From Local Loss to Lasting Legacy: Caroline Cares, Community, and Political Conversations

Peter Pappas: everybody, good evening and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas, alongside the lovely Laura Musler. Hello, hello. And our special guest tonight is Anna Poulis, founder of Caroline Cares. Hello. Hello, good evening. So we're looking forward to hearing more about your organization a little later. But first, Laura, yeah. What kind of trouble have you been into? Well, I went to the what's it called? The the state convention. You did? Yep, sure did. Really? Mm-hmm. How much did that cost you? Well, I can't say. And not just in monetary, but in like physical, social. How much recharging did you have to do socially when you got back? A lot. I I'm not really sure why we have a state convention. Okay, we're talking about the North Carolina GOP convention. Yes. There wasn't a Democrat convention you went to. I think they would like I'm just checking. I mean, you know I think there was like I they recognize we talk to everybody. That's why I we do talk to everybody, but if if I walked into a Democrat convention, they would know. Yeah, I'm not really sure why we have mentions 'cause we just voted in a plan of organization that strips all of the power from the local people and brings it all the way out and now we can't do anything. So well, you know, and so for people watching or for our guest here, you know, the Republican Party runs on something called the plan of organization. Abbreviated the poop. And it is And ever since I've been involved I've been advocating to change the name of that because it just sounds shitty. But you know, any and now it is. But bump. So so it was bad before but now it's worse. And basically the state is trying to pass change the rules of the party so that more stuff goes from more power rests at the top instead of lower. While the the current power is in. Once everything is stays the same until we have a new election, then all the power like shifts. And it's like, what? So they're keeping it the way it is now. Yeah. Well I I've told you before, all this all this stuff, all these movements and the party and people that wanna be the vice chair of this, that and the other, it's all sideshow. We're not getting we're not getting a message out that conservatism is not in your enemy. We're not getting people to either register as Republican and we're certainly not winning people over to vote for us. That's correct. Because all this sideshow crap happening. We're not moving the needle. Because the GOP is running it like it's a campaign. We as the GOP are not running a campaign. We are a brand. Mm-hmm. And we are a tent that we're supposed to be bringing people in. And the idea is voters, voters, voters get out the vote, voters, voters, voters. Not to promote a candidate. I mean we should right before let it voters know who the candidates, conservative candidates are. But our goal should be Getting the voters to the polls. All of this, we need to support this person or support of course we're gonna support them, but they have their own answers. We're going to support them once they get through a primary, when they are our candidate. Right. I'm not gonna support them in a pri I mean the party shouldn't be supporting the whole field of ten candidates for one seat. Right. They need to wait until the primary. And there was a lot of that crap in this previous primary. But even after the primary, it's not the GOP's job. To run your campaign, to give you money, or to do anything. Our job is to get voters to show up to the polls, to inform the voters who your candidates are. That's it. I keep going back to my sandwich making brain. Like, look, I just want to engage that customer one more time a year. That's right. Like let's let's talk to the people that are already Republican, that are already conservative, that lean that way, and let's just remind them, hey, there's an election. People wonder when's election? It's every year. Every single Well, this year we have midterms. Next year we have municipal again. I wanted to then we have a presidential. I wanna change Why do you want to change it? I don't want municipals on all fears. Why? Because I think we would get better candidates and better turnout. Because it's kinda sleepy and it's kind of a friends and family race in the municipal yeah. Just my personal opinion. But you know I think there's plenty of people like something else. Yeah, in municipal government they kinda suck anyway. But So what did I see this past week? I went to government relations committee at Chamber of Commerce. the guest speaker was Senator Val Applewhite. I didn't see her there. She didn't show. that's right. Twice confirmed and she didn't show up to the Chamber of Commerce. Government Relations Committee. I was there specifically because she was gonna be there. I know. I wanted to talk to her. Mm-hmm. I like going back and forth with her online. Mm-hmm. We do some like her online. No, online she's kind of a pain. Yeah. In person I like her. I really do. I genuinely like her as a person. And that's what I think a lot of people miss about politics is, you know, all right, she wears the the blue jersey, we wear the red jersey. When we're on the field, we're gonna fight. But in person we're okay. Yeah. And I I think a lot of our situations in the United States is, you know, look at your neighbor, we're all right. Yeah. Except for if you're a deep blue shirt wearer and while boys and girls. And you know, have a tiki torch, you're not so cool in the Republican. No, you're good people, aren't you? Is that what they say? No. No, that was not cool. That was first of all, that's not what was said, but that's besides what Mr. Spears is here is like I just you're I just misinformation I call you misinformation. Misinform yeah, I don't yeah. I'll get the heels later. so let's see. What else did I see? government relations and You went you went to Myrtle Beach. I did go to Myrtle Beach, yes, I did for a quick yes, I had a little fun, yeah. Got it. I made a couple of business wins, but that's about it. Business wins or good wins. Business wins, go to the government relations, lampoon some people. Okay. Yeah. Wait, but is Val Apple White supposed to be Thursday, isn't she? So this coming Thursday at the Chambers Coffee Club, which will be held at Highland Country Club at seven seven thirty if you wanna eat. And but you need to be there at seven th listen, this is like a white people seven thirty, not a Greek time, not any other kind of time. You gotta be there at seven thirty. A racist reception. I'm just No, no, a racist will say I'm not trying to be racist, but you know damn well something racist is about to drop out of their mouth. Yeah, right before they say that. Yeah, very much. Very cat very stylishly low. Because you know, the way we look at it is well, they need to know us. We don't, you know. Well, the way I see it is rather rather to be fashionably late than frickin' early. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, you need to be white person punctual on Thursday morning, seven thirty, Highland Country Club. we should have Val Apple White and there is one other person speaking to the So the whole membership. I mean, these things are well attended. There's three hundred people in that room. I was gonna say that was staff last time. Yeah. So if you're a chamber member, join us. If you're not a chamber member, come and see why you should be a chamber member, I guess. You can come be my guest. If you want to show up to the chamber breakfast, send me a a a DM and I'll sign you in as my guest. 'Cause I'm a member as an individual. You can join join me as an individual. You don't have to be Yeah, you don't have to be a business, you can just be part of the chamber. So Anna, before we dive into all the good stuff about you, I think you had a weekend, was was your husband making you do work on the weekend? well. How did that work? Yeah. We have him off camera just so you know, he he he's giving h her a glare right now, yeah. well you you guys did kind of a last minute Caroline Fairs event. we tell our members VIPs. A couple of them called, a couple texted, and I was like Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Well, now we're gonna shift gears. National stuff. You ready? Okay, well, apparently I was the only one that didn't know Trump's birthday was yesterday. Friday is Trump's birthday. Hello. Okay, so I'm in the office with Laura and my mom's at the other desk and I'm like, When was that fight held? And they're like, This weekend. And my mom's even like almost angry at me. Like, how did you not where have you been? I'm like Not watching news, obviously. Not watching anything. It's everywhere. It wasn't on TikTok. It wasn't on TikTok. I didn't see anything on TikTok, yeah. Which unfortunately I'm an agent for the Chinese government, apparently because I'm on TikTok all the time. So they don't want to promote But it's convenient and it occupies my toilet time. Okay. Well, it wasn't on Instagram. Mm mm. I didn't see I really didn't see much. I had to go look at It was all over X. And let me just tell you. I shared with on my Facebook page the national anthem. Mm-hmm. I was I always get emotional with the national anthem. But when the my gosh. Go to my Facebook. I'm actually gonna I found a clip. So let me my gosh, this is so like I it's about a now this is a news report from an ABC affiliate. they did a good job, so I actually I grabbed it. So let's see here. The flyover. My heart stopped. I just started crying because I am so thankful that I was born in America. So that's right. All right. So if you'll this is the one minute fifty second, I'll just let this thing. Can you all hear? If you get the opportunity to watch the national anthem from the beginning because like that you just lost a little bit of it. Did that build up and then all of a sudden right over the White House comes those planes and in between. It was so I I literally I broke up crying. Well, for those of us that love our country. See what's not to love about a I I go to I go to Woodpeckers baseball games. If I'm not there in the first first pitch for the national anthem, then I've I've lost the whole night. It just it it's not right for me. 'Cause that's why I go. That is a a patriotic American thing to do. Yeah. And I like standing for my own anthem. It's okay. You know? So some people don't realize though. The US Army's two hundred and fifty first birthday coincided with this. of course the military displays flyovers and then what always cracks me up is the people that are worried about us spending money are the same ones that have a learing center in Minnesota. Right. Like they're worried about they spent sixty million on security. What the hell do you care? And and every other day in why you don't you don't care, but then the one day we gotta secure the president, well that's Too much. And anybody could have got tickets. They were free. You you could go and sign up because I was like, I don't want to be there so bad that I was yeah did you see that one bit when they panned out to the ellipse people that were there's like s four thousand people or something out there? That's crazy. so anybody that complains about this or whatever. The whole idea is to bring America's Americans back into America. So if we're reaching the young people, hello, who else do we 'cause all of us old people are getting older and we're all gonna die. And if we don't start bringing these young people into politics, there's gonna be nobody left to protect our country and keep it a country. Well maybe you old guys need to stop calling us the kids. my God. My dad has a partnership that I I when he passed, I was talking to the partners and I'm like, you know, hey, you know, Mr. So and so we gotta work on well, you know, we do it all for the kids. And I'm like I'm fift I'm I'm forty-eight. Like what kids are you talking about? Like at what point are we not gonna be the kids? But you'll always I will always be their kid. No, I get that. But it's like there is a mindset of we older guys and folks that the generation coming behind us is totally screwed. But let's but there but it's not because church attendance is up. We're we're starting to draw them back into patriotism. By doing these things, we are showing what patriots are not nude people throwing their boobs up in the White House. Can you be patriotic without hate? And that's what see that's what they don't understand. You can be patriotic. It doesn't mean you hate anybody. It means you love your country. We're this it if we give up America, I mean nobody's fleeing to go to Iran. Nobody's fleeing our country to swim over to go to Cuba. And not that there's anything wrong with being a Proud Cuban. That's fantastic. But if you want to live in the land of opportunity, this is it. There is no better country. And if you don't appreciate that, shame on you. Well, we spent enough decades apologizing for our strength. I think it's okay. Once in a while we can celebrate it. Now, some of the retraction though, well somebody did mention military recruitment needs help. So just does it really well. I mean does it? Okay. here we go. No, it does not. It doesn't. Recruitment is up across every major branch compared to the recruiting crisis of Democrat time in 2022 and 2023. In fact, the fiscal year 2025 was the first year in roughly 15 years that all military branches met or exceeded their recruiting goals. Army, 101, almost 102%. Navy, 108, almost 109%, Air Force, a little over 100%, Marines. A hundred percent. Space force a hundred and three percent. they're meeting their goals. Yes, so they're meeting and exceeding their goals. So patriotism is up and that's a good thing. Well, I think also too, and you you tied it to the administration at the time, and I think just some people don't trust the leadership. Like they don't want to go work in the army for Biden. Not person that is leading is a a dude wearing a dress. Yeah, well that's yeah. Besides the point. And not that I have a problem with people. you do whatever you do. But there has to be rules. I can't as a eight year old go and drink a beer at the bar. So there are rules in place for certain things. I don't want to be a woman inside a foxhole with a bunch of men. I don't want to be in my locker room with a bunch of men. I'm sorry. Dudes are dudes. Yeah, but you're also the girl that took shop class and like auto mechanics to meet boys. So what do you have a problem with the book full of boys? Yeah, because I was learning a skill and I wanted to keep boyfriends. Yeah, sure you did. So so there's pretending to be a boy. There was one one point that large military parades are often associated with like strongman politics like Russia, China, North Korea. do you do you feel a parallel between Donald Trump having a UFC fight on the back lawn and flyovers? Is that Is he trying to be like Kim Jong un or whoever the hell's over there? Kim Jong Midget? I don't think so. Okay. Because we actually train our military to fight. Right. Well, we train to follow a chain of command and we Right. Yeah. The Chinese train their people to look intimidating and march. They do march well. They they march holy smoke. They are lines are straight. We watch our lines and we're like, But that's okay. Put a gun in the line and you'll beat them up. So Okay, so do you feel like patriotism being unfairly criticized? No. I mean, why why don't we criticize Pride Month or waving a trans flag? The it's like the outrage is not the same. No. However many years they had men that had breasts throwing their shirts up and showing their breasts on the white hobblet. I didn't hear any outrage. Well the outrage was us conservatives going, my gosh, what what is that? Why are you doing that? But if we can't show our strength as a country and we can't promote our military, what are we doing? Do we even have a country? I'm just saying. I'm I know. I just I I keep thinking and seeing all the the negative stuff online and it's like, why is patriotism so bad? And then you celebrate the social stuff over here that not you know, it's a smaller very small percent of the population is that is in that social group, right? But a hundred percent of us are in the United States. Every single one of these people that are are trans, not trans, gay, white, black, Mexican. Chinese that live here and have become American citizens. We're all American citizens. Period. End of stuff. Every single one of us has that in common. So why can't we share that equally? I'm afraid I'm gonna be bringing this up every show, but my dad passed. What was the theme of the obituary and other things that I wrote? Assimilate. Assimilate. What did he want us to do as kids? Assimilate to this country. Be patriot, you know, be an American first. Work like a Greek, but think like an American. You know. So you know, look, some presidents they build libraries. Sun I think Donald Trump he wanted that octagon. Yeah. I mean there's nothing wrong with that. Like I said, it's getting patriotism out there. Well, maybe we should put Congress in the octagon next. Maybe that's why he's gonna leave it. Now it he's gonna have like death matches. It would definitely increase popularity if we put you know I would tune in to watch that. I would too. Heck yeah. I can think of two that I'd like to I want I would watch golf if somebody was killed at the end of it. Like, you know, like whoever did the worst like is eliminated, you know. I'm just trying to think the most boring thing I can think of. fight fight big body booty. What did she call that one? Big Body Bleach Blonde. what is her name? Marjorie Taylor Taylor Green, yeah. Yeah, eyelashes versus green. That be funny. Okay. I'd I'd watch it. I'd pay. Well let's I wouldn't sign up for free tickets, I'd pay. You pay? Yeah, I well I would pay per view the whole deathmatch thing. But So, North Carolina, what's been going on here? We had the GOP convention previous weekend. big big theme is Roy Cooper versus Michael Watley. Now, we as conservatives are gonna support Michael Watley because we don't want the control of the Senate to dump into the Democrats' hands. The Democrats are also running just on TV today or yesterday saying that it we haven't decided, but impeachments may come if we win. Who cares? Let them impeach. I have so encouraged them to impeach the president just so they would shut the hell up. Like impeach means to go on trial. Give him a trial. If you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, or maybe I don't know what the standard is in Congress, probably isn't. What a waste of taxpayer money. Thank you. But let I I'd rather they and s it's it's kind of like stop talking about it, be about it. Go do it. They did it, but that's the whole t the whole time last time he that's all it was is they never didn't get anything done but impeachment. I am paying their salary. Stop impeaching and start working. Okay, well I'm not. We are. Whatever. Anyway, Don't be that girl. I pay your salary. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying. She gets pulled over, that's why she gets tickets. I pay your salary. No, I do not get tickets and I do never ever I get tickets when I tell the cop, look, if you wanted my number, just ask. She I got pulled over twice by the same cop on the same road within a month. You why I pulled you over? She was a good looking girl, but you know, I did say it was like three o'clock in the morning. I Look, if you wanted my number, you could have just asked and she She's here here yeah. And see, I get away you see this? I get away with quite a bit. Yeah. So unfortunate looking. It's like, you know, hey. so anyway, so the big theme was the Senate race is a big deal here. I did want to mention I've listened to so many podcasts over the weekend because you that drive to Myrtle Beach, which is two hours each way. So I get my windshield time. And the guy Graham Platner, is he in New Hampshire? Maine's in he's anyway in Maine. He's he's the guy with the swastika tattoo. It's the skull and the Grippendorf or something they call it. Yeah. So yeah, it's some other minute German history thing. But it doesn't mean anything about hate at all. Although he coming out now, he's got girlfriends that are coming out saying yes, he knew exactly what the hell it was. I mean, we know that the guy knew he sat there for how long getting this damn thing tattooed in. But at any rate, every Democrat. Okay, hold on. When you're young and dumb, you can be like, that looks cool and tough. But at some point In his he found out even if he did do it, he knew. He didn't ha So let's he was young and dumb, he was probably s celebrating the the genocide of people and he's like, Let me get this symbol. Okay. I don't know what was in his mind when he got the tattoo, but I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. But let's say I'm I'm I'm not very intelligent, which it appears he's not, but that's beside point. And he gets the a tattoo that's of a of a inappropriate symbol. Once you find out what it is, do you ever take your shirt off again until you have it covered? Heck now. You're walking around the street with that. But they have had so the thing is that I wanted to point out there's several quotes and they have Chuck Schumer on camera. They're like, Do you support Grant this Platinum guy? He's like, We will defeat Susan Collins and flip the Senate. But do you support him? We will f beat Susan He just keeps repeating the same lie because he's so afraid of being primaried by AOC and losing his individual power. Right. He doesn't care about his constituents. N none of the Democrats do, it seems like. Before you say none of the Democrats care about the constituents, I would argue left wing, right wing, same bird. It's only recently that we have woken up to what the representatives that we've sent to Washington are actually doing. They have allowed our country to go down the tubes. So I'm not sure that all of our representatives that are in Washington that are of the Republican Party are care about their constituents either. Well Tom Tillis does. He just decided to get out of there. That's why we have a problem in the Senate. Yeah. And I like Tom. He's a he's a conservative good guy. But he kinda left us at the bag with that way. Okay. Okay. So what you got next? Data centers. You wanna talk about data centers again? I mean, I'm so damn tired of data centers, but I did see something today. now they're vilifying somebody of these liberal the F Fayville Freedom for All Coalition. which is one of the leaders is a self prescribed Leninist Marxist organizer. Okay. It's on his LinkedIn profile. No but they found on LinkedIn a job opening for a consultant to be local to Fayetteville to help construct and hyperscale a data center. So now they're circulating this job post like, well, if they haven't approved a data center, then why are they hiring for it? So they're mad that they're creating a job, number one. And two, this is very quickly gonna end up in in court over property rights. And what you can do with your property. So I guess that was one development today is that they found somebody who posted a job to help start designing these things. So there is a city council meeting, let's see, June twenty second. So that's next week. At five thirty. Yep. And then well five thirty is their discussion. Their six thirty secret meeting upstairs. And then they have the public meeting at six thirty downstairs. so there was the June eight rally, we talked about that one. When they went and misspelled community and chalk in front of Councilman Hondros's office. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Communities with two M's, guys, not one. Just two those books. Annapolis So so I was born and raised in Bayeville, left for college and grad school, came back after the death of my brother, and look so I came back in two thousand and four. I had a really awesome therapy practice and loved what I did. what what kind of therapy? I work with women, a lot with children and a lot with the military. I feel like so many people don't realize the stress on the men and women in the military and also their parents. So I've worked with a lot, a lot of them. fast forward to December twenty-second, twenty twenty two. our daughter Caroline, who's at 10 for 20s, McKenzie, she didn't have the highest college graduation because academic. So she was in a PhD program at University of Tennessee and we said, Come on, just she wasn't about being on the spotlight. We're like, come on, just walk across the state. You've earned it. You've worked so hard. She had two jobs while she was getting her PhD. we came back home. She followed on I believe Monday 'cause she wanted to stay and work in clinic. She was a very hard worker and we had a very tragic house fire. So we lost her, lost our pets, lost everything. my husband almost died trying to save Caroline. I walked out in one shoe and a tank top and nothing else. So talk about being powerless. It's very tragic. I was realize 'cause I had other things to do, but It was on the national news and yes. And so, I don't know if your Greek family's like this, but we sit down and have dinner every night. We're gonna sit down, we're gonna eat, and we're gonna have dinner. And so Caroline came home. we sat down, it was just John, Caroline, and me, and then John went to check on his dad. And we saw Caroline and I turned on the TV, we saw where there was another fire in London and Caroline said the prayer that night and said, you know, I pray for that family. It was so close to Christmas. And Caroline and I had a great night together. The fire happened sometime after midnight. And this community supported us and was there for us. They've dropped off clothing. They didn't ask us what they could do, they dipped it. And I really feel like if we had wanted to rebuild our house, it would have been rebuilt before John got out of USA hospital. Well, that's a tragic story. And, you know, that's one of those things I well, as not being a parent, I've never understand that. Laura's been through that and we've talked about that a lot in the past too. So but let's make lemonade. Okay. Let's take some lemons that lie through at you and what so you have this Caroline Cares thing. Yes. Tell me about that. So it's just now over a year old. Okay. And I thought, you know, long and hard about what what do you do for a little person who is so amazing? What do you do to keep her legacy alive? the building's really not gonna do it. you know, there are a lot of things you can do, but what's really gonna matter? And I felt like Caroline had a special love for special news. She worked with the Special Olympics. She was training to work in the schools with the special needs population. And to watch her work with those students was amazing. She was so patient, accepting. She made sure that they felt seen and heard. And I said, you know what, we can do that. So we talked with the Higgins in the community. We talked with my friend Mitzi Townsend in Denver. because they have so many resources out there for special needs. And with a little pushing, a lot of pushing and shoving from John, we made it happen. so we do an event quarterly and it's free to the families. they have to register just so that we know who is coming and we can, you know, have enough resources there, food. I like to give you know, prizes away or do you bring all that kind of stuff. Okay. So what what are these events? What do you actually actually do for the families and and and who are they? So the families and their special needs, whomever it is, the caregivers, we have also some people, consumers from group homes that come. They sign up and we have a theme. we've done a petting zoo, which went over real well. That'd be fun. Yeah. we did a p we've done a petting zoo, we've done a dance, we've done a magic show. and we, you know, ask the VIPs for input and a lot of them will say, We just want to do karaoke or we want bingo but we want prizes. you know, the book we'll we ask what do you want for dinner? And we've had Luigi's Donate Dinner, Barbecue Hut. I'm trying to think who else we've had, you know, Job So your VIPs are your children with special needs. Children's children and adults. And adults with special needs. Okay. We had some this last time who, you know, were in their fifties, we've had some people in their sixties. And we really are just trying to create connections. Give the parents or the caregivers a little bit of a break because they are very overworked, twenty four seven and you know, trying to juggle jobs and all the normal stuff. and we just have a good time. And everything is free. Yes. So I'm what I'm trying to do is to get a picture of your event flyer, but before you came on I mentioned, you know, well who pays for all this? How do you how are you I mean, so I know it's it's in in memory for your daughter. Now what degree was your did your daughter have before she went into PhD program? she had an undergrad degree because the PhD program you can apply to get your masters, but really they just push you straight for it. I was thinking she wasn't that all usually PhD is like Yeah. Okay, okay. And what was her undergrad then? psychology. And just okay. She did research as an undergrad, which you usually they make you wait until grad school. Okay. and she went to Meredith College and I felt like I was up there every month for her to get another award. she loved academics. Yeah. So she was a good one. Very, very bright young lady. And that's well, yeah, for sure. I don't think I could have pulled off a PhD program at twenty twenty four. Yeah, you have to no way. No, not alone. I definitely took a gap six months after high school. But I settled down mostly. I think so. All right. So what I've well the you know, well the well you're a therapist, so you know that we men, we don't really mature until we're about forty seven. Or is it it's till I have to, okay. So I was trying to find I just wanted to show everybody watching that this is this is Caroline. That is Caroline, yes. Okay. Okay. So that was the one you just did on the twelfth. And you had bingo. I like it. Yeah, we had bingo and so our friend William caught out the bingo. Zoe Kalibus is wonderful calling out bingo. She she couldn't be there. She was out of town. we had so many volunteers. we try to let the parents just relax and we try and do the work. So how do you find the parents? I mean 'cause I saw that Tara Hinton was helping you out with this and I know she's connected with okay, Miller's Bruce. All right. Friendship house. Okay. Because we've got you know friendship house is right down the street. So they they I think we've had a consistent group for the last six times. The first one was kind of as I was checking it out to see. Now Friendship House, is that not the place where the special needs folks they get some independent living or are they paired with roommates? how does that work? We'll have to ask here after you apply and they work very hard to make you an independent sheet command community. Okay. Yeah. So a lot of our VIPs are at Friendship House. They work at Harris Teater. I like that you call them VIPs I like. I really love that. They really are they're great. They're great. And we Caroline cares as a club. Okay. Yep. So everyone's welcome. We do have roles like respecting each other, that kind of stuff. but we just have a good time and they need that. the biggest thing we learned is that our VIPs, they don't want to be with a bunch of old people. They want to be with young people. So we have spent quite a bit of time meeting and developing and casually training middle schoolers and high schoolers and they make the night. Yes, they do karaoke with them, they dance with them, they sit with them. Wait, you mean you're teaching other students how to interact with the community? Right. Okay. So they they come and they're not on their phones. Their parents drop along. They you know, Ms. Anna, what you want me to do? And I know sometimes saying I want you to sit with this group can be a little bit uncomfortable for a typical kid, but they do it. they do karaoke dance. Do you do any like are there any like icebreakers you give the kids or do they just kind of naturally kid the kid they f or not necessarily they're all kids either. The V IPs how old are they? I'm gonna say we have high schoolers. Okay. Okay, okay. So you've got volunteers that are younger. Yes, they love the v young volunteers. because you know they know how to do the technology, they know all the karaoke songs. but we do an icebreaker at the beginning because some people are late, some people are super early. And well you did have it at the Greek church, so I mean I don't think anybody should have been on time to that. They they're waiting at the door now. It's adorable. I love it. It warms my heart. That is excellent. Yes. I so let's see, what was the most popular karaoke song last weekend? Do you remember? High school musical. High school musical The Climb. Okay. Okay. The Klein. Okay, yes. Your husband over there is shaking his head. So what which one did you make your husband do? That's what I'd like to know. That's the worst one and he does. Stand by your man. Stand by Stand by Your Man. Okay. Is that Patsy Klein? Yes. Do you do the feet the male version of that one? Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Is that how he kind of roped you into dating him? Like did he was it kind of a you've lost that loving feeling scene out of top out of out of the top gun? That have even worked. but they love the high school musical. They love you know, just being teenagers and kids. Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, okay, yeah. yeah. I'm a little I'm like, yeah, with with the Swifty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't know good music, those kids. You know. Yeah. But when we had the Christmas, we had a huge Christmas party. So how often are you doing these? Every quarter. So the next one will be in September. Okay. And I need to check all the, you know calendars for school and all that kind of stuff. and I have to find someone, maybe Baldino's to donate different I was thinking, nobody asked me, but it's okay. Baldinos is more of a lunch thing. Yeah, more of a lunch thing. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a whenever you need it type of thing. You let me know. I need we need dinner because we provide healthy snacks. We provide snacks. We provide water. I try not to do suffering. Is this purely fun stuff? We're not trying to educate anybody. We're not trying to We're just trying to have fun together. Okay. Encourage, you know, manners and how to introduce yourself to someone, what to say and kind of what not to say. 'Cause they'll call you out. Mm-hmm. They won't call you out. I I I've been trying to get Dee to watch Love on the Spectrum. yes. That is those guys are so sweet. I mean, they but they're so matter of fact too. I th one guy gives his girlfriend a bag of candy and she just starts eating it. And he's looking at that bag of candy. And they're both on the spectrum. And he's looking at that bag of candy and he's like, Boy, it sure would be nice if I could have some of those right now. And she goes, Yeah, you should go get some I never understood the giving of a gift and expecting Well, I mean she's a big bag of candy and she just but she was like, Yeah, you should get some Absol Hey, I'm not I I don't I'm not hating her at all. I you know, I thought that was excellent. But But no, I d I've been watching that and it's it's the matter of factness of people on the spectrum that I'm seeing. And I d I don't know clinically what I'm really looking at. I mean that some people look a little more No, it's I don't say develop, but it's like more nice. Some people some people more advanced than others. Right. Yes. Right. And they're more communicative and more they make more icon anyway, so it's all kinds of people. But they they're very, very sweet. All the all the And they get excited and they cheer each other on as they sing. I think they boot John when he was singing, but yeah. They will ask it's cute because we have ones who go, males and they'll ask me, Ms. Anna sing with me and then they'll look around the room like, We don't want you, we want her to sing with me. I'm like, Okay. Well, I mean, between the you and John, I mean you're the better looking other half, so I get you know, why they'd want, you know, you know. I mean, he's not looking, he's great. He's he's a Greek, of course. But you know they they hold up, you know, those guys. Well some of them. They hold up. The Greeks, they hold up. They hold up. That reminds me di do you remember there was a movie in the eighties. It was the guy that played Dudley Moore, Arthur, he was an advertising exec. Mm-hmm. And there was some movie he was in where he was an advertising guy and he says he came up with Volvos. They're boxy, but they're good. That's funny. Very I mean, very matter of fact. I mean, I kinda like that stuff. Greek comedians. Gala Fonicus? Yes. Yes. I have not. I have not. Isn't he the one that does between two ferns? Yes, but he now has done a new burning show and we've been flashed it because he's probably one of us. I was talking about the between two ferns earlier with my maintenance guy and he brought up the one with Obama. And I swear to God, if you watch it, Obama looked like he was gonna hit him. I mean and rightfully so. I mean he was like, How does it feel being a the the last black president or something. And Obama just looked at him and said, How does it how does it feel being the last host or something like that? I mean, or having no career after this or something. So yeah, Galaphonicus is funny. We gotta gotta watch that. So it's a gardening show. What does it mean? And is it's titled It's a gardening show. That's it. It's hilarious. It is we've been swap it. It is but it's important to teach children to be responsible and apparently there's school that yeah. like v freeg and vegan stuff, dump dumpster diving? No, we go out in the woods and be able to survive and real foraging, not dumpster diving. Okay. That's a thing. They call them freeg freegan vegan. They go like dumping into dumpsters and crap. There's a whole series about it. Uhhuh. Yeah. Well I'm proud to be an American. My obsession lately has been my free Roku TV that has the live channels of like there's a there's there's a show called Jail. That's it. Chapter and verse, jail. That's it. They just show people getting processed in and processed out. But see, I find fascinating. I I do too. It's Human Misery one one. I'm like, yeah, let's that let's see. yeah, he screwed her life up. Yeah, good job. And then Jerry Springer has a channel. Jerry Springer. Isn't he dead? yeah, but he's but he He made like nine thousand episodes, so they have enough material to just keep it on twenty four seven. My dad used to love that crap. I don't know. And I think around the time of his death I started watching this stuff and I'm like, now I get it. Like I never understood why my dad watched this garbage. And then I'm watching it and I'm like, vegging out, like watching Jerry Springer and the fights, and it's like women pull their tops off. It's all blurred out. You can't see it, but it's still like fascinating. Like I'm still I'm a very simple creature, I think. Hm at the end of the day. So but it's human misery one on one. Yeah, I don't want to see human misery. I wanna see people coming. I I wanna see getting out and moving on. I don't wanna see jail. Well, they move on. So Okay, so let's see. So back to your indicators. Let's get back on topic here. Okay, so four times a year you are hosting it with a small loyal group of friends and family, it sounds like. sounds like Baldinos will be part of your next event, so no problem there. are we gonna what what do you see forward for for this event? I see it growing. Okay. I see some of the VIPs taking over roles and helping me. because I I guess when Caroline died, you know, I just was thrown into a new reality and so many things did not matter anymore. social media was one of So sometimes I just don't post and then the VIP user text What time is it? I'm like, I forgot to post. Let me put something on Caroline Cares. And so I do that. But you know, helping people, genuinely caring about people, being a good friend, those things those things matter. Things matter. You mentioned before, after her death that your work life changed quite a bit too. yes. I Couldn't go back to work, which was really my identity, something I loved. I mean, you hear people come home from work and be like and I was just energized. Loved my clients, loved to see the growth, loved, you know, just giving people some hope. And sold the building, wrapped it up, closed the door. That was it. So how long had you been had that career? Twenty years. Mm-hmm. Long time. I think seventeen years in Fable. So was licensed originally in Colorado. I did the first internship at Kaiser Permanent Permanente in Colorado and thought it was gonna be an easy internship and Columbine cheating happened. During your internship? yeah. that yes. So that was a huge wake up call and that was the first one, right? Now unfortunately. Well it's the first one we remember because it was so I don't want to say this a little bit, it's so well It was so planned. So orchestrated that you can't it these boys wanted to do mass arm, but people Yeah. Well, we've discussed this before, you know, it's almost as if human life has gotten cheap. And people don't know from where they come from, people don't have a family that supports them, and it's just like a video game. They can shoot and hurt somebody and they just hit play. Or just hit reset. Start respawn, respawn. Yeah, respawn. There is no respawn in real life. And that's unfortunate. As stated before, they're you know, especially They don't understand, like you said, if you have Well, like you said, you know, when you do a lack of fathers in the home, you're not d developing that that whole other side of the coin. Yeah, no, there's no guidance. But like you said with the VIPs at your event, you know, no phones, no devices. Everybody's just talking to each other. And we males are idiots. So as we de as we don't evolve quick enough, the devices I think are prolonging that. absolutely. You know, like it's it's further dulling that sword that needs to be our brain separating and it's just not happening as quickly. I made it through already. I had the devices later in life, so I'm okay. So I was I helped somebody with a speech this weekend and and and they and they start I'm like, you have like ten seconds to grab them. Either you grab them or you don't. They're only gonna listen for ten seconds. And then if it's really good they'll listen for another twenty seconds then they're gone. I don't care what you got. So you better what's what level of speech. It doesn't matter. Excuse me, but it's okay. That's fine. the speech was good though. She got chuckles where I wanted to hang out. Well, TikTok you gotta get in seven seconds or you're done. You're cooked. Well, this was in the room. You I mean you can only pay so much attention in a in a room even nowadays. But yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Because I have my device, it's probably more interesting than what you're saying. Not you specifically. But no, probably way more interesting than Caroline cares, hopefully it's gonna grow. What is the next quarter of the you said next is in September. Do you know what it's going to be? We do not. No theme or anything yet. So do you change the theme every I change the theme, but they are gonna want the VIPs are gonna want karaoke and dancing. There's certain but what do you call that stuff? But we may do we may do something else and they'll be okay. They just want to know what's gonna happen that night and what is expected and some dress up like usually the back to school ones, you know, Hawaiian Aloha dam because it's easy. Okay. so they dress up and participate and have it back. And they would dance calmly if they like where if you say And about how many people have you 'cause it's been growing, so about how many people did you have last weekend? So last weekend was a short noticed one, but we still thirty V I Ps plus their it was a it was they kept us on our toes. Plus their caregivers. Yes. And so sometimes the whole family comes, which we love. Sometimes siblings come which we love. You know? Bring it. That's excellent. So is there anywhere we can go to find more out about Yes. This Instagram is at Caroline underscore cares club. I'll just in that piece. Yeah. at Caroline Cares. I think I found it today. And so that just to go at let me just go ahead and apologize. Caroline was in love with all your work with Rocco. I took Rocco to work with me every day. She went to grad school, she'd send me text, Rocco. Not that she wanted to see Rocco. So the Instagram page that I changed to Caroline's was Rocco's. And I I didn't know where I saw that. Okay. Yeah, I I I was wondering. I was like, There's a lot of dog on here. Little Rocco. Yeah. Okay. Was he is it he's not around anymore, I guess. Rocco was with Caroline. yeah. So it's okay. It's okay. And you know, I know your intention. It's good. Questions are okay. Thank you. I've toughened up quite a bit. If you don't talk about them, they don't exist anymore. That's right. Amen. And no one wants to be a member of the club around. No. And I don't want anyone to be a member of that club. But yeah, that's part of the is sometimes it makes people uncomfortable. what happened to your son or whatever like that? I don't mind. I mean s I sometimes it hurts my heart on some days. two thousand fifteen. First year was total numb. Second year, that's the year that it set in when we were setting Christmas dinner. How old was he when you lost? Twenty five. Okay, so yeah. Yeah. When you're setting Christmas dinner and you're I still set a place for him, but just stays up the Yeah. That's what we do. He gets a birthday cake and everything, yeah. Yeah, that's what we do. And you know, John and my friends will tell you that I didn't leave the house because people in the community knew us and they would, you know You're in. Everybody wants to give you condolence. Yeah, you spend all your time consoling other people and you don't get to feel it yourself. That's why the second year to me was the worst. Mine was the worst. Okay. Right. Yeah. So it's it never goes away. But with this I I know that Caroline would be so proud of John and me for showing up, especially for staying home on a Friday night. 'Cause we like to travel now that the kids are kinda out of the house. and just that, you know, Caroline's making a difference in these kids' lives. So we're gonna grow it. We're gonna delegate. That's tough. That's tough for Greek people to delegate. Not me, it's not tough at all. Do it, you better do it right. You're gonna do it, but you better do it right. Sometimes you just can't find their societal norms, you know. It's like I just you know it's It's interesting because I'm like, can't we just have like some cheese and crackers? We're gonna sit down, we're gonna eat a meal. That is that is the hospitality part of Greek. We have to eat salad. Yes. So what with the good feta or the cheap stuff, domestic? The good father. I hope so. If if he doesn't have any, you come see me. I got it. the our button is that's a hundred. you get the good stuff. Okay. And the good olive oil. Okay, so local businesses hear about this. How can they help? What can they do to help? we are finishing up our nonprofit status and they can donate. we always need quarks, knives, plates, food. anyone who really wants to volunteer and is serious about it because we want people there to come again and again so they get to know the families and you know they're welcome to contact me. my cell phone is on that flyer. Dangerous, but okay. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Everybody has a Google voice number these days. Good idea. Maybe I'll take Caroline's phone to check to test out on. I still have my son's because I call the worst the most best worst thing was about four years ago. I got a phone call. I didn't recognize on his phone and she left a voicemail and it was a young girl and she had lost her baby and she said, Joshua, my baby's on the way to you. Would you please watch out for him? It was so sad, but like to know that somebody years after Joshua was gone is thinking of him. And like, but that makes a difference. So what was the day? Ele eleven, twelve, fifteen. Eight eight eight twelve a at at night. Okay. But yeah. So keep the phone. I call I call his voicemail just to hear his voice. I think we'll just take us out. How about that? All right. Okay. So everybody that joined us this evening will really appreciate it. to my co-host, the lovely Laura Musler. Thank you. I'm sorry I made you cry tonight. You didn't make me cry. It's okay. They're tears of joy. And Anna, thank you so much for being here and telling us about Caroline Cares. So to all the audience watching, we're the Carolina Cabinet and we'll see you on Wednesday. I think. All right. Have a good evening.