eHub Gives a Ship: Policy, People, and Creating Lasting Change

Here I am living in this zip code and I’ve got neighbors, you
know, four blocks away that are having a totallydifferent experience than me,
you know, um I feel I got plenty of problems, but I feel loved. I
feelsupported, you know, I have enough to eat, all these things. And so I
started just getting really curious about likethis is so interesting. Like
we’re both part of the same system. Why is it sodifferent for me and them?
Welcome to the Know Your Ship podcastpresented by E-Hub. I’m your host, Frank
Dolce.I don’t know if I’ve been this excited in a long time for our newest
podcastcreation at EHUB. You know, we have the Know Your Ship podcast, which
is morebusiness focused and focused on people who are in the shipping and
logistics industry.Sometimes we have special guests who are doing cool things
in the business world. That’s why Preston Cochran, my co-host,was a guest on
the Know Your Ship podcast. But then we came up with this great ideato create
community awareness about some of the amazing charitable organizationsthat
exist in the state of Utah in our community and throughout the United States.
And so I thought, who can I talkto about that? Who is the perfect person to
talk to about that? Is this guy literally Yeah. Preston Cochran who has been
inthis space for too long almost some people say too long almost theentirety
of his career. He he took a stint in private in more of the private industry
and wasjust it was like the mob. He was drawn back into the charitable
charitableworld. Has anyone ever described it that way? Not the mob. I think
I think it’s onceyou dip your toe in, it’s hard to not want to swim in the
the deep end again. Yes. Well,because it’s, you know, you’re ser you’re
solving hard complex problems. Mhm.Well, you know, we’re going to we’re going
to talk to someone here today who’s solving hard and complex problems.But
just to get back to this, I talked to to Preston. We had this great idea.And
so we came up with our latest podcast which is called E-Hub Gives a Ship to
spread awareness about thecharitable organizations in our community. And when
I said to Preston,number one guest on your list, Preston said,Emily Bell
McCormack. Woohoo. Let’s get her on. Let’s go there. Let’s Let’s go right
there.Let’s aim high. Let’s uh which is shoot for the stars. Which is so
crazy that I didn’t think about Emily as number one because she’swe’re
literally in the same neighborhood. Our kids went to school together just
like our kids.Well, when you think of game changers in the state and who’s
moving the needle in really hard hard things like Emily’sbeen there in the
trenches. Mhm. Just doing the work. Yeah. And um Yeah. Great to have her
here.I know. Oh, we’re so lucky and I’m really excited to know more about
your story. I mean, it’s really easy to lookthrough the website and your
LinkedIn and all of that stuff and and and because we’re in the same
community, weknow about what you’re doing, but I’m I’m excited to learn more
and more in depth.Well, well, yeah. And I don’t think Utons at large really
understand the theprocess that you have to go through, what she’s been
through and what she’s done. Um, because it’s really stretchedbeyond the
state of Utah. Mhm. Oh, absolutely. Well, and I got a littleindication of
that. That’s why this whole thing started because I went to I get I got to
tour one of yourfacilities, the other side academy. And of course, you have
the Other Side Village as well. And that was mindopening for me. And so, here
we are.Yeah. I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Been looking
forward to this conversation. Andabsolutely thrilled to be the inaugural
guest. I’m number one. That’s right. Set. We’re hoping that you set a
highbar. Perfect. I’m going to do my best next. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Well,
youare the CEO and founder of a group called the Policy Project.Okay. So, for
for those of for those of us who don’t know about the Policy Project, can you
give us a kind of a30,000 ft view of what you’re doing? Yeah. With this
organization? Absolutely. So, I think, you know, thereare so many different
ways to do good in society. And I love this podcast becauseyou’re really
getting to the root of what makes community strong, which are often
nonprofits and the work that’shappening there. One thing that we were kind of
able to identify really early onwas that there is so much good happening and
the good is essential, but some ofwhat we see in the nonprofit space does not
necessarily address things upstream.it will sometimes be more of a band-aid,
you know, like we’re going to do a coat drive. Coat drives are
extremelyimportant. We need people to do them. Um, and we have to have uh
communitypartners and people that do those, but we also need someone to look
upstream and say, why does this person need to coat in the first place? You
know, likewhat what what is that that is creating that need and can we solve
for that? So,we started to look like how do we do this upstream? The second
thing that we looked at was hey how do we solve issuesat a grand scale. So instead
of impacting you know 10 lives or 20 liveswhich again extremely important and
that’s what you’re going to get at a lot of places we were really interested
inbut how do we reach like hundreds of thousands or millions of people? How
can we get to a scale where we’re reallyimpacting like a lot of lives at one
time? And then how do we create goodthat changes forever? You know, how do
how can we make this legacy work? How can we change things and have them
staychanged? And this was my own naive at the time, but it turns out that
that’spolicy. So policy is kind of this weird thing. It’s so snoozy. People
don’t wantto talk about it cuz it sounds like politics or like, oh, it’s
going to stress me out. not politics, you know,policy is really just like the
rule making of a state or a city. And so whatwe decided is we’re going to
work and use policy at a state level, so lawmakingaking at a state level to
change things for the better in society. And we do that by bringing
philanthropiststogether, community together, and legislature, the legislature
together.So once we combine those things, we’re able to kind of make shifts
and this will make a lot more sense once I talkabout what we actually do
dayto-day, but that is how we make a change. Yeah. And that’s amazing. And
and whatare the five initiatives you have underneath the policy project
currently? Yeah. So uh we have worked on gettingperiod products like tampons
and pads into every school in the state of Utah.So now um kindergarten
through 12th grade. If you were in a girl’s bathroom, there are going to be
period productsfreely available in those places. Also in colleges, in
universities, we’ve gotthem in state buildings. So, really just like
normalizing period products, getting them everywhere and saying,”Hey, if
we’re going to offer toilet paper, let’s also offer period products. These
are so necessary.” Um, we thenworked on something that we call teen
resource centers. And those are basically these uh like a physical roominside
of a high school where kids can take a shower. They can do theirlaundry. They
can get grab and go food, you know, a string cheese or chocolate milk. And
there’s also an adult in thatspace that talks to them and can help connect
them to more resources. What we found is like one in 50 one in 50 ofUtah’s
students is experiencing homelessness. That is insane. you know,that is too
many. And we’ve got about a third of our kids that are um um inliving in
poverty. And so, we just know that they might need some of those concrete
supports. We want those kids atschool. We don’t want them going somewhere
else. So, let’s put them in the school. So, we were able to get those into
about half of Utah’s highschools. And then we worked on um child sexual abuse
prevention. Really a toughone. Something that a lot of people don’t want to
none of us want to talk about it. you know, we don’t want toeven acknowledge
that that’s a thing cuz it’s so, you know, it’s it’s so hard to talk about
and so hard to think thatthat can happen. But Utah’s rate is almost double
the national average where about one in seven kids is sexuallyabused. And um
it ends up being a big precursor to a lot of other societalproblems like
addiction, incarceration, the inability to stay in long-termmeaningful relationships,
homelessness, those things. And so we said, “Hey, what can we do about
this?” So, we passedworked on a law that said every elementary school um
every student willhave access to the curriculum that teaches them what it is
and how who theycan talk to if they have a problem. And we’ve worked on
keeping cell phones outof the classroom. We’ve worked on feeding kids that
can’t afford school lunch. So, a whole bunch of differentthings, but that is
the that’s that’s the list so far. That’s how did you narrow that down? Like
asyou were sitting there, okay, we’ve got all these issues. These are the
three we’re going to pick.Yeah, it’s extremely hard. I would say that that is
the hardest part. We actually have this um we have thisdocument that we keep
that’s called all the ideas. It currently has 900different policy ideas. And
so taking that because there’s so much need. So wereally try to look at like
okay, what’s happening in the state of Utah? um whereis the need the
greatest? Is it something that we’re able to do right now? Because although
we’re notpolitical, we need to deal with like the politics that are currently
in place, no matter what they are, you know, whetherthey’re right or left, it
doesn’t matter. We just need to make sure that we’re like able to get
something through. And so we’ll kind of look atlike can we can we create um a
solution to this? you know, can we make sure thatwe’re solving we’re not just
saying what the problem is, we’re solving it. And then and then uh can do we
believe wecan get it through right now. So, what sort of traction did other
states once I I know you had to get somelegislation and stuff like that? Was
it model legislation that other states just essentially adopted?Yeah. So, um
yeah, we have some of the legislation that we’ve crafted here inUtah has
expanded to other states. So like Alabama, Georgia, Alaska, you know,some of
these um some of these other states have worked on what we call the period
project, like getting periodproducts into schools. And so typically when
we’re working with them, we will just advise them on like here’s what ourbill
said, here’s kind of what we did, you know, uh these are like best practices,
but knowing that every stateis going to be so different and is going to need
kind of a different way to approach that. I I think it’s worthmentioning uh
and it’s it’s on your website as well, but it’s nonpartisan.The organization
is nonpartisan. Left, right, middle, wherever you are. These are human issues
that we’re dealingwith. It’s non-political. So, I think I I I really
appreciate that you that you put that out there.Yeah. And I I love that. I
think it’s a big piece of what we do because in the world as we know it,
everything wants tobe politicized and we are just kind of staunchly
apolitical, like completelypolitically neutral. And we never break that. I
feel like sometimes I’m accusedof being super far right and sometimes I’m
accused of being left and I’m like, turns out that’s probably the
perfectplace for me to be because we’re just a-political. Yeah. So, I I
wanted to askuh was there some How did you get involved with this? What where
what is the genesis?The backstory. Yeah. What is the That’s a good way to put
it. I knew I needed a good co-host.You just proved your value right there. If
you don’t contribute anything else today, which probably won’t, that
wasenough. Not Backstreet Boys. We’re not going back to to to his high school
days, butbackstory. Back story. Preston, that’s all he needed from you. You
have made your contribution. Should feel proud. idea.Um, yeah, backstory is
random. Uh, started in private industry, worked instrategic communication,
um, was a consultant, kind of worked onI did some stuff in the fashion
industry. And um then when I probablyhit a midlife crisis around 40, I just
like could not shake this feeling thatthere had to be a better, broader way
to solve for some of the problems we were seeing in society. And I think it
waslike, you know, the genesis was like read a lot of books about lives that
were not the same as mine, but that werenearby. you know, like here I am
living in this zip code and I’ve got neighbors, you know, four blocks away
that arehaving a totally different experience than me, you know, um I feel I
got plenty ofproblems, but I feel loved. I feel supported, you know, I have
enough to eat, all these things. And so I startedjust getting really curious
about like this is so interesting. Like we’re both part of the same system.
Why is it sodifferent for me and them, you know? And I know some of it is
personal choice, but I also know some of it is not, youknow, and had some
cool experiences and Frank was kind of a neighbor and friend and saw we
adopted a couple kids. Reallyinteresting helped my perspective grow even more
like meeting these birth mothers and hearing about their livesand getting to
know them and like how different it was and how just like the slightest the
slightest like drop offate made it. So I landed in this body and they landed
in that body, you know, in their situation and my situation. Andfor some
reason that has like always intrigued me. And so it just it took mea minute
to figure out that the way to solve for it was policy. And I trippedinto that
a little. It’s just it’s easier to see problems from a distance. Like when
you’re living in something,you know, I can walk into one of your houses and
be like, “Wow, this is really dirty.” you know, but you walk into
mineand you’re probably thinking that, you know, you’re thinking the same
thing. I just don’t see it. I’m so used to it orwhatever. And I think like
giving like that same kind of perspective, I started lookingat what had
happened with apartheid in South Africa. So interesting, you know, where
where it was like really on kindof like racial lines and there was a lot of
poverty and then const very concentrated wealth and stuff and justlike how
does that happen? And um it was like reading about Nelson Mandela andstuff
and understanding that oh all this stuff nothing happens overnight. Itwasn’t
like somebody came in and just said no one here can be educated past the
third grade. It’s like those thingshappen little by little. They happen via
laws or policies. And so it helped me kind of see that this could be a
reallycool tool like in at in the inverse instead of using it to create a
weirdsystem you can use it to create like something beautiful. Yeah. When you
think about um the policyproject like the name Mhm. Did you have other names
you were considering? Yeah. That’s so funny. Yeah.Nomenclature is the worst.
You know, it’s hard. Yeah. I named I had a dresscompany years ago called
Shabby Apple and the amount of effort. We actually talked to Martha Stewart’s
brand expertabout that. It was so special. So, but I do know like the trial
and trall of landing on a name the policy project. Uhyeah, we looked at like
the word advocacy. We worked we looked at the word um like like community. We
lookedat a lot of different words to kind of pull into that. But the policy
project felt really good because something aboutthe word project felt
experimental and this was pretty new and prettyexperimental. Um and so I
liked the feel of that. Like we’re just going to trythis out and see if it
actually works or not. Who knows? You know, it feels like the perfect name.
Likewhatever, however you came up with it, you just nailed it. Yeah, it’s
awesome. It’s been a good one. Okay, so as you as you got started withthis
and determined that policy was was the way to approach this, uh I’m sure you
just went in and started hittinghome runs. Yeah, it’s so easy every single
day. Soeasy. Well, maybe maybe tell us about that. tell us about I I know I
know Prestonhas thoughts about this as well, but but uh there are certain
challenges and obstacles to running an a nonprofit andan charitable
organization. So maybe maybe you can help us understand some of the things
that you have to go through.Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, as far as like the
perspective of actually running a nonprofit, that is it is reallyinteresting.
I’ve you know run smallcale businesses before just little you knowstartups
and things but it is very different in that um I mean like we allknow money
right like you’ve got to fund raise constantly and so I would just saythat
whereas in like the kind of private industry you can focus it on like this is
our core audience like this is whowe’re working for I think the nonprofit you
got to be a lot wider you kind of have to make a case that the communitycan’t
do it without you. You know, that you’re so important to the majority
ofpeople that that like you’ve got to sustain this thing. So, I would just
say like that’s an interesting challenge, Ithink. Um um and then you know
depending on what you do policy is reallyinteresting because we work with
lawmakers and that you’ve got to you know we have 104 people in
ourlegislature and you got to make most of them think you have a good idea
you know and it’s like hey they’re all over theboard you know you’ve got some
people who are you just got every kind of thinking you know and so uh just
kind ofinteresting bringing them along and then donors and then your
employees I meanand volunteers I mean, the organization probably couldn’t run
without volunteerhelp as well. And that has its own challenges. I mean, it
sounds so great. Like, oh, so great. I’m going to get I’m going to get
allthese people. They’re going to be so excited about the project and
everybody’s going to jump in, but all ofthose are just individuals who have
all their own individual issues that they’re dealing with.100%. You have a
lot of audiences. You’ve got staff, donors, volunteers, board members.Yes.
What’s what’s your secret to keeping them all engaged? Yeah, that is it’s a
hard thing to do.It’s so hard to do. I mean, still getting there, but I can
tell you that.I mean, I think it is what you said, like keeping them
engagedis the key. And so figuring out how to do it where they feel like they
have a personal attachment to what you’re doingcan be really hard because you
don’t have the kind of staff that you know we don’t have 500 people working
for usthat can be like you’re in charge of those five people and you’re in
charge of those you know and so I would say wereally do try to kind of
identify like okay donors and then how do people liketo be engaged that’s
such a specific audience. So, like in what way does this person do they want
to come on like afield trip with us to Kain County and see what a teen center
looks like in rural Utah or is it like no they’re goodthey just want to kind
of see the numbers like give us your metrics are you guys performing or
notwhat are your outcomes you know like yeah what where are you um I would
say community is really interesting especially for us because wechange topics
a lot and I would that is unique a little bit different from other nonprofits
because typically ifyou know, you get to know a nonprofit and they’re like,
we work in alleviating hunger. It’s like, that is so freakingawesome. They’re
doing all these like different initiatives within that. We’re like more um
method devout and subjectagnostic, you know, and so we’re we’re a little bit
more like, no, we know how to plug this in and get crap done. I’mediting my
speech for a podcast. Yes. Thank you. Once in a while. Are we PG or R? What’s
our rating? II’ll have to check with the check with the sorter on that. Oh,
it’s good. You got to have some relief. Swearing is always one of thosethings
that helps me out. You know what? As an aside, I was Preston and I were doing
a little prep for this prior toand I got stuck like I think I have early
onset dementia or something. Icouldn’t I could I was thinking of the word but
it wasn’t coming out of my mouth. And and Preston, to his greatcredit, uh
gave me a word that I could use whenever that happens. And he saidit’s like a
the reset. You say this word and it resets. Find your own reset.Wait, is this
actually true? Because you got to find your own reset. No, this he it is
true.I And I I would say that it was mildly effective. Okay. Mildly the reset
word, but I just would havenever thought of it. And it’s a word that I can’t
use the podcast sake ofof that. Anyway, so Preston running charitable
organizations andand helping with memory loss with Yes. Appreciate that. I
was Yeah, maybe that could be one ofthe next projects like the memory loss
project. I know or something. I mean, this this probablyhappens to you all
the time. Oh yeah. You start talking about, look, we’re we’re going to limit
cell phone use andwe’re talking about, you know, uh getting trying to to help
children who have beenin these situations that no one likes to talk about or
even or even think aboutor providing services for our, you know, women’s
community and stufflike this. And then somebody inevitably will say, “You
ought to do this. You allthis.” Okay. A lot. Wait, what do you guys have
for me? I don’t No, I don’t. But I want to knowwhat was the most interesting
what was the most interesting policy projectsomeone said you should really
take this on. Oh my gosh, we have had so many. Okay, give me two seconds to
think about that.We do get approached about this a lot and some are
amazingand others are very obscure and random. are are most from legislators
like I’minterested in running legislation on this or is it just general
public? I would say legislators definitely willreach out and be like what do
you think about this or like is this something you guys would want to be
involved with? But most are from just general publicand like me at an event
talking or something and a line or some peoplecoming up after and being like
you know what you really need to do. And I mean we have had we have had many
youknow it’s like we need supports for pets who are disabled you know and
that canbe very devastating. I’m you know that probably isn’t something that
we’re going to take on you know or or umbuilding housing for like all state
employees. We’re not going to do that. You know some of those things. So
thereare I mean there are a lot of interesting ideas and you the one thing
you know when people approach you aboutthese things is that they feel a lot
of passion about them you know and it’s coming from somewhere and it’s like
okaycool thanks for sharing with me this very personal thing to you
knowabsolutely have you had any uh or or could you tell us a story about a a
success that you’vehad maybe with the legislature or with someone who’s been
a participant in oneof your projects. Yeah. And not necessarily maybe outcome
driven, but like what’s the big win?What what’s the thing that keeps you
going? Yeah. As far as your role.Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I
would say the thing that keeps me going, you know, even though I talk about
thenumbers and like I I do like big numbers. Um, even though I talk about
that, it is the one that keeps yougoing, you know, it’s like the there was
this really um, incredible family thatwe met when we were working on the
sexual abuse prevention stuff. And it turned out that an uncle had
beenabusing a bunch of the grandkids, you know, and it was extremely hard on
thisfamily. he wasn’t prosecuted because there’s some issues there that need
to probably be fixed with policyeventually. It’s really hard to prosecute um
um child sexual abuseabusers, you know, or perpetrators. And this family um
ended up they’d kind ofyou can imagine when it’s someone in your family
that’s perpetrating how that would cause a massiveYeah. you know, Yeah, it
would. and they had a lot of siblings in their family and theysaid that you
know working on this project it gave them something to focus positive
attention toward like we canactually do something like our voice matters we
can make a positive changeand help prevent this like so other kids don’t have
to suffer what our family did and at the end of the day um you knowthis uh
this one woman her name’s Lisa came up and was just crying and she waslike
you will never know Like yes, this made a huge difference for us, but
itchanged my family. Like my family is forever different because of this. It like
allowed for healing that we neverwould have expected. We didn’t even know we
needed. We didn’t even think there was an option to do it that way. So Iwould
say like that’s a big win. When you hear like pain and suffering kind of
dissipate, it’s like, oh, that is sorelieving. And then I would say like the
other kind of wins we get a story aboutthe other kind of win we get is like a
cultural change and um this is one of myfavorite stories because it was so
unlikely but when I first started talking about periods I mean you guysare
guys you know it like is awkward right people have not daughters. Yeah we’re
still I I feel prettyawkward. Just wait you’re going to get a lot more
awkward.So, I think like we, you know, we’re we’re start I’m looking up, you
know, gosh, this is so weird. Why hasn’t theUnited States and Utah
specifically ever done anything around periods? Because 50% of the population
has a period for40 years in a lifetime and it’s like 4 to 6 days a month. I
mean, it is a [ __ ]ton of time, you know, that somebody spends having a
period. And hey, we just come out of COVID and we all saw howquickly
everybody was like and masks now, you know, and it was like done and
vaccinations now like and it does notmatter how people feel about that. I’m
just saying we were very quick to like to mandate it to come in and say like
this is whatwe’re going to do. And so I’m like, wow. Well, this has just been
millennia that the ladies have had periods and we haven’t done anythingabout
it. So that seems like so funny to me and not I’m not I think that maybe
agift for me is I’m not naturally going to be mad about it. I’m just like
thisis just stupid. We can like change it. No big deal, right? Like we can
change it. So I I hadn’t worked with thelegislature before and I go in I I
kind of look up Utah’s history. Turns outsomebody had run a bill once that
was like we’re going to get rid of the tampon tax and it never the word
wasnever said. The word tampon, menration, period, pad, blood, nothing was
eversaid in the sacred halls of the Utah capital. So I was like, “Oh [
__ ] we’redealing with like a multiple like this has like layers. There’s a
lot of stigma here that whether or not I it’s justthere because they won’t
even say the word.” Mhm. And so I I remember going into my first meeting
with a legislator and it waslike so great. I I have a friend who is a
lobbyist and he hooked me up with this guy and so you know I go into this
I’min this fancy beautiful office at the Utah State Capital. I’m so nervousbecause
I don’t know like I’m learning the process. I literally had to Google like is
there just a house and a senate?Like I wasn’t totally sure, you know, figured
it out. But I’m sitting in this room and it’s me and and a couple menand um
good guys cuz I know they’re willing to talk about it. But when I bring it up
um the legislator at firstsays to me, you know, this really feels like
something the family should be in charge of like this, you know, likeperiod
products individual level. Certain. Yes. Yeah. This should be an individual
thing. And absolutely not. Thegovernment should not be involved in
everything. I’ll be the first person to say that. Um, however, in this
specificcase where we’re talking about schools, it was like, “Yeah, but we’ve
got 80% of girls had missed at least one classbecause they didn’t have a
period product.” It’s like, “We can’t have eight and 10 girls miss
class. That’scrazy.” Like, that’s a problem. You know, saying, you know,
80% of the kids playing football don’t have footballpads or a helmet. Yes.
Yeah. Right. Well, that’s just ludicrous. Why would you even say something
like that?Yes. to put into perspective. Thank you. Performer former most
peoplewhen they see me glaze over like Frank’s not getting this. Yeah.
They’ll just relate it back to somefootball thing and then I and then I get
it. It’s an analogy. I thought it you know I was thinking of you.I appreciate
that. I really we really have to help our friend Frank along. It’s like put
it intolike can you imagine though? Like we don’t have helmets. They go out
they go out. He can’t play a ball without ahelmet. Now it rucks. Exactly.
It’s called can’t can’t do math withouta without a tampon, you know. So So
we’re sitting in this room and I’m like,”Okay, like I feel you and
everything like I understand where you’re saying, you know, government should
not beinvolved in everything. That would be a disaster area.” Um, that
said, this is kind of a special case. And he pushesback a little bit more and
I was like, “Okay, I’m going to say something that’s going to make
everybody feel a littleuncomfortable. I’m sitting here on this beautiful
white chair and I was like,”What if right now I stood up and there was
blood on the chair. The men are juststop, Emily. Stop. Make it stop. Someone
make it stop.” Yes, I feel that. You know, I know you do. And um and
Ithink it was just like such a good moment because I was not trying to be an
a-hole, but I was like, I can tell this is not getting through. And and so
Ijust like just kept looking into his eyes like you are going to
acknowledgethat I actually said that. Yeah. And he was freaking a champion.
He waslike, “You know what? You’re right. That would be awkward.”
And I was like, “Yep. I would die of awkward, but I knowthat you would
be dying, too.” You know, like this would be awkward for all of us. It
would not be okay.And like, bless this man. He was like all in from that
point on. And so Ithink um when we’re talking about like why do you do the
work? Sorry, yielding back to your question a few minutes ago,but like why do
you do the work? It’s like seeing the culture change in a way. You know, we
went ahead, we we labeledthat project the period project, which basically
gave every person on Capitol Hill the permission to say the wordperiod
because up until that point, hey, it wasn’t like the guys are just big old
jerks and like, wow, they do not careabout the ladies. It wasn’t that. It was
like they’ve never been welcomed to the conversation. Like, but many of
ourlawmakers are male and so until they were like, “Hey, come do this
with us.”like I’m giving you the permission to be like, “Oh, I’m
just working on the period project right now.” Like you just said the
word period. It’s totally fine.You know, and so it was just this very cool
way to like first of all recognizethe reason the world isn’t better than it
is isn’t occasionally is because there’s an a-hole around, right? Butusually
it’s like it just hasn’t been we haven’t thought about it. And so when we go
in so hot and ready to blame people,it it’s, you know, if I came in here hot
and was like, “How dare you whatever, you know, I’m insulting the studio
orI’m insulting whatever,” you’re going to be like, “I freaking
hate this lady. I’m never talking to her again.” You know, so I just
think like giving everybodythe space to do the right thing is like a huge
part of what we do. But what was really cool too at the capital and I wasup
there a couple times and I’d see um your groups and they were up there
advocating, they were educating and itwas girls from all ages um every ethnic
diversity you can imagine and I think itwas cool for them to be a part of
something bigger than themselves. But to be able to say, “Hey, we did
it. We got a win for something that for them it itmeant a lot, right? they
probably didn’t know what they were getting into to begin with, but um from
the outside it was justreally kind of cool to see this movement. Yeah. I will
say it’s been really neat because with the work we do, we have tohave the
community come on board. It’s just kind of the formula and it has like
different people comeout for different things like you can imagine you’ve got
periods but then you’ve got student hungerlooks really different. you know,
periods homelessness. Amy Dolce is coming and you know, you got all these my
neighbors and friendsand then you’ve had homelessness and it was a different
crowd that was there for that that was like, yeah, I grew upactually totally
housing insecure. Didn’t know where I was going to sleep. I don’t want to go
to school. I can’t