Podcasts about revere beach

Blizzy Women Social brought visibility to local businesses and fun to the community at their Fall Festival in Revere Beach. For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

Let's hit the sand! We're talking about Revere Beach with Jan Dumas, a proud resident and city booster. We get into the area's history, its rough reputation and weigh in on the original Kelly's Roast Beef. If you'd like to know more about what's going on at Revere Beach and its past, head to reverebeach.com. Here is the heat map of Twisted Tea consumption and here is the Philadelphia Magazine feature on Twisted Tea. Here is video of David from the Real World: Seattle having a meltdown in a car (skip ahead to the last minute).And here is a bit more about the trials and travails of the Massachusetts Mad Dogs from funwhileitlasted.net. Have feedback on this episode or ideas for upcoming topics? DM me on Instagram, email me, or send a voice memo.If you're a local business who'd like to advertise on the podcast, please drop me a line.Send us a Text Message.Premium Q Moving & Storage: Get free boxes and 10% off your move by clicking HERE or call 781-730-6180 for a quote. Calling all high school students! Win a piece of $5,000 in total prizes. The deadline for Science Story Slam is Aug. 7; the event takes place on Sept. 25. For more information or to submit your story, visit EDIFII.ME and click the Science Story Slam link. Any questions? Email edifii@edifii.me.

Returning for its 20th year, the Revere Beach International Sand Sculpture Festival invited 15 sand artists to transform the beach into art exhibition. For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

A lawsuit filed by the family of a Worcester teen who died after taking part in the One Chip Challenge.President Biden announces more military aid to Ukraine. Truckloads of sculptable sand are dumped on Revere Beach. Stay in "The Loop" with #iHeartRadio.

There was a special delivery on Revere Beach this morning: a lot of sand. WBZ's Carl Stevens explains.For more, ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio.

The first official Democratic Primary was held yesterday. A Dunkin' Employee is injured after being attacked by a customer in Watertown. Revere Beach holds its inaugural Winter Wonderland Festival. 5 minutes of news to keep you in "The Loop".

Kelly's Roast Beef is a landmark in the Boston area just as much as the Freedom Trail and Boston Tea Party ship. Boston isn't known for its beaches. And for good reason. They're nothing like ours. First of all, there are about 3 months of actual beach weather in New England if you're lucky. The quality of them is quite low too. BUT Kelly's on Revere Beach is iconic, serving up roast beef sandwiches and seafood for over 70 years now. There are now a bunch of Kelly's locations in the Boston area. There's even one in New Hampshire. But when they opened in Florida, I was shocked. It must be going well for Kelly's Roast Beef because now they have as many restaurants in Florida as they do in Massachusetts and New Hampshire combined. They are at the Gateway Shoppes in Naples, Creekside Commons in Parrish, Cypress Woods in Fort Myers and University Park in Sarasota. I'd been meaning to visit one, but I don't visit any of those areas often. So when I heard their newest location in St. Pete opened, I finally made a trip. According to the Kelly's Roast Beef website, everything on the menu is made fresh. It may appear to be another fast food joint. They even have a drive thru. But Kelly's is definitely a step up in quality, but also in price. The roast beef sandwiches are what made them famous. But what I think will set them apart in Florida is their New England seafood. There aren't many places in the Tampa area where you can get a legit New England lobster roll. So how does a Florida Kelly's location measure up against the original? I'll do my best to compare the experience. Truth be told, I didn't go to Kelly's often when I lived up north. Roast beef isn't one of the foods I often crave. And while I do like a lobster roll in the summer when I visit family in Maine, I usually pass on them otherwise. They're expensive and really don't fill you up much. So my plan when I got to the Kelly's in St. Pete was to stick with their traditional roast beef sandwich.

Recorded live on Revere Beach with rapper Antwon & producer Readhead this one such a fun episode. Make sure to check out their project “In Life Only Pain Is Real”. Antwon has worked with artists such as Lil Peep, Wiki, Schoolboy Q & more. Please his subscribe to help on my road to 10k!!! You can follow me on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/sambuckedup?igs... This episode is sponsored by Dazed Dispensary in Holyoke, MA. Find their stuff here: https://dazed.fun/ #buckedup #podcast #interview #hiphop #rap #antwon #readhead #reverebeach

If you want to become a member of our Good Vibe Tribe send us an email at morningshow@mix1041.com

If you want to become a member of our Good Vibe Tribe send us an email at morningshow@mix1041.com

Loved talking with Sand Sculptor Melineige Beauregard about competing in the 19th annual International Sand Sculpting Festival on Revere Beach this weekend!

The annual International Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach doesn't start until the end of next week, but this morning tons of sand arrived for the making of King Kong. WBZ's Carl Stevens reports from Revere Beach.

We are meeting with Dan Doherty, Director of Operations and Vice President of Kelly's Roast Beef. Since Doherty could remember, he has always loved Kelly's Roast Beef. Their buttery roll filled with delicious roast beef, barbecue sauce, mayo, and cheese has been his go-to order since he was a boy. It was in the late 70s that he took his love for the brand and turned it into his summer job. From there, he learned valuable life lessons, such as the importance of a hard work ethic, that he has taken with him to the corporate side of the brand to extend its presence and make Kelly's a household name. Doherty, a Revere Beach native, says that in the brand's early days, Revere Beach was an amusement park, and Kelly's was the town's concession stand. Nobody was making or even thinking about a roast beef sandwich. Kelly's became a hub for Revere Beach and an integral part of the town as now prominent figures such as State Supreme Court Judges, Mayors of Revere, firefighters, police officers, and teachers have all worked at the beloved restaurant that has shaped many into outstanding members of the community. Doherty credits the brand and the hundreds of people he has worked with for over 40 years for his success.  Since 1951, Kelly's Roast Beef has been delighting guests daily with our freshly prepared sandwiches, succulent seafood, crisp salads, fries, onion rings, and our legendary roast beef. With our flagship walk-up window still operating on the shores of Revere Beach, Massachusetts, Kelly's larger, suburban dine-in and drive-thru locations are reminiscent of our 1950s history, featuring carousel horses, colorful fish tanks, Revere Beach murals, and boardwalk nostalgia. Kelly's Roast Beef has been family-owned for over 60 years and operates five casual eateries in eastern Massachusetts. In Part two - Great Quotes in Franchising podcast.   

The nation saw more than just warm weather this past Memorial Day weekend, it also saw a spike in beach going violence. Revere Beach, MA reported two shootings. A video of a mob of teens attacking three Marines on a California beach drew national attention as did the reports out of Chicago of a group of roughly 80-100 teens gathering at a city beach when a fight broke out where gun shots ensued. What sparks this unruly behavior? What can be done about it?

All the victims are expected to recover after an evening of chaos and fighting on Revere Beach.WBZ's Kendall Buhl reports:

A Revere Beach sports bar is sponsoring a new weekly fun run. WBZ's Carl Stevens reports.

Ross W. Lilley grew up in New Jersey. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. Later he received his Masteries in Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School. He moved to Massachusetts to accept the Senior minister role at South Acton Congregational Church for nearly 20 years. However, he was always feeling a different call. Ross grew up with an interest in persons with disabilities and always felt and saw around him the lack of understand and discrimination these people experienced. When he graduated high school in New Jersey he took up the sport of windsurfing. While serving in his ministerial role, Ross began think about and eventually forming AdccesSport America, a company to help teach windsurfing and other sports to persons with disability. When his son was born with a disability Ross felt that he was destoned to help his son and others through his dream. In 2001 Ross left the church and officially took on the full-time position of leading his company. Now, he works with thousands of persons with disability teaching them a number of sports and showing them that no matter their disability they can do more than they thought. He and his staff teaches soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball and, of course, windsurfing as well as other sports. Ross' story is much more than an inspirational one. You will see how he is even developing new technologies that he hopes will greatly assist even more persons whose mobility skills are seemingly limited. You will, I think, love what Ross is doing. I hope what you hear on this episode will show you that all of us are more unstoppable than we think especially when we have a team to help. About the Guest: Rev. Ross W. Lilley grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, graduating from high school in 1975. That same year, he began windsurfing on the Jersey shore. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1978 and Masters in Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in 1983. He was the Senior Minister of South Acton Congregational Church for close to 20 years. In that time the seeds for founding AccesSportAmerica began to grow. In 1983, Ross began developing windsurf adaptations to make that sport more accessible. The endeavor to adapt the sport was part of a greater interest in creating places and activities to overcome disparity and discrimination in the disabled community. Since that time Ross has been adapting and teaching sports and training for people with disabilities. In 1986 the Lilley's son Joshua was born with cerebral palsy and resulting spastic quadriplegia. Although Joshua uses an electric wheelchair and can walk with assistance, Josh and Ross began windsurfing together when Josh was four years old. Eventually the two sailed in their own windsurf marathons. Because of their efforts, the Lilleys have appeared in over twenty publications and televised programs including Good Morning America, Inside Edition, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and American Windsurfer Ross and his family have received several awards including being a two time recipient of the Heroes Among Us Award from the Boston Celtics, honoring "people who have made an overwhelming impact on the lives of others…" and presented to individuals who, "…through their unique commitment and humanitarian spirit, have made exceptional and lasting contributions to our community". Ross is known for creating adaptations and game systems to truly include all people in sport and training. Most recently the TheraTrek, gait training system was patented after more than a decade of research and development. Rev. Ross Lilley lives in Acton, MA with his wife Jean and their son Joshua. Their daughter, Hanna, lives in Maui but still works camps and runs clinics with Ross and AccesSportAmerica. Social Media Links: Our website is www.goaccess.org Instagram is AccesSport Facebook AccesSportAmerica About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:16 Hi there once again, it is time for another episode of unstoppable mindset today, we get to meet Ross Lilley, we're actually Reverend Ross, Lilley Ross has got a story to tell. He is not a person directly as I recall with a disability, but he has a son who is and he has had a long time interest in that. And there's a lot more to his story than that. And I'm not going to give it away. So Ross, welcome to unstoppable mindset. How are you?   Ross Lilley  01:49 Thank you, Mike. Oh, great. Thank you. We are in our mid we got here just in time.   Michael Hingson  01:56 Right. And I was just gonna say, if people haven't figured it out by now we record these podcasts. And sometimes there's a little bit of a delay before they get up just because we do have some backlogs. And in Ross's case, we are taping or taping my gosh, you can tell how old I am. We are recording this episode on January 23 2023. And for us the temperature got down to 26 degrees here in Victorville and you have a snowstorm.   Ross Lilley  02:25 Oh my, wow. Yeah. I work with people that are all younger than me, pretty much. So I say tape all the time. We put out a lot of videos for our training sessions. And they're all wondering what to tape is.   Michael Hingson  02:41 I remember when we lived in New Jersey and I worked in New York at the World Trade Center. We often and saw among other things, one or wolf on I think it was channel two in New York. And he always said let's go to the videotape. Well, they weren't videotaping back by that time. Well, let's let's learn a little bit about you tell me about you kind of growing up and just sort of how things got started and all that.   Ross Lilley  03:07 Sure. I I grew up in New Jersey, and I remember Warner well. Yeah, I'm, I'm old too now. But like, let me see I was a if we're going back that far. I I always had an interest in in inclusion, I guess I would say and I used to coach and and create things where people could get involved a lot more a lot of sports stuff. I remember even growing up and always was kind of the one who was like, let's get a game going and getting people going and and so one of the sports I really loved was windsurfing. I got to do that when I was high school and I you know it's first paycheck I ever got actually was to buy a wind surfer and anyways fast forward a little bit I went to for for no good reason I went to seminary to become a minister   Michael Hingson  04:06 and there must have been a reason yeah there is you   Ross Lilley  04:09 when you when you go to seminary they all everybody you sit with your classmates in a circle and they all talk about their call the so called call and and in some of these stories go on and on and on and people tugging and God pulling and all that kind of stuff. And my was just, it just sort of hit me that I probably should go to everybody told me I'd be a good minister and I should go and I just somehow said okay, I gave into this process, but there was no no hit on the head kind of experience like a lot of these other folks. But anyways, my mentors all taught me that good, good religion, like good life was inclusive, and that if everybody couldn't come it wasn't maybe worth taking the ride.   Michael Hingson  04:54 Since you started down that road of the whole concept of inclusion. Well   Ross Lilley  05:00 I think it was just something in me and then I, in a resonated when when I had these mentors who were similarly minded, like minded and especially, you know when I could make it so some of the whole market ministry it seemed like I was in the right place. And when so ministry was going that way in at the same time, I was windsurfing, and that was kind of at odds with what I believe because it's a pretty exclusive sport. And so I, I devoted all my spare time to try and make the sport of windsurfing accessible to people of all abilities. You look like have something to say, no, no. Okay. So so I started just going up to people on the beach and saying, You look like I have a disability, you want to go windsurfing, which is really nice. No, no, no under a slapped me, but there you go, they should have. So I used to take people with kind of just will say light ambulation issues out windsurfing and figure out ways to make it more accessible. And even, I made some adaptations, which it turned out I was pretty good at and then I was my son was born in 1986 with cerebral palsy, and spastic quadriplegia tetraplegia. And he became kind of a you know, that's where the rubber would hit the road, I guess is if, if I really believe this about inclusion, I would make a choice there i My wife and I made a choice that everything that we would do, we were going to believe that he could do as well. All the things that we thought were good in our lives, we're going to make a choice that we're going to ram it down his throat that these things were going to be good for him too. So So for good or for bad. He was born into the right or wrong fam family and he became this test pilot for a lot of the things we do. And anyways, we started to to do wind surf marathons. And I found that based on the fact that I found that this sport really excited him to stand where he couldn't stand in a standard for more than 10 minutes, he could stand leaning against me. And we could go for really long distances. And some of these wind surf marathons we did he was seven, eight years old. And we're going a mile out into Cape Cod Bay and back. You know, we did one which was memorable over three hours was 10 Miles net that caught the attention of like the globe and Good Morning America and things like this. And that's how we started our program and proper.   Michael Hingson  07:39 So you, you talk about inclusion. And my note here, are you using the word diversity? How come?   Ross Lilley  07:49 How come I go again?   Michael Hingson  07:52 You call it inclusion? And I don't hear you using the word diversity. Why inclusion and not diversity?   Ross Lilley  08:00 Oh, gosh. I guess they're pretty similar to me. Is there? I don't know if there's a huge difference in my mind.   Michael Hingson  08:09 Well, there shouldn't be. Yeah, but typically, diversity doesn't include disabilities in the discussion, which is why I react well to inclusion because some of us who talk about it, don't let people ever get by with saying, Well, we're in. We're inclusive, but we don't deal with disabilities yet. Well, then you're not inclusive. You can't the word just diversity has been warped, it seems to me and I've said that a number of times on the podcast. So I love it when you are using the word inclusion and inclusive because that's really what it should be about and diversity should be as well, but it's not very rarely do you ever hear disabilities is included in that?   Ross Lilley  08:55 I strongly agree. Yeah, in our program, we have a lot of the when we're going for grants, a lot of people are talking about diversity and how diverse we are. And it and when they when they want that to go along racial lines or whatever I'm I'm always surprised that like we're you know, we're sort of inclusive all it just doesn't occur to me that that that would be our main criteria compared to how we're including so many people have so many abilities. So yeah, I yeah, I always think about inclusion. It's funny.   Michael Hingson  09:33 So how did you end up in Massachusetts from New Jersey although it's not that far of a ride it is still another state and it's a little ways away?   Ross Lilley  09:45 Wow, it's funny I figured my story so boring. I'm I was like I got I got out of college. And I I wanted to be a musician. Although my degree was in economics in mind. or music. And my brother was selling stereos up in Boston. And I came up here just to get a job. And that's how I got up here. And I thought I'd also find it and I thought there was a pretty good musical community up in Boston, I thought I'd get into that. I was a I studied for 10 years with the principal percussionist in the New York Philharmonic, and I thought I could make a go of it as a drummer as a jazz drummer, but I was wrong. Work out on now.   Michael Hingson  10:33 Well, then you ended up in the ministry along the way. Yeah. I guess, actually going into the ministry.   Ross Lilley  10:39 Yeah, we I was, I guess that back to that story there. The when I was selling stereos, and when dreaming about music people, the people who said, everybody knows you should be a minister, but you Ross were people who were also in ministry. And that was they were great to steer me into it. It was it was good idea.   Michael Hingson  11:02 So are you at a church now?   Ross Lilley  11:05 No, I, I left in 2001. To do this full time. Before the pandemic, we had 2000 People coming to the program, each year to do adaptive sport and training. And even before that, when we were you know, 400 is, it was pretty much a full time job while I'm trying to, you know, be at a church as well. So I had to make a choice, that church, church life is a good one, but it's tough. And when I was at a great church, but it's, it's tough. And you know, if you do it, some people do it. So they're, they taken a professional approach more professional than I would take in the strict sense of the world. So they could, they could put it aside at night and, and, you know, kind of decompress and be away from the church. I couldn't I took everything in and and felt it for like everybody, and it just kind of wears on you after a while.   Michael Hingson  11:59 Yeah. Well, and you've kind of gone in a different direction and do sort of the same thing. But you're applying all of it to sports, adaptive sports and disabilities, and so on. So how do you do take your son windsurfing? How does all that work?   Ross Lilley  12:16 Well, now he's is, is 36, and is a pretty big guy. So what I used to do, where I could just pick up with one hand doesn't necessarily work. So when we go in serve now, I'll use a standard or a railing standard, and things like that on the board. And I might have someone on a board with me, we have lots of different rigs that we've created. And, you know, well, my focus won't be necessarily on on the distances we did before, but more of him being able to hold a sail on his own, with me just holding the mass to the sail and things like that. So it's   Michael Hingson  12:52 once again, the same you're on the same board. Yeah.   Ross Lilley  12:55 Right. If, if you and I were to go I windsurfing I would put you on a similar board with to sales, you could be standard or seated to get comfortable with the sale, and I could be in front of you on a second sale. And I could help control your sale. And then as you as you got better, I would go to less stable boards, and you would focus on you know, you could then focus on balance as you had mastered your sales technique. Right?   Michael Hingson  13:25 The whole idea is that you have boards, they have sales, and that's how you move, right?   Ross Lilley  13:31 Faster. In all of our sports, anything we do. The general rule is the faster you move, the more stable you are, when you get going. When you're stable, then you can do a lot more if you're just sitting there getting ready to go. It's pretty wobbly.   Michael Hingson  13:45 You know, I bet sort of like the whole well, a little different sort of like the whole concept of a gyroscope when you spin it fast. It keeps you stable.   Ross Lilley  13:54 Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I like that.   Michael Hingson  13:58 Well, that's that's pretty cool. So you are you're able to do it well. And so do you do you still do a lot of wind surfing with him?   Ross Lilley  14:09 I do more wind surfing with our it's funny you would think I would do a lot but I do more teaching have other folks in our program. Is he doing? So again? What does he do? Josh? On those days, he might come to beach and help us out or might go to a program. But Josh does a lot in your sports in the summer. The way we operate as a sports in the summer are designed for you or your family member to see themselves as athletes as viable athletes, and then to use that as an incentive to train for higher function. And the sports in the summer we have or or windsurfing and Hawaiian Hawaiian outrigger canoeing, stand up paddling, kayaking, and we also have traditional sports like tennis and and soccer and In football that we also apply these inclusive game systems to. And Josh, more times than not, if Josh is at our site and working, Josh will be a part of a crew in an outrigger canoe. He has a fairly functional right hand. So we have all sorts of adaptations where we might, you know, use a Ace wrap to keep his left hand on his bent paddle or something like that. You get a sense of two hands going. But he'll, if he comes down, he's usually paddling more than anything now.   Michael Hingson  15:34 Does he work? Does he have a job? Or is the program kind of what he does? It's kind of a day   Ross Lilley  15:39 program. But they have program. He lives with us though. And yeah, and well, no.   Michael Hingson  15:46 Does your wife wins? Does your wife win serve?   Ross Lilley  15:50 She did. And she doesn't really now. She, we do a sports camp in Florida every year and she comes out and and comes out and help and she's actually pretty skilled at it. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  16:04 That's pretty cool. Maybe she, what does she What does she do? Oh, go ahead.   Ross Lilley  16:08 Where does she she's, she actually works with us right now. She's, she's an interior designer. And, but she left that to work for us. And we also it takes, it takes a lot to you know, raise a kid with a disability and yeah, and to keep me going. I know which side my bread is buttered on.   Michael Hingson  16:34 Good move on your part. Yeah,   Ross Lilley  16:37 she does a lot that she helps teach with us. And she helps train with us as well whenever she can.   Michael Hingson  16:42 We were a two disabilities family. My wife was a chair and a chair her whole life was a T three para, but she passed away in November. So now it is me and a dog and a cat. And, you know, it's it's fun. I miss her and and so on. But at the same time, we we do have a lot of fun. And the dog and the cat keep me honest.   Ross Lilley  17:10 Wow, it's still fresh. That is every day and I'm sure for the rest of your life. Right?   Michael Hingson  17:15 Oh, we'll be we were 15 days shy of being married for two years. Oh, my. Yeah. So it is. It is one of those things, it will be with us. But as I tell people, the Spirit just goes faster than the body sometimes. And that's what happened here.   Ross Lilley  17:30 The spirit goes faster than the body. Yeah, the   Michael Hingson  17:33 spirit moves faster.   Ross Lilley  17:35 Oh, I wish I wish I was preaching now I would use this. Well, there's some good explication of it for me. Wow.   Michael Hingson  17:43 There you go. That's terrific. Well, we we, we function we continue. But tell me, do you do sports in the winter as well? Or what do you do in the winter.   Ross Lilley  17:53 So today we have a special. So we're good at adaptations and inventions. And we've discovered a lot of our athletes who are training more than anything wanted to could walk on a treadmill with assistance. And so we've invented a device, it's a it's a gait training device that will probably sell for like $5,000. And we have a gym when which we specialize in doing gait training with people. So we do a lot of that. And we also go to schools and we train people in Boston public schools and some other schools. And we do a it's a sport based program. And it's also one that we can do online. So and we do tennis, we do tennis and cycling when the weather it's good for cycling, but tennis all year as well.   Michael Hingson  18:43 Yep, cycling, probably not right now.   Ross Lilley  18:46 Well, if it's above 45 degrees, we go out. Well, yeah, but not today.   Michael Hingson  18:52 Not today. That's what I mean. The snow, the snow falling off. And so as a result, not a good time, but yeah, I hear you. So do you have any distinctions or differences regarding kinds of disabilities? Or do you care and or as a disability as a disability as far as it goes?   Ross Lilley  19:15 It certainly is we would take we'll take anyone of any ability disability from ages like five up to 100. And if we can accommodate them, we'll create something so we can so we build arm braces, airplane braces, sort of for people with limb differences. We've created a lot of seating particular for particular people to do any of our sports, a lot of stuff. And our you know our intent is to is to include anybody, especially people who have no other place where they can, where they can participate in these kinds of sports.   Michael Hingson  19:52 So that probably gets to be I won't say a challenge, because it is but but it does get to be a An issue that you get to be able to deal with people with neurodivergent issues as well. So you can deal with autistic or, or people who have Down Syndrome and so on. And you're just as welcoming to do that as, as you do people with physical disabilities, like you're talking about.   Ross Lilley  20:15 Exactly, yeah. Well, and the variety really makes it interesting. And that we love that challenge, especially if, if you know, everybody's different in their own way. And so no rule, no generalizations apply. And if we don't expect something miraculous to happen, a session, we're, we're missing the point. You know, every every session, we find something that's different in every session, we find something where people surprise us.   Michael Hingson  20:44 So I assume things sort of dropped off a little bit when the pandemic hit.   Ross Lilley  20:48 Big time. Yeah, well, we, we never stopped, we created an online program for our year round program, year round athletes and for school program. And that was, that was kind of cool. Because we made this unique system, where we have six variations of high intensity interval training exercises. And it was like in the can ready to go. And and we put it right in within a week of the pandemic and the onset of that and people being in shutdown. We had that online and going with people.   Michael Hingson  21:22 It's really cool. how that worked out quite well. We're   Ross Lilley  21:25 using it now. It's still we have over close to 80 exercises with these progressions, and then we we put together combinations, the exercises and put it live for a lot of our classes. And I   Michael Hingson  21:37 for for adults as well. Do you find that people who participate in the summer, continue to stay with the program and will work in the winter or? Yes, same same clients and so on? Right, which is cool. How many people are part of the program now?   Ross Lilley  21:57 Well, last summer, I think we had, again, our high point was about 2000. Now we're about 1200, I think. And so we you know, in the summer, we have a camp for we're including kids into a camp of, of junior high aged kids. And then we have a program with the Flutie foundation for kids on the autism spectrum. And then we have our own site, where we have anybody in any any one who wants to come out. So there's a bunch of teams on several sites in the summer. And then from those, they participate in our year round programs. Let me see, probably about half participate in year round programs. We have a soccer and conditioning program as wellness in in a winter.   Michael Hingson  22:39 Boys, girls, men, women, everyone. Yeah, which is so cool. Oh, how do you do soccer? How does that work?   Ross Lilley  22:48 Let me see when we have when, let me see for we let me we created these these game systems where everybody is vital to the system. And you have anybody have any ability has to meet certain requirements of in the game for people to go on. So if you know lice would say if you score and then you can't score again until the rest of our team scores or for our team to fray our points to count everybody on a team has to at least have an assist or a block. So there's all these and then there's certain goals that they shoot at, there's some that are easier to get than others. So there's there's all these accommodations we make depending on who's playing so that everybody can be vital to their team and everybody's working towards that. And it's designed so everybody have every ability is challenged to their utmost as well.   Michael Hingson  23:48 May not be using the right word. But soccer is sort of a ferocious or certainly a hard hitting fast sport. And in general, how does that work when you're dealing with people with disabilities and a lot of different skill sets and so on? Do they do the people still tend to play as ferociously as they can?   Ross Lilley  24:11 They do and they don't. So there's, there's things we have an inappropriate challenge rule where we try to put like abilities against each other. And, you know, the people that the best so called Able bodied players are working really hard to get balls to people to make assist or to involve them. And then people maybe who have ambulation issues are doing their their best to get into a position even if it makes them going you know for five minutes getting down the length of the field to get there. That's their goal to get in a position where they might have a chance at a goal or to get back to defense. So there's there's things we invent for everybody that make them slow this game down for them without without Making anybody really slow down that much?   Michael Hingson  25:02 So, do you find challenges of getting totally ambulatory people, for example, to play and play well with people who may not be as ambulatory or work as well? Moving around?   Ross Lilley  25:17 Yeah, it's a that's a challenge, you know. And so when we call is trying to find the perfect game, and it is a challenge, but you know, it's a skill to play to is a skill to learn how to play with varying abilities at once. And, you know, we do when we do this camp in Florida, that's our, our proving ground for this, and you live with this for a week, and people get very good at the game by about the second day.   Michael Hingson  25:42 So people grow accustomed to it and grow into it. And at all. Yeah,   Ross Lilley  25:47 yeah. Our whole community is about getting out of the way of yourself. And so if and trying to let something bigger come through yourself and something bigger come through each of these games.   Michael Hingson  26:00 Are you teaching people to be competitive? Or is it more teaching people to, to work together and have fun together? Or is it kind of a combination? Because a lot of the sports, like soccer, like tennis, football, and so on, are more competitive sports, and they're usually viewed as being very competitive. But is that the same way it comes out for you? Or is it a little bit different in terms of mindsets?   Ross Lilley  26:29 It's funny, I don't, you know, like, in popular sport, I think great competitors aren't necessarily great people, right? They're just insecure about losing. And I think it's, we all need to learn how to lose so we can learn to live with something that's bigger. But in ours, we do teach to can be competitive, but in the end, Ron, we want people also to have perspective about it. And I saw like, the worst thing that could happen is where you have people come in, who don't care. So it's nice to care. And but it's even better if they compete with themselves more than anything else, right and drive with strive for more function drive for some, something that they they've accomplished on their own. And even farther than that, it's great to be a part of a team and to feel like, maybe for the first time in your life, you're valued on a team. Right, and that, that you're not just a throw away, and that there are people aren't condescending to you, and you're on the field of play. We have an example we have a friend of ours, one of our athletes, was on ESPN for playing a cerebral palsy, and some, you know, ambulation was a little a little slower than most folks, and they put them into a high school football game, right. And so one play they gave, you know, the other team was in it, they gave him the ball, and they let him run and eventually ran out of bounds. And I almost think that that kid should have been tackled, that maybe there's an art to tackling and but people deserve the dignity of failure they deserve to be treated with with some seriousness, and that their accomplishments aren't something where, you know, there's all these videos of, of Little League games, where people are some kid hits with cerebral palsy, and is going around the bases, while people fun falling down for the ball and all this stuff. You know, throw a kid out every now and then make them work for accomplishment, make, make them understand what it's like that that you know what they truly appreciate what they've done. If I went even further, it's like races. We like we like we have sometimes we have races, and we like people in the races to do something that they have to train for if someone doesn't train for it. It's just, you know, it's not that compelling. And people on the outside need to see people with disabilities training, and being really true athletes. So we like things where people train for it. And people accomplish something. That makes sense.   Michael Hingson  29:03 It does. It absolutely makes sense. Because we we find so many people who behave exactly as you're describing, oh, it's great that he was able to run 20 or 30 yards. Wasn't that wonderful that he had the ball. But by the same token, we're not really dealing with, with what's going on and who's the one that really comes out feeling good about that? Well, I suppose that there is some truth to the fact that the person involved is excited that they had the ball, but the people are really doing it for themselves so that they can feel good that they can feel superior, rather than as you said, tackling somebody after a while, by the way, there's nothing wrong with tackling somebody rather than them running out of bounds. Even if they go 15 yards and then you tackle them. That that says something to and you're right there's an art to tackling that. it. It's all about changing in a sense, the definition of winning. Hmm.   Ross Lilley  30:05 I love that. Yeah. I never heard that. But I think that's a great concept too about the defining redefining winning.   Michael Hingson  30:16 There's, there's nothing wrong with winning and being competitive. But if you have to win, then are you really winning?   Ross Lilley  30:27 Oh, that's even better. Yes. We are very much on the same page. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  30:33 And the the fact is that, I realized that with most modern sports, it's all about winning. But is it really or should it really be something to think about? Hmm, that's   Ross Lilley  30:49 Yeah. So you you have thought about this. You are into it? Are you Are you a big sports fan yourself?   Michael Hingson  30:55 I listened to, to sports more than anything else. But I, I grew up with some really great sports announcers to be my teachers as it were listening to them and just their philosophies of dealing with the game. I mean, you know, baseball, you can't do better than having Vin Scully describe the games and just all the things that he talked about, and I know that he understood, winning and, and he always wanted the, I'm sure the Dodgers to be the victorious team. But the way he announced the games, no matter who won, it was really all about the game, which is what it ought to be. Hmm.   Ross Lilley  31:32 Wow. Is he still alive? Really?   Michael Hingson  31:36 Did he now he passed away last year? This year? Yeah. Yeah, he retired at the end of I think 2016 and then passed away last year.   Ross Lilley  31:48 That's well put, and I'm glad I'm glad you've put time to think about that. I I think about it all the time as well. And I always wonder if I'm the only one. Sailor staff thinks about it. And especially when you're putting game systems together.   Michael Hingson  32:03 What's your favorites? Which Oh, go ahead.   Ross Lilley  32:06 Go now my favorite, your favorite sport to teach? I guess, all of them because, like our game systems, you know, if it's team sport, our game systems work across all the main team sports, football, basketball, and soccer and even floor hockey. We work with some Boston Bruins on floor hockey and we work with some of the New England Patriots on our on our training systems. And as long as people are moving, and we work with the Red Sox as well, but the as long as they're moving for a prolonged period of time, if this sport gets them going like that I like anything that drives that it's not so much the sport is is to me as much as people participating in it and getting into shape and belonging to something   Michael Hingson  32:57 the professional athletes been in terms of working with him and so on. And how does all that work out?   Ross Lilley  33:04 Pretty good. Let me you know, it's good. Somebody from your area, Jimmy Garoppolo. injured, San Francisco 40 Niners quarterback. He came to about three of our clinics when he was with the with the Patriots. He and some other players really got it. They didn't they didn't come with any condescending condescension. And they didn't settle for you know, they held the bar high for our athletes. It was pretty good. So I'm surprised at this. We've had other guys like Andrew Ray Croft from the from the Bruins came out, and Terry Rozier who's now with the Charlotte Hornets. He was with the Celtics they came out in and within minutes, I thought they pretty felt pretty comfortable that population, I thought they will be talking down to him. But they were always really good.   Michael Hingson  33:55 That's really pretty cool. And nothing like having some of those folks coming out and teaching because you're getting taught by the best in the business.   Ross Lilley  34:05 Right. Yeah. And also, it's nice when they're sort of humbled by what we do. That's a nice, that's always a nice gesture when they are when they have done football clinics before and run them. And they defer to us. I think that's really that's a nice, that's a nice recognition for us.   Michael Hingson  34:27 So how large is your staff?   Ross Lilley  34:30 We have in the summer, just about 20 of us. But during the year we have just three of us full time who are trainers, and we have other support staff staff. We have actually we also during the year have interns who are terrific. We use a lot from local universities.   Michael Hingson  34:48 Do you have or ever have any people with disabilities on the teaching staff?   Ross Lilley  34:53 That's a really good one. And if it was during the year yes, you You know, but under water, we, we don't, mainly because of safety and needing to, if we need to jump in the water and rescue somebody, and we can only afford, you know, three or four people on a team, we can't we can't go rescue one somebody with a disability. It's a really, it's something we agonize with all the time because we're on the water. But we are not good in that regard. Only because we, you know, we have to decide who we're going to pay. We have limited resources, and we need everybody to be, quote unquote able bodied, to help with rescues if need be.   Michael Hingson  35:37 Right? Well, I think of the possibility of people like people who happen to be blind, who might very well be able to help and rescuing there are several centers around the country that have blind teachers teaching in a variety of environments. Including taking students out to lakes and doing various things in the summer. And again, it's it's all a matter of looking and learning. But there you have someone who's a lot more ambulatory, if they learned to listen and really are aware of what's going on around them.   Ross Lilley  36:17 Ya know, that that's probably a good point yet, I just don't have anybody in front of me, like, like that. But, you know, in a way, I probably should be more proactive and seeking people like this in in the least bit, because they can, they can have other folks. I don't wanna use the word inspire, lightly, but they could help inspire other folks with a similar abilities to come out. Right, right. I guess we're all role wary of using the word inspire. But I still love the word. Well, there's nothing   Michael Hingson  36:51 wrong with inspire, again, if you're doing it for the right reason. And this is, as we were talking about earlier, with the whole issue of running 30 yards, and then running out of bounds, but not being willing to tackle someone who is at this really being inspired as opposed to just feeling good. And there's nothing wrong with true inspiration, something that motivates someone to do more and feel better about themselves than they did and shoot for higher goals. So that's okay. I think, I think that's what in part has to come from inspiration.   Ross Lilley  37:29 Well, well said,   Michael Hingson  37:32 and it's a, it's a process, but for you, what's the most rewarding part of what you do, you're certainly doing something that has to do a lot of things that I don't want to use the word make you feel good, but inspire you. But for you, what's the most rewarding part of what you do?   Ross Lilley  37:52 When, when, when it works? When when we do works. And again, if I can, you know, there's, there's something that bigger that bigger than me that kind of is in this organization, even though we my wife, and I, my son and my daughter are founders of this, we we've found that there's a there's a culture that's developed in this that that goes behind us and I love it to see when when people remind me of some of the original tenets of how we started, you know, and like, or if I see some protocol or device or technique work with somebody, when it shouldn't, I'm really I love that. Like, instead of like we've worked for 12 years plus on this gait trainer. And when I see people's gait, improve after a half hour on the machine, and just it's incredible to me, or when I see you know why I'm not a really confident person outside of this, but I'm really confident what we can do with people on a windsurfer on a stand up paddleboard and a canoe and I know, when even when families say this won't work, I know that I can make certain things work and to see that is really something or to see someone surprised me and show what they can do. beyond what I ever expected, I love that.   Michael Hingson  39:16 Tell me about a real surprise something that happened or a person that came to the program and you didn't think necessarily they could do all that they ended up doing and they really surprised you. I'd love to hear a story about that.   Ross Lilley  39:33 I got a bunch but they all start with my son, right he's you know, by all rights he should be. He would be without what we do. He would be in a power chair with contractures all day long, and now he can because we have trained so much I can walk with him just holding one hand is rigorous but I can hold one hand and walk with Him. So that's that's somebody you know, by definition no functional use of his, either of his legs or his arms and I can hold one hand walk. So he, and you know, the way that he did some of those marathons, some of that was the greatest athletic feats I've ever been a part of in my life. Other than that, we have people who are running now who had hemiparesis and you know, we're in coma, and then came out of this and work with us and train with us and now can run and play in some of our games. Those guys are amazing. And there's other people still who were up and using some our equipment and training in keeping you know, in like this, like somebody I work with today's that he has MS. Cannot wait bear. But in our in our machine, he was up and standing in propelling this machine on a treadmill today all by himself. That's kind of incredible.   Michael Hingson  41:02 How does the machine work? What does it do?   Ross Lilley  41:05 We've, what we've done is we without a motor, but yes, using pressure on a treadmill. And and this unit that we've built off the back where we grab, this device grabs people at their lower leg. And as a piston is connected to essentially a rebuilt, spin cycle. And we can determine how long their length of stride is going to be how much hip and knee flexion or bend they're going to have. And then you put it for in a uniform fashion on a treadmill for, you know, half hour to an hour at a time. And we can pedal people through to weaken, we can slow people's rate down or increase it and it's it's emulating what a $400,000 device can do. And it works really well.   Michael Hingson  41:55 Have you ever looked into? Or Has anyone ever taken any of these and manufactured them and maybe did more mass producing of them?   Ross Lilley  42:04 We're on were doing that now. Actually, we're working with a manufacturer on on that. Except the process is long. And there's lots of parts to this. But yeah,   Michael Hingson  42:14 and you got to go through approvals to get the whole legal aspect of it addressed as well.   Ross Lilley  42:21 Well, we have our patent down, and lots of other patents associated with it. And now we need to get FDA approval.   Michael Hingson  42:28 That was what I was going to ask you about how the FDA figures into it all.   Ross Lilley  42:34 Where it's semi medical exercise. So we're trying to navigate those waters and I, I'm relying on one of our board members to do it to work with me on it. Well,   Michael Hingson  42:45 it does. It does sound really exciting to to do and to see the things that are happening. And again, I think one of the most significant parts about this is that you're welcoming to everyone. Do you have any? What we would call able bodied people come to the program? Or do they just come to staff? Or do you ever welcome people without disabilities into the program as well?   Ross Lilley  43:10 All the time? Yeah. Mostly into our games. So if someone wants to volunteer or if they want to play, we'll put into like a Thursday night soccer program or or have played tennis with us something like that. Yeah. You I know we decided I think told me early you you're not you're not actively playing a sport now. But if you could, what would it be?   Michael Hingson  43:39 Oh, gosh. There are several I'd love to play even if it's just to learn more about them. I've always been a baseball fan. So I'd love to. To do more with baseball. I'd love to learn more about football. I enjoy listening to football, although baseball is still always been my number one interest but I'm spoiled as I said before by Vince Skelly. But, you know, I, I think that sports in general would would be fun to experience no matter what it is because there's so much of it that I don't know a lot about and for me playing it would be as much as anything a way to and a reason for learning about the sport.   Ross Lilley  44:26 So I mean, you never day with a beep ball or anything like that.   Michael Hingson  44:30 never really did anything with a beat ball. There wasn't a group around to do it with for me.   Ross Lilley  44:36 Wow. It's a ride. I've tried to it's a riot. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I thought it's a genius and,   Michael Hingson  44:46 and then there's the new one talking about soccer and so on dodgeball. Oh, yeah. And I don't know whether I want to be up Be a person who just has to run around drop on the ground might get kicked in the head and going after a ball. So Oh, no.   Ross Lilley  45:10 Soccer is amazing, right? directly on the sides like three versus three. Yeah. That is an amazingly well developed sport is incredible.   Michael Hingson  45:21 And Basketball is fun. What else? Again? I'm spoiled. We had Chick Hearn out there out here and when I lived in the east, the first time I lived in the east, I lived in Winthrop, Massachusetts. And of course we had Johnny most.   Ross Lilley  45:37 Yep. Yeah. All right. Let's stop settling down which   Michael Hingson  45:42 will check stole the ball. I have that record.   Ross Lilley  45:50 Wow. Winthrop, we it's a good surfing beach or Winthrop.   Michael Hingson  45:54 Yeah, yeah. And Winthrop and Revere Beach and so on. Sure.   Ross Lilley  45:58 One of our programs looks at Revere. Winthrop, by the way, one of the islands where we have a program. Uh   Michael Hingson  46:03 huh. Wow, wait. So I keep up with sports. I've just never been very active in that regard. I was in the boy scouts, but we didn't do sports stuff other than hiking and camping. Which, which I did. So that was that was okay. You're a scout? Yeah, I was an Eagle Scout.   Ross Lilley  46:25 Holy smokes. Really?   Michael Hingson  46:29 Well, you know, you got to do something to to keep functioning and active.   Ross Lilley  46:34 So being on the bestseller list are Eagle Scout, they're about the same, aren't they?   Michael Hingson  46:41 They're fun to do.   Ross Lilley  46:43 Holy smokes. And what was your What was your project as an Eagle Scout?   Michael Hingson  46:48 Oh, gosh, I was involved in doing some radio stuff and doing some things relating to publicity in Palmdale where I grew up.   Ross Lilley  47:02 I used to, I used to be familiar with that. Because we would have you know, kids would come by the church, and we're our program and they need to find a project, right inevitably would be us building more times than not, it was let's create a ramp for somebody in town, you know, wheelchair ramp.   Michael Hingson  47:21 I'm on the board of an organization that works with scouts up in Santa Rosa. And they've built benches for the the center and done a number of things. It's been a favorite place for Eagle projects,   Ross Lilley  47:33 benches, benches, that's a big one. Right? Those are good.   Michael Hingson  47:36 Those are always good. What's the biggest challenge that you tend to face from the community are in the community? In   Ross Lilley  47:45 the mean, as I was running in running the program here or in my life, which to both? Oh, gosh, I was hoping you take the first one.   Michael Hingson  47:57 You get both.   Ross Lilley  47:58 I mean, I think more than that I you know, we're always rubbing two nickels together to make it by right. We're we're in the black all the time. But it's funding for programs like this, I spend more time doing programming than I do on fundraising. And I always grateful for donors who free me up so I can free us up so we can focus more on programming than anything else. So that tends to be a kind of a worry that goes with with our work. I I guess but I also worry that I'm I won't live long enough to see some of what we have come to fruition or perfection, I guess, especially with in regards to our gait training. I think what we do well, we've, we've come up with a system that I think is a true game changer. But it needs to be perfected. And it needs to be something that we universally have out there that that makes everybody improve their gait. And then this other thing are big challenges. How do we how do we train people, kids in schools with disabilities, where the resources they are, they're underserved, and his resources are slim, and they need to build habits that will stick with them after age 22. And so those are things that kind of gnaw at me that I you know, we just got to get it done gotta get done, and I don't know how to do it on a broad scale. So sad that   Michael Hingson  49:35 at the same time, um, how, what are what are some stories about people and how they have improved because of what you've done from an attitudinal standpoint, because it must be for people who really internalize it. People who go through the program, whether it's just dealing with gait training, or who are going off and playing sports, and we talked about winning and all that but just playing Seeing should be a lot for people, but how have you truly helped people and their attitudes and their outlook on life really improves.   Ross Lilley  50:12 I can tell how they've helped me that what the best part of this is a community that we have a community that claims people for life, you know, if you're if you're part of this community, you're with us, and we'll never let you go. And so I, I am part of that as well, these the my friends, all my friends, and the closest people I have here are those with whom I work and those and the athletes in the program so that you buy you on a Sunday morning. I so as far as athletes go, I hear all the time, people who say, you know, you, you've shown us a different side to our son, or I'm so grateful. One guy you wrote literally said you, you helped us be brave with the wind. I love that one. I was I was teaching on Martha's Vineyard in in someone who just couldn't believe they were out in the water doing this. So I hear that kind of all the time where people come to program and they expect to do something, you know, they they've heard that people could kayak and then and then we try to steer them to something that might be a little bit tougher. And then we know we can have success with and then when we do that, they just can't believe it. They're blown away. Yeah. And so lots of people like that. Which is tougher when surfing or kayaking. Windsurfing, ah. That's why I mean, I guess you can say there are as tough as you want to make them and to go high level on something, but to get involved in independent I think is tougher. But you know, it's also when we can have more success with I'm not as huge a fan of kayaking as I am as the other sports we do them. But the seating alone, because you're long sitting it, it makes your posterior chain really tight, your hamstrings are tight and it and it pulls your pelvis back. So you're kind of in a tough position, and people aren't necessarily as loose as they were if they could sit more upright.   Michael Hingson  52:23 Right? Well, and well, I don't know, I was gonna say, I would think that there are probably more balance issues also, with the board and interacting with the board with windsurfing than there are with kayaking,   Ross Lilley  52:40 right? Where we can, we have all sorts of boards that we've designed where we can be very stable. And you know, we've had people on events on our boards before because we were so confident they weren't gonna fall in, you know, so you can get as stable as you want, and then graduate to less and less stable as you go on. Less, less stable is faster,   Michael Hingson  53:02 yours. Right? Right. Well, for you and all that you've done. Have you ever thought of writing this story, creating a book or anything like that, to help educate more people about what you do and get them to realize that people with disabilities are just the same as everyone else? As I like to say, we need to change the definition because disability does not mean lack of ability.   Ross Lilley  53:31 Yeah. Well, I was hoping I'd meet a best seller author. I did at one point, and then I think it's like an invention that gnaws at you, I gave out, I gave up on it. You know, and I'm not that gifted a writer. So I, when I was in seminary, I took a course at Harvard. And it was on writing in the teacher that, of course, was a friend of mine, who's an editor at The Atlantic Monthly Michael Curtis. And so over the course of 12 weeks, I had one sentence in one paragraph where he said, Good job. But then again, I started writing a book, Cory, more to the point of what you're saying, I started writing a book about our experiences. And he loved it, which really just blew me away that I gotten to the point where this guy would like it, but the process and to come up with stuff would be tough. I think people want you to my advice was a one a more personal stuff than I wanted to give. They want to know about the struggles and how it plays itself out in your marriage and things like that. And I wasn't gonna go that deep into that. I mean, so if they want a little bit of any controversy I could have as well, which I didn't have a ton of.   Michael Hingson  54:55 Yeah, yeah. Everybody seems to like to have controversy and that doesn't necessarily help all I think that the personal aspects telling personal stories can be done without jeopardizing individuals, but the stories and the accomplishments I would think would be very meaningful and make a book like that really be something people would value. Yeah, exactly.   Ross Lilley  55:19 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I mean, and I haven't been that specific with the stories, I think I, I would be better if I had given you some stories of some of these folks. And I was, I was just thinking that there was one guy who had it who had a stroke in his by his late 40s, and came to the program. And, and he used to run, he was a middle distance runner. And we have been working with him on his gait. And we we put him into our sports camp in our Florida sports camp. And he started, he started just blocking things. And by the end of the camp, he was he was running for balls, and even sending balls, he developed a pretty good kick, which was really remarkable. So he's planting with this, this almost straight leg, almost less functional, very less functional than the right leg and his planning on that and kicking and shooting. And so by the end of the camp, he was just so surprised with himself and so grateful for this. Yeah, have you had   Michael Hingson  56:33 people who you worked with, who felt well enough about themselves and who could do it, who went off and maybe found a job or got a job or went back to working because they suddenly realized they could do that?   Ross Lilley  56:49 I wish that were true. But more times than not, it's just it's such a tough nut to crack, right? We've had people go off, we have had people go off and get jobs, and then over time, gave up the jobs because even as they wanted to work, the job was somewhat beneath their skill set. Right that before the before their accident or their injury, they you know, some of these people had pretty high level jobs managers or, or writing code. And then, you know, the focus wasn't thereafter and they were doing things that are overtime seem what menial to him. So, yeah, we haven't had, I mean, we've had success in that people wanted to dream for that kind of thing. And people have more function, and they brought more to the relationships. But as far as jobs goes, I haven't seen a lot of sustainable kind of improvement there. I'm sure you've seen the same thing, right?   Michael Hingson  57:48 Well, I see a lot of it when you know, in the case of blindness, specifically your loss of vision. The fact is that, for the most part, losing eyesight doesn't mean you can't go back and do what you were doing. There are so many people in so many different kinds of jobs, that the proof is really there that you can go back to doing what you did. You've got to learn skills, but you can still do it. There are very few jobs where that really isn't the case. Unfortunately, there are all too many people who think it's not the case. That's what makes the big difference. Yeah, it's still mindset.   Ross Lilley  58:29 And if you were in the workplace, I mean, I I work with people, you know, especially when we have kids on the autism spectrum, we'll work with people until if they will keep coming, we will work with them until they succeed in some form. And I think that Sure, I wish that I wish that were the same in the workplace is to that the upside for this population is so enormous you just are you wish you had that kind of patience in the work in the workplace? Well, I   Michael Hingson  58:54 might be another dimension where you have to involve some other organizations or some other entities to make that happen. Yeah, it isn't like you have to do it all but at the same token you at least start the process so in in the camp in the program obviously you want people to have fun Where does I've got to ask because I always always think about these things where does humor fit into all this   Ross Lilley  59:21 I'm I'm humorless and always appropriate. So I know I'm   Michael Hingson  59:29 it's always one in every crowd   Ross Lilley  59:31 that I know I'm, I'm I'm I guess I would say hi effect. I've been rich, rich asset kind of person. And always looking for the gleam in people's eyes and always requiring that evolve the people that work for us that they they look for the gleam in people's eyes and connect. Yeah, and for me to do that, almost nine times out of 10 takes humor and not in and on the border of appropriateness, whatever it takes to reach people. is part of it. So yeah. And we also don't like to take ourselves too seriously. And so you need humor to help people not take themselves too seriously. And to help people. You know, in our program, there's no tragedy. No one comes in here leave are leaves this place thinking that their lives are tragic. No one allows anybody to feel like that. It's not as it's not overt, but it's just a kind of a sense you have and part of that is laughing at ourselves all the time. You know, I'm, I kind of like the king of self deprecation, and I'm fine with it. If people want to poke fun at me to, to laugh at and to laugh a little bit at the situation. I love it. So   Michael Hingson  1:00:45 which gets us back to our whole issue of winning, right? You're you you can be self deprecating, you can have fun. And as you said, not take yourself too seriously. No, seriously, maybe sort of kind of, but not too seriously, which is really important. Well, I have to say to you, sir, contrary to what you believe, and believed, it has now been an hour that we've been doing this and you didn't think you had a story to tell?   Ross Lilley  1:01:18 I had a story. I didn't know if it's gonna be that interesting. So I'm glad. I'm glad we've made it is 10. Very easy. And you're you're so engaging is great.   Michael Hingson  1:01:26 Well, thank you. Tell me about the name of the program, how people can reach out to learn more about the program. And, of course, being prejudiced about these kinds of things, make donations to the program.   Ross Lilley  1:01:37 So we're Access Sport America and it's our website is access. Access sport America, sport America. Okay. Yeah, so just just two s's in it, but you go, our website is goaccess.org, G O A C C E S S dot org. And you can learn more about us there. And also, if you want to make a donation, you can as well and we're primarily bait boss, Boston based or northeast based in Northeast Ohio, our our programs for schools are, you know, becoming national, we're hoping that we can expand that program and help people in different school systems with that system. And as far as our gait training, go, glad to handle anybody who may be want to come out in the area and work for a little while. Although that takes that takes weeks and weeks. If they had they need to have the wherewithal to do that. But if our fire device is manufacturable that will be on our website and in probably about a year and how to get that.   Michael Hingson  1:02:39 That'll be exciting. Yeah, and again, it's access sport America. ACCE SS p o r t.   Ross Lilley  1:02:47 E S S P O R T. Yes. Yes. Well done.   Michael Hingson  1:02:51 Cool. Well, and if people want to reach out to you, how do they do that? Do they best do that through LinkedIn or?   Ross Lilley  1:02:58 I can write me a Ross at Goaccess.org R O S S at Go. access.org   Michael Hingson  1:03:04 There you go. Well, Ross, Lilly, it has been absolutely fun. And I've learned a lot I am looking forward to somehow getting back that way from out here and getting a chance to meet you and shake your hand in person and go windsurfing.   Ross Lilley  1:03:20 We might do some clinics in California, and if we do we will now   Michael Hingson  1:03:23 we're talking Okay, well, that would be fun. And I'll bring my dog. Yes, please. Of course, cat won't come the dog will. I don't know whether he'll want to windsurf, but you never know. But I want to. I want to really thank you for being here today. And being with us. I think this has been absolutely enjoyable, inspirational and fun. And that's as good as it gets.   Ross Lilley  1:03:52 Thank you. Same here. I wish I had asked you more questions to learn more about you   Michael Hingson  1:03:56 will see now you'd have to start a podcast so you can do that. Pretty sure.   Michael Hingson  1:04:03 Well, I hope you've liked listening to us today. Please reach out. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at MichaelHI at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Visit our podcast page www dot Michael Hingson H i n g s o n.com/podcast. Where you can listen to the podcast or as you may have found us elsewhere. That's okay too. Please give us a five star rating. Like go to apple and iTunes and give us a five star rating. We really appreciate the ratings you give us and any comments and thoughts that you have in Ross, for you and for everyone listening. If you know of anyone else that we ought to have on this podcast, please let us know reach out, let us know or give us an introduction. I would appreciate it we're always looking for interesting, new and fun guests. So please let us know and we'd love to hear hear from you about that. But again, Ross, thank you very much. We really appreciate you being here and anything we can do to make the program successful. We're in. We're wanting to do it. So thank you very much. And we will hopefully do this again, huh? Oh, yes.   Ross Lilley  1:05:14 Oh gosh. Yes.   Michael Hingson  1:05:16 Well, great. Well, thanks again and we hope that you'll continue to listen to podcasts for us.   Ross Lilley  1:05:22 Thank you.   Michael Hingson  1:05:27 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upco

Arthur Levine is a Theme Park Journalist at AboutThemeParks.fun, and has been covering the amusement industry for more than 30 years.  Arthur has regularly contributed to USA Today, About.com, FunWorld, and several other publications where he covers all aspects of theme and amusement parks.  His unique career has taken him all over the world, where he was able to attend the grand opening of Shanghai Disneyland, the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World, and be among the first riders on Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa and Mako at SeaWorld Orlando.  In this interview, Arthur talks about theme park journalism, turning your passion into your career, and blending nostalgia with technology.   Theme park journalism   "I have a responsibility to the parks and to the readers, and I take that very seriously."   The landscape of journalism has changed drastically over the past few decades, and the attractions industry has had to adapt in the way that stories are shared.  While many of the core fundamentals of reporting remain the same, the ability for readers to respond and engage in dialogue has created challenges in today's landscape of social media - including clickbait, gratuitous negativity, and controversy for the sake of controversy.   In response to this, Arthur has launched his own Substack, AboutThemeParks.fun, that allows him to offer a subscription service that avoids many of the challenges listed above.  Both free and paid subscriptions are available, with bonus content made available to paid subscribers.   Turning your passion into your career   “If you can enjoy the work that you're doing, that's a great blessing.”   Arthur has been passionate about amusement parks for as long as he can remember.  As early as two years old, Arthur visited Revere Beach in Massachusetts with his mother and grandmother, and while everyone sat on the beach and looked at the ocean, Arthur faced the other way, enamored by the rides in operation at the park.   Since then, Arthur has covered the theme park industry extensively.  While there are many perks to his career, many people overlook the amount of hard work that go into producing quality content and meeting deadlines.   Blending nostalgia with technology   "There's a deep sense of nostalgia, but there's also a great sense of wonder to experience something new."   One of the reasons people visit amusement parks is to relive memories from their childhood and to share these experiences with their families as they create new traditions.  This creates an opportunity for parks - whether they are trolley parks that opened in 1800s or Disney theme parks - to preserve their heritage for years to come.  It also creates a challenge, considering much of today's consumer demands greater use of technology.   However, much of the industry was founded on the premise of showcasing new technologies that allowed them to wow and awe their guests.  Therefore, when parks embrace new technology, it allows them to maintain their roots of providing cutting edge entertainment to guests. To subscribe to Arthur's substack, visit AboutThemeParks.fun.  You can also follow Arthur on Twitter and Facebook.   To connect with AttractionPros, email us at attractionpros@gmail.com.

GUEST OVERVIEW: Gina Castiello is a grandmother who went from making meatballs to a boots-on-the-ground grassroots political activist fighting for freedom. Once she started going to community meetings, God handed this warrior her instructions. Realizing that her grandchildren's futures were being systematically destroyed by the very people who were supposed to be making them better, she started digging deeper and didn't like what she found. From Boston's Orwellian Human Rights Council to the Boston City Council, she learned who was behind things like flying the Communist China flag on City Hall Plaza (but not a Christian flag) to a sculpture of Baal on Revere Beach, and Gina joined with others to oppose them.

Come join me for a five minute break at the ocean. This sound was recorded at Revere Beach in Revere, Mass. There is no vocal track or guided meditation, just you and the beautiful ocean. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/krystal-einarsson/support

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.comHeaven Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather as your people, to worship you, to hear from your holy scriptures, to hear about the point of life, what is that, to find out about the essentials of life, what are those? Jesus, you came and you told us that the point of life is loving God and loving people. That's how we glorify God. This is how we bear fruit is through our love and our works. Help us understand that there is no such thing as true love, love as you define it in agape love, a sacrificial love unless we meet Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Jesus, we thank you, that you, the God of the universe, you didn't just show us the way, you lived the way, you lived the perfect life of love and obedience, and yet you were crucified.Why? Bearing the penalty for our disobedience, our rebellion, to provide a way for us to be forgiven. We thank you for that. And once we accept that gift of grace, now we understand what love is and now we can be more loving people. Lord, we live in a place where it's hard to love people. These Bostonians, oh my. Lord, give us extra grace. The longer we live here, Lord, the easier it is to be desensitized to people. But I pray today, tenderize our hearts by the power of the gospel. We ask you, Holy Spirit, come into this place, do deep work in our souls and our hearts. Draw us close to yourself, pour out your love into our hearts and make us the people who reflect your love to the watching world. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen.We're pausing our sermon series through the book of Romans for two weeks today, we're going to look at the DNA of this church. Our value is just Love. Jesus. Simple. And next week, we'll talk about what does that mean? How do we work those values out in everything that we do? So today is who we are, next week is what we do as a church. What is Love. Jesus. Simple? It's on everything that you see. When we started the church more than a decade ago, 11 years ago, I knew the difficulty of ... I'm from Rhode Island. I knew the difficulty of starting a church in Boston.There's not many people interested in churches in Boston, statistically speaking, but I knew, okay, if we're going to reach people here and if we're going to do it long term, we need full throttle Christianity. If you're going to go at the greatest enemy, if you're going to go to the hardest place, the darkest place full throttle, just a hundred proof Christianity, I was like, what is the point of Christianity? I spent all my time in seminary trying to figure it out. What is the point? What is at the heart of Christianity? And we summed it up in Love. Jesus. Simple. And it has proved to be that full throttle Christianity that changes even the hearts of people around here.If your vision is for a year, someone said, plant tomatoes. If your vision is for 10 years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people. If your vision is for eternity, plant churches. That's what we're doing here. We started a church and we welcome you into that effort. If you're new or if you're church shopping, I already said this last week, I'll repeat myself again, because I asked the Lord and the Lord said, everyone that shows up today, I'm calling them to stay at Mosaic. So I'm telling you, the Lord told me that you need to come here and join this church and join this effort. Praise God.A word of encouragement to season saints, OG Mosaic members, just a word for you, a word of encouragement. Ministry here is hard. Ministry here feels like building sand castles on Revere Beach. You build a beautiful, you're just there and it's beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, big, beautiful. And then you come back next week, 30% of it is gone. It's been washed away by the transients of the city. It's just gone, just gone. And then you got to keep rebuilding. You got to keep rebuilding. And you're building you're building and it feels like that perpetually. But I'm here to encourage you, dear saints. It's not sandcastles in heaven. These are living stones. Every single soul is a living stone.We minister living souls, eternal souls. And yes, people do move away, but people move away to other parts of the world bringing the gospel. I got a text message two weeks ago as I was meditating on this on a Sunday morning, a pastor, a friend of mine from the North Shore went to plant a church in London. He's planting a church in London and he texts me from London and he's like, "Hey man, there's a beautiful couple from your church that moved to London. And they're one of the core members of our church plant. Thank you so much." And I wrote, "You're welcome. Praise God. Praise God." Yeah, they left. But there's some missionaries. That's what we're doing. And our whole goal with this series to remind you is it's not just about our ministry. It's not about Mosaic. It's about the kingdom of God and our job as the pastors here is to equip you, dear saints, for the work of your ministry.We want your ministry in the gospel to be as fruitful as possible, for your life to be as fruitful as possible. Abiding eternal fruit. This is what we're talking about today. Jeremiah 17:7 through eight. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. 'He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.'"This is what God is calling us to. So our job, as leaders of this church, is to make sure you're rooted in Christ, rooted in the love of Christ. We do everything we can to nurture the trunk, but we're telling you, "Hey, abide in Christ, remain in Christ. And as you do, you will bear fruit." So today we're in John 15:1 through 17. Would you look at the text with me? The words of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the words I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I've called you friends for all that I've heard. From my Father I've made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible authoritative word. May write these eternal truths on our hearts.First, our values, who are we? Love. Jesus. Simple. That's the framework. And then second, mission. What are we calling you to? The mission is love Jesus, love those who love Jesus, and love those who don't yet love Jesus. First is our values. Love. Jesus. Simple. We start with the love part because that's where Jesus Christ started. Jesus Christ comes into not just any old people, he comes into Israel. The people of God, the chosen people of God, these are the people that had all the commandments of God. They had the law of God, they had the holy scriptures, they had the prophets, they had everything. He comes to these people and he realizes that the chosen vineyard of God has not been fruitful. This is why the Messiah had come. He comes to the people of God and he doesn't see fruit. He doesn't see the works in their lives that come from a true abiding faith.So Jesus steps into a very complicated system. People took God's laws, his Ten commandments, and instead of summarizing them, as God had summarized them, to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself. They actually complicated things. They added manmade rules to the word of God. And you had the sadducees, that was the liberal wing and the Pharisees, that was a conservative wing. And then the Herodians who got political, the zealots who just want to kill everybody in the scenes. That's the religious climate. No one knows what's going on. No one understands who God is, what he wants from us. And Jesus Christ shows up and he says, "Hey, you're missing the point, humans. The point of everything is for you to bear fruit for God's glory." So he comes in, this is what he says in verse one of John 15.And you see in the word. He repeats it over and over and over. Fruit, eight times in the text, he says that I'm the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser. So Jesus is saying, not Israel. Israel is not the vine anymore. In the messianic age, Jesus replaces Israel as the vine. Jesus now is the vine. The Father is the vine dresser. And he says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit." And then verse eight, just in case we didn't get the point. "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." That's how we glorify God. "And so prove to be my disciples."Verse 16. And I find this interesting since we just preached on election last three weeks. He says, "This is why I chose you. You didn't choose me. I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." The fruit. Well, one of the problems, and this is why the people of Israel weren't bearing fruit is because the vineyard had become cluttered with manmade things that needed to be pruned away. From the Ten Commandments, the people of Israel, all of a sudden they end up with 613 commandments. Why? Because if you look at the Ten Commandments, why 613, they counted every single one of the letters in the Decalogue, in the Ten Commandments, in the Hebrew and there's 613. They're like we should have 613 rules by which to fence the Ten Commandments.So God said, here's the Ten Commandments. Let's add 600 plus more. So they just gave commandments, 248 affirmative commandments, 365 negative commandments, one for every day of the year. And then everyone just spent their time debating theology, debating divisions and ranking which commandments or which theological work was more accurate from God. And everyone just moved away from scripture. Everyone moved away from the commandments of God. So Jesus comes in. He says like, I'm here to summarize. I am here to distill. I am here to prune. I'm here to get rid of the complexity that is paralyzing you in your worship of God. And Jesus Christ comes and he gives us the great commandment. And he gave us the great commission and he gave us the great compassion. The alliteration shows us that this was written in heaven before the foundation of the world.So at Mosaic, when we talk about love, here's what we mean. We believe that a great church is built when we have a great commitment. To what? The great commandment, the great commission, and the great compassion. This is how Jesus summarized everything. A lawyer came up to Jesus Christ and said the following in Matthew 22:36 through 40. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is a great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.'" The whole thing. This is Jesus Christ explaining. He's like, this is what Christians should value. Love above all else.Is he lowering the standard of the law? No, but he is connecting love and law. He's explaining that the point of the law, the point of everything that God tells us to do, not to do, it's so that we become more loving, so that we become more loving in how God defines what love is. So is he lowering the standard of the law? No, he isn't abolishing it. He says all, everything, the law hangs on this, hangs on love. And what do we mean by love? We live in a culture that's very confused about what it means to love. What is love?Well, Jesus, he defines love as sacrifice, as giving. This is John 15:12 and 13. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than someone laid down his life for his friends." True love leads to great personal sacrifice. And the greatest love leads to greatest personal sacrifice and that's exactly what Jesus Christ did. But when we prepare people for baptism at Mosaic, we want to know that you believe in Jesus Christ, that's very important to us. We want to know that you have a relationship with the Lord, that you have repented of your sin, that you've accepted the grace of God and that you're following Jesus on daily basis. But the way that we explain all that, we ask, why do you love Jesus Christ, if you really know God, if you really believe in God, you love God because you understand what God did to save you.Jesus, I did not fulfill the commandment. Did I love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind? I have not. Have I loved my neighbor as myself perfectly? I have not. I have not. And the longer I live in Boston, I think the harder it gets. That's why I pray. Lord, give me more grace, give me more grace. I don't own a parking spot. I just went through a whole brew ha ha with my neighbors about a parking spot. One of my neighbors let me use his parking spot and it's $300 a month, but I was using it. And the person that owned the parking spot, he didn't like that I was using it. So he called, he got everyone together and they had like a condominium association meeting against me. And I had to pray a lot after.It's hard to love people. It's hard to love people. And Jesus Christ says the way that you love people is recognizing that you did not love God. You did not love your neighbor. You didn't do it perfectly, therefore you need the grace of Jesus Christ. You need to repent of all your sin and trust in Jesus Christ. And once you do, he says, now I'm giving you a great commission. What's the great commission? Is to go and tell people how you found grace. This is the great commission of Matthew 28:18 through 20. "And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold I'm with you always to the end of the age."So Jesus Christ says, once you've received the grace, once you have met Christ, once you have all your sins forgiven, God gives each one of us a job. Once you have received the love of Jesus Christ, we are to extend the love of Jesus Christ to those who don't yet know the Lord. And if you live in the city, most of the people that you know outside of church are not believers. Most of our neighbors, most of our colleagues, most of the people we work with, most of these people do not know the love of Jesus Christ. So this is our job to go, love God, love neighbor. And once you love neighbor, you share the gospel and that's the great commission.And then the great compassion, that we are to be a people who are patterned by the grace of God, by the mercy of God. If we have received mercy for our greatest need, so we want to extend mercy to people in their needs. And this is the great compassion that, if we are truly Christians, we want to meet people's practical needs. This is Matthew 25:34 through 40. "Then the king will say to those on his right", this is at the judgment, "come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison, you came to me.Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and gave you drink? And when do we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when do we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And then the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me." Great commandment, great commission, great compassion. This is what it means to love. This is the focus of everything Jesus did. And this is what Jesus is calling us to. And at the heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ. He's the living word of God.John tells us that Jesus Christ is the word of God. In the beginning, everything was created through him. Nothing was created without him. He is the living word of God. And how do we know about the living word of God? It's attested to in the written word of God. This is why we love holy scripture at Mosaic. We love holy scripture. We believe this is God's word. For as much time as you spend at Mosaic, this is the thing we want to leave you with. We want you to love God's word, know God's word, study God's word. Don't just read books about God's word. Don't just read theology. Don't just read manmade stuff about God's word, read the word itself. And at the center of the word is the gospel of Jesus Christ.Jesus says, "Go and preach the gospel, go and make disciples." And when we do that, Jesus is with us. This is Ephesians 2:17 and 18, Paul writing to the church in Ephesus where Jesus didn't go because Jesus was already in heaven. He says, Jesus came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father." He's saying that Jesus is in the message. When we proclaim the word of God, the gospel of God, Jesus is here with us. And that's why there's resistance to the word of God. This is why there's resistance to preaching the word of God. This is why there's resistance to proclaiming the word of God. This is why there's resistance to you even opening the Bible.How many times in the morning you're like, "Yeah, today I'm going to start reading my Bible. Today, I'm going to open my Bible." You wake up and you're like, let's check the news. Let's check social media. Let me check my phone real quick. Let me do anything other than the Bible. Let me paint my house real quick. Let me go outside and milk the cows. I don't have any cows, but just anything other than the Bible. There's just a resistance to reading god's word. It's spiritual warfare. It's just true. Demons don't want you reading the Bible. Demons don't want you hearing the Bible. Demons don't want you doing anything with the Bible because this is the spirit of God writing this. This is the sword of the spirit, the word of God.So Jesus is with us, that's what he's saying. I am in the proclamation of the message, because Jesus isn't just a historical figure. He's not like Lincoln when we read the Gettysburg Address. He's not like Shakespeare or Tolstoy. Jesus isn't just a historical figure that died and he's gone and all we have is his words. No, Jesus is alive. He's seated at the right hand of God, the Father. By the power of the spirit, we can experience Jesus' presence with us. He's a resurrected Lord. And the gospel is just very simple. The gospel is, we have disobeyed a holy God, our creator, and he didn't leave us in our sin. He sent his son, Jesus Christ and Jesus lived the life that we were supposed to live. And he died to bring us to God, making us his sons and daughters.This is what the gospel is. The gospel is very simple. Christianity, in and of itself in the nutshell, it's very simple. If you are not a Christian, you're not sure if you're a Christian, today, you can become a Christian by trusting in Jesus Christ. Today, you can close your eyes. That's helpful. Close your eyes, and in prayer during the service or after when we worship, you can just pray. Father, forgive me for I have sinned. Father, give me mercy. Father, thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for my sins. Jesus, thank you for not staying dead. Jesus, thank you for being resurrected. Thank you, God, that you are offering to forgive me of all my sins and give me eternal life.It's just that. It really is the greatest news in the history of the universe. There's no greater message. None. Right now, your relationship with God can be restored, reconciled. You can be redeemed. You can be saved from all your sins, damnation, guilt, shame, everything, and you can have the presence of God in your life. That's what it means to experience love. This is what we focus on at Mosaic. This is the power of God, unto salvation is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that's what we mean by love. It's a great commandment and great commission and the great compassion. And Jesus is at the center of it. You can't understand love unless you understand Jesus.What do we mean by the simple part? By the simple part, and we get this from John 15. There has to be a continual pruning process in our own souls, in our own lives and in the life of the church as well. So John 15:1 through three. "I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you."A few things I just want to point out here in the text. Which branch is pruned? Which branch is pruned? He says every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. So if a branch isn't bearing any fruit at all, it's just cut off it. It's people who think they're kind of connected to Jesus Christ. Yeah, I'm kind of Christian, or nominally, I'm a Christian or yeah, I grew up going to church, or yeah, I have family members who are believers, but you don't have a connection to Jesus Christ, your own personal connection. And how do you know if you have a connection to Jesus Christ? Do you bear fruit? Does your life bear fruit? What is that? The fruit of love, loving God and loving people, then obeying the commandments of God. That's what it means to love God. So the branch that doesn't bear fruit, you're just gone.He says every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. So the fruitful branches are the ones that get pruned so that they bear even more fruit. Is the pruning process comfortable? It's not comfortable. When a vine dresser prunes the plant, the plant, I don't know if it feels anything, but the plant isn't enjoying that process. You're cutting pieces of it off. So he's saying in a sense, God sees when a Christian is fruitful and he does send a pruning process to sanctify even more. And if you're a wise Christian, you're like, "Yeah, I don't want the pruning. The pruning's painful. The pruning's painful." You can prune yourself. You can prune yourself. You can look at parts in your life that you need to prune off. How do you do that? How do you know which parts need to be pruned? You look at God's word.And that's why he says in verse three, "Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you." Jesus is saying, "Disciples, I've already taught you my words. You've been pruned with the word of God, therefore you personally don't need pruning." I'm giving you this word as a word for other Christians. That's us. So if you're like, I don't want the pruning process, it's painful. God's going to cut parts of my life out. And so look at God's word, do it yourself so that we don't get to a place like Hebrews 12, where God does discipline those whom he loves.John 15:6. "If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned." There's only two options. Either you're connected to Jesus Christ or you end up in the fire, the fire of damnation. Those are the only options before us. Dear human, dear soul, your eternal soul depends on what you do with Jesus Christ. Will you be connected with him through receiving his grace? If not, you will be cut off. And I don't know if you noticed, there's no third option of, I want to be kind of a Christian. I want to be kind of connected to Jesus. I want to be in the vineyard. I want to be in the vineyard. I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to burn. I just want to be in the vineyard. Being connected to Jesus is too much work. And then he bears fruit through you. I want to bear my own fruit, not his fruit.That's not an option. It's either you're connected to Jesus Christ or you're not. Why do vine dressers prune? They prune the grape vines to obtain maximal yield of high quality grapes. I'm not a botanist, I got this from Wikipedia. But basically what you do is, apparently a grape vine, it can have 200 to 300 buds. And if you don't prune most of them, there's just a diffusion of resources and you don't get the grapes that you're supposed to get. By regulating the total number of buds, one is concentrating growth into the remaining shoots. And this is exactly what we mean by simple at Mosaic. It's like when you do ministry, when you do life, you can get sidetracked. What are we doing here? What are we all about? What are our values as a person, as a family, as an organization, as a church, every once in a while, you got to sit down and as you do the inventory, you say, we have to prune these parts of our life.They're good things, but they're getting in the way of the greatest thing. They're getting in the way of truly doing what God has called us. So this is what we mean by simple at Mosaic. We don't mean mediocre. We don't mean simplistic. We mean essential. We want to focus on the essentials of the faith. Life is short. We don't know how much time we have left. Every opportunity we get, we try to explain to people, the simple, the essential, the profound gospel of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to eliminate the unnecessary, so that necessary may speak.Philippians 1:9 through 11 says, "It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. And so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus to the glory and praise of God." So that you may discern, so that you may approve what is excellent. What is of most excellence and holy? In scripture, this is what we try to focus on. So that's Love. Jesus. Simple in a nutshell. And now what do we do with it? We'll talk more practically about it next week, but here, I just want to point out our job here is to help you grow in your love for Christ, love Jesus. Your love for Christians. Love those who love Jesus and love for those who don't yet love Jesus. And that's so many people around us.First is loving Christ. The thing that we try to really impart to you is how to abide in Christ. And you see this word over and over in John 15:1 through 11. Over 11 times he says, abide, abide, abide. It's the Greek word, meno. What does it mean? It means to remain in, have a vital relationship, reside in, to be connected, to abide. It says in John 15:4, Abide in me and I in you." Verse seven, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." So Jesus says abide in me. That's a personal relationship. He includes abiding in his word in verse three and verse seven. And abiding in his love. And he says, "Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."Anyone ever play the lottery? And you're like, "Yeah, this is a Bible verse, John 15:7. Ask whatever you wish. I'll tithe, Lord, I'll tithe. I promise, post taxes." And that's why you never win. No, that's not what he is getting at, what he's getting at, ask whatever you wish, the wish changes, ask whatever you wish. If you're not abiding in the Lord, the wish is always self-focused ask whatever you wish. If you're abiding in the Lord, if you're in Christ, you want what Christ wants. That's the trick. You're in his heart, he's in your heart. His desire becomes your desire. Father, not my will, but yours be done.This is how we abide to the point where, and this is what God's word is so important. You're saying, if my word abides in you, you abide in me, because if we read God's word, we think God's thoughts after and we learn about his character. And I think one of the reasons why a lot of people have a hard time reading the Bible is because they don't understand that not only is this the word of the living God, and this is how we experience God, this is how we experience his presence and it's living and active, but on top of that, our character is being shaped by the character of God.The more you learn about God and holy scripture, if you do it with an open heart, you begin to change, your character, your desires, your affections, everything begins to change. Two conditions here are given for answered prayer, abiding in Jesus, in his words, abiding in believers. And we are to ask for what God wants. God, what do you want? Well, everything God does, he does for his glory. So this is John 15:8, "By this my Father is glorified." So Father, how can we glorify you? That you bear much fruit and proof to be my disciples. This is how we glorify God.Could you point to fruit in your life? And you say, yes, this is the work of God. It's not our fruit. Our job is just to be connected to Jesus, be as connected to Jesus as possible, be in sync with him, in step with him. And when we are, he bears the fruit through us. And this is how we prove that we are his disciples through this fruit. We're transformed, we're ruined by Jesus' words. He said that in verse three. He said that often John 8:31, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." John 15:9, "Abide in my love." So love for God assumes and leads to obedience to God. That's verse 10. "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."How do you know you're abiding in Jesus? Well, he fills your heart with this love and this joy that he talks about later in verse 11. "These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy maybe full." T.S. Eliot once said, "The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on this belief." And yeah, this is true of all religions, but Christianity is the only religion that calls us to live a life of sacrificial love, like Christ, selfless.This is the most persuasive thing we can offer the world. Who are these people who are living so selflessly, living so lovingly, living and caring about other people. You care about my soul. You care about my needs. This is what makes Christianity so compelling. We do it, not because anyone's forcing us. We're not doing it under compulsion. We're doing it because the love of God motivates us. The love of God compels us. The joy of God is what compels us, moves us.And so here at Mosaic, we do talk about you abiding in the Lord. How can we help you abide in the Lord? And we start with the basics where it's like, hey, you got to get time on your calendar for God. You just got to block off significant time to spend with God, every day. I would say at least an hour. If you're new to the city, two hours, you need two hours, two hours with God. One hour in the morning, one hour in the evening. Just block it off. Where it's you, get on your knees or however you choose to pray. Go on your knees. The longer you're in Boston, the more humble you are in your physical posture of praying. On your faith, just, Lord, help. And you open up the holy script. You pray. And you're like, Lord, fill my heart. I am empty. I'm just dry. There's nothing inside, Lord.The way I do it, I've got scripture open. I read scripture and I pray through scripture. I study scripture and this is the way I get scripture in me. I'm abiding. I pray, Lord, what are you teaching me? Lord, what do you speaking? And then I turn on, I've got a boombox. I put it right next to my window and I blast worship music. I just blast it. I hold my worship services in my basement where my other neighbors can't hear me.If I get really rambunctious, I go to my roof and I just blast it and that's how I fight Satan. My worship is my warship. That's how I think. Worship is war. I'm fighting demons. So you just spend significant time in the Lord. I tell people, you need quantity time to spend quality time. You don't know when the Spirit's going to move you, but you got to block time off. And then you got to develop because life is very busy and everyone here is very busy. You got to develop a way of abiding in the Lord as you go through life. This is praying without ceasing. This is like, no matter what you're doing, no matter where you are, you're just connected to God. You're with the Lord.I'm driving yesterday. We're driving to a wedding in Cape Cod. I'm about to get on Route 90 and we're supposed to go on 90 east to go 93. And then, oh, and whenever we drive, we always pray in the beginning and it was my turn to pray. So I was just praying. I was praying until Route 90. I was just going, I was just going because my whole family's very quiet when I pray. So I'm like, I'm just going to keep praying. And all of a sudden, instead of going 90 east, I go 90 west and my wife was like, "Whoa, what are you doing? Did you get lost in your prayers?" I was like, "No, I'm praying without ceasing." And as I'm driving because I was like, "We go 90 west because I got to take 95 because I hate 93. So there is a sense where it's like, no matter what I'm doing, wherever you are, there's a contemplative sense where I am in the spirit. No matter what the Lord is doing, there isn't abiding sense.You do have to develop this contemplative spirituality if you're going to make it in Boston because a lot of people move to the city and they study. They know scripture. They know theology. All people want to do is intellectually understand everything. They know all the answers. Intellectually, you know more about God than a lot of people. But spiritually and emotionally, there's no inner life of affection toward the Lord and this is what we try to awaken in you. A walk with the Lord that's abiding in him, developing a balanced, harmonious rhythm where you do take time, solitude and silence to be with God, positioning yourself, to remember who he is and what he's called us to do. And then the spirit bears fruit through us.Galatians 5:22 through 23. "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." It's the fruit of the spirit. Love. Love in us, it's not ours. This is the love. The love we're talking about is a supernatural love. That's a gift of the spirit. The joy like everything's all right with God, that's a gift of the spirit. This peace, serenity, it's a gift of the spirit. Kindness, a sense of compassion in the heart. Goodness, a conviction that basic holiness permeates everything. Faithfulness, you're loyal to all your commitments. Gentleness, no need to force your way in life. And self-control, you're able to marshal and direct your energies wisely. And to what degrees are these a reality in your life? Which of these do you need to work on and say, Lord, I need more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.In John 15:9, Jesus says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." I've been at the church for a while, one of the things I love more than anything is seeing people transformed, just transformed. We have people show up. I'm thinking of one particular gentleman that I'm missing in particular today. Peter on the drums, think of Peter. He's gone. Is he here? He left last week. Peter. Peter and I have a very good relationship so I can share this story.Peter, when he got here four years ago, he came to my community group. He knew nothing. He talked more than anyone, but he knew nothing. That was Peter. That was four years ago. He would sleep through the sermons. He would sit in the back. He would just sleep through the whole thing. And after a while, after a while, after a while he started paying attention and Peter became one of, and I miss him, that's why I say. He's one of the choice members, servants of the church, love God, theology, just serving with everything. That man is a completely different creature. What happened to him? It was the grace of God. It was the grace of God and the ministry of this church. And I've seen that over and over and over. So if you're new, if you're looking for the church, you will be transformed by the word of God. If you come here, you will be transformed by the people of God. You will be transformed by the spirit of God.Oh, here's what else, and you will find your true self, apart from knowing God, you don't really know yourself because we live in a world where everyone around us is telling us who we are. And we listen to everyone around us instead of listening to our creator. And everyone around us shapes an old self or a false self or a sinful self. And it's only God who can show us who the real, like I've created you to be like this. Ephesians 4:22 through 24, "Put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupted with deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after a likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." There has to be the sanctification to this new self. This is the person that God has created me to be.Augustine wrote in his confessions in AD 400. He said, "How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?" And he prayed, "Grant, Lord, that I may know myself, that I may know thee." A Dominican writer from the 13th century, Meister Eckhart wrote, "No one can know God who does not first know himself." St. Teresa of Avila wrote in The Way of Perfection, "Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from a lack of self-knowledge." And this is what John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, which every Christian should read, says, "Our wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two proceeds and gives birth to the other."The way that you find yourself, your true self is to find God, to find yourself in God. So we're called the love Christ, abide in Christ. And as we do, Christ calls us to love other Christians, love those who love Jesus. And this is verse 12. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know his master's doing, but I've called you friends. For all that I've heard from my Father, I've made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."One of the ways that we bear fruit is by loving other Christians. He's talking to a group of Christians, talking to the disciples and he says, I want you to love one another, your siblings in the spiritual family of God. We have to love one another. And there's a reason why he has to say that. Just like there's a reason I got to tell my daughters, "Hey, can you guys just love one another?" I got to tell them that because they forget. And I think we as Christians, we forget as well that God has called us love. He commands us to love because he understands it's difficult to love. There come times where you need to be reminded that volitionally you are to choose to love a person. We need Christians. And Jesus Christ tells this to disciples who are in community. And Jesus tells us in the great commission that he will be with us together to the end of the age.Matthew 28:20 behold. I'm with you, plural, always to the end of the age. That power of the great commission is found when Christians together are on mission, doing the work that God has called us to do. And I say that because we live in a society where 80% of Christians in the United States think they can have a healthy relationship with God without the local church. Well, this just isn't the case. God tells us that we are to be baptized into the church. God is Father. And in a sense, church is mother as the early church fathers said that we need the church. We need brothers and sisters in our lives to walk on this mission together.And what's that mission? It's love those who don't yet love Jesus Christ. We, as an organization, we don't just exist for ourselves. We don't just exist for the members of this church. We exist for those who don't yet know Jesus Christ. That's why we're here. This is why we're doing everything we're doing. We love the Lord. We love his word. We love his spirit. We worship him. We love one another, doing the best we can there. And when we sin, we repent. And we do all this so that the world will see our love for one another and come to Christ. This is John 13:34 through 35. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." By this. This is how the word, this is the greatest apologetic that we have, that the world, non-Christian see our love for one another. It's a supernatural love, an inexplicable love, but it's a love that God pours into our hearts.If you are not a Christian today or if you're not sure if you're a Christian, if you'd like to commit your life to Christ or recommit your life to Christ, we'd love to talk to you. We're going to start something new after the service, Pastor Randy will be up here. So if you have any questions about the faith or if you want to pray to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, after the service, Pastor Randy will be up here. And do let us know, maybe on the connection card as well and then we'll talk about next steps in terms of baptism.I close with this. Carl Barth was one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, Swiss theologian, who was considered the most outstanding and consistently evangelical theologian of the 20th century. Some would say he is the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas, who knows is commentary in the epistles of Romans, massive, transformed theology of the 20th century. He was giving a lecture at Princeton at the end of his career, Princeton Seminary, giving this lecture. And this is the guy, he's a genius.He writes things that you're like, what does that even mean? For example, he said, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." What he is saying is pray, that's good. And then he says, "Faith is all in the presence of the divine incognito. It is the love of God that is aware of the qualitative difference between God and man and God and the world." Why? "The gospel is not a truth among the truths, rather it sets a question mark against all truths."Okay, great. Genius, genius. And he goes to the Princeton and someone at the end of his lecture is like, "Carl Barth, you've read so much, you know God's word. You've thought about God for a long time. If you could summarize everything that you have learned, what is the greatest thing that you have learned, and you could just leave this for us, what would it be?"And Carl Barth, this is what he said. He said, "The greatest thing I've learned in all my years of studies is that Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so." This is what we're all about. This Love. Jesus. Simple. We get up and preach the word. What we're just telling you is, man, there's nothing like a relationship with Jesus Christ that satisfies the soul. And there's no other greater purpose, there's no greater meaning, there's no greater truth, there's no greater beauty, there's no greater glory, there's no greater anything than loving Jesus Christ. And as you love Jesus Christ, you realize, God loves me this much, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins to give me grace, to save me so that I can be transformed into the likeness of his son.I'll close with lyrics from ... John Newton at the end of his life, he was asked, all right, your memory's fading. What would you leave? And he said, "Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior." Amen. That's all we're about.Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you for this message from John 15. We thank you for the reminder to abide in you. And Lord, we pray that you give us grace to abide in you. Whatever's in the way of our remaining in you, being connected to you, I pray right now, remove any of that sin, any doubt. And I pray that you clear that connection, prune away everything that's in the way and make us truly fruitful people for your glory and our joy. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Ramiro took center stage over the weekend, he was the host of the Revere Beach Sand Sculpture competition.

The theme for 2022's competition "Wonders of the World," challenged sculptors to create world-class pieces of art from just grains of sand. WBZ's Brooke McCarthy reports.

Plus, a puppet show about found family for the kiddos.

Jordan Rich fills in on NightSide:Kelly's Roast Beef opened over 70 years ago on Revere Beach and quickly became a staple in the Greater Boston area. After much success from opening 4 additional locations on the North Shore, the company has decided to start franchising. Do you think other states will welcome Kelly's with open arms? Jordan discusses how over the course of time we've seen some franchises take off and others fall short…

Jordan Rich fills in on NightSide:Kelly's Roast Beef opened over 70 years ago on Revere Beach and quickly became a staple in the Greater Boston area. After much success from opening 4 additional locations on the North Shore, the company has decided to start franchising. Do you think other states will welcome Kelly's with open arms? Jordan discusses how over the course of time we've seen some franchises take off and others fall short…

Jordan Rich fills in on NightSide:Kelly's Roast Beef opened over 70 years ago on Revere Beach and quickly became a staple in the Greater Boston area. After much success from opening 4 additional locations on the North Shore, the company has decided to start franchising. Do you think other states will welcome Kelly's with open arms? Jordan discusses how over the course of time we've seen some franchises take off and others fall short…

Hi there, Welcome! Today I am arts calling Kevin Carey! About Kevin: Kevin Carey is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University. He has published five books – a chapbook of fiction, The Beach People from Red Bird Chapbooks (2014) and three books of poetry from Cavankerry Press, The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) and Set in Stone (2020) and a new crime novel Murder in the Marsh from Darkstroke Books. His one-act plays have been staged at The New Works Festival in Newburyport, MA and The New Hampshire Theater Project and his co-written screenplay Peter's Song (with Ed Boyle) won Best Screenplay at the 2009 New Hampshire Film Festival and Best Drama at the Woods Hole Film Festival. Kevin's full-length play, The Stand or Sal is Dead, premiered at the Actor's Studio in Newburyport, MA in June of 2018. Kevin is also a documentary filmmaker. His latest co-produced film (with Mark Hillringhouse and music by RG Evans) Unburying Malcolm Miller premiered at the Mass Poetry Festival in 2017. His short fiction can be found in several literary journals, including his short story “Home for the Holidays” which appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of The Apple Valley Review and was included in the Best of the Net Anthology and selected as one of the story South Million Writers top ten online stories of 2011. The Apple Valley Review, Kevin was also a 7th-grade basketball coach for nineteen seasons before stepping down a couple of years ago. (Photo by Mark Hillringhouse). Visit Kevin's website, https://kevincareywriter.com, for updates and more projects! Purchase Kevin's novel, Murder in the Marsh, now on Amazon! Stop by Molecule, a Tiny Lit Mag! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro at cruzfolio.com. If you like the show: consider reviewing the podcast and sharing it with those who love the arts, your support truly makes a difference! Check out cruzfolio.com for more podcasts about the arts and original content! Make art. Much love, j

In the last week there have been dozens of juvenile arrests for fighting at various local beaches including Hampton Beach in NH, Revere Beach and Carson Beach in South Boston. This past Saturday a riot broke out at Hampton Beach where local police had to call in other police from surrounding towns to disperse the massive crowd of juveniles who were fighting. When hearing about these incidents does it give you pause? Will you rethink heading to your local beach to avoid the hassle?

The State Police Association of Massachusetts issues a statement in response to the unruly crowds at Revere Beach. A group of neighbors on Cape Cod are fighting to preserve a cranberry bog after the property was purchased. Global health officials are carefully keeping their eyes on the number of Monkey-Pox cases. Five minutes of news that will keep you in "The Loop."

Thousands of people swarmed Revere Beach in Revere and Carson Beach in South Boston — State Police said 17 people were arrested in total.WBZ's James Rojas has more:

Large crowds at Revere Beach are ignoring the beach's eight-thirty P.M. closing time. One Woman killed and another two injured when a car crashed into the Byfield greenhouse and Garden Center yesterday afternoon. A movie is being filmed over the Tobin Bridge this afternoon and there are expected delays in traffic. Five minutes of news that will keep you in "The Loop."

Mass State Police are increasing their presence at Revere Beach as large crowds are expected this weekend. The Archdiocese of Boston welcomes seven men into the ranks of the Catholic priesthood. A driver at the Wrentham Outlets has some trouble navigating the parking lot last night. Five minutes of news that will keep you in "The Loop."

As the crafting got underway, kite-enthusiasts were surrounded by live music and local vendors, to kick off the season on the first public beach in the United States. WBZ's Brooke McCarthy reports.

A large fight broke out near the bandstand on Revere Beach Boulevard at 5 p.m. Saturday evening, with several hundred people gathered in the vicinity. WBZ's Carl Stevens reports.

Have you ever wondered where the relaxing sounds you listen to come from.  When you take this Journey of Relaxation with me you will know exactly where and when it was recorded.These relaxing sounds are coming to you from Revere Beach on July 29, 2021 at 10:00 am.Sandy Beach with airplanes overhead.Go see the pictures at Journeyofrelaxation on TikTok, Instagram, FB and YouTube.Please help more people find this by rating or reviewing and liking or sharing with your friends.New intro Support the showTake a moment to find the beauty of nature every day,Duchess of the DunesTikTokFacebookYouTube

Officials say potential foster parents can be single, married, partnered, divorced, or widowed and live in either rented or owned housing. WBZ's Brooke McCarthy reports.

Listen, we get it. These are stressful times. Sometimes we need to break up the doom and gloom with some #GOODCRIMES. This week, Rachel tells the story of the Million Dollar Mermaid, Annette Kellermann. Annette was born in Australia in the late 1800's. As a child, she suffered from polio. Her father got her to start swimming as a way to build up her strength. By the time she was a teenager, Annette was winning swimming competitions. She became a famous professional swimmer and film actress. One day when Annette showed up to Revere Beach in Boston, Massachusetts she was arrested for wearing a (gasp) one piece swimsuit?! Next, Nathalie tells us the story of Miriam Rodriguez. Miriam's daughter was kidnapped by the cartel. Miriam did everything she could to pay the ransom, including borrowing money from friends and family. Unfortunately, she would never see her daughter alive again. Miriam made it her life's passion to track down the men involved in her daughter's murder. She used fake IDs and disguises to spy on the men, she would then turn them into the police. Miriam helped other families with missing children until she was killed by the cartel on the day Mexico celebrates Mother's Day. Rachel's Sources: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kellerman-annette-1886-1975 https://www.boston.com/news/history/2015/07/02/this-womans-one-piece-bathing-suit-got-her-arrested-in-1907 https://www.garnethill.com/threadsbygarnethill/2017/05/12/century-swim-evolution-swimsuit/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/18081/body-odor-through-ages-brief-history-deodorant https://www.ishof.org/assets/1907-the-arrest-of-annette-kellerman.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Mermaid Nathalie's Sources https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/world/americas/miriam-rodriguez-san-fernando.html https://www.insider.com/mexico-mother-took-down-the-drug-cartel-who-murdered-her-daughter-2020-12

Join Sam Futrell as she interviews professors Dr. Mark Herlihy and Dr. Elizabeth Matelski about the historical implications of the Salem Witch Trials. Together, we explore the social, cultural, and political causes of the Salem Witch Trials (SWT), discuss the major players in the SWT and seventeenth-century Puritanism. We'll also talk about the significant effects of the SWT, including how the SWT serves as an archetype for mob mentality and the oppression of marginalized groups in both literature and history. And of course, we'll share ideas/strategies for how educators can use/teach the Salem Witch Trials in their classrooms Dr. Mark Herlihy started at Endicott in 2001 as an Assistant Professor of History. He teaches "Salem Witch Trials," "Boston History," "Public History," and "American Suburbia," among other courses. He has presented papers at meetings of the American Studies Association, the Organization of American Historians, and at the Massachusetts Historical Society's Boston Immigration and Urban History Seminar. He is completing a book on the history of Revere Beach. Dr. Herlihy has been very active in the New England Historical Association and served a term as President of the organization. A native of Winchester, Massachusetts, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at Tufts University and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in American Civilization at Brown University. Dr. Matelski is a New England transplant from the upper Midwest. Her teaching interests include American multiculturalism, popular culture, and incorporating digital technologies into the history classroom. In addition to teaching American history, she also created the Public History concentration for Endicott`s history majors. She is currently editing a book chapter on global beauty culture and conducting research for a book on Robin Mingo, an enslaved Black man after whom Mingo Beach is named. Resources: UVA: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html Margo Burns: http://www.17thc.us/ Peabody Essex Museum: https://www.pem.org/the-salem-witch-trials-1692-past NEH Summer Seminars: https://www.neh.gov/divisions/education/summer-programs

The Vault of Silliness has produced a tape labeled July 20th and 21st , 1996, though it was ‘Friday night,’ Norm was on at midnight so it’s Saturday morning the 21st. Now that I’ve bored you with that info let’s move on. I’ll call this episode, “Talk and Callers.” I found this a great example of a ‘regular’ Norm Show. No Dumb Birthday Game. Just talk and callers. Tom Howie is producing. We begin with Norm and I hanging out and talking about the 100th Anniversary of Revere Beach – The Nation’s First Public Beach. There are references to the first guest, Edward Maeder, who was the Director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. The show comes full circle at the end when a caller talks about the guest as well. Unfortunately, the interview was not included here. Darn it! This is one of those times (and there’ll be many more) where I wish I had access to the WBZ logger tapes to comb through them and extract these interviews. Somehow, talk of Revere Beach and shoes leads to stand-up comedy and particularly a comedian whom Norm really enjoyed, the late Richard Jeni. Then we move on to water quality and back to Revere Beach where Norm recalls, with great detail, a life-changing experience he had there. You won’t want to miss that. Then we move on to Ruth (“Dave Maynard’s Ruth’). She and Norm discuss a variety of topics including the WBZ Farmstand, which was being held a week later than usual due to the party being planned for WBZ’s 75th Anniversary. And Norm discloses his secret energy booster he used in his boxing days that prepared him for 15 rounds of heavyweight battle. We also learn that for all the traveling Dave Maynard would do and advertise Norm Nathan, that’s right – Norm Nathan was heading up a cruise to Bermuda! Stay tuned to hear the commercial promo for that later in the program. Bob in Pennsylvania talks road construction history. We have a caller who’s owned a barbershop for 32 years in downtown Boston. The tape then moves to side B and later in the morning. The exuberant David from Weymouth with a great story. Lisa who’s interested and frustrated by computers. Norm tells a sweet story about visiting Italy. Anne from Lowell sings a song. Norm does some on-air editing of two news briefs. And Norm’s new best friend, Tom, wraps up the night with fun call. We close with a little news from Bill Lawrence on the ’96 Olympics. Commercials featured: WBZ Traffic on the 3’s Promo Lippincott Dental with a weird offer Majesty Cruise Lines and their Jazz and Blues Cruise to Bermuda with Norm! A TV Guide subscription spot with a bonus gift that may be too had to pass up! And speaking of passing…a commercial for the Cremation Society of Massachusetts. Did I make an ash of myself with that joke? Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that broadcasting is for casual, silly people and Norm is a very serious person who should not be in broadcasting. Thank you. Email the show normnathanvos@gmail.com Castos https://norm-nathans-vault-of-silliness.castos.com Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/norm-nathans-vault-of-silliness/id1539251258 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/74Z2CAH

Hoy en el show hablamos de Revere Beach, Banana Boat y los parquimetros nuevos sobre el boulevard de la playa que genero rechazo en la comunidad que usualmente frecuentan la primera playa publica del país.

Listen, we get it. These are stressful times. Sometimes we need to break up the doom and gloom with some #GOODCRIMES. This week, Rachel tells the story of the Million Dollar Mermaid, Annette Kellermann. Annette was born in Australia in the late 1800's. As a child, she suffered from polio. Her father got her to start swimming as a way to build up her strength. By the time she was a teenager, Annette was winning swimming competitions. She became a famous professional swimmer and film actress. One day when Annette showed up to Revere Beach in Boston, Massachusetts she was arrested for wearing a (gasp) one piece swimsuit?! Next, Nathalie tells us the story of Miriam Rodriguez. Miriam's daughter was kidnapped by the cartel. Miriam did everything she could to pay the ransom, including borrowing money from friends and family. Unfortunately, she would never see her daughter alive again. Miriam made it her life's passion to track down the men involved in her daughter's murder. She used fake IDs and disguises to spy on the men, she would then turn them into the police. Miriam helped other families with missing children until she was killed by the cartel on the day Mexico celebrates Mother's Day. Rachel's Sources: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kellerman-annette-1886-1975 https://www.boston.com/news/history/2015/07/02/this-womans-one-piece-bathing-suit-got-her-arrested-in-1907 https://www.garnethill.com/threadsbygarnethill/2017/05/12/century-swim-evolution-swimsuit/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/18081/body-odor-through-ages-brief-history-deodorant https://www.ishof.org/assets/1907-the-arrest-of-annette-kellerman.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Mermaid Nathalie's Sources https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/world/americas/miriam-rodriguez-san-fernando.html https://www.insider.com/mexico-mother-took-down-the-drug-cartel-who-murdered-her-daughter-2020-12

And then we got it all wrapped up and out to you on the 28th. Close enough. We discuss the finer things in life, like Detroit-Style Pizza, the KFC Yule Log, and bands with names based on Appetizers. We recorded this Christmas episode on 12/20/20. 

The show this week is all about Wonderland, the early 20th century amusement park at Revere Beach. Dr. Stephen Wilk has deeply researched the investors and entrepreneurs who bought 27 acres of land along Revere Beach Boulevard and opened the park; the inventors behind rides like Shoot the Chutes, Hell’s Gate, and Love’s Journey; and the people who ran attractions like a firefighting demonstration, a wild west show, and a model Japanese village. His new book Lost Wonderland: The brief and brilliant life of Boston’s million dollar amusement park reveals all of that, as well as changes in the broader economy that doomed Wonderland nearly from the beginning. After opening in 1906, the park went through periods of success and bankruptcy in a meteoric run that lasted just four short years, while leaving a major cultural impression on the Boston area, and Revere in particular. Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/210/ Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small reports.

WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small reports.

Restaurants along Revere Beach Boulevard are delivering more following a spike in positive coronavirus cases in the city. WBZ NewsRadio's Jim Mackay reports.

Restaurants along Revere Beach Boulevard are delivering more following a spike in positive coronavirus cases in the city. WBZ NewsRadio's Jim Mackay reports.

This week on OA on Air, it's a Revere Takeover! Yeah, we're talking all things Revere. In 3-2-1 GO with Cosmo Macero and Cayenne Isaksen they speak with Brian Calabro Property Manager of 500 Ocean Avenue in Revere and Michael Aldi founder of Dryft, an exciting new restaurant on Revere Beach. In addition, Cosmo and Cayenne gift us with some fun Revere facts. PLUS, Cosmo speaks with the Mayor of Revere Brian M. Arrigo. In 2 Minutes with Tom, Tom discusses how the blue line expansion will only help to serve Revere going forward.

On August 8, 1920, an epic brawl broke out on Revere Beach when police attempted to arrest a group of four disorderly sailors. In the chaos that followed, 400 sailors attempted to storm the police station to free their comrades, even stealing rifles from the beachfront shooting galleries and turning them against the police. Soldiers from nearby Fort Banks had to be called out to restore order at the point of a bayonet. It was the height of Revere Beach’s early 20th century popularity, when it was seen as Boston’s Coney Island, with roller coasters, restaurants, and dance halls lining the beach just north of the city. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/092/

We’re taking you to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. 111 years ago, champion swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested on Revere Beach. Her crime? Appearing in public in a one piece bathing suit of her own design. Along with being a record setting swimmer, Kellerman was a fitness and wellness guru, a vaudeville producer, movie actress, and a clothing designer. Besides her athletic prowess, she was known for her physical beauty, appearing in Hollywood’s first nude scene. A Harvard professor would go so far as to claim that he had scientific proof that she was “the most beautifully formed woman of modern times.” Puritanical Boston wasn’t prepared to see the exposed arms of such a specimen, so Kellerman was arrested for indecent exposure. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/082

Producer ETIENNE CHTCHEGLOV of The JACKSON C FRANK Documentary www.jacksoncfrank.com with DENA CUTULLE andThe COACH as HIMSELFBLUES RUN THE GAME JACKSON C FRANKOOH LA LA GOLDFRAPPPORK CHOP EXPRESS JOHN CARPENTERwww.armedradioglobal.com

Producer ETIENNE CHTCHEGLOV of The JACKSON C FRANK Documentary www.jacksoncfrank.com with DENA CUTULLE andThe COACH as HIMSELFBLUES RUN THE GAME JACKSON C FRANKOOH LA LA GOLDFRAPPPORK CHOP EXPRESS JOHN CARPENTERwww.armedradioglobal.com

Show Recap: It is Valentines day and we talk about how much of a shitty holiday it is and how friend of the show Eric Danger Powers is getting is pickle wet. Arty talks about how he hates the phone and rather just text message the world. Adam talks about this idiot kid who is on youtube who predicts the future. Tramp stamp tattoos on guys, Hampton and Revere Beach. Cable is even and Adam explains how he lives without. This show is brought to you by The Pack [dot] Com http://www.ThePackie.com for all your sports, entertainment and drinking needs, 84 Entertainment - www.84ent.com and Whirl Wind Reports, AKA the poor mans Packie, whirlwindreports.com

The Great Maritini just received another great 5 star review on Amazon - "What a wonderful little book about the magic that happens when we take time to care about others." Click here to get your copy. Today's episode is a bit different. We will be talking to Michelle Vattula, a children's author who's first book will debut in the Spring of 2019. We will talk to Michelle about her soon to be released book Stalking Seagulls, the process of getting a children's book published, Finland and aggressive seagulls on the Revere Beach. Trust us, you will love getting to know Michelle. Click here to visit Michelle's web site

The beach is the last place I personally go for family fun during the summer. Sure, the ocean is beautiful and there is always endless people watching at the beach, but sitting on a blanket, melting in the sun is not my idea of a fun day. So, when I partnered up again this summer with Fidelity and MEFA to cover one of their UFund Dream Tour stops I’m not sure why I chose the Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival. I mentioned to our neighbors that we’d be going to this and they asked if they could come along. When I told them why I was going she chimed in, “Oh I love MEFA. I use to listen to their webinars during my lunch breaks to learn about how to pay for my son’s college. Plus, whenever I have a question they answered me.” That is a true and unpaid for statement. I had to include it because I think it sums up the experience a lot of people have had when interacting with these organizations. We arrived joking that none of us had been to Revere Beach in over twenty years so we didn’t know what to expect. The beach and the surrounding area sure have been developed and improved over the years. It was the perfect location to showcase the mind boggling creativity and artistry of what someone can do with a pile of sand. Nothing I’ve ever made out of sand at at the beach has come close to what was on display. The variety in topics and themes on display covered everything from the abstract to the absurd. There was political commentary and issue awareness mixed in with pure imagination. The official sculpture of the festival focused on the evolution of technology and I loved that in addition to being a beautiful sculpture that they worked technology directly into it. As you can see on the phone in this photo they were showing real time updates of photos people were posting to Instagram. It took the idea of sand art to a whole new level. Among all the vendors taking part in the fun, was the bright blue big top covered in sheep and clouds. This of course was the U.Fund Dreams Tour tent. Kids and adults alike were having fun and learning about saving for college at the same time from the always smiling staff. They still have several events that they will be at this summer, so check their events calendar to find one near you. Disclosure: I have partnered with Fidelity & MEFA in support of the U.Fund Dreams Tour. As always, all thoughts, opinions and photographs are my own.