Oct. 4, 2026

The ATALopez Foundation | Local Leaders: The Podcast

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In this episode of Local Leaders the Podcast, Jim Chapman sits down with Paije Lopez, founder of non-profit "The ATALopez Foundation to discuss what she is doing in Livingston Parish and surrounding areas to work with those who have been diagnosed with Autism and other disabilities.

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Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Local Leaders, the podcast.

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Super proud and happy today to welcome a guest to

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the show that has a nonprofit here in the Livingston

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Parish area that, look, you would have to live under

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a rug or something if you're not at least familiar

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with the name. So I'm going to let her introduce

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herself today and name of her charity.

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Thank you for having me. I am Paige Lopez, the

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founder and CEO of the ATA Lopez Foundation.

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Yes, very familiar with that. As a matter of fact,

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I seeked out Paige, if you will, because I had

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heard about this wonderful nonprofit. And I thought it was

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important that we feature something on the show that.

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You know, there's levels to that. And there's a lot

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of nonprofits out there that people are super familiar with.

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Yours is kind of getting in that category now. It

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seems like it's everywhere. But I had not done a

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podcast about it yet. So I seeked you out, asked

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you to come on the show. You were gracious enough

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to do so. So I want to learn all about it. First,

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tell me a little bit about yourself.

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So I am from Queens. Livingston Parish, born and raised here.

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All right. I am married and do have three kids.

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They are kind of the background of the foundation.

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Yeah.

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Three boys.

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Yeah. Three boys.

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Three boys. Yep. They're pretty amazing.

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I bet they are. And, you know, Paige, at some

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point you started this nonprofit and there was a reason

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for that. I want to get into what led you

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to the route where this became something you were interested

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in doing?

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Yeah, absolutely. So all three of my boys do have

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special needs. So whenever we started navigating the different diagnoses

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and trying to learn what was actually out there for

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our boys, we were discovering that there is a lot

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of things that aren't actually available. So me founding this

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foundation was to help other families fill in those gaps

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that are missing.

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Give me some examples of that, some things that aren't available.

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In the school systems, not knowing exactly what is available

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for your children, such as IEPs and 504s and all

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of those things. Waiver services was something we were not

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familiar with at the time. Didn't even know that that

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was an option. Simple services like you can actually get

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pull-ups through your insurance company once your child turns three.

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You know, different things like that. And just honestly feeling very,

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very alone and not having that guidebook, per se, to

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kind of help you walk through all of this. And honestly,

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there's kind of some grief that comes with getting a

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new diagnosis because you're worried. You don't know... you don't

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know what the future is going to look like, you know,

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for your kids. And it's just, it's, it can be

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a very overwhelming experience for a lot of people. And

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I know it was for us in the beginning. And

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so we just kind of wanted to be that helping

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hand and show families, you know, how to navigate things.

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And we also wanted to make more inclusive community events

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and play dates so that everybody could just get together and, um,

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Nobody feel excluded.

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Yeah. And I think you said a key word there

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was there was a point where you felt kind of alone,

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kind of on an island. Right. And you're trying to

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navigate all of this. And now when you say special needs,

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of course, that's very broad.

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Right.

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Is it autism specifically or, you know, I'm sure your

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your nonprofit deals with all kinds of different special needs.

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But what specifically is. is it that got you on

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this path?

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So the initial diagnoses were autism.

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Okay.

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So all three of my boys do have autism. Um,

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they're actually the name of the foundation. So a for

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Aiden T for Tony and a for Adrian. Um, so again,

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you have all three of them have autism. Um, My

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oldest kind of has a grocery list of diagnoses.

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Yeah, there's a lot of.

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There's a lot. Then, you know, my middle son has

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a ultra-rare genetic condition, which is a mouthful, I don't

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know what to say.

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Yeah, well, that's how ultra-rare works.

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Yeah, and then my youngest is nonverbal.

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Yeah, so it totally makes sense that you would... feel

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like there's got to be something out there, that there's

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got to be other moms and dads going through this

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that are in situations like this. They don't really have

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anywhere that's obvious that they can turn. So you did

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something that I always find with leaders when I'm on

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this show. And you said, well, if it doesn't exist,

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I'm going to make it exist.

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Absolutely.

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You took the first step, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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It didn't just stop at an escaping thought in your

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head that there needs to be something like that. You

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took it the next step and said, I'm going to

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find out what I need to do to make that happen.

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And that's huge. That's a big sign of a leader.

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Yeah, I really started noticing too, online, how many families

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were just going on social media and venting and lost

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and I started getting a lot of people reaching out

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to me about kind of how, you know, what they

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should do, what's the next steps. They have concerns that

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their child might have autism. What should they do? So

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the more I saw, the more it just really kept

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fueling my fire to make something out of this.

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It's a lot of work.

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It is a lot of work.

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And I can imagine at the beginning, and I have...

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never tried to start a nonprofit, but it's not like

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starting a business where you can just go on the

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Secretary of State site and start your business and boom,

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you're off. It's a process and it should be because

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they want to, from a governmental standpoint, I would imagine

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they're wanting to weed out people just looking for like

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a tax break. And so it should be somewhat of

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a process, but there's a lot of red tape involved,

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I would imagine.

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Oh, yeah. It's definitely a process, and it's very, very

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different from an LLC. Yeah.

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That's for sure. I can imagine.

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You know, I've owned several different LLCs, and they work.

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A walk in the park compared to this.

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Yeah, it's 10 minutes to sign up on a website

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and off you go.

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Oh, yeah.

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This much different than that. And around 20, was it

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around 2024 that you became an actual nonprofit?

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Yeah, an official nonprofit.

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And that's important, folks. And I know a lot of

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you out there listen and know that. But that means

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that any money that you put out to support ATA

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Lopez Foundation, It's tax deductible. So it's an official nonprofit. It's,

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you know, and that matters to me. I only give

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to official nonprofits. And the reason for that is they're vetted.

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You know, they're vetted and they're legit nonprofits. So off

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you go into this and look, you've got a lot

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on your plate already. You're not someone who doesn't have

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any children that are affected by this. So you're dealing

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with that, plus you're running this nonprofit now. How hard

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of work has it been for you?

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Oh, it's pretty hard.

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You can think of some words.

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I can think of some words. It's quite exhausting but rewarding.

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Of course, I do have all three of my boys

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all the time. So it makes running a nonprofit pretty difficult.

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But it also, again, kind of reminds me of why

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I'm doing this.

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Yeah.

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It definitely, you know, is a good reminder. Yeah.

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I'll tell you what, we had some conversations off the

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show and I told Paige, I said, you know, moms

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in particular amaze me because it seems like they can

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just go and go and go. And you're one of those.

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I see you all the time on Facebook. You're doing

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everything you can to promote what you're doing so that

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you can generate interest because these, these nonprofits survive by donation.

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I mean, that's how they live. That's why they're called nonprofits. Um,

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so it's very important that people get behind those and

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support them. Now, um, you have gotten and garnered a

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lot of awards recently and, and even before recently, you know,

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kind of Ever since you started, you have been recognized.

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I was really impressed, and I want to go over

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these real quick so everybody knows, and I'm not trying

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to embarrass you here, but she's had a lot of recognition.

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2025 Best of Baton Rouge Nonpartisan. That's huge.

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That was only two or three months into becoming an

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official nonprofit.

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Mind blown?

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Yeah, mind blown.

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Yeah, because there's some big ones in Baton Rouge and

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a lot of worthwhile nonprofits, you know, and that's one

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thing I want to say quickly, and I don't want

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to deviate too far off of this, but All nonprofits

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are worth it, you know, for the most part. They

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all have their purpose. They're all beautiful things and beautiful

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ways in which to support your community and things like that.

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But there's a ton in Baton Rouge, and for you

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to kind of be put on that pedestal, wow. I mean,

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I said that when I saw it. That's a serious

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feather in your cap, I guess.

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Yeah, it was definitely... Like I said, mind-blowing. I never

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expected that, by any means, especially not that quick.

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Right. Yeah. You must be doing something right there. Also,

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2025 Baton Rouge Parents Family Favorites Recognition in Nonprofit and

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Special Needs category. I remember seeing that. So that was

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out there. The 2025 Baton Rouge Volunteer Activist Honoree. The

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2025 Livingston Parish Future Five Award winner. I was there

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when you actually got that award. I remember that.

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Yep.

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2026 nominations for Baton Rouge Parents Family Favorites. Best of

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Ascension Customer Service.

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Yep. That one surprised me as well.

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Yeah, there you go. It's because you're just rocking, Paige.

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Best of Baton Rouge Nonprofit and Livingston Parish Best Nonprofit. pretty,

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pretty good honors. I was at an event recently where

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we were both nominated in respect in different categories for, um,

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for the living in parish magazine, uh, best of Livingston parish.

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And so another, yet another honor and the more recognition

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coming your way, does it make it feel like kind

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of the hard work, uh, is paying off, you know,

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at least you're getting recognized and, and some people are

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seeing what you're doing.

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Yeah, absolutely. I honestly, it's, Obviously an honor just to

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be nominated for any of it. But what makes us

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happy is when we have events and we get to

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see all the children and the families that are happy.

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And we'll have families come up and say, this is

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the first time that I actually feel accepted. My child

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is actually okay here. And honestly, to me, that's even

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more of an award.

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Yeah, that's huge. That's the most important thing. And, uh,

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I want to focus for a minute on the things, uh, that,

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that you do with your nonprofit. You, you arrange a

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lot of things. So playdates being one of those, but

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give me, give me some examples of some things that

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you're doing that are upcoming as it relates to your nonprofit.

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Okay. So we do have several different upcoming events. Um,

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We have our second annual inclusive trunk retreat. That's going

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to be on October the 24th at the Purple Cow

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from 4 to 6. And all families are welcome. We

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have about 50 local businesses that are going to set up.

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And we'll have the fire department and the police out

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there to kind of show their vehicles.

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Oh, the kids love that.

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Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun.

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Even the adults love that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

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My junior officer, Tony, is going to be there, of course.

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Then we have our Friendsgiving, our third annual one in November.

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We're actually completely sold out for that one. Sold out

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not because we charge, sold out because we're at max

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capacity for the venue.

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Yeah.

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So then we're working on a couple of other things.

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There's a lot of events that we do annually, so

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we'reâ You're always working on some stuff.

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Yeah, you really are. And I do want to cover,

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if I could, some of those that are coming up.

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You mentioned the Trunk or Treat, the Friendsgiving, and that'll

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be the third annual. And I also noticed that you

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have some other events coming up that are still in

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the planning stages, y'all. So we can't tell you exactly,

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you know, a date or a time or anything like that.

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But Christmas... of inclusion. Uh, you've got a color run

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coming up, uh, 5k color run. Um, you've got some

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stuff coming up for Easter time and I love the

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names that, that, you know, like this is egg splore.

250
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Yeah.

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Love it.

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Our third annual exploring more.

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00:14:41.340 --> 00:14:41.659
Yeah.

254
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It'd be a resource fair and egg hunt.

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Yeah. And even a back to school bash, uh, of course.

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you know, later on in the, in the upcoming year.

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So some things coming up, but you got two big things, uh,

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that are super close with the trunk or treat and

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the friends giving, uh, time as well. Who comes up

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with those names? I like those pretty inventive. You got

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a good mind there.

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00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:11.529
Well, of course we'll have, you know, like I said,

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several different, um, smaller events in between all the bigger ones.

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So, Good, good, very good. So look forward to those, folks.

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We're going to talk about our website in just a minute. And,

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of course, all those things will be posted, I'm sure,

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as information becomes available on the website. Now, we talked

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a little bit earlier about the challenges with starting a nonprofit.

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What are the challenges with keeping one going?

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The financial aspect of this.

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If you weren't going to say it, I would.

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I'm not going to say the financial aspect of this.

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It is extremely challenging. I started this with a big

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heart and very little money. So, you know, obviously with

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a nonprofit, it's not like a business where you've got

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customers coming in and paying for your services every day.

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We do rely heavily off of the community.

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Yeah, and that's why these events, sponsoring these events are

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so important. Just sponsoring the nonprofit in particular. It doesn't

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have to necessarily be an event. One thing I like

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about your website when I went on there was you

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can support this nonprofit right from the website. So you

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can go on there, and there's different tiers, if you will.

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There's a friend tier. where you get like website recognition

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and some other things. And then as you go up

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in tier level, and it's nothing ridiculous, y'all, she's not

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asking for a million dollars. Although if you're, you know,

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if you're capable, it would be a great way to

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get that tax deduction. But there's different tiers on there.

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They're very reasonable. And you get some pretty good benefits

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with those. And so I definitely encourage everyone to check

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that out because it's so easy to do. You don't

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have to play phone tag. A lot of us business owners,

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we get, look, we get swamped and it's hard to

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get on the phone and you want to help support something.

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But it's like the time to even reach out and

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find out how to make that possible is difficult. This

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way you can go on the website and you can

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do it all from right there.

300
00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:27.420
Yep. That's exactly why we tried to make it as

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accessible as possible. Yes. I know everybody's busy. Yeah. we

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need the support. And so we wanted to make sure

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everybody was able to find it very.

304
00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:39.130
Well, very easily. It is. And it's super informational. If

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you go on there, there are tons of tabs on

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there that you can click on with information on where

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your money is going. And that's very important. You know,

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as people who support nonprofits, you want to make sure

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that your money's going where it can be put to

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best use. And all of those questions are answered on

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that website, And, of course, Paige is easily accessible if

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you wanted to ask her directly or you wanted to

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meet with her. If you're a business and you want

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to meet with her and get involved, you can certainly

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do that. Obviously, you have a lot of community partners

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that help with these events. But what I would imagine

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you need, and you haven't said this to me, but

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I would imagine these annual events. supporters that are supporting

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on an annual basis are super important to charities and nonprofits.

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Absolutely. That's how we are able to make any of

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this continue to happen. All of our events, because they

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are free to the community, all of our services, our

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resources that we provide to families, it's all at no

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cost to our families. So the only way we can

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continue to make that happen in the community is through

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By those sponsors and those donors that are helping us out.

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00:18:58.059 --> 00:19:04.549
Yeah, I agree 100%. Let's talk about social media, for example,

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00:19:04.609 --> 00:19:06.869
right now. And how, first of all, how important a

329
00:19:06.930 --> 00:19:10.569
role has that played in the success that you have had? Oh,

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00:19:10.609 --> 00:19:12.009
it's huge. Yeah.

331
00:19:12.150 --> 00:19:16.849
It's huge. It's our biggest way to connect with families

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00:19:16.910 --> 00:19:21.210
and the community and everything. So I might, you might

333
00:19:21.269 --> 00:19:25.869
see me on social media quite often. I post very frequently.

334
00:19:25.890 --> 00:19:28.089
You do. You do a great job. I don't know

335
00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:30.650
how you do it all. I really don't. I mean,

336
00:19:30.730 --> 00:19:34.160
you stay very active with everything. You're putting your whole

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heart and soul into this and you always have. Even

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00:19:37.980 --> 00:19:40.680
before we met, I felt like I was familiar with

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00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:43.160
you because I saw what you did on social media.

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00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:46.359
My wife actually has followed you since you started this thing.

341
00:19:47.099 --> 00:19:49.730
and uh had had told me several times you need

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00:19:49.769 --> 00:19:52.789
to get her on your podcast and and help her

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00:19:53.009 --> 00:19:56.130
she's doing some really good work out there uh which

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00:19:56.190 --> 00:19:58.690
is kind of kind of what led to me reaching

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00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:02.220
out um you know when in social media is a

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00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:05.460
kind of like a double-headed monster i mean there's it's

347
00:20:05.539 --> 00:20:07.960
ugly at the same time and there's people out there

348
00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:08.160
that uh.

349
00:20:10.450 --> 00:20:11.190
Yeah.

350
00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:15.470
Haters, haters. I mean, in every business center out there

351
00:20:15.529 --> 00:20:17.730
that's listening to this right now knows what I'm talking about.

352
00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:20.960
There's people out there that cannot stand to see someone succeed.

353
00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:22.859
It's an ugly part of people.

354
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:23.880
You're doing something right.

355
00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:24.440
Yeah.

356
00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:25.539
You're doing, you're doing well.

357
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:27.509
A hundred percent. I must be killing it.

358
00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:33.200
You'd be surprised. I actually have a fan club myself.

359
00:20:33.269 --> 00:20:36.589
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're out there and, uh,

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00:20:36.750 --> 00:20:41.569
you know, it's, it's ugly. Yeah. But it's almost a

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00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.369
comical thing because somebody, you know, when somebody shows you

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00:20:45.410 --> 00:20:48.880
who you are, believe them or who they are, believe them.

363
00:20:49.460 --> 00:20:51.420
And there's a lot of people out there that you

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00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.180
can figure out exactly who they are because they're that

365
00:20:54.259 --> 00:20:55.940
person when you don't know who they are.

366
00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:56.759
Oh, yeah.

367
00:20:56.779 --> 00:21:00.700
So they create these fake profiles and they say these things. Well,

368
00:21:00.740 --> 00:21:02.109
that's who they really are.

369
00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:02.809
Oh, yeah.

370
00:21:02.869 --> 00:21:05.549
That's the scary thing. I know.

371
00:21:05.829 --> 00:21:10.289
Or they have anonymous accounts. Yeah. Got to love those

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00:21:10.309 --> 00:21:11.009
as well.

373
00:21:11.190 --> 00:21:14.490
Oh, those are beautiful. I love them. And I'm so

374
00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:16.849
used to it by now in my life that I'm like,

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00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:19.839
you know, where are all the haters? I almost got

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00:21:19.859 --> 00:21:23.519
to do something to make them hate me. I know.

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00:21:23.579 --> 00:21:24.859
I'm like, I miss y'all.

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00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:26.220
I know. There was a point in time where I

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00:21:26.220 --> 00:21:29.339
was horrified by it. But, you know, honestly, now I'm like.

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00:21:30.150 --> 00:21:31.049
I just try to look.

381
00:21:30.950 --> 00:21:32.210
At it in a different perspective.

382
00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:33.269
Yeah, they're my fans.

383
00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:34.089
They're your fans.

384
00:21:34.190 --> 00:21:36.369
I'm doing something amazing, and I know I am, so

385
00:21:36.430 --> 00:21:36.769
it's okay.

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00:21:36.789 --> 00:21:42.150
That's right. That's right. You are doing something amazing. And

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00:21:42.339 --> 00:21:46.220
so the hope here, folks, is that you've learned more,

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00:21:46.279 --> 00:21:48.839
a little bit more about this today, and you're interested

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00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:51.500
in finding out more. You can go to that website.

390
00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:52.759
Give them the website real quick.

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00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:58.890
It is www.theatalopezfoundation.org.

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You can go there and you can get as much

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information as you possibly need. Uh, certainly follow page on Facebook. Uh,

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00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:13.549
she's very active on there. It's a, it's a great page. Uh,

395
00:22:13.670 --> 00:22:16.430
it's a great page for you to follow featuring page

396
00:22:16.450 --> 00:22:20.819

The ATALopez Foundation | Local Leaders: The Podcast

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