Podcasts about Huntington High School

Circa Fall 1982, I first met Mike Rice in Huntington High School's 9th-grade math class, where we became fast friends and “partners in crime.”   In fact, it turns out it wasn't until we sat down on this Thursday afternoon in February ‘25, some 43years later, that we discovered our connection goes back as far as 1974, when we shared the same kindergarten class in Flower Hill Elementary School.Fast forward to 2025, Mike (aka “Sketch”) brings us back to his early days growing up “south of 25A” In Huntington and being inserted into the Huntington Bay party scene and the broader edginess of what was becoming a melting pot at HHS.Sketchy then shares his journey from being a summer intern at ABC News to covering the turmoil abroad in Tiananmen Square in the ‘80's.Next up, Mike's 2-year residency in Japan…. as an Elvis impersonator.  Wait.  What?We then dive into more modern day life, and it's safe to say that Sketch and I have barely scratched the surface.Join us, and let's see where the energy takes us!https://music.apple.com/us/album/rocks-off/1440872228?i=1440872593https://music.apple.com/us/album/aja/1706428459?i=1706428462https://music.apple.com/us/album/burning-love/388127843?i=388128626

Fifteen years ago tonight, The Flood continued its mission to convince the world that jug band music could fit any occasion.This particular occasion — in the ballroom atop the Renaissance Performing Arts Center in the old Huntington High School building in the city's South Side — was a benefit concert to help out with medical expenses for a family member of long-time Flood buddy Dale Jones.No one knows how successful the band's hokum music proselytizing was — you can draw your own conclusions by watching Pamela Bowen's video from that November 2009 night — but no one doubts the success for the concert: it raised nearly $2,000 for Dale's family.JoelessnessThe band worked at a disadvantage that night, because Joe Dobbs couldn't make the gig, or any other Flood gig for the rest of the year. That's because about the time the band was taking the stage, the fiddler was winging his way to Australia to visit Rod and Judy Jones and to play shows and festivals Down Under over the next month or so.Earlier that autumn, the guys were saddened when they realized they wouldn't have Joe around for the holidays. Oh, Floodsters usually didn't actually do all that much with the Jolly Ol' Elf during the Yuletide, but it was always fun seeing him wear his Santa hat throughout the season (thrilling The Nice and scaring the bejesus out of The Naughty). The Flood's anticipated Joe Deficiency for December 2009 became a regular topic of conversation in the weekly jam sessions at the time.At one point Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen quipped that anyone who would like to audition to be Joe's stand-in during his absence should just show up at a rehearsal in a Joe Dobbs mask.Honestly, no one thought anyone would actually do it, but, of course, no one should ever count out the creative mind of Carter Taylor Seaton, who is always up for a challenge. The photos above show her and Richard Cobb modelling their masks on either side of the genuine article.Gig NightCarter and Richard were in the audience that night at the Renaissance, along with other Flood friends, like Rose Riter, Norman and Shirley Davis, JoAnn and Bob McCoy and Sharon and Tom Pressman. Even with Joe's absence, the band had a healthy quorum for the gig. The video from the evening features Dave and Charlie front and center with Michelle Hoge and Dave “Bub” Ball. The three jug band tunes are rich in tasty solos by Jacob Scarr, Doug Chaffin and Sam St. Clair. The highlight, though, is the video's debut of young James St. Clair, standing in the front row and almost but not quite busting a few moves during his dad's harmonica solos. That was the same night, incidentally, when the lad told us that since he could now stand on his own two feet, we had to stop calling him as “Sweet Baby James,” which we did. Sorta.More Jugginess?Of course, The Flood's jug band music mission work continues today. The guys are still trying to show the world how to fit hokum into its various holidays and observances.If Pamela's video has you ready to join the campaign, check out The Hokum channel on the free Radio Floodango music streaming service which has dozens of jug band tunes ready to rock you. Click here to tune it in and you'll be ready to sing along at the next Flood fest. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

The Sports Scouting Report interviews Head Coach Stephen Dennis from Huntington High School. He is an excellent coach with tons to talk about! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for watching!  

Athletes Unlimited Women's Professional Lacrosse Champion, Taylor Moreno joins Mark to discuss the tangibles and intangibles that lead to true growth. At the goalie position, Taylor has been an AU Pro Champion twice and she is the all-time leader in saves for the University of North Carolina. Originally from Long Island, New York, Taylor was the first woman to play varsity football for Huntington High School. A black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a Nike athlete, an ambassador for 'Morgan's Message,' she also runs her own goalkeeper clinics... inspiring the next generation of players. Listeners will hear how patience and asking for help made her a better teammate, goalkeeper and all-around person. Taylor and Mark dive deeply into the mental skills and techniques necessary to stay in the moment and play one's best when it means the most. Taylor's Instagram Taylor's Website

Garrett Greene visits 3 Guys Before The Game. Joe Brocato reports on Huntington High School's Robbie Martin committment to NC State. Jon Elmore on Herd That reaching the TBT Final Four.

Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.   Today is Friday, July 14  Earn prizes for visiting WV waterfalls on the nation's first-ever waterfall trail…employers and job seekers, register now for Huntington's job fair on July 20…and Buckhannon gears up to host an international band festival…on today's daily304. #1 – From WV NEWS – One of West Virginia's most popular tourism initiatives capitalizes on an often overlooked scenic wonder: The state's abundance of beautiful, naturally photogenic waterfalls. The West Virginia Waterfall Trail has been dubbed the nation's first-ever “waterfall trail” by multiple travel publications, including Travel + Leisure, USA Today, Southern Living and Fodor's Travel. State officials recently announced the addition of nine new stops to the Trail, bringing the total up to 38 for those looking to explore cascades across the Mountain State. Visit www.wvtourism.com/west-virginia-waterfall-trail to download your free mobile passport, check in when you visit waterfalls, and earn prizes along the way. Happy waterfall hunting! Read more: https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/west-virginia-scenic-wonders-highlighted-along-waterfall-trail/article_b4f3cab0-1c2f-11ee-a980-ef20f9bfa071.html   #2 – From HUNTINGTON CHAMBER – Calling all employers and job seekers! The Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce is excited to host its 2023 Job Fair, set for July 20 at Huntington High School.  This event will have opportunities for all career levels and is a great opportunity for businesses seeking talented individuals and job seekers looking for their next career move.  Employers, secure your table now to showcase your company and connect with top-notch candidates. Job seekers, this is your opportunity to explore a wide range of career prospects and meet recruiters from leading companies.  Register now: https://business.huntingtonchamber.org/calendar/Details/2023-job-fair-898812?sourceTypeId=Website   #3 – From WV EXECUTIVE – Only two weeks remain until Buckhannon's World Association of Marching Show Bands 2023 Championships and 20 bands from around the world have finalized plans to come together on the American stage while two others are navigating the visa process. The WAMSB 2023 competition will take place July 17-24 and bands will compete for the title of world champion in several disciplines of music including concert, field marching performance, drumline, street parade and more.  The week will feature entertainment, vendors and more throughout downtown Buckhannon. Grammy award winner Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the U.S.A.” fame will perform as part of the official opening ceremonies on July 19 and the Parade of Nations on July 22 will have more international representation than any other parade in West Virginia this year, officials say. The acclaimed U.S. Marine Drumline and Bugle Corps will perform for the official closing ceremony at 7 p.m. July 23. Event tickets can be purchased at www.wamsb2023.com. Read more: https://wvexecutive.com/20-international-marching-bands-expected-at-wamsb-2023-thousands-to-visit-buckhannon/   Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304. The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.  That's all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.

Join Paul Swann on The Drive as we cover the latest sports headlines. In today's episode, we discuss the groundbreaking news of Pat McAfee joining ESPN in a multimillion-dollar deal, his departure from FanDuel, and the potential impact on his YouTube show. Discover how McAfee's unique style merges with ESPN's platform and what it means for his crew and fans. We also dive into NBC's exclusive rights to air the Bills-Chargers NFL game on Peacock and a playoff game in January. Get the details on the deal, fan reactions, and the challenges of streaming paywalls for postseason games. Furthermore, we explore the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets' interest in hosting the annual Black Friday game. Discover the teams' enthusiasm and the NFL's cautious approach to assessing fan responses before making a permanent decision. Finally, we highlight Lambros Svingos' appointment as the boys basketball coach at Huntington High School. Learn about his plans to continue the school's winning tradition, coaching philosophy, and the talented roster. Hear how Svingos aims to mold student-athletes through discipline, speed, and athleticism. Tune in to The Drive with Paul Swann for engaging discussions, expert analysis, and captivating stories. Listen on Apple Podcasts and stay connected to the latest in the sports world. #SportsPodcast #PatMcAfee #ESPN #NFL #NBCPeacock #BlackFridayGame #HuntingtonHighBasketball

Huntington High School head football coach Billy Seals on Darnell Wright (#10 pick in the 2023 NFL draft) and Robby Martin, a WVU target; WVU transfer portal news

Dan Bernstein and Laurence Holmes opened their show by sharing their expectations for whom the Bears will select with the No. 9 pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night. The guys then had a discussion about the numbers behind the struggling 7-18 White Sox. Later, Huntington High School head football coach Billy Seals joined the show to discuss Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright, a former player of his who's a projected first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Joining Paul Swann on today's show is Huntington High School football coach Billy Seals and Ryan Crisp, Associate Athletics Director Annual Giving, Ticket Sales, and Fan Engagement at Marshall University. For more podcasts, including interviews and entire shows, go to The Drive with Paul Swann podcast page. Listen to the show weekday afternoons, at 5:00 p.m on ESPN 94.1 & AM 930. Find Paul Swann on Twitter: @PaulSwann. Everywhere Else: https://linktr.ee/PaulSwann. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Welcome to the 2022 National Signing Day for Marching Band! We are proud to introduce Philip Scott. Philip attends Huntington High School in Shreveport, LA. Philip plays the Euphonium and is ready to announce to the world where he will be marching this fall. This podcast is brought to you by SAY Marketing and Promotions, Block Band Music & Publishing, Kevin Peete of ReMax Patriots, Block Us Up - Band Blog, Smokee O's BBQ, Math-Sci Tutoring and Educational Services, Lamik's Video Sofia's BBQ and Fish, Bull City Music School, HBCU Recruitment Center, and Prodigious Music Concepts LLC Check out our website http://www.themarchingpodcast.com/ you can email the show at marchingpodcast@gmail.com, find us on IG at themarchingpodcast, subscribe to us on Facebook at The Marching Podcast or tweet us @marchingpodcast, We hope you enjoy the show!

This year a handful of RunFluent athletes came up to the Buck Fifty in Chillicothe, Ohio. Today I chat with Chris Stangle, Scott Hoover, and Gustave Karagrozis about their time out of Florida up in Ohio. The Buck Fifty was founded to fight the drug problem in local community. They support eight local high school chapters of the Drug Free Clubs of America. The Drug Free Clubs of America Members at Huntington High School came up with a slogan that is so important and ties into the event; "Run Miles, Make a Difference." The mission of RunFluent is to give everyone the opportunity to experience a professional Gait Analysis and receive customized goal driven run programming at an affordable cost. There number one goal is to help each and every client to run as efficiently as possible while chasing down their goals. Chris Stangle does an amazing job and his team at the Buck Fifty without a doubt brings that to light.

Spotlight On Long Island Schools - Huntington High School 5 - 28 - 22 by JVC Broadcasting

For a very special Monday edition of The Sports Scouting Report Podcast With Lee Brecheen, Lee video chats with Huntington High School head football coach Stephen Dennis. Lee and Coach Dennis talk about this past season for the Raiders, his top players from this senior class including two that signed with Louisiana Tech, his top players to watch out for next season including his quarterback Kam Evans, an update on how his former player De'Kelvion Beamon is doing at Oklahoma State, and more!

Topics: Kentucky House Bill HB43, which proposes exceptions for "houses of worship" from being prevented from having mass gatherings by the government due to a  emergency (such as for a pandemic) and to treat them as an "essential service." https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/22RS/hb43.html Biden's pick for Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Students walk out of Huntington High School in West Virginia in protest of a Christian revival service that they were required to attend. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1079712717/religion-public-school-protest Contact information for Michael Stark and all of the American Atheists Kentucky Assistant State Directors can be found at https://www.atheists.org/group/kentucky/ Our intro and outro music is Crescents by Ketsa, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/Raising_Frequecy/Crescents    

John Davis started surfing at twelve and began winning local competitions soon after. He moved to Huntington Beach to attend High School and became the Captain of Huntington High School's first surf team in 1967. After graduating, Davis “took off to surf Hawaii, --with two pounds of marijuana under my airplane seat” he finished second in the 1969 Sea Spree, a contest that he said was rigged, but made ten times his investment on the marijuana. Turned off by the politics of competitive surfing, he rarely competed in the following years until he won the North Shore Trials of the Smirnoff Pro-Am at Sunset Beach. That qualified him for the US Surfing Championships in Malibu in 1973; Davis placed third after surfing his way through multiple heats. That performance “proved his point,” and he gave up competitive surfing. Eventually, Davis' “lifestyle choices” moved him to Mexico, and he began smuggling marijuana into the US. Through the 1980's he had a few brushes with the law and “served time” after being caught with an airplane loaded with 800lbs of marijuana near Victorville, California. In 1995, while smuggling 50lbs of marijuana, he got caught in a roadblock in Mazatlan and spent three years in a Mexican prison. He was repatriated to the US to finish his sentence, and a parole officer got him into a drug treatment program. John Davis has been sober since 1998. He was inducted into the Surfers' Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California. He and his wife operate Las Olas Recovery, a comprehensive drug and alcohol detox and early drug rehab center in El Pescadero, Baja California Sur. More information on Las Olas Recovery Follow Las Olas Recovery on Facebook Check out Surfers' Hall of Fame

John's Crazy Socks is a father-son venture inspired by co-founder John Lee Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome. John's affinity for crazy socks paired with his love of making people smile, made him and his father Mark X. Cronin. The mission of John's Crazy Socks is to spread happiness. Please visit their website https://johnscrazysocks.com/ Or you may write to service@johnscrazysocks.com Jagged with Jasravee is facilitated by Jasravee Kaur Chandra, Director- Brand Building, Research & Innovation at Master Sun, Consulting Brand of Adiva L Pvt. Ltd. Jasravee has over 20 years experience as a Strategic Brand Builder,Communications Leader and Entrepreneur. Please connect with Jasravee on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasravee/ 00:00 Introduction to John's Crazy Socks 00:46 Vision and Mission of John's Crazy Socks 04:10 How Social Mission Helps Business 07:51 Product Design Elements to Ensure Brand-Product Fit 10:51 Benefits of Unified Workplace with People With Differing Abilities 18:01 Association with Special Olympics 21:18 The Origin Story of John's Crazy Socks 26:00 Business in a Box - 1000 Differing Ability Entrepreneurs 28:07 Rapid Fire with John & Mark 30:58 Talent Show with John & Mark It was in fall of 2016, John's last year of high school, that the idea for John's Crazy Socks started to take shape.Like many of his peers, Cronin was deciding what he wanted to do after graduation. But unlike his classmates, John's options were somewhat limited. With Down syndrome, the career paths available to him didn't exactly pique his interest; many were gigs at retail chains and the ones that weren't had long waiting lists. The John's Crazy Socks website officially launched in December 2016. The response from customers, Mark recalls, was promising. They received 42 orders that first day, all local and largely coming from nearby Huntington, New York. John, at the time, was a student at Huntington High School. Since its launch in John's Crazy Socks has exploded. In five years, the yearly revenue is in excess of 10 million dollars. Customers include high-profile people ranging from George H.W. Bush to Eva Longoria. John's official title at John's Crazy Socks is chief happiness officer, which is fitting in more ways than one. John's Crazy Socks has a social mission and a retail mission, and they are indivisible. They believe in giving back: the company donates 5 percent of its earnings to the Special Olympics as they've played a vital role in John's development. The company continues to expand its charity partners by offering and creating socks with specific “awareness” themes, such as our Autism Awareness Socks and Down Syndrome Awareness Socks. Follow Jagged with Jasravee on Social Media Linktree : https://linktr.ee/jaggedwithjasravee Jagged with Jasravee, is an initiative of Master Sun, the Consulting Brand of Adiva Lifestyle Pvt Ltd. Please visit our blog at http://www.mastersun.in/ #CrazySocks #DownSyndrome #SpreadingHappiness

Comments from Marshall football coach Charles Huff, plus a conversation with Huntington High School football coach Billy Seals. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-drive-with-paul-swann/support

Mark Cronin '80 and his son John Cronin join Maura Sweeney '07 to speak about how they came to found John's Crazy Socks. A serial entrepreneur, Mark passed along this passion to John.  In the spirit of Holy Cross, theirs is a company created to do good.  Through John's Crazy Socks they are living their mission to “spread happiness,” while also serving as advocates for workplace equality and voices for people with differing abilities. Interview originally recorded on March 17, 2021. Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, all interviews in season 2 are recorded remotely. --- Mark : It's the nature of the social enterprise, you've got to have a mission. You can't be, we just want to make money. It's got to be something larger than yourself, an impact you want to have on the world. And when you're driven by that, it's so motivating. All the petty stuff falls away. And that's how you can go and connect with people. We get asked, what's the key ingredient? What skill? A lot if it is just belief. If we have a mission to spread happiness, just believe. Maura : Welcome to Mission-Driven where we speak with alumni who are leveraging their Holy Cross education to make a meaningful difference in the world around them. I'm your host, Maura Sweeney from the class of 2007, director of Alumni Career Development at Holy Cross. I'm delighted to welcome you to today's show. Maura : In this episode, I speak with Mark Cronin from the class of 1980 and his son, John Cronin. Mark and John are co-founders of John's Crazy Socks. A company whose mission is to spread happiness, where over half of the employees have a differing ability. An entrepreneur at heart, Mark has been creating opportunities and organizations ever since his days at Holy Cross. From creating The Lunchbox Theater as a student, to running political campaigns, to founding a software company, his career path shows what can be done when you pursue an idea. Maura : Every step of the way he's been driven by mission. And every step of the way has prepared him for his role at John's Crazy Socks. Our conversation focuses a lot on the incredible work that Mark and John are doing through John's Crazy Socks, to raise awareness about people with differing abilities. They live the motto, to whom much has been given, much is expected, and they do it well. We are lucky to have people like Mark and John working hard to improve the lives of millions of others, because it's not just the right thing to do, it's also good for business. Maura : Mark and John, it is really wonderful to be here with you today. How are you today? Mark : Pretty good, right? John : Pretty good dad. Mark : Life remains interesting. Maura, thank you very much for having us on. Maura : It is my pleasure. It is my pleasure. I have been really looking forward to talking to you about Mark, about your career journey and John, about how you came to help co-found John's Crazy Socks, and the incredible work that you're doing together to really make a difference for people with differing abilities out in the world. Before we get to that, and before we get to John's Crazy Socks, because I could go down a rabbit hole there. First, I'd love to know more about you and your family. I know that you're both New Yorkers. Have you always lived in New York? Mark : So, we live in a town called Huntington on Long Island. I tell the story about that with John. He sometimes laughs at me about this. So, I grew up here on Long Island in part of Huntington, Huntington Station, and when I was 19, I set out for the world. I was leaving and I'm never coming back to Long Island. So in 1997, by that point we had three kids. Our eldest was in first grade and we had moved several times. And if you move two blocks with a little kid, their world turns upside. So we said, we'll buy a house and we'll stay in one place until you get out of college. And we wound up buying a house in Huntington Bay in Huntington, not out of college, out of high school. We said, we'll stay here. And there were a few times where boy, all I wanted to do was travel and move. Mark : There was one point I had this interesting opportunity in Hong Kong, and I sat the family down and I gave them a pitch and they all listened and they nodded and they said, "Dad, that sounds great. And why don't you send us a postcard when you get there, because we're not going." But then, so our two elders, they get up and leave and John, he got an extra three years of high school, but now he's in his final year of high school and I'm thinking, and my wife, Carol is also a Holy Cross grad. We're thinking we can move. We can relocate. Mark : Even after starting this business, we thought you could run an online business from the moon. We could go anywhere. Well, the good news is the business took off faster than we expected. So, we started with a three-year lease and now we have a bunch of employees, and I am going to die on Long Island. I'm not getting away. Maura : No. Well, and I can tell too, just from what I've seen in just the different media footage and the stories about the way you run John's Crazy Socks, is it's also a community organization. Mark : We think about community a lot, we think about the community here. I'm always wary of businesses that say, we're like a family. I don't know about that. But we're building a community there. We think about the community that we're building around here, our customers and supporters. But we also think about the local community and you've got to be good citizens. You got to be engaged in their community and giving back and involved. So, there is a lot of things we do, and that's important to us. Maura : Well, thinking about community and thinking about Holy Cross, because you're an alum from the class of 1980, I know community is a huge part of someone's time at Holy Cross. I'd love to hear about your days on the Hill and what brought you to Holy Cross from Long Island. Mark : So, a different day and age. Okay. I'm getting out of high school in 1976 and I really knew nothing. I didn't really know anything about looking at schools. At a college fair, I got a booklet that seemed interesting. I applied to three schools. I really applied to two. I applied to Holy Cross and Boston College. A third school came in and started recruiting me for football but by that point, I wasn't thinking of playing football. I got in both Holy Cross and Boston College, and was going back and forth. I didn't really know how to choose. So, Boston College had me up for a weekend with a group of students and they greeted us saying, we think you want the leaders of the class of 1980. Mark : And as soon as I heard that, I was like, well, I don't want to come here. If you think I'm one of your leaders, you're in trouble. So, I wound up at Holy Cross and there were a few points. Freshman year, where I was like, I don't know if this is really the right place. I thought of leaving, but once I made the commitment to stay, well, then you're all in. And like most things, the more you put in, the more you get out. And I was thinking, I just sent a package of socks to a guy named Father Carlson, who was my freshmen advisor. And I took him for a survey of Greek lit, but I was particularly thinking of one moment, just a small moment that altered the course of my life. Mark : It was sophomore year, second semester, sophomore year. And he called me in his office. I was trying to think, how did he get me? There was no email, there was no text. But he had me come into his office and he sat me down, and he was the head of the honors program. And he gave me a picture he said, "You should really apply for this." I was like, "Me. Nah." That's not how I thought of myself. I could talk. I was a pretty serious student, but I did a lot of other things too. I didn't do a lot of sleeping. Mark : I walked out of there and thought, oh. I still, I'm not very... I'm kind of... Not counting on it... To inviting you to an honors program. I was really not very smart because I'm thinking, well, I still don't have a chance. Not even thinking well, the head of the program asked me to do this. So I apply and got in the program. And now I spent my junior year at Trinity College in Ireland. Mark : But among the other little things, you got to take the seminars and it was so wonderful. So I took a seminar in non-Euclidean geometry with a guy named, I think his first name was Ted. Ted Cecil, math professor. It was just wonderful. Blew my mind of opening up the world and different ways of thinking. And I could tell the story a little bit, but on graduation, I wind up teaching math and religion. And first question was, did you study any math in college? Yes, I studied non-Euclidean geometry. Mark : And I got to spend a year working with Bob Cording, writing a thesis on a book-length poem by Galway Kinnell, called The Book of Nightmares. And I had met Galway because he was a visiting writing instructor, actually for the Worcester Consortium. So, I was able to take a poetry workshop with him when I was a sophomore. But to spend a year engaged in writing, I learned how to read, I learned how to write. It was so wonderful. Mark : So, just that experience and the confidence it gave me and helped me, it challenged me to think, you're really not that much of an idiot. But then jump ahead a couple of years, I'm bouncing around doing different things. I'm working for a Congressman in New York and I want to get into public policy, public affairs. He's advised me to go to law school. So I apply to some law schools, and I get something in the mail from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. And I read it and say, "This is what I should do." Mark : So, I apply there and I get in. Later, I served on the Admissions Committee at the Kennedy School and realize how the heck did I get in? And I know the crucial factor was, I was in the honors program and Holy Cross. So for some reason, Father Carlson took that time to call in this knucklehead and say, "You may want to do this." And in that way, it was just a conversation, but it had this impact on my life. And I'm 62 now and it's still blooming, and those are special moments. Maura : Well, and that's one of the things that I really enjoy is I get to have conversations with alums like you in this podcast, is to hear how many times individual people reaching out and knowing you as a person has a tremendous effect. And the fact that Holy Cross is small and allows people to get to know you and to see something in you that you didn't recognize in yourself at that moment. Mark : There were things you got to do. Some of this was day and age. So late seventies, there was so much freedom. My sophomore year, I realized that we were at this giant buffet table and it was all you could eat. You could get whatever you wanted. And so at the time, you would take four courses each semester, but you weren't limited to that. So I saw it as, well, naturally I'll take a fifth. I don't have to pay more. And then I would find out and sit in on other classes, then I would find out if you didn't see a class that you wanted, you could just make one up. Now I know Independent Studies, but that wasn't structured then, so sophomore year went to John Mayer, who was the chair of the English Department, and he taught myself and my two housemates a course on Bob Dylan, which was awesome. Maura : That's great. Mark : I remember mentioning it to my parents saying, "I'm taking a course on Dylan," and they were like, "What are you doing?" But it was awesome. Or senior year, my girlfriend, now my wife, we were college sweethearts. So she started on a course, which is not unusual at Holy Cross, of a bio pre-med and quickly wound up as an English major. But now, in senior year and she's got to make up some of her English credits. She's not seeing a lot, she can fill it up, but she needs one more course. We'll just find one. Mark : And I'm like, "Who are some of your favorite authors?" And she hits on Joseph Conrad. I said, "Great. We'll get a class on Conrad. You and I, we'll go do this." And she goes, "How are we going to do that?" "Don't worry." And so, Pat Bizzell in the English Department approached her and she said, "Sure, this would be great." So the two of us would read a book a week, and then we would meet with her, and how awesome is that to be able to have and go and do those things. There were a lot of things like that, but it's also, there were other things that were more extracurricular. Mark : So, sophomore year around Christmas, I read Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. And they would have what you would call today, a rave. And I'm reading this with the house band, The Warlocks, which changed their name to be the Grateful Dead. I'm reading this and I'm like, I would love to go to something like that. But what do I know? So then decided we'll have our own, and went off and did things, which now I look back like, wow, that was pretty good. I got a group of people together, today we could call a board. Everybody put money in, we sold tickets. We bought some things that we resold. I won't go into that even if the, what do they call it? The standards, the laws say that they can't arrest me anymore. And we had this three-day party with bands. It was just wonderful because you could go do that. Like again, different day and age. Mark : That year, I'm sleeping in Beaven, and every Wednesday night we had a cake party where we would charge money, and $1 would go to buy the cake for the next week, and 1$ would go towards this three-day party. So, I was learning to be an entrepreneur and then repeated it at a different level senior year. I came back from Ireland, wanted to do something and we created something called The Lunchbox Theater. During the lunch hour, we would put on plays and poetry readings, and concerts, and just had a blast doing this. And I'd run around and line people up and get people to agree to stage a play. What great fun. And we could go and do it. No one was going to stop you, and that it was encouraged and that was great. Maura : Well, and I can see now why you didn't sleep at all? Mark : No. Between that and work. I had a professor, Brendan Kenelly at Trinity College who would say, you go to university to find out what you don't know. And I didn't know. Eventually Father Carlson before, so I'm taking this Greek lit class freshman year, and now we come on to our first blue books, and I was in Carlin, which then was primarily a freshmen dorm. You could feel the stress level rising. And I'm like, well, I should be worried. I should do something. And that's when I realized I had no idea how to study. I had no idea how to take notes, no idea how to study. I didn't know really what to do. So I stayed up all night, re-read The Odyssey and The Iliad and I showed up with no sleep, but it's all fresh in my mind now. A lot of it, because I was so unsure of myself and insecurity that gets flipped sometimes as bravado. Mark : I remember it was a Bob Cording class sophomore year, and okay, different time and age, and I am ludicrous. It's a 10:30 or an 11 o'clock class and small class. I think everybody was a senior, I'm the only sophomore in the class. And I'm showing up in my bathrobe, sitting in the back of the class. And he turns, he hands out the first paper, and Bob was so diligent and detailed notes, but very demanding. Hands this out and he announces to the class, "I'm really disappointed and they're poor. And I'm telling you now, you're going to have to rewrite these." Because the highest grade, there were like two Cs and everybody else got a D. And I'm thinking, what the hell? People are slumping. He says, "But was one paper that just hit the mark and I'm going to read it to you." And he starts reading it. And all the people, I'm like several rows back from everybody, they're all looking at each other because they all know each other. Is that yours? Is that yours? Slowly they realize it's the freak in the back of the class. Mark : Again, it was somebody, Bob coming to me and saying... It's a lesson I had to keep learning. Don't be a fool. You can do things and now that becomes an obligation. You got to make something of that. Plus, there's friendships. I was texting last night with a buddy of mine from Holy Cross. We're still close. For a long time at that house that I mentioned, we would have like 25 people come down for president's weekend, bringing their families. We had this at a mini reunion. My wife, Carol, during the pandemic at six o'clock every Tuesday night, there's a Zoom call where they call themselves the Carlin Girls. They're in their sixties. They're not girls, but they do a Zoom call and they'll get 20 people in it. And every five years, they take a trip together and they go to Miami, or I guess, The Bahamas they've been to, all because there's this rich connection that was made at Holy Cross. Maura : It is. It's a special, my best friends in the world are from Holy Cross. It is, it's a special time, and it's nice when you can make those connections. It's amazing to see them last. Mark : And there's something about the Jesuit Mission and the liberal arts that always has you asking, inquiring and asking for more. It directly feeds into the business we have, which is a social enterprise. We have a social mission, and where do you get that from? Well, you get it from some of the activism and some of the yearning that was instilled in me in college. Maura : Well, and it seems like, looking at your career, from Holy Cross, you mentioned the Kennedy School, and then fast forward to today with John's Crazy Socks. It seems like, and I'd love to hear from you, but it seems like there's this thread of entrepreneurial-ism and mission and 'striving for the more' that seemed to be woven throughout your path. Mark : I look back and I guess I've always been an entrepreneur. I didn't always have the language to use it, but early on, everything and again, I didn't always necessarily have the language, but everything was mission-driven. So, I got out, I taught school for two years. Pure happenstance that I did that, I went to graduate school for literature. I was in a doctoral program and I'm sitting in there, sitting in a class the day the US invaded Grenada. And I don't know if people remember. It was this tiny island and we had to go rescue medical students. It was crazy. And I'm like, I should be doing something. So that's how I got the job at the Congressman. I showed up at his office and said, "I want to work with you." They said, "Well, we don't have any jobs." "That's all right. I'll volunteer. I just want experience." Mark : We move into a community and you'd connect. I can remember when we moved into Greenpoint, Brooklyn, we were early hipsters. It was before it boomed, and through the church and we set up a food bank, we set up a clothing depository. We work with the local recycling program to set something up, because you go and do that. I spent much of my career in the healthcare field. I wound up running the Medicaid health service program in New York City, and then ran a series of companies that were trying to figure out, how do you better deliver healthcare to the poor? How do we better organize care? Mark : But some of that Holy Cross thing was always there of the liberal arts and how do you pursue that mission and those values and still be carrying things out? But that wide interest, it fueled a lot. I started a software company. I ran political campaigns. I did a fair amount of writing. I published some of my less than really terrible fiction. And even this enterprise, we've now been doing this for four years, but people would say, well, when did you get into it? How long have you worked in retail? How long have you been in the sock game? Got no background in it. But I'm 62 today, everything I have done has prepared me for this moment. Everything I have done in my life has prepared me for this interview. Maura : Well, and that is the perfect segue to pull you into this John too, and to talk about John's Crazy Socks, and talk about the incredible work that you are doing. Because you're making a lot of change and you're doing a lot of good in the world through this company. Mark : We're very fortunate, but what are the two things you always talk about? John : Try to do for others. Mark : Try to do for others. It sounds trite, but the more we can do for others, the better off we are. We're living a dream. We get to do what we want to do. We have no excuses. We can't blame it on the board. We can't blame it on headquarters. And it also speaks to the way we run the business and our appearance. One of the internal ambitions, and I've always wanted this to be a way, I want this to be a great place to work. I want people to love working here. We work at that and you make that happen, and that runs through... What's our overall mission pal? John : Spread happiness. Mark : Spreading happiness. Well, you got to start at home and people got to be happy, and you have to understand it can't be lip service, it's got to drive through everything you do. So, here's an easy way. When it comes to customer service, you heard the old saw, the customer is always right. Nonsense. The customer can be damn wrong. But we're not in the business of being right. We're in the business of making customers happy. So, we don't limit any time that people spend with customers. People that work with our customers know they can spend 200 hours on any customer, at any time, doing anything they want, just go and wow that customer. Mark : We had something last week. Somebody had ordered something they said they were going to pay by check. That's pretty rare, somebody say they pay by check. And what our folks did was they said, "Okay," but they didn't fill the order until the check arrived. And when they did, it was an item we had sold out. So we sat and I said, let's think about this. First, in four years, maybe we've received 15 checks. It doesn't happen. Every time somebody says, they're going to send us a check, they send us a check. So, why not just live in a world where we trust people. And as soon as we get the order, we ship it out and trust that we're going to get the check. And my colleagues are looking and saying, "Can we do that?" "Why not? We can do whatever the hell we want to do." Mark : And they were like, "Well, what if people do this or that?" I said, "Nobody does that. Would you do that? So why don't we just treat people that way?" And it's so easy. And wouldn't you rather live in that world? Maura : Yes. Mark : Now, if we get burned, if all of a sudden people are fake, but it doesn't happen. We doing the same thing with our returns. You don't have to send us anything. Just let us know. If there's any problem we're going to replace it. We're going to give you your money back. We want to make you happy. What results of that? Well, if we treat you that way, you tell other people. Aren't people happy, because we're not going through stuff. We're just trying to make you happy, and our return rate last month, our refund rate was 0.6%. Businesses would kill to do that. We give away anything we can. Maura : Well, and I know that the origin story, if you will, of John's Crazy Socks is out there for people to read and to watch. But I'd love to hear from you about that moment, because I talk to so many people who dream of starting their own business. Who say, someday, I'd love to do this, but there's a very small percentage who actually do it. So what sparked that courage to really go and make this happen? Mark : Well, first of all, it is, again, it's much simpler than you think. Worst thing that happens is, you fail. And you go on. But ours grew out of a specific situation, this particular business, and origin stories matter. Because you take your DNA and they run through everything. So ours, it's the fall of 2016, and where were you buddy? John : I'm in school dad. Mark : Which school? John : Huntington High School. Mark : So, he's in Huntington High School in the states, and this is across the country. You can remain in high school until you either graduate or turn 21. If you have a disability, you can stay until you're 21. So this was going to be John's last year at school. Like everybody else, he's trying to figure out what do I do next? What are you looking at? John : I looked at shop programs in school. Mark : See anything you like? John : No, I never saw anything I liked. Mark : Well, the answer is, there's not a lot of great choices. John grew up in a household where he saw me starting different businesses and running things. And I'd like to say he's a natural entrepreneur, because he did things like that himself in school. I remember showing up at his summer school, we've got a summer program, and came into some and the principal came out and said, "I want to talk to you about John." And that was always good. Particularly my middle guy, Jamie, the principal comes, wants to talk to me, that's not good. That's the same way with me. But with John, okay. Well, it turned out John wanted to run a talent show, and he organized a talent show at the school. Never mentioned to me. He didn't think why I have to ask permission, I just go and do this. Mark : So, he doesn't see anything he like, the natural entrepreneur doesn't see that as a problem, but as an opportunity. So what do you tell me? John : I want to go into business with my dad. This is my idea. Mark : I was starting some online businesses. He comes and tells me that, it's like, okay, let's go do this. And traditionally, what you do in a business, once you get the idea, is you stop everything to prepare a business plan. Work out your competitive analysis, your market research, your operational projections, financial projections. We did none of that. We went what's known as the lean startup route. We were bootstrapping. Let's just get something up and running. I've worked with venture capitalists before and done that. We didn't want to do that. Just get something up and running. And he's the perfect partner because he just believes, of course this is going to work. Maura : Why wouldn't it? Mark : Why wouldn't it? And so much of what we've been able to do is why not? So, I'll let you know on something that's coming up on March 30th. This is top secret information. On March 30th, we're going to introduce our unity socks, which are blue socks with American flags on them. We want them to symbolize inclusivity and unity, and we get this idea. We want to give them to every member of Congress. So on March 30th, we have two local congressmen coming, a Republican and a Democrat, to help us introduce these socks, and we're going to give them to every member of Congress. We've already been invited to come up to Albany and do it in the New York State Legislature. And we see ourselves that we can go across the country, just symbolizing look what's possible. Have John be handing out these unity socks. What a wild, ridiculous idea and yet, okay, who's going to stop us? Maura : And yet it's so perfect. What a perfect idea. Mark : And it just grows. Not every idea is a good idea. We have bad ones. We do a lot of presentations. Right before this, we were speaking virtually to a school in New York City. Last week, we got a question from a high school student, need to ask permission from to do these things. It's like, no, that's part of the power. You don't have to ask anybody for permission. Just go and do and come back to... It's the nature of the social enterprise. You've got to have a mission. Mark : You can't be, we just want to make money. It's got to be something larger than yourself, an impact you want to have on the world. And when you're driven by that, it's so motivating. All the petty stuff falls away, and that's how you can go and connect with people. We get asked, what's the key ingredient? Which skill? A lot of it is just belief. If we have a mission to spread happiness, just believe. So when you ask on the origin story, okay, we'll find a way forward and we'll go test it. And it turned out it went well, right buddy. Maura : Well, I think even more than just believe, you talked about wanting to make a great place for people to work. And I think that the fact that you care about your employees, and you care about the people, both who work with you and who you serve, that is another really big piece. Mark : It's all the whole. So yes, our mission is to spread happiness. You do that by hiring people with differing abilities and showing what they can do, by giving back and by making personal connection with our customers. When it comes to this workplace, one of the things we're trying to share with other employers, hiring people with differing abilities is not altruism. It's good business. And what do we see? Morale is way up. Productivity is high, retention is through the roof and it helps us recruit. And it makes for a better workplace. You think the benefits would mainly accrue to the people with differing abilities, but everybody is better off and everybody is happier. Mark : But I've worked over the years into, in essence, a formula on employee engagement. One, you have to start with a mission in which people can believe. It's got to be something greater than ourselves. It's got to be something that can matter. Two, everybody has to know how they fit into the mission, how their job matters. There's no leg work. There's no, I'm just a cog in a machinery. Yes, our webmaster knows, but our sock wranglers, that's what we call the pickers on our pick and pack warehouse, they know their job matters. Mark : Three, put people in a position to succeed. Don't ask them to do what they can't do. Give them the tools. If they need a special chair, get them a chair. If they need a software tool, a webmaster needs some analytical tool, get that for them. As a manager, you have to be a leader. And in doing that, what you have to make clear to people is, I work for you. My job is to put you in a position to succeed and if you have problem, if you have a limitation, my job is to try to help remove that limitation. Mark : Four, recognize what people do. People care. It's as simple as saying, thank you. I saw you doing this. What you do matters. We value. And then the last, stay the hell out of the way. Let people do their jobs and they will thrive. But some of this comes down to, it's like a Christian thing. Do unto others, treat people the way you would like to be treated. If you treat people poorly, they will respond that way. If you treat people that I don't trust you, so I have to manage and inspect and micromanage, they will respond in kind. Maura : Well, and I know that you've had a lot of opportunities to spread this message. I recently saw that you joined this CEO Commission on Disability Employment. And I know when we've spoken before, you mentioned going before Congress in the past. Mark : We've been very fortunate. We've had a fair amount of media coverage. We've had some viral experiences, and we go out and basically proselytize. John, you love the speaking engagements, right. John : Yeah. I love speaking engagements. Mark : So yes, we've done things. We've testified twice before Congress, we've spoken to United Nations. We're part of the State Department Speakers Bureau. So they had us take a little speaking tour in Canada. We didn't get tour T-shirts made up, next time we will. And yes, we're on the CEO Commission for Disability Employment. And I laugh. This was founded by Voya Financial and the Society of Human Resource Managers. How are we on this? Like, we're on this National Autism @ Work Roundtable with IBM and Microsoft and Ernst & Young and Warner Brothers, and John's Crazy Socks? Mark : We appreciate the opportunities and you could go back to Rome and find this motto, and you can see it with the Kennedy's and with Spider-Man. To those who are given opportunities, come great responsibilities. So I'll give you an anecdote on that. We're down on Capitol Hill, and we get a phone call here in New York in the office, from a customer in Houston who says, "I see that John and Mark are on Capitol Hill. My mother works there. She's a big fan of John's, would it be possible for them to meet my mom?" Person says, "Sure. Here's Mark's cell phone. Just text him your mom's name and contact information and he'll do it." Who's mom? Nancy Pelosi. Mark : So now, we get an audience with Nancy Pelosi and forget about right wing, left wing. We vilify our politicians too often, or deify them. They're just people. She's a grandmother. She comes in, her eyes light up seeing John, and she brings out pictures of socks that she gave former President Bush, because John had become a sock buddy with former President Bush, George H W Bush, where they exchanged letters and socks, and all this is great. We take photos, but now we have this opportunity that creates an obligation. Mark : So it's yes, but Ms. Pelosi, we have to talk about some other matters. One, we have to talk about repealing section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938, great piece of American legislation. It created the 40 hour workweek, it eliminated child labor, it created overtime. But it allows employers to pay people with a disability less than minimum wage. So, there are 400,000 people being paid as little as five cents an hour. And we are grateful that we have this opportunity, but we are now going to take advantage of this. Mark : I'll give you a recent one where, despite our best efforts, we contracted the COVID virus, John, my wife and myself. And for Christmas, we gave John a hospital stay. He was admitted on Christmas Day, it was dicey for a few days. People say it's nothing, it's just the flu. Now very healthy, got out eight days later. So, we held an event at the hospital because we know we can attract media attention. So we went back to the hospital and you got to thank everybody, right? John : I did. Mark : But we also used it to do two other things. One, to raise awareness about the risk that people with down syndrome face, they're not more likely to get the virus, but if they do, five times more likely to be hospitalized, 10 times more likely to die. So, we want to get that word out. The other thing, the hospital let me stay with John the entire time, even when he was, because things went bad for a day or two. When they moved him to the critical care unit, they let me stay. Now, Federal Regulations require that people with a disability, that they get access to their caregivers. That's not the way it's practiced, particularly during COVID. So, we wanted to highlight look, this is better for everybody. That there's always a little medicine with the sugar. Mark : So, we keep driving that mission and you can't separate the two. We'd like to make money, we'd like to live indoors, like to pay the rent. And if the business doesn't succeed, then we'll go home and all this stops. So you got to make that happen, but like the giving back. So, we baked into it from day one. We donate 5% of our earnings where? John : Special Olympics. Mark : Special Olympics. Why the special Olympics? John : I'm a Special Olympics athlete. Mark : And then we've created a whole series of products that celebrate causes and raise money for charity partners. So the first one was a down syndrome awareness sock, raises money for the National Down Syndrome Society. But more recent ones, an EMT tribute sock raises money for a local EMT squad. Last April, we wanted to thank people. We introduced healthcare, superhero socks, and they've raised over $50,000 for frontline workers. Mark : And there have been different points when very smart people have said to me, you're not making money. What are you doing making these donations. But we wouldn't have the business we have if we weren't doing that. Willingness for the long haul. So, among things that are really cool, our little business we've raised over $400,000 for our charity partners. Maura : That's amazing. Mark : John here is a special Olympic athlete, who's raised over $100,000 for the special Olympics. We make sure everybody who works here knows they're all philanthropists. It's very cool. We're so fortunate. So in the end, we are these knuckleheads running a sock business and this is a small business, and all we want to do is change the world. How much fun? Maura : And you're doing it too. That's the incredible thing. Is even if it's in small ways, as you showed all of these donations, one pair of sock here, the one conversation there, it's changing hearts and minds. Mark : That has been the thing that has surprised us the most, and it's still hard to wrap our minds around and we have to be really careful about. But people take inspiration and there is a deep, emotional connection. I could tell you all sorts of stories of things we get to see, but I'll tell you one that my wife likes me to tell because I tear up sometimes. Mark : The National Down Syndrome Society sponsors Buddy Walks around the country, but the biggest one is in New York City. Before it starts, they rent a billboard in the city in Times Square, and they want like a video with faces on it of people with down syndrome. So, we go there and John's like a rock star in that community. People are swarming him. But a woman comes up to me and just hugs me and says, "Thank you." Mark : Okay, what's going on? And she explains that she is from Curacao, an island just off of Venezuela. And she tells us that her daughter had gotten pregnant and tested that she was going to have a child with down syndrome. She explained that on Curacao, people were ashamed of people with disabilities, that they hide them. It's something they don't want deal with, talk about it. And in fact, everybody knew that her doctor said, "This is what you're going to do. You're going to get an abortion." And to me, this is not really an abortion story. This was just, this was grant. This is what's going to happen. And the family came home and they saw a news story about John and John's Crazy Socks. Mark : And she said, it changed their entire outlook. And she introduced us to her one year old son. How awesome. We get people coming up to us all the time, thanking us and telling us how they want to do this with their child, or it gave them hope. And we have to be careful. We have nothing special. We're just out doing these things and sharing. So when John stands up in front of a crowd, be it 10 people at a SEPTA, be at 22,000 people at Madison Square Garden, and they see what he can do, it changes people's minds. And we are very fortunate to be able to do that. Maura : I think you really are living that mission of spreading happiness and of doing great things with the opportunities that you've been afforded. Mark : We've been given a lot. We had our family and I could go on about my other boys and the love of my life. We'll be married 40 years. John : It's 39 years still. Mark : It's still 39, I know. Mark : There's a reasonable chance that we'll make it to June. Reasonable chance. Maura : Fingers crossed. Mark : Well, you know. I'm still a Dylan fan. There's that line, when I see you, I don't know if I want to kiss you or kill you. A lot a marriage in that. Here's just some of what we get to do, and how fortunate. We get to see minor miracles all the time. So one of our colleagues, Thomas, his mother calls us in October of 2017 and says, "I understand you hire people like my son. I need you to give him a job." We're not hiring, we'll post when we are. She calls every day and the moms are persistent. She's not the only one who's done this. So I got on the phone with her and I said, "Well, tell me about Thomas." Mark : She says, "Well, he's early twenties. He's on the autism spectrum. And he's in a very bad way. He's very depressed. We have trouble getting him to come out of his room. He won't shower or shave. He doesn't want to deal with anybody. We can't get him to join any programs or activities. It's so bad he hasn't spoken to his father in over six months." Sounds like a great employee. Mark : So, we have an opening and bring him out. And the opening is for our sock wrangler position, that's kind of our entry level position. We pay $15 an hour to start because everybody, you got to pay a fair wage. The way you get the job, you meet with John and me. We want to make sure you understand the mission and our values. Then one of our current sock wranglers will train you and they love doing it. You've trained people. John : Yes. Mark : They love doing it. And then when you're ready, you have to pass the sock wrangler test. You got to pick six orders, 30 minutes or less, show us you can do the job. Well, Thomas comes out and after an hour of training, says, "I'm ready." And he passes that test as if he was put on this earth to be a sock wrangler. Today, on the days he works, Thomas is ready, showered and shaved at 6:30 in the morning for his father to drive one hour to work. When he gets in here, the young man who wouldn't look at anybody or talk to anybody, goes around and wishes everybody in the building a good morning. Mark : I want to be really clear here. We did nothing. We did no special training, no government funding, no special programs. All we did was give Thomas the opportunity to earn a job, and how fortunate are we? And so Holy Cross, the imprint that studying and understanding the liberal arts in the way it gets you to think and prepare, the way you imbue. Some of this comes from studying literature. You imbue different levels, different things all in the same action. That runs through what we do. I've spoken to students. Mark : So, I was an English major, I got out in 1980. There was no internet. Fax machines had not come, they've come and gone. There were no cell phones. We run an E-commerce business, I couldn't have studied that if I wanted to. But the liberal arts let you understand how to learn, how to figure things out, and so this runs through what we do today. And a lot of my classmates would be shocked to think that someone would be interviewing me for a Holy Cross alumni network. You've met those friends. John : I do. Mark : Paul, you should be talking to him. Paul Miles running a charter school and John Flynn, who's got this bicycle recycling program in Hartford. Charlie Brown or Chris Potter and Sue Mack and all these good people. Maureen, lots of good stuff. Maura : John, what's the best part for you about working with your dad? John : One thing I love working with my dad, I'm so lucky to be where he is. I'm never without my dad. He always, I've changed I can, if possible. I love my dad. Third and lastly, about my dad going to Holy Cross. I am a proud son because I am so, so happy of him being my father. Mark : What about your mom? You got to speak up for her, right? John : Yeah. I'll never forget mom. I am proud son. I am so proud of my dad, my mom accomplished. They are amazing accomplished. Mark : And you like hearing the stories of how we met, right? John : Oh yeah. Dad is so romantic. Mark : Romantic? Ricky, Kevin and I were looking for beer. And I can tease something for you. I'm not going any further than this. I've read in the alumni magazine and seen references to the fingers on the Jesus statue in the quad. I can tell you I was there and I know what happened. But that's it. No names, no details. Maura : Living mystery. That's what that is. Well, and my last question, this has just been really wonderful. What is your favorite pair of socks? Mark : What's your favorite pair? John : My favorite pair, my down syndrome superhero socks. Mark : Down syndrome superhero socks. Maura : Yes, that sounds like a good pair. Mark : Whose face is on those socks? John : Me. Mark : You. Maura : Good choice. Mark : You're a funny boy. Maura : I think we'll all have to check out that pair of socks. This has been an absolute pleasure. Is there anything else you want to share with listeners before we go? John : I want to say something. It's something that I said before... Mark : Go ahead. John : I am so proud of my dad's career. I am so proud of my dad's career and college. I am a proud son. I love my dad and what he did. It's wonderful. Mark : Well, there's a late poem from Yates where he recounts his achievements and those were notable, part of the revolution, part of the day of the Senate, winning a Nobel prize. But the refrain is what then sang Plato's ghost, what then are you going to do for me next? And we get to keep doing things, right? John : I love you dad. Mark : My boy. Maura : Thank you both so much. This has been just such a pleasure. John : I'm so proud of you Dad. Mark : Well, you let us know if there's ever something we can do. You got to put the pitch in. Where do people get stuff? John : At JohnsCrazySocks.com. Mark : There you go. Maura : Perfect. Yes. And I can say, I treated the alumni relations team to a pair of donut socks last year for Christmas, and they have been a big hit. So, I am a fan of John's Crazy Socks. Thank you for everything that you do. Mark : Well, thank you. John : I'm a big fan of my dad. Mark : You're a fan of your dad. Boy, you are being nice to me today. Maura : That's our show. I hope you enjoyed hearing about just one of the many ways that Holy Cross alumni have been inspired by the Mission to be people for and with others. A special thanks to today's guests and everyone at Holy Cross, who has contributed to making this podcast a reality. If you or someone you know, would like to be featured on this podcast, then please send us an email at alumnicareers@holycross.edu. If you like what you hear, then please leave us a review. This podcast is brought to you by the Office of Alumni Relations at the College of the Holy Cross. You can subscribe for future episodes wherever you find your podcasts. I'm your host, Maura Sweeney, and this is Mission-Driven. In the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, now go forth and set the world on fire. Theme music composed by Scott Holmes, courtesy of freemusicarchive.org.

In our final SVC Sports Talk of the season, we hand out our SVC Sportszoney Awards for best teams, performances,…

Track Special . . . A look at everything from this year’s SVC Meet including our top individual performers and…

Plenty of tournament talk for baseball and softball on this week’s show, and the guys will also talk about end…

On this week’s show, we keep our focus on highlighting as many spring athletes as possible. Shayne and John will…

On this week’s show, we turn our focus to highlighting as many spring athletes as possible. Shayne and John have…

On this week’s show, Gene Bumgardner joins Shayne and John to talk a little of everything about spring sports including…

A look at the first week of SVC play in baseball and softball as Shayne and John go deep into…

Shane figured out how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at age three. Too tiny to actually reach the piano keys, he picked out the notes by reaching up and feeling for them with his fingertips. Thus began his lifetime of music. He's created music hand in hand with legends of the recording industry, ranging from Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney to Arif Mardin and Ahmet Ertegun. His diversity as a player, arranger, producer and composer is amazing: pop to classical, jazz to R & B, country to alternative, appearing in one form or another on many thousands of recordings. Born in Huntington WV, Shane began formal classical piano training with Edith Sweeney before reaching his fourth birthday and moved to Portsmouth, Ohio when he was 7. There he continued piano studies in the years to follow with his adored teacher, Dorothy Knost. With her guidance, he began winning the coveted "Guild" piano competition awards year after year. At age twelve, while beginning junior high school, he met the inspirational Ralph Harrison, the McKinley Junior High School Band Director. Ralph asked Shane to join the school's orchestra and the big-band swing band. He also studied and performed choral music with another wonderful teacher and friend, Charles Varney, and with Bob McCoy at Portsmouth High School. Shane also began playing with many local musicians and bands in the Tri-State area. His family moved back to Huntington for his senior year, where he attended Huntington High School and enrolled at Marshall University, where he studied with Mary Shepp Mann. At the end of his freshman year, he left Huntington to "...travel and play music!...". He eventually moved to Dallas TX and soon enrolled in the jazz program at North Texas State University. By age nineteen, he was working in Dallas music production houses and studios, playing piano and organ two to three days a week on everything from film scores and records to radio libraries and jingles. He withdrew from NTSU and, seeking work as a studio musician, moved to Memphis. Within just a few weeks, he was blessed by reuniting with the legendary Jim Stewart of Stax Records and began working as a staff pianist/keyboardist in the Stax Rhythm Section. He also worked as a session pianist at Pepper/Tanner and with producers Al Jackson Jr., Willie Mitchell and Chips Moman. In 1971, Chips asked Shane to join the American Studios Rhythm Section as a staff pianist, where he worked with music icons such as Arif Mardin and many others. Learn more about creating financial and emotional freedom at www.freedomhacknow.com In 1972, Shane was in such demand as a pianist/session keyboardist from his work in Dallas and Memphis that he moved to Nashville. Word of his talent and abilities spread rapidly and he was soon working constantly. In 1974, he was contacted by Paul McCartney and performed on the "Junior's Farm/Sally G" sessions. Subsequently, Shane was called to play on several tracks on Elvis Presley's "Promised Land" album. Presley was so impressed with Shane's keyboard work that he personally requested Shane accompany him as pianist on the forthcoming '76 tour. His studio career continued at lightning speed, as he performed on and arranged hundreds of records for major artists. He also became an early explorer of synthesis and digital recording, purchasing a Mini-Moog in 1971 and purchasing his first digital audio recording system in 1981. In the late 80's, Shane had the great fortune of meeting legendary record mogul Ahmet Ertegun. Ahmet realized Shane's abilities and versatility and recruited him as a staff producer. He worked closely with Ahmet and with many of Atlantic's artists until April 2001, when he started his own independent production company. He returned to Nashville, TN in 2004 and continues to reside there. Shane currently performs live with Lynda Carter and is a member of the Musician's Hall Of Fame. As a producer/arranger, he's been twice nominated for a Grammy and received two Dove awards and one Cleo award. Shane is able to enrich any project he's part of, and he continues to be one of the most sought after talents in the industry.   Break free from whats holding you back from creating financial and emotional freedom! www.freedomhacknow.com    

This week I’m talking to Filmmaker, Singer, Actress, DJ...(I could keep going but this is meant to be a "brief" show description Lol) Geronica Lee Moffett. Roni and I catch up on how she went from a majorette from Huntington High School in Shreveport, LA (Shout Out to Shreveport) to this ever evolving entertainment force in the other LA...Los Angeles. Later in the conversation, we talk about her experiences being on the front lines at some of the protests that occurred after the murder of George Floyd last summer. Roni even created a short documentary highlighting these events. All of this and so much more...It's About DAMN Time! Interested in seeing all of Roni's projects? Click the link => https://vimeo.com/roniworld (https://vimeo.com/roniworld) Follow Roni on Facebook, Twitter, & IG @Roniworld and you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, & IG @DaWholeDamnShow

In our final winter show, we take one final detailed look at the boys and girls for basketball. This includes…

Last week, Shayne and John discussed the all-league for the girls. This week they tackle the selections for the boys.…

We start the show with our championship reactions for boys and girls. After last week’s delay of our girls’ all-league…

On this week’s show, we examine if boys and girls both being good at the same time is just coincidence,…

Really fun show this week as the guys play some word association with some of the SVC athletes and teams.…

Episode 106 of B.Boomer Unleashed, "Just Good News - (Journal Entry #4) is an interview with old friend and Huntington, West Virginia native Carl Hewlett. Carl was a Baseball Standout at Huntington High School and at Marshall University. He played in the Pittsburgh Pirate Farm System and had big plans of being a Major League Star. He was well on his way to realizing that dream when God decided He had other plans for Carl. I hope you'll join us for Carl's exciting story as God called him from the Baseball Field to the Mission Field. I hope you enjoy this interview with Carl. If you do, please share it with your friends. Drop us an email at bboomerunleashed@gmail.com with your comments, questions, and suggestions for future episodes. Have a great week, and may God bless each and every one of you.

As we celebrate our milestone of 300 shows, we look back on the best all-time performances, best coaches, underappreciated players,…

With the Unioto boys and Adena girls both making the turn at 7-0, we discuss the similarities of these two…

Happy New Year SVC fans! As we return on SVC Sports Talk, Shayne and John start with a New Year…

On our final show of 2020, we look at the headlines – both the “hard to hide” and the “hidden”…

An exciting show this week as we talk wall-to-wall basketball. For girls, we talk about undefeated Lady Warriors, record-setting scoring…

In this episode, we’ll take a thorough look at the start of SVC basketball for boys and girls. We talk…

A look at this year’s basketball league for the boys including POY watch, unanswered questions, and key stats to follow.…

A look at this year’s basketball league for the girls including POY watch, unanswered questions, and key stats to follow.…

In our final fall show, we start with Shayne (volleyball) and John (soccer) comparing their own all-league lists from last…

A look at a big Saturday of Maddi Shoults, playoff football, and SVC cross country. The main features of this…

On this week’s show, we talk playoff football (Weeks 7 & 8), SVC volleyball, soccer defense, Westfall girls preparing for…

A lot to get to this week as the guys talk about every sport in terms of an outlook and…

On this week’s show, we return to our normal format as we reach the halfway point (and beyond in some…

In a different type of format this week, Shayne and John turn to a trio of coaches to talk a…

On this week’s show, Shayne and John are given a chance to fix a few mistakes from last week’s shows.…

In the return of SVC Sports Talk (now in Season 10), John, Shayne, and Bruce break down a little of…

Skateboardpodden satte sig med Stefan Ylitalo i ett hett Högdalen och pratade:⁣ Om bedskating.⁣Om Micke Larsson och dom andra i The Daggers.⁣Om hänglåskedjade handrails.⁣Om droppklossar.⁣Om surströmming i ventilationssystem.⁣Om ninjafilmer.⁣Om att bränna ner en del av Hertsöskolan (men givetvis vara helt oskyldig).⁣Om att spela in skatefilmer med Ösunds farsas videokamera.⁣Om Bollnäs.⁣Om Gula Faran.⁣Om hockeyfrillor.⁣Om Snickeri.⁣Om Huntington Beach (och eventuella funderingar på att bränna ner Huntington High School).⁣Om att flyglifta.⁣Om benbrott.⁣Om att vara på väg till Bali men istället råka flytta till Stockholm.⁣Om värdetransportrån.⁣⁣Namn som nämndes: Lojten, Fredrik och Patrik Heikinpieti, Tony Hawk, Micke Larsson, Pelle Gunnerfeldt, Conny Keisu, Pelle Lindskog, Semi, Lasse Anundi, Kent Östling, Jonas Berglund, John McMillen, Andreas Raatamaa, Mathias Ringström, Ville Piipola, Chad Vogt, Mark Fowlie, Rasmus Skoussen, Jason Lee, Gorm Boberg, Simon Woodstock, Nanda Zipp, Steve Rocco, Ron Knigge, Kenny Hughes, Bam Margera, Ronnie Creager, Tom Penny, Magnus Ljungdell, Arto Saari, Willy Santos, Christer Grahn med flera...⁣⁣Trevlig lyssning!⁣Denis & Mathias⁣—————————————————⁣⁣Om du gillar avsnittet så swisha 10 kronor till: 0735-102810⁣⁣—————————————————⁣⁣⁣⁣Vi finns på:⁣www.facebook.com/skateboardpodden/⁣https://www.instagram.com/skateboardpodden/⁣⁣Podden går att lyssna på iTunes, Acast, Spotify och skateboardpodden.se⁣

Episode 79 of B.Boomer Unleashed "The Fascination of Socialism - An Interview With Yet Another Millennial (Part 1))" features Millennial Sam Denning. Sam is another one of my former students from Huntington High School. Sam has a degree in Geology from Virginia Tech, but has charted his career path in a different direction. Sam and I talk about his career choices, as he weighs in on his generation's fascination with Socialism. I hope you'll tune in for my discussion with Sam. Next week, we'll wrap up our interview with Sam. We hope you'll join us for this episode and all the episodes of B.Boomer Unleashed. We also encourage you to share our podcast with your friends. Drop us an email at bboomerunleashed@gmail.com with comments and suggestions for future episodes. If you'd like to be on our podcast, we encourage you to let us know. We'll try our best to get you on the show. Have a great week, and may God bless each and every one of you.

On our 30th episode we have Cat Jamison! Listen to Cats story as she explains what its like being recruited by a Division 1 School.

In our season finale of SVC Sports Talk, we start the show by thanking the people most responsible for all…

 Bio McKinley L. Price is President of the African American Mayors Association and Mayor of Newport News, Virginia. He is a native of Newport News, Virginia. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1967 and then received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Virginia, in 1971. McKinley was honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1972 as 1st Lt. In 1976, he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and performed his general anesthesia residency at Provident Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.   Dr. Price has received numerous honors and awards from various professional associations. In 1989, he was elected by his peers as President of the Peninsula Dental Society; he was the first black president of this organization. He was also named "Dentist of the Year" by the Old Dominion Dental Society. Dr. Price is a Fellow in the Virginia Dental Association, the American College of Dentists, and the International College of Dentists. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Delta Dental of Virginia, serving on the Audit and Compliance Committee and Dental Policy Advisory Committee. Dr. Price’s community service was highlighted by his being appointed chair of the Newport News School Board for two years, during his eight years of service, from 1984-1992. In 1994, Dr. Price received the President’s Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of 100 Black Men and in 1996 he received the Presidential Citizenship Award from Hampton University. The Peninsula Chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice presented him with their Humanitarian Award in 1996. In 1998, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated honored him as Citizen of the Year during the Mid-Atlantic 44th Annual Regional Conference. The Daily Press Newspaper awarded him “Citizen of the Year” for 2005, which highlighted his Co-Chairmanship of the organization People to People whose mission is to improve race relations and the quality of life in Newport News. It also commended him for being a founding member of the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of 100 Black Men. They recognized him as the Role Model of the Year in April 2011. Thomas Nelson Community College awarded him their TNCC Medallion Award during commencement exercises in May 2011. The Price Family was the Honored Family during the 2010 Hampton University’s Black Family Conference and he was the Founder’s Day speaker at Hampton in 2011. In addition to the commitment he makes to his professional activities and meeting the demands a successful dental practice, Dr. Price devotes untiring energy and time to the Hampton and Newport News community. He has served as Chairman of the Board for Riverside Health System Foundation, Vice Chair of the Riverside Health System Board, and Immediate Past Chairman of the Thomas Nelson Community College Board. He was also appointed to the Newport News City Council for a five month period in 2004. In addition, Dr. Price was appointed by Governor Warner to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Board. In May 2010, he was elected Mayor of the City of Newport News. He becomes the first black elected as mayor of Newport News. The term is four years. Dr. Price is a member of the First Church of Newport News (Baptist), a church founded by his great-great-grandfather. He is married to Valerie Scott Price. She is a retired educator having taught for 30 years, most of which were in the Newport News Public School System. They have two adult children and one grandson: McKinley II, DDS, an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon, he and his wife Amy and their son live in Brooklyn, NY; and Marcia, a Delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 95th District.  Resources McKinley Price, The Need for Equitable Health Care Amid COVID-19, Governing, 2020, https://www.governing.com/now/The-Need-for-Equitable-Health-Care-Amid-COVID-19.html(last visited Jun 7, 2020). Home, Ourmayors.org (2020), https://www.ourmayors.org/Home  (last visited Jun 7, 2020).  COVID-19 Resources, Ourmayors.org (2020), https://www.ourmayors.org/Resources/COVID-19-Resources (last visited Jun 7, 2020). News Roundup       Despite threats from White House, social media companies crack down on misinformation Despite president Trump’s continued claims that Silicon Valley, and social media companies in particular, harbor an anti-conservative bias, social media companies have stepped up their efforts to prevent a repeat performance of the 2016 election during which misinformation and state-sponsored propaganda ran rampant, often in favor of Trump’s presidency, according to the Mueller report and several other sources. On Monday night, after a day of employee virtual walkouts at the company in response to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence on leaving up posts that contain misinformation, civil right leaders met with Zuckerberg via videocall and things did not go well. Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights President Vanita Gupta, NAACP Legal Defense Fund head Sherrilyn Ifill, and Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson issued a statement following the meeting stating that Zuckerberg “did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump's call for violence against protesters. Mark is setting a very dangerous precedent for other voices who would say similar harmful things on Facebook.” Zuckerberg followed up with a company memo on Friday saying the social media giant was again in the process of reviewing its policies related to discussions about police brutality and voter suppression.  Before Zuckerberg’s announcement, the company had already begun making the public aware of foreign interference on the platform by labeling state-sponsored posts.  Following the meeting with civil rights leaders and Mr. Zuckerberg’s announcement, Facebook, citing copyright concerns, removed a campaign video in which the president appeared to pay tribute to George Floyd. The company cited copyright concerns for taking down the video, after it had received complaints from the artist who’d created some of the artwork featured in the video. Twitter had also removed the video, which the White House called an illegal escalation – Twitter denied that removing the video was illegal and also cited to the president’s use of copyrighted material. Facebook also removed some 200 accounts associated with white supremacy groups last week. The company also removed fake antifa accounts, according to Reuters. Over at Reddit, some subreddit pages went dark in protest over the company’s hate speech policy, which leans heavily in favor of free speech. The protest culminated in Reddit Co-Founder Alex Ohanian’s resignation from the board and calling for his seat to be filled by an African-American board member. Ohanian also indicated that he would be donating $1 million to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp and investing future gains on his stock in the black community. Also, on Wednesday, Snapchat announced that it would no longer promote President Trump’s account due to the president’s promotion of violence during protests over the weekend before last.  Finally, the Center for Democracy and Technology sued the White House in the DC Circuit last week over the president’s executive order directing the independent Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission to work together, along with the Department of Commerce, to curtail enforcement of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The president issued the order after Twitter flagged one of the president’s tweets as misleading, and a tweet in which the president criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order to allow mail-in ballots. Elon Musk calls for Amazon break-up Elon Musk took to Twitter calling for a break-up of Amazon, which he labelled a monopoly.  The tweet came in response to a tweet by a New York Times reporter who’d written that Amazon had rejected his new book about COVID-19 on the grounds that it didn’t meet Amazon’s guidelines. Amazon has since stated that it removed the book in error. TikTok pledges to amplify black creators  TikTok pledged to amplify black creators last week amidst criticism that it censored and suppressed content posted by blacks. The company stated that it would form a creator diversity council and a handful of other initiatives to address these concerns. The company also participated in the music industry-led “Blackout Tuesday” during which the company shut down its Sounds page. It also announced that it would invest $3 million in organizations that work to address black inequality (although the company didn’t mention which organizations it plans to invest in). Senators criticize AT&T on zero-rating In a letter to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Senators Ed Markey and Ron Wyden criticized AT&T for zero-rating its own content on HBO. Zero-rating is the industry jargon used to describe the anticompetitive practice in which carriers count the use of competing platforms against their customers’ data limits but not their own content, in this case HBO, which AT&T acquired in 2018, along with HBO’s parent company WarnerMedia. The Senators set a response deadline of June 25th. Zoom announces end-to-end encryption for paying subscribers only Videoconference platform Zoom announced that it would be introducing end-to-end encryption, but only for paying subscribers. The company says doing so will allow it to work with the FBI to identify child pornographers and sex traffickers. However, Zoom made no reference to any evidence correlating free usership to the distribution of illegal content at a rate that exceeds the that of paid subscribers. California assembly introduces facial recognition bill The California Assembly is now considering a bill that would allow the State of California to conduct surveillance using facial recognition technology, if it gives notice ahead of time. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is opposing the measure on the grounds that it undercuts limitations on the use of facial recognition technology which are already in place in some local areas including San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. Denver cop fired for inciting a riot over Instagram during George Floyd protests Tommy McClay, a former police officer in Denver posed with two other cops for an Instagram photo for which he wrote “let’s start a riot”. That night, Denver police used tear gas and foam bullets against protesters, according to Ars Technica. The Denver Police Department fired McClay for the post. McClay was a brand new recruit—just 9 months out of the police academy—and so still subject to the initial probationary period of his tenure there. But one civil rights leader in Denver told Ars that the Denver Police Department has a high rate of re-hiring officers who were previously fired. 

John has spent countless hours preparing a bracket to decide the greatest SVC boys’ basketball team of all time. While…

On this week’s show, we analyze all the quarantine workouts that are keeping our SVC athletes busy. We also have…

This past week, Dave Shoemaker posted a great article (you can find link at SVCsportszone.com) on boys’ basketball in the…

While we all spend time at home with our families, we hope some SVC Sports Talk can help entertain our…

On our final winter show, we allow the fans to drive almost the entire agenda. In our feature segment, we…

This week on Mountain State Morning, we’ll take you into a classroom at Huntington High School, where last week everyone was getting ready for the summer. Then, we’ll stop by the statehouse in Charleston, where teachers returned over the weekend to show lawmakers they’re still paying attention. Listeners: We’d love your feedback and to learn a bit about you! Fill out our short survey by clicking here.

Mark Cronin John Cronin FoundersJohn’s Crazy Socks Www.johnscrazysocks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnscrazysocks/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnscrazysocks/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChQzvQju2SQiW9rIf5JNsVQ John Lee CroninChief Happiness Officer John Cronin is a 22-year-old man full of life and aspirations who happens to have Down syndrome. He is the co-founder of John’s Crazy Socks which has a mission to spread happiness through socks. Part of our goal at John’s Crazy Socks is to empower people and demonstrate the possibilities that each of us possesses. John serves as the face of the company and embodies those qualities in all he does. To prepare for his current role, John underwent years of schooling. He began his education in the pre-school program at ACDS and still remembers those days fondly. John moved onto the Huntington School system which he completed in June 2017. John’s school work included life skills classes as well as electives such as fashion and photography and he was a proud member of the school chorus. During his last three years, John split his days between Huntington High School and Wilson Tech where he studied office skills and retailing. After school, John participated in the Grand-Friends Club and the Relay for Life events. Wilson Tech named John their Outstanding Student of the Year.  For a young man, John has strong work experience. In the summer of 2016, he worked in the kitchen of a local day camp, Camp Alvernia. For several years, he worked as the mail clerk at the Schlitt Law Firm. Arriving at the office every day after school, John maintained the mail supplies and stamps and made the daily run to post office, sorting envelopes and packages for the fastest delivery. He also assisted in general maintenance of the office, handling the shredding, running errands and lending a hand whenever he could.  Since an early age, John devoted himself to Special Olympics activities. He engages in snowshoe, basketball, track, soccer, floor hockey and bowling. His efforts have won John numerous medals and invitations to the New York State Games for soccer, track and snowshoe. In fact, John was named an alternate to the U.S. National Snowshoe Team for the Special Olympics World Games in March 2017. John is both the co-founder and inspiration for John’s Crazy Socks. It was John’s deep and abiding love for his “crazy socks” that gave rise to this venture. John has long maintained his personal style that does not confirm to whims of the fashion industry or dictates of others: it is a style he makes manifest with his spirit and personality. His colorful, fun and often whimsical socks (Bacon!) are just part of who he is. Here at John’s Crazy Socks, John does a little bit of everything. He writes thank you notes to customers, does thank you videos, helps fill orders and helps pick out the socks that we will carry in the store. And he’s our ambassador, extoling the virtues, beauty and wonders of socks. John has appeared on numerous television shows and videos for interviews. He’s got his name above the door, so you know he’s checking to make sure we fulfill our promises. Mark X. Cronin The father in our father-son founding team, Mark, works behind the scenes with John upfront as the face of the business. Mark has extensive experience developing innovative organizations with a focus on customers. And he’s a Dad who is excited about working with his son. Mark X. Cronin’s career combines public service, technology and innovation. He is the President of Paumonok Innovations Inc., the parent company of John’s Crazy Socks. Paumonok develops online information sites and niche stores. Mark has a history developing digital offerings. In the 1990’s, he founded New Gutenberg software, which produced one of the first baseball informational titles. Mark spent most of his career in the healthcare field building innovative organizations focused on improving the delivery of health care particularly to the poor and Medicaid recipients. Mark served as Chief Operating and Technology Officer for two health care management firms that empowered doctors and hospitals to better serve patients. As the head of a leading health care consulting firm, Mark advised hospitals, health centers and physician organizations to improve care and he worked with hospitals and health centers as they created some of the best known managed care organizations in New York State.  Earlier in his career, Mark served as the Director of Medicaid Health Services in New York City where he led a major Medicaid reform initiative that included groundbreaking legislation in Albany and improvements in care while restraining costs. While with the City, Mark worked under two mayors and won an award as Manager of the Year. Mark went on to work with hospitals and health centers that created some of the best known managed care organizations in New York State. He has a background in education having taught graduate studies at NYU and lectured on management at Columbia’s School of Public Health. Early in his career, Mark taught school in Queens and worked for Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo.  Mark received his undergraduate degree from Holy Cross and a Masters of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also studied literature at the Graduate Center for the City of New York and spent a year studying at Trinity College in Dublin.  Mark was the co-leader for the Barack Obama Grassroots Campaign on Long Island and served as one of President Obama’s appointees on the Rules Committee at the Democratic Convention in 2008. In this episode, we discuss: John’s mission: to make people happy and to go into business with his Dad Some of the business ideas John had before deciding on socks Why they did a lean start up and why they think this method really works The only marketing they did when they launched and the awesome thing they did with the 42 orders they got on the first day Being who you are and truly connecting to people Their social mission and their business mission The four things they are always focused on in their business Their charity and awareness socks and how they give back to charity with every sale - over $180,000! The report they publish every month on their website and why The millions and millions of views their videos have received and the staggering amount of reviews they have online Hiring people with differing disabilities and why a national retailer approached them John’s work with Special Olympics and why it means so much to him Getting to over $5 million in revenue in two years and the social impact and awareness in which they’ve been a part

Maxine Mimms was born on March 4, 1928, in Newport News, Virginia, to Isabella DeBerry Buie and Benson Ebenezer Buie. Influenced by her grandparents' love for Marcus Garvey and educational lectures by Howard Thurman and other black leaders at nearby Hampton University, Mimms attended Booker T. Washington School and graduated from Huntington High School with highest honors in 1946. She earned her B.A. degree from Virginia Union University in 1950. In the early 1950s, Mimms served as a social worker in Detroit, Michigan. There, she was married and would eventually earn her Ph.D. in educational administration from Union Graduate School. Accompanying her husband to Seattle, Washington, in 1953, Mimms taught at Leschi Elementary School, where Jimi Hendrix was a student. In 1961, Mimms taught in Washington's Kirkland Public Schools until working for the Seattle Public School Administration in 1964. In 1969, Mimms served as the assistant to the director of the Women's Bureau in the United States Department of Labor. In 1972, Mimms returned to the education field, working as a faculty member at Evergreen State College. At Evergreen State College, Mimms focused on developing an educational program that would serve place-bound working adult students. Her focus on serving the educational needs of urban, African American adult learners combined with an interest in teaching inner-city adults, led to the founding principles of the Tacoma Campus. Mimms eventually became the first Director of the Tacoma Campus, where she used her position to help satisfy the African American community's demand for adult education programs. In our season Finale, Dr. Mimms talks about her live, love, work, and perspective on freedom at the age of 89 years young. 

Today’s episode is the final in a three part series on Coding and Computer Science Education. Today’s guest is Tamara Westfall. She is a Physics and Forensics teacher at Huntington High School in Huntington, WV. She has been working to directly implement aspects of coding and computer science into her classroom while also sponsoring the Read More

Ray & Joe have Huntington High School seniors Jack Glicker & his pal Ryan in the studio this week to talk about Jack’s 2017 AAA safety video award.

Ray & Joe have Huntington High School seniors Jack Glicker & his pal Ryan in the studio this week to talk about Jack’s 2017 AAA safety video award.