Eye On Houston

Walt Cunningham Angels’ Race for Space 5K

George from the Morning Bullpen on 100.3 The Bull sits down with Marti Boone (Executive Director of Be An Angel) and Chairman of the Board Dan Pastorini to talk about the 2nd Annual Walt Cunningham Angels’ Race for Space presented by the Ray Schlaff Family, which will raise funds for Be An Angel to improve the quality of life for children with special needs, coming up on October 26th. Visit BeAnAngel.org for more information.

Duration:: 16m
Broadcast on:: 23 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC PLAYING] After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. [MUSIC PLAYING] Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90-plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Welcome to I on Houston. And today, we're going to be talking about the Walt Cunningham Angels Race for Space 5K. And we're going to give you all the details about that. But I have some guests in the studio that are going to tell us not only about the race, but about the organization behind the race. And that is Be an Angel. If you listen to the show on 100.3, the bull, the morning bull pen, we talk about Be an Angel a lot, one of our favorite charities, absolutely in love with this group and what they do for children of Texas. And Marty is with us this morning. Marty Boone, Marty, thanks for coming in. Oh, it's good to see you. Nice to see you, George. Chairman of the board, Dan Pastorene. Good morning, George. It's nice to be here with you. You seem familiar. Well, I've got this beard, so I'm incognito now. And also with us is MJ Hughes Becker, who is the chairman of the event we're going to talk about, but also one of the board members for Be an Angel. And MJ, let's start with you. Tell folks about this race. And then we're going to get into a little bit about what Be an Angel is and how people can help with that. But let's talk about the race and what it's doing. And the guy whose name is on it, it's very special. Of course, this is our second annual Angels Race for Space. It is a 5K and fun run, also a walk for families and children who have disabilities and want to participate as well. It is going to be held at Space Center Houston on October 26, Saturday, October 26. And we are going to be celebrating the accomplishments of Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham as we kick off our second annual 5K. And we want to honor his memory and his wife, Dot Cunningham, and their help for children that they both loved. I was going to say, Walt and Dot have been and were involved for years with Be an Angel and just absolute heroes for you all. Absolutely, absolutely. They've been critical in every aspect in the 30 plus years that we have been an organization. We're very proud to be able to carry on this legacy of Walt who passed away a year and a half ago and carry on his love for the children. And Dot is still hearing and very supportive of this. And we're carrying it on at Space Center Houston. Which is awesome. Which is awesome. So the race begins at the base of that space shuttle down there on NASA, Babe, Area. As folks are listening this morning, and like you said, maybe they want to get their family out. They have kids that love, you know, spaceships and astronauts and stuff like that. How do people register? Let's make sure they know how to find information about the race. The easiest way would be go to beanangel.org. Click on events. Events will show up and you will see several races because we also have a DFW, Dallas Fort Worth office area. But you will see one that says Angels Race for Space. OK. If you click on that, you'll see the registration form. Makes it so easy. It makes it really easy. We have a 5K time run. We have a 5K untimed run. If you don't care what the time is, and you're not looking to place, but you want to run that. We have a virtual registration. So if you live anywhere in the world and you just want to support being angel, you can submit a registration and you'll get a shirt, and you'll get the medal of completion sent to you, mailed to you. We have a family walk. And we also have dog registration. So dogs want to participate. There's a $15 registration fee. What is genius move? There are so many people that run with their dog, though. And you want to bring them out to a race. And to be able to register and do that, that's awesome. Absolutely. And I strongly encourage people to get on before September 30th when the rates go up $5 or so. So that last month. But we encourage you in any way. October 26th, it's called the Walt Cunningham Angels Race for Space 5K. And Dan, I'm going to shift over to you a little bit. You've been involved with being angel for the last few years. You've been chairman the last few years. What brought you into this organization? Well, we were attached to being angel years ago playing in our golf tournaments. We used to have the NFLPA golf tournaments down here. And then I eventually wind up taking that over. And my golf tournament's been around for what, 15 years now. And it's been a real pleasure for us because we've raised over $2 and $1/2 million in that time frame for being angel. And then I got invited to be on the board. And then I got invited or hoodwinked into being chairman. And so I'm really pleased because it's a wonderful group of people. Our board directors is just the best in the business or volunteers are the best in the business. And we just-- you put a smile on those kids faces and it means the world. And we just do so much good. And it makes us feel wonderful as well. But to see these kids, especially a child with cochlear implant that hears his mother's voice for the first time, it's pretty shocking. But it's a wonderful organization. I'm very proud to be a part of it. Marty Boone, Dan Teast a little bit talking about being hoodwinked into being chairman. But leadership doesn't fade. Leadership, like he has in his life and has been all of his life, is something that's very valuable I know to you all and be an angel. By the way, it's beanangel.org. If you're listening this morning and you want to find it and follow along or learn more about it. But for folks that are not familiar with being angel, you all have done so much good. Can you capitalize a little bit about what you all do? Can you believe that we've been around 38 years in Houston? We started in 1986 over at TH Rogers School, locally over here by the Galleria. And we started a young lady was actually being carried from a bus and laid on a her mat in a classroom. And our founder actually asked about that. Why was she on the mat? And her teacher replied and said her wheelchair is broken. And her mother is a maid and she can't afford to fix the broken wheelchair. And so we began that way. She went back to her bridge club and said, we're fixing a wheelchair. And that's how the idea of being angel actually got started. Our first-- - That's a sense of joy too. I have to say, still permeates the organization. There's so much more-- - There's so much more. You bet. - You can do it this and everything which I love about that. - Yeah. There's just so much warmth. Even 38 years ago, children were falling between the cracks. We've come a long way, George. I mean, obviously the state and public education has come a long way with special needs children. But there's still so much, so much more work to go. - People see beanangel.org, the website and it says adaptive equipment. But you all do so much. Can you maybe just go through a few things and how what you all do for children from the cochlear implants to wheelchair? I mean, there's so many things that you all do. We do, and by adaptive medical equipment, that could be, like you said, a wheelchair could be a standard. It could be a compression vest. It could be anything that the child needs. It could be a lift for a van when a family can't lift that child anymore. And we don't pay for the whole van, but we'll pay for the $25,000 lift for that van. And so we also provide hearing aids in the state of Texas. By law, the state has to provide loner hearing aids to the school districts, but those hates 95% of those school districts do not allow those children to go home with a hearing aid. And so there's a lot of hearing aids that we give out, especially because Medicaid only pays for it once every seven years. - You imagine, by the way, telling a child, you can hear while you're at school, but after you leave school, such a blessing what you all do, Marty, and there's so much more. - Absolutely, we have a lot of other services. We take families to camp, and we have golf programs throughout the school districts. But one of the main needs that we are providing is respite care for the children and for the families. I mean, very often a family doesn't have the time, they're 24/7 with these children, and they just can't get the break that they need. And the state of Texas, the waiver list is 10 to 12 years long. And so we provide that caregiver to the family. They either pick their own caregivers as long as the caregiver does not live within the family unit itself, and/or we provide one, and we pay that caregiver. And so we have a wonderful, wonderful program for that. - That's- ♪ It's been a long year ♪ - After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan for Verizon AT&T at T-Mobile.com/KeepAndSwitch. (upbeat music) - Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit, service, ported, 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. - The amazing thing about it, and again, you can go to beanangel.org and you can find out about all of these services. And you were talking, Marty, I don't mean to interrupt you, but MJ, we were talking before we started on the air. And you were saying that the stories, Dan was talking about the first time a child or a baby hears the sound of their parents' voice. And you said you had a story that just always touches your heart that you look to tell people. - It definitely resonates in me. And I have the opportunity to look at applications that we receive for these socioeconomically deprived children who don't have hearing aids, who don't have respite care, who don't have equipment, and their caregivers who are giving them the opportunity by reaching out to us. And first, of course, it's the children's needs, right? So that had a story a while back where I was reviewing an application from a grandmother. And she lived out of state and she and her husband, the grandfather had retired out of state and we're moving to Houston. And when they moved to Houston, they learned shortly after getting here that their grandchild was in the hospital, a two-year-old, for malnutrition, neglect, and with special needs. The child had a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, not a lot of good stuff going on there. Had a four-year-old special needs sibling. They reached out to be an angel, asking for assistance in helping because the parents of these two children were considered unfit and the courts have required them to do things to become fit and they haven't done that. So the grandparents on their retirement moving to Houston took custody of these two special needs children to help them get through these tough times because these are situations you don't get better. This is lifelong stuff. Sadly, the thing that was really George, really impactful when I read it was, the grandmother said and we weren't dealing with this very long before the grandfather said, "Hey, I didn't sign up for this," and he left. So that leaves her with two special needs children and all of that, which it entails for a lifelong care. And we are so pleased to be able, as part of being an angel, to give that grandmother the things that she needs based on her application, seeing the need that is there and is likely to unchange if the parents haven't stepped up to the plate. That's a lifeline. I mean, that is a true, honest to God lifeline in a person's life. Yes. Yeah, that's amazing stuff. So what we're doing in this race and the things we do throughout the year are to raise the monies to assist in helping the people who applied to us for service and help and people are listening and they're thinking, "Okay, I can't come out on October 26th for the Walt Cunningham Angels Race for Space 5K. How can they give? How can they get involved just like MJ was talking about? Can they make a donation now? Yes, of course, like MJ says, just go on beingangel.org and there's all kinds of listings for donations to be made and just apply and contribute and it's that easy. Marty, also helping out volunteer. You all have, this is the time of year we're going into the end of the year here. You all have a lot of opportunities if people are looking for, if they have kids in school that are looking for volunteer hours or they're looking to volunteer, get involved. How do they do that? Absolutely. Again, it's real easy, George. They just go to beingangel.org and click on the volunteer link and we have a ray of ideas and opportunities for our volunteers and we need volunteers always. At this race, we need volunteers. At other events, we need them too. I will tell you this. Once Marty gets you to volunteer, just be prepared to be part of this organization. I can attest to that. Dan, I had lunch with her one day and in the 10 years since then, I've just gone, "Whatever you need, whatever you need, Marty." But the work you all do, and MJ, you talked about it, the difference you make in people's lives is in children's lives here in Texas. That's the other thing I love is, it's right here in Houston. We have a Dallas office, so it's Texas. Now you're covering more of Texas, which I absolutely love, but it's a wonderful way to get involved. I'll be there at the Walt Cunningham Angels Race for Space. That's what we're talking about. We'd love for you to sign up with your family. Come out, even sign up with your dog. We talked about that. It's gonna be October 26. You'll find the information on beanangel.org. For each of you, Marty, MJ, Dan, always great to see you all and appreciate everything you do for the kids of Texas. - Thank you, George. - Thank you, George. - Thank you. - This is I on Houston. ♪ It's been a long year ♪ - After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and AT&T at T-Mobile.com/KeepAndSwitch. (upbeat music) Up to four lines via virtual prepaid guard, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service, ported 90-plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.