#1110 Big Brothers and Sisters

January 18, 2024Scott Benner

Today we welcome Trisha from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston. Learn more - (781) 516-2090) or JBBBS.org

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1110 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show I'll be speaking with Trisha from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. They have a great program that's trying to help children with type one diabetes, and she's here to tell you more about it, check them out@jbbbs.org Or if you're interested in donating your time 781-516-2090 Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at contour next one.com/juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. When you use my link and place your first order, you're gonna get a welcome kit, a year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs. Hi

Tricia 2:05
there. My name is Tricia and I'm coming from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston. We're a mentorship agency, and we've started a type one diabetes program. I'm the clinical director there. And it's just been incredible to see children with type one diabetes, getting a mentorship opportunity through an adult with also type one.

Scott Benner 2:25
For sure. You're the Clinical Director, what's your background? What's your education?

Tricia 2:30
So my background is I Am a Child Life Specialist. I'm certified, then I worked in a hospital for close to 20 years with children with chronic illnesses. And from there I went on to get an MBA and healthcare policy.

Scott Benner 2:43
Okay, Tricia, you're doing a thing right now that we, in my house call the gas station voice. You don't know what that means yet, but I'll explain it to you. Okay. Okay, you and I spoke for a few minutes before we started to record. And you have a little bit of a deeper voice which came through very nicely on the microphone. When my wife goes to the gas station. She is never as nice in her life as she is to the person who pumps her gas for her. And she goes up a couple of octaves to show people how kind she is. We don't know the psychology behind it. We just call it Kelly's gas station voice. Anyway, when I asked you to introduce yourself, you went into your gas station voice. Okay, by the way, this is all staying in. So don't be embarrassed. We're just talking. But you went from like this kind of like resonant voice to like, Hi, I'm Trisha. And I was like, Oh, that was interesting. And the mics not picking it up as well as when you just talk normally? Oh, no.

Tricia 3:36
Okay. All right. Be yourself back to my other voice. Be

Scott Benner 3:39
yourself. You don't have to be nice or anything. Don't worry. They just want to talk to you. Do you know you do that?

Tricia 3:46
No, no, I didn't. My

Scott Benner 3:49
wife says she doesn't know either. But she turns into Mary Poppins at a gas station. Oh, goodness, it's been it's

Tricia 3:54
been around here. We don't have anyone pumping our gas. So I've never been mentioned there. But all right.

Scott Benner 4:00
When I moved to New Jersey, I was like, I got out of my car the first time and the guy's like, hey, hey, hey, we pump the gas here. And I was like, I'm from Philly, I pump my own gas. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. And he goes into law. And I was like, It's my car. I'm gonna pump my own gas. And I still do it in Jersey, like I'll pull up and just get out and do it. But apparently they say it creates jobs. That's great. I'm for creating jobs. Anyway, you can just be like, just relax. Okay, relax. And, and I'm going to pick you through it. So you're from the Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Boston. Is that the name? Yeah. Okay, of Greater Boston, Greater Boston. And you guys, is this a newer programmers? It's something you've been doing for a while.

Tricia 4:39
So it's a brand new? Well, it's been around. We've been around for a year right now doing this program, per se. Our organization's been around for over 100 years. Wow. So we're getting it off the ground and we're having a lot of traction. It's just been really fun to see the growth

Scott Benner 4:54
of it. Very nice. And how long have you worked there?

Tricia 4:58
I've been there for a little bit. For over a year, okay,

Scott Benner 5:01
and tell me again, your your background, your something, education, I'm sorry.

Tricia 5:05
So my background is I'm a child life specialist, I worked in a inner city hospital with children with chronic illnesses for close to 20 years. And from there, I went on and got an MBA in healthcare policy. How do you get into that originally, you know, it's a long story. But it started when I was a child with a family friend whose daughter had a brain tumor. And I spent a lot of time in the hospital with her to see the child life, people coming in and out and working with her and thought, This is what I want to do. So I knew from a very young age where I wanted to go in life. And then now it's just morphed over the years into how I've taken that.

Scott Benner 5:45
Describe the job in hospital a little bit. What did you do there? Sure,

Tricia 5:49
travel specialists work with children that come in. So either they come in through emergency surgery, they're sick, whatever it may be, and we help children understand what's going on with them at the moment. So helping them not just the child, but the child comes with a family. So helping the child and family from the beginning to the end of their hospitalization, if they need tutoring in hospital, if they're having a hard time taking medication, if they don't understand their diagnosis, if they need help around procedural support, if family needs help around procedural support, kind of life, people are there to teach kids about what's going on at that very moment and break it down to them. So it's developmentally appropriate.

Scott Benner 6:34
So ironically, you're almost like a big sister in that situation. Like a, like the, you know, the person in the family who's level headed in the moment and can be helpful. You got it? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Okay, so you go back, you get an MBA, that's sounds heady. I

Tricia 6:51
went, I know, well, you know, because then the management shift changed a little bit. And I ended up managing the program in the hospital. And I had an incredible supervisor who was a mentor to me, okay. And she really pushed me to, to reach my fullest potential. And we talked about, like, higher ed, she knew I wanted a master's. And we talked about what the next steps were. And she really helped me to understand how an MBA would be helpful to me as I went forward in life, it's

Scott Benner 7:23
really something when you meet somebody, in a work scenario that's actually interested in helping you get better, or rise, you know, in the organization, because that doesn't always happen. You don't always find a mentor, sometimes you find people were just happy to, you know, keep their foot on your throat, so you can't move up and get past them. And that it's a real thing. And it holds people back. So it's wonderful. When you see somebody doing the kind of the right thing in that situation. Is there something that happened during that time at the hospital that got you focused on type one or? No, right? Like you just, um, how did you make it to the the other?

Tricia 8:02
How did I make it here now? Yeah. So no, I didn't. I mean, I worked with children with diabetes in the hospital, but never specifically, that was my full population. My real population that I focused on, there were children with sickle cell disease, and helping them transition from pediatric care to adult care, which was a big thing, because when you're a child with a chronic illness, the pediatric world is very different. The adult world is, so after I had taken the break from the hospital had done a few other things in my wheelhouse. I found this job and I thought, oh my goodness, how perfect is it to take children with a chronic illness, adults with a chronic illness, and find the best pieces of both of them and bring them together to help each other where they're at. And as much as we say, we call our volunteers, our big sisters or big brothers. As much as we say, our bigs are the mentors. They get so much from the kids, our littles, That's unreal. And so it becomes kind of this two way street,

Scott Benner 9:11
have that experience with what I do. And I try to explain it to people. And I'm sure they can, like picture it. But until you're doing it, you have no idea how like, choosing work that helps other people enriches you. And I usually say that this podcast helps me more than it helps the people listening. They just, they would have no way to know that you know, but it's true. It's changed my my whole world. So I take that point. Incredibly, so you so when you get there, they're not hiring you to like set up, like a type one program. You just sort of happen to come in around the time that the program starts.

Tricia 9:49
Nope. Yeah, I was actually hired to set up the type one program from the beginning. Yeah, okay.

Scott Benner 9:54
Okay. So you were and so they had this idea. We're going to do this thing. And they they go out to get you. So now I'm super interested about what that process is like, how do you on day one sit at a desk and start thinking about this? And you know, what were your goals in the beginning and what did you learn? Along the way. I partnered with ag one because I needed a daily foundational nutritional supplement that supported my whole body health. I continue to drink 81 every day because it works for me. Ag one is my foundational nutritional supplement. It gives me comprehensive nutrition, and it supports my whole body health. Drink, ag one.com/juice box, when you use my link to place your first order, here's what you're gonna get a free welcome kit that includes a shaker scoop and canister, five free travel packs, a free year supply of vitamin D, and of course, your ag one. So if you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with ag one, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com/juice box, that's drink ag one.com/juice box, check it out. Contour next.com/juicebox. That's the link you'll use. To find out more about the contour next gen blood glucose meter, when you get there, there's a little bit at the top, you can click right on blood glucose monitoring, I'll do it with you go to meters, click on any of the meters, I'll click on the Next Gen and you're going to get more information. It's easy to use and highly accurate. smartlight provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course, with Second Chance sampling technology, you can save money with fewer wasted test strips. As if all that wasn't enough, the contour. Next Gen also has a compatible app for an easy way to share and see your blood glucose results. Contour next one.com/juicebox. And if you scroll down at that link, you're gonna see things like a Buy Now button, you could register your meter after you purchase it, or what is this download a coupon? Oh, receive a free Contour Next One blood glucose meter, do tell contour next one.com/juicebox head over there now get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use.

Tricia 12:19
So in the beginning, I sat down and thought where are we going to find these? That was my first thing like, how are we going to get our name out? How are we going to get parents to trust us and share with them what we can offer to their children and say to a parent of a child with a chronic illness. Now we want you to send your child out with this big for two to four hours, and not be in touch with them in realizing that we had to kind of change a little bit of the bill that we do to make sure the parents do stay in touch with their kids, because they're not going to comfortably just let their child go off. After they've been, you know, monitoring things left and right. So I sat there and thought where am I going to find them. So I started reaching out to schools, to different pediatricians office and different offices, the local diabetes centers around us and making relationships with the Social Work team with the Child Life team, with the physician with support staff, whoever it may be, because each person in that situation touches the child and family in a different way, and builds a whole different repertoire, or a whole different relationship than others do. And so the more people that knew about us, the more wet the more ways we would be able to get our name out. I worked a lot with JDRF I still do we work together to help you know reach families there to find special ways to get into different outreach opportunities and webinars to talk about the program and how we can best help others

Scott Benner 14:00
how many families with type one diabetes Did you ever talk to before you realize these people weren't gonna like cut ties with their kids for four hours?

Tricia 14:09
You know, it was it was very, you know, and I knew it in like my heart of hearts. I do and and rightfully so, I mean, you know, blood sugar's could drop, and Spike, kids don't feel good. It's scary. Things don't always respond as quickly. So it was really kind of sitting there and figuring out how are we going to change our parameters, which was amazingly easy because I work with the best people in the world. So to change our parameters that we can make it work for the child for the parent and for the big all together,

Scott Benner 14:43
right? And so you've only been at this for I mean, not not even two years. i My first question is definitely not even even two years. How many kids did you end up finding initially? So

Tricia 14:54
right now, we have 15 kids, that we're in the process of either are on our waiting list or that we're interviewing. And we've got two currently matched. And we have five more in the in the throes of being matched right now, which I know sounds like small numbers, but to start from nothing and to get to here, it's been incredible to meet these children and families and, and to hear their stories and to hear what their needs are. And, and then also to meet the volunteers. On the same token, we've got volunteers waiting. So it probably sounds to you right now. Like, why does she have kids waiting and volunteers waiting. But it's because when we make a match, we make it based off of so many things. So geography is number one, if they're not going to live close enough to each other, they're not going to be able to see each other. The second thing is personality characteristics, we like to really think about the child and the the volunteer to see how we can put them together, that works well, for them have to have the same likes. So there's so many different pieces of the puzzle that really go together to figure out what a match gonna be. And I am super strong on this, I will not budge, we don't make a match unless we feel it's going to be a good one. Because there's no point in getting a little hopes up and a big hopes up for it to fizzle.

Scott Benner 16:21
I'm going to ask a chicken and the egg question here. So what came first? Did you have adults with type one who were like, hey, match me up with a kid with type one? Or did you have kids with type one and you realize they need a different understanding than maybe some other people do?

Tricia 16:36
So First came the kids pretty much we had a couple adults, but First came the kids. Okay. And and it was really just getting to know them thinking about two down the road, what else can we provide for them that can help them throughout their, their life? And throughout going from a young child, the youngest child we enroll is seven, though going from a seven year old, up to a teenager and beyond? And how can we help support them along their journey? Are

Scott Benner 17:05
you seeing children whose care is not stellar at home, meeting up with adults who really understand diabetes and helping them along. So

Tricia 17:16
we see both truthfully, we see children who do have more struggles at home because of their family life. And those kids need big so much to help support them, and to help them understand how important it is to take care of themselves. And how they need to put themselves first and really pay attention to what those doctors and nurses are saying to them. So setting a good example, and modeling good behavior. We have other children that come from homes where like everything is in top notch shape. Like there's no questions. They know how to run their equipment. They know how to Bolus they know how to carb count, they know everything. But they don't have that social network and they feel that isolation of I'm the only one like me here now. That's wonderful. That's the hardest thing to hear. Right there.

Scott Benner 18:14
Have other chapters reached out to you about this yet? I mean, are you the only ones doing this? Or are there other? Yeah,

Tricia 18:20
the only ones? No, we're starting it off. And hopefully, we'll see like the benefits of it. Well, I know we will see the benefits of it. But, you know, hopefully others will adopt it after we get it going.

Scott Benner 18:32
I'm just listening to you. And I mean, I have a you know, a depth of knowledge about how people with diabetes, sometimes think and feel a need and what you're describing basically because this is a weekly thing, right? Like it happens on Saturday, they get together

Tricia 18:47
now, they meet twice a month. They talk more often usually

Scott Benner 18:52
okay, but it's twice it's basically you're you're given a kid, you say four hours, it's a four hour window. Okay, you're basically given a kid to four hour windows a month where they're going to diabetes camp almost.

Tricia 19:06
Yeah, right. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 19:09
and instead of waiting all year until summer and then getting together for a week or a weekend or something and being around other people who have diabetes, they have this opportunity to not like have to uproot their lives even not that camps uprooting but it is a little bit like you have to take a break, you have to usually drive somewhere far away. And just to be around another person who doesn't look at their pump and think what does that or does it understands or is bolusing with them for lunch at the same time? It's a I think it's a really special idea who had the initial idea, can we give them credit?

Tricia 19:41
We sure can. So it was one of our board members. And she went for stuff like our when I said to you earlier I work with the best people. We are an organization where an idea comes in and we really like take it and run. So the board member came To us, and said that she really thought this was something needed was diagnosed later in life with type one. And she thought, how incredible would it be to have someone to support me. So I will share with you like in one of our matches the little girls in third grade, and her big is in her 20s. And they went rock climbing together and off, they were going up the wall, and the littles alarm started going off. And so the big said to her, you know, let's take a break. Let's fix what's going on, and then we'll get back to it. And she looked at her and said, but I hate being the only one beeping all the time. And lo and behold, she said that the bigs alarm started beeping as well. So that was like, meant to be I guess, for that very moment. But they finally they have been matched for over eight months. And it took to that moment to get to the point where the first real full blown diabetes discussion happened. Because we don't want to push it down their throat. And like I said earlier, we want them to be comfortable.

Scott Benner 21:07
Yeah, it finally came up and just happened organically. And the kid was amazing. Yeah, it sounds like by the way, I have to ask you How long were you at the organization before you intrinsically knew to say BIG and LITTLE when you were talking about it? I'm assuming it took months?

Tricia 21:20
It took Yeah, no, because I switched back on tear. This is where I'm terrible. I switch back and forth. With the families. I've always been a little but then with other folks, I'm volunteering kids because I want them to understand what I'm talking about. Because as

Scott Benner 21:36
you're doing it, my brain like like rubs against it every time like what is she saying? I'm like biggest adult, I got it, don't worry, I got it big. It's

Tricia 21:42
the volunteer little it's our kid. That's

Scott Benner 21:45
a great example of you know, you don't rush right, you don't get together on day one and go, Hey, diabetes, allow me to, you know, just like you get together and then it comes up naturally because it was going to sounds like they both got active and their blood sugar's fell. And then they can have that conversation like that. And you can tell even through your retelling how much the kid wanted to say that probably like how important it was for them to maybe be able to unburden themselves to somebody who they were like, Oh, this is a person who will actually understand this.

Tricia 22:14
Yeah. And then the parent, the parent of the little, was so grateful that she opened up and said that, that she got to that point where she could say those words and make it it and just express herself, I guess, express herself in a way where someone else going through the same thing understands. Now these two are like the Bobbsey Twins, and they set their screen their background screen. So they have the same pictures when they're out. And they do this and they do that together. But it's more from this friendship. That obviously is the beginning of the relationship and how the relationship starts into a support system. For diabetes.

Scott Benner 22:59
It's really something, how much are you figuring out as you go? Like, I'm sure with 15 kids who perhaps hasn't happened yet. But eventually you're gonna identify a child with an eating disorder? Like, are you able to like do you have services in mind already, where to guide people to? What about when you meet somebody who can't afford, I don't know, insulin, or supplies, or what happens when you meet people who are just like, you know, a onesies are, are incredibly high, and they don't know what to do. And it's more than just the the big little like, setup can help with do you have? Sure, yeah. What are you doing for that?

Tricia 23:38
So we do work a lot with different wraparound services, and the local hospitals as well. We've really partnered with them, especially, I would say Children's Hospital has been incredible to partner with, because we can share information back and forth. So the first thing you know, on enrollment, they say release forum so that we can talk to people, which helps us dramatically. So if a situation comes up, that we can go back and discuss it, we have had the a one C thing where a onesies are out of control. And that's something the hospital works directly on with them. But a big can help to influence why it's so important to get that number down with other kids. They've seen just with the blood sugar's all over the place, and there's never just some kind of commonality and they can't pinpoint what's making it spike. And we know it's because the kids are bolusing or they're not taking care of themselves properly. So the big they're helping them to understand why it's so important. So if we know like when we do this interview with the little we do it with their parent or guardian and the child themselves, the parent or guardian we meet over zoom. It's a great conversation. We do it when the kids aren't around. So the parent guardian can say whatever they need to say and get it out. And then we go in and we meet with a child face to face.

Scott Benner 25:07
A lot of things being accomplished here. Yeah,

Tricia 25:09
there's it's like, it's really comprehensive program very comprehensive and, and when we meet with a kid have to face are a little I'm going to switch my words here we go. When we meet with our littles, we asked them a lot of questions, and especially around their care for diabetes, finding out exactly where their comfort level is. And I mean, I'm sure this is not a surprise to you. But so many kids report back on bullying. One girl told me her class called her the weird robot. And they didn't want to sit next to her because of her robot device. I mean, it's just working through these kind of boundaries. And these breakthroughs, the

Scott Benner 25:53
most criminal thing there is that kids burn is terrible. The weird robot, like what kind of a dig is that? It's just not well thought out. It's it's low level, where's

Tricia 26:01
the teacher in that situation, too. If it's

Scott Benner 26:05
subpar bullying at best, I don't like it. But it

Tricia 26:08
is bullying. It's 100%. But it's not even. It's bullying.

Scott Benner 26:12
I have a question that I want to I exist in my mind, and I want to get through it like so. I have to admit, when you reached out to me, I thought Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. I didn't know that. There were I just thought there was Big Brothers Big Sisters. But you're not like if if I have a kid in the greater Boston area, and they're not Jewish, you help them as well. Right? Like it's not thank you

Tricia 26:35
for asking that. I did not say that. At first, we serve everybody. So we serve even though we are Jewish, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. We are an affiliate of the Big Brother, Big Sister, Association of America. We serve everyone regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, identity, orientation, etc. If you are in need of a service, you come to us and we will start working with you. Similar

Scott Benner 27:02
to like when you hear Catholic Charities, for example. Right? That's an organization helps everybody it's not just it's the way it's run. i Okay, how long has it been in existence? So

Tricia 27:12
Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters has been around for? I think we're up to 104 years right now. Okay, well, long standing prominent agency. Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:26
Well, so what made you want to come on the podcast to get the word out, wanted

Tricia 27:29
to spread the word about what we're doing. And for people to reach out if they have questions, or if they have ideas, I wanted to just share the service that's out there for people in the greater Boston area. And I will say we serve over 90 cities and towns so from like, out Western Mass a little bit all the way up through the north shore in South Shore. So we go everywhere, everywhere.

Scott Benner 27:55
It's freezing cold in the wintertime. I know where you're talking about. Yeah,

Tricia 27:59
it's a little chilly today here, but we don't have snow yet. So we'll keep it that way.

Scott Benner 28:05
Let's kind of take a second here. Can I give the phone number from the website? You sure can. Yes. 781-516-2090. Or it's j, b, b? b s.org. Is that correct?

Tricia 28:20
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And right from our website? No,

Scott Benner 28:24
no, no, no, J, three B's and s.org. And right from your website, what you can

Tricia 28:29
find the type one diabetes program, there's information to enroll, there's a direct link that they'll get to me. And then we'll be able to set them up and get them going.

Scott Benner 28:39
And there's no cost. Is that correct? For the this is a totally free service.

Tricia 28:43
Yep. There's no cost to the child or family

Scott Benner 28:47
at all. And the adults are donating their time. They're

Tricia 28:50
donating their time. And truthfully, they're also donating their money and paying for any outings. For children.

Scott Benner 28:58
I gotcha. So we I take I go rock climbing and there's a charge to get into the something. It's It's on me as the person who's setting up the excursion. Do the big Yeah, gotcha. All right. Well, that all makes sense. Yeah. Because geez, if you were paying for it, I'm like, Where would I go? Maybe get a nice meal. Get a steak. We'll start slow in the morning. Get an amen.

Tricia 29:18
We'll keep going all day. But yeah, no, no. Sorry. Sorry. Diverse. No,

Scott Benner 29:23
I didn't. I didn't imagine any differently. Actually, I just I just wanted to make sure people understood that they'd be donating. So you're looking to hear from children who are looking to be paired up and you're looking for adults who'd like to donate their time as well.

Tricia 29:36
You got I'm looking for a ball. Okay. Well,

Scott Benner 29:39
I I'm gonna just say this. I feel personally responsible now to make sure people reach out to you. So if you're listening and you fit into one of these buckets, like, give it a try if you're interested, you know, I mean, what could it hurt to reach out and talk to Trisha a little bit and, and get some more information? Right.

Tricia 29:53
Right. I mean, this is it's really like, truthfully, people will do People involved in our program will tell you that this is a gift and, and we are only here to help serve people and to make things better for kids so that they're more comfortable in their own skin, and that they feel good about living with a chronic illness. The one thing I said when I first applied to work at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, was that I never want a child to feel like their illness owns them. I want the child to own their illness. That's wonderful. And I feel by giving them a mentor. It's something that can really help to teach them how to take role, and how to feel good about what's going on in their situations, and feel as though they can live with type one a successful life which we know is possible. And to make it through all the different ages and stages with someone by your side.

Scott Benner 30:51
Can I ask you, how has your understanding of type one changed over the last year,

Tricia 30:57
I have learned so much, I can't even believe so I knew what type one was, I knew that it wasn't anything like type, oh, you know, all of those things. But one just learning from hearing from children, the misconceptions that they go through, that's been eye opening, but then to learning about bolusing learning about closed loop systems, learning about all these different systems that kids have kids that are on multiple daily injections first versus on a loop system, it's been really interesting to me to see the paradigm shift and the learning curve for myself going through this. And I feel like they can actually have a conversation with a parent of a child with type one. And not be clueless and understand. I mean, do I understand what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night? Because your child's blood sugar's crashing? No, I do not have that in my back pocket. But I do know what it's like to be a parent, I have two teenage girls. I know what it's like to work with children with chronic illnesses. And I know what it's like to hear a parent going through a traumatic episode and being there to support them through that time.

Scott Benner 32:10
Have you had an experience yet where you thought, Oh, I wish I could take this knowledge back with me. 15 years ago when I was working in hospitals?

Tricia 32:19
Yes, I wish we could have done a support group then for kids like this. I wish I could have set something up. That would have reached children when they're in the hospital differently for type one. And given them more tools to go back to school with

Scott Benner 32:35
Yeah, yeah. So if somebody's listening to this, whose kid is already maybe part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in another place, you know, outside of Boston? Yeah. You're comfortable with them, asking their chapter to reach to you and you'd be happy to explain to them how you got this setup? What's working? What didn't like give them a roadmap?

Tricia 32:58
100% Of course, right? Like we all have to work together. There's there's no I in team will go for the cliche. And we need to you know, everyone's here. If your child is involved in a Big Brother, Big Sister program. They're in it because you knew they have a need for something. Yeah. So why not just expand that lead?

Scott Benner 33:18
That's fantastic. It really is. It's very kind that you'd spend the time to explain to somebody else and get it rolling in other places, too, if they were interested. I think we've covered everything really well. I want to make sure you feel that way. And then I have one last question for you. So first of all, is there anything we haven't said that we should have that I missed? No,

Tricia 33:36
no, we've got it all. Great. I we've hit all my little bullet points here.

Scott Benner 33:40
So here's my last question. How come you're not like let's go park the car on the yacht? How come you don't sound like that? Do you? Not from from New York. He's gonna say

Tricia 33:52
no, no, but my youngest daughter Sure. Does. She parks? She does. She has no RS whatsoever. No, no. I'm from New York.

Scott Benner 34:04
Did you go to the area for school and just stay?

Tricia 34:06
I did. I did. I came here because I knew I wanted to be a child life specialist. I came here to go to Wheelock College. During that time, I wrote a grant with a physician that I worked with to get a program started in surgery and trauma. And then from there, I met my husband who's here and that's how I ended up saying she it's

Scott Benner 34:27
always a boy. I every time I interview somebody I'm like, how did you end up in Alaska and then the story starts and a boy and then by the way, that Alaska story, which I'm not going to bother you with is in a past episode. The boy disappeared. She stayed in Alaska, and I was like,

Tricia 34:42
Oh my goodness. My guys still around.

Scott Benner 34:48
Oh my god. Okay. Well, I find AJ please, I hear some stories. I genuinely appreciate you taking the time. I really appreciate you guys reaching out actually. There are I will I'll tell you something that's backroom that you would know, a lot of people reach out to me to get their thing out in the world. And most some, there are times where I'm like, um, you know, it's business related or something. I'm like, I'm not here to like, you know, shill for your business. And I don't do stuff like that. But boy, when I got your, your initial note, I think I misunderstood it at first. And then you guys were persistent, which I appreciate it. Because then when I really dug into it, I was like, this is something I'd like to really get behind. So I appreciate the effort that you put into getting on the podcast. And by the way, this is not an this is not an invitation for other people who I've said no to, to come back. And

Tricia 35:37
I have to say, Tonya, my ally, who first additionally reached out to you, she is just above and beyond. And she's our Director of Recruitment and engagement. And she's the one that helps me find our bigs. And without her like we work hand in hand together. Yeah. Without her, I wouldn't be able to do this. So I

Scott Benner 35:57
have one last question. Sorry. I know I said, I had one last question that I have been asked. You can have, like 10. Last question. How's that? What about a scenario like me, like, I'm not offering to come to Boston, but I'm just using me as an example. I do not have type one diabetes. But some people might argue that I might make a fantastic mentor for somebody with type one diabetes, like So could a parent of a child with type one who's maybe kids have kind of flown the coop or I guess, gone to college? Like, could they be a big for a young person with type one? Like, are there worlds where you match type ones with non type ones that still have a lot of information about diabetes? You ever thought about that one? How can

Tricia 36:34
I tell you? I don't know. I honestly I'm going to be honest. I don't know. We haven't explored that avenue yet. Well, that's

Scott Benner 36:40
there's my little bit for you. Like maybe that would be alright. Yeah. Take that back to the table. Yeah, get some like, you know, empty nests, mom with a ton of energy. For at least one of those kids, they got all that energy. They don't know what to do with. Trust me, they know a ton about diabetes, and they might not have anything to do with it anymore. Anyway, I don't know. Maybe it wouldn't work out. Or maybe it doesn't fulfill the exact calling of the idea. I mean, as I think about it, maybe it doesn't, but I don't know, I just want to throw it out there.

Tricia 37:06
The reason why I was like I don't want I never a straight off no person. But the one thing I can think of is like there is so much comfort in a child wearing a blood glucose monitor, seeing an adult wearing it as well. There's this kind of bond that happens immediately. I see it

Scott Benner 37:28
very well may not be a good fit for the overall idea. It just occurred to me and I wanted to ask, so thank

Tricia 37:34
you as support for the parents, the other parents that have younger kids to talk to a parent who's gone through all of

Scott Benner 37:42
the show, you're gonna make more work for yourself a big one big program, a parent, a parents of kids with type one program.

Tricia 37:49
It who knows you never know. I mean, look at I just said to you, I never say no right away.

Scott Benner 37:55
Well, listen, that's, that's also not a bad. I mean, look, there might be other places already set up to cover those things. But what I'm thinking is if you have 15 kids who are in your program, let's just pretend it was 16. Now you have eight parents and eight parents who you could maybe put together that might not be difficult, and it might be valuable and needed and desired by those people. I listen, I have my Facebook group adds 150 new people every four days. Wow, those are people who do not have community and generally speaking are looking for community and support. So I think even that's a good idea. You could get into all kinds of side hustles here. I know they're not called side hustles but you're doing it for an organization. We

Tricia 38:40
could get all we could get all different kinds of programs. Yeah, but you could do your from Jersey now you can do your side hustle mob program.

Scott Benner 38:54
I have side hustles I'm all over the place trying to stay stay above water. But okay. Well, Trisha, this was really nice to you to do. Give me all the information again. What's the website? And one more time?

Tricia 39:05
Sure. So our website is www.jbbs.org. And you know what you gave a telephone number you gave our direct line phone number? I don't know is that I'm a terrible person. I don't know where to get my phone number off the top of my head.

Scott Benner 39:27
I don't think you're a terrible person. 781-516-2090

Tricia 39:32
There you go. All right. That's why we work together see teamwork already.

Scott Benner 39:36
She's like, I know my phone number. There are other ones.

Tricia 39:41
Well, right. That's I know my cell but anyways,

Scott Benner 39:45
asked me my kids cell phone numbers. I have no idea. No, I

Tricia 39:49
know. You're gonna say to me, excuse me. I have to put their name and with that contact and I was like,

Scott Benner 39:53
I have absolutely no idea. All right. I really do appreciate you doing this. Can you hold on one second for me?

Tricia 39:58
Absolutely. Absolutely. A

Scott Benner 40:07
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