I got out of the hospital to the like you guys, I mean, I know you guys did stuff, Boston Strong.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:33

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:34

Everybody everybody did. You guys have it on your shirts, bringing awareness, talking about it, donating. Your guys donated 100%. There's no question. Yeah, so many people did. So literally from day one, your members and you guys have been there. Yeah. And then, like I said, the foundation was my house. Yeah, right. Right. Which motivated me to give back to this community, people like you guys that helped me. So literally IBEW and so many other people are a part of the mock network. You guys built me. You guys are a big part of my mission and drive to help others. Yeah. It's just by watching examples of what you guys did. Yeah. And like I said, when you were at my house, you guys were going somewhere else. Like, we won't be back tomorrow. We have to go do this. I was like, okay, no worries.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:16

It is what it is. Thank you. You know, and seeing that you guys were just more than me, yeah, you were helping so many other people is what inspired me.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:23

Yeah, I remember the day I was out there. I think they were just done plastering and uh putting uh woodwork on, and I think the elevator was just getting you know that that lift you had and they're getting going.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:32

You know the elevator's still not running.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

Is it I'm not shocked?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

No, but it's it's no one's fault.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:37

It's no one's fault but mine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:39

Yeah. Um Well, we when we have um, I know you're coming in before the building trades, it's at the elevator constructor's hall. So we'll be able to uh we'll be able to get that thing right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:48

It's not their fault, though. No, it's not. It's not their fault. It's it's it's me getting the permits signed off of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, no worries. You know, it's all on me. It's been all on me. Yeah. Uh I take full responsibility for all that. These guys are ready to go. Yeah. Um, they're waiting for the phone company to come in, and then I I was just so busy living at Walter Reed. Yeah. You know, and then finding the right company, and yeah, they need to have a backup battery, and then the line had to be ran. Right. There was nothing to do with that. Yeah, no worries, yeah. But they're amazing. I mean, I did put an elevator in my house, right? Like, you know, a lift.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

But this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on. No, I appreciate you. You're talking about everything that you've been through. You've been through a lot, and your story's amazing. It's such an awesome story. It's it's it's sad, it's uplifting, it's happy, it's emotional roller coaster to hear you talk about everything that you went through on that day, April 15, 2013, and everything in between since you know, since that day. It's amazing to hear your story, Mark. You're you're an amazing guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:42

It amazes me to hear my story sometimes. You know, and reflecting on everybody is yeah, you're inspiring me. Humbling.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:50

You inspire me, and it it's you're you're easy to get behind, and you're easy to help. And our members see it and and believe in it too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:56

So thanks so much for coming on this tiddly little nothing podcast. But I need the I love I love talking to you. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:02

Well, we talk all the time anyway. So I appreciate you answering my calls because sometimes I'm a pain. But uh again, if there's anybody out there in your hall, their family going through anything, it doesn't have to be amputees. I'm connected into the community of all types of disabilities. And that's the biggest thing. These nonprofit organizations, they don't just help amputees. Right. They don't just help spinal cord injuries, they help everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

Yeah, all those injuries, they all overlap.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:28

They all overlap, man. Like I I use the same skiing device as a spinal cord injury. I can use the same as MS and Parkinson's and CP, and we all utilize the same equipment. And that's what's so great about it. So I I have enough knowledge to help so many other people.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:44

Yeah, marathon Monday's coming up. It's certainly um we'll be at King's.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:48

If you want a ticket, check out theremarkable foundation.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Yeah, we'll put that on the uh on the sign.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:53

Yeah, you know what I mean? Oh, that's for that event. For that event, yeah, absolutely. You're gonna come, right? Yeah, yeah, I'll be there. I hope. Absolutely. Yeah, you yeah, how many guests you need? That's all you gotta tell us.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:02

That's awesome. Mark, thanks so much, buddy. Love you, man. Really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

Thank you.